Bill Crespo on previewing one FSBO a day to take 2 to 3 listings a month

Bill Crespo00:00

What I’m talking to clients about right now is there’s three specific areas that we got to get really, really good at. I’m not talking good as a real estate agent, but good as a business person. I think that’s the biggest difference. Today, you’ve got to be a business person. You cannot be a real estate agent.

00:20Real estate agents don’t make the kind of money they should. Business people do. So if we approach this from a business perspective in three categories, lead generation, lead conversion, and presentation skills, it has to go to a higher level of skill for all those three areas. That has to be the foundation today, because it’s really gonna take more of that individual to be good in those areas.

00:42But here’s what’s really cool. If you are really working on those areas at a higher level starting today, even if you’ve been in business for six months, a year, you’re gonna be in it for a long time.

Loida Velasquez00:54

I agree. I feel that a lot of agents need to see themselves as business owners, because at the end of the day, if we’re not putting deals together, if we’re not getting contracts signed, we’re not getting paid, unfortunately.

01:05Yeah. And skills pay the bills. I like to say that. If you’re not working on them, you’re probably falling behind.

Bill Crespo01:11

And social media is a good thing, but it’s a bad thing if you think that’s what you gotta do first without having lead generation, lead conversion, and presentation skills down.

01:20You’re distracted.

Loida Velasquez01:31

Welcome to Vulcan7 Coaches and Mentors, a show where we interview coaches and mentors all over the country, and they share with us their tips and strategies so that you can succeed as a real estate agent. If you know of anyone that might be a good fit for this show, reach out to us. We would love to have them on.

01:50Without further ado, I would love to introduce you to today’s guest, Bill Crespo. So for anyone that’s watching that maybe doesn’t know who you are, go ahead and share with us, maybe in 30 seconds, a little bit about you.

Bill Crespo02:02

I was born a small child. No, I’m just kidding. So anyway, I’ve been in the real estate business for 38 years.

02:08This is my 30th year in the business. I was a Mike Ferry coach for a long time, was with Maps Coaching. I have my own franchise, was a corporate person for Century 21. So I’ve been around for a long time. My market is in Virginia, and that’s where I’ve been. So I coach teams, and I have my own team here in Virginia Beach.

Loida Velasquez02:32

So in this show, we wanna feature coaches and mentors. You’ve been in the business for a long time. I know that the market has changed. You’ve gone through so many different markets in your time. So can you share with us what you’re seeing or what you’re sharing with the agents right now to prepare, whether they’re working with buyers or sellers, or how to gain momentum if they feel like they’re getting stuck?

Bill Crespo02:54

Yeah. You know what? It’s so interesting, because this is going to be a little version of 2008, 2009, ’10, all that time. It’s another version of this, and I think what’s happened right now is that it got really easy for a while to do the business, and now we’re going back to high-level skills.

03:10And what I’m talking to clients about right now is there’s three specific areas that we got to get really, really good at, and not good at… And this is gonna be pretty bad because I’m a coach. I’m not talking good as a real estate agent, but good as a business person, and I think that’s the biggest difference.

03:31Today you’ve got to be a business person. You cannot be a real estate agent. Real estate agents don’t make the kind of money they should. Business people do. So if we approach this from a business perspective in three categories, lead generation, lead conversion, and presentation skills, it has to go to a higher level of skill for all those three areas.

03:50That has to be the foundation today, because it’s really gonna take more of that individual to be good in those areas. But here’s what’s really cool. If you are really working on those areas at a higher level starting today, even if you’ve been in business for six months, a year, you’re gonna be in it for a long time.

04:11I asked a guy the other day, I said, “What is your commitment level?” And we went over a scale of one to 10 in each one of these categories, and his total score was pretty low, but his heart and his desire to make a change is big, and I think that’s necessary today. You’ve got to wanna play big in this arena, because it’s not the same market, and it will not be for a while.

Loida Velasquez04:31

Yeah, absolutely. No, I agree. I feel that a lot of agents need to see themselves as business owners, because at the end of the day, if we’re not putting deals together, if we’re not getting contracts signed, we’re not getting paid, unfortunately. And yeah, skills pay the bills. I like to say that.

04:48If you’re not working on them, you’re probably falling behind.

Bill Crespo04:52

Yeah, and I think the skills that we tend to forget is that we have to have high ticket selling skills.

Bill Crespo04:59

You’re not selling a paper route. You’re not selling Mary Kay. You’re selling a high ticket item, which means you gotta have high ticket level skills.

05:11And think about this. Over the years, a lot of these people that used to train this are no longer living, because we got into social media so much-

05:21that we lost the ability to communicate at a higher level and understand what goes on in the behavior of the other person on the other end.

05:30Because when we’re nervous, we tend to talk too much.

05:35And then we repel that person on the other end of the conversation. So there are some basic mistakes that I think are being made right now with agents off of some scripts that are out there today that are putting people into fight or flight, and that’s what we gotta be careful of.

Loida Velasquez05:50

Yeah, no, I’m glad that you’re bringing up social media, because I see it a lot as well, where agents would rather create videos or dance on TikTok and try to generate leads that way. And at the end of the day, the way that I built my business was cold calling expireds, for sale by owners, and door knocking, and I feel that with all of the skills that I gained by doing that, anyone that’s just focusing on social media, we’re at a completely different skill set in being able to communicate and convert potential clients.

Bill Crespo06:20

And social media is a good thing, but it’s a bad thing if you think that’s what you gotta do first without having lead generation, lead conversion, and presentation skills down. You’re distracted. I was talking to a lady today and I just said, “Just stay away from it for at least six months.

06:36Get your fundamentals down to a higher level. Rate yourself in these areas.” And again, I’ve seen this in several industries. I used to sell franchises prior to real estate. I had my own marketing company at one time. So before I got into real estate, I got this exposure to corporate selling, not real estate selling.

06:57And the mistake that’s being made now, most of the training is based on real estate fundamentals. It’s not gonna help you. You’ve gotta get a higher level skill of communication, all these other things. And Vulcan7, and this is my little brief commercial. In the old days… You know, I’m that guy now that goes, “In the old days.”

07:19But this is a gift, to be able to sit there and press one finger on a button and get these phone numbers to come out. And when I see people not applying themselves on a regular basis to digging deep and getting these calls made, I hear, “Well, there’s nobody home.” There’s someone home, I guarantee it.

07:40It may take more contacts, but there are people home. People answer, and I’m doing it because I’m building my team up here, and I’m the best prospector. I’ve taught power prospecting for 10 years around the country, where people were in my classroom for two days, and some of you might have been in that class, and I’m watching them prospect and coaching them live, and I could tell you that people are home.

08:05You just gotta stay with it, and sometimes we just get disappointed, and we get distracted, and we get bummed out because it’s not working, but you gotta stick with it, and as you said, Loida, it’s a business mindset. ‘Cause business people don’t just give up. They stick with it.

Loida Velasquez08:21

Exactly. And it might take time. You’ll get discouraged. For some, cold calling’s probably not fun. But I know, for example, with me, when I would do it, it was like, that next person is gonna be that one that needs my help. And I think it’s also a lot about mindset. You really have to think of yourself as that agent that needs to help that homeowner.

08:43Another thing that I would tell myself is that if it’s not me making the calls or setting these appointments, there might be a really bad agent that doesn’t know what they’re doing that’s getting those listings, so why not it be me? So that’s just my tip.

Bill Crespo08:58

Yeah, no, I think that’s great. Because you’ve done this for a while, I’ve done it for a long time, but it’s funny how our brain works.

09:04So you’ll be making these calls, and all of a sudden you look at a phone number, and you actually know the personality style of the person, that you haven’t even talked to them yet, and all these little negative thoughts go in your head. You look at a price-

09:18on an expired that has another couple zeros, and you start getting freaked out. They’re just people. You just gotta keep calling. And who was I talking to? It was Chris Heller who was talking to me. I interviewed him a month ago on our show, and he was saying, “Your second thought is the thought you gotta control.”

09:35Think about it. So you got a prospect, you gotta make the call. All of a sudden you start thinking, “Oh my gosh, they’re gonna think I’m disrupting them,” or, “What if I’m calling at the wrong time?” Forget it. Just make the calls, because you’ve gotta put your family first. You gotta put your bills first.

09:51You can’t put some stranger first. And you’re gonna see this, Loida, and this is something that’s interesting. You’re gonna see a lot of people having to change direction in the next 90 days, dramatically, who you thought was doing really well.

10:05Because it’s so easy to do well when things are easy.

10:10It’s now the people with the skills, and with the tools that we have here at Vulcan, you’ve gotta use it. I can’t imagine not using these things. So it is going to be something really interesting. But I think it’s necessary, so that we actually now start showing people that we’re worth the money that they’re paying, and that you or me or whoever has higher skills than the next person.

10:38And it has to be demonstrated.

Loida Velasquez10:41

So I know that there’s a lot of agents out there that have probably gone after buyers, or it has been easier to work with buyers, but now they wanna start to transition to getting listings. What would you say would be the first step, whether it’s getting on that mindset of being a listing agent, to actually getting listings and generating those type of leads?

Bill Crespo11:04

First, take a breath, breathe, because you start getting palpitations, right? Oh my gosh, I’m dealing with buyers. First of all, I think one thing that we’re not doing enough of is, let’s look at the stats. If you wanna sell 50 deals, 25 deals, 36 deals, 100 deals, I guarantee you in a market there are those deals available for you.

11:26We tend not to look at the stats, so our brain goes into, “Oh my gosh, there’s nothing out there. There’s no expireds. There’s no FSBOs.” And you can see here with Vulcan, they’re there, but I think we’re not understanding the stats. I looked at my stats, and what’s exciting about the stats, you’re seeing a merger of what the list price to sale price is.

11:45So there’s some graphs where you start seeing the lines converge, meaning that what it’s listed for, they’re gonna get, or maybe a little bit less. So there is an opportunity, and you’ve gotta believe in yourself, and you gotta believe that whoever owns the inventory really owns it. I mean, they’re not buying tents.

12:03When the market shifts, they’re not buying campers, they’re buying houses. So who’s gonna own that house? You should have that inventory. First of all, I don’t like taking buyers. I don’t know, how were you? Were you taking buyers around?

Loida Velasquez12:19

I’d rather focus on listings.

Bill Crespo12:21

Yeah, of course. I mean, they wreck my car. They do stuff. I don’t want people in my car. So I just wanna be able to deal, because I had a family. I had six kids. So every house was important for me to sell, but for me to leverage my time, I had to have listings.

12:39Because listings would give me the time I needed so I didn’t have to work crazy hours, and typically, right now I’m probably a 9:00 to 6:00, 9:00 to 5:00 type of person, because I’m making the calls on a regular basis. I’m setting up the previews and I’m going out to see these houses. But the buyer agents just have to know, you gotta have more confidence in yourself, and I think the other thing is not to over-rapport.

13:04I think a buyer agent tends to wanna over-rapport with people, and then people start to not have that credibility. They don’t need a best friend. They don’t need a family member. They need a consultant, and once you move over to the listing side of it, they will need your help in this marketplace, so you gotta study it so you’re not over-rapporting and just wanting a hug and a kiss with someone.

13:24You gotta tell them that you know something, and I think you have to study the market.

Loida Velasquez13:28

Yeah, exactly. I think I also hear it a lot of times that agents, they’d rather go after buyers because it’s easier. And look, it might be easier, but you’re spending a lot of time, a lot of weekends, a lot of offers that don’t get accepted.

13:42And for me, I’d rather focus on something, even if it’s harder, even if it’s tougher, and get those skills up to the point that you’ll get much better at converting and objection handling and setting appointments and getting contracts signed with those listings.

Bill Crespo13:58

Yeah. Or you become a glorified Uber driver.

Loida Velasquez14:00

Exactly. Yes.

Bill Crespo14:02

I mean, you might as well just get an Uber driver job, because sometimes it’s like that with people. They’re driving. They can’t wait. See, human nature is gonna take advantage of us in some cases. I mean, I know that we wanna service these people, but I think we gotta over-qualify them for their motivation, over-qualify them, and we talk about asking the question, “Are you ready to be competitive in this marketplace?”

14:26Because if you’re not, you’re just wasting your time. So I have a team out in New Jersey that I’m coaching. We talked about this last week, is that you just can’t get in your car first. You’ve gotta ask some specific questions. I think sometimes we’re afraid to ask the money question.

14:43Because we’re afraid to get offended. If you’ve been in the business more than a year, or less than six months or more, you’ve been offended by someone lying to you in real estate. Or maybe they didn’t intentionally lie, but the situation wasn’t exactly what they said it was. So we’re gonna have to get used to, in my opinion, asking specific questions, because that’s what a consultant does.

15:07If you go to a dentist, you go to a doctor, you go to an attorney, they’re gonna ask specific questions on situations to make sure that they understand you. I don’t understand how real estate people, who can make as much money as those people, don’t get better at asking the tough questions, and I think that’s maybe that jump from a buyer’s agent to a listing agent, is that you’re gonna have to now ask specific questions.

15:31And even a buyer, I wouldn’t put a buyer in my car unless I knew that they’re ready to do something in a short amount of time, ’cause I don’t like being an Uber driver.

Loida Velasquez15:40

At all. No, exactly. I know exactly what you mean. And I think it’s really important for everyone to know, you have to ask very specific questions.

15:47You have to ask a lot of questions. You have to get the motivation. Because I hate to have my time wasted. I don’t wanna waste anybody else’s time. There’s been plenty of clients that have wasted my time, so I’ve learned from my experience. I know, Bill, you probably have as well, that we’re like, “You know what?

16:03If it’s not meant to be, they can go find somebody else, but you’re not gonna waste my time.”

Bill Crespo16:06

Yeah. C’est la vie. And I call them bloody noses. You know how you go, “Oh, let me give it one more chance and take them out.” And then all of a sudden you go, “I cannot believe I just did that,” because I gave them a chance, and in the end they end up…

16:20And the buyer agents that are not getting people under the agreements up front, to me, is a complete waste of time also. So I think that’s back to the skills. We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got the right… Even going out to a listing right now, I’m a big fan of getting out to preview for sale by owners, even expireds, and there’s some mistakes that are being made right now that are turning people off from the agents.

Bill Crespo16:46

We have to sound different. In the older days, there weren’t as many people calling. Now a lot of people are. So how do we separate ourselves? Your tonality, how you ask questions. Is it open-ended? Is it closed-ended? Is it alternative choice? There’s so many deeper sales behavior things that we’ve gotta understand, and it’s not a mystery.

17:08You just gotta study it. Probably one of the better books I’ve read in a long time about questions was The Seven Powers of Questions by Dorothy Leeds, L-E-E-D-S, and she talks about how to use questions with certain types of people. Because, you know, also… I’m a driver, so I don’t wanna be at the house forever.

17:31You ever done that? You get the listing, you just boom. You’re there for an hour, you’re talking. Soon as they sign, phew, you’re gone, right?

17:40You just worked it. But I think there’s certain questions that we have to ask to make people feel comfortable to talk to us, so that they give us the truth and not be in a fight or flight demeanor where they’re just guarded.

17:53They’ve gotta drop their guard, and that’s the skill that’s necessary, and that’s what buyer’s agents and listing agents have to learn right now, in my opinion.

Loida Velasquez18:00

Yeah. I know that you brought up previewing for sale by owners and expireds. Can you share with us a little bit more about that? Because maybe that’s something that some agents can start doing right now.

Bill Crespo18:11

Yeah. I think the previews for FSBOs and expireds are important, especially new agents coming in, and anybody. I mean, I do it still. So what ends up happening is we’re trying to close people over the phone, and what happens is you’re setting yourself up for rejection very quickly, and then you keep following up, following up, following up.

18:35So being face to face as quickly as possible is gonna give you the edge on the potential lead. So how can we do that? If we bring up, “Hey, I wanna list your house, I wanna talk to you about what I can do,” they’re going to get in a defensive posture. So by previewing the property, we’re able to at least get in the property.

18:55Now, if they ask you, “Do you have a buyer?” And this is a mistake that some of the agents have been doing. “Well, I don’t… I’m not sure. I gotta see your place.” Just say no. If you do have one, just say yes, but if you don’t have one, say, “No, I don’t have one right now, but I always have different buyers coming in at any given time.

19:09When’s a good time for me to stop by and see you for 15 or 20 minutes?” Once you’re in the house, you can uncover information. But what happens with the scripts today, we’re getting ourselves, in the beginning, asking too many deep questions that put people into fight or flight, and then they ghost you, or they don’t wanna talk to you, or they say no, and then we can’t get in the house.

19:31I think our job is to get into that home as quickly as possible. Let them see you. Let them know that you’re just a nice lady, a nice man, that has a family, that’s looking to help them. They need to see that, because they’ve got an ugly picture of us if they don’t see our face.

19:46And if you don’t have good tonality, it’s gonna even be harder.

19:50So previews. The conversion rate… Let’s look at the worst case here. If you go to a house and they never list with you, you now are out in the marketplace, you’re meeting people, you’re practicing your skill, and you’re getting to know the marketplace and what’s happening in the change of the marketplace.

Bill Crespo20:07

Now, if you do go to one every day, you’ll probably get two to three listings a month, almost guaranteed, if you have halfway decent skills. But what we’re doing is we’re staying in our office all day long, calling, calling, calling, and we’re not getting out, because we’re too abrupt in our scripting.

20:26Now, that’s my philosophy. I know there’s other philosophies out there, which is fine. But I think in general it’s, can we go face to face as quickly as possible? That’s the key. Once we’re face to face, we’re eye to eye, people see us, and now they know a little bit more about us, and we’re developing some rapport, and then finding out their motivation for selling, and then finding out…

20:47They meet you, and then when it gets to the point, ’cause it’s happening right now, where these FSBOs are not selling, the expireds had the wrong price, they now are gonna look at someone that looked professional, that they can relate to, that had a good demeanor, and make you one of the two or three people that they interview.

21:06Which now brings us back to having an awesome presentation, because if you don’t, you lose.

Loida Velasquez21:11

Yeah. And I think that also makes you stand out as well, because it’s very rare that agents will actually show up or go in person. So let’s say that the seller’s not ready then. Now it’s just a matter of keeping in touch and checking back in and staying top of mind.

21:26Otherwise, if a better agent that has more skills comes in, they might now take that business.

Bill Crespo21:33

Yeah. I mean, listen, just get out of your office as quickly as possible. Meet people. We’ve gotta get out. The COVID thing really changed a lot of people. They think they can do everything at the office now.

21:46We are a people business, and the more that we get out and meet the people, at their homes even… I went to one yesterday, beautiful home, and they were priced low. A FSBO. And this is when you do it. And let me just go back to previews. Before I go out to a preview, I’ve done a one-line CMA.

22:04I have some idea, are they in range or not in range? So in this case yesterday, I had to let them know that they coulda got a little bit more money. And it’s so funny how the owners believe they’ve got it right, when I know that I’ve been in business longer than they have, but I didn’t make them…

22:24You know, I didn’t say, “You’re stupid and you’ve got it all wrong,” or else I’ll lose the whole deal. But what I’m saying to them is, “Let me just show you the evidence that I’ve seen.” And there was some really good evidence that they could have got another 10 to $15,000 after paying commissions.

22:39You don’t know that, and they won’t believe you until you get eye to eye, belly to belly, and see them in person, because they don’t trust you. You’re just another agent. You’re like everybody else trying to get a listing. And there are deals out there right now that you are missing, I’m missing, because we’re not out there in front of those people, and we’ve gotta get out there faster now, because as we’re coming into June, we’re going through third quarter and into fourth quarter, you’re gonna see a dramatic change in the marketplace.

23:07We’re seeing indications right now of it all over the country. And so, getting out. But if you’re a driver personality like I am, without skill, you’re gonna lose patience and you wanna close hard on the phone. You get rejected, someone goes to the house, knocks on the door, gets really nice and friendly, you just lost yourself a deal.

Loida Velasquez23:27

It’s very important for agents to be able to understand the different personalities. So just like yourself, the driver, the expressive, the amiable, you need to be very good at knowing what type of person you’re talking to, because if you guys are off, you’re gonna lose that person. They’re not gonna even wanna work with you or even wanna hear you talk.

Bill Crespo23:45

Yeah, I always say that you do not work well all day long being you.

23:51I can’t be me all day long. I gotta be me the amiable, me the driver, me the expressive, me the analytical, and I have to adjust, because if we are a personality, we typically handle well with two personalities, one’s a little challenging, and the other one for sure you have a complete problem with.

24:10And if you’re not versatile enough to pick up nuances in their voice and their body language, you’re losing some money, and that’s what I was saying. The skills that we need to have right now are beyond what we thought we needed, because agents are leaving the business, there’s not enough inventory out there, there’s not enough deals, so every opportunity is so important that we present ourselves at the highest level possible, and that’s knowing, what you said, the personality styles.

24:37What are the clues? What are the cues? And there’s some really good books on that, too.

Loida Velasquez24:43

Yes. Now, before we wrap it up, I wanna hear more about the coaching that you have. So tell us more about that.

Bill Crespo24:50

Well, I don’t babysit.

Loida Velasquez24:53

Good.

Bill Crespo24:53

And I don’t change diapers. So if agents are looking to grow quickly and move…

25:03That’s the kind of… I work with teams, but I’m more a specialist. I’m not a big company where we’re gonna have all these numbers. I need people that are really ready to run hard and wanna make a massive change, and I’m working with those type of people. I’ve worked with teams that were doing 2,000 deals a year, to 400 deals a year, to agents that really wanna get things moving.

25:22So if they need to learn more about it, I’d be willing to just talk for a little bit, just to see if there’s a fit, because the last thing I wanna do is bring someone on where I can’t really achieve the goals that they want. So they can reach me at path2procoaching.com.

Loida Velasquez25:36

Okay. Awesome. So Path-

25:392ProCoaching.com. Is that the best way to get ahold of you as well, or is there any other-

Bill Crespo25:42

Or they can email me at BC, B as in boy, C as in cat, at path, P-A-T-H, the number two, pro, dot net, and they can reach me there. They can look up my name on the internet. I just recently did a five-day challenge for people.

25:59So I’m more of a specialist. I focus on three things only, and then building teams around those three things: lead generation, lead conversion, and presentation skills. That’s my forte. I’ve studied it for a very long time. So if anybody wants marketing, I actually have a marketing team, believe it or not, in South Africa that does all my digital marketing and helps my clients with their marketing.

26:22So Tanya is the pro there, and she can help develop the brand under a digital format so that we don’t lose the deal, and we actually build more clientele. So it’s a process, but we’re more of a boutique operation.

Loida Velasquez26:39

Oh, that’s amazing. And then you also have a YouTube channel-

26:42too as well, right?

Bill Crespo26:43

Yeah, I got Path2Pro Coaching, Path2Pro TV.

26:47And we have Path2Pro Radio, where we’ve interviewed some of the top… Chris Heller was on just recently. We have a bunch of different ways to communicate. I think what I just wanna show is that I’m a little bit different than most.

27:00If you’re with me, we’re gonna work, we’re gonna make it happen. I don’t want to, as I said, be more excited about your business-

27:10than you are. So I wanna be able to pick you up, take you where you wanna go, but we’re ready to run hard on some fundamentals to take you to the next level.

Loida Velasquez27:21

There you go. Yeah. So Path2Pro. Pretty much everywhere, Path2Pro, you’ll find Bill.

Bill Crespo27:26

That’s right. Anywhere you want, and se habla español.

Loida Velasquez27:29

Oh, even better. There you go. Awesome. Well, Bill, thank you so much for joining us today for Vulcan7 Coaches and Mentors. We’ll make sure to include all of your links in the description box below.

27:39And for those of you that are watching, thanks for watching, and we’ll see you on the next one.

Bill Crespo27:43

See ya.