Lynne has been a real estate agent for 10 years. She specializes in selling expireds.
Listing Scorecard
- Length of time using the books: 5-6 months
- Number of books given away: 200
- Listings received with the help of the books: 2
- Biggest benefit of using the books: "It definitely makes you the expert…People are impressed with the fact that you have written a book and that you are an authority on the subject. I just find that it opens doors for me that wouldn’t necessarily be open."
Katie did an interview with Lynne. Here are some of the highlights:
- The investment of the books more than pays for itself. Lynne spent less than $1000 buying and sending the books, and the two listings she got because of them earned her $15,000.
- Lynne got an interview with a seller who was being tough on her, including wanting her to cut her commission. She said no and used the book to help show her experience level and how she could help. She got the listing next day—at full price.
- A seller reached out to Lynne after seeing the book advertised. They met, Lynne handed her the book and went over a few things, and they signed right then and there.
- Lynne says that once someone wants to sell, the book makes it a no-brainer for them to list with her.
- Lynne’s advice to new or struggling agents: Pick a farm and utilize it. Door knock and bring books with you—leave them with anyone who’s a possibility and ask them to share with family and friends, too. Find a specialty you like. Use your own website and email because if you change brokerages or create your own, you won’t be able to take everything with you. Use the CRM.
- When mailing the books, make sure you buy the smallest size mailer that fits.
- The cost of buying and selling the books adds up, but once you get one or two clients, you’ll not only have absorbed the price, but you’ll have multiplied it at least six times.
Here’s how Lynne gets her listings:
#1. She gets expired leads through Mojo Dialer and mails them books.
#2. She consistently advertises the books on social media, including using live media. If people want a copy, she sends it to them.
#3. She drops books off to FSBOs.
#4. She leaves it everywhere she goes, including doctors’ offices.
Listen to the Interview Audios below for more details on exactly how she does it.
Here are the highlights of the Audio Interview:
Here is the full Audio Interview:
Here is a transcript of the interview with Katie and Lynne:
Smart Agents: How long have you been a Realtor, Lynne?
Lynne: I've been a Realtor for 10 years.
Smart Agents: Okay, great. You had written us to tell us how you've used the books and how they've helped you, so I'd love for you to tell our listeners that, if you don't mind.
Lynne: No, absolutely not. I've used them a few different ways. The first way is I subscribed to Mojo Dialer to have my expired leads and sometimes I call them, but mostly, I just mail the book to them directly as instructed in the program. Then, additionally, I advertise the book consistently, whether through Facebook and Instagram, Twitter, and on my Facebook pages that I've written the book and that it's available, whether it's the buyers book or whether it's the expired book or just the business card book. I offer these books and if they'd love a copy, that I'd send it to them.
Lynne: Additionally, I have also dropped some off at a few for sale by owners.
Smart Agents: Okay. Great. How many books have you given away so far?
Lynne: Probably about 200.
Smart Agents: Wow, that's awesome. Do you know how many listings you've gotten from the books?
Lynne: Two listings.
Smart Agents: Okay. Great. What else do you do besides giving people the book, as far as marketing and connecting and all of that?
Lynne: I could be better at the follow up, but I will say I've mailed them. Then, on Facebook, I consistently advertise the books, talk about the book. I've done live video about the book and like I said, I've gotten two listings from it, and the money I made between those two listings was the ROI was tremendous for me.
Smart Agents: Great. How long have you been giving the books out?
Lynne: I think from late spring to late spring.
Smart Agents: Okay. Great. Do you feel, you said that you feel like the ROI was a good deal. Do you think the books have helped you increase your conversion rate?
Lynne: Absolutely. I don't know if you want me to discuss the two listings at this point?
Smart Agents: Sure, go for it.
Lynne: Okay. One of the listings I received would have been expired and the gentleman emailed me and said he was going to be interviewing agents and if I was interested to email him back. I did. We set up a point in time. He already had my book, but when I went for the interview, he was a little bit eccentric, a little older. He has a brother. They had this two-family home that they wanted to sell. He thought he was being tough on me and wanting to know why he should hire me, et cetera, what I would bring to the table. I just turned it around with the book and let him know with my experience level and the things that I could do for him. He was somebody that wanted me to cut my commission, and I said, "Absolutely not." I gave him my commission plans and let him choose the rate he wanted to pay. He said, "Oh I don't know. I don't think my brother is going to go for this," because it went from a full listing price on up. I don't cut commission.
When he said he was going to go home and talk to his brother, and the next day he called me up and told me that I had the listing and at full price.
Smart Agents: Great.
Lynne: Thank you. I'm going to say, it was the book that got me the listing appointment, and cinched the listing.
The second one was through advertising of the book. She didn't have my book, but she saw me because I had my book advertised. She texted me or emailed me and asked me to come for a listing appointment. I went and it was pretty much slam dunk. I handed her the book. I went over a few things about her house and we signed right then and there.
Smart Agents: That's great.
Lynne: Yeah. Once you get somebody who really wants to sell, the book makes it a no-brainer. You get the listing. If you've got that book, you've got the listing. There's no question about it. I see the difference.
Smart Agents: That's great.
Lynne: It's really just a matter of being consistent and mailing them out on a regular basis and then follow up as well.
Smart Agents: Excellent. Do you feel that there's been any surprises with using the book or the books, I should say?
Lynne: I honestly don't think they were surprises because when I was sold on the program from the beginning. I saw the potential for it really working and I'm very interested in the other funnels that I want to get really good at the first funnel, the expires I'd really like to do. For me, that's the easiest to work on, and advertising the book. You know? It's like a two-way thing. It doesn't necessarily have to be an expired, like my second listing. I don't think it's surprising because to me, just when I read about the program, I knew I wanted to do it. I knew that it would work.
Smart Agents: Right.
Lynne: Yeah.
Smart Agents: Okay. Do you feel that there have been any breakthroughs with using the book? It sounds like maybe, like I love what you said, just the idea if you have the book, you've got the listing. Is there anything more you'd want to say around that?
Lynne: Well, it definitely makes you the expert and I would say most of us as Realtors know everything in the book already. It's not as if we couldn't have sat down and written this book. It's everything that we know and we do and we say. It's on paper and people are impressed with the fact that you have written a book and that you are an authority on the subject. I just find that it opens doors for me that wouldn't necessarily be open. Even family and friends are impressed by the book. I leave it everywhere. I go to doctor's appointments. I leave it on the magazine rack. Anywhere I go, I leave a copy.
Smart Agents: Oh that's great. I love that idea. You're giving it away. You told a lot of people. Has anyone asked you if you've written the book or how you had time to write the book or anything like that?
Lynne: No, nobody's asked me how I had time to write the book. Nobody specifically said, "Did you actually write this?" There's been a couple close family and friends that I've said, "You know. It's a program I subscribe to. It's everything I do know and utilize and say and do. It's just marketing material that I pay for that allows me the time to reach out to these people."
Smart Agents: Right.
Lynne: The ability to reach out to them. In no way do I feel that I'm misrepresenting anything because it's nothing that I wouldn't say and do.
Smart Agents: Right.
Lynne: I'm paying for the use of it, so it's not plagiarizing in any way or forms.
Smart Agents: Oh no.
Lynne: It's just what I do, but it's already written out for me. It just made it easy so I didn't have to sit down and start from scratch.
Smart Agents: Exactly. That sounds good. We've had some people say that they just tell people it was ghost written. It's just always interesting to hear people's responses. We've also had a lot of people say nobody's asked. It's just curious.
Lynne: Yeah, nobody has really, really asked.
Smart Agents: Yeah.
Lynne: If I'm going to let a very close friend, or very close family member and I'm sharing a book. I might tell them the truth, that it's marketing material that I pay for. It's nothing I don't know and say and do.
Smart Agents: Right.
Lynne: I reiterate it that it is my material, that I'm paying for that I already utilize.
Smart Agents: Right.
Lynne: They understand.
Smart Agents: Yeah.
Lynne: I don't go out and advertise that. It's my book because I'm paying to utilize it.
Smart Agents: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Lynne: Yeah.
Smart Agents: Do you have any advice to someone who is struggling to get listings or who's a new agent trying to figure things out?
Lynne: My advice is to pick a farm, utilize that farm. If you door knock, you can bring a book with you. You don't have to leave one on every door. As you're talking to people, if they're someone that's a possibility or an honest person, absolutely give them a book. Tell them to share it with their neighbors or friends or anybody that they know that might be looking to buy or sell. What else?
Find an area that you like. For me, expires is the most easiest. Some people like for sale by owners. I like the idea the funnel of working with a divorce attorney or the probate. Like I said, those are funnels that I do want to explore, but I have yet to branch out into those.
Smart Agents: Right. Okay. If you started over, what would you do differently?
Lynne: With the book or in general?
Smart Agents: I would say, how about both? Start with the books and then move on to general, which may go back to the advice, but we'll see. Yeah, so first with the books, is there anything that you'd do differently or anything you'd like to explore in the future? Either or.
Lynne: Okay so with the books, I wanted to do it a little bit faster and didn't want to order the book. I thought it was expensive for those padded envelopes. I went to local Staples, and I probably spent about the same amount of money, but at first I bought the wrong size. I bought them too big. Make sure you buy the smallest size, okay?
That would be one piece of advice. I mean, you know, don't try to fix what's not broken or reinvent it. Follow the instructions. It's the best way around it.
One of the other things is that, and I'm not sure if this is the same everywhere. I'm assuming it probably is. The postage if you want return postage, you have to pay double the mailing. They won't return the book to you unless you pay for the return postage. It's not the least expensive. The system isn't the least expensive. Put it that way.
Smart Agents: Right.
Lynne: It does work. The investment of the books themselves, and then having to mail them, and then the postage, and the envelopes. It does add up cost per acquisition of a client, but once you get even one or two, you've absorbed the price of what you've invested and multiplied it at least six times.
Smart Agents: Wow.
Lynne: At least six times, yeah. I think I made $15,000 on those two listings.
Smart Agents: Yeah, definitely a good ROI, huh?
Lynne: Yeah, no, absolutely. I think I don't think I spent a total of $1,000. Let's see, what else? In general, okay just starting out as a new agent, one of the things that I learned is to not use my brokerage's email because if you ever decide that that brokerage isn't working for you, or you need to grow. Even if you loved it where you were but you need a different model, whatever, you can't take everything with you. I find that creating a domain and having a personal email is the smarter thing. With that same thing, the CRM I have and the website, same thing. You want to own it, capture your own leads, work your own leads, and this way it goes with you wherever you go.
Smart Agents: That's a great piece of advice, very important.
Lynne: Yes. What was I going to say? As for the CRM, if you really need to make sure you utilize the CRM. Learn how to use it. Have it so that 100%, and it doesn't work if you don't use it.
Smart Agents: Okay.
Lynne: No matter which one you have.
Smart Agents: Yeah. Okay. That's pretty much all the questions I have. Is there anything else you'd like to share or any questions, anything like that?
Lynne: No, not really.
Smart Agents: Okay.
Lynne: The program is very easy to use. If you have questions, just call and ask and get some answers. It's also very easy.
