ISSUE 11 | July 2024
41830 How Nancy Surak Built a Land Brokerage Business that Stays True to Her “Blue Jeans” Style Nancy Surak Shift Your Mindset and Raise Your Standards David Crabtree Tips for Viral Content Atiba de Souza
How American Home Prices Are Outpacing Inflation page 38 Data Insights
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In this July issue of Smart Agents magazine, we bring you inspiring stories and actionable strategies to help you excel in real estate. Nancy Surak, a top land broker in Florida, shares her strategies for managing emotionally charged land transactions and offers valuable advice for agents considering a switch to land brokerage. Our Swipe Files section this month includes a SWOT analysis inspired by Nancy Surak, a strategic tool to help you identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Use this analysis to pinpoint a lucrative niche and better target your marketing. Additionally, we take a head-on look at how home prices have been increasing at twice the rate of inflation, making homeownership increasingly challenging and putting pressure on real estate agents to level up their marketing and services to meet client needs. Get tips for viral content from Atiba de Souza, CEO of Client Attraction Pros, who explains how creating engaging video content can boost sales and visibility. David Crabtree of Home and Ranch Sotheby’s International Realty shares his three-step formula for success: prioritizing people, continual learning, and hard work. Plus, Michael Manrique of the Habit Guys offers strategies to overcome prospecting friction by forming effective habits. Join the conversation with your fellow Smart Agents on Instagram (@smartagents). We’d love to hear about your successes and insights!
Charles Curry SmartAgents
SWOT Analysis: How to Find Your Fit in the Real Estate Market 12 “Work Hard and Do Right by People” 4 Shift Your Mindset and Raise Your Standards 18 Mastering Prospecting Friction with Michael Manrique of the Habit Guys 24 How to Create Content That Increases Sales 30 How American Home Prices Are Outpacing Inflation 38
Nancy Surak
David Crabtree
Michael Manrique
Atiba de Souza
“Work Hard and Do Right by People” How Nancy Surak Built a Land Brokerage Business that Stays True to Her “Blue Jeans” Style
Nancy Surak is the Managing Broker and Senior Land Advisor for the Land Advisors Organization in the Tampa Bay region of Florida. Nancy was a guest on the Smart Agents podcast in 2022. Recently, Smart Agents magazine caught up with Nancy to discuss how her career of nearly two decades has continued to evolve since we last spoke with her. First, Nancy continues to “absolutely love” what she does and she especially “still loves working with landowners”—that said, Nancy notes that there have been significant changes in the industry in the last two years. Nancy shares with us her tips for handling emotionally charged land deals, often involving generational properties. Her approach to advising clients emphasizes stewardship and responsibility. Plus, if you’re a real estate agent considering a transition into land brokerage, Nancy’s story can offer helpful insights. She highlights the importance of thorough market research, a solid business plan, and understanding the long sales cycle.
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Nancy Surak
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How Nancy Got Her Start as a Land Broker In retrospect, Nancy describes her thinking process as “an evolution” that she credits to a combination of her dad’s constant encouragement to pursue a career in real estate and the education she received thanks to her former profession where she sold engineering products to developers and worked closely with architects and building contractors for almost 15 years. This proximity to the world of commercial real estate development gave Nancy an inside track where she was able to learn about the commercial side of the industry and the intricacies of how development deals are structured and come to fruition. Nancy shares that by the time she reached her mid-thirties, she realized that she “wanted something different” and although she knew she was “going to be taking a huge risk” she also recognized this was an area of expertise she was “super attracted to.” She needed to make a plan so she could
try her hand at what she felt would be a rich and rewarding career.
Though Nancy is highly educated and experienced in business and finance, she confides that it is the creative side of commercial development that she enjoys most: “I love the visioning that developers go through. When they see a piece of property; they can see what needs to be there.” Before she transitioned into her career as a land broker, Nancy often found herself looking at properties and envisioning what types of commercial development would be most beneficial in that area, even engaging her children, who were quite young at the time, asking them what they thought. As a land broker, Nancy feels she has found her calling because her success is based on a combination of her strong analytical skills and her need to be creative. As she puts it, “I’m very good at math. I know how to look at math equations and understand financial models. But I am also very attracted—on the other side of the brain—to create. And so,
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Getting to the Heart of Emotional Land Deals
for me ... it was an evolution of all of these things: what attracted me to the business and what keeps me going at a pretty regular pace. It’s firing on all of the things that I’m most passionate about.” Interestingly, when Nancy decided to go into real estate, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to specialize in, partly because there are so many areas a real estate professional can focus on. Then there’s land development, which Nancy loves. Often, she notes, “People don’t really want to get into land, it’s challenging and has an incredibly long sales cycle.” Nancy specializes in land “that is in the general path of growth within the next three to five years.” Sales commissions in land brokerage typically take between one to three years because of the complexities involved in closings. Before Nancy took the leap, she did her due diligence and interviewed several brokers she had networked. She asked open-ended questions to learn more from her network, such as: “Tell me about your job; what’s your typical day like? Tell me about the sales cycle. Why do you do this?” And though many of the people she spoke to advised her to go into office brokerage, an area where women tend to dominate, Nancy instinctively knew that wasn’t for her. Instead, she found herself being drawn to the front end of the deal. A huge part of the reason Nancy resisted going into office brokerage is she was honest with herself about what she knew would make her happiest in her new career. She sums it up this way: “I was like, I don’t think I want to do that. You know, I am a ‘blue jeans’ kind of person. I would say in 25 days of a working month, I’m in blue jeans 20 of those ... that’s where my comfort is. If I can be in a T-shirt and blue jeans, and a pair of boots or a pair of nice, hardy shoes like, that’s my jam.” The office life wasn’t for her, so Nancy followed a path where she could be comfortable showing up (and dressing) as herself.
Interestingly, as Nancy nears her 20th anniversary as a land broker, she admits that the adage, “We make plans and God laughs” has proven true for her. She chose to specialize in commercial land development in part because she did not want to deal with the emotion she saw involved in residential real estate, where buying a home was a very personal purchase and often the largest investment the buyer will ever make. In a twist she never saw coming, Nancy now knows that “The land brokerage part of my business has become incredibly emotionally charged and I have found the longer I do it, the more those are the clients that are attracted to me.” Since she is on the front end of the deal-making process, Nancy often finds herself dealing with transactions that involve land that has been in a family for generations. Naturally, in these cases, there’s “an incredible emotional tie to what they’re selling” and “an incredible amount of control from the grave.” These emotional pressures can create “psychological issues that can sometimes blind the seller” (or at least become an obstacle they have to overcome). In many cases “clients have inherited property or I’m dealing with a widow ... or the second generation, sometimes even the third generation.” Nancy finds herself fielding objections from family members who claim that the relative who has passed would object to the land being used for a particular development project. Nancy is there to provide support in advising clients in these circumstances, helping them to work through the emotions and confidently see themselves as stewards of the property. It helps to relieve some of the emotional pressure around these decisions. Nancy helps clients see that “they have a responsibility and an obligation to make the best decision they can make.”
Nancy also does “a lot of commercial land and it is more viewed as an investment.” These deals are less emotional and more practical, says Nancy. “Those clients, they’re there to get a deal done.” But she notes, “There is still way more emotion involved in transactions today than when I first started.” It turns out that emotion is an inevitable factor in land deals and not just tied to houses. “I didn’t want that. That’s why I didn’t do houses,” recalls Nancy. Now, her ability to navigate these difficult, highly-charged emotional deals is why people seek her out. When asked why she thinks emotion has entered into her specialty of land, Nancy reflects that there has probably always been an element of that in land deals and as she has gained expertise, “Other professionals and advisors to families that have larger tracts of land or multiple pieces of land that I’ve had an opportunity to work with in some capacity or who have heard my stories, or they know who I work with will seek me out to help their landowner.” As a result, Nancy finds she spends “a decent amount of time” getting pulled into the room by attorneys trying to help facilitate some activity. “I think as I’ve matured in my career,” she explains, “I’ve gotten the reputation for being able to really work with those types of people. I talked about wearing jeans as my jam.” The jeans are a symbol of her staying true to herself and showing up authentically. “I think that’s really my biggest differentiator: I can listen to multiple generations and help people achieve the goals that they’re trying to achieve and then communicate and ride both sides of the deal.” Nancy also attributes her success in these instances to having learned how to “hone in on the personal relationship with the client, understanding their goals, but also understanding the
why behind what their goals are, and that’s pretty unique in land brokerage.”
A Mama Bear’s Advice for Agents Thinking of Transitioning into Land
Nancy shares some valuable tips for real estate agents who may be thinking of transitioning from residential or another area of specialization into land and that it is to “really do your homework in whatever market you sit in because what you might find out is it’s a much harder part of the business to be in and that might not be a fit.” Looking back to when she made her career transition, Nancy admits, “I was a little naive, even though I had a business plan, I was quite naive thinking, Oh, yeah? Well, I’ll be able to do X dollars.” She points out that she was an experienced professional at the time and she had “no fear of cold calling” or working hard. Yet, she still believes she was naïve to a point and that may have been a good or bad thing, but she also admits, “I was also lucky.” Again, she emphasizes the importance of doing your homework, creating a business plan, and asking yourself hard questions such as, “Why do I want to do this? Is there another avenue for me to focus on in that side of the business? Is there a better fit?” She also recommends seriously considering the long sales cycle that is involved on the land or commercial side. Ask yourself how long it will be before you see your first commission and whether that is sustainable for you. Nancy maintains her “make sure you understand the market that you’re in and who’s in it, who the competitors are, and how you’re going to get those clients.” She did that homework when she was creating her business plan and she quickly realized, “Okay, I don’t look like other people in the business I interviewed
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when I honed in on land.” She recalls interviewing nine or 10 land brokers and meeting only one woman. Nancy recalls that at the time she thought being a woman in a male-dominated field would be a differentiator for her and believing, “People are going to talk to me because I don’t look like all my competitors. I got into some rooms because of that, but it didn’t always help me.” At this point in her career, Nancy is confident she has “figured out how to leverage that right.” She describes herself as a mama bear and she assures her clients, “I’m going to protect you.” Nancy acknowledges she has a “bit of a tough reputation” which she has earned by demanding that those who work with landholders she represents perform and do right by her clients. A big advocate of doing your homework and planning, Nancy advises using a SWOT analysis (a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to a business or personal endeavor). “Do that SWOT analysis and study well,” she says. You should know “who the leaders are and where the opportunity is in the market. In your business plan, ask yourself: What would my business look like when I start, what’s it going to look like in nine months, in 18 months, three years in, five years in—ask yourself what your goals are and if they are realistically achievable.” Nancy sums up her primary advice by saying, “Build your business case regardless of what you’re specializing in, understand who the competitors are, and what the market opportunity is. Key advice from Nancy is to: “differentiate yourself, work hard, and do right by people: Represent them well and that will always come back to serve you well!”
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She also encourages agents making a career change to remember to “celebrate every little win.” Amplifying the Voices of Women Leaders Inspired by her own trajectory as a woman in a male-dominated field, Nancy now hosts the podcast “She’s Wild”, where she talks with fellow female leaders to inspire and motivate more women to pursue careers like hers. So far, she has published four seasons of the podcast series. She is currently creating new recordings for the fifth season. Nancy says her work on the podcast has slowed somewhat because her business requires a lot of her attention, and finding guests and interviewing them can be time-consuming. She doesn’t do the podcast weekly, but instead records between eight to 10 episodes and then drops a new season. Nancy observes, “Frankly, there’s so many more women in my business now than there ever has been, which is fantastic. But everyone’s pretty busy. So, it’s also hard to get people to commit, to come on, and share their stories.” Nancy is still dedicated to the podcast, noting it is a great source of motivation: “There’s nothing better for me than to get a phone call out of the blue, an email out of the blue, a message on LinkedIn out of the blue from somebody I don’t know, another woman in another part of North America saying, I just discovered your podcast and I’ve been binge listening and I just want to thank you for doing this and for making it an important thing. That is super rewarding and super motivating.”
Asked if she sees herself as a thought leader, Nancy’s response is unequivocal, “Of course, 100% yeah. I’ve done speaking engagements on what I learned professionally and personally through that whole experience and how I’ve leveraged it with clients and prospective clients.” She asserts the podcast has “been a really remarkable way for me to expand my network across North America. I focus on the West Coast board. That’s where all my deals are. Sometimes I might have an owner who owns land here, but they might live in another state or another country. It’s been awesome for me to be able to pick up the phone and call someone that I interviewed in Canada, Minneapolis, Delaware, Arizona, or California and say something like, ‘Hey, I have just encountered somebody from your market, and I’d like for you to tell me more about this group. Or, hey I have reached this issue in a deal, and I just want to talk it through if you have a few minutes.’ People call me back immediately because I’ve developed a personal relationship with them by interviewing them and getting to know them on a more personal level. It’s been remarkable.” Another satisfying element of producing the podcast for Nancy has been the communication she has received from women she doesn’t know who will mention a certain guest she featured on an episode of the podcast and something they said, and listeners will ask her to help them connect with a guest. Nancy takes the time to facilitate that connection by reaching out to former guests and letting them know that a listener would like to speak with them. Nancy sees this as “paying that forward or building that legacy for people to help other people.” Nancy’s philosophy is “If I help one young woman or an older woman find motivation, a new contact, a new element of education it will all be worth it, and it happens all the time ... so, it’s very rewarding from that perspective.”
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SWOT Analysis: How to Find Your Fit in the Real Estate Market
A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to a business or personal endeavor. Nancy Surak used a SWOT analysis to help her identify her focus and build a successful land brokerage. It’s a tool that can help whenever considering a career change or a shift in focus. Conducting a thorough SWOT analysis can also prove invaluable when you are trying to identify a lucrative specialty or niche to focus on in real estate. Before you begin your SWOT analysis, you must first identify your goal. Define what you seek to accomplish by focusing on a specific niche or market.
Step 1: Determine Your Primary Goal Establish your main objective for selecting a niche. Are you aiming to increase your income, expand your client base, or leverage a particular skill set? Having a clear goal will guide your SWOT analysis and ensure it aligns with your overall business strategy.
Step 2: Complete Your SWOT Analysis Grid Create a SWOT grid by dividing a large whiteboard or piece of paper into four quadrants labeled Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Here's how to fill it out:
STRENGTH WEAKNESS OPPORTUNITIES THREATS Strengths List internal factors that give you an edge, such as unique skills, resources, or relationships. Example “Strong negotiation skills,” “Extensive network in senior communities. Weaknesses Note internal limitations or areas for improvement, such as lack of experience or resource constraints. Example “Limited experience with FSBO transactions,” “Need to improve digital marketing skills.” Opportunities Identify external factors that could benefit you, such as market trends, new technologies, or untapped niches. Example “Rising demand for downsizing services among seniors,” “New marketing tools for reaching divorced leads.” Threats List external challenges that could impact your success, such as economic downturns, increased competition, or regulatory changes. Example “High competition in the FSBO market,” “Potential changes in real estate laws affecting land use.”
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Step 3: Ask In-Depth Follow-Up Questions
Step 5: Identify Competitors and Challenges Identify your primary competitors and the challenges you might face in your chosen niche. Analyze their strengths and weaknesses and consider how you can offer superior value or unique services. This insight will help you position yourself effectively within the market. Step 6: Assess Opportunities for Growth Consider opportunities for contacts and growth in your new niche within your existing sphere of influence. Networking with professionals who specialize in related fields can open doors to new clients and partnerships. Identify potential collaborations that can enhance your market presence.
For each quadrant, ask yourself detailed questions to ensure a comprehensive analysis:
Strengths What additional resources can I leverage?
Weaknesses How can I address these weaknesses?
Opportunities How can I actively expand on opportunities?
Threats How can I mitigate these threats?
Step 4: Research Market Prospects
Investigate the prospects for your chosen niche within your market. Evaluate niches such as FSBOs (For Sale By Owners), divorced leads, expired listings, senior listings (downsizing), or other specialized areas. Understand the demand, market trends, and potential profitability of each niche.
Step 7: Develop Marketing Around Strengths
Step 8: Differentiate Yourself Find unique ways to stand out in your niche through exceptional customer service, specialized knowledge, or unique marketing strategies. This differentiation will be key to attracting and retaining clients. Consider these tactics: Personal Branding Develop a strong personal brand that reflects your strengths and speaks to your niche. Use consistent messaging across all platforms. Content Marketing Create content that addresses the specific pain points and interests of your niche. This could include blog posts, videos, webinars, and social media updates. Testimonials and Case Studies Use client testimonials and case studies to build credibility and showcase your success in the niche. Community Involvement Engage with local communities and organizations related to your niche to build relationships and increase visibility. By thoroughly completing your SWOT analysis and developing targeted marketing that minimizes your weaknesses and plays to your strengths, you will have a clear picture of how to best appeal to potential clients in your chosen niche.
Use your strengths to create targeted marketing strategies that speak directly to your niche. Highlight what sets you apart and tailor your message to address the specific needs and desires of your target audience. Use testimonials strategically and share stories of clients you’ve helped who were in similar situations as the target niche. For example: FSBOs Emphasize your strong negotiation skills and success in closing difficult deals. Divorced Leads Highlight your sensitivity and ability to handle emotionally charged situations. Expired Listings Showcase your innovative marketing techniques and fresh approach to selling properties. Senior Listings Focus on your extensive network and experience in helping seniors downsize smoothly.
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Shift Your Mindset and Raise Your Standards
David Crabtree Shares His Formula for Real Estate Success
Coming from a modest upbringing, David Crabtree, broker and owner of Home and Ranch Sotheby’s International Realty in California, says his initial approach to real estate was, “Hey, I’m going to get in this, and I’ll make a lot of money.” While he has undoubtedly achieved his initial goal in the field, he says it didn’t take long before his approach changed. Reflecting on his career, he believes achieving success takes only three things and that there is a mathematical formula anyone can apply to improve their lives and business. However, Crabtree’s wisdom extends beyond these thoughtful insights to the impressive mindsets apparent throughout his journey of bootstrapping his way to a better life.
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David Crabtree
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“I couldn’t really read when I graduated high school,” admits Crabtree, who helped financially support his family from a young age and struggled with multiple learning disabilities. While he received some post-secondary instruction, he says his mentors and experiences as a firefighter, working for the Youth Authority, among other jobs, were his real teachers.
Mindset Shift: Always Be Learning
Try to learn from every experience and apply that knowledge to work toward your goals. Have the mindset that every experience holds a lesson. Self-identifying as a “not very smart person,” Crabtree advocates for “[taking] the time to make yourself better.” He says, “When I met somebody that was the type of person that I wanted to be … I was like a barnacle. I latched myself onto them so fast.” From taking a pay cut in favor of a position where he could receive mentorship to attending every seminar that came his way, Crabtree prioritized learning. It wasn’t just about receiving instruction but also applying it. Crabtree identifies a lesson he learned at a seminar with Rick DeLuca, where DeLuca asked, “What are your goals?” Crabtree says he didn’t know. That inspired him to try to triple his annual transactions, which he did. However, the effort to meet that goal strained his well-being, so he evolved to focus on higher-ticket transactions. Crabtree’s approach to learning and applying his newly acquired knowledge demonstrates two of the three elements Crabtree says are key to fostering success. 1. Identify what you want to do 2. and how you will do it. Add in the third element—Crabtree’s mindset in applying what he’s learned—and you have a custom blueprint that will inevitably help you succeed. Crabtree sees it almost as a mathematical formula for success. It’s about consistently applying hard work over time.
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Time Hard Work Consistency
We’ve all had those days when we’d rather check out than lean in, to that Crabtree says, “raise your standards.” He explains that when setting a goal for himself, he is setting a personal standard, which can require a shift in behavior to meet. “If you just want a strategy, go to Barnes and Noble … you can go through row after row, and they’ll tell you how to be the best real estate agent, the best cook, best husband, best lawyer,” says Crabtree, “And they’ll tell you exactly what they did … If it was just knowing what to do step by step, the world would be filled with successful people, but it’s not.” It’s not just about knowing the steps, it’s about consistently putting those steps into action, and that often means raising the bar on what you are requiring of yourself. He adds, “The hardest thing you’ll do is raise your standards [and] the thing that’s harder than that is to maintain it.” According to Crabtree, when so many strive only to meet minimum requirements, this act alone will set you apart from the competition:
“When [people] see somebody that’s willing to work hard, put in the time, not looking for something for nothing … They look at you; their brows come up; [and they think] ‘Ah, this person is different. They will give you the time. They will give you the wisdom and the knowledge.” Many agents come to the field hoping to bypass a humble start, notes Crabtree, “They’ve got this vision of, ‘I am going to go sell the $50 million estate on the water.’ And it’s like, ‘I got news,’ you don’t get invited to that party. You have to earn your way in.” And here’s that final piece of Crabtree’s formula for success in action: the pivotal mindset shift that can help empower anyone to maximize their opportunities. He insists that if you are willing to follow the formula of “consistency over time and hard work,” you can eventually get that invite, but there are no shortcuts. Bonus: People First Having looked at Crabtree’s three steps to success, one more crucial idea is present in every stage of his career, from helping provide for his family and trading work for mentorship to how he works with clients today: putting people first. Capturing this perfectly, Crabtree says, “If you really want to succeed in this business, you’ll learn early on that you’re in the people business, and real estate’s the commodity that we trade in.”
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Mastering Prospecting Friction with Michael Manrique of the Habit Guys
Michael Manrique, co-founder of the Habit Guys, says, “[in] most industries, there’s one action that if you repeat again and again and again, [you’ll] get the same results. And for a real estate agent, it’s prospecting.” While wonderfully straightforward, prospecting can often be an agent’s biggest challenge. “A lot of realtors face what I like to call prospecting friction,” he says, explaining that prospecting friction manifests in three different ways. The first is not knowing what to say or who to connect with; the second is battling nerves; and the third is an inability to focus. While these pitfalls are common enough and can seem like a call for more discipline, Manrique says
it is a matter of working with your brain instead of against it, “we recommend using our internal mechanisms to maximize the one action that’s going to lead to every realtor’s success.” Said another way, we need to make prospecting a habit. According to Manrique, a habit is “an action you do automatically. Without thinking about it.” Scoffing at the idea that you can create a habit? Think of your morning cup of coffee, tying your shoes, or Manrique’s go-to example of brushing your teeth. He says, “You don’t think, ‘Am I confident enough today to brush my teeth?’ No, you just pick up your toothbrush [and] brush your teeth,” Manrique explains that prospecting can become that easy by using the behavioral and neuroscience behind forming a habit.
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Michael Manrique habitguys.com
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“This is where the rubber meets the road in real estate because conversion rates are so low … it could take you a hundred calls to have one conversation, depending on your market. And that one conversation might or might not lead to a deal.” On a brain level, having unmet expectations that your efforts will equal your results can lead to task avoidance, causing you to forever switch strategies, which keeps you in that state of friction, explains Manrique.
Understanding Why You Fail Part of the trouble with prospecting can be in our expectations. “Most of us, when we get out of high school or college … get a job [and] learn to be an employee,” things like a biweekly pay structure and the idea of being on and off the clock are two examples, but Manrique says the most important is “we learn is that our output is always returned with a result.” He says it’s crucial to understand that “not every action leads to the result that you want.” Why does this matter? Manrique says it’s because putting out effort with the expectations that you’ll receive matched returns and being met with rejection time and time again can wear on entrepreneurs, creating prospecting friction.
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Effectiveness Manrique says his next step with clients is to listen to their calls. “We get very skillful here on how to speak to prospects,” he says. The goal is to get very specific about the value you can bring to this prospect and ensure you’re effectively communicating that to them. Variety Once you’ve gotten consistent, expanded your duration, and honed your effectiveness, it’s time to add variety. Manrique suggests things like a follow-up system, purposefully staying in touch with past clients, and connecting with your sphere. “You have to have different lead sources based on how the market is shifting, [so] you can adapt readily and quickly,” Manrique says he hears from students often that they don’t have time to make 3 hours’ worth of calls, but he says that’s not the goal. The goal is to get comfortable enough making the calls that you can expand to other forms of prospecting.
Making the Habit Overcoming prospecting friction means sticking with a strategy long enough to make it a habit. Manrique says at Habit Guys, they “niche down on the steps to building a habit” and commit to it as the primary form of prospecting for 12 weeks. He approaches creating a habit in four phases: Consistency You’ve got to start by showing up. Manrique suggests committing to making one call at the same time every day, Monday through Friday. Over time, your number of calls will increase, but this first step is to expose yourself to the discomfort of prospecting, which requires training yourself just to show up. Duration According to Manrique, on average, most agents should spend up to three hours prospecting daily. While this depends on your market, this guidepost can help you set a goal to work up to incrementally. So, if your end goal is three hours and you’ve consistently been showing up for one call, can you see if you can stay present with prospecting, making call after call for thirty minutes?
Check Your Progress What is a new habit without a way to follow up and ensure it’s helping you move toward your version of success? “At the end of the day, you should consistently be comfortable having a conversation and prospecting,” says Manrique. He adds that it’s not about trying to create and constantly replicate perfect conditions that allow you to prospect. It is about getting so comfortable that prospecting is “not content or context- dependent.” In the way that you can brush your teeth or tie your shoes without looking, Manrique says, “You want to be able to see someone next to you, introduce yourself [and] have a conversation with them.” If you struggle to reach that level of comfortability, he suggests leaning on “the process of reciprocation [by] being curious about what they do” and leaving the space for them to ask you. Remember, it doesn’t have to lead to a sale. You’re just planting a seed and making a connection.
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How to Create Content That Increases Sales
with Atiba de Souza
Atiba de Souza is a video marketing expert and the CEO of Client Attraction Pros. Here, Atiba shares his top tips for creating videos that engage your target buyers by giving them the answers to their most commonly asked questions. Atiba explains how to create quality videos that will have you ranking in the coveted top Internet search spots. When asked how he got his start in video marketing, Atiba gives a surprising reply, “I backed into this world by accident, if you can believe that or not. Most people get into this because they went to film school, or they were some creative person. I actually was a techie. I’ve been in search since 1996, built my first search engine in 1996, and I’ve been doing stuff with helping businesses get ranked and found in search engines ever since.” In marketing today, Atiba maintains that “video is the hot thing in search. If you want to be found in a search engine, you’ve got to be producing video in 2024 and beyond.” Atiba describes himself as someone who “helps you shorten your sales cycle” and learn how to create quality videos and use them effectively “so you can be the real estate star that you need to be.”
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Atiba’s 9 Tips for High-Ranking Content
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Tip #1: Overcome your fear of video by
questions that people are asking ... Go to Google and do the searches as if you were a customer yourself. Once you do that, if you scroll about a third of the way down the page, you’ll see a section called people also asked. In this section, it will show you actual questions that people have typed into Google, related to the terms you put in the search bar.” Atiba urges you to use this information because you already know these are the questions people are searching for and want to know more about. So, “the next time you are showing a property, touring a property, or wanting to create a video about a property,” Atiba recommends using one of those frequently asked questions as the title of your video, and then as you show the house point out how this property answers the question posed. Tip #4: Work the answers to commonly asked questions naturally into your video presentation of the house you are looking to sell. Asked how best to answer top questions on video while sounding natural, Atiba suggests using voiceover narration as you show images from a tour of the home. If for example, you know potential buyers want to know about the local school district, as you are pointing out the key amenities the property offers, casually mention the strengths of the school system, if they rank high compared with other school systems in the area or the nation point that out and as Atiba calls it, “Blend it all together.” You do this by hitting on all the top things people want to know about the home and community and presenting it in a seamless pitch. Tip #5: Repeat the question you are answering multiple times. You want to do this thoughtfully, warns Atiba so you don’t come across as being overly repetitive. However,
“understanding what you love and what your audience loves ... that’s the biggest thing.” If you are a real estate agent who specializes in a certain niche, that’s what you should center your content around. You must talk about topics you know and feel passionate about advises Atiba. Otherwise, your videos will come across as phony or fake, turning an audience off quickly. Sticking to subjects you know and deal with daily will also help you feel more comfortable in front of the camera because you know you have a firm grasp of the facts. Tip #2: Know your audience and speak to their concerns. Like your other content, your video content should speak to the things homebuyers in your niche are looking for. Atiba gives the following example: if your audience is made up of people who love to cook outdoors and also generally have school-age children, then hearing about a neighborhood or properties that have a large outdoor entertaining space and are located within a great school district are key factors that will determine where they decide to buy. So, create video content that answers questions about those amenities they care about, and you enjoy talking about because those are the types of homes you specialize in selling. Tip #3: Use Google as a research resource to find out what buyers want to know. Atiba says it’s common sense to assume potential homebuyers are searching Google to find the types of homes they’re interested in buying and to learn more about the kinds of neighborhoods they want to live in. His advice to realtors? “That my friends, is what you need to look for so you can find the
Tip #7: Treat each video as if you are having a one-on-one conversation with a buyer. Don’t let your inexperience with video intimidate you. Start today! Atiba claims that once you get going, the backend customizations and extras you can add will come easily. Acknowledging that lots of people are nervous when they get on camera, Atiba says, “I get it.” It’s common to be nervous at first. The trick he says is to remember, “When you create a video, a video is a one-to-one medium, you’ve created it, and you’re talking to one person, only one person’s watching this video at a time. You’re talking to that one person. It’s no different than if they were standing right next to you looking at the house, asking you the questions.” Atiba admits that although he has been creating videos for 17 years, “To this day, I still pretend there is someone sitting on the other side of the camera that I’m talking to.” Tip #8: Shoot videos with your cell phone for a more genuine experience. Atiba believes the ability to shoot videos on your cell phone puts “the power ... right there in your hands.” He acknowledges that lighting does matter; you don’t want to shoot a room where the lighting is too poor for the audience to be able to see it. His point is that people prefer the authenticity that comes from a video they can tell you shot yourself compared to a high-production video that comes across as fake. “Your audience wants to connect with you,” Atiba declares, explaining that seeing you doing the video and talking directly to your audience helps establish that connection.
it is important that you repeat the question you are answering in the video multiple times, and you also have to mention the location, city, and state, where the property is located repeatedly. There are ways you can do this where it fits naturally into the video content. Simply use the question you are going to answer in the video as the title, then place the city and state where the home is located at the end of the title. When you write the video description, be sure to mention the city and state where the home is located multiple times along with the question you are answering in your video. Mentioning a particular city and state several times throughout the video, in the title, the video description, and what you say in the video itself, will cause your video to rank high and whenever someone searches that city and state, they will see your video pop up in their feed. Tip #6: When you post videos to YouTube, be sure to upload a transcript of your video. Atiba observes he gets a lot of feedback when he suggests this, with people asking, ‘Doesn’t YouTube have an auto transcribe feature, why not just use that?’ In response, Atiba says you can use that, but bear in mind that YouTube admits its transcribe feature is only “about 60% accurate, and you don’t get to choose which 40% it gets wrong.” So, although you may say all the right things, if the transcribe feature mistranslates a key point such as the location, as Atiba puts it, “you just wasted your time.” It’s better to upload your own transcript and make sure it’s correct. That way, Atiba notes, you “control what you’re saying” and ensure your messaging stays on point.
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Tip #9: Your video must start with a hook. It’s important to capture the viewer’s attention from the get-go because there’s a ton of content out there and people have short attention spans. The key is to have a hook, something that will grab their attention and make them want to see and hear more. Atiba warns against starting videos by reciting your bio because people don’t know you yet and you haven’t given them a reason to care yet. He proves his point by citing “an old axiom” he “learned from John Maxwell” and that is: “People don’t care how much until they know how much you care.” When you provide the answers to the questions they care about, that lets them know you care about the same things they do. Make the hook quick, catchy, and intriguing, because Atiba advises, “You’ve got about 10 seconds to deliver your hook. You have to capture the viewer’s attention right from the start, otherwise, they will keep scrolling. Once you have delivered that hook, immediately start delivering on your promise to answer the question posed. People have limited attention spans and want you to get right to the point. He also warns against using fake, clickbait titles. This angers and turns off an audience fast.”
Atiba’s advice is to come up with a catchy tagline that focuses on one of the key amenities the house offers. Then, he recommends you “do a quick introduction of yourself. When I say quick, I’m talking five seconds, usually your tagline or whatever it is ... then you give them a summary of what’s going to come.” He gives this example, “Hey, listen, I’ve got five things I got to tell you about this neighborhood in Clearwater that you’re going to want to hear, but I’ve also got a bonus number six that I’m going to share with you at the very end. So, make sure you stay till the very end.” Then you should go straight into your main presentation. An intro like this one tells people exactly what they can expect to learn from watching your video and it gives them an incentive to watch until the end. Atiba sums up the importance of video in today’s marketing game when he proclaims, “ ... the video revolution is here, and it’s time for you to get in the game. It’s time. You have an unprecedented opportunity right now.” There is a constant need for quality online video content that Google is eager to fill. This allows video creators to rank at the top of the page more quickly than they could have in the past 15 years. Atiba’s message is clear: Learn to harness the power of video and take advantage of it while it’s hot.
Have a Fear of Public Speaking? 6 Tips for Overcoming it.
If you have a fear of public speaking, that can make it difficult to get out there and start creating video content. Here are some tips you can use to put yourself at ease and learn to not only speak comfortably in front of an audience but also deliver an engaging experience that builds an audience who keeps coming back for more.
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Know your stuff. If you have done your research, checked, and rechecked your facts, you know you have the knowledge to deliver the message. Having confidence in what you are about to say will translate into confidently saying it. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Practice your delivery so you know when you want to pause for emphasis and to give you a chance to practice saying a word or phrase that may be difficult to pronounce. Check your equipment. If you are making your first cell phone video to post online, check and make sure your camera is in working order, facing the right way and all systems are ready to go (You don’t want to start off frustrated because of a technical issue, this will only make you more nervous). When you know everything is in order and all you need to do is point and start recording, you give yourself one less thing to worry about. Use the power of visualization. Picture yourself going through every point of your presentation and delivering it just as you intended. Think positively and this will help alleviate any anxiety you may be feeling. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Remember things that seem big to you won’t affect your audience in the same way. Only you know how you pictured the presentation going, so don’t let a small misstep throw you off track. You can always edit the video or do another take! Congratulate yourself! It takes courage to confront your fears and refuse to let them hold you back from advancing your career!
How American Home Prices Are Outpacing Inflation
If it seems home purchases have become unattainable for many Americans, you’re not alone in your thinking—and you’re not wrong. According to a recent analysis by Clever Real Estate, home prices have been outpacing inflation for quite a while, and the rate of home price increases has been double the rate of inflation for the past ten years. The Data Summarized In a recent article compiling data and insights from sources including Zillow, Freddie Mac, the Federal Reserve, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the U.S. Census, Clever Real Estate examined home price trends and inflation impacts over time. The results showed the rate of inflation rose 31% since 2013, while home prices rose a whopping 63% in the same time period. That means in ten years, the average home price climbed from $264,800 to $431,000. That’s a huge increase in less than a generation. While this is striking growth, we all know peaks and valleys in the economy, and the real estate market, are nothing new. Plus, we’ve had some extraordinary circumstances with the pandemic during that time period. However, even if we take
a broader scope, the results are much the same. For example, let’s go back sixty years. The average rate of inflation has risen 10% since 1963, while home prices are 24 times more expensive. Clever’s report puts it into perspective, saying, “$20,000 worth of assorted goods in 1963 would cost $200,000 today—but a $20,000 house in 1963 would cost $480,000 today.” It’s no wonder today’s home buyers are feeling like ownership is out of their grasp. In a recent survey, 73% of the 1,000 Americans who participated told Clever they felt home prices were “unattainably high.” But the price of houses is only one part of the equation. We also have the issue of whether wages are keeping up with inflation and home prices. The answer is no. In 1985, a home cost the equivalent of 3.5 years of median household income. In contrast, today’s generation needs to cough up about 6.3 years of medium income to afford a home. The study put this into context, reporting,
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“For homes to be as affordable today as they were in 1985, the median household would need to earn $134,000 per year— nearly double the actual median of $74,580.” A Chat with a Market Analyst We dug into several aspects of the research and talked with Trent Seigfried, data analyst with Clever Real Estate. The data confirms that housing prices have climbed at an exponential rate, so we asked Trent what he found most surprising about the research results. He responded, “If home price growth kept pace with the growth in other prices such as food and energy since 1963, the median American home would cost only $177,511 today, compared to the $431,000 it actually costs, according to Federal Reserve data. That would mean homes would be affordable to a much larger percentage of the American public, and almost all households would have access to, at the very least, starter homes. If we use the thumbnail of a 2.6 times annual household income multiplier, the median household income today (roughly $74,000) would be able to afford the typical home with money to spare.” Supply and Demand There are many factors that go into inflation in general, and the housing market in particular. Supply and demand sets pricing, and that means significant leverage for buyers or sellers, depending on where the market stands. The analysis looked at major markets throughout the United States to get a better idea of how inflation
has contributed to the challenges buyers are facing. It found some outliers, such as Hawaii, whose average home price has quadrupled since 2000, with a 309% increase. On the other end of the spectrum, Louisiana is more affordable, yet has still seen an 86% increase. For agents, buyers, and sellers, that means a house that sold for $203,000 in Hawaii 24 years ago, would now be valued at over $831K. In Louisiana, the associated values averaged $104K versus today’s $194K. Trent says, “For areas where supply and demand are at least somewhat in balance, I would point to the metros we evaluated that have seen the smallest property value increase since 2000. These would include Cleveland (78% home value growth since 2000), New Orleans (78% growth), and Detroit (83% growth).” Investment Properties While much of this research is focused on the ability to afford even a starter home, investment properties are a key component to market fluctuations—and a hotly disputed topic within the industry. Investors who buy up properties to use as leased office space, monthly rentals, or short-term vacation rentals can reduce availability for other potential buyers. While these investors are still impacted by supply and demand, as well as interest rates, they often have more cash at their disposal. They may also use existing properties as a tool against inflation by raising rents and/or selling off properties with a jump in value. In some areas, local governments are cracking down on the number of rentals, but investment buyers aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Trent reports, “For an upcoming study on short-term rentals, we’re partnering with Rabbu to identify metro areas where there is a strong investment potential. One aspect that was surprising
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