Welcome and good morning to Mike Ferry TV the week of July 15th. Half the year is gone. We have half a year to produce and do our job at the highest level, and hopefully our messages each week will help you do that. Some of you are attending our annual Superstar Retreat, which starts today on Monday. And of course, this is the workbook and I’m sorry if you’re not attending. There’s 200 separate points pre-written in the workbook. So instead of spending four days doing a lot of writing, we’re going to spend four days doing a lot of learning.

A Letter to Coaching Clients

I wrote a letter to our existing coaching clients about a week ago and got probably one of the strongest returns in the most positive manner to the letter that I wrote them. And what I had written to our coaching clients was that we have had 2 or 3 younger men that were in our coaching for probably 4 to 5 years, suddenly quit and join one of our competitors. So of course, curiosity killed the cat. I called and said to these young men, why would you leave our coaching after all this time? And you’re all doing very well. They’re all selling a lot of homes, making a lot of money. And one of them said, well, this fellow said that you’re going to retire and we don’t want to get stuck in a contract if you’re going to retire. I said, well, let me reassure you, I have no intention of retiring.

The Importance of Purpose and Longevity

Earl Nightingale, who all of you heard me talk about time and again, did a lot of research on men and women retiring at young ages 60-65. And what he felt was the case was that if you do retire at a young age and you lose the purpose for what you’re doing in terms of your work and you don’t have a strong purpose, once you retire, you’re probably going to pass away within 18 months of retirement. I’m 79, I have no interest in retiring, and I don’t have any interest in passing away whatsoever. So that particular reason that these young guys bought into was bogus. But then they also were told that I’m too old and that my material is too old-fashioned. Well, I can’t deny the fact that I’m old. 79 is 79. Next year I’m looking at a big year because the company will be 50 years old. Next year I’ll be 80 years old, and I’ll have the good fortune of being married to Sabrina for 20 years.

The Value of Experience

There’s a lot of zeros behind my name and our numbers starting next year. But what’s interesting is almost every competitor that we have copies our seminars, our retreats, our workshops, our scripts, our dialogues, whatever we teach, they’re teaching it 30-60 days later and have been teaching it for years. Are you really leaving somebody this old-fashioned, or are you going to somebody that is taking the old-fashioned ideas from me and teaching them in a little different language pattern? But then the other one that I thought was kind of interesting was that Mike Ferry doesn’t understand technology.

Embracing Technology with Support

Hey, I am telling you, that is 100% correct. I do not understand technology. I’m very lucky to have a wonderful technology staff in the company that keeps me updated with the information that I need to pass on to you. But I don’t understand technology. Very few people understand technology because, as Sabrina’s son Andrew will tell you, who is very high up in the field of technology worldwide, that it changes every few minutes in terms of being upgraded. Staying up with it is impossible. But then the other argument that our competitors are using is Mike Ferry doesn’t understand or believe in social media. Well folks, think about it. Social media, not business media, not production media, not income media, not transaction media, not listing media, not sales media, social media.

The Reality of Social Media

Alright. Put your database into whatever social media platform you use and communicate with them that way. See if your response goes up, goes down, or stays the same. Because if you’re going to put all of your database on a social media platform, you have to understand that other people then have immediate access to your database. I’m a great believer in the database, and I’m a great believer in social media with connections to your database, but otherwise I don’t care. And I don’t think anybody else cares. If you went to the river last weekend, rented a boat, and went water skiing with your family, that’s not exactly what I call big news on the Real Estate field market that you and I are involved in.

The Challenge of Price Reductions

Okay, the biggest problem today is by far price reductions on the existing inventory that we have. And I wrote down some key words for you to consider. I don’t want to make this complicated, because price reductions are a bit complicated, because we probably, and I hate to say it this way, probably told a seller we could be pretty assured of getting them their price, which was fine 18 months ago. We are now in July of 2024 and January of 2023. The market was going this way. Almost any price was a good price. And yet even today, with the reduced inventory we have, we’re still getting multiple offers and getting prices raised. But we also have today, and all you have to do is talk to Steve Cortez or Ren Jones or one of these great companies that feeds leads to agents like yourself. Just talk to them. The number of expired listings is climbing every single month, and those agents that are good at working are taking a lot of listings at good prices, which are causing them to sell.

Evaluating Listings and Pricing

My question for you is this: do you have a listing that has been on the market more than 30-45 days? And if the answer is yes, is it by chance overpriced? And if the answer is yes, take the time to review what the conversation was like with the seller regarding price. Review it to the best of your ability and make sure you didn’t commit and say, I guarantee you I can get you your price because what you have to understand is the sellers think they are always 100% correct on price. And they think, of course, that we don’t know anything about pricing and Real Estate. I wrote down one, two, three, four, five key words in looking at a property and talking to a seller about whether it’s overpriced or not.

The Five Key Words for Listings

The first word is the word motivation. If the motivation is high, the price is generally realistic and low. When the motivation is low, the price is generally very high. If you have a property where the motivation is not really strong on behalf of that seller, you probably are overpriced by five, ten, 15, 20% motivation. But the second key word is condition. January 2023. It could be upside down, the roof missing, 42 dogs living in the living room, and it’s going to sell and probably for over a listed price. Today, condition makes a difference, no question about it. The third word is location, because if it is backing up to, say, a playground at a school or a busy street, that has an effect because buyers are much more choosy today. And we’re not talking about the NAR settlement on commissions, we’re just talking about buyers being choosy today because their payments are going to go up dramatically because of inflation.

Pricing and Attitude

The person that is smart in Real Estate today, you are working on listings 90% and working with buyers 10%. The people making the most money today in Real Estate are listing agents. No question about it. And they are willing to walk away from a seller who has low motivation and the house is in poor condition and the location is worse. The fourth word is price. How far off are you on price? Let’s take an example. Take a sheet of paper. Write down the address of any and all listings that you have. Then do an honest one through ten. One being very poor, ten being very high. How strong is the motivation on a scale from 1 to 10? How good or bad is the condition on a scale from 1 to 10? How good or bad is the location on a scale from 1 to 10? And then how far off are you on price? One being you’re right on the right price with the seller, ten means they are setting the price and controlling the conversation. But the fifth word is the word attitude, which is what is the attitude of the seller towards you, your presentation, the market, the market stats that you have, etc.

Reflecting on Your Listings

Think about doing a strong evaluation this week on every listing. And if you’re coming to the Superstar Retreat, come up and say hello. Shake hands if you want to take a picture, we’ll do that too. And let’s make it a great week for you if you’re not there, and even a greater week if you want to go to the retreat. And by the way, today is Monday. If you still want to go call the office, get signed up. We start Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. Thanks for a great time today. Talk to you next week.