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Discover the best AI tools for real estate agents in 2026. Automate lead generation and client management to boost sales by 40%.
Welcome back to episode 494 of the MailRight podcast. And ladies and gentlemen, it is sad to say that there will be no 495. This is officially and unequivocally our last show together. I will be hosting another show, which I will be presenting myself, likely within the next couple of weeks. It will be called the Real Estate Revolution, and it will focus on the rapidly changing aspects of the real estate industry, particularly in terms of marketing and technology. So, John, as your final swan song, what do you want to say to our audience?
Well, it’s been a good ride. Thanks, Robert. I think we’ve covered some good stuff. I think we’ve given some good advice, and I think we’ve covered, like I say, some great stuff.
So do I. We have a banger, two bangers. So our originally scheduled show for the day was AI tools, and in his normal, organized way, John had gone out, diligently researched a lot of really cool tools. However, I received a call from a client, a dear friend and contact, who asked me a simple question. They said, ‘Hey, did you know that Follow-up Boss or Zillow has updated its terms of service?’ I said I saw something come through one of my feeds, something like on Inmin or something similar, that said that. He’s like, Did you look at it? I went, No, I didn’t look at it. These companies update their TOCs all the time. And he’s like, You should. And what specifically he was calling out was the fact that in the latest round of terms and condition updates, Follow Up Ops updated specifically its terms as it relates to… Or sorry, Zillow updated its terms as it relates specifically to Follow Up Ops. And the relationship that they updated was genuinely detrimental to real estate agents. Just so bad that I had to ask John if he’d be willing to let us preempt the show.
And what’s more, remember, they did it all less than… It’s like four or five days ago. The changes go into effect on the 15th. The total amount of notice that they gave for this change, ladies and gentlemen, is under two weeks. And here’s the change. The change is that Zillow is doing… Hold on a second here. Let me go up here because I’m going to read it exactly as it is. A key area of change is the handling of data for mutual customers, contracts in your follow-up database, who also have a Zillow account. Now, that’s how it reads. Okay, Ladies and gentlemen, this data will be processed in accordance with Zillow’s privacy notice, which generally permits the use of data for Zillow’s advertising, marketing, personalization, and analytics purposes, as well as the combination of data across Zillow and Zillow-owned brands. Deeper integration for Zillow Pro, that’s the next clause. The updates enable a much deeper integration between Follow Up Boss and Zillow’s new suite of products, Zillow Pro, which is designed to enhance the agent workflow and provide real-time consumer insights. This integration allows agents to invite any follow-up boss contact to form a my agent relationship on Zillow. Agents can gain real-time insights into the behavior of their connected clients as they search on Zillow.
The framework supports Zillow’s AI technology, like smart messages and smart summaries, using the integrated data. Now, here’s a handful of agents who have already lost their minds, as they should have. So this is what Zillow’s response to immediate and widespread concern was. Zillow has stated that agent-only contacts are used solely to provide the CRM services. Now, that’s their response. I want to be really clear with you, ladies and gentlemen, and John, as well as anyone who cares. Agent-only contacts mean they don’t have a Zillow profile. Guess what the number is, everyone. For people who will have a Zillow profile that’s part of your database, the average is across the country, and it’s 80%. What Zillow has said is that they’re going to take 80% of your database, or roughly that amount, just in case anyone in legal listens to this. I’m not saying that is the definitive number; that’s just an average, and it’s based on the last data that I saw, which is not a guarantee of absolute proof. I’m just going to say that that number is somewhere in there. It’s a window about that big. It’s a significant percentage of any database that’s being held in a real estate agent’s account is now going to be used on Zillow Pro, and they’ve already said in their first original statement in the update of TOC that they are going to use customer data to make the experience better on Zillow.
That’s how that reads. They’re going to take your data and use it against your competitors. Other agents that have memberships or advertising accounts with Zillow now most likely get access to 80 % of your database, even though they said, Oh, you don’t need to worry if it’s just a contact of yours and they don’t have a Zillow profile. But at the same time, they’re also encouraging not only you, but the consumer to create a Zillow profile. It is very fancy legal footwork to say, We’re finally doing the data grab that guys like me and John have been talking about ever since Zillow bought a follow-up boss. So now that I’ve shared what I feel is like a ticking bomb, John, what do you think?
Well, they’re always going to do it, weren’t they?
Yeah, but they have now. The grenade, the pin has been pulled.
Well, I’m I’m surprised. Time flies. How long was it since they bought it?
I want to say two years.
Yeah, I think you’re right, but I’m not sure. If that’s That’s correct. I’m surprised it’s taking them so long, to be truthful about it. I was thinking that they were going to do this a lot earlier.
Almost two years to the day. November first, 2023.
Yeah, it’s been… Blahmy, time goes quick, doesn’t it? Yeah, I’m surprised it’s taken them that long. It was always that I never… It’s just my personal opinion, so I never believe received their statements anyway. It’s a bit of a shame because it’s a great CRM, isn’t it? Follow Up Boss.
It is. And while I’m not… There isn’t any amount of me that wants to say… It’s like there’s a lot of sad facts that when you deliver them, people expect you to dance on the grave of your fallen enemies and things like that. And I’m not that guy. I’ve been saying, and you’ve been saying, and I’ve said it on my own channels independently, that the acquisition for the amount of money that they paid because they wildly overspent for what Follow Up Boss was. They spent a half billion dollars on it, which is the price tag that was needed to acquire platforms from, I think, some founders that hadn’t intended to originally sell it. They overpaid for this acquisition, and there was only one reason that made any sense, which was some use with the information that they were going to get. Now, even I didn’t expect it. It would be this egregious. I didn’t think they’d just simply say, Hey, we’re going to take the customer data that you have in there.
You were surprised.
I’m surprised by the egregious nature of it. Yeah, I’m not surprised that they’re using it. I’m just surprised by, We’re just going to take your data and use it with your competitors. I’m surprised that they just decided to go full bore, like right in your face. Like, Okay, this is what we’re doing. Sorry, not really your data anymore, but we’re going to give you this one line that’s going to make it seem like it might be your data. And it’s such a legal dance. It’s fancy footwork. If you know the statistics by how many people have Zillow profiles, this is not good at all.
Well, I got to say, I’m not saying disparaging. I’m not surprised at all to be doing full. I’m just surprised it took them two years to do it, to be I’m not sure for, but about them overpaying, well, it’s not their money, is it? It’s their shareholders’ money. I’d imagine they looked at the figures, the bean count as their accountants, who I would imagine, did they get the founders of Follow Up Boss? Was it cash or was it cash and shares?
Let’s see here.
I don’t know about that. I presume it was cash and shares. Then normally, you got to be invested for two years. Then you don’t get all the money up front. You got to work for them for two years. We’re coming up to the two-year mark. I’m only surmising this, folks. I don’t know, but normally when you’re selling your SaaS to a large competitor or a corporation, they want you to work for them. It’s normally two years before you get your full options and you can cash out. We’re coming up to the two years. I think probably the founders of Follow Up Boss are departing. With their departure, they’re taking the opportunity to do what they always plan to do. But I’m only surmising this, Robert.
Ai and Google, a couple of articles. They paid cash, Which doesn’t surprise me. The whole deal, the amount of money, the structure of the deal definitely suggests that follow-up boss was in the driver’s seat. I would imagine that they were from what I’d seen and what I’d heard, because if they didn’t want to sell and you’re getting approached, I would do the same exact thing, John. If you wanted to buy me out, buy inbound RIM out. I mean, based on book value, the company is worth whatever X amount of dollars, maybe a million, I wouldn’t sell it for less than 5 or 10. Is it worth 5 or 10? Only if you If you want me to get out of this segment, then it’s worth 5 or 10. If I seem to be harming your business or you really want access to all my data that I’ve collected, then absolutely, you buy me out for 5 or 10. But other than that, you don’t. These numbers and the deal structure, because you’re 100% correct. Usually, there’s going to be shares and some type of tie-in. All that they have here is there was a potential for $100 million bonus in cash based on performance.
That’s what they But it’s cash, all cash, the entire deal cash, no shares.
Maybe they didn’t have to do the investor term. Maybe it was cash and they took the money in. I would imagine they had to stay on for some period of time.
I think that’s the performance bit. You’re probably not wrong. There’s And it’s probably a choice. I doubt, again, from what I’ve seen, the founders, they probably said, Now, if you want to lock us in on the contract, we’re probably not going to sign. So Zillow said, Well, how about we give you $100 million if you hit these performance metrics? How about $100 million?
A hundred million? That is a lot of money. That’s a lot of money. I wonder what their tax bill. Well, they probably had it, some special set up.
Zero. Probably went straight into a family officer or-Well, I don’t know what the…
Because it’s an Australian-based company, isn’t it? What about, boss? I don’t know what the taxation system is in Australia.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to say these following things. If you care about your data, if you care about privacy, if you care about somebody competing for you, Zillow is going to grab that data coming on the 15th. That is approximately nine days from now. If you care about any of this, you’re going to want to look someplace else fast. Hubspot, Realty Juggler. There aren’t a lot of really high-quality options. Do not lock yourself into a long-term contract with an expensive CRM like Sink or Boomtown or KVCore or CRM Interactive or any of the other people that are still making you sign 12-year contracts or 12-month contracts for CRM because the way the industry is changing, if it was me, the advice I’m giving you is the advice I take for myself. Too much is happening, too fast. I’d want my options to be open without being, number one, obligated to $6,000 for a CRM, at the higher end, KVCore and companies like that. Number two, I would not want to be pushed into a corner by what is an egregiously short time frame for this aggressive data capture tactic. What do you say, John?
You seem like you had something to say.
Well, I’m sure the people that run you up are concerned about it, but I would say about 90 %, they don’t even know what’s going on. They wouldn’t even register with them because I don’t know, though, what it should be concerned, shouldn’t it?
Yeah, they should be very concerned. The way that I read that agreement is even if they don’t intend to do it in this moment, Zillow has officially updated their terms to say that they can use your data to enrich data in their Zillow Pro advertising campaign program, which means that effectively anybody that’s paying them gets access to your data. That may not be you. Probably isn’t you, actually. That means that they’re going to take what you’ve worked so hard to get and profit off it.
It’s the same thing as Amazon, isn’t it? Half the sellers on Amazon are independent retailers, and they sell their products on Amazon, but Amazon competes with them directly, uses the data and actively encourages other competitors to compete with you on the Amazon platform, don’t they?
They do indeed. Well, ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to wrap up this subject. Thank you, John, for humoring me and allowing me to get it on to the last episode of our show. When we come back, we’re going to go to break. And when we come back, what we’re going to talk about is we’re going to discuss on our break which of the… We originally had eight tools or seven tools. We’ll narrow it down to three, and we’ll have the best AI lead tools for real estate agent or the best three AI lead tools for agents in 2026. That’ll be our final swan tongue for our collaboration that is otherwise known as the MailRight Show. Ladies and gentlemen, stay tuned. We’re excited to bring you this one last bit of valuable information. We’ll be right back. Do you want to look at the tools?
Yeah, I got them in front.
Yeah, sure. No, Which three? I didn’t research any of these. I don’t know.
Let’s go with Koala AI, Neuroriter, and let’s go with Ryan Humanizer.
The last three on the list. That makes it easy. Or the last right in the middle list. I got it. Koala, Neurowriter, and Ryan Humanizer. Correct? Yeah.
Okay.
All right. Three, two, one. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. We are here Last Mail Right Show, 494 episodes in, and we are not going to make 495, but we appreciate all of those that might have been following the show this entire time. There’s thousands of you who do. We are still the number 90 show, but No more, obviously, because there will be no more show, but we’ll probably maintain that ranking for a little while as all of you catch up on all the amazing episodes that we’ve done together. If any of you are interested in tuning into something new, you’re going to go over to Inbound R-E-M in a couple of weeks from now, somewhere towards Thanksgiving. I will be announcing my next project, which will be a podcast, and it will be the Real Estate Revolution, is what it’s going to be called. I’ll be talking about the segue between old and new, how we used to do business in real estate and how technology is changing it and what we’re doing in the future. I’m still lining up guests and figuring out the rest of the show’s aim, but that’s its primary mission.
We are going to talk about three tools today. 3 AI tools is the closing I made a mistake.
I like to talk to Ford, the other one. It’s the number three. That’s Margie, Margie. Because Margie and Caralo are similar.
Okay, got you. We’re going to talk about three tools today. It’s going to be Majai, is how I’m reading it, Neuroriter, and Ryan Humanizer. These are three AI tools that are designed to help you do leads. As normal, John has actually done a lot of the research, and I have not. I know none of these tools and very little about them. John, if you could go ahead and start with what you just said was top on your list, number three, Majai, and let everybody, including me, know what this tool was.
Yeah, I actually interviewed the founder of this company this morning. He’s a personal friend, and it’s a great tool. Basically, you got all the AI models like ChatGPT, got Claude. There’s about three or four of them. Well, you buy this product and it gives you access to all those AI language models in one interface. At one price. Darren’s really built a fantastic business, and he’s a great guy. We had a great interview this morning on my other show, the WP Tonic Show. It’s $20 for Solo, and team is $40. You get very generous quotas with it. I use it, and it’s really a great product.
What does it do? John, you use it, what does it do for you?
Well, if you want to write content, all the type of things that you would do in ChatGPT, it offers you ChatGPT, but it offers you all the other leads in language models in one interface. So Claude is better at some things and ChatGPT is better. And it offers about five or six of these interfaces or these large language models in one interface. So it saved you a ton of money and effort because it’s all in one interface.
Beautiful. All right, so here’s how I heard that this particular tool in five seconds of looking at on the website, actually, John’s list seems to be less than what they’re showing in their demo. So maybe either John’s correct and the demo is not or the demo has been updated and it’s got more like 12 models, all sorts of complexity, All of them, really. If you’re looking to save a little money and experiment with what tool does what the best, this sounds like an amazing option to me. So thanks for bringing it to everyone’s attention, John. I think it’s fantastic. How about Neuron Ryder?
Yeah, can Can I have a quick chat with Koala? Oh, Koala.
Sorry, I messed it up.
No, I wanted to cover four because it would be quite quick. Okay. Koala. It’s similar to the other one, but it’s the one I use the most because I bought, I wouldn’t say I bought a lifetime deal, but I bought a lot of credits. It should last me another year. In my opinion, it’s one of the best AI writing tools. It’s better than Jasper or Copy AI. It’s the one I use. It comes with a really nice interface, and it comes with some other options. One option, you can write out a brand voice, which I use. I developed a brand voice for the articles I produce, and you can paste the brand voice into and it will adapt the article to your brand voice, and it does quite a good job. It’s got some other features like imaging. It can convert videos into a text file. It’s got a number of things to it. I really like it. I use it almost every day. It starts at 9: 00, the professional’s 49, the boost is 99. I bought a special deal and I put like, six, seven hundred dollars into it, which I normally don’t do.
I normally go to month to month with these type of products because it’s changing so quickly. I think Marjo is probably better if you’re starting out because it’s $20 to $40 a month, and it gives you eight tools. So yeah, they’re both in the writing area, but you can use them to generate imaging, everything that a modern language model can do. But koala is more of a writing, a professional writing tool.
Got you. Well, thanks for sharing that with us. There’s certainly some cool sounding things inside that tool. So now, if I remember correctly, I get farther from remembering our initial private conversation every single second that we’re talking, Neuron Writers next up. Am I correct?
Yeah. This is cool. I’ve been using it for the past couple of years. It’s a SEO professional tool. You put in the title of the article you’re going to write, and it will find 10 of the leading websites that are ranking for that particular title. It will then give you a list of all the keywords that should be in the article, and you can copy those. Then koala gives you the ability to copy the list into koala, and it will make sure that the key phrases that neuron writer finds will go into the article. You got to do some editing because it will make the article really long. I want to point I edit all these articles quite extensively because the copy that koala produces is quite good, but it’s more to do with the large learning models. They could be factually incorrect, but normally it’s the data is outdated, so you’ve got to check all the facts and make sure everything’s up to date because it’s using data that might be six to a year old, depending on what you’re writing. But I bought new and write on a lifetime deal, and I use this regularly, not every day, but when I’m writing my articles, I use it.
I think they’re based in Poland, actually. Compared to some of the other SEO tools, such as Jasper, there are about half a dozen. It’s really quite valuable because it starts at 23 for bronze, 45 for silver, 69 for gold, and 93 for platinum. However, using it with something like Koala yields much better results. If you’re not using one of these tools, an experienced SEO copywriter needs a lot of experience to do a really good job.
I agree. Totally. Being one of our core competencies, it requires a significant amount of work. All right, so Ryan Humanizer is last on our list, ladies and gentlemen. I’m looking forward to hearing about this one, John. Go ahead and take it away.
Well, some people like Darren, whom I interviewed this morning, said, I don’t really need to use Humanizer. I decided to use one. What is a humaniser? Well, the content that Koala produces, I then manually paste into Ryan. Ryan, there are about half a dozen of these humanisers. Some are free, others are paid for. I think Ryan is still seen as the most effective one. Essentially, you paste your copy in, and it then performs its magic, disguising that you’re using an AI writer. There are other services that allow you to paste some of the copy into them, and they will perform AI detection on it. Ryan normally passes, not everyone, but the bulk, like Turin, and there are some others who can do it online. It will pass 100% human, and I use it just to add another layer of verification to ensure. Some of these humanizers really do… They make the copy almost unreadable. But Ryan does a pretty good job. You do have to read it, and you do have to perform some checks, but it’s still fairly readable, considering the content it produces, and it does pass most AI detection.
Well, that’s been an incredible list. John uses these tools every day. I’ve stayed away from them. That will not always be the case. Both the tools are improving, and the world is changing. I still am going to leverage the human factor a lot, but the more I look at it, the more I’m starting to understand where the applications for AI will be relevant inside every space that we’re I think the main thing is that there are other people, especially in the SEO space, who still produce hundreds of articles per week.
I’ve never used it that way because you have to read the content and fact-check it. And there are other people who don’t bother; they just churn it out. I tend to add video, and I also add other elements to increase the value of the content. However, in my opinion, you do need to proofread, edit, read, and fact-check it. However, if you have experienced copywriters, there are other platforms. It will still help them increase their profitability, but I wouldn’t be happy with just not checking it and putting it on somebody’s website, which some people are doing, aren’t they?
Yeah, absolutely. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that’s been our show. That’s been our last show. Thank you so much for tuning in. John, I’m going to let you do whatever you want to do at the very end. Say your goodbyes. If anybody, I am not going anywhere, though, ladies and gentlemen. I’ll still produce content for real estate. I’m going to change it up slightly. You can find whatever my next thing is on the inboundrem. Com site. Probably look at the bottom. You’ll see the last couple of notes or episodes that we’ve posted from this show down there. I will see you there if you want to follow me and join me. John, over to you.
Yeah, I’m not giving up on Mel, right? It’s still up. I’ve still got about half a dozen clients. I’m going to have to focus a little time on my other main business, but I’ve got some ideas for Melright. In the new year, I will probably move that on. I’ve got somebody who’s interested in helping me with that. We’re going to go a slightly different direction with it, which I should have done about 18 months ago, but I’ve been busy with my other business. But I wish you all the success with Melright. Rob. I think it’s going to be a great show. I think we’ll produce some really good content together. It’s just that I need to concentrate on my main business for a few months.
I understand. Listen, sir, I wish you the wind in your sales and all the success in the world. Ladies and gentlemen, I deeply appreciate the time you’ve invested in listening to the advice I or we have given. I hope that it’s helped. I’ve always hoped that it has helped. I hope that you’ve gotten some value. I appreciate how much you’ve all elevated this particular show, and I’m always grateful, personally. And John, I’m grateful to you. I’m grateful for you getting me into this in the first place, and I’m also grateful for you getting me started on the podcast path and helping me understand the value.
That’s fantastic. We’ll see you later, folks. Bye. Ciao.
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Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to episode 493 of the Mail Right Podcast. And unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, I have some sad news. We will not reach 500. We will not most likely be making it to 494. 495, although we don’t know for sure, we may reach 494. For those of you who are longtime listeners, if you would like to continue receiving some updated wisdom. John is retiring from this particular podcast, and I will continue with a new podcast called The Real Estate Revolution. You can find more details about that on the inboundrem.com website. We’ll announce it on our homepage. John, is there anything you’d like to add before I go into what we’ll cover in this show?
No, really, it’s just that got. It’s just too much. I’m doing free podcasts, and I really have to concentrate. I don’t want to give up on the membership machine show. I’ve been running mail, right, as a kind of secondary business,s and I put a little bit of extra money in it. We have about half a dozen clients, but the number hasn’t grown for over 18 months. And I haven’t been putting in the effort. I’ve just been concentrating on my other business. Which has grown. I lost a major client very. About six weeks ago, I’m sure we can get some other major clients, but I really need to concentrate on that business. And it’s. And it’s reasonably successful, so I just haven’t got the bandwidth.
Robert, copy while we’re.
It’s not that we’re full. It’s not that we’re falling out dramatically because we haven’t. It’s just I need to concentrate on my other business. That’s the main thing.
And I’m sad to see this go. I’d like to acknowledge here on the show that John is the one who introduced me to podcasting. There was, there was another person involved, Thomas, a long time ago. But John took that baton, offered me a spot on the show, which I gratefully accepted. And I’ve kind of grown to love the format for reasons related to access to influencers and similar things. And that’s why I’m going to continue the show. But honestly, everybody who’s listening, I never once had a podcast on my particular marketing model when we started. It is 100% my experiences with the show and experiences with John. It’s making me want to continue the show. So thank you, John. I really appreciate it and I think.
We’Ve covered some great stuff. The reality is that I haven’t been concentrating. I did have a business partner, but he’s bailed, and I don’t like giving up on stuff, but I really need to concentrate on my other business, and that’s just the reality.
Robert, well, ladies and gentlemen, one way or another, we have an excellent show. John and I have been beating the drum for almost three and a half years now, since we started doing the show on video. Today, we’re going to discuss one of the hottest segments in video, which is AI Video editors – those editors that can theoretically make your videos look magical. And on this particular list that John once again did all the production work on, it just so happened by sheer coincidence and luck that my team uses three of the six tools he has on the list. So, John and I are going to split it up a little bit. I’m going to discuss the tools we use and explain how we utilize them with all of you. And you can decide for yourself whether you think that’s going to be beneficial for your business models as realtors. And then John will talk about the three heavier ones, not exclusively, any more than I will exclusively talk about mine. But he will talk more, take more of the lead. So, without any further ado, the first one on our list in episode number 493 is Canva.
Now, Canva is absolutely the tool that I use. I have. It’s one of the only AI tools where I have a team membership, so I pay more money for it. For those who don’t know what that means, I think we pay a one time payment of a few hundred dollars a year, but that’s a team membership for Canva. I’ve got a total of three resources that use Canva. We use it for the creation of thumbnails, we use it for editing videos, and we even use it in partnership with another tool that’s on the list, which is hey Jen. But that’s way down the list. And we’ll talk about that last. But I just want you to know that we refine some of what hey Jen does with Canva. Now, Canva is user friendly. It has a massive library of licensed material that you can use as seed material inside what you do. You can also do some really cool things these days with uploading images like a static image of, let’s say a house. And then Canva will create a video around an image for you with some prompts. Now, prompt engineering is always important for every single one of these models that we’re talking about.
I am not the prompt engineer for our Canva tool. I’ve only got the reports from my team that it is a very, very useful tool across almost every medium of social media content. We use it for graphs and charts on our extended blog post. We use it to generate eight second videos for when we want some movement across some of the video products that we produce. Like Video Shark, we use it. I mean we use Canva every single day, John and I’m really high on the tool. I think it’s the most useful. It is certainly the tool that we as an agency use the most that of everything on the list. What was your why did you put it on on the list today?
Well, I think they’ve improved it quite a bit. I use Canva almost every day. Not, not quite every day, but many days. And the free product isn’t crippled. I, I pay for the Pro, which I think is 120 a year. So and it’s one of those apps that, or services that bit like Grammarly or Zoom or Dropbox. They’re the four that I pay for every year. And I just pay when, when the invoice comes in, I just pay them. And it’s one of those four really. I just pay it. I, I think it’s well worth $120 for what it provides. And I haven’t used the AI video tool, but I watch some videos and it looks pretty cool for, you know, what you’re getting. You know, is it part the Pro or can you get it for the free bundle?
I think I don’t think you can get it through the free, but I do think it’s part of the Pro and you just give everybody, maybe even you, a perspective. When I was researching pricing for tools, not only was Canva more broadly useful than most tools, it also happens to be cheaper. And that’s a rare combination like VO3, which is a great tool, which is a Google tool for those that don’t know or nano banana is $29 a month. Now that to put it into perspective is for like three times higher than the PRO license that you’ve got and it’s about 30% higher than the team license I’ve got. So when you look at price versus efficiency, Canva also tops that list too. On top of everything else, making it I think personally a de facto recommendation. And I love the fact that you put it number one on the list of things we’re going to talk about today. Number two on the list is Adobe Express. Now you used a keyword here which is Express. Okay. Which is so that everybody knows what that means. Adobe is one of those sites. Now I love Adobe and I love Adobe products.
I don’t want anybody to misreading this. My only complaint, it has been this way for a long time is that it’s hard to cancel once you sign up for them because I run into that all the time and they have so many tools that I get lost on what tool that we’re using specifically. So John was kind enough to include a link to what we’re going to talk about. Adobe Express. Okay. I strongly recommend that so all of you don’t accidentally download the wrong Adobe tool and that you use it. My experience, not necessarily yours, John, I’m going to ask you about yours. My experience has been that Adobe, which is used by my two top editors, it does stuff that other tools don’t do. It’s a more extensive toolkit because I know that my two best editors swear by Adobe products. But I also know I’ve logged in and looked at their tool stuff and it’s not as easy as my Screen Pal editor. It’s not as easy as a lot. Like it’s, it’s probably easier than God, not Screencast O Matica. There’s a really complex tool that’s out there and like there’s another really old school video.
Are you talking about Final Cut?
That’s the Apple product. Now there’s another one that you can download that you can make a full on movie.
You’re talking about Vinci.
Hold on, I’ll tell you.
So the other factor is I think Rob’s talking about Adobe Cloud, which is you get dependent on what license you have access to Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Lightbox Premiere Pro, which is their ed, their professional level editor. It’s not cheap folks. When I did my masters, I did a lot of work in Adobe in editing and in After Effects. We’re talking about their free, much simpler tool here. Adobe Express and they’ve offered it. They, they offer a lot of it for free. There are some parts that they ask for some money, but it’s not, it’s nothing like compared to their creative products. They have expanded it. I looked at specifically the editor that you get with Adobe Express and I was quite impressed. The only problem is it’s Adobe and I, I only use Photoshop, so I managed to, to get a deal and I do renew it. It’s one, it’s the, the fifth of the five products that I regularly and it was part of Lightbox, so I only pay about 120 for the year and of that I get Photoshop with Light Box, but I don’t touch the rest because, well, they’re in trouble Adobe a bit because Figma, they’re under attack from a, from a product which they tried to buy.
They tried to buy the company and the government wouldn’t let them do it. And that’s a company called Figma. And basically the Adobe had a competing product and they gave up on it and they no longer think it’s xr. And I gave up on it and then they attempted to buy Figma and they got pushed back from the government and Figma went public. I think, I can’t remember when they went public, but they’re really, they’re really eating into the Adobe pie.
The tool I was talking about is Camtasia.
Oh, yes.
Okay. So just with having said that, I still have team members that are using Adobe Express and I actually have two people just using full of full suite of Adobe tools on top of everything else. So it is where serious video editors go, whether or not it’s going to be right for most of the people listening to the show. That’s the reason I’m putting the addendum in there. If you have a video editor and you’re just trying to get like, if you’re listening to the show so that you kind of understand what the tools are so you can have conversations with people who use those tools a little better, then this is a great podcast for you listen to because then you can, you know. All right, well, if they’re using Adobe, they either have high aspirations or they’re serious editors.
I kind of selected the tools. I think all these tools apart from the next. Well, it’s possible with the next. I think it’s all aimed, but for the individual real estate agent that is probably trying to do it themselves, the next one we’re going to talk about is probably the most powerful and the most Complicated one, but you. It’s still a lot simpler than Adobe Premiere or Final Cut. It’s still a lot simpler.
So why don’t you lead into the next. The next one on the list and.
Then we can go for our break. Well, it’s Runway of, of this group, I would say it’s the most complicated. They’ve got a free product. It’s not that expensive, though, really, compared to when you’re in the Adobe Suite Pro Suite, because it’s not. They’ve got a free, but that’s limited. The standard is 15 these month to month. The Pro is 35. I’d probably go with the Pro. And it’s. It’s a combination of Premier After Effects stuff that used to take you months to learn and then probably a year so you could get up to professional standard. It’s just amazing what it does. You know, you can. It takes away background, it makes videos, it takes one video and you can combine it with another. It. It’s very powerful and it’s very extensive what it can do. And like they say, I think it’s. It’s going to be probably the most difficult. But compared, like I say, compared to what you had to know about a year ago or 18 months ago, it’s totally doable, I think.
Copy you. Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know much about Runway ML, besides the fact I’ve heard of it. So, John, if you don’t mind, we’re going to go to our break and then when we come back, you’re going to kick us off. And what we’re going to talk about when we come back to break is a tool called Descript. You’re going to want to stay tuned for what John has to say about it. So without any further ado, go grab that cup of coffee. Thank our sponsors, which is InboundREM and mail. Right. They are bringing you the show today. And so if you find anything that you like on the show, do us a favor, give us a thumbs up and a like. Even though the show is going dark, the work that we put into it is not. And the shows are we going to leave the past shows available for people to access? So there you go, ladies and gentlemen. So if you like the work that we’ve done together, you should give us a final attaboy. As you.
Yeah, well, people gotta understand. I do three podcasts a week and it was just too much. Robert, I.
Believe me, I understand. Maybe everybody else doesn’t, but I do. All right, with no further ado, we’re going to be right back. Stay tuned. Three, two, one. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. If you are still here after the break, John and I give you a hearty thank you so much. Now he’s going to take it away. We are talking about AI Video editors. Next up on our list is Descript. Tell us about it, John.
Yeah, Descript. It’s really interesting because Runway’s got, I wouldn’t say kind of a traditional interface, but kind of compared to some of the more traditional editors, where Descript is quite unique in a way. It’s got this interface where it’s like. It’s like using a word editor to edit your videos. It gives you a transcript, and you can move the words around, and then you can select a word to delete it. Like, if you’re trying to get rid of all your hums and Rs, it will. It will give you a transcript, and you can select all the hums or all the Rs, and it will just remove them. And you can do, like, fades, kind of traditional editing, video editing. But it’s in a. It’s in a kind of word processor interface. And that’s quite unique, isn’t it? And a lot of people. I’ve got a friend that uses it every. Uses it very regularly, every week, and he loves it. And it also. Runway does it as well. But the Descript, if you’re trying to. Trying to. You’ve got a long video, and you’re trying to turn it into shorts. It does a really good job of it, and it does the titles as well.
And for the price, it’s 24 for the hobbyist, and then the creator is 35. The business gets up to 65. So I probably would look at hobbyists and then the create at 35 if I was the individual agent trying to do some better editing. I think for the power and for the price, they create at $35 of this list, unless I was going for the free ones, it’s probably the one I’d go with a bit.
Very cool. Well, I don’t. Again, ladies and gentlemen, and for John, I do not know this tool that well, so I’m going to just add what John has included in the notes but did not mention, which is the hobbyist price is $24 a month, creator 35, and business, 65 per month. Now, I’m going to add the final thought that this. All these tools fall in the same price range. They seem to be competing with each other within a few dollars a month. Except, of course, for Canva, which Once again is far less expensive than everything on the list. For those that might be trying to experiment and have no end goal besides like an inexpensive tool to try to get their feet wet. Other than that, John’s list of performance stuff that he’s been mentioning that, that, I mean, that’s how you measure these things. You go, you look at the features and make a careful decision based on both your budget and what you’re trying to accomplish. Out fifth on our list is Opus Clip. Yeah. Once again, a tool that we don’t use and that I don’t know that much about. So John, why don’t you, why don’t you take us through that one?
Yeah, that, that’s mostly used for if you’ve got long videos and you want to cut them up and use them for tick tock for Instagram reels, if you want to use them on YouTube, the shorts, my friend, it’s highly recommended for that. But the problem is he had both. He had Descript and Opus Clip and he said he mostly you. He mostly uses Descript and it just wasn’t worth paying. But if you’re just looking for a tool to cut up video in shorts, I probably go with Opus Clip, actually. But if you’re looking for a general editor, I say that if you’re happy with Canva or Adobe Express, but you want to produce a load of shorts for social media, I’ll probably go with Opus Clip. But if you look at Descript and you like it, it’s probably no point in buying Opus Clip. And it starts at 15 and, and then they’ve got a pro that’s 29. So it’s not ridiculously expensive, is it?
No, not at all. And that’s. I had heard roughly the same thing about Opus. So for those that may be just looking for a fast, easy way to divide already existing, longer format content up, the way that I like to test new services like this is just have one video ready to go. You go, you sign up, you test it, you like literally cut it up, you post it, you make a reminder to yourself to go back into the tool a week later. And if you know, if you had some success with your shorts or whatever it was, maybe you then keep the expense going. But if you didn’t, or you saw no noticeable difference or it wasn’t easier, you cancel the subscription. I don’t know about anybody else, but I have so much bleed in terms of my finances because I have now canceled like 30 subscriptions. John.
Yeah, that’s what I like about WordPress Because I bought a number which I use for my other business as part of my offering. I bought a number. Well, I’ve got some special deals because of my relationships, but I’ve got a number of lifetime unlimited website licenses. Because all this, it all adds up, doesn’t it? All these subscriptions. I call it in Scripture, Nitis, you know, you don’t realize. So I try and keep. There’s about five of these SAS products like Zoom, Grammarly, Dropbox and there’s a couple others. But I really try and keep the subscriptions down because it, it just gets totally out of hand.
It does. So far as yet, ladies and gentlemen, for the, the effort that I’ve told you, I’ve saved myself $600 a month. And of that 600, that fully 400 of it was stuff we’re. It would just. They got added. We tested and we didn’t cancel. That’s why I gave you the advice I gave you. You don’t want to find a charge for $15 a month, but you’ve been paying it for two years without ever even using the tool. You add that up. It does add up. That’s just my only point. It adds up. Like, next thing you know, you spent hundreds of dollars on something you haven’t even looked at in a long, long time. All right, moving on. We finally are at a tool that I do have something to say about. John, I don’t know if you’re willing to do this little bit of extra work, but I’ve just posted a link for you. We are using hey Gen almost exclusively to do AI avatar videos. And we’ve got it to a point where I call it 80%, 8 out of 10 in terms of quality. It’s where we create a representation of a realtor with their permission, of course, and they’re talking about an area.
And we’ve done these videos numerous times. We’ve got like four betas now. And the videos don’t get quite the same engagement as a real life human being does. But if you’re looking for video and engagement, you’re doing anything like SEO or trying to fill a channel or a vast number of other subjects, then all of a sudden this service can be very good. The realtor that we’re doing it with has been a realtor for 40 plus years. He’s not going to get involved in social or AI. So we came up with a solution solution just for him as a beta. And so far he’s been really loving the result. So one way or the other, Whether or not it’s effective has is yet to remains to be seen. But does he have video that looks like he’s talking giving you a tour guide of certain parts of his market? The answer is absolutely it does. And it’s not that bad. If John is willing to attach it in the show notes, you can see an example. And it was generated using. Hey Jin.
Yeah, I’ll put it in show notes.
That’s what I got.
Yeah, it’s, there’s a, there’s like two to three. But this is one of the leaders, isn’t it? I think the, we covered this six, seven months ago and there was some people that said you could improve the audio and there was a third party. But I think their move, they’re improving almost every month. And it’s not ridiculously priced, is it? It’s 20, it starts at 29 and the team is 39. So. So obviously be better if you can do it yourself. But there are a lot of agents that just. I don’t know what it is. Well, it is strange talking to a camera. I’ve just done a ton of it. I, you know, I’ve done it on my WP Tonic channel. I’ve done 1700 videos over four years. That’s a lot of videos. So I’m not bothered by it. But looking straight a camera, I’ve got a camera over here which is my professional camera. You get used to it. So I think. But there’s some agents, they’re really good in person, but they just, they just can’t handle being in front of a camera, can they?
No, they can’t. And ladies, you know, I’m gonna, I’m gonna do a quick little summary and then we’re gonna wrap up the show. Or, if John wants to do a summary, he’ll do it, and then we’ll wrap up the show. My summary is this. There are a lot of interesting tools out there that are basically also AI video editors, but they’re included in bigger tools whose purpose doesn’t seem to be directly just editing AI video. One of the more interesting of these tools is the Instagram snippet cutter. I was just listening to a very prolific agent who has over 100,000 followers on Instagram, and he uses their built-in tool to cut, edit, and shorten his videos. He does it from his phone. He says it’s easy and it takes him less than 30 minutes. So when we’re talking about video editors, I would like to remind everybody that it’s a tool that should suit a need. If you have more extensive needs within the video, you may be looking at a more comprehensive tool. If your needs are extremely simple, you might want to check out the tools that are included with the platform where you’re posting the video.
Almost all the services, including those from Google and Facebook, have very good editors built into their posting abilities. You may want to review those options before spending any additional money. That is just a thought. How do you feel, either as a comment on what I just said or in response to your own thoughts about it? John?
Yeah, I agree with that. I, I think, I think you can’t beat Canberra. I think what Adobe Express is offering, it’s not some of their functionality you do have to pay, but a lot of it is free. And I think if you. It’s got a very unique interface, but I haven’t used it. But, as I said, I have a friend. Is this descriptive if you want it to be? It makes it really easy to get rid of all the hums and Rs, and really do a kind of semi-professional job if that’s what you’re looking for, without spending all the time learning a more traditional interface. So. And then they got Opus Clip, which, if you’re just using Canva and want to create a lot of shorts, I probably would consider Opus Clip because it does a really good job.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us on our show. We may do one more. As we said, we may not. It is all to be determined. So, in the event that this happens to be the last Mel Right show, just a little snippet. The AI revolution, the real estate revolution. What I’m going to talk about is kind of the segue, the branching point between all the things that are new in real estate and all the traditional things. It’s going to be a bridge conversation, where we’ll talk to a lot of innovators and CEOs, discussing where we think technology is headed, as well as some commentary on where technology has been. That’s why we’re calling it the real estate revolution. I intend to leverage my industry contacts and invite some notable guests, especially to kick off the show. I’ve got an agent with an AI funnel that is actually working completely from start to finish, generating him leads cold. However, it took him three years to develop it. I’m trying to get him to be the first guest talking about all the work that went into building a completely autonomous AI tool.
That generates him leads. That’s what I got for you. If you’d like to check me out, you can do so at the InboundREM channel. You can email me at robertboundrem if you’d like to be subscribed to my new list. When I get it going for the new show, I think that. Oh, and one last thing from me to you and to all the audience, to John himself, I just want to give a hearty, heartfelt thank you to everybody. I want to give you a big thank you, John, for all the work you’ve done to produce this show, as well as all the work you continue to do to produce it. I understand so well how you’re saying it’s an overwhelming mountain of work. Just to do one show is a lot of work, ladies and gentlemen. To do three is almost mind-boggling. So John, hat tip to the direction that you’re going. All the luck, may the wind be behind your sails. And thank you for all that you’ve done.
Oh, thanks for that, Rob. I’ve learned a lot being your host on the show. I think we would do some really good stuff. I’m not sure why we didn’t become the number one podcast for real estate, but I think we consistently ranked in the top 20. I think we have a reasonable audience. We just didn’t hear much from them, did we?
That’s true; a few times over the years, I’ve heard that there are some calls that I’ve received, but.
That’s not unusual for podcasting. My WP Tonic, which is a larger show. Depending on the guest, I have people join us live. About two weeks ago, I had about 20-25 people join the conversation, but in other episodes with other guests, I don’t get anybody joining us. So, it’s really dependent on the guest, in reality. So, thanks, folks, and us. Hopefully, we will do an end-of-show next week. I can’t say for definite, but I will attempt it, and hopefully, we will see you next week, folks.
All right, take us offline, sir.
We discuss with our special guest Greg McDaniels the importance of quality photography connected to being a successful real estate Read more
Agents need to do more than blogging to get results in 2016. We discuss this during this show with our two Read more
Greg McDaniel literally began his career at his father’s knee. It would not be an exaggeration to say he has Read more
Personal agent photography is really important but usually semi-forgotten. We have a great guest "Preston Zeller" on the show who recently Read more
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Zillow Premier Agent review: Discover the good, bad & ugly truth about costs, leads, and competition. Is it worth it for realtors in 2025?
In this enlightening show, we delve into the complex world of Zillow Premier Agent, examining its notable advantages, potential drawbacks, and common pitfalls that users may encounter. Whether you’re a seasoned real estate professional or a newcomer, understanding the full spectrum of experiences is crucial. Join us as we break down everything you need to know about this platform.
#1 – Introduction
#2 – Key features of Zillow Premier Agent
#3 – Zillow Premier Agent Pricing
The typical monthly price for major metro markets starts at about $1,000.
ZPA agents pay between $300 and $500 per month for markets outside major metropolitan areas.
Zillow charges agents a fee per lead, with rates being highest in major metropolitan areas. The average lead cost is $223 in populous metro areas and $139 for other ZIP codes.[1] Zillow doesn’t openly list pricing details, sharing only these averages as a reference point.
#4- The Main Pros and Cons of the Platform
#5 – Final Thoughts
We discuss with our special guest Greg McDaniels the importance of quality photography connected to being a successful real estate Read more
Agents need to do more than blogging to get results in 2016. We discuss this during this show with our two Read more
Greg McDaniel literally began his career at his father’s knee. It would not be an exaggeration to say he has Read more
Personal agent photography is really important but usually semi-forgotten. We have a great guest "Preston Zeller" on the show who recently Read more
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Discover the best lead-generating websites for realtors in 2025. Boost your sales with proven platforms that convert visitors into clients. Get started today.
In today’s competitive real estate market, effective lead generation is crucial for success. In this video, we explore the best lead-generating websites for realtors in 2025, highlighting features that can elevate your business. Discover innovative tools and platforms designed to attract potential clients and convert leads into sales.
https://www.realgeeks.com
Establish $299 | Grow $599 | Expand $999 | Conquer $1,599 per month
Swift IDX
https://www.vanitygeeks.com/real-estate-web-design/real-geeks/swift-idx-map-search
Prices Prices | Pro $229 | Ultimate/Broker $299 | Ultimate + $399 | VIP $899 per month
GoHighLevel
iHomefinder IDX
Prices start at $900-$1,299 per month for solo agents, with team plans and extra fees for add-ons like AI or dialers. In
Prices starting from $295 with a one-time setup fee $1,000
Squarespace
Ylopo uses Sierra Interactive IDX
kvCORE (now part of BoldTrail) does not have publicly listed pricing, but costs vary based on team size and can range from approximately $299 to over $1,800 per month,
https://sierrainteractive.com/
Prices starting from $299
Each additional user increases your monthly bill, starting at around $25-$100 per user, depending on the plan.
We discuss with our special guest Greg McDaniels the importance of quality photography connected to being a successful real estate Read more
Agents need to do more than blogging to get results in 2016. We discuss this during this show with our two Read more
Greg McDaniel literally began his career at his father’s knee. It would not be an exaggeration to say he has Read more
Personal agent photography is really important but usually semi-forgotten. We have a great guest "Preston Zeller" on the show who recently Read more
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Are you a newly licensed real estate agent eager to succeed in the competitive 2026 market? In this video, we delve into essential strategies and innovative techniques that will help you stand out from the crowd. From leveraging technology to building meaningful client relationships, we cover everything you need to know to establish a successful career in real estate.
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to episode number 489 of the MailRight podcast. We are so excited to bring today’s subject. There’s no more important subject than music if you are a new real estate agent trying to figure out how to be successful in 2026. It’s a new world in which we live. Before we begin the show, I’d like to thank our sponsors, InboundREM and Mail-Right. Mail-Right is an all-in-one tool. John can elaborate on it when he introduces himself. And InboundRIM is likely one of the leading providers of information to real estate agents in all aspects of their careers, as well as a provider of websites, SEO, and AI CIO services. Without further ado, I’d like to introduce my amazing and brilliant co-host, who will let everyone know who he is in case you’re not already familiar. John?
Thanks, Rob. I’m the joint founder of Mail-Right. Com. We provide fantastic-looking websites, a CRM, and a range of other digital tools to help you generate high-quality leads. Back over to you, for those of you who may be do-it-yourselfers and are wondering what a great resource is for building a WordPress website, I recommend John’s other podcast, WP Tonic, one of the largest podcasts on the subject of WordPress.
He’s been doing it for a very long time. It’s a far larger show than this one, and he has secured some of the best guests in the world on this particular subject. If you haven’t already done it, go ahead and check out WP Tonic. If you’re looking for how-tos, check out inboundrem. Com, and you can find out how to do many of the things we’ll discuss in more detail than we can cover on the podcast today. With no further ado, we will discuss some strategies. Now, if you’re a long-time listener to the podcast, this may not be the episode for you, as we’ve discussed some of these topics before. However, if you’re a new agent, this is definitely the podcast you want to be listening to at this exact moment. Why? Establishing a career and having a plan, a business plan, is crucial, even if it’s not discussed much with you in general. If you’re not planning to succeed, you’re planning to fail. That is an old saying that has been around for a long time, and I couldn’t agree more with the idea that it’s really important to have a game plan in place.
Today, our objective on this podcast is to provide you with a couple of ideas about where and how to start your game plan. Things that you may not have considered, or perhaps things that you can, and we’re just to remind you why you should do them. John, when you were starting the… Let’s just say any of your new podcasts, because I think you’ve got a couple that I know of, maybe you’ve done more that I don’t necessarily know of. When you’re planning for some new project, how do you kick that off?
Well, I didn’t plan the WP tonic. I was working for Noble Studios, a regional digital agency. They’re still in business in Reno. I completed my degree in the UK and earned an associate degree in the US. Then I got a job with Noble Studios. Then I was asked to do by somebody I met at a local event who was into a bit of an amateur sound audio guy, and he wanted to do a podcast, and he wanted to know more about WordPress, so he said, Why don’t we do it together? That wasn’t really that planned, to be truthful, Robert. I do the Membership Machine Show, and I’ve been doing that for about three years, and that’s really focused at the target audience of the WP tonic business, and I do this podcast with you.
Okay, so let’s just talk about the Membership Machine Show. I think I know the answer, but I’m not sure the audience does. So you decide to start not one, not two, but a third podcast, because I know this one has been gone longer than three years. I’ve been working with you on it for three years. So what made you think that that was the strategy you wanted to pursue, and how did you come to a resolution and say, Okay, it’s worth yet more of my time to do yet another podcast?
Well, it’s more focused on our target audience because WP Tonic is a boutique hosting and support company for those who want to run a membership community-focused WordPress website. The membership machine shows that we not only cover WordPress, but also the SaaS alternatives and marketing, and we mix it all up. But it is very much targeted at those who want to build a real business around learning, eLearning.
So, you thought, ‘I saw the need because I was already in the niche, and I decided, I’m going to serve the need that I think is there.’
Yeah, where the WP I keep it going because I’ve met so many people and it’s built influence and all the back links and all the SEO and the domain authority that WP tonic gets, and the sponsorship I get, which isn’t enormous, but it’s reasonable. So there’s a lot of benefits of keeping that show going. But it’s not targeted at my target audience. It’s aimed at WordPress freelancers, higher-end implementers, really people that are really interested in WordPress.
So the point of that series of questions, ladies and gentlemen, and John participating in that little conversation there is to show you an example of building out a business strategy. In this particular case, there was somebody who was already dabbling in to put this specifically into real estate terms. Let’s just say you’re walking into the real estate business, you’re doing what every real estate agent pretty much I’ve ever met does. You’re saying, I just want to sell homes anywhere, any type. So you start to do that however you do it. You knock on doors, you get leads from Zillow, you do whatever you do. You sell a few homes, and you start to realize that People are probably asking you questions about maybe a specific real estate type, condos, waterfront, investment. I can go on and on. And you start to think, Oh, it seems like a lot of people are asking me about second home investment property. So So maybe I should start to focus on that. That right there is a business strategy. That is a business plan. That is the beginning of one, at least. That is this thought that maybe there is a specific audience I can appeal to directly and have a better job of generating business there.
Would you agree with my outline?
Yeah, I do. I think when you’re starting off, it’s road kill. Whatever comes on your radar, you got to go for it. But you should have a strategy, and we’ve discussed this in a few of the episodes. After a certain period of time, the more you can find a niche. Obviously, a lot of people listening to this podcast are going to be shouting out, Well, I don’t live in a big enough area or city to be able to have a niche. But I don’t agree with that. I think the bread and butter, it really depends on what area you’re doing business in. But let’s say you’re in the $300, $400, $300, $400. The bread and butter is where I would want to start off with. I feel that’s where the real money is. I know there’s some real luxury people that are really done fantastic. That’s great for them, but I think the real money is in the bread and butter. But you can still find a niche in that bread and butter market, as I call it.
We’re moving down a series of bullet points, and I’m doing it a little bit more fluid today. But, John, what do you think… If I was to ask you this question, as a less experienced business person than you are and say- I think you’re much more experienced than me.
I’ve just done What I’ve had to do, I’ve run a dry cleaning business, very successful in the UK. I run it for 23 years, and I got into web development and I run a couple of businesses. I’ve actually only run three businesses in the whole of my business career, Robert.
Which is still, the question is going to prevail, which is, what do you think is relevant about a sales strategy in 2026? Just best guess, like RIF, and put yourself maybe in the shoes of a real estate salesperson.
Well, I think it’s really understanding the realities of the market. Seventy-five % of real estate agents don’t sell one house, one property in the whole year. It’s disastrous. Seventy-five % drop out in less than five years. A production of two million. Sounds a lot, but When you look at the net amount, it’s not very good. You got to be looking at at least four million in production, at least 13 to 15 properties per year. Then after you take what the broker wants, the federal tax, the state tax, the running costs, you take it all out, you’ll probably end up with a gross of about at 45 to 50,000 at 4 million production. A lot of agents are part-time, so they can run their business at a lower This is not an attack at the brokerage. A lot of the traditional brokerages aren’t making the enormous amount of money. It’s a big problem in the real estate industry, a lack of profitability.
Sure. I’m going to say, I’m going to rift on something that you just said, John, and I’m going to say that while it wasn’t specific in the title of the podcast, there’s a really important part because this is, do you understand the sales environment in 2026? And I think that most agents actually don’t understand the sales environment, not because… And I mean it from the perspective that you just brought up. They don’t understand the sales environment through the eyes of the broker that they’re potentially signing up with. Because most brokerages, especially with the proliferation of what are called digital brokerages, anybody listening to this show that is identifying as a new agent should probably already know what that is. But in case you don’t, it’s like eXp or Real are two of the bigger examples. They are brokerages that don’t have offices, they don’t have brick and mortar, and their model really is recruiting agents in mass. But different brokerages, especially smaller local regional ones who have to compete against all these newfangled brokerages, now they may provide some value when you sign up underneath them because they probably have an existing environment where they’re going to provide some leads and maybe some mentorship, which is something farther down on our list in terms of strategy today.
But let me tell you, digital brokers provide none of that. They provide you online mentorship, yes. They provide you digital mentorship, yes. But part of your sales strategy for 2026 needs to be, first and foremost, in the planning stages, understanding the person that you are. Can you learn virtually? Because if the answer is no, you’ve eliminated a lot of the places that you would work. Because even some of the traditional brokerages have gone into a no office model where you don’t have to come into the office and you don’t have to sit down at a desk. Most good brokerages with good strategies will insist that you come and sit in what’s called the bullpen and still sit in the office. These days, the bullpen is not so much about people walking through the doors no matter what they tell you. There’s a few exceptions, but most of the time for traffic is minimal. What it does do, though, is give you an opportunity to be around other more experienced salespeople and pick up tips. If you’re an in-person learner, you need to probably go with a more traditional brokerage that has some of those strategies in place.
Would you agree?
I do, but point two, you’ve been in sales all your life. I’m in sales. I’m in sales myself now. You got to understand the sales process. You got to understand that you can’t be the invisible agent. You got to understand whatever is contacting next. Well, I’ve been critical just general phoning, but when it comes to expires, yeah, it’s tough market. The good thing about hitting expires is you got to learn your scripts and you’ve got to get some training, and it’s just good training. You’re going to harden up because you’re going to get a bit of abuse when you run up expires. But after you’ve done a lot of it, it becomes on the duck’s back. But I just think it hardens you up to do expires, to hit them up. But you got to understand you’re there to get leads. The broker ain’t going to get you leads.
Sure, which is sales skills 101. And most people hitting real estate, the 75% failure rate that John mentioned, which is a true statistic he mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, is because most real estate salespeople, and don’t ask me why, they drop the salespeople out of their title, and they forget that if you’re going to get into this career, you’re getting into a sales career and the old adage in sales still applies. I did my sales comeuppance in the hardest way possible. I did a lot of hand-to-hand on the street, and I learned a lot of scripts from a lot of different people I worked for, and I did the script exactly as I was told to do it, and I learned the pros and cons of whatever that is. Now, the old-school people that are out there that will still train you using scripts is like Mike Ferry. Tom Ferry and most other people have gone a more fluid type of teaching, which is not necessarily good depending on what learner you are. If you’re a learner that’s going to do best, if you know exactly what you’re supposed to say, believe it or not, old-school brokerages are probably, again, the best thing for you.
Can I just quickly say something about it? It’s about you’re going to get the same objections coming up. You’ve got to know how to handle them with aplomb, but you’re going to be confronted If you’re dealing with the same industry, you’re going to hear the same objections. You got to have a methodology to overcome objections. The best way is to train. If you’re blabbering or you get worked up when you hit objection, and you’re going to hit objections all the time, you need some training or you need to get out of the game quick. It’s really quite simple, isn’t it?
It really is. On that great point, we’re going to go to break. I want to thank John, and I want to thank the companies that provide us the ability to do this podcast for you, InboundREM and MailRight or MailRight and InboundREM. It’s Mel-right, if you want to check them out, it’s in the A, I, R-I-L-R-I-G-I-T-H, or if I spell that correctly. Com. And InboundREM is I-N-B-O-U-N-D-R-E-M. Com. Anyway, thank you so much for listening. We really appreciate it. When we come back from break, we are going to talk about We’re going to get into some of the more nitty-gritty stuff, the difference between busy work and lead gen work, building a referral network, using a CRM, and then we’re going to have some closing thoughts. So stay tuned for that great stuff, especially if you’re a new agent. We can’t wait to share with you. We’ll be right back. Three, two, one. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. It’s episode number 489 of the MailRight podcast. Today’s episode is quite special because we are speaking to an audience that we don’t have time to address nearly enough. That is the brand new agent. We’re talking to the new agent about how to succeed.
In the first part of the episode, we talked about some do’s and don’ts about choosing brokers, and we did a little bit of a rift on how Identify Our Market. We use John as a live example in how to do that. In this part of the podcast, we’re going to talk about the difference. We’re going to start off by talking about the difference between busy work and real estate lead generation work. I’m going to ask John to kick off that subject because he did some proper due diligence on some of these topics. I have some things to add based on my own personal experience, but John, take it away.
Yeah, I think a lot of those that are starting as newbies, they fill their days with what I call busy work. They fill their days with endless social… I believe in social media, if you’ve got strategy, you know what you’re doing. I think I said before the break, I think contacting next wires is a good idea because it toughens you up and you got to get some script training. But I think it can work in getting some money, basically, get the ball rolling. I think social media, having a social media strategy. We’ve discussed this in a number of episodes, you can look for it, folks. We’ve said video is king. I don’t know how many bloody times we’ve said that over the last episodes. I think finding a mentor, somebody who is a producer that actually sells 20, 30, 40, 60 houses a year and just doing the donkey work that helps them, and they become your mentor. You’ll do the open housing, you’ll go around the buyers, show them around all the donkey work, and long as they’re prepared to show you their processes, I think it’s well worth. Finding a local mentor, that’s a real producer is really important.
I don’t think you’re going to get a certain amount of training from certain brokerages national, but I think finding a real local mentor that’s a real producer, and you’re going to have to… That sounds like donkey… That’s more productive donkey work, busy work, than filling your days with whatever your brokerage tells you to do, in my opinion. I don’t know what you think.
I think that these are all good points, and I think you’ve made them well. I’m going to go a little deeper in a slightly different direction, but add a little bit of context. If for some reason you’re sitting here going, Robert, I don’t want to learn how to be a salesperson, not a professional one, not go through hours of sales training and hire a Tom Ferry who’s going to put a business coach on you and teach you things like alternate choice closes and try to coach you up to do the discipline to knock on doors or make phone calls. Let’s just say none of that is your jam, but you still want to be a real estate agent. All right, let’s take that video comment. Video is probably one of the best lead generation strategies that a new agent can consider if they don’t have sales experience. If you’re not the closer of all closers, you can use a very minor amount of video editing skills and a little bit of discipline to go out and do things like walk through listings that are available for you to walk through and stuff like that. Do a little bit of research, try to add a little bit of context to stuff that people may have not talked about the listing, certain elements of the listing that may or may not have been highlighted in the listing pictures online.
So it requires a little bit of research, camera, and discipline. With that, with that, you can just, with a a real estate license, you can post that content to Instagram, Facebook, and many other places where with a very minor amount of research, you could use some of the work that I’ve done on inboundrem. Com and reference some of our articles, and you can figure out how to hashtag and do all the stuff for real estate that you need to do. That might give you a way to generate some leads. It might give you a way to grow an audience, and it might give you a way to backdoor a start to your real estate career. Now, that’s the real estate media strategy. My comment about mentorship. Thank you once again to Alan Jacob, Lenny Goldsmith, Bill Haberstadt. These are people that took the time and energy when I was very young to teach and It trained me, it disciplined me down, provide gentle leadership, and helped me refine my skillset as it relates to being a salesperson, and in some ways an entrepreneur. And with Alan Jacob, it was 100% a leader. I didn’t learn as much about sales from Alan, but I learned a massive amount about leadership.
And these are people that, yes, they were making commission off me. They were making money off me. So that’s the thing that you have to understand about mentors. There are many people who set themselves up in a position where they’re going to make money if you’re successful. And those, in my opinion, are some of the people that you really want to look for. Now, Lenny Goldsmith is the rarest of the rare. A guy I sat next to who just decided to mentor me out of the of his heart with no compensation of any kind ever. I did a lot, not a lot. I did some donkey work for him. I brought him stuff. I did some busy work for him every now and again. I listened to some of his bad jokes because he was an entertainer and wanted to entertain. I did a lot of those things in order to facilitate value so that he in turn would allow me to sit next to him because at the time, it was an allow thing. He got to choose who sat next to him. He was one of the top producers for a reasonably decent-sized company.
There was no sitting next to him if he didn’t want you to. So that was an interesting experience. You have to figure out what you can do. It can be listening to somebody running work for them.
But do you think… I think it’s really worthwhile because you got to get up and running quick. And if somebody who’s a top producer is taking you on, the amount you’re going to learn, You’re going to learn a lot, I would have thought.
I learned most of what I know. If I tried to put into value what these three people taught me, I mean, any success that I’ve had, it all can be attributed to them. Billy Hubbertstatt taught He was the very first guy that taught me how to use marketing statistics in terms of running call centers. He was the most important of all the mentors because he got me off the ground and allowed me to speak in such a way that people took me seriously. It was all Billy Harberstadt, and I was 19. So Find a mentor if you can. To me, I cannot stress enough. It’s such an old-school thought. If you find a digital mentor, you’re like, Neil Patella is one of my mentors, too. But I’ve never talked to the guy. Anyway, we’ll move on because John’s getting Nancy. How would you advise a realtor to build a referral Well, it’s just like we said in previous podcast, this is all stuff that we’ve discussed, isn’t it?
You can’t be the invisible real estate agent, have you? You got to get out there, go to any free activity or group. When it’s free, don’t stick your card in front of people, though. I hate that, but engage in conversations, tell them that you’re a real estate agent, keep going to these events. You’re going to have a But your aim is to get one home bought or sold each month. If you could, after six months, do one a month, I think you got a problem if you’re doing this full-time. You got to get up to 30, 60 sales per year, really, if you’re going to make… You got to get at it. Building relationship, that’s what this bloody business is about. It’s about digital marketing and building real relationships in your area. That’s what it’s about. It’s about referral linked to digital marketing. They’re the two things that work in 2026. You got to get out there, talk to people, build relationships, be generous, help them, hopefully they’ll help you. You got to get out there.
It’s funny that you listed this because you’re right, we’ve talked about it a lot. I talk to a lot of real estate agents, and I sometimes talk to them about… When I talk to them about… One of my first opening questions when people are calling in for a consult is, Where are you getting your leads from? There’s lots of listing, lots of different places that people list. It has been a very long time since an agent called in to me and said to me, I am actually making 40% of my income off referral networks. He was doing it all digitally. I’m just going to give you some stuff that people forget right off the top of your head. Number one, he is on a service called US News Real Estate. It’s a section of a big news site that you can list yourself as an agent. He is on there. He’s on HomeLight, which most of you have heard of. He’s on Coldwell Banker. He’s on a website that somebody else produced called A. Dustin A, Dustin Holmes. He’s also on Zillow. Referral networks in today’s world, ladies and gentlemen, are every place that you can post a profile that is relevant.
He’s got seven five-star reviews on realtor. Com. He’s He’s got seven on Zillow. He’s got three on Facebook and five on LinkedIn. This guy is a master of the referral network strategy. He builds out a profile, he gets a couple of reviews, makes sure a couple of people post reviews there. He had a numbers mentality. When I asked him, because I asked him, John, How many of these places are paying you out? He says, About 10 referral networks send me at least one deal a year. I was flummoxed I have not heard of anybody being-I haven’t heard that one.
But I did say that I think face-to-face and digital, the problem is a lot of agents, they can do the face-to-face, but they can’t grasp their mind a bit of the digital or they’re going fully digital. I think the real success story, especially if you can combine both.
I agree, which leads to an interesting thing. There is a term that we use all the time on the show, CRM, Customer Record Management System. I said this in one of the podcast a couple of years back. Here’s what I want to say before we even start talking about the subject. Most of these systems, which are called CRMs, are really not fair to call them CRMs. They’re really everything, RM. They’re all relationship management combined into one. They’re your task tracker, they’re your email sender, they remind you when to do things and how to do things, and which gets put under the umbrella of CRM. But I use my CRM to tell me what to do with my day, to track phone calls, to create calendar events, sometimes related to work and sometimes not. They’re basically a total schedule creator and minder, which is how I think most people use CRMs these days. They manage most of your schedule off using a core tool. Now, John’s point here, for those of you that are going to go and download the show which all of you should on the mail-right. Com website, and maybe mine, but probably his.
Use a CRM. It doesn’t really matter which one that you start with. Just find one that you can use and use it, and I agree with that a thousand %. Find something that’s going to organize your work and your personal into a schedule that you can manage. For those of you who have kids or are working real estate part-time, you’ll understand how important this is. Especially if you’re trying to do two careers at once as you transition over into real estate, you’re going to really want to pick a one-size-fits-all tool to start with, and then you’re going to want to learn it as well as you possibly can, only in trying to remind yourself how to use your time to best effect, which is anything that’s not a sales activity is not best effect. Now, if you’re using lead generation through video, you want to create as many videos as you have time to do. If you’re doing door knocking, you want to knock on doors. If you’re doing referral networking, you want to start a new site or a new referral network site, or you want to go to an event or a PTA meeting or any of the places that you can go where you can meet people and start to build out a referral network.
That’s my hot take on this. What do you have to say about CRMs?
Yeah, just put in information in it. There are various methodologies about how you use the CRM, but you want to put information about conversations, so none of us got a perfect memory. You should have your hot, warm and lukewarm or cold. It’s those… Because we’ve discussed this endlessly, haven’t we? The buying cycle. Not everybody is a hot lead ready to buy or sell right now, but they could be a warm. They’re looking to move or sell the house in six months. You need to keep in contact with those people. Other people might be 18 months out. But we’ve discussed this endlessly as well, haven’t we?
We have. I’ve got four. We’re going to close out. For those of you looking for some ideas, I’m going to give you five, six reasonably good places to start. John and I both have some reasonably good content that could be leveraged to start a real estate business. I’m not going to say our URLs again because I’ve already dropped them both four times this episode. I’m also going to add a couple of names to the list that I respect. You’ve got Ricky Carruth, who is really good if you’re cold calling You’ve got Jimmy Burgess, who is a one-size-fits-all guy that you use.
I like Jimmy’s stuff. He’s not slimy, is he? He’s education, but he’s not slimy, is he?
Not even a little bit. You’ve got Kyle Handy, especially if you’re going to join eXp, Ricky Carlos is the same. You’ve got, and that would name again was Kyle Handy. Interesting guy if you want to track some statistics for how much you might earn doing some of these things. You’ve got Tom Ferry at top level motivation, but I don’t know that a brand new agent is really going to learn how to be a better agent straight off Tom Ferry. It would take a lot of work to go through all this content, I think.
I got one on my list. I was really impressed. It’s a guy from Florida, and it’s Joan Brooks.
Okay. Is that one of the three references?
It’s the top YouTube video. And he’s got YouTube, and he’s got a a lot of videos. And he’s independent brokerage, him and his wife. I think they’ve done well. They’ve done well in less than four or five years, but they’re not idiots. He’d done the first video, and it really does highlight the lack of profitability a lot. But to be fair, if you just want to do this part-time, obviously the costs are totally different. For somebody that’s doing it full-time, aren’t they? It’s a totally different animal, isn’t it? But if you’re doing this full-time and you really want to… The realities are quite shocking, but it doesn’t mean you can’t be as successful, but you got to educate yourself quick, and you got to get real about this quick.
You do indeed, and Somebody, again, probably one of my mentors said, Half in is a half win. That’s a term I’ve remembered for the entirety of my career in life. Half in is a half win. It’s pretty difficult to look at anything as a half and think that it’s going to be wildly successful. I have started plenty of careers while working part-time in one and part-time in another, plenty. I finally realized very late in life, in my 40s, that there was really not a brass ring at the end of the half-in thing that was worth having. So I went all in with like, inbound R-E-M. I did work two jobs to afford the money to save for inbound R-E-M. And then what I did is I started inbound R-E-M properly by going all in from the very first moment I decided, like I got the incorporation license and said, and now we’re on. It makes a big difference, but it is very risky. That’s why entrepreneurship and everything else that carries huge rewards, the The reason that not the vast majority- I just want to say something, and I’m not diminishing what you’re just saying because you’re sharp.
But what I mean is, the couple of jobs or the main job you were doing, you were building relationships with the people that you’re going to do your main business with anyway. So you had some people who would take your calls would listen to you. That’s cute. I started Mail-Right, and I didn’t have any established relationships in the Mail-Right real estate industry. That wasn’t very clever, but you only know what you know, don’t you? So you were much sharper than I.
I just did it, but I failed more times, John. By the time I started at Boundary, I had tried seven other businesses and run countless others for other people, and made money as a commission-only salesperson for close to 25 years. This was because I worked differently from most people. But that’s where my advice comes from. Being successful is a road, and it’s a long one. Those of you who are new to a real estate career, planning to be successful long-term, understand that there’s a lot of hard work between you and the end goal. Start with a plan. Start with a small plan that’s easy to execute, something to generate leads and get yourself some business, and plan to fail a lot. Plan on it. Because in failure comes the lessons. In the lessons comes the learning. In learning comes success. It is one thing I will say about you, John, and I’ve said this many times: you are a determined and consistent person. We’ve discussed it offline, and we’re not going to discuss it online because I don’t want to reveal anything about John’s business. However, I’ve heard you face plenty of challenges, and yet, you get up.
If you put in your business, what does that look like to chat? Talk about ups and downs every day, every week, every month, every year. That’s the one. However, I’d like to end on a happy note. I still think as long as you know the realities and you get a good mentor, get somebody to show you the ropes, and you’ve got a good work effort, and you get a plan of action, and I think you can still be successful in real estate. I truly believe that, but you have to know what you’re getting into.
A hundred %. And I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer.
No, you’re much more upbeat than I am.
I just want to say that in all the businesses I found a mentor, I was ultimately successful. The success grew as my knowledge grew. So of all the things we talked about today, for me, not for anybody else, not for John, I’m just telling you all that I, as a human being, Robert Newman, feel the number one thing that we talked about today was finding yourself a mentor because all the hardness gets less if you have somebody provide guiding guidance. And that could help a lot of you, such as how to knock on a door, what to say, and having somebody who has done it many times successfully. Anything that they want in return is almost worth it as long as it’s not servitude.
It must be. You must say it.
Yeah. All right. No further ado, ladies and gentlemen. We have thoroughly enjoyed this show. John and I are always grateful for the listening. If you’re on Spotify or Apple, please give us a thumbs up or leave a comment on those platforms. I’d love it if you did. Personally, I would make the world, the difference to me as a human. If you’d like to look me up, you can do so at inboundram. Com. If you’d like to schedule a consultation for some reason, you can. You can visit the About Our Services page to find contact information directly. Jon, how would you like people to reach out for all your information? Yeah, thanks, Rob.
Visit the mail-right.com website, explore our features, and discover what we have to offer. I think you’re going to be blown away. Then you can book a chat with me, and I’ll give you a demo. We can then see if our MailRight is right for you, and I’m pretty sure it will be. Back over to you, Rob.
Beautiful. Well, that’s been our show for today. We hope that if you’re a new agent, you enjoyed it. If, for some reason, you’re a team leader or someone else who isn’t a new agent, we hope you’ll pick up some gems to share with your new team members. God, I would love it if you just tell John and I that and send us a little note or leave a comment somewhere. That’s it. We appreciate it. Take us offline.
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