Month: April 2013

Yet again, it’s time for the Tele-Seminar recap. Every month our very own Michelle Holt sits down with REDX All Stars to pick their brains about how they’re making a killing on prospecting with REDX along with what else they’re doing in their business that is helping them be successful. This month we cornered one of Burbank’s Top Agents, Larry Faris. If you want my main takeaways, keep reading.

Low Inventory Doesn’t Mean No Inventory
It seems like every blog post lately is banging the the low-inventory drum but here we go again. That’s just how the market is right now . . . everywhere. Burbank used to average 4 to 5 thousand on the market at a time. Now it’s down to about 1,500. The key for Larry in this type of climate is realizing that fewer houses for sale is an opportunity and not a curse. Instead of giving up on working expireds and FSBO’s in the face of Burbank’s low inventory market, Larry buckles down and makes sure to go after them even harder. Why? Because Larry doesn’t want to be a buyer’s agent who spends the majority of his time drafting at least 10 to 15 offers before he gets a single one accepted.

Even if inventory is tight, Larry says there are still always going to be people who don’t know how to price their house to sell, FSBOs and expireds alike. His job is to find them, find out their motivation for selling, and tell them why their last agent didn’t come up with the right price. This may sound tough but his pitch is actually really simple. Here’s what he says over the phone: “I understand exactly why you didn’t sell, and if you meet with me for 5 minutes, I can show you how your home can be sold.”
Larry Faris Likes the Phones
Larry has tried his hand at many marketing methods. He’s sent thousands of mailing pieces to a famed area, he used to knock 150 to 200 fifty doors in a two hour bursts on his segway, but while he had success with those methods, nothing him has given him the ROI that calling does. Larry has member of his team try to make about 100 calls and speak with 20 to 25 people in a 3-hour calling window. They do this 5 days a week. Out of those 20-25 people they speak with a day, they set 2 or 3 appointments. He converts about 50% of his listing appointments and closes nearly 100% of his listings.
Like anyone will, Larry does get some wrong numbers with REDX here and there but he doesn’t fault us for it. He said he has done some research into why he’s getting the wrong number and what he found is that he’s finding some of the numbers belong to people who had been in the property a year or two ago or that the property had already sold. Instead of saying “bye” immediately, Larry makes the most out of connecting with someone. He asks the wrong numbers if they are still looking to buy and sell real estate and he’s had success with it.
The Obvious Objections
We asked Larry to tell us about the main objections he’s getting and how to overcome them. According to Larry, expireds have their own set of concerns while FSBOs have another. For expireds, he doesn’t get commission-based objections. The concern he has to overcome is the idea that real estate agents don’t bring value. These owners trusted the last agent but they didn’t get the job done. Here’s what Larry says to that: “I understand that you’re frustrated and you’re probably wondering how a professional agent couldn’t get your house sold. Well I understand why they failed you. If you let me sit down with you for 10 minutes I can show you why. More importantly I can show you how you can get to your goal. I have 20 years of experience. Let me show you how can sell and get the right amount of money to let you make your next move.”
FSBO’s are a different ball game. Theirs is a commission based dilemma. Thus the angle Larry takes with these leads is all about netting more money in the end using an agent. Statistically, homeowners won’t sell their homes at their desired price without the exposure and marketing an agent can provide them. His job is to help them realize this. To do so, he says something along the lines of, “I understand why you’re doing this. You’re trying to save yourself money. I would too. If I could show you a way to save that commission and put another 20 to 30k in your pocket, would you list your home with me?”
These approaches are very simple but when you say them with confidence, believing yourself to be the best agent for the job, you’re going to have success.
To Be Continued
Larry’s call was jam-packed with incredible information. So much so that he we’re having a hard time just highlighting it in a single post. Ideally, you should just listen to the call by clicking here, but we’ll also be getting out another post to highlight some more of Larry’s call soon.

By Jefferson

REDX has been helping agents for nearly a decade now. During that time we’ve gotten to know our clientele rather well. Through the hundreds of interviews, surveys, and testimonials we’ve collected while in business, we are finding several common traits among our most prosperous agents. These characteristics reflect a certain discipline that agents making $250,000 or more per year possess and agents who were making $70k or less don’t. Learning this, a common phrase that comes to mind: “Successful people do what what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.” I’d like to dedicate this post to a few of the things driven agents do to earn more than twice the income their less-disciplined counterparts.

Exercise

I know you’d like to burn calories from putting signs in the ground all day but you’re going to have to hit up the gym to get the exercise we’re talking about. This may not sound related to real estate directly, but no matter how you cut, people who exercise are disciplined and people who are disciplined have success. There are studies all over the place indicating some kind of correlation between those who exercise and those who make tons of money. In real estate, it’s no different. In the data we’ve gathered and in the surveys we’ve conducted, we found that 74% of agents the rake in $250k or more, consistently go to the gym at least three times a week.

Rigid Prospectors

If you can push yourself to exercise, you can push yourself to prospect. And just like an effective exercise regimen isn’t a little bit of weights this week and maybe a little running next, effective prospecting is an almost-every-daily occurrence.

If you want to make the big bucks, our studies show that you need to be prospecting at least 4.6 times a week at 90 minutes per session. Most top producing agents begin calling every weekday at 8am. Most follow up in the evenings, trying to catch those they didn’t reach that morning. The highest producing agents even dedicate an occasional weekend to make contact with people who they’ve missed over the week.
Effective prospecting also requires effective messaging. Calling expired and fsbo leads shouldn’t be something you just wing. That’s why 81% of the agents we’ve seen making $250k or over are using scripts on EVERY call. Even if you think they’re cheesy, salesy, or stilted, you should probably get over your aversion to scripts and start practicing them.
Accountability

An awesome quote I once heard goes like this: “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of performance accelerates.” Where am I going with this? Accountability. That’s where I’m going. And whether you like the idea of it or not, the accountability method of choice for the majority of $4250k agents is coaching. 73% of agents hitting the $250k mark have been receiving coaching for at least one year. 68% have been involved in a coaching program for at least 3 years.

So how does coaching provide accountability? Going back to the quote in the paragraph above, coaches are the ones you report your performance to. Having a coach in your corner helps disciplined agents set AND WRITE goals, draft business plans, and provide a clear vision and purpose.

Buckle Down

Gym memberships can be bought, coaches can be hired, and prospecting tools can be purchased but discipline is something you have to develop from within. The good news is that you don’t need to be born with discipline to have it. Just like any skill, it is something that can be learned and practiced. What can you do to start living a more disciplined life today?

By Jefferson Snow

Expireds usually fall into two major categories. The first is the expired listing that will end up signing with a new agent within the first 30 days. These are the owners you want to find. But unfortunately, the only make up about a third of total expireds. The other category of expireds is the owner who will wait 90 days or more to relist their home. They account for roughly another third of all expireds. Odds are you’ll end up talking to more people who fall under Column B (the 90-day waiters), so here are three things you can talk about to help sellers know that NOW is the time to list their home.
Home Value Is Rising
Yes, you read that correctly. Expireds should relist now because home values are rising. 2013 is turning out to be a great year for real estate. Many economists were predicting a recovering housing market this year but most estimates were very conservative. Now that we’re three months into the year, many experts are changing their figures based on how much growth they’ve seen in just this quarter. Home values are steadily climbing, and owners have the opportunity to sell at the best prices in years. While this is good news, it does have it’s drawbacks, specifically for those that are selling their home to purchase a new one.
The majority of 2nd, 3rd (or more) home buyers are moving up. They are getting into more house than before. As their current home price increase, so too is the price of the house they want to move to. This means that the amount of money they will net if they wait is less than the amount of money they will spend on their next home. Thus, it is NOT worth waiting. If home prices increase 3%, they are increasing on the step up as well, so waiting even three months can mean a big difference in how much more they will end up paying for that next home.
Interest Rates are Climbing

With a recuperating economy, it’s only a matter of time before interest rates go up. In fact, predictions are that interest will go up to around 4.5% by the end of the year.  As the year goes on, we’ll see interest rates slowly elevate.

This again is much more of an issue for the person who is buying another house, and especially relevant for someone buying up. Plus, buyers will be looking to get a deal done as soon as possibly. Let the owners of these expired listings know that they’ll see more motivated buyers start to disappear the longer they keep themselves off the market.