Toby Fernie a realtor in Monterey California gives a brief overview of his career in real estate. Toby explains why he picked YouTube as the platform to expand his business through. Next, Toby describes how he set up his You Tub channel and how he edits his videos. Last, Toby talks about his course on video and how this course will help realtors in building/expanding their business.
Please check out Toby’s course here and get 25% off by typing REAL.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Toby Fernie can be reached at toby@video4realestate.com
This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
Ever wonder how agents generate leads through YouTube? We’re going to talk about that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.
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 Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with actually a returning guest to the show, but but he’s going to talk about something totally different. We have Toby Ferny on the show again, and he’s going to talk about how he uses YouTube to generate a ton of business and he wants to teach you how to do the same. So stick around for that. Before we get to our interview with Toby. Just a couple of quick reminders. Please tell one other realtor about this episode. Just send them a link to our website, keeping it real pod.com. Also, leave us a review. Let us know what you think of the show whatever podcast app you might be listening on, leave us a review and comments are also always read and appreciated as well. So thank you on behalf of the entire team here. I think we’re at about 400 episodes, we couldn’t be more grateful to the audience. You guys are the reason we do this. But enough about that, let’s get on to our conversation with Toby Ferny. Today on the show, we have a returning guest, Toby phirni from Coldwell Banker and also video for real estate.com. Before we get to that, I want to tell you a little bit about Toby. He’s actually been on the show before, and we’re super excited to have him back and we rarely have a guest ever come back. But Toby did such a great job the first time and he really has made a huge shift, since we saw him last and so we’re going to excited to talk about that. But let me give you a little background on Toby. So Toby Ferny is a realtor in Monterey, California, with nine years of residential sales experience five years of that in Massachusetts, four years in California. Now in 2021, he was recognized in the international president’s elite category for the top 3% of all Coldwell Banker agents globally. Toby has primarily built his business through home buying seminars for local educators, referrals from past clients, real estate marketing through YouTube. Last time he was on the show, we talked a lot about finding your niche. And Toby talked a lot about working with teachers, specifically out in the Monterey area and how that was a segment of the population that had really been ignored by realtors. And so he found that niche and he’s got a even a different niche now, or an additional niche that I want to talk to you about. But he’s created an online course for realtors to show them how to create their own YouTube channel and have success I want you all to check out his website, which by the way, the link for this as in the show notes, but the YouTube URL sorry, the URL for his website is video number four. So video for real estate.com video for real estate.com And Toby I were just speaking before, before I bring him on, and he was sharing with me some of the metrics. And this is pretty awesome and impressive and super cool. So we are super, very excited to have Toby back on the show Toby welcome again to the to the podcast.
Toby Fernie 4:47
DJ, nice to see you. Thanks for having me again. Yeah, we were really
D.J. Paris 4:52
really excited to have you back and I am I’m super excited but let’s let’s give everyone just who maybe is newer to this Show and maybe didn’t hear your episode last time. And I don’t want to you know retread old ground too much. But let’s just give everyone a little bit of a brief overview of your career.
Toby Fernie 5:10
So I started my real estate career in Boston, I went to Boston College, and I was trying to help pay my way through school. So I started doing real estate there primarily rentals, helping other other students who had to find housing off campus, and then young professionals at the time, and I was a teacher for around nine years after after finishing college and doing real estate for five years in Boston. And that brought me out to the Monterey area, I was a teacher for one year, and unfortunately found within a year of being here that it was difficult to live on a teacher’s salary in Monterey, which is one of the most expensive counties in California. And I switched back into real estate around five years ago, and I started doing home buying seminars for teachers, helping them through the home buying process, supporting them, and connecting them with some some different loan programs that were available for teachers at the time. And so that was primarily what I was doing during my first couple of years doing real estate here in Monterey, and then started a YouTube channel just over two years ago, and that has been the primary driver for my business for these last two years.
D.J. Paris 6:24
And, you know, it’s, it’s interesting, because I do want to sort of set the table because I, I know that there are a lot of courses, specifically targeting realtors to build up their social media presence, to create YouTube channels to have success, I’m always a little naturally just cautious because I think that sometimes there’s a lot of, you know, excitement around the idea of creating more of an online presence and generating leads. So there’s times we get pitched by by publicists, almost at least once a week for somebody that’s created, you know, one of these types of courses, and I’m not putting you in the same category. Because when we do a little deeper dive into some of these, these courses, I’m not always that impressed. But I know you and I know you well enough to know that this is something that I want my audience to check out, you’re, you know, you’re a good guy, you do good work, and, and you have a tremendous, you’ve had tremendous success with this platform with YouTube. And so I am really excited to talk about it with you. So tell us a little bit about, you know, sort of why YouTube, and what the initial thought was on, you know, creating content to actually bring business in. Yeah, well,
Toby Fernie 7:47
thank you for the kind words, I appreciate that. And thank you, again, for having me on to talk about the course and YouTube in general. So I am somebody who I go to YouTube for a lot of different things, I purchased a house around two years ago, that’s a complete fixer upper. So I’ve done a lot to fix up my house through YouTube, whether it’s, you know, working on plumbing, or electrical, or, you know, learning how to paint it seems like there’s an almost endless number of YouTube videos out there on different topics. So you can search those and learn from people who have a lot of experience in those those different areas. And when I first moved to Monterey, I’m not originally from the area that didn’t have a big sphere. And I didn’t know a lot of people, I started searching on YouTube to see what information I can find out about Monterey since I use YouTube for a lot of different if I’m going traveling somewhere, I might search different videos about best things to do or places to eat. And I was finding that YouTube did not have a lot of information out there about Monterey. There was some videos from the city of Monterey, some some travel bloggers that might have shared their weekend in Monterey that type of
D.J. Paris 9:03
yeah, they blown through town do a video about it, but there wasn’t a lot of hey, I live here I know the area here’s here’s the sort of the things to know and do.
Toby Fernie 9:13
Exactly. So just kind of if you’re somebody who’s moving to the area or if you’re even coming to town for a visit, just trying to teach people the ins and outs about the area so you know what are the pros and cons of living in the area? What’s the cost of living in the area breaking down some different neighborhoods? You know, if you have a family where some good areas with with with strong schools, what are the best walkable areas in town so there’s just a seemingly endless number of topics that relate to real estate and would be helpful information to people who are searching on YouTube and and as I got into YouTube and made a channel and started making videos, there’s so much information out there about the number of people who are on YouTube. Now there’s over 2 billion people with with active have accounts on YouTube who are searching it on a daily or weekly basis. And so there’s people that are searching all the time about real estate information in the area. And what I found is that YouTube is not flooded in the in the same way as some of these other marketing websites out there like Zillow, there’s over 250 realtors, on Zillow in Monterey County, and my name doesn’t even show up until the 21st page. So chances are somebody’s not scrolling until the 21st page to find their buyer or their sellers realtor. So I started just putting content out on YouTube that I thought would be helpful to people who are coming to town for a visit or moving to the area. And I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of people who reach out to me on a weekly basis, who are qualified buyers, they’ve learned information about the area that I live through the videos. So, you know, I was I started out when I first started real estate here, I was working on a team. And they were they were purchasing and paying for buyer leads on Zillow. And I was getting calls from people that were asking for $200,000 houses in Big Sur, which is one of the most expensive areas in Monterey, which is one of the most expensive areas in California. So at the time, there weren’t houses in in Big Sur for for less than a million dollars. So the the leads that I’ve been getting through YouTube have been people that are recognized the the area, the prices, and that are people that are higher quality and more qualified buyer or seller leads then then I was getting through some of those other marketing sites.
D.J. Paris 11:36
You know, that’s a really interesting point, I want to just sort of pause and talk about that for a moment because I never thought of that. And that’s actually makes all the sense in the world. By the time you’re, anyone can jump on Zillow, put in any, of course, any zip code any any city at any, any county any area, and immediately just get a list of things, that doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily interested in moving to that area or have done any real research, there might just be browsing for homes, as we know people do sometimes for just for even for fun, and somebody who’s contacted you, you know, for Big Sur, and looking for $200,000 home clearly doesn’t understand that area. And but when you go to YouTube, and you start searching for things like best school districts in Monterey, or, you know, best restaurants, or you have a different level of commitment, I think to learn about that area. So just as you were saying that I was thinking boy, that makes a lot of sense, because by the time you’re getting a little bit more specific about an area, you’re starting to do deeper dive searches into things and and that’s where your videos I’m guessing are of real value.
Toby Fernie 12:48
Yeah, I think in a lot of ways YouTube has turned into modern day television, I mean, there is YouTube TV is a is a platform that a lot of people have their television through. But people when they’re coming on YouTube, they are you’re there, you’re able to catch their attention for a longer period of time than you would on say Facebook or Instagram where you know, people are kind of scrolling through their feed looking at their friends and maybe looking at photos, maybe they’d be interested in a video that’s less than a minute. But on YouTube people you can watch it on your phone, your computer, your television, so people are willing to sit down and watch longer, longer periods of time on your channel, you know, I have some videos that are anywhere from three to 30 minutes and you can see the analytics of how many people are engaging and interacting with your videos and how long they’re they’re watching the videos for and then from there, you’re able to try to create more videos that are like that that are going to get in front of a wider audience. And I think if you’re sitting there and you’re watching like you said you know video about you know the pros and cons of living in an area chances are you’re invested in it you’re gonna want to you know, learn more about the area and the majority of leads that I get are relocation so people that are moving from from a different area, I had a zoom call this morning with with somebody in the Navy who’s relocating from Japan to Monterey. And so these are people that are moving they might not know anybody that the area they’re moving to they’re not going to have a big network chances are they’re not going to have friends to ask you know who’s the realtor that I should work with? So people that spend time on my channel watch a lot of videos they kind of get to know you they get invested and it’s almost like they’ve already done their their buyer or seller interview with you so you know I’ve had people that reach out to me and you know via email phone calls and they already are have made their mind up that they want to work with me based on the the free content and value that I’ve provided through the channel.
D.J. Paris 14:49
Yeah, that makes perfect sense and it’s exactly what I do when I go travel. I always do my research by reading travel blogs and you know Getting some written information that I can I can, you know, check out but then I want to do I want to see what some of the tours look like, I want to see what some of the neighborhoods look like what you don’t get as good a sense of just reading someone’s travel blog, and I had to YouTube and then I’m always like, I always also searched for things like what are five things, you know, what are things tourists don’t know about that they should know about? In an area. Again, these are all deeper dive searches that you in specifically are coming up with content to help somebody like me, because if I was traveling to Monterey on a vacation, which I would love to do, that’s I would do both of those things, I would find out what TripAdvisor says are the cool things to do. And then I would also be searching on YouTube to find people who are locals who understand the area who are like, Oh, you’re coming here for a weekend. Now again, that’s, that’s not looking to buy a home. But you know, the I use it the same way somebody would be looking to buy a home who wants to know, schools, you know, restaurants, grocery stores, what’s it like to live here? All of the things that are more intangible and a little bit harder to get information about simply by looking up home prices on Zillow, for example, like you were saying, so I think that makes all the sense. And I want to just make a quick, I want have a quick question for you. So we have a lot of our agents who are going to live in these larger metropolitan areas or maybe smaller communities like Monterey, but are obviously Monterey is is pretty well known, obviously, for you know, some of the cool things that has, but then we have peep I was in French, we were talking about French Lick Indiana, Toby and I before because I just got back from there. And I’ll just make a quick point. So if I was a realtor in French Lick, which is a very tiny community, I might have, I might have thought before I went and visited there. Oh, well, I guess if you’re vacationing, which is what I was doing, you know, yeah, you’d be searching for vacation stuff. And maybe I’d think about buying a home there if I was that interested. But it’s a small community. And I might think if I’m a realtor there, oh, no one’s going to be searching for cool things to do in French Lick or the best neighborhoods to live in. But when I talk to the people in French Lick this weekend, because it’s so small, it would be considered a rural community. I said, Jerry, you know, how often do people move here and they go, Oh, it’s exploding right now. Because of, you know, the pandemic accelerated the ability for people to work from home, people now can move. And so even if you’re listening, and you live in a smaller community, the opportunity to do this, in some ways, you might even argue it’s a better opportunity, because there might be less competition. I’m shocked that in Monterey, like you were like, kind of the first guy to really, really come out and do this. But in the smaller communities, you can absolutely be the first person to do it. And people are mean, you know, Bozeman, Montana, and all of these places that you think why would anybody move there? Oh, because it’s beautiful and perfect. And people can work from home. You know, and so even if you live in the smaller communities where there’s there’s not as much traffic, boy, I think it’s a great opportunity.
Toby Fernie 18:02
Yeah, so to your point, I would say that if you’re in a small community, there’s a lot of opportunity, right? Because chances are, you might be one of the only Realtors that’s on there, putting out videos putting out content that would be helpful to people who are moving there, if you’re from a larger metropolitan area, so you’re from San Francisco, Chicago, New York, chances are there are millions of people that are searching information about about your town in your in your city. And if there are other realtors out there with the channel, that’s not necessarily a bad thing as YouTube’s algorithm is quite complex, and they certainly know what they’re doing. They will recommend videos for for videos like ones that you’ve already watched, because they want you to be on that platform. So if there are other realtors out there with the channel, and there’s a high traffic for search for your area, if they watched a video from another realtor about you know why they love living in this particular neighborhood, they will then get recommended a video if you put one out there. So I think if you’re from a small town, there’s there’s opportunity there because there may be less realtors out there with a channel. And like you said, DJ, there’s people that are relocating and moving all over the place these days as work has become more more flexible. So I would say that if you’re from a small area, you should certainly make a channel if you’re from a from a larger area, you have such a higher number of people that are that are searching for for your for your neighborhoods for your for your city named Monterey, for example, where I live, it’s a town of 30,000 people so it’s it’s a smaller community and my channel in the last two years has gotten over 120,000 different views. So I kind of relate you know, the time and the effort that you put in I can’t think of any other source where I can come across 120,000 views. I don’t know how many hours that would take to go door knock and cold call to get 120,000 People Pull, or how much money you’d have to spend in mailers to do something like that. So once you make these videos, they’re out there and they accumulate more and more views in each each day that you have those videos out there. These are more potential viewers more potential clients. And you know, the email I got yesterday from the person relocating from Japan, that came in at three o’clock in the morning. So you’re still you’re still even able to accumulate and get potential leads, even while you sleep.
D.J. Paris 20:29
And I think it’s a good point too, because realtor, realtors tend to focus on Facebook, Instagram, other social media channels, more so than than YouTube. Because it’s easier to create content on Facebook and Instagram, you can take a picture, shoot a quick video, or you know, just write a text post. And it’s easy, it’s fast, it’s easy, but, and I haven’t looked at the numbers lately. But last I checked, people who are for example, if you have your own business, if you’re on your own real Real Estate page on Facebook, with a business page, you’re only the people that have chosen to follow your page, you might only every time you post, about three to 5% of that audience is actually going to see it, which is pretty low percentage for people who have chosen to follow your stuff. So if you think well, Facebook’s where all my friends are, and I’m gonna get a lot of leads from there. And yes, you can and will. But only a small percentage of the people that are even choosing to follow you on Facebook are going to see that Toby brings up a really great point, you know, yes. Maybe you have other realtors in your area who are producing videos on YouTube. But I mean, how often does somebody just look at one video about an area when they’re thinking of moving their topis? Exactly right. When I go on vacation, I don’t just look at one person’s video about why you know what I should do when I go to, you know, wherever I’m looking at three or four different videos. And it’s always because they recommend one after you know as the conclusion of the other one. So you’re absolutely right. So whether you’re in a big a large community or more rural community, huge opportunity here. And let’s just before we get into the specifics, let’s talk about the the metrics, and I don’t know what what your you know, what you’d like to share or not. But if we put it what what has been the ROI the return on investment in, you know, you know, you’ve invested some capital and making these videos to actually do you don’t have to share numbers, of course, but can you share a little bit about, you know, the, the results that you’ve been getting from these videos?
Toby Fernie 22:34
Yeah, absolutely. And I’m kind of an open book. So I don’t I don’t mind sharing, this is a podcast, it’s meant to help people and encourage them for, you know, building their business, right. So the thing about YouTube, right, it’s a different social media platform, then you’ll get on Instagram or Facebook, where it’s more so entertainment, right. So those are, you know, you got the people doing the dancing reels where they’re pointing to the different, you know, ways that you get pre approved or whatever you have on those. But YouTube is more of a learning platform, right. So you have the ability to teach people you have the ability to connect with them and share different information about the area that you live in. The nice thing about YouTube is that it’s a free platform to use. So you know, the course I go over how to set up a channel, it’s free to set up a channel. So you can do that without any cost upfront. I also go over ways that you can set up a channel for for almost free, you know, you can do it on your iPhone, if you have an iPhone, you might just need a tripod, something to hold up your phone. If you want to invest a small amount of money. There’s there’s some videos I have on the course about how to set up a channel for $100 Maybe just with a microphone and lights. Or if you want to set up your channel for under $1,000 That’s how I initially started my channel. I wanted to start off my channel and see if I was gonna if it was gonna work out, right I didn’t know how successful that you could be on YouTube. I use YouTube all the time. So I figured that I would try it out. So I decided to buy a less expensive DSLR camera and start start making my videos just with the camera and a microphone and I was shooting outside so I had plenty of lighting. So that’s how I started it out. When I first started doing some sales, I thought okay, maybe I’ve caught on to something here. Maybe I’ll invest in upgrade some of my gear. I did buy a second camera, I bought some lights so I can can film inside and in my office. So I have invested some money up front but the nice thing is, you know whereas Zillow for example, you’re spending money 1000s of dollars every month to get leads. Whereas with YouTube, once you purchase that, that gear and that equipment, you’ve made that investment upfront It doesn’t cost me anything to make a new video and to attract new clients. So, to date, I’ve purchased some different cameras, lights, microphones, some stand And I also purchased a drone that I use for showing off the area for some of my videos or for my listing videos. So I’ve kind of invested in on the higher end, I would say that you certainly don’t need to do this you can invest as little as you want $0 If you want to film on your phone. So to date, I’ve spent $10,000 and all the gear that I’ve purchased for my for my channel, but I’ve got about a 28 to one return on the investment. So from my channel the last two years I’ve earned over $280,000.02 100,000 of that was in was in 2021 alone. I
D.J. Paris 25:38
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Toby Fernie 27:38
Yeah, that’s a great question. I would say that editing is the most time consuming portion of creating videos and putting it up on YouTube. And another thing just a side note, you can connect your YouTube with your Facebook and your Instagram. So when I’m uploading something on YouTube, I’m doing all three of those simultaneously. I have gotten some leads through my through my Facebook and Instagram, just from from videos that I was putting up on my YouTube channel. But when you’re making videos, editing, uploading, certainly the longest time period that you would put in, I would say it doesn’t take too much time to actually come up with your idea for the video and then shoot the video itself. So a couple of different options. And I go over this in the course one of the five modules that’s part of the course is all about editing. So it’s editing 101 I show people how to edit a video when I first started my channel, my first videos were horrible, I had no idea what I was doing. I had you know, no lighting, the microphone was bad and I didn’t know how to edit at all. So I found this software it’s actually called Wondershare Filmora nine sure in their in their tagline is easy to use editing software. So and that’s kind of how I would explain it, it’s easy to use even if you don’t have a tech or an editing background, you can use that iMovie if you have a Mac computer that’s a relatively easy to use editing software. So I show you how to edit it. So how to cut down to clip how to put text over your videos how to include music, B roll if you want B roll is when there’s a different you know image or video that’s playing over the main video. So if I’m trying to explain you know, this is what this neighborhood looks like I might include some bureau of some shots that I’ve that I’ve put in on my camera on my drone when I’m making those videos. And then the other thing is that you can outsource your editing so I go all about that, you know what are the pros and cons right so if you’re outsourcing your editing, there’s going to be a cost associated with with editing those videos. I think as I mentioned, you will certainly get more than your your ROI for if you’re spending money for editing or putting in some money for your videos. It will come back to you and the clients that you’re that you’re working with from your channel. So I’ll go over some different apps shins, you know, just ways that you can outsource your editing. So it’s just, you know, weighing your pros and cons, do you have the time? Or are you a realtor that, you know, maybe is trying to build your book of business? And you would like to, you know, learn how to edit and save money on that, or are you a realtor, that’s, that’s absolutely swamped. You can’t think of adding another thing onto your task list. And so I go over outsourcing ideas, and then also how to incorporate YouTube into your weekly schedule by time blocking. So making sure that you put it in there. For me personally, I think that one of the most, if not the most important thing as a realtor is new client acquisition. So if you’re, if you’re not finding ways to meet new clients and work with new clients on a regular basis, you know, you’re going to be struggling to make this a viable profession.
D.J. Paris 30:51
Yeah, and the I was just thinking, as you were mentioning, that, that since the market is has shifted, of course, not quite as active as it was last several years. This, I think a lot of realtors have some extra time right now that maybe they didn’t have in the last two years. And so this is a great opportunity, if you are in between clients, or you have more free time. And to really think about, you know, creating this and do you I have a question about comm. You were saying coming up with ideas is is actually pretty easy. I’m curious if you have a suggestion for our audience, I have a thought and I wanted to, I’ll give my thought first and I’d love to get your your thought. If you’re thinking well, I don’t know what what people want to, you know, want to find on YouTube, I would think about what a clients who are moving to the area ask right like so if a client’s moving, you know, what do they ask you? What are the questions that come up? Those are the exact questions they’re typing into YouTube.
Toby Fernie 31:56
Yeah, I try to put myself in the shoes of somebody moving to the area all the time. Right? What questions would I have? I moved to Monterey myself around seven years ago. So what questions that I have, you know, if you’re from the area, think about questions that your clients who have moved to the area have had, or if you’ve moved somewhere, put yourself you know, back in the in the time that you move, what were you thinking about? And those are often the types of videos that I’ll put together, I have kind of two different categories of videos that I put together. One is more so lifestyle. So you know, what are the best restaurants? What are the pros and cons of living in the area, the cost of living, best things to do, you know, coffee shops, bars, all those different things. So I put together videos for all those different things on the channel. If you’re worried about time, I’ve shot some of these videos just directly from my office. And so I will, you know, talk about my favorite restaurants and say, you know, here’s their address, and include some some photos that they you know, have on their Instagram, right, so talking about that. My most viewed video to date has over 20,000 views. And that’s just a restaurants video, and I didn’t even leave, leave my house to shoot that video. So that’s one category of videos, that’s the one that will draw in a lot of different viewers to your channel. And then I also do a real estate content, right? So I want people to know that I’m a realtor, I want them to know what it’s like to work with me. So I will do market updates. So I’ll do a market update every month, you know, look at home sales, what are current homes active on the market. So these are things that you should be doing already as a realtor, right? So you should be looking at the inventory looking at home sales. So you can you know, help buyers and sellers cop out home sales. So a lot of the work that I’m already doing on a day to day basis as a realtor, I’ll just turn it into a video so another video that I started doing so I can I try to put out a video once a week. So another series if you will, that I started putting out along with the monthly market update is I will do a weekly what’s new on the market. So I will talk about that. Yeah, so I actually do a screen recording I will pull up you know in Monterey is a small area. So maybe there’s you know, 25 new homes that hit the market that week. So I will pull up the different listings and I will do a screen recording. Again, these are all things that I talked about in the course and show you how to do step by step I’ll do a screen recording of those different listings talk about the listing where it is the number of bedrooms, bathrooms price, and I’ll scroll through some photos from directly from the listing it’s there’s no MLS violations to do that right it’s it’s just information that’s out there on the internet. So I’m scrolling through and then I will you know show a breakdown of the houses from from most affordable to most expensive on a weekly basis. And then each time that I make a video at the beginning and at the end of the video I’ll share my contact information and say if you’re thinking about moving to the area you’re looking to buy or sell, that they can reach out and connect with me so it’s content that I can put out on a weekly basis. Again, you don’t have to leave, you don’t have to go anywhere, you can do it directly from your office. And hopefully it’s things that you’re already doing on a daily basis as a realtor.
D.J. Paris 35:12
Do you ever? Yeah, I love that. Because it really requires probably little editing a little, a little amount of editing, tiny editing, because you’re really screen recording, you’re going over facts and figures, a few pictures here and there. So it’s, those are probably faster to produce, I’m guessing than some of the where you’re going on location somewhere to, to shoot. But do you do that sometimes when you’re? I’ve seen Realtors do this where they’ll do I see this more on Facebook and Instagram, where realtors will be on a showing, or maybe it’s a listing of theirs? And they’ll say, I want to, you know, walk you through the house? Or do you now do you incorporate those as well? Are you more about information that people want when they’re moving in? Versus here’s my new listing? Check it out?
Toby Fernie 35:55
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think that you should be incorporating video into your listings as well, a recent stat that I saw, which is kind of shocking. And I saw it through home light, which is you know, a website that collects data about real estate and realtors, it said that 51% of buyers are starting their home search on YouTube looking for their realtors, that alone that thinks should encourage realtors to get on YouTube. And then it also said that 73% of sellers want to work with realtors who are incorporating video into their marketing for their for their listings. So you know we’re in the modern age, people want to see video, they want to see, you know, the neighborhood, they want to see, you know, digital walkthroughs of the houses so they can put themselves in there, plenty of people who purchase homes in Monterey might do it sight unseen. So you got to include all those, those different things in your marketing, I do include videos of walking through, you know, listings, if I have colleagues who are okay with me doing video walkthroughs, I’ll do that. I think it’s something that people are very interested in seeing. It’ll draw a lot of traffic and a lot of views to your channel. If there’s a new housing development, and they’re willing to let you, you know, tours, some of the different models and you can just do this on your on your iPhone, you’ll want to get what’s called a gimbal. That’s something that helps to keep the camera steady as you’re walking around. Because there’s a lot of shake, when you know when you have your camera lens, and that will be distracting. But if you can do tours of listings, if you can do tours of new housing developments, those are going to get a lot of different views. And it’s things that, again, these are qualified viewers who are interested in moving and thinking about purchasing in your area.
D.J. Paris 37:36
And you mentioned the gimbal which by the way, for those that don’t know is as Tony mentioned, it’s something that that’ll keep your phone or your camera steady as you hold it. So when you see these videos of people holding what looked like maybe a selfie, stick it and you’re like how does the camera say so they must have these these pans of steel, which is you know, really what it is, is they’re using this thing that that compensates for it. And it’s by the way, a gimbal is kind of a generic term for the technology. And it’s actually you can you don’t have to spend much money at all did I’ve seen gimbals for like 30 $40 up to hundreds of dollars. So it’s it’s interesting is like, Oh, you can make your your, you know your video really steady, even if you’re walking through somebody’s home simply by you know, spending 50 bucks, which I think is such a cool thing. So I’m glad you gave us that point. I want to also real quickly talk about the website because Toby is now teaching this he’s mentioned in his course the website is video number four so video for real estate.com video for real estate.com And tell us a little bit about what you get and, and some of the content.
Toby Fernie 38:49
So I tried to basically explain from from A to Z, right? If you’re if you’re brand new, if you’re a novice for making videos, you’ve never shot a video before. How do you go from you know, setting up a channel itself right? So how do you set up a channel, I’d share some analytics and information about you know, the the way that you should name your channel, how you should label your videos with titles and go over how to make a thumbnail, which is the front image on a YouTube video, because you want to try to once you’re making these videos putting in the effort putting out good content, then you have to figure out how you’re going to distribute it and get it in front of the most amount of viewers. So that’s the course is broken down into five modules. The first one is all about how to set up your channel. Then I’ll go into the gear that you’ll want to purchase if you’re planning to invest some money for your channel. Again, I’ll go over some options of how you could do this for free. One of the videos on there is how to set up your channel for $100 or under $1,000. So we’ll talk about cameras, microphones, lights, gimbals standards, things like that, that you might want to invest in for your channel. And then I think the you know the Eat of the course, if you will, is I have two different modules that are all about the content that you should be putting out. So I have spent countless hours doing research and figuring out, you know, what are good videos, what are videos that are, that are frequently searched? What are videos that are going to attract buyers and sellers to your channel. So I go over different videos and share you know how successful they’ve been on my channel, I include outlines and scripts, so you can make your own, it’s going to help you save time on making a video, so you can print it out and just plug in information about your market to replace the things that I’ve put about Monterey. And then I have examples of those videos. So what do they look like? So it’ll help you save time and making those videos. And then I have another module that talks about distribution. So how do you get that out in front of the most amount of potential clients? And what do you do in terms of following up with those clients, once they’ve, they’ve reached out to you. So it’s kind of my two years of knowledge and experience, the mistakes that I’ve made and things that you can avoid, and I kind of put on my former teacher hat, because I do enjoy teaching and working with other realtors and helping people. So it really just is a breakdown of how you can start finding success and attracting clients to your channel on a consistent basis.
D.J. Paris 41:23
And I’m curious, when you started your channel, how long did it take to get because you were you always doing weekly videos when he first started.
Toby Fernie 41:32
So at the beginning, it was certainly not as easy to come up with ideas and content to put out on my channel. Some of the videos like the monthly market update that I do and the what’s new on the market, those are easier to do on a weekly basis. If there’s information in the news about real estate, right when rates were changing, or when you know those at a time when people were getting offers, you know, way over the asking price or now that the market is changing and shifting and slowing a little bit. I’ll do some videos out there about that. But so it’s just it took me a while to figure out a groove for how to make those videos. And so that’s some of the information that I share on this channel. So you can figure figure that out. It took a while for me to start, you know, seeing results and success from the channel. I would say it was months before I had anybody that reached out to me from the channel. And so that you know, you have to invest the time you have to it’s more of a long term investment in play rather than than expecting to get these these quick, easy leads right up front. So it’s going to take a few months for you to start, you know building momentum and having YouTube recommend your videos out there to viewers. But now I get usually about three high quality leads a week that are coming in from from the channel.
D.J. Paris 42:51
A curious one last two last questions. One Well, I I’m just trying to think the order to ask these but I’ll just ask them. So I’m curious, because I know you have a funny story about the first lead that you got from or the first reach out that you got Do you mind sharing that?
Toby Fernie 43:06
So the first call that I got, I had been making videos for a few months and you know, putting out some videos like pros and cons of living in the area and real estate updates. And the first call that I got actually missed the call and they left a voicemail. It was a 10 minute rant of this person saying how he didn’t appreciate the pros and cons video that I had put out about Monterey sounded like he was a guy that had lived in the area for a long time and just told me that you know, people don’t talk like that around here. And you’re you know, you’re not from here, and and what do you know about Monterey. So that was a very interesting 10 minute voicemail that I got, sent that out to some of my friends and colleagues. And it was an interesting first first call that I got. And then I actually got my first actual lead a week later. And I picked up the phone this time and somebody said, Oh, I just saw your cones of Monterey video and I thought I was going to have, you know, this person upset with me and I was getting ready. Okay. All right. Let’s hear it. What’s it what’s it going to be? And then he said he was actually from Pennsylvania. He was thinking of moving to Santa Cruz, which is about an hour away from my market, came across my channel saw some information about living in Monterey and had no idea about Monterey. And it was actually the first time they did come across it. So he said he was now thinking about moving to Monterey and asked for me to kind of share some of the differences and similarities between Santa Cruz and Monterey. And that was the first person who ended up purchasing with me, he purchased a near $600,000 home in the Monterey area. And so that was again somebody moving from from Pennsylvania he was moving here for work, didn’t know anybody didn’t have any connections or any realtors in the area. And so that was the the first lead that led to a successful sale.
D.J. Paris 45:00
It’s It’s amazing. And I’ll my last question is, how often do you end up getting leads for people that are moving to other areas? Does that ever happen? Where even though you’re creating content around people who are wanting to live in your community? I’m curious if you ever get leads for people who say, well, or I live in Monterey, and I’m moving somewhere else, and I came across your stuff? Does that ever happen?
Toby Fernie 45:25
Yeah, that’s a great question. It has really opened up in the area that I practice real estate the YouTube channel has, you know, when I first started my, my primary sphere that I worked with was was teachers from the home buying seminar. So it was often people that were purchasing kinda in the lower end of, of homes in Monterey County, just because it’s it’s difficult to afford on that on a teacher’s salary. So I’ve been opened up to a different type of clients, people that are that are looking in the surrounding areas. So I have some sales that I’ve done in Santa Cruz, which again, is an hour away from where I live. And then I currently have a listing that’s in San Jose. And that was somebody who came across my channel, San Jose is about an hour and a half away from where I live. And they are selling their home in San Jose, and then also going to be purchasing one. And so we’re in contract for a million dollar house in Monterey. And then their house is listed for for over over a million. And then the largest largest sale that I’ve done to date has been from the YouTube channel. It was somebody who he was initially interested in Monterey, and I helped him look at some houses in Monterey. But there were more so looking for new homes, and there aren’t too many new homes in the Monterey area. So he decided to shift and look up in the Santa Cruz area. And we have been working together for probably six months. And he called me on a Saturday out of the blue and just said, Hey, I went through an open house in Santa Cruz this weekend, love the house, we’d love to put an offer in on it. And that was a $2.5 million home. So it’s kind of you know, opened up to a new group of clientele. I think if you’re somebody who came across my my website or my Zillow profile, and you saw that I was mostly doing homes in the you know, in a certain price range, maybe you wouldn’t think to work with me but you know, the the channel, I think by providing free content and value to people, you know, they’re not then turning around and looking and seeing your sales history. They moreso want to work with you, just based on on how they’ve got to know you from the channel.
D.J. Paris 47:26
Well, Toby, thank you so much for coming on. Again, I want all of our listeners and our viewers to go to Toby’s website and consider investing in his YouTube for realtors course, his website is video, the number four real estate.com Again, video for real estate.com We actually have a coupon code for all of our listeners to get 25% off. So please enter the code real r e a l and you will get 25% off of the off of the purchase price. But boy, if I could get a return like you, in fact, you’ve inspired me as a recruiter, which I don’t practice real estate, I just realized nobody’s making recruiting videos meaning, hey, how do you choose a real estate firm? How do you consider switching real estate firms? Right, that’s the area that I play in. And I just realized nobody’s doing that. So I need to start kind of adding it on YouTube is good I, I will and I and you’ve inspired me to do that. So I hope we’ve inspired some other people to pick up your course and also start creating YouTube channels. Toby is what’s the best way someone can reach out to you if they’re interested in your course. Obviously, they can go to your website, do you mind sharing your email address with us as well?
Toby Fernie 48:44
Absolutely. So I have an email address from the course. So it’s Toby t o b y at video for real estate.com with the with the number four so you can contact me that way. If you want to see some more content and some of the videos that I’ve put out on my channel that one is called Living in Monterey, California. So you can take a look there I have my personal email address cell phone on all those videos. So yeah, feel free to
D.J. Paris 49:13
by the way, steal Toby’s ideas for your own area. Absolutely. Yeah, of course. So go to his just subscribe to his YouTube channel living in Monterey. By the way, we’ll have a link that’s up there’s a link to that in our show notes. Go pick up his his his course. Use promo code real for 25% off and boy Toby I’m I’m so excited that you did this and and congratulations on all the success. that’ll wrap up another episode here of keeping it real. We’re glad that Toby was able to come on again. It’s a good guy and he has a good good service there. And so please check it out. This is the year to get on YouTube. And and really, you know, start creating content that people want to see and watch those those leads start trickling in. And yeah, so on behalf of Our audience want to thank Toby for being present once again for the show did a great job, of course. And on behalf of Toby and myself, we want to thank everybody for continuing to listen and support our show. Please two things, go visit his website to check out his course and use promo code real for 25% off video for real estate.com. And sorry, Toby, did I say that? Yeah, that’s right video for real estate.com And please tell a friend pick a one other realtor that needs to start get on YouTube and send them a link. From this episode to your friend telling a friend is the best way you can help us continue to grow. So Toby, thank you so so much. I will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks, Toby.
Toby Fernie 50:41
Thanks, TJ. Appreciate it.
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