How Tim Dominick built 40% of his business on repeat investors by calling FRBOs

Aaron Wittenstein00:00

All right, so let me ask you this. You speak to 100 for rent by owners, okay? How many of those do you feel

00:08will turn into an appointment?

Tim Dominick00:10

I’m getting a lot of appointments from them. It eventually ends up turning into something eventually, even if it’s just one of my investor buyers buying their property.

00:17So I have a lot of transactions. And then when they fix it up to flip it, I then list it on the market for retail.

Aaron Wittenstein00:24

That’s good stuff, right? So I mean, ’cause I think the interesting part, what people don’t realize about for rent by owners is that you’re not looking at… you can look in multiple transactions on one transaction.

00:35Is that right?

Tim Dominick00:37

Absolutely. I have investors that buy five, six properties a year with me. And some of them may be flips, so I’ll get them on the other end as well. Some people are just looking for rental properties, you know? So I’ll help them establish a good portfolio.

00:51Yeah, it’s always repeat business. You just gotta do a good job for these guys. If you do a good job, they’re gonna keep using you over and over and over.

Aaron Wittenstein01:03

What’s going on everybody? It’s me, it’s Aaron Wittenstein, and we are here with Vulcan7 Roadmap. And the intention here is to talk to agents across the country, in particular my buddy Timothy Dominick over here in wonderful Maryland, on how to get two, three, four, 500 more listings a month or a week.

01:19And my friend, how you doing today?

Tim Dominick01:22

I’m doing great, Aaron. How are you?

Aaron Wittenstein01:24

I’m doing well. I’m doing well. So, business good, I hope?

Tim Dominick01:28

Absolutely. It’s on its way up year after year, so I’m feeling good. Business has not seen any decline at all for me, so.

Aaron Wittenstein01:36

Really? It’s been good. So what do we…

01:37You say business is up every year. That’s what I like to hear. You guys are looking pretty solid, huh?

Tim Dominick01:44

Yeah. I’m doing more transactions this year than I did last year.

Aaron Wittenstein01:47

That’s absolutely amazing, man. That’s absolutely amazing. So I gotta ask then, where in particular is the majority of your business coming from?

Tim Dominick01:56

Yeah, so the first couple years in business I was building my pipeline, and then year three it exploded with pipeline maturity. And it all came from, honestly, someone turned me on to Vulcan7. They said, “Look, if you’re gonna do it, do it at the highest quality possible.” I started with Vulcan7, started making calls to expired and cancels like everyone else.

02:15But another pillar that I added early on was For Rent By Owners. And I built a big investor pillar. 40% of my business comes from repeat investors, and I deal with a lot. I’m known as a prominent investors agent here in Baltimore. But I would say another 25% comes from expired and canceled listings as well.

02:33I’ve gotten really good on the phone. So, yeah, so just expired, cancel, For Rent By Owner. I do a little For Sale By Owner. But I run my business very lean. I pay for the Vulcan7 system, but outside of that, I mean, everything I do is, you can essentially do for free.

Aaron Wittenstein02:49

All right, so let me take this back a second because a lot of people talk, “I wanna work FRBO,” yeah, FRBO, right?

02:55FRBO is what’s short for? Am I right? Do you call it For Rent By Owner? You know, whatever it is. A lot of people wanna work For Rent By Owners, okay? So would you be open to kinda walking me through that process a little bit?

03:07Because I don’t know a lot of people that have seen the success you do.

Tim Dominick03:12

Yeah, absolutely. You want me to walk you through from the first phone call and how that looks?

Aaron Wittenstein03:16

Yeah.

Tim Dominick03:17

Absolutely.

Aaron Wittenstein03:17

We got nothing better to do. Let’s do it.

Tim Dominick03:19

Perfect. All right, so ring, ring.

Aaron Wittenstein03:20

Hello.

Tim Dominick03:22

Hey, Aaron, this is Tim Dominick, and I know this call is a little out of the blue.

03:25I’m with Coldwell Banker Realty. Just curious, is this the absolute worst time to call you right now?

03:34Okay. And I know this is out of the blue. I just passed by a property that you own here at 123 Main Street. I know that you have it up for rent right now. Is it already occupied, or are you still looking for a tenant?

Aaron Wittenstein03:44

No, we do not have it occupied right now. We just put it up on the market like, what, two, three days ago, something like that.

03:50Do you have somebody that’s looking to rent it out?

Tim Dominick03:57

To be totally transparent, Aaron, I’m a realtor here and I’m also an investor. I don’t deal with the tenants and placing them at all. Actually, I was just thinking outside the box a little bit, just curious to see if you would even entertain selling that property if it made financial sense for you at this time.

Aaron Wittenstein04:12

I mean, it’s… We bought this property initially when we got married, okay? And we moved to a bigger house right now. We’ve been making a couple hundred… What are we making, like 300 bucks a month or something off it right now? So I mean, it’s a decent investment.

04:27I mean, how much do you think it’s worth?

Tim Dominick04:31

So I know you said it’s vacant. Have you already rented this before, or is that something you’re just kind of thinking you’ll make when you do get it right?

Aaron Wittenstein04:37

No, this would be our third tenant in three years.

Tim Dominick04:41

Okay. Okay, so you’re already subject to capital gains.

04:43We know that much. Honestly, I don’t wanna shoot you a price right off the cuff. I think that that would be a silly mistake if I’m wrong. A lot of people may do that. I’d like to take more of an appraiser approach and really take a look at the comps here and send you over what I think it would sell for in today’s market.

05:01If you’d be open to that, then maybe we could have a further discussion down the road. I’m not asking you to commit to anything right now. But if you’re open to that, I’d like to get your email address and put together some comps and shoot you over about what it would go for, and then maybe we can meet at the property if that’s looking like it’s kind of making sense to you based off the email I send, the information that you get.

Aaron Wittenstein05:20

Yeah, that’s fair. My email is, Tim, ironically, timdominick@gmail.com. So, yeah, feel free to shoot that information over.

Tim Dominick05:29

Perfect. No worries, man. That’d be great.

Aaron Wittenstein05:30

Thank you.

Tim Dominick05:31

And then that’s it, and basically I start building a report from there. I don’t try to push them into meeting at a property they intend to rent right away, especially you being a… you said you were a seasoned investor.

05:41Not seasoned, but you had three tenants. So I’m not gonna try to talk you out of something you’ve been doing for a while here. I’m gonna send you over information what I think it would sell for. I’m gonna send you over a market performance report so you can see exactly how fast it would sell in today’s market, and what that process would look like.

05:55It might not even be the right time now. Like I told you, it took me a couple years for this pipeline to really mature and explode. But the other thing I just did, Aaron, is I got a potential off-market sale for another investor buyer that may be looking to buy in the Baltimore area right now that no one even knows about.

Aaron Wittenstein06:11

You know what I love that you did right there? Which I don’t even know if any… the capital gains statement. You said that so passively, but in such a way to plant a seed where it was just slick. I love the way you… So, “Ah, so you’re subject to capital gains, but next question, please.” So that was really slick the way you did that right there.

Tim Dominick06:29

I’ll tell you why I said that. If you would’ve said you never rented it yet, I’d say, “Listen, here’s the thing, capital gains in Maryland just got raised to 21% this year. It was 20% last year. Why don’t we look at what it would look like to sell this property before you lose 21% of your net proceeds?” Because as soon as you collect a rental check or you deposit a rental check, that’s it.

06:48You’re subject to capital gains.

Aaron Wittenstein06:51

Yeah. That makes s- I mean, and it’s nice to hear when I’m speaking with you, keep in mind, I speak with a lot of agents, I role play with a lot of agents, your calmness about the way that you ran that phone call was very impressive. Tell me if I’m wrong, you don’t get a lot of objections in that type of phone call, do you?

Tim Dominick07:10

No. Very rarely.

Aaron Wittenstein07:12

Yeah. And it was just, it was very, I don’t wanna say slick, the right word isn’t slick, it was very, very, very efficient. It was a very efficient phone call. But it was extremely efficient. You got to the point, you got the lead, you email him. So tell me, what’s the next step look like?

Tim Dominick07:24

Yep. So I’m gonna pull that information for him. So at night times when I do my CMAs, I’m not gonna do them now, I’m gonna keep continuing with my phone call sessions. Nighttime, when I get a break, I’m gonna go ahead and pull their CMAs. Just a quick CMA. I became really fast at it. I’ve done a lot of BPOs for banks and stuff like that, so they’re a lot more intricate and extensive than a CMA.

07:42So if you can knock them out, you can knock a CMA out in a few minutes. So I’ll knock that out quick, and I’ll just shoot that on over to him that night or early the next morning before I get started on my next call sessions. And I’ll follow up between 11 and 12 and just ask him, “Hey, did you get the information I sent over?

07:59What do you think? When could we meet?” You know, those type of follow-up questions.

Aaron Wittenstein08:03

All right. So let me ask you this. You speak to 100 for rent by owners, okay? How many of those do you feel will turn into an appointment?

Tim Dominick08:16

Like an immediate appointment, not pipeline?

Aaron Wittenstein08:20

Yeah, like the… Yes. I mean, an immediate appointment, you send out the information, you get back in touch with them. What percentage would be coming in immediate appointment?

Tim Dominick08:30

I would say right around 1 to 2%. But be a little closer. It depends on the time of the year and all that. All those factors matter when it comes to dealing with investors because of taxes and things like that. But down the road, I mean, I’m getting a lot of appointments from them. It eventually ends up turning into something eventually, even if it’s just one of my investor buyers buying their property, and we never even do it on the market.

08:51So I have a lot of transactions I never even get credit for because we do them completely off-market on the buyer’s level ’cause they have exclusivity to the property, and then when they fix it up to flip it, I then list it on the market for retail.

Aaron Wittenstein09:05

That’s good stuff, right?

09:06So I mean, ’cause I think the interesting part, what people don’t realize about for rent by owners is that you’re not looking at… Well, you can look in multiple transactions on one transaction. Is that right?

Tim Dominick09:18

Absolutely. I have investors that buy five, six properties a year with me, and some of them may be flipped, so I’ll get them on the other end as well.

09:28So it really just depends. Some people are just looking for rental properties, you know? So I’ll help them establish a good portfolio and things like that. But yeah, it’s always repeat business. You just gotta do a good job for these guys. If you do a good job, they’re gonna keep using you over and over and over.

Aaron Wittenstein09:44

So one more question about this. Out of the amount of people you speak with, are a lot of them tend to be seasoned investors, or do some of them tend to just be like a Johnny One-Shot investor type of person?

Tim Dominick09:55

Most of the guys I end up on the phone with, at least here in Baltimore, they’re usually not real seasoned, but at least have some investor experience at some level or some degree.

Aaron Wittenstein10:06

Got it. Oh, that’s great, man. Like I said, it’s a great source of business, and hope anybody who’s watching this realizes this is untapped potential. And what Timothy is doing here is extremely successful. And I’m gonna venture to guess there’s not as much competition on this form of lead generation.

10:20Is that correct?

Tim Dominick10:22

Oh, yeah. Very rarely do they say someone’s called them to ask them to sell their property.

Aaron Wittenstein10:26

All right. So well, let’s flip this around a second then, okay? So from what it seems to me, you’re lead generating at a very high level, okay? What time are you starting in the morning picking up the calls?

10:37How many hours are you calling a day? What does your lead calls look like? Can you share that with us?

Tim Dominick10:44

Yeah, absolutely. Typically, I’m starting at eight… Well, I’m gonna say like 7:59. I know that that’s kind of on the fence. But what I’ll do is I’ll organize my leads in such a way, I’m almost like a sniper.

10:54We can get more into that. Like, I don’t just let them go into the dialer and then start dialing, because for some reason in my head, I think everybody’s starting with the same lead and running through the same list. So-

11:05I’ll reorganize them to the ones that I know I can easily convert first, and I’ll hit them before anyone else that’s starting at 8:00 AM as well.

11:12And I typically call for about three hours, and then I hop on follow-ups.

Aaron Wittenstein11:17

Got it. So… All right. I mean, do you have any order? Let me stop one second. The sniper tactic. You knew I was gonna come back to that one in a second. Tell me more about that. What does that look like?

Tim Dominick11:29

So if I see a property that’s close to or it’s on a block that maybe I have a property already for sale on or something like that, I’m gonna put that at top priority. So I’m gonna take that from maybe the 10th lead that’s in my dialer at that point, and I’m gonna move it to number one. And I know everyone else is just typically exporting them or importing them into the dialer, and they’re starting from the first lead that’s in Vulcan7’s dialer, where I’ll reorganize the leads and have my own list, just my own order.

11:58So that way I know that I’m the first one calling the ones that I really want to take, and they’re not getting five phone calls at the same time. So it’s more like a sniper. Like I’m kind of… I’m not just spraying a shotgun and trying to hit somebody. I’m really sniping these people out.

Aaron Wittenstein12:12

No, that’s a smart play right there. That… No, that really is a… I’m officially using that. Is that okay with you? I won’t say it’s mine. You know, I’ll say it’s the Timothy Dominick Sadino sniper system is the best way I’m gonna call it going forward. But that’s a really, really good idea. I like that.

12:25I really do. And then, all right, so you’re calling what, expireds first? Is that the plan?

Tim Dominick12:31

Yeah, you gotta call the new expireds first because they’re gonna be… They’re the lowest hanging fruit and they’re gonna get hammered. So yeah, you wanna get on the phone with them first.

Aaron Wittenstein12:38

Then number two is,

12:41I’ll take a guess, but you go.

Tim Dominick12:42

Yep. So I do the new expired list right away, then I’ll rerun it again, do a second dial. And then anybody who leaves their name on a voicemail, they get a text. So it’s a DDT. I ripped that all from another agent a long time ago. Double dial text. So I liked wrestling, so that kind of resonated with me, DDT.

13:02And then I move on to the new for sale by owners, just so that they hear my voice and they know like, “Hey, I’m open. I’m here to help you out.” They’re probably typically the day one. They’re not ready to make a move yet. But I’d like to at least get information from them, let them know I’m here and if things don’t work out, there you are.

13:23If things don’t work out in the next 30 days or so, if they’re open to having an appointment, I’d love to stop by and share some information. And then I go back from there to old expireds, meaning expireds a week out. And then I do my for rent by owners. And then from there I may do a specialty or something like that, like probate or something, or a referral partner, or I’ll just go back and do old expireds that no one else is doing.

Aaron Wittenstein13:46

All right. So you’re doing a three-hour call session Monday through Friday, correct? Is that right? Okay. So what’s the goal? Like what is your one… Yes, three hours Monday through Friday. Okay. What one goal satisfies you for the day? Like there’s one goal. Like for me, you know what I mean?

14:07It’s one appointment and I’m good. Four appointments a week, I’m good. Like what’s your one goal for the day?

Tim Dominick14:14

Yeah, if I’m not on an appointment, I need to be looking for an appointment. So if I don’t have an appointment that day, I need to constantly hunt for an appointment. That’s my number one goal that would satisfy me really well.

14:24And if I don’t for any reason, it’s a really bad day, lightning is just striking me left and right, as long as I make my 25 contacts, I’m good with that. I know that then I got like 10 people’s email addresses, that’s my goal, 10 email addresses a day, and I got them in the database and now I’m able to start following up and nurturing those people.

14:42I’ll feel good about that. Not as good as an appointment, but I’ll feel pretty good about that too, and that has to be done every day. I don’t get really caught up in the busy work. I kind of delegate a lot of that. So that’s my number one priority.

Aaron Wittenstein14:58

Got it. So email addresses.

14:59What are you doing with these email addresses once you get them?

Tim Dominick15:04

Yep. So I have a system that I put them in, and I basically… So yeah, first of all, I put them in folders throughout Vulcan7 so I know when to follow up with these people, different months. And if someone’s like, “Hey, I’m a six-month,” I’ll put them in a three-month follow-up folder or something like that.

15:19I’ll basically send them out information once a month, and I’ll make sure that even if they’re a long ways away from doing business, I’m following up with them on a schedule, whether that’s once a quarter, once a week, once a month, depending on what they told me, or when they told me they’re anticipating to actually get the property sold.

Aaron Wittenstein15:37

So I mean, this is the one, the underlying thing that I hear from you repeatedly over and over and over and over again is follow-up. Am I right?

Tim Dominick15:48

Yeah. 90%. I’d say 90% or stronger. Last year was 90% all in follow-up.

Aaron Wittenstein15:55

So you’re telling me if you get 100 leads, let’s just say 100 leads, right off the bat, 10% of those may list with you right away, give or take, right?

16:05And the other 90% that you’re working on will list with you tomorrow or some point down the road. Is that correct?

Tim Dominick16:13

Yeah, I’d say 10% are gonna list within the next 60 to 90 days. It may not be right now today. But the other ones are gonna list after that 90-day mark. I have a 90-day, like, box that I try to fit them in.

16:25But yeah, the other 90% I anticipate to do some form of business with them at some point, whether they end up a buyer or seller. I mean, I’m mostly… I’m listing-based, but once in a while I’m working with some buyers too, maybe. So no matter where they end up, we’ll do business down the line because I’m in front of them all the time.

16:43All the time.

Aaron Wittenstein16:45

So how often with an email are you hitting a particular… So let’s say you got me, I’m a seller, I’m the person you just spoke with, okay? The rent by owner. How often are you gonna hit me with an email so I can stay top of mind?

Tim Dominick17:01

If you’re for rent by owner, you’re getting at least one email a month, and then I’m gonna call you once every other month as well.

17:07But if we just got off the phone and you said, “Hey, Tim, I really like the information that you sent me. I’m thinking that that might work,” then I’m calling you every day until we get the appointment. I might say, “Hey, Aaron, you didn’t get back to me yesterday. I’m just trying to see when we can meet.

17:20I just wanna show you that I can sell your property for more right now than you can get in the next five years. I don’t want you to miss this opportunity.”

Aaron Wittenstein17:27

So what you’re trying to tell us is you’re aggressive, right?

Tim Dominick17:33

Yeah. Actually, vendors think I’m too aggressive. Some of the vendors are like, “Man, you’re way too aggressive.

17:39Just email me. Don’t call me.” But yeah. No, I’ve lost business from not following up too much in the past. I’ve never lost business from following up too much. So I mean, from not following up enough. I’ve never lost business from following up too much. I mean, I remember this one guy, I’ll never forget it.

17:57I went to his house. We built a ton of rapport, me, him, his wife was there, and it was in my neighborhood in a spot that I could… I knew what needed to happen to sell this property. And we were talking all the time, and he was like, “Tim, just trying to get through the holidays, and I’m gonna redo the shower.”

18:12I talked to him and he said, “I’m almost done.” He said, “Well, we got family over,” and I let it slide for, like, three, four weeks. I’m like, he has family over, I get that. And I called him and he said, “Oh my God, I did. I listed with someone else.” And I said, “What was it about the other agent that I didn’t do? Like, I’m just curious so I can take that into my future appointments.”

18:29And he said, “Nothing. You might’ve even been more thorough.” He said, “He just called us at a good time. He kept calling us more than you did, and he ended up calling us at a time that we were just talking about the night before that we were ready.” And I said, “I’m never letting that happen again.

18:43If someone thinks I’m following up too much, then that’ll be the reason I lose them.”

Aaron Wittenstein18:47

But I mean, has anybody ever told you you’re too aggressive?

Tim Dominick18:54

No, the only people are vendors. Like, “Tim, I’ve got other mortgages I’m writing, please leave me alone for a little bit.” But Tim, they’re not giving you business. No, I know people have said I’m too aggressive. I’ve… Yeah, no, I’ve had people say like, “Man, your follow-up game is strong,” or

19:10just like, “Tim, you know, you’re on my caller ID more than my wife,” but that’s about it. Nothing serious.

Aaron Wittenstein19:16

That’s good. That’s good, man. All right. Well, let me ask you this. So let’s say you have a brand new agent who’s getting into the business. Today’s their first day ever. You happen to bump into them in the office and they’re like,

19:29“Hi, my name is Aaron. What is one piece of advice you could give me to help me run a successful business?”

Tim Dominick19:38

You need to start telling everybody that you’re in business. I have seven mentees right now that I’m mentoring, and I always advise them to… A couple of them already got Vulcan7. The other ones, their argument is, “I need to make money first.”

19:50I said, “No, you need to get Vulcan7 to make money.” So my advice is to start calling. And a lot of people say don’t call expireds when you first get in. Call them. Fall on your butt. Learn how to have the conversations. And then I also tell them one thing I wish I would’ve done when I first got in the business is I wish I would’ve picked the neighborhood I loved the most or picked a couple and then circle prospected my butt off and built that pipeline maturity as well.

20:14Because you have no competition typically with those people, and they’re just come-list-me calls when they are ready. And I mean, obviously anyone can build that at any time, but if you’re brand new, that’s the perfect time to be calling them, letting them know you’re in the business, letting them know a listing up the street just sold, and just kind of get in front of those people, too.

20:32So that’s what I’m telling these guys here.

Aaron Wittenstein20:35

That’s amazing. No, that’s amazing, my friend. Anything you want to leave us all with today? Last parting words of success?

Tim Dominick20:47

Yeah, I mean, I don’t think I’m the first person to ever say this, but mastering repetitious boredom. If you wanna be on the listing side of this business, it is gonna get mundane.

20:55There are days where you don’t feel like picking up a phone and really even caring about what someone has to say about their house. But when you step into your office or wherever it is that you’re prospecting, at whatever station you’re at, you need to enter a cage mentally and just start fighting the fight every day.

21:12Because that’s the only way you’re gonna build your business, and you can’t let other people dictate your schedule. So many people get distracted because these other realtors that you’re in deals with, that you’re servicing, want something right away, and they act like their deal is the only deal that matters.

21:26You gotta put all that aside, and you’ve really gotta build your business. You just gotta be religious to your prospecting time.

Aaron Wittenstein21:33

Yeah, man, that’s actually me. I gotta tell you, thank you so much for coming on today. The for rent by owner stuff, if you guys have realized, that’s gold enough. And then, my friend, if anybody needs to get in touch with you for referrals in Baltimore, Maryland, what is the best way for them to do that?

Tim Dominick21:50

Yeah, please do so. I have a ton of referral partners all over the country. Just locked in another guy up in York, PA. We’re gonna be doing lots of business back and forth. My email is tim@dominick, and that’s D-O-M-I-N-I-C-K, homes, H-O-M-E-S, .realestate. Phone number’s 443-414-8843. I’ll take good care of whoever you send my way, I promise.

Aaron Wittenstein22:12

I really appreciate that. So, guys, if you need anybody in Baltimore, Maryland, this is the guy you message. Otherwise, I wanna say thank you guys so much as always for popping on Vulcan7 Roadmap, and have an amazing day.