Dustin Nulf - Real Estate Sales Professional

Why listings rule all!

It’s been a while since my last update on the New Agent guide so I decided to get to the heart of the matter. If you want to survive in this business, you NEED listings! Use the strategies I had outlined in the previous editions of this guide to market for Seller Listings, make sure you ask for buyer referrals too, but put your focus on listings.
Here are the reasons why Listings Rule All… and there’s not much to it. Nearly any positive aspect of a seller listing can be summed up under these 2 reasons.

1. Sellers = Buyers

2. 30 Sales or 6 Sales?

Sellers = Buyers

So what does that mean anyway? Well, if you effectively market a listing, you should be able to pick up at least one serious buyer. For a hot, well-priced well-presented property, you could pick up several buyers. I’ve heard some agents say that an agent should be able to pick up at least 2 buyers from 1 listing. One thing is for sure though, to be an effective and full-time agent, you NEED listings and you NEED to effectively market your listings. The next step is learning to convert your buyer leads into buyers closed, but that’s for another episode.

30 Sales or 6 Sales?

Well, what’ll it be? Would you rather have 30 Sales at a time or 6 sales at a time? I choose 30. I have heard different stories regarding these numbers as well but experience tells me that 30 and 6 are about right.
Seller listings allow an agent to leverage his/her time more effectively. It is possible for one single person to effectively market up to 30 listings at a time before needing the help of an assistant. Listings require a good bit of time to get into the computer and circulating on the net, but after that, you don’t usually have to update them for 30 days or more. And most of the work after that is answering phone calls, and making phone calls.
On the other hand, it has been said that a single agent would have difficulty handling more than 6 serious buyers at a time… I fully agree with this. From personal experience, I was dealing with 6 serious buyers at one time and several other soon-to-be-buyers, and was so consumed with the physical aspect of the buying process that I was unable to pull in even 1 listing that month. I did put 8 transactions under contract though including listings sold which was nice, but if listings equal buyers, then my business was effectively thrown back due to my inability to focus on listing generation.

So what’s the plan?

Go get yourself 30 listings and practice your buyer lead conversion, then try to hold on to your sanity until you can afford to hire an assistant lol.

Dustin Nulf
Keller Williams Realty
cell: 412-496-8811
www.dustinnulf.com
dustinnulf@kw.com
***If you're an agent who is focused on long term gains and interested in keeping 100% of your commission, give me a call or shoot me an email because I want to talk to you! ***

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How to get new clients and keep past clients

You want a “cookie-cutter” recipe for generating leads and making sales happen? Here’s how you start:
1. Pick up the phone and call somebody. Create a database on a spreadsheet program with everyone you know on it. Once it’s compiled, pick up the phone and start calling everyone on the list. Make 10 calls a day at first or pick a bigger number if you’re feeling gutsy. Let everyone on that list know that you have a real estate license. Ask how they’ve been doing. Chat for a while, play catch up… but make sure you do one thing before hanging up; ask them if they know anyone who has been talking about selling or buying a home. If the answer is yes, ask them if they could give you a name and number, and if it’s okay that you mention who you got the information from.
2. Create a “farm”. I disagree with a lot of old school agents on this one. Since you’re a noob and you don’t’ have any sales under your belt, don't fall into the trap that most new agents do. DO NOT START SPENDING MONEY HAND-OVER-FIST ON MONTHLY MAILERS TO A FARM AREA. Instead of starting a mailer campaign that will cost you $300 a month to mail out to your neighbors on a regular basis, compile a binder with all of your farm’s addresses and phone numbers. Start calling 10 a day and introducing yourself. Ask the same important question as above and write down any lead information.
3. Market to expired listings. This is how I built my business. Do a search on your MLS everyday looking for the newly expired listings. Look up the owner’s name and residence on your county website. Then look up the owner’s phone number on yellowpages.com or a similar site. If the owner is not on the ‘do not call list’, then give them a call and set up an appointment to meet so you can discuss what your company can do to get their home sold this time around. I also spend about $100-200 a month mailing marketing materials to expired listings. I include a business card (with a magnet on the back if I can afford it) and some printed information about me and my company. If you’re able to do this on a daily basis you will pick up continual listings from it.
4. Market to For Sale By Owners (FSBOs). Sorry FSBOs but you can be difficult to get along with at times! The best way to approach a FSBO is to give them a call and ask if you can preview their home. Start a relationship by looking at their home and asking if they would be willing to pay a 3 or 4% commission if you were able to bring them a buyer. Maintain the relationship, give them advice. Since 70% of FSBOs end up listing with an agent, who do you think they’ll come to when they decide to list?
5. Buy a pocket notebook. In my opinion, this is the best investment for the money. I carry one around always. If you talk to someone who’s interested in buying or selling, take their name, number and email address…. Then hand them a business card. Don’t rely on them to call you, call them routinely and see how things are going. Set up a buyer consultation or listing appointment as soon as possible. Also, use your pocket notebook to write down FSBO phone numbers when you see their signs. Write down addresses of homes that look like they’re being flipped or renovated to prepare for sale.
6. Update your database of met prospects and clients and mail to them. Once you have some cash to invest, get an automated mailing campaign going out to all the clients and prospects you have met and worked with. Send them something new and useful every month and make sure you ask for referrals somehow in the mailers. This should help your prospects remember you and will help you pull in a few extra sales a year. Remember to contact your past clients and ask for referrals as well.

Dustin Nulf
Keller Williams Realty
cell: 412-496-8811
www.dustinnulf.com
dustinnulf@kw.com
***If you're an agent who is focused on long term gains and interested in keeping 100% of your commission, give me a call or shoot me an email because I want to talk to you! ***

Disclaimer: If you're interested in tips on how to keep the leads rolling in and how to pick up new clients on a daily basis, then stay tuned and subscribe to my blog!

Don’t Just Spend Money, Invest It!

Attention Newbies: Congratulations, you have just received your real estate license! Now you’ve become prey for the many vulture companies out there that will guarantee you 5 “qualified” leads a month for merely $300 a month! Guess what? If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
As a real estate agent, you should be able to grow your business for the cost of your cell phone bill. As a matter of fact, you can claim 5 listing appointments (or more) a day for free if you so choose to apply yourself and pick up the phone. Also, remember rule number 1 in my guide for new agent marketing: DON’T SPEND MONEY TILL YOU HAVE MONEY TO SPEND. It’s also a good idea to only spend money you’ve made in real estate sales on your real estate sales marketing.

Okay, okay. So I said “Be prepared to spend some money” in a previous blog post. Let me rephrase that; be prepared to invest in your business. In the Real Estate Biz it’s very possible to grow your business with very little investment at all. Actually, if you view your Multi-list subscription and E&O as “fixed costs” then it’s possible to grow your business without spending any more money than you would in your normal everyday life. But if you want to grow your business more quickly while maintaining contact with your past clients you’ll need some steady marketing.
When it comes time to invest some money in marketing, you should expect results. If you invest in an advertising campaign and you can’t pay for it with the leads it generates, then it is not worth the investment. An investment helps you make money. You should not break even or lose money on an investment. You should also remember that new marketing typically takes 30 to 90 days to show results. If you’ve hit day 90 and haven’t seen a lead, then it’s probably a good idea to cancel that marketing plan.

Dustin Nulf
Keller Williams Realty
cell: 412-496-8811
www.dustinnulf.com
dustinnulf@kw.com
***If you're an agent who is focused on long term gains and interested in keeping 100% of your commission, give me a call or shoot me an email because I want to talk to you! ***

Disclosure: I am, in no way, trying to promote my company exclusively with this post. I believe that every Real Estate company out there has its own strengths and weaknesses and that there is no one perfect company for everyone. I do suggest that all agents evaluate numerous companies before making a decision on any one.

Find the Right Company to Work For

Many brokers will offer a commission split of 50% to new agents. Some are willing to start you out at over 60%. You should think of this commission split as an investment in resources. How does what your broker is offering measure up to what another has available? What’s the difference in commission? Does one broker offer more than another at the same commission split? What training resources does your company offer? Will your broker pay for a certain amount of marketing materials for you? Do you have to pay for office space? Do you need office space or can you work from a home office? What kind of personal “rights” are you giving away when signing your company’s private contractor agreement? (For instance, does your broker let you take your listings and clients with you if you choose to leave for another company?).

The items we just went over can be weighed with your basic pros and cons table in which you put the pros and cons of one company up against the pros and cons of another and complete an objective comparison of 2 or more companies. But what really matters when choosing the company to work for is YOUR HAPPINESS and your happiness may not be measurable in a completely objective manner. It is my belief that for an individual to actually thrive and be productive in the workplace that individual must be working for an employer that has a matching productivity/ethics “style”. So what I suggest to any new agent is for that agent to evaluate his or her goals and expectations in life, both in and out of the work environment. Write down what matters the most to you and compare this with what matters most to the companies you are considering employment with.

As a real estate agent you have the freedom to basically choose who you want to work for, which is the complete opposite of what would normally happen at the beginning of an employer/employee relationship. YOU should be doing the interviewing. Find the company that best fits your personality. Are you laid back and only looking to do real estate part-time for an extra income while you focus on your family or another business? Or are you looking to become a full-time agent? Would you be interested in becoming a broker at some point and starting your own agency? Are you looking to learn as much as possible while always looking to excel and progress in your profession? How much would you like to be earning in real estate sales in 10 years? Will the companies you’re looking into be able to help you reach those 10-year goals or will you have to find a new company after a few years?


This may sound unrelated but bear with me... Possibly the most important things I’ve learned in my life can be summed up like this: first impressions DO matter… you CAN judge a book by its cover… you SHOULD ALWAYS trust your gut instinct, and image IS everything ESPECIALLY IN SALES!

Now take all of these insights and use them when looking for a company to work for. If you’re catching a bad vibe from the broker you’re talking to, there is probably a reason for it. If the manager who’s trying to bring you aboard reminds you of the car salesman that sold you the worst lemon you’ve ever bought, then you probably want to keep looking.

The moral to be learned here is this: Invest in a broker who will invest in you.

And remember: It’s usually easier to change companies at the beginning of your career as opposed to after you have 20 listings and 10 buyer clients. (I could go into further detail here, but that’s for another post. If you want to know my opinions and experience on this, feel free to send me an email or give me a call.)

Dustin Nulf
Keller Williams Realty
cell: 412-496-8811
www.dustinnulf.com
dustinnulf@kw.com
***If you're interested in finding out what Keller Williams can do to help you and your real estate business grow feel free to contact me via cell phone or email.***

Ready,… Set,… Spend!

As the saying goes; “it takes money to make money”. The Real Estate business is no different than any other business when it comes to this concept. However when it comes to start-up costs, real estate is one of the few businesses an individual can start and run successfully for only a couple grand. Back in the day, when you could sell real estate without a license, it was possible to start out in the industry without spending a dime. That’s not the case anymore. Because a real estate license is required to sell real estate in the United States any individual looking to become an agent must spend some cash in order to get started.

Your first expense will be your real estate classes and your license exams. Once you have become licensed you will then be responsible for at least 2 other items; errors and omissions insurance (E&O) and your Multi-list subscription (which is something you cannot do without at this point in our technological evolution). Some companies may say that they pay for these items for you, but just remember that it comes out of your pocket one way or another.

The most important of all expenses after getting licensed is the expense of your marketing. I will not go further into detail about expenditures at this time. The lesson to be learned from this section of the guide is simple: If you want your business to grow, be prepared to spend some money.

Dustin Nulf
Keller Williams Realty
cell: 412-496-8811
www.dustinnulf.com
dustinnulf@kw.com
***If you're interested in finding out what Keller Williams can do to help you and your real estate business grow feel free to contact me via cell phone or email.***