How Sue Wahl and Sue Miller took 93 listings this year by calling expireds first

Ren Jones00:01

Welcome to Roadmap, how to take three listings a week, until you’re ready for more. Each week, we interview a great agent who is consistently taking two, three, four listings a week, and we have some exciting guests today. You’re going to have an opportunity to ask questions during the broadcast. Let me introduce my co-host from somewhere, San Diego, I think, Carley Hathaway. That’s CarleyHathaway.com. Hi, Carley. Hi.

Carley Hathaway00:31

Hi. Hi, everybody.

Ren Jones00:33

Before we introduce our guests, let’s talk about the Vulcan7 challenge. The Vulcan7 challenge is once a month, you shadow a great agent in another market that’s taking two or three, four listings a week. You know, you drive two, three, four hours to their market and get there that afternoon, have dinner with them if they’re available. Next morning, get to their office early, take a lot of notes, record, audio record what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, have lunch with them, and then head back home. You’re probably going to have to, on many occasions, get on an airplane, or professionally, how about a jet? Take a jet, do this right.

01:10And then if you do that once a month, at the end of 12 months, you have 12 great friends that are doing great business, and you become one of them. Also, I wanted to remind everybody we’re simulcasting the show on the private lead gen group that are on Facebook. They have 40, can you believe that, Carley? They have 40,000 people in that lead gen group.

Carley Hathaway01:36

That’s huge. That’s a huge group.

Ren Jones01:39

They are there today as well. And we’ll be pausing for a commercial message as a thank you to the lead gen folks for simulcasting us. Let’s welcome our guests. They drove all the way from Cincinnati, Ohio, you know? What is that? What? That’s, like, 12 minutes from here.

Sue Wahl01:57

I know.

Sue Miller01:57

12 minutes, 12 minutes, yes.

Ren Jones02:00

12 minutes, in the community of Anderson.

Sue Miller02:01

Yes.

Ren Jones02:03

We have Sue Wahl, Sue Miller. They’re known as the Two Sues.

Carley Hathaway02:07

Oh, the Two Sues. I love that. That’s really cool.

Ren Jones02:07

Isn’t that great?

Carley Hathaway02:07

That is.

Ren Jones02:10

Remember that little book called You Squared?

Carley Hathaway02:13

Yeah.

Ren Jones02:14

I was thinking they could put out a little book and just call it Sue Squared.

Sue Miller02:17

Sue Squared.

Carley Hathaway02:17

Sue Squared, I love it.

Ren Jones02:20

It’s synergistic, really, just Sue and a little two or whatever.

Carley Hathaway02:21

Yeah.

Ren Jones02:22

There we go, yeah. They get a synergistic benefit out of having both of you, right?

Sue Miller02:27

They do, they do.

Sue Wahl02:27

Absolutely.

Ren Jones02:27

Yeah. For the price of one, or do you charge 12, 14%?

Sue Wahl02:27

No, I always like to tell our clients, buy one, get one free.

Ren Jones02:37

Buy one, get one free.

Carley Hathaway02:37

All right.

Sue Miller02:38

We’re always there for them.

Ren Jones02:42

What a bargain. What a bargain, what a bargain. Yeah, you guys started in high school? No.

Sue Miller02:50

No, no.

Ren Jones02:54

But you’re selling a lot of homes and you guys, every morning, you’re getting listings.

Sue Miller02:58

We are.

Ren Jones02:59

How many listings have you taken this year so far?

Sue Miller03:01

We have had, we’ve taken 93.

Ren Jones03:03

93 so far?

Sue Miller03:03

Yes.

Ren Jones03:04

And you’ve got a few months left to go.

Sue Miller03:05

We have more to go.

Ren Jones03:08

I know, there we go. So, it’s going to be a good year for them. And you’re looking for sell, you call expireds, you call for sale by owners. And at this point, past clients will be a lot of people.

Sue Miller03:20

A lot of people. We are on the phones all day long, all day long.

Ren Jones03:23

Imagine that.

Sue Miller03:24

Yes, we are. We like to talk and we talk to our database, talk to expireds, talk to FSBOs.

Carley Hathaway03:31

Nice.

Sue Miller03:32

Nobody we won’t talk to.

Ren Jones03:33

That’s fantastic.

Carley Hathaway03:35

Yeah. What time do you normally get on the phones and start calling?

Sue Wahl03:39

About 8:30 in the morning. We’re in a Mastermind group at 8:00 in the morning, so by the time we get that done, maybe take 10 minutes with our assistants to get them on track with what we need, and then we’re on the phone by 8:30.

Carley Hathaway03:53

Nice. And you say you’re really on the phones all day?

Sue Wahl03:57

Well, yeah.

Sue Miller04:00

Yeah, pretty much so.

Carley Hathaway04:01

That’s great. And typically, what’s the top of your list to start calling, and on down?

Sue Wahl04:09

Our assistants have the expireds on our desk when we get in. We call the expireds first. We like to call our past clients often, because I think 48% of our business this year has been from past clients.

Sue Miller04:26

Referrals.

Ren Jones04:26

Wow, you’re really getting it up there, huh? That’s awesome.

Sue Miller04:30

We are.

Sue Wahl04:30

Yeah.

Ren Jones04:30

Well, you’ve earned it.

Sue Miller04:31

Yeah.

Sue Wahl04:32

We think so.

Sue Miller04:32

We’re doing this for quite a few years.

Sue Wahl04:34

Yeah.

Carley Hathaway04:37

And do you guys have accountability partners, or are you each other’s accountability partners, or how does that work for you guys?

Sue Wahl04:43

Well, I do text another agent in New York at the end of the day, and then Sue and I are definitely accountable to one another, yeah.

Sue Miller04:55

Accountability, yeah.

Ren Jones04:55

There’s that expression around there, “Sue, where are you?”

Sue Miller04:57

Yeah, yeah. And we have a big whiteboard in our office, and so our assistants know what our goals are, and they’re holding our feet to the fire as well.

Ren Jones05:09

So, visual accountability.

Sue Miller05:13

Mm-hmm, we sure do.

Ren Jones05:13

Because you’ve got it up there.

Sue Miller05:13

We’ve got it up there.

Ren Jones05:13

And they see that and they know, everybody knows what the plan is, highly visible, good.

Sue Miller05:21

Yes, yes.

Sue Wahl05:21

They do know the plan.

Ren Jones05:21

Good.

Sue Miller05:21

And then we have a business coach as well.

Ren Jones05:21

Good. You got a business coach? Is that from any particular group?

Sue Miller05:23

Yes. Mike Ferry Coaching.

Ren Jones05:25

Oh, okay. Got you, great.

Sue Miller05:26

We’ve been in that for a number of years and she really holds us accountable, yes.

Sue Wahl05:32

Debbie is, we sometimes fear her calls. Not really.

Carley Hathaway05:39

She keeps you accountable. That’s good. That’s good.

Sue Wahl05:41

Yeah, you definitely want to do what she asks you to do.

Ren Jones05:46

Otherwise, you’re in big trouble. Okay, good.

Sue Wahl05:48

That’s right, yes, but that’s all good.

Ren Jones05:49

Well, that’s the way this works, isn’t it?

Sue Miller05:50

Yes.

Sue Wahl05:50

That’s the way it works.

Ren Jones05:54

Yeah. I mean, if you weren’t coaching, what would happen? I mean, is that a big factor? Because we really have never really on this show talked about coaching per se, but as you’ve noticed, the last 12 guests are all involved in something like this, so maybe we should chat about it for a minute.

Carley Hathaway06:11

Yeah.

Ren Jones06:12

What does that-

Sue Wahl06:13

I think that Sue and I kind of fell into being partners when we first got in the business, 24 years ago. And I think that being … I mean, I’m a nurse and Sue’s a teacher, and what do we know about sales and real estate? I think that it really helped us define what we wanted to accomplish. And we had a coach teaching us and showing us the way to go. I mean, that’s what I think.

Ren Jones06:45

Awesome, awesome.

Sue Wahl06:47

I don’t think as a team, we would’ve survived without a third party helping us.

Carley Hathaway06:54

Right, just kind of guiding you to the right path.

Sue Wahl06:57

Mm-hmm.

Ren Jones06:57

So, there’s ROI or you wouldn’t be still in coaching years later. You’re getting a huge return on that investment.

Sue Wahl07:05

Oh, yeah.

Sue Miller07:05

We feel so. We feel that way, yes, yes.

Ren Jones07:05

It was, like, two transactions pays for that or whatever, something like that.

Sue Miller07:07

Right, easily.

Sue Wahl07:07

Oh, yeah.

Ren Jones07:08

A year’s worth of that

Sue Miller07:09

Mm-hmm, easily.

Ren Jones07:12

Two sales, and then everything else is free after that.

Sue Miller07:14

Right, right.

Sue Wahl07:14

That’s right.

Sue Miller07:15

And then our coaching group brings us all together a couple times a year and we find that very beneficial, to talk to other agents across the country and get ideas, and just see what other people are doing.

Carley Hathaway07:27

Yeah, that makes sense. And do you guys follow the Mike Ferry scripts as far as calling expireds and FSBOs, things like that?

Sue Miller07:34

Absolutely, absolutely.

Ren Jones07:34

If they didn’t, they’re going to lie.

Sue Wahl07:40

No. Our assistant even made us a really handy-dandy little script book, all in little plastic covers, and you just turn to that script.

Ren Jones07:51

Got you. Right, good.

Sue Wahl07:51

Yeah, all different colors.

Carley Hathaway07:54

I mean, you’ve been doing this for 24 years. Do you guys still role-play and practice the scripts and things like that?

Sue Miller07:59

Yes, we do. We do.

Carley Hathaway08:02

Every day, or-

Ren Jones08:03

What does it do for you, to role-play over and over and over every day for years? Just make you powerful, I guess. Just makes you powerful, I guess.

Sue Wahl08:13

I think the key is that we’ve had a lot of different role-play partners throughout the years and some, we aren’t as strong with. Right now, I have a role-play partner in Florida that, he’s tough on me, very tough, but brings up some great points, helps me, makes me think about things when I’m making calls. So, it’s very good.

Ren Jones08:39

Just keep your edge.

Sue Wahl08:40

Yeah, he does.

Ren Jones08:41

Because it’s not about the words that … Well, maybe it is about the words, because sometimes it’s-

Sue Wahl08:45

Well, he’s really helping me with during a script, bring closers in more often than I typically would do. I’m more amiable, you know?

Carley Hathaway09:00

But he’s coaching you to start closing right off the bat?

Sue Wahl09:02

Yeah. Yeah, he is. He’s a little bit more of a driver, I would say. But it’s great.

Carley Hathaway09:09

More direct, to the point.

Sue Wahl09:10

And yeah, he gets on Friday mornings, boy, I’m on task. So, it’s good. It’s great.

Ren Jones09:20

So, you’re hanging in there, you’re closing a lot.

Sue Wahl09:22

Well, more than-

Ren Jones09:22

Because when you look at people that are newer to this, I mean look at the biggest challenges they have. And you know this, we see this. You have, in the city, typical expired listing, what do you think they get? 25, 30, 35 calls.

Sue Wahl09:37

Well, that’s what the owner tells you. “You’re the 50th call.”

Ren Jones09:42

Yeah, all right. I know, if they’re getting 25, 30, 35 calls, and what I always find fascinating is they end up meeting with the same three or four people. Isn’t that interesting? That means that you guys are a lot more persistent because what happens is the other ones lay down. They go, “Well, we’re going to go back to the same agent.” “Okay, well, thanks. Good luck to you. Goodbye.” But you have to be ready for that. It’s a reflex. no. Then you say this, they say this, you say this. Do you ever feel some tension, like maybe I better get off the phone, but I’m going to try one more time, I’m going to try one more time?

Sue Miller10:17

Of course, of course. But you just keep at it and keep asking more questions, keeping them engaged.

Ren Jones10:23

Keeping them engaged. But what do you say if they’re getting ready to hang up, they’re like, “Well, I appreciate you calling”? Do you have some, do you say anything to pull them right back in? Do you have a little-

Sue Miller10:35

Well, why don’t we try to meet, on Wednesday at 5:00?

Ren Jones10:37

Why don’t we try to meet? You just go right … Can we just go Wednesday at 5:00? Got you.

Sue Wahl10:42

Or, “Would it be a problem if your house was sold in 30 days?”

Ren Jones10:45

Okay. Would that … Okay, great.

Sue Wahl10:46

“Would that be a problem for you, Ren?”

Ren Jones10:49

Would that be a … No. All of a sudden, I’m starting to hang up. I’m like, huh? That’ll work.

Sue Wahl10:56

Do you know the things that I do to sell homes, Ren?

Ren Jones11:00

No. What do you do?

Sue Wahl11:01

Well, I’ll tell you what, I have time this afternoon at 4:00, or if tomorrow at 5:00 would be better, either time.

Ren Jones11:10

Tomorrow, 4:00?

Sue Wahl11:13

Let’s, yeah. I’d love to-

Ren Jones11:14

Now, I’m thinking about the two times.

Sue Wahl11:14

Yeah. I’d love to come over and show you what I do to sell homes.

Ren Jones11:16

Okay. All right, four o’clock.

Sue Wahl11:18

Very good. Then, I’d go into a pre-qual script, just like that.

Ren Jones11:24

Just like that.

Sue Wahl11:27

If you had time, if you had time. I’d ask you.

Ren Jones11:27

If I time, yeah, okay, good.

Sue Wahl11:27

I would ask you.

Carley Hathaway11:32

And average, how many listings are you going on per day, listing appointments?

Sue Wahl11:37

Per day or per week?

Carley Hathaway11:39

Per week. How about per week?

Sue Wahl11:42

Let’s do per week. Let’s do per week. Four to five.

Carley Hathaway11:45

Okay, good. And what percentage do you think that you’re closing?

Sue Wahl11:49

Well, our analyzer says 87%.

Ren Jones11:51

You’re running 87%?

Sue Wahl11:54

That’s what our analyzer says.

Sue Miller11:56

We track our numbers.

Ren Jones11:56

Okay, so your numbers tracking system, you’re showing an 87% bag.

Sue Miller12:00

Yes.

Ren Jones12:00

So, you’re canceling the appointments before you go?

Sue Wahl12:02

Sometimes.

Ren Jones12:03

If you cancel some-

Sue Wahl12:04

Sometimes. And then there’ve been a few that we get there and we just look at one another and say, uh-huh.

Sue Miller12:09

Not for us.

Sue Wahl12:10

No. We don’t have to even say anything. We know. We just know.

Carley Hathaway12:17

What is it? They have unrealistic expectations, or something?

Sue Wahl12:21

Unrealistic expectations. Or maybe it’s just a personality that we just really don’t care to deal with.

Carley Hathaway12:26

Yeah. That’s the nice thing about our industry, is we really can choose who we want to work with and who we don’t want to work with.

Sue Wahl12:32

We can.

Ren Jones12:34

How do you do it on the days you don’t feel like it? Because I mean you guys are doing this what, Monday through Friday, I assume?

Sue Wahl12:41

And Saturday.

Sue Miller12:44

And Saturdays.

Sue Wahl12:45

Oh yeah, some Saturdays.

Ren Jones12:46

You’re doing some Saturdays? Okay, oh my. There we go.

Sue Wahl12:49

Yeah, we do. I think it’s just healthy competition between us.

Carley Hathaway12:51

Oh, that’s good.

Sue Miller12:55

“I’ve got an appointment, Sue.” “Okay, great.” “Be there at 2:00 on Wednesday.” And we go on a lot of them together. Sometimes, we go alone. It just depends on the day.

Sue Wahl13:04

We like to go together because the minute we walk in the door, we are aware of which person should lead the conversation. And Sue and I don’t even have to, it’s just we know.

Sue Miller13:18

It’s natural.

Ren Jones13:19

You’ve been doing a while, yeah.

Sue Wahl13:20

And the other one grabs a tape measure and starts going around the house, getting all the measurements, getting all the details, while the other person is getting the contract signed.

Ren Jones13:30

What do we call that? Assume the sale. Assume the listing. You assume.

Sue Wahl13:34

Yeah, we assume.

Sue Miller13:34

That’s right, yes.

Sue Wahl13:34

We take in the lockbox, we take in-

Ren Jones13:37

And this is the only time it’s okay to assume. Generally in life, you’re not supposed to assume anything, but they do and it works.

Sue Wahl13:45

Right, we do, we do.

Ren Jones13:46

Go ahead and assume the listing. It’s the one thing you can assume.

Sue Wahl13:51

We do it. We’ll assume it, we do.

Ren Jones13:51

I like that.

Carley Hathaway13:52

And do you guys send over a pre-listing packet?

Sue Wahl13:56

Let’s just say that we have fallen out of the habit. We just got two new assistants, and so they’re going to be doing that again because when we do that, it just makes a world of difference.

Sue Miller14:10

And it sets us apart.

Sue Wahl14:10

World of difference, yeah.

Sue Miller14:13

Very few agents are doing that.

Ren Jones14:15

Right. And does it change the amount of time you spend at the house?

Sue Miller14:15

Yes.

Sue Wahl14:15

Yes.

Ren Jones14:16

Does it change what you say at the house?

Sue Wahl14:19

Yes.

Ren Jones14:19

Because you don’t have to sit there and go through all that marketing stuff.

Sue Miller14:23

Right, right, right.

Sue Wahl14:28

Yeah. And then we tell them, there’s a property disclosure in there if you want to just go ahead and get that made out before we get there, that would be helpful.

Sue Miller14:36

That would save time.

Ren Jones14:36

And when they do that, what does that tell you?

Sue Wahl14:36

They’re listing.

Sue Miller14:36

That they’re going to be signing the rest of the packet.

Ren Jones14:43

I love it. That’s fantastic. Good. Let’s say you’re two years in the business and you really want to go after expireds and FSBOs, and you want to start taking one, two, maybe three listings a week on a lucky week. Based on everything you know now, what would you tell our audience would be two or three key things that they should do to have that success, and maybe some things they shouldn’t do?

Sue Miller15:12

Well, one thing I think, and I know sometimes it’s economic situation, but I do think the coaching is in getting into a group that gives you that affirmation every day, that just feel good and lights the fire for you. Our Mastermind group that we talk to every day, it’s just wonderful. I mean, we’re listening to 20 successful agents all across the country, and then we all say our affirmations and it gets you ready to go. And I just think that would be so valuable for a new agent to be able to have that confidence.

Ren Jones15:53

Good, good. Just really anchors you down.

Sue Miller15:53

Yes, it does. It does.

Sue Wahl15:55

And I would say with expireds, just persistence. Just because they tell you no today, you can call them the next day. They won’t remember that it was you.

Carley Hathaway16:11

That’s a true statement. I didn’t even think about that. They’re getting so many calls, they’re not going to remember that they heard you.

Sue Wahl16:16

And if they do remember, that’s just a feather in your hat. You’ve elevated yourself. I just think to just keep calling them. And sometimes, Sue will say to me, “I just talked to so-and-so on Banana Street and I think you need to call them now.” So, I’ll call them.

Ren Jones16:40

There you go.

Sue Wahl16:40

See, we just switch back and forth.

Carley Hathaway16:42

Hand it off, yeah.

Ren Jones16:43

Yeah, because now it’s not like Sue’s calling, Sue is calling. “Hi, this is Sue.” “Did I talk to you?” “No, that was Sue.” “Oh.” “I’m Sue, you talked to Sue.”

Sue Wahl16:54

No, but truly. I mean, persistence I think is the big thing, and to believe in yourself, start every day at zero, don’t stress over the fact that you got told no, or somebody hung up on you or slammed a door in your face. Just start every day at zero and know that you can do it.

Carley Hathaway17:18

That’s great advice. I like that.

Ren Jones17:19

Let’s talk about this believe in yourself piece again, because that’s a big problem that agents, it was listed by somebody they revere. “Oh, he or she’s a great agent, I’m trying to get this and they’re going to go back with them and like, oh, who am I? And I haven’t done that well yet,” but can we talk? Because if they could just walk that walk, and what do they, fake it till you make it? Isn’t that how the saying goes?

Carley Hathaway17:43

Yes, fake it till you make it.

Sue Miller17:47

Some of it is knowing the questions to ask. Like, what did you really like about the agent that you had before? What did they do that you liked? What did they do that you didn’t like?

Ren Jones17:59

There you go.

Sue Miller18:00

Those are the kind of questions. And if you just keep making it conversational, then you’re going to connect with the people and then hopefully get an appointment.

Sue Wahl18:13

And believing in yourself sometimes is just starting to hang out with the right people, so that you can see what they do to get things done and do what they do.

Ren Jones18:27

Yeah, and that’s a big thing. If your sphere of people are people doing this and big thinkers, then yeah. Let’s go back in time a little bit further. It’s like the first month or two of you calling expireds and FSBOs, and there must have been a … I mean, how did you move through that? Because there are people right on here that are like, “Tomorrow, I’m going to do it. I’m going to do it tomorrow. I’m going to start at eight o’clock, I’m going to do it, I’m going to call, I’m going to push and I’m going to close, and I’m going to do it.” And then the next day they’re like, “Well, I was going to start at 8:00, and oh, it’s already 8:40, I’ll do it tomorrow.” And they just struggle with the, what do they call that? Creative avoidance behavior.

Sue Wahl19:15

When Sue and I first got in the business, our manager and the owner of the company had us in the basement over here at the Mariemont office with Mary Lou Butcher every Thursday morning.

Ren Jones19:30

The Butcher?

Sue Miller19:31

Making calls.

Sue Wahl19:32

Making calls. And so it was a group atmosphere, so that everybody in the tools of the trade would meet every week and we’d all make calls. And so then it became a competition.

Ren Jones19:44

So, it was a collective energetic?

Sue Wahl19:45

Yes.

Sue Miller19:46

It was.

Ren Jones19:46

By the fact that there were 22 of you in the basement with the Butcher.

Sue Wahl19:52

You’d make your calls, wouldn’t you?

Ren Jones19:57

Yes.

Carley Hathaway19:57

Definitely.

Sue Wahl19:58

There were index cards, we made them out.

Ren Jones20:00

There is strength in numbers like that.

Sue Wahl20:02

Oh, I think it taught us some really good skills. And then we took that accountability with one another, and then we got into coaching, and-

Ren Jones20:15

And feel the fear and do it anyway, for a while.

Sue Miller20:17

That’s right.

Ren Jones20:19

I mean, I remember doing it. And after about 20 minutes, I had enough anxiety from the first two calls, I needed to take a break. I mean, it takes a little tolerance. I mean, you have to build that up over time.

Sue Wahl20:35

Well, and if they say no or they hang up, next, next, next.

Sue Miller20:38

You just going onto the next person.

Ren Jones20:40

But then, yeah, and a good helpful that just occurred to me, for people that are really struggling with it, if they called old expireds, like 30 days old and older, those people can be friendly as long as you’re not data mining, as long as you’re approaching it right. You’re like, “Mr. Harris, you had a house for sale. Gosh, I want to say it was like four months ago on the market. Did you sell that?” People will, you’ll have a friendly conversation. And if you call enough old expireds, you’re going to take two or three a month, or four if you call old ones. They may not be have to sell today, but they’ll go back on the market. And a way to get stronger at it by starting with the old ones, because they’re not quite as hostile.

Sue Wahl21:27

And Sue and I start with expireds just because they’re on our desk and we want to get in the swim with these people, because we know there’s another group of agents calling them. But sometimes, I think if you’re a new agent or just even if you’re not feeling like you want to get any rejection, call some past clients. Or if you don’t have past clients, call your sphere of influence.

Ren Jones21:52

People you know?

Sue Wahl21:52

Yeah. Talk to them for a while to get into the roll.

Ren Jones21:55

Yeah. “Mom?”

Sue Miller21:57

Right. Even people in your neighborhood, just to let them know what the market’s doing. I mean, people that you know. They don’t have to be actually in your database, or folks in your community. We also call a lot of just listed, just solds, which is, again, easy for us because we’ve got a lot going on. If you’re newer, it might be a bit harder to get that, but maybe ask permission with an agent in your office that had a sale in the neighborhood. “Is it okay if I call that neighborhood?” I mean, it just gets you on the phones, talking to people.

Ren Jones22:32

Okay. You just have to get in the habit of every day, all morning. Why morning?

Sue Wahl22:40

People haven’t built up as much … They haven’t had any struggles in their life. Sometimes by night, they’re just done. Done, they don’t want to talk to anybody.

Sue Miller22:50

But that doesn’t mean we don’t call in the evening. Sometimes, we have to call later in the evening. We have to call people back or something like that. But our main prospecting is in the morning.

Ren Jones23:03

Perfect.

Carley Hathaway23:04

And I know you guys have larger goals and things you’re trying to achieve, but what about daily goals? Do you try to contact a certain number of people? Or call for-

Sue Miller23:13

Yes.

Carley Hathaway23:14

Okay. What are those? Can you walk us through those a little bit?

Sue Miller23:17

Yeah. Well each of us, our goals are to talk to 40 to 45 people a day in one way or another, whether it’s in our database, just listed, just sold, referrals.

Sue Wahl23:29

And I count agents because when I call so-and-so at Keller Williams and then I mention my other listings, find out who they’ve got, what they’ve got coming up. That’s a great contact.

Ren Jones23:47

So this is a contact sport, huh?

Sue Wahl23:49

It’s a contact sport, yes.

Sue Miller23:49

It is a contact sport. You got it.

Ren Jones23:52

Good. Why don’t we go into some questions, see what we’ve got? One of them, I was looking at a second ago, it said, what if the prospect says, “Why can’t you just tell me this over the phone? Why do you have to come out?”

Sue Wahl24:04

Because I said so.

Ren Jones24:12

There you go. You got it. There you go, because I said so, that’s why. Is that confident, or what? No, I’m kidding.

Sue Wahl24:17

Well I would say, “Well, then I can just put the contract in Dotloop and you can just sign it and send it back, and leave the key under the mat. I’ll be over.”

Ren Jones24:28

Well, you can do that. I think that’s fair. That’s quite fair. That’s quite fair. I like that one, good. I’m just calling old FSBOs, some of those people can get a little upset. How late is too late? Old FSBOs, how many people have … I guess somebody was a for sale by owner five months ago and their situation has changed. He isn’t explaining, or yeah, Matthew, he’s not explaining exactly what that means. But I think it’s all in the approach. Nobody gets mad if you approach it right.

Sue Miller25:00

Right. And then asking the pre-qual script, maybe finding out that person’s motivation. If they have been on the market for five months, what’s wrong here? I mean, again, that’s asking questions.

Ren Jones25:15

Yeah. And a lot of it’s in the approach.

Sue Wahl25:17

But isn’t it 95% of all for sale by owners list eventually? I mean, maybe 95 is not exactly right. Don’t write that down. But it’s high. It’s high. It’s amazing.

Ren Jones25:31

Well, and they say you want to get it for sale by owner in the first six weeks anyway, because if they’re still for sale by owner two, three, four months later, there’s a story of no motivation. If they’re really serious, they’re going to be listing them. Mainly, that for sale by owner sign, remember what that for sale by owner sign really means. What does it mean? Remember that? Interviewing for a great agent.

Sue Miller25:52

Oh, okay, that’s right.

Ren Jones25:52

Because the only reason they’re for sale by owner is they don’t know a great agent. They know and agent.

Sue Miller25:56

That’s right, right.

Ren Jones25:58

But they don’t know a great agent.

Sue Wahl26:00

And they don’t know how to price things. They’re priced in fantasy land.

Carley Hathaway26:03

Yeah. Someone’s asking as far as FSBOs go, I think, do you ever use the survey script approach? You know, the Mike-

Sue Wahl26:13

I do know that survey.

Carley Hathaway26:15

Yeah. Do you use it?

Sue Wahl26:18

Nah, I’ve used some of the questions but I like to find out. I just like to talk to them about their motivation, what they’re doing.

Ren Jones26:25

Dive right in.

Sue Wahl26:26

What their plans are.

Ren Jones26:28

What are the best three objection handlers you hear over and over?

Sue Wahl26:33

Will you cut your commission?

Sue Miller26:35

I have a friend in the business.

Sue Wahl26:40

When they say, will you cut your commission? No. Are there any other questions?

Ren Jones26:44

There we go.

Carley Hathaway26:45

Just move right along.

Sue Miller26:46

Yeah, move along. Yeah.

Ren Jones26:46

There you go. Yeah, let’s not linger on that, because why bother? What’s your favorite script? I don’t know what that-

Sue Wahl26:56

My favorite script?

Ren Jones26:58

Or is it an objection handler?

Sue Wahl26:59

I like the pre-qual script.

Sue Miller27:01

I do too. That’s my favorite.

Sue Wahl27:10

I think you find out a lot of information.

Ren Jones27:11

Yeah, yeah. And it is kind of interesting, people have two experiences with that. Agents will say, well every time I do that, about halfway through, people say, “How many more of these questions?” And we know when they do that, we know the agent’s doing it wrong. There’s no response, they’re not interested. They’re just going, “Uh-huh, uh-huh,” instead of saying, “Oh, really? Oh, did you? Oh, that’s great. That’s exciting. Well, you must really like that kitchen you redid.” They’re not engaged, they’re not getting the people full engaged.

Sue Miller27:37

Right. Lots of times, we hear way more than we need to hear on those. People like to just spill.

Ren Jones27:45

And that’s because you’re doing a good response pattern, you’re repeating a little bit of what they say and then you’re exclaiming, saying, “Oh, that sounds exciting. Wow, I can’t wait to see that,” things like that. That can be a big … I mean, a lot of times. that pre-qual script is the closer.

Sue Miller28:02

It is.

Ren Jones28:02

Your engagement, your skill in asking those questions and showing a lot of approval, a lot of times, it endears them to you and then they know, “Well, I’m going to list with the Two Sues.” They’ve already decided.

Sue Wahl28:14

That’s right. And the other thing on that pre-qual script is that then we can do a net sheet for them. And so often, the numbers will define if they’re going to be a good person to go visit with or not.

Ren Jones28:30

Right. Can be upside down and they don’t even know it because their last agent or whatever it may be, right, or yeah.

Sue Wahl28:36

Right, that’s pretty defining.

Ren Jones28:41

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well yeah, that tells a real story.

Sue Wahl28:44

It does. It does.

Ren Jones28:45

Part of the magic of the whole thing. Do you spend much time pursuing for sale by owners? How many, you list many of those every month? One or two?

Sue Miller28:56

No.

Sue Wahl28:57

No.

Ren Jones28:57

Not many?

Sue Miller28:57

Not many.

Sue Wahl28:58

Not as many as we-

Ren Jones28:59

Not as many?

Sue Wahl28:59

Not as many as our coach, Debbie, says we should.

Ren Jones29:06

Got you, got you. But aren’t there a lot of them? Well, maybe there aren’t.

Sue Miller29:06

No.

Sue Wahl29:07

I don’t think there are, now.

Ren Jones29:08

You don’t have that many?

Sue Miller29:08

No.

Ren Jones29:09

Years ago, there were quite a few all over the place. But I think that people start to realize that they’re not going to come out ahead, doing it that way.

Sue Wahl29:17

I think the true for sale by owners, I mean so many of them pay $500 to get in the MLS and limited service and all that jazz.

Sue Miller29:27

Limited service.

Ren Jones29:29

Oh yeah. That changed it up a little bit too.

Sue Wahl29:30

It did. I think it did.

Ren Jones29:33

Yeah. Where did you get the pre-qual script?

Sue Miller29:35

That is a Mike Ferry script.

Ren Jones29:37

Oh, it is? Okay.

Sue Miller29:37

From our coaching, yes.

Ren Jones29:39

You have Mike Ferry people here, right here. If you go to that website, you can get a … I think download this for free?

Sue Miller29:47

I think so, yeah.

Ren Jones29:49

That’d be good. Good. Yeah, it’s not the only system in the world, but it’s a darn good one. We do run into a lot of people that have made a lot of money doing it. What schedule do you recommend to be productive?

Sue Wahl30:05

For us, we get in the office for that eight o’clock Mastermind call and start working on all of our calls until early afternoon, have a little lunch break, do some lead follow-up, and go on some appointments.

Ren Jones30:25

Great. It’s all morning, look for business, middle of the day, work on the business, appointments, and then go home.

Sue Wahl30:31

Well, yeah.

Ren Jones30:31

Or go out.

Sue Wahl30:35

Yeah. Well, we often seem to have evening appointments.

Ren Jones30:38

You have a lot of evening appointments?

Sue Miller30:40

We do.

Sue Wahl30:40

A lot of people work and-

Ren Jones30:41

Five o’clock, six o’clock?

Sue Wahl30:41

Yeah. But that’s fine, that’s good.

Ren Jones30:44

Yeah. You don’t do eight o’clocks, do you?

Sue Wahl30:46

No.

Sue Miller30:46

No.

Ren Jones30:47

Well, you have agents, again, newer in the business, they’ll say eight o’clock appointments.

Sue Wahl30:51

No. I always say when somebody says that, “You know, I’m not going to really be able to see your house. I want to be able to come when I can see your house in the daylight.”

Carley Hathaway31:00

Oh, that’s good.

Ren Jones31:01

It’s always good to be on the front side of their dinner, ’cause if you’re on the back side of their dinner, you’re the evening entertainment. If you’re on the front side of the dinner, then it’s going to move faster.

Sue Wahl31:10

Yes, that’s right. Good point.

Sue Miller31:12

Yeah. Too many distractions, too late. Children going to bed, things like that.

Ren Jones31:17

Do you door knock?

Sue Wahl31:19

On occasion. In fact, this summer I was very successful door knocking at a condo complex, and it was fun.

Ren Jones31:28

Yeah?

Sue Wahl31:28

Fun, yeah. Met a lot of nice people, and we got a couple of listings.

Sue Miller31:32

And one was a FSBO.

Carley Hathaway31:33

Do you bring anything?

Sue Wahl31:33

Yes, and one was a FSBO.

Carley Hathaway31:37

Do you bring anything with you?

Sue Wahl31:38

What’s that?

Carley Hathaway31:38

Do you bring anything with you when you door knock? What do you bring? Like, any informational-

Ren Jones31:41

You leave anything, or business cards?

Sue Wahl31:44

My card, that’s it.

Ren Jones31:46

Business card, okay. Good. Yeah, perfect.

Sue Wahl31:49

My smile.

Ren Jones31:49

Your smile.

Carley Hathaway31:50

Oh, I love that.

Ren Jones31:53

Lots of conversations.

Carley Hathaway31:55

Yes. Someone’s asking-

Ren Jones32:00

And maybe it’s just my analytical side, how many people are home? You go to 10, you go to 30 doors. How many people are at home?

Sue Wahl32:10

On a Saturday morning?

Ren Jones32:12

Oh, Saturday morning. Yeah, a lot of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sue Wahl32:16

A lot people. And what was, again, I wouldn’t say that we’re great door knockers, but knocking them out in a condo complex is easy.

Ren Jones32:27

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. The door, door, door. I always found, and maybe it was me, they looked through the peephole and it changed it. You may have had a better, I’m sure you did have a better turnout. I would say I always found one out of three were at home, but one out of four would come to the door.

Sue Wahl32:45

Oh, that’s interesting.

Ren Jones32:45

That was my number count, but I was just curious what you ran into. But maybe 100% of them came to the door and they looked and go, “Ooh, this looks like fun. Well, hello.” Just depends on what they see, I guess. What else?

Carley Hathaway32:59

Do you guys send out postcards to your farm?

Sue Wahl33:04

Not to our farm. We don’t really have a farm. No, but we do send out just listed and just sold postcards, because our company publishes X amount for free for us.

Ren Jones33:16

If it’s free, if it’s free, go for it.

Sue Wahl33:18

We do it.

Sue Miller33:20

And we do it-

Carley Hathaway33:20

Would you send those out to people in the neighborhood of where it was just sold, or your sphere, or who do you send those to?

Sue Wahl33:26

Typically, people in the neighborhood, but sometimes when it’s a listing that we think would be of interest to certain people in our database, we’ll handpick some people to send.

Sue Miller33:41

And we also do a quarterly newsletter to all of our database. Yes.

Carley Hathaway33:45

Oh, nice, nice. And it’s like real estate information, or is it all … Okay.

Sue Miller33:49

Real estate information, who has sold, what people bought in the last quarter that were our clients, just that kind of thing.

Ren Jones34:01

Good, good, good, good. Julie, she wrote out a whole script, but basically when they say, “I have a friend in the business,” or, “I have a friend that’s going to list my home,” or whatever, what do you say?

Sue Wahl34:14

“Are you doing your friend a favor? Is that why you want to list with your friend?”

Ren Jones34:18

There you go.

Sue Miller34:20

“How many homes have your friends sold in that neighborhood?”

Ren Jones34:25

There you go. And yeah, in your case, you guys have such a track record.

Sue Wahl34:30

“If you want me to, Ren, I can give your friend a call and I’m happy to give your friend a tip fee so that you feel that you’ve fulfilled your obligation to your friend.”

Ren Jones34:44

That’s a Cincinnati expression for-

Carley Hathaway34:48

I was like, what’s a tip fee?

Ren Jones34:49

That means referral fee to the rest of … It’s a very local expression, very, very local expression here.

Sue Wahl34:56

Thank you for translating. But I mean, I don’t come out with that right away, but if that can seal the deal, it’s worth it.

Ren Jones35:06

Yeah, there you go. There you go.

Carley Hathaway35:08

And someone else is asking, what do you say to FSBOs that are saying they’re just testing the market?

Sue Wahl35:16

I try to dig deeper into what their motivation is. And if their motivation is that they’re transferring to San Diego, then they’ve got good motivation, so they’re not really testing the market, but if they’re just trying to see what they could get-

Carley Hathaway35:33

What about if you know their price is way unrealistic, like it’s $60,000 over what it should be? Do you try to coerce or speak to them about what it should be, or is that something you just don’t even touch?

Sue Miller35:48

I’m more in questioning is, where was it you were going to move next? Because I think that is the motivation then as to whether or not they really want to sell that house.

Ren Jones35:59

If the reality is they have to move and they don’t, unless they owe too much. If they have to move, it’s a whole different story because reality will kick in pretty fast. Again, Sue Miller is absolutely correct. That’s going to drive it, regardless of what they say.

Sue Wahl36:16

And if it’s overpriced, you can just say it. “Now, Ren, where did you get your price?”

Ren Jones36:22

Yeah. You’re the highest bidder.

Sue Wahl36:24

Yeah. “Where did you get it?” And then Ren’s going to tell me his house is the biggest, the best in the neighborhood. And I’m going to say, “You know what? I need to see your house, Ren. Can we meet tomorrow at four o’clock, or would six o’clock be better for you?”

Ren Jones36:37

Perfect. And if I have to move, she’s going to come over. If I don’t have to move and I’m really just goofing around and then she’ll say, “Sorry, I got to cancel. I’m listing your neighbor some instead.” Good deal. All righty, you call tip field is illegal, you must offer … Oh, come on. Give me a break. He doesn’t like your-

Sue Wahl37:02

Oh, referral fee, sorry.

Ren Jones37:03

It’s a local expression here. It’s a local expression. I’m sure you have a local expression wherever you are, Guillermo Toros.

Sue Wahl37:10

And we eat chili spaghetti, so.

Ren Jones37:13

We have very strange little traditions here.

Carley Hathaway37:16

Chili spaghetti?

Sue Wahl37:17

Yes. Skyline. Look up Skyline.

Ren Jones37:20

Yeah. Type in Cincinnati chili in Google.

Carley Hathaway37:24

Oh my God, I’m going to have to visit Cincinnati and come see all of you guys.

Ren Jones37:27

We have 181 chili parlors. 181.

Sue Wahl37:27

Is that right?

Sue Miller37:33

The micro breweries.

Ren Jones37:35

All right, one quick role-play and then let’s get out of here and we’ll go eat ice cream. Are you open to doing a role-play?

Sue Wahl37:49

Well, what are we going to role-play?

Ren Jones37:49

You pick, expired, just listed, just sold, FSBO, past client, what do you want to do? You want to call up a small company? Whatever you want to do. You do it. What do you want to do?

Sue Miller38:00

Well, we could do expired.

Ren Jones38:02

And Carley will be the person you call.

Sue Wahl38:04

Oh, we’re going to call Carley, okay.

Ren Jones38:05

Okay, you’re an expired, Carley.

Sue Miller38:06

We could do an expired.

Sue Wahl38:08

Okay.

Carley Hathaway38:08

I’m in.

Sue Wahl38:09

All right.

Carley Hathaway38:10

Hi. Hello?

Sue Miller38:13

Are you going to be the expired?

Ren Jones38:16

Yeah. So, go ring, ring.

Sue Miller38:16

Okay, ring, ring. Ring, ring.

Carley Hathaway38:19

Hi. Hello?

Sue Miller38:20

Hello, is this Carley?

Carley Hathaway38:22

It is.

Sue Miller38:23

Hi Carley, this is Sue Miller with Comey & Shepherd Realtors. How are you today?

Carley Hathaway38:28

You know, I’d be better if you guys stopped calling me, to be honest with you.

Sue Miller38:31

Oh well, as you know, your home expired in our multiple listing service today.

Carley Hathaway38:36

Yeah, I know. I’m not going to sell it.

Sue Miller38:39

I’m just calling to see when are you going to interview the right agent to get your home sold?

Carley Hathaway38:45

I don’t think I am.

Sue Miller38:46

You aren’t? Where were you going to be moving, Carley?

Carley Hathaway38:50

Cincinnati.

Sue Miller38:52

Oh, you were going to move to Cincinnati. Well, that’s exciting. What was taking you to Cincinnati?

Carley Hathaway38:57

The chili.

Sue Miller38:58

Oh, the chili. Were you going to go work for Skyline or Gold Star?

Carley Hathaway39:03

Yeah, I was. I have a secret chili recipe.

Sue Miller39:06

Oh, that is great. Well, how soon did you want to be there with your chili recipe?

Carley Hathaway39:14

In the next few months.

Sue Miller39:15

Okay, in the next few months. You’re going to have to get to Cincinnati, get established, find a place for your family to live and find a place for your business, I guess.

Carley Hathaway39:27

Yeah.

Sue Miller39:28

Okay. Okay. Well, I know you’ve been on the market a while. How did you happen to choose the last agent that you were listed with?

Carley Hathaway39:37

It was a friend of a friend or something like that. It was a referral.

Sue Miller39:42

A referral. Okay, that’s great. And what did you like that the agent did for you?

Carley Hathaway39:49

Nothing.

Sue Miller39:50

Nothing?

Carley Hathaway39:51

No.

Sue Miller39:51

Oh my goodness. You don’t think there was anything that they did that was good?

Carley Hathaway39:56

No, I think it’s ridiculous. I think they just throw it on the market and sit back and collect a huge paycheck, and nothing happened.

Sue Miller40:03

Well, what would you like the next agent to do for you?

Carley Hathaway40:07

Sell my house.

Sue Miller40:08

Sell your house. That is what we sign up for, isn’t it?

Carley Hathaway40:12

Yeah.

Sue Miller40:13

Well, are you familiar at all with the techniques that I have used to sell the last 123 houses that we’ve sold?

Carley Hathaway40:22

You sold 123 houses recently?

Sue Miller40:23

Yes, we have, and five in your neighborhood.

Carley Hathaway40:26

Oh, okay. No, I don’t. What are the techniques?

Sue Miller40:29

Well, I would like to set an appointment with you and I can go over all the techniques that we use to sell houses. When is the best time, Carley, for you? I could meet with you tomorrow at 4:00, or I also have Thursday at 3:00 available. Which is best for you.

Carley Hathaway40:48

What about Thursday at 8:00?

Sue Miller40:51

Thursday at 8:00? That is just a little late. My last appointment is usually at 6:00 in the evening. I could do Thursday at 6:00 for you.

Carley Hathaway41:01

Let’s do it.

Sue Miller41:04

Okay, I will see you then.

Sue Wahl41:04

Yay.

Sue Miller41:05

And if it’s okay with you, I’m going to call you back and ask you just a few more questions before our appointment. Is that all right with you?

Carley Hathaway41:12

Yeah. And you know what? I’m going to make you some of my famous chili for when you come up.

Sue Miller41:17

Oh, I am excited about that. I love Cincinnati chili. I’m excited.

Carley Hathaway41:22

Me too.

Sue Miller41:24

Great. I will see you then and call you back just a little bit later with a few more questions.

Carley Hathaway41:28

Awesome. Good job.

Ren Jones41:30

Let’s be fair, somebody says, what do you do if you’ve not sold 120 houses for starters?

Sue Wahl41:37

Oh, is that what somebody says?

Ren Jones41:38

What would-

Carley Hathaway41:38

A newer agent.

Ren Jones41:41

You know, you had 120 houses all the time. And you listed, you guys were rocking and rolling, getting listings. What did you say back then?

Sue Wahl41:46

Just defer to your company.

Ren Jones41:48

You just say we?

Sue Miller41:49

Yeah, we, our company.

Ren Jones41:49

Our company is selling two homes a day or whatever.

Sue Miller41:52

Right, exactly.

Ren Jones41:52

Company stats.

Sue Wahl41:52

Yeah, lean on your company

Ren Jones41:54

Company stats, ’cause they think it’s all the same anyways. It works just as well. They’re doing that because they beats out a couple more.

Carley Hathaway42:03

And someone’s asking before you go on listing appointments, do you research the neighborhood?

Sue Wahl42:08

Yes.

Sue Miller42:08

Yes, we do.

Sue Wahl42:10

Yes, sometimes we preview some of the competition if we haven’t been through.

Ren Jones42:16

Yeah, but they’ve been selling there so long they just went to the neighborhood and go, “Oh, you bought a model A3, it was built in 1974.”

Sue Wahl42:24

I remember when this house was on the market in 1999.

Ren Jones42:29

“I’ve actually sold this particular home three other times.”

Sue Miller42:31

Three times.

Sue Wahl42:31

We have had that happen.

Sue Miller42:31

We have had that happen.

Sue Wahl42:31

We’ve had that happen. Yeah, sold this one before.

Carley Hathaway42:31

I like that.

Ren Jones42:37

That’s part of the fun. I mean, if they’re confident, if they believe in themselves enough, unshakeable belief and they’re passionate, and they won’t take no for an answer and they keep closing, can they do this?

Sue Miller42:51

Oh, absolutely.

Sue Wahl42:51

Absolutely, yes.

Ren Jones42:51

They can take three or four. I mean, brand-new agent, if they will internalize those scripts, if they just over and over and over, no matter whose scripts they are, they just internalize them. Because I mean, you didn’t have to hesitate. You knew exactly what you were going to say. And you knew whatever they said, how to handle the objection, there was no fear. But internalizing it, they can do this.

Sue Miller43:10

Talk to people.

Sue Wahl43:11

Yeah, persistence.

Ren Jones43:12

I’ve got to thank everybody. I have to do a couple of little spots as a thank you. Thank you again, the Lead Gen Group and Aaron Wittenstein, and his Expired Mastery Elite, which is ExpiredMasteryElite.com. And if you’re watching on Lead Gen and you want to get involved with Vulcan7 and sign up for a little easier price, go to Vulcan7.com/LeadGen. And if like the Two Sues, if you’ve spent four and a half hours all morning calling people, and it’s around lunchtime and you’ve done your job, you have done your job, whether you’ve set one appointment, two appointments, no appointments, you’ve done your job, go ahead and get a big spoon and get some delicious Graeter’s mint chocolate chip ice cream, and you deserve it. And it’s one of the best. And if you don’t live in Cincinnati, well, go to Graeters.com and find that store near you. With that said, oh, how do they reach you when they’re sending referrals?

Sue Wahl44:16

Probably our email is the best. And it is TwoSues@Comey.com. It’s T-W-O, our name, Sue, with an S on the end, @Comey, C-O-M-E-Y.

Ren Jones44:33

Like FBI director? Okay.

Sue Miller44:34

Yes.

Sue Wahl44:35

Yeah. He does not own our company. Comey.com.

Ren Jones44:42

All righty. And every seven days, we have another exciting guest who is here, who takes two, three, four listings a week, to share how they do it, encourage you to do it, and get you involved and having a great life, make a lot of money. You guys can do it. Anybody can do it. You have to believe in yourself. You have to be persistent. It’s simple, but it’s not easy, but it’s simple. Let’s do it, folks. Have a great week, everybody. Thanks, Carley.

Carley Hathaway45:10

Bye, everybody. Thank you so much, Sue and Sue, thank you so much.

Sue Wahl45:16

Thank you.

Sue Miller45:16

Thank you. Thank you.

Sue Wahl45:16

Thank you very much.

Carley Hathaway45:16

You’ve been very insightful. We appreciate it.

Sue Wahl45:17

Thank you.

Ren Jones45:18

We’ll see you guys next week. And that’s Thanksgiving week, isn’t it?

Sue Wahl45:25

Yeah.

Sue Miller45:25

Mm-hmm, it is.

Ren Jones45:25

We have a highlight show next week. You’re not going to want to miss it.

Carley Hathaway45:29

It’s going to be a good one.

Ren Jones45:29

Next week is a highlight show. It is going to be awesome, so make sure you’re tuned in. I know you’re traveling for the holidays, but stop and watch.

45:29