Jordan Mott from Intero Real Estate Services in San Jose, a recipient of N.A.R.’s 30 under 30 for 2020, discusses how his business has changed in recent months. During our talk Jordan emphasizes how social media has helped widen his sphere of influence and helps stay in touch with his contact list. He also reveals that distributing flyers to prospective clients’ doors himself every morning at 4am was the key to his early success.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Jordan Mott can be reached at (408) 966-0846 and jmott@interorealestate.com
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
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Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents. And for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show and in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top 1% producer and recent 30 under 30 winner from National Association of Realtors, Jordan Mott, before we get to Jordan, two quick things, please tell a friend this is the best way you can help support our show is by introducing other real estate professionals that could benefit from hearing from interviews from people like Jordan, and let them know about our show, you can always send them over to our website, keeping it real pod.com They can stream every episode we’ve ever done there, or send them to just have them pull up a podcast app and do a search for keeping it real. And they’ll find us so thank you in advance for telling a friend. And the second thing is to please follow us on Facebook, you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pot. Not only do we broadcast live recordings of all of our episodes in real time, so you don’t have to wait for us to produce them. But also we find an article every day that somebody has written designed to help you grow your business and we share it there. So once again, follow us on Facebook facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our interview with Jordan moss.
Okay, today on the show, we have Jordan mined with intero, which is a real estate firm in San Jose, which is also part of Berkshire Hathaway. Now, if you’re not familiar with Jordan, you absolutely should be because he’s absolutely crushing it. He’s a Top Producing Realtor in Silicon Valley, who has been in the industry for just over five years. And recently, while he’s been recognized consistently, with being a top 1%, producer of Realtors, not just in the San Jose area, not just in the California State, but actually nationwide. But also in 2019, Jordan was able to close and this is beyond incredible, six over 68 million in transactions. And that’s just him no team. And then more recently, a few weeks ago, Jordan was also named as one of the National Association of REALTORS 30, under 30, which is, you know, an incredible achievement as well. And Jordan continues to grow his business, while providing the highest level of service to all of his clients, please visit Jordan on LinkedIn. So just look for Jordan Martin, that’s m o t t. Also file please follow him on Instagram as well, which is at realtor, Jordan Mott. We’ll be posting links to that as well. Jordan, we are thrilled to have you on the show. So thank you.
Jordan Mott 3:48
Yeah, thank you for having me. Pleasure. Pleasure to be here. And hopefully all the listeners and viewers will be able to walk away some with some positive information that they can use in their businesses moving forward or just in life in general.
D.J. Paris 4:03
Well, that’s That’s great. That’s exactly what we do here. And so we appreciate your your participation, and I know how busy you are. So this is even though we’re all you know, our businesses have changed and certainly our activities have have have changed, at least in the short term. We know just how busy you are, even if you’re not able to be as mobile. So thanks. Tell us a little bit about how you got into real estate.
Jordan Mott 4:27
Yeah, so getting into real estate was not my original plan. I grew up here in the Silicon Valley Bay Area and ended up going back east for college to Penn State University. If there’s any Penn State alumni out there we are.
D.J. Paris 4:44
My brother in law is a Penn State Alumni so we’ll be celebrating
Jordan Mott 4:48
Yeah. And so I went back use them for generation from my dad’s side. So My great grandpa, my grandpa, my dad, my uncle, they all went to Penn State. There wasn’t really a choice at as to where I was going to college. During the winter, I was wondering what I was doing there, instead of being at the beach at San Diego State. And so I originally went to school and was working on getting a criminology degree with the plans to come back home and work for the Santa Clara Police Department as a law enforcement officer. About halfway through school, I decided that that wasn’t what I was going to do anymore. That is not necessarily the safest time, or the best perception around law enforcement. And I didn’t want to put my future wife and kids questioning whether dad was going to come home from work one day in the future. So and I wasn’t gonna go to law school. So now I had this criminology degree. And I’m like, Okay, this isn’t going to do me much. So I picked up a second major in public relations and advertising. I figured that was more broad, and something that I could use with whatever path I decided to take. And then my junior year at Penn State, I had an internship with a real estate developer over in Bangkok, Thailand. And so I was kind of exposed to some of the wealth that he was able to create there and a little bit of background on the industry. And my dad was in property management here in the Silicon Valley for about 20 years before he got laid off in 2008. And so I mean, to be completely honest with you, I looked at home prices back at home and started doing a little bit of research and calculating commissions. And I was like, Okay, that sounds fantastic. So I got home from school and started working on getting my real estate license. And I figured that I was going to in the meantime, I’m getting my real estate license that I would work as a leasing consultant at like an apartment complex, right and get a feel for showing people around property, some contract work. And when I was looking for those jobs, I actually came across the position on Craigslist for a marketing and advertising assistant to two top producing agents. And so it wasn’t going to give me as much hours it wasn’t going to pay me as much as maybe that leasing consultant position. But what I realized was that was going to give me actual firsthand knowledge in to how these people were running their business and be exposed to the industry on a daily basis. So I took that and rolled with that position for about six months when I was working on getting my real estate license and then finally got licensed, I believe it right at the end of 2014 and started hitting the hitting the ground running right from there. So that’s a quick background on that.
D.J. Paris 7:41
That’s a really interesting background. And the idea that not only were you able to go overseas and in turn, you know, to learn learn more about just wealth creation via real estate, and then to be able to shadow some or do marketing for top producers in your local community. Because you know what, what I always think is interesting is sure the price points in San Jose are higher than many other areas, substantially higher than many other areas of the country. However, there’s less inventory to write. So you have lots and lots of agents who are all vying for that business. And we should mention you are under 30, you are having incredible success. You were talking before we started recording if you don’t mind sharing, sharing this if you’d rather keep it private, that we can cut this part out. But I wanted to just could you mind sharing since you’re five years in you did 68 million last year? Can you talk about the progression from from year to year if you don’t mind?
Jordan Mott 8:39
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that, yes, being young and being under 30, I still have a few years until I actually hit 30 that there’s a lot of a lot of conception that if you get into this industry, when you’re young that you’re gonna have a hard time being successful. And that’s just an excuse that I think people use amongst the many that anyone can come up with. So, I mean, one one thought about getting into the real estate industry too was that like, during high school and stuff when we would do fundraisers for our sports teams, or whatever it was like you go door to door selling magazines or cookies or whatever, like, and I always lead the school in those fundraisers, right? And so it was like, okay, is the same thing. We’re just handling someone much bigger asset than selling magazines or chocolate chip cookies. But so my first year in the industry, I did eight deals. My second year I did 12 deals, and then I had a huge breakthrough from year two to year three where I went from 12 to 41. And I did 41 individually with no assistance no back end work which looking back I should have probably hired an assistant before I did but year four then I finally hired an assistant to help More better balanced work life, social life, just life in general. So that increase from 46 to 51. And then last year, or from 41 to 46. And then this past year was 51 transactions. And despite everything that’s going on right now, I’m on track this year to surpass those numbers again. So
D.J. Paris 10:21
Wow. Yeah, you have, I would say the most we’ve interviewed, while we’ve done 160 episodes, I think you have maybe the most impressive numbers? Well, for sure, you have the most impressive numbers for anyone as young as yourself and as new or newer to the industry. So congrats. That’s an incredible achievement. And I’m sure our listeners would love to know how. And you know, feel free to share any any advice? Because you’re right, there are there is a perception of newer agents, especially agents in their 20s struggling because maybe their friends and their sphere of influence, maybe they’re not buying property as of yet. Maybe they’re still renting. So can you talk about what you did to get your business going? What worked for you?
Jordan Mott 11:11
Yeah, so the way that my business is structured today is obviously very different than the way that my business was structured right at the beginning. I think that in this industry, you to get extraordinary results, you have to spend money to make money, which a lot of people are hesitant doing. And that’s obviously not the easiest thing to do when you first get into the industry based off not knowing when your first paycheck is going to come because it’s 100% commission. So what I was doing at the beginning was very cost effective strategies, right, that I primarily focused on building my LinkedIn network at the beginning, because that was, that was the only professional social media site that there really is out there, right. And you can get very specific and very targeted with who you decide to connect to. So the first thing I did was went and search for all Penn State alumni that lived in the Bay Area that work at Google or work at Apple or work at Facebook. And there was some type of common connection there, right, the Penn State Alumni thing. And over a little while I ran out of those people to connect to which I exhausted however many 1000s of alumni there was in the area. And then I realized that the majority of people buying houses were those that worked at these big tech companies here in the Silicon Valley that could afford to purchase homes here. So I went in, I wanted to start a connecting to people that say, used to work at Google that now work at Apple, because I knew something about those people just based off the search criteria that I was using. So once I was connected to them, then I could reach out via direct message and start it with like, hey, it’s pleasure being connected with you here. Looks like you’ve had a great career trajectory up to this point. Looks like you used to work at Apple. And now you work at Google. Which one do you prefer to work at more, and then go into a pitch about myself and see if I could set up a coffee appointment with them. And it was my goal, sending those messages to set out three coffee appointments a week whether someone wanted to buy or sell real estate immediately or not. What I realized was that as amazing of a person as we all think that we are, if someone’s willing to grab coffee with you, there’s a reason, right? I mean, their time is very valuable as well. And for example, like someone reached out to me in response to one of those messages and had just said, Hey, I just bought my condo like three weeks ago, and but I would still love to grab coffee sometime in the future, like first thing you tell yourself is shit, I wish that I would have sent this message four weeks ago, right? And but I don’t like that negative attitude or that perception towards any situation. So I want to grab coffee with him. And he wasn’t happy with the realtor that he used then the way that transaction was handled. And he ended up sending me six referrals over the next year and listing his condo and buying a townhouse with me two years later. So I mean, I think that you just take advantage of any time that people will give you the more people you’re able to put yourself in front of the more opportunity you have to create business. So LinkedIn was a huge part at the beginning. I was also doing open houses every weekend. I like to compare open houses to working on a car dealership most people are not going on to a car dealership what unless they have an interest in purchasing a car. Same thing with open houses and it’s face to face contact where you can connect with people during the time that they’re in house. Right. So that was primarily the first two years was my LinkedIn presence and open houses which my LinkedIn network today is almost 20,000 connections. So there’s still quite a bit of business that comes from there even today, but I’m not done. diligently taking the same approach that I was at the beginning because it’s grown to be so big. But year two to year three, I think was the biggest jump, obviously, from 12 to 41. And what I’ve seen is that the majority of agents at the beginning start as working with buyers, which is just very common, right. And so I wanted to transition my business from working with buyers to being more listing site based. Because a listing is a guaranteed paycheck, if it’s priced correctly, right, a buyer, at least in our marketplace, or sometimes competing with 12, to 15 offers and sometimes, and obviously only ones getting accepted. So sometimes a crapshoot. And so what I realized was that one I started farming, which obviously takes money, but can be done in a cost effective way, which I did was I started dropping flyers, right. Anytime that I started geographic farm, I obviously know that it’s something that needs to be an 18 to 24 month commitment, in my opinion, before I see anything potentially come from it not to say that,
D.J. Paris 16:08
can I pause you for a second, I want to I want to just pause that I want to make really highlight what Jordan just said, which is whatever marketing endeavor you’re going to do. Consistency is everything. And I’ll just give you a short example of what I experienced in the condo building that I live in, in here in River North, which is a somewhat desirable area of the city. So there’s 42,000 agents in insure 44,000 Actually agents in Chicago. And about once a month, I receive a postcard, or a flyer from I probably get three a month from three different agents. So one a month for three, eight, or sorry, one per agent. So I’ve got maybe three pieces of mail. And it’s usually different agents every month, it’s not consistent. There’s one agent that consistently sends a monthly a monthly flyer, and it’s actually quite good. But that is one agent out of 44,000. The rest I get little piecemeal ones, you know, I get one from one agent, I never get another one. And we know from advertising and marketing stats that you need to hear to hit somebody 20 or 30 times at a minimum before it even sinks in what they do. So I just wanted to highlight that that commitment to consistency over several years is definitely the way to go for sure.
Jordan Mott 17:27
Yeah, absolutely. Any type of marketing that’s implemented has to be consistent and persistent in my opinion. And so anytime that I start a new farm, I know that it has to be done for 18 to 24 months before, I’m going to see anything from it. And all my forms get hit every two weeks. It’s not a monthly thing is that every two weeks. So I think I think at this point in time, I have about 7000 to 8000 homes that get hit every two weeks with my marketing material. And I’m actually in the process of pricing out and expanding a new 16,000 Home Farm, which we’ll get hit every two weeks as well. Trying to figure out what to do that in the most cost effective way. But the majority of my farms are dropped with flyers on their doorstep. So that’s a we should
D.J. Paris 18:20
we should mentioned dropped by an individual you’re not paying a mailing service, you’re literally somebody is walking up to that it used to be you now you’ve got some help to do that. But it is a human being dropped, you know, placing something on on the porch itself,
Jordan Mott 18:36
correct at first for until like year four, it was me doing all the flyer drops. So I would get up at 4:30am I go drop 400 flyers at 5am be done by 8am. And already have 500 marketing pieces of material distributed by 8am. I’ll tell you, if you’re dropping flyers at 5am You’ve become very accustomed to who has motion sensors and and who has dogs. So but that was the work ethic and grind that I knew that I had to implement to get the results that I wanted to I think that a lot of people have these desires to reach a certain level of success, but the majority of people don’t want to put in the work necessary to achieve such so that’s how I implemented the farming aspect. But I also realized that every listing that I had, I could leverage that into more transactions and that was probably the biggest breakthrough that I had was that realization and implementing of what I call spot forming around my listings, where anytime I sign a listing, I have 400 flyers dropped in the immediate neighborhood that say coming soon, a little bit of information about the property information about what I what I provide my sellers with and then my name is always the biggest thing on the flyer and I want to clarify why I’m doing for Wire drops in, instead of direct mail or EDDM postcards or any of those things like, it’s very clear to me that my marketing materials going in the trash, I’m not oblivious to that, right. But me just like anyone else, at the end of a long day, they come home, they’re sorting through their mail, if you have a small postcard in the mail, it very quickly goes in the trash can, if it’s not of interest to someone. And if there’s a flyer on someone’s doorstep, it at least has to be picked up, looked at on the way to the trash can and then put in the trash can. That’s why my name is the biggest thing on there so that it resonates with people on the way to take my marketing material to the trash. So that’s the reasoning behind flyer drops, which I have found immense success comparatively to mail.
D.J. Paris 20:49
A quick question before you continue, because I I’m curious to two things. One, is did you ever Were you ever in the process of dropping something physically onto somebody’s porch? And and they happen to be coming in or out at that time, and you were able to have a conversation around real estate? I know you were doing it early in the morning, most cases probably didn’t happen. But did that ever result in a direct business? Like, oh, by the way, who are you? You’re dropping this off? Or was did that never happen? I’m just curious.
Jordan Mott 21:18
Yeah, so probably the bet. I mean, you run into people pretty occasionally, right? Like a lot of times I do it early in the morning, but there was definitely times though do it in an afternoon or on the weekends as well. And once I ran into a guy dropping a townhouse complex flyer, and in he’s like, wow, I really love that. He asked me actually he said, Are you actually Jordan? And I say, Yeah, I am. And he’s like, Wow, I love that you’re actually out here doing this yourself and out pounding the pavement. And yeah, he actually ended up listing a condo with me a couple of weeks later, as a result of that. And people recognize your work ethic, right? So yes, a couple a couple years ago, I was dropping flyers on Easter morning. And they had a little bunny rabbit on it and said Happy Easter, whatever. And before I was even back home after dropping off those flyers. A couple have called me and they said, Hey, we’re thinking about selling our house. Can you meet with us later this afternoon, I was already on the way to my family’s house to celebrate Easter. But long story short, that ended up turning into a $1.6 million listing and then they bought for 2.4 million. So it’s $4 million in transactions. So I mean, that’s $100,000 flyer that you just dropped off, right? And so like, that’s kind of the way that I look at flyers, too, is that every one of those flyers it’s like playing the lottery. You never know when it’s going to hit. But if you do it enough, like you’re gonna get something.
D.J. Paris 22:47
How many? The other question I had. You’re absolutely right. I’m curious, because you certainly have been doing this. Well, how many? How often? Did you ever run into another realtor dropping off flyers like you did on a on a porch?
Jordan Mott 23:02
Very rarely,
D.J. Paris 23:03
I think. What Yeah, okay, there you go.
Jordan Mott 23:06
Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, that that’s a little background on that, but more so I kind of want to get back to the leveraging the listings thing. So anytime that I sign a listing, there’s the 400 coming soon, flyers that are dropped right around the property. Those are also mailed to 200 non owner, or absentee owners that are in the direct radius. So I have the title company poll for 200 addresses of non owner occupied residences, and send those flyers to their mailing addresses as well. And then when we go on the market, the same 400 homes are hit with a invitation to a neighborhood tour, inviting them for wine and appetizers on a Thursday or Friday night. The non owner occupied or mailed with a just listed instead, obviously, because they don’t reside in the neighborhood and it’s a rental property for them. And then we’ll
just listen to information about the property and the transaction, and then two weeks after we close escrow, there’s just a market update that gets dropped. So five times over what’s usually a month and a half to two month period, these people are getting my flyers on their doorstep and my contact information and my name being the biggest thing. And almost always that results in at least another phone call or lead that I’m able to convert to a listing because there’s always going to be a neighborhood expert wherever you want to go and try and do business. But most people don’t care about that most people care about who’s doing what now and what results are they getting and what can they do for me at this moment, right? And so the more you put your name and your brand in front of them on a regular basis that you’re doing business in that neighborhood that come That’s a whole negative, or a whole neighborhood expert rejection, right? So I mean, that was the biggest breakthrough that I had from year two to year three that I still consistently implement these days. And I’ve recently ramped up my non owner occupied mailing, I think that right now with, with financial distress upon people, that people might be more quick to sell their rental properties to bring some income back into them as far as equity and value that they have in those properties. So that’s really what I’ve ramped up on the last couple of weeks during this, this whole unprecedented Shelter in Place time. But I mean, there’s so many different things that you can do to generate business in this industry. But like you had said, it’s all got to be consistent and persistent, right. So there’s different pillars that my business comes from, there’s the farming, there’s the spot farming around my listings, I still obviously do open houses, keep in front of my sphere of influence. And then social media has been a huge one for me between LinkedIn and Instagram, and Facebook, because when I got into the industry, people told me, hey, you need to put together an Excel spreadsheet with your spirit of influence everyone that you know, their addresses, their phone numbers, their emails, like, for some reason, I didn’t feel comfortable reaching out to everyone and asking for that information with the expectation that they were going to get spam or junk email or solicitation from me. But what I realized is that everyone that would have been in that Excel sheet, I was friends with on Facebook, and people spend so much time on Facebook that I could easily soft touch these people on Facebook, with a trajectory of my career and my production and providing value to all those people at the same time that I’m never lost of being thought of as the real estate expert in this area. Right? Just for example, like there’s people that I’m friends with on there that I went to high school with that I haven’t said a single word to in 10 years since graduating high school. And they often reach out to me and say, hey, my parents are thinking about selling their house, would you be willing to help them like those people weren’t going to go and try and find out if Jordan Mott was in real estate, but because of seeing what they see on social media, they know that I’m that trusted expert that they can put their parents in contact with, right. So I mean, you never know where it’s going to come from in that regard. And I think just as far as branding on social media, everything’s got to be consistent, right? Like, every one of my posts on any one of my social media platforms always ends with who do you know of looking to buy or sell real estate in the Silicon Valley slash Bay Area. I’m never too busy for your referrals. And so like that’s become a joke amongst like my circle of friends and people that know me. They’re like, Oh, are you truly never too busy for like, for example, like I coached high school football for four years. And one of the some of the kids followed me on Instagram and stuff. And we were in the weight room lifting one day and one of the kids just stops in the middle of lifting. And he’s like, Hey, guys, I got an announcement for you, coach mots, never too busy for referrals. And I’m like, That’s great. 20 year in advance, prospecting. Don’t Don’t forget that. So I mean, again, it all goes back to that consistent and persistent thing that
D.J. Paris 28:21
we touched on earlier. That’s the, that’s the Brian Buffini line that he, he’s he teaches is always put that at the bottom of your marketing, because I’m never too busy. For your referrals, I actually want to go all the way back just for a moment to make to make a truly compliment. And add on to what Jordan mentioned with LinkedIn. And when he was telling the story, it triggered this. So I apologize for going a little bit out of order. But I just want to let the listeners know that, you know, Jordan was talking about utilizing LinkedIn and connecting with people that he had a common interest or relationship with, which was to say in this case, they went to the same college, he didn’t know that necessarily, probably 99.9% of time, you didn’t go to school with them. But they went to the same school at some point. So I met a realtor. This is like eight years ago, who was not at our firm. He was thinking about maybe joining our firm, it doesn’t matter. He was in a second year. And in his first year he did like 30 sales like absolutely incredible. And I was like, Oh my God, how did you do that? And he was a younger person. I think he was in his late 20s, maybe early 30s. I said, there’s no way that you knew 30 people in your sphere of influence. Did you buy leads? How are you doing? And he goes, No, I didn’t. Because not only did I not know anybody in Chicago, so I’m not even from Chicago. He was from somewhere else. But the way he did it was through LinkedIn. And so he had a very similar strategy to Jordans on was quickly mirror what Jordan said and just tweak it a little. So what this this person did is he went to University of Illinois. So he found all the alumni that had been UVA and obviously, in Chicago, there’s a lot of people and the other thing he did and Jordan did this as well. He found out where they worked, right so we have lots of companies are headquartered here or just wherever somebody were And he would send them a message in LinkedIn. And it would say, Hey, I see that you went to University of Illinois. So did I, in fact, this is my first job out of college. And I’m a realtor now. And I just wanted to reach out to you. And then he would, he would before he would finish the the short message, he would go on to Google and do a search for the company that they worked for under the news section, just to see if there was anything in the news about that particular company. And if he found anything, he would say, by the way, I see your work at Boeing, or McDonald’s or wherever, and I or Walgreens or whoever, and oh, by the way, I just was reading an article that they did this, that’s pretty exciting, you know, hope that whatever. And they would say, Hey, by the way, if you ever need help with your real estate stuff, let me know. And and I said, okay, and he goes, Yeah, that’s all I did. And he said, I would get up every day, I would do that for six hours a day. And that’s literally all he did. And I was I’ve never heard of anyone else doing that. That was eight years ago, until I just talked to you. So I just wanted to honor you for that. And also say, I know another person that did that and had success. So anyway,
Jordan Mott 31:02
yeah, it’s a very, very powerful network. If you use it strategically, there’s no doubt about that. Like I said, it’s pretty much the only professional social media network out there. So I mean, I’ve I’ve known people that have adopted the strategy that I used, and they’ve generated clients from it recently as well. So I mean, I don’t, I think it’s something that’s very cost effective. And you connect with these people, not only if they don’t respond to your original message, but they continue to see what you’re posting over time. And you never, you never know where it’s going to come from, like, just because my network is so big, like, one morning, I woke up to a message from an agent in New York, and he’s like, Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I passed along your information to an agent that works at the same company in me in Texas. And I was like, Okay, thank you, what’s the reason for doing so. And he’s like, I think she has a buyer referral in the Silicon Valley. So just from my LinkedIn presence, my, my, my information went to this agent in New York back to this agent in Texas to this buyer that was relocating to my area, and I had never talked to either these people, but I was just connected with them on LinkedIn. So I mean, you just never know where it’s gonna come from.
D.J. Paris 32:16
Yeah. And I also wanted to ask, and I’m sorry, again, we’re jumping back just a little bit. I wanted, you mentioned doing open houses was also really important, obviously, not just for learning how to talk about real estate to possible buyers, but also for lead generation, too. And I’m curious, how did you go? Did you obviously you work for a firm with 1000s of agents, you guys are a massive, massive firm. Did you just go to agents that had listings and ask them to do showings, or were these your own listings?
Jordan Mott 32:46
Well, at the beginning, I didn’t have listings, right. And so every Monday morning, I would go on the MLS, and I’d look at listings that were listed by our company. And I’d reach out to those agents by 9am on Monday morning, asking if I could hold their open houses for them this weekend, because it’s crazy to believe, but the majority of listing agents do not want to work on the weekends and do their own open houses. But I mean, even if, even if Saturday and Sunday was already taken, I would offer Hey, can I do an hour on a Wednesday or Thursday around lunchtime so that people have the opportunity to come look at it during their lunch hour? Or can I do a couple hours on Thursday or Friday night with wine or appetizers like that, even if like, there was only one person that came through an open house on a weekday, that’s one more person that I was going to put myself in front of and have the opportunity to meet than I would have if I was sitting at my desk in the office, right? So I mean, that was my thought like I could connect to my hotspot, I can do work on my computer at an open house if it’s slow, so why not put myself in a position where there could be potential buyers that come through, even if it’s two or three. I mean, honestly, with our crazy market, there’s some open houses when things are hot, that we have 100 to 125 groups through an open house on a single day. I hate open houses like that you do not have time to connect with everyone, you don’t have time to grab as many contact information as as you would if there’s four or five people coming through or I mean, in a perfect world. For me, it’s probably 12 to 15 groups over three hours because then I can connect with them. But having 100 groups through is not ideal as far as lead gen is concerned and being able to connect with people. So I just wanted to give myself that opportunity to meet one person all that you need to pull pull out of that open house is one lead that closes into something and it was worth your time being there and like I calculated it like if you did if you did an open house at an app in the Silicon Valley at an average price point of a million and you were able to pull one buyer a lead out of there every weekend that closed and that turned into a close friend to action, your gross commission income would be over a million dollars a year, like so. But people don’t want to work weekends, people don’t want to follow up people. I mean, the way that the majority agents conduct themselves at open houses is crazy. Like, I go in open houses just to see how other people handle themselves and what their approaches without knowing that I’m an agent, right? And the majority agents hand you a flyer and they don’t ever say anything to you, again, when you’re in there. What’s the point of being there, like, you’re a glorified flyer, pass her out or at an open house, then I mean, you might as well be a greeter, like, so I mean, you’ve got to build rapport with these people when they’re in there and be able to provide knowledge to them and show that you’re the expert in a 10 to 15 minute period while they’re in the house. And so, I mean, it’s, yeah.
D.J. Paris 35:51
Now that you have listings, I’m curious, are there other agents that will come to you and beg you please, please let me do an open house? Or? Or do you find that most agents never reach out to in the same way you did when you were starting up?
Jordan Mott 36:04
Well, a lot of a lot of agents that I’ve mentored, obviously, are taking the same approach that I did when I began. So I mean, I got a lot of those people that reach out to me. And I mean, a lot of times I have three or four listings, any given weekend, and I can’t be at four places at one time. So I mean, I love to pass that around and help out as many people as I can. And yeah, every so often, agents outside of my little network will reach out to me and but it’s not, it’s not as common as it should be.
D.J. Paris 36:36
Yeah, it probably is shocking to you that you don’t get that 100 other agents, not the people you mentor aren’t begging you every day, hey, I want to do an open house. And yet, that’s that’s what you did. And it grew your entire business. And it’s not private information, you’re publicly sharing this and, and it works for every top agent I’ve ever interviewed on the show. That’s how they started. They did a lot of marketing. And they did a ton of open houses. And they just begged and pleaded until producers in their office said, Okay, I’ll let you do an open house. And every single person has had that same story. And yet, so few agents do it.
Jordan Mott 37:12
Right. And, and the reality of things is I’m wanting to share everything that I’ve absolutely done. 99% of people aren’t going to do anything with it anyway. I mean, that’s the truth of the matter. You’re right, I
D.J. Paris 37:25
was my first career, I was a financial advisor at a anyway, I was at a company and the top producer in the office who was I mean, just insane. High producer. God knows how many millions he made a year. And he would say, I’m going to tell you guys everything I do. And pretty much none of you are going to do it. But I’m going to tell it to you so that you can do it. Most of you won’t. I hope you do. And he was right. Most of us didn’t.
Jordan Mott 37:51
Yep, sounds sounds accurate.
D.J. Paris 37:54
So let’s let’s talk about now that, you know, we’ve talked a lot about marketing and how you’ve acquired clients. Talk a little bit, but you’re still competing with all the other agents who many of which, of course, are older than you more experience more transactions. You know, what do you think it? Why do you think it is that that clients choose you? What is it that you feel that you do that that separates you aside from all the hustle, which of course, maybe in some ways is the most important thing? And you’re right, people, especially high achievers, who again, are a lot of people who are your customers who are able to have these high price point properties. They’re high achievers, most of the time as well. So they appreciate seeing another person hustle. But what you know, what else? Do you think it is that you do that that maybe wins the business so to speak?
Jordan Mott 38:42
Yeah, so there’s there’s no doubt that I’m still competing with tons of people. I mean, in most situations on listing presentations that I go on the the majority of the consumers are interviewing three or four other people, Agent wise and my conversion rate from going on a listing appointment to actually having a signed listing is about nine out of 10. So, I mean, I think that I come better prepared than the majority of people ever. I know everything about the neighborhood, all the comps. All of my presentation stuff is top notch compared to what other people are taking with them. Like I’ve seen what other people leave behind and bring to their listing presentations and it just doesn’t compare as far as president tation and quality is concerned. And you know, the reason that I take all the highest quality stuff with me is because that’s that’s your first impression with these people. But additionally you’re on in most situations here say a million a million dollar house. I mean, that’s that’s a $35,000 commission check on the listing side that I’m going in and I have an hour and an hour and a half or an hour and a half to convince someone to pay me $35,000 To sell their house like, in some parts of the air, some parts of the nation are or some fields, that’s what people are making in a year, right? That’s their salary like so you better go into a presentation like that top notch with, with knowledge of everything that you’re talking about and be able to convince that person that you’re the best one to handle the job, and that you’re going to get them the best possible result. And I think, obviously, having a track record speaks for itself, right, but you don’t, but you don’t have a track record when you begin. So like, when I when I began, I would go on listing presentations with other top producers and see how they conducted themselves during that, that listing presentation. And if that was me, bringing in leads and giving away 50%, for the first five or six listing presentations that I went on, what I realized was that was more valuable than whatever the money was, at that point in time, right, giving away 50% to gain the knowledge and see how other people operate was a long term play for me, right? I saw the value in that more than the 50% of the commission check.
And so I think, and I think they you gotta come in and relate right? You gotta you gotta ask questions about them, what their situation is what they’re looking for, it’s not all about you, and what you bring to the table, because you want to be able to relate to those people, right? So like, the first question that I always ask when I go into a listing presentation is, what are your biggest expectations and what is most important, the most important quality in whoever you decide to hire. And so if they, if, let’s just say, for example, they say communication, right? I’m touching on communication, probably another 10 to 15 times throughout that listing presentation, and continually bringing that up, because I know that’s what’s going to instill the most confidence in people. But you also need to be able to portray your value, right? Because a lot of times, I mean, I’m not a discount realtor, there’s a ton of discount realtors in the market that will list houses for three and a half percent. And when I’m charging 6% Commission, there’s a huge difference there. And you have to be able to explain to the consumer, what the difference is there in regards to what you’re going to provide, right. And a lot of it, which is crazy to me is negotiation skills, a lot of agents will not negotiate on behalf of their clients like, and I’ve seen it like my assistant, she used to work for another agent for eight years prior to coming to work with me. And the first time that we took offers on a listing, she was shocked that I was going back to buyers and their agents to negotiate more money and better turns out, she’s like this other agent that I worked for, who is also a top producer, would just take an offer that was on the table so much money is being left on the table by other agents in the marketplace that if you’re able to that if you’re able to correctly present and display that to the consumer, they understand that okay, yeah, your commission might be $20,000 more expensive, but you’re gonna be able to net us more than that $20,000 based off what you’re bringing to the table, right? And I mean, I always like to use the comparison that if you have to go get brain surgery or heart surgery, you’re not going to go shop for the cheapest brain surgeon or heart surgeon like why would you do that with what is your biggest asset for most people, your home’s right, you want someone who’s going to provide you with the best of everything, right. And I mean, part of what I offer people is I offer free we in this geographic agent, or region, we do our inspections prior to going on the market, which is different than a lot of places. So I offered to pay for those inspections, I offered to pay for home staging, I offered to pay for professional photos, video, 3d tour, and all the marketing materials, right. And because I know how important all of those things are, in regard to the final outcome that I don’t want to leave it up to the seller to say that’s gonna cost us five or $6,000. We don’t really want to spend that. So it’s easier for me to justify my commission when I’m providing all this stuff and the quality of service that I am providing and then be able to easily combat competing against discount agents.
D.J. Paris 44:19
Well, that and you’ve got skin in the game, you’ve got a real incentive to close this deal. You have a financial incentive that you’re making, and it’s not just hey, I paid 150 bucks for photos. You’re going way above and beyond. And you’re explaining that at the listing presentation. Yeah, I do charge more. Here’s what I do to make sure that I’m invested in getting your home sold at the price you want. And here’s the commitment I’m willing to put in. I imagine that alone separates you from a lot of other agents,
Jordan Mott 44:47
right. And then sometimes as well, just in regards to a commission or negotiation aspect, like it’s sometimes hard for people to see the value when you’re just talking about it right. So if people are willing They pay me 6% Right at the beginning or understand the value that’s being provided to them for 6%. I mean, I’ll never go below five. But if I go to five, what I do is I put escalator clauses in my listing agreement that okay, if we hit this price, then the Commission’s increased to five and a half, if we hit this price, then the Commission’s increased to six, so I, then it’s easily there’s a there’s a monetary value that they can physically see there that I negotiated this for them. And so then, then your value is more easily portrayed in that situation, right. But I’m very strategically negotiating those structures to the point where I know that I can hit six, like, I think that sure a lot of people will go into listing presentations and over promise and under deliver, like I, I’m not going to be the agent who goes in there and tells the consumer, just what they want to hear so that I can win their listing, like, I mean, I’ve gone on listing presentations, where I’ve had to tell people that their house is $300,000 less than what they think that it’s worth, I mean, and they still ended up signing the listing agreement with me. But at the end of the day, I don’t want to walk in and tell someone based off whatever financial plans they’re making, that they’re going to be able to get a price that they’re not going to be able to get. And then at the end of the day, have them chasing me out their door saying what the hell, Jordan, you told me that I could get this price for my house, like, that’s not what
D.J. Paris 46:21
loses, everyone loses in that scenario. Basically, basically, you come prepared, and and you you’re logical and rational, and you’re able to answer those questions with facts and figures and, and commitment.
Jordan Mott 46:36
Right, and you gotta be personable. Yeah, because because you got to be someone that they can trust. I mean, and if you’re, if you don’t 110% have their best interests at heart, and know what you’re doing, they’re gonna see right through you, and they’re gonna realize that before you’re even done with your presentation,
D.J. Paris 46:54
yeah, couldn’t agree more people’s BS detectors are usually quite strong, especially if they have, you know, a successful or more expensively priced home, they’re probably successful in some area of their life. And they, they expect that from the professionals they hire. So you have to show up professional, gone are the days of showing up with a blank notebook, and saying, Tell me about, you know, and you do want to be personal, and you do want to learn, but you better come prepared with a lot of good ammo, to be able to say, Hey, by the way, I know you’re interviewing other brokers, and I can appreciate that I do the same thing. But here’s why people choose me. And here’s what I do, that’s maybe a little different. And if you don’t have those, those scripts that you’ve developed, you know, into rote memory like tiles, now’s a great time to practice.
Jordan Mott 47:44
Right? And I always try and I always try and ask who I’m interviewing against, so that I can put tangible numbers right next to each other and show them how their listings are being presented in comparison to my listings. And here’s production numbers. And I mean, it’s very rare that I’ll be competing against someone that has better production numbers than me. But I mean, that just so that they can see easily in front of them, right, for comparison purposes. But I mean, you got to come prepared, you got to know everything about the property, you got to know everything about the neighborhood. I mean, it’s like I said, it’s a huge interview.
D.J. Paris 48:21
It is and you know, I think this is a great place to wrap up because we’re talking about working with clients. And if there is anyone in the Silicon Valley area, or San Jose or anywhere near there, who would is looking for somebody that’s gonna go the extra mile, and has had tremendous success by taking such great care of their clients, who was looking to work with you, what’s the best way a buyer or seller or registered investor? What’s the best way they should reach out to you?
Jordan Mott 48:50
Yeah, I mean, best is seller tax, they can be reached at 408-966-0846. Or, as you mentioned earlier, Instagram or LinkedIn is a great way to connect with me as well. And then if you wanted to use email, it’s Jay M O TT at i n t e r o.com. And be more than willing to chat with anyone who needs my services. And, as always, I’m never too busy for your referrals. And then if you’re an agent, just looking for guidance, like I’m more than willing to share and chat with you guys as well and see how I can help you guys moving forward. And same same routes of contact apply for that as well.
D.J. Paris 49:35
Yeah, it’s funny, the most successful agents, we’ve done the show for about four years now, when I first started, I thought, because I’m not a producing agent myself. I just recruit agents, but I thought, oh, successful agents aren’t going to want to talk to me, not because they’re secretive, and they want to, you know, keep their processes private, but just because you’re gonna be too busy and what I found is exactly the opposite. It is top producing agents who are way busier than then you know, the rest of us still find the time to help mentor they get involved. They’re generous, whether it’s with their clients or with other agents, it’s really been remarkable. It’d be exactly what you think the opposite like, Oh, they’re going to be too busy to help. And yet people like Jordan who are just crushing it and are literally too busy to jump on this call still make time. So on behalf of the listeners, Jordan, want to say thank you, we’re excited to watch your continued success as you ascend. You’ve already had an amazing career so far in your five years, which is beyond incredible. But we want to excited to see what the future holds for you. And also, on behalf of Jordan and myself, we want to thank all the listeners for continuing to support our show, we ask all the listeners just to do two quick things we really appreciate in advance. One, tell a friend just think of another real estate professional that could benefit from having just heard this great interview with Jordan where he gave maybe more tips in an interview that we’ve done than anyone we’ve ever had. So hopefully, this is one that you’d want to pass along to other realtors. So please do. You can also find us on our website, which is keeping it real pod.com where all of our episodes are available to stream just in case you know the person you’re sending it to is in a podcast person they can watch and listen all there. Also second thing please follow us on Facebook, you can find us online facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod every single day, we find an article written online designed to help Realtors grow their business and we publish it and we also of course, publish our episodes right now. You might be watching this live as we’re recording it we stream those on our Facebook page as well. So once again facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod Jordan. Thank you. And boy, what a what a great episode you really provided so much value. So thanks. Thank you and we will see everyone on the next episode. Thanks. Sounds good.
Jordan Mott 51:56
Thanks for having me.
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