Welcome to another episode of Coaching Moments With Ryan D’Aprile from D’Aprile Properties!
In this episode Ryan discusses his firm’s competitive advantage in the market where he operates. Ryan and D.J. discuss what’s going on currently on the news and the state of the economy at the moment. Next, Ryan shares how he’s advising his agents on how to deal with upset clients due to the raise in the mortgage rates and also how he advises his agents to keep their emotional intelligence intact and be motivated in this very demanding market. Last, Ryan and D.J. discuss the importance of connecting with your network.
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.
This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
What do you say to your buyers when there’s little inventory and also rising interest rates? We’ll be discussing 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. 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 can buy real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show. Today is our monthly coaching moments with Ryan de April. Let me tell you a little bit more about Ryan, if you’re new to our show. If you’re not familiar with Ryan, he comes on every single month and gives our listeners and our viewers a coaching moment and a coaching lesson. And the reason why is right April is a coach. He’s also a progressive thought leader focused on providing for his agents and staff at deepwell properties. His strengths are his motivational skills, his coaching style and his dedication to training. And he has 14 offices throughout Chicagoland also, he has offices in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Florida on April properties focuses on high customer service, managing and executing their agents, marketing and transaction management for them, so that agents can stay focused on their business. I’m gonna say that again, because that was a mouthful, managing and executing their agents marketing and transaction management, the marketing piece in particular I love because so few firms actually do marketing for their agents. But if you’d like to take your career to the next level, or if you’re just not getting the attention you need from your firm, please check out D APR properties, visit D APR properties.com. That’s da p r i l e properties.com. Also the link in our show notes. Welcome once again, Ryan.
Ryan D’Aprile 2:54
Hey, thank you. Thanks for having me, TJ, how are you?
D.J. Paris 2:57
I’m good. I’m good. Can we just really, before we get into today, can you just talk about spend a minute or two on the really, I think your firm’s competitive advantage, which of course, you guys are an amazing company. But I think the thing you do that I don’t know any other firm that actually does is this idea of automating some of the marketing and the and the sort of stay in touch stuff with somebody sphere of influence. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because I just think that’s so cool.
Ryan D’Aprile 3:27
Sure, yeah. You know, so there’s a place for everybody, right. And there’s a bunch of different types of companies, a bunch of different types of models. You know, and as we’ve gone, and we’ve grown our organization over the past 11 years, you know, one of the things that I had, you know, a lesson I had to reteach myself over and over again, is, is focus on what you have stopped looking over your shoulder and looking at everybody else. And, you know, this interesting in this industry is so interesting, because there’s so much comparison going on all the time. And there’s so many people, actually businesses, companies that are fighting so hard to be number one and market share, and to be the biggest and, and, and whatnot. And our philosophy is, you know, we just want to be the best for the agents that are in our company. And, you know, people who feel comfortable in their own skin, you know, with the organization that they’re at, and we focus holistically on each agent, one agent at a time. We do know that 80% or more of everybody’s business comes from their network, either directly or indirectly. So
D.J. Paris 4:40
you guys have the data by the way, you have data to back that up. But isn’t it that’s actually true for you is 80% I think that’s worth repeating to our listeners, who again, I know this isn’t a new number that you’ve never heard before, but it’s an important number to remember is that 80% of your business will come from your existing net worth network. Sorry.
Ryan D’Aprile 4:59
Yeah, and so you know, there are a lot of tools out there, we have the tools, and every other company has the tools out there. A lot of companies position themselves as they got the technology for you to do the marketing, ours is we have the technology, but we also have the salaried employees that we trained to actually do it for you. So you don’t have to dabble around. Now, there’s some people that are, that really want to micromanage the processes themselves. And they do, they can do it with us or anywhere, we’re just the kind of organization like, let’s just take that off your plate, let’s handle the transaction management for you, let’s do the basic monthly marketing for you, you stay focused on your network and being in flow with your network. That’s, that’s kind of that’s, that’s one of our main value propositions, in addition to continually having events and when I see events, educational events, at the offices, on marketing, on how to network properly on, on and trans management on, you know, team building, if that’s what you want to do, right, there’ll be more of an individual one on one type of process on accountability. And so it’s, you know, we are not the largest real estate company out there, nor will ever be, and it’s not what we’re striving to do, we’re, we’re just kind of focused on to be that the company for the agent that’s at our office, that’s with us. That’s, that’s really, you know, break it down it, you know, it’s, I was, I think I mentioned to you on another podcast, you know, working with an agent, and marketing a big, multi, you know, double digit Million Dollar Listing, and and dialoguing with her, I’m like, Listen, you could be a one man real estate company, or the largest real estate brokerage in the world. And the reality is, once that listing hits the MLS, it’s on every single website across the country, right across the world across the world. And, you know, the real value is emotional intelligence, and the management of the process, the real value to the agent is, how do you get that business? And is it marketing? Or is it consistent, repetitive marketing coupled with, you know, making those individuals in your network feel like the center of the universe, you’re the one making them feel like that, so that when that certain percentage, which is 60%, every year? transacts. You’re the one that they’re coming to? That’s that’s what we focus on.
D.J. Paris 7:33
Yeah, I, I didn’t mean to derail us, but I just think I’m somebody who recruits realtors. And I will tell you, recruiting agents from your firm has never been successful in all the years I’ve not that we specifically go after your agents, but but we really well, and your recruiters, I’m sure come after. Yeah, I know. It’s everyone’s recruiting everybody.
Ryan D’Aprile 7:57
Yeah, exactly. It is.
D.J. Paris 8:01
But I will say that your office is is really interesting, because the idea that you do actually do mailers, email campaigns, you know, basically the, the repetitive consistent things that agents oftentimes just maybe don’t have time for aren’t particularly skilled at, I just think is such again, I, when I was when I started, we had zero agents we have, I don’t know, almost 800 now, and I’m not saying that to brag, because who cares? But the only reason I’m saying it is I’ve seen agents come over from every just about every other firm, at least here in the Chicago area. And I’ve not ever talked to somebody who said, Oh, yeah, you know, my old firm did all of that that for me. And I think that’s a really, really impressive value add and the coaching of course, I know that that’s probably the most valuable thing you do. But I also know that every firm says they do as they do coaching so I know that doesn’t know like a big deal. Yeah,
Ryan D’Aprile 8:55
look, I’ve got you know, 11 years in business and now we’re starting to start to really see the boomerangs come back. The ones that did get pulled away in this track and yeah, it is it is it is nice to hear them say I didn’t realize how much easier it was here. And you know, you leave people are like well, I think it’d be easier because they got this technology got this I got that and you realize well shit, they got it but I’m the one who’s got to do it. I’m like yes, we all have it. It’s all at our fingertips. I just want to have one of our salaried employees do it for you consistently and then and more than that, it goes beyond that. And it’s just in to each their own you know and whatever works best for anybody I have always had the philosophy is focus on the people you have. I am shocked you know I don’t know I am surprised and how we have these standards right and work that’s right you know of course we have to protect the consumer and and then I solicitations and everything else but how just how brutal the recruiting all the release is going on and it’s it’s so much noise in it. You I really feel like it affects the production of the agent more than anything else and takes her eyes off the ball. You know, just got to wherever you are, he’s gonna figure out is this mine? Is this my tribe, and this is my home and die. You know, I always try to tell our agents is, this company might be doing that, and we’re not going to, and don’t worry about it. Otherwise, we’re living to be that other company. And that’s not who we are. We’re living to be us. And so, you know, yeah, I got in the business because I wanted to be home for breakfast with my daughters. I wanted to be home after work, I wanted to trap I didn’t want to travel for work, I wanted to coach their teams and be around and I wanted to sell real estate, so I could be with my family. And that is true, too. Today, you know, I don’t want to be the next social media star I don’t want and that’s fine. If you do I’m not not gonna just, it’s not who I am. Right? I don’t want, you know, I’m not the real estate brokerage, you know, that’s going to have a party all the time. Afterwards, I look after, you know, after four o’clock, it’s like my days done. And I’m gonna go back, like, you know, like I was telling you earlier, I’m a big personality, but I’m an introvert. You know, I, I like my space after a while. And, you know, I got into our business, because I liked the freedom, I liked the flexibility. I think sometimes we get into the business, we lose our way and also become somebody that we weren’t, and we weren’t planning on. But if there’s so much outside influence that can mold us. Three years goes by, and also you’re somebody that you didn’t plan on being when you got out of the business.
D.J. Paris 11:38
Yeah. Yeah. And you have maybe not as much time as as you’d like. Because you’re, you’re, you know, you haven’t learned how to set appropriate boundaries yet. And I
Ryan D’Aprile 11:49
and I tell people to is like, really think hard when you talk about teams. You know, why do you want to have a team, I see individuals, I know who they are, or different organizations, I know what I know, at the core, you know, what their values are and what they want. And they think that a team and a team is great. If you do it, right. But they think a team is going to get in there as like, you’re looking at three times the amount of work that you’re doing right now as an individual agent. Yeah, you know, and there’s a way that you can partner up, but not the team, and that we could talk for hours about that.
D.J. Paris 12:24
Well, I will say one thing about teams, because I know teams are one of the biggest sort of buzzwords of agents, you know, right now, in the last several years in particular is like teams, teams, teams, teams are better than individuals, we’re constantly hearing that message. And there’s obviously an argument to be made that teams are stronger, in theory, to individuals. But what I’ve noticed, and it’s not about, I’m only referencing people who want to join a team versus who want to start a team. But people who want to join a team, because I talked to a lot of agents who are newly licensed. And that is almost exclusively one of their requirements, or something they’re looking for is I want to join a team. And I say, if you want to join a team to learn from a top producer, and really just become almost like an apprentice, like I think, Boy, what a great, great, great thing to do. If you’re going to a team because you’re afraid you won’t generate enough leads, and the team is going to help you build your business. I always say that might not be always the best reason to join a team if you’re going to learn, great if you’re going because it’s going to solve a problem of I don’t have enough business. Well, that’s where Ryan would love to say, actually, you probably have a bunch of business you don’t know about in your existing network.
Ryan D’Aprile 13:36
Yeah, we have a structured mentor program to help with that. I think teams are pushed and they’re pushed by our industry. And I and I truly feel that they’re pushed by our industry, especially leadership in our industry, because these companies have just eroded who they are. And there’s next to no profit in real estate brokerages these days, next to none. And and the leaders of all these individual corporations are causing this and teams are their outlet to give them the resources to manage people because they financially can’t afford it. You seen a lot in the multi tiered multi level marketing. It started in the multi level marketing type of real estate brokerages because they mean that team leader is essentially all of a sudden as a quasi managing broker, acting as a managing broker, what a typical manager broker does and typical trainer does. And the burden gets shifts off the brokerage to that lucky, quote unquote lucky team leader. And so I think that’s why you see it across the industry because the leadership in the past 20 years of our industries, I feel have done a great job of just running the ship, the nose of the ship of our industry into the ground, and it’s been a Race to Zero. I mean, just, it’s all up now. There’s publicly traded companies, you see what the numbers look like, you know, and it’s it’s all over the place and that’s why in my philosophy That’s why I think teams are so relevant nowadays. And I think it’s because the brokers just just don’t have the resources to provide what they definitely need because the business has been eroded.
D.J. Paris 15:12
Yeah, managing brokers now have to do so much that anything that can help take some of the, you know, their workload off, like training and support team via Taenia. Teams. Yeah.
Ryan D’Aprile 15:25
Yep. Team. Team team team. Yep. Tim, Tim, Tim. That’s how they that’s how they scale leverage. And so just as a real estate and open, especially if you’re gonna be a team leader. Yeah, well, let’s,
D.J. Paris 15:36
let’s talk about what’s going on currently in the news, because I always think it’s important for realtors to know what their clients are seeing what they’re reading, and then having some sort of response so that it gives them a talking point gives them a reason to pick up the phone. And right now, we know the Fed raised rates, biggest rate increase in quite some time, I forget how many years over nine or 11 years or something. But whatever it was, they raised that I think 50 basis points and half a percent. And so we’re seeing, you know, mortgage rates now in the fives. And the news organizations are capitalizing on this news, because if it bleeds, it leads. So there’s fun, negative sort of articles to write about this and how everyone’s freaking out the market tumbled today. And I don’t know if it’s still down, but it was down 1000 points. Mostly. And funnily enough, we had a jobs report come out today where our unemployment is almost at a record low in their country history. And we just added 428,000 new jobs, I think. And yet the market still reacted, mostly, I think, to some of these interest rate, sort of news, people are freaking out, which of course, buyers now that means buyers are reading this and freaking out. And we’re also in a low inventory environment in most markets in the country. So there’s not a whole lot of inventory rates are rising. So people’s purchasing power is has come down. So I’m just curious what your what you’re talking to your agents about? Or, you know, let’s talk about Well,
Ryan D’Aprile 17:08
I was Yeah, well, actually, I was just on the news on NBC five the other day, about talking about this exact topic. So and here’s what I told, Mike sous chefs key, I believe, I hope I’m saying his name incorrectly. Um, you know, interest rates are rising clearly. And I think they’re going to reach probably eight and a half percent by the end of the year, in my opinion. Wow. Yep. That’s just an opinion. You know, they say about opinions. But yeah, I really do. I think they’re going to be there. And I think I think they have to go there. I think the the government of the Fed is doing what they can to slow down the economy, and I think there’s not gonna be any soft landing, I think they’re gonna slam on the brakes. And I think we’re gonna go into recession. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. But I, you know, inflation is completely out of control. And, you know, the market is reacting to a number of things. And, and I don’t think it’s just the rise in interest rates, I think there’s a lot of flight to value right now, there. I mean, like, I don’t know, if you saw on Apple TV, we crashed, they lost $4.4 billion $4.4 billion last year. There are so many, quote unquote, tech companies, because we work so they were a tech company, they’re not a tech company. They’re, you know, shared office space environment. Yeah. And, you know, everybody, all these investment bankers backing these quote, unquote, companies become unicorns, you know, and what’s happening is there’s a flight to quality in in commodities. And these companies that have lost hundreds of millions and billions of dollars for the past decade have never made money. They’re the ones that are gonna have a real hurting, that’s coming their way. I feel, and I think it’s gonna be very similar to 2020 crash, and Warren Buffett was calling it back then I think he’s been calling it back now. It’s like, how can these companies work for this long and lose billions of dollars in cash? It’s, it’s, it’s mind boggling. And then people relate say, well, it’s Amazon. Well, it’s not Amazon, you know, these organizations, you know, and it’s even in our own industry. And it just, it makes you scratch your head. And I think there’s a lot of just poor fundamentals out there that it just the pendulum is going to come back to the center and as to, but I, you know, I think for us, as real estate agents, all that set aside, is people who are going to buy and sell regardless of rates. And, you know, put that to the side and, and you have to speak with your buyers and you have to speak with your sellers, and you have to ask them the most important question. Why are you buying and selling if you understand that, that’s going to be more important than logic. It’s going to be more important than logic. We all make our decisions based on emotion. And people get married people get divorced people have children, people upsize, people die. And there’s reasons for people to move on to the next chapters of their lives and we just have to accept it. And regardless of rate, they’re going to make that move. I mean, the price point might be different. But the move is going to happen. And if you understand at the core, what and why your client assuming that what why your client is moving, then you’re going to be able to best help them navigate the market and give them life advice as a friend, and help them walk through the process of this transition is what? And that’s what we do. So, yeah, I think rate rates are going to continually increase inventory starting to come on, I think we are leaving our quote unquote, real estate recession, which we’ve been in for four or five months, I think we’ll be coming into a real recession for the economy. But when that happens, I think the inventory is going to open up even more and transactions occur more, which is good for us as real estate agents, mortgage lenders, it’s a different story. You know, there’s a lot of lenders in the past two years that were doing 50 $60 million in volume, and learn to live at that lifestyle, when in reality, they might have been more of a $50 million producer because of those zero rates, environment that we were in for two years, never my life and and the President had companies 63 years old, he said never in his career, has he ever seen a refinance market, like we saw in 2021. If you’re a lender, and you don’t have purchased business, you’re not in the business anymore. And that’s just what it is. And it’s, it’s really kind of sad, see, there’s you know, in our industry, there’s layoffs going everywhere in the mortgage lending business. And, and only the best that and when I say the best, those who have real estate agent relationships are going to survive, quite honestly, and it’s not going to change for a few years, then there’ll be another refinance, boom, because you’re gonna go from 8%, down to seven, and maybe five, and whatever happens, right, I’m just giving us, you know, fake numbers here, just to, to make an extra point here,
I’m not seeing those specific rates, but you know, you will have those, you know, that, you know, that refinance market will come back again, but, you know, buckle up and buckle up, not in a bad way, just, you know, it’s an expression, it’s like, the the rates are rising, educate your consumer, very educate your buyer, understand that, three months from now, the rates gonna be higher than it is today, your purchasing power is going to be less. So you may want to consider settling, and getting in which you can now and it because if you want to move now, for a particular life reason, make the move. And sorry, my the lines ringing, I’m calling him from the phone here. Because rates will just continue to go up because they have to just slow down this inflation that we’re having. And there’s some serious inflation we’re having right now.
D.J. Paris 22:49
Yeah, it’s, it’s crazy. It’s crazy, brutal, it’s brutal. It’s yeah, and but for let’s think about, like a specific case, example. So let’s say I have a client, and we rate locked them three or four months ago, at at a lower rate than than what exists today for their lending, you know, percentage, and then now that has expired, because, you know, we couldn’t find inventory, or we couldn’t find the right property. So I know this is happening to a lot of agents. So all of a sudden, now, that rate needs to be reran. The purchasing power might might have come down almost certainly it has. So there’s, there’s there is a little bit of a loss there to the consumer, or at least in their mind, there’s a perceived loss of like, Oh, I really wanted the $700,000 home now I’m maybe I’m limited more towards $500,000 or $600,000 properties, which, again, doesn’t feel good as a first response to a consumer. So what what would you say to an agent to help sort of, you know, Coach that, that buyer through that, and so they don’t, you know, give up or, you know, get too upset about it?
Ryan D’Aprile 23:58
I mean, yeah, I mean, the best ways is to really, you know, and it’s, I really think this is the Achilles heels for most real estate agents, they don’t truly understand why their buyers buying, you know, and they give me very simple surface answers while they want a bigger home. What does that mean? That’s not you got to really dig in deeper, because if you understand that, you’re going to be able to help somebody navigate through that adjustment of hey, you could find a four to 700,000 home now it’s a $500,000 home. Now, again, why are you buying and maybe now you shouldn’t buy? Maybe it was an upgrade for you. Right? Maybe it was an upgrade for you. Maybe that’s why you were buying or maybe it’s a different school district and you have to and there’s reasons why you have to be in that school district. So guess what, now you got to settle and it’s not a big deal, and it’s not going to change. And again, the affordability is gonna go down and so you got to every what I love so much about this business is how unique it is. and very much how unscalable it can be as well, because each individual customer has a different scenario, and you got to give them your time and your effort, and you got to understand who they are. And then you can consult with them on the process. So, you know, it’s, it’s, you know, and I don’t want to apply logic to an either it’s more emotional, right? You know, it truly is. And they those those logical, hey, you know, it was gonna cost you $1,500 cost you 1900. But look, you can have a tax write off, you can have this and that. It glazes over them. You know what I mean? It really does. It’s, it just this is, this is what it is, it is what it is. And for any of us who are buying in the next 12 months, the rates are only going up period. They’re only going to go up. Now the good thing is is more inventory is going to come on, when the market, the economy slows down, even more. Inventory is going to come on. Yeah, and I just think I think you just got to take it day by day. And don’t let too much of this. consume you.
D.J. Paris 26:10
And I think you can also mention, too, if somebody is if a client if a buyer is struggling with this, no, oh, gosh, I have this perceived purchasing power decrease that feels bad. You can also talk to them about how inflated pricing has been. And maybe that $700,000 home that you could have afforded three months ago, if we had could find one was actually not worth maybe it was only worth 500. And as we start to see rates going up, and again, more inventory, which means low, you know, pricing comes down a bit. Maybe it all works out, you know, for exactly the same sort of property that you thought you could afford. But you really were overpaying anyway.
Ryan D’Aprile 26:53
Yeah, I don’t know about that. I mean, I think so. I mean, there’s obviously it’s a possibility. I don’t I don’t see a huge correction in prices. I see. Maybe he clearly I see eventually, you know, the multiple offers coming to a slow and then you know, people paying 95% of asking price versus 110% of asking price. I mean, it’s been a shitshow out there, to say the least. I don’t see. I see the market correction, quite honestly, mostly in the markets, not the housing market. I think the housing markets pretty healthy. With the lending, you know, regulation that was put in place and how healthy people are. I think what we have is a a grossly I think very similar to what happened on housing markets going on to the equities markets. And these companies that have lost billions of dollars that really have no right have even been in business. And you know, my question is, whose money is it? Don’t tell me it’s JP Morgan’s money or, or investment banker by that’s, that’s, that’s got to be somebody’s pension fund money. There’s got to be some police fund teacher fund, that’s got to be some, you know, Pipe Fitter pension money that’s sitting in is getting invested in these companies that, you know, you tally it up, you know, one company lost maybe $10 billion over the course of five years. That’s one company, you know, that I wonder, is that going to take its toll on our economy? I think that I think it’s gonna be equities. But who am I?
D.J. Paris 28:25
Well, let’s so we talked about maybe how to counsel the customer who maybe feels they see these new stories, they’re freaking out no inventory, raising rates. So we talked about Yeah, the emotional intelligence of the realtor to be able to counsel the client. I’m also interested in I and I only deal with realtors, I don’t deal with with consumers, like you’re sort of same way you teach, you know, you’re coaching and teaching and talking to agents. But agents are also I find, even even ones that that seemingly are usually pretty bulletproof to some of this news. I’m even seeing that sort of little bit of mild depression kicking in with realtors who are like, Ah, how do I keep going when there’s no inventory and rates keep rising and my clients just can’t find so what are you what are you talking to your agents about to keep them motivated? Keep them sort of in a positive mind frame as they navigate these choppy waters.
Ryan D’Aprile 29:23
Sure, it’s real easy one, okay, as a real estate agent and a loan officer, which are basically you eat what you kill, okay? You need to go into the office every day. You’ve got to go to work. If you want to succeed, you have to go to work. That’s it. And so many people I have seen you know, all you know, I I’m running an errand, I’m selling some furniture, I got a dentist appointment or something like that. I mean, there’s so many excuses. I became a real estate agent at the age of 28 years old 29 and from 22 to 29 or 21 to 29. I went to an office every day for to six years old, I still go to my office every single day, unless I’m taking a day off. Me too.
D.J. Paris 30:04
I have I have, I would love to be able to say that I work just as effectively from home and I can work from home, I don’t have to be here. I do not work. Well, from home. I wish I did. Because it gives me another option. The reality of it is I’m just more effective in the office. And I suspect most people are would, if they’re honest, would say the same thing.
Ryan D’Aprile 30:24
It is and everybody listen to this podcast, please understand the failure rate is 90% or higher in real estate 90% or higher. And because it’s a solopreneur, ship type business, and it’s very difficult, you got to find a tribe, you got to find a community, you need to find an accountability group, the office is the best way to get out of the house one to focus on what brings you business. What brings you businesses, your network. And so if we all look at it, 80% it’s just across the board. If 80% of your business comes from your network, then why aren’t you spending 80% of your time on your network? Get off social media, get off the MLS, get off the errands, and and all the other stuff? I understand there’s a transaction management part of the business that we have to do. But I’d be surprised if, if if I mean, if it was more than 10% of our industry spent more than an hour and a half on their network. Once a week, I really think it’s that small. And those are the ones saying state.
D.J. Paris 31:23
I was at a top producer breakfast recently. And one of they asked a similar question to what I just asked you is how do you stay motivated? And, you know, it’s certainly not the easiest time to be a realtor or me if you’re just if you’re a listing agent. It’s a wonderful time. And if you’re working with buyers, it’s more challenging. And so there was an agent, top producer who does more by side transactions. And they were asking her in this forum I was in, you know, how are you staying motivated? And she’s like, Oh, my gosh, it’s so easy right now. And everyone went, what, how? And she goes, Well, right now I’m contacting every single person I know. And she’s been doing this since December, and saying, hey, you’ve probably heard that for everyone in her Data database, as a home owner, you’ve probably heard prices have have quite gone up quite a bit. Now is a probably a pretty good time to check out to see what we think your home’s worth. And she goes, I just do this all day long. And her thought was I always am asking, How can I provide value to the people who already know me? And she’s like, I just run these reports all day. And I had that eye contact each person individually and say, Hey, I’m going to swing by and drop off this new report. So you get an idea of what’s going on. And I was like, boy, that’s so simple. And it’s brilliant. And it’s valuable to people. So if you’re wondering, well, how do I spend time on my network? I just gave you an idea from a top producer. That pretty good idea. Because every you know, book, people visit Zillow, 200 million Americans visit Zillow every single month, as some of those people are checking to see what their homes worth. And by the way, the Zestimate just as a little aside, because I was just add to Zillow forum, believe it or not, I know people will disagree with this, but a data scientist was speaking to us and he said our Zestimate is now within plus or to plus or minus to 200 basis points. So within 2%, we think we’re accurate. So people are checking this and you know, not that you have to agree with this estimate or not. But we know people are checking this, right. It’s kind of Zillow is main thing. And and so we know they’re checking it. So why not be there? The maybe give them a more accurate version of the Zestimate hand deliver it? And boy, I would love if somebody would do that. For me. I’ve never even run my own report on my own property.
Ryan D’Aprile 33:35
Yeah, how are you going to talk for hours about that? But I do agree. I agree with you about the network and diving into that network. And that’s, you know, that’s the most important thing and I think a lot of us, you know, yeah, I’m just good. My Zestimate is off by $400,000.
D.J. Paris 33:54
To use is not one of the accurate ones. Just went looked at
Ryan D’Aprile 33:59
it right now. So, but anyways, um, but it’s a great tool. It’s a great company. I just, I’m sorry, you got my curiosity. So I googled it, and I went to his estimates, I just go, you know, through my address in there. Um, but you know, I go but my
D.J. Paris 34:15
point, my point by saying that, though, is that’s an easy thing that you can do at any time to give value to your network. That is something that no one else is probably really doing that unless, you know, they’ve worked with realtors before,
Ryan D’Aprile 34:28
right? No, I agree with you. And I guess here’s an ethic. Here’s where we kind of end it. Marketing. Marketing is incredibly important. All right, in advertising, incredibly important. And then ask yourself, am I spending more time marketing and advertising myself than I am connecting with people my network that should not be unbalanced. You should be connecting with people in your network more than you’re in marketing yourself, in my opinion, in our business, in our very unscalable business and you could have three 400 people in your network. You can Make a half a million to a million dollars a year, if you do what I tell you, and spend more time connecting with those individuals than anything else, market and advertisers, of course, but I’ll bet you most people spend more money on advertising and social media marketing, and all this other stuff than actually rolling up the sleeves, digging in and saying, Hey, how are you? I was just thinking about you what’s going on? And then move into the next person.
D.J. Paris 35:27
Yeah, I’ve had my same accountant for I don’t know, however many to 13 years, maybe I’ve never met her in person. Why am I with her? Because I’m too lazy to find someone else. Is she? Maybe? Is she the very best accountant in Chicago? I don’t know. But you know, I am whether because I like her. Like her. I’ve never even met her and I but I like her when she sends me emails. She she’s, you know, I think she’s competent. I haven’t been I haven’t been audited yet. So let’s hope that she’s doing a good job. But the truth is,
Ryan D’Aprile 35:59
all decisions are made professionals are hired by other professionals based on likability. That’s it. And you know, they did a study and they realized that consumers hire real estate agents arbitrarily, it’s in one to three days, it’s very quick. It’s a very quick segment is usually the first person that comes to mind. So your job is to be friends of the people in your network, get it. Sorry about that. My phones blowing up DJ, because I got a three o’clock that it’s coming up on the heart here. So I’m sorry, it’s throwing me off. But that’s the most important thing for you guys to be doing.
D.J. Paris 36:30
Yeah, connect with your kids. Again, check in with people see how they’re doing. What’s going on in your life. Oh, by the way, mother’s days this weekend, what a great opportunity to pick up the phone and call everybody you know, who you know, either is a mother or has a mother and just say, Hey, I was just thinking about you this weekend, hope you’re having a great Mother’s Day or pet parents are also mothers, right? A lot of I know my girlfriend likes to think of herself, I had to get my girlfriend a Mother’s Day card, who because she has a cat. That’s another great thing you can if you should know which one of your clients who you know who have pets, that’s another thing you could do is call up say, hey, Happy Mother’s Day pet parent, or if they have, you know, children, you can do that, too. There’s lots of ways to connect with people. And again, that doesn’t have anything to do with what’s going on in the news, right? We just know it’s the time it’s that time of year where mothers are celebrated. So there’s lots of ways you can deepen those relationships. And I think like you were saying, if you focus on that, I mean, how many realtors are reaching out to everybody they know to wish their their sphere of influence a Happy Mother’s Day, maybe they’ll send an email a blanket email to everyone with a little cute, you know, picture on it that says Happy Mother’s Day. We love mothers. But how many understand
Ryan D’Aprile 37:38
that marketing and advertising? That’s not? That’s not exactly good for you? Yep, exactly.
D.J. Paris 37:43
Yeah, yeah. And so what can you do this weekend, if you’re if you’re not busy, because there aren’t much inventory, call everybody you know, and say, Hey, I just wanted to wish you a Happy Mother’s Day and and see what that does for you, as a business as a business owner, as an individual agent, I’ll bet you, I’ll bet you there’s no negative you will not get one negative response to that. And you might even get a few customers on it. And you can always say, Hey, by the way, if anything changes for you, if you ever want to talk real estate stuff, just let me know. But I just wanted to call on wish you Happy Mother’s Day. You do that you’re gonna you’re gonna have great success. So I’ll let Ryan I know he has to get to his next meeting. But I think we gave a ton of value here in this in this episode. So I want to thank Ryan. Again, Ryan is the guy who runs between office to office to do in person trainings, coaching, you know and meeting with his staff. So he absolutely walks the talk. So if anyone out there is looking for a different firm, especially in the Chicagoland area, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, if you’re looking for a firm, where it’s it’s really, you know, coaching and training led and helping you with your marketing, D APR properties is a great, great option. So check them out, do properties.com Ryan has tons and people that would love to talk to you about what they offer, as well at Ryan has a lending institution Midwest lending, if you’re looking for a new loan officer, you can check with him as well. And then also, they have title and a bunch of other services they offer too. So definitely check out D APR. They have lots of lots of things. They really have a tremendous amount of products and services for their agents. And also we just want to thank Ryan for being on the show. He’s been with us almost since the very beginning comes on every month, and provides tremendous value. So thank you, Ryan. And on behalf of Brian, we want to thank everyone who’s listening has made it to the end of this episode. And we ask that you do just one thing to help us continue our show which is telephoned think one thing about one other real estate professional or if loan officers are listening or anyone that finds value in this content, please tell someone else about it. Let them know about our show and send them over to our website keeping it real pod.com they can sign up to get emailed every time we have a new episode, which I know I do for podcasts I listened to or they can you can just have them pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real and hit that subscribe button. So Ryan I will let you jump to your three o’clock. Thank you so much for being on the show once yet again. And we’ll wish we wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day to all though by the time this goes out, it will be after Mother’s Day. But if you’re watching us live right now, Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms.
Ryan D’Aprile 40:11
Thank you, JJ, appreciate very much.
D.J. Paris 40:14
All right. Thanks so much, and we’ll see everyone on the next episode. Thanks,
Ryan D’Aprile 40:17
Ryan. All right.
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