Strap yourself in for a thrilling conversation with our special guest who has made his mark in the real estate world in the most unexpected way. He shares an interesting tale of a chance encounter with Eric Pearson, CEO of Pearson Smith Realty, and how that led him to bag his real estate license and join the Pearson Smith team. The past half a decade has seen him close deals worth approximately 54 million, a testament to his skill and determination. Our guest’s story is not just about numbers though, it's about the people he's worked with along the way. He stresses the importance of communication and personalized service in ensuring clients' satisfaction, a skill honed from his days at Ritz Carlton.
On the menu of this episode, we also have a few secret sauces for success in the real estate industry. How does one maximize efficiency and increase success rates? Our guest sheds light on these strategies, sharing his extraordinary feat of closing seven deals from a mere ten open houses. Honesty and transparency are key ingredients here, even if it means losing out on a potential sale. The episode also introduces YouTube as a powerful marketing tool for real estate agents that's yet to be fully realized. We’ll explore the significance of focus, consistency, and honesty in achieving success in the industry. Ready for some inspiration, tips, and advice that could potentially revolutionize your real estate journey? Tune in now!
Strap yourself in for a thrilling conversation with our special guest who has made his mark in the real estate world in the most unexpected way. He shares an interesting tale of a chance encounter with Eric Pearson, CEO of Pearson Smith Realty, and how that led him to bag his real estate license and join the Pearson Smith team. The past half a decade has seen him close deals worth approximately 54 million, a testament to his skill and determination. Our guest’s story is not just about numbers though, it's about the people he's worked with along the way. He stresses the importance of communication and personalized service in ensuring clients' satisfaction, a skill honed from his days at Ritz Carlton.
On the menu of this episode, we also have a few secret sauces for success in the real estate industry. How does one maximize efficiency and increase success rates? Our guest sheds light on these strategies, sharing his extraordinary feat of closing seven deals from a mere ten open houses. Honesty and transparency are key ingredients here, even if it means losing out on a potential sale. The episode also introduces YouTube as a powerful marketing tool for real estate agents that's yet to be fully realized. We’ll explore the significance of focus, consistency, and honesty in achieving success in the industry. Ready for some inspiration, tips, and advice that could potentially revolutionize your real estate journey? Tune in now!
Speaker 1:
So I got into real estate. I was in property management and about five years ago I just got really sick of it. I've been in property management for like 10 years. I love dealing with people but I wasn't getting the support from the higher up that I needed to make sure that I take care of the people. I just got really fed up with it and actually it's a funny story I just started walking out.
Speaker 1:
I was a manager at Loudoun Station where Pearson Smith Realty where who I work with right now and I just was so fed up I just started walking out and I just like, seriously, and I was just like cursing and just walking out and I was frustrated and I had no idea. And I just walked into a building and I just pressed the elevator and I went to the third floor and I saw Pearson Smith Realty over there had no idea. I saw that it's a Realty. So I just walked in and I said what is this about? And they're like, oh, this is a Realty. I was like, oh, okay. I was like, well, is there anyone that can talk to you? He said, well, eric is available. I was like who's that? He said Eric, pearson. He's the. You know he's the head, he's the CEO. You know, I was like he has time for me. He said, oh, he'll make time for you. So that was the first good thing. So then I went, I met up with him like within five minutes. He's like dude, whatever you're doing, you need to get your license, you need to come in over here. I think you'll be great.
Speaker 1:
So, sure enough, I just next day, I just quit my job next day, no, given notice. I know it's really bad, but I was just so fed up with it and got my license within the next two months after that and actually closed my first deal within first three months. And yeah, so, which is pretty amazing because, like, my parents were like don't do it, no, one's going to buy a home from you, it's going to. You know, it was like it's like they care. So they said that they're like. At the same time, it was like my wife was the only one that was supporting me. She's like no, you got the personality, you need to do it, you need to do it. So that's kind of how it all it all came about.
Speaker 2:
And then in terms of okay, so within three months you got your first within three months I've got.
Speaker 1:
I got my first deal. I've been with Pearson for the past five years. I have closed roughly about 54 million, which is not bad, which is pretty good, I mean. I'm proud of those numbers.
Speaker 2:
Did you tell your parents?
Speaker 1:
Oh yeah, my parents are totally fine. They're going to allowance from me now, so they're happy now I didn't listen to you.
Speaker 1:
She's like I can't believe it. I didn't know. I was like yeah, it just takes time. You know, you just have to, you have to trust the process. That's what it is it's like, and I just had it in me that I knew that I could, I could do this. Well, I really love like it's not a front, like I really do like helping people. I'm a people's person, so like for me it's just like just I get a huge kick out of like helping people with their biggest investment of their life, for them to trust me on it, like I just get a kick out of that.
Speaker 2:
So what's something that you wish more people knew about the whole process of buying or selling your home.
Speaker 1:
How that. Listen to your agent. Like they really need to understand the process of what goes into it. Like you know, like a lot of people think that, oh, they bought the house for 200,000. Why am I paying 700,000? Like I hear this all the time.
Speaker 2:
It does suck.
Speaker 1:
And it's just like, okay, yeah, they bought it 25 years ago and yes, they did buy it at that. And look what they did to the house and look at the value, like the marketing. So people have a really hard time. It's about educating the people, right? So what I try to do is I'm pretty upfront, like I'll tell the people, like okay, this is how it is. Like just, you know, like we need to make sure that we stick with this, like I laid it all out for them in the beginning. So then they can't say, well, you didn't tell me this, you didn't tell me that, so you know it's all laid out for them. So communication is a huge part of that.
Speaker 1:
So trust your agent and hopefully your agent's really good with communication, exactly Like I over communicate, so I could get a little annoying because I'm like like cause I try to anticipate their needs without them having to ask me. You know which is amazing.
Speaker 2:
I think being proactive as a service provider is one of the most important things right Because. I always say this to my team If our clients have to come to us and ask us a question about anything in the process, we didn't do our job Exactly. They should have never had that question because we educated them upfront. So that's awesome that you're doing that.
Speaker 1:
So I do that and that's one thing. If you go and look at my reviews, like all of them will say, oh the guy, the phone doesn't even ring and he picks it up. Like you know, it's like, it's like it's like almost he's waiting for us to call him. So you know, like it's, it's that kind of thing. Because the thing about it is this my background, I was in real I'm sorry, before real estate, before even property management. I worked for Ritz Carlton, so I learned a lot from them, right.
Speaker 1:
So just that service aspect of it, that personalized service, you know, and I kind of took that into my next venture, which was the property management which really helped me. But I see there's a huge disconnect between real estate and that customer service. Like I feel like sometimes people there's a little bit of a gap in between. So what I try to do is I try to take that same concept from that, from the Ritz Carlton, whatever I learned about providing personal service, and I apply it to my real estate business and I would say that you know, people, people like that, it just feels like more of a personalized service and it's just small things that you do.
Speaker 2:
So basically we need to recruit from Ritz Carlton the Ritz train there.
Speaker 1:
Well, the training is amazing. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so, in terms of marketing and growing your business, what's been your three? Because I already know one of them is gonna be word of mouth. What's been your top three ways of acquiring the client?
Speaker 1:
So one of the ways is, of course, word of mouth. The second is open house. I have a very I build rapport really fast with people once I meet them, so it's like a face to face, oh, okay.
Speaker 1:
It's a face to face thing, like if I see face to face day, like I'm not showing off but I'm just saying like within 15 seconds, they know that they can trust me and rebuild it. So the reason I'm telling you that is because my average for closing on open house is pretty good. So, like if I did like last year, this year I didn't do too many open house. It was just a weird market this year. But last year, like if I did like 10 open house, I closed seven deals from it. Nice, so you know, so it's pretty good. I mean, like you know. So I think that that's my strong suit. So I want to next year double down on that and, you know, try to get more clients from there.
Speaker 2:
And you know. I think that's amazing that you know what the activities you need to take yeah that's gonna lead you to success. That way you can double down all those activities. You know that as soon as people get in front of you and I already have that in their head they want to buy soon. You know that you're going to.
Speaker 1:
I know I'm gonna win it. Like it's not even about confidence, like it's just. It's just. It's just the way you come across, because I'm my business is all built on honesty and integrity Like I don't care if I'm gonna lose a deal. If I go in there and I see something that is not good for them, I speak out. I don't care about losing my deal, I don't look at the money. I don't look at any of that. Of course I need the money. I need to support my family. I don't want to step on my toes every time, but if I feel like I need to speak up and tell him because I've had where clients are like oh my god, this house is perfect, I love this house.
Speaker 1:
I was like yeah, but did you see that? Did you see that? Did you see that? Did you see that? Did you see that? Did you smell the mold? Like you don't like all this stuff. Like, and then they're like, oh my god, you really like don't you want to sell us the house? I was like yeah, but I want to sell you a house where you can, you know, later on be like oh my god, that was our agent. He did such a good. I don't want want to have that thought where you're just like cursing me every time you think of me. You know so. So, like you know, just be straight up and honestly. It works really well, because when you're honest with people, you have nothing to be fear.
Speaker 2:
You don't have to worry about saying I don't care yeah exactly like you know.
Speaker 1:
So so that's kind of say. And then the third thing I just started, which I'm really excited about, but it hasn't, it hasn't done anything for me yet because it's a long process it's YouTube. So I just started YouTube, smart man, yeah, because I, I know that you, you know YouTube is the second largest. I mean, you hear it all the time, you know that, and you know Instagram and all those things are are okay, but they never really did anything for me, to be honest with you, except me just posting like Things about my sales and stuff like that, or even to educate people, because it comes and it goes. Yeah, it's gone, but YouTube it could be evergreen, you just. But again, I just started, I'm struggling with it, like I'm being consistent with it, but it's.
Speaker 2:
It's a tough process because you have to give you tips if you want, yes please do it.
Speaker 1:
I'm looking for someone to give me tips because I suck at it right now, because I just started doing videos and I'm terrible at it. I'm not getting many views, but the thing about it is this I'm gonna give it a year. Yeah, because because you just if I start saying, well, I didn't get a client, like, I'm not expecting anything right now. Yeah, I'm just putting in the work and we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I've been preaching YouTube for agents for about seven years now today. I used to teach workshops and classes and did social media content. All about it. I, but it's not just until I think the last year or two years, that some- of the big coaches have now been like oh, y'all should be doing YouTube, so now a lot more agents are getting on it, which makes my heart happy, yeah exactly Exactly, so we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1:
But there's been a couple agents around here that have done really well from YouTube, so they're nice to share stuff. So I reached out to them like one guy I'm meeting next. I was like, hey, I'll take you to Kebabs. Man, that's always my yeah, that is always my like bribing point. Like I always tell people, hey, you want to eat, you like Kebabs? Like, yeah, I love Kebabs. Okay, let's go to Dulles Kebabs. Yeah, really good Kebabs. So that's kind of where I take agents and learn stuff. Yeah, feed them Kebabs, you just give them Kebabs and they give you all the knowledge.
Speaker 1:
I give them Kebabs and they give me all the information. So you know, I mean A secret tip y'all. Well, you know it pays to be nice, like if you're a nice person and you really like you know, like that's the thing about me, like I want to learn so much in this industry, like I could have done things much better, like I feel like I should have, you know, I should have been more organized, like there's things that I struggle with personally. You know it's not a you know, and real estate is tough, but I feel like you know, like if I could go back and change some of those things, it would be great. But then, at the same time, it's just like everything is an experience.
Speaker 2:
It's part of the journey you learn from it, you learn. Okay, and before we wrap things up, tell me one tip that you would give to a small business owner, whether it's an agent or any other business owner, about how to grow a sustainable business. Meaning like that's going to last more than five years.
Speaker 1:
So the first thing I would say is and this advice goes for myself before anyone is consistency Is you have to be consistent to see results. It's like they say if you put enough time into any activity, you could be a master edit. Put 10,000 hours into learning a skill, you'll be master edit. I'm trying to improve my skills, so I'll get back to your point. But, excuse me, I just got my drone license, so part 107, I just got a super tough test, so I got it because I want to. You know, I just want to make better videos. Like I want to improve my skills, like I have a long way to go, but I just want to improve my skills. So the reason I'm telling you that is because consistency and improving skills, because in this ever changing market, where AI is like everything, you have to adapt to these new technologies and, you know, go with it.
Speaker 1:
Like, I'll be honest with you, I suck at writing like scripts and stuff. I'm not. This is what stopped me from doing YouTube for years. I'm gonna be honest with you because I'm not. I was never good in. You know, I always use this English as my second language. You know that crap. I've been here for like 20, 25, 35 years, right, but I'll always say that as a joke. But the thing about it is this if you do anything like honesty with honest and integrity and you want the best for other people, you have good intentions, like. I just don't see anybody failing.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, by the way, chatGPT now can do all that for you.
Speaker 1:
I do it.
Speaker 2:
I'm gonna say just don't say write it as a script, Say write it as a blog post.
Speaker 1:
Because if you say write it as a script, they start putting in like second scene. Okay, can we have a meeting Like can I buy you kebabs?
Speaker 2:
You know, I love kebabs.
Speaker 1:
Let's go on for real. Seriously, I have to be halal though. It's halal, I'll be halal. Okay, yeah, we'll, we'll. No, I'm serious, though they seem like you know a lot about this, so maybe you can, you can, you can teach me some stuff.
Speaker 2:
In exchange for kebabs.
Speaker 1:
In exchange for kebabs.
Speaker 2:
That's always the exchange, so continue, though, if you do anything with transparent or with honesty, yeah, just being transparent with people just just doing, you know, doing the excuse my language work that you have to do, right, what is that?
Speaker 1:
Making calls? Nobody likes to make calls, right, doing these things. But the reason that that you've you've got to have a clear plan on what you want to do, so, like, honestly, that's one thing I regret. I was all over the place. So my, my advice is stay focused, pick, pick one thing, pick three things that you're gonna do in your real estate business or whatever you do, and just stick with it, because I promise you, if you're consistent, you will get a reward for it. It's just a matter of time.
Speaker 1:
You know and I hear this with YouTube all around, like it's, it takes time for you to be found. Like, like, I'll be honest with you, for all the hard work I put into YouTube, scripting this, that spending money on editing first, learning, editing myself, you know everything, like all these little services that I'm paying money for, like it's all it's. It's all an investment right now. Right, but the thing about is this I'm I refuse to think that it's not gonna work. That's my thinking in towards everything.
Speaker 1:
Like I just go full force, I just go hardcore. So sorry, this isn't making it too long, but just make sure you stay focused and work hard and be consistent and these are the three. And be honest. Like honesty goes far, like if you think you're just trying to make an extra dollar from someone but you know that you're doing them wrong like you should not, you should just take a step back and and and again. I'm not trying to bring God into this, but I am very much of a kind of a religious person where I I know that if I do something wrong, I just don't, I can't sleep at night.
Speaker 1:
So if I, you're like her yeah, if I, if I do you wrong, like I, just I can't, I won't be able to sleep tonight, like that's. That's not. Like me saying, oh, I'm just such a nice guy, no, no, no, it's just the way it is so. So just be honest, like and and and. It'll get you far and that's about it.
Speaker 2:
I love it as the best advice ever. Thank you so much thank you.
