Episode 60 - How to find more listings in 2025!

Episode Title: How to Build a Recession-Proof Real Estate Business

Episode Description:

Yes, you can build a thriving real estate business with time and geographic freedom—no matter the market conditions. In this episode, we dive deep into the structure, best practices, and business model that allow real estate agents to generate consistent and reliable cash flow in any economy.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

🔹 The Foundation of a Perfect Real Estate Business

• Strategic planning for thriving in any market.
• Why focusing on listings over buyers creates a competitive advantage.
• How to build a consistent, low-cost lead generation system.
• The importance of maintaining a database of 5,000+ targeted home sellers.

🔹 The 5 Core Principles of a Successful Real Estate Business

1. Lead Generation – Mastering your database, online advertising, and niche markets.
2. Lead Conversion – The proven system to turn leads into closings.
3. Listing Mastery – Why all top producers are listing agents.
4. Personal Branding – Crafting a compelling value proposition that makes clients choose you.
5. Referral Networks – Building local, national, and global connections for consistent business.

🔹 How to Recession-Proof Your Business

• 8 highly profitable niche markets that remain strong in any economy:
  ✅ Divorce listings
  ✅ Senior homeowners
  ✅ Flippers & investors
  ✅ Probate properties
  ✅ Corporate relocations
  ✅ Military relocations
  ✅ REO & foreclosure properties
  ✅ Building a high-value database

🔹 Scaling Your Business to Seven Figures

• Why most agents waste time on low-dollar tasks instead of outsourcing.
• The power of leveraging ISAs (Inside Sales Agents) for marketing, follow-ups, and appointment setting.
• How to create a plug-and-play system that generates consistent business.

📌 Final Thought:
The market doesn’t determine your success—your business model does. If you’re ready to stop struggling and start scaling, this episode will give you the blueprint.

🎧 Tune in now! And if you’re looking for personalized guidance to implement these strategies, schedule a call with me today! 🚀

Join our Facebook Group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/realestateassetadvisors

Visit our website to watch replays of our Wednesday "Elevate Business Briefings" at: www.RealEstateAssetAdvisors.org

Download a copy of my book, "If you list, you last!" at www.IfYouListYouLast.com

Transcript

Yes, you really can prosper with time and geographic freedom in both good or bad markets when you have the right business model that you're following.

This is going to be a deep dive into the structure and best practices that will allow any agent who's willing to do the work, and that's the key, willing to do the work to scale their business to generate consistent and reliable cash flow.

in good markets or bad. This is about how an agent can build their business to thrive in any market Irregardless of the economy interest rates or well all the other factors that quite honestly are completely out of our control What today is about what today is about is creating a real estate business that will thrive for decades.

It's about you Developing implementing the systems procedures the skills you need marketing in the blueprint To become the CEO of your multi billion dollar, multi million dollar, recession proof real estate empire. Now, can you become the CEO of your company without putting those things in place? And the answer is, absolutely not.

 Let's talk about what's the perfect real estate business look like?

If we're going to talk about it we might as well define it, right? So let's start here. You thrived in good markets and bad through proper strategic planning. You only focused on listings and you had buyer's agents who paid you referral fees to work with the buyer leads. You always maintain an inventory of five to 10 active listings because you have a competitive advantage over every other agent.

You have consistent sources of low cost leads that are coming in every day. You have consistent, reliable resources or sources of referrals resulting in closed transactions every year. You have a 5, 000 person minimum database of highly targeted potential home sellers. You have marketing ISAs to manage and nurture your database and leads.

You have telephone ISAs to set appointments and do your circle prospecting. You have social media and personal branding ISA. You have at least four sources of revenue coming from your business. You work 40 hours a week or less and take a minimum of four weeks a year off. Is there anything else that I should include in that list?

What did I forget? And the real question is, would this constitute the perfect business for you? If it is, or if it would be that's what we're going to share today. So let's talk about that. Real estate is a very simple business when you master five core principles. Now, if that's what you want, we can simply just create a business plan to build it.

Isn't it? It's that simple. Now, in my 34 years of experience, I've found that most agents are making it way harder than it has to be. And quite honestly, folks, I'll bet for most of you on this call, you're probably doing it, doing it too.  Or, if you would have,

if that's the kind of business that you want can't you just simply create a business plan to build it?  Isn't it really that simple? If we know what kind of business we want, we just need the model, right? Now, in my 34 years of experience, I found that most agents are making it harder than it has to be.

You're probably doing it too, or you would have built a business like that already, right? Let's fix it today. But first, let me get this out of the way up front, because I don't want you sitting through this whole call focused on, alright, when's he going to try and sell me something, or when's he going to try and recruit me, or just waiting for something like that to happen.

 I'm not selling anything today, I'm simply going to share some ideas, observations, with you some of the strategies and systems that we've implemented, and then have a conversation about the five core principles for operating a recession proof real estate business.

See, I just feel it's about time we have an open, honest discussion about what it really takes to be successful in real estate.

In my experience, real estate is a very simple business when you focus on and master the five core principles. Now, at the end of this, if you feel that this may be the kind of business you've been looking to build, but you may want, or maybe even require some help or direction, It's okay and you find it helpful.

So with that, let's jump in.

So what are those five core principles of a successful business? The first is lead generation. That's what we focus on. Our database, our online advertising, the divorce market, telephone ISAs to set appointments. The number one question that I ask when I do a live, live meaning a room full of people, I go, Hey, what's your biggest struggle?

And everybody's answer is always lead generation. If that's a problem, why don't we fix it?  Now, number two, and this we could debate on, is what's more important? Is it lead generation? Or is it lead conversion?  Because here's the thing to consider, folks. Let's say you have a database of 10, 000 people.

And you can't convert any of that into closed transactions. Does it matter how big your database is if you can't make any money from it? So about 30 years ago, I developed a very successful lead conversion system. And the reality is, folks, it is the most effective real estate lead conversion system in the planet.

And second place isn't even close.  Third is listing mastery or listing expertise. All the money folks is in listings. If you doubt me, just look at your existing company, your branch over the past. Aren't the top five, 10, 15 producers in your, in your building or in your company, they're all listing agents, aren't they?

So about seven years ago, we developed a proprietary listing system that will completely set our agents apart from every other agent in their marketing. And then fourth is personal branding. Now, most people think of personal branding as how do I, post things on social media? The reality is folks, posting stuff on social media for the heck of it does nothing for you.

Personal branding. Is answering the question for the consumer. Why you? Why should they work with you?  And then finally, is referral networks. Now there's three types of referral networks that I help our agents build. It's local, national, and global. So that you have a consistent source of referrals coming into your business every single year. 

At zero cost. Gosh, wouldn't that be a great business?  Now, here's the thing. We want to talk about building a recession proof business. Now, how can we possibly do that? Because, let's be honest folks, we're not in control of the economy or the lack of inventory or interest rates or any of that, are we?  So you're probably thinking the solution is to just work harder or double down on the basics, make more cold calls or knock on more doors or spend more money for advertising, right?

If that's what you think is going to solve your problem you'll be wrong. So let's talk about that. So I'm going to prove this to you. Simple questions. And then don't worry, I'm going to give you details on these as we go through. So first, do people who are getting divorced, do they care what the economy is like or what the interest rates are?

Do seniors that have health issues and can no longer take care of a home or maybe they need to move closer to their kids, do they care about interest rates? Did you know that 60 percent of all homes sold in the last two years were seniors? 10, 000 a day turn 65 for the next 13 years. So this is a niche, folks, that's going to grow for decades.

Next, do investors and flippers  profit when the market is good or when the market's bad? Unfortunately, they profit when the market is down. Do you know that as I speak today, there's more than 30, 000 flips going on right now in the country? And two things aren't flippers always looking for their next flip and aren't they always looking to get the most money for their homes? 

So in a down market flippers are a great resource of business, aren't they? When military members are reassigned does the military care what the market's do they go? Hey, we're gonna send you to an airbase in jacksonville, florida And you know what? Hey take a year or two. We know the market's not great interest rates are high Does the military do that?

Of  course they don't  It's like you get reassigned, you get moved. Do families that inherit their parents homes through the probate process, do they care what the market's or do they just want to sell their parents homes so that they collect their inheritance?  Unfortunately, that's what they do.

Do corporations that relocate their employees care what the real estate market is like? Or what interest rates are? And then finally, do the banks that sell their foreclosure properties?  Does it matter what the market conditions are like? As a matter of fact, the worse the economy is The better it is for REO listings, isn't it? 

And so at the end of the day, there's eight different ways that you can recession proof your business. But you might be thinking cool. All I gotta do is have that to recession proof my business, right? The simple answer to this is, wow, all I gotta do is build a database of five to ten thousand of these sellers.

That'd be it. If you think that's the answer to your problems, it's not. It'd help, don't get me wrong, it definitely would help, but folks, just because you have a database, that doesn't even begin to solve all your problems. And if you doubt me, just ask yourself how big is your database right now, and did it solve your problems?

And the answer, of course, is no. So here's five reasons that you're going to need more than just a database. First, the majority of agents do not have a customized marketing plan, a system, a strategy, for generating business from their database. Let's be honest guys, sending an email once a month from a templated email campaign about a lemon cookie recipe that, that just came in your CRM.

That's just not going to get the job done. Is it? Sadly, that's what most agents are doing. They simply don't have anything that's customized, personalized, branded to it's effective to tell people why me. See you need a comprehensive marketing plan that encompasses traditional methods like phone calls direct mail and online system Such as facebook custom audience ads and google networks ad and google network ads along with a social media presence  You see the secret to to success in marketing is be in front of people When they're looking for help the hard part.

You don't know when they're looking for help So you always must be in front of them 24 7 365 days a year But how do you do that? That brings me to number two most agents refuse to invest money Into their  database. Here's what I mean They have a database of five to ten thousand potential sellers where they could invest Let's say five to ten dollars a day or five five dollars a day one hundred fifty dollars a month on Facebook custom audience ads where their ad would be exposed to the members of their database that would probably be seen three to five times a day.

But they won't invest 150 a month.  And they won't invest another 100 a month on Google network ads where their ads can show up in hundreds or thousands of the highest traffic websites in their market. Imagine a lead that's seen you on Facebook three times a day, then they go to ESPN, CNN, Fox News, Women's Health, Muscle Magazine, whatever it is, and they see your ad on a couple of those websites every day.

And that happens day after day, week after week. Do you think that you'd get closings from your database now?  Again, the actual cost of not marketing to the database is two to five lost transactions. So our typical agent, they go I saved 250 a month in ad spend. while losing out on twenty to forty thousand dollars in commission.

Does that make any sense for you guys? Doesn't to me.  Agents who treat their real estate or their real estate career like a job fall into this trap.  It's just that simple folks. Real estate is a business and you have to invest in your business. So my question is are you making the right choices?  Third, your lack of a compelling or value proposition or another way of saying it is If you have no benefit that compels people to reach out to you and take action, you're just another commodity, just another agent.

So your marketing and your branding always must compel people towards the benefits they receive when working with you. Branding is about the why and the benefit somebody gets from working with you, and the marketing is how they find you. Now, here's a hint, guys. If your promise of good service, or you're going, yeah, but I was born and raised in the area, and I know everything about every neighborhood. 

Guys, that's about as effective as that once a month email campaign you're using. Let me just ask you this. Why should somebody hire you? Really, why? Think of it this way. If you can't figure out a compelling reason why people should be working with you, and only you, How's the consumer supposed to figure it out?

Heck if you don't know how will they ever know  and just as important once you figure it out You're gonna need to be able to clearly articulate the benefits within 30 seconds or at least a few cents See, it's critical to figure this out folks or your mark marketing and leads conversion will always deliver abysmal results  fourth agents never seem to find the time to handle the details of their business properly  Things like entering new leads from ads or open houses into their CRM.

They never get around to following up with the leads in the first few days of meeting with those people. Here's an example. I teach agents to send a video email follow up to everyone they meet at their open house. It's a way, it's a personalized way for the person or the agent to start using that person's name and some details they shared with them.

I teach them to ask the lead if they'd like an analysis on how to buy their listing and save hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments and interest. Do you think potential buyers would want to see an analysis like that? Do you think they would be more inclined to work with that agent?  Yet, only a handful of agents ever do those things.

The most common excuse I get for it, not doing this, Oh my gosh, the video email software costs me 29 a month.  Apparently it doesn't occur to them that the actual cost is the commission they're losing. from the clients that they would have worked with.  And then number five, which I believe is the biggest mistake of all, most agents spend their time doing 10 an hour tasks instead of hiring an ISA to do their marketing or paying an agency to advertise or optimizing their Google business profile.

They spend days, hours, and weeks, sometimes months trying to figure it all out to save a few bucks and then they never do. They stop it.  So they waste it all that time. Folks, think of it this way. What's your time really worth? I guarantee it's a lot less than 10 an hour. Now, my ISAs, we only pay them 6 an hour yet.

Worse yet, folks, most never figure it out. They throw up their hands in frustration, never put any of the marketing or systems in place, and struggle to figure out why they don't have consistent closings. Any of that sound familiar to you? So the question is, what should you be doing? Instead of that, what if you were spending your time taking, say, two to three listings a week?

We're going to focus on listings.

Or maybe you were meeting with flippers. Or divorce attorneys. Maybe collaborating with financial planners, estate planning attorneys, long term care and Medicare insurance agents, estate clean out vendors, and senior housing facilities. Remember those seniors, 65 percent of them are selling their house?  So that you could hold senior events.

Not only would you put yourself in front of a ton of senior homeowners, but you'd also be developing referral relationships with senior specialists. What if you created a Facebook referral group for local military members by providing help and resources for their family to help them transition to their new community?

and be a source of help for those leaving the area. Wouldn't that be taking control of your business?  Those are the 10, 000 an hour activity folks, that an agent should be focused on. Not punching leads into a CRM.  So really it's decision time. 10 an hour, 10, 000 an hour. The good news is you're in a hundred percent control of your time and your business plan.

It's totally up to you. So now let's do the breakdown. I'm going to break down each of those eight categories for you real quick. So divorce, here's what we know  in the first year, 19. 1 percent of divorcing homeowners will list their home on the MLS. In the second year, 48. 4 percent of divorcing homeowners will list their home on the MLS.

That's a total of 67.  5%. So think of it this way, folks. Out of every 100 homeowners who file for divorce, 67 of them will sell their home in the next 24 months.  So wouldn't it make sense to create an effective marketing strategy and marketing plan? To the specific needs of that market  wouldn't make sense to I don't know have an email campaign that you could send out three times A week that delivered value to them or maybe you mailed a postcard once a month along with Maybe you had specific facebook custom audience ads targeted to that list of people only Then maybe you had lead generation ads giving away like we use e books and things like that.

Or maybe you built a Facebook messenger database where you literally could send them an e book through a Facebook database, or a Facebook messenger database that you know will show up in their Facebook. Not in their spam, not anywhere else. And then we do something called an equity insight analysis report.

What if you did that for their home? Out of 100 people, we know 67 will sell their home. At the end of the day, what are you going to do for the next 24 months to be in front of those people as much as humanly possible to do that? Next, the seniors. Hey, 65 percent of every listing in the last two years were people age 55 and over.

10, 000 a day will turn 65 years old for the next 13 years this will be a highly lucrative market for decades Here's the good part folks you may talk to a senior today, and they go hey I have no intention of moving I'm not doing it. For good or bad, folks, changes for seniors can happen very rapidly.

Things like health issues, right? We've had people who are like, Nope, I'm not moving, and fell down their stairs, and suddenly they're moving. Or had more serious health issues, and had to go into senior care facilities, and things like that. Maybe they just want to downsize. Maybe their kids have moved away.

And they want to be near their grandkids. So the good news is, whatever they tell you today, that could change 30 days from now. Their situations change, but we know for a fact these people will be moving.

Let's talk about flippers. They're in every market,  and they thrive most in the down markets. The good news is there's plenty of motivated sellers there. They have houses, they spent a bunch of money, and now they need to take and sell it to be able to get the return on money. It's a great source of business in down markets.

Now you're gonna have to determine how you'll target those flippers that buy and sell at least five properties a year. When I teach this I'm not looking for the person that does one flip a year. I don't have anything against them and I'd certainly work with them. But imagine if you had 10 flippers that sold five properties a year.

But the most important thing is you're going to have to determine why. You're a benefit, right? You're USP. When you see USP, it means unique selling proposition. Why would they hire you instead of selling it on their own, cash offer, got a relative in the business, another agent who advertises on, radio, TV, etc.

Why are they going to work with you? What specific benefits and systems do you offer  that would benefit them from working with you?  We know why it would benefit you to work with them, but it's not about you. It's about what's in it for them  And flippers are everywhere. You could drop me off in a plane And by later that afternoon if I hit the ground at 10 a m in the morning by one or two o'clock. Every market has flippers and they thrive most in the down markets when the economy is the worst. That's when the deals are out there, right? There's more motivated sellers so they can buy houses at a lower price and flip them. So they're a great source of business in down markets. 

Now you're going to have to determine how to target those flippers. And for me, I would just tell you, I look for at least five flips a year, right? Think of it this way. If you could get 10 flippers who sell five properties a year there's your 50 transactions, but the most important part is you're going to have to determine.

What your USP is for flippers. The benefits for them. It's not about your benefits. We know why you would, have a benefit from working with them. What is it they're going to get from you?  Once you figure that out, you can go out there and start targeting these people. They're easy to find. They're business people.

So they're much savvier to work with. Make sense? Next, what about investors? Gotta discover the significant number of individuals who own 10 or more properties in your market. Because I promise you folks, there's a lot more investment properties in every market than you ever realize. You don't need to work with every one of them.

What if you started with 10? And I will give you an example. In Maricopa County, People that have at least 10 properties or more in Maricopa County  is more than 400, 000.  So at the end of the day, I couldn't even work with all 400, 000. So then you can narrow that stuff down. But you're going to have to educate yourself on the variety of motivations for investors to sell their properties, right?

They're independent of economic conditions. They're like, hey, sometimes they just have to sell it because they got to get out before they pay capital gains on it. Or they've got to do it as a 1031 exchange or maybe they had a tenant. They just got tired of having tenants. Maybe they've depreciated the building as much as they can possibly do on it.

They have all kinds of reasons for selling that have nothing to do with the economy or the interest rates.  And then finally, you're going to have to elevate your investment knowledge, right? You just can't say, Hey, I work with investors. You're going to have to understand the language, the acronyms and all those things.

You're going to have to master cash on cash returns and cap rates and financial statements. Like cash flows and profit and loss statements to make smarter decisions, right? Here's what I can tell you folks when you sell let's say a four or five six unit building And you're great Let me see your profit and loss statement and they hand you a bag of a series of bags with receipts in them That's not a savvy investor.

And if you're working with a savvy investor They don't even want to see properties like that. So don't waste your time. You have to become educated if you want to work in this market. And trust me folks, not only is it a great thing for you to learn how to work with those people, but, oh gosh, you'll also get smart in investing in real estate for yourself.

Even better. Let's talk about probate. Here's the thing folks. You're going to have to know your state. And the different laws, statute and guidelines, because they do vary by state. There's federal probate laws, but there's also state, county, city, all those things. So you need to know what those procedures are.

So again, this is about elevating your skills.  Skills is knowledge. So you're going to have to learn about these things because it'll serve you very well in the long run. Next, probate is also a great way for you to build a portfolio.  of rental properties or flips. Now what I can tell you in my experience, the majority of people are trying to just get out from underneath this house.

A lot of times the parents haven't updated the house in 20, 30 years. It needs quite a bit of work. They're great for flips. That's why flippers focus on them. So you could become a resource for flippers, but it's also good for you. What if you didn't even flip them? What if you fixed them up to build the value and then was able to rent those?

So you buy them at a good price. Spend some money to flip it up, but now you're positive cash flow and you use that to build your own portfolio of rental properties. That wouldn't be too bad, would it?  And then anything that you don't want, you could flip it over to your other flippers or your other investors, right?

That's why developing those relationships with investor and flippers, or investors and flippers. When you have access to off market properties, that also is one of the benefits that they can get from working with you. Make sense?  Let's talk about corporate relocation. Why don't you do a little bit of research and find out the largest companies relocating employees in and out of your market? 

Bet you're probably wondering where you would find that out. Your title companies would have it.  What if you found out what companies they were and you started meeting with the benefits administrator to assess their current offerings, if anything? a lot of times they don't have anything. Then it enables you to identify some opportunities to provide enhanced value and tailored solution.

That sounds very corporate, doesn't it? But that is what it is. Hey, if I could go to a company and say, Hey, let me help your employees that are moving into this area. Acclimate themselves much quicker, which means they'll become much more productive for you, at the same time delivering great benefits for them, courtesy of you, you're going to look even better in their eyes.

And then you could create a comprehensive benefits package, tailored to meet the needs of the employees. Whether they're buying or selling a home. What it does, folks, is it provides access for them to a trusted local resource. When you can become known as the trusted local resource, that's when you know you've got something. 

Now, this one may not apply to you because maybe you don't have any military in your area. But if you do, folks, research nearby military facilities. With a particular focus on identifying and building connections with the local resource officers. You don't go in there trying to find business. Your focus is on serving military members by offering support and resources.

Whether they're facing reassignment or staying in the area, you need to make sure that you're prioritizing their unique needs. So you're giving them assistance that is meaningful to them. You're not there to sell them, you're there to integrate yourself into the military community by actively participating in and sponsoring events.

You could contribute to fundraisers, an initiative to build relationships and demonstrate your commitment to supporting military families. This is more of a calling than a marketing strategy or gimmick. This is about taking this stuff seriously. And helping the people that are out there defending our freedom and liberty and helping pay back to them even if you've never served.

Make sense?

Then, REO and foreclosures.  You're going to learn the REO process. And then you're going to have to learn the platforms for every lender. Because most of them use different platforms. So again, you're going to have to up your skills and do this. The way to break into that is start doing what are called BPO's or broker price opinions.

They're an excellent way to establish yourself in the REO space and it helps you gain valuable experience. But hey guys, also you get paid to do it in many cases. So it actually provides a supplemental source of income. I'm always seeing on  Facebook in real estate groups going. Hey, I need a side hustle Your side hustle should be doing bpos because guess what as you do bpos and they learn that you do a good job Guess who they start assigning the listings to but I want to make sure that you ensure You know what you're getting yourself into it's not as easy as what everybody just sells it off as there's good points to it and bad points into it so understanding the process is critical.

Having a mentor, if you don't have any experience, is a must. It's not even an option, folks. It's a must that you have to have that. It's a complicated business. It's built on relationships. And boy, once you have those relationships, boy, it opens up a whole new door of business for you. So now just imagine that.

Imagine this.

So here's the million dollar question. If your business was set up and running like this, could you scale it to seven figures a year? What do you think? But here's the probably more important question. What if you you never get a database?  And you have to do all the work instead of ISAs or buyer's agents.

Or you have to figure out how to implement all this on your own. And you never have new leads and referral sources. My question is what's going to happen to you? This is a decision time, folks, you can pass this off and say, Hey, this is just another class. And yeah, okay, that was cool. I learned some helpful stuff.

The question is, what are you going to do about it? Because if you don't do anything to change your business, whatever it looks like today, if you're not growing your business, it's going to continue to deteriorate. So what's going to happen to you if you don't start implementing these kinds of systems in place?

So you actually would have a plan and a structure to go forward with. Again folks, scaling to seven figures is not something you're going to do in a week or a month. Probably not even a year.  But you have to start somewhere. Make sense?  One of the things I get all the time is what if there was  an existing plug and play business model already available that had all those things involved in it where you didn't have to invent all this on your own?

So if you think you might need some help in some of the topics that I covered today, or maybe even how would you implement all these different things, all the marketing and the USPs and things like that, go ahead and schedule a call with me. I'm happy to take and do that with you. I thanks so much for being here today.

I hope that gave you something to think about. I look forward to talking to you soon.