Flexibility Comes at a Cost: Jase Leonard's Time-Blocking Blueprint for 228 Deals a Year

Guest Bio

Jase Leonard leads HousingAroundAZ, a real estate team based in Chandler, Arizona, in the Phoenix metro market. Before real estate, he built and directed a corporate call center — and walked away from the job rather than lay off half his staff. His first six months in real estate produced exactly one transaction, and his wife gave him one final shot to make it work. Eleven years later, Jase runs a 14-agent team that closed 228 transactions last year, built on a foundation of expired and canceled listings, pre-foreclosure and probate outreach, and one of only 23 Zillow Flex partnerships in the Phoenix metro area.

Show Notes

Tim sits down with Jase Leonard, an 11-year real estate veteran and team leader in Chandler, Arizona, who came into the business with a strong sales background from running corporate call centers — and still nearly quit in his first six months. Jase is candid about what it actually took to turn things around: watching and emulating agents who were already succeeding (specifically Joshua Smith), leaning hard into the one lead source that fit his strengths (expired and canceled listings), and slowly building the discipline his wife's ultimatum forced him toward.

The conversation is packed with tactical detail: Jase's "stool of the chair" philosophy on lead generation (3-4 sources, never fewer, never chasing more than you can master), his team's "War Report" system that scores every agent's weekly money-making activities, and his exact follow-up philosophy — including the specific, permission-based language he uses to justify calling a lead six times without it feeling pushy. He also gets into how his team diversified beyond expireds into pre-foreclosure and probate outreach as DNC regulations made cold-calling harder, and how Zillow's lead-referral partnership became an unexpected lifeline during COVID.

On AI, Jase describes something few other guests have mentioned: building a custom Claude skill that generates an AI-created CMA specifically to preempt tech-savvy sellers who've already run their own numbers through Gemini or ChatGPT before the listing appointment even starts. The episode closes with his take on what can't be taught — strive — and his prediction that agents will increasingly resemble lawyers: less about search, more about advice, negotiation, and guiding people through a process AI still can't fully see behind the curtain of.

In this episode:

• From building corporate call centers to walking away rather than laying off staff
• One transaction in his first six months — and his wife's "one more chance" ultimatum
• Learning the business by emulating agents like Joshua Smith on podcasts and YouTube
• Building a career on expired and canceled listings — and why it still works
• The "stool of the chair": why you need 3-4 lead sources, never fewer, rarely more
• How DNC regulations pushed his team toward pre-foreclosure and probate outreach
• Becoming one of only 23 Zillow Flex teams in the Phoenix metro area
• The War Report: scoring every agent's weekly money-making activities
• Time-blocking as the antidote to "flexibility comes at a cost"
• Jase's follow-up philosophy: 14-15 touches, task-based, and the permission to "blow them up"
• Why he built a custom AI-powered CMA to preempt sellers who've already Googled their price
• The one thing Jase says he can't teach: strive
• Why he believes agents will start to resemble lawyers — advisors, not searchers

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Hey everyone, welcome to Under Contract, where I sit down with some of the top real estate agents and team leaders in the country to talk about how they've built their businesses, what's working right now, and where they see the industry going next. Today I'm joined by Jace Leonard from Chandler, Arizona. Jace, thanks for coming on. Really excited to have you. Glad to be here. Glad to be here. Let's see what we can do. I love it. All right, cool. So I like to start from the beginning, right? I think understanding someone's journey kind of gives context to everything that came afterwards. So let's start with how'd you get in real estate? And at what point did you realize, hey, this might not just be a job, this might be a serious business?

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yeah. So it all started for me. I've been in real estate for 11 years now. Uh, it started before that that I was actually in the corporate side. Uh, I know off air, you talked about the fact of lead generation and all that good stuff. Well, that that kind of where I was at, I was actually in call centers. Um, I actually designed, built call centers. I was the director of a call center, it was my last stop that I actually did. Uh, and basically I built the whole call center and then they came and said, Hey, you need to lay off half of it. And I said, I'm not gonna do that. And uh, so I decided to walk away from it and was looking at a new path. My dad had done real estate when I was a kid. Um, and I kind of looked at that, and a couple of the people that I knew from my industry that had moved into real estate were doing pretty good. And I'm like, well, if they can do it, I can do it. So I decided to make the jump and came over into it. And uh, you know, I I tell you, it was the hardest thing to be able to figure out how to actually do it. Um, you know, I thought for sure I'm like, I have this huge sales background, I know what I'm doing. Uh, you know, and it's like I felt like, okay, I'm gonna get done. I got my license. I'm like, there's a huge sign on my hand that says, here I am, let's go. And uh it didn't work out that way, as it turned out, right? Um, first six months, I think I did one transaction, uh, burned through all the cash I had. Uh, my wife was like, you got to go get a real job, um, which I kind of did. I actually started doing a real job again. And uh, but then I started, I decided that I'm gonna look and watch all of the top people in podcasts and YouTube videos and all the stuff that they were actually doing, and I really started emulating them. Um, there's a guy actually here in my market named Joshua Smith, uh, who I started watching his videos and seeing what he was doing and how he was actually doing it, and uh started emulating and putting in play, and it started working. And I was able to go to my wife and I asked her, I said, Hey, I said, I think I got this, I think I got it figured out. I've got four or five transactions going. And she basically said, You got one more chance. One more chance. That doesn't work, I never want to hear you talk about real estate again. So uh, you know, here I am 11 years later, so I guess it worked out.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

I love it. Well, that was a smart move by her to give me one more chance. That played out pretty well for you guys. Uh, so I'm curious though, you you had the sales background, and I I could see if you had that kind of sales prowess that you would go into it very confident. Like, you know, if you're a good salesperson, you're confident that you can sell basically anything. Well, what did you find that the challenge? Where was the hitch in the beginning? And what where was the switch? Like, where did you end up saying, okay, now I figured it out, let's go to the moon here?

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Well, I guess what I figured was the fact that all of my friends' family connections, they were gonna see that I'm a real estate agent and decide to actually want to use me. Um, I had one friend specifically that he actually went down the whole path and did the stuff with somebody else. And it was years later that I asked him, I'm like, dude, I said, you know, it's like I've I've learned to accept that my friends and family aren't going to use me. I said, I've learned to accept that. But I'm just curious, why did you not even reach out? He goes, You didn't know Jack. I was not about to actually put in myself in a position with my biggest, you know, purchase what I'm doing with somebody that didn't know anything. So even with all the sales background, it didn't work very well for that purpose.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

That makes sense. I think some people I've noticed some agents early on they get pretty offended by was well, why do my family and friends not use this? I'm like, Well, you're not selling a refrigerator, you know, like uh uh this this is the most important asset most people have and most expensive. So it makes sense to me, but I I think you have to kind of earn that right. Uh, where the I imagine now, my guess is that friends and family might come to you. Uh, here we are a decade plus later.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Yeah, yeah, a little different now, right? You know, thousands of transactions and everything else. So it's like, yeah, they they actually come to me. I sit there and I use still use my wife, though. It's like all you'll see something on Facebook. Somebody makes a comment about the fact of, you know, hey, uh uh, you know, we're we're you know, selling stuff off, we're thinking about moving. I'll have my wife. I'm like, hey, you want to reach out to them and find out what's going on and tell them that to give me a call to be able to do it. But no, yes, it is a lot easier at this point in time. Um, so what I had to do to go answer your original question is that I had to figure out a different way with clients, people that didn't know me, right? That didn't know I was brand new in the industry, that didn't know any different, um, that I could use my sales ability to act confident uh to be able to get those transactions and get things going. And so that's you know, that's what I started doing. I mean, I was doing everything from, you know, I learned how to do very effective open houses in the very beginning, right? Uh so I was actually doing open houses. And then it turned into the fact that I used my one strength that I actually had was expired, expired and canceled. And I'm like, wait, you're gonna give me a list of all the people that had tried to sell, you're gonna give me the phone number, the name, everything, and I can sit here and call them up and basically see if they want to actually work with me instead. I said, done deal. And that's kind of what I built my career on in the very beginning was on expired and canceled.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Yeah, it's interesting. I I've heard that a few times now, uh, talking to successful agents that that seemed like that was a kind of a launching pad for a handful of people I've spoken to. So that that makes a lot of sense. All right, so you know, obviously that was in the beginning. Uh, here we are, thousands of deals later. Uh, you know, there's a couple million agents or so in in the United States, yet, like a really small percentage really build truly exceptional business. So, my question is, what do you believe is the biggest thing that differentiates your business from everyone else?

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Well, my business has changed. I actually run a team, so I have a team along with myself as well, right? Um so I knew that I was actually a strong leader, so I knew that I could actually help to uh my I guess my strength has always been coach, develop, and train. Um, and I've always led from the front. I know your big thing is the fact of actually listening to you know Tom Brady versus what you said with Belichick, right? And so it's like I never felt that I could ever go and coach somebody to do something if I haven't done it myself. So I everything that I've actually put in play, everything I have with the team, everything that I actually do is something that I've actually done, I've tried, I've made it work, and and then I'm actually able to go out there and be able to do that. So I feel that that has actually been where it's at. So then when you actually start down that path, you have to spend a lot of time. I guess my dad taught me this, and the fact that you you just spend hours and hours and hours going through it, trying, trying it, tweaking it, making the changes until it's perfected, right? And that's really the biggest thing to be able to do in everything that I've tried. I mean, it was expired and canceled. If you just give it a try one time, you're probably gonna say that this is this doesn't work and you're never gonna do it again. And even for me with a great call, you know, call center background, you there's days when you call and call and call and you don't get anything. And then all of a sudden, maybe the next time you get two or three. So it literally is just actually being tenacious. Uh, every single day I wake up with the mindset of, okay, what do I need to do better? What do I need to do now? How do I need to get that person a little bit further? I know with my team right now, I'm focusing on the fact that they're like, hey, I got I got five people that are you know thinking about it, but they're not ready to do it. And so the question is, what do we need to do to move them from here to get them across the finish line? Right?

SPEAKER_02 8:01

That's the biggest thing to be able to do. Yep. Oh, love that. Okay, so uh obviously we have agents that are ranging from all experiences that listen to this, but really this one's a little more for the newer agents. Uh, and you may have hinted at this a little bit, but I I love asking this question anyways, which is like if you woke up tomorrow in a brand new city with no database, no reputation, no context, how would you build a top producing business today?

SPEAKER_00 8:29

I love that question. I use that all the time. Uh, my wife uh always talks about the fact of wanting to move, and if I had to start all over, what would I do? Right. Uh, so that's that's that hits home. Um, if I had to actually do that, it would be starting with the expired and cancel. That is the easiest low-hanging fruit that's actually there. And honestly, I feel that I do it better than anybody else. And it's like I'm effective and actually sitting there getting the list and calling and mailing and doing all the pieces to be able to do that. Um, if I didn't have any money at all, um, then another area that I would focus on would be the open houses. Um, and again, I beat everybody when it comes to the open houses. The average agent will put out five signs. They'll actually plan it one day in advance, they'll actually show up 10 minutes before it and open the door to be able to do that. And that's that is just wasting your time if you're gonna do it that way, right? It needs to be something you planned a week in advance. You need to have a set location of where you're actually gonna put it that actually makes sense to close to grocery stores or new builds. Uh, you need to make sure that the property itself is actually a good quality property. You need to put out 20 plus signs to be able to make sure that you're getting the traffic there and they want to come see you. You need to have a sign-up sheet in the front door and a greeting them as soon as they walk in and everybody signs in. And then you follow up with those people immediately after, and you're calling them on Monday to be able to see when we can actually go show. And if you're really on top of it, you even have a lender that's actually there with you to be able to show full service, right? And then you now you have two people that are actually following up with those. You know, it's it's it is a I don't know, probably a 20 to 30 hour process just to do one single open house. But that's the thing. If you're in this, if you're in this business to make money and you're this your full-time gig, then you need to treat it as such. Don't cheat, treat it as a part-time job, treat it as a full-time gig.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

Well, I haven't actually heard anyone talk about open houses like in that way, but that's fantastic, and especially if you're saying early on in your career, that's a great lead generator. Like, treat it as such, right? These this is your goal that's coming in here, and obviously, as you as your career progresses, you may not need to do open houses or as many or whatever, because you you have more leverage. But yeah, that's really interesting because I I've always felt like it feels like open houses are something and it sort of you slap together, you know, and hopefully people show up. Uh, but to actually make it an event and really think through it, put real effort, which makes a lot of sense. I mean, we're talking about you know, depending on what you're selling, you know, five figures uh in commissions, like treat it as such, right? Spending 20 hours on that event makes a lot of sense. Plus, you might find, you know, some uh buyers for for other properties and whatnot. So let me shift for just a second. Um as I told you, kind of big in the lead generation, so I nerd out on this, and I've got to ask about it. So um you know, you you you started off um with the expireds. It sounds like maybe that's something you might still do for your team, or is that do you still have that system in place uh for your team, or or is it a little different? By the way, you don't know what's funny, actually.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

No, no, no. You're totally I have nothing. I I look the if there's one thing that Joshua Smith actually taught me from listening to his give it all away. Uh, you know, it's like it I have nothing to be able to hide. There's plenty of opportunity out there, I'd rather share it with everybody to be able to do that. So up till this year, I have actually still been doing the expired and canceled, and I'm sure that it'll actually get back on track, but it has not been as successful the last while. Um, DNC is definitely making it hard on us too, because we can't really make a call on the majority of the leads as well. So that's actually been tough on it. Um, so we've actually been tweaking and and and focusing on two other areas because again, lead gen is what it comes down to. If you don't have leads, you don't have sales. And if I have a team of 14, I need to feed that that feed them as well, right? So it's like I got to be able to continue to do that. So a couple of the avenues we're actually switching to, kind of still staying in that same realm, but one of them is the pre-foreclosure. Um, actually going down the path of reaching out to them. All we get the list every single day of all the ones that just got notified. So, you know, putting packages together and trying to communicate with them and see what we can do to help them. Uh, and another one that we're actually starting to focus on is uh specifically here in Arizona, but is probate. Um, Arizona is a destination for a lot of people to come and retire and unfortunately pass away. And so there's a lot of homes that are actually in the probate situation, which again, those are notified through the courts. And so then we're able to be able to reach out to them and try to see how we can assist and help. In most cases, those people are somewhere else, not here in Arizona. And they, and in 70% of the cases, they're actually gonna need to dump the house. And so we can actually be that source and help them do that and and be able to help them through that process, then it's a great spot to be in. So that's two new new areas that we're actually working on. Um, the other one that started actually right around COVID time, I happened to be in the right place at the right time. Um, is that we actually picked up with Zillow. And I know that's always a oh, you like it or you don't, but I tell you, if it wasn't for them, it probably would have killed my career because uh you couldn't get a listing to save your life because they were gone in minutes. Um, I just happened to be again right place, right time. And Zillow switched gears and said, hey, we're gonna start giving you leads. You get us a referral. And I'm like, wait, wait, wait. So I don't have to pay you anything. All I have to do is sell them, you'll give me more. And it really worked in my background, and so now it's really part of what we do. We're one of only 23 teams here in the Phoenix metro area that actually are allowed to have the Zillow leads. Um, we get a very huge amount of those leads, and uh we we sell the Dickens out of them uh every single month as well. So that's a big portion of what we do.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

I love it. Okay, well, those are three great strategies. Um, let me ask you this if you were talking to a solo agent who maybe in the first few years of their career, um do you do you recommend that someone find an approach to generating leads and like really focus on it and kind of milk it or maybe have have a few uh things? Uh I have my my answer on this, but I want your uh your take on this.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

So I call it the stool of the chair. Um, it is imperative that you actually have three or four sources, okay, that you actually go to because it at any given time they could actually switch out it and not work or or change. But a chair or stool that for you to sit on, it does not require five or six. And also you can't sit on something with one. So you need to make sure that you're actually coming across. And if you're brand new, I would say three, three different lead sources or directions that you're actually going to focus on to be able to make yourself successful on it. So again, you know, again, I highly suggest everybody goes to a team to begin with because they need that coaching and developing to be able to do that. So the team should be providing some leads from you, but you never want to rely just on their source alone. So you have that as one of your sources. And then, like I talked about, I probably would highly suggest doing open houses. So that's another one. And then you could choose a plethora. One of the big ones that I'm a big fan of is what we call belly to bellies, um, which is the you set up meetings with friends, family, connections, go have a coffee or a lunch, dinner, or whatever, and just spend time having fun with them. It is within without a doubt that during that conversation, they're gonna ask you about what you're doing. And it gives you a chance to talk about you're in real estate now and you're doing whatever. They're gonna in turn say something along the lines of, hey, you know, I was thinking about selling or buying, or my mom is thinking about moving down here, and it's a great, oop, that's a great leadway into now. You have an opportunity. If they have nothing to do with real estate at this point, they still walk away knowing you're in real estate, and maybe they go to the grocery store. And next thing you know, they're talking to somebody that says, Hey, I'm thinking about actually selling my place. Hey, I was just talking to Jace. You should probably talk to him. So now you have an army out there, you know, doing that for you. So, you know, those are probably the three that I would start with with anybody that's actually getting into real estate. And then as they learn and they start liking and disliking, then they can add a fourth or switch out one and and and do that. But three or four different revenue streams or routes, lead gen, whatever you want to call it, to be able to make yourself successful in this business is is a necessity uh to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Love it. That makes me think of a question that I hear agents struggle with, uh, which is time management from a perspective of, you know, it's always a challenge. If you worked a job, you know, you had to show up at this time and you had to do XYZ. Well, now you can wake up whenever you want to some degree, uh, depending on the situation. Uh, but let's say I say, okay, I have three uh lead generation paths. How would you recommend to an agent to potentially structure that? Is that like, hey, on Thursdays do this uh lead gen, uh Tuesdays do this one? How would you structure in general your time, but also specifically around those lead gen uh paths?

SPEAKER_00 17:40

I think you need to stack them. I think you start with one, and again, it comes back to the mastery, right? Start with one, master that one, actually get it all set up, set your plan, figure out what it's gonna be, go through the process, tweak it, figure it out, make sure it's working. Okay, got one going. Now they'll just add a second one and then make sure that that one's going and then add a third one. But specifically to what you had actually just talked about is the fact that, yeah, everybody comes in, it's going, hey, I like the flexibility. Flexibility comes at a cost. And so what I actually do with my team, it's called the war report, is every single week I have them sit down and list out all of the stuff that they actually did that is money-making activities in real estate. And do they score? I have it where they have to score at least 10 or more points on that. Did they actually do those items? Are they doing stuff that's money-making activities? Because unfortunately, you get a deal or two, then you're stuck actually always in that. I'm I'm doing a follow-up or I'm doing a walkthrough. Well, that's not money-making activities. That that deal is already in the bag. That one's you've got to stay on top of that one. But what are you doing to actually do build new business, right? To be able to do that. So it's called you know, we talk about time blocking all the time. You need to set aside specific times of the day that's gonna be your calling, that you block two or three hours, that nothing interferes with that. And now I'm calling all of those potential clients that I actually had from the open house or from whatever other lead source that I actually have. And then having times time blocked each night on when am I gonna actually have time to go show these people and take them out and do that. Or if I don't have something scheduled, I need to do another belly-to-belly or time block off my weekend because I'm gonna be doing an open house. But okay, I'm planning in the open house. I need to schedule a couple hours on Monday or Tuesday to find that home to be able to do that. And then, you know, just figuring out that. But it's all comes down to time blocking. Um, and the whole thing that I usually do with these newer ones is I, you know, say if you were actually gonna go work that job tomorrow, like you had to go back into, you know, you don't be successful in this, you're going back into the regular space again. When are you heading to work? Or at eight o'clock. When are you coming home? Five. Perfect. You don't have any flexibility on that. So eight to five is what you're gonna have to do if you're not successful at this. So you might as well time block a good portion of that time and set it aside to do a job and make this a career and not make this a hobby.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

I love that. No, I I think the time blocking is a great concept. I do the same thing myself. I also think what what you said was great, which was really distinguishing between what what is a money making activity and what's not because it's easy to say, well, I'm I'm doing this, and it's maybe it's part of the process, but it's not the actual genesis of what creates and makes you money. It's like you got to keep doing that thing, even if you have a client or two, great, but you need to still be uh doing that because you see a lot of feast or famine with agents that do a couple deals and then you know go a few months without one because they're not doing you know that that portion that you're you're referring to there.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Um so I think where I think a lot of times where people get stuck though is that they're wanting to learn how to do something. Like if they say they listen to this and they're like, Well, I'm gonna do open houses, right? I better learn how to be able to do that. So then they educate and they educate and they educate and they never put it into play, right? The whole thing is that you you do so much of preparing that you don't actually go do it, and you have to actually get off the couch and go do it, right? And that's the piece that I think people get stuck in all the time is the thinking, the planning, but they're not the doing, and you gotta go do it, you gotta go do the action.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

100%. You know, they they say that there's been studies around that where it's just like the uh planning gives you the dopamine hit of like you're actually doing it. So your brain kind of thinks you're being productive, but at the end of the day, we're here to make money. You gotta go do the thing a hundred percent. No, on the we talk about lead generation. Let's let's go to um something I think a lot of agents struggle with that I talk to, which is all right, maybe leads are coming in, follow-up, right? So uh, and everybody's got a slightly different philosophy on follow up. Um, can you walk me through lead comes in? What happens in the first you know, hour, five minutes, maybe? Uh what happens six months later? Uh, what is your what are your guys' process as far as managing the follow up?

SPEAKER_00 21:59

Well, I Think that it starts with the fact that you need to have a really good CRM. Uh, you need to have a system to be able to store them in. Um, we've had several of them. I mean, I geez, I'm old enough that we used uh, you know, I've used Excel spreadsheets, right, for a long time to keep track of stuff when I didn't have money, right? If you don't have money, you got to go cheap. Um, so I used to do that. Um, now I'm fortunate enough that in a position that we use follow-up boss, I really like that system. It works really, really well. Um, but you you you hit it on the head. And this is something that with every single person on my team, every single day, my brother's on my team. He has the same background as me. And it's like I sit there and have to sit here and tell him every single time the same thing. You need to follow up with these people, you need to consistently stay in touch with them. The sale is not made on that first, and it's usually not made on the second. You once in a while you'll get that great hit, that low-hanging fruit, that it's like one call, they want to go look at it, that's the house they want done. But I'm telling you, 99% of the time it doesn't happen that way. The statistics show the fact that it takes at least 14 or 15 attempts to be able to actually get them across the finish line to be able to do that. You got to actually keep in touch with them, you got to call them, you got to text them. And here's the thing about it, you got to call them more than you got to text them or more than you email them. You got to call, you got to pick up a phone and do something that is very, very, very not wanted to do in the current culture. But if you're going to be in this business, what we need to realize is the fact that we're a real estate sales agent. The sales is the part that is, I think, missed, is forgotten. And that's the fact that they need to actually pick up the phone and have that conversation with them and sell them on why they need to continue down that path, right? Yes, they already said they wanted to do it. Our job is to actually get them across the finish line. And the best way to do that is to have a conversation. Where are they at? What's what's holding them back? What are they not actually doing? And so it does take a lot of phone calls because nobody answers their phone anymore. So it takes a lot of phone calls, a lot of check-ins, a lot of seeing what we can do, when can we actually do that? So it is all set on the fact of it is so imperative that when you have that next conversation with that person that you set a task. What is the next plan with that person you're gonna do? So it's like you're you're you're having the conversation and they say, Tim, what are we doing next? And it's like, okay, well, call me Thursday. Okay, I'm gonna pick up the phone, I'm gonna call you on Thursday, and then you put that task on there, and then you do what you actually were supposed to do. You call them Thursday. Don't forget, make sure you actually do that, right? Make sure you call them Thursday. If they didn't answer, they've given you permission at that point to blow them up because that's the day they said to do that. So then call a few other times and try to do that. And if they don't answer, they put it on the calendar for the next day and follow up and follow up and follow up. And it's like, hey, you've called me six times. Well, you told me to. You told me to follow up with you. You told me this is what we need to do. They've given you permission to be able to do that. But again, most people are like, I can't do that. I can't do that. That's that's that's not me. Well, uh again, that's the job. That's what it is. If you truly want to be successful in this business, it's not getting a lead. Leads are actually pretty easy to get. Leads are pretty easy to get. It's actually the follow-up, it's staying in touch, it's actually putting a you know, a new task on there, and then making sure you time block, going back to that time block again. Time block a couple hours every single day. That's gonna be my time. Then okay, I'm gonna follow up with all these people that I'm on my calendar.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

That's fantastic. Yeah, I I hear from agents a lot, like, well, I just need more leads or better leads. I'm like, no, you you really need better follow-up, uh, you know, and and you make a great point too. So many people are fixated, so many agents are fixated on getting leads that want to buy like yesterday or or sell. It's like this is there's a life cycle to these things, and and not everybody fits into that little box that you're hoping. Uh, and if you don't have a system in place for staying in touch with the other 90% of your leads, you're leaving so much money on the table. And so, uh, yeah, I think that's uh you make a great point there. Just give the leads to me, just give the leads, I'll take care of them. I'll I'll take care of those guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, you heard Jace. Uh yeah, if you have leads and you just want to send them over to him, he'll take care of them. I love it. I like that. Um, okay, so you I asked this question, but you've actually given quite a bit of uh tactical stuff here. But I do always want to make sure that like agents listening, they walk away from these conversations with something they can actually put into practice, which you've kind of already done, but I'm gonna ask this question officially. If you were coaching an agent who's already done, you know, doing some business but wants to significantly grow over the next 12 months, what's like one specific thing you tell them to start doing this week?

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Good question. Um I think that they need to actually reflect on what it what they enjoy about real estate. And they need to focus on that first and foremost. What is the part that they actually like to do, right? Do they like dealing with buyers? Do they like dealing with sellers? I think that's that's the first thing you need to decide to do. I only deal with sellers at this point, right? I don't really deal with the buyer side of the transactions uh because I found that I actually like doing the listings and doing that portion. So figuring out which direction do they actually like to go from there. And then from there, what did they actually get into this business for? What is it they actually liked in the very beginning and honing in on the fact of what is the stuff that they actually like to do? And what was the one thing that they did when they started out that worked? And then go back to the basics. I think that's what it all starts with is go back to the basics and be able to do that. Everybody says, oh, you know, open houses are dead. They're not dead, they're just not effectively done. You know, oh, cold calling is dead. No, it's not dead, it's just not effectively done. It's whatever they actually do, they just need to be very, very good at it. If you look at, you know, watch podcasts. I love this is another thing. If you are slow, go watch podcasts and go watch new podcasts. Don't go watch stuff from three years ago. Watch new podcasts on somebody who's putting up content and somebody who's doing it and steal the ideas that they actually have from them, right? To be able to do that, right? But you'll see so many podcasts across the board on everything from probate to, you know, uh, I don't, I don't, I don't know, anything that you actually see across the board on anything in real estate to be able to do. And you're like, man, I could never do that. That's not something I could ever do. Door knocking. Uh you know, who who's gonna open the door anymore? But there's agents out there that make a career out of door knocking and making sales to be able to do it. So it's just a matter of you got to be better than everybody else that's actually out there doing it. You got to be convicted and wanted to be able to do that, convinced that it's the way to go, and then just go out there and hammer away. Um, I have one girl on my team. Her strength is actually just her past business. She literally connects all the time with her past business. She's actually phone calling, she's going out to lunch with them, she's able to do that. She gets tons of business from her past business. I'll be the first to tell you, I'm horrible at that. That is not my strength. Um, you know, that is not something I do. I actually do better getting new business than I actually do from my old business to be able to do that. That's why I have my wife take care of that portion of it, right? She she stays in touch with our friends and family and does that. But it you have to find what fits you, what you like, but then find that one thing that you enjoy about real estate and just attack it.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Just go attack it. Yeah, I think that was great because actually you you sort of took a step back and looked at it like what's the lens I'm going to approach my real estate business uh with. And I think it's you you nailed it on the head. Like there's a I said to you when we first started this conversation, I said uh uh one of the reasons I have this is I just love connecting with small, like so I enjoy this, like I enjoy this conversation. You got to find something that you enjoy that you will work, work, work uh, you know, to the bone, and whatever that looks like. And you like you said, every agent's gonna be different. You've got the girl in the agent uh in the office that uh loves to you know connect with people she's done business with, and I'm sure that referrals uh come from from those uh connections. And there's guys like you and I who just we love to generate new leads and uh let's let's work that. So I love this. I think it's a great, great suggestion. Um, I want to ask something about your business, just because I I like to hear this thought process. Um if you wanted to double the business over the next couple years, what would need to be true uh before that that could happen?

SPEAKER_00 30:18

What would need to be true? What would I need to make sure is working effectively? Is that what you're asking me?

SPEAKER_02 30:22

Yeah, essentially, like I mean, it might be double the team, but it also might be add more people, uh uh tighten up these processes. It could be a kind of a combo, but if if we're saying uh like how how many, if you don't mind saying how many deals did we do uh in the last 12 months or so, just ballpark? Uh 228, I think, is what we did uh last 12 months. Let's just dream for just a second and say we were going for somewhere between four and five hundred uh over the next couple years. Uh what do you think you would need to do differently in order to accomplish that? I just I like seeing that sort of growth mindset because even if someone's that listen is at 10 deals, how do I get to 20? Now, these are different problems necessarily, but there's also people that listen to this that are doing hundreds of deals too. So I just love to get your perspective on how you would grow.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Yeah, so I think I think we've hit on a few of the things already, and and I'm going through that right now, right? Um, the market has not exactly been the friendliest to us right this second. Uh, you know, all the stuff that's actually going on that we have no control over has definitely slowed it. So then we slow down. And it's like, okay, we have to fix that first. What do we need to do to make sure that that's working effectively? So I've had to go back to the basics. I have I have a good mix on my team. I have probably half that are actually tenured agents that have probably four plus years of experience, and then I have a bunch that are in their first couple of years. And, you know, my ones that are in the first couple of years just kind of take everything that I'm actually saying for gospel and kind of just go out there and do it, right? And so when I told them that they needed to task everything and follow up with their book, a business, and and track and do all that kind of stuff, they're doing it. And their performance is actually continued to keep doing this. But then I got the older ones that have actually been around for a while and they're not doing it. They're used to the low-hanging fruit and they used to do it the way they're doing it. And and when the market has changed a little bit, they're they're stagnant. So now I've actually had to go back and coach and develop them to go back to the fact of task, follow-up, call, as much as they don't want to do that, right? To be able to do those pieces, and we're actually steadily increasing again. So it starts with the fact of the base needs to actually be in place, and then you can actually grow from there. But if you start adding pieces when everything else is not where it needs to be, then they're all gonna have bad habits and you're not gonna go anywhere. And now you just have a bunch of people that, you know, you know, you're wasting your money basically and wasting the leads. Um, so it's like I've really worked on trying to actually build that back. We've got that kind of in place, and then it is actually adding, but it's not just adding any single person. I feel that uh one of my strengths is I I'm really good at seeing who the person is when I actually sit down and talk with them, right? And I can teach anything. I literally can teach anything in this real estate business across the board except for one thing I cannot teach. I can't teach drive. It is impossible to actually teach somebody that actually wants to go out there and run through a wall and do it themselves and take care of their family and do all those kind of things and whatever it's gonna take, I'm gonna do it. I can't teach that. And so either you have it or you don't. And so it's like I'm really looking for that one it factor to be able to do that. And if I can find those people, I will add them anytime. It doesn't make a difference. I don't care if I'm an MAX, I don't care if I need to go find new lead sources. If I find somebody that has that one it factor, I'm gonna I'm gonna add them to the team.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

Well, that was a great answer. Okay, we're gonna shift for just a second uh to talk about uh AI. AI is kind of impossible to ignore right now. Uh the platform uh that we built it's kind of giving me the opportunity to have a lot of conversations with teams about where AI creates real value, maybe where it's kind of hypey. Uh, where do you think is kind of the biggest opportunity for AI inside a real estate business today that you see?

SPEAKER_00 34:04

Oh, well, I you know, I just kind of started adopting it probably the last six months myself, right? I mean, like I started taking some courses and training and figuring out what's gonna work and what's not. Um, the the biggest thing that I always try to do, you talk about lenses, I try to put myself in the position of the um buyer or the seller, right? I try to always put myself in that position to see what they would actually do with it. So, one of the things that I've started doing now with every one of my listings, I actually took the time, I actually have the upgraded version of Claude, and I took the time to build out a skill in there for the fact of the listing piece of it, right? How would they actually go about you know trying to actually sell their own property or figure out their own process, you know, their own prices and everything else to be able to do that? Because when you start having the younger ones that you're actually meeting with, and specifically the younger ones you're meeting with, they they've already done this, they've already done it. They actually think they know the numbers, they're prepared for it. So I literally now, when I go into my listing appointment, I have my standard real estate CMA, but then I also have the AI created one and I have them both there prepared and to talk to them because I know they've already done it. And I've literally have had it. They're like, well, a friend of mine actually already did some research. And then when I actually get to the end and they actually sign with me, I'm like, who is your friend? It's like Jim and I. They're like, Yeah, yeah, that's what I thought, right? So it's like they're already prepared to do that. And and now I'm even coming three three wide because I'm also bringing this estimate, right? Because they actually have already looked up Zillow to be able to do that. But the one thing that AI can't do that we actually as real estate agents, you know, uh can do, they can't still see behind the wall. That might change at some point, but they can't see behind the wall. They can't see concessions, they can't see commissions, they can't see a lot of this, you know, even even going deep into the fact they can't always see if there's you know, uh lease solar or a lot of the stuff that's actually has an impact on. I I've even actually stumped it a lot of times on if it's two-story or one-story, or if it's a three-car garage or two-car. And so those all play impact into that price. And so that's why I do that, that whole plan going there, because I know that they've already done that. So that I'm prepared to say, okay, you're right. That'd be the number if you didn't understand that we're getting an average of 15,000 in concessions on every single property. So if you actually want to minus that out of your number, then yeah, we would be right on the same page on where you need to be, right? Um, so I think it's it's understanding what the buyer or seller is using it for, then you can actually then backtrack to be able to do that, right? Is there a lot of other ways to be able to utilize it? If you're techie, you could, I'm sure you could actually put it into your emails and you know, searching and doing a lot of stuff. But the one thing, why do we get paid what we get paid? It's our education, it's our knowledge, it's our experience, it's our ability to work with people. It's not so much searching out of property anymore, you know, they're doing that on their own and coming to us and saying, Hey, Jace, I want to go see this property. Great, let's go look at it. And then it's what my knowledge is on how to help them the rest of the way is why I get paid what I get paid.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I mean, you think about uh these, you know, for years now, people have been able to Google on like WebMD and find, hey, what what you know, what is it, what's going on with them? But you still end up going to the doctor uh to get it treated because they're the person ultimately that knows how to fix it. So that makes a lot of sense. Um, all right, so let's finish by looking ahead. Um let's think about five years from now. What changes do you think that we'll see in real estate? And what do you think will still never change? Uh geez.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

Uh yeah, two part on there, huh? Um, you know, I I think that there's gonna be several changes. I don't know what it's gonna look like when it comes to the MLS situation and where that is gonna go. Uh, I think Zillow is here to stay for sure. I don't think they're going anywhere. I don't know if Compass will stand and it'll be a two systems or what. I have no clue. I have no clue. Um, you know, I just know that there will be change, right? I when it's all said and done. You know, everybody was all freaked out when we actually had to go to, you know, talking about compensation and making sure we're getting the buyer brokers and all that stuff in place to be able to do that. But it didn't change what we do. We adopted to it. My team, we adopted very early. We were we took the stance on it's gonna happen, we got to do it, let's get prepared. And so everybody else stuck their head in the sand and we're months behind where we were already taking off to the races and going. So I think it's it's it's flexibility uh into what is going to change on there. I think that over the next year or so, I think we're gonna see the market get better, and we're just in a dip right now. It's been that way for a couple of years, but we always know it does turn around and go back up. So I think we'll see that actually increase on there. But the one thing that's never gonna change, and I and I truly believe this, and I was just alluding to that a second ago. They're always gonna need a real estate agent. They're always gonna need that person to be able to coach, develop them, or not coach, develop, coach in and show them how to be able to go through the process. They're gonna need that person to be able to guide them through and be able to do that. They're gonna need a person that actually has the context for you know a moving company or for whatever they might need to do to the property when they actually get it done. They need that person who's educated that knows how to get through the process from soup to nuts and help them to get it from you know to the very end of the process, right? That's what they're gonna need that agent for. So, yes, our role might change. I think that in the end, we'll be I think we'll be closer to what a lawyer does, right? It's like we don't have to do all the other stuff. We're just gonna have to be the person to give them the advice and mess with the paperwork because that's not the part that they're able to do. They're never gonna be able to do that portion of it, right? I think that that's where I see the biggest change when it's all said and done.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

I love it. Well, Jace, before we wrap up, uh, where can people learn more about you and your team?

SPEAKER_00 39:54

Um, so um my team name is housingaroundaz.com. Well, a housing around az. Um, they can go to housingaroundaz.com um and find out more uh about me as well. Um also on Facebook, you can find me under Jace Leonard. There's not very many, J A S E um and Housing Around uh A Z as well. Uh both places.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

Love it. All right, Jace. Thank you again for joining me on under contract. I really enjoyed the conversation. Well, I appreciate you actually having me on. Thank you.