Get A Real Estate Listing In The Next 10 Days!

So who am I and why should you learn from me?

I apologize in advance that this part might be a bit long but I want to show the true power in this process. First of all my name is Josh. I became a real estate agent in 2014 when I moved to Florida from Wisconsin. This presented the first big problem for me. I didn’t know anyone in Florida. Every single training I attended in the office preached that the first step for new agents is to contact your circle of influence (or sphere of influence) for leads. Well… I didn’t have a circle. I knew nobody. So then for the activity they wanted us to write down and contact 10 people from that list and ask for names and numbers of people they know that might be looking to buy or sell real estate. Again, my list remained blank.

At this point I had a couple options. I could join a team and work as a buyer’s agent and learn the ropes. I could risk my safety and go knock doors. I could get yelled at on the phone by cold calling FSBO’s and expired listing. None of those options sounded all that appealing to me. I wanted to get in the business so I could be my own boss and I wanted to sell houses. I didn’t want to drive all over showing a million houses to a potential buyer. Not that there’s anything wrong with doing that but it wasn’t what I wanted.

Every experienced agent I talked to said I should definitely start by working with buyers and that it would be a death wish for my business if I tried to immediately get listings without having sold a single house before. But I’m a bit stubborn and disagreed. I didn’t disagree to them, I thanked them for their input but in my head… disagreement. Shortly after, I learned why they say this. Not because it isn’t possible but because they don’t want more agents going after the limited listings.

So one night I was sitting at home thinking about what I was going to do to get this business going. I was already experienced with building websites and running Facebook ads. So I created a landing page that would collect seller leads and started a Facebook ad that directed home owners to the landing page. I set a $10 per day budget and hit publish. As soon as the ad was approved, I went to bed hoping that the next day I’d finally get a few leads.

I woke up the next morning, immediately checked my phone and saw that three leads had come in while I was sleeping. About another 15 came in throughout the day. So I sent them all the info that was promised in the ad. Next day I got 21 more leads. I again sent them all the info. Early the next afternoon I get a phone call.

Me: Hello, this is Josh
Caller: Hi Josh, this is such and such. You had sent us some info on our house yesterday.
Me: Sure, how can I help you?
Caller: Well, we are looking to sell that house and are interviewing some agents so we wanted to see when you could come out.

My first listing presentation!!! I was so pumped! Then that quickly turned to panic. I had never sold a house. I have had exactly 0 clients. I have no references, no reviews, nothing. I didn’t even have a listing presentation. So I got to work. I was meeting them the next day so I had to get hustling. I looked over the sample listing presentation that was on my companies site of agent tools. This gave me a good overview of what other agents say at their presentations. So I worked off of that and added in my own touches that I knew other agents weren’t doing.

The next day I arrived at their house and was greeted by a husband and wife. They lead me into the house and she immediately told me that they had interviewed 3 other agents and I was the 4th and last interview and that they wouldn’t be signing anything today. This is some fun foreshadowing for later.

So I say fair enough, and they take me on a tour of the home. As we are going through the kitchen, I see the business cards on the counter from the 3 previous agents that they interviewed. One of those cards was from one of the biggest teams in the area. So my chances of getting this listing were likely quite bleak.

After touring the home, we took a seat in the living room to talk and so I could go over my presentation. As I’m nearing the end, I know the dreaded question is coming of how many homes I’ve sold. And sure enough, it’s the first question they ask. But I was prepared with what I thought was the best answer that could ever be given to that question. (I tell you what it is in the training)

I knew this was my listing if I took it now. They had said they weren’t making any decisions today but I wanted to walk out that door with my first listing agreement. So I said, “I know you said you weren’t going to be making any decisions today but I know I’m the right person to sell this house and I’m getting the sense you feel the same way. So what I propose is this. We sign the listing agreement today, and if in the next 24 hours you change your mind, I’ll come back with it and we can rip it up. Does that sound fair?”

I can only imagine how big the smile on my face was as I walked to my car with my first signed listing agreement in my hand. Over the next 24 hours I started scheduling out every bit of my marketing plan and sending an email over to them with each scheduled item. Needless to say, with them seeing all I was doing already, there was no way they were going to cancel the listing agreement.

A few days later while I was there getting photos of the house, I was chatting with the husband and he told me that my marketing plan and how I answered the question about how many homes I sold were the two things that set me apart from the other agents and helped them know that I was the right choice.

My Facebook ad has continued running and bringing me more and more leads. Three days after I got my first signed listing agreement, I got a call from another of my leads that needed to sell their home because they were moving out of state. And they needed to sell it ASAP! They were able to meet right away so I printed out another listing presentation and listing agreement and headed over to meet them.

After touring the home we sat down and I went over what I felt the home should be priced at. They immediately said, “Sounds good, what’s the next step?” In my head I’m like, “you’ve gotta be kidding me! I already got the listing?!?!” But I said I’d like to show them my marketing plan so they know what to expect and then right after I pulled out the listing agreement and a pen and said, “now we can just get this listing agreement signed and I’ll start getting everything scheduled.”

And that was my second listing in the same week! My marketing plan includes some marketing before the listing hits the market. So for this particular house, we had 8 showings already scheduled for the morning it hit the market. And it was under contract with multiple offers before noon the day it went on.

This is the power of this little system I created. I was a completely unknown new agent that didn’t know anybody in the area, I had never sold a home and here I was with two listings in the same week. From there it just kept snowballing.

Eventually we made the decision to move back to Wisconsin and instead of getting licensed again and starting all over, I made the move to the marketing and lead generation side and have been working behind the scenes ever since doing marketing and lead generation for teams all over the country. And now I’m bringing my little system straight to you so you can start bringing in a nice flow of leads for yourself and getting more listings!