What if you could penetrate a new real estate market and build a successful team from scratch? This can be a tall order, but not for our guest, Lance Willard of the Willard Home Team. With an inspiring 17-year journey in real estate, Lance divulges his secrets to breaking into the real estate market, building relationships, and creating a powerhouse team. We navigate through his transition to a new state and how he employed cold calling, circle prospecting, and relationship building to earn his name in the field.
This episode isn't just about making your mark, it's also about maintaining it. Ever wondered how to stay connected with your clients? We glean insights from Lance's unique strategies - from offering free coffee to passersby to sending handwritten cards. But it doesn't stop there, Lance also elaborates on how he fosters a team environment that inspires creativity, innovation, and risk-taking. He provides valuable advice on preparing your team to excel in the industry, and the importance of high touch in real estate.
Lastly, we delve into the nitty-gritty of team structure, lead generation strategies and communication methods. Lance talks about his unique approach of introducing himself with his phone number to potential clients, and the significance of frequent quality assurance calls. Join us as we unpack this wealth of insights from a seasoned professional, and learn how to build a strong team that can weather any storm in the real estate market.
What if you could penetrate a new real estate market and build a successful team from scratch? This can be a tall order, but not for our guest, Lance Willard of the Willard Home Team. With an inspiring 17-year journey in real estate, Lance divulges his secrets to breaking into the real estate market, building relationships, and creating a powerhouse team. We navigate through his transition to a new state and how he employed cold calling, circle prospecting, and relationship building to earn his name in the field.
This episode isn't just about making your mark, it's also about maintaining it. Ever wondered how to stay connected with your clients? We glean insights from Lance's unique strategies - from offering free coffee to passersby to sending handwritten cards. But it doesn't stop there, Lance also elaborates on how he fosters a team environment that inspires creativity, innovation, and risk-taking. He provides valuable advice on preparing your team to excel in the industry, and the importance of high touch in real estate.
Lastly, we delve into the nitty-gritty of team structure, lead generation strategies and communication methods. Lance talks about his unique approach of introducing himself with his phone number to potential clients, and the significance of frequent quality assurance calls. Join us as we unpack this wealth of insights from a seasoned professional, and learn how to build a strong team that can weather any storm in the real estate market.
Hello and welcome to the Gulf Coast, to Space Coast. Charles Ruttenberg Realty Podcast. Thank you for tuning in. My name is Mike Webb. I am the broker here at Charles Ruttenberg and this is the podcast to help you guys find out where the rubber meets the road in real estate. We want to give you everything we can to help you build your business. So today we have a very special guest in the house and we're going to talk about teams, real estate teams. It is the way of the future. They're starting to dominate the industry and we want to give you guys some nuts and bolts how to build your team, start your team, make your team better, whatever it may be, or possibly join a team. So today we're very fortunate to have one of the biggest teams in our brokerage here to share some information with us, and we have Lance Willard from the Willard Home team here today. Lance, what's going on?
Speaker 2:Not much. Thank you for the awesome introduction. I feel blessed to be here Well we are blessed to have you.
Speaker 1:You and I were talking before the podcast started, and you got some crazy good numbers running with a very efficient team. It's pretty impressive, and I'm really excited to get to dig into this a little bit and give everybody out there the listeners a chance to see what you're doing, how you're doing it and maybe how they can incorporate some of those into their business. So before we get started, though, Lance, how long have you been in the real estate business?
Speaker 2:I've been in real estate for going on 17 years and locally here. So I started real estate in Oklahoma and a much different real estate market back in the early 2000s and Oklahoma market just different in general and moved here to Florida in 17 and really didn't start. I didn't plan on starting a team at all. I really didn't know what I wanted to do. So this is my second go around being in real estate and prior to this I was running a company out of Dallas and resigned from my position there, moved to Florida because I want to be close to the water and just hop back into being a realtor and really didn't know what the plans are going to be. But it's been a great, great run and built a team in the interim.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Florida. You exchanged a sunshine for income when you moved to Florida. So when you retired or hung up your cleats at your former company that you were running, what made you decide? When you came to Florida, what hitched and said I'm going to get back in real estate?
Speaker 2:Passion for real estate, love for helping people and I really see real estate as serving the community number one. You've got to have some skills behind that and be able to create a business, run a business, but it's really the service.
Speaker 1:And that's probably why you guys are so successful in your teams doing so well is because you're getting into it with the right intent. Most people we talked to why'd you get in real estate? Because I wanted to get rich, yeah, no, I want to get in and serve people. Yeah, I love that. That's awesome. So in 2017, take us from there. What happened? Who'd you sign up? Where'd you hang your license?
Speaker 2:first, and yeah, so I hit the grounds, took me about six months before I realized I want to get back in real estate and I didn't know the area, I didn't know anyone. I had one friend here and so I had to get acclimated to the landscape of Florida. It's a lot different than Dallas, that's a lot different from where I grew up, in San Diego. So a little bit of a culture shock, somewhat, I bet. And then I started interviewing brokerages and I got my license and then obviously, brokers started contacting me, interviewing me. I just like vultures, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like crowns, pants on you, yeah.
Speaker 2:And it was interesting. I've got some funny stories I went and interviewed with I can't remember the guy's name. I sat down with him, gave me zero attention, was interviewing me like I was a flea on his back and I just left there thinking wow.
Speaker 1:Unimpressed.
Speaker 2:Unimpressed and also, to compliment myself a little bit, he doesn't know who was sitting in front of him. No, he didn't. So that was the first brokerage that I interviewed with. I then interviewed with another big brokerage in Palm Harbor and I ended up joining a team, and I've never been a part of team, I've always been. Was this one of these?
Speaker 1:franchise brokerages. Yes, okay, one of the well-known franchise brokerages. You joined a team because, probably made sense, you needed to understand the landscape and what's going on in Florida.
Speaker 2:Got it. So I joined that team and it was a good run. I got to learn what I didn't like about teams, what I liked about teams. I got to understand the area and also had the. It gave me the catalyst I needed to start selling real estate and start building relationships in the area, which I didn't have.
Speaker 1:How long did you stay with that team? One year, okay, exactly. It was like straight up one year you did your little tour of duty there and said straight up one year.
Speaker 2:So when I walked in the door I shared my vision with the team lead and let her know I'm going to start, I'm going to show you what I have. I'm going to give this a year. After a year's up, I'm going to come back with you and relook at my position. I'm not so much just a sales rep or an agent. I want to do more for you, do want to do more for your team and get more involved. And the year came to expire and came back to the team lead and didn't offer me the what I needed. I needed some creativity, I needed to sink my teeth into something. So I wasn't provided. That opportunity Really wasn't about money at all. You know I asked for more money. I did, but it was, of course, that goes along with it.
Speaker 2:You kind of have to, yeah it wasn't about the money, it was about having some more creative freedom.
Speaker 1:You know I wanted to Some autonomy maybe, and be able to.
Speaker 2:I wanted to coach, I want to make a difference, I wanted to help build something really.
Speaker 1:So roughly. How many team? How many members were on that team?
Speaker 2:There were five or six, okay, yeah, so compact unit, big producer too.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, and, and were you only going out with buyers on this team?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what that looked like. So, when, when in the structure of this team, how would they kind of drop some leads into your CRM and hold you accountable to go work them? How did that look like?
Speaker 2:Yes, so they they use a lead pool, so they would drop leads into a lead pool, basically opened up their CRM to me to where I could go back five years, six years, 10 years a month and just go grab and start talking to people. So I really believe in calling. I really believe you know, the majority of what we do, our team does now is we're on the phones.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And so I and I've been in sales and I've been in relationship building my entire life, so I grabbed their database and I made something of it. You know, I really wasn't getting fresh leads. I wasn't, you know, I wasn't a seasoned agent with a team.
Speaker 1:You know they Were these, were these internet inquiry leads or were they, you know, generate, like you know, let's we can say, were they Zillow leads?
Speaker 2:or realtorcom leads Everything Zillow. Realtorcom I mean everything you could think about.
Speaker 1:And did they have a platform that generated their own leads, some squeeze pages and stuff like that? No, no, no, okay.
Speaker 2:There was not really like landing pages, squeeze pages or anything like that. I didn't have access to previous clients, that previous buyers or sellers the sphere the old didn't have the sphere.
Speaker 2:If I had that, I would have crushed that. I would have hit that first. Yeah, so I first year I sold 60 homes, helped 60 homes, built 60 relationships based off of the you know what I had available to me and it really helped with hitting the streets and learning the area and challenging too. You know, being brand new to the area, needing to learn the condo communities, needing to learn the neighborhoods you know our area does not have a lot of master plan communities and running through neighborhoods, learning what types of homes are there, parking on grass, what does that mean? Just a lot of different things that I wasn't accustomed to. So it definitely was great. It definitely put me in a position to grow and learn.
Speaker 1:So 60 homes in your first year in a new area is killing it. Let's just say what it is that's killing it.
Speaker 2:That's better than a deal a week Working my butt off. Yes, you were.
Speaker 1:You were going at it hard. So when you were, did you ever do any straight up cold calling?
Speaker 2:or was it more refreshing these leads or trying to touch points with it when I it wasn't with the team, when I did cold calling, when I broke out on my own. That's when I started cold calling.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's back up. So you come in 2017, you stay here a year at a bigger franchise type of brokerage with a team. So then you go out on your own. Where did you go then? What did same brokerage?
Speaker 2:No, I came to Charles Rutenberg Realty Wow there.
Speaker 1:now he's starting to make some really good decisions, as we know what. So you know we'll do a little real quick. What homework did you do? How'd you end up at Charles Rutenberg?
Speaker 2:You know I had the broker and not my team lead at the other brokerage. I went to the broker. I had a good relationship with the broker and, being new to the area and being new relationship I had with the broker, sat down with him and I chatted with him and let him know what was going on and where should I go and he direct me here.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm gonna have to send him a fruit plate or something. That's awesome, you know. And I will put another little shameless plug in. I was counseling with an agent about a week ago and she had been with a large franchise brokerage that we would all recognize. She's been there like 20 years. She was actually her broker. Would teach her how to train the agents to go up against Rutenberg agents, because you know they're on like a 70% split. It wasn't gonna get much better. Maybe if you were a rockstar you got up to 75% split. So when they had a little fallout at that brokerage we're a non-competing office here. None of the brokers here sell real estate. We support you guys in the field. So when she had a little issue with the broker's son taking what she felt was a listing of hers you know this happens in the brokerage she went to the broker just like you did. The brokerage recommended that you should go to Rutenberg then and she did and she's been very happy ever since. So gotta throw a little point.
Speaker 2:The politics can be tough with the franchises. You know it can be tough. I experienced it and I was. It wasn't a pleasant experience.
Speaker 1:No. The politics yeah, yeah, no, it can be, and at that point they almost want you to leave.
Speaker 2:I was pretty much asked to leave.
Speaker 1:When you're not obedient and staying in line anymore. They was like okay, it's time to go to Rutenberg, we'll take all you disobedient agents out there. So, as we're listening, okay, so you go out on your own. What that looked like. How long do you? You came over to Rutenberg. You go out on your own. Did you continue to sell as an independent agent at that time, or did you start thinking about your team?
Speaker 2:Had no team in mind. I came from managing a lot of people and training sales and managing overall 700 people and I was really tired of managing people.
Speaker 1:Yeah that can be exhausting.
Speaker 2:It's very exhausting, and real estate it's tough to manage. Agents too, you know you've got to have the right personality and so forth and have the right work ethic and drive. So I didn't have the intention and so I started on my own cold calling. I picked up some marketing you know some major brand stuff realtorcom, zillow and then I started circle dialing. You know I Circle prospecting one of my favorites and again, I'm still new to the area. I'm only a year in but you know, helping 60 people within a year.
Speaker 2:I got into a lot of neighborhoods. I built some great relationships and those relationships, you know, end up coming with me and it wasn't, you know, direct I wasn't getting direct business from these people that I helped with the team, but I did such a great job with serving them. After the fact they didn't want to go back to that brokerage. They wanted a further family to me. So I had a little bit of a kick there coming from referrals from the previous team I was with. But mostly I was really grinding the phones and outside of grinding the phones I still need to learn the area.
Speaker 2:So I would my. I mean, the secret in the sauce was real simple having a rhythm and a schedule that would keep me active and learning the area and staying busy. So I would circle prospect in the morning, yeah, I'd go 830 to 1030 or 8th year, 11. Yeah, that time I would head out. I have to get out of the house, build new relationships, built some great relationships with business owners and then also was hitting communities and learning communities. So we have a lot of condo communities in Pinellas County and it's very diverse, very dense, yeah. So I would go into these communities and learn where the pool's at, where's the clubhouse, at, what does the condo community look like, what's the values in these communities? So really dove into in the early morning or late morning, early afternoon, dove into basically learning the area and educating myself, that's that's.
Speaker 1:I love the plan where you were probably time blocking in the mornings to do your prospecting.
Speaker 1:For me it was always when I was sharpest, when I felt like I could do the best you know good on the phones and talk to people I was sharp on my game and then take a little break and you go out and maybe do a little more mindless stuff where you can see the area, and I love that. So, would you say, your morning looked like prospecting until you couldn't take it anymore, until you had him locked out and you got out. And what did your afternoons look like? How did you?
Speaker 2:Afternoons so I would head out and it definitely wasn't aimless roaming.
Speaker 2:You know I had an intention, had a plan, had a plan and it was to build relationships and meet people and to this day I have those relationships. So my afternoon, so cold call. In the morning I'd go out and learn communities say 11 to 1, 1. Afterwards I would be, I would be in businesses and you know, not really not intentionally striking up conversations, but looking for, like natural connections. And so, example one of my good friends to this day she's actually an agent on our team Go back to 2018, I was.
Speaker 2:I would go to her store and have coffee with her. She owned a coffee shop, so I'd roll in there and we just clicked and it had nothing to do about real estate, but my intention was to meet people and meet good people, right, and you know, through that process she would say you know, I mean, when we first met, what do you do for living? I'm in real estate and she would be. This specific relationship is funny because I'm pretty tatted up. So I'd come in and tank top sometimes and shorts, and she thought I was a bum. And then I'd come back the next day or the following and I'd have a suit on and she's like whoa, whoa, whoa, what do you do? And so I shared with her.
Speaker 2:I do real estate and we just struck up a conversation and struck up the relationship really. So I ended up having building a really good relationship with her and on Sundays, when the coffee shop was closed, to get really ingrained in the community, I would just open the doors of her coffee shop and I'd offer free coffee to people. So this isn't done, eden. So people would be rolling by the doors open, they come in, they try to order coffee and I'd say, hey, you know what? The store is closed, but we've got coffee pastries. And I happen to be a local realtor and if you have any questions about the local real estate market, sit down. And it worked beautifully. Building relationships, however, it works for you. Yeah, so my afternoons were really focused on building relationships.
Speaker 1:And you still have to. So when you were circle prospecting, I think. By the way, I think circles prospecting is great, especially at a brokerage the size of ours, because all you have to do is watch it for a great new listing to hit and then in your circles prospecting you can simply say, hey, we just wanted to let you know we just listed another property, and that's an accurate statement. It doesn't have to be your listing, it has to be the brokerage is listing. And with the type of listings we got going up every day, you will never run out of good circle prospecting to do no it's really endless if you allow it to be natural and do it enough to be natural.
Speaker 1:Did you ever call FISBOs expires, anything like that? Absolutely OK, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:You know, when I first started Real Estate in Oklahoma, that's all I did and I conquered, I was relentless. So I would call them, knock on their door, offer special incentives to come with me as a realtor, put trust in me and build that relationship. So I did hear, I did. I called FISBOs. I never really did. The expires, no, no FISBOs and circle dialing. So I'd like to get fresh homeowners and just talk to homeowners. You know they're holding the key to the kingdom. They own a home. They may want to sell it. Yeah, expires.
Speaker 1:They're already aggravated with a realtor somewhere. It could be tough.
Speaker 2:I've never hit expires. It's definitely a great avenue, though, you know, I've just never done it.
Speaker 1:For some people it seems to so if they get on your list, they either got to buy, sell or die to get off your list. Right, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah or forever. You're on my list and we're going to chat about real estate.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I love it. I think that it's critical to have a good balance between high tech these days, but you got to have the high touch. Yeah, if you're not touching people, I don't believe there's going to be an app to ever put us out of business. No, a real estate transaction is way too complicated and unique For there ever to be an algorithm that's going to run that for us Absolutely. And there's humans involved in this Absolutely, and the algorithm is not going to work for that. So you can use these tech tools to leverage your time, but you better have some personal skills to make relationships with people Absolutely, to get you the business.
Speaker 2:And touching on the personal skills and relationships. So our team is based around like grassroots thoughts. You know we write. I don't write them, but we have a team member that's hired to write no cards, your personal handwritten notes 100% we don't send anything out generic I have my. She's relationship manager. She deals just with relationships, so is that a?
Speaker 1:and we'll talk about that. That's obviously a position on your team.
Speaker 2:It's a position on an admin of back side.
Speaker 1:I um, through my real estate career, I um listened to a trainer that I had not liked about 20 years ago and I till I sold my brokerages up and you know, just recently, um, I would do two handwritten cards a day. They I would put them on my, on the keyboard of my computer. So when I came in, there was two cards that I had to write every day before I could even start logging on to my computer, because then I get in there and get into emails and sometimes you start putting out fires and talking to people and agents and that's not making you any money. But those two handwritten cards every day were, you know, that was only I didn't work on sundays, that was 12 a week that I went out and I will tell you, uh, the response from that is phenomenal and it's beautiful. You've got somebody dedicated to do that in your office.
Speaker 2:I think it's great. I think the challenge with a lot of uh, a lot of teams we're not. The challenge I think that they miss is is remaining very connected to their relationships and their past buyers and sellers. We stay so connected through anniversaries, birthdays, um, but you know, kids coming, births, um just every event in our buyers and sellers lives were there with them and it continues for life and that's always front of mine 100% and that's, that's. Uh, you know it's a grassroots thing, you know you stay connected, somebody.
Speaker 2:So it's note cards, it's phone calls, it's text, it's stopping by and seeing them, little pop-bys we call them yeah, and you know pretty soon before you know it, you're like the governor of uh uh panellas county only, and you're in home depot and you see people from five years ago, two years ago, last month, and and there's always a good taste in everybody's mouth when you service them right though, and you're doing all these right things and they love to see you.
Speaker 1:The, the pop-bys were always fun to do too. You know we would uh uh go out once or twice a month and, and do you know, 15, 20 pop-bys, little less than five dollar, trinket with a little card leave it, and if they're not there, I'd leave it on their doorstep. I take a picture of it and I texted to him hey, sorry I missed you today. We you know, if it was the start of summer we might leave a little uh thing of sunblock or something with a cute little name tag or something like that.
Speaker 1:And and people love that stuff they eat it up. So 2018, you're out, there, you're. You're told us what your day looks like. When did I would assume that you got so busy that you said, hey, I need help. Is that what was?
Speaker 2:the premise for the team. It's exactly what happens um I my first year out on my own. I closed, I think, 85 transactions.
Speaker 2:That's killing it man and the next year, um, I, I had to do something because I was working seven days a week, 15 hours. You're gonna burn out, love it and and still had plenty of energy, um, but uh, it takes a toll on life. It takes a toll on the relationship with your. If you have a significant other. It's a great uh toll on the relationship I have with my dog. Um, you know, so that's critical don't mess that up.
Speaker 1:We all love pets, or?
Speaker 2:it was after that first year. Um did a great job. I developed the processes, put everything in place and I and I always create these processes for growth and I didn't plan on a team. The very next year I had to bring a teammate on okay so?
Speaker 1:so what did that look like you? You did, you um, you had these leads and you said I need some help. So you decided did. Did you think about a specific um area you wanted this person to work in? Or did you just think I want a good agent, I'll develop them, they can do what I do. Or did you just bring them on to handle your buyer leads? Perhaps I? I?
Speaker 1:brought them on specifically for help period so you were looking for a good person that you could develop into correct somebody that sees the business like you do somebody can train too.
Speaker 2:So you know my my uh. Whenever I bring a teammate on, it's not to train them to be a part of my team. I want them to be successful in real estate period. So the way I look at training someone is, yes, processes for our team, um, how our team functions, relationship training. But I also want them to, if they decide to leave, take the skill as I've given you and go do something on your own. So I mean I I don't a lot of teams will do that they'll train you specifically for one thing, because they want to kind of keep you in a little box, right?
Speaker 2:I want everybody that joins our team to be treated well, number one by me. I want them to make money and I want them to go out and flourish and create good relationships. So once I got that point where I really couldn't handle any more I and I really believe in natural connections too so I had a transaction with a kid that was on another with another brokerage. He came in, we had a deal together and he told me this himself he goes there's something different about you, and so he tracked me down to be part of the team. I love that. That that shows the initiative on his part I think I know who you're talking about.
Speaker 1:By the way, he is really something and, yeah, he gives you all the love and credit for that too he's amazing. We had a good run.
Speaker 2:You know he's not with the team anymore, but while he was there, had a great run, um, he taught me a lot of things, I taught him a lot of things and it was a great relationship and so that's how I got my first agent think and this doesn't specifically speak to teams, but I think agents sometimes think that every other agent out there is their competition.
Speaker 1:That's not really the case all the times if you will take time to form and help and be decent to other agents and even somebody on the other side of a transaction from another brokerage that maybe doesn't understand something. Coach him up a little bit. Absolutely, those relationships will reward you. Forever down the road They'll say hey, that's that Lance guy man, he's good to work with and that stuff goes a long way. Absolutely, throw that out there. Okay, so you got your first team. When did you decide to? What kind of systems did you decide to start putting in place for Legion and marketing advertising, and at what point did you bring on a transaction coordinator? Did you pull a plan together?
Speaker 2:So the process, kind of going back to the grassroots and branding that process was developed really early on. So that way when we serve someone and we go through relationship and they close on their home, that process is in place and the relationship just continues. So going past that, it's really about feeling confident and knowing where you got to feel confident in building these relationships and knowing that a lot of people worry about the money. Yes, so hit that. So it's people worry about the money. If you worry about the money, you're not going to be successful.
Speaker 2:So with the process in place, our main focus is building relationships. So I really dove into that process because that's really what pulls out referrals from your base, your base of clients. So that process was bringing two to three referrals every month. And then I was investing in Zillow Realtorcom and that's a whole other beast. Internet leads are totally different on how to handle those, how to work them. There's a lot of a nominated I can't say that word right now. Their internet leads want to remain anonymous and so it's a different beast with prospecting them and trying to get their attention.
Speaker 1:And to nurture that lead and take much longer. So we it's a very good point they do they do a whole different process bringing that along than a warm lead or a circle prospect lead or something like that it could be an immediate buyer or seller or it's going to be 90 days out to maybe two years out.
Speaker 2:So our bread and butter is really our referrals and that's where the process was really tight on how we treat a current and past client not client but buyer or seller.
Speaker 1:Great point on the Zillow lead and the processes. We had an agent here that everyone was a little surprised when she came in with like an $8 million closing big fat check. So I interviewed her a little bit on it and she said I've been working this lead for four years. It was a Zillow lead.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it took time. And here's the irony to it when they first started looking on the Zillow lead, she said they were $600,000, $700,000 buyers. They wanted a second home in Florida. Absolutely, their business exploded and the next year they turned into a million to two million. She said they still didn't find anything. Their business back in another state continued to explode.
Speaker 1:There were some IT very young couple, by the way and they wound up being a $7 million buyer that she nurtured for four years. And so to your point, spot on. So you got the systems in place. Is this an ever-evolving process for you or do you think you kind of got this thing down and we're going to talk about your numbers here, if you're okay? Yeah, absolutely, spittin' that out Today. You have a team of I think you said you have four, got four agents. You got four agents and you and myself and yourself and your dog and my dog Dog's critical. Yes, keeping your mental health straight. Without the dog, you're probably a hot mess out there. How many transactions in the last 12 months have you guys closed?
Speaker 2:Roughly Last. Oh gosh, I know we did this year.
Speaker 1:Okay, tell me this year.
Speaker 2:This year we're at 95 closed transactions and $35 million.
Speaker 1:So you're on track to do a couple hundred transactions and $70 million, yes, with four people. Absolutely, let's do some quick math. Those agents are making good money.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Because, even if the lowest split possible which I don't think you do yeah, so talk about that. You think it's really and Lance's team runs it a little different than most of them out there. Talk about that how you want to incentivize your agents.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely so. Being a part of a team before experiencing that and then also bringing previous life experience with running a company, the table team environment is super important, but also making money is very important, and what we do is not easy. Being in real estate is not as easy as everyone thinks it is. It's not like HGTV says it's not. It's an absolute grind. So anyone that we click with and have a natural relationship with as far as an agent goes, coming on our team, I make an initial promise You're going to make $100,000 or more as long as you follow my lead, and it's a lot to ask someone to follow your lead, yeah. So along with that, I thought that I should be offering higher commission, and that's also one of the pieces that's nice with Charles Ruttenberg Realty is with the 100% commission. I don't have any other broker taking splits off, so I can give a higher split. So we graduate from 50% to 70% based on skill set and based on performance, and so our top agents have a 70% split and I think that's a great place to be.
Speaker 2:I don't know that anybody else does that and I feel good going to sleep at night that my agents are making great money and it's interesting. It kind of goes back to the basics of real estate. If you focus on the money, you're never going to make money. No, that's your right intent. If you focus on building relationships, you'll make money. So with a team, you just kind of pull out and do the same thing. Well, if you focus on treating agents right and you teach them how to build relationships and you pay them well or have nice splits like this, it's all going to come back to everybody, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So what structure I mean and I know that you're not a book guy here, so you probably didn't read a book or go to a seminar and figure out how to put the Willard Home team together but do you think you're more into what team structure? You're certainly not the mentor, mentee type of person.
Speaker 2:Who told you I don't like to read? I don't.
Speaker 1:I just didn't Based upon. I haven't because I haven't read your team model anywhere, so I'm thinking this is a very unique one. He must have put it together by necessity and what's working for you, you know.
Speaker 2:I talked to a lot of people and looked at their models. I didn't read anything. Talked to team owners. And then it was also part of a team and looked at. I really based my team off of how that felt being a part of a team being treated the way I was treated, how I was limited. I was limited with commission. I was limited with what I could do, kind of handcuffed yeah, handcuffed really and you can't. In my opinion, I don't ever want to be handcuffed. That's the best way to lose someone.
Speaker 1:You got to thoroughbred. You got to take the reins off sometimes and just let them run.
Speaker 2:And it's hard because I'm a micromanager, you know I like to have control. So our team, I let everybody be themselves, I let our agents list properties, work with buyers there's no box that I'm putting anyone in and it allows them to be creative, it allows them to feel good about themselves and allows them to be the best version of them every day, the better version of them every day, and it's worked thus far, you know it keeps the mundane out of it too.
Speaker 1:You know, if you think, oh my gosh, all today I get to do is open doors for people, you know it can get boring. It can get boring, yeah.
Speaker 2:Now we really do function as a team too. As I was chatting with you before we started the podcast, we always double up, you know. So if we're going to go on a listing appointment, I always want four eyes there and I always want four years there, and it's not so much to just train people, that's more so having the support. So either I'm going to be side by side with our agents for listing appointments or they're going to double up and go on listing appointments themselves. I happen to have an all female team, so I really don't want them in homes alone with a seller we haven't met Good point. So it's going to be two. It'll be either me, and if it's a little bit of a dicey relationship that we're hearing over the phone, then I'm going to be there.
Speaker 1:I have found over the years that women actually make better realtors, for the most part, than men.
Speaker 2:I've got a solid group of ladies. I mean solid, they are all bosses, they are amazing and actually the entire team. So, hitting the next part of the structure, we've got relationship manager.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And then we've got I've got a marketing manager.
Speaker 1:So what does it look like for your relationship manager? What tasks does she handle in on a day to day, weekly basis?
Speaker 2:This is huge. Nobody does this. Quality assurance calls, she calls. That is huge. She calls every single person that we come in contact with, not just all of our active buyers and sellers. She calls all of our prospects, the internet leads that aren't answering the phone, that won't answer a text or respond to emails. She can get them. She's calling them to say hey, how is Taylor doing? Taylor's been in contact with you for two weeks. Hey, how Lance is doing? I even put her on me.
Speaker 1:I love that quality assurance. So they're back touching all to everybody to kind of check up. Wow, what a great idea. I don't think you're right. I haven't never heard of anybody doing this concept. No, it's great, it's fantastic. That's gotta be a really big lead source for you, it's huge.
Speaker 2:So she also touches base with people for reviews. You know we've got, we're pushing 200 reviews on Google.
Speaker 1:That's critical, which is huge.
Speaker 2:I'll tell everybody listening that's a lead generator right there. That's huge, absolutely.
Speaker 1:What about? I don't wanna jump in here and break your train of thought. Your free Google business page Got one, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:If you're not doing it.
Speaker 1:Is it one of the best lead generators you possibly have?
Speaker 2:I literally receive 15 contacts a month easy from the free Google paid business page.
Speaker 1:So a free Google business page with the quality assurance and all the reviews is just, guys, I hope you're listening to what Lance is sharing with you right here. It's gold.
Speaker 2:It really is. So she does quality assurance and then she does reviews and then she's our hand writer. She's my niece. She does the notes. She's my niece in San Diego. Her name is Skye oh really. So she sends out handwritten cards. She loves it, and that's again naturally choosing somebody that's gonna fit your team. She loves it, so she sends out. We've got little magazines that we send to prospects. Buyers are sellers, so she sends those out with little handwritten note cards or a hand. She writes on the inside of the cover of the magazine and sends them to prospects.
Speaker 1:Is that a?
Speaker 2:monthly thing you put out. So quick example somebody calls us, wants some help with selling their home. Immediately I put a task on her to send a seller's guide to that person's home, even if I'm gonna go meet them. So what happens is I meet them, chat with them, have a presentation. Next day in the mail they get a seller's guide. So we're just constantly touching. So she assists with constantly touching Our prospects, our current clients, past clients, past sphere.
Speaker 1:How many contact points a month would you try to get with your sphere? At least one, or what's your thought there? Do you have a plan With each past? Yeah, with your sphere. Past, customers and sphere.
Speaker 2:They are actually getting touched bi-weekly and monthly. There you go, depending on what's going on. So bi-weekly newsletter and which people are very active with our social media and through our newsletters, people actually watch us.
Speaker 1:So when agents are out there listening to this and they'll call the brokerage and they'll ask for me and they'll say you're not giving me any leads and I explained them our compensation plan. This is the stuff you want. You want your own leads, Cause if you're not generating your own leads, you never have any freedom of anywhere from a team or brokerage or anything.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no.
Speaker 2:And it's the mindset is really what's hard. You know the process and the things that are in place are pretty simple, but to wake up every day and push through that process is where people fail. Yeah, it's groundhog day. Get up and do it again every day.
Speaker 1:You know that's what we gotta do, so all right. So, wow, I've just learned a lot there. I'm really really knocked out with some of the things you're doing. It's kind of a deep dive into your contacts. A lot of people just touch them one time oh, they didn't want to buy, they didn't want to sell and they lose them. They don't ever touch them, you guys. They're never getting off your list, like.
Speaker 2:I said, they buy, sell, leave the world. Not one person has used a different realtor when they buy with us. So not one person. And I track people, I track our prospects. So if someone buys with us, they sell with us.
Speaker 1:And I can tell you the volume you're doing. The brokerage never hears anything. So, yeah, there's a lot that we do hear about, but not from your team. All right, so we got the. You got the roles you have. Talk to me exactly about your setup now. You've got your niece in San Diego. I love that. She's doing that side of it. You have a TC as well.
Speaker 2:We do. I'll hit marketing manager real quick. So our team got so big, the social media need got so big, our grassroots things that we do got so big. I moved my assistants that had been with us for two years into a marketing role. So she's now marketing manager. She handles all of our social media. She handles, you know, creating postcards a lot and she's very, very cutting edge, I'll say, you know, staying on, you know, social media and so forth. So her role is huge.
Speaker 2:And then I just hired a full-time TC. So I've always thought about this hybrid role of someone being licensed and being a TC and doing both roles. So before I'm going to grab another agent, I want our TC to get really good at being a TC. She's got some commercial experience, so she's amazing. She just started about two months ago, okay, and I am putting her through school to get a real estate license. And you know you're not going to make all the money in the world being a TC. She's definitely busy, but I'm going to get her, or she's getting her real estate license so she can be a weekend warrior. And you know I specifically want to feed her nice and easy referrals to get, you know, that weekend warrior money. So with the salary she's getting for being a TC, plus getting some hand-fed deals on the weekends, she's going to be making over a hundred grand too.
Speaker 1:Keeping her in tubes. No better way to keep people incentivized and make sure they got money coming into their account. That's what I've found. So you got the marketing manager, the TC and the agents. So you've got the four agents on your team right now and they do what's their role look like Just exactly like yours.
Speaker 2:It is. I'm currently the top producer. So once I started the team brought the first agent on. I've done a hundred homes or condos. You know a hundred properties every year and I'm just tired, that's exhausting.
Speaker 2:It's exhausting. I'm pulling back and so my role is going to change here this year moving into 2024, more as a mentor and coach. But I'm still going to be in the field because I believe in staying in touch. I don't want to lose touch with things Because you know moving a hundred homes in the first six months of the year. You know the trends, like we know what's going on the market period, so I don't want to lose that. So I'll always stay active. But we'll be looking for another agent and then the agent's roles, their producers. You know we talk constantly. We're always talking about relationship building, strategy with buyers and sellers and you know we touch on. Our business is all about relationships. But you still do have to talk about sales. I mean, you know and strategy and how you speak to people and how you bring people to the table.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a point in time in the relationship that you go ahead and ask for the sale.
Speaker 2:Correct. That's great to get the orders to ask for. We ask on the front end, okay, and we also do Not shy about that. Yeah, we also assume the sale. That's a huge one.
Speaker 1:Assume it, yeah, but assume it, then ask for it, and it's all a mindset to do that. I would just ask you this If you saw somebody out there that was and I'm sure you get this question asked to you all the time an agent that's either on a team or a pretty good producing agent that's thinking about starting a team, or an agent that's on a team that is excelling and would want to go out, what would you tell them to do to start their own team? What would be your two or three pieces of advice?
Speaker 2:Number one create a process, and that process has got to be put in place before you get into action. And then number two is focus on the relationships.
Speaker 1:Have the processes focus on the relationship with positive intent.
Speaker 2:Number three, I think, is the biggest reminder for everyone is money is not everything, relationships are everything, and so two and three kind of come together.
Speaker 1:Money won't show up at your funeral, will it? But people will.
Speaker 2:No, and you can't take money to grave either.
Speaker 1:No, you've never seen a U-Haul behind a hearse. No, all right, well, so listen, we're gonna wrap this up, lance. How could people get ahold of you or your team, or to talk to you, or they wanna buy or sell real estate Cause we do have people that aren't realtors that actually listen to this show. How would they track you down?
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. I answer my phone almost all the time. Crazy concept Almost all the time If I don't answer my phone, you get an immediate text that I'll call you right back. So I would say, if you'd like to contact me, best Way is gonna be my cell phone Telephone number 727-487-1894. And always happy to help, and out to the realtors too, with the brokerage that are listening. I'm also open to helping answering questions as well, and I think the mentorship program that's being started is amazing.
Speaker 1:Appreciate that and we are going to certainly get some mentors into you. So just a novel concept. I mean, we talk to people all the time. They tell us oh you can get ahold of me on Instagram and TikTok and Snapchat and all these different things, Lance, you just roll out there and give them your phone number. I love that. I think that's great. So, hey guys, we're gonna have to wrap it up this week. Maybe we can get Lance to come back, because we didn't even scratch the surface on what he can do to help you guys understand about building a team. But until next time, we will see you guys at the top.