How Cody Lopez built 75% of his business on expireds with 4 hours of daily calls

Cody Lopez00:00

When I first started, I was prospecting like eight to 10 hours a day, and it’s because I didn’t have any business. I didn’t have clients to call. I didn’t have lock boxes to go put on. I just was kind of just starting to build the inventory for myself. Now, I don’t even have time from 1:00 to 5:00 to do those things unless I don’t have appointments to go on.

00:18But my goal to prospecting is really finding new business. So it’s finding new income that could be generated, whether it be lead follow-up or talking to people I’ve never talked to.

Aaron Wittenstein00:37

Hey, what’s going on, everybody? It’s me, it’s Aaron Wittenstein, and I would like to welcome you to Vulcan 7 Roadmap. This is where we teach agents across the country, or I should say, learn from agents across the country, on how to generate one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, A, B, C, D, E, F, G listings a week, okay?

00:55And we have, all the way from Tucson, Arizona… and this will be posted later, but it’s a little secret. I hear it is his birthday tomorrow. I’m not singing or anything like that. Cody Lopez. Cody, how are you doing, my friend?

Cody Lopez01:08

Good. Good. I appreciate you having me on.

Aaron Wittenstein01:10

Ah, thank you for coming. So usually, just so you guys get a little behind-the-scenes action, I have particular days that I set aside to do Vulcan 7 Roadmap, okay?

01:22And I called Cody, he came highly recommended to me, and I’m like, “Cody, we wanna get you on the show.” This time he’s like, “You know what? I would love to, but I can’t, because that’s during my prospecting session,” which is between 8:00 to 12:00. You’re in Arizona, so is that Mountain Standard Time?

Cody Lopez01:38

Yeah, Mountain Standard Time.

Aaron Wittenstein01:39

Mountain Standard Time. And he wouldn’t do it, so I manipulated my schedule, which I didn’t mind doing, because I found out it was his birthday, okay? And I just wanna say thank you for being here. And tell me a little bit about your prospecting, because from what it sounds like to me, that is severely protected time to you.

Cody Lopez01:58

Yeah. Yeah. So one of the things is this year’s been a really big year for me in terms of a different schedule, accountability, and really sticking to a schedule. And prospecting is something I’ve always done. However, I think using Vulcan 7, it’s really allowed me to just sit still and just focus on the low-hanging fruit, the people who essentially have an intention or need business, and they’re looking for a confident, strong agent to assist them.

02:27So 8:00 to 12:00 are my hours. I would say I never really had a set of hours the last four years I’ve been doing real estate. It’s just kind of been all over the board, even Saturdays and Sundays, just running around like a chicken with my head off. But 8:00 to 12:00 is kind of where we would like to stick to.

02:48Really, there’s no exceptions for the most part. If there’s any incoming calls, take it afterwards.

Aaron Wittenstein02:55

I love that. And how long has this schedule been in place for?

Cody Lopez02:59

Nine months. So just the beginning of this year. Actually, I’ve only been using Vulcan 7 since January. So this CRM is still fairly new to me.

03:10But I think in real estate there’s a lot of noise. It’s so easily accessible to get distracted. And so I just need to focus on talking to people who need my services, rather than building rapport and having it take years and years to convert. I think if you know what to say and you know how to say it, you can kind of just close at any time.

Aaron Wittenstein03:34

So in January, you basically went all in. You signed up for Vulcan 7. You committed to that four hours. I wanna say that word very strongly, committed to that four hours of lead generation. How have things been going for you?

Cody Lopez03:46

So I do wanna back up. So it wasn’t just four hours when I first started. It was 8:00 to 6:00.

03:53I mean, I was prospecting, like, eight to 10 hours a day, and it’s because I didn’t have any business. I mean, I didn’t have clients to call, I didn’t have lockboxes to go put on. I just was kind of just starting to build the inventory for myself. Now I don’t even have time from 1:00 to 5:00 to do those things, unless I don’t have appointments to go on.

04:15But really, I think I got burnt out from it, to be honest with you. Because being on the phone, staring at a screen for that long, it’s not psychologically normal for us to do that. So I kind of resented the business for a little bit, to be honest with you. But until I actually set those boundaries with myself and said, “These are my hours,” it’s helped a lot.

04:38You know, I don’t resent it as much as I used to. It’s actually really enjoyable, of course, if you stick to your schedule.

Aaron Wittenstein04:45

So what are your expectations for a typical four-hour shift?

Cody Lopez04:50

So I try to get 20 contacts, so really just five an hour. I had to adjust that, but my goal is essentially to get a listing appointment and present and close, of course, but pre-qualifying, which is probably the most important thing.

05:07Because I would go on appointments if anyone said they’ve had thoughts of selling, and what a waste of time that was for me. But then again, I didn’t have really much business, so I was trying to take all the experience that I could. But my goal to prospecting is really finding new business, okay? So it’s finding new income that could be generated, whether it be lead follow-up or talking to people I’ve never talked to.

05:30So if I’m calling past clients, that kind of goes after the 8:00 to 12:00. Even though it is considered prospecting, I kind of consider that its own category outside of my 8:00 to 12:00, because I wanna focus on talking to people who I can leave a professional impression on. Regardless if they use me or not, that’s fine.

05:50As long as I know I had a good conversation and I left a professional impression, that’s a win for me. And that’s something I’ve had to change my mindset on, because not every day you’re gonna get a listing appointment, and because you don’t get one doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve to enjoy your day and say that you worked hard.

06:07But that’s the goal, really, at the end of the day, is to go on appointments.

Aaron Wittenstein06:12

So from what it sounds like to me is, the activity is the success. Because with the activity, the results will eventually follow. Did I catch that right?

Cody Lopez06:23

Yeah. Yeah. So, like, you go on an appointment, you present, you close, you get the contract signed.

06:28For me, I think that’s the win. Not closing the home, not selling it, not going under contract, that’s not a win for me. It’s getting the opportunity to list and sell a home. If you close a home, my mindset’s always been, well, you performed the job you were hired to do. So, like, don’t really get too ahead of yourself.

06:47But if you provide a listing, you’re providing inventory, and that’s, I think, more important. Closing obviously is the job that we’re hired to do, so when you perform that, I don’t know, it’s not as rewarding for me. I think getting the listing signed and actually presenting it to the market is, like, my favorite part of the process.

Aaron Wittenstein07:05

I agree.

Cody Lopez07:06

And then you just move on to the next one, essentially.

Aaron Wittenstein07:10

No, I agree with you wholeheartedly. There’s something about getting that signature, right?

Cody Lopez07:14

It’s all… Yeah.

Aaron Wittenstein07:15

It’s just… yeah, you can’t explain it, right? Like, the true closers, it’s all about, you sign, you walk on, you’re like, “Yes.”

07:23And then the money’s a good thing too, don’t get me wrong. But we’re in agreement on that. So you do a four-hour shift. So what is your typical… I’m gonna venture to guess you have a process and a system that you follow on a daily basis, but who are you calling when?

07:40What does that look like?

Cody Lopez07:41

So yeah. So 7:30 is really when I’m on the phone. I’m not prospecting per se, but I’m doing my role play call, right? So depending on who I’m calling that day, especially if it’s the beginning or the end of the month, I’m probably gonna be doing the expired script, because we all know there’s a lot of listings that come off in those timeframes.

07:59So it’s 7:30 to 8:00, just to kind of warm up and get your mouth salivating, right? Get rid of the coffee breath. And then from 8:00 to 12:00, I’m primarily doing a lot of expireds and a lot of for sale by owners, and I would say probably 75% of my business is primarily expireds.

Aaron Wittenstein08:22

Sure. Okay. All right. You’re doing everything you should be doing.

08:29I wanna role play with you. Would you be okay with that?

Cody Lopez08:32

Sure, yeah.

Aaron Wittenstein08:33

All right, cool, cool. Let’s do this. All right, let’s do an expired. Let’s say that I’m a brand new expired that’s been on the market… I’ve been expired for about 47 minutes, so there’s at least 73 agents that’s called so far.

Cody Lopez08:46

Sure, sure. Absolutely. Okay. Got it. Okay. All right. Ring, ring.

Aaron Wittenstein08:49

Hello.

Cody Lopez08:51

Hey, good morning. This is Cody Lopez. I work for Long Realty Company here in Tucson, and I was trying to contact Mr. Wittenstein. Are y-

Aaron Wittenstein09:00

You’re… are you a realtor?

Cody Lopez09:03

Yeah. Yeah, I absolutely am. I imagine you’ve probably received a few calls already this morning.

Aaron Wittenstein09:08

A few

09:08is an understatement.

Cody Lopez09:10

Sure, sure. Well, let me ask you this, Mr. Wittenstein. I know that you were on the market for about 100 days prior to this, and I’m just curious, but hypothetically, if you did happen to sell the home, were you gonna stay in the area, or where were you gonna move to?

Aaron Wittenstein09:24

You know, we were gonna stay local, but do you have a buyer for me?

Cody Lopez09:29

Well, that’s exactly why I’m calling. I’m so glad you brought that up. I’m calling because I just don’t want a buyer, I want several buyers, you know? And that was actually gonna be my next question. Did you get any buyers to preview that property? Did you get any offers?

Aaron Wittenstein09:41

We had 43 people in the house and one offer.

Cody Lopez09:45

Wow, 43 people. Wow. Okay. So let me ask you this question. It sounds like, out of that one offer that you received, obviously it wasn’t favorable, correct?

Aaron Wittenstein09:56

It was too low, let’s just leave it at that. But if you have a buyer, you’re more than welcome to bring it through. You know, I think at this point, we’re gonna take it off for the next few months.

Cody Lopez10:08

Sure. No, I completely understand, and that’s a good advantage. Sounds like you don’t have to sell the home by a specific timeline, correct?

Aaron Wittenstein10:16

That is correct, yes.

Cody Lopez10:18

Okay, good for you. And so if we had a buyer who wanted to preview the home, they liked the home, they presented a favorable offer, you’re telling me that’s an offer you may consider and still consider selling, correct?

Aaron Wittenstein10:26

Yeah,

10:27I mean, if

10:27they wanna pay me list price, I would consider selling it, yeah.

Cody Lopez10:30

Okay, good for you. Good. And I’m curious, Aaron, the previous agent you were working with, 43 showings, do you know if all of those showings were pre-qualified, or were those just people looking at homes to kill time?

Aaron Wittenstein10:41

I have absolutely no idea.

10:42I don’t know.

Cody Lopez10:43

Okay.

Aaron Wittenstein10:43

I mean, I don’t know what Sally Mae did.

Cody Lopez10:45

Sure. Well, I imagine, even if you let a buyer, even if it’s my buyer who wants to preview your home, I imagine you’d want them to be pre-approved if they’re financing, or, if they’re cash, probably send some form of proof of funds, right?

Aaron Wittenstein10:58

Correct.

Cody Lopez10:59

Okay, good. So I wanted to ask you, how did you happen to pick the last agent you were working with?

Aaron Wittenstein11:04

It was my cousin’s uncle’s girlfriend.

Cody Lopez11:07

Okay, so a family acquaintance. Sure. I always say, Aaron, everyone has friends or family in the business, and if you don’t know of a real estate agent, you probably don’t have any friends or family.

11:19So let me ask you, too, Aaron, if you were ever to go back on the market, even if it was a year from now, what qualities would you look for in the next agent you decide to work with?

Aaron Wittenstein11:31

I want an agent that brings me a buyer. That’s all I care about right now. Like I said, bring me a buyer, we’ll do a deal.

11:43We’ll do a deal.

Cody Lopez11:44

Absolutely, yeah. That’s exactly why I’m calling, ’cause I wanna present you not just one, but hopefully several buyers. So why don’t we do the right thing? Obviously, your time’s valuable, but if I could get your home sold in the next 30 days, would that pose a problem for anyone living in the house right now?

Aaron Wittenstein12:01

Mm, probably not.

Cody Lopez12:04

Okay. Yeah, probably not. So why don’t we do the right thing here? Let’s schedule a tentative appointment tomorrow at 4:00 or 5:00. What would work best for you?

Aaron Wittenstein12:13

Let me ask you, what are you gonna do differently that the other agent didn’t do?

Cody Lopez12:16

Well, that’s a good question.

12:17So there’s really two types of agents, Aaron. There’s reactive agents and there’s proactive agents. Okay, so it sounds like to me, if you had 43 showings and one appointment, you probably had a reactive agent, someone who’s waiting for the business. But I imagine if you’re gonna work with an agent, you want someone who can go out and find the business, opposed to wait for it.

12:35It’s why we’re on the phone today calling. So you would want somebody who’s gonna go out and find it, and most importantly, be aggressive and communicative. Correct?

Aaron Wittenstein12:44

Correct. Yeah. And I mean, just so I… How much do you guys charge?

Cody Lopez12:49

Oh, that’s such a good question. So commission, as you know, is always negotiable, and that’s exactly why we need to meet, because I’m sure you would never sign a listing with commission that you wouldn’t find favorable.

12:59So the numbers have to make sense for you to want to proceed. So that’s why we should have that appointment, to make sure that your net sheet is aligned with what you want to accomplish. Because it may not make sense. Maybe you shouldn’t sell. You know, I’m not here to tell you that you should or shouldn’t.

13:13But clearly you had a motivation for 140 days, Aaron, right?

Aaron Wittenstein13:18

Mm-hmm.

Cody Lopez13:19

Right. So let’s do the right thing, and we can talk about commission immediately when we walk through that front door and make sure the numbers work for the both of us. Does that seem fair?

Aaron Wittenstein13:27

Sounds good. Let’s do it.

Cody Lopez13:29

Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow at 4:00

13:32or 5:00?

Aaron Wittenstein13:32

4:30.

Cody Lopez13:33

Okay. And before I meet you tomorrow at 4:30, there’s just a list of questions I want to ask you, because my appointments are just 10 minutes. So do you mind if I ask these questions now?

Aaron Wittenstein13:42

Yeah. Sure.

Cody Lopez13:44

Okay. And then I have a prequalification script, so I would normally just go through that. And really, honestly, Aaron, I may not go on this appointment, based on my prequalification.

13:57Before, I would go on any appointment I could set.

Aaron Wittenstein13:59

Sure.

Cody Lopez14:00

Because I wanted it all. But you were kind of a pretty adamant seller. I mean, I know you wanted me to bring the buyer and do all that, which is normal. It’s just a reflex that a lot of expireds have, and they have every right to feel that way. But I think my goal essentially is to just realize you want to communicate with me. You just have a lot of stress and a lot of commotion that you’ve experienced the last 140 days, and those are just reflexes that you and I would have in any regular call.

14:30So I have to also just keep that in mind when I’m going through my scripts.

Aaron Wittenstein14:36

No, you did, and like I said, you did a phenomenal job. I mean, I threw a lot at you there.

Cody Lopez14:40

You did throw a lot at me.

Aaron Wittenstein14:41

Oh my God. You know? But no, I would normally apologize and say I’m sorry I did that, but you just were on point.

14:48You were crisp. The words that came out of your mouth were phenomenal. So you’re practiced. You’re well-rehearsed with what you did, because what I loved about what you did was there was not one pause-

15:06in anything that you said. I don’t know if you noticed that, but there was…

15:08I never noticed a pause. You practice. You can just tell. You have how many role play partners?

Cody Lopez15:18

I have four. Yeah. So just Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and then a coaching call for Wednesday. And I think one of the things that really helped me get comfortable prospecting is, when we prospect, we think that the consumers are kind of resentful of us.

15:35They don’t wanna talk to us, and for some incidents that might be the case. However, what I’ve learned is they really do wanna talk to people more than anything. They do. They’re just very, very discouraged. So my job isn’t to correct you. You feel the way you feel. You’re pissed off, you’re upset, you’re not interested, that’s fine.

15:54I can’t correct you on that. My job’s not to correct you, it’s to acknowledge and agree. So we use a formula called listen, repeat, approve, acknowledge, and ask two questions. So when you told me that you didn’t get any pre-approved appointments, you may be thinking to yourself, “Did I waste a lot of time?”

16:13Because you’re living there. If you’re gonna have to leave for two hours, it better be worth your time and hopefully make you money. So one of the things that I’ve always realized is I would probably ask you a duh question, which would be, “I imagine you would want an agent who would pre-approve every appointment for you before the showing.”

16:28Right. “Is that right?” If you said no, you kind of would be an idiot to say no to that. It’s just a duh question. So kind of just learning that formula and trying to internalize it has been kind of the biggest challenge this year.

Aaron Wittenstein16:42

Can you repeat that formula one more time?

Cody Lopez16:45

Oh, yeah.

Aaron Wittenstein16:46

I just wanna make

16:46sure everybody hears that, yeah.

Cody Lopez16:47

Yeah, listen. So, like, let’s just say you give me an objection, correct? So, like, let’s say, “You know, I’m really not interested in selling right now.” Okay? I would listen. I would repeat, “Oh, Aaron, you’re not interested in selling right now. Hey, I completely understand.

17:03If I was on the market for as long as you were, I probably wouldn’t wanna bother with it myself.” So there’s the acknowledgement and the approve, and then I would ask you two questions, such as, “I imagine if you go back on the market, even in two years from now, you probably would want an agent who would take that stress away from you.

17:20Is that correct?” And then I would ask another question, such as, “If this home sold in the next 30 days, would that pose a problem for anyone in the family?” No. So it’s just kind of getting them to agree. But I can’t tell them that. They have to tell themselves that. That’s why I have to ask the question.

17:38‘Cause if I tell them that, then I’m correcting them, and I can’t correct them. So I have to tell them to talk themselves into what’s right by asking questions.

Aaron Wittenstein17:47

So here’s what I wanna say to everybody here, if you’re not realizing this. I speak with a lot of people, just so you know, on a regular basis.

17:54As you know, we interview a lot of people on a regular basis, and hearing you speak is very pleasant to listen to. You know what I mean? Is the best way to put it. I could listen to you script and role play all day long, because you’re refined and you’re replicatable and you’re received well, is the best way to put it with that.

18:21And that comes from practice. If you guys didn’t hear, there were times he was putting in 10 hours a day in lead gen. Burned him out. He’s doing four… A lot of people don’t do two hours, and this guy’s doing four. I should say, this guy, Cody. Cody’s doing four, and he’s role playing on a daily basis. So when it comes to that, in your opinion, what is the single most important thing that has gotten you to the level that you are right now?

Cody Lopez18:54

Cutting out all the noise. I was never afraid to work hard. So before Vulcan7, I never thought I would call people. That was actually the last thing I really have done for my business. I used to knock doors, cold doors. I used to do, from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, five, six days a week, and I would just go hand out market updates.

19:18And it was costing me a lot of paper, because I had to pay for all that I’d print out. So we were doing at least 36,000 homes every five months. We were doing a lot of homes. And that was good. So, like, I wasn’t afraid to work hard. But I think the biggest takeaway, to answer your question, is to get out of your own way and don’t be attached to the outcome.

19:37And I think, a lot of people, when they call, not everyone needs your services. And that’s okay. Just because they were on the market for X amount, that’s fine. You know, don’t feel like you have to win every single time, and let another agent take that listing and have it sit for another six months.

19:54That’s fine. But my job is to really qualify and just find motivated sellers, which has been probably the hardest thing I’ve had to learn, because sometimes we have to turn down business. And as an agent, we want to keep business that we think we have as false security, right? So if I have 30 listings and only seven of them are gonna sell, should I have taken those other 23?

20:20I’m probably not gonna work as hard, because I have 30 listings, and you only have seven that are gonna pay you. So the biggest takeaway for me is just being detached from the outcome and just realizing these are just people who wanna talk to you. They just have their guard up, because you’re a salesperson, okay?

20:39You’re showing your cards when you say Long Realty Company or Coldwell Banker or eXp. You’re telling them you’re in sales, so their guard comes up. It’s just natural.

Aaron Wittenstein20:50

All right, one more question I’m gonna put you… I actually have, like, three more questions, but one. How old are you?

Cody Lopez20:55

Gonna be 24.

Aaron Wittenstein20:58

I just wanna let everybody sit on that for one second right there. The skill set you have for the age… you’re a man beyond your years, okay? All right, so let’s say that a new agent is coming by your office, knocks on your door. It’s like, “Cody, I hear you’re good at calls and you do some stuff like that.”

21:16What is one piece of advice that you would give this brand new agent?

Cody Lopez21:21

My first piece of advice would be, get into coaching, regardless of what coaching you wanna use. I’ve interviewed with several, but get into coaching, especially if it’s something that you wanna do full time and take very seriously.

21:36That would probably be my number one advice, because our biggest asset as an agent is we’re independent contractors, and our biggest liability is we’re independent contractors. So I walk into the office when no one’s here every day, I wear the suit, the tie, and there’s agents who look at me and they’re in their golf shorts, and they’re just, “Who the hell is this guy?”

21:58You know? And that’s fine, I don’t care. But, like, I take it to a level where this is the only thing that I have going for me right now, and I need to make it work, and I wanna produce at a high level, ’cause I just don’t wanna be a regular agent. I wanna be an agent that definitely has a reputation and, most importantly, can prove to myself that I can be a top producer.

22:18So get into coaching. And if you’re gonna become a real estate agent, you’re brand new to the business, learn how to handle objections. Like, I have my flashcards right here. Every day I have my objection flashcards, I have them out on my desk, and it’s like, “Oh, my friend’s in the business,” I take this one, right?

22:35Or, “We don’t wanna sell anymore,” reach over here, and I just read it. That’s what I would do. If I could do it all over again, I would get into coaching. I would narrow it down to a system like Vulcan 7, something that’s simple, low-hanging fruit. Don’t overcomplicate it. You don’t need to spend all this time in advertising and social media videos.

22:55Just learn how to talk to people and ask better questions and close. That’s what I would say.

Aaron Wittenstein23:01

Beautiful. All right, let’s tie this up in a nice little bow here. Last words you have for all of our people here at Vulcan 7 Nation, what would that be?

Cody Lopez23:11

Keep pushing. This has been something that my coach and I have been talking about.

23:17I think, for me, I’ve been starting to get burnt out in this business, and it’s not because of the clients, the transactions, the rejection. It’s just because of me being my worst critic. And so I think, for all of the people who use Vulcan 7, you know the kind of strong mentality you have to have to grind and set those successful wins for yourself.

23:40And a win doesn’t have to be getting a listing agreement signed. It can be having the counter get signed and get sent back. It can be getting a showing on one of your listings. Whatever it might be, you need to have wins, because if you’re too narrow-minded, you’re gonna come down on yourself pretty quickly, and I feel like that’s something that I’ve experienced just the last two months.

23:59And so I need to learn to be a little bit more grateful and just learn it takes time. And I’m happy where I’m at, believe me. I’m very blessed and glad to have been to where I am, where I’m at now. But we just constantly want more and more and wanna continue to grow, but it takes time. So that’s something I would share, is just celebrate the little wins.

Aaron Wittenstein24:19

All right, so someone is coming from California and they’re moving to Tucson, Arizona.

Cody Lopez24:25

That’s me.

Aaron Wittenstein24:26

Oh my gosh, no it’s not. Cool. How does one get in touch with you?

Cody Lopez24:30

So in regards, as a buyer or an agent, or…

Aaron Wittenstein24:33

No, let’s say they got a client that’s looking for someone in your neck of the woods. How do they get in

24:37touch with you?

Cody Lopez24:37

Oh, okay. Just Google me. I mean, Cody Lopez, Long Realty Company. I’m probably the first one that comes up. I work with my fiance, Abby, so you’ll see it says Cody Lopez and Abby Ruiz. But you can just Google me or go on Facebook or Instagram. I have a pretty good following there. But yeah, I wouldn’t say it’s too hard to find. Or, you know, my phone number.

24:59I could… Can I share it on here?

Aaron Wittenstein25:01

Please.

Cody Lopez25:01

Yeah, 520-904-2303, so.

Aaron Wittenstein25:06

Beautiful. All right, my friend, I wanna thank you so much. This is great stuff today. And everybody, don’t forget, go make some money, and don’t forget to trust the process. Yeah. You guys have a good one. Take care. Thank you, Cody.