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Anthony: Are you pre-empting problems? Are you putting yourself in a position that you don’t have to play whack-a-mole all day, you don’t have to put fires out all day long? Think about that. I had a good conversation yesterday with my dad and my brother when we were talking about their business, landscape construction, and hardscape, and paving, and all that. We were discussing some of the common things and some of the common questions that customers have. I was explaining to them how they should solve it and my brother was pointing out, “Well, we put some of that in place with the emails back in the spring and this and that’s been better,” I’m like, “You’re right.”
Then I said, “You know what, let me show you how you can take it to next level.” What I did is I went and I found a web page that we created years back that talks to people about what to expect and what they should know before they sign an offer. We’ve flipped the script. I train agents to not allow people to sign an offer, technically not allow them. Obviously, they can sign it if they want, but basically say to sellers, “Hey, don’t sign that unless you’ve read the real deal.” “Have you read the real deal?” It makes sellers like, “Oh, okay, let me check that out.” They go in and they read it, and they read what to expect once an offer is signed.
The home inspection, contingencies, purchase and sales agreements, insurance, all the different places that a buyer can fall through, and it breaks it all down. My dad sent me a message last night and he said, “Wow, it’s like that thing’s brilliant.” I’m like, “Yes, we came up with it seven years ago and once we came up with it, sellers stopped complaining when deals fell through.” In addition to that, sellers ask agents many less questions. See, it’s all about education. So that’s one example, and I’m giving you guys a little inside scoop on the conversation with my dad and my brother.
What I’m getting at is what most people do and the reason that they never grow their businesses or very few grow their businesses or they grow to a certain extent and then they hit a ceiling and they can’t breakthrough it is because you’re doing the same thing. You do the same, you get the same. The same thing equals the same results all the time. Same equals same, I’ve been saying that for years. What you need to do as a realtor is look at your day and say “Where am I burning time in a repeated fashion?” Do you find yourself having the same conversations with buyers every single day, the same conversations with sellers every single day?
Have you ever said, “Wait a second, let me take a step back, let me do some extra work today or extra work this weekend to type up this situation or make a video and explain this particular bump in the road?” Whatever it may be. Take this time of year, for example, granted we’re in a bit of a odd year where right now, there’s some properties that need price adjustments and then some that are still selling over asking. This is just the craziest year I’ve ever seen. What I’m getting at is think to yourself right now. Right now, I see some great realtors watching. I see Deb, I see Mark, I see Kristen, I see Crystal.
Think to yourself, “What part of my day do I do that I have repeated conversations, do I have to give the same explanations, do I have to explain multiple offer situations over and over, do I have to explain what to offer on a home over and over?” Take a step back and think, “Wait a second, if I put three hours of I work in on a Sunday or Saturday or Friday, or I don’t care when and I made a video and I explain it out, and then before I get there with my buyer, I send the video and say, ‘Hey the next step is X, Y, and Z. Here’s a video that explains X and Y. I’ll be back to you on Z.'”
Let them see you explain blah, blah, blah, blah, blah three, four, five-minute-long video. Guys, it doesn’t need to be some crazy editing. It doesn’t need to be the fancy this and that. Look at me, I’ve made four mistakes, five mistakes since I’ve been on here. I said the wrong thing, then corrected it. Who cares? It doesn’t matter. What matters is communication. Educate your clients on what’s to come. Human beings, it’s amazing what humans are willing to do once they’re warned about it. It’s amazing what humans will put up with so long as they know in advance and the right expectations are set.
I always talk about my assistant. She’s awesome, been working with me for four years. Three years ago, she went and jumped out of a perfectly good airplane and parachuted down. I was like “Lauren, what in God’s name are you doing?” She did this with her husband that I grew up with and I’m like, “What is wrong with you people? By the way, how many disclosures did you sign?” “Oh, it was about 28, 30,” literally disclosures, but those disclosures warned her of everything that’s to come. What did she do? She signed it and she took the leap, which to me is insanity, but that’s what she wanted to do. The point I’m getting at is you’re all burning time all the time.
You’re all doing it and you’re having a hard time breaking that ceiling because you’re doing the same thing. What if you sat down and you typed up every single step of a transaction and made it so that before that step comes, you shoot an email to the seller. This is stuff we did 12, 13, 14 years ago that we’ve refined, and our realtors use now but not all of them. Sometimes I hear realtors, “Oh, I did do that. Oh, I got a pissed-off seller.” “Really, why, did you send the blah, blah, blah?” “Oh, no, I didn’t.” “Well, what do you expect?” I got a seller that refuses to make a price adjustment. Did you send the art of the price adjustment blog that’s public and every realtor on here can look at?
That explains everything that could have to do with price adjustments. Kira talks about working smarter not harder. I do both but you’re right. That’s what you have to do. You have to get in front of your problems, preempt them so you don’t play whack-a-mole. When you say to yourself, do the exercise I mentioned three-four minutes ago, “What conversations do I have every single day in a repeated fashion or five times a week in a repeated fashion?” You took all those conversations, put them into some content on your website or a video or a written content, however, and you sent it to them preemptively before they asked, now, they’d feel informed.
They’d feel they know what’s going on. You wouldn’t have to deal with the 52 questions and all the explanations. I had someone call me. This is a whole other topic but who cares? I’m going to you give an example. I had a friend call me a couple of years ago who was looking for advice on how to sell his home. It was a fancy, luxury, in town. They listed with a friend of his wife’s and he wasn’t happy about that. Once I heard the BS story about why they weren’t happy with that, I said, “Okay so what’s going on?” I’m on the phone three minutes, and he said, “Well, I think I need to make a price adjustment, but I don’t know how many.”
I said, “Look, I’m running into a meeting. I don’t have time to go over this right now. I’m going to text you a blog. Read the entire blog top to bottom and I’ll call you on my ride home later today.” Send him the blog, call back at 4:30, the guy answers and goes, “I have to adjust my price 6%.” That would have been a 30-minute conversation back and forth, back and forth trying to convince him. I sent him a blog, he read the whole thing top to bottom. When I hear people say, “Oh, consumers don’t read emails, consumers don’t watch videos,” bullshit, absolute crap.
They will read them. They will watch once they get to the point of curiosity, or they get to the point of fear, or they get to the point of money. When they realize, “I’m going to spend money. This is going to cost me money,” then they’ll pay attention. Don’t believe that crap that, “Oh, email doesn’t work,” or, “Videos don’t work,” or, “Video doesn’t work.” Believe me, it works. Kira, glad to hear that Florida market’s on fire. We got a little something coming up having to do with that place, I won’t say anymore.
Have a great day everybody. January 14th, mark your calendars. One o’clock of January 14th, Crush It in Real Estate event virtual. It will be the biggest best Crush It in Real Estate event we’ve ever had even though we can’t have it in-person. Enjoy your Sunday, guys.