Today on the Listing Agent Lifestyle podcast we're talking with Edgar Serratos from the high desert in California.
We had a really interesting conversation today because Edgar's in an area where there's a definite migratory pattern. People are making the most of the cost savings or lifestyle change and moving from Los Angeles county into the high desert.
We talked a lot about that pattern and how he can position himself as THE realtor in that area using the Getting Listings program, and then finding buyers who are thinking about coming into the area
Having people on both sides gives him the chance to become THE Market Maker!
You have a similar opportunity in your area, so I think you're going to get a lot from this episode.
Links:
GoGoAgent.com
Listing Agent Scorecard
Be a Guest
Transcript: Listing Agent Lifestyle Ep064
Dean: Edgar Serratos.
Edgar: Mr. Jackson, how are you?
Dean: I'm so good. How are you? Hey, Edgar, how do we say your last name?
Edgar: Well, I have a little trouble rolling my tongue with the double R. Technically, it's Serratos.
Dean: Serratos.
Edgar: Yes. Yes.
Dean: Okay.
Edgar: I generally accept Serratos.
Dean: We'll also accept Serratos. Going to the judges, yes, we will accept Serratos.
Edgar: Okay. You got that. Great.
Dean: Perfect. Welcome.
Edgar: Thank you.
Dean: I'm excited to get to chat here and expand on some of the things we've been talking about. Since this will be a new audience here, we'll have more people catching up on it, why don't we start out and have you tell the Edgar Serratos story so far and then we can pick up from there and figure out the best direction to go here.
Edgar: Okay. Sounds good. Well, I would say, started off as an agent back in 2001. Like I heard on one of your other callers, same thing that I'm doing to becoming an agent. I started off flipping properties and found that once people move, I was flipping properties and have people around my center's influence. They started asking me about whether or not I could help them. I decided and maybe it would be a good idea to get my license. I did that back then and just gradually became more of a sales agent and then I became an investor. Did that for a little while. One of the things that really attracted me to your program was the analogy of the hamster on the wheel because that's how it was. When I first started off, I was downing for dollars. I did a lot of my business door knocking, but like you said, once I slow down or stop, all of a sudden the business dropped or I was, again, trying to get back into it and watching the income drop as well.
Dean: Yes.
Edgar: I did that for quite a few years and then back in, I think it was 2007, I got my broker's license.
Dean: Just in time.
Edgar: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I timed it perfectly. Not only that, but I also bought a franchise. Of course, the market had other plans for me. Once we got past that period, I was just basically just building it back up, building the business back up.
Dean: Perfect. What does it look like now? What's the situation right now?
Edgar: Right now, I think that I do okay. Last few years, I've been pretty much between about 30 to 40 transactions a year.
Dean: Nice.
Edgar: Yeah. I don't know. I just never got past that. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that either I was on a hamster wheel or I wasn't.
Dean: Excuse me. Yeah.
Edgar: Sure. Of course. I picked up a couple agents that are working their business as well. It's gradually coming along. I'd like to be able to push past 50 and get even past that, but it's coming along.
Dean: Yeah. What's your primary market again?
Edgar: It's what's considered the High Desert.
Dean: High Desert. That was the word I was looking for.
Edgar: Yeah.
Dean: Yeah. What are the communities?
Edgar: Yeah. The High Desert is, I'd say about an hour to an hour and a half northeast of Los Angeles. It encompasses about four cities. There's a couple others; Apple Valley, Adelanto, Victorville, Hesperia. There's a couple others, Piñon Hills or more rural, but those are probably the main cities for the High Desert.
Dean: Right. Perfect. Your office is in ... you're in Victorville or ...
Edgar: Right. Yeah.
Dean: Yeah. Okay. When we look at it, let's just go through the Listing Agent Lifestyle elements here. If we start with your getting listings element of this, would you say that you are more of a listing agent or a buyer agent? How does it work where most of your business comes from for the breakdown of your 30 or 40 transactions?
Edgar: Yeah. I would say, predominantly, they're listings. Percentage wise, I'd say I'm probably 70 to 75% listings and then the others are buyers.
Dean: Okay. What's your method for getting your listings? Have you got a system or are you starting with the getting listings program or where are you at with how you're getting listings right now?
Edgar: Well, I started the getting listings program in November. I think we just sent out or I just sent out the fourth month of post cards.
Dean: Okay. Okay.
Edgar: When I signed up, I was ready to go. I was really anxious. I started looking at some communities around me. I pick one because the amount of houses, it was perfect. Well, it was 500. I looked at the turnover rate in that community and it was 10%. It was right at 10%. I thought, "You know what, those are two check marks there." I just started on the post card campaign. I guess we could elaborate a little bit more when you're ready for that. I was-
Dean: Yeah. No, tell me more. I'm anxious to hear. Yeah.
Edgar: Yeah. Well, when I jumped into it, it's because of that, because of the numbers. I wanted to start off something that's manageable. Obviously, the turnover rate was like you talked about. I thought, "This is great. This is a good opportunity here." I, again, in November started my first campaign. I've been consistent since then, but one of the questions I had about that is, "Did I jump into this community a little too fast? Should I have looked at other factors?" What I mean by that is ... I touched bases with you about this before, but there isn't really amenities or particular category for that.
Dean: In picking an area. Yeah, you were saying.
Edgar: Exactly. Yeah.
Dean: Does this one have a name? Is it a named community? Or is it just a particular area of town? Or what unifies these 500 homes?
Edgar: It does have a name. West Creek is the name of the community.
Dean: Okay. Perfect. That's fine. The reason that I talk about this like in choosing the area, and this would be a good point, actually, for us to talk about how do we value an area because that's really the main thing that we're going here, right, is what to look for. I would look for something that's going to unify this particular group of 500 homes so that people are able to go, "That's me." That's all we're really looking for is to trigger this horoscope effect, right?
Edgar: Mm-hmm.
Dean: When you see your sign, that's like "Oh, this is specifically for me." When you are saying to people, you're offering them the report on West Creek house prices, that's completely relevant to me versus something like the High Desert house prices, which is the broader thing and it's not going to seem as relevant to me. That's why when I go down this list, it's like the name of the community is one of those. The type of home, if it's townhouses or condos or whatever you can attach a specificity to, golf course homes, lakefront homes. Any of that kind of thing that gives people a sense of, "This is specifically speaking to me." That's why we do that, so we can trigger that horoscope effect. Now, when we're looking on evaluating the area itself, I only talk about the turnover rate as a barometer to give people a sense of what's actually going on but what's more important is actually the total yield from that compared to another market.
Let me tell you how we calculate that total yield. If we look at the 500 homes with a 10% turnover rate, that means that 50 of those homes sold in the last 12 months. Now, when we look at that, what's the price range? More importantly, what would be the listings side commission amount of one of those homes?
Edgar: They range, I would say, 250 to 270.
Dean: Okay. What would that translate into just the listing side of the commission that you would be looking at there?
Edgar: It'd be 3%.
Dean: Okay. 3% of 250,000 is 7,500. Is that about right?
Edgar: Yeah.
Dean: Yeah. Okay. 7,500 times 50 is ... I had to pick all these odd numbers. I can't do the math in my head here. 7,500 times 50. $375,000 is what the total yield of that area is just on the listing side of the commissions, right? That's what's being paid out right now to whoever is the realtor that does those transactions. I set that number as what would it be worth if you were only allowed to ever sell homes in West Creek and you had to just focus all of your attention on dominating West Creek that you'd have that $375,000. That's the annual price pool if we look at it like that that's available for being the realtor in ... that's what's up for grabs in West Creek. Then, of course, when you start talking about our listing multipliers, you've got the opportunity for another $375,000 and another $375,000 if you look at our listing multiplier opportunities of each listing coming with five opportunities there. You start to see how this all could multiply itself.
It's fair because when we look at what it might cost you to mail your post cards to that area, you're talking about spending ... Do you know what your total cost to mail the post cards is? Probably under 300.
Edgar: Yeah. All right. The last one was just over 300.
Dean: Okay. Let's call it. Yeah. We've got $3,600 that you're going to spend to go for the entire year to that group of people with really good chance of getting some of the listings in that area. Now, how many listing leads do you have from that so far?
Edgar: Right. For last month, I was at six. Yeah. So far, it's an average about two for each time that I send out a campaign.
Dean: Okay. Perfect. What we're really looking for is, if we were just to shine a light on those 500 homes flying over top of them, if we're looking for the ones that we could light up as the potential people who are going to sell in the next 12 months. Now, did you check out the last few years of sales on there to get a sense of, is that a pretty standard turnover or was there somebody who owned five homes in there that sold this year, all five of them or whatever, to throw it out of the norm? Was that an anomaly, the 10% turnover, or is it pretty consistently 10%?
Edgar: I didn't check several years. I did check it last year. Then the beginning of this year, I checked it again and it was at around 13.
Dean: Okay. That sounds like the low-end of the price spectrum of where you are anyway, right?
Edgar: Yeah. There are some that are less, but generally, it's still on the lower end.
Dean: Yeah. Okay. Perfect. All systems go there. I think you're on track. Again, it's 500 homes, right? If we're looking at multiplying that, if it was 5,000 and we had 60, you're on track there. Now, it's a matter of just stay in the course here in terms of the monthly newsletters to stay in touch with all those people, so that every month they're getting your ... get top dollar newsletter and updates on all the homes that are for sale there. Have you created a Google Maps layer where you can drop a pin in the homes of the people who've responded so you can visually see where they are?
Edgar: As a matter of fact, I have. I did one for West Creek and I also did one for my top 150.
Dean: Perfect. This is good. Now, you've got this visual. Do you have any of your top 150 in West Creek?
Edgar: No, I don't.
Dean: No. Okay. Now, it's nice to see, at least, that when you look at that, you got six people who have raised their hand. You've got this foreknowledge of what somebody maybe thinking in the next six, 12, 24 months.
Edgar: Absolutely. Yeah.
Dean: That's an advantage. I just got a text from Chuck Charlton last week that he had listed a home from somebody who responded to his getting listings mailing 14 years ago. He had been keeping in touch with them. 14 years later, they listed their house. That's just pretty amazing when you start to think about that because that would have been, literally, the very first mailing that he did. We started this getting listings program in December of 2005 and Chuck was-
Edgar: Yeah. I'm curious-
Dean: Yeah.
Edgar: Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt.
Dean: No.
Edgar: I'm curious to hear how that conversation went. Did he have the post card magnet on the refrigerator or is this one that he had or ...
Dean: No. Part of the thing is that it's about ... The post card just gets them to raise their hand. Now, he has been sending the monthly updates every month and keeping in touch with people. That's really what the big thing is. Over all that time, he's generated 1,800 listing leads. He's got a pool of all of these people who have responded that he's consistently keeping in touch with. They just keep jumping in the boat as we say. They're ready to list.
Edgar: Exactly.
Dean: Yeah. That's what's really the great opportunity now is that you're building an annuity. It's like a compound interest table if you start to look at it. Right now, you're at the stage where you're spending $300 a month. If this was your fourth month, you've got $1,200 invested in this so far. You've got, in addition to that, the monthly newsletters but not many because you've only got six people who've responded so far. As you go now that what we're looking for is, even if it goes all year and you get one of the listings from that 500 that you've doubled your investment and you have the pool of ... let's say, you get that to 20 people over the course of the year who have raised their hand. Going in the next year, you've got the one transaction that you've done plus all the pool of these people who are the future sellers. Even if you stopped mailing the post cards, you've got the real asset which is the people who've raised their hand. That's really what this is about. It's building that. Building those oil else thing. That's the mindset here.
Edgar: Right. Right. Yeah. The great thing is, it is scalable and listening on the ghost realtors and those agents that have already implemented that strategy and of course, that's where I want to lead this to. Yeah.
Dean: Yeah. It's pretty cool to start to see the ... to have the conversations in the last couple of Listing Agency Lifestyle episodes have been with people who are running remote teams. That's an interesting opportunity.
Edgar: Absolutely.
Dean: Yeah. Are there other areas like what's next from West Creek here? Are there other areas like that that are now that you understand what I'm looking for in terms of how to unify certain areas?
Edgar: Yeah. There are a few named communities throughout. Just in Victorville alone, there is one community in the High Desert or one community, locally, that does have a golf course and a lake, a man-made lake. That area probably has, I would assume, over 1,000 homes. I haven't checked into it just yet.
Dean: Perfect.
Edgar: There are a couple communities in the neighboring City of Apple Valley that also have golf courses. Maybe there are two, but those are active communities, 55 plus.
Dean: Nice.
Edgar: What made me shy away from that community is, I wasn't quite sure how well the turnover rate was going to be on that.
Dean: Right.
Edgar: Price range is there, 300, 350 or so, but I don't know. Maybe I just didn't have the right mindset, but I thought to myself that if those homeowners are going there, they're probably not going to be moving anytime soon, so I shied away from those communities.
Dean: When you start to look at it, one of the communities that we have got with Diane here in Winterhaven is a 55 plus community as well. Yeah. There's constant turnover. There's constant turnover in all of these areas. Life changes, people move to different places. If it's an established community then there's going to be turnover. That's the thing. If you're looking at it as a long term place as well, that's the important thing, that you're establishing yourself here for what's going to happen on the macro level here, what's going to happen over the next five years in there. You've got a much longer runway and a much bigger ROI.
Edgar: Yeah. I guess that would be the other ... Again, I was looking at the turnover because the other thing I was considering is once this West Creek community started to pay out is to go into another community. I was thinking, maybe something in a higher price range. Like you said, if I'm looking at long term, would the possibility that maybe the turnover rate won't be as high.
Dean: Right. Yeah. There's not many areas that have that, but when you look at ... We did the lakefront homes here in Winterhaven. They have a 4% turnover rate, but the average price is much higher, right?
Edgar: Mm-hmm.
Dean: You look at, it all balances out. That's where I mentioned this total yield as being a one of the total considerations when you're comparing one area to another. It all works out if you're taking this long term view to it too.
Edgar: Got you.
Dean: Now, having the categories like golf course communities or whatever it is, is going to help with finding the buyers for those areas as well. Because right now, the High Desert and I think I mentioned that to you on one of our GoGo Agent calls that the High Desert is a category to the people who are coming from L.A. or from wherever the people are migrating to, right?
Edgar: Right.
Dean: That they may not have that as specific, a thing as narrowing it down to we want to be in West Creek. That may start out with a desire to be somewhere in the High Desert. That's how that thing would be. Yeah, we're going to go out that way and find something. Because if they're relocating or is it a second home market too or people migrating out there to live?
Edgar: No. I would say that majority are migrating down here to live.
Dean: Okay.
Edgar: Yeah. A lot of those folks that are coming from other counties like Ellis County and so forth, a lot of them are coming here because they could afford more in the same price range and they wind up commuting. Some people have long commutes that they have to deal with.
Dean: Isn't that something?
Edgar: Yeah, it is.
Dean: Are there any of those luxury vans that take groups of people that do that commute into the city.
Edgar: No. No.
Dean: No. Okay.
Edgar: There are the carpool type vans, but I wouldn't put luxury next to the word.
Dean: Well, did a golf trip in Scotland with Perry Goff and have these luxury coaches that have eight seats that are facing club seats. It's just a nice environment. Yeah. I just wondered if anybody had looked at doing something like that as an opportunity for commuting.
Edgar: Well, that's interesting. I'm going to write that one down.
Dean: Yeah. I'm just wondering. That seems like that would be a great thing. Some people can take that. Just relax. Get stuff done or whatever.
Edgar: Yeah. Yeah, that's true.
Dean: Yeah. Maybe an opportunity there for you. Yeah.
Edgar: Yeah. Yeah.
Dean: I would start to look at the ability, now, to start finding the buyers who are migrating by finding them upstream before their coming into the area. Would you say, is it a net migration in area that there's mostly the ... Are people moving around within the High Desert or are people mostly coming from another area and relocating to the High Desert?
Edgar: Yeah. I would say it's more likely that people are coming in from other areas and are going into the High Desert. There are some moves within the High Desert. They plant roots and just look to either upgrade or downgrade, but the majority do come from other counties.
Dean: This model is very similar to ... where I lived in Toronto was in Halton Hills, which was on the outskirts of Toronto in what was called the GTA, the Greater Toronto Area. Halton Hills was an area not unlike Connecticut is to New York that people live in New York or work in New York, live in Connecticut commute in. Halton Hills was the same thing. It was a commuter town, beautiful rolling hills, nice area, but still convenient to the city. People didn't know about what you could get in Halton Hills. The only way back then to really get information was to come out there. I think that the same desire today stands true that if somebody is thinking about or considering coming to the High Desert on that level that that's where they're looking at going, that it would be value for them to know what they're getting into, what the different options are.
I think that if you had a guide to High Desert house prices or guide to moving to the High Desert or something that's letting people who are early on in the process gather for their research phase, something that shows the different communities that are available, the types of homes, the prices, what you get for the money thing. Not even specifically linked to homes that are necessarily for sale, but homes like styles or what you can get. You can say starting at this, you can get condos or town homes starting in the 200,000 range or you can get three bedroom detach homes or this much and show what's available along with highlighting these specialty communities like golf course communities or 55 places or are there condo and townhouse complexes thing there too?
Edgar: Yeah. Well, check this out. I was doing some homework and I noticed that in the High Desert, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, there's about eight small condo townhome style communities, but total between the eight which again encompasses about four major cities here, there is probably just over 100 units and that's it.
Dean: Right. That's small. How many homes total are there in the whole area? What's the population of what would encompass the High Desert?
Edgar: You know what, I'd be guessing. As far as how many homes total, I wouldn't even be able to throw up a number. I'm not quite sure. Population, you know what, I think in Victorville, I think we're at over 100,000.
Dean: That's a big size. That's good. Yeah.
Edgar: Yeah. It's good size.
Dean: Yeah. There's plenty of homes. It's all real viable market. It's just a matter of, if you can and now, especially, using Facebook target specific geographies, you could target L.A. County with ads offering the High Desert guide. They would be highlighting showing a map that it's this area and showing the guide popping out there. Anybody who's thinking about moving to the High Desert would say, "Oh, yeah, that would be a valuable thing to have." What's really interesting is, this was a ... I don't know how much the price savings are between an hour and a half away. If you take a house that looks like a standard three bedroom, two bath house that you would find both in L.A. County and in the High Desert, and you were to say, "This house in Victorville is this much and it's this much times two or whatever in L.A. County," what kind of a price difference is there in those areas? Where does it drop?
Edgar: I would say it depends on ... On average, you're probably looking at a house in L.A. that's going to run you about five, 550, 600,000 is probably going to run you here, of course depending on the area, but it's probably going to run you about the 250, the 280 range. It is big chunk of change.
Dean: Yeah. If you're looking at that, one of the things that we did in ... Even within Halton Hills there was a difference. Halton Hills was kind of Georgetown and Acton and then the next township was Erin and Hillsburgh. It was about 20 minutes from Georgetown to Hillsburgh, 20 minutes further. For most people, Georgetown and Halton Hills was the end of the world as they knew it for a metropolitan area. To think about 20 minutes more, but what we were able to show people was that you could save per minute that you were willing to drive further from Georgetown. You could get the same house that you could get in Georgetown, you could get in Hillsburgh for $20,000 less than what you could get it for in Georgetown. That was at a time where we're talking the difference between 165 and 145.
When you start thinking about a $300,000 difference for an hour and a half drive, a 90-minute drive, you're talking about $3,000, $4,000 a minute, per minute that you're willing to drive outside of L.A. County.
Edgar: Yeah. That would make an impact. That's for sure.
Dean: Right. It's an interesting thing to do. One of the things that I would notice when I would do floor duty in the office when the newspaper came out, which that was the way that people would get all the updates of the things. What I would know is that you couldn't tell by looking at a house whether it was from Hillsburgh or Acton or Georgetown because they had similar homes, some of them, and the ones in town, at least. You would get a lot of calls on a home that look like it was in Georgetown for $10,000 below what you would expect it to be or $20,000 below what it would expect it to be, and people, they would be anxious to see where it was and then find out that it's in Georgetown. It's like "Oh," but then you've got them on the phone and you know that they're looking for a house in that area.
You wonder if you have one of my favorite Facebook formats is the carousel ad as well where you can have multiple ones that you could show people the types of homes that you can get in the High Desert, what the prices are. That could be a nice motivator for people too when you show them the difference.
Edgar: Oh, wow. You could do a carousel with what, like three, four pictures and then-
Dean: Yeah, multiple. You can have many, many, many. Yeah, three or four would be perfect and one of those being then the cover of your guide to High Desert house prices.
Edgar: Yeah. That's what I was trying to picture. It's how that ad would look. Yeah.
Dean: Yeah. You're saying, townhouses from this or condos and townhouses from this, detached homes from this, and you're just showing the styles of things that you can get. Golf course communities, all that stuff, and saying to people in the ad, "If you're looking for a home in the High Desert or considering a home in the High Desert, read this and here's the guide." That would make a difference. What's going to be a really valuable thing for you, as you're building your list of people in the High Desert who are thinking about selling their house, which is what you're doing with the getting listings program, is to start now looking to triangulate that by building a list of people who are thinking about moving to the High Desert.
Edgar: Right. Right. Yeah. I really like that, a synergy that you had between the two sides. It totally makes sense. 17 years in the business and you don't put those two things or at least, I didn't put those two things together.
Dean: Right. That's great.
Edgar: Right.
Dean: There's a great opportunity there. Now, the other thing, I would look at the pockets because you can target geography on Facebook so you can show your ad to just like the Northeastern part of L.A. County or wherever from an hour or hour or two, hour and a half away and get that zone of where the migration zone is. Then another opportunity is that you can target the entire High Desert and show ads to people who are visiting there but don't live there. If you're showing ads to people who are in this area right now, but they live 100 miles away, there's a good chance that some of those people are up there looking for or considering real estate up there.
Edgar: Right. Right.
Dean: You're getting them on both ways there. One of the things that's a good option to do for that is offering an ad with the daily tour phones or offering the guide as well. You offered your guide to the people who are there to look for homes.
Edgar: Yeah. On the app or the daily tours, would that be just a general ad for all of the High Desert or for each city? How would that work?
Dean: Yeah. You could do it as broad as High Desert house tours or you could do it for Victorville or ... what was one of the other areas?
Edgar: Apple Valley?
Dean: Adelanto. Yeah. You start to look at those as a potential offer for people who are there but don't live there. That's a unique position there. This Facebook offering is so many great opportunities for you.
Edgar: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. To be completely honest with you, Dean, before I got into your program, I didn't even consider advertising of any kind. I was taught the proactive approach, the door knock. If you're not ready to do anything in the next 90 days, you're dead to me the whole nine yards.
Dean: Right. Exactly.
Edgar: Yeah. Yeah.
Dean: Yeah. That's my favorite. "You're dead to me." Yeah. It's so funny but that's just such a ... that's the hamster wheel.
Edgar: Right. Right.
Dean: That's really that approach.
Edgar: Right. Right.
Dean: If they're not down, it's just I've seen so much advantage on the long term side. Just because so many of your competitors are so short term focused, that's really the thing. That's where you have the advantage is that you've already generated six people out of 500 homes that are already potential home sellers there and you're building a relationship with those people.
Edgar: Right. It is fascinating to see that when, really, they're calling, leave a message after a campaign or they'll jump on the landing page. Before you know it, there's another one that's going to be added to your list.
Dean: Yes.
Edgar: It is so good to see that. Like you said, they're raising their hands and as long as we do our job and you can judge with them and provide them with the information, the likelihood is at least ...
Dean: Don't scare them off.
Edgar: We’ll get an invitation. Yeah. Yeah. The way-
Dean: Yeah. That's the thing is that a lot of the people are just jumping on them immediately trying to get them the list right now, close for an appointment and get in there and sell it. That really scares the long term ones away. Always best to really be in attraction mode.
Edgar: Exactly. At that point, once you get the invitation when they are ready, if you get the invitation, the odds are in your favor.
Dean: Yes.
Edgar: You're going to walk away with the listing.
Dean: Yeah. Your best accessory for these listings is going to be your ability, now, to build this list of people who are thinking about moving to the High Desert if you've got the thing. Now, when you go into a listing appointment, if you start this now and you've got the guide and you generate in this list of people who are looking for homes in the High Desert, you're able to go into a listing and tell people, "I started looking for the buyer for your house 180 days ago. We've got this list of 150 people who are looking for homes in the High Desert. I've been sending them weekly updates with all the new listings. As soon as we list your house, send them that information right away." That's an advantage.
Edgar: Absolutely. Yeah, I agree.
Dean: Yeah. Because not everybody is going to wake up one day in L.A. County and say, "Honey, pack up the kids. We're moving to the High Desert. Let's go out there and buy a house today." That's not how it happens, right?
Edgar: Right.
Dean: It's a discussion and it's a process and any migration like that is a process. It starts with, well, what's the High Desert all about? What are we talking about anyway? How much are the houses out there? What do we get for the money? What's it like to actually live there? Let's go up and take a visit. Those are the things that are ... if you're there as their man in the desert, you're the one that they've got a relationship with and there's no reason. I think that you've got so much opportunity to even through videos and building the asset set of videos and information and things that are useful for people who are considering moving up there to get a sense of and a flavor of what it's like to actually live there, it's almost like there are some really opportunity for you to create like a ... Did you ever see that House Hunters show on HGTV?
Edgar: Yeah. Yeah.
Dean: Yeah. They they're looking in a new area and they get a lay of the land and show them different homes and the price range and then they choose one. Well, there's nothing stopping you. That's such a simple model that you could literally do that same thing. You could create a High Desert reality show only for your Facebook ads.
Edgar: Yeah. Can you elaborate a little bit on that idea?
Dean: Sure. Yeah. Part of the thing is that, right now, there's no difference between somebody being on TV or somebody being on your screen in terms of being a Facebook show. Facebook has their ... they're really going big with video now and so much so that it's built right into the app. There's a whole icon there. They're trying to create an environment like YouTube for videos within the Facebook environment. You could with any of the cameras, nowadays, are able to create HD video. They have somebody for you to host a tour of the High Desert thing for people so that it's a good start that at least they get to see what is there. A good example of just the content that you can create because it's really got to be ... it's an advantage if you can be the guy that people think about when they come to the High Desert. That's going to be an advantage for you, right?
Edgar: Mm-hmm.
Dean: How you can get that is, there's nothing stopping you from having your own television station. That's really what this YouTube Watch shows are about where you could create short content videos that show people all around the High Desert. Every time you create those assets, that's exactly what you're building. It's an asset that will continue to live on so that anybody who's thinking about moving to a particular area, if you've already got a video, you can include that in the email dialogue that you have with them.
Edgar: Wow. There's just so much there you could...
Dean: Yeah.
Edgar: Yeah, so many opportunities. Yeah. I got to admit, sometimes it feels like it's so much that there's…
Dean: Oh, yeah. There's so much opportunity.
Edgar: Right. You got to slow down the process that's just going to focus and make sure that you're activating each one of these things and they're all working.
Dean: That's the thing. That's why we put the elements in their order, right?
Edgar: Yeah. Yeah.
Dean: We want to establish. We want to get your getting listings program underway so that you've got a strong foundation on that, then we focus on your listing multipliers. Have you calculated your listing multiplier index yet?
Edgar: No, I haven't. I haven't.
Dean: Okay.
Edgar: I would imagine I'm probably on the lower end. I don't double end that many properties. Even with that, I would imagine it's going to put me on the lower end of the scale there.
Dean: Right. You start to think about now, what would happen if you were to take that part of it seriously and to look at, what could we do to get your listing multiplier index over three. Every listing you take down were three transactions. That's a big opportunity for you.
Edgar: Oh, absolutely. There's a lot of revenue that's been left on the table. That's for sure.
Dean: Yeah. Then we go into getting referrals and we look at how are you doing with your top 150 there. Have you calculated your return on relationship?
Edgar: I haven't. I know that I'm at 78 right now in the top 150.
Dean: Okay. I love that. My top 150, currently, has 78 people. That's great.
Edgar: Yeah. It's building. I would say that the reason why is because a lot of the clients ... When I started my business, I started my business in Orange County. A lot of my clients are not in the area now.
Dean: I got you.
Edgar: I even have some that moved out of state. I'm kicking through them and saying, "Okay, who am I going to run into a grocery store and"-
Dean: At the grocery store. Yeah.
Edgar: Exactly.
Dean: Perfect.
Edgar: It whittled down to 78 right now, but I'm building it.
Dean: I was going to say, because as you go, each month, you're going to keep a note on your iPhone there every time you run into somebody that you do recognize by name and you think too slow, "Oh, they're not on my list." Now, you can add them and you can start seeing by doing that. How much of your business does come from repeat or referral?
Edgar: Well, this is the irony. I would say, probably 70% of my business comes from my center of influence from referrals, from people that I know and yet, I didn't have a consistent working program to go with them, to work them, I guess.
Dean: Right. There we go. That's going to be such a big opportunity for you here because you've already got that which shows you is that you're like a ball and that people want to do business with you again or refer their friends. Now, to be able to ramp that up and focus on some of our orchestrating referrals and being a market maker, you've got those big opportunities going forward here too.
Edgar: Yeah. Absolutely. It's definitely, the impressions are being made. For example, the world's most interesting post card, I implemented that as well at the same time as my first campaign for that. First month, didn't really get anything and then the second month, I started, "Hey, I just got your post card" and so on and so forth. "Are you stalking me?" Little things like that. They tell me that, obviously, they are receiving it, and so it is making an impact. It definitely helps.
Dean: Yeah. That's great. That's the thing. It's nice we've been monitoring everything with Diane as well. She's got two listings already from sending the world's most interesting post card for her. You're going to notice an impact on that and that's all pretty exciting.
Edgar: Yeah. Absolutely. I am excited. There is one that's ... it fills in the gap. It fills in the gap of when you fall off the hamster wheel or for whatever reason you're not on it, it's going to fill in that gap and keep that consistency. That's obviously something that I would assume that we all need.
Dean: Yes.
Edgar: The consistencies. I'm absolutely, without a doubt, 100% into it. I'm very excited at the results.
Dean: Oh, that's awesome.
Edgar: Yeah.
Dean: Here today, what's the takeaway here or the action plan for you or the last questions or anything?
Edgar: Yeah. Yeah. I would say that the top of my list, right now, as far as my action plan is to get the guide going for buyers. To get that space ongoing since I already have the getting listings post card campaign going. With respect to that, I did have a question that I thought about.
Dean: Okay.
Edgar: The guide is obviously going to take some time to put everything together and get it out there, but once it's out there and once it's getting the emails and so forth, at what point do I start to narrow them down to a particular area or particular price range? Should I do that in-
Dean: The whole point of doing the guide is to get people rethinking about coming to the High Desert to raise their hand. Then the email dialogues that we use with them, like how to engage with them, will get you in the conversations where they'll tell you what they're looking for, but every week, we're going to send a weekly market watch email with updates of everything that's going on in the High Desert. All of the new listings that have come on the market just links to where they can search all of those and will always send those emails with our super signature at the bottom of them. Let's says, plus whenever you're ready, here are three ways we can help you and offer the daily tour of homes or offer the home loan report or whatever your guide to the prices. Wherever people are in the process, they'll always know what the next step is. That's where our real ... We're building that list of people who are thinking about coming up to the High Desert or planning on it.
Edgar: Right.
Dean: Whenever they're ready, they'll start to reach out to you.
Edgar: Fantastic. They'll basically wind up narrowing themselves down with the processes.
Dean: Yes. Yeah.
Edgar: Got you. Got you.
Dean: Because they'll say, "Oh, tell me more about this one. What about this one?" In that conversation, you're able to then find out what they're looking for and you can update your record in GoGo Agent to show the notes of every conversation that you've had with them so that you know what, specifically, they're looking for. That way, this is where being a market maker is really going to come in handy because if they're looking for something that sounds like this, your West ... what was the name of the area that you mentioned? West Creek.
Edgar: West Creek.
Dean: Yeah. If what they're looking for sounds like a house in West Creek, that now you can say, you can send a market maker email to your people who've raised their hand in West Creek and say, "Hey, I'm working with a couple. We're looking for homes in West Creek." You're going out to people that you think are would be a good fit for them.
Edgar: Right. Yeah. Okay. Sounds great.
Dean: I love it. You got so much great stuff going on. It's good to watch it all unfold.
Edgar: Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate all your help. Every time I ask a question, you're there to answer it. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Dean: Perfect. Awesome, Edgar. Well, I really enjoyed our conversation. I look forward to watch it all unfold.
Edgar: Sounds great. Thank you.
Dean: Thanks. I'll talk to you soon.
Edgar: All right. Bye.
Dean: Bye. There we have it. Another great episode. Now, I love when we get to cover all the basis on these podcast. We talked about a lot of different things. I mentioned, we bring it back to the elements of the Listing Agent Lifestyle that include both the business and the lifestyle elements of living that Listing Agent Lifestyle. One of the best places for you to start is by trying our Listing Agent scorecard. You can do that at ListingAgentScore.com that gives you the opportunity to see where you are with regard to the eight elements of the Listing Agent Lifestyle and where the big opportunity is for you. I think you'll really get a lot of insight after doing something like that.
If you'd like to be a part of our community and have access to all the programs that we have for reaching all of those elements in the Listing Agent Lifestyle, getting listings, multiplying your listings, getting referrals, converting leads, finding buyers, all of those things are all available at GoGoAgent.com. You can come on in. We have a 30-day free trial. No credit card required to get to look around. Try everything out. Talk to our members. Talk to us. We want to meet you and see if we can help you build a plan to work on your Listing Agent Lifestyle. That's it for this week. If you'd like to be a guest on this show, you could just go to ListingAgentLifestyle.com. You can download a copy of the Listing Agent Lifestyle book. Click on the Be a Guest link. Tell us a little bit about your business and maybe we can get together and build a plan for you. That's it for this week. Have a great week. I will talk to you next time.