AREC2018 Feature Interview: Tom Ferry with Claudio Encina

TRANSCRIPT

Claudio: Welcome to Elite Agent Magazine. Here we are at AREC 2018 and AREC wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t have our man, Tom Ferry here. Tom, welcome.

Tom: Appreciate it, guys.

Claudio: Can I just ask you, Tom? Is this your fifth AREC? 

Tom: So, I figured out this is my fourth AREC. First one was 1991 in Melbourne. I ran into a couple of people there. So this is my fourth time. Thank you. I appreciate it. Super fun to be here. 

Claudio: Fantastic. Tell me, Tom. A couple of key messages came out from your keynote, which is absolutely impressive and one of the things that you said: this is probably the most amazing time to be alive, and to be in real estate. Can you explain to some of the viewers exactly what you meant by that today in your keynote?

Tom: So, at this point in my career, 30 years in, I don’t get the phone call of “Hey, I’ve had my best year ever. Let’s talk.” 

I get the phone call like, “Hey, I’m down 100 million dollars in sales,” or “My entire team just left,” or “I was just fired from my brokerage,” or “I’m starting a new company,” and they’re just looking for insight.

The first question I’ll ask ’em is, “I want to know your mindset. Is, right now, the single greatest time on the planet to be alive and to be in this business? Yes or no?” 

If they say, “Well, you know, there’s all these things happening and aren’t you paying attention to the world, in the economy?” They’re in what’s called a fixed mindset. 

Their view of the world is that these problems that we’re facing, our problems that we can’t overcome. 

Whereas, in my heart of heart, my DNA, I just believe that the world’s biggest problems, or the real estate community’s biggest problems, are the greatest opportunities for growth. So that’s that growth mindset versus fixed mindset. 

Claudio: Absolutely, and it’s funny you say that, from coach to coach, I’m sure you get it. In our market here in Australia right now, the markets are signing up, days on market are expanding. Expired listings are coming up everywhere. 

And you get agents today, Tom, saying this. They’re going. “Claudio!” I said, “Chase expired listings.” “I don’t want to deal with that expired, they’re overpriced and I don’t want to be wasting my time on that.” 

You think about that fixed mindset. I say to them, “Well, have you spoken to that vendor? Do you know what their motivation is?” “No. No.” I said, “Why won’t you approach it?” People are so easy to label things, aren’t they? In their mind.

Tom: I think you have a moral obligation as a good agent to go after a wide variety of consumers that need your services. Right? And a great agent knows that you can repackage and reposition that property and do it the right way and actually get it sold. If you want to talk about getting referrals, who do you get referrals from? The people that have the biggest problem that you were able to solve in a beautiful way. 

In this case, I put my home on the market for six months, for three months, whatever it was. It didn’t sell. I’m frustrated. I think the market’s horrible. 

Suddenly, I re-list with a rockstar. They repackage, they reposition, they do it the right way. The property gets sold, and you know what I want to do? I want to race to Google and write a five-star review about the experience, right? That’s what happens in this marketplace.

So, again, you got to change your thinking. Every agent that says, “I don’t want to call expireds,” and expireds is metaphorical for anything, most of them don’t want to call their past clients, there’s fear. They don’t want to do open houses. They don’t want to make cold calls. It’s all the same, right? 

The bottom line is this. Do you like to serve people? Do you like to help? Do you like to make money? If the answer is “yes”, my foundational belief is there is no wrong prospect. 

Claudio: Your other theme today, which I loved, and I know this is where it’s all going. I remember you saying years ago, “A team will always outperform an individual.” You’ve been saying that for umpteen years. 

Tom: Since 1990!

Claudio: So, tell me a little bit about what do you believe is the model around teams, moving forward in the real estate space today?

Tom: Today, it is total team domination. That is one of the most significant trends that’s happening in real estate, and I don’t care where you are in the world. Teams are ruling the Earth and if you think about it, it’s very simple.

Claudio’s got certain skills. I have certain skills. RJ’s got certain skills. Martha’s got certain skills, but when we combine those skills to serve the customer? Someone that’s exceptional marketing. Someone who’s great at working with the buyers. Someone’s fantastic on the backend managing the transactions. You know delivering that five-star service, delivering trust.

Then, the figurehead who’s maybe the dominant listing agent, you put those four or five people together, you can do 200 transactions a year, right? 

The beauty of it is, when I go on vacation, when I have a day I don’t feel like working, when I want to go be with my kids and play golf or watch tennis, I can go do that because the repeatable and scalable business that I built is in place and humming. That’s the game changer. 

Real estate looks like this: I’m poor. I have no money. I have no listings. I don’t know what I’m doing to work my ass off. Oh my God. Oh my God. Now I’m making a bunch of money. This is so great. And then I fall off again and I have to start the whole process, and we literally go rich, poor, rich, poor. Happy New Year. Start over. Teams eliminate that.

Claudio: Tom, it’s been a great honor. 

Tom: Thank you man. Appreciate it. 

Claudio: We’ve known each other for a long time and, sitting here at Elite Agent Magazine, AREC 2018, and I’ve got to say something. You kicked it out of the park. 

Tom: Thank you. I appreciate you guys. Thanks so much.