Short Easy Episode Alert!! There are two crucial elements to good marketing – a target audience and a message to deliver. In this episode we learn about a super “sticky” message that real estate professionals can first understand and then market. HUD Homes. These were the big thing in all conversations among agents, clients and lenders back in the last recession but as the market got stronger and stronger they fell out of vogue. However as the market has gotten more competitive, our guest Jeremy Drobeck found that HUD Homes were the perfect option for many of his clients who were losing out. In this episode Jeremy answers all things HUD Homes and explains how your client could get keys in their hand for as little as $100 down, and in some cases even wrap some repairs into their loan. Some questions that he answers include:What is a HUD home?Where can I find a list of HUD homes for saleWhat kind of financing options are available?With these being foreclosed homes aren’t they in bad shape? What options are available if they need repairs?I read something about lead based paint being a problem with HUD homes, can you tell me about that?What do I do if I want to see a hud home?How do I make an offer on a HUD home?Can I buy a HUD home as an investor?How do I get preapproved for a HUD home?If you have a client moving to Kalamazoo, MI or the surrounding area, Jeremy Drobeck is always looking for new clients and is a great referral partner. You can find him online at 1stclassmortgageservice.comThe Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon.

Josh first came to North Carolina in 2002 and began his career as a NASCAR mechanic. A dream job for many, after 13 years he was looking for an exit strategy. Over the years Josh has leveraged his industry connections into a career in real estate. Although it didn’t start out as luxury, over time Josh has cultivated and nurtured his brand ad now sells $30,000,000+ per year in luxury real estate. He has a social media presence that is admirable not only for its quality but also for the amount of qualified business he earns off of it. We discussed how you can't just start out in luxury, you have to build trust first! He talks about how luxury isn’t necessarily a price point but a lifestyle. He even goes in depth to cover how he uses Instagram templates for reels to attach to current trends and get in front of the right buyers/sellers.  Make a donation! https://www.lakenormanhumane.org/  Instagram @JoshTucker_RealtorWebsite https://www.corcoran.com/real-estate-agents/detail/josh-tucker/109573/regionId/113The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon. 

Holy production batman! We have been lucky to interview many top producing agents and teams but this episode features Andrew Undem who is in a league of his own!In 2022 Andrew’s Sure Group team closed 504 units for over $192,000,000 in volume. He not only knows his numbers but shares many of his philosophies and secrets to how he and his team achieved these numbers. In this episode we cover a myriad of gold mine laden topics including:How to ask the right questions, the importance of having processes, secret hacks for your CRM (his is BoomTown)The difference between a client database and a lead databaseWhy we should all stop calling them “past” clientsLeveraging AI to find data in your databaseWhy pies are dumbWhy most agents rely on the “list and pray” method and in essence gamble with their clients moneyYou can find Andrew Undem online at https://www.suresalesgroup.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/undem/.The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon.

In this episode I had the privilege of interviewing Matt Laricy, the #1 Realtor by units in Chicago. In 2022 he and his team ended the year with over 550 units sold for $295,000,000. He walked us through his story starting – Matt is a 3rd generation Realtor but didn’t have anything handed to him, other than the notion that real estate could be a great career.  He was a practicing Realtor within 24 hours of graduating college in 2006. Over the years Matt has developed the reputation as the hardest working Realtor in Chicago – he sets rigorous standards for himself and his team – and those standards lead to delivering consistent marketing, communication and results for their clients and themselves. We discussed the importance of being at the forefront of technology, and even more so the importance of developing deep knowledge of the neighborhoods that you serve or plan to serve.Find Matt Laricy online: https://mattlaricy.com/The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon. 

Talk about a powerhouse team! In this episode The Neighborhood Realtor interviews two powerhouse real estate professionals who work separately but as dynamite referral partners: Ryan McKee, top producing agent and 20 year veteran serving Southern California, and Greg Iverson, mortgage lender and team leader with Neighborhood Loans in St. Louis, MO. This episode is packed with nuggets on a variety of topics which include.  Growing your referral business by meeting people and staying in touch. How 2 people on opposites sides of the country kept a relationship going that has led to millions in business. Why every agent needs to master their craft, whether by starting with a mentor, in a family business, or through shadowing other agents or teams! The best agents find a way to work on every single piece of the real estate process. Who are you chasing? Who are you surrounding yourself with?2023 Plan: Get Lean & Chase Rockstars. Find Opportunities, Leverage Them, Repeat . How to market to, work with and leverage relationships with investors. Creating opportunity for your clients. Don’t send out an opportunity then wait for an email back, if it’s a good one follow up via phone. It shows you are serious. Using video messages to convey the excitement of opportunities. Creating opportunities for all of your business partners on every transaction will lead to more business for all of you, and more referrals back to you from all of them.Tracking engagement to see which of your clients/sphere contacts care and then doing more with them!Property overview videos with opportunities for both clients and investors. Find Greg: https://neighborhoodloans.com/greg-iverson/Find Ryan: https://www.mckeeregroup.com/The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon.  

Double the guest count, double the value. In this episode Matt chats with Washington DC area Realtor turned social media influencer Chris Perry who closed over $20m and 50+ units in 2022 off of strategic and focused social media. He is joined by Michigan based lender Mallory Strotheide who has consistently used social media to stay top of mind with her existing friend list, and who has leveraged social to help her business grow to over $50,000,000 in annual production. They discuss strategies for time blocking social media, how to create content, apps to use, as well as how to add calls to action that actually work.Find Chris on social media:https://www.instagram.com/chrisperryrealestate/?hl=enhttps://linktr.ee/chrisperryrealestateFind Mallory on social media:https://www.instagram.com/mortgage.mama/?hl=enhttps://linktr.ee/mallorystrotheideThe Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon. 

In this episode we talk to John Muhammad, a Loan Officer in Texas who after making the decision to move his family to a new state, rebuilt his successful book of business. He shares his strategies for what worked and what didn’t. We also discussed the art of setting your own personal schedule/timeblock and sticking to it. Finally he shares an idea for a client and business partner event he did that helped him to go deeper and to be more memorable with his database.The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon. 

In this episode we sit down with 20 year real estate veteran Joe Fitzpatrick in Rhode Island. Joe literally serves the smallest state in the US from coast to coast, but his real claim to fame is being present in those communities in which he and his team serve. We discuss a myriad of topics including but not limited to: How to generate business without a budget using social media and open houses, how to sponsor something and how not to sponsor something, how to get more referrals from other agents, and how to earn more business from your past clients.Read more about Joe: https://fitzpatrickteamremax.com/team/joseph-fitzpatrick/ The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon. 

 In this episode of The Neighborhood Realtor, Texas Realtor Monica Brito shares her easy to execute strategy for staging homes for free, and actually making a profit on the staging side. Monica’s passion for interior design and staging is something she was excited to marry to her career in real estate. Marrying these passions and finding applications for their intersection helps her to add more value to both her clients and her own life.Monica Brito can be found on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/simplyhouselove/The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon.

On this episode of The Neighborhood Realtor Podcast you get a 2-1. We interview not 1 but 2 top producing professionals at the same time. Phil Puma, top producing Realtor in North Carolina, and Brendan O’Driscoll , top producing Loan Officer and Co-Owner of Treadstone Funding in Grand Rapids, MI. In this episode we talk all things scripting for the current market.  Sometimes its not about the leads you generate but rather the leads you convert. In this episode Brendan and Phil role play and script all of the burning questions that professionals are currently getting from prospective buyers and sellers on the state of the market and interest rates.Phil Puma can be found at https://www.pumahomes.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/pumahomes/The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon.

On this episode of The Neighborhood Realtor, Matt Muscat talks with Josh May, an outstanding Realtor, speaker, and networker in Grand Rapids, MI. Josh May has been a licensed real estate agent for 22 years. He started as a college student trying to get by as a football player at Grand Valley State University. He fell in love with business instantly and began selling commercial real estate. Although, Josh realized quickly a massive opportunity as a college-aged Realtor: all of his friends, classmates, and professional network would all be buying homes in the next 5-10 years. He dove straight into residential real estate and never turned back. That decision proved to be instrumental in his career.  When the housing market crashed in 2008, Josh had a few years under his belt learning the ropes of the industry. Being a newer agent in 2008 gave him a big advantage in the market to stay nimble, and shift quickly with buyers as conversations & sales changed— seemingly overnight. Josh makes many comparisons between the 2008 housing crash and today’s market—while they are still very different markets, some of the fundamental themes remain the same. Some of the same strategies that haven’t worked since 2008 are working once again.  In a changing market, leadership wins. Buyers gravitate toward the Realtors who are positive, excited, and bold. In 2022 & 2023, that couldn’t be more important. Josh speaks intensely to the style of communication needed with clients, and the importance of leadership in marketing. Leaders talk, leaders are transparent, and leaders motivate! In the housing market, Realtors must be a strong leader to survive (and thrive) in a shifting market. Practical conversions and honest education will what wins buyers and sellers over. It’s a Realtor strategy that wins! A theme that Josh refers to multiple times throughout this episode is the importance if discipline and sticking to your plans. Write your goals down on paper, and tell friends and family about them. Break down those goals into bite-sized chunks or do anything you need to do. Just don’t get behind them, don’t ignore them, and stay true to those goals. Do everything in your power to achieve those goals, since they are non-negotiable. Josh credits this discipline-first Realtor strategy to much of his career’s progress. The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon. 

On this episode of The Neighborhood Realtor, Matt Muscat sits down, face-to-face, with Mark Brace, a well-known and legendary real estate agent in Grand Rapids, MI.Mark built his business from nothing—literally. He had no special connections, no support, and no referrals. He learned how to hustle, and he learned quickly, since 2006 marked the beginning of his career in real estate. Mark built an admirable business despite the market conditions of the recession. It was the mindset that got Mark through; half of all realtors left the business during the recession because of fear, but Mark saw it as an opportunity. Today, Mark’s business closes $125m in deals each year with a team of seven agents.Of all the skills that Mark has improved and mastered over the years, mindset is the number one skill he attributes to his success. Your mindset, not your skill or luck, can be contagious, and benefit (or attract!) clients. When interest rates are high, you become the Realtor who’s happy they’re not any higher. When home values are down 15%, you’re grateful they’re not down 25%. When everyone says it’s a bad time to buy, you see the opportunity and help your clients win—and win big. You’re not just offering a product or service, but instead, you’re giving your clients hope & a good mood. Mark is a believer in the law of attraction—genuine salesmen attract genuine clients, and sour marketing will attract sour clients. Trust your gut and trust your intuition to make the best decisions to build the best business possible, and always rely on your coach (get one, if you don’t already) for leadership advice & long-term strategy. Mark has moved his personal business further into the luxury market over the past several years and continues to expand his business, team, and abilities. He may be considered successful now, but there’s a long road ahead! Built all on a foundation inspired by a recession. The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon. 

In eight short years, Athena went from being an avid interior designer to a real estate agent closing $22 million in real estate sales—all while battling serious health issues. She’s created a career in real estate by being clever, creative, and learning to love the art of helping people. Her business is based in Denver, Colorado, and she’s proven herself as a wealth of information and a skillful coach. Growing up, Athena grew up being around real estate. Her dad was a residential developer, and she wanted nothing to do with housing or real estate. Instead, she went to school for interior design—a profession that allowed her to work closely with people with a creative outlet. After several years in the interior design business, she realized she wanted to push herself more. To do more, and to create a larger impact. Athena catapulted herself into real estate, which was the perfect fit for her skills. Athena is a people-person. She keeps in touch with her clients, no matter what! Even during times of serious health issues, she spent her hospital time writing letters and messages to her database, but also writing offers! She became unstoppable. She asks questions—lots of them. Why? Because she cares. It shows you (the Realtor) is invested and are genuine in your guidance and answers. As an interior designer, Athena also works with her clients (for free!) on their interior design, giving guidance, bringing up things to think about, and sharing ideas.  The CORE’s Greatness Tracker is one of the important tools that Athena uses to track her business, and to stay motivated—the excel spreadsheet she keeps lets her visualize and correlate the long hours she spends writing notes and posting on social media, with the business and referrals she receives. When business gets chaotic or too large to mindfully manage, the simple task of organizing your progress and wins makes a world of difference. Athena’s business is set up for the long-haul. Anyone can learn from her skills and processes!  The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon.

On this episode of The Neighborhood Realtor, Matt Muscat talks with Chris Cusimano, a top-performing Realtor in Boca Raton, Florida. Chris began in real estate in 2005 and emerged from the 2008 financial crisis a wildly successful Realtor and business owner. His business has been built by clever innovations and creative pivoting when markets change. Even after nearly two decades in real estate and a track record of successes, Chris finds himself driven by giving back & providing for his family.Chris closes ~100 deals a year, but doesn’t keep track of his production. It’s not an important metric to him — rather, he loves the process, the grind, and helping people achieve incredible goals. Neither money signs nor production goals motivate him. In this episode, Chris describes one of his most powerful secrets: the “Dream 300” client database. Since he started in real estate, he’s kept a list of 300 of his best clients, colleagues, and contacts 20 of them each day with a meaningful message: text, call, Facebook comment, anything. No spam. Not sales pitches. It keeps him in touch with his closest clients, all while building meaningful friendships and relationships — a recurring theme on The Neighborhood Realtor. Focusing on direct communications with his clients, Chris has kept his business out of the social media algorithm, which is a powerful tool & advantage in today’s digital world. It’s old school. Chris hates boring marketing. It’s not effective, and everyone hates it, so why do it? Instead, Chris lives to give back, so he’ll load a Starbucks gift card and text it to a dozen people at once. He’ll buy a $500 gift card at a restaurant and pick up the tab for everyone there. He’ll send funny Father’s Day t-shirts to his Dream 300 database. It’s cheaper than Zillow ads, and it produces incredible amounts of business. People love it. Giving goods is only one of the thing Chris gives — he also gives information! During the pandemic, Chris began a Facebook group for coaching real estate professionals, for free. It’s called Suit Up Agent, and every week he hosts a live stream to give away his best secrets. He gives away scripts, data sources, processes, marketing ideas, and more. It’s attracted an amazing following, created well-deserved national awareness for Chris’ business. Chris is a wealth of information, and a joy to listen to. There’s no shortage of useful information in this episode of The Neighborhood Realtor. The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon.

Moriah Taliaferro is a Sarasota real estate agent and recognized as a brilliant 30 under 30 entrepreneur.  Jumping from college intern to licensed agent, Moriah began her career selling timeshares. She was sucked into the real estate industry, and began building relationships. Her internship turned into a sponsored real estate licensing opportunity—an opportunity she seized! She built the foundations of her career on timeshares.  By the time she was 22, she partnered with a local developer building new, luxury homes. That developer trusted her enough to let her begin selling for them, but she had to prove herself as a realtor, let alone a 22 year-old, to build a meaningful business with them. For Moriah, it was baptism by fire. She won the trust of this low-inventory, high-end developer, and forged her way into a profound career.  Moriah built a niche for herself in the luxury markets, and produced $29 million in 2021. One of her biggest wins was an $85 million luxury construction project she co-sold. Old school tactics is how Moriah won in the local construction real estate market. She found limited help in modern data reporting tools, and even the MLS was nearly useless for her work! Many times, when it came to her knowledge of her niche in the market, she was in the dark. Instead, she opted to pick up the phone to talk to other real estate agents, build relationships, and share information— a tried and true strategy from days past. Moriah eventually built a reputation for having a pulse on the market like no other agent in town.  She also creates an experience for her buyers like few other agents do. Every phone call she makes, she asks herself— is this worth their time? Luxury clients do not need to be sold, nor do they want to be sold. They’ll let you know when they’re ready. They call you first, and it will never be the other way around.  Moriah also hosts a variety of events to cater to all different types of clients and interests. It allows her to get to know her clients, and her clients to get to know each other. Luxury is an experience, not a price.  For people looking to break into the real estate industry, Moriah has one main piece of advice: become an assistant. Don’t jump in, but get as close to the fire as possible. This will force you to find a mentor and become a sponge for information and tactics. All of the rewards with none of the risk. Relationships are practically handed to you.   Connect with MoriahThe Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon.

In this episode of Marketing in Other Markets, Matt Muscat introduces a new name for the podcast: The Neighborhood Realtor! The Realtors interviewed on this podcast have reiterated time and time again that cultivating relationships and digging deep into your community is the most important part of building a successful business in real estate. Our new name has been forged from dozens of conversations, to better reflect the intention of this real estate podcast.It remains our goal to share tangible, actionable tips for real estate agents, far and wide! Without further ado, The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon.

Bethany Nolan is a Real Estate Agent based in Longview Texas—she’s one of NAR’s 30 under 30 Realtors, an Instagram sensation, and a brokerage owner. Above all else, she’s a community-first Realtor. Bethany has been in real estate for 5 years, and has already garnered an amazing level of success in the industry. A smash hit! In 2021, Bethany did 54 transactions, with a total value of $14.2 million. A majority of her work comes in the form of small town & rural deals, bringing her average deal size well under the Texas state average, making her production results extra impressive. Her boutique brokerage is named Nolan Properties, LLC., a small, but powerful brokerage, with offices in several Texas locations and a fantastic team of agents. Bethany’s brokerage was a pandemic project for her, and it allowed her to niche down on what she really wanted to do in the real estate industry—cultivate relationships and build her community. Their motto is “We Sell Texas”. It might be a large shoe (boot, rather) to fill, but Nolan Properties fills and exceeds the expectations in their ambitious motto.In a place like small—town Texas, the lower average deal price is both a blessing and a curse. Bethany believes it is a great asset to her business, as it allows her and her business to serve more clients. The math is simple: after a decade of helping double the clients, your database will be massive, and your name will be known. Community is one of the main drivers for Bethany. She believes there is “no excuse” for not being active in a community, especially as a real estate agent. It’s not for the business—it’s for you. Bethany is proud to be an enthusiastic member of multiple local organizations, including the Rotary Club and the local softball Junior League. It helps her keep tabs on her market, her clients, and the community at large, which helps her serve better! She doesn’t show up to events and gatherings with a name tag or tell everyone she’s a realtor. Instead, she builds friendships. The rest is history. The string that pulls everything together is social media. Bethany has garnished over 30,000 followers on Instagram alone in the last year, harnessing the power of reels and short-form videos. Her approach is simple: educate! Every time a client asks a question, she writes it down and makes a video about it. Whether she meets a client at a softball game or gets introduced via phone call, her Instagram and Facebook pages keep her database engaged and interested in her work. As a bonus, her content reduces client questions and increases trust, all while making it easy to find her anywhere you look. All in all, Bethany is a community-first Realtor, a non-stop content creator, and an amazing business owner.  Marketing in Other Markets is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon. 

On this episode of Marketing in Other Markets, Matt Muscat talks to Stefanie Lugo, a Real Estate Agent in Phoenix, AZ.Stefanie works with her husband Bryce, as a husband/wife powerhouse duo, and have built their real estate business to $18 million in 9 years in business.One main thing powers their business: Empathy.The modern Realtor has become comfortably snug in the perks of their business living in the cloud; email, Zoom calls, and e-signed documents unintentionally distance Realtors from their clients. Stefanie finds that empathy and relationships have allowed her to build their business, paired with her passions, friendships, and more.Empathy can take on a variety of forms, but for Stefanie, it’s friendships.Showing up and being present is the best thing you can do as a real estate agent! Knock on doors, dine with clients and partners, and make friends. You will build a business (and relationships) you are proud to have. Closing should be the start of your relationship with a client.Stefanie employs a range of other techniques and ideas that play into her strategy of operating with extreme empathy to win over clients. Social media, bonuses for high-end clients, and more! In the end, invest in your current and past clients—not new clients. Inverting the sales funnel is one of the most important things a realtor can do to build a sustainable business. There is immense value in narrowing your search for new clients (or stopping it altogether).Through this, Stefanie’s business is one she is immensely proud of.Stefanie continues the relationship and friendship-building online, just as much as she does in-person. On Facebook and Instagram, she’s constantly engaged in conversions on her friends’ & followers’ posts, while she purposely creates less content to post to her feeds. From her perspective, the relationships for realtors are better suited for comments and direct messages than news feeds. Cut the boring real estate talk and focus on the people!Marketing in Other Markets is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans.For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon. Connect with Stefanie below!Instagram - @BryceandStefanieYouTube - www.youtube.com/stefanielugoFacebook - @officialstefanielugoLinkedIn- @StefanieLugo

On this episode of Marketing in Other Markets, Matt Muscat talks to Jess Lenovuel, also commonly known as “the Canadian who moved to the Bahamas”. Jess has experienced every part of the real estate rollercoaster, experiencing the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows. Each twist and turn of her journey produced valuable lessons, which she’s been able to articulate into incredible advice for anyone who listens! Whether or not you’re a Realtor, Jess is a wealth of information for advancing your career, especially in avoiding Realtor burnout. With Jess’ experience, there are three main reasons why people choose the real estate agent career path: ceiling-free income, freedom in daily schedules, and the opportunity to simply help people. Unfortunately, almost nobody successfully reaches a perfect balance of those three.The only way to achieve those three goals, is to build systems, processes, and structures to take care of all aspects of your business—otherwise you’ll drown in it. That includes building a team and anticipating anything that could pop up, good or bad. No real estate agent is motivated 100% of the time. Nobody is. When your real estate business becomes reliant on your motivation, it is destined to fail; burnout is the kiss of death! Build your business on a platform separate from your motivation and excitement! At the end of the day, your clients will work with the experts they enjoy working with. If you don’t enjoy your business, your clients will notice. Those systems can’t exist without one thing: a vision. If you don’t know where you’re going, how are you supposed to get there? You’ll work endlessly in no direction, unless you have a single, guiding direction. That vision could be anything you want it to be; after all, it is your vision. No matter the team size or number of automations, a vision is the only way to build anything meaningful or fulfilling (and to avoid burnout!). Jess’ advice? Plan out a 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year vision. Make every decision based on whether you’re getting closer or further away from your goals. If you do that, you’ll be able to avoid the “shiny object syndrome”, and your progress will be unstoppable. She also follows Tim Ferriss’ advice: Eliminate, Automate, and Outsource. Eliminate time wasters, distractions, and un-important tasks. Automate anything that can be automated (especially repetitive tasks). Outsource everything else! However, marketing is an extremely difficult task to automate, and probably shouldn’t be automated by new agents (and likely don’t have the capital to outsource). Marketing is one of the toughest, but most important aspects for new agents to master. Understand marketing before mastering any other part of your business. Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok— they all get the job done, but they all take huge amounts of work (and that’s okay). Jess asked many brilliant questions in this episode: How can you share your excellent thoughts with 100,000 people instead of 1? How much are you worth an hour, and are your tasks worth your time? How can you increase your bandwidth with high-leverage activities?At the end of our lives, no person wishes they had worked more. Few real estate agents build a life without regrets. Don’t be one of them! 

In this episode of Marketing in Other Markets, Matt Muscat talks to Barry Karch, a veteran real estate professional and top-performing agent.Barry has a whopping 37 years in the real estate industry and has built his business into a small empire in El Paso, Texas. In 2021, Barry managed over 400 transactions between 25 Realtors, with an average deal size of $275,000! He’s the real deal.Barry’s secret weapon? He’s an introvert. Seriously. He turned being an introvert into a tool to build his business—being an introverted Realtor is his greatest asset as a manager and salesman.Realtors far and wide are known to be pushy, aggressive, and overly excited to get your business. It’s the defining characteristic of salespeople across the board—Car Salesmen, Real Estate Agents, Loan Officers, and Sales Reps are all hungry to close the deal. After nearly four decades of business, Barry has figured out that doing the exact opposite as the traditional salesman is the key to success. As a salesperson and/or Realtor, building trust and putting your clients at ease should be the top priority.As a Real Estate Agent on a sales call, you should be listening—not selling. An introverted Realtor spends at least half their time listening to the client and letting them speak their mind. When a client gets on the phone with a soft-spoken, introverted Real Estate Agent, they immediately realize they are talking to a normal, friendly, regular person. Not a hungry salesman. The introverted Realtor isn’t pushing anything onto the client that they don’t need or want, but instead is strategizing a way to help meet their goals. It’s a trust-building sales tactic to play the long-term game.Realtors often receive cold leads online, whether it’s through organic discovery or paid lead generation. Those leads, who are real people, don’t need an instant race to the closing table, but rather prefer someone to help them through the process. When receiving those leads, Barry’s advice is not to rush, push, or overly excite the process. Don’t brag about your business or credentials. Introverts win at winning over cold leads every time.Networking can be tough as an introvert, but it is vital to building a real estate business (or any business)! When you’re out in the world meeting people for the first time, one of the best tactics to gain business is to talk to other people about themselves. You heard right—don’t talk about you, but rather talk about them. But stay in contact with them. Friend them on Facebook, follow them on Instagram. People latch onto the people who are interested in them. Shut up and listen!One of the other strengths of an introverted Realtor is the focus on taking care of current clients, instead of trying to source new leads. Barry no longer advertises for new clients, nor has he advertised in years. It’s not profitable to spend money on people who have no clue who you are. Instead, reward the folks who do.Barry’s top trick is giving away Girl Scout Cookies each year to his clients. For $5 a client, he wins over past clients year after year, and it makes the Girl Scouts ecstatic, too. Barry’s referral business increased exponentially the year he started giving away cookies door-to-door.Long story short, being an introverted Realtor is a superpower.If you’re a Realtor: shut up and listen. Take care of your clients. Build meaningful relationships. Reap the rewards of a fulfilling career.