Transcript Follows:
shared with you some of the ups and the
downs that I went through in my probate
business market crashes shifts in my
referral attorneys focus and everyone is
going into survival mode go back to
episode 1 and start there again if you
haven’t heard the story go ahead and
listen to that first and then continue
here 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
okay so where I left it off was I was
sharing how most of the attorneys that I
was working with went either into the
loan modification business and you know
basically were no longer referring
business like the good old days and in
fact some of them were even disbarred
and a couple of them faced some jail
time for unscrupulous practices and it
put me into a position where I suddenly
had to figure out a new way to survive
but you know I was not ready to give up
on the probate side of things right so
now you have to start and ask yourself
what is the best approach would it how
do i how do I go out there and get that
in business and in any case you know
that the one-to-many approach is the
best way to go think about it like this
you go to a you know while you go to
talk to an insurance person right and
that insurance person they’re gonna sit
down with you they’re gonna go over
everything and it’s going to take an
hour or two to explain everything to you
and you know finally you make a sale and
they get paid a commission like we do as
agents right or the one-to-many approach
you can go to a let’s take it out a big
scale big training seminar right and
we’ve all been to those and that trainer
stands up there and they give some good
information and you know gets you
excited everything and you know for only
this price you can get at the back of
the room you know what it is that I’m
selling and so at one time that one
person is speaking to many people at the
same time and getting a certain number
of them to purchase what they wanted to
then to buy right making their dollar
per hour value incredibly valuable and
it kind of worked the same way you know
I got to the point where I had to do a
lot of work up front to get those
relationships with those attorneys but
then after that it was kind of more of a
maintenance mode where every once in a
while I pop in and say hi we go you know
go out for dinner or go play golf or
something like that and you know and
that worked out that worked great for
five years okay but they also had higher
expectations they also had higher
demands too right I tried going direct
to homeowners that didn’t work why
because it’s one to one and this was you
know me this is the one thing that I
really was so painful for me even as an
agent is when working with a buyer or
working with a seller is to sit down
with them for two hours three hours
drive around with the car from all day
on Saturday or whatever doing you know
the president presentation or the dog
and pony show if you will
you know because that’s more of a
one-on-one sale like I said in kind of
the insurance guys example
so did I chase down executor you know
and sometimes I did that I tried that a
little bit chase down executor it’s
because that’s what some of the other
trainers were saying to do right you
know these letters and drop off packages
and do all this stuff but here’s the
thing is that is a really poor odds of
success again it’s a one on one thing
right or last uh-huh and you know what
it amounted to was basically you know so
be spending a lot of money on letter
campaigns time on cold calling and hard
sales tactics to get that executor to
let me to get in front of them because
if I got in front of them my chances
increased you know but that was the big
trick was getting in front of them and
even to the point where leader stalking
them you know I had a situation where I
was actually out in front of somebody’s
house for like two hours two and a half
hours waiting for that executor show up
I was dead set I’m getting that listing
I’m gonna wait for that to guy show up
I’m gonna you know tackle him in the
driveway and say sign those listing
agreement executor but the only person
the only people who showed up was the
police because one of the neighbors said
some strange guy sitting out in a car
for two and a half hours so that was
let’s just say an interesting event but
you know did but did that work did the
chasing down the executor no that was
pretty tough you know Estate Sale
planners you know I thought gosh lucky
women estates estate sale players those
guys you know they know when mom and dad
have passed away they got to get
everything ready to sell they gotta
solve all those knickknacks and
appliances and and tchotchke stuff and
a couple things that I realized was that
by the time the estate planner was
involved it was too late
it was too late you know estate planners
usually come as a referral from us or
from their attorney right and so by then
chances are in most cases those people
were already enlisted you know those
homes were already listed but in some
cases you know these state planners they
knew what their position was and they
knew that they had little influence and
so they could refer a business but I
will tell you what they were ruthless
they wanted a huge referral fees huge
referral fees the ones that I the ones
that I dealt with and so I said you know
that’s not a sustainable model and
that’s what the other thing that I found
was that there was actual turnover in
the in the estate plan or business a lot
of turnover there’s a couple you know
two three four maybe of solid you know
these guys have it down and they’ll be
doing this for a long time but there’s
you know a ton of other people who come
in and say hey this is a good idea let’s
be estate planners so you know as long
as I don’t okay what do i do how do i
how do i you know get in front of people
that need my service my expertise as a
probate specialist as somebody who
understands the emotions and the you
know the tragedy of it all you know
whether it’s you know mom or dad not
being able to live in their home that
they’ve lived in for thirty plus years
you know the family home or you know
somebody passing away you know in some
cases suddenly okay and so I was just
had to think about it I said well you
know I you know I gotta put myself in
the flow of the river okay and the flow
of the river so where is all of this you
know flowing where are all these
transaction and these people
where are they going to
you know end up and you know for me one
of the things that came up was these
seniors living facilities you know or
assisted living facilities and you know
actually as I started researching that I
started you know hanging out and talking
and doing some networking stuff I found
out it was actually a pretty good option
but we had to be very careful because
some facilities were very reluctant to
give any kind of referrals you know they
didn’t want to have an implied
endorsement of this agent oh you should
use this agent this agent messes
everything up and now they take on the
liability of giving a bag referral right
and so you know but still it was it was
still a good on a good option it’s still
a good way good idea to make a
relationship with those people in those
facilities and I was introduced to the
moving coordinators you know for some
for large facilities they have some one
or several people in-house that will
actually help people you know on the
outside helped that have a coordinate
their move their transition it’s not
just moving like getting a truckload
stuff up and come over but it’s a
transition right in that transition
oftentimes includes how they’re gonna
pay for the assisted living facility
where does that come from a lot of times
it’s the house right and so oh good real
estate agent is part of that thing right
the smaller lower income facilities
those you know types of referrals are
done by the management directly so they
don’t have like a separate you know
staff that handles just the just the
moving is stuff like that and that’s
okay but you know by connecting with
these moving coordinators have proved to
be a good option and even though in some
cases they wouldn’t promote me directly
sometimes it would but
you know some kids they wouldn’t because
like I said the liability thing most of
the time they would still put me in
contact with the homeowner or family
members even if they did it indirectly
right in directly you know like they
might call me and say hey Anthony you
know what these people asked me to have
somebody called them or Anthony you know
you might want to go check this out
now I don’t know where that fits today
in the whole HIPAA thing and all that
stuff I’m sure there’s a lot of lot more
restrictions and so you know be careful
about that back then it was a little bit
more more loose but still these people
are connecting you with with these
families um so there’s a trick to
working with these movement coordinators
on it and there’s definitely a wrong way
to do it and there’s definitely a right
way to do in fact like anything there
was a learning curve I had to figure it
out it didn’t take me long though
because I had a good grasp on how to
identify the needs of those individuals
and how to get them eagerly on my side
when I say those individuals I mean the
movement coordinators I wanted them on
my side for obvious reasons right and
you know to learn those details just
visit the probate agent comm and
download our free report and you know it
will cover that if you go there now
at the time of this recording the site
is not finished being revised so just
check back and and when those reports
are available they’ll be there for
download anyway um you know once I
figured that out I was back up on top
again but here’s a play thing it was a
very few of these referrals that I was
getting were actually probates
they weren’t even probates you see while
I do still take probate referrals today
I decided to put myself right smack in
the flow of home sellers long before
they ever became a probate and by doing
so I’m picking up most of the properties
that are in trusts this is before they
died
okay there’s no public records for this
there’s no data source out there that
can predict when this will happen you
just have to know how to put yourself in
the right spot at the right time
see it’s expensive for someone to move
into an assisted living facility if the
family wants a good quality of life for
their loved one the number one thing
that they usually use to pay for it
as well it’s their house right I mean
you can get that right and usually
they’re in a hurry isn’t that true
and often times because the assisted
living facility has a time frame that
they must have the home sold in order to
allow them to live there and you know so
they can’t leave it on the market
endlessly in hope of squeezing every
last penny out of the deal you know some
facilities they’ll let somebody move in
for a period of time and say well you
know 90 days or 60 days or whatever you
have to have the household there tying
it to the house but they don’t want to
risk sitting there all for a long period
of time and then having a market shift
or something like that and now they
can’t get their money from the house
okay so there’s a time limit there is a
time limit and there’s urgency but
here’s the problem is if you’re just a
regular old agent just like the tens of
thousands of agents in your existing
area and you walk in you try to get in
with these moving coordinators you know
they’re gonna be courteous they’re gonna
listen to your pitch and they’re gonna
say it was a pleasure meeting you and
they’re gonna shake your hand and thank
you for coming by and they’re gonna take
your stack of business cards they’re
gonna wave at you politely on the way
out and you’ll never hear from them
again never why it’s all about
specialization
it’s all about being a specialist and so
even though you can sell a house just
like everybody else can if you do not
have a specialty and I’m not talking
about having designations tagged onto
the back of your name on your business
card I’m talking about specialization
real specialization like what we’re
talking about here becoming the probate
agent for the area that you’re in guys
we’re gonna cover that in an upcoming
episode take care
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put the pro back into probate
