Hey everybody, Kelly Johnson here from 4X Formula. I’m really excited that you’re here with me today. Today, I’m going to talk to you about a meeting that I just had 10 minutes ago.
Hi, I’m Kelly Johnson, founder of the 4X formula and the big question is this: How are real estate agents like us able to create a constant stream of commissions and a constant stream of leads while enjoying life without wasting big budgets on branding, without working crazy hours, without worrying where the next deal’s coming from in today’s real estate market. This podcast is here to reveal the answers.
These little episodes that I do once in a while, I think I’m just going to call it Kelly’s truck talk. I’m in my truck right now. I have a truck, I got a Dodge Ram 1500 full load. It’s got everything. I bought it used because I think that’s the smartest thing to do rather than buying new. Paid cash for it. I own it and we have a travel trailer that we use for camping and stuff that we love and it tows the trailer great.
But I also use it for my real estate vehicle. I do a lot of new construction. I’m on construction sites and stuff a lot of times. I drive people around, it’s still very comfortable, but when I’m driving like other people around, I’ll switch up and I’ll use Nicole’s car or she’ll drive them around or whatever. So we do have a real good real estate vehicle for that too, as well as our little team goes. But anyway, that’s us! I’m just heading out. Do some work on another project. I’m on a kind of an outskirt road right now. It’s a little more bumpier than a highway road. So hopefully this is an aggravating it too much.
Okay. So what I wanted to talk about, Nicole and I actually just had a phone call meeting with some past clients that we’ve dealt with in the past. It was one of those situations where it ended up being, and it’s one of those unfortunate, sad situations that happens in the business that we have to deal with some times where people part ways. The husband goes one way, the wife goes another way for whatever reason. But we helped them in the beginning when they were together and then, we’ve actually done stuff for them since where we help them sell the home that was the contentious home, you know. Dealt with that. It’s a very sensitive way. Nicole and I are very good at dealing with those types of things.
But in that, the wife, she went and bought another place, worked with another agent and for obvious reasons it’s getting sensitive and all that. But anyway, long story short, they’ve come back to us now because… You know…. And then they’ve tried to resell that property. They’ve been through two different agents, 300 days on the market with another agent. And we get to, kind of come in and, you know, give them advice that we believe is true advice to help them get it sold.
They’re at a point now, we went and checked out the property last night. They’re not living there. They had some people there and they’re living in another area right now, but they need to get it sold. Spent a bunch of money and renovations, hoping to get that money back. They’re actually hoping to make money on it. The market’s shifted a little bit in our area. It’s just become more balanced now. So people have to make decisions a little bit differently and prices quite sensitive. And there’s a lot of inventory right now, so we have to make sure that we’re advising people properly.
So I just wanted to talk to you about having empathy with people, not sympathy because we could sympathize with them, but really whatever the situation is, I need to empathize with them. I need to make them feel like I understand what they’re going through and what their hopes were in the past. But they have to also hear the truth in that and finding a sensitive way to kind of tell people the truth is not always easy.
So I thought, you know what, I’m going to talk about this with you guys. It’s a circumstance that’s happening right now. We’re in it. I almost wish I recorded the conversation so you guys can learn from that. But basically the conversation went like this. Nicole and I did, we sat down, we studied, we went into, we checked out the place, we saw some flaws there and we saw some reasons, you know, maybe why it didn’t sell or whatever. Part of that would have been price. Had they priced where they were 90 days ago where they ended up, if they would’ve started there, they actually might had a really good chance of getting them.
But now it’s like, you know, another realtor listed it. And here’s the thing about the 4X Formula, what I talk about all the time. These people, the person that they chose to list is one of those big listing people. So they have two pages in the paper and they got tons of listings and these are exactly what she told us happened. “You know, we really liked her and she was great and she helped us buy, so we went back with her again and then when she listed… It is funny, you know, we just, we never heard from her, we never heard anything. We got zero feedback. We really didn’t get any action on the property. We just weren’t happy with, you know… The person was on our team kind of working with us, trying to get a result for us. We just felt like she was too busy to call us, right?”
And you guys, that is normal. That happens a lot out there. This is why having a ton of listings isn’t really good. That person who listed that property, it cost them money to list the property and to market that property. And I don’t know what else they did. I don’t want to get into that. It’s not my business. But the thing is is they created an expectation of success just because they look like they’re so successful. Because if so many listings and they talk about the awards they earn and how great they are.
But the thing is, one on one, unless they’re succeeding at it, they’re not a hero, right? But they’re a hero prior to that. I call it the hero realtor. You know where they seem to be above everybody, right? And really they’ve just burned a relationship with a client who actually came back to them. They’ve actually burned that now. They’re never going to get those people back ever. But the thing is, this is why I say this, in the 4X Formula, in module one, I’m talking and I’m saying, “You know what, if you strategize properly, do your business properly, what’s going to end up happening is, is you are actually going to start to steal business from the hero realtors. They’re spending lots of money, but when they fail or don’t succeed or don’t give really good advice…”
Because really if you think about it, I was that guy. I totally was that guy. I would take every listing. It was all about having lots of inventory, having lots of listings and just having inventory. Like I would almost create my own market within my own inventory. And I thought that was really powerful. I have no idea how many people I’ve ticked off or how many people I lost. I have no idea. And this person doesn’t either. She has no clue that people are talking about her in this way. It’s a sad truth.
So you get to be that hero later and you get to succeed and then the people that you succeed for are going to say things like, “This person gave me really good advice. This person was honest. This person really cared about getting the result for me and they told me the truth.” When they say that to other people and then that person gets referred to you and they become part of your fold, you start talking to them and meeting with them, thinking about that place that they’re in. They’re already saying words. So then when you say, “You know what, I’m going to tell you the truth here, and you may not like the truth. It may not be something you want to hear, but I need to. I need you to hear it.”
Now, after that, you’re driving the bus. You get to make decisions on what you do with that truth. “Do you want to push the listing price after that? Then you need to take responsibility for that. I’m not taking responsibility for that. I’ll market your property. I’ll do everything I can. I’ll get eyeballs on it. But I’ve told you the potential result that you’re going to get.” I said, “You know what? It’s unfortunate that in the very beginning you didn’t get the proper advice. I’m going to tell you, Marcy is her name. Marcy, you know, if you would’ve got proper advice then and position the home in the market at the right price, you probably would have got actually a better result but I’m sorry. Here we are, fast forward 300 days later. Now we’re talking to you and I’m analyzing the market and the price you’re trying to achieve only one sale for a comparable product has happened since then and it was about seven months ago and the market was different then. And it wasn’t even really actually close to what you’re trying to achieve then. I don’t know where that number was coming from. I’m sorry that you didn’t get the right advice. I’m really sorry. And you know what? I know it’s painful because you guys spent a bunch of money on it, you invested in it, time, energy, stress, whatever you went through to renovate the place and get it all ready it, you’re not getting paid for that. Like you’re just hopefully just going to kind of get out of it, close to what you put into it. But at the end of the day, do you agree with me? Now you’ve moved somewhere else. You’ve got someone else living there. It’s not really covering your costs, but you’re doing it. Like basically you need to stop the bleeding at this point. In order to do that, I would think that you’re looking for a result within 30 to 45 days. Well, the only way to do that is you got to be at this price.”
And that price that I told them was about 30 grand less than they were listed before. But I know it’s the right price. I know it’s the price that will get them success. But at the end of the day, after that sale happens, what they do with the rest of their life or in their next game plan is actually more important than 30 grand. It really is. Just from our conversation and stuff, I’m not going to get into the details of that.
It’s important to understand what the game plan is when they sell. We need to ask lots of questions with people so that we can get an understanding of what their goal is because sometimes the importance of that money is actually less important in the scheme of things. Does that make sense? So we need to talk to people about that. We need to understand the whole three dimensional, four dimensional stuff that they’re going through.
Anyway, we had a really good meeting and she said, “Okay, can we meet Monday night and let’s just get it on the market and this go with your game plan because what you’re telling me, it sounds like that’s what we should have been doing this whole time.” And we’re like, “Yeah, you know, and I’m sorry you’ve gone through this.” And they switched agents to another guy.
Now here’s another thing that’s interesting. Just a little teaching point, right? This is a townhouse in a townhouse complex and it’s a higher end townhouse. So it’s almost like house pricing in this townhouse complex. But it’s kind of worth it. Like in the area. But it’s located well in the complex and it has lots of great things about it, but there are some negatives. The way the pitchers were put portraying this townhouse was leading people in a direction that was incorrect. So what ended up happening was, people would look at the pictures the way they were a certain way.
We even did the same thing. We looked at the pictures of the last listing and the driveway looked way bigger. You can’t even fully parked in that driveway. You actually have to park sideways on it. And I could see that being a huge disappointment for a buyer. The other pitch, there was another picture showing the backyard. So the picture of the back yard was basically making it look like there was this enormous backyard and it didn’t let anybody know that the backyard actually backed right onto a road. So if I took a nice picture from the back deck of the home showing the nice back yard, but let people know that when they’re doing their research that there is a road in behind there, they may see enough things above the place in the pictures and the other parts of the information, the square footage and the area and all that kind of stuff. They may see enough positive things about the place that they may go, “You know, what, can I deal with the backyard thing backing onto the road? Yeah, let’s go take a look at it and try and convince ourselves.”
And that is very much what a buyer will do. But let’s give them the information so that they can make those decisions. If a buyer comes out and they come into a place or they drive up to a home and they go, “Oh, hmm, okay, well that’s not really what I was expecting.” If that’s going on, like if that happens in the buyer’s mind, whether verbally or not, basically the deal’s dead. Nothing’s going to happen. They’re not going to write an offer on it. Or something pretty major or extreme or exciting or something awesome about the place or lack of inventory or something else will have to kind of kick in to keep those people in the game on that particular home. That is a fact, and a lot of realtors don’t realize that fact. That’s a big mistake. Huge mistake. Make sure that you are promoting the real thing that you’re selling.
People the way it is right now in the world, they don’t want to be fooled. They don’t want to make a bad decision. They want lots of information. That’s the way of the world right now. Everybody wants lots of information and they want good information and they want to try and make decisions before they start to make a move. They don’t like to waste time. Everybody’s busy. It’s the way the world is right now.
So when we give them information, the other part of this, that’s the hugest part, is that they want to trust the information. They want to trust it. They really do want to trust it. So they do. But if they come out and the information or what they thought was something one way, and then they see… They get there and they see it another way, um, and they’re disappointed in that, they almost get ticked off in their minds. Now they’re not going to jump up and down and scream and yell and swear at anybody or anything like that. Like none of that’s going to be happening. But what’s going to happen in the psyche of their mind, they’re now trying to get over their disappointment. They’re actually kind of feeling like someone was trying to fool them or someone wasn’t giving them proper information that they could trust. People don’t like that.
So you’re starting from a bad place with them. If they would’ve got the information properly about that home when they showed up, they would have already gone into a place where they were trying to overcome it. And then when they come and they’re just reinforcing what they believe to be true, when they see the home, then now we’re a great place with this buyer.
So that’s a lesson there. And I know a lot of realtors make that mistake. They think they’re going to do some awesome pictures and put funky lenses on there. And you should do that. Like you should, you know, as long as it’s done professionally and done well and the angles are right, but let’s be careful not to fool people. Make sure that the information that is going out there, that the people are going to be seeing, is something that they can trust because it’s also going to reflect on you big time.
So anyway, just something I thought. There’s a few things that we pulled out of this conversation in doing our research and then having this conversation with the seller, like we pointed these things out to her. Those were light bulb moments for her. So she now has a huge trust in our ability and our professionalism. Basically, what we’re saying to them now is something that they’re going to listen to because it actually makes sense. But you got to put thought to this stuff guys. We’re not just listing houses for the sake of listing houses. We’re not doing that. Our goal is to sell houses.
Not only that, when people come to see the house, it may not be the one for them, but if they start from a place of mistrust with us and they’re thinking that I kind of trick them into showing up or looking at the house, then I’m not in a good position with them to convert them into potentially a buyer. And that’s a huge part of it.
Part of the 4X Formula is attracting buyers off your listings. That is a huge part of the 4X Formula. And so we need to be able to create those opportunities. And I’ll tell you, trust is the start of all that, right?
So overcoming past challenges another realtor. Having that hard talk with empathy, with people, giving them validation for their feelings, giving them validation for this potential money lost in quotations that they’re experiencing or money they didn’t get. Getting them to realization and in talking to them about success. We can talk to them about “Here’s some mistakes, not anybody’s fault, but maybe they just weren’t thinking that way.” Without…. You’re not really putting someone down but you’re pointing out things that maybe someone else hasn’t pointed out to them before, brings huge value to you.
So just something to talk about. I just thought you might find it valuable. It’s just an example. One thing that we encounter in our day to day business and I just thought I would share with you. That’s what it’s all about here on this podcast. So thank you for listening. Thank you for being here. Things are coming up. The 4X Formula training course is coming. It is really coming. I promise you. It’s a lot of work. It’s taken a lot of time to put it all together. I want to make sure it’s good. I want to make sure it’s right. I want to make sure it’s valuable for you.
Pretty soon in the podcast, I’m going to start to talk about where you can get information and where you can get on the list. Those people that listen to the podcast and get on that list, it’s going to be a special place. So I know that you guys are coming from the podcast. You’ll definitely get pretty steep discount on the course. I think early adopters on anything should get a value for that. And then all I asked for that is feedback back from you so that I can share that with other people.
And also if you find this podcast valuable and you’re liking what we’re doing and what we’re talking about, please just drop us a comment. We’d love to hear back on that. That helps other people kind of see maybe that’s something that they would find value in listening to. So appreciate that. If you could take time to do that. I hope you have a great day and all the best to you, truly! Take care.