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Anthony: Expectations, expectations, if you don’t set them right, especially with your buyers at this time of year, in the winter months, you are bound to have some frustrated clients by the time you get to March or April, no question about it. What I thought I would do while we’re here in Aruba is bring my friend and President’s Club, Elite member, Mr. Paul Cervone in to talk and to give some of you some pointers on the importance of setting expectations, because he and I were talking about it just yesterday and I wanted to bring you in, so say hello, Paul.
Paul J. Cervone: Thank you. Hey, good morning. Thank you Anthony, for having me aboard here today. Beautiful setting out there.
Anthony: Yes. It sure is. Talk to them about the biggest thing that you are making clear to buyers that you’re signing up at this time of year, January, February, whenever they see this.
Paul: As soon as I sign up a buyer, whether it’s on a Zoom call or in person these days with COVID and stuff, it’s always about setting clear expectations about the market. Giving them good information about what’s going on in the market and obviously talking about strategies, but we have to talk about how the market is moving, how it’s shifting. Low inventory, of course, in 2022 is so anemic across the country. That’s going be the biggest challenge, and in 2021 looking back for me, I knew that I had a very, very slow start to 2021 because we had-
Anthony: Slow start, but he ended up selling 67 homes, just for the record. Go ahead.
Paul: The first three months writing four or five offers a weekend, it depends upon the financing conditions, but ultimately-
Anthony: Four or five offers a weekend and some weekends not getting any accepted. This is President’s Club Elite level agents, 60+ sales a year that had that problem, so for your newcomers or newer agents that are frustrated and belief know that this is a widespread problem, but he stuck with it, he set the right expectations, kept marching forward and still had a hell of a year in ’21 and you’re going to clearly in 22, but go ahead. Continue.
Paul: We know it’s a grind and real estate never sleeps. For me I didn’t get discouraged. You have to have a positive upbeat momentum attitude. That’s how I rule my business every day is I reinvent myself, and I overcome the challenge forward thinking problem solving constantly, but the setting of expectations is critical. You have to be the expert for your buyers. You got to bring the calm in the storm. You have to build those relationships of trust. [crosstalk]
Anthony: One of the things I know that you do and I’ve been talking about it for years is you show them what’s going on. You don’t just tell them. You’re showing them inventory reports. Why don’t you elaborate on that?
Paul: I like to do my snapshots of inventory, pulling from the MLS and we at our brokerage we have very, very robust reporting tools and history. I share any of that metric and data because that keeps it real. I’m also sharing some education from even third parties because sometimes they don’t necessarily think, I’m the expert. They don’t believe it, but when you start to share data from national entities, or people.
Anthony: Articles.
Paul: Articles.
Anthony: Now, do you send a lot of those via text or email? I know I’ve talked to a lot of agents. They’re moving more to text.
Paul: Great question. Here’s the thing. I think this is a great tip. Text seems to be so much more impactful these days. I don’t know if it’s because of COVID distractions or what, but even just getting people available to chat about things, I’m finding that yes, I’m using all forms of communication, text, email, my video, social media.
Anthony: Or when you’re trying to send a quick article or a quick blog on the market, third party source, you’re sending it by text more often.
Paul: I am.
Anthony: I’m hearing that more and more the last year.
Paul: I’m a fan. I’m a fan because I line that they say, “Oh my God, thanks so much, Paul.” It’s a quicker response. It shows that you’re an expert. It shows that you care. That’s another great tip, is that you have to show that you care about their success, and you want to get them on the path of their success, and you’re there to clear the obstacles, set the right expectations.
Anthony: That’s part of why you had a lot of people- like a lot of agents. You had a ton of buyers get frustrated last winter, and in early spring, but the majority of them stuck with you into spring and summer and you sold them homes. You were saying how some sell by clients up to eight months to have success.
Paul: Correct. That’s a whole different animal to talk in a different conversation [crosstalk]
Anthony: It’s a whole different conversation [crosstalk]
Paul: It’s still again setting expectations. Again, for me, my success comes from the rapport maintenance, and also that I’m always educating– If you follow me on social media, you’ll see that I’m all about the journey, the success of the client. It’s not so much about Paul Cervone and my success, it’s all about celebrating their journey and our collaboration together. That what’s it’s got be.
Anthony: I like what you said there, rapport maintenance.
Paul: Thank you.
Anthony: I’ve never heard that one. I’m going to use that, rapport. You’re right that it’s maintenance, but God, make your last point and then we’ll wrap it up.
Paul: I would say just for 2022, for all of you, whether you’re young in the business, or you’ve been a seasoned veteran or what have you, make sure you have a good plan for 2022, as far as setting goals with your buyers, again, the rapport maintenance, the rapport building, the education, share the metrics of what’s going on in the market. We have some great tools at our brokerage that we use, we call a ready to strike and it’s talking about strategies and winning strategies.
Anthony: They can get access to that.
Paul: They can.
Anthony: I want to point that out. We don’t want to plug our brokerage, but if you go and look up ready to strike on our company website, I’m not mentioning the name, most of you know what it is, search my last name, Lamacchia, and you search ready to strike the whole blog’s there. I describes step by step and he’s taking that and showing it to clients and we’ll [crosstalk]
Paul: The real deal.
Anthony: Real deal, another one.
Paul: We’ve got so much going on, so many good things, so many great tools
Anthony: You use them.
Paul: Sharpen your tool belt. That’s all I can tell you for 2022, and happy selling. Good luck.
Anthony: Thank you, sir.
Paul: Thank you my friend.
Anthony: Appreciate it.
Paul: You bet.