- Welcome to the Tom Ferry Show.
Today I'm answering about seven questions that we've been
getting on Facebook and Insta and on Youtube,
to help you not reinvent the wheel.
But instead, quickly take the right action,
so let's jump right in.
(energetic music)
- The first question was, "Hey Tom, what's the best
"way to know my local market as a newer
"or a veteran agent who's coming back?"
Well, it's the same thing my friends,
it's always three things.
One, it's look at the daily hot sheets to know
what's selling, what just closed, you know,
what new escrows are opening, what pendings,
and of course, expireds, cancels, withdrawns.
To really study it and to look at it and say,
okay, what's going on, what's moving, what's not moving.
That's number one.
Number two, preview property, right?
I'm blown away by the number of agents
that don't go out and preview.
And then great agents, Andy Stavros,
I was just watching his Instagram story.
He's driving around, "Hey I'm about to go look at this
great little house on Linda Isle, here's the scoop."
And he's doing it on his Instagram story,
killing two birds with one stone, right?
Putting out some great content that people are interested in
new listings that are coming on the market,
but he's also previewing, which is critical
to know the inventory, to know the prices.
And then of course, the last one is to always snuggle up
to the best agents in the marketplace and just say,
"How's the market, what's going on, what are you seeing,
"what do you like, what do you not like?"
Those three things makes you more of the local market expert
so when people ask you questions, you've got some real data
and some stories and case studies to share with them.
So that's important.
The second question I got was, "Hey Tom, what Facebook page
"would you suggest in use of content,
"like personal page or business page?"
And, you know, this question's been around for a long time.
Really, since the origin of what were like fan pages
that became business pages, and the answer's quite simple.
Always on your business page, always on your business page,
always on your business page.
Why, because there we can boost, we can advertise,
you can create lists of people that you want and segment
to do your marketing, so always on your business page.
I think this is the number still,
you gotta have about 50 followers on that page
in order to do all that stuff, but that's easy cheesy.
All right, I liked this question.
"Hey Tom, what Realtors in your opinion are crushing it
"with real estate video marketing?"
There are so many that are doing it now, it is remarkable.
A couple that I would pay attention to,
I just met with them all recently, so they're top of mind.
Chris Kwon from Douglas Elliman right here in Irvine,
absolutely killing it, killing it on the creative side.
Each one of these are doing it differently,
but Chris does a remarkable job on the creative that causes
him to differentiate himself from his competition,
to stand out, to be more likable, right?
I mean, you kinda fall in love with the guy just watching
his videos, so Chris Kwon, K-W-O-N, just wanna make sure I
spell it right, maybe do a little link.
Christophe Choo, over in Beverly Hills.
these three are all southern California, but I just
met with them recently so they're on my mind.
Christophe is doing something right now that is absolutely
crushing it, we're gonna talk about it at the summit.
Check it out, he gets in his car, and he does
neighborhood tours, and then he immediately, from his phone,
right, so on his phone like this, he's like,
"Hey everybody, it's Christophe.
"Today we're looking at Beverly Hills flats."
And it's on him, then he flips it around, then he drives
through the neighborhood, and he describes the houses,
who lives there, the builders, the new construction,
what's recently sold, giving people this sort of like
in-depth view of what's happening in that community.
Now I don't know how many he's done, but he's done a lot
of them, Beverly Hills, West side, Santa Monica, et cetera.
If you go to his YouTube channel, you'll see it.
It's very simple, I'm not saying it's ghetto,
but it's just from his iPhone, and you know what?
It kills it, especially because he takes it,
puts it inside YouTube, he does all the appropriate tags,
he does all the appropriate like, to know,
hey if I'm looking for houses in Beverly Hills flats,
you're gonna see his video on YouTube, it's that good.
He's getting "come list me" calls.
And then Timmy Smith.
Actually you know, Kyle Whissel.
Kyle Whissel won recently BombBomb's, I think he was the
number one most influential video agent in the country,
and if you look at what he is doing, really smart.
Everything from community videos, to interviewing local
business owners, to just showcasing listings, to just
showing what he's doing in his business to help his clients,
he really covers the full spectrum of video.
And I think, between those three,
you're gonna get a ton of great ideas.
But those would be the first three that just come to mind.
Next question, I love this one.
So Margie Hare, asked me this on Facebook.
"How do I become more coachable?"
So, you know this is obviously personal for me, not because
I'm a coach, I think about it more so because of my son.
So my son is 17 years old, playing tennis, was injured
nine months ago, so when you have a surgery
and you're coming back from being a competitive anything,
real estate agent, tennis player, you name it,
there's this mindset that sometimes takes over.
And what I saw in him recently was his resistance
to listen to his coach, his lack of coachability.
And whether it was because, "Ugh, my wrist still kinda hurts
"and I'm not sure if I can do it."
But that doubt that had seeped in kills his performance.
Now I will tell you, I sat down with him and with his coach
and we just had a really honest conversation, like
dude, I love you, so Margie, ready?
I love you.
If you don't do anything, no one cares.
If you never sell a house again, no one cares, right?
It's not gonna say on your tombstone, born this day
and this day, and oh by the way, in the summer of 2018
she stopped selling houses.
No one cares.
You have to ask yourself this question.
Ready? Three parts.
Number one, if I'm crazy coachable, like militant coachable,
like I do everything my coach asks me to do,
what's the worst-case scenario?
List it out, what's the worst-case scenario?
I have to work a few more hours, at times I don't look good.
Remember the whole fixed mindset?
That's usually what stops you.
I won't look good, it'll be uncomfortable, I'm gonna be
outside of my comfort zone, it's all it is, right?
But what the worst case?
I'll be embarrassed, maybe someone in my office will be like
"What are you doing," or "Hey bro we're all going away,
"it's summertime, let's go play, whee"
and you're like, "No, I'm actually doing what I
"committed to with my coach," right?
And it feels awkward and it feels weird,
like that's the worst-case scenario.
No one's gonna like, hurt you, do you know what I mean?
There's no death and dying in this scenario of
calling an expired as a metaphorical example.
But then, you gotta look at the next question, which is,
what's the most likely scenario?
So if that's the worst-case scenario, I feel embarrassed,
I feel uncomfortable, I'm outside of my comfort zone,
I've never done this before, it was awkward, somebody
rejected me, somebody hung up on me, that's the worst-case.
What's the most likely case?
You get some leads, you get some appointments,
you win some business, you get some projects done,
you get a little more, remember the circles?
You get more completion, a little more integrity
in your business, is that the most likely scenario?
Then you ask yourself, what's the best case scenario?
So I'm super coachable, I'm really militant, my coach
says jump, I say how high and I jump.
What's the best case scenario?
And I have found for me in life, when making tough decisions
what's the worst case, what's the most likely,
what's the best case, right?
Coachable is not a big issue, but maybe it is for you Margie
so ask yourself those three questions,
and then take the right action.
Next question I got, I love this one, because it's been
coming up more and more, especially because of the
Peter Diamandis video recently.
"AI technology concerns me.
"How many jobs is it going to take away?"
Without a shadow of a doubt, I am not the expert
on the subject, because I'm a part of that Abundance 360
group, I did sit in a forum where, it was very clear
amongst these 360 members that, in the future,
whether that is three years, five years, ten years,
fifteen years, if you're a cab driver, if you're a truck
driver, if you're in that kind of transportation business,
(claps)
that world's gonna be disrupted.
So whether that's five or ten million people,
they will be displaced, there's no doubt about it.
Is it going to impact the real estate world?
The answer is, I hope so.
I hope so, I hope that eventually I can get to,
"I need a three bedroom, two bath home at the corner of
"West 17th and Manhattan and I wanna spend no more than
"$7,000 a month on rent, and I need it to be dog friendly."
And bam, it shows up.
I hope that that becomes available.
I hope that I hit a button, and the whole thing pops up,
and I can view it, maybe through Oculus
or some kind of glass device.
I want all that stuff.
Will it be change, will it be hard for some people,
will some jobs be disrupted?
One thousand percent, and just as equally,
millions of new jobs then show up.
That's the way the world works.
It's like my buddy Steve Harney says.
"Tom, the problem is it's change."
It's change, right, change creates fear, fear creates doubt,
doubt puts most people in a state of paralysis, right?
Where you do nothing, and when
there is no action, you're dead.
So the deal is, guess what, it's all coming.
But is it five years, ten years, twenty years, who knows.
My advice to you is, dig in deep with your relationships.
Dig in deep on your skills, dig in deep on your marketing,
and do the things that give you power that you can control,
and pay attention to what's happening with tech.
Don't go blind to it, pay attention to it, but focus on the
foundation of your business and your success and your
relationships first, and then you're always gonna win.
All right, I love this question,
I actually thought this was great.
Sleepless in OC asks on YouTube, "Hey Tom,
how do I sell a home really quick for the best possible
price without having to hold an open house?"
Well, Sleepless in OC, maybe you should change your name to
Wake Up in OC or Let's Do Open Houses in OC,
because the reality is my friends, open houses
are not just a place where we market
the property and try and find a buyer.
All the stats show that maybe one percent, one percent
of the open houses actually sell from somebody that
just previewed the house in an open house.
What it does give you though, is the opportunity to go
knock on twenty doors across the street.
"Hi, I'm Tom, I just listed the home, here's the flyer,
"here's the information, here's the price.
"Love for you to come by."
Twenty to the right, twenty to the left, twenty across.
I think that's like Tommy Hopkins, from like a thousand...
You remember Tommy Hopkins, like from a --
Oh, I have such a Tommy Hopkins story, I can't tell it.
My dad pushed him in our pool in
Huntington Beach, California, like I'm old school.
I've been around for a while, but classic moment.
I remember it, I was like this big.
So here's the deal.
I would challenge you to say, you are doing
a disservice not to just the client,
but to yourself by not doing open houses.
They're just too wonderful an opportunity for you
to meet the neighbors, get connected, have agents come
through, get some feedback on pricing, that kind of stuff.
It's a no-brainer, get rid of that
stinkin' thinkin', and do more open houses.
All right, "Tom, what three major pitfalls would you tell
"new agents to avoid," from Harris Tran on Facebook.
Harris, great question, I've done a ton of videos on this.
I'll give you maybe three things that maybe I haven't
said to you in the past or something a little bit different.
The first thing is, you gotta have a mentor, right?
An agent in your office that you can turn to.
"Tristan, help me with this."
"Richard, how do I structure this deal, what do I say?
"I'm crafting this email, will you take a look at it?
"I'm making a decision on my CRM, can I get some feedback?"
Having a mentor, someone inside your office
that you can turn to, could be your manager, could be
your broker, could just be a senior agent inside the office,
someone that's been around the block.
Cannot, cannot stress to you how important that is.
Number two, ready, if you think you're gonna make any money
only working your sphere, quit the business now.
Quit the business now.
You have got to be multi-faceted, you cannot be myopic,
come into this real estate business, start calling
your friends and saying, "Hey I'm in the business, and
"who do you know who wants to buy and sell?"
You're gonna die with that strategy.
There's a reason why the turnover's so tremendous, right?
A good broker today, a good mentor today, is going to say to
you, "Look kid," and by the way, you could be 60 and still
a kid, "Look kid, you gotta do some of this, you gotta do
"some of this, you gotta do some of this,
"you gotta do some of this," right?
You definitely want to work your sphere, no doubt about it,
but you wanna do some open houses, you probably want to call
expireds, you probably wanna call For Sale By Owners.
"Tom, I don't like those."
It's cool, 'cause they don't like you either,
so don't worry about it, but here's the dealio.
They've already raised their hand and said,
"Hey, I'm thinking about selling, and this is what I know."
When you can call a Zillow Make me Move,
when you can call a For Sale by Owner,
when you can call an expired, and navigate through
their unmet expectations, let me say that to you again,
when you can navigate through their unmet expectations,
"I tried to sell it, it didn't work out."
"I was told the market's unbelievable, I wanna save on
"the commission, I'm selling it on my own."
"I actually took the time to put all these photos on Zillow
"and said, I'm thinking about selling, Zillow make me move."
If you can navigate those things, you are
more valuable to the people in your sphere.
You know what works, you know what doesn't.
You know the mistakes to avoid.
You become more of an expert and a professional
to help the people that you know make those good decisions.
Does that make sense?
So that would be my second piece of advice.
The third thing is, we're in a skills market.
Inventory, right, is it going up,
is it going down, always a factor.
Number two, demand, how many people are coming into
the marketplace that wanna buy in all those
price points, it's all very different.
And then the third part is the cost of money.
Well guess what, those three factors, for my 30 years,
have always been the sort of overarching issues
of why the real estate market is moving or it's not.
Inventory, demand, and the cost of money.
Cost of money's going up.
In many cases, the demand is just steamrolling,
it's unbelievable in the mid to low price points,
how many people wanna buy right now.
And then of course on the higher end, maybe not so much.
Maybe not so much, for all my friends
that are paying attention.
And then of course, the third one is inventory.
What's available?
You gotta know those three things.
All three of those things create, my friend, be very clear,
a different set of marketing and skills.
A different set of marketing and skills.
To market a home in this market versus say,
2013, when you just hit enter in
the MLS and it was gone, you with me?
Versus today, dependent upon the price you're in,
you hit enter and you sit and wait, and suddenly we've
got time on market, and suddenly we're having
price reduction or price amendment conversations,
which we should do a whole show on that, by the way.
It's a different market, requiring different skills,
requiring different abilities to market yourself.
Especially right now, because of the number of discount
brokers, the number of internet-based, tech-enabled
service companies that are in our space,
differentiation is a major issue right now.
And if you're a brand new agent,
it's an even bigger issue for you.
Why should I work with you versus the umpteen-gazillion
other agents in your marketplace?
So I would be focusing on those three things right now.
I'd be on YouTube searching for videos on it,
I'd be having conversations with my mentor,
I'd be meeting with senior agents inside the office,
and talking about all these factors,
getting on a plan, and getting to work.
And then the last question, ready?
Nick Hotmer, Hutmer, I'm totally butchering that.
Sorry Nick, on Facebook, he said,
"It's on what percentage of your GCI, your gross commission
"income, would you reinvest in Facebook marketing, and would
"you hire someone to do it with a virtual assistant?"
So I'm gonna talk about the last part first.
In a discussion with a few of my coaches,
they have been analyzing outsourced Facebook versus
you doing it from your own IP, right?
And guess what, from your own IP, you get better response,
more interaction, you show up in the news feeds faster
than some of these houses that are doing it for you.
Do your own research and check it out.
Our research says it's always infinitely better
from your own IP, from your phone, from your laptop
that's associated with that Facebook account,
that Instagram account, et cetera.
Do your research.
In terms of investment, be really clear.
Most of our clients are between ten to fifteen percent
of their projected gross revenues, right,
their projected gross revenues on all things marketing.
Now that's, swag, a business card, a flyer, a brochure,
their website, their Facebook ads, their email marketing
association, like it's everything.
I say for Facebook right now, it's really about two things.
Brand awareness, and lead generation.
So brand awareness, if I'm putting out content, which you
should be doing on Facebook and Insta and Twitter and
everything else, and I do something, la la la la la,
and it gets a really good response early,
I'm gonna spend a few bones to boost it.
We used to talk about unicorns versus donkeys.
Not all of your content's gonna be great.
So if it's a donkey, don't spend any money there.
But if it gets traction and interaction and engagement,
spend some money and boost it to more people like that,
that's a good idea, I think it's about one percent.
One of your ten to fifteen towards all things Facebook
for boosting, for promoting that content,
as well as for advertising for future sellers.
Most of my clients will tell you today, Facebook doing
this advertising is the ultimate degree of separation,
it's what makes them stand out, it's a big part of the
differentiating factor for them.
They're working all these different lead sources,
but guess what, when people are spending eight hours a day,
12, 15, 16 hours a day on this device, and you're
consistently in the news feed, bringing them value,
not just promoting a listing,
(snaps)
That is a game-changer.
So one percent, that would be my number.
All right, ask yourself this question.
I just went through all this Q and A, what other
questions do you have, whether it's on Facebook or Twitter,
on my YouTube channel, let us know because we wanna
keep bringing you the value that is really important to you.
The questions or the strategies that you need
to grow your business, to shave off the learning curve,
and ultimately build it by design.
So let me know, let me know, let me know.
And if you share this with a couple buddies,
I'd always appreciate it.
Thanks so much, I'll look forward
to seeing you in the comments.
Remember always, your strategy matters, and now more
than ever, your ability to execute, that's what rules.
See ya soon.
Hey, it's coach Tom Ferry.
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