← Estate of Mind — The Art of Selling Luxury Real Estate
Estate of Mind — The Art of Selling Luxury Real Estate
Luxury Real Estate Farming Strategies That Still Work in 2026
00:47:31
Discover the luxury real estate farming strategies top agents are using to stay visible, build trust, and win more listings in 2026.
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A
Owning a home is most people's largest asset and to trust somebody to sell that is a lot. You know, we're not really marketing, we're building trust, you know, and so that's so important. When you go to hire someone, you're only going to hire someone you trust and you're going to trust the people giving you information all the time. And so when you're inconsistent, the trust falls, you know, and it's like, and so the consistency is really tied to. Well, I can count on them to give me that. Monthly data.
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Today's podcast is brought to you by Interlux Auctions. Your solution to guarantee competitive offers on your luxury listings with no compromise to commission. Visit InterLuxe.com today to find out more. That's I N T E R l u x e.com.
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B
welcome to A 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 for more than two decades. In today's episode we we're going to talk about targeted farming strategies in luxury real estate that are absolutely attuned to today's marketplace. Now I'm here with my co host Jack Miller, a 25 plus year veteran luxury agent with Onward Real Estate in the greater Nashville, Tennessee market. And joining us today is Dakota Collins with Real Marketing, a longtime partner of the institute and absolute expert on farming strategies. So welcome Dakota.
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A
Thank you so much, Tammy. It's a pleasure to be here with both you and Jack today. I'm very excited to talk about strategy, one of my favorite things.
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C
Great.
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A
I love it.
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B
And Jack and I probably fall into that whole old school category and I am looking forward to learning something new that builds on tried and true strategies. So Dakota, I want to kind of open it up to you to get us started. Your father built this company and absolute dominance through consistency and direct mail specifically. And so I'm curious about your story, how you got here and what you see that path being going forward.
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A
Thank you so much. Yeah, so I watched my dad start this company when I was about 7 years old in South Florida. My dad was an agent and he got into this marketing, he saw a fit for it, it helped his business quite a bit and then, you know, he started helping other agents. But for the past 30 plus years, I have just seen countless agents do really well with our farming program and the good News about the old school is it works, right? So. So that's the great news, is that the strategies are the same, but the tools are a little different. You know, we have some retargeting capabilities these days that are top notch. You know, you can look at some of my dad's old presentations, and he's constantly saying, you know, 78% of homeowners would hire the neighborhood expert if they know who that is. And, you know, he gets into, you know, that homeowners will hire the first or second agent they talk to. And like, all that's still true. You know, all that's still true. It's just a matter of, well, maybe they're scanning a QR code now. You know, that phone got a little heavier. So I'm excited. Throughout the time that we have, we'll probably get into to quite a few different things. And watching my dad start this company was fascinating to say the least. We could probably do like an entire hour on just that. But to give you an idea, right? So we send out almost a million sheets of paper a month these days. It's not always there. Sometimes it's, you know, 900,000, 800,000, it just depends. But it's right there in that pocket. And I have incredible memories of my dad. He would go to Costco, get the photos printed. He'd go to Kinko's, get the templates, and then we had spray glue. You want to talk about old school? We had flat cans of spray glue, and. And he would put towels all over the living room floor, and then he'd put on nascar and we would watch Jeff Gordon, and we would just. And he would spray these pictures, and then very quickly, so the glue doesn't dry right. He would stick them on the paint, you know, and. And sometimes I'd have a babysitter he'd hire to, you know, help. And there's 55 people here now, so it's come a long way.
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B
Absolutely, absolutely. Jack, you and I have talked about some of those memories of going.
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C
Yeah, when you were describing that Dakota, I remember that very well. Doing very similar things. Photos of houses, glue in the back, still putting them on the cards. We have come a long way, for sure. By the way, what year did your father. Do you know, what year your father started the company?
- [05:20]
A
This is a great question. I know it was the 90s because I remember him going from the big brick phone that you. It was weird because it was so expensive, you wouldn't really use it. Right. It was just like there, you know, it's like in case of emergency, but then you might as well just use a pay phone. And I saw the evolution of the cell phone, so whatever that was, we need to look back. We should probably have that. It'd be kind of cool, like, since 93 or, you know, whatever. So I need a look. But I know it was the 90s. It was very much the 90s when this company started.
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C
And, Dakota, when did you join your dad's business? What year, roughly?
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A
That's a great question. For legal reasons, I'm going to say I was a teenager, but I was prob. You know, pasting pictures since I can remember, you know, and my dad was. I think it was wise he had me get a couple other jobs. Like, I worked at Starbucks. I worked at Guess Jeans, and then he helped me start a manufacturing company that we ran for eight years, and that was right in the middle. So I basically. I worked for him every summer. You know, he always got that work ethic in me, you know, like if I wanted to. To, you know, buy new shoes for. To keep up with my friends, right. That I didn't really need, but they're cool. You know, I'd be like, oh, you get those. But, you know, and there was always an opportunity to work, right? And so I was always working, whether it was a long spring break, Christmas vacation, or, you know, nine times out of 10, summer vacation, and just Monday through Friday, you know, I still had great summers, but I was working a lot. Those eight years were fantastic. We were side by side, running a company side by side, and I got to start that, and we did that for eight years, and then I came back. So to give you kind of an idea, a lot of the systems we put in place in the beginning were still here when I came back. And he started me with the rubber bands. So I was absolutely, you know, bundling all the mail. And then throughout my life, you know, I learned every single position in the company. So pretty much forever, I would say, as far as I can remember. Yeah. With some breaks. With some breaks, oddly.
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B
Some of that. That you were talking about, of get another job, learn, learn, work ethic, that sort of thing. It actually applies directly to what I think real marketing has brought together in terms of a successful strategy. And that is commitment. It's planning, it's commitment. It's knowing the end goal, and it's sticking with it, that consistency. So, Dakota, tell us a little bit about that farming strategy in terms of the principles of consistency and how that might be evolving from a straight, direct Mail to a more content driven, digital driven experience.
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A
Absolutely. No, those are, those are fantastic questions. And just to give you a little bit of an idea on consistency. So you know, we know that direct mail takes between 8 and like my dad's always saying 8.4 touches, right? And then I get these, you know, emails from clients that say I just got a listing in my first month. And like, that's amazing, but not the expectation we want to put out there. You know, that does happen, but it's not always the case. And so I always like to think of myself as a consumer. Right. Like, you know, okay, so owning a home is most people's largest asset. And to trust somebody to sell that is a lot. You know, we're not really marketing, we're building trust, you know, and so that's so important when you go to hire someone, you're only going to hire someone you trust and you're going to trust the people giving you information all the time. And so when you're inconsistent, the trust falls, you know, and it's like, and so the consistency is really tied to, well, I can count on them to give me that monthly data, you know, I can. And there's also a lot to be said about out of sight, out of mind right now. You talk about this new era where there's content everywhere. And it's true. And it's, you know, we participate as well. We're always trying to put more content together and it's really important. And so what we have these days is a smart QR code that is, it's a ton of code. It's like all this Python, it's using Perl technology. So we create a personal URL for every single homeowner. And that's why these other tech companies can't give you a QR code that has the homeowner's information in it. And I don't mean to get like too technical, but the way that we print the homeowners names on the, on the market reports, which we've done forever, is the same way we're printing these codes. And so we're embedding the whole, like a whole bunch of information into these codes. Last time the property sold, estimated equity, length of residence, my favorite length of residence, you know, mailing address, property address. So you have their tax bill plus the site. And it's a, it's a plethora of beautiful information. Maybe we can like show a slide of it. And it's, it's just really great. We use Google sheets in order to get this information because as my dad was an agent, I've talked to agents my whole life. We have to keep it easy, you know, because they're busy, they're so busy, right. I've hung out with agents for like days at a time and I'm just like, oh my gosh, you know, and we're in the industry, so it's the same way, right? So it has to be accessible quickly. So the Google sheet is on your phone, but that's not actionable, right. So you know, then they gotta like send a follow up piece, maybe a personal brochure or something like that. And so what a lot of our clients are doing is taking their market report as an anchor and then springboarding into these digital avenues, right. So for example, that Google sheet, you have this new row of data that can trigger in your CRM. I'm not going to mention any CRMs because we're not affiliated with any one CRM, but we can go into any of them and there are some great ones out there. And so all the automation that they offer is really second to none. Pay per click, right? Pay per click is big. And you can, so now you have this, this web of, you know, your market report, that's tactile, that's, that's the trust building part. But you can use it to kind of encompass that same person or audience. So we could totally get into like the technical part of that a little bit more. But essentially we're using the market report as agents anchor and then we also recommend like do more stuff, you know, do more things. Yeah, they kind of talk a little
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C
bit more about with the QR code. Help me understand and help our audience understand how are you using the QR code? How are you getting the QR code in front of buyers and in front of sellers? What does that look like?
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A
Great question. So you would have your market report, something like such, and the QR code would be primarily up here, maybe it's over here, could be on the back as well. And nine times out of 10 it's going to say, find out the value of your home. Right. So you know, there are other calls to action. We've seen a couple pretty catchy ones. You know, there's like, have you heard about the neighbors? If it's a, you know, a big sale, right. If you're, if you've, you know, done a big sale and you want to talk about that. But as far as the market report goes, let's, let's break this down a little bit so you're getting this every month. It has all this incredible data inside. And now you're able to follow along. Now, you, as the homeowner, you're kind of the neighborhood expert too, right? Like, the agent on the piece is the neighborhood expert. But you're keeping these. You're keeping them in the top drawer of the kitchen. You're, you know, hey, honey, like, what do you think? You want to talk about selling? You know, these conversations happen around these reports. So then they're at the dinner table, it's 7pm they're not picking up the phone to call our clients, but they might scan. So they scan because it says, find out the value of your home. And they're already looking at all the values of all the homes that are selling. So it's just so convenient. They then scan that and they're taken to a form. And if you look up the stats of how many people fill out forms, it's discouraging. Not a lot of people fill the forms out. So with our technology, you get that notification whether they fill the form out or not. And that's because of the code that we're using and the Perl technology.
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B
That's right. And, Jack, one thing I wanted to point out, I'm familiar with the principle of actually hard printing the homeowner's names on the marketing piece. It's not just like a mailing label. So having that data and having that in a database format and in a URL, as you were saying, that's pretty intense. That's a lot deeper than just scanning a QR code to go to a site.
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A
Right? And it can go to a site. It can go to any site. But you're getting that row of data no matter what. We could probably get some data to show on here to bring it all together, but it's really a trip. When you get your own piece, you scan it, and like, four seconds later, it pops up in your Google sheet.
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C
So to be clear, so if I'm in a neighborhood and your product is being used in my neighborhood, I'm a homeowner. The presumption is all my neighbors are getting the same piece. Is that right? Because the agent is becoming a neighborhood expert, and this piece is going to all the neighbors. There's a QR code on each piece, and if I scan my QR code, do I see the same thing that my neighbor sees when he scans his QR code?
- [16:11]
A
So it depends. The QR code itself is unique. We have two versions. One of them takes you to a Page that's personalized, so it's completely unique. And you would have your name on your phone. Some people think it's cool, some people think it's nice. Creepy. Yeah. Okay, so it depends on the market, you know, like in Vegas, Miami, it's pretty cool. It's like, okay, you know, but there's, there's certain pockets of the country where privacy's really coveted, you know, especially in the luxury space. So you can take people to a form that has their name on it and it's personalized, or you can take them to your own website, your own redirect, maybe home valuation, maybe one of the. Not going to name drop any of those either, but there's some great valuation tools out there. And so maybe you take them there. Either way, that unique code is recorded, and so you're getting that data.
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C
So you're probably also seeing then which homeowners are responding to that piece in essentially real time. Is that correct?
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A
You're absolutely correct.
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C
Right?
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A
Yeah.
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B
And you mentioned Dakota. Different markets. Right. Different temperatures, different climates. Let's, let's, let's focus on the luxury audience. Right. Regardless of geography. So I think all of us get the crappy postcards from agents we've never heard of that don't take the time to scrub their list for realtors.
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A
Right, Right. Common mistake.
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B
And so what, what is the difference between just good marketing and marketing that is effective for a luxury consumer?
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A
Absolutely. And there is a difference. You know, the luxury consumer is definitely used to a certain level of marketing, a certain level of branding, and they pretty instantaneously decide if that's up to their part or not. Right. It's very common for homeowners to ask an agent, you know, have you ever sold anything in this neighborhood that's really common. I'm sure maybe as an agent, you too may have heard that in the past. Right. And so then you get to this luxury price point, and as we know, it's different throughout the country. And the question then becomes, have you sold anything at this price point? Right. And so, and so you've got that question. And so our recommendation is to break into that price point. So what happens if you market at what we call the moving price point, where people are moving in and out, you know, but it's right below luxury. Like, it's right there. Their mailbox isn't quite as saturated. It's not quite as, you know, there's not as many postcards, and you come in with just something gorgeous. You outclass everybody in the mailbox. Well, now, as that neighborhood matures, you're able to say, yes, I have sold things at that price point, and you can organically get there through farming, but you can also go to break into a luxury neighborhood. Right. And if you have that kind of, you know, track record, maybe you have your ILHM certificate, then you could absolutely just start in a luxury neighborhood because it will look the part and it will. It will work for that audience.
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C
We've talked about that on prior podcasts with agents who are trying to make that move into the luxury space. Is that you. You talk the talk and show what you're capable of doing in the luxury space, and eventually you'll have the listings and the buyers that. To back up what you've been showing. And so you have to play the part to some degree to make that transition. That's a great way to do it.
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A
Absolutely. Yeah. Go ahead, Tammy. Sorry.
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B
When we're talking about making that transition, also, you know, Jack and I often get the questions and have to wrestle with this. How do you try to move into that price point? What is your branding that's specific to trying to move into that price point? And does it have to be at the expense of your everyday clients or bread and butter? How does that look from a branding and marketing perspective?
- [20:46]
A
That is an excellent question. I think that we aim to elevate and not alienate, you know, any of the past clients. And I think that we can get back into consistency, you know, with consistency of brand. So you can absolutely take your personalized brand that the bread and butter that is, you know, got you to where you're at. You don't want to alienate any of that base, but you can elevate it to the point where, okay, now I am looked at as a luxury agent. We have tons of luxury agents that have very specific branding that's unique to them. I manage the sales team, and I always tell them, be yourself. You know, you have to be professional. But the minute you're not authentic, it's going to be so obvious. Right? So I think that's what you do. I think you. You go into neighborhoods you're comfortable with. You know, you. You market those. You try to break into that luxury price point organically, and then, yeah, partner with us. We'll keep it all consistent. Right. Like, you know, everything will look the same. They talk about this magic bag at the luxury listing appointments that you're supposed to pull all your collateral out of. Right. Like, they kind of standing there waiting for you to have stuff. And so we have all that stuff. We have listing books. You have a lot of that stuff, too. Yeah. So you are agents with a lot of that. With a lot of what they need at that moment. Yeah, yeah.
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B
And you hit on. If you saw Jack and I both react, and you hit on our. Our word. Our word is authenticity.
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A
Right.
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B
So. So that, that, that is an underlying theme in almost every topic that we talk about.
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C
Yeah, it really has been.
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A
It's so important, you know, I mean, that's. We're building trust at the mailbox. And so people tend to trust what they know to be real. And you don't want to pretend to be someone. That's for sure.
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C
Well, what I think is very interesting too, and I think we even talked about this before, Tammy, is that with QR codes for so many QR codes have been around for a long, long time.
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A
Right.
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C
And we try to use QR codes got, I think 15 years or more ago, maybe longer. And, but. But they weren't. They didn't. It didn't work very well because people didn't know what to do with it. And so. And then what changed all that was Covid. When Covid happened, suddenly there were no menus, you had a QR code. Everything you touched became a QR code instead of something you physically touch. And so we all got accustomed to using QR codes. And so, because I think also on the front end, when we talk about luxury, a QR code really felt like a fancy barcode. And a barcode did not feel like luxury. It felt like Kroger, you know, groceries in your marketplace. It felt like something you do with pricing, you know. But over the course of time through Covid, suddenly QR codes became a super useful tool. And if there's folks in the. On our audience who haven't used QR codes any way in their. In their business model yet, what's so cool about them? This is probably obvious to everybody, I hope, but the same QR code can generate new content. So what you put on the back end of that can be changing all the time with the same QR code. So you might have a unique QR code for your address, but when you check it each month, what you see on the back end can be completely different content, Correct?
- [24:14]
A
Absolutely. And I think you touched on a really good point, which is that it's what's behind the code that should also be luxury. I think there's a lot of curiosity in that, you know, well, I am curious what my home's worth, but if you take them to a Form that was like clearly made in 2006. And you know, it's got the red asterisk. Is it? And it's like it's just not working right. You know, that perception again, it's all in the details, of course. Like in luxury, it's all the details, right. So I think that the unique QR codes are, well, they are just that, right? They're very unique in the sense of you're getting your own data. It's like we put a mask in between, you know, you have the scan that's going to the website and we're just that net, not mask. We're just that net in between that's catching all of those, all of those scans. So I think QR codes are luxury at this point. I think they are, you know, they're universal. They're not luxury. They're not not luxury. They're just kind of. And Covid definitely taught everyone exactly how to use them. But I think it's like you said, it's what's behind the user experience is very important when it comes to luxury. And that's something that UX is so big right now. And having the user experience thought about, not just curated. But I mean a lot of people don't even think about it. They just think, whoa. They'll just take them to like if you can put yourself in the position to be the consumer. I think, I think it goes a really long way, you know, and you
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B
know, part, part of that. What, what makes the material good, right? It's gorgeous, it's customized, all of that. But it's got to be about the content. And so similarly to what we're talking about, the content on the digital end, the content in the actual upfront market report, let's say that the print material has to be compell enough to, to make people engage and, and to consider you the local expert. Right. And, and so we have this noisy world right now particularly everybody's looking up everything on the Internet and they think that they know, you know, if, if Google says so, then, you know, surely that AI chatbot, you know, isn't making anything up. So tell us your thoughts about how you position yourself using that content, which is largely data driven, to stand out and to provide valuable information that people can't just go Google.
- [26:48]
A
Great point. So this is where our clients get to kind of collaborate with our team. The content that we're going to put forward is data driven and in many ways it's data in a digestible way. Like this is a Quarter review, one quarter over another. Inside we have, of course, the MLS data and the ma. Some other reports, though, that I could grab, have more content on the back. And this is a fun way. So you can see here, like, you know, sometimes we'll put a listing that's the best, if you can. We think that that's really a good way to show the neighborhood, you know, that you're getting listings in the neighborhood, how you would market those listings, but if you don't have them yet, that's not a problem. Or you want to have a report that's just ultra effective as far as you have content plus listings. And so this is a little bit about the team in here, but they're keeping it about the neighborhood. We can't say, like, how important it is to keep the market report about the neighborhood. One thing that AI can help with that we've seen is maybe some hyperlocal content as far as actual things about the area. But we're here in San Diego and we know data. We know data really well. We have all sorts of data, all MLS data. And then we get to collaborate with all these agents that are actually the neighborhood expert. They actually already are, but we're painting that picture to the whole neighborhood. And so we have one content piece per market report. So automated, hybrid, custom. And then we have an alternate. So we come up with about six pieces of approved content every single month. My dad is the final say on it, and myself and the managers come up with these six pieces. And I'll be really honest, it's each manager, and then I'll kind of, you know, maybe tailor it a little bit, or does this need to be, you know, harder hitting or, you know, a little bit more to the point? And so we'll do that kind of thing. And I'd say the most effective content is normally, I'd like to say it's ours, but it's normally a collaboration where the agent, you know, has some. Some fun facts or event or, you know, maybe a little bit about themselves, but more about their area. And that's where they get to start to communicate their own voice. They have this beautiful piece that really paints the picture, but then they get to have their own voice. As far as, you know, this is, you know, how I would talk about the neighborhood that we both live in or that we're both a part of. We do have personal brochures that will go a lot more in depth as far as why you should work with a certain agent. And these are fantastic as far as like content about the agent and then for the reports we always recommend, keep it about the neighborhood. For sure.
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B
Yeah, yeah, there's that. The marketing materials for individual agents are useful once you've gotten a seat at the table, once you've gotten the invitation.
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A
I'm so glad you said that.
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B
The farming is what's going to get you to the table to then prove yourself.
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A
With your permission, I'm going to steal that. That is such a good, that's such a good way to say it, you know, I mean, that's so. It's exactly right. Yeah. That's what we're trying to do. Get you a seat, get you an appointment. Yeah.
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B
Well, I've actually written down a couple of things that you've said already that
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A
I'm going to use.
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B
Everybody at the mailbox, right? Like Jack, did you get that one? Outclass everybody at the mailbo. Mailbox. I mean, that to me is one of the most important things. And, and it's about looks, but it's about content too. Right. But direct mail still works if it's done right.
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A
Oh, yeah.
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B
And. And you've. You've got to prove that you belong in the space that you're going after. And, and everybody can do that through the data.
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A
Absolutely, absolutely. Data.
- [31:14]
C
And you have such a short, there's such a short window, the attention span of the user to get their attention. And so just like when I'm looking through our physical mail, physical pieces, as I'm scrolling and it's essentially like scrolling. Yeah, it's like that. Tam, you're right, you know, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. You're throwing stuff away. You're saying the bills go in this pot. Bam, bam, bam. This goes in trash can. You've got to get. Do something to make them stop and look. And so the quality of the paper that is printed on, the quality of the images that you use. If you use generic stock images, stock photos look like everywhere usa. You've already lost the battle. Nobody wants to look at that. If you've got that, you know, and you can tell, you can look at, you immediately can tell if it's stock stuff as opposed to something customized for your market. There are no palm trees in Nashville. Make sure that when you're using images that you're using true images from your own market. I always tell all agents that it's got to be a really high quality image, whether it's on social media or print or whatever it is. And that key, again you mentioned this several times, Dakota, is the consistency throughout all of your marketing that you have that same look and that same feel, and it's got to be quality. If you do a QR code that links to incredible content, but you deliver on a piece that looks like it went out for Walmart or Dollar General, you've lost them. They're never going to go. They're never going to scan. They're going to look at it. It's got to feel. That's why when you. If you'll notice, you know, I know so many of our audience members and certainly the clientele that we have or that we aspire to have, you know, they're used to getting a Restoration harbor catalog in the mail. It doesn't look like every other catalog that you receive. It's a very expensive piece. They don't send it to everybody. It's a very targeted piece. The paper feels different, and it should. Because if you've been in Restoration Hardware lately for. For a big box store, granted it's a luxury big box store. It's really expensive, you know, for what they're selling, but that's because they have a certain clientele they sell to and they have a certain type of product and a look and they stick with it. You know, there's even a color palette. If you look at the color palette for, you almost can recognize their brand by the feel of paper and the color palette before you see the logo or the name. That's not accidental.
- [33:28]
A
That is 100% on purpose. And from corner to corner, you know, it all really matters as far as the brand consistency. And just a real quick touch on colors. The colors matter a lot. And we color calibrate every single day to the pantones given to us by the brokerages. So our branding guidelines are so serious. It's like 5am every day. They're down there with color spectrometers.
- [33:57]
B
Yeah. And Jack, when you were talking about that just now, about how we sort the mail and that sort of thing and what stands out, I realized that I had done that not an hour ago and there was something in my. In my mail.
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A
Oh, wow.
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B
I don't know who this is. I don't know what the company is.
- [34:22]
C
They made you look, right.
- [34:24]
B
And it feels different. Yeah, it's a different feel. It's thick. And. And you know what? I put it aside so that I can read it later. So there's your proof in the pudding right there. And then once you get. Once you determine the audience. And I just noticed on the back there that I could see very subtly the Chase logo. I just saw it now, but I had to look hard for it. Right. So, but, but that is the way to like, kind of bust into somebody's face to say, hey, let me look at this. And if the content's good, then they're going to look for it in a continuing bas and they're going to know that they're going to have good content.
- [35:06]
A
Absolutely. I mean, you can't open the mail with your eyes closed. Right. Like, you know, but you can, like, discard things really fast. So, like, you both just kind of said there you got a little moment where you can kind of grab their attention, you know.
- [35:20]
C
And by the way, I'll mention this too, because in one of our former podcasts, Dakota, we talked about evolving technologies and adopting new technologies and whatnot. We talked about, about Chat GPT. When we're trying to evaluate content, whether it's something we've written, you know, narrative or photos we're planning on using, please don't forget to use Chat GPT as your buddy, because the more you use it, the better it aligns with what you're targeting and trying to do. But one of the cool things about Chat GPT is you can input. Here's a narrative I'm about to use for a luxury home, and what do you think? And it's amazing sometimes what Chat GPT will come back when they say, hey, that's a really good start. They, you know, chat always likes to compliment you first what you're doing before it comes right back and says, but here's a better way to do it. And not that Chat GPT is foolproof, but oftentimes it will suggest better images or things that better align the wording, that better aligns what your target goals are, particularly if you input. Here's my goal to reach this type of audience. What do you think about this narrative that I'm using? It's a great way to filter through some of your content and to really hone in on, these are the best. This is the best imagery, this is. These are the best words to use. And here's how to really get somebody's attention with, you know, 100 words or whatever it is you're trying to achieve. It's so helpful.
- [36:34]
A
Absolutely, yeah. I tell the sales staff all the time, I say, because we're big on AI as far as tools, goes back to the authenticity. I think one of the biggest challenges right now is how do you make your AI, whether it's ChatGPT, Claude, any of these others out there, how do you make it authentic? Because if you don't throw yourself back into it.
- [36:58]
C
That's right.
- [36:59]
A
Just have robots talking to robots. And nobody wants that. Right.
- [37:03]
C
P.T. has a name. His name is Buck, but knows my name. My grandkids call me. That's what he calls me.
- [37:09]
A
That's fair.
- [37:10]
C
Jack, in case you're wondering, more info you give the AI, the more, and we go back to that word, authentic. The more information you input, more recognizes you, understands your, your business, your career goals, your target audiences and what you're trying to achieve. And you start to develop rules for engagement, for marketing with your, with your AI. It's, it's extremely helpful.
- [37:34]
B
I'm, I'm absorbing a lot of that training as well, Jack. Right. Like, I think you and I went into this one kicking and screaming, but now, you know, we've seen the light and understand some of the nuances. But also, if we're talking about what content is going to appeal to a luxury consumer, those are things actually that you can use AI, whether it's that or buff or, or, you know, whatever to say, what are consumers in households over XYZ searching for related to real estate information? Like, it knows that stuff.
- [38:14]
A
And that's a great question.
- [38:16]
B
If it filters back and says, you know, there's more people search for this type of thing, then make sure that you're delivering that type of content in your, in your outbound messaging.
- [38:27]
A
I'd say if you're not using AI right now, you're in a race without the right engine. You know, I think it's, it's really important, and I think we'll see a lot of people make mistakes with it. So I think it's really important to ask the right questions, use it in the right context, give it context, learn about knowledge basis, build your own knowledge bases, build your own custom bots. And, you know, and we've done a lot of that here in house, but I'm always letting the guys know, you know, make sure to throw yourself back into that email because you got to make sure that absolutely authenticity is still there. But if you ask the right questions, you can get incredibly far. And the one that you just pointed out is a great one, and I'm sure there's some others that would be really.
- [39:20]
B
And so I have to give a shout out because the Realtor, my colleague in my own marketplace who is teaching me this stuff, is an avid podcast listener, so I know she's gonna text me the second that this episode drops. And I just want to say thank you you know, who you are. And I am learning so much about how to develop content specific for the desired audience because you are willing to share. And I think. I think that's really important for all of our. Our listeners to. To look for opportunities to learn from each other and share with each other in.
- [40:04]
A
Yes. I'm so happy you did that. I think that's something that we can all focus on in this moment in time. You know, like, let's. Let's help each other learn our tips and tricks, you know, as far as everything goes with AI, you know, And I'd say one thing that we've figured out is knowledge bases are really big. You can build question and answer knowledge bases, and the context that it will produce is insane. But, yeah, asking the right questions to the AI and then getting around the right people to show you more stuff, it's just, I've learned a lot. And then I get on the road and I learn what other people are using it for. I ran into an agent recently, and I was very impressed by this flow. I'll share it here. And I also want to thank them in case they're watching. But I was at a conference and they told me they were using Claude to essentially look up all the information about the home that they were going to a listing appointment for. And it would. I don't have the exact flow, you know, and I didn't have the same need. But they were able to figure out who the owner was, what kind of conversation might appeal to them, things about the home. It used the Internet to find tax records, to then find info on the roof and, you know, different renovations. And so this agent goes on quite a few listing appointments, and she said, you know, I used to do all this research, and I have it to the point where I can put the address in, and as long as it's 10 minutes away, I could do it on the way to the appointment. Cool. Yeah, that's.
- [42:02]
C
That's a great tool. Well, I remember, you know, years ago, before we go on a listing appointment on a luxury home, one of the critical things was, you know, if we hadn't toured the homes in the neighborhood, they're. They'll. They'll be competing with to tour each of those homes and be very familiar with those, so we can talk about those intelligently in the context of listing this prospective new client's home. And that's still a terrific thing to do when you have the opportunity, particularly if you're new to a given market. You're trying to. Again, if you're trying to enter the luxury market and you don't typically sell us in a given price point, a particular neighborhood. That's a terrific way to really show market knowledge in that listing appointment. But now we have these AI tools that we can use that can accomplish that and more. It can bring so much information, funnel it right to you. And it's not that you're. It's not being lazy, it's being smart. It's being. It's how to condense research time and, and be able to use that to our advantage and leverage that for our listing appointments. And working with buyers, too. You know, speaking the language, talking about when you have a buyer moving in. Like in our market, 90% of the relocation that we do is lifestyle driven. It's inbound, not outbound. Nobody's moving out of Nashville or very few. They're moving into Nashville. And so I like to know, what are people hearing about Nashville? What do they like about Nashville? Why are they coming? Why, what, what concerns do they have? A lot of these things are fundamental. We have a sense of it, because I've done this for a long time, but I still like to know what does, what does aic, because they can canvas so many sources so quickly, and it's a, it's a good reality check. Say, hey, I haven't been, haven't been talking about this. This is apparently really important to someone. Looking at Nashville as a possible home and looking at Nashville for luxury homes, what do they think the luxury market is like in Nashville based on what the media is saying? And so it's a great way to know where people are coming from in that context before having the conversation.
- [43:55]
B
Absolutely. So let me ask, Dakota, as we wrap up our time together, if an agent wanted to start a farming campaign, Right. Or if they want to earn more listings in a. In a farming capacity, what would they, what do you recommend that they do first?
- [44:20]
A
There are four things that I recommend they do. I would consider these four things, and I'd almost say in this order, but that's up for debate. So turnover rate, average sale price, agent dominance, where do you want to work? Most agents have thought about this in the opposite order. They think about where they want to work. They're like, I think Susie has kind of a lot of the listings. The average sale price is killer. And I'm going to call someone around the turnover rate eventually, maybe title. So I recommend look at your own neighborhood. How easy would that be if you just could market your own neighborhood and the turnover rate is pretty good. But I wouldn't say just market your own neighborhood because what if the turnover, what if you live in this awesome neighborhood, nobody ever moves, it's like 2% turnover rate, you know, that don't market there. Just walk your dog. Just be a neighbor. Like, you know. Yeah. Some people don't want to market their own neighborhood for that same reason. They want to walk their dog and not be the neighborhood. It's true. I have. It's very true. Right. Like it's both sides. And so I do. I think those things are the most important. I will say, you know, we have a couple levers. We have the length of a campaign. Like, anything will work over enough time. Right. You have the quantity of pieces. You send enough pieces out, you're going to get instant results. But those are really long and a lot of pieces. And so if you can get a campaign that's digestible, it's a good amount of pieces, but not, not crazy or minimum is 300. You know, you get maybe you're like 500 or something. Something. We'll get the turnover rate to be in your favor. That's going to make the farm work faster. If you send more pieces out, it might work even quicker. Like, so there's all these levers. I like to let the data decide. I think we all make enough decisions every day. So if you can help with data turnover rate is just that anchor data point.
- [46:24]
B
Yep, absolutely. Well, I think that, as usual, we could go on and on, but I'm afraid that our time for today is up. And so I want to thank you so much, Dakota, for joining us. And for all of you who are listening, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of A State of Mind, the art of Selling luxury Real Estate. If you're interested in learning more about the institute, you can find out more@www.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. Also, if you've got a hot topic that you'd like us to consider discussing in a future podcast, feel free to send an email to infoluxuryhomemarketing.com thanks so much for listening,
- [47:21]
A
Sam.