David Greene talks about his new book “Sold” and how it teaches agents how to be successful in the real estate market. Next, David talks about his transition from a police officer to a top 1% real estate broker. David provides advice to agents why it’s so important to discover what you love about real estate and how to focus on those tasks. David also shares tips about what agents can do while in quarantine. Last, David talks about the importance of having a professional presentation each time you meet with clients.
To buy David’s newest book “Sold”, click here.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
David Greene can be reached at 706.955.8545 and david@weknowaugusta.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 bigger pockets podcast host David Green. Before we get to David, I want to remind everyone if you’re new to the show, the best way you can help us continue to produce these episodes for you is to tell a friend think of one other agent that you know that could benefit from hearing success secrets from top producers like David and send them a link to our show. The easiest way to do that, send them right over to our website keeping it real pod.com They can stream every episode we’ve ever done right from the website. Or if they’re a podcast person, have them pull up a podcast app on their phone and do a search for keeping it real you’ll find us everywhere and also please follow us on Facebook every day we post an article that we find designed to help you grow your real estate business and we post it there of course along with all of our other episodes you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now without further ado, on to our interview with David Green.
Okay, today on the show we have Best Selling Author David Greene from the David Greene Team at Keller Williams in California. Out David is a former police officer and current co host of the bigger pockets real estate podcast he’s an absolute legend in this industry. He’s author of best selling books for example Long Distance real estate investing, buy rehab, rent, refinance, repeat and sell your home for top dollar David is a passion DsRed David is passionate about helping others build wealth through real estate and runs the blog green income.com that’s green with an e income.com. A nationally recognized authority on real estate David has been featured on CNN, Forbes and HGTV as well as over 25 different real estate podcasts as a featured real estate agent and Loan Officer David Roans. Sorry, David runs the David Green Team A top producing real estate company in Keller Williams, where he has won multiple awards for production and teaches agents how to excel in building their business and active real estate investor David own single family properties across the country shares and apartment complexes notes and shares in note funds. His newest book is sold every real estate agents guide to building a profitable business. We encourage all of our listeners and viewers to pick it up immediately find on Amazon and anywhere else books are sold. David, welcome to keeping it real.
David Greene 3:44
Thanks, DJ, I just realized how long my bio was. We might not even have to do the interview. I think you covered it all.
D.J. Paris 3:51
Well, you there’s a lot to talk about with you. And you’ve been very prolific in a lot of different areas of real estate. But before actually, before we get to you, I want to make sure because I always forget whenever I have guests on to really hit hit the their newest project hard and I want to hit yours hard because it is very apropos and important to our audience, which is your newest book sold. And do you mind sharing a little bit about what that book is? Why you wrote it and what you intend to, or what our listeners will be able to learn from purchasing it.
David Greene 4:22
Why thank you for asking. I would love to talk about that. So the first few books I wrote were for real estate investors. This was the first book I wrote specifically for real estate agents. And basically it was a combination of frustration with the lack of guidance we have in the industry, which I’m not criticizing. And I think that this is just there’s no way around it. I’ve never heard an agent that says I love my broker. They did a great job. They exceeded my expectations. It’s very difficult to punch into our industry and if brokers did give agents everything that agents wanted, they would never make money because most agents won’t take what they’re given and do anything with it. That’s just the reality. Sure. So I wrote a book to function as that mentor, here’s everything that if you had a dad or a mom that was breaking you into the industry, this is what they would be teaching you. Which as a side note, we all know that 19 year old that’s doing like 80 deals a year, big. And it’s always because their mom or their dad taught them the industry. And I realized that’s such an important thing. And it came from the information that I was teaching my team. So I be I was a police officer, I left that to become an agent. Now I’m a broker. And I’m directly training the agents on my team, to work with my specific clients. So I’ve got a lot on the line. These are my friends, these are the cops I worked with, these are leads that I’ve generated. And I’ve given it to them. So I want them to do it at a very high level. And the stuff in this book is everything that I would use to teach them how to do this job at a high level. It’s the first of a three part series. So this first book is just written for either the new or the inexperienced agent, who’s saying, What do I do? How am I supposed to do this? What is a CMA? How do I when I have something I gotta tell a client? How do I say it? What’s going on on the other side of the phone? When I’m talking to the other agent? How do I get my client into contract, when there’s five offers those kinds of questions that you really need to have the answers to just to make money just to be profitable. That’s what we’re trying to do trying to get you to, you know, that six figure number, the next book in the series will be written to make you a top producer, this is how you dominate your market, you get to the top of the pile. And then the third book will be about how you build a team so that you can either retire and live off passive income or you can scale. Yeah,
D.J. Paris 6:29
boy, well, we’re excited. The first of those first of the trilogy is out now, which again, is called sold. And we’ll have a link to it in the show notes. So if you are listening or watching, you should be able to find that in the notes, please purchase the book, because our whole existence for this podcast is really what you’re talking about in this book is how do I become successful. And I would love to go all the way back to before you became a real estate agent and just hear about how you made that transition, you know, from from a police officer to real estate.
David Greene 7:02
Yeah, that was pretty crazy. So when I was a police officer, I was saving my money and investing in real estate I was I’m really the only person I’ve come across that was I don’t know if stupid is the right word, but foolish enough to go say, Hey, I’ve already have passive income from real estate investing, I built wealth, I’m gonna get into being an agent, most people go the other way. But there was something that drew me to it. I just felt like maybe you could call it divine intervention that was saying, Go become a real estate agent. Even though my personality was a terrible fit for it, I was definitely not a great salesperson. I’m not very extroverted. So I’m working as a police officer, it’s not a surprise that that profession is really changing. And the relationship between the public and law enforcement is starting to sour. And I could see this would be a very tough thing to do for the next 20 years of my life, or 25 years of my life till I retire. I had a lot of friends that I would be referring to agents because I was known as the real estate guy, I own the properties. I was always talking about it. And then they would come to me and say, hey, the agent you told me about they didn’t do this, or they’re not telling me that or they want me to do this thing. Can you tell me how it works? These were good agents. These are the cream of the crop that people bring someone to and I still just man, what is why can’t they get it right? Why did people come to me, and I made the decision, I just want to get my license and do this. I don’t need to be given away the business. I could be doing it myself. So I did it for a year where I was a police officer and I was an agent. And then I left after a year I became a full time agent. And I quickly realized there’s aspects of this job I love and most of it I don’t. And I knew that leverage was really the thing that I had to do. And that was sort of what quicker than most agents I hired my first assistant I started following a lot of the teachings that Keller Williams gives about how to take your job and turn it into a business.
D.J. Paris 8:43
Yeah, that makes sense. I imagine you probably probably read Gary Keller’s, famous, well infamous book at this point, Millionaire Real Estate Agent, which of course, every pretty much probably all of our listeners have read as well, which is a really a great roadmap for just kind of how to do it, which doesn’t get too much into the weeds. But I’m really excited for your book because your book is going to show you exactly step by step what to say how to say it, what to do. And you know, a lot of the people that listen to our shows they’re there, you know, they listen because they want to hear from top producers, top producers, oftentimes I bring them back to the beginning. Because sometimes it’s easy to forget what it was like when I when they first started. For anyone out there who is struggling, maybe they’re new to the business. They’re trying to find clients or maybe they’re not new, and they’re just not able to be as mobile because of course the we’re all dealing with the pandemic still. Do you have any just general advice of what anyone listening or watching right now could do to you know, find more people looking to buy or sell?
David Greene 9:43
Yeah, that’s the question right there. Yeah, I would say one of the things that I think I’m trying to change about how real estate is done is I don’t really have I haven’t come up with a classy way to say this. I’ll just come straightforward. We’re all taught to generate leads and that is good teaching. When you control the leads, you control the business, that is the most important thing to do. But I’ve come under the belief that some agents just aren’t going to do it. They don’t like it, it does, it feels heavy to them. That’s not why they got in the business. And we can keep hitting them on the head with Legion, Legion Legion, and it’s not serving them, and it’s not serving us. So part of what I did was I said, Look, this person is amazing at showing homes or they are so patient, they can explain things with such detail, or they calm people down, they had some skill that I didn’t have, I tend to go really quick through stuff that I think is important and only slow down on stuff that actually involves money, because that’s what I think is the important part in the transaction. So I started hiring those people to work for me. And all of a sudden, they were happy. All they had to do was show homes, all they had to do was manage the transaction, all they had to do was talk to the clients. And I would handle the messy the difficult the hard stuff and a lot of the lead generation. So the first piece of advice I want to give is some agents may be shouldn’t be trying to just generate leads, you should always be supplementing your income by doing that you should always be talking about real estate. But if that’s not your jam, and you know it, you the people that I’m talking about DJ that will say I just don’t want to make video I feel uncomfortable in front of the camera, right. And for five years, they’ve been saying that and we keep telling them we’ll just go make the video. Yeah,
D.J. Paris 11:17
turn your phone around, go on Instagram, go do a virtual showing or show yourself in your car on your way to to do a showing and a lot of agents, you’re right just aren’t going to do it. It’s not it’s not their personality.
David Greene 11:28
That’s exactly right. It is good advice, guys, you should do that. Get over it, make your video. But if you’re not going to do it, don’t just sit there shaming yourself feeling terrible and beating yourself up because you’re not doing it, get on a team or get in a situation or get a partner or do something where somebody is good at doing that. They’re not good at servicing the leads. So in the book, I talked about the difference between catching fish and cleaning fish. So there’s agents out there we know them that are amazing fish catchers, they get all this business, they can’t stop posting on their phone. And then when they actually get a client, it’s a total bleep show. They just, you know what I’m talking about. They’re unorganized. They’re forgetting stuff constantly, they try to make up with their personality for their lack of organization and professionalism. Those agents need somebody like you, who doesn’t want to make the videos but wants to service the clients, I really think in the future of real estate is going to be that people that love servicing or cleaning fish mixed with the people that are catching them. And when you get the right mix, you will find that it just feels fun again and energetic to be in this profession.
D.J. Paris 12:29
Yeah, and we’re not just talking about joining teams, although that is the most sort of obvious way you can do that. Because you know, we live in a global society now. And if you want a virtual assistant, and you you know, feel like you can’t afford it, you might be able to afford it if you expand your search from, you know, just your immediate local geographic area, because now the entire world might compete for that business. And you can find quality help. So if you’re somebody that is the fish catcher, and you want to hire somebody who specializes in paperwork and and all the operational side of it, and they may live in the Philippines or somewhere else in the world, you can find those people, and they can be quite effective for you.
David Greene 13:11
And that’s exactly right. And then some of the time they’re in your office right now. Yeah, there’s there’s agents that are out there that are they talk and talk and talk. And then all these people say, or maybe they imply they want to buy a house, they don’t come right over the head and hit them and say take the house shopping. But they’ll be reaching out saying, well, our interest rates really as low as I hear. And can you really get a brand new house for this much money. And those agents don’t have systems don’t have support, they don’t have a mind that really grasped organizational skills, and they just don’t answer the text or they start the conversation and don’t finish it, they’re bleeding leads is what I’m getting at lead and lead everywhere. And you get hooked up with someone like that and you become their net, you make a partnership with them, and they get all these calls coming in. And you actually follow up with these leads, and it’s gonna make you more money and then more money because you’re just improving the efficiency of what they already have going on.
D.J. Paris 14:01
Well, if that’s true, and also, you know, let’s let’s just be honest, you know, the personality that goes out and catches fish is not the same personality that cleans the fish. Now you could you do both Sure, I guess. But you can’t do everything well, and you’ll probably end up doing a lot of things mediocre or maybe even poor. And if you could just hyper it’s that jack of all trades, master of none thing. And if you can, if you’re a one person shop and you can do it all and you’re able to maintain all of those skills. Amazing. My hat’s off to you. I am not built like that. I would definitely need at least one other person to help in all the areas where I fall short.
David Greene 14:35
Yeah, and that’s exactly right. For the other 99% of the people in the industry. That doesn’t help to be told just go do it. So the message I’m really trying to preach here is when I don’t hear other people saying and it’s okay to not be good at certain things. Yes. If you could do lead generation, honestly, it would be better. That’s the most important part of this, of the transaction is getting the fish but if you can’t, you can still be really good you can still Have an eroding career, you can still be like the people that are my showing assistants on my team, they’re all making over six figures, some of them going up into the $200,000 range in their second year. And all they do is show homes. So there is a way to make it work. And I just I’ve watched agents just be shamed and had guilt piled on them, because they’re not knocking on doors, and they’re not cold calling, and they just know that’s not their personality. And I hate saying it because it doesn’t have to be that way. There are serious needs for people that will do the other parts of the job.
D.J. Paris 15:29
Well, you know, you mentioned being introverted earlier, and I think we’re talking a lot, a lot of times people who are introverted are not super fun, they’re not super fond of going out. And and, you know, trying to drum up business because it isn’t part of their temperament. It isn’t their personality. But I’m curious to get your take your thoughts on this in the last year, I have seen and it’s sort of sort of an unknown unfortunate side of are fortunate to an unfortunate situation of a fortunate side effect to an unfortunate situation with a pandemic. But I found that that introverts are really now that I think the playing field is leveled a lot in real estate, because now we’re so used to doing everything virtually in the last year that you know, not just realtors, but you know, the public, we’re also used to being on Zoom calls, that, that I wonder if introverted realtors are getting their due right now. And they’re able to really shine where in the past, you know, maybe they weren’t, you know, as in the forefront, because they weren’t out in front of the cameras as much. But now everyone’s kind of doing the same thing.
David Greene 16:29
Yeah, that’s a great pointing. So my 2020 was very good to me, I sold over four times as many houses in 2020, than I did in 2019. It was, oh, my gosh, huge leap. And I’m sure there’s a lot of reasons why. But I think one of the big ones is leads that typically would have been pinched off before they came to me, Okay, someone in my database that knows me, but doesn’t have a super strong relationship with me. You know, there’s like 7000 people in my database now, but I can’t stay in touch with all of them. That would have reached out to me had, they had to think who should I call, they typically get pinched off in open houses, at PTA conferences, from door knockers, those people that were out doing these things that we tell them to do, we’re stealing people that normally would have come to me, and that’s every right in the world to do that, if I didn’t keep that relationship with that person. That’s what I deserve. What when COVID hit it, cut them up, you couldn’t have open houses, you couldn’t do the things you normally would do. So that forced those people coming to me. And then all the realtors that depended on that to make their business run, they got hurt, they were starving out there without a lot going on. And so, you know, the sad thing is that there are people that had terrible years in 2020, that just what they had been doing the whole time stopped working, they couldn’t really pivot. But the lesson to learn from it as we can never get too comfortable assuming next year, we’ll be like this year, that we really do want to dig in deep and understand how our business is working, why it’s working, and then maybe what we could tweak to make it work with the direction that we think the industry is going in?
D.J. Paris 17:57
Yeah, I think that’s absolutely right. And it really brings me to wanting to mention just briefly, bigger pockets and real estate investing in general. bigger pockets, by the way, for anyone who is unfamiliar, is really the largest online forum or resource hub for investors online. So biggerpockets.com is where you go to learn more, it’s an absolute must subscribe as situation for realtors who are looking to learn how do I add that either for my own personal investments, or just being able to serve as investor clients? And David, obviously, you’re you’re an investor and you work with investor clients as well. How important is it that you think traditional Realtors understand investments? Is it something that they should worry about? Or learn? Or is it something that really they should pass off to people who do this exclusively?
David Greene 18:47
You know that? I? That’s a great question. And I think it goes down to if you have the temperament or the the skill set for that, just like not everyone’s a lead generator, not everyone’s a fish catcher. Not everyone’s really meant to under to analyze things deeply. And to look at real estate from a financial perspective. Many people look at it from the emotional perspective, which is great when you’re working with the first time homebuyer that’s motivated by emotions, that’s why they’re doing this, and that the investor agents have a hard time with those people. They come across as cold and unattached and uncaring. So that’s the first thing I would say. But the next I would say is that if if it’s at all possible for you, you should be very interested in real estate investing because you can make money selling real estate, but you will build wealth owning it. You want to own real estate. And what I found is there’s a synergy where I can sell more houses because I understand real estate investing. Sure I have more knowledge and frankly, it will It’s like the difference between going to a mechanic for questions about what car should I buy, that’s the investor versus the salesperson at the used car lot that just wants to get you into a car. I’m not trusting that person’s advice, but if my trusted mechanic says you should buy a civic I’m gonna go buy the Civic one. you’re an investor and you understand the finances of how real estate work the fundamentals of how you build wealth through it, how to make sure it cash flows, how to get it under market value, how to add value to real estate, and you can actually make your clients money through buying real estate, more of them are going to come your way, which means you’re going to make more money, which means you can invest in more real estate, which means you will learn more about investing, which means you will get more clients, and you sort of end up in this awesome cycle that goes upward as both of those components to the business support each other.
D.J. Paris 20:30
What and it really real estate investing is such a perfect complement to a transactional business, you know, as a realtor, you know, we haven’t really found a way to create recurring, you know, commissions, it hasn’t been figured out yet, maybe someday, someone will figure that out, like they did for financial advisors about 2030 years ago, from being going from just being stockbrokers, to being able to you know, earn a percentage of the assets under management. We haven’t totally figured that out for traditional real estate yet. But one way you can add that into your own sort of, you know, financial portfolio for that recurring passive income is to, you know, start investing yourself. And right now is really a great time to start learning. Obviously, interest rates are incredibly low as everybody who’s listening knows, but really just a good way to, you know, sort of figure out how can I smooth out some of those up and down months in between transactions?
David Greene 21:22
Yeah, that’s a great point. And what I like, I think part of me restate that part of why I did better as a real estate agent, when I got into it, there was the knowledge aspect, I just knew more about real estate, most agents that get into the business, they’re learning sales, they’re learning contracts, and they’re learning about the asset that they’re actually representing people on, I had a really good baseline knowledge there. I also had a database of people that kind of thought of me as the real estate guy, I own that mindshare, which is a huge component of what lead generation is really doing. You’re just creating, you’re just owning mindshare, in people’s heads when they think of real estate, they think of you. But I had an understanding of like the business side of it, I knew what it was to buy a house and leverage off the rehab to this person and leverage off the management to this person, and leverage off the analysis and the financing and all the pieces I knew who was in charge of it. And I sort of sat above the whole thing and orchestrated how they would fit together, I just put a puzzle together with every deal. And you did enough of them. And it became the same puzzle in different ways. Well, when I got into being an agent, I sort of did the same thing with this that I did with that. And I sort of tried to take my agent business and turn it into passive income the same way I had with my investing. And I say this, because for the agents who get into real estate investing, it will unlock a piece of your mind that you start to look at your job differently, you start to recognize that pieces can be leveraged that people can be hired that you can get that off your plate, to focus more on either what you like more, or what’s more financially productive to be doing. It gets you out of that just this one way narrow minded way of thinking that things have to be done that keeps agents you know, spinning their wheels for 40 years until they’re in their 60s and realize I don’t have a retirement plan.
D.J. Paris 23:00
Yeah, that’s exactly right. And, and so passive income is a great, great opportunity to do that. And again, it just really as you’re not only going to increase your your residual monthly income by doing this, you’re also going to increase your skill set and the knowledge and you will be able to help those investor clients, should you decide to add that into your your portfolio or your business plan. would also love to hear any tips you have right now for everyone who’s listening or watching who isn’t yet vaccinated, who’s still restricted, staying at home? What could they do to either deepen the relationships they have with, you know, potential clients or even prospecting? I know we talked about some people just aren’t going to prospect but everyone can do something to at least keep their name in front of their sphere of influence. And I’m a big fan of not doing salesy things. And I think probably everyone just about everyone listening, when maybe not everyone listening, but a lot of us feel that same way. What could agents be doing right now, when they’re stuck at home?
David Greene 24:00
That’s such a good question. So in the book, I have a concept I call the sales funnel. And it basically breaks down the five classifications of human being that you are going to come across in this job. The first is people, that’s anyone in the world, but it’s typically a person in your database, then you get a lead. A lead is a person who knows who you are and wants to buy or sell a house, then you get a client, that’s a lead that has signed a buyer rep agreement or a listing agreement, then you get a contract. That’s a Residential Purchase Agreement that’s been signed by all parties, and then you get a closing. So I take those five classifications because many times agents don’t know where they are, who they’re talking to, is this a person? Is this a lead? Is this a client you don’t treat them all the same? And you got to have a direction of the conversation that you’re that you’re pushing that person towards? The when I’m talking to people, I’m using the tool of lead generation to turn them into leads. When a lead comes my way. I’m using the tool of an in person appointment or a zoom appointment if I can’t go on it with the purpose of turning them into a client when I’ve got a client I’m trying to use psychology with the purpose of turning add them into a contract. And this is spelled out in the book. But in the chapter that talks about lead generation, how I turn people into leads, it’s exactly what you said, DJ, I have this analogy that every conversation, you have a very simple goal. It’s two parts. The first is you want to fill somebody up with water. And water in this example would be goodwill, I want to fill you up with goodwill towards me, by serving you, by helping you by by easing a burden you have by taking pain away by loving you in some form, and every human is different. Not everybody needs the same thing. So I actually have to know you and have a relationship with you to know what you need. You may need a shoulder to cry on, you may need advice. You may need encouragement, you may need to laugh, who knows. But that is the goal of every conversation you should be having when you’re talking to people is how do I fill you with goodwill towards me? Now, if you do that, right, I call it the law of reciprocity. They will they will have this feeling of being bursting with positive energy towards you. And they will want to give it back anything other they feel they owe you. That’s exactly right. They feel they owe you. And in a sense they do because you filled them up with something and good human beings, the ones we want to be spending our time with, want to reciprocate that. So what a lot of agents do is they understand the first thing I’m talking about. And they get the first step right, they can fill someone up with goodwill, and then they pat themselves on the back. And they say, Oh, I feel so good. And they hang up the phone. And that’s as far as it goes. And they leave this person bursting with goodwill and nowhere to give it to. Well, the second piece is you got to build a trench from that person to you. So that water can flow there. And that is explaining to that person without saying the words. I know I just made you feel really good. I know you want to make me feel really good. Don’t go like my posts on Instagram. That’s not what I want. I want a referral. When you know someone that wants to buy or sell a house, I want you to call me and tell me when you’re at work and you hear someone say the word divorce, baby promotion, college kids are moving out. You need to think of me right away and say, Oh, hey, are you guys thinking about downsizing your house with the kids moving out? Oh, yeah, we were talking about that. Let me have David give you a call. He would love to walk you through what your options are and help you find the one that would be best for you guys. He’s not pushy, but he’s really good. And then I tell them, Don’t just give them my card, I don’t want that. I want you to send a group text to me in them that says, Hey, guys, this is David, the agent I was telling you about. He helped me with whatever he said he’s willing to give a free consultation to you guys to see how he can help out is so much better. So I filled you up at Goodwill. So you want to give it back. And I dig a trench to let you know exactly where that water should run. And it’s that simple. That’s what to answer your question and what people should be doing there pandemic, it’s just following that formula.
D.J. Paris 27:40
So are you are you specifically telling the person you’ve worked with, hey, one of the ways you can help me is whatever and then go into your is that basically what you’re saying?
David Greene 27:50
I am literally doing that all day long. Every day. People are emailing me and saying, Hey, David, I think I want to buy a duplex. But maybe I want to buy a triplex and I don’t really know, can you help me with this thing. And I will help you, I will fill you up with goodwill. And then I say, I would appreciate if you’d let me know anyone in California that wants to buy or sell a house because I’d love to help them too. And I’ve never heard a person complain. They’re always grateful. Oh my god. Yeah, of course, I’d love to do that for You’ve done so much for me right there. They’re showing me how the law of reciprocity works. So the content that I make is free for people. The advice that I give people is free doing podcasts like this is free, there’s agents that are listening, and they’re like, Wow, that was really good, I can do that. There’s a form of goodwill that you and I just gave those people, they’re going to want to give back. The second piece would just be showing them this is how you can help. And you get into this rhythm like that. I also call building social capital, where I’m making deposits into everyone that comes across my life. And the only withdrawal that I ever want to make is a referral for my business.
D.J. Paris 28:50
Yeah, that is just so well said. And for everyone listening, it’s not enough to put at the signature line of your emails, I am never too busy for your referrals. Every realtor does that. Don’t do that. That is not or do it but do a lot more. But
David Greene 29:06
that is CJ is that’s digging the trench to you. But not putting the water in the person that makes them want to flow. That’s
D.J. Paris 29:11
a good point. And I have another tag that that, you know, for everyone listening if you if you want to have that conversation and to build that trench, one way to say it is Hey, one of the ways that you can help me is I end up spending a lot of my time marketing and looking for new clients. And that really takes away from the time I can spend to servicing my existing clients. So if I ended up if I did a great job for you, one of the best ways you can help me is to really think about me anytime you anybody you know, is interested in you know, and then you know, you can tag on all of what David said as well. So all those major life events but you know, if you explain to them like Hey, I end up spending a lot of time looking for new clients and it takes away from my ability to service existing clients. Maybe you can help with that. That’s that’s another thing I learned many, many many years ago that I thought I’d throw in there. But yeah, let’s let’s talk a little bit more about the Look. So what else is in the book that that our listeners who are going out to purchase it can expect to say? Okay, that’s
David Greene 30:05
a really good question. Thanks for asking that DJ, I’ve got a chapter here on what to do in your first 30 days, because a lot of times no one tells new agents when they get involved, what they should be doing, how they the right way to contact your database, once you start with this, because many people even if they’ve been an agent for four years, they don’t want to tell anyone, they know that they’re an agent, they’ll tell everyone else in the world, right? That their own people and I made the mistake of becoming a cop not talking to anyone in my life for six years, maybe seven years. And then the first conversation I had was, hey, I’m a real estate agent. It’s never too busy for your referrals. And that was horrible. So I’m sort of helping people avoid stepping into it like I did, right there. A lot of it does focus on that sales funnel. And the idea is that there’s several chapters on this. When you come to the office, every day, when you have a W two mindset, which most of us have, there’s your subconscious is telling you that you are productive, simply because you stepped in the doors of the eyes, and you’re at work. So you can sit there doing nothing useful, but your brain isn’t telling you, hey, you better get to work because you think you are working, you’re at the office, and you’ll literally hear people say I’m at work. The problem is in our industry, you’re literally losing money every single day, you’re paying for your license, you’re paying your broker fees, you’re paying your desk fees you’re paying to belong to MLS is you’re paying to have access to different ones, you’re paying for your keys, you’re paying for your gas, you’re paying for your insurance, every day, you’re losing money. And there should be a sense of urgency that comes out of you that I gotta go find some way to justify all this money, I’m spending to have the right to be an agent by doing some work. So I’m trying to get people out of that WT mindset and understanding that there’s four things you do that make you money, and I use the acronym plan. This wasn’t mine, I heard someone else say it. The P is for prospect, the L is for lead, follow up, the A is for appointments, and then is for negotiating. Those are the only four things that David Green does in a day, that will actually make him money in the industry. All the rest of it is just sort of cleaning a fish I’ve already caught or servicing a client, but I’m not earning additional revenue. So I talked about ways in the book to to keep yourself focused on that creating systems and having accountability so that you do those things. A lot of it is in the sales funnel understanding when an email hits you. Is this a person a lead a client, a contract or a closing? And once I’ve determined what it is, what is the tool that I use to get to the next step? So if a buyer says, Hey, we were looking at houses this weekend, and we want to know if you think the market is going to shift, should we wait? I immediately classify you as a client, I know that the tool I need to use a psychology to get you comfortable writing an offer on a house. And my mind immediately goes to what is their fear? What is their problem they’re struggling with here? How do I get to the core of it, so I can help them know what decision is best for them. It brings clarity into me needing to know what to do. And I don’t feel like I’m at the mercy of the client. I think a lot of realtors are just like, I don’t know, man, they just can’t make up their mind or right. I took them to see houses I saw 40 houses, they still called another realtor and they had them write the offer. Well, they didn’t follow this path. So that’s a big part of the book is actually using those tools, lead generation crushing appointments like meeting with someone in person and delivering a presentation that clarifies for people. Did you want to jump in there?
D.J. Paris 33:19
I just wanted to say, you know, I wanted to get your opinion, just because you’re talking about presentation, how important it is. So there’s so many different schools of thought on this. And there will be people that will passionately say you show up with a blank notepad and a pen. And that’s all you need. And then there’s other other top producers that of course show up with a really well put together presentation. I personally, you know, unless you are really well established and don’t need to talk about everything you do. I think showing up without a presentation is a huge mistake.
David Greene 33:47
I agree with you. If I’m the only people that don’t need a presentation, or someone who already knows everything that would be in it. Yeah. And in which case the Notepad is good. Yeah, I would say there’s no reason you shouldn’t do both. So I have a presentation that is designed to do several things. And this is I mean, if agents aren’t doing this, this is why you’re not getting a listing agreement signed or buyer representation agreement sign you’re again, just putting your success in the hands of the client and hoping that they write an offer or they choose you and I don’t like to rely on hope. We have presentations for both sellers. And for buyers that address the questions that clients have that sometimes they don’t know that they have. It’s just a feeling inside of anxiety or worry that they can’t really articulate. But I know because I’ve done this enough times that that’s what’s going on that addresses it without making them feel like they’re the only one so they know like hey, this is normal that you feel this. They also bring up things that clients wouldn’t have known can go wrong. I do that purposely so when I’m when I’m giving a presentation to buyers, I will bring up the fact that property taxes are not the same everywhere in the city that some parts of town have could be double what other parts are and you could have borrowed an extra $80,000 lenders for the same payment at the end of the day, then these higher taxes would have been things like PMI. I’ll mention that even if you don’t have 20% to put down, you can avoid PMI with a lot of loans. Did you know that we could save you money doing it with lender place mortgage insurance? Lots of stuff like that DJ, that the client themselves didn’t know that shows? I’m not like every other agent. I’m not just a turnkey. And what it does is it creates a fear in them to do this without me what I want is them thinking, Oh, my God, what else do I not know? I’d want to go with this guy. He knows what he’s doing. And it’d be very hard to do that with a notepad. Okay, but before I give the presentation, the first questions out of my mouth are what’s on the top of your mind that we should talk about before I start talking because I can’t exactly the information if you’re already filled with questions.
D.J. Paris 35:45
I’m a recruiter. For a real estate firm. I’ve been here for 10 years. And it took me about five years before I before going into my presentation for recruiting, I’d say hey, what are you looking for? And tell me what you would like to have. And then I would tailor the conversation to meet that particular need. And it sounds silly and simple. But I think it’s it’s an often overlooked strategy, which is, you know, it’s what did they say the golden rules to treat people as you would expect to be treated, but the platinum rule is to treat them as if they expect how they expect to be treated. And so you know, think of it that way is is always finding out first, what does the client want? And again, it sounds so sales one on one, but it’s such an easy thing to forget to do.
David Greene 36:30
And then what’s maddeningly frustrating, because they will give you the answer key to the test. If you just ask for it. Like I’ve, this is one thing that I learned when they’d walk into an open house. And I’d say hey, are you working with an agent? And they’re like, yeah, oh, yesterday, maybe I know, I forgot their name, right? It’s one of those type of things, right? And they’re kind of working with someone, but they’re not really happy. I will say to them, what do you wish you could change about the relationship you have with your agent now, and they will vomit every concern they’re having? Or when I can tell that like, maybe the husband’s on board he wants to buy but the wife is super hesitant. I’ll ask why does it seem like you’re a little nervous about this? And they’ll say, Well, I had a really bad experience with my agent before. What did you not like about it? And they will just boom, boom, boom, they didn’t answer their phone, they pushed me into a house they didn’t want, they didn’t listen to me. I thought I could afford this house, it turns out, I couldn’t afford it. They never told me the taxes would be higher. They’ll tell you every single reservation that they have, it’s natural to want to get it out. And if we just stop and ask, you get those answers. Now you know how to tailor that presentation that I just described to fit that person?
D.J. Paris 37:35
Yeah, that’s, that’s so well said. And I know we are wrapping up the end towards the end of this because David is incredibly busy. And let me just tell you how how busy he is. Not only is he a podcast host an author, he runs a ultra successful Team at Keller Williams, out in California. And he’s actually one of the top producing teams in all of Keller Williams, and just hundreds of transactions a year. And I know that your team is actually expanding. And so for our audience who might be in that area, who might be looking for other opportunities, maybe want to join a team. Or maybe you just want to work with someone like David, who is clearly a maverick in the industry. And you know, what, what are you what is your team looking for David?
David Greene 38:15
Thanks for that DJ. We are hiring right now in Northern California. Absolutely. That’s sort of where our hub is. And I’m starting a Southern California team now. So agents in either of those areas that want to join a team that want to kind of learn from me with the goal of I want to become a blackbelt. That’s the best place, we’re also going to be expanding into Hawaii this year. So those are like my first, my first two expansion projects for me, Southern California, and Hawaii. And then in the future, I’m going to be going into other markets. So we’re hiring people who are either already crushing it as an agent, and they want their life back. So the support systems I have in place, you’d be amazed if you just focus on prospecting, lead, generating appointments, or lead follow up appointments and negotiating, how you could go from working 60 hours a week to 10 hours a week and actually make more money. That’d be one of the first people that we’re looking for. We’re also looking for the people who just want to build their business, and they want to increase the speed at which they do it. So they know they’re good at lead generating, they know they have a promising career. But they want to skip all the mistakes that takes everyone else five or six years to learn and in six to 12 months have more leaves than they know what to do with and then we’ll build a team around them. Or the support pieces I talked about that just want to show houses that want to be an administrator, you know, they’re licensed agent or they’re going to be a licensed agent, but they just don’t want to be the one in the front of the camera. They much more prefer working behind it that will do a kick butt job supporting the people we have that are great at lead generation but not so great at the follow up.
D.J. Paris 39:39
So if anyone out there is interested in joining your team, what’s the best way they should reach out?
David Greene 39:45
They should go to join David Green team.com www that joined David Green team.com
D.J. Paris 39:51
And that’s green with an E so join David Green team.com. We’ll also put a link to that in our notes. And then also everyone go out and purchase the new book I was gonna I was gonna make a horrible pun and say I’ve been sold on buying this book but, but I’m, I’m funnier than that. And I can’t think of anything funnier at the moment. So I’m just gonna say everyone go buy the book. It’s called sold every real estate agents guide to building a profitable business. David is a best selling author. This is exactly what our show is all about. So everyone go out and support David, and also listen to him on the bigger pockets real estate podcast. And he is he’s everywhere, just Google David Green. And you’ll find him all over the media. And of course, in real estate everything real estate. David, thank you so much for being on our show. On behalf of the audience, I want to thank you for all the great tips you gave us over the last hour and wish you of course, continued success with the first of these three new books coming out. And also on behalf of David and myself, we want to thank the audience for continuing to listen and support our show. Best way you can help us is to tell a friend think of one other agent that you know that could benefit from hearing this great interview with David and send them a link. Easiest way to do that. Just go right to our website, keeping it real pod.com and stream every episode we’ve ever done right there. Or if they’re a podcast person, just have him pull up an app, a podcast app and search for keeping it real pod. And also please follow us on Facebook you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod every day we find an article written specifically designed to help agents grow their business and post it there along with all of these great interviews. David, thank you so much for being on the show. It was a real honor to have you and we’re gonna everyone go out and buy book, buy the book sold.
David Greene 41:36
Thank you for that DJ, this was a really fun interview. You’re really good at what you do. And he wants to reach out to get any more detail on anything we talked about. I’m on social media at David Green 24 Pretty much every platform
D.J. Paris 41:48
at David Green 24. So find him online there. All right, David. Thanks so much.
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