Today on the Listing Agent Lifestyle podcast, we're talking with Jeff Hanson from Silicon Valley, San Jose, California.
It's an interesting story that brought Jeff to the show. He was listening to an earlier episode and heard his good friend Barry Pilcher talking at one of the mastermind sessions we did from Orlando. He called up Barry, reconnected with him because of this podcast they have in common, and Jeff decided it would be a great idea to come on the show himself.
It's a small world, even in quarantine.
So, we had a great conversation. Jeff's been a realtor in Silicon Valley for a long, long time. He has a great specialty in high rise condos, and we talked about some really great strategies for completely dominating that market.
There are some great insights here, and I really enjoyed this conversation with Jeff.
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Transcript: Listing Agent Lifestyle Ep118
Jeff: Hello.
Dean: How are you?
Jeff: I'm good. I'm good. How about yourself?
Dean: I am fantastic. It's a Friday. It's a beautiful day in Florida. I've got a fresh cup of coffee right here. I've got my steaming tablet and I'm ready. How about you?
Jeff: Very cool. It's 9:00 here. I just met two different properties this morning, got people in to do stuff.
Dean: Oh my goodness.
Jeff: I'm in Silicon Valley. San Jose, California.
Dean: Oh, perfect. Cool. What are we going to talk about today? What are we going to focus on for you?
Jeff: Well, actually, I met you years ago. I didn't meet you, but I saw you years ago, in the mid-'90s in Sacramento at a thing you were doing with Joe Sumpkin, that I was impressed with everything you did. I've just connected recently with your group and ran across you. Actually, I have a former business partner who works in the East Bay, Barry Pilger.
Dean: Oh, I know Barry. Of course. I've know Barry for a long, long time.
Jeff: I heard one of your interviews and I heard Barry Pilger and I'm like, "No way." Were friends. We worked together in the '90s, in Alameda.
Dean: That's funny. Oh, wow.
Jeff: So, I reached out to him and said, "Hey, I just heard you on a podcast."
Dean: That's funny. Well, the truth is I think I met Barry at that same time then, is probably when we first met.
Jeff: He wasn't at that particular event, but-
Dean: Oh, he wasn't, okay.
Jeff: I'm not sure how he came across you. It would have been a little bit later, probably.
Dean: Okay. We've been connected for a long time.
Jeff: Long time, long time.
Dean: I love his story. So tell me about your background. You've obviously been in real estate for a while now.
Jeff: Yeah, 27 years.
Dean: I was just going to say, I can't believe that's over 20 years ago that when you say, the mid-'90s, that's almost 25 years ago.
Jeff: I was trying to figure, maybe '95, '96, right around there.
Dean: That's something. Wow, wow.
Jeff: At a main event thing. Anyway, and then just came across... I lived in the East Bay at the time, then for the last 23 years, I've been in Silicon Valley, where I grew up. I have developed a niche selling condos in downtown San Jose, which is where I just was.
Dean: I love it.
Jeff: I have a website, kingcondo.com. Have you ever heard of guy named Jim Droves?
Dean: The name sounds familiar, but I can't place-
Jeff: He was a trainer. I saw him in the early '90s. He'd been a big agent with Century 21. In the '80s, he did 350 sales a year with him, his wife and a part-time assistant.
Dean: That's great.
Jeff: Retired at age 35, which he did. Sold his business, like a medical practice. I went and saw him once. I'm like, you know what? That's great. I just kind of did what he suggested which was mailers, and he suggested door knocking. So I developed this niche of condos in downtown San Jose, which were newer buildings and marketed them. They're all secure, so you can't door knock. So I thought, "Well, I don't like door knocking anyway, so that's great. I can just mail." That year I did 60 sales, which is quite a bit in Silicon Valley, given our purchasing prices. In the meantime, I opened the first Keller Williams office in this area, in 2001, and then two more. But in the late 2000s, in the downturn, the model of just mailing only did not work as well, especially for condos. They were all getting foreclosed.
Really, the last decade I've done marginal mailers. And then I went through a period managing one of our offices for some years, and growing it. Then I got out of those three offices, just to simplify, and just kind of back to basics. My team is me.
Dean: Oh, wow, okay.
Jeff: I often work together with my... My oldest stepson got into business and I helped him. We were together for a number of years, and then he's relocated to LA, where he wants to live. So it's really just me, which is a back to basics kind of thing. My plan is to not rely just on marketing only, but be more active with my sphere, which I have not done as effectively, and to mail heavily to condos again, because that's me.
Dean: I like everything about it. I like everything I'm hearing. How many condos are there in San Jose?
Jeff: Well, San Jose, there's a lot. Just downtown, it's hard how you define downtown. I'm just going through a mailing list now. Probably, the ones that I would consider really downtown, about 3,500.
Dean: What's the price range of the condos there?
Jeff: Well, there's some nice penthouses and high-rise building that go for $2 million, but that's rare. Medium price is, let's say, $750. Let's say $800, is the medium.
Dean: That's awesome. Great. So, you're in the 16 or $20,000 per transaction range for them.
Jeff: Correct.
Dean: Awesome. What kind of turnover rate is there?
Jeff: I haven't done the turnover rate lately, to be honest.
Dean: Do you have a recollection?
Jeff: Well, Silicon Valley is low overall. If you look at national averages, there's no, like they say, only - turnover rate. It doesn't exist in Silicon Valley. People just don't move as much. It is higher for condos and townhomes. But I don't even want to throw out a number. I'd just be fucking guessing.
Dean: Okay, either way, but let's even say 5% which-
Jeff: I was going to say five.
Dean: Yeah, that sounds about right. In that whole thing here, what we're looking for is the 150 people that are going to sell their condo in the next 12 months. That's really the essence of what we try and do. We got a whole program around that, called Getting Listings. That's the thing that we do. Now, when you look at this model here, how many of the people, if you've focused on those condos over the period of time, how many of the people are living in a condo that you're the incumbent real estate agent in their world, that you're the one that got them in it in the first place?
Jeff: Right. Former clients?
Dean: Yeah.
Jeff: Maybe 50, or something. I'm guessing.
Dean: That's a great start. Your longevity in the business, what are you doing, what we call, your after-unit, all the people who know you, like you, trust you, your existing clients, all of that? How much of your business comes from that group?
Jeff: Well, the last number of years, including I kept my business going while I was full-time team leader of an office with 150 agents. I was the manager. I kept my business going but it was pretty much just referral and it's still how it is. But it's been very passive, honestly. Really, I talk to people here and there, and then ever since email started, I do a once a month email with what's happening in the market, just to every email that I get. I just start clicking every email I come across. Regardless of whether they're A, B, C, or X, Y, Z, what status they are, just every email I send, "Here's what's happening for real estate in Silicon Valley. That, I've been pretty consistent with. I switched to doing with video with BombBomb at one point, and I've gone back and forth between text or video. But that's the main thing that they get, otherwise, it's a call here and there. But it's very inconsistent as far as other things than the email.
Dean: A lot of people say, "Well, I just work my database," where you've got everything in there, all the contacts that you have, are all getting the same treatment. That sounds like what you're describing.
Jeff: Exactly.
Dean: How many people would be in that world? How many people are you communicating with?
Jeff: It's probably 1,000 that are on the email list. It was actually higher, but then I switched to BombBomb and it seems like I had quite a few who unsubscribed, so maybe the email wasn't the best idea. But it's around 1,000, let's say.
Dean: Well, it doesn't matter. The emails not that... All we want to do is there's safety in those numbers. What we want to look at is, is this your plan now, to build your personal business? Are we looking at full steam ahead for the next five years, or what's your vision there?
Jeff: Yeah, like the next 10 years.
Dean: 10 years, perfect. So, this is it. We're in -
Jeff: You've got me for 10 years. You can plan me out for 10 years.
Dean: Okay, great. I love that. Perfect. That means that there's some things that we can do that give you that longevity approach. We're not just looking to click, get a bunch of business maximized right now, and not worry about the future. When we look at this, I want to overlay the structure that we've talked about here, of your before-unit, the during-unit, and the after-unit.
Now, when we look at it right now, one of the lowest hanging fruit things for you is that you've been in the market for a longtime, you've got roots in the area, you've got established relationships. There are people that know you, like you and trust you, and you're the incumbent realtor for a lot of people. So when you look at that as the first thing, one of the metrics that we look at, and how we overlay or do a diagnostic of the business, is to look at what is your, what we call, return on relationship, right now? That means, not the 1,000 people, that a lot of those people don't know you.
It's always a fun thing. I had a guy who had 1,800 people in his database. He had a binder that had a one-line printout of everybody. He had a hard copy of it too, a printout of an Excel spreadsheet file. We went into his conference room, and I brought a pink highlighter and I brought a black marker. I said, "Okay, let's sit down and then let's go through this first pager." There were 30 people on a page. And I said, "Let's go through this first few pages here, and when you come to a name, that if you saw them at the grocery store, you'd recognize them by name and you'd stop and have a conversation with them. I want you to put a pink highlighter on their name." He went down and about two-thirds of the way down the page he started laughing because he hadn't recognized anybody yet. It didn't have any of those names that he would even be able to put a face to.
Finally, he got two of the people on that page who were people that he would recognize. And I said, "Now, at the same time, if you see somebody that if you would recognize them at the grocery store, and you would run and hide in the frozen foods sections, I want you to put a black marker through their name, and let's not just deal with those people." It was the worst experience he had. Let's just cut them loose right now. The exercise was eye-opening for him. But the message of it is that a data base isn't relationships. That's really the core of your after-unit is going be in the people who know you, like you, and trust you. For most people, at any given time, we can manage 150 of those relationships.
I think if you took your 1,000, that if you just looked at the names without the prompting of seeing them on Facebook, or seeing a picture of them, that you'd probably have 150. And since you've been around so long, that you may have a few more than that, that you would recognize, but most people have a top 150 sort of thing, that are in your actual everyday life, that you've got a relationship with those people. The distinction is the relationship part, that if you saw them out and about, you would have a conversation. Because we could recognize 1,000 people. You go, "Oh, I recognize him." Yeah, I know that you could be acquainted with a bigger number of people, but you don't know them by name or have a relationship with them.
We want to refine your list, down to your top 150, the ones that if we were to rank them from your soulmate at number one, to the person that you met one time or they came to the open house or something, and left there, signed the register, that would be the ranking of them, from most relationship to least relationship. We want to get your top 150, the ones that you would have a conversation with. Now, do you have-
Jeff: May I ask you a question about that?
Dean: Yeah.
Jeff: The question, and I'm familiar with that and even some research on the 150 and the rule in different societies about the number of people that you can have. I think there's even a company in Vermont, that when their factories get to 150, they start a new factory because you can only have so many relationships.
Dean: Yeah, exactly.
Jeff: But here's my question. Over the years, I am primarily listing-focused. I've had a lot of condo listings. A lot of people leave the area.
Dean: I understand.
Jeff: I live an area, that's Silicon Valley, where people move in, they move out. My last few sales the last few weeks, they relocated out of state, Nevada and Arizona. I just want to get your perspective. What's your take on people... Because a lot of people that I know and like, and get along with are gone, they live somewhere else.
Dean: Yeah. I understand that and that's the reality.
Jeff: Would you consider them or not?
Dean: In a different way. They wouldn't be in my top 150. What I'm looking to build is my strategic relationship portfolio, the ones that have the highest chance of either doing business with me again, because they're going to move up or out, or over, whatever it is. If we put them in order, everybody who's living in a house or a condo that you helped them get, is somebody who should be in your top 150, right now. Everybody that is a personal friend of yours, that is somebody who's not a real estate agent, somebody if they had a real estate need, that you would hope that they would consider you to be their realtor.
You must get every year, people who know you, who say, "Oh, we're selling," or, "We're buying," or some amount of your business comes from that. These are often people that you wouldn't typically consider, and I'm using air quotes here, marketing to, because it's not about marketing to them. What I'm talking it's just realizing and understanding that they're an asset that you have in terms of a relationship, that they would, if they did have a need, use you. And hopefully, if a friend of theirs had a need, that they would introduce you. That's really what we're focused on. Those are going to be the 150 most useful relationships that you can have, people that you'd have the deepest, closest relationship to.
Then what our goal, what we're focused on is managing that relationship portfolio for a 20% annual yield. So meaning, that we're looking to generate 30 transactions from and because of your relationship with these 150 people. That can come in the form of somebody selling the condo that you helped them buy 10 years ago. It could come in the form of somebody you play tennis with or golf with or whatever thing, "Hey, we're going to buy a condo," or, "we're going to sell our house. Can you help us?" Or, your extended family, having that kind of a need, and somebody referring you.
When I look at under those qualifications, how many transactions in the last 12 months would have fit under that description?
Jeff: Well, right now, it's most of them because that's most... So, I did, let's say 20.
Dean: There's a great situation, that that would be almost to our gold standard of what we're looking for as a 20% annual yield, which would be 30 transactions coming from that group. You did 20, so 20 out of 150, if we manage that. Let's just say what percentage is that? 20 divided by 150, so you're current return on relationship is at 13%. So, whatever you're currently doing is resulting in a yield of 13% on your relationship portfolio. You tracking with that?
Jeff: Yeah, totally. Of course, yeah.
Dean: Now, you tell me the recipe for managing that relationship is that once a month you send an email to them, a video type of email. But you don't have, sounds like, any distinction between number 1,000 and number 1 on the list. That everybody's getting the same thing. Would it be fair to say that the 20 transactions that came from this unit of your business, would be in your top 150, if you just reflect on it?
Jeff: Yeah. Most of them. Actually, there's one I just did where it was this very loose connection. I don't think we've ever met in person. Anyway, but yeah, a mix of those.
Dean: Okay, and so similarly-
Jeff: Actually, just thinking about and marketing those people, I have noticed that just staying current with people on social media has resulted in some things, where you'll say, "Oh, I saw a new listing out on a social media site." I don't typically think of that, but that is probably an element as well.
Dean: Right. That's the whole point. That's really the thing that now, we want to orchestrate that. Because a lot of the situations like... Can you recall of the 20, a referral that came among those people, like somebody who said, "Hey, I'm a friend of so and so," that was a referral?
Jeff: One comes to mind and it is someone who I helped move. She moved to Oregon two years ago, and then she out of the blue said, "Oh, hey, Jeff, I got a friend that wants to sell and lives in the same complex, a very good friend." But only one pops up. It's mostly repeat, not the referral.
Dean: Okay, great. Part of this is orchestrating those referrals. When you look at that situation, when your client calls you and says, "Hey, I've got a friend who's going to be selling," and then connecting you that way, that's what we call a reactive referral. Meaning, you now have to get connected with that person. The other thing is what we call passive referrals where, if that condo owner had called you and said, "Hey, I'm friends with Jenny and you helped Jenny sell her place, and she can't stop talking about you. Can you help us sell our house?" That's a passive referral. Probably 80% of referrals that people get are like that, where the client calls, the ultimate person who's going to sell.
When you look at that, what we're trying to do is to now orchestrate referrals, to give the opportunity that when people hear conversations about somebody selling or buying or losing, or relocating, or coming into town, or buying an investment property, whatever it is, when they hear conversations about real estate, that they think of you, and then introduce you to the person that they were having those conversations with.
Those are the three things that have to happen for a referral to take place. They have to notice the conversation is about real estate. They have to think about you, and they have to introduce you to the person that they had the conversation with. So often, those things don't all fire. They're in conversations all the time, and they may not even notice that the conversation is about real estate or just not pay any attention to it, or that they think of you, but they don't say anything. Or, they don't tell you that they had the conversation, or they tell people, "Oh, you should call Jeff. He's great." And then they don't tell you that they told them that. And then you run into them at Whole Foods, and they say, "Hey, did my friend Susan ever give you a call? I know she was going to be selling her condo." And you say, "No. No, never heard from her." They go, "Oh, man, that was months ago. I think she's gone now, but I tell people about you all the time."
You don't doubt it that people are probably telling people about you all the time, but far fewer occasions do people actually follow through and connect with you. So, we want to increase the odds of you getting connected with those people, by orchestrating a way that when those conversations come up, your clients will call you to tell you that this is going on, so that you are going to offer something that would be valuable for your friend, client, your top 150 to give to their friend, who's had that conversation. It's pretty magical what can happen, because you're kind of programming them to notice conversations, and then instructing them what to do when they hear them, which would be to call you to get something to give to their friend, so that they get the glory of it. They get the credit for doing the nice thing for you.
It's pretty amazing the psychology of all of it, when you really think about it. We've got the baseline tool that we use for that. We call it the world's most interesting postcard. It's a monthly newsletter type of postcard that goes out with interesting facts and amazing things, maybe 16 or 18 different things on each card. On the front it's a nice yellow card. But on the backside of the card we have what looks like a Post-It note, note that we use this referral language. We're making a note that people look for the conversations that are the high probability conversations. We look at our goal is that if we could, I say to people, plant a chip in the ear of your top 150, and monitor all their conversations.
And as soon as they hear some trigger words that indicate that there's a conversation about real estate going on here, that you get alerted and you can whisper in their ear to turn that situation into a referral, that would be a valuable thing. But if we were going to do that, we'd have to program the chip as to what to listen for. What would be the high probability conversations that you would want them to have an awareness of?
If we think about it that it might be that anytime somebody is talking about buying a condo, that could be the words, the trigger word, buying a condo. If somebody gets alerted that they're buying a condo, that now your clients know what to do about that. If we program your top 150 to pay attention to those conversations, if we said, "Hey, just a quick note in case you hear someone talking about buying a condo in downtown San Jose. There's lots of activity. There's so many different things going on in the market going on right now, but if you hear someone talking about it, give me a call or text me, and I'll get you a copy of our downtown San Jose condo prices guide to give them."
Where, if you put together a guide to downtown San Jose condo prices, that would be a guidebook for anybody thinking about or looking for a condo, that would be a valuable thing. You'd show all the buildings and you show all the data about the buildings, like how many units, what the price range are, the floor plans, the unit sizes, the price ranges, all that kind of stuff. Data that anybody thinking about a condo downtown would be really excited to have, all in one place, that would be a useful tool. So now, we're programming your clients, that whenever somebody talks about it, there's something that they can get to give to their client, where they get all the thoughtful points. They say, "Oh, no, you said you were looking for a condo. Look, I got this guide for you."
Jeff: Very cool. Can I ask you a question?
Dean: Yes, of course.
Jeff: So that niche that I have developed and I haven't nurtured it as much lately, but even passively I get condo business like that, because I want to increase that. Separate from that, when I first move back here, I didn't know anybody. My sphere was just my parents and my best friend, who have never moved. But I met a lot of those people, but then a lot of those folks move into homes. Now, my sphere is not just condo owners. There's people that live all over Silicon Valley. I still want to message to my top 150 that's condo-specific for sure.
Dean: Yeah, but that should be one. If your top 150 is in San Jose, that could be one of the things, because you've got 12 months here. When you're looking, you're narrowing in on a specific type of conversation. It might be somebody relocating, somebody moving out of town. If you hear of somebody moving out of town, or you hear somebody moving into town, or somebody's buying a bigger home, or somebody's looking for an investment property. What would be all the different types of conversations that somebody might hear.
Jeff: Got it.
Dean: Those are things that you're priming the pump there, for all of them, that know that you help people with other things. You look at somebody who maybe you got them a condo, they may think that that's all you do. Or somebody that you got them a luxury home, they bought a $2 or $3 million house from you in a gated community, they may not think that you would want to spend your time with somebody who's looking for a condo. Everybody has their narrow experience of you, and they think that you maybe only do what you did with them. So this is a way of letting them know the variety of things that you help people with.
And so job one with it is, of course, that you're in front of those people in a physical way, every month, so that they're never 30 days away from having had your picture, your contact information right there in their hands. They'll seek you out or to find you, they've got it right there. Often that is what prompts some activity or them to call you or to connect with you. "Oh, yeah, I've been meaning to do that." Very rarely is it as overt as, "I got your postcard and you said if I hear someone talking about buying a condo, well, I just heard someone talking about buying a condo." It's very rarely that overt. But what it is, is that they know they saw you, they're in tune with all the conversations about real estate, because as soon as you do it three times, they recognize that it's a pattern now.
If I sent you a postcard that said, "Hey, if you happen to see any pink elephants, please give me a call or text me. I want to take pictures of it for my collection," you may think that I'm only interested in pink elephants. But then if I say next month, I send a thing, "And by the way, just a quick note, in case you see any purple zebras," that that would be now be, "Oh, okay, I'm looking for the elephants and the zebras." And then if I say, "hippopotamus," the next month, now you see that what I'm looking for are colorful exotic animals. You recognize that as a pattern.
So if you say, somebody's thinking about buying a condo on one side, somebody moving to some acreage on side, or somebody looking for a luxury home, now you're starting to see that it's all about the different flavors of real estate, so whenever they hear conversations about real estate, they're going to think of you.
Jeff: Got it. Very cool.
Dean: Yeah, that's an important part. Part of the secondary meta psychology of what's going on is these pieces of data, the information, the trivia, the amazing facts, those kind of things are all things that people would use in conversation. We're anchoring them to good feelings about being a celebrated conversationalist. Because if somebody's having a conversation about something and then you drop this little known fact about something, and everybody goes, "Wow, that's fascinating. I didn't know that," all eyes are on you and you get the squirts of dopamine. You feel good that you're revered as this entertaining conversationalist. In the back of their mind they know that they got that thing that got them that dopamine came from your postcard. So now, they're looking to load up their dopamine bank.
It's amazing when you really think on that deep of a level of the psychology of what's going on. But that's actually how things happen.
Jeff: Yeah, it makes sense.
Dean: That's kind of exciting. I think that you've got that opportunity with those people to really orchestrate more referrals with that group. One of the things that I would recommend for you is looking to create a Google Map layer, onto of Google Maps to drop a pin where your top 150 live. Because what that creates for you is the opportunity to do something that every week... One of the things we've been doing within our Gogo Agent community is creating this culture of, what we call, market maker Monday. Thinking the idea is to take 10 minutes every Monday to just observe and think about who are you showing houses to this week? Who are you going to see about listing their house this week? Who are you going to be in contact with? And then look at your map layer and use that as an outreach to your top 150.
Let's say you're showing condos this week, and you're going to be showing in the Esplanade, or whatever the condo building is. You look in there and you see that you've got two people in your top 150 live in the Esplanade. Well, if you say to them, "Hey, Sandy, I'm coming over. I'm going to be showing condos in the Esplanade this week. I've got a couple from San Diego who are looking here. There's only a couple for sale right now. Have you heard anybody talking about selling in the building? Maybe we can match them up with this couple from San Diego. So you're market-making all the [crosstalk 00:41:40]
Jeff: Or, I imagine, "I'm meeting with the seller on Friday. Do you know anybody that's looking to buy at Parkside?"
Dean: That's exactly right.
Jeff: Cool.
Dean: Yeah, whatever it is. And if you imagine that you did that 50 times over the next year, that you just take that one little thought, to trigger that thought to say, "Okay, who am I showing houses to? Who am I going to see right now? And who do I know who's got it there?" It's pretty cool.
Jeff: Very cool. I love that.
Dean: That's going to be a really great simple to implement idea that can raise your return on relationship, kind of effortlessly.
Jeff: Yeah, good.
Dean: I really like this idea of narrowing your focus to your 3,500 condo units. The number one thing that we want to do is corner the listing market for that, where you're the listing agent for all of the condos. So, we need a strategy for that. What are you doing right now to get condo listings?
Jeff: Well, it's been pretty passive for a while. What was effective earlier was... In fact, this guy that I sell, Jim Jones, he said, "My goal in my neighborhood in my neighborhood is to become a mini celebrity. Everyone that lived there knew who I was." The first time I had that happen I was like, "Wow." Someone said, "Oh my gosh, you're Jeff." I'm like, "Wow," that's just from getting postcards in the mail. They'd never met me in person. But they saw me in the elevator, they're like, "Oh my gosh, are you Jeff?" It's very bizarre.
Dean: You're like, "Yes, I am. No autographs today, please. I'm in a hurry. But here's my card. Call my agent."
Jeff: So my plan was to restart a mail campaign, condo postcard mailers.
Dean: What I would look at is, one of the things is I agree with the philosophy that you want to become a celebrity. But the thing we want to do is I just want to narrow the focus of who you become a celebrity to. What's more important, when we used to do the big main events, we would have 800 people at an even every month. I would give people a choice. I would say, "Jeff, let's imagine that this 800-room audience here, that this represents an 800-unit condo complex. And that everybody in here owns one of the units, and I'm going to give you a choice. Now, you can come up on stage. I'll give out 800 of your business cards to everybody and you can introduce yourself, and tell people about yourself and why they should chose you. Or, you can stay right there in the front row, and I'll bring you an envelope. In the envelope will be a piece of paper with the name and phone number and the contact information of the 80 people in this room who are going to sell their house in the next two years. Which would be more valuable to you?"
Jeff: Is there door number three, like Let's Make a Deal? No. I'll take the envelope.
Dean: Of course, and that's the thing. When you look at that, that everybody agrees that that's the thing. But yet people often spend all of their time and money, and effort in trying to get famous to all 3,500 of these people who own the condos, when the reality is that there's only 150 of them who are going to sell in the next 12 months. It would be so much more advantageous for us to know who those 150 people are.
The way that we do that is to put aside your desire to be famous in the thing, and focus on being useful or offering of value to somebody who's thinking about selling. That's where our getting listings program, the focus that we have is by offering people the most recent month's report on San Jose condo prices. If somebody can see now, what all the condos are selling for, they get access to market data, as opposed to subjective opinion, where somebody might offer a free evaluation certificate is different than a report on the data of what's been happening in the condo markets. That's more trustworthy and seems like it's already done, so I can voyeur in on that. I don't have to invite a realtor into my home, whose number one goal is going to be try to get me to list my condo with them.
It's a different phycology. When you offer that and you start it, either we do this every month, you'd start and send the June 2020 report on San Jose condo prices. You show all the sales and all the things that have happened in the last 12 months, and do some analysis per square foot, all the stuff that gives them a starting point of the data to go with. But what it's not going to show them is what their actual condo is worth. It's all the data, so they're still going to need you to determine, as a next step, what their specific condo would sell for.
Jeff: Right. You have landing pages for that, right? Landing pages set up for-
Dean: I do. We've got the postcard and the landing pages, and the voicemail, everything you need to execute that.
Jeff: And then actually, let me relate to that. I was thinking, because you can have multiple landing pages, right.
Dean: Yes.
Jeff: You got different landing pages for each building.
Dean: You could. That's absolutely right.
Jeff: Or a URL for each building, even a photo of that building or something.
Dean: That's exactly right.
Jeff: What might be interesting, somebody could say, "Oh, go to saleplaza.com and click on-
Dean: Right. That's 10-year market domination thinking. I'm totally on board with you on that. That's what you want to do, is that we look at it that... Let's call it, if there's 150 of those that are selling every year, out of the 3,500, and if the medium price on them is $800,000, that would be probably in the neighborhood of a $20,000 or more listing side commission. Right?
Jeff: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean: So you look at that $20,000 times 150 is $3 million dollars per year, for the next 10 years, of not even factoring in any appreciation kind of thing, that over the next 10 years, somebody is going to earn $30 million dollars from this group of 3,500 people, minimum. So, why not you? That's the thing, is if we can get it so you're the real choice would become a celebrity, like we say there. I like this idea of not so much a celebrity, but we want to establish you as a brand in the San Jose condos. My definition of brand, what we're trying to establish in the minds of the people who live in those condos is the acronym for brand values is a buying reflex affecting now decisions. So that when the decision is, "We need to get our house on the market, or condo on the market," that the reflex is, "We need to call Jeff." That's what we're looking to do here.
By focusing first on identifying among the 3,500, all the people who are most likely to be among the people who are going to sell in the next 12, 24 months. That report is going to be the lead in on that, that they'll ask for the report. And then month after month, they see that here's the opportunity to get the June report, Here's the opportunity to get the July, the August, the September. We're anchoring in people's minds that when it shows up on their radar, when they do start thinking about selling, the genesis thought is going to be, "Well, I wonder how much we could get for our place now?" And having market data is really going to be a great advantage. It's never a bad thing to have all the data, all the information, especially when you're talking about San Jose, which probably, per capita has the most analytic people on the planet.
Jeff: You think?
Dean: So, they would appreciate that.
Jeff: They love the data. More data.
Dean: Yeah, give me the raw data. They'll run through their own algorithms and stuff, and that's a good thing. And at the same time now, once we get that established and get that running, the next step on that plan would be to now arm yourself with the best thing that could ensure that you are the reflex, when they're ready to sell. That would be that you have a buyer for their condo, before they ever decide to put it on the market.
The good thing about a category like condos is that you can start generating condo buyers without having to have condo listings, by putting together this resource that is the guide to San Jose condos, so a comparison guide. It's like the teachers' edition of the Algebra book. They've got all the data that they would need. Anybody who's looking for a downtown, to be able to compare what they could get, one building versus another. That would be a useful thing.
All of this stuff creates a durable mote for you, that you're going to put in time and effort to compile this report, to put this guide together and do it in a nice way, that it's an asset. The condo buildings that are there now, they're going to be there 10 years from now. And their picture, they're not going to age like a human, so you get the pictures of the building and the stuff there is really going to be durable. Once you get it there, the floor plan is the floor plan this year, and next year. All of that stuff is one thing that you're going to put a little effort into, upfront, but then you've got it as a durable asset.
Now, on one side, you're building a list of condo buyers, and on the other side you're building a list of future condo sellers. And now you're in the market-maker position again. Whenever somebody wants to look at the condos, you now have a way to, as soon as you're showing one, to overlay your listing responder map, along with your top 150 map, along with your expired listing, who never relisted map, and you've got these people that you can reach out to with this currency that you have, of a buyer who's looking to buy a condo right now this week. Instead of following up with people and saying, "Hey, are you getting my newsletter? Are you enjoying it? Is there anything I can help you with," those kind of follow-up calls, if every time you reach out to someone it's, "Hey Jason, I'm showing condos in the Esplanade and I remember looking up your condo when I sent you the condo report a few months ago. I'm not sure what your plans are, but I thought I'd check in and see if maybe I can tell them about your condo. They're looking for one in your building."
If you send that communication to somebody as an email, they're either ready to sell, and would welcome that message saying, "Oh, wow, yeah, yeah. Let's talk because we're just getting ready to do it," or they're saying, "Oh, no. We're not ready yet. It's not going to be for a while," kind of thing. But if you do that over the next two years, two or three times there's a communication like that, you've anchored in their mind that if the time ever does come where they're going to sell, it would only make sense to call Jeff, because he's got all the buys.
Jeff: Totally. Well, I like that for a couple of reasons. Everything was like that before, but this is a little bit different. But two reasons, one is, there's a purpose for the call, rather than, "Hi. I need business."
Dean: Yeah. That's right.
Jeff: And two, because I'm trying to help my clients. My clients want to buy and they're looking for more listings. You're showing evidence of two things. One is you're busy, active and successful, as evidenced by the fact that you have an active buyer. And two, that you're willing to work hard to find a property for that buyer, without telling them that.
Dean: That's exactly right.
Jeff: You're not telling them, "Oh, by the way, I'm busy, and I'm working with one of my clients." You're demonstrating it by saying, "I want to reach out to you because I'm trying to find a great place for my buyers." That's great.
Dean: That's awesome. I think that's a really great action plan for you, that I think is going to have a big significance for you. In Gogo Agent we've got a community of people that are doing that same thing. Zack Pasmanick in Atlanta is focused on the condos there, and Chuck and Melissa Charlton in Toronto, in Milton, are doing a condo project there. So you'd be around people who are doing the same thing.
Jeff: Well, what I found over the years and for me, it's not establishing. It's reestablishing myself within that niche.
Dean: Yeah, exactly.
Jeff: So it's a benefit that many people think of me in that way. Agents especially go, "Oh, hey, it's condo Jeff." But the thing that I found that was the trick to play with is that I don't want them just thinking about me that we later on. Out in Silicon though, they move up into a house, and don't want them thinking, "Oh, Jeff just sells condos."
Dean: No, I think that's awesome. That's why -
Jeff: I both want the niche that's targeted to all those kind of owners at the same time for the other people that I know in my top 150, as you say, that handle properties all over the Valley.
Dean: Absolutely. And that's the thing, because none of this depends on publicly branding yourself as Jeff the condo guy. That's not what it is. We're offering something valuable to the condo people, which is the free report on condo prices, and for the buyers, the condo guide, which also gives you the freedom to have other people on your team that can work with those people. It doesn't just have to be you. We get to create a Blue Man Group business, as opposed to a Siegfried and Roy business, where they're expecting to see Siegfried and Roy. If you create a Blue Man business, they're expecting to see and get the great service. So, very exciting.
Jeff: Very cool.
Dean: This hour went fast.
Jeff: That's an hour? Wow, that's an hour.
Dean: How did everything land? What's your recap or your takeaways?
Jeff: Well, a number of things. Well, the Monday idea, or whatever day it's done. But the idea of doing that for a specific purpose, when I'm out at a property, which I did on occasion. But that is really powerful. And then just the idea of, which I haven't really pared down, to my top 150, which is a thing to do. And regular mailer, great idea, which I know you have tool for to do it. You have a preset mailer, right?
Dean: Yeah, we've got it all. And we can actually do all of this stuff for you, if you like. I mean, that's the thing that I'm always an advocate for, creating abundant time for people. That's why we have our whole easy button program for things.
Jeff: Well, maybe the biggest takeaway after our conversation, I am excited about taking action on.
Dean: The next 10 years.
Jeff: Yeah. I've been 27 years in the business. Just 27 years doing anything, whether it's being a parent or married, or a career, you have burnout and different things that happen. I've been through a series of burnouts in different phases. You're not 100% excited every day for 27 years straight. So I am looking for also kind of a new mojo, a push, for the roaring '20s to start off with.
Dean: Right, exactly.
Jeff: An interesting bang to the roaring '20s, that we got so far this year with the virus. But anyway, I am looking to have a roaring '20s.
Dean: That's awesome. Me too. Well, I'm glad we reconnected. I mean, here we are, 20-plus years later, reconnected and happy. That was a great conversation. I really enjoyed your eagerness.
Jeff: I'm very grateful for your time, very grateful.
Dean: Awesome. And say hi to Barry for me.
Jeff: Absolutely will.
Dean: Okay. I'll talk to you soon, Jeff.
Jeff: Have a great day.
Dean:Thanks. You too.
Jeff: Bye.
Dean: And there we have it, another great episode. If you'd like to continue the conversation you can go to listingagentlifestyle.com. You can download a copy of The Listing Agent Lifestyle book, the manifesto that shares everything that we're talking about here. And you can be a guest on the show if you'd like to talk about how we can build a listing agent lifestyle plan for your business. Just click on the be a guest link, at listingagentlifestyle.com.
And if you'd like to join our community of people who are applying all of the things we talk about in The Listing Agent Lifestyle, come on over to Gogoagent.com. That's where we've got all the programs, all the tools, everything you need to get listings, to multiply your listings, to get referrals, convert leads, and to find buyers. You can get a free, truly free, no credit card required trial for 30 days, at Gogoagent.com. So, come on over and I will see you there.