Today on the Listing Agent Lifestyle podcast we're talking with Justina Courtney, from Burlington in Canada, just outside of Toronto.
Justina is a newer real estate agent, coming up on a year. She's been with us at GoGoAgent since January, and has been mailing the Getting Listings program in very specific areas. She's really going all in on trying to get listings in a particular townhouse area, so we talked a little bit about the strategy behind that.
She’s following a program we developed with Julie Matthews here in Winter Haven, mailing a multiple week sequence, at the peak listing time of the market, where people are mostly listing their homes. Julie went from a 0% market share in a particular area to having generated five of the next 24 listings that came on the market. A 20% market share.
Both Justina and Ron Reed are duplicating that process and we're watching it all unfold in our GoGoAgent forum right now.
So, today we talked a little about that, and then we talked about some strategies for Justina to generate business now, while waiting for the Getting Listing program to kick in.
I think you're really going to enjoy this. Justina's going to be a great story. She's doing all the right moves, and she's got the disciplined execution to make it all happen.
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Transcript: Listing Agent Lifestyle Ep021
Dean: Justina Courtney.
Justina: Hello Dean, how are you?
Dean: I am so good, how are you?
Justina: Fantastic.
Dean: I just got back from Chicago where it was a little colder than it is right now in Florida.
Justina: Yes, I can imagine, but you're used to it, you're-
Dean: Similar to what you're used to right now.
Justina: Yes, we've had crazy spring almost weather. So I'm kind of over it now.
Dean: A fall spring, yeah.
Justina: Yes.
Dean: Well welcome, I'm very excited to get to talk with you here. I want to hear all about Justina Courtney's story. I know I've been watching, we've been chatting, and seeing all the stuff that you're implementing right now, but it's going to be nice to hear the whole thing, and take our time, and really map out a good plan for us here.
Justina: Excellent. I'm excited to share.
Dean: So tell me, you're in Burlington Ontario, which is just outside of Toronto, for anybody not familiar with the greater Toronto area. But tell me about your story here, how did you get in to real estate, and what's been the history of how we ended up here?
Justina: Well, to begin at the beginning, I used to be in mortgages about 10 years ago. Then got married, started a family. I actually got my real estate license two weeks before I had my daughter, thinking I could handle it all-
Dean: "I can do it all."
Justina: ... and then I realized I couldn't. Oh yeah, I'm superwoman.
Dean: Real estate's easy compared to mortgages. Yeah, just go out and show homes, list homes, yeah.
Justina: Exactly, with a newborn in tow, and yeah we did. The first few I did I actually had to bring her with me, she was like five weeks old, so it was pretty funny. Then my husband's business kind of took off, and it went on the back burner. And I'd say a little bit less than a year ago I just said the kids are big enough. I kind of missed doing my own thing being in sales, so decided to get back into it. And it's a little bit of a different world, not only because now I have children, so I can't work those 12, 16 hour days like I used to, now I've got the children, and the market's ... things have changed. When I used to do mortgages, there were no smart phones yet. I mean it was just before ... I mean things have changed a lot, so I realized I've got to do some training kind of to get up to speed.
Dean: Those smart phones, listen, when I started there was no cell phones. That was, we were just getting wired phones.
Justina: I know, fax machines were cutting edge.
Dean: That's exactly right.
Justina: Oh, I know. So I just said, "Okay I need to get some training to get up to speed." To catch up to all the young'uns. So I've done some different training, and there's good, bad and ugly with everything, and I actually came across you. I think it was early January, I actually got an email for a podcast. It was you and Joe Polish, and it was just things you were saying. I'm like, "Wow," I said. "This guy's kind of the same wavelength as me." I don't like to be too pushy, but I don't want to just wait for it to fall on my lap. I felt like Goldilocks with the three bears.
Dean: Right, there you go.
Justina: So okay, just right. And I thought for sure you were from the States, and then I did a little bit of research, I'm like wow this guy's from Georgetown. He's not too far from where I am. So I thought okay, then. He'll understand the Canadian market, so extra points there. And I don't know how I ended up finding GoGoAgent that same day. And I said, "Okay, you know what? It's a no brainer. One month trial, let me try it," and it's been fantastic, it's been fantastic, so yeah.
Dean: Well that's great, awesome. Well I love it, so let's maybe talk. What would be the best thing for you right now? What would be the thing that would be most helpful for you right now?
Justina: Okay so I've implemented from day one the "Getting Listings", and I've been getting quite a bit of response, but of course the market is, you know, here things are kind of changing. A lot of people are taking a "wait and see" attitude. I love the fact that now not only do I send them initial contact, with the packages, but I'm sending them something monthly. So I know I'm staying in their mind without being a pain.
Dean: Right, you're staying in the right people's minds, right.
Justina: Exactly. And I'm giving them what they want, and I'm staying in the loop with them. It's a little hard because having done sales before, I kind of want to be a little more aggressive, so-
Dean: Oh, right, right, right.
Justina: ... sometimes I'm like a little torn. I'm like, "Okay do I call them a little more? Do I not call them?" So I'm still kind of trying to figure out the right balance.
Dean: Yeah. I got it.
Justina: You know you come across different people, like I got one lead yesterday, and it was a senior couple. They're in their 80s and they're actually looking to downsize. They're going to move into a retirement home. I can tell by the tone of his voice he's a little bit ... He's ready but not quite ready. So sending the package to him is a great idea to let him know everything that's going on and stay in touch with him. But I know with him it's probably going to be a couple months to a year before they're ready to make their move.
Dean: Yeah. And that's the greatest temptation, is to want to try and jump in and rush into it, and you have this patience, and the good news is that's why I've really been focusing on doing this "Listing Agent Lifestyle" podcast to share both the stories of people who've been doing this long term, and then to have conversations like this with people who are just getting started with it. So you've seen and been exposed to the results that happen with that patient sort of approach, and so you're in a situation where ... When did you start the "Getting Listings" program? In January, you said?
Justina: Yeah, mid-January. Well I signed up in January, and I think it was a week or two before I sent all my first postcards, by the time I got them.
Dean: So really for January, February, March. So three months, really, that we're talking about it, or four months? Even if the very first lead that you got, the first response that you got, had not really even been in much more than 90 days, right? So it feels like you've been doing it longer in a way, because you've got all this anticipation and everything, but the reality is everything is right on track.
You're getting the responses, you're identifying people who are very highly likely to sell their house over the next 12 months, 24 months, 36 months. You're building this inventory of secret sellers that you know all about that nobody else does, you know, and I think that's fantastic. You're doing townhouses?
Justina: Yes, you advised me about a month ago. There's certain area that I wanted to target, but there's two teams that are really tight in there, so you were recommending I focus on the townhouses, and actually I was surprised, because I had to hand deliver those post cards and some of them kind of got surprised. I think I ordered 500, and I had a great workout over two days, dropping those off.
Dean: You realized, "Wow, that's a lot of post cards," right, when you hand deliver them.
Justina: Yeah, because I was thinking I could separate. I thought with every door direct mail I could separate them, but they're like, "No, that's our area and that's it. You can't pick and choose which type of houses." So I'm like, "Okay, no worries, and I'm going to put these things to good use," and I did, and I actually got ... I think out of those 500, I think I ended up getting three responses out of it.
Dean: Nice, okay. That's great, because now you've got what we talked about as a very identifiable specific target market. And townhouse is one of those things where now you've got a category, and so if you've chosen 500 of them to start, and that's wise. To start with something that you can manage, and then parlay into more and more. How many townhouses are there ultimately if you were to...?
Justina: If I were to guesstimate, in the two kinds of areas that I was focusing on, there's way more. Beause I drove around the neighborhood, and the ones that were in the neighborhood that I really wanted, I dropped those off, and then when I was done there was still more out here. So I would say at least 1000, if not more units, within all the townhouses.
Dean: Oh yeah, awesome. I would imagine in a place like that there's more than that even.
Justina: Yeah, probably more, and they're all different. You've got some higher end ones, you've got some mid-range ones, kind of got the more starter ones. So you've got a nice spread for all across.
Dean: I love it, yeah. So that's great because some of the townhouses are a transitional thing that you get. They're appealing to first time buyers, and the people from the townhouses are moving up and they're densely packed, so that when you get one of the listings that you get a lot of interest in activity from within the townhouse complex, that it's sort of nice to make some inroads in something like that. We've seen that happen a lot with our listing multipliers, doing it that way, that you get a lot of activity there. That's very exciting.
So now the whole thing is really about the disciplined execution of continuing to do it, just month, after month, after month. And that was the point to Tony Kalsi's case study, the document infographic that we did, and realizing that Tony did his first transaction after five months. But within then going on to 15 or 16 more transactions with people who responded in the first five months over the next four years, and some of them three and a half years later. So it's really like building that asset.
Almost like one of the things I said at the GoGoAgent Academy if you're in Florida, was if I could get people to think about making the investment in doing the "Getting Listings" program for one area over an entire year, as a CD. Like an investment, a Certificate of Deposit, that has a one year or two year maturity date. That that would be so much better for people to wrap their mind around, you know? Is if they were investing in it with that we're going to measure the return on it one year from when the investment was made. And it plays out like that, it's really such a multiplier when you think about it long term like that.
Justina: Yes definitely. Well I loved in the calls, and from the GoGoAgent Academy that you posted, just this week, or last week, the one with Cyndee, and the one with the whole group. I love Cyndee's point about the open houses, 'cause some of the training I received for when I first started off, was they were poo-pooing on open houses. It's like, "You don't need to do them." So I'm like, "Okay, well, I guess they're not good." But the way she explained it from now business, the people who are coming in to an open house are, and just all the ways to leverage this.
And I think in the last academy call we had, I went to lunch with another agent in a neighboring town. She had had six listings, sold them all, and now she's freaking out because she has nothing. And I'm like, "Oh, that's the difference." It's like if you use that open house not to just sell that house, but to get to know you, like you, and trust you, you're giving the neighborhood that opportunity to get to know you, to like you, and trust you, say, "Hey, she's serious, she's not just an agent who's going to throw my listing on and then call it a day." So I'm like wow-
Dean: That's exactly right.
Justina: ... so I'm trying to see with my broker if I can leverage some of the listings in the office and just say, "Hey listen, I'm willing to do an open house for some agents who maybe might not be as inclined to want to do an open house," and split it with them, I don't care, but it's an opportunity for me to get my foot in the door with the neighborhood. So we're working on that right now.
Dean: Yeah, how many agents in your office?
Justina: Just under 40, I believe.
Dean: So it's very interesting, and I've done this with different offices, that if you do a collective listing multiplier index, where you have the people look at how you're doing as an office, with people multiplying their listings. And it's always the same thing, people predominately fall in that their listing multiplier index is usually either from .8 to 1.5 at the most, and that's just one of the biggest opportunities collectively that an office can have to raise the boat for everybody, in a lot of ways.
Like I would encourage them to do a "Market Maker Monday's," or whenever they do the meeting, to go through this idea again of collaborating, to you've got your secret inventory of listing potentials, and they've got their potential buyers who people are working with. And think about it, if that was built into an office environment where it was really about market making, you know. If everybody was like, "Here's who I'm showing houses to this week," and if you then had the ability, because you know that somebody's working with somebody who's looking at townhouses this week.
If you were to be able to go to your townhouse people, and I wouldn't do this til they've been in your system for probably 60 days or so, once they've had the chance that you're just not about trying to get them to list right now. But to be able to email them and say, "Hey Justina, I was just talking with one of my colleagues whose showing townhouses this week, and there's only a couple for sale in whatever the name of the area is. And I remember looking up your townhouse when I sent you the townhouse report. It seems like it might be a match."
That kind of engagement with people is so much more powerful than, "Hey, just checking in. Are you getting the newsletters? Are you enjoying them?" That kind of stuff is just so passive, you know? Whereas when you've got something that is valuable, it's very respectful, and you're basically saying, "I don't know what your plans are, but I thought I'd check in and see if maybe I can tell them about your townhouse and may be able to match them up with this couple from Bickery."
You know that kind of communication with people is the real value of doing this patient lead generation, and lead nurturing, you know?
Justina: And I've actually gotten to that point when I've been able to do that, and it feels so much better making that phone call. Beause I had sent out post cards with my other trainee, and I got a lead on a townhouse ironically, back in November, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to put it on the market. Well I put out some Facebook ads for buyers, for townhouses, and I got someone who actually wanted that area. The right number of bedrooms and baths, and to be able to call her and say, "Hey listen, I don't know if the timings right for you, but I have someone who's interested." And I could hear her pause and go, "Is this like a for real buyer?"
Dean: Yeah, exactly.
Justina: And I've had to make calls before where you're just touching base, and she could tell she was kind of annoyed, but when she saw that it was for real. Of course again the timing wasn't right, but now she knows I'm legitimate. I'm not calling just to harass her.
Dean: Yeah. And that's the most important thing is that you only do that when it's completely legitimate. When it's people who are looking this week. That it's not, "Hey, I've got these people who that thinking about it, let me kind of run it by." Not pie in the sky kind of buyers, but people that are actually looking right now. Like physically going out to see. That's why this idea of creating that culture within an office environment of sharing that kind of thing is really helping everybody.
Justina: Yeah, and even to the buyers approach, like when I went to go show them another open house, and they said, "Well I have this one, maybe. I don't know," and he was excited. He was like, "Let's drive by, I just want to see the complex." Now I know I have that buyer because he knows that I might have things before they go on the market, so he's not going to leave me.
Dean: Right, well that's exactly it. And that's what's becoming more and more important. What I'm really seeing is that the big shift in the last 30 years, because I've always said when I first started out we had all the power information wise, right. We were the only source to get it, as realtors we had that bible. That MLS catalog, and now it's completely shifted that every buyer has access to every property instantly. They can get all the information about it, and now what your edge is, what your value is, is the people who are not yet on the market.
That's where your real edge is, and that's where you can really shine when you're doing patient lead generation. And looking for not only the people that the listing side of it, not just trying to identify all the potential townhouse sellers, but also now you can find the category buyers as well. And match them up. That becomes really interesting. And that's a competitive advantage, that's how you go in and you kind of strip away little by little from a dominant agent in an area right out from under them without them even knowing what's happening.
Because they're predominately focused on, and banking on, and trading on name recognition. That everybody knows they're the specialist. So what happens is that traditionally they've gotten the call because they're top of mind, because they've been personally promoting in that area for a long time. Promoting their brand and their name, and so when people are thinking about selling they'll call them as an opinion certainly, but only when they're ready to go. Like they would call people and say, "We're interviewing agents," or "We want to sell our house, can you come over and see us?" but what we're doing is identifying those people months before they would ever call that person. Because they know that they're not ready to list right now, you know?
Justina: Mm-hmm (affirmative) Exactly.
Dean: And that's how we can slowly kind of start taking over an area. It's fascinating.
Justina: Yep.
Dean: So let's talk about your, this is really kind of your first year back now? Or how long has it been since you've been-
Justina: June it'll be a year.
Dean: Okay, perfect.
Justina: We're close, yeah.
Dean: All right. Let's talk about your after unit a little bit. Your top 150, have you got all of that set up? Or what's your situation there?
Justina: It not my top 150, it's more like my top 50, but I do ... Right away when I first started, I instantly started utilizing the "World's Most Interesting Postcard". Right away I sent it to a list of people, and I was kind of torn. I remember at the very beginning talking to Diane about this, I'm like, "I'm torn," because I had just moved to his area. In July it's going to be two years. So my brother had lived here, but apart from that I really didn't know too many people in the neighborhood.
Dean: Yeah.
Justina: I'm slowing getting to know other parents from my kids school, whereas I had grown up in Mississauga, so I had family, friends. And most of my post cards are going there, and I would gladly work on any deals there that I was refereed to or given to, but to market that area it's a little too far. It's about a good 40 minutes away, so I was torn. But she said, "Well get something out," because you never know. A lot of people from Toronto, Mississauga, are moving out here just like we did.
Dean: Like you did, yeah exactly, right.
Justina: Yeah, and I've met a lot of other people that they're originally from Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, they move out here. So they may come across someone, and if I'm sending that post cards on a regular basis every month, they'll remember. "Oh yeah, she's that serious. She's in, and I know her, so here's her number." So I am doing that. I think I'm going to extend it to more people, like start giving it to my hairdresser here, or the kids' hairdresser, or my husband's hairdresser.
Dean: Right, right, right.
Justina: Again, you never know. You never know.
Dean: You do never know. Julie Matthews here would give one of the people on her list with her nail tech, who actually owned the salon, but that was one of the funny like first stores from the "World's Most Interesting Postcard", is she ... Of course we were running it all from our office for her, so she hadn't gotten her card in the mail yet, but her nail tech had, and she walked in and her nail tech gives her this big hug and said, "You just saved me $650." And Julie said, "Well how did I do that?" And she told her about the post cards. Said, "I got your post card and I have an antique table that has a water mark on it, and I was going to have to get it refinished. And I read on your post card if you put mayonnaise on it, it would bring out the ring, and I did, and it went away." So that was awesome.
Anyway, and in that time then, that the nail tech had bought an investment property as well from Julie. So you never know where or how it's going to happen, and being in touch with the people who know you and like you is such an advantage, because you never know when they're going to be in a conversation that could be turned into a referral for you, and instructing people on what to do is really the very best thing we can do.
Justina: Yeah it was funny because one of the post cards I did send out, I was reference the couple that was looking for the townhouse, and I forgot I mailed it to my girlfriend. She was like "Oh, tell me about the townhouse you're looking for," because ironically she was selling her townhouse in Oakville, or at least was thinking about it.
Dean: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Justina: So it was something I didn't really envision happening, so yeah. I'm definitely going to keep it up.
Dean: Yeah, awesome. And that's really one of the things, you know. You're in a situation now where this is a building year. You're building kind of a land foundation for you. You continue that pace now over the longer that we get into the year here, the longer people have been in your universe here.
Justina: And I think Ron and I are also doing the operation spring sequence, I think you're a little ahead of me, so I just-
Dean: Yes, let's talk about that, because I was super excited to see that you guys were doing that. That really takes a special discipline.
Justina: Well he graciously sent me the PDFs, well actually the post cards on Canva where I was able to edit them. But he just put the phone number, and I took it one step further into the phone number and a domain name. With the landing pages from GoGoAgent. I know the lead I got yesterday was via phone call, the voice touch. I can't remember the first one I had, but the funny thing is when I sent on Monday the second batch to get delivered, and somehow they had sent it to the wrong area. And the reason I knew is my brother had told me, because they sent it to his neighborhood in Burlington.
Dean: Oh no.
Justina: And my domain name was like Millcross townhouse, or Millcross home values or something like that. And I thought, "Oh shoot, now that was a perfect waste of money." But I ended up getting a phone call from it yesterday anyways. So it was like, okay. I had some left from that batch, because I think it was like 700, or 800, so I was like, okay I'll mix that with some from next week's batch, and I'll just send it out today, and that'll be this weeks for the correct, because I know you say you stressed the same area continuously, and I think he and I are doing Kelly.
Dean: Yeah, there's the thing, like this was a campaign that we did with Julie Mathews here, mailing into an area where she really had no listings or no activity in there, and the hypothesis here- Everything that I do here is really taking this scientific method approach, where we have a hypothesis and then we test it with controlled variables, so that we can see what happens. And so the big idea was to pick an area and mail. Instead of spreading out over 12 months, mail over 12 weeks; the peak 12 weeks of the year. In every marketplace there's usually two little peaks and valleys throughout the year, and so we mailed leading up to the busiest time, and for you, the spring is really the big leap, you're right in the middle of it right now.
Justina: Yeah. I was torn, like do I start it now, but I figured go for it anyway, what have I got to lose?
Dean: Right, exactly. So our idea in that was not so much not to identify people in the same way that we do with the "Getting Listings" program, with the long term approach, but to identify people who are going to be making that decision in these next 12 weeks here. To be just persistently and consistently right there in front of them with really just compelling messages, that are going to stimulate somebody to call and be in the conversation when it's time for them to put their house on the market.
So we did that with Julie, we started, and then from in that period she went from no listings to getting five of the next 24 listings that came on the market. And of course that extended beyond the 12 weeks that we mailed. But it was five of the next 24 listings. That's all we really measure, right? Is "Are we making an impact on the people who are listing their homes?" So when you look at it that- How many homes are you doing that mailing with?
Justina: About a thousand as well.
Dean: Okay, so you're doing a thousand.
Justina: Yeah. I've got three different things going on. So I've got this campaign on, I've got the townhouse one, and I've also got just a regular Millcross neighborhood one.
Dean: Got it, okay great. All right, you're all in. I like that. So when you look at it, that kind of thing. When the way that we would measure it, and I'm going to ask both you and Ron to do the measurements here, is to pay attention and see how many townhouses come on the market in this period of time that you're looking for here. So if you've mailed for two weeks now, I wouldn't expect that nobody is going to notice the sort of ... what's the right word here? The not overwhelmingness, but they're-
Justina: Continuity?
Dean: They're not going to notice the continuity of it after one mailing, right? You mailed one post card, that's not making that impression as much as, "Oh, here's another one." That's sort of like that same thing, and then by the third one, now you can recognize a pattern. And if it continues to come, that we're week three, week four, week five, week six. Now they know you, and now they're either impressed by this, or that at least they're thinking, "Okay wow, this Justina is active in here." And that brings you into the mix then. That we should at least talk to Justina.
So it's really interesting that that's what we start to measure, is if you look at over the last 12 months how many listings have there been before you started mailing, and then did you happen to have any listings in there in the last 12 months?
Justina: No. No. No listings in this area at all.
Dean: Okay great, so anything that comes we'll know that you're making some penetration there, but now we look at how many have listed in the last two weeks since you've been doing it? We want to keep our eye on that, that's where we want to look at it. And I'll look back at the numbers for Julie here, and see how many listings there were before she got the first one.
Justina: Yeah, I think if I remember correctly in the topic she was a couple weeks, almost like a month, if not a little bit more, before she got her first listing there.
Dean: Maybe.
Justina: Yeah.
Dean: Actually, I might have it right here. Let's see. I love how I have all the archives of everything, it's like my scientific lab here.
Justina: Now, I don't know if I asked you, normally before I do something I ask your opinion/experience with it, but when I did the domain name, I don't know has anyone tried that before? On the 12 week campaign?
Dean: No, I don't know that they have, because when we were doing this it was all about the recorded messages. But, I think it would just enhance this, you know. We'll see. I did find, I'm looking right now ... I have a couple of different versions. We've got Julie's and then we have another agent here in Orlando, Rita Casey, I've got actually all 12 of the actual post cards that we mailed with her. So very cool. I don't have that, I don't see that chart.
But I will look back and see what actually happened. But yeah it was certainly, just going from memory on the thing, that it was certainly the second half of the mailing cycle that was when she started really getting every other or every third listing coming on there, which was cool. It's nice to have that kind of impact, because the thing about it is that if people are undecided, if they don't have a relationship with an agent that they already decided that they're going to list their house with, then it makes that decision, puts you in the mix.
Justina: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean: Yeah. So I'm excited to see how it all works out, especially now that you are doing some of the buyer things going on too. What were you doing on Facebook to find the-
Justina: I was running an ad; I actually just stopped that because I just wasn't getting those good quality ads on it. I'm going to try Craigslist, because if I get not the best leads, I didn't pay for them, so I don't care.
Dean: Ah, right.
Justina: But it was an ad for looking for townhouses and I just left a general in Burlington, and I put a price range. I can't remember if it was I think $380 up to $580, you know, certain bedrooms and baths. And then you get obviously people are looking for different things, so that's my excuse to call them saying, "Okay, just want more specific, what type of townhouse you want, because such a broad range in prices in one specific area," and get them to talk about what they want, and then I'll offer to send them the ... I started doing the townhouse Tuesday report-
Dean: I love, this is great.
Justina: ... so I spent lots of time on it.
Dean: Oh boy, this is really great.
Justina: So I send that to them, and I'm doing it all. I met on Monday with the mortgage specialists in the area, seeing about Friday afternoons. You know they set up a table, and you can talk to people come in, and having a copy of the report. You know, seeing if anybody wants it and give them a post card where they can go and sign up to get it. So I'm exploring as many options as possible.
Dean: Yeah, no this is all great. You're doing all the right moves, here. Here we are very early April, and so you've got a really good quarter of getting things going here first quarter, and you're planting the seeds for yourself here.
I'm excited, I've said to you on the forum and in other conversations, it's just I really appreciate your disciplined execution. It's refreshing to have people do stuff, that's kind of a cool thing.
Justina: Well it just feels like here you are giving us the blueprints. I will try things out on my own, just, "Here's an idea try it," but if someone's already tried something and it's proven to work, and especially if it's rather inexpensive to do it, like you're not spending thousands of dollars on it. I only pay I think $100 to mail out those post cards, and if I hand deliver it, it's obviously like five cents a post card, that's it.
Dean: Right, yeah.
Justina: Why not, why wouldn't I take advantage of that?
Dean: Yeah, that's exactly right.
Justina: I have to kind of calm myself down and say, "Okay, it's not going to happen tomorrow." Beause sometimes I'm like, "I'm so hungry for it," but I know it's going to happen. It's just the patience. Like I know it's all going to come together.
Dean: Yep. And that's why I always use things like these analogies that are investment wise. I live in Florida here, and we're surrounded by orange groves everywhere, and when you look at other businesses, if you think about it, because the orange grove business is a business, and when you plant an orange grove, they don't get any yield from the trees for three to five years. But then once the trees start to yield oranges, they yield for 20 years. So it's like all build in to the investment model of it.
I've just taken that approach, that's why I look at what we do with Tony Kalsi, with documenting everything. That consistent disciplined execution over a four year period yielded an 11.3 times multiple of all the money you spent over it. It's like you said, it's like we've already cracked the code, and we’re not making stuff up or just trying stuff. What I love about you were saying to go and deliver the post cards, how long did it take you to hand deliver?
Justina: To deliver them? Well fortunately the townhouses are easier than the homes, because usually townhouses are closer, because I was looking into ... Okay, in time I might want to, I just printed out the door hanger styles for the ones that are just sold, so I'm going to eventually, once things pick up, hire a college kid or a high school kid to do this for me. So already I'm like, okay, how long does it take to do 200? And I think it's like not even an hour to do 200.
Dean: Right.
Justina: If it's a townhouse. Homes obviously are going to be a little bit more because they're more spread apart.
Dean: Right.
Justina: But thankfully you picked the townhouses for me, so it's not so bad.
Dean: Yes, exactly. And it's such a good launchpad too, because probably 80% of the people in those townhouses will be going somewhere into a detached home. So moving up from there is going to be a good thing.
Justina: Oh and to answer your question, in that area that I had mailed, in the past two months, four have been listed.
Dean: Okay.
Justina: Yeah, two weeks.
Dean: Uh-huh (affirmative), two weeks, perfect.
Justina: Yes.
Dean: That's good, so you start watching this, and do you know what the turnover was in those areas? Like how many in the last 12 months were?
Justina: I will have to look it up I can't remember, but the reason I picked that area is because number one it wasn't as deeply enmeshed with those other agents. I guess it's not as expensive as that other area more to the north, like maybe just five minutes north of it. But it still was pretty good, I think per year it was like six something, 6.2% when you add up all the homes in the area.
Dean: That's good.
Justina: Not huge, but good enough. Good enough turnover.
Dean: Right.
Justina: And the days on market were pretty quick, too. I think it was, mind you that was when the market was hotter, but I think it was between two weeks and a month.
Dean: And what's that price range?
Justina: That area, it's again, between $650,000 and $750,000.
Dean: Wow, so that's great.
Justina: I'm a little bit lower.
Dean: No, I mean one transaction, you're really winning on that, that's awesome.
Justina: Yeah, I'm already way ahead.
Dean: Yeah, one transaction and then you'll immediately do all of the townhouses, and that will be the greatest thing. I can't wait to see your-
Justina: And then I'm hiring Diane after that.
Dean: Ah, there you go. I can't wait to see this chart that we play out. Yeah, that's the whole thing, is you're using what you have right now, which is time,
Justina: Beause I have to.
Dean: Yeah, I get it, and doing all these things, and it's kind of fun, to know and reminisce and look back at those things. Beause we're going to have this conversation in 12 months, in 24 months, and it's going to be a whole different world. So it's kind of nice to see it right from the very beginning.
Justina: And you've made it so easy, and Diane's a great support. She's so patient, so helpful. Even if I ask them, "Okay, how do I do this?" and stuff, she's so gracious with walking me through things. So God bless you and her for being there. You do hand everything on a silver platter, I mean everything's there in Canva and what have you, but sometimes you just need a little bit of extra hand holding and it's just nice to know there's somebody there to turn to.
Dean: I get it.
Justina: There are times when I feel a little bit of a lone wolf in here, so it's just nice to know that it's there.
Dean: Do you have any agents in your office that have townhouse listings?
Justina: No.
Dean: No.
Justina: And it's funny 'cause most of the listings ... I had changed off just because I was with an office since day one from Mississauga, and I changed almost a year ago in the fall. So like six, seven months ago, give or take, because I want an office here. And at the time they had a few listings in the area and I said great, but now whenever I look, like the past two months, there really haven't been any listings in my target area.
Dean: Right.
Justina: Most of them have actually been on the border of Burlington, and even like cities just outside. So that kind of like ugh. If I have to do an open house on one of the homes that aren't exactly in my target area, especially if it was a townhouse, fine. Beause you never know, someone might be open to going into my area, and someone has it. But it would be ideal-
Dean: Part of thing that if people ask me all the time, what would you do as a new agent? Like how would I get started? And I think that I would really take advantage of the tools that you have in GoGoAgent, just this idea of being a listing multiplier. I would look at partnering with or doing a joint venture with somebody who doesn't have time. Like a busy agent in your office who is the agent who gets all the listings, and they just put them in the MLS, and they sell, and they don't really do all of the proactive things that you could do. And really kind of position myself as a listing multiplier collaborator, to be able to say to somebody who's got listings, "Look, you're not doing an info box flier, you're not doing a single property website. You're not doing open house, you're not doing all of these things-"
Justina: The letters to neighbors, and -
Dean: Yeah, "let me partner with you on this, and on this listing. Not on the listing commission that you're going to get anyway, but let's do these things and work together on things that come from what I do." Like where you can put up the info box fliers, do the instant open house. Actually do an open house. Do the "just listeds", do the neighbor letters.
Really go through and do all of the action plan things that we have to multiply listings, and it's really a great way to symbiotically work with another realtor, not in a that you're doing it for the long term partnering up with them or anything like that, but for this one thing to take advantage of opportunities that they're not taking advantage of right now. So we both could win, because they really don't have anything to lose by doing that.
Justina: Yeah, even if I have to split the commission for the buyer. If I'm fortunate to find one. I'd be more than glad, because I'm thinking A, I get paid for that, but all of the future business that would come from that, all the neighbors who might be looking to sell, all the buyers that walk in.
Dean: That's exactly right.
Justina: I'm writing my own ticket then.
Dean: Yes, that's exactly right.
Justina: I would be glad to do that, but like I said there aren't any listings in my area, but at this point that would be plenty, but since we don't have that maybe they'll extend the border further to just outside of my area, and take it from there.
Dean: I was going to say, even doing that even if it is outside your area, it's to learn the moves, and to get the experience of doing it because it's not that it only has to be in your area. This could be something that could work pretty quickly. Like literally people who take info box fliers are buyers who are in the market right now, so you're in that thing if it's ... What are the average days on the market in your area right now?
Justina: Well since I do the "Townhouse Tuesday Report", and I include that in there, the townhouses on average between two weeks. Lately it's been just under two weeks. Very few go over that.
Dean: Wow, so that's amazing. Yeah. So it's a short window that you got to be able to hit the ground running with it. That's awesome.
Justina: Definitely, but like I said when I heard Cyndee, I was like, "That's how I get the now business."
Dean: Yeah.
Justina: Because I'm working on the future business, but I'm like, "Wow that's the key to it."
Dean: Yeah, it's kind of the cool thing, right? Because it's like lets you jump in to the now business as soon as anybody gets a new listing, no matter where. Like even outside of your traditional area. It would be a good thing for you to, if you have the time, get that process down and learn the moves and get the exhilaration of it.
Justina: And build up the momentum.
Dean: I think it's a really viable strategy that nobody's really taking advantage of that as a get started kind of approach.
Justina: It's exciting. I look forward-
Dean: Yeah, I love it. What's that?
Justina: I said I'm looking forward to the next few months.
Dean: I know, yeah, yeah.
Justina: I explained myself by looking at it, sometimes because I'm like, even though I'm here, I'm not exactly where I want to be yet. It's just nice to look at steps and look back, when I first signed up like wow, how things have already changed and just the opportunities to see them in a different light, it feels like the secrets were here all the time. They were just under my nose and I didn't even realize it was right there.
Dean: Yeah, that's awesome, and having kids and stuff is really honing your time management skills as well.
Justina: It is, now if I could find someone who's mastered that, I would hold on to them with both hands. "Show me your ways."
Dean: How do you kind of keep things bound? What's your-?
Justina: Fortunately my kids are a little bit older now, they're six and eight, so it's not ... hold on, let me take my earring off it keeps clanging. There. So they're a little bit older, so if they're hungry they can grab themselves a snack, not that I'm leaving them. I do a lot of work from home, so I'm there if they need me. My husband also works from home, so that's great. So we've set certain evenings that those are going to be the evenings that I work.I still can take five minutes, or take 20 minutes, tuck the kids in, and then once they're down to sleep I go back to work and prepare.
Like tonight, I've got to prepare some of the reports to deliver tomorrow, so it's a lot of support from different people, and you have to plan it. I was always the single girl, I was always able to kind of link things, but you can't do that. I'm just learning it, I got to plan. Okay this is my week out, like even to the point where I have to plan my dinners. If you leave things to last minute your brain's going to be fried, and then everything's a mess.
Dean: Yes. Well that's great.
Justina: If you plan it, you can go on autopilot and just do it.
Dean: And all the while looking, as you're setting things up, that you're laying the foundation that as soon as then you're doing transactions form all this that you've got the systems in place that somebody else can free you up from that to now.
Justina: Exactly.
Dean: Keep it moving forward.
Justina: And like I said, take advantage of the easy button.
Dean: Right.
Justina: The easy breezy button, Diane and I call it.
Dean: That's right, right.
Justina: Take advantage of that you know that'll be a major thing off my plate. And I'm trying to discipline myself so if you write down all the different things that I'm doing, even though it's still kind of early in the game. So if I need help at the last minute, I can just "Here. Here's the instructions, can you do this for me?" So now while it's not coo coo crazy.
Dean: Awesome. Well is there anything else that is on your mind? I know we had talked initially about you had sent out some nine word emails.
Justina: Yes.
Dean: Tell me about that.
Justina: I had a lot of leads; I had over 300 leads, well not a lot, but I had quite a lot of leads that I did from the training that I did before. They were all Facebook ads, and I'd say 90% of them I could never get a hold of, so I thought, "Piece of junk." So I took a leap of faith, this is why I think while I was still in the trial stage, so I'd say okay, day one boom. I'm just going to copy paste and do it. And I think out of the 300 I got at least 10, maybe a little bit more replied like within an hour. It was crazy.
And a few were wanting the report, so I'm sending them that electronically, and with the super signature. I pretty much copied that right from day one, I think I did the four ways they could help. And I'm working with one client there, he's actually the one who wants the townhouse. We have to go through some financing issues, get some special financing, but I think we got the thumbs up two days ago. So this weekend we're going to look at townhouses. Beause I see him ... I gave him a log-in to go in to the portal in my MLS, so I can see he's in there all the time, so he's hungry, he wants a home fast. So, once we got that done-
Dean: Oh that's so great.
Justina: ... yeah, by this weekend or next he's going to have a home.
Dean: Imagine if we get a call from one of the townhouses that you're mailing the post cards to and were able to match them up. That'd be an amazing win.
Justina: Yeah. Well he wanted that townhouse from my other client, and her mom's not doing so well, so she's I think an only child and had to take care of her, and I know her personality type. She's a little skittish, I guess. I can tell the wheels are always turning when you talk to her, so I've kind of had to send her the information a little bit slower paced, because I know if I'm like, "Hey this guy is really hungry," she's going to freak out and never talk to me again. Every other one that I've come across hasn't been an ideal match, but I mean, it'd be funny if I got one next week and it's just a match made in heaven, it'd be fantastic.
Dean: I'd be awesome, I love it. Start with the beginning. The nine word email, and then matching them up with somebody from your spring sequence operations. I love it.
Justina: I'm excited.
Dean: Well, I really enjoyed having this chat with you. I can't wait to watch it all unfold.
Justina: Thank you. Can we just share with everybody-
Dean: Six months ... yeah, exactly. We'll keep everybody updated as things happen here but yeah it's been a delight, I really enjoyed it. I love your enthusiasm, so I love to watch and see how it all unfolds.
Justina: Thanks so much, I can't thank you guys enough.
Dean: Awesome. Thanks Justina.
Justina: Bye now.
Dean: Bye.
And there we have it. Another great episode. I think that the theme that we've learned here is that it's really about just setting things into motion. Taking this investor approach where we're looking at this as a long term really sustainable investment process, where the townhouses are not going anywhere. They're still going to be there in 12 months, in 24 months, in 36 months, and if this approach of taking over a neighborhood, taking over an area is stuck with for some time.
Just like we've seen with Tony Kalsi, what he's been able to do. Going from an unknown in a market to being the number one agent in the whole MLS district by running patiently and systematically over the long term this "Getting Listings" program in his area. And I think Justina is going to run into exactly the same thing. Now she's done the right thing by starting with a manageable number that she can sustain, and then is fully prepared as soon as she does one transaction to then go to the rest of the townhouses.
What I also liked was when we were talking about the possibility. And this is something great for new agents. To partner with other people from your office to be able to execute our listing multiplier program, where you can do all of the things that maybe they don't have time to do, or aren't interested in doing, or don't traditionally do, and you could make an arrangement with them where you can be the listing multiplier for them. And do it just on a per listing basis, where you end up having a revenue share agreement not on the original listing, necessarily. That you're not going to take anything, you're not asking them to co-list with you, or to share any of their original listing commission with you, but to joint venture with you on running all the listing multipliers and sharing in the revenue from the business that you doing those listing multipliers generates, and I think that's a really valuable great strategy for a new agent to get in the game right away, because there's nothing like the buyers who are on the ground looking right now then to get new business for yourself right away.
So that's a really good mix for the start-up strategy. Okay so if you want to take advantage of all of the tools that we have to help you do that, I invite you to come to GoGoAgent.com, you can join us with a 30 day free trial, no credit card required. You can see everything that we've got. You could actually implement an entire listing multiplier campaign in the 30 days and probably have success before your 30 day trial even expires. So come on over to GoGoAgent.com, and come on in and say hi.