Leslie Storrs Tondreau – Be True to Yourself

Lindsay Favazza: Welcome back to the Agents Who Crush It in Real Estate Podcast. I am your host, Lindsay Favazza, and I am here with one of my favorite people. I know I say this a lot, but she truly is one of my favorite, favorite people. I’ve only known her for a few years, but I feel like I’ve known her forever. She’s one of those types, so I am here with Leslie Storrs Tondreau. So nice to have you on here with me. Thank you so much for joining us today. 

Leslie Tondreau: What an honor and a privilege. Thank you for having me. 

Lindsay: Of course. We can’t have a podcast called Agents Who Crush It without having you, so it was long overdue, my friend. I want to start off by the usual way that we usually start these, which is I like to hear how you got into real estate and what that backstory is. I know you and I discussed a little bit before, and I already knew that you were a teacher, but I didn’t know you were a computer teacher specifically. Take us back to those early days and what got you into real estate and how that morphed for you. 

Leslie: Oh, sure. Well, let’s see. From when I was little, I always wanted to be a teacher. When I went to school, I actually majored in geography and geology and got my teaching degree. I had multiple things but cool. In one of my college classes, I was actually able as a senior to teach Geography 101, get credits for that for both geography and teaching. That was cool. When I got out of college, I tried to get a teaching job and realized that I needed to have a master’s degree. You need money to pay for a master’s degree, so I went and worked in a travel agency for about four years while I got my master’s, which was pretty awesome. 

Then I got my first real teaching job, which was very exciting. I had two one-year positions and then nine years as a computer teacher in Townsend, Massachusetts in Middlesex District, and I was enjoying it. I was loving it. I loved teaching. I loved interacting with the students and the teachers. My job was to integrate technology with whatever curriculum I were doing. I would work with the teachers and put that together. 

Then unfortunately so related, my parents had gotten into real estate while I was in college late ’80s. Then in early ’90s, they took over a brokerage and became brokers with a Century 21 office and ran that for multiple years. I was a teacher, I had summers off, but I was not able to answer the telephone in the office because the rules are you can’t give any information unless you have a real estate license. I said, “Well, forget that. I’m going to go get my license.” I actually didn’t tell my parents I was doing it, and my father would get a fax. My father ran a real estate school as well, and once a week, he would get a fax from the state of the people who got their license that week. 

Lindsay: No way. 

Leslie: One day, he called me, he like, “I got this fax and- 

Lindsay: Either there’s another Leslie Storrs or– 

Leslie: -your names on it.” I said, “Well, Dad, if you go to the filing cabinet, look in this file, here’s my application.” 

Lindsay: That must have made him so happy. 

Leslie: I believe it did. Him and Mom both. I had no interest in doing real estate. I just got it, so I could help them out. I used to help him with computer-related things in the office, make their PowerPoint of active listings that sat in the front window for anyone going by. 

Lindsay: I love that. 

Leslie: I was old school. I have a whole bunch of old-school things that I’ve- 

Lindsay: We’re going to get into that in a second because I think that’s still such a fun thing to talk about, for sure. 

Leslie: I’m sure we will. Unfortunately, in 2004, my father was diagnosed with cancer, so I went to the school department and asked for a leave of absence. I asked for a year off so that– because my dad was going to have a bone marrow transplant. “Could I please have a year off to either be at the office so my mom could be at the hospital or be at the hospital so my mom could be at the office.” Whatever. They said no. It was pretty devastating. I was going to leave my career. I said, “Well, I’m sorry, but my family is more important.” How ironic that six months earlier I had gotten my license before this happened. 

Lindsay: It was all meant to be. 

Leslie: Weird. Best thing I ever did. When I saw that superintendent several years later, I went and shook his hand and told him so. He looked at me like, “What?” Honestly, best thing I could do. Nine years I got to spend working in the office with both my parents before my dad passed away. I learned a ton from him, from my mom, a lot of experience. In 2019, I needed a change. I approached Anthony, and [unintelligible 00:05:17] office was always in his plans. I think I just moved up his timeline a little bit by saying.

Lindsay: That tends to happen. That happened in Florida. If he’s got his eyes set on one but then he finds someone who he knows will help, then it’s just going to move that plan up sooner. 

Leslie: I’ll tell you from having the conversation with him to opening the doors of this office was five weeks and fabulous, never looked back, love it. That’s my transition in a nutshell. 

Lindsay: Love it. Over the last few years, you’ve been on average between about 30, 40 sales since you’ve been with us at least. Those have been obviously some good years in real estate and so on, but I know you had mentioned that this year has been a little bit more difficult because of deals falling through and stuff like that. I want you to talk to our audience about this because I do think there’s a lot of people who maybe have only been in the business for those three or four years, that things have been so magical, and they just don’t understand how these things happen, and what these changes are. Talk to me a little bit about the things that you’re seeing this year, and what are some of the things you’re doing to overcome that? 

Leslie: Sure. Well, obviously, back in the spring, trying to get an offer accepted was like an act of God. When you had 30, 40, 60 people submitting offers on the same property. You were offering your first born, and it didn’t make a difference. There’s nothing we can do about that. We can do the best we can. We can use all the skills we have to make the offer as good as we can. We can protect the buyers with all the clauses we can, but sometimes there’s nothing we can do about it. I have had, I think nine or 10 already this year fall apart for whether it be increase in interest rates and they’ll no longer qualify. I had one unfortunately where the buyer passed away in the middle of the transaction. I’ve had a couple- 

Lindsay: Oh my. 

Leslie: That was absolutely devastating. 

Lindsay: Oh my God, how aweful. 

Leslie: I’ve had some that just didn’t work, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I’ve had a couple of divorce situations where they hadn’t gone through far enough in the process to be free enough to purchase their new home and got tied up in the length of time it took to go through the court process. All of these things are out of my control. I can stress about them. Of course, it’s upsetting, and you can stress about it. You can say, “Wow, that really stinks.” If you can’t control it, you got to move on. 

If there’s no way to fix it, stop banging your head on the wall because then you’re just getting a big bruise. I’m not an easy giver upper, I’ll tell you that, but if it gets to the point that you can’t do it, you got to move on, unfortunately. You can’t let it get to you. If you can’t control it, if it’s nothing you did and it’s just the way it is, you can’t internalize it too much. You just can’t. 

Lindsay: That’s like anything in life, really, when it comes down to it. You want to prepare as much as you can. You want to do what you can to be ahead of these types of things, but then at the end of the day, there’s really so much that’s out of our control. You can’t control interest rates. You can’t control those kind of things, but you can stay on top of the information so that you know what’s coming. 

Obviously, you’re a very experienced agent. I’d like to say that. I don’t want anyone to be like, “Oh, she’s been in the business for a long time.” You are experienced for a lot of the people out there that have really only been in the business for a few years. What has changed in real estate from back in the day and to now? Then what is really tried and true in the same? 

Obviously, there’s these cycles that happen in the business, and I think that what we’re seeing now is a very different kind of cycle than we’ve seen. It’s obviously still a shift. Iit’s a down shift in the market kind of thing, which we’ve seen before, but it’s for different reasons now than it used to be. Explain to me how those things have changed. What’s similar, what’s different, that kind of thing? 

Leslie: So many things have changed. When I came into real estate, got my license. There was an MLS, but it wasn’t on the computer, and you couldn’t access everything. There was literally a book that came out once a month, and then every week, they would have a little supplement. 

Lindsay: I really want you to find this book, and take a picture with it, so we can put it in the show notes, so people can just see the book. 

Leslie: I absolutely will. I thought it was on my bookshelf, but it’s not there. I’m going to find it. I’ll find it, and I’ll show it to you. You as the agent had all the power. You had all the information. They wanted to look at houses, they had to come to you. You could not give them the book because then you wouldn’t have it, and that would be like forgetting your phone. 

Lindsay: How often was this book printed? 

Leslie: Once a month was the big book, was maybe 1 inch. Then once a week, there was a supplement, and it had all the new listings, the price changes, stuff like that. Each listing had a block this big. It had one picture, and it had very basic information, bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, when was it built, acreage, and a teeny little description. 

Lindsay: I feel like the newspaper would have been a more accurate place to get your information then because a month, that just doesn’t seem like enough time. 

Leslie: That’s what you got. The buyers had to come with you and look at the book. You could photocopy pages for them. They had to actually physically come in. Then I think it was only about a year and a half after I got my license that MLS went internet. In some ways, that was the beginning of the most massive change, I think because there was so much information that went out there over all the feeds. That was before the Zillows and the Trulias and all those other places. They actually did get access to the MLS, and you could get the information readily much more updated. You didn’t have to wait for the book. 

Literally, somebody would have to drive. Before I got my license, that was one of the things I did for my parents. I would have to drive to the realtor board once a week and pick up the box of books and bring it back. [crosstalk] 

Lindsay: That’s the thing. You had this MLS go online first. The buyers and sellers still needed to come to you. Then Zillow comes on the map, and now they’ve made it so that this information is readily available straight to the customer. It definitely put a little bit of fear into a lot of agents too. How do you think that the industry made it through that? It’s very obviously, now that Zillow was wrong in a lot of their estimates and things happened with Zillow that made it so that they weren’t as trustworthy as they used to be? How do you think that we made it through that? Realtors, in general, I think they persisted and just made it so that you still have to use a realtor. 

Leslie: You still do. I think one of the best things is to educate yourself. When Zillow was first the thing and they were considering it gospel, I would go and look on Zillow and see what the Zestimate said for a property before I went to a listing appointment. I would know what it said because, of course, every seller thought that it was just the way it was. You had to learn how to explain to them your worth as an agent and what your role in the transaction was in the list of 142 things that you’re going to do through the transaction. 

You also had to learn how to talk to them, educate them. That’s part of our job too, and it ties into being a teacher. Educate them on the market, the stats, the process, the expectations, all of that. The more you do that, the more you– it’s part of building the rapport, building the trust, but the more information you give them as the actual expert in the field, that matters, and proves your professionalism. 

Lindsay: More than ever now. I feel like that’s something that technically has changed because before, they knew they needed you because they couldn’t get any of this information anywhere else. Now, they could go to anybody that sells homes that– their cousins, brothers, uncles, dog groomer, who sells homes on the side. [crosstalk] 

Leslie: Oh God, don’t get into that one. 

Lindsay: They feel like they can just do whatever. Then sometimes for sale by owner is still such a big thing too, so it’s like that’s the thing. I feel like that’s something that has definitely shifted is that you really do you need to show them what your value is now as opposed to before where they really looked at you as the expert. 

Leslie: We’ve always had to do that. There are some sellers that it’s more critical than others. I think where a lot of the shift happened too was proving to buyers how important it was that they needed a buyer agent. They can get all the information online. They can call up the listing agent and say, “I want to buy that house,” but then they dont have anybody. 

Lindsay: Who is representing you? 

Leslie: Then they don’t have anybody on their side so to prove that too. It’s a big deal to be their advocate, be on their team. I would describe it like the baseball team. Both sides have a coach, both sides have a dugout full of players, and both sides have a coach. Do you want me to be your coach and be in your dugout, or do you want me to be in the other dugout? Do you want me to be a facilitator and be that guy in the black and white shirt and [unintelligible 00:15:24] who just makes sure everybody plays nice and follows the rules but doesn’t really care who wins? What do you want? 

Lindsay: You need that coach. You don’t want to go head to head with that team without having someone on your corner, whoever. 

Leslie: You do, roll on the team. That team includes the relationships and the trust and the rapport and everything with the lenders, the insurance companies, the attorneys, the appraisers, our admin team, it’s all a team. If you don’t have a team, you out in that field by yourself. 

Moderator: Let’s take a quick break to hear from the number one loan originator, Shant Banosian of Guaranteed Rate as he gives us his latest mortgage tip. 

Shant: When applying for a mortgage on a condominium, the condo has to go through a separate approval. Some common things that go into their approval that a lender will review are the following. We’re going to review the condo docs, which is the master deed and the bylaws. We’re going to review the master insurance on the building to make sure it’s properly set up. We’re going to review the budget to make sure it’s healthy, that there’s enough income coming into the association, and all the important expenses are covered for, and there’s no deficit there. 

We’re going to make sure it’s covered for reserves in the future to make sure if anything comes up, the condo association is going to be able to cover those expenses. We’re also going to look at the meeting minutes to find out what the unit owners are talking about, what future projects are coming up. If there’s any issues, we want to make sure that the association is running and functioning properly. We’re going to cover master deed bylaws, we’re going to look at the budget, we’re going to look at the master insurance, we’re going to look at the meeting minutes. That’s what you should know that a lender is going to cover on a condominium review. 

Moderator: Thanks, Shant. Now let’s get back to the show. 

Lindsay: All right, I want to actually ship to this because this is a good segue into my next question, and I didn’t prep you with this question, so here we go. Buckle up. [laughs] What is it that someone should look for in a brokerage when they’re looking for a broker? Your parents were both brokers, so you grew up with their expertise and the experience that you had with them in what they did. Then you worked at other brokerages. We’ll just leave it at that. 

Then you worked now with us. It’s not a case of us wanting to puff our chest by any means, but I truly want to know from an experienced agent’s perspective, what are the things that someone should look for in a brokerage when trying to decide which ones to choose or whether or not they need to make a switch or any of those things? 

Leslie: Do you mean from the consumer side or from an agent’s side? 

Lindsay: I mean from an agent side. If an agent is thinking to themselves, “I’m not sure if I’m in the right spot. I might need to change. I’m stuck in my business. Maybe I want to figure out a new partner, a new team,” if you will, going back to the baseball example. What is it that someone should consider? In your experience, where you’ve been with– Like I said, your family and then you’ve been with other brokerages and things like that. What are the things that someone should look for when picking a brokerage? 

Leslie: Honestly, I think someone who is open to conversation about becoming– staying relevant, moving toward relevancy for the future, and putting the agents first but in a good way. Not just, “Yes, agent, whatever you want, whatever will make you happy. We’ll give you 97½%, and we’ll give you everything else for free.” No. It can’t all be about the money. When you meet with a seller and they say, “Well, how much is the offer?” It’s not just the number. We’re going to talk about all the terms. Same thing when you’re looking at a brokerage. You have to look at the whole picture. 

Everybody says they have education. They don’t all mean it. Sometimes their education is, “Oh, sit and watch this video,” or, “Read this book,” or, “Find this link,” or whatever. You want somebody who is truly going to give you education, whether it be statistics, scripts, processes like the roadmap tools of how do you– not just how do you get a buyer. How do you find the leads? How do you nurture that process all the way through and make sure you’re not missing anything? A company where someone is actually truly available for an agent who has questions. 

I’m 19 years licensed. I still have questions. I still sometimes need somebody to reach out to. Somebody who is actually going to respond. I think one of the most important things is a company where– and I mean this very respectfully to those who are in a different position. The broker himself/herself does not compete with the agents. The broker is more of a resource, is more of a leader, is more of a business promotion, not promotion. Creating the business, enhancing the business, building the business as a company, but who is available to you, who can be your backup for bouncing something off of– Also, you’re not going to have that issue of feeling like you’re being– I don’t know, second class to the broker. 

Lindsay: It’s a conflict of interest in a lot of ways. 

Leslie: Yes, I really think it is. The broker runs the business. The agents do the day-to-day business with the customers. Honestly, it’s also a feeling. I know that sounds really cheesy, but it’s a feeling. I used to teach pre-licensed classes all the time. People would ask me, how do I know what’s the right company? I would say to them what I would say for finding an attorney, finding a home inspector to my clients. “Call three, four. Meet with them, talk with them, see what your gut tells you. Where do you feel like you fit in?” 

Honestly, now that we all use Tripadvisor and stuff, call the other agents who work there, have a conversation with them, see what they say. If they’re like, “Oh yes, it’s good.” Versus like, “Oh my God, you wouldn’t believe it.”  I actually love when companies call me now and try and recruit me and there’s nowhere I’m going. I said no. 

Lindsay: You can recruit them. 

Leslie: I try. I’ve done a few. I actually recruited a recruiter for another company who’s coming in as an agent, so that’s exciting. 

Lindsay: Love it. 

Leslie: I know. Honestly, it’s whatever is right for you. I think having a physical brick-and-mortar presence is very important. Now, that’s another way that things have changed quite a bit. You asked me that question before. I am very old school. I am in the office a lot. My dad always taught me, “You go to work.” Whatever your hours are, 9:00 to 5:00 or maybe you do a half day, whatever, but you go to work. There’s a difference between work and home. I am horrible working at home. Other people excel at it. I am awful at it. Totally, admit it. I’m in the office a lot Monday to Friday, sometimes even Saturday or Sunday because it’s super quiet and it’s just so nice to catch up on things. 

I’ve had other people say, “Why are you in the office all the time? You can work from home. We can work remotely.” “Yes, you can, I can’t.” I think it’s really important. The more you’re in the office, whether you’re experienced or not, you hear what’s going on with other agents. Sometimes I’ve had business from people walking in the office. Oh my gosh, that’s old school, but it works sometimes. We had a gentleman come in from out of town, “I need to sell my dad’s house.” Walked into the office, “I need to sell my dad’s house. I’m only in town for two days. Is there someone here who can help me?” We have an office rotation. Happened to be my turn, was perfect. He said, “Here’s the key.” I said, “I haven’t seen the house yet.” He says, “I don’t care. I like you. Let’s go.” 

Lindsay: I don’t care. You’re it, and I got very limited time. 

Leslie: I think having a brick-and-mortar, an office space where you can collaborate and interact, I think that’s really important. The more relationships you make with your, again, your agents, your agent colleagues, your appraisers, your lenders, it’s much easier to interact, or if you have an issue in the future to call up somebody you know, and say, “Hey, I need your help.” Than to call some person you don’t know who you haven’t proven yourself or whatever. 

Lindsay: For sure. My last question for you. This has been fantastic, but my last question for you. 

Leslie: Last one, that’s easy. 

Lindsay: This is the last one, but I feel like we could talk about these one for a while. This is all about marketing, so you know, that’s my favorite subject. I want to talk to you about marketing, how you’ve marketed yourself over the years, what things have been the same, what things you’ve changed up, what’s working for you, what hasn’t worked for you? I want to hear all the things when it comes to your marketing strategy, so hit me with it. 

Leslie: Oh, well, until the last three years– [chuckles] Oh God, you’re going to yell at me for this, but I didn’t really have a strategy. I do tried stuff. 

Lindsay: I’m not going to yell at you. You have it under control now, so that’s all that matters. 

Leslie: Thank goodness for you. I didn’t really have a strategy. I just tried things. Some of them worked, and some of them didn’t. If they didn’t, I didn’t do them again. At least I learned that way. We all get the calls from the, “Hey, we want to feature you on the carts at the grocery store and here’s your face and all your contact information.” Not a single call from that. Once I was a sponsor on the city’s website. I thought that would be great. Everybody’s going to look at this website. It didn’t happen, but it looked great. It looked fantastic. 

Lindsay: Good branding. It’s good for branding. Sometimes something’s not necessarily a, “I’m going to get a bunch of calls,” but it’s good to just have your face out there. I think all those things are good. We have billboards all over the state of Massachusetts always, and we don’t necessarily get calls or leads directly from them. I know we do get some, but most of the time, it’s– They reacted to a postcard because they saw the billboard 17 times and then they saw the postcard and then they called on the postcard. You know what I mean? It sometimes can just be a good branding thing as well but continue. 

Leslie: That goes back to your previous question because what’s another thing you should look for in your brokerage, a recognizable brand.  Everybody knows it, whether it’s TV or the billboards or signs. I can’t tell you how much I love when I see somebody that I haven’t seen in a while and they’re like, “Ah, I see your signs all over the place. Are you [crosstalk]?” 

Lindsay: If you’re in New England, you definitely know who we are. Then it’s funny, we were just in Florida last week for the event that we had down there, and I think we are definitely making our presence known in South Florida now as well, so it’s one of those things. You just have to get the name out there. Again, you might not be getting 1 million phone calls on that piece of content that you put someplace, whether it’s a billboard, whether it’s a Facebook ad, whatever the thing is, but just getting your name out there and making sure that it’s branding. 

Everybody should think of it as a– you should have a budget for your face, right? You should have a budget for just getting your name out there and making sure people know who you are. Then after that, then you do the stuff that makes the needle move. What are the things that you’re doing that you have gotten leads from that have been successful for you? 

Leslie: A silly thing, didn’t cost me ¢1. Well, no, it does. It cost me every year but in a good way. I wear my realtor pin all over the place. I don’t necessarily wear my name tag, but I wear my realtor pin, and I have had four or five transactions literally just from wearing my pen. I’ve had three different transactions from people who work at the grocery store, and I always go to the same grocery store. 

There was a guy at the Deli counter, young man, who would see my pin and ask me a question. Over about six months, he would ask me questions over and over and over, and then finally, he got to the point where he was like, “You know, I really think I’m ready to meet with somebody, find out if I can qualify. Thank you so much.” It’s just a little one-inch pin. 

Lindsay:  little pin. Not a lot of people wear pins these days, though, so I feel like it sticks out. 

Leslie: It does, but it’s not in your face. I’m not a pushy person. I can be. I can be a bulldog, but I’m not pushy if that makes sense. 

Lindsay: You’re not a salesy person. It’s not even just pushy because pushy sounds really aggressive, but you’re just not a salesperson. In my mind, you are that teacher. You’re a teacher. You’re someone who’s there to guide someone. I would go to you as a resource to know what you know, not necessarily I feel like– Some agents, they get so into sales, it’s very salesy. Some people that strategy works for them, but that’s just definitely not you. 

Leslie: That’s the approach I’ve taken with social media too. I know I could post more things. I had one friend from high school who actually unfriended me because he said I posted too much real estate. This was years ago. This is not recent because I’ve learned a lot. I called him up one day and said, ‘Hey, why are we not friends anymore?” He says, “I just didn’t want to see the real estate stuff, didn’t want to see it.” That was before a business profile, so it was a little bit different time. I heated that, and I believe it’s three to one is the suggestion, right? 

Lindsay: That’s perfection, yes. 

Leslie: Three personal to one real estate. I’m also just not in your face about it. I wear my little realtor pin. I am a realtor all the time. I’m more than happy to have conversation with anybody about it, but I’m also not going to be in their face. Very, very, very important that you do keep in touch with people who you’ve worked with in the past, whether they ended up buying or selling or not. Maybe it wasn’t the right time, but you don’t call them up and say, “Hey, I haven’t talked to you in a year. Are you ready to buy a house?” No, you call them up and say, “Hey, I was just going through my files.” I actually have done it recently where I’ve driven by somebody’s house and like, “Hey, just drove by your house. Realized I haven’t talked to you in a while. How are you?” Have the conversation. 

I have one cute little set of buyers, couple, and there’s a house I saw with the coming soon sign as I was driving around town and called them and said, “Look, I know you said you’re going to wait, but you might want to take a drive by this house.” They’re like, “Oh, thank you so much for looking out for us.” That’s not ramming it down their throat. That’s a, “I was thinking of you and just touching base.” I do a lot of that. 

Lindsay: I said that this was my last question, but I actually have one more. 

Leslie: Okay. 

Lindsay: My actual last question is I want to find out what your key to success is. We talked about this before we truly started and hit record, but I want to make sure that people hear this because I feel like your answer here is very applicable to many, many people, and they should all be doing the same thing. Talk to me about what your key to success has been in this business. 

Leslie: I could sum it up by saying consistency. Now that’s being true to yourself, being consistent with what you feel is the right thing to do, standing your ground if you try to get bullied by a buyer or a seller. Especially, a seller right now. We’re going to have to be tough on our pricing going forward. You have to give them a realistic expectation of what their property is worth. 

Sometimes you have to tell them the information they don’t want to hear, and that’s okay. That’s your job. I had one recently. It happens to me too. I had one recently. I told the woman I thought her house was worth about $500,000, and she said, “Well, thank you very much. I think I can do better.” I saw it on MLS a week later for $700,000. God bless her. Good luck. 

Lindsay: Whoa. 

Leslie: I know. 

Lindsay: Did that house sell? 

Leslie: I’m not going to– What? 

Lindsay: Did that house sell? 

Leslie: No, it’s still sitting there. 

Lindsay: Oh, that’s so sad. 

Leslie: Hopefully, when it expires, she’ll call me back and say, “All right. Now, let’s talk.” You got to be consistent and you have to be professional. I think one of the best things that again my father taught me is you have to communicate with your buyers and sellers. You can’t be that agent who list the property and push the sign in the yard and a lockbox on the door and they never hear from them again. 

National Association of Realtors did a survey on it. What’s the biggest complaint you have about your agent? Maybe not so much recently because the market is a whole different, but you have to reach out to your sellers. Now, if we get into a situation where we’re getting just longer days on market and not a lot of showings and not a lot of activity, it can be super awkward to call your sellers and say, “Oh, I have nothing to tell you.” You have to do it. You have to know how to make the uncomfortable calls and keep in communication. 

My rule has always been Wednesdays. I tell my buyers, my sellers, “Every Wednesday, you will get an update from me. It may be another change from old school. It may not be a telephone call. It may be a text. It may be an email. Ask the client whatever is better for them, how do they want to get an update. It could be a market report. It could be a, “Here’s an article I read that helps you understand you’re not alone in this market, Mr. seller.” It could be a, “Here’s a list of other properties in your neighborhood that have recently gone under agreement. Here’s what we’re looking at. I know that when we list it, there was nothing in your neighborhood, but now, it’s a month later, and here’s the new information.” 

It could just be a, “What do you want to do, Mr. seller? Let’s talk about it.” Sometimes having those conversations and building more of that trust and rapport because obviously, they chose you as an agent for a reason. They saw something in you they wanted to work with, so continue that. Be consistent, set the expectation, and be their resource. It doesn’t matter if it’s an inexpensive home, an expensive home, somebody who has 82 relatives and friends that they might refer you to, you just be the same person, and treat them all the same, and just set that level of service that you’re going to give. 

Honestly, the more you do that, the more you treat everybody the same, everybody gets the same service, they all feel like they’re your only client, the better it’s going to do for you in the future. 

Lindsay: I love it so much. You are an absolute joy to talk to and to know. I know that our listeners got a whole bunch from you today. I hope you all were taking notes because you can learn a lot from this one. Thank you so much, Leslie, for spending the time with me and for educating everybody that listened today. I really, really appreciate your knowledge. 

Leslie: Oh, you made it super easy. Thanks for letting me, and I’m happy to share. Anybody who knows me knows I will just talk anytime. 

Lindsay: We will put into the show notes some contact information for you just so that people will have a chance. If they want to, they can reach out with questions or anything like that. I know that there are specific agents that I would do that with. I think you’re one of those people that is always so willing and welcoming to other agents and giving advice and stuff like that. You’re a teacher. It all goes back to the beginning. 

Leslie: I know. I can’t help it. [chuckles] 

Lindsay: You can’t help it. You like to help people. Thank you all so much for listening. I really appreciate it. Make sure that you subscribe to the podcast, so you never miss an episode, and we will see you in two weeks. Thanks so much. 

Leslie: Thank you.