In my career, and teaching the ABR® class, the Accredited Buyer Representation class, one of the biggest objections you'll get from a buyer is, "hey, I think I'm going to work with the listing agent directly. I think I can save a few dollars, and I'm pretty tight on my budget, so I think I'm going to try to do that."

What do you say to that? What's your response to that?

Well, it's a valid concern, especially in today's buyer agent world where buyers may have to write a check. Of course, we know that's not super common today. It might be in the future, but in today's environment it's not super common.

So my response to that is very simple. I would say:

"Hey, listen, I totally understand. If that's what you want to do, more power to you. But can I ask you a question—other than the commission, do you see any other benefit from doing that?"

Most people say, well, not really. And that's where you follow up with this:

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"So I just want to plant a seed for you. I want you to think ab...

If you're a real estate agent, I've got an idea for you.

And the reason I got this idea is because it just happened to me. I'm a rental owner, and I got a letter in the mail from a local real estate agent, but he had partnered with a local property management firm. I thought this was a brilliant strategy.

They co-branded the letter, and the letter said something like this:

“Hey, I'm a local listing agent who specializes in working with investors. If you're in need of real estate services, on the buy side or sell side, I'd love to work with you. And by the way, I partner with a local property management firm who would love to work with you on the property management side.”

And it was a brilliant strategy. On the bottom, they had both the logos.

Now, from each company's perspective, they're ancillary and complementary to each other.

They've taken their mailing costs and cut it in half. Think about that. Instead of it maybe being a dollar 50 or a dollar, now it's half, and they can ...

The question for you brokerage owners and team leaders out there:

Do you know your numbers?

And when I ask this question, people say, “Oh yeah, I know my numbers.” And then we test it and see if they really do know the numbers.

I'm going to test you right now. I'm going to ask you a couple of questions about your market, and I want you to be able to tell me if you know your numbers.

When I say your market, I'm talking about your agents that work within your company. That is your local market, by the way.

And here are the questions:

1. What is your average pending price with your agent body? What is your average listing price with your agent body? What is your average close price with the agents that work for you today?

2. How does that compete with the rest of the market versus the MLS? Are you higher or are you lower? Where are you at?

And then I'm going to go deeper than that. I'm going to ask you this really tough question:

3. What's your average agent's productivity based ...

Hey guys, have you ever thought about how you're interacting with your Sphere of Influence on social media?

Now, obviously we need to be really smart about this, and every single person that's in our Sphere of Influence, we need to make sure that we're connected with them on Facebook and Instagram and all the other possible places, maybe LinkedIn. And that should be maybe a spreadsheet or a checklist that we're checking that box off.

But let me give you one more idea. It's from a top producer I recently saw and thought it was brilliant:

What this agent did is he built a closed Facebook group for his, what he called VIPs—people that have sent him business or done direct business with him. So referral partners, people that have sent him referrals, or people that have done business go into his closed VIP Facebook group just for them.

And by doing so, he does all kinds of fun things. He runs contests in there where he rewards people for sending him referrals or doing direct business wi...

Hey guys, we're coming into Spring, and this is a great time of year to offer your concierge services to all of your clients.

What is your concierge service?

You want people to think about you when they think about anything related to their house — whether that's putting a new roof on, new carpet, refinishing the floors, needing an electrician, needing a plumber.

You want to be the first point of contact when they have a need related to their house. But you've got to say it out loud.

You've got to reach out to them. This is a great text, a great call, a great email where you say:

“Hey guys, a lot of times this time of year, coming into Spring, is when people like to do home improvement projects. If that's you and you need a contractor of any kind, reach out to me.

I've got relationships with the best contractors in the market. They give my clients great service and great pricing, so please reach out to me.”

Now, here's how I'm inserting value: I'm saying they're going to get whi...

As a real estate agent, you have something in common with every single business owner in your community. Everybody from carpet cleaners, to candy store operators, to toy store owners, to clothing store owners — every one of you has something in common.

Here’s what you have in common: you all want to do more business.

As a small business operator, what you can do is tap into that. What I would suggest to you is you go through your entire sphere of influence today and you take a yellow highlighter out — maybe print it out — and put a highlight next to all the small business owners that you know. You know more than you think.

When you have that highlighter out and you highlight all those folks, the next step is to call them, reach out to them, text them, or stop by their business if it’s convenient and appropriate, and say this:

“Hey, you know what? I want to support a local business every single week, and I’d love to do a collab with you if you’re interested.”

A collab — what’s a co...

It happened, you were able to set a recruiting appointment.

Now what do you do when you’re going to meet someone for the first time at coffee or lunch? Do you immediately launch into your pitch?

That’s the worst thing you could possibly do in your first meeting with a potential recruit.

The first thing you need to do is build rapport and trust. One of the best ways to do that is by understanding who you’re talking to — doing a deep dive and some intelligence research on the agent before the meeting.

What does that look like?

Obviously, you can Google them. You can look at their social media accounts. You can talk to other people in your office about what they might know.

But here’s an easy strategy most recruiters miss: dive into their current inventory.

Look at their listings. See how long they’ve been on the market. Look at their price points. Where are they focusing? Go back and look at the trajectory of their business. Are they up or down compared to last year at this time?

Hey guys, when’s the last time you put an in-search-of ad out on social media? We’ll call it an ISO.

An ISO ad could be as simple as saying, “Hey guys, I have a buyer looking for a home in the Jacksonville area. Three bedroom, two bath, up to $600,000. They’re looking in this school district. If you hear of anybody thinking about selling, please send them my way.”

This has so many benefits you don’t even realize.

You might say, “That’ll never work. I’m not actually going to get somebody who says they’re interested in selling. That’s a waste of time.”

That’s not the point.

The point is that you’re telling everybody in your sphere, everybody in your social media audience, that you are a busy REALTOR and that you will leave no stone unturned in finding homes for your clients.

They’re going to say, not only is Jim busy, he’s actually going the extra mile for his client.

If you do this consistently, you’re helping people see you through a different lens.

Some of you have a problem w...

Hey guys, I want to talk to you about a unique way of going after for sale by owners and expired listings, and that is cold texting. Today, we’re going to focus on FSBOs.

With for sale by owners, we know that 92% of these folks are eventually going to work with a REALTOR.

The question is:

Will it be you or your competitor?

If you never reach out, never make contact, and never make an effort, you’re never going to have a shot at getting these listings. You never get what we call an “at bat.”

So how do you get an at bat? You make contact. You build a relationship. You’re never going to close them on the first appointment. Usually it takes several appointments and several conversations to get them to come to you.

Remember, FSBOs typically have a four-to-six-week incubation period. From the time they plant the sign in the yard or post on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, within four to six weeks, 92% of them will have worked with or decided to work with a REALTOR.

So what’s our co...

Almost every week I have a new agent come to me and say, “Hey, I want to tackle a new area of the market.” Maybe it’s for sale by owner, maybe it’s expired listings, maybe it’s farming— all very valid areas to market to.

But my first question is always, “Let’s talk about your sphere of influence first. Tell me about that.”

A lot of times they’ll say, “Well, I don’t really have a good number on that.” That’s how I know they’re not really dialed in on their sphere. I’ll ask, “How many people are in your sphere?” And they’ll say, “It’s like 100… it’s like 200.”

They can’t tell me a specific number because they’re not actually in control of their business.

So the number one thing we have to do—before we chase rabbits, before we look for other business, before we search for something else—is get our sphere of influence dialed in.

Why? Because 70–80% of your business is going to come from this source. We have no business spending time, resources, money, and energy elsewhere when we have...