The New Age for Real Estate Agents

The amazing world of real estate is not the same as it was when I started my career in 2002. I was 20 years old, and very motivated to hit it big in real estate. There was no Facebook, Zillow, Dialing Systems, Electronic Signatures, Apps, etc. CRM’s were basically non-existent as well. Things were definitely “old school” compared to today’s high-tech world of lightening speed communication and processes. MLS was brand new at the time. At least I had that and emails. My first broker would tell me stories of how they had to wait each month until the real estate advertising book for the area came out so that they could see what’s on the market for their prospective buyers at the time.

I have watched the real estate industry evolve into something very special over the past sixteen years of my rollercoaster of a career. I started out taking advantage of everything I had. I learned how to Circle Prospect (making cold calls to owners in the same subdivision/complex after a listing or sale). I tried several different avenues of creating business, but once I started Circle Prospecting, I knew very quickly that this was the most efficient way to build short, and long-term business. So, I built my entire business on phone calls and emails…NO SOCIAL MEDIA OR INTERNET LEADS. I tried FSBO’s and Expired’s, but I didn’t like the high-pressure of those strategies. Looking back, now that I understand that deals mean nothing, and relationships mean everything, I could take on FSBO/Expired’s and do extremely well. Back when I pursued them, I was still chasing the deal. Prospects know if you are just another agent looking for a deal. But, very rarely do they run across an agent who “gets it”. An agent who is not just out for a paycheck, but also has a greater purpose to help others. Communicating who you are instead of using the same old scripts that everyone else is using (get my scripts here).

So, since I built my business to such a high level on phone calls and emails, I didn’t need anything else. I didn’t need technology. I didn’t need Social Media. I understood that the universal method that worked for me, and will always work in the future, is the combination of talking to enough people and the ability to make most of them feel comfortable with you. That you will always work hard for them. Be dependable. Get the job done. Be honest. These skills are universal across the board. With this philosophy, you can go from zero to a million. There are no excuses.

How Technology has Improved the Industry

So, when Social Media came along, I basically shrugged it off and blocked it out. I didn’t even use it for my personal life. I was so focused on creating and maintaining new and old relationships with clients that I had no time to even look at anything else. I knew that what I was doing worked, and the more I did the more I produced. So, I didn’t need anything else. However, I did eventually start using electronic signatures. This made life a million times easier. I did try Zillow leads for three months. I didn’t care for the quality compared to what I was getting Circle Prospecting. So, I discontinued the service. That was around 2011. I went back to cold calling and farming subdivisions and complexes. I then built my single agent business up to over 100 transactions per year by 2014, and have sold more each year since.

Finally, last year (2016) I started using Social Media and opened up my mind to all the technology available to us in the world. I realized very quickly how powerful it is. The reach is amazing. I started with just a Facebook Business page. I ran a few ads, and got my feet wet. Since then, I learn something new everyday. I now have daily content going out of several different pages and groups on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter, iTunes and Soundcloud. Each platform has its own purpose and objectives. Learning how to use them to your benefit of spreading your message to others is an incredible process that I suggest everyone start immediately if you have not already. If you are already started, keep going. Nothing is easy, but hang in there. It’s worth it.

Bottom line is that Technology has made everything much easier for real estate agents. The transfer of information, communication and the overall process. Embrace it now. It is going to get worse.

Use Technology to get the Conversation Started

Early in my career, I realized very quickly that “Conversation is the key to all closing”. Fast forward to today, and that is still the case. It is also the reason that technology will not replace real estate agents. There has to be a conversation that is converted into a working relationship. PERIOD. This is the goal. Not an appointment, listing or even a closing. Learn to win them over with your most unique asset, YOUR PERSONALITY. Show them how much you care and will outwork your competition. They will respect and choose you as their agent.

Technology has made it easier than ever to get the conversation going. I thin a big problem in the current real estate world is that younger agents don’t want to work voice-to-voice, and older agents don’t want to give in to technology. I believe that you should do a combination of both. Build your online brand and make calls. Become a specialist of digital marketing and making prospects feel comfortable with you over the phone and in person.

I made over 100,000 cold calls over a 14 year period the hard way. Looking them up on whitepages.com and dialing the numbers with my finger, one-by-one. Only after I got through 100,000 and built a huge business did I see that they invented a dialing system that not only dials all the numbers for you, but also finds all the phone numbers. Holy smokes. the first time I experienced a dialer, I was blown away. I realized that looking up and calling 100 owners used to take me 15 hours. Now, with this new technology, I can do the same damage within an hour and a half. Therefore, you can make calls 10 times faster now then I was doing it before. WOW! Use the links below to use RedX Geo Leads and Dialer and they will waive the $150 start-up fee for you.

Here are some of my current strategies:

Use RedX Geo Leads (save $150 here) to find property owners phone numbers. RedX has the best quality numbers (some cell numbers). Then I put this numbers in a dialing system (Mojo or Redx), and use my real estate phone scripts to create lifelong relationships with as many property owners in my market as possible. Talk to at least 20 a day.

Send weekly emails (on the same day of the week forever) with market information and articles about the area. (I have been doing this for over 11 years) You can see an example of one of my reports and a video tutorial here

Use the email database to create a custom Facebook audience so that you can run Facebook and Instagram ads to the same group of prospects getting your emails.

These are just some of my current strategies…

I hope you enjoyed this article

Please email me here and let me know what you think my next blog or YouTube video should be about

Ricky Carruth

RE/MAX of Orange Beach