Keeping It Real Podcast • Secrets Of Top 1% REALTORS ® • Interviews With Real Estate Brokers & Agents

D.J. Paris

Secrets of top 1% realtors and real estate agents!

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Feb 20, 2024 • 16min

When You Should Dance on Social Media Video • Video Boot Camp for Real Estate Professionals • Kim Rittberg

Award-winning video marketer and coach Kim Rittberg shares tips on blending personal interests with professional content on social media for real estate agents. She emphasizes the importance of using personal experiences like dancing to connect with the audience and enhance authenticity. Learn how to create powerful visual metaphors that resonate with viewers and grab a free download for tips on creating revenue-generating videos.

Feb 16, 2024 • 1h 11min

What’s Going On With Real Estate Commissions? • Unpopular Real Estate Opinions • Chris Linsell

Welcome to our monthly feature Unpopular Real Estate Opinions with Chris Linsell. In this episode, Chris discusses his predictions for 2024 and what will real estate market look like. Chris also talks about what will happen with the buyer-side commission. Next, Chris and DJ discuss why this is a great time for buyers to enter the market. Chris also shares some tricks on how to unlock inventory in your market. Last, Chris discusses 2 things that will differentiate you from other agents and bring you success this year. Please check Chris’ profile on LinkedIn. If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube! This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks. Transcript D.J. Paris 0:00Today we have one of the most sought after journalists and speakers to talk about his predictions for the real estate market and 2024 crystallin. Sal is our guest. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads in interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our show Welcome to keeping it real the largest podcast 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 today is our newest monthly series called unpopular real estate opinions with Chris Lynn sell. Now Chris Liddell is a real estate technology analyst and director of content at large. He specializes in new solutions to old questions, constantly exploring the cutting edge of technology in the real estate space. Chris also has many years of experience as a licensed Realtor in the state of Michigan and has worked as a marketer, a digital strategist and a trainer for major national brands like Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices of Michigan, and Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors throughout his real estate career, Chris has been part of hundreds of transactions ranging from modest rural starter homes to multimillion dollar waterside compounds, and accomplished musician, actor and speaker Chris has engaged with audiences sizes ranging from 30 to 3000. Most recently, Chris was a featured speaker at the National Association of Realtors Conference this past fall, and he’s probably done other engagements even since we are CEU. Oh, for all things, Chris, please visit his website, Chris Lynn cell.com. Also he posts a lot on LinkedIn and Twitter. We will have links to Chris’s social media profiles. You can follow him there, Chris, welcome to the show. Once again, DJ, Chris Linsell 3:03glad to be back. Thanks for having me. Happy New Year 2024. Here we are. Happy D.J. Paris 3:08New Year. And I would also just really quickly like to say thank you to our audience, I got a very nice holiday gift. I try not to bog myself down in the metrics of of our show. However, we did have our very biggest month ever, which I didn’t even know I don’t ever look at December numbers because they were always the lowest of the year. But my marketing person shared our statistics just the other day with me for December. I was like don’t show me and he goes no, you want to see these. And they were actually up. So thanks in part to Chris Chris has actually been part of our show for years. And we have a new feature for him now, which is very exciting, called unpopular real estate opinions. So we this is our second episode in this series. We’ll be doing this monthly. Chris, let’s let’s jump right into it. What’s what’s unpopular right now in your mind? Chris Linsell 3:59Oh, man, well, DJ again, thanks for having me back. I love that every every time we get together now I get to bring some of the topics that I talked about with people on social and in person. And I’m just kind of earmarking all the ones that people yell at me the most about so that I can share them with you. Because just because people don’t like it doesn’t mean it ain’t true. So I’ve got a few unpopular opinions that maybe we should chat about. The first is and, you know, take this with a grain of salt here. But the first is 2024 is going to be a terrible year for real estate until it’s not. And I know that sounds like a really weird way of saying it. But basically what I’m trying to get at here is that the beginning of 2024 is going to be challenging. We’ve got a lot of people who are proud masticating that 2020 For the new year, it’s going to be a brand new leaf. I don’t think so man, I think that the first half of 2024 is still going to be very challenging for a number of reasons. But the second half of 2024 is likely to be one of the busiest times in real estate that we’ve seen in a long time, a certain certainly compared to the first half of the year. So for agents who are looking to do some forecasting for themselves on this year, I wouldn’t be forecasting pretty lean until about June and then get your roller skates on, because that’s the only way you’re going to be able to get get to and from fast enough to serve us all the clients that you’re going to have. D.J. Paris 5:44Yeah, and I think I think you’re right. So it really will be sort of this diametrically opposed in your mind, sort of halves of the year. So we’ll have the half nots, maybe in the, in the first half of the year due to, you know, market construction, we’ve got high interest rates, we have low inventory, we just have less activity quite Chris Linsell 6:06Yeah. And you know, here’s the reason why this, this tends to be kind of a flashpoint issue for for folks, is ultimately some of the reasons why I think 2020 for the second half is going to accelerate, and not necessarily for the better of our clients, honestly, is, we have in 2023 experienced this incredible constriction of the market just in general. I mean, it was just it was a hard time to buy and sell a home in the United States. And I’ll even say, hard time to sell a home, even though homes are fetching record prices, it’s just a difficult time to sell because the markets feel so uncertain at the moment, and that’s making sellers nervous. We’ve just, we experienced some record constriction, in 2023. And 2024 is going to be the year where all of the pent up demand that occurred through 2023. And frankly, still some leftover pent up demand in COVID. That’s going to kind of break loose. And that’s going to be really exciting and interesting. But the reason why this is kind of an unpopular conversation topic is I don’t think this is necessarily to the benefit of our clients. Because we’re going to go from having quiet, challenging markets to extraordinarily hot and competitive markets, we’re going to see whiplash amongst our buyers very, very quickly. Sellers with unrealistic timelines. And then you’re going to layer in on top of all of that these lawsuits faced by NAR that are going to create a whole new level of uncertainty around commissions, which is not something that was a part of the conversation from COVID through 2023, I guess the second half of 2023. But it’s going to be a busy year in real estate. Real estate professionals need to keep their head on straight if they actually want to translate that busyness into benefit for their clients. Do D.J. Paris 8:19you believe that? That in the upcoming let’s say 24 Next 24 months, that there will be any reform to buyer side commissions? Right? Where are they going to have to come to the table with with cash? Is it going to be built into their mortgage? If they have one? Or is it still going to be all technically sourced by the seller and just maybe more transparently split? Chris Linsell 8:49Great question. Here’s a couple of things that I am confident it will not be. I’m confident it will not be built into a mortgage. The reason behind that is 99%, maybe 98 and a half percent of mortgages in the United States have, excuse me particular stipulations that regulate the only real property can be used as this this tool can only be used to finance real property. So though there are certain percentage level exceptions to that, that conveniently get applied by the banks and not by outside sources like you can you can actually roll in your closing costs and some loans into the mortgageable amount. Banks are happy to charge you interest on that stuff. Sure. But the other fees and costs associated with real estate, I think will be a very challenging hill to climb as far as rolling them into mortgages. to your specific question about whether or not I think we’ll see any reform. The answer is yes, but I think the reform will occur On our on the level of professional bodies, I don’t see the United States as a governmental body passing any kind of mortgage reform in the next 24 months. That is maybe a commentary on the state of politics in the United States, but just generally speaking, that seems like a no win issue. Because you have particular interests on the part of consumers that happen to also kind of come up at odds with the interests of one of the largest professional advocacy groups in the entire country, almost the world in an AR. So I don’t think there’ll be any kind of movement from a from a legal perspective there, but I do think NAR will likely in install some new internal professional regulations, but they are just going to be tweaks to the initial to the existing law regs, which basically says you can offer optionally to pay a buyer’s agent, it is not an assumed requirement, like like it is now basically, which, which is what got NAR in trouble before, it’s going to become optional, you can choose whether or not you want to offer a buyer side. And that just will become more explicit. What does that actually change? Pretty damn close to nothing. Frankly, I think we are going to and again, on popularly I understand this is going to be to the detriment of our consumers and to the detriment of us professionally, because it’s just going to extend the quagmire through which we have to wade through on this issue. 2024 is going to be a year where we have to explain to every single client, why that lawsuit happened, what the results were and what it means to them. And the real kind of sticky wicket clients are going to be insisting that things change, even though they don’t even know what they want them to change to other than they just want to pay less. So this is going to be a year where we should start rehearsing that conversation. Because again, first half of the year, it’s going to be pretty quiet the second half of the year, there’s going to be an incredible amount of activity. So you’re going to be having this conversation on a regular basis with people. So D.J. Paris 12:31if if we do assume that the second half of the year quarters three and four are going to be more active, more buyers, certainly as rates decline, which we hope happens and seems to be what the economists are predicting. Would you recommend as an agent today to really encourage the both sides buyer and seller or or just one or neither? To participate in the market before it gets flooded with competition? Chris Linsell 13:05Oh, big time 100% In fact, the real, like the purchasing power of dollars is going to be I’m sorry, let me let me rephrase that the purchasing power of buyers is going to be measurably higher in the first half of the year. And the reason behind this is you know, Lawrence Yun from from NAR Chief Economist from NAR has has publicly predicted that he expects to see interest rates, hold steady for the first, you know, quarter or third of the year and then start to trickle down that start that when we see mortgage rates trickle down, I am willing to bet I’m willing to bet the backyard on the fact that when we see four weeks in a row of trickled down mortgage rates, we’re going to see an increase out of out of that a disproportionately large increase in buyer activity. So the reduction in mortgage rates are going to be offset by this buyer activity. And it’s going to make it harder and more expensive at the end of the day to buy a house. Because even though that rate is going to go down, the competition is going to go up by a disproportionate percentage. So if you have clients who are waiting on the sidelines right now saying, Well, I’m not I’m ready to buy a house, but I’m not going to buy it until I have a mortgage rate that you know starts with 6.2. These are people who the banks are just salivating over because yeah, they might get a 6.2% mortgage rate, but the purchase price on their home isn’t going to be $410,000 Are whatever the median prices right now, it’s going to be $460,000, they’re gonna make more money, the banks will make more money at lower rates, if we see that trickle that slow trickle down. 2024 is going to be a challenging year to get the timing right. And whenever I say, whenever I’m talking to people about how to effectively service their real estate clients, when it comes to market timing, I always tell them, if you have a client who thinks that they’re going to time the market, this is somebody that you should refer, because this is somebody who will waste your time. And when it is actually time when they actually feel like they’re activated, they will never be satisfied, because the window for their success is non existent, despite what they actually say. D.J. Paris 15:54Yeah, it’s a very strong point. Yes. And that that being said, as an agent today, what would be I think, really beneficial is that Realtors start proactively contacting clients and having these conversations and having this explanation of, here’s why it might make sense to list today or to get into the buyer side. You know, in talking about their creative financing solutions, I know, we wanted to get into some some solutions to help help buyers a little bit more when it demonstrates are high, but also just having the conversation of it’s very similar to having the the buy low sell high conversation, when when you know, we’re talking about securities and financial advisors, you know, if they’re, if they’re worth their salt, they, you know, once a stock is up significantly is not the time to purchase traditionally. So but but psychologically, it feels like the time to buy because things are looking good in the stock market. So we know that logically, but emotionally, that’s sort of the hurdle people have to get over. And I think the emotional hurdle gets extinguished or gets cleared very easily with logic, but I think it has information has to be communicated. And that’s not necessarily the message that I’m seeing a lot on in the media. Right now, I’m seeing a lot of talk about mortgage rates, I’m not seeing a lot of talk about whether it’s actually a good time to purchase and what the logic behind that is, or to sell. And I think this is where a realtor can really earn their stripes by reaching out to their clients and saying, Hey, here’s what really is not being talked about. And if you have data to back it up even better to say, you know, let’s go back a couple of years when rates were below 4%. And let’s take a look at what the average prices of homes, you might be looking at purchasing, let’s see what they closed for. Let’s see what they listed for and let’s see what they closed for. And let’s remember what the what those times were, if you were an agent back then if not, the data is there, you can go back and look. And you will you will, you know we can all shutter from from a little bit of those times about how difficult it was to just do much of anything, if you’re on the buy side Chris Linsell 18:09100%. In fact, any agents I’m gonna give, I’m gonna give anybody who’s listening, if you’re feeling motivated by DJs, golden words of wisdom, which you all feeling motivated by her. If you are if you just made a mental notes that you need to start talking to your clients about opportunities relative to kind of the expected timing in this market. I’m gonna give you some ammunition here. And this is actually, again, I’m gonna I’m gonna use an unpopular opinion here. Everyone who’s listening to this, take it steal this put this in your quiver, as a provocative topic to get a conversation started. Real Estate and 2024 is not going to have an inventory problem. It’s got to have a mortgage problem. And what I mean by that is, yeah, it’s true that we don’t have enough enough inventory to service the needs of the buyers. But the root of the inventory problem is mortgage rates. And we were talking earlier, remind me what you said, what percentage of homeowners in the United States currently have a mortgage rate less than 5% 85% 85? I mean, that’s insane. 85 out of every 100 homeowners have a mortgage rate of less than 5%. And I would venture to guess I don’t have the numbers in front of me. Excuse me, but I would venture to guess there’s a sizable percentage of people with a mortgage rate of less than 4% right now. And so, this is a choke point in the inventory cycle. That is going to create havoc for for inventory issues. And again, it is this is a mortgage problem. If you We are, if you want to take DJs advice and start having these conversations open with that line, we don’t have an inventory, we have problem, we have a mortgage problem. And then you can, you can stretch out DJs suggestions around the sorts of things that you should do to facilitate that conversation. Take it a step further, we have data from just, I mean, from the last year and a half of what, what the price of homes were when that when they closed at certain mortgage rates, and we had we had a mortgage rate ascent. I mean, in the last two years, we had a section a couple of months, where mortgage rates were between two and a half and 3%. And a couple of months between the three and three and a half, and so on and so on and so on, you can look back to each of those sections and look at the median prices of homes that are closing in your market. And then you can use those those prices and adjust for inflation. And you can say, okay, here in today’s dollars, here’s where these homes were closing. If that then you have data, you are armed with data to go to your consumers and say, Listen, this is what we can expect if mortgage rates hit this amount. This is where the median price is going to be. And you’re going to have an incredible amount of competition here is this where you want to be as a buyer, what’s the perfect window for you? What is what is the what is going to serve you best. And if you are servicing seller clients, you can tell folks right now like where is based on based on what we expect this trajectory of this market to be what’s going to be the price is going to get you to your goals, because ultimately right now, servicing sellers is not about selling their house, it is that that is a relative conclusion based on the construction of inventory. Servicing sellers is all about finding them their next place. If you can unlock that key, if you essentially treat your sellers as buyers, because that’s what they are right now. Then you you unlock more inventory for the market. So take that advice. Use that line, we don’t have an inventory problem, we have a mortgage problem, that is something that we need to solve and start talking through strategy, you’re gonna get more people leaning forward into your conversations than sitting back and being passive. D.J. Paris 22:34I also think too, I talked to a lot of top luxury agents who get these massive listings for let’s say, you know, 5 million and above these just incredibly high net worth individuals who are playing at this, you know, top 1% level of income and, and, and, and just wealth. What’s interesting, and again, I’m as not as a nonpracticing agent, I didn’t know this until I told somebody told me years ago, but that when you sell a, you know, X, you know, million dollar home. One of the challenges is, is actually finding the buyer, actually listing it on the MLS is is oftentimes not that not as successful as actually reaching out to people who can afford those kinds of homes directly and saying, Hey, I’ve got this new listing, reaching out to agents who have worked in those same price points and saying, what buyers do you know, I’ve got this listing, you need to come see it. And I’m almost wondering if we’ll start to see a shift for even on the non luxury side, listing agents starting to reach out to homeowners who do not have their listing on the market and saying, I’m in the process of selling so and so’s home, they need a new place. And you know, it’s kind of similar to what real estate investors have done for years, where they just send postcards to these multifamily homes going, Hey, if you’re the owner, I’d like to buy your property. And they just kind of hope that somebody reaches back on I’m curious, we’ll start to see more of that this year. Chris Linsell 24:06Yeah, I am, too. I mean, it’s like, in again, in some of the weirdest ways it feels like 2024 is going to be a cycle of a lot of the things that we don’t do anymore, that maybe we’re gonna start doing again, and will it actually be effective? will we actually be able to test the effectiveness of these strategies? I mean, ultimately, what it really comes down to is there’s always going to be changes in every market, including real estate, you know, we’re a cyclical business. If if, if we never cycled, we would have a fundamentally unhealthy market that was based, you know, that is propped up on artificial things. We should cycle every market cycles. Ultimately, though, what is going to separate the real performers from the pretenders out Yeah, as real estate professionals are the ones who can anticipate the cycles and get ahead of, you know, kind of run to where the ball is going to be, instead of just always chasing after the ball. D.J. Paris 25:13Yeah, and I think this, we were talking about this offline about really figuring out since going back to mortgages being or the housing market having a mortgage problem this year, really thinking about creative ways to appease or solve for that. And there are there are creative solutions, there’s all sorts of, you know, solutions. And this would be, I think, a great time to really reach out to those top loan officers in your local market, and say, Hey, let’s let’s brainstorm here, you know, what, what ammo, can I come with? To convince a seller that it’s a good time to list? And how can we appeal most successfully to buyers? And does the seller help in that, and we know that, you know, to one buyer downs, for example, are are a pretty common alternative right now to, you know, incentivize buyers to get off the sidelines. Any what other suggestions do you have for agents who are just sort of unclear about what to do right now? Chris Linsell 26:13Well, I mean, ultimately, the most successful agents, especially when we’re trying to solve financing problems, the most successful agents are the ones who are going to do two things better than their competitors. The first is, they are going to leverage the best connections in their market, to professionals who do things that they cannot do. So like there is a limited amount it’s not, it’s not zero. But there’s a limited amount of value that you can provide to your clients, when they have mortgage specific questions. You can definitely provide a 30,000 foot view maybe even a 10,000 foot view of of the options of the strategy and the way to apply those different options. But at the end of the day, your advice can only extend so far, because you don’t have the ability to exercise and actually put into action, some of those financial instruments that will get your clients across the finish line. So there’s a I think 2024 is going to be a year, where your connections to really savvy and thoughtful mortgage brokers of all stripes, ones that conduct FHA and rd loans, ones that specialize in jumbo or luxury loans, ones that optimize for speed, I guarantee you, there will be somebody in your 2024 real estate world who’s going to need a mortgage in eight days. And it’s just there’s going to be a client, we’re just we’re just going to see that kind of volatility in the market. If you’ve got a mortgage person who can optimize for speed, you are going to be a winner. So these are these are the like kind of the base level. But there’s this whole other element too, especially for folks who are not going to necessarily be perfectly serviced by the mortgage industry, primarily because the interest rates are not where they need to be. If you have financial advisors who can generate ideas on how to use existing wealth, how to create loans from protect, perhaps existing assets, if you have financial managers who can, you know, if you are somebody who is fortunate enough to have like retirement savings or investment accounts that you don’t have to liquidate, but you can borrow against this is something I’m seeing begin to rise in the mortgage space, or in replacement of mortgages as people borrowing against investment accounts. Because the loans are processed differently, the interest rates are different. And it still frees people up to keep that money invested. They’re just borrowing against that money. The agents if you if you are struggling with answering some of these questions, get connected with the people in your market who answer these questions in other contexts, because these are going to be your best friends for generating transactions because ultimately, unless you’ve got a mortgage license and work for a bank, there’s only so much advice that you can give so connect with the people who actually can actualize that advice. D.J. Paris 29:39So we’re talking about accountants, we’re talking about financial advisors, CPAs financial planners, also estate planning attorneys really talking about this would be a great time to reach out to some of these professionals and say, hey, I want to give my clients the best possible opportunities this year for You know, moving and you know, we need to explore, I would love to explore some any any, any creative ideas you have based on different levels of wealth or net worth. There’s all sorts of solutions more, of course to Chris Linsell 30:13yeah, let me give you one other kind of alternative. A lot of people don’t think of this. But if you have clients who are looking to buy in HOA dominated buildings or neighborhoods or coops, I can tell you from personal experience, because I’m on the HOA of my neighborhood. That D.J. Paris 30:36is that is a thankless job, Chris, we appreciate on behalf of your association. We appreciate you guys Chris Linsell 30:43keep the roads plowed. And I’m not driving the plow, so I’ll help write the checks. D.J. Paris 30:48Sorry, I just had to I do appreciate you because I know nobody else does. Chris Linsell 30:52Well, honestly, I did. That means a lot coming from you. Thank you. No, but this is an under utilized resource. But most HOAs that were formed after 2008 require new residents to include in there to include in their initiation into the neighborhood, their financing information. And though there are different, you know, effort, every HOA has their own rules, most HOAs require the specific information around the details of individual residents to remain confidential. But there is nothing in most bylaws that say that HOA reps can’t talk about these things in aggregate. So for instance, if you’re looking to get into a neighborhood, like if you’ve got a client who’s looking to get into a neighborhood, and you’re struggling with how to solve the financing problem, go to the HOA board and say, Listen, we’re trying to solve the financing here, we want to make an offer we want to live here. How have other people paid to get in here totally. And there, they can tell you, in fact, most of them, they have a vested interest in you buying in there because they want to fill their slots, they want to they want to make sure that the HOA is solvent. So they can say well, 50% of people bought with cash 50% up to 30% of people bought with a with a conventional mortgage 20% of people bought with maybe maybe with a loan from from a stock portfolio. 5% of people were land contract, you know, whatever it is, I don’t know, I don’t I don’t know the specifics. But go to these HOAs, they have all this information, they can tell you this is especially valuable in major urban centers where you have buildings that have hundreds of units. I mean, they can tell you like, in the last 10 years, the percentage of people that bought in cash were x, I mean, it is that information is available, they want you to have it because they want you to buy in there. So they’re not going to tell you that the guy in two J, you know, bought in cash, but they can tell you X percentage of transactions that occurred in the last 10 years have been in cash or have been in traditional mortgages. So there are there are means to to get this information, you just have to figure out who is actualizing that information and go right to the source. I D.J. Paris 33:32love that. Well, I think that’s a great place to wrap up. So for those of us that have HOA opportunities, reach out to the HOA and say, Hey, we’re we would love to know what creative solutions people have used to to, you know, secure their, their their transaction. You know, how have people done this? Are there any lenders that you’ve seen time and time again come through the HOA that people seem to be satisfied with and maybe a unique way, the This happened in my own building, when when we were buying there was one lender who just seem to get things done in a really super creative way that other lenders couldn’t and talk. It happened among a lot of the people who were buying, we were all chatting with each other, which was very unusual. But we were all talking about it because we were all experiencing this one issue and somebody says oh, I’ve got the person. And we all kind of went to that person. And there’s you know, that person got a lot of business, but it was because they had a creative solution. So yeah, I think that’s a wonderful idea. Well, Chris, I think this is a great place to sort of wrap up for today. I know we could keep talking and I know there’s a lot more I certainly want to talk about. And I know this is near and dear to your heart in our next conversation about sort of vulnerability with with data, cyber attacks stuff. We know MLS is of uncompromised, and we know that that also the you know the real estate industry at least The National Association of Realtors and everything underneath it has struggled to keep up with with tech. And so we know there’s a lot of vulnerability there that we should probably talk about and how agents can sort of prepare for some, you know, some of that disruption because it enters that already it has already happened. But yeah, we will we will keep that for our next conversation along with anything else by the way. It please follow Chris on LinkedIn and anywhere else that he is posting on social we will have links because he posts a lot of these unpopular opinions. And if you disagree, and you have a differing viewpoint, please let Chris know and we will bring that up on our show. So I will be monitoring this stuff as well. So please follow Chris crystallin cell li n s e LL, again, links to his social will be in our our show notes. And please follow him on his website. crystallin sell.com. He is a sought after speaker he travels all over the country all year round speaking at conferences, all specifically real estate related and he is the guy to to talk about when it comes to predictions. He is tapped every year, for the last many years for National Association of REALTORS to talk about predictions. This is the guy so please reach out to him. He loves to speak to your association, maybe even your brokerage crystallin cell.com is where you can find and reach out him directly. Again, also follow him on social Chris, great to see you again. And we will we’ll be doing this every month this year. So see everybody on the next episode. A thank you to all of our listeners I wanted to I can’t remember if I said this at the beginning of the episode or if I said this just to Chris. But we had our biggest month ever in December sorry if this is I said this twice. But that was incredible to us. So thank you to everyone who has been following us and supporting us. Thank you to our sponsors. Thank you to Chris, who selflessly comes on here every single month, and of course to the audience who continues to tell a friend about our show. All right, I will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Chris Linsell 37:02guys. Talk to you soon.

Jan 10, 2024 • 21min

How To Not Be “Cringey” On Video • Video Boot Camp for Real Estate Professionals • Kim Rittberg

Want to sell more homes through video but feeling self-conscious? Award-winning video marketer and coach Kim Rittberg who helps agents across the country raise their revenue through social media has 5 tips for you to make video that connects and isn’t cringey! If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube! Connect with Kim Rittberg on Instagram. Kim’s Video Boot Camp: Apply now for her winter coaching group. Grab her free download – Sell More Homes With Better Quality Videos. This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks. Transcript D.J. Paris 0:00On today’s episode, video expert Kim Rydberg is going to speak specifically about how to make engaging content that isn’t, well cringe worthy. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business. Again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show. Kim Rittberg 1:34My Awesome, real listeners. This is Kim Rickard. I am a video marketing expert and I love joining you on keeping it real. I have made so many amazing agent friends from across the country worked with so many of you to help you get more clients, sell more houses, buy more houses. Anyway, I’m really happy to be here with you as if you haven’t heard from me before. And my voice is new to you. I was in TV news for 10 years, I launched the video unit for Us Weekly magazine. So I spent 15 years making really strong content, understanding how to tell a great story and getting people ready for video, getting them ready for TV, everyone from congresspeople, to CEO to regular people. And now I use all that to you, as an agent, get clients have more people that want to work with you grow your revenue. And I do one on one work and group courses, especially my video bootcamp is my signature course, especially for real estate agents. It’s really fun. And you probably have probably heard many of my clients actually on this very show. Over the past six months, I’ve had many of my clients on the show talking about how they’ve made it into the top 1% through video and through podcasts. So all of this means and if you’re watching me on video, there’s some trophies behind me. I have won many awards for my videos. I don’t say that to brag, but I say it too. I have so much passion for content. And I absolutely love teaching agents how to leverage your phone and your messaging to actually bring in more clients. It happens every single day. And I’m going to show you how to do it. Today we are talking about what are we talking about today? How to not be cringy on video. And the reason why I’m calling this episode that is because so many of my clients have this thought in their head, what am I going to make that’s going to be not cringy but actually grow my revenue, bring people in, make them like me, make them trust me, have them work with me. So I really want to say from the very beginning, so many people feel cringy they think that they’re on video, and we’re like, Does anyone care? Why am I doing this? Should I be making this video. So it’s very important to step back before you even really make any videos really thinking about your strategy. So who is your audience? And what makes you different? If so many agents were like, I’m a real estate agent based in like, I’m a real estate agent based in Las Vegas. I’m like, that’s not really what you are, you have probably an area you cover. Maybe you do rentals, maybe you do a certain price point, maybe your audience is I have one one of my clients focuses on people who are downsizing. So even if you have a wider band than that, you probably have an area you serve more than others. So anyway, first you’re gonna think about who am I talking to you more often? What areas am I covering, and then you’re gonna talk about your strategy, meaning what you’re gonna make. So, as you come up with content, you’re trying to bring people in through the front door or the side door or the back door not to be too funny. But truly, you want to bring people in to your content to get to know you to expand your sphere of influence, right? In real estate is all about how many people you know how many people you’re talking to how many, how many new connections you can be making and how you can bring them into you until they’re working with you. So video and social media is all a part of that. Your newsletter marketing is a part of that your videos are a part of that. If you’re a guest on podcasts as a part of that every single thing is elevating you and people’s minds over the person next door over the other agent over their over their friend’s cousin who’s maybe sold some houses you want them to choose you so At Number one, how not to be cringy. When you’re looking at your strategy, figure out what you like. What I mean by that is, you’re a consumer of media. So figure out when you watch videos, what do you like? What makes your skin crawl? And what are you like, Ooh, I like what that person’s doing. I’m gonna give you an example. My client, Debbie DiMaggio. Fantastic. She is top 1% Asian in California. She really did not like talking to camera. So I talked to camera, I’m comfortable with that. It doesn’t bother me at all. Actually, that’s I communicate very well and comfortably like that. But she wasn’t into it. I’m like, no problem. So with her, we did more videos from when she’s being interviewed for a podcast. And we also leaned into lifestyle content. So for her, that was a match for her. And she’s been doing really well. She’s expanding into more coaching. She’s growing her business great with content. So it is important to remember if something’s not right for you, don’t do it, and you’re gonna feel cringy if you’re doing something that is cringy for you. Another one of my clients, Randy baru is this incredible agent based in New York is like 300,000 followers on Tiktok. He’s very comfortable on camera, he is an amazing, amazing marketer, you should, you should follow him. He’s fantastic. He’s an amazing marketer, he does things that maybe my other agents aren’t comfortable if maybe they’re not as comfortable on camera, or they’re not as comfortable, like improvising. So if you’re just starting out, you might not want to do sort of tick tock style videos, like more, you know, like the lip sync stuff, or a little theatrical, like he has an amazing background in theater, that might not be right for you. And that’s okay, right. Like, you should not do something that doesn’t feel right to you. So it’ll be cringy. If you feel cringy, and you’ll feel cringy if you’re doing something inauthentic. So for me, that means dancing, like I’m not a good dancer. I’m a bit I remember if my wedding does, my husband makes fun of me. We were starting to do that edit James at last that very soft song like and last. So we start dancing. And we were doing like a 123 and 4123 and four, and I just could not keep the beat, like I just can’t keep a beat. And he was counting for me. And he’s like everyone thought I was counting, but I was helping you. Anyway, I digress. I’m a bad dancer. So I rarely will dance. And if I dance, I make it clear, I’m dancing, because it’s funny, I’m dancing to prove a point or I’m dancing to teach you. But I don’t do a lot of the dances that does not work for me. So I will feel cringy when I’m doing things that are not natural. All right. So when we’re talking about those YouTube videos that do feel natural, figure out what it is that you like, and what feels right for you. I generally always, always, always recommend every single agent, no matter who you are, you should be teaching. If you don’t feel comfortable teaching by talking to camera in that sort of like broadcast reporter way, there are a lot of other methods you can do for that you can reach out to me, I can give you all of my ideas. There are a lot of ways besides just talking to camera, so that doesn’t feel natural to you. But me know, we’ll connect, I’ll give you some other ideas. So it’s really important to understand what you like to do and what feels right for you. But the point is, you do have to be on camera. And so there’s always a mechanical, technical, technological way to do a different style to make it feel right for you. So, alright, so number one, don’t be cringy is pick styles that feel good for you. Number two, get out of your own head, you will be cringy if you are even if you are teaching, if you are really self conscious, and you’re feeling not confident, I can feel that your audience can feel that. So if you meet somebody, and they’re sort of like talking to you and trying to be confident or selling themselves to you, but it doesn’t feel right, you get an achy feeling, you have to believe what you’re saying you really really have to believe what you’re saying. It’s very, very important. So you have to get out of your head, you have to stop thinking about like, the mean person in high school at your cafeteria table that you didn’t like that was mean to you. That’s not who you’re talking to. When you’re making videos, you’re talking to your ideal client, we’re talking to buyers and sellers in your market, you’re talking to people we’re going to refer them. And even if you’re starting even if you’re starting out and a lot of your initial network, or you know, friends, family, former colleagues, they’re gonna refer you, if you start showing up as an expert, they will start seeing you as the expert as a real estate agent as a go to agent in your area. So believe it get out of your own head, believe your own message. One, this is a great actually a great example. I have Jessica Burton, based in Houston, this amazing, she is a video bootcamp graduate of mine, when she’s also doing another program with me. She is this great Houston agent. And what we worked on with her was we talked about bringing people into her life more. She’s just a really engaging person. She has children, she’s like working really hard. And I said, let’s bring people more into your life. You know, because I think a lot of times we see each other’s social feeds. And it’s like this house closed. This house is for sale. You know, it’s very straightforward. And when we’re talking about letting people in through the back door, the side door, the front door. You’re bringing people into your life to get to know you and the more you engage with them and the more you connect with them, that’s going to Grow Your Business. So Jessica has been having more content that’s a little more personal, bringing people into her life as as a top agent, but also as a mom. And she’s making really great engagement from that. And that’s really driving business. And so that’s awesome to see in that, sometimes we want to be like, a little uncomfortable or pushing ourselves a little further, but not again in that area that feels cringy to us, because it feels off brand, right? So exposing more of yourself is great. But we’re again, not getting into that area that’s like, This doesn’t feel right to me, okay. Another one is bring value. So one way to not be cringy is to bring value, if you’re educating people, you’re educating buyers, you’re educating sellers, you’re educating renters, all of that stuff you’re bringing value to people, you cannot be cringy, because people will appreciate that you’re teaching them that you’re bringing them knowledge. So remember that that it’s never cringy to help. It’s never cringy to teach someone something. So that’s really like another mental mindset as you’re building out your video strategy to be serving people with your knowledge and bringing that value. Now, I do like to say we’re talking about what types of videos to me, one thing that I like to flag is that just drinking some water, if anybody heard a little pause, um, if you are one of those people, you’re you’re sort of lighter fun, you’re sort of lighter, go for it, like, lean into that. So again, we’re talking about not being cringy. Again, we’re talking about authenticity. So one of my agents in South Carolina crystal, she has such great content. She’s really fun. And she leans into the lip syncing and the trend based stuff and it works for her because it’s really natural for her. And it’s fun, and you watch it, you’re like, that’s fun. For people who are open to sharing their stories and the lighter side, one great thing you could do is share horror stories from real estate. You know, you walk in, you’re about to show somebody something, and there’s like five mice in the apartment. I mean, I live in New York, that’s probably more common for us to have rats or mice, but cockroaches, but share it like you can share a horror story. You can share how you got into it. One of my client’s another crystal, she is in New York City. And she posted this great video about how one day changed her life. And it helped her be a real estate agent that was like 12 years ago, bringing people into the story of how you got into real estate. And again, it can be a mix of content, you know, some stuff can be lighter, some stuff can be more straightforward. But you really want to have that mix of content. Because some people love educational videos, other people might come in the side door through your lifestyle videos, someone else might, you know, see a homeless thing. So there’s all these different avenues to bring people into your network and to bring them into your sphere of influence. So again, you really want to have the different type of content, and have a mixture of content for it. So it’s, it’s funny, because I laugh, like when people ask me like how to not be cringy. The other thing is, it’s really important to remember you have to practice. And when I talk about practice, I’m really more often talking about if you’re doing a tour, like a tour where you’re talking in it, or if you’re sitting down and doing educational content, you really have to practice that. Because more likely than not, if you just hit record, and you start talking kind of goes everywhere, right? It goes everywhere. And so it’s it’s really important to know that you have to practice or you’re going to be uncomfortable, you’re going to be uncomfortable. And that’s just how things work. So, in the practicing arena, speaking of a couple of ways to do it is instead of having a script that you’re like memorizing, have bullet points. So you’re gonna have bullet points of what you’re going to say. And you can practice them. And people ask me often should I do a teleprompter? Or should I just kind of speak off the cuff, it really depends on your comfort level. If you read a teleprompter smoothly, and it sounds really good, do it, it’s actually faster. But if you’re not, then don’t. So again, the most important thing is to have like bullet points. So if you’re doing a really short video, you want to have three bullet points that are ready. And those three bullet points you’re just going to go, you’re going to kind of know what they are practicing them, you could record I generally say two takes maybe three Max, do not record up to do not record eight takes, you’re not gonna get better, you’re only gonna get tired. If you’re recording eight takes instead of three takes that could have been two other videos. So just think about being efficient at the beginning. If you’re really at the beginning of your video journey, like you haven’t really recorded a lot of content. It’s going to take a while at the beginning. But the more you move, don’t record something eight times, record it two or three times and move along. Because it’s not really it’s what’s called diminishing returns. There diminishing returns at that point. So it is important to like, practice it and move along. A good way to practice if you’re gonna mentor kind of know like one fact about each area, talk about it and get comfortable with improvising because it’s nice if you can kind of like move in the space a little bit comfortably without being like frozen stiff and like reciting one fact, right? The more you do it, the more you’ll be comfortable with it. And when you’re doing a tour, you don’t necessarily have to be like in every single space, you could just talk about some of the rooms and then the rest of the rooms you can show on video, you don’t have to give, you have to be on camera for every single room. So now we’re talking about practicing is for educational videos, you’re gonna have your bullet points. And you know, a lot of times you’re doing like a marker report or something like that, when you’re practicing, that should be probably a teleprompter. If you’re using stats or quotes or things like that, it’s a lot easier to use a teleprompter for things like that. And practice, practice the other thing, practice all the time. And by that I mean get comfortable with talking on camera. So let’s say you’re just like walking through your house, start talking to the camera, just as a part of your day. If you’re on Instagram, Instagram Stories is really, really good way to just start being on camera more. It’s very low stress because it disappears after a day. It’s a really, I really encourage my agents to get comfortable with it. Try to post twice a week that will get you in the mix more. And one thing I was just about to say about Instagram stories and practicing you as you do that tag me and I’ll reshare so show up on Instagram Stories, bring people into your day. Talk about if you drink coffee or tea, talk about what you’re doing. Talk about where you’re headed, is your day busy? Is it not busy, like just bring people into your life more. These sorts of things like might seem cringy you’re like, who cares about my life. People are on social media because they care about your life. They’re not only following celebrities, we’re all voyeuristic. We all want to know what other people’s days look like. And especially when we talk about that teaching content, that content that’s bringing people into your life. Teaching can be facts can be like, here are my tips to do this. Teaching can also be, hey, look, I’m taking you on a tour of this new coffee shop in our neighborhood. You know, that sort of lifestyle and educational mix together. But it really can be arranged. So don’t be don’t be worrying that you’re cringy when you’re bringing people useful information, you’re never cringy so All right, I’m gonna wrap it up and tell you and don’t forget tag me. I’m on Instagram at Kim K, I am ri TTB erg. I also have a YouTube channel Kimber content, and I have a free download. So link down in the show notes. And I can send it to an Instagram is a free download, which is fabulous. It’s 10 tips to make a great video to get clients. That is a must watch. It’s a must look at. And if you’re interested in talking to me about video bootcamp, my signature course, just messaged me on Instagram, I love my keeping it real people. And throughout video bootcamp, we learn we you I teach, you learn, but it’s a great community. I teach you everything from what you should say to the equipment you should use, how to actually connect with those clients that are now looking at your content. All of those things. I have a lot of testimonials on my page. Some of my clients are getting, you know, old clients popping back in as new clients fresh deals from referrals from across the country. And so many people are growing their revenue and becoming the go to agent in their area. And that’s our coaching program. It’s a live coaching program called Video bootcamp, you can message me about that. And so make sure number one, how to be cringy I’m just going to recap that a recap. How to not be cringy on video. Number one, figure out what you like, what feels right to you. That is the only type of content you’re gonna make. You’re never going to make content because it’s online, you’re gonna make content if it feels right for you. Don’t want to dance, don’t ask. You will feel cringy if you are being cringy get out of your own head. Don’t judge yourself so much. Okay, so we all think that our voice sounds weird and that we look weird angles bad bla bla bla bla bla, get out of your own head. Very, very, very important. Your audience is your ideal clients, your audience is not the Mean Girl, the mean boy, the mean kid from cafeteria in high school, these are ideal clients of yours. Bring value. So bring value in your content. That is another way to make sure you’re not being cringy is if you’re bringing that value. And if you are fun, light, go for it. Again, we’re talking about authentic content. It’s not going to be cringy if it feels authentic and natural to you. Share those horror stories of real estate. Do the lip synching videos. Let people know how you got into it. Let them know funny stories of your past life and your current life. I know a lot of my agents have switched from one career into being a real estate agent and have fun, just have fun with your content, people will think you’re not cringy if you’re confident and you’re really enjoying it. Every video is better than the last. So if you’re still juggling judging yourself and feeling about it, every video gets better. So don’t worry. Post your videos tag me and I will I will connect with you. I’ll give you resources I’ll cheer you on. I’m a really big cheerleader. Again, my name is Kim Rydberg. I’m an award winning video marketer. I love teaching real estate agents how to grow their client base through video. I have spoken at the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices convention, the women’s Real Estate Investment Summit, and I teach real estate agents across the country in video bootcamp group and one on one coaching, how to get more clients directly through video and podcasts. So message me on Instagram at Kim Ripper que IMRITTBE RG and tag me on your Instagram I will cheer you on. Until next time

Jan 8, 2024 • 22min

Real Estate Predictions For 2024 • Monday Market Minute • Carrie McCormick

In our January episode of Monday Market Minute, Carrie McCormick from @properties and Christie’s International shares some interesting facts about 2023 and also shares tips and tricks for 2024 on how to generate leads. Carrie emphasizes the importance of collaboration in 2024. Carrie also shares top 10 ways to find leads she is planning to use this year. Last, Carrie and DJ discuss how you can use AI to gather information on the property you’re showing. If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube! Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612. This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks. Transcript D.J. Paris 0:00Are you curious about what one of the top real estate agents in the country thinks is going to happen? In 2024? I know I am. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show. Welcome to keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show. And today on the show is our monthly series called The Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick from the Carey McCormick Real Estate Group with at properties here in Chicago. Now Carrie is a top 1% producer in Chicago with over 20 years of experience helping buyers, sellers and investors. In fact, the past 12 months out of 46,000 real estate agents here in the local area. Carrie is currently ranked in the top 12 of agents in the entire group there, which is I shouldn’t even say 1%. She’s in the top point 00 1% which is actually even bigger accomplishment, of course. So she’s a true superstar and an expert in everything from first time homebuyers, veteran investors and luxury property. She also works with a lot of developers, and is often chosen to represent their high end developments. I happen to live in a Carrie McCormick development. So I can speak to that. And she does get to do some really cool things. So we are so thrilled to have her please follow Carrie on Instagram, which is Carrie McCormack real estate, I will have a link to that in the show notes and our website, which is Carrie McCormick, r e.com. If you’re an agent who has clients, maybe you’re in a different area of the country, and you have clients that move in and out of Chicago, Carrie would love the opportunity to network with you and maybe, you know, create a referral relationship because she has lots of clients that move out of Chicago. And she’s always referring those to other agents. So definitely reach out to her Carrie, welcome once again to the show. Carrie McCormick 3:10Thank you, it is the end of 2023. And I’m so excited to talk about 2024. So I’m going to give a few interesting facts about 2023. I’m going to give some tips and tricks that I think would be good for everyone for 2024 to generate leads. But just coupling on what you said is collaboration. I think that’s going to be a big deal in 2024. And anyone who is listening who wants to follow me on Instagram and wants to collaborate on posts, I would love to do that. People are moving all over the world right now, though, especially obviously through the United States. If we collaborate and share properties and post our properties in different markets, we’re going to start moving everyone in collaborating much better. So you know, I’m happy to do that. So please reach out to me if you’d like to collaborate on Instagram, but I want to share some interesting facts that I found. And this is about the typical homeowner. So in the past, a typical homeowner has accumulated more than $100,000 in housing wealth over the last three years. Wow. So if you’ve been home in the last three years, you’ve accumulated more than $100,000 in wealth, obviously approximately, in comparison to renters. It says actually, I take that back. I take that back. The average was I gotta get my facts straight. The average was $396,000 in wealth, versus 10,000. For renters now this is just over the United States is just as not in Chicago. But the general was you’ve accumulated more than 100,000 the average was 396,000 in wealth over the last three years with your home Um, especially if you live in Florida. Sure, or a renter, it’s, you’ve accumulated $10,000 in wealth. And that’s an important fact to know why you should buy a house, why you should invest in real estate and not be a renter. So that was just kind of a fun fact, I found that with the Fed out of the Federal Reserve data, so I thought that was an interesting fact to share with people. Obviously, we’re in December of 2024, on 23, going into 2024, everyone’s asking what the prediction is, nobody knows. Right. But you know, being boots on the ground and hearing and feeling the market, I think we’re going to have a good and exciting 2024, mortgage rates are starting to come down a little bit, they’re projecting in 2024, that they’re going to continue to come down, the only thing we’ve got to worry about is inflation. So you know, it’s always a balancing act. But I can see and tell that there’s so many buyers on the sidelines right now, they are waiting for these rates to come down, which again, they are, they’re waiting for more inventory to come into the market, which I’m seeing more and getting more calls for inventory. So that is going to be the strength of our 2024. Market. So with that, I think it’s important as brokers that we find the leads, right, and I am sure that’s what everyone’s trying to do is find the sellers find the buyers, where are we finding these leads? And what I thought we would do is go over, I started compiling a list of the top 10 ways to find leads in 2024. I love it. Is it okay, if I share that with you guys? Yeah, D.J. Paris 6:44let’s know this is great. Because right now everybody is struggling on both the buyer and the seller side. So yeah, let’s talk about it. Carrie McCormick 6:52Yeah, so for over the last couple of months, I’ve been strategizing of what I’m going to do in 2024. And here is my top 10. So one is QR codes, there are so many different ways to use QR codes, I know that they’ve been around for a long time. And there’s free QR code generators, there’s all different things that you can do, you can actually tie them to a lead sheet. So if someone scans your QR code, it goes into a lead sheet, which then all of us or I’m sorry, like an Excel sheet to capture the information. And then down into you can just drop it right into your CRM, you can use them for your videos, your social media, your property tours, those QR codes can track. So make sure you find a way and a system to make sure that those are capturing data, YouTube videos that educate that is going to be a lead generator, right? You want to treat just like your podcast here, right? You you create a platform that people learn. And as soon as they understand that you’re a source of information, they’re going to follow you and they’re going to want to work with you. The third one, which is my favorite is AI we know it’s here it’s coming. It’s such an incredible source. I don’t think that’s going to replace us, it’s just going to help us right, it helps us with all different types of property descriptions, the one thing I started asking is like, what is a social media post, it’s going to attract attention in December, let AI tell you what it is let it help you come up with hashtags and keywords. Use it as a partner for your business. So AI is going to be important in 2024. Number five is link your Instagram stories to lead capture pages. So if you have a business account on Instagram, you can put a link in there and say you want to know more, click here, it links to a lead generation page where you can capture their information. And then once you have their information, of course, then send him send them make sure you follow up and send them the information that you’re looking for. So again, use your Instagram stories as a lead caption, or lead generator, which I think is amazing. Next one is buy lunch, not leads. So I used to be big into buying leads and you know, they’re really just kind of hit or miss. So instead, if I was going to spend $100 a week on leads, I’m going to spend $100 on lunch. There’s nothing better than meeting someone face to face, creating a relationship with them. That $100 That you invested in a lunch is going to be a lifetime of leads. And you just make sure that you’re obviously keeping up with your relationships. So I think that’s going to be important deepen the relationships. Another thing that I’ve done this is number seven is finding properties that are second homes. Right so here in Chicago we have a lot of second home buyers, the second home Um, clients are not sometimes using their homes. So I’m reaching out to them, let’s say they’re in Florida or Arizona, and say I see that you own a home at, you know, the Waldorf Astoria. You know, if you’re not using the home, we’d love to talk to you about getting it on the market. That’s been a way to generate leads of properties that are just sitting here, people aren’t using them. But let’s try to reach out to those sellers and see if they want to sell them. D.J. Paris 10:24How might, how might we find those? Those properties? What’s is there? Is that just through sort of word of mouth? Or is there a directory we can go to? Or how do you locate those, you know, second homes? Yeah. Carrie McCormick 10:37So within the MLS, there is a search function in there, it’s called Remind, so you can go through that their sales, Genie also has it, you can go through a website called Ben verified people search, it takes a little bit of work to locate and find these people. There’s also an app on our phone, or on my phone, it’s called forewarn, there’s a lot of companies that use that as well. So of course, it’s a little bit of digging, right. So but you know, once you find you find that they’ve got two addresses, gosh, online, there’s so much information you can find on people, you know, and it’s just, it’s an introductory call or email to them. If you’re not using this property, please let me. So a little bit of work, but it definitely pays off. So second home owners, I think are important lead source. And then just really going back to the basics, you know, always you know, dig into your CRM, dig into your database, go to where the people are that you want to meet. So whether, you know, we hear this all the time, whether it’s a golf or a charity event, or an art opening, go to where the people are, and network with those people. My last tip is an A this is another statistic that I read is don’t forget about the baby boomers. So the stat was that the baby boomers control 70% of wealth in our country right now. So they’re getting to the age of pure retirement. So make sure, again, go where the baby boomers go, you know, connect with them. Don’t forget about them, because I believe they’re going to be selling and buying a lot of property in the next few years. D.J. Paris 12:16Awesome. I’ve got some additional thoughts to some of these that I was taking notes of. So that was an awesome, amazing list. I mean, amazing. And I just wrote a couple of notes that I thought would be helpful. I was this is kind of funny for our audience. So I was actually messaging Carrie last night on tech school, I just found this really cool thing. And I sent it to her I got really excited. So So I happen to live in this in a development that Carrie wrapped and works with a developer and I was like, I’m curious if I typed in this particular development into AI, just the address, hey, tell me everything you know about this address. And I put it in and it knew everything about our development, it knew the kind of countertops we typically have. It asked it even it knew the average price point, it knew what kind of bedrooms and bathrooms were available. It summarized our development or carries development just perfectly. So if you’re not gonna believe this, you got it. I’m sure it just scraped a website and which had all this info, but it pulled it out. And I thought boy, if I wasn’t if I was a practicing agent, before I went to anybody’s property. And again, I don’t know, I don’t know how well this would work for single family homes. There’s probably not as much information, but I don’t know, I would be typing into or using. I use Bing if you don’t want to pay for chat. GBT, Bing has the app, you can download it and it has what’s called assistant, which is chat, GBT, you can literally just speak to it and say, Hey, tell me everything you know about x address. And within 15 seconds, you have tons of information. So for everyone listening, please do that when you before you go to a showing. Or if it if, if the AI can’t find anything about the property, say, give me five interesting facts about the neighborhood or the you know, the suburb or the or the neighborhood in the city or wherever, you know, just some cool things so that when maybe there’s a lull in the conversation during the showing, like, hey, there’s couple cool things I can tell you about this area, you know, that sort of thing. buying lunch, I wanted to write about this carrier. So Right. And I wanted to give you an additional idea for buying lunch, reach out to everybody you know, who’s a client or a prospect and say, Hey, I would like to buy lunch for your office, you know, they’re people because they’ll come into the office, hey, great, I could do a little 15 minute, you know, here’s what you need to know about the market for 2024 and buy everyone pizza or something and, you know, still keep it to probably $100 and come in and provide some value. And you know, no one else is doing that. So this would be a great opportunity. Everybody wants to know what’s going on with housing and 2024 Buy some pizza, bring it in for the office, and you could reach even more people. And then my last suggestion is about the baby boomers, as Carrie was saying 70% of the of the wealth in this country. His is controlled by by one demographic group. So what are those people typically doing to protect that, that wealth? Well, they’re typically going to an estate planning attorney, and they’re talking about do I need to put a trust together, or I need to put my property in LLC? What do I need to do for my kids, you know, etc. These are the people you want to make friends with, you want to make friends with these estate planning attorneys. Also in a negative way, the divorce attorneys also have a lot of these issues they deal with. But this is where Realtors really can can develop strategic partnerships, not just with a lender, not just with an inspector, go to where as as Carrie said, Go to where the clients go, they go to these attorneys, and they say, help me make sure I protecting everything. And you could start to develop these relationships. And when they say, oh, you know what you should buy another property or you should have an investment property. And you know, those are or, you know, hey, so and so’s getting divorced, here’s an opportunity to help them find their next property or sell their existing. So just a couple of add ons to what Carrie said, guys, this is this is the kind of stuff we like to do on the show. And Carrie has been with us, since the very, very beginning. Literally the very beginning. In fact, I, I have a picture of Carrie and I when I first started, we took these professional photos together, we both we it’s so funny, it’s like they’re like five or six years old now. But they look very cute. So after they’re older. They’re older than that. Well, we have both aged very gracefully, I will say or at least you have I will say but we both have. But we she has been a fixture on the show, guys, if you hear all those beings in the background, by the way, we’re trying to avoid that Carrie tried her best to remove those, we’re we’re working on it. It’s no big deal. The reason what all those things are, are people trying to email Carrie going, I need to I need something or so she is literally that busy. And she is still making time for the show, guys. So please bear with us through the bangs. I know it’s annoying, but that just goes to show you how busy she is and how sweet she is for working through that and helping our audience. So please, please, if you’re looking for a realtor in the Chicagoland area. I mean, that’s this is why I would choose this is my and I’m a realtor, and I would still choose Carrie, because she really is that good. And I did choose her. Carrie McCormick 17:20I’m gonna give you one more tip, though, I’m what you were saying. Just a couple, unlike with the attorneys and the horse attorneys, wealth managers is how you know I’ve created those relationships is I’ve always given back to them. So for example, I said to a few of the divorce attorneys, if you are going through a case, and the people are trying to keep the asset trying to keep the home, but they just want to know what the value is, I’m happy to give that to free of charge. You know, it’s just it’s me give providing you data happy to run a CMA for you happy to be a resource for you. So giving to them first, and being a resource to them, versus asking them to give you clients, right so it’s the you know, give them and they’re gonna give back. So you know, even sending them a postcard an email, just letting them know that you are going to, you know, be a resource and free CMAs or whatever it is for them, our free quarterly updates for them. You know, that’s a good way again to give, and then one day you’re gonna get back. And D.J. Paris 18:20a suggestion for that is what you can ask an estate planning attorney, a divorce attorney, hey, if I come across anybody that might be somebody that you you could be able to, to work with, or somebody who already has an attorney, but once a second opinion, what’s the language I should use? How should I do that? And then literally, anytime you know, somebody that’s like, Yeah, I’m getting a divorce or I do need to review my estate plan and my will be like, You know what, before you even if you already have somebody, I’ve got a really good person for a second opinion. And you because everybody should get a second opinion on big things like that. They just should, you know, we get second opinions before big surgeries and things of that nature. So, you know, that’s the kind of stuff that you want. And by the way, might as well make those relationships with doctors too. Now that I’m thinking about it, like orthopedics, for example, are increasingly more important as people age. So find a good orthopedic doctor and say, hey, you know, I work with a lot of, you know, people of a certain age and you know, they talk about different aches and pains, is it okay, if I can refer them to you? Believe me, a doctor is gonna say absolutely, or, you know, if they’re too busy, they’ll know who to refer to. But these are the strategic partnerships you can put together. Well, Carrie and I both have heart outs. And this is a great place to end because I mean, this is just this was a really great, great conversation with all sorts of tips and tricks. So please, for anyone who would oh by the way, Carrie is so sweet too. If you have questions, she is not. She is busy so so give her some time but if you have questions for her, you can reach out to her. Carrie what’s the best email to reach to reach you up? Carrie McCormick 19:55Yes, it’s Carrie ca RR ie at It is an apple T as in Tom properties.com. So that’s Carrie at@properties.com or call me 312-961-4612. D.J. Paris 20:11Awesome. Well, thank you Carrie. Once again, we I almost feel like we’re we’re like brother and sister in a certain way. So I love the fact that you come on here, every single week, every single month, rather. And you’re going to be doing that through next year as well. So thank you. Thank you, on behalf of Carrie and myself, also, thank you to the audience. We appreciate you we have we have I can’t believe it at some point, I’m sure my this will go down in popularity, but it is it is still increasing in popularity. So I’m so thankful. I don’t think that has anything to do with me. But I’m grateful that people are sharing the podcast and certainly telling the other agents about it. So please continue to do so it’s the best way you can help us grow. And also let Kerry know how much you appreciate her being on the show because she doesn’t have time for this. And she makes time every month. So thank you, Carrie. Thank you the audience. This will actually go out in January early January. So hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season in New Year. And we will see you on the next episode. Thanks Gary.

Dec 30, 2023 • 47min

Don’t Miss Out On These Revenue Opportunities for 2024! • Fee Gentry

Dec 27, 2023 • 49min

AI For Real Estate Agents In 2024 • Tara Meier

Tara Meier a real estate marketing technology expert talks about how she got into the real estate business. Tara discusses the importance of online presence and also shares tips on how to utilize AI in your everyday work. Next, Tara talks about the best way to create content. Tara also discusses her thoughts on sharing personal life vs professional life on social media. Last Tara gives tips on how to use paid ads on social media. Please follow Tara on Instagram and on LinkedIn. If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube! Tara Meier can be reached at (623) 253-6257. This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks. Transcript D.J. Paris 0:00Curious about how to utilize AI in your business for 2024. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show. 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. Welcome if you’re new, welcome back if you are returning, and in just a moment, I’m going to be speaking with top producer Tara Meyer. Before we get to Tara, just a few few quick announcements. Number one, let us know how we’re doing tell us, the best way you can tell us how we’re doing is by leaving us a review. So whether you’re listening to us on Apple podcasts or Spotify, or one of the other million places you could find us let us know what you think of the show. We take your feedback into account and we make changes because this is all about you. And one way you can help us in addition to that is also by telling a friend think of another realtor that could benefit from while you’re about to hear an amazing conversation with Tara and send it over to somebody because everybody needs to know about AI and we’re going to be talking about that a lot today and also online presence and how to build your brand via social. So we’re gonna talk about all of that stuff. So please tell a friend and also support our sponsors. That’s the last thing they’re the ones who pay the bills they keep our show rolling and we love our sponsors please love them back check out their products and services give them a try. I promise you won’t be disappointed. But alright guys enough pitching for me. Let’s get to the main event my conversation from with from my conversation with the great Tara Meyer. Today on the show, we have Tara Meyer from my home, which is in Chandler, Arizona. Let me tell you more about Tara. Tara Meyer is a seasoned real estate marketing technology expert with over 20 years of industry experience. She’s known for her entrepreneurial spirit and Tara also excels in leveraging innovative marketing technology to enhance visibility and productivity. Now as a coach and consultant she specializes in brand and identity development, online presence and online presence and reputation management and social media strategy. Tara’s expertise extends to AI and automation. That’s what everybody’s wanting to learn about. We’re going to talk about that today. Also digital advertising CRM implementation and transaction management systems. Her focus is on driving growth and efficiency for real estate professionals through cutting edge strategies and tools I want we’re gonna have such a fun conversation today with Tara. But before we do I want everybody to follow her on Instagram. We have a link to this in the show notes but it’s underscore Tara T Ara Meyer, m e i e r underscore so underscore Tara Meyer underscore, don’t worry. We’ll have a link to it. You can find it there. And please follow her on LinkedIn as well search for Tara Meyer. We have a link to that in the show notes as well and go to her website, which is Tara meyer.com We to learn about all things Tara? Tara, welcome to the show. Tara Meier 4:30Thank you. Thanks for having me. D.J. Paris 4:31I have to say my very first real girlfriend in life was named Tara. And so and I haven’t thought of that name in a very, very long time. So I’m having these weird flashbacks to my early 20s of going this this painful relationship that was a million years ago and actually she’s she’s she’s a lovely person. Everybody’s first relationship was was terrible. I think so. But it is it is funny. I I I haven’t talked to too many terrorists since then. And I was I had a moment where I was, I was like, why am I thinking about my Oh, that’s right. They have the same name. So just kind of a cute story. But she’s married has kids, she’s doing great. But anyway, let’s talk about some fun stuff today. Because I, I’m a marketing person as well. You’re a marketing person. You’re about systems and branding, and marketing. And we’re going to talk about all that fun stuff, as opposed to just how’d you grow your business, which is what I do on every other episode, which is really fun and exciting, too. But people really want to hear about systems and marketing. So let’s talk about that. But before we do, I do want to find out how you got into the business. How did you start in real estate and why? Tara Meier 5:43Yeah, so and 2002, I found myself at the front desk of a title insurance company. I spent 10 years at first American Title kind of doing various positions I, you know, grew from, like a set of receptionist, I did escrow disbursements and signings, and finished off as an examiner on the title side. Shortly after that, I was recruited by a an agent who liked my title background, he was focused primarily in REO at that time, so that was around 2010. And I, you know, helped him with it. I mean, he was a one man show running like, you know, 30, various 30 to 50 Reo dispositions at one time. So it was all things vendor management and Cash for Keys and some of those, you know, not so sexy things. And then from there, I transitioned, I got my license in Arizona in 2012. I was a, you know, a successful agent, I think I did, roughly around 150 transactions between two 2012 to 2019, when I also got my broker’s license, and then I quickly decided, I decided I wanted to pivot and do something new. And so I went into prop tech, that where I was a supervisor and a Program Manager for Zillow offers, and you know, I learned all things, you know, scaling and how to, you know, operate with, well manage people, as well as work with some of the most top producing agents in in the western United States that were affiliated with Zillow offers at that time, they unfortunately went through a wind down, which everybody knows. D.J. Paris 7:31We all know, we all know, Zillow offers this is no, by the way, by the way, I know a lot of people have strong feelings about Zillow in general, I do not have those same strong feelings. I am, I am a big fan of tech companies, Zillow, I don’t you know, will they ultimately try to replace agents? I guess, you know, they say they won’t. But regardless, I think Zillow really does act to really help agents more than than and I know that not everyone agrees with that. But I am a fan of Zillow. Actually, they used to be a sponsor of my show, and I used to have them on the show all the time. So I’m a big fan. Yeah, Tara Meier 8:05it’s it really, it was a great company to work for, I learned a lot about culture and, and just like how to operate at a in a high capacity. So I really valued my time there. It’s unfortunate that it ended but you know, that’s things happen for a reason. D.J. Paris 8:19Bad timing, that not you but the it was just timing with the market and everything and, and it wasn’t the only company the only, you know, company like that to go or division of a company like that to go under pretty much most of them did. So it wasn’t exclusive to Zillow. But um, so So you pivoted you, you were doing that, and then that ended. And then where do you go from there? Yeah, so Tara Meier 8:42then I was picked up by another prop tech company actually called the orchard and I was the general manager and launched the Phoenix market here. And they also went through a wind down. So I was there for about a year and a half. So my, my tenure in Prop tech lasted about four years. And then I was like, Okay, I need to do something different. And maybe I just need to go back into real estate. And so I was kind of playing with that and trying to relaunch my, my indie career, at the worst time, probably possible. You know, while we were kind of going through these high interest rates, and everything of 2022 and 2023. And then I was actually approached by or I followed a friend of mine, Aaron Lacey, who’s also an MTD for my home. And he had, you know, kind of sent out an SOS like, I’m looking for somebody who’s really into marketing and can help me kind of grow what I’m doing here. And so I, you know, reached out to him was like, Wow, this sounds really fun. And I don’t know if I have like the chops for it, but I’m willing to give it a try. And, you know, it just made sense, because it was like, even throughout my entire like real estate career. That was the thing that I focused on the most was the marketing technology piece. I was in charge of doing the websites I was in charge of, you know, doing all of the lead gen of setting up our online presence of doing all of these things. So I have a knack for it and a passion for helping others. And you know, I’m also this kind of side by side side hustle, but I’m also a crossfit coach. And so I Yeah, so I love helping people like just lifting them up and and helping them navigate, you know, complex, complex things, whether that’s you know how to do a snatch or clean and jerk, or navigating how to figure out how to put together a Facebook post. So I, D.J. Paris 10:30I have one CrossFit question for you. I don’t know that this is a CrossFit move necessarily. But I in fact, it’s funny, I was telling Tara, I gonna have to leave at two o’clock. And the reason I have to leave is I have a personal training session, not not CrossFit, but I do like a weightlifter workout. But when I was going to ask you, because I’ve only seen CrossFit people do this. And for everyone else who’s listening, like shut up, get to the real estate stuff. But I just want to ask one quick question is, can you do a muscle up? Is that is that a? Do you know what a muscle up is? Those are insane. You can do one? Tara Meier 11:01Oh, yeah, I can do them on the rings. And I can do it on the bar. So D.J. Paris 11:04so so I want everybody to know what Tara just said, mean, she is the strongest person to have ever been on this podcast, because she will tell you, it is one of the hardest things you can possibly do as an exercise. And literally I’ve had on NFL football players on the show that cannot do that. So that is incredible. So you are a very fit person. That is incredible. Tara Meier 11:26Athlete, yes. D.J. Paris 11:28Yes. Oh my gosh, that is amazing. You guys, if you don’t know what that is, Google muscle up, it doesn’t look as hard. Just give it a try. And if you could even anyway, alright, let’s get to the fun stuff. But the reason I’m saying this is my trainer just got her did her first muscle up ever it took her a year to get there. So and she’s like the strongest person I know. So that’s really, really impressive. So discipline is not a problem for you is guessing Tara Meier 11:53no, it is not a problem. I love trying to figure things out, whether it be you know, a muscle up or walking on my hands, or you know how to get somebody to look at my, my website. So D.J. Paris 12:06let’s start with online presence. So realtors, I agree, most of them have little to no online presence with the exception of, Hey, I just sold this home, or I just listed this property and I’m gonna throw, you know, pretty boring post on Facebook or Instagram. That’s usually about it. Let’s talk about what agents can do in 2024 to really provide value to their followers on social media, because and I want to get your opinion on this, I believe the best way to really garner interest is to, you know, provide some sort of content that isn’t all just about look at how great I am. But more about here’s some maybe questions or some answers to questions that you Mr. or Mrs. Follower might have. Or here’s some content that you just would find interesting. So I’d love to get your overall philosophy on online, you know, branding, especially with with social media. Oh, Tara Meier 13:04gosh, yeah. So, so much to talk about there. So first and foremost, my, you know, online presence is, is probably the most important thing that a real estate agent can do. I mean, you know, 90% of people are going online and Googling you whether you are a referral or whether they see a postcard come in the mail, they’re going to be Googling you. They’re going to be checking out who you are, what you stand for what your online marketing looks like, before they decide to pick up the phone and call you. And so by the D.J. Paris 13:36way, also, also your friends are going to do the same thing. So don’t assume that just because you work a referral based business, meaning your clients refer or it’s your sphere of influence, those people are also going to search you. Tara Meier 13:49Yeah, yeah. And that’s, that’s, you know, a common misconception right now is that referrals will just pick up the phone and call and that was maybe true five years ago. Now on average, it’s taking them two to three weeks of research before they actually decide to pick up the phone and call. So online presence number one is showing up consistently so that it’s not confusing, you know, all of these online platforms like zillow.com, Redfin, realtor.com homes.com, they’re all going to create profiles for you, whether you like it or not, because they are fed from the IDX feeds. And so it’s important that you go in and you take control of what people see from you. And so that means updating, adding a profile, photo photo, if there is an opportunity to showcase a banner, like in realtor.com, you should do that. Make sure your bio is up to date and accurate and not outdated, and also ensuring that all of your links work to your various platforms. Google business is one that’s, you know, I think way under leveraged right now for real estate agents. And it’s so important because you could drive all of your reviews there and it’s the first thing people see when they go Will your name and there’s a lot of ways to optimize it for hyper local type content. And we talked about content, you know, whether you’re posting it on social media. So if you’re into doing Facebook, YouTube, tik, Tok, Instagram, all of those, I think it’s great. I personally don’t think that you need to be an influencer on any of those platforms in order to have a successful business. But what I do think you need to do is you need to show if you decide to show up on one of those, you need to be present, and you need to engage on a consistent basis. So you know, we look at different platforms like they are going to give you kind of either a positive result, a neutral result, or a negative one. And profiles that you have kind of out there, like maybe you have a Twitter or now known as X platform that you’ve had for five years, and you don’t do anything on it. It almost kind of gives that like negative Wow, does she open get D.J. Paris 15:57rid of it? Get rid of it, if you’re not using it? Because nobody likes to see last post? 2018 you’re like, well, it just, it just appears that you’ve abandoned something, right? Tara Meier 16:08Totally, totally. And, you know, you know, there’s there are certain, there are certain things that are good about having some of those platforms, but like I said, if you’re not on there consistently using it, posting consistently, then get off of it. And then with regards to content, I’m with you. Like I think that, you know, gone are the days when just posting a house for sale is going to be exciting. I mean, I’m to the point, I don’t know about you, but if I see it, I just scroll right by, and now people, people want to, they want to be entertained, they want to be informed, they want to be inspired. And so you really kind of have to identify your audience. Number one, that’s probably when you venture into this content producing realm is you need to identify who your audience is going to be. And that includes like uncovering like, what are there? What are their consistent struggles? What are their problems? What are what do they want to know? What are they asking online, and there’s a ton of different resources for you out there to kind of figure that out. Like chat, GBT is a great resource. You can you can use it to help you identify your audience in your niche. Or if you have a niche, like what are some of those common questions that you can maybe answer in some of your posts? And so So identify your audience that’s probably like, the biggest thing Yeah, yeah. So D.J. Paris 17:38I just jumping in just because you said a lot of really great stuff there. So here’s what guys if you’re like, Well, I, I sort of don’t know my audience. What my target audience is, well think about if you’ve worked with clients in the past, who did you enjoy working with the most? Was it a certain demographic, maybe an age range, maybe a certain type of buyer or seller first time versus maybe an investor or whatever you enjoyed, you know, and you can literally then type that into chat G but for if you wanted to work with first time homebuyers, for example. And I would want to know what’s the average age of a first time homebuyer Okay, well, that you can ask chat JpT that, and then I would say, hey, chat, GBT. What are give me 10 common concerns that a first time homebuyer has or hear 20 questions that a first time homebuyer may have, or what might a first time homebuyer be searching for on Google or Facebook or Instagram or YouTube. You can literally just ask these questions to chat GBT. And it won’t always be perfect answers, but you will get a lot of good data that way. Tara Meier 18:39A ton of good data. And I would say don’t be afraid to reiterate your question, the original question that you asked, because so many people I hear, you know, like, yeah, I answered a couple of questions. And it kind of came back with gibberish. Like you have to there’s a science and an art to the prompt. You have to tell it who you are. So I’m a real estate agent in this specific area. I want to know what, you know, what homebuyers first time homebuyers are struggling with in the Phoenix area. So and then give me 10 or 10 ideas for content to use on social media. So you have to be very specific. Otherwise, it will, you know, go off and who knows what kind of direction? Yeah, D.J. Paris 19:21but it is really cool too. Because if you think like, Okay, if one of the questions comes back with chat up saying, hey, neighborhood selection, or suburbs selection is one of the biggest challenges for new first time homebuyers like, Oh, that makes sense. Well, guess what, guys, you can now create content going. Here’s how people choose neighborhoods or here’s or here’s let’s do a tour of a neighborhood or, you know, the content is really endless. What you really want to find is how what really all you’re doing is answering the questions first time homebuyers or whatever your demographic is past. Tara Meier 19:55Mm hm. And I love that when it gives you the 10 ideas and then you say okay, I want to live Write on number one. And then it’ll give you like 10 More ideas or you can break it up into like a script for YouTube. You know, you can just continue to get more and more granular as you go down the chat until you get like, you know, get to the gold I guess. For D.J. Paris 20:16anyone who’s looking for the free version of chat, GBT? Yes, you can you can Google it and find it. I personally, if you’re not going to pay for it, you don’t probably have to at this point. Down the road. Yeah, there’s going to be some additional functionality you want to have access to, but I personally, I never search on Bing, but Bing, Microsoft owns chat, GBT. So inside of the Bing app, they have the chat. GBT is in there. And it’s pretty well updated, I think to 2022. So it’s pretty current with information. And you can literally just speak to it. So if you don’t have the Bing app, download it just to use it for chat. GBT. That’s sort of my pro tip. Sorry, territory. Tara Meier 20:53Awesome. No, I love it. I love it. I think that I was at the end of my gonna answer all of your questions. D.J. Paris 20:58I think so. Yeah. So so the idea is, you know, now now we’re really talking about AI. I was telling this to Tara. Just before we started, and I’ll make this very quick, because this is really about Tara. But I found a really cool application for AI. This this weekend, I was set. I wonder what’s a AI knows about my condo. And I just put in the building. It was built a few years ago, and it knew everything I just wrote, tell me everything you know about and I gave the address. And I go, Oh, my God, agents could do this before every single listing they have they just on their way, you know, use the Bing app, talk to it, say tell me everything you know, and let’s say it comes back with nothing. Let’s say it’s like, I don’t know anything about this home. Okay, fine. Then say give me five fun facts about the neighborhood or the city or the suburb or that whatever. You can use it to get information that you know, or give me things first time homebuyers in this neighborhood might be curious about or, you know, where’s the nearest grocery store, things like that you can get really, sort of, you could just ask it things that you can then use in your conversations. Tara Meier 21:58I love that one of my favorite features of chat, GBT, I actually have the paid version, just because I do a lot of training on it. But with a $20 a month version, you get an option to upload a photograph. And you can upload a photograph of the listing that you’re doing, and it will give you like, you don’t just ask it for a listing description for this property that I’m uploading a photograph of, and it will give you give such a great description of not only the architecture, but it will also go into what is surrounding it, because there is I believe the metadata that’s attached to the photos. Sure, yeah, yeah. So D.J. Paris 22:34that’s really smart. So it’ll know that it’ll know the coordinates of that most likely, if you have your, your, your, your metadata in there, and then it will just look for for other information, kind of, oh, that’s brilliant. I love it. Yeah, Tara Meier 22:46and I’m sure it takes into consideration to other listings that are around the area. So it kind of like you know, triangulates, all those different things and just really gives you some really juicy stuff. D.J. Paris 22:57So for $20 a month, if I was a brand new agent, and I really didn’t know much about architecture, or I hadn’t learned that yet. I would before every listing, just upload one picture and say, Tell me everything you know about this particular photo with everything that you can, you know, surmise, and this way guys would say, Oh, this is a Tudor home and, or whatever it may be. So Oh, that’s such a great suggestion. I love that. Tara Meier 23:21Yeah, yeah, any you know, and it’s not just limited to like, kind of listing and everything, like AI can really help you craft like a really compelling bio, it can help you build your brand. You know, it can help you draft copy for your websites for you know, all of your social media posts and everything like that. So I use it all the time. And you know, I will say that, yes, you definitely have to, like look it over. But as far as like getting, like the creative juices kind of flowing and making, you know, getting things started on the path to creativity, like it is a block remover, like so, use it, it will, it will change your world. D.J. Paris 24:02Yeah, it really, it really will. I think ultimately, over time, there’ll be applications developed into it that are very assistant focused, where you’re going to be a it’s going to know you it’s going to know your schedule. It’s going to know you know, your you know, your challenges, and it’s ultimately going to start you know, helping you but now for now you can just manually ask it everything. And as Tara was saying, you know, you can start talking to it and telling it who you are, hey, I’m a realtor. I’m this age. I have been in the business this long. The more specific information you give it, the better answer, it will it will give you and I’m looking for first time homebuyers in this area. What you could even ask it, what suggestions do you have for me to find first time homebuyers in this area and it will give you it will give you all sorts of suggestions. Let’s talk about so what I think what most agents know about AI today is listing descriptions we know we can throw or listing description that we write in, or we don’t even maybe AI will write it for us. But if we have one, we can have it write a more persuasive one, or you know, and you can even tell it to avoid fair housing violations. So you can always say, Please rewrite this in a more persuasive way or more emotional way or, or whatever. And please make sure to avoid, you know, fair housing violations. And it’s, again, you want to double check everything, but you can add that in at the end. Mm Tara Meier 25:27hmm. Yeah, for sure. The other I mean, it, you know, it’s not limited to just listing descriptions or branding, even if you are utilizing like a CRM, and you want to put together some kind of open house campaign, or, you know, texting strategy, you can use it to, you know, navigate that as well and come up with, you know, email templates, texting templates, anything like that, that you want to add into your CRM in order to you know, nurture your clients. So, D.J. Paris 25:56yeah. And also we you can use it let’s I know, very popular thing for agents is doing some doing webinars or seminars where you’re, for example, Hey, I’m gonna help you buy your first home or, you know, from renting to buying what why you would consider that are investing in real estate or whatever the particular topic might be? You can have chat, GBT, right, you not only, you know, descriptions, for every every slide, they can actually create the slides for you as well. So it’s really very, very cool. If you’re like, I’m not good at graphic design. I don’t use Canva or Photoshop. Yes, I mean, you still may have to tweak some things, but it can put a pretty decent first draft together for you. Yeah, Tara Meier 26:38for sure. For sure. One of the, you know, things that have come up recently, like with the team at my home is, is putting together kind of seller, seller education classes, and like, you know, initially those types of things, they seem like a really big elephant to have to swallow at the, you know, right off the bat. And so, it, if you start it and do it systematically, you can really, you know, any take it just one step at a time, you can develop an entire like course, to, to teach on, do the presentation, and then also put together a marketing strategy to help people bring people into your classes. So, you know, it’s, it’s just, it’s very holistic, I mean, you can just do the whole, the whole thing, and it makes it very doable for just your average, you know, average individual who needs to generate some business and make some contacts. D.J. Paris 27:32Yeah, if you if somebody’s you know, if ever if our listeners are thinking, Okay, I want to create great video content on social media this year, but I don’t really want to write the scripts, and I don’t, you know, it’s hard for me to come up with topics. This is what you can use chat GPT to do as well. Say, Hey, create a create a 62nd, you know, script for me, specifically talking about, you know, X, Y or Z. And, and then give me five different versions of that, or five different, you know, five different examples altogether. And literally, that’s your script, or at least a good first draft for a scripted, you just saved yourself hours. And now you just have to turn your phone around and hit the record button. Yes, Tara Meier 28:15yes. And you know, you have so many resources out there as real estate agents with regards to market data. And, you know, everybody wants to do a market update, but nobody want knows what to say. Or sometimes in some cases, you may not even know how to interpret some of the data that’s coming through. And so use things like chat GBT, or even cloud AI is a really good one for consuming large amounts of data. So you can get some like 10 key takeaways on like a really hefty document. And then you can ask it to generate you a scripture just like he just like Did he was saying and it will even go into as much detail as giving you like the cutscenes and what should be incorporated like on on screen as far as text is concerned. So it does it just it saves you so much time and leaves you way more time to actually connect with people and your families? Like I mean, this is going to be like the biggest time saver I think and we’re really going to see some some leveling up. I feel like in the real estate industry, thanks to AI. Yeah, D.J. Paris 29:12do you want to be at the front part of the curve here because once everybody understands how to utilize it, it becomes a little bit less significant for the individual agent, because everyone’s going to be utilizing these tools in in different ways. But you really want to be at the front end of this because this is the time to really explore AI. I would love to also Tara ask you okay, we should mention by the way, Tara does consulting and coaching for real estate agents. She talks a lot about audit, marketing, automation, branding, AI systems. This is her specialty. She is a marketing guru. So if you’re interested we have caught Tara’s contact information in the listing description. Please, please please reach out to her and she can let you know what her different training and coaching are. shins are terrible. Let’s talk a little bit about batching content, because we know like, in an ideal world, I’d film a video every two days, and maybe a 62nd video on on, you know, Instagram or Facebook. But we know that that’s pretty difficult to do when things are flying at an agent, you know, at any given time, and maybe every two days isn’t realistic. So could you batch the content? And do you recommend sort of batching versus individual, you know, doing it every two days or so. Tara Meier 30:30I personally love batching. I have tried both ways. Both, you know, doing it on the fly, and trying to, you know, juggle a million things at once, you know, even just like when in my regular job, I mean, I have other clients and everything that I have to work with too, just like real estate agents. And I have to set aside like two to three hours a week for planning, and, and recording. So I may have a day where I do just kind of like the plan, I find my audio I do, you know, kind of all of the background, you know, write out my caption and do my hashtags. And then I have another day where it may just be super simple. And then the recording is just like one and done. And I’m, I’m scheduled and I’m and I’m done for the week, I love that it makes my week so much less stressful. And so if you can do that, I, I highly suggest it you could use anything from you know, Google Sheets to organize kind of your plan for the week, to tools like Trello or Asana, both of those are very easy to use and free. Actually, all of those are easy to use and free. I personally like Asana, I have tried everything else. And that’s the one that kind of works best for me and for what I need. And, you know, it really just takes a lot of the pressure off of the posting piece too. Because I mean, how many times have you gotten to a point where like, Oh, I’m gonna do this real and, you know, and, okay, maybe I don’t want to post it after all, or a post it and then you delete it because you’re like, Oh, it was really embarrassing. Or I didn’t think it was going to do well. If you schedule it, and then you just don’t think about it, and you just let it go. You know what I mean? And you kind of you just have to be okay with some are gonna flop and some are not. And, and, and, and batching really helps I think not only with time saving, but also with like your mindset as it pertains to getting content out. D.J. Paris 32:29Yeah, and also to, let’s remember everyone that just because you post something on social a video, for example, a very small percentage of your audience is actually going to see it. So it’s not like every single person you know, is going to watch this video and then have a judgement about it, whether it was good or bad. You know, it very, very small percentage. So don’t worry too much about, you know, that part of it of like, oh, my gosh, this isn’t perfect. I don’t think anyone’s expecting perfection out of your content. I think what they’re expecting is good quality information. curious to get your thoughts on them. Tara Meier 33:03Yeah, no, I 100% agree. And you know, it’s important to kind of come up with some guidelines for yourself with regards to what it is you’re going to be posting just to kind of keep your guard rails your bumpers on, so to speak, so that you don’t get too far off. And, you know, law lands. And, and it also makes it easier to plan that way, you know, and people want information, they want it, like I was saying earlier, they want to be entertained, they want to be inspired. And so coming up with some common themes for yourself that makes sense and resonate with who you are and who you want to be as a brand is going to be an important first step even like back when we’re talking about you know, creating and identifying who your audience is. Because you can’t please everyone. And so, it’s important that you’re talking, you know, you have to narrow down who it is you’re talking to, and not care about who you know, like like you’re saying your your friends and your sphere. Yes, they might see you but only only a few of them will and you know the the reason that you’re doing social media and you know, reels or Tik Tok or anything like that is to reach new followers. And so you want to be speaking to them. And if you don’t raise your hand and be yourself and let people know what it is you do, then they’re not going to find you. D.J. Paris 34:20So I have a question about personal revealing personal details about your own life versus just professional details. Right? So we could we can talk we can have a brand that is exclusively, I provide great information about buying and selling homes, real estate stuff. And I also know a lot of agents want to show parts of their personal life as well that people could find maybe interesting because it shows what that agent is passionate about. For example, you’re you’re a workout person, a CrossFit person. So I’ve seen agents who are CrossFit people post you know, little Quick videos of their workouts, do you have an opinion? And again, everybody’s temperature around sharing private, or personal, you know, sort of information is as different. So obviously, there’s no correct answer. But what’s your overall thought on professional content versus personal content. Tara Meier 35:19So I think a good mix is always a good idea. People, they want to know the person behind the profile. And I think how much you share is really your choice and dependent on how much how comfortable you are doing that, and whether that’s something that you feel is important. So, I mean, I’m, I try to be a mix, you know, I kind of think of like stories is kind of my place to engage with the people and share kind of, you know, silly memes about my husband or something like that. And then, you know, I tend to kind of keep my reels a mix of personal, inspirational and business. And I think, you know, it’s important to share who you are outside of business, because I don’t know, I personally, I built a lot of my business around CrossFit, when I was actively selling, and had I not done CrossFit and not like, let those people know what it was I did, then I probably wouldn’t have been as successful as I was. So people like to connect with, like people. So show who you are and what you do outside of just real estate. Did D.J. Paris 36:29you end up working with CrossFit people who would be attracted to a she’s a CrossFit person, I saw our videos. So they would start to think, Hey, she’s like me, I want to work with people who are into similar things to me. Like I imagine he probably did work with CrossFit people. Tara Meier 36:43I did. Yeah. A lot. D.J. Paris 36:46Yeah, it’s funny, I used to, when I used to see Realtors showing their workouts, I always always was like, I don’t really get it, like, Do people really care. And then I sort of like watching people work out now, like, I don’t know why, even if it’s just for a few seconds, there’s something kind of inspiring about it for me to remind me to continue on my physical health journey. But also, it’s like, oh, that person’s, you know, really disciplined. And also, and I’m not saying everyone has to work out in fun, like workout videos, but whatever it is, you’re passionate about any part of your life, you can feature it. And, again, that might just speak to somebody who also has those same passions, and is like, God, I wish I had a realtor that was into some of the same stuff that I’m into. Or I’d be more comfortable with a realtor who was into some of these, you know, I’m a, if you were like a big Harry Potter fan, I’m not. But if you were, I would be talking about I mean, that’s an old thing, but whatever, whatever a newer version of Harry Potter, that’s your thing? I would I would talk about it all the time on social media, if that was your thing, because you’re gonna attract those people who have that same passion. Tara Meier 37:48100%, D.J. Paris 37:49do you have an eye? Do you have a suggestion for a mix of personal and professional? So in other words, hey, here’s some information about buying and selling homes, or I just bought, you know, I just had a client do this or that. And here’s what I got going on in my personal life, do you have like a suggestion for a mix of maybe what percentage should be each? Yeah, I Tara Meier 38:08personally think that it’s like, you know, two thirds, you and 1/3 business, especially for real estate agents, you know, and it’s, it’s more like, who you are with a sprinkle of real estate, kind of in there. And if you can relate what you do on a daily basis, like maybe you’re at the park working, and you’re like, hey, getting work done, while I’m, you know, watching my kids throw, throw a baseball or something like that. So, you know, there’s subtle ways for you to do it. on a consistent basis, it’s just kind of figuring it out and making, you know, you have to just do it is really the strategy, you have to just figure it out what’s gonna work for you. And, you know, make sure that you’re paying attention to the analytics and the the data that’s within the system. So you can kind of see what’s getting, you know, the most engagement and maybe what’s not so you can shape your content. That way D.J. Paris 39:01we can we talk a little bit about digital advertising and beyond like, we’re talking about creating content. Do you have specific thoughts on agents who are thinking about doing Facebook ads or LinkedIn ads? Or Instagram ads? Any specific? Have you seen agents have success with that? Or is that is that a tough mountain to climb? Just curious, your thoughts? Tara Meier 39:24Um, yeah, so you know, Facebook ads, bulk of the population is on Facebook. I mean, it’s got the biggest audience out there. And so if you are just going in and boosting posts, posts, like randomly, like, you don’t have any strategy behind who it is you’re trying to target. I think you’re pretty much like throwing spaghetti at the wall, just kind of seeing what, what, what sticks. There’s, there are ways to be much more strategic about your ads that you’re doing on Facebook, Instagram. And you know, and I’ll talk about LinkedIn in a second. But with regards to Facebook and Instagram, there’s a lot of ways to kind of layer your farming So if you are farming specific areas, you can layer some digital ads on top of that. So utilizing phone numbers and email addresses that you may have from your farms, you can create custom audiences and target them in more than one way. So you may be sending them a postcard in the mail. So they’re getting that. And then they’re also starting to see you online. So they’re like, oh, my gosh, this person is everywhere. I think that that’s probably the most strategic way to do any kind of Facebook or Instagram ads at this point, especially for real estate. It’s just being, you know, strategic, you could even you know, download your, your contacts from the cloud, and Google and you know, so that way you have like your sphere, and some people that maybe maybe maybe you’ve worked with in the past that you may not have contact with anymore. So there’s a lot of ways to do them. D.J. Paris 40:47That’s a really good point, too. So basically, what Tara was saying is, you can take your CRM and export all of your contacts and upload those into Facebook as a custom audience. And what Facebook is going to do is try to match those email addresses and the names with accounts that they have. And it isn’t going to be a perfect match, always. And it might not find everybody, but it’s going to find a lot of people. And if you upload all your clients, for example, you probably wouldn’t want them to receive an ad that says, hey, buy your buy your first home, right? Assuming that these are people that have already bought a home, right, they might want to get up, think about are you looking to upgrade to your next property, you can make a specific ad for that or looking to make a change, that kind of thing. So you can get really granular about this. And there doesn’t have to be a million different buckets. But there may be a few buckets of you know, this isn’t yet a client. This is a client that I’ve already worked with. And you can have different ads going in this way. And guys, I used to Facebook used to come on my show every single month corporate and talk about and they would say do not Boost Post, do not Boost Post, if you’re a realtor, they would literally just tell us to do, it goes back a few years, but the head of the real estate department and Instagram or Facebook would better would say do not boost posts, guys, you want to be way more strategic. And so Tara can actually help you with all of this stuff, too, and help you figure out what your audiences are. It is a little complicated, but she can help you get get set up that way. Tara Meier 42:12Yeah, 100%. And with regards to LinkedIn, So LinkedIn is actually has been named like one of the like, you know, top things to do for 2024. As far as ads are concerned, you know, there’s a lot of opportunities there, particularly with people who are doing like commercial, and agricultural things that are more business to business. But also on the luxury market. Like there’s a lot of contacts you can make, you can do some some targeting, with regards to job titles, things like that, to kind of make your targeting a little bit more specific and segmented. And, you know, I personally have not run any ads on LinkedIn. This is just kind of done my research. So I’m excited to dive into it on my own and see what it could do, some of my colleagues have been working on it. And they’ve been just, you know, singing its praises. So if you have not taken an opportunity to check out LinkedIn for your marketing efforts in 2024, that’s definitely something to start keeping an eye on. D.J. Paris 43:16And it’s also the social media platform that I think realtors use the very least, it seems to be not used at all by realtors, and it is used by literally every other industry. So this is a place where I would spend a lot of time for example, if you had a client that worked at at a corporation in your local area, I would go into LinkedIn and see if I could find like the head of HR for that particular organization, if it’s big enough to have that, or the owner and say, Hey, I just worked with one of your, one of your employees, I help them, you know, buy, sell or whatever. And I would love the opportunity to come and bring lunch for the audience for the office. And you know, reach out and do a free webinar about you know, working with a realtor or whatever this is what you can use LinkedIn to do is you can actually find this information and use it in a hyperlocal way. So it’s not just about making as many connections as you can on LinkedIn, which is great as well, or posting great content to LinkedIn. But you can actually use it for research and development to find opportunities for you to reach out to, you know, because every every corporate person I know they use LinkedIn, they love LinkedIn, they use it. Realtors don’t usually use it. So don’t be don’t be fooled into thinking oh, no one uses LinkedIn. They do. It’s just realtors. Tara Meier 44:29Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I’ve I’ve used it more in the last like four years than I ever thought I would. But it’s amazing, like the number of connections that you can make on that platform. You know, it’s great to just stay up to date on a lot of different market trends because that’s where it’s a great place for you to also share your insights as far as like what you know about the market. So just be strategic about what you’re sharing there. And, and I and you join groups. There’s there’s all kinds of things on there for you to put participate and engage. So, D.J. Paris 45:01yeah, I’m a big fan. We’re actually streaming live to LinkedIn right now as well. So we streamed, yeah, we streamed out to all the major platforms. And and that’s guys, you know, that’s kind of what you want to again, the whole point is, should I be on Facebook? Should I be on Instagram? Should I be on LinkedIn? Tick tock? Where is your audience hanging out, that’s where you want to be, where and also what you enjoy, like, if you hate LinkedIn, don’t, don’t do with it. If you hate tick tock, don’t be on tick tock, because it’s not going to work for you as well. You want to be on something that you feel comfortable with, but also that your audience your your preferred audience is hanging out at how do you know where your preferred audience hangs out? Ask them send out a survey to all of your clients and say, Hey, I’m working on my marketing strategy for next year. Just curious, where do you spend the most time? What you know what, what social media channels, if any, do you spend time on that will tell you we found out in an organization that I saw that I helped that unrelated real estate, that LinkedIn was the number one place, I would have never guessed that I would have guessed Facebook. But for this organization with 1000s of members, LinkedIn was the clear winner. And we wouldn’t have known that had we not asked. So we put a lot of our resources into LinkedIn at that point. So great, a suggestion there is just reach out to your audience and say, Hey, can you help me I’d be curious on where you’re spending a lot of time. And that’ll give you some guidance. So Tara Meyer is our guest. And I want to make sure that we tell everybody that she is a coach she can she is a digital strategist. She is also a marketing strategist, and most recently AI and she’s a systems person. So for example, if you wanted to learn how to deal with transaction management, and maybe not have to do all of that, all that work, she can help you figure that stuff out as well. She’s a systems person, and she’s very, very effective. So if anyone out there is like, gosh, I would like to work with someone like Tara, maybe she could help you know, take my marketing strategies or my systems to the next level. Or just learn more about AI and automation. Tara is your person so you can find her Tara meyer.com You can also follow her on Instagram underscore Tara Meyer underscore will have links to that, as well as her LinkedIn profile and all of her social channels as well as YouTube. We will post all of that in our link in our description. So please, please, please follow her. Tara, I want to thank you so much for coming on our show. This was really great. We I counted 10 different suggestions that you gave throughout the interview. So guys, if you miss some of them, please go back and re listen. And the best way you can help us is just tell a friend about the show. Tell another realtor that struggling with I mean everyone’s struggling right now guys, it’s just a tough time to be in real estate. So everybody needs as much help as possible. Do do a good deed tell a fellow agent about the show that helps us grow. Also support our sponsors and support Tara follow her on Instagram, LinkedIn, reach out to her Tell her how much you appreciated her her appearance today and also maybe reach out to her about coaching. She would love to chat with you. So, guys, on behalf of the audience. Tara, thank you so much for being on our show. I know how busy you are. And thank you for spending time with us and on behalf of Tara and myself. We want to thank the audience for sticking around to the very end. And thanks again for supporting our show and telling a friend. We will see everybody on the next episode. Thank you so much, Tara. Tara Meier 48:24Thank you for having me. It’s been a blast.

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Keeping It Real Podcast • Secrets Of Top 1% REALTORS ® • Interviews With Real Estate Brokers & Agents

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What Is Wellness Real Estate? • Sheila Alston

How A Broker Owner Tripled Her Agents’ Production • Lisa Troyano Ascolese

Future Top Producer & Current Rookie Superstar • Erica Campos

What’s Going On With Real Estate Commissions? • Unpopular Real Estate Opinions • Chris Linsell

How To Not Be “Cringey” On Video • Video Boot Camp for Real Estate Professionals • Kim Rittberg

Real Estate Predictions For 2024 • Monday Market Minute • Carrie McCormick

Don’t Miss Out On These Revenue Opportunities for 2024! • Fee Gentry

AI For Real Estate Agents In 2024 • Tara Meier

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