#315 Mail-Right Show: Trying To Earn $100k From Your Real Estate Business?

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Trying To Earn $100k From Your Real Estate Business? With Special Guest Jennifer Seeno Tucker

Jennifer Seeno Tucker is an Associate Broker & Vice President of Business Development at Exit Realty United located in Nassau County, New York. She is the co-creator of The 7 Saturday’s Training Program for local real estate agents. She has helped dozens of real estate agents transition from paycheck employees to a flourishing career as sole proprietors in real estate. Jennifer has also guided many real estate agents throughout their careers and helped them stay focused on meeting their goals as business owners.

Robert Newman: Welcome back to the Mail-Right Show it’s episode number 315. We are super stoked to have Jennifer Tucker with us. Jennifer is a real estate rock star trainer from the New York area. And today we’re going to be talking to her about a lot of things, but we’re going to start off the conversation talking about some mistakes, some common mistakes that she sees new agents make on a regular basis. But before we get into this really, cool topic, which I know a lot of people that listen to our show, will want to hear, Jennifer, why don’t you go ahead and, introduce yourself to the audience.

Jennifer Tucker: It Sounds like you already did Robert, but that’s great.

Robert Newman: I always do. I’m giving you the windup and I’m letting you add the sizzle.

Jennifer Tucker: Excellent. Oh, well, yeah, I’m a real estate agent practicing, still practicing real estate agent as well in the New York Metro area, specifically long island, Queens, and Suffolk counties. I’m a teacher before all this, and before I got into real estate, as it was a natural kind of trajectory turn to me yet I didn’t read it because my mom’s been in the business for over 30 years. I love real estate. I love what I do. I have this white-hot passion about it. And, I’m always looking to kind of give, give and help other people. I think that’s what my mission in life is. And, training and being in real estate and helping newer agents seem to be like the path for me too, seek out what I really am here to do.

Robert Newman: Copy that. Okay. Well, thank you for that. So, before I forget because I always forget, and I apologize to everybody. I wanna make sure that we give proper accolades and introductions to my co-host. He runs all of the background, technology, and effort and outreach and organizing and corralling Robert, he is the amazing man behind the podcast. So John, why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself to the audience.

Jonathan Denwood: You always make me feel better after [Inaudible 02:28] Robert I’m the joint founder of mail-right. We’re a platform that provides you with a WordPress custom website that you own, you don’t lease, plus a host of marketing tools that you get with our platform. If that sounds interesting, just go to the website, Mail-Right.com, and touch base with us. And we’d be more than happy to discuss how we could help you. Over to you, Robert.

Robert Newman: Alright, last but not least, I’m Robert Newman. I am your, your steering host for the show. And I am one of the country’s top real estate SEO experts, if not the top real estate SEO expert. So having said all that, Jennifer, let’s, dig into this first topic, which what I would really love to know is some common mistakes that you see real estate agents making, or perhaps maybe a better way to say that is, what do you feel are things that you see repeated by agents who are newers over and over again, that might be easily correctable, but for some reason, keep occurring?

Jennifer Tucker: Yeah. Get asked that a lot. And I come across a lot of agents who kind of really stumble. It really is the shift in mindset from going from paycheck employee to now a business owner. We just don’t know what that looks like. I mean, I did it myself. I held onto my paycheck for a long time and was part-time in the business and didn’t know how to make that shift and to dive into real estate full-time. So creating an LLC or sole proprietorship or S or C Corp, whatever they think is best. It really is one of the avenues that I suggest that a lot of new agents do. So they, utilize their commission check. Now it goes into a business account, and then you pay yourself out of that. And you really treat you and your brands as your own company. And that I would say is one of the big mistakes that a lot of agents make. They don’t know how to, transition in that sense.

Robert Newman: So a common mistake that you see made is agents not treating their real estate business like a business? Is that, kind of like-

Jennifer Tucker: Exactly

Robert Newman: One of the ways to treat their business, like a business would be setting up proper incorporation or LLC and making sure that they’re paying themselves like an employee, which is by the way, what all business owners do I do that I’m sure that John does that. Am I understanding that correctly?

Jennifer Tucker: Yeah, exactly. I mean, you have it definitely on target there, agents seem to think of the commission check as just another paycheck and that’s not correct. That’s not where we want to be because we have to set aside monies to put, like I said, to pay ourselves, to reinvest into the company as well. And of course, you set aside for that, the big grandiose tax collector.

Robert Newman: So we’re setting aside our taxes. We’re hopefully putting back 10 to 20% from marketing so that we can continue to promote our brand or get leads or do whatever it is that we’re going to do. Direct marketing, whatever kind of marketing it is. Okay. I got you, John.

Jonathan Denwood: Well, I totally agree with you, Jennifer. I think I just want to see your thoughts about this Jennifer. I also feel after they may be had a few deals, from their natural network through family and friends. They hit a bit of a brick wall because they don’t like it, and, I think it’s a little bit slightly out of date, but still very relevant. The red book by, Kelly Williamson about you definitely should listen to the audiobook called to buy a copy of the red book. They don’t really understand that they need to be consistently building up their database. What are your feelings around that?

Jennifer Tucker: Totally. 100%. I mean, right now 70% of my business is based upon my sphere and referrals, but I’m still on a daily basis going out there and prospecting for new buyers and new sellers. It’s really is a never-ending source that you need to be fueling and reinvesting in as well. But yeah, I totally agree that we need to be out there more and more because it does dry up and you’ll see more ups and downs as opposed to just a steady stream and steady increase in business.

Robert Newman: So I guess here’s one of my favorite questions to ask real estate trainers, like when you’re meeting with a new client and let’s just say- well, actually, first of all, describe to me if you would, who is like, when you’re coaching and training, are you usually coaching about like, are you looking for, to meet with the brand new agent as somebody that has never, ever sold real estate in their life and they’re looking for help? Or are you looking for somebody who’s been in the business for a few years and wants help elevating their career?

Jennifer Tucker: I’d have to say a little bit of both. Primarily newer agents, probably 75% of the people I work with are new agents. Because I mean I’m 10 years in the business, but I have the experience and I know what it’s like to be a new agent. I still recall and I still use the systems that, I utilize then now in order to grow my business even more. But yeah, most of my agents are new in the business. And what we saw within our brokerage is that we were keeping true to our national statistics where 86 to 90% of the people new in the business in the first two years leave. And our brokerage was seeing that 8 out of 10 new agents were leaving the business because they didn’t have the right systems in place. And that’s when we came up with a training program in order for them to be more successful. The more and more we implemented in the more, and the more training that, that occurred, the more and more agents stayed and were able to be more successful and put more deals together as well.

Robert Newman: Okay. So these brand new agents, you’re meeting with somebody for the first time and you’ve got somebody that’s dedicated to real estate, maybe in the first 6 months to 12 months of their career. What is it that you and they sit down, they go, okay, I need help with my real estate career how do you start digging into that conversation and, and trying to figure out how you’re going to help them?

Jennifer Tucker: We really go dive deep. I mean, one of the first lessons and training moments is, why are you in real estate and what do you want to do? And how much do you want to earn? people have to be realistic that if you’re working one job right and earning that paycheck, that it’s going to be difficult to, be in that 180 to 100K mark because it’s just not doable. So we have to be realistic about what our numbers are and what we want to make. And then we basically break it down into, okay, if this is what I want to make annually, what are the money-making activities, both passive and active activities that I need to be doing on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis in order to achieve that number.

Robert Newman: Okay. All right. So really it’s just like creating a mission or a goal that’s revenue-based. Do you focus at all on the mission behind the money?

Jennifer Tucker: Yeah, 100% because money isn’t the fuel as to why we go into the business, we have to figure out our, why. Money is just an afterthought. I thought I went into real estate thinking that I wanted to make more money and yes, it was an outcome of helping more people. And that’s really what at least my own personal why is I want to be able to help people is, and that’s a hat and I can utilize that and do this through real estate. We have to know what our life looks like as well. So that means living in your business, in this more of a holistic lifestyle, knowing how to train and treat your body, mind, and soul in order for your business to grow.

Robert Newman: Got you, John.

Jonathan Denwood: Yeah. So I totally agree with everything you’ve just said, Jennifer, what are the practicals? So you’ve got this semi-new individual. You advise them to set up a business, you’ve discussed the why, and then say they got enough money, or they got a spouse or a partner that can support them. So they’re in it full time. What are some of the key things that they got to get into place based on your experience in that first six months?

Jennifer Tucker: I think some of the key things is setting up a time plan or blocking out time to know what, when, or what they’re going to do in order to dedicate to real estate. So for me in the mornings, it was best for me to prospect and call, potential clients. And in the afternoon I would rather be working in the business, whereas I’m doing more administrative stuff and making phone calls. So setting up some type of block plan would be, one of the steps as a full-time agent that we should get into as well.

Then what’s the percentage of buyers and sellers that you want to work with. And again, now it’s, if we know that number, what kind of investment am I going to make? And where am I going to put my marketing money into and focus on whether that’s social media or print marketing? If you don’t have a lot of marketing money, which I didn’t in the beginning either it was, giving up some of my time for money so that I was able to prospect, new clients.

Jonathan Denwood: Before we go for our break how important do you think it’s also for that new agent to find the right brokerage environment and the right mentor and what in your opinion because there’s a lot of choices now when it comes to brokerage. What are some of the one or two key elements of a brokerage that you think is most suitable for the newer type agent?

Jennifer Tucker: Definitely for the new agent, it would be a broker that has a training program and at least some sort of mentorship because to do it all on your own can become overwhelming as a new agent. There’s just a lot to do to get a bit just like any business there’s a lot to do by yourself. So having a mentor and being able to follow someone who is an experienced agent would be my suggestion for new agents when they’re looking for brokerages. it’s okay to give up some of your commission in the beginning, because what you’re doing is creating the momentum that you need in order to be that 80, 90, 100% agent where you might not utilize the broker as much, as opposed to in the beginning.

Jonathan Denwood: That’s great. I think it’s time to go for a break, Robert.

Robert Newman: All right. So ladies and gentlemen, when we come back, I’m going to be asking some- so this is something that’s come up quite a little bit for us, Jennifer, I’m gonna give you all a whole 30 seconds to think about this. Mentors have been mentioned many times in the show, but I don’t know that anybody has ever given us any suggestions about how you convince a performing agent to teach or train or let you shadow their production, like some ideas about having to do that. So I’m going to ask you that question everybody who’s listening to the show. By the way, we here at Mail-Right really appreciate, the Mail-Right podcast we really appreciate you listening to the show. And when we come back, we’re going to try to provide some amazing value for those of you that might be newer into your real estate career. And if anybody knows somebody who’s new into the real estate career, do us a favor, share the show with them because today’s episode is for you. We’ll be right back.

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Robert Newman: Welcome back to the mail right podcast. Today’s episode is number 315. And we’re meeting with Jennifer. And Jennifer is talking to us about, she has a great, website called the rockstar agent training.com and she’s out of New York. And we’re talking to her mostly about strategies that relate to newer agents. One of the things that came up before the break as she was talking about, finding yourself a mentor as an early in your career strategy. And don’t be, worried so much about giving away your commission while you’re learning the business. Because that is the trade-off.

my question to you, Jennifer is let’s just say you’ve got four or five agents already making the kind of money you want to make, whether that be a 100,000, 200,000, $300,000, but they’re busy. They’re selling a lot of real estates they’re running around. They’re doing all the things that a great real estate agent does. Do you have an approach? Do you have some suggestions for newer agents about how you would approach these agents on mentoring them?

Jennifer Tucker: That’s a good question. Luckily enough, it was my mom. So I was like, mom, I’m tagging along. I’ve been a mentor to agents as well. And for me, it’s a matter of what can I do to help you? I want to help you, grow your business as I learn the business. To me as a new agent, if you were to say those things to a more experience top producing agent, that would be a way for you to kind of get in. If someone had come up to me and said that, I think it would have been like, yeah, let’s go, let’s make this happen. We can definitely do it. Here’s what I want you to do.

For me at the beginning of that new agent, I was a buyer’s agent. I ran the buyers. I was the leg of the operation. I, I took out buyers and I brought back the offer and put it into my mentor and said, here you go negotiate. That’s okay. I don’t know anything about negotiating. I didn’t need to be in control of everything. And giving up that control was a way for me to learn the business even more. I mean, I was more of the administrator and the buyer’s agent and it made sense and it worked out. And again, without that, and not having that experience because I learned the business from the inside out and got to hear this experienced agent talk and talk and talk and negotiate all the time. That gave me the valuable lessons that I needed to learn to be in the position I am today.

Robert Newman: Excellent. Well, I’m going to add on to this topic a little bit, and John, I’m going to give you a second to think about it and maybe think if you can think of something. Over the years, when I used to work for other people and I used to work on Salesforce. I was generally speaking one of the tops, either the top person, top two, top three depending on how big the Salesforce was. And I can tell everybody that’s listening to the show, that there were some really easy ways. I wasn’t as hard to approach about being a mentor, but it wasn’t exactly what I really wanted to be doing with my time. If I was selling something, I wanted to be selling the thing and making my commission and going home. And, the way that people would get me to mentor the way that people like used to number one, like everybody’s a sucker to have their ego stroked, including me.

And so how do you stroke?

Jonathan Denwood: Never

Robert Newman: I’m sorry,

Jonathan Denwood: Never.

Jonathan Denwood: John put a sock in it. No, I’m just kidding. I’m kidding everybody. I’m kidding, John. All right. So, when you’re at, like, and by the way, everybody John’s laughing, you can’t see him. He’s laughing hard. That’s how it got me to do the show in the first place. And 200 episodes later here, I still am with John and everybody else occasionally stroking my ego. And we’re not paid personalities to do the show. So getting your ego stroke will go a long way for people who already do very well for themselves. And how do you do that? You can ask them to, stand up and talk on a particular subject, create an office like you can get together an office meeting of newer agents and then approach somebody who is a more established agent and literally say there’s four or five of us that are anxious to be trained or have you speak to X subject and have them step up. And once they’re there talking to all of you, that is when I would approach them about saying, by the way, if I helped you with X, Y, or Z, would you be willing to continue to give me some of your incredibly valuable time?

And I strongly recommend that for all of you out there listening to the show that you use language like that. Make it apparent to them that your desire is to learn that you think that they have something to teach either based on their production or anything else. Those are my thoughts as some very brief ones. I have many more, but John, what do you think?

Jonathan Denwood: I think to be really been is a combination of what Jennifer said and what you’ve just said. Be practical about it you are dealing with somebody really busy be enthusiastic, be obvious that you’re serious about this, that you’re going to give it your 100%. Also accept that you’re going to have to be a buyer, probably a buyer agent, and help a senior agent on the administration and the buyer side of the business. And you’re just going to have to suck it up. And it’s gonna take about 6 months to a year before you are going to have some level of competence. Would you agree with that Jennifer?

Jennifer Tucker: 100% and just the addition, what I see is, as top producers, where typically these two based on your stroke stroking that agent. As top producers, we know what we’re good at. We know how to make systems work so that you can be successful too. So stroking that ego definitely comes into play. I mean, I get it. And the seriousness of the newer agent really needs to be there because a lot of times they may say what they say, but if they’re not, doing and behaving in the manner that they should be, and, going to those open houses and taking the lead, or, backing you up with some sort of paperwork, then it doesn’t work out either. So, be serious in your words as well.

Jonathan Denwood: Yeah. Before we wrap up the show, we’ve got another about six to eight minutes. I call the kind of building like a 100 to 300 person farm and having a close relationship. I called that in my own mind that Buffini methodology. Buffini is a great consultancy training company. Then you’ve got the whole digital marketing, side video social media. I find certain types of agents that can be very effective in the Buffini. And then I find a certain type of agent that can be very effective on the digital side. There’s not [inaudible 24:18 ] that I’ve come across that can be effective in both areas. But I think that is best if you can do it. Have you struggled with that? And if so have you got any insights about why that was and how you overcome it?

Jennifer Tucker: I was taught more of the Buffini style, but in the time that I’ve kind of developed my own, platform here, it’s been a lot more of social media and video. So I call myself more of this hybrid agent where I incorporate a little bit of both into my system now that works for me. And I think it’s a matter of knowing who you are. And then knowing who your ideal client is. Is your ideal client, someone who is more comfortable with having the paper tools in front of them and getting your marketing material that way through the mail? Or is your ideal client, someone who is on social media and is looking at videos and searching and Googling you? So I think it’s a matter of the agent knowing who their client is, and then using that system, whichever works best for them. But if you can do both then yeah. Then actually, I would think that more of two avenues is better than one.

Jonathan Denwood: So you kind of, like you just said, you started more on the Buffini. So what were some of the lessons you initially learned when you- Let’s start it this way, if you are comfortable and doing pretty, okay utilizing the kind of Buffini methodology, why did you- You did something where a lot of that type of agent doesn’t do, which is saying to yourself, I need to get into this digital side. Why did you make that decision?

Jennifer Tucker: because I found that the people that I was working with were more into that digital side. so it was a natural, tendency for me to kind of constantly lean towards that way and to do my work towards that way, in that manner. So I was meeting the client, where they were at, as opposed to me just working my own system and not having the client’s expectations and their own systems in mind.

Jonathan Denwood: Oh, that’s great. I think it’s time to wrap it up, Robert.

Robert Newman: Alright, lovely. So ladies and gentlemen, boys, and girls, we really appreciate you tuning into the Mail-Right show today. We’re going to ask that, however, you’re listening to the show, wherever you are, that you, if you’ve enjoyed the show today that you give us a thumbs up or leave us a comment if you listen to it on iTunes. There are quite a few different ways that you might be listening to the show. John and I work hard on it, mostly him, but I do show up. And so-

Jonathan Denwood: You are the more intelligent side of the operation aren’t you Robert?

Robert Newman: I would love it. If you guys would just please leave us a comment, let us know how we’re doing. We really would be interested to know, John post this to his Facebook page, which is facebook.com/Mail-Right. I post to my Facebook page, which is facebook.com/inboundREM. Jennifer, if somebody wanted to reach you or follow you or do any of the things kind of like what I’m talking about right now, how would they do that?

Jennifer Tucker: They can follow me on Facebook at JSeenotucker/. Otherwise, I’d love to give your audience a free download of my book, become a rockstar real estate agent at arockstaragenttraining.com.

Robert Newman: Alright, lovely. And John when people absolutely positively want to reach you, cause we know they will. How would you like them to do that?

Jonathan Denwood: That’d be a pleasure to have a chat with just go to the Mail-Right.site. And you can either call me or get me through the contact us form. And we can arrange to have a chat on zoom or on the phone and see how we might be able to serve you over to Robert.

Robert Newman: Fantastic. And if you’d like to reach me, ladies and gentlemen, you may go to my site, inboundREM.com. You may hit my contact form. You may hit whatever you need and hit submit. I’d be happy to talk to you about things like real estate SEO, lead generation, whatever, some commentary on platforms that you’re already using. These are all things that I’ve got a great deal of expertise in also YouTube and many, many other subjects. So we appreciate you tuning into the show tune in the next time, or we’ll have another amazing guest or amazing subject that we cover. Or even if John and I just decided to throw punches at each other over some digital marketing topic. I promise you you’ll probably get something good out of it. See you next time.