Real Estate at a Crossroads

by Gregory Charlop

  As you know, we live in a world that is self-serving. One of the things I tell agents today is: It's hard to find good customer service anywhere. As a real estate agent, you're in a customer service industry, so you need to make sure that you're servicing your clients all the way. When you get a listing, you need to be able to say, "I am with you till the end, until we close this property, and then I'm going to still be with you." It's all about creating that customer service and building that client connection.

  Agents now have to rethink old school strategies. You don't need to pay a lot of money for leads. If you're a good agent, you already have leads in your database. You need to rethink how you work those leads and reconnect with those leads. You need to look at your past clients and nurture them because they are the ones who have already done business with you. They are the ones who are going to come back to you to buy and sell again, and they're going to be the ones to refer business to you. I would rather see an agent spend $500 a month on nurturing their past clients than spending $2,000 chasing leads that may never convert. If you are already an established real estate agent, then you have all you need in your database.

  A new agent wouldn’t need to pay for those leads either because what they need to do is get out there and do the leg work, go door to door, make those phone calls, meet their neighbors. What friends do you have? What family? It really is a sore topic when I talk to agents and hear that they're paying $2,000 or $3,000 a month for leads, and they can't even convert them. I'm a big advocate of that. A lot of agents get really nervous; they're like, "Well, if I leave this brokerage, I won't get the leads." You don't need those leads. What you need to do is learn how to do real estate the way it's supposed to be done. And don't rely on somebody to give you a lead. That's just my personal opinion.

  Gregory Charlop: How do you think real estate agents should be using social media?

  Kim Hughes: I am so glad you asked that because I see so many agents just using it to post their listings. I don't care if you live in a town of 1,000 or a town of two million, as a real estate agent you are viewed as the community. As a real estate agent, you should be aware of everything that goes on in your community, and you should be talking about what's going on in your community. You should support your community. Agents are missing out on a huge advantage by not using social media that way.

  On Facebook you should have a business page. Your business page should be everything about real estate but also everything about your community. Meaning, talk about the upcoming events for that weekend or for that month. Talk about your local businesses and what’s going on in the schools, football games, baseball games, swim meets, hockey games, etc. If there's a 5K run for breast cancer, talk about it. If there is a new restaurant, you don't want to talk about the franchise restaurants, but you want to talk about the locally- owned ones. These are your neighbors and your friends who run these businesses in your town. Talk about them and get to know them. Talk about how they provide a service to the community and, in return, they're going to do the same thing for you.

  When you focus on what's going on, it really does make a big difference. People gravitate to what other people are talking about in the community. If something bad happens in your community, be aware of it. Talk about it, acknowledge it, and focus on what you going to do to help. If something positive happens, recognize it, talk about it, and express how you participated in that. Offer to help people. One of my agents saw homes in her community that were run down, and the yards were not well cared for. Of course, that's going to bring the market value down in that neighborhood, right? She was able to approach the people who live in that house and find out why they are not able to take care of their yard, or why their garage needs to be painted, etc., and began to ask how she could help them.

  Maybe the person in that home is an elderly woman who does not have anybody to help her. That could be where you, as an agent, could help her and get involved with the garden club or get a landscaper to help her. That will help bring the property values in that neighborhood up, plus the neighbors of that home are going to see that. This person actually goes to homes and asks them, "What can I do to help you with your yard? I would love to do that."

  When you ask, "What can I do to help you?" you might be surprised at how much help you get from the neighbors and community. These are little things that agents need to be doing and then could talk about on social media.

  Instagram is more visual, so you don't really need to go there to develop relationships. You're going to Instagram to bring awareness. That's where you would do motivation. Or take pictures of your community and put them on there. Your social media, depending on what it is, needs to be more about what's going on in your community and not all about what you're doing. You're a community leader, so talk about your community. LinkedIn is a totally different breed. It's a business to business platform. A real estate agent should be on LinkedIn connecting with local employers and with the communities around them; really get to know those people.

  Interview with Tamir Poleg, the founder of Real

  Gregory Charlop: Can you tell us about Real? What is Real, and how does it work?

  Tamir Poleg: Real is defined as a technology-powered real estate brokerage. The idea behind it is to provide an alternative to the traditional brokerage by providing a lot of value to real estate agents through technology and charging a lower cost. We looked at the market and realized that brokers today are failing at providing value to their agents. The market has changed a lot. Consumers need a different kind of service, but brokers (mainly) and agents in addition, are not really providing the value that the market needs. We tried to understand what an agent goes through every day, from the moment they wake up in the morning until they go to sleep at night. We thought, "Okay. How can we automate all of that? How can we make agents' lives better, both professionally and personally?"

  We also realized that agents are in a situation unlike other industries. Regulators required agents to work under the license of a broker. The vast majority of agents are independent contractors, so they do not enjoy the benefits of being employed. On the other hand, they do not really have the freedom of running their business the way they want to because they have a boss, the broker. We wanted to change that. We want to help them run their business the way they want to while providing everything they need to be successful. We think that traditional brokers—and maybe franchises—will not be around in about 10 years. We are offering a technology platform with better service at a lower cost.

  Gregory Charlop: Do you have any physical locations or offices?

  Tamir Poleg: No. We thought about that at the beginning, but we understood that, in the past, physical locations were one of the brokers' assets. Everything happened around the office: if you as a buyer or seller needed information, you had to come to the office; if you wanted to sign a paper, you had to come to the office. Everything was happening around the office and fax machines. There were no emails, no smartphones. But as technology progressed, the office became more of a liability than an asset to the brokers. When we looked at it, we decided that it doesn't really make sense for us to open offices everywhere. Instead, we can take those savings and give it to our agents by charging a lower split. This is what we decided to do.

  Gregory Charlop: When you say the office became a liability to the broker, do you mean that the office became a fixed cost that the broker had to cover, and then they have to make that up by charging the agents more?

  Tamir Poleg: Exactly. If you ask brokers about their expenses, about 50 percent of the expenses go to either rent or maintaining the physical space. It doesn't make sense to spend so much money on physical locations because customers do not need it anymore. Nobody wants to drive to visit your fancy or not-so-fancy office. On the other hand, a lot of people also thought: "Hey, the office provides me the opportunity to create social relationships with other agents and to engage." But I think the technology demonstrated that you don't need to be physically
close to somebody to feel close. You look at Facebook and other social media. They provide you the opportunity of creating relationships without being physically close to somebody. I think technology today is ripe enough to provide you an alternative to a physical location when it comes to social engagement and productivity.

  Gregory Charlop: If you don't have a physical location, a corner location on a busy street, how would customers find your agents? In other words, how do your agents acquire new customers?

  Tamir Poleg: Studies show that about 90 percent of home buyers and home sellers today are starting their process online. To market yourself, you have to have some online presence. We thought about it quite a lot and asked ourselves, "Okay. How do we help our agents obtain more clients and have an offline aspect to it?" You need to have the door hangers and flyers and brochures—all those physical things. But I think we can provide an edge with an online presence and digital marketing. Agents do not know how to spend money online, they don't know how to measure ROI. Today, we also cover the offline aspect. So, if someone wants to order business cards, yard signs, brochures, or anything else, they do it through our app.

  We also cover the online aspects of it. Agents can define how much they want to spend online every month, and we actually spend it for them. We optimize it for them. We help them create business pages on Facebook. At the end of the day, agents are not digital marketers. We decided that we will do it for our agents instead of them paying somebody else. I think that the offline aspect of the business will gradually decrease and the online importance will only increase.

  Gregory Charlop: Do you think that most home buyers or home sellers today care much about what real estate company their salesperson works for?

  Tamir Poleg: I think in most states they do not care at all. People don't care who your broker is; they care about you, the agent. They want to know that you helped a friend buy a home. They want to know you through social engagement. They want to receive content from you. They want to see your face on yard signs. This is how people evaluate an agent, not through who the broker is. Obviously, there are exceptions, maybe in the high-end market, maybe in New York, but in average America, people couldn't care less who your broker is.

  Gregory Charlop: What type of real estate agents are most likely to work for an internet real estate firm? In other words, do you expect it to be more of the top, already successful agents who have large client bases looking to save commission? Or do you think it will be newer agents who like technology and are just trying to keep their startup costs low?

  Tamir Poleg: I think that everybody would be attracted to it. It would be a mistake to think that in 10 years the market is going to look the same as it looked 10 years ago. The moment agents understand that, they would start asking themselves, "Okay. How do I adapt my own business to how the market is going to look in five years? In 10 years?"

  There's a long food chain. The consumer pays a commission to an agent, then the agent has to pay a broker, and then the broker often has to pay a franchise. Today, consumers are telling us that they do want the experience of working with an agent, but they want it at a lower cost.

  I would bet that somebody along the way would have to give up something. I think that agents are not going away, brokers are not going away. I think that franchisors will need to disappear at some point because consumers are requesting a price reduction, and the agents and brokers wouldn't be able to sustain the franchise cost.

  The best-producing agents are feeling fine where they are. They probably have good terms with their brokers, and they're afraid of making any serious change in their business. So, at this moment, the top producers are not likely to join a technology-powered real estate brokerage. I think that beginners are likely to join a company that can train them hands-on for the first year or so. Anyone in the middle would be attracted to a model like ours. I can tell you that the average age of a Real agent is 41, and that's way below the national average. I would say, anyone who's been practicing real estate for about a year knows what they're doing. They know how to write a contract, how to engage with clients. They have some deal flow. And they understand that they're paying their brokers too much and they make too little. They understand the market is changing, and they need to be more responsive and take care of their online presence. Those folks would be attracted to a brokerage like ours.

  Chapter 4: Virtual Assistants and Chatbots

  Use these powerful tools to engage clients, win business, and improve your quality of life

  Real estate is all about seizing the moment. Act fast and sign that prospect. Take too long, and that commission check will land in your competitor’s pocket.

  Beyond the competition, you need to respond immediately to catch a potential prospect when they’re in the right frame of mind: when they’re thinking about real estate. Darren Johnson, CEO of lead-generation firm AgentZip, said they send leads to agents in under 2 seconds. He recommends that agents contact the leads immediately. Delay, and the prospect will switch gears. They’ll move on from thinking about houses and start searching for lunch, dreaming about shoes, or watching a movie. You need to engage the prospect at the exact moment they’re thinking about real estate.

  But, how can you be everywhere all at once?

  Even more vexing, how can you be everywhere 24/7 and still maintain a life, see your family, exercise, eat, read, and sleep?

  The short answer is, you need a team. Welcome to the world of virtual assistants and chatbots. With these remarkable virtual tools, you’ll accomplish more, follow up on leads immediately, and make your life easier—all while spending less time and money. These tools can help you do it all:

  ● Respond to prospects the second they message you, dramatically improving the probability they’ll hire you as their agent. Most people hire the first agent they interview.[49] You want to be that first agent.

  ● Chatbots will take all the customer’s info and can even start their home search, impressing your prospect.

  ● Chatbots will screen out prospects who don’t match your market segment.

  ● Chatbots are ALWAYS on the job! They don’t get sick, take vacations, or hit the bars on Friday night.

  ● Virtual assistants can do almost any task for your real estate business.[50]

  ● VAs will do the stuff you don’t want to do.

  ● Busy now? Add some VAs to your team. Slowing down? Reduce or eliminate your VAs. They’re flexible!

  ● Don’t know how to edit videos, use the newest CRM, or update your website? Your VA does! It’s easy to find a VA to do or teach almost any skill.

  How do they work? They allow you to be in more than one place at a time!

  Imagine this. It's a Monday morning and you are an office of one. James, a prospective buyer, visits your website and is excited about that pricey home you’re selling downtown. Your chatbot screens him, reviews your calendar, and makes an appointment for you and James to meet at the property at noon. At the same time, Isabella, a prospective seller discovers your optimized Facebook page and wants to meet you. Your bot screens her and schedules tea with her at 4 pm.

  Meanwhile, your virtual assistants are preparing documents, arranging pest inspections, and hounding the appraiser to finally deliver that report you requested last week.

  And you? You’re enjoying breakfast and a leisurely cup of coffee at home with your family. Life is good.

  Even with a one-person shop, you can get everything done, convert more leads with quick responses, and still have time to read bedtime stories to your kids—thanks to your friendly virtual assistants and chatbots. The trick is creative outsourcing.

  What are virtual assistants?

  Virtual assistants (VAs) are licensed or unlicensed professionals who work remotely. They work from their home or in a large office, often in other countries. Those folks can handle all kinds of tasks including internet marketing, lead generation, CRM and database management, office automation, transaction coordination, filing p
aperwork with the MLS, and hounding those pesky contractors.

  You’ll be surprised by all of the stuff they can do. Not only can VAs perform routine tasks that you don’t like, but they can teach you stuff you never knew. For example, you can hire a VA to set up and maintain your Facebook business page, even if you have no knowledge of Facebook. They can help move you off of your old spreadsheet and onto a much more useful CRM. In fact, you can find a VA to handle almost any task—no matter how technical.

  I asked Kim Hughes, CEO of virtual assistant firm Kim Hughes & Company, what a VA can do. She said, “A virtual assistant that specializes in real estate can do just about anything for an agent. An assistant can act as an agent’s business manager by running the entire business for them or can just do one or two tasks. For example, an assistant can handle an agent’s bookkeeping, build their website and manage it, market listings, work as a transaction coordinator, create your daily office procedures, create those systems that go with the daily business, and more.

  A virtual assistant can help agents perform 99 percent of the details of handling a listing. They can make the phone calls, advertise, prepare the direct marketing, internet marketing, and input the listing into the MLS, with restrictions.”

  Why should you waste your time doing that kind of stuff? Focus your attention on the important tasks that only you can do, like negotiating deals and meeting new clients. Every minute you spend doing routine tasks that can be outsourced is a minute you’re not developing your business, sleeping, spending time with family, or exercising. Focus on the important stuff!