Latest / Real Estate Investing with RealDealCrew / Will AI Replace Real Estate Agents? with Aprile Osborne
Transcript
- 0:00Four closed deals last year, and the agent never talked to those buyers until
- 0:05she met them at the house. AI booked every showing.
- 0:09That's April Osborne, a co owner of Call It Closed,
- 0:14a brokerage in twenty six states,
- 0:16And she holds Florida's record for the most new construction homes sold in a year.
- 0:21In this episode you'll learn how she tests AI tools before her agents even touch
- 0:26them.
- 0:27why agents paying big splits to a brand is falling apart and what that shift means
- 0:32for investors negotiating commissions.
- 0:35If this helps, subscribe and check out RealDealCrew dot com.
- 0:39Let's get started.
- 0:44Aprile Osborne joins me here today.
- 0:46You can learn what she can help you with at two locations.
- 0:50One is her Instagram where she's got a ton of followers.
- 0:52Look for Aprile Osbourne there.
- 0:56I'm gonna have that as a clickable link in the show notes,
- 0:58as well as one to callitclosed dot com and we're gonna spend most of
- 1:03her time there today. But really appreciate your time here today,
- 1:07Aprile.
- 1:08It's my honor. Thank you so much for having me.
- 1:12You've been a realtor in the Florida area for over twenty years.
- 1:16What caused you to decide to find your way to call it closed international realty?
- 1:23That's a great thing. I'm actually 24 years in my about to hit
- 1:27my 25th anniversary in the business.
- 1:29my husband and I actually own Call It Closed.
- 1:32so that's how I got into Call It Closed,
- 1:34is my husband hired me. but we've owned several other remaps.
- 1:38We owned Remax offices. We closed,
- 1:40sold those in 2016, and a couple years later opened Call It Closed.
- 1:44And so we're one of the fastest growing real estate companies in United States.
- 1:47We're in 26 states and six countries.
- 1:50Growing every single day. And so but I still sell real estate here
- 1:53in Southwest Florida and I'm honored to still be boots in the ground selling real
- 1:57estate. It's my passion.
- 1:59Well let's let's kind of give people in insight here regarding that site
- 2:03and what it's it's created to do.
- 2:06You mean what side the call it closed side?
- 2:08You ain't
- 2:10Yeah, absolutely. We're a total different we're in the middle of
- 2:13a major market shift, the way that consumers do business with real estate agents.
- 2:17You know, ever since the online world came out with Amazon and the way that
- 2:22we the consumer does everything different.
- 2:25So the consumer does things different with us as agents.
- 2:28And so we are really kind of like the e-trade to the stock market
- 2:33for real estate agents. So we're 100% commission based.
- 2:37And we're the process of taking the company public,
- 2:39which is exciting. we do revenue share for our agents,
- 2:42and so the the business side of it is that our agent can actually service
- 2:46our consumers better. They're in control in the driver's seat of their commissions,
- 2:51and so because of that, they can,
- 2:53you know, like for example, if they do an investor property and
- 2:56say that investor buys 12 properties from them,
- 2:59they can do a discount with that broker with that investor,
- 3:02help him out to make more money,
- 3:04get his ROI higher because he
- 3:06Working with an agent that's in control and driver's seat of their commission,
- 3:09where a lot of the old-fashioned brands don't allow the agent to be able
- 3:14to to have that control, and if they have to pay such large fees,
- 3:19it holds them back from actually being able to negotiate their fees,
- 3:24of course, as well, because they have they're paying big,
- 3:27large splits with that brand, and so we take all of that away.
- 3:30We believe that the agent is the brand,
- 3:33and so we we push them to be.
- 3:35the brand because the consumer does not come to a brand anymore,
- 3:38they come directly to a real estate agent.
- 3:41You you said you've expanded into twenty six states now in
- 3:44the United States regarding this.
- 3:46Have you found it difficult to find inroads into some states over others?
- 3:52You know, that's a great question and really no EXP,
- 3:56it's another brokerage, they're a large broker,
- 3:58they were kind of the forerunners of the online branding,
- 4:02the online agent basically before,
- 4:05and so they really fought some battles before we ever came in.
- 4:08Now there's still a traditional model split with the at with that o those agents.
- 4:13I think they're sitting around fifty or sixty thousand agents across
- 4:16the United States and and several other countries,
- 4:18but they were really the forerunner.
- 4:20So because of their forerunning,
- 4:21we were able to kind of run behind them and not have those same problems.
- 4:26So we've not had any problems at all and we're exploding and we'll probably
- 4:29be in about additional 35, I mean the additional probably 10 to 15 more states
- 4:35by the end of this year.
- 4:37so you're moving really fast. With that w Yeah,
- 4:40Yes, sir. Faster than I was expecting.
- 4:43with that level of scale, w has there been anything in your business that surprised
- 4:48you along the way regarding scaling so quickly and across the the nation so quickly?
- 4:54Yeah, we're not taking every single real estate agent that comes with a pulse.
- 4:58We really are driving for integrity.
- 5:00we want them to have a high I call it a high real estate IQ.
- 5:04I'm finding that there is a lot of people that have a low real estate IQ.
- 5:08Right now, especially what's going on.
- 5:10We have a lot of agents that got in.
- 5:12They watch that million-dollar,
- 5:14you know, you know, online show or whatever,
- 5:17selling paradise or selling New York City,
- 5:19and they think that that's what real estate looks like.
- 5:21And
- 5:22So they they get in the business right now.
- 5:24I don't know if you know the statistic,
- 5:25but a hundred out of a hundred agents that get into the business,
- 5:29only 12 make it past year three.
- 5:32So 86 out of 100 don't make it.
- 5:35And so we're really looking, and we we attract a lot of big producers,
- 5:39a lot of agents that really know what they're doing.
- 5:42They've been in the business a long time.
- 5:43And so I would say that would be our was our surprise is that you've got,
- 5:48you know, a lot of these agents,
- 5:49the 86 that are getting into the business,
- 5:51they think
- 5:51that they're going to be successful and then they're not.
- 5:53And so we're just kind of navigating through that.
- 5:56And so we've just found that we are again attracting more of the agents that's been
- 6:01in the business longer than that three year margin.
- 6:04And those are the agents that we really are attracting.
- 6:09That's g interesting you bring that up because I've actually talked
- 6:12to some brokers and one of them ac mentioned that they felt like they were more
- 6:16in the recruiting business than the real estate business because they're
- 6:19the churn and and having to just keep replenishing their their ranks
- 6:24was was the biggest challenge.
- 6:27No, I I would have to agree you do have a lot of that because agents leave
- 6:30the business. You know, there's no guarantee salary,
- 6:33of course, in this business. And the problem is they don't have nobody's babysitting
- 6:37you. Like, did you get up today and get dressed and and go to work?
- 6:41You know, nobody's gonna knock on your front door and go,
- 6:43is there a real estate agent that lives here?
- 6:44I'd like to sell my house. You gotta go out there and grind.
- 6:48And so it takes a unique type of person that has high discipline to
- 6:51be successful in this business.
- 6:54Mm-hmm. You you you mentioned writing a book.
- 6:57Like I I can actually can't think of anything more painful to consider doing than
- 7:03than writing a book. Like what made you decide to do that?
- 7:06And would you mind sharing a little bit of that process?
- 7:10Yeah, no, it's so painful, I have to say it was
- 7:11Mm-mm. ~
- 7:13difficult. but I definitely I was being approached by a lot of news outlets.
- 7:18I s I I get the honor I get invited to to speak on a large scale about real estate
- 7:23going on across the country. I hold the record in the state of Florida
- 7:27of the most new construction homes ever sold in a in a one-year period,
- 7:31and and I did that mostly with investors,
- 7:33did really well. We can chat about that later.
- 7:35But and investors were coming to me and asking me to talk about
- 7:39What was going on in the industry,
- 7:40and we are in the middle of a major market shift.
- 7:43And I've been saying that term for probably I started talking about it
- 7:46in 2009 when the consumer began to come back to the market,
- 7:51and when I saw the way the consumer treated us as agents and the way they came back
- 7:55after the crash, that's really what I would say.
- 7:58I began to have these aha moments that we were in the middle of a market shift.
- 8:02Kind of like you know, Sears was an incredible company for a hundred years,
- 8:06and they're out of business today.
- 8:07I love
- 8:07Blockbuster and they're no longer,
- 8:09you know, in business, and toys are us and all the things,
- 8:13you know. And so we're in the middle of a major market shift,
- 8:15the way that we do business, the way that real estate investors do business,
- 8:19the way that consumers are doing business with their agents,
- 8:21the way we sell our homes, the way we buy our homes,
- 8:23everything's shifting. And so,
- 8:25because I was talking about it on such a large scale,
- 8:27privately to clients and privately to people,
- 8:30I'm finding that they were like,
- 8:32You gotta write a book about this,
- 8:33you know, because you're so passionate.
- 8:35And so that's really where it came from.
- 8:36From and in fact, I have a copy to show you.
- 8:38It's called the Market Shift. Market Shift.
- 8:40And so I've been honored to did a book tour,
- 8:43which was exciting and fun. I was like I said on the news about it,
- 8:47just got invited to some other large news outlets,
- 8:49but you can buy it on Amazon. It's basically talking about you know what does
- 8:54it look like moving forward. And I actually in the process of writing
- 8:57a second book about it because it's such a hot topic.
- 9:00Talk a little bit about the the piece of the market shift that
- 9:03you see regarding technology and advancements.
- 9:05I mean you mentioned EXP kind of bla blazing the trail that you're that you're
- 9:11taking advantage of now. You know,
- 9:14I I tried to do some work with realtors many,
- 9:18many years ago, and I'm gonna even call it in a different life.
- 9:20And at that time it seemed like
- 9:24Realtors and brokers were kind of behind the eight ball.
- 9:27Like they're very slow to adopt and and adapt to change,
- 9:31adopt new tools and new ways of doing things.
- 9:34But then you got somebody like yourself and EXP and that's more technology first.
- 9:41It's kind of a different paradigm,
- 9:43especially in the race with AI.
- 9:45Like how are how how does that all piece in there?
- 9:49No, you're a hundred percent right.
- 9:51I think that there is a
- 9:53you know, agents just put their heads down and they're just,
- 9:56you know, driving for the next deal and they miss the technology pieces they have
- 10:00along the years. Because we are s we're you know,
- 10:02ultimately we're in the family business.
- 10:04This is the American dream to own a home.
- 10:07And so when you you can't lose sight of that side of things where you
- 10:11are belly to belly with the consumer.
- 10:13And so some agents are just so stuck in that rut that they forget this massive fish
- 10:18bowl of the technology side of things.
- 10:21And so we've always
- 10:22Has been very heavy on tech. I would tell you that it's probably 90%
- 10:26of my success in my business is always being tech driven.
- 10:30I would say, of course, my number one focus is always my consumer.
- 10:34I'm very tender towards my consumer.
- 10:36Second is technology, and so the technology is changing every single day.
- 10:41In fact, I was just interviewed by USA Today,
- 10:43the news outlet was honored to be on there,
- 10:46and their whole thing was: is AI going to replace the real estate agent?
- 10:50And
- 10:50And I asked him a question. I said,
- 10:52Well, let me ask you a question.
- 10:54The last time that you had to call customer service for something,
- 10:58you know, do you remember what the last time that was?
- 11:01He was like, Yeah, actually, I called my cell phone provider yesterday because
- 11:05my cell phone was glitching. And I'm like,
- 11:06How long did it take you before you want to speak to a live human being
- 11:10in that process? You know, and he was like,
- 11:13about 15 seconds. And I'm like,
- 11:15Well, that's a thousand-dollar phone,
- 11:17people still want to deal.
- 11:19With the agent belly to belly,
- 11:21but you've got to get them to you in front of you and work with you with AI.
- 11:26AI is the I would say the bait that brings them to you belly to belly.
- 11:31And if you don't understand that,
- 11:33and I'm I'm speaking, I just spoke in Las Vegas last week and a large event,
- 11:37and there was a lot of older agents been in the business more than 15 years,
- 11:42and there was and then there was a small group of younger agents that just
- 11:46got into the business, and I said that.
- 11:47The future of the business, if you guys don't look up and pay attention
- 11:53to what's going on in the AI world,
- 11:55you're gonna be completely replaced by this younger generation because they
- 11:59are so willing to go the AI route.
- 12:01So here at Call It Close, it's our number one passion.
- 12:04I'm not thinking about how do we sell real estate and do real estate in 2026.
- 12:09I am thinking about what the consumer wants in 2030.
- 12:13What does the agent need in 2030?
- 12:16And I'm going after that technology right now.
- 12:18And that's what our team is focused on.
- 12:20It's kind of interesting, you know,
- 12:22you talk about that belly to belly interaction.
- 12:24That's actually what what I talk about a lot is the is the fact that we're
- 12:29implementing this technology. Not everything is a nail right now.
- 12:33We're gonna jam AI into every situation,
- 12:35but it's allowing you to free up your time to make more of the human connections
- 12:41and make more of those personal relationships.
- 12:45I I think right now we're kinda seeing
- 12:48blasting it everywhere and hoping it sticks and and more of a surgical approach
- 12:54is probably better better suited for this type of thing.
- 12:57Yeah, no, I totally agree. Yeah,
- 12:59it does. It absolutely like my AI is talking to someone right this minute,
- 13:02you know, that's looking at property.
- 13:04It's it's following them in their searches and making sure to stay forefront
- 13:10of their mind of the properties that is available for them.
- 13:12And so I want to have that because it works faster than me.
- 13:16It doesn't take naps, it doesn't take lunch breaks,
- 13:18you know, it's not driving the car where it can't respond,
- 13:21you know, it's not up at night.
- 13:23I mean it's I you you it doesn't have to do with bed at night.
- 13:25AI is continuously
- 13:26working so it keeps me at the forefront of my game so that I can
- 13:30be the most successful agent to that consumer.
- 13:33Again, my heart is I want to to bring the best to my client and AI brings helps
- 13:38me bring that to the table.
- 13:40If you wouldn't mind sharing, you know,
- 13:41as you've been scaling Call for Close,
- 13:44what was one of the biggest mistakes along the way?
- 13:47I sh maybe should say one of the biggest lessons that you you experienced along
- 13:52the way?
- 13:52Yeah, absolutely. Listening to outside voices that don't know anything about real
- 13:57estate that was giving me and and my husband advice on how to grow very successful
- 14:01business people.
- 14:02very successful business people in other areas of business.
- 14:06And listening and taking advice from them,
- 14:08taking counsel from them, hiring them as coaches or hiring them as you know,
- 14:13mentors and things of that nature,
- 14:15just really thinking that business was business.
- 14:18And really the real estate business is such a beast of its own.
- 14:23I would say that was probably our biggest we look back and go,
- 14:26wow, we should not have done that.
- 14:28What a waste of time and money and resources did we dig on those things.
- 14:32Well, y you you mentioned that this is like cloud first,
- 14:36it kind of a completely different model.
- 14:38Would you mind taking a step back and explaining a little bit about how that works,
- 14:42how a realtor gets paid, how you get paid,
- 14:45and the the I'm sure that there's some sort of multi tiered revenue model here that
- 14:50we should probably spend a little time on.
- 14:53Yeah, so basically we are so heavy because we don't have local brick and mortar.
- 14:57When what my husband and I found when we owned our five Remax offices and
- 15:01we had the fastest growing remaxes in 2012 here in Southwest Florida,
- 15:04most expensive locations, my top producing agents,
- 15:08myself included, I still did a lot of business those years.
- 15:11I was not in the office. And so we had all these beautiful locations and no office,
- 15:16no agents in the office except the agents that weren't selling houses.
- 15:19And so we're like, why are we spending sixty thousand dollars a month?
- 15:22on just rent alone for these beautiful offices that's not producing any ROI.
- 15:26And we're very ROI generated. And so we and and for people that don't know that
- 15:31means return on investment. And so we want that return on investment
- 15:35on everything that we do. And so we realized that again the industry was shifting,
- 15:39the way the agents were doing business was shifting.
- 15:41You know, if you go back and look at real estate when it started,
- 15:44you know, with the yellow jackets,
- 15:46you know, and people used to have to come into a real estate office because there
- 15:49was no Zillow, there was no
- 15:51MLS, there was no corporate database of properties.
- 15:54It was a book, and you had to go into a book and look at a book and see.
- 15:57And so today, obviously, all that shifted.
- 15:59And so we sold our Remax offices and we decided to take all of our large expenses
- 16:05to be all technology. And so to bring the technology to our agents first,
- 16:10we called it like this: an agent gets their real estate license.
- 16:13It's like a driver's license, but they have no car,
- 16:16no fuel, no direction, they have no idea where they're going.
- 16:20We bring the Ferrari, we bring the fuel,
- 16:22we bring the GPS and the direction where to go and the coaching and
- 16:26the training to know how to navigate this business.
- 16:29And so we do that at 100% commission.
- 16:31It's a $99 a month fee for the agent,
- 16:34and they get all of our technology.
- 16:37Now I will tell you this is the most amazing part about it,
- 16:39is because technology is changing so quickly,
- 16:42we've made contracts with some of the highest level of technology services like
- 16:47our CRM, our AI platform.
- 16:49our go high level platform, the transaction softwares,
- 16:53all of the things. If they were to go right now,
- 16:55say they were with EXP or Caldwell Bank or somewhere else and they were
- 16:58to go get these things, which they need them.
- 17:00Remember it's the car, it's the fuel and it's the direction they have to have
- 17:04to be successful in this business.
- 17:05Because again, if you're not online,
- 17:07what are you doing? You know, and so and if you don't have the
- 17:10AI and the technology, you're not going anywhere.
- 17:12And you don't have the fishing pole to bring the fish in.
- 17:14And so
- 17:15We bring we went and negotiated these large contracts with the owners
- 17:19of these companies, these these software companies,
- 17:21and we see and they they recognize that this is the future of real estate as well.
- 17:26And so we were able to negotiate those prices down.
- 17:28But if they were with Coldwell Bank or one of these other companies right now,
- 17:31they would pay about $1,500 a month for the services that we bring to the table.
- 17:35It's a beautiful technology package.
- 17:38We're constantly looking to add to that technology package as
- 17:41the technology changes because it's changing.
- 17:44Every single day. I'm in beta test right now with four new technology platforms.
- 17:49I'm constantly beta testing myself as an agent because I want to stay,
- 17:53like I said, that 2030 mindset.
- 17:55And so we are beta testing technology.
- 17:58So we bring that to the table at $99 a month for the agent.
- 18:02Then secondly, we bring coaches and trainers.
- 18:04I'm very, very picky who coaches and trains my agents.
- 18:08If they've not been successful in real estate,
- 18:10they're not allowed to be a coach on my platform.
- 18:12There's a lot of coaches out there right now in the industry.
- 18:16In fact, in in fact, the funny story is I was interviewed by USA Today that
- 18:20he he mentioned this guy that's like a YouTube influencer.
- 18:25I won't say his name.
- 18:27that's a real estate investor actually influencer and he was talking about
- 18:31how horrible the market is and blah blah blah blah and you know giving advice
- 18:35and this the the interview asked me about this gentleman and I said you know
- 18:40I know I know of him but I've done some research on him.
- 18:42He's only sold four houses in the last six years of his whole career.
- 18:46You know, so he doesn't really know what he's talking about.
- 18:48He's he's making millions by followers on social media,
- 18:52but he's not making millions in the real estate business.
- 18:54So you I have a problem with people like that that come out and they're trying
- 18:59to coach and train in the real estate field and they don't know what they're talking
- 19:02about. And then we pay them money to train us on something that they're
- 19:06not gonna lead us to any ROI. And so we bring coaches and trainers the
- 19:11top tier of success. They've made millions of dollars in the real estate business.
- 19:15And they are coaching, trainer,
- 19:17agents, all of that is included in the $99 a month,
- 19:20which is absolutely powerful. Then we have a transaction fee to the consumer.
- 19:25And so the national transaction fee,
- 19:27it's kind of like when you go buy a car,
- 19:28you know, you pay a dealer doc fee.
- 19:30It's a title fee that's paid at closing,
- 19:33and that fee is $499. And out of that $499,
- 19:38we do have a revenue share for the agents.
- 19:41So, say for example, I am invite you,
- 19:44Jack.
- 19:44to to join us here at Call It Close.
- 19:46Every time you close a deal, I'm gonna get paid $100 out of $4.99.
- 19:50And that pays down seven levels deep.
- 19:53There's no limit how many people you can have.
- 19:55I have agents making thousands of dollars a month on that residual,
- 20:00passive, willable, transferable downline that they're building because this this
- 20:05industry is
- 20:06Birds that flock together and so agents know agents and we do business together,
- 20:11we respect each other, we learn each other,
- 20:14and so we kind of followed packs anyway.
- 20:16But most companies don't pay you to do that.
- 20:19We're the only hundred percent commission-based company that is paying
- 20:24our agents a revenue share. Most companies pocket that transaction
- 20:28fee for themselves, but because we don't have to do that,
- 20:32and we're debt-free. People said to us to my husband and I,
- 20:34How are you doing this?
- 20:35seven years old and we've done it debt-free and we're making money
- 20:38and we're growing as fast as we possibly can so it's working and and it's just like
- 20:43e-trade you know it's all on the little bit little amounts and doing
- 20:47a lot of business and that's how we are successful in the business and
- 20:50it gives the power like I said back to our agents to invest in more of
- 20:55the tools and technology the marketing that they need to do when they
- 20:59are in the driver's seat of their business agents today cannot afford to pay fit
- 21:05Ten percent, five percent, even twenty percent of their commission to
- 21:09a brand that doesn't bring them any business.
- 21:12It do the cost of living is too high.
- 21:12Mm-hmm.
- 21:15The cost of doing business is too high.
- 21:17The cost of technology is too high.
- 21:19The cost of marketing. Like I literally just got new marketing photos
- 21:22and it's like three thousand dollars.
- 21:23I'm like, what in the world? You know,
- 21:25for photos. What it I mean, what did you do?
- 21:28You know? I could should have done my AI photo,
- 21:30you know. and so, you know, it's just crazy the cost of doing business today.
- 21:34And
- 21:34so the agents have to have their money to be successful in this business.
- 21:38I believe that's the reason why a lot of agents are leaving the business
- 21:41is because when you cut up the pie with taxes in insurance and your car payment,
- 21:46your cell phone bill, your marketing bill,
- 21:48your AI bill, you know, and then pay your broker that didn't bring you any business,
- 21:52there's none left for the family,
- 21:53none left for the home and your own life to grow your business.
- 21:57And so that's where we come in and we believe we're flipping the whole table upside
- 22:02down. It's a complete
- 22:03completely new way it's a it's a total different way than agents have ever done
- 22:07business before they they look at us and go you're what it wait what's
- 22:10the catch I'm like there's no catch keep all your money you know and
- 22:14and so yeah that's that's really kind of the the meat and bones of who
- 22:18we are at Call It Closed
- 22:21Yeah, just to remind everybody,
- 22:22we're talking to Eprele Osborne.
- 22:25You can learn more by heading over to Instagram.
- 22:28I'm gonna have that as a direct clickable link in the show notes.
- 22:30But if you're really interested in in what we're talking about here,
- 22:34head over to call itclose dot com.
- 22:36That's also going to be a clickable link.
- 22:38If you found some value in what we're chatting about so far,
- 22:41do us a favor, share this with one of your friends.
- 22:43If you're watching us on YouTube,
- 22:45give us a like and subscribe. So
- 22:49Prillet, I would be really interested in understanding like how you're doing some
- 22:54of the culture aspect of things because you know we're seeing a
- 22:57lot of companies bring things back to to the offices because it's it's
- 23:03a little hard to manage or or communicate culturally in your in your
- 23:08in the thought processes and a few other things with remote workers.
- 23:12How are you maintaining that consistency with
- 23:15with this population.
- 23:18that's such a great question because we are so culturally heavy.
- 23:22we're we're a faith based company.
- 23:24Our our model is we give more than we take.
- 23:27And so we get together on Zoom fo we have four days a week of live training,
- 23:32across the countries and across the world.
- 23:35And so we're super we get online on Zooms,
- 23:37of course, like I said, four days a week,
- 23:39different coaches, different trainers we get,
- 23:41you know, together. But we get together also once a year.
- 23:44You know, like this year it's called Reach is our
- 23:47event that we do every year and so we get together last year it was
- 23:50in Dallas Texas at the Gaylord this year it's in Orlando Florida at
- 23:54the OCCC down there the big the big building in Orlando downtown off of
- 23:59I Drive so we do those big events together it's like a family reunion kind
- 24:03of feeling and then I fly out personally and go out to our major metroplexes where
- 24:09we have hundreds of agents in one pocket.
- 24:10I go out once a quarter and my team goes out and and we go out and and fellow
- 24:15And talk about break bread together,
- 24:18what's going on in your market,
- 24:19what's happening, where are some potholes,
- 24:21where can we work together? So I'm constantly doing that as well.
- 24:24My team's doing that. Then also we have local the brokers that are
- 24:28in every single marketplace are getting together.
- 24:30Some markets are getting together weekly,
- 24:32you know, they meet for coffee or they meet for fellowship every single week
- 24:36together. So we have a group of agents all across the country that
- 24:40get together weekly, some get together monthly.
- 24:42We allow them to pick that schedule,
- 24:44but most.
- 24:45Most of them get together once a month and spend a couple hours together
- 24:48in every local spot as well that we're growing.
- 24:51Well, I'm now gonna pivot a little bit into the tech stack.
- 24:55You just mentioned that you're testing multiple tech platforms and based
- 25:01on what we know about it it seems like we you gotta keep things
- 25:05as simple as possible when it when you're rolling things out.
- 25:08How do you v how do you vet these platforms
- 25:13and to determine who who makes the mustard and and is gonna be something that
- 25:18you adopt?
- 25:19That's a great question because a lot of people say they make the mustard
- 25:23as you put it and they don't. You know,
- 25:25so I beta test I have a team of the again top producing agents that
- 25:30I asked to participate with me and some of them are like this is exhausting.
- 25:34But I'm like, I need you to beta test this with me.
- 25:37And so I don't roll it out to the entire company until that I have personally,
- 25:41as myself as a producing agent,
- 25:43I closed two deals this month this week,
- 25:45so I'm constantly closing as I'm growing the business and so
- 25:49So I am beta testing with a group of agents,
- 25:52and if it doesn't pass us, then it doesn't get to the team.
- 25:55Yeah, I I would imagine that this is something that has to you have
- 25:59to see some fairly significant value before before you even suggest rolling
- 26:05it out to a big bigger audience like that.
- 26:09It does and and we're getting I had two calls today of other companies that reached
- 26:13out to me. They want to be on our platform.
- 26:15They know where we're going. We're gonna be the largest real estate company
- 26:18in the world. We know that. We know exactly where we're going.
- 26:20So they want to be a part of our platform.
- 26:23And so I I will listen to any pitch and then if it gets past,
- 26:27you know, again, 'cause I still actively sell real estate and I'm very sensitive
- 26:31to investors and what they're looking for,
- 26:33what clients and consumers are looking for.
- 26:35And like you said, it's gotta be easy.
- 26:37And if it come if it's
- 26:38It's like a Ferrari, and you don't know how to drive a Ferrari,
- 26:41then no agent's ever gonna adapt or use it.
- 26:43And so, or or consumer for that matter.
- 26:46And so I go through the pitch myself personally,
- 26:49and then if it gets past that,
- 26:51then it goes to the beta test,
- 26:52and then we'll beta test it in two different groups.
- 26:55But most companies do come and they they want us to they'll beta test stuff,
- 26:59and and a lot of them will let me beta test it for free because they want
- 27:02a part of our platform, of course.
- 27:05Have you implemented anything or or started off as just kind of an experiment
- 27:11and it it it like it became an aha moment of of like,
- 27:15wow, this this has made a significant change to our business or bottom line?
- 27:21In a good way? Yeah, absolutely.
- 27:25We just added a platform called Go High Level.
- 27:27I'm sure you're familiar with it.
- 27:29And ~
- 27:29Very well. Very much
- 27:31so, yeah.
- 27:32Yep, so we added Go High Level and we built out within side of
- 27:36our platform before we rolled out to the agents a bunch of tech inside
- 27:39of it for them. So it's pre-done.
- 27:41A lot of go-high level in my opinion is very challenging if you don't have
- 27:45a tech mind. And so if you so what we did is we pre-hired someone to go
- 27:49in and build the basics of it.
- 27:51And if the agent would like to go add more to it,
- 27:54they can do that. We have referrals to people that build and work inside
- 27:58of Go High Level, but I would tell you and have found per
- 28:01Personally, and I've got testimony over testimony of hundreds of agents that they're
- 28:05like, this is the best platform that I've personally found to help me
- 28:10in my business with the AI side of things because they just rolled out
- 28:13a whole new AI portion, AI agent.
- 28:16That's is been phenomenal. And we've been we've been about six months ahead,
- 28:21built had built our frame out for that agent AI before it ever even rolled out.
- 28:25We were ready for it when it got here.
- 28:27Mm-hmm.
- 28:29So that was probably our
- 28:30one of our most exciting.
- 28:31Yeah, it it's it's been pretty crazy to see like what people can
- 28:36can do and especially around automations and and the like.
- 28:40Late have you you you bring up high level.
- 28:43outside of high level, is there anything else that you leveraging AI for today?
- 28:49Yeah, there's another system called Lofty,
- 28:51L-O-F-T-Y. Lofty, it's a CRM system.
- 28:54They are very AI heavy. In fact,
- 28:57I closed personally four transactions last year that was just in AI mode
- 29:02of people that I never even spoke to.
- 29:04that I didn't get to them until I met them at that house.
- 29:08Like I the AI booked the appointment,
- 29:10talked to them for six and seven months back and forth,
- 29:13showing, you know, sending an email and texting properties.
- 29:15My assistant Anna
- 29:17my Anna assess assistant AI talked to them and literally until I showed them four
- 29:21properties. The one lady I showed four properties and she bought the and
- 29:24I did three others life.
- 29:25And so that was that was a big a aha moment for me of how powerful this tool was.
- 29:30And the whole time the consumer thought they were speaking to to a live person,
- 29:35the AI was so great. so I do love Lofty.
- 29:38I love I I have some concerns that high level could replace Lofty because
- 29:43of course a high you know high level has you can build that same CRM inside
- 29:48of high level, but right now we have both technology is on our platform and so
- 29:53Right now I'm I love Lofty. I I g I love the text message notification every
- 29:58morning. It texts me. Like I one of the things I love about the AI side
- 30:02of things is say, you know, mister Haas,
- 30:04if you were on in my platform and you were on Zillow looking at property
- 30:08and you saved something, it would notify me that you saved something
- 30:12on another platform outside of my platform so that I could text you and be like,
- 30:16Hey, I wondered if you saw this one three four northwest seventh terrace,
- 30:20which I know you did because you liked it somewhere else,
- 30:22and then I
- 30:23can send it to you personally or my AI can send it to you and say hey just want
- 30:27to know if you sold this property to bring you back to my platform so
- 30:30I love that side of it as well.
- 30:32Well, this was a fantastic conversation and we could probably go down
- 30:37an any number of r other rabbit holes,
- 30:39but d was there anything else we should have hit on before we dive into
- 30:44the rapid fire and start closing things out?
- 30:47The only thing I would love to add is that if you're you know,
- 30:50questioning about what's going on in the market,
- 30:52you know, I don't know what your thoughts are.
- 30:54You know, I I'm getting calls almost every day from different news outlets.
- 30:58Are we crashing? Are we what's happening in the overall real estate market?
- 31:02I'd love to hear what your take is.
- 31:04Do you feel like we're in the middle of a crash or what's going on in the market?
- 31:08Where do you where what's your take?
- 31:09Well, in in my world I think there's there's there is a bit of a market adjustment,
- 31:15let's put it that way. you know,
- 31:17you you had a number of individuals who underwrote properties a number
- 31:22of years ago at three, four percent and now those are those balloons
- 31:28and those renegotiations are are happening now.
- 31:31So some of those things that they frankly just don't pencil anymore.
- 31:35So I I think we're that's
- 31:37Probably the biggest shift that I've been seeing as of late is is this it's
- 31:41I call it a market correction.
- 31:43Yeah, no, I I've been s using the same terminology.
- 31:46I don't believe we're in a crash,
- 31:47I believe we're in correction.
- 31:48For sure. For sure. Well I love I love that.
- 31:50Yeah, so that was the only question I had for you that would I was curious what your
- 31:53thoughts were.
- 31:55Yeah. so but I really appreciate your time.
- 31:58This was just fantastic. again it is callitclose dot com.
- 32:02I'm also gonna have a direct link to April's Instagram in the show notes,
- 32:08but if you're ready, we'll dive into the rapid fire and start closing
- 32:11out this episode.
- 32:13Let's go.
- 32:14What lie do real estate investors often tell themselves?
- 32:17does real estate investors tell themselves that they're gonna make more money than
- 32:21they are?
- 32:24It's funny you said that
- 32:25because I think that was something similar to the last guest said something like
- 32:29that too. If you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of ad advice,
- 32:35what would it be?
- 32:36Take more naps.
- 32:37Take more naps. That's a new one.
- 32:40Don't make a decision
- 32:40I also
- 32:41when you're tired.
- 32:42I want you to look back into time and that very first hire and your most recent
- 32:47fi recent hire, which what were they and would you make e make a change
- 32:53on either account?
- 32:54man, my my very first hire, she's still with us today.
- 32:58She was fabulous. She's amazing.
- 33:00She's my husband's I call her her his right hand and she's amazing.
- 33:04And then my most recent hire, not as fabulous as our first,
- 33:08but we'll see how it goes. Still in in balance if they'll be with us long term.
- 33:12And then finally, what single tool or process have you implemented that
- 33:16has had the biggest time saving impact?
- 33:19Mm AI all day. All day AI.
- 33:22Change my life.
- 33:23Well, April, this was just fantastic.
- 33:26You can find more information as well as the resource links in the show notes.
- 33:31Call it closed dot com. I'm gonna make sure to have a link directly
- 33:35to Amazon for your book as well,
- 33:37April. So I really appreciate everything here
- 33:38~ thank you.
- 33:39today. And I hope you'll consider coming back again sometime.
- 33:43This was just fantastic. It was great to meet ya.
- 33:45Absolutely,
- 33:46I'd be honored.