Since we had the hurricane, Milton last week, we've had some, inconsistent, Internet here at the office for whatever reason. I don't know if they're working on things in the area or whatever is happening, but sometimes we are losing connectivity as you just saw. So we will make it through today, and we'll go from there. So my name is Matt Hodge, executive vice president here at LPT Realty, joined by Lewis Fuhrman, our my co VP, and who is also a real estate attorney. And, we have worked together for actually quite some time. And for those who don't know this, Lewis and I, when we first were into real estate got into real estate, Lewis was negotiating short sales, and I was selling the assets. So he would go to the judge and, and and negotiate with the bank in terms of the payoff amounts, you know, negotiate the the seller staying inside of the home. And then, of course, I would then negotiate the contract, put the house on the market. Listen. So that's how him and I first started, working together. That was over a decade ago. A decade. Same. Yeah. And we were doing a lot, man. We were doing, like, twenty, thirty houses a month. They weren't necessarily selling that quickly, but that's about how quickly we were we were listing them. So, we've seen a lot of real estate cycles, I guess you could say, you know, from the bust where pretty much I'd say, one out of every three houses was a short sale or foreclosure or REO property. Now that makes up a very small part of the market. But during that period of time, what ended up happening was is that the way we were able to procure that business and really kind of solidify ourselves as that is that we would show up differently than other realtors. So at the time, the biggest need was a lot of people who were, you know, maybe trapped inside of their mortgage sorry, Trapped inside their home because they, owed more on the property than what they could sell it for, and they had a genuine need to move. So it wasn't just like, hey. I can't afford my house anymore. It was like, hey. I need to move to, you know, Texas. I live here in Florida. I have a new job opportunity or whatever, some life event, and I need to sell my house. And I don't have a way to actually sell it because I owe more on the house than what it's worth at that time. And, and so that was a crisis for some some other people. They couldn't afford it. So there was all these different scenarios. And so what Lewis and I did was show up differently understanding that that was gonna be a large part of the market. And so we're gonna talk to you today about things that you can do to show up differently that are gonna help you procure whatever type of business you're looking for, whether it's you wanna be in luxury real estate or you wanna be a waterfront specialist or first time home buyer. Whatever you wanna aim that at, we wanna talk through how to show up differently. So with that said, Louis, I can turn it over to get your initial thoughts. Yeah. So this is just a a a very important topic because this is probably the area in our business practices that could really help jump start how much production we can do at any given time. Mhmm. You know, what we notice is agents who do incorporate this theme of showing up differently in their fundamental principles of their workflows see a drastic increase in their productivity. And what are fundamental principles? Right? Like, how to do CMAs, how to do market analysis, how to tour homes, how to negotiate con like, those are fundamental principles in real estate, but a lot of agents neglect this showing a different, you know, strategy or having some purposeful approach of incorporating how to show up differently when you are communicating to your customers and consumers. You know, for agents who are relatively new in the business, like, we're oftentimes very much caught up with, you know, understanding the basic fundamental principles. Like, how do I do a CMA? What is the process of me doing this research? How do I go into the MLS and locate properties to be able to give an appropriate value to my to my seller during a listing presentation? And then we go into this listing presentation. We go in there with the confidence because we're doing the, you know, standard fundamental principles, and we leave there, and we didn't make ourselves any more unique than anyone else. Right? We went to that presentation. We did the usuals. We did our introductions. We did our CMAs. And sometimes we're trying to bank on winning the listing by maybe telling the seller maybe what they wanna hear. Maybe we're giving them a valuation that's a little bit more premium than what they've heard with other agents. But the way to really help with that level of conversion is by showing up differently to that property. You know, setting you're like really solidifying your position. Right? Solidifying your approach because that is what's gonna make that seller choose you over someone else when they're analyzing multiple agents. You know, imagine when you go to a listing presentation, you're probably one of many. You know, there are other agents that come before you. There's gonna be agents that come after you. And if you're not doing things that are going to leave that long lasting impression to the seller that's outside of the normal fundamental principles, you are decreasing your likelihood that they're gonna pick you because someone else is gonna come around and lay some type of value or or some type of distinguishing factor that's gonna have the seller choose them maybe more likely than they are going to ultimately choose you. So showing up differently is a theme that I would recommend. I mean, this is a great topic, but it definitely is a theme that I would recommend that we incorporate on a on a daily in our fundamental basics as we're strengthening our skills and growing in this industry. Like, we wanna always make sure that whenever we're approaching a situation, don't forget that one bucket. Yeah. How do we show up differently to this opportunity, to this circumstance, to this situation? So we're we're gonna talk through some of those things, that great great intro, by the way. We're gonna talk through some of those things because we've got tools within here at LPT that allow you to do that. But one thing that you said I thought was really interesting, which was something that we know happens frequently When we are on a listing appointment and you are trying to be the real maybe they've interviewed multiple realtors and you are trying to maybe look differently or or show more value. Sometimes we end up saying, hey. The house is worth more than what we really probably know it's it is is really worth. Right? Hey. I'm gonna get you this premium. We know that that is something that happens. Right? Because you see houses that list, and sometimes it's driven by the seller, them saying, hey. Listen. I wanna make sure my house list for a million dollars. You're like, yeah. It's only worth nine hundred thousand. But sometimes it's driven by the realtor trying to secure the business. And so one thing that you can do in this particular circumstance is when you're talking about showing up differently when, you know, you go there with some of the tools, and we're gonna walk through these things today. When you go there with these tools and you're showing value, that is what creates that different look and that different approach, not having to go there and inflate the value of the property so that the the seller thinks that you're bringing more value. So key thing. And that's why when you do this correctly, you actually sell more listings faster. And you hear every advertisement try to say, hey. I'll sell your house for top dollar and faster than anybody else. The real way that you do that, of course, is one, by starting by listing it at the appropriate price. But two, that to avoid having to over you know, increase the price based on, on that, it's about showing up with these these tools. So let's start with oh, you're gonna get some Yeah. No. Because because it's funny because it is like that shift in, like, how we look at the strategy. Because the it it's funny because by going into that listing presentation, and dollar amount, you're really doing what everyone else is doing. Like, that's not making you any different, except what you're gonna do it faster. Right. You know, someone else at sixty days, you're saying forty five days or someone else at three hundred thousand and you're saying three fifty. Like, at at the end of the day, it's still the same thing. Right. And and oftentimes, we get caught up with, I'm gonna win this listing presentation because I'm gonna show the seller that I can do it faster and I can get them more money. Well, that's what everyone is doing. When they go to that listing presentation, it's showing the seller how they can do it faster and how they can get them more money, you gotta do things that are beyond that. Again, you're not gonna neglect that. Like, you still gotta show them how quickly you're able to move the property to meet their goals, and you're gonna meet in the time frame, and you're gonna educate them where if you wanna be on the higher end of the spectrum, then maybe you need this much time versus the like, all of that is still part of the basic principles, but you can't go in there with just that because you are neglecting that other fundamental principle of showing up differently because that is how everyone else is showing up. That's right. So so and and and this piece here that we're discussing here today is the piece that will likely impact your businesses that much greater because the moment you go there with different things, as Hodges about to introduce here, you know, with the tools that we offer here at LPT Realty, like, you are setting yourself apart from other agents when they're attending these presentations. Yeah. So let's let's start with, like, the active marketing plan. You know, if you have gone on a listing presentation recently, and you have used that, you know, because some people, they kinda, like, place it there. They don't actually walk the the seller through that. They're gonna go through their CMA, and it's just kind of this extra collateral. They're not really using that to and and to your point to show up differently, you're not really getting the full benefit of it. But, like, let's say the active marketing plan, you know, knowing what is inside of the active marketing plan is so important. Right? Because anytime that we're on a listing appointment, we are actually referencing that. And and so what you'll do is, you know, you'll you'll do your assessment of the house. Hey. Let me walk through the house. Take a look at its condition. Yada yada yada. Let me walk you through the CMA. Okay. Here's kind of like where the value range is based on what the market is telling us. You're right. I never say this is what your house is worth. I always say, basically, I'm interpreting what the market has has shown us in the past. Here's where similar homes have sold. You know, here's a price range where you can expect to find interest. You know, where do you think that you land on the scale? Okay. So you've gotten past that piece. Now let me walk you through the strategy of how we're going to do that. And this is where you're gonna look different. Right? Because everyone's gonna do the first part of that, which is assess the home, give them the CMA, give them the the opinion of value, and then now they're gonna talk about the strategy of how do I actually sell or create that this atmosphere where your house is gonna sell for more or multiple offers or whatever that you're saying. And so when you look through the active marketing plan and it it it's, you know, it walks through how to find that additional fourteen percent. And that fourteen percent again is lends itself to the idea of showing up differently. Hey. Most people are just gonna do this. They're gonna put a sign in the yard. They're gonna put their house in MLS. They're gonna take photos of the property, and this is what that's gonna get you. But to get to this other group of people over here, this other fourteen percent of people, here's the additional things that we can do, which is door hangers. And, you know, you can you've got the full packet there. But, again, utilizing that as the strategy to go inside of there and not just saying, hey. I've got this magazine. Take a look at it whenever you get the chance. You know, it's it it helps out quite a bit in that that, listening interview process. Yeah. I mean, when we're looking at the strategy, we gotta look at it from the lens of we need to overwhelm our client with distinguishing factors at all times. That's right. And, yes, you know, we can overwhelm them one way by, you know, the leave behind. Hey. I have this magazine. I'm gonna walk out the door. I'm just gonna drop the magazine on their kitchen counter. Yes. It's facial recognition. They're gonna see me when they're interviewing others. They may ask the questions. If it's the, you know, nine critical questions, whatever the case may be, take it the next step further. Right? Overwhelm them with distinguishing factors. Walk through how are you able to get them more money. The magazine shows you how to do that. Like, there's information inside there with content. Talk about it. You know, be that resource. Educate your customers. I can guarantee you nine of the other agents that went to that listing presentation out of ten are not doing that. They're just saying, I'm gonna get you this value because this is what the market is telling me. Correct. I'm gonna help you sell the property faster because of this fourteen percentile that is talked about in the active marketing plan. What are other agents doing? Well, I think the time on market is this value and the market is dictating this speed. Like, show them that you are doing that extra effort. Again, but wait. There's more. You know? But wait. Here's my strategy to tackle this fourteen percent. But wait. Here's my strategy to get you the highest value. But wait. Now I'm gonna leave behind this magazine. But wait. Here's the magic white box with all these two and Right. Overwhelm them with distinguishing factors. Because at the end of the day, you don't know what will click with the consumer. You know, psychologically, different things may land very differently with different individuals. And if you go in there overwhelming them with all of this value, all of these distinguishing factors, you know, you may have ten things that you presented, but maybe five of them landed, but you wouldn't know those five if you don't do the ten. Right. Right? Like, you gotta go in there and just overwhelm with the level of value that you're ultimately offering to the seller, and that is what's going to increase your likelihood of being able to succeed. And I I can guarantee you, like, if you go to a listing presentation and you show that level of value to your customer, I don't see how they're not gonna hire you. Right. You know, I I don't see how you're not gonna be able to negotiate your your best commission rate relative to somebody else. You know, now you're gonna compete with others. This other person is offering the same split as you, and you're giving them so much value relative to that agent. Like, why would they hire that other agent? And that's when you get the question of, like, how much is this gonna cost me? Like, how much more is this gonna cost me? You're like, well, actually, it's included in, you know, whatever percentage that you're gonna say. Hopefully, you're saying three percent or more. You know, and, and that's how that is done. I always when I hear that question, like, okay. But how much is this gonna cost me? I'm like, I got them. Yeah. Yeah. They're sold. And and there's another art there too. Right? Like, how do you how do you deliver the messaging? Right? Like, how do you organize the the the listing presentation? And we probably gotta do a a a topic of that in Real Estate First Friday. Like, what's maybe the best way or tactics to, like, lay down all of these distinguishing factors and really show the seller, like, how to you know, how how you're gonna be different than others. But for today, it's really, like, just this concept of, like, understanding that you have to go in there and overwhelm and, you know, distinguishing from not just showing faster and more money because that is not distinguishing. Like, that is the same as everyone else. You will do different by doing these approaches, and don't just stop with, let me show you a box. Don't just stop with, here is a magazine. That in and of itself is good. Right? Like, you already are in the right track of distinguishing yourself, but dive into it. Like, flip the pages. Like, go into those reports. Like, talk to your seller. Like, they're now can use that as a summary, not as the the the initial introduction to the content. And so, you know, when you think about that on the buying side of the transaction, I was speaking with my brother the other day, and, you know, it's kinda asking him, you know, how things have changed since the, you know, post settlement of, the NAR settlement. And I speak with a lot of people asking that same question, but something that he said was, pretty impactful for me, which is that, hey. You know, I do a buyer's consultation with every single person now, and I haven't had anybody not sign, and I haven't actually he's retaining more buyers than he was before because we've all had that person where maybe they start the transaction with you, they look with you, then maybe they've I don't know. They click online and some other realtor gets the lead. They show them the house and then you lose the sale. Like, we've all been in that scenario. But he says since then, he's since he's implemented this buyer consultation where he goes and he walks them through, hey. Let me walk you through. We're still, you know, in a fairly high interest rate environment. I'm gonna walk you through this. I want you to digest this. We're gonna go through some of the key concepts, and then I'm gonna leave this with you for you to be able to walk through it and understand. Call me with any questions. And what we'll do is I'll set up a time for you to, you know, ask me any questions that you may have. You know, in two, three days, we'll we'll set up fifteen minutes or whatever. You know, he makes a future appointment from it. But, again, he's using that magazine to do this consultation, to walk them through the information, to let them know, hey. Here's what it's gonna look like for us to work together. Here's what the home purchasing journey is going to look like in this environment, and here's the best ways for us to be successful to help you with your goal. When you set yourself up that way from the very beginning, your the likelihood of that person going to someone else who they just click a button with on the Internet, it's almost, you know, it it's almost completely gone. And so, you know but if you haven't built that value upfront or if you've just been like, hey. Yeah. Let me show you the house. This is you're giving the basic information on the house. Again, that person doesn't see a lot of value there. It is very easy for them to find another realtor who's just doing the same exact thing. But, again, showing up differently, having that consultation saying, hey. Let me let me walk you through why it's important for us to meet just for a few minutes for so that we can come up with the best strategies on how to help you purchase a home in this market because what was working two years ago is not what's working today. The things that we're negotiating today are not the same things that we were negotiating a year ago. You know, you give them that little piece to help them understand why it's important to meet with you. And then again, we know that what eighty percent of the people work with the first realtor they actually interact with. Not the first one they talk with on the phone, but the first one they meet Yeah. In person. And so those things are very important. But showing up differently in that sense, again, helps you close more transactions, have less attrition, and, you know, ultimately inspire more referrals. Yeah. I love how you talk about that. You know, this concept of, like, challenge like, when you're delivering a message, delivering it through the lens of, like, challenge and solution. Like, oftentimes, we wanna spit out the solution. Right? Like, hey. Here's how we're gonna solve. Here's how we're gonna solve. Here's how we're gonna solve. But the seller or the customer may not understand that this is a challenge that exists. And when we're communicating the resolution, it's very effective to first start off that dialogue by highlighting the challenge. Right. Right? Like, you we we have these, you know, for the buyer broker, additions. We have the buyer power packs, and we have these handbooks to help this the the buyers organize their home search process. Like, highlight that challenge. Like, hey. One of the biggest challenges when searching for homes and when we're going on a tour is organizing the properties that we're gonna be coming across. You know, properties are going to be bleeding together. We're gonna start, you know, forgetting maybe where properties are, where we may forget, you know, what advantages some properties have over the other. I've developed a tool to help you organize your process as we're going through the home buying process that I'm gonna work together with these tools to help you organize it so we can make sure that nothing is slipping through the cracks. Right? Like, highlight that challenge. Highlight the challenge and then hit them with the solution and just incorporate that rhythm when you're, you know, highlighting the tools and these distinguishing factors to your customers. Let them understand why you're doing this. You know, sometimes it's easy to just show them the why or or show them what we're doing, but not the why we're doing it. And the moment that they start getting programmed with these challenges, it's funny because then when they go to the next presentation or the next buyer auditions, they're gonna ask their agents how they're overcoming these challenges, and they're not gonna be prepared. They're not gonna be prepared to answer those questions because they haven't thought about it. Right? But you are, and you're planting those seeds to make it that much harder for that next person to come around. And even for people who came before you, if you plant those seeds, the seller or the buyers are gonna say, why didn't the other agents think about these challenges? Why didn't the other agents understand that these are dynamics that exist in this process? This person understands it. They're looking around the corner. They're understanding the challenges that are to come. That in and of itself is another distinguishing factor because you are educated and you are being that resource to your customer. And if you think about this, you know, when you are at this place where you wanna say, hey. I wanna charge x amount of compensation, maybe you're going past what was traditionally considered full commission to three percent. Maybe you're doing the four or five percent. You know, when you think about that, you have to show up a little bit more professional, a little bit more structured and organized. It can't just be like, hey. I'm gonna show you these houses. I'm gonna help you get preapproved. I hope you find your dream home. Let's go. You know, like, that's not gonna get you very far. But if you really say, hey. Listen. We're gonna sit down together. We're gonna walk through this. I'm gonna understand kind of your particular scenario, what your financial condition is gonna be. You know, we're gonna couple of strategies for all of these things because at the end of the day, I'm cons you're consulting with an expert. It it's so much easier to have a a a conversation excuse me, a conversation around compensation. That was a tongue twister. That was a bit. But it's word with a woodchuck jacket. Yeah. That's so funny. But, you know, it's it's so much easier to have those conversations when you are coming from that vantage point. Right? Like, hey. I'm an expert. I'm walking you through strategies. I'm educating you on the market. I'm showing you solutions onto things that you can be most successful with your journey. I'm, you know, basically showing you potholes that you don't see coming quite yet because, hey. When we go out there, we start looking at houses. It is sometimes difficult to remember what you liked about the home Or sometimes you, you know, remember features because they all start to blend together. You think something exists in a house and it was really a a previous house that you saw. So we're gonna come up with a method so that you can accurately remember, you know, what you thought about each home. And then as you start to dial in on what you like about each house, then we're gonna tailor our search to find more of that. You know, like, you're walking them through this entire thing. It's so much more difficult for someone to come in and, you know, interject themselves inside of that relationship. Yeah. No. I I I love that. Right? Like, going going to this notion of negotiating your commissions and negotiating your worth, when you overwhelm with value, it makes it that much easier. And sometimes we have to think about, like, how it happens in other industries or even, like, in our own personal lives. Like, when we go buy a product, right, and it's a product that we're looking to research. It's like, hey. I'm comparing this product versus this product. And there's a product that, you know, maybe we have no experience with it at all, but it's a little bit cheaper than this product. What do you start asking? What is wrong with that product? Are things if they're not manufactured correctly, this it it may be manufactured the same, but the value is there. Like like, there's this, like, psychological value that comes with the fact that it's a little bit more expensive. So now imagine you're you're you're doing listing presentations. Right? And you're competing between another agent who's maybe wanting to show value by, you know, racing to the bottom and charging a one percent commission to handle the listing. And all they did was say, hey. I'm gonna sell your property this fast and for this much. Goodbye. Thank you. Hire me. I'm cheap. Mhmm. And then you come in and you just overwhelmed with value, and you're at that three percent. When that seller's thinking about who to hire, they're gonna say, well, now I understand why this guy's one percent. Like, look at what the three percent guy does. Like, this is what I'm getting for that premium. Here's what I'm getting for that value, and it's just justified. And it and it relates to buying personal products, you know, in other industries. Like, it's the psychological thing that comes with, you know, that aspect of it, but you have to be there to justify it. You have to go in there and show your value. You You can't just go and say, hey. I'm worth three percent just because I'm worth three percent. Like, you gotta show the value, and you have to go in there with that organized purposeful approach. If not, like, you're not gonna increase those odds, but you gotta go in there, like, just overwhelming with value. We can't emphasize that enough. Like, that is by far the piece that's going to help you propel your businesses much greater than what they are today. And, like, if you think about you you talked about, the way that we purchase and reason through things. Right? You can be at a store and there can be a name brand. Right? And then there can be, like, the store version of it Yeah. And it's cheaper. And you're like, yeah. It's probably not as good. And then you look at the ingredients and it's literally the exact same thing. Yeah. But because you've got this trust in the brand, right, with the only thing I only thing I did that doesn't work with is ketchup. Like, you have to go with You gotta You gotta go to Haines. Is that what you mean? Yeah. You can't get around that one. There's And that could be psychological too. Right? Like, we may just be like, oh, it it it doesn't have the same logo, so it just tastes different. No. Right? But in reality, it says Ketchup. There is a difference. There is a difference. But, anyways I put that on cereal. Cereal can say it's Maybe maybe cereal. It's the same. But, you know, outside from that, though, it literally can be the same exact thing. And just because it's cheaper, it's a brand that you don't associate with. You're like, nah. You're just gonna trust the brand that you know. And so, again, it's not always just about saying, hey. My value is by doing it less than others. Sometimes it's about actually bringing more to the transaction, more expertise, more negotiating skills, you know, a better experience. Like, that is what can can do it for you. So real quick, we we're about at time, but I wanna talk about something real quick, which is a luxury preferred network. We're actually gonna start a webinar here in just a few minutes, talking about luxury preferred network. With inside of that luxury preferred network, if you're unfamiliar with what it is, actually, let me send the link out right now for you. I'll put it in the chat. If you're unfamiliar with what the luxury preferred network is, it's basically, a subscription based service that is here at LPT, and it's where agents who are either, you know, working in the luxury space or would like to be working in the luxury space have, prospecting tools and and, you know, specialized training, to to operate in the in the luxury space. And so we're gonna be walking you through what that is here. Let me put the let me put the link in the chat for you. But from recently, what we have had from the luxury preferred network is, in about last forty five days, about eight hundred and fifty million dollars in new listings from new construction projects. And the way this is this coming about, they're either selling the developer the land or, there you know, it was one particular case that of developer saw the luxury collection, marketing. It was like, hey. Where'd you get this from? How does this work? And so ended up doing a community version for that. And so it's really, really a great way to understand, you know, different parts of real estate because real estate isn't just about, hey. I sell one house to one person. Sometimes there are other deals where you can do triplexes. You can do entire communities. There are that there is that option. So we're gonna be walking you through exactly what is inside of luxury preferred network and how our agents are being so successful in the luxury space. I'm gonna put it inside of the chat real quick. This is the link here if you're interested. That's gonna start right now at about at eleven thirty. We're gonna walk you through the luxury preferred network offering where, again, you have specialized tools. So you have prospecting tools. You have tools to market the property differently once you do actually have listings, and then we're gonna walk you through exactly how to find these new bigger deals where, we just had, like, you know, a couple of agents take four hundred million dollars, in exclusive listings in an in a condo in Destin. Right? It's split between three agents, four hundred million dollars. So, again, a great way for you to continue to grow your business. So that's gonna be, happening right now. And so luxury preferred network, we would love to see you there. If not, we will see you on this Monday for motivational Monday with Robert Palmer. So we hope you guys enjoy the content today. Think about if you do not know what's inside of your magazines, if you've got this material right now sitting there, take some time to to, you know, take a quick breeze through and incorporate that when you're speaking with your customers because, again, it does set you differently. You won't know the benefits until you start utilizing it. And you will see on the buying side, you will see higher commissions, you will see, you know, less realtors being able to come over and take over your business, and then you definitely will see higher conversions on your listing side. So definitely take the time to go through the market material that you've got already in your hand. Don't just leave it on your desk. Yep. Absolutely. Alright. We'll see you guys on the other side.