How Bradley Baldwin sold 46 homes his first year in Dallas from expireds and FSBOs

Bradley Baldwin00:00

To be honest with you, I sold 46 homes my first year using the Vulcan7 system. I just went to work. As long as I have the data, the scripts are the same. Anywhere in the United States, give me Vulcan7 and a phone, and I’m probably gonna get a listing within the week.

Loida Velasquez00:18

What’s going on everyone? Welcome back to a brand new episode of Vulcan7 Coaches and Mentors, where we bring you some of the best in the industry to share with you their tips and strategies so that you can implement them in your business immediately. Now, on today’s episode, we’re gonna be talking about a topic that I’m sure a lot of you are really interested in, and it is how to increase your price point and also prospecting geographic farms.

00:43So with that being said, I am going to go ahead and bring on today’s guest, Bradley Baldwin. Welcome, Bradley.

Bradley Baldwin00:49

Hey, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Loida Velasquez00:52

Absolutely. For everyone that’s watching and tuning in that maybe is not too familiar with you, can you just go ahead and give us a little bit about your background?

Bradley Baldwin01:01

Sure. Absolutely. So I’ve been in the real estate business since 2002. I have developed a successful team. I’m a part owner in several different brokerages around the country. I also have been a professional real estate coach for the last decade, specifically right now with a company called Eisenhower Coaching and Consulting.

01:24You might’ve seen Brian on your show a couple weeks ago. And that’s the great thing about our company, is that we all have something to share and different insights on things that are happening in the real estate industry. I happen to be the senior coach. I’ve been with them the longest, and I’m happy to be here.

Loida Velasquez01:41

Awesome. A question that I love to ask everyone, I even asked Brian when we had him on the show, is what was life for you before real estate? Did you have a previous career in sales? Were you doing something completely different, or what was that like?

Bradley Baldwin01:56

Yeah. I’ve actually been in real estate almost all of my life.

02:00I started out as a construction worker. My first job was as a trim carpenter. And eventually I got into my family business of building and developing property, and actually headed up the sales division of that business, which got me into sales, and it just kinda took off from there.

Loida Velasquez02:21

Okay. Awesome, awesome. So I know that in today’s episode we wanna talk about how agents can increase their price points, because I hear it all the time, agents that say, “I would love to make more money, but how can I tap into those higher price points? Do I need to have experience?”

02:40So let’s just get started with that. How can an agent start to go after those higher price points if they have never sold something in that range?

Bradley Baldwin02:49

That’s a great question, and I’ve done this with a lot of different clients, actually using the Vulcan7 system because it provides such great data to use to go into these types of areas and prospect in those areas to get listings.

03:05Let me tell you, there’s a couple ways to raise your price point. Number one, you can do it demographically. So you can start maybe going to different networking groups, hanging around charity auctions for one thing. Perhaps maybe joining country clubs and starting to meet people in that type of price point that sell or that actually live in those types of areas.

03:31That’s one way to do it. Not to say that it’s a bad way. A lot of people do that. I think it’s supplemental. But there’s also a way to proactively go into these areas and start getting listings in these areas and building a brand, right? And the first way that we do that is by using our Vulcan7 system.

03:52It’s one of the ways to do it, and probably the most effective way because we can actually use the system and proactively go out there and have activities to get those types of listings right off the bat, if that makes sense.

Loida Velasquez04:05

Yeah. Yes, no, it totally makes sense. And for any agent that’s listening and is saying, “Well, you know what?

04:11I want to start going after… my average price point that I’m selling is 300,000, but I really wanna tap into luxury,” or maybe luxury is 500, 600,000. Is there any different type of skill necessary, or what would you tell that agent that maybe has, like, a limiting belief?

Bradley Baldwin04:29

That’s a great question.

04:30And we’re moving into that type of environment now. With expired listings increasing year over year, for sale by owners kind of increasing year over year, now is the time to do it. So here’s the thing, and I’ve done this with a lot of my other clients, going into that other price range, they’re just people just like you and I.

04:52They’re the same people. They have one goal: “I wanna sell my house for the most amount of money in the least amount of time with the least amount of aggravation.” That’s what almost all sellers want in a real estate agent. Here’s the thing, people go into those areas and find out, “How do I get in there?”

05:09Well, you have to go in there by having a track record of selling those types of homes. The easiest way to do that is to be prospecting expireds and for sale by owners inside of that particular community. So let’s say that we’re in the community of the Tribute Links community. And in that community, there happens to be nine or 10 expired listings this year, maybe five or six from last year, a couple for sale by owners.

05:37We can use the Vulcan7 system to get those numbers and proactively go in there to try to acquire that listing in that neighborhood. Once we’ve gotten that listing in that neighborhood and we’ve gotten it sold, now we have a track record and we can start building off that listing to get other listings.

05:56But first, we gotta go get a listing first to be able to do that, if that makes sense.

Loida Velasquez06:00

So utilizing the Vulcan7 system has definitely been an advantage to increasing the price point. Now, when it comes to geographic farming, prospecting certain areas, what is the best approach that agents can take going that route?

Bradley Baldwin06:17

Great. This is kinda how you get that first listing and expand it into your brand. So what we’re gonna do is we’re going to start to prospect expireds and for sale by owners in these certain types of communities. That’s the easiest way to do that. Once we have acquired a listing in that area, okay, now it’s showtime.

06:39Now it’s time to tell everybody who you are. You’re on stage. And we use what we call here a six to two marketing system to get other leads off of that listing, okay? The first thing that we’re gonna do is we’re gonna be sending out a just listed card, a really nice glossy stock, big card, very clean, nice, luxury branding card for that particular home.

07:04We’re gonna send that out to everybody in the community, okay? That’s our first thing that we’re gonna do. Then what we’re going to do after we’ve done that is prospect off of that just listed card. So now that we have that, we can get back in our Vulcan7 system, get our neighborhood data entered, and start making contacts to all these different neighbors, letting them know that the home just came on the market.

07:26From doing that, a lotta times we’ll get other leads just from doing that. But what they’re going to see is they’re gonna start to know who you are. Okay? The other piece to that is, after we’ve done that, we’re gonna send out an email to all the people that we’ve downloaded announcing an open house.

07:46And on every single listing from now on, we’re gonna have two open houses on every single listing. And these open houses are not gonna just be a sign that we put out in the yard and maybe make a post on social media and hope that they come. These are gonna be very proactive. So we’re gonna have lots of signs at the entrances to the neighborhood, on all the corners.

08:06I’ve seen a lot of my clients do like a taco truck or an ice cream social or a jump house, and really make this open house an event. And the reason that we do that is not only did we get a listing, right? We sent out a just listed card. We’ve done all the contacts in there. But now we have an open house with signs all over our neighborhood.

08:28People are gonna start to learn your brand. And by doing that, we’re gonna also meet the neighbors. We’re gonna get people walking through our house. And what we’re doing is we’re prospecting for listings, and what I wanna try to do during this time is to gather information. I want their names, numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, see if they match up with our system.

08:48If not, we’re gonna update that. And I’m starting to build a geographic farm. Because what’s going to happen after we’ve done the just listed and the two open houses, we’re gonna get that home under contract, right? Now we might send out another email. Okay? Then we’re gonna get it sold, and once we get it sold, we’re gonna send out a just sold card, and we’re gonna do some just sold circle prospecting again to hopefully acquire another listing.

09:10But from that, we’ve done what we said we’re gonna do. We found a listing. We sold it quickly. We told everybody that we did it. They kinda know who we are. And every month we’re gonna send them something in the mail, whether that’s a postcard, an email, perhaps maybe once a quarter maybe circle prospecting again if you want to.

09:28But now you have kinda developed a brand in that neighborhood, and so once you get another listing, now you’ve got a geographic farm. Now you’re making some traction, right? And perhaps since you sold that listing that you got from the expired, they’re gonna start to tell their friends, and it just kinda snowballs from there.

Loida Velasquez09:47

So from those people that you add, for example, to your database that you have found through circle prospecting, that maybe they’re not necessarily interested in buying or selling, how often are you reaching out to them?

10:00Is it monthly, whether they’re getting like an email or a marketing flyer? Are they getting phone calls, or what does that look like?

Bradley Baldwin10:08

That’s a great question, and I get that question a lot. I’m not really big into spammy things, and I’m also not really into asking for business all the time without giving business.

10:20So one of the things that we learned, I think more during the COVID pandemic than ever, is they want information. They wanna know what the inside of their neighbor’s home looks like, and they wanna know what it sold for really, because anybody that’s sold a home, or if you’ve ever been on a listing presentation, they say, “Well, the Joneses said they sold for 485.”

10:41Well, maybe they didn’t, ’cause once the realtor got there, it has a different number. So when I’m having these conversations circle prospecting, when I’m having these conversations come through open houses, what I’m doing is I’m going to be giving them auto email alerts saying like, “Hey, would you like to know about all the homes for sale in the neighborhood, all the ones that go pending and all the ones that get sold once a month?”

11:06And I’m gonna set them up on an auto email prospecting search through the MLS. So every month they’re getting an email from me with my branding and everything else on it about what’s going on in their neighborhood, okay? And on top of that, I’m sending them something in the mail every month, okay?

11:22Between those two activities right there, that’s a lot. But it doesn’t hurt to like once a quarter maybe go through there and do some calling. You can get a listing that maybe sold that you didn’t sell and use that to prospect around. You can do another one that’s just listed.

11:42You do some more expireds. There’s all these types of reasons to talk to those people in the neighborhood. But now they’re getting it in the mail, they’re getting the email, and they’re hearing it through the phone. That’s a lot, you know? It just takes time to get another listing.

11:57Once you get that other listing, we’re gonna do that six to two marketing plan again. Now it’s showtime, and it just kind of snowballs from there.

Loida Velasquez12:05

Yeah. So it’s really just about staying consistent with being top of mind within your neighborhood or whatever it is that you’re prospecting in the geographic farm.

Bradley Baldwin12:14

I’ve always told people consistency is like a snowball, right? It just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Here’s the other thing. Inconsistency also snowballs. So I see a lot of people call some expireds, “Ah, it didn’t work for me,” and they just give it up, right? Or I see people that start a geographic farm and don’t finish it, right?

12:33Everything in real estate is consistency, consistency, and consistency. That’s where a lot of times a coach or a mentor, or the accountability of a real estate team, any one of those can help you to keep those activities going. It’s really easy to start. It’s real easy to know what to do.

12:50That’s about 20% of it. 80% of this game is to keep doing it over and over and over and over. And after a while it does pay off.

Loida Velasquez13:00

So another question that I have for you is that I hear agents all the time trying to decide how do they pick a specific farm to go after, because maybe they don’t necessarily want to stay within their neighborhood where they live.

13:13So how should they go about selecting where to do that?

Bradley Baldwin13:17

That’s also another great question. There’s a couple schools of thought on this. I think that you should pick a geographic farm that is kinda close to you. Okay, I live in Dallas, and anybody that knows Dallas, it could take about three and a half hours to drive from one end to the other, okay?

13:38So I don’t wanna pick a farm so far out there that if I did get a listing or I do have to go knock on doors or I wanna have a neighborhood event or whatever, I can’t drive four hours to get there. So it needs to be kinda close to your office, or close to where you work, your area that you’re in.

13:55That would be number one. Number two is there’s neighborhoods inside the neighborhoods. There’s neighborhoods that have a turnover rate, if you will. And you can go to the RPR report, which every real estate agent has if they’re a member of NAR, okay? And you can find this turnover rate, where people will sell in certain neighborhoods a little bit more than some of the others, right?

14:19Even in luxury neighborhoods, there’s some luxury neighborhoods that sell more than others. Those are the ones that we want to target because the hit ratio of them responding to our marketing might be a little higher. Not to say that’s the only thing, because if you do get a certain neighborhood that you know you always liked and people are moving there, especially in their higher price point, they might not sell as much, but they do sell.

14:43There’s something to say for that, too. So pick it close to where you work at, your normal area, right? And then also look for that turnover rate.

Loida Velasquez15:01

So let’s say there’s an agent and they’re like, “Well, you know what, Bradley, I’m a newer agent. I want to select this geographic farm, but I have heard that so and so is the main agent in that area. Should I still go after it?”

Bradley Baldwin15:16

That’s a great question. Okay. I’m gonna tell you a quick story.

15:20Okay? The neighborhood that I personally live in, I know that there’s about 10 real estate agents just living in this neighborhood. I also see marketing, right, from all these different agents. There’s one agent in particular that you’ll see her doing more marketing than anybody else, right? But yet some of these other agents, they’re getting marketing too.

15:45And I’ve noticed over this last year, one particular agent that was just kind of getting a little bit of the business is getting a little bit more.

15:53Why? The same reason I just told you. Just because somebody might be doing great in that neighborhood doesn’t mean that everybody likes them. There’s enough real estate to go around.

16:02That’s number one. There’s totally enough real estate to go around. Not everybody’s tied to that person. Number two is the consistency of keeping it up. I’ve noticed that one particular agent, she’s not doing as many client events. I don’t get enough of her mailers anymore, or her emails.

16:20They’re either going to spam, or she got a new email system. They don’t keep it consistent. The one that’s doing the most consistency, the one that’s sticking with it the longest, down in the trenches, and just keeps at it, keeps going, keeps going, will always succeed over the most popular one.

Loida Velasquez16:37

There you go. So for all of you that are listening and you think, “Oh, I can’t go after a specific area because there’s already someone there,” you heard it here.

16:44It’s all about consistency and continuing to do it.

Bradley Baldwin16:47

Yep.

Loida Velasquez16:47

Now, one last… and this is something that I’ve been getting a lot recently, of agents that are relocating to a brand new state, a new city. They’re like, “I’m starting fresh.” Like, where do I even begin?

Bradley Baldwin17:02

Well, let me tell you a story. So I’m originally from Kansas City, Missouri.

17:06That’s where I was born and raised, and I moved to Dallas maybe 15 years ago. About around, yeah, 12 to 15 years ago, I moved down here with my wife. And the problem is she’s the only one I knew. So here I am, a new real estate agent. I’m seasoned, I’ve been in real estate before, but now I’m in a brand new area that no one knows me, okay?

17:32To be honest with you, I sold 46 homes my first year using the Vulcan7 system. That was the first thing I did. I got a listing on the third day I was in the office, and people looked at me like I’d invented fire. And what I did is I just went to work, you know? Expired listings, for sale by owners, going in these neighborhoods, geographic farming, building my database.

17:54That’s how you do it. So if you wanna break into another state, if you want to break into another neighborhood, and you can prospect, you have an advantage over anybody else because we can go out there and start to actively do something. And as long as I have the data, the scripts are the same. Oh, you’ve never sold in this area before, right?

18:15But it depends on my presentation, it depends on knowing the areas. You’ll start to prospect in these areas. You’ll start to go out and get listings in this area, preview properties, and start to learn. And before you know it, it’s gonna happen. But to be honest with you, doing some of the things I just said, that’s how you can move.

18:33And then you have the ability to go anywhere. I’ve said this many times, you can probably kick me out of a plane anywhere in the United States, give me Vulcan7 and a phone, and I’m probably gonna get a listing within the week.

Loida Velasquez18:46

Absolutely. Yeah, no, I can’t agree more. The same happened to me. I used to be in California, moved to Florida.

18:52And I like to say, if you have the skill, you can take it anywhere. Pick up the phone, start making phone calls, talking to people, you’re gonna get something.

Bradley Baldwin19:01

Yeah. Actually, in Kansas City I was prospecting down here in Dallas, and I would set my listing appointments up on a Friday.

19:11I’d set them all up on the same day, so I was traveling back and forth. And I would fly down, and I would list my homes, right? So I wasn’t even in the area. I was sitting there just prospecting, looking for expireds, looking for sale by owners, learning the neighborhoods. It’s actually easier than what you think.

Loida Velasquez19:28

Yeah, absolutely. So before we wrap it up, if there is an agent that’s watching that wants to know more about your coaching and getting a hold of you and just more about what you guys offer, can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Bradley Baldwin19:41

Yeah. We have several programs. You just go to therealestatetrainer.com.

19:48Therealestatetrainer.com. I have a group coaching course that’s fantastic. It’s $97 a month. You get to meet with me every single Thursday live. You get access to a lot of different on-demand trainings as well. But we also have some one-on-one trainings. We coach broker owners, large teams, small teams, individuals.

20:09We can coach about anybody at any level. Our favorite client, I think, is those people that are just getting into real estate, and we just get to see them grow, you know? We’ve coached people that were a solo agent, brand new, and now they’re running big teams. They’re actually running their own offices, which I think is super cool.

20:26A lot of people that are with us stick with us for a long time.

Loida Velasquez20:30

That’s awesome. And we’ll make sure to put all of the links and the information in the description box below. Okay. Now, as we wrap up, a question that I like to ask is what are two things you would say agents need to be doing right now to make sure that they end 20-

Bradley Baldwin20:50

I know what she asked. To make sure that they end 2025 on a high note?

Loida Velasquez20:55

Yes. Yep.

Bradley Baldwin20:57

I think it’s not getting frustrated with the real estate market. It’s getting a little tougher out there. This is when the activities have to stay strong, right? We gotta keep doing this, more activities, we gotta keep doing the same activities, and we also need to learn the skill of pricing.

21:14Pricing property right, being able to tell that customer the truth and not be afraid of the outcome of that truth, is gonna make you successful and help you sell more real estate. The ones that don’t know what’s going on in the market, they don’t have the market data, they’re not studying the market, they’re kinda waiting for business to come to them, they’re gonna have a tough time.

21:37They just really are. That’s why all of our clients, we’re learning pricing strategies, we’re learning market data, and we’re staying consistent with the activities no matter how they’re getting business, whether it’s social media or SOI or prospecting or geographic farming.

21:53Lots of ways to get business. Pick a couple of them and stay consistent with it.

Loida Velasquez21:58

Perfect. Awesome. Well, Bradley, thank you so much for being on the show today. Again, we’re gonna post all of your links in the description box below, and for everyone that’s watching, we’ll see you on the next one.

Bradley Baldwin22:07

All right.

22:07Thank you. Bye. Bye-bye.