Today on the Listing Agent Lifestyle podcast we're talking with Lee Stewart from Fort Worth, Texas and Lee is a brand new agent who's just getting started.
We had a great conversation about how he can get his first Getting Listings area established, how to setup his plan for Getting Listings, how to set up his plan for Getting Referrals with this top 150, and how to find buyers without needing to have listings to do it.
It was a really great conversation, and as you can see, we covered a lot of ground and that means lots of takeaway points for you!
Links:
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Transcript: Listing Agent Lifestyle Ep060
Dean: Lee Stewart.
Lee: Dean Jackson. How are you?
Dean: I'm so good. There he is. Finally, We meet.
Lee: Yes sir.
Dean: I'm excited to hear what's going on with Lee Stewart. Where are you calling in from?
Lee: I'm calling in from Fort Worth, Texas.
Dean: Fort Worth. Okay. Perfect. We've got the whole hour here, where we will be able to talk all about what's going on for you, and how we can help build out your Listing Agent Lifestyle plan. So why don't you kind of tell me where you're at so far, and what's the Lee Stewart story to date?
Lee: Okay. Let's see. I got my license in June last year. Currently I work for, I guess you could say one of the big three names in the beer industry. I make beer.
Dean: Okay. Ah, perfect.
Lee: Yeah. I have a wife, I have a five-year-old son. Yeah. Got my license in June. Joined a brokerage. The first thing they said was, "Start calling the FISBOs and calling the expired listings." And then I did that for about maybe a month, but by the time I got around to calling them, these individuals had already been called throughout the day. They were just agitated.
Dean: Sure.
Lee: So it didn't take long to figure out that wasn't a good route. So I just kind of stepped back, tried to figure out some other things. You know, tried to research and see what else I could find.
Dean: Yeah. Yep.
Lee: And then I ran across you on YouTube.
Dean: Okay.
Lee: I believe you were speaking. And then I just starting Googling everything I could find on you. Started Listing Agent Podcast and I kind of binged, listened to that over like a couple days.
Dean: Okay right. You went deep on that. Yeah.
Lee: Yeah. And you just came across so authentic and genuine and just from a place of wanting to see everybody succeed.
Dean: Right.
Lee: That really stood out to me. So yeah, I found the GoGo Agent site and here we are.
Dean: Here we are. Good, good, good. Okay. So you're still working at your job and you're transitioning? Is the plan to transition full-time into real estate?
Lee: Yes. Yeah, that's right.
Dean: Okay, but that's smart, you know. You get yourself established and you've got to get the bills paid and all that stuff while you're making the transition.
Lee: Exactly.
Dean: So this is good. So you're in the right place now. Where are we so far in your plan here? So we talk about taking the, if we take the eight elements of the Listing Agent Lifestyle, we're looking to first of all, establish your plan for getting listings, because that's going to be the center of it all right? We can't have a listing centered business without a plan to get listings. And so you found out that calling expireds and FISBOs wasn't going to work out for you, because you don't have the time to do that.
Lee: Exactly.
Dean: So I think that Diane mentioned to me that you're just getting started with getting listings. So have you chosen an area and you're kind of ready to go?
Lee: Exactly. I've got the Easy Button service going.
Dean: Okay, good.
Lee: We're wrapping up the last little details for the first postcard to go out.
Dean: Okay.
Lee: And I am working on putting it together for the world's most interesting postcard.
Dean: Okay, good. So you're getting everything straightened out.
Lee: Yeah. So hopefully we'll get the first postcard for getting listings out, if not the end of this week, hopefully the first part of next week.
Dean: Okay. So tell me about the area that you chose.
Lee: Okay.
Dean: Yeah. I'd love to hear you're thinking here about the area that you chose and why that area kind of thing.
Lee: Okay. First, the subdivision I chose is in the Northern part of the city. And this area, it's booming. What I know about it is, like I'm a parent first, so the school district is awesome. This area has job growth. So we have, Amazon has moved in, Mercedes has a headquarters there.
Dean: Nice.
Lee: And so it's trending in the right direction. The subdivision has about 3300 homes in it.
Dean: Okay. Has it got it a name? Is it a named area?
Lee: It's a named subdivision and actually the exit from the freeway is the name of the subdivision as well. So to me, that kind of works out.
Dean: Okay, yeah.
Lee: Yeah. So it's Heritage.
Dean: Okay.
Lee: And like I said, and then there are some other higher end homes that neighbor it as you go down the highway a little bit. So that kind of spoke out to me because of the school district and how it's trending.
Dean: Okay, perfect. Do you live there too? Do you live in Heritage?
Lee: I'm about ten minutes away.
Dean: Okay, so it's right in your backyard.
Lee: Yeah, yeah. Sure.
Dean: That's what I meant. You don't have to travel too far to get to it.
Lee: Oh yes.
Dean: So 3000 homes or 3300 homes you said?
Lee: Exactly. Yes.
Dean: Are they newer or is it an older, mature area or is it all, is it a planned community, Heritage? Like gated community or?
Lee: It's not gated. Everything is open.
Dean: Okay.
Lee: And I guess, it's some older and then there are some new builds as well. It's just a really good mix. Just driving into it, it feels really nice.
Dean: Awesome. What's the price range of the homes in there?
Lee: From around $270,000 up to I'd say mid $600,000s.
Dean: Okay. Is that about the middle of the bell curve for your pricing ranges in the area there? Or is that on the high end or the low end?
Lee: If we had to average it out, I would say the average in there is probably around $300,000 to $350,000.
Dean: Okay, and how's that compared to the average in the whole area?
Lee: Yeah, about in the middle.
Dean: Okay, so it's middle. They're mid-range homes, like what I call, if we were to chart them out on a bell curve, it's like the meaty middle part of the bell curve. It's right there where most of the homes are. Okay good.
Lee: Exactly.
Dean: And did you measure the turnover rate in there?
Lee: It's about 6%.
Dean: Okay. So that's great. So that's about 180 or 200 homes over the last 12 months have sold in there?
Lee: Right. Right.
Dean: Okay. And this will be an interesting thing, because the way that I look at those things, we're kind of calculating the total yield in there. That when you look at it that an average of say 350 like you said, times 200 would be about you know, you're probably looking at how much is your average commission amount on 350?
Lee: Just above $10,000.
Dean: Okay. So let's just call it $10,000 times 200 is 20 million right? So when you look at that, that's what we are looking at that is going to be paid out here. So let's say 200 times $10,000 equals, so 2 million dollars in total listing side commissions is what we're trying to attract there. Now that doesn't take into account anything that we do with your listings multiplier index, because our goal is going to be to turn every listing that you get into more than three transactions.
Lee: Exactly.
Dean: So there's lots of potential there. So you've got a really good area there and a really good opportunity. So now, we want to find out what are the characteristics of the homes that are in there? Are they all sort of the same single family detached homes or are there some town homes and some villas and some luxury homes? Or are they all sort of single family detached?
Lee: They're all single family.
Dean: Okay.
Lee: The aesthetics, as you move around it, change for that site, but no town homes, there's no golf course.
Dean: No lakefront or waterfront or backing onto a forest or anything that would distinguish any of them from the others?
Lee: No views for some of them.
Dean: Okay. Uh-huh. Okay.
Lee: Yeah, that's about it.
Dean: Okay. Perfect. So we've got Heritage. Is that just the way they call it, Heritage? Or is it Heritage something else or just Heritage?
Lee: It's Heritage. In the tax, you know, Heritage addition, but all the signage is just Heritage.
Dean: It just say's Heritage. Okay. So if you ask somebody, where do you live? I live in Heritage.
Lee: Yeah, you can point it out quick.
Dean: Okay. Perfect. And does it have an entrance like a you know you're in Heritage? You're arriving, this is Heritage? Here it is.
Lee: You can see the signage from the main street and once you're inside all of the street signs have a common theme, has a little name on the top of it. On the top of the actual street's name. So yeah.
Dean: Okay, perfect. So you know where you are when you're in there. That's good.
Lee: Exactly.
Dean: And so part of the thing now is we're going to send out the first postcards to the area, offering them the January report on Heritage house prices.
Lee: Exactly.
Dean: Yeah. So when the picture that we'll use will be either the entrance or something that's identifiable that, "Oh, that's me. That's Heritage."
Lee: Right.
Dean: You've done now, most of the hard work here, is getting all your ducks in a row, getting everything organized. And I know you've been working with Diane on this Easy Button, to do all of that preparation and stuff for you.
So she'll prepare your postcards and prepare your reports and the newsletter and cover letters and the Top Dollar book, everything that you need to respond to people. But have you gone through the Getting Listings Program to understand like how it all works?
Lee: I understand the first portion. You know, sending the postcards out and-
Dean: That's good. All you need to do, this is great. You're just like, I don't need to know anything. I just need to know what I need to do right now, then I'll worry about I have to do after that. Well let me-
Lee: Right. So finding the buyers, that's the part that I'm kind of…
Dean: Okay. All right. Well we've got you covered on that, but let me paint the picture of what's going to happen for you with the getting listings, now that you've found the area, it's good turnover, it's a positive momentum area.
We're going to mail out the postcards. How many postcards are you going to mail the first mailing here? You're not going to mail to all 3300 right now?
Lee: No, I'm going to split it in half, actually.
Dean: Perfect. Okay. So we'll mail 1700 or something right now. Okay.
Lee: Right.
Dean: All right. Perfect. So what'll happen is each month we're going to mail out the postcards and each month it will change to offer the January or the February or the March or the April report. People will either go to your website, so we'll set up the landing page for you. We'll set up, you know, did you get Heritage house price or Heritage price report or something? We'll help you choose a domain name for that and get your landing page all set up.
And then we'll set up your recorded message hotline. So that people can either call and leave their information on your recorded message or they can go to the website and leave their information. So when you send that out, we'll get people to then leave you their information and we respond to that with a package that is sending them the report that they asked for. And the report that we send is all of the activity from the last 12 months of sales, what's happened in there, and the ones that are for sale right now. So people get a snapshot of what is actually going on in Heritage right now.
And we send that with a cover letter and a copy of a book that we have for you called How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar Fast that goes along with it. And we have a newsletter called Get Top Dollar and so we send the Get Top Dollar newsletter every month going forward to the people who have responded. So the first time they respond, they get the package with all the activity of what's happened in the last 12 months, the cover letter and the How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar Fast book and a copy of the newsletter.
Then each month after that, I've already written all of these for you, so you don't really have to do anything. We send a cover letter and the Get Top Dollar newsletter and all you need to do is insert the most recent activity for the last 30 days. Because we've already updated them globally on what happened in the last year, the first time they respond. And then next month, all we need to do is update them on what's happened in the last 30 days.
Lee: Okay. Okay.
Dean: So each month going forward, that's all we're doing. Now the great thing about it is that, we're not calling people, we're not chasing them down trying to convince them to list their house right now. Because so many of them, they're used to and expecting that, that's what's going to happen and they might head that off at the pass. Right?
We're very different in that, the way I set up the whole Getting Listings Program was that it doesn't require any outgoing phone calls. The whole thing is designed to get people to call you when they're ready to list their house, which they do. So what we're doing is taking this approach that we understand that because we're offering information to people who are just now entering the process of thinking about selling their house. That we've got months to add value, to build a relationship with them, to demonstrate that we're consistently providing them information and we're not trying to just get in there and get them to list the house.
Lee: Right.
Dean: And that really goes a long way. Right? That people appreciate that, and they call you. Now, we're not just doing it. We're orchestrating in a way that we're giving them a reason to call us. We're not just being nice to them and then saying, "Hey, if there's any way I can help you or if there's anything, please feel free to reach out to me." Or anything like that. We, very carefully have thought through what is it that's going to trigger them to take that next step.
So when we look at it, that we know that the thing that's going to get somebody to raise their hand is the information about what's going on in Heritage, because that's what they really want to know. Anybody who's entering the process of thinking about selling their house, the first thing that crosses their mind is, Well I wonder what I can get for my place. Right? How much is my house worth?
Lee: Right. Right.
Dean: And rather than offering them the opportunity for you to come over and tell them what their house is worth, which a lot of people in the early stages, they're not ready for that yet, because they're not thinking about selling right now. So they don't want to have to fight you off, trying to get them to list their house now. Right? Convince them to do that.
Lee: Right. Right.
Dean: So offering them the reports on Heritage house prices, that sounds like it's already done. And it sounds like I can voyeur in and see, get the information I want without having to have a real estate agent come over and give me their opinion of value. Yeah, it's almost like the way that when people are thinking about cars. You know, it's almost like the Blue Book. It's like Just give me the data of what are the cars actually worth. Right?
Lee: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Dean: So when they do that, now we know that they are much more likely over the next 6 months, 12 months, 18 months to sell their house. And we've got the opportunity to continue this dialog with them by continually mailing them the updates. We look at what's going to trigger them taking the next step?
Lee: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Dean: So if somebody gets this report, it's showing them what all the houses in Heritage, what's going on there, but it doesn't show them exactly what their house is worth. Right? So they still have that question. That might be, if they're really going to go move forward or get serious, they're going to need to know what is my house worth?
And so we offer them a pin-point price analysis, which will tell them, we'll come over and show you exactly what your house would sell for in today's market. And then we think, what else might they want to know? Right? Some other people might be interested in knowing what to do to get their house ready to sell.
Lee: Good question.
Dean: Like do we need to replace the carpets? Or do I need to redo the kitchen? Or you know, some people just are like that. The thing they want to do is get all their ducks in a row before they put the house on the market. Right?
Lee: Right.
Dean: And then there might be other people, so we offer them a room by room review booklet. Where we've got a whole checklist. And we've already got this for you by the way, a whole checklist booklet that you can use to go over the house with people and go from the curb to the closets and give the best advice on what to do to get the house ready for sale.
And the good news about having a checklist like that is that it makes having the difficult conversations easier, because it's now, it's there on the page. Right? So it's like you know, pack away personal photos and mementos, things like that, that might be a difficult thing to say to somebody. But when it's on the checklist, now it's like, Oh well, I guess it says that's what we should do. Right? So now it's like this is the thing if you want to make your house show its best. But some people, that's the next step for them.
Lee: Okay. Right. Okay.
Dean: And then there might be other people that if they, they're just kind of waiting. There's nothing driving them to sell, but maybe if you had a buyer they would sell and that might trigger it. So we offer them the opportunity that, well we may be able to sell your house in as little as 24 hours without even putting it on the market, with our silent market.
And so each letter that we send, each newsletter that we send, each month when we send out the packages, we're letting them know that whenever you're ready, here are three ways we can help you. And so making those offers to people, makes it easy for them to take the next step. Rather than just kind of saying, "If there's anything I can help you with." We're anticipating what are they going to want help with?
The good news is, guess where they all end up Lee? I mean if somebody calls up and says, "Hey, I'd like to get a pin-point price analysis." Our answer is, "Perfect, let me pop out. I'll take a look at your house, I'll go through everything. I'll prepare the information for you and give you a pin-point price analysis."
Or they may say, "I want to get a room by room review." And your conversation is, "Perfect. Let me pop by. I'll take a look at your house. I'll bring my room by room review book, we'll go through and I'll recommend all the best things." Or they say, "What's this silent about? Do you think maybe you have a buyer?" "Perfect. Let me pop by. I'll take a look at your house. "
I mean the whole thing, every path leads to you getting together with them in the house. Right? That's really the next step that we're looking at, but we're just paving a very specific path for people. Whatever one is the most comfortable for them. Right? And it sounds like there's a purpose for you coming over, not just to do a listing presentation. It's not like that.
You're often the only one who gets called in. And often, after the months of continually doing this, you're able to get calls from people that just say... Well, you saw it. Maybe you've seen in the forum, in the GoGo Agent Forum. We had a guy who just posted up that he got a call after his second mailing and the guy said, "Hey, I think you're the guy to go to here. We're ready to sell our house. Can you come over and help us?"
Lee: Wow.
Dean: And that's exactly the way it happens. Right? That they call you and it's easy. I developed this Getting Listings Program 12 years ago now. This is the 13th year, going into it. This has been tested and proven with thousands of people all over North America, even the world.
I mean, in London, Australia, in Europe, this model has been working to get exactly those kinds of phone calls. So you're in the right place and you're doing the right thing. It's just to stay the course and do it. Have you listened to the podcasts with Tony Kelsey and Chuck Charlton? All the way back in the beginning when we were talking about the case study that we've been doing?
Lee: Oh. Yeah, they're the motivators.
Dean: Yes. Exactly.
Lee: Listening to their story, that's motivating.
Dean: Yes. That's exactly right. Yes. So there you go. You're in the right place there. Now, I can't wait to see how it all unfolds for you. And the thing that we've been experimenting with, you know, because we're constantly evolving this and what's been working really well for us now, is in addition to the mailing of the postcards. We've been doing micro targeted Facebook ads, where we can put a ring around, just around Heritage. I don't know whether you've seen the video ads with Diane standing out front of the entrance to Lake Ashton saying-
Lee: Yes I did. Yeah.
Dean: Yeah. So that kind of thing. What we do is, we time that ad to go and show at the time when the postcards are arriving. So that Diane's able to say, "You may have seen this postcard arrive in the mail." And now, it reminds people that this was there. And it's been a really nice amplifier for getting those leads.
Lee: Okay. That's good.
Dean: Yeah.
Lee: I'm all in.
Dean: I love it. I'm super excited that this is the kind of thing.
Lee: Yeah.
Dean: Now, you've got your plan for getting listings.
Lee: Mm-hmm
Dean: And that's pretty exciting and now you know, as we keep moving down here, the next thing would be multiplying listings, but since you don't have any right now, then we move right on to getting referrals.
Lee: Okay.
Dean: So where are you at right now on that plan?
Lee: So I sent a message to pretty much everyone. All my contacts that I know would like you say, if they found me out, would recognize me, and I would recognize them.
Dean: Yep.
Lee: So now just, you know, the addresses are kind of filtering back in slowly. I think that's a weak spot right now, just being able to get everybody on the list.
Dean: Yeah. Well you know, we can do that whole thing for you too. Yeah, yeah. So if you know who they are, if you know who they are, all we need is their first and last name and the town that they live in. And what other would be very helpful is their age range.
So if there's like Lee Stewart in wherever, you know, in Fort Worth. If there's more than one, we want to know that it's the one that is 38 years, 42 years old. You know, it's just so you know the difference between whether it's somebody in their 70s or 30s or whatever.
Lee: Okay.
Dean: That helps be the tiebreaker. We belong to all these different people finding services. So we can get the addresses and stuff for you.
Lee: That works. That works.
Dean: Yeah, because it's just tedious lookup work you know? Doing it, it's data work. So if you've just got the name and the town, then we can get the addresses and stuff for you.
Lee: Okay. I just send that to Diane as well?
Dean: Yes, exactly. Do you have a 150 people or 100 or how many?
Lee: When I did it, it was up around 83.
Dean: Okay. So the other things that I would recommend, like what we want to look through, is kind of did you get your immediate neighbors? The people that live right around you? Did you have any cousins or extended family that's right there in the area? Any of your friends from work that live in the area? I don't know if you do anything, if you golf or play baseball or softball or anything like that.
Lee: I didn't think about it that way. But yeah, the neighbors and co-workers and the other parents from my son's school.
Dean: Yeah, everybody. Yeah.
Lee: Yeah, that makes sense.
Dean: Yep. Everybody that you know them by name, that's the thing. Right? Because you're brand new, so you're not anybody's realtor yet. Right?
Lee: Right.
Dean: Because we're just kind of getting started.
Lee: Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. I got it.
Dean: Okay. And then that was kind of the fun thing. We've been modeling all of this. We reactivated Diane's license and we're documenting everything that we're doing here, like running it from our office to document what's happened. That was the first listing that Diane got, was from the world's most interesting postcard. She mailed that out and then had got a referral actually. One of those people referred her to their neighbor who was selling the house. So when got that listing on the market and now she's just listed her first Getting Listings listing and has others in the pipeline there.
So things are all humming in the right direction. But I think that idea of getting you top 150 together is really going to be, that's really a said it and forget it type of thing, because we write a new world's most interesting postcard for you every month. So you don't have to do any of the creative stuff there. It's really just, we can set it up and mail everybody for you. So you don't really have to even do anything.
Lee: Awesome. Awesome.
Dean: It's pretty easy.
Lee: Yeah. I'll take that. I mean with working and just being able to work on the business, once I actually get off of work. But just having the Easy Button service, to be able to just do some stuff and get it done. That helps. Thank you.
Dean: Absolutely. Good. Now, so that will kind of be the baseline thing. And then what we'll do is help you create a Google map that takes all the data from your Go-Go Agent, from your database with your top 150, and it creates a map layer that drops a pin on the map where all of your top lives.
So that will become a really handy guide for what we call being a market maker. Where now, you might find that you have some people in your top 150 that live in Heritage or that live in another area where you might be showing homes or going to list homes.
And all helps when you start looking for opportunities to match up the buyers that you're generating with the sellers in those neighborhoods. And so that's a really good, high probability referral opportunity for you and when we cross that bridge, we'll kind of share that with you. So whenever you get to those points. You know, have you been coming on the Thursday calls or are you able to make those Thursday calls?
Lee: I've been listening to the playbacks. Yeah, it's during my work time so I just-
Dean: Oh, recordings of them. Oh okay, great. Yeah, I was going to say because when you get situations like that, you know if you have a question or an opportunity or anything that you could let Diane know. So I can talk about it on the call and then you can get your answer when you listen to the playback.
Lee: Okay.
Dean: But I'm looking forward to seeing all that play out for you. You know?
Lee: Yeah, I'm excited. Oh yeah, I'm excited.
Dean: I was going to ask what the next thing it seems like now. Have you been doing anything for finding buyers or getting leads right now? I know you started in June. So you started doing a little bit of the FISBOs and expired, but have you been doing anything else to find buyers or listing leads or do you have any prospects right now?
Lee: Other than you know, once I got my license and got business cards made. You know I handed them out to co-workers of course and to family, but I did not want to send some things out without a clear plan because I didn't want to waste money.
Dean: Yes. Yes.
Lee: So nothing, I take that back. I have one referral that's a buyer.
Dean: Okay.
Lee: She's looking to buy next month. So I sent her a few homes to look at and just was waiting to hear back from her on what homes she actually wants to go and see.
Dean: Oh cool. Now what kind of house is she looking for?
Lee: Just I guess you'd say, your bread and butter. You know, three bedroom, two bath home, type of home. It's actually in the Northern part of the city, but just a different area.
Dean: Okay.
Lee: And you know, really modest.
Dean: Okay.
Lee: So yeah.
Dean: So then that may be an opportunity to find a listing that's not on the market yet for her. And there's kind of some cool things. If you look in the member blog, if you do just a search on Market Maker in the member blog, you'll find there's some posts about a couple of things that we do. Including a postcard or a flyer that we use in neighborhoods where you have a buyer that's looking for a home.
And we kind of put together a little story, talking about your buyer to find a listing and that's where your top 150 comes in handy too. When we start talking about being a market maker, you start thinking about the neighborhoods that your friend that you're showing homes to is looking for. And when you have your top 150 map, do you think that you may know somebody who lives in one of those areas?
Lee: I believe so.
Dean: Okay.
Lee: I know two people that live in that general area right now.
Dean: So what's one of their first names?
Lee: Greg.
Dean: Greg. Okay. So here's the thing, where now if you show that, if you say to Greg. If you were to send an email to Greg and say, "Hey Greg, I'm showing a house. I'm working with a lady right now who's looking for a house in whatever the name of that neighborhood or in that area and there's only a few for sale right now. Have you heard anybody talking about selling in your neighborhood? We may be able to match them up with this buyer."
That sort of just high probability, low easy to do type of thing, could when you get into the habit of every time you're working with a buyer there, that you are looking to do that, that's a really great thing. And that is a really great conversation to have with expired listings that expired over the last 12 months or more. Right?
Lee: Right.
Dean: Not the brand new expireds, but if you found out what homes have expired and not relisted over the last two years let's say. And you look in those neighborhoods, and you say to them, "I'm working with a buyer right now that's looking for a home in that area. I'm showing houses this weekend for them and I'm not sure what your plans are, but I remember looking up your house when it was on the market earlier and I thought I would maybe check in and see if I could tell them about your house?"
Lee: Gotcha.
Dean: That's a much better, less kind of... I always imagined you know, you talked about these people being badgered. I always imagined them like the hound dog pack. Like a rabbit just come out of the thing and as soon as the house expires the hound dogs are all hopping on them, trying to get them to list with them. And by the end of the day, like you said, they feel like they've been beaten up.
Lee: Yes. Exactly.
Dean: But now, but seven months later, out of the blue, you come with not, "Hey you should list your house with me." But with a sincere, "I'm showing houses this weekend to somebody who's looking in your neighborhood and your house looks like it might be a perfect match." Because, people are just...
Lee: Right.
Dean: What you really have to do to make that work, Lee. Is that you only use it when it's absolutely true. A lot of times people try and smuggle that in and say, "I've got buyers." People are so skeptical about that, because they think that people are just saying that and often they are.
Lee: Right.
Dean: But if you're the guy, that whenever Lee Stewart calls, it's because he's got a real buyer for me. That integrity and reputation is what's going to be the value for you long, long term.
Lee: That makes so much sense.
Dean: Yes. You don't ever want to sacrifice that for trying to get some short-term gain. You know, it's more important that they feel like they can respectfully say, "Oh no. Thank you for thinking of us but we're not putting our house on the market right now."
And you're not going to come back with them and say, "But you know what? The market's really hot. You really should get out now, while you can." Kind of thing. "Who knows what's going to happen."
Or trying to pressure people into listing. Right? That's not how you're going to build that great reputation. You're going to build it by staying in touch that way. And then of course, they're going to remember that anytime Lee contacts me is because he's got a buyer. Let’s at least give him a call and see if maybe he's got a buyer for us now.
Lee: Exactly. That makes sense.
Dean: Yeah. Yeah. And that fits right?
Lee: I like that. Yeah.
Dean: You've got to stay in integrity all the time. That's the best thing you can do.
Lee: Exactly.
Dean: Now, let's talk about finding buyers in advance for Heritage.
Lee: Okay.
Dean: Yeah. So when you look at this now, are there any types of homes that might be an advantage for us in finding a category buyer for this? So what I mean right now is, are there any bank owned homes in there? Is it in an area that may qualify for USDA? Or I'm not sure what the make up and how rural it is or whatever the-
Lee: No. It's still city.
Dean: Okay.
Lee: I wish it was USDA. I didn't know about it until I heard you say it. I also did some research on that and that's awesome.
Dean: Yeah.
Lee: But they would definitely qualify for FHA.
Dean: Yep.
Lee: There are quite a few FHAs, but bank owned, I don't know that I looked at them, to see if there were any bank owned homes in Heritage just yet.
Dean: Okay. Yep. Because that might help too, if you can find that category. We've done a lot of things with bank owned homes, where we start offering people the bank owned homes inventory for the week and sending out a bank owned weekly newsletter by email, of all the new bank owned homes that come on the market.
And that's really a good thing to start, but if Heritage is, because it's a big enough kind of planned community and there's enough variation in there. We can offer the guide to Heritage real estate prices. And are there different builders who built different sections of Heritage or is it all the same builder who built the homes?
Lee: No. I'm actually looking at the layout right now. There are one, two, three, four, five, at least six different builders.
Dean: Okay, but that's good.
Lee: Yeah.
Dean: And does each of those six builders have five or six different models of homes that they've built in there?
Lee: Yeah. At least-
Dean: I guess what I'm asking is, are there situations where there might be, out of the 3000 homes, there might be 50 of the same model? Or 50 of this model, 50 of this model, spread out throughout the? Yeah.
Lee: Oh sure. Yeah, definitely.
Dean: Yeah. So one of the things that you can do is... And are they still building new homes or is it fully built out now?
Lee: There's a last phase where they're building a few you know, a couple of open lots, but for the most part, it's built out.
Dean: Yeah, okay. So one of the things you can do is, you know, when they were new homes, the builders had model homes with floor plans and elevation pictures and all the package when it was a new home center. Right?
Lee: Mm-hmm.
Dean: That you can almost recreate that type of thing, where you're showing in this guide, pictures of the different types of house models, the styles that are in there.
Lee: Okay.
Dean: Because when I did the very first, The Guide To Holton Hills real estate prices. The whole thought process behind that was that there were new homes being in Georgetown and the model home centers where you could go in and you could go through the models and see the floor plans and stuff. It struck me, that the neighborhood that I was living in was at one point, 15 years earlier, a brand new subdivision.
That I looked around and there were 10 or 12 different models that were all spread out through my neighborhood and I started thinking. I calculated it out in Georgetown. You know, I figured I could get the whole lay of the thing with about 60 different models, 60 different pictures. Right?
And I took pictures of all of these models. So I had one to represent the Country Squire model and one the Cambridge model and the Cardinal model and all of that stuff. So if you start documenting, like putting the forest to the trees in Heritage, that's gonna be a valuable asset for you. And now, anybody who's thinking about Heritage, now you can find buyers who are at the level that they're interested in Heritage as a neighborhood, but they haven't chosen it down to a specific house yet.
Lee: Yes. Mm-hmm.
Dean: So really where you're going is that, part of the thing, the process that people go through to choose their home that they're going to live in. It starts with the city. We're going to be in Fort Worth. And then, okay, but where in Fort Worth? Well maybe in the North end and where there? Well maybe Heritage.
And then they start driving around and say I like these streets. And then the outside of the house and then the inside of the house. So if you can intercept people as they're at the level of thinking about Heritage. And then you're able to offer them the guide to Heritage house prices.
Lee: Right.
Dean: It's like getting the new home sales guide for all the types of homes. Are there amenities in the neighborhood? Like is there a community pool or tennis courts or all of that kind of stuff?
Lee: Yeah, I actually got the layout from the HOA office for the subdivision, but yeah, plenty of pools. They have one huge clubhouse and everything is kind of situated throughout the subdivision nicely.
Dean: Yes.
Lee: So yeah. It's nice.
Dean: That's great. And so I think that if you're putting your guide together to be like an introduction to Heritage for people who are considering it. That's going to be a valuable asset, because now you're able to advertise that without having to have listings in there yet. Right. Like right now you're kind of in a situation where you don't have any listings in there. We're on our way, we're making your debut here. Right.
Lee: Right. Right.
Dean: But you need to get those listings to get buyers. But let's start trying to find buyers for Heritage before you even get any listings. Right? Then you've got the best asset that you could ever have going into a listing presentation. Because now you've got a list of people who are looking for homes in Heritage. That's going to be a valuable thing.
Lee: I love it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I love it. I have a quick question.
Dean: Yeah.
Lee: Now how would you get that out there to people? Like a newspaper or the apartment right outside of the subdivision?
Dean: Yes. Yeah. I would do both. Yep. I would do Facebook ads for that. You know, use that same area with a different type of targeting.
Lee: Okay.
Dean: We can target on the listing side. You can target people who live in that area, and then on the buyer's side we can target people who are passing through that area. Right? People who are visiting that area.
Lee: Ah, okay.
Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's kind of a good thing. You know, if you start just doing even little videos. Like what we were talking about, like slice of life kind of videos from within Heritage. The thing that I would be looking at for you right now, is spending in time, investing in creating the assets that are going to help you become the by far and away leader in Heritage. Right?
So anytime, when you do videos that are taking people on tours of the amenities. Right? Or taking people walking through the different streets or telling them the history of Heritage or showing them the schools for the area. All of the things that anybody considering Heritage as a neighborhood would love to know. All those assets that you create are going to have a long life.
I look at time like this. When you're new and you're getting established, that you've got the time to invest in those things. That's going to have a longer life than door knocking or calling expireds or doing those things which are short-term reward thinking. And this kind of thing is you're developing, you're investing your time in creating assets that are going to work for you long after you get off the hamster wheel of calling people. Right?
Lee: Right. Right. Exactly. I love it.
Dean: I'm excited for you. You know, I really get excited about the brand new starts like this.
Lee: Yeah, I'm excited. You know, I'm glad, talking to you and getting exposed to this before any bad habits were created. So I appreciate it.
Dean: Right. Right, right. I can't wait. So any other questions or anything that was on your mind? I think we've covered a lot of good stuff.
Lee: No. I think you covered everything, especially when we started talking about finding the buyers for it.
Dean: Yeah.
Lee: So yeah. No, and it's awesome that we can plug this in anywhere. Awesome. I love it.
Dean: Yes. Yeah, because now, if you've got other areas like what's your expansion plan? After we take over Heritage, where we are we going next?
Lee: Oh, there's another master plan community. Well it's in a different city, but not too far and it's pretty close to the Cowboy Stadium.
Dean: Okay.
Lee: And it's a master plan community, still pretty new. I believe when they get done with it, it'll probably be close to 2800 homes. And that one will actually have a real good mix of your town homes, your low homes, the standalone homes, and like the man-made lakes and all of the other amenities that that one will have. That will be next on the list.
Dean: I love it. Well, you're going to take your play book straight from Heritage right over to that next one, because that's sounds exactly the same thing.
Lee: Yes. Exactly.
Dean: Yeah.
Lee: So yeah. I love it. Thank you so much.
Dean: Yeah, well that's all very exciting, Lee. I can't wait to see it all unfold.
Lee: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I'll be sure to check in and let you know how everything is going.
Dean: Awesome. Okay. Well I appreciate it and I can't wait to watch it all happen real time here.
Lee: All right. Great. Thank you, Dean.
Dean: Thanks Lee. Bye, bye.
Lee: Bye, bye.
Dean: And there we have it. Boy, what a great episode that was. I think Lee has a really great attitude. He's really personable and I think he's going to be a big success. And it's kind of nice that he's got the time to dedicate to laying the great foundation while he's transitioning from his job into the becoming a full-time real estate agent. So I think he's going to be a big success. We got a great plan for him to follow and I can't wait to see it all unfold.
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