Ep. 200: Create Your Dream 150

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

Back in 2008, I was really struggling.

The market had crashed, people were struggling to keep their business, and I was right there with them, trying to figure out how I could stay on top of things!

I happened to pick up a book titled, “The Ultimate Sales Machine.”

One of the concepts that he taught was the Dream 100. That would be 100 people that he wanted to connect with.

Well, you know me, I didn’t stop at 100, and I made my dream 150.

I marketed intentionally to those people: I made sure that they knew who I was, and that I was there to serve them!

I committed to higher quality marketing, even as high as $10 per print item!

It was consistency that got me noticed, and that helped me build a business that I benefit from, even today!

This week on the Tip Tuesday episode of the Selling the Dream podcast, I’m here to challenge you to create your dream 150. Pick out who you want to work with, and focus on doing what it takes to make that happen!

Thanks for joining us on Selling the Dream - we wouldn’t be where we are without you listening, and giving your feedback! Make sure that you give us a rating and review on iTunes: that would mean the world to me, and will help us get even more amazing guests on our Friday episodes of the show.

Highlights of this episode:

• In 2008, I picked up the book, The Ultimate Sales Machine.

• He challenged readers to create their Dream 100: people they wanted to connect with, and would be a dream client!

• I decided to focus on my Dream 150, and focused on marketing to them!

• I picked addresses that I wanted to target, and made sure to intentionally market to them.

• Because they were in a the luxury market, I spent money on higher quality marketing materials, including tube mailings - sometimes even spending $10 per item!

• Don’t be afraid to be creative - people will take note! You will stand out.

• Look at your marketing as an investment in your presence. You don’t just want to sell one house, you want to build the relationships!

• When you invest into breaking into the luxury market, the reward can be giant!

• Join our 2nd Home Agents Facebook group and create connections! (link below)

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. If there’s ever a topic that you’d like to hear us cover on the podcast, just send me a message: my contact information is below.

Connect with me (Tom):

• 2nd Home Agents website

• Facebook

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• YouTube

• Resort & 2nd Home Real Estate Agents Facebook Group

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

See you next time!

TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00.390]

Today. Learn how to tap into the ultra luxury market in your backyard. Welcome to Selling the Dream. A podcast created four and five second home and resort realtor from Tom Tezak. And each week, my goal is to bring you a quick real estate tip, along with an info past interview with an industry rock star. My mission is to bring this cutting edge market five through sales and information about the latest technology. Thanks for tuning in. And remember, we're not selling real estate.

[00:00:29.160]

Selling the dream. Everybody today on Tuesday, top selling the dream. Let's talk about busting into the luxury resort and second home market. So, you know, a couple of years ago, when the market tanked in 2008, I was really struggling and I picked up a book by Chuck Holmes called The Ultimate Sales Machine, and they're in there. It was it was an older book. And he was it was an amazing book, one of my favorite books ever put in there.

[00:00:58.420]

He talked about one of the techniques that he used, and he was his dream. One hundred. And I found it fascinating that it was such a great idea. So we market regularly. We go out and we try to connect with people in our in our neighborhoods, in our communities and our resort second home communities. But what I took out of that was I want to create my dream one hundred. And for me it was my dream. One hundred and fifty.

[00:01:22.180]

And that was all of the ocean front and ultra expensive properties. I gathered all of their mailing, all of their addresses, and I created a completely unique and elaborate marketing plan to try to bust into this luxury second home market. And I know in my market that luxury market was very much protected by a handful of very small handful of realtors who dominated and controlled it. And I kept thinking, how am I going to bust into that? And so I created the Dream 100 or Dream 150 for me.

[00:01:57.520]

And with that, I developed a very intense marketing plan where I would send much more elaborate marketing pieces to each one of those owners in that district. And over the course of time and I found that I kept getting notoriety. People were noticing me. And then I got my first listing, which then allowed me to do more elaborate marketing for that listing in that community. And that elaborate listing and that marketing piece, that was a 16 page for sure with a video and DVD, just a little bit old school today, but it was able to then be put into everybody's mailboxes and they were then able to see, wow, this this agent is doing marketing in a different way, in a more aggressive format.

[00:02:45.640]

And it was just consistency. How did I do it? Well, what I did was actually went out and found a promotional products company and started to buy bigger items. And I committed to ten dollars per address for every mailing, which you might be thinking, wow, that's a lot of money.

[00:03:02.230]

But when you look at the value of the homes and the commission checks that are generated in my particular market with six million, 10 million, fifteen million dollar property, it's not that much money. And so I devised and developed a plan and I would do some corny stuff. But it worked because, again, for the for the owners that were marketing savvy, when they would get the pieces in the mail, they laugh, maybe throw it away. Some of them gave it to their realtor that they worked with and said, well, look at what this guy is doing.

[00:03:36.720]

And so I knew it was making an impact. So just think about how can you be in front of those high net worth owners and pick a small market area and just create a unique marketing campaign. I'll share a couple of things with you. I sent a yo yo and I said no matter if the market goes up or down, I always have my finger on the market, you know, just silly stuff. I sent a what was a leather man type tool with the players and the knives.

[00:04:05.530]

I said, and I sent it in a mailing tube. And so it is noisy, heavy and big. And in that letter, I said, if you're going to hire an agent, make sure they have more than one tool in their tool box. Because I found that a lot of the. Luxury agents really didn't do a lot of marketing because they figured they didn't have to. So by keying in on those owners that may have not been enamored with their agent, their agents may be gone.

[00:04:35.980]

It was such an opportunity to connect with them and have them at least give me a look. And one of the things I would say is I know you may have a primary agent that you've worked with, but please put me on your list and get another opinion. That second choice, that third opinion. That was what I was looking for because I knew that once I got in front of them, my style and technique was going to be much more elaborate than what everybody else was doing because I had a plan.

[00:05:03.340]

So you've got to create that plan to connect with them. And then once you do connect with them, then you really need to amp it up and blow their socks off with all the stuff that you're prepared to do. So just keep that in mind when you're trying to bust into that luxury market. It's tough to get there sometimes, but when you get that one opportunity, it's so important to capitalize on that. My marketing campaigns, when I first started in the luxury marketplace, were I spent a ton of money, not with the you know, I always wanted to sell the home, but it was more than that.

[00:05:39.310]

It was an investment in to my presence and to my brand to show those owners that while this is a new agent in our industry. One last tip that I want you to think about when you're selecting that top 100. If there's only one hundred or one hundred and fifty homes, you do a mall. But if there's maybe 500 and it's just not cost effective and you want to go through go through your MLS, figure out who sold the house to them, if that agent is no longer in your marketplace, maybe they've passed away.

[00:06:07.990]

They've moved on. They've retired. Look at that and maybe focus on that list of homes and homeowners, because they don't have an agent anymore. And, you know, they may not be ready to sell. But if you continue to keep in touch in front of them, putting your face and name your chuch keys in their hands when it is time for them to sell, you may have a fighting chance to be the agent that at least they call second or third or hopefully first.

[00:06:36.740]

So anyway, some ideas on how to bust into the luxury market. It is a tough spot to get into and it is an expensive place to play. You have to have the financial ability to invest in your listings, in your marketing. But the rewards are giant. So keep that in mind if you want to. If you have any questions, please post below or send me a message. You can always reach me at Tom at Tom Tezak dot com.

[00:07:02.030]

You can feel free to call me at a wait to Aido to 055. I've had several people call me just to chat about their resorts, condo markets, and you can't imagine how happy that makes me feel to be able to share with you guys what I'm thinking, how I can possibly help. And I'm there and available. I do live in Maui, Hawaii, so a little bit of a time zone difference. You can also fruit. Feel free to text me at that number.

[00:07:24.660]

So remember, everybody, we are not just selling real estate. We are selling the dream. Go out there and do it to your dream. One hundred. Everybody, I'm so happy that you're with us today. And I just want to encourage you to please there's nothing that makes me happier than when I get reviews and subscriptions from all of you out there. Whatever platform you listen on, please go in and leave us review. Give us a rate us give us whatever many stars that you think are appropriate.

[00:07:58.000]

Send me an email. I loved getting e-mails from from you with any questions you might have that I can address or feel free to call me. I'm so available. Eight oh two oh five five. And the other things I'd love for you to do is join our network group in Facebook Resort and second home agents. It's only for real estate agents or industry influencers. And I would. We've got a great group going on, lots of activity. And lastly, go to second home agents, dot com.

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Become a member. Join up on that site where you put all of our information on that site. And we're creating a network for agents to share and help other agents out, as well as do referrals.

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So for selling the dream, please help us out.

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Be part of the party and join with us.