Real Estate at a Crossroads

by Gregory Charlop

  Then there’s the technology. Everyone claims to be a technology company, but we actually are a software company that is in real estate. Here’s an example. I'm an agent who was not native to technology because of when I was born, but I've adapted because I've seen that it’s critical to survival. My very first weekend at eXp, I took some on-demand training. We have thousands of hours of on-demand training around different technologies for obtaining leads. So, that first weekend I learned how to make a squeeze page. I couldn't learn that at any of my other companies unless I paid for the training and went to a class that was two hours away.

  Another reason for joining eXp is that we're trying to set our agents up for retirement. When I met Glenn Sanford in July of 2017, I asked him, "What were your thoughts when you started this company? What drove you to create this model?" He said he wanted real estate agents to have a way to be able to retire when they were done working their 30, 40, 50 years in the business. Hence, the agent equity program was born.

  The program rewards agents for their first closing, capping, introducing a colleague to eXp on the colleague’s first closing. We give agents the ability to purchase stock, like all the Silicon Valley companies. Agents can invest 5 percent of their commission to buy stock at a 20 percent discount.

  Finally, eXp offers a revenue share or wealth-building opportunity. There's no mandate; it's just the cherry on the sundae if you'd like to take advantage of it.

  Gregory Charlop: How do you see technology transforming real estate?

  Suzy Truax: Its effects will be twofold. Number one, it's going to take some real estate agents out of the business. There will be Redfins, Real, Reali, Faira, Offerpad. They're going to take over the real estate sales that don't really require a human touch. I do think technology is going to shrink our industry, absolutely. Those platforms are going to take a big bite. And there will be commission contraction.

  On the other hand, agents who adapt to technology will attract more business and increase profits through leveraging technology as they’ll work more efficiently and optimize lead generation.

  Technology has created an opportunity for me to build an agent group across the country. The REO business is almost entirely tech-optimized now. Look at Hubzu and Auction.com. Where no relationship is required, the real estate agent is a redundancy.

  However, I don't think any of these discount models that are tech-optimized are going to be able to compete in high touch situations.

  Gregory Charlop: If I understand you correctly, you think that the discount or flat rate brokerages will probably capture a lot of the routine transactions and REOs. Successful agents will do very well with the rest of the deals by using technology. You suspect we’ll probably have a lot fewer agents in the future than we have now.

  Suzy Truax: Yes.

  Gregory Charlop: Do you think technology will replace agents or augment them? It sounds like you think it'll do both. It'll help some agents who are good with it and probably replace or reduce the need for others.

  Suzy Truax: Yes. I think that agents who adopt and utilize technology in their business will end up crushing the part-time agents. There is going to be a lot of consolidation into teams. That’s because some people won't get out of the business, but they’ll gravitate to someone who knows how to use technology to generate leads and run their business. Then, other people are just going to be left in the dust.

  Gregory Charlop: What are your favorite technological tools other than eXp's platform itself?

  Suzy Truax: For team management, I love Trello. This tool offers workflow/project management and doesn't require a phone call, or a text, or hunting for an email. Here's what needs to be done; here's who is supposed to be doing it, move it along in its path.

  We are using kvCORE for CRM and also as an SEO website. It’s an all-in-one business and lead management tool provided by eXp. Literally the Bugatti of CRMs.

  One of the other things that I love for collaboration is Workplace by Facebook. It’s specifically for business. If I'm not in the cloud campus, I’m able to interact with the 18,000+ agents that we have across the US and three provinces of Canada. Instead of calling into the office, I can call directly via Workplace chat. I can call another agent. I can call Transaction Services. It's so efficient, it's crazy.

  People ask me when they first join, "Who do I call? What number do I call to get assistance with X?" Whatever it is—accounting, marketing. A phone number is unnecessary. Just go into the Workplace app and hit the phone icon. I try not to email anymore, because it's just so much faster to use the instant message feature.

  Gregory Charlop: Amen to that. One last question. If a traditional real estate company called you into their boardroom to ask for advice on how to improve their business model, what would you say?

  Suzy Truax: There's a culture that exists in traditional real estate brokerages that needs to change. It’s the concept of standing/chatting around the water cooler at the office. Some think that’s being productive. That’s not productive time when you’re an entrepreneur. I’d advise them to get the agents out in the field meeting potential customers rather than spending their time chatting with fellow real estate agents.

  The number one objection from agents exploring the eXp model is that they want to go to the office, be around other real estate agents. In my experience, really productive agents work with their office door shut because they're lead generating and conducting business. The unproductive agents are typically standing around the water cooler, avoiding doing the one thing that's going to make them more money. Eliminate the water cooler culture from your office. Have that socialization need met in some other way. Because when people are standing around the water cooler avoiding making calls, avoiding door knocking, avoiding networking, it’s costing the brokerage owner money.

  Chapter 3: Elite Agents

  Make more money, improve efficiency, and stay at the top of your game

  Congratulations! You are a top agent. You close the biggest deals. You crush the competition. You own this town. Clients want to hire you, and your competitors want to be you.

  The trouble is, all the other agents want to topple you.

  You already know what you’re doing. You are one of the elite few with unparalleled social skills, business savvy, and a great organization. You work hard and out-hustle the competition. You’re a winner. What you’ve been doing has worked—so far.

  Every day, young and technologically adept upstarts are trying to knock you off your throne. I’m going to teach you how to defeat them. I will show you how to make even more money and close more deals. Believe it or not, it can be done.

  To keep crushing the competition, you need to maximize your most precious resource: time, negotiate the most advantageous deal with your brokerage firm, and keep up with the latest technological advances.

  This chapter is intended for top real estate agents and anyone who wants to hire them. If you’re an executive with a real estate company, I suggest you read this chapter carefully. Signing premier salespeople to your team will be a key to your survival. You may also find some great tips you can use in your business.

  If you’re an associate but not yet part of the elite, read this chapter to get an early jump on how to succeed.

  Time—your most valuable resource

  You enjoy the biggest sales in the neighborhood and everyone sees your wins when they check Zillow or Realtor.com. Your massive sales volume propels you to success on real estate agent search site Homelight. Your customer satisfaction rating is off the charts, and buyers will take note of your acclaim on Yelp.

  Every new house you sell will generate more positive buzz for you online. Your improved web presence will draw even more clients your way. You’ll benefit from a self-perpetuating virtuous cycle of success with each new transaction.

  You hardly need to advertise at all. Your acclaim grows organically.

  So, what’s holding you back from even greater success? I’ll give you a hint. It’s
not lack of advertising or brokerage support.

  It’s a lack of time.

  There is only one of you. You can’t squeeze more than 24 hours out of a day. You have so many requests from prospects that you can’t accept them all. You turn those prospects down or pass them off to your associates—and take a financial loss. You’re losing business that you deserve, and it’s frustrating.

  No, don’t even think about working more! Devote your free time to things that bring value to your life: family, exercise, eating right, sleeping well, and giving back to your community. Looking back, nobody ever wishes they spent more time working at the expense of their family and friends.

  So, the question becomes, how can you become more productive while spending the same (or less) time at work?

  One strategy is to use virtual assistants (VAs) any way you can. Check out the Virtual Assistant and Chatbots chapter. It includes interviews with leading real estate VAs manufacturers who offer some great suggestions about how to put them to work. Remember, your goal should be to meet with prospects, create a strategy, and negotiate and close deals. Everything else is a waste of your precious time.

  “The highest and best use for a virtual assistant is doing all of the administrative stuff that, 1) you don't like doing, 2) you're probably not that good at, 3) it doesn't pay the most,” said Daniel Ramsey, CEO of MyOutDesk, as part of a longer interview. “So, you're not good, you don't have time to do it, it doesn't pay the most, and that means you should outsource it. Hands down, that is the barometer.”

  Delegate! It's the next best thing to cloning yourself. And you can start doing it today.

  Clear your mind and focus

  You’re offloading routine tasks to software programs and virtual assistants, but you still want to make the best use of your own time. What can be done to improve your focus and increase your productivity?

  A lot!

  Everybody says to work smarter, not harder. Well, you can work better by taking care of your body and mind. How? With meditation, improved sleep, morning rituals, and strategic caffeine.

  Meditation

  Why are we talking about meditation in a book about real estate? Because meditation improves focus,[24] and the more you focus during your work hours, the more you will accomplish. Meditation even improves memory and test performance.[25] If you take an interest in meditation or mindfulness, there are a lot of great books on the subject.

  Tim Ferriss, the brilliant author of The Four Hour Work Week (a must read) recently wrote Tools of Titans. Titans is a collection of interviews Ferriss conducted over the years with the most successful folks in society, including elite athletes, business and political leaders, top writers, and famous scientists.

  And what common habit did Ferriss observe with most of his interviewees? They meditate. In fact, many of the leaders credit meditation as one of their most important habits. If it works for them, it could work for you.

  Don’t know how to meditate? No problem! There are apps for that. (This is a technology book, after all!)

  Ferriss recommends the meditation apps Calm and Headspace. They're both easy to use and available at the App Store. They’re like having a private meditation coach. They both have free features to start out and an option to pay for increased functionality. Download one or both of them today and let me know how they work for you.

  You can also learn about guided meditation (meditation in response to a teacher) from books, classes at local community centers, and gyms. It's easy to try.

  In addition to meditation, I recommend the daily practice of gratitude. Gratitude is intentionally feeling thankful for what you have and what’s going well in your life. It can be big or small. You can verbalize it, think it, or WRITE IT DOWN in a daily journal. For example, you can write “I’m thankful I saw my daughter for lunch today, I got a nice compliment from my coworker, and I finally finished that home remodel.” You just take a moment to appreciate what went right during the day.

  The daily practice of gratitude improves physical and psychological health, increases empathy, and improves sleep.[26] It’s so easy to do, give it a try!

  Meditation, mindfulness, and gratitude combined with a healthy diet, exercise, and proper sleep will clear your mind and supercharge your day.

  Get some sleep

  More restful nights produce more energetic days. And, more energy equals more sales!

  To start, you probably aren’t sleeping enough. Adults need 7-9 hours of sleep per night, according to the National Sleep Foundation.[27] Are you even approaching that much?

  How you sleep is almost as important as how long you sleep. Sleep hygiene is the medical term for proper sleep habits. Here are the basic rules of sleep:[28] [29] [30]

  • Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol (!) close to bedtime. I know, alcohol might help you fall asleep faster, but it disrupts your sleep later at night resulting in low-quality slumber.

  • Exercise regularly, but don’t engage in strenuous exercise right before bedtime.

  • Try to catch some rays during the day, but make sure your bedroom is dark at night. Consider blackout curtains.

  • Establish a regular bedtime routine. Do the same things every night; go to bed and wake up at the same time each day.

  • Make sure your bedroom environment is comfortable. Buy a good mattress, keep the room cool, and consider eye shades, ear plugs, or white noise machines if those help you.

  • Avoid computer/phone screens before bed! The blue light from those devices can wake you up and make it tougher for you to drift off. If you must use your phone before bed, try features like Apple’s Night Shift which reduces the blue light emitted by the screen. If you like the sci-fi look, there are special glasses[31] you can wear to filter out blue light at night.

  • Don’t watch TV, work, or read in bed. Your bed should be for sleeping.

  • If you take naps, take them earlier in the day. Don’t nap close to bedtime.

  • Take a warm shower and meditate before bed. Don’t check email or agitate yourself right before you turn in!

  Morning rituals

  Establish a morning routine and stick with it. Try these suggestions:

  • Don’t read email or anything annoying when you first wake up. Why start the day agitated?

  • Consider buying an alarm clock. They’re making a comeback! That way, you won’t need to look at your phone as you fall asleep and when you first wake up.

  • Try to get some sun as soon as you can.

  • Wake up at the same time each day. Yes, even on weekends.

  • Do a quick 2-minute exercise routine right when you first wake up. I stole this idea from Tim Ferriss. I’ve started doing one set of pushups as soon as I get up and I love it. Find a brief exercise you enjoy and do it every morning. It will pump up your day and build some muscle!

  • Enjoy a healthy breakfast, although you don’t need to eat it as soon as you wake up. I am usually out of bed around 5 am, but I don’t eat breakfast until 9 or 10.

  Strategic caffeine

  Despite its bad rep, it is okay to drink coffee. In fact, it might be more than okay, it appears to be healthy! Currently, the weight of medical evidence indicates that black coffee is good for most adults.[32] Your cup of Joe might reduce your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.[33] Recent research suggests that coffee might even reduce the risk of death.[34] So, go ahead and drink up!

  But, do it the right way. It turns out that downing that latte the size of an oil drum first thing in the morning isn’t the best way to do it. You need to be strategic. Here’s how.

  Instead of blowing your mind with a massive jolt of caffeine in the morning, you should gradually drink sips of coffee (or tea) here and there throughout the day.[35] [36] In other words, you need to dole out your caffeine and drink some when you’re starting to feel sluggish. Have just enough to reclaim your pep, and then drink some more the next time you’re feeling foggy.

  The trouble is that if you d
rink a massive amount of coffee all at once, you’ll be coming down from your caffeine high just as your body is starting to get tired as the afternoon wears on. If you drink smaller doses here and there, you can use the caffeine to counteract the natural lows you feel throughout the day. If you want, get one of those fancy coffee mugs that keep your drink warm (or cold) throughout the morning.

  And for those of you who exercise, (and I hope that's all of you!), you can enjoy some coffee or tea before you go to the gym or set off on a run.[37] Caffeine will supercharge your workouts and shave time off your races. If you’re anything like me, you only have a few hours per week to hit the gym. I don’t want to waste that precious time moving like a sloth from one exercise to the next. I want to get results! So enjoy a little coffee or espresso before hitting the weights, and your biceps will thank you.

  One caveat. The coffee is the healthy stuff, not all the garbage you add to it. If you’re mixing in a bunch of sugar, artificial flavors, or processed creamers, you aren’t doing yourself any favors. Try to stick with black or iced coffee or espresso as much as possible. Use a little Stevia, organic soy milk, or cream if you have to - but don’t go overboard!

  The value of efficiency—sell one more house a month.

  Why are we spending all this time discussing virtual assistants, meditation, sleep, and strategic caffeine? So you can be more productive: close more deals without spending any more time. If you can squeeze a little more juice out of your work hours, you could enjoy extra vacation time and make more money. Not a bad goal.

  Small changes can make a significant difference. According to a recent survey, over 60 percent of agents spend at least an hour a day on marketing and advertising.[38] Moreover, most people spend between 1.5-3 hours of the workday not doing work.[39] If you fit right in the middle, you squander 2.25 hours or 135 minutes each day.

  Now, imagine if your new real estate VA took care of your marketing and advertising. That saves you at least an hour a day. And let’s assume that your improved sleep, strategic caffeine, and meditation enhance your focus and decrease the amount of time you waste by 25 percent a modest assumption. Your enhanced concentration will yield you at least an extra half-hour of productivity daily. Therefore, a VA who handles your marketing combined with the other techniques mentioned here will save you at least 1 1/2 hours a day or 7.5 hours per week.