Greg Coolidge on opening a for sale by owner call from a round angle

Ren Jones00:05

It’s the time. Welcome to Roadmap, how to Take Three Listings a week until you’re ready for more. Each week we interview our powerful agent taking lots of listings each month, and we have an exciting guest today. We encourage you to take notes and apply as much of the knowledge as quickly as you can, and then use the copycat principle.

00:26Before I introduce our guest today, I want to remind everybody we’re simulcasting the show on the private lead gen Facebook group. They have 52,000 members, and so we have a large audience there today as well. And we will be pausing for a commercial message during the show as a thank you to the lead gen folks. So let’s welcome our guests today, all the way from the Midwest of our country, Cincinnati, Ohio, right down the street, 11 and a half minutes. Mr. Greg Coolidge, welcome to the show.

Greg Coolidge00:58

Hey, thanks for having me, Ren. I really appreciate it.

Ren Jones01:00

Good. So Greg is, many of you know Sarah Close as she co-hosts our season highlights shows. And Greg, you’re working with Sarah on that team, right?

Greg Coolidge01:14

Correct. Yep.

Ren Jones01:15

And seems to have it down as far as taking a listing. Finding it, catching it, reeling it in, frying it, fling it, somebody else cooks it and serves it. Is that right?

Greg Coolidge01:28

Absolutely. Perfect.

Ren Jones01:29

Good. So we wanted to pick his brain a little bit because I’m sure it took you a little while to become an overnight sensation. Is that right?

Greg Coolidge01:38

Yeah, it took me a little while, few fails, absolutely. Fail hard, fail fast.

Ren Jones01:41

Good. And so if we can get a few ideas on how some of the folks out here can set a few appointments, take a few listings at a little faster rate, the things that got in the way for you, because for you, those were fairly recent. How long have you been doing this?

Greg Coolidge01:59

I have been licensed for about 14 months now…

Ren Jones02:02

14 months. Okay, great.

Greg Coolidge02:03

Yep. Prior to that, I was in ISA for about two.

Ren Jones02:07

Okay. So you’ve been calling for about three years and that you’re in a position now as an agent to go on the appointment, take the listing. So you can take it all the way through that process where you’re calling them up, they have no idea who you are, getting a report quickly, getting an appointment, qualifying it, deciding if you still want to go, going, signing at a price that will cause it to sell, which is a tricky thing as well.

Greg Coolidge02:34

It is.

Ren Jones02:36

Yeah, because you can get listings, but sometimes if they don’t sell, what the heck.

Greg Coolidge02:41

Right.

Ren Jones02:43

So wanted to dig into some of that as well as find out about your morning routine, things like that.

Greg Coolidge02:47

Sure.

Ren Jones02:48

So January, February, March, we’re in the middle of April right now. So what’s a typical month? How many listings taken are you averaging roughly in a month period?

Greg Coolidge03:00

About four to five.

Ren Jones03:02

Four to five, okay. So every week there’s at least one listing, typically.

Greg Coolidge03:05

Typically.

Ren Jones03:06

And some weeks, two.

Greg Coolidge03:08

Some weeks two, some weeks none, but you just stay consistent.

Ren Jones03:11

Right. Yeah, it’s a numbers game.

Greg Coolidge03:13

It is.

Ren Jones03:13

Good. So tell me about the morning. What does that look like? When do you get up? What do you do? What do do after that? How does that unfold?

Greg Coolidge03:23

So typically my morning starts usually about six o’clock, up and at ’em. And spending a little bit of time with myself with four-month-old and a two-year-old at home, having a little quiet time is few and far between. So just like to get my head space right.

Ren Jones03:43

And they get up early.

Greg Coolidge03:44

They do. They do. And then I make sure that I get a workout in, and then I roll on into the office and typically try to get started with role-playing and getting my day aligned out between 8:00, 8:45, and then hitting the phones strong and hard every morning at 9:00 AM.

Ren Jones04:07

Okay. So you’re starting at 9:00, role play prior to that. So is your role play with somebody over the phone, or somebody in… Because you’re on a team, sometimes you role play on a team. How does that work?

Greg Coolidge04:18

So for us right now, I’ve actually switched up my routine. I used to participate in an over the phone role play group that it comprised agents all over the US. However, now that we’re building our team we’re role playing every morning as a team, and handing out objections to handle and taking it from there.

Ren Jones04:41

And you’ve been doing it for a while, so some people look to you probably to strengthen them. So who are you calling first thing when you start at nine o’clock? Who do you call first?

Greg Coolidge04:49

Generally, my first targets says expireds. I typically want to be the one of the first ones to talk with them.

Ren Jones04:56

And at nine o’clock you’re not, probably.

Greg Coolidge04:59

Yep, yep, nope. Since we’ve switched it up to about nine, it’s triggered to get on them. But I just stick with them and continue consistently making my calls.

Ren Jones05:10

So nine o’clock, let’s say you call and you’re the fifth, or sixth, or seventh caller, and a lot of agents, because at that point a seller gets a little defensive, how do you get through that? Because obviously you do.

Greg Coolidge05:26

You just have to have that conversation with them. You have to make it personable, you can’t sound scripted, as cliche as that may seem. Which comes from internalizing what you need to know. And so being really sharply focused on your script and on your skills, allows you to have those conversations with them just as you and I are now. And if you get taken down a rabbit hole, it’s no big deal. You just get right back on the path.

Ren Jones06:03

So you’re able to get, because it’s that first seven to 10 seconds. I mean, typically, I’m sure some of them say, “You’re the fifth caller,” “You’re the sixth caller,” or, “We’re going to re-list with the same agent.” Well, what do you say next in some of these situations?

Greg Coolidge06:18

Well, if they say that I’m like the fifth or sixth caller joking responses, man, there’s only five of us working today.

Ren Jones06:27

Okay. So you use a little humor to break it up. And that works a lot.

Greg Coolidge06:31

It does.

Ren Jones06:31

All right. So you soften it that way. What if they go, “Thanks for calling, but we’re going to go with the same agent.” And before they hang up, you say…

Greg Coolidge06:40

Well, I asked them, I said, “Completely understand that. Just out of curiosity, why do you think your home didn’t sell?”

Ren Jones06:48

Okay, so you go to that piece early on. Okay. And the way you just did that, it sounds real. Because some people are reciting this little drumbeat script, and you’re just making it sound like a real person. Yeah. Were you that way at the beginning when you first started?

Greg Coolidge07:07

No.

Ren Jones07:08

How did you loosen up?

Greg Coolidge07:10

Practice.

Ren Jones07:10

Practice.

Greg Coolidge07:12

I mean, you want to be good at anything, sports, business, scripting. I mean, you’ve got to practice. And eventually, you fail, like I said, fail hard, fail fast. So you can polish up on what it is that you do.

Ren Jones07:28

So you can start at nine o’clock in a major city. I mean, there’s a roughly two million people in this greater area, beltway area here, two million people. And you can start at nine o’clock, five or six or seven people, I’ve already talked to them, and you can set an appointment by sounding real.

Greg Coolidge07:45

Absolutely. And especially if it’s an expired listing that’s maybe expired twice, or three times, or is canceled, whatever maybe be, it’s come off the market and come back on. I know that I’m good with my skills, that I can just have a conversation with them and able to get real and sound like I’m coming from a place of caring, because I do. Whereas I know the five, six people before me, they don’t know what they’re doing. Most of the time they don’t know what they’re doing, they’re not polished up on their scripts and coming from a place of contribution.

Ren Jones08:22

Or they’re afraid. A lot of times they’ll take the first thing, that reflex. No, whatever they say, the people say. “We’re going to give it a break,” “Okay. Good luck to you.”

Greg Coolidge08:31

Oh, thanks. Yeah. The good news is, I’ve never had an expired listener for sale by owner bite me yet. So figuring until I get bit, I’m just going to keep going.

Ren Jones08:46

Okay, good, good, good. Well, let’s talk about for sale owners then.

Greg Coolidge08:49

Sure.

Ren Jones08:50

Because they’re not as time sensitive, you don’t have to hit them at first thing in the morning. You can hit them whenever you talk to them. What’s working with them?

Greg Coolidge09:00

So it has taken me a little bit of time to come up with my own script, if you will, having the opportunity early on of learning a lot of my for sale by owner conversations from you and scripts like Mike Ferry, et cetera. I had to figure out how to not sound like the next person, and yet really understand, try to quickly get to a position where I can get them to answer questions. Because when they hear that, “Oh, you’re another agent, great, here we go. Okay. Yeah. Yep. Nope, thanks for calling,” and you get hung up on real quick.

09:45So I usually come at it from a round angle. It’s like, “Hey, Ren, not sure if you can help me out here, I appreciate you taking my call. I got kind of an odd question for you.” And they’re like, “Okay.” So then I say, “Hey, we’ve got about 15 to 20 properties that are coming up on the market here in the next couple of weeks. Just out of curiosity, where are you moving to and what you looking for?” And it seems to disarm them. And that doesn’t have to be your script, but if you can come from a place that disarms them and get some to step back and breathe.

Ren Jones10:22

Okay. So the, it’s a variation of what I’ve heard, which is something like, main reason I’m calling is not about the listing, but to see if you’ve purchased your next home yet. You’re going after that angle. You’re saying you’re not, “I’ve got a unusual question to ask you. We’ve got these properties coming.” You want to buy one, it’s basically what you’re saying. So you’re coming out of left field on that, which is great, because they don’t get that, everybody wants the listing. So then, how do you end up with the listing? Where do you take it from there?

Greg Coolidge10:54

So that actually, the way that we come into that sets us up in a really good position, because I let them know, “Hey, I am the listing specialist. And as you can see, we are proactive in selling our listings, which is why I’m calling you. So if it were then to make financial sense for you to meet with us, all commissions and everything aside, would you at least be willing to have a conversation on whether listing with us makes sense for you?”

Ren Jones11:24

And when you said that thing about, what’d you say? 40 or 50…

Greg Coolidge11:29

15 to 20 properties.

Ren Jones11:30

That’s a lot of inventory. We’ve got all these homes coming up, wanted to see what… Yeah, perfect. I mean, all of a sudden you’re in rapport, because there’s nothing for them to…

Greg Coolidge11:41

Right.

Ren Jones11:42

Arm wrestle you with.

Greg Coolidge11:43

Yeah.

Ren Jones11:43

You’re like, “That’s a new one.”

Greg Coolidge11:46

Well, and you quickly find out what their motivation is, what their timeline looks like.

Ren Jones11:52

So what do you do with that? Because they’re for sale owners and they’re for sale owners. Some of them have to move and have to move pretty quickly, and there’s some that don’t have to move, or they don’t have to move anytime soon. What do you do with those?

Greg Coolidge12:04

So typically, I’ll put them in a follow-up, and I will try to dig a little harder on their motivation. If they’re not wanting to move quickly, they’re testing the waters, what have you, just put them in a drip and a follow-up. They say, “Hey, give me a call back in a month.” Perfect, I’ll call you in a week and a half, two weeks.

Ren Jones12:26

Okay. All right.

Greg Coolidge12:28

Kind of set them aside.

Ren Jones12:29

Sow when you run low on people to call, then you’ll check in with them to see if the temperature’s increased a little bit.

Greg Coolidge12:35

I just put them in my lead follow up bucket. Yeah.

Ren Jones12:39

So who else you call decide it’s expired for sale by owners? Because that would run out pretty quickly.

Greg Coolidge12:44

Yes. We’ll tap into cancel listings. We see a lot of that in this market right now for one reason or another. And then I do tap into the buyer’s pool as well. One of the cool things about working for sale by owners is that, when I approach it, I will generally be able to figure out if they’re working with an agent. And because it is such a hot market, maybe they were lucky and were able to sell it within the first day or two, but now they’re like, “Well, goodness, I need somewhere to go real fast and I don’t have anyone to help me.” So then we’re able to take that process. And then old expireds.

Ren Jones13:34

So old expireds.

Greg Coolidge13:36

Yeah. I mean, if you’re looking at the numbers of expireds that are occurring on a daily basis, you’re not going to reach every one of them. May have gone on vacation for a week, may have been the weekend where you took off, whatever it may be. You never run out unless you sit there and you’re thorough, and you’re thorough. But somebody’s not going to answer, so you follow up and just tap into those that hadn’t gotten their property sold yet.

Ren Jones14:06

Good. And how’d those go? I mean, what are you finding as some pluses and minuses with old expireds?

Greg Coolidge14:14

Old expireds, they’re a little more marinated, if you will, in terms of…

Ren Jones14:22

What’s that look like? Are they friendlier, or are they mean, or what?

Greg Coolidge14:25

Well, you always have that rag in the basket, but they are a little bit friendlier. It’s easier to get motivation out of them. It’s easier to kind of have a conversation, “Hey, Ren, I was calling about that house that you had up for sale last year. I noticed that it didn’t get sold. Tell me what happened there. You still have any interest in getting it sold?”

Ren Jones14:47

And then they tell you their story, and then you go from there.

Greg Coolidge14:50

Yeah. Yep. They’re a lot more disarmed after a while.

Ren Jones14:52

Yeah. Because we tell a lot of people that when they initially get involved with us, if you can get a good habit going with old expireds, you’re going to have some quick success, because the level of skill required on the old expired isn’t as high. And nobody’s talking to them, so you’re probably going to pick up one or two listings a month from it.

Greg Coolidge15:14

Right. Well, and the other thing too is that if you’re calling old expireds and you’re just starting out, or you’re really trying to polish up on it, they are a bit friendly, and you don’t feel as intimidated because you’re just having a conversation. And I agree with you, I think that is a great place to start off.

Ren Jones15:36

And continue for the rest of your career.

Greg Coolidge15:39

Oh yeah, a hundred percent.

Ren Jones15:41

I mean, it’s a great way to get a good foothold in this while they’re building their skills. Because as you’re talking about, it took you a lot of practice to get where you can start at nine o’clock and set some appointments every day.

Greg Coolidge15:57

So when I started as an ISA 16 months ago, I was in the office and doing my calls by 8:00 AM. And I was very regimented about that. And as we have begun to build our team and my requirements and team modules have shifted a little bit, that’s why I’m in there at 8:45 or nine o’clock. If it’s the first of the month, I’ll generally try to get in earlier too.

Ren Jones16:28

You want to tell them why? Because some of the people are newer to it.

Greg Coolidge16:31

Yeah, absolutely.

Ren Jones16:31

What’s the first of the month about?

Greg Coolidge16:33

Yeah, so the first of the month you’re going to see a much higher spike of expireds, because when the listing agents are putting them in the MLS, it’s six months out from now, easiest thing, the first. Or even maybe the 15th. So you’re seeing a lot of just piles and piles of expired coming up on the first or second of the month.

Ren Jones16:58

Great. Good. Do you ever have one that you looked at it and go, “I know this neighborhood, I want this listing, I’ve got to have it,” and you working and working, working, finally, I have to maybe drive over there and knock on the door? Have you ever done that?

Greg Coolidge17:12

Oh, absolutely.

Ren Jones17:13

So what does that look like?

Greg Coolidge17:13

Absolutely. I have actually gone as far as trying to figure out who we might have mutual friends. And this day, modern technology, you can try to find someone on Facebook, and maybe get a connection that way. I’ve sent out packets with handwritten letters, and had our couriers hand deliver them, along with sending it a certified mail so that I know that they signed for it. I used storyteller as well. From my desk, record a personal video and just say, “Hey, Ren, I notice that your house had just recently come off the market. We actually sold the home right around the corner from you who was in a very similar situation. Would love to chat and see how we may be of service.”

Ren Jones17:59

So you just reach out with a little personal video to them. Somebody you really wanted.

Greg Coolidge18:04

Yes.

Ren Jones18:04

Yep. Good, good, good. So are you working your database?

Greg Coolidge18:08

I am.

Ren Jones18:08

Or the team database, or both, I guess?

Greg Coolidge18:10

Yes. So both. I do work my database, and I’m finding myself at that point in my career where conversations that I was having a year ago, 14 months ago, are starting to come to fruition, and that my friends and sphere are starting to notice.

Ren Jones18:34

Okay, great. So are you tracking numbers? Do you have a goal? You plugged all those in?

Greg Coolidge18:41

Absolutely.

Ren Jones18:42

What does that look like?

Greg Coolidge18:43

So I’m a lot more meticulous and OCD, if you will, about my numbers, about my tracking of everything. And this is what I would recommend for you out there, who’s getting started, so you can understand what your meds and your measurements look like. I track my contacts on a daily basis. Contacts are, have I had a mouth-to-mouth, face-to-face conversation with you and asked you about real estate, given somebody the opportunity to say no. And then I track my conversations to appointments, my number of appointments set, my number of appointments gone on to listings taken, which in turn helps me figure out my goal for the year, and which we have it broken down to my goal for the month.

Ren Jones19:40

Okay. What’s the goal for the year and listings taken?

Greg Coolidge19:43

48.

Ren Jones19:44

48 listings taken. Great.

Greg Coolidge19:46

Well, excuse me. Listings taken, that’s going to be a bit higher. I think it’s right at like 62, because 48 is my listing sold.

Ren Jones19:55

Okay. So LS 48, listing sold. Got it. All right. So which is probably closer to 60, 62 for listings taken. Perfect. And I had another question, I can’t think of what it is. But this is some pretty vital information. So with that database, I know what it was. How big is your personal database? How big is that?

Greg Coolidge20:21

My personal database is actually rather small. So I am newer to the Cincinnati area. I say newer eight years, and yet the first handful of years here that I was working didn’t really build a huge social circle, if you will. So it’s not looking like three, 400 people and it’s like, oh, agents just go sell to all their friends. I mean, have to be very intentional about creating my database and conversations.

Ren Jones20:50

You think it’s a hundred?

Greg Coolidge20:51

It’s about 198.

Ren Jones20:54

198. Not 200.

Greg Coolidge20:56

No.

Ren Jones20:57

Not 196.

Greg Coolidge20:58

Nope.

Ren Jones20:58

198. Okay. About.

Greg Coolidge21:03

About. That’s the number that I send videos out too, and market updates.

Ren Jones21:07

I see. Okay. So 198. Do you do ABC with those, or maybe do you have A clients? Out of that 198 you have 15 people that are almost proven to send you business. Do you have some bird dogs, or whatever you want to call?

Greg Coolidge21:24

I do have a couple bird dogs that…

Ren Jones21:26

Two.

Greg Coolidge21:29

Three, the third one’s kind of, slacks a few days a week.

Ren Jones21:33

Okay. And they’re sending you business.

Greg Coolidge21:35

They are, they are.

Ren Jones21:36

You do anything special with your A group, meet them…

Greg Coolidge21:41

Not yet. So our team does host…

Ren Jones21:44

Still in the early stages of that.

Greg Coolidge21:45

Yes, still in the early stages. We host client events and database events that I make sure to invite them out to. For me, I just really hone in on the one-on-one conversations, catching up for a coffee, for a happy hour, maybe go into one of their kids’ events, whatever it may be, just build those relationships, because that’s what’s important.

Ren Jones22:06

Good. Good, good, good. Well, you’ve over the hurdle, you’re proven, you can every month take several listings. So you’re proven. So what’s it going to look like 10 years from now? You’ve built the database up, you’ve got more than three bird dogs, you got more than 198 in the database. What do you think it looks like 10 years from now?

Greg Coolidge22:28

Endless possibilities.

Ren Jones22:30

Okay.

Greg Coolidge22:31

Ultimately, I’m not sure, and again, only being 14, 16 months into this, not sure what that really would look like in terms of, am I going to quit calling expireds and for sale by owners? I don’t think that I ever will, just because, oddly enough, I enjoy the conversations.

Ren Jones22:51

Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t have guessed that, because it tastes so well. In other words, when we look at the people that we interview that have been doing this for 10 years and 12 and 15, and you watch our show, I mean, they have a lot of money.

Greg Coolidge23:05

Absolutely.

Ren Jones23:05

You can buy some doors. I mean, rental properties.

Greg Coolidge23:10

Ah, yes, yes. Yeah. So our goal is…

Ren Jones23:14

I mean, maybe you haven’t really mapped that out. Where am I five years from now? Where am I 10 years from now?

Greg Coolidge23:19

Oh no, my wife and I have definitely mapped it out.

Ren Jones23:21

So one rental property a year, whatever it may be, maybe that’s too soon.

Greg Coolidge23:25

No. For us, we are looking at building our rental portfolio. What’s important to my wife and I right now is paying down our student debt and getting to a place of that relief.

Ren Jones23:38

So do a little Dave Ramsey first and then… Okay.

Greg Coolidge23:43

Yep. Clear the stress from her…

Ren Jones23:45

Just pay off everything and then buy some doors.

Greg Coolidge23:48

Cash flow the rentals.

Ren Jones23:50

So it’ll go like this.

Greg Coolidge23:51

Exactly. Exactly. So someday, I love the team that I’m on, and I know that when you contribute and you contributed to, team’s a great place to be. And so I see myself on a long term continuing with building…

Ren Jones24:13

In a team environment. When you think about the team environment, the upside of that versus being completely solo. When you go on vacation, somebody covers you.

Greg Coolidge24:23

Oh, it’s so nice. I can turn off my phone and I’ll turn to a team member and say, “Hey, I’m going to be gone for a week.”

Ren Jones24:30

Active listings are taken care of, pen to close, taken care of everything. It’s a good thing.

Greg Coolidge24:35

It is. It is.

Ren Jones24:36

Good deal. Well, this has been a treat. This is helpful information, especially for a lot of people, because Greg’s newer at it, and he’s already up to here, which is exciting. Really exciting.

24:48So let me sell some soap here real quick. If you’re watching on Vulcan7 and you want to get involved with the lead gen Facebook group that airs this show as a simulcast, you go to facebook.com/group/gotobjections. Now, I want to thank Aaron Wittenstein, who airs our show. He has a program called trajectorynow.com.

25:12And finally, Greg’s Secret. He has a secret. And you’re probably wondering, “How did he get so good so fast?” He goes right down the street because you can do that in our city, and get some delicious Breyers mint chocolate chip. This is the one for listings. All the other flavors are for working with buyers in that when he’s had a couple homeless buyers, he gets the black raspberry, or whatever, for working with buyers. But if you want to list a lot of property, get the mint chocolate chip. If the listing is a little slow to sell, dig a hole in the ground and buried it upside down, and that listing will sell just like that.

25:47Anyway, we’ll be back next week with another exciting guest who’s taking several listings every month. See you then.

Greg Coolidge25:55

Thanks.

25:55