S3 E4: Specific Strategies When Calling Probate
Meet Mega Agent Bill Byrd from Bay Area, San Francisco, CA. Bill added Probate Attorneys as well as calling Executors to his business. Through trial and error and practice he has a set of strategies that creates a wealth of business in this category. He shares the plan and scripts with us today.
Ren Jones (00:00):
It’s that time. Welcome to Roadmap, how to take three listings a week until you’re ready for more. Teach weekend, we interview a powerful agent taking lots of listings each month, and today’s show is the probate show. We are doing two probate shows in season three, so get ready to learn some powerful strategies.
(00:26):
We encourage you to take notes and apply as much of the knowledge as quickly as you can, and then use the copycat principle. If you’re watching on Vulcan 7 or the LeadGen Facebook Group, you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions during the broadcast. Let me introduce first my cohost from San Diego, Carley Hathaway, that’s carleyhathaway.com. Hi, Carley. How’s the real estate business?
Carley Hathaway (00:52):
Hi, Ren. Thank you for having me. The real estate business is wonderful. Properties are moving really quickly in San Diego, so it’s definitely a seller’s market. Good time to sell your home.
Ren Jones (01:01):
Yeah, where are those scripts on the back of your wall?
Carley Hathaway (01:04):
I know, I got to put them back up.
Ren Jones (01:08):
Oh, there you go. Oh my goodness. There we go, there’s a commercial right there too. Wonderful, wonderful. So before I introduce our guest today, I want to remind everybody that we’re simulcasting the show on the private LeadGen group on Facebook. They have 49,622 members, so we have a large audience there today as well. And we’ll be pausing for a commercial message during the show as a thank you to the LeadGen folks. So, first let’s welcome our guests today, two guests. We have from the Bay Area, Marin County, San Francisco, Sonoma, and I think he’s working his way down to Napa and down that way. We have Mr. Bill Byrd, welcome, Bill Byrd.
Bill Byrd (01:56):
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Ren Jones (01:57):
And then we have-
Carley Hathaway (01:57):
Hi, Bill. How’s it going?
Ren Jones (01:57):
Bill sells a lot of real estate.
Bill Byrd (02:02):
Going great. Going great. I’m excited to be on the show, and it’s an amazing market, and I can’t believe all the overbids I get all the time on my listings. It’s an amazing, amazing, amazing market.
Ren Jones (02:12):
Yeah, demand and supply. Demand and supply, and you guys have a hot market. And then we also have Jim Sullivan on here, because he provides a service on Vulcan 7 that some people like to use, Probate Leads, that’s through his company called alltheleads.com, and a lot of people sign up, we have a lot of our customers that use that, and go after that probate business, which is what this show’s about.
(02:37):
Bill is is one of the customers that is our customer and Jim’s customer, that is using those probate leads, and has found very good success with that. We’re going to talk about the processes of talking to executors as well as probate attorneys, and working both of those channels to get… It’s all listing business, folks. It’s all listing business. Bill, first, there are going to be people that want to send you business. Maybe they have somebody that needs to sell a home or buy a home in the area. What’s the best way for them to reach you?
Bill Byrd (03:09):
To call me or text me at 415-559-5660. That is by far the best way to get ahold of me by phone.
Ren Jones (03:18):
Fantastic. Fantastic. Great. Is there a website also?
Bill Byrd (03:24):
Yeah, it’s gotmarinhomes.com.
Ren Jones (03:28):
Gotmarinhomes.com? You’re going to need gotnapahomes.com soon, aren’t you?
Bill Byrd (03:32):
I actually own all those, yes.
Ren Jones (03:33):
Oh, you own all? Oh, good for you.
Carley Hathaway (03:34):
Good for you.
Ren Jones (03:35):
And then Jim Sullivan from Plantation, Florida, who owns alltheleads.com, and I guess it’s alltheleads.com is the best way for them to find you as well?
Jim Sullivan (03:46):
Yes, sir. That’s the easiest way.
Ren Jones (03:48):
Good. So between Jim, Carley, and I, we’re going to ask Bill a lot of questions as how do you do this specifically? So that a lot of you out there, whether you sign up for alltheleads.com or not, their probate service, you can go after that business. It’s all listing business. I haven’t found a dead person that buys yet, but you never know. So, let’s jump in. Let’s jump in. So how did you get involved? Why did you think you wanted to do probate?
Bill Byrd (04:16):
Well, my uncle was a probate attorney, and I had listened to him for a long time, so I tried to do it myself for two years, going down to the courthouse, getting the names, researching the properties. I got two listings out of multiple hours of looking. Now, they were million dollar listings, so I can’t say it didn’t pay. But at the same time, when I found All The Leads online, about probate, it just fulfilled a need of them giving you the information, and it’s very accurate, and you can go ahead and call them and market them, and in probates, the information is at least 50 to 60% of the battle, I feel.
Ren Jones (05:05):
Gotcha.
Carley Hathaway (05:07):
What’s a different approach that you take to probates when calling them, different to calling expireds or FSBOs?
Bill Byrd (05:14):
I would say more empathy, and the reason why I say that is because you really get four responses, click, I have a realtor, thank you for calling, and the last one is, “I’m just not ready right now. Could you call me back?” And when you get the fourth one, you’ve got them, but you’ve got to have the empathy to say, “Yes, I will. I apologize for bothering you.” And call them back in three weeks, and not the next week. At least three weeks.
Ren Jones (05:49):
In some ways, that’s a little easier-
Carley Hathaway (05:50):
At least four weeks.
Ren Jones (05:50):
… than expireds, you know?
Bill Byrd (05:54):
It is. It is. I don’t consider it a cold call at all, because there’s a genuine need there.
Carley Hathaway (06:00):
And can you walk us through a timeline of so, someone’s passed away, it’s going through probate. When do you call them in that? When’s your first contact?
Bill Byrd (06:14):
So-
Carley Hathaway (06:14):
They’ve gotten the home.
Bill Byrd (06:19):
Soon as I get the list, the very next day, I call them all. What’s great about All The Leads is you get a CRM with it that helps you track them. When I first started with them, we would take the data, put it in my database, and then start scheduling the calls. But now, I just call right away, and then after that, we do four follow-up letters, and then I also have a brochure I send them.
Carley Hathaway (06:42):
Nice.
Jim Sullivan (06:43):
And if I could just jump in-
Carley Hathaway (06:44):
What-
Jim Sullivan (06:44):
If I could jump in real quick, Bill, nationwide, it’s about 90 days from the date of death until the probate gets filed. So generally, the family’s had a little bit of time to get over it and to make a business decision to sell the property by the time they file the probate.
Carley Hathaway (07:02):
Okay. So about 90 days, that’s good. Because the last thing we want to do is call someone where they haven’t even had the funeral yet, or something like that. That’s awkward.
Bill Byrd (07:09):
Well, that does happen.
Carley Hathaway (07:11):
Well, yeah. I’m sure. I’m sure. And you just like you said, use empathy, correct?
Bill Byrd (07:15):
Correct. A lot of it.
Carley Hathaway (07:17):
Yeah, good. Yeah, I bet. So after your initial call, you said you send four letters?
Bill Byrd (07:23):
Right.
Carley Hathaway (07:23):
What’s the timeframe of those letters, and what is in them?
Bill Byrd (07:27):
So my first letter is just offering my services and my unique selling proposition about managing getting the home on the market, about taking care of the personal property, about bringing the maximum value to the house and getting the maximum price possible for the house. And you got to be careful what you promise here, because a lot of times, you’re getting 1950 homes with no remodel, no nothing. I mean, it’s original, original.
(07:59):
And then the second letter reminds them I sent the first letter, and I tell them a success story. The third one is the same one, and the fourth one says, “Hey, give me a call, I’m here to help you. What can I do for you?”
Ren Jones (08:18):
Gotcha.
Carley Hathaway (08:19):
I like it. I like it. I’m sorry, when are you sending those? Once a month, every other week?
Bill Byrd (08:26):
So my timeline starts after my first initial call, which is a little different than other people. So they go every week then after, and what my assistant does is she throws them in a shoebox with a time and date and then she just takes that shoebox and dumps it in the mail.
Carley Hathaway (08:47):
Nice.
Ren Jones (08:48):
Okay. Perfect. Good. So you have a little rhythm going here.
Carley Hathaway (08:52):
You have a great system.
Ren Jones (08:53):
Good.
Bill Byrd (08:54):
It’s been an evolution, trust me. It’s been a big evolution.
Ren Jones (08:57):
When you call a probate attorney, what do you say? How do you introduce? What would a first call be like to a probate attorney?
Bill Byrd (09:04):
Well, if you’re really lucky, your county knows that you do probate, so the judge might’ve mentioned you. But if it’s a total call, I just call up and say, “Hi, my name’s Bill Byrd, I’m with RE/MAX Gold. I noticed that you might be managing this property with this estate, and I was wondering if you might need a little help.” I got to go in soft-shoeing. I’m all for the assumptive close, but you can’t do that here.
Ren Jones (09:39):
You can’t do an assumptive… okay. Okay, just inquire if they might need a little help on a specific property, okay.
Bill Byrd (09:45):
Right, on the property or the state, whatever it is. If I was going to call an expired, I would simply say, “What are your plans for the house?” Or I would be much more aggressive with the call.
Ren Jones (10:01):
Got you.
Bill Byrd (10:02):
I would say that, “I specialize in getting homes sold, and I can sell your home now,” if it was an expired, but here you can’t be that direct.
Ren Jones (10:12):
Okay. So let’s say you were calling an attorney, and it wasn’t about a specific property. You just wanted to see if they had an agent that they’re using on a regular basis now, that when they have a real property to sell.
Bill Byrd (10:28):
Well, first thing I did when I got in this is I… and I’ve continually mailed all the family, divorce, and estate attorneys. In California, if it says family law, they do trusts.
Ren Jones (10:43):
Gotcha.
Bill Byrd (10:43):
But the other thing you got to do is when I call them, you got to figure out what they want from you, because some attorneys want to manage the clean-out, the painting, getting it on the market. They’re billing for all that time, so you got to figure out what his needs are, and a lot of them just want to know how you’re going to get the maximum value for it. Also, I offer them a free broker price opinion, because in California, they don’t want a CMA.
(11:11):
They want a specific value, time, and date on the property for their documents. Because you know how CMA goes, “Your house is worth between 750 and 775,” no, they need a specific time and date and value. They don’t care where it sells, but the unique thing is they understand that, they seem to be a lot more willing to help you when you’re willing to offer them something for free.
Ren Jones (11:35):
Gotcha. All right.
Carley Hathaway (11:39):
What does your daily schedule look like? I know as far as expireds, I get on the phones early in the morning and I can call all day long or for hours. Do you have that many probates to call? And if so, what’s your daily schedule, what’s your routine?
Bill Byrd (11:53):
So, All The Leads is like a bass pond. Just think about you’re constantly stocking the bass pond. So normally, I get 150 leads a month from them, and I call them as fast as I can get them, okay? But then depending on response, the voicemail, I go ahead in their CRM, schedule my phone call again, or my assistant does in the database, depending on where the house is and how much I like the address.
(12:26):
And then what I do is I window my day, and I don’t call all the same probates at the same time every week. I just stagger it. So I spend about two, two and a half hours a week on probates, on calls for probates. Also, the thing that I think is the most amazing thing is when they want to go ahead and rent it, like San Francisco, they always want to rent it. But after about a year or two, they don’t want to be a landlord anymore, and then they call you, and I call those about every six months, asking, “Do you need any help? Do you need forms? Do you need any electrician? Can I be of assistance?”
(13:07):
And after it’s my third year doing that, some of them say, “Hey, Bill, nice to hear about you,” and we just talk about Warriors, or something. And then they end up calling me later, and they list it. I’ve got three of those going right now.
Ren Jones (13:22):
Good. So it sounds like when you think about it-
Carley Hathaway (13:24):
That’s awesome.
Ren Jones (13:24):
… you get 150 a month, and you get them all at once, that’s still five or six a day, which is spread out, and there’s an accumulation effect, and pretty soon, you have thousands of them at different stages, and then eventually, they come out the pipe on the other end, ready to sell.
Bill Byrd (13:40):
Exactly.
Ren Jones (13:41):
Because it takes a little while. So there’s a little bit of a cultivation process with this whole thing.
Bill Byrd (13:44):
Yeah. I really feel like when other people call me about this, it takes six months, and learn how to talk to people. And when someone says they don’t want to talk to you, it’s not like an expired where you’re being blown off, where you might want to come back with something.
(14:05):
But you just need to realize that it’s not personal. You just need to respect them and call them later, and I do always call them back.
Ren Jones (14:18):
Right, yeah. In your business, if you weren’t into lead follow-up, you would starve. Because it takes a lot of repetition to keep that thing going. But how many contacts are you making in a day, typically? How many conversations a day are you working to do this?
Bill Byrd (14:34):
I would say really quality conversations, 15 to 20. Dials are somewhere about 150 to 200.
Carley Hathaway (14:42):
Yeah. That’s when the dialer comes in handy, doesn’t it?
Bill Byrd (14:45):
It really does.
Ren Jones (14:45):
Good deal.
Carley Hathaway (14:48):
So, let me ask you, and I feel like other people that haven’t worked too much with probate would have the same hesitation that I do. I feel a little intimidated, because I feel like it’s like, is there so much more work that goes into it, and you have to have so much more knowledge because of the whole probate process? Is it intimidating, or is it something you can quickly learn? What’s the difference?
Bill Byrd (15:12):
I think I was really lucky because my uncle was in it for a long time. But I don’t think that’s really a factor. All The Leads gives you everything. Plus, if you just go to the California GRP website, it gives you lots on estates, trusts, whatnot. The thing that was the biggest shock to me is that people that have their property in trust, which is mostly California, you know you want trust and probate. So when you call and say that you’re here to help them with their probate or their trust, you got to make sure you include both of them. You can’t just say probate. In Arkansas, you can say probate all day.
Carley Hathaway (15:56):
Okay. That makes sense. And then what about this, this is something that I think would be a little bit of a hang-up as well. So typically when you’re working with sellers, it’s maybe a husband and wife or just a single person, but in probate, I feel like it could be five siblings or something. So is that-
Bill Byrd (16:12):
That is absolutely right. The first thing that I learned from Chad Corbett who’s a trainer at All The Leads is that once you make the initial contact, and the questions are way different than if you’re on expired, and you were going to find out how motivated they were, you’re not asking that. You’re asking who’s responsible for the trust, and even if there’s one person responsible for the trust, you want to know if anyone’s influencing their decision. So you want to get everybody in there, and there was a listing that I took in Daly City, was a probate. And the guy just kept wanting to deal with me.
(16:51):
Well, I said, “Look, the only way that we’re going to come to a complete conclusion and value of the property to make sure everybody’s there,” and it was an awesome experience. I was there for less than 15 minutes.
Carley Hathaway (17:03):
Nice.
Bill Byrd (17:03):
I know. It was great. In your pre-listing package, it’s really key to really going in and taking a probate the same day, as an appointment. Yeah.
Carley Hathaway (17:15):
And what do you include in your pre-listing packet?
Bill Byrd (17:20):
Pretty much everything normally I would include, except for what I add as the services about the clean-out, the painter. I also give them a list of the people by name, but no phone number, no addresses that work with me for all the services I offer. I’ve learned, don’t give them the phone numbers, because they think, “Well, hell, we can do it ourselves, and for sale by owner.” So you don’t want to give too much away.
Carley Hathaway (17:53):
Smart.
Ren Jones (17:53):
So you get in there and take a lot of headaches away for them. Now, one of the things I remember in calling probates is they would go, “Well, there’s this gentleman that called us, and he’s interested in buying. He’s an investor.” I mean, because they’re prey to those investors. What do you say to them when that happens?
Bill Byrd (18:13):
So, what I say is why would you want to rob yourself of the opportunity of getting maximum value for the house? And that investor is always going to be there. When I first started in probates, I said that I had cash investors. And what I was noticing, I was losing. So in the last nine months, I’ve taken anything about cash investor out of the deal. I make it all about going to market, getting the maximum value, generating much enthusiasm, excitement for qualified buyers for your home.
Ren Jones (18:48):
But you’re doing all the work. So you’re going to get them retail price. You’re going to do all the work and deliver them a nice, big check versus a cash investor is going to bring them a little check.
Bill Byrd (18:56):
Exactly. Exactly.
Ren Jones (18:57):
All right.
Bill Byrd (18:59):
And then letters are very, very important. I have had some great recommendation letters, reference letters, and what’s nice is they’re always willing to have a phone call. You’re going to find that somebody that you handle a successful probate and they get more money for their house than what they thought, they are just a great referral source, a great reference. And it’s just the highest value. Also, I got to say, you get a genuine high out of helping people out of state when their backs are against the wall, they’re wondering how they’re going to get this done. I had a gentleman from Wisconsin that was referred by an attorney to me for probate, and it was the greatest experience. He’s a hunter. He’s a really great guy.
Carley Hathaway (19:47):
Aw.
Bill Byrd (19:48):
He was born in Marin. But his mom passed away and he was really grieving, and he didn’t want to deal with it. So he was here for the funeral, and then once he signed the listing agreement, we took it from there. Let me tell you, she was a hoarder.
Carley Hathaway (20:02):
Aw.
Bill Byrd (20:02):
It was many dumpsters later.
Carley Hathaway (20:05):
Yikes. But good for you.
Ren Jones (20:06):
There’s a lot of work around these probates, so they’re very grateful for the level of service you’re able to provide them, as you specialize and you prove yourself in your pre-listing packet, and all the materials specializing in this area. Now, there are a lot of people watching today that do expireds, for sale by owners, past clients, sphere of influence, calling around or listing a sale, they can add this piece in there and be a specialist in this area, and do an extra couple of deals a month with it. It’s a great add-on. We have a lot of Vulcan 7 clients that use this service that do just that. They do an extra probate or two a month added to what they’re doing now as part of the rhythm of it all. You don’t have to just do probate. And Bill, you’re doing a lot of other categories too. You’re doing your sphere and expireds and for sale by owner, so it’s a good mix.
Carley Hathaway (20:56):
Yeah, I agree.
Ren Jones (20:57):
It goes right in the mix, and serving people that need your help. And some of these people really do need your help. They would rather just give it to you and let you figure it out and get it solved.
Bill Byrd (21:06):
Exactly. And go ahead, I’m sorry.
Carley Hathaway (21:10):
I was just going to ask, do you have any little bit of advice or tidbit for people that are newly calling probates to just help encourage them and stay on the phones and keep going? Just a little something, advice to help us out.
Bill Byrd (21:26):
Well, there’s actually three things I’d say. One is you’ve got to have empathy and genuine concern for them, not yourself. Second thing is the phone is your friend, don’t fear it, because that personal contact really does open up. Because they’re getting letters from everybody else. And the last-
Ren Jones (21:46):
Didn’t you say something earlier today about how the phone’s your friend, and you marvel over the fact that so many people in our business, in our industry in sales are afraid of it.
Carley Hathaway (21:56):
They’re scared of it. People are really scared of the phone. I don’t know why.
Ren Jones (21:59):
But it sure makes a lot of money when you talk to people. It’s a contact sport, folks. Jim-
Bill Byrd (22:04):
Well, one-
Ren Jones (22:06):
… as owner of alltheleads.com, there are probably a couple ingredients that you’re thinking of and you’re dying to tell us.
Jim Sullivan (22:11):
Yeah, I was going to pat Bill on the back a little bit. When you asked me for one of our better representatives, one thing Bill has done extraordinarily well, we have way too many agents that try this for a month and move onto something else. Bill, I think when you got started, I think you went four months without getting a deal, and then the fifth month, he took nine listings.
Bill Byrd (22:31):
In six months, yeah, six months.
Jim Sullivan (22:33):
Bill, he’s not a one-shot wonder. He’s like he said, stocking his pond, that he casts his line in there and gets a bite down the road. You really have taken this on as a niche, you’re serious about it, and you’re working.
Ren Jones (22:45):
And folks, that’s the way it is with any category. How many of us, Jim, you were one of them, Carley, you know what that’s like, where you call expireds for four or five months, and maybe get one or none or two. It takes a little while to reach that mastery for-
Carley Hathaway (22:59):
It really does.
Ren Jones (22:59):
… whatever category. Same with for sale by owners. You can be good at expireds, and terrible at FSBOs, then you get good at each category.
Carley Hathaway (23:06):
Yeah, and it does take time. It’s not going to happen overnight. Yeah, it’s not going to happen overnight. The more time you give it though and you really make a commitment to it, it works, and I think we’ve all proven that and we see it every guest that we speak to. It works. You just have to-
Ren Jones (23:20):
And with probate, you’ve got to have that accumulation. That pipe is a little longer. The expired pipe is this short. The FSBO pipe’s about this long, four or five weeks. But the probate pipe is a lot longer, and there are a lot of people in there, so you have to-
Bill Byrd (23:35):
Exactly.
Ren Jones (23:36):
You have to look at your business long-term. Are you going to be doing it 10 years from now? Then this would be a good fit.
Carley Hathaway (23:42):
Yeah, absolutely.
Jim Sullivan (23:43):
One other thing, Bill, if you would, I think it would inspire a lot of people, if you would share… One thing Bill has done that is really brilliant, he not only works the executors, which most of our clients do. He really works the attorneys, and he identified a specific niche of attorneys that are court-appointed administrators, and he has gotten a ton of business from that. These are people, unlike the heirs who have an emotional attachment, these are attorneys whose business it is to represent estates. Bill, you have three or four of those that are just feeding you business on a regular basis, but it started with one deal, right?
Bill Byrd (24:19):
Exactly. And it’s also expanded to divorce too. If I may, I just want to finish my last point of the three things.
Carley Hathaway (24:29):
Yeah, we only got two.
Bill Byrd (24:31):
Yeah. Is that this is a great to get off-market listings. A lot of times, you walk into a house and the best thing I can say is it’s very unique. It has sunshine coming right through the roof, right? And this is no joke. This is no joke. This has exactly happened to me, and I had eight heirs there, and they wanted an off-market, private cash deal. I never once mentioned cash investor, but that’s what their needs were, and I doubled in that deal, so I sold it, and then when it’s rehabbed, I’ll sell it again. So don’t ever-
Carley Hathaway (25:10):
Oh, yeah.
Bill Byrd (25:10):
… think this is a one-shot deal.
Ren Jones (25:12):
Nice, yeah. You’re going to find some sweetheart deals to nurture. That’s-
Carley Hathaway (25:16):
Yeah. So do you negotiate with the flipper ahead of time? So that when-
Bill Byrd (25:21):
Yeah, a lot of time, I have them pay my commission, and I make them sign a listing agreement on the back end.
Carley Hathaway (25:27):
Perfect. That’s very smart.
Ren Jones (25:30):
All right. Let’s do some questions. We don’t have that many yet. People, type some in if you want. Actually, the first one in the questions, Don Jenoviac wants to say hi to Jim.
Jim Sullivan (25:40):
There you go, an old coaching client that we both know, Ren.
Ren Jones (25:44):
There you go.
Jim Sullivan (25:44):
Good to hear from you.
Ren Jones (25:45):
And John Kenyon wants to know where the probate leads are coming from, how do you get the names and numbers? Well, our service on here, if you actually go to alltheleads.com/vulcan7. Alltheleads.com/vulcan7. That is a catchy name.
Carley Hathaway (26:03):
Yeah, I like that one.
Ren Jones (26:03):
All The Leads.
Jim Sullivan (26:03):
Which one of the names? Both?
Ren Jones (26:07):
All right. There we go. Wants to know where the leads are coming from. Besides that service, I mean, I guess you guys go to the courthouse, get them, marry numbers and names, and do all the work for them. Art wants to say that he’s really excited about opening this to… more comments than anything. We do have-
Carley Hathaway (26:29):
I have a question.
Ren Jones (26:29):
Yes?
Carley Hathaway (26:29):
So when you’re calling either probate attorneys or divorce attorneys, and essentially, it’s a cold call, what are you saying to them?
Bill Byrd (26:38):
Could you say that one more time?
Carley Hathaway (26:39):
When you’re calling probate attorneys or divorce attorneys, and it’s a cold call essentially, what are you leading with? What are you saying to them? How are you getting yourself in there?
Bill Byrd (26:50):
I just say, “Hi, my name’s Bill Byrd. I’m with RE/MAX Gold. I have a very unique proposition for you where I can increase your cashflow and time, and I can manage your sales of your estate properties as much as you want or as little as you want.” You need to remember that some of them make money by managing all the aspects of going to market. So if that’s how they want to make their money, you need to back off and realize you’re just there to sell the property.
Carley Hathaway (27:23):
Gotcha. Gotcha.
Ren Jones (27:25):
Hugh wants to know, Jim, do you offer call scripts and letter templates?
Jim Sullivan (27:31):
Absolutely. You and I are old real estate coaches, Ren, you know the answer to that. Yeah, it’s a complete system. We don’t look at ourself as a data company. We’re really a systems company. Names, addresses, all the information, we’ve got a dozen templated letters. We’ve got full-time coaching, websites. It’s a comprehensive system. Yeah, and we do offer scripts. Although with probate, it’s more about asking good questions than following a specific script.
Ren Jones (27:57):
Gotcha.
Jim Sullivan (27:58):
That’s the best way you can help them.
Ren Jones (28:00):
Good. Well, we heard some great material today. I think a lot of people, add this to your repertoire of category, because it’s a great business and nobody’s doing it. Very few real estate people approach probate attorneys, or the executors directly, either one, or just do both. Just do both.
Jim Sullivan (28:21):
Bill, you’re probably in the most competitive market in the country. We do find some markets, the agents do great with their letters. They don’t even need to pick up the phone. Southern California, you got to pick up the phone, these people get a lot of letters. But Bill, I’m just curious, how many other… and maybe I shouldn’t ask the question, but I’ll throw it out there. How many other realtors are actually calling these people? Do you find you have a lot of competition there, or not?
Bill Byrd (28:50):
No. Maybe three, four I consistently run into.
Jim Sullivan (28:53):
A little better than FSBOs and expireds?
Bill Byrd (28:54):
Yeah, and what’s funny is their All The Leads clients too.
Jim Sullivan (28:59):
There you go. Well, we do limit the number of people we sell to, so there’s certainly not going to be a ton of them.
Ren Jones (29:07):
You’re in an expensive market in the Bay Area. Million dollar home there, you can actually take your left hand touch one wall, and then the right hand, touch the other wall on a million dollar home there, because they’re-
Bill Byrd (29:18):
Literally, or less.
Ren Jones (29:19):
You have to go off four or five million at least to get a nice home.
Carley Hathaway (29:21):
Yeah, I heard San Francisco’s more expensive than New York now. Is that true?
Bill Byrd (29:25):
It’s close. We’re at 1,500, 1,700 a foot for some properties. Yeah.
Carley Hathaway (29:31):
Great.
Ren Jones (29:32):
It’s insane, insane. That is crazy, but the world loves that place. So, good deal. I want to thank everybody for participating today, and if you have additional questions, just write to us and we’ll see if we can get an answer, or better yet, go to alltheleads.com/vulcan7 or talk to Jim Sullivan.
Jim Sullivan (29:54):
Thank you very much.
Bill Byrd (29:55):
Thanks, everybody.
Ren Jones (29:56):
Oh, by the way-
Carley Hathaway (29:58):
Thank you so much, everybody.
Ren Jones (29:59):
… after you’ve made all those calls to probates, get your delicious Graeter’s Mint Chocolate Chip.
Carley Hathaway (30:04):
Yeah, reward yourself.
Ren Jones (30:05):
Reward yourself. Bill does, Jim does, Carley, I know you do. There we go.
Carley Hathaway (30:10):
I definitely do.
Ren Jones (30:11):
I like that Mint Chocolate Chip. It’s good stuff.
Jim Sullivan (30:16):
We love it.
Ren Jones (30:16):
We’ll see everybody next week.
Carley Hathaway (30:19):
Thanks so much.
Ren Jones (30:19):
We’ll have another exciting guest, taking a lot of listings and some great ideas. So, see you next week, everybody.
Jim Sullivan (30:23):
Adios.
Carley Hathaway (30:26):
Thanks, guys!