← Estate of Mind — The Art of Selling Luxury Real Estate
Estate of Mind — The Art of Selling Luxury Real Estate
Building a Sustainable Real Estate Business in Any Market
00:37:16
In this episode of Estate of Mind, hosts Tami Simms and Jack Miller sit down with David McGhee, Vice President of Buffini & Company, to explore what it truly means to future-proof your real estate business. From navigating shifting markets to building sustainable success, they dive into the fundamentals every agent should master—mindset, motivation, and methodology. You’ll learn how to balance timeless relationship-building strategies with today’s tech-driven tactics, how to leverage your existing sphere for consistent referrals, and why chasing the latest shiny object might be costing you more than you think. Whether you're a solo agent, a team leader, or somewhere in between, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you thrive in 2025 and beyond.
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- [00:00]
Tammy Sims
State of Mind, a podcast series all about motivating, inspiring and educating you in the art of selling luxury real estate. The podcast is brought to you by the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing. I'm Tammy Sims, lead trainer for the Institute and a full time real estate professional in St. Petersburg, Florida. In this episode we're going to talk about future proofing your real estate business. We'll explore strategies for real estate professionals to build long term sustainable success. Today's podcast is brought to you in part by Real Marketing, the only marketing firm recommended exclusively by the Institute. Real marketing utilizes over 30 years of expertise and their products are built and customized for you to dominate any neighborhood anywhere. Go to Real Marketing 4U. That's Real Marketing, the number4you.com. I'm here today with my co host Jack Miller, a 25 plus year veteran luxury agent with Onward Real Estate in the greater Nashville, Tennessee market. And our guest today is David McGee, Vice President of the Buffini Coaching Institute. Hello to both of you and welcome.
- [01:10]
Jack Miller
Hi Dave.
- [01:11]
David McGee
It's great to be here.
- [01:12]
Jack Miller
Hi David.
- [01:13]
David McGee
Jack.
- [01:15]
Tammy Sims
So future proofing your real estate business, right? This is a big, big topic and I think that there is no better guest to have than you, Dave, because this is what you are all about is helping real estate professionals succeed and, and plan for the future. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask you to just kind of jump right in and tell us what your initial thoughts were when we proposed this topic to you.
- [01:41]
David McGee
Yeah, thanks Tammy. You know, we at Buffinian Company, we've been in the coaching and training business predominantly in the real estate space for 29 years. And so we've seen a lot of different markets. And I was intrigued by the future proofing your your business because there's a lot of agents right now that they've really only seen one type of market and that's a fast moving seller's market. And so really, you know, as I was thinking about how do you future proof your business? To me it all comes down to the fundamentals and realizing that the market we've experienced for the last 10 years isn't a normal market. Right. It seems normal because that's what we've had for 10 years or so. But it isn't, it's fast paced, it's a seller's market and a little shift to a more moderate market, maybe a little more on the buy side, might not be a bad idea.
- [02:32]
Tammy Sims
Absolutely. And I'm hearing from some of my colleagues, successful real estate agents, that there are some that haven't closed A transaction so far in 2025. And that's kind of mind blowing. And so, Dave, you talked about the basics. What do you, what do you talk about with, with the basics, particularly with coaching and training.
- [02:56]
David McGee
Great. Tammy, I want to touch on what you just said, because over the last 12 months, there's been 700,000 agents that haven't sold a home. That's 47% of the national association of Realtors. Almost half of all agents haven't sold a home. And Jack, to your point, you know, there's, there's a typical market that we, that we view nationally, and then we all know real estate's local, so your market might be different than my market. And then there's segments of the market. So many of the listeners to this podcast are in the luxury home market, which actually is doing pretty well compared to most of the other markets. And so, Tammy, to your question, I think the key for us is really to kind of, when we're coaching somebody is to really get clear on where they are in their business. The stage of their business are they are the startup and build phase or the grow phase or the scale phase, and then within that phase, what's their segment of business, and then how is their business? And for us, it really comes down to there are some very sound principles that always work. The tactics will change based on the market we're in, but the principles largely stay the same. And so we want to help people get focused on those principles that always work, clarify their vision of what they're trying to accomplish, and then put a strategic process in place that bridges the gap. And when push comes to shove, the thing that really differentiates the winners from those that struggle is motivation, Mindset and methodology. What's the motivation for what you're doing? Do you have an empowering mindset or a limiting mindset? And do you have a strategic methodology to move you from where you are to where you want to go?
- [04:39]
Tammy Sims
It kind of is like back to the basics, old school techniques while staying on top of new technology and that sort of thing. I joke all the time that Realtors are the prime target for anybody selling any new piece of software or anything. It's like we've got a little mark on our forehead that says, I will buy anything. And so it's super easy to, to want to embrace new technology and that sort of thing. How do you think that that fits in the overall plan? You know, we talked about adapting markets, shifting, shifting times and economies. So what's the balance between old school and what kind of old school things. Do you, do you encourage people? That will always work.
- [05:27]
David McGee
Yeah. So, and this is this kind of, you know, buffinian company, has a, a brand, if you will, in the marketplace, Calls, notes and Popeyes. And so people hear that when we first came out 29 years ago with calls, notes and pop buys, focusing on people that know you like you, trust you, have a relationship and want to refer you, that was actually the easy way to do business, right? Oh, I don't have to cold call people. I don't have to door knock people. I don't have to spend my time with expired listings and for sale by owners. I can talk to people I know and like and trust and who know like and trust me and get business. And so a lot of people gravitated to us and now we're not the easy business. You know, people, people want to do. I just want to be on social media. I just want to make some Instagram posts, have people reach out to me and do deals with them. And so there's this, this concept that we're not technology forward. And that couldn't be further from the truth. But I think, you know, earlier I said principles don't change, tactics do. The technology helps you with the tactics. It's, it's easier than ever to come up with marketing content for people because of AI. So why wouldn't you embrace AI? It's easier than ever to distribute your information because of social media. So why wouldn't you utilize social media? But if that becomes your strategy, you're in trouble. Those are tactics that need to be aligned to a strategy of connecting and developing relationships with people. This is a, this real estate is a relational business. You cannot do a deal without talking to someone. And so as much as you can.
- [07:04]
Tammy Sims
And if you do, there's probably something fishy about it.
- [07:07]
David McGee
Exactly right. And so I think the key, the principles are, you know, every year, I don't. When the home seller and buyer report comes out, 80% of all business is repeat or referred business. So that's really where you want to spend your time, regardless of your, your business segment. Repeat and referral business.
- [07:28]
Tammy Sims
Jack, you and I both talked about the fact that that that's a solid, solid foray for us.
- [07:34]
Jack Miller
Yeah, absolutely, it is. And I think it's interesting too, Dave, because you and Tammy both kind of commented on this. You know, there, there. I think a lot of agents get lost in the woods, particularly newer agents, because of what Tammy said earlier. There are so many people and organizations and marketing groups that are constantly Reaching out to us and targeting us because they feel like, as Tammy said, we have a mark on our head, we'll buy anything. But seriously, I'll get, on a typical day of three to five phone calls, text messages, excluding the numerous emails we get trying to sell us some sort of, you know, lead service or media content editing, coaching. There's, there's a zillion ways that we can spend money and there's a zillion ways we can get distracted. So Dave, what would you say is the best way for, for agents in the luxury space to remain focused and how to kind of sort through all that and really focus on what it is that makes us successful, particularly when we're in changing markets?
- [08:43]
David McGee
Yeah, the beauty of the luxury market I think right now is if you look at the composition of home buyers over the last couple of years, the age has gone up, the income level has gone up, really, that it's in that luxury home market that, that people are buying and selling homes more than any other market right now. And so one is to have the mindset that I'm not going to pay attention to all the bad news. I'm going to focus on what I can focus on. And right now the luxury market is a great place to be. The real challenge is in first time and move up markets. Right. So one is mindset. Two, I think motivation. What are you, what are you trying to accomplish? But I'm going to, I'm going to level on strategic methodology. And there's a math that we often forget because we are sold a million different things. And again, if you, if you were to Google my name, you'd see me on YouTube, you'd see me on LinkedIn, you'd see me on Facebook, you'd see me on Instagram, you'd see me on Twitter. So I'm not, I'm not going to poo poo any of the technologies, but the math is this. 4.1 million homes sold in 2023. 4 million homes sold in 2024 Going the wrong direction. And everyone will tell you that's a low amount of homes, but it's 3% of all homeowners in the United States. So if we just look at this, Gallup says we all know 200 people, which means 3% of the 200 people I know bought or sold a home. Six. Six people. Probably not going to get rich on six people, depending on my price point. I might, but probably not. But the 200 people I know know 200 people. That's 40,000 people that I'm one degree of separation away from. You all heard the game Six Degrees of Separation. Kevin Bacon, right. I'm one degree of separation from 40,000 people. Three percent of that is 1200 homes. Probably didn't need 1200 homes last year. And so if, if we get caught up in chasing the new or the shiny object, we miss where everybody is now. How can I stay in contact with my 200? Well, the first thing I want to do is I want to make sure I have some reach out. That's voice to voice. I also want to be where they are in social media. And so I think for most real estate agents, the number one place to be would be Facebook because of the demographic of who's buying and selling homes right now. I think LinkedIn's a great place to be. And then I'd probably be on Instagram showing some photos of homes. But the main reason is that is going to be brand awareness and more to connect with my audience where they are. If I'm on Facebook, I get to see what a past client did and reach out to them and have a conversation. And one of the things we all know is that, that everybody we know now this is not absolute, but mostly everybody we know lives in a home they're either renting or they own. And so they're all interested in what's happening in the real estate market. So when I reach out and have a conversation with somebody, real estate's gonna come up. And so, you know, I want to use a new technology to help me be better at what is foundational to success. And that's having relationship with people.
- [11:53]
Jack Miller
People that, that's really the core. It's all about relationships. You've said that already in this podcast. And I think a lot of agents forget that, particularly newer agents. They're so again, they're, they're chasing the lead service, they're chasing people who don't know them and oftentimes getting frustrated because of the poor return. And when you, at the end of the day, when you think about it from the standpoint you're describing, which is that one degree of separation, that's so true. We should be focusing on who are the people that we know and love and love us and who the people respect us and who are the. We're also. I see. We'll find in our own databases. Day there are certain key people that you can tell they're the movers and shakers in their circles that everybody goes to for referrals. They want to know who does that person Use for insurance? Who does that person use for stock advice? Who does that use a person for use for real estate? Those people, when you find out who they are, they can make the return exponentially greater when you identify them and focus your efforts on them.
- [12:55]
David McGee
That's right. Go ahead, Tammy.
- [12:56]
Tammy Sims
I'm sorry, I just wanted to go back before, before I lose it entirely. One of the things that you mentioned in terms of social media being a place to stay connected and see what people are doing, I have always thought that it was kind of like permission based marketing. So if you see on social media that someone in your sphere of influence has made an accomplishment or their k have done, done something great, it's an opportunity for you to pick up the phone or to write a handwritten note, right? So you take that, you take that technology piece and you bring back the, the old school touch with that. And I think that's a, that's an important, important thing to think about.
- [13:38]
David McGee
Yeah, 100%. And I think, you know, people all the time are, what do I post? What do I post? What do I post? Is it important to post? Yes. You want to have a frequency. You want to have, you know, if, if my, if I refer my grandmother to somebody, the first thing she's going to do is Google the person I refer them to. Right. So the trust is there with me, but they still want to. Before I got on the podcast, I got in everybody's LinkedIn platform. Right. The, it's just what we do. And so you want to have a presence. But, but anybody who is an expert in any of the platforms will tell you the number one thing to do to get reach in any of the social media platforms is not post. It's to respond to get in and comment on things. That's like picking up the phone and having a phone call. Now the. I'm dating myself, I'm a Gen Xer, I have a gray beard. So I'm going to sound like the old grumpy old man, right? The, the younger generations will say that my generation doesn't use the phone. And that's true. In fact, I don't use the phone.
- [14:45]
Jack Miller
Well.
- [14:45]
David McGee
And Facebook for sure, I would say, you know, Facebook is still the demographic, demographic who are buying luxury homes. Absolutely. Be where they are. And it is like if, if my best friend called me right now on the phone, obviously I'm on a podcast, but if I wasn't doing anything, I wouldn't answer it because like I'm focused on being productive. I'll listen to the voicemail I'll call them back when I have time. So it is true that people aren't answering the phones. And the younger, you know, my nieces and nephews, they're not making phone calls, they're texting people. That's fine. Contact people the way they want to be contacted, but don't hide behind social media. A direct message on social media, if you have a relationship with somebody, great, that's a contact, a text message, it's a contact. Ultimately, I want to get in to have a conversation. And this goes to the point you made, Jack. I think, you know what we do when we're working with clients, we want to identify everybody they know that they have relationship with. We want to find the 150 to 200 people that know them, they know, and it's not just a cursory relationship. And then we're going to sort those relationships by the likelihood of those people referring us business. And some people have a higher likelihood than others. So in our system, it's A plus ab and so an A plus would be what you were talking about, Jack. The people I want to be, I want to be in contact with them at a minimum once a month. And if I can face to face the A's, I want to be in contact with them once a month. And voice to voice or text might work for that. The bees, I'll be in contact with them as I can, and I'll let my marketing material kind of be in touch with them. And then within that, there's. There's certain groups that have even more likelihood to refer. I'd want to know. The most likely person to refer you is somebody you're currently in transaction with because they're talking to everybody. They know about what they're doing, and their friends and family are saying, ooh, I'd like to do that too. The second most likely person to refer you is somebody that you've done business with because they can say, this is what Dave did for me. And so those people become very important to stay in contact with. And then down a level from that are our business owners that have associated. Were the clients the same? So your lender, your accountant, your financial planner, those are all people that are dealing with people who have money and might be wanting to invest that money or use that money to buy or sell a home.
- [17:12]
Tammy Sims
Dave, I want to take us down a slightly different path for a second. A lot of realtors get in the business and they think that in order to grow their business and earn as much as possible and to be successful that they need to create a team. And now Jack and I are both of the camp that we do have business partners, but it's not what I'm talking about in terms of building a big team. And it's not right for everybody. But what are your thoughts about that whole approach of building a team in order to elevate the revenue and the ultimate salability?
- [17:54]
David McGee
Yeah, it's great. So it goes to stage of business. Right. We talked earlier about there's people in the startup phase, the build phase, the growth phase, the scale phase, and eventually the exit phase. The if you look at small business in general and real estate pretty much follows this path. About 20% of all businesses are in that startup and build phase, 18% are in the scale phase. And what that means is they have more than one person in the business. Now, I'm not good with math, so I'm going to say that's 20%. So you have 40%. It's either startup or scale. 60% of all small businesses are solopreneur. 60% of all real estate businesses are solopreneur. And you can have a very good business as a solopreneur or an agent and an assistant. And I think so what it really comes down to is what you want to accomplish. You know, we, we always joke that the. There are five roles that an agent plays in their business. And the first one is going to sound crass, but I'll explain it. Your number one role as an agent is to cash checks. And what, what I mean by that is you have to have a profitable business. And so if you're doing everything great, customer service, great, this, but you're not cashing your checks. It's a tough business to be in. You won't last. So number one role is cash checks. Number two, lead generate so you can cash those checks. Number three, working with sellers, number four, working with buyers. And number five, all the administrative stuff that goes with doing your business. If you can do all five of those on your own and have the business you want, great. But then what happens is for most of us, we get busy. So we want to start taking things off our plate and we need to take off our plate from the bottom first. So we need to get rid of the administrative stuff. That's typically hiring an assistant. And then when, when my assistant and I get too busy to handle all the business we have, we have a choice to make, stay at this level or grow. And then that next thing is take buyers off our plate. So that's Buyer's agent. And then that's where most teams will stop, in the real estate space. So most are solo agents, maybe with an assistant. The next level is a buyer agent or two. The bigger teams now have people to handle their sales. And as the leader of the team, I'm focused on two things, generating leads and cashing checks. And so I think it's where you are in your stage of your business and what you want your business to look at next. I will say this. More people will go broke trying to start a team than having a team, because they do it out of sequence. So you want to do it based on. Generate enough leads that I'm so busy now I need an assistant now I need a buyer's agent now I need a listing coordinator. And then I'm focused on lead generation and cashing checks.
- [20:39]
Jack Miller
David, so funny you said that, because I've been saying this for over 20 years. I've been watching it happen when. When Robert, my business partner, when we started, we had a true team, and we were one of the first teams in our market up until the market crash. And after the market crash for us, we decided we were well into the luxury space at that point, and we said, you know what? We like working as a partnership, not having a big team. And that was a conscious decision we made, and it's worked great for us. But what I saw happen prior to the market crash, and I've seen it today, too, is a lot of. A lot of new agents. They're. They're. They get focused on the glamour of the business, for lack of a better word. And they want to see their pictures and on websites and print Media with four or five or six or 10 or 12 young, pretty agents with them. Look how big our team is.
- [21:32]
Tammy Sims
All dressed in the same color. All dressed in the same color.
- [21:35]
Jack Miller
The same color, of course, wearing, coordinating, you know, attire, whatever, and fashion. And it becomes a. A fashion plate. And it's great visuals, but there's no content. Nobody's generating any business. And they're so busy with the marketing piece that at some point to your. To your earlier point about sustainability, you can't sustain by having pretty marketing if somebody's not out there generating business and having conversations. And so we've seen teams come and go on a regular basis, even in the luxury space, because they're building the team out of order. And you're exactly right. You've got to. Building the team should be a result of a need, not because you want to look good in a spread in a Two page spread in Luxury Home magazine.
- [22:20]
David McGee
There's a sequence to success in everything. In anything we try, we always start out in survival. If I'm going to do something new, I don't start out in success or significance. I start out in survival. And the next, the next step is stability and then stability to success and success to significance. And so if I. Now, I'm not saying you couldn't start a business and a team at the same time, but you'd have to have a marketing engine in place that was generating leads. The only reason to have a team member is I have a surplus of leads that I can't get to all of them. And so then I need a business to, you know, I need somebody to help take that, help me in that business to free up my time. And what most people do is they try to jump from survival to success or significance. You just can't do it. Now you can fall from significance all the way down to survival, but to move up the ladder, you have to go step by step.
- [23:14]
Jack Miller
Well, I love what you said earlier, right. It does sound crass, but there's a lot of truth to it. If you're building that team, you better be cash a lot of checks because if you're not cashing checks, you have no reason. Building your team, you know, that doesn't work. That doesn't work in that order.
- [23:26]
David McGee
The percentage of your, of your, the revenue that goes to your profit is smaller the larger your team grows.
- [23:32]
Jack Miller
That's right.
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David McGee
And, and so you need to make sure that there's enough revenue to cover what you're trying to do economically.
- [23:40]
Tammy Sims
So you talked about the various different stages and, and it's really interesting because I went under contract over the weekend and one of the things that we do is when we receive an offer is we look to see how long the agent on the other side has been licensed. Right. Which may tell us how much experience they have or that sort of thing. And Tammy, excuse me, can you also.
- [24:06]
Jack Miller
See their production or no?
- [24:10]
Tammy Sims
I will look up their recent production.
- [24:13]
Jack Miller
That shows up automatically in our market. We look at the agent's profile in the MLS. It shows, it shows their production for the prior 12 months. Buy side, sell side, average, median. It's very interesting.
- [24:27]
Tammy Sims
I would, I would have to pull that manually. It's easy, it's easy to do typically. I'll look and see what do they have for listings or, you know, what, what do they have currently under contract? You know, just trying to get a sense of, of that. And the agent in this Particular instance, got her license in 1979. Right. And I was like, oh, that's not what I expected. Right. And, and so this is a solo agent. It's a, you know, someone whose name I know and that sort of thing. And, and, you know, she is still actively working in the business. Right. I'm trying to think about when my mom got her license, since most of our, our listeners know that I work with my mom and she's on that, on that tail end sort of thing of her career. But what would you tell an agent who's kind of in that, that been doing it quite a while, and what would you consider to be success? Right, because some people will just retire and that's it. Some people have built a book of business that actually could be, could be purchased. Sometimes you've got family involved. So, you know, what do you think about that kind of thought process?
- [25:43]
David McGee
Well, I think the key is what does success mean to you? Right. We get this all the time. Our average coached client earns $463,000. Our average leadership coach client, so they have a team earns $780,000. Just under. We've got hundreds of agents doing over a million dollars a year that we coach. And I'll get people coming up to me all the time and say, hey, I've been in coaching for six years and I must be failing. And I'll say, why? And they'll say, because I'm not making 463, or I've got a team and I'm not making $800,000. Then I'll ask them, well, how much money do you want to make? And they'll say, I'm pretty good at 260, 270. What are you making? 260, 270. Great. Then by your measurement, you're a success. Right. And I think that it's super important that we don't measure success by what other people are doing, but that we measure success by what it is we're trying to accomplish. What's the life and lifestyle that I want to have? Our core mission at Buffini & Co. Is to impact and improve the lives and livelihoods of people. And it starts with life, because the business should fund the life that you want to have. And so I would say success, you determine what your level of success is. And if you're somebody that says, hey, I'm making X and I want to make Y, great. If you're somebody who says, I'm making X and I'm happy with X, great. Now the one Caution, I would give in. That is there's a law of nature. You're either growing or you're dying. Stability doesn't exist. And so you want to have some measure of growth. Even if you're in a place where everything's comfortable, you want to have some measure of growth to guard against going back the other way. Lou Holtz used to say, the only thing that goes downhill on its own is a bike that's coasting. Right. So you're not. You got to be careful.
- [27:38]
Tammy Sims
So I want to talk about another type of relationships that I think is important, and that is the relationships with the other real estate professionals in your market. So at the top of the podcast, we were talking about changing, changing markets, right? Things are not flying off the shelf. People are having to dust off remembering how to do open houses and brokers opens, right. Which we never, you know, we haven't had to do those for quite some time. And I was listening to somebody talk the other day about doing effective brokers opens and even broker networking events. We have a luxury pitch session that now is doing once a month and it is really well attended, sharing buyers, wants and needs and that sort of thing. And it's well attended by people who are actually producing. Right. So there was a time when brokers opens were only attended by anybody who needed a free lunch, right. Because they didn't have any business going on. But now we're shifting back into that zone where we need those relationships with the other real estate professionals in our market to, to help get our properties sold and to help our buyers find things that, that aren't readily apparent. And, and one thing that my broker said when we were talking about this, he said, I want to ask yourself, if you're having a broker's open event and you're not getting anybody showing up, ask yourself when' last time that you went to somebody else's brokers open, right? And that was kind of like a. Oh, yeah, that's old school, right. And that goes back to the give rather than just straight asking. But I think that that's among those, those tactics that, that bring us back to the basics.
- [29:17]
David McGee
It's interesting because the way the business has changed, you know, I've been a coach for 18 years. Prior to that, I was in the real estate business. And when I got started in the business, my neighbor said, hey, when, when he got started in the business, it was a one page contract and a handshake. And, you know, when I got started in the business, we were starting to do docusign and, and so DocuSign has made everything way more efficient. And it's also taken contact out of the, out of the transaction. No longer do you need to present a contract. You just email it over. Somebody docusigns it, that, that's it. And so relationship goes away and learning from relationship goes away. And what we've seen over the last few years is the number of transactions that go under contract and fall out has exponentially increased. At one point, it was 60,000 contracts a month were under contract falling off. Here's a willing buyer and a willing seller who get under contract, both represented by agents who have a vested interest in making sure that deal happens and they fall apart. And part of that is unprofessionalism in the workplace. And part of it is because we're not in relationship with people anymore. And there's, there's a gentleman that we coach, Carl Miller, who years ago told me we have a number of training programs. And he said in his market, there weren't a lot of Buffini agents. And he just, he found it tough to be working with a lot of people. So he started implementing one of our training programs, Peak Producers, in his marketplace and inviting other agents to come learn this training program and so that he could build relationship with them. And, and then he said, now our whole market is agents who know each other. And, and what a great way to do business when you have relationship, when you, you can have a tough conversation with somebody on the other side of a transaction, but you get to resolution because, you know, you both want the same thing and you're, and you both have a relationship that you want to, you want to protect. I think it's, it's huge on, on every side of the transaction. It's, it's principle and foundational.
- [31:17]
Tammy Sims
You know, couldn't agree more. So I have a feeling that we could probably go on and on, on this topic and find more nuances. But I want to just kind of take our last few moments talking about how, how do we stay focused and anticipate changes in the market and the economy and that sort of thing in a way that, that allows us to be prepared and not reactive and kind of go back to that bulletproofing, future proofing our business because we know that change is coming. It always is.
- [32:00]
David McGee
One of my favorite edicts is from Ray Dalio, and he was the, the, the founded Bridgewater and Associates. And, and he's been a little bit of a lightning rod right now. Some people love them, some people can't stand them. But whether you agree with a lot of what he said, one of the things he used to say, he's. He's a student of history, and when something would happen, he would just say, that's just another one of those things. And the market we're in right now is just another one of those things. None of us in our lifetime have ever seen tariffs, but tariffs, it's not new. They've happened before. It's just another one of those things. The economic situation we're in right now is just another one of those things, and we've got to adapt to it. And I think the key to adapting to it is staying focused on a couple of things. One, what it is that you're trying to accomplish, what's the purpose that you're in business for, what's the mission of your business, and what's the goal you have for your business? And if you're clear on that, then that's probably 60 to 80% of what you need to focus on, because then the rest of it is helping the people who are your potential clients accomplish what they want to accomplish. And there will, no matter what our economic climate, people will still need to live in a home, and people will still want to buy, and people will still want to sell. Some people will be compelled to buy and sell. Interest rates. You know, Jack, you talked about when you got in, you probably saw interest rates in double digits, right? We're. We're kind of. Interest rates right now are kind of where historically normal. We just haven't experienced them like this for a while. Interest rates won't matter. People will want to buy and people will want to sell. And so I think that's the key, is stay focused on as much as you can. Simplify it. Stay focused on what does somebody really want to accomplish? What's the motivation? This person wants to buy a home. This person wants to sell a home. Let's put the two of them together and make a deal happen.
- [34:01]
Jack Miller
That's terrific advice. I've said to a lot of our newer agents here, when the conversation revolves around interest rates and people talk about how the interest rates need to come down, these high interest rates, I said, you know what? Historically, just like you said, they, this is kind of where they've been over the last 50 years as an average, you know, and if we're waiting for that 2% or 3% deal to come back, you'll never buy a house again, more than likely.
- [34:26]
David McGee
I think, you know, that's one of the things our, our model is work by referral. I see a lot of people waiting by referral right now. And, and the key is to get out and make something happen. I guarantee you this, if you're struggling as an agent right now, make a list of your top 100 relationships. Call through that list in the next month. And if you want to be aggressive, call through that list in the next week and just have conversation with people, check in how they doing, talk about the family, things that you would talk about people you're in relationship with. Real estate will come up and when it does, be ready to talk about it. And, and be, and be ready to know why now is a good time to buy regardless of interest rates, why now is a good time to sell. And I think social media is the new radio and TV and the new newspaper. It's just a vehicle to get the message out. But you got to know your, your message. If I'm posting on LinkedIn, I want to post information. As a real estate expert, I'm going to give information about what's happening in my marketplace. If I'm posting on Facebook, I'm going to give information that people who live in homes want to hear. You know, what's going on, it's spring planting around the house right now. Things that if I'm a homeowner or a renter that I'm interested in and then Instagram I'd be, I'd be put, because Instagram's a photo heavy platform. I'd be posting pictures of interiors of homes or exteriors of homes. And so to your point, do they have to be mine? Not necessarily, but I want to be the expert. When I talk about the market, I'm going to talk about from my knowledge of the market, when I talk about what homeowners want to hear, I might bring in my land or refer my landscaper to people on social media or even on a phone call. What a great reason to make a phone call. And then on Instagram I'm going to post pretty pictures of houses and interiors so that people are looking at that. So be where the people are.
- [36:16]
Tammy Sims
Absolutely. Well, I am so grateful for both of you taking the time to be on this episode and for our audience. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Estate of the Art of Selling Luxury Real Estate. If you're interested in learning more about the institute, you can find more@luxuryhome marketing.com and if you like what you just heard, please share it with a friend. And don't forget to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and of course, if you have a hot topic that you'd like us to discuss in a future podcast, feel free to let us know. Send an email to infoluxuryhomemarketing.com thanks so much for listening.