Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey everybody. Welcome to Ed and Ken's mini podcast.
This podcast, in case you haven't figured it out, is for realtors and real estate agents, anyone in the real estate community.
I think that we're bringing value to both loan officers and real estate agents anywhere in the United States. And I feel like, Ed, I feel like it's important for me to say that, right? Like, I always got confused when Pizza Hut and Taco Bell got together and I'm like, is it a Pizza Hut? Is it a Taco Bell? Like, nobody ever communicated that to me before they made the decision. Like, I felt like I need some explanation as to why Pizza Hut and Taco Bell are being sold under the same roof. And I feel like that's what today is about. I'm here to tell everybody, yes, Ed's Pizza Hut on Taco Bell.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: All. All I know is I want the salad bar from pizza hut on McDade Boulevard. No avenue right now.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: The Pizza Hut salad bar was next level. I thousand percent with you all. You could eat me and my brothers ate it all.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: And then I would take my dates to putt putt right up the street.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: See that? That's a win, win in the 80s, baby. Yeah.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: I don't know what this is. All I know is I cannot give you any audio visual experience because the beautiful mic that you recommended that I buy has been unplugged for the last 10 days and I didn't even realize that it hasn't been working. So I hope I sound yet.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Here we are.
You know, I.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Let's rip into it, baby. This is so much fun.
Let's start with this. I love that the videos you're doing on Trigger leads. What?
[00:01:40] Speaker A: On a mission, man. What's that? I'm on an absolute mission.
And for the real estate agents that are listening to this, I feel like you're the answer. Because by the time someone comes to us, they want to get pre approved and we're left with a couple of options, right? One, we either tell them, hey, go to opt out prescreen.com before I run your credit. Takes about five days and we'll do your pre approval five days from now. That's no good. Or let me run your credit and then you're going to get crushed. Bombarded with phone calls from all kinds of bottom feeding telemarketing mortgage companies.
Some of them even pretend to be Princeton Mortgage or pretend to be the lender that you were working with because you could see whose inquiry it was. Don't make a mistake. They don't sell all your information to these bottom feeders. They just sell the fact that you had your credit run. All of a sudden now they want to, they want to talk to you and give you these bonafide offers when they don't even really know what they're talking about.
It's a problem in the industry and I'm on a mission to get to the real estate agent early. Anybody you talk to, the very first conversation you have with someone who says, I'm thinking about buying, go to opt out prescreen.com opt out of those calls. It takes three minutes. Opt out prescreen.com and I had a borrower send me a video. You know, you can screen record your phone.
They screen recorded and just were scrolling and scrolling and scrolling past. Missed call, missed call, missed call, voicemail, voicemail, voicemail, text messages, emails.
There was a, there was a bill in front of Congress at some point in the last six to 12 months that did not get passed, unfortunately. But I, I am absolutely on a mission. I'm triggered, I'm triggered.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: Opt out prescreen.com Opt out prescreen.com all right. Just wanted to make sure I had it right.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: I've been this, I haven't been this, you know, determined a long time to get the message out.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: You know, that's one of those things.
It's, it's, I'm, there's no, not that there ever really has been, but maybe a little bit like a non watered down version of myself.
It's things like, that's abusive, man. Like those calls. That's disgusting. It's, and it's. What gives.
There's always a few in any industry. Few, few bad apples give us all a bad name. That's gross, man. That's, that's harassment.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: It is. And it's always when rates are tricking, trickling up and these companies go, they're, they're hungry, they're, they, you know, they don't have enough business to support their, their, their, you know, platform. And then they, they start buying into these trigger leads. Terrible, terrible stuff. So. Opt out prescreen.com www.optoutprescreen.com and I don't get a commission. I'm not getting paid. Opt Out Prescreen doesn't know who Kenny Jordan is, but I know who they are.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: I love it. And I'm gonna sound like a real professional podcaster right now. It'll be in the show notes I've always wanted. Here we go.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: I like that.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Right? That way when my daughter Helen, who is the only One that watches our podcast.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: I know your granddaughter Sophia watches.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: Oh, no, that dude, she's on the payroll, so that's cool, dude. The Last Mile.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Yes. This is a topic we've been talking about here at Princeton for a while, and I thought this would be a great topic for you and I.
We with automation, AI technology, the evolution of the real estate agent's job, go back to the early 1990s. Right. The job has evolved and it's continuing to evolve. It's going to evolve again.
But one of the things that's always helped agents stay. Stay relevant, stay successful is, is what we call the Last Mile. And the Last Mile is owned by the realtor. And in our world, the Last Mile is owned by the loan officer. And what does the last Mile look like for a real estate agent? What does that mean, to own the Last Mile?
[00:06:00] Speaker B: First of all, we do have to start recording the pre recordings because the pre recordings were into it. So let me get back there. Because it was.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: We're cursing though, these name calling. We like, we got to get that out of our system.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: Dude, I have a building confessional right here. So I just step off our podcast into the confessional. I'm good. Not that I have Catholic guilt or anything. All right, so the Last Mile, it's. It's a relationship, man. And that's not a cliche.
So what are relationships need? What are the ingredients? And it doesn't matter if it's personal or professional.
And by the way, this is part of my B5 method. Build your brain, build your body, build your business, build your brand, build your bonds. And the bonds of the relationships, whether they're with your significant other, your spouse, your kids, your business partners. And the reason why you and I are in business together is because, number one, I trust you.
Number one, you come through all the time.
Number three. And this is like, really, if we're going into. I'm not going to go down the rabbit trail of masculine and feminine energy. I feel safe and protected that I'm in business with Ken Jordan and Princeton Mortgage.
So the feeling, it's all psychology. The Last Mile is. And by the way, this isn't like manipulation. This is we. The agent has to make sure that through collaboration and communication, their client feels seen, heard, protected, taken care of.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: You know what's interesting?
[00:07:49] Speaker B: And of course, that's a. That is a, A, a A given is that the transactions moving forward, they're being represented at the highest level. The fiduciary, responsibility, all that's like, that's a Given.
But it's that last mile where they walk away. We were talking about this. Here's an example.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: The wedding, right. So you're going to get married and you want to pick a venue and you go in, you do the food tasting, you look at the ballroom. It's amazing. It's overlooking the water. Oh, my gosh. It's crazy. There's actually sailboats that go by during the, you know that. The ceremony. And it's like amazing. And the doves fly and whatever, all the stuff, right. It's like, oh, my God. Here. Yeah, here's my 200 grand. It's unbelievable. The day of the wedding, the food takes an hour to come out of the kitchen.
Oh.
All of a sudden it's a big letdown.
That's the last smile.
Or, you know, there's many examples I could give with.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: I think it's a great one. Is delivering on what you say you're going to do. And here's where automation can actually hurt you is, and we've seen it, where you have a fantastic auto communication platform, which, okay, I'm all for auto communication in certain stages of the real estate transaction and, or the mortgage transaction, but if your platform is flawed and they're getting messages that are automated that don't make sense, where all of a sudden they think the automation is, is more important to you than the effectiveness of the communication, you shoot yourself in the foot with automation. Right. So the last mile is not just, we don't mean just the last 20 minutes of the transaction. We mean also making sure that if you're going to utilize automation, that the automation is effective and relevant information at every stage in the process.
Right. Because you're trying to use automation to elevate the experience, not to, not to create questions and, and, and when the second you send an email that doesn't make sense, that's not relevant to the situation. You shot yourself in the foot. Right. So, so utilizing the technology correctly, designing the technology correctly, all of that is last mile stuff. That's. That, that's the reason you won't, as a real estate agent be replaced.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Yeah. And I'll say like with that, I'm thinking last mile and first mile.
So you and your wife come into my restaurant, I'm your server.
I'm waiting on 12 tables right now.
If I just walk by, put two glasses of water down in front of you and your wife and say, hey, my name's Ed, I'm gonna be taking care of you tonight, I'm just gonna let you know, I'm really backed up right now, but I'm going to have bread and here's some water. What can I get you to drink? And then I'm going to be back, it might be 15 minutes. Are you guys okay with that?
What are you going to say?
[00:10:52] Speaker A: Well, I'm going to say yes, okay or no? If I'm, if I'm in a hurry, then at least you'll know.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: The communication. Yeah, the communication. Last mile, first mile.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: Now there's another part of the last mile concept that we've been working on lately, and I think this goes for real estate agents too, is that you're building these relationships. You know, you have your past customer database and you're, you know, the whole holy grail of both industries is to build the referral book.
The amount of people that know you, like you, trust you, want to give you opportunities. And as you put new folks into that book, I'll speak from a loan officer's perspective first. You know, you're out there, you're meeting with real estate agents, you're communicating with them early on in the process. We, we here, we like Princeton, we like to do one on ones to learn. What is it that you're doing?
How do you operate your business? How can we be helpful?
And then you get through and then like sometimes it's just crickets from there, right? So I get age, I get loan officers ask me all the time, what do you do then? What, what's your process after you go through the, you know, the dating, let's say, and, and now you're waiting for that first opportunity. It never comes.
What's, what's missing there? And for one officer to ask that question from a real estate agent's perspective.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I, every situation's individual.
So the way that I'm looking at the relationships that I have with the Inspire tribe, with my real estate tribe, I call, We're, I'm putting together an ecosystem where we literally feed each other's families.
So, and that, that doesn't mean like a lead for a lead and just we're, of course, we're all professionals, we're all RESPA compliant. Like, let's just get that weirdness out of the way.
What I mean by that is, it is Tony Robbins calls it pitching and catching.
Every time you and I are together, we pitch and catch, right? We're making deposits and withdrawals, deposits and withdrawals, deposits and withdrawals, deposits and withdrawals constantly. We cannot have a, no one can have a one sided again. I'll just go back to relationship, right? Where we're literally putting, putting in the effort to make each other's lives better. And a lot of times that happens with leads. Now, if we, if this is the way I handle it, if we have this, this ongoing relationship and I'm looking, going, it seems like I'm making an awful lot of deposits and I haven't gotten one withdrawal.
I'm going. Communication is just clear.
I'm just going to say, hey, Sally, just looking to see where we stand as referral partners in, in our ecosystem.
That's it.
That's it. I want to find out where my partner stands, right? And I have.
You know, this is, this is real life, man. Like, I know for a fact.
[00:14:19] Speaker A: If.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: Somebody in your family or friends, whether it was Austin, Texas or Sarasota, Florida, wanted to sell or buy real estate, you would pick up the phone and call me and go, dude, who, who's your referral agent in Austin, Texas? Who's your referral agent? If you didn't already have one, who's your referral agent there?
You know you can count on me for that, right? I'm not going to, I'm not going to number one, not take your call. I'm going to get back to you right away. My ADD just kicked in severely. So if I'm going off.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: You hit on a very important point and the deposits and the withdrawals, I think that there's a. There's a resistance or reluctance to engage in that conversation because you know the difference between kindness and nice, right?
Nice person is not going to tell me I have spinach in my teeth, but a kind person will, right?
And I think that, you know, we don't want to make anyone feel bad. So it's like, hey, like, how do I say I've been making all these deposits, not getting any withdrawals. Like, there has to be a way to say it. But I think that if you rely on your intention in this case, if you're just intentional about two things, letting them know you want to build that relationship, right? Letting them know that you're open to receiving opportunities.
And I think that that's kind, especially if in the busy world, everyone's busy. It's. I have homeowners, insurance agents that reach out to me that I could refer business to. And I get busy and I forget sometimes it's not that I don't want to send so and so and I opportunity, it's just that I get busy. And I think that the magic is understanding kindness and nice kindness. Is saying, hey, I know you want to give me opportunities. I know you're busy and if you don't want to give me opportunities, hey, let's get that out in the open, right? And that's okay too. It really, really is. But if you do, I want to remind you that I'm here if you need any help. And I think that that conversation can go a long way as long as you realize you're being kind and it's not. And yes, they might actually feel bad. Believe it or not, they might feel bad. But that's okay, right? That's okay. Because you're giving them that opportunity to make it right or move on. Is that fair, do you think? That's the approach?
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Clear, clear, clear. Respectful communication. Again, just like any relationship.
It's just like, hey, I'm really sorry, but I don't have interest.
Okay, cool. No harm, no foul. I wish you all the best. However, I'm going to stop like the I love the go giver mentality.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: And it's very authentic. You can come to any training that I have for free that I'm doing over here. But what's going to stop is the one on one value ads.
That's what's going to stop. My energy will no longer be being poured out to you directly. That's what's going on, right? Yeah. And, and it's, it.
There's all kinds of psychology, but let's just say case study, I'm.
I am chasing business. And that person saying yeah, yeah, yeah, next one, next one, next one. If I chase that agent for their business for two years and I haven't gotten a deal, now I'm gonna go deep like I always do. What's going on inside is number one, I'm not sticking up for myself. Leads to low self esteem, low self belief. It's damaging, man. It's like, stop it.
Just stop it. Just say hey, I. Sometimes you gotta say, just like with a, an abusive client in the real estate world, hey, I've made a business decision.
I'm going to send you a termination to your listing.
I'm choosing not to do business with you anymore. Or a buyer. I'm choosing not to do business with you anymore. It's the best feeling in the world. Talk about self esteem going up.
One of my best mentors taught me this.
I want your business. I don't need it, Right? So I'm getting serious now. But what I do, seriously, there's a couple of agents that I'm working on to be partners. With us.
I send them pictures of Sophia and I certainly, I literally say, are you kidding me?
It's been four months.
I'm looking. You've done 20 buyer side transactions.
I'm the one that recruited you into the business.
You're really not going. Like, I have no problem lovingly getting in someone's face.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that comes with familiarity. I think that comes with the relationship. I think that level of honesty and forwardness is pre, there's a prerequisite there. But I know that's who you are as well, which is why I wanted to ask you these questions. I think you're, you're uniquely positioned to answer them from a couple different perspectives.
But I do think for load officers that are out there, I think it's important to remind yourself that everybody's busy. Right? Everybody's busy. And that by picking up the phone and reminding people you're there, reminding people you're open and receiving referrals is not begging.
It's kind. You're giving them the opportunity to remember you and that's it. That's a difficult one to get past the, the, the chasing feel, the lack of self esteem feel.
But then there's also honesty.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: Right.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: What do you say? Interrogate.
[00:20:18] Speaker B: Interrogate reality.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Reality and confront the truth.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: Confront the truth. Yeah.
[00:20:23] Speaker A: You know what, there's maybe there's people out there that are fun to have a beer with, but maybe for whatever reason, relationships and opportunities and you know, conflicts, maybe they. There's not a whole lot of business for you to get there. That's okay too.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: Right?
[00:20:36] Speaker A: Right. Like, but you have to, you have to continue to dig deep and confront the reality. Right?
The reality, yes.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: Let me ask you a question. What's going on with for sale by owners in the Philadelphia area and suburbs? Do you see for sale by owner signs?
[00:20:55] Speaker A: You.
I am shocked at the lack of for sale by owners going on is from my perspective. Maybe it's because I'm not dialed in and I don't, I don't know if that was an honest answer. I don't know if that's what you were looking for. But yeah, I don't, I don't see a whole lot of them.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: Okay. So down here, there you see probably more than up there. This is a nugget for loan officers.
If I'm a loan officer today, this is what I'm doing. I'm going to look around for. For sale by owners.
It says for sale by owner. The phone number I'm going to call and I'm going To say this, said Fordyce with Princeton Mortgage. First of all, I don't. I'm not.
I don't want to show your house. I don't want to sell your house. I'm not a real estate agent. I never want to be one.
Tell me a little bit about your house, because I may have some buyers that will be coming in through some of my real estate. Tell me about it. What's going on?
What can I do to help you market it?
Is it okay if I share it on my social media?
Great. Now I'm going to take a picture and the address.
After a month, it. I'm going to check back in with him. Has the home sold yet? Okay. What do you think is holding it back?
Okay, great. I have some experts in the area if you ever want to interview an agent. I vetted them. They're great.
That's what I would do as a loan officer right now in a market that has some for sale by owners in it.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: Load officers, if you're still listening a minute 22. Congratulations. You just got a nice little nugget there.
Yeah. All right. And what's our action item for the week?
[00:22:39] Speaker B: My action item is I'm starving. I need to eat something right now. So the actual action item of the week.
Oh, my Lordy. That's so, so freaking good. This is what I would say. The action, action item for the week is real simple. We're going old school. Brian Buffini, whether you're a loan officer or you're a real estate agent.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: Actually.
[00:23:08] Speaker B: Have two action items. Create three raving fans or strategic partners.
And there are people that you're going to say, hey, I'm looking to create some strategic partners. Ken, I'm going to promote your mortgage business.
Right. Tell me some things that I can do to help promote that for you. Can I do a podcast with you? Can I interview you? Is it cool if I come to your office and do a video? By the way, this can be done at pizzas, clothing shops, nail salons, all of that. So create three strategic partners or. And. Or raving fans.
[00:23:44] Speaker A: Love that.
[00:23:46] Speaker B: Two.
Whether you're a loan officer or a real estate agent, do yourself a favor. If not with me, do it with somebody else. Do a business audit. Get your expenses under control.
Now, I just saved, I think it was $180 a month on things that I was. I didn't even realize I was spending money on.
I mean, a CRM that I haven't used in a year. It's $47 a month.
Yep.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: Here's my action item of the week. If you're a loan officer. If you're a real estate agent, join the mission. Get on social media, pictures, text, video, whatever you got to do. Tell the world opt out prescreen.com. save your customers from the harassment of trigger leads. They're going to thank you.
I promise you that if you don't do it, they're gonna blame you.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:24:48] Speaker A: Opt out3street.com Go get it.
[00:24:51] Speaker B: I love it. Dude, you sound like you should be on an infomercial@2in the morning.com opt out3.com I know.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: I agree. Like I said, I'm not getting paid for this.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: Dude, next week I want to do opt out prescreen.com but I want you to have have like a big 1980s afro and a polyester suit and one of the big wide 80 ties from Okarno O' Hara.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: I'll hit the thrift shop up and see what they have.
All right, Ed. Have a great week.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: Yeah, man. Too much fun.
