November 9, 2024 • 49 mins
Chris Craddock reveals how he went from Young Life to real estate success, sharing game-changing strategies to close more deals, turn dead leads into cash, and build a powerhouse team. Get insights on hiring top talent, mastering marketing, and thriving through challenges in this must-listen episode!
4o
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mike (00:00):
All right, everyone.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Real Estate GameChangers show.
I'm your host, Mike McKay, basedin Jacksonville, Florida.
And each and every week we dothis show with people who are
changing the game of real estateAll over the country.
For anyone in the jacksonvillearea, next week We are actually
going to be hosting a free livezoom training for people who are
either interested in workingwith us Or just interested in
(00:22):
getting way better at sales ourtopic for next week is how to
prevent objections and closedeals.
So, we are looking forsalespeople for our team, but
anyone is welcome to join thatcall and improve your sales
skills.
So, this week on the show, wehave Chris Craddock.
Chris, welcome to the show.
Chris (00:40):
Yeah, thanks man.
Glad to be here.
Mike (00:42):
Yeah.
So, for the people who don'tknow you, could you tell us a
little bit about how you gotinto the real estate business
and how that's led you to whereyou are today?
Chris (00:53):
Yeah.
So, I mean, man, I don't haveenough time to talk about what
led me here, but yeah, early twothousands, I was on staff with
an organization called younglife, loved it changed my life.
It was great.
I made 25, 000 a year.
And when my wife got pregnant.
You can't live in the DC area on25, 000 a year.
And so I went to the librarybecause before Google was kind
(01:16):
of the fount of all informationand knowledge and checked out
every book on real estateinvesting.
And honestly, I look back at howlittle I knew and I was like,
dang, like I knew nothing, butyou know, I just went out and
did it and started knocking ondoors of people with
foreclosures.
And in four months, I made 12times what I made in a year with
Young Life and was able tocontinue to administer stuff for
(01:39):
a while.
And then as I had more kids,I've got six of them now.
It took me a while to figure outwhat caused it, but now we can
kind of make sure that doesn'thappen anymore.
But money started running out,especially in ministry.
And, you know, anybody that haskids is like, put your money in
a bathtub and pull the plug,right.
It's gone.
And so I was doing everythinglike all these side jobs.
Like I tried to sell my blood toNIH for 300 to buy Christmas
(02:02):
presents for my family, like hadno money.
And and then I was like, whydon't I flip houses again?
So I got back into But then allthe people with auction dates
that I was going to before thosewere short sales.
And I realized the banks weregoing to pay a commission and
they wouldn't negotiate on theprice.
The commission was like nonnegotiable.
They either pay it or theydon't.
And so I got a real estatelicense and then I saw that I
(02:24):
always had led large teams within ministry and I saw like the
Gary Keller millionaire realestate agent book and it made
sense to me and I was like, Oh,I can build that.
And so I started building a realestate agent team and then like
with this whole focus around theagent investor idea, because
that's how I got into realestate and listings make an
(02:44):
agent business massive andincredibly profitable.
And then after that we built allthe other like side businesses
like, you know, title andmortgage and insurance and
construction and coaching andlike just all of the other
things that go go around thatbusiness.
And so, yeah, so that's what wegot today.
You know, my, my agent businesswill sell between five and 600.
(03:08):
Deals a year.
I own a ton of rentalproperties.
You know, we'll do a lot ofcreative deals as well.
Every year, you know, flips,wholesales, innovation, you
know, all, all the other stuffthere.
And so, yeah, we really workhard to, you know, mesh that
agent investor world.
And yeah, that's, that's wherewe are.
Mike (03:26):
Yeah.
Yeah, so.
Are a lot of your leads comingin on the agent side and then
you're converting them to, youknow, well, maybe a listing, but
maybe a wholesale deal, maybe anovation, or are they coming in
from the investor side?
And then you're kind of turningthem into investor marketing and
turning them into listings, oris it both?
Chris (03:47):
Yeah, no, it's, it's all like, we only offer like the
cash off release.
Now we do have a partnershipwith Zillow.
So Zillow sends us buyer leads.
As well to our agent team, butwe only just offer the cash
offer lead to people and thenthey come in.
And so if you build a massiveorganization, so I've got over
50 agents that work for us.
And if you have a bigorganization, you'll realize
(04:09):
that the two most expensivethings in any organization are.
Are if you take out the brickand mortar piece you know, cause
that's expensive too, but ismarketing and salaries.
Those are like the one and twoon almost every organization.
Well, the cool thing is if youhave an agent business that can
list deals when people want alot of money for it, more money
than, you know, a.
(04:31):
You know, a flipper or awholesaler or somebody who's
going to buy in and hold Youknow, then you basically have
two massive businesses that aresharing the expense of marketing
and there you for your marketingexpenses are 50 And you're going
to have to have some salariedpeople in both businesses But
you do get economies of scalewith those businesses.
And so you're looking at like 75cents on the dollar for your
(04:54):
staff versus, you know, ahundred dollars if you have two
separate businesses.
So they really are.
They mesh really well together.
Mike (05:02):
Yeah, so you guys are basically marketing for all the
cash offers, and then you kindof converted if it doesn't make
sense for that.
Chris (05:10):
You just go down the decision tree.
You know, I always say, yeah,you know, keep the best, sell
the rest.
And how do you sell them, right?
So you, you keep the best onesas rentals, and then you either
sell them through a flip,through a wholesale, through an
innovation, through a listing onthe market, right?
All of them are, are out there.
(05:30):
And like, so, you know, in your,in your area, what is the
average home sell for inJacksonville?
Mike (05:36):
About 350,
Chris (05:38):
350.
So here's the crazy thing.
How many leads a month do youguys bring in in Jacksonville?
Mike (05:44):
Probably 450, 100, 120 a week, you know,
Chris (05:48):
Okay, so 450 and then how many properties a month do you
typically sell?
Mike (05:53):
You mean like, like, do we buy?
Cause we don't do the realtorside.
Chris (05:56):
Dubai, i'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Mike (05:58):
Yeah.
Probably like, you know,anywhere five to seven at this
point.
Chris (06:02):
So five to seven that means you bring in 450 leads,
you know If you think about itof them Maybe a hundred of those
are actually like are going tosell on the market like
separately And if a hundred ofthose sell then and if it's like
let's just call it three hundredthousand You and you should
always take between a three anda three and a half percent
listing commission on that.
(06:23):
You're looking at like anaverage of let's just call it a
ten thousand dollar listingcommission.
So your top line revenue onmoney that you've already paid
for that's walking out the doorRight now is like a hundred
deals at 10, 000 a deal.
It's like almost, you know what,is that a million dollars?
Yeah.
Is it like
Mike (06:43):
Exactly.
Yeah.
Chris (06:45):
mean, it's I mean, it's just, it's crazy.
It's just every single month,that's what's walking out the
door.
So now granted that would be topline revenue.
You'd still have other fees andsplits with agents and
everything else that you got topay, but you know, there's, it
doesn't take many deals at 10,000 a pop to really pay All of
(07:07):
your overhead off so that youcan get into from good
profitability to massiveprofitability.
Mike (07:14):
I'm curious how you have it structured.
Like, do you, do all your agentshave the ability to do all the
strategies?
Or do you have like certainagents who are like that's like
an investment property.
Like there's a lot of likedistress there.
I'm sending that agent andthey're going to really, they're
the good person at getting cashdeals low.
Or is it just kind of more likeeveryone does everything.
Chris (07:36):
Yeah, no, no, we, we specialize.
So, we have some agents that sobasically it comes in through
our inside sales team, ourinside sales team does our first
vetting, and then they decidewho goes on the appointment.
Right.
So that's the whole thing.
And then we also have someinvestor partners in our local
market.
(07:56):
That are looking to monetizetheir leads so they go through
it and if they realize maybethere's not massive pain Maybe
there's not massive motivation,you know all the things you look
for when you're going to get adeal on a property then they
They don't say hey, do you wantto talk to a realtor?
because if you say thateverybody's brother's uncle
like, you know does termiteremediation and then like Also
(08:18):
has a real estate license,right?
They just send they send us outand they call us a you know,
evaluation expert, right?
And so you, you go there andthen we have our agents.
Are trained on the scriptingprocess.
There's a very very verysuccinct scripting process that
can turn people from saying Iwant a cash offer to i'm willing
(08:41):
to list it on the market so Yougot to understand and this is
where a lot of investors Theydon't get it because a lot of
investors They think they'relike, oh, this makes a lot of
sense.
I'm just, they want to sell.
So I'll just give it to anagent, but then nothing comes of
it.
Well, the problem is when thesepeople have raised their hand to
a cash offer that the cash offeris I want certainty and I want
(09:04):
convenience.
Right.
And you think about it.
Okay.
They're willing to take adiscount, maybe not a massive
discount because that's why theagent is there, but they're
willing to take a discount.
That's why they raise their handto it.
It's like the person that tradesin their car, right?
Like, you know, you're going tomake less money if you trade in
your car at a dealership, thenyou will, if you sell it on
Craigslist, but you wantcertainty and convenience, which
(09:27):
is why you trade it into thedealership.
If you sell it on Craigslist,people come through.
But if you went to the, youknow, the, the problem when,
when a wholesaler or a aninvestor.
Responds to somebody with a cashoffer and then says, Hey, do you
want to talk to an agent?
What they say is, Hey, I can,it's like, okay, I'm going to
trade in my car.
And they say and the dealersays, okay, cool.
(09:49):
I'll get you more money.
But instead of giving you cashright now, what I'm going to do
is put it up on auto trader andI'm going to put it on cars.
com and I'll get you more moneyfor it.
And you're like, I want to tradein my car.
I don't want you to like put iton cars.
com for me, you know?
So that's where, that's why mostinvestors just think that it'll
(10:11):
work with agents and then do it.
And then they give up becausethey make no money because they
don't understand how that, thatcycle actually works.
Mike (10:20):
So you've got your inside sales agents taking the calls
and they're kind of deciding,okay, is this an investor deal?
And then they send certain ofyour agents out who are kind of
investor cash focused, right?
The guy who's going to get itfor the low price, or they have,
if they think it might, maybethere's not that ton of pain.
There's kind of a differentperson from your team who goes
(10:41):
out, different agent.
Chris (10:43):
There's a couple of different agent groups in that
are trained for differentpockets of what we do, right?
So if they don't think.
It's a, an agent deal or if theythink it's a deal, they'll send
it to one, one group, right?
If they think that it's probablya listing, they'll send it to
another group that are very goodon their scripting.
(11:03):
And if they think, you know, youknow, and if it calls, like if
they don't have any pain, ifthey're just, You know, looking
for an agent to show up, thenwe've got a bigger pool that we
can send it to, you know, ifthere's like, if they're okay,
if there's just like, ah, I justwant to talk to a real estate
agent, like then, you know, thenthat's, that's a different
group.
Right.
(11:23):
And so that's where we just kindof go through that decision tree
when we're doing our prequelcall.
You know, when we get in touchwith them.
Mike (11:32):
And then, like, you have 50 agents, so it, like, sounds
like there's obviously a bunchin each group.
Like, how do you, I'm curioushow you do your lead
distribution within those onceit hits that group.
Chris (11:41):
Yeah.
Um, one by location to, uh, wealways take our, our best agents
get the, get the most, we fillthem up first.
And, you know, our, our, youknow, the bottom line is life is
not well, it is fair, right.
It's, it's, it's, it'scompletely fair.
Right.
Yeah.
The people that do the bestshould get the most opportunity,
right?
That's fair, right?
(12:02):
And so, so we give, we give ourtop people the most opportunity.
And then when people earn theirway in and we look at their
conversion numbers and we, yeah,we look at all of that and when
they earn their way in.
They move themselves up andanybody that has a high
conversion rate.
We're all we'll make sure thatthey're getting, they're getting
deals and like, well, we turn upevery dial we can in marketing
(12:26):
to make sure that nobody is, islike that, that all of our, all
of our people are at that edgeof like, not quite overly busy
where they're dropping balls,but also not having like way
extra free time on their handbecause we want them the best
converters, like Hitman goingin, close the deal, move on to
(12:46):
the next deal.
Mike (12:48):
Yeah, is the are the inside sales agents, like,
setting the appointment orthey're just doing a pass off to
the, to the, for the other agentto, to call that
Chris (12:57):
No, we set the appointment.
I mean, you know how hard it isto get people on the phone and
we set the appointment, go fromthere.
But then part of our process iswe have the before they go meet
with them, they call back not toconfirm.
Cause if you call to confirm,people are going to cancel.
But we call back and just say,Hey, you know, I've been doing a
(13:18):
lot of, a lot of research onyour property, right?
Make them feel bad.
If they try to cancel.
We've been doing a lot ofresearch on your property.
And, and I have just a couple ofquestions for you.
And we go through a lot ofsimilar questions that they've
already been asked.
And what we found is, you know,oftentimes the answers will
change.
And if they've changed, Okay.
Then you're able to go throughand figure out like why have
(13:41):
those answers changed?
What do they really want?
What don't they want?
And what we always say is thatif the person going on the
appointment can't send me a textsaying exactly how much money
they want for that propertybefore they get there What their
pain and motivation is and thenalso what their game plan is
like how what is their strategy?
(14:02):
Once they're in the door to tomove this to a signed agreement
that you are actually going injust preparing to lose.
So like, you know, probably shecan't see it right there because
you're not prepared to win.
Mike (14:14):
I like that.
Okay.
So you want to have, yeah,they're paying ahead of time
what they're looking for.
And then kind of what thatsalesperson's game plan is.
Do you track that anywhere?
Like, do they have to enter thatinformation somewhere ahead of
time?
Chris (14:28):
Like we, you know, when we're doing our our training and
our you know, our one on oneswith, with you know, we'll
listen to calls and we'll gothrough it and we're like, okay,
what is, what was the plan?
What, what is the deal here?
You know, all of that stuff.
So we'll go through, but wedon't have, we don't have them
actually submit it.
We probably should, but we don'thave them submit it.
Mike (14:46):
Yeah, okay, and we were talking to like a lot offline.
I think you talked about it abit with some other investors in
town to kind of send you leads,but we were talking about
monetizing dead leads and I'mjust curious, like, I mean, I
think it was before we wentofficially online, but I was
like, yeah, I've got thousandsof those in my system.
Right.
So how is, what's your strategyto monetize dead leads?
Chris (15:09):
Well, bro, it's just, it's just what we talked about
with, with you, Lisa, a fewminutes ago, like, I mean, if
you have a hundred people thatare going to sell in your, in
your market, like in your marketthat you're working in every
month, like, you know, in theaverage commission is, is 10,
000 a pop.
Let's say, let's say of thehundred, you know, let's say
(15:29):
you're only getting 10 percentof the hundred that you're
talking to, that's still 100,000 a month in top line revenue
that you're letting walk out thedoor that you've already paid
for, right?
And so, you know, even if youpartner with a local agent that
is really good and actually islike knows this process and a
(15:53):
lot of them don't, they need tobe taught this process,
everything else.
But if you partner with somebodythat knows this process, then,
you know, let, let's say you'rekeeping 35 percent of, of every
deal that they close, right?
You're just, you're setting theappointment for that agent.
Cause you have their calendlyand you're just putting it on
their calendar.
And you're, they're closing at a10 percent rate and you set a
(16:15):
hundred appointments for them amonth and they close 10 percent
of them.
You are still making 35, 000 amonth, right?
An extra 400, 000 is pretty lifechanging for a lot of businesses
because it like 400 grand will,will cover.
You know, most of people'smarketing expenses in a year.
Right.
(16:35):
And then all of a sudden yourmarketing is completely paid for
your profitability goes way up.
Mike (16:42):
What's your I'm curious what your strategy is for you
said there's kind of some veryspecific scripting and talk
tracks that agent has to getthem from.
Okay.
I wanted this convenient cashoffer, but it obviously isn't
going to work cash to get themto a listing.
I'm curious what thatconversation sounds like.
Chris (17:00):
Yeah.
I mean, here, here's what it is.
Right.
Because just like.
you know, the best in the worldalready know what's going on.
You're playing checkers andyou're not playing chess.
Right.
So like when you're, when you'rethere, you know, that.
You're talking to them and theysay they want the cash offer.
But as you're sitting there,you're pre qualifying them out
of the cash offer, becausethat's like, okay, they don't
(17:22):
have to sell fast.
They're just like, you know, Iwill sell.
I'm going to sell, but I, youknow, I'm.
I'm just going to buy a biggerhouse.
So I've got, and I don't evenhave that house identified yet.
So I just, you know, I saw yourad and I'm ready to go.
So there's no pain.
There's no motivation.
There's no time time sensitivenature to it.
So all of a sudden I'm hearingthis and I'm asking questions
(17:44):
and I realized there's no painthere.
So then all of a sudden I'mlike, okay, they're their only
pain is that they're not intheir dream house yet.
And so they're probably notgoing to take A 25 percent
discount on what they would geton the open market at this
point.
So we're, so we're going to moveand we're going to pivot to the
listing.
And so this is my, this is myexact talk track.
(18:06):
I just say, so listen you know,I, I see where you're, you're
coming from and I know you'dlike about three 50 for your
property.
And I'm looking at this and, youknow, The cash offer that we
typically offer is for somebodythat needs to close in seven
days or less.
And that usually is somebodythat has like a foreclosure date
(18:26):
or has a reason why they need tomove really fast.
And so you don't really needthat.
And so the offer that I, I wouldgive you for the cash offer
would be way lower than I thinkthat you're looking for, or
frankly, as I'm listening that Ithink you should take.
The second thing, because I'm alicensed real estate agent with
DXP Realty, I could.
I could list the property foryou, but listen, in the state of
(18:48):
Virginia you know, people go to,to school longer to learn how to
cut hair than they do theirbiggest assets.
I just, I don't have a highregard for what most real estate
agents do.
We have this other process, wecall it our hybrid program and
your house, I think would beperfect.
Perfect for this.
And what it is is we've got over9, 000, actually 9, 132
(19:10):
investors in our database thatwe look at and we match
properties just like yours.
And a lot of these investors,instead of people like me with a
cash offer that are looking tobuy it, flip it and make a Make
a modest profit on it.
These people are going to buy itand then hold it for 30 years
and make their money over 30years.
(19:31):
So they oftentimes will buy asis in a very simple, easy way.
And they, you know, sometimes alot of times they'll buy cash.
A lot of times they just make ita lot simpler.
So it's this cross between thatcash offer.
And in a listing where you'regoing to make more money than
the cash offer, but you're goingto do it in a way that's a
little more convenient for you.
(19:52):
So I think that'd be the great,the right fit for you.
Does that work for you?
Mike (19:57):
Yeah, like, how does that like?
How does that work?
Like the way like, how does thatexactly work?
Okay.
Chris (20:02):
Yeah.
So what we would do is we wouldmarket we would get your
property and we would market toall of our investors.
And then we would also marketout to the general public.
And because I know you don'twant people coming through your
house at all hours of the time,we, we do something, we call it
a strategic investor open.
And we just on Saturday youknow, on the Saturday from one
(20:25):
to three and Sunday from one tothree, we will only allow people
to come into your, your propertyfrom those three hours.
And we'll have somebody from ourteam there to make sure that
everything is, you know, aboveboard, everything going well.
And we'll invite everybodythat's interested during that
time to come and take a look atyour property.
Mike (20:44):
Gotcha.
So is that Is that like, so whenyou go that route, like, is that
are they always going to, or isit kind of like almost
innovation route?
Like, are you going to take careof like the repairs?
If those come in, if you do getsomeone who's like, you know,
it's like a decent house, butthere's, I don't know if you
guys do a lot of FHA or anythinglike that.
Chris (21:02):
Yeah.
So we have we have a programcalled, you know, it's renovate
now pay later where you know, wecharge them 1 percent of the
sales price to take care of allthe repairs.
So, yeah, and we just get paidat closing and they have to have
equity in the property for us tobe willing to do it.
We won't do it if it's a shortsale, but, you know, just think
(21:22):
about that.
You do 10 properties like thatat three 50, you know, you just
made an extra 35 grand just tofloat them.
Like what?
Like.
You know, a couple thousandbucks you know, until closing as
long as, as long as this price,right.
And, and done well.
So,
Mike (21:37):
Yeah.
And then do you, does that, doyou run into trouble, like
trouble though?
Because if you're only likehaving the property shown twice
a week, obviously it might limitlike some less buyers being able
to come,
Chris (21:49):
yeah.
So what I've found is most ofthe time on these properties,
they're willing to sell at aslight discount, right?
And so right now, and there's a,there's a lack of inventory.
And so if people are selling at,you know, 95 cents on the
dollar.
And then paying a commission,right?
So they're making like say 90,90 cents on the dollar, whatever
(22:09):
it is, you know, 89 cents on thedollar, right?
There's not really enough roomfor innovation.
There's not really enough roomfor a for a wholesale.
But, you know, like somebodyelse is going to look at it like
a doctor or a dentist is goingto be like, Oh my gosh.
And you're just going to have amassive amount of people that
are in on that coming through.
(22:29):
You're going to get multipleoffers.
People are going to, you know,be willing to sell cash offer
like all of the other piecesthere.
So
Mike (22:37):
Because, yeah, because you're offering, you know, to a,
to a, to a person who's lookingon the open market, you're
offering a pretty aggressiveprice to an investor.
They're not interested, but
Chris (22:46):
yeah.
Mike (22:47):
investor, yeah,
Chris (22:48):
Yeah.
So I like to call it like thecivilian investor is loving this
property, right?
We just, we just see it.
Like, I mean, we get all theseinvestors that are like, you
know, C suite executives oflike, you know, government
contracting companies.
You know, and they're like, Ohman, I, you know, I, I'm getting
a discount on this.
Cause like, if you think aboutthis is like, and this is what
(23:11):
most of us in the investor spacethink about, we're like, okay,
it's not a deal unless it's, youknow, more than, you know, 70
cents on the dollar, you know,off.
Right.
But like, when you think aboutthe average, like, you know,
chiropractor.
They're looking at it andthey're buying properties that
are cashflow negative andholding them right.
And all of a sudden they look onthe MLS and they're like, Oh,
(23:31):
this is awesome.
It is the MLS is the best buyerslist you'll ever create.
If you're a wholesaler, it's,it's way better than any buyers
list.
You can create investor lift.
I like what Robert Winsleycreated is great, but I promise
you even investor lift, which isa great product.
How does not hold a candle tothe 6 million eyeballs that come
(23:51):
from the MLS and from Zillow andRedfin and Realtor.
com.
Mike (23:55):
Yeah, no, that's so true.
Like a lot of times for like oneof our strategies has been, and
this is not an original strategyis we'll just sometimes buy it
and just put it on the MLS asis.
Cause I just know that there isan investor out there who I
don't know who's going to pay 20grand more than anyone in my
private list.
Cause.
so much.
Like you said, they're just likea doctor or a lawyer and they're
(24:16):
like, Oh, I can get a rentalproperty and I can make, you
know, some money every month.
Yeah.
I'll buy it.
Like, I don't need to buy it at70 cents on the dollar.
They're like, they think 90cents is a sweet deal or 95
cents.
So I liked that strategy.
Yeah.
So is that the way that do youguys ever do like the, well, you
probably do cause you have somany agents, but do you ever go
(24:38):
like the, is it ever totallyjust the traditional listing
route or do you kind of alwaysgo with this bitch?
Yeah.
Chris (24:44):
Oh, no, no, no.
Yeah.
It's always a listing.
So the hybrid pitch is, is ourtraditional listing.
The reason why we go with thatis most people.
Most agents or most people havean agent friend, right?
And so what we're doing is, thereason why we say the first part
is because we don't want otherpeople, them to shop us with
other investors, because we'relike, this is what a traditional
(25:08):
cash offer looks like.
And This is why it doesn't work.
And so that they're, they're nowdisqualifying the other
investors they were thinkingabout meeting with.
This is the deal with a regularreal estate agent and a regular
listing.
And this is why that is not thebest for you.
We're disqualifying theirbrother's uncle, right?
Who's a real estate agent.
And then we say, this is what wedo here for our thing.
(25:32):
And so did you ever did you everdo P90X back in the day?
Mike (25:35):
No, I saw the commercials, but I never did it.
Yeah.
Chris (25:39):
I loved P90X cause you could just press play and color
by numbers, just do what itsaid.
And so I just go to my basementevery morning and just hit play
and just do it.
And, but here's the crazy thing.
Tony Horton said it washed out.
It like almost, you know, it wasalmost a failed product.
And then this marketing geniuscame up with the idea of.
(25:59):
Something that sounded originaland different and he called it
muscle confusion, right?
And anybody that goes to the gymknows that if you work out Back
and bicep one day and then youyou work out chest and tricep
and then you change your yourworkouts You're gonna get
stronger, right?
but they labeled it muscleconfusion and that all of a
(26:19):
sudden like all of america wasthinking Holy crap, I could eat,
you know, two pizzas and like afull stack of ice cream
sandwiches every night, butbecause of muscle confusion, I'm
going to have a six pack, youknow, it's just, it's just
crazy, but you know, there was abook on marketing called
positioning, right.
And you're just kind ofpositioning.
(26:41):
Yourself as different than therest of the pack so that it
really does feel like a blueocean.
And you're you're open thereRight, but the second you're
talking like list it like aregular realtor.
You're I mean your red oceanThere's I mean throw a stick and
you hit four realtors, right?
Mike (26:57):
Sure.
You start getting shopped too.
I mean,
Chris (27:01):
Oh, absolutely.
And that's part of the reasonwhy we get the commissions that
we get, which is usually wayabove you know, like our, our
market commission is likeusually one and a half percent
or less in our market.
And we're usually about, we'regetting above 3%, you know, on
most of our commissions.
Mike (27:19):
Yeah.
Super interesting.
Yeah.
I'm also curious that you've gotabout 50 agents working for you.
So you must've gotten prettygood at this point about hiring
salespeople.
Chris (27:29):
Guess this is this is the whole thing, right?
Like Understanding how todifferentiate yourself.
Like I just talked about thecommissions, but here's also the
the difference, right?
We provide a value to people wesolve problems We're able to get
things done in ways that otherpeople aren't able to do You And
the only way to do that is youbring in high tier, high quality
people, right?
(27:51):
Because when you do that, peoplewill pay more for quality.
Like just always, right?
Why does somebody pay more for aRolls Royce than they do for a
Honda Accord, right?
You pay more for quality.
But you know, as a businessowner, you've got like a
thousand different things andI've got a business coach.
I think everybody should spend10 percent of their income on
coaching and personaldevelopment.
(28:11):
And one of the things that Istruggled with, I read the book
I read the book, I'm losing mymind.
The one thing, right.
And as a as a business owner, Iremember talking to my business
coach and I said, how do I focuson the one thing?
I've got like 50 things that aregoing on.
Like, like I've got to work onmy P and L I've got to work on
marketing.
I've got to work on, like, I'vegot, I've got to work with my
direct reports on all thesedifferent, even though I'm not
(28:32):
doing it, my direct reports are,and I got to work with them on
it.
And.
One of the things my businesscoach said was, okay, if you
boiled all the things thatyou're talking about down, what
do you boil down to?
And actually Dan Sullivan wrotea book about what we decided it
was.
It's who not how, right?
It's finding high level talentthat can do all of those things.
(28:55):
And so, at this point, likethat's my number one thing is
finding talent and investing in,in the talent around me.
I actually keep this.
Right here on my desk.
It's a newton's cradle and mywhole idea is, you know, how do
I add energy right?
Like this ball, you knownewton's cradle here it stops,
but then every day i've got toadd energy back to my to the
(29:18):
people in my world Right.
And so I need to find talent andthen add energy to, to that
talent.
And that's, that is my job.
That is my role.
Mike (29:27):
Yeah.
How are you going about hiringreally good sales talent?
Chris (29:32):
Flew fighter jets and then at night we sat around a
fire at the Airbnb we werestaying at and everybody just
shared where their pain pointwas.
And for me.
I'm an optimist.
I'm an extrovert.
I listen to people and I see I'ma visionary, so I see the best
in people.
And then a lot of people justreally aren't willing to live up
(29:53):
to the, to the, the size of whothey could be.
And so I was like, I hate it.
I hate it.
I, I pick, like, I hire poorlyand everybody just gave me such
a hard time.
They're like, hire a recruiter,hire a recruiter.
Why don't you, if this is a painpoint in your life and you don't
think you're good at it, hiresomebody that is.
And so we did.
And then I was like, this is oneof the greatest hires I've ever
(30:15):
made.
Mike (30:17):
So I'm actually really curious on this topic because I
have hired a recruiter beforeand I didn't make the right
hiring decision with that hire.
What specifically were youlooking for that?
Or did you find in a recruiterthat made that recruiter so
successful to be able to do whatyou need them to do?
Chris (30:38):
Yeah, we went through like, you know, we interviewed a
bunch of people and you don't,Jim Collins also says, don't,
don't discount the, the role ofluck.
And there were two people thatwe we got really close with and
the person that we ended uphiring was She was a recruiter
in the tech sales industry.
And so it was a different, itwas a different world, but it
(31:00):
was still sales and yeah, thatwas I don't.
I wish I could give you more.
It was just like, when we talkedto her, she checked a lot of the
boxes.
She did a really good job as faras explaining her process.
And also just culturally, shealigned really well with who we
were.
And so we're like, this isgreat, but we also, you know, we
(31:24):
kept an eye on it.
And for a little bit, we werelike, okay, if she doesn't.
Hit metrics, we're going to pullthe plug real quick.
And she did metrics.
And then, you know, as I got toknow her, you know, now she, I
would consider a friend youknow, you know, we realized she
was just, you know, she's, shewas excellent.
And so that was that, that wholething is like trying to find
(31:45):
somebody that was excellent, butI also.
I brought in my COO, myintegrator in on that so that I
wasn't the only one making thecall on that because, yeah, I
don't know that I'm a greatperson to make the call on that.
Mike (32:00):
What were the metrics that you were holding her to in the
first couple months that you hadher hired?
Chris (32:05):
I believe we wanted we were looking to grow our agent
team quickly.
So we wanted two new agents permonth.
Mike (32:15):
Were you were you having any KPIs for, like, how well
those agents were doing, or wasit just kind of, like, hire two
agents?
I mean, was there any way thatyou were tracking that she was
hiring, I guess, good agentsversus just agents?
Chris (32:30):
Yeah, I, we wanted to, we wanted to get more agents,
right.
And we also wanted betterquality agents.
So that was, that was the main,like both.
And I guess we were reallystruggling with you know, just
cause I was so busy doing otherthings.
It was kind of like this, thisadd on thing, even though it
(32:52):
should have been my number onething.
And so if I really believed thatbringing high level talent into
my world was.
Was it like the number one thingthen I should probably have
somebody that's full timefocuses on that.
Mike (33:07):
Was there any, like, KPIs you were looking at to know that
the agents she hired work good?
Chris (33:14):
Yeah, so we uh, you know, we we wanted them to have a
couple transactions under thebelt in the first 60 days and
you know, that was a That was alearning process.
I wish I could say it just allwent well, but you know, there
was There was a lot, a lot ofchurn and people that were not
(33:35):
doing, doing well.
And so that was kind of the dealwe needed to, we needed to be
better on that front than wereally were, but we've got, and
then part of that was.
I brought in a a sales directorand then I brought in somebody
to manage our new agents aswell.
Like that you know, in charge ofmentorship programs.
So, now we have people and theyjust built out the mentorship
(33:59):
and the sales process right intowho, not how.
So they built that out and ifpeople don't they have to get
certified by script practice by,you know, doing the right thing
for us to be able to allow themto get any benefits and any
resources from the team.
Mike (34:18):
Gotcha.
So there's like someone who's incharge of just basically getting
the new agents up to speed.
And then there's an overall kindof sales director for after
that.
Chris (34:27):
Right.
Mike (34:28):
Okay.
Gotcha.
And then what, what's therecruiter doing?
What's, what's she doing to findpeople?
If you
Chris (34:39):
Um, yeah.
What is she doing to findpeople?
She's, I mean, LinkedIn, Indeed,WiseHire, you know.
all of those different,different pieces.
And the, and the main thing too,we're.
We're fighting like crazy toupdate our ads to get our ads
better.
We've found that like some adswill just.
bring massive amounts of peoplein other ads.
(35:01):
You know, you get crickets.
So, you know, part of it is justbeing good at you know, at, at
writing ads that, you know,attract.
Mike (35:09):
Yeah, is she doing like outbound and like outbound
recruiting methods or is it morejust kind of she's like trying
to get tons of applicants andfilter for the best ones from
there?
Chris (35:19):
Little bit of both.
So we, we also, for the agentside of the business, we have
something that tells you whatwhat agents have done in our
market.
And so what we did is this hasbeen a hard year for a lot of
people in real estate in thelast, well, the last couple of
years have.
And so what we did was we justput a metric in that was anybody
(35:39):
that's production has gone downby 40 percent or more that we're
we will send them emails and,and, you know, spend some time
calling through those folks aswell.
Because we know that they'rehurting.
Mike (35:52):
Interesting.
So was it, was there a metricthat you were looking at that
was like, were they, did theyhave to do a certain amount of
business before?
So you were kind of able to seethat they were good, but maybe
they needed more resources orwas there a, was there any kind
of minimum that you wereexpecting them to prior to
dropping the 40%?
Chris (36:10):
Uh, not really, not really.
You know, we just, we're justlooking, we're looking, I mean,
just like, uh, the cash offer,you know, looking for pain and
then, you know, and if there'spain, sometimes it's because,
you know, they're not good.
And sometimes it's because, youknow, they didn't know how to
pivot with the market or maybeit's whatever.
(36:30):
And so, but we're, we're gettingpeople that are, When that kind
of pain hits them and hits theirbusiness that you know, we're
able to you know to move on that
Mike (36:41):
that's like a stat on your local MLS.
You can see kind of
Chris (36:44):
No
Mike (36:45):
deals or what?
Chris (36:46):
I don't know the name of it, but it's like a broker
metrics or something like thatWe it's it's a process.
It's like a program that we payfor monthly and I can't remember
the name of it.
I can I can find out the name,but if you google it there's
like There's a ton of differentthings that will give you the
matrix of, of agents.
Mike (37:04):
Gotcha.
Okay.
And then, like, you know,besides, obviously, you've got
the, you know, recruiter, right?
Who's helping you hire thepeople like, what does the
process look like?
And in terms of, like, theinterview to, like, actually
make that choice to know, okay,this is a person who's had to
have a good chance at beingsuccessful here.
(37:24):
Like, let's pull the triggerand, and hire him.
Chris (37:27):
And you're talking about for an agent or for a recruiter
Mike (37:30):
For an agent.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Chris (37:32):
for an agent?
Well, I mean, honestly, youknow, are they competitive?
We did, you know, if you've evergone through US traction, I know
most people that have been inthis business world have.
You know, with EOS traction, youknow, part of the VTO is, is you
make it like that perfectsalesperson, you know, piece and
we, we started looking at itand, you know, they're, they're
(37:54):
massively competitive, they'vehad success in their life we see
a lot of like college athletesare really great because they,
they're, they're.
They understand the fact that,you know, you have to put in the
work to, you know, show up atthe game when, you know, and
it's, it's like the work you putin when nobody's watching is
what gives you the success whenpeople are watching, you know,
that kind of idea with collegeathletes.
(38:16):
But again, there's a lot ofathletes, a lot of people that
are not athletes that, that whenso competitive athletic, like,
you know, been athletes.
People like what we found is alot of times, if you are not a
primary breadwinner that there'snot that same drive.
Not always, there's definitelythe exception to the rule, but
(38:37):
what we found is most of thetime, if you're not the primary
breadwinner, That you're notusually going to have that like
fire in the belly.
And you know, there, there'sthat like almost fear that
drives people.
It's not fear is not the rightword, but this thing that drives
people on but yeah, those aresome of the main things like
having a big goal, but areasonable goal, a realistic
(38:58):
goal.
So those are the things that welook for that we've seen when
they have those things, theytend to win.
Mike (39:04):
Gotcha.
And then are you, do you guyshave any assessments that you do
along the way?
Or is it
Chris (39:09):
Yeah.
I mean, we love the disc profileand then StrengthsFinder.
But
Mike (39:20):
Okay, what is that, what is that,
Chris (39:22):
it's just, it's just like personality assessment profile,
very much like, like disc, butyou know, I'm, I'm a huge disc
fan, but Chris, our our leadrecruiter, she loves, you know,
strings finder
Mike (39:34):
Okay.
Gotcha.
And then you were saying kind ofearlier more about like
monetizing the dead leads.
So it seems like you've builtrelationships in the market with
a bunch of other bunch ofinvestors and do they, they send
you over leads?
Like how do you, have youstructured that?
Cause that sounds like a way toquickly multiply like the amount
of business you can do becauseyou're.
(39:56):
Getting leads from however manypeople who are generating
hundreds a month.
Chris (40:00):
leads that are just dying, right.
They're, they're dead.
You know, I mean, you, you saidyou've got thousands in your
database, right?
Like, so you got literally, youhave millions of dollars that
are, are, are transacting everymonth.
You know, right now.
And so, as I, as we look at it,the main thing here is.
How do these leads turn intosomething?
(40:22):
You, we talk to people and wejust say, what are you doing
with this?
And everybody always says, Oh,I, you know, I tried this, I
tried that and it doesn't work,or they'll say, Oh my gosh, I
don't know why I didn't thinkabout it.
That's a great idea.
And then, you know, they gothrough it and it's.
It doesn't, it doesn't turn outto be a great idea, but you
(40:43):
know, the reality is once youknow the process and you
understand the psyche of thepeople that have raised their
hand for a cash offer and thatyou can't just say, Oh, you want
to You want to sell.
So here, talk to this realtorthat that won't work.
Then you can start to actuallybuild something.
And then once you buildsomething, you can you know, you
(41:05):
offer 35%.
Now, every investor that getsreferral fees from agents needs
to have a real estate license.
And if you look nationwide.
You know, if you wholesale, ifyou're in the investor world
like all the states are startingto require some sort of
licensure if you wholesale.
So like licensing is coming foralmost all investors anyway, so
(41:27):
you might as well get ahead ofit.
And And it allows you to getreferral fees every time you
sell a deal.
Mike (41:32):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Cool.
What are the, like, pitfallsthat you see some of these
people make?
Because you said people havetried it on their own, right?
And I've tried it before, too.
I've sent leads to numerousagents and I've had it work
sometimes.
And then I've had some that I'vejust sent a ton, I mean,
hundreds of leads over andnothing, nothing has come of it.
(41:56):
What were some of the pitfallsthat you see people making
besides the pitch?
Obviously they don't understandthe pitch.
Chris (42:03):
Yeah, the pitch, you know, they, you know, that's the
number one.
I mean, over and over and overagain, that's, that's the
biggest issue.
And then after that yeah, it's,it's choosing the wrong agent
that you're sending it to anagent that doesn't understand
investors.
You know, if, if you're notsending to an agent that's like
really good or has a team wherethey know how to.
(42:25):
and can send you an update oneach lead.
Most agents are just so notorganized that your precious
leads are going to, you know,be, you're stuck in a pile of
paper somewhere and not followit up with, right?
So you need somebody that.
Is either so freaking hungry fordeals and like willing to do
(42:46):
whatever it takes and will neverlike, they're either going to
like get blocked from thesephone numbers or they're going
to get a deal or you need to getwith a team that like
understands investors, but alsounderstands how to get how to
have a followup process worksbecause even big teams.
You know, they like they don'treally follow up well like that.
(43:09):
I mean and you and you know thatin our business It's right like,
you know in the investorbusiness follow up There's
fortunes in the follow up andmost people just don't do it
even big big investors
Mike (43:19):
Yeah, for sure.
And then you're always settingthe appointment for that agent
from your inside sales team.
So I guess that removes onestep.
from the process.
I think that's a mistake thatI've made before.
I would just pass the lead offto an agent, not set the
appointment.
Then I'm relying on them to bookthe appointment.
That's a mistake for sure.
Chris (43:38):
right,
Mike (43:39):
Oh, well, we're getting close to the end here.
And there's always two questionsthat I like to ask at the end of
the show.
The first one is what is thecraziest or most uncomfortable
situation that you have everexperienced in a real estate
deal.
Chris (43:57):
Oh, man I have two of them.
But let's see Do you want theone where I was most scared or
the one that was Like like justthe most like wow, I can't even
believe this happened
Mike (44:11):
I'll let you pick whatever you think everyone would like to
hear.
Chris (44:16):
All right.
I'll do i'll do this one.
So, one of the first deals I wasgonna buy it he was going up for
foreclosure.
We solved his problem.
Everything was going reallyreally well and the guy was just
he was a little weird So I goover to his house when you know,
the agent on my team was likesetting up the deal You And go
over there and the power's out,it's freezing cold.
And like, so we're wearingjackets cause like, like
(44:38):
everything's out.
And he's got a foreclosure datecoming up and everything else.
And so, halfway through theappointment, I'm like, like I
drink a lot of water and I'mlike, Hey, I need to use the
bathroom.
Where's put me in the bathroom.
So I started walking down wherehe pointed me and he's like, Oh,
by the way, the power's out, youknow, just.
Leave it in the toilet.
It doesn't matter.
And I was like, that's weird.
And I'd said to Teddy, the agenton my team like whatever he
(45:00):
says, I was like, you'llprobably hear some weird things.
Cause he was newer to it at thetime.
I was like, whatever he says,you know, just smile and nod.
Don't make any reactions.
Cause a lot of times weirdthings are said.
And then, so I got back and andTeddy's like, oh, so.
Should you just leave it in thetoilet?
Like you don't flush.
And the guy's like, no, I got abucket in the basement.
I've been using for months.
And Teddy's like, Oh, yeah, I'mlike, Oh, I think you've been
(45:24):
there before.
Just smile and not just smile.
But then here's the crazy thing.
I'm there interviewing somebodylike the next day.
And I had a Fitbit watch and mywatch was just going crazy, but
like I was, it was like weirdlyglitchy, which is why I moved to
the Apple watch, you know, atlike within a couple months from
(45:45):
there, but it was going crazy.
And I was like, what is goingon?
And then I looked and my watchsaid I had 34 missed calls.
And I was like, So I pulled overmy, I pulled my phone out and I
looked and it said 34 missedcalls and it was like my wife,
my brother, and then that agentand like, and so then I was
like, I said to the person, I'mlike, Hey, do you mind if I like
(46:06):
step aside for a second?
I need to find out whyeverybody's calling me so much.
And so I go out and it turns outmy wife was listening to the
radio and they said there was ahome explosion.
And then it said the homeexplosion was in the County
where we bought a house and thennamed the street name that we
bought the house on.
And what we found out was theguy.
(46:29):
Just decided he didn't want tomove anymore.
And so he literally, he shot hisdog, shot himself and he used to
be a plumber.
So he like went out and Jerryrigged the plumbing.
So the gas came into his house.
It blew up his house and likecreated like 17 different.
You know, like basically totaledanother house and 17 other
(46:52):
houses and 19 cars werebasically destroyed from what he
did.
Nobody else was hurt.
Thank the Lord.
But just absolutely blew it.
Like he blew it up.
And the only thing that survivedwas there was bamboo in the
backyard that survived.
So it's kind of crazy, but yeah.
So that is, there's my crazieststory.
(47:13):
And
Mike (47:14):
That's up.
there.
Cool.
Well, the second question Ialways like to ask is for the
newer people listening to theshow is if you could go back in
time and give yourself one pieceof advice when you were looking
for your first real estate deal,knowing what, you know, now,
what would you tell yourself?
Chris (47:37):
that You know, everything comes from activity and skill,
right?
So, so talk to as many people asyou can and work on getting
better.
And don't be scarcity minded.
I just thought that I wouldnever find, you know, the next
deal that was like the, youknow, like the last one.
I just, I didn't think thatthere were a lot of deals out
there.
And now I know, I mean, there'sdeals everywhere.
(47:58):
You just gotta know where tolook.
Mike (48:00):
Yeah, I like that.
Yeah, that's a great piece ofadvice.
Chris, if people want to reachout to you after the show if
they have any questions or theywant to connect with you, how
can they go about reaching outto you?
Chris (48:11):
Yeah, so at crowd rock is my instagram handle.
Feel free to send me.
I know I said she's the old highschool nickname I probably
should change it something elsebut is what it is and You know,
so yeah, I I still reply to myown d to all the dms on there
That's one of the places whereyou can actually get me
personally everywhere else,like, you know, staff or other
(48:32):
people are replying.
And then in, if you'reinterested, I know the average
podcast listener listens toseven podcasts.
So, I've also got a podcastcalled uncommon real estate.
We'd love to, you know, yeah,it's, it's more about the agent
investor side.
So if that's something thatintrigues you, you know, that's
what we talked about, you know?
So yeah, those are the, there'sa way to find me.
Mike (48:52):
Cool.
Well, awesome.
Thanks for being on the show.
Chris (48:55):
Yeah.
This is awesome.
Thanks for hanging with me.
It's great.
All right, everyone.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Real Estate GameChangers show.
I'm your host, Mike McKay, basedin Jacksonville, Florida.
And each and every week we dothis show with people who are
changing the game of real estateAll over the country.
For anyone in the jacksonvillearea, next week We are actually
going to be hosting a free livezoom training for people who are
either interested in workingwith us Or just interested in
(00:22):
getting way better at sales ourtopic for next week is how to
prevent objections and closedeals.
So, we are looking forsalespeople for our team, but
anyone is welcome to join thatcall and improve your sales
skills.
So, this week on the show, wehave Chris Craddock.
Chris, welcome to the show.
Chris (00:40):
Yeah, thanks man.
Glad to be here.
Mike (00:42):
Yeah.
So, for the people who don'tknow you, could you tell us a
little bit about how you gotinto the real estate business
and how that's led you to whereyou are today?
Chris (00:53):
Yeah.
So, I mean, man, I don't haveenough time to talk about what
led me here, but yeah, early twothousands, I was on staff with
an organization called younglife, loved it changed my life.
It was great.
I made 25, 000 a year.
And when my wife got pregnant.
You can't live in the DC area on25, 000 a year.
And so I went to the librarybecause before Google was kind
(01:16):
of the fount of all informationand knowledge and checked out
every book on real estateinvesting.
And honestly, I look back at howlittle I knew and I was like,
dang, like I knew nothing, butyou know, I just went out and
did it and started knocking ondoors of people with
foreclosures.
And in four months, I made 12times what I made in a year with
Young Life and was able tocontinue to administer stuff for
(01:39):
a while.
And then as I had more kids,I've got six of them now.
It took me a while to figure outwhat caused it, but now we can
kind of make sure that doesn'thappen anymore.
But money started running out,especially in ministry.
And, you know, anybody that haskids is like, put your money in
a bathtub and pull the plug,right.
It's gone.
And so I was doing everythinglike all these side jobs.
Like I tried to sell my blood toNIH for 300 to buy Christmas
(02:02):
presents for my family, like hadno money.
And and then I was like, whydon't I flip houses again?
So I got back into But then allthe people with auction dates
that I was going to before thosewere short sales.
And I realized the banks weregoing to pay a commission and
they wouldn't negotiate on theprice.
The commission was like nonnegotiable.
They either pay it or theydon't.
And so I got a real estatelicense and then I saw that I
(02:24):
always had led large teams within ministry and I saw like the
Gary Keller millionaire realestate agent book and it made
sense to me and I was like, Oh,I can build that.
And so I started building a realestate agent team and then like
with this whole focus around theagent investor idea, because
that's how I got into realestate and listings make an
(02:44):
agent business massive andincredibly profitable.
And then after that we built allthe other like side businesses
like, you know, title andmortgage and insurance and
construction and coaching andlike just all of the other
things that go go around thatbusiness.
And so, yeah, so that's what wegot today.
You know, my, my agent businesswill sell between five and 600.
(03:08):
Deals a year.
I own a ton of rentalproperties.
You know, we'll do a lot ofcreative deals as well.
Every year, you know, flips,wholesales, innovation, you
know, all, all the other stuffthere.
And so, yeah, we really workhard to, you know, mesh that
agent investor world.
And yeah, that's, that's wherewe are.
Mike (03:26):
Yeah.
Yeah, so.
Are a lot of your leads comingin on the agent side and then
you're converting them to, youknow, well, maybe a listing, but
maybe a wholesale deal, maybe anovation, or are they coming in
from the investor side?
And then you're kind of turningthem into investor marketing and
turning them into listings, oris it both?
Chris (03:47):
Yeah, no, it's, it's all like, we only offer like the
cash off release.
Now we do have a partnershipwith Zillow.
So Zillow sends us buyer leads.
As well to our agent team, butwe only just offer the cash
offer lead to people and thenthey come in.
And so if you build a massiveorganization, so I've got over
50 agents that work for us.
And if you have a bigorganization, you'll realize
(04:09):
that the two most expensivethings in any organization are.
Are if you take out the brickand mortar piece you know, cause
that's expensive too, but ismarketing and salaries.
Those are like the one and twoon almost every organization.
Well, the cool thing is if youhave an agent business that can
list deals when people want alot of money for it, more money
than, you know, a.
(04:31):
You know, a flipper or awholesaler or somebody who's
going to buy in and hold Youknow, then you basically have
two massive businesses that aresharing the expense of marketing
and there you for your marketingexpenses are 50 And you're going
to have to have some salariedpeople in both businesses But
you do get economies of scalewith those businesses.
And so you're looking at like 75cents on the dollar for your
(04:54):
staff versus, you know, ahundred dollars if you have two
separate businesses.
So they really are.
They mesh really well together.
Mike (05:02):
Yeah, so you guys are basically marketing for all the
cash offers, and then you kindof converted if it doesn't make
sense for that.
Chris (05:10):
You just go down the decision tree.
You know, I always say, yeah,you know, keep the best, sell
the rest.
And how do you sell them, right?
So you, you keep the best onesas rentals, and then you either
sell them through a flip,through a wholesale, through an
innovation, through a listing onthe market, right?
All of them are, are out there.
(05:30):
And like, so, you know, in your,in your area, what is the
average home sell for inJacksonville?
Mike (05:36):
About 350,
Chris (05:38):
350.
So here's the crazy thing.
How many leads a month do youguys bring in in Jacksonville?
Mike (05:44):
Probably 450, 100, 120 a week, you know,
Chris (05:48):
Okay, so 450 and then how many properties a month do you
typically sell?
Mike (05:53):
You mean like, like, do we buy?
Cause we don't do the realtorside.
Chris (05:56):
Dubai, i'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Mike (05:58):
Yeah.
Probably like, you know,anywhere five to seven at this
point.
Chris (06:02):
So five to seven that means you bring in 450 leads,
you know If you think about itof them Maybe a hundred of those
are actually like are going tosell on the market like
separately And if a hundred ofthose sell then and if it's like
let's just call it three hundredthousand You and you should
always take between a three anda three and a half percent
listing commission on that.
(06:23):
You're looking at like anaverage of let's just call it a
ten thousand dollar listingcommission.
So your top line revenue onmoney that you've already paid
for that's walking out the doorRight now is like a hundred
deals at 10, 000 a deal.
It's like almost, you know what,is that a million dollars?
Yeah.
Is it like
Mike (06:43):
Exactly.
Yeah.
Chris (06:45):
mean, it's I mean, it's just, it's crazy.
It's just every single month,that's what's walking out the
door.
So now granted that would be topline revenue.
You'd still have other fees andsplits with agents and
everything else that you got topay, but you know, there's, it
doesn't take many deals at 10,000 a pop to really pay All of
(07:07):
your overhead off so that youcan get into from good
profitability to massiveprofitability.
Mike (07:14):
I'm curious how you have it structured.
Like, do you, do all your agentshave the ability to do all the
strategies?
Or do you have like certainagents who are like that's like
an investment property.
Like there's a lot of likedistress there.
I'm sending that agent andthey're going to really, they're
the good person at getting cashdeals low.
Or is it just kind of more likeeveryone does everything.
Chris (07:36):
Yeah, no, no, we, we specialize.
So, we have some agents that sobasically it comes in through
our inside sales team, ourinside sales team does our first
vetting, and then they decidewho goes on the appointment.
Right.
So that's the whole thing.
And then we also have someinvestor partners in our local
market.
(07:56):
That are looking to monetizetheir leads so they go through
it and if they realize maybethere's not massive pain Maybe
there's not massive motivation,you know all the things you look
for when you're going to get adeal on a property then they
They don't say hey, do you wantto talk to a realtor?
because if you say thateverybody's brother's uncle
like, you know does termiteremediation and then like Also
(08:18):
has a real estate license,right?
They just send they send us outand they call us a you know,
evaluation expert, right?
And so you, you go there andthen we have our agents.
Are trained on the scriptingprocess.
There's a very very verysuccinct scripting process that
can turn people from saying Iwant a cash offer to i'm willing
(08:41):
to list it on the market so Yougot to understand and this is
where a lot of investors Theydon't get it because a lot of
investors They think they'relike, oh, this makes a lot of
sense.
I'm just, they want to sell.
So I'll just give it to anagent, but then nothing comes of
it.
Well, the problem is when thesepeople have raised their hand to
a cash offer that the cash offeris I want certainty and I want
(09:04):
convenience.
Right.
And you think about it.
Okay.
They're willing to take adiscount, maybe not a massive
discount because that's why theagent is there, but they're
willing to take a discount.
That's why they raise their handto it.
It's like the person that tradesin their car, right?
Like, you know, you're going tomake less money if you trade in
your car at a dealership, thenyou will, if you sell it on
Craigslist, but you wantcertainty and convenience, which
(09:27):
is why you trade it into thedealership.
If you sell it on Craigslist,people come through.
But if you went to the, youknow, the, the problem when,
when a wholesaler or a aninvestor.
Responds to somebody with a cashoffer and then says, Hey, do you
want to talk to an agent?
What they say is, Hey, I can,it's like, okay, I'm going to
trade in my car.
And they say and the dealersays, okay, cool.
(09:49):
I'll get you more money.
But instead of giving you cashright now, what I'm going to do
is put it up on auto trader andI'm going to put it on cars.
com and I'll get you more moneyfor it.
And you're like, I want to tradein my car.
I don't want you to like put iton cars.
com for me, you know?
So that's where, that's why mostinvestors just think that it'll
(10:11):
work with agents and then do it.
And then they give up becausethey make no money because they
don't understand how that, thatcycle actually works.
Mike (10:20):
So you've got your inside sales agents taking the calls
and they're kind of deciding,okay, is this an investor deal?
And then they send certain ofyour agents out who are kind of
investor cash focused, right?
The guy who's going to get itfor the low price, or they have,
if they think it might, maybethere's not that ton of pain.
There's kind of a differentperson from your team who goes
(10:41):
out, different agent.
Chris (10:43):
There's a couple of different agent groups in that
are trained for differentpockets of what we do, right?
So if they don't think.
It's a, an agent deal or if theythink it's a deal, they'll send
it to one, one group, right?
If they think that it's probablya listing, they'll send it to
another group that are very goodon their scripting.
(11:03):
And if they think, you know, youknow, and if it calls, like if
they don't have any pain, ifthey're just, You know, looking
for an agent to show up, thenwe've got a bigger pool that we
can send it to, you know, ifthere's like, if they're okay,
if there's just like, ah, I justwant to talk to a real estate
agent, like then, you know, thenthat's, that's a different
group.
Right.
(11:23):
And so that's where we just kindof go through that decision tree
when we're doing our prequelcall.
You know, when we get in touchwith them.
Mike (11:32):
And then, like, you have 50 agents, so it, like, sounds
like there's obviously a bunchin each group.
Like, how do you, I'm curioushow you do your lead
distribution within those onceit hits that group.
Chris (11:41):
Yeah.
Um, one by location to, uh, wealways take our, our best agents
get the, get the most, we fillthem up first.
And, you know, our, our, youknow, the bottom line is life is
not well, it is fair, right.
It's, it's, it's, it'scompletely fair.
Right.
Yeah.
The people that do the bestshould get the most opportunity,
right?
That's fair, right?
(12:02):
And so, so we give, we give ourtop people the most opportunity.
And then when people earn theirway in and we look at their
conversion numbers and we, yeah,we look at all of that and when
they earn their way in.
They move themselves up andanybody that has a high
conversion rate.
We're all we'll make sure thatthey're getting, they're getting
deals and like, well, we turn upevery dial we can in marketing
(12:26):
to make sure that nobody is, islike that, that all of our, all
of our people are at that edgeof like, not quite overly busy
where they're dropping balls,but also not having like way
extra free time on their handbecause we want them the best
converters, like Hitman goingin, close the deal, move on to
(12:46):
the next deal.
Mike (12:48):
Yeah, is the are the inside sales agents, like,
setting the appointment orthey're just doing a pass off to
the, to the, for the other agentto, to call that
Chris (12:57):
No, we set the appointment.
I mean, you know how hard it isto get people on the phone and
we set the appointment, go fromthere.
But then part of our process iswe have the before they go meet
with them, they call back not toconfirm.
Cause if you call to confirm,people are going to cancel.
But we call back and just say,Hey, you know, I've been doing a
(13:18):
lot of, a lot of research onyour property, right?
Make them feel bad.
If they try to cancel.
We've been doing a lot ofresearch on your property.
And, and I have just a couple ofquestions for you.
And we go through a lot ofsimilar questions that they've
already been asked.
And what we found is, you know,oftentimes the answers will
change.
And if they've changed, Okay.
Then you're able to go throughand figure out like why have
(13:41):
those answers changed?
What do they really want?
What don't they want?
And what we always say is thatif the person going on the
appointment can't send me a textsaying exactly how much money
they want for that propertybefore they get there What their
pain and motivation is and thenalso what their game plan is
like how what is their strategy?
(14:02):
Once they're in the door to tomove this to a signed agreement
that you are actually going injust preparing to lose.
So like, you know, probably shecan't see it right there because
you're not prepared to win.
Mike (14:14):
I like that.
Okay.
So you want to have, yeah,they're paying ahead of time
what they're looking for.
And then kind of what thatsalesperson's game plan is.
Do you track that anywhere?
Like, do they have to enter thatinformation somewhere ahead of
time?
Chris (14:28):
Like we, you know, when we're doing our our training and
our you know, our one on oneswith, with you know, we'll
listen to calls and we'll gothrough it and we're like, okay,
what is, what was the plan?
What, what is the deal here?
You know, all of that stuff.
So we'll go through, but wedon't have, we don't have them
actually submit it.
We probably should, but we don'thave them submit it.
Mike (14:46):
Yeah, okay, and we were talking to like a lot offline.
I think you talked about it abit with some other investors in
town to kind of send you leads,but we were talking about
monetizing dead leads and I'mjust curious, like, I mean, I
think it was before we wentofficially online, but I was
like, yeah, I've got thousandsof those in my system.
Right.
So how is, what's your strategyto monetize dead leads?
Chris (15:09):
Well, bro, it's just, it's just what we talked about
with, with you, Lisa, a fewminutes ago, like, I mean, if
you have a hundred people thatare going to sell in your, in
your market, like in your marketthat you're working in every
month, like, you know, in theaverage commission is, is 10,
000 a pop.
Let's say, let's say of thehundred, you know, let's say
(15:29):
you're only getting 10 percentof the hundred that you're
talking to, that's still 100,000 a month in top line revenue
that you're letting walk out thedoor that you've already paid
for, right?
And so, you know, even if youpartner with a local agent that
is really good and actually islike knows this process and a
(15:53):
lot of them don't, they need tobe taught this process,
everything else.
But if you partner with somebodythat knows this process, then,
you know, let, let's say you'rekeeping 35 percent of, of every
deal that they close, right?
You're just, you're setting theappointment for that agent.
Cause you have their calendlyand you're just putting it on
their calendar.
And you're, they're closing at a10 percent rate and you set a
(16:15):
hundred appointments for them amonth and they close 10 percent
of them.
You are still making 35, 000 amonth, right?
An extra 400, 000 is pretty lifechanging for a lot of businesses
because it like 400 grand will,will cover.
You know, most of people'smarketing expenses in a year.
Right.
(16:35):
And then all of a sudden yourmarketing is completely paid for
your profitability goes way up.
Mike (16:42):
What's your I'm curious what your strategy is for you
said there's kind of some veryspecific scripting and talk
tracks that agent has to getthem from.
Okay.
I wanted this convenient cashoffer, but it obviously isn't
going to work cash to get themto a listing.
I'm curious what thatconversation sounds like.
Chris (17:00):
Yeah.
I mean, here, here's what it is.
Right.
Because just like.
you know, the best in the worldalready know what's going on.
You're playing checkers andyou're not playing chess.
Right.
So like when you're, when you'rethere, you know, that.
You're talking to them and theysay they want the cash offer.
But as you're sitting there,you're pre qualifying them out
of the cash offer, becausethat's like, okay, they don't
(17:22):
have to sell fast.
They're just like, you know, Iwill sell.
I'm going to sell, but I, youknow, I'm.
I'm just going to buy a biggerhouse.
So I've got, and I don't evenhave that house identified yet.
So I just, you know, I saw yourad and I'm ready to go.
So there's no pain.
There's no motivation.
There's no time time sensitivenature to it.
So all of a sudden I'm hearingthis and I'm asking questions
(17:44):
and I realized there's no painthere.
So then all of a sudden I'mlike, okay, they're their only
pain is that they're not intheir dream house yet.
And so they're probably notgoing to take A 25 percent
discount on what they would geton the open market at this
point.
So we're, so we're going to moveand we're going to pivot to the
listing.
And so this is my, this is myexact talk track.
(18:06):
I just say, so listen you know,I, I see where you're, you're
coming from and I know you'dlike about three 50 for your
property.
And I'm looking at this and, youknow, The cash offer that we
typically offer is for somebodythat needs to close in seven
days or less.
And that usually is somebodythat has like a foreclosure date
(18:26):
or has a reason why they need tomove really fast.
And so you don't really needthat.
And so the offer that I, I wouldgive you for the cash offer
would be way lower than I thinkthat you're looking for, or
frankly, as I'm listening that Ithink you should take.
The second thing, because I'm alicensed real estate agent with
DXP Realty, I could.
I could list the property foryou, but listen, in the state of
(18:48):
Virginia you know, people go to,to school longer to learn how to
cut hair than they do theirbiggest assets.
I just, I don't have a highregard for what most real estate
agents do.
We have this other process, wecall it our hybrid program and
your house, I think would beperfect.
Perfect for this.
And what it is is we've got over9, 000, actually 9, 132
(19:10):
investors in our database thatwe look at and we match
properties just like yours.
And a lot of these investors,instead of people like me with a
cash offer that are looking tobuy it, flip it and make a Make
a modest profit on it.
These people are going to buy itand then hold it for 30 years
and make their money over 30years.
(19:31):
So they oftentimes will buy asis in a very simple, easy way.
And they, you know, sometimes alot of times they'll buy cash.
A lot of times they just make ita lot simpler.
So it's this cross between thatcash offer.
And in a listing where you'regoing to make more money than
the cash offer, but you're goingto do it in a way that's a
little more convenient for you.
(19:52):
So I think that'd be the great,the right fit for you.
Does that work for you?
Mike (19:57):
Yeah, like, how does that like?
How does that work?
Like the way like, how does thatexactly work?
Okay.
Chris (20:02):
Yeah.
So what we would do is we wouldmarket we would get your
property and we would market toall of our investors.
And then we would also marketout to the general public.
And because I know you don'twant people coming through your
house at all hours of the time,we, we do something, we call it
a strategic investor open.
And we just on Saturday youknow, on the Saturday from one
(20:25):
to three and Sunday from one tothree, we will only allow people
to come into your, your propertyfrom those three hours.
And we'll have somebody from ourteam there to make sure that
everything is, you know, aboveboard, everything going well.
And we'll invite everybodythat's interested during that
time to come and take a look atyour property.
Mike (20:44):
Gotcha.
So is that Is that like, so whenyou go that route, like, is that
are they always going to, or isit kind of like almost
innovation route?
Like, are you going to take careof like the repairs?
If those come in, if you do getsomeone who's like, you know,
it's like a decent house, butthere's, I don't know if you
guys do a lot of FHA or anythinglike that.
Chris (21:02):
Yeah.
So we have we have a programcalled, you know, it's renovate
now pay later where you know, wecharge them 1 percent of the
sales price to take care of allthe repairs.
So, yeah, and we just get paidat closing and they have to have
equity in the property for us tobe willing to do it.
We won't do it if it's a shortsale, but, you know, just think
(21:22):
about that.
You do 10 properties like thatat three 50, you know, you just
made an extra 35 grand just tofloat them.
Like what?
Like.
You know, a couple thousandbucks you know, until closing as
long as, as long as this price,right.
And, and done well.
So,
Mike (21:37):
Yeah.
And then do you, does that, doyou run into trouble, like
trouble though?
Because if you're only likehaving the property shown twice
a week, obviously it might limitlike some less buyers being able
to come,
Chris (21:49):
yeah.
So what I've found is most ofthe time on these properties,
they're willing to sell at aslight discount, right?
And so right now, and there's a,there's a lack of inventory.
And so if people are selling at,you know, 95 cents on the
dollar.
And then paying a commission,right?
So they're making like say 90,90 cents on the dollar, whatever
(22:09):
it is, you know, 89 cents on thedollar, right?
There's not really enough roomfor innovation.
There's not really enough roomfor a for a wholesale.
But, you know, like somebodyelse is going to look at it like
a doctor or a dentist is goingto be like, Oh my gosh.
And you're just going to have amassive amount of people that
are in on that coming through.
(22:29):
You're going to get multipleoffers.
People are going to, you know,be willing to sell cash offer
like all of the other piecesthere.
So
Mike (22:37):
Because, yeah, because you're offering, you know, to a,
to a, to a person who's lookingon the open market, you're
offering a pretty aggressiveprice to an investor.
They're not interested, but
Chris (22:46):
yeah.
Mike (22:47):
investor, yeah,
Chris (22:48):
Yeah.
So I like to call it like thecivilian investor is loving this
property, right?
We just, we just see it.
Like, I mean, we get all theseinvestors that are like, you
know, C suite executives oflike, you know, government
contracting companies.
You know, and they're like, Ohman, I, you know, I, I'm getting
a discount on this.
Cause like, if you think aboutthis is like, and this is what
(23:11):
most of us in the investor spacethink about, we're like, okay,
it's not a deal unless it's, youknow, more than, you know, 70
cents on the dollar, you know,off.
Right.
But like, when you think aboutthe average, like, you know,
chiropractor.
They're looking at it andthey're buying properties that
are cashflow negative andholding them right.
And all of a sudden they look onthe MLS and they're like, Oh,
(23:31):
this is awesome.
It is the MLS is the best buyerslist you'll ever create.
If you're a wholesaler, it's,it's way better than any buyers
list.
You can create investor lift.
I like what Robert Winsleycreated is great, but I promise
you even investor lift, which isa great product.
How does not hold a candle tothe 6 million eyeballs that come
(23:51):
from the MLS and from Zillow andRedfin and Realtor.
com.
Mike (23:55):
Yeah, no, that's so true.
Like a lot of times for like oneof our strategies has been, and
this is not an original strategyis we'll just sometimes buy it
and just put it on the MLS asis.
Cause I just know that there isan investor out there who I
don't know who's going to pay 20grand more than anyone in my
private list.
Cause.
so much.
Like you said, they're just likea doctor or a lawyer and they're
(24:16):
like, Oh, I can get a rentalproperty and I can make, you
know, some money every month.
Yeah.
I'll buy it.
Like, I don't need to buy it at70 cents on the dollar.
They're like, they think 90cents is a sweet deal or 95
cents.
So I liked that strategy.
Yeah.
So is that the way that do youguys ever do like the, well, you
probably do cause you have somany agents, but do you ever go
(24:38):
like the, is it ever totallyjust the traditional listing
route or do you kind of alwaysgo with this bitch?
Yeah.
Chris (24:44):
Oh, no, no, no.
Yeah.
It's always a listing.
So the hybrid pitch is, is ourtraditional listing.
The reason why we go with thatis most people.
Most agents or most people havean agent friend, right?
And so what we're doing is, thereason why we say the first part
is because we don't want otherpeople, them to shop us with
other investors, because we'relike, this is what a traditional
(25:08):
cash offer looks like.
And This is why it doesn't work.
And so that they're, they're nowdisqualifying the other
investors they were thinkingabout meeting with.
This is the deal with a regularreal estate agent and a regular
listing.
And this is why that is not thebest for you.
We're disqualifying theirbrother's uncle, right?
Who's a real estate agent.
And then we say, this is what wedo here for our thing.
(25:32):
And so did you ever did you everdo P90X back in the day?
Mike (25:35):
No, I saw the commercials, but I never did it.
Yeah.
Chris (25:39):
I loved P90X cause you could just press play and color
by numbers, just do what itsaid.
And so I just go to my basementevery morning and just hit play
and just do it.
And, but here's the crazy thing.
Tony Horton said it washed out.
It like almost, you know, it wasalmost a failed product.
And then this marketing geniuscame up with the idea of.
(25:59):
Something that sounded originaland different and he called it
muscle confusion, right?
And anybody that goes to the gymknows that if you work out Back
and bicep one day and then youyou work out chest and tricep
and then you change your yourworkouts You're gonna get
stronger, right?
but they labeled it muscleconfusion and that all of a
(26:19):
sudden like all of america wasthinking Holy crap, I could eat,
you know, two pizzas and like afull stack of ice cream
sandwiches every night, butbecause of muscle confusion, I'm
going to have a six pack, youknow, it's just, it's just
crazy, but you know, there was abook on marketing called
positioning, right.
And you're just kind ofpositioning.
(26:41):
Yourself as different than therest of the pack so that it
really does feel like a blueocean.
And you're you're open thereRight, but the second you're
talking like list it like aregular realtor.
You're I mean your red oceanThere's I mean throw a stick and
you hit four realtors, right?
Mike (26:57):
Sure.
You start getting shopped too.
I mean,
Chris (27:01):
Oh, absolutely.
And that's part of the reasonwhy we get the commissions that
we get, which is usually wayabove you know, like our, our
market commission is likeusually one and a half percent
or less in our market.
And we're usually about, we'regetting above 3%, you know, on
most of our commissions.
Mike (27:19):
Yeah.
Super interesting.
Yeah.
I'm also curious that you've gotabout 50 agents working for you.
So you must've gotten prettygood at this point about hiring
salespeople.
Chris (27:29):
Guess this is this is the whole thing, right?
Like Understanding how todifferentiate yourself.
Like I just talked about thecommissions, but here's also the
the difference, right?
We provide a value to people wesolve problems We're able to get
things done in ways that otherpeople aren't able to do You And
the only way to do that is youbring in high tier, high quality
people, right?
(27:51):
Because when you do that, peoplewill pay more for quality.
Like just always, right?
Why does somebody pay more for aRolls Royce than they do for a
Honda Accord, right?
You pay more for quality.
But you know, as a businessowner, you've got like a
thousand different things andI've got a business coach.
I think everybody should spend10 percent of their income on
coaching and personaldevelopment.
(28:11):
And one of the things that Istruggled with, I read the book
I read the book, I'm losing mymind.
The one thing, right.
And as a as a business owner, Iremember talking to my business
coach and I said, how do I focuson the one thing?
I've got like 50 things that aregoing on.
Like, like I've got to work onmy P and L I've got to work on
marketing.
I've got to work on, like, I'vegot, I've got to work with my
direct reports on all thesedifferent, even though I'm not
(28:32):
doing it, my direct reports are,and I got to work with them on
it.
And.
One of the things my businesscoach said was, okay, if you
boiled all the things thatyou're talking about down, what
do you boil down to?
And actually Dan Sullivan wrotea book about what we decided it
was.
It's who not how, right?
It's finding high level talentthat can do all of those things.
(28:55):
And so, at this point, likethat's my number one thing is
finding talent and investing in,in the talent around me.
I actually keep this.
Right here on my desk.
It's a newton's cradle and mywhole idea is, you know, how do
I add energy right?
Like this ball, you knownewton's cradle here it stops,
but then every day i've got toadd energy back to my to the
(29:18):
people in my world Right.
And so I need to find talent andthen add energy to, to that
talent.
And that's, that is my job.
That is my role.
Mike (29:27):
Yeah.
How are you going about hiringreally good sales talent?
Chris (29:32):
Flew fighter jets and then at night we sat around a
fire at the Airbnb we werestaying at and everybody just
shared where their pain pointwas.
And for me.
I'm an optimist.
I'm an extrovert.
I listen to people and I see I'ma visionary, so I see the best
in people.
And then a lot of people justreally aren't willing to live up
(29:53):
to the, to the, the size of whothey could be.
And so I was like, I hate it.
I hate it.
I, I pick, like, I hire poorlyand everybody just gave me such
a hard time.
They're like, hire a recruiter,hire a recruiter.
Why don't you, if this is a painpoint in your life and you don't
think you're good at it, hiresomebody that is.
And so we did.
And then I was like, this is oneof the greatest hires I've ever
(30:15):
made.
Mike (30:17):
So I'm actually really curious on this topic because I
have hired a recruiter beforeand I didn't make the right
hiring decision with that hire.
What specifically were youlooking for that?
Or did you find in a recruiterthat made that recruiter so
successful to be able to do whatyou need them to do?
Chris (30:38):
Yeah, we went through like, you know, we interviewed a
bunch of people and you don't,Jim Collins also says, don't,
don't discount the, the role ofluck.
And there were two people thatwe we got really close with and
the person that we ended uphiring was She was a recruiter
in the tech sales industry.
And so it was a different, itwas a different world, but it
(31:00):
was still sales and yeah, thatwas I don't.
I wish I could give you more.
It was just like, when we talkedto her, she checked a lot of the
boxes.
She did a really good job as faras explaining her process.
And also just culturally, shealigned really well with who we
were.
And so we're like, this isgreat, but we also, you know, we
(31:24):
kept an eye on it.
And for a little bit, we werelike, okay, if she doesn't.
Hit metrics, we're going to pullthe plug real quick.
And she did metrics.
And then, you know, as I got toknow her, you know, now she, I
would consider a friend youknow, you know, we realized she
was just, you know, she's, shewas excellent.
And so that was that, that wholething is like trying to find
(31:45):
somebody that was excellent, butI also.
I brought in my COO, myintegrator in on that so that I
wasn't the only one making thecall on that because, yeah, I
don't know that I'm a greatperson to make the call on that.
Mike (32:00):
What were the metrics that you were holding her to in the
first couple months that you hadher hired?
Chris (32:05):
I believe we wanted we were looking to grow our agent
team quickly.
So we wanted two new agents permonth.
Mike (32:15):
Were you were you having any KPIs for, like, how well
those agents were doing, or wasit just kind of, like, hire two
agents?
I mean, was there any way thatyou were tracking that she was
hiring, I guess, good agentsversus just agents?
Chris (32:30):
Yeah, I, we wanted to, we wanted to get more agents,
right.
And we also wanted betterquality agents.
So that was, that was the main,like both.
And I guess we were reallystruggling with you know, just
cause I was so busy doing otherthings.
It was kind of like this, thisadd on thing, even though it
(32:52):
should have been my number onething.
And so if I really believed thatbringing high level talent into
my world was.
Was it like the number one thingthen I should probably have
somebody that's full timefocuses on that.
Mike (33:07):
Was there any, like, KPIs you were looking at to know that
the agents she hired work good?
Chris (33:14):
Yeah, so we uh, you know, we we wanted them to have a
couple transactions under thebelt in the first 60 days and
you know, that was a That was alearning process.
I wish I could say it just allwent well, but you know, there
was There was a lot, a lot ofchurn and people that were not
(33:35):
doing, doing well.
And so that was kind of the dealwe needed to, we needed to be
better on that front than wereally were, but we've got, and
then part of that was.
I brought in a a sales directorand then I brought in somebody
to manage our new agents aswell.
Like that you know, in charge ofmentorship programs.
So, now we have people and theyjust built out the mentorship
(33:59):
and the sales process right intowho, not how.
So they built that out and ifpeople don't they have to get
certified by script practice by,you know, doing the right thing
for us to be able to allow themto get any benefits and any
resources from the team.
Mike (34:18):
Gotcha.
So there's like someone who's incharge of just basically getting
the new agents up to speed.
And then there's an overall kindof sales director for after
that.
Chris (34:27):
Right.
Mike (34:28):
Okay.
Gotcha.
And then what, what's therecruiter doing?
What's, what's she doing to findpeople?
If you
Chris (34:39):
Um, yeah.
What is she doing to findpeople?
She's, I mean, LinkedIn, Indeed,WiseHire, you know.
all of those different,different pieces.
And the, and the main thing too,we're.
We're fighting like crazy toupdate our ads to get our ads
better.
We've found that like some adswill just.
bring massive amounts of peoplein other ads.
(35:01):
You know, you get crickets.
So, you know, part of it is justbeing good at you know, at, at
writing ads that, you know,attract.
Mike (35:09):
Yeah, is she doing like outbound and like outbound
recruiting methods or is it morejust kind of she's like trying
to get tons of applicants andfilter for the best ones from
there?
Chris (35:19):
Little bit of both.
So we, we also, for the agentside of the business, we have
something that tells you whatwhat agents have done in our
market.
And so what we did is this hasbeen a hard year for a lot of
people in real estate in thelast, well, the last couple of
years have.
And so what we did was we justput a metric in that was anybody
(35:39):
that's production has gone downby 40 percent or more that we're
we will send them emails and,and, you know, spend some time
calling through those folks aswell.
Because we know that they'rehurting.
Mike (35:52):
Interesting.
So was it, was there a metricthat you were looking at that
was like, were they, did theyhave to do a certain amount of
business before?
So you were kind of able to seethat they were good, but maybe
they needed more resources orwas there a, was there any kind
of minimum that you wereexpecting them to prior to
dropping the 40%?
Chris (36:10):
Uh, not really, not really.
You know, we just, we're justlooking, we're looking, I mean,
just like, uh, the cash offer,you know, looking for pain and
then, you know, and if there'spain, sometimes it's because,
you know, they're not good.
And sometimes it's because, youknow, they didn't know how to
pivot with the market or maybeit's whatever.
(36:30):
And so, but we're, we're gettingpeople that are, When that kind
of pain hits them and hits theirbusiness that you know, we're
able to you know to move on that
Mike (36:41):
that's like a stat on your local MLS.
You can see kind of
Chris (36:44):
No
Mike (36:45):
deals or what?
Chris (36:46):
I don't know the name of it, but it's like a broker
metrics or something like thatWe it's it's a process.
It's like a program that we payfor monthly and I can't remember
the name of it.
I can I can find out the name,but if you google it there's
like There's a ton of differentthings that will give you the
matrix of, of agents.
Mike (37:04):
Gotcha.
Okay.
And then, like, you know,besides, obviously, you've got
the, you know, recruiter, right?
Who's helping you hire thepeople like, what does the
process look like?
And in terms of, like, theinterview to, like, actually
make that choice to know, okay,this is a person who's had to
have a good chance at beingsuccessful here.
(37:24):
Like, let's pull the triggerand, and hire him.
Chris (37:27):
And you're talking about for an agent or for a recruiter
Mike (37:30):
For an agent.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Chris (37:32):
for an agent?
Well, I mean, honestly, youknow, are they competitive?
We did, you know, if you've evergone through US traction, I know
most people that have been inthis business world have.
You know, with EOS traction, youknow, part of the VTO is, is you
make it like that perfectsalesperson, you know, piece and
we, we started looking at itand, you know, they're, they're
(37:54):
massively competitive, they'vehad success in their life we see
a lot of like college athletesare really great because they,
they're, they're.
They understand the fact that,you know, you have to put in the
work to, you know, show up atthe game when, you know, and
it's, it's like the work you putin when nobody's watching is
what gives you the success whenpeople are watching, you know,
that kind of idea with collegeathletes.
(38:16):
But again, there's a lot ofathletes, a lot of people that
are not athletes that, that whenso competitive athletic, like,
you know, been athletes.
People like what we found is alot of times, if you are not a
primary breadwinner that there'snot that same drive.
Not always, there's definitelythe exception to the rule, but
(38:37):
what we found is most of thetime, if you're not the primary
breadwinner, That you're notusually going to have that like
fire in the belly.
And you know, there, there'sthat like almost fear that
drives people.
It's not fear is not the rightword, but this thing that drives
people on but yeah, those aresome of the main things like
having a big goal, but areasonable goal, a realistic
(38:58):
goal.
So those are the things that welook for that we've seen when
they have those things, theytend to win.
Mike (39:04):
Gotcha.
And then are you, do you guyshave any assessments that you do
along the way?
Or is it
Chris (39:09):
Yeah.
I mean, we love the disc profileand then StrengthsFinder.
But
Mike (39:20):
Okay, what is that, what is that,
Chris (39:22):
it's just, it's just like personality assessment profile,
very much like, like disc, butyou know, I'm, I'm a huge disc
fan, but Chris, our our leadrecruiter, she loves, you know,
strings finder
Mike (39:34):
Okay.
Gotcha.
And then you were saying kind ofearlier more about like
monetizing the dead leads.
So it seems like you've builtrelationships in the market with
a bunch of other bunch ofinvestors and do they, they send
you over leads?
Like how do you, have youstructured that?
Cause that sounds like a way toquickly multiply like the amount
of business you can do becauseyou're.
(39:56):
Getting leads from however manypeople who are generating
hundreds a month.
Chris (40:00):
leads that are just dying, right.
They're, they're dead.
You know, I mean, you, you saidyou've got thousands in your
database, right?
Like, so you got literally, youhave millions of dollars that
are, are, are transacting everymonth.
You know, right now.
And so, as I, as we look at it,the main thing here is.
How do these leads turn intosomething?
(40:22):
You, we talk to people and wejust say, what are you doing
with this?
And everybody always says, Oh,I, you know, I tried this, I
tried that and it doesn't work,or they'll say, Oh my gosh, I
don't know why I didn't thinkabout it.
That's a great idea.
And then, you know, they gothrough it and it's.
It doesn't, it doesn't turn outto be a great idea, but you
(40:43):
know, the reality is once youknow the process and you
understand the psyche of thepeople that have raised their
hand for a cash offer and thatyou can't just say, Oh, you want
to You want to sell.
So here, talk to this realtorthat that won't work.
Then you can start to actuallybuild something.
And then once you buildsomething, you can you know, you
(41:05):
offer 35%.
Now, every investor that getsreferral fees from agents needs
to have a real estate license.
And if you look nationwide.
You know, if you wholesale, ifyou're in the investor world
like all the states are startingto require some sort of
licensure if you wholesale.
So like licensing is coming foralmost all investors anyway, so
(41:27):
you might as well get ahead ofit.
And And it allows you to getreferral fees every time you
sell a deal.
Mike (41:32):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Cool.
What are the, like, pitfallsthat you see some of these
people make?
Because you said people havetried it on their own, right?
And I've tried it before, too.
I've sent leads to numerousagents and I've had it work
sometimes.
And then I've had some that I'vejust sent a ton, I mean,
hundreds of leads over andnothing, nothing has come of it.
(41:56):
What were some of the pitfallsthat you see people making
besides the pitch?
Obviously they don't understandthe pitch.
Chris (42:03):
Yeah, the pitch, you know, they, you know, that's the
number one.
I mean, over and over and overagain, that's, that's the
biggest issue.
And then after that yeah, it's,it's choosing the wrong agent
that you're sending it to anagent that doesn't understand
investors.
You know, if, if you're notsending to an agent that's like
really good or has a team wherethey know how to.
(42:25):
and can send you an update oneach lead.
Most agents are just so notorganized that your precious
leads are going to, you know,be, you're stuck in a pile of
paper somewhere and not followit up with, right?
So you need somebody that.
Is either so freaking hungry fordeals and like willing to do
(42:46):
whatever it takes and will neverlike, they're either going to
like get blocked from thesephone numbers or they're going
to get a deal or you need to getwith a team that like
understands investors, but alsounderstands how to get how to
have a followup process worksbecause even big teams.
You know, they like they don'treally follow up well like that.
(43:09):
I mean and you and you know thatin our business It's right like,
you know in the investorbusiness follow up There's
fortunes in the follow up andmost people just don't do it
even big big investors
Mike (43:19):
Yeah, for sure.
And then you're always settingthe appointment for that agent
from your inside sales team.
So I guess that removes onestep.
from the process.
I think that's a mistake thatI've made before.
I would just pass the lead offto an agent, not set the
appointment.
Then I'm relying on them to bookthe appointment.
That's a mistake for sure.
Chris (43:38):
right,
Mike (43:39):
Oh, well, we're getting close to the end here.
And there's always two questionsthat I like to ask at the end of
the show.
The first one is what is thecraziest or most uncomfortable
situation that you have everexperienced in a real estate
deal.
Chris (43:57):
Oh, man I have two of them.
But let's see Do you want theone where I was most scared or
the one that was Like like justthe most like wow, I can't even
believe this happened
Mike (44:11):
I'll let you pick whatever you think everyone would like to
hear.
Chris (44:16):
All right.
I'll do i'll do this one.
So, one of the first deals I wasgonna buy it he was going up for
foreclosure.
We solved his problem.
Everything was going reallyreally well and the guy was just
he was a little weird So I goover to his house when you know,
the agent on my team was likesetting up the deal You And go
over there and the power's out,it's freezing cold.
And like, so we're wearingjackets cause like, like
(44:38):
everything's out.
And he's got a foreclosure datecoming up and everything else.
And so, halfway through theappointment, I'm like, like I
drink a lot of water and I'mlike, Hey, I need to use the
bathroom.
Where's put me in the bathroom.
So I started walking down wherehe pointed me and he's like, Oh,
by the way, the power's out, youknow, just.
Leave it in the toilet.
It doesn't matter.
And I was like, that's weird.
And I'd said to Teddy, the agenton my team like whatever he
(45:00):
says, I was like, you'llprobably hear some weird things.
Cause he was newer to it at thetime.
I was like, whatever he says,you know, just smile and nod.
Don't make any reactions.
Cause a lot of times weirdthings are said.
And then, so I got back and andTeddy's like, oh, so.
Should you just leave it in thetoilet?
Like you don't flush.
And the guy's like, no, I got abucket in the basement.
I've been using for months.
And Teddy's like, Oh, yeah, I'mlike, Oh, I think you've been
(45:24):
there before.
Just smile and not just smile.
But then here's the crazy thing.
I'm there interviewing somebodylike the next day.
And I had a Fitbit watch and mywatch was just going crazy, but
like I was, it was like weirdlyglitchy, which is why I moved to
the Apple watch, you know, atlike within a couple months from
(45:45):
there, but it was going crazy.
And I was like, what is goingon?
And then I looked and my watchsaid I had 34 missed calls.
And I was like, So I pulled overmy, I pulled my phone out and I
looked and it said 34 missedcalls and it was like my wife,
my brother, and then that agentand like, and so then I was
like, I said to the person, I'mlike, Hey, do you mind if I like
(46:06):
step aside for a second?
I need to find out whyeverybody's calling me so much.
And so I go out and it turns outmy wife was listening to the
radio and they said there was ahome explosion.
And then it said the homeexplosion was in the County
where we bought a house and thennamed the street name that we
bought the house on.
And what we found out was theguy.
(46:29):
Just decided he didn't want tomove anymore.
And so he literally, he shot hisdog, shot himself and he used to
be a plumber.
So he like went out and Jerryrigged the plumbing.
So the gas came into his house.
It blew up his house and likecreated like 17 different.
You know, like basically totaledanother house and 17 other
(46:52):
houses and 19 cars werebasically destroyed from what he
did.
Nobody else was hurt.
Thank the Lord.
But just absolutely blew it.
Like he blew it up.
And the only thing that survivedwas there was bamboo in the
backyard that survived.
So it's kind of crazy, but yeah.
So that is, there's my crazieststory.
(47:13):
And
Mike (47:14):
That's up.
there.
Cool.
Well, the second question Ialways like to ask is for the
newer people listening to theshow is if you could go back in
time and give yourself one pieceof advice when you were looking
for your first real estate deal,knowing what, you know, now,
what would you tell yourself?
Chris (47:37):
that You know, everything comes from activity and skill,
right?
So, so talk to as many people asyou can and work on getting
better.
And don't be scarcity minded.
I just thought that I wouldnever find, you know, the next
deal that was like the, youknow, like the last one.
I just, I didn't think thatthere were a lot of deals out
there.
And now I know, I mean, there'sdeals everywhere.
(47:58):
You just gotta know where tolook.
Mike (48:00):
Yeah, I like that.
Yeah, that's a great piece ofadvice.
Chris, if people want to reachout to you after the show if
they have any questions or theywant to connect with you, how
can they go about reaching outto you?
Chris (48:11):
Yeah, so at crowd rock is my instagram handle.
Feel free to send me.
I know I said she's the old highschool nickname I probably
should change it something elsebut is what it is and You know,
so yeah, I I still reply to myown d to all the dms on there
That's one of the places whereyou can actually get me
personally everywhere else,like, you know, staff or other
(48:32):
people are replying.
And then in, if you'reinterested, I know the average
podcast listener listens toseven podcasts.
So, I've also got a podcastcalled uncommon real estate.
We'd love to, you know, yeah,it's, it's more about the agent
investor side.
So if that's something thatintrigues you, you know, that's
what we talked about, you know?
So yeah, those are the, there'sa way to find me.
Mike (48:52):
Cool.
Well, awesome.
Thanks for being on the show.
Chris (48:55):
Yeah.
This is awesome.
Thanks for hanging with me.
It's great.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.