Month: March 2013

By Jefferson Snow
I guess the title above is a little misleading. There was no basketball talked on this past Tele-Seminar but there were definitely some kernels of real estate wisdom you need to hear. Maria Barr is averaging one or two listings a week prospecting with REDX leads and aims at taking on at least 50 by the end of the year. Below we’ll highlight some of our top takeaways from this REDX All Star.
Expireds: Why and How?

Maria likes working expired leads for two reasons. First off, she likes it because the seller knows the agony and pain associated with trying to put their house on the market. If they are willing to brave all that a second time, Maria knows they are committed. Secondly, Maria likes working with expired leads because they’re more realistic. They’ve already fought about price with the last Realtor and now it’s out of their system.

Well now that we know why she hunts expired leads, let’s hear how she does it. Maria calls for about an hour, five days per week. Her goal is to make 25 new contacts a day and to set five appointments each week. To make 25 contacts (defined as a live person who she’s never spoken with whose capable of making a decision) an hour, she has to use a dialer. Once she makes contact she’ll go straight into her Mike Ferry scripts. She admits that she was weary of scripts back when she first started, that they were too cheesy or brazen, but know that she has internalized and practiced them it has paid off tremendously. Once you’ve got the script down, the key becomes consistency.
Listing Appointment Tips

Maria also gave some great advice about the importance of pre-qualifying your appointments. There was an expired listing in her area priced around $875k and she was super pumped to go out for the listing appointment . . . until the owner rescheduled . . . and then rescheduled again. After a couple of rainchecks, they finally got another time set to meet up but by then, Maria felt some of her initial energy drained. Negative thoughts began creeping in – “They aren’t going to list. They’ve already been through other Realtors. Is it even worth going out there? . . .”

Thankfully she decided not to blow it off but to call and pre-qualify. The key question she asked though was “If what I say makes sense and you’re comfortable with me and you believe I can sell your house, do you plan to list your home with me when I come out this afternoon?” When the guy said “yes,” she was instantly pumped again and went out and had a great appointment. Moral of the story: Pre-qualifying not only saves you time, and helps get contracts, it can get you excited about appointments.
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria Does?

One of the last things Maria related in the call is something every agent needs to hear, especially agents who are on the fence about making phone prospecting a steady part of their business. She said something along the lines of “I truly believe that massive prospecting can solve 90% of your business’s problems.” She says that she sees agents all the time around the office who sit around waiting for business to come to them, waiting for the market to get better, waiting for some secret to be told to them that will be the solution to all their problems. Maria knows that if you pick up the phone and prospect to expired leads, you’re going to drum up something. She admits that it’s scary to call, that it’s not always the first thing she wants to do, but in the end, it’s something she can actually control.

By Jefferson Snow
In REDX’s February Tele-Seminar we sat down with prospecting powerhouse Rocky Wright. For me, it was one of the most informative and inspiring calls we’ve done since I’ve worked here. The guy really knows what he’s talking about. The man did $40 million in sales during the boom of 2005 and has since managed real estate franchises in Florida and Los Angeles before returning to sales this past October. I’ve also summarized a few his best points below.
Rocky’s Wisdom
Rocky was asked what his advice would be to new real estate agents or agents looking to reinvent themselves. His answer- There’s nothing easier or quicker than expireds and FSBOs to add more to your business. Expireds first and then FSBOs. The reason for this is that both have decided to sell their house but the expireds have raised their hands saying they’re willing to pay a commission too. Then he’d go after FSBOs because the sellers market we’re entering is going to inspire a lot of people to start selling their own homes.
Rocky vs. The Low-Inventory Market
We’ve been talking about low inventory a lot on the blog lately. Many Realtors find it as intimidating as Apollo Creed, but Rocky’s taking it head on anyway. Here’s a little snapshot of his market- there’s only about 3.8 months worth of inventory available, there’s about 1,000 agents vying for the houses of an area with only 150,000 people, the average house sells for only about $150k, and every buyer thinks they can low-ball anyone if they’ve got a wad of cash. But even with all these factors working against him, Rocky makes it work. He’s been prospecting expired leads since October 1st. He had to because he had just moved back to Florida from California and had no sphere of influence. So without buyers or referrals he poured everything into expireds. Since January 1st of 2013 he’s made over $20,000 in commissions just working listings. With results like this Rocky is convinced that he will never stop focusing on listings and that it’s the only way he’ll do business again, because to sell the volume he wants to he needs to leverage the efforts of the rest of the 999 who will bring him the buyers he needs.
Wed to the Process
I’m sure you’re wondering what’s Rocky’s secret. The secret is dedication. Dedication to what though? A process, some kind of set system that he’s going to give himself to day in and day out. A couple times throughout the call, Rocky mentioned you have to be “Wed to the Process and not the results.” If we’re married to the process, the results will come. If we’re just married to the results, we won’t put up with the frustrations the stand in the way. So what’s his process? Good question. Rocky calls from 9:30am to 11:30am Monday through Friday every week. Once a month he’ll also go into the office on Saturday and spend about 6 hours calling when it’s a little bit easier to catch people home. On the call, which you can listen to here, he mentions that he calls expireds three times in just the first week they’ve gone off the market but he doesn’t drop them after that. He said that he will call an expired as until they’ve listed with him or they list with another agent. Call him a zealot if you want, but he’s a zealot that makes $625 an hour calling expireds when all is said is done.
The Ties That Drive
From all the success he’s had, you’d probably think Rocky has a small army at his command but that’s actually not the case at all. He pretty much flies solo. There are no Bullwinkle’s in this operation. He doesn’t have any assistant to pull his data or any office minions to write up his transactions, and he doesn’t have a coach to hold him to the coals. He’s a one man band and he likes it that way. But if he’s the lone wolf, who keeps him accountable? According to him, it’s his kids. Sure he feels guilty when he skips a day of prospecting but that guilt can only push someone so far to get back on the rails. It’s really his two daughters that keeps him committed to his system. In fact, he’s worked out a deal with them. If Rocky gets a listing appointment, they all go out to eat. If Rocky get’s a closing, they all go to dinner and movie. With that incentive, he’s got two people he’s got to face every day that will be asking “did you get an appointment?” or “did you get a closing?” He can only say “no” so many times before he feels like he needs to kick it up a gear in his prospecting.