S3 E6: Think Outside the Box
Meet Mega Agent Michael Klein from Hoboken, NJ. Michael taps into a business that no one else in his market is thinking about. These strategies he shares combined with his powerful work ethic make for a wealth of information to add a couple sales a month to your business.
Ren Jones (00:01):
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 Facebook group, you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions during the broadcast. 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 (00:39):
Hi, Ren. The real estate business is fabulous. Seller’s market, as always. Everyone wants to live in San Diego, so good time to be an agent.
Ren Jones (00:48):
Good. Sell, sell, sell.
Carley Hathaway (00:49):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (00:49):
Before I introduce our guest today, I want to remind everyone we are also simulcasting the show on the private Lead Gen 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 Lead Gen folks.
(01:09):
So I want to introduce our guest today from Hudson County, New Jersey. Hoboken, Jersey City, right across from Manhattan. You know where it is. You’ve been there. Or if you haven’t, this is a time to buy a home up there or send people you know to our good friend, Michael Klein. Hi, Michael. Welcome to-
Michael Klein (01:29):
How are you, Ren?
Ren Jones (01:31):
Glad you can be here.
Michael Klein (01:32):
Thank you for having me.
Ren Jones (01:33):
Looks like good property. I want to live on Maxwell Lane. You know where that is?
Michael Klein (01:38):
I do. I live there myself.
Carley Hathaway (01:41):
Nice.
Ren Jones (01:42):
Yes, there’s some beautiful homes. My gosh.
Michael Klein (01:45):
Yeah, mostly condos.
Ren Jones (01:46):
Mostly condos. Oh, okay.
Carley Hathaway (01:49):
Well, you can only build up, I guess, right?
Michael Klein (01:51):
That is correct.
Ren Jones (01:53):
Yeah. But you’re talking in the millions, condos in the millions.
Carley Hathaway (01:56):
Oh yeah.
Ren Jones (01:57):
So location, location, location. So good deal. Good deal. So if they want to send you some business, because people are watching, they’re like, “I’ve got a client for there.” How do they reach you?
Michael Klein (02:10):
They could either call me or send me a text at 201-320-5371. Email address is michael@mkgroupproperties.com.
Ren Jones (02:21):
Okay, great. And it sounds like they could go to mkgroupproperties.com and see what you’re all about as well. Would that be?
Michael Klein (02:28):
Well, it’s not up at the moment. It’s being redone.
Ren Jones (02:31):
Okay. All right. So that’s the email address. Perfect. Okay, good. What’s the goal for this year?
Michael Klein (02:36):
The goal for this year was a hundred.
Ren Jones (02:39):
Good. Still the goal, or are you on a stretch goal now?
Michael Klein (02:42):
No, I’m a little bit off at the moment. We’re definitely seeing a little bit of a market shift here.
Carley Hathaway (02:47):
Oh really?
Ren Jones (02:47):
Okay.
Michael Klein (02:48):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (02:48):
Wow.
Carley Hathaway (02:48):
What’s going on?
Ren Jones (02:49):
Well, not at your price point. It can’t be a hundred. It’s got to be a good number. Or even if it was 85, it’d be a good-
Michael Klein (02:54):
Yes. Yes. No, we’re definitely seeing days on market increase. We’re seeing price reductions. And even lately, in the last two or three weeks, struggling to see buyers a little bit.
Ren Jones (03:06):
Well, in a funny way, if you’re a listing agent, doesn’t that make it a little easier, if the market slows just a little bit?
Michael Klein (03:14):
In one way, it makes it a little bit easier because the agents that don’t know what they’re doing fall by the wayside and drop out. So I actually look forward to this market. Of course, managing why people aren’t getting showings and getting offers. Then, of course, there’s the other side of the coin.
Ren Jones (03:28):
There you go. There are the balances.
Carley Hathaway (03:28):
Yeah. Managing the sellers’ expectations.
Michael Klein (03:32):
That’s correct.
Carley Hathaway (03:32):
Tough, huh?
Ren Jones (03:34):
Well, good. Well, yeah, I think I’ll always take a slightly slower market, if it’s at all possible, because then they need our services and we-
Michael Klein (03:44):
That’s correct. It’s the market that actually says, “Oh, you actually have to have skills to do something” and not the market where you list your home at 11:00 and 12:00, there’s three offers. Anybody could do it.
Ren Jones (03:56):
Right.
Carley Hathaway (03:56):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (03:56):
And maybe they didn’t list it. Maybe they just put it on a postcard on the front door.
Carley Hathaway (04:00):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (04:00):
So good.
Carley Hathaway (04:03):
So Michael, where does a majority of your business come from? Expireds, for sale by owners, or referrals?
Michael Klein (04:09):
So I’m going to say mostly referrals and database.
Ren Jones (04:14):
Gotcha.
Michael Klein (04:15):
I talk about doing for sale by owners. I very rarely do them at the moment, which is my downfall. Probably part of a mindset. Only because, again, when our market’s cooking, the for sale by owners here get 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 offers themselves. So I’ve just never really concentrated on working them that much.
Ren Jones (04:33):
So you’ll go back to those when it gets slower.
Michael Klein (04:35):
I’ll go back to them when it gets slower.
Ren Jones (04:37):
Gotcha.
Michael Klein (04:38):
So I will work them, but just not that much. Expireds also. In our general market, we’ve been through the last 7, 8, 9 years, I’m lucky if I see two or three expireds a day.
Ren Jones (04:50):
Gotcha.
Michael Klein (04:51):
That’s it.
Carley Hathaway (04:52):
Okay. Okay.
Ren Jones (04:53):
We got a few of those.
Carley Hathaway (04:54):
And how long have you been in this business?
Michael Klein (04:57):
15 years.
Carley Hathaway (04:58):
15 years. Okay. Good. And you obviously have a… You’re very successful. I mean, if your goal’s a hundred deals, that’s pretty amazing. Can you give us some tips? Obviously, your first year you weren’t doing a hundred deals.
Michael Klein (05:11):
No, I did 3000 my first year.
Carley Hathaway (05:16):
Okay. All right.
Ren Jones (05:17):
Was that in commissions?
Michael Klein (05:19):
Yes.
Carley Hathaway (05:21):
It must have been a tough year.
Michael Klein (05:23):
I was going to say, as far as tips to people out there that are either getting started or looking to grow, the first is remember that you do not have a job. And what I mean by that is I sometimes meet with new agents that come into our company, and the first question I ask them is, “How many people are switching jobs or how many are starting their first job?”
(05:43):
And inevitably, everybody will raise their hand to one of those two questions. And I tell them that they should all actually leave because selling real estate is not a job. It’s your own business. And unless you have the mentality of it’s your own business, then you don’t belong here because your boss doesn’t care if you’re here. Nobody’s giving you a salary. Nobody’s giving you benefits. So there has to be some type of self-motivation, of wanting to succeed.
Ren Jones (06:08):
What should they do? How do they self motivate?
Michael Klein (06:13):
It’s a tough question for some people, but obviously you have to have a desire to want to go and improve where you’re at, both in life, in education, and in financial status. From there, talk to people that have already done it. Maybe mimic them, model them. Be willing to work. Just because you see successful people doesn’t mean that they no longer work. I’m in the office every day at 6:40, between 6:45 and 7:00 AM and mostly I don’t get home most days until 7, 7:30 PM.
Carley Hathaway (06:53):
You grind. Every day.
Michael Klein (06:53):
Every day.
Carley Hathaway (06:53):
Yes.
Ren Jones (06:53):
So you’ve got work ethic, and I noticed where you’re working. You’re in a company where you’ve surrounded yourself by high producers, generally speaking. Would it be a fair statement that the company you work with, is it Liberty? Is that right?
Michael Klein (07:04):
Yes.
Ren Jones (07:05):
Okay. There’s an unusually high number of strong people there with work ethic. So does that draw you in? Compared to a lot of your competition?
Michael Klein (07:18):
It doesn’t draw me in. If I think of all the strong agents in my market and what companies they work for, I think every agency always has a few strong people, a few people in the middle, and probably the majority of people are towards the bottom with no work ethic, just strong desires.
Ren Jones (07:34):
Okay.
Michael Klein (07:34):
I don’t get fixated on other people in the company. I go into my office and I close my door. I couldn’t even tell you the names of half the agents in my office because I haven’t met them.
Carley Hathaway (07:48):
So you’re ultra focused when you’re at work.
Michael Klein (07:51):
Pretty much.
Carley Hathaway (07:52):
Okay. So you get to the office around 6:45. What does a typical day look like? What do you start out doing? Do you have a regular, very strict routine or you kind of just go with the flow-
Michael Klein (08:00):
I have a strict routine that I stick to about 90% of the time.
Carley Hathaway (08:04):
Okay.
Michael Klein (08:04):
Depends on the days. Certain days, I start role plays at 7:00 AM in the morning. Some days I don’t role play until 7:30. I could be also doing script practice. Again, it depends what time I’m doing that in.
Carley Hathaway (08:16):
Okay.
Michael Klein (08:16):
Working on different scripts. The goal is to do it a half hour a day.
Carley Hathaway (08:20):
Okay.
Michael Klein (08:21):
Although, of course, my coach tells me not to, I’ll probably spend 20 minutes in the morning before prospecting on any email that I missed last night.
Carley Hathaway (08:29):
Okay.
Ren Jones (08:29):
So you have a coach. Now that’s a form of surrounding yourself with motivation and accountability.
Michael Klein (08:39):
I do. I’ve had a coach for probably, I don’t know, eight years.
Ren Jones (08:41):
There are a lot of coaching companies out there and a lot of different coaches, independent and companies. You mind sharing who that’s with?
Michael Klein (08:49):
I coach with the Mike Ferry Organization.
Ren Jones (08:52):
Okay. Gotcha. Great.
Carley Hathaway (08:54):
And you have found success with that?
Michael Klein (08:56):
Extreme.
Ren Jones (08:57):
Extreme success. Okay.
Carley Hathaway (08:58):
Good.
Ren Jones (08:58):
So who are you calling first in the morning? If you’re coming in and you’re role playing, what’s the first call?
Michael Klein (09:03):
After the role play?
Ren Jones (09:05):
Yeah.
Michael Klein (09:05):
I’ll generally hit the expireds first.
Ren Jones (09:08):
Okay, good. And obviously because number one, a lot of people are going to hit them. And somebody that I’ve been talking to in my database, they’re still going to be there in an hour or two hours or three hours. So I’ll try to get through the expireds.
Carley Hathaway (09:22):
Expireds. Okay. And then when you’re calling your database, what are you talking to them about?
Michael Klein (09:27):
It varies, depending on the time of the year. I’m going to say from my database calls, I probably actually reach no more than 15 to 20% of them. Most of it’s voicemail.
Carley Hathaway (09:39):
And you’ll leave a voicemail?
Michael Klein (09:40):
Always leave a voicemail.
Carley Hathaway (09:41):
Okay.
Ren Jones (09:42):
Okay. So one out of five, one out of six, you’re having a live conversation with.
Michael Klein (09:46):
That’s correct.
Ren Jones (09:48):
And then voicemail with a meaningful message is a very powerful touch. When you leave voicemail for someone you know and they know you, it actually works.
Michael Klein (09:57):
Yes. To me, even if you don’t think you’re leaving a meaningful message, even for them to hear your voice three, four times a year and knowing that you’re there to help them out, leaving a message, “Is there anything I can assist you with? Is there any market updates that you’re looking for?” So on and so forth. That is a meaningful message.
Ren Jones (10:16):
For strangers, it’s a waste of time. But if they know you and you know them, you’ve done something there.
Michael Klein (10:22):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (10:23):
That will give you a nice yield. That’s fantastic.
Carley Hathaway (10:27):
Kyle-
Ren Jones (10:27):
What about old expireds? Do you do those?
Michael Klein (10:30):
I do do them periodically. It’s actually on my goal to do it a little bit more this year. I’ve probably been a little bit challenged. I’m in the middle of looking for a second assistant right now. That will allow me to get rid of some of the stuff I’m not supposed to do, which will allow me to be on the phone more.
Ren Jones (10:45):
Okay. Good. Can I work with that one little piece? Sorry, Carley. Can I work with that one little piece? Because we’re at the time of the year, it starts in May and then we lose a lot of agents between May and Labor Day’s the first week of September. Because they are working on their pendings and they’re… You’re hiring somebody else right now so you aren’t being your own assistant. You’re actually continuing to look for business. Because would it be fair to say, Michael, that the public, for the first time in months, is now ready for a real estate agent to engage with them?
Michael Klein (11:20):
Very, very potentially.
Ren Jones (11:21):
This is the time of the year that agents stop talking to them.
Michael Klein (11:25):
There’s somebody to speak to 375 days a year. I stuck in an extra 10.
Ren Jones (11:30):
I see that.
Michael Klein (11:32):
There’s always somebody that wants to talk about real estate. I’ve sold homes the day before Christmas, the day after New Year’s. The only time there’s no home to sell is when you as the salesperson convince yourself that there’s no home to sell.
Carley Hathaway (11:44):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (11:44):
I love that. I love that. So I’m going to call you December 20 and do a little quick show because there’s the opposite poll.
Michael Klein (11:52):
Right.
Ren Jones (11:53):
Right now, the public are like, “Where are the agents?” And remember the agents are like, “Where’s the public?” But if we have the mindset, we can make it happen.
Carley Hathaway (12:02):
Yeah, and I think hiring an assistant is so important. And I was talking to Ren the other day and he had such a good idea about sharing an assistant. Ren, can you talk about that a little bit?
Ren Jones (12:12):
Yeah. Well, I don’t want to steal his thunder, but we’re talking about agents that they’re like, “I can’t afford to spend $3000 or $4000 or whatever it may be a month to hire an assistant.” And I’m like, “Okay, well three of you can hire a part-time assistant, each of you paying $700 a month and have them come in four hours a day, five days a week, and you’ve got an assistant for $700.”
Michael Klein (12:32):
A friend of mine recently taught me a good way to look at the value of spending on your business, which is what an assistant is. And most of us, myself included, have a habit of saying, if they’re having a slow year, “I can’t go spend on my business because it’s slow right now.” She has me looking at it opposite. She said, “If you had a good year last year and the year before and the year before, should you not be taking some of the money that you already earned and investing it on the future of your business so you can continue to earn at that level or higher?”
Ren Jones (13:04):
Yeah.
Carley Hathaway (13:05):
Exactly.
Ren Jones (13:05):
There’s always a way to make this work, and it’s the chicken or the egg. If you don’t have the money to hire an assistant, it’s because you’re being the assistant. If you’re looking for business at $200 an hour, in your market, $400 an hour, you’re going to win right out of the gate.
Carley Hathaway (13:22):
Yeah. It’s all about producing. Keep producing.
Michael Klein (13:26):
That’s it.
Carley Hathaway (13:28):
I feel like we haven’t done this on the show in a while. Can we do a little role play?
Michael Klein (13:33):
We can, I guess.
Carley Hathaway (13:34):
Are you scared? I’ll be nice if you want me to be. I’d rather be mean, but if you want me to be nice, I will.
Michael Klein (13:41):
Before you do that, you were just asking about what I prospect.
Carley Hathaway (13:45):
Yeah.
Michael Klein (13:46):
So one of the biggest things I can advise to people, and every market’s going to be a little bit different, but also try and think outside the box. Try and think what people in your area are not doing. The reason I bring that topic up? So I know a lot of people prospect for probate, which is something that I have experimented with in the past with almost no success. And one of the things that I thought about was my area is a young area, so I said-
Ren Jones (14:15):
So there are no dead people there. They go to Miami.
Michael Klein (14:19):
Yeah. They’re not in the market that I want to be in there in the other part of the town that I’m not interested. But what I realized was I’m in a young area where more people get divorced.
Carley Hathaway (14:30):
Oh.
Ren Jones (14:30):
There you go.
Michael Klein (14:31):
And so what I did was I said, “Great, how do I meet family law attorneys?” And I start prospecting calling attorneys that I know to introduce me to family law attorneys, which led to an organization that does CE credits for family law attorneys. And I’ve been sponsoring eight of their meetings a year for three and a half years.
Ren Jones (14:50):
Wow, brilliant.
Carley Hathaway (14:51):
What a great idea.
Michael Klein (14:53):
As a result of that, something came about two years ago that I never would’ve dreamed possible. My thought was one day to meet the marital attorneys, the marital attorneys refer you, and hopefully the judge hears your name enough times that maybe the judge could recommend you. But as a result, the judge was actually at the meeting, and I think I’ve done five already this year. I’m court appointed by the judge.
Carley Hathaway (15:21):
Wow.
Michael Klein (15:21):
Very often. And she’s now referring me to other judges. So they’re going for divorce, they can’t make a decision, the judge is fed up with them. She just says, “You’re selling your home. Michael’s your realtor. You don’t have a say in the value. You don’t have a say in the real estate attorney. And Michael will tell you when you have an accepted offer.”
Carley Hathaway (15:39):
Wow. That’s amazing.
Michael Klein (15:41):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (15:41):
This is a great strategy.
Carley Hathaway (15:42):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (15:42):
Strategy.
Michael Klein (15:44):
It takes a little bit more of a skill. You are dealing with a lot of animosity, a lot of fighting.
Carley Hathaway (15:49):
A lot of emotion.
Michael Klein (15:50):
But at the end of the day, I charge higher commission because it’s more work. And at the end of the day, it’s another source. If one source is drying up, you have to have other sources to fill in.
Ren Jones (16:05):
Fantastic.
Carley Hathaway (16:06):
That’s a great idea.
Ren Jones (16:07):
Yeah. So at the beginning you said, “Look at what people aren’t doing in your market. Take a look around and what are people not paying attention to?” And that’s how you found this idea.
Michael Klein (16:17):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (16:17):
Great. That is a fantastic idea. Good, good. Thanks for sharing that. And I have a funny feeling we’re going to see a lot of email related to that. And people will be typing in questions on Facebook and on the Vulcan7 networks. So, folks, type in your questions now because we’re getting close to that time to ask a few questions.
Carley Hathaway (16:36):
Yeah. So Michael, you said you’re hiring another assistant. So you have a team, I’m assuming. Can you tell us about your team?
Michael Klein (16:43):
Right now it’s myself, 1.2 assistants. I have one woman who comes in a couple days a week and just does either data entry or looks up some phone numbers for me. And I have two buyers’ agents.
Carley Hathaway (17:02):
Okay, good. Sounds like a great structure.
Ren Jones (17:05):
All righty. Well, good. I’ve got a question that’s rolled in. Rhett Elton wants to know. Can you restate that type of meeting that you sponsored that led to the divorce attorney connections?
Michael Klein (17:19):
So all professionals need to go for CE credits. I’m not sure if the organization that I sponsor the meeting for is around the United States, but it’s called the Inns of the Court.
Ren Jones (17:36):
Gotcha.
Michael Klein (17:37):
So I would find out from a marital journal in your area if there is a local chapter of the Inns of the Court. And in my area, they do meetings eight times a year. And when I was first introduced to the woman who ran the organization and she said, “Would you want to sponsor a meeting?” And I said, “What’s involved?” And she said, “It’s 500 bucks a meeting.” And I said, “How many meetings?” And she said, “There’s eight a year.” And I said, “Great, I’ll take the year.”
Carley Hathaway (18:00):
Nice.
Michael Klein (18:01):
Huge, because they’re not used to that. But my biggest thing is no matter what meetings you sponsor, you have to realize it’s a long-term commitment. You don’t go to a meeting and say, “Oh, it didn’t work. I didn’t get any referrals tonight.”
Carley Hathaway (18:14):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (18:16):
Yeah. So you’re getting in front of these people in a repeating manner, coming as the authority and it’s very face-to-face.
Michael Klein (18:26):
Yes.
Ren Jones (18:27):
When you look at communication in our business, it’s a contact sport, face-to-face being number one, on the phone being number two, personal communication and writing number three on down. But most people would rather post something somewhere and hope.
Michael Klein (18:44):
Yeah, no, it works, and you have to be selfless, meaning I’ve told attorneys that I know that they’re going to have clients that have questions that aren’t selling their homes, but they’re welcome to either call me themselves or have their client call me.
(18:57):
I’d be happy to answer their questions because I know that probably three out of four or three out of five clients that they have aren’t selling their home or are able to settle the dispute with their spouse and don’t need my services except for a question. But the payday is the one that does need it, so you have to answer the questions for the ones that don’t if you want to build the relationship properly.
Ren Jones (19:19):
Yeah. I like what you’re saying because a lot of people come in with commission breath and people spot it right away. If the thoughts we’re having are, “How do I serve these people”, then the right words come out of our mouth.
Michael Klein (19:32):
That’s correct.
Ren Jones (19:32):
And we win. So yeah. That’s huge.
Carley Hathaway (19:36):
Yeah. I agree with you. Michael, in the beginning of this, you started talking a little bit about mindset. Can we kind of go back to that a little bit and how do you stay focused day to day? Because there are hard days sometimes. No one’s answering the phone, you’re getting people hanging up on you, whatever the case. What do you do every day when there’s days you don’t want to make the calls?
Michael Klein (19:56):
So I think the days I don’t want to make the calls. I wind up making more database calls because they’re softer or easier. I don’t think you could find a person in the world in any industry or any sales job that doesn’t have a day that they’re like, “I don’t want to do this today.”
(20:12):
So for starters, I try and work through it, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with once in a blue moon saying, “You know what? I just need a day to just veg.” And don’t do it and regenerate yourself. I just keep chugging forward. I’ve always been a self-driven person. I don’t need anybody to tell me to go to work. Or some people say, “What’s your goal? How much money you want to make?” My answer’s always been, “As much as I can.”
Carley Hathaway (20:37):
I like that.
Michael Klein (20:39):
And even one of my accountability partners, he said, “What are you thinking of?” I’m trying to think. Some people use goals. “I want to go sell two more homes or list two more homes so I can go on vacation. I want to list two more homes so I can go buy another home.” But when you get to a certain level of success, I don’t need to sell another home to go on vacation. I don’t need to sell another home to go buy another home. If I want to do that stuff, I can. So you have to find other things to motivate yourself, which is where the self-motivation comes in.
Ren Jones (21:12):
So it’s got to go higher and higher and higher.
Michael Klein (21:14):
Because you have to, because if I want to go buy another home tomorrow, I’m going to go write a check and buy the home.
Ren Jones (21:18):
I love it. I love it.
Carley Hathaway (21:23):
We have some questions coming in.
Ren Jones (21:24):
Yes. Yeah. Alan wants to know how you market your listings to get an offer. This’ll be interesting.
Michael Klein (21:34):
How do I market them to get an offer? I don’t know if there’s any magic sauce. A lot of people think there are. Obviously, it goes on the MLS. The MLS is also going to take it to realtor.com and Trulia and Zillow, et cetera, et cetera. I also use a company called vFlyer, which is similar to PostLists, which will send it out to a bunch of other sites, maybe to smaller sites.
(21:57):
Depending on where the listing is, I might shoot an email of just listed off to certain parts of my database. I will send just listed postcards to certain parts of my database. I will do just listed calls to certain parts of my database. Otherwise, I let all my employees, which is all the other agents in the community, sell the home for me.
Ren Jones (22:17):
Okay.
Carley Hathaway (22:18):
There you go.
Ren Jones (22:18):
Great. Perfect. And then go get another listing.
Michael Klein (22:22):
Yeah. Or two.
Ren Jones (22:23):
Sell, get another contract, tell the world you did it, get another because of it. Yes.
Michael Klein (22:30):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (22:32):
Sean Haney. I like a question like this. Wants to know how you use Vulcan7. I like that.
Michael Klein (22:39):
So Vulcan7 has become, this is not a sales pitch. Vulcan7 has become an intricate part of the way I do business. I use Vulcan7, of course, to get my expireds and for sale by owners, even though I’m not using it for sale by owners at the moment. But, being that we’re in condos, I do do a lot of just listed calls.
(22:59):
So when I take the phone numbers from the people that I want to call, the buildings I want to call, I upload them into Vulcan and I can schedule follow-up calls, et cetera, et cetera. We’re in a big area of landlords. So I’ll also, for example, I’ll pull down all the properties that were rented the last year, upload as many of those people as I can into Vulcan and just keep my calling going through that.
Ren Jones (23:25):
And then really it’s… And you call for rent by owners, FRBOs or whatever they call those.
Michael Klein (23:30):
We have almost none of those.
Ren Jones (23:32):
Okay, gotcha.
Michael Klein (23:35):
Around here by me, just-
Ren Jones (23:35):
Just call the landlord and say, “Have you ever thought about selling?” Because they’re not attached to the property.
Michael Klein (23:41):
The tenants pretty much pay the fee over here when we rent the property. So the landlord’s like, most of the time, “Why should I do it myself? I’m going to give it to somebody to do and it doesn’t cost me anything anyway.”
Carley Hathaway (23:52):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (23:53):
When you look at talking to a landlord versus a homeowner, a lot of landlords own 10, 50, 100 properties. So when you talk to somebody like that, the odds of them having something to sell is way up compared to an individual-
Michael Klein (24:07):
I prospect a lot of landlords.
Ren Jones (24:09):
…because the yield’s there. They’re bound to want to sell or exchange something for something more lucrative, change their portfolio at any given time.
Michael Klein (24:18):
Yeah. Yeah. I represent a lot of landlords. It’s not a lucrative part of the business, but at the end of the day, it’s the service part. And almost every year, five, six or seven of them say, “It’s time to sell.” Five, six or seven of them say, “It’s time to buy another home.”
Ren Jones (24:33):
Neil wants to know what systems you use to get phone numbers for all these people. I guess circle prospecting. We have Kohl on ours. We also have the new Vulcan7 neighborhood search, which has dramatically high quality phone numbers that just came out a few weeks ago. But it’s expensive. It’s expensive, folks.
Michael Klein (24:50):
There’s different-
Carley Hathaway (24:51):
Get what you pay for.
Michael Klein (24:53):
If you want to do an individual look up. Some people I know use Kohl’s. I don’t personally like Kohl’s resource. But there’s different sources out there to be found.
Ren Jones (25:03):
Quite a few. Quite a few. This has been great. And your work ethic, you’re a self-starter. Clearly, you’re a self-starter. On the days when nobody else is doing anything, you’re in, you’re doing it. If you don’t feel like calling, you call your database. You’re like, “This is a day I don’t feel like it, so you call the easier one.” You take softballs instead of hardballs now and then. So good for you.
Carley Hathaway (25:29):
Yeah, good work.
Ren Jones (25:31):
A lot of people need a bigger push and you take some of that on with coaching. So-
Michael Klein (25:35):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (25:36):
Should they be involved in some sort of coaching?
Michael Klein (25:38):
We all need to push.
Ren Jones (25:39):
Sounds like they should.
Michael Klein (25:41):
We all need to push.
Carley Hathaway (25:42):
Yeah. Yeah. What’s your daily goal of contacts per day?
Michael Klein (25:48):
I rarely meet it, but my goal is 20.
Carley Hathaway (25:51):
Okay.
Michael Klein (25:51):
I do a lot of dialing to get to them, but I strive for 20. Once I get the new assistant in there, I think 20 will be a new brainer and I’ll probably strive for 25 to 30.
Ren Jones (26:02):
To get people a perspective, where he is, in Hudson County, there are only four people that have landlines. Four.
Michael Klein (26:10):
Probably. The other thing is depending on people live, a lot of people have single income families, so they can always get one of the spouses home. My area is probably 90% dual income families, so it’s hard to reach people.
Ren Jones (26:27):
I agree. Yeah. If you get 20 where you are, man, you’ve had a good day.
Carley Hathaway (26:31):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (26:34):
One last comment. Mervin wants to know about buyer agents. You mentioned two buyer agents. Do you work with buyers at all yourself?
Michael Klein (26:43):
I do.
Ren Jones (26:45):
Any little thoughts or processes on buyers?
Michael Klein (26:47):
My business over the last seven, eight years is about 65% sellers, 35% buyers. So I still take buyers around myself. I know a lot of hiring, a lot of agents that do primarily listings don’t. I have high-end property. It’s hard to pass off a buyer client that wants go spend 1,500,000 and I’m going to go take a paycheck home of $25,000.
Carley Hathaway (27:12):
Yeah.
Michael Klein (27:12):
I take them out.
Carley Hathaway (27:13):
Yeah.
Ren Jones (27:14):
Just charge 80% referral fee, Michael. And I’m actually serious.
Carley Hathaway (27:20):
Yeah. Why not?
Ren Jones (27:22):
Yeah. What the heck? I think I’d take your buyers around for 20% of that price range. I’ll take them out. I’ll be up there tomorrow.
Carley Hathaway (27:30):
Yep.
Michael Klein (27:30):
Give me a buyer.
Carley Hathaway (27:31):
Yep.
Ren Jones (27:33):
So anyway, I wanted to thank everybody for being here. This is a great show, Michael. I have to read a couple little spots here. For those of you that are in… Wanted to thank Aaron Wittenstein for allowing us to broadcast on LeadGen on Facebook. If you want to get involved with them, they are facebook.com/groups/gotobjections. He has a great program he does called trajectorynow.com.
(28:03):
And, finally, if you’re watching on Facebook and you’re not involved with us, Vulcan7, make sure to sign up vulcanseven.com/leadgen for a special deal. Other than that, like Michael, you’re done making your calls, it’s around 11:30, 12, almost ready to go to lunch, treat yourself with some delicious Graeter’s mint chocolate chip. Reward yourself for making those 20 contacts in Hudson County because 1.4 million for a house there. Well, actually, it’s a condo.
Carley Hathaway (28:36):
Condo.
Michael Klein (28:36):
Condo.
Ren Jones (28:37):
522 square feet.
Carley Hathaway (28:41):
Right.
Ren Jones (28:42):
Actually, those were some lovely, beautiful condos.
Carley Hathaway (28:44):
Thank you so much, Michael. It was really great.
Michael Klein (28:46):
Thank you.
Ren Jones (28:47):
We appreciate it.
Michael Klein (28:49):
My pleasure.
Ren Jones (28:50):
Thank you so much. We’ll see everyone back here next week when we have another exciting guest who will share those great secrets like Michael did.
Carley Hathaway (28:57):
Yes.
Ren Jones (28:59):
Thanks everybody.
Carley Hathaway (28:59):
Thank you.
Ren Jones (28:59):
Bye
Michael Klein (28:59):
Bye bye.
Carley Hathaway (28:59):
Bye.
Ren Jones (29:01):
See you next week, Carley.
Carley Hathaway (29:02):
Bye, Ren.