Today on the Listing Agent Lifestyle podcast we have another edition of six months to six figures, continuing our series with LJ Lewis as we walk through, step by step, the things I would deploy right now to go to a six figure business in the next six months.
It's great to be able to layout all the elements of a listing-centric business in this mini series, and there is a lot you can take from it.
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Transcript: Listing Agent Lifestyle Ep048
Dean: Mr. LJ.
LJ: Hey Dean, how's it going.
Dean: Well, I'm very excited.
LJ: Me too.
Dean: You know why?
LJ: Why?
Dean: I'm excited because of the text you sent me telling me about your excitement with the world's most interesting postcard.
LJ: Yeah. Yeah. That is very exciting. Want me to elaborate?
Dean: So, I would love to elaborate. Yes, exactly.
LJ: Okay.
Dean: So, tell me what happened and how that all came to be.
LJ: Well, like I said, I sent out the world's most interesting postcard last month. I ended up, I think it was a little over 80 contacts on this list for now. And, I had one of them give me a call and they're interested in buying a home in the range of between 200 and 250,000 dollars. And currently, yeah. And currently they are in the process of getting pre-approved.
Dean: I love it.
LJ: I was able to sign them to a buyer's agency agreement.
Dean: I love it. Good for you. So, that's very exciting. Now that, if we think about just taking a look back at where we've come so far, that's a big result for us. That we took the time to get the 80 plus people that you would recognize if you saw them at the grocery store. We went through the whole process of finding the names and the addresses and getting the first postcard mailed out to them. And now, the good news is that that can happen on a much easier, orbital basis now, right?
We spent all the fuel and the energy to get it ready, and now each month it's much less to just send out the next postcards. And, as a matter of fact Diane was telling me that the December postcards have already gone out now to that same group.
LJ: Right.
Dean: So, much easier. We've kind of got that on auto pilot. And I want to put that into perspective here for just as a one strategy that we're implementing. Because, it's a corner stone of everything. And that's that we got your 80 people. Let's call it 100, because hopefully you're going to continue to, as you recognize people, to get that to 100. But, let's call that 100 people. And let's even upgrade the cost of mailing the postcard up to 1.00 dollar per person, which it's less. But, just for our math here, to send 100 of those postcards to the 100 people who know you, like you, trust you. If you saw them at the grocery store, you'd stop and have a conversation with them, that that's going to cost 1,200 dollars to do that for the entire year.
Now, if you do the math on a 250,000 dollar buyer. That's going to be probably in the six to seven, eight thousand dollar range of the buyer side commission there, right? That's really what that's going to turn into. So, if nothing else happened but this one person, who contacted you, buys a home, that's already a six or seven, or eight to one return on the entire years’ worth of it.
And so, that's where I wanted to really illustrate that point because that's just the first month. It's so likely that if we look at it. Not even mentioning referrals. But just that group of people. If we take a national average that people are going to move every six or seven years, which seems to be the national average, that means that there's probably a 15 percent chance, or let's even say if it's 10 years, because I always like to be ultra conservative with things, that there's probably 10 people directly on that list who are going to do something themselves in the next 12 months. No?
LJ: Right.
Dean: So, that's all very exciting. Now, was it fun to reconnect with those people? Or had you been in contact with them before? What was it like to reconnect with the people that you already kind of know? That's got to feel good.
LJ: Yeah. Yeah. And these are ones that basically I go to church with. But, I don't even know for sure if they knew that I was a realtor before that. Because, being that I'm new to the business.
Dean: That's the whole point.
LJ: And hadn't necessarily had that conversation with them.
Dean: Yeah.
LJ: And on top of that I've had at least two or three other people that I know either mention that they got my postcard or one of them sent me a picture with the postcard and said, "I guess who's Mr. Big time now." Or something like that.
Dean: I love it. Guess who's Mr. Big time now. You know, and that's part of the thing. The good news is that it's a fun postcard. You're going to glance at it and you're going to get some good fun. But you're making that impression. You're on their mind that A, LJ is in real estate. Oh, I didn't know LJ was in real estate. That's certainly, especially when you move back into an area and you move into a new career, just the fact that they now know that you're in real estate. And, that you're going to be in front of them every month.
And they won't even recognize that as pattern until the third postcard that we mail.
LJ: Right.
Dean: You know, they're going to get another one and they'll go, "Oh, there's another one. Oh, I must get these every month." And you're still going to be fresh on their mind the last one. So, all we're looking to do the entire crux of this, is that it comes back to this idea that all referrals happen as a result of conversation. And in order for the referral to take place, they have to notice that the conversation's about real estate. They have to think about you and they have to introduce you to the person that they were having the conversation with.
So, keeping that top of mind, that you're in front of them every month, odds are when they hear a conversation about real estate, they're going to think of you. And you can't think that that would automatically with those 80 plus people that you haven't been in contact with for all these years. You know?
LJ: No.
Dean: That's right. So, now at least we know that that's happening. That they're going to know that you're in real estate. And it's so sad to see when people get into real estate in their first year that there's often a lot of little heart breaks. That you see somebody that you haven't seen for a while, six or eight months into your career you run into them and you reconnect. "Oh, you're back in town. What are you doing?" "Oh, I'm in real estate." "You're kidding me. We just bought a house two months ago. If we had known that you were in real estate, we would have loved to work with you." Right?
That happens all the time. So, I'm just so excited about that. So, that's encouraging. And then now, this opens up a whole other opportunity for us. And I want to maybe talk about two things today. Because we're going to move forward on locking in the buyer side of things, where we've been talking about your golf course guide. So, we'll talk more about that.
But, I also want to talk about, now, the strategic opportunities that you have as a result of working with this buyer. These buyers now, they're looking for a 250,000 dollar house, and you've got a buyer agency agreement. So, it's like having a listing. Right?
LJ: Right.
Dean: And the opportunity that we have is to think through what else could happen because of this? So, I have, and you've maybe heard me talk about, but I always, in this context, I want to treat everything like you and I are having this conversation for the first time here. That I often have people look back on the listing side, their last 10 listings, and calculate what I call their listing multiplier index.
And, that's a factor of how many additional transactions they end up getting for every listing that they take. So, I'm going to illustrate that same thing, but on the buyers side here, with you. So, if I were saying to look back at the last 10 buyers that you've worked with, well, you're brand new. So we haven't worked with any buyers yet. But here we've got one.
Now, we've got an opportunity not just to find them a house, and then celebrate that and get one transaction from it, we've also got some opportunities that we only have because we're working with that buyer. And so, we've got an opportunity to find the house that they're going to buy. And by that, I mean on the listing side, I can say with every listing, you've got an opportunity not only get the listing sold in the MLS, but you've got the opportunity to find the buyer for that house, and double end it yourself. You've got the opportunity to find a buyer who's going to buy another home through the marketing that you did for that listing. You've got the opportunity to get the next listing in that neighborhood where that listing is. And you've got an opportunity to get a referral from the seller.
So, every listing opportunity comes with five transactions that you could get there. That's what we measure it on. And on the buyer side, we've got that same thing. So, you could find them a house in the MLS, and get one transaction. You could find a listing that's not on the market, find a house that's not listed, that's perfect for them. And get the listing and help them buy that house.
You've got the opportunity that you could get another listing because of the marketing that you're doing to help find them a house. You could get the next listing in the neighborhood where they move in. And you've got the opportunity to get a referral from the buyer at the same time, while you're working with them.
And so, when you look at not just the one opportunity that you have, it's mind expanding here. You know. We're looking always now for the leverage opportunities that we have. So, you're going to be one of the easiest ones is getting a referral from the buyer. You're going to be now, over the next several months, working very closely with these people. You're going to be in proximity to them a lot. You're going to be in a lot of conversations. And they're going to be having a lot of conversations about real estate, because this is a big part of their world right now. You know, going out to look at homes, keeping their eyes open for homes. They're going to hear a lot of these conversations about real estate. And of course they're going to think of you because they are talking to you almost every day, and looking at houses with you every week.
So, the odds of you being able to get introduced to those people go up. Now, did you mention to me that they've already referred to somebody to you, or you had a conversation with them about that?
LJ: Yeah. They had referred somebody to me. She had called me about a condo that she was interested in seeing. Then it didn't work. And, anyway, we haven't been able to really get together in person yet.
Dean: Okay.
LJ: But we talked on the phone.
Dean: Perfect. But, there's the thing. But, you've got a prospect right now, right? You've got, now, somebody who's looking for a condo. Now, here's where we level up the way that you're thinking about this. Tell me about the house that your 250,000 buyers are looking for. What do you know about what they're looking for so far?
LJ: Okay. So, it's couple with a small child, and they're looking to buy a home with her mother. And they're all going to live together. So, what they want really, is a four bedroom, two bath house. Four bedroom minimum. And, also what's important to them is having some, either garage, or some sort of workshop, because he builds furniture and stuff. That's kind of a hobby.
And, the home that I did show them first, it was very similar, they said, to their old home, which was in another city here in Utah. But, they liked the style. It's actually like a late 70s, early 80s, two floor. So, it allowed them to have almost semi private residences. And one family live on one floor and one on the other.
Dean: Yes. Uh-huh. Perfect. And that-
LJ: Yeah, those are the main things.
Dean: Okay. So, now this is how we always want to think about leveraging this, okay? So, now the postcard we've already sent out for December. But, you know how above your picture we have the dialogue box that we can say anything that we want, right? To have that saying. So, that's one opportunity that when we send the next postcard out, we're working with these people who are looking for a four bedroom that would be in, what area are they looking? Have they narrowed it down to a specific part of town? Or is there particular neighborhoods? Or where is this house that they're looking for?
LJ: Yeah. It's actually right near where they're currently renting. It's a little bit of an older part of town. Probably the area where they're most likely to be able to find the six of the house that they're looking for in that price range. A lot of the other areas they would be out of their price range.
And actually, I'm way ahead of you there. On December's postcard I went in and changed the dialogue box, and I already put all that information in there for them.
Dean: There we go. So, there we go, perfect. So, you'd already thought that through. Perfect. I'm so happy about that. So, you said, "I'm looking for this." To describe what it is. And now-
LJ: Right. Yeah. Let's see. "Four bedroom with a garage or workshop in this area of town.
Dean: That's so great. Okay. Perfect. So, that's exactly what I would have done. So, now we've got that. We've got our feelers out there. Now, we're using that power of suggestion that if somebody reads that, our minds are definitely geared to search. And even if we don't want it to. If you say that, if you know somebody, then if they know somebody for sure, that's going to trigger that. But, if they don't we planted that seed. And if they come across somebody like that. That's going to make a big difference there.
So, I'm so excited about that. That's a really good thing.
Now, when you're running into these people, and that's a common occurrence. You mentioned that you've seen some of the people who are getting the postcard. That you've run into them at church or out in the wild.
LJ: Right.
Dean: And they've said, "Hey, I got your postcard." Or whatever. That's always a good easy thing. And so now, people are going to ask you, "Well, how's business?" They're going to ask something about that. And you'll always have in your mind that you will be able to plant that seed for them. Right?
"It's going really well. I'm working with a couple right now who are looking for a four bedroom with a workshop, or a garage space." That's kind of like you're presencing that with people.
LJ: Okay.
Dean: So, that's all going to happen organically. But, you're doing the same things that the reason and the mechanics of how referrals happen, we're deploying those through you now. So, now the exact same thing is true. You need to notice the things that are going on, the people that you're working with, the opportunities that you have, and think about who could be in a situation where they could potentially be able to help with this. And then introduce that opportunity to them.
So, we're using the same three steps to really filter and be a market maker. Where we're not just passively waiting for people to refer, we're orchestrating it. We're thinking. "I got these people."
Now, ever time that you go to show them homes, you're thinking about this now. You've got a vision of what that house looks like. You know what they're looking for. You know the neighborhoods that those homes are in. And you ultimately know where you're going to show them homes.
Have you gone out and you showed them the one that was just like the house that they had. So, you've obviously been out with them at least once?
LJ: Right.
Dean: Okay. Now, here's what we get the opportunity to do. To start really looking for leverage here, is I want you to start thinking like a market maker in this, right? You've got his buyer which is as good as a listing. And in a lot of ways it's more valuable because the buyer is absolutely the catalyst for things. Even though a listing is great, it's the buyer that makes the whole transaction take place. They're the one that's bringing the checkbook to exchange money for the real estate. So you've got the pivotal piece here.
Now, whenever you're showing homes. We want to think now, about who do you know that live in those neighborhoods. So, as you're thinking about the neighborhoods that they're looking in, do you have anybody in your top 100 who lives in one of those neighborhoods? And it's okay if you haven't thought that through yet.
LJ: I honestly don't know off hand.
Dean: Okay.
LJ: Right.
Dean: And there's the thing. So, here's what I want you to do. Is, wouldn't it be valuable if you had a map that was pinned with your clients. Pinned with the people, where your top 100 live. So, that if you could look at it and you said, "I'm going to showing homes in River Run, and I know two people who live in River Run. Two of my top 100 live in River Run." That would be a valuable piece of information to have. Right?
LJ: Right.
Dean: Because we now have the opportunity that if you're showing houses in River Run and you know two people who live in River Run, even if it's not that you're thinking they're going to sell their house, remember how referrals happen? We said that they happen as a result of conversation. And it's highly likely that people who live in River Run, at least one of the places that they're having conversations is with their neighbors, or their people in the community where they live.
So, it would be on the top of their mind. And there's a high probability that they might hear somebody talking about selling their house. So, if you were able to email to them. If you were on my top 100 and you lived in River Run, and River Run is an area where, what are the names of you, just the first names, the buyers that you're working with?
LJ: Wesley and Mary.
Dean: Okay. So, Wesley and Mary. So, when you look at it. That, when you've got those people, you know that Wesley and Mary are looking in a particular neighborhood. Now, you start thinking through, "Who do I know that lives in those areas?" And you start to think, what if you just sent an email to connect with those people? Or a hand written note, or whatever it is. That if I just said to you, I'm working with Wesley, and I say to you, I say, "Hey LJ, I'm showing homes in River Run this weekend to a couple that are looking for a four bedroom house with a garage or a workshop. Have you heard anybody in River Run talking about selling their house? We may be able to match them up with my buyers."
Just a short, expecting reply, communication like that is very in your wheelhouse. It feels like, "Okay, of course he's asking me, because I live in that neighborhood." It doesn't seem out of place at all. And there's a good chance that no matter what, everybody knows at least their immediate neighbors. And if they're in that neighborhood, they might hear somebody talking about it in the next couple of weeks here, if they haven't already. Or, they may bring it up to someone.
And that kind of thing, thinking like a market marker, is really a valuable thing. That if you could get yourself to develop this habit now with the first buyers that you're working with, to think this way and automatically train yourself to do this, just think over the course of the next 10 years of your career here, how many opportunities that's going to present.
It's a very, very specific thing. So, you're not sending that out as a direct request to all of your clients, I mean all of your top 100. We're hand selecting the people who live in the neighborhoods that are highly likely that that's a neighborhood that you're going to be showing homes to, to Wesley, right?
LJ: Right.
Dean: So, when you think through this, here's what I think would be a valuable assets for you, is a visual way to identify where your clients live. You know?
LJ: Yeah.
Dean: So that you could go.
LJ: Go ahead and put a map up on the wall.
Dean: Yes. Exactly. And there may be a way to do that. There may be a way to create a custom Google map or a custom map, where you could put pins in there so you could actually zoom in or do something like that. But, that's one opportunity. Okay?
Now, another opportunity is to go into the neighborhood where you're going to be showing homes. Can you think of a name of someone of the neighborhoods? Or do they have names? Or are there areas that somebody would describe-
LJ: The areas that they will probably be in tend to be older. And so, they don't really have names like the newer subdivisions.
Dean: Right.
LJ: At least not names that people know.
Dean: Sure. Sure.
LJ: But like the area, what I put on the postcard, was the area around Sunset Avenue. Which that's, again, the main road that runs through there.
Dean: Perfect.
LJ: Yeah. Try to figure out something that people could relate to.
Dean: Okay. Yeah. So, that's it. However, they would describe it, that's what it is. Now, if you took at this, are the areas around Sunset Avenue, are they all custom homes? Or are they homes that were at one time a subdivision? You know, like you were saying, 70s and 80s. They were probably all built as a new construction subdivisions at one point, even though they didn't have a name.
LJ: Right. Yeah. And I would assume that in this area.
Dean: Okay.
LJ: It's a little bit of a mix. I mean, there's definitely some newer stuff than that in the area too. But, it wasn't a large subdivision where they had hundreds of homes of the same kind.
Dean: Yeah. Yeah. No, I got it. So, if that's the case that there's probably hundreds of homes that would qualify for what they're looking for. If you were to say if you look at those neighborhoods where they are, that would be a valuable thing for you to know. If you know this is the neighborhood, if you were to do every door direct mail, or to do some specific direct mail to the homes that meet those requirements, that would be, If you were to say all the four bedroom homes in this quadrant here, if we took and mapped... We have a feature in GOGO agent where we do the postcard mails, we have an area called map my mail, add prospects plus, where we can put polygonic pins around, in this area. This is where we want to go. And you could select people, specific homes in there. The four bedroom homes.
But where I'm going with that is that on GOGO agent blog, have you seen in the buyers section. So on the left hand side bar, there's a topic area called buyers, and there's a flyer or postcard here that we use for specifically looking for homes for buyers.
So this is one that we-
LJ: Okay. No, I haven't seen that yet.
Dean: Okay. This is one that we did with Chuck Charlton and It's got a picture of the kind of house that they're looking for there. The headline is, it says, Neighborhood alert. "My name is Angela, and I'm looking for a home like yours." So, we do it from the buyer's perspective.
Right? So, it would say, "My name is Wesley and I'm looking for a home like yours. And you may be able to sell your house in as little as 48 hours and laugh at how easy it was. If you're thinking about selling your house now or in the next few months, this could be a very important letter for you to read. My name is Wesley and my wife, Mary, and I are looking to buy a home on a quiet street in this neighborhood. We have three children." Or whatever they have. "And, we've recently adopted my aging mother. So, we need more space."
It's funny, I'm reading this and it's exactly the scenario that you're talking about here.
LJ: Yeah, it's pretty close.
Dean: That's pretty funny actually. I can't make that up. Right now we're in a detached home in Milton, and we like the idea of a big lot. This neighborhood appeals to us because of the neighborly feeling and because there are lots of kids the same age as our kids. Wesley works as an... Sorry, I'll just read what they say.
Henry works as an analyst and I'm in the computer engineering field, so we're both working professionals with a solid mortgage approval. We'd be willing to move before school starts in September, and we'd just need enough time to sell our place. We've seen other houses, but none of them felt right, so that's why we're reading out to you. Your location and style of home are definitely very appealing to us. So, we thought we'd reach out and see if you'd be interested in moving this year.
If you are, please reach out to our agent. And they've got one of Chuck's team members, Simone Palmer, with her on the page. Her direct line, is this, or you can email here at simone.charltonteam@gmail. Also, if you hear of any neighbors that are looking to move, please let Simone know so that we can get in touch with them. Thanks for your help.
And that little flyer, that little postcard that we mail out there, is a very, very successful way or reaching out to a neighborhood where your clients want to move. Now, what that's going to do is get you in touch with people who are thinking about selling their house.
And we've got, right below that, a whole template for how to create these. So, we start answering these questions about it for how to get the creative writing part of this done. But, I will work with you on this. But, essentially we're going to ask the questions here that we need to know, is what are the names that we're going to use.
So, Wesley. My name is Wesley, and I'm looking for a home like yours. Then to fill this out, we need to figure out... This is kind of like a pre writing worksheet that we need to say, what am I looking for? And we want to be specific with what they're looking for. Four bedroom, private yard, workshop or garage. Being specific like that. Why do I want to live here? Why am I sending this to you? What's my ideal time frame and why? Why haven't I bought anything yet? What do I do for a living? What's my relationship status? Where do I live now? Do I have any important life events coming up? And when do I want to move?
So, if we answer those questions, we can craft this message, and really have an effective communication to send into those neighborhoods.
Now, two things are going to happen. You're going to potentially find the house for Wesley. And, you're also potentially going to find people who are thinking about selling, but the house may not be exactly what you're looking for. So there's a lot of upside to this. You know what I mean?
LJ: Right. Mm-hmm.
Dean: So, that is going to be a valuable thing here. We're going to treat your buyer like a listing in that this would be the equivalent of sending just listed cards for your buyer.
LJ: Right. Yeah. I can see that.
Dean: Okay. Yup. So, I think that is going to be a great opportunity for you here. I would love to work with you on creating that. But then, another layer of this. So, we talked first of all your clients, the people who are in your top 100 looking for the ones that live in those neighborhoods. I bet if you scanned their addresses, you scanned their records, some might pop out as being in a neighborhood that might have those kind of homes, so we can individually reach out to those people.
And then, zoning in on those neighborhoods and finding the most likely homes. Like if we were to say, if we could find the 500 or thousand most likely homes that are closest to what they're looking for. Or, even if it's a hundred. Whatever it is, if we can narrow it down to at least reach out to those people, that's an opportunity that we only have because we're working with Wesley. You know?
LJ: Right.
Dean: So, we don't want to squander that. We want to leverage everything that we're doing there. Now, another opportunity there, is to look at all the homes in those neighborhoods that have expired in the last 12 to 24 months and not come back on the market. So, when you're looking in those neighborhoods that you're going to be showing the homes, one of the valuable things that you can do is look back and say, "How many of these homes were on the market, but then came off the market for some reason, and haven't relisted?"
And that's another potential opportunity to reach out to those people.
LJ: Yeah.
Dean: So-
LJ: That's a great idea.
Dean: Absolutely. And that's something where you look at that as your secret inventory there. You know? You've got access. You're going above and beyond. Not just like, "Yeah, I've got these buyers but there's nothing on the market for them" it's either on the MLS and you're going to be able to find it for them quickly. But, I don't want to you to lose these opportunities because we're so just zeroed in on the MLS. You know?
LJ: Right. Okay.
Dean: So, what's coming up for you around that? You tell me how you've heard that, or what your understanding of it is here.
LJ: Well, I guess, the way I see it is that... And really I should create a system that I put any buyers through, and really regardless of whether I'm able to find them something quickly or not. Because, it does bring out... It gives you that opportunity to leverage-
Dean: Yes.
LJ: That relationship with, like you say, you could craft something for the expired. And then of course, for the people that you know. If you have contacts already in that neighborhood. And then, like you say, for even just maybe, like you say, maybe an every door direct mail.
One thing I'm not clear on is how, and maybe prospect plus can just do this, but if I did take a neighborhood, how would I be able to differentiate fit their criteria? For example, having four bedrooms versus everything else.
Dean: Yup. I got it. So, you have access probably through your MLS to the tax records, to all the things that are the basic data about all the homes in any neighborhood. And there's the kind of things, I don't want to steam it like, this is not just a pop, pop, pop, this is really easy, kind of thing. Because, there's... And even though the datasets are getting more and more robust, there's still a little bit of effort in complaining this list. Which, make it even more valuable.
But, these are all things that I call working on your market maker tool kit. Where you... Now, once you create this ... And you know, in your GOGO agent account, we can create email templates so that we can create your market maker email template, so that it's got the structure of what we said. The structure of, "Hey LJ, I'm showing homes in River Run this weekend to a couple who's looking for this. Have you heard anybody talking about selling their house? We may be able to match them up with the buyer." 80 percent or 90 percent of that message is going to be the same every situation that you have. You know?
LJ: Right.
Dean: So, once you've got that asset of that template there, you can just literally fill out the... Expand on that template a little bit, and it makes it easy to deploy to the two, or three, or five, or six people that you identify as living in a neighborhood that would be a high probability of having a home like the one that Wesley is looking for.
The same thing could be true for a letter that you are going to mail to the expireds, or to your people that you don't have their email address for. So, that you can take that same structure and do that. Now, it may take a little bit of effort to identify the four bedroom homes in this neighborhood. But, once you have that it's an asset. So I never look at anything as a one off thing. I look at it that if you've taken the time to identify all the four bedroom homes in this area of town, that you've got that as an asset now. That list is there.
We had to do the same thing when I was working with Julie Matthews when we did the lake front. We can't just get a list of just the lake front homes. So, we had to go, and using the tax records and the platten maps, identify which homes were actually on the lake. And there were 2,100 of them that we ended up finding. But we had that list as an asset. You know?
LJ: Right.
Dean: So, it's worth doing. I mean, these are the things that are going to make every transaction that you get, every transactional opportunity that you have, turn into more and more. We're looking that. The way that this listing and buyer multiplier index works, is just like a golf handicap.
If we looked at your... Normally I look back with people at their last 10 buyers or their last 10 listings, but if we take you and we look forward to your next 10 buyers, if you didn't put a situation like this in place, you may work with those 10 buyers and you may find all 10 of them homes, and you would get 10 transactions. Because, you worked with the buyers, they had a great time, you found the right home for them on the MLS, and you got those 10 transactions.
But, what you missed out on by not thinking like a market maker here, by not focusing on the additional strategic opportunities that you have, you've missed out on four additional transactions for each one of those 10.
So, if we said that on average they're going to be worth seven or eight thousand dollars per transaction over the next 10, you could, just working with the 10 core buyers there, you would have 80,000 dollars potentially from those 10 transactions.
But, what you may have missed out on then, is the opportunity for that additional 320,000 dollars.
LJ: Right.
Dean: There's an additional four transactions times 10, is 40 additional opportunities there. So, that's a different kind of a mindset there. And our goal, just like your golf score. Let's say that par is five. That's what we're looking for, right? Every buyer that you work with has, if you were to perfectly execute everything and get five transactions from that, that would be par.
So, I'm looking that now, how can we turn your opportunity for that one 8,000 dollars into 40,000 dollars for that one buyer that we're working with?
LJ: Right. Okay. Well, then-
Dean: It gets pretty exciting when you look it, right?
LJ: Absolutely. Yeah. Those are big numbers to be able to get form on relationship. And I was thinking about. After I asked that question, that when I have looked at the tax assessors info and even pulled lists and stuff through my MLS, that data is there. At least for-
Dean: Yeah.
LJ: It will show this house has four bedrooms.
Dean: Yeah. It does.
LJ: So, that actually wouldn't be that difficult to find.
Dean: Yup. No, absolutely. And it's not the great thing about technology right now is that you can sit there in the comfort of your living room with your laptop on your lap and stroll down the streets with your Google street view, you know, and say, "There's one, there's one, there's one." If they're looking for a particular style, you know?
LJ: Right.
Dean: And so-
LJ: That'd be really good, I'd say.
Dean: Yeah. That's the whole point. So, that's a valuable thing. It's like the clock is ticking right now. The clock is ticking. You've got all this opportunity, but we need to... Excuse me. We need to start getting everything in place to orchestrate that.
LJ: Yeah. Yeah.
Dean: So, I would say that the... And a lot of these things are jobs that you're going to do one time. Getting a map and putting a pin on where your clients are.
LJ: Right. One time.
Dean: That's something-
LJ: Done.
Dean: That's something you're going to do once. And then, every buyer that you're working with, you'll be able to go to that list. And, my real goal is that I want to get you trained up in that way that you're building that muscle memory, that as your researching homes for these buyers, you're naturally going to gravitate to the MLS, but I want you immediately in that same neuro pathway, that pattern, I want you to also be thinking about, "Who do I know that lives in those neighborhoods? Who's had their house on the market in those neighborhoods and wasn't able to sell?"
Because you can go back to them and have the same letter or note to say to them, "Hey, my name's LJ, I'm working with some buyer..." Or, even send it from Wesley. You've got that opportunity there. You've got that opportunity-
LJ: Yeah. Well, and I find what always works best for me is actually I'll go away from this call and probably listen to it again.
Dean: Yeah.
LJ: But to create a check list. Where I just say, "Okay. A buyer comes in. Here is the checklist of things that we go through." So, that I don't have to remember all the little details.
Dean: Yeah, yeah. That's exactly right. And so, when you log into GOGO Agent, look on the left side where it says buyers. Just click on that. The first thing that comes up is the post that says, how to be a market maker with the buyers you're working with right now.
And there are two things that come up, that my name is Angela postcard, and the market maker letter writing template. So, that's going to be the easy way for you to model it. You know?
LJ: Mm-hmm. Okay. Sounds good.
Dean: This is pretty-
LJ: Is there a way in GOGO Agent-
Dean: This is pretty exciting.
LJ: It is. It is. Is there a way in GOGO Agent to create a checklist of activities that you can assign-
Dean: Yes.
LJ: To-
Dean: Yes, of course. That's the whole point. So, in there you can assign a plan, is what it's called.
LJ: Okay. Right.
Dean: So, when you go in there, and you'll see that. And I'll have Diane work with you on how to do this. But, when you go in there, that's what this was designed for. The CRM portion of this, the contact management system of this is designed to manage the during the unit, right? So, you can keep all of the transactions that you're working on in that during unit. You can see where they are in the process. So, you can say we're looking for homes right now. And then, when they find one and they're in escrow, you can move into that phase.
So, you can keep things going. But, you can also launch a plan. And that will bring up all of the checklists of, this is what you do, here are the templates for it, here's everything that needs to be done.
LJ: Yeah. That'd be helpful.
Dean: Yeah. I'm pretty excited for you. This is a pretty cool thing. I'm getting a sense right now that as we're doing this, what I think would really supplement this podcast that we're recording is some video tutorials on how to do the things that we're talking about here. Because, I can get a sense that there's going to be a lot of people who want to do the same thing that we're doing here. Especially as we're starting to see all of your results come through here. Like, how long is somebody going to be able to listen to this podcast and hear, okay in the first 30 days he got a call from his first world's most interesting postcard.
And then, by the time we do this next one where we deploy these market marker things for Wesley here. We've got all that opportunity. You know?
LJ: Right.
Dean: Now, what we didn't get to talk about today, and I think we should probably record another episode about this going forward here. We can do that pretty quickly because it's timely. And, I think we need to have that conversation for you anyway. But, I think that this is the thing that is the most valuable thing for you right now. But, I do want to talk about putting together your golf course community guide.
So, maybe I'll text you and we can see if maybe even before the end of the week we can record another episode here to keep the ball rolling on that. Because, I know we want to keep that momentum going.
LJ: Right. Okay, yeah. That sounds good.
Dean: Okay. Who do you, just in the short version, we had a short conversation about getting the pictures and stuff together. Are you clear on what we need to do there?
LJ: I think so. So, you told me that for each community I should get a glamor shot of the community.
Dean: Mm-hmm.
LJ: Something that people can relate and know that that's it. And then, how many photos did you say per community that we should have?
Dean: I'd say to really be comprehensive there, I think if we just had one of whatever the different range is. Whatever makes sense. If we just take Coral Canyon as an example. How many different little areas within Coral Canyon are there? Are there condos? Are there town homes? Are there golf villas, are there luxury homes? What would be the different categories or levels of homes that would be available there?
Just to give people an idea of this is what you get for your money, and this is what's available kind of thing. These are the condos start at this and they go all the way up to these luxury homes on the back nine at this price. You know?
LJ: Okay.
Dean: How many would there be in-
LJ: And that's kind of-
Dean: How many would there be in Coral Canyon like that? How many different styles?
LJ: That was what I was just having a hard time really figuring out. Because it still seemed like there was a lot of different styles. There's small amount of condos or town homes. And then there's a relatively small amount of truly luxury homes that are right on the golf course. And then there's hundreds of homes anywhere from a little over 200 to 500, excuse me, 500.
Dean: Yeah. Absolutely. That makes total sense. I'm thinking here in Winterhaven there's an area called Lake Ashton which is an adult community. They've got a gold course, and just like you said, 80 percent of the homes fit in one band. They're three bedroom or two bedroom detached homes with a two car garage or a one car garage. But they're all like retirement home, Florida, that vision 101. It's exactly what you would expect to see.
So, there's no walk up condos or there's no town homes. The prices just happen to range from the smaller homes on up to the bigger homes. And some of them are just on bigger lots than others.
LJ: Right.
Dean: So, I think that you don't need... I think we can tell the whole story at that level with four to six pictures of the styles, or types of homes. As long as we're getting like... If you just think what's the least expensive thing, what's the most expensive thing? There's two pictures right there. And then, three or four pictures in the middle to show us, stair stepping our way up to the price ranges. That's all we're looking. Just to give people an idea of what the swath is, you know?
LJ: Okay. So, here's what I did, and anyway, if you have any thoughts. Today I went to one of those communities, and I just looked at all the closed inventory for the last six months. And I actually just took the picture off MLS, I don't know if it in the end will be high enough quality. But, I took the best picture of the front of the house and saved it with the price that it sold for underneath it. And I figured that would give me, you know.
Dean: Perfect. That's good. That's all we need. Just a representative. And again, you're going to learn all these things that I'm talking about, I want to make these the... I use something we call the 80 percent approach, right? We're not looking to creative the definitive guide to all the gold course communities here. What we're looking to do is create the one that's 80 percent of it. That you get enough of a sense that we're fulfilling on our promise on the guide to St. George golf course communities. And we're going to supplement that with all of the golf course homes that are available.
So, it's just enough to say that we have a guide specifically for the golf course. We've done all the research for people and nobody else has done it. You know?
So, this is going to be an asset that we have. This is in Evergreen. Coral Canyon is not going anywhere. It's going to be here for 10 more years. And so, that is going to be Evergreen, and what are going to change are the inventory and the prices. The inventory of the homes that are available and the prices, and maybe we'll have some new golf course communities come on the market.
And that, by the way just looking long term, that specialization is really going to queue you up for the opportunity to be pretty well positioned if anybody does build a new golf course community that they would want you to represent it.
LJ: Yeah. No, that's true.
I guess my concern that I always have is, if you want to say in the information marketing type world, I've requested tons of different reports and different things over the years.
Dean: Mm-hmm.
LJ: How do you hit that sweet spot of it not taking you an inordinate amount of time to put this together and have it be the definitive guide, but at the same time that people don't get it and be like, "This is kind of a bunch of crap. They're just trying to sell me it. There's no real value here." You know what I mean?
Dean: No. That's exactly the spot that I try and get it. So, the way that we do it is we have beautiful design. We make it look really nice. I mean, if you look at the South Beach condo guide that we did. The same kind of thing, we'll have a great looking cover, we'll have the information and we're going to supplement it with a nice cover letter, with the updates of all the new homes that are on the market. And it's just a catalyst to a conversation.
But, they're going to get that sense that we're the real deal. You know?
LJ: Okay. Okay. Cool. Sounds good.
Dean: Perfect. Okay. So, lots of homework for you. I'm going to get with Diane, we're going to connect with you and get the... All put in together this. Your market maker tool kit and start getting to work on that right away.
LJ: All right. Cool.
Dean: But, congratulations. It's all very exciting.
LJ: Okay.
Dean: Things are really going to start happening now. I love it.
LJ: Cool. Me too. Thank you Dean.
Dean: Okay. Thanks LJ.
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 at listingagentlifestyle.com.
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