S4 E7: HOW TO BE A BIG FISH IN A SMALL POND

Ren Jones (00:00):
Welcome to Roadmap: How to Take Three Listings a Week Until You’re Ready for More. Each week we interview a great agent who is consistently taking several listings each month, and we have an exciting guest today.

(00:11):
We encourage you to take notes and apply as much of the knowledge as quickly as you can, and then use the copycat principle. If you’re watching on Vulcan7, or the Lead Gen Facebook Group, you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions during the broadcast. Get the questions in early, folks.

(00:27):
Let me introduce my co-host from San Diego, Carley Hathaway. That’s CarleyHathaway.com. Hi Carly, how’s the real estate business?

Carley Hathaway (00:37):
Hi, Ren. Hi, everybody. Real estate’s great. Really good time to be a listing agent. We have lots of expireds the last couple months, so it’s going really good.

Ren Jones (00:46):
Nice. Now we’re getting into high tide again where there are a lot of expireds.

Carley Hathaway (00:50):
So many. It’s crazy. I’m getting tons every day.

Ren Jones (00:54):
It is this time of the year right now. We just came off a low tide a couple months ago, so they get more and more and more. So before I introduce our guest today, I want to remind everyone that we are also simulcasting the show on the private Lead Gen Group on Facebook.

(01:08):
They have over 51,000 members, so we have a large audience there today as well. We’ll be pausing for a commercial message during the show as a thank you to the Lead Gen folks.

(01:20):
Let’s welcome our guest today from Jackson, Michigan. Jackson, Michigan. An expert in Irish Hills, if you’ve ever been to Irish Hills up there. Beautiful area. Mr. Tim Creech.

(01:34):
Welcome, Tim.

Tim Creech (01:36):
Hey, thank you very much, Ren. It’s great to be here today.

Ren Jones (01:38):
Glad you can be here. And we hope to learn a lot and get some great ideas.

Tim Creech (01:46):
Hopefully. I learn every week. I’m a big fan of Vulcan7 and never miss an episode of the show, so it’s a thrill to be able to participate today.

Ren Jones (01:54):
Good. I’m glad you could be the guest and that’s a wonderful thing. So if they have… Are there any other adjacent cities that we should know about? Because we want to send people to you.

Tim Creech (02:07):
Yeah, if anybody’s interested in where is the Irish Hills of Michigan or Jackson, if you happen to be a NASCAR fan, one of our biggest claims to fame… I’m in a small town called Brooklyn. We have 52 different freshwater lakes that are all within a couple of miles of one another, and we’re right by the Michigan International Speedway, of which we call affectionately MIS.

(02:28):
If you’re a big NASCAR fan, you’re familiar with that. We’re about 45 minutes west of the University of Michigan. We’re about 45 minutes south of Michigan State University. So, no matter which of the big 10 schools you happen to root for, we’re pretty close to them. I’m actually a graduate from the University of Wisconsin myself, so Go Badgers.

Ren Jones (02:47):
Gotcha. There you go.

Carley Hathaway (02:47):
Awesome.

Ren Jones (02:50):
And a beautiful part of the world too, except February.

Tim Creech (02:54):
Small market, though. We’re a very small market. Our average sale price here is around $150,000 right now. When we got into the height of recession in Jackson County where I live, our average sale price was down to about $93,000.

Ren Jones (03:07):
Oh, my goodness.

Tim Creech (03:08):
We fought our way back from that.

Ren Jones (03:10):
You’re working the upper end though, right?

Tim Creech (03:12):
I try to do a lot of the lake homes if I can.

Ren Jones (03:13):
Well, you got 52 lakes. There’s bound to be a lot of lakefront property.

Tim Creech (03:22):
Yep.

Ren Jones (03:22):
Wonderful. That is great. What’s the best way to reach you?

Tim Creech (03:27):
Well, the best way to get ahold of me, just give me a call on my cell phone. That would be (517) 612-9735. Or you could always email me. My email is my name, TimCreechHelpedMe@gmail.com. So, TimCreechHelpedMe@gmail.com. I’ll be happy to help with any questions or any ideas.

(03:46):
Anybody that’d like to share, please feel free to get a hold of me.

Ren Jones (03:49):
Perfect. Good.

Carley Hathaway (03:50):
Awesome. Thank you.

Ren Jones (03:51):
Wonderful.

Carley Hathaway (03:52):
So, what is your goal this year?

Tim Creech (03:55):
Well, we actually are trying to do 90 transactions. This has been a weird year for us, though. We’ve actually had nine deals that… Totally coincidental, but we had nine different deals that have fallen apart, so we’re a little off of our goals.

(04:08):
Looks like we’re tracking more to be around probably 75 for the year. But our original was to try to do 90. We did 65 last year, 50 the year before that.

Ren Jones (04:20):
How long you been in the business?

Tim Creech (04:21):
Six years. This is my sixth year in business.

Ren Jones (04:23):
Well, good for you. If you can hit a number like 75 in six years in the business, then that that’s a tremendous amount of money.

Carley Hathaway (04:31):
Yeah.

Tim Creech (04:32):
It makes a really big difference. I actually was a banker most of my life. I ran banks. I was the executive vice president of my bank when it got bought out. And I actually took a bank president’s job for a short period of time in a different area of the state that didn’t work out with my family.

(04:48):
So I came back to the Jackson area and actually moved away from where I’d worked most of my life because it was a better, I thought, a better price point area and reestablished myself. So I started a new career in a new area where people didn’t know me. I just started building out my business from there.

(05:04):
So I tell you, I actually make more money and I have a lot more fun now than when I was running the bank.

Ren Jones (05:10):
Yeah, no doubt.

Carley Hathaway (05:12):
Good for you.

Ren Jones (05:12):
Anyway you look at it, if you have six or seven sales folks, a month? Life is good. Life is very, very good. And hopefully we’ll get some tips and techniques. I’m anxious to… Are you working 24/7 or do you have it down to a wonderful life?

Tim Creech (05:28):
That’s funny you’d ask that question, Ren. One of the biggest things that I learned… I got into coaching and I just want to, if that’s okay hopefully, I give a shout-out to my coach, which is Mike Ferry.

Ren Jones (05:38):
Oh, okay.

Tim Creech (05:38):
Tremendous coach. I work with Carol Turner. But one of the biggest things I’ve learned from coaching is to set standards of what you’ll do or not do or what is acceptable or not acceptable. That’s made a huge impact on how I’ve done my business.

Ren Jones (05:53):
Okay. So yeah, you’ve got a roadmap. You have a plan you’re following, a very strict system. Good, good. Well, what’s a typical day? What’s a typical week?

Tim Creech (06:04):
Well, I dropped my kids off. I have three kids. I’m a little bit older, but I have younger children, so I drop my kids off for school at about 7:30, which puts me into my office usually a little bit before eight o’clock.

(06:16):
I’m normally the first one in my office. I’m on the phone role-playing or prospecting by eight o’clock every day. So I’m in a role-play group. If anybody’s interested in getting into that, you could feel free to give me an email or phone call and I could get you in touch with a role-play group that we have.

(06:32):
But I’m role-playing, depending on who my partner is-

Ren Jones (06:35):
Now they’re all going to want to remember your email address.

Tim Creech (06:38):
… We could give it later on, I guess.

Ren Jones (06:39):
Yeah. Go ahead.

Tim Creech (06:43):
TimCreachHelpedMe@gmail.com.

Ren Jones (06:45):
Great. They’re a role-play group folks. There you go. Okay, good deal. Go ahead.

Tim Creech (06:48):
Makes a huge difference. And then as soon as I get done with role-play… I role-play for about a half hour and then I’m on the phone. I’m usually calling, depending on what day of the week it is, we start off trying to do expireds.

(06:59):
In the area of the state where I’m at lately we’ve had… It’s starting to come back, but for the last year or so, we’ve had virtually zero expireds. So we call those, we call for sale by owners, we do just listed, just solds, past clients, centers of influence, and follow up with different kinds of leads that we’ve generated.

(07:17):
And usually I try to prospect. I don’t do it as long as my coach would tell me I should, but I try to be on the phone for an hour and a half to two every day.

Ren Jones (07:24):
Hour and a half to two every day, we’ll give you six or seven transactions a month. And think how many people are doing eight or nine a year. So, that’s fantastic. Good.

Tim Creech (07:34):
Thank you. Yeah.

Carley Hathaway (07:36):
And how important… So you’ve been calling expireds and FSBOs for a good amount of time now. How important is the role-playing? Because in my opinion, you probably have it internalized, you have it down.

Tim Creech (07:47):
Yeah, I feel really comfortable when I do it. When I didn’t… A couple of years ago when I wasn’t role-playing regularly, I didn’t feel very comfortable or confident. And now I don’t have any problem picking the phone up and doing that calling. I think it’s an old phrase that you’ll hear that if you have education or knowledge, then you’re, you’re going to be comfortable and fear is going to be bred out of ignorance.

(08:09):
So when you can overcome that ignorance from that lack of knowledge, you get it rid of the fear and it’s just amazing how it’ll help you on the phone. Because I think people feel it. When you’re comfortable with what you’re going to say. They feel it on the phone.

Ren Jones (08:23):
Oh, my gosh. Tonality is everything.

Carley Hathaway (08:26):
Mm-hmm.

Ren Jones (08:27):
Think about when all of us out here, when we’ve gotten a call, a solicitation of some sort or another, and the tonality was either… There was no connection, and then we want to hang up. So if you’ve got that-

Tim Creech (08:41):
Yeah, absolutely.

Ren Jones (08:42):
… If there’s openats in your tone… Pardon?

Tim Creech (08:46):
Sorry.

Ren Jones (08:47):
Go ahead.

Tim Creech (08:48):
They know if you’re a robo-dialer, that robotic scripty kind of person, or if you’ve integrated your role-play enough that you can just take it right off the top of your head and do it, that they feel that too.

Ren Jones (08:58):
Yeah. The rule was it’s not the script that’s offensive, it’s the poor use of a script is at fault.

Tim Creech (09:04):
Yes.

Carley Hathaway (09:06):
Oh yeah, definitely. And too, there’s only what? A certain number of objections. It’s all the same four or five objections, so once you get those down, you’re good to go. You’re not going to be caught off guard or stuttering or anything like that. Right?

Tim Creech (09:18):
Right. Absolutely. Yeah. I actually role-played with a gentleman that he’s been an agent for 15 years. He’s in a smaller market, similar to where I am.

Ren Jones (09:28):
Smaller than yours?

Tim Creech (09:30):
Well, similar. Similar, yeah. And it was interesting because when we started role-playing, we got halfway through a script and he stopped and he said, “You know what? I need to practice this more. I just don’t feel comfortable with what I’m doing.”

(09:40):
And he’s been an agent for 15 years, but he just recently started doing role-play.

Ren Jones (09:46):
Right. All right. Well… The only way to get to be predictable and duplicative of business. If you’re winging it, you’re winging it.

Tim Creech (09:54):
Yeah. I think that’s made a huge impact for me. When I got into coaching just a few years back, I wasn’t even doing half the volume that I’m doing. To put things in perspective, in 2012 when I got in the business was not really a very good time to get in. I did 19 transactions my first year, which I tied for Rookie of the Year in here in my office.

(10:15):
But still, at the sale price we had at that time, you weren’t really going to make any bank, so to speak, at that. I knew I had to get better, so I started looking for a system that could help me be replicatable and duplicatable and that led me to a really good coaching program.

Ren Jones (10:31):
And then you delegate, you have an assistant?

Tim Creech (10:33):
I do. And it’s kind of funny. During the day I am the boss. I know she’s going to watch this show, so I am the boss during the day. At nighttime, my assistant kind of flips roles around. My assistant’s actually my wife.

(10:46):
She was a banker, too, and I got busy enough about a year and a half or so ago, I said, “Yeah, I’ve got to hire an assistant.” I had done 50 transactions. I was on my way to do 65 last year. Put an ad on Indeed for three days. I was looking for a part-time assistant at 12 bucks an hour. I literally got 96 applications in three days.

Carley Hathaway (11:06):
Oh, my gosh.

Tim Creech (11:07):
So the next thing you know, long story short, my now wife said, “Hey, what if I get out of banking? I’ll quit my job, I’ll get my license, and I’ll come work with you. And so, we do this full-time for our family and it’s been such a blessing because we never miss an event that our kids have. If they have a choir practice, band practice, baseball…

(11:28):
I coach my son’s little league team. This job, although we do a lot of transactions, we are able to balance the schedule in a way that just works.

Ren Jones (11:38):
Can I bring up something? I don’t even bring this up, but this is kind of important. You’re selling. Your wife is acting as the administrator, the closer?

Tim Creech (11:49):
Right. Correct.

Ren Jones (11:51):
She left banking. Came in. What would happen if she sold? She worked with either the buyers or she worked with getting more listings and you refer out the buyers or whatever it may be. What if she was on the selling piece and not as an admin?

Tim Creech (12:11):
Yeah. We’re actually doing that.

Ren Jones (12:12):
I have three or four reasons. One, obviously, is income. But number two, let’s say you guys want to take a nice trip somewhere to Italy. Guess what? If you leave and the admin leaves, it’s not easy.

Tim Creech (12:27):
No. And that’s one of the challenges we have. We’re actually in the process now where she’s working with buyers. And in working with the buyers, I generally try to focus on the listing side, but I still work some buyers, too. And we’re trying to continue to grow big enough to where we can hire another admin person so that we can take that trip to Italy and not have to worry about being gone.

(12:48):
But here’s a really cool thing. When you grow your business and you’ve got some systems and some standards about what you do… If anybody’s familiar with Traverse City, it’s in the northern part of Michigan.

Ren Jones (12:58):
Yeah.

Tim Creech (12:59):
They grow some amazing wine up there, because it’s on the same parallel as some of the great vineyards of France and Germany. So we get up there regularly. I’ve actually, the last two years in a row now, I’ve done transactions where I bottom line deals as a listing and as a buying agent, while I’ve been sitting in a tent working on the internet in Traverse City and people didn’t even know I was out of town. It’s the coolest thing.

Carley Hathaway (13:20):
Love it. Love it.

Ren Jones (13:20):
I know that could be a lot of fun.

Carley Hathaway (13:22):
Love technology.

Ren Jones (13:24):
On that thing though. If you bring her into the business… I’ve watched this so many times where either the wife or the husband is the admin and they bring them into the business and they hire an admin, they bring them into the sales side of the business.

(13:37):
All of a sudden, instead of you having household income of what? 325 or wherever you are now, 350, all of a sudden you’re at five or 600,000.

(13:48):
And you guys can get away easier. Give that some serious consideration.

Tim Creech (13:54):
We definitely will.

Ren Jones (13:56):
You’ll be glad you did. You’ll be glad you did.

Carley Hathaway (13:58):
Sounds like a good plan.

Ren Jones (13:59):
Can be a dramatic difference. Dramatic.

Carley Hathaway (14:02):
Yeah.

(14:02):
So Tim, I’m guessing you’re going on all the listing appointments. What’s your batting average?

Tim Creech (14:08):
I’m running at about 77 to 78% of my appointments to listings taken. But one of the things that ties back into that, I’ve had two or three this year where I’ve went out and met with them. And one of the standard lines that I’ll talk with folks is… And when I sit down, is to say three things can happen today. You may decide to list your home with me, you may decide not to list your home with me, or I may decide not to take your listing. And any of those three is okay.

(14:36):
And I’ve actually had at least three different appointments this year where I got up and said, “I really appreciate you letting me come out to your home, but I don’t think this is going to be the right fit for me,” and I passed on the listing.

(14:47):
That still counts as towards my total, so I’m running about 77.7%.

Carley Hathaway (14:51):
But passing on those listings was probably the best decision you ever made, right?

Tim Creech (14:57):
Honestly, I think so. Because when I go out, as part of the standards that I have, if somebody has got a listing that I feel is dramatically overpriced for our market, I really don’t want to spend the time on that because it’s ultimately going to impact how I look as an agent. If I list your house for something dramatically over the market, I’m wasting my time, I’m wasting their time. They’re ultimately going to be frustrated because why is it my home selling?

(15:22):
I’d rather have an honest conversation and say, at this time I don’t think you’re wanting to put it at a price that’s going to cause it to sell. Maybe it would be better if you work with a different agent.

(15:30):
I had one couple that I said, if you really insist on listing it at the giving price you want, can I ask you to please invest the money to get a state licensed appraiser to come in and actually appraise your home? And that’s a neutral party that’s not trying to sell you anything, and let them show you that your home really should be at X amount, not up here.

Ren Jones (15:50):
Yeah, because they’re going to be there anyway unless their buyer pays cash. They’re going to be faced with an appraisal issue.

Tim Creech (15:57):
Yeah, most of the time cash buyers end up wanting to get that re-verified by getting an appraisal oftentimes in my market anyway.

Ren Jones (16:04):
Yeah.

Tim Creech (16:04):
Ironically, they did. That particular client did list their property with another agent that put it at the high price that they wanted. They’re about five months into that listing contract, and it’s still at that price point. So I’m looking at it thinking, okay, I only need about another 30 days or so and I’ll get a shot at them again.

Carley Hathaway (16:21):
Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s a really-

Ren Jones (16:23):
Then you have some investment property up that way, based on your price point. Are there are people that come in from out of your market that buy investment property there a lot?

Tim Creech (16:31):
There definitely is, especially around the lake properties that we have. So many of them have been converted from being a cottage-y kind of atmosphere to being a true year-round home. We have some people that are doing the Airbnb thing, where they’re-

Ren Jones (16:43):
Ah.

Tim Creech (16:43):
… Making investment off that. We actually have some true investment property in our area, and with the price point that we have, coupled with the income that those have generated, we’re starting to see some out-of-state investors come in and buy them. We have a group from Hawaii, for example, that’s been buying heavily in Jackson lately, because it hits the matrix that they’ve established for their target price point.

Ren Jones (17:05):
And are you buying property?

Tim Creech (17:08):
We’re actually looking at buying a commercial property right now. We have a lake house that we had bought that we rent out, and I need to get more active in doing that for sure.

Ren Jones (17:17):
Yeah, there you go. So bringing your wife into sales, take that up to six, 700,000 and then buy one house a month.

Tim Creech (17:24):
That sounds like a pretty good strategy. I make sure I’ll keep watching this show, and I’m sure that’s going to happen because I know that’s been one of the things that’s helped me increase my productivity is getting the mindset by just watching what other high performing agents are doing, and using that as a tool to say, well, gosh. If they could do it, if Bernie’s doing this, or if Kathy Welch is doing this, or some of the other fine people you’ve had on the show, is they are doing these kinds of things, why can’t I do it?

Carley Hathaway (17:50):
… Completely. Yeah.

Ren Jones (17:52):
As you were saying before the show started, it’s all in our mindset. So how do you… Because you face a lot of rejection every day, how do you strengthen your mindset?

Tim Creech (18:03):
I read a lot every night. I always like to listen to different kinds of podcasts. I do listen a lot to Mike Fairy information. I’m a spiritual person. I actually like to listen to some different scripture things. I’m a Christian person, so I listened a lot that direction and I try to just keep myself focused that way.

(18:21):
And that just helps me get grounded. Initially, to be honest with you though, it was a struggle because if you don’t feel comfortable with what to say on the phone, you’re more likely to have a bad outcome when you’re making cold calls. Just listed calls used to scare the daylights out of me, because I didn’t really know what to say.

Carley Hathaway (18:37):
Yeah.

Tim Creech (18:38):
And that’s tough.

Ren Jones (18:40):
Yeah. What is that script? Hey, you want to sell your house?

Tim Creech (18:43):
Yeah.

(18:44):
Hey, I just listed your neighbor’s home. And they’d be like, “So what?”

(18:47):
“So, don’t you want to list yours, too?”

(18:51):
“No.”

Carley Hathaway (18:53):
Okay, so the mindset’s there. Just what do you do if you’re in the middle of an expired call and you just got someone that was so nasty to you? How do you shake that off? What’s your go-to?

Tim Creech (19:05):
Well, I tell you that the biggest thing that I started looking at is, I’ve just tried to get the word next into my mindset. And honestly, I struggled with this a year ago, so I appreciate that question, Carley. Because for me personally, that’s just been something I keep working on.

(19:18):
I had one guy that just got really, really vulgar with me about a year ago, and I just let it get into my head. And now I just have to look at it and say, I don’t know what he’s going through. He may have an illness, he may have just lost his job or his wife. I’m not going to get hung up and let his negativity impact what I’m going to do for my family.

(19:38):
So I’m just going to call next. I’m going to laugh about it and I’m going to move on.

Carley Hathaway (19:42):
Good for you. Good for you. What a great frame of mind you have.

Ren Jones (19:48):
We have to deal with everything else. The TV news and everything else, you have to just put a little barrier. No rejection… I mean, no negativity. I’m on to the next thing.

Tim Creech (19:56):
I still the Wall Street Journal, but I actually stopped looking at any other kind of news about, I don’t know, six or eight months ago.

Ren Jones (20:04):
Business news only. Okay.

Tim Creech (20:09):
Business news only. Neutral. Sports news.

Ren Jones (20:09):
Maybe you can do sports and business news.

Carley Hathaway (20:11):
Yeah. Well, sports even might be a little heart-wrenching, too.

Tim Creech (20:13):
It can be. Yeah.

Ren Jones (20:15):
Skip the first couple minutes of the game. Yeah.

Tim Creech (20:17):
Yep.

Ren Jones (20:18):
Brian McKinnon wants to know, how did you get started with for sale of owners and expireds and overcoming the nervousness of the whole process? Because I’ve listened to a lot of people talk about their first few days and their first few weeks. And they have a sweat on their brow. They’re like, oh, enough of this. And it does take a little bit to overcome that, get used to it.

Tim Creech (20:39):
Yeah, that’s true. That’s a great question, Brian. I’ll tell you, the thing that I look at is if you just step back for a second, before you can pick up the phone, just remember when you’re calling an expired person, they already had their home on the market. They already had talked with an agent. They already had their home active on the MLS, so it’s not a brand-new experience for that person.

(21:00):
Clearly, they want to get their home sold. Just some set of circumstances, maybe it was the agent, maybe it was the price point or lack of staging. Who knows what that circumstance was, but that person does want to sell their home. The other side of it, which is equally important to think about when you call a FSBO, for sale by owner, that person wants to sell, but they’ve got something going on, and usually some questions will help you trigger out why is it that they don’t want to work with a trained real estate professional.

(21:28):
Maybe they owe so much, they can’t afford to pay a commission, or in their mind they can’t afford it. Or maybe they’ve had a really bad experience with their past agent and they said they’d never worked with a realtor again. But they do want to sell.

Ren Jones (21:41):
So you have to get in there. The hardest call is the first call every morning. That’s the toughest one.

Tim Creech (21:45):
Yeah.

Carley Hathaway (21:47):
I think that’s why role-playing is so important, right?

Ren Jones (21:49):
Yeah.

Carley Hathaway (21:49):
Because you’re already going. You’re already moving.

Ren Jones (21:53):
Once you make that first call and call somebody, that’s going to give you a good response. Hello, mom?

Carley Hathaway (21:57):
Yeah.

Tim Creech (22:01):
My mom can’t understand why I call her every morning. Yeah, that’s right.

Ren Jones (22:05):
You call her at 8:00 AM every morning.

Carley Hathaway (22:07):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (22:07):
Amin wants to know, please tell us about your first year in business. How did you get your first? How many hours a day did you week? Did you get coaching… Well, he’s got nine questions. Did you get coaching right away or was that…

Tim Creech (22:24):
Honestly, if I would’ve known then what I know now, I would’ve ran right down and I’d signed up for coaching. I don’t get any kickback from any coach, okay, so I’m just giving my honest.

(22:34):
If I would’ve known then what I know now, I’d have went down and signed up for coaching the day I got my license because everything that you need to learn, what to say, how to say it, what standards should you set for your business to stay in control of your business, how to make it replicatable, duplicatable.

(22:51):
If you get the right coach, they’re going to take you to that level of performance and that level of confidence that’s going to put you on a stage.

Ren Jones (23:00):
And folks, we are not selling coaching here. However, we have noticed that every single guest on here is successful and consistent, happens to be in coaching. So you can’t ignore that. And we’re not going to ignore that.

(23:14):
So, great question to ask that because I think most of them wish they had gotten into coaching earlier. Regardless of who the coaching company is, something systematic and consistent, that creates accountability.

Carley Hathaway (23:26):
Yeah,

Tim Creech (23:27):
I went to a Mike Ferry event and I saw Mike in person in Chicago. He did a listing workshop and I was very impressed with his professionalism and the standards that he had. I was doing, probably in the ballpark of 30 transactions, and I just started watching everything from Mike Ferry I could get my hands on YouTube.

(23:45):
And there’s a fair amount of content out there. You can go on his website and look at his scripts and a lot of the folks that you see here weekly use those. I just started looking into it. I went to, what he calls the Superstar Retreat. To be honest, I didn’t have the guts to pull the trigger and get into coaching, because it was, it is, kind of expensive.

(24:04):
I didn’t do it. But I kept working my direction. As soon as I got into coaching, I went from 30 sales a year up to 50 and then 65, and now I can’t wait to do a hundred. My goal is to at least a hundred.

Ren Jones (24:18):
Yeah, and I guess because I’m getting comments and questions here from different people, it’s a thousand a month. And it’s only a thousand a month if you are not coachable. It’s only a thousand a month if you are not doing what they tell you to do. It’s only a thousand a month if you’re not going the extra mile. But then it’s a cost. It is a cost, otherwise it’s a return on investment.

Tim Creech (24:42):
Well, Mike has a little lower cost program, too. You don’t have to pay a thousand a month, and there’s other people. I’m not just trying to plug Mike Ferry, but I would highly recommend somebody consider him. But here’s how I would look at it.

(24:54):
If you walked into a casino and you were going to put some money down on some type of a wager, if you walked up to that blackjack cable, for example, or maybe a slot machine’s a better example. If you knew you were going to put a thousand dollars into that slot machine and you pulled the lever and you knew you were going to get 1500 or 2500 or $4,500 back, how many times would you pull the lever?

Carley Hathaway (25:17):
All day long.

Ren Jones (25:18):
All day long.

Tim Creech (25:20):
I would sit there all day long. Yeah.

Ren Jones (25:21):
That’s right.

Tim Creech (25:22):
We need another one of these, gin and tonics and maybe a Ruben Sandwich, and I’ll sit here a little longer.

Carley Hathaway (25:27):
Yep.

Tim Creech (25:28):
That’s the thing with coaching, but you just said it, Ren. If you’re not willing to do what they tell you to-

Ren Jones (25:32):
Yeah, don’t do it.

Tim Creech (25:33):
… Don’t waste your money. Yeah.

Ren Jones (25:34):
Yeah, and you have to be a little bit driven, bit of a self-starter, high level of desire, or it’s not going… On a daily basis or else it’s not going to happen, because there’s too much negative pressure anyway.

(25:47):
Tanya wants to know common reasons why an owner wouldn’t list with you. Now, I’m not sure if she’s… I’m assuming that’s on a listing presentation. How do you get, when they turn you down? Now, you’re turning some of them down.

Tim Creech (25:59):
Sure.

Ren Jones (26:00):
But when they turn you down, what does that look like?

Tim Creech (26:03):
I can tell you this year… This year’s been a little bit frustrating because I’ve had a couple of different agents that I’ve lost that I’ve went on ahead and looked them up afterwards and said, “Okay, what ended up happening here?”

(26:15):
And I’ve either had an agent list it for a higher dollar amount than what I feel the property is worth, or they’ve undercut the commission and I don’t negotiate on commission. Somebody wants to work for free, God bless you. If you can figure out how to feed your family by discounting your commission… But that always comes back and bites them, too.

Ren Jones (26:34):
Yeah, true, true, true.

Carley Hathaway (26:38):
Are you 6% or 5%? What do you take?

Tim Creech (26:39):
Sure. In our market, of course, none of us have a set commission because that would be wrong. But in our area, if you’re less than 150,000, it’s not uncommon to see you priced at 7%. If you get to be more than 150,000, then it’s typically somewhere around 6%, maybe six and a half, depending on the transaction.

Ren Jones (26:59):
Yeah, I was about to guess that. I imagine you have a lot of sevens there at your price point.

Tim Creech (27:03):
A lot of sevens. Yeah.

Carley Hathaway (27:03):
Nice.

Ren Jones (27:04):
You list for seven and keep four?

Tim Creech (27:07):
No, actually, we split it, with three and a half, three and a half.

Ren Jones (27:10):
Gotcha. Aaron Maderas on Facebook says, Tim, can you recommend your favorite mindset book and your favorite sales book? And he…

Tim Creech (27:20):
Oh, gosh. Yeah. Gosh. That’s a good one.

Carley Hathaway (27:24):
A loaded question, huh?

Tim Creech (27:27):
Yeah, I didn’t think about that one or I would’ve had a good one. I’m trying to think of Brian’s book. There’s a book I read here recently that was really good, and maybe it’ll come to me in just a second.

(27:39):
I always like to read a variety of different things. I’m in a mastermind group, and we read a different book a month. I’m reading the seven… I think it’s called The Seven Elements of Communication right now that I just started reading, and I really like that one so far.

Carley Hathaway (27:55):
I actually just read that a few months ago. Ren recommended it. It’s really good.

Ren Jones (27:58):
Oh, seven levels. Seven levels.

Tim Creech (28:01):
I think it’s Seven Levels of Communication.

Ren Jones (28:02):
Oh, Michael… Mike…

Carley Hathaway (28:03):
Mather? Mather?

Ren Jones (28:03):
No, Mike…

Tim Creech (28:08):
Yeah, that could be…

Ren Jones (28:10):
SevenLBook.com. Michael Maher. Michael Maher.

Carley Hathaway (28:14):
Yeah.

Tim Creech (28:14):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (28:16):
Maher, yes. Yeah, so I liked his network stat.

Carley Hathaway (28:18):
I love that one. Yeah, that’s a good one.

Ren Jones (28:19):
Yeah. Good. Yeah. Great. That would be a good one. Seven Levels of Communication. Michael Maher. Would be a great, great, great, great book.

Tim Creech (28:26):
Yeah. Ninja Selling is really good too. If anybody has time. Ninja Selling is really a good book, as well.

Ren Jones (28:33):
Facebook Mandar Gilkey wants to know, when a for sale by owner… This is what he’s running into, apparently. It says, a for sale by owner will say, are you a realtor? He says, yes, and they hang up.

(28:45):
How do you avoid that little trap? You probably are using a different script where it doesn’t come up. You’re probably telling them ahead of time you are.

Tim Creech (28:52):
Yeah. I call him and I tell him I’m an agent right off the bat. Hi, this is Tim Creech. I’m a local realtor. I was just calling about the home at 123 Bacon Street. Are you the owner?

(29:02):
And go right into talking with them. Straight up front, I’m telling. But to answer the question more directly, if they hang up on me, I wait and call them back the next day or call them back a different time. You may have just caught them at a bad time. They may have just got off another call with a realtor. Call them back, because they’ll forget who you are anyway.

Ren Jones (29:21):
Right. Yeah.

Carley Hathaway (29:23):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (29:23):
First time you call, you’re Tim. And then next time you call, it’s Timothy.

Tim Creech (29:26):
Yeah. I guarantee you they’re not writing down, okay. Tim called me Monday.

(29:30):
They’re not writing it down.

Ren Jones (29:32):
Right. Diana Campos says, I have a coach… She’s on Facebook, watching on Facebook. I have a coach for the first time, but I do not know what to ask him. The coach should be leading along the way, Diana, but any other thoughts, Tim? What do you ask of your coach?

Tim Creech (29:50):
Diana, that’s a great question. Here’s another thing, too. If you’re not sure, start to maybe take a little bit of a journaling expedition on your days. Think about through your process, what are giving you good feelings of your day, and what are giving you negative feelings of your day.

(30:08):
Whatever items you’re feeling negative about, talk to your coach, because those are things that maybe they’ve got a system, maybe they’ve got a process or an idea. That’s the point of having a good coach, too, is let them help you through the negative things you’re having. Clear out the negativity, gets the positivity going in the right way.

Carley Hathaway (30:23):
Yes.

Ren Jones (30:23):
A lot of times people will say, I want you to be tough on me and tell me what I need to do, and I’ll do whatever you tell me. Make a pact. Make a pact.

(30:31):
Last question. Bayardo Estradas wants to know if you’re doing any marketing or advertising.

Tim Creech (30:39):
Well, I sponsor Facebook ads for my listings. I really like to do Facebook sponsored ads, especially if I’m doing an open house that week. I do believe in open houses. I love doing sponsored ads.

(30:50):
Other than that, no, I really don’t. I just believe if you do outbound calling, if you’re doing just listed, just sold, center of influence, for sale by owner, expireds, that your telephone is such a cheap form of marketing and it’s consistent replicatable.

Carley Hathaway (31:03):
Definitely.

Ren Jones (31:05):
Yeah. Toe to toe, phone to phone, contact sport. Yes.

Carley Hathaway (31:10):
Contact sport.

Ren Jones (31:11):
Great question.

Tim Creech (31:11):
Contact. Yeah.

Ren Jones (31:12):
So, I want to thank everybody. I need to sell some ads here.

(31:18):
If you’re watching on Vulcan7 and you want to get involved with the Lead Gen Facebook Group, they are at facebook.com/groups/gotobjections. And I want to thank Aaron Wittenstein who runs the group. He also has a program called ExpiredMasteryElite.com.

(31:36):
And finally, if you’re watching on Facebook and you’re not yet involved with Vulcan7, make sure to sign up at Vulcan7.com/leadgen for a special deal.

(31:45):
And most importantly, Tim’s Secret. His lovely wife… What is your lovely wife’s name?

Tim Creech (31:51):
Anna Louise.

Ren Jones (31:52):
Anna Louise is over in the… She lets him, once he’s done all his lead generations in the morning, she lets him go into the refridge and get out some delicious Graeter’s Mint Chocolate Chip, the only ice cream for listing property.

(32:08):
All the other flavors are for working with buyers. If you’re working with sellers, Mint Chocolate Chip. If the listing takes a little bit of time to sell, go out in the front yard, dig a hole, bury it upside down, and the listing will sell just like that.

Carley Hathaway (32:20):
Yes.

Ren Jones (32:21):
The power of the Mint Chocolate Chip.

Tim Creech (32:23):
Just think, Mint Chocolate Chip is like fresh minted money.

Ren Jones (32:26):
That’s it.

Carley Hathaway (32:27):
Yeah, I like that.

Ren Jones (32:29):
Yes. Just don’t put it in your wallet.

Carley Hathaway (32:38):
No. Tim, thank you so much for being today. We got so much great information. I’m sure everyone’s going to re-watch this a few times. Thank you so much.

Tim Creech (32:44):
I hope I helped. If I can help anybody in any way, I’m always glad to do that. Thank you guys.

Ren Jones (32:46):
I know. Sell them some wonderful investment property.

Carley Hathaway (32:49):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (32:51):
Yes. Yes sir-ee. Give your email address one more time.

Tim Creech (32:55):
Sure. TimCreechHelpedMe@gmail.com.

Ren Jones (32:55):
How about that. Bye, everybody.