Jesse says the books give him credibility and leverage over his competition.
"People get so excited when they find out that you're a published author."
Check out his story here, and read his follow-up Q&A with our team!
Smart Agents: How long have you been using your books?
Jesse: I've been using the books for about a good two months now. I've been going to a lot of meet up groups meetings with Realtors and investors and stuff like that, passing my book out. Because I've been a real estate agent for quite some time now, I've built up a reputation with individuals that always come to me to look for the perfect house. The books have given me more credibility of what I do and have helped me with more listings this year with individuals that are selling their houses.
Smart Agents: All right. That's good to hear. Which books do you use? Which specific books do you have?
Jesse: What's been working great for me is the For Sale by Owners books. Let me share something with you. Normally, what I do, I ride around certain areas and I look for those signs, "For Sale by Owner." Have you ever heard of "yellow letters?"
Smart Agents: Yeah.
Jesse: It's a certain script that I use when I send out yellow letters to a FSBO to get their attention to call me. Once they contact me, I set up a one-on-one meeting with them to explain to them the little things about what I do and at the same time, I have the book in my hand. I give her the book. I use that book as credibility. They get home and read it — a lot of them are excited to know that they have someone with that type of experience with them to help them to try to list their house and stuff. So, those books are awesome. It's a good marketing tool to use, and then what helps me out a lot, too, is some of the agents that I know in the area don't have books that they can use like that to market to certain clients. They're really helpful.
Smart Agents: So, the books do make you stand out from the competition?
Jesse: Big time.
Smart Agents: All right. Apart from the FSBO book, do you use any of our other books?
Jesse: Yes, yes. I have four of them. The first one is For Sale by Owner. The other one is The Secret of Wealthy Home Sellers. The other one is My Proven System for Selling Homes Fast for More Dollars. Another one is Seller Secrets You Can Afford. Those are the main four books that I have. The one that's been working for me is the For Sale by Owners.
Smart Agents: What are some of the tactics you use to hand out the books?
Jesse: I go to a lot of meet-up groups for different meetings and stuff. Immediately after the meeting, I just engage in conversations with individuals, and I use the book like a business card. I pass them out to individuals and tell them, "Hey, this is what I do. I'm a published author. If you know anyone that's interested in selling their home, give me a call."
Smart Agents: In your video, you mention that you received eight listings already. Would you tell me about those listings? Were they immediately after you started handing out the books? How exactly did they come about?
Jesse: Let me share this story with you. One individual that I'm helping out is getting ready to close on their house. What he did was start telling individuals about how I have helped him out, word of mouth. Word of mouth is huge in this business. He shared some information with an individual and next thing you know, I get a text from this guy that has four rental properties that he's trying to sell. He asked me if I could help him out.
What I did was, I had a meeting with this individual. I sat down and found out a little more about his properties and stuff like that. Also, I passed him out a book, as well. Lo and behold, before the meeting was over, he asked me, would I list his properties for him. So, four income properties with this individual. The guy that I'm helping out now, that makes five. Then, I had two more people that approached me to ask me to list their properties for them.
Smart Agents: All right. So, you give out a book to an individual. The individual liked it and even talked about you to someone else?
Jesse: Yep, yep. Word of mouth. Word of mouth. Word of mouth.
Smart Agents: All right. This is a client who's already pre-approved the listing for sale, and he's almost closing the sale?
Jesse: He'll be closing this month on a house. I was able to list the house for the seller. Let me share a secret with you right quick. What a lot of agents don't do, what's hurting them in this business. They have to learn how to put systems in place. What I mean by that, you have to build a strong team around you that will make you look good, such as attorneys, brokers, people that work at the title companies and stuff like that. When you surround people like that around you, it won't be as hard to get listings and close these deals because you would already know who to go to to get things done. That's what's been helping me out, is having a strong team around me, as well word-of-mouth referrals with people calling me constantly to list their houses.
Smart Agents: One last question. What feedback have you gotten from clients about the books?
Jesse: Let me say this with you. There was one individual who asks me, "Wow. How did you become a published author? How are you doing all of this?" I can't share anything with them, but he was so excited because I'm telling you, the people that I know that are agents do not have published books that they can use as a tool to market to clients. They don't have this. So, this is really helping me out huge. I predict that before the year ends, wow, I'm going to have so many listings.
I've been getting some good feedbacks from the book. Individual are asking me how did I become a published author. Your books are also, "Wow. We didn't know you were a published author." Then, having a couple of agents that are not working out of the same office that I work out of, want to know, how can they receive books like that or become a published author.