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REAL ESTATE MAVERICKS :: We Take the Old Guard Off Guard © 2010 2015 Gregy Hague. All Rights Reserved. REAL ESTATE MAVERICK | [email protected] REAL ESTATE MAVERICKS :: We Take the Old Guard Off Guard I LISTED 10 HOMES IN A ROW WITH THIS ONE SENTENCE! The Maverick Way by Greg Hague I know what you’re thinking; BS, not true. Respectfully you’re wrong. It really does work. One sentence. Six words. I was new in the business, with no experience and no reputation. Once I figured out those six words, I listed 10 homes in a row. Caution, if you already have lots of listings and a big name in the business, you can stop reading. You don't need this. A Brief Backstory I grew up in real estate. My dad owned a large brokerage in Cincinnati, Ohio. He taught me from an early age that listings are everything. Unlike buyers, sellers give you product to sell, high dollar inventory you don't have to pay for. And, you don't need a warehouse to keep it or a storefront to sell it. I have always seen the real estate business in a way many don't. It was never as much about selling homes as stocking salable inventory. Think of it as the difference between being Amazon or an Amazon affiliate. Affiliates follow Amazon’s rules and are paid what Amazon dictates. In real estate, I was determined to be a product controller, not a product slave. © 2010 2015 Gregy Hague. All Rights Reserved. REAL ESTATE MAVERICK | [email protected] REAL ESTATE MAVERICKS :: We Take the Old Guard Off Guard Rejection is Rough When I first started selling real estate, I ran into the same roadblock most do; no one would list with me. I even had an advantage most don’t. Since my dad owned the firm, I would infer that I could deliver extra ads and special treatment. Even that didn't work. No one wanted to trust the sale of their home to a young, wetbehind theears agent who had never sold a home. I couldn't blame them. I wouldn’t. Day after day, I pondered the question. What could I do, what could I say, to make sellers want to list with me? I was determined to figure it out. Then it came to me! It was inspired by the lesson I described in my LinkedIn post, "How a Preacher Struck it Rich" So simple, it was just one sentence, “ Make every agent your listing agent .” Greenasgrass me 35+ years ago Make Every Agent Your Listing Agent My epiphany was to cobroke my entire commission . I decided to pay any agent who sold my listings my full 7% commission instead of the typical 3% (that was back in the day when 7%, not 6% was the norm the listing agent kept 4% and paid 3% to the selling agent). If I sold my own listing, I earned the 7%. If another agent sold it, he or she earned the entire 7% commission (instead of the typical 3% cobroke). It worked magnificently. Sellers loved it. I explained that it was like “making every agent their listing agent.” I told sellers that if they listed with me, every agent in town would have a huge incentive to sell their home over all others because they would earn more than twice the commission. Agents would actually earn the same commission as if they sold one of their own listings, but they would only have to do half the work . As you might guess, every single seller said yes . I had gone from zero to hero. I listed the next 10 homes in a row. At first blush you’re probably thinking, “This guy is a nut job. Why would any sane person do that?” Hang in there. Here was my reasoning: 1. These were listings I would never have had. So what if I didn’t earn a dime when they sold? I wasn’t going to earn anything on them anyway. 2. I hoped some of the sellers might buy from me when their homes sold. (I was 100% right... they all did except two who moved out of town. I referred them to an agent in their new city and earned a referral fee). 3. I’d gain valuable handson experience working with buyers and sellers, negotiating contracts and learning the nuances of selling real estate. © 2010 2015 Gregy Hague. All Rights Reserved. REAL ESTATE MAVERICK | [email protected] REAL ESTATE MAVERICKS :: We Take the Old Guard Off Guard 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. I would have 10 signs in 10 front yards promoting my personal brand in the neighborhood. (As I suspected, the marketing attracted buyers, several of whom bought homes from me.) It turns several of the buyers attracted by my signs and ads loved my program and listed their homes with me. My growing image in the community impressed other prospective sellers who eventually listed with me. I thought, heck, maybe I’d even sell one or more of my own listings and earn the entire 7%. (Turns out I did. Only one, but it was a commission I would never have had.) I figured this would give me street cred in the real estate community. It worked. The other agents couldn’t figure me out (and probably thought I was nuts,). But, I was a popular guy among agents with buyers because I was the only agent paying his entire commission to whomever sold my listed homes. Those ten listings established me “in the business.” My Awakening That one sentence, “make every agent your listing agent,” earned me over $100,000 my first year in the business. This was over 35 years ago, when $100K was an awesome amount of money. (I bought a new HarleyDavidson motorcycle for $3900. It would be $17,000 today.) But that isn’t really the big point. What happened gave me a much bigger idea. I learned not to focus on selling “me” as so many other agents do (how good I am and how hard I’ll work.) I took my emphasis off of constantly saying “I’m better, I'm better, I'm better," like everyone else (which few believe because everyone says it.) Instead, I decided to repeatedly come up with nontraditional programs that took traditional agents off balance, programs sellers simply could not resist. I’ve done that for 35 years. It's what I call finding "gaps in the herd"... looking for opportunities that exist because people tend to get stuck in a rut doing the same things day after day like there is no other way. Bottom line: It’s made me a fortune. Would you like a 'Better Approach to the Business of Real Estate? © 2010 2015 Gregy Hague. All Rights Reserved. REAL ESTATE MAVERICK | [email protected]
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