S5 E11: How to visit FSBOS and List them!

Ren Jones (00:04):
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 several listings each month, 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. 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, hi everybody. Real estate is fabulous. It’s definitely picking up and it’s always a great time to be a listing agent.

Ren Jones (00:48):
Wonderful, wonderful. Wish I was there. Before I introduce our guest today, I want to remind everybody that we are also simulcasting the show on the private Lead Gen group on Facebook. They have 51,000 members and 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, let’s welcome our guest today from Valparaiso, Indiana. Miss Jeanne Sommer. Hi Jeanne.

Jeanne Sommer (01:20):
Hey Ren.

Ren Jones (01:21):
How are you? Good to see you.

Jeanne Sommer (01:22):
Good, nice to see you.

Ren Jones (01:25):
Welcome, welcome.

Jeanne Sommer (01:25):
Thank you.

Ren Jones (01:27):
I’m glad you could be here and you’ve been successful for a good long time, and I’m hoping you could share some of the secrets of getting there-

Jeanne Sommer (01:36):
I will try.

Ren Jones (01:37):
… with a lot of our audience.

Jeanne Sommer (01:37):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (01:39):
Good deal.

Carley Hathaway (01:40):
Awesome. So, hey Jeanne, can you start us out with your morning routine?

Ren Jones (01:44):
No, I want to know our goal first. Sorry. What’s the goal this year?

Carley Hathaway (01:48):
Oh. Okay. Jeanne, so what’s your goal for the year?

Jeanne Sommer (01:51):
My goal is 150 transactions.

Ren Jones (01:56):
Good deal. 150.

Carley Hathaway (01:56):
That’s awesome.

(01:58):
Great. So you’re on track to meet your goals. That’s awesome. So do majority of your deals come from past clients, expireds, FSBOs?

Jeanne Sommer (02:08):
Mostly sphere and past clients. I’ve been in the business for 28 years, and so with 28 years, obviously you build your sphere up. So I would say probably 70, 80% of my business comes from past clients and spheres, or their referrals, maybe they refer me to a friend.

Ren Jones (02:25):
Okay. Okay. So you do about 30, 40 transactions from expireds and FSBOs and all the rest are coming from your database?

Jeanne Sommer (02:33):
Yes. Which is quite a bit different from when I first started, but right now that’s the-

Ren Jones (02:38):
So when you started, what was that like? So people can get an idea. So if they’re in their second, third, fourth year, what did it look like then?

Jeanne Sommer (02:46):
A lot of expireds and FSBOs.

Ren Jones (02:48):
Gotcha. So you would list 6, 8 listings a month from FSBOs and expireds back then?

Jeanne Sommer (02:56):
Right. And I would like, what I like to do is I like to, and door knocking. I’d like to go to doors. I’m more of a door person than a call. I’d rather go to the door. So what I would do is I’d get out in the morning and look up the expireds and the FSBOs and do the mapping thing where, and go to the different parts of the neighborhood and I’d knock on their doors because I thought that was different because a lot of other people were calling them.

Ren Jones (03:20):
Nice. And so why don’t you, for those that don’t know what mapping is, explain that so they can try it out.

Jeanne Sommer (03:27):
Well, I would get in the morning and I would, there’d be like four or five expireds and there would be maybe, I don’t know, three or four FSBOs and I would look at, some would be in our area, Chesterton, Valparaiso, different towns. I would start north and I’d work my way down south and knock on their doors and ask them if they wanted to relist their home.

Ren Jones (03:48):
So in other words, you would follow a linear path depending on where they were located.

Jeanne Sommer (03:53):
Right.

Ren Jones (03:53):
You’d draw a single line and then just-

Jeanne Sommer (03:56):
Right.

Ren Jones (03:57):
… the most efficient path from one end to the other.

Jeanne Sommer (04:00):
Right. And then if I had a listing around maybe some of those areas too, I would knock on those doors too. I think a lot of people get hung up on, did I talk to that person? I don’t want to talk to them again. Oh my gosh. And they do so much preparation that just go ahead and do it. Just go ahead and knock on the doors and do it-

Ren Jones (04:21):
Forget the ready, aim, ready, aim part. Just right fire, huh?

Jeanne Sommer (04:24):
Just fire.

Ren Jones (04:25):
Good. Perfect. So in the beginning that was expireds and for sale by owners were the largest part of your business. Now they’re down to one out of four or one out of five.

Jeanne Sommer (04:36):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (04:36):
Because you might as well, you know, have a very large… How big’s the database now? If you feel-

Jeanne Sommer (04:43):
Right. And I do love FSBOs still, I can’t drive by a FSBO without stopping.

Ren Jones (04:48):
Your brakes work. So unlike a lot of real estate agents, your brakes actually work in front of a FSBO?

Jeanne Sommer (04:53):
I do like FSBOs. Yeah.

Ren Jones (04:54):
And so if you saw one and you would stop and walk up, what would you say?

Jeanne Sommer (05:01):
Hi, my name’s Jeanne Summer from Century 21 Alliance Group. I saw you’re trying to sell your home on your own. Is it available? And then I’d go into the script.

Ren Jones (05:13):
Great.

Jeanne Sommer (05:13):
I had a coach the whole time, but I’d go on and ask them. And then also at the end of it, just say, can I be your backup plan? If you don’t sell your home, can I be your backup plan?

Ren Jones (05:23):
Okay. So no fear in walking up and talking to him.

Jeanne Sommer (05:27):
No.

Ren Jones (05:28):
Good.

Jeanne Sommer (05:28):
I was a FSBO before I got into real estate. I think maybe that helps. So I actually say, yeah, I was a FSBO. I understand where you’re coming from. Yeah, I didn’t sell my house and if you don’t sell your house. Can I help you?

Ren Jones (05:42):
Beautiful thing. Beautiful.

Carley Hathaway (05:43):
Yeah, that’s great. Great.

Jeanne Sommer (05:44):
Yeah, it works.

Carley Hathaway (05:46):
Yeah. So you’ve been doing this a long time and you’re obviously finding a lot of success. 150 deals this year is a amazing goal. What keeps you on track? What is your morning routine? How do you keep going? Why not just take a Wednesday off? You know what I mean?

Jeanne Sommer (06:04):
Well, I keep my goals in front of me and I break them down. Not just yearly, but how many I listings I have to take. So I really zone into how many listings I have to take. And then I surround myself with CDs and tapes and books where really just good stuff. And because it is easy to get off track and I mean, I’m not going to sit here and say I don’t get off track. I get off track, I totally get off track, but I just know that I have to come back and the numbers are there that I have to get so many listings. Also my coach keeps me on track. My current coach is Kevin Eldred and he keeps me on track with how many, just accountability because it’s so easy if you’re on your own and if you have to meet with him once a week and he’s going to ask you what you did and you’re going to have to… It gets you prepared. Sometimes my calls are on Thursday, sometimes I’m working really hard on Tuesday and Wednesdays.

Ren Jones (07:03):
So it sounds like not only what you did, but it’s a very specific set of numbers. Is that true? Every week here?

Jeanne Sommer (07:08):
Yeah. I have to know how many listings I’m going to take. I think that’s how you’re going to control what you do.

Ren Jones (07:16):
And then you’re tracking how many people you speak to and how many appointments you go on versus listings taken and things like that?

Jeanne Sommer (07:22):
Right, right. That’s the number analyzer. And so I put my numbers in there or my assistant, my team manager puts my numbers in there.

Ren Jones (07:29):
What is your batting average? You go on 10 listing appointments, how many do you take?

Jeanne Sommer (07:35):
Well, when I first started I think I was like at 60, 70%. But I think now I’m at 90%. And I think the reason why I’m at 90% and most of my listing appointments are sphere and past clients.

Ren Jones (07:48):
That’s fair.

Jeanne Sommer (07:49):
Or you’re coming with a reputation cause somebody referred you that you know did a good job for. Yeah.

Ren Jones (07:57):
But to be fair, obviously you were good back then too because if you were at 70%, that’s not bad.

Jeanne Sommer (08:05):
No, no. Again, it’s the whole system of just asking the questions and not getting emotionally attached and-

Ren Jones (08:12):
Pre-qualifying before you get-

Jeanne Sommer (08:13):
Right. Exactly. Oh God, I never go without pre-qualifying.

Ren Jones (08:17):
Okay, you want to make that point. So think about it. These are a lot of people you’ve known for a long time too. You’re pre-qualifying those people?

Jeanne Sommer (08:25):
Yeah, you have to.

Ren Jones (08:27):
Okay.

Jeanne Sommer (08:27):
I mean, yeah. And I don’t work with buyers. I have a buyer’s agent that’s been with me for 22 years. So she takes all the buyers. So she does the pre-qualifying for the buyers. But the sellers, I always pre-qualify the sellers.

Ren Jones (08:41):
So you’re making money and you have the time to enjoy it.

Jeanne Sommer (08:43):
Yes.

Carley Hathaway (08:44):
Good for you.

Ren Jones (08:47):
Good.

Carley Hathaway (08:47):
And how long does a typical listing appointment take for you?

Jeanne Sommer (08:50):
About a half hour.

Carley Hathaway (08:51):
Oh perfect. That’s great. And do you send a pre-listing packet out?

Jeanne Sommer (08:56):
Yes, we email it. We email information on the team. Information on just the… Now one thing I have not been bold enough to do, which I need to start doing, I keep saying I’m going to do is I have not included… I hope Mike Ferry doesn’t watch these things. I have not included the seller’s net with the suggested price. So I would tell people that are listening to this to have the guts to do that, to start out doing that. It’s like you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. It’s kind of hard for me because I’m just in the routine of giving them everything else, but I always pre-qualify and set a pre-listing package out. Yes.

Carley Hathaway (09:33):
But you don’t like to tell them the price beforehand. But even though you feel like you should?

Jeanne Sommer (09:38):
I guess I just have never done it. So it’s habit. Everybody thinks that I don’t want to do that script or I don’t want to do, we all have our scripts, we all have our habits.

Ren Jones (09:46):
But notice folks notice the accountability in her. And we have a lot of people in a various coaching programs that are on this show. But notice how well, and we’ve only interviewed one person that said they weren’t in any kind of coaching program, which was rather unusual because 98% of the people are in some sort of a coaching program. Notice how, in her case right here, she’s concerned that maybe her coach might be watching this and be concerned that she isn’t doing a net sheet and preparing all that ahead of time for the seller. So that, look at the power of accountability in being successful. That’s huge.

Jeanne Sommer (10:25):
It’s so funny. You’ve gone to the Mike Ferry, you’re familiar with him?

Ren Jones (10:29):
Yes.

Jeanne Sommer (10:31):
He does seminars. And when he asks people in the audience who’ve been there going to him for years, how much percentage, what percentage do you do Mike Ferry? And a lot of people are like, Hmm, 60%, 60, 50. But even that 50, 60% makes you a lot of money.

Ren Jones (10:46):
Right? Because I mean 150 sales, what kind of money is that in Valparaiso, Indiana?

Jeanne Sommer (10:52):
Well, our average price range is about $250,000.

Ren Jones (10:59):
Okay, so you’re talking about 1.2, 1.3 million in income, is that right?

Jeanne Sommer (11:02):
Well, no, no, no, because it’s 50,000 and then you’re thinking… It’s a little over a half million a year. I mean, I do not, so I confuse people with that. So I really try and do the numbers because all my deals are net, they’re-

Ren Jones (11:15):
It’s a great life. You’re making more than the physicians in your market.

Jeanne Sommer (11:20):
Yeah. Yeah.

Carley Hathaway (11:20):
Love it. That’s a good way to look at it.

Ren Jones (11:23):
That’s right. Got to love it. What a wonderful life too.

Carley Hathaway (11:28):
So listen, you were saying earlier, you listened to a lot of books and CDs and stuff like that. Is it just positive affirmation stuff or is it motivational or what gets you going?

Jeanne Sommer (11:41):
Different or Earl Nightingale and CDs, things like that? I don’t watch the news. I don’t know what’s going on with the news. We just had some friends that visited this last weekend and they couldn’t believe I didn’t know half the people in the news.

Ren Jones (11:56):
Love It, love it. This is wonderful.

Jeanne Sommer (11:59):
I can’t do anything about it.

Ren Jones (11:59):
Folks, here’s a how about that? No news.

Jeanne Sommer (12:03):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (12:04):
What do they say? No news is good news. There we go.

Carley Hathaway (12:06):
That’s a way to stay positive for sure.

Jeanne Sommer (12:08):
Yeah. So I don’t do that.

Ren Jones (12:10):
You’re not missing anything worthwhile or real.

Jeanne Sommer (12:14):
No, no. And I can’t watch anything that somebody’s getting hurt or killed or I just, oh my gosh.

Ren Jones (12:20):
There you go.

Carley Hathaway (12:21):
Yeah, yeah. And so you mentioned too, that you have a buyer’s agent. Do you have other people, you have a team? Do you have an assistant?

Jeanne Sommer (12:28):
I have a team manager. I have a team manager and she manages the team and does the showing. She does, she manages me basically. And then I’ve got a buyer agent that’s been with me for 22 years and I’ve got two listing specialists that actually go on listing appointments with me. Or even go for me when I’m not there and yeah.

Ren Jones (12:45):
Because you were… when we talked last week, you were in Arizona, so you… When you’re on the listing side of the business, you can do that. You make calls from Arizona too?

Jeanne Sommer (12:54):
Right? Yes you can. Well, yeah, it’s mostly real estate’s become so technology.

Ren Jones (13:00):
So you go to warmer climates, make some calls back there, get on a plane, go list the property.

Jeanne Sommer (13:06):
Yeah. Yeah. So it works.

Ren Jones (13:08):
It’s a happy life.

Jeanne Sommer (13:09):
Yes. Very good.

Ren Jones (13:11):
Good. Deal.

Carley Hathaway (13:12):
And do you have a schedule that you stick to as far as lead follow up calling your past sphere and how do you calendar that? Make sure you touch all your past clients?

Jeanne Sommer (13:23):
Okay, so Ren and I were just talking earlier, that’s probably what I struggle with the most is the schedule. I’m a morning person, so I like to get up really early in the morning and I’m in the office in the morning, but I’m not going to… I get off my schedule. That’s why I go on the numbers that I have to talk to so many people or I need so many listings. But usually, basically in the morning, I listen to positive affirmations, role play, and then go ahead and make your calls, the sphere and things like that. And then the afternoon obviously appointments.

Ren Jones (14:04):
Perfect.

Carley Hathaway (14:05):
And what does that phone call look like if you’re just calling a random past client that maybe you sold their house three years ago?

Jeanne Sommer (14:13):
Okay. So especially when new taxes come out or “Hey, you just bought a house to me a year ago? Did you file your exemptions?” I try and add something of value or I look at the hot sheet. If there’s a house that’s sold in their area, I’ll say, “Oh, I sold Mr. And Mrs. Smith a house.” I see some house went on the market. I might come and say, “Hey, did you see your neighbor put their house in the market?” So something I try and make it a value them. And if you ask for their help and say, “Hey, I need your help, it’s a little, we need more listings. I’ve got these buyers. They’re waiting for the next listing to come on the market.” They like to help you. People want to help.

Ren Jones (14:53):
Perfect. So you’re bringing value to every call. Sometimes you’re asking them for their help because you’ve got, there’s a need there to, somebody wants to buy in a certain area or whatever it may be good. That’s beautiful. What else do you with your database?

Jeanne Sommer (15:07):
Especially if you have a buyer.

Ren Jones (15:08):
… database. How else do you stay in touch with the database? Do you mail anything? Do you send them anything or how do you stay in touch?

Jeanne Sommer (15:18):
I mail them. We probably mail them maybe just twice a year. I probably should do that a little better too. It’s mostly phone conversation and talking.

Ren Jones (15:27):
Okay. But they know where to find you.

Jeanne Sommer (15:30):
Yes, they know where to find me.

Ren Jones (15:32):
Good. And you’re really touching a lot of… Do you do A, B and C or are they all getting equal calls?

Jeanne Sommer (15:37):
Oh no. Well, I’d like to say they all get equal calls, but you have your favorites and then if you find the rainmakers-

Ren Jones (15:43):
Well, there is an A list somewhere.

Jeanne Sommer (15:44):
There is an A list.

Ren Jones (15:46):
Consciously or unconsciously.

Jeanne Sommer (15:48):
… And if you find the rainmakers, the one that you’re going to do a great job for both clients and one client probably would never refer you. Not because they just wouldn’t talk to me, they’re just shy. The introverts, you find that person that’s going to give you the referrals, the rainmaker and that person I’m calling more.

Ren Jones (16:05):
In a situation where there’s two of them, husband, wife, whatever it may be. Are you calling talking to both or you just pick one?

Jeanne Sommer (16:13):
Yeah, because my husband and I could be in the same house and we don’t even know what the other one’s doing. Same office. We work on the same office. He on one side. I’m on another it. Yeah, you need to call them both.

Ren Jones (16:23):
Okay. So you’re calling them both. Good point to make. Perfect. Good. Wonderful. Well this has been very helpful information. Anything else you would want to say? You’re looking at someone out there, they’re struggling to take one listing a month or two listings a month. What would you tell them?

Jeanne Sommer (16:41):
I would just say take baby steps. Look at all the successes. Stop by a for sale by… You are going to mess up. I mean even I… You’re going to fumble, maybe you’re not having a good day or whatever. Just go out there and keep trying. Keep going out there. Knock on the for sale by owner. And if you really come from a place that where I really want to help you. I want to help you sell this house and they need to sell the house. You have a motivated person. It’s all going to work out.

(17:10):
The other thing I would like to tell new agents is that get involved. In clubs, in events, your chamber of commerce. Get involved with things like that. Make a list, be seen and ask people. Make sure that when you do meet somebody that they know you’re in real estate. That you’re not like a secret agent.

Carley Hathaway (17:35):
That’s a really good point. I think we forget to talk about that. Is that working your community or going to mixers or things like that can be really helpful.

Jeanne Sommer (17:44):
It can because they get to know you and especially if you know the market, you ask them where do they… because I’ll be out and about and I’ll say, “Hey, where do you live?” And they’ll say, “This neighborhood.” I’m like, “Oh.” And they’re like, “Why do you ask?” “Well, because I’m in real estate and I know that a house just sold down the street from you.” So then you come the expert and then they’re, who are they going to call? They’ll call you when they-

Carley Hathaway (18:06):
Yep, definitely. Yep.

Ren Jones (18:07):
Perfect. I like how you were talking about coming from contribution if, because people can feel that, whether you say it explicitly or not, they can tell if you’re coming in from to help them in some way. They feel that.

Jeanne Sommer (18:19):
Right.

Carley Hathaway (18:19):
Yeah.

Jeanne Sommer (18:20):
And even if you have nothing to gain. I mean, it doesn’t matter if you have anything to gain or not. If you help people, it’s all going to come back to you.

Ren Jones (18:28):
Yeah. Everything works really well if that’s your approach to sales.

Jeanne Sommer (18:33):
Yes.

Ren Jones (18:33):
That’s for darn good deal. This has been a real treat it. It’s been wonderful, Jeanne, and I’m glad.

Jeanne Sommer (18:41):
Thanks Ren. Thanks for having me.

Ren Jones (18:42):
Good to-

Carley Hathaway (18:43):
Yeah.

(18:45):
Thank you so much. It’s been really great and I think we all have some great takeaways from your interview, so thank you so much.

Jeanne Sommer (18:51):
Thanks, Carley. Thank you.

Ren Jones (18:53):
Good deal, thanks.

Jeanne Sommer (18:55):
Yeah, well thank you.

Carley Hathaway (18:56):
Thank you.

Jeanne Sommer (18:56):
All right.

Ren Jones (18:56):
Thanks Jeanne.

Jeanne Sommer (18:56):
Bye.

Ren Jones (19:03):
We’re going to take a little commercial message. If you’re watching on Vulcan7 and you want to get involved with the Lead Gen Facebook group, they can be found at facebook.com/groups/gotobjections. And I want to thank Aaron Wittenstein who runs the group, and he has a program called trajectorynow.com.

(19:24):
And finally, if you’re watching on Facebook and you are not yet involved with Vulcan7, make sure to sign up at vulcan7.com/leadgen for a special deal.

(19:34):
And then many of you have asked, what is Jeanne not telling us? What is her real secret? Well, just like most of you in North America, you can go and find Graeter’s mint chocolate chip. This is the one for listings. You want the delicious mint chocolate chip. The other flavors are for working with buyers. And we’ve proven that over and over. If you are a listing agent, if you’re a powerful listing agent, you’re going to go, after you’ve done your calls, you’ve talked to your 20, 30, 40 people for the day, you’re going to get the mint chocolate chip and enjoy the day. And that gives you the power you need to list property. If the listing is slow to sell, go out in the front yard, dig a hole in the ground, bury it upside down, and that listing will sell just like that. All true Carley.

Carley Hathaway (20:18):
Yes.

Ren Jones (20:18):
Now Carley’s discovered that ice cream works.

Carley Hathaway (20:22):
I finally discovered it.

Ren Jones (20:24):
I know this is a big month for you. How much are you making in commissions this month?

Carley Hathaway (20:27):
$40,000.

Ren Jones (20:28):
$40,000. Got to love it. Got to love 40K in a month. That’s not a bad month.

Carley Hathaway (20:35):
Best one I’ve ever had. So happy.

Ren Jones (20:37):
Are you going to do that next month?

Carley Hathaway (20:39):
Absolutely. And every month hereafter

Ren Jones (20:42):
Good. We’ll get your spoon out and for the rest of you, go to graeters.com to find a location near you in North America.

(20:50):
See you everybody next week.