Hey welcome back to the luxury code. Where we decode what the very best agents agents from around the world are doing in the high end to continue to dominate in this market today. We're going to unpack mala sander. Who is a insanely great agent and team leader out in the hamptons outside of new york did last year 140 transactions 225 million dollars in volume millions of dollars into commissions as you can imagine and this year pacing for about 200 million dollars yes in the high end in 2022.

So mala welcome to the show thank you so much for being here i am super excited to be with you tom thank you so much yes well so so we were talking off camera. And i think it's important as we we try and unpack some of the things the lessons the insights what marketing and i'm going to do a little what's hot and what's not to you know get your perspective. There um. Start with sharing with the audience.

How long have you been in the business. What did you do before and why did you go into real estate. So i've been in business for 21 years um. I was i was with ibm before that i had a 20 year career idm and they they gave one of those golden parachute packages or whatever they were downsizing all their employees.

And there was a package that came out and i said you know what i think i'm going to take this package. Because i had just bought a house in the hamptons on the water and i was spending all of my time traveling around the world selling salts teaching people how to sell small business software and i'm thinking i'm on planes. I'm on trains. I'm on you know i'm here i'm there.

But i'm not at my waterfront house in the hamptons. I said this is crazy i'm going to take this package. I'm going to spend some time here and i'm going to retire because it was like one of those big packages and i said oh i'll just retire so i came out to the hamptons and i was quite young and i sort of said. You know what i've got all this marketing background and all this expertise.

I need to do something so i did a short stint at marketing consulting and then i joined the board not the board. But i joined the marketing committee of a local theater here known as bay street theater. So i joined their marketing committee and i started to meet people and i met one person in particular who was the principal. One of the principals at a boutique uh.

Real estate company called. Alan. Schneider. Associates.

And he said to me. Peter hollick. Said mala you can sell real estate and i said peter i'm not selling real estate and so reluctantly i got into the real estate business in 2001. My first sale was 265 000.

And i was like wait what did you think i'd ever sell anything. Yeah. What did that get you in the hamptons. A no bedroom.

No bath. Oh. My god that back then. This was a little tiny cape on on a very main road and my buyer was a builder.

And said. Oh i don't need to get inside. And that was it so we didn't go inside we closed on the property. And i had never been in the house.

I said this is this is great this is easy this is easy i can do this you know drive up in my little you know car and all that so but anyway that was that was my start so you fast forward to today. And you've you you have and continue to have a legendary career in the business. So i want to unpack some of the things that you're doing some of the things you're thinking about you know talking with your coach jeff about you know he's just always blown away by your just your innovative approach your networking ability so let me just i'm just going to dig in with a bunch of questions. So give us the give us the skinnies.

We sit here in june. How's the market right now in the hamptons. Because there's a lot of negative press and headlines out there i know there is a lot of negative press. But here's the reality.

I know interest rates are going up i know inventory is coming on board. I know people that are looking at you know this sort of covid thing and saying. Oh. It's so inflated it's so hot it's a bubble it's this and i'm gonna wait.

But you know my market is still chugging along. I think most of our buyers are cash buyers and they've been financing in the past. Because interest rates are really really super low and you know jeff and i actually talked about this and and the fact is in 2019. Guess.

Where interest rates were they were at five percent. Guess where interest rates are now they're at five percent. They went down well they're slightly more than five percent yes they went down in order to stimulate the economy. And they did a great job of stimulating the economy.

But my buyers our buyers out here typically we're financing because they could not because they needed to right and so money was cheap money was cheap at two percent. I mean you can't you it's silly to not do it right so. So the interest rates are creeping up. But our buyers are still primarily cash buyers that finance for convenience rather than for necessity is it going to affect the lower end of the market.

The you know sort of the one to three to maybe five million market. Where people are financing to you know for real maybe. Yes. Yes.

But the high end. The luxury buyer is still you know is still chugging. Along are you seeing any change in transaction count. Um.

Yes. Uh primarily on the rental front. Actually last year. So this is a seasonal rental market right.

So the hamptons people want to be here in july. And august and you know in the past. It was like we're gonna rent for july. We're going to rent for august and and that's it we're not going to rent for full season.

Because we're going to go to europe. We're going to do it covid changed everything people wanted out of the city. I just talked to a guy that said they moved out here because they couldn't deal with going up and down in the elevator during covid with their dog. You know.

21. Flights so people moved out here for for full time and that drove the rental market. So there was rental transaction after rental transaction. We probably did 150 rentals.

I think last year. It was crazy i mean. But now we're back to less rentals. Covid is no longer the scary thing that it once was people are traveling.

And they don't necessarily need to rent in the hamptons. So instead of renting the hamptons. They're renting in tuscany or they're renting in you know in spain or they're renting forever they're not necessarily out here so that's affected that's effective volume a little bit on the rental side on the sales side. I think we're pretty much chugging along.

We are um. You know we are still seeing i'm we're doing right now um two to four transactions. A week. Right now you know when people hear that and they think about your price range.

You know we're talking off camera about you know you're selling like the i'm selling the low end the middle of the road stuff you know the three four five million um. What's happening in the super locks. What's happening in the north of 15 things going into contract that are 18 20 um. It's probably maybe you know a little bit of a pause again right now.

But it's a seasonable seasonal. Pause. Yes. Yes.

People have decided what they're doing for the summer and they're not frantically looking for something to be in for the summer. So they're here they're chill. If it's a rainy day they'll look and you know if it's if it's august and they haven't found a place then the pace accelerates. Then it's like oh.

My god i forgot to buy a house. It's august right yeah. Interesting. So i have to ask um.

You know having been to the hamptons. Multiple times spent a lot of time in new york city have so many clients. There um. How how impacted if anything has your business been by the stock market going down or you know the financial.

The financial institutions that maybe they're not getting those big fat bonus checks this year which sometimes drove part of the move up market of the second market mm hmm um. Great question so my flaw my experience in the 20 years that i've been doing this 20 plus years is when the stock market is volatile. People want to invest in real property. And they if they have the wherewithal to get out or if they had the wherewithal to get out before you know before deep deep dives in the market they got out and and they don't want it you know they don't want this fluctuation thing anymore right um.

I don't know about the crypto people. But the stock market people definitely you know they they want real property. And when yeah and we do we tend to do well when the market's tricky. I just uh chatted with somebody at a title company yesterday who they've uh they've launched their own sort of blockchain version just for the crypto buyers.

I'm like wow. Good timing yeah they just they just launched. It i was like probably you missed that one by about i don't know 10 11 months. But but let's go a different direction.

You know your coach just talks about you just about every time. I'm i'm with you you know the amount of transactions you're doing forget. The rental side. There's the everyday buyers and sellers business.

That you built so so one of the questions. I know someone's going to ask is okay molly. See you're selling two to four houses. Every single week.

Plus. The rental side of the business which is you know we know it's very seasonal. What are some of the adjustments that you are making to to maintain this production to maintain relevancy in the marketplace. So one of the first things that i did was create a team structure so and it was after it was really after starting my coaching experience with you that with tom ferry.

You know my coach said you need to you need to have an assistant no matter what you do just get yourself an assistant and i was like oh my god how am i going to do that and i so that changed everything that changed everything for me all of a sudden. I'm like okay. I'm not doing all that stuff anymore. Now i can really focus my attention on my buyers and on my sellers and focus my attention on growing.

My business. So that was number one so and then that philosophy has led me to say okay i need to hire another person. That's so the assistant was like my operations person right now now i was like i need to hire like a real assistant that can do you know that can sell that can bring in business that can go on listing appointments that can go on showings. So that was so one piece led to the other piece in growing.

My team um. I said okay and the advent of social media and doing you know doing instagrams and doing i found myself like creating animotos myself. And i found myself you know doing all these things and i said this is crazy i am spending hours and hours doing this i need to hire someone to do this so i hired my own marketing director um. So i think i might be the only person in the hamptons right now that has their own marketing person on staff.

Most people depend on their brokerage. Marketing department. And it was also actually through meeting. Tim smith.

Um. At a conference. A while back tim's like yup. I've got my own marketing team.

I've got my own video people i've got my own list. I've got my own. I was like yeah i get it you're like i'm doing that i'm doing that yeah exactly so i don't have you know my own videographer my own photographers on my staff. But i do have access to some really great ones and my marketing director and my office manager they coordinate all of that and they love it he and my marketing director helps my social media and and drives all of that and does does a really good you know great job and and i'm in there too like putting in my two cents.

But um. That makes a huge difference and that basically sets us apart. We are doing innovative and creative marketing for our sellers for our landlords. And even for our clients that are looking to buy we're out there canvassing sellers and finding off market properties for them.

Because i have the ability to say okay we're going to do this and we do it it's great where could you go to get tuned up to get your mindset right to get an unlimited number of marketing and lead generation strategies to win even more listings. The answer. My friend is obvious the success summit in dallas august 23rd through the 25th. If you want to be surrounded by thousands of like minded individuals that are not buying into the noise.

But instead stay mentally tough and most importantly earning the money that they desire then you need to join us so to make your reservation just go to tomferrycom. Forward slash summit make sure you put in the promo code summit. 15. That's summit 15 to get 15 off your ticket.

So make your reservation and let's get back to the show. Thank you you've been a client for five years. I think going on six years and to think back that five or six years ago. You didn't have an assistant and and today just for so people have context.

How many total people do you have on the team. Including assistants and staff and sales people what's it look like today. It's not a huge team we are total of uh. We're a total of five so marketing director ops manager and then me plus two agents looking to grow definitely looking to grow with an eye towards that um.

So if you're in the hamptons market. And you're thinking about where where to go next. Give me a call no i love it a little shameless self promotion go girl why not why not i mean. It's the number one team on the east end why not work with us.

I love it you know when you say that with such poison grace and i and i know like you know. There was a little devil in there i love that so so the so the big the big key and it's interesting you know we were talking off camera uh courtney kelsey brandon and i are here in the studio and we were looking at your instagram page. Which is hot right. But we'll get into that in a little bit and i can just see like you're pushing the envelope your style you and dino.

The dog like it's just like everything about it i'm like this is right isn't it funny. How like my my little brother who sells real estate down in san diego. Said to me once he's like i've done like three deals this year. Because i have a vizsla dog and he's like i put the dog in the photo.

A couple times with my kids and people were like oh you have a visa. I have a visa can i buy a two million dollar house from you i like so. Does dino actually attract business. Um.

Well dino's too new. I've only had him for 30 days. Oh okay. New dogs.

But he's a new dog um. He's he is going to attract business for sure for sure. But you know what it is really amazing. What what does attract business is when you have that honest like that eye to eye contact with people on the video.

I always used to think oh videos yeah. Cheesy. I'm not doing it it's great. It's really great.

Because you can really show off a property. More realistically than you can with static photos. Number. One but also somebody's going to identify with who you are as an agent.

They're going to say okay. I i get this person. I like this person. And like you know.

With your. Brother. Yeah. Let's let's do a deal.

Oh yeah. Oh. Where'd you get that outfit. Or where.

Did. You how did you come up with that analogy or how did you you know and people want to know more about you. And that's why i also sprinkle in a lot of social personal stuff into the social. I love and i don't want to get too too far ahead of myself here.

But your real talks are just awesome my only advice to you because i went we went through looking at it i'm like you should just be doing way more of those because again it's if you know if you if you haven't followed her definitely follow her on instagram uh. You know mall is real talks. Are just you straight to camera. Answering questions talking about the market.

Educating people. And like you said like we read your eyes. We see your facial expression. We we connect with you in this intimate way on video that you just can't do in a direct mail piece or a postcard or a traditional advertising medium.

I think it's really special so and i love seeing all my super luxury brokers really take advantage of it so we'll get to the real talk. But i want to go a different direction so mala. I wrote down this question. So what are you and and you know jeff and the team.

What are you putting in place today. Or what did you put in place beyond the people right to continue to grow the business. The way you have because maybe give people context. How many transactions were you doing five years ago.

Versus today. Oh. I mean i was probably 20 30. Maybe.

20. Okay so 20 to 30 transactions with an average sales price of four or five million dollars. And you go to 140 transactions. Plus.

The rental business right my sales transactions were not averaging four or five million dollars five or six years ago. Or you know they they it was the sales point has come up of course um. The volume. But the only way i think the only way to handle lots of volume in a in a consistently um.

What's the word. I'm looking for like a clear fashion. So that you know you're consistently good at what you do yes. Only way to do it is to it's it's got to be wrote.

It's got to be automatic. It's got to be like okay we got a new listing. We're going to do this this this this we have something in contract. This is how this is what's going to happen next.

Yeah we have so it's the only way to do it you've got it's just got to be automatic and i think putting those systems and processes in place is key. It's just key on paper and you go through and every time. There's a there's a thing you don't have to say oh did we order the sign did we you know fill out the thing. Did we get the forms.

It's boom boom. Boom. Boom. Boom and chelsea.

Myops. Manager is really good at being on top of all that stuff and making sure all of that stuff gets done and sometimes. She's on me. And saying.

Hey. Where's that form where's that thing you know right it's fine. It keeps us all in line. But to have those systems in place.

It's you have you're spending no energy. Worrying about what should be done you're just doing it and gives you more time to do other things new business. I mean you have to focus on your client right i mean you're preaching the choir here. I mean.

It's a run your system you know run your business by systems not by memory right memory is the is the big mistake in this business. We we know what to do but we forget um was it hard for you to put those systems in place. I mean. I've had this conversation with steve cohen.

With michael was. I mean so many rock star agents. Hamptons. New york city etc.

And oftentimes. We just find that in the higher end. They're like well no my clients expect a different experience. And then you you see the ones that do a lot of transactions.

They're like forget that it's all got to be documented and processed was it hard for you to make that transition or did the ibm background. Make it a no brainer for you no it it's a combination of of both things. It is not hard to implement a system. But what your clients expect is a personal one on one they don't want this they don't want it.

But they don't need to know that that's what's happening no but right for your sanity. That's what needs to happen and you can you can hand hold and you can you know you know bring them through and i always say okay and it's easier said than done. I say oh okay so so congratulations. You know we got to the contract stage.

And now chelsea's going to take over you know no it doesn't happen that way they always call me they always want to email me and i'm always accessible because i'm not worried really about all that stuff and i just yeah. I think for every luxury broker and for every every agent listening. That's the mic drop right there i can actually take those phone calls. I can handle those emails because i'm not doing all the other stuff so so let's talk about marketing for a minute.

What are you finding that is the most effective way for you to get the word out whether it's to stay connected with your past clients in sphere or uh to attract new business. I'm assuming agent to agent referrals from the city or you know from outside of the hamptons to the hamptons. So what's working right now from your marketing. Um.

It it's amazing postcards this is so old school you thought. I was gonna like be all out there with like social media and all that stuff. Yeah. That works that works definitely but.

Postcards. Hand written. Notes. Yeah which can be.

Automated. Yes and britain. Audienceco yes. Yes.

That we've we discovered that and that is generating. I'm telling you i probably got 15 leads this week alone from that people that are interested in selling so direct mail handwritten notes automated by like audienceco or another company that does like the robots that are writing. It for you yep yep yep and that works um that works and then you know there's the old fashioned you know picking up the phone and being back in touch with you know or even. Just a text sometimes i just say oh hey i just noticed you know it was the anniversary of your purchase.

How are you doing how's the house. I would love to come and see what you've done with the place and invariably. It's just staying top of mind for all of the people that you've done you know good things for staying top of mind with them will get you you know we'll get you more more business also so those are the things i think in terms of marketing right and we do brand we do brand ads we do print ads we do banner stuff and you know for branding. Our team we do that um one fun thing that we did is we and i wish i had it with me.

I don't have it with me um. We did hats. We did team hats. I'm going to send you one please say they have the beach plum logo.

Which is the flower the iconic thing in the hamptons and nobody else has that they're sailboats and there's whales and there's this and i said wait the beach plum let's do that so we had hats. Made they say. Molly sander team. And they say authentically hamptons.

And we give them out to any listing presentations renter. Any sale. We do here you go and so pretty soon. I went somewhere today and they and i had my hat on because i was i just left soul cycle or whatever and they said.

Oh my god there was somebody else in here with that hat where did you get that hat. I said well i can arrange that for you you're like you just have to buy a five minute our house for me all right. Yes. That's it comes with a hat.

Okay. So let's let's play a game. I've been having a lot of fun with uh you know great people like you called what's hot. What's not so you ready all you got to do is just tell me hot or not based upon your experience.

Right okay are you ready ready all right networking. Hot just hot really hot no. It's really hot always hot okay. It's okay if you give us a little bravado here uh.

Following a schedule not hot let's do it okay i love it okay direct mail you have to be flexible you have to be flexible. There yeah direct milk. Very hot okay we got a very hot okay. Calling.

Your database hot hot. Okay. Doing. Videos hot hot hot.

Oh. Three hots hot hot hot. Short. Form videos or long form videos.

I like short form. Okay. How hot is real talk. How hot is real talk with mala super hot super.

Hot. Okay open. Houses. Not not okay good me.

Yeah. Yeah. Email marketing hot hot. With a slight question.

Mark. There. Okay. I like it yeah.

Yeah. I can extrapolate on it okay. Uh print advertising. Ish ish hot ish okay uh studying the market super hot super hot dina the doxie do you know the doxie the hottest.

The hottest of the hot yes. The hottest. Only because your coach tells me you're amazing at it and i saw it before we started this show tracking and measuring your business super hot ultra super hot okay last question. What's the best beach in the hamptons.

Oh. I like that all right some somebody like somebody in the easter. Who likes to be like wait hold on okay so unpack for us you you said uh direct mail. Very hot videos you give it a hot hot hot.

I said to you real talk with mala and you were like basically bananas hot. So what do you say to the luxury broker right now that's not doing video. Why i say why why would you not do it yeah. I mean.

This is uh when people scroll through on stuff you they they stop you know they just scroll through the photo photo. They don't read they don't read they don't read. But your videos out there and then all of a sudden. The text is going and they they know what you're saying right and it's like they have to pause because if you say anything remotely interesting on your video.

They're gonna stop look and listen and that's that's why you've got to do it i love it i love it okay. Email marketing. You were like it can be overdone. You have to be super.

Careful with it some people think that you know they're just gonna you know they're just gonna get a listing and they're gonna blast it out to agents over and over and over again i get so many emails about properties that have absolutely no applicability to me my buyer my market and whatever. But not only will i get one email about that property i'll get 15. It's overkill you know i i think people have said to me in the past that we like getting emails from you brokers brokers and agents. Because it's not always every day.

Another email. Another open house another this and other than that we're like all talking to ourselves. And nobody's listening in a way right catchy subject not super like regular you know boom boom boom. Every day sporadically.

Say things that are important say things that you really want them to hear and know and that subject line better be killer. Because it's never getting opened. If it's not when i say open house today. I don't right yeah yeah down.

I'm not like delete delete delete. Well when i see okay wait till. You see this when i see your two million buyer is gonna want this or when i see something that's a little bit catching my eye. Oh.

What's this where do you go like what's your go to for uh headline. Creation or just marketing creative in general um right now my marketing director. It's all on him. I love it yeah.

It's just you know and we sometimes we brainstorm and you know. But he's really good at it so um yeah. He's she's really good at and in the past like i had this one listing that had just for the first time on the market since 1969. And i my headline for that was not since the astronauts landed on the moon was this on the market.

Oh oh look at my team. Was like yeah. Yeah. You've got to put.

It into some sort of context. So people get what it is well i think it's it's catchy and it's also i love your point around contacts. It's it's got to kind of punch people in the face. Because otherwise.

It's just open house new listing e alert. You're like really really. That's all. You got.

Yeah. Um. Yeah. Yeah.

Tell your marketing director. To check out a book. Called words. That sell words that sell and inside of a loom inside of a looms.

This is a coaching client. Only moment inside of a loom. I put inside there from my mentor. Jay abraham.

A list of 10 000. Working headlines and then he published the top 1 000 of the best headlines ever so just i tell your marketing director go in there and r d rip off and duplicate i love it i love it we're definitely gonna check that one out love it i'm gonna get it for him like now and send it right you're like hey here. You go here's a gift do more good email. So molly as we as we wrap this up you've been so gracious with your time.

And you know you were just so you're so lovely you're so smart you're so good at what you do if you were to just drop a last nugget whether it was around mindset or marketing or just business. Savvy or just taking care of your clients at a higher level for the person listening right now. What do you think is just what's that one last. Little malaism that they need to take on to keep their business moving forward.

This is going to really sound a little trite. But i have to say you you have to set your goals and you have to believe in your ability to achieve them. And you have to tell your clients that you're the absolute best at what you do yeah. That's it and you have to believe that and if you're not the absolute best at what you do then you need to do something else right.

I mean i just feel like you got to believe in yourself and set your goals and just make it happen you say i'm going to do this this year. Just do it yeah. I i hope for the person may be listing this on the podcast. You jump over to my youtube channel and watch how do you like i'm looking at like brandon on my team.

It's like oh yeah. Because just because just to see your expression. As you were describing that like we've all heard fake it to you make it you know we know these things. But at the end of the day like i think i think give me your thoughts on this model like confident cells like just that confidence absolutely that makes such a difference in terms of even just getting to a deal even to getting to a deal point you know if you've got the confidence and the gravitas and the market knowledge to advise your client you know appropriately and know when to wait know when to jump.

Don't have commission breath just stay the course and be knowledgeable and smart and confident and they will believe that you know what you're doing and you will if you do all those things right you will know what you're doing so it's not like you're faking it till. You make it you've got to understand the market. So important you've got to understand your buyer. So important and you've got to believe in yourself so important love it believe in yourself very hot.

Very hot. Very very hot. Very very hot two berries paula okay well thank you so much for spending. Some time with us if you're not following mala do follow her on instagram her reels her shorts.

Her videos even just her listing tours are hot h o t. Hot and make sure you uh. I also saw that we could follow dino the dog as well so you know maybe do you know the dachshund do you know the dachshund got his own insta all right 30 days in you know if he gets more followers than you mollo. We got a problem he gets a lot of he gets a lot of hits on his reels.

So many views like 5 000. Views on his most recent reel. I'm like what what is going on you might have to put him on the marketing team and have him start being your spokesperson. I think i will i need to get him some good i need to get him some good swag first.

I think that's a really good. I i literally have like over here courtney on my team who's dying. Because her dog has like what 15. 000.

Followers now. Six she's like 165. But who's counting yes. Oh.

My god oh no oh. No dino's only at like 70. We got to work got that courtney. We're gonna get you a special yeah special coaching with courtney to make sure that dino's crushes instagram.

All right mullet well i'll look forward to seeing you at the summit. Thank you so much congrats on all your success and hey if you like this share. It with a friend or two and if you haven't liked subscribe hit that notification button to make sure you always receiving this content make sure you do so today take action on everything that mole is talking about and hey let's make the the rest of this year. Even more extraordinary.

We'll see you guys soon take care. Good stuff. Thanks tom bye foreign.