← The Millionaire Real Estate Agent | The MREA Podcast
The Millionaire Real Estate Agent | The MREA Podcast
116. Build Market Share Through Geographic Farming With Jim Fagan
00:41:38
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Welcome back to another episode of the Millionaire Real Estate Agent podcast. I'm Jason Abrams and this is the place where we lift the curtain on the world of real estate like never before. Every week I sit down with visionaries, pirates and mavericks. We're here to document, demonstrate, and most importantly, demystify their game changing models and systems. What secrets propel them to the top and how are they living their dreams? This is about passion, it's about strategy. But above all, it's about real, tangible success. So buckle up and let's dive in. This is the Millionaire Real Estate Agent podcast. Geographic farming done the right way might be the biggest no brainer in the history of the real estate multiverse. I'm telling you, this is the way to go. Yet when I go into many rooms and I say, raise your hand if you're doing geographic farming, less than 10% of the hands go up. And I don't understand it. Today we are going to talk to a gentleman who pretty much by himself, with a little bit of leverage, is an mrea. He has built a farm system that allows him to have over 50% market share in his community. We are going to talk all things farming and go step by step through his system. But on the way, we are going to hear about a struggle that he had with mental illness that I think everybody needs to hear. Sit back and buckle up. This is Jim Fagan. Jim, how are you, sir?
- [01:56]
B
I'm fantastic, Jason, but I'm getting better.
- [01:58]
A
I love it, man. All right. I kick all these off the same. You're on the people's podcast. They want to know, Jim, how did you end up in the greatest industry in the world?
- [02:07]
B
That's a great question. So I'll take you back to right out of college, I sold medical malpractice insurance for nine years. Loved it. But it took us away from Charlotte, where I'm from. And so my wife Beth and I decided we wanted to get back to, to the Queen City, as we call it. And I got into commercial real estate development.
- [02:26]
A
Okay, hang on. I want to ask a question about medical malpractice for nine years. What do you learn in that business that you brought forward today?
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B
That's a great question. I think one was it ridded me of my fear of call reluctance because I was calling medical practice managers around North Carolina to convince them to do business with me and my company.
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A
I gotta think it's a tough sale because it's a commodity, Right? You're gonna buy insurance. And so how do you differentiate?
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B
Yeah, well, I worked for a physician owned mutual company. We were governed by physicians. And I think that really resonated with the groups. And I felt like Jason, in everything I've done in my career that's been meaningful has been where I felt like I was helping others. And I really, my dad was a physician. I felt like I was working for a company that was truly protecting the assets and the livelihoods of our clients. And that made it so much easier for me.
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A
It's funny, man. You were attracted to a physician based insurance company and a realtor led real estate company because Gary Keller is a real estate agent through and through. I love that.
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B
Yes, thank you. So I did that, went into commercial real estate development, as I said, did that for a number of years. I had two business partners, but candidly, I was gone so much. We were working around the Carolinas and Virginia. I had a young family. I wanted to be home more. So I sold my share of that business and started up a little real estate private Equity Company in 2007. Candidly, my world collapsed as I knew it at that point.
- [04:00]
A
Well, I mean, it would have been hard to be in the equity real estate business and not have a collapse. What was interesting about that, the Great Recession, is it literally when I think back, it felt like one day the lights were on and the next day the lights were off. That had to have been jarring for you.
- [04:16]
B
It was jarring because I'd done quite well financially with the development business and we invested heavily in a lot of speculative mid rise condominium projects around the Carolinas that quite frankly, had we not had the recession would have done great. But then the recession hit. These developers weren't able to sell the units as quickly as they needed to, and so the banks were taking them back. But you know, interestingly enough, at the same time that was happening, I got diagnosed with something that we know is called bipolar disorder. Shortly after that, I woke up one morning and I found myself in the psychiatric unit of one of our local hospitals.
- [04:57]
A
Oh my gosh.
- [04:58]
B
I was in there for about two or three weeks. I got out. My wife Beth was not sure that I should come home. And in fairness to her, and I don't want to paint her with a back of brush here. You know, neither one of us really understood this at the time. You know, she wasn't, she just wasn't sure what the right thing to do was.
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A
Now, Jim, because I'm a novice at this, had you not had any history and you wake up one day with bipolar or did you see Signals now looking back at your life, and it was undiagnosed.
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B
That's a good question. I had been misdiagnosed with depression, which is unipolar depression. And that's really common for people with bipolar disorder because one of the poles of bipolar is depression. It looks exactly the same as regular depression does.
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A
So what's the other poll?
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B
The other poll is the manic side of bipolar, where people become super energized. And it's, in my opinion, the less prettier of the two. So I got out of the hospital and I wasn't sure what my family situation was going to look like beyond that. My business partner in our private equity business had said, don't come back to work. And I, you know, candidly, like, I hit what I felt like was rock bottom. And I had a, what I believe to be an encounter with God one night about a week after getting out of the hospital. And I realized, you know, that I had two choices at that point. The first choice was I could wallow in my self pity and I could be angry about my circumstances. Or the second choice, which I believed he was calling me to, was to learn as much as I could about my illness, to stay as healthy as possible. It doesn't mean that I don't have bad days, but to stay as healthy as possible so that I could help others who were maybe struggling with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder. And so it was that hope that he gave me that allowed me to believe that one day Beth and I would reconcile, which we have. We've been married 32 years. It was that hope that allowed me to believe that I get to have a relationship with my kids and to provide for my kids financially. And in that hope that I was going to help others was still part of what drives me to this day. Jason, when I have that kind of day where I feel like I can't get out of bed, but I force myself out. Maybe just like putting one step and one foot in front of the other is all I feel like I can do. But I just, you know, kind of what I've learned, because I'm more prone to the depressive side of the illness than I am the manic side, is that I just refuse to give up. I just refuse to give up. I truly believe I was called to try to help other people who are struggling. And I've had the blessing of being able to do that. And from that I get strength. Yeah, it's a big part of my journey.
- [07:57]
A
You know, what I'm struck with is that I've known you and I didn't know. I'm learning this in real time, friends. We're all learning this together right now. You're on the treadmill or you're driving and I'm sitting in the studio. But from outside appearances, I mean, you're a good looking guy, you're a millionaire several times over. You're an MRE agent, you run a big business, you run a big coaching life. Now you really might not know what the person next to you is struggling with to get to the success they're in. And that's what's hitting home for me right now.
- [08:28]
B
That's why I feel called to share my story today. Because most of us are guilty of comparing our insides to other people's outsides.
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A
Tell me more about that. What does that mean, Jim?
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B
I think it is, it is so easy to, you know, we either observe someone or we hear a story of success. And some people think, man, I could never do that. I mean, you don't know what I'm dealing with. And so many people are suffering in silence. In some cases that's mental health. Sometimes that's, you know, sometimes that's other things. But I just feel strongly that there's hope when folks understand they're not the only ones struggling and that I truly believe, I truly believe that even someone dealing with the diversity can have a life of significance. Now, that's a relative term, right? But that's kind of what I've learned. My life looks very different today because of what I have than what I would envision. But I feel like I've still got a big life, man.
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A
You got a huge life. That's my point. That to the casual observer, and I've gotten to watch your success from the audience, seeing you on stage, you're living a big life, man, and you're doing it, you're doing it with a challenge that not everybody has. And I see you. And the reason I wanted to have this discussion was so that everyone out there that might be struggling in silence can now look up and have a voice. And I'm really grateful for that.
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B
That's exactly right. And it is what drew me into the residential business. So I spent a couple of years sort of trying to figure out what I wanted to do. And literally one night in a Bible study, I thought, you know what, maybe I should go into residential real estate. And the reason was because I felt like it would be an opportunity to help people. Right? I mean, we know most people don't buy or sell A home very often. And the process can be uncertain, it can be stressful, it can be frightening, it can be emotional. And I felt like that I could be good at helping people navigate through that whole process. And so In January of 2010, that's. I embarked on that journey.
- [10:37]
A
I love that you had the epiphany during. Because I've made the argument, right, that this is as much of a calling as any other. It is if you're going to run the Ministry of Real Estate.
- [10:47]
B
Yes. And I view it that way. I tell people who, you know, I coach or mentor who are in this business that, hey, we're not in the real estate sales business. We're in the real estate service business. And we serve our clients by giving them the information that they need to make the best decision possible for them. We may sell ourselves, right, to get people to know, like, and trust us in order to hire us, but then the selling's over. Then we become a consultant, in my opinion. But so I got into the business, joined a small independent firm in Charlotte and did quite well. But, you know, it's interesting, I got to where I hit this production level, Jason, that. And I just couldn't seem to break through it. And, you know, now, having taught six personal perspectives, I know that to have been my ceiling of achievement. And I kept getting the advice that, well, just keep doing what you're doing, Jim. Just keep doing what you're doing and you're going to break through. You know, next year will be better. Well, I went, you know, a handful of years, and I still couldn't break through it. And so I happened one night to pick up this little red book called the Millionaire Real Estate Agent. And I started to read the book and it was like, oh, my gosh. Like Gary and Jay and Dave Jenks had given me a blueprint that I could build the business I wanted to build. I really wanted to build a business that was less dependent on me because of my health situation, but also, I just. I wanted to build a business that would allow us to have a big life. And so we, shortly after, Beth and I both read the book and we joined Keller Williams shortly thereafter. I tell people, to this day, in the 35 years I've been in business, the single best decision I've ever made was to go into business with Keller Williams. And the second best decision was, and this is the very second thing I did after we signed the paperwork at the Market center was I hired a maps coach. And my maps coach, Rob Gaines, has had such a tremendous impact in our business, in my personal life. And, man, I don't know what we would do without him.
- [12:58]
A
Well, thank gosh, we don't have to figure that out because we got him. So, gang, this is the time of the show. You know the time it is. It's model time, gang. You don't have to take the notes. I'm taking the notes. They come out on Thursdays. If you don't get them, go to mreanotes.com that's mreanotes.com and get on the email list. Jim, you build an incredible business based on farming, but in a way that no one really had thought of before, which I've already said publicly, makes you a genius. Tell me exactly how Jim Fagan farms.
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B
First of all, should we talk about how you pick a farm?
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A
100%. That's step one is pick the right farm.
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B
I think it is. And so there's kind of four criteria, Jason, that I look at. And the first of those is that you need to pick. And let's talk about geographic farming, right? We're going to assume in this discussion that we're talking about farming a neighborhood just for the ease. So for me, the first of those four criteria is it needs to be convenient, right? The neighborhood needs to be convenient to where you live or you work. It doesn't make sense to pick something that is way far out of where you typically do business. The second is I think it needs to be a price point that's consistent with your average price range. Right. In your business. So, for example, if the average price of a house that you sell is 500,000, well, then it probably doesn't make sense to target a neighborhood of $250,000 homes. But it might make sense to target $750,000 homes, right? The third is to look at the turnover rate. And the turnover rate is just simply the percentage of homes that sell in any given year. Right. And I always recommend that you go back three, four, five years. Right? Because if we look at the turnover rate in the last 12 months, there may be an anomaly there. So we want to go back and look at several years.
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A
And what number am I looking for, Jim?
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B
Well, that's a good question. So a lot of things you read will say 7, 8%. I don't think that's realistic in this market. Personally, I'm happy with 4 or 5%. And if it's the neighborhood I live in, Jason, I'm going to farm it regardless. I mean, you have to. And I think every single agent out there who wants listings needs to be farming, and they need to be doing golden letters.
- [15:24]
A
I got it. It's gotta be convenient. It's gotta be in my price point. It's gotta have a good turnover rate, 4 or 5% minimum. What's the fourth one?
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B
The fourth is just looking at market share of other agents who are selling in the neighborhood. I would say that, and this is really interesting. So, you know, when I talk to agents today and I encourage them to farm their neighborhood, the most common objection I get is, oh, but you know, there's three or four other agents who live in the neighborhood. Like, who cares? Who cares? And I said, go look up how much they sell. Because oftentimes the perception isn't reality. Right?
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A
If I'm doing the research and I'm looking, is there a percentage of market share that would scare you off, that you'd say, you know what? The juice isn't worth the squeeze. I'm. I'm passing on that again.
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B
If it were my own neighborhood, I wouldn't care because I think there's enough business to go around. But if it weren't my neighborhood, I might think twice about something much over 20%. Because the thing is, is that most neighborhoods don't have one agent selling even 20%. I mean, generally I would say it's 10% or less.
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A
Okay, perfect. So I got my four things. I've now picked my neighborhood. What's next?
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B
Well, next is just sort of the overall comment of that whatever you pick, whatever you choose to do in your farm, you have to be consistent. You have to be. So, for example, like, for us, we send monthly postcards, and we send the biggest, glossiest postcards, thickest stock you can find. And the reason for that is that, you know, when I go out and get the mail in any given day, I've got a stack of stuff, right? And I want to make sure that our postcards, that we give the greatest chance that people are going to notice our postcard and want to read it. So I don't want it to be small. I don't want it to be, you know, poor quality. And we make sure that we're. That we're sending those out on a monthly basis. And I, I tell people, look, if you can't afford to send postcards, like, or you can't afford to mail them, then have them printed and door knock the neighborhood.
- [17:35]
A
Well, Jim, what's on the postcards?
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B
So we decide that. Like right now, we're deciding what's on the postcards for 20, 26 sometimes it will be, hey, if we have a special discount that we can offer for a reputable H VAC vendor and call us and we'll give you the discount code.
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A
Right.
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B
We would never put the information on the postcard. I got this from another MREA who farms. We want them, I want them to call and have to ask us for that. Sometimes it's invitations to maybe one of our events that we have going on. Sometimes it's something about Charlotte. Hey, top 10, you know, family friendly things to do in Charlotte this spring.
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A
I like that. It's three buckets. Vendor discounts, invites, and city information that's relevant.
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B
Yeah, that's right. And then we're also doing postcards for just solds in our farm. If the market in Charlotte ever slows down, where things stay on the market more than like, you know, a few days, we might start doing just listeds. But at least in our neighborhood, by the time the just listed got out, they'd be under contract. But we do just solds. And so therefore we're getting way more than 12 postcards going out per month.
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A
So when you say be consistent, you know, people ask me all the time, how long do I mail into a farm if I'm not seeing a result? Do you tell people this is going to take some time?
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B
It is going to take some time. I think it's going to take at least a year before you start to see some success from it. But it will really take two years before you know for sure that you should continue to invest.
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A
Okay, I love this. So, number one, I had to pick the right area. Number two, I had to stay consistent. Number three, I got to send my monthly postcard at a minimum. And, and I'm adding in either listings or sold. So now that I'm getting more than one postcard a month, what's next?
- [19:28]
B
Our branding is super consistent on everything that we send. So our logo, the picture that we use, we have a couple of slogans that we put on our postcards. One of them is, we know Montebello because we live here.
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A
That's a good one.
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B
We've been using that for, I guess, five years now. The other one, now that our market share is so significant, is trusted by more Montebello residents than any other agent. I love that one.
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A
That's so good. Yeah, I get it. You're making sure in one sentence or less they know exactly why I was.
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B
Really reluctant to do this one a couple of years ago. But now my face is on our for sale signs.
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A
Okay.
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B
And because here's what I figured out. My face is my brand. Like, we have a grocery store that a lot of people in the farm shop at. So when I go to the grocery store and people see me, if they live in the farm, like I want them to associate me with real estate, right? To me, that's really important because your for sale signs are free advertising in your listings. Right? So we have my face on there. I preview or show every single house that comes on the market in the farm.
- [20:39]
A
That's a big one. And I'm shocked. A lot of people don't do that. And I'm thinking you just missed a huge opportunity to leave a little handwritten note. Thank you for letting me preview your home. This home is gorgeous. That stuff matters.
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B
It matters. And it's partly how you become the expert in your neighborhood, right? Or the neighborhood you're farming is you need to understand the inventory and particularly if you're going to use those homes as a comp later for a potential listing. If there's nothing, Jason, you know this. That replaces going into a house versus looking at pictures or a floor plan. It also helps in negotiating with a buyer's agent when you have been in the homes that they may be using as comps when they're making an offer on one of your listings.
- [21:26]
A
That's a no brainer. By the way, that is worth the price of admission on the whole show we're doing today, Jim. Because the reality of it, it's hard to say you're the neighborhood expert if you haven't been in the homes in the neighborhood.
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B
That's right.
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A
All right, what else you got?
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B
So I try to walk the dog every day now. Of course the dog loves it, right? But the reason I do it is like before we started the podcast, I took the dog out and I guess what, I ran into a neighbor who was. He was in his garage. I said, hey, Don, how are you doing? We strike up a conversation. Then suddenly he's like, you know what? I need a crawl space person. Do you have a crawl face person? I said, absolutely. I did. So sending the information and I realized he wasn't in our database. So guess what I did? Because he texted me. So I would text him. Now I have his phone number, have his address. He's going into command and he'll get into our 50 touch plan. And that's one of the other things on the list. So anybody we meet in the farm, Jason, anybody who. Well, basically anybody who we meet, they go into our met database and command and they Go into a regular 50.
- [22:31]
A
Touch program to our friends at other brokerage houses. Command is the technological platform that Jim uses via Keller Williams. I love that. So you're very purposeful about meeting people. You're not just loading in the list from the entire neighborhood, although you need that for the mailings. You're waiting until you meet them to call them a met in your system.
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B
I am. We don't actually put them in our CRM until we meet them. So we, our mailers just come from the tax records and we keep that separate. So here's another way to purposely meet people. If you have a dog. If you don't, you may want to go get one is dog. You know, I'll be walking down the street, on the other side of the streets coming a neighbor with their dog. Well, dogs love to sniff each other and, you know, embark at each other and all that. Well, next thing you know, you're talking to the neighbor and, well, hey, I'm Jim Fagan. You know, what's your name? Where do you live? And strike up conversations like, it's just. It's a great way to organically meet people. And I. And so that leads to the next one. We have a golf cart. I stole this idea from another agent, and I used to use the golf cart to deliver our postcards just to minimize cost. So that's one thing that people could do if they. And you can write the golf cart off as a business expense. But I also use it anytime I'm going somewhere within the neighborhood, whether it's to see a client or preview a house. I drive the golf cart instead of our car. And the reason I do it is because I find it a lot easier if I see again see somebody on walking on the street or they're in the yard. It's a lot easier for me to pull over to the side in my golf cart and say, hey, Jason, how's it going? Versus, you know, you're in the car. I just find I'm not as apt to pull the car over and roll the window down.
- [24:18]
A
You don't know, Jim, how much I'm loving this because I'm thinking about all those great real estate agents in Michigan and Ohio who are about to do be in three feet of snow. And I'm thinking about you keeping it easy driving in the golf cart and saying hello to your buddies. And I'm loving every second of it.
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B
It's fun. It is. So we just two years ago, you know, I hit on the golden letter earlier, I started sending the golden letter in our farm.
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A
So for our friends that don't know, walk me through in three sentences, what's the golden letter and what are you sending?
- [24:50]
B
Yeah, the golden letter simply says one thing. Would you be interested in selling your house to a client of mine? And we do ours where they're on our letterhead. I know some agents do it at a high level where they print the, the golden letter on a blank piece of paper. I just think for our market, I want it to be maybe a little bit more professional looking. So it goes on our letterhead. It has my home address at the bottom of the signature. Because I want to make sure people know in case, if they don't know me already, I want them to know, hey, this guy lives in the neighborhood. And then I have a high school young lady here in the neighborhood who she hand addresses them. So we've been getting an open rate. I mean, I think what a good open rate for a golden letter, somewhere around 2%. And we're like around the 4 to 5% range.
- [25:41]
A
You mean of all of the letters you send about 4 to 5% contact you and say, well, that's interesting, tell me more.
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B
That's exactly right. I think some of it's because they know me.
- [25:50]
A
Walk me through what that call looks like. When they call you and say, hey Jim, I got your letter.
- [25:55]
B
I mean, it can go a number of different ways, but probably the largest number of calls that we've gotten have been from people who are saying, hey, we're not interested in selling right now, but we're going to be in the next two, three, four years. So guess what I'm doing? I'm building up future listing inventory. Right? Because now I'm building relationship with these people. But in some cases I got two listings. I guess it was earlier in the fall from people who said, hey, I got your letter and we need to sell.
- [26:25]
A
How often are you sending those letters?
- [26:27]
B
We're sending them typically once a year. But I did do a second. So we did it last fall. We did it just about three weeks ago. I did one in between that was targeting specific homes. I was targeting ranches and tear downs in our neighborhood. So we sent to just a subset.
- [26:47]
A
What I'm amazed with gang, if you're listening to this, understand the end result of all these things because they're building on themselves is owning 40 to 50% of the market share in the community. And that's what you need to keep in the back of your mind. Because on its own, none of these are silver Bullets. But added together, Jim, this is an incredibly powerful way of overtaking a geographic area.
- [27:10]
B
Yeah. And I have to say, like, I have an insatiable desire to. Well, I had an insatiable desire to be the number one agent, and now I have an insatiable desire to have 100% of the market.
- [27:22]
A
Yeah. Well, I know when you say, I go preview the other listings. I know part of that is bittersweet. And you're walking through and trying to figure out what you have to do different next week to make sure that never happens again.
- [27:32]
B
I am never happy when I see some other agent sign go. I'm like, what do you mean?
- [27:37]
A
Someone once told me that someone close to me said that the best motivator in her life was when someone took a listing in her neighborhood and she woke up the next morning and decided she was going to run a whole different real estate business.
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B
Yes, absolutely.
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A
The other piece of this is the events that you're doing that really has.
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B
Become, I think, a big part of our success in the neighborhood. And how that came about was again, one of my coaching calls with Rob. I was beliating the fact that we're not allowed to door knock in our neighborhood. Or let me put this way, it's highly frowned upon. All you have to do is go onto the Facebook page of the neighborhood, which I do every day, which is, again, part of our strategy. Right. Always want to keep up with what's going on on the Facebook group. And it is amazing how many people are gnashing their teeth on the Facebook group whenever some salesperson decides to knock to door knock. And I just told Rob one day, I'm like, I don't think it's worth the reputational. The potential reputational damage. But I said, I need another way to be meeting people. And he's like, well, have you thought of doing events? And I hadn't.
- [28:44]
A
Eureka.
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B
Eureka. So I guess four years ago, we started doing events. We're now doing, I think, four a year. We sort of built a, what I call a playbook for our events. And it's just rinse and repeat. Right. And basically the only thing that changes is the theme of the event and the food associated with that. So, for example, we do a Cinco de Mayo party in May. Well, we have a taco truck. Right. We do a July 4th kind of pre party, and we have hot dogs for that. So that's really the. Those are the only things that change with each of our events.
- [29:18]
A
Now walk me through the events, because the way that you do it and the things that don't change make it incredibly interesting.
- [29:25]
B
Yeah, well, we have them in our front yard. You know that.
- [29:28]
A
There it is. Okay. You can't skip over that. Okay. So I've talked to a million different people that have a million different events, Jim. But having it in the front yard, which seemed so natural to you, isn't natural for everyone else. Why did you choose the front yard?
- [29:42]
B
Well, first of all, I don't want to sponsor somebody else's event. And we should talk about this because I know there's some agents who do. But I think it needs to be our event. It needs to be associated with us, not that we're a part of another event. And so we just. We have a great front yard. Our lot is kind of a reverse pie, right. So we have a smaller backyard. We have these three beautiful live oaks in the front. And I don't know, I just thought, why not have it in the front yard? And people love it.
- [30:13]
A
The genius is people drive by and see it. And I've seen the pictures. You have signs that just say stop and come in. Like you have to meet people at these things.
- [30:22]
B
We do. We put signs all over the neighborhood, usually the week before about the event. We send out a postcard that'll be one of our monthly postcards. Inviting. And then, you know, I'm generally calling people in the neighborhood who are in our met database saying I hope, I hope we. We see you at the event.
- [30:40]
A
And you've made these kid friendly. That's kind of the thing, right? Like people come family wide.
- [30:45]
B
Yeah, we kind of stumbled on that. So one event we had, I don't know, it was either a bounce house or a water slide. And what I realized was, you know, because the kid. Well, and some other like, kids games for the smaller kids. And what I realized is that if you keep the kids entertained, the parents will stay.
- [31:04]
A
Yes.
- [31:04]
B
And the longer the stay I get, that's more conversations that I get to have. And we've had that feedback from people who say, you know, Jim, one of the reasons we love Yalls events is because we don't have to do anything, Right? Because we rent tables and chairs. We literally just want them to come. They don't have to pay for anything. And we just wanted to have fun.
- [31:26]
A
I love it, man. I think it's absolutely genius. And I can completely understand how all these things added together make it a complete no brainer. I think the key, the. The unheard key maybe is that you're highly visible. You're in this community, yes. Every day in the golf cart, at the grocery store, in the restaurants. Like you don't just work here, you live here and work here.
- [31:49]
B
And I care about it deeply. I care about it and I care about the people in our neighborhood. And we have about 526 homes. And the last thing I'll just say about events, again, kind of happened upon this is that I think it's a great way to have conversations with people in a very. Where they're going to be relaxed. Right. Versus door knocking. And I will say to anybody who can door knock in their neighborhood, Jason, like, it's probably the single best, is certainly the most cost effective way to, to gain market share in the farm. But I think that where events are maybe slightly better is that people are, are not going to necessarily be on guard. Right. Like they might be when they answer their door.
- [32:40]
A
Here's the question that I have because I know there's some other real estate agents that live in your neighborhood. Do they get to come to the event or is there a sign that says and Jane and John can't attend?
- [32:50]
B
Well, it just may be that they're not getting the postcard. But if they.
- [32:56]
A
It's so good.
- [32:57]
B
But it would be okay if they came. I'm, I'd be all right with it.
- [33:01]
A
It's so good, man. Well, I love your model, interestingly enough. Let's wind this up because you took a step to the right. I mean, you're running this incredible business. You've got this scaled. This thing is now, you know, a W2 income, meaning when you farm a community like you do, you, you're going to have a reliable outcome. You're never going to stop. And that's freed you up to do some other things. You decided to become a maps coach. Why'd you do that?
- [33:29]
B
Yeah, well, I said earlier what an impact on me and our business that my coach has had. And I just, I've gotten to a point, Jason, where, you know, the awards are not as meaningful to me as they once were. And I want to give back to the industry. I want to be able to help others who are wanting to grow their business or maybe they're become sort of a prisoner of their success and they're successful in the business, but they find themselves so out of balance, meaning that they're, you know, they feel like they don't have the time to spend in the other areas of their life that are important. Like, I do think I've done that fairly well and I would love to be Able to help other people, too, to be able to have time in all the areas that are important to them in their lives.
- [34:21]
A
All right, well, then I'm going to ask you this quickly before you think about it and say no, but how can the people reach you? You. Someone's sitting out there and you're speaking directly to their heart and they want to hire you, my friend. How can they get a hold of you?
- [34:31]
B
The easiest way would just to call me candidly at 704255, 5037, the kind.
- [34:40]
A
Of guy who gives out his cell phone on a show that gets over 100,000 downloads a month. Jim, I love your heart. You may have to hire someone just to answer the phone.
- [34:49]
B
Well, maybe I should have said they should text me.
- [34:51]
A
How about that? It's too late now.
- [34:55]
B
Maybe they should text me.
- [34:56]
A
Dude, I love what you're doing. I love your mission to bring awareness to mental health. I think that's such a worthy cause. And I love that you looked up and turned a huge real estate business into a very systematized farm area. That you can say, These are the 11 things I've come up with.
- [35:16]
B
Literally about 110 different types of lead generation that somebody can do in a farm. And I have those for my clients. And we literally could just pick and choose and allow them to tailor what they think would work best for their farm.
- [35:31]
A
So we do the one pagers that come out on Thursday. Can we work with you to get that list?
- [35:35]
B
Yes.
- [35:36]
A
There it is, friends. We're going to get it. Last question for me. Looking back on all the success and you've had a wild ride, my friend. But I promise you this because I remember going bust in the great recession also. You hit a lot of people's hearts in the farming business. Is there any one mistake that if I'm going to screw this up, it's going to be because of this? What's the one thing that gets more people looking back on it that you'd make sure you'd save me from happening?
- [36:05]
B
Yeah, I think it's that they're not committed. I mean, I wasn't. I tried to farm my neighborhood before joining KW and I would just send a postcard here or there. And I never understood why people wouldn't call me. You develop a plan, a marketing plan, and it doesn't have to be complicated. It's like Gary says, success is simple. It's just not easy. The hard part is people won't commit and do it consistently. That is the key.
- [36:32]
A
Brilliant, Jim. Fagin you're a genius. Thank you my friend, for pouring into us and sharing your secrets. We, sir, are grateful.
- [36:39]
B
I am too. Jason, thanks so much for the opportunity.
- [36:44]
A
He nailed it. Have you ever heard a better argument in your life for having a dog, by the way, that's literally the reason I don't have one is because I'm not interested in having all those conversations with people. But if you're out there and you're trying to overwhelm a geographical area that you live in, walking the dog every day is a no brainer. Driving around in the golf cart is a no brainer. Having a party in your front yard is a no brainer. Now I've seen the photos from his front yard parties and I want you to just imagine this. On one side of this giant yard with these three beautiful live oaks, you have a playhouse, a jump house, a spooky clown, hot dogs, everything kids would love. And some babysitters there to make sure that they're having the time of their life. On the other side of the yard you have white linen tables and the adults are sitting and they're hanging out and they're talking and he's walking around and you literally watch them watching their kids have a blast. And here's the deal. Jim is the mayor of Fun Town during those events. You go back far enough, I know it was so successful that the HOA actually said to him, hey, people aren't coming to our meetings. Can you stop having your parties? And that's when to he's going started having more of them. He is a genius. A word by the way on his idea that you should preview every home. Duh. That's the biggest no brainer in the history of earth. I once saw a real estate agent. All this person did was preview every home that came up for sale in their market. But they left a handwritten note behind and the note simply said, you have a beautiful home. Thank you so much for letting me preview it. Good luck on the sale. And it was on their stationery that happened to have their name and phone number. Friends, I just want to tell you what do you think happens if and when that listing ever expires and a homeowner is going through a bunch of business cards from agent that sold the house or showed the house rather. And then one handwritten note from somebody that's the person who gets the phone call. That's just the bonus. The benefit, the real benefit is being able to speak intelligently about every house that comes on the market and sells. Jim eats, sleeps and breathes. This neighborhood and his neighbors know it. So when I take a step back from his success, what do I think? I think the best things are always found in simplicity, yet everything naturally wants to become more complicated. Sure, there's 120 things that you could do. Jim does nine of them. He just makes sure that he does them at a high level and he's never going to stop. And that's what makes Jim a genius. Go forth and do likewise. There it is. That wraps another episode. Friends, I don't know what you're taking out of this. I really don't. I'll tell you what I want you to be taking out of it, which is these are the people that are having tremendously big lives. And the reason it's happening is because they're setting up the models and systems to do justice. Gary Keller told me that leadership is teaching people how to think so that they do the things they need to do when they need to do them, so that ultimately they get the things they want when they want to have them. And that's what I want for you. You're all leaders, but it begins with leading ourselves. Hey gang, if you're enjoying this as much as we are, I want you to subscribe. Hit the button right now. Do it on YouTube, Amazon, Music, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. We also send out a newsletter at the conclusion of every show to make sure that you get the highest points in the models and systems that were discussed. So if you want to sign up, I need your name and your email address. Head over to themillionaireagentpodcast.com millionaire agent podcast.com enter your name and your email address and every week that newsletter will be in your box. Friends, you just went on a journey. I hope that what happens between now and the next time we meet is absolutely wonderful for you. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next week.
- [40:52]
B
This podcast is for general informational purposes only. The views, thoughts and opinions of the guest represent those of the guest and not Keller Williams Realty, LLC and its affiliates and should not be considered construed as financial, economic, legal, tax, or other advice. This podcast is provided without any warranty or guarantee of its accuracy, completeness, timeliness or results from using the information. Warning. You must comply with the TCPA and any other federal, state or local laws, including for B2B calls and texts. Never call or text a number on any do not call list and do not use an auto dialer or artificial voice or pre recorded messages without proper consent. Contact your attorney to ensure your compliance.