Are you curious why Redfin has been exploding in popularity in the past several years? In this episode we feature top 1% broker Alex Haried, and he explained why he chose Redfin as his partner, and why 276 of Alex’s clients have rated him a near-perfect five stars. (Alex has closed 23.2 million in the past 12 months, by the way.) Learn what he and his team are doing right!
If interested in working with Alex, you can reach him at alex.haried@redfin.com or 630.445.0561
See Alex’s amazing customer reviews by clicking here!
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:13
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the only podcast made by real estate agents for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your host through the show. And a couple of quick announcements before we get started for the interview with Alex, is that we want your questions. So we are going to start taking our listener questions about how to become successful or more successful as a real estate broker. And here’s how to submit your questions, you can visit our Facebook page, which is keeping it real pod. So just search for that. Or you can go to our website, keeping it real pod.com. And there’s a contact form, you can submit questions there too. Before we get to our interview, I wanted to share a statistic with you that 88% of consumers are going to look up online reviews of your company before purchasing a product. Now this isn’t specifically a real estate statistic, but we could reasonably suggest that your clients are looking up to see what your previous clients think about you. So I was just recently doing a corporate team building event at a place where you have to escape a room working together. And at the end of it, we all had such a great time. But our guide through the the exercise said, hey, just so you know, we’d really appreciate it. If you leave us a review on TripAdvisor. It’s how we get a majority of our business. And if you feel like we did a really good job, it’d be the best thing you could do for us would really help us out. And I thought about that. And I did leave a review. But I thought jeez, I wonder how many brokers are forgetting to ask their clients to leave a review, whether it’s on Zillow, or Google or Facebook, or Yelp, or Trulia or Zillow, or realtor.com. Obviously, there’s a lot of places, but and I wouldn’t ask, of course your clients do submit reviews to all those. That would be too daunting. But what are you even asking for one or two, certainly at least ask for one. So I would pick a review system, for example, Zillow, and really make sure that if you feel like you did a good job for your clients that you reach out to them and let them know, what I would say is hey, Mr. Mrs. Client, thank you so much, I was really honored to be your broker. And if you felt like I did a good job, one of the ways you could help me with my business is to share your experience with me, here’s a link. This enables me to spend less time marketing, looking for clients, and actually more time servicing my clients. So you’re really doing me a huge service. And I thank you in advance. Again, that could be an email, but just the thought, and because your clients are going to look up to see, you know, those reviews anyway, might as well try to stack the deck in your favor. So again, consider that for your existing clientele. And also remember with your questions to submit those to our show, either on Facebook or on our website. All right on to the interview.
So Alex, welcome to the show.
Alex Haried 3:26
Thank you very much for having me.
D.J. Paris 3:28
It’s funny, you, you remembered better than I and I’m embarrassed to say that took me a moment. But we had actually met what you said about three years ago. And I remember you coming in now to our other office, and I tried in vain to recruit you. And I guess it didn’t work. But we’re glad to have you on the show. So thank you
Alex Haried 3:48
know, I’m always looking for, you know, other opportunities and things. And I’ve been very, very happy at Redfin. But, you know, you gotta know what’s out there to make sure you’re happy where you’re at.
D.J. Paris 3:58
And we should also we should also point out that you were telling me just Off mic that you had this exact idea for a podcast.
Alex Haried 4:05
I did. Yeah, I told my wife two two months ago about like, I should interview other brokers and then you know, make a podcast because I’m a huge podcast fan and, and she was like, Yeah, you should do it. And then it just kind of linger in the back of my mind. And, and I got your assistants email, and I was like, ah, someone’s already doing it missed. It missed the opportunity.
D.J. Paris 4:22
Trust me, I It would be nice to have another player in the space. I won’t feel as alone. But um, but yeah, I’m really, really glad you’re here. So talk because you’ve been in real estate since 2011. And you just, you’ve transitioned from the city, not that you, you physically transitioned living from the city out to the suburbs.
Alex Haried 4:42
I’m also transitioning my business out there too. So I have, you know, one one foot in both right now and picking up all my new clients out in the suburbs and everything like that. But then I have my legacy clients and my old clients who I’m still servicing in the city. So, you know, people come back to me all the time, and they’re like, can you buy me buy here? And I’m like, Yeah, of course. But you know, All my new business is coming in the, in the suburbs.
D.J. Paris 5:02
Sure. Let’s talk about how you got started because I want to end up in the suburbs and talking about how you transition. But how did you get started? Tell us that story. Sure.
Alex Haried 5:11
So the story actually starts when I was like, 16, I was hanging out with my, my uncle, who is in commercial real estate. And I really just admired him and admired, you know, what he could do and, you know, the kind of ethos of real estate and, and everything like that. And so he inspired me to be in real estate. So when I was 18, I actually signed up for a real estate class. And this was, let’s see, 18. So I was 2006. And so they, they looked at me, and they asked me how old I was. And I was, you know, I told him, I’m 18. And they’re like, Okay, well, you might have to be 21. Let’s like check out lunch. So at lunch, they kicked me out of the class, because I had to be 21. So that kind of annoyed me. So I came back when I was 21, got my real estate license, I was still in college, I just hung out with my uncle. And so then, after college, I knew I wanted to do something real estate related, but this was, you know, you can imagine the worst time to be in real estate 2010 Sure. So I’m calling developers I wanted to I went to Northwestern to get an econ degree. So I was like, I’m gonna be a developer and do all that. And I call a bunch of developers and they were all like, we’re firing people with, you know, MBAs and 10 years of experience. And I was like, okay, so I gotta find something else. So I found something else, which was, right after college, I did lease administration for a small, boutique firm, but they had a ton of business. I mean, even with like, the 12 people at the firm, they did probably, you know, like, I think they had almost a billion dollars in leases that they managed, just because of the size of leases that you can manage are can just be so huge, and they only did billing and stuff for them. So it was all very simple. It wasn’t like we actually had to do management of that. But, you know, it was interesting, but I was very, not challenged there. So I knew I wanted to do brokerage, or I figured I wanted to do brokerage. So looking around, you know, with a conventional broker, you know, I talked to commercial brokers, I talked to residential brokers, commercial brokers, they said, your first paycheck, if day one, you got a client to sign a lease was like six months later, that’s not gonna work. I have student loans I have, you know, my life, I just started and I don’t have, you know, parental money. So to commercial was not going to work. And then residential, they said, you know, first day, it’s going to be two months later, if they sign it, you know, 45 days at least to get a loan. And this was also in in 2010 2011, when,
D.J. Paris 7:44
when what it was pretty hard to get loans, three rd
Alex Haried 7:46
loans, people were not in the business, it was not as easy was in 2007 and 2006, you know, to get business. So, you know, established people were leaving the business. So I was like, Oh, this is, you know, not really good situation, either. And then I spoke with Redfin, and Redfin, how they pay you is just so much different, that I was like, this can actually work. And so then I started working for them a couple of weeks later,
D.J. Paris 8:14
and you’ve been with them for seven, seven years, six,
Alex Haried 8:18
six years. Yes. April of 2011. So yeah, six and a half years now.
D.J. Paris 8:22
And, you know, we mentioned your accolades, or I did in the in the intro, but I should mention one of them, which is, you know, aside from from everything else, is, you have almost a perfect five star rating on the red ring. These are not false ratings. These are these are Redfin’s own customer. Yeah, meeting you. And it’s nearly perfect, which speak well speaks to your ability, or to the satisfaction of your clients,
Alex Haried 8:48
I appreciate that, ya know, and, you know, there are the bad ones out there, we put the good and the bad we, we survey every one who writes an offer, so if good or, you know, failed or successful, they get surveys, so whether they choose to follow the survey or not, that’s up to them, but we survey them so that, you know, we get the most accurate information, and we put it all up there unless it unless it contains a factually inaccurate statement. Sure. We put it up there. So
D.J. Paris 9:16
let’s, yeah, and I mean, it’s it’s a real testament to your to your obviously the quality of service you provide. And, and I and by the way, you have almost closing in on 300 reviews. I know probably 10% of the clients actually feel bad out. Or maybe it’s slightly higher, but it isn’t 90%. So the fact so you can just multiply that by a pretty, you know, an exponential number and get the actual number of people you’ve worked with. Yes, it’s truly impressive. Yeah. So just talk a little bit about you know, and I’ll actually I’ll let me start with a short little just Redfin anecdote of my own check, which is I have a friend and she recently bought a home through a Redfin broker. It might have been you but but I actually don’t know who she used but initially she was with another traditional broker brokerage firm. I won’t mention him because doesn’t matter now, but it was you know, it was a traditional firm, a good firm, like a really good firm. And one word you don’t usually hear, like their brokers or not. So it was really and I’m sure the broker she worked with was fine, but for whatever reason, well, not for whatever reason, I know the reason she ultimately left that broker and decided to go to Redfin and And what she found was her her rationale. And I even offered before she decided to go Redfin, I didn’t know she was considering Redfin, I said, Oh, if you if you’re interested, if you’re not happy with your broker, we’ve got lots of brokers. I can definitely pair you up with someone. Yeah. And she ended up saying, Oh, that’s nice, and then end up going Redfin. And ultimately, I said, I just had a curiosity, what was it that prompted you, she goes, You know, I found myself doing the vast majority of the work she had been looking for, to buy a condo for about a year. And she had just was constantly on Zillow. And the other websites, you know, looking up and really wasn’t it wasn’t that she didn’t need a broker for to help guide her through the process. But she didn’t like paying, you know, she knew what ultimately she would be paying. And again, you know, you can make the argument, of course, the seller pays, but it’s reflected in the price. And yeah, it’s anyway, she caught sort of said, you know, I’m not that Redfin does provide a high level of service, she goes, but I love the fact that in her case, there was a some sort of rebate that came back her way that was substantial. And she’s like, this is perfect, because I get a professional and I get a rebate. And and, you know, it’s she just felt that the service was was so great. I hear that time and time
Alex Haried 11:38
again, from we’d love to hear that. That’s great.
D.J. Paris 11:40
Let’s talk a little bit about about your process, because you work with buyers, you know,
Alex Haried 11:45
almost exclusively, I work with buyers, I’ve done, you know, I can’t do sales, but how Redfin works is that they really tried to make you efficient at your job. And so they, you know, I get more buyers than I can then I can handle. And so we have this race where we turn ourselves off, which is basically we stopped taking new business, as you know, on an individual basis, if we’re too busy. So, and this happens, this happens. Top brokers are, you know, I’m probably off 50% of the year, just because I’ve got all my legacy clients, and I get all these referrals now that I’ve been in the business for, for so long, but But yeah, we. So yeah, we do give the rebate, we’re, you know, if there’s any industry for giving the rebate, we actually find that like, probably about half of our clients have sort of heard about the rebate, but don’t really know what it is and jerk are interested, like, what’s the number? How’s it calculated? Like, do I get one on this property? And so, you know, it changes all the time what the rebate actually is, but we find that people like faster service. Sure. And you know, service right now we’re on an on demand industry is becoming more and more an on demand industry. And it’s becoming more and more on demand world thrill. You know, like, um, Amazon is becoming, you know, they’re trying to get drones to drop off things within an hour and like things like that, like all this craziness. And so Redfin is using our technology to try to, to be in that same space to do things so quickly that you have to use us because we’re just so good at being quick. And then we can, because we’re so efficient and quick, we can actually get a rebate on some of the things. So to your question about how I work. You know, I very much believe in the ethos of Redfin, of being quick and customer focused. And so, you know, if you do those two things, I think the business just comes,
D.J. Paris 13:39
yeah, there’s, there’s some Gosh, my boss always quotes the number and I can’t remember, but it’s the vast majority of people would rather have a quick answer. Even if it’s incorrect that you later go back and say, oh, you know, what I made, I have to make an adjustment, then waiting, you know, waiting for a, you know, an answer that is double checking, and not to say you should ever give a wrong answer. But just this idea of speed. And, you know, I also want to point out Redfin is, you know, used to be with SEO and meaning, you know, search engine optimization, the search engine results when people are searching in the engines. It used to be when you were looking for a house you saw realtor.com is usually number one, you know, Zillow and Trulia were farther behind Redfin wasn’t as much on the map and this is years ago, and then all of a sudden realtor.com You know, swept a few places
Alex Haried 14:33
so bought and sold by so many people. I think they’re they’re you guys probably true and leadership in their ideas just can’t make a thing if you change every six months, some
D.J. Paris 14:42
Yeah, and other other plate firms, other websites just have, you know, really impressive technology and, and have risen the ranks and now all of a sudden, it’s Zillow and Redfin, right and you know, and then again, truly it is still up there. So it’s real truck
Alex Haried 14:57
loans, truly so, you know, basically certain point they’re going to just consolidate into Zillow, I’m assuming but we’ll see what happened what
D.J. Paris 15:05
and years and years before that. It was really locally it was dream town was showing off the top. Yeah. And then Redfin has just unseated. You know, unseeded, pretty much everyone and now it’s them in Zillow. So when you do a search, it’s really impressive because they’re driving so much traffic to their site. And they’re clearly consumers are clearly happy with the experience of the Redfin website, because Google again, rewards, you know, time on page and yeah, are people dumping get, you know, dumping out of the site going to another one? And the fact is, it’s a really good consumer experience. And so, it’s doesn’t seem any always surprising to me that that translates over into the broker experience to Yeah, so that, you know, it’s like, okay, great experience on the website, then when they connect with a broker, you know, Redfin’s, like, obviously knows that they have to continue that,
Alex Haried 15:53
yeah. And then we continue to speed, we found that if you if you don’t call them back within 15 minutes, or something like 60%, less likely to get them as a client, whether they’re just going to start making calls, when they have a question, find the property, they’ll make a call until they get a response. And so we we try to call people back so quickly that they continue using us.
D.J. Paris 16:15
Let’s talk about now you you’ve recently transitioned your business, again, you mentioned this earlier, from, you know, sort of mostly the city to now to, you know, mostly the suburbs, or just, I know, you have business this year,
Alex Haried 16:29
I’m gonna be about Yeah, fit. But 30 in the suburbs, and 70 in the city. Hopefully next year, it’d be more 5050. So I don’t have to drive into the city as much, but But ya know, I’m doing that transition. And Richard really helps me, because I don’t have to do all the showings for all my clients, right? I have a like a team that works under a team of associates. And so these associates, you know, for the city, if I just can’t make it into the city, that day, I’ve got the association who can make that work for me. So it really works, especially with the legacy clients who like working with me and already work with me, I can, you know, make them work with my associates a little bit more, and then just follow up after the tour and, you know, read those offers for him, I find that really, really makes the transition a lot easier. But yeah, the servers are fun, they’re different. It’s, it’s different, you know, you don’t have to like search for parking all the time. It’s true, but in terms of what the clients are looking for, you know, it’s a lot of those people with kids who are moving out for the school districts or for more space, and just it’s the suburbs are a little bit calmer. A lot of people are still trying to make it work in the city, you know, the city is pretty gangbusters in most of those A, B, and even C to your neighborhoods are pretty gangbusters. In the suburbs, or our neighborhood by neighborhood specific, you know, and so it’s, it’s, people have to figure that out a little bit more. And they feel like they don’t have the urgency that they do in the city, like the city, they’re just like, alright, we know that things will go quickly. We got to, you know, make an offer quick and everything like that sellers are like, well, we’ll wait a day or two to you know, think about this. In you
D.J. Paris 18:08
know, we were looking at, because we were, before we started, we were looking at the total number of brokers in the area, I think we’re in about 34 35,000. And this includes the suburbs, and I don’t know what the breakdown is of city versus suburbs. But let’s say it’s even half and half, it’s probably more in the suburbs. But But even so, it’s still a tremendous number of Realtors 34 35,000. And, you know, this is always a difficult question, not to ask, but to answer, I think because, you know, on the show, we really talked to just top producers, and they all sort of just look at me. Or if we’re doing virtually they you can hear that you can feel the look, which is when I say why do you think people choose you? You mentioned your speed, which is obviously critical. But aside from that, when I say why do you think people choose you over others? Oftentimes it’s like, I don’t know, meaning? Not that they don’t know, because they haven’t thought about it. They don’t understand what they’re doing that’s so unique. Because to them their service levels so high, because maybe it just is like, well, that’s what you’re supposed to do. Yeah. Do you have a sense of of why you think you become so successful?
Alex Haried 19:15
Well, I think initially, it’s because of the speed and because we have the search technology that backs us up, you know, the website, they’re searching on the website, you can just click or you know, we’re actually rolling out stuff that like you can click the phone number so you can call through your computer to us so we’re even making it easier for them. Sure. I think that’s initially why they come to us, I think why they either stay or why they come back for me. It’s it’s Patience, patience and expertise. I really am an expert in the neighborhoods that I work in. I really spent a lot of time reading the articles looking at the numbers looking at the data to really to know what’s going on. And they’ve just done so much so much work in the last six years. yours that, that I know how to get it done. I know what it takes. I know, you know, tips and tricks to make things happen, that I think people can really get that and understand that. And then yeah, patients, I find all the time that my reviews always contained, like, I was so patient with us we are we were lost. And he guided us in the patients. And he didn’t mind if we took a little while to make our decisions. And I find that that that’s probably the biggest thing that they say about me. So if you ask them, maybe they’ll say something different. Or if you ask, you know, another broker, maybe they’ll see something that I would do different, but no, I think that’s, that’s what I see. And just, you know, I try to add value in every in every interaction that I have with a client, I’ve tried to add value to, to them, whether it’s educating them about the market, whether it’s educating them about a process, like, I’ve got an investor who’s coming back for his third or fourth property for me, and, and he’s looking at that those condo deconversion. So we walked through that, and I’m like, Listen, I’ve never done it before. But here’s, you know, what I’ve read, and here’s, you know, the general process, and, and even the listing broker was like, yeah, that’s basically it. And then like, he has some property specific information to give us but for the process he already knew, and I had never done that before. But that’s the kind of expertise that I really bring
D.J. Paris 21:17
to my clients. Yeah, it’s definitely comes across. And again, it’s reflected in in all the reviews you have, but also, we were talking about this earlier, I don’t think we this made its way to the show yet. But you talked about radical honesty, and how and how important it is to just sort of be forthright about everything. And I suspect that is pretty helpful to you.
Alex Haried 21:37
Yeah, definitely inspections, and and what they’re looking at, like, are people going to like this? And, you know, it’s what about the resale? And all these questions that I get? It’s, it so much depends on honesty, or I think it does, because you can always be honest, and the honest truth is, is the same no matter when you say it. And so I, I sometimes forget that I’ve had a conversation with a client. And so if I’m honest, this, I will say the same thing over those five conversations. If I if there’s a lie there, I you know, you can get caught in that way. Because the next time the lie might be different. And so it’s, it’s like, Just be honest, even if it’s the ugly truth is ugly.
D.J. Paris 22:17
And sometimes it is,
Alex Haried 22:18
sometimes it is yeah, you’re sometimes not telling people what they want to hear. You’re telling them what they need to hear what they need to hear him the reality of things.
D.J. Paris 22:26
So what you mentioned, having geographic specialties, how did you choose those were the they were neighborhoods that I think initially I would assume initially. So
Alex Haried 22:36
initially, a few years ago, when I went with Redfin, they they tried to get you to be a neighborhood expert, if you’re not, so they geographically give you clients who are searching those areas. So you know, when I first started, it was all the way from like Edgewater to Hyde Park and West Garfield Park. It was a ginormous area because we were a small company we didn’t have that many brokers since we’ve grown. I mean, when I was moving out of the city into the burbs, my territory was basically like, River North to South Loop west to West Loop. So that I mean, I still had clients who go to work or park I had legacy people all the way up into, you know, Lakeview and Edgewater and, and Hyde Park even but they really try to get you to be in a small area as possible. So you can really know the buildings, I mean, in River North, you’d be like, Oh, what do you think of that building and be like, buildings got a crazy special assessment coming up, or this has got this or, and it really would increase your ability to be knowledgeable about. So go into the suburbs, I actually grew up in Clarendon Hills. So I know, you know, from back in the day, my parents were there for a long time after I moved out, and then really understanding the real estate is, you know, hitting the streets going to open houses seeing properties, and looking at the data like what’s going up what’s going down? So? Yeah,
D.J. Paris 23:55
it is no, it’s, it’s exactly what just about every successful broker tells me they do the hyperfocus in a few key areas, they become more knowledgeable than most brokers in those key areas, they freely admit, hey, you know, I can certainly assist you in other in other areas, but my prime focus is, you know, the, they always come back to their TrueNorth whatever those those areas are. And I I’m, it’s such a obvious thing. And Redfin obviously, has that same model, which is, you know, hey, we can we can pair you up with one of hundreds of agents, or we can pair you up with somebody who hyper specializes in Lincoln Park or, or Lakeview or wherever,
Alex Haried 24:34
wherever. And we do that often where somebody will be looking with me, and then they’re like, Oh, we want to go look in this other neighborhood. I’m like, I’ll get you out with an associate. If you decide to go in that neighborhood and buy in that neighborhood. I’m gonna hook you up with somebody who’s great in that neighborhood. So
D.J. Paris 24:49
and if you think like the willingness to walk away from business like that, and I understand it’s built in their model, but but just still the willingness to say, Hey, you’re best served maybe by John who specializes in self loop or stop Hyde Park wherever? Yeah, I think is at least it’s a feel good to a consumer. Yeah, you know, it’s it’s Hey, you know what this this person’s probably got a better handle of this area and also from you
Alex Haried 25:16
we have to communicate it properly. But yeah, it works out much better in their favor. Sure. And you know there’s Yeah, yeah really works out in the in the buyers favor.
D.J. Paris 25:28
So if you feel we had to ask answer a few questions that we thought were fun. And this this is a pretty unique one, we always ask what’s what’s the sort of most unusual or? Well we have two questions were the funniest real estate experience. You have a pretty funny one. So
Alex Haried 25:42
yeah, so this was actually pretty early. This was like second year in the business. We’re in the silicon, the South Loop, Dearborn Park. And there was a townhome, I got there a few minutes before my client, because the tenant was going to open up the property for us. And so I just wanted to make sure the tenant was there and that things gonna go smoothly. So I knocked on the door and the tenant opens the door and he has a snake in his hand. And I’m like, Oh, my gosh, what what is going on? And it’s like, wrapped around his arm. He’s not worn a shirt. He’s got like tattoos and it’s just like, I’m like, oh, what’s up? And I’m like, we’re here to see the property or like, are you ready for us? He’s like, Oh, yeah, like, come on in. I’m like, let me wait out here for my climate class out here. Yeah, let me let me come into my class and like, discuss things because it’s just weird. Dude. Are you sure you want to see this? Like, yeah, we’ll see that like, okay, cool. So you go in. He’s got like a bond on this table. Is this is a disaster property. Disaster tenant. He sits there on his couch doesn’t talk to his watches TV with the snake in his hand. And he’s got to terrarium with another snake. It’s like, oh my god, what is this guy, and then we go upstairs and they it was a three bedroom but they converted to two with the master bathroom. Not having a wall. So was a 10 foot opening into the master bath with a Jacuzzi that could probably fit 15 People blew everything straight out of I think that’s the 80s when everything was matching toilets, same shirt at
D.J. Paris 27:09
everything was blue open to this. It was like a powder blue. Probably powder blue. It was the weirdest
Alex Haried 27:15
showing experience. Oh my god, that guy we got out of there. We didn’t end up buying it. But they should have they should have lowball them and kind of get an offer. But what are you gonna do?
D.J. Paris 27:26
You also have a squatter experience.
Alex Haried 27:28
Yeah, yeah, that one was interesting. So this was, you know, probably two years ago. Now we were out in I think this was Humboldt, or Logan, you know, on the edge of one of those. And so we knew that the property this is from work, we came in, we were looking around, got up to about the second floor, and I opened up a bedroom door. And there was a guy hanging out there just like hanging out. And I was like, oh, solder. And we had like a couple minute conversations. Just he said, If you can’t even remember what he said, I was so like, weirded out. And my clients were like, Let’s go. And I’m like, Yeah, let’s go. So we just left. But yeah, that was that was pretty interesting. So hopefully, that doesn’t happen too.
D.J. Paris 28:13
So then when the MLS sends you that feedback form. In your product, FYI, who knows
Alex Haried 28:21
if they even care, there was a foreclosure and I mean, they should care. But like, yeah, those guys are so much business. I don’t know. I don’t know.
D.J. Paris 28:29
It’s interesting, too. And then it’s it’s what do you do? You’re not not what you what do you do, but Well, what am I gonna do?
Alex Haried 28:35
What would the buyer do? Like? Could he move forward with that? Yeah, I guess eviction knows, you know, you’re evicting
D.J. Paris 28:41
somebody without a lease. Yeah. I don’t know how that works. But it’s, it’s I suspect, it’s not easy. But that would that is funny. Um, what advice would you have? And I know you’ve actually given a lot of indirectly given a lot of advice about what you currently do. Well, what would you say to to new, a new broker who’s getting in the business? 2017 right about now? And is, you know, probably struggling like every new broker?
Alex Haried 29:07
Sure, sure. Sure. I would say two things consistency. And I’ve heard people say, the growth mentality, but it’s basically about education. Just keep educating yourself and consistency. So you got to get out there and just hit the streets like I heard some guy was, Well, you told me this story. I listened to your podcast, he was going on LinkedIn or something and like contacting people interested, I was like, Oh, that’s really that’s really, you know, clever. And for me at Redfin, it wasn’t about that because red fins model is so different that they, they give you the client shirt, you have to service them. But for servicing the most consistency, it was like calling them every Monday after they had been out on a weekend or if you hadn’t heard from him in a few days. You know, give him a call, send him an email, sending them properties and you know, just really, once they’re in your system, once you’re talking to him, just be consistent about following up with them and giving them you know what they need and be interested answer to them. Yeah, I would say, I guess I’ll put the third one in his responses.
D.J. Paris 30:04
Yeah, it is, I was telling you this off off air, but you know, it is again, it’s so obvious to someone like you it comes across in the way you communicate, you know, here with me and on the show, it’s clear that you know, your clients think highly of you. And again, it probably isn’t. It’s so obvious to you have, communicate quickly become knowledgeable. You know, and to a lot of brokers, I’m not so sure how obvious that is. So yeah,
Alex Haried 30:30
sometimes sometimes it’s not, sometimes it isn’t. But I did want to talk about Redfin, if you Yeah, let’s use second. Absolutely, um, because I know that there’s a lot of misconceptions about our
model, and like, What’s going on over there. So like, I always like to take these opportunities to talk about sure, you know, a model that that is different, and we are the new kid on the block, or we’re not the newest anymore, there’s all these guys who are trying to do you know, buy the property for people at certain prices, and then different stuff that’s coming down the pipeline, we’ll see how that works out. But But yeah, so Redfin, you know, I, as a broker, I have all these clients, I have about 60, on my on my page right now. And so I worked with all of them, but I send them out with associated agents. So we, you know, if you want to think about it, like, like, too many top brokers have a whole TV shows or a property that everyone you know, it’s like who we may meet on your team, and they just tell you the name, and it’s like, great, we do that with a buyer. So we tell the buyer, we’re sending you out with this person on our team. But I’m the guy for you. So sometimes we get that other brokers with a follow for feedback. And that’s like the the associate, they’re like, Oh, well, the client, like sort of liked it, but like, didn’t really like it. I’m the guy who would know, oh, they didn’t like it because of XYZ reason, because I’m calling them afterwards. And we’re discussing like, oh, you saw six properties? What are we talking about, on these six properties? So, you know, unfortunately, how the feedback often comes as the email because the associated setting up the appointment, the feedback goes to them. And they’re like, we don’t really know what feedback to give.
D.J. Paris 32:07
Well, that’s just a limitation of the MLS is follow through. Yeah. And you
Alex Haried 32:12
know, we we’ve talked to them definitely about sending that feedback request through to the lead agent on that client. But you know, if you ever have any questions, really, when you’re a broker, and you’ve done a shown with an associate, you know, ask the associate, hey, who’s the lead agent on this client? Who should I be following up with, and they if they don’t know right away, because we all get busy, we all forget, in certain associates work under 10 different readings. So they might not know for that individual client, but they can find it out and they can give you you know, my contact ID for the lead agents contact info. So I just think that’s really important to know. Because, you know, a lot of people like well, we see this client with like five different Redfin people, and we have no idea and it’s like, well, that’s our model. That’s our model is the Associate agent takes them out when they want to go out not around my sketch.
D.J. Paris 33:00
What and it’s funny, too, because if if brokers inherently have a feeling that maybe that isn’t ideal. Clients seem to like it just fine. Yeah, clearly, it’s explained effectively by the lead agent, saying, Hey, you’re gonna go out and see this property with so and so. Yeah. And so well, that’s one of our Spiel
Alex Haried 33:21
to every client. We get. We tell them like, here’s how Redfin is going to work. Here’s how you can have success within our system. And unfortunately, we haven’t had that conversation with the other broker sometimes. Because when would you have the opportunity? Sometimes I’m at an open house, and I’ll have that opportunity. But, you know, I definitely don’t see every broker in an open house. And sure, when I have enough time to talk through the system, so yeah, I
D.J. Paris 33:46
know, I’ve been super impressed with Redfin, really coming up as a technology firm first and creating, which I’ve always said, if you create an amazing service or product, the marketing of it becomes really easy, because the product or service, you know, sort of does and and Redfin has clearly become an industry leader in the technology side, and also the customer service side. You know, it’s again, it’s, it’s I never speak to and again, I don’t work for Redfin. So I feels like I may be doing commercial and but but the reality is, I don’t speak to clients who have worked at Redfin, who go and it wasn’t for me, I get this like, that was actually really cool. Yeah. And that’s, you get a lot of like, it was really they were right on top of things I got, the technology was good. I was getting a lot of communication, sort of, you know, automated communication and also I was getting in touch with with the agent was right on top of things. That’s what we love to hear. So speaking of that, if if any buyer’s or seller’s or I don’t know if you work with renters as well, but if anyone who has any real estate needs wants to work with you, how should they get in touch with you? Sure.
Alex Haried 34:51
So the best way would be to actually submit it to a request via the Redfin website, because we’ll get you out with the best agent for you. because, you know, I’m on the North Shore good employee, no matter how much I’d love to strong. That’s if you want to do that if you if you want to work with me specifically, my phone number is 630-308-0795. You know, I answer my phone calls as best I can text is great as well. And then I also email is really good. So alex.harried@gmail.com That’s harian is spelled H AR Well, sorry. alex.harried@redfin.com would be the best way. What are Harry with one AR H AR ie D. So yeah, that’s really the best way I have a profile on the website if you’d like to, you know, read my reviews there. And yeah, we looking for new clients all the time.
D.J. Paris 35:45
Sure. Well, I think you’ve said it all. And again, I know just how busy you are. You have 60 clients and and half of your year you’re turning away business. So that is a real testament in
Alex Haried 35:56
anybody newer brokers still my newer brokers so
D.J. Paris 36:00
again, I appreciate your time because I do know how busy you are. So thank you for being part of the show. Of course.
Alex Haried 36:05
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
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