In this episode brothers Jonathan and Caleb Spears from Spears Group in Florida go back to the beginning of their careers to tell us how they started. They also provide advice for the agents that may not be as busy as they’d like right now. We also discuss how the needs of buyers and sellers are changing due to covid-19 and what you can do to meet these needs. Jonathan and Caleb also give instructions on what agents should do to keep their business moving in case of another stay-at-home order. Last, we discuss how their group develops new relationships and what they do to nurture these relationships.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Jonathan Spears can be reached at (850) 974-1761 and jonathan@scenicsir.com.
Caleb Spears can be reached at (850) 974-1765 and caleb@scenicsir.com.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
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Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with Jonathan and Caleb spears. And before we get to Jonathan Caleb, a couple of quick announcements number one, we have done completed now over 200 episodes. My whole intention, when we started this show years ago was to provide a library for any agent that is looking to learn from the very best. So if you are new to the show, I really encourage you to go back through the entire series, because so much of the advice that’s given to us by top producers is timeless and easiest way to go back through those episodes without just infinitely scrolling through your podcast app is to visit our website. So you can find us at keeping it real pod.com. Again, keeping it real pod.com. And in there we have every episode we’ve ever done with all the Disc titles and descriptions. And you can even play it right through our website. So please, again, find us there and go through those old episodes. There’s so much wisdom there. And the second thing is to follow us on Facebook. Every day we find an article that was written designed to help agents grow their business, we post a link to that along with all of our episodes, you can find us on facebook@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pot and real quickly. Before we get to our top producers Jonathan and Caleb spirits from Florida, I would like I have an update on Jonathan and Caleb, because we recorded this episode a couple of weeks ago, sort of a behind the scenes thing here that you probably don’t know is that we record episodes, and then we produce them. And it takes us usually a few weeks to do that. Well, that’s really normal and common. But here is what is really unusual. So Jonathan and Caleb and they are such great guys, you’re about to hear this awesome story about how they built their business, and what they’re doing specifically that you could emulate and replicate to have a similar level of success. Anyway, in those two weeks, where we were producing the episode, they reached back out to us and said, Hey, guys, we have a little update for you. Because what you’re what you’re about to hear is I’m going to intro them and going to talk about how they’ve done $675 million in sales. Well, in just two weeks time that number has dramatically increased. They have now closed over $700 million in real estate. They went up $25 million in literally two weeks. That’s how amazing these guys are. And you know what without further ado, let’s get to them because they’re gonna be way more interesting than listening to listening to me drone on and on. So guys, first before we do that, thank you to everyone who listens really appreciate it. We love having you as listeners. And if you have any other agents that you think would be a good fit, let us know but now on to our interview with Jonathan and Caleb spears.
Today on the show we have Jonathan and Caleb spears from scenic suburbia International Realty in Destin, Florida and 30 A and all of Northwest Florida. Let me tell you a little bit about Jonathan and Caleb. So Jonathan is an entrepreneur at heart. He considers it his greatest achievement to deliver exemplary service and key and expertise as he helps his customers achieve their real estate goals. Now to date, he has closed over 675 million in real estate sales. And for his second consecutive year, Jonathan was named the youngest member of the 1000 top real estate professionals, as published by The Wall Street Journal inking him in the top one half of 1% of more than 1.3 million Realtors nationwide. He devotes the same uncom uncompromising dedication and work ethic to his customers in every transaction. So Jonathan, welcome to the show.
Jonathan Spears 4:43
Hey, thanks so much for having me. Excited to be here.
D.J. Paris 4:46
Thank you. And now let’s let’s welcome your brother Caleb. Caleb is an Emerald Coast native and he earned a bachelor’s degree with a minor in entrepreneurship from Florida State University at the age of 20. I think I don’t think I graduated till 22 was a congrats there and had an associate’s degree before he even finished high school. He is a an amazing hard worker that this hard work and diligence. Those achievements required translates really well into his daily real estate business. Caleb specializes in new construction and income producing properties for his investment minded clients. Caleb conducts his business with integrity and is results oriented. He is also in the top 1% of individual agents market wide by sales volume, and is deeply motivated in everything he does by his desire to make a difference. Caleb also welcome to the show.
Caleb Spears 5:37
Thank you, DJ, I appreciate it. Glad to be here.
D.J. Paris 5:40
Glad to have you. You guys are brothers, we should say if I didn’t mention that before. And we’re really excited to have you guys. And if it’s okay, I think what would maybe make the most sense our audience always loves to hear a good origin story. Let’s go all the way back to the beginning. Jonathan, do you mind sharing sort of how you got into real estate? Why real estate and and how you got started?
Jonathan Spears 6:03
Yeah, absolutely. So Caleb and I actually took similar paths. We are five years apart in age. So I’m the older brother. He would say he’s a younger, better looking one. But my wife begs to differ. We, we both get started early in terms of our education. So I started college at the age of 14. And
D.J. Paris 6:24
well, I just want to pause for a second. That’s like Doogie Howser from me. Well, that’s probably been way before your time.
Jonathan Spears 6:31
How did you stay exactly right. I had a YouTube Dougie
D.J. Paris 6:35
14 is Does that mean you graduated high school or did you have do you were able to skip high school and go straight into college?
Jonathan Spears 6:41
I skipped High School completely. I never stepped foot in high school and don’t have high school diploma. I just have college degrees. Amazing. Yep. So sorry. I
D.J. Paris 6:50
didn’t mean to pause you but that’s
Jonathan Spears 6:52
okay. Yeah, very fortunate to get to fast track early. I remember my mom had to drop me off at college, the first two years that I didn’t have a driver’s license, right. And that’s where I started getting called Doogie Howser about my classmates and I had Okay, so
D.J. Paris 7:09
I’m not the first person to go, no, no, I
Jonathan Spears 7:12
love it. I actually, I did have to you, Joe and Neil Patrick Harris did a great job. So I wasn’t upset about it. But, you know, I was very entrepreneurial as a kid. And I knew what I wanted to do very early. So when I told my parents, I wanted to try to take advantage of a local program that allowed essentially, young high schoolers entry level high schoolers to start taking college courses, they were not surprised and allowed me to kind of pursue that goal. And thankfully, I was able to fast track school. And not only did I graduate high school, right at the cusp of 1819, or excuse me college, but I also got my real estate license immediately entering adulthood. So I remember studying for my real estate course, on my 18th birthday. And it was, it was awesome. I got my license two or three months afterwards.
D.J. Paris 8:08
Well, I was gonna say that surprises me. But at this point, it doesn’t surprise me. That’s incredible. So have you been exclusively doing real estate since you were 18? Have you explored other paths as well, or,
Jonathan Spears 8:21
I would say that I’ve been a student of the real estate business as a whole since I was even younger than 18. That’s what drew my interest of getting a license. Growing up in Florida, we grew to love tourism development, and really an appreciation for how beautiful our areas. And not only do I want to share it with other people, but also look to be a leader in the community. And so through real estate sales, in particular, I was able to kind of dabble in the development, the design side, both architecturally and on a larger scale in terms of luxury developments, single family homes, condos, and really everything under the sun.
D.J. Paris 9:02
It’s incredible. So at 18 When you have your license, the big the begs the question, how do you build a business when literally nobody your age, I mean, really, probably very few people are even renting unless they just happen to be not going to college at that age, and they staying local or they’re going to a local college and they’re not living on campus. So you’re your friends are probably not the best resource and maybe they’re maybe their parents or something. But how do you go about building a business at 18? That seems like a super daunting task.
Jonathan Spears 9:34
Well, I realized very quickly, and by the way, I turned 18 in 2010, which was knee deep in the global another fortunate. You know, I was exactly yeah, well what hindsight is always 2020 At the time, I don’t know that I appreciated all of the volatility that was surrounding the real estate market, but you know, being able to learn to problem solve as such. high level at a very early age was very helpful and still to this day beneficial for my career. So I started off working for closers, which at the time, you know, who had just had the Gulf oil spill with her, you know, we didn’t necessarily have a direct impact on the beach physically, but the overall media attention and the feel of the market was depressed at the time, right. And I remember, you know, I was diving headfirst into a new career with with that environment. And it was the best thing that could have possibly happened to me because I learned to sail my ship, essentially in a hurricane. So working foreclosures, I learned to handle high volumes of transactions. And for me, it was just a front row seat to problem solving. So I nestled myself up against the top broker, when I first started out smart and somebody who had been in the business for decades, they knew not only how to handle that particular economy, but also had thrived during the boom, as I would call it. 2005 2006. So I had the perfect mentor to really guide me into the beginning stages of my career.
D.J. Paris 11:12
That’s awesome. Caleb, talk about let’s talk with you about how you got started. So you’re five years younger than your brother, you graduated college at the old age of 20. Not a teens. So you’re the black sheep of the family. But let’s talk about how you got started in real estate.
Caleb Spears 11:31
So I also had the best mentor you could ask for which was my brother. And at the time I was I was finishing up college. I was 18. And I was working at Chick fil A, which if you’re not from the south, that is the best fast food restaurant you’re ever going to eat in your
D.J. Paris 11:50
life. We have a few of them in Chicago and I will agree with you.
Caleb Spears 11:53
Yeah, yeah, they’re amazing. And you know, then the level of service they provide second to none, right? You walk
D.J. Paris 12:01
in there, and they actually welcome you in. And they have a smile on their face. And they’re legitimately excited to sell you their product and to service you it’s it’s remarkable that it seems we’re in Chicago where McDonald’s is founded and not in any way trying to disparage any any other company. But there is a level of service that Chick fil A provides that every real estate agent could benefit from walking in just to experience once it is truly different from bout any other real fast food restaurant I’ve ever been to.
Caleb Spears 12:32
I fully agree with you. And that’s I call Chick fil A, I call southern ease affectionately, the Chick fil A of real estate because I believe so these carries that same heritage is just a high level of service, for sure. And that working in that environment. Not only was it extremely high pressure, because you have so many people that are pulling you in 1000 different directions. And I was actually fortunate enough to be in a management position at the time. And so I was leading teams of people that were sometimes twice my age. And that was in from different backgrounds, cultures, nationalities, some of them didn’t speak English. I mean, it was I really had to grow as a leader and as a servant in that role. And I’m so thankful for that experience, because it really did make me so much better in my current position. So I was working at Chick fil A, I was wrapping up college, Jonathan and I were on a vacation together with our family. And I was just kind of shooting the breeze with some people that were near us at a table and he looked at me said, Hey, I think you’d be great at real estate, why don’t you get your license and come join my team. And at first my perception being 18 not knowing much about real estate at the time was the same that maybe a lot of clients or real estate agents might think which Oh, they’re just kind of like car salesmen. They’re in it for the money or whatever. And Jonathan, he looked at me said, You don’t understand what I do at all. I get to help people with the largest financial transaction of their lifetime. And I get to make a lasting impact on their life forever through how well I served them during that. And that’s what matters. It’s not the money. It’s the people. And when he shifted my perspective, I got excited. I was like, That sounds awesome. I definitely want in on that. So I went got my license at 18 and started with him a couple months later, I quit my job. And here we are.
D.J. Paris 14:26
Wow, this is incredible. What a great What a great story. So so let’s talk about you know, one of the things that I always like to start with after sort of learning where you guys came from and and how you grew up, is you know, you’ve seen a lot of agents I’m sure Jonathan in particular, you as well as Caleb have seen agents who have had a tremendous amount of success, obviously you guys have and then you’ve also seen agents who struggle and right now, it seems to be it’s kind of a really, of course interesting time for a lot of reasons. We have an election coming up we have a Unfortunately, the pandemic that the country is still suffering with. And we also have really low interest rates for for home purchases. And we have a lot of people that that at least here in our local market in Chicago, it’s kind of a neighborhood by neighborhood thing. But there’s a lot of activity going on. And I don’t know what it’s like down down in your area. I’m sure there’s a lot of activity too. But there are a lot of agents right now that are looking at really busy, like, about half of the agents I talked to, on this podcast, everybody’s busy, because you’re all top one percenters, but just agents in general that I speak to half of them are like busier than they’ve ever been. And the other half are really not that busy. And so I’m just curious if you have any advice, or any suggestions for agents that aren’t so busy right now, what they might consider doing just to, you know, keep their name in front of their their prospects, their sphere of influence or drumming up business? Just curious if you have any suggestions?
Jonathan Spears 15:54
Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, to your point, I mean, I think the real estate business, whether you’re in a pandemic year, or a global recession, or you know, whatever it is, there’s always adversity. And I think to Caleb’s point, you know, it’s spirits, rube Our business model is people first. And our value is what advisor role can we be in with our customers to best serve them. And right now, it’s extremely volatile. You know, whether you’re an investor who has a million dollars looking for a yield, and you start looking at your money market account, and it’s got a less than 1% yield and interest, your before it had double, maybe triple that if you were very fortunate. It’s hard, it’s hard to find an asset that that makes sense, a hard asset that you don’t wake up tomorrow, and it may have lost a third of its value. And a lot of folks have shifted their view in our market to real estate as being that asset. And then you’ve got another crowd that has looked at their lifestyles, especially if they’ve been like our family, we spent a couple months in quarantine, and said, Okay, these are the things that are really important to me. And my my perspective of my job has changed my perspective of my lifestyle is changing. For Caleb and I and the rest of our team here at Spears group. We’ve been really focused at how do we best advise our customers during these different roles and different changes that they’re experiencing, which for most are very dramatic, very drastic, in comparison to this time last year, nothing like what they ever expected they’d be doing, how do we best serve them to the highest ability and for a market like ours, which has really skyrocketed like most regional markets during this pandemic, due to the ability to safely social distance and enjoy a naturalistic surrounding? You know, how do we help them navigate a low inventory all time high market situation? How do we make sure that it fits their needs, not only as a family, but also from an investment standpoint?
D.J. Paris 17:59
Yeah, that makes sense. You have a lot of buyers because rates are where they’re at. And not as much inventory. Same. Same thing here in Chicago. So are you dealing with a lot of malt currently, as of right now, a lot of multiple offer situations? I’m guessing that that’s probably pretty common.
Jonathan Spears 18:15
Yeah, absolutely. Yep. So for for our business, we’ve had over 180 million in sales year to date. And so it’s a record year for us last year, we did 135 million, we’re on track to close over 200 million by the end of this month. So we will not only be on par to set a personal record, but also to set a market record because there’s not another agent in this market that’s ever yielded those numbers. And it’s in part due to the ascension of our luxury real estate, as well as this unprecedented demand. So what we’re seeing is just a major gap in inventory, I can’t hold on to inventory, which it’s kind of a funny thing to say, because usually I’m carrying 100 plus million in listings at any given time constantly being regenerated and replaced. And now I find that listing inventory is not only more difficult to come by, but also a realistic price point is a very difficult thing to find so sure, when we’re interviewing a seller, we’re trying to figure out what’s their motivation and you know, how can we best serve them while they’re interviewing us? Inevitably to figure out if we’re the right fit for them. So those are the problems that we’re trying to solve right now.
D.J. Paris 19:27
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. You know, you guys have been so successful here in in your in your area, and obviously this year on part of go over 200 million is beyond incredible, especially considering the fact that part of the year real estate was was dead, because of because of the stay at home order. And and the fact that you guys are coming out of that with with more volume than you’ve ever done. I would and I know there isn’t one answer to this question. So, Caleb, I’ll start with you though. What What would you attribute the success not just of this year, but obviously the spirits group has had tremendous success for a period of for a long period of time. And obviously this year, you guys are crushing it more than even before. What would you say is is the key to your success? What separates your group from we know how many Realtors there are in Florida? You guys are not the only people in town, yet you’re getting a lot of business in your area. What do you why do you think that is? Love to hear Caleb’s response?
Caleb Spears 20:30
Well, you know, I’ll tell you there’s, that’s hard to just answer and quick blurb there. But I really think Jonathan set an amazing foundation. When he first started, he mentioned he was working foreclosures. I mean, I think his first deal was like a trailer that was falling apart for like 50,000. And it was, I mean, that was where he started, he started and literally he was he was honestly being modest. He started in the hardest market that our area has ever seen. Because of the oil spill, because of the economic depression, he built that business, this business that we have from the ground up. And he always had a very high focus on being the most educated real estate agents that anybody has ever spoken to in their life. I mean, when you listen to Jonathan’s speak, it’s like listening to someone that is two or three times his age with two or three times the experience in this business. Because he articulates real estate he articulates value in the statistics of what’s going on in the market. At such a high level, I mean, Jonathan and spears group as a whole, we really take pride in being educated on the market. And not really not leading our clients with our feelings or Well, you know, I feel like the market is busy. I feel like it’s a little slow. We really know the staff, and we lead with data and knowledge and really equip our buyers and sellers to make the best choice with that data.
D.J. Paris 21:57
Yeah, it’s, it’s that makes perfect sense to me. And absolutely the answer I kind of expected to hear you guys, I’m assuming, consider yourselves more consultants than anything I’m guessing is you come in and you say, okay, based on what you told me, I’m going to come back to you with a solution. Very different from Yep, let’s get that house sold, or let’s get you out to look at properties, you guys are more data focused, more data driven, education focused. And the good news for all of our listeners Is this our skills anybody can develop and it takes time. And what you have to do, in my opinion, and I’d love to hear your guys’s opinion as well is carve out time every day to learn, you know, carve out a certain percentage of your day, whether it’s a half hour, an hour more, however much time you have, and say I need to learn XYZ skill. And then when you finish that skill, you’re gonna move on to another skill, even if it’s just I’m going to study the MLS in my area for the next hour. So I know the average home price. And I know what condos are going for, I know what apartments are going for. I know what commercial real estate looks like investment properties, etc. And it’s sort of funny, there’s that old expression, it’s never it’s not it was a book by Scott pack, I think called it’s never crowded along the extra mile. But that is the extra mile is no is knowledge in this industry. And especially in your area where so many people have their license, there’s probably not a tremendous number of agents with the knowledge that that the spirit group has, is my guess, of why you guys are so successful as you’re not only able to, to promote yourself, of course, you you do that? Well, but you probably do that through the high level of experience and knowledge that you bring to your clients.
Jonathan Spears 23:41
Yeah, absolutely, you actually hit on something really interesting. So for some of the viewers out there that are either just getting started or maybe they’re finding themselves in a quieter time in their business, whether you know, the summer cycles come to an end or, you know, their their markets kind of quieted down ahead of this election. One thing that I did that I believe was a key component of my success was identifying areas of the market that I was passionate about. So sometimes like you mentioned studying the MLS, you can study raw data and you can absorb it, but not absorb it completely. And so for me when I was, like Caleb mentioned selling everything from $50,000 HUD house in Tallahassee, to, you know, million dollar houses here at the beach, I would focus on areas of the hot sheet every single day that caught my attention. And what I was most interested in, I started that by not only looking at a hot sheet once a day, twice a day, five times a day, 10 times a day, but filtering from the top down. So where my interest was the luxury market and it’s what I just naturally gravitated towards. Someone else’s interest may be really trying to help military families get placed with the right inventory and having that hot sheet dialed in to that area. The more I get that you’re trying to not only farm but also serve at the highest level. And so like Kayla mentioned, knowledge is power. And so for us not only understanding what’s coming and going from the market for a prospective buyer, but also for a prospective seller as well. And being able to tell the stories, why certain houses transact is very important.
D.J. Paris 25:21
Yeah, boy, that makes just perfect sense. You know, so So just for everyone listening, if you, for example, we live in, I’m in here in Chicago, we have 44,000 realtors in our area. And it’s so easy to want to be everything to all clients. Oh, you want to live in the suburbs. But but you focus, you know, but as an agent, I focus in the city, no problem, I can help you do that, well, maybe anyone can help somebody. But do you really have the knowledge of that area to be able to best effectively help that customer in a suburb 45 minutes away from downtown where you focus most of your energy. And the most successful agents I’ve had on the show, say, No, I am not the best agent for that transaction. And they’re willing to then pass that off to a colleague who maybe does, you know, specialize in that area. But it’s also something that as listeners, as Jonathan was saying, is, is pick pick something that you are passionate about, and hyper focus, you know, learn everything about that market, that area, know what’s available, learn the inventory, go to the in Chicago, we call them broker opens their open houses for agents, go to those learn everything about that area, we I interviewed the top, the number two, top producer in Chicago, not that long ago. And he said for the first five years, he just walked around and went into buildings, he wanted to focus in a particular area in the city and just walked into buildings and said, Tell me about this building. And he said it took him five years and he goes at the end of five years. He goes, I knew more than anybody. I just knew more than anyone. So I’m sorry, that’s taking over a bit. I apologize that but but that’s basically what Jonathan and Caleb are saying is, is learn your market, learn your niche. And the good news is it’s not crowded on that extra mile. If you go that extra mile, you’ll find there’s just a few other people just like you, no matter how big the number of broke realtors are in your area.
Jonathan Spears 27:11
Right? Absolutely.
D.J. Paris 27:12
And tell us about the spirit group. So how big is the group? Obviously, you guys are doing 200 plus million in transactions, is it just the two of you are there other members of the team. So Spears
Jonathan Spears 27:23
group started, really out of a necessity for time and I started to see my life. As I got married, and we started expecting our first child, I realized that I didn’t have all the time in the day to serve my customers like I thought I did. And I hired an assistant. And my assistant turned into two assistants, and then three assistants, and then a buyer’s agent, and then another agent. And you know, at this point, we’ve got three full time administrators plus a fourth one that helps out from time to time. And then I’ve also got four, four other agents alongside myself as well. So we’ve got a good group of 10, which is pretty incredible. And you know, really thankful to have.
D.J. Paris 28:11
Yeah, that is incredible. And for anyone who’s looking to join a team, obviously, you’ve brought team members in, and this is a huge hot button topic for agents that are on their own. You know, individual practitioners are always thinking, Should I join a team? Do you have any advice? Caleb, I mean, you join the team? Do you have any advice for other agents who are really wanting to take their production to the next level, they see the value in joining a team for the experience? Maybe they can help with some of the marketing efforts, or just you know, getting more support any ideas about it? Because there’s a million teams out there? How to choose maybe a team that that would be the best fit for someone?
Caleb Spears 28:55
Yeah, I mean, I think it depends on what point in your business you’re at. Right? If you’re a newer agent or newer to a certain market, maybe you just moved the team, you should really be looking for someone that can be an educator, someone that’s a market leader, and who’s also maybe a good teacher and willing to take the time Or has someone already on their team. Like we have an administrative person, Brian, who he heads up training some of our newer agents, right. And so we have someone in that role that’s going to help out and bring you up to speed on on the stats that we were talking about, right? Or maybe just the best way to handle certain conversations, difficult conversations with clients that can it’s not good to practice those hard conversations with your clients, you really should be doing that ahead of time ahead of time through roleplay and coming up with some good scripts and dialogue. So if you’re newer, maybe looking for something like that, if you’re more experienced, but you want to take your business to the next level. Again, I would look for a top producer but I would look for someone like you said that can share the marketing efforts, right? That can maybe maybe they have a lot of listing inventory and they need someone to help them take on all the buyer calls and inquiries, they’re getting off their signs. So maybe go partner with someone like that, that can funnel you some more business that you can work, you know that you can almost operate more as a as a partner instead of employee employer type dynamic there.
D.J. Paris 30:17
Yeah, that makes sense to you. And the other reason that teams can be very helpful, especially to newer agents is open house opportunities. You know, this is a great opera a great way when you don’t have your own clients yet or in your in between clients. My girlfriend just got her license. And so she is she joined the company, she joined. And she is like begging every person she meets Please, can I come to an open house for you? And it’s I told her I’d like that is probably the smartest thing you could possibly be doing. And so So I are open houses in this age down in your area? Are they still? Are they popular? Are they? Are they getting traffic just out of curiosity?
Caleb Spears 30:58
They’re a little bit slower in our area. They’re still certainly very much alive and well. But because we’re a second home market, the foot traffic, you have to time it right? There’s because it’s not like we have a standing population we have, we have a standing population around 20 to 30,000 people, depending on what area you’re looking at. Because we cover a pretty wide space, we get two to 3 million visitors during the summer. So it depends on timing with open houses, and also location being in the right place at the right time. Right, picking the right streets that are gonna have foot traffic on the way to maybe like a beach path, because we’re a big beach town. And yeah, so think Little things like that. But it’s certainly still alive and well. And so very viable way to get some amazing buyers walk through the door.
D.J. Paris 31:45
Yeah, that’s incredible. I have Jonathan, I have a question for you. So you we and Caleb, two, I’d like to get both your opinions. So we went through a state you mentioned this sort of stay at home quarantine that happened earlier this year. It’s possible and hopefully, hopefully avoidable. But it’s possible we could be heading back into something like that. Of course, we hope that nobody wants that to happen. If that were to happen, knowing knowing sort of what living through that experience before and I’m sure you did probably all the right things that that an agent were to do while they were sort of in limbo, and every everything was kind of on pause. I’m curious on what advice you’d have to agents or what you guys might even do. Should that happen again, since all of a sudden, people aren’t able to go to showings and I know, you’ve jotted them, you’ve even said and this was all done before for the interview. But you’d even said, there’s a lot of people that have purchased properties without ever seeing them or without ever meeting you, of course, because of the nature of your area. But if we do go into a lockdown again, what would you do? Or what would you guys do to keep your business? Not necessarily growing? But but at least moving? What are some of the things that that you think you would do?
Jonathan Spears 32:55
That’s actually a great question for us when the lockdown happened originally, you know, like everyone else we got on Amazon and ordered way too much snacks, I probably have more cheddar bunnies in my garage for my two year old than or we could ever eat. But for me, it was making sure that I had a reason to reach out to past clients and potential prospects. And down here at the beach, most people buy houses and let’s just say you’re in quarantine in Dallas, you can’t make it by your house you don’t know is, you know, is there a leak? Is there anything going on over there. So one thing that we were able to do in a very safe manner, socially distanced manner was checked on homes for other folks, we were still considered as an essential worker in Florida. So we were able to venture out and about and it was a contactless effort that we were able to make. And it was one that was deeply appreciated by a lot of different people in our area, whether they were customers or not, you know, we want to make sure that we were about community outreach at that time. And it took that inward focus into our business and actually change our perspective to look inwardly at the community as a whole and look for areas that we could serve while also being able to respect the the health care guidelines. So that was something that we did then and that’s probably what I would go to immediately if that happened again, on top of everyone else, we became very proficient at zoom. And so even today, all our team meetings are able to be completed remotely. And we’re able to check in on people face to face which is really nice. So
D.J. Paris 34:39
yeah, no, I just want to I just want to make sure I understand because this is such a smart idea. So you would call somebody that you sold a home two years ago, maybe even and say hey, are you are you in Florida? Are you in wherever you probably already know that and say hey, I’m gonna go ahead and just do a drive by I’m going to take a walk around the property make sure everything looks Okay, that’s an incredible thing to do. I’ve never, I’ve interviewed a lot of people, since during the stay at home, or nobody has said that before. That is a really remarkable thing. And I wonder how many other agents in your area would ever even think, to mate to do that service? And I imagine it’s an unsolicited service. It’s not like the client called you said, Hey, do you mind running by the house and seeing that had to be so well received? I can’t imagine. Anyone, they must have been blown away that you would think to do that?
Jonathan Spears 35:32
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, opens up dialogue, you can genuinely ask how they’re doing. And, again, our businesses, relationships, you know, people do business with you, because they like you. And nine times out of 10, it’s also because you understand the area you’ve had success before, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that you guys connect. And so for me, I wanted to make sure that I connected with all of my customers and, and really, I mean, even the amount of time that we were in quarantine wasn’t enough time to reach out to everybody and, you know, check in to see how they’re doing. So regardless of whether you know, the pandemic ensues or not, we will find ways that we can reach out to our database and craved value.
D.J. Paris 36:14
That’s, that’s amazing. And I have just one, one additional question about going back to just servicing the the tourists that come into your area? How do you guys market yourself? Now, of course, with the statistics, you guys put up the numbers, you’re the reputation, of course, people are going to know you in the community, because you’re so prominent, you’ve sell so much real estate, but to somebody moving into the area, who doesn’t know, any realtor? How do you guys go about, you know, getting in front of those people? What are some of the efforts that you engage in? What works for you? What doesn’t work? I’m just curious, when it comes to an area where the mass influx of people come in from outside, and they’re there for a short period of time? And then they leave? How do you develop those relationships?
Jonathan Spears 36:59
Caleb, I’ll let you take this one. Yeah.
Caleb Spears 37:03
You know, a lot of a lot of the initial contact, because we’ve got a large amount of listing inventory comes from sign calls and open houses, like you mentioned, and things of that nature, being fortunate to be the top team in the market, oftentimes, people will just Google top agent and desktop agent on 30. A, and we’ll get internet based leads that way. So that’s huge. Another way that I really find is a great way to sustain that business from out of town is just by continuing to stay in contact with my out of town clients. And inevitably, they’re going to have a network of friends that want to be at the beach to or want another home. Right. And so we are able to just continue to keep in front of those past clients and and create referral business. So those are a few of the the main ways that we do that. And then from there, once we lead with with the data, like we talked about, and we’re really helping them make educated decisions, like I had a client call me from LA the other day, and we had never spoken before. They called us online, they found us online. And they said we’re looking to come into your area, we want to buy an investment property is this, you know, is 123 Main Street a good investment property? And I said, Yeah, absolutely. That’s a great investment property. Tell me a little bit more about what that means to you, though, what are you looking for. And as they went into their goals, I discovered that they actually may want to move here a year from now, right. And I told them, hey, moving here a year from now, that property is going to make you money for the next year for sure, that’s a great rental property. But if you’re going to live there, that’s in a community that’s largely short term rental based, so you’re gonna have very transient neighbors, right, they’re gonna be in and out all the time. There are some other neighborhoods that you can still make rental income, in the meantime, good money. But there’s a lot of more, there’s a lot more primary home pure secondary home residents, you’re gonna. And so just being able to educate them and really lead the client, to me is the best way to create a lasting strong relationship and position yourself as an advisor when you do get the chance to talk to someone from out of town.
D.J. Paris 39:09
Yeah, again, making perfect sense. You know, that by the way, every realtor listening is going Boy, I wish I got a call like that. But the reality of it is, is those calls happen all the time. And what a lot of agents will do is say absolutely great property. Let’s go, let’s go take a look. Let’s buy it. And they don’t spend the time like Caleb was saying and saying, Well, it is a good opportunity. But do you want to live among rent? You know, you said you’re going to be moving here in the next year or you They didn’t say that you had to ask them and then okay, based on what you told me, there’s a lot of renters here and do you really want to live among renters, I have some other ideas of places that you can check out that would maybe be around more and more homeowners. And again, that’s value. That’s a tremendous value because anyone can find that property online. Anyone can call the listing agent, it’s all free information, or they can contact someone like you in Say I want to go see that property? And you say yes, yes. And let’s just get a little bit more information. Oh, by the way, I’ve, I have some other options for you. That’s absolutely what what makes perfect sense to be that why you guys are so successful and and as we’re wrapping up, I would like to know if there’s anyone out there in the destin area, the 30, a community as well as anywhere in Northwest Florida, that is looking to work with the top team in the area and wants to work with with the spirits group. What is the best way that a buyer or a seller or renter and investor anyone who’s looking for an agent, and you know, again, top agents who really know that area, what’s the best way they should reach out to you?
Jonathan Spears 40:41
Yeah, so the best way to reach out to us is on any of our social media platforms, we’re on Facebook and Instagram, at spirits group and also through our website Spears group, F l.com. So we’ve got not only a great resource there for new and coming soon listings, but also a way to reach out to our team. And we look forward to connecting with you.
D.J. Paris 41:04
And it is a really great website, I encourage everyone who’s listening, whether you’re an agent, or you’re maybe looking to work with with an agent, go to spirits group fl.com. Take a look, they have a beautiful website and really speaks to the luxury market that they service. Of course, they don’t only serve as service luxury properties, but it is that is their specialty. So definitely reach out to them via their their website, all their social media accounts are linked to on their site as well again, Spears Group F l.com. And also particularly want to thank Jonathan, because he was supposed to be on a Jamison or I’m sorry, I saw the bees call for top producers because he is of the top top producer. And he and he he decided to do our show instead. So we on behalf of the audience, we thank you for putting aside your your top producer call for us, which artwork top producers show to but we really appreciate it. So on behalf of the audience to Caleb and Jonathan, we really say thank you, you guys are amazing. I don’t you don’t have time to do this. And you’re both took time out of your day to do this. So we really appreciate it. And thank you. And on behalf of Jonathan and Caleb and myself to the audience, we also want to say thank you for continuing to listen and support our show, we asked everybody to do extra but ask you to do three things. Number one, go to spirits Group F l.com. Check out what the spirits Group offers. And also, if you’re just an agent looking to see what an amazing website looks like and how they tell the story of their group, that website does a magnificent job of that. And the other two things we’d like you to do is please tell a friend think of one other agent that could use a boost in their motivation to grow their business. Are they just not sure what to do? And they heard this interview with Jonathan and Caleb, maybe it would help them move out of their their stuck position and send them a link to our show or anyone you know, that just wants to hear from top producers. The easiest way to do that is to visit our website keeping it real pod.com We have every episode we’ve ever done on there. We think we’re the largest podcast now in the country for realtors. We’re super honored and grateful to our audience, please continue to tell a friend. And the second thing is to follow us on Facebook. We are@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod we all we post there are articles that we find online designed to help agents grow their business and links to all of our episodes. Jonathan Caleb Spears thank you guys so much from the spirits group in in Northwest Florida. You guys are amazing. Total superstars. We’re so honored to have you. And we wish you guys I will I won’t even wish you luck. Because you guys already have all the success because of all the things you’re doing. So I’m excited to see and to chart your continued success as you guys continue to take over the Florida market. So thank you guys so much. And for all of our listeners. Thank you and we will see you guys on the next episode.
Jonathan Spears 43:50
It was an honor. Thank you. Thank You
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