Welcome back to the podcast. But i have to say this is going to be be a podcast extraordinaire because i have a legend standing across from me. Carolyn young 30 year veteran check this out joined us five years ago. And i'll all kind of give them the news flash and then you film on the details as a buy referral agent.

You know making four or five hundred thousand bucks a year from memory like correct me if i'm wrong here came to a tom ferry event. I wasn't even there it was like a sales edge event and she went there with one intention. I need to find one new lead source that could make me a bunch of money that cost. Me absolutely nothing learned it in that case.

It was expired listings wouldn't be nice. If those still existed. And since then has 10 extra revenue last year over 4 million dollars in commissions she is a brilliant listing agent and as we've said before on this show we are in a skills market always in forever. But now more than ever the ability to communicate effectively deliver value really be that resource for people so they can choose you to move forward.

That's what it's all about the legend is here. Carolyn young welcome to the show. Tom thanks for having me. I first of all it's always so much fun to be with you um.

I was thinking back to 2019 when it was you and tom toole on stage. The battle of the belt. Who had the most conviction who could handle objections the best. But i thought today carolyn what i would love to unpack.

I mean you are a veteran's veteran and yet like i i could acknowledge you in so many ways. But the thing that i respect the most about you is you have such a growth mindset you are always innovating you you said to me today like in our little mastermind. You're like i've been to so many they said. Oh my god i got that one idea that's all i know every time.

So. What was it like going from 400 000. To 4 million dollars in commissions well that was amazing especially this year. We're on track for six million.

But so we're continuing to grow. But it's um it's super cool because it's just really putting the right systems in place and the right people right and it's so much fun helping your old team and watch everybody grow right i love it it's um. I mean. It's parents right like your team almost it's not like they're all children.

But like but like you you take them on that way and when you see them grow and mature and develop some people even say it's even greater than taking a listing at times. It's awesome. We always say on my team we're like one big dysfunctional family like we're all different that's every real estate all different walks lives. But we get along so well and it's been it's been an amazing ride and i couldn't thank this organization enough for all my growth.

Wow that's where it came from you you did the work. We opened the doors right you've had a lot of amazing coaches so today we want to unpack. I want i want this to be like an r d. Moment.

For people i want people to say okay. So. If i could step into the shoes of carolyn young and i could go on 200 listing appointments. I think what's going to shock.

Them by the way that's how many listing appointments. She went on last year. Took 200 listings last year. The team took 240.

So she takes the majority of them. But they're gonna find that you do the same thing pretty much every single time you run a play on your listing appointments. That works. Let's unpack from beginning to end.

What you do and people are going to take notes like crazy so so okay. So i think tom one thing that i would say is that i don't have the same play every time that's again and i think i think that's a mistake that some people make okay so when you walk into an appointment. My i have learned that the more questions you ask the first thing you want to do when i go in is i want to be thank them for having me. Yes can i please take a tour of the house yes so as we're touring the house.

I'm taking notes of it and then we sit down and the first thing. I'm gonna do when i sit down is i'm gonna say tom thank you so much for having me over today. Tell me what can i do and what are you hoping to accomplish today. I want to make sure that i'm answering the questions that you need well i mean we just we want to get our homes sold at the highest possible price with the least amount of stress.

And you know when we spoke over the phone and you told us you could do that for us. I'm also thinking a little bit about you know the next house. We're going to buy in that transition. And you mentioned that you had a strategy for that so i'm hoping to hear that plan as well awesome well.

I'm excited i have the right marketing to help you with this now tom on another note. If i come in and i say and you know you're going to get when you ask this question you're going to get about five or six answers right. What's the most common answer. You're hearing right now from people.

Well you know with the market. So your recession. Oh. My gosh.

You're gonna get some you're the five or six. Things you're going to get is will you um. I want to know what your commission is right commission. Okay so what does that mean i have a really good killer listing presentation right yeah so if they want to know my commission.

I'm going to show them all my marketing because i'm going to add the value right okay so if they say well i just want to let you know that we're interviewing agents. Then i know i got to give them the whole shebang yep the whole thing okay if i if they say well you know i i was wondering when you could get the photographer or how quick you can get it on the market guess what here's the paperwork we start signing okay so then you have to know what to deliver so sitting down and delivering the same information to everybody to me some people don't want it let me restate. What i'm saying the place that work is exactly what you're saying yes. I start by asking these questions and then you know if it's commission.

You go this way if it's hey i want to talk marketing. It's going this way. I interview an agent right you like you're running set plays. Yes.

That's my point yes yeah so all right so let's let's pick one so carolyn we're interviewing what's the play that you run okay. That's great tom let me ask you a question. How many agents are you interviewing well um. My mother told us.

We should interview at least four agents that's a great idea. And you know you're the third one so far third. Okay awesome. That's great so tom let me ask you what is the most important thing that you're looking for in an agent uh.

You know we i mean obviously we want to sell for the highest possible price um. You know we want some flexibility around you know. When we're gonna have to leave the property. We need some flexibility there and and obviously you know so much of this is about like the fee that we're gonna pay and you know the first two agents.

We met with we're pretty flexible on fees so so i think it's it's really price and ease and probably fees for us so the most important thing. I hear is you want to make sure that you have somebody that's skilled to make it easy to get from this home to the next home without interruption right. I mean that's definitely it's up there yeah. It's up there.

But again absolutely at the highest possible price we keep hearing that the market's slowing down. But then other people tell us that no the market's great for us right now so we need some big markets. Yeah. We need some clarity on that too absolutely so what i would like to do tom is go through with you what my team does and how we can help you how does that sound.

Yeah. Let's do it. So. I do have a whole presentation.

Yeah based from the open it's live okay jackie who's gonna be doing this live at the summit this year by the way yes so i lay them all out on the table. So tell the person that's maybe audio only right now what are some of the samples like i'm i'm i'm throwing all these people like what are some of the slides that are in front of you so they're laminated and they're everything i'm going to show you a picture of my team this is our listing coordinator. This is the um you know this is our google ppc that we do here's a picture of my website. Here's all the visitors that come to um re max.

Every year um. You know this is the the sales that we have our stats and so i go over all of them are you pushing all these things out visually. I like them to fall off the table. Oh i'm sorry because again you're trying to what what is the strategy behind that someone's going to do all of this for you do you think they're going to say oh can i have a discount commission.

Well don't they don't if they do i say wow. I don't know maybe i could you know if you really need it i i might be able to move this out. But i'm really thinking tom that this is more of an investment in your house to get more money in your pocket. Yeah so i'm looking at this as an investment not an expense for you does that make sense yeah i mean and we definitely want i mean you kept talking about how important this one was and this one wasn't this one was and now you're saying.

We can't have that so. But some of the other agents. We talked to said they would kind of do everything and they'd still do it for less yeah. So you know tom.

I actually find that really hard to believe so if you you know i realize that everybody is on zillow everybody because everybody has bridges yeah. But you know to have the experience behind to have a team of isas. Which is one of my slides. That's in house that is actually circle dialing and calling and finding all the buyers for your house.

Do you want someone just to put it in and let it self populate or do you want someone to be proactive to make sure that we can bring the highest bidder to your house. What do like i mean so you went on like 200 appointments last year. What did people say to you when you say that i mean. It's it's so compelling as you're i mean i i can tell that you're like you're in presentation mode right now like you're like in and out of the podcast.

You know what i mean so what do they say what's the i mean there's all kinds. It's like i went on um. One a couple days ago and then when i'm done with it you know i'm going to ask you tom how do you like the marketing. What do you think i i think it's overwhelming how much you do so excited about it.

And i and i and i would be so excited to um to get my photographer that i was showing you that does these photos. I i this would be awesome on your property. Yeah. So yeah.

I'm really excited so i'm glad you like it do you have any questions about the marketing. No as i said i mean it's overwhelming do you actually think we need to do all this stuff. Because absolutely yeah. Tom i've been doing this for you know 30 years.

I sell about 400 homes a year. I want to make sure that your home is front and center in the market. Okay okay yeah. So i absolutely would like to apply.

It i just like to make sure you understand it because the way everybody does it the way it goes into um these online portals does not all you know mean that they're paying for them. So i want to make sure that they're paid. They're front and center that we're finding people that are you know we don't want to just put it in and take whatever highest bidder shows up that weekend. I want to make sure anybody out there that's looking for a property is available and knows that your house is going to be hitting this weekend.

So how many different slides are you putting in front of them. And i remember do you remember when we were in brooklyn. Okay. There's 70 slides.

Remember we were in brooklyn. Doing a blueprint event. You were there. Jill biggs was there and jackie got up and showed all the slides and everybody's eyes just went holy.

I loved it i took it right away. That's that's an r d. Moment. Right.

So. You have 70 different slides walk us through. 10. That you think are most important.

So someone's going to r. D. This. Again you're literally talking about an 8 by 11 maybe a visual.

And why is it laminated why is it laminated. It's you know it's it's permanent you know you bring it out in your pretty box and they're laminated and they're very you know nice looking yes okay so what are the ten. You said it doesn't this is the thing it doesn't really matter what's on the slides. It's a professional presentation yes right and um.

So when you go through it it's like you know you have your website your team about your company company stats your track record reviews. Yeah do you break down each team member and talk about the process. No i don't usually get it depends like if i have someone who i think like you can tell if people are really looking at them. And then they want more some people are just kind of like so you're just you move quick right so it just depends on the person.

But i don't think it matters that much on the content. It's just that you have a professional presentation. Right so you're good with all the marketing tom. I'm really glad so tom.

Um i ran the comps on. Your house and this one sold for. 12 this one sold for 13. Your home has a lot of.

Upgrades so i i think if we start your. Home at 1250. It's probably going to stay there get bitted up does that sound good to you on the pricing. I mean we really thought we'd sell it for more well that's what i'm hoping for too.

But you know we don't want to start high and come low. We've got to come in at a price that let the market will dictate your price eventually with the right marketing. Where do you think we'd finish. Uh i'm let's i say if we start at 1250.

Tom. There's a little bit of a shift. I think you'll definitely get that i'm expecting to have multiple offers on your house. But let's put it out there with this marketing.

I can tell you one thing i'll promise i'll have the highest bidder for you okay okay. But like but we can say no right like it's not like a fixed deal like if if the offer isn't right we can say no well would you you know just you know tom. I've been doing this for 30 years and people are getting the highest prices. I've ever seen so would you i just keep hearing that the market's shifting.

It is so would you want to say no to the highest price. Possible you're going to get for your home right now. I mean as long as the price is right. Yeah that's okay so okay so 1250 sounds reasonable to start yeah.

And it's going to be bit up well that's what we're hoping for okay. But we got to have a starting point right yeah okay all right so good i'm excited so you like the marketing. I love the marketing. We agree on the pricing yep so we're okay are you this animated on every appointment.

What do you do what do you do with like the what do you do with the engineer. All right. She's like going right back into the freezer washer and dryer can they uh. And um your security system.

Yeah okay yeah. All right that's awesome. And um. Okay so if you just initial here that will let the clients.

Know what conveys okay so then we just start. And you just start the paperwork. Yeah. I don't know i i'm so.

Excited you agree i agree marketing price. No you say oh hey. I'm i'm interviewing one more agent. Okay all right well.

I know. But i got lost in your enthusiasm that's the problem does everybody i know i know so whoa whoa um. My wife's friend is coming over she's the last agent. We're talking about oh no yeah.

So okay tom i'm the third agent that you interviewed right so out of the i'm the third one the two prior to me how would you compare my marketing and what i do compared to the other two agents just like to know that you're you're like the overwhelming favorite. Okay. Thank you my wife's friend. I know she just got her license.

So she's so nice so this is my concern. She's a friend right yeah. And you want to keep her that way so yeah. You don't want to like what would be worse is if you had to fire right because you're hiring someone that doesn't really know what they're doing and you want to navigate a smooth transaction you want to sell this house move into your new one and you need someone who is very skilled at doctoring all the paperwork to make sure you're completely covered and you want to have a new agent handle that i don't want to but you know my wife is not here and i told her so you know this is the easy.

I'm just trying to figure out like what would like somebody say in that situation. Because it would be so hard for me. I'd just be like we're going with you i had this i had this happen last week. The guy told me.

He said tell me. He says um yeah. I have to interview. My boss's realtor.

Because. Oh yeah was it like a transfer deal. No. No she just said that i was i was the third agent oddly enough and he had to interview his boss as realtor next year.

He goes. But you are head and shoulders above everybody right i'm like so i started filling out the paperwork. He says whoa whoa are we signing. I'm like i thought i thought we were a team head and shoulders let's go let's go he says.

No he says because um. It's my boss's realtor. I said well what is your boss going to do when you don't hire her yeah like that would put you in awkward. I said.

I tell you the easiest thing to do is just to tell them that you decided to go with a local professional. There you go okay does that make sense it takes you off the hook and um. So he looked at his wife he's like i don't know and she says. I don't know and i said.

I know let's just go ahead. And do this so they signed it. Yeah. You know so you just you just keep people moving forward.

Okay okay. This is what i want to ask so. If you went back six seven years ago. You were making 400 000.

A year. I mean you were a good agent. I mean by everybody's standards you probably top 25 percent top 10 percent maybe top 5 in your market. Now you're miles ahead.

How did you become this confident or were you always this confident so no i wasn't but you know what happened tom is when i went into expireds right. Yeah okay well when you go on an expired. Listing you're interviewing against five or six agents right. So you better be good at your listing presentation.

So i tell people a lot of people want to over qualify. Their listing presentation go on every presentation. You can because it's it's a learning experience right every single time right so and i went you know when i first started. I used to like you know be lucky.

If i got like you know 30 percent of them and now i usually get i'm usually about you know 90 percent 95 like so most of them. So for the person. That's listening right now who who you know maybe maybe they can match your animation. And they can make 60 or 70 slides.

And even though you say it doesn't really matter. What's on the slides. But but you know they're going to be like. But it does matter right so take everything that matters right this is my zillow profile.

This is my this is everything and you're saying just put it into that professional presentation. You could show people visually right so i love that. But what if i don't have the confidence. How do i get the confidence.

I would say in my opinion fake it until you make it so just do it you just have to even. Though you feel awkward saying it because i did in the beginning. Too then after a while it just becomes more natural and it's like who cares you know if they don't if they don't hire you who cares like what what's going to happen you don't get. But you say that but like there's some people that legitimately emotionally are distraught because they don't get selected well i still get like bums sometimes if i don't get them you know how do you get over it you know you say next right next.

My favorite four letter word move on next. Yeah so okay what what's the toughest objection you're getting today the toughest objection um right now i would say is commission because of the fact that a lot of people think that the house sells itself. Yeah so and of course. I mean even in a hot market and by the way they're still expireds out there i know i know there's plenty of them i know so especially in the high end by the way well.

It's not even a because a lot of times right now you're finding that people put their house on the market to buy a house. But because they didn't have a skilled agent to help them get the household and be proactive at finding their other one for them they lost the house and took the house off the market. So they need someone to come in and say. This is how we can do it yeah.

You know talk about i'm always mindful with commissions. Because it's such a like it's such a crazy conversation. So it's like you know so you know what to say to handle the objection. I'll just say that the answer is of course.

You do right yeah. So so flip. It and say let's talk about what you guys are doing with buyers right now because you shared something let's say it's maybe a year ago. We were at an event and you switched your process in working with buyers with one simple line.

We'd be willing to onboard you on board. You as a client so so walk us through that because we're just talking about skills and confidence. So i think and and everybody on my team doesn't maybe maybe give people context like the setup. Why don't you do it.

And then so the reason. Why i did. It is because i am a zillow flex partner agent. Now yes okay so when they called me.

And they said hey uh. You know after the interview process you know we want to let you know we are going to onboard you as a client to zillow you know our partner to zillow and i'm like that felt pretty special yeah i got on boarded. I'm like i got accepted into the countryside club right so so. I said well you know.

If you go out with a buyer. And you say hey um. You know to work together. You know i need you to commit to me legally i need to like you know can you sign.

This document. It's always awkward right so we do the same thing like you know so you always go meet the client. That's why we have high conversion again. I don't pre qualify listings.

I don't pre qualify buyers. This is a contact sport. The more people you meet the more people yeah more homes you're going to sell so we meet them. And as you're going through how long have you been looking at homes.

Have you seen any do you have a lender. You know we that's when you go through all of your questioning right so. It's like you know you've had a couple offers submitted you don't have an agent that you're loyal to you know what you are working in the market that i do a lot of business. You know what tom.

I would be willing to onboard you as a client to our group. So you can get the services. Our clients get how does that sound and how do people respond to that they're like what do i have i've had so many teams just go that line helped my team so much yeah. It's brilliant right because it's like we'd be willing to on we it's like i'd be willing to take you on i'd be willing to mentor you you know you like like that's how it feels like you'd be willing to onboard like do people.

Say. What does that mean well something means some people will say well. What do i have to pay for that nothing right exactly nothing because it does sound that special it actually uh the seller pays. The commission in our market.

So this is just uh. A document. I need to send you an on boarding agreement. So.

That you can come on as a client to the group. Yeah. Um. And that just lets us.

Know that we make an agreement to work together. Yeah. Yeah. And a matter of fact.

If you know we're not at a house or we're on a zoom. You can just share the screen here's your agreement go over it with them and we have a dropbox with a lot of buyer agencies in them right now i love it let's go back to the seller side because i just want to hear that onboarding trip. Because i know everyone everyone's going to write that one down and use it immediately um back on the listing presentation. So so much of it is the demonstration of your marketing.

Right where do you find people get stuck in the comps in pricing. Like you were very definitive uh this one sold this one sold let's go one two five and i know we're in a role play scenario. If i'm in a real situation. Okay i after i always want to make sure you like the marketing and then i want to come to an agreement with pricing.

Because then we're going to start signing paperwork right right so um. So i was just assuming too that we're just going to get agreeable prices. But um usually i'll say do you have an idea tom what you're hoping to achieve for a sales price of this house. We were kind of thinking high you know high one threes.

Okay all right just based on the stuff that we saw yes and if if i think you're right then i'm just going to show you a couple of the sales. And say hey you're on track. Yeah. I think that's great.

But as you can see tom in. The history here all the homes that. Achieved. 13 started at.

1250 or started at 12. So i want to be in line with the market because we know it's a justin and we i don't want to come to you in two weeks now for a reduction so um so we. Go but if if you think it's 13. And it's a million well i got a.

I got a lot of explaining together let's go that way so. So i mean carolyn like you said. As you're walking through the house. We've done an amazing job and we have like my wife and i were super.

Proud like our decorator is amazing. Our backyard is like over the top. So we just think i know i hear the markets a little bit crazy. But i just think someone's gonna walk into this house and be like i get it okay.

So i know you know you were saying kind of like the pricing and the ones. But i just think like i don't need every buyer. I just need one ah so you're searching for a needle and a haystack. I know i'm setting you up on that one yeah.

You've heard that one before right i just need the one buyer. So yeah well i mean not needle in the haystack. I think there's someone someone that wants to live in this area is gonna see this property and again tom you know the kind of marketing that i do i want to try to find as many buyers as possible trust me if we find only one buyer that wants your house. He's going to want everything his way.

Yeah. And we don't know what kind of offer. We're going to get either. So the problem is is that when you're starting it too high you're eliminating a lot of possibilities for yourself yeah.

So i really think it would be my suggestion that we put the property if we're saying that yours is worth a million right that let's keep it at 1 million. And if and and the other thing is tom is that you know you're looking at your home is 4 000. Square feet right so right now that home with the total square footage of 4. 000 square feet at a million well once you get to 13 you're seeing the things jump up to like 6 000.

Square feet so you know you're you're competing with a whole different animal. So i you know i think that that's out of the room of your market. And i understand that you want to move in the same area. I mean if you're going to be moving to a home that's about 6 000.

Square feet what would you expect to pay for that yeah i guess i mean i kind of almost see it as a trade. But i just think my house is so much nicer you know they're going to say that kind of stuff let me go different direction. What if they say to you. But karen can't we just start high.

I mean i just like i hear all these people saying start low and then i'm just concerned that we price it you know you're saying if it's going to sell for a million. What you think i think it's worth way more you're in price at 950. What if i sell for 950. I feel like i've left 300 000.

On the table in my mind. Yeah. It's in your mind. Tom so let me tell you do you actually say that to people because i'm teeing you up with these lines.

So yeah okay all right i love that so as a matter of fact tom. This is the problem when you're over pricing. It the buyers that can really afford your home. They're not even getting a chance to see it because they would never expect you to be priced overpriced by 300 thousand dollars.

Okay so and realistically you know if someone's getting a loan on your house. We don't have a lot of cash buyers for that market yeah. But you know i don't think. It's gonna appraise either so we gotta.

I don't even have one comp to support that much less than three. So i you do have some nice things in it. But if you properly expose it with all this marketing that i do and we get it out there you can't underprice the home in this market. If i put your home on 300 000.

Under market. I can tell you right now. We will it'll look like a concert and people waiting to get into your house. So i'll make sure you get the highest price.

I will promise you that yeah so i feel like you've said some of these lines 100. If not a thousand times a lot of times. Yeah so so what have i not asked you that you get hit with a bunch. What if what what have i not asked you that you get hit with a bunch um.

I mean usually when i go on they either are the ones that that are thinking about not signing right away um. I'm very assumptive and when you do that it doesn't make people actually. It's kind of i love when you do the paperwork because i just don't know right no. But if you say are you ready to sign you're asking so if you just go straight to the um are you leaving are you going to be leaving these draperies in here.

They are absolutely beautiful okay are you gonna and then you start and they're like oh. My god i think we're i even had those the guy dude last week he says are we assigning. I said. I that's what i thought we were doing yeah.

Yeah yeah you know so yeah. I mean. That's like i love. That because i do believe fundamentally that that most people need to be led down the path yeah and no one's gonna do anything they don't want to do you want to mean so.

Let's be clear like it's not like they're like mesmerized like oh. We're listing our house and we didn't want to no. But they want to be led so if you are that charismatic and you show all this value. And you talk through price yeah.

Then you go to the paperwork and you're right. If you're like are you guys ready to sign there's just it's too easy to understand one agent. No you got all this experience. Sitting here in front and you want to interview.

One more person come on you need to start you need to get the deck stain let me start my marketing right so we can get this on next week. Right right you are such a rock star. Okay i wanted to do this show because we were literally at a mastermind here in dallas. And i was like carolyn you have to come with me right now.

The studio and then we have a whole bunch of our clients hanging out next door. So we're gonna run over there. But as we ramp on this uh should they follow you on instagram or on social. Absolutely instagram carol and young team on instagram and on facebook.

And you're in dc maryland. Like virginia. You're in a big like you cover a lot of territory and you're gonna be at the summit this year. And you're doing a live listing presentation from the stage ladies and gentlemen first time.

We've done that a while you're gonna bring all the 70s lives. I will bring them you are going to bedazzle people. It's going to be i can't even wait if you're coming to the summit or you're watching it virtually this one moment. I mean you you got a little taste of it here.

But that one moment to be able to watch that in 45 minutes. And we're going to make tom toole. The seller by the way. Oh my god actually it'll be good because he knows the objectives he's going to throw every objection yeah.

I love it i love it i can't even wait. He's going to be why didn't you ask me i'm the one that won the belt. I'm awesome well that was yeah that was a tie. I think you know i agree i agree i i know who i voted for actually it'll be great.

I think that'll be a lot of fun doing it with time yes all right well thank you so. Much for watching make sure you follow. Carolyn young. And if you've got questions you can reach out to her on her social channels.

As always like subscribe and ring that notification button. And if you haven't shared this content. If you got a friend who's like a veteran. The business who's like needs a little kickstart this could be the show for them to watch to just get a little charge.

Awesome thank you tom congratulations. We'll see you guys on the next show you.