Outside The Box
Outside the Box is the podcast for real estate agents who want to grow their business. Every episode provides actionable strategies that help you grow your repeat, referral, and sphere of influence business. Referrals don’t happen on accident—they happen on purpose, and we bring you insights from top agents and coaches who have mastered the art of relationship-based growth. Tune in for practical, proven tactics that will help you generate more business from the people who already know, like, and trust you!
Outside The Box
Building a Billion-Dollar Real Estate Business Through Relationships | Lee Tessier
Lee Tessier shares how he built a billion-dollar real estate business by focusing on relationships and leveraging his database to generate repeat and referral business.
• Building a database and staying in consistent communication with past clients
• Creating a "Top 50" list of referral sources to nurture with monthly communication
• Focusing on phone calls as the most effective way to stay top of mind
• Hosting client appreciation events including brewery gatherings and movie nights
• Running a massive annual Thanksgiving pie event that attracts 700 people
• Offering branded moving trucks for clients to use free of charge
• Sponsoring catered housewarming parties to meet friends and family of clients
• Taking a service-first approach rather than chasing commission checks
• Building trust by focusing on clients' needs instead of your own financial gain
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Justin Armbruster – https://www.instagram.com/armbruster_jd/
Chad Armbruster – https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadaarmbruster/
Well, you know, anytime you're dealing with people, everything we do is sales. The more you learn how to communicate with people, I think that's the most effective. It translates into other businesses as well.
:Thanks for joining us on Outside the Box, where we talk through actionable strategies that help you generate more repeat referral and sphere of influence. Business Referrals don't happen by accident. They happen on purpose. For those who don't know, my name is Chad Armbruster, ceo of BizBox, and alongside me, as always, is my co-host, full-time realtor and son, justin Armbruster.
:Today we have Lee Tessier, with the Lee Tessier team of EXP Realty joining us all the way from Bel Air, maryland. Lee has been serving buyers and sellers in the Baltimore Maryland area since 2006 and has sold over 5,000 homes in his career, resulting in over $1 billion in sales. Lee, thanks for joining us today.
:Yeah, thanks for having me. So, lee, how did you get into real estate?
Lee Tessier:I ended up buying investment properties in 2001 and 2002. I didn't get into real estate until January of 2006,. But I started buying rental properties down by the Baltimore Raven Stadium and the Oriole Stadium in the not so nice parts of town. And 2005 came when the market was going nuts. One of my tenants moved out. We went in and remodeled. I had a partner at the time. We bought it for 30 grand, we put 70 in as remodel and it's over 250. So I had six months of reserves about 60 grand to get in, get myself set, and thankfully I'd had that much because it took about six months. I got two months of getting licensing and get myself together. January came. I didn't get my first commission check until like April 15th and then thankfully I had 15 settlements stacked behind that. So it was good and busy. My first year I ended up selling 36 homes.
:So yeah, so what did you do before you were in real estate?
Lee Tessier:I was in the car business. I was a kid. My dad had a small car lot. I worked with him for since I was eight years old and then at 22, my dad I was 22. My dad retired, started working in uh work, might work for a new car dealership, stayed with them for 10 years and sold an investment property and said, hey, I'm cutting B cause I was five years managing and my dad thought I was nuts with like, hey, you're going to go start this all on your own right now You're doing great. I was like well, it's not quite good enough, so I'm glad.
:I did so? Did I mean? It's just to me it seems like there would be some overlap. There. Is that, was it a something that helped you being in the car business, transferring over into real estate?
Lee Tessier:I think it's people you know. Anytime you're dealing with people, you know everything we do is sales. So whether we're trying to get our kids to eat vegetables or go to bed on time or anything of that sort. So the more you learn how to communicate with people, I think that's the most effective thing, and anytime that you're in sales and you do well at it, it translates into other businesses as well.
:What would you say may be the biggest difference between car sales and real estate sales? Because I know they kind of get lumped together a lot by the consumer. You know car salesman, local realtor, but what would you say the differences would be?
Lee Tessier:Second biggest purchase versus first biggest purchase. A longer time period, right, I think of a car. They're coming in, they're buying pretty quickly and then they're moving on to the next thing With home sales. You're dealing with them for months at a time. I always say you're not bartending, right? You're not getting a bartending and getting a tip where car sales is much faster with that. You're not getting a bartending and getting a tip where car sales is much faster with that. Or people that were used to the service industry and dealing with getting tipped right away.
:This is a lot longer period of time to get paid, with no guarantee of getting paid either.
Lee Tessier:No, because you can get all the way up to settlement and then all of a sudden it blows up. Yep.
:Absolutely Anything can happen. Yeah, that makes sense.
:The one thing that's stuck out at me and I don't know whether or not this is normal or not, when I hear six months first paycheck, that seems probably pretty normal, but to have 36 transactions your first year and 15 lined up right away, that seems pretty good Was that you were able to kind of piggyback. Where'd that come from?
Lee Tessier:Yeah, so I always believed in a database, right. So I think, the more you know, looking at the data bank I had from the car business, I had my all my past clients and I stayed in contact with them for a long period of time. You know all the sales guys would be sitting around bs and I'd be the one that was still on the phone just calling, checking in with clients, seeing how they're doing. Um, we used to send a tin of cookies after a sale and then we had like a check-in sheet so I'd go through. I made my notes all the time and that was all paper back then. That was 96 to about two.
Lee Tessier:End of Halloween of 05 was my last day in the car business and then I just kind of translated it into real estate. I remember my first broker which I got really bad advice from, was I was looking for. It was Google and stuff. At that time. You know, think of oh six, you know, internet sites weren't that big top producer. I found top producer. I was like, alright, how do you become a top producer in real estate? And top producer come up and I was like, okay, here's a database.
Lee Tessier:Basically I had all my past clients that were in paper or stored into my cell phone. So I just went through them and made sure every one of them knew that I was in in housing now rather than like, all right, I sold you the second biggest thing. Hopefully they trust me for the first biggest purchase with their life. So so just went through them as snail mail you know 400 past clients and let them know that I'm selling cars now I mean selling houses, not cars and just checked in and they knew I was always service oriented.
Lee Tessier:I would check in with them, see how they were doing. Anytime they needed something for service I would just call the service manager. I'd go up, get them into service, meet them there, walk them through, make sure that they're taken care of. Same thing with housing. You know you got to do the extra steps. You'd have to really service the client. What's best for them? Not chase a paycheck. So many of them chase a commission check and it's like, all right, if you're going to chase commission you're going to always put you're going to repel it so much. And so many of them get in and start pushing them away because they're just trying to sell them something people want to buy but they don't want to be sold to so now I think maybe I missed this.
:What did you say? You're you got really bad advice. What was that?
Lee Tessier:Oh, buying top, like I went in and I signed up for top producer as you know, a database and my broker's like, oh, you don't need that. So it was one of them, glad you brought that back up. But he is like, oh, you don't need that. I was like that was the worst advice I ever got. I'm thankful that I learned that in the beginning and just started building on the database and the more data I could put in there was good data, whether it was like, hey, they're an electrician, they are a carpet layer, they were a beautician, whatever it may be. Cause that way now you have a reference for clients to be able to help them. Cause I have people call me all the time. They're like, hey, I know, you know everybody, you know, hey, this is what I need. And then when you become the connector for them now your business grows even more.
:Yeah, okay, love that. So what would you say is the one habit or routine that's helped you consistently stay in front of your sphere of influence?
Lee Tessier:The one thing that everybody's afraid of. What's that 800 pound phone? Oh, really, they use it for everything else except for making a phone call, cause you think of how bad the quality is on a cell phone of making a phone call. It does everything else great, but actually talking to somebody is not great. So I think that you know just consistency on staying in front of them. We always I can't say always, but since probably 2015, I got into business coaching. I've had a business coach since 2008, but then I became a coach in 2015.
Lee Tessier:And one of the platform they talked about was building out your top 50. So who is it that is your top 50 clients that you're going to continue to follow up with? Every month? You're checking in, you're having a phone call, you're texting with them, you know, probably more than once a month, and these could be parents, it could be family members, it could be friends. Who is it that you're a cheerleader out there that's going to refer you business, and some of them you're talking to every week or sometimes a day. Other ones you're talking to a minimum of once a month, but those are the ones that are cheerleaders for you, that are going to send you business and if you do that and you stay consistent with it, you'll get a ton of deals from there.
Lee Tessier:I mean there was a study that was shown one of the business coaches she got over 86 deals in one year out of just working her top 50. But it's consistency, right. It's calling checking in, it's breaking bread with them, having a drink or coffee or whatever it may be. It's staying in front of them. Client parties we do a lot of client parties and client events. We want to stay in front of them and we want to be their client, their agent for life, rather than just selling them one house and move on to somebody else. Client acquisition is so expensive.
:I love that you mentioned the top 50. I think so many realtors you know look at the city or county that they service and think that's my target audience. You know everybody who lives here and it's like no, if you could, you know, narrow it down to 50, a hundred of you know. If you could be the a plus you know realtor for these 50 or a hundred, I mean, you have deals, you know you have a career right there, versus trying to catch. You know the whole ocean and you don't come up with anything.
Lee Tessier:No, yeah, you come up with master of well, jack of all trades, master of none, yep, rather than really if, like if you stay in touch of clients. Plus, you're gonna do additional marketing. I mean, we all do it right, you gotta keep it to keep growing. But who are the people that already know you, like you and trust you, that are gonna pass you on to friends and family? But you have to do the extra things too. You have to make sure you're giving them a good advice, you're steering them in a great direction, you're connecting them with great vendors all the way through.
Lee Tessier:And doing the little boxes. I mean, I've been doing boxes with you guys since 2008. I went to a conference I had heard about. I was like, oh, let me do this, let me see how it goes, and I would want to see it, I would want to receive them. If I'm a client and I've had people that come in, you know buying half million dollar homes, you know our average price before was, up till 2017, was only about 250,000. Our market's now about 375, but they would come in raving about the boxes on a half million dollar purchase. They're like, oh, thank you so much for these boxes, the double layer because you go get the Home Depot boxes that are single layer and falling apart and the bottoms bust out of them and so forth, versus nice, good quality boxes that ship to their door. You just did so much more than any other agents done for them in the past or anybody else period.
:Yeah, and more than anything, sometimes it's just you thinking about them. It's less about you know someone who's buying a half a million dollar home. They can go buy boxes. It's not necessarily the financial aspect, but it's just you thought about them. They weren't thinking about it at the time.
Lee Tessier:So yeah, absolutely nobody cares how much you know, till they know how much you care I heard that years ago and I was like that is so true yeah, I, I have heard that one and yeah, it's.
:Yeah, I love it. No one, yeah, um, you mentioned you guys do some client appreciation parties, um, or events. Walk us through maybe what are some of the events that you guys do, so we'll do uh, like when covet hit, we were like all right, let's do stuff that's outside.
Lee Tessier:So breweries were getting bigger and bigger. So we did a lot of outside brewery events. Uh, we would invite. You know, if you know, we had 15 to 20 agents on a team. Right now we're about 12. But you know, if everybody invited 10, all of a sudden you got a 200 to 300 person party. So we were doing them. But we were going back to our top 50 and saying, hey, invite your top 10, see who can come and try to get five to 10 sets of people and then go down and work our way through our top 50. So we would do probably four of them a year.
Lee Tessier:We used to do movie parties all the time until they change the style of the. Now you can only get about 200 people in a movie theater versus, you know, you get 400 people plus. Before we used to get like 450 people in a theater, which was much better to get as many people as you can. Our thanksgiving pie event is our biggest event of the year. We do that now at our country club because, again, size, we have about 700 people a year that come to that, so you have a Thanksgiving pie for them that they take home for Thanksgiving dessert. But we do open bar and late food and it's just we want them to come and have a good time. I mean this is like a freaking wedding but the cost of it and we have our vendors help with with costs, thankfully, but it's still a really expensive event. But they remember it. I've had clients that stopped and like thank you so much for doing it, especially as people are getting older and they have less people in their life Like they enjoy coming to these events. Some of them have moved away and have come back just to come to our event.
Lee Tessier:It's just staying top of mind, I think, when you're doing something different. And I'll never forget Gary Keller saying I was in his top 100 masterminds and he said build a club around your database. If you don't have a database, you can't build a club first of all. So it's like all the more important to have a database and then build a club around them that people are like how do I get to, how do I get to come to these events?
Lee Tessier:Because we want them to come, we want them to have a great time and we want to provide extra value for them that they want to be around us, and I think, if you're good people, number one. So it comes back to our morals and values, like we have our core values up on our wall as soon as you come in, and number one North star is integrity. So do what you say. And a separate one is do what you say, because it's so important that people don't actually do what they're saying they're going to do. Well, how do you build trust if you don't do that? Love it love it.
:Um, your movie theater event that you do. You just, uh, you used to just rent out the whole theater and invite clients for, you know, a new premiere of a movie or something, and you, yeah, we would have breakfast donuts, popcorn, stuff like that and we would do movie trivia.
Lee Tessier:Uh, this past year we did it out in our courtyard with the big inflatable screen. Of course it was a windy day we got everything tied down and we had a 25 foot screen out there. It was really cool, um, and we just did casper right before thing and that was a good time too, and I think we had around 80 people at the event, but it was just something different.
:Yeah, and then your pie giveaway. What does that look like? You just invite clients to come pick up a pie and you know open bar type thing. Or is it a community event?
Lee Tessier:We actually have it, so they can either drive through because of the area that we have it set up in. They have a U-shaped parking lot too, so we'll have the pies some of them out there, because some people they don't have the time, so they'll just stop by and pick it up. But I would say that's the minority. Majority of them come in. It's open bar, it's food, it's a huge party and on my Facebook or my team page, lead test, your team, you went there. You'll see some videos from it and so forth, but it's it's an event that you want to go to it. I have clients that drive two hours to come back to it.
:Yeah, oh, that's awesome. Maybe I should buy a house in Maryland and.
Lee Tessier:I'll show up to it.
:So what are some common mistakes that you see realtors make when they're trying to grow their real estate business?
Lee Tessier:They just start spending. They start spending money because they take you know how many times does your phone ring with spam or somebody trying to sell you something, but is there enough value behind it? And a lot of time they're not vetting it and find out. Is it worth going in and spending this money to get a return on it and also spending when they don't have the revenue coming in, so they're pre spending it. So I think that's a big one. And then not hiring an assistant soon enough or joining a team that has that is a team that has support, that has training, that has resources. It's going to help you move forward.
:And I always. It was a fault that I made it early on in my career and I quickly had to change my mindset. But in real estate and a career in real estate, it's so easy to justify any sort of marketing expense. I just need to sell one house through this and you know it's worth it. And I remember telling myself that you know every single little marketing thing I would do. Just need to sell one house, just need to do half a house. Justifies this Quickly. I don't know what it was, maybe it was. Chad told me yeah, that's not how necessarily that works. Are you actually going to get a house from this or is there better use for this money that could get you 10 houses over the course of three years. That's funny. You say that. I strongly agree.
Lee Tessier:Their tracking was usually their bank account Was there money there or not? Rather than actually creating a profit and loss statement and then sort of like, hey, if you're using spreadsheets and tracking where your business is coming from, true sourcing it and then did I get a return? Did I not get a return? Did I actually make money that I can invest? I mean, I was coaching agents that are doing well over a million a year and gross commission. They were terrible in tracking. So imagine the ones that aren't doing that much. Majority of them aren't that good at tracking either.
Lee Tessier:So I think that knowing where your business is coming from so I think that's where it really comes back to having a good assistant in the beginning that's going to grow with you, and then at some point you either hire somebody else as the director of operations or office manager some of those lines and the more you surround yourself with the right people, that's what helps you grow.
:So back to the assistant part. You said not hiring an assistant soon enough. What are some of the things that would trigger okay, it's time to hire an assistant, or mistakes for not hiring an assistant soon enough. What? What are the some of the things that would trigger okay, it's time to hire an assistant, or mistakes for not hiring one.
Lee Tessier:So my first year I was the assistant too. So I did 36 deals by myself and I was like I was talking to different people oh, at 30 deals or so you need to hire an assistant. I was like all right. So the second year I was like all right, I have some revenue, Um, and I'm going, gonna, and I was spending on some marketing. So I would say it was some, but it wasn't effective marketing because it was like newspaper and magazines back then. But adding my, my mother in law was my first assistant. I ended up going to 46 deals my second year and then she ended up having to stop working because of health reasons. So somebody else was referred to me which state she was with me for 13 years. We did 64 deals the following year. Then I added a virtual assistant, got the 79 with just the two assistants, and then I started growing a team. But I think I hired four agents right after that. But I went from 79 to 92 the following year. I'm like all right.
Lee Tessier:So that became other things as you grow and you end up paying two highest splits or you're getting them leads and then they're not converting the leads like you would convert them. So time and then just experience and knowing how to talk to people. So that's what I think of sales If somebody is really good at sales, meaning you're not truly selling them something, but you're getting sales conversion. People like you trust, you know, like the more that you're known and that, the better off you are, which doesn't I don't care what you're selling If you get really good at it, but you have to focus on it at the same time. Yeah, Like I'm constantly listening to some kind of podcast, listen to books, reading books, going to conferences I would. I was attending probably five to seven conferences a year which, the more you learn, the more you earn.
:So is there anything unique? We talked about some of the things, but is there anything unique? You do to generate referrals or new business from your database that maybe other realtors might not think of? I think it's just that. I mean, Before we get into that, the Outside the Box podcast is all about repeat and referral business and great realtors know the key is serving their clients.
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Lee Tessier:Now back to the show really work at the top 50, because when you're working your top 50, you're calling and it's all about them family, occupation, recreation, dreams, ford, yeah, what are those conversation? And the more you make it about them, because too many times people talk about themselves and I tell them my agents all the time. You have to practice knowing what to say, how to say, when to say it, because tonality is so important. We've been doing role play for 14 years. I started that in 2010. You have to know what to say and how to say it, or you're not going to convert and you have to see how it sounds. So, practice and you change some of your verbiage. But we still use LP Mama, which is location, price motivation, agent mortgage. And. But we still use LP Mama, which is location, price motivation, agent mortgage and appointment. It's six key things. It's about a five to seven minute conversation and you have to be able to zig and zag through a conversation and keep control of it.
Lee Tessier:Because, if you don't control the conversation, the buyer is going to walk all over you and then you're going to be done. So I think that the more you understand that and then understand this profiling like a personality profile, knowing if somebody's a high D and if I'm not answering their question and then going on to my next question, they're going to control the conversation and you're going to lose them.
:Yeah Well, I have a question about something unique. You guys do that. I've seen it on your social medias. You guys own some moving trucks, don't you, yep? Talk us through a little bit about that. When did you buy them? What did that kind of expense look like? Have you seen a good return on that? Has that been fruitful for your business? Talk us through that a little bit.
Lee Tessier:Yeah, so I bought our first one back in 2009. There was a furniture company that went out of business and I seen they had a couple of trucks for sale. Me and another agent, my office, we're gonna go buy him and I went there and it already sold it to and I was like, look, I really want one, you know. So they had one other one that they were still finish up a couple deliveries they end up selling to me. So I didn't. I bought that. I had it from 2009 until 2018 and the last. The last year was a worse year but everything else was pretty good. But I've had plenty of stories with them.
Lee Tessier:That was a big 20 foot diesel truck so it was a little bit more cumbersome. It was the cab forward so it made great turns, but it's a lot to keep up because it's a big truck to back up. Then I bought the last one from On the Move, so we had one of the transit you know, 350 with a 14 foot box much more manageable. They are a bit of a pain. Yeah, you have to have somebody that's going to meet them here in the morning, so if it's, you know, weekends, the agents usually got to meet them here. That's the disadvantages. If somebody has an accident, that's a disadvantage. But like I have a house in florida and I want to buy a big screen, a big screen doesn't fit in your vehicle, right? You've SUV or minivan. Most case not gonna fit in there. Box is too big so we had to go rent a U-Haul. That was such a pain in the butt and I tell our clients anytime you need it pretty much you know give us a call, you're welcome to use ours period. So having the ability for that of small stuff where they bought furniture and they need to go pick it up, whether it be Facebook marketplace or a store having that convenience. And then we've had to help clients before. I'll never forget 2012,.
Lee Tessier:Somebody was going through a short sale. It was two days before Thanksgiving. I'm sorry, it was the day before Thanksgiving, so we actually had to settle that day. The buyers or the seller still had all their stuff in the house. Buyer goes to do walkthrough like oh my God. So me. My general manager and my son went there and helped them.
Lee Tessier:We loaded the whole truck, filled the 20 foot box truck. She still had another vehicle full. We had to leave it in there over Thanksgiving. We got it done, that they actually settled because they're going to foreclose on it the day after Thanksgiving, so it's like we didn't have time. So this is when the truck really came in handy and then different times that clients needed it. It's you know, it's there, it's easy to use, but we have that one and we have a smaller one. So if somebody is decluttering, depersonalize and getting their house ready for market or they need to go buy something at Lowe's or Home Depot, come use it. I don't care how often you use it, just bring it back in the same condition and build it back up.
:Oh, yeah, yeah, oh, that's awesome. I'm sure that's. I guess I didn't even think of it from the aspect of you know they can use it for life.
:You know you're a client of yours, you want them to be a client for life and that's a great touch point and a great value add, long after you know the transaction closes so I've always wondered on those trucks do you find and you have multiple, I suppose that helps, but do you ever find that it's they get booked, people want them at the same time, or something like you have three people moving over the weekend. It's like, uh, sorry.
Lee Tessier:So so we had to change documents in our agency agreement, stuff like that. We asked them to sign off, we asked them to book one day at a time, because before we'd have somebody, oh I need it for the weekend. So that's Friday, saturday, sunday, and I'm like, well, we have too many clients that we can't allow that anymore. We have two trucks but you can't have it all. It's one day at a time. You have to be 25 or older because insurance purposes. So there's, you got to put some restrictions in place.
Lee Tessier:We also do housewarming parties, so that's something else. And going away parties. So if somebody is relocating out of town, they're selling their house and relocating. That's, I would tell you. That's a great unique way. You know, we had my wife used to do all the cooking for her catered events. Then it became that we were doing three and four in a weekend and we couldn't keep up. So then we hired a caterer to do it. They go, set it up. So it makes it so much easier for my agents. So whether it's a housewarming party or going away party, they go, they show up, they meet with clients. We take a bunch of chachki stuff anywhere from like koozies and pens and chip clips. And then we also take a questionnaire with a $25 gift card that we'll go around and get everybody to fill it out, cause now you've met the aunt, the uncle, the cousin, the neighbor, now you're getting their information that you're going to follow up with them after the party too.
:That's that. That is a unique idea. What an and what an awesome way to meet friends, family of.
Lee Tessier:You know the client I picked up some of my best clients from that, from doing a going away party they didn't even come to the party. They just heard about it.
:Yeah, If you don't mind me asking that's probably not something you do for every transaction.
Lee Tessier:We offer it to everybody.
:You offer it to everybody, okay.
Lee Tessier:What does that financial investment look like for a going away party? So we have caterers doing 550 in food for 426 dollars for us and they take it, they set it up, they I think they're only doing sunday, so it's saturday. They'll do any day during the week, but sundays they cut it off. They had to be done by noon. So if they're delivered for later in the day, it's got to be delivered, they've got it. You know the buyer or whoever it is, the you know the client's got to keep the food hot themselves and so forth. But they'll bring in the chafing dishes and so forth. But it's a great setup. And then my agent just has to show up where before me and my wife are going to the store buying everything, getting it, taking it, go setting it up. I didn't do any alcohol because I didn't want the responsibility for that. Right, we do it at our parties, but I don't do it at a housewarming party.
:Sure, Gotcha, that seems like a great way. It seems like a great way to one look awesome as the realtor but to meet, you know, friends and family who are within that few already. It's not like it's a cold audience who you're trying to get to. You know, as a client to the test year team. It's like, well, these people are low hanging fruit that if you work it right, it would be easy for them to use you for the next transaction.
Lee Tessier:Oh yeah, like I think of one that my wife actually made a cake for the woman too, because she works at the local jewelry store and gotten to know her over the years and I've sold three houses for them while they were buying new construction in a neighborhood. So they had a bunch of the new neighbors come because they were in the house for about three or four months now when they did the party. And we did learn to put a one year cutoff because we had some people calling like two or three years later and they wanted to do it as a kid's birthday party, this and that. So we made it a one year anytime in the first year from the 12 months from the time they purchase. But we went to the housewarming party my wife had made a cake for and stuff like that as well, and we go in and I was talking to a couple of the neighbors that came in there.
Lee Tessier:Like the only thing I remember is my agent got a commission check and I never heard from him again and that you have to think about that. I remember purchasing a mattress. You know here you're spending four or $5,000 for a mattress. I never even got one follow-up. Thank you, call. But how many times do agents do the same thing? They've sell them a house but never contact them again, or maybe once and that's it. So I think you know that's where the consistency comes in, of long-term nurture, of checking in, because it's never really a past client. You want to keep them a client for life.
Lee Tessier:And I'm correct in saying the housewarming parties you guys are talking about is for people who are relocating out, leaving that's, that's a going away or somebody that just purchased the house and now, when they're in the house, a month later, two months later, six months later, anytime in that first year, we'll do catered food for them Go and our agent goes to the party. That way they're meeting so many additional people, plus the people want to have them because they maybe made some changes or they made the house theirs and they want them to see it.
:Oh so this is any house that you sell.
:Yeah, really it's a great idea. I mean, what a great way to meet people. I mean you know shaking hands and how many people you can introduce yourself to and you know ask those forward questions too. Is the, you know the, the lifeline in your business and that's a. You know for 500 bucks for food and you know just some administrative organization.
Lee Tessier:What an awesome chance to look great to your past client, but also. And if they're starting at small and they're doing it themselves, I mean at that, and if they get the list, I used to get them in their invite list and we used to personally send out invites to all of them for them too, and then it just became like I can't do that anymore.
Lee Tessier:It just became too big. But that's a whole nother way. Now you got all their contact information too. But if we do it as with a questionnaire like and I thought I was like was like all right, who's going to want to? You know, fill out this for a $25 gift card.
:Well, people want to win.
Lee Tessier:They don't care what the heck you're giving away. For the most part, yeah. So usually it's. You know, the husband or wife goes around my wife's more outgoing than I am, because I'm fairly reserved as a person so she would go around with them. Oh, do you want to fill this out? And then all of a sudden we'd put them in a basket and do a drawing and then, you know, now I have 10 to 25 people to follow back up with that I met at the party and certain ones you had really good conversations with. Some of them need help. One of the questions is, you know, do they want to buy an investment property? Do they need any help with refinancing? Do they know anybody that could use our services? That's great.
:Do they know anybody that could use our services for real? That's great. I'm still stuck on this, this housewarming party, and so do you when you sent out the invitations. Are they, or what did you, I mean, like? Are they branded, you know? Is it like from you? Is that? I guess I'm saying?
Lee Tessier:We would just the only thing that was from us would be like the return address label, and then we would put like food provided by you know lead, test your team, stuff, like that. Yeah, so, but still super sweet, but the clients all tell us like hey, when we do one, you know they're talking with their friends. And then they introduce you and they're like, oh yeah, and they supplied all the food for us. And they're like, who?
:are you?
Lee Tessier:again.
:Yeah, I'm just a realtor. And even the going away party, if I'm understanding it right. I mean, yeah, you're having a go away party and now you have all of their local contacts that you've made an impression on. So you've not. They're moving away. Yeah, you may not have anything from them again, but man.
Lee Tessier:I had ones that were moving. So there it was, a four hundred thousand dollar home. This is probably 10 years ago, maybe four and a quarter, and I met a bunch of their neighbors. So it's two weeks before settlement. So they have boxes everywhere. You know, it's a cellar of the home so we had my and my wife was sick so she had made the food but she wasn't feeling good so she didn't come. So it's just me end up, you know, going. I have a couple drinks with people, associate talk. Well, I get a phone call that was on a saturday. I get a phone call on a monday and said hey, this is eric, blah blah. You don't know who I am, but I'm one of the neighbors.
Lee Tessier:I heard about the going away party that you did for so and so and we're, we want to buy a house. You know it's as a $500,000 price point, and they want to sell a house in the neighborhood. And he said I thought that was really outside the box. He was in sales, he's in medical sales, he's like that was really good. So I went over and then we negotiated commission for a good hour that me and him bantered back and forth because he's, you know he's like look, we got to the point. He said I'll look at three houses, I'll buy one of the three or we'll adjust the commission back up, all right. So he ended up selling and buying with me. But that came from doing a going away party and then he's got he's uh, I'd sold his mom's house, I sold his sister house. They bought, they sold that, that house with me. Recently I got a referral for where they were relocating out and I know he's referred me probably seven to 10 other people.
:Oh, that's crazy. Just from that one event.
:Yeah.
:Oh, that's awesome.
:Yeah, oh, I love that. So if you had to start over today, uh, what would be your top priority for building a strong network? Uh, for repeat and referral business.
Lee Tessier:Feed your database. Create a database and feed it every day. Um, so make sure that you're getting new people in there. You're having conversations whether they joined. You can join a lot of different events and not make any headway Like we're. We're part of the chamber of commerce.
Lee Tessier:I can't say I make a best use of it now. I still stay part of it, but I used to be. I'd go and connect with different business people. But I think whoever your sphere is, everybody has a different sphere. If you lean into that, first make sure they all know what you do. Make sure you do it really well.
Lee Tessier:Like, don't get into real estate and be like, oh I know everything. Like, if you don't have a mentor, that's going to help you some. Or join a team. Joining a team is easy. It's not I'm not going there, but I'm just saying like, joining a team makes it a lot easier because now they have the support of a team, especially if they're brand new. But me I would say go to the people I already know, learn the business really well and then just go at it, if they can afford, to buying an investment property, because anytime that you're investing your own money, you learn a whole hell of a lot more when you're willing to risk your own money and you pay attention to what the market's doing. So I'd say you know, if you're in real estate, you should own it, yep, and as much as you can.
:Yeah.
:Yeah, that's good. So what do you think is the key to turning a one-time client into a lifelong referral source?
Lee Tessier:Uh. So what I recommend for all our buyer agents on my team after they buy a home, because it's easier, I would say in the business it's easier to work with buyers, especially when you're brand new. I think I did a lot more buyer sides. Getting listings is harder. They usually want somebody seasoned, different skill set. So I think it's you know, we check in a couple of days after they settle. Just check and see how they're doing, because they usually run it.
Lee Tessier:If there's any issues it's within those first couple days, Rather than be like, oh, I don't really want to hear about it. No, you do, Because the more you can help be a solution to the problem, the better off you're going to be. Then check in roughly a week later, a month later and then once a quarter after that, just seeing how they're doing, Because most people do not do that. And then when you create repetition of it and you keep growing your business, now you have more people to talk to, because the goal would be to build that top 50. The more there's 50 people that you have that are your cheerleaders out there, the better you're going to do. But it's just a consistent follow-up.
:I'm sorry, kept mentioning the top 50 and maybe this is obvious and I don't understand. What's the difference between what you do for that top 50, how you're staying in touch with the top 50, then, whatever the 200 or 400, the rest of your database? And the rest of your sphere of influence.
Lee Tessier:It's a good question. So 50 is easier to manage. You know, like I have 50, each one of my agents has 50, but say I have about 50, I have a little over 5,000 past clients now I can't follow up with all of them. So who is my cheerleaders in there? Who do I enjoy talking to? That I want to have a conversation, that they want to have a conversation with me too. So who are those people? So those are the ones I want to talk to because they're going to be a cheerleader out there for you. They're the ones that are going to be like oh, they talked about real estate, call me, and the more you work at that, the better off you're going to be. That's the most easiest to do.
Lee Tessier:Then it's like all right, now my business is growing. How do I get more listings? All right, I'm willing to test out and spend all this money, and then they don't get a return on it. They're like now I'm dying on the vine. Well, do the things that work? The things that work. We're talking to the people that you already know. Shoot, if you go through your cell phone, go A to Z once, how many people? Because most people have at least 200, 300 people stored, stored in their phone.
:So is that the big part of it is? You spend those top 50, you're mainly spending time with them on the phone several times, whatever it is a year and then face to face, as much as you can get, so maybe dinner.
Lee Tessier:Like certain ones my top 50, I generally going to see them. A lot of them I see once every other month. Sometimes I see certain ones once a month. My mom I see all the time. You know she's a cheerleader. She's always talking to neighbors and friends and stuff like that. You know who, who. Who else is like that for you.
Lee Tessier:Like, we just had a client. He was a military guy. He wrote a letter of recommendation for my agent and then all the vendors that he dealt with from you know, selling, his selling a sales and gave us. You know it's really well done and it's like, hey, this is how it would be in the military, this is what we want to do for you, cause we had asked him. It was like, hey, you were in here all the time telling us how good my agent was and how we were. Do you mind doing a video testimonial? He's like I don't really want to do a video testimonial, but I'll write you a letter recommendation, okay, and if you can get more of them, cause it comes back to reviews online Anytime you buy something, you probably look at how many reviews are on there. Before you buy it, you're buying your biggest purchase. You know we have over. I think we're over 900 on Zillow and we have over 700 on Google. We want to make sure that they know hey, we have, this is what we have buy by.
:This is what you can expect for service, and if you're not getting that, please let me know I heard somebody say heck, it might have been you, um that your best client isn't necessarily someone who buys the most property from you, but the person who refers you the most business.
Lee Tessier:I'll never forget. I didn't get a listing and the client said to me she's like I wish I would've just signed with you that day. But I was waiting and I had one more to interview and end up signing with them because they were there. But she ended up referring me to other clients and they were way more expensive properties. So it ended up working out and she ended up moving out of town. But I was like here, you know, if I, if you again, if you're providing great level of service, sometimes you don't get it at that time, but you'll end up getting rewards later. But you have to go in with giving, giving, giving, giving and not expecting anything as a result.
:Most cases, if you're not getting anything as a result, you're either screwing up or you're not giving the right way. Yeah, and I think the not the hardest part, but when it comes to providing a high level of service is you never know who those best referral sources are going to be. Correct, you know, you have, sometimes you have an idea. You know this person's really plugged into the community. He's really plugged into my sphere already. He's going to be a great referral source, is really plugged into the community. He's really plugged into my sphere already. He's going to be a great referral source.
:I'm going to do a really good job, you know, for him, or I'm going to give him that extra closing gift or make it more personal, when in reality, you know, some of my best referral sources are people that I had never met before I got in the business and I wouldn't even say, you know, we are close personal friends, but I stay in touch with them. I, you know, I'm uh, the very first time I worked with them, you know, tried to go above and beyond, cause you're just trying to provide that level of service, but you never know who's going to be that top referral source for you.
Lee Tessier:Oh yeah.
Lee Tessier:I mean I, one of the local hospitals. She's a CFO, she became a client and you know she's referred me countless deals but then also like janitors you don't know who is a janitor you underestimate, and I think if you, your morals are always on display, right, people don't look at life that way and I'm like how you treat one person is usually how you treat most. So if you're going to treat somebody pretty shitty, that's going to show up later. So if you go out of your way to be nice to everybody, you have no problem.
:Yeah, so, um. So you had already given us some good referral stories, but would you say that one earlier? Do you have the most memorable referral success story?
Lee Tessier:Oh yeah, I had one that he's a really good past client of mine. Now we met him in 2011. He came as an internet lead, as his name was Dick Tracy. So I was like, alright, is Winnie the Pooh his cousin or not, made up or not? So my agent calls on and talks to him and so forth. And that was really his name. So he probably done.
Lee Tessier:He has five kids. I think every one of his kids bought a house with us. I sold his house, bought a house. He just sold another house. He's done a few investment properties with us and he's become a good personal friend. Like he's put money up for a couple investment properties, like just projects that we're doing, and we have dinner four or five times a year at least. Usually I'm checking in on him and he's you know he's no spring chicken, he's 80 years old now but he's become a good personal friend. You know in several businesses Great and you know he's great to bounce ideas off of and so forth. But I think when you are doing the right thing, good things come back to you and if you're going chasing a commission, you're going to keep chasing it and I think that's one of the biggest things. Agents come in this business with commission brass because they see the commission dollars they're like oh.
:I'm going to go after this.
Lee Tessier:I'm like you're going to freaking repel it. Just do the right thing. And sometimes deals blow up. It was meant to blow up. Get them out of it, get them into something else. Sometimes they don't buy. They refer you a bunch of other people. But when you're doing the right thing for them not for you a bunch of other people, but when you're doing the right thing for them, not for you take money out of the equation. And that's the other big thing. I would say take money out of the equation, then you'll get their best decision and then you're going to help them get to what they need. When you get them what they need, it will show back up for you. It's painful at the time, sometimes it takes a little while longer for it to show up, but it's ultimately doing the right thing I think that's a great way to end the episode.
:but as we wrap up our time today, we like to end our time on outside the box with some rapid fire questions. I'm ready zillow, realtorcom or homescom what do you recommend to clients to when they're searching for homes?
Lee Tessier:Zillow is still number one realtor. Top realtor and homescom are juggling for two. Um Zillow, we we still do. We're not a Zillow flex, but we still do a fair amount with Zillow and showcase listing and stuff like that.
:So love it Office or home office, office office Instagram or Facebook.
Lee Tessier:I'm old to Facebook.
:Podcast or book.
Lee Tessier:That was pretty close. I listen to more podcasts than I do books. Now.
:Okay, audiobook or podcast, I still listen to more podcasts than audio Podcast. What's the most impactful podcast that you're listening to or have?
Lee Tessier:listened to Ed Milet. What's that, ed Milet? M-y-l-e-t-t. Okay, what's?
:that about.
Lee Tessier:He is pretty much like anything personal performance. He has anywhere from athletes, billionaires to health, so it's just wide spectrum, but he has some really great interviews on there. So many people I mean that. I think of. There's a book called 12 hour walk.
:Okay.
Lee Tessier:So I tried to think what the hell his name was, but anyway, it was like you get all. He walked across Antarctica. It was like 40, no 52 days, walking 12 hours a day, 42 of the days and so forth. But he just talks about the clarity in your mind and so forth and going out for a 12 hour walk, leave your house, go walk 12 hour mile. But that all came from listening to Ed's. You know his podcasters. I would tell you what. Listen to it. It's good, good, really good podcast Self-improvement.
:Um, what is the most underrated app that you have in your phone, either business or personal?
Lee Tessier:We have our own I would say probably our own app, but it's good for our team, but they don't always go use it. It has all the resources that they possibly need in there. So I'd say our own app.
:Love it. And finally, if a listener wanted to refer a client to you, what local areas do you serve and what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?
Lee Tessier:We cover our radius from Baltimore. We cover into York, pennsylvania, we also cover Ocean City, maryland and then Naples and Marco Island, florida, and my best number would be my direct office line, 410-638-9555. Or second best would be email, lee at leetestiercom.
:Perfect, awesome. Lee, thanks so much for joining us today. I appreciate your time.
Lee Tessier:Definitely have a great time. Thank you, guys, awesome.
