How Tawanda Purdie got 11 deals in one neighborhood by knocking it 8 to 10 times

Aaron Wittenstein00:00

You’ve seen amazing success in a short period of time, which is awesome. And people can gravitate towards that, especially our newer agents here that see when you put in the work, you put in the effort, you put in the time, it just follows.

Tawanda Purdie00:12

A little bit of advice. Find what works for you and just go all at it, you know?

00:16And you’re not gonna learn if it works or not if you give up after a month. Sometimes it takes six months to a year to see exactly what worked for you, and sit down at the end of each year and look at deals you closed and where they came from, and then you know where to focus your attention on the next year.

00:33It’s a numbers game. The more people you call, you’re gonna get closer to that lead.

Aaron Wittenstein00:42

Hey, what’s going on, everybody? It’s me, it’s Aaron Wittenstein, and I would like to welcome you to Vulcan7 Roadmap. This is where we meet amazing agents from across the country to learn how to lead generate, and how to take an additional one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, just a bunch of listings a week.

01:13Okay? And we’ve got someone here from Orlando. What did I say? Orlando and the outskirts of Orlando. Is that right?

Tawanda Purdie01:21

Outskirts areas. Yeah.

Aaron Wittenstein01:21

Yeah. Surrounding area. Surrounding area sounds so much better than outskirts, doesn’t it? Tawanda Purdie.

01:27Tawanda, how are you doing today?

Tawanda Purdie01:28

I’m awesome. How are you?

Aaron Wittenstein01:30

I’m doing very, very well, thank you for asking. Good. So we share, because we’re both in Florida now, you know? We’re not competition because I’m a little bit further out. And so Tawanda, talk to me, what’s new and exciting?

Tawanda Purdie01:45

I’m in year four of my real estate career. I launched a team this year called The Purdie Group. And we are just rolling. Rolling, trying new things, prospecting more and more each day.

Aaron Wittenstein01:56

So what you told me is you’re not new to making cold calls or prospecting, if you will, right? You did this for a long time, right?

02:07Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Tawanda Purdie02:09

I came from 16 years in corporate sales. I started my sales career at Symantec, which is now Veritas. They were serious about the sales training. So I went through Basho sales technology training. I had to learn how to forecast in front of a group, in front of my team.

02:29So 16 years, and I was cold calling IT directors and chief technology officers all day long. I was a hunter. My job was to get past the gatekeeper, build that relationship, get them to test our solution, and hold their hand all the way till the point they said they were ready to buy.

Aaron Wittenstein02:47

Yeah, ’cause I mean, at least I’ve done my fair share of business to business back in the day. And from your experience from the B2B versus B2C, and that’s business to consumer, by the way, for those of you who don’t know, what would you say is kinda like the biggest difference from here to here?

Tawanda Purdie03:04

It’s

03:04actually a little bit easier, to tell you the truth. You don’t have to get past that gatekeeper. You know? Anything is a numbers game. I’m looking for that needle in a haystack. And so you’re gonna get those that’s gonna hang up on you, but I don’t care about those. I want that one or two people that’s willing to listen to me.

03:22And then that’s my win. That’s how I look at it.

Aaron Wittenstein03:26

Okay. All right. So let’s take that for a second. Let’s run with that for a second. So what’s the intention? How many people that you talk to today, not leads, but how many people do you consider a success to speak with in a day?

Tawanda Purdie03:38

I’m trying to build that up. I’m not gonna lie, I think I’m like six or seven weeks into Vulcan7 cold calling. But at this point, I’m content with like five to 10 conversations or people I added to my database. Some days it’s a little less, some days it’s right there. But if I’m not there, then I’ll just be on the phones an extra day that week.

Aaron Wittenstein04:02

Got it. Got it. But you said the leads. I mean, ’cause everybody knows, the leads are the most important part. They are. It’s the lifeline of our business.

Tawanda Purdie04:08

They are.

Aaron Wittenstein04:09

So at least, and I think you’ll agree with me on this, that you are able to get one lead per day, and a lead is someone that’s willing to transact with, at least how I look at it, maybe you agree or don’t agree.

04:19Someone that’s willing to transact your real estate within the next six months. And you get one of those a day, that’s a win. Wouldn’t you agree with me on that?

Tawanda Purdie04:26

I would. It’s a win, definitely.

Aaron Wittenstein04:28

All right. So here’s a question that’s going through my mind right now, okay? You, 16 years in

04:34in corporate sales, okay?

04:37And you’ve been doing this for four years. And you’re really starting to see some success over the last couple months, which is absolutely amazing.

04:44What took you so long?

Tawanda Purdie04:46

Yeah, what took me so long? I agree. I’ve asked myself the same question, “Why did it take me so long to get here, to sell real estate?”

04:53I don’t know. And I’m not a stranger to real estate. I bought my first house when I was 21. And I’m a single parent of two, so… And I bought my second house. I bought three houses as a consumer, even prior to becoming a realtor, so I don’t know what took me so long.

Aaron Wittenstein05:08

Well, I mean, what took you so…

05:10‘Cause, I mean, it sounds like you just recently started prospecting. You guys had success five, six, seven months ago.

Tawanda Purdie05:15

Because door knocking was my thing.

Aaron Wittenstein05:16

Oh.

Tawanda Purdie05:17

So I built, in my first year, my first broker told me if I prospected five different ways, I would never go dry. So I listened to that, but I 10X’d that.

05:27I doubled that by two, and I was at one point prospecting between eight and 10 different ways. But I got my first listing before even representing buyers in my first year, and I was still working my full-time job for 10 months. So still working from, like, 7:00 to 3:00 from home remotely, and then I would go door knock two streets in my neighborhood a day until that one day I got that one neighbor who was like, “Oh, we just got our kitchen renovated.

05:54We wanna sell in 30 days.” You know? And I made that as an example ’cause, like I said, I was already door knocking. And then right before the listing went live, I door knocked the neighborhood again. And then, of course, the open house, door knocked the neighborhood again.

06:10And this was two years ago, so I had over 20 offers over asking, so I door knocked again. So my one neighborhood, I’ve door knocked probably at this point 8, 10 times, but I’ve had 11 transactions in my one neighborhood.

Aaron Wittenstein06:24

Okay. So, all right. That’s really good, by the way.

06:31So you start off as door… Are you still door knocking in the neighborhood right now? Or-

Tawanda Purdie06:35

Actually, I am. I am. If I don’t feel satisfied from the calls or the connections I made on the phone, then I already got the flyers in the car and I’m gonna go hit two streets.

Aaron Wittenstein06:44

All right, now when you go door knock, someone answers the door, are they like, “Oh my gosh, how are you?”

Tawanda Purdie06:50

No, usually not. But I’m like, “Hi, I’m Tawanda.” Well, when I door knock in my neighborhood, they already know me. But when I was getting started it was, “Hi, my name’s Tawanda, I’m a neighbor, but I’m also a realtor in the area. I wanna just give you a market update.”

07:08You know? And then I said, “Do you happen to know of anyone looking to buy or sell?” And then I just kinda shut up and let them talk. And in most cases they talk, and then when we’re standing out there 10 minutes they’re like, “Why don’t you come on in?” And it kinda goes from there.

Aaron Wittenstein07:22

And so now your entire neighborhood, you’ve knocked them eight…

07:26So they know you, they know you now.

Tawanda Purdie07:26

They know me. They know me.

Aaron Wittenstein07:27

So when you knock on a door it’s like, “Oh my gosh, it’s you again.” Not to that level, you know, I mean, but-

Tawanda Purdie07:35

Not like that, no. I’ve only gotten one negative person, one negative Nancy around there.

07:41But for the most part everybody else is like, “Hey girl, what you doing?”

Aaron Wittenstein07:44

And so you’ve taken, you said how many? Like, 10 or 11 listings just from doing door knocks?

Tawanda Purdie07:48

I’ve had 11 transactions in that neighborhood.

Aaron Wittenstein07:49

That’s absolutely amazing. That’s absolutely amazing. And I would assume now, it’s like, you take that, you maybe start making some phone calls, you add that up, and you really just build that neighborhood.

08:00And that took you, what? Three years to build, right?

Tawanda Purdie08:03

I actually… That took me two years to build.

Aaron Wittenstein08:06

Two years.

Tawanda Purdie08:07

My first year as far as transactions closed was seven. By the time my second year came around, I closed 24. And then my third year I closed 25, which I am beating myself up about.

08:17I really wanted to get to 30. So we’re pushing, we’re pushing in 2024.

Aaron Wittenstein08:22

There we go. There we go. No, that’s absolutely amazing. ‘Cause, you know, I like to hear you started with door knocking because there’s not a lot of people out there that are big door knockers. Like for me, maybe it’s just because I came from Illinois and New York, and people aren’t as nice as they are in Florida.

08:36But it’s kinda one of those, you know, what’s the word?

Tawanda Purdie08:39

I’m a Philly girl. I’m a Philly girl.

Aaron Wittenstein08:41

All right, all right.

Tawanda Purdie08:42

I hate it. I left Philly when I was 19. So, no, I was totally against it, but the broker I was with, he kept pushing me, kept pushing, and I was like, “I don’t know if this is gonna work, but let me try.”

08:54And sure enough, it did work, and I actually like it. That’s why I didn’t cold call, because in my mind, I was like, “Man, if I’m door knocking, if you cold called this person and I come around and door knock them in the afternoon, they’re gonna forget whoever they talked to that morning because I’m in front of them.”

09:12“I know how to quickly build that relationship and quickly gain that trust, and carry that relationship from there.”

Aaron Wittenstein09:18

But now you’ve kinda shifted. I don’t wanna say a full shift, but you definitely have shifted more towards picking up the phone and making phone calls now.

09:26Is that right?

Tawanda Purdie09:27

I have, and in some cases, when I do connect with them, if they’re in my area, I’m most likely gonna drop something off to them that day. I’m gonna door knock them, and if they don’t answer, I’ll leave a folder at the door.

Aaron Wittenstein09:38

So what does that process look like from the beginning? Let’s say you’re calling, I don’t know, Smith Subdivision or something like that, and Smith is within your neighborhood, and you make that phone call, you make that connection.

09:47What does that process look like?

Tawanda Purdie09:49

I’m gonna follow up weekly. So immediately, when I have the conversation with people, I’m automatically gonna text them my digital business card so they can lock me in their address book. That’s the first thing. Then I’m gonna add them to my CRM, make sure that they’re included on my monthly newsletter.

10:07Of course, after I’ve asked them if that was okay. And then I just kinda follow up on a weekly basis, check in with them, how are things going? Coming from a caring, like I really care, how’s the situation going for you? From a place of caring and just, if you need anything, let me know.

Aaron Wittenstein10:28

Well, so I know I talked a little bit before we started here that you’re totally open to a role play, and I would like-

10:35I’m putting you on the spot, I know I am. No, but I would… Like I said, it’s a thing that you’re newer to it.

10:43Yet it’s, how can I put this? You’ve taken to it very well. Okay? And there’s a lot of newer agents out there that are nervous and scared that haven’t done it before.

10:53Yet with the success that you’re seeing, I would love to hear what you say if you’d be open to that.

Tawanda Purdie10:57

Yeah, that’s fine. I use the script from Bill Pipes. I actually have a coach from Bill Pipes’ team, but I use the script, so yeah, let’s go for it.

Aaron Wittenstein11:06

Give me a shout.

Tawanda Purdie11:08

Hi, I’m looking for Aaron.

Aaron Wittenstein11:10

This is. How can I help you?

Tawanda Purdie11:11

Hi, this is Tawanda with eXp. I noticed your home is no longer on the market, and I was calling to see if you are eventually planning on still selling, waiting a bit, or just taking it completely off the market.

Aaron Wittenstein11:22

I think we’re gonna wait a bit.

Tawanda Purdie11:24

Okay. Okay. Well, if your home sold, what were you planning on doing next?

Aaron Wittenstein11:30

You know, we were not 100% sure, but probably need something a little bit on the bigger side. Did you show it when it was available?

Tawanda Purdie11:38

I did not. I did not. I was too busy taking care of my other listing clients and showing their homes and such, so no, I have not. I didn’t come across yours. But let me ask you this, what was your timeframe to be moved?

Aaron Wittenstein11:51

You know, I mean, realistically, we had it up on the market for, what, the last, like, 63 months or something like that, and we would have liked to have moved already. Yet I think at this point, we just need a bit of a breather, because if I have to see one more person tramp muddy shoes through my house again, it’s gonna get a little frustrating for me.

Tawanda Purdie12:08

Oh, yeah, definitely. I’m right there with you. It can get annoying. So what do you think the reason is that your home did not sell?

Aaron Wittenstein12:16

You know what? I gotta tell you, I really don’t know. You know what I mean? Like, we really didn’t… I don’t know. I mean, we didn’t really hear much in the 63 months.

12:24Oh. Communication was terrible.

12:25So yeah, honestly, I have no idea. It’s a great house. It really is a great house.

Tawanda Purdie12:30

So how did you happen to pick your last agent?

Aaron Wittenstein12:33

It was my uncle’s cousin’s brother’s nephew.

Tawanda Purdie12:36

Interesting. Okay. All right. So you don’t know anything about his business, what he’s done in the past or anything.

12:42Okay. So knowing what you know now, what will you expect from your next agent you choose?

Aaron Wittenstein12:47

I mean, you would want them to sell the house, you know what I mean? But it’s like, I mean, that’s the goal here. But I mean, I think we may wind up re-listing with him.

12:58I’m just not 100% sure.

Tawanda Purdie13:00

With him? Why exactly would you not open it up to, interview other agents? Why would you choose the same realtor and expect a different result?

Aaron Wittenstein13:09

Well, it’s like family. It’s like family, 35 pounds in weight.

Tawanda Purdie13:13

I mean, I get it, but it’s not always the best choice.

13:16So I would urge you to just keep your options open. I would love to sit down with you for a moment, show you what my team and I have done for our customers. I have proof, I have reviews, I have my production reports, everything you need. But I would strongly urge that you just sit down to give me a shot to show you how we can get your home sold for the most money in the least amount of time.

Aaron Wittenstein13:40

And what are you gonna do differently than he did?

Tawanda Purdie13:43

And that’s what I would love to sit down with you. Give me 20 to 30 minutes of your time, and I’ll go through our whole marketing plan with you, the whole nine.

Aaron Wittenstein13:51

Okay, sure. Why not? Come on over.

Tawanda Purdie13:53

All right. All right. Well, does today at 4:15 work or tomorrow at 2:00?

Aaron Wittenstein14:00

Friday at 7:00 AM.

Tawanda Purdie14:04

Aaron, 7:00 AM. Okay.

Aaron Wittenstein14:06

Yeah, I get up early.

Tawanda Purdie14:08

Okay. Well, Aaron, let’s do this. I typically do my appointments from 12:00 PM on. Do you have any availability at 12:00 PM instead of 7:00 AM?

Aaron Wittenstein14:19

Since you sound so nice, yes, I do.

Tawanda Purdie14:20

All right, Aaron, 12 o’clock Friday, we got it.

Aaron Wittenstein14:24

Thank you very much.

Tawanda Purdie14:25

I’ll send you a meeting confirmation.

Aaron Wittenstein14:26

I appreciate it. Thank you. No, that was very good. You know what I mean? What was nice is that you had a response for every… I mean, I was just having a little bit of fun there. I know. I think we all noticed that a little bit. But you had a response for everything that I threw at you.

14:40And that’s really all I can ask for. And it’s not even the response, it doesn’t always matter what the response is, and I’m not saying the response was not where it needed to be. You didn’t think. You just responded. It was like a knee-jerk reaction. I say something, I open my mouth.

14:54I say something, I open my mouth. I say something, I open my mouth. Which is what I found to be the most impressive about what you did right there. So now, are you practicing on a regular basis, or how often?

Tawanda Purdie15:08

I do. I do. Once a day.

Aaron Wittenstein15:09

I’m shocked.

15:09I’m utterly shocked, you know. All right, so you have role play partners that you regularly practice with then?

Tawanda Purdie15:14

I mean, even if I don’t, I’m walking around the house talking to the dog or talking to my daughter, whoever. I could talk to myself and pump myself up before a call. But yes.

Aaron Wittenstein15:24

See, and that’s what it needs. What people don’t realize is it needs to become ingrained in our being, the words that come out of our mouth.

15:31Like, for example, for me, I don’t know about you, but I’m typically a morning caller myself, okay?

Tawanda Purdie15:36

Mm, so am I.

Aaron Wittenstein15:36

So I call in the morning. When I call in the afternoon, I still say good morning. That’s how ingrained this is to me. You know what I mean? It’s pretty good.

15:47So no, that’s amazing. And then I assume expireds is kind of your favorite to work out of? Is that what I’m hearing?

Tawanda Purdie15:57

Well, I can’t say it’s my favorite because I haven’t tried anything else just yet. But for right now it’s working out for me. I mean, heck, I’ve had two listing appointments without even having an actual listing appointment.

16:10One of them I followed up with and she texted me two weeks later and was like, “All right, send me the paperwork. Let’s go live.” You know? Another one was a referral, I referred to a friend agent out your way. And then another one was so weird. Like, I thought I was meeting them at a Starbucks, but they sent their teenager daughter to meet with me.

16:36That was a first. I was a bit taken aback, but I just kind of went with the flow, talked to her for, like, 10 minutes, followed her, it was for a vacant lot. Followed her to the lot and called the father two hours later, and I said, “So what are the next steps? Can we meet up?” He said, “Oh, no.

16:56She liked you. Send me the paperwork so we can get started. My daughter liked you. That’s all I needed.” I was like, “You gotta be kidding me.”

Aaron Wittenstein17:05

That’s amazing. That’s a-

17:06It’s called prospecting karma. I’m telling you, it’s when you put in the time and the effort. It doesn’t matter where the results come from.

17:13It just matters that you get results. You know what I mean? That’s what I call prospecting karma, you know? It’s what I do. So, scheduling-wise, how many hours a day right now are you making phone calls for, would you say, if you had to guess?

Tawanda Purdie17:25

I’m trying to do between 9 and 12.

17:27Between 9 and 12 for the most part.

Aaron Wittenstein17:30

Okay. So you’re putting in a good-

Tawanda Purdie17:32

For at least four days a week.

Aaron Wittenstein17:33

Okay. So you’re putting in a good 12 to 15 hours a week at this point. Okay. And like you said, it’s one good lead a day and then you’re winning, right? So, okay.

17:44So when it comes to doing all this stuff, do you have a schedule built around yourself so you really go that morning hour here?

Tawanda Purdie17:52

Oh, yeah. My calendar is now blocked out, and this was tough for me at first. I slightly have ADD, so it’s hard for me to keep still, but also, you know, the phone ringing.

18:02It was hard, but now I’m meticulous with it and phone is on do not disturb. I handle existing customers after my prospecting calls, and all those other issues or research or whatever is needed to be done. But I just had to get to the point where I’m not wasting my money on this monthly. If I’m gonna do this, I need to be sitting still and trying to make contacts.

Aaron Wittenstein18:27

So what you’re saying is block out all the distractions in your life.

Tawanda Purdie18:30

Correct. Yes.

Aaron Wittenstein18:31

So you shut your phone off, you put it on do not disturb. I’m assuming you close the door. You let everybody know, “Hey, this is prospecting time. Leave me alone.” And-

Tawanda Purdie18:41

I close the door. I turn on a fan behind me ’cause it helps to eliminate the noise outside of this room.

18:48I got a daughter, I got a dog in the house, so I turn the fan on so I can’t hear outside of the room. And I’m just laser focused.

Aaron Wittenstein18:55

Oh, see. And it’s just amazing because, you know, when you… Do you turn email off and Facebook off too or no?

Tawanda Purdie19:01

I don’t look at any of that, but I do have my MLS going because

19:06at any given point, if I get somebody, I might have to quickly look up the listing really quick.

19:11So I’ll do that, or I’m studying the market or whatever, ’cause you get bored, you know, not reaching somebody. But I’m always ready as soon as that person comes on the phone.

Aaron Wittenstein19:20

All right. So I think what happens to a lot of people in general out there is they get bored with the repetitious boredom.

19:27All right? Because, you know, sitting here, it’s not simple, but it’s not easy is the best way to put it. How does that work with you when you’re sitting there for an hour, you get nobody?

Tawanda Purdie19:40

Well, here’s from my history of cold calling, which was years, it never freaking failed, man.

19:45I might go 200 calls without nothing, and then when I get to that 250, there’s that one. So I learned that from experience, so it’s the same thing. So I’m gonna stay on the phones until I get somebody. I’m just gonna keep going. It’s a numbers game. The more people you call, you’re gonna get closer to that lead.

Aaron Wittenstein20:07

100%. All right, so let me ask you this. You get a brand new agent that comes across your desk, knocks on your door, “Tawanda, I’m brand new. I’ve been doing this for three hours.” What is your one piece of advice that you would have for this brand new agent?

Tawanda Purdie20:21

You better build tough skin. No soft skin here.

20:25Somebody hangs up on you, so what? Move on, next. I don’t wanna work with them anyway. Some people get just hung up on that one person that hung up on them or said something mean or whatever, and it just destroys your day. No, whatever. No. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Keep going. Somebody wants to talk to you.

Aaron Wittenstein20:41

I love it. And it’s right, sweet and to the point. Okay. So we’re gonna wrap up here. All right. So, like I said, you’ve seen amazing success in a short period of time, which is awesome. And people can gravitate towards that, especially our newer agents here that see when you put in the work, you put in the effort, you put in the time, it just follows.

21:05So what’s your final last words for Vulcan7 Roadmap Nation, if you will?

Tawanda Purdie21:10

Final last words. Well, first of all, I appreciate Vulcan7. ‘Cause when I first started this journey, someone else told me to use a competitor, and I went to the CRM and I was lost. I was flipping lost.

21:24And I was like, “I cannot spend my time training on this system for a week. I’m wasting money.” So I cancelled, came over to Vulcan7. I feel like it’s a much easier CRM to work out of. Just get a little bit of advice here and there, but find what works for you and just go all at it, you know?

21:42And you’re not gonna learn if it works or not if you give up after a month. Sometimes it takes six months to a year to see exactly what worked for you, and sit down at the end of each year and look at deals you closed and where they came from, and then you know where to focus your attention on the next year, what worked the previous year.

22:00But you gotta give it at least six months to see if it’s gonna work out for you.

Aaron Wittenstein22:06

Perfect. I agree 1,000 billion million percent. So, all right, let’s say, hypothetically speaking, there’s an amazing person watching this in Montana, okay, and they have a referral for Orlando or the surrounding areas of Orlando.

22:18How would someone get in touch with you?

Tawanda Purdie22:21

My phone number is 352-346-3721. Or find me on Instagram, all social media, tawandapurdie_realtor. Or shoot me an email, realtor@tawandapurdie.com.

Aaron Wittenstein22:35

Beautiful. I wanna say thank you-

Tawanda Purdie22:39

I’d love to work with your referrals. I will get them to the closing table.

22:42You better believe that.

Aaron Wittenstein22:43

I have no doubt in my mind you will. I don’t know why. It’s a wild guess, but I think you’re gonna do okay. I think you’re gonna be okay. All right. So, Tawanda, I wanna say thank you so much for hanging out with us today.

Tawanda Purdie22:52

No problem. Thank you for having me.

Aaron Wittenstein22:54

You’re very welcome.

22:55We learned a lot. And guys, look out for other interviews with amazing agents across the country. Maybe not as amazing as Tawanda, but amazing agents across the country. And do me all a favor and go make some money. Take care of yourselves. Be well.