Synopsis
Justin is a real estate agent in New Jersey and runs a real estate agency and team. In this episode, Justin will tell us how to build a high performing team, even during an economic downturn.
Key points
From Employee To Handling A Real Estate Team
Justin started the show describing what he does in the real estate industry. He runs a real estate agency with two business partners and about 45 agents. He is also handling a real estate team with 15 members where they deal with a lot of new constructions and luxury listings at the same time. Starting the episode, he tells the story of how he started working for a company, the company pulled the plug, and that's basically how he began to build a team with two partners until they reach the place where they are today.
On Treating Other People Well
Throughout the episode, Justin told of stories and tips that he himself shares to his team. One is where he learned how to treat clients nicely no matter what they look like or how they talk. His biggest lesson is to never discount anybody but instead give them your time and help them out. His mindset going into these interviews and presentation with the clients is maybe they won't be buying today but maybe they will in 3-5 years. Branding is everything in the real estate game; and putting your client's needs above yours is the best way to do it.
On Building Trust
For Justin, building trust starts the moment he interacts with the client. As he said, he treats these interactions as an interview. The client may have gone through several open houses but if you're the only one that spent the time to give them valuable information, you can win the business. Aside from providing valuable information to the client, Justin also tries to build trust by engaging clients in a conversation by knowing more about them, finding some commonalities especially common friends, etc. Getting off the main topic is where you want to be because for the clients, it's just about the house anymore but who they can relate to and trust.
Advice To New Agents
After going through what a great real estate team looks like, Justin gave tips on what a new real estate agent should do to start strong in his real estate journey. Joining one of these solid real estate teams is on top of his list. You have to find the best team in your area and this will involve a lot of interviewing. Some criteria that you can look at are: who's doing a lot of Facebook advertising? Who has a lot of open houses? Whose culture do you fit with? Does the team leader makes sense and will you learn a lot from them? Another tip he gave for new agents is to get as much experience as possible even if sometimes you take less of a split.
Working With The Right Attitude
One of Justin's final tips is making sure to really put your client's interest above yours. In simple terms, this means dealing with your clients in all honesty and integrity. It means you don't pull something off to gain for yourself at the expense of the client. Moreover, Justin strongly warns against taking advantage of the clients and a dishonest mentality in general. Looking back to some of the people in the industry, he learned that one may earn a quick buck but this won't help you to grow both personally and professionally in the long term.
References
Resources
More from our guest
- Justin on Facebook
- Justin on Instagram
- Contact Justin at 732-644-6217