Robert Colello teaches real estate agents how to work with sellers through mindset, team leverage, and concrete tactics. Price to sell, use staged price-reduction forms, and pre-qualify to select motivated clients. Build a trained team with showing specialists and operations staff to handle the work.
Questions this video answers
November 8, 2022.
Between $45 million and $50 million.
In real estate 17 years; in San Diego 15 years.
22 years.
2004 — January 14th.
All right, so let's get Robert up here.
Ready to roll.
So Robert reached out through massive leverage. I don't know if Robert knew that. You know, when you're like, you're someone that usually have leverage, and then you're forced into someone else's leverage system, you're like, golly, this guy is making me do things his way. And I was happy to do it because he's a legend, does a ton of production, and is just on point with all his systems. So it's funny, there were three topics that you sort of gave me to choose from, and do you remember I chose two.
Yes.
And then you have to add all the stuff that you taught Kathy. So you've got 60 minutes to teach a whole bunch of stuff. I'm going to turn it over to you. I'm going to spotlight you and let you roll with this thing and bring your magic to us, brother.
Awesome, Lars. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here. I look forward to sharing. I prepared for this. You know, I spent two and a half hours for this, 45 minutes. And that's one thing I'm going to talk about, guys, being prepared in this market. If you're not prepared in this market, you will die. You will absolutely not stay afloat. This market has changed. There was a book that was written about 10, 15 years ago called Change or Die. I would suggest everybody get it. And the good news is we can all change. We can all change so we don't have to stay stuck where we are and we can all thrive in this market. So I don't say that to put fear in you, but I say that to motivate you to change. You know, I live in San Diego. I first and foremost am a Christ follower. That's why I love Lars's shirts, you know, been saved since 2004. January 14th, my life really began. I've been married to my beautiful wife, Aurora, for 22 years. We have four beautiful children. Our oldest, Robert's 22. Our daughter will be 20 next week. Our son, Angelo is 17. And our baby, Dimitri, called Baby D, is 15. I've been in real estate for 17 years, and I'm in San Diego for the last 15 of that. I started my career in Miami. I have a team. It's myself, my wife does business development, have an assistant. I have a director of operations who ours was talking about that reached out. He didn't even tell me. He. He just heard me say after a coaching call with Dave, hey, I want to speak more get me up, you know, we need to speak more. And literally he got into action to say, oh, by the way, you're on the schedule to speak. I talked to Lars and you're going to speak on November. So yes, there's leverage there. I have an assistant, Laura, three showing specialists, Joy, Andrea and Kelly. And we have a transaction coordinator per transaction. I bring in all the production and I could not do what I do without my great team supporting me. With will close between 45 and 50 million in production this year. Completely referral based. I do zero advertising. I don't do any marketing, I don't do any web marketing. I don't do any, any of that. I started my career with fizbos and expireds and I just made a choice to move to a referral based business. That's my business in a nutshell. I came over to exp from Keller Williams. I was in Gary Keller's top 100 mastermind for several years. I had the honor and privilege to be on a call monthly with him and do private masterminds. And it was a really cool experience. And I'm going to talk about a lot about that, about proximity today. I'm going to talk about what we need to do. But the first question I want to ask you is mindset, guys. I want to ask you this. Do you have a compelling future for yourself and for your sellers? Because today's call is going to be about pricing homes properly with your sellers and, and getting price reductions at the closing table or the listing table and doing what it takes to make sure that we serve our clients. And as I heard a long time ago from my first real estate trainer, Mike Ferry, we don't commit real estate malpractice by taking an overpriced listing. You won't survive in this market. So my question to you is, do you have that compelling future for yourself? Because it's kind of like this when you're on a plane, right? You have to put the oxygen on yourself first before you could put the oxygen on one of your kids, right? So the seller is going to be your kid. You're going to take care of them, you're going to nurture them, you're going to make sure you get them where they want to go safely. But for you to do that, you got to be taking care of your own mindset. You got to have a compelling future to get you through a good market, a bad market. Because let's face it, when the market was great, agents complained, oh my gosh, I can't get an offer accepted. Oh, my gosh. I have too many offers on my listings that I never can, you know, dinner with my kids. We're always going to have a reason to complain. What we focus on will expand. So if you look at scarcity, if you're watching the news, which I would suggest, you cut that off right away. You will have a lot to complain about. Okay? So it all starts with the mindset. You have to have a compelling future. It's going to draw you through where you are. Because if any of us set goals, which I hope everybody on here does, it's kind of like running. When I run, I site Target, so. So I'll look at the telephone pole that's a quarter mile away and it will draw me to it. Then as soon as I get close enough to it, I'm looking for the next telephone pole and then the next one, the next one. And before I know it, I'm done with my run. That's what we need to do in this market. Have sight targets. Okay. And be comfortable being uncomfortable. You need to be comfortable being uncomfortable. You're going to grow and expand during this market. You need to be comfortable being uncomfortable. What does that look like? We got to get back to role playing. We gotta learn new scripts. Those old scripts are not going to work in this market. We got to learn new scripts. You need to be a script master. If you don't know what you're going to say that you can't hear your clients. And I hope you guys are taking notes, because note takers are going to win in this. This business. When you're at events, when you're at build, when you're at exp con, when you're at training events, Tony Robbins, if you're not taking notes and if you're not reading over them after, if you're not assimilating, listen. Information with that implementation is nothing more than entertainment, right? So take notes. Even if you don't necessarily go back to them. There's. There's, there's a power in writing it down and archiving it and then knowing, hey, Lars said something really good on that production mastermind two weeks ago. Let me go back to that. I'm going to implement that. You know, like Kathy said, she heard some things for me and she implemented them. You know, that's what this business is about, guys, about stealing great ideas from great people to make yourself greater. That's all it is. It's a simple business, but it's not easy. So if you're willing to put in the work. If you're willing to utilize leverage as Lars talked about, and stand on the shoulders of giants like Lars, like other top producers, like people that are within this production mastermind and in our game changers community, you're going to gleam through this market easily. You're going to breeze through it. Okay? One of the things that I, I want to tell you, it's like this, it's association. You got to be willing to grow and you got to be willing to associate with the right people. Like in this production mastermind, like with game changers, you know you're going to be guilty or successful by association. You know, if you go rob a store and you're sitting in the car, you're going to jail because you're with those people. And the same thing goes when you hang out with top producers, people that are positive, people that are productive, people that are doing things. Guess what? You're going to that you're going to go with them. And instead of going to jail, we're none of us want to end up out of production, out of this business. You, you're going to end up thriving and not just surviving. How many people want to thrive on this call? Raise your hand. Thank you. Everybody's hand should be up. I want to thrive. I'll put two hands up for that one. Okay. So for you to thrive in this market, we got to have a long game mindset. I heard this, I interviewed Glenn Sanford when I was just at Exp Con and I got, we did a two minute video and he said something that really, really resonated with me. And I watched it the other day and it was, we have to have the long game in this business. We have to have a long game in this business. You got to be like the Navy. Like I've been telling my clients for years, like, listen, I'm going to be here for you for many years. You know why? And they're like, why? Because I have a 20 year view of this business. My vision is 20 years like the Navy. So whether you want to buy or sell now makes no difference to me. I'll be here when you're ready. And you need to have that same vision for yourself that no matter if it's a good market, if it's a bad market, you are going to be here 20 years from now. You might not be, you might be retired, but you need to have that vision, the telephone pole to pull you forward. Because this business is like this, right? And you can't allow the ups and Downs of this business to take you out of this business. Write that down. Guys, we got to keep our emotions in between the lines. This business will definitely take us out, especially with change. We hate change. You know, we've been going in a market that's been going straight up for like the last 12 years. And now we've had a plateau, some normalization, and depending on your market, we've had hard turns down. We've had stagnant city. And we don't like that. It's like, oh, it's not easy. But guess what? The good news is we're not order takers. I don't think anybody on this calls an order taker. Who's a great salesman on this call, raise your hand. Oh, come on. Everybody's hand should be up. Good. You gotta say that to yourself every day. I'm a great saleswoman, I'm a great salesman. You have to believe that people need that right now. All right? And if you have this 20 year view of yourself, it's going to pull you through. And guess who else it's going to pull through? Your clients. You are the captain of this ship. They are entrusting you to bring them to a safe harbor. Okay? And when you have a clear vision of where you're going, in the Bible it says they, they, they perish because a lack of a vision. I don't want to see anybody, including myself, perish because of a lack of a vision. So that's also going to take planning and preparation. Guys. I really encourage you guys to have a mental hour in your schedule every week where you're sitting there thinking about your, your business, looking back at the week past and say how to go, Looking forward to the week to come and say, how do I want it to go? Looking at your business plan and saying, where am I at? Am I hitting my goals in my off course? Is there any course correction I need to make? Because I'm like a pilot in a cockpit and I'm flying from San Diego to New York. Like, me and my family are going to get on a plane tomorrow to go to a wedding. We're going to be flying to New York. And I guarantee you probably 200 times along the way, the pilots are going to have to do course corrections and that's normal. So understand in your mindset that this is not going to go as planned all the time. There's going to be winds of change that are going to push us off course. There's going to be an angry client, there's going to be things that are going to happen. But if you keep your emotions in between the lines and you don't let anybody's opinion of you determine your future. And the most important opinion that you cannot allow determine your future, you know who that is? Yourself. You can't. Let's think and think and take you out of this game. As Zig Ziglar used to say, we need a checkup from our neck up, right? We have to. As the Bible says, we got to take capture captive of all of our thoughts. You cannot control the first thought, but you can control the second, third, fourth, and fifth thought. You know, I've been going through a lot of health things over the last 10 years or so, and I've been. I've been worn out with this. Trust me. I'm going in for a surgery on the 21st, and I'll take all the prayers I can get for this one. I know I got complete healing coming, but I can tell you this, that it's a real thing, man. You think you're on the top, you're not going to stay there forever. If you just stay stagnant and. And you're not going to stay in the bottom forever in this market's not going to stay cool forever, and it's not going to stay hot forever. So if we know this going into it, then we can control those stinking thoughts. Okay? This game belongs to the confident. So we get the mindset, the mindset of change, the mindset of growth, the mindset of association, the mindset of, I have a compelling future. Now we go into these appointments confident. If you're not confident, do you want to deal with someone that's not confident? I don't. If you're not confident, neither do the sellers that you're working with want to work with you. How many of you guys want to walk into a listing appointment and know that you're going to get this listing 9 out of 10 times or 10 out of 10 times and not be like the average. The average agent that's only taking three or four listings out of 10. How many people want to take nine to 10 out of 10 listings? Raise your hand. It's going to start with confidence. When you walk in that door confidently, not cocky, confidently, they're going to say, okay, I'm entrusting myself to somebody. I've been interviewing agents. This is the guy, this is the girl that I want to entrust myself with because I feel like they're very, very well seasoned, they have my best interest, and they believe in themselves. They're going to take me where I want to go. Because people, guess what, guys, I tell my team this all the time. In this market, people are going to start pointing their fingers at the agent, us for little errors that they see or if their home doesn't sell, the everything's going to come back to us. Because most people are victims. And when most people get scared, they're looking for who can I blame. So therefore, if we're confident, if we have a great presentation, if we carry ourselves well, if we articulate, we know what to save as we practiced our scripts, right, then we're going to come across that way. And at the end of the day, like Monica Reynolds used to always say, if you continue to earn their trust and hold their trust, when crap hits the fan, they're not looking at you. They're going to call you up to complain about what's going on, but you're going to be on their side. How many of you think it's going to be a lot easier to get through tough times in this market with sellers that believe we're on their side, Raise your hand. You're going to get that done by being confident. Okay, people go with the confident. You know, Mike Dillon, one of my clients, he waited two weeks to list with me. I was at Build in Texas. I get a call from Bob Hatch. Bob Hatch says, hey, one of my neighbors wants to sell 20 plus acres of land. I go, good. I talk to Mike. I tell him, listen, Mike, I'm out of town. I'm going to this conference, I'm going here. And. And he waited two weeks to meet with me in a market that was starting to turn. And he knew it. He's a real estate developer for 40 years. He owns shopping centers. He owns tons of real estate here in San Diego. But he said, you know what? I like what you did with Bob and Alan's family's home in La Jolla when you sold that one. And talking to you, I can tell why they listed with you. And this is just over the phone. And I'm not being, I'm not trying to impress you. I'm just trying to impress upon you that I've been practicing what to say for almost 20 years. And I try to be as present as possible with my clients. One of my old coaches said, be where your butt is, and I will tell you it's impossible to be where your butt is if you don't know what to say when you're sitting down with that client. So he waited two Weeks to meet with me. Two weeks. He interviewed another agent that was an area expert. He met with me, and he goes, you know what? I'm working with you. That was because of confidence. People don't care how much you know until they don't know how much you care. You cannot exude that, what Jim Rome used to say until you have in your head and grind in your subconscious and conscious. But what you're going to present, what you're going to say, a game plan. Listen, your listing presentation is hardly ever going to go completely 100%, but if you don't have the parameters at a beginning and an end, right, you're going to be all over the place, and they're going to take you for turns, and before you know it, you're out of that confidence zone. All right? Raise your standards is the next thing I want to talk about. So talked about mindset. We talked about confidence. We talked about having a compelling future. We've talked about, you know, making sure we're present when we're with our clients. So I want you to raise your standards. Do not lower your standards. In uncertain times, people make compromises. Agents make compromises on commission. They make compromises on when they're going to meet. But not you. I'm going to challenge you guys, not you. Do not compromise in this market. This is not the market just to go out with every sign, call and run over there and show a house without doing your process. Getting pre qual, do a buyer's consultation, getting a bre, get them assigned with a showing specialist. For us, like, we don't stop. We actually tighten down the reins. When I first got in this business in 2005 in Miami Beach, October 30, a day before Halloween, Miami historically was one of the worst markets. It was one of the first markets to go bad. And my wife and me, my wife was freaking out every time I wouldn't go to a buyer call because we were starving. We just got in the business. I was living off my equity line, right. Just to be truthful with you, I came out of telecommunications. I tried some other businesses. Things weren't working well. I learned a lot from that. And I found myself in real estate and excited. But the is like, what does Zig Ziglar say? I got more bills at the end of my money, right? Like, like. Or there's more. There's more month at the end of my money, right? So money's not everything, but it is right up there with oxygen, like he says. And even in that state of mind. I was hanging out with top producers. I was in Mike Ferry coaching. I was hanging out with top producers. I would look at people and say who's the millionaires? Who are the ones doing 100 deals a year? Who's selling 40, 50 million, 100 million, 200 million. I'm hanging out with them, I'm not talking to anybody else and I'm doing what they're doing and that's what they were doing. So have standards pre qual everyone, do not waste your time. Do not meet with the buyer to buyer's consultation until they've been pre qualified by your lender. This is your friends and family, your mom and dad, your sister, your brother, your best friend, your neighbor, your the strangers that called on the sign call. I don't care who they are. You need to have a habit that you're gen you, you are you. If you generate, you will not tolerate and you're a generator. Can everybody say I'm a generator of business. I generate business. It comes easily and effortless to me. People want to work with me. I'm productive, I'm powerful and I have a strong mindset that people want to deal with. Like you have to have these affirmations in your mind. You have to say these things to yourself. And I'm what I'm saying to you guys today just by the way, truth be told, speaking to myself, I'm reminding myself Tony Robbins says repetition is the mother of all skill. So I'm consistently reminding myself of these things on a daily basis. So I'm really talking to myself right now and I'm glad you guys here to eavesdrop in. All right now this is the deal. Only work with the highly motivated. So we're not going to lower our standards, we're going to raise our standards. Only work with the highly motivated. Only work with those that want to work with you. Listen, I go on 10 listing appointments. I take 98% of all my listings. I'm sorry, 97.5. And I take 98% of all my buyer consultations. Pretty much the people I don't work with are just unrealistic or crazy or we just don't see eye to eye. It's just the reality because I'm prepared. I show up, I present well, I know my stuff and I make the decision at the end of it that or am I going to work with them or not. Matter of fact, when I said any appointment, you know what I say to buyers, especially buyers, I say this. Hey, this is the process that I work with you first, get pre qualified. Once you get pre qualified and you have a solid financial roadmap, we are going to meet in my office, and guess what we're going to do? We're going to meet over zoom or in my office, and we're going to have an interview. I'm going to interview you, and I'm going to make sure you're a good fit to work with with me and my team. Do you know why? And they're like, why? Well, because if I hire crazy on, as Dave Ramsey says, man, it messes everything up, right? And I want to make sure when I bring you on, I've met the honor and obligation to all my other clients that have a fiduciary contract with me, that I'm only working with people that want to work with us, that trust us, like us, and know that we have their best interest. That way we're not getting a million calls a day from the same person who's scared because they're a Zillow lead or whatever it is. And the good news is this, Mrs. Buyer or Mrs. Seller, you get to interview me to make sure I'm a good fit to work with. And at the end of that meeting, we're either going to shake hands and decide to work with each other or we're going to part ways. There's no obligation here. That's how I started every appointment. Like, I tell every single client that. And you know what it does? One, it sets a standard, and two, it takes the pressure off of them. Come on. How many people have worked with a professional before and they're desperate? How does that make you guys feel? Do you guys feel like, oh, this person has me. How many people work for a professional? And they're like, no, you got to meet my standards. Like, there's a waiting list? Well, who makes you feel better? Raise your hand if the, if the insecure super commission breath. I just need to make another sale. I got to do a surgery because I, I, my, my practice isn't doing well. Do they make you feel comfortable to work with that doctor? Do you want to get surgery by them? Or how about the surgeon that has, like, a four year waiting list and you're lucky to get in in six months? You need to be that four year surgeon, okay? Like, I'm leaving tomorrow to go with my family, and I got a call for a listing yesterday, and it's from a past client of mine, and they might be going through divorce. And first of all, I just told them, hey, listen, I'm praying that you guys don't get divorced. I'm actually praying that you call me back and say, let's cancel the appointment. Because I would rather the Lord blesses me more than I could bless myself. I would rather him bring me other sales not to. Not for me to get a sale off the. The devastation of your family. But this is the deal. If you guys do decide to separate, I can either meet you today, if we set an appointment tomorrow, yesterday, or I'm going to meet you when I get back. Like, I'm not doing this when I'm gone. I'm not doing a zoom appointment. You know what? Listen, this market is going to make people do things they shouldn't do. I am not doing that. Okay, keep your standards, guys. Now the next thing that I want to talk about is the power of storytelling, or I like to say story selling. There's such power in storytelling. Please utilize the stories of the success that you've had with other clients in this market that have listened to you. Because what you're going to get a lot of from people is, I don't know if I need to do that. I don't know if I should do this. Like, one of the things you have to do in this market, guys, you have to make sure these properties are best in class. And we'll talk about that in a minute. But you have to make sure and you need to tell stories about other clients that listen to. You took your professional advice because you are the professional, you are the surgeon. And look at the happy ever after that they had. Everybody wants to know that they're going to have a happy ever after. Everybody wants to have a compelling future. You sometimes have to paint the picture with your words, stories, parables, to do so scientifically, it's proven that it's way more impactful to tell a story than it is just to sell. It is so much more impactive. Matter of fact, Zig Ziglar said one time, and I love this. So when I realized two things. Number one, most of the truths in the world come out of the Bible, if not all of them, the great truths. And number two, Zig Ziglar is a believer and I like the guy even more. He said, listen, if you want to be an extremely strong salesperson, you need to sell in stories and parables. And if you want to know who the best person ever do that was, go get a red letter Bible and read all the red letters. Because the best salesman ever walked this worth was a carpenter in the streets of Galilea, he, this, this, this king from Nazareth literally would speak in parables and stories. And he captivated audiences. And if you're really paying attention, he said, at the end of the day, you might end up on not only a great salesman, but, but you'll end up on the right side of the fence when you meet your maker. That's another point. Read the red letters and, and decide for yourself. But the point is, it is proven. It is proven that people want to be told stories. They just. We, we are storyteller magnets. And when we hear these, we can connect the dots. Also, you had Mrs. Jane Smith and, and she was scared like I was, and you asked her to put new floors in and she didn't want to spend 7,000 either, but she did it and she got an extra 50,000. And this just happened last week. Okay, all right. You want to talk to Ms. Jane Smith? Oh yeah, maybe I do. And they usually don't. But it helps them put the guts together versus you just saying put the floors in. I'm telling you, do it. And then it's like, now you're being authoritative instead of being a storyteller. We're coming along with these people as, as, as servant leaders. At the end of the day, we got to be servant leaders because no one will care about how much we know until they know how much we care. As I said, and Zig Ziglar said, you can have anything you guys want in life and if we just help enough people get what they want in life. Okay, so how do you get a well priced listing? So I talked about the mindset, I talked about having a compelling future, I talked about the standards, I talked about pre qualifying every single person. Listen, I had a listing appointment last week and I want to back up on this where this girl has called me twice. She's a lead from someone on my team and she wants to list her house and she just wanted me to come out and she just wanted to value. And she goes, just come out. I want to move to West Virginia. And I go, hey, listen, Amber, that's great. I want to help you. So last time we talked, you weren't quite ready yet, so it sounds like you're ready now. Are you? Well, I don't know, but I need to know the value to know if I'm ready. Okay? She goes, because I want to know that I. How much my home's worth so I can buy another home and then I'll sell this house. Oh, really? So, so do you have the cash? In the bank or you've been pre approved financially to be able to buy that home without selling some. She goes, no, I'm going to be a cash buyer, but I can do a contingent. I go, listen, that's a horrible idea. I'm thinking in my head. But I couldn't say that to him like well. And I explained to her the different levels of cash finance contingent where she would fall, you know, three levels below a VA or FHA buyer. She's like, really? So she still wanted me to come out. So when I was doing my pre qualify, which I always do, I asked her, hey listen, when I see you tomorrow, what price do you want me to list your home at? And she gave me, well, I don't know, you tell me, you're the professional. I said, listen, I'm asking you because as a professional real estate agent I study prices of homes every day. Therefore I assume that you want to list your home at a price that will cause it to sell at the price that you're hoping to get to make this move to Virginia and not overprice it to just sit. So I need to know what is your bottom line? Well, I really hope you would say that. Well let me ask a question. If I get you an offer for 600,000, would you take it? She goes, hell, and I can't do that, I need 650. How about if I got one all cash buyer, 615 close in three days, you make it up on the other end, Maybe I go, okay. You know I was able to pre quote, well guess what? We found out when we did her comps. She can't get more than 575. I didn't go to the appointment and I tell them that like I'm not going to come if it doesn't appraise or doesn't come out in value. If I would have just gone over to her house like most people do, I would wasted six hours of my life. I would have disrespected my family, I would have disrespected myself and I would have disrespected other clients I work with. Because my time and my talent. Your time and your talent is what people are paying for. Just remember that it's your time and your talent. Be careful with how you're using and who you're giving it to. Okay, so how do we get a well priced listing? The importance of setting the table. Guys have you guys, how many of you guys have been to a five star restaurant? What is the difference of a five Star restaurant in Denny's. There's just more forks and spoons, guys. That's it. They got a bigger setting. Listen, we. When you go to a five star restaurant, you got the regular spoon and you got the little spoon for the escargot with a little fork, right? There's settings, there's courses. They don't start with the dessert and then come out with the appetizer. Then, you know, bring the port. There's a sequence, the table set, there's a presentation, there's an expectation of excellence and they carry it out. Now, I can tell you this, you need to carry it out because you could go through the first four courses and bring them chocolate mousse at the end or the chocolate souffle. And if there's a rat leg hanging out of it, you just ruin the whole experience, right? So, guys, it's not just about being a great salesperson. It's about following through with integrity. So please don't say things at the appointment that you're not going to do. You're just going to stress yourself out. You're going to be lying to your clients and you're going to be causing incongruency with who you really are. And make sure whatever you do say you're going to do, you follow through with excellence. And hey, listen, I don't know if any of you guys are like me, but I move fast. Sometimes I need to slow down. Make sure that you are taking time to speak to your team so they can support you in what you, your deliverables that you said to do. Because as Lars said and as Kathy said, I do have a lot of leverage in my life. I also with the leverage, if I'm not communicating to my leverage, my director of operations, Richie G. Laura, if I don't communicate with her, the showing specialists, like, we can't perform at a high level. Like yesterday, we have a 20 acre piece of land were listed in Ramona. I had Richie G. Go out there with the three, the two of the three showing specialists to show it to them. I was not there, but I made sure. I told him this is what I expect. Do you know where all the wells, the meters, the power, all this stuff is because they need to know that when they're out there meeting with the buyer that might want to subdivide this into two parcels, they might want to know the best place to put this property. They need to know what the water sources, they need to know if they can put their vineyard over here, if their avocado Fields here where they're going to situate their house. But I don't want to be there every time that happens. I don't want to do that. I can't. So therefore, I have promised that my seller that there would be someone to show the property. And I told him it wouldn't be me. And he goes, you're not going to show it? Nope, not going to be me. But guess who it's going to be. It's going to be one of my highly trained, super smart. These people make me look like I don't know what I'm doing. Showing specialists. I always tell people I run my business with the Kinko's effect, and that is I surround myself with smarter people than myself to make me look good. Because the truth is, the gentleman that started Kinko's started in college for a resume business, paper business. For writing papers and resumes. And he was dyslexic and couldn't write himself right. And guess what? I'm dyslexic, too, I would say. I get paid to sell, not spell. So just know what you get paid for. Know what your highest and best use of your time is. Leverage it out and speak to the clients. Set the expectation. Make sure that they understand the value proposition. And listen, this is the deal. When you're setting the table, you just tell them straight up. Like, when I work with buyers, I meet with the buyer in a buyer's consultation. I meet with the sellers at a listing appointment and I tell them, you're not going to see me again until we close. End of story. Like when I list a property, I tell the seller straight up, we're going to. We're going to put your. We're going to put your home on the market where the due date is. Up until then, you're going to be doing a lot of communication with my team. I surround myself around brilliant people. I'm going to check in with you on Fridays to give you a Friday update. When we go live, we'll have a Thursday launch call. We're going to reconfirm the price to make sure we're still on target. We're going to go live. Then we will have another meeting on Wednesday after I've countered all the offers. Okay. And a lot of the sellers I work with are engineers. Qualcomm, Intuit. They're very controlling. What do you mean? Well, this is the deal. I know what you want. Well, how do you know what I want? Well, you want the highest price on least amount of time with the Least hassles, right? I know you want to stay here 60 days after the close of escrow. And you already told me you want the chandelier that your grandmother gave you. Right. Is there anything else that you want? No. So why do you want me to call you up then every time we get an offer and talk to you for 20 minutes about it? And when it comes to offer review day, the best offer in the beginning could be the lowest offer at the end. I think that would be highly disrespectful of your time. And I don't think it'd be. You want me doing other things like following up with. Buyers are going to offer more. Right. That makes sense. Great. So I will call you on Wednesday. We'll do a zoom call between 330 and 4. I'm going to go over the offers of. You take about 15 minutes tops. Usually we can do this in five minutes. You're going to pick the best offer with me. I'm going to have them all lined up for you. It's going to be really apparent which ones to go with and we'll be good to go. How's that sound? Okay. Like, I do not talk to my sellers every day. They. If I answer the phone in the office, they're like, oh, Robert, I'm not looking for you. I'm looking for Laura. I'm looking for Rich. What I learned a long time ago is people will grow into the conversations that you have about yourself, the standards that you set. And if they sign a listing contract or a buyer's contract with you, and you said you're not talking to them, but for six months from now, they're. And they're okay with that. If you tell them you're going to call them every single day and over, promise all communication, they'll be okay with that too. They don't know. Remember, this is Disney. Even if you have a VIP pass, the fast pass, you still got to wait in line because this is how we do it. Just remember those things. Okay, so we're going to set the table. We're going to. We're going to make sure we start this all with the pre qual that starts the table. It's just like this. You go to that five star restaurant, they ask you for a credit card over the phone to hold your reservation. Why are they doing that? Guys? They're separating the serious from the curious. You have to separate the serious from the curious in this market. If you don't do that, you're going to be wasting your Time with people that are just curious. Curious people don't pay certain bills. Write that down. Curious people do not pay certain bills. We are not unpaid taxicab drivers. Free interior decorators. Like, that's not what we do. I'm sorry. And I don't have a problem telling people that. And you shouldn't either. Like, we are here to work with you at the highest level, bring the highest results and get you what you want when you're ready. And if that's two years from now, I'm not going to start looking at houses. Like, I'm not putting my team to start looking at houses with you right now. Like, things change. Like, look what just happened. Like, you know, why would you look at houses now for two years? Like, not going to do that. But what we will do is make sure we follow up with you in a year and a half to see where you stand. And if you're getting ready, then we'll get you pre qualified. We'll have the buyer's consultation and guess what, we'll take you out there and we'll get you your dream home in four to 14 days. But we can't do that until you're certain, you know, so make sure you're dealing with people. You get the pre qual, you set the table, you set the expectation. And lean in and ask great questions. Lean in and ask great questions. From the minute that phone rings, ask great questions. Your scripts ask great questions. And you know what the greatest questions that you guys could ask here when you're in a meeting and something things like it's off, something seems like she, man, the husband's all excited to sell. The wife doesn't look too happy. Call her out on it. Hey, Ms. Smith, Mr. Smith. You know, it's like, Ms. Smith, I can't help but notice and I'm very attuned right now that I'm seeing, like it seems like something's off, like you're either not excited about this sale to say it or, or there's something that maybe that we've been talking about in the last 30 minutes that you have questions on. Do you need me to answer any questions or anything that you want to share and then. Guys, shut up. Remember this? God gave us two ears and one mouth. And as my old boss Marty Sat said, when I was in telecommunications at 20, Robert used them in proportion. We got to use our proportion. So, so make sure we're asking questions because we can have the best presentation, have the best scripts in the world and be a complete Robot. Be a complete robot. Okay, you don't want to be a robot. The reason we have scripts is not a robotic experience for a client. And so we can be present in the moment, we can ask questions, we can be calm, we can be confident, we can hold the conversation well, we can direct it where it needs to go, and we can isolate any objections that usually, like my dad used to tell me, Robert, think of an objection like this. It's just an unanswered question in the mind of the consumer. That's all it is. Don't worry about objections. My dad owns a large finance company. In the heyday, they did a billion dollars a year in the auto industry. And he trained salespeople. That's what he does. He hires, trains, and maintains sales to people for car dealerships. They all work for my dad. They get contracted the car dealership. And at the end of the day, he would say an objection is just an unanswered question. And in the mind of a consumer and Robert, yet to understand this too, you need to educate your consumer. That's it. No one likes commission breath. If this is not a right fit for them, if buying a Subaru is not going to meet their family's needs because they need an F150 or they need a Ferrari, do not sell them that, you know. So make sure that we are attentive, setting the table, asking great questions, and we're listening. You're going to hear a lot when you're in that presentation. You should be listening just as much as you're talking. Actually, you should probably be listening twice as much as you're talking. Nyla, one mouth, come here. So set the expectation. It's a new market. Okay? So guys, we, we, we. We've met with a seller. We have the pre. Qual. You're meeting with them. Set the expectation. It's a new market. This is not six months ago. We can't win the game, guys in front of us if we keep looking backwards. Write that down. You can't win the game. Your clients can't win the game if you keep looking backwards. My dad also used to tell me something as a kid all the time, right? I love it. He said, robert, you know what? There's rear view. There's those rear view mirrors on the side of the car, and they're real small. You know why? Because you should, you shouldn't spend so much time looking back. He said, robert, you know what happens to people that look backwards too much? I go, what, dad? He goes, they get passed up by people. Looking forward. Compelling future will bring you forward. Looking back will keep you stuck. What did Jesus say? Every day is new again. Renew your mind. Every day is new again. Right? Don't live in the past. Move forward to the finish line. Like Paul says, move forward strong. Now, this is another thing. Understand this. Your windshield and your rearview mirror are in the direct proportion of how you should be thinking in life. Way more thought towards the future, way less thought on the past. Your past should be a reference point to either a what went good. And I love what Brian Buffini says. If I did it before, I can do it again. I love when he says that. It's true. So do look backwards at your wins. And hey, guess what I have written on my huge dry erasure board in front of me. Failure is the gift wrap of success. And I wrote that for one of my. My kids. So, yes, failure, you can learn from it. It's a gift wrap for success, but don't dwell in it. My father also told me this too. Guys, if you find yourself in a pile of crap, if you stay there for too long and complain, you become it. You smell it, permeates in your clothes. But if you, if you say, hey, how did I get here? You step out of it, you kick your shoes off, and before you know it, you walk through enough grass, you walk through enough life. It's a distant memory. You learn from. You learn from. Who wants to learn from their past mistakes to have a strong future? Raise your hand. All right, so welcome, failure. Guys, this is the deal. If you're playing so safe that you're not failing, it's like you're on a Shetland pony, dragging your feet on the ground and you're trying to win the Kentucky Derby. Those, those riders on those horses are falling off all the time in the beginning and they're getting hurt sometimes really bad. But they learn, they learn how to be with their horse. They learn the cadence. They learn. You need to learn. The cadence of the market is get out there, get at it. Do not live on a Shetland pony with your feet dragging on the ground because you want to be safe. There's no comfortability in being safe. On the other side of uncomfortability is all your successes. I'm just telling you that right now. So you're going to set the expectations of the client. It's going to be uncomfortable some of the time. We are not where we were six months ago. It's about the time in the market. I wanted to tell you guys, when you meet with Your sellers, you tell them this. I know you're selling, you're concerned. Why do you want to sell? Why? We need a bigger home. Okay. Why do you need a bigger home? Well, we're planning to have another child. Okay, cool. Well, what is your concerns? You know, because you see their concern. Well, I just don't know what the right time of the market interest rates are.8% almost. And we're thinking we're going to wait and I don't know. And well, listen, are you having this baby? It looks like she's pretty pregnant right now. Yeah. Do you want to have this baby come and live with one of your other kids or sleep with you guys all the time? No. Well, this is the deal. Are you planning on living in this house for just the first year of this baby's life and then you're going to move to something smaller? Move? No. Like, how long do you plan on living there for? Oh, we're going to live there for seven to 10 years. Okay, well, listen, this is the deal. In San Diego, every 10 years the real estate about doubles. And that's why it's all about time in the market and not timing the market. Don't be a speculative person. You listen, comes down to how much is your monthly payment and how much can you put as a down payment. And in this market, I would highly encourage you to marry the house and date the rate. Because we do know rates will come down. We don't know how far down they will, but they'll come down. And if you're okay with today's mortgage payment, you can make it. Well, guess what? If it comes down 1%, you'll be really okay with that payment, right? So let's do the right next thing and let's get started so we can help little Susie have a home to come to you, to have space to enjoy your family in and live for the next decade. And at the end of this, guess what? We're going to sell your house right now. And you're probably going to do better in the house we're going to buy anyways. It's all relative, right? So you got to be able to speak to your sellers this way. You got to be able to speak to your clients this way. But you can't just get in there and just start speaking at them unless you know their compelling future, their goals, their dreams. Because sometimes there's a thing called a condition. And a condition is a matter of fact something we can do nothing about. And then there's an objection, and that's just an unanswered question in the mind of a client which we can do something about. So you need to determine which one it is and respect them. Answer it or respect them and move on. Okay, so be committed. So set the expectation about the market. And then the second thing here is be committed not to taking overpriced listings. I want everybody to say this. I will never take an overpriced listing. Everybody say this. It should be every day. I will never take an overpriced listing. And I would tell my clients this. This is what I do. Tell my clients in a presentation. I go, listen, we're in a price war in a beauty contest. We have to make sure price is the number one marketing tool we have. It's where everybody sees us on Redfin, Zillow, my website, all the websites. It's what brings people to the property. And then the beauty contest part of it is how nice is your property. So I'd highly recommend we do as much as we can to bring this property to the best level possible without putting gold sinks or gold toilets in. I'm not talking about spending foolish money. I'm talking about spending smart money. Like, when I say smart money, Mr. Seller and Mrs. Seller, I mean, like, if I tell you to spend a dollar, you're going to get back A$50. Not only are you going to get back A$50, but you're also going to get back time, meaning we're going to get done quicker. So you need to be honest with them. Let them know we're in a price. We're in a beauty contest and price it. To sell. It needs to be under the last sale. You need to be under the last sale. Don't worry about this. Listen, we saw this back in 2008 and 9 and 10 with. With all the reos, they literally would price properties 100 grand underneath market, and they would sell and they have a bidding war in the worst market in U.S. history. And they would sell these homes for 100 grand, 200 grand more in the worst market in U.S. history here in San Diego. Okay? Do you guys remember that? Is anybody in business back then? So price them under the last sale. Create a competitive environment. We just did this for Doug and Rochella in this crappy market. We sold their house for $54,000 over asking price, which was higher than what they wanted, but the listing price was lower than what they wanted. And they were a little concerned. They're like, but we trust you, Robert. Why do they trust me? Because I was Confident. I was confident. And they knew I knew what I was talking about. I earned their trust. And my team member, the dream works and the teamwork. My team kept the promise. They did what we said we're going to do. They followed through. Kudos to my team. Kudos to me. Kudos for us getting with a qualified client that was highly motivated and we didn't waste our time on a speculative seller. Okay. Another thing is if you deal with people that will listen to you and you price things right, you're going to get great price listings. Like, I just listed a property for 799 and the last agent that walked in the door told them that they would list it for 1.1 million. And I, I took the listing at 799. Why is that? Because he said, dude, you're way more competent than she is. You had way more vision. You had a plan. You're organized. I can tell you know what you're doing. You came highly recommended. I looked at your reviews, all right, I'm going to trust you. And I just was honest with them. I'm like, dude, this is where you're going to sell. I don't care what she said. There's going to be so many people are going to walk through your door, Mr. Seller, going to lie to you. You know why? Why would they lie to me? Because they're desperate. They're desperate, and I don't blame them. They sell about three homes a year and you represent one third of their income. So you think they have a prosperous mindset or a desperate mindset? Desperate. Do you think they're just going to throw a bunch of crap on the wall and hope something sticks because they got to pay their mortgage? Or do you want to deal with someone like me, that degenerates and I don't tolerate. Like, I'm not going to take you on just to make you happy, make you feel good. Like, this is the price we enlist your home for. I'm going to get you what you want, and we're going to get you where you need to go. What do you think? Who do you want to work with? And he smiled at me. He goes, I want to work with you. So you need to have that confidence. You need to price these properties well. Okay? Price reduction at the listing appointment. Okay, this is the deal. There's three places we're going to end up. Mr. Seller and Mrs. Seller. This is very simple. You don't need to get too crazy, guys. You just tell them this, and I have a picture of this, I show a listing, presentation, we're going to be accepted. And I show a man and a woman shaking hands and I say that means we get a lot of showings and we get offers. The second place we're going to end up is we're going to be rejected. And I show a picture of a guy and a girl and there's like rejection, right? And I'm like, you know what that means? Hey, someone comes over to your house and they get there and it's kind of like going on a dating site or where someone used their high school picture and when you show up, you're going out with their grandma, right? It's like, well, hold on a second. Who's that coffee stained teeth over there, right? What happened to those pearly whites? And they walk away. That could happen. That really can happen. Someone could come here and decide they don't like your house, right? For some reason, right? And then the third place we can end up is completely ignored. And I have a husband and a wife sitting on a couch, turning away from themselves. And, and I always look at the husband and I say, if there's a husband and wife, I go, hey John, this picture, you and I can relate to this, right? We never want to end up on that end of the couch. Like we don't want to get mama upset, right? That's a horrible place to be. And they usually laugh. I go, but you get what I'm saying? Like we know what it feels to be ignored completely. If your home ends up in the last two places rejected or ignored, we're going to know that in seven days, 14 max. Therefore, this is the price I recommend right now. And I'm going to price watch. I'm a proactively prospect. Me and my team are going to make sure no stones are underturned, overturned or not turned or turned. We're going to make sure you're on the world wide web everywhere, whether it's Toledo, Ohio or Tokyo, Japan. Anybody that has their hand up for this kind of property to know about it. But I'm going to tell you this right now. I'm going to show you the web traffic. If we get thousands of people look at your home and no one accepts it, we're going to need to adjust. This is the key words, guys. Adjust your price down to ensure you net the most money. Do not say price reduction when you say price reductions. Taking something away from them, you're reducing something. For me, we are going to adjust your price down to ensure that you net the Most money. And we're going to stay ahead of this market. Therefore, I have three price reduction forms here with me. I have one for seven days after we list the property. I have one for four, 14 days, and I want for 21 days. Please sign them and we'll, we'll enforce them when the time comes. Just get it done. Remember, they will hire you. They will, they will deal with you, and they will do what you ask. If they sign up and agree, and if they don't, that's fine. But now you have these in place. How many of you guys would feel good if you had three price reductions, analysting, signed, leaving that listing, presentation, raise your hand, you should feel damn good, right? Because you knew you did the right thing for your client. As soon as you guys can realize this isn't about you and it's about them. Like it's not about me, it's about them. You're going to do things differently and you're going to say things differently. Don't be in scarcity. Be in contribution. That's what this whole production mindset, it's about. This mastermind here is about being in contribution. Lars, Stacy, other top, John, Mikey, like, they're all about contributing. Contribute to your client's success. Okay? And I'm going to land the plane with this. We have to be strong for our sellers. We have to be strong for our sellers. You got to be strong for your sellers. This is the definition of a great salesman and saleswoman. Have you guys ever heard the definition, the true definition? It has nothing to do with snakes, skin oil, or any of that garbage, right? The true definition is this. We say this, we're saying with me, I'm a great salesperson. I help people get from where they are to where they want to go. And many times it's helping them get through the obstacles which are disguised as limiting beliefs. That's all it is. If it's not a limiting belief and it's a condition, guess what? You can't force someone to go there. So the definition of a great salesman in each one of you guys, a great salesman is you're going to help someone get from where they are to where they want to go by helping navigate the market and navigate their limiting beliefs. And guess what? They are going to thank you for it. At the end of the day, they are going to thank you for it. Every seller that I meet with that fights like hell about price and they end up listening to me and we sell their house, at the end of the day, they're like, dang, I'm glad we sold for that price because I just saw my neighbor got 100 grand less or 50 grand less. And guys, I thank you guys for being here. I thank you guys for being attentive. I thank you guys for writing notes and I thank you for believing in yourself enough that you're going to leave here, you're going to be flexible, you're going to change your mindset, you're going to raise your standards and you're going to help more people. And you're not only going to help more people, but you're going to help your family thrive in this market and not just survive. Thanks for having me, guys.
Awesome. Let's, let's give a round of applause first of all. But we've got five minutes, Robert, so I'm going to let some questions in here real quick. That was awesome. I appreciate your heart and your just giving it and delivering. All right, what questions? We probably have time for a couple questions. Any questions that would serve us all. I took like many pages of notes.
Yes, I do. So will you go through that list of your team again and their roles? Yeah, absolutely. So I have Richard G. Richard Garty is the director of operations. So he's operations director. He's inspecting what we expect, making sure everything goes well. We have our assistant, our lead admin, Laura Budswick. She's awesome. She makes sure that the listings get processes, car communicates with clients, goes through all the checklists, make sure that we're where we need to be on the navigation of the transaction. We have my wife, Aurora Colello. She goes out with me, does business development. If any of you guys have met my, my amazing wife, she's extremely charismatic and she's that kind of person, when she asks you a question, she actually wants to know it. Like I ask questions, going into it, thinking I want to know, and then I'll be honest with you, Sometimes I ask him and I'm just like, why did they just like, why are they talking for more than three minutes? And then. And it's. I'm just being honest, right? My wife wants to know everything, right? So she's a great connector. Like, she reads a room like nobody's business and feels it, just Joy. Andrea and Kelly are our showing specialists. Kelly's been with us for a few months. Joy and Andrea have been going on. This is going to be their fifth year, they're in their fourth year. Amazing. Like, they do an amazing job. Like, matter of fact, most of my clients say when they see them like, the angel showed up. Like, oh, I saw Andre, and she's smiling. Her angel or Joy showed up and she's so funny and like, like, these people are such great compliments to me. Right. Like I said, I can't do anything I do without them. And then we have a transaction coordinator, Jen, who's by contract, and Kelsey is my marketing director, who's also by contract. I pay your retainer every month.
Jeff has a good question he asked in the beginning. Also talk about the process of getting all of your business or most of your business by referrals. I know it's a long journey with years in the business, but anything you're doing specifically to generate, you know what.
Yes. And, Lars, if you'd like me to come on another call, I could do a whole call just on that and, and probably get it down to 20 or 30 minutes. But this is the deal. You guys have to have a qualified database. Most of us. I'll do this quick exercise with you. When you think of picking up your phone or going to your computer, close your eyes, open your eyes, go to your database and just grab the first person and call them. How many of you does that feel uncomfortable to raise your hand? How many of you feel good about that? Like, they're waiting to hear from me. Raise your hand. The people that rose their hand and said it felt uncomfortable, you have an unqualified database. The people that rose their hand and said it felt comfortable, you have a qualified database. So one of the things that you want to say to them is real simple. When you meet somebody that you feel like would be a good add to the database, you ask them a very simple question. Hi, John, let me ask you a question. When it comes to buying or selling real estate, or if you had a friend that wanted to buy or sell real estate, give an agent that you work with or refer to to, and then shut up. And they'll either say yes or no. And if they say no, they're like, great, I would love to be that agent. Is that okay? Shut up. Yeah, that'd be fine. Wonderful. Now, John, I have. This is your phone number. Is this the best number for you? Yes. Is this the best email? Because I just send out a. I give you a free invite to our website and you can search for properties. And you don't have to be in the Zillow web, where as soon as you look at a property, people are like, 15 agents are coming at you. It's in the privacy of your home. On my website, I also like to Send out a value, a piece of value. Every month I have a mailer that goes out. You'll really enjoy it. Everybody enjoys it. What's your best address to send it to? Great. And I believe everybody should get a birthday card and anniversary card on their birthday. You don't need to tell me how old you are, but what's your birthday? What's your anniversary? Get that information and then ask them the last question. Do I have permission to contact you? And now you're going to have to decide. Is Stacy and A plus, is Lars a B? Like, are you going to call them more or less? So if Lars is an A, you're going to. Hey, do you mind if I call you once a month to see if you know of anybody or if you need anything? Hey, Stacy, do you mind if I call you every 60 days? And they're going to say, sure, now they're expecting you to call them. So when you call them, it's not weird. That's what I've done.
Awesome.
We.
We are actually. Oh, yeah. Real quick. The highest ROI repairs without putting all gold faucets in. What are the three or four things that every seller should do right now?
Oh, absolutely. Paint the property so it's neutral. Get rid of all the carpet if you can possibly do that with luxury vinyl. And repaint the cabinets. If you can replace the cabinets, do that in countertops. Like do that in the bathrooms, the kitchen. Definitely in the. In the kitchen. And do this. There's a company here called H Cabinets. What we have found. It's cheaper for us to put new cabinets and countertops in than putting countertops and painting or refinishing the cabinets. So make sure you're working with some trusted vendors and you want to do that. So when they walk into this house, it feels clean and it feels relative, especially if it's an old.
Barb, I was going to pick on you. You took your hand down and went off camera. But if yours is quick, you can end this. You can close this out. You still there, Barb? She may have left. She may have been pissed off that I didn't answer her question. Barb. Going once, going twice. Awesome. Robert, we'll definitely have you back on in. Let's shoot for maybe a January Tuesday to have you back on and go into the building, out the database and some of the scripts around that. I always respect and admire folks, that they just have a process, right? So when you meet a stranger or someone, your data is like, you have process to get them sort of into your world. And acclimated and hit them with direct questions, right?
And wait for them to answer.
It's awesome. All right, cool, guys, much love, much respect. We'll be praying for you. When's your surgery again, Robert?
November 21st.
November 21st. Dear heavenly father, lift Robert up and all he does, Be with those surgeons, and we expect healing. As Robert said, it's in your son Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
All right, guys, be good. Much love, much respect. We'll see you next week for our monthly market update. What the shift is going on. We'll talk to you guys later.
