3 Lead Lists Real Estate Professionals Need To Have In This Weird Market

Video Transcription

Jared Wright: Top three lists that are a must for agents. So, you and I, jumping on, doing this chit chat, we kind of messed around with a name. We got to keep it open for discussion, but The Bold and the Beautiful or the A and J Show or whatever we want to call it.

Andrew Scherer: It's not the B&J Show but-

Jared Wright: Yeah, no. No B&J Show but the A and J Show, the J and A show, the T and A show, but whatever it is, we could come up with a name and maybe some intro music and see where this takes us. I've been-

Andrew Scherer: Yeah. I very much ... I care about the content more than I do about anything else.

1. The Absentee

Jared Wright: No fluff. Me too. No, totally. I'm a content guy too, but it'd be kind of fun. Anyway, so yeah. Three lists that are a must. I'll kind of start with the first one, which is the elephant in the room. We always talk about this, but it's just what made our company is the non-owner occupied data, the absentee. It's interesting with what's going on even in our Omaha market and around the country with some of these larger investors that are really trying to be the next landlord or slumlord, but at the end of the day, I think that only consists of less than 5% of all absentee owners in the U.S. So, to me, this is a number one priority for real estate professionals to be going after-

Andrew Scherer: 100%.

Jared Wright: ... if they're going to be prospecting.

2. Senior Market

Andrew Scherer: 100%. What would be number two for you?

Jared Wright: Number two, and just probably by sheer numbers, but the senior market, whatever that list consists of.

Andrew Scherer: So, meaning like move down?

Jared Wright: Downsizers. We talk to other agents, and depending on if they have a plan of attack for these elderly people of where they progress to, for example, we have a guy in South Carolina that he's had a really good success with a downsizer type data set, but then finding the place for the seniors to go who's on a waiting list for the Tim, the top notch senior living type place. So, I just think the numbers of where America's heading and the number of transactions that are at that 55, 60 plus market, and it's however you can skew that downsizer list. It's not just, here's what it is, but a master bedroom on the second floor or above 60. I'm above 40, and I have a master bedroom on the main floor, so those kind of variables that the data speak to that twist around that senior market.

Andrew Scherer: Yeah. How can you tweak that, just that one list to make sure that you're getting some more viable people?

Jared Wright: Yeah. So, you can use equity, length of residence. There's some other secret sauce that we pull into the equation, but there's definitely an audience of open ears. Maybe they don't want to hear it yet, but if you continue to build that relationship early on, there's going to be some viable opportunities in that.

Andrew Scherer: Yeah. They may not be far down the funnel but-

Jared Wright: Yeah, and it probably is a long-term a list, but I say it now because you got to start early and that's ... Statistics show that a majority of the transactions or over half will be in that senior market as we progress.

Andrew Scherer: Yeah. Baby boomers have not made their move that's been projected now. Honestly, I think COVID had a big impact on that because-

Jared Wright: Oh, absolutely.

Andrew Scherer: Yeah. There was such a scare for that older population. So, I think that that put a hold on it. Between that and a couple other sources, I think that's a pretty damn viable one. What would you have as number three?

3. Distressed Homeowner

Jared Wright: Number three, and it goes around just kind of the distressed homeowner, not the distressed property. We all can go into very-

Andrew Scherer: So, we're talking financially distressed.

Jared Wright: Yep. Yeah, or just life event distress. So, we use that term distress probably too targeted, but let's say you have a death in the family or you have some credit card or you go to a payday loan or you're upside down on your mortgage or your job has changed in the last 12 to 24 months. We're able to see changes in the data over time that fall into a place.

So, for example, like divorce, I call that distressed as well. We subset the categories out within the data, but divorce is another category where we know when the record changes when it's coming in, it's a married with children household, we have two different names at that address, we'll know that it changes to single with children at that primary residence. So, there's a three to 11-month window after the divorce that is a pretty decent opportunity for them to sell that property. I think statistics show 70% of divorces lead in the home being sold. So, the data's different than the public record kind of ...

Andrew Scherer: I was going to ask you what the difference is between, well, whether it's response time of the true data coming through for you guys versus public records and what's actually being reported out.

Jared Wright: Right. Yeah, public record, I think, is kind of a gap in getting the accurate information associated. Where we are a little lagging kind of plays its part out based off of the final, whatever the term is for the divorce for becoming official. Then, we target that head of household, in most cases, the female at that same residence that you're hitting them with you want to sell your property. You don't really go, "Hey, I heard you got a divorce, or I heard Jimbo's a real dickhead, and he's at the bar all the time," but you also-

Andrew Scherer: I've heard it didn't work out, did it?

Jared Wright: Right. Hey, my name's Jared, but no, to be an advocate of finding them home ownership within their budget that they probably didn't have as a married couple. I think the pandemic, dude, full disclosure, has probably caused a lot more relationships to be going down than up.

Andrew Scherer: You had way more time with your spouse.

Bonus Content

Jared Wright: Totally, yeah. There's some relationships that aren't as stable in that comfortability of coming together and having a really good time and so brave. Instead, he goes, "Man, that quarantine was really fun." So, those are the three that I kind of talked about. Then, I was going to throw in some bonus content or bonus expertise, but if you're a real estate agent or a professional out there that has an existing list, some of these guys that try to get ... This is for a future topic, but get a title list or maybe they're nurturing neighborhood list or their-

Andrew Scherer: That's it.

Jared Wright: ... friends and family or anything like that. We can enhance that with a really accurate updated phone number and email address. So, a lot of people don't realize that they're sitting on gold that hasn't been updated. So, we can validate and update the address and update the phone number and update the email address that allows you some freshness when you're out there prospecting for business.

Andrew Scherer: I think that the farm list is one of the most underrated things for an agent to pull, especially right now, man, with how the market is changing around. I don't want to use the cliché, the market's shifting. I think, listen, we're already there. We know that the change is happening. It's happening locally frigging so much faster than it is nationally in terms of reporting. So, when I'm looking at the farm side of it, man, we only have 90 days for people to position themselves as industry expert, area expert, area...

Jared Wright: Proof in the pudding, right? Here's my listing. Here's the property that ... Yeah, totally. No, that's a good...

Andrew Scherer: Yeah. So, market testimonials. I mean, literally, there's so much that you can do. So, I think when we talk about this too, enhancing some of the ways that people can leverage the data, it's not just calls. I mean, literally, they could sit there and just hand write letters the entire time or go into an email campaign or go into social media and custom audiences. There's just different ways that people can leverage it that I don't think very many people really explore, dude.

Jared Wright: No. Wholeheartedly. We have people that door knock, we have people that write handheld letters, send emails, that do the social media, and to be able to put it all together, I mean, the follow-up, I think, is the key ingredient. This is my cheesiest thing that I always say, but you as a coach or me as a data provider, we are the treasure map to the gold, right? We're showing you the secret, we're giving you the frigging recipe, and we're sending you on your way, but when you go on your way, you ultimately have to put the work in to get the ROI results, but the ROI is there if you put the work in.

So, no matter the data, the work has to be done, you know what I'm saying, or the list. Is it absentee? Is it distressed? Is it downsizer? It really doesn't matter unless you have a plan of attack and someone like Andy to teach you some accountability practices and a lot more understanding. I think even Brandon shared a stat of real estate agents with a coach and without a coach and the income that they have. I mean, dude, if I was a licensed real estate agent, I'd be hiring my boy Andy here and definitely building my team with a coach but-

Jared Wright: Yeah.

Andrew Scherer: I think the follow-up, the what you get out of it is basically what you put in.

Jared Wright: Yeah. Yeah.

Andrew Scherer: The fact of, well, I have a list, and this is honestly what ... You probably see this a lot, is a lot of people will end up ordering a list or doing something around those lines, and then you just sit on it. Then, all of a sudden, well, the list doesn't work. No, no, no.

Jared Wright: Yeah, the list doesn't work because it's already changed in the last 90 days since you've touched it. Absolutely.

How Specific Can You Get Inside of These Lists?

Andrew Scherer: How specific ... and I always find this fascinating with you too, but how specific can you get inside of these lists? So, you were mentioning a couple things, right? You said the distressed and what you're talking about there, or even the move downs like a second floor bedroom.

Jared Wright: Yeah. Yep. So, in some counties where we capture the data, I mean it's amazing the elements we get. It's probably in the hundreds of categories of actual transactional information you get when a loan is closed, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, square foot. So, we take size of home and age of children and try to predict likely to sell up. So, after the first time home buyer, how do they find their second home, and when are they starting to be ready for that? So, we use a lot of the different data, transactional record stuff.

So, at the level of the transaction so about the property, but then also, responsive demographics like income and age and buying behavior. Political affiliation is huge in California. A lot of agents are getting more strategic on who they go after because a lot of these guys want to relocate outside of certain states. So, there's a lot of criteria that is available. We dumb it down a little bit and make these categories, but if someone's willing to invest some time and money, we're really willing to invest a lot in the strategy of really dialing in the data and customizing it for you and your audience and your area and everything so-

Andrew Scherer: Yeah, I think too because Sean and I worked on this a little bit ago, and it was the Andy's list, right?

Jared Wright: Yeah, yeah.

Andrew Scherer: It was the fall on three different things and huge success with that one as well.

Jared Wright: Yeah.

Andrew Scherer: So, I think the fourth thing or the fifth thing probably because the farming side of the neighborhood piece would probably be my bonus fourth on that one.

Jared Wright: Sure.

Andrew Scherer: The fifth would be Andy's list, like you get down to those things because, dude, I'm telling you, we see a lot of success with that one.

Jared Wright: Yeah, totally. Yeah. You're a strategic partner with us that we want to continue to have some success, so we'll always pull back the curtain for you to have access to a lot of those elements and demographics.

Andrew Scherer: Yeah, it's been fun with that one.

Jared Wright: Yeah.

Andrew Scherer: So, I have a question for you just because you see this all the time. You've been in the data world for long time, dude. Long time.

Jared Wright: Not that long, dude. No, like since '99.

Andrew Scherer: Yeah. I'm gray and balding, and you were-

Jared Wright: Yeah, I'm bald.

What to do After You Get the List?

Andrew Scherer: So, when you think about the changing market, and I'm genuinely curious to see what you would say. An agent says, "Yeah, I want to get an absentee on our list. Let me get that moved down list. Let me get the distressed list. Let me get the farm list." Once I have the list, what should I do? What are the top three things? What's the easiest dominoes for me to topple so that I'm thriving in a changing market, not just surviving through the same thing?

Jared Wright: Yeah. I think it's like you hit it on the head with ... I think you don't put all your eggs in one basket because you need to test different areas of opportunity with different segmented lists. So, non-owner occupied, owner occupied, older people, younger people. So, you diversify your audience but implement a plan is the key. A lot of the success our agents have is calling. Outside of any other point of contact, picking up the phone and calling these individuals has been yielding the best success. Then, it's not done on the first phone call. If it is, wow, hats off. Amazing, but it will take some time and some strategy and some realism if that's a word, but you can't smoke and mirrors these people anymore. You have to provide some value. Immediately, the value is you're going to sell their house from really quick. That's where you guys come in, and really, from the post contact, once you get in the door, the magic happens way higher than my pay level. So, you guys are doing big things over there so ...

Andrew Scherer: Yeah, I think these things are ... When we talk about the absentee owner list, the move down list, absentee owners in my opinion are probably the best source that the people can go after.

Jared Wright: Yep.

Andrew Scherer: I've been saying that for four years at this point in time. I mean, we've worked together on several absentee owner things. Again, the move down buyers, or I'm sorry, move down sellers is, I think, a phenomenal idea. The distressed is absolutely great-

Jared Wright: Always going to be there. Yeah. I think it's the same approach. Even though you're segmenting your data, the same approach.

Andrew Scherer: Same approach.

Jared Wright: What is your value?

Andrew Scherer: Hundred percent agree with you.

Jared Wright: Find the pain and capitalize on that but absolutely, man.

Andrew Scherer: Sweet. I love that, dude. Anything else you want to add to this thing?

Jared Wright: No. I think it's a good first run at it, and looking forward to continuing this and producing some really good content to provide value. I mean, at the end of the day, I wouldn't have the successes that we have without the return on investment from our clients. So, if we can continue to provide those values in conversation with someone like you, Andy, it's a no-brainer. So... you're doing a good job.

Andrew Scherer: Yeah, man. Totally agree with you.