Right now, I’m enjoying life. Thanks to Tim, and with the support of lots of people, I’ve changed the game in Real Estate. I’m working less, and making close to the same cash I was before. By less, I mean RADICALLY less. My job is mechanical, but as Mike Ferry and other people say…repetitious boredom pay off.
The gist is simple: Each morning, I call 30 Realtors. These are from lists of properties that MLS’s send me automatically. The search I’m looking for? Back On the Market. When a property goes back on the market, it’s for one of a few reasons. Most of the time it was expired and renewed. That’s a big part of it. But much of the time, it’s because some dirt bag loan officer is a salesmonkey and didn’t know his problems.
So, what I do is call the listing agent, ask for a referral to the selling agent to put the deal back together.
And you know what? I can average an ap or more a day. And a database entry, someone that I’ve tried to help.
Imagine this: If you’re a Real Estate Agent, and you’ve just had a listing not close. You’ve given up and returned the property to ‘active’ on the MLS. You get a call from a friendly guy, offering to put that back together…but first of all…offering to tell you the TRUTH.
Would this not appeal to you?
Would this not be a reason to work with a new loan officer?
It is, and it has been. One of my (currently) best referring agents is someone I called like this, and couldn’t get the deal done for. I pulled credit, took an ap ,and said, “This loan was fine in 2006, but there’s no longer a program…that will fit. There’s nearly no chance that this gets done, and your sellers should not… waste any more time with this buyer.”
The agent was relieved. Of course, they woudln’t mid a call every few months. Of course I could help.
I was a 50-house-a-year Realtor. I sold a ton in 2003-05, when you stuck a sign in the yard and answered your phone, and that’s all it took. Deals fell apart due to lender communication problems. So, let’s fix this.
Zillow? Are you Listening? You can make the RE commuity a better place if you respect Push a little bit.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
David G from Zillow.com 02.29.08 at 10:59 am
Hi Chris,
What I love about this approach is that you’re not forcing yourself on unsuspecting consumers but rather you’re contacting professionals who you have pre-qualified as needing your help. And when you do, you have a real solution in hand. I love the fact that you’re not lying; that already sets your approach apart from much of the push marketing I see (e.g. “I have an interested buyer for your FSBO”.) This is smart, ethical, transparent marketing. And I doubt that you’re doing your reputation any harm because the professionals you call are in a great position to truly evaluate the value of the service.
That all said, I’m yet to see a push marketing strategy that couldn’t be improved upon with permission marketing. By the time a home’s back on the market there’s a good chance that the buyer has made another plan. But more importantly, you are losing 100% of the potential business from buyers and agents who find a second LO on their own. This is a much bigger opportunity than the one you’re chasing. You’re choosing to either working with a Realtor who is incapable of finding a good second quote or you’re working on a potentially impossible loan. Either way, you’ve chosen the most difficult and probably the smallest slice of what must be a very lucrative market for loan officers right now (i.e. putting deals back together.)
If you’re successful with a handful of these loans, I predict that you’ll see this become a pull marketing strategy rather quickly. If you earn a good reputation for putting deals back together, soon you won’t have to make any calls. The beauty of your system is that you touch at least two professionals with every lead you track down. You’re positioning yourself to Realtors as a deal fixer. It’s only a matter of time before you become the second L/O they call if you do this right. And a short while after that, you’ll become the first L/O they call.
Surely you see the benefit of having business come to you; my advice is to have that be your end goal. Don’t think of it as a marketing strategy; it’s a measure of the quality of the work you do. If I were you I’d keep doing the calls but I’d start to work towards the end goal of receiving them. This blog post is a good start. Position yourself as the mortgage doctor; share insights and anecdotes about the loans you repair.
As for Zillow, the consumer friendly approach is obviously not to have deals fall through in the first place. So, our goal is to help consumers and agents find the right loan the first time around. When our mortgage product launches (soon, I promise!), you’ll see what I mean and you may not have to make as many calls.
chris 02.29.08 at 11:10 am
David G from Zillow.com »
Thanks for the compliments. The homes are back on the market quickly. Yes, it becomes pull quickly.
One of the premises that this tactic requires is that a large amount of loan officers are incompetent. This is going to be true for the foreseeable future.
Remember: People aren’t completely efficient. This means, that great realtors work with the LOs that they have. Sticky markets. Information gets bottlenecked by habit, and people aren’t automatically efficient.
Since the game’s rules are radically different than they were pre 11/06, many formerly good LOs are becoming obsolete. This tactic works.
It’s good for:
-new loan offiicers
-LOs making the switch from boiler room operations to traditional operations.
-LOs that want an extra deal.
Look, no Zestimate or whatever can beat a real live set of eyeballs. Same is true with LOs. Since a great producer needs 3 aps to close 2 deals, this gets us a quality ap quicker. THe byproduct is also a good contact with a Realtor, and an offer of value, and a Realtor you have permission to call. If I’m adding 20 contacts to my database per workday, and +60/week…
I’m expanding my reach, reputation…and it’s efficient.
It’s better to have 3-4 good Realtors RIDICULOUSLY IN LOVE with you than it is to have 3,000 realtors vaguely familiar. There is not an equation there.
David G from Zillow.com 02.29.08 at 11:21 am
“One of the premises that this tactic requires is that a large amount of loan officers are incompetent.”
LMAO. I thought that when I read your post. The same applies to the Realtors who don’t know two trusted LO’s. Very sad but glad that you’re making lemonade.
“Look, no Zestimate or whatever can beat a real live set of eyeballs.”
Totally agreed. I can’t wait to show you what we have planned for mortgages.
“It’s better to have 3-4 good Realtors RIDICULOUSLY IN LOVE with you than it is to have 3,000 realtors vaguely familiar.”
… because … they call you. ;-)
chris 02.29.08 at 11:31 am
David G from Zillow.com »
Gotta be lightweight.
Offer angel stunk because it required too much legwork. Great premise, but it wasn’t automated.