CHICAGO 8-8-22

CHICAGO EDITION

BE THEIR REALTOR® FOR LIFE:

BY THE NUMBERS:

Understanding the True Value of Square Footage

How to Build a Relationship with Your Clients that Will Last a Lifetime

6 WAYS TO GET YOUR CLIENT TO TRUST YOU

FEATURED AGENT

MARY LUSK COVER STORY

RANDY PERTLER MOVING FROM SELF-EMPLOYMENT TO BUSINESS OWNERSHIP

mailto:mag@topagentmagazine.com http://www.topagentmagazine.com

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6 Ways to Get Your Client to Trust You The word “REALTOR®” can leave a sour taste in some people’s mouths. Many of today’s home buyers and sellers grew up during the 2009 recession. They are wary of anything 4

or anyone who comes off as too salesy, and they want to work with individuals who they can trust.

But how do you prove to someone you’ve likely never met that you can be trusted?

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Put Testimonials or Case Studies on Your Website

When something goes wrong, own up to your mistakes. Don’t hide bad news from your clients. Be upfront and responsive.

Testimonials and case studies are social proof that you have both the experience and the skills to do the job your clients are hiring you for. People often leave testimonials when they are either incredibly disappointed or extremely happy with the service they were provided, so they’re a good indication to prospective clients of the treatment they’ll receive.

Case studies, which you can post on your blog or website, have much of the same effect, but even more than testimonials, case studies demonstrate your real estate and finance expertise because they explain how you achieved a specific set of results.

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Be Responsive and Accessible

Can your clients reach you easily? That doesn’t mean you need to be available 24/7, but you should respond to your clients within a few hours of receiving their message. When agents don’t respond to their clients’ calls or emails for days on end or fail to provide them with a direct line of contact, their clients’ experience can quickly become frustrating.

Agents are busy but so are their clients. If you constantly show up late to or reschedule meetings, your clients won’t feel like their time is respected or their business is valued. Make sure you set a realistic schedule for yourself rather than spreading yourself too thin.

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Be Honest and Transparent

Sometimes you don’t have the answer to a client’s question. Be honest about your strengths, weaknesses, and the limits of your knowledge. A good response might be, “I don’t know, but I can find out.” Be transparent with your clients, and they’ll respect you for it.

You should always act in their best interest.

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Go the Extra Mile

If you do the bare minimum, that’s what your clients will remember. Their experience won’t be memorable, and they won’t gush about you in online testimonials or in real life to people they know who could use your services. It’s that simple.

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Put Yourself in Your Client’s Shoes

Clients understand that you need to earn money, but that doesn’t mean they want to feel like they’re just a dollar sign to you. Be empathetic to your client’s concerns, even if you’ve heard it all before. Your clients should know that you are there for them.

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Be Consistent

Being responsive, friendly, and knowledgeable shouldn’t be an act. If you “turn on” your personality for clients and then suddenly become a different person when they leave the room, it’s likely that the cracks in your mask will eventually become apparent.

But “faking it till you make it” is so common it’s become a cliché. When we are starting out, we don’t always have the systems or resources in place to create a smooth client journey, from onboarding to closing, so instead we constantly try to reinvent the wheel. Give yourself time to pause, slow down, and reevaluate your workflow. Creating systems creates

consistency, and those systems can and should be constantly updated.

Developing trust between you and your clients will take time, but doing these things can give you a running start.

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Be Their REALTOR® for Life: How to Build a Relationship with Your Clients That Will Last a Lifetime In the world of real estate, an agent’s relationship with their clients can make or break their career. This industry revolves around working well with people, and being able to develop a strong relationship with your clients is the foundation that you business is based upon.

Just like with a house, if that foundation is weak, the rest of the structure is also going to be unsteady and fragile. The mark of a good REALTOR® is their ability to build up a good referral network and following of loyal clients. This isn’t something that just happens by accident. Building healthy, strong relationships with your clients takes work and knowing how to gain another person’s trust, respect, and friendship. Here are some ways to make sure you are building the right kind of relationship with your clients.

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Top Agent Magazine

1. Use Your Friendliness and Optimism to Win Them Over: No one wants a pushy, overly confident salesperson for a REALTOR®. Clients are much more inclined to put their trust in the hands of someone who is friendly when it comes to one of the biggest financial transactions of their lives. A pleasant, outgoing disposition will win you more clients as well as friends. You want to establish rapport in the first few minutes of first meeting prospective clients. Rather than starting with business right off the bat, begin your meeting with some small talk such as similar interests, hobbies, and family life. This will immediately help to put your clients at ease, and show that you are not simply trying to “sell” them something.

People also respond well to optimism. During what can be a very stressful time, clients need someone to help them stay positive when a situation looks difficult and challenging. Optimism also tends to radiate charisma, and people want to be around and do business with charismatic people. You want to learn how to understand, motivate, and inspire people.

2. Be an Inquisitive Learner and an Empathetic Listener:

On the other side of this coin is knowing how to listen empathetically. Empathy involves actually putting yourself or your mind in their shoes so you can genuinely understand their concerns, needs, and opinions. That understanding and empathy is then reflected in your conversation with that client. Your clients want to know that you care about their situation, and that they’re not just another sale for you to make. People are much more willing to put their trust in you when they can sense that you are actually making an effort to feel what they feel in order to understand their situation.

Showing your interest through questions, and then thoughtfully listening goes a long way towards gaining trust. Showing empathy and acknowledging the feelings and emotions involved in your clients situation helps build a relationship founded on genuine care and trust.

3. Watch for Nonverbal Clues:

Don’t be afraid to show your curiosity and ask your clients a lot of questions. Some of these questions may even be difficult and uncomfortable. You want to discover and learn as much as you can about your client. Don’t make the mistake of jumping straight into the role of the know-it-all. Every different client has unique needs, so you want to learn as much as you can about their specific situation before trying to propose a solution. You want to uncover their primary motive for buying or selling, and flush Top Agent Magazine

out any potential concerns they might have.

After you’ve gained as much information as possible, you can then gauge their interest in your possible solutions by asking “what if” questions. Being inquisitive also demonstrates to your clients that you are genuinely interested and invested in their situation.

Most communication happens nonverbally, so knowing how to interpret your client’s body language can be incredibly helpful. Here are a few things to pay special attention to: Eye contact: Be careful with the level of eye contact you use with clients when first meeting.

Too much and too little eye contact can send the wrong impression. You want to try and maintain eye contact around 70 percent of the time. That is the amount that most people are comfortable with. Pay attention to your client’s level of eye

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contact to determine how comfortable they are.

When someone avoids eye contact that could mean they are not engaged in the conversation.

A good way to quickly build a feeling of rapport when first meeting clients is to make eye contact when you first meet them and then start nodding yes to what they’re saying. If the client reciprocates the eye contact and nodding, you’ve established a connection.

4. Prove your honesty and credibility:

Choose the right handshake for each client: One handshake does not fit all people, and that first handshake can be crucial to making a good first impression. The way to do a good handshake for each client is to try and mirror the other person’s handshake in strength, keep your shoulders aligned as you are preferably standing when you shake hands. While you shake your client’s hand make sure you make eye contact and give them a sincere smile.

Showing a little weakness can actually be to your advantage in this situation, and will actually make others more inclined view you as honest. You don’t want to come across as too good to be true. When revealing this weakness, however, the key to coming out on top is turning what sounds like a weakness into a strength. For example, your service may be more expensive, but that’s because you offer more personalized and extra services than your competitors.

Honesty and integrity are the two traits that 98 percent of buyers and sellers report are qualities they consider “very important”. The thing is you can say you have these traits all you want on your website, bio, etc., but trust has to be earned, and the only way to do this is to prove your credibility.

Here are a few tips for how to sound more credible:

When you talk to your clients avoid using filler words such as “um” and “uh”, which can decrease your credibility. You also want to watch the tone of your voice. People tend to translate a deeper tone as sounding more credible.

You want to develop a relationship to last a lifetime when interacting with your clients. There are many things you can do to accomplish this, and using these tips can take you from getting just a few referrals and repeat customers to gaining a loyal client following. Taking the little extra time to make sure you are projecting the right attitude and making sure that you are doing things to gain your client’s trust can make a world of difference for your business.

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RANDY PERTLER MOVING FROM SELF-EMPLOYMENT TO BUSINESS OWNERSHIP Top Agent Magazine

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Top Agent Randy Pertler with eXp Realty believes the key to his success is seeing his role as a problem solver, helping homeowners with their individual real estate challenges.

As a supplement to his teaching and coaching income, Randy Pertler began investing in rental properties when he was in his mid-twenties. He transitioned to a career in educational publishing and within a few years became a V.P of Sales. However, three times in Randy’s career, his position was eliminated through a division merge, an acquisition, and a massive layoff. Consequently, he turned back to real estate investing, completing over 100 transactions including full rehabs, flips, wholesaling, 10 Copyright Top Agent Magazine

Subject-To acquisitions, short-term rentals, and traditional single family and multi-unit rentals.

Two years ago, Randy was in the process of starting his own investor-friendly brokerage based on a business model he conceived decades earlier.

At the core of Randy’s business model was the implementation of a revenue-share model, allowing every real estate agent to build a business and not just be self-employed. Randy believes, “Many Top Agent Magazine

real estate agents think they are business owners, but by definition, they are just self-employed.

Self-employment may allow you to control your work schedule and eliminate the possibility of being laid off. However, if you are only being paid based on your own time and productivity, you are self-employed. Business owners leverage their time, talents, ideas, creativity, team-building skills, management skills, etc. to create income from other people and systems they implement.”

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As Randy was about to launch his brokerage, he found that eXp Realty’s revenue-share model was almost identical to his business model. Rather than reinvent the wheel, he signed up as an eXp agent so he could immediately focus on the revenue generating activity of team building instead of the non-revenue activity of building the business infrastructure. Randy found a natural fit with building a business through team building and helping other agents do the same.

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Business owners leverage their time, talents, ideas, creativity, team-building skills, management skills, etc. to create income from other people and systems they implement.

Randy also incorporates real estate investing into his business model. “After business ownership, the next stage of producing cash flow is by becoming an investor. Real estate investing can provide the passive income needed to be financially free and to retire comfortably. As a self-employed agent, when you stop working, you stop making money.” Randy encourages, inspires, and helps his team learn how to invest in real estate for passive income and to build for retirement. He offers online and in-person real estate investor training.

Randy believes all real estate agents should be investors and all investors should be real estate Copyright Top Agent Magazine 12

agents. His real estate investing has helped him as an agent and vice versa. In fact, his initial transactions as a broker came from helping associates in his investment group buy their primary residences, not investment properties. They came to Randy because of their prior relationship as well as his overall understanding and depth of knowledge of the real estate industry.

Randy has not needed to spend money on advertising. Instead, he has built his business through his involvement with his church and his real estate investing community, plus his Meetup groups and YouTube Channel, YouTube.com/ RandyPertler.

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Randy believes the key to his success is seeing his role as a problem solver, helping homeowners with their individual real estate challenges.

He doesn’t meet with homeowners with the goal of getting the listing, but rather to help the client with whatever is best for them. That might end up being a listing, selling directly to an investor, Top Agent Magazine

or, perhaps staying in the home and refinancing, remodeling, or both.

As a real estate consumer, he has lived in nearly every imaginable property type, from a suburban country club community single family home to a downtown hi-rise. This gives him the personal Copyright Top Agent Magazine 13

experience and insight into almost any property that he gets involved with.

Randy believes in what he calls “Wow Factors”.

He explained, “As a rehabber, I include features that make people stop and say, “Wow”, during a showing. If a client is visiting five or six houses on the same day, the homes often blur into each other.

“Wow Factors” give the potential buyers memorable distinctions which separate my properties from the pack. “Wow Factors” can be added to properties that are going to be listed.”

Randy helps members of his team grow their businesses by speaking at free local seminars to educate

buyers, sellers, and potential agents. Also, to support his team, he leads weekly Zoom meetings to discuss the state of their real estate dealings, best practices, and answer questions. All the team members contribute for the benefit of everyone on the team. Randy believes in the African Proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Most of Randy’s clients have been in Chicago’s southwest suburbs. However, with the expansion of his team, he is positioned and excited to be able to help clients across Chicagoland. He is also sponsoring agents in other states through eXp Realty’s business model.

For more info, call 815-557-4458 and email randy.pertler@exprealty.com www.

YouTube.com/RandyPertler

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Top Agent Tips and Questions for Choosing Your Listing Agent Now that you’ve decided to sell, it’s time to select the professional to help you market your property. Before meeting with agents, however, consider Top Agent Magazine’s tips for preparing yourself. Frist, ask yourself what kind of relationship you’d like to have with your listing agent. Are you seeking a casual, personable relationship and the latest marketing tools or are you interested in a more formal, traditional relationship and approach to marketing techniques? Next, populate your list of agents by attending open houses and asking for recommendations from recent buyers and sellers.

Finally, schedule your meetings at your home, where you’ll be able to gauge the chemistry between you and each agent.

During your meetings, expect any Top Agent to ask you several questions, but also consider discussing the following: Top Agent Magazine

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Will you please describe your sales experience and local network?

Ask your Top Agent to describe recent listings and sales of homes comparable to your own. Ask about the sellers’ priorities, the original list price, market time and number of offers. Top Agents will also describe how well they are connected with other REALTORS® in the region as well as their contacts with relocation companies, local corporations and chambers of commerce.

Be sure to ask about each agent’s knowledge of how your market has changed over time and what has influenced change.

You’ll learn a lot by listening to agents’ opinions.

How will you market the property? Each

Top Agent has a unique set of online or local marketing tools at his or her disposal. Some use lead-generation applications and nearly ever luxury agent take advantage of video. Even video marketing tools vary from agent-to-agent, however.

You’ll get to decide if you prefer an agent with higher-end video production and 3D Matterport tours or an agent with more intimate techniques featuring walk-and-talk style video tours.

What factors influence your list-price recommendation? Before an-

swering this question, most Top Agents will have several questions for you, including whether you’re more focused on a faster sale or a higher list price.

They’ll also educate you on how best to balance both market time and list price relative to sales histories your area.

Now that you’ve seen the home, what repairs or improvements do you recommend before listing? You’ll learn a lot by listening to agents’

opinions on your home’s sale potential with or without some improvements.

Most Top Agents will also recommend a full professional inspection prior to listing to avoid surprises during buyer inspection.

How will you help with staging? Some Top Agents will pay for part or

all of the staging costs. At a minimum, however, a Top Agent will have a staging professional or two in their partner network. While they’re at it, they may provide referrals for carpet cleaning, painting, gardening and other minor finishing touches.

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What attributes of the property will you want to highlight? Each Top

Agent will have a somewhat different answer to this question, but that’s a good thing! Even if you have your own ideas about your home’s greatest attributes, you’ll glean insight into the current market by considering different agents’ opinions. In learning their views, you may even change your mind about your home’s most marketable features!

What is your approach to Open Houses? How many agent-only Open

Houses will your Top Agent want to host? How many truly Open Houses?

Some Top Agents may even reveal a “swankier” approach to the Open House – such as an evening cocktail party or by-invitation “open” hours to which buyers visit along with the agent representing them.

Who will be our primary point(s) of contact from your office? This

important question will help you understand the scope of your agent’s practice. You’ll get to see if your agent runs a robust team with many hands on deck or if he or she works by close, one-on-one contact with each client.

Either approach is wonderful; you get to decide what suits you.

Now, let’s list!

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Are You Doing Business As YOU On Facebook?

Are you ‘Doing Business As YOU’ on your personal Facebook page? In other words, are you posting your business content from your personal page?

Yesterday a REALTOR® asked us, “Why should I bother with a company Facebook page? Can’t I just post everything from my profile page?”

The answer lies in what we call division of content. As you may be aware, social media began as just that… social. It was never truly intended for business use.

Over time, as businesses began to see the potential in reaching the masses in a new way, they began to intrude on this communication. Today, it is widely accepted that business will be conducted on all social platforms, but the manner in which we do so (and in which we are received) is still a touchy subject at times.

We believe it’s important to be transparent on social media. Draw the line between communicating as the Person and the Professional. Not only does this help you keep your content separate and appropriate, it also gives the control to your network of family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances and customers.

They get to decide whether to ‘like’ or ‘follow’ your company page. They get to decide whether they want to see your business related posts. User control is the #1 reason you need a business page if you’re conducting business on Facebook. Wouldn’t you rather have a willing and engaged audience over a forced, potentially reluctant one? We have personally eliminated many of the ‘DBA’ offenders from our news feeds and you have likely done the same.

As in all controversial social media topics, there is some gray area. And that gray area is often subjective, so consider this post food for thought and decide for yourself. We try our best to keep professional content on our business pages, with a couple of exceptions: 1. Philanthropic Promotion: We’re in favor of posting anything that will help an organization in need on both your personal and business pages. Nonprofits often have little to no marketing budget and rely on all of us to promote their good works, so we believe that’s a good line to cross (as long as it’s about the organization, and not you).

2. Recognition Tagging: Facebook does not allow you to tag an individual on your business page. Yes, there are some tricky work-arounds, but they are inconsistent at best. So when it’s truly important for us to recognize and tag an individual, especially someone who has done something nice for us (inviting us as guests on their radio show or podcast, for instance), we will generally post that on the business page first, then share it from our personal pages, along with a comment recognizing and tagging the individual(s) or business who helped us.

Either way (personal or business), remember to be true to the social aspect. Our participation on social media should be about giving, helping, recognizing and connecting…especially when it comes to your business.

Tonya Eberhart is the Branding Agent to Business Stars and founder of BrandFace®, LLC. Michael Carr is America’s Top Selling Real Estate Auctioneer & BrandFace® partner. Together, they focus on personal branding and marketing designed to help real estate professionals become the face of their business & a star in their market. BrandFace® for Real Estate Professionals is a book, professional speaking series and an exclusive workshop for agents, and is currently active in 18 U.S. states, Canada and New Zealand. For more information, visit www.BrandFaceRealEstate.com.

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MARY LUSK Mary Lusk’s love for real estate was discovered during childhood. She would attend interior design shows and tour homes with her parents, and found it fascinating. Mary always thought she would follow in her father’s footsteps and work in the finance world, so she went to college and studied business finance, earning her master’s degree. It was during her studies that her people-loving personality truly thrived, as she worked at nearby bars and restaurants. “I loved the fast-paced environment and the ability to form lasting relationships,” Mary explains.

Once she had a family, however, she knew she needed to explore another path. “I was getting home from work at six in the morning, which was not conducive to having three children,” she says. So she decided to change paths and pursue what she always knew she wanted to do: real estate. After earning her license, she put all of her effort into ensuring her career took off, even asking her husband to leave his job and stay at home with the kids so she could focus entirely on work. “Success was the only option for me.”

This fervent determination led to Mary quickly becoming a top agent in the greater Chicago area. Today she is thriving, leading her own team called Mary Lusk Group.

She’s an expert on all things relating to this city, and can effectively guide her clients towards the best homes to suit their needs. “My dad was one of 11 children, and I have countless first, second and third cousins in the Chicagoland region, so I have a lot of insight on all the communities,” she explains. Much of her business is referral-based, as clients know she has their best interests at heart. “My team and I are extremely relational,” Mary says. “We focus on the relationships, what our clients’ needs are and not just finding them a house or selling their home, but rather being a part of their lives for the long haul.” Mary Lusk Group is often invited to birthdays, housewarmings and other special events, as they develop close bonds with the clients they support.

Not only does the group prioritize their client connections, they also maintain strong relationships within the Top Agent Magazine

team, working closely together to accomplish their goals. “There are four people on the team, including three agents, and we all have different points of view and various upbringings,” Mary says. “So we are able to bounce things off each other and gain new perspectives.” They also help each other out, filling in when one has to tend to something personal or is able to take some deserved time off. This promotes a beneficial work-life balance and also produces a seamless experience for their clients.

The team is a valued part of the community, supporting various organizations. They’re heavily involved with pet rescue, with team members working with Wish Upon A Rescue and Treehouse Humane Society. The group also works with Lily’s Closet, which provides clean clothes, shoes and essential supplies to children entering and exiting the foster system.

The future of Mary Lusk Group looks toward having a team of strong agents working across two to three different locations. In the meantime, she’s loving every second of her career. “For me, it’s all about the people. Building relationships is the best part about what I do.”

For more information about Mary Lusk, please call 773-610-9741 or email mary@marylusk.com 19 Copyright Top Agent Magazine

By the Numbers:

Understanding the True Value of Square Footage Measuring the square footage of a property may seem like an objective and straightforward task, but you’d be surprised at how many agents and homebuyers misunderstand this pivotal figure.

True square footage provides homebuyers a concrete understanding of their prospective domain, but here’s the problem: the rules to determine a home’s square footage are not always uniform across the board. What’s more, much of 20

a home’s value is determined by its size, so accuracy is certainly important. While many real estate agents have their own systems for determining or confirming a home’s true square footage, it doesn’t hurt to update your practices and become an expert on the subject. After all, you may learn a few techniques that could add value to a listing, or better prepare you in guiding house-hunters on the lookout.

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1. Do your due diligence Most towns and cities have a local records department where floorplans and blueprints are kept on file. It’s worth noting that these records don’t typically include any subsequent additions or remodels on a property, but they still give archive hunters a legal baseline when outlining a property’s square footage. Oftentimes, a straightforward online search of a city or county’s records office can pull the information necessary, or else agents can poke around in person to uncover informative blueprints at the records office. Either way, access to original blueprints or floorplans is a great tool for determining livable square footage. As a bonus,

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original blueprints and floorplans—especially in historic properties—can be intriguing visual aids for prospective buyers, as well.

2. Know the rules While there aren’t universal standards when it comes to measuring square footage, there are general guidelines that can help determine square footage in an authentic way. Per the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), here are the official recommendations for measuring a home’s real square footage: n

Called “below grade spaces,” basements and sunrooms beyond a home’s typical

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living quarters do not count toward a home’s true square footage. According to ANSI, even big draws like finished basements don’t count toward a property’s Gross Living Area. Of course, even below grade spaces have their own desirable value and should be outlined as such on listings. n

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Did you know the space inside closets and on stairways counts toward a home’s square footage? Even if these areas are relatively small, they still add to a property’s calculable square footage.

When recording square footage, ANSI actually suggests performing measurements from a property’s exterior—though this method does not account for the

thickness of exterior walls, which could skew square footage numbers. n

Just like below grade spaces, a garage, a pool house, or even a guest house should not be included in a property’s Gross Living Area. The rationale at work here is this: if you must go outside to access additional living areas, then they are beyond the square footage scope of the primary dwelling and should not be included in a home’s Gross Living Area.

3. Double-check by doing the dirty work Buyers and sellers have or will make a sizable investment in a property, so isn’t it fair to double-check all the relevant facts and figures

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when it comes to true square footage? If you want to take on the endeavor yourself, here are a few helpful steps to take. n

First, you’ll need a few things to get started, including a tape measure that can measure at least 100 ft., graph paper, and a pencil.

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Next, choose a room to start measuring wall-by-wall. Measure Wall 1, then proceed to assign each square on the gridded paper a corresponding measurement, rounding to the nearest tenth of a foot for the sake of clarity.

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From there, draw out the wall you measured and measure the remaining walls in the

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room. Once you’ve completed the room’s measurements, multiply the room’s length and width to determine its square footage. n

As you go measure throughout the home, using your own system to scale, you will construct a failsafe floorplan.

Mastering your craft is everything, and the real estate industry is no different. Every now and again, it’s worthwhile to update your well of information, take matters into your own hands, and continue to innovate with the industry. While square footage may not seem like the juiciest starting off point for such a venture, never forget: mastery of technical knowledge is a sure sign of expertise.

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