STOP Realtors From Wasting Your Time in Roofing Sales ($ Making Fix)

Real estate agents are a waste of time. The leads that you get from them, they take advantage of you, don't they? They want free estimates. The home buyer wants the cheapest estimate so they don't choose you. And the home buyer wants the most expensive estimate so they can get a credit to the house and then go find someone else to do it cheaper. But is this true all the time? What do you do if you have realtors referring you work or wanting estimates? Do you charge for it? Do you say no? And is there a better way for you to leverage these relationships? Well, that's exactly what I got into with my conversation with Derek. Derek's a member of the Roofing and Solar Reform Alliance. He's been being taken advantage of by real estate agents. It's been very frustrating for him. So we answered all these questions and more in this one on one video that you are about to watch. I recommend you watch it all the way to the end so you find out exactly how to get the most from your relationships or future relationships with real estate agents. Hey, welcome or welcome back. Adam Bensman here. And everything that I do on my channel is designed to help you and your team smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. If you like this video and you want more, subscribe to the channel for weekly uploads. Hit the bell icon so you don't miss a thing. And let's jump right into today's video. So let's jump in, man. Tell me, what's the, what would you say is like your number one roadblock that's standing between you and hitting your 12 month goal?

I have this big issue that I've been running into that deals with real estate transactions that I'd like to talk about.

Yeah, let's do it. If I'm looking down, I'm just taking notes.

Sure. Quite often we'll get calls in or, you know, I'll get referred to one way or the other. You usually calls into the office of people that are wanting an inspection and you get out there and it's like, hey, yeah, my, my house is for sale. The home inspector came out, said, you know, this, this and that. I'm like, okay, well I get on the roof. And obviously the most home inspectors aren't experts on the roof. So they kind of just say, hey, something's, there's some things wrong with the roof. Hire a qualified roofer to come out, inspect it. So now I'm at this point where, you know, the house is under contract. I'm trying to Tell the person, hey, you need a roof. They're saying, you know, I can get by with doing the minimum. I don't want to spend any money. And then ultimately the thing that kills the sale is they, they say, well just give me a quote and I'm going to give the buyer a credit for that amount of money. And that I, I have a really hard time overcoming that because it's almost like I'm trying to sell to somebody who under no circumstances going to buy anyway. Yeah, so I, I, I kind of wanted to talk about that. Maybe some strategies, I know, maybe some other strategies that might entail speaking with real estate agents before the house is listed and try to create, you know, some, some communication in that regard too. So different strategies in, in that area of real estate basically is what I'd like to talk about.

Yeah. So here's the deal. I, this, this may be unpopular opinion. I don't really think it is. I'm talking to people for more often than not, real estate agents are a pain in the butt. Yes. That cost you a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of energy and produce little work. And what you're experiencing right now is really common because the agents call you and they care about one thing and that is I need this deal to go through. And when you, as you spelled it out, the seller of the home, they're in a position that they don't want to be spending any money. Why would you want to put money into your house if you're going to sell it? I mean, I've sold a house, sold a couple houses. I just want to do the minimum. What do I need? What's like, why would I, it's like before you sell a car, you're not going to go do everything. You're going to do what needs to get done and then you're going to not electively repair the seat and do like just what's the minimum viable solution to getting this thing off my plate and into someone else's hands. On the flip side, the buyer, they want to see the highest estimate possible so they get a credit and then they're going to go find someone else to do it cheaper.

Correct.

So you're, you put yourself in a lose lose situation. I mean, you don't put yourself there. You're, you're in that situation.

Yes.

There's a couple things. One, realtors can be effective when you contact them before there's a contract. I have found rarely retail roof replacements prior to a house being sold are viable. Rarely why? Because the seller says, give me the cheapest price, I don't care. I just need to be able to put on the listing new roof and it's the next person's problem. So they don't like selling value and all that. They generally don't care. Will it come up once in a blue moon? Of course there's good people out there and some people will want to spend the extra few bucks if you have a transferable warranty, et cetera. But where I see Realtors having to anything to gain or any value to provide to us is when they have a home listed that you know has suffered hail, wind or hurricane damage. And if they do have damage and it comes up during the inspection, it holds the deal up because there's damage that either needs to get done or an insurance company may not even cover it until the damage is repaired. So they won't even write the coverage. So there's, there's, there's, there's sticking points on that. And now you're dealing with just their deductible. So that's the only situation that I've personally found where working with real estate agents even makes sense. I was part of a bni and I spent many hours every Wednesday at this BNI and I network with this Realtor. I bought my house with this Realtor. I, I ended up getting, I think, one referral and it never went anywhere because it was the same situation you were in retail roof replacement prior to sale, didn't want to spend the money, found someone cheaper, whatever. So where does this come to something positive? There's two ways you can do this. In fact, I was just in the roofing and solar reform alliance in the leadership roundtable. I offered to do some secret shopper calling for our members. So it was for training purposes. So I'd start calling the companies that are our own members on behalf of the leadership team. And in doing so, I'd pull up their websites, I'd look at reviews. I had to grab a real property address nearby. So as people were typing things out, it made sense. And I saw one star review for one of our members and I was like, that's weird. And I look at it and it was a real estate agent. And the real estate agent wrote a one star review and he's like, why deal with contractors all the time? And you wanted to charge me for an estimate? And it's like, yeah, because otherwise you just have us work for free. So I read that review and I was like, yeah, good. Like good on us. Just being like, hey, you got it. You. You know, we charge for those. So let's get into the. The. There's three solutions forward. Solution number one, you start charging them a $250 fee to prepare the estimate for them that if they do choose to work with you, it applies to the deal price. Now, for most, they're just going to say, screw you. I don't want to do that. And then you're like, fine, because that. Otherwise you waste your time, money, and energy to go do it. Because realistically, that probably cost you two or three hours Y. And otherwise you're working for free. So that's solution one. Solution two, say no. Solution number three. And by the way, before I'd say no, I'd. I'd get clear and say, hey, what's, what's going on with the project details? You know, with, with. We generally don't get involved with homes that are under contract. We just had some not so great experiences in the past. So I just want to get a little information to see if we're the right fit. And that's totally fair. I mean, you guys get to define one kind of big lesson that I'd like for, for that I wish I learned earlier was that how you do business is fits in this box. Your customers have to fit in this box. We don't need to try to move our box to fit around the customer's box. So if a customer says, I need this, this, and this done, if that's within the box of how you serve people, awesome. But if it's not, there's nothing wrong with saying, hey, I really appreciate you calling us. I know that means a lot. Unfortunately, what. What you're looking for and what we provide just don't line up. So, unfortunately, I don't think we're going to be able to help you. And I really hope you're able to find someone who's a better fit. And if people get mad, like, so be it. You know, you're kind. You're not saying screw you. So that's, that's. The second option is learn what they need. And then you can say, no, protect your time. And the third option is only. I guess it's kind of a combination of the. Of the two. Only work with opportunities where you know that there is an actual opportunity. If you sniff the red flags, run for the hills. If you know it's a project, you can say, you know, is this under contract yet? What are they looking for? Is the homeowner wanting to do the work? What's the purpose of this estimate? Are they needing this for a transaction? Are they needing us to do the work? Because it'll, it'll, it'll change how and what we prepare for them.

Sure.

And then if, again, if it is a viable option, you can pursue it. Have you had any that have been successful?

No, the only thing that I really have had success with is when they, you know, have the home inspection report and it's usually a repair item that, you know, I can take care of. I can grab the report and a lot of times I can get that report ahead of time and, and have an idea of what I'm looking at and say, hey, you know, I can actually give you a quote for this right now. It's pretty simple.

Yeah.

You know, other than that, I've been on quite a few where the inspector has been like, hey, this, this roof has severe granular loss. You know, there's a lot of problems throughout here and you know, you have a mile long inspection list and you get there and you're just trying to explain to the homeowner hey, you need a roof and they just don't want to hear it. Yeah, I don't think that I've ever.

Pretty sure.

I have never sold a roof during a home sale where the roof was even put on before the closing. If anything, I've had it where money was held in escrow for the buyer to do it later and the buyer to come back to me.

They have or have not. They have.

I've have had one or two buyers come back but never had the seller do it ahead of closing.

So, so, so that would be a way to, you know, and it, what I would, what I would do is take a look. So this is where I said I'm, I'm happy to be proved wrong. You've won a couple of deals on the back end of this and I would look at how many you've run to how many you've won and compare.

It's very small percentage. When you look at it that way, considering the time that I've wasted on all the other ones, it's basically, call it basically zero at that point. Yeah, it's more so like the strategy of, of saying no. It seems like the better alternative to be looking at and you know, whether, you know, our lead intake is kind of maybe pre programmed into asking some questions like that or if they just forward the real estate calls to me if they're going to be my appointment that I can stream at that point.

Yeah. And obviously just In a sales role, run it by the company and leadership team to make sure it's okay. I'd share your case, but one thing that I wish I one of my biggest lessons in sales that I wish I knew earlier was to say no. And there's a lot of people that if there's an opportunity, they latch onto that opportunity. Like it's a lifeline. Like, and all opportunities are lifelines. But the more what you'll find, like the highest earning salespeople, they value the snot out of their time and they know who's the right customer. And those who they know aren't the right customer, they don't waste their time with. Like, when I get folks that contact our business that want in, I don't just look at it like, ooh, it's a customer. Like, if they're not a good fit, I just say, hey, I don't think we're for you. You know, I appreciate you reaching out. If I have a referral, I'll pass it along. If not, like, then I'm just, I'm just going to say, hey, I don't think we're the best fit. What you're looking for and what we provide are just, are just different.

Sure.

And then you just move on.

Yeah. And that's, you know, you say it's good to say no in the right circumstance. Yeah. Would you have any advice on marketing to real estate agents or brokers to try to get in ahead of the listing? Do you think there's any value in that?

Yes, there can be. There's some videos I put up on YouTube. I have some material in the marketing battle pack which you have access to an rsra. When you see properties with a yard sign for sale in a hail impacted area or a hurricane damage or wind damage impacted area, contact them using the letter that I provide and that will create the urgency. You could also. So I've structured them so you can send them a pull one up so we can show you. Oops.

This is really good. This is good, good talk here because we just had a little hailstorm come through. So theoretically I could, you know, jump on, grab some, some addresses that are for sale and try this out right away and you know, it'll be a good application.

Yeah. There I, I, I agree. This is a good time to jump on it. Marketing Battle Pack. And we are going to jump in. Let's see, we just moved everything over to the RSRA app.

Yep.

So in the marketing battle Pack you'll see here realtors and homes for Sale. We have Storm retail, Florida and Spanish. Storm is right here. And then you've got the email listing. Excuse me, the, the email to send to the realtor, the letter to send to the homeowner and then you can the, the email. The reason I say to email the agent, it can be faster and it can, it can say if you make the subject about and then the property address, it'll generally get open because they're excited that it's like a prospect. Sure. And then you can send the letter to the homeowner, you can call the agent right there. And then here's the outreach checklist for you to follow. Again, these can be effective on a retail basis. You notice they had the, the retail stuff there. Those I would be selective on. I wouldn't use that as like every home that's for sale we're going to target. But if you drive through and you see a old beat up shingle or an old three tab or a ton of granule loss or visible problems, those are the ones to target. So I want you, I want to, I want you to approach Storm. Blast them all because if they got hit and you had a big enough storm event, you'll see the copy in there copying the language in the letter that speaks to the urgency of folks getting that problem addressed now before the sale. So what we're using is legitimate concern or fear in the marketing world. We call it fud Fear, uncertainty and doubt, which is what drives people to take action. It has to be real as opposed to manufactured. But the truth is if that comes up during the inspection, it can stonewall a sale. And realtors want one thing transaction to go through. Homeowners want one thing transaction to go through. We can solve both of those with getting this thing done and making the home more appealing, saying brand new roof. So anyway, that's for Storm and on the retail side you can use the retail letters. I would just be very selective to make sure you're not wasting your time. The last thing I like to do is or I want to see happen is people like latch on an idea like oh, every roof that every like 15 year old roof or older that's for sale, we're gonna, you know go, go mailing them. But there is times in your market, I don't know in Alabama are you getting homeowners, they're getting letters saying if you don't get your roof done, we're not insuring you.

Yeah, that, that is very popular this year. That and it's in all honesty it's It's a lot easier to do, to deal with that customer under that circumstance than it is to deal with insurance company most of the time.

Absolutely. You know, so those scenarios, you know, if a homeowner selling a house, it's not the worst thing to include in that letter and I will likely be updating mine in, in time as we start seeing this more and more to include, hey, you know, home, home buyers want a new roof. Otherwise they buy a house. They may not. They might be going through the contingency period and if they can't get insurance on that property or they're going to get someone that would say, hey, I'll write coverage, but it needs a new roof first. And then now they're going to come back say, hey, we're, you know, we, we want to buy this house. We just, we can't do it because the roof's too old. It needs a new roof. And then now what?

Let me ask you, what if you've had any experience or thoughts on the seller making a claim when the house is listed. Just because I have ran into a couple of times where, you know, I can't say for sure, but I feel like their insurance company maybe typed in their address or the adjuster was out there and saw the sign.

Doesn't matter.

Do they have any reason to treat that differently?

Reason? No. Have I seen it? The answer is I haven't. Could it happen? Of course, however, they're paying their premiums and that property is insured. As long as they're paying their premiums, they own the property. And likewise, what I have seen happen is if there's a. This is the tricky part, too. If the property is damaged and then changes hands, whoever was insuring the property at the date of loss.

Yes.

Is responsible for the claim. There's been sticky situations where the, the next homeowner files a claim on the previous policy. I don't know where the laws are at right now on that. But anyway, my point is it's insured. When it's insured.