38: How We Get Our Business

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The secret is out! In this episode we cover EXACTLY where our business comes from. We start with where it came from year one versus now and we tell lots of specific stories. How does one phone call or letter turn into 7 more transactions? Come find out! We give some very simple advice that will impact your business and how you get and turn leads into clients for life.

The following is a rough transcript provided by Otter.ai.

0:00
Yeah, I mean, I’m really going to call us the last one a high on designation.

0:04
I think you should. I’m going to just say I told Jay to put it as a blooper. I think it’s a layer. Well, that’s what I was trying to get a reaction out of you but you were like, sure, that’s I should have been like, no, don’t do that. That’s inappropriate. Hi, y’all. Welcome to hustle humbly. It’s Alyssa and Katie. And we are to top producing realtors in the Baton Rouge market.

0:26
We work for two different companies where we should be competitors. But we have chosen community over competition. The goal of our podcasts is to encourage you to find your own way in business to stop comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths. Hi, friend.

0:41
Hello there.

0:42
Hi. Hi, hustle humbly peeps.

0:45
Here, we are still quarantined.

0:47
We’re still zooming.

0:48
We’re still we’re still zoom recording in our closet, or in my closet. You’re in your office,

0:52
I get to be in the studio. So I’m the winner here.

0:57
All right. Well, I know that we have done episodes before on how we get our business as far as generic things like joining groups, and this and that. But we have received a request. And they want to know Yeah, a couple where they want to know the specifics. Like where did this come from? How like just because you join a group and you like, how did you get the client? Yeah, so that is what this episode is going to be today. Oh, and this is Alyssa. By the way. Hi, friend.

1:28
It’s Katie. This episode is going to be number 38. Okay, will air on? April the 27th. Perfect. And I don’t know what the quarantine is right time for sure. And I don’t know what to call it. I don’t know. Hmm. I don’t know, business. Yeah. Where did

1:51
it come from? Where are you? Idle? Yeah, we’re

1:53
gonna have to think about it.

1:55
So I think it’ll be a lot of, you know, specific stories on how we got each closing. I mean, we’re not gonna go through all of them. But my God, that would take

2:03
way longer than 45 minutes, but they all have a story, right? So

2:07
every single one has a story, we’ll just pick a few. But it’s also important to be tracking these things. So you know, at the end of every year, I make a chart that shows where it all came from. And you need to see how your business evolves. Because every year is different. Is it going in the direction you want it to go in? So wherever you keep track of your closings, you you know, we have our database Excel spreadsheet that we offered for free and episode nine, but when there is a column on there for source, where did this person come from? And that’s just really important to be tracking. Yeah,

2:44
I agree. Well, I think it’s important to be tracking those, it was very easy for me today to go grab my chart, I’m gonna show you to like I ran and grabbed my chart. And it’s all 13 years all 14 years are on this one little stack of paper and I could easily say, Oh, I did X amount of this type of buyer X amount of this type of seller these came from Facebook, these it was very simple. But people that’s the one of the big important things is you got to know where the business came from Charles, how do you know what to keep doing? Right? I mean, tracking is huge here. Very huge. Okay. All right. You want to start us with your first year. Okay.

3:23
Once upon a time. In 2012, I have my first clothing little baby 16 year old faced Alyssa Yes, I looked like a child. And I was trying so hard. And I was probably scattered at this time, you know, in the beginning, and I think you have to I was trying all the things anything. And I was getting rejected on the daily.

3:49
You were becoming very familiar with rejection. Very familiar.

3:52
I was realizing what they meant by you have to be like mentally tough. To get through this business. I cried in my broker’s office three months in, oh, three months. Like that’s nothing but three months of trying and no paycheck and not only trying but like your actual friends using other people because they just don’t think that you’re ready. And looking back. I mean, I don’t blame them. Yeah, you weren’t ready. I wasn’t ready for ready. I was trying to be ready and the only way to be ready was to do it. Have people trust me? I know. It’s like, which comes first the chicken or the egg catch? 22. Um, so I was at a we had gotten invited me and my husband to a Super Bowl party. Okay. We were dating. We were even married. Um, yeah, I don’t remember. I don’t have to do right now. I

4:48
don’t trust you.

4:49
I know. You were married. Maybe we were I couldn’t remember if we were married yet, but we were very new and one of his friends invited us to a Super Bowl party. And at that Super Bowl party, there was this girl. And she was talking to some other girls. I knew nobody really at this party, okay. But she told her friend that her rent was going up again. And that she needed to find another rental and my ears My like radar, which just went off. And so I bought it in a little bit and said, Have you thought about buying? And she said, she kind of laughed, and she said, I’m a single mom. All right. I don’t make a lot of money. I, I don’t have the funds to buy. I said, Well, if you lived in, you know, Prairieville or denim or somewhere like that, that you could probably qualify for rural development, and you wouldn’t have to have any money. Yeah. And she said, Well, I actually work in Prairieville. Perfect. I said, well, it doesn’t hurt to just find out and then that way, you know, yeah. If it’s even possible, and if it’s not possible, we’ll put up a plan to or maybe you’ll be ready in three years, right? I like it, or two years or six months or however long low pressure. She got my number, okay, and actually texted me the next day. I like it. And I gave her a lender. Okay. And she got with the lender. And she was pre approved for $105,000. Okay. And it made her monthly note, like 600 Something a month was that less than her rent? Oh, her rent was like 1200. So it was like life changing last? Yeah. Like she was renting like a two bedroom house for 1200 bucks, which is pretty, you know, typical. Even going rd putting down nothing. And she was mind blown. Like, and mind blown that she qualified. Like I don’t know what she was so scared of. She just assumed like, I can’t do this. She didn’t know. Yeah. And so we started house hunting and obviously had to do some digging because of the budget. And we found the freakin cutest house. And it was perfect. And the neighbors were perfect. And that is where she lived for many years love and I it’s just my favorite. Did you just like, you don’t know, where things are gonna come from? No. Did you sell that house for her later? So she and I are our friends. And I went to her housewarming party. And I did this I did that I was waiting for the day

7:26
that she was going to be you’ve recently told me this story. Yes,

7:29
this was like, I’m still bleeding from it. I’m still crying about it, ma’am. But, um, I, I reached out I reached out to her all the time. Yeah. And like, we have all the same friends. And I was just honestly excited about doing a social media post about this was my first client ever. And now she’s number 900. Whatever, you know, like, I have been cool to see it come full circle. Well, then I got my little heartbroken. Because I I reached out to her like I always do and say hey, I just wanted to see because I knew she was engaged. And I knew they were going to need something bigger. So I was on the radar. Yeah. And um, she just said, you are going to kill me. And I said, What’s the matter? And she was like my mom who’s very involved in her life and demanded that I use her friend. Oh, no. And you know, the first thing I did was I looked at the house and it looked awful. Oh, no. The pictures were iPhone pictures, I guess she thought because it wasn’t, you know, a $200,000 house or professional photography. And I saw what it sold for. And I think it sold for less than it should have way less than it should have if the house was so adorable that if it would have been presented as adorable. Yeah, but that also just goes to show that I followed up with her for like 678 years. Yeah, and I lost her. You did what you were supposed to do. And I’m actually at peace about the loss because I know that I did do what I was supposed to do. I’ve still have her in my database. You know, she’s still a friend. Things happen. Everybody knows somebody right now. Now I would be kicking myself. If I had not followed up and saw that she moved. Yeah, I will be handling it a totally different person. You would feel like you should blame yourself. Yes, yeah. Okay. And I’m not gonna lie. My feelings were hurt. I was sad. I was disappointed because I was just excited because I liked her so much and really fun to work with.

9:35
Yeah, but she did this play out, you know, and she did not choose you. She just chose someone else.

9:42
She chose someone right? It wasn’t because of me. It’s because of you know what her mom was suggesting. And it was her mom’s friend. yada yada. But yeah, you know, things happen. And I think it’s fine to leave that if we’re going to be honest on this podcast pretty

9:56
transparent. I don’t really I mean, typically we don’t edit out anything we say?

10:00
Yeah. It’s funny that you asked that question though, because I was telling my warm fluffy story. And then you’re like, did she listen to you later? Like, no, but hey, guess what?

10:09
That let’s hear that? Yes, let’s do more. I’m so scared.

10:14
My second clothing, okay, was from phone duty, okay. And this girl called, and I was on the phones, and we met and she needed to buy her first house. Okay, he was renting. And I was her agent. And a few years later, she got engaged, and I sold the house and they bought, so phone duty lead to three transaction. And she has sent me like two referrals during that time. So all because I was on the phones at the right time that day, I got 345 transactions, can we

10:50
talk about phone duty a little because I don’t know if we’ve talked about it in other episodes. And I’d love for you to explain how your office runs it. Because when I ran my numbers, there are quite a few transactions that I have gotten through phone, well, I’m gonna do my air quotes, phone duty, because I’ve never been in an office that ran it the way yours does. So tell us about phone duty.

11:10
So phone duty at our office is in shifts, and it’s from like nine to 1111 to one, one to three, three to five, and then whoever has the last shift at five, the phones are forwarded to you until the next person gets there at 9am. Okay. They do ask you to be in the office. Because if you ever have a walk in walk ins have kind of become a thing of the past, but they we had like two or three this year where somebody just walks into a real estate office. And it’s like, hey, I need a realtor. I mean, I wouldn’t think to do that. But I guess that’s what some people think to do. And so this is where when people call the office number, so like if they’re driving by house and see a sign, and they don’t call the cellphone number of the agent, they just call the office number. Yeah, it goes to you. And they say, Hey, I was looking at this house. And at that point, it is just up to you to convert. Yeah. And I lived on third duty. I mean, my first couple years of real estate, I didn’t have Haven I wasn’t married, I was just I lived at

12:14
the office where you are to do a certain number of phone duties, or you just you try to get as many as you could

12:21
you sign up to be on phone duty, okay. And then they release the monthly schedule, and you may have one or two shifts a week. Okay. So it’s not a huge commitment, right? But people are always like swapping like your if you can’t make your shift. You’re responsible for finding somebody else. Yeah. Or you could call people and say, Hey, I see you have phone duty Friday. If you don’t want to come, I’ll be here. Oh, okay. That’s good. And sometimes people are like, Yes, please. I

12:45
don’t feel like you don’t want to, like I thought what I do, and then I didn’t want to do it.

12:49
Yeah, but But what I would do is I would just bring all my stuff to do at like work, you know, writing letters cleaning up my database. And if the phone rang, yeah, it was a bonus. If it never rang, then you’re just working. Yeah. And then after I had Haven, it was harder for me to make my shifts because there’s weekend shifts. And the weekend shifts are three hours. Oh, okay. So like nine to 1212 to three, three to six. And then you go home. And if you had stuff on the weekend, and you know, I felt like I was always trying to find someone to take my shift. And then I got busy with just referrals. And so I let it go, but I think it is. There are so many success stories in our office from phone duty. And it’s funny, because when I was first starting, I didn’t know what to say all the time. I would I would mess up and then I’d hang up and say well, there that went bad. Yeah, I learned where I froze. What made me freeze. What made me panic. When did I say the wrong thing and not have the right answer. And then it just got to where I never froze. Yeah. Like I always knew what to say how to handle it. How to keep the conversation going. Okay, that’s

13:59
a good point. Do you feel like obviously it’s a skill you developed over time? Do you feel like you could also pick up the phone now and know who’s not going to ever warm up? Like, yes. Okay, because I feel that there are some that I hang out with that. I’m like, I could have tried harder, but they weren’t they weren’t interested in warming up to me.

14:17
No, no. And I think that that comes with time. Yeah. You know, you just you know, and so I mean, when I was in those first years, these poor people that called while I was on film duty, because they got like, the four year follow up. Oh, man, I followed up with these people for year. I love it until they were like, Go away or use me or something like that.

14:42
You can be our realtor, you crazy lady. But it’s all I love that.

14:45
Yeah, all I had and I just felt like that’s what I had to do to sleep at night to know that I tried. Do

14:52
you know your percentage from the first year that was found duty or like how many there were? And I’m gonna tell you mine while you’re looking for yours. Okay, what I did for today’s episode is I looked back to your one. So that was for me. 2006 was my first full year I got my license in 2005. I didn’t sell until you know, the took six months. So it was in 2006 when I had my first close, so I jotted down the sources of my business in 2006 versus the sources of my business last year, which was 2019 was the last full year. Okay, and I had five phone duty closings in 2006 in my first year, and we so I started in a bigger office that didn’t last very long, and they ran phone duty like this, you would walk into the office in the morning and write your name on a piece of paper, and then they would cycle through who was there. So as the call came in, so if you got there early, you’re sort of an early bird gets the worm, I guess. But I never really did that. Then when I moved to the very small office, it was right after Katrina, and the phones were ringing. I mean, they just weren’t. But there were only five agents in the office, I had no experience. But I was committed to just go into the office every day. And so a lot of times, there would be no one else in the office to even take the call. So I I just sat on phone duty. So I close by five deals. That was 31% of my business the very first year. Last year I got Wait, listen to how ironic last year, guess how many deals, I closed off of the phone. So but I don’t go to do the office and do a phone duty. It’s just like blind calls, right? Like a sign call? Five. What same number five, my first year five last year, but five last year is only 16% of my business. So right, it’s right up as much as it was percentage wise, but it’s the same number. How crazy is that?

16:37
Funny? Weird. So my first year of real estate 35% of my closing came from the phone that’s really close

16:45
to mine. I know. Interesting.

16:49
And that was six, six deals came from the phones, my first year of real estate,

16:54
okay, because here’s the thing, if someone is calling you on the phone, especially to a real estate office, and not just your cell phone, they don’t have another agent, or else they might have just called them. So they as long as you ask the right questions and make some sort of connection that’s easy to like to get through. And you can burn through a bunch of phone calls and learn. And then you know, catch a good you caught six, I call it five. I mean, that’s pretty good for the first year.

17:20
I think they now call you if my pipeline dried up. And I saw a bleak future. Phone Did you would be the first thing that I got back straight back to the phone. Yeah, I would go straight back to just sitting there working. Maybe it rings, maybe it doesn’t. But every little bit helps. So

17:36
I think the other thing too is and I know some people are probably listening and thinking my office doesn’t have a phone duty. We don’t even have an office number. I mean, that’s exists. Now. If you have listings, or if you have yourself out on the internet in any way, you’re going to get calls to your cell phone, you better answer those right? And you better follow up with them. Yeah, you better answer. I mean, you better talk to these people, and you better not avoid the talking part of using some people want to talk to you. They don’t want to text you. They don’t want to email you. And if you don’t answer, especially if you’re an agent that takes like a zillo lead or that type of thing. If you don’t answer, they’ll just move on to the next one. Yeah, and it’s just that simple. Just answer the phone.

18:16
So recently, well, I guess not that recently, but there was a call that came in on phone duty to an agent. Okay. And so that agent talked to the person asked all the right questions said I’ll meet you at the property. Well, the listing agent was required to be there. Okay. For the showing. Okay. Well, the listing agent was like, wait a minute, I think that they called him. I think that they came through my website. And I just haven’t gotten back to them yet and try to steal, steal them steal them. And it’s like, guess what, you snooze, you lose, and they yelled someone else. Yeah. So you know how it goes. That’s crazy.

18:57
We didn’t do the rest of your first year or a couple more. Let me see what I got. Yeah, you don’t have to if you want to. I will tell you how my breakdown was the first year. Okay, three referrals. So I mean, just people who I knew in my sphere that referred me as someone that was 19% phones were 31% five deals personal. So people who knew me like my sister in law and like that type of thing. For deals that was 25% and then I did start buying online leads from just listed.com was what it was then I think now it’s market leader. I don’t even know if it’s still exist. It was before Zillow existed for sure. And I closed four deals off of that. So 25% of my business year one was from online leads. So wow, strangers on the interwebs 2006. Yeah,

19:41
yeah. So I went back my first year to my friends from high school. Yeah. And I asked for all of their parents addresses, okay. And I hand wrote letters to all the parents. Wow. And I said, just wanna let you know I’m in real estate. Now. It’s going really well. I’m with this guy. company it’s a great company really sold it on the company because I have no numbers myself fair. I had two closing three closing from those letters in my first year. And that reason hear it so easy and fun. And then they were like, proud of me. Yeah. And, and they repeated with me and referred me to their friend. Well, they

20:22
wanted you to succeed.

20:24
Yeah. Oh, yeah. So one of them. I sold a house that they had bought for investment property. Okay. And then they were like, well, you know, my son’s looking to buy a house that you went to high school with Grant. Um, so I sold him a house. And yeah, it’s just easy.

20:42
Amazing. I like that. Okay. Any any other stories from your one we want to do or just move on?

20:50
I listed my grandparents house in my first year,

20:52
thank God, because that would have really been a knife in the in the bad

20:55
luck. My grandfather, this grandfather is business all the way. Oh, wow. And interviewed me. Oh, wow. And I was shaking. And I have a great relationship with him. But I was very scared to be in this position now. And he used to build a few houses like not He wasn’t like a, you know, huge brother. But he did a few. And he had a he had an agent. That was his agent that he always used, that he always used and it was hard for him to leave her. And he told me, I’ll give you six months. And if it doesn’t sell, I’m going back to my other agent.

21:32
You got it sold.

21:33
I didn’t get it. Thank goodness. Yeah, that would have been a tough failure. I was so scared. That’s so funny. Okay, let’s try the rest came from open house. My first year. There you go.

21:44
Open House. All the rest. Yeah. All the rest?

21:47
A lot. Wow. Okay.

21:50
Things that you can do free, easy. Open House. I have open house on mine, too. I want to talk about how your business has shifted over the years. So in the beginning, was it all buyers? There’s a handful of listings,

22:05
just a handful of listings, I think, the very beginning.

22:10
I had four listings that year, and 16 transactions, so it was super heavy on the buyers. And that’s pretty common for the first few years. In fact, you couldn’t have paid me to take any more than those listings. Because I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. Yeah. And then as it got further along, and my confidence grew, I started to see the beauty that was the listing all those business hours appointments.

22:35
2019 was my first year. Now I’m sorry, 2018 was my first hear that I had more listings than buyers. And I went, Oh my gosh, that’s a big deal. And I think that

22:49
happens around five to seven years in. I really think that’s when the shift is happens because you start selling the early people that you were the buyer’s agent on and you you just are more confident. So when someone calls for listing, you’re not afraid and you have the answers, you know what you’re doing?

23:09
Right. Okay, like, this is interesting to put repeat clients into perspective. In 2016. I had 13 Repeat client Wow. In 2017 I had 23 Holy smokes in 2018 I had 26 Every year it’s gonna get higher and higher. And in 2018 That was my first year. I had 40 sellers and 36 buyers. Okay, so buy for sellers. I, I passed up my buyers,

23:44
okay. That’s very interesting. I had past clients in last year so year 13 820 7% of my business last year was past clients. I mean, that’s what’s going to happen if you do the good job and you keep in touch with them. That mean that’s going to come naturally. Let’s talk about the other so in my first year, it was only referral phone personal online leads That’s it. Okay, last year, website lead referral, phone still same number remember personal so people who I was personally in my sphere, social media and past clients. Yeah. Yeah.

24:27
Hello, friends. Hi, all our template course has launched out there and we have been getting some really positive feedback. Yes,

24:33
I have some great feedback I wanted to share with you guys. We had one purchaser say thank you for these templates. As a new agent. I feel it would have taken me years to create these on my own. That’s awesome. I know it’s so great. And then I have these are so incredibly helpful. What a great investment. Thank you for your time and efforts putting these together. I think that you guys, this is the answer to saving yourself time it

24:55
helps you put systems in place. It keeps you professional it keeps you can assistance. It just makes everything run so much smoother, much

25:03
smoother. You’re never going to forget to tell somebody something. No, because it’s always there. It’s all there. And you’re going to edit it to make it sound like your voice if you’d like, and it’s going to be perfect for your business.

25:12
Yeah, so go check out our template course. Yes, at a still humbly

25:17
podcast.com Perfect, enjoy, enjoy sight

25:26
because I think people wanted to know what exactly like, tell me exactly where your business comes from. Will you tell me or do you want to share about Dave Ramsey?

25:36
Oh, sure. So when me and Tanner got married, we did the Financial Peace University class that Dave Ramsey has. It’s a seven or eight week class where you go once a week and learn how to budget learn how to merge finances, and you know, figure all that out. And they talk about real estate. They have a whole week dedicated to buying a house and this and that, and I was a realtor. And they said, Dave Ramsey does have endorsed realtors. Yeah. And so I applied and I got rejected. I got rejected for three years. Wow, I applied every year for three years. And this is when I was newer. Yeah. So they ask, How much do you sell? They don’t really love teams. Yeah, he will let teams on. But if he finds out that the person the team leader is not the one talking to his people, you’re out, okay. But he just, they interview you when you go through this whole process. And I just never got chosen. Yeah. And then the fourth year, they messaged me and said, Hey, we are cleaning house and evaluating numbers. And we know you’ve applied a couple of times. Do you want to Will you send us an updated resume? So I did. And I went through the interview, and I got it. And I went through the training. And I did all that. And that is really the only thing that I get leads from right now. Like, that’s my Yeah, that’s the only type of internet lead I’ve ever really gotten. And it’s so a lot of freaking work. Yeah, do you need to do to belong, or that’s just the person if you close one, okay, they take a percentage, okay. Um, but they provide a lot like they do a lot of training, and they do mastermind calls, and it’s really good content. It is hard for me sometimes. And I’ve talked to like my Dave Ramsey, Coach person about this. I’m like, it’s this business is so hard for me. Yeah. Because it takes so much time and effort. And this goes for any internet lead. Yeah. Oh, yeah. In any internet leads you. I mean, they’re, they want you to call like 20 times in the first month and then text an email. And like, I’m at the point in my business where like, if somebody wants to work with me, yeah, I want to work with them. Yeah, I will follow up. And I do follow up, but not every day. And not times. 100 people, right. Oh, wow. It is an area that I feel like keeps me on my toes. Yeah. And I do like that, because it reminds me how I operated in my first years. Yeah. And this is what I did. Like, if you ever call them duty, I wrote your number down. Yeah. And had notes and I called you all the time. Yeah. Um, but I do. Well, I do. I think my success rate is 12%. I close 12%. So if I get 100, I close 12. Right.

28:33
That’s pretty good for stranger lead, like an online lead, the percentage is typically five. I’m going to repeat that for the other people out there. A typical online lead percentage of turn is 5%. So you’re gonna get five closings out of 100 leads.

28:49
But you know, what’s funny is that I wasn’t doing well at first, I was not winning the leads, and it shows you who you’re going against because one lead goes to three people, different agents, three different agents that are all Dave Ramsey agent and I you have to be the first to call. Okay. And you don’t I mean that you get bonus points, if you will. But they they tell you like hey, you lost this mini. This morning went to that. And it really like, you know, my Enneagram three, it’s like, oh my gosh, I can’t. It keeps me on my toes. But I was like, I realized a couple of things. If you don’t call first. You are basically out. Yep. Like they are not going to use you if somebody else talked to them first. Yeah. Even if you’re better than that person. Yeah, they’re just not going to use you. And they like I have had people in my system that I followed up with and four years later closer.

29:49
Yeah, that’s how an online lead that is so funny because the online lead is to complete extremes. They’re either they need you right now like literally right now to go show the house or they might use you due in five years, but it’s not, it’s not like six months away. It’s not. It’s like really one extreme or the other. Right? Because people start their search online. So there, they could be really at the Super beginning of even thinking about it.

30:15
And there have been times where I’ve thought about, if it’s something I want to continue, yeah. And even though my business would be fine without it, I feel like the reason I stay is because of the accountability that yeah, this is the only area of my business that requires me to be on my toes with follow up that much. Yeah. And I feel like I need that to keep me sharp. Me competing. Yeah, no,

30:41
it’s a good function. But you because you don’t want to fall down on the job. While we’re on it, and since that’s the only lead that you’re really getting, like an online type lead. I did. Y’all can all shoot me an ugly email if you want. I did pay for Zillow for a minute, it was probably like a year and that was in 2016 2015 and 2016 it only because I think they caught me like they call you a million times. They caught me in like a nice mood where I was like, oh, sweet, Zillow man. All right, I’ll give you my $500 a month, which is completely asinine. It’s off and I got and I closed. I think off of those two leads, maybe the return was no good. I did it for about a year. Now. I want to back back back it up. So Zillow leads, I’m not okay with them. I don’t think they were useful to anyone in any way. Take your $500 in place and Facebook ad if you want, I don’t know. But don’t don’t spend anything else do something else is send out a mailer to all of your database, like just use that money elsewhere. I did get online leads in the very beginning of my career. But y’all that was 2006 it was totally different. It wasn’t even like they ran television commercials to get these leads. They ran television commercials on like CNN and ESPN and all that like cable network channels to get people to go to the website to then become a lead where they would sell it to me and they were like $20 a lead and I would get like 100 a month for like less than 200 bucks because no one else was getting them. Right. So instead of being like Zillow, like some people are paying 1000s of dollars a month for Zillow leads.

32:23
It was imagine what you could do with that money. Exactly. It

32:26
just blows my mind. So I’m not against an online lead. They’re just tough. They’re not loyal. They don’t know you. And it’s dangerous. You don’t know them. They don’t know what has vetted them for you. They’re just strangers on the internet. It goes

32:38
back to what kind of business do you want? Yeah. Is that the kind that you want? Like, do you not know anybody here and this is your only option? Because imagine if you took $500 a month, and gave it away? Yeah, in the form of coffee, drinking coffee, dates, lunches, sending families dinners that are struggling, having your lawn guy go cut grass, at somebody’s house, just to surprise them. $500 a month would do so much for other people.

33:11
And that was a low end buy in. I mean, some that’s not it gets higher every day. Zillow charges more and more and more. I don’t know what any of the other online lead services are anymore. I haven’t read them. I don’t know. Some agents are very successful with it. It just isn’t what we do. So we’re not going to sit here and focus on it. It just was something I have done to get business. Right. So my website, I have gotten some business off of there. And that’s, you know, I built lots of SEO pages, which we’re not going to go into but like neighborhood specific pages where someone Googled, you know, whatever neighborhood they might come to my website and then sign up to get more information. Obviously, we both now work mostly referral and past client. Yes. The phone we’ve talked about this, I think we both still are getting business off the phone, though. Even if it’s not phone duty style, you got to answer if you’re taking Oh, yeah,

34:00
you’re taking nine calls. Yes. People just come in through on the internet. I saw this house for sale. But okay, so people are like, Okay, well, you say do open houses, you know? Okay, how does, how did you actually get a client from like, from that? Do you have an example from a success story from one that you can tell me, they walked in the door and what happened and

34:23
give you an example. And you’re gonna die because it’s a long term example. When we built the house that we’re currently in, Jake was a contractor at the time, and we put it on the Parade of Homes, which is like a open house on steroids, right? Because there are people like hundreds of people come through the House over the course of two weekends. Well, the whole point is to talk to it just like a regular open house, talk to people make connections. Well, we had like, little, you know, questionnaires, they could fill out, what do they like about the house? What didn’t they like, whatever. It’s basically sign ins, they were questionnaire form signings, and so I talked to all these people I remember talking to this One particular couple who were very sweet, I had listings, land listings in the neighborhood where they were building where they had already bought a lot. So we talked about that for a while. And then they even approached Jay to potentially build their house, it was very tough to get approved in their neighborhood, blah, blah, blah, blah. But over a year later, I found those little sheets of paper that were the sign ends that had their emails and who they were whatever I had jotted down about them. And so I reached out and I said, Hey, did you guys ever build what happened? They’re like, actually, we are just now breaking ground. It’s going. Would you like to come and sell our house? Yeah, wow, they sure I went, and I sold their house. And then here’s where I’m going to take the story further. They were delightful. Some of my favorite clients ever. I got assigned call off of that listing. And the sign call off of that listing was a fella that lived in Prairieville. And he said, you know, he had some questions about the house. And he said, I knew obviously, where the house. He’s calling about my listing. So he said, You know, I want to get my kids on the bus route. And I knew because I’m familiar with the area. I said, Oh, do your kids go to most blessed sacrament, because he was talking about Catholic school. And he was like, yeah, like he was impressed that I knew what school belong, like, what that I knew about, right? He was like, Yeah, and so then we just started talking. And I’m like, Yeah, being on the bus route, blah, blah, blah. He’s like, Hey, will you show me the house, and then there was one around the corner. So I went and showed him like the houses that were available in the neighborhood of my listing. He did not buy my listing, he bought the house around the corner, and then I sold his house. So technically, that one open house contact, then became a phone call lead, and then was two transactions from that. Isn’t that crazy? It’s crazy. But that’s exactly how it works.

36:47
So I had an open house several years ago, I was newer. And I still do open houses. Not right now because we’re quarantined. But before this, and this couple, this older couple came through. And they were just chatting, you know, we just talked and talked to talk to talk. And when they left, I gave them my business card. And I said, Well, if you ever need anything, you know, I’d love to work with you. They emailed me the next day and formally asked me to be there. I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is great. And so I went to their house. They needed me to sell their house and they wanted to buy and this family just like adopted me. Okay, so I sold their house. And then they bought one with me, okay. And then I sold their son a house. And I can remember being a little jealous because they had a daughter who was in the process of buying a house but using a different age. And I was like, I wanted the whole thing. I needed them all. Yes. Okay. So I sold their house, the house, they bought the side and bought a house. Then they referred the son’s friend to me. So that’s full. Then last year, so like five years later, the daughter is up. Because the house they were in was just too small, called me and I listed it so that makes five and then the I sold two more to people they referred me to so from that open house I got I spent $0. All it took was for me to keep the relationship with them. Let them know I care about them. I send them a Christmas card. I write them letters, I check in with them. It’s not hard work. No, but it keeps me at the top of their mind. You

38:36
guys made a connection. So there’s always going to be those people that when you make a connection, I had a referral. This is a great story. I had a referral from a past client and the I’m gonna look her up and figure out what her my the original way she came to me was but I had this referral. And she called me on the phone. She said you saw my friend so and so a house. I would like to interview you to be my buyer’s agent. It was my first time being like, enter. I was like, Okay, sure. I mean, I’m happy to answer your questions and be interviewed. Well, apparently I passed the interview. Great. She so she came she was a referral. One. Two sisters, the sisters brand that one of the other sisters friends. I’m currently showing another of the sisters friends. So it was like seven transactions off of one. Oh my gosh, in her original way. She came in the very first lead online lead way back in 2009. And in fact, online lead November of 2008. That didn’t close until April of 2009. Was I keep track of when they came in and then when they closed. That’s awesome. So I but the point is you made a connection with those people. I just made a connection with that. That first referral that interviewed me and she loved me so much. She would not let anyone she knew us anybody else like it would be devastating to her if if they didn’t Use me. Yeah. It’s just crazy. So you have to have relationships.

40:05
Yeah. It’s all about the relationships. Have I told you the story about Tanner’s old partner at work? I don’t think so. Tell my husband Tanner’s in law enforcement, and we joke that I have to he has to send me referrals like I have to be the law enforcement real limit. And his partner, female. And love, love her. She’s like, amazing. She’s hilarious. rough around the edges. soft inside. I just love her. Like she does everything she can to keep her hair purple and my cousin does her hair. I do. Yeah. It’s just fun. So I get this call from this lady. And she’s like, Hey, Alyssa, I, I need you to come sell my house. And I’m like, is it a secret? Yeah. Okay. It’s just like, can you come now? I’m like, Okay, well, you know, where do you live and this and that, and, and she’s like, rushing through telling me the details. And she’s like, I’m like, and I can’t come today, but I could come tomorrow. She lived like, 45 minutes away. Okay, so I’m like, I can come tomorrow. And she’s like, okay, so like, when you come? Can you bring your sign? And put it in my yard? Okay. Um, like, are you in, like, in trouble? Are you in a big hurry? And she’s like, well, I just, my neighbor is so and so. And it’s the female that was my husband’s ex partner. Okay. And she like was I told her I was thinking about moving and she just got kind of aggressive. It was like, you have to use a list if you don’t let me tell you. Yeah, um, you had to use a lead. But let me tell you about Alyssa. And just like, Oh, yes. For timid woman was like, terrified. Like,

41:45
I need you to be here right now. Yeah. And she’s like,

41:47
I need her to know that I’m gonna use you. I promise I’m gonna use you. Listen here, I will text her right now and told her that you called me and that I’m coming over tomorrow. It’s just like, Okay, thank you. Tanner, is your partner like threatening people?

42:07
Right? How serious is this? These are referrals. It was

42:11
but it was just, it’s just funny. You never know like, and if I get a random call, my first question is, do you mind me asking who referred you to me ways I have gotten to know where you can wait. And you need to give credit where credit’s

42:26
due. Right. So I agree. That’s always my first question to why why did why did you call me. I posted a social media like a video in my I think it was my first or second or third IG TV. It was about staging. I posted it in the morning. The next morning, I received a text message from a lady who I did not know who said, Hey, I Are you taking new clients? You know, those are my favorite when they’re like you’re in high demand. And I’m like, Yes, I am taking new clients. And she said, Okay, great. I’m like, can I call you because I’m like, I don’t even know who you are. So I call her and I’m like, Hey, can you tell me where you found me? And she says, Well, I found you on the internet, something about staging. I’m like, I know, 100% in my heart that it was that video about staging. And she and she was lovely and delightful. And I got two transactions off of that. And that was from seriously like a social media post. But it was just so funny because you have to ask where they came from. If you don’t know where they came from? How are you going to know to replicate your behavior that got you that lead?

43:31
When I have open houses? I asked did you see this in the paper? Did you see it like I just like to know always like where people came from if

43:39
Realtors love to spend money on advertising and they don’t always track it. So like, what how do you know I stopped doing advertising in the newspaper for open houses when I would ask everyone that came and no one said they saw it in the paper. I’m like, that’s just throwing $40 literally in the trash. I’ll just then I started spending the $40 on a Facebook ad. I mean, like y’all, you have to actually ask people where they came from.

44:05
Okay, I have one more story. Let’s hear it. It’s a good one I wrote. So when I was getting my real estate license, I was bartending and waiting tables and whatnot. And so as it was approaching time to leave that industry, I wanted to make sure that everybody that I worked with knew why I was leaving. I knew where I was going, they all had my business, Carl, and I made sure I was friends with everybody on Facebook so we could easily communicate. Yeah, so this one girl called me and was like, hey, Alyssa, I worked with you when we bartended and we weren’t like super, super close when we bartend in which is another thing that surprised me. But I made friends. We were friends. Sure we were friends on Facebook. So she said I’m I want to buy my first house. And I said that’s fine. And so we started looking at houses and when we found the one she had her fiance’s No, I’m sorry, her boyfriend’s dad, who is now they’re married but at the time they were just In dating, but her boyfriend’s dad came and was like, Oh, we can fix this. We can paint it like she just wanted his opinion. And so at the closing table, I asked her for his address, okay. And I wrote him a letter and I said, Hey, I just want to thank you for coming to see the house. I know it meant a lot to her to have your opinion. And so I just wanted to say thank you. If you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to call. He also lives in Mandeville, so I thought this probably isn’t going to turn into anything. But this is what I do. Anybody that comes to the house to help the buyer, they’re going to hear from me after and he I have done six transactions with him. Why because he is an investor. So he buys and Mandeville, Baton Rouge Hammond Ponchatoula. And buys like little houses, fix them up incredibly. And then his son started getting into it also. And I am his son’s realtor now. And they do the same thing. Love it. And I’m like, what if I would have never written that letter? And you would never have had that business? Never had that business? How am I ever letter cost you 45 cents?

46:11
Yeah, the mail mail a stamp stamp? I want to mention something else that I have in my notes. Well, first of all, I think we talked about social media a little bit. And that’s one of my ways. The one method that I have on my list that I haven’t mentioned yet is I went through a phase, I’m gonna be honest, I don’t do it anymore. But not because it wasn’t effective. I sent a four part postcard series to all of my listings. So when I took the listing, I would have a just listed postcard and went to the 100 nearest addresses. When it went under contract, there was a postcard that went to the same people, when it sold the postcard went again. And then the fourth one would be 30 days after the sale, a need more inventory. Okay. Or postcard series to the same 100 addresses. That’s I did that in 2016 and 2017. I closed for transactions off of postcards, for a total of $22,000 in commission. And the postcards cost me $3,500. They were not It’s not cheap to do that kind of a mailer. But no, and I did them to a lot of listings, and I didn’t write down how many listings it was, but I guess we could do the math. But so it was a 628% return on investment.

47:28
Oh my gosh, so is it just the time got away from you. And that’s, it was even

47:33
I still I’m not, it was when I still had an assistant. So she could, she could crank out all the postcards. And honestly, if I made it a priority, now I could I also had a couple of those that I didn’t love the people are like, so now I would probably do them. If I started again, I would pick the neighborhoods that I really wanted to spend more time in.

47:55
When you get a listing in a good neighborhood that you want to work. Yeah, if you

47:59
wanted to really be farming a location, then I would probably do that more.

48:05
That’s fair, though. And you saying that reminds me that whenever you are mass marketing, whether that’s a billboard or a mass mail out, I mean, you’re inviting any contact, I

48:17
know and they don’t have any loyalty or any they haven’t vetted you any more than you’ve added them. So they don’t yeah, they like you gotta

48:24
you’re gonna have to work really hard and work harder, you’re gonna wait work way harder. But if you’re new or slow, do that through, like work hard.

48:34
The last thing I want to say is about listings. My philosophy on listings, as always, as I know, people get kind of fussy, and sometimes they turn down listings, because they’re not good. I’m doing my air quotes podcast, they’re not good listings. My goal was always on a listing to, to do at least one transaction off of that listing. And it didn’t matter if the transaction was actually selling that house, or if it was getting a phone call that turned into a buyer or another seller or an open house that turned into a buyer or another seller, but some activity that came out of me having that listing, or a series of postcards or whatever it was, but it was something that I only was able to do because I had that listing and whether or not that listing sold, I made money because of that listing. Right and that always works. And I have the same philosophy about rentals. I only take rental listings as a favor to like investor clients or friends or people who it’s not a big part of my business, but I always try to turn at least one rental lead into a buyer. Yeah, and you can because a lot of those people because rent especially especially in our market is very high and they don’t realize that their mortgage is going to be less right so it’s pretty easy to turn a renter into a buyer here as long as they have you know the right financials and credit score and all that jazz but you have decent financials and credit score to get into friggin rent

49:58
rent and I feel like especially Taking rentals, it makes you practice having that conversation to get to the point because like the first time you fumble and you’re like, Well, have you thought about getting pre approved or meeting with a finance person? They’re like, Well, that went well. And then you just get more comfortable with the conversation until you find what people respond well to it. So it’s all about practice. Yep. reminiscing on these early closings, though you like that? I did. Like it was so simple back. I mean, it was harder back then. But I was trying to manage like three pendings or two pendings. Yeah. And like life was so simple work was

50:37
simpler. The good news is that, as the time goes on in your career, it’s like you’re on, we’ve talked about this before you’re on the train, the leads are gonna keep coming, you’re not going to have to work as hard for the leads, but you’re going to have to work harder, because you’re going to have more volume to contend with. I mean, you’re going to reach your goal of making more money of making having more transactions. But that also means you’ve got to do more work, you’ve got to be on top of it. So it’s interesting. It is fun to reminisce and look back at them, we could do another episode on this, because their stories for days, I mean, every single I know we could go through every transaction, we have 700 story exactly. And they’re all different. And they’re all. I mean, it’s just sometimes you just can’t even imagine, but make sure this is what I would love for everyone to take away from this record where your business came from. Just start there, when the you get the first phone call or the first meeting, why? How did they come to use you make sure you’re designating that into some sort of spreadsheet or whatever. Like you got to write that stuff down. And jot down what date the date was, how long have you had this internet lead? How much time and energy did you have to put into, you know, the different places you are getting your business? What’s turning fast? Because you know what? If you know what turns fast, and you need something like if you’re getting low on transactions, go back and look at what’s the quick Turner’s is it an open house. I mean, like whatever it is, you’ll know.

51:59
I have one more quick story, God Yes. Tell me. So one of my in my first year, I had a girl that call phone duty, and she was my age or younger, and she wanted to buy her first place. And we found like $120,000 townhome that she bought. So a few years later, she told me that she had to sell it, but she didn’t need to buy because she was just moving in with her fiance who had a house. So I’m like, no problem. So I sold her Townhome. Then she calls me up like two years ago, so six years later, and she says, Hey, okay, so we’re selling his house because we need something bigger than it does. So I’m like, Okay, well tell me about what you’re looking for. And she’s like, Okay, well, I hope this doesn’t hurt your feelings. But we’re not going to use you to be our buyer’s agent. Because my husband’s friend is a realtor. Okay, but you’re my realtor. So I told him, I told him, we will use my realtor to sell the house and your realtor to buy and I thought that was kind of cool to me. Yeah. Like, at least she didn’t dump you completely.

53:00
And so I sold their house and then they bought so that’s fine. It’s kind of funny.

53:05
I thought it was interesting. Same thing, actually. Now that you say that I’ve had the same thing happen. I’ve had someone personally in my sphere, who she had two friends that were realtors, and she let one of us do the listing and one do the purchase. I mean, yeah, that’s funny. No, it’s fair, I guess. But I’ve also had people who did that and then said, I wish I would have just used you on. Same, I mean, yeah. What are you gonna do? Yeah, that’s so funny. All right. This toast comes to us from Missy Horst. She is with Coldwell Banker and I don’t have the location. I don’t think we’ll have to check her out. Oh, 601 she’s Mississippi. All right. Great. Okay, love it. Yeah. Glad I knew that. Yeah, okay. Missy says I’d like to toast to my broker, Linda Graham and our office manager, Valerie. Oh, cancer. They have been at the office every day during this crisis, taking our phone calls, answering our text messages, making copies, scanning documents and helping us take care of our business. Linda has given us links to continuing education, all the governor’s updates and mandates. She’s encouraged all of us to reach out to our database and check on people write notes. She is paying all the postage, and tons of suggestions on how to stay busy and productive in our business. This is what you’re going to love. She has also encouraged all of us to listen to the podcast again. I’m on my third listen. Oh my God knows. There’s so crazy. In addition to all of this, Linda has been researching all of the financial programs available available to help Realtors during this crisis. They’ve kept us up to date on everything. She and Valerie have done everything they can so we don’t feel so isolated from each other, or from our business. Oh my gosh, she says Linda Graham and Valerie Krantz are we couldn’t do our business without them.

54:55
Send them something amazing. I don’t know what we’re gonna send them but we got it. do something well sighs we it’s

55:01
so, so sweet. I know it’s a good, good toast so cheers to them. They’re awesome. Yes. Cheers. See ya cool. So amazing. Teamwork. So, so good. Okay, that’s it. All right.

55:16
See you later Bye. Thank you so much for tuning in to the hustle humbly podcast. Let us know who we should toast to for the next episode. Be sure

55:23
to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at hustle humbly podcast. If you have an episode, topic or question please email us at hustle humbly podcast@gmail.com

55:32
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. See you next week by this is the good lie

Two Realtors fostering community over competition through light-hearted conversations.

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