S1 E8: Systems, Routines, Efficiency

Ren Jones (00:05):
It’s 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 each week. And we have an exciting guest today. We encourage you to take notes and apply as much of the knowledge as quickly as you can, and then use the copycat principle, do exactly what they do, and you’ll have what they have. You’ll have an opportunity to ask questions during the broadcast. So write some notes down and be ready to ask some questions. Let me introduce my co-host from San Diego, Carley Hathaway. That’s carleyhathaway.com. Hi Carley.

Carley Hathaway (00:51):
Hi everybody. I’m so happy to be here this morning.

Ren Jones (00:54):
How’s the real estate business?

Carley Hathaway (00:54):
What’s that?

Ren Jones (00:56):
How’s the real estate business?

Carley Hathaway (00:58):
Oh, San Diego real estate business is amazing. It’s super hot. It’s a seller’s market. Great time to take listings, of course. It’s going really good.

Ren Jones (01:08):
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. This is great. And so I want to talk about the Vulcan7 challenge first. And the Vulcan7 challenge is, once a month shadow a great agent in another market that is taking two, three, four listings a week average. Either drive two hours away, four hours away in some other market, or get on an airplane. It won’t hurt. Fly out there that afternoon, have dinner with them if they’re available. The next morning, get there early, get to their office and shadow them. Write down things. Use an audio recorder on your cell phone. Download an app to record audio. What do they say? How do they say it? What do they do? What forms do they use? How are they running their day? Who are they talking to? Where’s the business coming? How do they do the whole thing? Go to lunch with them and then go home. At the end of a year, you have 12 amazing friends who are doing fabulous amounts of business and you become one of them. Carley did, you did your first shadow with House Wayze, what, two, three weeks ago?

Carley Hathaway (02:12):
Yeah, it was-

Ren Jones (02:14):
And you told me the wonderful news. I was so happy to hear the news.

Carley Hathaway (02:17):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (02:18):
Carley said she was?

Carley Hathaway (02:21):
What? Excited?

Ren Jones (02:22):
Frustrated.

Carley Hathaway (02:23):
Oh, today, I’m very frustrated this week.

Ren Jones (02:26):
Good. Frustration always proceeds breakthrough. So if you’re frustrated, if you’ve shadowed and you’re like, I see them doing it. I don’t have it quite the way they’re doing it. Congratulations. Frustration always proceeds breakthrough. It’s an exciting thing.

Carley Hathaway (02:40):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (02:40):
So before I introduce our guest, I want to remind everybody that we’re broadcasting on the Vulcan7 network and we’re also simulcasting on the private lead gen group on Facebook. Lead Gen has 40,000 members. So we have a very large audience there today that will be watching us live and also on replay. So if you want to get involved with that group, because they’re all about lead generation. Go to facebook.com/groups/gotobjections, all one word, G-O-T objections. And join up, get involved. It’s a great group of people. They do a lot of networking. And we will be pausing somewhere at 10, 12, 15 minutes in to do a little commercial spot as a thank you for them broadcasting our show as well. So let me welcome our guest today from the Greater Chicagoland area. Yes, Chicagoland again, but guess where there’s some talent there. There’s some talent. I want to introduce and I apologize in advance, James, you will not hear the applause. There are lots of people watching, but it’s a silent applause except for Carley. James Mattz. Welcome.

Carley Hathaway (03:56):
Hi James. Thank you so much for coming today.

Ren Jones (03:59):
Glad you’re here. James, you can unmute. Unmute.

James Mattz (04:04):
All right. Hi. How’s everyone doing?

Ren Jones (04:06):
Good.

Carley Hathaway (04:07):
Awesome.

Ren Jones (04:09):
How’s real estate in your market?

James Mattz (04:12):
It is awesome, but I do things every day to make it awesome.

Carley Hathaway (04:18):
Every day.

Ren Jones (04:19):
That’s fantastic. Do you have too much business? Or if somebody wants to send you that’s watching, wants to send you a referral, are you open to taking that?

James Mattz (04:29):
We are never too busy to help people who need the professionalism of a result oriented agent that makes it happen. And that’s what people want. Someone that’s going to make it happen for them.

Ren Jones (04:43):
Now did you hear how he reframed that, and did a little tie down at the end? Very, very good. He’s been doing this a while. I love it. So do you have a website? Where would they go if they wanted to connect with you?

James Mattz (04:57):
They can go to themattzgroup.com.

Ren Jones (05:00):
Okay. M-A-T-T-Z. Right?

James Mattz (05:03):
M-A-T-T-Z, themattzgroup.com.

Ren Jones (05:05):
Okay.

James Mattz (05:07):
Or they can go to my email at themattzgroup@gmail.com.

Ren Jones (05:13):
Great. Fantastic. Fantastic. Now, I’ve met you a couple times. It was always, I’ve always learned a lot, but I don’t know how you operate your business. So this is going to be, other than us speaking for three minutes yesterday, I’m going to learn a lot. So we want to just hear about where your business comes from, how you do it, how you approach it. The only thing I do know is that you’re a great Vulcan7 customer, but-

James Mattz (05:36):
Absolutely.

Ren Jones (05:37):
And we’re happy about that.

James Mattz (05:39):
I am too.

Ren Jones (05:41):
Good. Well, tell me more about that.

James Mattz (05:44):
Well, for me, I always have bought into this idea that what I do every day creates my outcome. Yet I don’t depend on the outcome to affect what I do. I understand the power of delayed gratification. When you plant a seed in the ground, you don’t know what’s coming up until a period of time passes. But all of a sudden what sprouts out becomes something that creates its own momentum. And so, because I am doing this activity every day, it takes a life of its own, the momentum of it, and I just ride the wave of it.

Ren Jones (06:36):
Good.

Carley Hathaway (06:37):
That’s great. That’s a great attitude to have.

Ren Jones (06:39):
Yeah it is.

Carley Hathaway (06:41):
Definitely, because you can’t let little bumps along the road affect you.

James Mattz (06:45):
Well, you can’t be attached to the outcome, yet when you think about the fact that I’m a former athlete, and when you look at those guys that make these incredible shots at the end of the game or a big home run, the manifestation of that did not just happen in that game. It came after repeated practice, after practice, after practice. And so for me, I always tell people when they ask me what kind of business that I’m in, I always say that I’m in the rejection business. And they say, “Why do you say that?” I say, “Because the more I’m rejected, the more money I make.”

Carley Hathaway (07:28):
That’s a great way to phrase it. So true.

Ren Jones (07:31):
And that’s that mindset piece people are struggling with. They look, they go, this is so simple, but I’m hitting a wall. And isn’t that the wall, the rejection for so many people, James? I mean, it’s not hard what we do, if it’s not physically hard, it doesn’t take that many hours but it works here.

James Mattz (07:50):
It’s not. But I think the thing that people do is they make it about them. And of course everyone wants to be successful. And that’s a personal decision that you make. You want to be successful. Yet the wall comes when you start understanding what you have to do to attain that success. And so, at the end of the day, it’s all about the decisions that you make. Yet when you make good decisions, good things happen for them. And of course, when you’re in the sales business, lead generation is just the most important activity that you can do.

(08:31):
And of course the thing that has helped me over the years is the fact that I don’t do the lead generation to create the outcome. I do the lead generation, so that I can do the lead generation. It’s all about the lead generation. The outcome, again, takes a life of its own. If you make the calls, at some point you’re going to catch a fish. Just because you put your line out in the water doesn’t mean you’re going to catch one. But if you keep your line out in the water, it’s just an inevitable conclusion.

Carley Hathaway (09:07):
Yeah, that’s such good advice. So you say you do something every single day. Can you walk us through a typical day of when you start your calls? Or do you role play? Do you have partners? Can you kind of walk us through a typical day?

James Mattz (09:23):
Absolutely. For example, today my day starts at, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at 7:00 AM. I have my staff at 7:00 AM. I have two guys that I’m teaching how to list properties. So we do that for an hour. And then at eight o’clock we have our team power up. That just gives us an opportunity to get on the same page and see what are the big rocks for the day that we need to accomplish. And then I go right into lead generation. I dial into my Vulcan7 system. I have it set up in various categories and folders. I pull off the days, expired and for sale by owners. And I call those individuals. And this is again, the power of the consistency in the activity. Every day I’m putting various leads into various folders, for the next day’s follow up.

(10:21):
And it’s in the next day’s follow up, that creates more momentum because I’m filling up that pipeline of individuals that I am creating an opportunity to list their property. Because I was just looking at the system the other day. I think I’ve made, since I’ve had this system and I’ve had it about two and a half years, I’ve made a little over 30,000 contacts. Yet one of the things that this system has done, it allows me to track everything because of the various modules that it does, where it manages your dial sessions, it manages the contacts, it manages the amount of messages that you sent, emails that you sent. So I can really focus in on the contacts, the conversions, the appointments, the listings, the listings sold. So it allows me to have some very important information in which to manage my business also. So every day I’m prospecting between the 8:30 and 12 o’clock every day without fail.

Carley Hathaway (11:34):
That’s great. And I like that you use Vulcan7 also as a way to organize your leads and organize everything, not just for the lead generation. I think that’s a really good tool people forget about.

James Mattz (11:45):
Well, I think that when you really look at it, probably 50% of the listings that I get is on the lead follow up.

Carley Hathaway (11:55):
Okay. All right. So who do you like to call first? Who’s first on your list of calling?

James Mattz (12:01):
I first start out with the days for sale by owners and expired castle listings. And then I go right into my hit list. My hit list is defined as those individuals that I had listing appointments with, that for whatever reason they didn’t make a decision that day.

Carley Hathaway (12:21):
Oh.

James Mattz (12:21):
And then the next ones I go into my Monday through Friday, Friday folder because every day someone needs to be followed up with. But here’s one of the unique things that I did recently, because agents like myself and others that does a lot of lead generation, we don’t keep up with our existing clients as much as we need to. So I developed a week, one, two, three, four, for each day of the week. And my assistants put those people’s numbers and names into those folders so that when I go from the days expired, cancels, for sale by owners, my hit list, my follow up, then I go right to those individuals that I just need… They just need to hear my voice. And when I do it that way, I’m usually talking to my inventory of listings every 14 days.

Carley Hathaway (13:16):
Okay, great. Wow.

Ren Jones (13:17):
Good system. Very good system.

Carley Hathaway (13:17):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (13:17):
Very good system. You’ve got a lot… You’ve got some good systems here. That’s what I’m hearing.

Carley Hathaway (13:23):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (13:24):
You start a very early day and you have routines and systems and procedures that you can count on. Creates that consistency.

Carley Hathaway (13:32):
Yeah.

James Mattz (13:33):
That’s the momentum. The consistency creates the momentum and it takes a life of its own.

Ren Jones (13:38):
I know. I hear that.

Carley Hathaway (13:39):
So, you obviously said this is a path of rejection. How do you overcome the rejection? How do you get past it? Do you have a really strong why? How do you get yourself on the phone every morning if the day before was just horrible rejections all day?

James Mattz (13:57):
It’s interesting that you say that because I think Monday yesterday, I didn’t get any listing appointments. I didn’t set any listing appointments. And of course today I set five.

Carley Hathaway (14:13):
Awesome.

James Mattz (14:13):
So what-

Ren Jones (14:14):
I love that.

Carley Hathaway (14:15):
Yeah.

James Mattz (14:16):
What usually happens is that, again, the days that I don’t hit the winning shot just means that that day wasn’t my day. But I get another day, and that next day gives me another opportunity to do those activities. And what usually happens for me, those days that I don’t get a lot of appointments, I make up those appointments the next day and the following day, et cetera.

Carley Hathaway (14:48):
Okay. And you essentially just don’t let the rejection get to you. It doesn’t affect your mindset.

James Mattz (14:53):
It’s like, for me, I’ve been selling for a long time now. So to me if I’m not getting rejected, that means I’m not calling. If I’m not calling, I’m not creating the outcome. If I’m not creating the outcome, I’m not providing the impact that I need to have for my staff, my family, and myself. So it’s all tied together.

Ren Jones (15:21):
She keeps taking you back to a lot of those questions, because that’s the biggest struggle when you… For almost everybody on this, watching this now or later, their biggest struggle is, after about an hour or hour and a half of lead generation, they feel full or maybe two hours, they’ve gotten to where they can do two hours a day. I mean, when it gets to three or four hours, they’re just not doing it. They would rather just go do something else. It’s too taxing on the brain. So if they can understand James, what you do, how you do, or what your thought process is, what drives you to do it on the days when you’ve gotten a lot of rejection, then they’ve overcome a big hurdle.

James Mattz (16:00):
Well, they have to… And it’s a hard thing. It’s not… It’s simple, but it’s not easy.

Carley Hathaway (16:08):
Yes.

James Mattz (16:09):
You really have to understand that when you’re in the game, you have to play the game. If they put you in the lineup, you can’t just sit there like a lump on the log. You have to play the game. Now there is a certain thing called, you don’t want to be in the game. And the game of life is something that is very profound when you look at it that way. Because when you’re in the game of life, you are either part of the problem or part of the solution. If you’re getting up every day, everything we do in life is a seed. When we get up in the morning and we breathe air, that air that we are breathing is a seed. It’s going to manifest itself in some way.

(16:56):
If we’re in the real estate business and our goal is to service people, we have to plant seeds, we have to create an outreach, we have to connect a dot. It’s just all about making a decision, if that’s the playing field that you want to be on. Now once you decide that that’s the playing field that you want to be on, you have to jump. Some people would rather sit on the sidelines and think that they’re… They’re going to cheat their way to the success. And not only is that wrong thinking, it’s going to set you up for the failure that comes with many people that sits on the sideline, and they pay for a lot of different marketing and they want to get it the easy way.

(17:41):
I found that when you make the decision that you don’t want to skip any steps and you are willing to pay the price to attain the life that you want, what happens is the activities that follows that attitude will create the outcome in small portions at first. But you just have to push past the inclination that people have that they just can’t take it. For example, for the last several years, I would prospect on January 1st and 2nd.

Ren Jones (18:18):
Oh yeah.

James Mattz (18:19):
Now of course I hate it. I begrudge it and I’ve gotten to a point that I don’t have to do it anymore. But what happened, I remember one year, I think I made 836 contacts-

Ren Jones (18:32):
It’s the longest list of the year.

James Mattz (18:35):
I think it was 17 hours of prospecting.

Ren Jones (18:38):
Yeah.

James Mattz (18:39):
836 contacts. I made 19 appointments and 38 leads. Now the decision that I made is that I wanted to create an incredible activity starting out at the beginning of the year.

Ren Jones (18:57):
Yeah.

James Mattz (18:57):
Now that was my attitude.

Ren Jones (18:59):
Great momentum.

James Mattz (19:00):
Exactly. And when I did that, that’s the momentum that it created. So I had, in the first, in January, I would have 35, 40 appointments and it would create the listing activity, that created the listing sold, that created the leads on buyers. That created me sitting in that seat of activity that I continued on. And of course it gets the results that I not only want, but I need. I mean I have big goals, no doubt about that. But I think that anybody can achieve that if they just understand that rejection is their friend, not their enemy.

Carley Hathaway (19:43):
Right.

Ren Jones (19:44):
There you go. It’s all about the mindset.

Carley Hathaway (19:46):
Rejection is our friend. I got it.

Ren Jones (19:49):
Yeah. We should do some scripts and have some fun here, see, because people are like, what does he say to… Now I don’t see any questions popping up yet, and I know they will soon, but we should try a script. What do you like, expired… What do you want to role play? Let’s have some fun.

James Mattz (20:03):
I’d do either one. I mean, I’m… Either one you want to do.

Ren Jones (20:07):
All right, sounds good. So you want to do… We got to call Carley up.

James Mattz (20:14):
Yeah.

Carley Hathaway (20:14):
Do you want it to be expired or FSBO? What do you guys want? What should we do?

James Mattz (20:19):
Let’s do a FSBO.

Carley Hathaway (20:21):
Okay.

James Mattz (20:25):
Hi, may I please speak with Ms. Hathaway.

Carley Hathaway (20:28):
Speaking.

James Mattz (20:29):
Hi Ms. Hathaway, and good morning. My name is James Mattz, I’m a maker broker with Keller Williams. And I had an opportunity to see your home at 123 Main Street. Looks like you’re selling it for 400,000. Is that correct?

Carley Hathaway (20:44):
That’s correct. And seriously, if you’re just another agent lying about having a buyer, you can just hang up now. Because I don’t want to deal with it.

James Mattz (20:52):
Oh, I understand. And please understand that I am not going to be one of those agents that tell you that I have a buyer. But the question that I do have for you is, I wanted to find out is the reason you’ve decided to sell the property yourself, because you wanted to avoid the commission expense.

Carley Hathaway (21:09):
Correct. Yeah. My husband and I can do it ourselves. I’m not worried about paying someone thousands of dollars for something so simple.

James Mattz (21:16):
Okay. And I can understand that. Tell me, could your home be available for occupancy upon the successful sale of your property?

Carley Hathaway (21:26):
Definitely. It’s in beautiful condition. It’s a great home.

James Mattz (21:29):
It sure is based on the information that I’m looking at. Let me ask you, Ms. Hathaway, if I was able to secure a buyer for your property at a price that got you and your husband the dollars you are looking to net out at the closing, would that be an acceptable outcome for you?

Carley Hathaway (21:48):
I mean, it would, but everyone says that. I don’t see how that could change.

James Mattz (21:56):
Okay. And of course, you are really sharing, and I really appreciate you sharing the information. And you’re really sharing the same thing that many, many of the sellers that I’ve had the opportunity to speak with have also said. Have you ever, if I was able to secure a buyer for your property and you and your husband got the same amount of money as if you sold it yourself or more, is that something that you’d be interested in getting some information about?

Carley Hathaway (22:32):
Sure, yeah. I mean, I don’t, yeah.

James Mattz (22:40):
Okay. Have you ever heard of the agency format before?

Carley Hathaway (22:45):
No. What is that?

James Mattz (22:47):
What it is, Ms. Hathaway, it’s a program that gives me the ability to expose your property to our pipeline of qualified buyers while maintaining your flexibility and selling the property yourself, just like you are right now as a for sale by owner at no obligation. Now, the benefit to you is that right now you and your husband are exposing your property to no more than 10% of the active buyers that are vetting homes like yours. And the other 90% or more doesn’t know it’s available.

(23:20):
For example, I just sold a property around the block from you at 234 Main Street, and the owner had their property on the market for $380,000. The bottom line price that they were looking to sell their property for net was 350. And so we came out, we took a look at their home, a beautiful home, and we saw that the market was such that we were able to put their property on the market for 3899. And because of some of the unique things that we did to create a multiple offer situation for their property, we were able to sell it at full price. And the seller netted out after closing almost $10,000 more than the bottom line that they wanted to net out selling it themselves. Now, my question to you, is that an outcome that you could see yourself taking advantage of?

Carley Hathaway (24:26):
Absolutely. 10,000 over what I want, definitely.

James Mattz (24:31):
I’m going to actually be over in your area on Tuesday and Thursday of this week, would be a good day for me to stop out and take a look at the property.

Carley Hathaway (24:42):
I mean, I suppose you could come Tuesday, but I’m not going to make any promises, like I said. I don’t know that we’d want to pay commissions out.

James Mattz (24:51):
And I can understand that. And again, it’s really about the net that you and your husband is trying to achieve, correct?

Carley Hathaway (24:57):
Correct. Yes.

James Mattz (24:59):
Fantastic. Now, on Tuesday, would it be better at 1:30 or after three?

Carley Hathaway (25:06):
After three.

James Mattz (25:07):
That’s fantastic. Well, thank you so much and I look forward to our conversation being the best one of the day.

Ren Jones (25:14):
Great. Appreciate it. Also, James, we only see your forehead, so you’ll have to back up a little bit. There we go.

Carley Hathaway (25:21):
There he is. That was great. That was great. I like that you just kept going and kept talking and kind of shut down my objections quickly.

Ren Jones (25:30):
Right. You just continue that conversation. Chris Anderson at Remax is asking, what are you telling… We’re getting close to that time of year where people are saying they want to wait till spring. How are you handling that right now, James?

James Mattz (25:44):
Well, you know Ms. Hathaway, and I can understand that you want to take an opportunity to wait until next year. Yet the question is, are you trying to get the most money for your home?

Carley Hathaway (25:57):
Absolutely.

James Mattz (25:58):
Okay. So right now, we do understand that the current interest rates right now are at a point where buyers are obviously taking advantage of them. And of course, with the interest rates being at 4%, that buyer that could qualify for your home right now might not be able to qualify for that amount if the interest rates go up. Does that make sense?

Carley Hathaway (26:29):
Yeah. Are interest rates going up?

James Mattz (26:32):
Right now, the only thing that we can put our hat on is where they are, but we do know we are in an environment where the interest rates are increasing. And of course next spring, the economic climate, the political climate that we’re in could be totally different. So if your goal is to get the maximum price for your home, then you’re better off dealing in an environment you know versus one that you don’t know. Does that make sense?

Carley Hathaway (27:08):
Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense.

James Mattz (27:09):
So why don’t we do the right things so that you can maximize your price, and at least take a look at what that maximum net out for you is right now. Now I’m going to be in your area on Tuesday and Thursday, would be a good day for me to stop out and take a look at your property.

Carley Hathaway (27:24):
Well, I’ve heard it’s not good to sell during the holidays, I mean, is that true?

James Mattz (27:31):
Well, it depends on who you’re asking. Obviously if you ask your friend or your neighbor, they might say that it’s not a good time. But let me give you the reality. In the springtime, you would probably agree with me that there are a lot of buyers, right?

Carley Hathaway (27:49):
Yeah.

James Mattz (27:50):
Would you probably agree that there are more buyers in the spring than there are right now?

Carley Hathaway (27:54):
I think so.

James Mattz (27:57):
I would agree with that. However, this is the question. Are the buyers that are buying in the spring, the same level of motivation as the buyers right now? And let me give you a little bit more information. The buyers that are looking in spring, a lot of them are tire kickers, just sort of looking and seeing what’s out there and what they might want to do one day. The buyers that are buying right now are the most motivated buyers in the buying season. Matter of fact, buyers that are looking now not only want to buy, but they have to buy. And you want a motivated buyer that’s looking to buy a home and close right now, if you could find one, right?

Carley Hathaway (28:41):
Absolutely yeah.

James Mattz (28:42):
So why don’t we do this? I’ll come by on Tuesday or Thursday, whichever one you prefer, and I can bring some information just sharing how that dynamic might be to your advantage. What day would be good for you?

Carley Hathaway (28:57):
Let’s do Tuesday.

James Mattz (28:59):
Great.

Ren Jones (29:00):
Good deal. Alrighty. So there’re several questions in here. Ada Lou, she had one Basically, what do you do? Because this happens to all of us. You’re calling a lot of people and you get somebody that reads you the riot act. They’re going to tell you, you’re in big trouble and I’m giving your name to this person, that person. They just read you the riot act. They’re just upset. What do you do? I mean, I used to just kind of go get a drink of water and shake it off and go back. What do you, James, when you run… I only see your forehead now.

James Mattz (29:33):
Are you talking about when you get an irate person?

Ren Jones (29:35):
Yeah.

James Mattz (29:36):
And they’re mad because you called them.

Ren Jones (29:38):
Yeah. They’re just madder than hell at you and they’re telling you, you’re in big trouble for calling them. What do you do?

James Mattz (29:47):
You know what? Let me first profusely apologize. I didn’t mean to upset you, and obviously I must have dialed a number incorrectly here. But I’m so glad that you shared that information with me. And what I’m going to do is I’m going to make sure that we take this off this list, so you don’t have to have this type of aggravation. And again, thank you so much. I really, really appreciate it. Thanks so much. Have a wonderful and blessed day.

Ren Jones (30:16):
Awesome. Thank you, James. That is great.

Carley Hathaway (30:19):
Yeah, just turn it around. Basically.

Ren Jones (30:19):
Yeah.

James Mattz (30:20):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (30:21):
Greg Plummer wants to know what your batting average is. Out of 10 listing appointments, how many do you list?

James Mattz (30:27):
I’m about at 87%.

Ren Jones (30:28):
87%. Good. And that’s obviously, a lot of agents can’t do that, but then that indicates, we know you pre-qualify heavily. You ask them a lot of questions before you get there.

James Mattz (30:40):
100% of the time.

Ren Jones (30:42):
A hundred percent of the time. Good. What do they say? A hundred percent of the question is a hundred percent of the time. Something like that.

James Mattz (30:48):
Absolutely. Because the thing is, you can’t go into these forums blind, because what happens when you drive a car blind, you’re going to run into something best case and worst case, you’re going to hurt yourself or someone else also. So you have to get as much data so that you can have the ammunition that you need to fulfill the nature of the encounter. If you go in blind, it’s like coaches. Coaches, they go out and they scout a team. The football, they scout the team, they scout the hitters, they scout the shooters, they scout them to see the tendencies, et cetera. So you have to go into this game with as much scouting information that you can. So that you can present a winning formula, not only for them, but for the value proposition that you’re positioning yourself for.

Carley Hathaway (31:47):
Yes.

Ren Jones (31:47):
Are they getting a pre-listing package?

James Mattz (31:49):
Yes.

Ren Jones (31:50):
Okay, great.

Carley Hathaway (31:51):
What do you include in the pre-listing package?

James Mattz (31:54):
In the pre-listing package, it’s basically a value proposition document that speaks to our team, our mission, our philosophy, our roles, how we assemble all of that to the benefit of the client. And it really speaks to how we’re… The differentiation that we have for the competition that we may or may not be going against.

Carley Hathaway (32:24):
Okay. And do you hand deliver it or do you email it?

James Mattz (32:27):
We email it.

Carley Hathaway (32:28):
Okay. Okay.

Ren Jones (32:29):
Fantastic. And then… Siku Nayar, hopefully I pronounced that correctly. How many listings did you take last month?

James Mattz (32:40):
22.

Ren Jones (32:41):
22, okay. With one hand tied behind your back.

Carley Hathaway (32:45):
And what are, someone’s asking, what are just a few of the pre-qualification questions that you asked prior to going, taking a listing appointment?

James Mattz (32:53):
Okay. I asked, when I see you how much do you want to list your home for? How much do you owe on the property? What’s your bottom line? Of course, I’ve only spoken to you. Are there any other decision makers? Will they be there? Just so you’ll know, our meeting shouldn’t last more than 15, 20 minutes. Of course, if I need to stay, I can stay as long as necessary to answer any and all your questions. On a scale of one to 10, what would you rate the condition of your property? I was actually viewing properties online. It’s a great property. I was curious, why do you want to sell it right now? You don’t plan on interviewing a whole lot of different agents, do you? And the last one, when I come out, if it makes sense and you feel comfortable and confident that I can get your home sold at an acceptable price, do you plan on allowing me to make that happen for you when I come out?

Ren Jones (33:50):
Nice. Good. Good, good, good. Very, very good questions there. Fantastic. And so then the obvious question, you’re pre-qualifying, asking them a lot of questions, you’re sending a pre-listing packet. So you walk in the door with all this information, you’ve sent them all your information. How long are you typically at the house?

James Mattz (34:11):
No, it varies. Yesterday I was at a listing appointment for about 15 minutes.

Ren Jones (34:20):
Okay.

James Mattz (34:21):
I’ve been at listing appointments where it was more than an hour. So I would say on average it’s about 30 to 45 minutes.

Carley Hathaway (34:30):
Good.

Ren Jones (34:31):
So, a lot of people can’t fathom that, because they spend two hours there. And so folks, you got to understand if you’re not asking any questions till you get there, that takes a half an hour. If you’re not sending them anything, they got to find out what you’re going to do to market the house. So yes, you can’t take as many listings as James because he can go take three in an evening and you can only take one. It’s all… And who seems more professional? The person like James, who asks all the questions, and in many cases he chooses not to go. He says, “I’m sorry, I can’t come out.” And they go, “Well, I’m offended.” And he’ll go, “I’m sorry. There’s no certainty here.” So it’s all about the-

James Mattz (35:14):
I decline a lot of appointment.

Ren Jones (35:16):
Yes, that’s right. That’s it. So Christina, he answered your question as yes. Hi, Don Sheetz, good to see you on here. Let’s see. Mark wants to know how you respond to a 6% commission objection. Well, I don’t know, maybe you charge five. Chicago’s a 5% market. Are you charging five, six, and seven? What do you charge?

James Mattz (35:37):
I charge 6%, 5% as a fallback, as a rule. The thing about commissions, the way that I usually handle that is I’ll say something along the lines of, “You know Mr. Seller, for me, the most important thing, and I understand it succinctly, is not how much commission I get. It’s how much money I put in your pocket. And if I’m successful in getting you the money you’re looking to net out, then I will have earned the commission that you would’ve paid me. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Ren Jones (36:14):
I like that.

Carley Hathaway (36:16):
I like that. That’s great.

Ren Jones (36:17):
I like that. Oh, let’s see, Shelly Gruber in Atlanta says, or she says that there’s lots of competition here. Yes, that’s true Shelly, Atlanta and everywhere else. For her, she says lowering the commission doesn’t work. She was curious about that agency format again, you discussed something about that agency format. She thought it was interesting.

James Mattz (36:42):
Well, and again, it’s basically… A lot of agents on the for sale by owners, they like to stop by the house and look at it and leave their card and leave a brochure and kind of work them down that way. I’m the type of guy that I want to go in, show you the value proposition, get the listing and get it sold. So I don’t really have time to nurture a for sale by owner for a month or two. For me I want to go in, get the listing and get it done in the agency format, which is basically a non-exclusive agency agreement. It just gives me the ability to side by side market the property with them. And 99.9% of the time, if I’m in that kind of arrangement with the seller, I’m going to get this sold before they do, period.

Carley Hathaway (37:30):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (37:32):
Gotcha. Don Sheetz, I got to tell you this, James, this is hilarious. While he’s listening to our show, he took a return call from somebody he called this morning, trying to set a listing appointment, and he said, based on hearing it on this show, he goes, “I want our conversation to be the best one of the day for you.” Boom. They said, “All right, well…” He got the appointment using that line.

Carley Hathaway (37:53):
Yay. That’s awesome.

Ren Jones (37:57):
So good. It’s already starting to work. James, I only see your forehead. Moshey wants to know what’s the best time to call.

James Mattz (38:06):
I usually… It’s really no best day, best time. I mean, I started early at 8:30 in the morning, but I got to tell you, you can get a lot done on the lead generation side after five o’clock during the week, and on Saturday mornings between nine and noon.

Ren Jones (38:25):
That is true. Those are good. Yeah, a lot of people answer the phone at those hours. Trishy missed a part about the commission. So Trishy, you can watch this on repeat. You’re going to get a link and you can watch it over and over again, so. Kenyata wants to know, what they would say that would cause you to cancel on a listing appointment.

James Mattz (38:55):
It’s all about their motivation.

Ren Jones (38:57):
Got it.

James Mattz (38:58):
If they say things like, “I don’t have to sell my home. I can keep my home forever. You know what? I’m not going to give my home away, and I don’t care what the market says that my home is worth, those type of things,” then I’m not going.

Carley Hathaway (39:16):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (39:16):
There you go.

Carley Hathaway (39:16):
So James-

Ren Jones (39:18):
Yeah, I wouldn’t go to that either. You’re not a closer.

Carley Hathaway (39:23):
James, do you work with buyers at all? It seems like you’re taking a lot of listings. Are you showing properties? Are you working with buyers? How do you handle that?

James Mattz (39:30):
I haven’t worked with a buyer in 20 years.

Ren Jones (39:33):
Yeah, I didn’t think you knew what they were. I had some idea, what do you do with your homeless? You’ve sold their home. They go, “James, I have nowhere to live.” What do you do with that?

James Mattz (39:40):
I give them to my buyer agent.

Ren Jones (39:42):
There you go. I love it. I love it. Another question, do we stop to answer the ones you call back or…

Carley Hathaway (39:50):
So James, what’s your agent structure look like? What’s your team look like?

James Mattz (39:55):
Okay. I have a marketing coordinator, listing manager. I have a transaction manager. I have an operations coordinator. I have two buyer agents. I have an on staff OSA, and I have two virtuals.

Carley Hathaway (40:16):
Wow. Quite a staff.

Ren Jones (40:22):
Oh, yeah. Yeah. It took him 20 years to be an overnight sensation.

Carley Hathaway (40:26):
Yeah.

James Mattz (40:26):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (40:28):
So again, this has been a real treat, James. I think, I mean, I learned a lot.

Carley Hathaway (40:32):
I did too.

Ren Jones (40:33):
And I know a lot of people on this call did, and Don Sheetz had an appointment based on something you said on here already. So we’ve got some good traction going. I’ve got to do a little commercial as a thank you to all the people on Lead Gen. In fact, for those of you that are watching on Lead Gen, type in, if you liked everything you saw, type in James. That just throws us back up at the top on the feed. So type in James, that helps. And then for a lot of you watching off Vulcan7, as a thank you, we mentioned Aaron Wittenstein’s program called Expired Mastery Elite, where he teaches people how to get stronger at expireds. That’s expiredmasteryelite.com. Again, and if you’re watching on Lead Gen, on the Lead Gen Facebook site, and you’re not involved with Vulcan7, I don’t know why. But if you’re not, you can register and get some extra benefit by going to vulcan7.com/leadgen, vulcan7.com/leadgen. And what a treat, James, what a treat. Appreciate your give back and the contribution you’ve made to these two audiences. And we thank you so much.

James Mattz (41:47):
You’re more than welcome. And thank you for allowing me to come on and share with the real estate tribe.

Ren Jones (41:56):
Thanks again. We’ll see you at one of the next events. And remember, when you’ve spent three, four, five hours doing your lead generation, you deserve to treat yourself. Go get some good Graeters, mint chocolate chip. And we’ll see everybody back in seven days from now. Seven days from now, where we have another wonderful guest who is taking two, three, four listings a week. And in James case, five listings a week.

Carley Hathaway (42:22):
Thank you so much, James. We really appreciate it.

James Mattz (42:28):
Thank you.

(42:28):
Yes.

Carley Hathaway (42:29):
Thank you. Bye everyone. Thank you.

James Mattz (42:33):
Bye-bye.