S6 E12: HIGHLY COMPETITIVE

Ren Jones (00:05):
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 is 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.

(00:30):
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 (00:40):
Hey, Ron. Hey everybody. Real estate’s great. Love being in San Diego for sure.

Ren Jones (00:45):
Good. I know the weather’s nice.

Carley Hathaway (00:47):
Yes.

Ren Jones (00:47):
Before I introduce our guest today, I want to remind everyone, we are also simulcasting the show on the private Lead Gen Facebook group. They have 52,000 members, so we have a large audience there today as well. And we’ll be pausing for a commercial message during the show as a thank you to the lead gen folks.

(01:05):
Let me welcome our guest today from beautiful Las Vegas and we all love Las Vegas, Mr. Tom Love. Welcome, Tom.

Tom Love (01:14):
Thank you. Appreciate you guys having me on.

Ren Jones (01:16):
Glad you’re here. How’s the real estate business in Las Vegas?

Tom Love (01:20):
Phenomenal, phenomenal. We’ve put 10 into escrow in the last 10 days, so we’re loving life. Great weather.

Carley Hathaway (01:26):
I like the one a day.

Ren Jones (01:27):
So, is this a daily vitamin for him, I guess. One a day, huh?

Carley Hathaway (01:30):
One a day.

Tom Love (01:31):
Yeah, we’re going to keep it going, too.

Carley Hathaway (01:32):
Awesome!

Ren Jones (01:33):
Good. What’s the goal for this year?

Tom Love (01:35):
My goal’s always an income goal, and as long as I can hit three million in income, my family will be happy.

Ren Jones (01:41):
That’s good. Now, you work a little higher price range. What’s the typical selling price?

Tom Love (01:47):
Yeah. Our average price range, probably around a million dollars or up, but we’re not opposed to doing properties that are less than that, but that’s what we focus on and that seems to be our niche.

Ren Jones (01:55):
Okay. Because you’re going to have people that are watching this and want to send their clients your way. Listings and buyers. So, come one, come all, huh? Okay.

Tom Love (02:05):
We’ll take take. We’ll take houses. We’ll take land. We’ll take commercial. We do it all.

Carley Hathaway (02:09):
All right, good. A lot of people actually are moving from San Diego to Vegas, so what’s the best way for people to get ahold of you to send you referrals?

Tom Love (02:16):
They can call me direct at (702) 838-5100.

Ren Jones (02:22):
Good deal.

Tom Love (02:23):
That’s my direct line. So, tell them to call me. And tell you what, they’re smart to move here. Vegas has a lot to offer.

Ren Jones (02:29):
Well, especially if you’re in California, you go from 13.3% tax to zero.

Tom Love (02:35):
We love our California buyers. They’re coming and they’re coming in droves.

Carley Hathaway (02:39):
I’ll send them and the Oakland or soon to be Vegas Raiders are going to be there.

Tom Love (02:43):
A lot of the Vegas Raiders have already bought, and a lot of the coaching and management staff have already bought. So, the town is hustling and bustling. We got the Raiders, we got the Golden Knights. Things are just going great here. Tons and tons of development happening, so we’re blessed and we got no state income tax, so that’s another great reason to come here. And I think people will really like the fact that we have no traffic compared to California.

Carley Hathaway (03:05):
Oh, yeah, none. And I bet you the professional athletes love that zero tax.

Tom Love (03:10):
They love the zero tax. They love a lot about Vegas. The only time we have traffic is like we’ve had the last two days with the president being in town for his rally. So, other than that, it’s a smooth sailing on all of our freeways.

Ren Jones (03:22):
Good.

Carley Hathaway (03:22):
Nice. Good, good. I heard a rumor that the Oakland A’s are coming there. Is that true?

Tom Love (03:28):
I haven’t heard that rumor. I know that we’ve got a great AAA club here and I know that we’ve got the best AAA stadium because everything in Vegas is new, so it’s brand new built. There’s rumors about that and there’s rumors about a lot of things, but I wouldn’t comment on that until I know for sure.

Carley Hathaway (03:43):
So, do you have a team and who consists of your team?

Tom Love (03:46):
Yeah, we’ve got a small team. We’ve got two buyers agents and then we’ve got support staff. We’ve got a marketing department, transaction coordinator, so we keep it small. I had a big team previously and I found that they drained a lot of my time and it was a lot of people that didn’t want to do the Mike Ferry System, that didn’t want to do the hard work. And I’m a believer in the system. It’s paid me very well over the years and we put the system to work every day. We used Vulcan7. We had previously used a different dial several years ago, and we moved over to Vulcan7 and we’re thrilled with the product and I’ve spent the first part of my morning calling expireds and it pays very well.

Ren Jones (04:22):
Good. So, you’re looking for business and bringing it in every day. How many listings do you typically take in a month?

Tom Love (04:32):
It just depends. I mean, this month we’ve already taken 10, so we’re just hustling out there. So, the work is there when we work. We’ve found that if we can stay on schedule, like my coach Steve Power says, and I think he’s the best coach I’ve ever had. He says, “We’re hunters. You got to be out there hunting for the business if you want to do a big business.” And that’s what we do every day. We’re out there hunting, talking to people about buying and selling real estate. And that’s why we really like Vulcan7 because it helps us get our contacts up.

Carley Hathaway (04:59):
Good, good. So, you’re not just sitting back waiting for friends or family to give you a call and be like, “Hey, it’s your cousin Bob. I want to sell my house.”

Tom Love (05:07):
Oh! Hey, if I may say so, “Hell, no.” We’re out hunting. We’re out hunting. If we’re waiting for the business, aggressive agents like myself, we’ll go swallow it all up before it gets to us. So, we’re out there hustling every day, fighting for that business.

Ren Jones (05:19):
Nice.

Carley Hathaway (05:19):
Good for you. Love it.

Tom Love (05:20):
And I’ll tell the agents that are listening to this, take a look at what your average commission is and start figuring what it costs you if you’re not out hustling for that business or if you let somebody beat you up for that business. If you monetize this business and start to realize that that phone call might be a 10, 20, 30, a hundred thousand dollars phone call, those phone calls will come easier and easier. When you’re competing for that business, when you go in to meet with that seller, before you go in, if you visualize and think about how much that check is going to be, what you can do with that check, I think you’re going to find that it’ll get your competition blood flowing through your body. You’ll work harder, you’ll work smarter, and you’ll get more of those listings.

Carley Hathaway (05:56):
Mm-hmm.

Ren Jones (05:58):
That hunter personality, that hunter mindset, have you always been a hunter or is it just something you developed?

Tom Love (06:04):
As a driver, I think I’ve always been a hunter, but it’s like anything in this business, you have ups and downs. You have good days, you have bad days. You have good weeks, you have bad weeks. We have our fair share of trials and tribulations. I’m also a big fan of Zig Ziegler. I listen to him all the time. My kids hate it, but I hope it’ll pay some benefits for them down the road. You just got to keep that mental attitude because we are in a highly rejection business. If you’re not making calls and if you’re not getting rejected, you’re not doing your job.

(06:31):
So, as I mentioned, I bring a dog to work with me every day. She’s great therapy. So, if I get a bad phone call, I might take five minutes, play with my dog a little bit, gets my attitude back up. But I’m a believer that I’m not going to let one person that treats me negatively really determine what my income’s going to be for that day. And I look and see what property they own, and I look and see what I own and I say, “Let’s keep working hard.”

Ren Jones (06:53):
That’s it. So, like you said, there are days you don’t feel like it. There are tougher days than others. Some days it comes naturally. Do you have anything, a little process you go through on the days you don’t feel like it, fake it till you make it or something?

Tom Love (07:08):
Well, here’s the truth. There are a lot of days that I don’t feel like it. You’re always trying to increase what you drive, what you live in, what’s around you, your surroundings, the money that you need to make. So, once you set your lifestyle up so high, you can’t take those days off. It keeps you very, very motivated. So, I’ve set my life up where I be motivated.

(07:27):
Every once in a while, if I’m having a bad day, I’ll shoot you straight. I might take that day off if I think that I’m not going to be productive and I might refuel up the gas tank and then tomorrow I’ll just work twice as hard.

Ren Jones (07:37):
Okay. That’s a strategy.

Tom Love (07:40):
It is a strategy.

Ren Jones (07:42):
That is a good one, too.

Carley Hathaway (07:43):
So, if you do take a day off, do you have a number of contacts you need to reach a day or do you judge it by how many appointments you need for the week? Or how do kind of keep that?

Tom Love (07:52):
We go for three hours a day worth of prospecting. The contacts are going to vary based on how many people actually answer, how many people actually answer and how long that they want to talk. So, my goal is simply everything is goal based. If you go back to Zig Ziegler, if you go back to Mike Ferry, we look and we have a daily objective as far as goals. And that goal is time, just like we have an objective as far as how much money that I have to make.

(08:15):
So, if we look at our daily basis, and that’s one of the ways to keep on your target, even when you’re having a bad day, if everything’s goal central, then you can’t have too many bad days in a row because your goals will keep you motivated and keep pushing you. Even when I take that day off, I know that it’s good for my mental health because I know if my mind’s not there, I’m not going to be as productive. I’ll be at home trying to figure out what I need to do to get my mindset back on. I continue with the coaching because there’s always something to be learned. There’s always something to be refreshed on, and being around these other great agents helps motivate you. That’s one of the greatest motivators for me. When you think about Bernie and some of these other guys that are doing hundreds of transactions, it motivates me to keep pushing harder.

Ren Jones (08:59):
Fantastic. Fantastic. Now there’s a process with this, so you’re just putting in good stuff. Mindset’s such a big piece in this, and for a lot of people watching, and I know a lot of you guys are watching, and here’s somebody that every week is taking a listing or two or three. The mindset piece drives it. If you can fix this, then everything else works. Do you wing it or are you very scripted?

Tom Love (09:24):
Everything is scripted, and I’ll tell you, we haven’t reinvented the wheel. I don’t know why people would try to wing it when you’ve got all Mike Ferry scripts. I mean, we use them and I’m a better salesperson when I’m using his scripts. There’s times where I notice that I get off script, and those are the times where I flounder. If I stay on script, if I stay to the canned presentation, I find that my results are the best.

Ren Jones (09:49):
Good. Good, good, good.

Carley Hathaway (09:49):
Yeah, I agree. Hey, so you said you’re a driver and it’s very clear that you are. So, how do you change your personality type to suit other personality types that maybe aren’t the best for you, like, say, an analytical?

Tom Love (10:07):
Well, great question, and I’ll tell you how I answer that. Not only am a driver, I think I’m of an Academy Award-winning actor, and I think that before I go on the appointment, I think about it and I think about the commission check. I think about that I’m the best agent for the job for these folks because customer service is going to be important, and I don’t want them to fall into the hands of somebody that won’t do a good job for them. So, I get my mental mindset saying, “I need to go in there. I need to listen to these folks. I need to try and identify if they’re a driver, if they’re an analytical, if they’re an amiable,” and find out who they are. And I try to mirror, match, and mimic them so that they feel comfortable with me. It’s all part of being a great salesperson, and that is mirroring and matching these folks. So, I’m not going to say that it’s easy. Analyticals drive me crazy, but I don’t want to eliminate that piece of the pie from potential income for me. So, it’s something that I have to work on and practice every day. And that book Versatile Selling is all about the four personality styles, and I would suggest anybody out there in sales to read it. It’ll be monumental as far as helpful to your success.

Ren Jones (11:10):
Okay. So, you’re just not looking for people that connect with how you are, I hear the word listen, I wrote that down, that you’re listening carefully trying to determine how they transmit and receive information, and then you communicate in their style. Is that correct?

Tom Love (11:26):
Absolutely and people feel more comfortable around people that are like them. So, that’s why I said I’m an Academy Award-winning actor. When I go in there, I have to be like them so they feel comfortable with me. And if they’re comfortable with me, the natural ending is they’ll sign the contract. And that’s what I’m looking for. Signatures on the contract. Listings right now basically equate to sales. I mean, things are selling so well, and I think if you get your mindset around that, it will really motivate you that you want these listings because they will end up in a big check for you.

Carley Hathaway (11:58):
Yeah, I agree. It’s so true. And I think, too, it’s about getting past your ego, because I don’t want to sit and listen to an analytical for the next 20 minutes, but it’s like, “Get past your ego. Just do it. Be analytical with them. Mirror and match.” Be an expressive like me, even though it’s really hard.

Tom Love (12:18):
Ego is the kiss of death in this business, and I spoke about it when Mike had the good fortune to be on the stage with Mike a couple years back. Ego’s hard because once you reach a certain level of success, it’s easy to walk in there saying, “I’m the best agent for the job. I just deserve the business.” If you walk into appointments like that, you won’t get the business. Everyone is a new piece of business, and you have to approach it with the basics. Basics in my business is really what causes us to be successful. All these gimmicks, we’re not a gimmick broker. We make the phone calls, we stay on script, we use great resources like Vulcan7, and the end of the day, the money rolls in. But it’s hard work but I like the money.

Carley Hathaway (12:58):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (12:59):
So, wait a minute. Now you’re saying because everybody or they’re thinking, “Well, he’s just powerful. “You’re saying basics. You’re saying, “No ego.” You’re saying, “Basics.” You’re not running an elaborate TV campaign or billboard campaign or radio campaign. You’re not running a very elaborate system that that’s got a lot of gimmick stuff that’s pretty common out there. You’re not doing that but you’re one of the top producing agents in the country.

Tom Love (13:31):
The basics is what make us money. Gimmicks never make any money for us. So, it’s the basics. It’s getting on the phone, making these phone calls, talking to people about buying and selling, being able to overcome their objections, staying on script, and that really is what works for us. And on those bad days, when you don’t feel like making a phone call, when you don’t want the rejection, the basics is what will keep you steady every day. And it’s that steadiness that will actually really get that snowball effect where these leads and prospects become actual listings. These listings become escrows. Escrows become closings. Closings becomes money that we can put in our bank. And then the money in that bank becomes the way that I can facilitate great things for my family. So, it is the basics that gets you through the process.

Ren Jones (14:16):
Yeah. And folks, don’t kid yourself. You’re watching this and you’re going, “Well, he’s in Las Vegas and the price point’s high. It’s probably easy there.” No, it’s not. It’s one of the hardest markets in the country. One of the hardest markets in the country. And the fact that he’s doing it off the basics and is one of the highest players in town, take a look.

Carley Hathaway (14:33):
Yeah. It shows … I-

Ren Jones (14:34):
Use the copycat principle. Use the copycat principle.

Carley Hathaway (14:37):
Yeah. He-

Tom Love (14:37):
Well, think about your bottom line, too, because you can spend all the money in the world, which Mike talks about, and there are a lot of agents that do that, and I do make a nice investment as far as trying to get marketing out there as well. But if you don’t couple that with the basics, it’s not going to work. Because there’s lots of great agents in this town and they’re making the phone calls, they’re knocking on the doors, and they’re doing all the things that people don’t think are being done, but that’s why they’re successful. There’s really no magic wand. It’s hard work with having a system. So, I think, the easy part is you can have a system if you believe in the Mike Ferry system, and when I say, “Believe in it,” you have to truly believe in it. You have to work it, and you have to give it enough time for it to work. I tell everybody we’re farmers, like Bloomberg says, “It’s pretty easy.” You just dig a hole and put the seed in there. We’re farmers.

Ren Jones (15:25):
All righty.

Carley Hathaway (15:26):
I like that one. Yeah.

Tom Love (15:27):
This business is very easy. You make the phone calls, you go knock on the doors, you talk to people about buying and selling. Some will, some won’t. So what? Next. Find the ones that have a want or a need. Keep calling them. And you kind of just get yourself in collision with people that actually want to buy or sell.

Ren Jones (15:42):
All right. So, now that sounds like repetitious boredom. Now, most people don’t like that. A lot of people don’t like repetitious boredom.

Tom Love (15:50):
They don’t like it until they do it enough that they become great at it and they realize it’s part of the process. And it’s how you make a great income in this business. We don’t do this business for any other reason other than the fact that we can make a great income and we can make a difference because our clients get great service, and more importantly, they get great results. And that’s what we’re in this for.

Carley Hathaway (16:11):
Mm-hmm. And what Ren was saying earlier is you live in a very competitive town. So, what do you say when you’re the 14th expired phone call they’ve gotten?

Tom Love (16:21):
Well, if you get up a little bit earlier, you won’t be the 14th. And you know what? You just make the phone calls, and if you stick to the script, and if you’re pleasant, if you’re professional, people that don’t have a want or a need, they’re going to be rude. They’re going to hang up you. They don’t care that I’ve sold over $700 million in real estate. They don’t care how much money I make. You don’t get too far with them. I’m looking for somebody that has a want or a need. If they have a want or a need, then I go through the process with asking the questions, and then I close for the appointment. It’s super simple. We make this business tougher than what it really needs to be. Talk to people about buying or selling real estate.

(16:55):
And again, I go back to the premise. Some will, some won’t. So what? Next. I want to find people that want to do business, that want to work. And the number one thing, it doesn’t matter how new you are, how experienced you are. If you’re not working with somebody that’s motivated, you’re going to hate this business. So, you have to talk to enough people to find motivated buyers. If you work with buyers, that’s your thing. It’s not mine. But if you want to work with motivated sellers, your life will become incredibly easy because motivated people make this business easier. Non-motivated people make this business terrible.

Carley Hathaway (17:30):
Mm-hmm.

Ren Jones (17:30):
Good.

Ren Jones (17:30):
What are you doing with your database? You’re putting together some ideals. There are a lot of people that have done business with you now. What do you do with them?

Tom Love (17:38):
You got to call your database because you don’t want to be a one-trick pony. When I say, “A one-trick pony,” you don’t want to be a guy that just calls expireds. You don’t want to be a guy that just calls for sale by owners. You don’t want to be a guy that just calls your sphere of influence. You want to be a guy that has a funnel and you can funnel different people through, whether it’s expireds, whether it’s for sale by owners, whether it’s past clients, sphere of influence, things of that nature. So, we try to break up our day. They say, “Eat the frog,” and eat the frog means do the things that’s hardest in your day first. So, that’s why I try and get my first three hours worth of phone calls when my energy’s the highest in the morning, and I try and make those phone calls.

(18:14):
So, after we make our phone calls to our expireds, after we chase after that, then we go into our sphere of influence and our past clients, because those are what we call warm calls. Those make my day a little bit easier as I get a little bit more drained by the tougher calls in the morning.

Ren Jones (18:28):
So many agents, especially as their production is lower, work nights and weekends. What say you? When do you work?

Tom Love (18:35):
I’ll tell you the truth. I like weekends. I like working on Saturdays because people are home. I like to do a lot of door knocking. So, Saturdays are usually my door knocking day. You be surprised how many people are surprised when I actually knock at their door and we get a great response from that. Sundays I take off. That’s a day that I spend with my family. But evenings, I don’t mind working evenings either because people are typically home.

Ren Jones (18:59):
Gotcha.

Tom Love (19:00):
And I get good responses from evening phone calls.

Ren Jones (19:03):
Well, I can hear some of our audience saying now, “What does he say when he goes to the door? What does he say?”

Carley Hathaway (19:07):
Yeah, what does he say?

Ren Jones (19:08):
They want to know. They want to know what you say.

Tom Love (19:10):
I stick to the script. “I’m sure you figured out by now your home’s come up on our computer as an expired listing.”

Ren Jones (19:16):
Ah! So, you’re knocking on expired doors. Okay.

Tom Love (19:18):
Expired doors. Yeah, yeah.

Ren Jones (19:21):
Gotcha. All right.

Tom Love (19:22):
Absolutely.

Carley Hathaway (19:23):
Yeah. Well, he did-

Ren Jones (19:24):
Perfect. Well, they have a home for sale and no agent, so why not?

Tom Love (19:27):
Well, you’ll differentiate yourself from the people that are just calling. I’ll knock on a door and they’ll say, “Oh, I’ve had a hundred phone calls today,” which they probably have. And I’ll say, “Well, how many people have been to your door?” “Just you.” “That’s exactly why you want to hire me. Let me come in and take a look at the house and show you the techniques that I use to sell homes.”

Ren Jones (19:46):
Good. Perfect. I love it. This is powerful stuff, folks. Use the copycat principle. Play this thing over and over and over and over and over, and then-

Carley Hathaway (19:56):
And then over.

Tom Love (19:57):
Everything I’m doing is copycat principle, and none of these are ingenious ideas by me. These are simple things that I’ve learned from Mike or I’ve learned from other great agents that I’m just brave enough to put them into action.

Carley Hathaway (20:11):
Nice. We love it.

Ren Jones (20:12):
Good. Good, good, good.

Carley Hathaway (20:13):
So, okay, so the most serious, important question is when did you change your name to Tom Love to be more successful?

Tom Love (20:20):
Well, I was blessed to be born with a good name, so I got my father to thank for that. But-

Carley Hathaway (20:26):
Yay!

Tom Love (20:26):
… Tom Love’s always been my name and it works out good in my business. If you call me, my ringtone is All You Need is Love. People seem to like that.

Carley Hathaway (20:34):
Oh, I love that.

Ren Jones (20:35):
There we go. Well, the Beatles wrote a song about you, I guess. Okay.

Tom Love (20:39):
Absolutely.

Carley Hathaway (20:40):
Yeah. Okay, next time we’re in Vegas, we’ll all go to the Love show.

Tom Love (20:43):
Oh, it’s a great show. I love it.

Ren Jones (20:45):
That’s it.

Carley Hathaway (20:46):
Can I just say, I’ve been going to Vegas a lot lately, and I have not gotten in an Uber that wasn’t a real estate agent yet.

Tom Love (20:52):
Oh, no kidding.

Carley Hathaway (20:53):
Where?

Tom Love (20:54):
It’s interesting.

Ren Jones (20:54):
Well, in Las Vegas, it’s hard to get a foothold unless you’re Tom Love and you’re doing it the right way, folks.

Carley Hathaway (21:00):
Yep.

Tom Love (21:01):
So, I’ll tell you, whether you’re an Uber driver or whether you’re Tom Love, it only works if you work. And I think that that’s what sometimes people misunderstand. You can have all the great ideas, you can have all the knowledge in the world. You can spend your whole life going to seminars, but if you don’t take the time to actually put these things into motion, you’re not going to see the results. You have to take your ego out of the way, not be afraid of the rejection, and you need to get out there and talk to more people. That’s it. It’s simple.

Ren Jones (21:28):
That’s it, right? Just talk to people, talk to people.

(21:32):
So, I want to thank everybody for being here. If you’re watching on our Vulcan7 network, you want to get involved with the Lead Gen Facebook group, they’re at facebook.com/groups/gotobjections. Finally, if you’re watching on Facebook and you’re not yet involved with Vulcan7, you make sure to sign up at Vulcan7.com/leadgen for a special deal. And then Tom Love’s Secret, the secret why he is so powerful in one of the world’s toughest markets, and one of the top, top, top producers in the entire North America part of North America.

(22:07):
At the end of his prospecting, he goes to the freezer. He gets some delicious Graeter’s mint chocolate chip. This is the one for listings. The other flavors like Rocky Road are for buyers, but if you want to list a lot of property, you eat the delicious mint chocolate chip. If the listing is slow to sell, it’s one in Summerland and it’s just not moving. You dig a hole in the front yard, bury it upside down and that listing will sell just like that.

(22:29):
I want to appreciate everybody for being here, and I want you to join us next week when we have another exciting guest who is setting the world on fire, although it’ll be hard to find one as successful as Mr. Tom. Love. Thank you again for being here, Tom.

Carley Hathaway (22:44):
Thanks, Mr. Love.

Tom Love (22:45):
Hey, thank you. Great, good time guys. Thank you.

Carley Hathaway (22:47):
(singing)

Ren Jones (22:47):
Thank you, everybody. Thank you, guys.