Talbot Sutter from Sutter & Nugent in Palm Beach County shares how he started his career in real estate as a young entrepreneur. Talbot believes that the key to success is to consistently rise before the sun, dress professionally and starting work. He goes on to explain why he started his own firm and how technology (specifically social media) has helped his firm succeed. In luxury real estate, Talbot believes, you have to be able to sell not just a home, but a lifestyle. To wrap up the episode Talbot shares his thoughts on expired and FSBO leads.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Talbot Sutter can be reached at 561-512-8505 and talbot@sutterandnugent.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 Talbot Sutter. Before we get to Talbot quick reminder of two things we ask all of our listeners to do to help support our show number one, tell a friend I think of one other real estate agent that could benefit from hearing interviews with top 1% producers and send them a link to our website which is keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done is there we are just crossed over the 100 and 80th Episode mark. So thank you to all the listeners and fans who keep telling us to keep going and we will so thank you and the second thing we’d like you to do is also follow us on Facebook find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. You can watch all of our interviews you can listen to our interviews you can also see all the articles we post about how to help you grow your business so once again facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our interview with Talbot center
okay today on the show we have Talbot Sutter from Sutter and Nugent in West Palm and Palm Beach, Florida. We tell you about Talbot Talbot is a lifelong resident of Palm Beach Gardens and a third generation Palm Beach County, Florida native. Upon graduating from FSU, Florida State University, Talbot moved back to his hometown in Palm Beach Gardens and began his real estate career. In fact, he was fully committed to a career in real estate before he graduated Florida State. He secured his real estate license well before he completed his education. I did not do anything like that in college, so I applaud anyone that had that foresight. But in January of 2014, Talbot formed Sutter and Nugent real estate a full service upscale residential and commercial real estate company to better serve his customers and provide a level of personal service rarely found in the industry. The company specializes in working with sellers and buyers in the Palm Beaches and throughout Florida and they have four offices and are currently opening a fifth office next month in Boca Raton. So please visit a Sutter and nugent.com That’s su t t e r a n d, Nugent and u g and t.com. Also, please follow them on Facebook, Sutter Nugent, and on Instagram, which is Sutter and Nugent, I NC Talbot Welcome to the show.
Talbot Sutter 3:29
Thanks for having me. Appreciate it excited. We’re here.
D.J. Paris 3:33
We’re really excited. I’m saying this out loud. So that’s either one of the two of us remembers, before we finish, I want to you’d send us a story that I never get to the stories when I ask people for their most unusual real estate experience. You have an amazing one about a home that was sold where you never ended up meeting the customer. So I definitely want to before we had no we have to go through that. But But But first, before we get to to the end, let’s start at the beginning. I would love to and our listeners would love to know you you really have specialized your company in the in the luxury space. That that is that is your bread and butter. You’re a young guy in the industry, you’ve done incredible things. But can you sort of start us at the beginning? Like how’d you get started? I know you got your license in college, but how did you end up start building your business?
Talbot Sutter 4:21
Yeah, so we I originally I got into it, you know, probably, you know, sometime in high school. And as far as I can remember, you know, even before high school middle school, the only conversation we would have at dinner would be you know, some issue my mom was having with a HUD statement or five or financing that in my mind. You know, I’m 1512 years old trying to figure out what’s a HUD statement was writing about and so almost by osmosis, I’ve kind of been you know, saturated in the end of the real estate business. But when I turned 18 I got a huge pressure and push for my dad to get my license because at that time I was held My mom with open houses, you know, along with her on showings and, you know, opening doors for him and I was, you know, basically selling property. My dad’s like, Listen, you really need to get a license. And let’s make this legal legally to get your license. So 18 got my license and kind of the rest was history originally, I wasn’t going to go to school, but you know, obviously gone to, you know, all the way through high school and I had a big push to go to college and did that and did rentals through through college kind of put myself on.
D.J. Paris 5:30
Wow, so you were you were working as a leasing agent. Were you doing mostly mostly college? Leasing? Yeah.
Talbot Sutter 5:36
Mostly students, and kind of got a good following from parents from back in Palm Beach County. Both right, Palm Beach Gardens, bringing their kids up here. And then when I graduated, those are my first calls. And I got back home and I tried to get into the business and I’m calling all the parents that I’ve rented houses to their kids do
D.J. Paris 5:55
well, and they were probably the ones footing the bills anyway. So you’re probably dealing with them while you release them to their to their sons and daughters. Oh, wow. It’s so smart.
Talbot Sutter 6:03
So yeah, I’ll proof of funds and everything. We’re coming from the parents anyway. So we knew which ones that target first, as soon as we got back.
D.J. Paris 6:11
So as soon as you got back, you’re like, Hey, by the way, I’m a fully fledged realtor, I can help you buy and sell and invest in? Yeah,
Talbot Sutter 6:18
exactly. Yeah, it was, when we came back, it was probably 2000. And I want to say 10 or 11. And so the market was pretty depressed, then. Sure. There wasn’t a lot of people buying and selling. And now Yeah, that’s a tough time to get in. Yeah, exactly. And it’s and that was kind of another blessing is that we got into the time to every year since 2010, it’s been a little bit better and better and better. Wow. of the market. So it’s helped us out a lot.
D.J. Paris 6:47
Yeah, and so aside from, you know, working with, with the the parents of the students you help before, you know, and I’m sure as you know, a Florida has, I think you you might have the most number of real estate agents in all the country, maybe California is higher, but it’s between the two, a lot of people have their license, and a lot of people never really make a great career in real estate. So I’d love to get your your thoughts on on why you think you’ve become successful, and maybe what you tell your agents at your own firm, you know, what, what advice do you have for agents who are starting out or just who are looking to get to that next level?
Talbot Sutter 7:23
Okay, yeah, I mean, we deal with our agents, especially if we bring on a new agent, we, the biggest thing we harp on is you have to treat this business as a full time job. I’m sure any experienced real estate agent will agree with that as basically, you know, wake up, wake up before the sun comes up to that’s my other rule is you have to be up before the sun comes up to get yourself proper, you know, in the proper mindset for the day. dress professionally, as soon as you wake up, get into the office, if you have nothing to do, I don’t care come into the office and start either listening to other people that are experienced getting, you know, soaking in information, or start playing out your day. And if you don’t have anything, any appointments or any sellers to contact, then then your prospecting by prospecting, you know, your first you’re hitting your sphere of influence, you know, that’s everybody’s gonna hit the sphere of once, yes, but then you’re you know, the next thing is, when you once you burn that out in about a week is trying to figure out who’s the who’s the most likely person or you know, company that’s going to put you close with a buyer or seller, whether it’s a builder, a restaurant, you know, tear anybody that’s going to have employees working for them. And if you can involve it in a construction aspect, or a building aspect, where people are going to be creating homes or developments, getting in with those people, by you know, initially, you know, we were cold calling, that’s how sure we started, we started out by cold cold calling all the builders back in 2010. And trying to get in with a couple of them that went out when nobody else was building, there might have been three builders back then starting, and we got in with one of them. And that was kind of our leg in with new construction. But there’s there’s so many different ways, but I would say for a new agent or somebody looking to get that next level. Playing out your day and doing it everyday consistently is the most important thing you can do.
D.J. Paris 9:10
Yeah, I think you’re right. I mean, I struggle with that, too. I’m not a practicing realtor myself. I have a license. I don’t I don’t use it. But I recruit realtors, but even throughout my day, I have people that make appointments for me, but if I don’t plan out my day, if I don’t structure it and saying okay, between this time and this time, I mean, I have appointments scheduled, but what do I do in between those appointments, right? And a lot of times, I might only have 30 minutes in between an appointment, but I really haven’t thought it through. And I’m like, oh, now I’m scrambling to find something. And as a result, I’m a lot less effective. I’m a lot less efficient. So time blocking, I could not agree more. So critical.
Talbot Sutter 9:46
Very, very critical. And I think, you know, having somebody that you can come into the office as a new agent, or maybe an agent that’s doing three or 4 million and you’re trying to get to the 10 or 12 million, having somebody that you can go in and watch and you Even if you’re not shadowing them, but mirroring them and try to, you know, emulate your business on how they’re doing it will get to help you get to that next level.
D.J. Paris 10:08
Yeah, I was watching. I agree. And I was watching a promotional video you had made for your company. And one of the things that was said by one of your agents, which I thought was so, so interesting, and I haven’t really heard it much in other videos from other firms that I’ve seen across the country, or here in Chicago, which is that you said, hey, look, classroom learning is great, there’s definitely a place for that, we certainly offer that. But we really want people out and about, like, we want to show you how to actually get out of the office, you know, obviously, you’re in the office to learn and to prospect, but we want to also take you out and show you how to actually grow this business. And, and I’m sure with so much competition, there’s so many realtors in your area, you guys have shined and that’s that has got to be your bread and butter. As we know, we know how to do this, we want to take you around and show you actually how to do you know, like shadowing, mentoring, how to do a listing presentation, how to meet with a first time buyer, all of those things,
Talbot Sutter 11:00
we like action. And that was one of the things that drove me, you know, absolutely crazy was when I was at when I graduated college and came back and worked at a very large firm, it was one of the largest firms in South Florida. And I was in the corporate aspect of it and seeing how they would train these new agents and the people training the agents one, you know, were people that had not succeeded in real estate. So they you know, you know, a training position. Yeah. And then to they would, they would scold the people if they had missed the class. And the people that were missing classes, were out getting listings and doing business and writing contracts, but then they were scolding him for not coming to the class of learning how to write a contract. So we you know, at that point, I said, you know, I love you know, we have attorneys come in and teach all the time and do all that. You got to know the rules, you got to know how to write a contract. But the things that you can’t teach and that you wish you could easily teach overnight is taking the initiative and going out and getting business and that’s, you know, that drive in that fire and somebody is what what makes a really, really good agent and takes you to that next level.
D.J. Paris 12:03
Yeah, I have a little tip, you’d actually just sparked a memory I had back when I was in the corporate world. Actually, I worked for a midsize, actually a smaller a tech firm. And we had, I don’t know, 150 employees or so. And I was you were just mentioned, one thing that was really important. This is what sparked the memories, you said, you need to get in front of, of people who maybe it’s not your sphere of influence, because you’ve burned through that list already. But now, these are people that could get you in front of other prospective buyers, sellers, renters, investors. And I was thinking about this, I used to work at this tech firm, and we had an HR director, and once in a while somebody must cold called her and said, you know, hey, we’re Aflac. Or, you know, we want to come in and do a presentation for supplemental insurance, whatever it was, there was constantly these things going on. And I ended up leaving that firm, I came over here and I started helping our agents with some of these marketing ideas. And I said, you know, everybody, you know, work somewhere. And if you contact them, especially like at the firm I was at with a tech firm, it was people in their late 20s. Mostly, these are mostly renters, but were they were all well compensated people. So these are people that are going to be buying a property very shortly, in the next few years. And like you were saying how you helped your, you know, the people that you knew in College helped them, then you were able to come back and work with their families, when you you know, and that’s the same sort of thing. So for everyone listening, you know, going through your sphere of influence, you’ll find who’s ready to buy, who’s ready to sell, and then most people just aren’t going to be in that position. But you could say, hey, where do you work? Is it can I somehow come in and bring lunch and do a little seminar and first time homebuyers or I can help people with renting or, you know, it’s just a great opportunity to get in front. So I apologize for taking over there. But you just mark that memory.
Talbot Sutter 13:45
It’s 100%, right? You just say,
D.J. Paris 13:48
Yeah, tell us a little bit too about you know, you’ve started a firm. So tell us that process, like you were at a large, the lot, one of the largest South Florida firms, and he decided to go off on your own. So talk a little bit about about that.
Talbot Sutter 14:00
So we, you know, the firm that it was at I loved something happened with one of the owners there were the owner actually passed away and loved them. And at that point in time, I kind of use that to transition. So we started out it was myself one other person. And my father kind of doing the behind the scenes paperwork and leasing paperwork and all that stuff. So we started with that and kind of slowly built momentum, you know, with the market with, you know, using knowledge and we kind of at the time part of ourselves on being the most, you know, the youngest, most tech savvy people in the business. And with that mindset and with you know, we had the first time we were the first people to use drones when they used to hire helicopters, and that would have to spend $1,000 to get aerials. We know we’re the first ones that have drones, we’re doing drone shots, for all of our properties. But that coupled with you know, the internet we were huge on doing online advertising. And then as social media developed, like now one of our biggest thing is doing targeted ads on Instagram and Facebook. Buck shirt in front of the people, instead of going out to a group of a million people, you’re going out to 1000 people that are more qualified to buy that million dollar home. But using that technology using that savviness and, and that momentum to bring on other kinds of like minded individuals that all had the same goals, you know, and my work, you know, wasn’t every Tom, Dick and Harry coming on board, it was people that are wanting to be kind of part of the movement and part of a growth period. And with that, you know, we now we have 100 155 agents, we’re putting in the fifth office in Boca, so it’s worked out well. And a lot of it’s been timing two, it hasn’t just been sure all of us but you know, the market timing and you know, property values going up and, you know, the tax incentives for Florida all that’s helped us out a lot. Yeah,
D.J. Paris 15:47
you know, I went to a Inman does a independent broker, yearly meeting there did it online this year because of the pandemic. But a couple years ago, I was in New York, and I went and saw it. And they had an agent from San Diego, and I’m sorry, San Francisco. And he was one of the most successful agents in the country. And so one of the questions asked to him, because you, you, you work in the luxury market, as did he is they said, What makes like, what’s different about marketing a luxury property? And I, you know, I, I’m not a practicing realtor. So I really didn’t know what the differences were other than, you know, obviously, wonderful photography, and you have to know the property and you know, the drone shots and virtual tours and all of that. But in addition to that, he was like, Oh, wow, we just, you know, we go way beyond in marketing, I imagine, is that the same sort of thing in Palm Beach, where there’s lots of affluent clients, you guys play in that space? Do you have to really step up your marketing game, when you have listings?
Talbot Sutter 16:45
You do, you got to step up the marketing game, you got to step up your personal game. And again, you have to really, in luxury property, I tell, you know, our agents and tell people that want to do it is it’s more of everybody has the MLS tools, you know, pretty much if it’s a decent brokerage, they all, you know, have the website tools and all that stuff, but you have to be able to sell the lifestyle, and be able to really treat that person with, you know, a white glove service to where, you know, anybody can send the properties. But you know, not everybody’s gonna go pick them up in their car, and you know, have, you know, waters waiting for him in the car, have, you know, everything set up throughout the day, have lunch planned, you know, know, the chef at the restaurant that’s going to come out and greet him and say, Hey, how are you guys, you know, welcome, blah, blah, blah, and make him feel at home and give them that personal touch. That, you know, we kind of tell our agents and train our agents to do if they’re dealing in that in that category of business. But it’s, you know, marketing at that level is, you know, you’re going to spend a lot of money and your burn, you know, on the listings, you can get, you know, seller can decide not to sell and all of a sudden you’re out, you know, 15, you know, 60,000 bucks on marketing, one listing? Sure you’re waiting on. So that’s another thing we tell our people is don’t put all your eggs in one basket, because no matter what, they’re all not going to close. So you got to you got to be careful on how you do that. Yeah, I
D.J. Paris 18:01
agree. And, you know, but it is it is really interesting. And I know you have so many agents. So you have grown to a pretty sizable number. And I’m somebody who recruits agents, I know how difficult that is. So you must be doing a lot of things, right to attract all these agents to come to come work at your firm. And also, the expansion that you’ve had is incredible. I don’t know that I’ve ever talked to anyone that’s expanded to five offices, and let’s say 10 years, that’s an incredible growth of 250 plus agents, I spend eight hours a day recruiting. So I know exactly how difficult that is. And also you’re running your own business. You’re running your agents, businesses, your training, your coaching, why do you think agents are have become so attracted to your firm?
Talbot Sutter 18:43
I think one of the biggest things that we ask people to when they when they call us up, and they want to come in for an interview and talk to us, because we haven’t really done you know, a lot of recruiting it’s made me yeah, you ever needed to Yeah. And we asked him to so why do you call on us what’s you know, what’s, why are you in here today? What is sparked your interest and some of the things that have kind of come together that seems to be the common thing that they say is that we’ve heard about this really contagious energy that you guys have in the office. So and we it’s not just you know, young agents with us, and we have older agents and every every different type of agent, but everybody that’s with us has a super energetic mindset. Everybody wants to come in and learn. They’re always bringing in ideas, you know, different, you know, for sale by owner programs or pitches or, you know, expired listening pitches. And we’re always switching it up too. So I think, you know, the office atmosphere is really, really neat. You know, I’m in the Wells Fargo, Palm Beach Gardens office right now. And there’s probably two other people on here right now. But you might go into the Delray Beach office and there’s, you know, 10 people in there, they’re calling and, you know, they’re all chat and bouncing ideas off each other. So I think that coupled with people that have come on board, who had no experience in real estate, and then all of a sudden now they’re making you know, three $400,000 a year, you know, being A super mega agent in South Florida, and then having that on their social media and people seeing that I think, you know, makes other people want to get into business. But it’s, you know, a combination of 1000 different factors.
D.J. Paris 20:13
No, you’re right. But you’re obviously doing so many things. Right? I actually, you said something that I don’t think anyone has talked about on our show, we’ve done almost 200 episodes now, but, but I wanted just a real drill down on something, because you mentioned expired and fizz bows. So a lot of our listeners have certainly heard from other agents, you know, should I buy expired and Fizbo? Leads For Sale By Owner leads? And should I be calling them and boy, there is a variety of opinions about how successful one can be with those, there’s some people that say they, you know, they’re the hardest phone calls to make, because you’re gonna get hung up on, people are gonna yell at you. And then there’s other people that go, boy, you know, I’ve got so many listings, and as a result of that, what I don’t know what it’s like down in South Florida right now for for, for sale by owners and expireds. But is that is that a viable strategy still working are agents having success with that?
Talbot Sutter 21:06
It is, it’s the way I’ve kind of there’s, everybody’s got their own opinion on it. But I sure when people come on board with us, we try to get them to specialize in a specific area. And that’s another thing that’s going to help us get smarter as next level listings. So they become an expert, you know, in that area. So we tell those people in those areas, we don’t have territories, but we have kind of, you know, known territories of people that work certain areas. And, absolutely, if you’re an expert in that area, I would be calling every single Fizbo every single expired, you know, sure every single morning. That’s kind of what we do in the mornings, we come in 737 45. And look at that list, to see if something’s popped up. But to so if somebody came in and said, I want to call every Fizbo in Palm Beach County, I mean, unless they’re really an expert, all the Palm Beach County know every single neighborhood.
D.J. Paris 21:52
Yeah, they won’t be able to really, to do much for those clients, unless they are an expert, for sure. Yeah,
Talbot Sutter 21:57
exactly. And if you can talk say, you know, you know, Susie down the street that just sold her house or that house that sold off market next to that specific Fizbo in your specific market area. You can talk more educated really about it, and they trust you more they know that you’re not just giving reading off a script, you know, calling everybody in the handbook. Right? So I think in in specific areas that you’re trying to dominate or go after then absolutely 100% expireds, and fizz bows,
D.J. Paris 22:23
I’m so it’s so refreshing to hear that because the vast majority of agents, non top producing agents will say, Oh, it doesn’t work. Because to be fair, most people don’t want to cold call, most salespeople don’t want to cold call, we have phone call reluctance, or I forget what the term is. But if you can, you know if you can get to a point where you can pick up the phone and start dialing, boy, that is a great skill to have. It is and
Talbot Sutter 22:49
it’s like you said it perfectly. It’s not nobody likes to do it. It’s not fun, right? People, you know, answer and tell you to, you know, eff off, Go screw yourself, I never want to talk to you, again, you know how to bounce back from that. It’s not the easiest thing in the world. But usually in this business, when you’re doing things that are uncomfortable and out of your comfort zone. That’s how you get to the next level. And that’s how you get that client or that listing that you would have never had a chance of getting.
D.J. Paris 23:12
Well, I don’t want to work out either, right? But it’s a good idea. I don’t want to go to the gym, I don’t want to do push ups. I don’t want to die it. But I do want energy and I want to live a long life. And so if we’re thinking about our real estate career, what are those daily disciplines and if you can force yourself to, to not only make those calls, because really anybody can make those calls, and many other agents are making those calls. But if you can bring something new to the table where you’re actually an expert in that area, or you have something in common with that seller, you know, oh, hey, down the road, I help so and so you know, sell their property. Boy, that really helps a lot.
Talbot Sutter 23:51
Right goes the extra mile.
D.J. Paris 23:53
I would love to hear you send us a couple of really fun stories that I’d love to get into because I never get into these. But I would love to hear the story. This is a funny story about the sort of waterfront property and you’ve just bought a new boat and you were showing clients do you mind sharing that?
Talbot Sutter 24:08
Yeah, we so that was it was probably three years ago, we I just bought a it was my first vote actually. And you know, I was super pumped about it, trying to show it off everybody one of our clients that was coming down flying in from New York, one of the sea waterfront property in Jupiter, and they said absolutely and actually I just bought a boat. Yeah, why don’t we go on the boat and yeah, oh, yeah, I want to I want to see the property below water. That’s a great idea. So I tried to space out the listings, you know, as much as I could because we’re going from waterfront to water right? Taking a little extra time but we get on the boat it was beautiful week was beautiful that morning and we get on the boat see the first house and we’re walking out of the back door and all of a sudden that first you know, crackle of thunder happens. I thought for sure the buyer was going to call an Uber and get out of there. He said no, no, let’s keep going and we get in the boat and we’re cruising you know The second house that just started down pouring rain, so probably for the next two and a half, three hours or so, so head to toe, it’s not like an inside boat. It’s a sport fish. Right, you get wet. Yeah. And I’m, you know, dressed up to a T shirt, you know, sweating and get rain poured on me, like a hot mess, and, but it actually worked out, the guy ended up buying the house, it wasn’t from the showings, you know, right away that he bought the house, he came back two or three times. And we went by car the second third time. But we shared laughs together. And we were it was kind of something I learned after the fact that the more rapport and more personable and the more, you know, that was a very personal experience we shared on the boat, we kind of came together in a moment. And I felt like they at that point really, really trusted me, I really trusted them, it kind of brought us to that next level in the relationship to have them come down a second, third time and by that $3 million house. So that was Yeah, indeed.
D.J. Paris 26:00
It is, it’s such a great story. And it’s a good reminder that having a shared experience with your customers with your clients, even if it’s an uncomfortable experience, where you’re getting rained on in your boat for two and a half to three hours, which of course is a, that is a difficult experience to go through for the client, you feel bad for the client, the clients trying to reassure you, because they don’t want you to feel bad. And but at the end of it, you’ve just gone through something together. And that actually binds people tighter. And as the perfect example of, of so you know, don’t always tell our listeners, like don’t be afraid of, you know, experiences happening, that aren’t always positive. So people get locked out, they get caught, you know, locked to everyone’s got, I got locked out on a patio with my client story. And I had to yell down to somebody to come up. And we had to wait up there an hour. And you know, those things, it all almost all those stories end up with? And then yeah, the client really liked me. And then we ended up you know, right. Yeah, yeah. And then I’d also would love to hear the story about how you sold and this is really an A truly incredible story, you basically sold a $3 million house and never, the buyer never met this never never saw the property Correct.
Talbot Sutter 27:07
Right. And the whole time, a lot of like, with the whole kind of COVID thing that happened, we you know, a lot of our stuff went virtual and shark with the handle that everything was good. But even with that you still meet the client, you still at some point in time, see somebody, this was a listing that we had in the contract came in, you know, buyers name, you know, love this house, love your pictures, love the marketing on it, never met the person, you know, had a quick phone call with the seller the whole time thought the deal wasn’t going through Sure. We’re thinking oh, this can’t be real, you know, the guy hadn’t even come and drove by the house, you know, he’s out of state, I think it was Connecticut. And never saw the never saw the buyer and the buyers never met the seller was a cash transaction. And he had to do an application to a phone interview with the association closed on the property remotely. And to this day, still have not met the guy. It’s years later, and I text them, you know, here and there. And I joke with him, I still haven’t met yet. And oh, have you over one of these days, and I never even see his car outside the house when we’re driving by so he’s kind of a ghost client, but a good client?
D.J. Paris 28:17
Boy, that that is that’s technology, you know, it is and I think, you know, one of the one of the best things, and unfortunately, our country is struggling right now with the pandemic. And it’s a horrible, horrible thing we’re all dealing with. But maybe one of the things that will help agents is that as people are so used to doing zoom meetings, you know, or on Facebook Live, or there’s lots of different platforms now, which are virtually free. And agents now can you know, have those first meetings, obviously in person is preferred, but right now, maybe not always the safest thing to do. So this is a great opportunity. And you don’t have to, you know, everyone knows how to get on Zoom. Now, it’s not like you’re going to struggle with even my, you know, my parents in their 70s Use zoom all the time, you know, so it’s like, this is really a great opportunity to, to really connect with people through social media and through technology that in the past would have been more challenging, I think, cuz we weren’t conditioned to do it.
Talbot Sutter 29:14
Right. Zoom meetings have made everything way more efficient on our end, as far as offerings, oh, my God, we would have an office meeting, we’d have, you know, 60 people flooding into the office or 50 people come in and you know, a whole day would be on because you’re talking to people at donuts or flying around. It’s a messenger. Now with Zoom meetings, we come in for an hour, get everything done with super efficiently. Hours done when we’re on our day. So it’s it’s made everything a lot better, in my opinion. Zoom.
D.J. Paris 29:45
Yeah, I agree. And it’s also I think, in some ways, it makes everything a bit safer to especially for agents who are meeting clients who they don’t know, and they’ve never met and you know, there’s always safety considerations and zoom is a great way to have that first meeting. win. You know, in the past, maybe people would do it at a coffee shop, which is perfectly fine to do too. But just always trying to think about safety. I think that’s one of the other benefits come out of this is people are going to be, I think, hopefully more safe as a result by, you know, having those face to face meetings getting a better sense of what the clients like, if it is somebody they don’t
Talbot Sutter 30:16
know. Yeah, good point.
D.J. Paris 30:19
And I’d also love to find out exactly, you know, is from a suspect perspective, as a business owner, you have 150 plus agents, you’ve obviously seen some agents really succeed. You’ve seen other agents, I’m sure struggle in the industry, no matter what, what firm they’re at, you know, you talked about getting in early, you know, pounding the phones, learning the craft, absorbing it from other agents in the office, is from from a marketing perspective, because a lot of our listeners go, Okay, well, how do I get out there and marketing myself? Right? And I know, there’s no magic bullet answer to this. But what are there? Is there a suggestion or two that you have for agents that are looking to go, Okay, I’ve exhausted my sphere of influence, what do I do now?
Talbot Sutter 31:02
Right, I would say probably the most important thing, you know, for those agents is, is to really, you know, be yourself. And I know, that’s kind of sounds corny, a little bit, but be yourself meeting, don’t try to, you know, we see people come in, that don’t have any experience in real estate, and all of a sudden, they’re, you know, so disappointed that they’re not getting a million dollar listing in the first three months, or the first six months. And, I mean, I think I think rentals, my first you know, year and a half, which are, you know, a pain in the butt. But, you know, you don’t just jump into it, you know, some people can, and some people will, but it’s, you know, it’s not everybody that’s gonna hop into it, that’s gonna get to that incredible, you know, $5 million listing in a couple of months. So I think be yourself. No, you know, what, you know, get in, write down your strengths, write down your weaknesses, try to improve on those weaknesses. And realize that, you know, when you’re doing business, you know, if you’re doing any business at all, how can you capitalize on that business you’re doing? So if you’re doing, you know, three to $400,000 deals? You know, why are you doing those deals, maybe it’s the people that you’re meeting, maybe it’s the areas that you’re hanging out, or the you know, the leads that you’re you’re trying to call on or whatever it may be, and then adjust that, right. So you know, not saying, hey, drop your old friends, go find new friends, but shorten or maybe you get a membership somewhere where you’re going to be put in front of somebody that might have, you know, that million dollars to spend or that $2 million to spend and, you know, rub elbows with that people with those people instead of those people, you know, vice versa. Where you can try to, you know, put yourself in a situation that is going to allow you to be in a deal that’s going to be you know, what you want to be in? Yeah, and then
D.J. Paris 32:37
also also being able to make sure that they’re that they should choose you over all the other agents that are vying for that business, which means obviously, upping your game in every sense of the word, you better know more than the other agents about that area.
Talbot Sutter 32:52
No, you’d better have to worry. Yeah, we say know your inventory, know, your inventory, know your inventory, it’s the most important thing. You gotta be able to talk, you know, numbers and statistics with everybody. Otherwise, you’re fall into the 25,000 other realtors that are in Palm Beach County. And, you know, striking do
D.J. Paris 33:09
we have, there’s a realtor here in Chicago, he’s the number two realtor. We have 44,000 in Chicago and, and so I interviewed him on our show, not that long ago. And I asked him, like, how did you become so successful, and he said, For the first five years, you’ll you’ll love this. And I’m sure it won’t shock you at all. He woke up every morning, put on his suit, and he wanted to specialize in a neighborhood called River North here, which is happens to be where I live. And so he would just but he didn’t know anything about River North because he didn’t live here. He wasn’t really that familiar with River North. So he would just get up every day he would walk from building to building we have a lot of apartment, high rise buildings and, and mid tier buildings. And he would just walk from building the building. He didn’t know any of it for the first five years. He basically that’s essentially all he did. And he said he only close 10 sales in his first five years, which is not much as you obviously as anybody knows. And he said that’s all he did. And he just he said he was the poorest person of all of his friends. He wasn’t making any money. But he said it was the best five years he ever spent. Now, he said most people aren’t going to be able to survive doing that. But he goes, I’m glad it he was able to live at home with his parents for the first five years. So that helped. But he said it was the smartest thing he ever did. Because he goes at the end of that five years, there was nobody that knew River North better than me. And as a result, I got all the listings, and I and people knew that I knew more. So he did his homework. And obviously not all of us can spend five years you know walking from building the building, you know, but but certainly you could spend an hour a day doing that right? Right. You can spend an hour you can spend an hour a day learning the inventory and studying the market because you know, it’s like if you expect somebody to turn over a you know, two to $10 million property for you to sell you better have a real good pitch about why they should choose you versus and obviously you guys have perfected that that is your your bread and butter are luxury properties along with obviously other properties. But the fact that you can play in that space really demonstrates what your agents have this ability Woody to be able to have those conversations in a really intelligent way. And, and I’m sure most agents couldn’t, and you probably don’t worry about other agents because they probably just don’t know as much, I’m guessing about those types of properties,
Talbot Sutter 35:11
right, we try to, we try not to look, we look at the competition, but we try to just kind of always look ahead and not worry about what people are saying about you, and just try to try to always come up with something new, that’s gonna put you ahead of the curve. And trying to find out what that is, I was listening to a podcast where, especially for people getting into the business that and I forget who was saying that, but he said, for people getting into the business, if you look at any other profession where you can make, you know, 234 $100,000 a year, you know, whether that’s, you know, a doctor, that’s a big time attorney, it’s sure somebody that’s, you know, pretty well off, it’s a great living, yeah, they’ve had to go to school for four years, okay. And then, after, during those four years, they’re not making any money. If everybody has that doctorate level, you’re going to school for another three years. So he said, treat your first four years in real estate as you go into school, and you learn and if you can make any money in that first four years, great, you know, we tell people, you know, try to make some money, your first quarter, but you’re, you’re not going to be that superhero agent, those first four years, you’re going to be doing what that guy did, you know, kind of pounding the ground, and really learning what area you want to really specify and to where you can become that, you know, that either luxury agent or that well known, you know, neighborhood agent, whatever it is. It’s just time and experience, you know, there’s no secret secret sauce to it, but it’s, you know, time energy efficiency. And just, you know, overall, trying to be an expert in that field to get you to that next level.
D.J. Paris 36:39
Yeah, and the good news, too, is it’s, it’s, I forgot who wrote the book, but it’s never crowded along the extra mile. I forgot who I think it was Scott Peck, who wrote that, but anyway, that is so true. Where if you’re willing to go that extra mile, you’ll find it’s not that crowded with competition, right? There’s, there’s lots of other people, but they’ll stop well short of that extra mile. And all of a sudden, you know, you’ll say, oh, oh, it’s pretty it’s pretty great. Over here. I’m actually an expert, where most people maybe don’t have that knowledge. But for anyone who’s listening who’s in the south Florida area in the palm beach areas, can we can you mention that the areas you guys serve.
Talbot Sutter 37:15
So we’re pretty much from Northern, northern Palm Beach County down to the Florida Keys. We have the Naples office, Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Boca Delray Beach, Manalapan, Florida Keys and Naples. So pretty much all Southeast Florida, and a little bit of on the West Coast. Well, if
D.J. Paris 37:35
anyone’s listening who’s a buyer or a seller or renter and investor who is looking for eight, an agent to work with, Southern New Jersey is a great company that you should be considering, you know, the best way to reach out to them, visit their website, Sutter nugent.com. We’ll post a link to it, of course in our notes. And then also, there’s a lot of agents that are probably now going to be interested in learning more about your firm, maybe they’re looking to make a switch, what’s the best way an agent should or a client should reach out if they want to work with you?
Talbot Sutter 38:04
Best way is either through social media or the website. You can find my cell phone on there, just click inquiry and it’ll it’ll lead you to an email so either way, you know social media is instant we’ll get on our phone right away.
D.J. Paris 38:18
Yeah, that’s great. You can find them on Facebook at Sutter and Nugent. So at Sutter Nugent, just a search for it, you’ll find it and also on Instagram. Their handle is Sutter and Nugent, I NC. So Talbot, thank you so much for being on the show.
Talbot Sutter 38:32
Thank you for having me. It was awesome. Yeah, talk for the end of the day. In the morning, that would have been running out the door.
D.J. Paris 38:40
Well, I am I am not going to be calling for fizz bows or expireds at the end of the day. So but I’m going to tell all of my agents to do that because that is a great idea. And I know our listeners got a ton of value. So before we go, we want to thank they tell but for for being on the show. On behalf of the listeners. We appreciate your time we know how busy you are is a big deal to give us an hour here and we greatly appreciate it. And also on behalf of Talbot and myself we want to thank the listeners for continuing to support our show. We were continuing to grow we actually we think we’re the most popular podcast for realtors in the country. Now we’re super excited about that. So that’s only because of the great guests we have like Talbot and also for our listeners for helping us do two quick things. One please tell a friend think of one other agent that could benefit from hearing this great interview with with Talbot and send them a link to our podcast you can find us online. Easiest way is go to our website which is keeping it real pod.com Or find us on Facebook we’re at you know facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod we have every episode we’ve ever done or just pull up any podcast app you have type and keeping it real look for the one that’s real estate related. It’s us there’s a few other podcasts called Keeping it real but you’ll find ours and and tell a friend and then also just continue to listen to these great episodes. We bring you know two to three new episodes a week this one wasn’t a fantastic one. And we want to thank all of us on behalf of Talbot and myself on a thank you for continuing to support our show and tell it thank you so much and congrats on all the wild
Talbot Sutter 40:09
success. Appreciate it. Thanks again. Thanks
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