Ready to become a top producing real estate agent? Today on the show we have Russell Rhodes, who previously worked in finance, consulted with Arthur Andersen, Pepsi Co and retail before entering real estate due to burnout. Using his analytical expertise and drive, Russell has been able to build a successful business with 9 administrative staff and 10 buyer’s agents that today does 579 transactions and $201 million transactions. Kyle shares with us his thoughts on picking the right farm, living on imperfection, creating your marketing message and building a successful career.
Creating A Success Real Estate Career
Coming from a consulting background, Kyle understood the importance of systems, actions and focus to build a successful real estate business. Here’s how you can do it too:
- Focus On The Big Picture: Consulting is always about a business’ systems, instead of the small things, which really helped Russell put the business fundamentals in place early on.
- Work Your Strengths: Russell has always been very analytical, so he used this set himself apart. By offering his clients the competition, homes sold, homes under contract and other data he is able to better inform sellers on the best way to sell their property, coming off as professional. Find where your strengths lie and use them to your advantage.
- Learn To Say No: One of the most valuable things Russell has learned is the art of saying no to clients that are very difficult. Why? Your time is your greatest asset in this industry, and seldom does it ever pay to work with difficult, high maintenance individuals. Besides, they have no problem telling you off all the time!
- Take The Shot: There will never be a time where your systems are perfect, so stop stalling and take the shot. The most important thing in business is revenue generation, so implement your systems and tweak along the way.
- Seek Improvement: To succeed and remain at the top, you must be prepared for continuous improvement. As your business grows, you have to do double the effort to provide the same level of customer service and stay informed on the market. Never settle.
- Provide Abnormal Value: Most agents in this business are never more than glorified tour guides because they fail to provide value for their clients. This goes far beyond the sale and involves you being knowledgeable about all areas that can affect someone in real estate like estates, gifting property, tax issues and consequences and even financing. This helps you anticipate problems for your clients and be seen as an authority.
- Study Daily: This is a given, bust most agents don’t know their inventory and thus lack value when it comes time to sitting with a client. Russell studies everything from preconstruction to flooring in order to understand what the market wants and how his clients will be affected.
Marketing
Russell may have had the operational chops to build a business, but success is about generating revenue through marketing. Here are a few tips he dropped today:
- Create A Persona: In order to craft the proper message and credibility, Russell first studied the market, his competitors and potential leads in order to craft the perfect persona of someone receiving his message. This gave his business clarity on how his flyers, letters and all types of marketing would look like and feel. Does your marketing convey a compelling message? If not, you may want to try this.
- Systemize: Building a business is all about having duplicatable systems in place that anyone can access and complete. Make sure you have lead generation and follow up systems in place as well for your business when you start off.
- Price & Volume Combo: In some farms, it doesn’t pay to do certain types of marketing due to price. In order to succeed, you should opt to find a farm that has a combination of a high price point and high volume. This gives you enough margins to market to your farm in a profitable manner.
- Past Clients: Putting a system in place to manage and work your past clients can be a big benefit to your business. By doing so, almost 40% of Russell’s business today is past clients.
- 33 Touches: By committing to communicate with past clients multiple times per month, Kyle is seen as an educational and fun expert in his market.
- Network: Real Estate is a people business, so be prepared to constantly network. If you don’t know anybody in your area, join a group or club you are interested in and begin planting seeds. Russell did the same by tapping into his wife’s network early on.
Personal Habits
- Strong Work Ethic
- Accountability: Russell’s word is his bond.
Books For Agents
The E-myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
Get your free copy today at audibletrial.com/superagentslive
Get In Touch With Russell
E-mail At:russellrhodes@kw.com
Call At: 972-899-5600
Our Sponsors
If you have a team and strong systems in place, radio will help increase your business. Reach out to Toby here and see your leads skyrocket! Here are some things to keep in mind before entering into radio advertising:
- Necessary Success Tool: Most top agents use radio. If you plan on making your way to the top, you need to make sure to have radio as part of your advertising plan.
- It’s A Commitment: Radio is a costly commitment to make for your team. Make sure you have the budget and the timeline to back it up.
- It’s All About The Systems: To maximize the ROI of radio, you need to have strong systems in place to handle the incoming leads and follow-ups that will come from this new channel
Join The Membership Site
The membership site is finally open! Join the Silver Level to free access to never before seen content. Keep an eye out for Gold and Platinum Level access coming soon!
Find A Mentor
We’ve partnered up with Bob Corcoran and his team to get you a free coaching call. E-mail bubba@corcorancoaching.com and let him know you listen to the show!
