Matt M. | Hey, everybody, thank you so much for tuning in to our most recent episode of The Neighborhood Realtor. Just wanted to ask a quick favor of everyone out there if you could please drop a review on the Apple Podcasts, or it helps us connect with more great listeners and helps us get on in higher caliber of guests. Which, by the way, today is probably the most production we've ever had on the show at one time.
Matt M. | We have two guests today. We usually have one. We have a top producing realtor in North Carolina, Phil Puma, and top producing mortgage loan officer in Michigan, Brendan O'Driscoll. So, guys, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being on today.
Matt M. | Thanks, Matt. Thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate it.
Matt M. | So a little treat for everybody in this episode to look forward to and a reason to really stay tuned to the end of it is that we're going to be doing some live scripting. I think right now there's so much uncertainty in the media and so much like just negativity out there that many of our clients are coming to us with with some of that negativity back.
Matt M. | And these two guys, I've heard some of their scripting one on one in real in real life and it was really impactful for me. So I wanted to have them both on the call today so they could share some of those answers and how they deal with buyer with tough buyer questions right now in this market. But before we do that, I want to get and give them a little bit of an introduction and let them tell you about why you should listen to them.
Matt M. | So to start with, Bill Bill, I know you've been in the business forever. You're in North Carolina. You do a ton of business. But what was your production, team production in 2021? And tell us how long you've been in the business and how many people around you.
Matt M. | Yeah, so thank you very much. So last year we did 129 million. I have 12 team members and then myself 121 million is about 300 units or so. Our average price points are on the low over 440 $500,000 price point. I've been doing this since 2003. I started developing a team right around 2012, I believe it was before that I was just me and Ray.
Matt M. | The team has really allowed me to have my time literally just on prospecting, meeting with buyers and sellers and having these conversations that we're going to kind of go over today. And I look at it and I think that's a problem. A lot of agents aren't making enough sales calls, aren't saying the right things, aren't adjusting. You know, I look back at what we were talking about a year ago and we were selling a lot different a year ago than we are now.
Matt M. | And if that changing the market changing and that's why I think they're gonna run the problem so I think if if if agents are doing exactly what they did last year are doing nothing sometimes their fear paralyzes them and they do nothing. They're not going to get through this market. Right? It's going to be a tough market. I'm glad it's over now.
Matt M. | It ain't going to be easy. I'm sharpening my sales skills and my team sales skills and we're really going to work this year and really this podcast and everything else you guys are doing are really going to help those agents get through this next year.
Matt M. | I love your new one thing you said that like I want to jump to Brandon's introduction because he's just as amazing. The one thing you said that was super impactful for me that I think everybody needs to write this down is when you're when you decide to make that jump from being a great sole agent to a team leader and really growing and developing others, you're doing that to free up your time to make more sales calls and to do more sales related activities to get face to face more.
Matt M. | You're leveraging out some tasks to invest your time into more fruitful tax tasks like Green Time. That's what you did. But I feel like so many times when you hear about people starting a team, they do it so they can end up golfing more. Spending more time with your family is fantastic too. I know we all have our families, but I mean, I would really push this idea out there to all the people out there that have teams.
Matt M. | Do you use the time you've earned on more sales tasks or is that time kind of being wasted? And if you can't right now, listen truthfully that I think you're right.
Matt M. | I wouldn't say none of my time is wasted. My my day is totally packed, but it goes back to my hours have gone down, but my hours are focused just on prospecting. And then I have more family time. Prior to having a team, I was probably working 75 to 80 hours and I was kind of stuck at that $10 million mark.
Matt M. | I couldn't break through having a team and development team has allowed me to free up my time. So my hours are 45 to 50 right now, so I have more family time. My volume and income has gone up and really because I am focusing my time and attention on sales, I think a lot of agents who grow a team and they don't stay involved in their business and the sales end of it, you know, their hours might go down and they might be out golfing, but sometimes their volume or their income sometimes goes down rather than going up, or we really have to stay involved in our business.
Matt M. | I love what I do and I think if we're in this business and you love what you do, we I love meeting with buyers and sellers. I love selling. I can't stand paperwork. I can't stand organizing stuff. I just want to meet face to face, have conversations with clients and put deals together. And that's how I focus my time, my attention.
Matt M. | It was frustrating for me when I didn't have a team and I was doing all the stuff I hated. I still remember I would sign up a ton of listings and they would literally pile up on my desk because I didn't have time and didn't want to put them in the MLS because to me that wasn't what I like to do.
Matt M. | I have clients calling me saying, Why isn't my home with the MLS? I'll get to that one next and I'll put in a file and do it at 1:00 in the morning. For now, I have team members that are so much better, they enjoy it. That's their skills gap, skillset, skill set. There you go. I got it right.
Matt M. | And then I can focus on the things I love meeting with people. You know, if people are, you know, a high influencer, I like most sales people, we want to talk to people. We don't want to sit in front of a computer. We don't want to be where. We want to be on the phone with somebody or face to face with somebody.
Matt M. | And that's what I love doing. And that is 90% of my day every day.
Matt M. | Well, it's so funny. I mean, I remember taking a course in college that was the most impactful course I ever took. And the overall concept of it was, you should focus 100% of your effort on the things that you enjoy doing that also pay that also. Okay, so when I look at my day, you know, most marketers are sitting behind a computer doing SEO or maybe doing some Facebook stuff.
Matt M. | I want to spend all my time doing this. I want to talk to new people, make new relationships, and it's crazy what things like that can lead to if you're willing just kind of trust the process to know if I meet new people, it always leads to something. I don't always know what, but that makes it fun. So then the next thing I want to introduce Brendan to Brendan and I have known each other for 11 years.
Matt M. | He gave me my first job in the real estate and mortgage industry. I will be forever grateful for that. But Brendan has grown his business at an exponential rate since he started really dialing in on his green time. His team is leadership. So Brendan, walk us through what your production was like last year and how long you've been in the business all those things.
Phil P. | 25 years in the business. Last year was I think the last two years were 435 and bought 37 units. I know last year was 312 purchases was probably around 80 million. The total with refi was 107 million, something like that. So I've been in the business for a long time and same as Phil, once you get the leverage and once you get team growth from 1 to 2 to I have eight or nine and I know that's where you see the leverage really take off.
Phil P. | And and you know, my units were probably similar to what those were eight, ten years ago, but we both increased probably seven, eight, nine times and anybody can do it. I mean, Phil and I are not the most brilliant people in the world, and I think we are. But find a good idea that works for somebody, copy it and implement it because Matt talked about green time.
Phil P. | Green time is stuff that makes you money. And if you break down your week and say, I just take your take your income and divide it by 2000 hours and figure out what your hourly rate is and then really go through your week and see how much you actually prospect. This is a great exercise because you think you're prospecting four or 5 hours a day when you break it down, especially when you don't know what you're doing, you're really doing about one or 2 hours of prospecting.
Phil P. | So your your tax, your income per hour is based on eight, 10 hours a week. Think about if you could turn that into 25 hours a week or 30 hours a week. Phil does not need to be putting together a listing presentation. Phil needs to be face to face with customers, buyers and sellers getting stuff done. And I'm not good at paperwork either, so I need to be out generating leads and closing deals and that's where the leverage really goes.
Phil P. | And you you can cut your hours down and leverage time with your family and you shouldn't be going out and playing golf all the time because it's offensive to your team, who's doing all the work for you and still putting so our down to a manageable timeframe. But this is this is do what you're good at and do it well.
Matt M. | Okay so one thing both of you guys kind of hit on that I want to hear your takes on kind of here's some tangible things that you're doing is in your soul. You mentioned the things that you were doing before. If you just do the same, you're going to do worse this year, right? Like if all of the things that made you successful and got you to 100 deals last year are the things you're going to do exactly identically this year.
Matt M. | Your production is going to go down to reflect what the market is doing. Right? So if the market is 20% down, 30% down, whatever it is, 1% down, and you do the same effort as last year, your business will be that percentage down. So let's start with Brendan this time. Brendan, you're a huge production. If you're not doing things differently, you're going to see a massive a massive drop, especially in the mortgage side where there's zero refi slump right now.
Matt M. | What are you specifically doing differently this year to ensure that you are not a statistic?
Phil P. | Massive activity, more more calls, efficient calls. You're not just pounding through calls to check a box and say, I made this number of calls today, but focus on where are your businesses and in the mortgage business. Our business is real estate agents because we're doing purchased businesses. That doesn't mean we don't ignore our past clients. So I'm calling my past clients.
Phil P. | Tell them to get out of PMI because they've been in it for a few years, but also to check and see this. And this is a good tactic for all realtors. They should all be in contact with their past clients because I know I'm not getting any refi business from everybody who was at two and a half to four and a quarter percent.
Phil P. | But I'm getting them out of PMI and they also might have or they'll probably touch on this. They might have rushed into a purchase in the last two or three years because it was a frantic mad market. And you had to make a decision in 20 minutes without even seeing the house. No inspection, a huge escalation clause and a gap.
Phil P. | And maybe you didn't get what you want. Maybe it's swing and miss ten, 12, 15 times over an eight or ten month period. And then you finally maybe you settle, maybe you just had to move because of your new job or location or whatever. So as we talk to these past clients, it's it's important to say, hey, does the house still fit your needs?
Phil P. | Do you still like it? Did you have any regrets? Because I know it was kind of crazy when you bought and they might say, Yeah. And then the good news on that is like, I don't know if, you know, the run up in the last three years, it's been just tremendous. I mean, the biggest run up in equity we've ever seen.
Phil P. | And guess what? Now you can you can go buy that house you want because there's five times the amount of inventory that was on the market back in May. And you just you're informing them. But because they don't know. Right. And say, hey, listen, you can go buy that house, take all that equity, you're gonna put it into the house that you wanted that had the three car garage, you had that amenity.
Phil P. | And then, you know, rates are always going to come up, too. But yeah, hey, let's save tens of thousands of dollars now and then when they go down, as predicted in the next year or so, let's save hundreds of dollars a month when we refinance you and we explain the refinance to them, and then you've won twice.
Matt M. | And now obviously the refinance isn't guaranteed, like we hope rates are going to go down. We've been told they are, but they might not for sure go down. But if they stay the same or go up, you're still winning if you buy today. And that's really the positive message I like. But I think the biggest thing you said, Brendan, that I think everybody needs to take a minute to write down and to figure out how it applies to them is that most salespeople do an absolutely horrible job.
Matt M. | We've all failed a little bit in this, right, at calling our past clients who are recent past clients because we're like, Oh, we just closed them a year ago. We just closed them a year and a half ago. We don't need to call because I'm not going to sell them another house right now. That is completely wrong, especially in this market.
Matt M. | All of you listening sold people houses in the last three years. They did not love you, sold them houses, and you did an amazing job getting them houses that fit their current needs and worked. They were not houses that people loved. They didn't go through inspections. They they didn't they had a house that like, it worked. It was in their school district, but it wasn't all those other things.
Matt M. | So for you to start reaching out and calling, say, Hey, I just want to make sure that I sold your house that you love if I didn't, I have three right now. The benchmark for ten days we could take our time with. We can negotiate, we can get the seller to buy the rate down. We can do this, that and the other.
Matt M. | And you're really packaging it, packaging this opportunity up for them in a nice little boat. If you are not doing that for your recent past clients, start making those calls today. How about you feel? What are you doing right now to ensure that you're not a statistic to your own business from past?
Matt M. | But the one thing I want to add to that, Brendan talked about that previous client making a move, but call your previous clients for another reason if they love their house and they love the experience and you gave them that amazing experience, ask for a referral, ask for a role. Do you have any friends that are looking to make a move this year?
Matt M. | Right. Can I help any of your friends? Going to help any of your family? Going to help any of your coworkers? If you gave them an amazing experience, they will remember it. But many might forget to make that referral to you. Or if you're calling them and reaching out to them and not just reaching out to them in five or seven years, when you think they're going to move again, we call them on an annual basis.
Matt M. | We call them on their anniversary call. So just checking in, hey, what have we done to the house? How is the house looking? You made any improvements? Have you seen the houses in your neighborhood? What they're going for? Oh, my God. What did you pay for it again? That. That number is ridiculous. So you're reminding them what was that, a great job you did for them and it's coming out of their mouth and not your mouth and then you get asked for referral.
Matt M. | It's so funny you say that because I kind of call that the pat myself on the back call. Like I want to call them and get them to tell me how awesome I am that I made them wealthy. Right? But who doesn't love finding out that they're worth $100,000 more than they were before they work with you? I mean, most people in the US can't make that kind of money in a short period of time.
Matt M. | And you were the hero that helped them do that and you got them to the closing table and in there.
Matt M. | You're going to find out so much about them today. You know, I you know what? We're having a baby or whatever that might be or, you know, mom and dad or having them move in with us or my parents are then going to move into the OR there's so many different conversations. I, I just love relationships and we can't just put someone in a house and forget them and think they're just going to call us back in five or seven years or whenever they're ready.
Matt M. | Right. We need to be there. It needs to be a relationship. We want to be the realtor for life. We need to call them. We call them on an annual basis. We call them on their birthdays. We're calling them at a minimum, two times a year, minimum, minimum, minimum, minimum, couple of times a year. So we actually call them even more often on three, usually once per quarter as we're making those phone calls to our clients and just touching base, just checking in, see how they're doing, see how their families do and see how they're and just they made the improvements.
Matt M. | So the house, you want to be top of mind, you'll make it be top of mind if you're calling them or we send videos to them, we send evidence and access other great things we're doing for our clients. We also add what they call letter of the heart or just kind of more personal that we're human, like Brendan's.
Matt M. | I mean Brendan and almost can be. We got the same issues and problems that everyone else does. So we look at the know our human part. So it's really just us keeping in touch with them.
Matt M. | So I want to, I want to like expand on something you said really quick. So your letter of the heart, you want to remind them that you're human. So I read this I read this study a couple of months ago, and I don't know if you guys saw the same one, but it was called the topic was called Multiplex Connections.
Matt M. | And what it said was that people need to remember you to really stay top of mind. People need to remember you for two reasons. It can't just be one. So I can't end this call with you. Phil, just remember me as the mortgage marketing guy. I need you to remember me as the mortgage marketing guy who has a t head in the back and 1960s vintage watches.
Matt M. | Right. Like I need you to remember me for more exciting reasons than just what I do for a living. So I love that letter of the heart because you're giving people a chance. When you do those on a consistent basis to learn more about you, they might find out that both of your kids have the same, I don't know, issues or things going on 100%.
Matt M. | You're human, too. And I absolutely love and I think people really need to understand that the reason behind why these things work, there's a reason that people have been talking about water of the heart, like Brian Matheny for 30 years. It doesn't change. I love social media, by the way. If you're if you don't have the budget to do a mailer, it isn't that expensive.
Matt M. | But if you don't have the budget, social media can be a great way to get some of that personal and some of that really heartwarming stuff out there. So I love that. But you guys, I want to get into some of the scripting that we promised everyone that we were going to talk about. So Brendan, I know you had a couple of slides that you were going to share up here, and I know the people listening in podcast land are going to see it, but they're going to hear it.
Matt M. | So could you share that on the screen really quick?
Phil P. | Yeah. So here's one. It's two. So it's from a PowerPoint. So it's a little slow to load. But can you see it says how is the market?
Matt M. | Yes. So forever now out there, what we're going to do is we're going to go through a couple questions that buyers and sellers could be asking their realtor or lender. And we're going to go through the worst answer. The best answer and the better and the better answer and the best answer. So for all of these, I'm going to play I'm going to play the the buyer and Phil's going to play the realtor.
Matt M. | And if there's any that require the lender, Brendan's going to play that one. So really quick, I'll start out actually, you know what I'm going to have let's let's switch this up, guys. You guys do this more than I do, Brandon. You're going to be the buyer and Phil, you're going to be the realtor since you are a realtor, that probably makes more sense.
Matt M. | All right. Awesome. So, Phil, you start or God, I'm terrible at this.
Phil P. | All Stars started. Hey, Phil, Phil, it's nice meeting you. I didn't know you're a realtor. How is the market these days? A lot of weird stuff in the media.
Matt M. | Yeah. So I've been a realtor for. For a long time. I've been through so many different markets. I'll be honest with you. Right now, inventories up. We are seeing sellers come down drastically on price. I've never seen more price reductions in the MLS. I look at it every day. We're just seeing them come down. We are negotiating unbelievable deals for our clients.
Matt M. | Know, I look at last year and people were paying 5 to 10% overpriced. What we've seen here recently is people coming off five or 10%. I'm getting closing costs for my clients so the prices that I'm getting them in are amazing right now. So it's definitely a great time to buy from what we're seeing now. You have any concerns right now, Brendan, of buying a house?
Matt M. | Any concerns that you have?
Phil P. | Well, I mean, everybody says there's crashes coming in and it's it's a bad time to be in real estate. And I don't know what I don't know.
Matt M. | Who's everybody is that everybody say in this house that.
Phil P. | My parents and my grandparents, because back in the day this happened. Back in the day that happened.
Matt M. | And well, hey, real quick, back in the day, what were houses approximate worth in your parents time?
Phil P. | Oh 35.
Matt M. | 45 What are they now? What can you buy a house for? 35 grand right now?
Phil P. | My dad bought a house for 35 grand in the mid sixties and it's it's worth 550 probably now.
Matt M. | Wow. That is unbelievable. I'm I tell you one thing about real estate. I've been doing this for 20 years in real estate. And the long run will go up. You're never going to time the market run. You're never going to time it. It's time in the market. I've always owned a house since I've gotten out of college and my dad's always owned the house.
Matt M. | A lot of his while he was just a steel mill worker, but he's always owned a house and always had that equity go up. So it's really not timing right now. I see properties at unbelievable values. So why does everyone think the market's going to crash? I mean, I've seen it come down. Why? Why are they thinking the market's crashing?
Matt M. | What have you heard?
Phil P. | I think I think people seem to think it's on some kind of cycle that every ten or 15 years there is a crash. Is that true.
Matt M. | Or that is not true. If you look at if you look at the market in a way, properties have gone up on an average. I mean, real estate's not going to be one of these where you just break the bank and make a ton of money are usually about 3 to 5% appreciation over that life. All right. Are you renting right now or what are you doing right now?
Matt M. | Are you renting, brother?
Phil P. | Yeah, I am. I am renting. Been doing it for three years.
Matt M. | So I'll tell you right now, three years. I know people have are concerned about rates but literally over the last three years you've given your your landlord a 100% interest rate. You really have paid him all of your money. You have no equity over the last three years, you would have gained 40% in our market, 40% appreciation for you.
Matt M. | That's a big number. That's a big number. So I would love to get you into a house. Unbelievable deal. You have any concern about interest rates? I know that's another thing that I'm hearing of people like, oh, my rates are so high. Have you heard that?
Phil P. | I heard there. I heard they're really high and that that they stink.
Matt M. | Well, I tell you right now, average rates have been around 7%. They're kind of in that ballpark. I have some great mortgage professionals that I'm going to put you in touch with. And what we're hearing, Fannie Mae, which is the biggest mortgage backed security company out there, is predicting that next year rates will be four and a half percent, which is much lower than the seven, isn't that?
Phil P. | Yeah, that would be a good job. So do I get to do I get to how do I get down to that. So do I wait till they get to four and a half? What do I do?
Matt M. | Oh, you know what, I want to wait till then. What I do is because I tell you what's going to happen right now and people are thinking the market's going to crash. You're getting into properties for really good values right now. I can get you an unbelievable deal. My mortgage guy is going to get you into a temporary loan.
Matt M. | That's going to get you and that works within your payment. And then you're going to meet that. You're going to get the house that meets your needs and then he's going to refinance you automatically next year. I'm going to make sure he's going to take care of you on your refinance when those rates come down. So you're going to get into a house at an unbelievable price.
Matt M. | Right. And then you're paying that's going to go down drastically next year. And once those rates come down, what we saw a couple of years ago when rates were coming down, there were so many buyers that were waiting, entering the market. And then that's when they had to overpay for a house. Right. We're not seeing that today. You're going to get an unbelievable deal.
Matt M. | All right. You're going to have a temporary rate and then you're going to lower your payment next year. And my mortgage professionals going to go over that with I am really good at selling houses and negotiating houses. He's really good at getting you the best loan and I'm going to put him in touch with you next. And he's going to overcome any questions you have on any concerns you have over buying today.
Phil P. | That's great. Hey, I'm Michelle. I'm going to step out of my role as the as the client. And one thing that that Bill said, and I think selfishly, as as a lender, I don't get into Phil's business and he didn't start quoting rates because we don't know what their credit score is, their down payment. I think that's a slippery slope.
Phil P. | I'm going to turn you over to somebody who does a great job. I'm not giving you six cards and five and inspectors and all this other stuff. It's confusing. But he trusts his lender enough to to get it to the finish line and all those answers about the market were so good. And I would just encourage you, when somebody asks you how the market is, you have to build excitement.
Phil P. | If they tell you that they think the market stinks and you agree with them, I don't think any sales are blooming out of that conversation. Right. So you have to build some excitement and and you could say it's great, but explain why it's great. You have to get them to start talking about it. And I use a little tactic, right.
Phil P. | You know, kind of sneak across rooms. I felt there's a little secret going on in the in the real estate market right now that nobody knows about. And then you just kind of step back and they got to ask you what the secret is, right? So whatever kind of little trigger you can have and then you go into that spiel about, Hey, Alan, rates, when rates go down, prices go up.
Phil P. | So buy now, save money, refinance later. And as a realtor and actually, Matt, we're covering a lot of these these questions in one script, but as a realtor, you have to know all of these things. And I just realized three times in the last three weeks I've had to explain to somebody that refinancing was easy and nada. I said, Hey, you're in the right place at the right time.
Phil P. | If you were shopping last year when we started, you would have had $45,000 more on this purchase. She goes, Oh, that's a lot of money. And I said, Well, refinance you next year when they go down. So I don't want to do that. Refinancing is really expensive. I said, Oh my gosh, I don't even think I'll need an appraisal because I have you in my system.
Phil P. | I bet you it'll cost you 1800 bucks. So I. I was just dumb because I said I'm sorry. You know, you're a first time homebuyer. I take some stuff for granted and I was going fast in it and it's really easy process. And then she said, Oh, well, that's great. And also you just got to make sure that people understand what happens next and.
Matt M. | Oh, I agree. I mean, I think people just assume too much and we're in the business. We don't realize that they are have these assumptions. So I think it's super important. It's fine. The first time I saw that slide up there. So just so you know, we didn't pre script and we do this every day. This is what we do.
Matt M. | But one of the things up there was how is the market? And I'm sorry. Now when I talk about change a year to two years ago, literally one of the responses there, which was the worst, I still used to say it. I say, hey, the market people thought the market was great a year or two ago. So I thought, you know what, the market sucks right now.
Matt M. | I have about about 20 to 40 buyers that I can't find homes for what I need. I need a favor. If you or anyone you know is looking to sell, I need to help find homes for these buyers. I was looking for listings then. Right. And then again, a whole different concept to how we were explaining a buyer and what they needed to do.
Matt M. | And I go back to there was agents that weren't change and it was agents a year or two ago that were making offers under price and asking for closing costs. They probably had a horrible year because they weren't getting the they weren't giving their clients the honest information of what this market looks like. Right. So that's what on top of how we have to alter, we're now it's a great time for a buyer to buy a house.
Matt M. | Right? It's a great time. And we have to make sure that we're putting that out there.
Phil P. | So so glad that.
Matt M. | I want to unpack a couple little things here. So there is a lot in your answers that I feel like people might not have picked up on that I thought were really powerful. So the first thing I noticed was Phil started off the conversation by mentioning his track record of helping people through the last recession. And I think that's I don't want people to forget that he's for those of you listening right now who made it through the last 12, seven, 28 time period, that's huge.
Matt M. | People right now want Sherpas want real estate guides who have a track record of getting people through challenging markets. Now, again, challenging markets present lots of opportunities. And we also want to find flight. We want you to find clients, those opportunities. But I think if you have a track record is extremely important to mention it, even if your track record of dealing with it is, is more on the personal side and how you made it through that way or in another career.
Matt M. | I think people really want to hear that and secondly, build them. Mentioned examples of clients he's helped in the last month or two who he was able to get into an amazing situation despite the changing market. Again I never say downturn crash negative. I want to focus in positive. He navigated them. Three Changing market rate volatility isn't necessarily negative because it also creates opportunity.
Matt M. | It really, really likes that and I think it's hugely important to ask people about those concerns. Let's bring out the ugliest piece of the market right now, and let's ask them about those rates so that we can control the situation and control the answer. I mean, giving them the answer was effortless, right? It's a scripting aspect, but really explaining the why behind this is what we said.
Matt M. | This is why we said it. I think that's hugely important for people to realize. Go ahead, Brendon. I know you had a couple more nuggets there.
Phil P. | I mean, you know, the next question was, you know, I think I want to wait a while and then we need to cover that. But but you're asking questions. I think Matt is so big because why are you going to wait? Why are you doing this? Why are you concerned about it? And the more if you ask about five levels of why you're going to find out what the I mean, what are they really moving for?
Phil P. | You know, if they're just moving for fun, because I always thought I want to live in a country with with a creek running through the yard. And it might not be the time for them to get out of a 3% interest rate. But if they have to move because they just had a baby, they got another one on the way in June and they got two bedrooms or one of the bedrooms is an office.
Phil P. | I mean, we have to ask a lot of questions. You can't just accept if somebody says they want to wait, you say, ah, all right, we'll wait till spring. You're you're not impactful. They're going to they're going to forget your name. And when spring comes around, if you don't reach out to them, you didn't give them any direction.
Phil P. | You're that I mean, especially Phil, right. The realtor is is generally the first point of contact. You have to give good advice. They're looking for advice. I mean, sometimes people simply need to be told what to do. You have to ask them a lot of questions, but give them some guidance. You're the expert.
Matt M. | I think Brendan hit the nail on the head there. I think so many people don't get to the real why I want a bigger house. Okay, why? And keep asking the why. Because the more questions you have and I told my team this and I use it, the more questions you have, the more ammunition you'll have to sell.
Matt M. | So if you know the true why and if it's baby two on the way, right, we can always go back to, Hey, when is a baby due again? Even though you might know it's going to come out of their mouth, right? Do you want to have the nursery set up before or after the baby's born? Like you want to really move after having the baby?
Matt M. | Or do you want to do that? Make it easy beforehand? So really finding that why and talk it don't just listen to it once and never bring it back up. Always bring it back up. So I you really have to get deep on the why and then you have to address their concerns upfront because take for example, Brendan, I was talking about refinance and their concerns with refinance.
Matt M. | If you don't ask them their concerns, you're going to not know that they had that assumption that it's going to cost them a lot. Right. I won't know that rates are concerning to them right or not knowing why they need to wait or thinking of waiting. Right. But I think Brendan said it to like sometimes right now if someone just moving just for the heck of it, probably not.
Matt M. | But if there is a real why on every one of them will have concerns, find out their concerns over come over their concerns. So what we do too, and if you're not doing this, change it where most agents I know we do a listing appointment, we go to their house and do a presentation or consultation, do the same with a buyer.
Matt M. | Do not meet them at that first house. Have them come in and have this conversation face to face and get all the information, do a consultation, sell yourself on what you do well, but find out they're concerned. Find their third criteria. Find out their why, but have it face to face. Worst case scenario on Zoom, you know, relocating client, do it on Zoom or you have to get face to face and not meet that buyer property for the first time.
Phil P. | And you better get both if they're married or a couple or whatever, you better get them both there because the decision maker might not be in the room and you are selling the wrong topics and the wrong items and and you're going to get blindsided by it later because you weren't talking to the right person.
Matt M. | And exactly. I think you need to get all their must haves. And I mean, I've had it happen. You know, I have a couple there and there must have there are two different houses. And I'm like, are we going to buy two houses or one houses? You guys got to figure this out first. So it's really just finding, you know, the stuff that they're not going to willing to compromise on.
Matt M. | And sometimes what they want can't be met with the budget and they need to get a good understanding, I think. And not enough agents are clear with their buyers saying, hey, what you want is not at that budget. You need either spend a little more money or you need to change that criteria. And really, I think the problem is, and I know a lot of agents will keep showing house, will show one house or show one house and not have those honest conversations about the property, about their price point, about their criteria.
Matt M. | So I want to talk about this for a sec, guys, because I want to call I have to call you both out on this. You both have been in the business since 2003. You, sir, you've served thousands of customers. You guys make great money. We're blessed by that. And you lead an entire team. You guys are you guys are both leaders.
Matt M. | You've been in coaching, etc.. So were you telling people listening to be bigger leaders and to have those tough conversations, you guys have really earned the ability to do that and word. How would you recommend that a newer agent go about that when their clients might be like, Well, you've been in business for two years. Like, why should I believe you?
Matt M. | Like how can people who are newer jump ahead and get in have the ability to do what you two are doing? Is really veteran experience, people.
Matt M. | Running, you know, starting over, is there?
Phil P. | My answer would be, you know, I've been in the business 25 years. I have a bunch of experienced people on my team. But if I didn't, I would. And I tell this to realtors, too. I mean, they might be six months on the job, say, hey, my office is experts in this part of town. We know it better.
Phil P. | We have we have in our office, we have hundreds of years of experience. We are the number one agent selling in this pocket of talent. We've done 400 transactions there in the last three years. Know. So if you have the ammo and I will never say, hey, this guy just got in the business, this is his second second buyer I that I've been working I've been working with Joe at Bill's office.
Phil P. | I mean, we're going to Phil's office. I will work with that office. I dance around it for 14 years. They're there as good an agent as you'll ever find. You should run out and buy some lottery tickets today because you could have a really crapped out and got 18 out of the 20 agents that I wouldn't like to work with.
Phil P. | You found the right one. So you are in such a good spot, you got to be in this together, right? Because this is a team effort. And if you think that you're the lone wolf and not doing anything and you got to work with your realtor partners and lender partners.
Matt M. | To make sure that you're using both the triangle of Trust, but you're also then using the you're capitalizing on your office's success or your team's success and kind of like patting your stats with that. I love all of that. That's great.
Phil P. | I didn't say anything that wasn't true. No.
Matt M. | I never lied.
Matt M. | So I would the part that I would add, if you're on a team, you need to make sure that you are communicating with all the other agents and hey, what did you get under contract? How did you get that under the contract? What was the price and use example? I guided him when I worked together on our team like we just got this deal a 60 grand off a price.
Matt M. | He got ten grand towards closing costs. Like whatever it is, whatever example you want to use, use your team, example or office. It's either team or office and really find a mentor that's doing a lot of business and say, Hey, I'm, I am. And Johan and a mentor has been working with me. He works with me on my deals, like my team.
Matt M. | Any time one of us said, Hey, tell me a good story, that's one of our Tell Me A Great Deal. And we say, You know what? Everyone needs to use this. Tell them what we just did for this client. We what we did for this client. And then make sure you guys are selling that buyer or that seller on this situation.
Matt M. | So give examples, but have a mentor, have office and really just make sure your clients are having communication with other agents. Or if you're on a team, you just need to make sure that communication is open. Ask questions, go the way that I learned. I ask questions, ask questions, ask questions. The only way you're going to get better at this business, but then that'll give you more ammunition to be able to sell.
Matt M. | Yeah, I think anyone out there who is actually taking notes, hopefully they weren't doing that when they were driving. Probably ten pages of ideas for scripting, but also some really tangible strategies to pick up some leads. That's the whole purpose of the show. So I just want to say a huge thank you to both of you for coming out and now give you guys the opportunity to tell us how we could send you referrals.
Matt M. | So, Phil, if someone has a client looking to buy in North Carolina, how could they get a hold of you? Any other little things you'd like to add as well?
Matt M. | Sure. We're so we're in the red outside of the Charlotte, North Carolina market where we are licensed in both North and South Carolina. Our suburban area hit South Carolina also. So the way to get to all of us, obviously, we service any any county that kind of touches Mecklenburg County. But I have a ton of other realtor partners that I know across both North and South Carolina.
Matt M. | So if you have any questions you to any agent, North of South Carolina, you can reach out to me. My phone number is 70437524957043752495. My email is Phil as I out at Puma homes icon puma a h omd starcom our websites Puma Homes AECOM also. So I appreciate that, Matt putting that plug in there. We will take great care of any clients that you have coming to our awesome branding.
Matt M. | If someone needs a mortgage in the Michigan area, how can they get a hold of you that?
Phil P. | Yeah, anywhere in Michigan we do tons of loans. In West Michigan. I think we're the biggest purchase lender here, but we are all over the state. Detroit, Northern Michigan, Upper Peninsula. The team number is 6162286 200 or 616228 6200. By email is Brendon O Irish brand D.A. at Treadstone Mortgage dot com. My company is neighborhood loans, but we've been Treadstone around here for 20 years, so Treadstone tread like a tire stone like a rock mortgage all spelled out dot com.
Phil P. | But just call 6162286 200. We'll take good care of you.
Matt M. | Awesome. Thanks, guys. And if anyone out there needs marketing website tips, I'm always happy to chat. Hit me up on Instagram, DM me Matt Muscat, 88 and Phil had one more comments. I'm going to go back to him.
Matt M. | I sure do. As it's snowing there in the back of your window.
Matt M. | Phil It's terrible. It's a snow day.
Phil P. | Seven inches of snow.
Matt M. | Here is like it can't be that bad because I'm originally from upstate New York and my Buffalo Bills are unfortunately are coming to Michigan because there was more snow there. I think they were expecting 3 to 6 feet of snow. So they're coming there, obviously to play two games in five days. So it must be not as bad there.
Matt M. | Thankfully, we the Lions have a covered stadium. So that's probably why.
Phil P. | The Bills, the need to get out there and shovel that stadium out, that's an advantage. They need to be playing in two or three or four feet of snow.
Matt M. | I want to say, I think it's they don't shut it down much, but I think, you know, the thruway is shut down. I mean, they're expecting 3 to 6 feet. And that's the reason why I am no longer there. I moved down to North Carolina in 1996 and I have family friends here. I think we moved away from that to be in here.
Matt M. | So we do get snow over 1000. They shut the city down even if we get a dusting here in North Carolina. But we don't we don't get it too often.
Matt M. | But I mean, I was kind of joking the other day in a presentation, you know, people are, okay, why is the market down? And I said, we're getting two feet of snow. Would you want to live here? That's why we've got nothing.
Phil P. | To say that that's not a good comment. Oh, no doubt it.
Matt M. | If they if they do are concerned if they're concerned with the snow, send them my way. We'll get them to get a place here.
Matt M. | So don't guarantee change of seasons. Come up here. All right, guys, I want to keep everyone's time. I respect our guys time so much. Thank you for joining and I'm going to stop recording.
Matt M. | Thank you.
Phil P. | Guys was fine.