In this episode of Keeping it Real, Frank Klesitz of Vyral Marketing and Greg Harrelson of Century 21 The Harrelson Group interview Jon Carbutti on the topic of “How to Start Your Own Independent Real Estate Brokerage”. Jam-packed with actionable advice, you’ll find this Real Geeks training will have you considering the advantages and challenges that come with creating a team and/or brokerage, and accepting responsibility for its success.
“You gotta be a little bit of crazy to start your business,” admitted Carbutti, “to be your own broker. But the right kind of crazy, the right kind of risk taker. You've got to believe in yourself and you’ve also got to have a written plan.” Listen to the story of how Carbutti went from being a top producing real estate agent to a business owner, broker, trainer, and leader of a top producing team. This Real Geeks training will show you why Klesitz, Harrelson and Carbutti agreed that “not everyone should become a broker,” but it also may inspire you to build a team.
Carbutti purchased his brokerage from his father in 2010 and recalled that he had no idea what he was doing at the time. “No one told me I was getting into the human resource business at the time,” he said. Carbutti also found that the company was filled with agents who didn't respect the son buying the business, as many of the agents had been with the company longer than he had. This required him “to step up and take a leadership role” and shift his mindset from being the top producer to being the leader and broker.
“I used to think nobody could do it better than me, and I was wrong.” Carbutti revealed. “I used to think I was the best at listing presentations, somebody else couldn’t possibly do that.” However trying to do it all and micromanage everyone else on his team was not a successful solution. He had to learn that other team members needed success and could be responsible for listing presentations and didn’t need to be micromanaged. He learned that you need to hire the right people to make systems work and that risk is a critical element to success. “Definitely do not... hire the wrong people,” urged Carbutti. “Don't be desperate to fill the seats.”
Carbutti shared that he was able to make these changes by gaining accountability through working with a coach. “I've always been a doer,” explained Carbutti. “Even if I didn't know what I was doing, I took action and I implemented.” He said that in the beginning of running his business, he “created a lot of monsters” because he started relationships based on money and thought profitability was based on volume. However, Carbutti had to reconsider his approach because his business model wasn't working. He added that he realized he needed to be a leader for his team and not mix roles, once he understood that “The agents that are in production can feel threatened by the sales manager.”
Klesitz asked Carbutti about his biggest mistake and Harrelson and Klesitz both nodded and related strongly when he said, “signing a lease with my Dad.” Harrelson added that building lease arrangements, family linked or not, is “one of the biggest challenges as the owner of the brokerage.” Harrelsoon warned anyone thinking of signing a building lease to think it through. "Be careful and be cautious," Harrelson said, “It's one of the hardest things to unwind if things start going south.”
One of Carbutti’s successful first steps was running radio ads. “Nobody in my marketplace was doing it," he said, so he signed up for three spots a week and a morning show and the phone started to ring. He shared that conversion from listings to signed contracts is over 85% from his radio ads. His call to action on the show is to call or “Google us,” Carbutti shared, explaining that it makes it easy for clients to connect.
Carbutti also shared that he’s often surprised by what interests his clients, so he tries to be consistent on all sides because it all works together and yields results. “A lot of these buyers coming in are actually sellers disguised as buyers,” he said. Then he told a story about a couple that needed help with a transaction and how he wasn’t sure how it was going until the end when the client turned to him and said, “By the way, I really like your videos…” Carbutti said he went back and reviewed the clients’ record and found that the couple had been in their system for 3.5 months, but had never responded to emails or calls, even though they’d been actively paying attention to his messaging. He then said that particular client has done six transactions since!
Moments like those teach Carbutti that he doesn’t know everything about client behavior, real estate, or how to run a team. He uses a recruiter to hire and train and says his role is to inspire and attend huddles. Talking about his teammates, Carbutti said, “I want to know the name of every single person that works at my company and I want to have a relationship with them.” It’s very important to him that his agents feel they are a part of the team. “They understand that at the end of the day, we have their back,” explained Carbutti.
Inspired by Carbutti’s methods on team building, which seems to be a cross between a team and a brokerage, or “teamerage, ”Harrelson said, “We shouldn't be trying to build a brokerage. We shouldn't be building a team. We should be following the pattern of Jonathan.” Klesitz agreed, adding, “A brokerage is an extension of your character,” which is what Frank says explains Carbutti’s success.
Our guest Linda McKissack was arguably the first real estate agent to stop selling houses as a lone rainmaker. She built a real estate team when the concept was foreign to the industry and invested the proceeds into rental property and brokerages to build a multi-million-dollar passive income stream.
Today, she owns over 110 long-term rental properties, 16vacation rentals in Branson Mo., 6 commercial buildings, 4 real estate franchises… and it all started from building one successful real estate business with the power of leverage.
You’ll learn on this show…
If you’re interested in “What’s Next” beyond selling homes for a one-time commission. This will be a smart business discussion on the “air-game” it takes to build real estate assets (brand, database, systems, people, culture, rental property, etc) to complement the “ground work” of earning commissions to pay for your lifestyle while investing the difference in passive income streams.
In Keeping it Real: How to Hire Virtual Assistants for Your Real Estate Team with Dave Friedman, Frank Klezitz and Greg Harrelson explore options for hiring virtual assistants to enhance productivity in real estate. Learn practical advice on growing a team through training and utilizing overseas talent and resources in the Real Geeks training.
Friedman explains how he grew his business and sold over 400 homes in 2020 with the help of his hybrid US and overseas based teams. Having created a business which is 93% team generated,Friedman’s insight and expertise in using virtual assistance overseas is unmatched. Listen in to hear real examples of ways to train, teach, and create systems that will streamline your business through the use of virtual assistants in this video.
Keeping It Real LIVE with Frank Klesitz of Vyral Marketing, Greg Harrelson of C21 The Harrelson Group, and Lindsey Jackson of Real Geeks examined Facebook lead-generation ads and what makes each work!
“I went through the top 100 real estate agents,” Klesitz reported, “looked at what they were running and took note of themes.” In doing so he was able to see a clear picture of what works and doesn’t work in today’s market. Accessing the Facebook Ads Library as a tool is a game changer. It can be accessed at: https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/
This episode details current ads, targeting methods, and landing pages that are generating leads right now, and explains why they worked so well. ROI and actual cost per lead type are discussed, allowing agents to have the info they need to plan and run successful Facebook marketing campaigns.
Discussing ways to retarget audiences, Harrelson also explained the basics of the advertising he runs. “For the best conversion,” he said, “I’ve been running seller leads ads. Harrelson does this by creating specialty community Facebook pages, rather than using the main company page. Jackson explained that ads can be very market dependent and that it’s best to have 20K people in each audience, if possible. She also shared that more expensive homes meant more expensive ads in most cases, due to increased competition.
Harrelson agreed about the competition and the need to adapt advertising to the market. He urged agents to not be complacent and said that even he didn’t have “magic ads,” which means his team is always testing to see what works best in a given market. Harrelson suggested paying attention and accumulating an audience of people who didn’t fill in the form (known in retail as cart abandonment) to retarget.
Generally speaking the group agreed that it was better to have the lead taken to a lead capture page with a sign up form rather than a general website page. Jackson shared that funneling leads in through a property detail page where a lead signs in through a Facebook login, results in a highly effective campaign, “especially when you’re on your phone,” she said. These ads create a pattern which has the lead returning to the site on a daily basis. When A/B testing, Jackson said that the aggressiveness of the copy is a key area for testing. Klesitz introduced the idea of dynamic creative, where the ad or ad image is chosen based on performance.
Jackson said ad fatigue is real and that you have to constantly be testing new ideas for ads. Homes with pools work really well, she explained, “but just make sure that it matches.” For instance, if you’re advertising pool homes, don’t share a picture with snow, show a home with a pool.
Klesitz shared his view on the 4 tiers of advertising.
In discussing the metrics, Harrelson knew that it cost him $2.40 for each seller lead in his custom audiences. “When you’re capturing seller leads online, you’re capturing them very early in the funnel,” he said. Adding that most people give up too soon on seller leads because they are trying to speed the process too quickly. Using a non custom audience results in a high cost per lead, between $3.50-4 per lead. More competitive areas will have more expensive leads. Currently Jackson said the least expensive cost per lead is Florida and the most expensive is in San Clemente, California.
Harrelson believes 1-3% is normal for agent ad conversion though his reporting shows that 14% is possibly convertible from all of the ads. Real Geeks clients can use the Facebook tool or reach out to RealLeads@RealGeeks.com to have advertising set up for you.
Klesitz shared his favorite 3 seller lead ad calls to action:
As the segment concluded, Harrelson reminded agents to take notes and choose one action to take and do consistently. He believes doing this each week could make a huge difference in an agent’s production for 2021, even if the changes are small.