Slowing Down to Speed Up: Deliberate Preparation in Real Estate with Matt Farnham
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Matt Farnham: [00:00:00] Let’s jump in. Hope everybody’s had a great week so far. As Christina just said, I think a lot of us, depending on your market, but it’s probably doesn’t matter where you are. Actually, the market’s just really funky right now. And I think right now if sales volume is down for you, as it is for us in Vegas, this is the type of season where it’s, yeah, maybe you can squeeze an extra round of golf in or an extra vacation.
That’s great. But it’s also time to get under the hood and see what you can you know, tweak. And tighten and, and, and reconstruct or whatever to really just build better systems, better S. O. P. S. So that way, when things do pick up, we can run faster, smoother, better, stronger, all those things at 1 of the last time.
Very retreats. I love he’s it wasn’t him. I think it was maybe Steve Harney or somebody said on stage, but he said, this is the type of season where. This isn’t a time for panic. It’s a time for preparation. So I would just challenge all of you to think about this season. Hey, Nazar, good morning [00:01:00] this type of season to, to really look at your business and say, Hey, what can I perfect?
What can I make a little bit smoother and faster? So that way I’m running on firing on all cylinders when things pick up. So let’s, let’s jump in the name of this little chat today is a slow down to speed up the art of deliberate preparation. If you guys aren’t using chat GPT, get on it. I had nothing to do with the art of deliberate preparation.
Chat GPT gave me that title when I kind of put in what I was going to talk about. It’s amazing how many little hacks and shortcuts you can have by using AI already. But there’s a lot of ways to think about slowing down and speed up and preparation. I mean, there’s preparation for conversations.
We’re going to have right. Phil, Phil Jones. We all fell in love with Phil’s content. But he says the worst time to think about what to say is the time. It’s actually time to say it right. We need to think about these conversations before we head into them. Think about what we’re going to say, how we’re going to say that’s where role play comes in scripts and dialogues and things like that are important.
Of course. Before we prep for a meeting, you know, I get teased on [00:02:00] my team ’cause I’ll have three hour listing appointments. But you know what? I don’t ever go back to the home again because you put such preparation into that meeting. You have a highly effective meeting where I’m actually speeding up by landing more listing appointments I go on than having to go on three to get one.
I go on one to get one and then I don’t have to go back to the home. ’cause we cover everything. It’s all preparation. Slowing down to speed up. Your day to day activities, things that we do just day in and day out, you know, what are we doing over and over again? That maybe we could think about creating systems around or templates around or S.
O. P. S. to where we can really do it at scale by just making a couple of small changes. Nick on our team right here, he shared an A. I. with me. You guys probably saw Jason Pantana’s video he just put out yesterday or today, but these new A. I. S. where you can literally do a video and I can change the name out for Nick.
John is our Tim. Everybody. Just through A. I. It’s incredible. So we need to get familiar with these things because it helps us again speed up and then content creations. Another big bucket. Where everybody’s trying to figure out, [00:03:00] you know, what do I talk about on this reel? Or how do I get if we carve out time, we batch record batch prepare and things like that.
Again, we can now distribute it schedule them out and we can really speed up. So there’s so many different ways. This could be applicable. So let’s jump right in guys. If you have questions, you know, feel free to interrupt or put it in the chat. I don’t have a whole lot that I’m going to probably answer, Ask you to engage with.
I just have a lot of content. I want to just give you as much value as I can in the time we have together today. So let’s jump right in. So again, Phil Jones says, worst time to think about what to say is when it’s time to say it in other words, he’s telling us to slow down to speed up and think about those conversations.
In my preparation, guys, everything I do, I’m not saying I got this all figured out, but everything I do I prepare. It might seem cheesy, but just for this little 30 minute or whatever time we spend together today talk, I probably spent over an hour in preparation just for this talk. Because if I’m going to give my time to something, I’m going to make sure that I’m pouring everything I can into it.
And that you’re getting the value too. Because that’s my reputation, that’s my brand.[00:04:00] So I just I prepare for everything I can as much as I can and I love this quote from Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn is like the O. G. of like personal development. If you don’t follow his stuff, he’s he’s now deceased, but he’s incredible.
But his famous quote says our income is directly proportionate to the value that we bring to the marketplace. So if I want my income to grow my influence to grow my platform to grow I need to bring tremendous value to the marketplace and you can’t do that without preparation I take that very serious and then roger maris who used to hold the home run record for so many years My buddy john’s in the room.
He’s a huge baseball fan, but his quote says you hit home runs not by chance, but by preparation Obviously, he’s in the batting cage. He’s taking swings multiple swings every day every day every day home runs are not by chance It’s all preparation So let’s talk about some of those conversations we get into asking great questions, right?
So L. P. Mama is a script. For example, when you’re thinking about preparation, we all know L. P. Mama. So that’s location, price, [00:05:00] motivation, agent, mortgage appointment. But having this, you know, Where you’re role playing with your team or your your friends in the business, and you’re just, you know, internalizing these types of scripts and dialogues that’s slowing down to speed up to have more effective conversations, higher conversion, because the less people we have to talk to you to get the same results that frees us up more time.
Just little things like language is powerful guys say, hey, you know, there’s a script that David Caldwell use last week. That was super powerful that we use, but here using the equity from your current home to buy your next home. Just little tips and tricks when you, when you prepare language and you prepare scripts and dialogues and put the role playing practice and it just makes us better.
With higher conversion, and I want to challenge you guys to think about this too. Like what you say matters. Tom Ferry has said that for years, but Jim Rohn says another way. He says language is really important. For example, and this is why you got to practice practice with your family, your friends, your family, your coworkers.
But what if I said, I’ll pick on Rob, you know, if I say, Hey, Rob, what’s the matter with you? [00:06:00] Or I said, Rob, what’s troubling you? I just said the same exact thing two different ways, but it implies a completely different meaning. Like guys, what we say matters, language is powerful and we have to practice that.
It makes a big difference in our conversion and our client’s experience and all those things. Another example is think versus feel like, you know, sales 101, we don’t ever ask a client, like, You know, what do you think about that? Like thoughts are negative. We know that naturally instead of saying, Hey, Nazar, how do you feel about that?
Feelings are positive. Thoughts are negative, but this stuff, you have to practice this stuff. We have to prepare for these conversations and then, of course, all the Phil Jones magic words. Would you be open minded or tell me more or out of curiosity? Like, these are really, really just great phrases to internalize to have more powerful conversations, but it doesn’t happen without preparation and practice.
The importance of great questions of curiosity to secure a client, Bill Jones says, stay curious longer. We have to create more space in [00:07:00] conversations. And I like to relate it to this. Somebody tell me when somebody walks away from a buyer consultation with you, what is the number 1 thing that we really want them like saying to themselves as they’re walking down the hallway after they just had a buyer consultation?
So anybody just unmute and chime in. What do you think would be, what, what do we want them telling themselves as they’re walking out of our office?
Robert Mack: We want them walking away, feeling comfortable and confident that we’re the agent for them. Excited.
Matt Farnham: Great. That’s awesome. Anybody else? What else? What do you really want them saying to themselves?
Melanie Carter: That person’s gonna be my agent.
Matt Farnham: Right, well that’s obviously what you want them saying to themselves, so yes, good answer. But I would submit to you that what we really want them saying is, we had such a powerful conversation with them that we brought a lot of preparation to intentionality, curiosity, we created a lot of space for the conversation, asking powerful questions, where they’re walking out of that hallway, or out of the office, and they’re literally saying, you know what?
[00:08:00] I think Nazar knows everything there is to know about my situation, what’s stressing me out, what’s gotten me anxious, and I think he actually has problems to those solutions. If they’re walking out believing that I guarantee you are the agent that they’re hiring, but that doesn’t happen by chance.
That’s all preparation, asking great questions, staying curious long enough and being patient enough, slowing down that conversation to really listen and learn and listen and learn and then having a solution to those problems, which we all have the solutions, but we can’t speak to those solutions. If we don’t know what the problems are, I guarantee you’re hired every single time that happens.
And that’s transferable to listing appointments as well. Okay. So again, that’s a form of slowing down to speed up. So I want you to imagine for a second, you’re going into a buyer consultation. So this is a question I want some participation here, but what are some things that you would want to know if you could, before you sit down with that buyer for that 30 minute or hour consultation, what are some things you’d love to know if you could find out before the conversation,[00:09:00]
anybody Renee, go ahead.
Renee Freire: I was just saying that I would love to know before I have a conversation with somebody, if they’re pre approved. Okay, perfect. All right, Eric, how about you?
Tim Manfro: Motivation. 100 percent How quickly are they really wanting to buy?
Matt Farnham: Alright, cool. How about one more?
Dominic, I’ll pick on you.
Dominic Benoit: What would you want to know before you walk into a buyer consultation? I’d like to know a lot about, you know, people’s personal interests, their hobbies, when their birthday is. I want to know about their family. If I can know that beforehand, that’d be awesome. But, It’s not necessarily possible unless I can find their Instagram.
Matt Farnham: Usually possible for sure. I have a lot of stuff out there now, but so think about the power of an intake form. [00:10:00] We do intake forms with our team for buyer consultations. We do them for listing consultations. I do them if I was going to have a recruiting appointment. We just launched a new recruiting campaign to grow here.
But think about this. What if you could ask these questions on a buyer intake form? Have you bought a home before? When’s the last time you bought a home? Wouldn’t it be helpful to know if your, if your consultation has actually been through the process before? Have they bought a home in Las Vegas or in Nevada specifically or whatever state that you’re in?
What concerns do you have about purchasing? Like, what’s stressing them out? Maybe they’re concerned about inventory. Maybe they’re concerned about the, their rent, their lease is up in 60 days and they really don’t want to have to renew that lease. If you knew these things before the conversation, do you think it would change the way that you prepared for that conversation?
Just raise your hand real quick if you think if you knew some of this stuff, it would, it would, you’d be better prepared for the conversation. What about their prior experience working with realtors? Was it good? Was it bad? What went well? What didn’t go well? Wouldn’t it be nice to not make the same mistake that the last, you know, realtor made that frustrated the client?
And here’s the question we’re asking on [00:11:00] our intake forms right now. We just added this are you familiar with the DOJ lawsuits regarding how we get paid as your buyer’s agent? And almost every time, what are they going to say to that question? No, I’m not familiar. They haven’t heard of that. But what’s it do?
It creates a curiosity in their mind. Like what’s that about? That’s interesting. Now we bring it up in a buyer consultation. It’s not forced. It’s not awkward. We’re just saying, Oh, hey, remember that that for me filled out for me. Thank you for taking a minute to do that. By the way. That DOJ question, I know that might have caught you off guard, but had you heard anything about that?
Oh, no, I haven’t. What’s that about? Well, let me explain to you some changes happening nationally and how we get paid. It just is a very natural, easy way to open up a very important conversation that we need to have again. Slow down to speed up. We’ve got to educate the client. That’s how they have a better experience by having these conversations up front, but we tee it up through these, these intake forms.
Other questions would be, I guess that’s it for the buyer side as examples, but you can think endless possibilities, which you could put in an intake for me, guys, this is easy. It’s as simple as saying[00:12:00] Hey, Melanie is so excited to meet with you Wednesday at the office or at Starbucks or whatever.
Tell you what, just so I can bring more value to the conversation in our time together. Could you just take about 2 minutes and fill this little questionnaire out? I’m going to text you before I meet with you. Anybody’s going to do that. You just said you’re going to bring more value to the conversation if they take 2 minutes to do it.
And now you’re coming way more prepared. To have a very powerful conversation with them, you guys see how effective this could be.
Kristina Kendig: And they’re asking, is it a Google form? How are you sending it to him? What’s the questionnaire? If you’re texting it to him, is it a link?
Matt Farnham: Yep. A link to Google form cognito form.
We now do them through Monday dot com our project management system. You could do a squeeze page and your C. R. M. I mean, there’s so many ways it’s whatever is going to be most effective for you to get the information internal. And then it’s, it’s. You know, however you want to use it, if it’s a CRM or whatever.
Kristina Kendig: And then, because I know we have a lot of analyticals on here, is that information going directly to the agent? Or is that going to an admin and then they’re saying, Hey,
Matt Farnham: it’d be, [00:13:00] it’d be easy enough to create your own. We just have links that we keep in Slack for our agents to easily go grab at any time.
And then, yeah, we just forward in the moment they come in. It’s very quick and easy to do that. And then between me and my three gals on the client care team. It’s, you know, we’re always seeing it come in immediately. So there’s no lag on our part. But if you don’t have that type of support or process set up with your teams, then you would probably encourage your agents to create their own forms for that.
Yeah, so let’s take it one step further now. I want you to put your your thinking hat on. For a a seller Consultation before you met with the seller, you know, let’s just have a couple people. So sandy i’m going to pick on you What would you love to know before you walk into a listing appointment if you could know?
All right I don’t think sandy heard me pick on her rob What would you love to know before listing appointment if you can know something?
Robert Mack: I I’d love to know if they’re interviewing other agents
Matt Farnham: Okay, great question Mr. Sabroso, [00:14:00] what would you like to know before enlisting an appointment?
Nino Sabroso: Before enlisting an appointment? Well, yeah, of course, other agents, but also if they have sold a property before, it might be the first time they’re going through selling a home. Right. Specifically in this city, maybe, right? Right. Major, if you want to sell a home in California versus Vegas, even though we’re just a couple hundred miles away, it’s a completely different experience.
Nazar, what would you love to know before walking into the listing implement?
Nazar Kalayji: You know, I think before you get to know or want to get more information from them, one of the biggest hurdles that people don’t jump through first is to get to know that that individual because if you ask a bunch of questions you know, people can take it and just not realize why you’re asking and they can be very on the offense.
But if you get to know them first, because, you know, a lot of the agents here will do transactions with people that they know, like, and trust already. So then you can get right into those questions and they’ll answer them. [00:15:00] Honestly, but if you’re meeting with somebody you’ve never met with before, or if it’s not a referral, and therefore they don’t really know you, they might get your marketing material, whatever it is, they can be a little bit more apprehensive about answering those questions.
And so I think in the very beginning, even before you start really diving into those questions, getting to know them is critical. And I think a lot of agents don’t have those skill sets where when they walk into a property, they’re scanning the room for information. And asking questions that are so, you know, if you see a whole bunch of football stuff, or if you see a whole bunch of whatever it is on the walls, obviously those things are important enough for them to do that.
And so opening up that dialogue and really getting to know them a little bit more, spending the first 15, 20 minutes and doing that before you even talk about real estate will help you so much further along because at the end of the day, people do business with people that know, like, and trust. And if you’re just there, just being all business.
You’re not gonna get that listing.
Matt Farnham: I agree with you, but keep up. So picture this experience. You have a seller opportunity comes in. You’re speaking to them on the phone, right? That’s going to be an initial conversation. You [00:16:00] should be building rapport right there. Of course, you’re getting into a little bit of business.
You’re going to set the appointment, but that’s where you’re going to, you know, what’s your story? Where are you moving to? Why are we selling? You’re learning about the client. You should be building rapport, selling yourself as a human at that point. And then again, hey, and looking forward to meeting with you on Thursday again, if you could just take a moment to fill this form out before I come, it’ll help me better prepare to be more value to that conversation in our time together.
They’re going to fill it out. I promise you at least half the time and if they’re not comfortable, they don’t now. You’re just where you weren’t any other listing appointment. But what about. Half the time they do fill it out. I honestly don’t think I’ve not won a listing appointment where I got a form filled out before I went.
Because I come in with ammunition and preparation to have the conversations that I know are stressing them out. So for example, here’s some things that we do in a seller intake form. Would you please describe your ideal selling experience? And they’ll just type out, what does that look like? Maybe it’s the speed they need the home to sell.
Maybe it’s getting a certain price for the [00:17:00] home. They actually give away and tell you a number of things they could put. What do you most look for in the realtor you’re looking to hire? They’ll actually say, I care about the marketing plan. I care about the lowest commission. I care about, you know, who can sell my home fast for the most amount of money.
Of course, that’s everybody’s, you know, dream answer, but they will tell you when they fill this out, what are your favorite three features of your home? This is important guys, because if they think that their custom. There we go. If they think this custom fish tank in the living room is a big deal, don’t you think it’s probably important when you’re walking around that first 15 minutes with them in the home and the tour that you comment on the fish tank?
And that’s the coolest thing you’ve ever seen, too, because it’s important to them and they’re going to forget they ever filled that form out. Or they told you that by the time you get to their house, but I’m telling you guys, if they think it’s cool, you need to think it’s cool. I learned that lesson a hard way years ago, and I’ll never, you know, lose another listing because they don’t think I love their home as much as another agent love their home.
So that’s a good question. What are you most concerned about with your sale? What do you [00:18:00] absolutely want to avoid happening? That’s my favorite question. What do you absolutely want to avoid happening? My kids start school in North Carolina on June 5th, or on whatever, August 25th. I want to make sure we’re settled before then.
Okay. Now i’m going to come prepared to build a game plan and a conversation around the importance of getting their home price, right? Marketed immediately so we can get them to north carolina by august 25th Does this make sense guys the more you know this up front the more powerful your conversations are in your meeting and they’re going to tell you about commission.
Is it commission? Is it timing? Is it price? Is it you know? What are they really concerned about a lot of people are concerned about one of those but don’t care so much about the others And that’s the plan that we build around. And then where will you be moving to? This has helped us tee up a few more agent to agent referrals.
If before I go to the listing appointment. Rob lets me know that he’s moving to Newport Beach. Well, I’m going to already have a couple of Newport Beach agents in my back pocket say, hey, by the way, I got great friends in Newport. I’d love to [00:19:00] connect you. I’m already prepared for that. And I’ve done the research and let somebody know, hey, I might have a referral for you, whatever.
Is that gonna work every time? No, but does that make me a few extra thousand bucks in a year because of a couple more referrals? Absolutely. So again, slow down to speed up and get this information and just to get your minds going, guys, you can do a recruiting conversation, a hiring conversation to learn something.
Hey, what do you know about working on a team? Before I talk to an agent for 30 minutes about, you know, an opportunity call to work with us. I would love to know what they their assumptions are about working with the team. Do they think that it’s just 50 50 split and it’s just for leads and there’s no other value, you know provided to them or support what are what’s their assumptions about that?
And then this is one of my favorite ones and I think this would speak to dominic something He said a minute ago, but getting to know you once you’re an escrow. We do this as well This is where we learn about the client. Like do you do you like champagne or cider? Like do you drink alcohol or not? I don’t want to give you a bottle of wine or whiskey at closing If you just don’t drink alcohol or if you love whiskey, why would I get you a bottle of wine if I can figure this stuff [00:20:00] out your favorite sports teams experiences you’ve wanted to do and haven’t done yet your favorite types of food or restaurants like these things are great to learn about a client so you love on them the way they want to be loved.
And it’s as simple as just saying, Hey, getting to know you better. And that’s a form that people easily fill out during escrow. So I’m going to switch gears and talk about the importance of slowing down to speed up when it comes to a really effective buyer consultation. This is something we just recently started taking a lot more serious here on the team.
But let me ask you guys a question. Just a couple of people speak up to this. What are the primary reasons you want to have a buyer consultation? Primary reasons. Eric, what’s the primary reason you want to have a buyer consultation?
Arik Alvidrez: To better prepare my buyer. Okay, awesome. Renee?
Renee Freire: To make them more confident in working with you.
Matt Farnham: Great. Andrea. Andrea’s driving. I probably shouldn’t pick on Andrea. Who else? Nick, [00:21:00] why do we want a really great bar consultation? For me, I’d say confidence and clarity. Know exactly what, what they’re getting into. Like what, what they’re looking for exactly. So you’re not just driving around aimlessly, like narrow down the search.
But then also just having those bigger conversations about what it looks like to work with the team. Awesome. You just said it like driving around aimlessly talking about slowing down to speed up. There’s nothing that slows you down more or more frustrating than spending a couple days or weeks showing people properties.
They either can’t afford. It’s really not in their criteria. It’s not zoned for the school that they didn’t realize they wanted. Like, there’s so many things that we could discover through an effective consultation. A couple of things that I would speak to is number one, rules of engagement, right?
Depending on the type of buyer you have, this is what we call it. But. But if you have an FHA buyer that needs closing costs and they’re at a price point that’s really the entry point to the type of area they want to live in in town, they need to understand that we’re not going to just jump out and look at every home that hits the market.
Like, here’s how we’re [00:22:00] going to give you the best experience possible is we’re going to call those agents. We’re going to see if there’s other offers. We’re going to run some quick cursory comps to see if there’s any possible to get concessions for you because you need closing costs. But slowing down to speed up and being better prepared would not be jumping out and showing a home that they just flat out cannot buy because they’re not going to be able to compete or they can’t afford it.
But if you don’t have the rules of engagement conversation up front, they don’t understand why you’re not just jumping out at their beck and call to show them every home that hits the market, right? How we get paid guys, this is the most critical conversation we got to have right now. There’s going to be agents and I know what’s going to happen in Vegas because we’re already seeing and I know we’re not supposed to get into commissions and all that stuff.
So I’m not talking about that. But there are absolutely greatly reduced co ops than what we’ve been accustomed to in years past that we’re seeing marketed now in Las Vegas. Now, I know we’re ground zero for this type of stuff in my market, but nationwide, it’s, it’s eventually going to get to all your markets.
Where if you’re shown homes for a week or two or five weeks and all of a sudden the home they fall in love with and want to buy is one of those that’s a 0 percent or a 1 [00:23:00] percent co op, how are you going to have that conversation five weeks later and they’ve already written three other offers and it didn’t come up?
Now all of a sudden you’re going to tell them, oh, by the way, we work for an X number of percentage or minimum commission. That’s not going to go over well. And listen, again, it’s a mindset. This isn’t about you getting paid. It’s about a better experience for your client. Because when a client gets that bait and switch feel of a conversation five weeks down the road, that is not a good experience versus, hey, and to ensure the best experience possible for you, we like to slow down so we can speed up and be more efficient and make sure you understand what you’re getting into and have, as Nick said, clarity and certainty of what it looks like to move forward.
And now we’re explaining the DOJ lawsuits and how this affects how we get paid, which leads to a BBA conversation, duties owed and all these things. So it’s super powerful guys. And of course, new homes, open houses, open door offer pad where you can put a key code in now and go see these homes, they need to be coached, not to jump into the new home construction without you, not to go to an open house without you having that [00:24:00] conversation after they already did it.
It’s pretty difficult. You’re probably going to lose the commission on that unless you have some really great relationships with that listing agent or that builder. So so I guess I’m challenging you to change your mindset. The buyer consult is not something your broker is making you do. It’s so you can make more money, have a better experience, give your client a better experience and ultimately save a whole lot of time on the back end than just chasing your tail ragged before you have that clarity.
Next thing I want to move to real quick. Sorry, guys. I know this is a lot. Is what are some things you would want to know? We talked about the listing appointment. Sorry. So let me skip over that. Let me just talk to you about listing appointments because this is something that it takes a lot of time and you, you obviously want to win when you go.
So I’m going to just tell you a little bit about kind of my preparation and process, but I probably spend an average of 90 minutes preparing for a listing appointment. I’m not going to get into the whole listing process. That’d be a whole nother masterclass that we can do. But I probably spend 90 minutes.
Like I want to know those comps and I want to be just confident and conviction around the comps and the number I give that client for a couple of reasons, number one they’re [00:25:00] making major life decisions around this number I give them. So with integrity, I want to make sure I feel really good about what I tell them.
So they’re making wise decisions for their family. But number two, I might be competing with John Sanders on that listing and he might live in the neighborhood. So I need to know my numbers. I need to know my stats because if he knows it better than I do, you know, that’s definitely going to put me at a disadvantage.
So you got to put the work in up front guys. And then you need to think about slow down to speed up, right? What are their concerns or obstacles that they’re dealing with? Or what are some features with their home that you need to be prepared to speak to? Let’s say you go Google Maps to see if there’s solar panels on the roof.
Well, don’t you think you probably put a little thought into that conversation before you show up and talk to them what it looks like to sell a home with a solar lease or a. Power Purchase Agreement or whatever they have on their home. Maybe that’s an intake form question too. So you’re ready to speak to that because that’s a loaded conversation here in Vegas on what that looks like financially for them.
Do they have kids and pets? Like these types of things. You know that it’s, it’s a [00:26:00] mom, single mom with three kids and two dogs. Like, okay, showings are going to stress that mom out. So what is your plan to present to her to make her feel comfortable with how we’re going to show her home? What’s the solution to those problems?
Are they moving out of state? Are they, you know, we just had a client who wants to move stuff out of a high rise condo, but it’s a very wealthy guy who’s not local. He doesn’t want to deal with the headache. We need to be ready to answer that question. Ideally, before that question gets asked, and we can know that just by kind of slowing down to think about the situation of the meeting.
We’re walking into I said, no, your comps because of the decisions they’re making and competing with somebody else know the inventory guys slow down to really think about what’s out there. Not just in the neighborhood. In vegas, we compete with a lot of new construction So I want to know is there a new home development even two miles away?
Guys, you’re still competing with that when they see the flags and the balloons in the air The buyer is still going to go check out that community and they’re offering rate buy downs. They’re offering incentives they get to choose their own colors and features and all those things like that is direct [00:27:00] competition You need to know that when you walk into a listing appointment and you’ll stand out against other agents, too When you know the market, you know the competition net sheets guys.
We put a lot of emphasis on net sheets I think so many agents are scared to talk about a net sheet. Raise your hand if you, every listing appointment, you go over a net sheet line by line with a client. Only a couple hands. And that’s not abnormal guys, because it’s a scary conversation talking about commission.
But I’m telling you, when you own the net sheet and you own that conversation and say, I want you to have absolute clarity of everything that goes into your transaction, I don’t want any surprises for you title insurance, escrow fees, transfer tax, HOA transfer fees, home warranty, repairs. And then, of course, the bigger ticket item is the brokerage fees.
My office works for this percent. Then you talk about the co op and you just own it. Matter of fact, this is how it is. You very rarely get objection number one, but what you do is instill a lot of confidence and clarity into the client because you’re not scared of that conversation. So be ready for that.
Practice that. Be prepared. And Matt, do you have, like, do you [00:28:00] ask him when you do the intake for the listings? Like, do you have a mortgage and, you know, the balance? Because typically going in, we don’t ask those questions until we get there. So then we send a net sheet afterwards. That’s not on our intake form, but usually in the conversation I have with them to set the appointment.
Okay. Very oftentimes that will come up. Yep. Great question. And then the folder, we always have a folder ready to go as well. So, every appointment we leave with a buyer seller, we have some resources about our team about our community engagement partner, the hub that we work with and we just always have some professional lead with them and are prepared to.
Put copies of everything we’ve gone over with them in that folder as well. So again, that’s slowing down to take the time to build that, but it’s a much better experience and presentation for the client. And then just a little tiny tip on the client experience side that we do, we always have a blank handwritten note in our folders.
It’s already stamped. It’s ready to go. So we literally leave the appointment. We sit in our car. We write the thank you note man, Rob, thanks so much to you and Tonya having me over to your home. What a beautiful [00:29:00] property Can’t wait to get this to the market for you. Talk with you soon. Sign it matt It’s already stamped.
I drop it in the mailbox three doors down from your home and you get it tomorrow Like it’s just an extra but again, this is all slowing down guys It’s all preparation to have it ready to go so you can be faster smoother better and then just other things, guys, I’m not going to get into this because we’re already 30 minutes into this, but current listings, guys, that’s another master class, but how you communicate to your sellers, showing feedback offers as they come in a listing servicing system we built out to play by play, show them what we’re doing to market their home, the engagement, the views, the feedback.
Here’s the link for this. We just did. Here’s the website we promised you, but being very strategic on how you space out that communication to really just give the client an amazing experience. Transcribed current escrows. There’s so many things that happen in escrow that you can be very intentional and strategic at how you have those touch points to educate and walk the client through the transaction.
But again, guys, this is getting under the hood, you know, tightening those bolts, tweaking those systems to [00:30:00] have a way better experience for your client and the things that you constantly do every day. Why not figure out how to automate a lot of that to where it’s more scalable and you can move a lot faster, but you got to slow down and put the work in to build the systems, but it’s easy enough to do.
Other stuff that I would say, you know, know your market guys slow down Look at your market data. Know those numbers better than anybody if the market went up 4. 4 percent in the last year Know that number not four percent not five percent four point four percent know the actual number it makes you so much more credible As the knowledge broker and then the content creation Like I said try and slow down batch record schedule those reels out schedule those posts out.
So it actually happens And the last thing I just kind of want to end this chat with is to switch gears as often as I’m with you guys, like, you know, business is great. And I want to talk about productivity and S. O. P. S. and all this stuff. But what makes my heart sing is, is really this idea of work life balance because if, if we’re not.
Healthy and marriage, family, community, health, fatality, all these things, and who cares if the [00:31:00] business is firing on all cylinders. I heard it said from a coach, a billionaire on a beach with a bellyache just wants to feel better, right? It doesn’t matter how much money or how well business is if everything else isn’t clicking.
So why is this so important? Because What I think is true about slowing down the speed up is what ultimately does is it makes us more efficient. We’re going to close more business. But also is not draining us mentally and emotionally and what I don’t want to do is go home at the end of the day. And have no emotional and mental bandwidth left for who and what matters most of my life.
So, when I’m not completely stressed out all day, reacting to all these stressful situations, because we’ve put the work in to build the systems, build the communication models. Feel more confident walking into meetings. We people buy our confidence. So what do we need to do to stay confident, stay encouraged because it’s out of the overflow that confidence that people are buying and believing in us.
And when I walk into a listing appointment and I know the things stressing out Nick and his wife about selling their home, guess what? I feel a lot more confident about meeting [00:32:00] those needs, having that conversation and closing that deal. So I would just encourage all you guys to get outside of the box when you think about preparation and how can we get faster, smoother, better, stronger, ultimately deliver better experience to the client.
And convert more deals, so I’ll wrap it up right there, but any questions, thoughts or whatever. I’m not in a hurry or anything you want to chime in at. But that’s what I have for you today. It’s kind of funny because. The things that you say seem so obvious and simple, but it’s taking the time to do it and implement it into your business that makes all the difference.
So let me speak to that real quick, Nazar, and I think it is overwhelming. And I think, actually, I was telling the team this morning, like, transparently speaking, you know, we all fall into the gap, right? We focus on the horizon that we’re not getting to, we’re not getting up to the standard we want to get to.
Instead of measuring backwards and look at how far we’ve come. And I’ve been in that way the last couple of days, beat myself up about stuff. But and then you hear a conversation I just had with you, like, Oh my gosh, how am I [00:33:00] going to build all that stuff? But guys, here’s the answer. Build the plane as you fly it.
Like you’re having conversations every day. You have a listing employment, probably on your calendar sometime in the next two weeks or a buyer consultation you’ve already scheduled, just send the email. Now create the form now just for the first client. And then just. You know, the first escrow you have, you’re opening a new escrow next week.
We’ll now start thinking about what’s the email I’m writing to this client that I pretty much write to every client. And as you write it, write it just a little bit more evergreen this time. And now it can be duplicated, you know, scalable, and you can duplicate that for other escrows or, or listing services or the next listing appointment, the next buyer appointment, or, or, or just build the plane as you fly, you don’t have to sit down for a week and build all these SOPs out, it’ll just happen over the next 60, 90 days with intentionality.
Anybody else have any questions?
John Sanders: Matt, am I allowed to talk? Of course you are. [00:34:00] So I’m not in on the real estate side. I’m on the title of the national website, but Matt is a dear friend of mine. But everything that he’s just speaking about, he’s also my realtor and all the things that he has shared, he has done for my wife and I, and whether it’s Matt or it’s Tim or it’s Lucy, or I’m looking across the board of all of these different, different agents out there.
When you do this things that he’s talking about specifically, I can’t talk from the agent side, but I can absolutely talk from the client side and, and we’ve done many classes together and, and I’ve even kind of maybe perhaps shared a tier or two of, of some of the emotions that have been built into some of the things that we’ve done and what he’s done for my family.
But, but I can promise you that. The way that the systems work in how they make the client feel meaning the buyer or the seller it, it [00:35:00] creates an experience that is second to none in, in how you do things so much so that. You know, you ultimately start getting multiple referrals from, from me to Matt and his team, because of like, we know there’s, I work with hundreds of agents on a monthly or yearly basis.
And many of them are fantastic at what they do. But uniquely the way that he does it because of the way that he treats his. People and the system in the process, and it’s it’s a little bit of work up front, but the questions that you start answering creates a unique experience. So that when. You know, your sister in law wants to sell her place, or when somebody’s moving in from Oregon, and they ask you for who’s the agent that I need to work with, I promise you, again, I can’t speak from the agent’s side, but just from the client’s side, you do this, and it takes [00:36:00] everything to another level.
So, I hope that was okay to share that information. I was just kind of stalking him, and I’m taking some notes here, but I hope that was okay.
Matt Farnham: No, it is. I appreciate that, John. And, and you guys, I’ve spoken about client experience and some bells and whistles and stuff like that, that we, we love to do with our clients too.
But I will tell you this, that what I’ve learned to be true, you’ve probably heard me say this, but our client’s experience ultimately rises and falls based on the communication that they receive. It’s not about champagne and balloons and gifting and all that stuff. That stuff’s great. But guys, if they don’t know what’s going on, uncertainty equals anxiety, they’re not having a good experience.
And then take it a bit further. When you think about these intake forms, when I can find out what’s stressing them out before I even show up, and I can bring some value to that conversation and shed some light on that specific concern, they’re absolutely going to feel more comfortable and confident and walk away from that meeting saying, man, I think I think team Farnham’s got this figured out.
I think they’re going to be able to get me to [00:37:00] the finish line where I want to go. You’re going to close more deals too. So, client gets a better experience. Thank you. You make more money. Win win.
Kristina Kendig: Hey Matt, I have a couple things too I wanted to add. So, and to echo what John said, I’ve been getting emails from your team, I don’t know, I want to say maybe three, four years, just as an agent.
And I know me personally, I had, I was trying to, you know, hook an uncle up with Matt’s team so that he could help him. And that was before I even had met them personally. Just from the communications that he gives as an, to me as an agent, it was amazing. With the intake form, You’re showing the client ahead of time that you truly care about what’s going to happen to them in that trans transaction.
And I think that that just makes them feel special because I know that I could probably say 99 percent of the agents that they’re in, you know, that are going out there aren’t doing this, that they’re showing up with that CMA that they’re just printing from the MLS and they’re not taking that time. So before you even have that.[00:38:00]
You know, appointment you’ve already done way more than anybody else. And I think it’s amazing. And I’m going to ask if you can have Christie share your or Kristen, share your example with us. Of course we can drop that to everyone. And then I have another favor. Can you share with us on another masterclass?
You talked about being strategic with your conversations and the correspondence that you’re having. Do you guys have like a timeline set where you’re like, now ask him about this or now do this or do that? Or does it go more organically? We have pretty much an intention behind everything we do. We try to.
Matt Farnham: So yeah, we have for for whether it’s a, you know, like we all have relentless pursuit plans or smart plans or drip pan to try and get the client. But then once they’re a client and they’re bringing the home to the market, like we have a 31 step listing plan just to get a home to the market and then we have a listing servicing system until the home actually goes under contract and then we have an escrow plan once it goes under and then we have a plan once it’s closed and like, I know this [00:39:00] doesn’t happen overnight, but again, build the plan as you fly.
But yeah, we, those can all be future masterclasses, Christina, but they’re all loaded conversations. And, but I will, let me just give you guys an example here. Just had a listing appointment. Yeah. In the power of an intake form guys are just slowing down to really learn more about the client instead of just Booking the appointment.
I checked the box. I can put it on the scoreboard I got my appointment today and then you just wing it at the listing appointment I had a sweet lady who’s helping a mom. And she let me know, she says, what do you, what do you want to avoid happening? What are you most concerned with? And she said, well, my mom has a reverse mortgage.
You know, I don’t know exactly how this works. We owe this amount of money. Well, that gave me time to research. I I’ve done reverse mortgage sales, but I actually have not done one yet with FHA reverse mortgage where it’s, it’s upside down. So I was able to come with four different printouts with highlightings, educating the seller on what selling a reverse mortgage when the proceeds are not going to meet the payoff amount, what HUD’s process is for that short payoff and all that stuff.
She was blown away. She, she [00:40:00] told me ultimately, she goes, it feels more like a family Farnham, not team Farnham. Like she just felt like I cared about her because I took the time to be prepared to speak to her versus what if I’m at the listing table, the dining room table, and she springs this on me.
How many of you with great confidence would be able to speak to selling a reverse mortgage with a sure pay payoff insured by HUD, right? Not even me. And I’ve, I’m, I’ve been the number one HUD broker in Vegas for 13 years or 14 years or something like that. So it this stuff is very effective guys. You know, I, I agree with Nazari not to discount that, like the rapport and all that, but I’m telling you, like Christina said, I think they realized that I care, I’m not just trying to win a listing appointment.
I’m trying to learn about your situation so I can truly bring more value to you and a better game plan to help you get to the end result you’re trying to get to.
Nazar Kalayji: Thank you, Matt. That’s great. Cool. Thanks for letting me share guys. All right. You guys have a good week.[00:41:00]
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