Today on the Listing Agent Lifestyle podcast, we're talking with Ruben Estrada from Denver, Colorado, and Ruben's just getting started running a Getting Listings campaign in an area of 1300 homes.
It's literally his first month. He's got seven responses so far, and we talk about the psychology behind this approach.
This is a great conversation to understand the method behind the message or the understanding the psychology of why we take this approach of offering a report to people. It's very subtle, but we spent a good amount of time here unpacking it.
This is one of those conversations that will change the psychology of the way you think about the role of marketing in your business, especially in the role of getting you listings.
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Transcript: Listing Agent Lifestyle Ep094
Dean: Ruben, welcome.
Ruben: Thank you for having me. I'm honored.
Dean: Where are you calling in from?
Ruben: From Denver, Colorado.
Dean: Okay. Is it snowing or scorching today?
Ruben: We're supposed to be getting some snow tomorrow, but it's actually been pretty mild, in the 60s and 70s.
Dean: I heard it was ... Wasn't it last week or a couple of weeks ago it was 80 degrees one day and 20 degrees the next day?
Ruben: Yeah.
Dean: Or something that's such a huge swing.
Ruben: Well, that's what they say about Colorado. If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes.
Dean: Yeah, all four seasons in one day.
Ruben: That's right. That's why we love it.
Dean: Awesome, well we got a whole hour here to talk all about this listing agent lifestyle and figure out what's going on for Ruben here. So I'd love to hear the Ruben story and figure out what we can focus on with you.
Ruben: Sure. My wife and I have been selling real estate for over 20 years now. We got into the real estate business straight out of high school and we've been through the ups and downs and it's funny, we've sold a lot of homes, we've had a lot of team members. We decided to scale back over the last few years and focus on profitability, which has been interesting, because as you grow, there's just less profit, and we just decided to scale back and really have that as our focus. Over the last two or three years, we've been trying to get smaller and smaller with our database and when I heard your philosophy on things, I thought that that was a great match.
Dean: Great.
Ruben: That's why I got attracted to your program. We've been doing it for I think a little over a month now.
Dean: Oh, nice.
Ruben: Yeah, and we just got our first mailing out to a farm area. We're starting to see the results roll in, so I'm excited about the future.
Dean: Yeah. I mean, what's very exciting about that is the enthusiasm in the first month. Typically what ends up happening is I don't know whether you heard the episode just a few [inaudible 00:04:07] with Tony Kalsi where we reviewed the six-year results now from running the case study that we've been doing with him, and what was fascinating to me was when we went back and looked at what happened in the first year, he generated 160 leads in the first year and then over this entire time now, the next five years after that, he's done 23 transactions from people who've responded to the post card of the first 12 months. I thought that it's really amazing.
I'd love to see the enthusiasm, as I said in the beginning. People who've been doing other kinds of marketing or doing things that are maybe personal promotion or things that don't get a response, it's always encouraging to see people do their first getting listings mailing and they get people to call, and that's exciting. But then what I also see happen is three or four months in, if none of those people have listed their house yet, that that enthusiasm wanes and they start second-guessing themselves and thinking, "Maybe we should choose another area," because what typically happens the first time you mail, you get the most response because they've never seen that offer before in your area, right?
Ruben: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean: And then the next month, there's a little bit less response, which is understandable, because we're mailing to the same people, right?
Ruben: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean: Then by month three or four, it usually stabilizes out and you get plus or minus that same number of responses in perpetuity. Tony's been mailing now for six years, so you get people to respond. But what is, if I could just get, install this ability for people to treat it like a black box in a way, if we could just put the blinders on and get through the first, look back on the first 12 months of it and see what happens, people would be so much more better off, I think, because I see so many of the people often will abandon after three months with nobody listing yet and they get tempted to want to now call them and try and convince them to list or whatever happens, but I assure you what happens is that when people are ready to list their house, they call you. It's the most relaxing, fun thing.
Ruben: And it's interesting that you say that. If we could really understand, and I say we as a real estate agent community, if we could really understand that it's almost like we're pregnant. We can't have the baby in three months. We can't have the baby in six months.
Dean: Right.
Ruben: We got to wait get months, right?
Dean: Yes, that's exactly right. I mean, I'm trying, excuse me, that is the thing, is that the ... This is somebody that you don't have to ... It almost sounds ridiculous when I say it to people, because they can't almost believe that it's true, but literally, there are no outbound phone calls. There are no calling people to chase them. No popping by. None of that. You literally mail the postcards. They respond. We mail them the monthly newsletter, and people call you to come and list their house. And as that matures, I mean, we're looking at it as choosing an area where you want to dominate the area over the next two, three, four years. That's what we're talking about. It's not the same immediate reward, but sometimes it is. Sometimes people will call and list their house right away, but it's not the same as calling and wrestling a FSBO to the ground for an appointment to come over and list their house, you know?
Ruben: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean: But the thing is, you don't have to do it again once you finished wrestling that one to the ground. You don't have to now get up and then go track another one down. This is where you're building. This is what we talk about as the listing agent lifestyle, where you're not having to do the cold calling and the cold prospecting like that.
Ruben: Well, and that's definitely a paradigm shift for an old veteran like me, [crosstalk 00:09:38], in that we were taught and it was ingrained in us that you got to work your butt off. You have to grind every day. You've got to make the call. This is a contact sport and if you're not making 50 to 100 contacts a day, then you're not working. And that's where I had the challenge of it doesn't almost feel like work.
Dean: That's the truth.
Ruben: When we sent out our first mailing, that was on Monday, and then we have seven leads that have come in so far and they're still trickling in.
Dean: Yeah.
Ruben: I'm looking at my wife and I'm like, "Really? Is this thing working?"
Dean: We haven't done anything. I mean, that's the funniest thing.
Ruben: You know?
Dean: Yeah, yeah. I love it.
Ruben: We're used to waiting, because we cut our teeth on telemarketing. I had a whole team, full-time, people calling about five or six years ago. We're still seeing the fruit from that, because we got in front of them so early in the process. They were just thinking about it and those life events hadn't happened yet, so now we're just five or six years after, five or six of follow up, they're just now getting ripe, so we are starting to see the fruit from that. So I think it's the same premise, am I correct? [crosstalk 00:11:14]
Dean: Here's the thing, it's an inevitability. That's how the premise is, that if you take the area that you chose, how many homes did you choose?
Ruben: It's 1,300 and some change, so 1,340.
Dean: Perfect size. Okay. So you got 1,340 homes and did you take a look at the turnover rate?
Ruben: It's a little over 8%.
Dean: Okay, so that means that 90, 100, how many homes, yeah?
Ruben: Yeah, between 90 and 100, yep.
Dean: Okay.
Dean: Okay, yeah, so there's going to be, call it 90 people, 90 of those 1,300 people are going to sell their home in the next 12 months. That is just a fact, okay? That also means that somewhere around 1,220 of them or 1,210 of them are not going to sell their house this year, so we have to know there's nothing that you do or say is going to convince them to sell their house, right?
Ruben: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean: That's where we're coming from, is that we're not trying to convince people to do anything that they're not going to do. We're trying to get in front of the people who are going to do it anyway, right?
Ruben: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean: So of those 90 people, they're not all going to sell their house this month. They're going to spread it out over the 12 months, right?
Ruben: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean: So when you look at it, there may be, I suspect, that in Colorado, probably like many of the seasonal markets, you might see a peak in the spring when the snow starts melting, and some more houses on the market in April than December, say, and another little peak in September or something, trying to get in before the end of the year. So if you look at the curve of it, it might be like a two-humped camel, a hump of more homes coming on the market in April, a little less over the summer, and then a little peak, and then tailing off to December. So that pattern is what we're actually dealing with. Those are the reality, the facts.
Now what we really want to do, the reason that we're doing the Getting Listings program the way we do it is because it would be valuable if we knew who the 90 people were. If I could just give you a piece of paper with the name and the contact information of the 90 people who are going to sell their house in the next 12 months, that would be a valuable list to have, right?
Ruben: Yeah.
Dean: So you don't need to spend any time, money, or effort on trying to convince the 1,200. We're just focused on the 90, the ones that are going to actually sell. Now when you think this through, again, we're not trying to convince people to list with Ruben in the postcard. That's not the purpose of this. Purpose number one is to get anybody ... What's the name of that area? Is it a named community?
Ruben: Fox Run.
Dean: Fox Run. So we want to get the name, anybody in Fox Run, who's thinking about selling their house, to identify themselves to you to get them to raise their end. Part of the way that we do that, the philosophy behind it, is not to try and convince them to list with you, but to offer them valuable information that they would love to know. They're thinking about selling their house. Whenever somebody goes through the process of selling their house, it's not an impulsive thing. Nobody wakes up one morning and goes, "Honey, let's sell the house. Yep. Go to the Yellow Pages. Let's call a real estate agent and get it going." That's not how it happens.
Typically, people are going to have the thought that they're going to move at some point. As it gets closer to being a reality, what they first will be thinking is, "Well, I wonder how much I can get for our house? I wonder what our house is worth?" because that's been the context for everything that they do from now. Because they're moving up, it's going to be important for them to know how much I'm going to get for our place. If they're moving out of town, they still want to know what is our house worth and so offering them the free October 2019 report on Fox Run, is that what it's called?
Ruben: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean: On Fox Run house prices, that is exactly what they want to know. I live in Fox Run. That would be a valuable piece of information to have. And the most important thing about it is that it sounds like it's already done and I didn't have to invite a real estate agent over to my house to tell me their subjective view of what my house might be worth. I can get this objective market data report on all the houses in my neighborhood. That sounds like something that would be unbiased and valuable to me. And I'm to sell my house.
Ruben: Why do you think ... When I first heard this, just being honest, I thought it was a little old-school.
Dean: Okay.
Ruben: Why do you think that it's so successful when there's so many tools out there on the internet that you could get.
Dean: Because there's a subtle difference. Yeah, there's a subtle difference, is that when you're saying to somebody, "Let me tell you what your house is worth," it feels revealing. It feels like I'm committing to something more than a ... Like if I said, "Can we give you a free ..." Let's just take it out of the real estate context to give it a little different spin here, is if I said to you, "Get a free quote. Let me give you a free quote," on something, sounds like I'm going to have to put some thought and effort into preparing this quote for you and I'm going to expect that you're going to respond to that quote by telling me, "Okay. Let's do it," versus if I said to you, "If I offered our price list or our catalog," our catalog and price list, because I'm interested, I'm not committed. If I said, "Give me a quote," that sounds like I'm asking you to go out of your way.
Ruben: It's a subtle thing but it's very powerful.
Dean: It is very subtle, but very powerful, and it works. The reason that it works is because societally, we're wired to not want to allow people to go out of their way for us, because we know that if somebody goes out of their way for us, we're bound by society to owe them something. That's why-
Ruben: We need to reciprocate.
Dean: Absolutely. That's why when we go to a store and somebody says, "Can I help you?" "No thanks, I'm just looking." Because if you helped me, then I feel bound that I would feel more pressure that I need to buy something so that you didn't waste your time.
Ruben: Wow. Amazing.
Dean: It is very subtle, Ruben, but it's very powerful. It's like when I say to what we do once people respond. That's why the most people respond to that, because it sounds like I'm voyeuring in on something that is already done. Oh, let me take a look at that. It's not a custom fix. And it's like in social situations, if we ask somebody, "Hey, Ruben, would you like a cup of coffee?" well, our gut reaction is, our instinct reaction is, "Well are you having one? Because if you're having one, I'll have one, but don't boil the kettle for me." We don't want anybody to go out of their way for us.
Ruben: That is so interesting. Gosh. I didn't even think of it that way.
Dean: Right. That's why you have me, Ruben. I think about it this way for you. But then I have to convince you that this way is the right way, and that's the hard part, right?
Ruben: That's a good thing, right?
Dean: Yeah, so that's why I do that. I'm showing six-year case study results of what happens when you do it this way. Yet people still go three months and say, "This isn't working," and abandon. It's really, yeah, there's so much psychology into what makes it seem like something really simple. But there's a lot of depth in the process of it. It's what I realize is that job one, you've got 1,300 people in Fox Run that you know are at some point, over the next five years, they're still not even going to be half of them that sell their house. You're going to have 450 of them, or 500 of them, maybe, over the next five years sell their house, which still isn't even half of them.
So what we're looking for is how can you become a fixture, subtly and non-invasively, that you're establishing in their mind, that this, like clockwork postcard is going to come, and when it becomes time that they're thinking about it, oh yeah, let me get this report. Because that's how it is. All we're looking to do is just identify those people before anybody else.
Ruben: I think of it as a filter.
Dean: Yes, that's exactly what it is.
Ruben: The initial filter, right?
Dean: Yeah. Because why would anybody be interested in that if it wasn't that they were going to sell or refinance or something. It's like not, yeah, there's just something to it.
Ruben: Well and I learned that a long time ago, is that people don't have you in their living room for no reason. They just don't.
Dean: That's exactly right.
Ruben: Yeah, they just don't.
Dean: Yes. Yeah. Let's have Ruben over for tea. Yeah, I mean, that-
Ruben: Let's have a complete stranger who I've never met sit there. They're a salesperson and let's have them over for no reason.
Dean: Let's have a trained salesperson come over to our house, yeah.
Ruben: Right.
Dean: It's pretty funny.
Ruben: How do you set this up? When I was going through the thought process of going through the branding versus the non-branding, and I heard you say that you could set up this program so that you could actually have someone else do it.
Dean: Yes. We do it.
Ruben: Tell me about that.
Dean: We have a program, we call it our easy button, where we do the actual mailing and stuff for you. That part of the thing is like what doesn't matter is doesn't make any difference who's sending the postcards or who's doing the mailings or who's preparing the reports and stuff. It doesn't matter. The end above-the-line thing is that the homeowners are getting the postcards in the mailbox and that they're getting the report. It doesn't have to be you that does it. That's the-
Ruben: I meant even going on the appointment.
Dean: Oh, going on the appointments, you could literally, they don't know anything. This is what was amazing to me. It dawned on me just a couple of years ago, that we do our GoGoAgent academy in February, in Orlando, and for years, what's become a kind of a thing, is people will send me the voicemail message that they get from somebody calling to say, "Hey, we've been getting your reports. We've been getting your paperwork. You've been dialoguing with my wife. You've been sending us information." All those things. "We're ready to put our house on the market. Can you come over and help us, and we'd like to get together with you or can you give us a call?" Those voicemails all happened with no outbound phone calls, with no checking in on anybody. They're just organically happening as a result of the cover letters and the newsletters and the monthly mailings that we're sending to people.
And so I realized in that moment that they don't know who this person is until we started mailing to them. They didn't know ... Of these seven people that responded to your postcard, they don't know or didn't know who Ruben was until now. Now, Ruben, over the next three months, six months, nine months, 12 months, is going to be in their mailbox with a lovely cover letter and a newsletter and updates on all the property activity in Fox Run, and every month, you're going to be establishing yourself as a brand.
Dean: No, but I was saying was that it wouldn't matter. It could be anybody. They're going to give you a call that you could send somebody from your team. It wouldn't matter who it was. Someone could call-
Ruben: Okay.
Dean: I could call. If they send you that thing, they send you the voice mail, then I could call them and say that, "Hey, I'm Dean. I work with Ruben and he asked me to give you a call."
Ruben: Gotcha. That's how you transition.
Dean: Yes, exactly. I mean, it's amazing. They don't know any difference because they don't know you anyway. They know they have this debt, because you've been sending them all this information.
Ruben: Wow. No, I get it.
Dean: And we've established ... I've got a great acronym for a brand now, because people say unbranded or whatever, but my definition of brand is to establish a B-R-A-N-D, a buying reflex affecting now decisions. When you think about that, all that matters is that when they have the thought of, "Okay, we need to get our house on the market," that they're buying reflex is, "Let's call Ruben." That's all we're trying to do. [crosstalk 00:29:08] because even if there's an incumbent real estate agent that is still in the business that sold them that house seven years ago and has not stayed in contact with them, but Ruben, for the last nine months, has faithfully been sending a get top dollar newsletter, sending out all the updates, adding personality to the mailings, showing all the people he's helping on the move, and offering, every month, "Whenever you're ready, here's three ways we can help you," and they call you up because you've established yourself in their mind as the most, you've been acting as their real estate agent.
Ruben: Top of mind.
Dean: Yep.
Ruben: And you think you could increase your results with higher frequency, meaning instead of once a month, twice a month?
Dean: I don't think so, because I look at it that once you mail the first time, if they're not ... I think you would still get the same overall number. One of the things that we have done is supplement the mailings in the lead-up to the peak, so let's say it's April is the peak month for homes coming on the market. In the weeks leading up to that, like on the up-slope of that, to really have some other things that we mail in those. But that it's not necessary. I think we're looking at the long game here, you know?
Ruben: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean: Now one of the best thing that you can do to increase the opportunities is to start acting and appointing yourself to the position of listing agent for Fox Run. The best thing you can do is to start finding buyers who are looking for homes in Fox Run.
Ruben: Okay.
Dean: And that way you've got a, you're in what we call a market maker position, where you've got all these buyers that are looking for homes in Fox Run. What kind of neighborhood is Fox Run?
Ruben: It's about 15 years old. It's, let's see, around 400,000, which is the average-
Dean: earlier, but that's a good price range.
Ruben: Right.
Dean: You're going to be rich, Ruben. This is great. Richer. You're going to be richer.
Ruben: Richer. So how do you become a market maker?
Dean: Wouldn't it be great if you've got a lineup of people who are looking for homes in Fox Run?
Ruben: Yep.
Dean: And you're constantly showing homes in Fox Run, and everybody who, six months from now, you've got 40 people that have responded to your postcards and you've got a Google, like in your GoGoAgent in your CRM, you can flag everybody of course, Fox Run, so that you can export that, put it in a Google Map layer, and drop a pin on each of the homes that people have responded within Fox Run, and then when you're showing homes in there, you can send email to people or a hand-written note inside your monthly report or a hand-written note sent directly to them and saying, "Hey Ruben, I'm showing houses this week to a couple from Albuquerque. They're looking for a home in Fox Run and we're going to be looking at this one and this one and I remember looking up your house online when I sent you the Fox Run report a couple of months ago. Looks like your house might be a perfect match for them. I'm not sure what your plans are but I thought I'd check in and see if I could maybe tell them about your house."
Ruben: That is so magical on so many different points.
Dean: Exactly, because now it's not checking in with people to say, "Hey, it's Ruben, just checking in. Make sure, are you getting the newsletters? Are you enjoying them? Is there anything I can help you with?" I mean, that's really just so see-through, in a way, right?
Ruben: Mm-hmm (affirmative), right.
Dean: But you're say with every time, if every phone call or correspondence they get from Ruben is either providing them updates and valuable information or it's with a buyer in hand, even if they say, "We're not ready for the spring, but thank you so much," for me, you've got to respect them and thank them for thinking of you, for thinking of them, right?
Ruben: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean: They've got to thank you for thinking of them. If now, in the spring, if you did that, then it would just, and every time, one of the things we teach to do inside your monthly newsletters, your monthly reports that we send, is to include a section called Helping People on the Move, which tells the stories of the people that you're helping along the way. Hey, start celebrating the people who moved on, the people who are moving in, the people that we have right now that are looking for homes. Some people can feel like they're getting to know you and see that you are an active person in the community.
Ruben: Gotcha. So do you have any suggestions on if you don't have any buyers, is there marketing that you could do to attract buyers to that neighborhood?
Dean: Yes. Yes. So what is it about Fox Run? This is why what I say to people is to think in terms of categories. Are these townhomes? Is it a golf course community? What would be the thing that if somebody said, "This is what I'm looking for," you would immediately think Fox Run.
Ruben: I gotcha. About a quarter of it is some townhomes. Another quarter of it is attached single family, and then the other half would be single family.
Dean: Okay. So if you were looking, what area of ... Are you in Denver or in ...
Ruben: North Denver.
Dean: A suburb.
Ruben: North of Denver.
Dean: Okay. And so if you say ... What's the suburb that you're in?
Ruben: So this would be Northglenn.
Dean: Northglenn, okay. So are there other townhouse complexes in Northglenn?
Ruben: Mm-hmm (affirmative), yes.
Dean: So this is how you would be thinking like that category, they overlap. Like overlapping things that if you're looking for buyers who are looking for townhomes, and you'll see in GoGoAgent, we have program called Finding Buyers, and that's what this would be about, is to create a guide to Northglenn townhouses.
Ruben: Oh, Gotcha.
Dean: Yeah, so that somebody's who's looking for a townhouse in Northglenn would find it very useful to get the Northglenn townhouse guide.
Ruben: Gotcha, okay.
Dean: And you can have a map of Northglenn that shows where the townhouse complexes are and shows the number of units and the price ranges and the model styles and the amenities and the turnover rate or all the things that somebody who's considering a townhouse would like to know, and you are offering that as a lead generation piece. [crosstalk 00:39:05]
Ruben: Would that be a mailing?
Dean: Well, that would be something you could do as Facebook ads, you could do as print ads, you could do Craigslist, everywhere that somebody who's looking for a townhouse would look.
Ruben: I love it.
Dean: Yeah, and then you could every week, send your Townhouse Tuesday email report. Here's all the new townhouses that came on the market in the last seven days and here is highlighting one new thing. Now I wanted to go back to something that you said earlier. When you're doing it this way, when you're doing this model, a lead generation one that's using marketing instead of prospecting, you've got a lot of time, and that's one of the things that what do with this time now, because if you're saving three hours a day in prospecting, what I recommend is that you spend that time in creating assets that are going to be valuable for you over the long-term, that are going to have lifetime value. This is what you're doing with that time, is that do you think that over the next five years, people are still going to be buying townhouses in Northglenn?
Ruben: Yes.
Dean: Yeah. And that the townhouse complexes that are there right now, are they still going to be there in five years?
Ruben: Yes, yes.
Dean: So when you look at that, what would be a great use of your time is to start documenting all of the created assets about that. Imagine if you had a video profile of each of the townhouse complexes.
Ruben: Gotcha.
Dean: That's a pretty valuable thing [crosstalk 00:41:20].
Ruben: You're thinking this is a big case study. It's just a research project.
Dean: That's it.
Ruben: That you built, like you said, that's the asset, and you're building equity in these relationships or areas or ... Which is it's phenomenal, because I think where I've struggled in my business is I have the one-and-done kind of mentality. It was just onto the next one because you're just constantly grinding. And then-
Dean: Yeah, get in there and get your numbers done. Now I got to make this many calls to get this many appointments to get these listings. No matter what, that's got to be my top priority. I got to role play my scripts and make sure I'm sharp so that when I get someone on the line, I'm going to be ... We're going to sell it on our own.
Ruben: Right.
Dean: I totally understand that.
Ruben: Right. All the magic words.
Dean: Right.
Ruben: But that wasn't my personality. It's totally not my personality. I had to rewire myself to do that, which is exhausting. And now that-
Dean: That's it. I can do it if you can do it. I'm good at it. Really good at it, and I did it. I mean, that's the thing was just that it's soul-crushing and it's time-consuming. It's like manual labor. It's hamster wheel stuff.
Ruben: And it was driving me crazy.
Dean: Yeah.
Ruben: It drives you crazy.
Dean: While I'm on the hamster wheel, it's working, but as soon as you step off the wheel, it's not working. And what I'm saying is that creating, taking the time to put together a really great directory and guide to the Northglenn townhouses is going to take you some time. Do that right. But when you've got it, you've got it, and now that's going to work for you, because you put the guide together and then you run an ad in the Homes & Land magazine, or you run Facebook ads. And people laugh about what I say, "Run an ad in the Homes & Land magazine," like I'm crazy. But the fact is-
Ruben: So if the tool doesn't work-
Dean: But I look at the ROI on all of this, that I know that there are still people reading Homes & Land magazine, because we are running Homes & Land magazine ads in dozens of Homes & Land magazines, at a 12 times ROI for one of my consulting clients. And so I know that people are there. I know that when you look at it, that it doesn't require any of your time. While you're running, you're going to spend, depending on the market, between 500 and 1,000 a month to run that ad, but it doesn't take any of your time. And so while you are doing whatever else you're doing, this is bringing in people. Same thing if you're doing the Facebook ads. You're running the Facebook ads and looking for people who are looking for townhouses [crosstalk 00:45:09]
Ruben: I think it's a good idea in order to supplement it, supplement the closings before you have your farm area start to list. So you can create buyers for the farm area and those'll be quicker paychecks, if you will, in order to supplement what you're spending in the farm area.
Dean: I look at both. You're doing both. I'm going to establish a foothold as the listing agent. I want to establish that, that I'm constantly in communication with those people. What would be some other categories in Northglenn that would work, like something like the townhouses?
Ruben: I think a big thing is downsizing.
Dean: Oh. Downsize?
Ruben: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean: But that's not a category of ... I mean, I'm talking about of homes, yeah.
Ruben: Like a property type.
Dean: The people who want to downsize, that's what they're looking for is downsize to a townhouse maybe, right?
Ruben: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean: Yeah, but are there ... Some of the great categories would be condos, for one, townhomes, for one are a great category. Are there golf course communities where you are?
Ruben: Yes, but not in that particular subdivision.
Dean: Okay. What else would there be? Are there ...
Ruben: Oh, you're talking like lakefront or a golf course or-
Dean: Yeah, exactly, any of that.
Ruben: ... any kind of specialized property?
Dean: Or ravine property. Yeah, canyon properties or backing onto forest or what kind of things would people be desirable categories?
Ruben: Right.
Dean: Are there view homes?
Ruben: Yeah, mountain view. Mountain views.
Dean: Mountain view. Does not all homes have mountain views?
Ruben:No.
Dean: No, okay, so that's the kind of thing. That's a great idea. When you're looking at the other ways, you got mountain views, but you've also ... Are there other ones that have city views or ...
Dean: Views are great. Whatever the views are is really, that's something if people want mountain views, that if you know where ... This is something that when you're talking about your time to do something, is townhouses are easy, because you can point to them and say, "There they are. There they are. There they are." So I would always love to do that too, but something like mountain view, that's not as easy to point to. It requires a little bit of knowing that the houses on this section of this street have mountain views, or this area here, where you can kind of highlight ... You could, with some effort, develop a list of all of the homes with mountain views. That would be something that nobody else has, because nobody else would be willing to ... They can't just print off a list of it.
Ruben: Right. That would definitely take some work, but you're just building that equity. Yep.
Dean: Right, and that's what you're creating, an asset from your time investment. [crosstalk 00:49:21]
Ruben: You want me to be a real estate agent.
Dean: Yeah, exactly.
Ruben: You want me to do my job.
Dean: Right, right. Funny that, but you're doing it for a category, right?
Ruben: Right.
Dean: If you think about if it took you some time, like it took time in Winter Haven to compile the list of lakefront homeowners, there's 2,100 of them, but not every home on the streets that are on the lakes have a true lake front. That wasn't easy to get. We had to literally to go tax records and the tax plot maps and correlate to get that [inaudible 00:50:12]. But what we have now is an absolutely pure list of lakefront homeowners.
Ruben: Gotcha.
Dean: Which is an advantage, right?
Ruben: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean: So if you were to take the time to get literally boots on the ground, get out and visually survey the areas to see which areas, which streets, which orientations, actually have the mountain views, you could, it's possible, to create a list of every home in Northglenn with a mountain view.
Ruben: Gotcha.
Dean: That would be a list that most people don't have. You may be the only one with it, because now, you could do the Getting Listings program to them and mail the October 2019 report on mountain view house prices.
Ruben: That's something that I could do.
Dean: No, that's non-algorithmic. That's what I'm talking about, right?
Ruben: Right.
Dean: You can't algorithm that.
Ruben: And that's what we need to be thinking. We need to be thinking that way.
Dean: Yeah. That's exactly right. And that way now, you've got that list. Now if you can run a beautiful ad in Homes & Land magazine with an iconic mountain view and say, "If you're looking for an amazing mountain view home in Northglenn, read this," and you can offer them the report on mountain view homes.
Ruben: I would just think you'd kill it with that.
Dean: You would, because that's exactly what we do in South Beach with oceanfront condos.
Ruben: Gotcha.
Dean: Because if you look in the numbers blog in GoGoAgent, if you just do a search for South Beach, you'll see exactly how that works, because you can advertise for buyers looking for the iconic things, which are oceanfront homes, mountain view homes, those kind of things, without having to have a listing.
Ruben: Wow, that's ... Never thought of it that way.
Dean: You've appointed yourself to the position of listing agent for the category. You're an ambassador for mountain view homes.
Ruben: I love it.
Dean: Yes.
Ruben: All right, what else?
Dean: What else? Well you tell me, Ruben. How has it all landed? What's been the insight or takeaway from today?
Ruben: Well, it's refreshing to know that marketing, it works, and it's just a different kind of mindset that I need to wrap my head around.
Dean: Yes.
Ruben: Like you said, rather than grinding it out, making contact on a dialer for three or four hours, you're really investing in a purpose, and I think that's important to me and I need to be working towards a purpose and my purpose is somewhat always connected to an area that I choose to specialize in. And everything I do is around that, so I'm just constantly, every activity I'm doing, I'm building that equity in that area, which is going to pay dividends in the future.
Dean: Yes, yes. I agree. It's all pretty exciting.
Ruben: Oh my gosh, it's mind-blowing. I appreciate you and that's to help educate us old-school agents that are grinding out there.
Dean:
31 years. I started out 1988.
Ruben: Wow, okay. I was eight years old, nine years old.
Dean: We were still using smoke signals back then.
Ruben: Well I'm looking forward to, I won't be able to make the Toronto event, but definitely, the February event, I'll be there.
Dean: Yeah, yeah. That'll be awesome. Toronto's this weekend, but I'm going to record everything, because we have a whole discussion on the future of real estate, and that's what I'm very excited about. I'm so excited about the '20s coming in here. There's just so many great things that are happening and if we can embrace all the things that are moving the tide forward, I think we can really, really be in position to have an incredible decade.
Ruben: I agree. I agree.
Dean: Awesome. Well it's been a delight.
Ruben: Likewise. And I'll definitely document all of these items here and keep you abreast of my progress so that we can share with others.
Dean: Awesome. Thanks Ruben. I'll get back to you soon.
Ruben: All right. Have a great day.
Dean: Bye.
Ruben: Bye.
Dean:And there we have it. I love when we have conversations like that. Ruben is really, I think he's going to have a great experience with is. He really got the psychology behind why we're doing these things, and I want you guys to really understand that the best thing that you can do is to create assets that are going to work for you, as opposed to spending your time doing things that as soon as you're done doing them, are not going to have any value for you. If you spend three hours chasing for sale by owners, and maybe you get one, maybe you don't. More often than not, you don't, but once you're done, you're done, and if you invest that same amount of time in creating an asset that can work for you, flywheels versus hamster wheels, that's what we're really talking about here, and so we would love for you to really kind of join us on this journey.
If you want to continue the conversation, you can go to listingagentlifestyle.com, download a copy of the Listing Agent Lifestyle book, and if you'd like to be part of the community of people that we're building who are applying all of the Listing Agent Lifestyle principles to their business, join us at gogoagent.com. That's where all of the tools, all of the ads, all of the programs that you need to implement all of the things that we talked about on the podcast are available to you. Gogoagent.com. So that's it for this week. Have a great week and I will talk to you next time.