Episode 50 - Real Estate Situations & Customer Relationship Management

Real Estate Situations as a Realtor, things that happen and how to work through them by moving forward. What alternatives do have and what can be done in situations like this.

Don't get me started with Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?
Check out Boomtownroi.com if you are an eXp Agent make sure you mention my name and eXp! 

Transcript

Cindy: 0:06

Hello, and welcome to Real Estate in The Adventures of parenthood. I am back people. It's been a while. Okay, so I need to get give you guys what have I been doing and where have I been at? So for the past couple weeks months, I've been actually working with a new podcast that I had actually built with my co host. And we had started a podcast called your baddies. And we were doing that we did that for things like 13 episodes. So we're no longer doing that those episodes, you guys will be seeing it in real estate and the adventures of parenthood, it talks about relationship dating, how to get back in and being intimate with yourself. So that's a totally different scope. Keep in mind, this is real estate and the adventures of parenthood. So parenthood can actually diversify in so many things, and especially being me Believe me. All right. So now let me tell you what I've been actually working with and talking about lately. And doing in the real estate world. We're happy to be presgraves been many areas, and many things. I will tell you the truth, I've actually gotten I had gotten a little burned out back in July. I will be transparent with you guys, because I got four terminations back in July. And that actually brought me a little bit down. And just because the market was shifting and all that and seeing like, hey, you know what, what's going on? What am I doing wrong, and I started doubting myself completely with many things. Just because, you know, sometimes you deal with people that are not good for you or toxic. And since while the termination happened. And some people got really, really desperate, because one was going through a divorce. And you know, being a listing agent, you spend a lot of money, believe it or not, I mean, one of the listings cost me almost $1,000 in marketing, videos, everything and it was really, really frustrating. And that's like the, the world that people don't understand or see like, oh, yeah, realtors make good money, but same time, yes, we make good darn money, but same time, have you seen our marketing expenses, a really good realtor will not leave that on the table. And obviously, that is creating and building that portfolio in all ways. I mean, it's just like, hey, you know, videos, and getting to content online and all that that is basically what a good realtor would do. And sometimes they would be like, Oh, no, you don't need marketing or so forth. So I will tell you a little story. What happened back in July, one of the ones that actually affected me a little bit was because you shouldn't first of all, in this business, you have to have thick skin, you cannot let anybody in anything put you down completely, just because of what's something someone said, I had been working with this client for over a year, we started listing her house, like in April, she didn't want to list her house till June or so forth. And I'm like, okay, you know what, this is what we were talking about. It was in a seller's market. So we started talking about seller's market and all that, you know, little did I know that the market was going to shift the way that I did. And so I had I done the videos and all that. And I listed her house. And I told her look, you know what, we actually have to do a price reduction, especially with the interest rates, everything's going up and everything's going, you know, the interest rates are going up and up and up. And first of all, you should never judge a book by its cover, meaning that I would say, yes, it was a toxic relationship that I had a client with. And that happens to all of us, sometimes you don't want to leave I mean, sometimes you're so deep and down. I had call my broker and tell them hey, you know what, this is what's going on. I don't feel comfortable taking this client, I have a bad feeling. You know, and I don't really want to spend all this money, especially with the marketing the because it took me four hours video video, that video. It took us four hours because it was not only one time, we did it twice. And she didn't take that into consideration at all. So some people won't see the work that you do completely. And so if you take a look at my videos on YouTube, there's a video that I actually caught and it was supposed to be silly because I mean, well social media, you know, as you don't want to do it professional. I mean, yes, we're all professionals. When I have to be professional, I will always be professional. But when I want to market a property and I want it to stand out, I will do anything and everything that it takes to stand out and be like alright people, let's see what's going not, because it's actually when you actually build yourself into a video, or you are marketing yourself completely, you're basically building your personal or your personality comes out at all time, by all means. A lot of people don't understand that. And sometimes, you know, some people don't like that. And it's getting to know your client. That's why you have to do this personality tests on them, especially when you're working with a little bit higher, higher end clients. And one of the things that I it was, I should have seen it as a red flag for me was that she said that, people my age would not look at a house like hers, they couldn't afford a house like hers. This house, can we listed to 750,000, her neighbor sold it for Kevin Rose, like 735 or so forth. So I'm just trying to get as much money as possible for her house. But she got delayed on putting on the market. So you know, it's just like, yes. Can someone my age afford a house? Yes, they can. I've seen it plenty of times, believe me lots in. It's not, it's getting to know your, your focal group, getting to know your people understanding where they're coming from and what they're doing. It's not about like, oh, you know, what, oh, they can't afford that. You never know what they're doing, you know, know what their background is? Anything. So, she, she didn't want me to contact her for a certain time. She blocked me. She's like, hey, you know what, we we don't want to work with you. You know, you're because of your videos. I'm like, Okay, I mean, whatever. So she wasn't talking to me, she was talking directly to my broker been back and forth. And if you're not a real estate agent, we go through a lot of shit. Yes. So she sent in the termination, I want to hurt to pay my marketing fees, which is $1,000, she didn't want to pay for them. She said that I didn't do enough effort. I had been marketing her. Her property since April, which was, you know, it became expensive, because I mean, when you're marketing, you know, properties before ahead of time, you know, coming soon, coming soon coming soon, especially in a seller's market, then that's a totally different story. Because you want to get it, you want to hit it as hard as possible. What is a buyer's market, and it's a totally different perspective, different, you know, the buyer actually has to kneel down to the sorry, the seller has to actually kneel down to the buyer buy my property. So like that she I got an offer, I had contacted an investor. I told him, Hey, you know what, I have this property. Do you want to buy it? So the property we had reduced it to 700,000, right? And she's like, Oh, no, we don't want anything less or anything. I brought her an offer cash offer closing in 10 days, for$640,000 $640,000. She took that offer. And she told me that I was a thief. Yep, I was called the thief because I brought her a cash offer. And she did not want me to get the the commission. And, you know, I charged a little bit higher commission than the usual because I do much more in you know, the quality and services that I offer, then that's a totally different story. So I Yes, I'm not your typical agent, like I said, so. I brought her this cash offer 640,000. She's like, Oh, you're a thief. Because you're taking half of the commission. You're taking the full commission. I want my discount. And I'm like, Ma'am, your house has not been moving. Right now. This is the best offer you're gonna get. You should take it and run with it. She said that I was not looking at her best interest. She was asking me but she was not talking to me directly. At this point. She was talking to my broker. And she called me a thief and she terminated the contract and she went with another agent. So I had looked at the property today and she still has a property on the market. No showings, no nothing. I mean, it's still at 700,000 and if you are a Georgia real estate agent, I will tell you the property is in Lawrenceville heights for 700,000. It has a little bit than three acres. So if you want to look at it, you'll find out which property it is. So sometimes you actually have to stand your ground and you just have to let things go. And you cannot let things affect you because if you let things affect you, then you're just gonna have, you're gonna get burned out, you know not You're not$100 bill to be liked by everybody. One of the other comments that this client said was that the seller said was that I was modeling in the videos, that I was not showing the house that I was showing myself. So that also determines an insecure person completely. Meaning that this person was not like, hey, you know what, she was more focused on my looks than on the quality of work that I do completely. And that actually, like, you know, as a realtor, you don't have to take every every client that says, hey, I want to work with you be like, do I really want to work with you? Are you going to be a headache? For me? Are you going to be a pain in the butt for me? Hmm, interesting, right. So that is, that's one of the things that as a realtor, we are good at it. I that's what I do. Like. And, you know, it's, it's just part of the process. The other one, he was being Gosh, he was such a pain in the butt. I even told him, Look, you know, what you can sell your house for for much more, let's put it on the market. I think we put on the market. We started with 525, just because his his property has a basement. But he was desperate. He was desperate. He was going through a divorce. And I told him, Look, I will help you out. If you let's go ahead and just wait for it. Let's just sell it at what it is. He went ahead and listed the property with another agent. I have spent so much money on that property too. And he went ahead and listed it for $350,000. And I'm like, You got to be kidding me, right? Yep, he sold the house for under 400,000, which he lost a lot of money. If he would have continued listening with me and listening to me, versus just going with whatever his his new agent told them. That does not know the area does not know the market does not know anything, because every town every city, every county has its own market. So that's a lot to think about too. When choosing an agent make sure that they know the different areas. Currently, I'm working with Oh my gosh. I mean, if I tell you a little bit of all the pain points I've been dealing with lately, oh my gosh, I can give you a list of things. And I guess that's one of the reasons I got a little bit burnt out. And, you know, I was sad, believe me, I It pushed me like, I don't want to do I don't want to deal with real estate anymore. And it's just, I'm telling you, I love real estate, but it can burn you out completely. It could just drive you nuts if you let it. And I guess that's one of the reasons I went ahead and distracted myself with the other podcasts. The it's, it will be I'll be shutting it down soon. But it's called your baddies boyfriend bitches dating and everything in between. And just because I needed I needed a break, I needed a break from real estate. And as a realtor, you know, you have to have balance. Even if you're working with five or six clients, then it's okay. But same time, it's just like are those clients being helpful? Or are they delaying? Or are they giving you the runaround, because you'd be like, but in this market, I need to take everything in and anything, I do understand that. But you also have to be selective, because some people will waste your time completely. I had another client that I had been working with for the past two and a half years. And she's like, calls me like, hey, remember that house that I want it like the one that you showed me with new construction? Can I still get that house? With that interest rate? I'm like, Man, that was like two years ago, this is almost three years. Oh, so does that mean that I won't be able to to get that house? No, you're not because it's just like it's gone. It's just like a sell when you go into a store and you'd like you. You see the price and it's not on sale anymore, then you just got to, you know, you lost that sell. So it's just educating people. And now moving forward. All I want to do is educate people with real estate more than ever on how to survive this. This new market and not only that, but hey, it's not going to be easy. Real Estate. I mean, did you just hear my story? Of course I am telling you completely. Is not yeah, like I said it's not easy. It is not but it's like what are you going to do? So, what are what are the next steps? Are you more focused on what what are your goals? Right now my goal for next year is to buy a building, I am buying a building, and I'm going to invest in it. Because it's not only building yourself in a career, but it's also building your wealth, your portfolio and your future. And as a realtor, sometimes we're like, oh, no, you I got this, I got that. And it's like, wow, you know what, but are you planning for your future? Are you planning for your retirement? Because as a real estate agent, we don't have health insurance. We don't have retirement. We don't have any of that. But if you plan for your future with real estate, then that's the way to go. So in the in these cases, I would say, Yeah, real estate can be very lucrative. But it can burn you out. And I'm telling you, I am back for more and everything else. I just wanted to give you guys an update on what was going on. Now, I do want to jump into customer relationship management, huh? What are his customers relationship management? It's CRM. What in the world is CRM? Oh, gosh. So if I talk about CRM, I'm going to tell you look people look, in the past three months I've changed three CRMs do not do that when I'm telling you do not change. If you love that CRM and you love it and you like it and you want it and you know it do not change for something cheaper, or something that you think can be better I have been with Boomtown for the past almost five years four or five years on and off in I love Boomtown Boomtown is amazing. Okay, so let me explain to you because I was like, Well, I'm gonna keep on paying $1,500 It was almost $2,500 a month that I was paying with my CRM, yes, another expense that we have just to manage it and all that I mean, Constant Contact I mean, so far so forth so forth, and I'm like, what do I really want to do that or not? Okay, I'm like you know what, it's time to leave Boomtown I don't want it I don't want to be part of it. Blah, blah, blah. I decided to go to zero. Worse mistake I did. Worse mistake. I did not understand the CRM. I couldn't move forward. It was a pain in the butt. What I'm telling you was painted, but I was like, No, I cannot do this or so forth. Yeah, it was. It's been very stressful. Now. I was talking to another agent. He's like, Oh, yeah, we we just moved to see to sync sync is awesome. All right. Sink is not the same for me. I look, I am now going back to Boomtown completely. Is it a pain in the butt? Yes. Do I want my stuff working? Yes. Is it time consuming? Yes. Am I missing out on so many things? Yes. But that's also making me realize on what my goals are for next year, what I need to work on, on what where do I want to do and where what I want to be at? I'll be honest with you. Just because I took off August, September, October, November, four months off, let's say five. It's, you know, live I didn't meet my goals this year. Because I wasn't focused i i Let other things distract me from what my goals were really our were this year. And it's staying focus, especially like changing switching CRMs is not worth it. If you have something that is working good. Make sure that you have that check to see if your brokerage has any type of discount with it, because it will be worth it completely. So boomtown. I love Boomtown, I went back to Boomtown I'm keeping Boomtown I'm not changing, and being part of EXP, a boomtown has a discount. So if you did not know that exp has a big discount for that, but you got to tell them that I sent you to so I'll put that in the on the notes. So yeah, you guys can get I think you guys get a discount as well. You guys get like some type of incentive or something. I think it's like$750, which is pretty awesome. Have you mentioned me? But yes, if you guys are going to be thinking of changing a CRM or switching it up and all that, don't do it. Do not do it. I'm telling you. I have been back and forth. Back and forth, back and forth. Yeah, I do not completely recommend it at all. It's it's just a pain in the butt. It's time consuming. Sometimes all your leads are not going to be there. You're ealerts you're like, so my problem so I use Bom Bom. I'm very video oriented. I'm like, hey, you know what, let's do this. Hey, people, like, I'm you guys are seeing me right now. And it's just like, huh, do I really do this or not? So when I will switch from Boomtown to Sierra, Sierra to sink, I had to embed every single video. And it's only last 20 seconds, and I'm not talking anything bad about sync, sync can be would be would be would be awesome. And you know, it's just like a ah, I mean, it would it would be, yeah, like I said it would be don't do it. Don't do it. If you have a CRM that you know, that you're working with, and that you know the ins and outs, do not change your abs, because it will be time consuming. It will be stressful. It was to the point that I was having breakdowns. And I'm like, wow, I am not doing this again. So that's what I wanted to tell you guys about this. I wanted to talk to you guys a little bit about what the CRM and customer relationship is and how to deal with that. So if you guys like I said, if you guys are thinking of genius CRM do not do it people do not I tell you do not do it. So like I said, again, do not do it. Do not switch CRMs. Just be just think about it completely. If you have any questions, please comment below share this. Let me know what your thoughts are. Let me know if you guys are having issues. I mean, I would love to help you guys on how to succeed in this market completely. Because I've seen a lot of agents that are going part time now just because the market is shifting. There's still a lot of business. It's just where to being consistent and staying and on top of mine of people completely. I mean, if we look at CRMs right now, we're looking at customer relationships and all it's completely different. So I understand that, but it's going to be what would be what do you really want to do? You know? And yes, I mean, a listing is not going to take two or three weeks, it might take 45 days to 90 days, but it's how you're going to price it. If you're underpricing it, it's totally different story. It's gonna come down to interest rates, interest rates have different type of programs or different options. There's a little bit of everything. So I just wanted to keep you guys posted on that. And if you guys have any questions, you guys know where to find me. This is Cindy passphrase with real estate and the adventures of parenthood Have a beautiful day people