TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS:
Welcome to The Probate Agent my name is Anthony Nitz and this is the Probate agent podcast.
Welcome this is where it all begins.
So the big question is this how our ordinary agents just like us supposed to stand out in the overly crowded real estate space while living a great
lifestyle without having to go broke or radically change what we’re already
doing Probate is the answer and this series will show you how I’m Anthony
Nitz and welcome to the Probate agent
welcome again to the Probate agent
podcast again my name is Anthony Nitz
and I’m going to be sharing with you
some information you know a lot of us we
know that Probate is one of those things
as real estate agents that we probably
should focus on and I wholeheartedly
agree with that but there’s a lot of the
right way in the wrong way to do it and
you know and some of the things that
even the gurus are sharing you know they
share it only because it’s a topic of
discussion in the real estate space but
it never is really a focus of theirs if
you notice and so we’re gonna kind of
dive into the whole process of becoming
a great Probate agent and you know first
thing I’m just gonna cover start out I’m
going to tell you a little bit of my
story because I want you to understand
that you know I’ve got background in
this I’ve been at this for a long
long long time and I’ve seen all the ups
and I’ve seen the downs and I’ve seen
the sideways and I’ve seen all the
other nuances of this aspect of the
business I of course I’ve done other
things other than Probate but I will
tell you in my experience Probate is one
of the great tools that’s out there
because when you know it and you promote
it and you specialize in it you are
looked at as being different in this
space which is so difficult to do when
you’ve got so much competition out there
so many agents out there all fighting
for that one little listing so let me
just kind of start let me just kind of
give you a little bit my background so
first of all I got into real estate
because I was a I was a marketing
director for a title insurance company
and I handled kind of just a region and
it was mostly just the Southern
California area and I was what I was
doing what my whole job was I had to
developed or develop marketing materials
that the sales reps could then take out
to the field as title insurance
remember they would take out to the
field to who real estate agents write
and share with them in hopes that they
would go out and get business and then
when they did they would reciprocate and
say thank you so much for giving us that
marketing you know content that we could
use so it wasn’t marketing materials for
the title insurance reps per se it was
specifically for real estate agents so
that they could go out they could get
business and like I said give us
business in return and I developed some
innovative things I’m not gonna go into
all the details of that but you know I
kind of built a reputation in the
industry and whatnot
and so next thing I know I was recruited
to another title insurance company to
handle the large the whole western
western half of the United States as far
as doing exactly the same thing I just
developed marketing materials for all
these agents and again for the title
reps to give to the agents and hope to
get reciprocity that would come back to
us it never worked out like that but
chances are if you were in real
estate in the early to mid 90s his
chances are you saw some of my stuff
because we came up with some pretty
innovative marketing tools but the
result was a lot of agents were coming
to us to say hey can you help us out
because we were coming up with some
really creative things the good news was
the way I came up with a lot of the
stuff that I did was I didn’t know
anything about real estate when I got
into working for the title insurance
company so I kind of made stuff up and
what I did was made stuff up that didn’t
even exist in the real estate space
which then at that time was oh my gosh
it’s innovative Wow
can’t believe we could actually do this
and you know and so that went on for a
while and then I was recruited to a
mortgage company to be their national
marketing director for the entire United
States did the same thing you know the
whole focus for the mortgage company was
getting purchase business and so what
they would do is they would go out to
the real estate agents they would say
hey we’d love to get your buyer leads as
far as being able to get loans you know
do first do the buyer’s loans for it and
or even the sellers loans for that
matter so let us give you marketing
materials that guess who created me that
would help you get that business in turn
give us your loan business back right
and so that was kind of my beginning
journey and so yeah at the mortgage
company this was there was kind of a
little transition that happened because
I was doing this and I did it just for
fun man I loved doing it was so much
fun just to create and make and
and see people happy and having success
and what in one month I don’t I
don’t remember exactly what month it was
but I had a couple people come to me and
say some similar things and it was along
the lines of well one person in
particular said exactly this he said hey
Anthony you know what man
thank you so much for all this we are
crushing it out there with this material
no other mortgage company has us we are
crushing it out there I have made more
money this month than I made last year
all from your marketing materials right
and of course I was happy to
is a pat on my back I smiled and looked
at it later like wow that’s great that’s and then
later on the light bulb but what I want
wait a minute wait just a second
I’m doing always work developing all
this marketing materials and while I was
getting paid a good salary I was getting
paid a good salary I said you know oh
gosh maybe I should be doing this for
myself but I held off a little while
until somebody said something that
changed the course of my career forever
right and what it was at that
mortgage company I had done so much to
help all these loan officers you know
become successful in their marketplaces
just by giving them a plan and the
materials to execute that plan and at
the time you know boy I could have
really used a new car you know now that
wasn’t wrong with my car really it was
just dating old you know and all the
other officers and the company or
driving these you know really expensive
cars now because of you know I I’m gonna
claim it the effort that I put into
it
right and so I went to the boss and I
said hey boss you know I’ve done all the
stuff we’ve massively increased revenue
because of it we’ve brought on we’ve
been able to recruit incredible loan
officers because of it you know I really
could use a I really could use a car
allowance and the words that came out of
his mouth you know kind of shook me at
my core because he told me he said
Anthony I can’t give you a car allowance
I can’t pay you anymore you have reached
your cap you’ve reached your limit as
far as what you can make in this
position and I said what you’ve got to
be kidding me with the amount of revenue
that I was able to drive into that
company and the success that these
people were having
how what do you mean about my cap you
know how dare you how dare you tell me
that I have a limit to my value I mean
don’t you dare tell me what my cap is
what my limit is and then I started kind
of looking around and I started looking
at some of these other loan officers and
I started going you know what man
some of these guys they’re just not the
brightest bulb in the box you know but
they’re consistent they go out and they
do the work they do what they’re
supposed to do but they’re just not that
sharp they’re not that social they’re
not you know they don’t have a lot of
the sales skills that I had had I said
gosh if these knuckleheads are making a
killing off of my work you know again
why not do it myself and I had to set
there and it stood on me and just kind
of brewed and bubbled and boiled for you
know about a week or so and I walked
into the owners office and I said hey
you know I just want to let you know
I’ve decided I’m gonna make a change in
my career I am gonna go and I’m gonna go
and start selling loans and you know his
reaction was not a good reaction because
number one he did was he laughed he
laughed he laughing at and then he
said to me in a very condescending tone
he said do you even know what a debt to
income ratio is and I said you know what
yes first of all I do know what a debt
to income ratio is and secondly you got
some of these boneheads out here selling
and they know what a debt to income
ratio is why would you think that I
don’t know what a debt to income ratio
is and so it kind of became a little bit
of a hotspot we’re like wow you know
again how dare you tell me I met a cop
at a cap how dare you know try to
imply that I’m not as smart as these
other people and I get I spoke to him
years later and he even told me he said
you know I really just wanted you to
stay you were doing a great thing for us
you were building our business
and I was like okay I get it I
appreciate it but at that point in time
to deal with seals right I was like I’m
gonna be coming I would have become a
loan officer and I’m gonna start selling
and I actually went to work actually for
the same company and I said you know
what okay well let’s do it using my own
marketing materials I went out and I in
three months became the top producing
loan officer in the entire company okay
and actually it was between me and one
other guy we were kid we kept
flip-flopping back and forth you know
between first and second and so again
that was affirmation to me that yeah my
stuff works my marketing materials work
and why should I be letting other people
you know live off of that I you know
when I’m you know making a good but
modest
modest salary right no so I became a
good a loan officer top-producing
within the first three months and did
that for a while
I just did that for a while my focus was
first-time buyers that was ruined my
focus because I understood something I
understood that I had to be in a
particular niche or niche as some of you
guys might say but you know I had to I
had to specialize is what I had to do in
something because I realized with
marketing that if you try to cover
everything and you try to make everybody
happy then you’re gonna make nobody
happy
on the other hand if you are that person
that is specialist in that one area
everybody goes to you okay
we’ll talk more about that later but
doing that did that for you know a few
years actually moved to another company
a lot much larger company and was always
in the top 5% of that company – and so
we were doing well but one day something
happened I had a client and you got to
tell me did do me if you could relate to
this had a client
as a loan officer let me back up just a
little bit one of the ways that I would
get business from real estate agents was
I would go out and I would generate the
lead I would get I would find the buyers
I would have them come to me before they
even ever spoke to a real estate agent
and so I was doing that and then what I
would do is I would take that lead and
as I’m trying to get busy from our
business from agents that were you know
considered productive and they’re
producing and making sales on a regular
basis with buyers I tracked the MLS so I
was always making you know if they’re
working with buyers great those are
people I want to talk to well got this
guy this family they came in we sat down
credit not that good okay but they
really wanted to buy and so I said okay
well let me help you out I put them in a
course of credit repair we started
moving forward on the credit repair
I wrote letter after letter after letter
on them right on their behalf to the
credit bureaus and all the stuff and
after a year it took a full year they
said they’re you know we check their
credit again and it’s like wow okay
great your credit is now at that range
where you can buy a home as a first-time
buyer without getting you know the bad
end of the deal right and so they’re
excited great oh let’s do it and I said
okay good look I’m gonna refer you to
one of my top agents now this was a new
agent that I was trying to get business
from so I called her up and I said hey
you know what I’ve got a I’ve got a
buyer they’re fully approved fully done
approved okay and as you know I want to
send to you so that you can just take
him out you find him a house it’s a done
deal it’s like walking in with a cash
buyer right she said great that’s
awesome thank you so much you know and I
told her I said you know I my goal is to
get business from you in the future
that’s really what I want to have
happened that’s why I’m doing this I
made it clear to her
well they found a house they went
through the process went through escrow
all that good stuff my loan documents
were sent over everything and keep in
mind not a single word from that buyer
during that time that implied to me that
there was any issues any concerns
anything like that right well we come to
the day when escrow is supposed to close
I get a call from the escrow company the
escrow office reserves well I got good
news and I got bad news oh okay well
what’s the good news and she said well
we funded and recorded today like oh
great awesome you know I’m gonna get
paid she said the bad news is it wasn’t
your loan so what you have got to be
kidding me
you have got what happened what happened
I called them up turns out that real
estate agent that I referred to her
boyfriend was a loan officer she didn’t
tell me that so her boyfriend was a loan
officer so she steered them over there
you know like a criminal like a thief in
my mind and you know and he did the
loan for him here’s the thing they’re
what I called the buyer they said well
you know we you know we ended up going
with that one because you know they saved us
like two hundred and eighty-five dollars
on the closing costs and I’m like you
got to be kidding me
$285 that’s why you betray you know the
work that somebody does for you for a
year for free oh my god as it turns out
they got a quarter percent higher
interest rate than they would have
gotten from me but you know whatever so
anyways that was kind of one of the
things that helped me decide to go into
real estate that was the straw that
broke the camel’s back because I’m like
man I actually went to my office
and I said hey is there any way we can
put a buyer on a contract that they have
to do their loan through us or pay us no
absolutely not you know that if you’re
in real estate you know there is no way
to do that okay
and so I just said okay you know what I
said I started having my staff track
something for me so over the next six
months I said I want to know on the
escrow paperwork how much every agent is
getting paid when they close a
transaction you know for a loan that
we’re doing and so we tracked it and
because we were doing first-time buyers
we were on we were getting a point
that’s it
that’s it I know some of you who are in
loans or have done loans you know you’re
you know reeling because you know
there’s a lot more money to be made
there but the types of products we were
doing at the time it was you get a point
but because they were so specialized
nobody else is doing them everybody came
to me we were doing 10 15 of them a
month at least okay so anyway point is
when we were doing those I was tracking
how much for the real estate agents
getting paid and on average they were
getting paid just slightly under three
times more than what we were getting
paid on our loans and so you know what I
looked at that I said you know what okay
it’s time it’s time I you know in real
estate I can put a buyer on an exclusive
contract if they hire another real
estate agent they buy another house
through another real estate agent then
they still have to pay me that 3%
Commission I can put a listing under
exclusive contract that if that house
sells they’re gonna pay me a commission
so if like if I have that but I can’t do
that in loans then that’s what I’m gonna
do
I’m gonna go to a place where I can know
that if I’m working with people they’re
going to get on the contract and that
commission is locked in and I can count
on it
right well so I decided to go on a real
estate and I went to one of our large
and
pending companies locally here and I
said okay you know let’s do this
well I went to a few trainings and
things like that I went through their
little you know whatever they call it a
Quick Start thing and get a day they
didn’t oriented and everything and I
said okay great
let’s go I got that I know I’ve got the
marketing materials because I developed
them you know long before I was an agent
and as a result I became you know the
top agent in that office fast now keep
in mind this company had I want to say
at the time it was like three or four
maybe five thousand people in Southern
California agents in Southern California
and so you know becoming the top agent
in the office I was again probably top
5% maybe of the entire office maybe 10%
I don’t know the point is I’m having
success for my area I was doing really
really well that went on for a while and
then they started grooming me for
management they what they wanted me to
get into management because they knew my
training skills and my marketing
materials and things like that and there
was something that happened at one
meeting the owner was there all the
other managers were there the CEO was
there all the stuff and there was a
discussion about one agent in particular
and this guy he was doing way better
than I was way better and he was on the
90 percent split and so you know he was
making a lot of money on all this sales
which again he was making a lot of money
and they were having a conversation of
you know how do we get rid of this guy
and you know I was confused like why
would you get rid of this guy first of
all because he’s part of the company
people come to our company number one
number two the guy has a huge market
share in the area that he’s servicing
okay he was part of another
but you know he’s oh he has a huge
market share why would we get rid of him
and I piped up and I said well we should
probably actually be giving him more
support we should give him you know put
an assistant in his office or give him
more marketing materials or give them a
market marketing budget or something so
he can continue that and what the owner
said just shocked me it shocked me he
said he told me and he was a little
upset when he says is it Anthony he said
he’s on a 90 percent split so that means
we make 10% of every transaction that he
does 10 percent we currently recruit you
know fifty to a hundred new agents every
single month each of those agents we
know for a fact because they’ve had
years and years and years of numbers on
this we know for a fact that a majority
of them are gonna come in and they’re
gonna sell mom and dad’s house they’re
gonna sell another friend or family
members house they’re gonna get lucky
and they’re gonna sell a third one
before they realize how difficult and
expensive this business is to be in so
and those people are all on a 50% split
so in order to get the equivalent
percentage from that guy who’s on a 90
percent split he had to sell he had to
sell 15 homes here to sell 15 homes to
get for the company to get the
equivalent of what that one agent had to
sell three homes and the management and
resources and everything that went
behind all of that to them wasn’t worth
it the owner was basically just saying
hey let’s burn and turn agents let’s
burn intern agents we’re gonna get three
from everybody and off they go
and that made me sick
I mean that really made me sick and I
know not all brokers are like that
that’s not that that’s not the point
here I’m just kind of sharing with you
my starting my experience and kind of
the things that drove me to the
direction that it did you know because
it was then I realized that as an agent
I got no real value to my brokerage you
know ya value and friendships and
relationships and things like that but
from a dollars and cents standpoint
because I was getting to that point to
you know I think I had worked up the
tear to the 80% bracket you know but my
eyes were opened I was no different than
anyone else in their eyes know better
than anyone I may have worked harder you
know and I made great sacrifices to get
to where I was getting to but for them
they were like hey we would rather just
have a bunch of agents come in do their
three deals and get out it’s cheaper to
train these agents and get them in and
make the fifty percent times three
versus having one great agent whose
crush in the marketplace you know I wish
I get how they come to that conclusion
but at the same time I don’t get it so
anyway you know that kind of stuck with
me and so I kind of pulled out of the
whole management path you know I just
kind of slowly just kind of creep my way
out of there because I didn’t want to be
part of that at all not my nature not my
nature at all and so I started going to
you know listening to different trainers
and marketers and things like that and
one of the things that kept coming up
was that I had I realized that I had to
stand out I’ve said this before but it
kept coming back to me kept coming back
to me I have to stand out I have to
specialize I have to be different and so
I said oh what’s that what do I do what
do I do different you know and I
apply what’s called the so what rule
okay and this is a game that I would
play with real estate agents that I was
coaching and training and we’re not
and I would say that I would say that
what makes you different and you know we
get answers all time like this well
because we care and I’m like really you
think that nobody else cares do you
really think nobody else cares and if
you’re listening to this and that’s kind
of your thing think about it do you
think nobody else cares you think people
by that that you’re the only one who
cares
no and so I say so what everybody else
cares well what else makes you different
well were available all the time so what
everybody else is available all the time
well you know we like what we did so
what you know all these so what things
and that’s that I did that was myself I
said okay what do I do you know I
could specialize in horse property I
could specialize in you know mansions
things like that but that wasn’t to me
that was enough of a specialty right and
one day I got a flyer that came across
my inbox and it was promoting a seminar
the seminar was titled the easiest sale
you’ll ever make
Probate I said well okay the easiest
sale I’ll ever make okay I like that
that sounds good I like the easiest sale
I ever make what’s Probate I knew I kind
of you know I’m AI knew what it was I’ve
never done one
I’ve never been involved in one never
took the time to learn anything about it
but you know it sounded interesting I
think okay well let’s go check it out
well I went to the seminar and I was
excited I was actually really excited
because it’s like oh there’s something
new cool I really love you know I’m
excited to hear this and I really didn’t
know what to expect and when I got there
I was like wow okay this is cool the
room was bulging with agents I mean
literally just packed at the seams you
know and you got everybody’s
chit-chatting and networking and talking
and all the stuff and everyone’s all
you kind of have
you know that grumpy old agent walking
by because well they had to sit in a
hotel room chair you know that you know
how they clipped together so that you
can’t move it and you know that person
next to you touched you or something you
know whatever but you could just tell
that they’re like I’ve been to a lot of
these and I hate them but I need to
learn stuff too
and so I was excited that was that the
energy was really really cool about 500
agents it was just you know a great
experience for me and it was funny
because I actually heard an agent say oh
wow
looks like the Probate niche is going to
be saturated now and I just laughed I
laughed I mean wow what a pessimistic
view right I’m like oh man okay great
there’s five hundred agents and at the
time there was probably you know ten
thousand agents in the county that I
worked so you know hey that’s the those
are pretty good odds right there so I
wasn’t discouraged because there’s
something that I knew from my previous
marketing experience first of all I knew
that only very few agents will ever
follow through with a serious action
plan I know it and even some of you that
are listening here as we continue this
journey and I share with you some of the
steps and things that I went through and
and how I became the Probate agent
in our area you gonna go wow that’s neat
and you’re not gonna have an action plan
you’re gonna keep going with the same
you know shotgun approach of just trying
to get everybody in there and everything
and I understand it because man we got
to feed our family on the competition is
fierce you know and yeah you know so I
knew some of those agents would send the
letters to the you know attorneys end or
executives I knew some of them would
make a trip or two to the courthouse you
know but it usually ended right there
and I knew it I’ll tell you about that
in another episode but
was that the meeting I took vigorous
notes you know and of course they had
the package to buy right you can buy
those package or that package I bought
the big package I said I’m ready I’m
ready to be the Probate agent you know
cuz in the end man all I wanted was just
I wanted a sustainable business that
made my mortgage payment every month
paid the bills allowed me and my wife to
travel have some fun enjoy life like we
deserved right that’s all I wanted you
know I just I wanted my wife to feel
100% secure because you know we were
thinking about starting a family and I
had a decent salary with the
mortgage company I had a salary man and
I gave that up for Commission sales I
remember the day I told her that I
walked in and say hey honey guess what I
gave up this big salary for the time it
was a big salary actually you know I
gave up this big salary
guess what I’m going into Commission
sales you know and after I revived her
you know she was freaked out she was
really freaked out because you know that
was a big leap of faith you know and all
I wanted to was I just wanted to be the
go-to person so that when a friend or
family has a need that I would be the
person that they that they come to you
know later on I’ll tell you know I
had a family member they called me up
they said hey can you know can you let
me borrow you know a few hundred bucks
so well yeah sure what for and I need to
rent a moving truck okay what a moving
truck they just bought their house
but you know two years earlier three
years earlier or something like that so
what do you mean a moving truck were you
guys moving where are you going what’s
going on and you know reluctantly they
told me well we’re in foreclosure well
because of the work that I did and
because I was able to specialize in
something I ended up being able to write
a ten thousand dollar check that same
day
get all of their back payments brought
up get all of their other bills
straightened out all the fines all the
fees everything like that and even cover
that and actually I ended up later
covering a couple more payments just to
give him time to be able to deal with it
and react in a way that wasn’t than
making a desperate decision you know
what I mean
so that’s why I wanted I wanted to be
the go-to person for friends and family
instead of being the one I always had to
go to somebody to ask for a few bucks
right and I wanted my clients to love
and adore me and forced to be were to
refer me to their friends and family
because of the work that I was doing you
know and that’s just what I wanted I
mean it’s that unreasonable to ask for
with a career so you know as much as I
wanted to at the time though I couldn’t
dive 100% into Probate because you know
I still had bills to pay and while the
shotgun approach was a whole lot more
time-consuming and strenuous and
whatnot you know it’s what I still had
to do just to make sure I kept business
coming in but I did everything that the
trainer’s told me to do and that big
package that I bought go to the
courthouse and dig through hundreds of
records to find that executor x’ name
and phone number you know and I did this
until my eyes were so bloodshot they
were about to slip right out of my eye
sockets
I bought the lists that they made
available every single month that proved
to be you know outdated less I stalked
family members at the decedent’s house
to try to make that connection to be
that agent that connected with them like
those trainers told us to do and in fact
I was so tenacious at this that I would
go and I would sit in my car and I would
sit there and wait and wait and wait
until somebody showed up and in one case
it’s actually kind of funny
I was parked out across the street in
front of the neighbor’s house waiting
for that executor to arrive I knew they
were gonna come they had to come one of
these days get mail whatever clean stuff
up check things up and no the executor
never showed up somebody else showed up
though the police yes somebody called
the police because there’s this creepy
guy sitting out in front of their house
for two and a half hours I don’t blame
him you know but I had to sit there and
explain to the cops a I’m just waiting
with this guy you know and you know they
didn’t do anything or say anything
there’s okay that someone just wanted to
check I sent hundreds of letters to
attorneys I sent hundreds of letters to
those executors and you know what all
with no luck at all no luck Wow I did
everything the trainer said you know and
again this is all while I continue to do
my regular farming and list follow-ups
and things like that so it was daunting
to say the least to find myself working
so hard with no results ultimately I did
manage to get a couple of reluctant
listing appointments and while I didn’t
get the listings I did learn something
very valuable that changed the Probate
game for me in every case that I was on
a listing appointment the executor
whether it’s a family member or someone
else they all would say I have to check
with my attorney now later on I realized
that that phrase as soon as it came out
of their mouth was the death of my
chances of getting that listing no
matter how good I was no matter what I
was offering and everything and the
reason I know that is because it would
always end up being listed by another
agent even what I followed up with the
executor so what that Wow you know you
know we had to hire this other person
and sometimes the executor would tell me
that while their attorney recommended
somebody and so they’re going with that
why because they trust their attorney
and then on some cases I would go and I
would visit the open houses of those
listings you know and just chitchat with
the agent and basically come to the
conclusion or be able to extract from
them that you know they got the listing
from a referral from their attorney
friend well guess who that was it was in
fact the Probate attorney handling the
Estate’s Probate and it was then that I
had to get to the attorney somehow the
letters weren’t working but I had to get
to him somehow someway so I devised the
plan and we’ll take a look at how that
plan looked in our next episode of the
Probate agent hey thanks for listening
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