Before becoming a top 1% real estate broker, J. Maggio was a successful futures trader honing his analytical skills that he uses today in his real estate practice. This year, 100% of his business came directly from referrals. In our conversation, J. discusses how and why his listings go under contract 90 days sooner and for 5% more than the market average in Chicago. His uncanny ability to evaluate home values and marketability results in ecstatic clientele who purchase and sell homes fast. Learn how he does it!
J. Maggio can be reached at 312.450.0012 and j.maggio@compass.com.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:15
Hello and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the only podcast made by Chicago real estate brokers for Chicago real estate brokers. My name is DJ Parris. I am your host and guide through the show. Today in just a moment or two, we’ll be interviewing Jay maggio from Columbus, it was a great conversation, you’re really going to love it before we get to J. A couple of quick things. If every listener out there would think of just one other realtor if you’re a realtor, and that you think could benefit from hearing from top 1% producers like Jay and the 75 or so other top producers that we’ve interviewed. Please feel free if you can think of just one of those people to pass this podcast along that would essentially double our listenership, which is already growing and has grown since the very first episode, but we would appreciate it that would open up more opportunities for us. So thank you in advance for sharing it with a friend. Also, please subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play. You can find links directly to those on our website, keeping it real pod.com. And lastly, follow us on Facebook also find us by keeping it real pod and we post out links to all of our episodes, as well as other information about the show and about our guests. So again, thank you we are coming into the holiday season. So we’ll continue to make these episodes we appreciate you continuing to listen and onto our interview with Jay Maggio.
Jay maggio is a former futures trader at Chicago’s Mercantile Exchange and the Board of Trade. Jay credits his trading acumen where he honed his analytical skills to his success as an agent. Over the past two years, the majority of Jays listings have sold in their first week on the market for their asking price or more. Jay enjoys being a real estate counselor for his clients helping them to understand everything there is to know about buying and selling he has ranked consistently among cars, top producers and has been honored as an app properties road Rolex recipient, his business is built almost entirely on referrals. And he’s at Compass currently, he began his real estate career in 2010, with a focus on Chicago’s downtown neighborhoods. As his clients families grew and started to leave to go to the suburbs he expanded his focus to include western suburbs where he also specializes. He lives in the western suburbs with his beautiful supportive wife and their four amazing children. He believes in treating everyone like family as he does and giving back to others to involvement with charitable causes like one tale at a time and Charles Tillman’s Cornerstone Foundation. Welcome, Jay Maggio. We really appreciate your your time.
J. Maggio 3:05
Well, thanks for having me.
D.J. Paris 3:07
Yeah, no, thank you. And a couple of things. I definitely I definitely want to get to how quickly you sell homes, because that is unbelievably impressive. But before we get there, I want to hear the sort of origin story or at least I know, our listeners would like to hear how you went from sort of trader to real estate broker? Can you mind sharing that story with us?
J. Maggio 3:25
Sure. Why am I doing this? So when I started traded right out of college, it was like this opportunity. I was like, Alright, I’m going to do it lasted six years, and I just, I guess I got burnt out staring at a computer screen clicking a mouse and, you know, frying my brain every day. So I spent the next nine months in a sales job got married, found out that we were expecting our first and then was approached by actually the real estate agent that helped me buy my first condo in the city and he was more or less interested in to see if I wanted to get into the business kind of work with him, he was going to be moving out of out of the out of state and then wanted to kind of have some sort of way to sort of transition his business to somebody that he knew insurance. And, you know, I always respected how he got business by referral. I had sent him a bunch of referrals. So I you know, I, the timing of it was look, I didn’t like my job, I wanted something that I kind of could create and had unlimited upside with relatively, you know, reasonable risk, if you will. And, you know, I kind of jumped on it. But you know, the funny thing is it was 2000 I got my license December of 2000 No amazing dozen times a year and I and I did it full time with you know, no other income and my first kid and that was you know, an adventure in itself. So I I like to say I learned at probably the hardest time to sell real estate which I credit. You know, some of the successes that I’ve had would you know, in the last five or six years as the more gets recovered fully. And, you know, transition. It’s, I think you build good habits when things are tough. And you know, and you and you learn how to, you know, have tough conversations with people. I mean, this is a highly emotional experience. And I think that’s part of the reason why, although it might sound crazy why I enjoyed doing this, because you know, people need an advocate, I mean, people need to sort of understand, you know, what’s involved in the buying and selling of their primary residence. And that kind of break it down to, you know, something that you know, where you cut the emotion out of, it’s like, okay, is this, this makes sense for us? Yes. Or no, like, whatever, you know, what are we trying to get? You know, Jack, you know, get to what’s your objective?
D.J. Paris 5:40
Yeah, I think that’s true. And obviously, it’s true, because of it’s worked, obviously, for you. Tell us a little bit about the trading background? And how that transition? Like, how did that skill set move over into working directly with buyers and sellers?
J. Maggio 5:57
Well, I think, you know, there’s the analytical, yes. Right, like studying markets having to like, you know, anticipate things, and then there’s just the, you know, it’s, I mean, let’s face it, real estate is a commodity, it’s a different kind of commodity. Because, you know, going back to the emotional component, I always joke around, you know, it’s not like a business where somebody looks at and says, Hey, look, I love this ice cream shop, that’s losing 20 grand a month, but I just wanted to have an ice cream shop in my portfolio of businesses, I’m gonna buy, right. So, you know, it’s one of those things where, like, there’s always something that somebody is sacrificing or making a trade off, no matter what their budget, and, but it’s just highly, you know, you might have one or two people involved, you might have three or four, depending on, you know, somebody’s family dynamics, where, you know, they’re making these decisions. So, piecing it all together, you kind of have to react, you know, you have to kind of analyze things like I would, you know, when I was trading and studying different markets, but then there’s that, you know, you at the end of the day, you say, look, I mean, there’s potentially, you know, one or more buyers, and potentially one or more sellers, for any given transaction, you know, that somebody’s in and, and just how to, like, read the situation, and it’s helped him, really, it helps him negotiate sure, you know, just kind of knowing, you know, you just you do enough of these deals and work with enough people, you know, what the other side feels like, like, no, like, anytime you’re gonna deal, it feels like the other side has the upper hand, if you go back, and you’re kind of remember, like, oh, wait a second, I remember when those sellers were super emotional and freaking out that we hadn’t responded in two hours. So you just, you’re able to leverage both sides of it. And I, you know, I just think there’s a lot of, you know, parallels with, you know, any, any, you know, futures stock, whatever kind of market where, you know, you have to know who’s you know, who the players are, who’s involved, and what the tendencies are of, whatever that commodity is.
D.J. Paris 7:48
Yeah, you know, and I also want to make sure the audience knows that, and you have a number of different designations, but one of those is certified negotiation expert, I’ve always thought I’m not a producing broker myself, but, but I’ve worked with a lot of here at our firm, and obviously, Compass has, has a lot of brokers too. And but I’ve always surprised, I would think that would be if I were producing like one of the better, more useful skills to have I know, if I was out there interviewing realtor to sell my place, or buy a home, I would say, I’d rather have the person that has that, that, you know, those initials, the See, how have you found that to be helpful in your negotiations?
J. Maggio 8:29
Oh, sure. I mean, you know, listen, any specialization or extra designation, you could get, I think, is always, you know, is attractive from, you know, the consumer standpoint. And I, you know, I just always believe in sharpening the sword, like every transaction, you know, I tell, I tell newer agents, like, you know, agents on my team, like, look, you know, you just have to do it, right, like, everyone gets so worried about, like, what do you say to this person? And how do you fill out a contract and all these little things that I suppose nine years into it? I’ve taken for sure. You know, I really think it’s like, every deal, you know, you just learn something, right. And, you know, it goes back to those like, you know, there’s an there’s all these parties involved and you in, they all have different objectives, different personalities, different emotional makeups. And you just, you get info you’d like you’re constantly, you know, getting access to people and knowing how people react and that just helps you for the next one, and then the next one, and then the next one. And, and quite frankly, like as agents, you know, a lot of agents talk too much. Like, they want to tell us all the shots, which is so real, like, I tell my clients, like look, I don’t want to get on the phone and talk to another agent and and give away that you need to keep it like an email or text or whatever. It makes it better for us because then they’re not like asking me like, oh, what’s your, you know, like, you know, your clients going through a divorce or some other weird life situation that could give them any sort of leverage. And I’m just amazed how many agents are just willing to share things that I mean, quite frankly, by the license of our law, you know, or excuse me, the law of our license is, you know, confidential.
D.J. Paris 9:59
Yeah. I am sure Well, you know, realtors love to talk and, and just it’s part of part of the sales, the nature of, you know, being in this business, and for sure they’re giving away information. So I, I’m really, you know, I think, Gosh, we’ve done well, this is I think this will be our 78th episode. So we’ve interviewed a lot of top producers, I don’t think anyone has ever talked about this, the idea of hate counseling their clients on how to, you know, keep, keep the cards close to the vest, which is what you what it really is what your job is to do anyway. But I love that you actually think about that consciously, instead of just, you know, getting the deal closed is like, how do you actually do the very best job for your clients, which include making sure that you’re not, you know, giving things away, by having extraneous conversations with the other the opposing party, or the cooperative opposing party, we’ll call it?
J. Maggio 10:52
Well, there’s like a junior grayer, right, and it’s like, some pizza, like, there’s just things that no one needs to know. And it doesn’t hurt them from not knowing. And I think that’s really important. In a negotiation where, you know, you’re trying to get either the most money for a seller or, you know, the, you know, get the best price for a buyer or a set of terms. And if there’s anything in the slightest way, the compromises. Sure, right. I mean, it’s just not, I’m not sharing and, you know, like, if I get anything in return, you know, that helps us frame a much better negotiation and getting things and there’s, and everyone always thinks is just price, and it’s probably 85% of it. But there’s other little things like maybe a more stress free move out time, right? Sure, you know, just other little things that somebody else may value that you don’t like, but you know, it’s you just have to know what those things are, and hit on them. And, you know, find the right, you know, pain points for the other side. And we’ll go from that.
D.J. Paris 11:50
Yeah, and I want to give, I want to make sure the audience is aware of this as well, because this is really, really super impressive. Aside from Jay, being a top 1% producer, and you can look at his listings he has a lot of homes he is currently selling that are very impressive, in his business, obviously, is very impressive. But in addition to all of that, there’s a couple of stats that are really super impressive. And so everyone needs should perk up right now, because I want to hear more about any sort of ideas you have on why why how you’re able to achieve this. But on average, your average contract is 90 days faster than the market average, which is absolutely incredible. So that’s so super impressive. But then also your closing prices are an average $16,000 More than the market average. So again, I don’t know how much of this you, you, you know, you would say is because of your negotiation expertise, or your animal analyzing the deal. But can you talk a little bit more about why you think you’re able to achieve that?
J. Maggio 12:56
Sure, I mean, I think, you know, I, you know, I love statistics. And I, you know, I dig a lot when I’m, like, you know, putting together a market analysis for a seller, but I honestly like, I mean, there’s a couple things. One is, you know, price price, the prices have been right from the start more often than not, and I believe that as agents, most of them, I mean, like, if we’re doing it right, the most, most of our work is done before we even like put in listing on the market, right? Like, we’re telling our sellers, like, Hey, this is what you need to price it at this is you know, how we need to position it, you know, this is how it needs to, you know, look when it, you know, appears on somebody’s computer or on their phone or wherever they’re looking for properties. And so all of this legwork upfront, right to get you in the best position to sell it. And then if that’s done, more often than not, you’re gonna have better results, which typically means selling it quicker for more money. I mean, you can statistically prove that and I and I talk to clients all the time I go look, every realtor is going to tell you like, the faster you sell, like the, the you know, the more you’re gonna get in, you know, okay, that’s great. I mean, but I want to know, is it provable? And I’ve been, you know, for five years, every single listing I’ve taken as we’ve gone through this exercise, like homes that have sold without dropping their price once always get more money. If you know, as a percent of the you know, the shortlist price than one have to do one or more price drops. So I think that’s part of it, you know, obviously, you know, pricing it right from the start and the other part of it too and, and this is kind of crazy to say but I’ll tell anyone you know, any other agent, any new agent is like, I don’t have to, like work with every single seller that I you know, that wants to work for me. Like I can say no. And quite frankly, I will say no if we’re not aligned on price, let alone other things, right. Like if I don’t like I always say look, I mean, any client gets sort of like, you know, a very high level of access to me for the period of you know that we’re working together, right? Like you can call me text me you know, you’ve got like a pretty straight, you’re not talking to an assistant or somebody on my team and then you’re getting me you get my dream decline, if you will. And in so in exchange for that, like, I expect, you know, you know, like, we have to be on the same page, right, like, I’m not going to just let anybody have that sort of, you know, invasiveness, you know, in a good way. But, you know, so, you know, and that’s, and I think that’s part of it is like being able to say, look, look, if we’re not on the same page about how you need to get your place ready, and how you need to price it. And, you know, I don’t think there’s a point of working together, because I don’t really want to have to call you every week to tell you like, hey, we didn’t have any showings this week, it’s still overpriced. Or, hey, no one likes the fact that the hardwood floors are completely destroyed by your dog or that it smells funny, whatever the thing is, right, the things that we can control, we only have a couple of levers in, in the control process that we can pull on price is usually the biggest one. And sometimes it’s the one you have to pull to overcome certain obstacles. But you know, if we’re, if we get off on the wrong foot, it’s not going to be a good experience for either one. And I don’t want that I’ve taken listings like, that I shouldn’t have taken and they’re too expensive, or they’re just not, they’re not what they should, right. And I don’t have any business trying to sell something like that. And so I think being selective, you know, on who I work with, in from a, you know, like, if we’re not on the same page, I think that’s a big part of it. And it’s not like it’s cherry picking, it’s just like, look, you know, you have a you have a goal, I want to help you achieve that goal. And this is how we do it. And if we’re on the same page, that we’re both going to be happy, right? I want to sell it for more money I get, you know, we all get paid more. Sure. Sure. So
D.J. Paris 16:30
how often do you have to have those conversations where the owner of this is on a list the listing side, of course, the owner might say, well, let’s try it at $75,000 More, whatever that number is to them that would sort of their pie in the sky. Hey, who knows what will happen? And then, you know, you say you don’t, you’d prefer not to drop prices. And you’d rather start out with something, you know, can sell. How often do you have to have those conversations that are those difficult? Or I you said, you know, you’re obviously willing to walk away from a client where you’re not on the same page. But is that is that a common thing? Because obviously, sellers are emotional about the value of their home?
J. Maggio 17:06
Oh, yeah. I mean, I mean, it happens. I mean, it almost happens every right. Sure. Of course, you know, and I think, you know, and I think it’s okay. And I think when I was new, and you know, very green, I would have had, like, you know, like, okay, sure, well, you know, like we have a desire to please but I think, you know, it’s easier to have these conversations now. Because they’re gonna go like, look, I can give you like, five examples of every time I like acquiesced to this, and it didn’t work. And then everyone’s mad. And there are situations, though, that you can get away with being I say, like, you can get away with being sloppy on pricing, right? Like, if you’re in a super constrained market, from an inventory standpoint, you know, the, you know, there’s just times where, like, look, you can, you can have, like, you know, a crummy looking place, but it’s in such a desirable area, and it’s, you know, priced appropriately, like, you’re still gonna get a bunch of interest. So, you know, there’s times where you can get away with it. And I also believe in you know, there’s like pricing tiers, too, and I can’t take credit for this. I you know, Mario Greco. Yeah, pretty sure was in Chicago, and, and I watched, you know, like, it could have been like a video podcast of him talking about, there’s these price tiers, and I fully believe in it, and it’s like, you know, if you’re shopping under 500,000, New Year in kind of every $25,000 increments, right, like, no one’s sitting on their, you know, computer in their underwear in the middle of night, looking at homes on Zillow, you know, up to 487, right? Like, no one stops there, either at 475 or 500. And so I always tell people, like, Look, if you’re priced at for, you know, 47 or 49, you’re missing everyone who’s priced that who’s like, you know, search stops at 475. Like, I just believe you have to be at the sort of like bookends, if, and if you’re not missing people like to me, like, flick 479 is like the dumbest price. And it makes zero sense. Like you, everyone knows that you will give up $4,000 For the right, right, exactly. And so you’re just gonna sit there for $4,000 blind, if you will. So, I just so like, those conversations are easier to have, as you know, you have more experience, you have more knowledge, you just, you know, just it’s all about confidence and how to sell homes. It’s not, it’s not rocket science, it’s more of it’s just being able to tell people like look, I you know, like, this isn’t gonna work. And I and I, if you want to go another direction on price at high, that’s okay. And I’ve seen it you know, where you don’t get the listing because they you know, want to go with someone who thinks it’s worth more than it does right now. And it is what it is.
D.J. Paris 19:38
Yeah. And you’re right. And that’s why it’s so interesting. So being that we do have listeners I believe, who are newer to the business from what the Fed the emails that come in, and you are somebody who did it full time out of the gate. New Family is starting at the same time, which is not easy to do any of those things. How often It’s so sad. And by the way, in one of the worst times of the market, so like all of that together is a perfect combination for failure in most cases. In your case, it obviously didn’t work the other way. So can you tell just a little bit about, you know, you talked about building great disciplines during that initial time? What did you do in your first year? Not production wise, but what did you do to stay? You know, moving forward? Like, what were your activities? Do you remember from nine years ago?
J. Maggio 20:25
Well, I mean, I think, you know, as guilty as any new agent is, you know, you do a lot of things that you learn, don’t necessarily produce the results you want, right, you meet random people and properties, like in the middle of the night, in neighborhoods, you’re not even familiar with, you know, you, you do a bunch of a, you know, you meet a bunch of people like that want to look at rentals that are also looking at drugs listed doing all these other things, and you kind of run around a little bit, you know, like a chicken with its head cut off. But you, you just kind of learn. I mean, it’s all people, right? It’s all relationships. I mean, the one thing that I’ve done consistently over almost a decade now is just try to stay top of mind with the people that know me, and then, you know, build, build a confidence in them, like, look, this is our go to real estate expert, right? Like it just no matter what, this is off the keys the person, like if we ever have real estate questions we ever need anything we call and so it takes discipline of, you know, you know, marketing and staying top of mind and sending out emails and postcards. And, you know, cubs Sox magnets, right, we all do it. But I like, to me, it’s like, if I don’t do those little things, right, like quarterly check ins, and you know, just little things like, you know, anniversaries and birthdays and stuff like that, you know, just stuff that normal people that have a genuine care for people do, you know, it’s easy to, you know, you you get sidetracked and it might not be the sexiest thing in the world to like, write 400 handwritten notes, like in the third quarter, you know, when you’d rather go play golf, or whatever you want to do, but you just do it. And, and that’s the thing, like I told my agents all the time, like, you just have to, like, you know, start small, right? Like there’s, you have a bunch of friends, you’ve got family, you’ve got people that you’ve worked with it to some capacity. And you’ve got, you know, people that know you Right, right, stay top of mind to that, tell them that you’re in real estate, tell them why you’re doing and tell them what you’re focusing on and like, just be there for them. Right? And then you just check in. And it’s not, it’s not painstakingly hard. And so I just have maintained a discipline to doing that. And it’s just the stories that I can tell you just how it works out. I mean, like, I just got an email yesterday from some agent that said, Hey, your clients came by my open house, they seem to really like it. And you know, just kind of curious, you know, can you give me some feedback? I was like, I don’t, I don’t know who was looking at neighborhood at that price point. I know, some past clients around that own a house in Old Town and are maybe thinking about moving. But like they just gave him my name because they didn’t want to be bothered by him. And they knew like if and when they do you know what I mean? Like, it’s just, it just happens, like and I and that’s fine. I don’t need you to call me and tell me you’re going to open houses I you know, I always say like, look, I don’t care where you’re looking at properties. If you’re using like Redfin, or Zillow, or anything like, people make such a big deal. I just care that you call me when you’re making a real estate does.
D.J. Paris 23:16
That’s it? Yeah. And it Yeah, it was funny. I just know, I think I think you’re right, I’ll give you I have two quick stories I thought you’d appreciate. So this just happened to me. So I think about it. Now I have to be careful how I make sure I yeah, I can say so. I was like it’s not anything negative. I just want to make sure it wasn’t gonna hurt anybody’s feelings. But I just got a call from Joel who does our podcast, he’s a guaranteed Rachael shop. Anyway, super nice guy. And in anyway, he’s nice enough to come on once a month talks about rates and whatever. And Joel is just the nicest guy ever. And he called me up a couple of weeks ago. And we’ve just sort of started building a friendship in the last, you know, three or four months really. And Joel, I liked it a lot. And he called me up just recently, and he’s like, Hey, and I was like, Oh, hey, you know, I was thinking, maybe we need to schedule another podcast episode with you. He’s like, no, no, I was just calling to see how you were doing. And he’s like, What do you do for the holidays? What are you doing for you know, for Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc? And so I told him, and he goes, Yeah, I was just checking in, you know, and that was it. Just wanted to see all right, I’ll talk to you later. And we had not really had that kind of, you know, conversation before, it was always more about the podcast or whatever. And I realized I’ve had mortgages before and my mortgage, I’ve had several mortgage people over the last 15 years. Nobody has ever called me Joe’s not even my mortgage guy, but he’s, nobody’s ever called me just to check it. You know, and I think it’s somebody like you were saying, Well, you you know birthday cards and you you know, write personal notes and you give people call it I don’t know that most brokers do that. I don’t think most mortgage brokers do it real estate brokers, insurance, whoever, financial advisors and I think like it’s always the little things and obviously you’re doing a lot of Big things too. But I think it’s really important to like for the listeners to hear these little things are really, really important. You know, staying staying in touch.
J. Maggio 25:09
Yeah, I mean, it goes back to the fact that this is highly emotional. So like, not only do you want somebody who’s competent and successful and knows the market and knows the area and the type of property, right, like, It specializes in that. But you also want somebody that, like, I think genuinely assures, and you know, like, appreciate, you know, like, what it’s going to be like, being in their shoes. I mean, I’ve sold two of our homes now, in the last five years, six years, and we you know, like, each time we either had, you know, we had two kids the first time we sold our house, and then the next house, we had four kids, right? And it’s a pain. Now these are houses, like a two bedroom condo. And so like you’ve got a you know, get the house ready and clean for a showing, and then you gotta get out for an hour. And like, you know, and like even my wife who like, obviously knows what I’m doing. She’s like, I don’t understand these people. And like, listen, and happens all the time. It’s statistical, right? Like, if we just say, hey, it’s five o’clock, and our kids gotta take a nap. We’re not gonna show you it. I mean, what if that’s the one, right? I mean, like, you gotta like, put yourself in the best odds. So, you know, I completely appreciate it. And so like, when I, you know, talk to sellers, I was talking to somebody yesterday, I was like, look, I mean, you’re gonna have to get a storage unit, put a right choice there, and it’s gonna be uncomfortable. But I’ve, I know how to do it, like, I can coach you. And like I say, it’s like, the, it’s like, it’s the real estate diet, right? You’re gonna have to, like literally, and, you know, in terms of your stuff, and your, you know, your kids stuff, and whatever. And there’s tricks to doing it that make it easy. And I, you know, like, and I’ll give you everything, right, like, I know how to do it. And I’ve done it personally. So I, you know, I can tell you like, it actually pays, you know, to do it. Yeah.
D.J. Paris 26:45
And I think you know what, I actually have a question for you. So what advice would you have, for somebody new to the business, who already knows, you know, you had mentioned, obviously, building your business through your existing sphere of influence, and making sure people didn’t forget that you’re now a realtor, and making sure they knew how to help you. But in addition to that, you know, your and your analyzation skills are obviously very impressive. And learning the markets you mentioned earlier, as well, like, you have to know your market. What advice would you have as far as how people could develop those skills, like learning the market, and, you know, just getting better at analyzing deals?
J. Maggio 27:26
Um, I mean, just, I mean, the numbers are there, right? Like, we have access to all this data. And I think like, if you’re, I mean, like, I truly believe, like, you need some kind of mentor, or coach or somebody that’s done it before, to kind of help you because there’s so much noise, right? Like, hey, you should sign up for this and get these leads and all this stuff. And this is so great. Here’s a cool Facebook page. I mean, like, you can literally go to my Facebook business page, and I don’t know if I’ve posted on it, right, like, and I don’t care like no one’s gonna work with, right, because like, oh, he doesn’t post enough to his Facebook business page. Like he didn’t take enough pictures with his past clients at the closing table, holding keys, you must not be doing you no good at a job. Find these things. I mean, like, endless. There’s plenty of cool agents that I know that do it. And that’s fine. But like, I’m not gonna be like, held accountable, like my website, like, great. So I don’t have like this really great, engaging, search engine optimized website like that also does not change how somebody will tell you that just like,
D.J. Paris 28:22
you know, are you really going to beat out Redfin and Zillow for any you know, real search? No, I don’t. Right, right. Exactly. Yeah.
J. Maggio 28:30
I don’t have the time. But that’s the other thing, you also have to decide how much business is enough. Right? Right. Like, you know, like, we only there’s only one of me, and I could, I suppose build this grand team and pass out leads, but I kind of like being able to work one on one with the people that hired me. So, you know, and that there’s a bandwidth or, you know, thing that that goes there and I’m happy to like, you know, know, my, my limits and, you know, not take, you know, bite off more than I can chew. But I think like, you know, just terms of like, getting to the market is like, you know, kind of focus on some areas like, key, you know, go look at houses, open houses, most open houses, or other brokers, you know, like, there’s plenty of opportunity without doing business to, you know, to stay active and keep your mind sharp. And, and I think like, again, it comes back to like, you want people to know what you do. And they’re inevitably gonna go like, Oh, hey, how’s the real estate market? And
D.J. Paris 29:22
have a couple have something to say to them? Yes.
J. Maggio 29:26
You know, like, there’s a ton of fake it till you make it that, you know, I’m sure it’s, I’m not this is not the only profession or that can be true, but I just know, like, you know, just know enough to have a robust conversation about it. If somebody like asked you while you guys were standing around watching a football game or whatever.
D.J. Paris 29:43
Yeah, it was. It was funny. I was thinking about this. This earlier that I was I was lucky, fortunate enough. Zillow invited me to come check out their offices in New York recently, and I got to go see them. And it was really funny because I was in a room and there was a few few other brokers in the room from other parts of the country. And, and the brokers were complaining about these incident the Zestimate and the, the our Zillow contact there said, You should be grateful that our that our estimate is way off because it makes you guys look like heroes when you actually give the you know, the better data. Because if if our estimate was 100% on the money, you know, would that be good for you? And everyone sort of laughed and realized, oh, you know, yeah, we are really valuable to being able to correct information and being really that guide throughout the entire process. But I just thought that was kind of funny. I was like, yeah, it’s actually better that that’s not super accurate, or it’s maybe not as accurate as it could be.
J. Maggio 30:41
Oh, yeah. I mean, I don’t there’s so many things that we get all worked up. And like Zillow, and Redfin, Archer of them, and I just, at the end of the day, like, you know, that’s the best part about working by referral, right? Like you, most of the people that I work with, know me, to some degree from somebody else, right? Or I’ve worked with them before. So it’s not like, you know, and, and listen, the more the merrier, like, the more people that want to get licensed and do this, you know, like, that’s great. I don’t, you know, it’s capitalism, right? Like, everyone wants an opportunity. You know how to do it, but like, it’s funny, like, people go like, Oh, what do you do? And I tell them how I do it. They’re like, Oh, okay. And I want to do that too. And like, nothing’s Right. Like maybe five other people you tell it not even 1% will actually like be willing to, you know, spend the time to like, organize their business. And then, you know, stay on top of SAPA top of mind, because it’s not, you know, it’s not the fun thing. It’s just sexy. It’s not like, Oh, my God, I met this guy who’s open house, and now we’re gonna write a contract, like, Okay, that’s great. But like, the few and far between times that ever happens, like, you’re not developing any rapport with that person, you don’t have a relationship with them. So then, in a year from now, when they’ve been in their home, and somebody goes, Hey, who’d you use? This person? There’s opens both. Yeah, but now so like, Okay, would you use them again, like Lyrica? You know, like, they don’t know anything about you, like, my clients get to know a lot about me, I get to know a lot about my clients. And, you know, it’s, it’s helped build those relationships, I was just kind of doing a business recap. And like, every single deal this year, which is pushing 50 is, you know, somebody that I’ve worked with before, or referral from somebody that I’ve worked
D.J. Paris 32:17
with, and that is, well, and it’s something you’ve earned, obviously. And it’s, it’s really, really impressive, because even the vast majority of the top one percenters that that I talked to, of course, on the show, I’m not sure that most of them, most of them work mostly by referral, but to work, essentially, exclusively by referral is obviously a testament to your abilities. And the impression of course, you left with that previous client. In fact, that’s a really good segue to wrapping up, because if there are any buyers or sellers or renters who don’t know you yet, what’s the best way if they want to work with you? What’s the best way they should reach out?
J. Maggio 32:58
I mean, listen, there’s a I always joke around people like, Oh, is that your cell phone number out there? Is it kind of weird, like, No, I mean, listen, I have like five calls that I don’t recognize the number since. Like, I don’t pick up but like, you know, you know, look, you can look me on my cell phones, 312-450-0012 my emails, Jay at Jay maggio.com, it’s pretty easy to find me if you Google J module real estate, you’ll get you know, a bunch of like, outdated headshots, and other funny things about me. You know, it’s like, it’s not, you know, reach out one way or the other. And, you know,
D.J. Paris 33:31
and by the way, everyone should go to gmail.com. And what that does is it will show you his compass page, but what’s really impressive, aside from all of your accolades is just look at the sheer number of testimonials you have accumulated is, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen more for a single person, honestly, this is it is really impressive. And if you want to know what how somebody is able to work exclusively by referral, read some of these, these these quotes from previous clients. I mean, just kind of be like 100 here, it’s an unreal. So well, you Yeah, well, again, it’s a You’ve obviously done all the work to earn this but it is it’s really something. So anyway, I think with that if you’re if you are a buyer, seller, renter investor, whoever who’s looking for representation, in a real estate transaction, obviously give Jay a call or email, you’ll be the first person he works with, that’s not a referral. So wait, maybe we shouldn’t do that, because that’ll ruin your non teasing of course. Yeah. But anyway, on on behalf of Jane, by the way that this was such a great conversation, and I appreciate your time. I know you are too busy. And by the way, we should mention Jason that this is literally our second attempt, because we had a snafu with with microphones last Friday, so I preach he’s really wasted two hours with me. So I can’t I can’t appreciate it enough. But on behalf of Jay and myself, um We will see you in another week with another episode. If you are new to the podcast. You can find us on iTunes, Google Play Anywhere podcasts are served. And please share this with other brokers in your office as well. Jay, thank you so much for being on the show.
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