S1 E10: 5 Tips To Become A Successful Listing Agent

Noel (00:00):
Hi, I’m Noel with Today’s Brew. We’re top producing real estate agents, share their tips and tricks on taking more listings, making more money, and having fun doing it. On today’s episode, we welcome Jimmy Schubert from Harker Heights, Texas. Hi Jimmy. How are you doing today?

Jimmy (00:22):
Great, Noel. Thanks for having me.

Noel (00:24):
Of course. We are Happy to have you on. Let’s get talking about some real estate. How long have you been in the business?

Jimmy (00:30):
Well, I retired from the Navy in 2013, and I was a bank manager for about two years, and then I decided that’s not for me either. So I decided I’d get into real estate in 2016 and I’ve been doing it ever since.

Noel (00:42):
How’s it going for you?

Jimmy (00:44):
It’s been great. I got into it for a couple of reasons is because it gave me the ability to be a little more mobile and so I’ve actually sold real estate in Missouri. I’ve sold real estate in Tennessee, and now I’m in Texas because my wife keeps moving me. I told her, I said, well, I said to her the other day, I said, Hey, look, I just want you to understand I only moved you seven times in 30 years in the United States Navy. You’ve moved me five times in seven years, so just want to make sure. No, but we’ve been here for about two years now, and I got to tell you, I just love the area. I love the folks, and we’re just having so much fun. I’m having fun. Every day is a holiday for me. I used to say it in the Navy all the time. Every day is a holiday and every meal is a feast, and that’s exactly how I feel today in this real estate business, especially at All City.

Noel (01:32):
So what I’m kind of hearing is that you have moved around a lot and been a real estate agent in a few areas, which means your skills must be pretty sharp to be able to pick up your business and start over and over and over. How do you do that?

Jimmy (01:48):
Well, I’ll tell you, expresso agent has been a big player in what I’m doing day in and day out. I have made a commitment every day to get up at seven o’clock in the morning. I do all my morning application. I look at all the stuff that I need to do, and I get going at eight o’clock and I get on the phone and I start making these cold calls. Well, I got to tell you, just I’ve had an expresso agent now for two years, and what I’ve done is I’ve made a commitment from 7 or 8 to 10 every day I’m going to make phone calls and I have made those phone calls, and as a result of that, I’ve closed. And I looked when we chatted the other day, I looked the other day and I found out that I’ve closed nine houses in the last year and a half from Woo.

Noel (02:34):
Good.

Jimmy (02:35):
So I use that because now I tell everybody I’m a specialized expired listing and for sale by owner person because I love it of people like you and people like Jackie Kravis and the folks that I’ve met through espresso agent have really made a difference in my business day to day. I just closed two houses in June, both of which sat on the market over 187 days and they didn’t sell. And I drove by these houses every day and I went, man, I wonder why these things aren’t selling. I walk in and it is just like the house and it’s like a cave because the lighting’s so bad. We go in and I get the owner to spend $205 on lighting, and we went through and changed out every can light and every bulb in our house and put a daylight bulb in. Did an open house that weekend, had it under contract on Monday.

Noel (03:25):
Congratulations. It’s funny. That’s

Jimmy (03:27):
Whole thing that we could do to make a difference in that person’s life. And then we got the house booked and it sold for more than they had it listed for before. So we got a bump in price, and the same thing happened on another house just recently over in Harker Heights, I found a house that needed a roof, and guess what? We had all sorts of hail damage. We had all the things, and this guy came out and he did it. They put a new roof on there. We touched up some paint indoor, and we sold it. They had just accepted an offer just before I took the listing at two 90 and it fell through. Yeah. But when I took over the house, we put six weeks, we put a new roof on it, we did a couple of things. We put the house back on the market for 340,000, sold it for 340,000.

Noel (04:11):
I know that your clients had to be absolutely thrilled. Yes, they’re, and must trust you. You must know what you’re talking about because $205 on lighting is nowhere near a new roof. So to get your clients who were probably already frustrated that they had a contract and then it fell out of contract, my question for you is, were these homes FSBOs like you’re talking about, or were these with other agents? No, these were

Jimmy (04:37):
Expired listings.

Noel (04:38):
Oh, wow.

Jimmy (04:39):
Man, they were in my morning call from 8 to 10, and I got these two folks to talk to me recently and we put this house when they were expired. I call and I call at eight o’clock and I try and get to every one of ’em at eight o’clock, but that’s not possible. But the fact is, is that what I’m doing it? And you know what? I’m building these appointments, but more importantly, I’m burning a referral network too. And because that’s what, this is really helping me because a lot of these folks that are trying to sell their, we live in a military community very much like you do. So every three to five years, I got folks moving the Army moves, and so I have folks moving every day. So the fact is is that we can get to these folks, but there are still people coming in that need to buy a home.

Noel (05:28):
Yes.

Jimmy (05:29):
And that’s what I tell people for sale by owners too, is that I don’t know why they wouldn’t have a real estate agent. Most of ’em that go on the market today already have a buyer when they do this. Okay. So that’s one thing that I will tell you. But the second thing is, is that the ones that do go on the market where they don’t have a buyer is that they’re willing to work with a real estate agent. So why are you putting yourself at that disadvantage every day to say, I spent a lot of time doing CEEs and I spent a lot, especially here in Texas, even as my license didn’t roll over, I had to take the whole course again here in Texas because they didn’t. And I got to tell you, I learned a lot and Texas has got some weird rules, some different laws than other places, however, so I ask these for sale by owners, why would you do that? And I try and stop at one or two every day on my way home, and I carry the seller’s disclosure with me and them, the seller’s disclosure, and tell them that, Hey, I’m not here to buy your house or anything or try to list it, but I do want you to know you’ll need this and you have to fill this out by the law. And they look at me crazy and I always attach my business card to it. And a lot of times I get a call back in about two weeks on those.

Noel (06:45):
Absolutely. And statistics are that real estate agents bring you more money.

Jimmy (06:50):
Those are arguments that I try and make to for sale by owners on a regular basis to remove some of these objections because they’re always saying, I’m going to save money. And I said, I’m not here to save you any money. And I don’t even stop the car. I mean, I literally the door open the whole nine yards. I’m not trying to get an appointment today. I’m just trying to let you know that I’m here. I saw that your house is for sale by owner. I believe that If you need any questions or any help, then you can give me a call and then we can talk from there.

Noel (07:16):
Yes. Well, let’s talk about your listing presentation. Once you’ve dropped off a disclosure to a FSBO and they welcome you in their home, or after you’ve called an expired, let’s talk about your listing presentation and how you get in and how you get in the door. And once you’re there, what are you saying to these people?

Jimmy (07:36):
Well, the first thing I’m going to tell ’em is, is that because frustrated people with expired listings and people, even for sale by owners, they’re frustrated when you get to them. So they have lots of reservations about things. So what I do is that I try and go in there and I try and ease those tensions as much as possible. I don’t go in there with an attitude saying, I need this list. Yes,

Noel (07:58):
Nobody,

Jimmy (07:59):
I do this for fun and for free. Those are the words that I use. I said, I’m in real estate today because I’m doing this for fun and for free. And they look at me like I’m crazy. But I said, no, I let money take care of itself. At the end of the day is that it’s for fun and for free. I’m not interested in you. And I feel like that one of the things that we have to do, and it’s one of the things that I learned in the service that I was in the service for 30 years, is that we always talked about honesty, own it, be honest, have integrity, and then you have to be committed. And I go one step further to say, I have to be committed to the client that I’m serving and that I’m committed to selling your house with you. I’m not committed to getting your house sold. I’m committed to selling your house with you because there’s things that we both have to do in order for this to work for both of us. And I make that very, that’s a large part of my presentation. I think everybody goes in and says, well, we can do this. Got the C M A, I got this, I got this.

Noel (08:57):
Yes, absolutely. Because like you said, they’re going to be taking, it’s a lot of your time. You’re going to be working together a lot. You’re going to be communicating a lot. And if everyone’s expectations aren’t the same, then things would get a little sticky. If you can see that they’re not motivated, do you decide maybe not to take the listing because you know what you’re doing and you know that you want to get to the finish line eventually? Right.

Jimmy (09:23):
Well, I feel like that most, especially with Aspired listing is they’re so frustrated when we get to ’em. And the reality is that how do you take that breath? When I don’t take a listen, it’s only because I just can’t connect. I connect with people I can. I feel people. I know when we’re going to be okay, and I’m willing to tolerate a lot of stuff. But I talked to one guy, he told me, he said, well, I just talked to this other agent. She said, she’ll do it for 4%. I said, well, I think you found your agent.

Noel (09:57):
That’s reverse selling. Did you end up getting them? Did you end up getting them?

Jimmy (10:02):
Well, you know what? I did sell their house.

Noel (10:06):
Okay, so you brought the buyer.

Jimmy (10:07):
I reminded them too closing. Lemme

Noel (10:10):
Ask you this question. Lemme ask you this question. So you didn’t take the listing and you brought them the buyer. Just curious, did you get it for under list price too? Because the other agent, I knew it. I knew you would because the other agent was willing to cut her commission. She was not going to be a very good negotiator against someone like you. I love it. See, that shows skill shows off.

Jimmy (10:37):
No, the house was listed for something. I don’t remember what it was. It was a few years back. But the fact was is that I remember sitting at that kitchen table and I couldn’t believe the words came out of my mouth. I looked at ’em and I said, well, it sounds to me like you got your agent. Two weeks later, I bought him a buyer.

Noel (10:54):
There’s something to be said about knowing your worth.

Jimmy (10:57):
Oh yeah. And that’s the other thing I’ll tell you too that I do in my listing presentation too, is that I let ’em know upfront that I’m as invested in it as this, as they are. In other words, I’m going to put some skin in the game as well. I’m not afraid to put a little money into the game. We pay for the pitchers, we pay for this. I have a vested interest in getting their home sold too. And this one lady, her house needed to be pressure washed. So me and my son went out there on a Saturday morning. We pressure washed our house and I, but we put it under contract three or five days later.

Noel (11:29):
Okay. So let’s circle back a little bit and talk about your prospecting. I know you use espresso agent, you mentioned it in the beginning and how much it’s changed your business. Let’s talk a little bit about your morning routine, how it’s structured, your prospecting and what you do with that. How many contacts it takes for you to get a listing appointment.

Jimmy (11:52):
Appointment? Oh, that’s easy. I get up every morning at six o’clock and I have to have my morning coffee. But the point is, is that I do my morning meditation. I do my affirmations. I get right with my health. I get my head every single day. I have to get in the game. I found out when you sit in the chair and you sit in the cheap seats, you’re not in the game. No, you’re not. So I get myself into the game every day. Whatever works for you works for me. Mine is I take a few minutes that I take some morning meditation, I think I don’t think about what I got to do today. I feel like what can I do today is the question I ask myself.

Noel (12:37):
Yes, yes.

Jimmy (12:38):
It’s not the question of what I need to do. It’s the question of what can I do? Because I love attitude with what can I do that means to help you. That doesn’t mean to help me. It’s not about me. It’s about, and everything that I do in my life is about something or someone else. And the reality is, and some people call it people pleasing, but the fact is, is that I’m not much of that either, but I will because I can say no. But at the same time, I do want to make sure that the olive branches there, that I extend it every single day and every facet of my life. And I have found, since I’ve started to do that, since I do that every day, guess what? I find this success and I call these people. I start these calls at eight o’clock in the morning. Sometimes there’s 25 or 10 new ones, but I’ll call those folks. They don’t answer. I do not leave a message because what I’m going to do is I’m going to follow it up with a text message and an email, and I’m going to give ’em one day to answer that back. And if they don’t answer it back, they get another, I call three times the first day. And then after that, they get a call twice a week.

Noel (13:45):
Hey, that’s great. Persistence pays off. That was going to be my next question anyways, was how do you get past the nose and when do you say, okay, I’m throwing the talent on this one. And you kind of answered that. So you’ll call for a week or two or until you’re told to bug off.

Jimmy (14:03):
I don’t know what people are thinking. And I learned this a long time ago that I do not know what you’re thinking. I only know what you told me. And I don’t try and think about what you’re thinking about because I don’t know. And I learned this, my brother owns a pest control company. I did a sales call with him one time, and we went there and we sat on our hands for 22 minutes while this couple was making up their mind whether or not they’re going to use him or not. And he had told me before we walked in, do not say a word. Try and sit on your hands for 22 minutes and not say a word.

Noel (14:34):
I know

Jimmy (14:36):
You’re like, but we didn’t say anything for 22. And she finally looked at her husband. She said, Georgia, are you going to pay him Or my, neither one of us were thinking that.

Noel (14:46):
No, not at all. Can you imagine being on a listing presentation and after you finished everything that you have to say,

Jimmy (14:54):
You don’t say nothing.

Noel (14:55):
And you sat there for 22 minutes and had the debate back and forth. Well, that’d be an awfully awkward 22 minutes.

Jimmy (15:02):
It really was an awkward, I was biting my tongue. I was squeezing my fingers. Not that way. I’m like a ball of energy. And I’m like, what are these folks going to tell you something? And he’s watching sing on the TV on a Saturday morning. But I learned something from that prospect is what I learned was is that I don’t know what you’re thinking. I just know that you’re thing. If I’d have said any, we’d have said anything before that we may not have gotten that sale.

Noel (15:31):
Where are you getting your scripts from?

Jimmy (15:33):
I listened to Jackie Kravis talks about script, and I’ve read those script and I’ve developed my own scripts now that I used because I can’t, well, good afternoon. And I start wiggling my head and stuff. And what I found was is that I have an outline of 10 things that I look at that I want. I know now what people are looking for and what they’re going to tell me. Because everything comes down. And Jackie Kravitz says it correctly. Everything is about money. Everything comes down to money. They want to save money or they need to make money, whatever. And that’s why I start laughing because I go, I’m not in the business of you losing money. I’m in the business of helping you make money. And a guy told me the other day for sale, I got him on the phone. He said, well, I’m not using a realtor saving money. I said, you’re losing money. You’re losing 26% of your sale. Because that’s the national average by the N R A or the National Association of Realtors.

Jimmy (16:38):
Yeah, the n r. They’re saying, you’re 26% of the for sale by owner, sell it for 26%. We’re only charging six.

Noel (16:45):
Yep. That’s a whole lot of extra money in your pocket.

Jimmy (16:49):
Exactly. And that’s what I told the guy, and I had one tell me the other day. He says, well, the person that was doing it was for 5% and she had your house on the market for 187 days and never sold. I’m going to charge you 6%, and guess what we’re going to do? We’re going to get the household, we got it sold. And those are the answers. That’s how I get over these objections though. And you know what? They’re all legitimate stuff to them. So I have to remember that I’ve been doing this a while, so I understand what people are going to say to me, and I know how I feel about it. But the fact of the matter is, is that that’s not how they feel about

Noel (17:21):
It. No. They think they’re probably feeling pretty passionate about it and feeling like they’re right. And you don’t want to insult anybody. So well, you can, but it might not work out for you if you do. But easing them into understanding, which is a big part of the listing presentation scripts that I’ve followed in the past from other coaches and arriving with a couple comps that are similar to theirs and just showing ’em the difference in their home versus the two that sold and for less money. And do they now see why they should be adjusting their price?

Jimmy (18:01):
Right. Well, I do a C M A on every house that we get on expressive script. I’ve done one on every house that I have, but I don’t give it to the client. What I do is I hang onto it. If they call me and talk to, if I get ’em on the phone, I can say, I can offer this. And it’s literally just press send.

Noel (18:18):
Oh, yeah. Well, you want to give them something of value, but you don’t want to give ’em the price because then they’re just going to go stick it on the physical themselves.

Jimmy (18:26):
The point was is that I have it loaded, and that’s the last thing I give people during a presentation too, if they ask for it. Because a lot of times they don’t even want to ask after they talk to me for a few minutes, I go, oh no, whatever you think, Jim, it’ll be good.

Noel (18:40):
Yep. You can start signing that listing agreement and skip right here. Let’s

Jimmy (18:43):
Sign right here. And that’s the other thing I do too, is when I go, I drop off that seller’s disclosure with folks on occasion. I try and do that. What I do is, is that I always have their contracts written in. They’re sitting in a folder and I take the time to do this. If I’m going to take the time to go see you, I might have the opportunity to get in the door.

Noel (19:06):
You sign right there. Yes. You want to be there.

Jimmy (19:09):
I ready to sign because I’m not interested in, I’ll send it to you via DocuSign or dot loop or whatever. I’m interested in getting your signature on the paper. I can scan that into DocuSign and dot loop.

Noel (19:21):
Oh yeah. Because people can change their mind in a heartbeat. So let me ask you this. If a newer agent needed some advice from you, Jimmy, what would be your number one? How would you describe to them to get their business going? What’s the most important step for them?

Jimmy (19:37):
Consistency. That would be the biggest thing, because so many, and I didn’t do this upfront, I didn’t do this correctly, and I’m so grateful for my mentor when I started in real estate Le Teal in Missouri, she taught me that consistency will win the day.

Noel (19:57):
Sure. Hope so. Yeah.

Jimmy (19:59):
Well, I do that Birdhouse,

Noel (20:01):
The real thing,

Jimmy (20:03):
What she taught me was is that I’m not a whipping boy. And what I mean by that is that when I first got into the game, somebody would call me and say, Hey, I’d like to see this house and I would drop whatever I’m doing dinner with my kids’ birthday party. Didn’t matter. I was out the door.

Noel (20:22):
Yep. You’re so excited. You’re so excited about the idea.

Jimmy (20:25):
I want to get started and all of that. And what I found out was is that I have sold more real estate by making an appointment

Noel (20:33):
And having boundaries.

Jimmy (20:35):
Exactly.

Noel (20:36):
Treating it like a business like they do every day when they go to work. Jimmy, it was a pleasure talking. Let us tell everyone how you can be reached on social media, your phone number, email, so we can send you referrals.

Jimmy (20:52):
Sure. My name is Jimmy Schubert. I’m at All City Real Estate. My email address is jimmy@jimmysellsmo.com. My website is Jimmysellsmo.com, and my phone number is 912-464-0699. Again, I’m Jimmy Schubert, and it’s been an absolute pleasure spending in the morning with you, Noel.

Noel (21:15):
Oh, you too.

Jimmy (21:15):
Just

Noel (21:16):
Grateful. Mo, I like your tag. I like it. I think it’s fun. Thank you for coming on.

Jimmy (21:23):
You’re welcome.