Today on the Listing Agent Lifestyle podcast we're going back to another live session from our GogoAgent Academy in Florida earlier this year, and we're talking more about converting leads.
This has been an amazing transformation for people who really understand the value of the long-term follow-up with leads you're generating now.
It's not enough just to convert the ones that are ready to go right now. The real value is in being able to maintain a relationship with the people who are going to be ready in 90 days, 6 months or 12 months.
We talked about some really great strategies to get to that point, and there are a lot of examples here for you today.
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Transcript: Listing Agent Lifestyle Ep031
Dean: Hello, and welcome to the Listing Agent Lifestyle podcast. My name is Dean Jackson, and today we're going back to another life session from our GOGO Agent Academy that we did our live event in Florida. Today, we're going to continue talking about converting leads.
This has been an amazing transformation for people who are really understanding the value of the long-term follow up of leads that you're generating now. It's not enough just to convert the ones that are ready to go right now. The real value is in being able to maintain a relationship with the people who are going to be more than 90 days or 6 months or 12 months away and so we talk about some really great strategies for that. Enjoy.
Speaker: I had a couple questions about the market watch, and I mean, I just send it. Mine is set up exactly like you did it. If you go to the finding buyers website or whatever, it's all right there.
Dean: Yes.
Speaker: And mine is done verbatim. It is the same format. I mean, it hasn't changed ever.
Dean: Yeah, and I haven't change my mind about it either. I mean, it's like I haven't wavered.
Speaker: I just send that to everybody that's a prospect, and then as they come, you know, you get the responses back, and every now and then, somebody will say, "Well, I'm looking. I'm not interested in this. I'm interested in either a different area or a more specific property," because it's a general update. It's broken down by the price ranges that we initially put on the website, is the way mine's set up, so the folks can easily sort through whichever one they want.
Then I switched them over. At the time, I think you were calling it and that's what I call it is, the home watch, which it'd be the more specific general updates. I'm looking for a three bedroom, two bath with a two car garage and such and such area.
Dean: Once they get to there, then you know what they'll specifically looking for. Yeah.
Speaker: Even for the people that say "Well, I want something more ... This isn't what I'm looking for," then I'll just transition into that conversation. Well, what are you looking for? We do a more specific update. This is really just designed to keep everybody in the loop until you're ready to-
Dean: That's where you can then introduce them to your IDX, where they can set up their preferences. Let me jump on. I'll show you how to set that up.
Speaker: Well, I haven't gone to that level. I kind of take it over or I do it myself. But we have the same service but I don't do that.
Dean: You can set up custom searches in your MLS.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. Well, and that's what I do when I set them up.
Dean: Okay, so there we go. So let me set you up for a custom alert so you'll get that in addition to the market watch.
Speaker: Right, and I still continue. I never take anybody off of the market watch. I don't know if I mentioned that yesterday, but I've got folks that I sold their house, or buyers five years ago, and I still go through the comments, and they're still opening the emails and keeping up with what's going on. I don’t ever, unless they unsubscribe, I don't take them off any. I just update their contact information-
Dean: I love it.
Speaker: Or whatever they've done.
Dean: So great. Yeah. And then straight to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got an example of what one of them looks like too, but one thing that I think we all know is, when you're showing a house versus seeing it on the MLS, like seeing photos versus actually experiencing going through the front door, is you get that experience with it. So one thing that I had noticed with a lot of my clients is they'd ask me, "So, what's the scoop with that one?"
So that's the verbiage I use in the email. "Here's the scoop with this one," and that has that psychological effect that I'm the one with the scoop, and going through me gives them the inside scoop.
Dean: You're the alpha. That's the thing. When Chuck started doing the daily tours, what you can get is the data. Everybody gets the data, but Chuck has the information, the knowledge, and that's the difference is that you can ... They still have to come to him because he knows more than they do about it. You know more than they do. You've seen these houses. You're out there working with it. You know what's going on in that neighborhood or what that value is compared to the other. People respect that, that they know okay, that's why they're tuning into the Milton Daily Homes because they know that Chuck's got the ... He's giving me the truth, the inside scoop on it. Yeah. Sorry, go on.
Speaker 3: Just a quick question. Do you include the getting listing prospects in that or not?
Dean: So the getting listings, I look at them as separate things. So we're looking at, you've got the monthly newsletter and the sold watch emails going on the seller side, but in your newsletters, you might include something about your website where they can go and search homes for sale. So, now they come in as a buyer as well potentially. That's those inserts. That's the kind of things, the additional things that you put into your monthly mailing. Yeah. Or on your sold watch emails, you know? Okay, over here and then to Barbara. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So in my folder, I've got these buyer newsletters, 12 of them. How and when do they come into play?
Dean: So those, when we were sending out, initially, we're doing a print things, so I started doing of this before the internet even, so it was literally ... When I first started doing, I wasn't calling it market watch, but when I started doing the thing I was actually, I did call it market watch, now that I think about it, yeah. That's where I got that thing, Circa 1992, '93, when I did the guide to Halton Hills, it was still a catalog at the time, no information for people.
So our MLS catalog would arrive on every other Tuesday, and so my assistant, Darlene, would take the catalog, and she would photocopy two copies of every page of the districts that we covered, and all of the new listing were, they were all in price order but they were the new ones had a little slug that said "New." So she would go and cut with scissors out the new listings.
I want you guys to appreciate this because this is exactly how it worked and I had some market watch letterhead, some banner paper, and she would take those. Then, in price order, lay them out six on a page, and then go to the next page, and glue them to the thing with the glue stick to make the things. Then she would go and photocopy all of those things.
We would send out the market watch newsletter. I would send a cover letter. I would copy some article from the newspaper, something that would be ... Hey there. How you doing? That's perfect. So anyway, what we'd do was ... I remember one Tuesday it was a dark and stormy Tuesday. Darlene was late for work that day.
So what she would do these, we'd copy this, and then send it out, and it was just so time intensive. It would take her almost a half a day. When you think about relative now, she would take a half a day to do this, but people would be ... It was like their lifeline to the thing, and they were waiting, and to talk about ... If you ever cut somebody off, that's the fastest way to get them to ... Hey, I didn't get my market watch here in the last few months.
Because I would send it for a year, and then people would ... Everyone would, "Hey, wait. I didn't get my newsletter this week. Have you sent that out yet?" Because they had no other access to the information, but it was such an incredible lead conversion. That's when I really learned the value of the long-term follow-up.
The way they would get the catalog. They way they'd get the guide was in a print ad. I had a cut-out coupon that you could fill out your name and mail it in to get this or fax it in to get your guide, and that's how people would respond.
Speaker 4: So these newsletters.
Dean: They're there.
Speaker 4: They're old, but is anybody using them? Are they being emailed? If there's value in the seller newsletter, I would surely imagine there has to be some really good tidbits in the buyer ones. So email them?
Dean: I like it.
Speaker 4: I don't want to go over the top. Alright, well, I've just received your email. What's your address?
Dean: Well, when people download the guide, one of the questions that we'll ask for people is, "Are you an investor? Are you looking for a house to live in?" Then they're willing to engage that way. You'll start the thing, and then you can ask. Or later, as you're going down here. If you would like, I can send you a printed copy of the guide. What's your mailing address? You can do it as part of the dialogue with people. Or you can include those newsletters.
I'll show you after lunch. I'll hook this up so I can show on the thing, but the way we were doing the market watch, and the way Kenny's doing a great job with your market watch now. You're modeling what we're doing with Olga with the south beach report is having a nice PDF market watch, and that's where we can integrate those buyer newsletters into it as well, but there's so much stuff. I agree.
I love being in people's mailbox and, again, my thing is to get to a point where I just get people to do the thing that I know that they'll do. I try to get it to that level, but if people are willing to go above and beyond, they get even better results. I just can't ... If my conversation was about having to have people now ... Could you imagine if I had you ... What you're gonna do is you gotta get the catalog, and then you gotta photocopy two pages of everything because that way you get both sides of it, and then you're gonna cut with the scissors, put them all in a pile, then lay it out. Then look at your grid, and see how many of each copy you need.
Yeah, exactly. Right. It's so funny how now all you need to do is just click, paste, send. It's so easy.
Speaker 5: The thing that occurs to me, Dean, is when you want all the effort to do that, the reason it's so valuable is because you're the only person doing it. It's the only place you can get that information in that format.
Dean: That is-
Speaker 5: Concise, clean, easy to read.
Dean: That's-
Speaker 5: It's the only place you get the information. So what occurred to me was everyone has an IDX, so that information is readily available. If you're not repackaging it in a unique way to stick out from all of your competition, it has no value. But as soon as you start doing the video or the podcast where it's like, well, yeah. Well, you're talking to your friend who might happen to be buying a house. Well, yeah, I know you could look at Susie's IDX, and I look at John's IDX, but this guy over here ... This is the only place you can get this information where he does a little audio commentary on the neighborhood, and this house smells, and this house is nice. That's valuable information, and this is the only place you can get that information.
It's the same thing as doing the cut and paste. That's where the cut and paste is where you're distinguishing yourself from everybody else-
Dean: Absolutely.
Speaker 5: You're creating something unique.
Dean: Nobody was doing that. That was cutting edge.
Speaker 5: Yeah, right.
Dean: That was the most advanced way to get information at the time, right?
Speaker 5: The same principle applies. It's just a different thing. Interesting.
Dean: You're just giving people the next level. If things keep advancing, it's progress, right?
Speaker: The buyer market watch buyers.
I want to do it. I need some help. Like 97,000.
Dean: You're in there.
Speaker: I've had the boot count system for almost nine years. It's amazing how eight years later, someone will raise their hand. We just had a situation where the buyer bought a million dollar home, sold a 400,000 dollar condo. When I asked her what took her so long, she said, "I'll tell you the same thing I told you nine years ago, and that is I was looking for a friend, and my friend bought over on Wellesley Drive."
If she didn't say my friend bought over on Wellesley Drive, I wouldn't have believed it because I've heard that excuse so many times over the years. I'm just looking for a friend. She was.
Dean: I'll tell you the same thing I told you nine years ago, mister. That's right.
Speaker 6: I'm going to take one too now. Your thing about the video ... That's wonderful. What I'm hoping to do is get the leads and have other people on the ground. I'm still a little confused about how the agents that I work with who actually do the showings.
Would it need to be one of them in the videos?
Dean: Well, it could. There's no right or wrong on any of that. You would be pioneering something. When you look at it that way. What I think about is, always, what would be a dream come true for your prospect. What would be a dream come true for the person who's receiving these emails? What would they really like to know? What would be great is if you're coming to Tucson. You're coming to a new area, and you don't know anything about it. You're coming from Chicago, and you're considering relocating to Tucson. You have this insatiable appetite to soak it in, to taste it, to feel what is it actually like in Tucson.
Imagine if you had that as a reality show or as a way of featuring. Imagine that money magazine came and was going to feature the Tucson real estate market opportunity. What about it? You could imagine what that might look like and the production value of something like that and what the content would be, and people just want to know what do you get for the money. What's available?
Speaker 6: Love that. I totally get that. I'm really good at video production. Putting somebody else in front of the camera appeals to me. If I found the right person, that might be a good liaison. I'm still a little confused. This may be off the track, and I should do it offline. As far as how to set up compensation for whomever I work with. I've heard give them 20 percent of the commission.
Dean: Depends what you're willing to do. I'll talk about that in the finding buyers because there's some ... The progress like what we ended up doing when Julie was hiring showing agents.
Speaker 6: Yes.
Dean: That's been the most profitable way to do it. The lowest cost per transaction value. That's going from everywhere from people testing different things of sending leads and taking a referral versus having their own buyer agent giving them 50 percent or paying an hourly rate to go and show homes but paying that in advance. I think about John Dunking. That first experiment. John did that where he would send out. He would refer leads to people and just take a 25 percent referral fee. Then he brought in a buyer agent and gave them 50 percent.
But when he started with a showing agent that he would pay that Friday for any homes that they showed that week, his cost for buyer transactions went down to five percent. Below five percent, and that becomes a thing. So now you're getting 95 percent of the thing, but John had to come out of pocket 1800 dollars before the showing agent closed the first transaction. Even then, it was still more than ... That was 18 percent because it was a 10000 dollar commission that he ended up getting, but he had to pay upfront every Friday. It accumulated up to 1800 dollars before he got that first one rather than if he had given that lead to them. He would've gotten 2500 dollars for it as a referral. Or if they were on his team, we would've gotten five thousand, but since he was paying ahead of time, people will do so much more if money is certain.
There are agents who would absolutely be happy to show homes for 25 dollars an hour or 20 dollars an hour if you gave them 50 dollars to go out and show homes for two hours. A showing session or whatever. That that would be ... They would do that. That's what we did with Penny was 20 dollars an hour. Guaranteed 30 hours a week. 600 a week for, that was the perfect thing for her.
Speaker 6: That would turn out to be much less than 25 percent of a commission in those cases.
Dean: Absolutely.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Dean: Yeah, that's what we're looking for. That's where capital comes into thinking about the money is that's where this capital investment mindset is the biggest win. That's where the biggest rewards are by taking a risk, and I'm using air quotes for risk, but I'm saying that that's what it is. There is a risk that you would put out the money and not get any return on it, but you get the highest return by being willing to do that. They're more willing. They're willing to take 500 dollars for sure than to risk maybe getting 2500 if people buy. It's an interesting thing. Psychology.
Speaker 7: There is a real estate company that's moved into my area that makes that scenario much more popular because they're an employee for the company. Even the agent who writes the contract. So the agent who writes the contract is different than the showing agent, and the showing agent can set their hours and when they're available and when they want to work.
And the agent wrote the contract wrong with lead-based paint disclosure not included.
Dean: There you go. That's the way, when you start looking at the components of things, and we'll carry this conversation on in the finding buyers section. That kind of thing is really easy especially when you've got the ... We're talking about the tour of homes as the way of starting it when you've got somebody who, every time somebody asks for that, you can pay somebody 50 dollars to go do a tour tomorrow, and you want to do a tour of homes tomorrow. Of course they would love to. It's such a win like that. Keep that. They would schedule, yes, exactly.
So, that kind of thing is really cool. Okay, keep the conversation about the converting leads right now. What else is on your mind about that? Or question? What's landing so far?
Yes?
Speaker 8: Do I know where to find like the way I start that? Do I know where to find lead buyers newsletter that's been referred to?
Dean: Yeah, it's all in finding buyers.
Speaker 8: It is all in finding buyers?
Dean: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Thank you.
Dean: The way the go go agent website is laid out is down the right side. We've got all of the things ... All of the elements are laid out that way. So when you click on that, that takes you to a section that had all of the stuff to do with that. Then, for all of the posts that I do on the blog in the main section, on the left hand side bar are the categories. If you look at ... If there's stuff about finding buyers that, when you click on that, all of the posts that we've done, all the contributions, all the things that people have added, all the field reports, all of that kind of stuff ... That all comes us that way too.
If that doesn't work, there's the search bar that you can type in the key words, and that brings it up. If that doesn't work, there's the forum where you can say, "Does anybody know where I can find the things?" It's all there. It's in there.
Speaker 4: Along the same lines on converting. Maybe we'll talk about this in the finding buyers. But on that newsletter when people click on those links having those intelligent links, then we can use Facebook tracking or pixel tracker conversion that re targets them to come back. That obviously ties in with conversion, but it's probably more on the finding buyers side.
Dean: You have to get ... For tracking pixels, you have to have something that ... You have to have a group of 100 people in order for the Facebook retargeting to kick in. Just as a reminder. It's not gonna track one person through all the way. If you have 100 people who have clicked on something, now you've got a custom audience that you can re-target with, but you get there. That's the thing. If you start thinking if you're placing that pixel on everybody that clicks on one of these links, it's a good place to start.
But you also, once you get your subscribers up there, can create a custom audience from the email addresses of everybody who subscribes to market watch.
Speaker 4: Have you guys done anything with the IP tracking on that? Because I notice that it also caps the IP address?
Dean: Yeah, I have, but I just have started working with a guy who, for my team, is helping with all the Facebook stuff, and we're experimenting for stuff to bring to you guys. The guy I'm working with runs a digital team for a big corporation. I won't say it because we're recording the thing, but they spent 50000 dollars a day on digital advertising. I've learned so much from doing the things. I'm getting the listing agent lifestyle opt ins for around a dollar 50 which is like phenomenal. I'll take as many as I can get that way. We're experimenting with that whole stuff. I'll share some of the stuff in finding buyers here too.
If I can kind of wrap my thoughts about the converting leads is to realize what you have. Realize the value of that as an asset. Even if you stopped advertising or doing anything else with them, you're not adding to it. You've got an asset that's gonna continue to yield forever. It's still going to be continuing to pop out. I can't remember how long Chuck had said that he hasn't mailed the getting listings post cards for a few years now, but every year he's getting 10 or 12 listings from the group of people from the 1700 that responded. It makes a big difference. Yeah?
Well, he was mailing to 1700 people on the list. I had that same conversation with him on the podcast because I still say the same thing. Why would you stop mailing?
Yeah, there was something that triggered it, but Chuck is a slow-to-act but consistent to ... He goes all the way when he does something. We talked about the daily videos for probably a year before he did it but then committed, and it never missed a day. The getting listings ... He was the poster child for exactly doing it just like we said. He was Tony. Tony is the new ... That's what I was joking about with Chuck. Tony's the new Chuck in terms of going from there to there. I look at that I see where that path goes.
When I first met Chuck, he was Tony at the time. I remember somebody brand new starting out in Milton, and so I look at where he is now 12 years out with this whole big team and million dollar plus business, and then I see Tony who I met almost five years ago now, and we'll see the case study that we did going from September until September for four years that 10 times he's become the number one agent in his market place, and then I see Ron Reed in the first year here.
No, but I see that's where the path goes that he's on that track, and I look at them as the ghost of Christmas future for these things. That that's where that path leads. It's just a thing where you get caught up, and there's ... Now, Chuck's running a big business, and I think that what's happening is that he's really caught up in that part of it. We've even had conversations. I'm saying to him what you're really missing out on, and you know I love you, Chuck. I'm saying that because he's probably going to hear the recording here. I'm not saying anything I haven't said to him.
Richard's saying, "That's not what you said to me in the car." But the thing is that I think that part of it is that Chuck's getting ... His attention is focused on the during unit and after unit of this big business that he's running now and not thinking that the before unit is a separate thing. You don't stop generating new leads because you're so busy in the thing. It's a higher amplified level of what happens with people who are just getting started that you're running into a situation where you're doing the things that work, and then you get too busy to keep doing it. So you get on the thing.
Well, that's the thing is I was saying to him is that separate that. He doesn't want to overload the team with doing that stuff, but we had a great conversation about it in Toronto. Looking at it as separating out the before unit and keeping that going.
I asked the question ... The question that I asked was, "Are you over capacity on your team right now? Could you do more listings? If somebody called you up to come and list their house, is your team at full capacity that they couldn't handle that?" Of course they're not, but he's got them focused on the things of learning the dialogues and learning the [inaudible 00:30:57] and learning all during-unit stuff.
I'm saying if you just focus over here and create a separated before unit that just doesn't get any of that complexity on the during unit, let's separate over here and just deliver people who are jumping in the boat. Let's keep stocking the pond with new fish because eventually, the 1700 fish are going to get stinky at some point. Not in the foreseeable future, but at some point, it takes a lot longer to then restart it up and restock the pond once you've fished it dry. That's my loving note to Chuck Thompson in the form of an audio that I hope I'm going to isolate and send to him individually.
Speaker 9: That becomes an asset. You can say-
Dean: It is an asset.
Speaker 9: I have this string. Especially because every time you sell, depending on your market, it's a diminishing market. Let's say you've got this business, but I've seen people who are pure listing agents. If you keep just listing, listing without the multipliers, you're gone at some point. It's worth less and less and less.
Dean: You're absolutely right.
Speaker 9: To me, if it works, it's like why would you cap the oil well? I don't know.
Dean: I wonder. I demand answers. We need to get Lillian, and get Chuck on a Zoom call with us right now.
Speaker 9: Inquiring mind want to know.
Speaker 2: This all sets up as the perfect exit strategy as well.
Dean: It does, of course.
Speaker 2: And going on what Kenny had said as well, once you kind of have the leads, and you've generated the leads, and then there's a whole model coming down the pipeline in our industry that those who control those leads really might even dominate the next decade where it churns from leads to appointments-
Dean: Well, I did see, when I was explaining this ghost restaurant concept to Chuck, this spark in the eyes, and I know that that is now the pilot light being ignited that will burn and warm up, and then at some point, it'll be, "We're going all in on this." I think that that's the thing. Kenny's the pioneer in this in terms of being completely going into something that is not. He's got four listings and one ghost restaurant. One listing or one or two in the other one that he's had nothing to do with. I think that's really ... It's pretty amazing. When you really start to think about the before unit as a separate thing that's just delivering people to the during unit, and that's where people get caught up that, when you get busy like that, it's always the frustration of trying to manage it.
Every time I hear about the complexity, it's because they're trying to and expecting people who are in the during unit of the business to then, in addition, manage the other stuff, and it seems complex. I had that conversation with Zack too.
Yeah, you got it right in front of you.
Speaker 10: Yes, because I generate all these seller leads, and it just kills me that the listing partners won't get on the phone and call them.
Dean: You don't need to.
Speaker 10: I know. I go back and call all these leads over and over again.
Dean: Yeah, that's the thing, right? It's like shaking-
Speaker 10: What I do is I send out a lot of stuff of value. I also just feel like my listing partners need to make some phone calls instead of just being fed listing-
Dean: Imagine if ... What if you switched and had your buyer partners calling the listings to see if they could show their home this week? Because I'm working with these buyers this week. That's a better phone call to be making.
Speaker 10: Right. Right.
Dean: Imagine if the buyers ... In an organization like that where you've got a team, imagine if you had the Monday meeting, and everybody is part of it. You have a one-hour block set off that you have your team huddle, and then whatever they're working with that week, you're doing the market maker activities where ... What are you showing this week? You've got appointments, and buyers scheduled to go out and look at ... We're showing these. We're showing this condo building. We're showing there, and then you're coordinating with the seller prospect team to say, "What have you got in these areas?"
Now, you're calling those people, or emailing those people would be even better, and just saying in an email I'm showing houses this week on Wednesday or whatever. The reality of it. Not just, "Hey, we've got buyers. Now's the time." A specific thing on their street in their building, their floor plan, whatever it is. Can we tell them about you're listing?
Speaker 10: I know that that works because I do it. I do the market maker, and it's been very successful.
Dean: Yeah, but imagine if it was integrated as a thing every single Monday that it's a formalized thing. Not even that. If you incorporate into that into the market maker thing ... If you incorporated into it, each of the team members that you have ... They're top 150 layer, and all the expired listings that didn't relist that are on there too ... You've got to really valuable below-the-surface secret inventory that would be worth staffing something at your level.
Speaker 10: Right. I'm going to think about that a lot. I already am.
Dean: Perfect. Sure, of course.
Speaker 9: Just out of curiosity, maybe Zack or somebody could say. When you're doing getting listings for, let's just say, five years, and you...
Dean: You get tired of cashing all those commission checks?
Speaker 9: I know. What percentage would be a good target for a neighborhood? Let's say you have a neighborhood of 1000.
Dean: I don't know.
Speaker 9: You don't have any idea?
Dean: I don't ever look at that. Again, those are day trading questions. I look at it that I just think that people look at it where that if the responsibility down this month, it's like uh-oh, the world's falling down, and then it comes back up the next month.
It's like looking at Mr. Market like Warren Buffet would say. I'm putting it in as a 12-month certificate deposit blind to what happens and the volatility of it. That's like looking at the volatility. I'm just looking. I'm only measuring what's happening in 12 months from it.
Speaker 9: I got that. I guess I was just saying ... When you say that Tony's number one in his market, did he find that he sort of became ... He ended up having 20 percent market share in the markets he served?
Dean: That'd be a good question.
Speaker 9: It was more like ... What surprised me is when I do the research, in my mind, I have an idea of who I think are the players in certain neighborhoods. Really, they don't have very much at all. It's like four there, four here, four ... They do a lot of business. Don't get me wrong. We have number one Century 21 in the world. We have number one Coldwell Banker.
But when you look at it, it's like in that particular neighborhood, they have less than ... Yeah. 10 maybe in some rare instances.
Dean: You can dominate.
Speaker 11: If you break five in a neighborhood, you're the number one agent. I don't think any agent, unless they do something like getting listings, has enough focus to get more than five percent. I watch every listing in Harbor Bluffs, and I'm telling you it's never Martha Thorn. Never. It's always someone who's from St. Petersburg or Tampa or Hudson. Nowhere near us because they have some sort of relationship, but nobody has gotten more than two listings in the neighborhood. If we're doing six or seven a month or eight, and I can get three, I'm in. I'm the king in that neighborhood.
Dean: That's great. That's the cool thing is looking at it. When you're the number agent in a neighborhood, then everybody knows that. You see that the thing's there. Because I remember I shared that when I started out, because I was young, I chose townhouses as a target market, and there was a new townhouse development, so they had been waiting a couple of years for them to be completed for moving in. Usually, when a new project completes, by the time people move in in the first couple of years, there's a lot of turnover because their life circumstances have changed. I ended up listing three or four townhouses right on the same entry street into a townhouse complex.
I was at one of my seller's standing out on their driveway talking with them, and one of the neighbors came over, and my client introduced me as, "This is our realtor, Dean Jackson," and he goes, "Oh, you're Dean Jackson. I didn't know whether you were a realtor or you're running for mayor," because you see all the signs up there which is kind of funny, but that's the thing that they know that you're the agent. That's why all these listing multipliers work.
I wish I had known what I know now then. It's just so amazing.
Speaker 11: The one thing that happens when you get that too is you have other agents approach you and say, "It looks like you do a lot of business in this neighborhood. We have buyers. Do you know of anybody that's thinking of selling?" And now you've got agents with other companies becoming your buyer's agent. It's really cool.
Dean: Yeah, pretty neat. I like it. Okay, yup?
Speaker 8: For planning purposes, I know it's a reasonable expectation to be mailing for five months and not get anything. If I follow the plan [inaudible 00:41:58] use the easy button, do you think if I haven't gotten anything in eight months, would that be extraordinary? Or should I be planning to go 12 months with whatever my ad budget is or my postcard budget? Do I need to allow for 12 months with nothing? Who set the record in being patient?
Dean: Maybe, It was 11 months, and then all of a sudden one, and it was a 16000 dollar commission, but it cost whatever ... It was 4000 dollars or something for the year to spend it out. But at the end of the day, it turns into 16000, but there's been more from there.
There you go.
Speaker 7: It's taken five or six years to do that-
Dean: To become the leader-
Speaker 7: To become the leader in the community, but I would also urge you then. That's also a function of when you're assessing what neighborhood to go into. You also look at the turnover. What Dean's talking about is looking at the turnover rate and how long is it taking for houses to sell. That's all the function of assessing what neighborhood to go into.
Dean: Very cool. Yeah, that's why, when I look at it, that if we're looking at where to start on something ... If you're looking for the fastest kind of way to solidify a return would be to pick something, pick a neighborhood, or a price range on the front size of the bell curve of your market.
If the distribution of all of the homes that sell from zero to the 10 million or whatever the market is, at some point the most on the median price is going to be the peak of your bell curve. So whatever that price is, let's say it's 300000. Is taking something on the 200, the 300000 dollar swath of the bell curve to focus on? Those are typically the ones that have the higher turnover rate. Not the front end of it. Not the lowest priced ones. The next level things. The entry level to median detached homes. That, as a focus, is like a pivot point for you that you've got there. It's enough that people could jump right there from as first time buyers or move from the condo into there and move from there to the other side of the bell curve. There's just so much. It's a transitional price range as opposed to going to the far end of the bell curve where it's a trophy home, and they're going to be having lived in there longer. They take longer to sell, and they're not necessarily moving up from there.
You know what I mean? A lot of times, the people, in order to buy that house, have to sell this house so it's a whole longer cycle. If you've got the capital to do that, I always love to go right to the top. Go to the iconic things. That's why when we say with Kenny it's oceanfront properties on Cape Ann. There's nothing more expensive than the oceanfront homes. There's nothing more expensive in Winter Haven than the lakefront homes. There's nothing more expensive in south beach than the oceanfront condos. Pick that. But whenever I have people start with that ... If they don't have the ability to sustain it, that they run out. That's where now my thought is let's get you established on the front side of the bell curve to get your cash cow, your foundation, going, and then jump up to the icon part two.
Oh, can you give ... Oh, yeah, yeah. The will. I'll tell the story because Lillian got the call talking about converting leads.
We were doing the lakefront houses, and this guy called Lillian and said, "I'd been getting the newsletters, and I really appreciate it, but I'm not going to sell my house right now, but I'm old, and I've saved everything. When we do sell, Julie's going to be the one that gets the listing. I already told my kids that, when they sell that house that Julie's going to be the one, so you don't need to keep sending the newsletters." It's like Julie got left in the will basically. That's the way that happens. It's so great. Put it in the file. She's the one. That's kind of ... I wonder how he's doing.
Speaker 9: Is he alive?
Speaker 8: Dean, I had a similar experience. My husband's an estate planning attorney in Annapolis, and he went into a new client's home, and she was dying of cancer.
Dean: Oh, no.
Speaker 8: This is a couple of years ago, but there was my post card right there. She handed the post card to my husband and said, "Put this with my papers. This is the agent, oh by the way, that I want handling my business. I've been getting all the post cards [crosstalk 00:47:53]-
Dean: She didn't know that that was your husband?
Speaker 8: Right.
Dean: Oh, that's so great.
Speaker 8: She said, "By the way, it's the same last name. Do you know her?" He said, "Well, I live with her." So it worked out. She did die. I got the listing. It was a million two.
Dean: Wow. We're all like wait a second. That's one of those things where you're like wait a second. We're cheering.
Right, that's no good. I think that's funny. That's a great conversation about converting leads. I feel good about getting all the stuff out there. I think the main thing that I want you to realize is that that asset value of what you're building and the long-term sustainability of it, the long-term value, and then just the consistency of being there whenever they're ready. Let them come on their timeframe and have in those next steps crystal clear. Being a leader but being a leader through service. Not through, "Now's the time to sell. Got to get out there. Spring market's here. Rates have never been lower. Buyers are from everywhere." All that stuff trying to convince people to do anything. That's not what it's about. It's about being there and being ready.
There we have it. Any conversation about lead conversion ... I can't resist the opportunity to get you to take advantage of sending out very simple nine-word email to your prospects that have been sitting there. Maybe they've inquired on something six months ago, or they came to an open house and got their name and their email maybe eight months ago, but this is a fun process. If you go all the way back, look at all of the prospects that kind of fell through the cracks that maybe you were in conversation with them, then things got busy. They changed the plans. They didn't end up buying right away, but it's been several months. Now's a great time to just go through, gather up all those people, and send them an email that just says, "Hi, Dean. Are you still looking for a house in Georgetown?" That's it. You just put their name in the subject line, or put Georgetown in the subject line. The town where you are.
Send them that email, and you'll be amazed at what happens to re-engage people. This is perfect if you're doing Facebook ads or if you're doing Zillow ads or realtor.com leads where you're generating leads that you're focus has been really on trying to get the ones who are ready to buy right now to come out and start working with you, but you haven't really had a long-term follow-up program. This is the great thing is that you can kind of re-engage with those people right now and then start your process of sending out your market watch email where you're every single week connecting with people, giving them updates on what's going on in the market. You're going to see your lead conversion returns go through the roof.
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Have a great week. I will talk to you next time.