Today on the Listing Agent Lifestyle podcast we're joined once again by Tony Kalsi form Ontario in Canada.
You may remember Tony from his appearance as the very first guest on the podcast. Well, this September marks the sixth year of his Getting Listings case study, and the numbers are pretty amazing.
We're now at over a million dollars in commissions, with a 12.2 times ROI, and it's pretty exciting to see how it all has worked out so far. We're well down the path of multiplying the investment Tony's made in that first year, and we spent a lot of the call talking really about what happened in those 12 months.
What was amazing is that we found that since mailing the first year postcards, he's got 165 people to raise their hand and ask for the report, and since that time he's done 22 transactions with people who responded in the first 12 months.
So over the six years, he's got 22 listings from this group, and there were another 22 people who sold their house, but not with Tony. I know people often ask, 'Are the people responding to a free house price report really selling their house? Well, clearly they are, and Tony was able to get 50% of the people who requested the report and then went on to sell their house in the next six years.
It's interesting because some of them chose Tony this year, even though they responded in 2013!
This is a fascinating conversation and I want it to be an encouragement for you to get started and come on over to GoGoAgent.com. You get access to the entire program, every single thing that Tony's doing, including other interviews and videos that will give you you the opportunity to do exactly what Tony has done. You can get a free trial, no credit card required, take a look around and try it out for 30 days.
While you're looking around, take a listen to this weeks episode.
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Transcript: Listing Agent Lifestyle Ep090
Dean: Mr Kalsi.
Tony: Hey Dean.
Dean: Here we are.
Tony: Yeah. Two years later.
Dean: Happy anniversary.
Tony: Thank you. Thank you so much.
Dean: Six years. Six years in one case study. It's a pretty amazing thing. So I'm going to start off and say congratulations on your disciplined execution for six years. That's pretty... It's pretty amazing.
Tony: It is, yeah. It goes by very quick.
Dean: So let's talk about some of the things that we've been discovering now from looking into the data because I love that you are actually such a good record keeper. It doesn't hurt that you're married to a data analyst built in too. It's baked in to the family kind of thing that the understanding of it.
And so I want to... let me set the tone because there may be some people, this is the first time, but I want to make sure that people know here we are now six years after starting a case study for our getting listings program.
And if you remember on the podcast, Tony was the first that we went through because at that point we were celebrating the four year case study. Right? That's what we had that in terms of the, was it four years or five years when we... No, four years when we started.
Tony: Four years. Yeah.
Dean: Yeah, it's been that long now for the podcast. And what I'm amazed by is at that point the numbers were pretty amazing, pretty great. And now when we're at the six year mark have passed $1 million in commissions and have a 12.2 ROI on the total spend of postcards and newsletters to the people who responded to the postcard. But those are just the surface numbers that... I really find that interesting because the reality, I don't know what you would call this, maybe you know, or maybe you've heard how we would calculate I think it would be called your cash-on-cash return.
That your initial investment in the five months that you've mailed before you did that first transaction and got all your money back. And then essentially you could say self-sustaining for the remaining five and a half years, that it's all been reinvesting profits that you've made along the way.
Tony: Yeah. It took us five months to get that seed money back.
Dean: Yes.
Tony: And invest and now it's self-sustaining.
Dean: Tell me, what was going through your mind in the first five months? You came into you came into this, and I think the confidence that you had was largely from seeing what had happened with Chuck Charlton, if I remember.
Tony: Yeah. Chuck was a big influence. Actually, I spoke to him when I started. Had a quick conversation with him and yeah, he gave me some insight and of course your help as well. And when we met in 2013 in September made a lot of sense. In the five months what kept me going I always refer back to that graph is the capital expense, and I look at my average commissions. It's really a no brainer at that time to say, look, one deal is going to surpass my five months investment or my six months. I think it was, I think if I kept spending for the amount of flyers I was doing, I think it would have been like nine months before I broke even. So it made a lot of sense to me, to keep going.
Dean: Yes. Yeah. And you think about it, I always say to people, here's a guy who, you know, you start in September and you went, you mailed in September, October, November, December. You mailed all those months and didn't get anything yet per se like no deals. You were getting responses all along the way, but nobody had listed with you yet. I don't think there's anybody in the world who would have blamed you or said, "Well, you gave it a good shot," and start the new year with something fresh. Like, yeah, that really didn't work out, but you tried and maybe let's try something else for the new year.
Tony: Yeah.
Dean: But you kept going in January and then in February you finally did your first transaction. So I think about that as an encouragement to people because now that we've got six years behind us with this, what I was fascinated to see was looking back at it, that you have actually done 22 or 23 transactions from people who responded in the first 12 months. And that was really like, that's pretty amazing that... that's why we talked about this asset idea. Right? And then you and I kind of were texting, and I asked if you had the data about everybody who responded back then, which you did. And what did we find out about in analyzing that? Was it 165 people that had responded in the first year?
Tony: Yeah, 165 people responded. Out of the 165, 44 people roughly about that, give or take. 44, I think it was, sold their home within the six... sold or listed within a six month period. And out of that 44 I had 22, so 50% market share.
Dean: Yes, in the six years. In the full six years.
Tony: Yes. 12 months of-
Dean: Yes. So from the... Yeah. Right. Exactly. So when you take-
Tony: Kind of confusing, but...
Dean: No, no, I get it that there's the thing that 44 out of 165 of them actually sold their home. Because I know that people wonder are the people who are responding because there's nothing talking about sell your house or pick Tony or call Tony and start packing. It's not about promoting you as a realtor and trying to get people to list their house with you. But you look at it that of the people that did respond, 44 of them in the first year actually sold their house.
If we count that first year, then five years later that it was you got 50% of the market of those people. You've got 22 and 22 listed with somebody else, but 50% of the ones who actually did sell you got. And that's pretty amazing. Like I love to see that kind of data.
Tony: Yeah. And going back to what you were saying and what kept me motivated is... people were, there was a lot of responses in the first five months, first 12 months, there's a ton of responses. So that really kept me going as well. It's like, these people want information. They're thinking, they're yes, maybe or no. That's the only three.
Dean: Mm-hmm (affirmative) Things are happening. I look at it that you're getting both of these... we're getting the people are responding, so they're seeing the postcards, they're raising their hand. And I know that it's yeah, it would have been a different story if you mailed for five months and nobody responds to the postcards, that would've been like-
Tony: Yes. It would have been.
Dean: And then you know that, listen, we're not on the right track here, but the fact that people are raising their hands, and we know that you've got, if we keep this track up, that you've got a pretty good chance of getting, you've proven half of them, half of the ones that will sell their house will choose you.
And I mean we've seen so many, is we've seen so many incidences of people chasing people down because of mailing the posts, newsletters every month. That they feel obligated, they feel like compelled to call and list with you.
Tony: Yeah. I mean, you're their expert advisor. They know. It's not you're chasing or, and that gives you that sense of confidence that, Hey, look, if you... you're putting in this effort of providing the value for a consistent amount of time. You're the guy, unless they have a relationship, a strong relationship with someone else, you're most likely going to be the guy.
Dean: Yeah. That's absolutely true. And that's kind of like putting their... you're acting as if you are their realtor and giving them valuable information until they're until they're ready.
I just saw... Do you know who Charles Koch is? The Koch brothers.
Tony: No.
Dean: David Koch just died. They're billionaires, hundred billion dollars.
Tony: Yeah.
Dean: Charles Koch is like the eighth richest guy in the world. A privately held company Koch Industries, and he was on the Tim Ferriss Show recently and something... I was looking at his philosophy, his approach to things is really pretty amazing. He talks about adding value to people. Essentially, I'm paraphrasing here, but getting in alignment with their goals.
One of the things that kind of triggered me down the path to do as I was kind of researching him online, and he told the story of oil. Their big oil companies, how they got started. They used to buy oil, their oil processing and make chemicals and plastics and all kind... anything you can make with oil. And he would talk about their philosophy of going to oil fields where these companies were doing exploratory digging or drilling. They're looking for oil, and it's a crap shoot. You don't know that every oil well that you dig is going to be fruitful, they invest a lot of money, these oil companies in doing this. And what the pipeline companies do is they wait until the oil company strikes oil and then they go to the oil company, and they start pitching them to let them build the pipeline and buy their oil. And everybody's competing on that thing.
But what they did was he would go to the companies and say, "Listen, as soon as you strike oil, you're going to want to get it out here as fast as you can. Let me go ahead and build a pipeline, and if you strike oil, would you let us buy it? And we can expedite the whole process." Because it gets them to market faster than if they strike oil and then start the process of building the pipeline.
And of course all these oil companies would say, "Well of course, what have we got to lose?" And they would do that and then they would build the pipeline, they'd start buying the oil and then as soon as they struck oil, all these other companies were coming to them saying to the oil companies saying, "Hey, let us build the pipeline and we'll do it cheaper than what these guys, what Koch's doing it for." And the companies, the oil companies would be loyal to the Kochs because they took the time to add value when there was not necessarily any value for them in the short term.
And that reminded me of how you're doing this, when you're offering people a report on information that they're going to find valuable if they're thinking about selling their house and then you continue to add value and keep them updated every month or sometimes years. They feel completely like it's the right thing to list with you when they do become ready. So there's so much at play here. I mean, it's such a philosophical alignment approach.
Tony: Totally reverse thinking. It's giving and treating everyone as five star as you always say. A five star prospect and not-
Dean: Yeah. And that's why... Yes. I mean, it's kind of why it's an interesting approach when people, I also call them the hound dog pack. That is as soon as a listing expires, the hound dog pack is all over them, trying to get them to list with them, or as soon as somebody puts a FSBO's sign in their lawn, people are all over it trying to convince them to list with them because they're trying to take. And it's a really interesting thing when you give people something that's valuable to them and get in alignment and patiently educate and motivate them until it's time on their terms, their timeline, you're there.
Tony: Without getting attached to the outcome. Yeah. You do that consistently.
Dean: How would you calculate-
Tony: People are in terms.
Dean:...how would you calculate in terms of ROI or compounding? I'm not a real financial guy, but maybe, you know this, maybe you don't. How would you calculate the rate of return on a 12.2 times investment? And the reason I ask is that, the reason I asked that is that the Koch brothers, since Charles Koch took over the company in 1966, he's had a compounded average return of 18%. So I wonder, I don't know how to do that calculation. Like what would you say that to turn a hundred thousand dollars into $1 million is, yeah. What is that?
Tony: Like the average compounded return. Yeah. I'd have to go back and calculate, but-
Dean: I wonder.
Tony: ...I didn't do that calculation.
Dean: Yeah. I wonder what it could be-
Tony: Yeah you're right.
Dean: ...but it's got to be more than that, right?
Tony: Yeah. Yes. So what are we at right now? 12.2%. 12.2%.
Dean: Well, let's look at the... Let's just do it for the first year because we don't know what the extended value of the things is, but let's see that, it took one year to get to 165 leads. Right. And you spent, you invested whatever you invested only for the first 12 months, and then that portfolio, that a list of 165 people, that asset has yielded. I wonder, you know what, the multiple on that, just the first year bundle is?
Tony: I can give, yeah. Just the first year of the transactions done to the money spent.
Dean: Yeah. I mean, if you look at it... so we did all those 22. Yeah. All of those 22, I'm just talking of the 22 transactions that if we just did the rough math on it. In the early, the first year you were spending, you started out the first five or six months doing was at 2,500 homes?
Tony: Yeah, it was around. I did, I think I started the first two months at two or 3000 homes, and then I scaled up to 7,000. Up to this fourth month. And then I just kept-
Dean: But would you say like you were spending would it be more or less than a thousand or $1,500?
Tony: Yeah. I would say... Yeah, I would say it's about a thousand bucks. I'd say that's about a thousand bucks.
Dean: Yeah. So if you look at that a thousand, so $12,000 invested in the first 12 months to generate those 165 leads with a... and the value of 22 transactions at, what's the sort of median commission amount for you?
Tony: Let's say 500,000 average, like-
Dean: So 15,000 slightly?
Tony: Let's say 12, 15,000? Yeah.
Dean: Okay. So if we said then that... if we said 15,000 times 22 is a, this could actually calculate on the fly because I think this is going be a pretty amazing number. 15,000 times 22, 330,000 and so 12,000 into 330,000, did I say 330? Yeah.
Tony: 330. Yeah.
Dean: Yeah. 330,000 divided by 12,000. I don't know how to calculate that Tony. It's been so long since I've done that. 27 times, is that right?
Tony: Yeah.
Dean: Yeah.
Tony: 27.5. Yeah.
Dean: 27 times your additional investment in that first bundle of 165 leads. So that's kind of a pretty amazing outcome when you look at it any way you slice it. I mean, it's a pretty amazing thing considering you really only had to put up the first five or $6,000 of it and then you got the money back and did it again. So your $5,000 turned into 330,000 in the first year. That's pretty impressive. What would you say?
Tony: Yeah. Even if it's-
Dean: Go ahead. Even if even what?
Tony: Yeah. I mean, even if the commissions rose, even the commission like a lot of the deals are earlier, so sale prices are lower. Even if it was at 11,000 or 12,000, it's still very high multiplier.
Dean: Yes. That's exactly right. I think that's pretty cool. What's been the most interesting thing that's happened over the six years? Have you had any-
Tony: It's like going back-
Dean: ...have you had any really interesting things like...?
Tony: I think, yeah, I think like speaking of compounding, like having a brand kind of in the area now.
Dean: Yeah. Well, let's not be bothered and call it a brand, but being the number one agent in the area in the area.
Tony: Yes, in the area. Yeah, I mean, that gave up a lift to the conversion process for sure. Think it's top of my consciousness, more responses from emails. Generally, it's a lot different. Is people are asking me questions more than me more like reaching out to people. It's a big difference overall, let's say in the... Especially in the last like say out of the six years, let's say the last two, two and a half years have really, really been a game changing experience as far as a conversion.
Dean: And you can notice it on the steepness of the ascent at the right end of the infographic now. You notice like the steepness of the revenue curve going up at a steeper, faster pace and more volume. Because when you look at it now, we looked in that sixth year, you did transactions with people from every year from 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19.
So people responded in each of those years, and you did transactions on the value of it. It's the magic of compound interest, right? It's all the people who were... it's now, but you started that process years ago to get to the point where you're in the mix when it's now.
Tony: Mm-hmm (affirmative) Yeah, when the times ready the consistency always wins. That was another big like mindset shift. Is never stop... I mean, you're doing great, consistently doing transactions without this chasing clients, and you got it automated somewhat.
I'm always keeping it in check and always tweaking things every year, every six months. But you're just making sure that you don't stop. And that was a big shift because there's really, sometimes there's people that it doesn't take years to respond and people responding like want to do something within 30 days of receiving the marketing.
Dean: Yes. I agree that's what was... That's the great thing is that's kind of what I was saying about the value that you not only get. In year six, you have something that nobody else has, which is you have a ongoing relationship with people who responded five years ago and are now getting ready to list their house, which is a... and you've established a brand.
I don't know, have I shared this with you? I've came up with a acronym for brand, now can everybody... I've never heard a definition of brand that I was ever really happy with. And so what I've come up with now is a brand, establishing a brand, B-R-A-N-D, is to establish a buying reflex affecting now decisions. That's really what we're going for here, is that the only, because the only decisions that matter, the only two timeframes that matter are that it's now or not now.
And that's where we're really... that's where you have the strength is that it's equally, it's okay to you, unfazed if it's not now, because you know that at some point it's going to be now. And what you have the advantage of, the longer you do this is you have more opportunities for it to be now and more time and more people that you've established that buying reflex with.
When people three years ago responded because they were scratching this itch of a thought of maybe we'll sell our house and buy a bigger house, or maybe it's time to start a family, or maybe it's time to have another kid and we need a bigger house. And that all of these may be things start out with somebody curiously wanting to know in the research phase, well, how much is my house worth right now? Like, what would that do? Just so they can kind of put some numbers to their dreams or their thoughts.
And then you patiently, every month for three years, continuing to keep them updated with that information. And as that dream turns into a plan and that plan turns into it's time to list our house, the buying reflex that you've established is let's call Tony. And that's pretty amazing. So I love to see that, and I love that it's becoming more valuable over time.
Tony: Yeah, that's a great way to break it down. Yeah, exactly.
Dean: So how does it happen now when it happens? How the last couple of listings that you've gotten, how does it actually come about?
Tony: Yeah, so sometimes it's I would say most of the time it's an email. I would say-
Dean: That they email you and say?
Tony: Yeah. Hey, I'm just curious about what this sold for in the same neighborhood? Or can you resend me a full market analysis through mail like you did last time? Come list my house.
Dean: Hey, Tony, come list my house.
Tony: Yeah. So come listen to house. I'm kind of opening up on their timing and motivation right on the email.
Dean: The love letter we call it.
Tony: Yeah. The love letter. And I would say that's majority of the way.
Dean: They call you and they're ready and you go over. And are you often competing or are you often the only one that they've called?
Tony: You know what, I'd say 80%, there's no competition. 20% it is.
Dean: Right. You're the one.
Tony: Yeah.
Dean: But then the 20% of the time you're in the house because of that, but they're looking at other options as well?
Tony: Yeah. They have family members in the business or it's this other guy's been knocking their door for the past 10 years. So that's basically what happens in that 20%.
Dean: Yeah. So you're in there then?
Tony: Yeah.
Dean: That's awesome. I mean, the whole... I just love that that's such a surprise and delight that shows up on your day. I mean you get the call and, or the email and you never know when it's coming, but there it is. And it happens enough.
Tony: There it is.
Dean: Yeah. There it is. I wonder how many, this would be an interesting thing, do you remember were there any of the 22 that listed with someone else that you went in to see and then they chose somebody else or did they go-
Tony: Yeah.
Dean: ...they would almost have to-
Tony: I think out of that, yeah, exactly that. Out of the 22, I think there is like four or five like I haven't met personally, but I've been keeping in touch with like looking at all the emails. Just going back and forth with them a long time ago. So there were some people communicating with me. Yeah.
Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fascinating.
Tony: It is. You can break the data down so many ways.
Dean: Oh man, I know. What other numbers would you think would be interesting or important or what kinds of things are you curious about?
Tony: I think more ways of... it's a good question. I would say more like what other ways are you touching them that's giving value?
Dean: Yeah. Like you wonder what could you have done for the other 22? Like what difference could that have made?
Tony: Yeah. Exactly.
Dean: What could you do?
Tony: I think that would be something.
Dean: Yeah, because you look at that, let's say that there's 165, this is just how I break things down like that. So if you have 165 of them and one commission is worth $15,000, let's say, so I look at it that we've lost out on 22 of them. And what would it have taken? How much could we have in a budget if we were willing to say how much could you have gotten one more for? Like if you take 15,000 and divide it over six years is how many months? Six years is 72 months. So 500, that's $500 a month. Is that about right? No.
Tony: No. Hold on. So I calculate this.
Dean: 15,000 divided by 70.20 like you and I our math skills. 15,000 divided by-
Tony: 208.
Dean: ...72, 200 bucks a month, yeah. Divided by 165. So we could have done another mailing just to those, or a more formal quarterly, form a bigger quarterly type of thing, or an annual thing to people, or a handwritten note to them. Or you start to think about what kinds of things could you have deployed that would have been... that maybe would have made a difference. How much of the... what kind of market maker activities are you doing?
Tony: Yeah. When we get looking in the area, a specific type of home or a certain neighborhood, I would generally, I don't do it enough, but I should be doing it more than I do currently. But we send out just a simple email just saying we have buyers looking... we have a buyer particularly, we tell a little bit about their situation and preapproved and we're actively looking and haven't found anything in the area that suits our needs. And if you have this type of home we're ready to make a move with your preferred closing date kind of thing. Kind of keep it short as possible. Nothing fancy and just to that particular neighborhood.
Dean: Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah, that whole thing. I wonder, in our GoGoAgent community, one of the things that I try very hard to establish is this habit of market maker Monday. And that I think is a big... I'm thinking about starting for this year, this school year, a market maker Monday text reminder, sending out just a quick like motivational kind of message on Monday, reminding people who are you working with today? Who are you showing houses to this week? Who are you going to see about selling their house this week? And who could you connect those people with? If somebody's got that every Monday morning for a year and it prompted them to do it 80% of the time, it could a huge impact for them.
Tony: Oh, yeah, I mean, yeah. That market maker is, you have this secret inventory and why not? Like it's matching the buyer and seller, and a lot of the times you get people to say, "Hey, come on over." It's pretty fascinating.
Dean: I look at this like I'm pretty excited that we've got the listing agent lifestyle event coming up in October in Toronto on the 19th and 20th, and the Sunday this year, day two is going to be about the future of real estate and applying all of the, not so much the distant like far off future, but the future that is actually actionable right now. Like what's happening right now and in the next three years that we can actually deploy to move forward here.
And one of the things that is really gaining traction, of course, is the iBuyer situation, where people open door and Zillow instant offers and Offerpad and all these companies in the States that are offering just click this button and we'll buy your house type of situations, which is really what... it's a fantasy in a lot of ways, right? That people would love to just be done with it. But how do you compete right now in a situation where there's awareness of that even if there's not availability of it in a market? Is anybody doing that in Toronto? Yeah. Are there any of iBuyer moves yet?
Tony: No, not yet-
Dean: No.
Tony: ...but it will be. It's just a matter of time.
Dean: Yeah. Uh-huh (Affirmative) And so I look at that this being a market maker, this opportunity of connecting buyers and sellers is your opportunity to really create an opportunity to be almost like an iBuyer level of convenience for people.
Tony: Yeah.
Dean: And if we take-
Tony: It could be at a better price as well that your-
Dean: Well, that's where we have-
Tony: ...iBuyer.
Dean: ...that thing. That's where we have the opportunity, right? Like, if you take Jeff Bezos model of what's not going to change in the next 10 years, and what hasn't changed in the last 30 years is that people who are selling their home forever have wanted three things. They want to get the most money in the least amount of time with the least amount of hassles. That's the three... that's the trifecta that drives everything, right?
And so what is going to be disrupted if we think about the tech enabled stuff doing it, so it's the least amount of hassle and the fastest amount of time, those are things that technology is really going to disrupt and already has. I mean, in terms of all of the facilitating moves., I mean, when you look at the DocuSign and you look at all of the E documents, you look at as blockchain comes, but even electronic title, the loan process, all of the stuff, everything around the processing and the paperwork of a transaction is a fraction of the amount of work that it was when I first started out in real estate.
When I started out, Tony, we had to make paper copies, six copies of an offer. And every time there was a change, you had to make it on all six copies and physical signatures, where you had to drive all the way to Scarborough. If you were buying a house in the Holton Hills, you'd have to drive or meet in Mississauga to get the signature and initials on the counter offer, and then meet again to get the final thing.
So the actual business of doing all that is much reduced. But where we have the biggest opportunity, where the disruption is the most amount of money. People want the most money in the least amount of time with the least amount of hassle. Well, they're not getting the most money with the iBuyers. They're choosing the fastest time with the least amount of hassle, and the premium that they're paying for that is that they're not getting the most money and that gap between they're paying the full commission plus a convenience fee and the risk fee, and whatever all of that leads up to that. That there's a gap between what the maximum net dollars could be for them, that we've got the opportunity to maximize for people.
I think that's really what it's coming down to and controlling the market, where if you've got the buyers and the sellers and you're the interface, that's really a power position and it allows you to offer the convenience and the time, right?
Tony: Yeah. Investors or traditional buyers, you have more options than the iBuyers.
Dean: The iBuyers. Yeah. Because they're limited only to... yeah.
Tony: What do they pay? I don't know. 70 cents on the dollar or whatever it is. It's a lot lower than your traditional buyer.
Dean: Absolutely. So as we look towards the next six years for that, I wonder what's going to happen. It's going to be amazing to see because I have every confidence that you're still going to be standing. You're still going to be the king of the county there in those areas.
I want to see... it's going to be interesting to project forward what's going to happen with the year two people who responded and the year three people, and there's still a lot of meat on the bone of the 165 that responded in year one that we're going to certainly have an opportunity to add to those numbers after the next 12 months and the next 12 months.
Tony: I wonder what is the longest response right now that you-
Dean: Well, Chuck Charlton texted me a couple of months ago that they had just a sold someone who responded to their first getting listings mailing in 2005, so 14 years.
Tony: That's the record then for sure.
Dean: I mean, it's [crosstalk 00:52:04] It's pretty amazing, and that's I think that's a pretty cool thing. Chuck's I-
Tony: That is cool.
Dean: ...been reignited here. He's really he's super excited about really ramping up again and that's cool. But I want your story, Tony, to be an encouragement to the people who are... I know for a fact that there are people who are listening to this right now that listened to the very first episode that we did as a podcast. They've been listening all along and they've not yet started going down that path or they're waiting still.
And I just think like even in the time since we started this, the two years since we had the conversation, just even in the last two years, it's been $250,000 or more in commissions just from as if you had started then.
Tony: Yeah. Time is going to go by anyways, so might as well start now.
Dean: I love that.
Tony: It can take two months, it could take five months. More you wait, the more you're losing out. It's as simple as that.
Dean: I said to somebody, you must see it in the forum in the Gogo Agent forum too, that I see it a lot of, okay, here's my numbers so far. They're about to mail their fourth or fifth month or the third month or whatever it is. And I was looking at one of the most recent ones, they had chosen an area of... they were mailing to 600 homes and they had generated eight leads in the first three months. And the area that they chose had a 6% turnover rate, or 6.7% turnover rate.
So I just broke down the math and said, "Okay, listen, you've chosen 600 homes, you've nailed three times, you've gotten the eight people to respond. If we just take like the full response rate here, over the course of the next 12 months, there are going to be somewhere around 40 people who are going to sell their house out of these 600, right? Between six and 7%. So let's call it 40 people, you've generated eight leads in the first three months, which is almost 25% of all of the potential people who could possibly sell their house. And it's like, I think people when you actually do the math, when you realize the only 40 people you're talking to this year are the ones who are going to sell their house in the next 12 months. If you're thinking that short term, like with an expectation of a result at this point.
So I see people switching gears too quickly, switching tracks, worried that it's not happening fast enough or maybe they've chosen the wrong thing. But I think when you can... if you could identify 20, 25% of all the prospects who are going to sell their health for the next 12 months in your first three months, that's a pretty good, you're off to a pretty good start. Yeah.
Tony: Yeah. I mean like there is a little bit of effort setting it up. I find with the more... I mean, I find like the work part of it, it's kind of one time you got to kind of be more niche with it. I think the response rates increase. I think that's another misconception out there with it as well.
Dean: Like part of... How many areas are you mailing?
Tony: I started with about six, seven areas. Now we're at around 31 areas.
Dean: 31. And this is the thing is that that's a key distinction that you're making there because a lot of times people would look for like, let's make it easier and let's just say Southwest Scarborough, that would encompass everything. That makes it easier because then you could just mail one thing, but that's not the same, is it?
Tony: Mm-mm (Negative) No. The horoscope effect or... Yeah, it's about me. It's about what's local to me, what's my area. I mean, that's what gravitates the response for sure.
Dean: Yes. Yeah.
Tony: I mean like setting that up, you just got to find out what like people talk about in your area, the community, or a certain landmark, or you find out what is the lingo in your area and you focus on-
Dean: And by lingo you mean if you ask them, where do you live, what would they say?
Tony: Yes.
Dean: I live at Kennedy and whatever. Yeah.
Tony: Kennedy, yeah, or a named community, or maybe people say I live by a landmark or whatever it is, you know?
Dean: Yeah.
Tony: It all depends on the area.
Dean: That is why people do live in a named area. That's the best. That certainly is where people would say. People ask me where I live, especially if they live in Winter Haven. You look at, it's interesting. If I'm saying it to somebody, if I'm in Amsterdam and people say, where do you live? Well, I live in Florida. That's the only distinction they need to know. If I'm in the United States, then I'd say I live in Orlando, which is like the level of scale that people need to know. But if I am talking to somebody in Florida, I live in Winter Haven, that's the level of thing, but in Winter Haven, I'd say I live in Valhalla because that's how we make that distinction. And if I'm talking to somebody in Valhalla, I live on Waldenway. That's really the... The thing is that level of familiarity where people say, that's me.
Tony: Yeah. That's a great distinction, yeah.
Dean: So what do you think, Tony? What are you excited about for the next six years?
Tony: Just keeping this up and seeing that graph grow even more. The beauty of it, it's going to happen for sure, as long as I keep doing what I'm doing.
Dean: Yeah. It's inevitability.
Tony: It's inevitable, yeah, and it's an asset. I just got to keep it up. In Canada, we have a little bit of glitches sometimes that come in the way with our postal service. I don't know how the States works, but here you got to keep working around there, walks and ask-
Dean: Yes. They keep changing it.
Tony: ...and especially when you're doing... They keep changing it, yeah. Like I would say it's not often, but it's every 12 months or so, or every 18 months. But yeah, that's what I'm excited about. Scaling it even bigger than it is now in the future for sure, maybe doubling it even.
Dean: Wow. That's all very exciting. Well, you know Chuck text me, the other day we were chatting and he said to tell you there's a new sheriff in town, so I don't know what he means by that, but that sounds like he's come ready guns blazing.
Tony: That sounds big enough for the both of us. All right, yeah. I got to reach out to check. Yeah, see what he's up to.
Dean: Yeah, of course. Yeah. That's amazing.
Tony: Get some nuggets from it.
Dean: Yeah. Well, we'll see and that would be fun. I would love to have a conversation about that in Toronto. On Sunday we'll have some conversation about the immediate future here of getting listings. I'd love to have you and Chuck share as we're talking about it. So I think that'll be awesome.
Tony: Yeah, that would be-
Dean: Cool.
Tony: Yeah. That's exciting stuff. October the Sunday, right? Yeah.
Dean: Yeah, yeah.
Tony: The archangels before, yes.
Dean: That's right. I love that. It's going to be a great event. I love it. I've always loved that weekend. Cool.
Tony: All right. Thanks, Dean.
Dean: All right.
Tony: It's always a great you.
Dean: I'm going to let you back to it. And we'll let this be an encouragement to the people. If you're listening to this and you listened to Tony the first time and you didn't start doing your getting listings, mailings in a particular area, let's not wait another two years to watch it take off. Let's let it be you. Let's have you be the case study here. So that would be very exciting. All right Tony, thank you so much.
Tony: Awesome.
Dean: I'll talk to you soon.
Tony: Thanks Dean. Talk soon. Bye.
Dean: Okay, bye.
And there we have it. Another great episode and if you'd like to continue the conversation, you can go to listingagentlifestyle.com. You can download a copy of the listing agent lifestyle book, the manifesto that shares everything that we're talking about here. And you can be a guest on the show if you'd like to talk about how we can build a listing agent lifestyle plan for your business, just click on the be a guest link@listingagentlifestyle.com.
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