← F.I.R.E.D UP with Krista Mashore
F.I.R.E.D UP with Krista Mashore
How to Sell Homes in 2025 (139 Homes) w/ Joe Seamon, Ep. (928)
00:49:35
Want to dominate the real estate market even in tough conditions? Meet Joe Seaman, a top-producing agent who sold 101 homes in 2024 despite high interest rates and low inventory. Discover his winning formula—powerful morning routines, social media...
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- [00:00]
A
If you're not busy, if you're an agent that is not busy, you have the time to drop them off. Don't think that you don't have the time. If I had more time, I would personally be dropping them off to find a reason to talk to the potential seller. Always look for a reason to talk to everybody.
- [00:18]
B
Hey everyone, are you ready to be fired up? Because I sure am. I have Joe Seaman. Last year in 2024, he sold over 100 homes himself. And he also has a small team who even sold more. But as an individual agent, he SOL over 100 transactions and he has been crushing it year after year. Even in this market with limited inventory, high interest rates, blah, blah, blah. Joe, how are you doing?
- [00:42]
A
I am doing phenomenal as always. So it's always a good day when we get to get with Ms. Krista Mesure. So like you said, I am Joe Seaman from the Augusta, Georgia Aiken North Augusta, South Carolina market. So I'm in both states and last year I personally sold 101 homes. And in the midst of high interest rates, low inventory chaos in the world, I had my personal best month so of my career.
- [01:14]
B
And so last year, 2024 was your personal best year.
- [01:19]
A
It was amazing. So I will tell you if anyone is saying that they can't do this, you know, I read a stat that 0 to 1 agents, like 73 or 78 of agents across the country sold 0 to 1 houses last year homes. It's crazy, Unbelievable. So they're not looking for the business out there too.
- [01:45]
B
They're not willing to do what it takes to get the business. So let's talk that. Okay, so first of all, I'm going to say this. I know Joe well. He's a, he's a friend and also one of my students for the past three years. And he is an implementer. Like when I tell you that this man works, he's got a routine which we're going to learn about today. He works, he does what it takes, he does the things and he, he is kind of a workaholic, which I'm not, you know, telling everyone to go do that. But you don't need to sell 101 homes like Joe. But if you want to sell 25 or 35, you can do that. It's, it's attainable, it's reasonable without having to go crazy. So Joe, first of all, let's talk about your daily routine. Tell me about your daily routine, what it looks like every single day.
- [02:24]
A
Because I know my team can like Repeat my daily routine verbatim because they know it's just it is such a sacred and protected time. In the mornings. I literally, if a house is on fire, I will not answer the phone until I get through my daily routine. So everyone who knows me personally knows between 6 and 8am you are not going to reach me by phone or text. Not going to happen. So the morning routine. I get up, I thrive. The minute my feet hit the floor as I'm walking to the kitchen, I start going down through our thrive. And then I make my coffee, drink my water, take my supplements. Then I go and I start what is the. The meat of my morning routine. And that is.
- [03:11]
B
Hold on one second. For those of you that want to know what thrive is, I will put the thrive document into the notes so you know exactly what thrive is. It's something that we encourage our students to do at least twice a day. You. Twice a day. You're great. You can do it more. But it's something that takes between 30 and 60 seconds. But it primes your brain to help you be more productive, help you be happier and help you to just, just, you know, live a better life, quite frankly. So we'll put that in the show notes.
- [03:36]
A
Okay, now, game changer.
- [03:38]
B
So that. Good job.
- [03:40]
A
But anyways, the thrive. And then as I make my way from the kitchen to the living room, I start. I'm. I'm a praying guy and so I am prayer and devotion is about 30 minutes. And then I go into motivation and affirmations. So I listen to a lot of things. Krista has affirmation clip on SoundCloud that I listen to from time to time. Abraham Hicks is another great one. There's a lot of great people that can give you affirmations and motivations, but I also have my own that I've recorded for myself. But then motivation, I mean you can find motivational things. I go to Motivir City a lot oftimes on YouTube and a lot of motivational things like it gets you fired up and pumped up. And then after the motivation, I jump right into video, text, commenting on people's birthdays and anniversaries on social media, like making sure they know I'm out here and I genuinely care if they get a new puppy or new car or their daughter son goes to college. I start into that. And then after that I kind of just look over my daily sheet that we created through kmc and then, you.
- [04:58]
B
Know, it's a major coaching. So also in the show notes, I will put in the Daily sheet. I will also put in something that tells you exactly what video text messaging is for the record. Video text message is a personal video text message where you say the person's name, you recognize something personal that's happened to them. You do not ask for referrals. You do not ask for business. It is a sheer. How you doing? Thinking of you, Very personal. And he does always, every day, right?
- [05:22]
A
It always comes back around to, what are you doing? How's the market? How so you sold? How so? I'm 1, 2, 3 Main Street. Like, it always will wrap back around to real estate. And so you never ever have to say, hey, if you're thinking about selling or buying, think of me because it will come back to real estate every single time. So. And then my day has started. Then I hit the ground running. I'm ready. I go exercise and get ready for the day and out the door and. And then I Normally work a 10, sometimes 10 hours, sometimes 14 hour day. And like Krista said, I am a workaholic. I do not recommend anyone to work like me, but I genuinely love what I do. I have a passion for it. We'll get into my backstory and why I'm like this a little bit later in the podcast, but that's kind of like my morning routine and how I get my day started every single day of the week.
- [06:23]
B
Great. Okay, so that's awesome. And I know this feature because I know Joe, so. And he talks about it all the time. All right, so what are your lead generating activities? So right now somebody's listening, whether they're a busy agent like you or somebody that's a new agent or someone who's just not doing as good as they want. Can you give them some actionable tips of. First of all, one of Mary gave you 10 video text messages. He does at least 10 a day every day. And that, that generates buyers and sellers. Be like, oh my gosh, I was thinking about selling. I know somebody and they forget. So that video text message reminds them. So that's one lead generating activity he does before he even hits the door running. So what else?
- [06:57]
A
An example of a video text message was it was a friend of mine that I went to school with. It was her kid's birthday. I was like, hey, will you tell so and so Happy birthday. How's your husband? Make sure you tell him I said hello. She messages me right back and says, oh my God, I cannot believe you just sent me this. Because me and Brandon were just talking this weekend about we needed to call you because we're ready to sell our house.
- [07:20]
B
Oh, so good.
- [07:20]
A
How simple, how simple was that? So that's one way.
- [07:24]
B
The thing is, is like I'm sure you try to make it a 90 day rotation for your clients but people forget about you. So this is just a reminder. And it's not like you're that cheesy Amway person, always asking for business, always asking for referrals. It's just a hello, I was thinking about you. You know, that's it.
- [07:38]
A
That's it. Nothing about real estate but I would say like some actionable steps would be. Of course you've got to be, you've got to be present on social media. I don't care what market you're in, I don't care where you're at, you've got to be present on social media. So if I were moving to sunny California and I needed a real, a real estate agent, the first thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to look up Krista Mayshore to make sure but I'm going to look her up on Facebook or Instagram. I'm not going to like try to Google or anything even though you're on Google. But I'm going to look you up on social media. So you have to show your audience what you do. Alicia and I were talking about this yesterday. You, you got to sprinkle in some fun things about you as well. Like I love food, I love good food, I love trying new restaurants. And so we have a tasty Tuesday segment that we post something brand new every single Tuesday. But you can very evidently tell that I am a realtor on social media because I'm always giving home buyer tips, home seller tips, doing tours of homes, just giving some knowledge on social media. So you've got to be present on social media.
- [08:49]
B
I know that are afraid of this, right? Like they're nervous of doing social media and you just gave some good examples, you know, seller tips, buyer tips, fun things to do in the community, food, what, how can you, what's your best advice if somebody's nervous or they're introverted and they say they don't look good on camera, they're afraid to use social media. How, what would your advice be? First of all, everyone, if you don't know me, that is exactly what I teach. It's all about digital marketing, social media, video. And by the way, if you want to learn more about what Joe does, you can go to our three day event, Kristen mayshore.com forward slash get more leads, I'm sorry, get more listings. Kristenmayshare.com forward slash get more listings. We have a brand new top listing agent, three day virtual event you can sign up for. I know Joe does a lot of what is in that event because he's one of my students, so. Okay Joe, so they're nervous about doing social media there. What is your advice? How can they get more comfortable?
- [09:40]
A
The easiest subject matter you have is a home tour. So if you've got a house listed and you're not comfortable on social media, do a home tour. I mean your subject matter is there. You don't have to think is it a three bedroom, is it a four bedroom? Like make sure you know if it's got granite countertops or you know what it had, quartz countertop, whatever it has, make sure you know the features of the house but your subject matter is there. So it's pretty easy to walk through the house and just act as if you're on a showing just with your camera in front of you.
- [10:13]
B
You know that too.
- [10:14]
A
They love it.
- [10:15]
B
And you don't have to be good at edits, you know, you can always get better edits later and what will happen, what we find is we just tell people, just start, you can get better as you go. You can't get better if you don't start. And then later on as you start getting more comfortable on camera and you realize how well it can do. If you want to add some edits you can, but you don't even need them. You can just do it. Just your camera.
- [10:33]
A
That's right. And mine are very either minimum, minimally edited or not edited at all.
- [10:40]
B
Uh huh.
- [10:40]
A
Good. And one of the, one of the thing that people love to do is that they love to like guess the price of this house. Yeah, I like those type things. But you have to show your audience because everyone's going to look you up on social media. If they're moving from out of state, they're moving across town. If they've heard you're in real estate, they're going to look up on social media to see if you're doing the thing that you say you're doing. And so that is probably my biggest tip with newer agents is if they're not comfortable on camera, I just say go to your listing or get permission from the list agent that you can do a video. And like I said, your subject matters there you don't have to think about a whole lot because you're walking through.
- [11:20]
B
A house and you could even be like, go to a neighborhood without even permission and be like, hey, this home just, you know, without going inside you can say I'm in such and such neighborhood. This home just got listed. It's this price point. You know the great thing about this neighborhood is X, Y and Z and just start talking that way. It looks like you're busy. It looks like it's your listing even though it's not. And like that's freedom of speech. You have the, you have the right to do that without doing it inside. There's, there's always reasons that you can do anything. And I believe we were talking about this yesterday on yesterday's coaching call was that the best videos are ones that are have to do with the community, things about the community, what's going on, what's nearby, what's great to do on the weekend. Where do you take your, you know, where do you go on a first date or where do you go on an anniversary? You said your anniversary is coming up, right? March 23rd. And you were just asking me where you can take your sweetie for hope for a, for your anniversary. And I was like, go simply fondue. Do a video while you're there, Joe. But right, I mean, yeah, okay.
- [12:17]
A
You don't want me to come and take over your town now Krista, don't.
- [12:20]
B
Even try to, don't even try to like don't even try to do a competition because then I'll have to go crazy.
- [12:25]
A
I will tell you, like what you're saying is point on because a mile from my office they're starting a new mixed use development. So it's going to be commercial and there's going to be about 1500 homes in that development. Well, I am in no way a part of that development. I'm not the builder's agent. I have nothing to do with the development. I have nothing to do with the commercial. But I have gone out there several times and almost acted as a news reporter to see them. They're great right on my social media. But Krista, people come to me. One of my brokers actually with my company said how are you a part of this? I've not heard of it. And I'm like, I'm not, I'm just recording on it. So. But I will tell you we have built our email list out just from two posts on the new development coming. So what I have promised people is I will give you monthly updates on this new development coming. And I mean that has been such a game changer because I mean there's 1500 homes to sell. And I'm going to sell the majority of them homes as an agent.
- [13:31]
B
Oh yeah. And you're starting from the beginning. Some people are like, well I'm not going to start because you know, no one's going to sell. Not true. I mean people sell within two to five years and people still get moved, they retire, they relocate. Stuff happens. That's that they weren't they or they don't even like the area or something goes on, you know. That's a great idea, Joe. I love it.
- [13:48]
A
That's kind of what you're talking about. The community video. My cousin was at a bonfire the other night. She called me on Friday night. She was like, what restaurants are going in this development? And I'm like, I don't know yet, but I'm gonna find out and I'll let you know. And so it's that type of, that's the kind of dialogue you want with your community. You know, people coming in. I had one guy message me on email and he was just like, like we were old buds. Like I had to look his name up and be like, do I know this guy? Because he's talking all about, he's done a deep dive on my social media. It's going on our YouTube like this, all this stuff. And I'm like, I don't really know this guy but I'm gonna sell his house and I'm gonna put him in a new one.
- [14:29]
B
But isn't that how it always is?
- [14:30]
A
Right?
- [14:30]
B
I mean people, because they're seeing you on social media, they start to develop a relationship with you. It's actually called a parasocial one sided relationship. People feel like they know you, they see you as the authority and people want to work with people that they know like and trust. And real estate is a very personal transaction. And also research shows that the more uncertain a market is, which we have all been an uncertain market, the more trust is needed. So the entire marketing attraction based model that you're utilizing is, is, is helping people trust you more. So therefore you're doing more business. It's, it is a game changer. Okay, now let's go.
- [15:03]
A
Not be more true. I went on a listing appointment. So Krista also told me that I only have an hour to talk, so.
- [15:09]
B
Just let you know. It's typically 30 minutes, so it'll be 45. Because you start to lose people. Although people, you're getting such good information that won't happen.
- [15:16]
A
But I get, I went to a, I went to a listing appointment and these, these People who I did not know prior to this listing appointment had two boxes of Little Debbie Swiss roll cakes sitting on the table because they know that I love sweets and I love Little Debbie Swiss rolls and never met them before. Never ever. And so when I go to the listing appointment, they felt like they had that connection with me and they had two boxes of Little Debbie Swiss rolls waiting on me at list appointment.
- [15:47]
B
I love Little Debbie Swiss rolls. The cream. Oh my gosh, though, I can't eat those, Joe, because I eat. But they're so delicious. I mean, people listen to that. He's going on a listing appointment. If he doesn't know them, they think they know him because. And they know he likes demi Swiss roll. So appreciate. They've got two boxes of his favorite Twinkies there. I mean, that's unbelievable. Okay, okay. So social media is important. Talking about the community, talking about what's happening in the area. Now. I know that. Again, people, if you want to learn more about these strategies and many more, go to Krista mayshore.com forward/get more listings to sign up for our three day virtual event that we have every month. You can do right from your own home. A lot of what Joe is doing, he learned from that class and also from me because he's one of my students. But Joe, now let's talk about one of the strategies that we've been doing now for about three years that you have taken like gone crazy with, and that is the current competitive market analysis, the CMA drop off strategy. So talk a little bit about that. By the way, people, we have a challenge coming up every month. We're going to be teaching you A to Z how to do the CMA drop off strategy and giving you all the materials you need to do it, which will save you tons of time and money. So Joe, talk about that. Tell us what it is and how you've kind of taken it by its horns.
- [17:06]
A
Yeah, so I never heard, I had never heard of like the, A challenge, a drop off challenge before the group and so before the coaching group. And so you were training us on how to do a CMA drop off. We, I think we had a challenge about three years ago. And so I did it one round and then we were doing it another round and I'm like, where's the, where's the follow up? I got to figure out like a process to keep this going and to be able to collect more and more names, emails, people in my pipeline. And so I sat and we just kind of came up with a Six month process after, you know, including the initial drop off. And so we run the, the initial CMA on cloud CMA or rpr and.
- [17:48]
B
That people, all you need to do is you have an MLS pull up your MLS run comps. You're basically running comps in a specific neighborhood. Right. And you're delivering to each home in the neighborhood a home analysis of what's happening in the neighborhood. That's basically.
- [18:03]
A
That's right. And we drop it off very simple in a very simple little bag. And it's just got a little letter from me and an about me and then a QR code going to our home valuation funnel. And so it's very simple, you know, questions on that that they have to answer to get a personalized property specific market analysis. And so, you know, the first step is dropping that CMA off at their doorstep. I started out with a community of about 250 homes. And now personally, me personally, I've hired someone to drop them off. But we're dropping off 3,000 CMAs just in this short of time frame. And now I do have a small team, they are responsible for getting out 3,000 more. So as a team, collectively we'll have 6,000 EMA CMAs out over the next two months or so.
- [18:57]
B
So good.
- [18:58]
A
Very, very aggressive. It's very aggressive. I say this on the calls all the time. Real estate is a numbers game. You've got to treat your real estate business as a business, as a true business and put the work into it. Because too many times you see it, I see it. Agents just go from closing to closing like they have no idea. Very transactional. They don't know where their money's going. So you have to budget for marketing, advertising expenses. This CMA drop off is an expense and so but it's worth it or we wouldn't put the time effort, money behind it.
- [19:32]
B
Exactly. Doing it. If it didn't work, you wouldn't have gone from doing, you know, 25 a week to now, you know, 500 basically a week is what you're doing.
- [19:41]
A
So in preparation of this for today, I went back over some of our numbers and for over a 13 month time period, this was about a year and a half ago, 13 month time period because we were, we were adding homes to the CMA drop off. 13 month time period we dropped, we were able to get 53 listings, that's almost one a week just about from the CMA drop off from the same direct correlation back to the CMA drop off. But it's not just dropping off a few sheets of paper. It is literally following up with them, making sure it's very easy for them to get a hold of you to get a home valuation through the QR code.
- [20:24]
B
Now let's go into the QR code. This is important. All right, so one of the strategies that we teach is it's called the neighborhood community funnel. And on this neighborhood community funnel, when Joe's dropping off his, the paper with the letter and information about him and the actual cma, again, it's an unsolicited cma, there is a QR code that goes directly to a neighborhood funnel where he is doing a. And by the way, he learned this from me, but he is doing a market and that like he's doing a video that's talking about exactly what's happening in that neighborhood. I want you to think about this. Think about being a homeowner living in a neighborhood, somebody giving you a sheet that's letting you know what's just listed and just sold and pending and all that, which by the way, we all are interested in. And then driving them to a landing page where there's a video of Joe going over exactly what's happening in the neighborhood. I want you to think about the power of that. And that is exactly what this CMA drop off strategy does. It positions you as the authority, People get to know you. They look forward to getting, to getting, you know, every month to get the new update of what's happening in their neighborhood because they live there and they care about it. So you just have to really understand why this works so well and why he's taking it to the next level.
- [21:31]
A
That's right. That's right. And then we have a sequence of follow up events. You know, we drop a postcard the next month and then we're back putting stuff on their door, their door or their porch or something and then a postcard, then we're back on there, walk in the neighborhoods, then it's a final postcard and then we start the process all over. But it takes us through a whole six month campaign to where every month, every four weeks, these people are going to see my faith on their doorstep some kind of way. And like I said, it's very easy. And then we've got plenty of testimonials. I have over 200 testimonials that we can just put in there. So if we have someone in Walnut Grove that bought or sold a home with us, of course most of the community may know them. We're going to put their testimonial on the back of that postcard or on that CMA drop off. You got to be very strategic about what you're putting on there. Even though it's not rocket scientists. I mean it's, it's very simple and very easy to do. You've just got to put the legs behind it and work your tail off. And like I said, it's, it's a numbers game. The more you pass out, the more leads you're going to get to sell their home. So after they ask for a home valuation funnel, they raise their hand, they contact me. I'm immediately picking up the phone to start a dialogue with them, to get to know them a little bit better. Why are you wanting a home valuation funnel? Are you looking at selling? Are you interviewing other agents? And if they're not, I encourage it. Sounds like I'm trying to talk myself out of a job. I encourage that home seller, that potential home seller. Interview other agents. Please interview other agents before you hire me. And so the minute that they raise their hand and I have that phone dialogue with them, I will stop what I'm doing. Fill a CMA box. I will personally take it over to their house. Even though our appointment may not be until Friday and it's Monday, I'm going to take it over there and say, hey Ms. Mayshore, thank you for the phone conversation. I know we're not meeting until Friday at 12, but I just want you to have this box and it's got my book in it, my seller's guide, my marketing plan, all the assets that you are are needing. I want you to read over this before our appointment. But I also want you to use this as a measuring stick from me to every other agent that you talk to. And then whenever I go to the appointment on Friday, I am walking out of the listing appointment with the keys to their front door.
- [23:54]
B
Have you ever lost a listing since you started doing the listing process?
- [23:57]
A
Not since I've started.
- [23:59]
B
Say that exactly. Repeat that.
- [24:01]
A
I have not lost a listing since I started the CMA drop off process.
- [24:06]
B
Process the listing system. And you also send the marketed pre marketing video as well, correct Joe?
- [24:11]
A
I do. So we send a lot of material to where they can't get away from us. I like to be that annoyingly nice guy. And so send them value add information but make sure you're not like overselling yourself or you know, acting desperate that you need the listing. We all need listings. We all need listings. But there's a finesse to do it.
- [24:34]
B
Absolutely. By the way, everyone this is an example of a grasshopper of the CMA boxes I want to strap. But you notice here the box. We've got one here for luxury, we've got one there for expired. And inside the box is all the wonderful materials, the book, the marketing plan, the buyer guide, everything to position yourself, yourself as the expert. I mean, the whole way the boxes positioned is to showcase that you are different. And so by the time you get to the listing, number one, you ensure you actually get to have the opportunity. And they don't hire somebody before you. But these people are so excited to hire you because they're so well educated and you've done what no one else is willing to do, you know, so it's, it's just a really great listing system that's unbeatable. We've had, you know, just many, many agents have since they started this process, this listing system process, they've not lost a listing. Just like Joe just said.
- [25:25]
A
That's right. So one, one real quick situation. I was up against four other agents, four agents. And I dropped, I dropped the box off, told her, hey, I know our appointment isn't until Saturday, but I want you to have all this material to be reading about it before I get here on Saturday. And if you're interviewing other agents, just compare me to them. And so I went in for the listing appointment on Saturday and told them what I charge, what I think their house is valued at. And it literally took me like, it took them like three days to get back to me. And so I'm like, what did I do? Did I overwhelm them? Because, like, surely they should have made a decision by now. She, she ended up calling me because I was following up. And she ended up calling me and said, hey, we're going to go with you. And I knew two of the other agents on their little list that they interviewed. And I know I charge more than those agents, like hands down, like, no question about it. They went in with a discounted rate. And I asked her, I said, well, why did you choose me? Because I know I'm charging more than agent A and B. And she said they, one of them came in with nothing, not even a cma, like nothing empty handed. And so she said, just after reading, after, you know, after reading all your material, and you came very prepared, you were over prepared. You're worth the extra whatever it was. And so it was hands down, you're.
- [26:50]
B
Always in a job interview, right? So I mean, hands on, he's getting it beating out other top producers because he's willing to go the extra mile. And you're always on a job interview. Anything and everything that you do prior to that listing, you know, obviously during and after. But prior people are kind of sizing you up and so when you do these kinds of things, because most agents just don't take it serious and they don't. Which is unbelievable to me. So, okay, so your great follow up process, dropping out the unsolicited cma. There's a letter in there, stuff about you, there's a QR code on the letter, driving them to the neighborhood community funnel on that. You are doing a neighborhood specific market evaluation of what's happening via video. Two other videos are on that, that as well. And then they're on this follow up sequence. Okay, so that is, he said 53 transactions, which is more, you know, one.
- [27:38]
A
A week, 13 months in 13 months, which is, it wasn't quite one a week, but just about one a week through the CMA we directly can correlate. They came in directly off the CMA drop off process, but that was when we passed out about 1500 CMAs and so a month. A month. Well, that was about two months. Yeah. Okay, pass that out. But, but how long does it take you?
- [28:06]
B
So how long is it taking you to do this? So how many do you do at a time and how long does it take?
- [28:11]
A
About 400 at a time. And I personally can't do them just because, you know, keeping it with current business and family. So it is well worth hiring a teenager or a college student that needs the extra cash to walk these through the neighborhood. I joked around the other day and I said I would hire my twins, but I don't know how well received they would be walking up to someone's house and camo driving up to their house in a, a huge jacked up 4x4 truck and all. So I've hired a cute little teenage girl to drop these off to where she'll be very much more approachable. But, but anyway, she can drop off 400 in two afternoons after school.
- [28:53]
B
So she does so, so do the math because it's around. So 400 takes her eight days.
- [28:59]
A
She can drop 3,000 off in 3,000.
- [29:02]
B
Eight days. And like how many?
- [29:03]
A
About two and a half, three hours.
- [29:05]
B
So three hours a day.
- [29:07]
A
So 20 hours.
- [29:08]
B
20. So 20 hours to do about 3,000.
- [29:11]
A
Yep. So if you're not busy, if you're an agent that is not busy, you have the time to drop them off. Don't think that you don't have the Time. If I had more time, I would personally be dropping them off to find a reason to talk to the potential seller.
- [29:26]
B
Yeah, exactly.
- [29:27]
A
Always about. Always look for a reason to talk to everybody, whether it's in the grocery store or the hardware store. Wherever you're at. Walk in the neighborhoods. Also, like, if you want to farm areas, you should be doing your exercises. You're jogging and you're walking on those sidewalks, taking your kids to that park, taking your dog to that dog park, if that is the neighborhood you want to farm. And so you're living in. Yeah, so, I mean, there's a neighborhood right up the road here that I farm and I just go up there and I would make my phone calls. Walking up and down the sidewalks.
- [30:05]
B
Oh, yeah, awesome.
- [30:06]
A
Just so people can see me. And so. But you have to be seen. It doesn't take much time. And like I said, if you're an agent that is not as busy as you want to be, no reason that you can't be walking these. And you don't have to start out with 3,000.
- [30:22]
B
Like, yeah, most people start off with about 25 a week. I don't think it's enough. I think you should at least commit.
- [30:26]
A
100 a week.
- [30:27]
B
100, yeah, 100 to 150 a week.
- [30:30]
A
Yeah.
- [30:31]
B
So then let's. How long would do you think it took before you started seeing. Because now you're getting to one. How long did it take you before you started seeing the fruits of your labor?
- [30:43]
A
A good. So this was about two and a half, three years ago. It was at least, I would say six months. So I've not tracked that part, but it was not immediate, but I kept at it. I think that's what people do is they'll drop the initial packet off, not get any phone calls or text or anything, and then they quit. They don't send the postcard out and they just don't follow through with the rest of the process. But you've got to keep that going because I'm still getting phone calls, people scanning the code off of that first drop off.
- [31:15]
B
Yeah.
- [31:16]
A
And so it's just. It's a long game. The real estate has to be a long game. And I think a lot of agents need to change their mindset on, like, when's my next closing? To how many houses am I going to be closing in five years.
- [31:30]
B
And so, like 18 months. You know, it's like. And I think it's so hard because, like, well, I can't afford it. I don't have the money. Like, what would you say? You know, let's. We all, we, we got to be careful here at the time. But let's kind of give me an example. I know, tell a little bit about your, you know, in a condensed version, Joe, I know it's difficult for you. In a condensed version. Tell me a little bit about your, your backs.
- [31:51]
A
Right.
- [31:51]
B
You don't have to get into everything so in detail, but kind of give an example of where you came from and how you almost left the industry.
- [31:57]
A
Yeah, so I did. So I'm in a little town, my town is called Beach Island, South Carolina. We don't have that many people, maybe like 5,000 residents. I mean, it's small.
- [32:08]
B
Most of your stuff you think in that area. Because I. People will say, oh no. So it's all over.
- [32:13]
A
Okay, it's all over. So I'm very omnipresent in the csra, which is Georgia and South Carolina. But you have to be, you have to be the mayor of your area in real estate terms. But I come from a very small town. My wife and I both grew up in this same town. We dated each other in middle school for a long time, broke up through high school and then got right back together right after high school and then it's been history ever since. I just told Krista right before this call, we're fixing to celebrate our 25th year together, but our 23rd anniversary.
- [32:48]
B
23 years. 23 year wedding anniversary. Yeah.
- [32:50]
A
Yep. We're going to be out in California during our anniversary. And so she gave us some great restaurant recommendations. But so that's where we came. I came from a very small town and I worked my family's business for 27 years, since I was 12 years old. My dad had a billboard, you know the billboards you see up and down the highway in the interstate. He had a billboard manufacturing and installation business. So 12 years old, summers, I would work in there sorting the nuts and bolts because everybody would just throw them on the floor. So I would have to sort them. And I'd cut vinyl for the lettering on the sign, things like that. And then I just grew into. We grew the business into different branches and so we built some homes, we'd buy some land, we had a hardware store, car wash, different things like that. So I would run all of it. Whenever I left him, I was running five of his corporations single handedly. So it was literally like changing hats all day long. I never knew what business I was answering the phone for. So. So anyways, I did that for 27 years and I had topped out salary wise. He said, unless you start going out of town with me, I cannot pay you anymore. I had kids at home, like, bills were getting, you know, expensive to live. And so I just said, okay, I'm going to give you a six month notice. I don't know what I'm gonna do, but here's my notice. No hard feelings. I mean, everything was great.
- [34:14]
B
Yeah.
- [34:15]
A
So going to real estate, I started applying for other jobs, like at a nuclear site and things like that, like cubicle jobs that had really good benefits and insurance and all that and pay was okay. And go to lunch one day and I call one of my real estate friends. Just add the blue out of the tea. Total blue. Real estate was not even on my radar. And I said, what do you think about me getting my real estate license? And I can remember her words to this day. She had been in the business eight years at that point. She said, every single soul that I have talked to about coming into real estate, I have discouraged them because it's such a tough business. She said, in eight years, you are the very first person that I'm gonna tell, go for it. Yeah. And so I was like, what in the world is she seeing that I don't see? And so right there in the parking lot of my dad's office, I'm looking up the real estate school and I'm, I'm, I'm joining the school.
- [35:10]
B
This is not a shortened version of the story.
- [35:13]
A
Like, it really is. It really is. So I love you so much. Anyways, the first I go to real estate school, get my license, join a team. It was not, it was not, it was not everything they said it was going to be on the team and so quickly struggled.
- [35:29]
B
I mean, you struggled. I struggled for like two years. Right?
- [35:33]
A
I was on the team for three months and then got booted out. Started looking for jobs again, like applying for jobs, because I was like, real estate is not for me, apparently. And so just so crazy because you're.
- [35:46]
B
Just a baller now, but you still.
- [35:48]
A
You know, I mean, literally 2000, the end of 2018, really into 2019, we were getting notices that the bank was going to foreclose on our house. I mean, it was so. It was that bad. I mean, there were night after night.
- [36:02]
B
Well, that's only five years ago. Five years ago, on the verge of foreclosure, ready to leave the industry, bankruptcy.
- [36:10]
A
Had no money in the bank, Literally was grocery shopping in my mother's pantry to put food on the table for my children. And so it was. It was rough. My wife and I were eating peanut butter sandwiches. I mean, it was. It was tough.
- [36:26]
B
Actually, a peanut butter sandwich sounds pretty good right now. I'm just gonna leave. Okay, so. So, yeah.
- [36:31]
A
On the brink of foreclosing, foreclosure.
- [36:35]
B
What happens?
- [36:36]
A
I had a call from a friend. I'm laying in the bed because I slipped into a little. A little depression. I'm a depressing person. But I was laying in the bed in the middle of the afternoon, and a friend of mine called. He said, are you still doing real estate? And I'm like, yeah, I am.
- [36:48]
B
You're like, thank God.
- [36:49]
A
I'm like, what are you calling about? I am doing real estate. But anyways, he said, kim and I are thinking about selling our house. And I'm like, the heavens are opening up. And he was like, can you come talk to us? And I'm like, yes, I'll be there.
- [37:02]
B
In 30 seconds, 20 minutes.
- [37:04]
A
I could be there. And I listed that house the day before Thanksgiving of 2018, got a contract on it the day after Thanksgiving. We closed on it in January of 2019. This is how specific, like, this was. How bad.
- [37:19]
B
Remember? Because it was so bad.
- [37:21]
A
I remember very vividly everything that went on. So January of 2019, I closed on that first house, and then I went on to close 54 other homes of 2019 people.
- [37:33]
B
Hold on. Listen to this. Okay. Having a horrible time. Ready to give up. Literally. He was. He's underestimating. Telling you the story about him being depressed. He was very depressed. Gets a phone call and everything switches, right? And 54 homes that year in the next 12 months, and it has just been skyrocketed. Now he's double that. But. But I mean, it's so good to know. So no matter how bad things are right now, things can get better. You can have your 54 home year, and you can make the decision that it's going to start right now. And I want to point something out about Joe, and that is that when he says he's doing 3,000, he does it like, he does his video text messages every day. He does his morning routine every day. He doesn't get so busy that he stops doing all the things that got him busy. He continues to do his content. He's very. He's very regimented, and he doesn't use the excuses like so many people make. I mean, when we had that CMA challenge, I remember thinking, joe's already one of the busiest people, and he just doubled his business by continuing to just do it. And it's just so. And you know, most people have one of the worst years ever in 2023 and 2024. And you had your best years because. And it would have been even more had it been a normal market. But it's just, it's so good to see, you know, and it just gives people so much hope. But they have to work.
- [38:52]
A
They have. So I'm, I'm friends in my area. There's three agents that are veteran agents. They've been in, they've been in the business longer than I've been alive. And so I talked to them.
- [39:03]
B
You know, people.
- [39:04]
A
That's pretty, that's a pretty long time. So. But I talked to these agents and all three of them are very, very consistent with saying 2024 was the worst year of their real estate career, including the crash of 2008 and 2009. One agent, my office said she would, she would go back to 2008, 2009, over 2024, any day of the week. And so that tells you how bad the real estate industry was. And then I ended up selling 139 homes in the worst year of real estate. And so if I can do it, I tell everybody I'm just a regular, normal old Joe. I'm a little extra in some parts.
- [39:42]
B
But let's go back. So 101 of those were him individually, himself, and 38 were from his team. So just, just to clarify, that's. That's still him because he does a lot of it, but I mean, so there's no excuses as far as why things won't work. Okay, so just to recap, so morning routine has a lot to do with it. And also I will say Joe has a such a good attitude. I mean, he's such a servant. Always happy. He's an energizer giver, not a taker. Always happy.
- [40:09]
A
My word of the year is serve.
- [40:11]
B
Serve. I love it. And he also still educates himself. I mean, Joe is one of the busier agents on my coaching company and my coaching program. And he's on every call. Not only is on every call, but he does a 30 minute before one of the calls and answers questions from his own leisure. He's serving other agents across the country, answering questions about what he's doing. So morning routine, being a server, having a good attitude, 10 video text messages every single day, utilizing social media as a producer, talking about the market, neighborhoods, things to do, food, local, local everything. Being the mayor of his town, CMA drop off. Okay, Meaning he's Doing, you know, now he's saying 3,000 and the follow up process after that, somebody calls, he's dropping off his box. He also has all of his materials done. Seller guide, you know, buyer guide, seller book, marketing plan, pre marketing video, his neighborhood community funnel. I mean he's doing all the things. Now some of you are thinking, this seems like a lot, like so much. But you, you've done things intermittently like one piece at a time. So now you have all of this material.
- [41:14]
A
That's right. I mean, shortly after I joined the coaching program, I almost quit the coaching program because I was trying to keep up with current business. Because you give so much through the coaching program that it was literally drinking water from a fire hydrant. And so it was, it was so much that I was like, krista can keep my money. I don't need the coaching program. I'm going to go ahead and keep up with current business because if I don't keep up with this, I won't be able to afford to live. And so, but my accountability coach, I love her to pieces. She said, joe, just do it. I mean, she pretty much kicked me in the tail and said, you're nobody special. Get through the modules, do the videos. And I did. And I'm so glad that I stayed with it because it just sets me apart from other, any other agent in my area. I say this on the calls all the time. If you're doing just a tenth of what you teach us through the coaching program, you're doing a hundred percent more than pretty much any other agent in your area. And so you know the assets that you've given us, the seller's guide, the book, the buyer's guide marketing plan, the funnels, the videos, the scripts, and everything that is included in the coaching program. I mean, sets you light years apart from any other agent in your area.
- [42:30]
B
Yeah, yeah. And you're, you're just so. I love you, Joe. You know that? You're, are, you are. I consider you a friend, but I also wildly respect you with, with what you have done. And I'm going to ask you at the next summit, I would like you, since you didn't make the last one, to be one of our speakers. Would you do that for me?
- [42:46]
A
Yep. So we weren't at the last summit because we were helping the people in western North Carolina through the hurricane, collecting donations from them. So we canceled our plans at the very last minute not to come to summit back last year, but we are coming this year and it's going to.
- [43:00]
B
Come and What I'm going to do is I'm going to have the team get you some assets. So you could, if you want to, like, it's, it's good for your brand to say, oh, I'm a speaker at this real estate summit. We'll give you the assets so you could do that locally. So that gives you even more credibility and more branding to show what an awesome guy you are.
- [43:16]
A
So let me just tell everyone listening to this podcast, I get this question all the time. Is Krista real? Like, is she real? Oh, my God. So you know, who is this chick? And I have met her husband, Steve. I have helped him put a boat in the water. Like, they're real. She's a real person with a real family. And what you see is what you get. Like, very transparent. There's nothing fake about what she gives. And I mean, you are who you say you are. Because when I started seeing you on social media, I'm like, I don't know about this lady. Who is this? So, but then I ended up doing. It was a two day event back then, but it's a three day now. I did the event and even then I was like, I'm not real sure about this. And then it took me about 30 days. And so my biggest thing is people don't wait to sign up for the coaching program because, I mean, I wish I had joined 30 days prior because I would have been a little bit further. But I'm gonna tell y'all, Krista is who she says she is and all of those clickfunnels and awards on her wall and books and all that she has earned every single one of those. And I can say that genuinely because I know who she is genuinely.
- [44:32]
B
Ah, thank you. By the way, Joe has like three more awards to put on the back of his wall.
- [44:37]
A
I told her before the call that I needed to catch up on all my words. These are from 2021.
- [44:42]
B
I know. He's. He's. Yes. He's been too busy to get his awards. I just told him I deleted an email and said, get your awards, everyone. So, Joe, I end every podcast like this. First of all, remember, if you want to learn more about these strategies, go to Kristen Masher.com forward slash, get more listings for our three day virtual event. Less than a couple cups of coffee and we go over digital marketing, social media, video funnels, and how to be the mayor of your town in great detail. Joe, I end it this way always. Whether it's personal, business relationships, you know, whatever. What is the One piece of advice, which I know is going to be hard for you to only give one. What is the one piece of advice that you would give? And I love you. That's why I tease you. What's the one piece of advice that you would give our listeners?
- [45:24]
A
I would tell you, if you're a real estate agent or a lender or something like that. Fall in love with the boring. You laughed at me the other day.
- [45:32]
B
But explain that now. Repeat. What do you mean to fall in love with the boring?
- [45:36]
A
Fall in love with the boring. So our process should be the exact same every single day. Even though real estate is so exciting and every day is different, you're going to be thrown with different challenges in your face and things like that. Every single day is different. However, the process should be the exact same. You should have the same daily routine, the morning routine, to set your day up before you go to bed at night. You should be doing the exact same thing and setting your day up for the next day. And so if you really get down to the nuts and bolts of it, it's kind of boring. But the people you meet are exciting. The food you get to try on tasty Tuesdays in the restaurants, in the community, all that is super exciting, but it's boring. If you were really just to look at it written out on paper, you'd be like, golly, that's kind of boring all day long. But fall in love with the boring. It will do you and set you light years apart from every other agent. Because people who want to use you want to see you being very consistent in your message, in your branding, the way you look, the way you come across, everything. If you're sending mixed signals to them about, you know, are you in real estate? Are you not in real estate? Do you work another job? You know, what are you doing? Yeah, and a big question mark in their head, are you the agent for me? But if you're consistent and boring, that's.
- [46:58]
B
Kind of just a boring about you. But I will tell you this, is that you are very good at being consistent. You do your daily routine, you get up, you do it, you do the things. And you know, you treat your job like it's a job. You treat it like a business. Just like when you work at Macy's or Costco, you got to clock in and clock out. You clock in and you clock out and you do it so, so well. Joe, remind people again where you they work. And listen to me, people. I mean this from the bottom of my heart. If you are Looking for an agent in the North Carolina, Georgia area.
- [47:26]
A
Joe, go ahead. South Carolina and Georgia. I mean, last time that Georgia, Mississippi.
- [47:32]
B
Oh my God. South Carolina and Georgia. My best friend lives in North Carolina. He is who you go to because he takes such good care of his. He is a servant at heart. He knows what he's doing. He's an amazing negotiator, but he actually has a ton of experience, you know, selling, you know, well over a thousand homes. So, Joe, thank you. Remind them again where your handles, where they can find you in case they want the best real estate agent ever in your area.
- [47:56]
A
Yep. So I'm Joe Seaman. I'm from the Augusta, Georgia market and the Aiken and North Augusta, South Carolina market. You can find me on Facebook. My name is J O E S E A M O N. That's where all the good stuff is at. I'm on Instagram and Tick tock. Tick tock is a little bit different side of me. But it's fun to get on there and see Joe Seaman underscore realtor on TikTok. But I just have a great time doing it all and I could not be where I'm at without you, Krista. And I can't wait to get to California in a month or two and hug you.
- [48:28]
B
I'm so excited. And hey, I'm going to end it with this. I know for a fact Joe Seaman is so good at his branding and marketing, he cannot go anywhere in his town without people stopping him, talking to him, acting like they're best friends and he's never even met them due to his consistently consistency in his marketing. Everyone, Joe, this has been amazing. Thank you so much everyone. Appreciate it. Say goodbye to Joe and remember, I hope you are just as fired up as I am. But listening and watching is not the key. It's actually implementation. So at a kristamayshore.com forward/, get more listings and we will teach you how to be a listing pro and we will see you next time. Bye, everybody. Hey there. If you want to learn how to dominate your market as a real estate agent, how to sell more listings and stand out as the go to obvious choice, sign up for my virtual event. Just go to kristamayshore.com limitlesslistings do me a favor. This is a three day virtual event. I'm going to teach you how to stand out in your marketplace. Go to kristamayshore.com limitlesslistings and I will see you there.