How Breann Llewellyn prospects around the school run as a single mother

Ren Jones00:03

It’s that time. It is that time. 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. We have an exciting guest today. We encourage you to take notes. Make sure that you’re taking in as much knowledge as you can, and you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions during this broadcast, so you’re going to want to ask those questions, so write those down. I’m going to introduce my co-host next from San Diego, that’s Carley Hathaway. carleyhathaway.com. Hi, Carley.

Carley Hathaway00:43

Hi. Hi, everybody. Thanks for tuning in.

Ren Jones00:46

How’s the real estate business?

Carley Hathaway00:48

Amazing. It’s going great. San Diego is a great market right now.

Ren Jones00:52

Great, fantastic. Now, I wanted to touch on a couple things because every seven days, we have a great guest, and people, they go into their limiting belief. They’ll go like, “Well, that guest, they’re in their 50s. They’ve been doing it a long time and they’re in a big city.” The next one is, “Oh, he’s in a small town.” Oh, well then, I had to have people in their 40s and 30s, and now in their 20s today, if I got that right, Breann. A whole spread of ages and walks of life and cities because people go to the limiting belief. “Well, I can’t do that because…” Small town, big town, all that stuff. Let go of your story. Let go of your story. Everybody who’s watching this can take two, three, four listings a week. If you don’t want to, take one a week, if that increases your income, and then just take off four or five days a week. You can just work two days a week.

Carley Hathaway01:57

That would be perfect.

Ren Jones01:59

That’s how the efficiency works. I wanted to touch on the Vulcan7 challenges we say every week. The Vulcan7 challenge is a unique way of learning at a faster rate because you can read in books, you can listen to lectures, you can be coached, and there’s so many ways to learn. The Vulcan7 challenge will get you to this level of business very quickly, and what you do is you find somebody that’s two, three or four hours away by car, or maybe you get on a plane and you go there once a month. It takes 24 hours of your time, maybe 30 hours of your time once a month, and you shadow somebody.

02:35You get there the afternoon before, have dinner with them, meet them at their office early in the morning, follow them through the morning, go to lunch, head back home, and then use the copycat principle. It is the shadowing technique. The Vulcan7 challenge shadowing technique works really, really well, and all of a sudden, you find at the end of a year, you’ve got 12 friends that are all making a huge income and you’re one of them. You become one of them. Now Carley, you did your first Vulcan7 challenge last week.

Carley Hathaway03:06

Yeah, I sure did, and I’m going to tell you, I learned so much in such a short amount of time just shadowing this gentleman and just following how he runs his business and listening to him on his calls. It was really incredible. He walked in the office about 7:45 and he was already role playing. He was role playing on his drive in. He finished up role playing, got right on the phones at 8:00 AM, and just started hitting calls hard.

Ren Jones03:32

Wow.

Carley Hathaway03:33

Within the first 10 minutes, he had an appointment with a FSBO. It was just like that.

Ren Jones03:37

Yeah, and Breann probably knows this person.

Carley Hathaway03:40

Yeah, Hal. I don’t want to tell. Everyone’s going to attack him to go shadow him.

Ren Jones03:45

It’s Hal Sweasey in the-

Carley Hathaway03:48

San Luis Obispo.

Ren Jones03:49

San Luis Obispo. Small town. Great price point.

Breann Llewelyn03:51

He was role playing with me.

Ren Jones03:51

Pardon?

Carley Hathaway03:51

Oh yeah?

Ren Jones03:55

Oh, she role plays with him.

Carley Hathaway03:58

Oh, that’s so funny.

Ren Jones03:59

I’ll introduce Breann here in a second. Go ahead and give me a couple things that you learned, Carley.

Carley Hathaway04:06

One thing I learned is just, continue to overcome the objections. Don’t give in. Just keep pushing and pushing and pushing. I think also what I learned from him is, it’s really important to keep a tight schedule and be on the phones by eight every single day, or I’m sorry, Monday through Friday. He takes his break exactly at 10:45 for 15 minutes, and then he gets right back on the phones, and he keeps it tight. He makes sure he makes 45 connections every single day.

Ren Jones04:35

Wow.

Carley Hathaway04:35

I think that’s the way to go.

Ren Jones04:39

Yeah, that’s great. Alrighty. Well, the role play partner for Mr. Hal Sweasey is on here and five years ago, I interviewed her. I played that back. The market has changed in five years and I’m sure the way she’s approaching the market’s changed a little bit, but not too much. Please give a warm welcome for, and you can’t hear all the applause, but they’re doing it. Breann Llewelyn from Oklahoma City. Hi Breann.

Carley Hathaway05:07

Hey Breann.

Breann Llewelyn05:08

Thanks so much for having me.

Ren Jones05:10

You role play with Hal Sweasey once a week, or every day or I don’t know.

Breann Llewelyn05:15

I do, once a week.

Ren Jones05:17

Once a week, great.

Carley Hathaway05:18

Nice.

Ren Jones05:19

Fantastic. It’s a small world, isn’t it? That’s great. Five years ago, I was watching this and you were doing a hundred… Ask you how, so five years ago, you would’ve been what age?

Breann Llewelyn05:35

I would’ve been 24.

Ren Jones05:35

You were 24 then. That’s five years ago, and you were doing 150 transactions single handedly with a couple assistants and no buyer agent. 150, which meant you kept all the money.

Breann Llewelyn05:51

Yeah.

Carley Hathaway05:51

Nice.

Breann Llewelyn05:51

That’s pretty smart.

Ren Jones05:52

It was a great deal. I asked you, “How do you do that? Do you have a sleeping disorder?” That’s a lot of accomplishment to have a hundred listings sold and 50 buyer sales, but a lot’s changed for you in the last five years. Aren’t there some life things? Marriage, babies, what do we know?

Breann Llewelyn06:11

Divorce and baby, but yes. There were some life changes.

Ren Jones06:15

Divorce and baby, okay. Oh yeah, there’s a progression there.

Breann Llewelyn06:16

Yes, there was a progression. Yes.

Ren Jones06:20

Good. You have one little one, two little ones?

Breann Llewelyn06:21

I have one little one. She’s almost four.

Ren Jones06:23

Almost four, great. Congratulations.

Breann Llewelyn06:26

Yeah, she’s amazing.

Ren Jones06:26

That’s great. Fantastic. Tell us about your business. What’s a typical month for Breann Llewelyn? How many listings do you take these days?

Breann Llewelyn06:39

This year’s been a little off just from finalizing a divorce that took a long time, but pretty standard before that was 12 listings, 12 sells every month. Right now, it’s about 10 and 10, to be on.

Ren Jones06:57

10 and 10, okay. Running about 128 transactions a year or something.

Breann Llewelyn07:00

Yeah, I had to end up taking about two months off this year, so it’s going to be about 125 close this year.

Ren Jones07:07

Okay, gotcha. Fantastic.

Carley Hathaway07:09

You’ve gotten all those just through prospecting and calling and expireds?

Breann Llewelyn07:15

Yes, expireds, for sale by owners, and obviously now, doing this, this is my 11th year doing it, I have a very good past client centers of influence database that I work heavily as well, so receive a lot of referrals in from that as well.

Carley Hathaway07:31

Great, great. Can you walk us through what your morning, what your routine is, what your day looks like?

Breann Llewelyn07:40

Absolutely. I’ve had to learn to be a little bit versatile in my routine now being a single mom. I’ve had to learn to not always be quite as strict, but on the mornings I would have my daughter, I’m on the phones right at eight o’clock and I’ll prospect eight to nine, get her ready for school. We’ll get out the door, take her to school, drop her off, come right next door to my office, and be back on the phones by 9:45. I’ll stay on longer on those days. I’ll typically stay on until 12:45 or one, but a day I don’t have her, I’m on the phones no later than eight and prospect right into noon.

Carley Hathaway08:18

Nice. Do you have people you like to call first? Do you like to call expireds first? FSBOs first? How do you like to make your calls?

Breann Llewelyn08:28

I always like to call my expireds first.

Carley Hathaway08:30

Okay.

Breann Llewelyn08:31

Get to the new fresh ones that I haven’t spoken to first, and then I roll typically right into the brand new for sale by owners, then hit my hot leads, and then we’ll circle back around to the little bit older expireds, little bit older for sale by owners, and then hit past client centers of influence, those type of calls to finish up the calling session.

Carley Hathaway08:52

Great, great. What else? Let me see.

Ren Jones08:57

What else? She said she’s been doing this 11 years and so let’s see, 24 plus… She’s 29. She started in high school and we were talking about it earlier before the show started. Tell them, in your senior year in high school, how many homes did you sell while you were going to high school?

Breann Llewelyn09:15

I got licensed on my 18th birthday in September of my senior year, and so in that first full year of selling, I closed 67 that year.

Carley Hathaway09:24

Oh my goodness.

Ren Jones09:26

Part-time in high school.

Carley Hathaway09:27

That’s incredible. That’s amazing. What made you get into this at such a young age?

Breann Llewelyn09:34

Really my family. My family-owned our company and my grandfather really saw that I was gifted in this area and in his grandfatherly way pushed me just to try it for my senior year because I really honestly, wanted to go into the medical field and was going on to college on scholarships. He was like, “Just get in and try it. See what you think your senior year. Worst case scenario, you hate it but you’ve earned some spending money.” He passed away right before I got licensed, and so it really even drove me even further, and about six months into it, I was like, “Yep, he knew what he was doing. I’m not going to college.”

Ren Jones10:18

That’s so exciting. It’s a great story because yeah. You’re in a real estate family. You’re just doing what dad did. You already saw the efficiency. You weren’t running around holding open houses and showing buyers 87 homes or anything like that.

Breann Llewelyn10:34

No, I haven’t done any of that. Just watch what my dad did most of my life. Now, we compete heavily, but that’s okay.

Ren Jones10:43

I know. They fight over listings now.

Carley Hathaway10:46

Yeah.

Breann Llewelyn10:48

We try not to constantly be overlapping each other if we know, but there’s so many we set that we have no idea that we’re competing against them, so I win some, he wins some.

Carley Hathaway10:57

That’s fun. No, that’s fun.

Breann Llewelyn11:00

We don’t take it seriously. It’s like, “Oh, you did a better presentation than I did. I better do better next time.”

Carley Hathaway11:05

Yeah, cool.

Ren Jones11:07

I remember five years ago when we were interviewing, you stirred up people because you were working with buyers and you were only… You weren’t showing that many homes and usually, you were just selling them one of your listings. Are you engaged in the buyer side at all or do you have someone else do that or?

Breann Llewelyn11:21

I still do work buyers. I’m more selective just because of the time that I devote to working now on the buyers I work with, but absolutely, I still do work buyers. I have a licensed assistant that’s paid salary as well, that works some of my buyers for me, and then I do have some I’ll refer out to other people, but if I do, I’m not counting those in my numbers.

Ren Jones11:44

Yeah, gotcha.

Carley Hathaway11:44

You do work with buyers, but not all of them. Do you qualify them?

Breann Llewelyn11:50

I do. Typically, if I’m going to work with the buyer, it’s going to be past client centers of influence or a current seller that we have that’s looking to purchase, or if it’s somebody higher end that’s motivated, I’ll work with them. Honestly, if somebody’s really motivated and ready to do something and I can take him out once and sell him a house, I’ll do it, but I’m much more picky. If it’s a first time home buyer that’s expecting to look at 15 or 20 properties, I just don’t have that time in my schedule anymore to do. I just choose to be pickier with who I work to make the most of my time.

Ren Jones12:29

How many homes do you typically show?

Breann Llewelyn12:31

I would say on average, three or four.

Ren Jones12:35

Three or four, okay. One trip out in most cases, it sounds like.

Breann Llewelyn12:38

One trip out. Occasionally, it’ll take two trips if they want to do a second showing or just the first houses we looked at were totally not what they wanted, but rarely is it ever more than twice.

Ren Jones12:48

This is all in the pre-qualifying in the setting of expectations-

Breann Llewelyn12:51

Absolutely.

Ren Jones12:52

… because you can’t do that normally unless you set those expectations.

Breann Llewelyn12:56

Exactly. It is just setting their expectations of looking at more doesn’t necessarily make it better. I’m going to find the closest I can find to what you want and either we’re not on the right path and we need to change that, or we got to face reality, basically.

Carley Hathaway13:14

Yeah, that makes sense. Your prospecting, it seems like you’re doing it really good. You’re right on the phones at 8:00 AM. Do you have an accountability partner or role play partners, or how do you kind of hold yourself accountable to make sure you get on the phones?

Breann Llewelyn13:31

Yes, I do have those. Honestly, the biggest accountability for me always has been my goals. I’m really driven to my goals and what I want to accomplish, and it’s really important to me. I have in front of my me at all times my dream board, if you will, of what I want to accomplish, but also on the other side, going through a divorce, it’s hard and seeing, basically, I also have on the other board the hurt. If you don’t do this, then here’s what’s going to happen. I have the both of, hey, you can get on the phones and take some rejection and get here or you can lay in bed and get here, but yes, I do have role play partners. I do have an accountability partner and I have mastermind groups I’m a part of that we are having contests or things all the time. Yes, there is external accountability, but I find for myself the best accountability is what I want to do.

Carley Hathaway14:30

Is your why, yeah. That’s awesome.

Ren Jones14:33

That moving away from pain stuff, what does that look like? Is it a list of things? What would happen if you didn’t do what you’re doing?

Breann Llewelyn14:43

I look at people that have gone through divorces and been in situations like mine that had a set income or didn’t have a way to earn their way out of it essentially, so looking at some situations that happened, I’ve got a list of those that happened and just reminders of, I didn’t have to go down that road because I continued selling and getting on the phones and doing what I had to do on a daily basis, so it certainly keeps me plugged in.

Carley Hathaway15:19

That’s great.

Ren Jones15:22

You pre-qualify heavily on the buy side, on the listing side as well, don’t you? In other words, how long are you in a listing appointment when you walk in the door to the time you leave? What does that look like?

Breann Llewelyn15:33

I have some, I’m in there maybe five minutes.

Carley Hathaway15:35

Oh, wow.

Breann Llewelyn15:36

I have other, 35. I’m typically-

Ren Jones15:39

Five to 35 minutes, great. Therefore, you must be sending them something ahead or it wouldn’t be that short. You must be getting a lot of information ahead or it wouldn’t be that short. What are you doing?

Breann Llewelyn15:52

Well, I really just follow the Mike Ferry listing system.

Ren Jones15:55

Oh, okay.

Breann Llewelyn15:55

I pre-qualify them when I set the appointment, or if they don’t have time then, I’ll call and pre-qualify before going out. I send them a pre-listing packet with references and information and comps and a copy of the contract, so they have all of that before I come out. Typically, my assistant will call and confirm, and just again, want to let you know Breann will be there at three o’clock. Really our meeting should only take between five and 30 minutes based on the questions that you have. Occasionally, I’ll get a talker and be in there a little bit longer than that, but I typically set my listing appointments every hour and a half to give me time to go in, present, drive to the next one, prepare, and go into the next one.

Ren Jones16:35

Okay, you space them out ahead, 90 minutes apart. Good, and that makes perfect sense. I understand that one. Yeah. Good. What’s the most number of listings, not counting a builder or something, but most number of listings you’ve taken in one afternoon or evening?

Breann Llewelyn16:52

Taken in a month or a day?

Ren Jones16:53

No, in a day. You ever had one where you went until a four, and then a 5:30, and then a seven, and take what, three in a row or anything like that?

Breann Llewelyn17:02

Oh, absolutely. It’s pretty common I have days I’ll take two or three based on the schedule I work. I would say the most I’ve taken without being from a builder or mass number, there was a day I took seven.

Carley Hathaway17:14

Wow, that’s incredible.

Breann Llewelyn17:17

Two or three is pretty normal in a day. I have a goal of a minimum of one a day. Obviously, there’s sometimes I don’t hit it, but-

Ren Jones17:26

There’s zero or two or there you go. Rolling average.

Breann Llewelyn17:31

Right. It’s all over the board, but I would say my biggest listing month recently was 17.

Ren Jones17:37

Got to love that.

Carley Hathaway17:38

Yeah. Someone is asking, what’s the average list price that you list?

Breann Llewelyn17:44

I list-

Carley Hathaway17:45

No, I’m sorry. What’s the lowest you’ll list?

Breann Llewelyn17:49

I don’t have a lowest list price. I have a lowest commission. I sold a house recently for $18,000, but they paid a set rate commission. That was my normal… I was still getting my average commission rate, if that makes sense.

Carley Hathaway18:05

What is your average commission rate?

Breann Llewelyn18:07

My average, my part is $4,000, so I charge them 6,000 so that I earn my four and we pay out two.

Carley Hathaway18:17

So, you don’t always work on a percentage?

Breann Llewelyn18:19

Not if they’re lower end properties.

Carley Hathaway18:21

Got it. Okay, that makes sense. What percentage do you try to aim for when you are on these listing appointments on an average home?

Breann Llewelyn18:29

6%.

Carley Hathaway18:30

Okay, and do you give 3% to each side or do you take more?

Breann Llewelyn18:35

No, we are a three and three city. Occasionally, you’ll see a two and a half percent listing, but if you see that on a listing, a lot of times you are not going to get the showings if you offer much less than three. Occasionally, we’ll do seven. Give out a bonus, but typically it’s six, with three and three.

Carley Hathaway18:56

Do you ever experience any pushback on that?

Breann Llewelyn19:00

Of course, especially as our market’s gotten stronger, you’ll get agents that go in and will list a property for 4%. Certainly, there are times I get pushback on wanting to be at 6% when someone else is willing to come in at 4%. There certainly are times that there’s pushbacks or I lose listings just simply because I got to have commission.

Carley Hathaway19:22

Yeah. Do you have a good way to overcome that in a listing appointment? Can you give us a little demo maybe of a little role playing of that?

Breann Llewelyn19:32

I always find it comes back to, you get what you pay for. Carley, have you ever gone to the store and found a really great deal on a shirt, seemed a little bit too good to be true, you took it home, wore it once, and the next day it had a hole in it?

Carley Hathaway19:47

Totally.

Breann Llewelyn19:49

It was a complete letdown because sadly, you got what you paid for.

Carley Hathaway19:52

Yeah.

Breann Llewelyn19:53

Selling your home is no different. You’re going to get what you pay for. Yes, you can save a little bit of money on paper. However, if they’re willing to cut their commission now, how strong are they going to be when it comes to negotiating when we do get an offer?

Ren Jones20:08

Ah.

Carley Hathaway20:09

I love that line. That’s my favorite.

Ren Jones20:11

She’s got it down. She’s got it. She’s got it down. We’re at the end of the listing presentation and they go, “Breann, this is a great presentation. We think you’re very professional and we want to think it over.” What do you say?

Breann Llewelyn20:28

Well, that’s a pretty common one. Obviously, Ren, you had me over for a reason and I know this is a big decision. Now, while I’m here. Let’s go ahead and put our heads together. What’s on your mind? What’s holding you back from listing the property with me today?

Ren Jones20:43

Perfect. Very direct and very business like. Good. That works probably pretty well.

Breann Llewelyn20:49

It does. There are some people that just flat are going to think it over. There’s some people that are flat always going to want a lower commission. I’m okay with not winning them all. I just have standards on the ones I take with making sure I’m not loading up my inventory with people that just aren’t motivated to sell.

Ren Jones21:11

Yep, makes perfect sense. We’re not going for a hundred percent here, but-

Breann Llewelyn21:15

No.

Ren Jones21:16

I would say, for every 10 appointments you go on, how many do you take?

Breann Llewelyn21:20

Nine.

Ren Jones21:21

Nine, so you’re running 90%.

Breann Llewelyn21:23

I actually run about 93% typically.

Ren Jones21:27

That leans back to pre-qualifying questions because to get to 93%, you’re asking a lot of questions.

Breann Llewelyn21:34

I’m asking a lot of questions. I cancel a lot of appointments.

Carley Hathaway21:36

Wow.

Ren Jones21:37

Digging a little deeper. Digging a little deeper.

Carley Hathaway21:40

Good. You’ve been in business a while, obviously. How do you keep in touch with your past clients and your sphere of influence? Do you have a schedule on how you keep up with them? Do you do emails, calls, mailers? What do you do?

Breann Llewelyn21:55

I do a quarterly mailer. I send out a postcard every quarter. We typically, at Christmas time, do a little something extra. If a client has referred us business that year… Last year, we have a bakery in town that makes amazing cookies. We delivered a dozen cookies to the people that had referred us business that year. Other than that, I keep all of them on index cards and I have them divided up and I call them every 60 days. I talk to a stack of people today, I’m going to move them and put them into the slot for, what is it, October 10th or December 10th and slide them in. I just sit down and grab my box every day, pull out the cards, talk to the people, and then file them away 60 days from now, or if they say they need to do something in 30 days or something, I need to talk to them sooner. I just drop them in sooner so I can call them.

Carley Hathaway22:47

That’s great. Wonderful.

Ren Jones22:48

Fantastic.

Breann Llewelyn22:48

It’s all about simplicity in my mind.

Carley Hathaway22:52

Perfect.

Ren Jones22:55

Good, good, good. Somebody wants to get a little flavor of your expired script and oh, I got to comment on it. Somebody wrote, index cards, old school.

Breann Llewelyn23:05

Yeah.

Ren Jones23:06

Well, then my question is-

Breann Llewelyn23:06

I think someone else did ask about-

Ren Jones23:09

Are you making more than you or less than you? If she’s making less than you then you’re ahead. Maybe you should use those index cards.

Breann Llewelyn23:17

I used to try to keep them on a database on the computer and I’m a paper person. That’s just how I am. If I’m writing it down, I’m going to remember something, not typing it, so I just reverted back to old school.

Ren Jones23:30

Yeah, but she’s 29. Remember, she’s 29. You got to remember how she grew up. Index cards is going to come naturally to her.

Breann Llewelyn23:38

Oh yeah, it’s true.

Ren Jones23:43

Let’s get a little flavor of an expired dialogue. Just give a little flavor of that. Would you be open to that?

Breann Llewelyn23:53

I simply use the Mike Ferry scripts.

Ren Jones23:55

Okay, well then, maybe we can pick up on where they go. You’re getting near the end of the call and they’re stuck, and they’re like, “Well, send me something in the mail. Thanks for calling,” and what would you say? They’re getting ready to hang up on you.

Breann Llewelyn24:14

I would simply say, “I’m absolutely happy to go ahead and send you something in the mail. I’ll go ahead and drop that in the mail today, and I’m in your area every day. I honestly don’t mind at all stopping by. I can take a quick look at your house, really take about 15 minutes. I can give you some answers. Hey, what stopped the home from selling? What needs to be done to get the home sold? At least that way you have some answers to start putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Would you be home for me to stop by about five o’clock?

Ren Jones24:45

Oh yeah, I guess we could do that. Okay, good.

Breann Llewelyn24:46

All right, well, I’ll plan on stopping by at five and I’ll just go ahead and give you this information while I’m there, and then I would go on and pre-qualify them.

Ren Jones24:53

Jessica is asking, what is your system for expireds? How often do you call, mail, drop off stuff?

Breann Llewelyn25:02

With expireds, I call. Occasionally, I’ll text. I don’t mail. I don’t drop stuff off. If I happen to be in the area and there’s one I really want, I’ll try to reach them at home and stop by and knock on their door, but honestly, I keep it pretty simple.

Ren Jones25:18

Good. Yeah, that does. Well, the expireds move fast. They wanted to know, Adam wants to know, how many times do you try to call a lead before you discard them after a certain number of attempts? I would two part that. What is your definition of a lead?

Breann Llewelyn25:34

Well, I don’t consider just an expired number in the system, a lead. Until I’ve talked to them, figured out their motivation on selling the home, timeframe, et cetera, before I’m going to consider them a lead. It honestly varies. Typically, I try several different times a day to reach them, but like I said, if it’s somebody I really want, I’ll text them and also stop by their house, but if it’s a week, 10 days, I haven’t been able to reach anybody to get any response from anything I’ve tried, I’m just going to stop calling.

Ren Jones26:09

Yeah, who could blame you.

Carley Hathaway26:11

Okay, so about 10 days after not getting a hold of them, that’s good. Somebody’s asking, do you ever stop by FSBOs? If so, do you have a script or dialogue of what you would say at their open house?

Breann Llewelyn26:24

I don’t stop by for sale by owners’ open houses. I used to years and years ago, but that’s not something I do anymore.

Carley Hathaway26:30

Okay.

Ren Jones26:32

What do you do with a for sale by owner?

Breann Llewelyn26:35

I call them.

Ren Jones26:36

Call them, and then what?

Carley Hathaway26:38

I call them. No biggie.

Ren Jones26:38

What are you trying to find out from them?

Breann Llewelyn26:45

The biggest thing with the for sale by owner is figuring out their motivation. I typically find as a rule, for sale by owners are the most motivated people, other than expireds, because they chose on their own doing to stick a sign in the yard or put an at up. By calling them, you’re going to find pretty quickly are they truly motivated to sell or are they just basically testing the market to see, can they get some unrealistic price for their house.

Ren Jones27:11

You’re just finding out where they’re moving to, how soon they need to be there.

Breann Llewelyn27:15

Motivation. It’s all about motivation.

Ren Jones27:17

There you go. Somebody says, do you still do open houses? Did you ever do an open house? Oh, come on.

Breann Llewelyn27:22

I did one open.

Ren Jones27:23

You did one.

Breann Llewelyn27:24

I did. Occasionally, my staff or other agents in my office that want additional buyer business, they’ll do them, but I just don’t do them.

Ren Jones27:37

Right. How long were you in the business before you hired an assistant? Now, you were doing 63 deals in your high school year. Did you have an assistant then?

Breann Llewelyn27:44

I didn’t. I would say, I guess it was about a year in the business, I got a part-time assistant.

Ren Jones27:51

Gotcha.

Breann Llewelyn27:53

I don’t remember exactly how long I had a part-time assistant before I transitioned into a full-time. I can’t remember anymore, and now I have two full-time.

Ren Jones28:02

Good. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah, because that can take a lot off your plate. Do you do anything extra for those higher priced homes?

Breann Llewelyn28:12

I guess by extra, for a high end home, I’ll pay the staging consultation fee for them. We do a little bit nicer virtual tour, but ultimately, selling a high end home and an average price home, there isn’t a huge different strategy in it. I find that they typically need to show better than the rest just because the buyer’s more picky about it, but other than that, I do my normal marketing. I don’t just list a house and set it on the market and expect it to sell on its own, but I’m not going to pour thousands of dollars into marketing either.

Ren Jones28:52

Gotcha. Gotcha. Perfect. Makes perfect sense. Robert Starro has a good question. You see that one, Carley? How do you keep a positive mindset after getting off a bad call?

Breann Llewelyn29:08

I, actually yesterday, had a bad call and this guy was cussing me, calling me all kinds of names in combinations I probably haven’t been called before, and I was just polite and I was just like, “I understand, I’m sorry you’re having a bad day. Thanks for your time,” hung up, and I just started laughing.

Ren Jones29:25

I can see it on your face right now.

Breann Llewelyn29:29

I was laughing. I was like, man, I have never been called that before, but that’s really funny. A lot of times, I’ll just laugh and sometimes when people are just rude, they’re having a bad day. Trust me, I’ve answered the phone before and not been nice, and it’s not from anything they did, they just maybe caught me when my daughter was acting up or I was dealing with something, whatever. Sometimes I just try to diffuse the situation and apologize for calling and catch him at a bad time and offer to call at a different time. There’s not too many times you just get an awful call, but when you do, I just laugh.

Ren Jones30:06

Yeah, I can tell that. You got to look at the conditioning of that. What you’re describing is probably one of the toughest things for people to overcome. As you know, they get on the phone, after about 45 minutes they get a little sweat on their forehead, a little knot in their stomach and they stop, and sometimes they stop for days. Was it just your personality that is more accustomed to that or did it take you two or three years to work through that?

Breann Llewelyn30:33

It definitely didn’t take me years to work through that. I would say as a normal person, we all have times where you have mental roadblocks we have to overcome. I’m just like anybody else in that aspect. I just see what calling every day has done for my business, and so I choose to focus on that. I would say the most frustrating part of it for me was when I started, seeing my dad every day prospecting and he was setting one, two, three appointments every single day, and then I’m on the phones saying the same things, doing the same things, and I’m not setting any appointments. At first, it was really frustrating and then I learned it’s not just what you say, but it’s how you say it and it’s making it a conversation and expecting the best outcome with it. That all, you kind of got to get the perfect ingredients together. It doesn’t happen overnight. You just have to be patient and get better just like with anything else.

Ren Jones31:33

It’s just not the words, not just reciting those words because a lot of people don’t understand that. They’re like, “Okay, I got this script.” After two, three days, “This doesn’t work.” Well, it’s exactly what Breann’s using, but the difference is not just the words, but like you said, how you say it and making a conversation. Help them get that piece because that is a struggle here. I watch people that try that and they’re reading the script and they think these words are going to save them, but they have no response pattern. They don’t repeat and approve, they don’t have a conversation, that it’s not leading anywhere, and then at the first point of confrontation or rejection, they’re off the phone real quick, but you stay in there.

Breann Llewelyn32:22

Really early on in my business, someone told me, prospecting call is a lot talking to a family member or a friend on the phone, and whenever you start thinking about if you call your mom. “Hey mom, would you like to go to lunch.” “Oh sorry, I can’t go to lunch today.” You don’t hang up the phone immediately, even though she just rejected me. I’m like, “Oh okay, well what about tomorrow? Can you go another day this week?” “Oh yeah, we can go Friday.” “Well, let’s go to Panera.” “Oh, I don’t like Panera.” “Oh okay, well, where do you want to go?” You know what I’m saying? It’s just that conversation. Whenever someone told me that, it kind of clicked, and when you’re talking to people on the phone, again, it’s a conversation. I find some people get so entrenched in the script. I overheard a lady talking and she’s like, “This guy got really mad at me,” and I was like, “Why?” She’s like, “Well, he just told me his wife just died,” and I said, “Oh, great.”

Carley Hathaway33:17

Oh no.

Breann Llewelyn33:18

That what was typed out on the script, and it’s like, wow, that’s just not common sense. You got to be like, “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry.” You’ve got to be able to listen, not just be staring at a script.

Carley Hathaway33:33

It has to be a real conversation.

Breann Llewelyn33:36

Maybe he was happy, but most of the time people aren’t going to be super excited about that, so you’ve got to be able to do empathy and conversate really.

Ren Jones33:47

Got to be human as Matthew says on here. There’s a whole lot of questions along the lines of more of a passive marketing approach. What do you do marketing ad? Do you send out emails? The biggest thing she does is she is talking to these people either phone to phone or face to face, and when there’s rejection, she stays in there and that’s how she gets it done. All this other stuff, open houses, emails, marketing, mailing stuff, and whatnot. Maybe you can get three extra sales a year from that, maybe you won’t, I don’t know.

Breann Llewelyn34:16

I don’t.

Ren Jones34:16

It fascinates me. Fascinating.

Breann Llewelyn34:20

Maybe I’m leaving business on the table, I don’t know, but I know what I’ve done works and I’m all about efficiency, being efficient, making my clients happy and being profitable at the end of the day, and I’m just not about throwing tons of money out into mass marketing. Just don’t do it.

Ren Jones34:38

They want to know, are you making your own calls or are you paying somebody else to make your calls?

Breann Llewelyn34:43

I make all my own calls.

Carley Hathaway34:46

You have a team, right? How many people are on your team? What does your team structure look like?

Breann Llewelyn34:50

I have two salaried licensed assistants. One handles more the listing side, marketing side, the other handles more the closing side and sometimes they overlap, and they’ll both occasionally show buyers. I have two agents in my office that will work as buyers agents when I need them.

Ren Jones35:07

Good.

Breann Llewelyn35:08

But we keep it mean and lean.

Carley Hathaway35:11

Good, I like that.

Ren Jones35:13

Can somebody send in a listing referral or a buyer referral or something to you? Do you accept those?

Carley Hathaway35:21

Yeah, absolutely.

Breann Llewelyn35:21

Yes

Ren Jones35:24

What’s the best way to reach you? Do you have a website? Is that the easiest way?

Breann Llewelyn35:28

I don’t have a website. I do have a Facebook page.

Ren Jones35:31

I know, you’re 29. Of course you don’t have a website. There you go.

Breann Llewelyn35:35

I have a Facebook and Instagram, the Breann Llewelyn Group on Facebook, and Breann Real Estate on Instagram you can contact.

Ren Jones35:42

Perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect.

Breann Llewelyn35:44

You can also email me as well.

Ren Jones35:45

Yes, and index cards.

Breann Llewelyn35:46

And index cards.

Carley Hathaway35:48

Index cards.

Ren Jones35:51

Any last minute thoughts here? This has been really, really, really good.

Carley Hathaway35:55

Very helpful.

Ren Jones35:57

I think people are understanding because they’re watching this over and over again. You just have to be tenacious. You have to start at eight o’clock, you have to do it on the days you don’t feel like. How do you do it on the days you don’t feel like it, Breann? You’re not big on the accountability partners. You have some, role play partners, but you’re driven just by the goals, by looking at the dream board of all the things you want and moving away from what would happen if you didn’t do it? That’s it? Is that what drives you?

Breann Llewelyn36:25

Really, it is. I have an almost four year old little girl that I’ve taken to Disney now twice.

Carley Hathaway36:32

Oh, yay.

Breann Llewelyn36:33

I’ll get the reminder of her, because I used to say when she didn’t want me to go to an appointment, I’d be like, “Well, mommy’s going to go to work.” I said, “This is how we pay for Disney.” So now it’s kind of become her joke of, “Well mommy, why don’t you get on the phone so we can go to Disney?” That’s always a little reminder because she’s constantly wanting to go to Disney and those trips get more expensive every time. I just really want to provide the best life I can for her and achieve my goals as well, and that for me in and of itself, is enough accountability.

Ren Jones37:07

Good deal.

Carley Hathaway37:08

That’s wonderful.

Ren Jones37:10

That’ll inspire anybody. That’ll get you excited, the passion of life and having a lot of resource. A lot of people on here are like, “I don’t need that much money.” That’s okay, give it away, or just do a third of what she does and have a great life, too, and work only Monday and Tuesday.

Breann Llewelyn37:28

Well, I will say, the more money you make, the better life is.

Ren Jones37:32

I know. There’s so many things you can do with it.

Breann Llewelyn37:33

Not that you don’t give it away, as well, but-

Ren Jones37:34

You can spread it around.

Breann Llewelyn37:38

Trust me, every level, I’ve enjoyed life a little bit more.

Carley Hathaway37:41

Yeah.

Ren Jones37:42

That is fantastic. This has been a real treat, Breann, and it’s good to see you after five years since the last time you and I did this, which was fun, although I’ve seen you since then, but hopefully, a lot of people will be inspired by this and say, “Well, she hasn’t been on the planet as long as I have. Maybe I better get my butt in gear. Move forward.”

Breann Llewelyn38:07

I think so.

Ren Jones38:07

It can be a lot of fun.

Breann Llewelyn38:08

It’s been a real treat and I appreciate it. Good to see you again, Carley. Send a lot of referrals to Oklahoma City. It’s a great place to live.

Carley Hathaway38:15

Oklahoma City. Thank you so much, Breann. We’ve learned so much from you today. We so appreciate it. Thank you.

Breann Llewelyn38:20

You’re welcome. Have a great day, guys.

Carley Hathaway38:21

Thanks, you too.

Ren Jones38:22

Bye everybody.

Carley Hathaway38:24

Bye everybody.

Ren Jones38:26

Oh, almost forgot.

Carley Hathaway38:39

What about our sponsor?

Ren Jones38:39

I know, our sponsor.

Carley Hathaway38:39

Yummy.

Ren Jones38:39

Chocolate chip. Of course.

Carley Hathaway38:39

There it is. Where’s the ice cream?

Ren Jones38:42

Right here.

Carley Hathaway38:42

People are asking for it.

Ren Jones38:44

Oh, they’re asking for it? Where’s the ice cream?

Carley Hathaway38:45

All right. Have a good day, everybody.

Ren Jones38:48

All right. You’ve done your prospecting. Treat yourself.

Carley Hathaway38:51

Yep.

Ren Jones38:54

See you guys in seven days.

Carley Hathaway38:56

Bye.

38:56