S1 E2: Go Big or Go Home

Ren Jones (00:00):
Alrighty. We are ready to roll here.

(00:07):
Got to have our show music. Welcome to ROADMAP, season one, episode two. We have a guest this week where every week we have a great guest, someone who is very successful, taking three listings a week for many, many years, having a great life, making a lot of money. Sharing his or her secrets with you so you can use the copycat principle and do it as well. Working five days a week, two days a week off, six to eight weeks vacation. That is the plan. Just follow the recipe. That is all it is, folks. It is just a recipe. That is all we do.

(00:44):
So we are going to have a lot of fun today. We have got a lot of material to cover. My co-host from San Diego, Carly Hathaway. Hi Carly.

Carly Hathaway (00:52):
Hi everybody.

Ren Jones (00:54):
How is the real estate business in San Diego?

Carly Hathaway (00:56):
Amazing.

Ren Jones (00:58):
Good.

Carly Hathaway (00:58):
Properties are moving so quickly.

Ren Jones (01:02):
Good. Good, good, good. That is great. And-

Speaker 4 (01:05):
What if there was an airline that let you bring up to four bags for free

Ren Jones (01:08):
Uh-oh.

Carly Hathaway (01:09):
Technical difficulties.

Ren Jones (01:11):
We rolled into the next tape. Oh good. Good.

(01:16):
Last episode we talked a lot about big picture. And while we are going to cover some of that here, and we will be looking at questions. So you guys can ask questions and we are going to pick up questions. We may ask one of you to go ahead and join us, click in and talk back and forth, but we will read the questions off the chat so make sure to put any thoughts that you have into this. Because whether you are at one listing a week now, or maybe you are only one a month, or maybe you are already at three listings a week taken now and you need to get to four or five, all of these rules apply so it is going to work quite well.

(01:53):
So jump in, participate, use the copycat principle and let us make this happen. Because every week we are going to have somebody on here that is doing it. And all you have to do is the very same thing.

(02:07):
So let us look at the general philosophy again. If you are on the listing side of the business, dominant. Maybe you are a one person show and that is fine. Is two thirds of your business or three quarters of your business listings, or one third? If it is one third, you are probably working too hard. Two thirds buyers and one third listings, ouch. We know how you find your listings. You find the buyer and they go, “Oh, I got a house to sell.” Kind of do it in reverse. It is a lot of work.

(02:35):
If you are on the listing side of the business because you know what is coming folks. We saw it with Airbnb, they disrupted Marriott and Hilton. We saw it with Uber, they disrupted the taxis. If we know that there is going to be Uber realtors out there running around showing property for $19, get on the listing side of the business. Build up the listing side of the business. That is the most important piece. So then we look at the structure. So one of the most common things that we have in success is routine. Carly, if you owned a Starbucks in, where are you, little Italy, somewhere down there? Somewhere down that way.

Carly Hathaway (03:15):
Yes.

Ren Jones (03:15):
Somewhere in San Diego. And you owned a Starbucks. Can you open it at 5:00 AM on Tuesday, 7:00 PM on Wednesday, skip Thursday, open at 9:00 AM on Friday? Can you do that?

Carly Hathaway (03:28):
Absolutely not. No way.

Ren Jones (03:29):
Absolutely not. So the most important thing is to set very exact structure to be successful. Because when you have a routine, wherever you have routine, you have a very effective business.

(03:40):
So the biggest challenge is that morning piece. And I know Tim, who is going to be joining us here in a few minutes, would agree it is all about the routines and structures you build as your building block. Whether you are a solo agent and one assistant or no assistant, or maybe you share a assistant with two other agents. I mean, you got to start somewhere. And you are building that business, you have got to have routines. But we do not see it. “Well, I did not come in Tuesday morning until 11:00 because I was up late at midnight negotiating a contract on Monday night”. That does not work folks. So we have to start at the same time.

(04:18):
So here is the recipe. Let us look at recipe number one. Make sure your morning is almost identical, 225 days a year. Those are work days. Those days you are working, right? Remember that. So every morning from the time you get up until noon, every single day has got to look the same. “Well that is not possible”. Well yes, it is possible. Let us talk about that. Anybody have any questions on how that is possible? Thoughts, questions?

(04:51):
Let us see. “This last week is a recording available?” Yes there is. Yes. We will email it to you eventually. All those will be posted into your Vulcan7 member. Oh, we got some general questions but I wanted to talk about that morning routine because there are people that, they will have a dental appointment at 10:00 in the morning. Why did you set it for 10:00? Why did you set it… Carly, why do people do that? If all morning is lead generation, why would you set a dental appointment right the middle of it? We know dental appointments are only at one exact time, anybody know? It is 2:30, tooth hurt-y, 2:30, right? 2:30, that is dental appointments. So nothing before noon so you can have very exact days. And when you are honing your skill, if you are doing the same thing five days a week…

(05:46):
I think we should jump in because we have a perfect example. We have Tim Davis on the line. Let me introduce Tim and let us get some conversation going. Tim Davis is our guest today. He is from the Redmond and Bend area. Maybe Some of you drove up that way to the little town of Madras a few miles away to watch the total eclipse. It was like their version of Woodstock up there. So they had a lot of fun, but they were all in the dark from what I heard. Tim, welcome to the show and I am glad you can be here because you do what we are talking about, don’t you?

Tim Davis (06:24):
Absolutely. Every day. Every day.

Carly Hathaway (06:26):
Every Day.

Ren Jones (06:28):
So you take about three or four listings a week? 12, 14-

Tim Davis (06:35):
Four to five a week right now.

Carly Hathaway (06:36):
Wow.

Ren Jones (06:37):
Four or five a week. And if I asked you 10 years ago how many you took a week, what would you tell me?

Tim Davis (06:42):
Two to three.

Ren Jones (06:44):
Two to three. Okay. So it was increasing. So you were only down to maybe 12 listings a month back then?

Tim Davis (06:50):
Yeah.

Carly Hathaway (06:51):
Oh darn.

Ren Jones (06:52):
Oh darn. You know what is interesting, he is in a small town area and so many agents will say, I” need to be in a big city to be able to take that many kind of listings. You ca not do that here”. But Tim does it every… You have been doing it for decades.

Tim Davis (07:07):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (07:07):
Decades.

Tim Davis (07:08):
27 years-

Ren Jones (07:09):
You are working on nights and weekends?

Tim Davis (07:11):
No.

Ren Jones (07:12):
Of course not. And you are off on the weekend, Saturday, Sunday.

Tim Davis (07:17):
Yes.

Ren Jones (07:19):
Okay. And some vacations. And season is coming, right?

Tim Davis (07:24):
Exactly. Hunting season. Here we go.

Ren Jones (07:27):
Elk hunting. It is a different world, folks. Different world.

Carly Hathaway (07:30):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (07:33):
Elk hunting. So, give me a sample of your day.

Tim Davis (07:39):
In at 8:00, I will prospect from 8:00 until right around 10:00, 10:30. Do some lead follow up from 10:30 to 11:30. Return some calls, go to lunch, 12:00 to 1:00. Back in the office, do two more hours in additional prospecting. Set some other appointments, negotiate some contracts, go on a listing appointment or two and then out by 6:30, 7:00 the latest.

Ren Jones (08:12):
Okay, so on a long day you are working until 6:30 or 7:00?

Tim Davis (08:15):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (08:16):
Okay, good. Fantastic. Off on the weekends, four to six weeks vacation. I know you go over to Hawaii often.

Tim Davis (08:27):
Yes.

Ren Jones (08:27):
You have a great time and take several weeks. I mean, when people talk about 365 days and working 225 to 235, is that realistic?

Tim Davis (08:36):
Absolutely. Yeah

Ren Jones (08:36):
You are doing it. I know you are doing it. I know.

Tim Davis (08:41):
Yeah, as long as you are efficient. When you are working, you are working. But when you are on your on, that is the key.

Ren Jones (08:48):
Great. That is fantastic. And by the way, before we get too deep and I do not want to forget, Tim is in Redmond and Bend and there are some natural markets and a lot of our listeners or viewers are in some of those markets like Portland and Salem and Seattle and the Tri-Cities area and all those areas up in the northwest that naturally have people moving back and forth. What is your website? If they want to find you and have you or-

Tim Davis (09:16):
Yeah, it is real easy. Tim Davis Group Central Oregon Realty.

Ren Jones (09:20):
Tim Davis Group Central Oregon Realty.

Tim Davis (09:23):
Yep.

Ren Jones (09:23):
Perfect.

Tim Davis (09:25):
Yep.

Ren Jones (09:25):
Yep. Look and be very well taken care of because they have got their skills honed. Oh expireds, for sale by owner, calling around listings and sales. Past client sphere. Anything else?

Tim Davis (09:40):
Yeah. I have been doing a lot more in calling investors as well.

Carly Hathaway (09:45):
Oh that is good.

Ren Jones (09:45):
Investors, great.

Tim Davis (09:47):
Working that in for an hour. Absentee owners, again, because right now everybody knows it is harder to get the inventory so you got a mixed bag. Everybody is getting expireds, there is a lot more so you got, got to fish in other pools to get the listings.

Ren Jones (10:04):
Okay. Yeah. Getting down to where you are only getting four or five a week, what the heck?

Tim Davis (10:09):
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Ren Jones (10:13):
I think you got this thing figured out.

Carly Hathaway (10:15):
Yeah.

Tim Davis (10:15):
Yeah. It works. It works if you work. That is the deal.

Ren Jones (10:19):
Yeah. Does your system work? Do you? Yes. Something like that. So, good. And then you have been working… The people in the community, are you still calling them on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis or?

Tim Davis (10:35):
Yeah, we still do it. It is tougher to get phone numbers but with Vulcan, now we are getting people’s cell phone numbers.

Ren Jones (10:42):
Gotcha.

Tim Davis (10:42):
Their home phone numbers are gone. Which is a nice tool now so we can keep covering and touching base with them. But yeah, we have had people that have called for over 20 years. Every once in a while you will still get one of them that call and, “Hey, you called me 20 years ago, I am ready to finally put my home on the market.” So, yeah.

Ren Jones (11:03):
Fantastic. “You called me 20 years ago”. Good lord, Tim.

Tim Davis (11:06):
We just kept calling them.

Ren Jones (11:08):
Somebody is typing and says, “it is difficult to hear Jim”. So we know they ca not hear because they are calling you Jim. So just speak as loud as you can, I guess.

Tim Davis (11:13):
Okay. I will Speak louder for you.

Ren Jones (11:16):
Great. Perfect. Questions you may have for Tim because here is the copycat principle folks. If you went to see Tim work and you showed up at 7:30 and you saw him role play and get on the phone and talk to expireds and then for sale by owners and old expireds and past clients and you would hear the scripts and the dialogues and we can cover some of them here today. Whatever you guys want. We have got a big crowd on here. Love to see some questions or thought. “Can you repeat daily schedule?”

Tim Davis (11:45):
Sure.

Ren Jones (11:46):
“How could we get his schedule again?” Everybody is asking about that So what time do you arrive at the office?

Tim Davis (11:54):
8:00.

Ren Jones (11:56):
8:00, okay. And then they are saying, what is the priority? Who do you call first?

Tim Davis (11:59):
Expireds first.

Ren Jones (12:01):
Okay.

Tim Davis (12:02):
And then I will roll into for sale by owners second.

Ren Jones (12:05):
For sale by owners second. Great. So if you are calling an expired, what do you say to an expired?

Tim Davis (12:14):
Oh, this is Tim Davis with Central Oregon Realty. I just realized your home came off the market and I was wondering when you plan on interviewing the right agent for the job of selling your home.

Ren Jones (12:25):
Great. Great. Well, thank you, Tim but we are just going to give it a rest.

Tim Davis (12:30):
Going to give it a rest? Okay, great. And if you sold this home, where are you going next?

Ren Jones (12:35):
We are moving to Portland.

Tim Davis (12:37):
Portland. That is exciting. And how soon do you have to be there?

Ren Jones (12:43):
Well, we are kind of in both places back and forth right now. But we are going to give it a little rest and think about it. We got to regroup.

Tim Davis (12:49):
Give it a rest and regroup. I can appreciate that. What do you think stopped your home from selling?

Ren Jones (12:55):
I do not know. It does not make any sense to me. We had a couple people come back a second time, but no offers.

Tim Davis (13:06):
No offers. Oh really? And how do you happen to pick the last agent you listed with?

Ren Jones (13:16):
I have known him since high school.

Tim Davis (13:19):
Known him since high school. Oh good.

Ren Jones (13:23):
Yeah.

Tim Davis (13:23):
And what did that agent do that you liked best?

Ren Jones (13:26):
Well. What did you say your name was?

Tim Davis (13:29):
It is Tim Davis, Central Oregon Realty.

Ren Jones (13:32):
Well he worked really hard. I like the fact that he was here for every showing.

Tim Davis (13:36):
Every showing, he was there. Oh, I can appreciate that.

Ren Jones (13:39):
You bet.

Tim Davis (13:41):
And what do you feel he should have done?

Ren Jones (13:43):
Well, we want the house sold.

Tim Davis (13:46):
You want the house sold. Absolutely, right. You are getting [inaudible 00:13:49]

Ren Jones (13:49):
So let me get your number and we will give you a call because we are regrouping.

Tim Davis (13:53):
Regrouping. I can appreciate that. And what will you expect from the next agent you choose?

Ren Jones (14:00):
Well, we are going to expect to just get it sold. We want good communication and we have our price. We want 299, so.

Tim Davis (14:07):
You want 299, that is your price? Okay.

Ren Jones (14:11):
Yeah.

Tim Davis (14:12):
And have you already chosen an agent to work with?

Ren Jones (14:15):
Well we will probably go back with Bob. Maybe.

Tim Davis (14:19):
Go back with Bob. I see. I would like to apply for the job of actually getting your home sold this time. Are you familiar with the techniques I used to sell homes?

Ren Jones (14:29):
So, Tim, you are listing four or five homes a week and you are using this script pretty commonly.

Tim Davis (14:34):
Yes.

Ren Jones (14:35):
And that works? Okay good.

Tim Davis (14:36):
Yes.

Ren Jones (14:37):
And then you go to for sale by owners and somebody said, how do you overcome the objection that a for sale by owner does not want to list with an agent? Just say, “Well thanks for calling Tim, but we are not going to list with an agent”.

Tim Davis (14:47):
I can appreciate you do not want to list… You not like real estate agents?

Ren Jones (14:51):
No, we like them. We are just trying to save the money, Tim.

Tim Davis (14:54):
Save the money, I understand. Everybody wants to save the money and net as much money as it. If I could net you the price you want and handle everything with you, would you be open to seeing what I can do to sell your home?

Ren Jones (15:07):
So a question that simple Tim, that works?

Tim Davis (15:11):
Yeah. Keep it simple.

Ren Jones (15:13):
So really we are just overcomplicating this.

Tim Davis (15:16):
We are, yes. [inaudible 00:15:18]

Ren Jones (15:17):
Is it just everybody feels like they have to have the magic words or is it just that they need to spend four to five hours doing it every day?

Tim Davis (15:27):
The four to five hours doing it every day. And role play.

Ren Jones (15:29):
So there is a tough situation. Because I was reading some notes this morning over things to talk about. This comes from a guy, Ron Wexler in Chicago. Some of you out there may know. People work long hours because they did not do what they were supposed to do between nine and five. what Say you?

Tim Davis (15:50):
True.

Ren Jones (15:51):
I agree with that too. Great.

Carly Hathaway (15:55):
Can I ask you a question? So if you-

Ren Jones (15:55):
but you are working when you are at work… Go ahead Carly. Say that again.

Carly Hathaway (15:58):
Once you do overcome all their objections and they are open to meeting with you, do you try to take that listing appointment same day? Do you think that that is better or do you try to set it for later in the week?

Tim Davis (16:08):
It depends on the pre-qualification. Good question. So if they are open to it and I know I am going to be the last agent, then I could set it that day if I feel that they are going to sign the contract-

Carly Hathaway (16:22):
So you just want to be the last agent.

Tim Davis (16:24):
Yeah. Always want to be the last agent.

Carly Hathaway (16:25):
Okay.

Tim Davis (16:26):
If not, say they are seeing two or three others today, then I would set it for the next day.

Carly Hathaway (16:32):
Okay, got it.

Tim Davis (16:34):
Because I want to be last. So whatever the answer-

Carly Hathaway (16:36):
And you do you have to try to get a commitment from them to not sign with any other agents before they meet with you?

Tim Davis (16:41):
Yes. I always ask for a verbal commitment on that.

Carly Hathaway (16:43):
Okay. Good. And someone is asking what an absentee owner is.

Tim Davis (16:48):
Absentee owner is someone that owns an investment property, like a second home, and they do not live in that area. So vacation home, second home, multi-family investment properties, things of that nature.

Ren Jones (17:03):
And we find there are people like that own like 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 homes.

Tim Davis (17:10):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (17:12):
And I think the script is something like, “Are there any now that you may want to sell or trade for something more lucrative?” Because they are always playing old made with those, if you got that many, you have to be playing old made with them or they should be.

Tim Davis (17:25):
Yeah. Right. Absolutely. Yeah. They are putting them into other investment properties and upgrading, exchanging all kinds of options and opportunity there. So, yeah.

Carly Hathaway (17:37):
How many-

Ren Jones (17:37):
People are just cleaning them. Go ahead Carly.

Carly Hathaway (17:40):
How many people would you say you call in your morning calls to the for sale by owners and those people? Do you have a number?

Tim Davis (17:49):
I am averaging about 45 to 50 actual contacts.

Carly Hathaway (17:52):
Okay.

Ren Jones (17:53):
Conversations. It is interesting, a lot of people track calls or attempts where you call and nothing happens. I have never understood that. It is a big number to be proud of. “I attempted to talk to 183 people”, “How many did you talk to?”, “14”. but 14, it is still a good number. So if you are talking to 40 or 50 in a day… For those of you that have not done that, try that. 40 or 50 in a day. 40 or 50 conversations. Tim would agree. Some of those are pretty quick.

Tim Davis (18:25):
Yes.

Carly Hathaway (18:26):
Yeah, I bet.

Ren Jones (18:30):
And you called for so many years through some neighborhoods, people started answering your next question before you asked it.

Tim Davis (18:38):
Yeah, they got better at the script than I did. Well I got a lot of referrals out of it and they remember who you are, so.

Ren Jones (18:47):
That is true. Yeah, that is true. Perfect. But when you look at it, expireds, for sale by owners, they have a hound for sale today, right now and they do not have an agent. There is your low hanging fruit.

Carly Hathaway (19:02):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (19:03):
Who is next on the list right after for sale by owners? Because five hours, Tim, five hours. You cannot talk to expireds and FSBOs for five hours. There is more.

Tim Davis (19:11):
Yeah. Then I would go into some just listed, just sold. Typically around my newest listing, I would pull up all my past clients that live around it first and start calling them because they are either going to give you the best referral or they are going to know the hottest lead in the area, typically. And then I would just go into the general just listed, just so calls after that.

Ren Jones (19:40):
Okay, good. Good, good, good. So what does the whole script like that sound like?

Tim Davis (19:48):
For which one? I am sorry?

Ren Jones (19:51):
Calling around a recent listing.

Tim Davis (19:53):
Oh, around relisting. Oh, okay. Ring, ring, ring. We will Do it here.

Ren Jones (19:57):
Hello.

Tim Davis (19:59):
Hello. Mr. Jones?

Ren Jones (20:00):
Yes.

Tim Davis (20:01):
Hey Brian, this is Tim Davis with Central Oregon Realty.

Ren Jones (20:04):
Yes.

Tim Davis (20:05):
How are you today?

Ren Jones (20:07):
Good.

Tim Davis (20:07):
I do not know if you remember me. I actually sold you that home two years ago, there on 10th Street.

Ren Jones (20:13):
Oh that Tim Davis. Oh, oh

Tim Davis (20:16):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (20:18):
Yeah. This faucet leaks.

Tim Davis (20:20):
Oh, faucet leaks.

Ren Jones (20:22):
Just kidding. Just kidding.

Tim Davis (20:23):
I can understand that. Yeah. Got to have some home maintenance there. I just wanted to thank you for keeping your home in that area so nice. I have driven by there about a month ago and noticed how nice that home looks. And I just listed a house a block over, over there on 50th and it is a three bed and two bath and really good condition. And I was wondering who do you know and would like to live close to you guys?

Ren Jones (20:54):
Well I do not really know but I know the Morrises are planning on moving out-

Tim Davis (21:01):
Oh, the Morrises are moving out-

Ren Jones (21:01):
You know the Morrises-

Tim Davis (21:01):
Right. Yeah. So where are they at

Ren Jones (21:02):
They are planning on moving out. So maybe you should sell their house too.

Tim Davis (21:06):
No, I appreciate that. Do you mind if I used your name when I give them a call?

Ren Jones (21:12):
That is probably not a good idea. They think I talked too much about the neighborhood.

Tim Davis (21:14):
Talk too much about… That is okay. I will just call them out of the blue. I appreciate that.

Ren Jones (21:17):
There we go.

Tim Davis (21:18):
I was wondering who else, do you know who is planning on moving?

Ren Jones (21:22):
have you talked to Mrs. Kravitz next door here?

Tim Davis (21:27):
No, no I have not talked to her. Is she planning on moving as well?

Ren Jones (21:31):
No, but I was hoping she would.

Tim Davis (21:34):
Hoping she would. Yeah, I can appreciate that. How about you? Any moving plans or looking for any investment properties-

Ren Jones (21:41):
No, we are here for the long haul.

Tim Davis (21:42):
Oh, For the long haul? Okay. I appreciate that

Ren Jones (21:44):
Yeah. You know elk hunting season is coming, I got to get out there for that.

Tim Davis (21:51):
Yeah, I got to get ready for that. I hear you. So am I. Yeah, you got to be ready. And I was wondering, do you mind if I touch base with you every 30 days or so and kept in touch on what the market is doing, would that be okay?

Ren Jones (22:00):
Sure Tim.

Tim Davis (22:02):
Great. I appreciate your help today.

Ren Jones (22:04):
So then, how do you mark that in your database? So you have got Cole or something pushed into Vulcan 7 or something, you marked it. They are okay with you calling on a… So there you got permissions, keep that going-

Tim Davis (22:15):
I do just a quick note

Ren Jones (22:16):
You keep that going.

Tim Davis (22:18):
Yeah

Ren Jones (22:18):
And you just build. As we had a guest on here a couple weeks back, Sean McCarthy, he calls around as his listings and sales and whatnot and he helps them, adds them to the sphere, asks permission to stay in touch and he has got thousands of people he is calling. And so if you are doing four or five hours you got to have a lot of that.

Tim Davis (22:41):
Yeah. And there is a lot of sphere of influence in past clients mixed in there as well.

Ren Jones (22:45):
Good. Fantastic. So let us talk a little bit about how your team runs because what I know is if you are spending your four or five hours on the phone every day and negotiating contracts, somebody else is taking care of buyers packet and whoever else. And you have got this administrative staff that is rockstar. Alicia and Brittany is still there and you have got a rockstar team. Delegating, one of the biggest challenges agents have, and I was reading about this this morning, is they do not want to let go. You have agents that, it is kind of funny, they do it in reverse. How, if you are doing this right, your assistant goes through your email, your mail, phone messages, everything and then gives you what you need. A lot of agents when they are newer to delegating, they go through everything and hand their assistant what they want the assistant to handle. They do it backwards.

(23:43):
So tell me a little bit about delegating structure, how that creates the space that you need. Catching a fish every day because at some point in time you got a barrel full of fish to keep track of. Active and pending and on from there.

Tim Davis (23:59):
Yeah, absolutely right. The key, of course, is the right people in the right systems. I have two on the administration staff so once I get something accepted or the listing taken, it is automatically processed. So that is taken care of so I can stay on my schedule.

Ren Jones (24:24):
Fantastic. Well they do a bang up job so, yeah. That takes a while to build up that, like you said, it takes a while to get the right-

Tim Davis (24:33):
It does.

Ren Jones (24:33):
get the right people, and I know you have got an amazing group there so it makes it all work out. A lot of questions about where you are getting your information for circle prospecting, I assume that is through Cole, which is available in our system. You just… your name and grid data. That is a separate subscription with them and they have cell numbers and you can draw on a map and pull the ones you want and et cetera. And then you were talking about absentee owners or people that own multiple properties. How are you finding those people that are absentee? Is that through Cole as well? Cause I think it tells you about that

Tim Davis (25:08):
Yeah. We do a different merge there and what we do is get a list of those owners through the county, through the title company, who they are. And then from there, then we will merge that into Vulcan on a list, then we pull up the phone numbers and then we can call them.

Ren Jones (25:28):
All right. So generally speaking, because only four or five states have title companies that will do that kind of hustle for you. Usually California, Washington, Oregon over that way. So in the rest of the states, most multiple listing services have a tax database. Most agents do not know how to go in and use it. But you can go in, pull all the owners sort by owner name and look for blocks of people that own property or you can search that says, non owner occupied, yes or no. And you can pull groups, you just have to get proficient at how to use the tax database to pull those absentees. And once you do that, then you can import that and go from there. So there is a number of methods to do that, but you got to find a way to do it. If you run into a dead end, keep looking because absentees are gold.

(26:18):
So when you are talking to somebody, they own the house but they live in Seattle. They own the house, but they live in Honolulu. They own the house, but they live in Phoenix. Versus somebody that lives locally. That group. And you are calling them and nobody else is. I am sure they are like, how is the weather? What is going on in the market there? What is real estate… You are the little lifeline and you are the only one calling. That has got to be powerful.

Tim Davis (26:49):
Yeah, very unique market. Like you said, nobody else is really calling them and working it consistently.

Ren Jones (26:55):
Yeah.

Carly Hathaway (26:56):
So let me ask you this. Essentially, you are obviously not going to meet them for a listing appointment.

Tim Davis (27:01):
Right.

Carly Hathaway (27:01):
Over the phone?

Tim Davis (27:01):
Yeah.

Carly Hathaway (27:01):
Okay. And not-

Tim Davis (27:03):
Most of these over the phone. Yep.

Carly Hathaway (27:04):
Okay.

Ren Jones (27:08):
Carly, you ever taken a listing over the phone?

Carly Hathaway (27:10):
I have not but I am excited to try it now.

Ren Jones (27:13):
It works. I used to take about two a month and I love them. And it is a lot easier. Jeff Quentin, who we have interviewed in the past, most of his business, he has never met the people. Most of his appointments just say, “Let us set up a time to meet. How about this afternoon at 3:00?” So he sets up a time to meet from 3:00 to 3:30. In the meantime, he emails them over particulars to look over. They all get on the phone, he sends over the document to eSign and then you are done. “Well I need to get a key” or “Our neighbor has a key”, “Should we send our locksmith to re-key it?”. It is easier than you know.

Carly Hathaway (27:54):
Yeah, it sounds like it.

Ren Jones (27:56):
So phone listing appointments… A lot of people in resort markets, Tim is not quite a resort market, but in resort markets it is like, what, two thirds of their business operates that way. Much more efficient. And the motivation. Describe the motivation of an absentee versus someone who is living there now.

Tim Davis (28:16):
Motivation, it is… They are always looking, is what I am saying. They are always looking for the next opportunity, the next deal. Or it is a property that they have not used for a while. So timing is good with them. When they are ready to go, they are ready to sell. Most of them have a lot of equity, so it is a lot easier sale.

Ren Jones (28:38):
Good. So it is an easier to sell because they have the equity. And it is more like owning stock for them than the emotion of “I am living here”. And sometimes when people are in a property, it is sort of like, “well I got to pay a mortgage somewhere so we are not in any hurry”. But with an absentee, the emotion is not there.

Tim Davis (28:59):
Exactly. Yeah. It is more of a business transaction

Ren Jones (29:02):
Are not in the absentee business in your market yet. We should go through your rent role, seek out who does not live there. Start talking to them wherever they are, be there… Because it is a great phone call. It is a very welcome phone call. Very, very welcome. They feel like you have your eyes on their property. And do you offer anything like that? “Hey, if you ever need us to go by and do this or that”? I mean you are the eyes and ears on the ground you are in Redmond and Bend for someone who lives many states away.

Tim Davis (29:36):
Yeah. A lot of them, we will go cruise by and it just gives you the intro to the next time you call them. Got a lot of investors like that, “Hey, I went by your rental, it looks like it is going to need some paint” and they are, “I appreciate you telling me that. Maybe it is time to look at upgrading that now” and it just opens the conversations.

Ren Jones (29:54):
Great. Okay. Let us see. Expand. Okay. They just want you to… Well that is a very general question. I do not have a lot of good questions on here, but I like to ask some. “What he said about being the last agent”. Oh, what do you say after you are being the… You are the last agent in on a Friday or whatever. What do you say to them once you are the last agent in that closes it up?

Tim Davis (30:28):
In the listing presentation.

Carly Hathaway (30:31):
Yeah.

Tim Davis (30:32):
Yeah. I say, “I appreciate you, you have met with everyone. All your questions are answered. I am the choice for you. Let us get the home on the market right now”. And then, boom, I close it.

Ren Jones (30:43):
Great.

Tim Davis (30:45):
Yeah. That way they cannot stall you with, “Well we got one more person to talk to. We need to think about it tonight. We need to talk to somebody else”. It cuts a lot of those down.

Ren Jones (30:58):
How long is your listing presentation?

Tim Davis (31:02):
20 to 30 minutes on average. It should be 15, but it is a little longer.

Ren Jones (31:10):
20 to 30 minutes. Great. And I can appreciate that because that works and works well. I do not know about this question. What do you say if their husband or wife is a listing agent? I do not think you say. I think you say next.

(31:27):
Do you deliver a pre-listing packet to the listing appointment?

Tim Davis (31:32):
I do not consistently do that. I know a lot of people do really well doing that. One of my agents on my team that does listings now as well, he does it consistently.

Ren Jones (31:43):
Okay. So he is including comparables with those?

Tim Davis (31:47):
Yes.

Ren Jones (31:48):
He does include the comparables. Okay, good.

Tim Davis (31:50):
He does the comps with the circled price and everything before he goes.

Ren Jones (31:54):
Gotcha. Perfect. Other questions, let us keep this Q&A going. And I may want to click and add somebody to jump in and talk too. Anybody else? Questions, questions? Is there a different tactic you use when you come to the million dollar homes? Well I know that is not Lake Park Estates is it down at Sun River. We joke about Lake Park Estates because there is no lake, no park and it is certainly not an estate.

Tim Davis (32:24):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (32:25):
Said something like that. What about Sun River? You have million dollar property by Sun River-

Tim Davis (32:30):
Yeah. Ultimately a little more talk on marketing, of course, during the listing presentation. But it still comes down to are they motivated to sell, are they going to price it to sell? Does not matter if it is a million dollars or a hundred thousand, it still has to be priced right.

Ren Jones (32:49):
Great. Do you role play with your team is a question coming in?

Tim Davis (32:52):
Yeah. Yep. You started me on that and yeah, that is a daily event. The quick 15 minute meeting.

Carly Hathaway (33:00):
Nice.

Ren Jones (33:00):
Good. Ask if you are doing anything with video or emails or are you just talking.

Tim Davis (33:09):
no, not too much video. No.

Ren Jones (33:10):
Not too much with video.

Tim Davis (33:11):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (33:12):
But we will have to talk.

Tim Davis (33:12):
Like you.

Ren Jones (33:20):
Let us see. It says, what are your numbers? How many turn into clients of the 50 you speak to each day? Well if you are speaking to 50, you are talking to 250 people a week and it sounds like you are taking four listings a week.

Tim Davis (33:31):
Right.

Ren Jones (33:32):
So it would be fair to say that every 63 people you talk to, you take a listing. Is that right? Yeah,

Tim Davis (33:39):
It is a good number-

Ren Jones (33:40):
There is probably some buyer business out of that too. Well we know there is, when you sell their home, they have nowhere to live. So actually, it is probably one out of, what, 30 or 40 contacts equals a closed sale or something like that.

Tim Davis (33:53):
Paid transaction. Yeah.

Ren Jones (33:54):
How many contacts is it, what do you think that number is? How many contacts to a paid transaction?

Tim Davis (34:02):
I would say it is 40. 40 to 50.

Ren Jones (34:05):
Yeah. When you think about… How hard do you have to work? Because it is not that hard, but the mindset piece. You look at the mind… Now, I know you have been doing it a long time, so you are past that curve. But for somebody that is newer to this and they start feeling full, they start getting agitated after about an hour of being rejected. What do you say to somebody like that?

Tim Davis (34:30):
You need to focus on the positive responses.

Ren Jones (34:34):
Okay.

Tim Davis (34:35):
And keep that mindset when you are on the phone. Of course you are going to get the person that hangs up on you right away or does not call you right away. What I have found though is you usually get one of those a day that is with that kind of attitude. Once you are past them, you are good to go. So a lot of it is seeing the positive outcome, knowing what you are going to say, staying on the script and just know it is part of your job.

Ren Jones (35:06):
Just that it is part of your job because when you look at it is a lot easier than a lot of other choices. Where can you make 600, 800 and a million dollars a year consistently for year after year after year after year. Putting your two girls through college. One has just finished college. Right?

Tim Davis (35:22):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (35:22):
And great vacations. You and Stacy bought a lot of rental property, haven’t you? How many doors do you have? You do not have to share, but you have got a bunch.

Tim Davis (35:32):
Over 30.

Ren Jones (35:33):
Over 30 rental properties. So life is bliss. So where else can you make this kind of money? Where else for working a five day week, nine to five, nine to six. Where do you… Guys and gals, it is simple but it is not easy. But the mindset piece. Now, Tim is unusual because a lot of us had to have a lot of accountability partners. You kind of did not do a whole lot of that role play partners, accountability partners to keep your head in the game. But some of us have a little tougher time keeping our head in the game after… You got about two hours worth of prospecting, you start getting a little woozy and you are like, “Oh, I got to get out of here”.

Tim Davis (36:06):
That is True.

Ren Jones (36:06):
But that you are beyond that.

Tim Davis (36:06):
Yes. Yeah [inaudible 00:36:15]-

Ren Jones (36:15):
Do you hold a vision of all the great things you are going to have because you do it or at this point it is probably just automatic.

Tim Davis (36:24):
That and now it is kind of like a habit. It is the most important part of the morning schedule and you just get it done and go on to the next part. So it is just part of the day.

Carly Hathaway (36:37):
Someone actually was asking, they missed what you do, what your schedule is after your lunch. So when you come back from lunch at 1:00, then what does your schedule look like?

Tim Davis (36:44):
Well, I return calls and then I will get back on and just do some additional prospecting for probably two hours and then if I got any contracts to negotiate or any admin stuff, that is where I fit it in that part of the day, the dead part of the day. And then I set my appointments for the evening and then start 5:00, 6:00 going to listing appointments.

Carly Hathaway (37:13):
Great. Good.

Tim Davis (37:14):
Yeah.

Carly Hathaway (37:14):
Good.

Tim Davis (37:14):
Yeah.

Carly Hathaway (37:17):
Someone else was asking, do you send out mailers for your listings or do you do any mailers or anything like that?

Tim Davis (37:23):
Nope. No mailing at all. I do mail a calendar out once a year. That Ren always gets.

Carly Hathaway (37:30):
Nice. I want one next year.

Ren Jones (37:32):
There it is on the refrigerator. No, I think-

Tim Davis (37:35):
Besides that I do not do-

Ren Jones (37:36):
They just knocked me off of that. I have not seen one in a little while.

Carly Hathaway (37:40):
[inaudible 00:37:39] Not spending a lot of hours on advertising?

Ren Jones (37:44):
But maybe I was not responding. Let us see. And then it says, door knock, you still doing any of that? I know you were a long time ago.

Tim Davis (37:50):
I do not do as much. It is mainly phone for me. There is a couple people on my team that still door knocked though. Yes.

Ren Jones (37:57):
Great. Somebody is hawking and inside sales agent. Have you ever had people call with you and do they… Because it is interesting. So many people have experimented with that and a lot of people do, where they have people on the team that call for them, they will have two or three people that call away. What do you see here? What does that look like? What have you seen in the past with that? Because you are doing all the calling… Certainly, Tim, you could have three people doing all these calls for you and you could just go up to that little Mexican restaurant you love so much and just have lunch.

Tim Davis (38:28):
Exactly. No, can I appreciate that-

Ren Jones (38:31):
They can be dialing for you but you do not do that.

Tim Davis (38:33):
And not that I am against that, but I have tested that in the past and I know that is really big right now where people are calling people to call for them. Here though, I think when it comes down to the rub where you are going to get the appointment, it is a lot better… I have two gentlemen here that are trained in my office that know how to… They are actually in the business. The people know that they are real estate agents and they can set the appointment, be it somebody else calling who is just calling but really is not that person. Does that make sense? They have the connection that they know they are in the office and they are actively working and they are an agent.

Ren Jones (39:13):
It is a different beast and I think… You are doing it but you are only working 225 days a year. It is not so bad. So what happens is people, they hire all these people, the results are a lot less that they are paying out a lot of what would have gone into their pocket. It is one of the best skills we have is all the people skills that you have developed and the relationships you have developed with these people. Of the 50 people you talk to, what percentage of them are strangers every day and what percentage of them are people that have heard from you before at some level?

Tim Davis (39:49):
That is a good question. Probably 70%. Yeah.

Ren Jones (39:52):
70%?

Tim Davis (39:54):
With strangers. A lot of people-

Ren Jones (39:56):
70% are strangers. So you are talking a third of the people and two thirds of the people you do not know every day. Okay. All right. And over time you built that up and that sounds like the right ratio because you want to talk to both. The people you do not know is the bigger group. At least that is the last I heard anyway.

Tim Davis (40:14):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (40:16):
Well, good. This has been great. There has been a lot of good questions. CRM, somebody is asking about that. Well that is Vulcan 7. So it is a great contact manager to track leads, email, store, tag, come up on your calendar, all the wonderful things that you want that to do. Anything else, Carly?

Carly Hathaway (40:35):
Not that I can think of. I do have a question. So as far as expireds go, do you have an order that you call them in? Like, They have been expired for a week, they have been expired for a month. They have been expired for a year. Is there an order

Ren Jones (40:46):
Expired.

Tim Davis (40:48):
The good question, Carla. Yeah, I do the new ones first of course. Because you want to get on that before today’s expireds and I go top down.

Carly Hathaway (40:55):
Okay, got it.

Tim Davis (40:55):
So, that has been my change this year. Because you want to push up your purchase price, of course, as much as you can to help with your numbers. So, yeah. I go top down so most expensive to least expensive.

Ren Jones (41:10):
So, first call you make is the most expensive listing. So in other words, if you have five expireds that day, you are calling the 1.2 million, then the 750 then on down?

Tim Davis (41:23):
Yeah. Because personally that has always been my challenge. I always like calling the cheaper ones first because I feel they would sell easier. So it is a mindset change.

Carly Hathaway (41:33):
Good for you.

Ren Jones (41:33):
Start with Redmond and work your way over to Bend and down to Sun River last.

Tim Davis (41:38):
So three years can do that.

Carly Hathaway (41:40):
What about the for sale by owners then? What is your system there?

Tim Davis (41:46):
Anybody in the market area.

Carly Hathaway (41:47):
Okay.

Tim Davis (41:49):
And then I take them from when I follow up them again based on their motivation. Is it saleable? Do they really want to sell? Is the condition good? I will kind of run that through my head again before I decide on how I am going to follow up.

Carly Hathaway (42:07):
Got it. Great.

Ren Jones (42:09):
Fantastic. Good. How big is this market area? It is a little rural area with what, a couple hundred thousand people? Is that what you got?

Tim Davis (42:18):
Well, Redmond, no, it is smaller. Couple hundred thousand, that is funny. No, in my town we are bigger now it is 30,000.

Ren Jones (42:27):
In Redmond, what about Bend? You are both.

Tim Davis (42:29):
It is 75-ish.

Ren Jones (42:32):
So about a hundred and… I mean that little region, Prineville, Madras, Sisters-

Tim Davis (42:36):
Yeah. It is still

Ren Jones (42:36):
125, 140.

Tim Davis (42:36):
Yeah, exactly. Yep.

Ren Jones (42:42):
Okay. Fair enough. And then you have got some interesting properties, what you call it? Irrigated acreage.

Tim Davis (42:47):
Irrigated acreage.

Ren Jones (42:53):
Yeah. It is the big money.

Tim Davis (42:54):
Property with water. Farm property.

Ren Jones (42:55):
Yeah, there you go. good. Well I appreciate you sharing with us a whole bunch. I think we have covered a lot of questions. Somebody is asking about pre foreclosure, but those were the big days about six years ago. I do not think a whole lot of that is… you are probably going from Marlon-

Tim Davis (43:12):
Yeah. I used to do a lot of that, four or five transactions a year, but not too much in our market anymore.

Ren Jones (43:18):
Yeah, and that is a lot of work for a little less. There is easier business to attain these days. Now there may be a couple areas of the country where that is viable but that can be some of the harder money. There is lower hanging fruit. “I asked a question about FSBOs”. What was your question about FSBOs?

(43:41):
Type, type, type. “If you cannot reach people via phone on the first week, continue to call daily”. Is that FSBOs? Yeah. They really need your help when they do not answer their phone.

Carly Hathaway (43:55):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (43:55):
They are not going to sell. Continue to call daily either… “Does he limit his market area?” no. Yeah, he runs out of people. He is in a town in the middle of nowhere. That has shown as withdrawn sellers almost persuaded to list with me. Any tips to get us canceled? No tips. Please answer my question. “When a FSBO says they have a buyer and you ask if it is a written offer, how do you close for the appointment?”. If you ask, is it a written offer? How do you close for the appointment? I do not know what that means. Oh, they have a buyer. “When a FSBO says they have a buyer and you ask is it written?” I think you are just getting a conversation with the for sale by owners. I am not sure what he is trying to ask there, but I guess he is trying to get a little bit better with the skills of for sale owners.

(44:46):
Let us give him one more thought or two more thoughts about for sale owners in general. Do you have any general guidelines, Tim, on that? FSBOs, just for sale owners in general?

Tim Davis (44:57):
My general is do not give up on them. I think most agents give up. They call them one time. I call them for sale by owner visitors. They call them one time and they say, “Oh, those people really do not want to sell.” And then they disregard them. What I have found over the years, it takes a little longer. You got to build a more of, not total relationship, I am not saying you are going to be their best friend to talk to them, but it takes a few more contacts to get that appointment. Because a lot of times they are trying it, then they change and they finally say, “Oh we are tired of doing this ourselves”. So it is a timing thing. So you want to up your percentages to be calling at the right time.

Ren Jones (45:36):
Perfect.

Tim Davis (45:37):
Yeah. And it never hurts to, when you have in your schedule, to preview properties just to actually go see a couple for sale by owners as well.

Ren Jones (45:48):
Just include that in. Good.

Tim Davis (45:50):
Include that in Absolutely.

Ren Jones (45:53):
Perfect. Well this has been a real treat, Tim.

Tim Davis (45:55):
Thank you.

Ren Jones (45:57):
You have a fabulous business, a fabulous life. And I am a little envious. It is such a beautiful part of the world too. If any of you have been there, it is gorgeous. So it is good to see you again and I really appreciate, I know you are… Normally this, we probably cost you half of a listing maybe already.

Tim Davis (46:12):
We will make up for it.

Ren Jones (46:15):
Now to get somebody to send him a referral, a client down there. We can make up for that.

Carly Hathaway (46:21):
Yeah.

Tim Davis (46:22):
Awesome. We will take good care of them

Ren Jones (46:25):
Thank you everybody and we will say goodbye to Tim.

Carly Hathaway (46:26):
Bye Tim.

Ren Jones (46:31):
See ya. I am going to go thank our sponsor for the show today, Graeter’s Ice Cream, Mint Chocolate Chip. Make sure you get some. If you have done your four or five hours of prospecting, get a big spoon. You have done your job, you set two listing appointments, you took two listings, got home. It is time for the ice cream. so have a good day everybody. Thanks. We will see you next week. Watch the replay of episode one and we will see you guys next week. Bye.

Carly Hathaway (47:02):
Thank you.