Welcome to another episode of Coaching Moments With Ryan D’Aprile from D’Aprile Properties!
In this episode Ryan D’Aprile introduces Deidre Rudich from his company as a role model of a coachable agent (who is also crushing it as a top producer). Deidre discusses the beginning of her career and shares what she does consistently to keep in touch with her sphere of influence and also her prospective clients. Deidre focuses on the importance of telling your clients the truth in the process of buying/selling and how that has impacted her business. Last, Deidre discusses how she educates her buyer clients about the current market.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Ryan D’Aprile can be reached at 312.590.6416 and ryan@daprileproperties.com.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
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Hello, and welcome to keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ parasite. I’m your guide and host through the show, and today is our monthly coaching moments episode with Ryan de April. Now if you’re not familiar with Ryan, or if you’re new to the show, Ryan comes on every month to give our listeners and our viewers a coaching moment and a coaching session. So let me tell you about Ryan Ryan is a progressive thought leader focused on providing for his agents and staff at depot properties. His strengths are his motivational skills coaching style and his dedication to training. He has 14 offices throughout Chicagoland and is also in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan with hundreds and hundreds of top producing Realtors depot properties is a coaching company with eight strategic coaches who work week in and week out with every agent individually focused on business planning, coaching and accountability. If you’d like to take your career to the next level, or if you’re just not getting the attention you need check out D APR properties visit D APR properties.com. That’s da p r i l e properties.com. Welcome once again, Ryan.
Ryan D’Aprile 1:51
Thanks, CJ. How are you?
D.J. Paris 1:52
I’m good. I’m good. I’m excited to speak to you. It’s been been a while and it’s exciting. The weather’s getting a bit warmer for probably most of our our audience. And, you know, we’re rolling out vaccinations, which is exciting and seems like we’re starting to get back to some normalcy. Yeah, it’s
Ryan D’Aprile 2:11
it’s around the corner. I feel like I like no going back. I think I have mine on Friday. I’m getting my vaccination.
D.J. Paris 2:18
Nice.
Deidre Rudich 2:20
I have mine on Saturday. My first one.
D.J. Paris 2:22
I need to get one. I haven’t been able to book by him yet. But everyone else in my families is that it done? So I’m I’m actually traveling to see them in a few weeks. I’m going to try try to get it but if not, Oh, well. But yeah, so So what do we want to talk about today?
Ryan D’Aprile 2:38
Sure. So you know, obviously, for our listeners, we’re all here to share best practices in mind share and whatnot. So what I thought we’d do today is I have one of our real estate agents come and join us. Okay, and Deidre is a wonderful person. She’s a great friend. And she’s a hell of a real estate agent. She’s been doing this for five years now, in the business and her career total is over $125 million in real estate sold. Last year, she she hit $37 million in production, and that is for the listeners. That is DIYers personal production, that’s theater doesn’t have a team. And she’s out there she is in she’s in SLO with her network. She epitomes of she’s the epitome of coachable. And I think one of the things that all of us have to think about is are we coachable or not. And, you know, tap or touch on a couple of those things and what works and the whole purpose behind this is for you know, our listeners here to be inspired, be motivated and get some knowledge sharing out of this. They can apply to their day to day business, right?
D.J. Paris 3:44
Absolutely. And I almost wonder how what percentage of Realtors in their fifth year have a 30 plus million almost $40 million year, it’s got to be less less than 1%. And just truly, truly remarkable. So congratulations and welcome Deidre to the show. We’re excited to have you.
Deidre Rudich 4:02
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Ryan D’Aprile 4:04
So let’s go down memory lane excited for this moment this. So I want to go back to like when I DJ, what you what you talked about is a wonder how many agents in their fifth year hit a $37 million production? Yeah. For all those years. I want you guys to really hang on to these words that I’m gonna tell you, that is simply a choice that you make. Anybody can have it once. You’re great. Yes. It’s not. It’s not rocket science. Right? No, it’s following a system and be dedicated following your system. I mean, yes. Well, what are you talking? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah,
Deidre Rudich 4:42
it’s following a system.
Ryan D’Aprile 4:43
You know, something the teacher also has, that is really important. Is drive. Yeah. And, and she’s also and I don’t mean to embarrass you here, but you know, she’s, she surrenders. She’s coachable. She’s humble. I know what you’re saving for. Yeah, I’m gonna compliment you. But you know, all those things take into place. This is a highly emotional business, isn’t it? Yes. Can we tend to cry over transactions? Not really? Yeah, but it’s it’s not easy. No, it’s everything is important for the listeners here that somebody’s at your level. And you’re high up there in production. Yeah, you know, we have moments of Unreal and it and it gets you crack 100%. Yeah. It’s called being a human. Yes.
D.J. Paris 5:35
And right now, in particular, it can be really difficult as an agent, if you’re working with buyers, because the multiple offer situation is so real and so prevalent that agents even really top producing agents that I know are like, constantly frustrated, because of course, rates are so low, and everyone’s looking to purchase and there just isn’t a whole lot of inventory. So. So I imagine, you know, life is still stressful. But you’re obviously persevering and doing well through it. And we’d love to hear, you know, sort of how you’re managing all those expectations from your buyers and sellers.
Ryan D’Aprile 6:08
Yeah, so let’s talk about that. So I wonder where we should start with should we should we start there? Should we talk about the agent how she got to where she is?
D.J. Paris 6:18
Yeah, let’s go all the way back to the beginning. I’d love to hear your origin story, how you got into real estate and how you became successful.
Deidre Rudich 6:26
Okay, um, I got into real estate right now I have three boys. When I got into real estate, my youngest was six months. And middle guy was two, two and a half. My older one was
D.J. Paris 6:37
- So you had a lot of free time, you were not that busy.
Deidre Rudich 6:42
Yes. And it was going to be that encouraged me to get my license. I live just a few blocks away from them in western spring. Wonderful. Oh, I did it. I got my license. I think I got him I got my license. I took the class in fall, took the test and started you know, right out of the gates, right with your dental office.
Ryan D’Aprile 7:07
Add I’ll share I don’t remember the exact number. But her first year in real estate. She had like three transactions, three or four transactions. And yeah,
D.J. Paris 7:16
which is, which is pretty good for a first year. I mean, that’s not bad at all.
Ryan D’Aprile 7:20
Right? And the reason I bring that up is because I coach so many agents and you are looked at as a pinnacle. And you’re like, Well, I’m like, Well hold on. When she started she did two or three deals. Yeah. But just stayed true to what she needed to do and sticks with it consistently. Which for if you are a repeat listener and you come back in the podcast, you know what isn’t a talking about what’s well, we’ll go over that and yeah, so we encourage Deidre to to get her license. You know, a couple things that I noticed about Deidre one is her drive. Yeah. Essentially, listeners here. I think a lot of us are afraid of success. And we shouldn’t be because I believe the more success you have, actually, the more freedom and quality of life you can have. So I think she’s a great example of that. She’s also connected. You know, Kevin Bacon is right, sure. The seven degrees of Kevin Bacon, sure, there’s seven degrees of de jure a chair. And she is feel really wonderful kind person, but she has a hell of a network. And she really couldn’t practice that the philosophies and the exercise that we do to take advantage of that. And she’s passionate, you know, teachers, very passionate person, and that comes out, you know, when you work with her. And I think there is nothing more you want out of life, especially, you know, if you are a parent for your children and be passionate about what you do. It’s showing you’re very passionate.
D.J. Paris 8:56
I’m curious, because in your first year, you did three or four transactions, which which we know in the industry is actually a pretty a pretty decent first year, however, it doesn’t feel good to only do three or four transactions in your first year. So I when I when I say that I want to make sure that we all understand that, that the first several years of any real estate businesses is pretty trying It’s difficult. It’s you’re building, you’re ramping up, you’re you’re doing all the activities that are eventually going to pay off. So I’m curious is how you stayed motivated. With having Did you feel that that was a Were you happy with that year as a first year? Or was it was it a little stressful to think, oh, is this ever going to change? Because I know so many of our listeners are maybe at that stage and they’re like, how do I get to that next level? And I’m just curious if you could go back to that time and remember what that was like?
Deidre Rudich 9:43
I just kept at it. I think I just I got it. And I remember what you say is I’ll have agents that get to the eighth month, and then they stop. They stop putting the policies after the open house and I just have to keep doing it. And we were just talking about that. mindset, we went to this mindset, workshop workshop. And literally the next day I bought a journal, I bought just some things to write down goals and to write down gratitudes every day. And then we didn’t in job maybe a year later, and that, like, really put everything in perspective, it was everything that I was learning at April, and then just magnified through ninja. And I just kept, it was not easy. Like there was times where it was not easy, you know, financially and it was stressful, but I just I kept going and then it just kept chatting.
D.J. Paris 10:39
And as as a as a mother with young children. I can’t imagine, you know, your time you have some real serious time constraints, because of course, well they always that’s that what’s that saying? If you want to get something done, give it to a mother because they get so much stuff done. So event, the fact that you know, you I just assumed Oh, she must be single, she must not have children, she must be have all the time in the world to get to 37 million. No, you’re a super busy producer, and you have a busy, you know, private life as well. How do you manage both of those things? That being that you’re not on a team? You’re doing it yourself? How does? How are you able to manage all of that?
Deidre Rudich 11:16
You know, I don’t know, I I figure it out. I’m grateful I get support from our office like, sure. My marketing assistant, I get a lot of support there. Lindsey, just everyone in our office is really team based. My husband is a big supporter of my business. I don’t know. Well,
Ryan D’Aprile 11:36
let’s talk about the title question here. Okay. Um, did you find when you were talking about trying to get more work or less work
Deidre Rudich 11:46
way more work for me?
D.J. Paris 11:47
And if so, when you were you you went when you participated with team activities, you found it to be more work than being a solo practitioner.
Ryan D’Aprile 11:57
There was a time one year and a half ago, where you know, a lot of agents think about well, I’ll start a team. Sure. There’s a book called The Millionaire Real Estate Agent. I think there’s a big part of that is that the reason they have a lot of that it’s out there is because it takes the weight off the managing broker, and is attributed to that team leader. And definitely, it’s always the best, and I coach everybody to what they want. And I care a lot about the individuals that we deal with. And when I see people take on teams, you know, think about it, think of a triangle. Okay? Think of a triangle, triangle, okay, and I run a company. So I’m at the top of the triangle, let’s just say that turn the triangle upside down. And that’s what my life is like, and I love it. I’m passionate about it, right. I support everybody that lives in my organization. I have the support team and structure involved in it. Most people that get into real estate, we sometimes forget why we got in this state, we wanted flexibility. We want to be able more time with the family, we don’t want to go to work Monday through Friday, nine to five office job, we want to have unlimited income, and we start to achieve that. And awesome. Three years later, we see teams, teams, teams in history, and then down this path, and I think it’s self destructing. We’re working on like, so how’s the scene going? And how stressful was it?
Deidre Rudich 13:23
It was stressful. The people that join me were great. Nothing like love them both. It just for me. Maybe I have a little bit of control issue, and like managing people?
Ryan D’Aprile 13:36
Well, it is and I think and again, this is for the benefit of the listeners here. When you become a team leader, you have to understand you’re putting your business last season bringing people on our team to grow our business through their networks. A lot of people do that with their teams, she bring him to bring people on the team to support her. But then she has to give up three, four or five other things to then teach and educate where there are other ways to doing this business. And you know, the biggest part of real estate I believe in anything is you ask yourself, why? Why am I doing this? And if it is for the support, I truly think team and I have coached a lot of people in that have teams it is it’s opposite of what you think it is actually a lot more work for anybody to say no but it’s it’s it’s you have to you have to put yourself second. And you have to be developing all those people on team and what else are we gonna do with 30,000,030 7,000,040 5 million production this year? That’s a lot of money and in money is a motivator for you? Is it not? Yes. And a lot to put on the line. You’re that type of producer to build the team. And then the distribution of funds on the team happens and it’s weird to go down that path. It’s yeah,
D.J. Paris 14:59
it’s difficult you From being a, you know, a realtor to a manager or to a business owner in the sense of now I have to now I have to really run this business. And there’s multiple people involved. And you’re right, you put the business does, does kind of go, your personal business is going to come second to the team. And it’s just a totally different skill set to manage a company with employees, which is essentially what teams are versus just running everything yourself. And, and I always think that oftentimes people who are looking for realtors who are looking to to create a team might just be better served hiring some virtual assistants that can do some of the administrative tasks, which would free up more of their time, you know, if they don’t work for a company that can support them that way. But you know, even just hiring some some administrative people, so you can keep focused on what you do best, which is, you know, building your real estate business.
Ryan D’Aprile 15:54
So in your business, and it grows continuously in your career, what do you do to make your business grow? Are some of the things that you do
Deidre Rudich 16:04
postcards I do. I don’t know I do monthly postcards. I do postcards after
transactions. are you marketing, direct mail, email marketing,
D.J. Paris 16:18
and your postcards? Are those just to your sphere? Or are you are you a farming as well other like neighborhoods, communities, etc.
Deidre Rudich 16:27
Both farming and networking, it depends on it.
Ryan D’Aprile 16:30
Keep this next up geographical farm but she marks on a monthly basis at the same time she markets to her network. And she doesn’t digitally and Direct Mail Prints.
D.J. Paris 16:41
So email and mailers got it.
Ryan D’Aprile 16:43
And it’s ran on auto flow for her. So she doesn’t think about it just goes out. Right. Make sense? Well, the email and the postcards. So what’s the magic behind it? What’s the next thing to do?
Deidre Rudich 16:57
I really keep in touch with my past clients, current clients, my network like I think I believe I am I mean, before COVID That was I was that was a big party. You know, I have three boys different ages. So I’m lucky that I have a big neck.
Ryan D’Aprile 17:19
So why are you lucky because you have your voices to differentiate yourself? Because there’s so many different groups of people exposure to different networks. Yeah. Okay. And what percent of your business comes from your network? All of it? Yeah, it’s probably 90. Wow. Yeah. Either directly for network or network. Right. 10%. Farm leads and whatnot. Yeah,
D.J. Paris 17:41
that’s an that’s incredible. Within five years, that is an incredible statistic. 90% of your business comes from people either, who already have worked with you who know you and like you who haven’t yet worked with you are referred from people who like you, that that is truly a testament to your ability to stay connected. And so I’m curious. So, once COVID hit and we’re still obviously in the middle of the pandemic. How did you? How did you stay in touch? Obviously, we know you’re sending postcards, you’re sending emails, were you doing anything else to stay in touch? Were you calling people texting, commenting on social media, you know, what were sort of some of the strategies you employed,
Deidre Rudich 18:22
not doing via social media, but my business really ramped up to the COVID. It didn’t.
Ryan D’Aprile 18:28
But it ramped up to the two three years that she put prior. Sure, of course, you know, a lot of people were leaving space or just transit moving, moving, upgrading, downgrading, you know, I was getting hurt being in touch is not postcards anymore. So let’s just write that just. Yeah. So that’s the first thing, right? I like to send direct messages via social media to people, she text messages. I see her at her house writing handwritten note cards, or cards to people when she sees that they have a monumental moment in their life, correct? Yeah, I’m just hoping
Unknown Speaker 19:08
one day I did do Jurgen COVID Is I dropped dinners off for people. So women that I work with, who usually does my broker opens? You know, every week I’d say, Okay, I’m going to do these five dinners this address this address, and then I would go either I would probably to drop them off in my house and I would hand deliver on with it. No, I would let people know what was coming.
Ryan D’Aprile 19:29
Let me let me explain really quick. Oh. She said it’s for the listeners. This person because my broker opens what she meant is a caterer. Yes. She has a caterer that caters for both. So no, it’s
Deidre Rudich 19:43
great. So I would just, you know, drop off dinner for people. Sometimes I would drop off a little bottle of champagne just ways that people were down before. Thinking of ways I can engage with them and cheer them up or do something
Ryan D’Aprile 19:57
thoughtful for them as well. Do you really He cares about people, and incredibly important to understand that Rob listeners, okay, it’s the giver gating mindset that she has. And it’s interesting the scarcity and abundance difference in mindsets. And the people who don’t know Deidre might think that, who are the real estate business jealousy starts to occur, right? You don’t know this person because she will sit down any real estate agent, explain them, every single thing that shows the dealership and the business. This goes on beyond the real estate business. And she’s delivering dinners and card, she really cares now because she cares so much. A byproduct of that is an explosive explosive business that you ask. And it’s one of the traits I think any of our listeners here want to take in. It’s not about you. It’s about your network. And if you could just really focus on them, right. That’s what I love about social media. I don’t use it for marketing, I use it for researching my network, developing relationships. And if you could lead with caring and just thoughtfulness and the real, I mean, that’s like true to who
Deidre Rudich 21:07
I am. You know, like I enjoy.
Ryan D’Aprile 21:09
Oh, yeah, let’s talk about that. Real. No, it’s so true. Here, we acknowledged come full circle. Okay. Did you also tell you how it is whether you want to hear it or not, don’t tell you exactly how it is. So when there is a buyer, asking me an inventory shortage, okay. Deidre is not afraid of her clients. And again, this is for the benefit of the listeners, and you can debate it, right? She’s not afraid of her clients. So she tells the client, what to comment and when they need to write over? And if they say, Well, I don’t think so she’ll say, well, then you’re not going to get the house we did.
Deidre Rudich 21:51
We just went through it. This was a great client of mine, he wanted to come in, I don’t know $60,000, under where we went. And he had all his reasons. And I just said, Stop. Do you want this house? Well, yeah, like this, you’re not gonna get it with this offer? Well, I looked at you know, below, I looked at the price per square foot. I’m like, No, it doesn’t, then you must not want it must be an exercise we’re going to try.
Ryan D’Aprile 22:14
This is the exact language use story. I remember the first link dealer tuition billing us in the office. And I felt like she was talking to a client. Finally, you know, this is what it’s about the client, you’re in control, and she’s in control. Does that make sense? Yes. But she says, You don’t want that house? Right. So long story short.
Deidre Rudich 22:38
He said, Okay, let me talk to my wife. And he called me up and he went up, but not enough. He goes back enough. I said, No, we just went through this. It’s got to be this or you’re not gonna get and so he trusted me. He you know, she has that
Ryan D’Aprile 22:51
tone. And it’s not an impatience and your voice? No, you’re not going to get it. And again, this is for the benefit. The podcast is why real estate agents the best knowledge here, I’m not
Deidre Rudich 23:04
bashing on yes, you’re not hiring us to tell us. I’m not. No one’s asking me to represent them and to be a buyer or seller, to tell them what they want to hear. I need to be transparent. So they may not agree with me or listen to me, which is fine. I’m not doing my job. Unless I’m explaining it to women telling them straight up, you know, it’s, we can list your house at a million dollars. It’s going to trade at 750. But we can list where you want. But it’s you know,
D.J. Paris 23:31
yeah, I guess the the takeaway is don’t be afraid of the truth because the truth it creates number one, that’s really what most buyers and sellers it really what most humans ones when they’re dealing in these stressful situations, especially around finance and and making this big investment into a property is, am I am I making a horrible decision? And you know, we just want somebody to say, You know what, that is a bad decision or no, that’s actually a really good decision. And we just want we want the truth and so you shouldn’t be afraid. And Deidre, obviously you’re not afraid to tell your clients the truth that they probably that’s probably one of the big reasons why you’re so successful.
Ryan D’Aprile 24:10
It’s it’s, it is a is a reason why she’s successful in the transaction. Sure. It’s a reason why successful transaction she’s successful in business development, because of her passion and her dedication, essentially, my flaw affects people. I also want to talk about being aggressive and stuff like this, I have a little notes in the whiteboard. So looking over your lectures and listeners can hear business is not going to come to you. And there’s an element where you learn somebody in your network might be wanting to buy or sell, right. How do you handle that when you hear about that?
Deidre Rudich 24:48
I mean, the first time the first big list or one of the first big listings I got was a I would say a friend of mine. Now she’s one of my closest friends, and they had relocated their houses listed with another agent wasn’t selling. I was trying to give them information when I’m like, drop this off, go bring this to them, you know, all these things? No, no, I can’t do that assignment and don’t, you’re not going to get an exception. Okay, all right. And I have now done four transactions with them. And literally, our kids are best friends. And they are two of my closest friends. They have moved Western Springs to California to Hinsdale to Western Springs, and so forth.
Ryan D’Aprile 25:29
And you carry that through your process. Now, when you hear somebody is concerned and making the move, you go for the kill. Yeah, no. No, it’s just grabbing the house, pick up the phone going right for it, you know, and, and I want the listeners to hear it’s like, you, it’s our job and can’t think you can’t be worried. No, what is it success comes outside of your comfort zone,
Deidre Rudich 25:53
you got to get over yourself, right? Gotta get I gotta get out your own way. Or else you can talk yourself at any anybody can everybody well, there’s enough room for everybody. It’s way I am fortunate I get along with like, all agents, I have a really good relationship. So I don’t care if you do one deal a year or 500 million a year doesn’t matter. Everyone is on the same plane Do you know? So.
D.J. Paris 26:21
And as you know, as a consumer, I’m not a Producing Realtor. But as somebody who just went through the process myself of buying a property, I just wanted somebody to come to me and say, Hey, you’re going to go do that, here’s everything you need to know, I didn’t want to have to search out that information. Because I’m busy, I have a lot going on. So does everyone’s clients who are in the process of thinking about buying or selling. And so I love the fact that you were able to, you know, to race over to that first listing, even though they were they you know, had a previous agent, and just say I want to work with you. And here’s what I can do for you. I mean, it’s it’s funny, it’s not a sales tactic at all, it’s actually saying, I see that you have a need for this and I can assist you. And and I think it’s just so powerful, because as somebody who just went through it, I had to seek out a lot of this information on my own. And it really is time consuming. It’s taxing, it’s stressful. And I just love when people will approach me saying, I heard you doing this, I can help you with that. It doesn’t happen as often as as we might think, being that we’re you know, we’re all realtors, we’re thinking that people are approaching our network all the time, they’re probably not getting approached that much. Other than maybe they get a mailer once in a while from some random realtor they’ve never heard of. Right.
Ryan D’Aprile 27:35
How about do you charge? Yeah, yeah. Do you hold the line? Yeah, let’s talk about.
D.J. Paris 27:44
So if you didn’t hear that, Ryan asked her, do you charge what you’re worth? And do you hold the line? So we’re in an era where we know there’s discount brokerages, there’s discount brokers, there’s people that will do a listing for $500 There’s all sorts of ways to race to the bottom of the commission, sort of scale. Can you talk a little bit about how you have that conversation with your clients?
Deidre Rudich 28:08
I mean, it’s I’m full service. So it’s kind of computer work you get, you know, I’m not just anyone can stick a sign in the ground. Getting into the whole transaction.
Ryan D’Aprile 28:22
I explained that too long. I talked room and meet in person. Are you willing to walk away from something that somebody doesn’t want to pay? Yes, three years ago? No way. Now I’m like, moment, that’s the most important thing here three years ago, yes. Now no way. And it goes by simply real estate brokerage. You know, there are in fact commission programs like this for I we put what we put in to be payable paying, everybody has to fall into line into what their value is the reason being, all of us have Jerry Johnson feel listening. All of us have more money than we have time. Yeah. And we have got to understand that our time is most valuable thing we have. It’s not worth it. Let somebody else go work for free. And I’ve
Deidre Rudich 29:09
had people recently someone said to me, Well, if we buy and sell, are you going to do it for this? Or say no. She said, Well, you know, someone else offered to do them. So that’s great. It’s okay to go with them. I’m here to do what’s best for you.
Ryan D’Aprile 29:23
I don’t Yeah, you don’t have to so so if you if you go about this the correct way, you have an auto full program, you have a live for program, and you follow the system. There’s so much business out there that you can pick and choose. You’re always
Unknown Speaker 29:38
interviewing them as much as 100% and there’s revenue,
Ryan D’Aprile 29:43
but then there’s revenue and profit or revenue. I’ve worked my years for revenue until I said I’m not doing it anymore. My money my skill set is so much I’m holding the line in the morning will work in profit or revenue, but I do the things I need to do to do to grow my business, these are those things you need to do to continue to grow your business. You can let somebody else go through that. And I’m telling you, cliches are cliches for a reason because they’re true. No good deed ever goes unpunished. Right? No good deed goes unpunished, and you do it, you put yourself last you put your family last, it’s a time suck, and you are the bad person at the end of it and just not worth it. And with these cortical disruptors have been around for 20 years now that want to work at 100% discount, whatever they have done nothing like show the value that we bring to the marketplace is incredibly once you name
D.J. Paris 30:43
it’s a similar similar argument to where people Realtors sometimes get upset with some, you know, firms that that discount like like maybe a red fin, for example, or Zillow even. And what I’ve found in interviewing top producers from all over the country is that top producers aren’t concerned about Redfin, or Zillow at all, because they know the value they provide. They understand why they’re charging, what they charge, they’re able to communicate that and they have a string of happy clients behind them to say it’s absolutely worth it to hire this person. So I would say for anyone listening or watching and I would love to hear your guys’s opinion as well is you need to be able to vigorously defend what you charge and it doesn’t have to come from a defensive position. But you need to be able to say here’s why I’m worth is exactly what Deidre said, like, here’s what I’m worth, here’s why I’m worth this. And if you want to go with a discount broker, there’s many of them to choose from. But here’s why I charge what I charge.
Ryan D’Aprile 31:41
Right. You know, it’s such an interesting business. She brought up Zillow and Redfin in the same sentence, and I’m going to, if I can make clarifying, I’m sure we can for the listeners that are interested in this part of the business. Real estate brokerages and funny business Inman came out with a study and the average profit margin for a real estate brokerage is 3%. Now compare that to a profit margin corporate American 8.5% of the past 25 years. It’s almost 300% greater or corporate America company than a real estate brokerage. Now you have the traditional brokerages out there you have your Coldwell bankers, you have your Berkshires, you have your your REMAX to the world’s credit. Then you have your multi level company so multi level pyramid selling based companies. Those are the Keller Williams and exp, right? They’re very similar to like the pampered chefs, the Rodan and Fields, you know that the pyramids are selling, right? The average profit margin those companies have 3% or less, you have another big company coming into the marketplace compass. Okay, back to the CEO of Compass is the Chief of Staff of Goldman Sachs. And they went on a gigantic acquisition spree. They’re backed by SoftBank. They bought so many real estate companies since 2012. They did $3.7 billion in sales last year, when you saw that they lost $280 million in their final you know, set. Did you see that?
D.J. Paris 33:09
No, I did. I did not know that. So it’s
Ryan D’Aprile 33:12
interesting. Well, why would they do that? And then explain the industry to the listeners gets incredibly important to know about your business in your industry and what’s going on. Compass is trying to come across as a technology company. They bought Contactually. Why are they coming trying to come across as a technology company because they want an IPO? They want to get a valuation that they’re they’re not a technology company. They’re a traditional real estate brokerage, putting the lose money, like most real estate brokerages do Redfin is a disrupter. It’s got an amazing technology. I love their
D.J. Paris 33:44
technology, credible technology. Yeah, we have just
Ryan D’Aprile 33:47
made a mistake in trying to compete with real estate brokerages at lower prices and read things that may profit. Zillow is not competition. Zillow is not a real estate brokerage. Zillow is more profitable than all those companies combined. Zillow is customer agents and loan officers, they sell beats to them. If they want to get the brokerage business by all means go for it. I haven’t seen a company yet. You’re only making more than a 3% profit margin on it. So it’s really important. The reason I can digest and digress and went down this is I want people to make sure don’t put Redfin and Zillow in the same category. They’re two different things I recommend pivoting and selling leads. I think if they pivot sell beats and get rid of a discount brokerage business they actually might start making money but they’ve already IPO they got the valuation their Goldman Sachs back investors made their money and get out somewhere that might not be illegal, but that’s what’s going on in the IPO market. Companies don’t vet the public market. The stock market doesn’t value real estate brokers, they don’t value mortgage companies. That’s why Quicken Loans, which is now called Rocket Mortgage. Right? Because they’re a technology, some mortgage. Let’s just be real. Yeah, it’s
D.J. Paris 34:58
a lead. It’s a lead business.
Ryan D’Aprile 35:00
Yeah, exactly. That’s exactly what I so I am sorry, I went on a tangent, I think, you know, it’s important for listening because so many real estate agents were so scared at Zillow buying, showing time. Why it’s like the business, sell products to realtors, right. They’re not competition, residence competition, or discount broker, they are political or disrupt their their public trades, and they don’t even make money continuing to lose money. And it’s been going on almost 20 years. But it’s important for us listeners to educate yourself, on your industry. When is and again a day, we’re all that side, you’re running your own business, give what you’re worth, you’re not going public. Right?
Deidre Rudich 35:40
You’re not going public. You’re running your business, you’re spending time away from your family. Charge your feet, people I swear, they just sometimes like to ask to ask. I say no and 90% of them just move on.
Ryan D’Aprile 35:55
You would have to be educated as a real estate agent. Right? This is why coaching training continuing education is so what Deidre is a huge producer, she still surrenders and is comfortable. Going from 5% listing fee was 6% 1% with 50% of our business being with business, making cuts close to $20 million. That’s a $200,000. Bottom line swing for her huge, huge, and when you say multiple, just ask the question. And yes, and most Realtors just promos like, Okay, fine. I’ll work for free. Right? Well, realtors want to
Deidre Rudich 36:34
cross it off before they even get to the listing presentation.
D.J. Paris 36:38
Yep. And I’ve also found that and that the Commission question doesn’t come up that often if people like you know you and trust you, right, which isn’t always the case, when you’re meeting with a list, you know, somebody who maybe it’s a, you know, a referral, they don’t totally know you yet. But for people that are in that know, like, and trust close sphere, the Commission question probably isn’t going to come up that often. But you do need to be able to have an answer for why you charge what you charge. And while you’re worth that, and it’s should be pretty easy to defend, based on you know, what your track record
Deidre Rudich 37:13
is. Right. So, yeah.
D.J. Paris 37:16
So I wanted to go back to what’s going on. Right. And I just had a quick question that I started at the beginning, which was about right now, I know, agents representing buyers, it’s it’s stressful, it’s tough, because things are happening so quickly, money is so cheap, that everyone has more purchasing power than they did before. And there’s so many more buyers out there. How are you? Or what are you doing? What are you talking to your buyers about? How are you coaching them so that they have a good understanding of what’s going on, so that their expectation is not to blame you when a deal doesn’t happen?
Deidre Rudich 37:51
Um, you know, every buyer is different than from the beginning, right to new buyers that are building rentals right now. Just stay for a little bit you I mean, they’ve lost so many offers. And it’s because of like what you guys want. And what you want to pay are two different things right now. So you’re getting the same result just wait a little bit, or, you know, there’s not a minute to think I’m like, we can think during AI we can you know, ask all those questions, right? It’s accepted and like when we go through this house, we’re going to look a comp before we go, we’re going to be prepared and you know, sometimes you have to lose
Ryan D’Aprile 38:31
a few you show something that’s so profound and I love it. We could think during AI Yes.
Deidre Rudich 38:39
By the way, if you want to shout it out. Yeah, get it under contract and then during inspection during the tourney approval those five to 10 business days that’s an all those questions can be asked we can figure out a solution. Just right now there’s no time there’s no type of question. And it sounds that I don’t want to answer this question. Your you can figure it out that where you went today’s from
Ryan D’Aprile 39:01
the collections? No, okay. Okay, cool. So in today’s company call what I also told everybody in this market, right because we have these dashboards and look at pie charts, various business and most people’s businesses 80% active clients buyers, but there’s no inventory. Well, we talked about lifelong well when I you reach out to your network like she makes me dinner she writes cards and champagne. You know, you’re getting married, you’re gradually kindergartens and Labrador Retriever really nice things to reach out for domain sales. However right now people right now, there is no better way to make yourself look like a player. I’m going to refer to Terry Johnson, right? You can be a victim or you could be a player, right? A victim as well as me a player’s like, you know, I make things happen. I have a positive mindset. That’s what life is all about. Right? It’s like be a player in life. Well, right now it’s very difficult because I’m An agent, let’s say, and I’ve had more buyers than I’ve ever had in my life, and there’s no inventory. So I can go victim path and be pissed off. Or I go play a path and say, You know what, I wonder if the people in my network, I’m gonna text everybody one by one recorded with me like, hey, Trish, you know, I’m working with 15 buyers, in case you are already your friends or family who also may want to sell a home, would you please let me know I had put this in people in a hall. What do you just do? You made yourself look like a player to your network. So when the market shifts in the market will ship it becomes a neutral market and people start putting their homes on the market to sell what do you think they’re gonna say what’s called Moxie? Well, let’s call it and it’s called Deidre. She’s gotten all those buyers, we want to list our home. There’s silver lining to everything, you got to step back and like how do I Lamberg these opportunities to business and myself, position myself for tomorrow, this is the best time to communicate your entire network got 510 20 buyers knowing when looking to buy or sell a home. So when they think about selling, they’re going to call you.
D.J. Paris 41:09
It’s a great piece of advice. I love that and probably a great place to sort of wrap up this this conversation as well. And I want to just make a couple of quick points here that for anyone out there who might not be a realtor, and is looking to work with a Top Producing Realtor here in the Chicagoland area. Dieter, if they’re looking to work with you what would be the best way that a buyer or a seller or renter an investor could reach out to you.
Deidre Rudich 41:34
They can use my cell phone 8757608 Never website. Dieter rootage.com Jaipur properties website is super easy to use and super easy to find people for Google things, your routes
Ryan D’Aprile 41:53
are easy. There’s no DPI D rd, Google pages, which is called the website.
D.J. Paris 42:03
And for also anyone out there who is a realtor in the Chicagoland area. If you’re looking to see what other firms offer, the April properties might be a great fit for you. They have offices all over the Chicagoland area and in the neighboring states. And the best way to do that is just go to their website, Gabriel properties.com, and fill out a contact form and somebody from their team will reach out to you and tell you more about what they offer. And one of the big things they do is some of the automated marketing in addition to all the coaching and support, the automated marketing is really, really unique and powerful. And Ryan, do you mind just really quickly mentioning that before we jump off?
Ryan D’Aprile 42:37
Sure, yes. Um, so we will do the marketing for our agents will do the direct mail will do the marketing. We in every office, there’s a managing broker, but there’s also two three, sometimes four, office managers and marketing assistants, we make marketing local in the office. And we just let’s just you can do above and beyond. But we just want to be your baseline marketing for you consistently every month. Because when you’re when you’re faced with having to do it yourself, like there are real estate companies out there right now, I wouldn’t mention it, but they’re writing checks to get agents to come on board. It’s very dangerous, because that check will then just get into your checking account, and then you’re paying bills, fine. That’s gonna get you to bear in mind, but that money needs to be invested in the market. And that’s the point of marketing dollars for people. So what we say is, let’s just take it, let’s focus on you would spend four years on building a brand name because consumers don’t hire real estate brokerages, right agents in the agency, you got to continue and create a brand for yourself in your network in your community. I
D.J. Paris 43:45
couldn’t agree more. So if you’re interested in learning more about deeper properties go to do properties.com and on behalf of our audience did Deirdre and, and Ryan, thank you so much for coming on the show and really appreciate your insight and your coaching. And congrats Dieter on all the success you’ve having. It’s truly incredible and we wish you obviously the best going forward and on behalf of Deidre Ryan and myself. We also want to thank the audience for continuing to support our show. Please before you sign off, tell a friend think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from hearing these great interviews with top producers and coaching sessions with Ryan and send them a link to our website or you can just go right to keeping it real pod.com Or if the person you know listens to podcasts, pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real and hit the subscribe button. Other than that, we will see everyone on our next episode and Ryan we will see you next month and Deidre thanks for being on our show.
Deidre Rudich 44:40
Thanks for having me. It’s great.
Ryan D’Aprile 44:41
Thanks You
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