S1 E3: How To Help and Be Of Service To Your Sellers

Noel (00:00):
Hi, I’m Noel with Today’s Brew, where top producing real estate agents share their tips on taking more listings, making more money, and having fun doing it.

(00:16):
On today’s episode, we welcome Gloria Hobson from Atlanta, Georgia. Hi Gloria.

Gloria Hobson (00:21):
Hi, Noel. How are you?

Noel (00:24):
Very well. How are you doing? Thanks for coming on today.

Gloria Hobson (00:26):
Thank you so much for having me. I really do appreciate it. I truly owe my business and everything to you guys, and yeah.

Noel (00:35):
Well, we’re here for it. We love it. We love hearing that. I love the success stories. It’s wonderful and it gives a lot of hope to newer agents or even [inaudible 00:00:43]-

Gloria Hobson (00:43):
Oh, absolutely. Well, honestly, interview aside, it really is going to give hope because we’ve all been there, right? We’ve all been there where you’re literally up against the wall to say, “Do I need to change, a whole different career? What do I need to do? Real estate is not for me.” So my lifeline of real estate is because I found you guys and have access to the leads, and from there, the business.

Noel (01:17):
Were you hesitant to sign up for us at first? Did it take some talking into, or did you have a coach, or did you say, “You know what, I’m going to give it an all go and see how it works out?”

Gloria Hobson (01:30):
Well, that’s a great question because, honestly, when I started my brokerage, they recommended some other dialers, but when I went and I searched for those dialers, they were very, very pricey and I just could not afford them. But in the search, your URL came up and I clicked into you guys. And when I compared and contrasted what they offered and what you guys offered, I mean, I felt like I was getting more for much less. And it was a trial that you all were running at the time, and so it gave me the perfect opportunity to try it out and just see if it’s going to work or not. I did that and have never looked back.

Noel (02:17):
And have been faithful to us since then.

Gloria Hobson (02:19):
Yes, I’ve been hook, line and just sinker since then.

Noel (02:23):
Oh, oh, that’s great.

Gloria Hobson (02:23):
Yes.

Noel (02:25):
I want to hear all about you and I know the viewers are going to want to hear about you as well. When did you start real estate?

Gloria Hobson (02:31):
I started in 2019 just out of the water, just brand-new agent. I am a ex-police officer and I worked child abuse for the State of Florida for seven years and I loved it. Had a new baby myself and it really was… It was a burnout. So I was like, “I got to find something.” So my husband ended up with a transfer to Atlanta and just being in the city and driving around the city, it was just so many new developments and new construction. It was just a great thriving city, and the light bulb came on and said, “Real estate.” And so I self-trained myself. I just started YouTubing everything, every coach, every video that I could find on YouTube for a year. And then I eventually took the class and got licensed and it’s been just forward moving since then.

Noel (03:29):
That’s fantastic. Did you find it difficult at all to move to real estate?

Gloria Hobson (03:35):
No, I did not, but I thought I would because those jobs are public service, right? You really feel so proud in what you do when you work with the public, when you help somebody in any type of law enforcement type situation, whether it be domestic violence, whether it be sex abuse, whatever it may be that we’re called to the scene for, it’s so rewarding. Likewise, child abuse, oh my goodness, I was so just obsessed and addicted to it because each case was a child per se. So I couldn’t just quit because I would be quitting on kids that trusted me and the fact that we were able to help them out of bad situations.

(04:25):
But when I went to real estate and I started selling and I started having conversations with sellers, I realized that they had pain points too. They had motivating factors to sell. And I found a reward in selling their homes successfully, quickly, and for more money. And everybody was happy. The buyers, we treat them like VIP and they just love it.

Noel (04:52):
So you’re still helping people out, which is-

Gloria Hobson (04:53):
They’re helping people out and I love it.

Noel (04:55):
… very rewarding to you.

(04:57):
Let’s talk about prospecting. Do you prospect?

Gloria Hobson (05:01):
Absolutely.

Noel (05:05):
So you don’t just sit around and wait for the phone to ring and-

Gloria Hobson (05:07):
Absolutely not. And that’s why I am so happy to talk about Espresso Agent because it’s such a user-friendly platform that you guys have that I’m able to export those, fleece out, those sellers. The emails are just so accurate. So I prospect using that source of the information from the sellers that I get from you guys. So I prospect all the time. I call, I use the dialer, I call and I get the sellers. What I find is that you get them for sure, but they love to have a long conversation about their home. So I’m like, “Well, I need to make 100 calls today, I can’t chat with you.” So I have to find a way to get off the phone with them, but those numbers are very, very accurate. And it’s so many per household so I get the peace of mind to know I have mobile numbers, landline numbers, all the numbers of everybody that’s tied to that house, and I always reach my sellers that way. Thank you.

Noel (06:16):
When you say you want to make 100 calls a day, but we don’t have all day to do that because you do have listing appointments to go on-

Gloria Hobson (06:22):
Yes.

Noel (06:23):
… in the afternoon. How do you stay control of the conversation? Do you use Script? Do you role play with other agents? What do you do to stay focused on getting the appointment?

Gloria Hobson (06:36):
Well, I do something similar to Script. I don’t necessarily call it scripting, it’s more of a talk track, if you will, where it’s a conversation, but it exhausts everything that you can anticipate that’s going to come up in a home interview. So I don’t really script. I do talk tracks that come across much more natural and much more relatable, and you’re much more connected with the sellers. But I definitely use something very similar to Script. It’s just not Scripting, but as effective.

Noel (07:15):
Something that makes you feel a little more personable?

Gloria Hobson (07:17):
Yes. Yes, and not that you memorize the Script, but it follows that same track, but it’s less prescribed. It’s a natural flow, a natural conversation.

Noel (07:31):
Okay. All right. So that being said, how many listing appointments do you tend to get in a day when you make your calls?

Gloria Hobson (07:41):
Well, I get them more on a weekly basis. I’ve had as many as five, six appointments in a week, okay? The market that we just came out of, I mean, I was very busy. I was very busy and a lot of sellers were raising their hands to say, “Hey, I want to sell. I want to cash in on this market, get my equity out my home.” And so I had lots of appointments, but they came from my use of your numbers.

Noel (08:17):
Okay. So would that be your favorite source you’d say, is when you would get our numbers, would they be circle prospecting or expired? What’s your favorite source?

Gloria Hobson (08:26):
Oh, yes, expireds and for sale by owners. I love for sale by owners because I show them how using my method, or what have you, is going to basically not cost them any commission. And I know everybody say that, but it’s true because I’m going to sell it for more and at the end of the day, your net amount is going to be what you would’ve netted paying commission using a different realtor, if you will. I love to use expireds. I love to use support sale by owners and the circle prospect certainly because when I do have a home sale, which is equivalent to open house, if you will, but it’s more of a RSVP, but at the end of the day, I circle prospect again, the neighborhood and those numbers are so accurate that they show up at the home sale. So yeah, circle prospecting, everything that you named, expires for sure. They’ve already waved their hands and said, “Hey, I’m ready to sell my home, failed to sell, what could you do differently? What is your value proposition?” So I certainly love the home-

Noel (09:31):
The expireds. What makes you stand out from other agents? What do you tell them that you’re going to do? What makes them have the trust in you and the faith in you to pick you versus another agent?

Gloria Hobson (09:44):
Now that is a great question, okay? The difference is that we all agree that real estate, it’s very dated. It hasn’t changed in 75 years. I call it the yellow taxi versus the Uber. And my model is just very progressive, very forward moving in that sellers really do not like the inconvenience of the daily showings and they don’t like the yard sign in the yard. And they certainly do not like that blue box at their door. So my model is completely different because I give them the convenience of hosting the showings all at one time and they do not have a blue lock box at their door. They do not have a sign in their yard.

(10:30):
And we really present offers from other realtors, other buyers who are represented by realtors, the weekend following my home sale at full market price, if not higher. So I’ve sold quite a few homes that have driven up the comps, the comparables, in any particular subdivision. So my model is proven, it’s effective, it’s tried and it’s true. And when I have a conversation with the sellers, they can hear, and it’s very logical to them, the process, they can see, “This is different. You’re saying something different. You’re offering something completely different than what everybody else is saying.” And that’s how I stand out and get the listing.

Noel (11:16):
I get it, and you get it.

Gloria Hobson (11:16):
I get the listing, and I haven’t had one to not sell. They fail to sell using traditional real estate. They come to me. I use a very progressive forward moving type of process to sell their homes, and I have yet to have one that has not sold, and at a minimum, at the highest comp sale that was already set or higher.

Noel (11:38):
That’s awesome. Congratulations.

Gloria Hobson (11:39):
That’s a true story.

Noel (11:40):
You’ve never missed a sale. I mean, that’s kind of unheard of. That’s awesome. That’s fantastic.

Gloria Hobson (11:45):
Well, it’s that model. We’re going to hear a lot about it in the future. But at the end of the day, it does work and it is unheard of because otherwise you’re just using traditional real estate. And a lot of times that results in chasing the market. A lot of sellers, they say what their price is and they want that price and the market rejects that price. So in a week they say, “We’re going to reduce the price,” in another week, “We’re going to do a price correction.” And you are chasing the market, right? And the buyer agents and the buyers, they’re seeing your pattern and you’re a target. They’re waiting on you to see how low you will go, and then they watch it and then they come in and make even a lower offer. And sellers end up leaving money on a table using that. It’s unheard of, but I promise you, they’ve all sold.

Noel (12:38):
Oh, I believe you. I believe you. I can tell you’re a very hardworking woman and you do work.

Gloria Hobson (12:42):
Yes, honestly.

Noel (12:43):
I want to ask this question because your mindset is so positive and you exude such happiness and greatness, but everybody still has some pushback, like you said, from some potential clients when you reach out. What do you do? How do you handle it, and how do you follow up in a mindful way to get people to answer your second call if you don’t get that listing appointment in your first phone call to them?

Gloria Hobson (13:12):
Right. That’s a really great question as well. I am a very persistent type person. So when I reach out to the potential sellers, if I get a no, or if they’ve relisted or whatever they’ve done, I always follow up within a week or 10 days or two weeks or so to see just how is it going, because you want to stay top of mind. So I make the initial call, we have a conversation. It may lead to an appointment, it may not lead to an appointment, but I’m going to follow up again within a week at best, if not days, because our markets are shifting. This one happened so abruptly to where we are right now. You almost want to stay top of mind almost every other day because if they’re going to get off the fence, you want to be that person.

(14:06):
But nonetheless, I’m going to call a second time, have another, “I’m Gloria. Remember we talked the other day, you were telling me about your favorite cat that you have named Tom.” whatever it is, right? But I’m going to stand out and then I’m going to follow up with a text. If I see that the home came off the market again, or if I see that it’s not looking good or anything, just basically, “Hey, I’m here. Remember that with my process, I do…,” X, Y, Z. Because in compliance, as long as you’re not going after business that belongs to another agent, you’re not in violation. All you’re doing is reminding them what services, what value proposition you offer that could be different, that could give them a different result. And that’s absolutely compliant to do that. Bearing that in mind, I just remind them, “Remember, I do this versus what you’re going through right now. We can do things a little differently that could have a different outcome for you.”

Noel (15:15):
That’s good. That’s a good way to keep you in the front of their mind, yeah.

Gloria Hobson (15:19):
Exactly. Exactly.

Noel (15:22):
You mentioned in one week you got five or six listing appointments. We all want to know how many of them did you get?

Gloria Hobson (15:30):
I got two of them. I converted two of them. And the reason why is because one thing about this market that we just came out, unfortunately, it flushed out some really, really aspirational sellers in terms of their price.

Noel (15:51):
Yes.

Gloria Hobson (15:53):
So I am very confident in the service that I deliver that if I see that aspirational price is just way out there and very unrealistic, I’m going to say, “Thank you for the opportunity. However, I decline because I know the level of service that I provide, and we don’t want that to be in vain because there is a financial commitment on my part. There are a lot of things that my sellers do not pay for, such as the pictures and different things in my market, of course, marketing and different things that I do. But it’s an investment of at least $500 or north of that. That’s for the smallest $200,000 home because I’m going to give them the same level of service.

(16:47):
If I get a seller that’s just way out there like that, and I decline to take that listing, I just won a listing appointment, two of them last week, and they both were there. The highest sold comp was at 330 and that was when the market was great. And then there’s a current home that’s on the market now, that’s active listing. I call that the competition home. And it’s the same square footage, the same layout, give or take. And at the end of the day, they are at 330, but they’ve been on the market for 44 days and that was the other day.

Noel (17:21):
Which means their house is not worth 330.

Gloria Hobson (17:23):
No. Well, the buyers are now rejecting it. They don’t have the premium to pay. So they’re at 7% interest rate, give or take right now. So now the 330 that they were paying this summer, they did not give us much resistance to pay that because they had extra money, so to speak, at 3% interest rates, give or take. But now at 7% the same house, which means it will appraise for 330, they don’t want to pay it or they can’t afford to pay it. So the home affordability has reduced the buyer demand tremendously that you just can’t afford to take overpriced listings right now.

Noel (18:10):
And it’s even more of an important time to be on the listing side of things because buyers have slowed down, like you said-

Gloria Hobson (18:17):
That’s right.

Noel (18:18):
… either they’ve missed out on 10 homes that they put offers in all last year or the interest rates now have slowed them down.

Gloria Hobson (18:25):
Yes.

Noel (18:26):
It’s definitely a good time to be prospecting.

Gloria Hobson (18:29):
And that’s what I do, I prospect. I’m using you guys. At the end of the day, I’m getting those appointments. You have sellers that are really disappointed that they missed that peak and some of them are really pressed to still sell now. They just have to come to the realization that you’re not going to be able to sell at such a price. But if you’re willing to take a full market value based on where we are today, then your home will sell. There’s still buyers out there, but the point of the matter is that there are buyers that are still buying. You just have to attract them with such a value proposition for the home itself that they don’t reject you out the gate because they feel that you are overpriced.

Noel (19:12):
Price it right and broaden the market versus-

Gloria Hobson (19:15):
That’s right

Noel (19:16):
Great. So what’s your goal for the year?

Gloria Hobson (19:21):
Well, the year’s almost over.

Noel (19:22):
It’s almost over so [inaudible 00:19:24].

Gloria Hobson (19:25):
So the goal is to just go out with a bang. I’ve doubled down. I am much more intense with my prospecting now. I’m doing things that I did not do before, adding different layers. To your point earlier, what are you doing if you’re getting a rejection, if the sellers are saying, “No, I’m not ready.” One thing I’ve added on is that I have this amazing letter or for sale by owner that I send in a FedEx package to the sellers that I’ve never had to do that before because it’s like almost $8.00 a pop to send it.

Noel (20:02):
I’ve heard of that.

Gloria Hobson (20:03):
So doing different things to get before them because you do have fewer sellers as well. You still have to flush out those that are really ready to go by pricing it realistically, right? It’s okay to be a little north of where we think you’re going to go, but at the end of the day, you just can’t be way out there anymore. So my goal for the end of the year is to double down and take some listings through the end of the year that could carry me into the first of the year and to start that year off better. Hopefully, next year will be a market that is a little bit more balanced. Our interest rates are going to be what they are, but housing is just a mandatory thing that buyers always have to buy. So we may have fewer buyers, but we’ll have serious buyers.

Noel (20:53):
Yeah. No, your forecast sounds good for business, for you, and I have nothing but confidence in you succeeding, for sure. There are the rumors out there that agents will be lost, newer agents, with the market now, but I don’t think that’ll be you and that’s great for you and your family.

Gloria Hobson (21:12):
Thank you so much for that. And to that point, that is why you really have to double down now and become very, very intense in everything that you could think of to get some listings, right? You have to go ahead and take in consideration all of the objections, holiday, slow market, high interest rates, whatever it may be, and be prepared to let the seller see how the seller that sells today is still going to fare out with much more than the seller who sells three, six months from now. So if you could show them, take out a piece of paper and show them the numbers that if you sell today, you’re going to be much better off than a seller who sells in three to six months.

(21:56):
So with that being said, it is going to be far less agents. We had many agents to get in last year because they say it’s easy to be a realtor. I haven’t been a realtor very long, but when I did come in, it was a balanced market, right? Then we had the Covid and everything that happened last year and this year. So I had to again come up with different tactics that will flush out real sellers so we could get the business to take care of your family because that’s what it’s all about.

Noel (22:32):
Exactly. Exactly. All right. Well, one last thing, because we are here for newer agents and we want them to do well. What would be your best piece of advice to them if you could give them one thing to help give them the momentum that you have and keep the healthy mindset to get up and keep making those calls even when they’re not feeling like it.

Gloria Hobson (22:55):
And that’s the perfect thing that you just said to segue into exactly what I would tell that new agent, is to keep your head down and do the work. Don’t listen to the chatter. Don’t listen to the naysayers. I promise you, you stick with a system such as Espresso Agent. It’s going to give you the data that you need to prospect, to circle prospect, to do your dialer, whatever it is that your choice of prospecting is. You’ll have that database, the numbers, to make those contacts. So you do that consistently. You double down. You do it much more intensely than maybe you’ve ever done before. And when you look up, you’re going to have sale, after sale, after sale because while everybody else was listening and they became afraid and they became paralyzed, you continued to work, you continued to grind, and you’re going to have the business.

Noel (23:50):
Do the work, keep your head down, ignore the negativity, and just do the work.

Gloria Hobson (23:54):
You got to. You have to do that.

Noel (23:56):
That’s awesome. Well, for people that are watching, how can they reach out to you and send you business, some referral business? How can we get ahold of you?

Gloria Hobson (24:06):
Thank you so much, Noel. So my name is Gloria Hobson. You could reach me at (470) 295 9611. I am in the Atlanta housing market. Gloria Hobson (470) 295-9611, is my direct telephone number. My email is 72soldatlantaga@gmail.com. Again, 72soldatlantaga@gmail.com. Thank you.

Noel (24:36):
Thank you so much for coming on and providing so much awesome information and energy.

Gloria Hobson (24:42):
Well, thank you so much for having me. I love you guys to the moon and back and I appreciate everything that you do. I really do. Thank you.

Noel (24:50):
We appreciate you.

Gloria Hobson (24:50):
Thank you.

Noel (24:52):
Have a great day.

Gloria Hobson (24:53):
You too, Noel.

Noel (24:54):
Sell some homes.

Gloria Hobson (24:57):
I will. If I get the listing, I’m selling the home.

Noel (25:03):
No doubt. No doubt in all that.

Gloria Hobson (25:05):
Thank you so much.

Noel (25:07):
Bye.

Gloria Hobson (25:07):
Bye-Bye.