Hey welcome back to the confidence conversion show. Today. I've got coach, alicia essig in the house, compass team, leader rockstar, how many transactions last year 130.. And what will you do in twenty? Twenty? I'm sorry that was the year before that? Yes another.

I thought that was a little bit less, which is june 2021, 128 128, but i did it with half the agents even better and what we do this year, i'm looking to do 200.. Okay, so you and i we don't want to debate, but but we want to put it out there that i am this advocate of when, when the inventory levels literally go back to 2019, let's just call it in a typical market. 3. 000 active listings, 2020 down to like 2 000 active listings 2021 down to like 900 active listings and yesterday 397, one of my clients marketplaces in an enormous market, and i say the audacity to believe that you can complain about not having inventory and not be focused.

Every single day on finding the next seller is mind-boggling for me, and you say fairy you're stupid. We need to focus on buyers. Did i do it right kind of kind of? I think it's um. I don't think that listings and sellers are the end-all be-all.

Yes, i think that buyers control the market, no matter the market, yes, and the reason why it's gon na be so. This is like you and i trying to debate but we're both going to agree. I know right yeah yeah we're going to finish that so so buyers control the market, no matter control, no matter what right. So, if you think about just in this last and anybody who's listening to this or watching, if you think about the last 18 months right so june 2021, yes, we all had a pause yep.

Why do you think we had a pause, i'm trying to think specifically of june 20 june 21. Just six months ago, oh yeah, it's 21. um. I think covet hit some historic lows and i think people took a little break and went to like on vacation and normalized exactly yeah, that's buyers controlling the market.

Oh that's right and we did and what did we start talking about? Suddenly, as coaches price reductions right or just wait, just wait, uh same thing, that's a great little reminder for people. Yeah you're welcome, yeah, yeah, so same thing just recently right we had a little dip in the market just in september of 2021. Why sure? Because of omicron right, because omicron sent everyone back home and people weren't going out to look at houses, the weather too, at least on the east coast - was not great, so um and then the holidays right right, if you historically so, but the spring market started in. Like november of last year and i'll say in the sand states sand states they, they went the spring market, but but in seattle, washington, the spring market started in november last year.

Also so not so know your local market, but you have to know your local market and here's why i say: buyers control the market, no matter the market. Buyers are the ones that are driving up the prices, not the sellers, correct right, it's the buyers who are willing and able to pay right. So if you look at um statistics, you've got um way more wealth and we talk about this all the time you talk about this on your podcasts and in our coaching body. You have way more wealth.

We have way less debt yeah, we have homeowners with. You know we just talked about this 40 of all homes in america. Have no mortgage right. I mean it's, no mortgage right or the the rest of them.

The stat that you said was um. They, their rate is at three and a half percent. Half the remaining homes in america that have a mortgage have a three and a half or higher interest rate, which is shocking exactly at the end of the day. The buyers are the ones who are the one, the they're, the willing participants right.

They look um, i'm gon na. Stop you yeah, okay, the person listening right now is looking for some sound bites. How am i gon na take this and turn it into actionable steps like okay, so i get it so. The buyers control the market.

I totally get that what are you doing differently on your buyer consultations to prepare your buyers, who maybe are less educated uninformed? Don't know that they're in the power seat and maybe you're feeling a little busted up by the market, that every time they go on zillow realtor redfin, whatever site they're like oh, we love that house. Oh it's already sold. Oh, we love that house. It's already sold yep.

How do we help them? Okay, i'm gon na i'm gon na pitch you, okay. What? If i told you that my buyer consultations will guarantee me a sale, i'm in you're in i want to give it to every one of my clients. Would you do it all the time, one thousand percent? What if i told you, you have repeatable success? Yes, one thousand percent, so i know we have a short amount of time go okay. I had my very first buyer client in 1998.

Yes, that woman ran me around and i literally was like there has got to be a better way. Yes and i birthed the two hour. Buyer consultation, two hours that your first child, yes boy or girl, you've nothing but girls, i'm assuming it was a boy. Okay, two hour: buyer consultation, wow, that's uh! That's a serious buyer reconciliation.

It is a serious buyer consultation. But i sell everybody a house: do you still do a two-hour buyer consultation? Yes, i do okay. So give me just the talking points. So it's broken up in the comments name.

Do you do in two hours? Okay, so it's three seconds. Does anybody say? Is there an intermission um sometimes - and you have to read your client of course right if they're, if you're losing them, you need to either say: okay, we're losing them yeah, so the buyer consultation is broken up into three sections. The first one is agency laws and how we get paid, which i love it. I love that for the whole doj thing and everything else going on, i love it.

It also love you. We were talking about commission compression this morning and how and again we can't really do a whole lot of talking about that, but this is the opportunity for the agent to say this is what my fee is. Yes, this is how i get paid right. This is how i get paid.

You saw the same surveys that i was publishing from mark davidson, the guy's, a thousand. What consumers have no idea for the most part, no idea, none how you get paid exactly. I probably spend a solid 10 minutes, maybe even more explaining how i get paid yes, um. We as an industry can no longer say that buyer representation is free.

Yes, you have to stop saying that it is not free. You, the buyers, sign buyer buyer agency agreements that have a fee specified in there and that fee should and can be collected when you are not being paid by the seller which, if you are listening to this podcast, is going to happen. Yesterday, yep yep, you have to be prepared for the people in the back say it again. Yes, you have to know your value, you have to say this is what my fee is, and this is what i'll be paid and if, in the event that i'm not paid this from the listing side, i will need you to make up the difference.

I will need you to make up the difference. I will let you know when that is. I will tell you, oh by the way this house, i'm not being paid. My full fee you will need to.

You will need to pay me. Yes, are your agents doing that right now, one hundred and fifty percent included? You know this morning we're talking with a bunch of the coaches and and the very real discussion. I won't name the coach, but you know i'm talking about. She was like hey in my marketplace if i went through 59 pending transactions, three percent, maybe two or three two and a half percent, maybe two or three, the rest, two, two yep yep.

So what do you put inside the buyer? Brokerage agreement? Two and a half? I put what my fee is: what's your fee, three yeah and and how do buyers respond to that? Because buyers have options, they go okay at scale because i have demonstrated in my two hour. Buyer consultation. But you said i am worth it, but you start with fees. Wouldn't you start with? Wouldn't you go like a traditional listing presentation? What are your goals? What are your objectives? What are you doing? Non-Negotiables? Okay, let me show you how i get there.

Here's my marketing plan like there's like there's that sort of thematic flow of a listing appointment that that crescendos price and then fees and then let's go well. I do that because if they don't, if they're not interested, i'm gon na figure that out really fast you're out again and what i'm saying is these buyer consultations almost guarantee conversion right? This is going to scare people, but i know it's going to scare people. This is the now: it's not the future. If and that's the thing the commission compression is coming from a lack of service yeah right, we all have a choice, so you know: do we shop at you know for lack of a better analogy nor target yeah yeah.

Exactly right you so you go to nordstrom's, because you want the service you go to target because you want it cheap and that's. Okay, that's totally fine right right! I can spend a hundred dollars on a haircut or i can spend eight yeah right. I'm gon na go, spend the hundred yep, it's still using scissors and it's skill and talent right when, when my buyer, when my agents, when i my coaching clients the agents on my team, the agents that i managed - you name it when they adopted the buyer consultation, The way i teach it they literally are, like i sell a house every single time. You did this during pivot and people were like mesmerized.

Yes, when you yvonne, you guys started showing it virtually, which we should link that up. You know for people uh on this show. Okay, so the first part again is so. The first part is your laws, your agency laws.

I also review the um, our local contract and a few other things. I don't go into too much detail because i don't want to overload them and then i talk about agency, meaning and how we get paid and all that yes, the second section is a um discovery section. So it's all about what do they want? How much do they want to pay off doing this like like? We were talking about it during so i mentioned pivot for the people that are watching like i was like during the pandemic. We we were all blessed because we're like hey just start using zoom and all our clients we're like.

Oh we've been on zoom since 2007., right it was awesome um, but we were literally demonstrating. Is anybody taking the time to show you the available properties that we see behind the scenes as an agent? The mls is: is it that or is it like going in and filling out the criteria and saying look, there's nothing? No! It's literally me going hey tom and kathy. What is it that you want to buy? Well, i want to. I want a single family home.

I want this. I want that that's kind of school that kind of neighborhood. So how much do you want to spend? Are you, are you using cash or are you um? Are you financing you know and if they're like first-time buyers, which is still a very large portion of the transactions right now, it is tot. That's your time to shine and explain the process explain how a mortgage payment is calculated, um, explain the impact of interest rates on your mortgage payment.

Now we talked especially right now right. It's important that the 50 basis points is a six percent increase in their in their payment, absolutely just that it's 4.77 per thousand at today's current interest rate right, but most realtors, don't know how to do that. Calculation, when you sit there and and i incorporate that with the current property tax base in your local market and explain all of that, people are like wow. I've never had anybody, explain it like this before.

But what about the experience? Buyer? What about the you know? Okay, really, yes, and don't you get some of them like rolling their eyes like this is my fifth house? Yes, however, it depends on now. I may not do it as detailed sure right and it might be a past client of mine. I've sold people houses five and six times right. You know over the course of the 25 years, yes, and so i may not.

I, like i might not have to spend as much time on the agency part because they already know that you know but and then it's like well, what are you looking to spend and what have you now? I will then go very detailed in what is it that you're looking for, because that is where i am now that, like you know for make me your personal shopper, tell me everything that you. What are you? What do you want? You know that's a great line by the way, make me your person, your personal shopper, exactly what is it that you want? What are you trying to accomplish? What how was your if you've never worked with this client? What was your other private, prior home buying and selling experiences like? What did you like that, your other agent did? What did you not like that? Your other agent did give me the model? How how do you want me to communicate with you like when you cover all of this? If you try to do it in a house, because you they're never going to hear you yeah, they don't care and it also weeds out all they're like just. Let me show me the house right, you know like well it weeds out all the people too, who aren't serious the ones who want they meet with me every single time, the ones who don't want an actual like realtor service they'll. They won't show up.

I'm okay with that yeah because then they're. Those are the ones that will stand me up at showings. They'll they'll be like. I need to go, see this house right now i'll run out and go show them the house, and then they won't show up.

They'll go direct to the listing agent right right, okay, so what's the third the third step - and this is the secret sauce - okay, whether you're don't disclose it, keep it um, whether you are in person yeah or on zoom. I take that criteria. I plug it into the mls and i start showing them now. I will literally start scrolling and i'm like look.

I need you to tell me what you like and what you don't like. So if they're looking at a you, know 1920s, you know shotgun bungalow and i'm like what do you think of this and they're like right? This is where you have to read people. You have to see what they're reacting to and you have to. Let them know.

I need you to tell me here you like it: i don't like it right, yeah and after about five or ten minutes, we'll start scrolling through the pictures i'll tell them where it is um. I also start implementing the conversation about resale value, because real estate is an investment right, so you want your client and - and i repeat that, right there i start setting this expectation. I want to be your realtor for life. I want to help you sell this, so i don't want you to buy something.

That's going to be difficult to sell yeah. So i may say: that's not a good investment. It's you know not a great. You know it's on a busy road or you know whatever.

In my market busy road houses don't sell very well. So by the way, that's the number one sign of all reos in the us busy street. Oh that's! So that's like the number one leading indicator - oh interesting, fun fact: oh fun fact. Between now and 2025, all the great economists are saying the housing industry is going to continue to boom.

So the question is: what are you building? This is the essence of my blueprint event where i ask you to take a few days away from your business and dream about the type of business you ultimately want to build, so you are empowered to go back and decide how you want your business to be So, to make your reservation go to tomferry.com forward, slash blueprint. I look forward to seeing you at the event so anyway, after about five or ten minutes, when we start scrolling through the listings um, i then i say all right. Let me see if i got this right and then i'll come to one, and i go you like that one and they'll go yes and then i'll go. Oh, you don't like this one yep and you like this one no you'd come like, because what i want to be able to do is when i'm looking through the mls and these listings.

I want to be able to say they'll like this they'll. Don't like this. I also establish something that i call the humor me rule yeah, so the humor me rule is something that i've done with my clients, my kids, you know whatever it is. It's like it's a try it once so.

You may tell me you want this this and this in your next house, but then, when i show you those things you're like no, that doesn't work for me. I may say: okay, i think this is going to click for you. I would like you to just put up with me for a second you've hired me for a reason. It's my humor me rule, i'm going to show you this house and if you hate it i'll, never take you there again yeah.

I promise but it's you, but when you sit with someone for two hours, that's such a great little nugget because you know sometimes they're like i don't like that. I don't like that photo. Then they see the house like we'll. Take it exactly right or they tell you, i don't want this and you're like.

I know you everything you told me told me that house right right, i mean every good agent has had that experience. So it's like trusting your new issue and having a rule for it. My humor me rule the humor me love it so once i've done that um typically, it only takes me two or three times going out and touring houses before they're writing an offer. Okay.

So how does this translate to a sales team? The scene? Do you do all the consultations for them, so i just teach them and i role play with them and they okay, that's because you kept saying i i i well that's because i'm still in production, i got it. I just wanted to make sure like this. This is totally translatable to you know michael franco's sales team in new york city. You know lisa gennady, sales team in boston, yes, okay, very cool 100.

So put a bow on this for us yeah. Your argument is buyers rule the day. Always yes, my argument is sellers rule the day, always right only because you got something to sell sure right and then you got ta have somebody to buy, so i think we're both right 100 and i love and adore how much time you thought about the very First, buyer presentation and how horrible that was to a two-hour consultation that you guarantee 100 of the time 100 of the time and if you set that gives you the opportunity to set the expectations right properly. Yes, and when you do that, they don't run you around right, they don't abuse your time, they're, respectful um.

They will give you you now say i need you know time. I can't just show up at a house there's so many things that become that are overcome. Right in that buyer consultation, here's my other reason why i like buyers better than sellers, tell me they're less expensive because you want to market them. Do you do post marketing of your uh of your buyer? Controlled transactions yeah, but that's free on social media, yeah yeah! Exactly so, i've looked at you, p, l, i i know right i've.

Never i don't spend money on buyer i mean i'll. I pay a small lead fee. Sure i mean i buy. Buyer leads, but you know if you get a listing, you're spending photography marketing and there is no guarantee you can price it right make.

It look amazing and if the buyer doesn't show up you're a the one in trouble. Yeah and you've spent a bunch of money and you could get yourself fired yeah when you have a buyer. If you do it right, you will sell them a house man. If i line up every listing agent, they would just flip that right on you, but i'm gon na leave it at that.

Okay, so i loved this podcast. So many little nuggets so many great little lines. Um don't be attached to two hours. They could do it in an hour.

They could do it 90 minutes three hours right, but but the point is you take them meticulously through each one of these, which basically eliminates all motivation, education, everything is covered. They know yes right, one hundred percent. Thank you ask them to sign a buyer brokerage agreement. Yes right there, okay right there on the spot.

Yes, and what do you get when i i got ta, throw the objection, sure, alicia everything you said everything you said sounds amazing and you referred by our friend brian, like he. I said he had a wonderful experience. She opened by a great house, we've been in. It was beautiful um but that whole like i i hear the median commission is like two and a half percent.

So if the listing agent with my math correct it's at five and you're at two and a half percent, we owe you the difference. Yes like do we have to do that. I mean if you want to work with me, you have to do that, but i mean you know. I don't.

I just don't feel like. I feel like in this market we're going to be coming out of pocket on a lot of different things, because we're going to be overpaying is is really what i'm hearing from you likely. So if i'm overpaying and i'm still trying to keep my my you know my monthly payment at x, you know for my own sort of comfort and lifestyle. I might be getting less house overpaying to get my payment and coming out of pocket for extra commission dollars for you that just doesn't feel right.

It feels like there's a lot of agents that would that maybe wouldn't do that, and there probably are. However, it's only half a percent, it is what i have determined that my 25-year tenure has garnered me and it's just what i charge. You know you call an attorney and their fees are going to be their fees, you're not going to negotiate their fees. You go, get your hair cut, you're gon na pay their fees, it's yeah, that's my fee got it and you said i'm not the cheapest yeah, but i am the best.

What's the worst thing, you've heard from a client in that situation, um i haven't. Okay, i mean legit, i haven't and like so so, give people context. This wasn't like seven buyer consultations over the last year. This is like thousands, i've done right and i've taught it over and over and over okay.

So this is battle tested absolutely, but i think they better be prepared for that because there's just you know not cultures, but there's just people there's just a mindset of of discounting. We saw the numbers today we're in the fours on average right for real estate commissions in in the u.s um, so i think they got to get really good at handling that objection absolutely, and at the end of the day, if you can showcase. This is where your skills are so very important in in that buyer consultation. I also demonstrate that i have a proven track record that in this market i am able to win those multiple contracts every single time because of my reputation because of my skills because of how we present the contract.

Because of of all those different things like, if you want that house, i will get it for you yeah. I think that was an element that, when we went through the three things i didn't hear, but that's the secret sauce correct, let me show you my track record. Let me show you and a team. A teammate of yours can say hey working with alicia.

This is what we've done, and this is our success and our team, and you can translate that to your brokerage, there's a lot of different ways. You can skim that so i know that's an important element. I know we're running over, but here's an awesome like real life, it's just the greatest 31 minute 10 minute show ever. I know right.

So i got an email from one of my agents on my team. She screenshot the email, so she had written an offer. There's multiple contracts, the listing agent said: oh, my sellers were going to counter, but i told them you worked for a great team, so we just accepted your offer, and so it was literally because of our team, the reputation my reputation. They knew this listing agent felt so comfortable with the with, and she didn't even that listing agent didn't even know my buyer's agent yeah, but because she was with the essex team.

She knew my brand and it saved this buyer four thousand dollars, and these are the kinds of things that we can say to justify that extra half a percent right right. I love it. My drop okay, confidence and conversion. I'm loving this new show.

Thank you. So much for sharing your insights and wisdoms, so i want to see in the comments, buyers or sellers who do you think controls the market. Let us know you.