The most important battle you MUST win is You versus the Monster.
The Monster is the insidious voice inside our heads that is ALWAYS and relentlessly trying to keep us from personal greatness.
Inside this program we focus on the three most important aspects of Self-Mastery (for the real estate agent).
- Mind
- Body
- Business
We cannot reach financial freedom without an Anti-fragile mindset (book notes coming soon for both: Antifragile by Nassim Taleb and Mindset by Carol Dweck).
We cannot enjoy financial freedom without a healthy body.
And we cannot build a lovable lifestyle business without doing the WORK.
Check out the book notes for Steven Pressfield’s masterpiece: Do the Work. Listen to the audio recording that will get you all fired up, and implement the lead generation strategy shared with you today.
Have a great day my friend,
Bart “Your best friend in real estate” Vickrey
Remember, you MUST always read my book notes (even if you don’t actually read the book).
The Monster Open House
Three years ago I had a brand new agent on my team. In her first year in the business she sold 19 homes. Pretty darn good don’t you think.
Twelve of the nineteen sales were from open house leads.
In year two, she stopped doing open houses. Her production fell. She couldn’t figure out why. I told her why.
“In year one, you didn’t call your sphere of influence. But you did hold open houses.
In year two, you didn’t call your sphere AND you didn’t hold open houses.”
In year three she left my team to join another company. Grass… greener…
Oh well. A few get it. Most do not.
The front end of my real estate agent career was built by the open house. Of course I didn’t call my sphere. But I did hold open houses. Holding open houses also led me to the conclusion that a great client to have would be a repeat client. A client that does business with you over and over and over again. This thought led me to attracting builders as clients. Which we will touch on specifically in an upcoming Lead Generation Tip inside this program.
As for the open house, for a new agent, a struggling agent, an agent looking for consistency in their business, an agent on a tight budget who cannot yet invest in marketing… then, the one two punch is communicating with your database and sphere of influence and holding open houses.
To me, holding open houses is such a no-brainer that the fact that I sometimes have to ask agents from other companies to hold my new homes open, causes me concussion like symptoms from all the head shaking.
This is a similar conclusion to the fact that you’ll never see broccoli commercials during the Super Bowl.
Anyhoo, the open house. You should be doing them. Consistently. With intention. If you have a team, your agents should be doing them, consistently, with intention.
The intention part is key.
If you are to do an open house, why not create a likely scenario for lead generation.
Which means, do not be an undercover agent in launching your weekly open house ho-down.
The biggest complaint I get from agents and the number one reason they give up on open houses before ever putting in any real time is… “Well, nobody showed up.”
Okay. What’d ya do to get people to the open house. “Umm, well.”
Exactly.
I’m not going to bore you and your ear holes with a laundry list of activities to perform leading up to each open house. You can simply do that by cranking up the ole Googler and typing in Agent Open House tips.
What I will say, is BE Intentional. Use your brain a bit in this process.
Stick more than one crooked directional sign out to draw people in. In fact, put up as many as you possibly can. Make sure the house you are holding open is clearly indicated for the would be visitors that follow your directional signs.
Dress like more than a crumb bum.
Hahaha!
Crumb bum, that reminds me of a funny story. Real quick, I’ll tell it to you. So in April of 2016 my dad died. My brother and I were cleaning out his trailer shortly after and the neighbor lady waddled over.
“How much ya want fer her?”
“For what, the trailer?”
“Yeah, how much?”
“Not sure yet, why do you wanna buy it?”
“No. But we don’t want any crumb bums moving in out here!”
Umm, no crumb bums huh? You just had us jump start your car because the battery was dead. Your sleeves are cut off on your stained t-shirt, and the ash on your cigarette could not be any longer!
My brother and I have used the phrase crumb bum ever since.
So, yeah, dress better than you would picture a crumb bum dressing.
If you really want to make a statement, pass out flyers to all the neighbors and invite them over. Have a snack or sandwiches, cold water, whatever. Post the open house on all social channels, Craigslist, the MLS.
Just know this, open houses work. If they ever stop working, I’ll let you know.
As Gary Keller said, “We are in the lead generation business.”
And as your best friend in real estate says, “We are in the list building business.”
The open house checks both boxes. Now get after it.