How Chastin Miles won his first listing by sending a FSBO a CMA an hour later

Loida Velasquez00:00

I wanna touch very quickly on something that you said in the beginning, because I think this is something that a lot of agents struggle with, and that is the fear of actually picking up the phone and making those calls because of rejection, because of the nos. What kind of pushed you to just be like, “You know what?

00:20I just need to do this”? Was there something?

Chastin Miles00:22

Yeah. It was the pain of the situation that I was in, you know? So when you’re in that moment and you don’t have much money, or you see the money running out, and then you look and say, “Hey, I’ve been in this business for X amount of months now, and nothing’s happening,” and everybody else around you is saying that, “This is what works.

00:45This is what works.” So I’m not gonna stop calling until X amount of people tell me no. And in the midst of chasing that no, I would get appointments. I would get people saying yes.

Loida Velasquez01:12

Would you like to be taking two to three additional listings every single month? If the answer is yes, then make sure to get your paper and your pen ready, because today’s guest is gonna share with us everything that you need to be doing to achieve this. Now, before we get onto the interview, I wanna make sure that you know that we have so many previous interviews that we have done with other coaches.

01:34You can go ahead and watch them here on YouTube, or you can also listen to them on your favorite streaming platforms. Now, with that being said, I wanna go ahead and bring on our special guest today, Chastin Miles.

Chastin Miles01:48

Hello.

Loida Velasquez01:49

What’s going on, Chastin? For everyone that is watching that maybe is not familiar with you, go ahead and give us a little bit of background about yourself.

Chastin Miles01:57

Sure. Thank you for having me, Loida. Yeah, so my name is Chastin J. Miles, and I have been in the industry for over 10 years now. I got my start as a real estate agent back in 2013. I was only 23 years old, and I had recently relocated from Georgia to Texas and decided to hop into real estate. I didn’t know much about the business or what it entailed, and I actually went broke trying to build this business.

02:30So just through a lot of trying different things, trial and error, just figuring it out, I was finally able to get my first deal closed, and from there, it was really about me building a name for myself, building my brand. Fast-forward all these years later, I’ve been able to build a massive real estate team.

02:57I currently speak all across the country to other agents, helping them build their businesses, because I know what it’s like to start with practically nothing. And so I’m super excited about being here and sharing with you all value, just anything that I can. But that’s my story in a nutshell.

Loida Velasquez03:20

That’s awesome, and I’m sure that a lot of the people that are watching this can probably relate, especially to the point that you mentioned of kind of going broke as you’re trying to figure things out in the business. So what I wanna focus on today is getting consistent activity every single month, whether it’s buyers, especially sellers.

03:41There’s so much talk going on right now for buyer’s agents and what those commissions might look like. So let’s talk to that agent that’s looking to transition to being a listing agent. For you, what did that look like, to start focusing on listings and going after sellers?

Chastin Miles03:57

Sure. So when I was first getting my business going, I was attracting buyers through most of the ways that new agents will do.

04:07So I was paying for the Zillow leads, I was paying for this, that, and the other. Anytime someone would call, they would convince me that I needed to buy leads, but it just wasn’t working out. And it wasn’t until I actually turned to the cold calling that I was able to kinda dabble into the listing pond a little bit.

04:31I would always hear that listings give you leverage, listings give you leverage. Although I didn’t really know what that meant, I knew that I had to go after listings. And there was this guy in my first real estate office, every single day he would just sit there and cold call, cold call, cold call.

04:51And it terrified the crap out of me, because I would hear him get hung up on. I was like, “I never wanna do that.” But then he would also, on the flip side, get listings. And so I said, “I have to do that.” So one day I opened up one of those free websites, and I was just looking up people who had their homes listed for sale by owner, and I was just calling them, which I’m pretty sure is against the rules, but I was doing it anyway.

05:23And on one of my first calls that I did, I just used a script and called this guy. He goes, “How about you run some comps on my property, run a CMA, let me know how much I should sell it for?” Got off the phone. I didn’t know how to run a CMA, I didn’t know what to do, but I went and got help, like, right then at that moment.

05:47I sent him a CMA probably an hour later, and he called me back and let me know that he was giving me the listing. So I was like, “Gosh, this was easy,” right? But he goes, “Do you wanna know why I’m giving it to you?” I said, “Yeah, of course. Why are you giving it to me?” And he said, “Because you actually did what you said that you were gonna do.”

06:10And that became another lesson for me. I said, “Okay, I gotta put that in the book now. Always do what you say that you’re gonna do.” And ever since then, I have been addicted to getting listings, because listings, they let you put your sign in the yard, buyers get to see it, you get to hold open houses, you get to market the crap out of that, and the other agents will bring you buyers.

06:34So that’s what got me started with listings, and then I just became addicted to the game. I loved marketing, I love doing videos in my properties, and just everything that came along with listings.

Loida Velasquez06:48

That’s awesome. I wanna touch very quickly on something that you said in the beginning, because I think this is something that a lot of agents struggle with, and that is the fear of actually picking up the phone and making those calls because of rejection, because of the nos.

07:04So for you, maybe it was mindset, but what kind of pushed you to just be like, “You know what? I just need to do this.” Was there something?

Chastin Miles07:13

Yeah. It was the pain of the situation that I was in, you know? So when you’re in that moment and you don’t have much money, or you see the money running out, and then you look and say, “Hey, I’ve been in this business for X amount of months now and nothing’s happening,” and everybody else around you is saying that, “This is what works.

07:36This is what works,” eventually, when it gets hard enough, you gotta suck it up and just do it. Now, mentally, I did not think that I knew how to cold call. I didn’t think that I knew the scripts. I didn’t think that my voice sounded good on the phone. I thought every negative thing that one can think when it comes to cold calling.

07:59The only thing that I did think and keep in my mind was, “Chastin, these people, they don’t know you. They don’t know you. So what are they gonna do? What are they gonna do? Nothing. We’re gonna get off the phone, but at the end of the day, everybody’s gonna go and do their own thing.” So that was literally the worst that could happen, and I would oftentimes compete against myself, where I would say, “How many people can I get to tell me no today?”

08:29So I’m not gonna stop calling until X amount of people tell me no. And in the midst of chasing that no, I would get appointments. I would get people saying yes, right? So I had to kind of make it a little game for me and just think about that worst case scenario, and that’s what I had in my mind the whole time.

Loida Velasquez08:51

It’s funny that you say that, because that’s almost like the same talk that I would have in my head, and I started to tell myself, “At the end of the day, if I mess up, they don’t know what I look like. They don’t know where I live, what I do.” And sometimes we as agents, we get stuck on maybe this bad conversation, and the reality is that whoever we spoke to, as soon as they hang up, they’re not even thinking about you.

09:17You are nothing to them. So there’s no point in us hanging up and feeling like, “Oh, man, I can’t keep going.” So I’m glad that you mentioned that.

Loida Velasquez09:26

So you get your first listing. This is a for sale by owner. So how do you start leveraging that to potentially get more clients?

Chastin Miles09:36

Sure. So that was my next challenge. I didn’t know how to leverage, okay? But what I did know was I needed this home sold. And so really me leveraging that property was me doing it without knowing what I was doing. I was pulling out all the stops. I was hosting an open house in this property every single weekend, every weekend until it sold.

10:01And little did I know what was really happening, because all those people that were coming in were now people that were going into my database. So they were buyers now going into my database. Another thing that I was doing was I was sending out postcards. I was calling the neighbors. I was visiting some of the neighbors.

10:24Little did I know that was building more connections for me, right? Little did I know that was showing other homeowners in the area, “Hey, this guy really markets this listing. I could possibly want him to market my home.” And then there was social media. Since I only had one listing at that time, almost every post that I was putting out there, it was about this home.

10:49And I’m gonna tell you a little trick, right? Don’t put all the photos that you have of that home out in one post, because I would put the front of the house in one post, I would put the kitchen in another one, I would put a bedroom in another one, and it’s starting to look like I have all these different homes, when really it was the same home.

11:09But what that’s now doing is it’s attracting other people who are all on social media like, “Hey, this guy is really out there working.” So I’m starting to build a name for myself in the industry and with potential clientele. So those are different ways and different examples of how you’re able to leverage when you have a listing. When it’s other agents’ listings, they don’t really like you doing all that, or they may not want you to do all that.

11:40And not to mention the sign in the yard. Every time somebody drives by, guess what? They’re seeing my name, they’re seeing my phone number. Okay? So that’s how I was leveraging my listing.

Loida Velasquez11:52

And this was obviously when you first started. So fast-forward to now, obviously there’s all these social media platforms.

12:00You have also grown a following on YouTube, on Instagram. So can you kind of share how you have utilized these social media platforms to your advantage to get even more clients?

Chastin Miles12:11

Yes, for sure. When it comes to social media, we have to think of social media as like a billboard, okay? Because truly, the magic happens when you begin building that relationship with someone.

12:26So when you actually start talking to them and y’all are in the DMs, or y’all are at a meeting, that’s when the magic happens. But the social media platforms, these are your billboards. And if we think of any billboard, right, you don’t really recognize a billboard until you’ve probably seen it around 30 times, right?

12:45So once you’ve passed that billboard so many times, now you start to notice it and you’re like, “Oh, wow.” But it’s been there the whole time. And so how I use social media is that billboard. It’s like, the more that I can get people to see me, when it comes time, they will think of me. Here’s the problem, though.

13:06A lot of people who decide to go down the road of social media, they don’t do it enough, right? And it’s not about all the technicalities, what should I post, when should I post, this, that, and the other. It’s more so about how much are you putting out there for people to see. Nowadays, we’re competing with the algorithms, and they’re not showing the post to everybody.

13:31So my strategy when it comes to promoting my business on social media is I want you to see me so much, and I am going to call out a problem that you have or a situation that you have, so that way you can know that, hey, this guy can probably help me, because he knows exactly what I’m dealing with. He knows that I don’t have a lot of money saved up, or he knows that I’m looking for a particular type of property.

14:01And I always have a call to action to send me a DM. Just send me a DM. Once that conversation opens, now I get into the real meat of it in converting that person to a client. But everything on social, that’s my billboard, and I want people to see my billboard as much as possible.

Loida Velasquez14:23

Absolutely. And I assume that you attract a lot of clients that way, which kind of brings me to my next question, which, you had mentioned you built a team, so now you have a team.

14:32At what point in your career… Was there a certain amount of transactions that you were doing, or how was your business going, that you were like, “Okay, I need help. I can’t do this all by myself. I need, I don’t know, a showing assistant, buyer’s agent”? What did that look like?

Chastin Miles14:47

Sure. So my first team member was actually an admin assistant, and it was an assistant that me and another agent… We were sharing an office at our brokerage.

15:03We actually shared her. So we didn’t feel like we were at that point where we needed a full-time person for our business, but collectively, both of our businesses pretty much created full-time hours for her. So we started with sharing an assistant. We had two separate businesses, though.

15:24Then from there, I got my first buyer’s agent. Now, the choice came to get my buyer’s agent when I was going on more listing appointments and I couldn’t service all of the buyers. So I truly needed somebody to go out there and show homes to buyers, because I was starting to miss out on opportunities, right?

15:50So that’s what brought me the buyer’s agent. Now, on the admin side, I didn’t necessarily feel like I needed an admin or needed an assistant, and I didn’t feel like I was that guy yet, like, “Uh-uh, I don’t need an assistant.” But I really saw how an assistant was able to leverage a lot of tasks for me, right?

16:15And it was like at that moment, I became addicted to leveraging. I was like, “Hey, you can just put a person here and they’ll do all of this. Now I can do this.” So that started to transform into transaction coordinator, another buyer’s agent, showing agent, full-time marketing person, right? But I’m not gonna say that it was based on a number of transactions.

16:40It was more so based on my activities, because I knew what the things were that brought me money, and that was me going on appointments. So anytime I wasn’t going on appointments or cold calling, I was feeling like I was losing money. But running a business, there’s things that you have to do.

17:05You gotta post, you gotta market, you gotta do the paperwork, you gotta do all of this. But did I really have to do that? The answer was no. So my advice would be, if you’re at that point where you’re being taken away from your money-making activities, right, that’s when you know that it’s time to start hiring and start expanding.

Loida Velasquez17:28

And I think you would agree when I say that it might be uncomfortable in the beginning, because now you’re paying somebody else to do things that you might be like, “Well, I’m really good at doing this.” But I feel that once you hire that person and you see how much they’re able to do, it helps you take your business to the next level.

17:45So is that kinda what happened to you as well?

Chastin Miles17:48

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Luckily I hired someone who was kinda smart, and she was already in the business, which there’s a lot of people out there like this. They’re already licensed, but maybe their business is not going how they thought it would go, and they wanna learn.

18:10They wanna do things the right way. And so she was actually our first hire, and for me, I think I was a little bit more comfortable because we were sharing, I mean, me and that other agent, we were sharing her. So if there was something that was bad that she was doing, either he would say something or I would say something, and it would work out for both of us.

18:36But even today, whenever I’m hiring somebody, there’s always that thought of, “I can do this better. I can do this quicker. I can just take care of it.” But then those better, quicker, take care of, now they start adding up, right? They start adding up, and before you know it, that whole hour that you’re looking to save is gone.

18:56That two hours. Now you got a whole day where you’re doing paperwork and you haven’t prospected. So you have to invest in your people, and that was something that I had to learn. It was truly uncomfortable. I think it’s uncomfortable for everybody, but without that investment, that person will never turn out to be who you want them to be, right?

19:17And so it’s just important to know that that’s just part of the game, but those feelings, 100% normal. 100%.

Loida Velasquez19:24

Absolutely. And talking about investing, investing in yourself is also a big thing. So let’s talk about your coaching and what you do to offer agents, because obviously you have a very large YouTube channel where you post a lot of amazing content for agents.

19:40But tell us a little bit more about how Chastin can help other agents be other versions of Chastin, too.

Chastin Miles19:47

For sure. Yeah, Chastin lives by that motto, “Do the most.” But yeah, I mean, I have a tremendous amount of resources out on my YouTube channel, but behind closed doors, how I help agents is I help them get to that point where they are closing two to three deals a month consistently.

20:07I’ve found over the years when you’re closing two to three deals a month, now you can really build your real estate business and turn it into a big business. That magic number of three deals a month, it takes away the stress, it gives you opportunity, it gets you recognition, and it gives you freedom, right?

20:28And so what we do is we deploy six pillars into your business. So we start with the foundation. A lot of people’s businesses are built on a cracking, rocky, shaking foundation that’s just about to collapse. From there, now we move into the lead generating. If you don’t have leads coming in, then you don’t have a growing business.

20:52So we put leads on autopilot, I like to say, by leveraging things like social media, AI, things like that. Now we move into nurturing the leads. Agents can get leads, but guess what? Many people, they don’t know how to nurture the leads. So that’s important. From there, we move on to closing. This is how to sell.

21:17So it’s not about just sitting at the closing table, it’s how to sell, how to sell yourself at that appointment, how to sell yourself over the phone, right? So that way you can get that appointment. After that, now we’re moving into the actual back office, so making sure your systems are set up the right way, your procedures.

21:37You wanna create that environment that you can place assistants in and have your assistants train other assistants. Now we’re creating exponential growth within your corporate structure. From there, it’s about turning your whole business into a referral-based business. As you are working hard, closing deals, getting clients, now you need to give yourself more time and more freedom, and the only way that you can do that is by turning your business into a referral-based business.

22:08Just think about how good it would feel to know that your phone rings with people wanting to work with you, instead of you chasing down people left and right. So that’s the transformation that we do, and we do that all based off of two to three deals a month. So you can definitely go to my website, look into that.

22:29We got the link here, and yeah, that’s how I help agents.

Loida Velasquez22:34

Awesome, and we’ll make sure to post all of your links also in the description box below. But with that being said, Chastin, thank you so much for all of the awesome knowledge that you have dropped, sharing your experience. I think that a lot of agents will be able to relate, and hopefully after this video, they’ll get it together and pick up the phone, start making calls, start leveraging any deals that they have going on, and look into your coaching.

22:56So any last words you wanna leave agents with, especially the ones that are kind of on the fence or maybe looking to transition from being a buyer’s agent to a listing agent?

Chastin Miles23:04

Yeah. The biggest piece of advice that I like to give people is always remember, now is the time. Now is the time. So what I want you to do is I want you to subtract the words, I’m gonna do this when, or come January 1st, or once I have this closing, then I’m gonna do it.

23:26No. For everything, now is the time. You see what’s happening in the market. You see that people are becoming licensed every day, and people are leaving the business every day. There’s no need to wait for anything. Our calendar year does not work like everybody else’s. It’s about doing it now.

23:49Everything that you do today, you can expect to see the results in the next 90 days. So ask yourself, “What am I doing today, and how is it gonna look for me 90 days from now?” Once you ask yourself that, then say, “I’m just gonna do this right now.” And that’s what I live by, so that’s my biggest piece of advice.

24:11Do the most, no time to wait.

Loida Velasquez24:13

There you go. Now is the time. You heard it here, you heard it from Chastin. Chastin, once again, thank you so much for being here. We’ll make sure to post all of your links in the description box below. And for everyone watching, make sure to re-watch this episode if you need to take down some notes, and watch our previous ones.

24:29All right, we’ll see you on the next one.