Ep. 203: August Mastermind Replay: How to Break into a Luxury Market

Selling the Dream: A Podcast for Resort & 2nd Home Real Estate Agents

Are you working in a resort market?

If so, then you probably have seen the division in a resort market: there’s your typical real estate, and then there’s the high end luxury real estate.

It’s hard to break into that “club” of realtors who work in the high end luxury market, but this week, we’re hearing from three people who did!

Not only did they break into the luxury markets, but they also were able to be excellent at it!

This week, we’re going to hear from three people who:

• Were able to create an “in” to the market

• Became experts in what it takes to make 7 and 8 figure sales

• Understand the mindset of their clientele

These are huge, and once you start to understand how you can do those three things, you’ll be able to break into the ultra high luxury market in your area!

Join us this week for our replay of our monthly mastermind meeting, where I talk to some of the top agents working in resort markets. We’re talking to Anne Eliason, Dennis Hanlon, and Angela Zampino about how they broke into the market!

Not only are they dominating the regular markets where they work, they have broken into the top-tier luxury markets! If you’re missing get-togethers with industry leaders, and thinking about breaking into the ultra luxury market, you won’t want to miss this week’s episode of the Selling the Dream podcast!

Before we dive in: join an amazing network of the best second home agents. Make sure that you create your free profile on the Second Home Agents website? Go over and get started: it’s FREE to join. Click here to register, fill out your profile and get listed today.

Highlights of this episode:

• Tom introduces the August mastermind group meeting, the topic of discussion, and who will be sharing this month.

• Anne shares how she got into the market in Kauai.

• Anne leveraged her relationships to help make her big break: you never know when a person will decide it’s time to buy!

• Because of trust, that buyer purchased a 10 million dollar home, sight unseen.

• Mail marketing was another part of Anne’s strategy.

• Talk about your success! When you’ve earned the sale, talk about it! Show people that you are the one to pick.

• Dennis shares how he got into the luxury real estate market.

• When Dennis started selling real estate, there wasn’t a luxury market in his area!

• Angela broke into the market when she reached out to one of the top agents in the area and connected with them.

• The group talks about knowing your market, and what’s most important to your potential buyers.

• Pick an area, and learn the ins and outs of it. Make yourself the go-to expert!

• You can’t be an expert on everything, so pick something and become the expert!

• Each of the experts talk about what market they serve best, and how they allocate marketing efforts.

• Ultra high end real estate isn’t about marketing dollars: it’s about building relationships.

• Go where your ideal client is: be at the golf course, the country club. Get to know them well, and understand them.

• Anne shares how she uses tools like the iPad Pro in her business to help educate clients.

• Don’t be intimidated by all the high production content - just get out there and make it happen!

• If you do need to get into high production media, look at it as an investment into the sale of the property, whether it be a video, or drone footage!

• Other agents serving other areas aren’t competition: look at them as coworkers.

• Build your network so you can send referrals!

• Make sure that you build that network authentically and personally.

• Understand the perspective of those who buy in the ultra luxury market: money doesn’t matter, they want what they want, when they want it.

• Everyone shares what they did when they got their first big check and their best advice for breaking into the market.

• Don’t forget to subscribe to the Selling the Dream podcast so you don’t miss any new episodes! Leave a review: you never know when it will be read on the show!

Hey everybody, thank you so much for spending time with us today: would you do me a giant favor and share this podcast with fellow realtors, and leave a review. Your reviews help this podcast get shared with more people.

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Connect with our panelists:

• Anne Eliason

• Dennis Hanlon

• Angela Zampino

Connect with me (Tom):

• 2nd Home Agents website

• Facebook

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• YouTube

• EXCLUSIVE Resort & 2nd Home Real Estate Agents Facebook Group

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As always, thanks for listening. Don’t forget, you’re not selling a home: you’re selling the dream.

See you next time!

TRANSCRIPT:

Unknown Speaker 0:00

Welcome to Selling the Dream, a podcast created for and by second home and resort realtor on Tom Tezak. And each week my goal is to bring you a quick real estate tip along with an infopath interview with an industry Rockstar. My mission is to bring this cutting edge marketing tried and true sales and information about the latest technology. Thanks for tuning in. And remember, we're not selling real estate selling.

Unknown Speaker 0:28

And good morning, everybody, Tom Tezak and with Second Home Agents, and we're doing our resort our mastermind for how to bust into the luxury resort market. So there's a lot of us that are in resort markets. And then there's a luxury part of that resort market. And I just think it's fascinating to see the difference even within a resort market, how you tap into that luxury place. I know in my world, there were a few agents that sort of dominated that market and it was hard club to break into. So I want to do bring in some different agents one agent Angela is MP No, she's from Scottsdale she was in it is a team but now she's trying to re enter it on her own brand. And any Ellison is in Hawaii. She moved to Hawaii about eight years ago and quickly made her way right into the luxury market. And everybody started looking and saying who the heck is this chick? And she's made a great name for herself in the high end market. Dennis Hanlon. Dennis handlin Hanlon is in Salt Lake City. And I just heard somebody heard

Unknown Speaker 1:32

parkson, not Salt Lake City Park

Unknown Speaker 1:34

City. And he is been in the service industry and been in the resort market for years and years, created some resort groups through the mountain states, and just really has done some great stuff for the resort industry, real estate industry as well as in the ski resort marketplace. So give you an overview. But why don't you take it from the top. Let's start with Annie and he's got to bail off the call in a little bit. So let's start with Annie and sort of what you did to bust into the, into the resort luxury market.

Unknown Speaker 2:09

So my big move in the resort luxury market was that I reached out to a guy that I had worked for was very successful. And I said, I'm on kawaii now selling real estate. And because of our relationship, I sent him a card that said that because of our relationship, he immediately called me back and said, I've always wanted to buy on Hawaii. I just never knew anyone I could trust. And with as a lot of you know, that work in resort markets. I mean, you can work with your clients for 235 years before anything happens. But within a year, he had bought a home a beachfront home on Hawaii, sight unseen for over $10 million.

Unknown Speaker 2:57

So that was a party

Unknown Speaker 3:01

That, that that has never happened on Hawaii for someone to buy in that price point, sight unseen. But it was really based on our relationship of trust and an opportunity, right? There was an opportunity that I sought by the house. I mean, he really sold it a few years later, I made it almost $3 million on it. So,

Unknown Speaker 3:26

right. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 3:29

So it's always good to cultivate relationships with people who like real estate, and who like to buy and sell. Because they understand that opportunity, as well. So if you can, if you find an opportunity, and you can present it to someone like that, and they know they can trust you, then they'll act on it. So the more of those relationships you can have, the more business you can do. How did

Unknown Speaker 3:56

you capitalize on that first big sale in the first year because I think That's part of the key is that's just it's just not doing the sale. It's then how do you manage that?

Unknown Speaker 4:06

Well, within a few years, I think it was maybe two or three years later, I did heavy mail marketing to people who owned oceanfront properties. And I think it was within two years. I was the number one agent for beachfront property on quite so I did a lot of mailers and I did a lot of phone calls.

Unknown Speaker 4:33

Or how would you find them

Unknown Speaker 4:34

because as you know, you can do something really tremendous. But if you if everyone doesn't know about it, then it doesn't matter.

Unknown Speaker 4:43

Right? Because I remember you think I think you told me stories. You're all excited. It's like Hey, everybody, look at me I did this. And it was like what nobody was looking at me. Right? So All right, cool. Angela. How about you can What can you tell us about your you know, that going into that first big sale, whether it was with your teammate or how you guys pulled it off, and then what you capitalize and how you did it.

Unknown Speaker 5:04

Okay. Yeah, sure. I actually came out of the corporate world, I have a whole nother career behind me. I was in the corporate world for 18 years, I had a security clearance worked for the US government, NASA projects at the International Space Station astronauts. So to come into real estate seemed really simple. I mean, I'm just going to sell a house compared to the things I was doing. But what I discovered is I was the worst realtor ever. Because I came from a world of everything's black and white. It's all about the numbers. And what I very quickly learned is that we're dealing with human beings, and we need to have more of a psychology degree behind this. And so I through a lot of stumbling, and a lot of mistakes, found myself to be tremendously better today. 15 years I started on April Fool's Day 2005. So I've now been in it 15 years and I feel I'm in a much better position and much better at working With the people. And my first deal came similar to me. I sent out cards, five parts. That's all. I was so nervous about being a realtor who's going to buy a house for me, I'm a brand new realtor. And I had a coach at the time. And he said, just write five cards, handwritten, saying, I'm new in real estate and some of your closest friends because they're the ones that are most gonna love and care about you and want to help you get started. And sure enough, right away I had I think my first one was maybe 1.6 million. And then I was at a $5 million horse ranch. And then I listed you know, a few more things and then I ended up with a $25 million mansion. So it just, it just happens through just net for me it was just all natural, going through friends going through referrals and people that authentically wanted to help me and connected me. So I was very fortunate that way by having good relationships.

Unknown Speaker 6:54

What did you do to parlay that initial success?

Unknown Speaker 6:57

Again, a mistake. I'm going to tell you all my mistakes I love it. Exactly. Like any said, you can do something great. But if you don't tell anybody, how are they going to know? And so my biggest mistake is when you do sell that first one. announce it, share it, you know, it's embarrassing. You don't want to just talk about yourself and brag about yourself. And that's, I think, a barrier A lot of people have, especially in the luxury market, you think Who am I? But it's really important that you start showing that you've earned your stripes shirt starts showing some kind of record of your successes, and I was far too quiet about it. So that was a key thing I would say is when you get your first one, make sure to talk about it.

Unknown Speaker 7:39

I love it. Dennis, what about your face in there?

Unknown Speaker 7:43

Well, as you alluded to, I started out in the skiba since I was a ski instructor in Deer Valley. I'm in Park City, Utah, the HOMO two World Class ski resorts, Deer Valley and Park City. I started in 1989 before we had million dollar sales, I'm a very entry Because listening to Angela and Andy talking about their first sale, the multimillion dollar sale. Park City didn't even have a billion dollar sale until the later 90s. And everybody was astounded at that point, somebody would pay a million dollars for a home. Wow, what is this all about? And now, of course, is just off the charts. So I was fortunate, as I said, I came from the seed business. So I relate to my ski clients. Much like what, what Angela just talked about is I sent out letters to them, Hey, you know, I'm in the real estate business now. And he had hit rock bottom bottom. I've tried every other business. Now back in real estate, you know, out of the gutter. Yeah, right, like the next step because hopefully not that, but now I'm doing this and fortunately you know, with that They were interested in key properties. As we talked about a few weeks ago, when I was a ski instructor, I would help people find properties, I'd advise them, Hey, this is a great new project on the ski mountain, this just developed, why don't you take a look at it. And so I was able to parlay that into my real estate career. And like everybody else is saying, then you have to let everybody know about it. My brokers got a saying, Here's as if you don't tell anybody about it, it didn't happen. So you've got to know that you've got to let everybody know that. And that's how I that's how I got sorted into it.

Unknown Speaker 9:42

Perfect. Thanks, Dennis. And, you know, again, it's very common, it takes that one per first opportunity. You know, for me, it was crazy. I, I was new to the market. I was sitting floor duty on a Saturday afternoon our office wasn't even open on Saturdays. They said if you want to go there and work it was a terrible location but it was next to a Denny's and thinking I had work to do. So I went and sat for because I was, you know, hungry for opportunity. And it was three months when I was into the market into the business in Maui. Now I was. I've been doing well for 10 years in Illinois in a true blue collar market. And when I got there, I'm sitting this floor duty and this guy walks in with this gal with this ginormous hat on and he's got a jam shirt, which is a Hawaiian really colorful jam shirt on and he knows what that is. And he walks in

Unknown Speaker 10:32

and he looks at me go

Unknown Speaker 10:34

if you can show me something on the ocean that I like, I'll make your day and it was like, This is not for real. Well, it turns out that he was for real. I showed him property we negotiated we got beat out on a $4 million condo. Got sideswiped learned a lot and then ended up selling them a $7 million house a year later, but it was a great experience and you know, taking that experience and then just working my butt off and keeping in touch with them and making that happen. And that was my first foray into the market. But something else weird in the same time happened. I have run an ad right when I moved to Maui, ironically with that house that I sold that was listed with somebody else in our company. But I ran this ad and it was called castles magazine out of Naples, Florida. And they it was it was an $11 million house. And they ran the ad and they miss printed the copy and price for my listing with somebody else's. And it had it for seven $650,000 on this amazing ocean front house. And this guy calls me up and I had gotten four phone calls. And I was so apologetic, like oh my god, it was a mistake. I'm so sorry. I'm the fifth phone call. I realized, hey, these people are looking for oceanfront when they call me. So I said, Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. But what are you looking for? And so that turned into a client who flew out he says, Well I've got 13 properties in Naples. I buy ocean front. And I usually don't spend more than $5 million. And I'm going to come out and look. And he came out. And I showed him every single piece of real estate on the water in Maui. And I had no idea. But by doing that, every agent that had the listings, got to know who I was. So that allowed me at least exposure into that market, which was pretty, pretty amazing to that to this day. He's still my client. 20 years later, 19 years later, I've got he's got $18 million worth of real estate on Maui. And it's all for sale if you want to buy some. So anyways,

Unknown Speaker 12:35

story like that, Tom. And I think one of the things that we're going to come up with a lot today is this, the big thing is show up is just to be there. And it was a Christmas Day 2000 I was I would see up on the mountain in my office happens to be right on the resort. And I had come down and I was sitting on my desk Christmas Day or offices close. But since we're right on the mountain, I kept on My ski equipment was right there in the office. Perfect workout. Take a couple of runs at lunchtime, come back. So I'm sitting at my desk just relaxing about two o'clock in the afternoon after a ski day. took up my ski suit. I'm sitting at my desk in my turtleneck, longer underwear. And this lady walks in. fortunate enough, I kept the door open. She comes in from Mexico City. happens to be her family is Corona beer. Oh, wow. No idea at the time. And she starts talking to me about real estate. Here I am in the turtleneck, long underwear. Talking to this lady found real estate Five days later. Have you owned a $5 million home with your family? I love it.

Unknown Speaker 13:43

That's it just being there is is the key is being able to talk about the inventory too. And that's one of the things I don't have in our question list. But I guess that's a great, let's segue right into that knowing the inventory. Angela, Annie, what do you guys do to keep on top of the inventory? I think Angela, you're in a way bigger. marketplace in an era or dentists. But so what are you guys doing to to know the product?

Unknown Speaker 14:07

Well, in our area, we're very similar to Los Angeles, I'm in Phoenix metro, and you can go from town to town to town and not even know you're crossing borders. So for me, it's very important to know who the specific client is and where they're focused. Because for me to pull the numbers can be drastically different from one town to the other one price point to another. So I think the first conversation is the most important because we need to be to show our knowledge, we are the market experts, but what's the market? That's the question, what is the market for that specific person? And

Unknown Speaker 14:42

that's great. You know, I'm in a tiny, tiny market. And so one of the things that's really important is knowing the history of every property, right, especially now, so many people have pulled their homes off to the market and on quiet because of COVID and visit are unable to come here right now without doing a 14 day quarantine. So it's knowing every house that whether it's officially on the market for sale or not, what is for sale I am working on three different off market deals, right. One is one is with my own listing and two are not but they were properties that were on the market so I know they're probably still for sale. So really knowing the history of every property and knowing what it has to offer your your buyer clients if that's who you're looking for. Because then you can go back and you can say, I know they're not going to see anything online they like but I remember that house that was for sale a couple of years ago, and they would love that house. So I'm going to I'm going to find out if that house is still for sale. Right.

Unknown Speaker 15:52

Dennis How about you? What do you what are you doing this? I mean, I don't I think your markets relatively small sort of like our Hawaii markets.

Unknown Speaker 15:59

Very versatile. Right We are permanent population is 5000 people.

Unknown Speaker 16:04

So what are you doing to grab the grasp of the inventory? Do you guys have caravans or dam broker opens? Or

Unknown Speaker 16:09

what do we definitely have broker open houses? And you know, for somebody breaking in, I gave you a lot of thought to your topic here of how do you break into the market? And you have to know the inventory as everybody is talking about. You have to know the inventory. But what I did, and I think, if I was to counsel somebody, how do you get into the luxury market? And I would give them this advice. This is what I did. I picked an area neighborhood and I became the expert in that neighborhood. I became the go to person. I knew all about the HOA I knew what the issues were the HOA as Andy just talked about. I knew about homes that were on the market a year or two before but had come on. What is sold by for sale by owner. agents were calling me Hey Dennis. I have a plan looking at this neighborhood, you're the person to go to on this, tell me about it. And I think that that's how that's a really a great way to break into it. You can't know you're, you can't become an expert on everything. So pick something become the person that everybody wants to talk to about it, including the owners. And then you can expand. Got

Unknown Speaker 17:26

it. And you know, and I think that are on this call that are on in bigger cities, these things that you're talking about, we could never do here. I mean, when we have every property, so like right now, for example, there are 882 Homes For Sale over a million dollars, just in my area. There's no way you could about 882 homes, and of those 45 of them only have two bedrooms. So we're just so for us to break into the luxury market. We are not super competitive. I can tell you I work in one of the best offices and We have the top agents and we are not fighting against each other, we're actually helping each other, there's a lot there's plenty to go around. So it's just really a matter of for the person that you meet, are you the best, most informed person that you can be for that person standing in front of you? I don't worry about the other agents. You know, it's really not it's not really a factor.

Unknown Speaker 18:22

I love it. I you know, and that's a different and everybody is in different markets. And that's why I'm glad we have Angela in here because you're seeing it from like, wow, this is a totally different path. You know, one of the things that I did when I first got here and I told my my broker at that point is like, Look, I want to break into the luxury market. He said, it's really hard to break into the luxury market because it's a it's at that point, it was this little old boy and old girl network. And they were five agents that just dominated it. And you they didn't want anybody else in at their party. But what he said was, and I love this idea and it worked, he said, pick up the phone and call the top Agents and tell them you would love to take them to lunch. He says, because once you know them and they know you and they know that you're smart, and you're a great agent, even though you're new to the market, when you need help when you need to find out what's available, like Annie was talking about, we have so much property that is off market, because the clients will say, hey, if you can find me a buyer and it's not even it's not this clear, you know, the new rules we have for MLS, it's these are clients that have a relationship with it, just say, Hey, you know, if I got the right price, if I was, if you had somebody I'd be interested in selling it. But there's, you know, I can call now a dozen agents and say, What do you have, and when I make that phone call, I'll find another eight properties that nobody knows about. But, but they won't tell you unless they know you. And so I think that that's so important to just take that leap if you want to bust into the resort market,

Unknown Speaker 19:50

get out there. You know,

Unknown Speaker 19:53

get to know the agents that are really doing that market and and treat them the lunchroom to dinner, whatever. It is what They are passionate, take them out golfing, and pay for everything. Because it will make a difference. And he is that what are you thinking about? I think it's the same thing in your world, right?

Unknown Speaker 20:11

It's just going to add, you know, I love what everyone has said. And part part of what we've all said is you have to know your market. So you know, what works on a tiny market is different than what works in a huge market. So know your markets. That's, you know, pivot to where, like Tom went, and he went to lunch with all the top agents to pivot to where your market is figure, figure out, what's the best approach in this market,

Unknown Speaker 20:40

and know that some agents won't talk to you so they won't give you the time of day, but some of them some of them are super gracious and super helpful to do that. And, you know, you just work with whatever you can work with. So let me let's talk about marketing, because I think that I know my marketing for my luxury is substantially more elaborate than My marketing for my traditional market let me actually let me step one back place back. There are some agents that only work in the luxury market and there are other agents that have kids in college after pay for that work any market they can get. That would be me. Let me ask Angela Do you work all range of market are you work strictly luxury luxury?

Unknown Speaker 21:18

I work everything. And yeah, all price ranges and I'm going back into luxury at this point in time. So

Unknown Speaker 21:26

any of my marketing dollars are always targeted towards luxury, but I do a lot of referral business. And those relationships are so important to me that if it's if it's something if it's something that comes to me naturally or through a referral, they get everything I have, but my marketing dollars are specifically for luxury business. I love

Unknown Speaker 21:47

it. Dennis

Unknown Speaker 21:49

yfc think my marketing dollars go towards the high end properties. But like Annie, I have big referral network and also a $50,000 A $200,000 condo, happily is a $10 million house,

Unknown Speaker 22:04

God and I do I actually market it. And I have a marketing plan for my online business. And I have a marketing plan for my luxury business. two totally different plans, and two totally different systems. But I do both. So. So anyway, back to marketing for looks for luxury. What do you guys, Angela, what is your plan to do or what are you doing?

Unknown Speaker 22:27

So I'm in business coaching with Tom Ferry group.

Unknown Speaker 22:30

Let me interject. Somebody asked who's in coaching and how long have we been coaching? So I'm

Unknown Speaker 22:34

with Tom Ferry, I've been there. I want to say it's three years now. And right, it's a great to have someone that you're talking to weekly, that is going to help you stay focused on a path. You know, it's very easy in our business to get distracted, you know, 20 days from Sunday, right? So, I've appreciated having him in my court. But yeah, it's a very different thing when, for me, I have to say my numbers are 90% Repeat referral clients I have not been advertising at all. Like, like, at all. So so but

Unknown Speaker 23:08

so your marketing plan then has been to

Unknown Speaker 23:10

to work your sphere

Unknown Speaker 23:12

100% Okay, that's the plan. Well, yeah, but I'm not as far as going after new business. You know this is going to be I'm gonna be starting a new a new tactic for that. But of my past I was like, similar to Dennis and Annie is because my network is so strong. I'm going to weddings, I'm going to funerals I'm

Unknown Speaker 23:33

anybody's wedding.

Unknown Speaker 23:34

Anybody know.

Unknown Speaker 23:36

I mean, I just mean we become friends like I am. Family, you know, you sell the kids a house and now the parents want to buy a house from you. And now they're 10 sending you to their cousin. And that has been my business honestly. So I you know, as far as the topic of marketing, I have not really been doing that. So I've been doing more of constant in touch past clients, very personal and very authentic. For me

Unknown Speaker 24:01

I would this is about new marketing, what

Unknown Speaker 24:05

are your What are you marketing? How are you doing your, your marketing to get listings. So

Unknown Speaker 24:11

this has been that I do spend a lot of marketing dollars, but in the ultra high end, it really is more about relationships and personal referrals, whether you know, wherever those are from they can come from agents, they can come from people that the person knows, but a personal some kind of personal connection Trumps anything. in marketing, when you're spending your marketing dollars, you're kind of, in my opinion going for like the one off like the person who opens the magazine and says, Oh, yes, that is the house I want and calls you up and buys the house. But usually, they've been there for a while, or they've been visiting the place for a while. They talk to someone and that person says oh you should call me because of ABC and then they and then you get the call. That way. So it's really about your relationships and your customer service. How, how good are you how good your clients know you are, you know, it's really about working your referral and your your sphere of influence. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 25:17

That is about Yeah. A lot of marketing to a golf course community to see and golf course community in the area here. And part of the thing that I did, I joined as a member. And one of the things that helped me the most is just going to social events being out there. They have a component on the ski area, or lounge area, we go in for breakfast and lunch and I make a point of going into The Breakfast Club every day. The people the members who are there get to know me, and then they're having breakfast they go, Hey, Dennis, what's happening in the market, usually from out of town, what's been selling, what's not selling. I become the person that they want to talk to that they want to see. And I do A marketing piece to live and tap into. But this is what it's you see, it's a real estate market and its quarterly. And on the inside, I do a little blurb about what's happening in the market, what's happening with the area. And then I do a comparison of sales this year to last year. For the same time period, now I have a map and I've marked where all the sales have them. And of course, on the back is my advertisement. So what this is, is this is information to the people. It's not just, Hey, I'm Dennis Hanlon, I'm the greatest agent in the world, universal parallel universes, use me, but here's something that's information informative to you. I see people having this and they come in and go against I really liked your piece there. Talk to me about that home that sold recently. It was in my neighborhood. And I think the best The biggest thing that you can do in marketing is gifting information. And I'm sorry, go ahead. I said you give them something that's useful. They a lot of more out account owners, they're not here, they sure want to know about their area.

Unknown Speaker 27:13

Right. And I think that's really great. I do a similar product where the pictures and arrows and pictures and information on a map. And what I think it's hard for, you know, in a traditional market, everybody knows who lives next door knows where the next street over is, but in a, in a resort market, they know right where their houses that, and they don't necessarily know the other locations, even though they're around the corner. So giving them that overview and a map, most most of them are 67% of Americans are visual learners. And by putting it in, in a map format, they can see why that house was more money, why that condo was less money because of the location and the orientation and the views. So by doing that, it's a huge benefit. And I agree with you I've had a lot of people say I still have every map you've ever sent me, you know, and I do. That's what I'm saying I do the maps for my traditional market. But then I do a much more elaborate map with photos of each of the houses on on the entire ocean front in the South Melbourne marketplace. And let me let me know,

Unknown Speaker 28:15

it's gonna add one thing I have to leave early, unfortunately. But one thing I've done in real time with maps is I bought an iPad Pro, it's largest iPad. And so when I'm working with buyer clients who aren't familiar with Hawaii, and they're like, well, how close is this to this so that I can just pull it up on a satellite view, and show them exactly where they are exactly where the grocery store is why this house sold for this much, but this house right over here sold for twice as much. You know, it gives them a real time information and it really does. I've closed at least three deals of doing this.

Unknown Speaker 28:54

Because when you're when you're sitting with them in person or just on screen sharing,

Unknown Speaker 28:58

when we're when we're sitting They're in person, sometimes even when we're out looking, and they're just trying to get have a better grasp of where they are, you know, if you if you have your iPad with you and you can just pull it up. You know, it answers questions they don't even know they have, but they're trying to like, process the information.

Unknown Speaker 29:18

And I think that's great because as we said, they, you know, they they know they come on to these places on vacation, they go to their favorite hotel, or their favorite condo, they go to their favorite ski hill, but they outside of that they're, you know, they just don't do that much traveling. And so they giving them that information, how far the grocery stores how far the airport is on, you know, that's part of my schpeel is, well, the grocery store, you know, Home Depot, Target, and Costco, those are the three things that become important when you live here when your guests matter. And you need to have that information I think is is helpful for them to get comfortable with what they're buying. Any I know you got to chat with your mayor, because you're

Unknown Speaker 29:57

so cool.

Unknown Speaker 29:59

Thank you for joining That's right. And if anybody has any questions for anybody, please chime in. We'd love to have you ask any questions you might have of anybody except for Annie because she's leaving. But we'll get the question to her if you've got or. So let's, let's go to, you know, then we're talking about marketing. One of the thing that I wanted to share is when I get a listing, and it's a high end listing, I look at that as an opportunity. Even if it's an opportunity to let all the other owners know the kind of marketing I do that's far more elaborate than anybody else. So when you're doing marketing, my attitude is always you should know what everybody else is marketing or whatever everybody else is creating. So have your clients be sending you the information that they're getting in their inbox, or in their mailbox. I always have one of my clients who sends me every email he gets from another agent. It comes to me so I see what they're saying. I also have clients that will give me all of their print marketing when it comes in the mail so that I can see how everybody else is marketing to the luxury market. My attitude is my stuff doesn't need, I don't need, I only need to spend as much money to be better than everything else. So you can spend all the money in the world on media and marketing. But you need to be use some kind of budgeting. One of the things that I do is share with is, it's a luxury. It's a 16 page glossy brochure. And inside of it, we create a video, and we put the video on a CD. Now that's old school. So now, what we'll be doing is putting it on a jump drive on a credit card that'll go inside of this, and it just tells the story of the house. And I think when we're marketing, we need to create the story. We need to create the avatar who the buyer is going to be and then design our marketing or video all around who we think is going to buy it. Because if we market to everybody we market to no one. So there was we have a narrow list of talking about video and who's doing video and so that's where it's leading me is creating a video on where I've just listed a real estate high end property, but it's got some, as every property has some shortcomings. It's not a family house. So when we do the video, we've decided we're going to do it just a couple, and we're just going to show it like how they would live in the house so that somebody because I think it's going to be just a couple buying it or a single person. So we're going to create that video all around that buyer. And if it's grandma and grandpa with 27 kids, they're gonna look at this video and said, that is not a house that I want to buy and we're gonna say great, because we don't want to try to appeal to everybody. So Angela, dentists are you guys doing video? And and if so, what are you guys doing? And how are you marketing it in utilizing it? For you,

Unknown Speaker 32:41

Angela? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 32:43

Okay for me, I have. I think a lot of people get intimidated. There's some really high production incredible videos out there. I don't know how much money some of these people are spending. Especially if you're in Tom Ferry, you see some pretty incredible, incredibly talented, talented people out And I would just caution, it's better to do something than nothing. And the iPhones now are so good. I'm sitting here with one of these, you know, ring lights in front of me right now you can buy some very simple things on Amazon. There are a lot of great groups on Facebook that you can, if you contact me separately, I can connect you with some that'll help you and say, what kind of microphone should you buy? What's the good thing that you can attach to your iPhone that has a little ring light on your iPhone, there are lots of great products and lots of great realtors in other markets that are completely willing to share the information. So I would encourage you to be very networked with your Facebook groups online with agents and other cities just like we're doing right here.

Unknown Speaker 33:40

Right. And you know that one group that I'm familiar with is art. tv. Yes, they're fantastic. does a great job. Great.

Unknown Speaker 33:47

Amazing. Thank you. It's fun. Love you. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 33:52

So Dennis, how you doing video and what are you doing?

Unknown Speaker 33:56

Definitely doing video trimming do video of all the list scenes that we have. And then our company does a lot of signification of that as well getting it out yourself with this company with this network. That's been very, very effective. I love to do that.

Unknown Speaker 34:12

Yeah. And I know Sotheby's has some rules and what Cindy what

Unknown Speaker 34:15

the very

Unknown Speaker 34:17

finite rules on how they syndicate some of their stuff. So you've got to be careful if you're going to start going into video, check with your brokerage, check with your franchise if your franchise and if you want it to get the kind of exposure that they can give you. It's got to fall within their guidelines. So I know that's an issue and how that works. And different markets have different, you know, qualities and levels of videographers and cinematography. I know that because we have an amazingly beautiful place. We do a lot of really great video in our market. And I'm a big fan of it. And like I said, we actually wrote, my videographer and myself wrote a story we wrote the entire storyline created a storyboard so that we can do the process and that is That's probably going to cost, you know, between photos and videos, five or six or 7000 bucks, but it's a $17 million listing. So, and it gives me a tool. And that's what I like to point out. It gives me that tool that I can put in front of the other couple hundred luxury owners that lets them see that, wow, this, this agent is marketing much differently than everybody else's.

Unknown Speaker 35:23

I don't know if you guys use drones, I would think Tom and you're probably in both of your areas, when you've got a view is very worthwhile to spend that extra something to get a drone up there. And there are tons of people doing it. You can hire for a very reasonable price. I don't do it on all my properties, but on the ones that truly do have something worth showing. It's worth spending that extra time and money doing that. Well, you know,

Unknown Speaker 35:47

that's what,

Unknown Speaker 35:48

go ahead. Don't we do the drones also, not only for the view, as Angela was saying, but also to show the proximity to the resort. Yep. I think that's important. Yeah, that's really an important.

Unknown Speaker 36:02

So yeah, I know that we'll be doing and in fact, for this new listing, I've got my, my high end videographer is not available right now. And I need to get the paper to stuff on. So I'm actually going to do two photo shoots, I'm going to do a young new kid who's just coming in with a drone and do all of that that's going to happen on Thursday morning. And then I've got my architectural photographer coming in probably at the end of the month with my, my models and my talent. And we'll we'll just do it all over again. Because I think it's in the more content people say, I've got one video and I'm done. My attitude anymore is, man, create the video. For the big picture, create the picture, the video just about the stove. It's a $45,000 stove in the south, I'm going to do a video just about the stove. Because so the person who cares about that, it's going to be something they don't see anywhere else. So don't, don't you know, videos are so powerful, but they can be such a waste of energy. And if they're long, nobody will watch them. That's my other take, you know, on the whole process. What are your guests any other thoughts on other marketing ideas of what you're doing Dennis that just clicked like boom do this do this. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 37:10

And again again you know, with our topic of how do you break into this into the luxury resort market network and it NAR NAR has a resort committee resort forums at their conventions. Your your brokerage lobby if you happen to be part of a national brokerage went to their conventions has so much business from other agents from out state. Get to know them. Hey, Dennis, I've got a clan movie The Park City Can you help them that's a fabulous way to get into it. And it's so overwhelming.

Unknown Speaker 37:50

And and Dennis I think this group right here the second home resort and Second Home Agents have created it because of that I felt that the RSP s group in nr was They really didn't do anything. And that's why my goal was to create this second home resort group independently and create those opportunities for for all of us to network amongst us, because I know that most of my high end I mean, I'm so you know, million dollar properties, that's my average sale, but that's just the nice property. But most of my four or five 610 $15 million clients, they, every single one of them owns more than two properties, they own three or four. And they the their primary residence is where they live. But the other three properties are in ski areas, resort areas, you know, urban areas. So, us as a group, we should be talking to our clients saying, Hey, are you thinking about buying a third or fourth or fifth home because I have got a huge network of, you know, hundreds of people all across the country and I use this all the time when I'm talking to my clients now, to let them know that I'm resource and with this group, we are a resource and that's what's so, so positive in this and it's not just For our super high end Lux clients, but for all of our clients that wouldn't want to have a ski resort, they want to have a beach resort or Golf Resort or golf property. And

Unknown Speaker 39:09

Janice as well, when I was saying I don't do a lot of advertising of myself, you know, out to the public, it's through things like this. I am ncrs I am envy and I and Tom Ferry. I'm in groups like this, you know, it's all about this network of realtors more than anything.

Unknown Speaker 39:27

Right. And yeah, go ahead. Exactly. You know, when I started the resort Alliance back in the 90s. I got to know everybody in the hotel resorts I can call. If I have somebody who wants to find a home in Breckenridge, I don't go to person that Jackson Hole, Lake Tahoe. I know somebody who should want to lose resorts or somebody comes to me and says, you know, hey, I'm thinking about buying a home in Park City but I also want to take a look at Aspen or Vail or Jackson. All right, let me put you in touch with Somebody there that I know personally that can help you. That just gives more credence to you. We're not competitors to each other. We're, we're co co workers.

Unknown Speaker 40:11

Right? And that's important, you know, to work together and have your network. And I think it really helps when you are talking to somebody, and immediately they say, Oh, I'm thinking about Maui. I'm thinking about Koi, I'm thinking about Phoenix. You can say, Oh, yeah, I know, Angela, she's an amazing agent over there, boom, just like that. So I think that really helps to be that have that ability to know people and being involved in that whatever network it is, whether it's, you know, rsps whether it's Sotheby's has got a group, in the resort, second home group, whatever that is being active in it is so important to keep that to build your network and to build the people you know, and be able to talk.

Unknown Speaker 40:55

Similarly, but different would be more on a personal level. Once you have this. potential clients sitting in front of you to make being able to make a personal connection with them is key. The authenticity is key. They're not just sell, sell. Use me use me. I'm the best realtor ever. It's more of Where are you going on vacation this year? Oh, you've been to Vail. I've been to Vail and you start talking about the restaurant on such and such Street. I can tell you because of my past career, because of the past places I've lived because of traveling to these conferences, to me, nine times out of 10 if I've got someone sitting in front of me, I don't care how much money they have or don't have, I'm going to be able to connect with them in some way for something very personal. Because I'm educated, I have been well traveled, there's going to be something something that you're going to be able to connect with them. So the more questions you ask about them and less about you less about you and just listen, and that you're going to find something and then there's going to be a natural connection with them and they're going to be this the whole key of this is that they will trust you. Once you build trust. You know if they tell you what their ideas are in selling their You may completely disagree with this idea that they have in their head, but just once people to trust then circle back around to that, and start tackling these things that they told you that you didn't necessarily agree with because now they're going to listen to you.

Unknown Speaker 42:15

I think that trust us, it's all about trust.

Unknown Speaker 42:18

You know, one of the one of the things and I was just as an add him think about this earlier boat, look, think about what, where your head's got to be at to bust into the luxury mindset. And I'm talking ultra luxury. I'm not talking about somebody who works hard, and they're buying a property. I'm talking about talking to that millionaire billionaire and being able to be on their level and as a realtor, as the guy who grew up in a blue collar community white, you know, worked and lived in a family that was a service industry. And everything about money was important. I had to justify and rationalize everything and I the early in my career in Maui, I was talking to a guy and I was trying to rationalize and justify being a member of the Golf Association because He could golf 28 times. And it would be essentially that every every golf game from there was free. And he put his hand up in my face. He said, Tom, just stop, and I couldn't I just kept wanting to talk and talk and talk, tell him why he should do this. And, and he said, Tom, you don't get it, Tom, when I want to you, what you don't understand is when I want to golf, he goes, I belong to two country clubs in Denver. And each one of them cost me around $60,000. And I might golf at each one of them two or three times a year. What you need to understand is, when I want to golf, I don't want to have to wait. And it took me two days to really understand what he was saying. what he was saying was, the money is not relevant to me. I just want what I want. And I think that's the biggest takeaway I've ever had in my luxury career is when you're talking to that buyer. we so often focus on the dollars because that's what's important to us. But it's not necessarily what's important to them. For those buyers, those billionaires who can buy whatever they want, or those millionaires who can buy whatever they want. It's really about, I don't want to have to wait. I don't want I want what I want. I don't want to have to deal with it. I don't want the headaches, where's the easy button, just take care of it, tell me what I should buy. There are buyers that are like that out there. And you need to be able to hear that when they're talking to you. So that for me, that's been my biggest takeaway in my career. Because when you can change your attitude on how you talk to them, and you can connect with them and understand and you'll make, I think you'll you'll that's one of the most powerful steps get into busting into that market.

Unknown Speaker 44:39

You know, I'll give you another plug here because that said is so absolutely perfect. Neither friend was she was a buyer for for the club, you know, the ski shop, very, very good ski shop here. And every fall she would have to train her new salespeople and these people, these kids We're just working for, you know wages. And you could buy you could buy a North Face jacket for $500. Or you could buy a boat your jacket for $5,000. And she had to train them to stop shopping with their wallet. Yep. Don't worry about what how much money it is. That's crazy cute. Why would anybody pay $10 million for a house, you can buy a lot of great hotels, a lot of great vacations for $10 million. It's not that it's the convenience. I want to get on the plane with my toothbrush.

Unknown Speaker 45:38

And getting in there where their heads are at not. Where you know, the other thing that I've learned in this, in this resort, the high end luxury market is when we work all the values we ask the question, you know, how much money do you want to spend or what can you afford? That's not a question I believe you should ask a luxury high end buyer. My question I love to ask that really worked well for me is, what's your threshold of pain? And then I chuckle a little bit. And it's amazing that when you ask the question, what can you afford? You'll never get an answer. But when you ask, what's your threshold of pain and you laugh, they'll just look at you and say, Well, you know, I can afford it. Or they'll say, I'd like to buy something around 5 million, but if you found me the perfect house, that was eight, I'd go for it. And now you're really getting information you can work with.

Unknown Speaker 46:26

So as we're getting closer to wrap it up, I

Unknown Speaker 46:30

I have one question that I thought was fun, because I know what for me it made a difference. But the question is when you got when you got your first big check, I mean, like the check that was way bigger than the other ones that you had ever gotten. Did you do anything special? Did you go out and buy anything? You know, what was your What was your behavior pattern? Because it was exciting for me. I know.</