Toe 2 Toe With Jennifer Murtland- Part 1

This week on Agent Vs Lender Ron is the guest on the podcast Toe 2 Toe with host Jennifer Murtland. In part 1 of this 2 part series Jennifer and Ron discuss the similarities and differences in the lending and real estate business. They also discuss the importance of past data bases and how you can optimize your businesses to the fullest potential right now! 

You can watch all episodes of on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Play. If you love Agent Vs Lender follow us on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram for all bonus content. 

Transcript

Jennifer Murtland: 0:00

All right. Hey, everyone. I'm here with Ron Pippin. Hey, Ron.

Ron Pippin: 0:04

Hey, hey, Jennifer.

Jennifer Murtland: 0:06

Ron is the branch manager of the Pippin team, which is a mortgage. Is it a brokerage or?

Ron Pippin: 0:13

No, we're a lender,

Jennifer Murtland: 0:14

your lender. Okay. At part, yeah, Cardinal financial. And he also does the podcast realtor versus lender. And so that's what we're doing today. Awesome. So we wanted to talk about how can agents consistently drive business and we were just chatting and like, the mortgage industry, and the real estate industry is very similar. And in that, so what are you seeing Ron? What are like some of the tips and tricks of the trade for you guys?

Ron Pippin: 0:49

Well, well, you know, we always we depend on realtor's a lot. a realtor doesn't want to hear that. But But the reason why we do that is because when people are looking for a house, they go looking for a house, they don't go looking for a mortgage. So like if I go look for a car, I don't go to my bank and go pay How much? How much a car can I buy? It's like, I don't look at a car I look, you know, so. And it's the same thing when you're buying a house, it's just like, well, what kind of house can I buy? What does it look like? So they're dreaming, you know, and so, there's get far more leads than a mortgage officer does. Which is why I partner with some of my, some of my, my agents that I work with, and we partner and do some deuced do some marketing together. Um, but apart from that, that doesn't help you as a as a, as a realtor as to what to do. So, one of the things if you haven't been in the industry for a long time, I think that your soI and for those of you that don't that that just sheer your sphere of influence, right? One of the best ways that you can, you can generate business. And it's not like I'm not trying to be like MLM is not nothing against MLM I have a daughter that that's in MLM, as well. And, but it's not like going up to all of your family and friends and saying, hey, what am I hey, what am I you? I mean, you could, you could, but after a while, it gets old, you know? Yeah. So you don't want to do that. But I also have a friend that does nothing, he does no other marketing, but to his, his past clients, and his sphere of influence. And he kills it. I mean, he just kills it.

Jennifer Murtland: 2:47

I mean, I think like that you have a basic when you first enter the business, you have a like, a basic decision that you need to make. And it's like, do I want to start with talking to people I know and talking to people are talking to people? I don't know. And I agree with you. I think most people start with the people that they know, for myself, when I started, I started with the people I don't know. Because sometimes it's like, even though as a real estate agent, we can get referrals and things. So we can if we're from out of town, we can still start with the people that we know, just doesn't really feel the same as like when all the people that you know, are local versus not local, you know?

Ron Pippin: 3:30

Sure. I mean, as a real estate as a lender. Yeah, I can lend just about anywhere. And, and that work

Jennifer Murtland: 3:37

you can do in all states.

Ron Pippin: 3:39

Yeah, I can.

Jennifer Murtland: 3:40

Nice, good to know.

Ron Pippin: 3:42

Yeah it is good to know. But, but it's I think it's a little different animal for a realtor. And if you're not, if you're not marketing local, and you're your MCC, I think it's harder because it's harder to get the listings because you're not there. It's harder to obviously show homes unless you have a team or you're doing referrals to somebody else. I think I just think okay, I have a coach that told me one day because he found out I wasn't marketing to my database.

Jennifer Murtland: 4:15

Yeah.

Ron Pippin: 4:16

People that don't market to their past database just don't like money. And I started like that I started to laugh at that. And he just said you you know if you look at your past database, or or your sphere of influence, I think it's just I think it's the real estate. The National the NAR Hmm. They will tell you that people move. So you maybe you're better maybe you can tell me how often did they tell tell you that people move? How often did well

Jennifer Murtland: 4:45

i think it used to be every five to seven years, but now it's gone up to like nine. Okay, let's see can let's say you know, let's say five.

Ron Pippin: 4:54

Okay. Well, I was gonna use 10 because that's a it's a it's a smaller number. But either way, you could do the numbers either way. So if you want to use five, and let's say you have 200 people on your list. That means and and if they move every five years, right? That's like 20% of your database.

Jennifer Murtland: 5:19

Yeah.

Ron Pippin: 5:20

Right. Exactly. Yours. You know, it's like 10%, or is it? But it's, it's a big number.

Jennifer Murtland: 5:27

Yeah.

Ron Pippin: 5:28

And if you have 200 people, and let's say 10% of your database are moving at any, on any given year, there's 20 opportunities to sell a home or to list a home.

Jennifer Murtland: 5:41

And all you have to do is like, communicate with them. I mean, I agree with you, I think, yeah, a lot of agents start out that way, for sure. But, you know, you had said something about unless you're like referring, and I think a lot of agents do miss that as an opportunity. Because we sell houses all over. But it's not because I mean, I'm only licensed on Kentucky in Ohio. But like my grandma wanted to buy a house in North Carolina, my friend wanted to buy one in New York. And honestly, those price points are better than Cincinnati. Oh, man. Yeah. And not only that, I mean, I was able to travel the world and still work, because I can be on the phone and setting appointments, and you can set them with people you know, or people you don't know. And referring those out to other agents like it's just for me, it's like a better quality of life, if you can, if you can figure out that piece of it. For sure. That lead Yeah,

Ron Pippin: 6:40

sure. You don't want to miss that piece of it. I can land in any state that's it makes it makes it makes it really nice, actually. Because I have a client base that move somewhere. So it's like, Hey, I can still help you. Oh, you can? Great. Let's do it. Right. But as a realtor, it's not like oh, yeah, I can go you can just go show you a house in Alaska.

Jennifer Murtland: 6:59

No, but what we do is what I do for my friends is say like, so for example, just say my friend did it. Well, my grandma was the most recent it was just I think last month, so she wanted to buy a house in North Carolina. Obviously, I'm not licensed there. And I said, No problem, what I'll do is I will get a look at the agents in my network, I'll do interview them, I'll choose to, then you can interview both of them and decide who you like. So it takes the work out of it takes a lot of that work out and then you can also charge. I mean, whatever, depending on how involved you're going to be, you know.

Ron Pippin: 7:35

Sure. Absolutely. Yeah. So those referral fees, they can you know, especially when you go to really higher price points, like yeah, it's just a there can be pretty significant. Right? Oh, yeah. So you're right, do not overlook that part of

Jennifer Murtland: 7:49

it is that referral fee was the same amount as our like,

Ron Pippin: 7:57

I know, it's not like

Jennifer Murtland: 7:58

I would rather do that.

Ron Pippin: 8:00

And a lot of people just don't miss out and says, Hey, guys, I don't know, I'm sorry. I don't want my license in New York. You know, I can't help you. It's just like, Are you kidding me? Yeah. New York, you know, you're talking millions of dollars for a home and home. It's just like, that's a that's just a normal price point for that is you get it? And you know, I don't know what your your splits are. But it doesn't matter what the split is, you're going to get a split.

Jennifer Murtland: 8:25

Yeah, it's a lot. And you can even do it like International. I mean, worth the XP were International. But there are tons of companies that are also International, you don't even have to use your own company. I mean, there are times that I'll refer outside, it just depends on who the best agent is for that for my shirt. Friends and family, you know?

Ron Pippin: 8:44

Yeah. And what's nice is you also and then once you start doing that, um, people that you have referred to, and the agents there, that they're gonna say, Oh, yeah, Utah, or, or I'm sorry, you're in North Carolina, North Carolina,

Jennifer Murtland: 8:58

Ohio,

Ron Pippin: 8:59

Ohio. I knew us are later I mean, only got 50 of them to go through.

Jennifer Murtland: 9:05

Yeah, that's right here

Ron Pippin: 9:07

in Ohio. They'll go, I've got a claim in Ohio. Jennifer, let's Yeah, talk to her.

Jennifer Murtland: 9:14

But it's also even keeping up with those people. Right. So like, I think what a lot of people miss inside of driving consistent business is that they don't consistent, consistently lead generate. So it doesn't matter. However you want to do it, like pick your way. And we actually did a podcast about this on our toe to toe podcast was pick one way, stick with it for a defined period of time. Do it like do it to its full potential before you make a switch. So so many people will be like, well, I'm going to call for sale by owners and they call one and the one that they called is like, was mean to them. And they're like, Well, I'm not gonna call again. You're like, Okay. I mean, okay. So it's like just the consistency. Keep in mind, like the consistency with what you generate is like, exactly equal to the consistency with what you get paid. So if you're not getting paid, you're likely not generating.

Ron Pippin: 10:14

Yeah, that is that is so profound. In my coaching and mastermind group we call it building bridges.

Jennifer Murtland: 10:21

Yeah.

Ron Pippin: 10:22

And you when you start building a bridge, the problem that most of us have, you know, a sales people were like, you know, squirrel Oh, another way. Next shiny object, you know, we're trying to build, you start all these bridges. Yeah, cuz you never finished one, right? So you can't ever get across. Right? Exactly. You can't get across that bridge, you don't finish it. And it's not that it doesn't that that that bridge didn't work, it's that you didn't finish the bridge, right? So you have to you can't do everything all at once. You got to get just like you were mentioning, you've got to be consistent, build that bridge, start generating some income from it, and then move to the next concept. There's, there's not gonna have lack of concepts or lack of ways to generate business. It's just

Jennifer Murtland: 11:12

there's a billion ways to do it. I mean, that's exactly what both of our partners are about

Ron Pippin: 11:18

to choose. We're just like you said, choose one. And you know what, the way I do it may be different than way you want to do it. But it doesn't mean either one of them are wrong. It's just they're both different. They both work. But yeah.

Jennifer Murtland: 11:32

So I think in choosing one too, it's more about like, what authentically feels like you right? Like so like, I like lead generating through the phone, like I am an inside sales person. So like, for me, if I try to like, if I'm like, okay, I heard this podcast or I like went to this thing. And they said, like, networking is the way so like, I'm gonna go network. It won't work, because I hate doing it. Now you can, but like, I hate doing it, and I just feel weird, and I don't and I think it's like inefficient, and bla bla bla bla bla bla bla, like, all this stuff. So it's like, okay, that's not gonna work. So don't do that. And if you think like you're, if you're more of a networker, then you know, maybe cold calling will not work. But if you're a networker, then figure out and this is like the second point I wanted to hit home on was figure out your numbers. So like, I know, if I talk to 30 people, I will generate a sale. Now how would I know that? I would only know that because I can try I have to track and measure and you have to track and measure every day. So if you're a networker, how many networking events do you need to go to how many people do you need to talk in order to I mean, you need to go to, to talk to the amount of people that you need to get a deal. Right.

Ron Pippin: 12:49

Right. And you're right, you and only way to know that is is to track those numbers. So so what you said is 30 Is that what you said? Yeah, 30 phone calls to generate some bait, somebody might be better, but somebody may be worse, right? It's not that

Jennifer Murtland: 13:06

anybody's under your calling to.

Ron Pippin: 13:08

Yeah, it depends on your

Jennifer Murtland: 13:10

number for circle prospecting. It's like 50.

Ron Pippin: 13:14

Yeah, yeah. So if you're cold call prospecting. Your numbers are going to be far worse than if you're going to some warm last, you know, your past. And or somebody that you know, your the numbers are just going to be different. So, so don't be discouraged over, you know, what, 10% she's getting one out of every 30. Well, no,

Jennifer Murtland: 13:34

you just got to track your numbers,

Ron Pippin: 13:35

right, Jenna, that's Jennifer's number that's not your numbers, right?

Jennifer Murtland: 13:39

Everybody's numbers are different. And so like the My recommendation is to track it every day, for a month, and see what the numbers are. Or at least until you get a deal. So track it every day until you get a deal. If you get a deal. On the second day, you've talked to say 40 people great now try to repeat it, you know, right?

Ron Pippin: 14:01

Yeah. Then at least you have a bar you go Right, right. Okay, I got to talk to 40. Let's have 40 more

Jennifer Murtland: 14:08

well, and the thing is, is what I find like, what was my aha moment, and this happened, like more than 10 years ago when I first started in real estate, but it was like, Okay, I started to track and measure because I had a coach. And they were like you have to you have to track actually Monica my podcast, Monica weekly. She's the one they gave me my first tracking board. And she's like, move the magnet, you have to talk to 30 people and she's like, came and checked on me all the time. So it was like, okay, after I did that, then there were days where I just didn't really feel like it but maybe I was like only three away from my 30. But see if I wasn't tracking them, I would have stopped. But because I was tracking him. I was like, Oh, I'm not really getting anywhere. I don't really feel like it but I only have three more left. Guaranteed like every single time I would get one. After making those three calls. It was crazy. It was like Every time I was like, This is nuts. And so now I'm like excited to make the calls. I'm like, all I need to do, instead of I have to, it's changing the language, right? It's like all I need to do, because now I'm excited to do it. You know

Ron Pippin: 15:12

that that's life altering? Yes. To know that. If you do a certain activity, whether it's phone calls, whether it's emails, whether it's whatever it is, yeah, whatever it is, if you do a specific activity, and you do this much of it, you're going to generate a deal. Oh, that's my goal for today is trying Vinny, and I'm going to come away with a deal. Yeah. And don't be discouraged if it goes a little over. I mean, so your normal 31 day may take 35. And

Jennifer Murtland: 15:47

that's okay. It doesn't matter.

Ron Pippin: 15:49

Yeah, it doesn't matter. But now it's just like, whoo, I gotta go do this, and I'm gonna walk away, and then I'm gonna go do something else.

Jennifer Murtland: 15:55

Yeah. And then I get to have money. So like, it could be anything. It could be open houses, it could be networking, it could be phone calls, it could be letters, it could be door knocking, like, there's literally like you said, like, a million ways. And so I think like, the key to driving business, which is the main question to driving consistent business is to consistently talk to people that potentially could do business with you. Like, that's it, it is exactly what the question is, the answer is in the question. I feel like Buddha, we should. But it is it's like, be consistent, and track your numbers. And that's like pretty much it. I mean, is there anything else that you can think of Ron? You know, that's,

Ron Pippin: 16:43

that's really the main thing right there. So yeah, as I started off talking about your, your past clients, or your database, or your your, your SLI? Yeah, that's one way. That's one way. Yeah. That's one way. So whatever it is, you're doing, you just need to you just, you just need to know your, you know, it's like watching Shark Tank. Yeah. That's the thing they always talk about

Jennifer Murtland: 17:07

know your you know, your numbers don't

Ron Pippin: 17:09

know your numbers, you don't know your business.

Jennifer Murtland: 17:11

Well, you don't have a business. You know, how many businesses do you know that do not have a profit and loss statement, that are traded, like on that are considered businesses? Like None?

Ron Pippin: 17:23

No, and I'm going to go back to Shark Tank, it's just like, they always say you don't have a business, you have a hobby?

Jennifer Murtland: 17:28

Exactly. That's exactly what it is. If you don't know your numbers, and the first numbers you need to know are, how many people did you actually have a conversation with about real estate? How many appointments out of those conversations? How many appointments Did you set? And then how many deals Did you get from those appointments? If you can track those three numbers for a few months, you will have your numbers? Mm hmm.

Ron Pippin: 17:53

Yep. And now you know, your bar. And now and now it's okay. And this will probably be for another podcast yet. Oh, it's like now what do you tweak? Yeah, was better, you know, script is, or whatever it is, you tweak. But now you have your bar set. And you can get better. Yeah, exactly. Then a ski you have to continually track that too. But yeah, you know,

Jennifer Murtland: 18:20

but you always have to track I mean, it's a budget, right? Like if you, if you don't want to be in debt, then you track the money that you spend. If you want to be in debt, then you don't track it. So it's the same with like, it's the same with getting paid. If you want to get paid, then you track it if you don't want to get paid. Don't track it.

Ron Pippin: 18:37

Right. You know, it's simple. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Can we should we just stop here?

Jennifer Murtland: 18:44

I think we're done. Well, I that was so fun. So realtor versus lender, podcast, and toe to toe podcast. And I'm Ron with Cardinal financial can do all 50 states. And then I'm Jen, Merlin, your real estate coach and doing business in Ohio and Kentucky. All right. Well, thanks a lot, Ron. I really appreciate you.

Ron Pippin: 19:06

Thanks, Jennifer. I appreciate you having me on today.

Jennifer Murtland: 19:09

Yeah, and the next podcast if people want to listen, we are going to do what was Oh, how to manage and leverage your time. I mean, that's huge. So now you're doing business now. What? Right,

Ron Pippin: 19:19

right.

Jennifer Murtland: 19:20

Awesome. Well, stay tuned for that. Thanks. See ya.