Next Level Agents: The Kevin & Fred Show - Interviews with the best and brightest minds in the real estate industry

This week on Industry Headlines we cover:     Offerpad to finance Keller Williams' home-buying operation   kW and TPI Cloud Hosting  find themselves in a legal dispute   New iBuyer course aims to help agents navigate new terrain   One of the fastest-growing digital mortgage companies has closed on $160 million of Series C funding.

How Shelby DiBiase Took Her Repeat and Referral Business From 10% to 50% in 3 Years    About the Episode On today’s episode, I talk to Shelby DiBiase, a team leader who started her real estate career in 1997, and built on her foundation of high customer service skills from 7 years of waitressing. She actually got into real estate after being encouraged to do it by regular customers at the restaurant she worked.    She has thrived through the many phases of the real estate industry, including model home centers and REO. She once struggled to maintain both her database and her REO business, but she turned that around and now over half of her business comes from her sphere of influence. Shelby understands that the key to success in today’s real estate environment is growing and nurturing a database, and in just 3 years, she has been able to grow her repeat and referral business from 10% to 50%.    She has always had the perspective of putting excellent customer service first. Her team is built on administrative leverage because it ensures that her service is always consistent and strong. “If you don’t run smoothly, it doesn’t matter how many sales you do, you’re going to crash and burn.” Many agents focus too much on leveraging their sales and while this brings in new business, it doesn’t do anything for nurturing existing and past clients. Shelby employs the power of client appreciation events, newsletter and social media content and constantly improving her skills and knowledge. Her database-based business has quintupled because of it.    The biggest mistake many real estate agents is being too focused on the shiny new object in the form of a brand new client. But when we don’t pay attention to repeat and referral business, we leave money on the table and let future opportunities slip through our fingers. It’s important to build a business that can nurture our sphere of influence, because those people will become our raving fans who will bring us business for years to come.    The lesson we learn from Shelby is that we can boost our repeat and referral business, even if we’re building it back up from scratch. It’s possible for our repeat business to go from the recommended 15% to even more of that, and never have to worry about where the next deal is coming from ever again.    In Today’s Episode, We Talk About; 05:15 - How Shelby’s real estate career started in a mall 10:18 - Keeping up a Freddie Mac account and her real estate database  14:30 - Why Shelby has more admin staff than sales staff  17:22 - How to make sure we’re sending out great content to our sphere 23:58 - The value of having multiple pillars in our businesses   28:00 -  The value of being omnipresent  45:30 - How Shelby dresses for success  Guest Info   Shelby is an Associate Broker & Team leader of the DiBiase Team, specializing in Traditional Sales, REOs & short sales.   Twitter: https://twitter.com/dibiaseteam?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedibiaseteam/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dibiaseteam/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQvrXmopmkDdYR-jGC--5Qw   Resources Mentioned   Go For No by Andrea Waltz and Richard Fenton   The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*** by Mark Manson 

What are you committed to getting better at? If you’re going to move the needle in your business learning this is a must! I see so many agents who say things like- I want to take more listings - I want to sign more buyers - I want to start doing better at open houses The list goes on and on… And the one that actually get better do this one simple thing I discuss in this video….

Nevermind the rough start to our new series Industry Headlines with Kevin and Fred... After the first few minutes, we got into the groove of things... Topics covered this week: * Coldwell Banker's top agent is heading to Compass amid lawsuit between the two companies. * The sweep of massive profits from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the US Treasury continue (but for how long) *Housing flipping startup Curbio lands an additional $7 million... WOW! *Zillow slows down Zillow Home Loans while Zillow Offers continues massive growth.

New Agent Builds Massive Business By Focusing On Her Niche  About the Episode On today’s episode, I talk to REALTOR, marketing strategist, philanthropist and Gig Harbor’s local connector and agent of choice, Paige Schulte. In just 2 years and 4 months, she went from new agent in a new area, to running a $3 million dollar business as a solo agent. She has developed really deep roots in the community, a very effective  social media marketing strategy and voice, and the ability to work in her “zone of happiness”.  Paige learned early on, by running her own company in California, the importance of creating a niche specifically tailored to her own personality. Seeing an opportunity for creating authentic and genuine marketing she set her focus on that. Paige employs the power of video because it lets you show up on a regular basis with the human touch. She uses Direct Messaging and Instagram stories which have resulted in her becoming a local celebrity. She shows up every day on Insta stories and people come to rely on it.  The biggest mistakes many agents make, especially when they are new to the game, is thinking that they should be everything to everyone, but the truth is, a brokerage for everybody is a brokerage for nobody. A scarcity mindset makes us feel like there isn’t enough business to go around, but if we drill down on our ideal client and area, we can build a business that truly makes us happy. We will also be able to create the kind of content people will want to have coffee with us over, and become a resource for what they care about. According to Paige, “getting focused on who I was showing up to serve helped create really deep roots quikly rather than trying to be everything to everyone.”    The lesson we learn from Paige is that we don’t just have the opportunity to build a business, we can design one to suit our lives and the things we care about. Paige’s goal is to eventually be so niched down to a micro-market that she serves her neighbourhood. We don’t have to serve huge cities and towns to make a good income and still balance that with everything else in our lives.  In Today’s Episode, We Talk About;   01:44 - How she dealt with the uphill battle of being a new agent and working in a new city.  03:56 - The importance of focus and niching down.  07:05 - Video content and why it’s still an open opportunity in our industry.  10:40 - How Paige’s business is set up with freelance and one-time employees.  13:42 - Why she chose to go deep, not wide on her social media platforms.  17:06 - Why Paige doesn’t go outside of her zone of happiness geographically.  23:27 - Referrals and why they are the best return on our time.  27:15 - Why Paige doesn’t have social links on her website.  Guest Info   Paige is a REALTOR, marketing strategist, philanthropist and Gig Harbor’s local connector.    Website https://paigeschulte.com/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paigesgig Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paigesgig/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paige-schulte-2068b26/. 

Why is Fred on a rant? Why do gurus always say dumb shit ?  Here is the deal, if you don’t think for yourself and learn the truth, you’ll be left in the dust 😉

  About the Episode In today’s episode, we’re talking to Dan Noma, a highly-successful Institutional real estate and iBuyer expert. He is the broker/owner of VentureREI, an award-winning, Arizona-based real estate brokerage and advisory firm specializing in the purchase, sale, rental, and marketing of select residential developments and commercial investment properties. With five locations across the Valley, Noma and his team are committed to helping investors achieve their real estate goals - regardless of portfolio size. His clients range from seasoned and first-time investors, to large institutional groups, hedge funds and private equity groups.    Dan’s unique mindset on iBuyers has paid off in a huge way for his brokerage. Instead of seeing the disruption with the gloom and doom that is so common in our industry, he looked for the opportunities and how he could play to win in this world. Dan says of the typical agent reaction to iBuyers, “if we’re presented with an idea and our response comes from fear, we’ll always have a negative connotation around it.”    With so much investment capital going into the iBuyer and institutional real estate space, agents are needed now more than ever to guide consumers through it. What works in the favor of iBuyer companies is that they see everything from the consumer’s perspective, and they have answered to their demand for convenience. This model of selling a home just gives the consumer another option to do what suits them, and if we become facilitators of that information, we can actually benefit from the shift.     Dan’s passion is to help real estate agents compete in the iBuyer market because ultimately, that’s what will protect us from being cut out of the transaction altogether. He does that through the iReal Estate Pro Certification, which arms agents with the knowledge and tools to not only compete in a shifting iBuyer market, but to actually win in the consumer and technology driven real estate world of today.    In Today’s Episode, We Talk About;   01:29 - How Dan got started with VentureREI and why he opened his own brokerage.  04:53 - Why Dan saw iBuyers as an opportunity and not a threat, and why many people in real estate aren’t responding the same way.  08:27 - The thought-process and method VentureREI developed to serve the big investor side of real estate.  13:11 - Why there’s so much money available in the iBuyer space right now.  16:02 - The growth in single-family property investment.  18:20 - The difference between an iBuyer and an institutional buyer.  21:03 - The consumer trends driving the explosion of iBuyer platforms.  25:35 - Why agents need to stop focusing on losing their commissions to iBuyers. 31:04 - The iReal Estate Pro Certification, and how it can help agents compete and win in an iBuyer market. 37:19 - How agents can leverage iBuyer offers to bring more value to the consumer.  Guest Info   Dan Noma, Jr. is the designated broker/owner of VentureREI, an award-winning, Arizona-based real estate brokerage and advisory firm specializing in the purchase, sale, rental, and marketing of select residential developments and commercial investment properties. To find out about the iReal Estate Pro Certification, go to https://www.irealestatepro.com/.   

Distraction  Distraction  Distraction... Here’s is a life hack to help you do Something about those 😉

MARGARET SMITH and KEVIN KAUFFMAN Margaret Smith is a phenom in the world of Real Estate Team Operations where she is employed by Pickett Street Properties in the Seattle WA area. She is an experienced operations guru with a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Washington. She has taken her background in social work and art degree and applied it the real estate industry over the last 7 years. Margaret’s focus is on recruiting, screening, interviewing, hiring, public relations, client events, team culture, and social media. She partners up with Jesse D. Moore on a regular podcast called Finely Clicked. Margaret and Jesse discuss business, leadership, and personal development. Margaret’s biggest learning curve coming into the real estate world was learning to communicate with agent-minded people in general and bridging the gap between agents and admin. She has learned the importance of developing the relationship between Rain Maker Agents and support staff and teaches a class on this called “Make it Rain Together”. Having been brought up with the knowledge of embracing both human and social capital as a path to success, she knew immediately how valuable it is in navigating the real estate business and began networking from the start. She surrounds herself with successful people because the more perspectives you have, the better to serve yourself and your team. The number one issue most agents have when starting a team is the relative lack of business or people experience which is a lack of leadership. The beauty of the real estate business is the constant flow of self-development to gain the leadership needed to form a strong team with little to no turnover. Personal self-development uncovers passion, talent, and skills; it’s shocking how little people spend on personal development. Agents who want to form a team should interview at least 5 candidates and train them well in both business and personal development. Margaret hosts an annual retreat for Directors of Operations where she invites operational gurus to speak. It is held annually in April. For more information on this retreat, go to her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pnwoperationsretreat/ To listen in on the best ideas for business, leadership, and personal development. Go to: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/finely-clicked/id1440220603 You can also find Margaret on Instagram, LinkedIn and FB:  https://www.instagram.com/the_margaret_smith/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/MargaretMacaulaySmith?epa=SEARCH_BOX https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-smith-866927b2/

Are you even ready for 2020?   Have you forgotten that what you do today doesn’t hurt or help you much right now?   But 90-180 days from now the results or consequences will come.....