How Alex Piech gets a third of his business from expireds with a buyer database

Alex Piech00:00

Master your scripts, make your calls, put your head down, don’t look up for 90 days. You’re gonna look up and you’re gonna have so much business in 90 days, your jaw will hit the ground. I used to play a game when I first started. Like most agents, I didn’t love prospecting, so I read a book, Go for No, and I used to set a goal.

00:18If I can get 20 noes, I can stop prospecting for the day. You really just gotta hit it with what you have: time, energy. Put your head down, work hard for 60, 90 days, come up, and then reevaluate. I promise you, if you do this for 90 days, you’re going to have multiple listings working.

Aaron Wittenstein00:46

Hey, what’s going on everybody? It’s me, it’s Aaron Wittenstein, and I would like to welcome you all to Vulcan7 Roadmap. This is where we interview agents across the country, just how to basically take a lot of listings a week. Okay? So here we have, all the way from Frisco, Texas. Frisco, Texas.

01:03We have Alex Piech. Alex, how are you, my friend?

Alex Piech01:07

I’m doing fantastic, Aaron. How are you?

Aaron Wittenstein01:08

You know what? If I was any better, I would be a twin today. All right? That’s how good I’m doing. Okay. So we were chatting it up a little bit, and about a third of your business right now is expired listings.

01:22Is that correct?

Alex Piech01:23

Yeah, absolutely.

Aaron Wittenstein01:24

Okay. And you kind of have a system that you go for when you’re doing the expireds. Can you share that a little bit?

Alex Piech01:32

Yeah. So what we were talking about is I really try to align all of my marketing and all of my lead generation so they complement each other. So for example, I’m very targeted in the geographical area that I service.

01:47I’m very targeted in the geographical and price point of where I generate my buyer leads. So I’ve used that to align with Vulcan7 and the expired listings that I prospect. So for example, I’m in North Dallas. I’m not prospecting the Fort Worth area. It doesn’t align to where I’m spending all of my marketing dollars, where if I actually stick specifically to your Plano, Frisco, Prosper, Celina, McKinney, Allen, that’s where all my marketing dollars are generating buyer opportunities.

02:22So I can target those expireds, and there’s a good likelihood I’ve got a buyer pool that is searching for a home that aligns to the expired’s criteria. And then I also do it by price point. So I’m very specific and intentional on who I prospect.

Aaron Wittenstein02:40

That’s different. I like that. So tell me if I…

02:43‘Cause like you said, I was paying attention there, is you go with the buyers, and then you go with the buyers to get the listings. Is that correct?

Alex Piech02:49

Yeah. The easiest way to get a seller to wanna work with you is to actually prove to them that you have buyers, right? ‘Cause what does a seller want?

02:56They wanna get their home sold. So your ability to show that you can create a market for their home, and not just throw it on the MLS, ’cause they’ve already gone through that. They’ve gone with the realtor who has no marketing plan, they threw it on the MLS. They waited for all the other agents to show their home.

03:14So when you come in and say, “Hey, we don’t know each other, but I’ve been generating buyers in Frisco, Texas that align to your price point and your home for the last 10 years, and I can show you a database of every buyer with the Frisco tag and their active search,” I’ve just completely differentiated a different level of service in what I bring to the table for that seller.

Aaron Wittenstein03:37

I like that.

03:37That’s an interesting concept because most people go in with broad strokes, right? So what you’re doing is you’re really zooming it in there to say, “I’ve got someone for your property.” It may or may not be… You know what I mean? ‘Cause I’m a firm believer, if you don’t have somebody, don’t say you have someone for your property, just because it’s not the best way to start off.

04:00But you genuinely may have someone for their home. Is that correct?

Alex Piech04:04

Yeah. And that kind of ties right into my scripting, right? We never ever say something that we can’t back up. And there are, as you know, there’s people, “Well, I’ve got a buyer for your home.” How do you know? You’ve never seen it, right?

04:19So we’re very forward with the sellers here. “Hey, I don’t know if I have a buyer, but I’ve been generating buyer leads for Frisco, Texas for the last 10 years, and I’ve got a database of over 7,000 buyers. I’m sure there’s somebody in there who matches your home’s criteria.” And what’s awesome is through some of your different technologies, you can go through your buyer list, and you can look at their saved search to see, do you have a saved search in your CRM that aligns with the basic specs of that home?

04:51It’s like a reverse prospecting tool. A lot of CRMs offer that nowadays. That’s a great way, again, to prove. To me it’s you gotta differentiate yourself, but you have to back it up, right? You said it, I don’t wanna walk into a relationship misleading that seller by overpromising, ’cause I think that’s really kind of been a sleazy way that a lot of realtors have been taught for a lot of years.

05:16Just get your foot in the door, overpromise, and then back down those promises, and that’s not the way that I choose to run my business.

Aaron Wittenstein05:23

Well, it’s smart. I mean, you know what I mean? When you’ve been building a list for that long. And it’s the way you say it. I always say it’s how you say it, within the context of what you got.

05:34All right, so let’s do this then. Everybody here knows I’m huge on doing a little bit of role play, okay? Let’s pretend that I’m a $750,000 buyer that happens to be in Frisco, Texas, because the one thing you said too is that you’re really focusing on one particular… Like you cherry-pick, right?

Alex Piech05:53

Yeah.

Aaron Wittenstein05:55

Okay. Would you mind giving me a call?

Alex Piech05:58

Yeah, sure. So ring ring.

Aaron Wittenstein06:00

Hello.

Alex Piech06:01

Hello, Aaron. Hey, my name is Alex. I’m a local real estate agent. I saw your home came off the market. I was simply calling to see if you’re still open to selling.

Aaron Wittenstein06:11

I mean, yeah. I mean, I guess so.

Alex Piech06:13

You guess so? Okay, fantastic. Hey, Aaron, I’m really curious.

06:17Had you sold your home originally, where were you planning on going to next?

Aaron Wittenstein06:21

We were moving to Tampa, Florida.

Alex Piech06:24

Tampa? What was bringing you guys out to Tampa, Florida?

Aaron Wittenstein06:28

We wanna live by the bay.

Alex Piech06:31

Live by the bay. Hey, I can’t blame you, right? There’s no water anywhere near Frisco, so I definitely understand that.

06:38When were you guys hoping to get out by the bay?

Aaron Wittenstein06:40

We’re flexible at this point. Here’s what I’ll tell you is that we’re gonna be holding off for probably about the next three to four months right now. We just don’t wanna show the house anymore. But if you have a buyer, you’re more than welcome to bring them on through.

Alex Piech06:53

Okay. Hey, I completely understand. You’re gonna be holding off about three to four months right now. What’s the benefit of holding off for the next three to four months for you?

Aaron Wittenstein07:01

It’s just been… I mean, we’ve had the house on the market for six, what, six and a half. You probably know better than I do.

07:06And I just don’t wanna deal with it right now.

Alex Piech07:09

Don’t wanna deal with it. Yeah, six and a half months. I definitely understand. I’m really curious, I was looking at your pictures online. Home looks amazing. What do you think stopped your home from selling when it was on the market?

Aaron Wittenstein07:22

I have no idea.

07:22I mean, you tell me.

Alex Piech07:24

Gotcha. So you’re unsure. I mean, when your agent was giving you your weekly check-in calls, were they telling you what was going on in the market? Did they feed back-

Aaron Wittenstein07:31

We didn’t really talk to them very… Yeah, we didn’t really get much of that.

Alex Piech07:35

You’re kidding me.

Aaron Wittenstein07:37

No.

Alex Piech07:38

Wow. I’m curious, how did you happen to pick the last agent that you worked with?

Aaron Wittenstein07:43

It was my sister’s brother’s uncle.

Alex Piech07:46

Sister’s brother’s uncle. Okay. So a little bit of obligation. Well, knowing what you know now, what will you expect differently from the next agent that you choose to work with?

Aaron Wittenstein07:57

Well, of course I want them to sell the house. I mean, that’s the number one goal with the whole thing.

08:03Yet, I mean, now, so do you have a buyer for my house? Because like I said, we’re gonna offer out XYZ plus 73 if you have a buyer.

Alex Piech08:14

Yeah. Great. Hey, you know what? I’m a very straight shooter with people. I don’t know. I’ve never seen your home.

08:19What I can tell you is I’ve been exclusively marketing to home buyers in the Frisco market. I actually live in Frisco. So I’ve been generating home buyer leads who are actively searching for Frisco homes for over 10 years. So we’ve got a database of over 7,000, and I can put your home’s criteria into my database, reverse engineer to get a list of every single buyer that we’re working with in person and online that matches your home.

08:48So there’s a chance, but I never overpromise. That’s just not how we do business. Have you already chosen to work with the next agent?

Aaron Wittenstein08:56

No, like I said, we’re either three or four… If you wanna go do your reverse engineering stuff, do that, and if you have a buyer, bring them on through.

Alex Piech09:05

Awesome. Well, hey, I would love to really apply for that job of helping you get your home sold, helping your family get to the bay. Are you familiar with the strategies and the tactics we use to sell homes just like yours to its full- No, every one of you guys are the same. Yeah. We hear that the same, and I gotta be honest with you.

09:22I’ve been selling real estate for 21 years, and I would say probably about 90% of the agents are the same, and that’s because 10% of the agents are selling upwards of 90% of all the homes. I’d love to sit down and show you exactly what we do differently, and here’s my promise. If I don’t knock your socks off in the first 10 minutes of how different we are and how we use a proven repeatable home selling strategy, you can throw me out of your house.

09:48When would you have 15 or 20 minutes? I’ve got Tuesday at 5:00 or Friday at 6:00. Which would be better for you?

Aaron Wittenstein09:54

You can come by tomorrow at 12:37.

Alex Piech09:57

Awesome. And from there I would then just get into a couple of qualifying questions.

Aaron Wittenstein10:04

Of course, of course. Yeah, I mean, I can definitely tell you’re well-practiced.

10:08There was no ifs, ands, or ums in the conversation, which was great. I loved how you tied in the buyer stuff that you have working with. So tell me a little bit more about that, in regards to your buyer pool, to be able to utilize that on the phone calls.

Alex Piech10:27

Yeah. So as a real estate agent, couple things. If you’ve done open houses and you’re tracking the people that come to your open houses, you should have some buyers in your CRM. If you’ve generated Google pay-per-click leads, Facebook leads, anything like that, you should have a pool of buyers.

10:45Now, depending on what level you do that and for how long you’ve been doing that, that number’s gonna get bigger and bigger and bigger. I know agents who have 50,000 people in their CRM. It doesn’t necessarily matter the number. Ours has gotten big enough to where we’ll actually leverage it a little bit.

11:01But it really just is, are you generating buyer opportunities? I do both. We prospect with Vulcan for seller leads, and then we also have some buyer lead generation going at the same time. I like to be on both sides of the market, no matter what’s going on. If it’s a great seller’s market, you go heavy into sellers.

11:22When the market shifts, we’ve got some buyers, and we can take advantage of the market conditions for buyers to get better deals. So I like to be on both ends of that, and I always found it a great way, even for circle prospecting using the neighborhood data. The best way to make a phone call is to say, “I’m working with a buyer.

11:42We’ve met. They’re qualified. They’ve identified three neighborhoods in Frisco. Here’s their budget. Here’s what they’re looking for. Do you know anybody in your neighborhood who’s thinking about selling?” And actually having a live qualified buyer. So I think good buyers can absolutely help in prospecting for seller opportunities as well.

Aaron Wittenstein12:03

How big is your buyer database right now, if you had to guess?

Alex Piech12:06

We’re probably closing in on 9,000.

Aaron Wittenstein12:11

Okay. All right. So realistically, when you make a phone call, I’m assuming it’s a nice, clean list, you know what I mean? Just knowing you from the little that I know you, it’s a nice list. When you say, “I may have a buyer for your home,” you genuinely may have a buyer for their home, correct?

Alex Piech12:35

There’s a chance we’ve got somebody in their database. Yeah. For me, the “I have a buyer for your home” is probably my least favorite foot in the door. For me, I believe there’s several reasons why homes don’t sell, and a lot of times you could just simply look and say, “Man, that home was not properly marketed.”

12:56There’s been several homes that we have taken from expired, put on the market, and sold at a higher price than what it sat on the market for, simply because of how we can demonstrate what we do differently. So my homes are professionally cleaned. I have a home stager that comes in for two and a half hours with the sellers.

13:15We have a coming soon marketing campaign that runs 10 days in advance. We list on a specific day. We open house throughout the weekend. We really try to create a frenzy on the opening weekend. And when I sit with my sellers, I’m demonstrating a systemized approach that includes marketing, traditional marketing, online marketing, digital marketing.

13:39And that’s really to me the piece that I enjoy because I know that matters more so than just always relating to, oh, it’s overpriced. Now, a lot of times we know price plays a role, but sometimes you just look at the pictures and the house looks like shit. I mean, they used their iPhone for photos.

13:58They didn’t clean up any of the bedrooms. I’ve got one now where a sister-in-law listed the home, and they just went in there in the current condition and photographed the home, and it didn’t show well. So simply going in and prepping the home the right way, having a coming soon marketing plan.

14:16They’ll actually close December 23rd, and they sat on the market for 90 days with their sister and sister-in-law, and they had literally four showings in 90 days. We had over 22 people in an open house in the opening weekend. So-

Aaron Wittenstein14:32

So what you’re telling me is you have to have a system in place to get the house sold.

14:38Is that correct?

Alex Piech14:40

That’s what I believe in. And for me, I actually believe that you need to demonstrate to the seller, ’cause you said it, “Oh, all you realtors are the same.” And unfortunately, in the consumer’s eyes, we are all the same. And if you can’t demonstrate a unique value proposition, what it is that you do that is significantly different, to where they look at each other and say, “Wow, nobody has showed us this.

15:03Nobody’s taken the time to break this down. Nobody showed us a calendar that says, we have our home prep team come here. We have photographs here. Our website for the home launches here. Opening weekend is here. Open house, open house.” Nobody’s doing that. So a lot of it is you’ve gotta articulate and demonstrate visually what you do, and then you gotta have the success stories ultimately that back up your proven repeatable system that you use.

Aaron Wittenstein15:33

Because it’s all about having a system and process, right? And being a new agent or an experienced agent or all that, if you can’t articulate, you know what Alex is saying here, you can be the best agent in the world, be the best realtor in the world, yet if you don’t share what you do with the public, it just doesn’t matter, correct?

Alex Piech15:55

Yeah. So I would say, value unarticulated is value unappreciated, right?

Aaron Wittenstein16:00

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don’t let that slide over. Repeat that, please.

Alex Piech16:03

Value unarticulated is value unappreciated. Yeah. So if you don’t take the time to really break down what it is you do… So again, we’re in the business, right?

16:12You might do the same thing that I do, and for you it’s like, “Oh, this is no big deal. I do it on every single listing.” But I take the time to tell the seller I’m doing it. Now they appreciate it. So I’ve just really broken down all the steps in the process to make sure a home seller understands all the moving pieces in the home selling process, and let them know that we actually have it covered, and they really appreciate that.

Aaron Wittenstein16:37

You just have to, because I just love what you said right there. I think everybody should take that to heart, when we repeated it twice. Okay. So when you take the listing, are you speaking with your sellers regularly, or what does that look like?

Alex Piech16:53

Yeah. So what I like to do is either every Friday or every other Friday, depending on how listing load is, we’ll do just a seller touch base, very high level. And it can actually be done via a voicemail drop. Or I use BombBomb video. I use a ton of technology, so I like video, so I’ll send them a little video snippet, and I do that because I can screen record, right?

17:16So even if you use, what is it, Zoom, like what we’re on, or something like that, and you do a video and it’s customized and it’s three minutes, just like, “Hey, it’s Alex. Just wanted to give you this week’s market update, kind of give you an update, and I’m gonna share my screen with you.

17:31Look, we’ve had this many showings. Here’s the feedback that we’ve pulled in. I’m still calling that agent for feedback. I did look, we’ve had two new listings come on the market. Nothing has gone under contract, so it’s not like we’ve missed out on any buyers.” So I’m giving them a quick little input into the market.

17:47I’m keeping them updated on the competition and what we’ve done marketing, and then I’ll say, “Here’s what we have planned for next week.”

Aaron Wittenstein17:55

Yeah. I mean, that’s what you have to do. You gotta stay in touch with people because if they don’t know that you’re doing something, they automatically think you’re doing what?

Alex Piech18:04

Nothing.

Aaron Wittenstein18:05

Nothing. Exactly. Exactly. Okay, my friend, so check this out. Your door’s closed. You hear a knocking at your door, it’s a brand new agent, fresh off the licensing field, okay? And they’re like, “Alex, I hear you’re really, really good at what you do. What is one piece of advice that you could give me?”

Alex Piech18:25

Yeah, that’s great. So as a brand new agent, you wanna do the things that cost you the least amount of money, unless you’ve got deep pockets. But what I found is most of the agents coming here don’t have a very long runway, and they don’t have the savings to sustain for months on end. So I think leveraging a tool like Vulcan, using the data, these people have already raised their hands.

18:47You know there’s some level of motivation. You need to get yourself in front of the data, and you have to memorize and internalize your script. So what I always tell agents, “Hey, whatever script you’re gonna use, I don’t care. There’s probably ten scripts, and guess what? If you talk to ten of the top prospectors, it works.

19:05Why? Because they’ve mastered that script. They’re not fumbling, stumbling over their words. They’re delivering it with confidence, clearly articulating their value.” I would take my script, I would practice for thirty minutes a day. I would read it out loud, I would record it into my phone, I’d listen to it back, and I would hand write it.

19:27I’m a big person of learning in all the different modalities, handwriting, reading, listening, and do that until not only you’ve memorized it, but you’ve internalized it, because you don’t wanna be a robot in every word. You wanna be able to have a good casual conversation. Do that, and then get on the phone and prospect, prospect.

19:50Because let’s just say it takes you fifty, sixty conversations to get your foot in the door. Start now. Start now. You’re not gonna find a lead source that’s gonna generate now business better than an expired opportunity. And I’ve been doing this for twenty-one years. There’s nothing else that has that quick of a turnaround where you can get on the phone today and set an appointment today.

20:15Lead generation, Facebook, Instagram, all of them, Google. The conversion rates on those things, irregardless of what the tech companies tell you, maybe half a percent. It’s not one to three percent, it’s about half a percent. So I think this is the fastest, easiest way to just cut your teeth.

20:37And then you’re also in control of your business too. The more you prospect, the harder you work, the shorter that timeframe becomes. So as a new agent, you have nothing but time. Prospect for three to four hours a day.

Aaron Wittenstein20:49

Yes, what he said. Aaron approved. Okay, so let’s tie this in a nice little bow.

20:56All right? What are your final words for the wonderful Vulcan7 nation?

Alex Piech21:02

Yeah, again, I think with Vulcan, and I’ve tested so many different platforms, the quality of the data that you guys provide has been phenomenal. And I believe that if you come in, you get set up, you attend all of the training that Vulcan provides… Just get immersed.

21:25Listen to other people that are having success. That’ll continue to push you to have belief that this will work. Master your scripts, make your calls. Put your head down, don’t look up for 90 days. You’re gonna look up and you’re gonna have so much business in 90 days, you’re gonna feel like your jaw will hit the ground.

21:46People will call for a week and get discouraged because they didn’t get a listing. You go for 90 days before you evaluate it. I used to play a game. When I first started, like most agents, I didn’t love prospecting, so I read a book, Go for No, and I used to set a goal. If I can get 20 noes, I can stop prospecting for the day.

22:09So I had a little whiteboard, and if it was “Go pound sand,” “Don’t ever call me,” “All you realtors,” that was a no, and I got to put a check mark. When I got to 20, I got to get off the phone that day. So you can gamify it in the beginning, but you really just gotta hit it with what you have.

22:26Time, energy. Put your head down, work hard for 60, 90 days, come up, and then reevaluate. I promise you, if you do this for 90 days, you’re going to have multiple listings working.

Aaron Wittenstein22:40

Perfect. I love it. Yes. Mic drop done. We’re good. All right, Alex, remind us what areas you cover, and if someone does have a referral in said areas, how does one get in touch with you?

Alex Piech22:51

Yeah, absolutely. So I do everything north of Dallas. So we call it North Dallas, so your Plano, Frisco, Prosper, Celina. If you’re looking in DFW, I cover about a 45-mile radius around DFW. How to get ahold of me, I’m on every social media just with my name, Alex Piech. Give me a call, shoot me a text, send me an email, whatever’s easiest for you.

23:15But yeah, anybody moving to DFW, we’d love to help them out.

Aaron Wittenstein23:19

All right, my friend, I wanna thank you so much. This is great. This is absolutely great. And do me a favor. Don’t forget to trust the process and go make some money. Y’all take care of yourselves. Be well, okay?