S6 E11: DOMINATING YOUR MARKET

Meet Bryan Ogletree from Dayton, OH. Bryan outlines the easy way to have your signs show up everywhere. He is a highly successful solo agent. Bryan says now more than ever you need the best data you can get. He says that Vulcan7 pays for itself time and time again.

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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. Before I introduce our guest, 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. San Diego is definitely a great place to be a listing agent.

Ren Jones (00:46):
Great, wonderful. I want to remind everybody we’re simulcasting the show on the private LeadGen Facebook group. They have 52,000 members, so we have a large audience there today, as well. We’ll be pausing for our commercial message during the show as a thank you to the LeadGen folks. Let’s welcome our guest today from down at Dayton, Ohio. Dog-gonnit, he’s listing property around Cincinnati. Uh-oh. Here we go. Mr. Bryan Ogletree. Welcome to the show again, Bryan, good to have you back.

Bryan Ogletree (01:18):
Thanks for having me back.

Carley Hathaway (01:19):
Hi, Bryan. We’re so excited to pick your brain today. Thanks for being on.

Bryan Ogletree (01:23):
Thank you, Carley.

Ren Jones (01:24):
Bryan’s got some tips that are going to… Folks, if you write down two or three gems here, these are things you can take to the bank and take an extra listing this month. All righty. Good deal. You’ve got a good goal for this year.

Bryan Ogletree (01:39):
I do.

Ren Jones (01:40):
We’re in an early… We’re just starting the year.

Bryan Ogletree (01:42):
Yes.

Ren Jones (01:43):
The goal is-

Carley Hathaway (01:44):
What’s your goal?

Bryan Ogletree (01:45):
Goal is 140 closed transactions.

Ren Jones (01:48):
140 closed. Good deal.

Bryan Ogletree (01:49):
Yes.

Ren Jones (01:49):
That’s exciting.

Carley Hathaway (01:51):
I like it.

(01:51):
What did you do last year, Bryan?

Bryan Ogletree (01:54):
108.

Ren Jones (01:54):
A hundred eight.

Carley Hathaway (01:54):
Alright.

Ren Jones (01:55):
Yeah. Very respectable business for darn sure considering you’re in that top 1% on the planet there.

Carley Hathaway (02:00):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (02:02):
Good deal.

Carley Hathaway (02:02):
What changes are you making this year as opposed to last year to bump up to get those extra 30 or 40 listings?

Bryan Ogletree (02:09):
I’ve actually hired a buyer’s agent and she’s on full-time now, so she’s doing phenomenal. That frees me up not to do more things, but it does allow me to spend more time prospecting and trying to find new business. That’s probably the biggest thing, is leveraging myself out, delegating as much as I possibly can to staff and then running with just trying to generate leads, present to those leads, and ultimately sell them.

Carley Hathaway (02:40):
Alright. I like it. Is that scary to give up some of your control or do you just let it go?

Bryan Ogletree (02:46):
It is, it’s scary at first, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes and it becomes to the point where you don’t really even want to touch it anymore once you get comfortable with it.

Carley Hathaway (02:56):
Good. Nice.

Ren Jones (02:57):
Can we dig a little deeper on that? You have admin people obviously, correct?

Bryan Ogletree (03:00):
Yes.

Ren Jones (03:00):
What do you have in admin?

Bryan Ogletree (03:02):
I have a listing coordinator, a transaction coordinator, and then myself and a buyer’s agent.

Ren Jones (03:08):
Okay. With those two admins, you’ve learned to delegate?

Bryan Ogletree (03:11):
Yes.

Ren Jones (03:12):
A lot of people watching this show struggle with delegating, whether it’s to a buyer’s agent, closing coordinator, whatever. They do it in reverse, they’ll read the email and then give it to the other person, as opposed to that person reading all the email and giving you just what you need. They tend to reverse things, and they need to get out of the way. How did you learn how delegate to people that you trusted to do a job as good, if not a better job than you doing trying to do everything?

Bryan Ogletree (03:42):
Well, you have to realize, number one, that you can’t do everything and they can do a better job at the specific things that they do better than you’ll ever be able to do multitasking with everything. That’s, I think the first step, and the second thing is you also have to realize that they’re going to make mistakes. It’s going to happen. But the biggest mistake or the biggest takeaway in that is the mistakes that they’re going to make are less than what the mistake would be of you not giving it up.

Ren Jones (04:14):
Okay. Because then you get stretched too thin, and then your service is crappy anyway.

Bryan Ogletree (04:18):
Right.

Ren Jones (04:20):
They think it’s noble that you’re trying to cover all those bases and then when you don’t, oh my god.

Bryan Ogletree (04:24):
Right.

Ren Jones (04:25):
Good. You have to hire the right person too, obviously.

Bryan Ogletree (04:29):
You do. Yep.

Ren Jones (04:29):
Do you have some checks and balances, a way to follow up behind and things like that. Do you have some routines around that?

Bryan Ogletree (04:35):
Yeah, so what we’ve done, we’ve built a checklist around the listing side and the transaction side. They work off their checklist and if something’s missing, we can always revert back to that. Did you take this step? Has this been accomplished? Where are we at in the process, from the time a contract comes in to close and from the time a listing comes in until it’s closed, as well.

Ren Jones (04:57):
Okay. Now you have one buyer agent.

Bryan Ogletree (04:59):
Yes.

Ren Jones (05:01):
That’s going to create a lot of additional time for you.

Bryan Ogletree (05:05):
Sure.

Ren Jones (05:07):
What does that look like on the additional time for you? Your existing roles are basically, is it talk to people, set appointments, and go on and take listings?

Bryan Ogletree (05:18):
That’s correct. Yep. Follow up with past clients. That’s literally my largest source of business is my past clients.

Carley Hathaway (05:27):
Good.

Ren Jones (05:27):
Great.

Carley Hathaway (05:28):
Can you walk us through your daily routine?

Bryan Ogletree (05:31):
Yeah. I get in the office, I’m in the office every day at 7:30 in the morning. I role-play until 8:00, 8:30 depending on what day it is and who I have to role-play partners. But no later than 8:30. On the phones generally from 8:30 to 11, 11:30. We have a team meeting at 11:30 to 12:00, lunch from 12:00 to 1:00, and then 1:00 to 2:00 lead follow up. First appointment is at 3:30 for the day.

Carley Hathaway (05:57):
Wonderful. How important is it for you to stay on those tight timeframes? Because I hear even your lunch is like this time to this time always. How important is that?

Bryan Ogletree (06:09):
If you can master your schedule, things become a lot easier. When you start mixing things around and mixing times around, it’s harder to manage. I typically set my appointments for the same time every day, Monday through Thursday. I have two different appointments on Friday and two on Saturday, as well. Last year I gave up Sundays. I think I worked two Sundays last year, but that was my choice.

Carley Hathaway (06:36):
Okay. Your schedule’s nice and tight. Who are you calling first when you’re on the phones by 8:00 or 8:30.

Bryan Ogletree (06:43):
I always go to the expired listings first, because I want to be, generally, the first person to call. You always want to be first if you can, but you don’t know what their schedule is. You don’t know when they’re going to be home. You don’t know when they’re going to pick up their phone. But I always like to try them first and then we’ll go to FSBO’s next, followed by past clients, center of influence.

Carley Hathaway (07:03):
Okay, good.

Ren Jones (07:04):
You can really take this far now that you have, and then when you get your second buyer agent, you really… You can take this far to where really there’s nothing else to do, but list property.

Bryan Ogletree (07:14):
That’s really where I want to get. But back to when I said it’s hard to delegate and hard to let go, it is more delegation. It is more letting go of the process.

Ren Jones (07:28):
When you do, you’re hanging around with, and I watch you. You hang around with other huge producers that are selling at the level that you are and you guys network.

Bryan Ogletree (07:37):
Absolutely.

Ren Jones (07:38):
They’re doing 200, 300 transactions.

Bryan Ogletree (07:40):
Right.

Ren Jones (07:41):
It really is almost a matter of over the next three years that you’re at those sort of numbers.

Bryan Ogletree (07:50):
Yes.

Ren Jones (07:50):
It’s not like if it’s just following a copycat principle-

Bryan Ogletree (07:54):
It is.

Ren Jones (07:54):
Of what they’re doing, modeling after that, continuing to learn the process of letting go.

Bryan Ogletree (08:00):
If somebody else is doing, it’s certainly possible.

Ren Jones (08:02):
Yeah,

Carley Hathaway (08:04):
Exactly. You do, as Ren and I have seen you hang out with other top producers, how do you think that changes your mindset or helps you?

Bryan Ogletree (08:14):
Because suddenly your biggest problem is something that they’ve handled before and they can help walk you through it, so it’s easier to go to that rather than try to learn it yourself or learn how to do it yourself. Reaching out to somebody knowing that you may not have the answer that they already have or they’ve already experienced, they’ve already paid the dumb tax, if you will. They’ve already made the mistakes. They can show you how to get to that next level, handle that next problem without going through all the headaches and hassles.

Ren Jones (08:41):
A lot of the people you hang out with, they have people shadow, and I’m sure you can shadow them. Can somebody who wants to get to 140 come shadow you and see what your morning’s like?

Bryan Ogletree (08:52):
Absolutely.

Ren Jones (08:53):
Okay. In Dayton, Ohio.

Bryan Ogletree (08:54):
Yep.

Ren Jones (08:55):
Very easy to get to.

Bryan Ogletree (08:56):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (08:56):
Good.

Carley Hathaway (08:58):
Good. How long does your listing appointment usually take?

Bryan Ogletree (09:02):
Typically about 30 minutes.

Carley Hathaway (09:04):
That’s great. That’s awesome. Are you sending a pre-listing packet?

Bryan Ogletree (09:08):
Yes, as much as possible. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way. They want to meet right away, logistically it just is not possible, but it’s better… If they’re better prepared for the meeting and the appointment, there’s less objections that come out during the appointment. It makes for a quicker appointment.

Carley Hathaway (09:28):
Yeah.

Bryan Ogletree (09:29):
They’re more prepared, rather than sitting down with them and bombarding them with information. It’s easier if they have that in advance, because maybe they’re going to come up with questions that you can answer.

Carley Hathaway (09:39):
It just looks more professional. It sets you above your competition.

Bryan Ogletree (09:42):
It does.

Carley Hathaway (09:42):
Yeah. Let me ask you this, are you including a contract with the price on there or no?

Bryan Ogletree (09:47):
No, not always. It’s one thing I still struggle with, because you always get the objection. You have a really good idea of… When you produce at a high level and you take a lot of listings, you have a very good idea of what houses in that neighborhood will sell for. But it can be difficult because there can be anomalies that you’re not prepared for. I know, it’s one of the things I do still struggle with.

Carley Hathaway (10:11):
Well, it’s hard because you don’t want to scare them away.

Bryan Ogletree (10:14):
You don’t, but as long as you’re not using it as an excuse, not to prospect more.

Carley Hathaway (10:19):
Yeah, true.

Ren Jones (10:21):
Good deal. Alrighty. Well, it’s always fun to check in and watch you going up, and up, and up and up.

Carley Hathaway (10:28):
I know we go to check-

Ren Jones (10:28):
Our delegation is-

Carley Hathaway (10:28):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (10:32):
That’s how this business is built. Then there’s going to be a time when the only thing he does is luxury. Now, in Dayton, Ohio, you get some luxury.

Bryan Ogletree (10:43):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (10:43):
For a really good-

Bryan Ogletree (10:45):
But honestly, Ren, time in the business will build your business. You can do this for 30 years and build a decent book of business after 30 years. But if you use the tools and resources like what Vulcan7 provides, you can build that business a lot faster and a lot bigger.

Ren Jones (11:00):
Well, what do they say? There’s the people know and the people you don’t know. One of them is bigger. We definitely help in the category of the people you don’t know. Although, most people put their database into our system so that they can keep notes and have a scheduled calling pattern. Good deal. But anyway, appreciate your time, the same thing.

Bryan Ogletree (11:25):
Well, thanks for having me.

Ren Jones (11:27):
We’ll see you again soon I’m sure. Congratulations for having such a successful growth and nice bump in your business. It’s always a treat.

Bryan Ogletree (11:37):
Thank you.

Ren Jones (11:37):
It’s always-

Carley Hathaway (11:38):
Yeah. Let’s check in with you in six months and see if you’re on track to meet your goal. How about that?

Bryan Ogletree (11:43):
That sounds good. That’d be the end of July.

Carley Hathaway (11:45):
Perfect.

Ren Jones (11:46):
Now, if those of you who watched his last show, you already know his secret. Bryan goes and gets delicious, and they sell it in his market all over the place-

Carley Hathaway (11:56):
They do.

Ren Jones (11:57):
Graeter’s ice cream, they even have stores there in his market. You don’t have to go to graeters.com to find the store near you. They have Graeter stores there. This is the mint chocolate chip is the one for listings. Then Bryan occasionally has a listing that’ll be like 20, 30 days on the market and he needs it to sell fast. Actually, he’ll be delegating that from now on, sends his administrator out to the front yard and digs a hole and buries it upside down. Then that listing sells just like that. You’re going to want to get that. If you’re eating any other flavor, you’re obviously working with buyers, this is the stuff. All right. See you guys next week.

Bryan Ogletree (12:38):
See you guys.

Carley Hathaway (12:38):
Bye. Thanks Bryan. Thanks Ren.

Ren Jones (12:39):
Bye, everybody.