Welcome to our monthly feature, Close-ing Time – in partnership with TheClose.com.
Chris Linsell from TheClose.com discusses the new features that TheClose is preparing for their followers. Chris goes on to talk about what’s happening in the news world and focuses on housing numbers for 2021. Chris shares his tips for buyers and sellers based on the current situation in the market and the predictions for the near future. Chris and D.J. discuss the importance of bringing ideas to your clients and how this will help build your relationships.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Chris Linsell can be reached at chris@theclose.com.
This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
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. Their 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.
Welcome to 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 today is our monthly series called closing time with Chris Lindh sell from the close. Now this is a partnership between keeping it real and the closed.com Let me tell you about the close. close.com is the kind of real estate website designed to give agents teams and brokerages actionable strategic insight from industry professionals. They cover real estate marketing, lead generation technology and team building strategies from the perspective of working agents and brokers who want to take their business to the next level. Please visit the closed.com That’s th e c l o s e.com and peruse their articles subscribe to their newsletter so you get notified each time they publish one of their long form deep dive articles. Now with us as always is Chris Lynn Sal. He is a staff writer and real estate coach for the close. Chris is the closes resident expert on real estate topics ranging from marketing lead gen transactional best practices and everything in between. He’s a licensed agent in the state of Michigan. Chris has been part of hundreds of transactions from modest rural starter homes to massive waterside waterside compounds. And when he isn’t writing, you’ll find Chris fly fishing or performing on the stage of his community theaters production. Now let’s press Welcome once again to keeping it real. We’re excited to
Chris Linsell 2:48
have you here. Thanks for having me back. Happy 2022 We’re in it where it’s here we started.
D.J. Paris 2:55
We are at Happy 2022 to you as well. And we actually we had to reschedule this one of Chris’s children was had a nasty cold earlier this week. We’re glad your daughter’s feeling better. And we are glad to be able to have bring you back on I know. Of course children just just throw a monkey wrench. Yeah, that’s in the works.
Chris Linsell 3:16
That’s the truth. You know, it’s funny, it’s just a little just a little cold everyone is everyone’s happy and healthy. But somehow my family my I have two daughters and my wife, the four of us have managed to avoid COVID Thus far, we feel like we’re in this like elementary school dodgeball game. And like the front lines are really thin and out so every little cold and cough and sneeze were like, oh no, oh, is it common for us? And we’re managed to stay healthy. And we’re still still COVID Free and feeling good. I know a lot of people are struggling with that right now. But you know, we’re moving in the right direction. And I think I think everyone’s moving in the right direction right now. It feels like numbers are going going where we want them to go at least for the time being.
D.J. Paris 4:04
Yeah, I always think about the teachers that especially at the well I don’t know if it matters what grade children are in, but boy I just like these teachers and they don’t get paid enough to be really on the front line. Yeah, but invisible war. Truth. Oh, boy. Well, I’m glad glad you guys are healthy. I had I just same thing I my girlfriend came down with COVID in December and really through our holiday plans off but she’s fine. But the fact that I didn’t get it and we live in the same house. or I shouldn’t say house it’s a small condo that that I didn’t get it. We have two bedrooms thankfully. But is is just dumb luck and I don’t know I it’s it’s also confusing right now. How to how to be safe and and watch. I had a guy come into my office yesterday. He used to be a Realtor with us he kind of left The industry for a while and when to come back. And he just immediately reached out to shake my hand. And I had to think about it for a second and go, boy, that’s kind of a bummer. I had to think about whether I could shake this guy’s hand and yeah, and that’s just where we’re at maybe handshake should just be done away with altogether. I don’t know. But. But anyway, it’s a strange world. But we are not here to talk. COVID per safety protocol, although it’s on all of our minds. Yeah, at the time. But let’s talk about what’s going on in the real estate market. I know you have a couple of things that have caught your attention.
Chris Linsell 5:31
Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, I’m
D.J. Paris 5:34
sorry, Chris, before we get to that, hold on. Oh, yes, sir. Because I’m gonna forget to mention this. And this is really important. Can we talk about a upcoming, the close.com has an upcoming sort of rebirth or rebirth? or new release coming up? Yeah,
Chris Linsell 5:47
yeah, we totally can. I, you know, I’m not sure exactly when this episode is going to air. But if you are a close.com, visitor, if you are a fan of Chris Lin, Sal and the rest of our team, you you, I hope that you come and check out the site. And it’s gonna look a little different pretty soon, I’m not going to spill the beans on all the details here. But suffice it to say that we have been so grateful at the close for the many years. And it’s amazing to say that many years at this point that we’ve been putting in hard work to create the best real estate content on the internet. And readers have responded to that. And we’ve grown our community by leaps and bounds. And it’s about time, you know, we were in our starter house, we had bought early, we were in our starter house, we you know, we were kind of getting our getting our family in order. And you know, what the family has grown. And it’s time for us to level up to the next house. And so we’ve got a website redesign that is going to be really exciting and show off some really cool new features to close users. And again, I’m not gonna get into specifics you’re just gonna have to watch for it’s gonna be somewhere towards the beginning of February and man Oh, man, it’s it’s pretty awesome, guys. So make sure to check out the clothes.com. In fact, come every day, we got new stuff happening every day, come check out the new articles. And just you know, towards beginning of February, Bada, bing, bada boom, you’re gonna have a new site to look at. It’s It’s pretty awesome.
D.J. Paris 7:20
We should also mention too, that the clothes dot coms content is really pretty unique in the industry, where it’s hyper focused on really, it’s almost exclusively helping agents grow their business. It’s not really trying to replicate Inman for what’s going on in the news, although you do talk about the news. But a lot of it’s like deep dives into, hey, we took a look at every CRM out there that that’s that you might know, here’s what we think. And here’s a deep dive into, you know, each lead generation, you know, provider out there, and here’s some scripts that still work and, and conversations that are beyond, hey, five tips for an open house, which which we see a lot of that more superficial content elsewhere. And it’s really prevalent, because it’s easy to write, it’s easy to write some of those list based, you know, small shallow style articles. And the closed doesn’t do that they have real journalists, they go deep, they go wide, and their articles are long and not so long that you can’t, you know, get to the end because you’ll be really captivated by how good the content is. So this this is I really want to make a sort of plea to everyone listening, that our show is about helping you grow your business, the closers got the exact same model, please. And if you want to get notified about when the new site goes live, subscribe to their newsletter, they’re going to, I’m sure send something out. When that happens, you’ll be the first to know, boy, the content is just that good. They have just, I’m somebody that’s written for magazines over the years different publications. It’s not my full time profession, but I’ve been around enough full time professional writers to know they have they have great content, and it’s really excellent. So check out the course. Okay.
Chris Linsell 9:10
Thank you, DJ, thank you. No, I just, I
D.J. Paris 9:13
believe it and I believe it. And it, I get a lot of great ideas that I pass on to our Realtors at our at our brokerage here in Chicago, because it’s the best content I can find. So it just that’s just the truth. So anyway, let’s talk about what’s going on in the news news world today.
Chris Linsell 9:32
Well, okay, so a couple of a couple of interesting numbers. There’s a lot of things happening, a lot of things happening. You know, like, and I’m gonna just throw out here there’s a couple of headlines that you know are gonna catch your eye but not as much substance or a lot of effect behind it like Adam Kontos one of my favorite CEOs, he’s leaving REMAX and and moving on to other projects. That’s a that’s a that’s a story I think. He was a great leader at REMAX. It’s not going to have a huge effect on on most agents business. But there are some things that are more than just headlines that I think are big deals. Like for instance, we had some housing numbers released for the month of December. And the fact is, housing inventory was down 40%. Relative, I think it was about 40%. Year over year, it’s the lowest inventory levels that we’ve seen, in a long time pre pandemic, for sure. And when you think about the number of homes that are available, is now I mean, in a real way affecting sales numbers, this is something that is going to really have a true impact on real agents business. In fact, sales for the month of December were down nearly 5% adjusted for holiday behavior. And it wasn’t because buyers weren’t interested, it was literally because they didn’t have anything to buy 5% a 5% drop in sales is significant, especially when you think about the size of the of the communities that you’re working within, you know, you think about the number of sales that happen in your individual market. Anyone who’s listening to him, If you eliminated five out of those 100, it’s not just five transactions that don’t have Commission’s on them, which is obviously a real thing. That’s five families who don’t have a house that they that they would have before. And it’s because there’s just nothing to buy. That’s a pretty significant drop.
D.J. Paris 11:45
It is and in addition to that, with the inventory, sort of being at a at a real serious low, and of course real estate’s hyperlocal. And everyone listening might not care so much about national numbers, they’re more interested, of course, in their immediate, serviceable area. However, we also have on top of that, we see rates are starting lunga rates are starting to creep up. And they’ve made a bit of a jump. So there’s this feeling of urgency, I think that you have these buyers that are ready rates are still pretty low, and yet they’re struggling to find property.
Chris Linsell 12:20
Yeah, that’s the truth. And you know, frankly, there is there’s even even that even what you just discussed there is is maybe a house built on shifting sand, frankly, because mortgage rates are already I mean, there’s in the last the last the middle two weeks of January, as we’re recording this, rates have gone up pretty significantly relative to where they were even a month or two ago. And that’s going to continue to go up and the Fed has announced that we’re going to see at least three rate hikes officially in 2022. And we still have, you know, kind of market response hikes that will happen as well. In fact, there are I read an article on CNBC this morning that posited that something like 5 million 6 million American homeowners who were in a position to save money on a refinance, but haven’t gone through the process yet have basically lost that opportunity at this point. And so, you know, what we have right now, I think what’s important to point out, we’re pointing out, you know, identify these rate, the rate moves and you know, kind of volatility, the low inventory, and a third number, which I’ll throw in here, which is that rents are higher than they have been in a long time. In fact, we’re seeing rent, rent increases nationwide, and not just in the major metro centers. We are are beginning to see, the I don’t even want to call it the beginning of it is it is the kind of the second and third chapter in the book of a housing squeeze. That isn’t fun anymore. You know, there is there is something about a really competitive seller’s market that can be really fun, to some degree, because you’re like, Wow, I can’t believe things are selling for this high. There’s my everyone’s so excited and there’s so much intensity and we get in so many offers and and it’s just a really, you know, kind of big bam, boom kind of time to be in the business. We are approaching the chapters in this book where it’s less fun, because you’re seeing real impact on people being unable to take the steps in their homeownership journeys that are necessary to leveling up their lives and the next chapters in their prosperity, that that isn’t fun anymore. And so as real estate is we have to be cognizant there. This isn’t A, we may be approaching a sector in this market kind of curve, where we’ve got people who are not not smiling or laughing anymore. It is there are some real effects happening on the people that matter in our communities.
D.J. Paris 15:16
So as an agent as our listeners, yeah, what, you know, now they’re sort of aware we have inventory shortages, they, you know, I’m sure our listeners are, you know, they’re to live that each day we’re seeing rates creep up the average 30. year fixed is now around what 3.6 3.7%, which is still amazing, but not as amazing as it was when it was in the the high twos. So there’s, we you mentioned the Fed, you know, going to be possibly, you know, hiking rates up to three times this year. And there’s a bit of a race against the clock. So I guess, if you have sellers, there’s still that, that excitement of the urgency of, of putting it on the market and selling it. But then you have to deal with the buy side with the person’s family’s next move and feeling the struggle there. So what how would an agent use this information to just adjust their business to sort of adapt to this condition,
Chris Linsell 16:16
these versions? Yeah, there’s a couple of things I would say the first thing is, if I am a listing agent, I would be talking to my clients, specifically the ones who are who have a home to sell, but have you know, decided for one reason or another that it’s not quite time yet, or they’re not the you know, they they want to wait around and continue to see what happens. What we are seeing right now, especially with the way that rents are moving and and interest rates are moving, it is likely. And of course, I don’t have a crystal ball here, but it is likely that buying buyers, you know kind of ammunition and power is going to start to decrease over the next year or so. And what this means for sellers is the the scenarios that we’ve been enjoying over, especially over the last year, where we’ve got basically buyers who are willing to do just about anything to get into homes, the number of things that they can do is going to start to decrease. And so you are, there will be a time a tipping point where you won’t get the top dollar that you could have gotten January 2022, who knows exactly when that will be. But my suggestion to the listing agents right now are have the strike while the iron is hot conversation with your sellers, and talk about as many opportunities and options as you can I mean, if the if it is purely a financial move, you know, lay out the case for you know, here’s here’s why you should be considering this now relative to three or six or nine months from now. If it’s a we don’t have a place to go kind of move. You know, I am telling I’ve told listing clients over the last six months, right now might not be the worst time in the world. For you if you have a like a region that you want to be or like a geographic place that you want to be. Consider the idea if you have the wherewithal of selling your home right now, banking your proceeds from this renting for two years, or for a year and a half. And then shopping at the end of that that period. Because you have right now you have a lot of power on the sell side and the buy side, it is pretty challenging, I have a feeling that’s going to be switching here pretty soon. So if you want to take advantage of your of your power right now, bank those proceeds rent for a little bit and then start shopping and a little bit, you know, a year and a half, two years down the road. This is not the strategy that works for everybody. But these are these are things that listing agents can be talking about, on the buy side of things. I am telling buyers right now, to start thinking about how you can make your offers competitive relative using relative terms that are not just about price. How can you how can we structure offers so that it isn’t just the number that makes your offer stand out to sellers? So I’m talking about terms you know, do you have the opportunity to do certain amount of cash that you wouldn’t be able to do before I’m talking about possession? Can you offer your sellers extended possession after closing to make it the most convenient possible transaction in their world? I’m talking about covering closing costs I’m cutting I’m talking about a pray He’s little gaps, I’m talking about all of the different ways that you can, you know, kind of apply an extra layer of garlic butter to the top of that offer so that it is the most appetizing thing that your seller will see all day. The The time has come for us to kind of get our buyers out of the gladiator ring of price wars, and start being a little bit more thoughtful with the other terms that we can offer. Because frankly, that’s where that’s where the the the bidding wars are eventually going to be one because buyers buyers, you know, power in the market is going to start to slip here pretty soon
D.J. Paris 20:39
as rates climb up. And, you know, we should also talk about just just another sort of addition to the or another variable to this sort of equation of challenge for buyers, is inflation. Inflation is raised, it’s what’s driving our rates. But inflation went up 7% I think it was last year. And I think traditionally over time, historically, it’s about 3%, on average, somewhere in that neighborhood three to 4%. So it’s it’s basically doubled in one year. Inflation, of course, is the costs basically the cost of goods and services is, is really the best way to think of it the average, you know, employee gets what, like a 3% Raise a year. So if if you only and again, everyone listening here is probably an independent contractor realtor who doesn’t deal with salary. But you know, even if you got a 3% Raise last year as a salaried employee, you really still lost quite quite a bit of money because of inflation is outpacing you know, even raises. So there’s just a lot of sort of confusing factors. But I loved your idea back onto the the listing sort of side or, you know, I think Chris’s idea while it sounds like yeah, most most people wouldn’t go for the I don’t know that most people wouldn’t go for it. But maybe it wouldn’t be as as achievable for a lot of homeowners to sell a property, rent for a few years, and then go back to the market to buy. That’s regardless of whether someone does that. From a fiduciary perspective, it is a very valid option. Whether or not it works for them. There’s a lot of reasons why it might not. But boy, that’s an excellent sort of conversation to have, and one that would really, in my opinion, you know, really make you seem valuable to someone. I love the I love when someone brings me an idea whether I want to do it or not, of course is up to me. But I found in life that very few times in my life does do the service providers in my life come to me with ideas. You know, my my accountant doesn’t really come to me and I love my accountant. But my account doesn’t say here’s a great way to save a bunch of money next year, I have to do my Oh, maybe I don’t have an accountant. But no, I love my accountant. But you know, my attorneys don’t my attorney to say my financial advisor. Yeah, they sometimes do. But generally speaking, this is an opportunity for you to you know, even just say I’ve got this idea at first, you might sort of wins from it. But I want to go through it and just explain why it’s not maybe the the worst idea for you guys to think about or if you have people that own a home, that aren’t thinking of selling, now’s the time to talk about that inventory is down. And there’s just a lot of good conversation here. Whether it results in a transaction, I think is up to the gods, but what it what it, what I think it should do and would do is at least have the customer the client think, wow, my persons coming to me with an idea. And that means they care to some extent. And it just makes you look like a professional and most agents would never think of that. On the buy side. You know, I think just having some some of empathy around what the customer is going through, there’s a tremendous amount of stress with when there’s a low inventory for buyers. I mean, it’s just stressful, they they have to make decisions faster, they have to overpay, in a lot of times to be competitive, the agent is stressed because now they have to think about creative ways to get their offer looked at and accepted and in some of the suggestions you have. So it is it is just stressful all the way around. And I think this is a great time to realize it’s most stressful for the customer, whether it’s the buyer or seller, and I think empathy, compassion. And just being there to hear the client is is is probably the one of the most valuable parts of being a realtor. For some agents. They love that part. Others don’t. But I think I think most most people are probably a little freaked out right now.
Yeah, well, you know, one thing that I agree with you i There is a lot of kind of wide eyed, no blinking conversations happening with clients right now. But one thing I think is is a silver lining that a lot of consumers are maybe glossing over and agents really should be bringing this up right now is, despite all of the craziness that’s happening in the market, one thing that homeowners one, one significant level up that homeowners have, right in this moment, is most of them have a significant increase in equity if they have a mortgage on their property due to these incredible price spikes. And even though I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of people who have missed an opportunity to refinance to save a lot of cost. That doesn’t mean that these people have missed an opportunity to do something with this equity. In fact, there are there are people in fact, I’m doing it myself right now I was able to refinance, save a little money via a lower interest rate. But the the real value that I’m doing here is I am literally pulling some equity out of the house to do some renovations and some projects. I am you know, obviously increasing my loan amount via this this equity poll. But my payment is staying exactly the same, it is dollar for dollar, the same amount that I pay every month. And now I have money to do projects with and that’s great because I’ve got a young family who breaks stuff all the time and we need new carpet and it is a it’s a necessary part of of maintaining sanity in this house that now I live and work and spend 22 hours a day in which is great. I love it. I’m not complaining
Chris Linsell 26:48
if my wife was listening, I love this. And but what if there was the the other opportunities here, if you’re not going to do projects, is if you can pull 5060 $70,000 of equity out of your house and not change your natural change your your payment, you have an opportunity to then turn that money around and put it back to work for you in the form of a down payment on an investment property. maybe partner with somebody on purchasing an Airbnb, I have two two close friends slash clients who did this exact same thing than this in the last 90 days they have taken cashed out equity, put a downpayment together on an investment property, the the investment property Airbnbs for far more than what they will pay for the mortgage for us and their debt to income ratio. What they will use to you know what their mortgage officer will use to evaluate their next loan when they’re ready to move out of this house and move into the next house. You know, personally, their debt to income ratio has improved because they they are cashflow positive on something that people really want right now. We have equity is a powerful tool. And it isn’t just for home renovation, though that’s a powerful part of it too. We’ve got it right now homeowners across the United States have moved higher equity levels than they’ve ever had before right now. And so this is still a big opportunity for people who own a home so agents if you have clients who own homes and frankly if you don’t have any clients that that don’t own homes, you’re not doing this right like this is these are your people here reach out to them I don’t care if they bought their house six months ago, I mean the the equity jumps that are happening right now. Like I honestly I had to call the appraiser to double check that I was sent the right report when we got the appraisal back on our house because I couldn’t believe how much it had jumped even just in a year. So right now there is an opportunity agents you can be the fiduciary for your clients by bringing them these opportunities and by creating for them chances that they can use the wealth that you put in their pocket via your counsel of the purchase of this property, use that wealth to grow it into what can be a generate the start of generational wealth to pass on to to you know spouses or to family members or to whoever is going to inherit that. That doesn’t happen forever. This the equity levels relative to loan levels. These fluctuate based on market values. The iron is still hot so agents snapped to it right now is the time.
D.J. Paris 29:55
Yeah, and you know, just sort of thinking about Zillow. As as so prominent in just American daily life as being the number one most visited realtor, sorry, sorry, consumer facing website. Realtors of course use it as well. But Zillow, you know, they’re they’re known for really one thing above all else, which is their Zestimate. And we might be hearing some through the, through the invisible airwaves, some, some collective groans for realtors who think that estimates are off off base, whether they are or aren’t isn’t really the point. But that’s what consumers do look at. And so if you aren’t, if someone is looking up their home to see what Zillow thinks the value might be worth. And we know more consumers visit Zillow by a multiple, by gosh, I don’t even I mean they they get over 200 million unique visitors a month, I think at this point. That’s where people are going to look to see what the value of their home is. And you know whether Zillow is accurate or not, that’s where people are going. And so you I think you have a real opportunity, even also to do some farming, where you know, going into a neighborhood that you’ve seen some appreciation, maybe looking on Zillow, and si si just taking a look go to a neighborhood that you’d really like to have more more of a presence in, you know, look at the last time the home was sold. Look at what the Zestimate is right now. And if there’s a big jump there, I think for me, that would be an opportunity to put a letter together to that homeowner say Hey, I didn’t know if you’ve noticed, but I believe your home’s appreciated quite a bit. I’ve put I’ve run some comps for you. I know we don’t I don’t you we don’t know each other yet. But if you’re interested in having a conversation about what your home is currently worth, maybe even versus Are you looking to sell, we’re just talking about, you know what, and as Chris mentioned, here’s maybe something if you’re not looking to sell that you can do with the equity right now. And these are all really, really great secondary marketing tools, in addition to being you know, providing real value to your customers, it’s a huge opportunity just to let people know what’s going on. And I will tell you, they’re they’re just going back to my initial point about so few people in my life ever bring me an idea. Now at work I get I get that but but outside of work in my personal life, geez, it just unless I’m talking to a friend at a party, and they go, Oh, I got this new cool thing, you have to check it out. Or, you know, I got a pellet ice machine recently, in the last year, and I don’t know if you’ve ever looked into pellet ice. But there’s a great New York Times article about it years ago called pellet ice is the good ice that I read that I went, Oh, I know what pellet ice is. It’s the best. But so so whenever people come over, I talk about it. But it’s kind of a silly example. But the point is, is every single person I talked to about paradise doesn’t doesn’t really know about it until I explain it. And then when they try it, they’re like, oh my god, I have to get one of these, these little machines. The point is, is you can bring those types of real estate ideas to your customers and find a way pellet ice machine would be a great closing gift for
Chris Linsell 33:06
you know, anyone I’m just gonna shout this out right now. I know DJ, you guys don’t have have kids. But anybody who’s has a partner who has given birth to a child in a hospital, they no chips, the the pellet ice in the hospital is like it is manna from heaven. So I know about the pelletized that’s a great idea about the closing gift. And I you know, DJ what you said, I think, man, I mean, I know I don’t write the headline for what goes on this episode, or on each episodes, but I’m just gonna throw it out here. This is the theme of this episode is be the realtor who brings ideas, be the professional who don’t, don’t wait for people to call you. Okay? Don’t wait for somebody to sit back or to show up in your office and say, I have a specific problem that I need you to solve, those people are still going to come and those are still people that you need to serve us obviously. But you are going to set yourself apart by being the realtor who comes with comes to people with the ideas that you are the person who you are, you’re standing up for your clients and it shows them that you’re thinking about these people. In fact, you know, I know I know, we’re starting to get towards the end here, but I just want to share one of the one of the things that I talk about with coaching clients, it’s a way it’s actually one of the central tenets that I I coach, with with agents and with teams specifically about how to create these not just professional relationships, but these these, you know this this, this feeling of responsibility that your clients feel like you are you are you take your your professional representation of them very seriously that you’re responsible for that the term that I always use that I coach people to use, and it works like a charm is, I was thinking about you this morning. I was having coffee in a coffee shop and I was thinking about you this morning. That’s all you have to say that the phrase I was thinking about you this morning, I was thinking about you before I got started with everything else you were top of mind. And something triggered in my brain a reason that I needed to, I needed to call you I needed to reach out to you, it doesn’t matter what follows that next sentence or that statement, I was thinking about you this morning. Because whatever it was that that first half of that sentence is going to create an opportunity to connect that your responsibility for their well being with you and with the care that you provide. So be the agent who brings things don’t sit back and wait for someone to bring them to you. You be the bringer. You be the agent that says I was thinking about you this morning. I guarantee you, your business will go up into the right if you take that pack.
D.J. Paris 36:04
Yeah, I couldn’t I couldn’t agree more. And that was so beautifully said I’ll just tag on to that something that one of our monthly guests. Joel Schaub, from Guaranteed Rate says almost every episode and and I have to remind him to keep saying it because Because he’ll he’ll oftentimes say, Gosh, I say this every time it’s probably boring. I said no, it’s it’s it’s such a great thing. But he just says givers givers get givers get, and it’s not just about giving your time during a transaction, of course you should and you and you ought to, and you will and and all of that, but But giving to the people that aren’t yet selling consistently reminding them why they should choose you. And by the best way to do that, you know, there’s there’s ways to do that by sending them you know, a magnet with you know, the local sports teams scheduled for the year there. That’s one thing you can do, I guess. But boy, I would much rather have somebody say I’ve got an idea I was thinking about you have an idea. I don’t know if it makes sense for you or not. But I feel like it was I should at least tell you, I’ve seen this work, or I’ve been reading about this. And just um, I would love that. And and I know I would love that in my life. And every year around tax time, like I, I go to my accountant. And you know, we’re now starting to get all of our tax materials together, most of us probably are starting to accumulate those receipts. And the W nines are the only twos. And so you know, it’s that time of year where you’re like, God, is there anything I’m missing? Is there any strategies? And if you’re like me, you go to Google and you start looking around? Is there more things I can deduct that I just don’t know about as a tax law changed? The so I can take advantage of certain things. I would love it if so I would pay somebody, you know, to call me and say I got five ideas for you for taxes this year. And I know my accountant is excellent. But she’s got hundreds and hundreds of clients, she’s not going to be able to do that. Realistically, it’s like your insurance aid. My insurance agent who I love does not call me and say I got an idea how you can save a little bit more. With I call her she’s she’s great. But does she have time she has 2000 clients. Of course, she’s not going to call me I understand. So but boy, I would sure love somebody to call me and give me an idea here and then and they would win all of my business. They would so So Chris said it perfectly. I think that’s a great place to wrap up. I know we were also going to talk about lone wolf, we can maybe we can talk about that on our next next episode, how they have become just a powerhouse in the in the tech space. Most of us have probably touched some of the tools they use, or they own or they develop. And we certainly can have that conversation on next. The next month. Yeah, next month’s closing time. So for what, of course, remind everyone to please visit the clothes.com this is just an amazing resource. Deep Dive articles long form articles written by real journalists who really do their research and talk to companies who are providing certain certain material and then evaluating them and giving agents great ideas. Oh, by the way, like 99% of the content on there is free. There is a subscription based model where you get even additional content you get coaching opportunities, and that’s called the close Pro. Do you mind giving a quick explanation of the close Pro?
Chris Linsell 39:16
Yeah, absolutely close Pro. If you are a if you’re interested in going even deeper in what the closed has to offer, we have the closed pro it’s a like you said it’s a subscription based premium service. real the real feature and function of the close Pro is to provide agents with not just quality content but next level presentation incredible resources and really access to experts in a way that you really don’t get in any other place. So we have a ton of like I said courses we have a huge resource library my favorite course right now my favorite close Pro training course is the Facebook and in digram Crash Course for agents. It’s a fantastic video training course, there’s a ton of written material that go with it, there’s so many ways that we can use this course to level up our social media. You know, the clothes ran a big study at the end of last year and said something like 86% of agents felt like their social media was still not on par. And this is a great course to get it to get it to where it is functioning and actually generating business. So if you find if you’re if you’re in that, in that, that situation with your social, closed pros got great stuff to check out. And frankly, there are, they’re just a ton of day to day, week to week, month to month benefits for being a close pro member. So it’s cheap, 39 bucks a month, or $199 a year. And you get more of the weirdest beard in real estate, which by the way is trimmed up, I’m looking more like you and the beard department here. I just kind of figured out how to get my hair to look like that. And then I’ll basically be brothers. Yeah.
D.J. Paris 41:06
Well, I still find it so incredibly odd at 46 years old that I have actual blonde hair. I feel like it’s so it’s so weird. And I you know, it’s, it’s, yeah, it’s a it’s a weird, weird life, for sure. But I like both our beards, our beards look good. And, and Chris is just such a great guest on the show. So please, if nothing else, just to support Chris and the clothes go visit the clothes.com. And by the way to subscribe to the clothes Pro. It’s what like a couple of dollars a day at most. It’s less Yeah,
Chris Linsell 41:42
easy, easy. It’s super cheap. I mean, we’ve we kind of thing is it’s really it is really an opportunity for you to for folks, you know, if you’re looking for video training, if you’re looking for checklists, and downloads and social media templates and and boot camps and access to pro coaching on demand. And it really is, it’s a no brainer. So we’d love to see you here at the close. We’d love to see you at the close Pro. And I just love to see. So come follow us come join the communities. And again, DJ, thanks a lot for having me on today. I really, I always look forward to chatting with you, buddy.
D.J. Paris 42:19
Well, us us too. And on behalf of all of our listeners, we think of viewers, we thank Chris for taking time out of his busy day and being a father and a coach and a writer, too, and a real estate agent to take time to share his wisdom and thoughts and observations of the real estate industry. Also, on behalf of Chris and myself, we thank everyone for listening and watching. And please, if you want to help us continue to grow just two quick things, one telephone, there’s got to be another agent, you know that that would love to get to that next level, or just wants to have better information about what’s going on right now in the real estate world. Send them a link to this episode, they can find us at keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done, can be streamed directly there. Of course, you can find us on any Podcast Directory app as well. And then also, if you are listening through some sort of podcast app, whether it’s well now it’s called Apple podcast, formerly iTunes, or if you’re with you know, Google Play or Spotify or Pandora or Gosh, a Stitcher or any of the other podcast delivery systems. Leave us a review. Tell us what you like about the show and tell us what you don’t like we’re okay with that. We want to know that. In fact, in some ways that’s more helpful for us because we continue to improve the show is to is really meant to do nothing other than to help you grow your business. But we need to know what you think. So let us know give us a review. If it’s going to be a one star review, just email me privately instead. And I’m teasing, you can give us a one star review. I think we’ve only had one or two of those. And that seems reasonable to me. But but please let us know what you think of the show and write us let us know what other guests you’d like us to interview. But thank you so much for listening. Thanks, Chris for being on the show and we will see you next time. Thanks, TJ.
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