In this episode, Matt interviews solo Keller Williams agent Jamie Lemmons who in 2023 did over 50 transactions for $20,000,000 without a team! Jamie shares her strategies for leveraging transaction coordinators and virtual assistants for the “right” tasks. She has been extremely effective when it comes to using her VA to help set her up for the tasks she needs to accomplish, in a relationship where after lots of training her VA almost manages her! She discusses the importance of training and really putting the time in with assistants even if they are virtual. We also talked about her niches of agent referrals and divorce – both of which make it into her time block to ensure that she continues to work them.
Tune in for tangible actions you can take to grow like Jamie.
Connect with Jaime: https://www.homesnap.com/Jamie-LemmonsSvoboda/gmb
The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon.
🔑 Treadstone Funding: https://www.treadstonemortgage.com/
🔑 Neighborhood Loans: https://neighborhoodloans.com
🔑 Real Estate Marketing Guide: https://www.amazon.com/TAG-Tangible-Action-Guide-Marketing/dp/1698339747
📲 Learned something new, or have a suggestion? Message Matt Muscat on Instagram!
🏛️ Treadstone Funding propelled by Neighborhood Loans NMLS 222982 “Illinois Residential Mortgage Licensee No. MB.6759826. neighborhoodloans.com/licensing/ For licensing information, go to www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org”
In this episode, Matt interviews solo Keller Williams agent Jamie Lemmons who in 2023 did over 50 transactions for $20,000,000 without a team! Jamie shares her strategies for leveraging transaction coordinators and virtual assistants for the “right” tasks. She has been extremely effective when it comes to using her VA to help set her up for the tasks she needs to accomplish, in a relationship where after lots of training her VA almost manages her! She discusses the importance of training and really putting the time in with assistants even if they are virtual. We also talked about her niches of agent referrals and divorce – both of which make it into her time block to ensure that she continues to work them.
Tune in for tangible actions you can take to grow like Jamie.
Connect with Jaime: https://www.homesnap.com/Jamie-LemmonsSvoboda/gmb
The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon.
🔑 Treadstone Funding: https://www.treadstonemortgage.com/
🔑 Neighborhood Loans: https://neighborhoodloans.com
🔑 Real Estate Marketing Guide: https://www.amazon.com/TAG-Tangible-Action-Guide-Marketing/dp/1698339747
📲 Learned something new, or have a suggestion? Message Matt Muscat on Instagram!
🏛️ Treadstone Funding propelled by Neighborhood Loans NMLS 222982 “Illinois Residential Mortgage Licensee No. MB.6759826. neighborhoodloans.com/licensing/ For licensing information, go to www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org”
(upbeat music) - The whole kind of throwing your card out or hoping to meet somebody at a conference of 20,000, it isn't gonna happen. So you need to be very, very intentional, but also have that love and respect for those people, right?
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(upbeat music) - Hey everybody, thank you so much for tuning in today. I am very excited for today's guest because I think what she does is replicable, right? Like I think what most realtors do are replicable, but Jamie, our guest today is a solo agent. She's doing it herself. She's doing way more business than you listening, but I think she's at a level that you can get to. And here's why. She is systems based through and through, and she has a plan. And that plan is what most people I think listening are missing right now. Jamie, in Chicagoland, where it is just as cold as it is where I am, welcome to the show today. - Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. It is cold in Chicagoland today, but it has been, and it's just kind of par for the course here. It's what we do, right? - It's what we do. I mean, I hate to skip to this, but we talked about the fact that January is usually one of your busiest months. And I think anyone that's ever been to the Midwest would not think that that's the case. Why do you think that is for you? And do you think that's the market or more so you, based on the way that you work? - I think it's a combination of things in all honesty, at least in the Chicagoland area, a lot of brokers actually leading up right into the holidays, meaning Thanksgiving, they kind of feel or have that mindset that there's not a lot of business. People are celebrating the holidays, doing what they need to do, and are gonna take off. I see that as opportunity time, right? So for me, the buyers and sellers are still out there are they a little bit harder to find? Absolutely. So I think it just comes from my book of business, but also comes from my mindset. - Do you think you're doing something different in the month or two leading up to January that lends itself to becoming one of your busier months every year? - Well, as we know in this business, everything, obviously what you're doing today, you will see the results in 30 to 60, potentially 90 days. So for me, if I'm taking the foot off the gas in the fourth quarter of that previous year, you know your January, February, March, they're gonna be slow. So for me, that's go time. It's opportunity time. I also do handle a lot of relocation clients and seasonality wise, they are starting to look November, December and January as well. So I think it has a lot to do with a combination of those things. - Well, that makes a ton of sense. And I look at like the holidays, right? And I look at like, how can you build a strategy around known information? And I think you hit the nail on the head. If we know that every single year between Thanksgiving and new year, every other agent is going to be taking time off with their families, which isn't a bad thing, right? - Not at all. - It's just what they are doing. So you can reverse engineer that and just put a little bit more effort in in that 45 day period, and then almost guarantee that your January will be busier because those people that are looking to relocate, they're not willing to wait, right? They have to relocate for work. They have to relocate for another reason. And if all the other agents are taking longer to get back with them or appearing slower and delayed, you're going to get the deal. So I think almost anyone could use that tip if you put just a little bit of planning into it. But Jamie, tell us like, so people will know why they should listen to you. What type of business, like are you, what kind of team are you, what kind of business are you running, and what kind of volume and units did you do last year? - Absolutely. I am a solo agent. I do leverage. I have a transaction coordinator who is amazing. I also have virtual assistant(...) looking at actually bringing on another virtual assistant as well. Last year in 2023, I closed 57 units for 20.5 million. - That's awesome. And I think 20 million, like what does that look like in your market? Because, you know, in California, that might be one deal. And if that was the case, I probably wouldn't have you on the show, but what does 20 million look like near you? - So 20, you know, 20 million in volume, that's 57 deals. So our average price point in our market center, you know, cusps right around 300. I tend to have an average price point of about 415.
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I tend to work with a little bit higher price points, more of the luxury as well. And the relocation clients typically tend to be at a little bit higher price point as they are going to be professionals. They are being brought to Chicagoland for the purpose of work. So for me, I've always been very cognizant of growing my price point.(...) And, you know, back in the day when I started 19 years ago in land development and finally got licensed,(...) I wasn't doing that. My lowest sale ever was $1,700, believe it or not, on the South side of Chicago. I've now, in 2023, sold a 1.9 million. So you get there, but right, it takes time. It takes intentionality and growing that price point to get you at 20 million plus in volume a year as a solo agent.
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- Well, I mean, just like mad respect, because to do 60 or so transactions as a solo agent is a lot. Like it's a huge accomplishment. Now I wanna circle back really quick to the relocation stuff. So obviously you're in a suburb of Chicago. For those listening, you're not like working the, you know, the Penthouse condo market on the Gold Coast. You're doing a lot of suburban stuff.(...) What, how are you getting these relocation deals? What are you doing intentionally to kind of go after that business or to make sure that that business comes to you? - So I'm actually Reelow certified. I'm also a part of the Keller Williams Relocation Division. They do seek out and have contracts with different relocation companies as well. So that is kind of one bucket of business.
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Also for me, globally throughout the US is having really good referral partners as well. And that's something I quickly learned in this business after joining Keller Williams about eight years ago. People are moving, right? They're gonna be moving for whatever reason. I wanna know who those feeder markets are coming to Chicago. I wanna know who are those top agents that potentially could be sending people here. So the other bucket of business I have is my referral partners that are located throughout the United States. So that is also how I'm getting some of these clients. And of course people moving out, you know, people that are in my database that I know are relocating to Florida and all the warm places.
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- Well, okay, so there's a lot to unpack here because I feel like I had a comment for almost every sentence you said because I wanna dig deeper. So number one,(...) so many people at Big Brokerages have relocation departments that they're not tapping into. So I think that's point number one. If you're at a large brokerage, KW, RE-MAX, you know, name the Big Brokerage, find out if there is a relocation group that you need to be a part of, right? If it's as easy as getting a designation and, you know, offering a portion of that commission back, you need to be a part of that, right? Like those people will come into this area and then refer you more people, even though it sounds like you're giving a little commission away, that's okay.(...) Number two, you mentioned you network with other realtors intentionally to get business. And this has become a huge theme of all the agents we've interviewed this year on the show. And by this year, I mean the last six months, everyone whose business is up or was up in 2023 is doing some sort of marketing to other agents, right? Because that is where the business is coming from in a low inventory market. So let's talk about some intentionality there. What are you doing to get to meet other agents? Like how is it time blocking your calendar so it happens for sure, rather than I think what a lot of agents do is they show up to a conference and they hope and pray that they sit next to someone cool that then sends them a deal. I'm assuming yours is more of a strategy. I know I want to know more about that. - It certainly is a strategy. I am very intentional with my time blocking. The whole color coordinated from every 15 minute time block. My referral partners slash vendors, I time block for at least an hour per day. And what that looks like is my current referral partners, I am sending a text, sending an email, jumping on a phone call, sending a voice text, just find a check in with you in Sacramento, how are you doing, John?
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We know our clients will forget about us if we don't keep in touch with them. The same is to be true for our referral partners. So I also am intentional about going to conferences throughout the United States.(...) I do block that on my calendars, I'm doing my business planning. I am specifically seeking out where are agents going to be that I know are in feeder markets as well coming to Chicago.(...) And then I'm looking at who are those top agents in those markets. I want to jump on a Zoom, I want to visit them if I'm there on vacation.(...) So I'm very intentional.(...) The whole kind of throwing your card out or hoping to meet somebody at a conference of 20,000, it isn't gonna happen. So you need to be very, very intentional, but also have that love and respect for those people. And just as much as I love giving referrals,
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I'm reciprocating, I'm making sure that they're going the other way as well. When I know that somebody's leaving my Chicagoland market, I want to be the one to find them the Jamie that's maybe in San Francisco or the Jamie that's in Dallas Fort Worth. - I think that is so powerful. And I think that's a good note for everyone. Like when you're going to a conference, you need to do your research ahead of time and figure out what are the top five, maybe 10 feeder markets for your city. And I think that really starts with interviewing. I mean, you might know if you've been an agent in your market for 20 years, but I think that starts with a poll on your social media of asking your friends, "Hey, before you lived in X, where did you come from?" Or it could be something that you bring up as a topic at your next office meeting, if you have well attended office meetings. "Hey guys, like the last 10 clients you had moving here from somewhere else, where did they come from?" And then from there, you know what agents you need to seek out of that conference or what sister brokerages do you need to reach out to? And I think that's where people, that's like the crucial step that a lot of people are missing when it comes to agent relationships and networking. And then, I knew you mentioned you actually time block in time to call those agents and vendor partners. And I think that also gets missed by most people. So I love, love, love that you're doing it and that it's working for you, which I think is really powerful. - So doing all that business, getting all of these time blocks in place would be really hard for a solo agent. And I know you mentioned you're really good at leverage. What people are you leveraging on your team of one to help get this done? - Yeah, so my transaction coordinator is licensed in Illinois. What's great about a transaction coordinator, it is going to free me up from, once I've got that contract ready to go, it's signed, it's executed, I'm handing it off to her. She is my paper pusher, watching deadlines, making sure that everything is on task and on point.
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I'm still negotiating repairs, inspections, things like that because I'm a super hands-on agent. I pride myself on customer service and I want my clients to feel like family and they all matter equally. But having that transaction coordinator leverage has been priceless. The amount of time I save versus the cost per file,(...) there's no way I could do 57 transactions last year without having her. - Real estate has a lot of contracts. I want this podcast to have a social contract as well. Here's what I need from you. If you're listening to the show and you get something valuable out of it or you hear something that you think, that's awesome, I want you to send me a DM on Instagram or if you find my email, send it that way. The more feedback that I get, helps me to put together better shows and attract better guests.
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- So what would you, now, is she touching your clients individually or is she kind of teeing you up to have impactful interactions with them? - So once we're actually under contract, she is sending out an introduction email right away so that they know exactly who she is. So it starts from that starting point. They then know, oh, okay, this is, you know, she works with Jamie here.(...) I'm still making sure I'm touching her. I'm still making sure I'm touching them once a week. Or if we've got something that comes up on the file, they are then comfortable enough to reach out to her. Sometimes they still reach out to me and that's okay too.(...) You can never have too many touches throughout a transaction. The problem becomes, and when agents don't bulletproof their deals, either having the leverage or doing it themselves, it's when communication stops.
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Clients get nervous, right? They get nervous. So it's my job and having that TC as leverage is just another person they either can pick up the phone,
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send a quick email to beyond me. So they just feel better. It's all encompassing for a great customer service feel, which is what our clients want and need.(...) - So let's talk about some of that handoff, right? You mentioned she sends an initial email. I think that handoff is really important and you really have to do it right for your brand because number one, there's so much fraud going on in real estate transactions right now that people need to know that this is legit.
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Number two,(...) people need to know that you're not doing what I would call a pass off. You're doing a high touch handoff, right? This is my team and you have to explain the value of why your client will be working with this person and the value of what you're still gonna be working on and what to expect throughout the deal. Because that way the client doesn't feel like they're getting some random assistant when they signed up to pay 3% or 6% to Jamie, the $20 million expert. And I know you do that. We talked about that a little bit before on our kind of setup call. But I guess if you're an agent listening out there, regardless if you have a transaction coordinator or a team of 10 people with specialized positions, I think you really need to put some intentionality behind how you explain this to your clients. Because I know when I bought my first house, I signed up with the best realtor in town and I was immediately handed off to a buyer's agent who was younger than me. And although we had a great time and in the end it was awesome, my initial gut feeling was like, oh my gosh, I made a mistake. I should have signed up with a normal agent, not a mega agent. And it ended up being great. But it's all about the feelings you feel when that happens. So I want everyone out there to examine how their transaction comes off to customers. But Jamie, we have to spend some time talking about virtual assistants because you're the queen of the VAs right now. And you're doing a great job managing yours. It's really helped you buy some time back in your business and ensure that not only like all of your clients are getting touched, but they're getting touched by you, but in a more organized fashion. So tell us like how we've been using VAs, like what are you using for? Tell us the whole story.(...) Certainly, I can tell you, anytime you hire a virtual assistant, much like an in-person assistant or wherever you're looking to leverage your business,
(...)
it will be a mass fail. And I had one early on many, many years ago, thinking I could bring on a virtual assistant, thinking she could handle my social media, my marketing, and I could kind of just go, oh, great, it's handled,(...) without giving her the proper foundation. So I will start by saying it's not only about finding the right virtual assistant, depending on what you would like them to do, it's giving them the foundation of training as well. You can't just kind of go, here you go, and throw them a plate of whatever, because it is gonna fail. And whenever I talk to agents that say to me,(...) how did you get this, you won the lottery, you've got the best virtual assistant, I can tell you that only came through me feeding into her. And I think it's super important because the virtual assistants are not here, always embodying our offices with us, they need to feel a part of the team, because they are a part of the team. And I say our team, and I say that to my transaction coordinator, I say that to my virtual assistant. So with the virtual assistant, it's one of those much like this business, you learn every day, you bob, you weave, you pivot,
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you take things that you did wrong and go, okay, I'm not gonna do that again. And with the virtual assistant, when I initially hired my first, I had the idea she could do my transaction coordinating, she could do my social media, she could do my marketing. So I quickly learned that a virtual assistant, at least in my business, I have my current virtual assistant who now just hit her year with me, I did have somebody previous, another great virtual assistant, she moved on to another career path for about two years. And what I have, I call her my Abby, what I have her doing for me is, she is very intentional with posting five to seven social media posts a day for me on our business page, our Instagram and our LinkedIn. So she is incredibly organized, she plans for a whole month in advance, what exactly those five to seven posts are going to be, that's from a social media perspective.(...) We also have, what she's handling for me is what we call a 36 touch campaign. And that means through multiple means, whether it's me calling, whether they're getting emails, whether they're getting texts, whether they're getting happy birthday cards, we are going to touch that client within my database 36 times a year. Because again, if they forget about you, they're quickly, possibly going to use somebody else when they do decide to sell or do decide to buy. So always staying top of mind. For me, I knew having this 36 touch, it's a system, it's a process, right? It's not something I created, it's a very much Keller Williams thing, but why reinvent the wheel?
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It works, it's intentional, everything can be planned out for the whole year, and you're not reinventing the wheel already.(...) - Right, and I think people need to, I want people out there listening to separate this strategy almost into two, right? Because first you have coming up with what your touch campaign is going to be for your past clients. And then number two, you have handing this to a virtual assistant to manage. And I think the key thing here is, I think a lot of people listening would hear all this and think, "Man, that sounds like I'm going to be using "someone in the Philippines to spam my customers "here in Chicago," and that's not the case, right?
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I know that my assistant, who happens to be in Dallas, Texas, she every morning is teeing me up with who I need to call that day. And she's teeing me up with, hey, I'm about to send out this email from you to your customers, this is what it says do you approve. So I'm able to basically, in a 15 minute call with her at the beginning of every day, figure out what I need to do for the rest of the day and then figure out what she's going to be doing for me based on the plan that we agreed upon a year ago. And I think that's the thing we have relationships. - Right, it's part of the business plan, right?(...) And I used to, back when I first started in real estate, I used to think they don't want to hear from me. I'm going to be bothering them. They're going to think, "James, calling, "no, we don't have a house to sell." It's actually the opposite. When I am doing, and I do a once a quarter, I'm calling my database, and it could just be a simple, I wanted to see how you're doing. I noticed on Facebook that you recently lost a pet. I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry because we care about the people in our database, right? That's why they're in their database. - That's like such a mind blowing thing because I've been talking about this for years when I talk social media. And what you said is you call them, and it's a general, "How are you doing?" But you've already stalked them on social media and you have one intelligent thing to say that's real, right? It's not like a, "Hey, just calling to check in. "It's Jamie, your realtor. "I'm here to waste your time." No, it's actually a real phone call about a real topic. And we're all friends with people on social media or we saw them at coffee two months ago, have notes about people, have that loaded into your CRM system, and your VA or someone else could even scroll through your social, your newsfeed, and put information in as they see it so that then you're teed up for success when you go to make those phone calls. I absolutely love that you're doing that. Another niche that I wanted to get into chatting about really quick is divorce. So we talked about people relocating. That's obviously a great way to get business in a low inventory market. The sad part of why people move is also oftentimes death and divorce. I don't want to talk about death today because that's too negative for the afternoon. But let's talk about divorce because you had a personal situation with this one that kind of led you into the niche. So I'd love to hear your story there and kind of what it's turned into. - I'm certainly back when I realized I needed to figure out something, right? I have a business marketing background. I needed to figure out something that I was going to be able to support my little ones. They were both in diapers. They are now 16 almost, 17, 19 almost, 20. Junior in high school and second year of college.
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I knew that I had to find something going through this divorce. Being planted in an area I had no family, didn't know anybody, nobody local, right? What was I gonna do? That led me into real estate and it came from my love of having a servant's heart and wanting to help people.(...) Through that journey, unfortunately, of kind of being a public divorce, very small town, I quickly realized how many others needed my help. And I became, you know, I still say I'm the vault, which I am.(...) I became kind of the confidant in my community amongst a group of friends of people that knew me. And I would get these very random text messages. This is so and so I wanted to let you know my sister's gonna call you. She's going through a really difficult time and you're exactly who she needs to talk to. That never started off as a real estate conversation. Never. It was coming from contribution and how can I help you? Because I have been through this. So it really organically in my business(...) became a bucket of business for divorce. From that stemmed then having very specific attorneys within the area that I networked with. Saw me more active on social media. Saw me really hustling for my people. Sometimes saw me at the courthouse, believe it or not. And they would start referring me to clients that they were doing consultations with and said, "Hey, this is who you need to talk with. We know you're gonna need to sell the marital property." So it really became an organic piece of my business. I can tell you, even when I get the calls now,(...) men, women, all walks of life. My first thought is, how can I help you? And what does that look like? Does that look like a rental? Does that look like we need to look at a shelter for a women's battered shelter? Does that look like,
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let's see what we can do to get you some furniture.
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When you come from contribution and you have a passion for what you're doing, that flows. That's such a natural thing. And when you wanna help people, you have to love the reason why you're serving. And that's just a part of my business I've always enjoyed based on my own personal experience.(...) And probably will always, always enjoy doing that because of what I've been through personally. - Neighborhood Realtor podcast is proudly made possible by the support of our sponsors, Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. Two amazing Midwest mortgage companies that now have offices all around the country. If you're a real estate agent looking to partner with an amazing lender, DM me at Matt Muskey 88 and I'll connect you with someone in your market. If you're a lender and you wanna join the right mortgage company at DM me and I'll connect you as well.
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- So that's so interesting. It's a slightly different take than what I've heard from other agents. And I like the idea that you kind of have a list of different solutions that you've come up with over the years of things other than just, hey, I can help you sell your house if you're going through a divorce, right? Like you have the resources to connect them to those like a battered shelter or to finding a rental property or really just kind of having that first conversation and listening to figure out how you can be of the greatest good for them right now. Because obviously their lives are in chaos, right?(...) And they think selling the house, assuming you feel like one more big thing that they need to think about right now with you, you're letting them know you can help with a variety of things. So I think just being there to listen is huge but also exploring and starting to figure out a repertoire of services that you could offer and value that you can offer outside of just what every other realtor can offer, right? Like anyone going through a divorce could use any realtor but they use you because of that extra value and you're able to show that value. And so then all their attorneys know about it, other people in the community know about it. And that referral engine really gets kicked into high gear, which I absolutely love hearing. And I think the same could be said for any niche that anyone out there listening is thinking about like, how do you do that niche differently and add more value like Jamie's doing?(...) - So Jamie, so much information here, really excited about what we've chatted about today. But if someone has a client moving to the Chicago and suburbs, like what suburbs are you working and how would they get ahold of you?(...) - So it's interesting. I actually live in the Far South suburbs but I have lived in the city and service the city as well as the North side, the Western suburbs. Easiest way to always reach me is my direct cell phone, 847-606-9045.(...) Much like everybody else probably listening, I am the texting queen. So if you call me and I don't answer, shoot me a quick text. I love masterminding, you know, think tanking with agents in my market. I do it all the time in my market center and you know, co-sharing market centers, agents around the country. Because again, you know, who I am and what I'm doing and what I'm willing to share, maybe different in your market. You may be able to take bits and pieces but this is a learning business. That's for sure. Real estate is forever changing.(...) And if you don't change with it, it's gonna change on you. - I love that. I love that. Well, Jamie, thank you so much for being on the show today. We appreciate your time. - I sure appreciate you. Have a wonderful day everybody. Thanks for listening. (upbeat music)