August 31, 2023 • 49 mins
Ever feel like you're hunting for a golden key to unlock success in real estate? Listen in as we, Monica and myself, debunk this myth and replace it with the truth - there is no single "one thing," but rather a series of consistent, strategic actions that builds a successful real estate business. We share the story of an agent who started with her immediate family and then consistently expanded her network, reminding us that persistence is key in this industry.
Building your real estate business is about more than just closing deals, it's about building lasting, genuine connections. We dive into the art of communication and how sincere rapport with clients can make or break your success. We advocate the use of video messages over text to strengthen your connection with clients and emphasize the need for a solid business plan to help elevate your real estate venture.
Finally, we tackle the current real estate market and its evolution since 2008, navigating its complexities together. With insight into the mindset of today's buyers, the impact of higher interest rates, and the current market dynamics, we aim to provide you with a comprehensive understanding. We underline the importance of agents being knowledgeable about the market trends, not just relying on news outlets, and champion the importance of understanding your contract and continually educating yourself. Wrapping up, we discuss the significance of networking and striking a balance of passion and professionalism in the real estate business, leaving you with a wide array of strategies and insights to apply to your own practice.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, welcome back to another podcast, a CRR
podcast, and this is In the Loop.
I'm Steve Looper, I am atrainer here at the office, I'm
also a real estate agent and Iam joined today by Monica, our
managing broker.
Hey there, hey, so this is likeour last podcast.
This is the last podcast forthe way we're doing it now.
(00:22):
Yes, we're going to berecording these, that agents can
watch us now.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yay, how exciting is that going to be?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
So if you haven't been paying attention, where
have you been?
Pay attention and listen to us.
But we're also going to behaving our podcasts that are
going to be recorded, so you'regoing to be able to watch this
now on YouTube, as well as anyof our podcast sites as well.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, we'll definitely get us out onto all
of the avenues to pull a podcast.
Yeah, we're going to be soexcited you'll be able to see us
now so good.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
It's going to be so much fun and I'm excited.
So in the next few weeks we'regoing to have a lot of changes,
but we're jumping into this withyou know.
Obviously the markets changed alittle bit for some agents,
would you agree?
I totally agree.
No, it's not everyone.
There's a lot of agents thatare performing very well.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yes, and that's a common thing that agents
approach us with hey, you know,my business has changed.
But I've seen some agents outthere.
They don't even realize themarket has changed.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So agents are watching what other agents are
doing, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
And would you agree?
Like there's?
There's still a lot of agentsthat are coming to you, right,
and they're saying, like what isthat one thing or what's that
special thing I can do to get mybusiness kickstarted If it's
drawing up?
What are you getting from that?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I love that.
So, perception from agentstowards high producing agents
they have that one thing.
There's one thing that theyfigured out.
You know that's like a secret,and what's that one thing they
do?
Well, it's, you know, forproducing agents, obviously it's
not that one thing.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
No.
It's a series, I mean, andthat's like so we had one of the
agents in here that's a bigproducer.
She's like our either one ortwo, I think she's going back
and forth right.
So I did ask her as a producingagent, you're killing it,
you're listing big, you're bigcommissions, great clients, what
(02:25):
are you doing?
And she said the same thing,that she was like it's not one
thing that I'm doing.
And I kind of wanted to divedeeper, like then tell me some
things that you're doing so Ican pass it along to agents.
And one thing that she kind ofsaid was she was like I'm, I'm
reaching out to my sphere, yes,follow up, and there's
(02:46):
consistency across the board.
And what she said, all herthings that she's doing, that
she's reaching out to her sphereof influence.
So I I've been talking aboutthat with a lot of our agents
about the sphere of influence.
A lot of them are saying likewell, what if my sphere of
influence is really small?
And the one thing I liked aboutour agent she broke it down and
(03:08):
made it really simple and shesaid, like for me, I started
with my immediate family,absolutely, and then from there
I got them to trust me.
I did, I was consistent, andthen she went to her friends and
from there it was her friendstalk to their friends, her
immediate family talk to theirfriends.
(03:29):
It's not like her immediatefamily and their friends are her
friends.
So she's growing, her sphere ofinfluence is growing and she
said she kept it small and shegrew it.
She didn't immediately try tostart with the big pie right.
Broke it down to a slice andthen grew from there, and so
that was one thing that I waslike, okay, that's good.
(03:50):
The second thing is that shesaid I take part in stuff Her
church, her kid's school.
She said she even keeps it assimple as like she has kids, so
she's in publics multiple timesa day, so it wasn't only about
like reading, like having a namebadge on all the time.
She said they get, they got toknow me, they got to know me
(04:10):
even at publics because I'm inthere multiple times a day or
multiple times a week and fromthere, like she's getting
referrals.
Yes, so I mean that's one thingthat I got from her that was
really unique and that she saidshe doesn't rely on like the
typical Zillow calling me with alead.
She's like I don't do that,like she not everybody does that
(04:32):
.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, not everybody does that.
But see what I love about her.
She found what works for her.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
She really discovered what makes her unique.
She went with it.
And what is the one word andyou already said it what is one?
Okay, All right.
If I had to say one thing isthat she's consistent.
She's consistent.
She found what works for her.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
We're not going to edit that out either.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
No, we'll leave that there.
She found absolutely what worksfor her and she's stuck.
She sticks with it.
She's consistent, she's alwaysfinding an activity, an event
within her sphere, right, right.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Always and I think that's something to really for
our agents to think about, andwhether they're agents in our
office or just agents in generalis that when you're starting to
think about what do I do duringthis time if my business is not
performing as well as it shouldbe?
First, I would say, get out ofthe mindset that people aren't
buying, because that's not truePeople are buying.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
That's not true, absolutely they're buying.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Secondly, there's not one thing, but if there is one
thing, it would be the wordconsistency for going to what
they do.
Absolutely.
So I think that's probably, andthat's a hard thing to do
because I think a lot of agentslike they do an open house and
it wasn't successful, so theyautomatically rule it out
because it must be a bad idea,right, right, it's not a
(05:59):
guarantee, and so I think aboutanything they do that trying to
build business.
Remember, and I try to relateit back to what I see the
overall public get involved in.
So when I think about, like,going into the convenience store
, you buy 10 scratch offs, youbuy 10 scratch offs, and when
(06:21):
have you ever found someone whobuys 10 who doesn't at some
point go back and buy another 10?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Exactly, at some point they do it.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Whether it's the next day or right after that, but
they do it.
And even if that round of 10was unsuccessful, it's not like
they just stopped doing it.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
They go back and do it again.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And same with like yeah, and when you think about
like investing into and I sayinvesting into the lottery, when
you're driving down the highwayand you see that the last
lottery is like one billion,right, everybody is like you
know what, I'm gonna try it.
And even if it was unsuccessfulthe next time it was one
billion or 500 million, whateverit is someone tries it and but
(07:03):
there's a certain amount of risk.
You know the odds are stackedagainst you, but you keep doing
it anyways.
So why would that?
Why wouldn't you translate thatinto your own business and what
you're doing?
Exactly?
It's gonna be a certain amountof failure.
That always happens.
It doesn't mean you give up.
You just gotta keep pushingforward.
You gotta keep doing it inorder to get closer to success.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
The more knows you get.
That means you're a step closerto a yes, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
You know, and that's why I think, that even with the,
it's not a no on the open house.
The more times you do somethingand the more times you're
consistent, the higherprobability it is that you are
going to reach success, wouldyou agree?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I totally agree.
And talking about you know thatinteraction you had with our
top agent Right.
What I love that she's masteredis she's built rapport with her
war market.
Yeah, you know her sphere ofinfluence.
She grew from there.
It always blows my mind where Isit with agents and I go over
(08:04):
their business plan, they relymore on leads.
So to me that's tougher tobuild that rapport with someone
you absolutely don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
You know that's a tougher ask for business.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, I agree, and I think that you kind of nail it
down, that there is a lot ofpeople that they they don't
reach out to our sphere ofinfluence, they don't do it
consistently and they don't doit in a genuine way.
I think there's a oh yes.
There's a difference in likereaching out and saying, hey,
you have some business for me.
And reaching out and genuinelycaring whether it's like your
(08:42):
family, whether it's yourfriends, whether it's your past
clients and genuinely caringabout like how are you?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yes, it goes a long way.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
It has to be genuine, it goes a long way and it
doesn't, and I always tellagents this too.
If you're a new agent and youdon't have the budget, and this
is where it just I forgot what Iwas going to really tie in to
something you were saying.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Oh, it came back.
I just it just figured, butit's there and I'm going to hold
it.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But if you don't have the budget, if you don't have
the budget to do the postcards,the mailers, a phone call, a
text message, it goes a long wayin creating new business for
you in this industry.
And if you want to even add tothat, I started telling a lot of
agents what I've been doingwith some past clients and
(09:27):
current clients is for mysellers doing a 30 second video.
Oh great, right.
So I did an open house twoweeks ago for my seller and at
the end of it I knew he wasgoing to want feedback.
So instead of sending them atext message which is, it's,
very limiting on expressing whatI'm trying to convey because
(09:48):
it's just, it's just wordsthey're reading I sent him a
text.
I mean, I sent him a video realquick and I just said, hey,
open house went great.
I have this many people through.
I'm going to give you.
The only negative feedback wasand after I did this quick
little 30 second video, I sentit.
He was like awesome, thanks somuch, appreciate the update.
That was it.
That's all he needed.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, it was all he needed and I was like no think
about if you broke that downinto how many of your sellers
and buyers get frustrated over aprocess.
What's the next step?
You could send them a textmessage and, yes, there's a lot
of us will say well, I was veryclear in my text message.
They should have understood somuch easier.
If you just record yourself,because it's on a different
(10:29):
level, they can play it againand again.
And it's something as easy ashey guys, congratulations were
under contract.
The next step would be makeescrow, set up the home
inspection, give them a numberof things to do and then that
way, when they forget, all theydo is watch the video again.
That's it.
How great would that be If yousit like three or four videos
(10:53):
through the process of we're athome inspections.
The next step is going to bethe next step and then, lastly,
we're gonna be doing the finalwalk-through tomorrow morning.
We're gonna just check out theproperty, make sure it's exactly
as it should be, and then we'regoing to closing Like how easy
would that be and so effective.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
And what a great way to relate tone.
You know I do agree on textmessages.
Sometimes you know your sellercould take it wrong.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
All of a sudden you send caps and you made it to be
important.
But if you kept me, I'm gonnabe like I didn't know we were
yelling.
I didn't know we were yellingeach other.
Are we fighting?
I thought we were friends.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
I love all caps, because nothing will make two
agents go at each other fasterthan-.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I'm the first one to be like, hey, there's etiquette,
hold up, you just yelled at me.
I don't appreciate that one bitand that's, it's hard.
So I think you gotta be carefulabout texting and using it as a
way to keep up with your pastclients.
Be careful because there couldbe something you say that's
gonna turn them off or it mightcome across the wrong way or not
(12:00):
genuine.
And that's probably the biggestthing on building business is
you wanna come across genuine,you wanna stay in contact with
those past people.
And before I forget, is oneword you said is a business plan
.
Oh, yes, right, and I thinkthat's probably right now, in
(12:20):
this time in the market, ifyou're an agent who is not doing
as well as you want or maybeyou're doing as well but you
wanna elevate your business tothe next level A business plan
is a great way to start.
You have to have a plan.
That's gotta be the first step.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Have to have a plan.
You can no longer wing it.
And I know previous market.
It seems like customers werejust coming out the woodworks.
You know, and our newer agentswere just riding that wave.
Right, can't do that anymore.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
We're in a different.
We're definitely in a differentmarket.
It doesn't mean different,doesn't mean bad.
Right, and I think that there'sdefinitely you gotta be careful
of.
There's a lot of agents outthere who will say the market's
horrible.
I disagree, I totally disagree.
And sometimes those are agentswho have no past.
They don't have any backgroundknowledge to pull from Right.
(13:11):
And I know I was like, if youwanna talk about bad, like we
could talk about bad.
We could talk bad all day long,cause I can tell you back in
the day, like let's go back to2008.
You wanna talk about bad?
This is not bad.
People are buying, even if therate is high.
You know, even if the rate ishigher than it was, people are
still buying.
People are saying you know,they've got that mindset of like
(13:34):
, listen, I am and I love thaton like TikTok.
I read to you the other daywhat was it?
It was marry the house, datethe rate.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yes, totally true.
And what?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
was the divorce one.
It was divorce that oh.
It was divorce something.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Somebody's getting divorced.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I don't remember what it was, but it was like so good
that I said it like three timesto you and I was like I love
that, I need to incorporate itand of course I forgot oh man.
I hope I screen shot itsomewhere.
But it is a good thing toremind buyers that when you get
those buyers who are like oh therate's too high, rit isn't any
lower, you know rent is notgoing.
Rent is not going down.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Exactly, and some of these buyers were priced out of
our last market anyway.
So you know for them tocontinuously say, oh, I should
have bought, I should havebought, you were priced out
anyway.
You didn't have 20, 30, 40thousand dollars to put over
asking yeah.
So let's, we'll leave that pastin the past, you know.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Gotta move forward, you gotta.
If you just sit there andyou're like you're dwelling on
all those, believe me, there's alot of times I say I should
have Right.
You know like if I had money toinvest back in 2008, I should
have bought a lot of those35,000 dollar homes, oh yes, I
could sit there and beat myselfup over that all day long, but
it's done.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
It's done, it's gone, move forward.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
It's not happening again.
So move on to the next level ofyour career or whatever you're
achieving.
But I would say I do tell a lotof buyers you can wait 100
percent, you can wait all day.
I can't tell you when therate's going to go down, but I
can tell you this rent is notcheap.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And I wasn't it.
Just the other day we hadsomeone from the news station
calling and say who wants to getinterviewed about the, the
rents dropping, and I'm likethat's not true.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
That's not true, that's.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
That's an incorrect, that's an incorrect view of the
market, right, and that's whereI tell agents be careful about
what you're watching on the news.
Oh, completely, totally becareful, because that that was
like a good example when yousaid hey, there's somebody on
the news, they want to interviewone of us, for can we talk
about why rents are dropping somuch?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, I'm like I'm not being involved.
I have nothing on that.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
That's that is.
That is a good example of fakenews right there.
That's not true.
I don't know what market you'retalking about, but not here in
Florida, not here.
Rents are going up, the rentalsare limited, and so I tell a
lot of buyers I'm like, listen,you could wait around all day
long.
I, I'm here for you.
If you want to wait six months,I'll wait with you six months,
and when you're ready to buy,I'll help you.
(16:06):
But if you think that you'regetting a deal on that rental,
you're just throwing money away.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Completely, and here's the thing.
My, my concern is our inventorylevels are still not where they
typically are.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
So all we need is a drop in our interest rate and
these same buyers are now onceagain priced out of the market,
right, yeah?
So I really think now, withthis higher interest rate, it's
still a better time to buy.
Buyers now have options.
You know there are a little bitmore inventory.
(16:44):
There is a little bit moreinventory.
You know you can have aninspection period now, yep, you
know you don't have to do allthis craziness from our last
market Wave appraisals yeah,waving appraisals.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
You know, I don't know.
I heard from a lot of agentswho are friends and just
acquaintances, and other agentsI've worked with who've said oh,
that last market, that was suchan amazing market.
And I'm like no, it was notamazing, it was not amazing when
buyers are waving inspections,waving appraisals, paying 30,
40,000 over the value.
(17:18):
That's not an amazing market.
And if nothing else, I couldtell agents who had just come
into the market in the last 14or 15 years.
I'm like, oh, you think it'sgreat because?
you didn't live at a certaintime in the market.
Yes, I know that this isinevitable.
Like I see all repeated trends,it's going to happen.
The difference is, is therepeated trend stopped when we
(17:41):
got to that cap?
The market didn't plummet.
The market is leveling off alittle bit.
It's definitely more of ahealthy market, and it's healthy
because sellers are still ableto make money.
Yes, but buyers have morebuying power.
And is it a bad market if abuyer can go and negotiate even
a thousand or 5,000 off the listprice?
(18:01):
Or is it a bad market if abuyer can get the seller to pay
50% or all the closing costs?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yes, that's not a bad market.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yes, If everybody can leave the table with money like
, the seller still made money,the buyer got what they want,
agents got commissions I don'tsee the problem here.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I don't yeah, and that way you can marry someone
you want to marry that house.
Yes, and that's why we say datethe rate, Because you know what
Listen.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I'm not committing to you.
I'm not committing to you.
I'm going to stick with you fora while, but when I get someone
better I mean a rate that'sbetter I'm dumping you and going
for them, Exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Versus last market.
Last market they had to marry ahouse they weren't exactly
thrilled about.
Right, that's going to end indivorce.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yes, so you got the house and, yes, you got the
amazing rate 2.3.
That's awesome, oh, but thenthey won't be able to get a
divorce from their home becausethey've overpaid.
They've overpaid and they'reupside down, there you go, yeah,
and that's more scary than whatwe're in now Exactly.
I would rather pay high becauseI know the rates are going to
(19:04):
come back down.
Right, they're going to andevidently win.
We don't know, but they'reinevitably going to come back
down.
But if you bought a house justbecause you're like I have a
house, I have a house, you haveto have a house.
So you just bought the houseyou had to have, but you hate
the area, that's not changing,right, it is what it is, right,
I hate the house.
Well, guess what?
(19:24):
Unless you just throw it down,it's yours, you bought it, it's
yours Live with it.
So that's good and important, Ithink, for agents.
Now, one thing that we've beentalking about this year in our
classes and you've said it, I'vesaid it is that there is, in
just our board, almost 23,000agents.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Right, yes, so I believe around 22,000.
Okay, 22, 23.
22, 23.
Who's counting?
Same thing, that's a chicken,bird rocks down, it's all the
same.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
It's a ton of agents, but that's a lot of agents.
That's a lot of agents, and Ido tell a lot of our new and
seasoned agents.
This is a great time to revampwho you are and figure out who
are you as an agent and whatmakes you more special.
Yes, and it's not enough rightnow for you to say, well, what
(20:18):
makes me special is I can listhomes and put them on the MLS.
We'll soak in everybody.
Everybody else I've got a greatsign.
There's a lot of agents whohave great signs, so does
everybody else.
Yeah, I've got great businesscards.
So does everyone else.
I wear a suit or I wear areally great outfit.
There's a lot of agents outthere who dress well.
That's not enough To make youstand out.
(20:40):
You got to figure out what does, and there's a number of things
that I've kind of shared withagents.
I want to get your feedback asa broker.
The first thing I think thatmakes you different is Knowing
your contract.
Oh, yes, knowing the contract,and not just like Filling in the
blanks.
Right, and filling in theblanks isn't enough.
(21:01):
It's not enough.
Oh, I mean, I'm just like,every time I hear that, I'm like
listen, like I can train aone-armed chimpanzee.
Fill in the blank yeah, it'sfill in the blanks.
That's not enough.
You need to know all thein-betweens.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Well, you miss it.
You miss your representation ofyour customer fully to the
fullest, if you don't understandwhat you've gotten them into
right and and how to get themout of it.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Oh exactly, there's a lot of it like you get them
into a problem because you madea mistake.
Yeah, now, if you know yourcontract well enough, you can
get them out before that thatmistake escalates.
Yes, hopefully not all the time.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Or know your contract well enough if the other agent
is Misunderstanding the contract.
Yes, I, I have had scenarioswhere our agent comes to us and
the other agent on the otherside is, with conviction,
telling them and this is how itis, mm-hmm.
I tell our agent where does itstate that in our contract?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
right.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Agent mind blown.
Yeah, when they look througheverything, what the other agent
was Saying was not In ourcontract at all.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Right, and there's a lot of panic there's agents
always come to you with likepanic and they're stressed out.
And they're I've seen theagents who come there and
they're stressed, they want tocry, yes, because they're so
frustrated.
But I tell them, like listen,when you sit down and you really
know your contract, like really, really know it, you become an
(22:31):
expert at it and If you do that,it takes all the stress off the
table.
You're not rushing to call yourbroker.
Yeah, I don't know.
And and there's nothing, I'mnot saying anything bad because
I have my broker here in frontof me, but I think brokers
should be there as like asupporting cast and they're
there like I need you.
(22:52):
If I've exhausted all my options, right, I need you.
But if you're my first, myfirst thing is to go to my
broker.
I don't think that's alwayslike really healthy.
As a very you know, aknowledgeable agent you want to
be like.
Your first option is to be ableto pull from your knowledge.
Read the contract, yes, yeah,because if you just go to your
(23:15):
broker, your broker is going towait for it Read the contract,
and they're just going to readthe contract to you.
Yes, they're going to reiterateexactly what the contract says.
So a lot of times like you'rewasting so much time Meeting
with your broker.
Yes, when you could fix yourown problem and I tell you what.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
It's not a good look for your customer.
No it's not yet.
If you keep having to defer toyour broker, oh, I'm gonna
Consult this with my broker.
Or a good question?
I'll ask my broker.
I'll get back to you.
Right you know it's gonna addup to where your customer is
gonna be like.
Well, this person doesn't haveenough experience.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Exactly, and that's where I tell a lot of agents as
an agent but also doing thetraining in the office.
My goal as a trainer is that Iwant the agents to function
without a broker.
Yes, I want them to be able tosay you know what?
My broker is not available butI'm okay, yeah, I've got it.
Or when someone says, why don'tyou call your broker to get the
(24:11):
answer, I don't need to do that, I already know the answer
because I know the contract here.
It is right in the contract andyou point it out.
That is.
There's something to be saidabout that when you're just like
, I know it so much that Monicawill be proud because I don't
need to call her, and then I cantell her after the deal closes
that you know what.
I didn't really need you.
We had a problem, but it wasgreat that you were there.
(24:32):
If I did need you, right, andthat's what I.
But that only comes when youactually take the time to
educate yourself.
When you come to trainingclasses, come to zoom classes,
network with other agents.
You know a lot of people assumethat training classes means
you're trying to tell me I don'tknow my business.
I'm not saying that.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
No, not at all.
No it's to enhance, it's tohelp you encourage.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yes, I always remind people like some of the best
people, the most successfulpeople out there in Industries
across the board, they getcontinued education.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
They're always bettering themselves right.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
So from from our, you know, highest producing agents,
yeah, I catch them in on zooms.
I catch them at events.
You know there there areseveral events that you know.
I've seen our agents and youthink, wow, their business is
Amazing, right, and you see themstill plugging in for that Next
(25:30):
level growth, for thatcontinued education.
They do it, they don't stop.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
No, and I do speak with a lot of agents who now, of
course, I love the brokerageI'm at.
I love that it's a hundredpercent model.
I love the fact that I havefreedom, which we all have
freedom, but here's thedifference.
I have a broker who encouragesme to know my contract.
Yes, and I have seen in otherbrokerages and I'm not gonna
(25:56):
call names or anything butBrokers don't care or don't push
the fact that they want theiragents know the contract.
Well, don't worry about it.
We have somebody who can do thecontract for you and For me.
What that makes me believe isthat you don't want me to grow
big enough that I can go and dothis without you.
Yes, you want to keep metrapped.
(26:17):
Yeah, you want to keep me underyour thumb, and the way you do
that is to limit my knowledge.
Yes, and knowledge is power.
It's like one of those likeafter school right, like
schoolhouse rocks right, andit's something to live by, that
is like one of those saints thatwill never get old.
Knowledge is power, and if youhave the power, you make the
rules, and that is thedifference.
(26:39):
I have the knowledge.
I took that knowledge andturned it into power, and the
power gave me the ability toleave a Brokerage that was taken
too much of my money, yes, andlet me move into a brokerage
that was there to support me,but I got to keep more of my
money.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Well, because it turns into this.
Oh well, I'm completelyself-sufficient.
Why do I need it?
You know, hey, what I pay, youknow.
And then you start exploringother options.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
So right, and then that leads into my next one.
Which is now.
There's a lot of mindsets fromnew agents and seasoned agents
that I'm seeing that I don'tknow if they're always the
healthiest and I want to getyour, your take on it is that
I've heard or I've seen in a lotof like Social media platforms
where agents will say I want towork for the brokerage, who
(27:25):
gives me leads?
What's your take on that?
Just like the agent that comesto you and says, hey, I just
need to know right away, I don'tcare about the splits, are you
going to give me leads?
Speaker 2 (27:33):
So immediately, what goes through my mind?
Oh, this is an agent that hasno initiative to grow their own
business, and someone like thatI don't really feel is going to
make it.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
You know, because they're so either, they might
have been successful at abrokerage.
I was just spoon feeding themleads.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
But they're never going to take the time to
cultivate the skills they need,you know, to generate their own
business.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, and being in the business almost 20 years now
, I will say a lot of the topproducing oh no, I will say
every one of the top producingagents that were above me or
that I mentored or shadowed, orjust I just paid attention to
their business and, regardlessof what office I worked at, I
always knew that they werecreating their own business.
Right, you know, they were outthere every day.
(28:19):
No matter how successful eventhe most successful agents, they
wake up the earliest, right?
Somebody might think like oh,that agent sold 65 million last
year.
That agent isn't sleeping in.
They're waking up bright andearly.
They're out there, constantlypounding the pavement, doing the
old school things that theyneed to do in order to create
(28:40):
new business.
They're not just going intowork and saying who can hand me
business?
It's not good, and I think itgoes back to that.
What I was saying before isanybody who says, come and work
for me, we're just going tospoon feed you.
They're doing that because theywant to limit your knowledge.
They want to make sure that younever get so big that you feel
(29:00):
that you can leave them.
They want to make sure youconstantly remember you can't do
this without us.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Yeah, because you never learn how to approach
someone, you never learn how tomarket for yourself, you never
learn what we do to.
You know generate, cultivate,farm an area.
You never learn any of thatstuff.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, and God forbid that the market ever was to hit
a bad spot like it did you know,during that bad time yes.
I can tell you now, during thattime, brokers weren't hand out
leads.
No, there was no leads to handout, so what?
Happens?
Do you just drowned?
Do you just sit there and youflounder and you go back into
what you were doing before,because you were used to just
(29:40):
sitting there and answering thephones?
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Business was coming to you Right.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Because, I mean, the first brokerage I worked for,
the floor was great.
It was a small brokerage, wehad a limited number of listings
, but the phones rang, yeah.
And then you always said, like,oh, I have floor time today, so
I'm going to get at least onebuyer per day.
But then when the marketchanged and the phones stopped
ringing, it's like what do I do?
What do I do?
And we all just sat there like,well, I'm just going to wait,
(30:07):
I'm going to wait and hopefullythe phones ring tomorrow and
then from there you know, I tellagents, like when I left that
first brokerage, I left becauseI was surrounded by negative
energy and I fed off thenegative energy and it brought
me down.
So that is another thing I tellagents.
Right now, in this market, ifyou find yourself in an office
(30:27):
or a space that you'reconstantly surrounded by
negative energy, that people arehave got a negative spin on the
market and it's doom and gloomevery day, get out.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Get out as fast as you can, as quickly as you can,
don't look back.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, no, and when I left, I said I love all of you,
I think you're all great.
I have to get out of here.
I have to leave right nowbecause if I don't, I'm going to
drown.
It's like the ship is goingdown and instead of like
swimming for it, I'm like forget, I'm just going to sit here and
be like hope for the best.
It's not going to be good.
We're all going down with theship.
So I left and as soon as I left, I found myself in an office
(31:01):
with like really good energy andimmediately I was like well, if
this is happening for them, itcan happen for me.
Yes, and, and that's that'ssomething.
To that's something that's notalways.
I say that there's a lot ofagents who don't have that
perspective.
There's a lot of them are likethere's jealousy or envy or and
I don't want, instead of beinghappy for that agent, you're
(31:23):
like well, why, why them and notme?
No, I always say like Icelebrate the fact that someone
just killed it.
I'm like good for you?
Yeah, that's so awesome for you,because secretly I'm like okay,
I got to figure out whatthey're doing.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
You know, like Vonda, when she was in the office and
we were talking, I'm likeVonda's killing it this year.
Yes, Vonda, what are you doingdifferently?
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
I could be behind her back plot and going like and I
hope Vonda listens to this, Ilove that, I can like plot and
like that Vonda, I hope herbusiness tanks, because it's
just not fair.
No, I was like good for her,like you're a successful
business person, killing it.
What are you doing that I'm notdoing?
I need to.
I need to figure out whatyou're doing.
That's what I encourage a lotof agents whether you're in our
(32:08):
brokerage or in anotherbrokerage, don't have animosity,
don't don't stress and lookdown on other agents who are
successful.
Dig deeper and find out whatthey're doing.
Yes, and then if you can't doeverything they're doing because
of either budget or you justfeel it's not, you tweak it.
Figure out what's what's yourvoice and and what would be
(32:29):
authentic to you, and then startdoing it.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
That's why networking is so important.
I know a lot of agents discountnetworking, but the more agents
you can be around you can pullfrom them.
You know what you like, whatyou think you can implement into
your business plan.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Right.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yeah, I just, I love that.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Well, I also tell agents, like here in the office,
a lot of agents.
They don't think about thesheer number like we're almost
at, like what?
1370.
Yes, so let's say about 1370agents.
So that's a ton of agents thatwe have.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
We have a ton of agents, but I also say that is
1313.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
169 in agents.
I can network with right, I'mthe other one, that's the, I'm
the one but I'm always likethat's a great opportunity for
you to find someone either whomight have an agent buyer that
they're working with thatthey're not available.
They need to partner up withsomeone that could create the
business, someone who has alisting, who is not doing as
(33:30):
well and they want to bring youon as a co-lister.
There's business you justcreated and it's all because of
networking and a lot of agentsdon't do that.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
And I met with an agent by zoom yesterday where
she started asking where is ourreach of our agents?
Oh boy, we're all over theplace everywhere so then she
started asking for numbers ofagents that were really far.
She's going to be reaching outto them and seeing hey, it's,
it's almost two hours away foryou, there's anything I can do
for you, I'd gladly, you know,do it for a referral fee.
(34:01):
There's anything I could do?
An open house for you, Anythingyou know.
So she is really working ouryou know the amount of agents
that we have and that is amazing.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Yes, so you got to think about that too.
Is that these agents?
There are certain ones that aresaying like my business is
tanking, it's not doing as well,but they're not trying every
one of their avenues and that'san avenue to create business
right.
Yes, making that connection.
Even me, I've made connectionswith other agents, I've been
(34:31):
brought on to help them and itmight not sound like it's that
much, but if you start thinkingabout like, well, I got brought
on to be a co-lister and thenyou think about the commission,
oh, that relationship createdthis potential money that I
could be making on this listingand I could have not networked,
I could have said no, why wouldI do that?
Maybe I'll just sit and kind ofwait for the business to come
(34:52):
to me, which would be anotherthing I would say in this market
, don't play the passive roleLike you can't survive more
aggressive.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
You can't do it.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
You have to be more aggressive, you have to be more
committed and think about why.
You know like.
I think a good way for us tostart wrapping this up is to
start thinking about the why.
Why are you in this industry?
What made you decide to go downthis path and what do you get
that from a lot of agents whoreally think, or do you have to
ask them that?
Speaker 2 (35:22):
You know, a lot of them are focused on their why,
you know.
But the ones it's funny howthat goes together the ones that
are kind of searching in theirhead as you know what to answer,
right, those are the ones thatdon't have a proper business
plan, don't have a clue orstruggling.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
You know.
So it's amazing how that's inline.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Yeah, and I think that you know, for agents who
haven't really sat down whetheryou're a new agent with us or
you're an agent who's not withus that think today, like sit
and start thinking about whatmade me go into this role, what
made me go into this career path, and then I also tell agents,
like how do you define what youdo?
There's a difference if you saythis is my job.
(36:04):
If you're talking to yourfriends and you're saying, hey,
I've got to go into my jobtomorrow.
That's a different mindset.
Like I had that mindset when Iworked at TJ Maxx, when I was in
like high school, right, andthat is different.
You go to your job to makemoney, just to pay your bills,
but you really hate what you'redoing.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
There's no passion.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
There's no passion, nothing.
And then when you say this ismy career and there's a
difference when agents like hereyou speak, and when a seller
hears you speak, and when abuyer hears you speak about what
you're doing, and you speakwith like such conviction and
compassion that they're justlike wow, like when you're done
speaking.
I've had sellers and buyers saylike wow, like you really love
(36:47):
what you're doing.
Yes, yes, and I think that'simportant for agents to do like
find your passion right now.
And if your passion isn't realestate, then get out.
Right.
I would say don't stay in it Ifyou're just trying to make it
because you want to do likeyou're thinking in terms of
selling.
A reality shows thateverybody's making these big fat
(37:08):
checks.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
I just want to make money.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
If that's what you're doing, then that's all you're
going to get out of it.
You're not going to get therepeated business, you're not
going to have the passion,you're not going to be able to
speak with it and, in terms oflike, really selling it.
Like, when I speak to someoneand I talk about what I do, it
sells itself because I believein what I'm doing, right, yes,
and I think that goes for, like,all of our agents, think about
(37:33):
your passion.
Right now is a great time to goout and get listings to create
the business, but when you'retaking that listing and when
you're going on the listingappointment, there's something
to be said.
When you sit down with a sellerand you speak with passion
about what you do, then you cango there and you can show flip
charts and graphs and pie graphsand stats all day long, save
(37:56):
all that, save all that, save it, but that won't help it's great
to have it, but if you can'tback that up with the passion
and really believe what you'resaying, it's never going to.
You're never going to moveforward.
A seller's always going to beable to smell the fear they're
going to be able to smell thefact that you're not consistent
at what you do, that you don'tbelieve in what you're doing.
(38:18):
It's going to resonate andthey're going to not pick you.
Or if they pick you, therelationship's probably going to
.
It's going to tank becauseeventually that's going to bleed
through into what you're doingevery day.
Did you agree?
Speaker 2 (38:30):
I completely agree, and they're going to be able to
tell when.
When you're aligned with oh Ijust want to make money, they're
going to sense that they'regoing to pull that because we're
in a relationship buildingindustry.
I mean, even if you work with agroup of investors, you still
have to cultivate thatrelationship.
I know there's not so manyemotions involved with investors
(38:52):
, but you're still personallyinvested professionally.
I know I said personally, but-.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Personally, professionally.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
But you're still invested in it and you have to
be all in.
I don't know why I feel whensomeone picks this and considers
it a job and sees it as a meansto make money, they're not 100%
in.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
So-.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
And you said something just now.
I know it's a mistake, but it'sa good, it's a good lead-in to
our last topic for this show isthat you said they got
personally involved, right?
Speaker 2 (39:31):
You know, when I chose personally, I meant you
know you've got to be 100% inRight, but I really want to make
it.
I want to define that.
So I'm glad you brought that up.
Yes, so personally in it foryour passion, you've got to be
all the way in.
Then I don't know why I feelthat when I speak with agents
whether with us, other offices,other brokerages there's not
(39:57):
enough there.
When they say I'm in it forcommission, you know you don't
see that passion.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
It's like they're not , they're void, they're not
there and then the personallyinvolved, and I bring that up
because there's a lot of agentswho, in this market obviously,
especially in this market homesare sitting longer, so maybe the
deals are a little bit harderto get to closing.
But there's this attitude youget with some agents who they
(40:27):
take things too personal.
If an agent delivers a low balloffer, or if an agent comes
back and they represent thebuyer and they ask for repairs,
or you're countering back to thebuyer's agent.
There's a lot of like this.
Certainly.
Somehow they're bickering andarguing, and they get into this
like I'm defending my client andso I have to.
By defending them means I haveto get heated.
(40:49):
And the next thing, though,they're in text message fights.
And you see this post on likemastermind If anyone's in
mastermind groups on Facebook,you see agents posting text
messages of fights and arguments.
And is it necessary?
Is it?
Did we?
get to this level Are we at,like high school, where we have
to fight with other people.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
That's why it should.
You should never take atransaction personal.
I, as a matter of fact, I justfinished with a transaction
yesterday, close yesterday, butnot without all the struggle
from both agents involved.
So, and it was our agent justas much as the other agent on
the other side, both of themwere personally, all their
(41:34):
emotions were heightened and itwas personal on both.
So that's even like a doublenegative right there.
Both of those agents shouldn'thave taken it to that level.
Buyer and seller had actuallyinteracted at the inspection and
the seller wanted to make thiswork for the buyer.
The seller really liked thebuyers, buyers really liked the
(41:56):
seller.
What was creating all theproblems were the tone.
There was some emails with allcaps, so there was.
It was like a power stripbetween both of them.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Right.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
It was one felt the other one was concealing and oh,
they've done transactions withthis agent in the past, so
personal.
So what does that othertransaction have to do with this
one?
Speaker 1 (42:22):
No, Exactly, and that's what I told a lot of
agents like, listen, I've donetransactions with agents who
have got heated and I've beencalled an idiot or I've been
called names.
And yeah, is there a part of methat wants to stand up and be
like you know what.
I can call names too.
I can do it all day.
If you wanna get in the mud, Ican be a pig just like you, but
I choose not to because I knowthat's not gonna keep the
(42:46):
transaction moving forward.
I'm not doing the very best formy clients.
So I've had people call menames and I'll say I'm sorry you
feel that way.
I'm sorry you feel that way andI'm here to help and let's just
get this done.
Let's remember it's not betweenyou and I.
Let's just get this at a finishline Now.
We don't have to be girlfriendsLike we're not gonna be sitting
there doing each other's nailswatching Melrose plays right,
(43:07):
we're not doing that.
But I can still treat you kindand I can treat you
professionally and still notlike you and I always I bring
this up in class a lot of timesI tell agents you'll never know
I don't like you Because I'malways gonna be respectful.
Now, when that phone hangs updon't get it wrong I'm the first
(43:28):
one.
Who's gonna be like that jerk,like I'm gonna go off.
But I'm not gonna do that onthe phone because I'm always
thinking like, is that reallygonna help my client?
Like, if I blow the deal upbecause I don't like the seller
or I don't like the listingagent or the buyer's agent, did
I really do the best for myclient?
No, I didn't do the best.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
No, not at all.
You miss it.
You miss it for your client andthe personal digs, that's it.
I play referee all the time.
The personal digs, oh, theirperformance level.
Personal digs, oh, this person,you know they why Don't yeah
why.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
And then I always tell agents like here is like,
so we can start wrapping this up.
But I would say when, as anagent a seasoned agent what I
always do is that when I go towrite an offer or I'm working
with like a buyer's agent, Ilook their MLS number up so
automatically know if you'relike a 2610, I know you got into
the business same time as me,it's like your social security
(44:24):
number, right, I already knowwhere you're at or if you're a
five or six digit, I'm thinkinglike, holy crap, I'm dealing
with an agent who's been in thebusiness a lot longer than me.
So, I do tell agents.
When I reach out to those olderagents who've been in the
business, I show a sign ofrespect, I call them, I'm
respectful.
It's almost like speaking to mygrandparent or my parent.
(44:45):
I show them a sign of respectand then if it's an agent who's
like a 27, which I know theycame in the business much
further after me then I knowthat they're going to be newer.
There could be maybe thequestions might be more.
They might have more questions.
Maybe they don't have a brokerwho's supporting them like they
should.
So I'm going to take that intoaccount.
(45:07):
I'm, but I'm always looking attrying to figure out who am I
working with?
How much business have theydone?
Oh, they've done more businessthan me, so I know this is an
active agent.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
But don't use that to personally attack right, no, no
, and I would say, if nothingelse, don't use that as like
ammo to attack, because there'ssome agents who will do that.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
They do that Right.
But I would say, if I'm workingwith someone, I'm like, wow,
this is a big producer, but hejust called me or she just
called me an idiot.
So is it going to help if Ifight you?
No, because if, once I get thistransaction closed, there's a
probability I'm going to comeacross you again and the next
time around, even though thatagent called me a name, they're
(45:49):
going to remember that I calledthem a name.
They're not going to rememberthey called me a name, right.
They're going to remember me assomeone who was labeled as
difficult.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Yes, let's say.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
Yes, and now if I don't rock the boat and I keep
the transaction moving along,I've done deals with agents
multiple times who were superrude.
Now the second time around theywere actually nice.
It was like the first time Iwas dealing with, like the hard
exterior, and then the secondtime around it was I was dealing
with the real agent.
Yes, I didn't hold it.
(46:17):
I didn't like hold a grudge.
I was like it is what it is.
Like you, clearly you thinkthat you're doing the best of
your clients.
I get it.
We all that resonates indifferent ways.
I'm doing the best for myclient by holding it together
Right, getting it to the finishline.
That's all I care about is ifmy client wants this.
Now, if my client's like Idon't want the house, I hate it,
(46:38):
then I'm going to be the oneyou can go in, yeah.
Well, I'm going to still do itin a professional way because I
got to remember.
I'm always thinking, and maybeit's that the OCD side of me is
like constantly thinking like,well, if I make this agent upset
and then this deal falls apart,and then five months from now I
go and I see a listing that mybuyer really wants and they're
the listing agent.
Then I got to call them andthey remember and I'm one of
those.
(46:58):
And they will remember I'm theone of those.
It's just sitting there in bedat night with my eyes open,
going like well, I should havedone this Overthinker, yeah, but
normally.
I always feel like I'm right.
I'm right.
I know that if I would havedone this, it's going to come
back to bite me.
So that is like getting the endof our show today, and I want
(47:19):
to leave agents with a goodfeeling of the market.
It is a great market right now.
Yes, the sales are there.
They're still closing.
The price points are stillhealthy.
There's programs out there forfirst time buyers now.
Yes, If you haven't checkedinto that hometown heroes, check
(47:40):
it out.
There's programs out there forbuyers for down payment
assistance.
People still want to buy.
Yes, right, florida is stillkicking it with all the sales.
People still want to move here.
So, agents, do not give up.
Keep working hard.
Do what you're doing, and thisis a time for you to start
thinking about who you are as anagent.
Revamp yourself.
(48:01):
If you haven't, you know,really thought about that.
Work on a business plan.
Yes, it's.
It's an endless list of thingsyou can be doing, and that goes
back to what we started with andit's a good wrap up of.
It's not one thing.
It's great, it's not one thing,but if it was one thing, it
would be the word consistency.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Oh there you go Perfect.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
Everyone.
Have an amazing week, have anamazing month and remember in
whatever you're doing, remember,remember.
It's important to find whatmoves you.
Hey everyone, welcome back to another podcast, a CRR
podcast, and this is In the Loop.
I'm Steve Looper, I am atrainer here at the office, I'm
also a real estate agent and Iam joined today by Monica, our
managing broker.
Hey there, hey, so this is likeour last podcast.
This is the last podcast forthe way we're doing it now.
(00:22):
Yes, we're going to berecording these, that agents can
watch us now.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yay, how exciting is that going to be?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
So if you haven't been paying attention, where
have you been?
Pay attention and listen to us.
But we're also going to behaving our podcasts that are
going to be recorded, so you'regoing to be able to watch this
now on YouTube, as well as anyof our podcast sites as well.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, we'll definitely get us out onto all
of the avenues to pull a podcast.
Yeah, we're going to be soexcited you'll be able to see us
now so good.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
It's going to be so much fun and I'm excited.
So in the next few weeks we'regoing to have a lot of changes,
but we're jumping into this withyou know.
Obviously the markets changed alittle bit for some agents,
would you agree?
I totally agree.
No, it's not everyone.
There's a lot of agents thatare performing very well.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yes, and that's a common thing that agents
approach us with hey, you know,my business has changed.
But I've seen some agents outthere.
They don't even realize themarket has changed.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So agents are watching what other agents are
doing, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
And would you agree?
Like there's?
There's still a lot of agentsthat are coming to you, right,
and they're saying, like what isthat one thing or what's that
special thing I can do to get mybusiness kickstarted If it's
drawing up?
What are you getting from that?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I love that.
So, perception from agentstowards high producing agents
they have that one thing.
There's one thing that theyfigured out.
You know that's like a secret,and what's that one thing they
do?
Well, it's, you know, forproducing agents, obviously it's
not that one thing.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
No.
It's a series, I mean, andthat's like so we had one of the
agents in here that's a bigproducer.
She's like our either one ortwo, I think she's going back
and forth right.
So I did ask her as a producingagent, you're killing it,
you're listing big, you're bigcommissions, great clients, what
(02:25):
are you doing?
And she said the same thing,that she was like it's not one
thing that I'm doing.
And I kind of wanted to divedeeper, like then tell me some
things that you're doing so Ican pass it along to agents.
And one thing that she kind ofsaid was she was like I'm, I'm
reaching out to my sphere, yes,follow up, and there's
(02:46):
consistency across the board.
And what she said, all herthings that she's doing, that
she's reaching out to her sphereof influence.
So I I've been talking aboutthat with a lot of our agents
about the sphere of influence.
A lot of them are saying likewell, what if my sphere of
influence is really small?
And the one thing I liked aboutour agent she broke it down and
(03:08):
made it really simple and shesaid, like for me, I started
with my immediate family,absolutely, and then from there
I got them to trust me.
I did, I was consistent, andthen she went to her friends and
from there it was her friendstalk to their friends, her
immediate family talk to theirfriends.
(03:29):
It's not like her immediatefamily and their friends are her
friends.
So she's growing, her sphere ofinfluence is growing and she
said she kept it small and shegrew it.
She didn't immediately try tostart with the big pie right.
Broke it down to a slice andthen grew from there, and so
that was one thing that I waslike, okay, that's good.
(03:50):
The second thing is that shesaid I take part in stuff Her
church, her kid's school.
She said she even keeps it assimple as like she has kids, so
she's in publics multiple timesa day, so it wasn't only about
like reading, like having a namebadge on all the time.
She said they get, they got toknow me, they got to know me
(04:10):
even at publics because I'm inthere multiple times a day or
multiple times a week and fromthere, like she's getting
referrals.
Yes, so I mean that's one thingthat I got from her that was
really unique and that she saidshe doesn't rely on like the
typical Zillow calling me with alead.
She's like I don't do that,like she not everybody does that
(04:32):
.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, not everybody does that.
But see what I love about her.
She found what works for her.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
She really discovered what makes her unique.
She went with it.
And what is the one word andyou already said it what is one?
Okay, All right.
If I had to say one thing isthat she's consistent.
She's consistent.
She found what works for her.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
We're not going to edit that out either.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
No, we'll leave that there.
She found absolutely what worksfor her and she's stuck.
She sticks with it.
She's consistent, she's alwaysfinding an activity, an event
within her sphere, right, right.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Always and I think that's something to really for
our agents to think about, andwhether they're agents in our
office or just agents in generalis that when you're starting to
think about what do I do duringthis time if my business is not
performing as well as it shouldbe?
First, I would say, get out ofthe mindset that people aren't
buying, because that's not truePeople are buying.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
That's not true, absolutely they're buying.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Secondly, there's not one thing, but if there is one
thing, it would be the wordconsistency for going to what
they do.
Absolutely.
So I think that's probably, andthat's a hard thing to do
because I think a lot of agentslike they do an open house and
it wasn't successful, so theyautomatically rule it out
because it must be a bad idea,right, right, it's not a
(05:59):
guarantee, and so I think aboutanything they do that trying to
build business.
Remember, and I try to relateit back to what I see the
overall public get involved in.
So when I think about, like,going into the convenience store
, you buy 10 scratch offs, youbuy 10 scratch offs, and when
(06:21):
have you ever found someone whobuys 10 who doesn't at some
point go back and buy another 10?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Exactly, at some point they do it.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Whether it's the next day or right after that, but
they do it.
And even if that round of 10was unsuccessful, it's not like
they just stopped doing it.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
They go back and do it again.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And same with like yeah, and when you think about
like investing into and I sayinvesting into the lottery, when
you're driving down the highwayand you see that the last
lottery is like one billion,right, everybody is like you
know what, I'm gonna try it.
And even if it was unsuccessfulthe next time it was one
billion or 500 million, whateverit is someone tries it and but
(07:03):
there's a certain amount of risk.
You know the odds are stackedagainst you, but you keep doing
it anyways.
So why would that?
Why wouldn't you translate thatinto your own business and what
you're doing?
Exactly?
It's gonna be a certain amountof failure.
That always happens.
It doesn't mean you give up.
You just gotta keep pushingforward.
You gotta keep doing it inorder to get closer to success.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
The more knows you get.
That means you're a step closerto a yes, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
You know, and that's why I think, that even with the,
it's not a no on the open house.
The more times you do somethingand the more times you're
consistent, the higherprobability it is that you are
going to reach success, wouldyou agree?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I totally agree.
And talking about you know thatinteraction you had with our
top agent Right.
What I love that she's masteredis she's built rapport with her
war market.
Yeah, you know her sphere ofinfluence.
She grew from there.
It always blows my mind where Isit with agents and I go over
(08:04):
their business plan, they relymore on leads.
So to me that's tougher tobuild that rapport with someone
you absolutely don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
You know that's a tougher ask for business.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, I agree, and I think that you kind of nail it
down, that there is a lot ofpeople that they they don't
reach out to our sphere ofinfluence, they don't do it
consistently and they don't doit in a genuine way.
I think there's a oh yes.
There's a difference in likereaching out and saying, hey,
you have some business for me.
And reaching out and genuinelycaring whether it's like your
(08:42):
family, whether it's yourfriends, whether it's your past
clients and genuinely caringabout like how are you?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yes, it goes a long way.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
It has to be genuine, it goes a long way and it
doesn't, and I always tellagents this too.
If you're a new agent and youdon't have the budget, and this
is where it just I forgot what Iwas going to really tie in to
something you were saying.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Oh, it came back.
I just it just figured, butit's there and I'm going to hold
it.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But if you don't have the budget, if you don't have
the budget to do the postcards,the mailers, a phone call, a
text message, it goes a long wayin creating new business for
you in this industry.
And if you want to even add tothat, I started telling a lot of
agents what I've been doingwith some past clients and
(09:27):
current clients is for mysellers doing a 30 second video.
Oh great, right.
So I did an open house twoweeks ago for my seller and at
the end of it I knew he wasgoing to want feedback.
So instead of sending them atext message which is, it's,
very limiting on expressing whatI'm trying to convey because
(09:48):
it's just, it's just wordsthey're reading I sent him a
text.
I mean, I sent him a video realquick and I just said, hey,
open house went great.
I have this many people through.
I'm going to give you.
The only negative feedback wasand after I did this quick
little 30 second video, I sentit.
He was like awesome, thanks somuch, appreciate the update.
That was it.
That's all he needed.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, it was all he needed and I was like no think
about if you broke that downinto how many of your sellers
and buyers get frustrated over aprocess.
What's the next step?
You could send them a textmessage and, yes, there's a lot
of us will say well, I was veryclear in my text message.
They should have understood somuch easier.
If you just record yourself,because it's on a different
(10:29):
level, they can play it againand again.
And it's something as easy ashey guys, congratulations were
under contract.
The next step would be makeescrow, set up the home
inspection, give them a numberof things to do and then that
way, when they forget, all theydo is watch the video again.
That's it.
How great would that be If yousit like three or four videos
(10:53):
through the process of we're athome inspections.
The next step is going to bethe next step and then, lastly,
we're gonna be doing the finalwalk-through tomorrow morning.
We're gonna just check out theproperty, make sure it's exactly
as it should be, and then we'regoing to closing Like how easy
would that be and so effective.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
And what a great way to relate tone.
You know I do agree on textmessages.
Sometimes you know your sellercould take it wrong.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
All of a sudden you send caps and you made it to be
important.
But if you kept me, I'm gonnabe like I didn't know we were
yelling.
I didn't know we were yellingeach other.
Are we fighting?
I thought we were friends.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
I love all caps, because nothing will make two
agents go at each other fasterthan-.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I'm the first one to be like, hey, there's etiquette,
hold up, you just yelled at me.
I don't appreciate that one bitand that's, it's hard.
So I think you gotta be carefulabout texting and using it as a
way to keep up with your pastclients.
Be careful because there couldbe something you say that's
gonna turn them off or it mightcome across the wrong way or not
(12:00):
genuine.
And that's probably the biggestthing on building business is
you wanna come across genuine,you wanna stay in contact with
those past people.
And before I forget, is oneword you said is a business plan
.
Oh, yes, right, and I thinkthat's probably right now, in
(12:20):
this time in the market, ifyou're an agent who is not doing
as well as you want or maybeyou're doing as well but you
wanna elevate your business tothe next level A business plan
is a great way to start.
You have to have a plan.
That's gotta be the first step.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Have to have a plan.
You can no longer wing it.
And I know previous market.
It seems like customers werejust coming out the woodworks.
You know, and our newer agentswere just riding that wave.
Right, can't do that anymore.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
We're in a different.
We're definitely in a differentmarket.
It doesn't mean different,doesn't mean bad.
Right, and I think that there'sdefinitely you gotta be careful
of.
There's a lot of agents outthere who will say the market's
horrible.
I disagree, I totally disagree.
And sometimes those are agentswho have no past.
They don't have any backgroundknowledge to pull from Right.
(13:11):
And I know I was like, if youwanna talk about bad, like we
could talk about bad.
We could talk bad all day long,cause I can tell you back in
the day, like let's go back to2008.
You wanna talk about bad?
This is not bad.
People are buying, even if therate is high.
You know, even if the rate ishigher than it was, people are
still buying.
People are saying you know,they've got that mindset of like
(13:34):
, listen, I am and I love thaton like TikTok.
I read to you the other daywhat was it?
It was marry the house, datethe rate.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yes, totally true.
And what?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
was the divorce one.
It was divorce that oh.
It was divorce something.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Somebody's getting divorced.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I don't remember what it was, but it was like so good
that I said it like three timesto you and I was like I love
that, I need to incorporate itand of course I forgot oh man.
I hope I screen shot itsomewhere.
But it is a good thing toremind buyers that when you get
those buyers who are like oh therate's too high, rit isn't any
lower, you know rent is notgoing.
Rent is not going down.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Exactly, and some of these buyers were priced out of
our last market anyway.
So you know for them tocontinuously say, oh, I should
have bought, I should havebought, you were priced out
anyway.
You didn't have 20, 30, 40thousand dollars to put over
asking yeah.
So let's, we'll leave that pastin the past, you know.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Gotta move forward, you gotta.
If you just sit there andyou're like you're dwelling on
all those, believe me, there's alot of times I say I should
have Right.
You know like if I had money toinvest back in 2008, I should
have bought a lot of those35,000 dollar homes, oh yes, I
could sit there and beat myselfup over that all day long, but
it's done.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
It's done, it's gone, move forward.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
It's not happening again.
So move on to the next level ofyour career or whatever you're
achieving.
But I would say I do tell a lotof buyers you can wait 100
percent, you can wait all day.
I can't tell you when therate's going to go down, but I
can tell you this rent is notcheap.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And I wasn't it.
Just the other day we hadsomeone from the news station
calling and say who wants to getinterviewed about the, the
rents dropping, and I'm likethat's not true.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
That's not true, that's.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
That's an incorrect, that's an incorrect view of the
market, right, and that's whereI tell agents be careful about
what you're watching on the news.
Oh, completely, totally becareful, because that that was
like a good example when yousaid hey, there's somebody on
the news, they want to interviewone of us, for can we talk
about why rents are dropping somuch?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, I'm like I'm not being involved.
I have nothing on that.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
That's that is.
That is a good example of fakenews right there.
That's not true.
I don't know what market you'retalking about, but not here in
Florida, not here.
Rents are going up, the rentalsare limited, and so I tell a
lot of buyers I'm like, listen,you could wait around all day
long.
I, I'm here for you.
If you want to wait six months,I'll wait with you six months,
and when you're ready to buy,I'll help you.
(16:06):
But if you think that you'regetting a deal on that rental,
you're just throwing money away.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Completely, and here's the thing.
My, my concern is our inventorylevels are still not where they
typically are.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
So all we need is a drop in our interest rate and
these same buyers are now onceagain priced out of the market,
right, yeah?
So I really think now, withthis higher interest rate, it's
still a better time to buy.
Buyers now have options.
You know there are a little bitmore inventory.
(16:44):
There is a little bit moreinventory.
You know you can have aninspection period now, yep, you
know you don't have to do allthis craziness from our last
market Wave appraisals yeah,waving appraisals.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
You know, I don't know.
I heard from a lot of agentswho are friends and just
acquaintances, and other agentsI've worked with who've said oh,
that last market, that was suchan amazing market.
And I'm like no, it was notamazing, it was not amazing when
buyers are waving inspections,waving appraisals, paying 30,
40,000 over the value.
(17:18):
That's not an amazing market.
And if nothing else, I couldtell agents who had just come
into the market in the last 14or 15 years.
I'm like, oh, you think it'sgreat because?
you didn't live at a certaintime in the market.
Yes, I know that this isinevitable.
Like I see all repeated trends,it's going to happen.
The difference is, is therepeated trend stopped when we
(17:41):
got to that cap?
The market didn't plummet.
The market is leveling off alittle bit.
It's definitely more of ahealthy market, and it's healthy
because sellers are still ableto make money.
Yes, but buyers have morebuying power.
And is it a bad market if abuyer can go and negotiate even
a thousand or 5,000 off the listprice?
(18:01):
Or is it a bad market if abuyer can get the seller to pay
50% or all the closing costs?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yes, that's not a bad market.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yes, If everybody can leave the table with money like
, the seller still made money,the buyer got what they want,
agents got commissions I don'tsee the problem here.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I don't yeah, and that way you can marry someone
you want to marry that house.
Yes, and that's why we say datethe rate, Because you know what
Listen.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I'm not committing to you.
I'm not committing to you.
I'm going to stick with you fora while, but when I get someone
better I mean a rate that'sbetter I'm dumping you and going
for them, Exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Versus last market.
Last market they had to marry ahouse they weren't exactly
thrilled about.
Right, that's going to end indivorce.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yes, so you got the house and, yes, you got the
amazing rate 2.3.
That's awesome, oh, but thenthey won't be able to get a
divorce from their home becausethey've overpaid.
They've overpaid and they'reupside down, there you go, yeah,
and that's more scary than whatwe're in now Exactly.
I would rather pay high becauseI know the rates are going to
(19:04):
come back down.
Right, they're going to andevidently win.
We don't know, but they'reinevitably going to come back
down.
But if you bought a house justbecause you're like I have a
house, I have a house, you haveto have a house.
So you just bought the houseyou had to have, but you hate
the area, that's not changing,right, it is what it is, right,
I hate the house.
Well, guess what?
(19:24):
Unless you just throw it down,it's yours, you bought it, it's
yours Live with it.
So that's good and important, Ithink, for agents.
Now, one thing that we've beentalking about this year in our
classes and you've said it, I'vesaid it is that there is, in
just our board, almost 23,000agents.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Right, yes, so I believe around 22,000.
Okay, 22, 23.
22, 23.
Who's counting?
Same thing, that's a chicken,bird rocks down, it's all the
same.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
It's a ton of agents, but that's a lot of agents.
That's a lot of agents, and Ido tell a lot of our new and
seasoned agents.
This is a great time to revampwho you are and figure out who
are you as an agent and whatmakes you more special.
Yes, and it's not enough rightnow for you to say, well, what
(20:18):
makes me special is I can listhomes and put them on the MLS.
We'll soak in everybody.
Everybody else I've got a greatsign.
There's a lot of agents whohave great signs, so does
everybody else.
Yeah, I've got great businesscards.
So does everyone else.
I wear a suit or I wear areally great outfit.
There's a lot of agents outthere who dress well.
That's not enough To make youstand out.
(20:40):
You got to figure out what does, and there's a number of things
that I've kind of shared withagents.
I want to get your feedback asa broker.
The first thing I think thatmakes you different is Knowing
your contract.
Oh, yes, knowing the contract,and not just like Filling in the
blanks.
Right, and filling in theblanks isn't enough.
(21:01):
It's not enough.
Oh, I mean, I'm just like,every time I hear that, I'm like
listen, like I can train aone-armed chimpanzee.
Fill in the blank yeah, it'sfill in the blanks.
That's not enough.
You need to know all thein-betweens.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Well, you miss it.
You miss your representation ofyour customer fully to the
fullest, if you don't understandwhat you've gotten them into
right and and how to get themout of it.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Oh exactly, there's a lot of it like you get them
into a problem because you madea mistake.
Yeah, now, if you know yourcontract well enough, you can
get them out before that thatmistake escalates.
Yes, hopefully not all the time.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Or know your contract well enough if the other agent
is Misunderstanding the contract.
Yes, I, I have had scenarioswhere our agent comes to us and
the other agent on the otherside is, with conviction,
telling them and this is how itis, mm-hmm.
I tell our agent where does itstate that in our contract?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
right.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Agent mind blown.
Yeah, when they look througheverything, what the other agent
was Saying was not In ourcontract at all.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Right, and there's a lot of panic there's agents
always come to you with likepanic and they're stressed out.
And they're I've seen theagents who come there and
they're stressed, they want tocry, yes, because they're so
frustrated.
But I tell them, like listen,when you sit down and you really
know your contract, like really, really know it, you become an
(22:31):
expert at it and If you do that,it takes all the stress off the
table.
You're not rushing to call yourbroker.
Yeah, I don't know.
And and there's nothing, I'mnot saying anything bad because
I have my broker here in frontof me, but I think brokers
should be there as like asupporting cast and they're
there like I need you.
(22:52):
If I've exhausted all my options, right, I need you.
But if you're my first, myfirst thing is to go to my
broker.
I don't think that's alwayslike really healthy.
As a very you know, aknowledgeable agent you want to
be like.
Your first option is to be ableto pull from your knowledge.
Read the contract, yes, yeah,because if you just go to your
(23:15):
broker, your broker is going towait for it Read the contract,
and they're just going to readthe contract to you.
Yes, they're going to reiterateexactly what the contract says.
So a lot of times like you'rewasting so much time Meeting
with your broker.
Yes, when you could fix yourown problem and I tell you what.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
It's not a good look for your customer.
No it's not yet.
If you keep having to defer toyour broker, oh, I'm gonna
Consult this with my broker.
Or a good question?
I'll ask my broker.
I'll get back to you.
Right you know it's gonna addup to where your customer is
gonna be like.
Well, this person doesn't haveenough experience.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Exactly, and that's where I tell a lot of agents as
an agent but also doing thetraining in the office.
My goal as a trainer is that Iwant the agents to function
without a broker.
Yes, I want them to be able tosay you know what?
My broker is not available butI'm okay, yeah, I've got it.
Or when someone says, why don'tyou call your broker to get the
(24:11):
answer, I don't need to do that, I already know the answer
because I know the contract here.
It is right in the contract andyou point it out.
That is.
There's something to be saidabout that when you're just like
, I know it so much that Monicawill be proud because I don't
need to call her, and then I cantell her after the deal closes
that you know what.
I didn't really need you.
We had a problem, but it wasgreat that you were there.
(24:32):
If I did need you, right, andthat's what I.
But that only comes when youactually take the time to
educate yourself.
When you come to trainingclasses, come to zoom classes,
network with other agents.
You know a lot of people assumethat training classes means
you're trying to tell me I don'tknow my business.
I'm not saying that.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
No, not at all.
No it's to enhance, it's tohelp you encourage.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yes, I always remind people like some of the best
people, the most successfulpeople out there in Industries
across the board, they getcontinued education.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
They're always bettering themselves right.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
So from from our, you know, highest producing agents,
yeah, I catch them in on zooms.
I catch them at events.
You know there there areseveral events that you know.
I've seen our agents and youthink, wow, their business is
Amazing, right, and you see themstill plugging in for that Next
(25:30):
level growth, for thatcontinued education.
They do it, they don't stop.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
No, and I do speak with a lot of agents who now, of
course, I love the brokerageI'm at.
I love that it's a hundredpercent model.
I love the fact that I havefreedom, which we all have
freedom, but here's thedifference.
I have a broker who encouragesme to know my contract.
Yes, and I have seen in otherbrokerages and I'm not gonna
(25:56):
call names or anything butBrokers don't care or don't push
the fact that they want theiragents know the contract.
Well, don't worry about it.
We have somebody who can do thecontract for you and For me.
What that makes me believe isthat you don't want me to grow
big enough that I can go and dothis without you.
Yes, you want to keep metrapped.
(26:17):
Yeah, you want to keep me underyour thumb, and the way you do
that is to limit my knowledge.
Yes, and knowledge is power.
It's like one of those likeafter school right, like
schoolhouse rocks right, andit's something to live by, that
is like one of those saints thatwill never get old.
Knowledge is power, and if youhave the power, you make the
rules, and that is thedifference.
(26:39):
I have the knowledge.
I took that knowledge andturned it into power, and the
power gave me the ability toleave a Brokerage that was taken
too much of my money, yes, andlet me move into a brokerage
that was there to support me,but I got to keep more of my
money.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Well, because it turns into this.
Oh well, I'm completelyself-sufficient.
Why do I need it?
You know, hey, what I pay, youknow.
And then you start exploringother options.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
So right, and then that leads into my next one.
Which is now.
There's a lot of mindsets fromnew agents and seasoned agents
that I'm seeing that I don'tknow if they're always the
healthiest and I want to getyour, your take on it is that
I've heard or I've seen in a lotof like Social media platforms
where agents will say I want towork for the brokerage, who
(27:25):
gives me leads?
What's your take on that?
Just like the agent that comesto you and says, hey, I just
need to know right away, I don'tcare about the splits, are you
going to give me leads?
Speaker 2 (27:33):
So immediately, what goes through my mind?
Oh, this is an agent that hasno initiative to grow their own
business, and someone like thatI don't really feel is going to
make it.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
You know, because they're so either, they might
have been successful at abrokerage.
I was just spoon feeding themleads.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
But they're never going to take the time to
cultivate the skills they need,you know, to generate their own
business.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, and being in the business almost 20 years now
, I will say a lot of the topproducing oh no, I will say
every one of the top producingagents that were above me or
that I mentored or shadowed, orjust I just paid attention to
their business and, regardlessof what office I worked at, I
always knew that they werecreating their own business.
Right, you know, they were outthere every day.
(28:19):
No matter how successful eventhe most successful agents, they
wake up the earliest, right?
Somebody might think like oh,that agent sold 65 million last
year.
That agent isn't sleeping in.
They're waking up bright andearly.
They're out there, constantlypounding the pavement, doing the
old school things that theyneed to do in order to create
(28:40):
new business.
They're not just going intowork and saying who can hand me
business?
It's not good, and I think itgoes back to that.
What I was saying before isanybody who says, come and work
for me, we're just going tospoon feed you.
They're doing that because theywant to limit your knowledge.
They want to make sure that younever get so big that you feel
(29:00):
that you can leave them.
They want to make sure youconstantly remember you can't do
this without us.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Yeah, because you never learn how to approach
someone, you never learn how tomarket for yourself, you never
learn what we do to.
You know generate, cultivate,farm an area.
You never learn any of thatstuff.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, and God forbid that the market ever was to hit
a bad spot like it did you know,during that bad time yes.
I can tell you now, during thattime, brokers weren't hand out
leads.
No, there was no leads to handout, so what?
Happens?
Do you just drowned?
Do you just sit there and youflounder and you go back into
what you were doing before,because you were used to just
(29:40):
sitting there and answering thephones?
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Business was coming to you Right.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Because, I mean, the first brokerage I worked for,
the floor was great.
It was a small brokerage, wehad a limited number of listings
, but the phones rang, yeah.
And then you always said, like,oh, I have floor time today, so
I'm going to get at least onebuyer per day.
But then when the marketchanged and the phones stopped
ringing, it's like what do I do?
What do I do?
And we all just sat there like,well, I'm just going to wait,
(30:07):
I'm going to wait and hopefullythe phones ring tomorrow and
then from there you know, I tellagents, like when I left that
first brokerage, I left becauseI was surrounded by negative
energy and I fed off thenegative energy and it brought
me down.
So that is another thing I tellagents.
Right now, in this market, ifyou find yourself in an office
(30:27):
or a space that you'reconstantly surrounded by
negative energy, that people arehave got a negative spin on the
market and it's doom and gloomevery day, get out.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Get out as fast as you can, as quickly as you can,
don't look back.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, no, and when I left, I said I love all of you,
I think you're all great.
I have to get out of here.
I have to leave right nowbecause if I don't, I'm going to
drown.
It's like the ship is goingdown and instead of like
swimming for it, I'm like forget, I'm just going to sit here and
be like hope for the best.
It's not going to be good.
We're all going down with theship.
So I left and as soon as I left, I found myself in an office
(31:01):
with like really good energy andimmediately I was like well, if
this is happening for them, itcan happen for me.
Yes, and, and that's that'ssomething.
To that's something that's notalways.
I say that there's a lot ofagents who don't have that
perspective.
There's a lot of them are likethere's jealousy or envy or and
I don't want, instead of beinghappy for that agent, you're
(31:23):
like well, why, why them and notme?
No, I always say like Icelebrate the fact that someone
just killed it.
I'm like good for you?
Yeah, that's so awesome for you,because secretly I'm like okay,
I got to figure out whatthey're doing.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
You know, like Vonda, when she was in the office and
we were talking, I'm likeVonda's killing it this year.
Yes, Vonda, what are you doingdifferently?
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
I could be behind her back plot and going like and I
hope Vonda listens to this, Ilove that, I can like plot and
like that Vonda, I hope herbusiness tanks, because it's
just not fair.
No, I was like good for her,like you're a successful
business person, killing it.
What are you doing that I'm notdoing?
I need to.
I need to figure out whatyou're doing.
That's what I encourage a lotof agents whether you're in our
(32:08):
brokerage or in anotherbrokerage, don't have animosity,
don't don't stress and lookdown on other agents who are
successful.
Dig deeper and find out whatthey're doing.
Yes, and then if you can't doeverything they're doing because
of either budget or you justfeel it's not, you tweak it.
Figure out what's what's yourvoice and and what would be
(32:29):
authentic to you, and then startdoing it.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
That's why networking is so important.
I know a lot of agents discountnetworking, but the more agents
you can be around you can pullfrom them.
You know what you like, whatyou think you can implement into
your business plan.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Right.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yeah, I just, I love that.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Well, I also tell agents, like here in the office,
a lot of agents.
They don't think about thesheer number like we're almost
at, like what?
1370.
Yes, so let's say about 1370agents.
So that's a ton of agents thatwe have.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
We have a ton of agents, but I also say that is
1313.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
169 in agents.
I can network with right, I'mthe other one, that's the, I'm
the one but I'm always likethat's a great opportunity for
you to find someone either whomight have an agent buyer that
they're working with thatthey're not available.
They need to partner up withsomeone that could create the
business, someone who has alisting, who is not doing as
(33:30):
well and they want to bring youon as a co-lister.
There's business you justcreated and it's all because of
networking and a lot of agentsdon't do that.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
And I met with an agent by zoom yesterday where
she started asking where is ourreach of our agents?
Oh boy, we're all over theplace everywhere so then she
started asking for numbers ofagents that were really far.
She's going to be reaching outto them and seeing hey, it's,
it's almost two hours away foryou, there's anything I can do
for you, I'd gladly, you know,do it for a referral fee.
(34:01):
There's anything I could do?
An open house for you, Anythingyou know.
So she is really working ouryou know the amount of agents
that we have and that is amazing.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Yes, so you got to think about that too.
Is that these agents?
There are certain ones that aresaying like my business is
tanking, it's not doing as well,but they're not trying every
one of their avenues and that'san avenue to create business
right.
Yes, making that connection.
Even me, I've made connectionswith other agents, I've been
(34:31):
brought on to help them and itmight not sound like it's that
much, but if you start thinkingabout like, well, I got brought
on to be a co-lister and thenyou think about the commission,
oh, that relationship createdthis potential money that I
could be making on this listingand I could have not networked,
I could have said no, why wouldI do that?
Maybe I'll just sit and kind ofwait for the business to come
(34:52):
to me, which would be anotherthing I would say in this market
, don't play the passive roleLike you can't survive more
aggressive.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
You can't do it.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
You have to be more aggressive, you have to be more
committed and think about why.
You know like.
I think a good way for us tostart wrapping this up is to
start thinking about the why.
Why are you in this industry?
What made you decide to go downthis path and what do you get
that from a lot of agents whoreally think, or do you have to
ask them that?
Speaker 2 (35:22):
You know, a lot of them are focused on their why,
you know.
But the ones it's funny howthat goes together the ones that
are kind of searching in theirhead as you know what to answer,
right, those are the ones thatdon't have a proper business
plan, don't have a clue orstruggling.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
You know.
So it's amazing how that's inline.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Yeah, and I think that you know, for agents who
haven't really sat down whetheryou're a new agent with us or
you're an agent who's not withus that think today, like sit
and start thinking about whatmade me go into this role, what
made me go into this career path, and then I also tell agents,
like how do you define what youdo?
There's a difference if you saythis is my job.
(36:04):
If you're talking to yourfriends and you're saying, hey,
I've got to go into my jobtomorrow.
That's a different mindset.
Like I had that mindset when Iworked at TJ Maxx, when I was in
like high school, right, andthat is different.
You go to your job to makemoney, just to pay your bills,
but you really hate what you'redoing.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
There's no passion.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
There's no passion, nothing.
And then when you say this ismy career and there's a
difference when agents like hereyou speak, and when a seller
hears you speak, and when abuyer hears you speak about what
you're doing, and you speakwith like such conviction and
compassion that they're justlike wow, like when you're done
speaking.
I've had sellers and buyers saylike wow, like you really love
(36:47):
what you're doing.
Yes, yes, and I think that'simportant for agents to do like
find your passion right now.
And if your passion isn't realestate, then get out.
Right.
I would say don't stay in it Ifyou're just trying to make it
because you want to do likeyou're thinking in terms of
selling.
A reality shows thateverybody's making these big fat
(37:08):
checks.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
I just want to make money.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
If that's what you're doing, then that's all you're
going to get out of it.
You're not going to get therepeated business, you're not
going to have the passion,you're not going to be able to
speak with it and, in terms oflike, really selling it.
Like, when I speak to someoneand I talk about what I do, it
sells itself because I believein what I'm doing, right, yes,
and I think that goes for, like,all of our agents, think about
(37:33):
your passion.
Right now is a great time to goout and get listings to create
the business, but when you'retaking that listing and when
you're going on the listingappointment, there's something
to be said.
When you sit down with a sellerand you speak with passion
about what you do, then you cango there and you can show flip
charts and graphs and pie graphsand stats all day long, save
(37:56):
all that, save all that, save it, but that won't help it's great
to have it, but if you can'tback that up with the passion
and really believe what you'resaying, it's never going to.
You're never going to moveforward.
A seller's always going to beable to smell the fear they're
going to be able to smell thefact that you're not consistent
at what you do, that you don'tbelieve in what you're doing.
(38:18):
It's going to resonate andthey're going to not pick you.
Or if they pick you, therelationship's probably going to
.
It's going to tank becauseeventually that's going to bleed
through into what you're doingevery day.
Did you agree?
Speaker 2 (38:30):
I completely agree, and they're going to be able to
tell when.
When you're aligned with oh Ijust want to make money, they're
going to sense that they'regoing to pull that because we're
in a relationship buildingindustry.
I mean, even if you work with agroup of investors, you still
have to cultivate thatrelationship.
I know there's not so manyemotions involved with investors
(38:52):
, but you're still personallyinvested professionally.
I know I said personally, but-.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Personally, professionally.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
But you're still invested in it and you have to
be all in.
I don't know why I feel whensomeone picks this and considers
it a job and sees it as a meansto make money, they're not 100%
in.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
So-.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
And you said something just now.
I know it's a mistake, but it'sa good, it's a good lead-in to
our last topic for this show isthat you said they got
personally involved, right?
Speaker 2 (39:31):
You know, when I chose personally, I meant you
know you've got to be 100% inRight, but I really want to make
it.
I want to define that.
So I'm glad you brought that up.
Yes, so personally in it foryour passion, you've got to be
all the way in.
Then I don't know why I feelthat when I speak with agents
whether with us, other offices,other brokerages there's not
(39:57):
enough there.
When they say I'm in it forcommission, you know you don't
see that passion.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
It's like they're not , they're void, they're not
there and then the personallyinvolved, and I bring that up
because there's a lot of agentswho, in this market obviously,
especially in this market homesare sitting longer, so maybe the
deals are a little bit harderto get to closing.
But there's this attitude youget with some agents who they
(40:27):
take things too personal.
If an agent delivers a low balloffer, or if an agent comes
back and they represent thebuyer and they ask for repairs,
or you're countering back to thebuyer's agent.
There's a lot of like this.
Certainly.
Somehow they're bickering andarguing, and they get into this
like I'm defending my client andso I have to.
By defending them means I haveto get heated.
(40:49):
And the next thing, though,they're in text message fights.
And you see this post on likemastermind If anyone's in
mastermind groups on Facebook,you see agents posting text
messages of fights and arguments.
And is it necessary?
Is it?
Did we?
get to this level Are we at,like high school, where we have
to fight with other people.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
That's why it should.
You should never take atransaction personal.
I, as a matter of fact, I justfinished with a transaction
yesterday, close yesterday, butnot without all the struggle
from both agents involved.
So, and it was our agent justas much as the other agent on
the other side, both of themwere personally, all their
(41:34):
emotions were heightened and itwas personal on both.
So that's even like a doublenegative right there.
Both of those agents shouldn'thave taken it to that level.
Buyer and seller had actuallyinteracted at the inspection and
the seller wanted to make thiswork for the buyer.
The seller really liked thebuyers, buyers really liked the
(41:56):
seller.
What was creating all theproblems were the tone.
There was some emails with allcaps, so there was.
It was like a power stripbetween both of them.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Right.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
It was one felt the other one was concealing and oh,
they've done transactions withthis agent in the past, so
personal.
So what does that othertransaction have to do with this
one?
Speaker 1 (42:22):
No, Exactly, and that's what I told a lot of
agents like, listen, I've donetransactions with agents who
have got heated and I've beencalled an idiot or I've been
called names.
And yeah, is there a part of methat wants to stand up and be
like you know what.
I can call names too.
I can do it all day.
If you wanna get in the mud, Ican be a pig just like you, but
I choose not to because I knowthat's not gonna keep the
(42:46):
transaction moving forward.
I'm not doing the very best formy clients.
So I've had people call menames and I'll say I'm sorry you
feel that way.
I'm sorry you feel that way andI'm here to help and let's just
get this done.
Let's remember it's not betweenyou and I.
Let's just get this at a finishline Now.
We don't have to be girlfriendsLike we're not gonna be sitting
there doing each other's nailswatching Melrose plays right,
(43:07):
we're not doing that.
But I can still treat you kindand I can treat you
professionally and still notlike you and I always I bring
this up in class a lot of timesI tell agents you'll never know
I don't like you Because I'malways gonna be respectful.
Now, when that phone hangs updon't get it wrong I'm the first
(43:28):
one.
Who's gonna be like that jerk,like I'm gonna go off.
But I'm not gonna do that onthe phone because I'm always
thinking like, is that reallygonna help my client?
Like, if I blow the deal upbecause I don't like the seller
or I don't like the listingagent or the buyer's agent, did
I really do the best for myclient?
No, I didn't do the best.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
No, not at all.
You miss it.
You miss it for your client andthe personal digs, that's it.
I play referee all the time.
The personal digs, oh, theirperformance level.
Personal digs, oh, this person,you know they why Don't yeah
why.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
And then I always tell agents like here is like,
so we can start wrapping this up.
But I would say when, as anagent a seasoned agent what I
always do is that when I go towrite an offer or I'm working
with like a buyer's agent, Ilook their MLS number up so
automatically know if you'relike a 2610, I know you got into
the business same time as me,it's like your social security
(44:24):
number, right, I already knowwhere you're at or if you're a
five or six digit, I'm thinkinglike, holy crap, I'm dealing
with an agent who's been in thebusiness a lot longer than me.
So, I do tell agents.
When I reach out to those olderagents who've been in the
business, I show a sign ofrespect, I call them, I'm
respectful.
It's almost like speaking to mygrandparent or my parent.
(44:45):
I show them a sign of respectand then if it's an agent who's
like a 27, which I know theycame in the business much
further after me then I knowthat they're going to be newer.
There could be maybe thequestions might be more.
They might have more questions.
Maybe they don't have a brokerwho's supporting them like they
should.
So I'm going to take that intoaccount.
(45:07):
I'm, but I'm always looking attrying to figure out who am I
working with?
How much business have theydone?
Oh, they've done more businessthan me, so I know this is an
active agent.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
But don't use that to personally attack right, no, no
, and I would say, if nothingelse, don't use that as like
ammo to attack, because there'ssome agents who will do that.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
They do that Right.
But I would say, if I'm workingwith someone, I'm like, wow,
this is a big producer, but hejust called me or she just
called me an idiot.
So is it going to help if Ifight you?
No, because if, once I get thistransaction closed, there's a
probability I'm going to comeacross you again and the next
time around, even though thatagent called me a name, they're
(45:49):
going to remember that I calledthem a name.
They're not going to rememberthey called me a name, right.
They're going to remember me assomeone who was labeled as
difficult.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Yes, let's say.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
Yes, and now if I don't rock the boat and I keep
the transaction moving along,I've done deals with agents
multiple times who were superrude.
Now the second time around theywere actually nice.
It was like the first time Iwas dealing with, like the hard
exterior, and then the secondtime around it was I was dealing
with the real agent.
Yes, I didn't hold it.
(46:17):
I didn't like hold a grudge.
I was like it is what it is.
Like you, clearly you thinkthat you're doing the best of
your clients.
I get it.
We all that resonates indifferent ways.
I'm doing the best for myclient by holding it together
Right, getting it to the finishline.
That's all I care about is ifmy client wants this.
Now, if my client's like Idon't want the house, I hate it,
(46:38):
then I'm going to be the oneyou can go in, yeah.
Well, I'm going to still do itin a professional way because I
got to remember.
I'm always thinking, and maybeit's that the OCD side of me is
like constantly thinking like,well, if I make this agent upset
and then this deal falls apart,and then five months from now I
go and I see a listing that mybuyer really wants and they're
the listing agent.
Then I got to call them andthey remember and I'm one of
those.
(46:58):
And they will remember I'm theone of those.
It's just sitting there in bedat night with my eyes open,
going like well, I should havedone this Overthinker, yeah, but
normally.
I always feel like I'm right.
I'm right.
I know that if I would havedone this, it's going to come
back to bite me.
So that is like getting the endof our show today, and I want
(47:19):
to leave agents with a goodfeeling of the market.
It is a great market right now.
Yes, the sales are there.
They're still closing.
The price points are stillhealthy.
There's programs out there forfirst time buyers now.
Yes, If you haven't checkedinto that hometown heroes, check
(47:40):
it out.
There's programs out there forbuyers for down payment
assistance.
People still want to buy.
Yes, right, florida is stillkicking it with all the sales.
People still want to move here.
So, agents, do not give up.
Keep working hard.
Do what you're doing, and thisis a time for you to start
thinking about who you are as anagent.
Revamp yourself.
(48:01):
If you haven't, you know,really thought about that.
Work on a business plan.
Yes, it's.
It's an endless list of thingsyou can be doing, and that goes
back to what we started with andit's a good wrap up of.
It's not one thing.
It's great, it's not one thing,but if it was one thing, it
would be the word consistency.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Oh there you go Perfect.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
Everyone.
Have an amazing week, have anamazing month and remember in
whatever you're doing, remember,remember.
It's important to find whatmoves you.
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