Ever feel like you're hunting for a golden key to unlock success in real estate? Listen in as we, Monica and myself, debunk this myth and replace it with the truth - there is no single "one thing," but rather a series of consistent, strategic actions that builds a successful real estate business. We share the story of an agent who started with her immediate family and then consistently expanded her network, reminding us that persistence is key in this industry.
Building your real estate business is about more than just closing deals, it's about building lasting, genuine connections. We dive into the art of communication and how sincere rapport with clients can make or break your success. We advocate the use of video messages over text to strengthen your connection with clients and emphasize the need for a solid business plan to help elevate your real estate venture.
Finally, we tackle the current real estate market and its evolution since 2008, navigating its complexities together. With insight into the mindset of today's buyers, the impact of higher interest rates, and the current market dynamics, we aim to provide you with a comprehensive understanding. We underline the importance of agents being knowledgeable about the market trends, not just relying on news outlets, and champion the importance of understanding your contract and continually educating yourself. Wrapping up, we discuss the significance of networking and striking a balance of passion and professionalism in the real estate business, leaving you with a wide array of strategies and insights to apply to your own practice.
Ever feel like you're hunting for a golden key to unlock success in real estate? Listen in as we, Monica and myself, debunk this myth and replace it with the truth - there is no single "one thing," but rather a series of consistent, strategic actions that builds a successful real estate business. We share the story of an agent who started with her immediate family and then consistently expanded her network, reminding us that persistence is key in this industry.
Building your real estate business is about more than just closing deals, it's about building lasting, genuine connections. We dive into the art of communication and how sincere rapport with clients can make or break your success. We advocate the use of video messages over text to strengthen your connection with clients and emphasize the need for a solid business plan to help elevate your real estate venture.
Finally, we tackle the current real estate market and its evolution since 2008, navigating its complexities together. With insight into the mindset of today's buyers, the impact of higher interest rates, and the current market dynamics, we aim to provide you with a comprehensive understanding. We underline the importance of agents being knowledgeable about the market trends, not just relying on news outlets, and champion the importance of understanding your contract and continually educating yourself. Wrapping up, we discuss the significance of networking and striking a balance of passion and professionalism in the real estate business, leaving you with a wide array of strategies and insights to apply to your own practice.
Hey everyone, welcome back to another podcast, a CRR podcast, and this is In the Loop. I'm Steve Looper, I am a trainer here at the office, I'm also a real estate agent and I am joined today by Monica, our managing broker. Hey there, hey, so this is like our last podcast. This is the last podcast for the way we're doing it now. Yes, we're going to be recording these, that agents can watch us now.
Speaker 2:Yay, how exciting is that going to be?
Speaker 1:So if you haven't been paying attention, where have you been? Pay attention and listen to us. But we're also going to be having our podcasts that are going to be recorded, so you're going to be able to watch this now on YouTube, as well as any of our podcast sites as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll definitely get us out onto all of the avenues to pull a podcast. Yeah, we're going to be so excited you'll be able to see us now so good.
Speaker 1:It's going to be so much fun and I'm excited. So in the next few weeks we're going to have a lot of changes, but we're jumping into this with you know. Obviously the markets changed a little bit for some agents, would you agree? I totally agree. No, it's not everyone. There's a lot of agents that are performing very well.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that's a common thing that agents approach us with hey, you know, my business has changed. But I've seen some agents out there. They don't even realize the market has changed.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So agents are watching what other agents are doing, you know.
Speaker 1:And would you agree? Like there's? There's still a lot of agents that are coming to you, right, and they're saying, like what is that one thing or what's that special thing I can do to get my business kickstarted If it's drawing up? What are you getting from that?
Speaker 2:I love that. So, perception from agents towards high producing agents they have that one thing. There's one thing that they figured out. You know that's like a secret, and what's that one thing they do? Well, it's, you know, for producing agents, obviously it's not that one thing.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 1:It's a series, I mean, and that's like so we had one of the agents in here that's a big producer. She's like our either one or two, I think she's going back and forth right. So I did ask her as a producing agent, you're killing it, you're listing big, you're big commissions, great clients, what are you doing? And she said the same thing, that she was like it's not one thing that I'm doing. And I kind of wanted to dive deeper, like then tell me some things that you're doing so I can pass it along to agents. And one thing that she kind of said was she was like I'm, I'm reaching out to my sphere, yes, follow up, and there's consistency across the board. And what she said, all her things that she's doing, that she's reaching out to her sphere of influence.
Speaker 1:So I I've been talking about that with a lot of our agents about the sphere of influence. A lot of them are saying like well, what if my sphere of influence is really small? And the one thing I liked about our agent she broke it down and made it really simple and she said, like for me, I started with my immediate family, absolutely, and then from there I got them to trust me. I did, I was consistent, and then she went to her friends and from there it was her friends talk to their friends, her immediate family talk to their friends. It's not like her immediate family and their friends are her friends. So she's growing, her sphere of influence is growing and she said she kept it small and she grew it. She didn't immediately try to start with the big pie right.
Speaker 1:Broke it down to a slice and then grew from there, and so that was one thing that I was like, okay, that's good. The second thing is that she said I take part in stuff Her church, her kid's school. She said she even keeps it as simple as like she has kids, so she's in publics multiple times a day, so it wasn't only about like reading, like having a name badge on all the time. She said they get, they got to know me, they got to know me even at publics because I'm in there multiple times a day or multiple times a week and from there, like she's getting referrals. Yes, so I mean that's one thing that I got from her that was really unique and that she said she doesn't rely on like the typical Zillow calling me with a lead. She's like I don't do that, like she not everybody does that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not everybody does that. But see what I love about her. She found what works for her.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:She really discovered what makes her unique. She went with it. And what is the one word and you already said it what is one? Okay, All right. If I had to say one thing is that she's consistent. She's consistent. She found what works for her.
Speaker 1:We're not going to edit that out either.
Speaker 2:No, we'll leave that there. She found absolutely what works for her and she's stuck. She sticks with it. She's consistent, she's always finding an activity, an event within her sphere, right, right.
Speaker 1:Always and I think that's something to really for our agents to think about, and whether they're agents in our office or just agents in general is that when you're starting to think about what do I do during this time if my business is not performing as well as it should be? First, I would say, get out of the mindset that people aren't buying, because that's not true People are buying.
Speaker 2:That's not true, absolutely they're buying.
Speaker 1:Secondly, there's not one thing, but if there is one thing, it would be the word consistency for going to what they do.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. So I think that's probably, and that's a hard thing to do because I think a lot of agents like they do an open house and it wasn't successful, so they automatically rule it out because it must be a bad idea, right, right, it's not a guarantee, and so I think about anything they do that trying to build business. Remember, and I try to relate it back to what I see the overall public get involved in. So when I think about, like, going into the convenience store, you buy 10 scratch offs, you buy 10 scratch offs, and when have you ever found someone who buys 10 who doesn't at some point go back and buy another 10?
Speaker 2:Exactly, at some point they do it.
Speaker 1:Whether it's the next day or right after that, but they do it. And even if that round of 10 was unsuccessful, it's not like they just stopped doing it.
Speaker 2:They go back and do it again.
Speaker 1:And same with like yeah, and when you think about like investing into and I say investing into the lottery, when you're driving down the highway and you see that the last lottery is like one billion, right, everybody is like you know what, I'm gonna try it. And even if it was unsuccessful the next time it was one billion or 500 million, whatever it is someone tries it and but there's a certain amount of risk. You know the odds are stacked against you, but you keep doing it anyways. So why would that? Why wouldn't you translate that into your own business and what you're doing? Exactly? It's gonna be a certain amount of failure. That always happens. It doesn't mean you give up. You just gotta keep pushing forward. You gotta keep doing it in order to get closer to success.
Speaker 2:The more knows you get. That means you're a step closer to a yes, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:You know, and that's why I think, that even with the, it's not a no on the open house. The more times you do something and the more times you're consistent, the higher probability it is that you are going to reach success, would you agree?
Speaker 2:I totally agree. And talking about you know that interaction you had with our top agent Right. What I love that she's mastered is she's built rapport with her war market. Yeah, you know her sphere of influence. She grew from there. It always blows my mind where I sit with agents and I go over their business plan, they rely more on leads. So to me that's tougher to build that rapport with someone you absolutely don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know that's a tougher ask for business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, and I think that you kind of nail it down, that there is a lot of people that they they don't reach out to our sphere of influence, they don't do it consistently and they don't do it in a genuine way. I think there's a oh yes. There's a difference in like reaching out and saying, hey, you have some business for me. And reaching out and genuinely caring whether it's like your family, whether it's your friends, whether it's your past clients and genuinely caring about like how are you?
Speaker 2:Yes, it goes a long way.
Speaker 1:It has to be genuine, it goes a long way and it doesn't, and I always tell agents this too. If you're a new agent and you don't have the budget, and this is where it just I forgot what I was going to really tie in to something you were saying.
Speaker 2:Oh, it came back. I just it just figured, but it's there and I'm going to hold it.
Speaker 1:But if you don't have the budget, if you don't have the budget to do the postcards, the mailers, a phone call, a text message, it goes a long way in creating new business for you in this industry. And if you want to even add to that, I started telling a lot of agents what I've been doing with some past clients and current clients is for my sellers doing a 30 second video. Oh great, right. So I did an open house two weeks ago for my seller and at the end of it I knew he was going to want feedback. So instead of sending them a text message which is, it's, very limiting on expressing what I'm trying to convey because it's just, it's just words they're reading I sent him a text. I mean, I sent him a video real quick and I just said, hey, open house went great. I have this many people through. I'm going to give you.
Speaker 1:The only negative feedback was and after I did this quick little 30 second video, I sent it. He was like awesome, thanks so much, appreciate the update. That was it. That's all he needed.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was all he needed and I was like no think about if you broke that down into how many of your sellers and buyers get frustrated over a process. What's the next step? You could send them a text message and, yes, there's a lot of us will say well, I was very clear in my text message. They should have understood so much easier. If you just record yourself, because it's on a different level, they can play it again and again.
Speaker 1:And it's something as easy as hey guys, congratulations were under contract. The next step would be make escrow, set up the home inspection, give them a number of things to do and then that way, when they forget, all they do is watch the video again. That's it. How great would that be If you sit like three or four videos through the process of we're at home inspections. The next step is going to be the next step and then, lastly, we're gonna be doing the final walk-through tomorrow morning. We're gonna just check out the property, make sure it's exactly as it should be, and then we're going to closing Like how easy would that be and so effective.
Speaker 2:And what a great way to relate tone. You know I do agree on text messages. Sometimes you know your seller could take it wrong.
Speaker 1:All of a sudden you send caps and you made it to be important. But if you kept me, I'm gonna be like I didn't know we were yelling. I didn't know we were yelling each other. Are we fighting? I thought we were friends.
Speaker 2:I love all caps, because nothing will make two agents go at each other faster than-.
Speaker 1:I'm the first one to be like, hey, there's etiquette, hold up, you just yelled at me. I don't appreciate that one bit and that's, it's hard. So I think you gotta be careful about texting and using it as a way to keep up with your past clients. Be careful because there could be something you say that's gonna turn them off or it might come across the wrong way or not genuine. And that's probably the biggest thing on building business is you wanna come across genuine, you wanna stay in contact with those past people. And before I forget, is one word you said is a business plan. Oh, yes, right, and I think that's probably right now, in this time in the market, if you're an agent who is not doing as well as you want or maybe you're doing as well but you wanna elevate your business to the next level A business plan is a great way to start. You have to have a plan. That's gotta be the first step.
Speaker 2:Have to have a plan. You can no longer wing it. And I know previous market. It seems like customers were just coming out the woodworks. You know, and our newer agents were just riding that wave. Right, can't do that anymore.
Speaker 1:We're in a different. We're definitely in a different market. It doesn't mean different, doesn't mean bad. Right, and I think that there's definitely you gotta be careful of. There's a lot of agents out there who will say the market's horrible. I disagree, I totally disagree. And sometimes those are agents who have no past. They don't have any background knowledge to pull from Right. And I know I was like, if you wanna talk about bad, like we could talk about bad. We could talk bad all day long, cause I can tell you back in the day, like let's go back to 2008. You wanna talk about bad? This is not bad. People are buying, even if the rate is high. You know, even if the rate is higher than it was, people are still buying. People are saying you know, they've got that mindset of like, listen, I am and I love that on like TikTok. I read to you the other day what was it? It was marry the house, date the rate.
Speaker 2:Yes, totally true. And what?
Speaker 1:was the divorce one. It was divorce that oh. It was divorce something.
Speaker 2:Somebody's getting divorced.
Speaker 1:I don't remember what it was, but it was like so good that I said it like three times to you and I was like I love that, I need to incorporate it and of course I forgot oh man. I hope I screen shot it somewhere. But it is a good thing to remind buyers that when you get those buyers who are like oh the rate's too high, rit isn't any lower, you know rent is not going. Rent is not going down.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and some of these buyers were priced out of our last market anyway. So you know for them to continuously say, oh, I should have bought, I should have bought, you were priced out anyway. You didn't have 20, 30, 40 thousand dollars to put over asking yeah. So let's, we'll leave that past in the past, you know.
Speaker 1:Gotta move forward, you gotta. If you just sit there and you're like you're dwelling on all those, believe me, there's a lot of times I say I should have Right. You know like if I had money to invest back in 2008, I should have bought a lot of those 35,000 dollar homes, oh yes, I could sit there and beat myself up over that all day long, but it's done.
Speaker 2:It's done, it's gone, move forward.
Speaker 1:It's not happening again. So move on to the next level of your career or whatever you're achieving. But I would say I do tell a lot of buyers you can wait 100 percent, you can wait all day. I can't tell you when the rate's going to go down, but I can tell you this rent is not cheap.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And I wasn't it. Just the other day we had someone from the news station calling and say who wants to get interviewed about the, the rents dropping, and I'm like that's not true.
Speaker 2:That's not true, that's.
Speaker 1:That's an incorrect, that's an incorrect view of the market, right, and that's where I tell agents be careful about what you're watching on the news. Oh, completely, totally be careful, because that that was like a good example when you said hey, there's somebody on the news, they want to interview one of us, for can we talk about why rents are dropping so much?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like I'm not being involved. I have nothing on that.
Speaker 1:That's that is. That is a good example of fake news right there. That's not true. I don't know what market you're talking about, but not here in Florida, not here. Rents are going up, the rentals are limited, and so I tell a lot of buyers I'm like, listen, you could wait around all day long. I, I'm here for you. If you want to wait six months, I'll wait with you six months, and when you're ready to buy, I'll help you. But if you think that you're getting a deal on that rental, you're just throwing money away.
Speaker 2:Completely, and here's the thing. My, my concern is our inventory levels are still not where they typically are.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So all we need is a drop in our interest rate and these same buyers are now once again priced out of the market, right, yeah? So I really think now, with this higher interest rate, it's still a better time to buy. Buyers now have options. You know there are a little bit more inventory. There is a little bit more inventory. You know you can have an inspection period now, yep, you know you don't have to do all this craziness from our last market Wave appraisals yeah, waving appraisals.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't know. I heard from a lot of agents who are friends and just acquaintances, and other agents I've worked with who've said oh, that last market, that was such an amazing market. And I'm like no, it was not amazing, it was not amazing when buyers are waving inspections, waving appraisals, paying 30, 40,000 over the value. That's not an amazing market. And if nothing else, I could tell agents who had just come into the market in the last 14 or 15 years. I'm like, oh, you think it's great because?
Speaker 1:you didn't live at a certain time in the market.
Speaker 1:Yes, I know that this is inevitable. Like I see all repeated trends, it's going to happen. The difference is, is the repeated trend stopped when we got to that cap? The market didn't plummet. The market is leveling off a little bit. It's definitely more of a healthy market, and it's healthy because sellers are still able to make money. Yes, but buyers have more buying power. And is it a bad market if a buyer can go and negotiate even a thousand or 5,000 off the list price? Or is it a bad market if a buyer can get the seller to pay 50% or all the closing costs?
Speaker 2:Yes, that's not a bad market.
Speaker 1:Yes, If everybody can leave the table with money like, the seller still made money, the buyer got what they want, agents got commissions I don't see the problem here.
Speaker 2:I don't yeah, and that way you can marry someone you want to marry that house. Yes, and that's why we say date the rate, Because you know what Listen.
Speaker 1:I'm not committing to you. I'm not committing to you. I'm going to stick with you for a while, but when I get someone better I mean a rate that's better I'm dumping you and going for them, Exactly.
Speaker 2:Versus last market. Last market they had to marry a house they weren't exactly thrilled about. Right, that's going to end in divorce.
Speaker 1:Yes, so you got the house and, yes, you got the amazing rate 2.3. That's awesome, oh, but then they won't be able to get a divorce from their home because they've overpaid.
Speaker 1:They've overpaid and they're upside down, there you go, yeah, and that's more scary than what we're in now Exactly. I would rather pay high because I know the rates are going to come back down. Right, they're going to and evidently win. We don't know, but they're inevitably going to come back down. But if you bought a house just because you're like I have a house, I have a house, you have to have a house. So you just bought the house you had to have, but you hate the area, that's not changing, right, it is what it is, right, I hate the house. Well, guess what?
Speaker 1:Unless you just throw it down, it's yours, you bought it, it's yours Live with it. So that's good and important, I think, for agents. Now, one thing that we've been talking about this year in our classes and you've said it, I've said it is that there is, in just our board, almost 23,000 agents.
Speaker 2:Right, yes, so I believe around 22,000. Okay, 22, 23. 22, 23. Who's counting? Same thing, that's a chicken, bird rocks down, it's all the same.
Speaker 1:It's a ton of agents, but that's a lot of agents. That's a lot of agents, and I do tell a lot of our new and seasoned agents. This is a great time to revamp who you are and figure out who are you as an agent and what makes you more special. Yes, and it's not enough right now for you to say, well, what makes me special is I can list homes and put them on the MLS. We'll soak in everybody.
Speaker 1:Everybody else I've got a great sign. There's a lot of agents who have great signs, so does everybody else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've got great business cards. So does everyone else. I wear a suit or I wear a really great outfit. There's a lot of agents out there who dress well. That's not enough To make you stand out. You got to figure out what does, and there's a number of things that I've kind of shared with agents. I want to get your feedback as a broker. The first thing I think that makes you different is Knowing your contract. Oh, yes, knowing the contract, and not just like Filling in the blanks. Right, and filling in the blanks isn't enough. It's not enough. Oh, I mean, I'm just like, every time I hear that, I'm like listen, like I can train a one-armed chimpanzee. Fill in the blank yeah, it's fill in the blanks. That's not enough. You need to know all the in-betweens.
Speaker 2:Well, you miss it. You miss your representation of your customer fully to the fullest, if you don't understand what you've gotten them into right and and how to get them out of it.
Speaker 1:Oh exactly, there's a lot of it like you get them into a problem because you made a mistake. Yeah, now, if you know your contract well enough, you can get them out before that that mistake escalates. Yes, hopefully not all the time.
Speaker 2:Or know your contract well enough if the other agent is Misunderstanding the contract. Yes, I, I have had scenarios where our agent comes to us and the other agent on the other side is, with conviction, telling them and this is how it is, mm-hmm. I tell our agent where does it state that in our contract?
Speaker 1:right.
Speaker 2:Agent mind blown. Yeah, when they look through everything, what the other agent was Saying was not In our contract at all.
Speaker 1:Right, and there's a lot of panic there's agents always come to you with like panic and they're stressed out. And they're I've seen the agents who come there and they're stressed, they want to cry, yes, because they're so frustrated. But I tell them, like listen, when you sit down and you really know your contract, like really, really know it, you become an expert at it and If you do that, it takes all the stress off the table. You're not rushing to call your broker. Yeah, I don't know. And and there's nothing, I'm not saying anything bad because I have my broker here in front of me, but I think brokers should be there as like a supporting cast and they're there like I need you.
Speaker 1:If I've exhausted all my options, right, I need you. But if you're my first, my first thing is to go to my broker. I don't think that's always like really healthy. As a very you know, a knowledgeable agent you want to be like. Your first option is to be able to pull from your knowledge. Read the contract, yes, yeah, because if you just go to your broker, your broker is going to wait for it Read the contract, and they're just going to read the contract to you. Yes, they're going to reiterate exactly what the contract says. So a lot of times like you're wasting so much time Meeting with your broker. Yes, when you could fix your own problem and I tell you what.
Speaker 2:It's not a good look for your customer. No it's not yet. If you keep having to defer to your broker, oh, I'm gonna Consult this with my broker. Or a good question? I'll ask my broker. I'll get back to you. Right you know it's gonna add up to where your customer is gonna be like. Well, this person doesn't have enough experience.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and that's where I tell a lot of agents as an agent but also doing the training in the office. My goal as a trainer is that I want the agents to function without a broker. Yes, I want them to be able to say you know what? My broker is not available but I'm okay, yeah, I've got it. Or when someone says, why don't you call your broker to get the answer, I don't need to do that, I already know the answer because I know the contract here. It is right in the contract and you point it out. That is.
Speaker 1:There's something to be said about that when you're just like, I know it so much that Monica will be proud because I don't need to call her, and then I can tell her after the deal closes that you know what. I didn't really need you. We had a problem, but it was great that you were there. If I did need you, right, and that's what I. But that only comes when you actually take the time to educate yourself. When you come to training classes, come to zoom classes, network with other agents. You know a lot of people assume that training classes means you're trying to tell me I don't know my business. I'm not saying that.
Speaker 2:No, not at all. No it's to enhance, it's to help you encourage.
Speaker 1:Yes, I always remind people like some of the best people, the most successful people out there in Industries across the board, they get continued education.
Speaker 2:They're always bettering themselves right.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So from from our, you know, highest producing agents, yeah, I catch them in on zooms. I catch them at events. You know there there are several events that you know. I've seen our agents and you think, wow, their business is Amazing, right, and you see them still plugging in for that Next level growth, for that continued education. They do it, they don't stop.
Speaker 1:No, and I do speak with a lot of agents who now, of course, I love the brokerage I'm at. I love that it's a hundred percent model. I love the fact that I have freedom, which we all have freedom, but here's the difference. I have a broker who encourages me to know my contract. Yes, and I have seen in other brokerages and I'm not gonna call names or anything but Brokers don't care or don't push the fact that they want their agents know the contract. Well, don't worry about it. We have somebody who can do the contract for you and For me. What that makes me believe is that you don't want me to grow big enough that I can go and do this without you. Yes, you want to keep me trapped. Yeah, you want to keep me under your thumb, and the way you do that is to limit my knowledge. Yes, and knowledge is power.
Speaker 1:It's like one of those like after school right, like schoolhouse rocks right, and it's something to live by, that is like one of those saints that will never get old. Knowledge is power, and if you have the power, you make the rules, and that is the difference. I have the knowledge. I took that knowledge and turned it into power, and the power gave me the ability to leave a Brokerage that was taken too much of my money, yes, and let me move into a brokerage that was there to support me, but I got to keep more of my money.
Speaker 2:Well, because it turns into this. Oh well, I'm completely self-sufficient. Why do I need it? You know, hey, what I pay, you know. And then you start exploring other options.
Speaker 1:So right, and then that leads into my next one.
Speaker 1:Which is now. There's a lot of mindsets from new agents and seasoned agents that I'm seeing that I don't know if they're always the healthiest and I want to get your, your take on it is that I've heard or I've seen in a lot of like Social media platforms where agents will say I want to work for the brokerage, who gives me leads? What's your take on that? Just like the agent that comes to you and says, hey, I just need to know right away, I don't care about the splits, are you going to give me leads?
Speaker 2:So immediately, what goes through my mind? Oh, this is an agent that has no initiative to grow their own business, and someone like that I don't really feel is going to make it.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You know, because they're so either, they might have been successful at a brokerage. I was just spoon feeding them leads.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But they're never going to take the time to cultivate the skills they need, you know, to generate their own business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and being in the business almost 20 years now, I will say a lot of the top producing oh no, I will say every one of the top producing agents that were above me or that I mentored or shadowed, or just I just paid attention to their business and, regardless of what office I worked at, I always knew that they were creating their own business. Right, you know, they were out there every day. No matter how successful even the most successful agents, they wake up the earliest, right? Somebody might think like oh, that agent sold 65 million last year.
Speaker 1:That agent isn't sleeping in. They're waking up bright and early. They're out there, constantly pounding the pavement, doing the old school things that they need to do in order to create new business. They're not just going into work and saying who can hand me business? It's not good, and I think it goes back to that. What I was saying before is anybody who says, come and work for me, we're just going to spoon feed you. They're doing that because they want to limit your knowledge. They want to make sure that you never get so big that you feel that you can leave them. They want to make sure you constantly remember you can't do this without us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you never learn how to approach someone, you never learn how to market for yourself, you never learn what we do to. You know generate, cultivate, farm an area. You never learn any of that stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and God forbid that the market ever was to hit a bad spot like it did you know, during that bad time yes. I can tell you now, during that time, brokers weren't hand out leads. No, there was no leads to hand out, so what? Happens? Do you just drowned? Do you just sit there and you flounder and you go back into what you were doing before, because you were used to just sitting there and answering the phones?
Speaker 2:Business was coming to you Right.
Speaker 1:Because, I mean, the first brokerage I worked for, the floor was great. It was a small brokerage, we had a limited number of listings, but the phones rang, yeah. And then you always said, like, oh, I have floor time today, so I'm going to get at least one buyer per day. But then when the market changed and the phones stopped ringing, it's like what do I do?
Speaker 1:What do I do? And we all just sat there like, well, I'm just going to wait, I'm going to wait and hopefully the phones ring tomorrow and then from there you know, I tell agents, like when I left that first brokerage, I left because I was surrounded by negative energy and I fed off the negative energy and it brought me down. So that is another thing I tell agents. Right now, in this market, if you find yourself in an office or a space that you're constantly surrounded by negative energy, that people are have got a negative spin on the market and it's doom and gloom every day, get out.
Speaker 2:Get out as fast as you can, as quickly as you can, don't look back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, and when I left, I said I love all of you, I think you're all great. I have to get out of here. I have to leave right now because if I don't, I'm going to drown. It's like the ship is going down and instead of like swimming for it, I'm like forget, I'm just going to sit here and be like hope for the best. It's not going to be good. We're all going down with the ship. So I left and as soon as I left, I found myself in an office with like really good energy and immediately I was like well, if this is happening for them, it can happen for me. Yes, and, and that's that's something. To that's something that's not always. I say that there's a lot of agents who don't have that perspective. There's a lot of them are like there's jealousy or envy or and I don't want, instead of being happy for that agent, you're like well, why, why them and not me? No, I always say like I celebrate the fact that someone just killed it. I'm like good for you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so awesome for you, because secretly I'm like okay, I got to figure out what they're doing.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:You know, like Vonda, when she was in the office and we were talking, I'm like Vonda's killing it this year. Yes, Vonda, what are you doing differently?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I could be behind her back plot and going like and I hope Vonda listens to this, I love that, I can like plot and like that Vonda, I hope her business tanks, because it's just not fair. No, I was like good for her, like you're a successful business person, killing it. What are you doing that I'm not doing? I need to. I need to figure out what you're doing. That's what I encourage a lot of agents whether you're in our brokerage or in another brokerage, don't have animosity, don't don't stress and look down on other agents who are successful.
Speaker 1:Dig deeper and find out what they're doing. Yes, and then if you can't do everything they're doing because of either budget or you just feel it's not, you tweak it. Figure out what's what's your voice and and what would be authentic to you, and then start doing it.
Speaker 2:That's why networking is so important. I know a lot of agents discount networking, but the more agents you can be around you can pull from them. You know what you like, what you think you can implement into your business plan.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just, I love that.
Speaker 1:Well, I also tell agents, like here in the office, a lot of agents. They don't think about the sheer number like we're almost at, like what? 1370. Yes, so let's say about 1370 agents. So that's a ton of agents that we have.
Speaker 2:We have a ton of agents, but I also say that is 1313.
Speaker 1:169 in agents. I can network with right, I'm the other one, that's the, I'm the one but I'm always like that's a great opportunity for you to find someone either who might have an agent buyer that they're working with that they're not available. They need to partner up with someone that could create the business, someone who has a listing, who is not doing as well and they want to bring you on as a co-lister. There's business you just created and it's all because of networking and a lot of agents don't do that.
Speaker 2:And I met with an agent by zoom yesterday where she started asking where is our reach of our agents? Oh boy, we're all over the place everywhere so then she started asking for numbers of agents that were really far.
Speaker 2:She's going to be reaching out to them and seeing hey, it's, it's almost two hours away for you, there's anything I can do for you, I'd gladly, you know, do it for a referral fee. There's anything I could do? An open house for you, Anything you know. So she is really working our you know the amount of agents that we have and that is amazing.
Speaker 1:Yes, so you got to think about that too. Is that these agents? There are certain ones that are saying like my business is tanking, it's not doing as well, but they're not trying every one of their avenues and that's an avenue to create business right.
Speaker 1:Yes, making that connection. Even me, I've made connections with other agents, I've been brought on to help them and it might not sound like it's that much, but if you start thinking about like, well, I got brought on to be a co-lister and then you think about the commission, oh, that relationship created this potential money that I could be making on this listing and I could have not networked, I could have said no, why would I do that? Maybe I'll just sit and kind of wait for the business to come to me, which would be another thing I would say in this market, don't play the passive role Like you can't survive more aggressive.
Speaker 2:You can't do it.
Speaker 1:You have to be more aggressive, you have to be more committed and think about why. You know like. I think a good way for us to start wrapping this up is to start thinking about the why. Why are you in this industry? What made you decide to go down this path and what do you get that from a lot of agents who really think, or do you have to ask them that?
Speaker 2:You know, a lot of them are focused on their why, you know. But the ones it's funny how that goes together the ones that are kind of searching in their head as you know what to answer, right, those are the ones that don't have a proper business plan, don't have a clue or struggling.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You know. So it's amazing how that's in line.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that you know, for agents who haven't really sat down whether you're a new agent with us or you're an agent who's not with us that think today, like sit and start thinking about what made me go into this role, what made me go into this career path, and then I also tell agents, like how do you define what you do? There's a difference if you say this is my job. If you're talking to your friends and you're saying, hey, I've got to go into my job tomorrow. That's a different mindset. Like I had that mindset when I worked at TJ Maxx, when I was in like high school, right, and that is different. You go to your job to make money, just to pay your bills, but you really hate what you're doing.
Speaker 2:There's no passion.
Speaker 1:There's no passion, nothing. And then when you say this is my career and there's a difference when agents like here you speak, and when a seller hears you speak, and when a buyer hears you speak about what you're doing, and you speak with like such conviction and compassion that they're just like wow, like when you're done speaking. I've had sellers and buyers say like wow, like you really love what you're doing. Yes, yes, and I think that's important for agents to do like find your passion right now. And if your passion isn't real estate, then get out. Right. I would say don't stay in it If you're just trying to make it because you want to do like you're thinking in terms of selling. A reality shows that everybody's making these big fat checks.
Speaker 2:I just want to make money.
Speaker 1:If that's what you're doing, then that's all you're going to get out of it. You're not going to get the repeated business, you're not going to have the passion, you're not going to be able to speak with it and, in terms of like, really selling it. Like, when I speak to someone and I talk about what I do, it sells itself because I believe in what I'm doing, right, yes, and I think that goes for, like, all of our agents, think about your passion. Right now is a great time to go out and get listings to create the business, but when you're taking that listing and when you're going on the listing appointment, there's something to be said. When you sit down with a seller and you speak with passion about what you do, then you can go there and you can show flip charts and graphs and pie graphs and stats all day long, save all that, save all that, save it, but that won't help it's great to have it, but if you can't back that up with the passion and really believe what you're saying, it's never going to.
Speaker 1:You're never going to move forward. A seller's always going to be able to smell the fear they're going to be able to smell the fact that you're not consistent at what you do, that you don't believe in what you're doing. It's going to resonate and they're going to not pick you. Or if they pick you, the relationship's probably going to. It's going to tank because eventually that's going to bleed through into what you're doing every day. Did you agree?
Speaker 2:I completely agree, and they're going to be able to tell when. When you're aligned with oh I just want to make money, they're going to sense that they're going to pull that because we're in a relationship building industry. I mean, even if you work with a group of investors, you still have to cultivate that relationship. I know there's not so many emotions involved with investors, but you're still personally invested professionally. I know I said personally, but-.
Speaker 1:Personally, professionally.
Speaker 2:But you're still invested in it and you have to be all in. I don't know why I feel when someone picks this and considers it a job and sees it as a means to make money, they're not 100% in.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So-.
Speaker 1:And you said something just now. I know it's a mistake, but it's a good, it's a good lead-in to our last topic for this show is that you said they got personally involved, right?
Speaker 2:You know, when I chose personally, I meant you know you've got to be 100% in Right, but I really want to make it. I want to define that. So I'm glad you brought that up. Yes, so personally in it for your passion, you've got to be all the way in. Then I don't know why I feel that when I speak with agents whether with us, other offices, other brokerages there's not enough there. When they say I'm in it for commission, you know you don't see that passion.
Speaker 1:It's like they're not, they're void, they're not there and then the personally involved, and I bring that up because there's a lot of agents who, in this market obviously, especially in this market homes are sitting longer, so maybe the deals are a little bit harder to get to closing. But there's this attitude you get with some agents who they take things too personal. If an agent delivers a low ball offer, or if an agent comes back and they represent the buyer and they ask for repairs, or you're countering back to the buyer's agent. There's a lot of like this. Certainly. Somehow they're bickering and arguing, and they get into this like I'm defending my client and so I have to. By defending them means I have to get heated. And the next thing, though, they're in text message fights. And you see this post on like mastermind If anyone's in mastermind groups on Facebook, you see agents posting text messages of fights and arguments. And is it necessary? Is it? Did we?
Speaker 1:get to this level Are we at, like high school, where we have to fight with other people.
Speaker 2:That's why it should. You should never take a transaction personal. I, as a matter of fact, I just finished with a transaction yesterday, close yesterday, but not without all the struggle from both agents involved. So, and it was our agent just as much as the other agent on the other side, both of them were personally, all their emotions were heightened and it was personal on both. So that's even like a double negative right there. Both of those agents shouldn't have taken it to that level. Buyer and seller had actually interacted at the inspection and the seller wanted to make this work for the buyer. The seller really liked the buyers, buyers really liked the seller. What was creating all the problems were the tone. There was some emails with all caps, so there was. It was like a power strip between both of them.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:It was one felt the other one was concealing and oh, they've done transactions with this agent in the past, so personal. So what does that other transaction have to do with this one?
Speaker 1:No, Exactly, and that's what I told a lot of agents like, listen, I've done transactions with agents who have got heated and I've been called an idiot or I've been called names. And yeah, is there a part of me that wants to stand up and be like you know what. I can call names too. I can do it all day. If you wanna get in the mud, I can be a pig just like you, but I choose not to because I know that's not gonna keep the transaction moving forward. I'm not doing the very best for my clients. So I've had people call me names and I'll say I'm sorry you feel that way. I'm sorry you feel that way and I'm here to help and let's just get this done. Let's remember it's not between you and I. Let's just get this at a finish line Now. We don't have to be girlfriends Like we're not gonna be sitting there doing each other's nails watching Melrose plays right, we're not doing that.
Speaker 1:But I can still treat you kind and I can treat you professionally and still not like you and I always I bring this up in class a lot of times I tell agents you'll never know I don't like you Because I'm always gonna be respectful. Now, when that phone hangs up don't get it wrong I'm the first one. Who's gonna be like that jerk, like I'm gonna go off. But I'm not gonna do that on the phone because I'm always thinking like, is that really gonna help my client? Like, if I blow the deal up because I don't like the seller or I don't like the listing agent or the buyer's agent, did I really do the best for my client? No, I didn't do the best.
Speaker 2:No, not at all. You miss it. You miss it for your client and the personal digs, that's it. I play referee all the time. The personal digs, oh, their performance level. Personal digs, oh, this person, you know they why Don't yeah why.
Speaker 1:And then I always tell agents like here is like, so we can start wrapping this up. But I would say when, as an agent a seasoned agent what I always do is that when I go to write an offer or I'm working with like a buyer's agent, I look their MLS number up so automatically know if you're like a 2610, I know you got into the business same time as me, it's like your social security number, right, I already know where you're at or if you're a five or six digit, I'm thinking like, holy crap, I'm dealing with an agent who's been in the business a lot longer than me.
Speaker 1:So, I do tell agents. When I reach out to those older agents who've been in the business, I show a sign of respect, I call them, I'm respectful. It's almost like speaking to my grandparent or my parent. I show them a sign of respect and then if it's an agent who's like a 27, which I know they came in the business much further after me then I know that they're going to be newer. There could be maybe the questions might be more. They might have more questions. Maybe they don't have a broker who's supporting them like they should. So I'm going to take that into account. I'm, but I'm always looking at trying to figure out who am I working with? How much business have they done? Oh, they've done more business than me, so I know this is an active agent.
Speaker 2:But don't use that to personally attack right, no, no, and I would say, if nothing else, don't use that as like ammo to attack, because there's some agents who will do that.
Speaker 1:They do that Right. But I would say, if I'm working with someone, I'm like, wow, this is a big producer, but he just called me or she just called me an idiot. So is it going to help if I fight you? No, because if, once I get this transaction closed, there's a probability I'm going to come across you again and the next time around, even though that agent called me a name, they're going to remember that I called them a name. They're not going to remember they called me a name, right.
Speaker 1:They're going to remember me as someone who was labeled as difficult.
Speaker 2:Yes, let's say.
Speaker 1:Yes, and now if I don't rock the boat and I keep the transaction moving along, I've done deals with agents multiple times who were super rude. Now the second time around they were actually nice. It was like the first time I was dealing with, like the hard exterior, and then the second time around it was I was dealing with the real agent. Yes, I didn't hold it. I didn't like hold a grudge. I was like it is what it is. Like you, clearly you think that you're doing the best of your clients. I get it. We all that resonates in different ways. I'm doing the best for my client by holding it together Right, getting it to the finish line. That's all I care about is if my client wants this. Now, if my client's like I don't want the house, I hate it, then I'm going to be the one you can go in, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm going to still do it in a professional way because I got to remember. I'm always thinking, and maybe it's that the OCD side of me is like constantly thinking like, well, if I make this agent upset and then this deal falls apart, and then five months from now I go and I see a listing that my buyer really wants and they're the listing agent. Then I got to call them and they remember and I'm one of those.
Speaker 1:And they will remember I'm the one of those. It's just sitting there in bed at night with my eyes open, going like well, I should have done this Overthinker, yeah, but normally.
Speaker 1:I always feel like I'm right. I'm right. I know that if I would have done this, it's going to come back to bite me. So that is like getting the end of our show today, and I want to leave agents with a good feeling of the market. It is a great market right now. Yes, the sales are there. They're still closing. The price points are still healthy. There's programs out there for first time buyers now. Yes, If you haven't checked into that hometown heroes, check it out. There's programs out there for buyers for down payment assistance. People still want to buy. Yes, right, florida is still kicking it with all the sales. People still want to move here.
Speaker 1:So, agents, do not give up. Keep working hard. Do what you're doing, and this is a time for you to start thinking about who you are as an agent. Revamp yourself. If you haven't, you know, really thought about that. Work on a business plan. Yes, it's. It's an endless list of things you can be doing, and that goes back to what we started with and it's a good wrap up of. It's not one thing. It's great, it's not one thing, but if it was one thing, it would be the word consistency.
Speaker 2:Oh there you go Perfect.
Speaker 1:Everyone. Have an amazing week, have an amazing month and remember in whatever you're doing, remember, remember. It's important to find what moves you.