S2 E1: “Front Load the Year for Best Results

Ren (00:00):
Well, it’s that time, maybe a little earlier. Welcome to RoadMap. How to take three listings a week until you’re ready for more. Each week, we interview a great agent who is consistently taking two, three, four listings a week. And we encourage you to take notes and apply as much of the knowledge as quickly as you can, then apply the copycat principle. If you’re watching on Vulcan7… Actually, if you’re watching on Facebook on the Lead Gen site or Vulcan7 network, you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions during the broadcast. But first, let me introduce my co-host from San Diego. That’s Carley Hathaway. carleyhathaway.com. Hi, Carley, how’s real estate business?

Carley (00:45):
Hi. Hi, everybody. Thanks for tuning in. Business is really good. Like I always say, it’s a seller’s market, so it’s a great time to be a listing agent.

Ren (00:55):
I know list, list, list. You don’t want to be listless. So let’s talk about the Vulcan7 challenge. For everybody, the Vulcan7 challenge. Once a month you shadow a great agent in another market. Maybe they’re an hour, an hour and a half, two hours away in another market and they’re doing what you want to do, what you want to accomplish, and you go shadow them. Better yet, get on an airplane once a month and fly to their city, get there in the afternoon, have dinner with them if they’re available. Get there early in the morning, early because they’re there early. And take a lot of notes, download an app on your phone to record, record, learn as much as you can. Go to lunch with them and then head back home. At the end of 12 months, you’ll have 12 amazing friends who are doing amazing things and you will be one of them, right? Before we get started-

Carley (01:52):
Definitely, it’s a really good challenge. Everyone should take advantage of it.

Ren (01:55):
Before we get started, and you have done it. We ask you every month. Every month, Carley, you haven’t-

Carley (02:01):
Every month, that is a new one for this month.

Ren (02:03):
Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that we simulcast the show on the private Lead Gen group on Facebook. They have 45,000 members now, so we have a very large audience there today as well. And we’re broadcasting on the Vulcan7 network, which is available in over 200 countries across the globe and maybe even Antarctica. We’ll be pausing for a commercial message during the show as a thank-you to the Lead Gen folks. All right, and our guest, you get me, next week we have an amazing guest that does 585 transactions. This is the front load, the season show, and next week is the kickoff show. So we’re going to go over some really important points today. We got a lot of ground to cover on this front load. So get out something to write with or type with and take some notes.

(02:56):
Let’s go over the most important pieces as we start this year. So the first thing to do is line up your listings like dominoes. Most important thing is to front load, the season. Front load, does that make sense, Carley? Front load, the season? Build up-

Carley (03:13):
Can you explain that more?

Ren (03:15):
Pardon? What did she say? What did you say? Oh, she’s frozen. She’s frozen bandwidth. My co-host has to up her bandwidth. So you’re going to have to upgrade your bandwidth, you know that.

Carley (03:34):
Okay, I will. Can you hear me now?

Ren (03:36):
Yes, okay. So call your provider and say turn up the gas, okay?

Carley (03:42):
Okay, I will.

Ren (03:44):
All right. And so, in front loading the season, and the reason we do this is you build up inventory, you get the benefit of all the dominoes going down at once. There’ll be Thursday, January 14th and you’ll sell five of them all at once.

(04:00):
It’ll just happen really quickly. So front loading the season is vital that you have lots, and lots, and lots of inventory on the shelf as the season unfolds. Now, depending, you may be in resort market and all this applies a little differently in a lot of the United States. By the time you hit late March, all of a sudden, people start going into the market. And then in April, a lot of stuff goes under contract. If you have 40, 50, 60, 80 homes available to purchase, do you have enough on your shelf?

(04:32):
Which means that minimum four hours a day of lead generation, four, starting early, starting early, eight o’clock, right? Eight?

Carley (04:42):
Eight o’clock.

Ren (04:43):
That makes sense? Okay, eight o’clock. Yeah, 8:00, go to lunch. If you don’t, for some reason, you don’t have a listing appointment that day, another hour and a half lead generation minimum. So it could be five and a half that day.

(04:55):
What else do you have to do? Or-

Carley (04:57):
Right. You’re right.

Ren (04:58):
… on your pending? So the biggest thing going forward is to build that inventory up. So I’m going to ask a lot of you to ask questions on either the Facebook Lead Gen network or on the Vulcan7 network. Ask some questions so we can talk about the start of the year. And the question I would ask all of you, and would you write this down, everybody? Write down what do I need to let go of? Because every year, as we start the year, what do we need to let go of is the big question that I don’t care if you’re doing 200 homes, 400 homes, 800 homes.

(05:36):
That is the key question in every step of the way to get to the next step. You’re doing something, whether you’re at 800 homes sold a year, or 18, or 56, or whatever your number is, there’s something that this year, you have to resolve to let go, let somebody else do or stop doing it entirely. You have to let go of that piece. Carley, can you think of anything that someone might want to let go of?

Carley (06:03):
So are you saying like bring on another assistant and give them more of your workload or in what context? Any something like that?

Ren (06:10):
I know, we had a nice gentleman I talked to a few weeks ago and I was like… I’m not naming any names so I’m not going to embarrass you. You have got to stop being your own admin.

(06:27):
Oh, you have an admin but you’re doing a lot of their work. What if every day, somebody comes in and their only job is to list property, it’s to set all morning, find appointments, set appointments. All afternoon, go on appointments, maybe a little administrative paperwork that they have to do in the middle, like comparables, practice their presentation, whatnot, and then go on the appointment and have everybody as your business gets a little bigger, and a little bigger, and a little bigger. How do you get to where you are letting go of everything except for the core piece?

(07:05):
And then you get to 800 or 1,200 sales a year, you might bring in a couple of more people that are doing what you’re doing and setting appointments. So you’re setting 10 appointments a day, perhaps. It can get exponential. It’s funny, a lot of people go, “Well, I used to prospect but now, I have some people that prospect. And yeah, I’m not doing that many. I did 46 sales last year.” What? Good for you but not that good.

Carley (07:31):
Yeah, so the main thing is that we need to focus all of our energy on prospecting and let our team handle all the admin stuff. Transaction-

Ren (07:43):
It’s the easy way, unless you want to buy the business. And then you are a broker. So you have to decide, do I want to be a broker? And there’s a reason they call them broker. They do. So I mean, at the end of the day, let’s look at a simple set of rules because there are a lot of people on here that are doing 100, 150 sales and up, and then there are people here that are in that 15 to 18 sales a year and they want to… If they got to 50 real quick, great. Or maybe they’re 15, they want to get to 100.

(08:14):
So let’s go with a simple example. And Carley, we did this a few months ago. A simple example and if you are already around 40, 50, 60 sales, just multiply the number by two. So let’s say they want to earn… Let’s say to get to 50 sales a year or 100, just multiply by times two. So if you want to get to 50 sales a year, all you have to do is take one listing… Take one good, well-priced listing a week. Oh, what is that radio station, Carley? WPLT?

Carley (08:49):
I don’t know.

Ren (08:49):
Well-priced Listing Taken, WPLT. It’s my favorite station. Well-priced Listing Taken, WPLT. So if they take one a week, just one a week, guys and gals, you get to the office at 7:30, you role-play it. From eight o’clock on Monday, you’re off, you have till Friday at 4:30 to find one listing taken. Because if you did that, how many would we sell in a year, Carley? How many? One a week.

Carley (09:20):
One a week.

Ren (09:21):
How many can you sell a year?

Carley (09:22):
Four times 12, I don’t know.

Ren (09:24):
Yeah, about 50 sales a year, roughly. 52 weeks in a year. Let’s say 50 listings taken and maybe not every listing sold, depends on where they are.

Carley (09:35):
Oh, yeah.

Ren (09:36):
50 listings taken. Some of them might not have sold but some of them had to immediately buy a house. Buy a house. So you have 50 and if you take one listing a week, you will sell 50 homes.

(09:47):
And let’s say average commission checks seven grand, that’s $350,000. And all you did was take one listing every week. And a lot of people go, “Why I’ve had a hard time taking one listing a week?” Okay, let’s look at some simple ideas. What if every for-sale by owner in your market, you tracked where they were, and you went to see each one personally? And maybe you had a conversation first to find out do they have to move and have to move quickly. If they do, you made a point of meeting all the ones that were super motivated, face-to-face. How can you not take one listing a week?

(10:24):
Every expired, whatever it takes to talk to them, how can you not take one a week? I question, if you’re making less than $350,000 gross and maybe you’re in a market where the commissions are a little less, but if you’re doing less than 50 sales a year, you have to ask, “What do you need to let go of?”

(10:43):
What do you need to let go of? Because obviously, something’s getting in the way. You’re working your pending, you’re taking around a less motivated buyer. What is it?

Carley (10:54):
Yeah.

Ren (10:55):
So get it down to the simplest things. Let go of things and decide. My job is to take a listing a week. Or if you’re already in that… Already doing 40, 50, 60 sales, my job is to take two listings every week, probably go on four appointments, but you can do it and they’re there. In a typical market, people are getting married, people are getting divorced, people are dying, people are being transferred, they have to move, they have to move, find them. You could take that helicopter up. And then look down on all the houses and all the ones where people are having a conversation about moving and putting their home on the market, they turn green.

(11:42):
So all you have to do is find those homes. They’re out there. If you go up in the helicopter, you look around, you see all the little green homes, then you’ve got to find a way to reach those people on the phone or face-to-face.

(11:57):
Good. So make sure if you’re watching on either the Lead Gen network to type in some questions or on Vulcan7. I just have people making comments but nobody asking a question.

Carley (12:14):
I have a question, Ren. So sometimes I get hung up on when you’re making your calls in the morning and you’re starting at 8:00 AM and you’re super motivated, and then you’re just getting beat up, beat up, beat up, beat up, beat up. How do you overcome that? What are some tools to help you just brush those off and keep-

Ren (12:33):
Well, it’s not easy when you start. And because it’s the mental game as you’re seeing, Carley, it’s the mental game is the biggest challenge with this. We have to overcome that. And one of the ways to overcome that is to surround yourself with accountability partners, people that you’re checking in with once a week. Go back and watch… For those of you either on the highlights reel, watch the highlights reel, which is episode 13, last year. Or watch Carrie Kohler, she was part of two Facebook groups where it was like little matrix of… Not Facebook groups, Google Hangouts.

Carley (13:10):
Google Hangouts, yeah.

Ren (13:11):
You’d be like eight or 12 people on our screen on this one and over here, and camera aiming at her. And if she walked down the hall for five minutes, they’re like, “Carrie, Carrie, where are you?” So we have to span ourselves with other people because, If you’re all by yourself, it’s easy to get slippery, because we get in the mood and we’ll go get a bowl of Cheerios and don’t sit somewhere as opposed to doing what we need to do. Nothing wrong with Cheerios. I like it. So the accountability’s a big piece. The other thing is what if you just start at the shallow end of the pool because it is painful to call a fresh expired?

Carley (13:51):
Especially multimillion-dollar expireds. Those people are tough.

Ren (13:56):
Maybe.

Carley (13:57):
Maybe.

Ren (13:57):
It’s interesting, I know, but I hear too many people tell me that they worked the luxury market because everybody else is afraid of it, and they find those people a little more sophisticated, a little friendlier. That’s what I hear. This is just from conversation, and it was my experience too. It was in that middle range. The wannabees, they were the meanest. They weren’t the luxury market. They weren’t the mom-and-paw houses, they were in the middle of the wannabees because they were really stressed out working the corporate ladder. They were some of the meaner ones. But old expireds, and if a lot of you are signed up for Vulcan7 and you don’t have that many old expireds, call our company. I like our competition, we sell a better quality old expired and we don’t charge anywhere near what they charge for it. So call up and get loaded down with some old expireds because that’s the shallow end of the pool. We know they’re friendly conversations.

(14:52):
And the only time they’re not friendly conversations is if you’re data mining or you are perceived as data mining. Instead of calling up and going, “I noticed in the computer, or I noticed in the MLS…” Yeah, they don’t like that too much. But if you remember it, you call up and say, “Yeah, I was calling about the home that you had on the market. I want to say, gosh, it was about six months ago. Beautiful one-storey home over near the ocean. Did you ever sell that?” Then you have a friendlier conversation. And if you have a lot of… Nobody’s called those on some parts, some are. And what you’ll notice is they’re all friendly and we can’t rely just on expired and for-sale owners we have to start working hot neighborhoods. What’s a definition of a hot neighborhood?

Carley (15:44):
I mean one that the prices are going up.

Ren (15:47):
Could be. Actually, if a hot neighborhood for a real estate agent that wants to list properties, one that turns over a lot.

Carley (15:54):
Oh, I see what you’re saying.

Ren (15:55):
Generally speaking and you can chat with your office manager, your broker, you can use your own intuition. You can look at the stats in MLS. Neighborhoods that turn over a lot. A lot a of times they’re newer construction usually in areas where companies are transferring people in and out, they tend to turn a lot. And so the numbers play real well. All you have to do is be talking to a lot of those people. Oh, go into our neighborhood search and start talking to neighbors. And-

Carley (16:27):
So, you’re saying to door knock them.

Ren (16:30):
I’m saying whatever, contact them.

Carley (16:35):
Contact them, okay.

Ren (16:35):
Yeah, contact them in many ways. You can call them, you can visit them, you can do all of the above. It’s a numbers game. The good news is it’s really simple. And the good news is most people want to do something more gratifying. They want to work on their file, they want to take a buyer around, they want to, it’s a lot more gratifying. The good news is not that many people doing this, but if you go after one listing a week, or two listings, a week or three listings a week, the income’s phenomenal. Remember that show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Remember that one?

Carley (17:08):
No.

Ren (17:09):
That

(17:09):
Was a pyramid-

Carley (17:09):
It’s a game show.

Ren (17:09):
Yeah.

Carley (17:09):
Oh, yeah.

Ren (17:15):
And you would answer a question, you’d go up a little higher, and a little higher, and you’d be a millionaire one time. If you get involved in this business and if you do a shadow every month, you’re going to meet people that make $1 million every year. Not just one time on a game show, every year. So my question to you is, who wants to be a millionaire?

Carley (17:33):
I know, I do.

Ren (17:37):
I know. A lot of people are like, “Well, I don’t need all that money.” I’m like, “Okay, give it away. It’s fine.”

Carley (17:40):
Yeah

Ren (17:41):
Make a whole bunch. Make a whole bunch and then do a lot of good.

Carley (17:45):
Yeah.

Ren (17:45):
Do a lot of good. So the question today is what do I need to let go of? Let’s look at some questions from people. Christie Austin says the word transient. That’s all I know. And then Matthew says, I do. Well, that’s good. I guess he’s getting married. How do you break your price… Donnie wants to know how do you break your price points down to focus on home price ranges? That’s a very analytical question. Don’t, just call people, figure out what area you want to work and call them.

(18:21):
I mean, I don’t know what you’re looking for there. You want to expand on that, but we don’t want to overanalyze because then it’s sort of like when people go, “Oh, I think I’ll call this one. I wonder how much they paid for it. I wonder when they bought it.” When they talk themselves out of calling, they go, “Oh, they probably pay too much. It looks like there’s a loan on here. I think they owe too much.” And then they don’t call them. So you’re better off to just-

Carley (18:44):
Call.

Ren (18:46):
Yeah, forget the ready, aim, ready, aim, ready, aim. Anna Williams says, “Go for a no to get a yes.” I agree, Anna, but that’s not a question. Take me through a typical day for you. Well, for 16 years it was 7:30 at the office, a different role-play partner each time. I remember racing in there at 7:30 and Tony Vero down in Fort Lauderdale area was my Monday role play. And then different one on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. 5:00 till 8:00 on the phones, call expired, return calls at 11:30, go to lunch. A listing appointment at four o’clock, a listing appointment at six o’clock, then go home. Or I would have one just at 4:00. Or if I didn’t have any that day, I would just call a little bit more.

(19:35):
And five days a week, Monday through Friday, I just had a board listing appointments. Four, six, four, six, four, six, four, six. And then I had a little block that said Sunday 1:00 PM and I did that about eight times a year. Because there would be a case where people would sell their house, vacate their house, move to a city about an hour and a half away and they would come in on the weekends and mow the grass, and clean the windows, and vacuum, and go home. And I was missing that business. So about eight times a year, I had this Sunday at 1:00 PM slot and I would meet with that group. But generally, it was Monday through Friday business. I know you guys work weekends, but I didn’t.

Carley (20:19):
Good for you. Okay, so Ren-

(20:24):
Yeah. Ren, who did you call? Who was first on your list to call day to day? Did you prioritize?

Ren (20:28):
I always reach… I mean, eight o’clock, you got to start with expires first because they are… That’s like your Mexican piñata. The kids that get in there early get the best candy and the kids that are in late get… If they even get any candy. It’s going to be the saltwater taffy or something that nobody wanted, I don’t know. Maybe you like butterscotch, I don’t.

(20:48):
But it’s a Mexican piñata. You’re late to the game, there’s no candy. Fresh expires. That’s just the way that goes. And then for sale by owners, then old expireds, and those are friendly people. God bless folks, you can live half old expireds if you want it. If you’re afraid of confrontation, they are the happiest people to talk to. And you can sell 50 homes a year, make $350,000 a year. Have somebody else here work your buyers.

Carley (21:19):
And you know what-

Ren (21:21):
Have somebody else work your buyers.

Carley (21:22):
Have someone else work your buyers. No buyers. And I noticed-

Ren (21:26):
Pardon, go ahead.

Carley (21:27):
What I really like about Vulcan7 is that you can set it up so that you can have the old expireds pop-up first if you’re still working on it, or you have the most expensive fresh expireds pop-up first and you can change it per day on your motivation and how you’re feeling and if you want to practice more or things like that. So I think that’s what is really helpful with that program.

Ren (21:51):
I know, it’s got a lot of flexibility. In fact, for those of you that have been watching RoadMap, did you noticed, and you may not have noticed some of the top people on there say, “I started doing… I’ve got a nice boost in my business while I started doing top-down.” I heard that Carrie Kohler say that, I heard a couple of other people say that. I heard Tim Davis say that. And what they’re referring to, in case you don’t know, is starting with the most expensive house first, then the next expensive house, and the next expensive house, and the next expensive house. Top-down. Because their coach told them that that would make a big difference. And for them, it did.

(22:29):
Would you send email if you get someone on the phone or would you door knock first? The problem, Anna, is that the email isn’t going to get you where you want to go. You could send emails and then after three years you got one person that responded. They’ve got too many people coming at them in a much more powerful way. So I would do whatever it takes to communicate with them live if at all possible.

(22:52):
There are mailing programs out there. I remember people say, “I doubled my business with this expired mailing program.” Yes, you went from four sales to nine sales, big deal. But you spent a fortune and hours and hours and hours for that extra four, five sales and then your cost of mailing and everything else, you ended up making this much.

Carley (23:13):
Yeah.

Ren (23:13):
You should be doing that much every month. So whether it’s email, mail, they’ve got too many people coming at them live. If they’re not going to respond, if nobody was coming at them, it would be a different story. Is it-

Carley (23:27):
I agree. I feel like I get a postcard or a listing, something in a postcard every single day from different agents. So I feel like people throw them away at one point.

Ren (23:37):
Well, I know, I know. I mean, yeah, on a cold night up here in Ohio, it’ll keep you warm, you burn that stuff. Is there a practical how to use the actual software? We’re talking about Vulcan7’s. I know how to call expired listings. Yes, there’s a whole bunch of videos in there on how to do that. So I don’t cover that much on this call, but if you call our support people they will sit with you and walk you through it too.

Carley (24:02):
Yeah, that’s the part. People are extremely helpful, I’ve noticed.

Ren (24:04):
What do you suggest for call reluctance? Good question, Judith. Accountability partners, accountability partners, accountability partners, role play partners. People that will hold you account. I mean, go to the gym by yourself and you might not go. Meet your friend at the gym and you’ll go. Accountability, Judith. That’s the best way to pull you through until you get used to it.

(24:26):
And then once you start making a lot of money, then the reluctance is… You’re not going to want to stop. And nobody will be able to throw anything at you that you won’t be able to recover from. After a while, you’ll take it with a sense of humor. So I understand because it’s not easy. So the other thing, Judith, is I would spend a lot more time with old expireds at the shallow end of the pool because they pay well and nobody else is calling. It’s less competition, it’s easier to get them, it’s a friendlier call. So I would do that. Judith, I would do that. Are you getting any questions there?

Carley (25:03):
Ren, do you have a schedule as far as how many times you’ve tried to reach out to a certain house after the sixth try, seventh try, eighth try and you’re not getting answers. Do you give up? Do you have a number that you stop at and then maybe send an email, or go knock, or something like that?

Ren (25:16):
Depends on how badly I want it.

Carley (25:18):
Okay.

Ren (25:19):
And so, it depends on how badly… And so, somebody ask Brian Llewellyn, for those of you that have watched that and somebody… In fact, you asked her the same question. It’s kind of depends. Yeah, how about, “Where’s that house located? What does it look like? Who had it listed before? Is that one I really want? Maybe I just need to try a little harder and put a few more calls in it.” Some of the other ones I can let go of a little faster.. I mean, because when you’re doing it a while and you know who your competition is, and you know how pricing is and areas and things, it’s a combination of reasons why you might go a little further with one than another.

(26:00):
Also, do you bring texting after seven attempts via phone? We don’t have that on Vulcan7 for a whole bunch of reasons. But I would do it. I’d open Google Hangouts and do it because nobody else did. If we put it on there, all of a sudden, 45 other people would be texting them. Two things would happen. We would end up going out of business because the sellers would go crazy and never knew it wouldn’t do you any good because everybody else is texting him.

(26:27):
But if you do it on your own, might work. So Matthew says, “We just have to remember that there are people just like us. Some of us lack confidence in calling a stranger.” That’s right. That’s why it pays so well. If there wasn’t an inherent reluctance that we feel, everybody would do it. If everybody did it, it wouldn’t pay you well. Pay so well. That’s why it pays well, Matthew. You’re in good point, Matthew. Do you see any questions, Carley, on the Facebook site?

Carley (26:57):
No, no. I can see the video live, but there’s no questions or comments coming in at all. So I don’t know.

Ren (27:01):
Okay.

Carley (27:02):
… time. So I’m not sure.

Ren (27:05):
Okay, well, maybe they like to lurk a little bit more there. Okay, great. And then let’s go over the mapping technique a little bit. One of the things that’s real important is if… Let’s say you’ve just determined here’s a for-sale owners and expired, here’s a for-sale owners and expired, here’s a for-sale owner and here’s the expired. They all have a home for sale, they don’t have an agent. Go see them. Draw a little line connecting all the dots in the most linear fashion and then run through them. Generally speaking, from having done a lot of door-knocking, one out of… And this number will vary depending on how attractive you are.

(27:43):
So if you’re… It will. For me, I’ll put it that way. For me, one out of four people are at home and one out of… One out of three people are at home and one out of four will come to the door, for me.

Carley (27:57):
Okay.

Ren (28:00):
And I could tell a lot of good stories about that from… Those are all off the record. One out of three are at home, one out of four will come to the door. And so, line up 12 of them. So you have at least three conversations with someone that has a home for sale. The impact we have in a live situation on the phone or even better face-to-face.

Carley (28:26):
Okay, I have some questions coming in now through Facebook. One person’s like, “I started Vulcan7 just a couple of months ago and I’m not using it to its full potential. Where is the best place to start?”

Ren (28:41):
Where is the best place to start? The best place to start is finding out where you can go watch somebody do it, a year or two ahead of you. As quickly as you can. So today is Tuesday, so go find somebody, whoever told you about it in another city or maybe we can help you.

(29:03):
So in fact, text me and we’ll find somebody you can go spend a couple of hours with, text me at 513-409-1620. 513-

Carley (29:15):
Lower. Lower

Ren (29:19):
… 513-409-1620. And let’s see if we can… And tell me what city you’re from and whatnot and let’s find somebody you can drive, spend a couple of hours with them because there’s nothing like that. Then you’d be like, “Oh.”

Carley (29:36):
Yeah, it’ll one day just click. Yeah.

Ren (29:36):
And Carley, you’ve done that, so you know what that looks like. All of a sudden, What is the expression? I never knew what I never knew. I never knew what I never knew and-

Carley (29:44):
Exactly.

Ren (29:45):
… you’ll be like, “It’s such an eye opener and here’s somebody making four, six, $800,000 a year, 1.2 million, 1.4.” They’re working five days a week, they’ve got this down to a science and it can be you. Yeah. I mean, you got to start somewhere but if you’ll be happy with 200,000 your first year, or 160,000 first year, or whatever, or just be happy moving in that direction. Start the shadow, it’s the quickest way. You can read about it. You can get a book on how great Hawaii is but it’s nothing like going. So go, check it out firsthand. Good, I hope that helps.

Carley (30:22):
Yeah.

Ren (30:23):
A five-minute example of what? Why are the fees grandfathered? What fees? I don’t know. Lower hanging fruit for new peeps. More reluctant to call it excellent, older expireds. Yes, true. Hot, high turnover neighbors. Oh, it’s just recapping. Anything else? Yes, Leslie? Yes.

Carley (30:43):
Ren, so someone wants to know if you, yourself door-knocked when it’s snowy and cold out.

Ren (30:49):
That’s the best time. If some of you go back and watch Jennifer Merlin’s talk, she would go when it’s raining, when it’s snowy, when it’s cold, I’d love to door-knock when there’s about four inches of snow in Virginia-

Carley (31:01):
Wow.

Ren (31:02):
… because in Virginia where I sold, nobody went anywhere. They were like, “Snow.” Here, everybody gets in their car and zooms around on it. But there, they wouldn’t. So when I went to the door, they’re trapped in their house and they were… So they give you the time of day and they’re like, “Well, my goodness, you sure are determined. You’re a hard worker. Come in, take a look at our home.” So if you have inclement weather, take advantage of it. You guys have a problem in California, Carley. It’s a terrible problem. Inclement weather. Well, I know you think you do.

Carley (31:45):
It’s beautiful and sunny every day. We can’t help that.

Ren (31:49):
Yeah, you can’t go door-knocking with June gloom and use that as an excuse.

Carley (31:53):
Oh, I had to put on a sweater today, darn.

Ren (31:56):
Oh, they put on sweaters at 68 degrees, so no exaggeration. I’m not even exaggerating on them. And boots and a scarf. Okay, so last piece. Or who handles your buyers? Because that’s where people get pulled back in. Well, I sold their $400,000 house and they’re going to go buy an $800,000 house. I’m not referring it out. Nobody said you should refer it out. Let’s look at the reality of it. Okay, 800,000 house. That’s anywhere from 20,000 to 24,000 in commissions, gross commissions. So no, nobody’s going to even do 50-50 on that.

(32:36):
So you make an arrangement with a couple, two or more people that are polished, sharp, that will represent you and your team and they go out and they work your buyers and you tell them ahead, you sit down with them and you pre-agree 25, 50, and 75.

(32:53):
If you give them a lead, you don’t know a whole lot about it. You get 25%, they get 75%. If it’s ongoing business, 50-50. If it’s a situation like this, you sold their 400, they’re buying an 800, it actually flips the other way. You’re going to pay them 25% tops. They’re going to make $6,000 and you make 18, or they make four and you make 20. You pre-agree because… I mean, they’re going to go out and show them three homes. They’re going to buy one. I mean let’s be realistic, folks. That’s where agents get pulled back in. They stop listing property. You can make these arrangements. You pre-arrange using common sense, paying somebody $12,000 to show three homes makes no sense. So you can work that out. So that’s a very important one, Jennifer. Because she’s saying what else?

(33:49):
I want to make sure we cover all the points. Oh, last issue here. And this should work unless people have questions. In a couple of months from now, you’ll have so many pendings you won’t know what to do. And that’s where we get pulled back in again. We’re busy by the lake, pulling in fish. And all of a sudden, there’s so many fish piled up back there and nobody’s taking care of them. Macy’s hires for Christmas and the season, the holiday season, you hire for your season. So maybe you have one assistant or two assistants, hire one more assistant, or do you have no assistants? Hire an assistant that starts as the season builds. So maybe it’s the end of March, you have someone… What happens is you end up keeping them for maybe temporary a higher, but you may end up keeping them permanently because you now operate at a higher level.

(34:37):
You have all these pendings, you bring in maybe… You have hired somebody temporarily, leaves a runner for the summer. You hire another full-time admin to get from pen to close to provide excellent service. They do all the work. You can still stay in touch with the customer. You call up that seller, that buyer and just say, “I want to make sure that… Hi, this is Ren. I just wanted to touch in and make sure that the entire team is taking good care of you. Are they? Do you have any questions?” “Oh okay, great. As the appraisal being done, let me… Where can Mark call you back and get that information to you? Great.” And then you ask him for referrals, and you stay in touch every week with them and have your staff do the work. Now, I’m not suggesting second rate service. Admins have to do a better job than you would do yourself.

(35:30):
Your administrative staff has to be exemplary. Next week, when we talk to our guest who does 585 sales, I got to shadow his operation. He does four or five surveys where they answer six, eight questions, one through scale and rate him one through 10. He gets nines and tens almost always. And if he ever gets a survey back that’s anything less than a nine or a 10, he’s on the phone tool. Exemplary service is critical because a lot of agents are afraid to let go of… What do I need to let go of? They need to let go of the administrative stuff, but they won’t because they think nobody can do it as well as they can.

(36:16):
But they can actually do it better if you set it up right. So I think that covers a lot of our points. Any other good questions on here? Where are the leads with less competition? Old expireds? Yes. Where else? Hot neighborhoods. Where else? Corporates. Where you call small businesses. There’s a lot of… I lost audio. Well, you have to watch the replay, Matthew. Got it, good.

(36:47):
What else? Any other questions? And then make sure you’re here next week for the kickoff show. The kickoff show is pretty exciting. I mean, it’s going to be a very, very exciting show with a guy that’s really… When I went to shadow him, he was only doing 200 and some transactions netting, after all expenses, $985,000 back then. That was five years ago. Now, that number is way higher. He’s making several million.

(37:15):
And his customer service is what keeps driving people back. Because his customer service is some of the highest out there and you’re going to really enjoy that 585 sales this year completed. And we’ll have a lot of fun. Any other questions? What do you mean small businesses? Oh, they’re small companies in your area. Maybe they have 50 employees, 80 employees, 100 employees, and someone, maybe the vice president also does HR or whatever. And you have a conversation, how can I help you when you have people that want to move in or move out? New employees or move across town. You become their representative. You know it’s pipeline business. Same with divorce attorneys, same with probate attorneys that do just settling estates. That’s one of my favorites. They’re all sellers. No buyers because they’re dead and somebody handles the estate. It’s a great sale. So probate attorneys is a great source.

(38:09):
Hope that helped, Leslie. And we want to thank everybody. I’ve got to do one last thing. Want to thank Aaron Weinstein and his Facebook group, Lead Gen. If you want to get involved with them, 45,000 people, go to facebook.com/groups/gotobjections. And I also want to thank him with our Expired Mastery Elite. He has a program called expiredmasteryelite.com that helps people with the struggle of mastering expireds.

(38:46):
And finally, if you’re watching on Facebook and you’re not yet involved with Vulcan7, make sure to sign up for a special deal. Go to vulcan7.com/leadgen. And text me. Oh, I forgot. If you’ve done your job and you’ve spent four or five hours, and you’ve done your lead generation, go get a big spoon. Have some delicious Graeters mint chocolate chip sold everywhere in North America. Go to graeters.com and go get that delicious mint chocolate chip, second to none. Some of the best, text me. Hey, do you have a question you didn’t get on here? You just have a question or comment? I am at 513-409-1620. 513-409-1620. We’ll see you next week. Make sure you’re on here for the kickoff show next week. See you then.

Carley (39:42):
Bye, everybody. Thank you so much for watching. Hope you learned a lot.

Ren (39:47):
I always learn a lot.

Carley (39:48):
I do too. It’s fun.

Ren (39:51):
It’s good stuff. It’s good stuff. It’s exciting.