S3 E9: BEING POWERFUL

Ren Jones:
It’s that time. Welcome to Roadmap, How to Take Three Listings a Week Until You’re Ready for More. Each week, we interview a great agent who’s consistently taking two, three, four listings a week, and we have an exciting guest today, actually, two guests. 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 if you’re watching on the Lead Gen Facebook group, you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions during the broadcast. Get your questions in early. Get your questions in early please. Thank you.
First, 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:
Hi, Ren. Hi, everybody. Real estate is booming in San Diego. It’s a seller’s market, so it’s about time to take listings.

Ren Jones:
Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Before I introduce our guests today, I want to remind everybody that we’re also simulcasting the show on the private Lead Gen group on Facebook. Lead Gen has over 50,000 members now, so we have a large audience there today as well. We’ll be pausing for a commercial message during the show as a thank you to the Lead Gen folks.
We haven’t read the Vulcan7 challenge. Let me read that first, and then I’ll introduce our guests. Vulcan7 challenge, once a month, shadow a great agent in another market that’s taking two, three, four listings a week average. Either drive three or four hours to another market or fly there. Even better, fly there, get there in the afternoon, have dinner with them if they’re available. Go to their office early in the morning. Shadow them all morning. Take notes. Record what they say. Go to lunch with them, and head home. Now, at the end of a year doing this every month, you’ll have 12, that’s only 10, 12 new friends who are very successful, and you will quickly become one of them.
Well, this is going to be a real treat for me because I’ve known this lady for a long, long time, and her daughter who is also now in the business. They’re from Dallas, Texas. That’s Marilyn Lair and Kim Lair.
Welcome. Welcome to the show.

Marilyn Lair:
Thank you.

Kim Gross:
Thank you.

Ren Jones:
Great. Marilyn, you guys both have been in the business at least three years now, right? Marilyn, you’ve been in the business a good long time, and you came from another market, didn’t you?

Marilyn Lair:
Oklahoma, yes.

Ren Jones:
Oklahoma, and then went to Dallas. Why did you decide to do that?

Marilyn Lair:
I wanted to just move to someplace more interesting.

Ren Jones:
A little more interesting. Good. Good.

Carley Hathaway:
You’re in Dallas now?

Marilyn Lair:
Correct.

Carley Hathaway:
Nice.

Ren Jones:
Would it be fair to say the way you run your business, it’s portable?

Marilyn Lair:
It was. For a year, I ran it both places.

Ren Jones:
Oh, wow, so really you could get up and go and move to another city and be full… not quite full speed because of past clients, but pretty darn good shape…

Marilyn Lair:
That’s right.

Ren Jones:
… based on the way you guys sell real estate.

Marilyn Lair:
Yeah, with a team. The team handled it in Oklahoma, and then I’d come to Texas and list.

Ren Jones:
There you go.

Carley Hathaway:
Did you have a hard time making that transition? Obviously, you didn’t know anyone in Texas, you didn’t have a sphere of influence. How did you hit the ground running?

Marilyn Lair:
I learned the town by just going to see expireds and then open houses and for sale by owners.

Ren Jones:
Good. Well, before we get too deep, I want to get… let them… Dallas is a place that a lot of people move to, and a lot of people know people that need to sell there because they went there for work and they’re being transferred yet again. What’s the best way for them to reach both of you?

Marilyn Lair:
Well, Kim and I both live in Frisco. Our office is Plano. Should I give you the numbers now?

Ren Jones:
Yeah. What’s the best way for them to reach you if they wanted to get in touch with your team? Is there an email address or a phone?

Marilyn Lair:
Our office-

Ren Jones:
Pardon? The office?

Marilyn Lair:
Our office number is 972-624-1000.

Ren Jones:
4-1000, okay, 972-624-1000, and there’s a marilynlair, too, isn’t there?

Marilyn Lair:
Yes, there sure is.

Ren Jones:
Okay, so they could find you there. Marilyn Lair, Kim Gross, perfect, so, folks, send up some business. These folks are the best. All righty. Let’s dive in.
What’s the goal for this year?

Marilyn Lair:
The goal is 100.

Ren Jones:
100? Okay. What was your best year? You’ve been doing this a long time.

Marilyn Lair:
The best year I believe has been about 160.

Ren Jones:
160 was your best year. Great.

Carley Hathaway:
That’s amazing. Good for you. Are you on track this year to hit a hundred?

Marilyn Lair:
Close to it, I think.

Carley Hathaway:
Nice.

Marilyn Lair:
I’m trying to work only four days a week.

Carley Hathaway:
Good for you.

Ren Jones:
Good for you. That’s a deal because, I mean, you’ve been doing it a long… and when did you start in real estate? What year was that?

Marilyn Lair:
I think around maybe 1980, somewhere along.

Ren Jones:
1980, so you’ve been doing this a good while. You’ve been in the business a good long time. Fantastic. Yeah, so four days a week is a great strategy. You have a little fun.

Marilyn Lair:
Right.

Ren Jones:
What would you do on your day off? Go take a listing?

Marilyn Lair:
Hopefully, negotiate some offers.

Ren Jones:
Negotiate some offers on your day off. Yeah.

Carley Hathaway:
Yes. Love it.

Ren Jones:
There we go.

Carley Hathaway:
Where does the majority of your business come from? I know you said you started in the business going to expireds and for sale by owners. Is that still where majority comes from?

Marilyn Lair:
That’s still true? Right.

Kim Gross:
I would say we do track all of our numbers, and probably what we’ve seen the biggest increase is also working our past clients in our database and as well as continuing to add with expireds and for sale by owners and adopted buyers.

Carley Hathaway:
Okay. Got it. Got it. Good. What is your routine as far as getting expireds and for sale by owners? Are you guys on the phones? Are you calling or are you just going to the expireds like you said you did before?

Marilyn Lair:
We’re both on the phone by 8:00 in the morning. There’s usually in our area 10 to 15 per day, calling all of those. I leave messages with something like working with relocation companies and so forth, and then I carry around those for the week that I haven’t been able to reach in a folder and try to call them the first day three times a day. I stick around for the week, and then, Saturday morning, try to reach those I haven’t reached and usually leave something different, some little catchy message to create a little bit of curiosity maybe. Then for sale by owners, they take longer to work. Sometimes, I’m going to be in the area, drop by and say hello to them. We’re trying to increase our calls that say come list me, and that’s by our past clients, so we’re trying to call those so many every day.

Carley Hathaway:
I like that you have a really strict strategy as far as calling the new expireds three times the first day and then a couple more times throughout the week and then always Saturday morning. I think that’s really, really smart.

Ren Jones:
You’ve got that thing mastered. She’s pausing on that same point, and I was thinking the same thing. A lot of the people watching here do not carry their leads with them. They’re not carrying them along with them and trying two or three times a day. They’re making the calls in the office and they leave the office, and then they deal with it the next morning maybe once, but you’re carrying it through the day. I mean, what would you say that adds to your business, the lead, having the intense lead follow up? How much more business do you bring because of that?

Marilyn Lair:
I would say that it makes a lot of sense, and people will say, “You’ve been pretty aggressive about calling me more than the others, so that’s why I called you back.”

Ren Jones:
Ah, so you win because everybody else is trying one shot.

Marilyn Lair:
Right. Most of the people and the employees here are on the road at 7:30 in the morning and they don’t get home till 7:30 at night, so you’ve got to touch them and leave them a message and then keep trying to reach them at a different time, and then I even text them also.

Carley Hathaway:
Oh, good, good. Can you give us an example of what the first message you leave would say?

Marilyn Lair:
Recently, because we have about four major companies that are moving into the Dallas area, in fact, the Dallas Morning News yesterday said 80 people a day are moving to our county, Collin County, 80 people a day.

Carley Hathaway:
That’s a lot. I’ve read that, too. A lot of people are leaving California to go to Dallas.

Marilyn Lair:
What I’m saying to the expireds is that, “I’ve been chosen by two relocation companies to represent their buyers that are moving here, and I would like to visit with you about this. Give me a call, Marilyn, 972-624-1000.”

Ren Jones:
Nice. That is compelling. That’ll bring, yeah… and you probably get a few callbacks on that.

Marilyn Lair:
Well, yes, because they obviously think the buyer is coming from out of state because that’s what’s in all the papers and news.

Ren Jones:
Many times, that is true. It’s a hot market. You have a very competitive market. I mean, you are up against, or they are up against some tough competition with you, but, yeah, I mean it’s a tough group down there, you guys.

Marilyn Lair:
We’re also the fastest growing city in the nation.

Ren Jones:
Is it?

Marilyn Lair:
Yes.

Ren Jones:
You guys are number one now?

Marilyn Lair:
Frisco, Texas is, according to all the news, the number one growth city in the nation. That also attracts a lot of realtors.

Ren Jones:
Yeah, and that would do it.

Carley Hathaway:
Yeah, definitely.

Ren Jones:
Maybe that was the case when you moved there…

Marilyn Lair:
Maybe.

Ren Jones:
… and still is.

Carley Hathaway:
You mentioned that you have a team. Can you tell us your team structure?

Marilyn Lair:
We have two staff, and then Kim and I list, and then we’ve changed our model somewhat because we now use showing agents. Do you want to describe that?

Kim Gross:
Well, yeah, we-

Marilyn Lair:
That’s Kim.

Kim Gross:
Because of the numbers that Marilyn had just quoted you, we felt like we were missing out on… we had buyers’ agents, but that required a lot of management for us, and neither one of us… That took us away from trying to get listings, so we switched the model to showing agents, and then we have showing agents for different areas depending on where they’re looking. We meet with them. We go over the process and then tell them our skills are in understanding value and negotiating. Then we pay actually $30 per home for that particular agent shows, and then the benefit of that is that we keep the business, we felt like, and we don’t tie ourselves up with showing homes.

Carley Hathaway:
That’s a great idea. What a great strategy.

Ren Jones:
That’s fantastic.

Carley Hathaway:
Yeah, that’s very smart.

Kim Gross:
That is one of the things. You want to develop your past client database, and if you turn that over to someone else, they end up leaving. The relationship was built with a lot of times with that agent, and it’s hard to interrupt that. This has been very successful for us, a way of trying to still work with the buyers because, about 70%, the people coming in are buyers here, but without taking up our time.

Carley Hathaway:
What a great idea. Really smart.

Marilyn Lair:
Kim says to them that our strength is in negotiating for them. We also know we have to leverage our time, so, normally, we have a meeting with them, establish the relationships, pass the baton to the showing agent and then go to the closing. In the meantime, once they pick one or two houses, we negotiate the contract over the phone, obviously, and we go to the closing. We’re trying to then reinforce that they got a really great buy and they’re our customer for life. We’re just, again, trying to develop that database, and I have to brag that Kim has a better return than I ever had.

Carley Hathaway:
Oh, really?

Marilyn Lair:
Yeah. I went too much, I think, as a volume agent and didn’t spend enough time with past clients. Now, we’re trying to nurture more, develop those relationships more. She still gets better callbacks from her past clients than I do.

Carley Hathaway:
Nice, Kim, good work. You said that a good majority of your business does come from past clients. What’s your model on how often you touch them, how you reach out to them?

Marilyn Lair:
Well, it does go back to prospecting. I have a group. There’s four of us that we text our numbers every day, and we made a commitment to talk to a hundred past clients per week. We text that to each other at night, “I did 20 today,” or, “I did 25 today,” and then we’ll usually say, “I’ve got two listing appointments,” that type of thing. It’s a commitment. My goal is to work four days a week, but the trouble is, if I don’t have those 100 contacts, I have to work even Friday and Saturday.

Carley Hathaway:
Yeah, so you definitely take advantage of using accountability and having accountability partners.

Marilyn Lair:
That’s right.

Carley Hathaway:
That seems really important to you in your business.

Marilyn Lair:
Yes. It nudges you.

Carley Hathaway:
Yeah. Definitely, yeah, it’s good to have goals and reach them and have accountability. It’s very, very important.

Ren Jones:
Are you still doing role play?

Marilyn Lair:
Some.

Ren Jones:
Some. Yeah, but you’ve got the accountability piece down tight, so that is great. I know other people that have had you as a role play/accountability partner. I mean, you’ve been doing that a long time. A lot of times, a lot of the people we interview tell us they’re involved in some sort of coaching as well. Is that the case with you?

Marilyn Lair:
Yes.

Ren Jones:
Okay. Great. Great. I mean, is it like a group coaching or one-on-one coaching or anything in particular?

Marilyn Lair:
Well, as you all know, I’ve probably been with Mike Ferry for 20-plus years.

Ren Jones:
Good. Okay. Gotcha. You’re doing great.

Carley Hathaway:
You’re with Mike Ferry Coaching?

Marilyn Lair:
Yeah, and so-

Ren Jones:
You probably have a lot of accountability partners through that as well. Good.

Kim Gross:
The number one thing she told me when I started in the business with her was I needed to have a coach, and so we followed that and then, through the coaching role play, there’s a group of role play partners that I role play with.

Ren Jones:
Okay, so you’re role playing, Kim, right now?

Kim Gross:
Oh, yeah.

Ren Jones:
Okay. Great. You’re getting those scripts down, right?

Kim Gross:
Yeah, it’s probably as important for me than her because she’s so much automatic. To me, being a newer agent, it’s very important for me to do.

Carley Hathaway:
I’m guessing you guys use the Mike Ferry scripts.

Marilyn Lair:
Correct. Yes.

Carley Hathaway:
Good. Good. How important is it to pre-qualify for you two before you go on a listing appointment?

Marilyn Lair:
Well, we’ve all been there and done that and walk away and said why didn’t I ask more?

Ren Jones:
What’s the batting average? You go on 10 listing appointments. How many do you take? What’s your batting average?

Marilyn Lair:
Some of the relocation clients that we get are getting three names of top people. It is difficult.

Ren Jones:
That is brutal.

Marilyn Lair:
That’s brutal, so my numbers have gone down, but usually it’s been 75, 80.

Ren Jones:
75 to 80%, and that’s big because there are a lot of people watching on here right now that will go on five appointments, take one, five appointments, take one, five appointments, take one. Is it all just from pre-qualifying? What goes into getting your batting average that high?

Marilyn Lair:
Well, the batting average obviously is a lot higher if you’re talking to people who love you and have experience with you. That’s your past clients. Here, I would say that it’s not uncommon for them to interview three to seven people.

Carley Hathaway:
That’s a lot.

Marilyn Lair:
Oh, yeah.

Kim Gross:
Very competitive.

Marilyn Lair:
Very competitive, so I try to be the last. I send emails that have value proposition, my bio, and, before the actual presentation, I send my whole presentation to them.

Carley Hathaway:
Okay. Good. Good.

Ren Jones:
So they know ahead of time. By the time you get there, they already know they want you in some cases.

Marilyn Lair:
Well, some, if they have time to look at it, will know what you do.

Ren Jones:
True. Very true.

Kim Gross:
Mike gave us a script that basically says, when you’re going up against those people, talking to the owner saying, “I want to make sure all your questions are answered. There are going to be agents that are going to try to press you to sign an agreement, but can you do me a favor?” They say yes. “Can you wait until we’ve had an opportunity to talk so I can make sure all your questions are answered?”

Ren Jones:
When you look at it, going in last, how do you go wrong? Because they’ve already met with everybody else. Right?

Kim Gross:
Right, but you try to future pace them so that-

Ren Jones:
Yeah, so they know.

Kim Gross:
Letting them know that other people are going to try to press them to sign.

Ren Jones:
Yeah. Yeah, so then they’re prepared. Yeah. May I tell you about what’s going what’s going to happen? You’re meeting with the third person or the second person, and they’re going to try to not allow you to meet with us. Yeah.

Carley Hathaway:
Yeah, and how do you overcome this one? If you know there’s going to be five or six and maybe you can’t be the last one, you’re in the middle, how do you overcome the agents that are letting them overprice their property?

Marilyn Lair:
Do you want to answer that?

Carley Hathaway:
Is that what you want? I feel like a lot of times that’s why the property expired, right? They’re 50,000 over what their property is actually worth.

Ren Jones:
Then beat them up on their price week after week after week.

Kim Gross:
I think, yeah, that’s where it’s important to know your scripts and to have done a lot of the research on your comparables because, a lot of agents would just go in and say this is the average price per square foot. Well, as we all know, it depends on the features and benefits. Marilyn taught me early on how to make adjustments. If one has hardwood floors, the other has carpet, things like that that they can see where the values are shifting, and then going back and saying the motivation and being very honest, “Mr. And Mrs. Seller, do you want the truth?” and saying there are a lot of agents that can’t stand up and tell you the truth, but if they’re really wanting to make a move, that’s why the pre-qual, as we said, is so important because you’ve got to know their motivation.

Ren Jones:
… and then close with that motivation.

Marilyn Lair:
I got to use the Jeff Quentin, always said this is the 30-day price and this is the stretched price.

Carley Hathaway:
Oh, I like that.

Marilyn Lair:
I like to use that. They get to choose. If you want it sold in 30 days, then we’ll put it here. If you want the stretched price, then we’ll try the market for three weeks.

Ren Jones:
Good.

Carley Hathaway:
I like that. That’s a good strategy.

Ren Jones:
That’d work. That will work.

Marilyn Lair:
30-day and stretched.

Ren Jones:
Good deal.

Carley Hathaway:
I’m sure, because you probably have such a good listing packet that you send out ahead of time, that also makes you look more professional than other agents that are just showing up with nothing.

Marilyn Lair:
Yeah, and I think I spend quite a bit of time on the three comps that are most theirs, make the adjustment actually on the MLS sheet that may be expired so that they can see right there on the sheet itself where those adjustments are made and how you end up with that price of 30-day or stretched.

Ren Jones:
Okay, almost appraisal style. I’m adding $3,000 because you have the hardwood floors. Yeah. Yeah.

Marilyn Lair:
The seller will say, “You’ve shown me more. You’ve done more homework than the first agent.”

Ren Jones:
Yeah, and generally what they say is the newest agents have the slickest CMAs, but there’s not a lot of substance.

Marilyn Lair:
I think we can identify with that MLS sheet because it’s got all the details.

Carley Hathaway:
Yeah, definitely.

Ren Jones:
That’s the best way to go. We’ve got one question in here. Let’s see if we can get a couple more people to type in some questions, and maybe a role play. Do you want to do a role play?

Carley Hathaway:
Oh, no, no.

Ren Jones:
They’re thinking about it.

Marilyn Lair:
Okay.

Ren Jones:
Huh? Pardon?

Marilyn Lair:
Yeah, maybe we’d-

Ren Jones:
Past clients, expired, FSBO? Want to do one?

Marilyn Lair:
Well, we could do an expired.

Ren Jones:
You want to do an expired? Okay.

Carley Hathaway:
Let’s do it.

Ren Jones:
Okay, Carley, ring her up.

Carley Hathaway:
She has to call me.

Ren Jones:
Hello. No. She has to call you. That’s right.

Marilyn Lair:
Ring. Ring. Ring.

Carley Hathaway:
Hi. Hello.

Marilyn Lair:
Hi. I was calling for Carley. Is this Carley?

Carley Hathaway:
Yes, speaking.

Marilyn Lair:
Carley, I am calling because I noticed that your home came up as an expired listing on our computer today, and I was just wondering when you might interview the right agent to get that home sold.

Carley Hathaway:
You’re like the 10th agent that’s called. Where were you when my home was for sale?

Marilyn Lair:
It’s gets very frustrating, doesn’t it?

Carley Hathaway:
Yeah, very. Do you have a buyer for me?

Marilyn Lair:
Well, so tell me, Carley, when you sell this home, where will you go next?

Carley Hathaway:
I am moving to New York.

Marilyn Lair:
New York? That’s exciting. What would take you there?

Carley Hathaway:
I love the musicals and the shopping.

Marilyn Lair:
How soon do you want to be there?

Carley Hathaway:
Like yesterday. My home has been on the market for four months.

Marilyn Lair:
Four months. Great. Well, let me ask you, what did that agent do that you liked best?

Carley Hathaway:
Nothing.

Marilyn Lair:
Nothing. Great. What do you think they should have done? You tell me.

Carley Hathaway:
I mean, they should have got my home sold. I mean, it’s my sister’s nephew’s cousin. He should have gotten it done.

Marilyn Lair:
Oh, that may be the first problem. They say don’t hire someone you can’t fire.

Carley Hathaway:
Oh, yeah, well, he’s fired now.

Marilyn Lair:
That’s right. It’s hard to fire a relative though during the process. Let me do this, Carley. Let me come out, tell you what I think your home will sell for, how long it will take and just what I do to sell about a hundred homes a year. Would today at 4:00 be good or tomorrow?

Carley Hathaway:
Well, I mean, can you just tell me over the phone what you do differently or what are you going to do?

Marilyn Lair:
Well, I do all the things that all the others tell you they’re going to do, but I talk to about 30 possible buyers every day, and I do have a couple of relocation companies I work for, and I get a lot of out-of-state buyers that way.

Carley Hathaway:
Okay. I mean, yeah, okay, that makes sense.

Marilyn Lair:
That’s a value proposition that adds a whole lot of value. By the way, the agent that you had before, I did a little research on that, so let me bring you some information. Are you planning to interview any others when we meet?

Carley Hathaway:
I have one more lined up at two o’clock tomorrow.

Marilyn Lair:
All right, two o’clock. Well, just so I can be well-prepared, let me ask you just a few questions, and then I would go on to the pre-qual.

Ren Jones:
… and then you go right into pre-qual. Good.

Marilyn Lair:
I would ask who are you interviewing? I remember, Ren, I used to say let me bring the report card from the multiple listing of each of us.

Ren Jones:
You did say that. I remember you saying that. I’m going to bring a report card on the other agents.

Marilyn Lair:
Would you like to see that report card? I don’t know. It’s about 50/50. Somehow, they feel it’s disloyal to tell you who they’re going to interview if you’re going to bring a report card, but many want to know. Many want to know.

Ren Jones:
Yeah. I latched onto that one. You said that on stage one time, and I started doing the same thing. That’s where that came from, and that was you.

Marilyn Lair:
I think I got that from Mike Gargoth.

Ren Jones:
It would work because, asking who the other agents are, they don’t want to tell you, but just say, well, what I want to do is bring a report card on everybody you’re interviewing so you can compare apples to apples. I can print that out, the MLS, and they’d be like, oh, okay. It worked like a charm, Marilyn. That’s great, so thank you.

Marilyn Lair:
Yeah. I got that from Mike Gargoth because he works with buyers a lot and he automatically took the report card from the one who had had it listed before.

Ren Jones:
Oh, yeah, that’s an awakening. Good deal.

Carley Hathaway:
We have a couple of questions. One just came in. It says, if someone says they’re no longer selling their home, how do you respond to that?

Marilyn Lair:
Do you want to do that?

Kim Gross:
Yeah. One of the things that we go back to is asking the question, “Okay, well, let me ask you. If I were to bring you a qualified buyer right now, would you still sell your home?” And they would 99% of the time say yes, and then just move into, “If we did do that, where would you be moving next?”

Carley Hathaway:
… and then you go right back to the script?

Kim Gross:
Right, right back to the script-

Carley Hathaway:
Okay. Good. I like it

Kim Gross:
… because trying not to put them on the defensive, but yet it is an automatic response that we get and we say that’s an automatic no.

Ren Jones:
I’m going to touch on one thing that somebody brought up, and it’s important to qualify it. Ryan Lalley is talking about, and I assume he’s talking about bringing MLS report cards on what other agents are doing. Under the standards of practice, you’re not allowed to disparage another realtor or company. However, you can show who’s doing what. You can print out, “These are all the ones they listed. This is how long they took,” because somebody else is asking, “What would you show people?” You want to show these are the ones that sold, these are the ones that failed to sell, that’s all, because I’ve been around that block a lot. Anything like that is very, very, very legitimate. You’re not disparaging. You’re just showing facts. When you’re showing facts, it’s fair game.

Marilyn Lair:
I can tell you that I’ve been on presentations where I took that and, from the multiple listing, they’ll give you the names and addresses. You’re able to show them, you know what, this agent’s market is in Fort Worth, which is 40 miles from here, and they haven’t sold any in your town.

Ren Jones:
Yeah, that’s all fair game, and they can research that. That is fair game as long as you’re disparaging them, but you’re just showing facts. You can show facts because you’re interviewing for a job, and all that is fair game and it’s done a lot. Then somebody else was asking, just-listed, just-sold, do you have any target areas you’re working where you do some just-listed, just-sold?

Marilyn Lair:
Yes. We call around our just-solds and our just-listed. Do you want to answer that?

Kim Gross:
Yeah, a part of them, we are holding some open houses as our market has gotten more and more competitive. That’s one of the things our coach had suggested because you can get listings from that, but we do that. When we’re doing it, we also call around the neighborhood and try to get listings that way, let them know that the seller has asked us to call and then also follow up with the just-sold calls after.

Ren Jones:
Yeah. You were taking our Vulcan7 Neighborhood Search Around the Block. Hopefully, that’s working well for you.

Marilyn Lair:
The reason that open houses seem to be working well here is the employment market is so strong here, people moving here from everywhere, but they’re going into an apartment first many times. They get out on the weekend and go look at open houses to try to educate themselves on what they might have to pay to get what they’re interested in, so you can pick up my or their, and then obviously we try to match them with one of our showing agents.

Kim Gross:
Obviously, a lot of times, when they come in, we try to. we don’t do them every weekend, but let’s say on a Sunday with a hot listing, we want to be the first person there because that’s the day you’re going to have the most activity and come in. Someone’s interested in the house, but they have to also sell theirs, so you get both sides of the deal.

Ren Jones:
Yeah, pick up some listings, pick up some good deal.

Kim Gross:
Yeah. Our big focus is to try to find homes we can list from it as well.

Carley Hathaway:
Yeah, that’s fabulous.

Ren Jones:
Robert Haley is asking, and it doesn’t happen that often, but I’ve always enjoyed it, when the seller also has a real estate license, but they don’t really do it. Run into those? You sell a lot of homes for people that have a real estate license?

Marilyn Lair:
You mean do we list those people’s homes?

Ren Jones:
Yeah.

Marilyn Lair:
Yes.

Ren Jones:
They don’t come down the track that often, but it’s always fun.

Marilyn Lair:
In fact, I think I had one this morning. I think my coach gave me an objection that said, well, bring me the buyer and I’ll pay you 3%, and then after talking a little bit, then the subject came up, “Why do you all not bring buyers to my house and at least get 3%?” The objection was, “I appreciate that. However, I’m going to end up with all the liability if I sell your home because you’re not really an active agent. You’ve got your license, but you’re not active, so I’m going to end up having all the liability and doing all the work.” Agents will say, “Why should I do that when there’s 4,000 homes out there I could sale and still make 3%?”

Carley Hathaway:
I like that because that is a really common objection.

Ren Jones:
Well, Carley, where you are, everybody has a license. They don’t have a driver’s license, but they all have a real estate license.

Carley Hathaway:
100%. Everyone is like, “Oh, yeah, I was a real estate agent. Oh, I keep my license active, but I don’t really do anything.” The best that I’ve gotten, I was so frustrated, this guy is like, “Yeah, when I retire, I think I’m just going to be a real estate agent.” Okay. Good luck.

Marilyn Lair:
I always say, “Are you carrying those buyers around and letting them eat french fries in your car?”

Carley Hathaway:
Exactly. Exactly.

Ren Jones:
I’ll tell you, this is some good information today. This really helps a lot. Marilyn, it’s always great seeing you and, Kim, it’s nice to meet you.

Kim Gross:
Me, too.

Ren Jones:
Really, it’s always a lot of fun. It just shows you this is a great business that we’re in. You meet new people every day and take two, three, four listings a week. You can do it. This lady is brilliant, and her daughter is right in there.

Carley Hathaway:
Yes.

Marilyn Lair:
This is a good family business.

Ren Jones:
A family business, that’s it.

Carley Hathaway:
You guys seem like a great team. You seem like you enjoy working together, so that’s really exciting. I think we all got some really good takeaways from today, so thank you. Thank you so much.

Marilyn Lair:
You’re welcome.

Kim Gross:
Thank you.

Marilyn Lair:
Thanks for having us.

Ren Jones:
Thanks, everybody. I’m glad everybody could come.

Marilyn Lair:
I’d be glad if people send their buyers to us in the Dallas area, please.

Carley Hathaway:
Yes, referrals, referral, referrals.

Ren Jones:
Yep, there we go. Yes, send them some business, and then, after you’ve done your prospecting, get some delicious Graeter’s Mint Chocolate Chip. You deserve it.

Carley Hathaway:
You earned it.

Ren Jones:
You’ve earned it. That’s it.

Kim Gross:
Okay. Thank you.

Ren Jones:
See you, everybody.

Carley Hathaway:
Thanks, everybody.

Ren Jones:
Thanks. See you next time.