How Tim Burgess averaged $400,000 a year on 40-hour weeks by working a system

Tim Burgess00:04

When you practice a script, you have confidence. You have confidence in what you’re gonna say. Here’s another thing that happens that I think people are missing. When you practice that much, you never have to think about what you’re saying. Therefore, you can concentrate 100% of your energy on active listening.

00:20And you can actually listen to them instead of only thinking about what am I gonna say next.

00:31And a lot of salespeople get caught up in that, especially if they don’t practice. Because they’re always worried about what am I gonna say next. But you gotta know how to speak their language.

Loida Velasquez00:48

Everyone, welcome back to a brand new episode of Vulcan 7 Coaches and Mentors, where we bring you some of the best in the industry that share with us some of their tips and strategies so that you can be a successful real estate agent in this market. Now, today’s guest has done a lot of transactions, has had a lot of great success, especially in the beginning.

01:11So with that being said, I wanna bring up Tim Burgess. Welcome, Tim.

Tim Burgess01:15

Well, thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

Loida Velasquez01:17

Yes. So for anyone that’s watching that may not be familiar with you, go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself.

Tim Burgess01:23

Sure. You know, it all started… I mean, I came from a broken home, quit school in the eighth grade, and I found a mentor.

01:30And this mentor, he taught me success principles. And so for three and a half years, I’m being mentored by this guy, and then that opportunity went away. So what does a kid that quit school in the eighth grade do? I get a real estate license. Anybody can do that. So I did, and I floundered around miserably for about five months part-time while I still had a full-time job, and then I was told I should probably quit, I wasn’t gonna make it.

01:53And that kind of rubbed me the wrong way, ’cause I’m not a quitter. I’m not quitting. So I did quit, though. I quit my job and I jumped into real estate full time. And armed with the right script and calling the right people who had a need for my service, I listed 17 houses my very first month in the business

02:10and sold 92 houses my first year.

02:14And then it got good.

Loida Velasquez02:19

As if that wasn’t good enough already.

Tim Burgess02:20

So, and then it got good. See, because what happened was I did that type of production, Loida, and I was miserable, because I had no time. I had no life. I gave everything away to the real estate business, and that’s not why I’ve…

02:33That’s just not the life I wanted, so I developed a system.

Tim Burgess02:37

And the system allowed me to average right around 400,000 every year while I never worked more than 40 hours a week, and I very seldom ever worked a weekend.

Loida Velasquez02:47

Wow. That’s awesome.

Tim Burgess02:48

Yeah.

02:50And it’s just because of a system. I have a system in place. And that allows me to produce results that others don’t produce, because they seemingly are very active without being productive.

Loida Velasquez03:03

Exactly. Sometimes I feel that agents say that they’re busy, but nothing is getting done. You’re running like a chicken with their head cut off.

03:10You think you’re working with clients, but turns out that they’re tire kickers. You don’t have systems in place. So glad that you’re bringing that up. So if you wanna go ahead and share with us maybe a little bit, or however much you wanna share, because there’s probably agents out there that are listening, and they’re probably like, “Wow, I wish that I could do the production that Tim was doing.

03:30Like, how can I get there right now?”

Tim Burgess03:32

Yeah. And you know what? It’s so simple that it almost hurts.

03:37Because it really comes down to the basics of four Ps. Plan, practice, prospect, and persistent follow-up. Now, I know we just threw some people into a tailspin when we said you might have to prospect.

03:49Don’t freak out. That’s part of the sales industry. We get to prospect. But if we follow the four Ps and then we wrap it around what we call a daily method of operation, we know what to do, when to do it, who to call, what to say, how to overcome their objections, how to make this connection

04:07to where they like and trust us enough over the telephone to give us the appointment. And it’s that system of doing that, the four Ps, plan, practice, prospect, persistent follow-up, four to five days every week without fail, and then the rest of my business was by appointment only. If I didn’t want an appointment, I didn’t take it then.

04:25If I had an appointment to go boating, that’s what I did. And I know that sounds crazy. You go, “Go boating?” Well, here’s the point. When I built my daily method of operation, Loida, I built my personal things in there first. You know, the taking care of the kids. We gotta get the kids on the school bus, things like this.

04:44We have things to do. And then we put the business stuff.

04:48And then as long as we do it consistently, we get consistent results.

04:54And it doesn’t matter what market we’re in. I don’t care what the interest rates are doing. I don’t care what market you’re in. None of that matters.

05:04If you do this consistently, follow a system, you get consistent results and consistent profitability. It’s really not that difficult. I think humans make it hard.

Loida Velasquez05:12

Exactly. No, and it’s great that you’re bringing that up, that you don’t care about the interest rates or what the market is doing, because

05:18I think we hear it all the time where agents say, “Oh, well, there’s already so many agents in my city. How am I gonna succeed?” Or, “Everyone’s already making calls. No one’s gonna answer me.” And just like you said, sometimes it’s almost like we self-sabotage. It’s like instead of complaining, just get to work.

05:35You’ll never know. You’ll be surprised.

Tim Burgess05:37

I was talking with somebody earlier today, and they’re in the state of Florida. And if my understanding is correct, there’s somewhere around over 220,000 real estate agents just in that one state.

Tim Burgess05:50

And they’ve done well. They’ve done about 8.5 million. But they’ve given their life away to do it.

06:00We’re talking 60 to 70 hours every week.

06:04They’re in their second year, and they’re approaching burnout.

06:08If you’re 60, 70 hours, you have no personal life. You’re, you know, nine, 10 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s crazy. And, you know, with the income and the split, and she’s on a team and things like this, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with all of that.

06:23You can be on a team and still do very well, but she’s done all that production, and she’s made less than $100,000.

06:31Yeah. So the team and all the splits and stuff are taking the money. Now, I’m not bashing teams. Please don’t take it that way, because I’m not.

06:40But there’s somebody who’s doing well in the state with an overabundance of real estate agents.

06:46Well, she wants to step out and start doing it on her own, so she’s talking about we’ve got to start calling, and more business that she generates instead of being generated through the team.

06:59Yeah. And if she doesn’t do that and doesn’t have a system, she knows when she steps out of the team, who does have a system in place, that her chances of success are seriously diminished.

Loida Velasquez07:10

Yeah, exactly. And, you know, it’s funny that you bring up the number of agents out here, pretty much in any state, because a lot of agents use that as an excuse.

07:20But what I like to tell them is that just because there’s 200,000 agents, it doesn’t mean that they’re all actually working. Some of them have a license, but they work a full-time job somewhere else. They’ve never done a deal. They pay for their fees and dues, but they don’t even know how to write a contract.

07:37And I think those numbers intimidate a lot of agents, where it’s like, you know, stop worrying about others. If you get to work, and just like the four Ps that you mentioned, if you are disciplined and doing this consistently, you’re gonna get results, just like this lady that you just mentioned that’s

07:52obviously doing amazing for herself.

Tim Burgess07:55

Now, it’s such a simple concept. It’s so simple to do, but as we’ve learned, what is simple to do is also simple not to do.

08:04And you’re right, the majority of agents, they get into the business with the dream of independence and earning good money, and most people, if you ask them, who get in this business, “How much do you want to earn?”

08:16They’ll say $100,000. Now, why they came up with that number, I have no idea, but they did. And when you ask them, “Well, why is that number important?” They don’t know, but they jump in with this dream, and then they realize that there’s a skill development process that we all have to go through, and they don’t wanna do that.

08:34And then they wonder, why is this not working for me?

08:38If you don’t practice your skills in anything you do in life, it doesn’t make any difference what it is, if you don’t practice your skills, you probably won’t be very good. Pretty simple. It’s not hard to understand.

08:53If you have kids and they wanna play baseball or basketball or football, soccer, whatever the child’s sport is, if they don’t go to practice and then practice on their own outside of practice, they don’t get any good.

09:08Well, why do we think that real estate agents are any different?

Tim Burgess09:14

It’s crazy. See, I’ve been practicing the same for sale by owner script now for over 20 years. And it still works, and it makes a connection. And this connection, when made, it develops like and trust, and you get the appointments.

09:31Now we can create more like and trust, that we can actually get them the outcome that they desire.

09:37And then they have the confidence to sign the contract. Because I think this is a mistake people make in real estate. They think they have to have all of the expertise before they can actually go out.

09:48I listed 17 houses my first month with how much expertise?

09:51None. Not one bit. I didn’t know what I was doing, not in any way, shape, or form. I’d never studied real estate, never flipped a house, never bought a house for flipping, never done investment properties. I did none of that. I just had a massive desire to help somebody get the outcome they wanted, and I knew that as long as I do that over and over again, I’ll get paid.

10:15I’ll get paid. The money’s automatic. I don’t think anybody ever goes through a closing without getting paid, do they?

Loida Velasquez10:21

Exactly, yes.

Tim Burgess10:23

So it’s just a matter of let’s get our mind right, and then let’s have the simple disciplines to do what’s necessary each day to produce the results that we wanna produce.

Loida Velasquez10:33

Exactly, yes, yes. So those 17 deals that you got your first month,

10:38and even moving forward, were you solo, or when did you start to grow a team or get more help?

Tim Burgess10:45

No, I was always by myself and one. I always had one assistant, always an assistant. Why? Because I just paid attention, and all the people who were doing a lot of production, what do they all have?

10:54Somebody to help them with the paperwork.

10:57You know? You’re not gonna be able to list 17 houses in a month, and do all the paperwork, and make all the phone calls, and do everything that’s necessary to list 17 properties. There’s not enough hours in the day. So when I came in the business, I came in with an assistant.

11:12Why? Take a look at the big boys and girls who are producing a lot of results. They all have somebody to help them with the paperwork. Now, the cool part is I didn’t hire anybody as an employee. I did it what I think is the smarter way. It’s a 1099 person who wanted to be a part of what I was doing and what we were creating, and I paid them a percentage of each file.

11:33So if they touched a file and took that file to closing, they got a percentage of that fee. What I got paid, they got a percentage of it. They were happy and motivated to make sure the file went to closing.

11:45I was happy. I didn’t have to touch any paperwork. And if you know my personality, me and paperwork just don’t agree.

11:52I shouldn’t touch it. And it worked out really, really well. So I was asked earlier today by a young man that we’re talking about. He’s actually enrolled with our system, and the Vulcan system as well. He’s on both, so I mean, he’s gonna be off to the races.

12:08And he was talking about how without a system, he’s kind of floundering. And he’s doing okay, but it’s not nearly what it could be. But now that he has Vulcan, as well as us teaching him the script and what to say to the for sale by owner, to the expired, how to work with your sphere of influence, how to make sure you’re bringing in the referrals, and he’s got both of these systems, oh my gosh, his return on investment is gonna be astronomical.

12:41How big, how large.

Loida Velasquez12:47

So obviously, this gentleman is involved with yourself and your coaching. So tell us more about that, because I’m sure that there’s agents that are watching this that are like, “You know what? I wanna know more about the system and what Tim can teach us.”

13:00So go ahead and tell us.

Tim Burgess13:02

Yeah, well, there’s 12 modules in the system. There’s everything from your four Ps to your daily method of operation, to prospecting, to prospecting for sale by owners, prospecting expireds, your sphere of influence, your follow-up. I mean, that’s where people fall off the train so bad in sales.

13:19And I read an article, and I don’t know if these stats are still true today, but I read an article, the Harvard School of Business wrote the article. It said only about 2% of salespeople know how to follow up efficiently and effectively.

13:35They’re messing up really bad in the follow-up, and that’s where the fortune is.

13:38That’s right. So we have a module that we’ve built around that, the frequency with which you should stay in touch with somebody, what to say so they welcome you on the next call. Because you’re giving them value, and they want that. So that’s part of the system. Buyers. How do you work with buyers?

13:54Any real estate agent who has worked with a number of buyers, we’ve all been burnt by one or two. Meaning we work, we work, we work, we work. They go buy a house from somebody else.

14:06We have a system in place to make sure that doesn’t happen. It’s a system just like a listing. A listing presentation is a system, and working with a seller is a system, so is working with a buyer.

Tim Burgess14:17

And when we implemented this system for buyers, Loida, we saved 60% of our time with buyers. We went from averaging showing 12 houses before we sold one to averaging showing four.

14:33Because it was so much more efficient and effective. It’s like a system.

14:37You go to… I don’t know. Go to a fast food restaurant at lunchtime.

14:41They have a system in place. They get the cars through. There’s no mess-ups if the system’s running properly. Now think of one, it’s called Chick-fil-A. They couldn’t collect lunchtime if they didn’t have a system, for the love of Pete, man.

Loida Velasquez14:54

Those lines, wow.

Tim Burgess14:55

And there’s a system and a playbook for every aspect of that business.

15:02That’s what we’ve created for agents, a system and a playbook for every aspect of it. Gary Rossignol, 27-year veteran real estate agent in Cincinnati, Ohio. He’s called the Rock and Roll Realtor in Cincinnati, Ohio.

15:15He doubled his income working less hours. That’s audited. He actually doubled his income working less hours. We’re not talking about doubling it from 10 grand to 20 grand a year.

Loida Velasquez15:25

No way.

Tim Burgess15:26

It was majorly more significant than that. And having a system has changed

15:32Gary’s direction in life. He’s toward the end of his career, but he’s producing consistently now. Boom, boom, boom, boom, like clockwork. Consistent closings. Doesn’t matter what’s going on, doesn’t matter the interest rates. Matter of fact, Gary had his best year ever

15:48when the pandemic was in place and lockdowns were happening. He had his best year ever. Why? System. System was in place.

15:54So we hit every aspect of it, from time blocking to your call tracking sheet. Everything about the system, we have that. And a video tutorial that goes with it, and then we hold your hand and take you through it.

16:08We touch you six times a week.

Tim Burgess16:12

Yeah. So four times a week we role play with people to help them get the script, because if you don’t get it, then it doesn’t work.

16:19And you don’t wanna sound like you’re scripted. We’ve all had that phone call. And we know they’re reading. It’s like, “Da, ba, ba, ba.”

16:27“Da, da, ba, da.” And it’s crazy. And I’m not making fun of anybody. I apologize if anybody took it that way. That’s how I feel, but that’s what it sounds like. It sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher. You know, “Wa, wa, wa, wa, wa.” And you know they’re reading, and you know there’s no sincerity.

16:42There’s no genuineness.

16:44But if we can help a real estate agent practice where it’s like it’s coming from them, it’s them. It’s not a script. It’s not us, it’s them. They just kinda open their mouth and it falls out.

16:57Get appointment after appointment after appointment, but it takes practice to get there.

Loida Velasquez17:01

Exactly, yeah.

Tim Burgess17:02

Four times a week we practice with people.

Loida Velasquez17:06

That’s awesome. I know that practice is something that I feel like a lot of agents know they have to do, but they put off to the side, “Oh, well, you know, I know what to say and I have a script.” But then once they get on the phone, just like you mentioned, they sound scripted.

17:22I think they do. I mean, I would role play every single day to the point that I’m having great conversations, and for sale by owners or expireds, they’re telling me, “You know, you sound very different from everybody else.” But I’m still using a script, but they have no idea, because I’ve been practicing so much, and that’s what’s gonna separate you from other agents that are calling, going after the same lead.

Tim Burgess17:44

Yeah. When you practice a script like you’ve done, you have confidence. You have confidence in what you’re gonna say. Here’s another thing that happens that I think people are missing. When you practice that much, you never have to think about what you’re saying. Therefore, you can concentrate 100% of your energy on active listening.

18:02And you can actually listen to them instead of only thinking about what am I gonna say next.

18:08And a lot of salespeople get caught up in that, especially if they don’t practice. Because they’re always worried about what am I gonna say next. Well, wait, but the next part of that script is this.

Loida Velasquez18:19

Yes. I remember early on, I was calling for sale by owners. And I had a lady and she said, “Why are you asking me so many questions?” And when I hung up, I said, “Okay, that’s how I know I need to get better,” ’cause I never want anybody telling me, “Why are you asking me so many questions?”

Tim Burgess18:36

You sounded like you were interrogating them?

Loida Velasquez18:38

Yeah. Yes. And I was brand new.

Tim Burgess18:40

I sounded that way when I first started calling on expireds. I hadn’t done expireds at all. And then I got armed with a good script. And then I transferred most of that into what we do with the for sale by owner script, because they kind of intermingle.

18:55And I didn’t know what I was saying, and you could tell I didn’t practice it enough before I started calling them, and you could tell, because these people were eating my lunch. And I could call all these for sale by owners and have no problem getting the appointment. But I hadn’t practiced on expireds, so I did not know how to speak their language.

19:14They speak a different language than a for sale by owner. It’s a different language. You gotta learn how to speak their language.

Loida Velasquez19:21

Yep, and you gotta be ready, too. ‘Cause you don’t know how they’re gonna respond, and you only have a couple seconds. If you don’t have it, you’re gonna hate making calls.

Tim Burgess19:31

Absolutely. I remember an expired I went on, and I don’t wanna scare anybody from calling an expired. But this guy was just frustrated.

Tim Burgess19:39

You know, he wanted to sell his house. He already had another house that he had chosen, that was picked out, and they’d lost it because they didn’t sell.

19:46So now he’s aggravated and he expires.

19:49And after the day he expires, how many people call him?

Loida Velasquez19:54

Everybody.

Tim Burgess19:54

Coming in. So how do I separate myself? It’s that first question. The first question worked. Separation, enough of a connection, appointment happened.

20:06I went and met with this guy. Now, I read personalities, and you have to get good at effective communication and knowing who you’re talking to. You speak the language of somebody who’s an introverted individual instead of an extroverted individual. So I knocked on this guy’s door, and he answers the door, and I can tell, okay, I’m safe.

20:24He’s a little bit submissive, but he’s aggravated. And he’s aggravated at me ’cause I didn’t sell his house while it was on the market.

20:33Of course it’s my fault. So he invites me in, I walk in, and Loida, I’m not exaggerating, he looks right at me, he says, “I hate all you effing realtors.”

20:41And then he went on a tirade of how bad we were and how we’re sharks and we come out of the woodwork and come out of the water on an expired, and all this other stuff. And he just needed to vent. Now, through the effective communication training that I took with my first mentor, who taught me some stuff.

21:00I realized, okay, I can’t argue with this guy, ’cause you can’t win.

21:04I can’t be abrasive with this guy. He’s not a threat to me, he’s just venting his aggravation.

21:10So I did the next best thing I could think of, and I just looked at him and said, “Well, you know what? I don’t like most of them either, so what’s your point?”

21:20That’s all I said. Now, is that true that I don’t like most real estate agents? No, not at all. But once again, how do I win the argument?

21:31Through the practice and the effective communication training, everything like that, I knew not to argue with him. Don’t be abrasive.

21:36And learned how to steal his confidence.

21:38I listed that house that night. We sold that house. He bought his house, and we got the referral from his mother-in-law, and we sold her house, too.

21:47It’s all because of this practice thing that we keep talking about.

21:52I knew how to calm him down because I had practiced so much.

21:59Yeah. So expireds are a goldmine, but you gotta know how to speak their language.

Loida Velasquez22:03

Exactly. Yeah. So where can agents learn more about your coaching or programs, or get more involved with you? Is there a website, or where can they go?

Tim Burgess22:12

Maximizingresultsllc.com. Or shoot me an email, tburgess@maximizingresultsllc.com.

22:17We’re on Facebook, we’re virtually all over Facebook, all over LinkedIn. We do a number of things to help agents.

22:26We do free webinars for Think and Grow Rich material to make sure we have the right mindset. That’s on Wednesday nights at 9:00. No charge for that. Shoot me an email,

22:37I’ll make sure you get the information on that. No charge at all for that. And we’ll help anybody understand how important a system is. And if they wanna work with us, great. If there’s a mutual interest, we move forward, that’s awesome, and if there’s not, that’s okay, too. I’ll still help, because the training in this business is not what it should be, and that’s proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by the number of failures that we have from this business.

23:06And it also tells me that not enough people are learning what we teach, and they’re not using Vulcan7.

23:13Because if they do those two things, they’re gonna stumble into business on accident if they’ll do it every day.

Loida Velasquez23:20

Exactly, yes. Awesome. And we’ll make sure to put all of your links in the description box below.

23:25Great. So for those of you that have been watching, hopefully you’ve taken a lot of notes. Go and visit Tim’s website, get involved, because just like you mentioned, Tim, you have to have a system. You have to know exactly what you need to be doing. You can’t just fly by and think, “I’m gonna do this one day, do this another day.”

23:42Uh-uh, obviously we don’t want that. We wanna be like Tim, have 17 listings in one month. So agents, get involved. Links will be in the description box. Thank you so much, Tim, for being here today, for all of the information. I’m sure that we’ll be seeing you around and probably having you back again.

Tim Burgess23:59

Thank you so much for having me, Loida. I greatly appreciate it.

Loida Velasquez24:02

Okay. Bye, everyone.