S2 E9: Move Toward Efficiency
Meet Mega Agent Kerry Ellison from Little Rock, A. Want to increase your sales? Become more efficient with your scripts, your prequal, every step and business routine. Kerry outlines how success is how an athlete performs to excellence.
Ren Jones (00:00):
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 2, 3, 4 listings a week, and we have an exciting guest today. We encourage you to take notes and apply as much of their knowledge as quickly as you can, and then use the copycat principle. If you’re watching on Vulcan7 or on the Lead Gen Network, you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions during the broadcast. Get those in early, get those in early. Let me introduce my co-host from San Diego, Carley Hathaway. That’s carleyhathaway.com. Hi Carley. How’s the real estate business?
Carley Hathaway (00:37):
Hi, ran. The real estate business is great as always. You can’t beat California, definitely a seller’s market, so it’s a good time to be a listing agent.
Ren Jones (00:46):
Good. And it’s fun. We do that routine every time. People are going to latch into that Carleyhathaway.com, and maybe you’ll pick up a few referrals here and there.
Carley Hathaway (00:55):
Definitely. Definitely send me referrals. Everyone wants to live in California, right?
Ren Jones (01:00):
No, absolutely. Absolutely. Before I introduce… All that rain. Before I introduce our guest today, I want to remind everyone that we’re also simul-casting the show on the private lead gen group on Facebook. They have 48,632 members, let’s get it up to 49,000. So we have a large audience there again today as well. We’ll be pausing for a commercial message during the show as a thank you to the lead gen folks. So let’s welcome our guests today from Little Rock, Arkansas, Little Rock, Arkansas. Welcome. Give a warm welcome to Kerry Ellison. You won’t hear two of us applauding because there are a thousand people watching, but you can’t hear them.
Kerry Ellison (01:44):
Yeah, understand.
Carley Hathaway (01:47):
Hi, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re so excited to have you.
Kerry Ellison (01:50):
Thank you, Carley. Yeah, thanks for having me. So yes, we love referrals in Little Rock. Send me referrals in Little Rock.
Ren Jones (01:56):
And what is the best way for them to reach you?
Kerry Ellison (01:59):
The best way is to either friend us on Facebook.
Ren Jones (02:03):
Okay.
Kerry Ellison (02:03):
The Kerry Ellison team. Or you can send us an email at kerryellisonteam@gmail.com.
Ren Jones (02:12):
Okay. And it sounds like they can go to thekerryellison team.com as well?
Kerry Ellison (02:16):
Yes, they can.
Ren Jones (02:19):
And learn a lot as well, because there are going to be people that are like, “Help, I have to quickly get this house sold,” or “Help, I’ve got to quickly pick out something this week and get moved. I’m moving to Little Rock.”
Kerry Ellison (02:30):
Or moving-
Ren Jones (02:31):
Or moving out of Little Rock.
Kerry Ellison (02:32):
There you go.
Ren Jones (02:33):
Either one is fine, right? They can come-
Kerry Ellison (02:35):
That’s right.
Ren Jones (02:36):
… or they can go.
Kerry Ellison (02:36):
That’s right.
Ren Jones (02:37):
Good. Perfect. Well, good. So what’s the goal for 2018, Kerry?
Kerry Ellison (02:46):
Well, our goal is to sell 200 homes this year.
Ren Jones (02:50):
That’s a good goal. Fantastic.
Carley Hathaway (02:51):
I like it.
Kerry Ellison (02:53):
Yeah.
Carley Hathaway (02:53):
And what did you do last year?
Kerry Ellison (02:56):
Last year we did north of 20 million.
Carley Hathaway (02:59):
Nice.
Kerry Ellison (02:59):
Our sales price isn’t like California. We actually, the average sales price in our market’s about 175,000.
Ren Jones (03:07):
And I was looking, you get some amazing value there. And you do a lot of luxury too, don’t you?
Kerry Ellison (03:12):
Yes, yes, we do. And luxury here is only half a million and up. I think that’s first time home buyer in California.
Carley Hathaway (03:20):
Yeah, it is. Hey-
Ren Jones (03:22):
That works.
Carley Hathaway (03:23):
… you get much more house. Much more house in Arkansas, I’m sure.
Ren Jones (03:26):
Oh, you can get a castle for north of 500,000, so…
Carley Hathaway (03:31):
Yeah.
Kerry Ellison (03:31):
That’s right. Yeah.
Ren Jones (03:32):
But it’s a beautiful place, too.
Kerry Ellison (03:33):
Yeah. Yep. Most people don’t realize we’re at the foot of the Ouachitas and the Ozark, so we’re actually very hilly. People come in and want a flat lot, there’s no such thing.
Carley Hathaway (03:44):
Okay, that’s cool.
Kerry Ellison (03:45):
Yeah, so it’s got a lot of rock, a lot of hills, a lot of natural trails, a lot of hiking.
Carley Hathaway (03:51):
Cool.
Kerry Ellison (03:51):
Yeah, it’s a beautiful area.
Carley Hathaway (03:52):
Nice.
Kerry Ellison (03:53):
Yeah.
Carley Hathaway (03:54):
So Kerry, let me ask you, you want to do 200 homes this year? What changes are you making from this year to last to make that possible?
Kerry Ellison (04:02):
Well, we are being more focused on lead generation. We’re adding an extra hour, we’re being more systematized with it. We are more focused on going on appointments that matter versus just going on an appointment to go on an appointment.
(04:18):
So we’re doing a lot of pre-qualifying, also, to make sure that… You can go out on an appointment and waste three hours, or you can sit in the office and make phone calls for three hours and pick up a real prospect. So that’s one of our goals.
Carley Hathaway (04:34):
That’s great. I mean, no one wants to waste time, right?
Kerry Ellison (04:36):
Right. Yeah.
Carley Hathaway (04:37):
Good.
Kerry Ellison (04:39):
So, that’s-
Ren Jones (04:40):
Efficient though, it sounds like a lot of efficiency moves that you’re making.
Kerry Ellison (04:42):
Yeah, I think we looked at our numbers last year with our coach, Mitzi Jasnicki and we sat down and reviewed our numbers to see what were we doing that other teams were doing, and how are they more efficient than we are? So what we realized is that we’re chasing our tail a lot. We’re going on maybe not qualified lead appointments, we’re just going on an appointment because they said, “Come see my house.” As opposed to qualifying them, make sure you’re finding them motivated.
Ren Jones (05:16):
So working with that batting average of the number of appointments to the number of listings taken.
Kerry Ellison (05:20):
Yes.
Ren Jones (05:21):
What’s the goal for this year as a percentage?
Kerry Ellison (05:24):
Our goal this year is to get upwards of 60%. I do go on a lot of for sale by owner appointments, and a lot of times we’re not in the seller’s market. We’re actually a little bit more neutral here than we are in a seller’s market.
Ren Jones (05:43):
Gotcha.
Kerry Ellison (05:43):
You know-
Ren Jones (05:45):
Well, good for you, actually, they really need your services.
Carley Hathaway (05:48):
Yeah.
Kerry Ellison (05:48):
Well-
Ren Jones (05:49):
That’s a pleasant problem.
Carley Hathaway (05:51):
Yeah.
Kerry Ellison (05:51):
Well, it’s an interesting dynamic because they hear everything in the United States, everybody’s in a seller’s market, and we’re technically not. We’re still sitting at about a three month inventory.
Carley Hathaway (06:00):
Oh, wow. Okay.
Kerry Ellison (06:01):
And, however, when we hit the spring market, a lot of our private sellers sell very quickly. So you’ll call them, set an appointment, and they’re sold by the time you get there.
Carley Hathaway (06:11):
Nice.
Kerry Ellison (06:11):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (06:12):
Well, yeah, sort of.
Carley Hathaway (06:14):
Well, yeah.
Kerry Ellison (06:16):
Yeah. No, it’s a good… Yeah.
Ren Jones (06:18):
No, there’s some challenge there.
Carley Hathaway (06:19):
Yeah.
Kerry Ellison (06:19):
Yeah. Exactly.
Carley Hathaway (06:21):
So let me ask you this, your majority of listing appointments are for sale by owners. What is the most difficult objection that you overcome? I’m guessing they want to save money and not pay commissions, right?
Kerry Ellison (06:32):
It seems like its… Well, we get the appointments, once we get there they love to compare us to a discount broker. Why go with a full commission when they can go with somebody who’s a one-time fee of 500 bucks and then the buyer agent fee.
Carley Hathaway (06:51):
Okay.
Kerry Ellison (06:53):
I think that’s our most common objection we get.
Carley Hathaway (06:56):
Okay.
Ren Jones (06:56):
And how do you handle that?
Kerry Ellison (06:58):
Well, basically we just go to our list price and our sales price, and we run an average of 99% list price to sales price with a market time of 16 days where our MLS is about 66 days, and our list price to sales price is about 95%. So if you dig into the discount brokers, they run about 92 to 93%. Okay.
Ren Jones (07:22):
Add a little more money then.
Kerry Ellison (07:24):
So we go back to the net, we show them how much more money they’re going to net by using us.
Carley Hathaway (07:30):
That’s great.
Ren Jones (07:30):
Well, that’s compelling.
Carley Hathaway (07:31):
Yeah, definitely.
(07:33):
Okay, so earlier you said that you are adding an extra hour of lead generation, like building your business, getting more business. Can you kind of walk us through a typical day? What time you get on the phones, who you’re calling first, how your day looks with your team and all that good stuff?
Kerry Ellison (07:52):
Sure. Yeah. We usually get in the office at about 8:30. We do a little bit of script and role play, and we’re usually on the phones by 9:00. And we’re all on automatic dialers. I have two buyer’s agents and we are all on the telephones.
(08:08):
So we start on automatic dials on Monday morning. Buyer’s agents do open house follow-up Monday morning, and sign call follow-up. And then I start on the listing side. I’ll go into any expired listings for sale by owners. And then after that, then I start into my follow-up. So usually that’s our Monday morning calls.
Ren Jones (08:30):
Perfect.
Carley Hathaway (08:30):
And how long do you guys stay on the phones in the morning?
Kerry Ellison (08:34):
In theory or reality? No, the goal’s always three hours. It usually ends up being closer to two.
Carley Hathaway (08:43):
And do you have a certain number of contacts you want to hit each day or each week, or how do you do that?
Kerry Ellison (08:49):
Yeah, we’re 20 contacts a day minimum.
Carley Hathaway (08:52):
Okay.
Kerry Ellison (08:54):
Yeah. So we run through the dials. A Tuesday, our buyer’s agents take off Tuesday and Wednesday, and then they rotate. So when we all get back in together on Thursday, we start circle prospecting just listed, just sold. And then we also start circle prospecting for our open houses.
Carley Hathaway (09:13):
Okay. Can you explain what circle prospecting means?
Kerry Ellison (09:15):
Sure. Well, with our just listed, we’ll download a hundred to 300 names of homes that are within a radius of half a mile of that house. And we download those phone numbers into an automatic dialer, and we actually just start cold calling them, letting them know that we have just listed a home in their neighborhood and that we are going to host an open house that Sunday, and we’re inviting them to come join us.
Ren Jones (09:42):
Fantastic. Good. So you’re talking to a lot of people you don’t know. What about the people you know?
Carley Hathaway (09:48):
Yes.
Ren Jones (09:49):
In your database? What’s that look like and what’s the routines around that?
Kerry Ellison (09:55):
We have four different client parties a year. Last year we had two. So to answer your question, also, another way to increase our business is we’re increasing our client parties. So this year we are adding two more client parties. We may add three. And so we build all of our client calls, past client network, have met, calls around our client parties. We will touch them four to six times for each client party.
Ren Jones (10:21):
Gotcha.
Carley Hathaway (10:24):
What is your client party? What are you doing?
Kerry Ellison (10:28):
The first one we’re going to do this year is going to be a movie premier where we-
Carley Hathaway (10:34):
Oh, fun.
Kerry Ellison (10:34):
Yeah. So we’re going to rent out a movie theater for a 3:00 matinee on a Saturday. And we’ve rented out the whole theater. So we’ll do that. They’ll get a popcorn. They’ll get a soda and a free movie ticket.
Carley Hathaway (10:48):
How fun. And they can bring the family and stuff like that?
Kerry Ellison (10:50):
Absolutely.
Carley Hathaway (10:51):
That’s a great idea.
Kerry Ellison (10:53):
Yeah. So that’s our first one. Our second client party is a night at the Travelers. We have a minor league baseball team here, and we rent out the outfield pavilion. So last year I believe we had 175 people come. And this year we’re hoping for a better turnout. And so we bring them in, we provide food, tea, water, all of the above, door prizes, all that.
Carley Hathaway (11:20):
How fun. I think that’s a great way to stay connected to your sphere. It’s more fun than just a typical phone call of what’s happening in the area.
Kerry Ellison (11:27):
Yeah. Well, and then you can remember what they look like. I mean, I’ve been in the business for 24 years. There’s clients I haven’t seen in 15 years.
Carley Hathaway (11:36):
Yeah. Well, I think that’s a great strategy. Good for you.
Kerry Ellison (11:41):
And we do one more event. Right now we do a photos with Santa. So the first weekend in December, we have a Santa Claus here at the office, and we always tie it to a food bank donation or the Humane Society for the animals.
Carley Hathaway (12:00):
Oh, great.
Kerry Ellison (12:01):
Yeah. We hire a professional photographer and bring in Santa Claus. And then of course we do prizes.
Ren Jones (12:07):
So the three events, and then you’re calling them all the time, and do they get anything in the mail? They get anything in email, videos, any other way you touch them?
Kerry Ellison (12:17):
I’ll tell you, the best thing we did last year is we did a survey, because you can’t… I’m sure there’s a lot of license laws out there in the state of Arkansas. We actually called because we moved databases and we called and did a survey and we asked them five questions. And the last question was, who do you know that needs to buy or sell real estate in the next six months that we can call today? And we’ve got 1300 people give or taken our database. And we reached about 250 on a phone call. And out of that we picked up 96 referrals.
Carley Hathaway (12:58):
Oh, that’s amazing.
Kerry Ellison (13:01):
So we also gave away a $2,500 travel voucher where somebody could go wherever they want on a cruise, airline tickets, any of the above.
Carley Hathaway (13:11):
Love that. That’s a great incentive.
Ren Jones (13:14):
I’ve got a question. So you did… The survey was by phone and you’re calling them, correct?
Kerry Ellison (13:18):
Correct.
Ren Jones (13:20):
And if I hear you correctly, 40%, 250 people you talked to gave you 96-
Kerry Ellison (13:27):
Referrals.
Ren Jones (13:27):
Referrals, yes. That’s 40%.
Kerry Ellison (13:30):
Yes.
Ren Jones (13:30):
So my question is, what about the other 1000, 1050, how are you going to reach them to get, what would that be? Another 420 referrals? They’ve got 420 referrals. You just got to reach them. How are you going to do it?
(13:47):
By mail?
Kerry Ellison (13:48):
Nope. Nope. They’ve got to talk to us face to face. We’re going to offer it again. We’re going to do it again. It was such a great success for $2,500, it’s a no-brainer. So we’re going to do it at our client party, and then we’re going to follow it up again in the fall. And that-
Ren Jones (14:05):
That is huge.
Kerry Ellison (14:06):
It was huge. Yeah.
Ren Jones (14:07):
And it speaks volumes. I mean, normally people don’t offer up something unless they think your service is exemplary.
Kerry Ellison (14:15):
So for us it was a huge eye-opening experience on people that… And the funny thing was, some of these people were, people we had talked to the week before, or friends of ours we had ran into two weeks before, never said a word. Yet when you ask those magic words, who do you know that needs to buy or sell, that I can call? And it’s amazing what response you get from that.
Ren Jones (14:38):
And notice folks, she doesn’t say, do you know? She says, who do you know? Is a very different approach into the brain?
Kerry Ellison (14:44):
Yeah. So we took the winners, we celebrated it, we did Facebook Live, and we promoted it out. So we think this year we’ll have a much better… People are going to want to take our calls.
Ren Jones (14:58):
96. Wow. Out of 250. Wow. You’re very well thought of. That is awesome.
Kerry Ellison (15:04):
Yeah, that was cool.
Carley Hathaway (15:05):
Yeah, that’s great.
Ren Jones (15:07):
Well, and you recite a lot of facts and figures. So how are you tracking numbers? You have a system for that?
Kerry Ellison (15:14):
We do. Which numbers? Any specific numbers? Because we track a bunch.
Ren Jones (15:20):
Well, let’s say contact leads, appointments, listings taken, listing sold. I mean, you’re tracking, obviously, a lot of data having to do with your database and fields from that. And-
Kerry Ellison (15:32):
Yes, my executive assistant, Hannah, we’ve built out Google spreadsheets.
Ren Jones (15:38):
Perfect.
Kerry Ellison (15:39):
So the other thing we love about the Google spreadsheets is you’ve got the Google forms where you can fill it out on the top and then you feed it in. So…
Ren Jones (15:47):
Perfect. That’s all it takes. But it’s the discipline of tracking numbers.
Kerry Ellison (15:51):
It is.
Ren Jones (15:52):
Looking at the numbers, because sometimes a lot of people don’t want to look at their numbers.
Kerry Ellison (15:57):
No. I think a big, huge ‘aha’ for me that if I could go back and redo last year, I wish I would’ve gone back and kept up with the four conversations better.
(16:08):
How many listing appointments did I go on? How many listings did I take? How many do I have under contract? And how much GCI have we closed or how many units? And when I started compiling those numbers, looking at them on a monthly basis, I’m like, “Well, crap, I didn’t do that much.” I need to get this many listings. I’ve got to hit my numbers. And sometimes when you’re in the grind of it on a daily basis, you don’t ever stop to go, “Well, my goal is 15 this month and I’ve only listed seven.” So it really helps to have the numbers in front. “Okay, I’ve listed seven so far, I need to get eight more. Where are they going to come from?”
Ren Jones (16:51):
And the fact that you, and you mentioned this earlier in the conversation, pre-qualifying is going to really raise it up because when you look at it, for many agents, not pre-qualifying very well is a form of call reluctance. Yes. Because I’ve got this appointment. Oh, they’re going to list. Didn’t ask them a whole lot of questions. You get out there, they throw you a curve ball, you come back, you’re batting average listing appointments to listing’s taken is low, but you’re engaged with people, you’re in meetings. But if you just pre-qualified, thrown them in the trash and spent another hour calling, batting average would’ve gone up, the total sales would’ve gone up. So what you’re helping people understand is that that pre-qualifying really will dramatically improve sales.
Kerry Ellison (17:44):
And asking them and not being afraid to ask the question, are you interviewing other agents? Are you thinking about listing as a for sale by owner? How much money do you think your house is worth? How much do you want to net?
Carley Hathaway (17:57):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (17:59):
I know people will… I mean, we have to do that. We’re a professional. If you go to a tax accountant, they’re going to ask you for two years of returns. If you go to the doctor, they’re going to ask you a series of questions. We have to ask those questions. And I don’t get why people don’t ask those questions sometimes.
Kerry Ellison (18:16):
You know at family reunion, we were just in Anaheim a few weeks ago for Keller Williams for family reunion, and I was in a class on questions with Pat Mancuso, and he’s phenomenal. And he said, “You always want them to rate it with the number.” So you ask them a question, where do you think your house lies between one being it needs a lot of work and disrepair and 10 being perfect. And he said, it’s so important to have them rank it with a number. And he said it’s a neurolinguistics thing. And he said it helps them anchor so much more. And that was a big ‘aha’ for me, is that you always want them to put a number to it.
Ren Jones (19:00):
Well, and then the magic question behind that, how would you rate the condition of your home, scale of one to ten, 10 being the best, and then they give you, say it’s a seven.
Kerry Ellison (19:09):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (19:09):
And then you say, what would make it a 10?
Kerry Ellison (19:12):
Yes.
Ren Jones (19:13):
And then they list the things that need to be done. Which I mean, that was the best invention I’d ever heard. Because then when you go to the house, instead of them saying, well, what do you think we need to do to the house? And they’re like, “Oh, they don’t like my house.” You say, “Well, you said you felt that you needed to replace the carpet and the paint. I agree with you.” Off the table.
Carley Hathaway (19:33):
Yeah.
Kerry Ellison (19:34):
Exactly.
Carley Hathaway (19:35):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (19:35):
And I feel like the other-
Carley Hathaway (19:36):
And then down the road, within a listing appointment, it’ll be easier to price it the way it should be priced and overcome those overpriced objections and things like that.
Kerry Ellison (19:45):
Yeah. The other huge question we ask that I love is what are your top, what are your three expectations of us as your realtor?
Ren Jones (19:55):
Ah, great. Yeah. And what kind of responses do you get from that? What are you hearing? What’s common?
Kerry Ellison (20:04):
The hardest thing for me to do is sit there and shut up. Because I want to give them the answer and they really have to think about it. And the most common things I get are honesty, feedback, and they want me to sell it.
Ren Jones (20:24):
Okay. And are you asking these questions before you get there or at the house?
Kerry Ellison (20:28):
Both.
Ren Jones (20:29):
Okay. So when you asked beforehand, it’d give you an opportunity to weave whatever those three themes are into the presentation, then, correct?
Kerry Ellison (20:36):
Right.
Ren Jones (20:36):
Okay.
Kerry Ellison (20:37):
And then it gives me an opportunity when I get there to repeat. So what I’m hearing you say is you want somebody to be honest with you. Can you tell me what that looks like to you? My perception of it is this, what is yours?
Ren Jones (20:50):
Good point. Good point. And it sounds like they feel heard.
Kerry Ellison (20:55):
Yeah. So I do my-
Carley Hathaway (20:58):
And how long, typically, is your listing appointment?
Kerry Ellison (21:02):
It’s an hour.
Carley Hathaway (21:04):
I’m sorry you broke up.
Kerry Ellison (21:05):
Oh, it takes about an hour.
Carley Hathaway (21:07):
Okay. All right. And do you send a pre-listing packet?
Kerry Ellison (21:10):
No, I don’t.
Carley Hathaway (21:11):
Oh, okay. All right. So anything like that before going to the home?
Kerry Ellison (21:19):
I lost you. Say that again?
Ren Jones (21:24):
She’s frozen.
Kerry Ellison (21:25):
She is frozen. Okay. It wasn’t just me
Ren Jones (21:27):
Something before. So I get you. So you’re going over a lot of how you’re going to market the home once you get there.
Kerry Ellison (21:34):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (21:37):
Okay.
Kerry Ellison (21:37):
What I do is I have a 10 point marketing program, and we just review that. I hit that and I hit a few marketing statistics and we go into pricing.
Ren Jones (21:45):
Gotcha. All right.
Kerry Ellison (21:48):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (21:48):
Fantastic. So you’re calling-
Carley Hathaway (21:53):
Am I still frozen?
Kerry Ellison (21:54):
No.
Ren Jones (21:55):
You’re back.
Carley Hathaway (21:56):
Okay. So I have a question for you. So what’s the percentage of your business past clients compared to new business from expired and FSBOs?
Kerry Ellison (22:04):
Past clients last year was just north of 60%. And we want to keep it between, we would like to get it up a little bit more. That’s why we’re doing more client parties. We’d like to get it up to about 65%.
Carley Hathaway (22:19):
Okay.
Kerry Ellison (22:21):
From past clients and network referrals. So the rest of the business filters in with sign calls, expired FSBOs, networking groups, different things like that.
Carley Hathaway (22:33):
Okay. And what scripts do you use when you’re calling expireds and FSBOs? Do you have..?
Kerry Ellison (22:40):
I do. Well, my absolute favorite FSBO script is it’s out of one of Jackie Kravitz. She does dominate your market. And it’s a Keller Williams script and it’s with a for sale by owner, it’s just ring ring… Do you want to role-play it?
Carley Hathaway (22:58):
Yeah, let’s do it.
Kerry Ellison (22:59):
All right. Ring. Ring.
Carley Hathaway (23:01):
Hello.
Kerry Ellison (23:02):
Hi. I was calling about the house at 123 Main Street.
Carley Hathaway (23:05):
Yeah. Do you have a buyer for me?
Kerry Ellison (23:07):
Hi. No, this is Kerry Ellison, I’m a real estate agent in the area. And I noticed you were selling your house and you were selling it privately, is that correct?
Carley Hathaway (23:17):
Yes, it’s correct. I’ll be selling it. So if you want to bring a buyer, feel free.
Kerry Ellison (23:22):
Wonderful. Well, listen, the reason I was calling you today is my team and I’ve helped a lot of private sellers sell their homes. And I was just calling to see how things are working out for you.
Carley Hathaway (23:32):
It’s good. It’s good. I mean, I’m sure I will find the right buyer.
Kerry Ellison (23:36):
Oh, wonderful. So Carley, when you do sell this home, where are you going to move to?
Carley Hathaway (23:42):
I’m moving to Colorado.
Kerry Ellison (23:43):
Oh, wonderful. So have a timeline in mind you need to be there?
Carley Hathaway (23:47):
I mean, ideally I’d like to be there before the snow season ends, we’re big skiers.
Kerry Ellison (23:52):
Oh, wonderful. So Carley, let me ask you a question. Is commission the main reason why you decided to sell your home on your own as opposed to using an agent?
Carley Hathaway (24:03):
It is. I just feel like I can do the same job that any agent can. And I think you guys are overpaid, to be honest.
Kerry Ellison (24:10):
No. Wow, I hear that a lot. If I could show you how we can actually net you more money, even after our commission is paid, is that something you’d be interested in looking at?
Carley Hathaway (24:23):
It is, but I don’t see how that’s possible.
Kerry Ellison (24:25):
I know, I’m sure. And if you thought it was possible, you would already hired an agent, handed it over, and you’d already had it sold, right?
Carley Hathaway (24:32):
Yeah, probably.
Kerry Ellison (24:34):
Yeah. So what I’m hearing you say though, is you want to net the most amount of money. Is that correct?
Carley Hathaway (24:39):
Yes.
Kerry Ellison (24:40):
So if I can show you how we can actually net you more money, even after our commission is paid, is that something you’d be willing to look at?
Carley Hathaway (24:49):
Yes, it is.
Kerry Ellison (24:50):
Great. So why don’t I come by today at three or tomorrow at four? Which time works best?
Carley Hathaway (24:55):
Tomorrow at four.
Kerry Ellison (24:57):
All right, I’ll see you then.
Ren Jones (24:58):
Yeah. And then it’s just a numbers game. Just keep calling, keep setting appointments and go on and take a two or three listings every week.
Carley Hathaway (25:05):
I like that script. It’s direct and to the point. Great job.
Ren Jones (25:09):
It this. Yeah, I know that works. It works. And you can tell she’s done it a lot.
Carley Hathaway (25:11):
Yeah, it was natural. It didn’t feel like a script. It didn’t feel like you were reading something.
Ren Jones (25:15):
We’re, we’re rolling into Q&A and as they always do, they don’t type them in until later and we get rolling. But Eric Eby, E-B-Y, Eby, does that sound familiar to you?`
Kerry Ellison (25:26):
That is, yep. He’s a great guy.
Ren Jones (25:28):
One of your fans. He says you’re awesome. And he’s referred you business in the past.
Kerry Ellison (25:32):
Yes.
Ren Jones (25:32):
And you always do a great job with his referrals. So…
Kerry Ellison (25:35):
Good. Well, he’s awesome.
Ren Jones (25:37):
Yeah. And Leslie Vargas wants to know some of your pre-qualifying questions.
Kerry Ellison (25:43):
So some of our pre-qualifying questions, if, those of you that are Keller Williams agents, we use a lot of the bold scripts. So it’s in the bold questionnaire. So our pre-qualifying questions are, how much do you want to sell your home for? What do you think your home is worth? Do you have a certain amount you have to net before you decide not to sell your home? What happens if your home doesn’t sell?
Ren Jones (26:10):
Oh, that’s a great one. There’s a certain amount you have to net before you decide where… If I don’t get a certain amount of money, then I don’t want to sell. So…
Kerry Ellison (26:17):
Right.
Ren Jones (26:18):
Get that out on the table early.
Kerry Ellison (26:19):
Yeah.
Carley Hathaway (26:20):
What are some trigger questions that makes you feel like, “Okay, this isn’t a serious seller.”
Kerry Ellison (26:26):
What happens if if you can’t net that amount of money for your home? Yeah, then I don’t have to go anywhere. It’s all back to motivation.
Carley Hathaway (26:38):
Okay, good.
Kerry Ellison (26:39):
Yeah.
Carley Hathaway (26:41):
Fantastic. So getting stronger and stronger there. Because you said you’re doing more pre-qualifying this year. Were there people you weren’t pre-qualifying? Like somebody you know real well? Is that the one you skipped?
Kerry Ellison (26:54):
I did skip one. That was somebody I thought I was walking in and I thought it was a layup. And the other question, the other thing when you pre-qualify, you when you walk in if you’re ready to list. You know what you’re walking into. And so many people are afraid to make the phone call. What if they cancel? What if they do this? So it’s better for you to get in your car, drive all the way out there, prep for the appointment, and they don’t answer the door?
Carley Hathaway (27:22):
Exactly. So Kerry, let me ask you this. You seem really dedicated, committed. You’re on the phones every morning at 8:30, you’re pre-qualifying. What’s your motivation? What keeps you going? What’s your why? Share with us.
Kerry Ellison (27:38):
Well, I was a single agent for a long time and I would hear over and over again, lead generate, lead generate. And it never sunk in what it was. And finally I took a class, a Keller Williams class, 90 listings in 90 days. And it hit me how to do this.
(27:55):
And that’s when I picked up auto dialers. That’s when I got focused on what I was doing. So my motivation is in the next three years that I’ve moved up to the seventh level, I’m able to pursue other things and I grow my people around me. I’ve got a phenomenal team. I’ve got my two buyers agents, a listing manager, and a EA and to grow them to a level where they never want to leave me.
Carley Hathaway (28:21):
That’s awesome. Good for you. I like it. Maybe I’ll move there and work with you.
Kerry Ellison (28:25):
Come with me.
Carley Hathaway (28:25):
Okay.
Ren Jones (28:26):
The question is, what do you say to somebody that says, I want to stay with the same agent? How do you handle that?
Kerry Ellison (28:36):
I just ask them what the agent’s going to do different this time than they did last? Are they going to do a different marketing or are they going to price it different? What are they going to do differently?
Ren Jones (28:45):
Well, she tried harder and it’s not her fault. We shouldn’t have started as high as we did in the price.
Kerry Ellison (28:53):
Oh, I understand. Except there were 16 homes in your market that sold the same time you were on the market. Why didn’t one of those buyers pick your home?
Ren Jones (29:02):
Well, I don’t know. We had a lot of traffic.
Kerry Ellison (29:04):
So how many showings did you have?
Ren Jones (29:07):
We had nine showings.
Kerry Ellison (29:08):
Nine. Well, the National Association says you need eight to 10 showings before you get an offer. Did you have any offers?
Ren Jones (29:17):
No, but we had somebody come back a second time.
Kerry Ellison (29:20):
Oh. And what was the feedback from that?
Ren Jones (29:24):
I don’t know.
Kerry Ellison (29:25):
Well, there’s your problem.
Ren Jones (29:26):
Okay.
Kerry Ellison (29:28):
That’s why you need to hire us. We’ll find out why the other buyers didn’t buy and what they were looking for.
Ren Jones (29:33):
Okay. And then you close from there. Good. Good.
Carley Hathaway (29:37):
I like it.
Ren Jones (29:38):
Good deal.
Kerry Ellison (29:39):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (29:39):
Fantastic.
Kerry Ellison (29:39):
Great.
Ren Jones (29:40):
So Little Rock folks, somebody who wants to move to Little Rock and just like Eric, who is with Kerry several times, send your business there and do some business. And we’ll have a little fun.
(29:56):
I want to thank, do a couple little thank yous. First if you’re watching on Vulcan7 and you want to get involved with the lead gen Facebook group, they are at facebook.com/groups/gotobjections. And I want to thank Aaron who runs the group. He’s a real giver. He has a program called expiredmasteryelite.com. And finally, if you’re watching on Facebook and you’re not yet involved with Vulcan7, make sure to sign up at vulcan7.com/leadgen for a special deal.
(30:30):
And finally, most important, it’s around lunchtime. You’ve been calling people all morning, expireds, for sale owners, your past clients, fear of influence, inviting people to the party and the movie premiere, and photos with Santa. Done your job and it’s midday. Go to the freezer, get some delicious graters mint chocolate chip. You deserve it.
Carley Hathaway (30:49):
Yeah!
Ren Jones (30:50):
Have a great afternoon. You know, can have a smile on your face after that. I appreciate you being here so much, Kerry. And can we ask you some of your secrets next fall? Have you back?
Kerry Ellison (31:03):
Absolutely.
Ren Jones (31:04):
We would love to have you back. That’d be fun.
Carley Hathaway (31:06):
Thank you so much. I think Kerry it was a great, great interview. I think we all have a lot of good takeaways from it. Thank you so much.
Ren Jones (31:12):
Yeah.
Kerry Ellison (31:12):
All right. Thank you guys. I appreciate it. Okay, bye-bye.
Ren Jones (31:15):
Good luck. Thank you very much.
Kerry Ellison (31:16):
Bye-bye.
Ren Jones (31:16):
Bye everybody.