S1 E8: Winning Against FSBO Objections and More

Noel LaFerme (00:01):
Hi, I’m Noel with Today’s Brew, where top producing real estate agents share their tips and tricks on taking new listings, making more money, and having fun doing it.

(00:18):
On today’s episode, we welcome Don Henderson from the Tampa Bay area. Hi Don.

Don Henderson (00:23):
Hi, Noel. It’s great to be with you. I’m really looking forward to this interview. I love working with Espresso agents and I love this system. It is definitely one of my big ticket items that I love to use just for the simple fact it cuts my time down tremendously.

Noel LaFerme (00:44):
Well, we love hearing that, of course. We love the support and you being a great referral system for us. But let’s talk about you and let’s talk about your business and the Tampa Bay area. What does that consist of?

Don Henderson (00:56):
We’ve been in this for about 20 plus years. We’ve been primarily 15 of it has been in Ohio in the Columbus area. And then so we carried about 10% of an entire county in business down there during that time. But you come out here where the difference is the amount of agents you’re competing with. So in Pinellas County, which is the area that I just talked about, there’s 9,000 real estate agents.

Noel LaFerme (01:31):
Yeah, that’s pretty similar to where I’m at.

Don Henderson (01:33):
Yeah, where are you?

Noel LaFerme (01:34):
I’m in Virginia Beach.

Don Henderson (01:36):
Okay, well there you go. If you could throw a stick…

Noel LaFerme (01:38):
The Hampton Roads area, yeah.

Don Henderson (01:40):
That’s right. So we just figured we’d come down here and pretty much mimic what we were doing up there, but boy, what a rude awakening. It was really starting all over again.

(01:53):
But then we found Espresso Agent because I was struggling with going out and we were doing the standard things that everybody does, door knock, farming, that sort of thing. But then I got a hold of someone who was talking about doing Zillow leads, which we were premier at one time, but then out here it was astronomical. And then they said, “Well, have you ever thought about Espresso?” And I said, “Well, what is that?” And so they turned me onto it, and I’ve been a fan ever since.

Noel LaFerme (02:25):
Yay.

Don Henderson (02:25):
So I used to just walk into our office because we had a separate office where I would do production. And three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’d walk into at nine o’clock in the morning, walk out of there at 11:00. And my routine got to be where I pull up 30 telephone numbers from Espresso on FSBOs. I’d get ahold of at least 10 of them and took four appointments. So it was just a real consistent, easy way to do it. And thank God it was there. It took all the guesswork out of it. And you know in this business, just like anybody else, your time is pretty much more valuable than the cost. Although if you come out at the beginning, you don’t have a lot of costs. There’s other ways of doing it. But for the out-of-pocket expense that we paid, it pays for itself tenfold. And if you can do that math each and every time, be successful with it, I always promote it.

Noel LaFerme (03:25):
So that’s when you first got into Espresso, which you’re saying about seven years ago you started?

Don Henderson (03:31):
Yes.

Noel LaFerme (03:32):
And you went into the FSBO direction. Is that still your primary focus or have you moved into Expireds? Where are you most comfortable?

Don Henderson (03:41):
Well, Debbie does the Expireds still. But right now, obviously we’ve been out here doing this business pretty consistent, and we have now referral-based business. But for our group, now, I’m with a group called the Wolf Pack. And The Wolf Pack, we’re the largest group within EXP, and I teach this on Zoom. So what we’ll do, and I’ve done this with some of the groups and met some of the agents at Espresso as well.

(04:18):
So what we do is I’ll get on Zoom, I’ll show them my setup, show them how I get ready with the caller program that’s on there, the dialer that’s on there. And then we’re all kind of in a round, but we’re all listening to each other live. And when a phone call comes in, we kind of mute the rest of us and listen to them as they’re doing their script to gain a lead. And it’s a lot of fun.

(04:50):
And we used to do it once a week, but everybody became busy and the market has changed a little bit. So we’re getting ready to do some more within our group. But again, I teach this probably once a quarter to our group using Espresso.

Noel LaFerme (05:09):
Okay, that’s really cool. So when you were referencing Wolf Pack, I was thinking you were trying to describe your team you’re a part of. So not at all. You guys almost have your own little prospecting clinic set up so you guys have a great accountability system laid out for you. You just all get on and prospect at the same time. That’s awesome. That’s great.

Don Henderson (05:31):
Yeah. And then when the new people come in, they’re always asking, “How do I do this? What’s the cost factor? Should I use Vulcan or should I couple that with some other different.” I always tell them, I said, “This is an all in one packet. If you were to go out and buy your leads and dump them in Mojo, the cost factor-”

Noel LaFerme (05:52):
For everything, all together, all-inclusive.

Don Henderson (05:54):
Plus the CRM, plus everything that it has a benefit too, plus the dial. I mean, for everything that you have, this is a one-stop shop. And obviously I’m not sitting here trying to create an advertisement for Espresso. I’m just saying that’s when I tell people, I talk to them about that and show them the ease in which it helps me personally.

Noel LaFerme (06:21):
Well, we appreciate that. We appreciate your loyalty and your referral. That’s fantastic. So let’s elaborate a little bit on the prospecting.

Don Henderson (06:30):
Yeah. So I go out and I still do the FSBO. Had an appointment Friday off of Espresso, and if he hasn’t sold it by tomorrow, I’m going to go out and list it.

Noel LaFerme (06:45):
So fingers crossed that it has not sold so that you can grab it. So what are your biggest objections that you hear from for sale by owners? What are they saying to you? No, I can sell it myself, which is typical. How do you overcome that?

Don Henderson (07:09):
It’s always the same objections. I mean, there’s nothing really new. It’s just understanding your approach. My approach that I teach my agents is very simple. Look, you need to come with a point that you’re really concerned about them and contribution. If you’re not giving to them, you just sound like every other agent out there, which they’re sick of.

(07:31):
So there’s a couple of different intros that I like and I just tell them straight up, “Look, hey, I’m not here to list your property, so take a big breath. I just want to talk about your property and maybe there’s something I can do to help you.”

(07:46):
That’s kind of the approach I do. But I really take the elephant out of the room right off. I say, “Look, you’re selling it to save commission. I applaud you for that. I would be doing the same thing.”

(08:01):
So you don’t want to skirt those, you just want get them out of the way.

Noel LaFerme (08:06):
Well, let’s be honest with them.

Don Henderson (08:07):
Yeah. And then you just listen to them because some of them really don’t know what they’re doing, some of them are afraid. Some of them have just had 100 telephone calls from real estate agents, and more than 50% of them were telling them how bad they were for even trying to do this on their own, and they can’t do it without a real estate agent. So the approach that I always like to use is just that. What do you need? How could I help? And let’s get together and talk further.

Noel LaFerme (08:42):
That’s good. You’re friendly to them, which is probably well-received versus somebody telling them they’re not doing something right.

Don Henderson (08:51):
I’ve gotten more listings just by… And the term they use is, “Wow, I would’ve already hung up on you, but you’re just really a nice guy.”

Noel LaFerme (09:00):
You are a nice guy. So they’re patient and they listen. They’re open to it.

Don Henderson (09:06):
It’s important. Yeah. Yeah.

Noel LaFerme (09:08):
So now that being said, since your wife handles Expireds and you handle FSBOs, do you all ever double up and go to listing appointments together? What’s your listing-

Don Henderson (09:21):
We always go together.

Noel LaFerme (09:21):
Together?

Don Henderson (09:22):
Yes.

Noel LaFerme (09:23):
Perfect. Okay, great. So what’s your listing presentation style when you’re with an Expired versus a FSBO once you get face-to-face?

Don Henderson (09:33):
Yeah, good question. It depends on how we left it. So let’s assume it’s a meet and greet. I just want to come take a look at the property. I don’t have anybody that’s interested now, but I work with people who are. But when I get out there, I have a list of 27 questions, and out of those 27 questions, I just kind of go down the list and I’m making notes and they really appreciate it. And I even show them what I’m doing. I said, “Hey, I’m going to ask you some questions here if you don’t mind, so I can get a further education of why you’re selling and what you want out of it.”

(10:09):
And then at the end of it’s literally a list of every objection you would already want to know prior to a listing. Now if it’s Expired, we do that before we go out. “Hey, I’m going to meet with you tomorrow. I just want to ask you a few questions. You got a few minutes.”

(10:26):
And so we just go down and ask them these questions. And the questions are things that you would want to know anyway. What’s really making you move? Where are you moving to? Can you move in 30 days? Are you going to try to sell it on your own? Have you had any success trying to sell it on your own? Sometimes agents says, “Well, why do you want to bring that up?” Why wouldn’t you want to bring it up? Don’t you want to know that ahead of time?

Noel LaFerme (10:49):
Yes. Not be surprised by anything. You’re qualifying your possible client.

Don Henderson (10:56):
That’s right. Your expertise should be a given. They don’t know that though. So when you go in with the approach that says, “If you can help me answer these questions.” And here’s a key one that I like. Oftentimes people will be hesitant to say what price they want for it. They want you to guess because they don’t want to be wrong. So there’s a couple of approaches that you can do with it. You can say, “Well listen, do you think it’s worth a million?” And obviously it’s not. “Well then there is a limit.” I mean, that gets to be argumentative, right?

(11:36):
So here’s a simple approach. So Noel, let me ask you a question. Your home here, compared to everybody else’s, let’s put it on a scale of say, one to 10, one being knock down, you got to start all over again, and 10 being brand new, it’s got fresh paint, smells good. You’ve never run anything through the plumbing. It’s all brand new, showroom ready. Where would you scale your home at?

Noel LaFerme (12:04):
I’m going to scale mine at a 10, of course. I put new windows, roof on, everything’s updated inside.

Don Henderson (12:11):
So great. So let’s sit down. Let’s see what tens look like. And then you have your sheet. Now the majority of the people will say, “Well, I’ll do it about a six, seven, or eight.” That’s where the majority will say.

Noel LaFerme (12:23):
Maybe I need to change my rating after they see the others.

Don Henderson (12:29):
So does yours look like this? Well, no. See, reality therapy and putting on buyer’s goggles is our job for them. We have to make them understand what the market says because we don’t dictate the market, we just interpret the market. And so when you sit down and they say, “Well, here’s what tens look like, and you said yours is a seven, what would it take to make yours a 10?”

(12:55):
“Well, I need to do kitchen or bathroom or something.” And then the follow-up question is very simple. You plan on doing all that work before you sell it?

Noel LaFerme (13:05):
No, I don’t want to do anything at all.

Don Henderson (13:07):
Okay, well then we’ll just price it accordingly, won’t we?

Noel LaFerme (13:11):
I guess so. I guess that sounds good to me.

Don Henderson (13:15):
And that’s the simplest way to do it. You didn’t tell them the price, you showed them the price. You showed them, “Look, the medium income for all of these homes that are similar to yours is 510. What were you thinking?”

(13:30):
“Well, that sounds about right.”

(13:32):
“Okay, sign here. I got three copies. Press hard.”

Noel LaFerme (13:36):
Are you a coach by chance or are you in any coaching? Because you speak very confidently and I know you have a lot of experience. But I’ve worked with agents that have been in the business 15 to 25 years, and I haven’t heard somebody talk like you have before. So are you in a coaching program that shared these scripts with you or did you come up with some of this on your own?

Don Henderson (14:01):
Both. I’m a certified mentor for EXP out here in Pinellas County. And so when someone comes on new or we have a new recruit that comes on, I’ll take them through their first three. Prior to the brokerage I was, I was with Keller Williams and I was the business coach for the Seminole office. And then I was with Century 21 and I ran their relocation division in Ohio.

(14:33):
But now my wife, again, my wife, she’s done this for years. She was the vice president of the Board of Realtors out in Ohio in the area that we were at. So we’ve been in this for a while. We really enjoy real estate agents.

(14:47):
The thing that I like about helping agents is giving them the secret sauce because granted, we’re in a very competitive nature business, but our group, if you’re not successful, we’re a failure. So that’s kind of the approach that we’ve taken. And we don’t have anybody beg us to figure it out. We give them every possible tool, every possible script, the training that goes on. Espresso is really one of the key things that I love to show people how to use. It’s up to them to pick up the ball and use it. You’d be amazed how many times people don’t want to do the work that it takes. Because they don’t look at this as a business, they look at it as something part-time. I got a friend who got into it, they’ve made some money. They don’t understand there’s prospecting and there’s groundwork. But give me three years of somebody’s life, we’ll change their thinking.

Noel LaFerme (15:53):
I love it. It’s such great information and we’re really thankful that you came on and that you are a huge supporter of us, like you started out in the beginning mentioning. And I really appreciate it. So speaking of referrals, how can we send them to you? I know that you have your banner on the side, but let’s just go ahead and have you tell the audience your Instagram and your social media and phone number and email so that they can reach out to you.

Don Henderson (16:21):
I’m Team Henderson Group. Got to put the word Group in there. If you type that into Google search, we have about a page and a half of everything Team Henderson Group. So you’ll see our YouTube channel, the Instagram, you’ll see everything that has to do with that. We have a Facebook. We’re constantly putting out new content, new information. If you would like to join a live presentation at any given time, if you’d like to hear more about what we do and how we help other real estate agents promote themselves, I’ll be more than happy to sit down and talk with you.

(17:01):
If you’d like to sit down and talk with me over the phone, my telephone number is 727-510-9623. Again, that’s 727-510-9623. I talk to agents anywhere in the world. We are currently in 11 countries that we have agents throughout, so if you need a Spanish interpreter, if you need someone in there, don’t worry about it, we have people who are with us in the Wolf Pack that’ll be able to talk to you about that.

(17:30):
I currently have a new agent who just started in Ontario, California, and another one just starting today in Savannah, Georgia, which is the son of my agent who’s in Savannah, Georgia. So she’s doing a great success. So it doesn’t make any difference. Our agents are everywhere, even in Canada and other countries.

Noel LaFerme (17:52):
Well, I know that I will send my business to you and I can trust you to take care of any client I send your way. And again, I really, really, really appreciate you coming on today, and I know everyone’s going to love watching you.

Don Henderson (18:08):
Oh, well, thank you. This is a great pleasure. I mean, I love talking about real estate, helping people. Espresso Agent, if you’ve been considering it and you haven’t pulled the trigger, definitely it’s going to be worth your time and your money. It’s going to save you the time that you need to make your business successful.

Noel LaFerme (18:27):
Thank you, Don.

Don Henderson (18:29):
Absolutely.