Speaker 1 (00:00):
Most real estate agents have a vendor for every job in a renovation or make ready situation. They schedule the work, coordinate access, manage the whole thing, and then refer out the business without capturing any of the income. Holly Tori stopped doing that, building a renovation and make ready company from the vendor relationships she already had that's helped keep revenue steady through every market shift. She's the founder of Tori Realty, an independent boutique brokerage in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro that runs residential sales, property management, and renovations. Intentionally small, totally virtual, no brick and mortar office. Here in this conversation, you'll learn how our three businesses work well together, how to build and enhance your vendor relationships that even start your own renovation business, how to think about multiple streams of revenue as a broker owner or a team leader and the vital role of trust in making the whole thing work.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Enjoy this conversation with Holly Torre right now on Real Estate Team OS.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
No matter where your business is today or where you want to take it, you'll get there faster and more profitably with an operating system. Welcome to Team OS, your guide to starting, growing, and optimizing real estate team. Here's your host, Ethan Butte.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Holly, thank you so much for sharing how you're building your business live in front of Zillow's entire agent sales organization a month or two back. Thank you so much for doing the same with me here today. Welcome to Real Estate Team OS.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Thanks, Ethan. I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, I'm excited to dive in deeper. I already got a background on you. We will surface some of those details for folks watching and listening because I think what you're doing is really interesting and you're at a really interesting point in your journey. But where we're going to start this conversation is where we always start, which is a must have characteristic of a high performing team. What comes to mind for you?

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Oh man, I would say probably trust, but also consistency. So trust is a big one. If people don't trust you, either agents or clients, it's kind of difficult to get their buy-in and continue to move the dial forward. So trust is a really big one with me.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
This is something I don't actually know the answer to. How long have you been doing real estate in total?

Speaker 3 (02:10):
So I have been involved in real estate pretty much my whole life. My granddad was an entrepreneur. I'm a fifth generation in the city I live in. So he owned commercial real estate and all kinds of things. I'm the first one to get my official license in our family. And so I've been about 15 to 18 years I've been licensed and then I've had my brokerage about six.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
That was my setup to my actual follow-up question, which is have you observed that building trust has changed over those 15 years or so? And if so, how?

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, so I am a big believer in just keeping it basic. Go back to the basics. We are people after all, we like that human interaction. No matter how much we have of outside influence, there's a lot of noise. And whether the noise is real or fake or whatever the influence is on the outside, like keeping a core center on the human aspect of our business is really important. No matter who you're dealing with. We are a personal business and so where years ago it may be more relational based. Now I think trust is built. We have to have a presence online. So we have to have some kind of presence online so that people, when they Google us before they ever meet us, they already know who we are. They have a sense of trust. So I do think online presence is important. But at the end of the day, when you're there with them in person, your job is just to reiterate everything they've already seen online.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
So just trying to keep a clean canvas online. I try to have a good mix of personal and business and yeah, I just keep it simple. I really do. I try to be authentic and I want to attract the people I want to work with. So that's what I keep it down to.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, really good call. I mean, authenticity read from top to bottom through that whole thing that you offered there. And it is like who I get in person matches the impressions I got online. And if those two things are out of sync, then it's problematic. When those two things have integrity, then we're good and that's why we need to be who we are everywhere we are all the time. Holly, what was going on for you in your business when you started bringing people around you? I mean, you run your own brokerage now. When did you start bringing other people around you in your business? What was going on at that time?

Speaker 3 (04:29):
I mean, I've always been kind of an independent person and leader doing my own thing. I always wanted to do my own thing. And when I started with my license, I was in a different state. My husband had been relocated to Maryland, totally out of our element, did not know a soul there. And so I did have a shift in my career there. I left financial industry and started my real estate journey there. And that was difficult because I didn't know a soul there. And so I was with RE/MAX there, a large brokerage and just kind of didn't really feel like it was a good fit for me. So I always knew eventually I was going to own my own business. I've always had an entrepreneurial mind. I was never in a place in my life where I could take the jump and do it.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
We all have a story and I did have a little one that I had to feed and take care of and had to have that steady income. So I just never had the courage to step out on my own. So when we got relocated back to Texas, I made the decision at that point with my husband that we were going to kind of explore this real estate journey in a familiar territory. And so at that point I was very intentional on how I was going to set up my business. And so I can sell. Selling is not a problem for me, but I didn't understand all aspects of the business and I'm only three years in being licensed in a different state. In my state, I had to have my license for two years before I have brokerage. So I joined a property management company.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
I wanted to learn that business. We already had rental properties and I just wanted to learn that business. I hung my license at a property management company and worked there as a property manager to really learn the business. And that was essential in setting my business forward. So I surrounded myself with people in that industry to learn about it. I built all my vendors there. I have really good relationships with my vendors and so I knew that I was going to build that company.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
I think just surrounding myself with other leaders and other industries is also important because that keeps me in check with what's going on around like in our economy, what's going on, what businesses are coming in, who's busy, who's not, all of those things. I'm just like a sponge. I take it all in. So yeah, after my two years, then I opened my brokerage and that's a different set of people that I surround myself with at that point. Now I'm looking for leaders, people that can help me build. How am I going to be successful? What am I going to do? I didn't know. Did I just want to be my person or did I want to have a team? I didn't really know. And so I did at first, I think everybody's first initial thought when you own your brokerage is, "Oh, I've got to have a bunch of agents." That was the first step.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
I'm going to hire a bunch of agents. I'm going to get all these agents on board. And I learned really quick that was probably not the best strategy. So scaled back pretty quick on that and definitely more intentional on who I hire and what our business looks like. But I'm always looking to surround myself with people with different perspectives because diversity of thought is huge for me and I don't know everything and I want to learn as much as I can. So having different perspective is really important for me and I try to really surround myself with people like that.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
I love that. I love the going deep into property management to start. I really like what you shared there. I think when we typically think about sphere of influence for someone practicing real estate, we think about the people that they know in terms of opportunities they've generated online, people who they know past clients, et cetera. But this idea of really immersing yourself in the local community and the local business community in particular to kind of see trends emerging is certainly advantageous for you. I really like what you shared there. Before we go too much farther, I'd love for you to characterize Tori Realty however you'd like, like markets you serve, size, structure, culture, anything else you want to share about your brokerage I'd love to hear.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yeah. Tori Realty to me is a boutique brokerage. I mean, that was really important to me. I love servicing my clients. I still produce and I feel like that's a valuable ad I have for my agents also is because I'm out there every day. I understand what they're doing. I understand the challenges they're facing. So I will probably always produce in some form or fashion. I just feel like it's important for me and my business. But Toy Realty is a boutique brokerage intentionally small so we can service our clients the way we need to. And I like to make quick decisions and I am not scared of change and my agents know that. I am the first to try something new, not shiny ball kind of try something new. I'm very like cautious with what we try, but once I decide, I'm all in. I'm going for it.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
So they know that. So having quick adaptation to change and being able to shift in this wild ride market right now, it just feels like it's up and down. So my brokerage tends to be, we are very close and we're a family. We care about each other. We care about our clients and we truly want to service them to the best of our ability. Whatever that is, whatever their need is, we want to meet them in their journey where that is.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Any particular reason you chose Indie Brokerage versus real estate team brokered by fill in the blank.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yes. I like to do things my way. I don't think that I'm the best, but I love my ideas of how I service clients and I have heard so many horror stories of how people have been treated in our industry and this is my career and I take it seriously and I want to make sure we keep the integrity of real estate. I don't want real estate and realtors to have a bad name. So for me, being able to be at the top and set that expectation with my agents on how we're going to treat our clients and how we're going to treat our vendors and how we're going to treat all the support people that help a transaction come together is really important to me and that's why I wanted to open my own brokerage. I knew if I had, even if it was another brokerage that was a cloud based or whatever, there was still somebody higher that made a call for something and that limits me on what I can do for me and my team.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
So I want to be able to make that call and that's why I chose to be an independent broker has been a whole nother ride. I mean, it's difficult. It's difficult to find like- minded independent brokers, especially in your market that want to share information. So sometimes it feels a little like the wild, wild west, like not really sure what to do, but I tend to always figure it out and again, find people that are willing to share and help. Typically it's in another market, but I have found a really good support system of other independent brokers and we all help each other out. So it's all good.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
So besides finding other folks who you can be open with and who are open with you, any other advice? Because for example, we send out a weekly email to folks who subscribe at realestateteamos.com/subscribe. And one of the questions I get back a lot is in this zone of, I'm thinking about going indie, I built this team, I'm at five agents or 12 agents or 75 agents. Thinking about going indie, besides networking just to kind of fill in some of the gaps to help you understand what you don't know and to get guidance or suggestions on directions you might take, besides the networking piece, any other advice you would share with a team leader who's thinking about going indie brokerage?

Speaker 3 (12:15):
I mean, I think definitely you have to have a structure in place, how you're going to set it up for your agents to be successful. But as the owner of the company, you have to take a step back because agents are going to come and go. So how are you going to sustain all the systems you're going to provide to your agents? How are you going to, besides you being the only one that can bring in the money into the business? So for me, I have multiple streams of business coming in. So I chose to build an end to end stop for my clients. So if I have an investor, we have the property management piece, right? We also offer make ready services. So those services go hand in hand with my property management and then the make ready service can service our listings or it can also service our property management.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
But all of that is just a little extra income to come in to try to help offset the cost of the systems that we provide, because I do provide a lot for my agents. We provide the CRM, we provide website, we provide all the things, right? And those all cost every month. So preparing for ebbs and flows with the agent count that you have and the income coming in and the market itself, I think is essential as you're starting to build your business plan, figuring out how you're going to close those gaps sometimes when you have them.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Cool. You introduced a couple of directions I wanted to go anyway, but before I go there, which we'll get into renovations, we'll get into property management and leasing. I want to get into that in just a minute. But you mentioned ebbs and flows of agents. You described yourself as small by design. What is typical agent range like over the past 12 months? Where have you been in terms of agent count and staff count?

Speaker 3 (13:58):
I like being between like seven and 15. I feel like that's a good range. I like to coach myself, my agents. I like to train them. I like them to understand. I mean, they look up to me and what I've accomplished and they want to learn some of the same things. So I feel like it's important to come from me and I feel like if I have more than 15 agents, sometimes that can be difficult. So at this point, not saying it's always going to be like that, but at this point and what I love, my heart gets happy when I help agents and see them be successful and overcome some things that they thought they could never do. I think for me, 15 is kind of the max that would allow me to still run my business, be able to produce and coach my agents.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
So I'm exploring other possibilities, but for now that's where I'm comfortable.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
And so you're producing and I assume you don't have a sales manager or similar, like you're doing all of that yourself directly?

Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yes, I am.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
How do you structure a day or a week to take care of your own needs and the needs of personal needs and family needs and things, your client's needs and your agent's needs? How do you structure a day or a week?

Speaker 3 (15:10):
Well, it's a challenge sometimes. I definitely feel like systems are super important. I did candidly go through quite a few assistants as I was building my team and figuring out what that was going to look like from a support standpoint. I tried the VA route. Everybody tells you to do a VA. I was like, okay, I did the VA, wasn't working for me. We found assistants, people that had maybe been at home and wanted to get back in the workforce and that wasn't really working for me either. And so I brought on a vital piece in my space that really helps me stay on track and that was my sister. So at the time she was working for a tech company, she has some littles that needed more flexibility. I was at a point where I'd already been through several assistants and so she was like, "Holly, let's just explore this and see how we can make this work." And so she's really, really good at operations, processes, systems and organization from a support role.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
We're all virtual, by the way. We don't have a brick and mortar office. So all of us are virtual. So she is in another state, but we balance each other really well. So she's able to keep me on track from a systems perspective. So we laid out all of our processes. We got everything in place. But when I structure my week, she's a big part of that because she tells me when I have taken on too much and when I haven't taken on enough and fill those gaps. And I always try to allow for some blank time in my calendar because I know things are going to come up. I know my agents are going to need help. I know things are going to come up throughout the week with my own transactions. I'm really good at being proactive and as much as I can control on the front end, I try to do so I have some flexibility on the unknowns that may come out up throughout the week.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
It doesn't help that I don't sleep well either.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
I'm usually up pretty early in the morning, four-ish or five, maybe sometimes a little earlier. I just thrive on all the things. If I don't have a lot going on, I don't feel like I'm productive. So yeah, it can be a challenge sometimes, but I mean, calendaring and systems, follow-up boss has been a huge part in that. When I switched over to follow-up boss, it changed my business. All of the things with follow-up boss have been fantastic and I feel like I'm only at the tip of the iceberg with it, honestly. I've been with them, I think, I don't know, three or four years now. I'm still building that out. I feel like everything I do continues to give me more time back from our CRM.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
That's great to hear. How did you, when your sister got involved, how did you divide up kind of who's going to take what? Just talk a little bit about that process in terms of, because this is another obvious challenge for a lot of brokerage owners and team leaders is, I've maybe been through some assistance before. I've tried to offload the things that I don't want to do or I'm not good at or that I just don't have time for. How did you kind of break that apart and ramp her into the business in a way that was great for you both and of course for the agents and clients?

Speaker 3 (18:17):
She always told me before she ever worked with me, "Your assistant doesn't have to be a realtor, Holly. They don't have to be in real estate. These are systems. These are processes. It doesn't matter. They don't have to be in real estate." And after she told me that three or four times, I was like, "Okay, let me wrap my head around this because you always go to let me hire an agent that's getting started, let them help me out in my business, coach them up and then we'll rinse and repeat." But that just wasn't working for me. So when we sat down and talked about it, she had to learn the business, which was a challenge. I don't know that she truly understood how fast paced it was because systems people, operational people are very, "This is how it's going to be. " But we have to have a little bit of room for things to happen in between.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
So I just really let her ... She was on phone calls with me. She was reading my emails. She truly was my right hand person. I would talk to her in the car every day when we were going to and from places so she could kind of just understand what's going on and then she kind of took it from there and was like, "This is what we need to do. We need to come up with this. We need to come up with that and I can do this for your agents. I can do this for you. " And then now we're at a point to where, okay, where's the next hire going to be? And she's that person. I mean, really having that right hand person that has an umbrella over everything is so important when you're an independent broker because we have a compliance piece, we have a sales piece, we have an operational piece and then we have two other businesses we try to keep running too.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
So having that top person is really important and it's important to make sure they take on the right pieces because it's easy to push everything on her because she's my comfort person. She gets me, she knows me, she understands how I work. And so my initial reaction is like, "Hey, can you do this? Can you do this? " And she is good about pushing back and saying, "Okay, we probably need to put this over here. I'm at my max on that bucket, right? We need to move this over here." So I think over open conversation and having the right personality trait, it's funny last night we were talking about personality tests and she's the one that told me I need to do personality tests on people that I hire. She's really into that. We were really laughing last night because with the disk personality, I'm a D with an I, a little bit of I and she's an S and a C.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
So we balance each other really well on that spectrum and I think that that is important. I do think that's really important to find people that balance your weaknesses so that you can be strong and they can be strong and that's what makes a strong team.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah. Really good call, especially kind of that open line of communication and the confidence and comfort in one another to just share honest feedback about what should and shouldn't be happening. So she's compliance and operations in your sales.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah. We do have a piece where our transaction coordinator also handles some compliance for me on a daily, like on a transactional basis, but she's more at the top. These are one of the buckets we were talking about. I can't do every transaction compliance. I can do overall compliance. So we let our transaction coordinator, we have a different role for our transaction coordinator that checks compliance for all of our agents on each transaction after they may have their own transaction coordinator, but I have my own that goes back and checks and makes sure everything is in compliance from a brokerage standpoint.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Cool. Thank you for that. I would love to hear more and I'm sure folks watching and listening would too typically when we talk about how are we going to build revenue or how are we going to build something that's end to end? People think about mortgage and title, but you've got a renovation business, you've got property management. Obviously property management makes sense. That's how you kind of came up and came into the business a bit. Talk a little bit about the renovations business. When did this occur to you? What is it and how does it work with some of the other things that you're doing?

Speaker 3 (22:15):
So we have the three separate businesses. We have property management, the make ready, and then the sales. And it occurred to me in the property management piece that I'm missing out. I'm paying all these vendors to do the work and I'm not getting really any kind of income from it, but I'm scheduling it all and I'm making sure it all gets done. So that's when we started to build out the make ready business and renovations. I have done large six figure renovations, but the thing I have learned over the years is that the renovation business tends to come up when the market's a little slow. That has been from my experience. When the market's a little slow, the renovation picked up. So it allowed me to still have a lot going on and do things and bring income in. And then when the market was busy, it tended to slow down a little bit, but then the make readies for the property management would pick up with the turns and the rentals, which tends to be in the summer.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
So when we structured the renovation company, we have a make ready side and then a larger renovation side there. And so we have a net that we try to make on every job and I've negotiated rates with our vendors, but everybody is subbed out. I'm not at the point to where I have employees because I feel like it complicates things and I like having the flexibility to change if somebody doesn't do good work or whatnot. But my entrepreneurial mind is always thinking of something more and so we're actually building out that make ready business into something more in a new segment with seniors. And so for me, it's just another stream of income that's always steady. People always need flooring. They always need painting. They always need handyman work. And even though my larger renovations slow down sometimes, I always have smaller jobs that we can pick up and do that keeps our team busy.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
So I've kept our vendors busy for 10 years now and it's been fantastic for us and I really enjoy the work and we have a really good system built out for that business and it's quick and easy and our job is to get in and get out and I can do a full make ready on a rental because I have the proper people in place. We could probably do a whole turn in six to seven days. I mean, for a property owner to be able to turn their rental property within a week and get it on the market in really good condition saves them money in the end. So it just keeps compounding after that. So yeah, that's why we kind of got into that role versus the mortgage companies and the title companies.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah, I love that. It benefits you as a property owner, benefits everyone else that you're managing the properties for. The other thing that I was thinking about as you were saying it is my guess is that, by the way, qualifier, I say this like every second or third episode, I've never been a real estate agent and I've never been a real estate team leader, but it seems like a lot of your listings probably need some make ready aspect to them, whether it's a quick 600 or $1,200 job, or whether it's 15 grand of upgrades so that we can list it for 30 to 50 more. Is that the case? Do you wind up working on a lot of your own listings?

Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yes, I do. And that is a service that a lot of my clients enjoy. They like that I'm a central contact and they don't have to call anybody else. So not only prepping for the listing and getting things ready and neutralized, but throughout the process when we have an inspection, I'm very well versed in what it costs to do the repairs that somebody may be requesting. And so it allows us to either use our vendors that we know are trusted. I know they're going to do it the right way and they're going to come back if we need them to, which takes a little bit of risk off of the seller to even just negotiating a concession for the repairs afterwards. So a lot of my feedback from clients and reviews I have are that I was a central source of information and they appreciated having that end to end stop during their transaction because it's such a stressful time for them and so many moving parts and not to have to worry about that and having to find somebody to come out and do, I mean, repairs you don't even think about like a clamp somewhere or some random piece of plumbing that we don't ever think about.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
Having somebody that can do that and not have to worry about it takes a little bit of stress off them. So yeah, it's been a great piece of our business and I think it's a puzzle piece we will always keep in our business.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah. It's super smart. I have not had that conversation very often on this show and this is going to be something like episode, I don't know, 170 or something. I love what you're doing with that. And it also goes back to the beginning of the conversation where you mentioned the importance of trust, obviously, and this idea of like, I trust Holly, I trust Holly's agent if I'm working with one of your agents. And so this idea of having you as the trusted source to bring the right people into the conversation, one last gap here I'd love for you to close for folks is most real estate agents have a decent network of people who can do different jobs in this zone, make ready, renovation, whatever aspect we're talking about. Most of them have like a loose network of people and they're probably referring out the business and they may just be doing it out of courtesy as kind of the typical thing.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
What are a couple of steps someone should start thinking about or even take if they want to formalize that the way that you have to go from, I know that I got a guy kind of a concept, right? Like I got a person for that. How do we kind of formalize that like next step? Like for you, what was that transition from, I'm going to keep referring all this out to, you know what, I'm going to be kind of the central point for this stuff and I can bring in people as I need to. Well,

Speaker 3 (28:00):
There's one of two ways and I think it depends on who your broker is and what they're going to allow because some brokers don't like the risk level of this, but again, that's why I'm my own broker. But I think some people could get referrals back from certain vendors, right? Like my tile guy is like, "Hey, do you want a referral for this job?" It's relying on them to get that referral back to you and I don't like depending on other people to do that. So we created a separate LLC, a separate business, all of the logos are consistent so we have the same colors, just different type logo image so it all is consistent to our client, but you have to build that separate entity and then we have a process and a project plan that kind of lists all of our vendors out what their price is for certain things and then I go and negotiate that price with them and I tell them, "Hey, look, I'm going to be the one you have to deal with.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
You don't have to rely on talking to the customer to go pay you because that's their concern. They're not going to get paid. They're hardworking guys that are out there and women every single day working hard with their hands and doing things and the last thing they want to do is go collect money. So one of the big things that I pride myself on is I pay them same day. I don't care. And I've had coaches tell me, You need to move your payments to once a week or once every two weeks. They can wait for their money." No, that's why the same guys are working with me after 10 years because I pay them that day. I respect what they do in this industry and they show up when I need them to in a bind, in an emergency and we trust each other.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
And so really building that strong relationship with your vendors and ensuring that, hey, showing, "Hey, I respect you. I'm not going to try to undercut you on your price. If you want $50 to do this job, I'm going to pay you $50." Then it's my job to up the price to whatever I feel like the market can hold, right? So some vendors, I have a bigger net than other vendors. It just is how the business is. Painting is Astronomical right now, the material alone. So giving them a deposit so that they can go get the material, not having to front that for some big jobs. All of this helps me establish really good relationship with the vendor. If you don't have that, a make ready business will never survive. And my guys will drop another property management company that has a 30 day net paying them to come do a job for me over that company because they know they're going to get paid today or tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
And so that's been a foundational piece and I think it is essential if you're going to build this kind of business. And then after that, it's just networking, word of mouth, getting out there, talking to different agents. Every agent I talk to, even if they're on the other side of the deal, letting them know I have this business, I can do this for you. And you get a little pushback from agents sometimes. They may feel like you're going to try to steal their client or something like that. But I position it as like, "Hey, I'm the bulldog that's going to come in behind you and say, Hey, Jen's got to sell this house. I'm in real estate too. I totally agree that you need to replace this carpet. This carpet looks terrible. So we need to replace the carpet. And so I try to come in and position it that I'm supporting the agent and what they need to sell the house.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
And then I provide really good pricing on the products that we have and get it done quickly so they can get it on the market.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
That is a ton of good advice. There's a reason that you have a back button on your YouTube app or on your Spotify app or on your Apple podcast app. This makes so much sense to me and you provided a ton of practical advice there. So folks go ahead and hit those back buttons and check that out once more and take a couple of notes. Switching gears a little bit. I would be remiss, Holly, if I did not ask you about Zillow Pro. For one particular reason that we'll walk our way into, and that is you have, I'm not sure that this is exactly the case, but I'm going to say that you have the highest acceptance rate of my agent relationship requests. But let's walk slowly into that. So Zillow Pro is a layer in fub inside follow-up boss. How do you describe it or how have you described it to another team leader or brokerage owner or real estate agent just to kind of set the table here?

Speaker 1 (32:15):
What is Zillow Pro from an agent perspective?

Speaker 3 (32:20):
Zillow Pro to me, which we can all get caught up in what they call it and what the name is. As an end user at the end of the day, Zillow Pro to me is a piece that I will always have as long as it's available in my business. It allows us to stand out from other agents, not just with our profile. That's a small piece.That's actually how it was sold to me. Your profile can be different. It can look different on Zillow. I was like, "Oh, that's cool. I'll do that. " And you can put video in your profile with Carousel. I was like, "That's awesome. I'll set out. I'll be different." The game changer piece for me was when my agent came out and getting the MyAgent connection. So we always did the Zillow connection, but we never were able to connect with our sphere.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
And so when I was approached about potentially testing out this new product, I was all in. I was like, "Oh, if I can connect..." I mean, I already have follow-up boss. I can see what most people are doing with what we have, but if I could actually connect with my sphere on Zillow, I mean, how powerful would that be? So I really started thinking about it, jumped all in and it has been phenomenal. I mean, the data I get, I explain to other teams and brokerages like, "Why would you not want to connect with your people on Zillow?" And usually the pushback is, "Well, I don't want to give Zillow my client's information." And my pushback to them is, show me a client that's never been on Zillow and then we can have this conversation, but I guarantee you Zillow already has their information either from Zillow or some other piece, right?

Speaker 3 (34:01):
So why not take advantage of it and really see what your people are doing? That's how I kind of position it and my team is all in. I mean, all of them use it. I think my top agent almost is as high as me or if not over now and it's just a way we do business now. It's part of our process. So every client we talk with now, we connect with my agent as soon as we're done with the conversation we have. So it's very early in the relationship and then I just work my way back as far as I can. You can't do bulk things.This is not a transactional product. This is a relationship product and I am a relationship agent and I love that piece. So that's why I was all in. I mean, the relationship piece, being able to see what my people already have a relationship with or doing, it's phenomenal.

Speaker 3 (34:51):
So I love it.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
That's great. So for anyone that didn't put all of that together and I'm going to explain it a different way and Holly, then you give it back to me on anything that I trigger for you. We've obviously been able to see what people are doing on our IDX website inside our CRM for years. We hook those things up and we can see what they're doing on our IDX site. And so when we connect with someone, we beg them to use our IDX website to do this stuff so that we can track what they're doing and be of higher service and value to them and reach out in more timely and relevant ways. And what you can do now with this MyAgent relationship or this connection is you can also see what they're doing on Zillow. So if they are active on your IDX website, that's pouring into your CRM.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
But now with Zillow Pro, you can also with their permission because you send them this connection request, they accept it. Now you can see what they're liking, saving, sharing, et cetera. Tell me a few spots, just a tactical thing for someone who is just getting started with it or is going to get started with it. When and where and how are you asking people to accept functionally like your Zillow friend request, I'll call it, even though it's the my agent relationship. You're asking them to connect when, where and how are you doing that that has allowed you to get such an incredibly high acceptance rate of that request?

Speaker 3 (36:17):
Well, I have to preface this by I talk to my sphere and I mean all of them every year I'm talking to my people throughout the year and I mean a phone call. I'm not just talking about blasting emails out. So my people hear from me, they hear from our team. When I say I'm a relationship agent, that's what I mean. We're having phone conversations regularly with our people about life. Okay. They trust us. It goes back to the trust. They trust us. So there's two different pieces. On past clients, it's touching base with them. "Hey, we had an ice storm. I don't know. Let's reach out to everybody today. We're all at home. Let's send everybody a text, see how they're doing." So we would text them and say, "Hey, did you survive the ice storm? Everything okay? Do you need anything? We're here for you.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
" They'd be like, "Oh yeah, we're good. Just enjoying time at home." Be like, "I have an exclusive opportunity to connect with you as your agent on Zillow. We'd love to send you a link so we can connect there." And as soon as we're off the phone, I'm sending that link to them and they click it because we just talked about it and I've already built their trust by asking them how they are and things like that. It is a manual process. You can't do bulk. I mean, you're just not going to get the acceptance rate with bulk. Okay? So that's past clients and we just kind of work our way back maybe 10 to 20 a day. We're kind of just working our way back. New clients, it's part of our process for listings and buyers now. So when we have a listing appointment, this is part of our marketing.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
We talk about all the Zillow tools we use from start to finish and at the end of that listing appointment, I have their contact information. I send my follow-up email and that's when I'm sending that connection for Zillow. And so it's a little different on the listing side because it's like, well, why do you want to see what I'm searching for? But I position it as, "Hey, I just want to see what you're looking at. That way if I see you're looking at another house that's similar to yours, I know to run comps for you to let you know what's going on out there in the market and things like that. " For buyers, when we have our buyer consult, we send out marketing beforehand. We meet with them either on the phone or in person and that's part of the conversation we have with them like, "Hey, as you're searching, what are you using?" I let them sell themselves on Zillow.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
Most of them say they use Zillow or Redfin or Realtor, whatever. And so if they say another app, I say, "Well, do you use Zillow? Have you ever used Zillow?" "Oh yeah, I like Zillow." I said, "Well, I have an opportunity for us to connect so you don't have to send all the screenshots to me all the time because let's be real. Nobody uses the MLS search. They like the apps." They love that piece that we can connect and it's one less thing they have to do. I send the link as soon as we're done, they connect, I can see what they're doing and I'm excited to see where this product goes because I can see it really developing into something special for our clients. The beautiful thing is once you're connected, you can see what they're doing, which prompts conversations. Now when we're following up with our sphere that we already did, I think our conversations are going to change now in the future.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
It's not going to be, "Hey, we just had an ice storm. How are you doing?" It's going to be like, "Hey, we had an ice storm. I saw you were looking at houses in California. Are you wanting to go somewhere warmer?" Being able to uncover some needs there that they may not have known we could see and being able to anticipate some of that and have a little more confidence when we call our clients. The worst thing is to call a client and not know they're looking for houses. I want them to come to me first, but we get our data so much sooner now than we used to. So this is just another piece of that. I'm able to see if they're looking at things before I call them and maybe try to help them earlier on in the process. So yeah, that's how we've been successful with it.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
It is truly a manual connection conversation with our people.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
Really good. I don't normally ask direct product questions like that, but I know that you dived in early and you've had incredible success with it and it also changes the way people operate. I mean, the thing that I would observe on behalf of other team leaders is that you have agents ... We all know that agents make money when they're talking to people. They need to reach out, they need to call, text, email, visit with people, et cetera. That's how we make money, is having more conversations. But when we don't know who to reach out to or why or what to say and just someone shows up because we haven't talked to them in X amount of time when we don't really have a reason to reach out, this closes a lot of that gap too. So I think it changes the way folks operate and can really dramatically create more timely and relevant conversations.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
Before I offer you, Holly, my three pairs of closing questions that I ask everyone, I'd love for you to share any advice you have for an agent who's thinking about maybe starting a team or going the indie broker route, like an agent who's been solo for a while, they're obviously having some success. They're wondering if, when, why, and how to maybe expand their business by bringing other people around them. What questions or advice or guidance would you have for them?

Speaker 3 (41:09):
I mean, if you're thinking that way, then you're meant to do it. So if you're already thinking about how you can improve your business and bring people around you, I mean, I would say just jump in and do it and surround yourself with people that are smarter than you. I mean, that's the only way you can get better is to surround yourself that are smarter than you and look outside the box. Maybe it's not even in your own brokerage. It's somewhere else that you need to look and try to find people, but people have been such a big piece of my success and I have so many great connections I'm so grateful for over the years that have helped me in one way or another. But I would just say if you're even on the fence about it, just try it. I mean, the worst case that happens is you scale back and you're back on your own again and you're still going to be successful, whatever that looks like for you.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
But yeah, if you come up with a plan and you stick with it and you're consistent and you trust yourself and what you want to accomplish, you can absolutely do it. You just have to do the hard work to get there.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
Really good. I'm glad I asked. Holly, I asked these questions to everyone and they're kind of an either or. You can answer one or the other. Some people sometimes like to do both and you may as well.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
The first one is what is your very favorite team to root for or what is the best team you've ever been a member of besides Tori Realty and it doesn't have to be a real estate team.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
My favorite team to root for is my Tori tribe, which is me and my husband and my daughter and she recently got married last year so now I have a bonus son That's my favorite team. We really support each other and help each other so much and I couldn't do what I do without all of them. They all serve such a big piece in my life. So I also am a hockey girl. Believe it or not, I'm not a Cowboys fan. I'm a Dallas Stars fan, even though we didn't make it past the little round of playoffs there. There's always next year. So yeah, those are my two favorite teams.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
That's great. And that's a good roster and they have a good year ahead next year as well. I love the bonus son too. Holly, what is one of your most frivolous purchases or what's a cheapskate habit you hold onto even though you don't need to?

Speaker 3 (43:17):
Okay. So I am not a cheap skate in my family now. I have been in my past, but now I am not. My husband takes care of that for all of us. He actually has a laminated electricity bill from back in the day that was $18.39. So this is turning off all the lights, that's my husband. He takes care of that very well for all of us. I am the frivolous person and I would say I love vintage Pyrex. It just makes my heart happy because my grandmother was a good cook and we always had Pyrex around the table. I have a cabinet full of vintage Pyrex, all the different colors and all the things. So I love my Pyrex and I will say I buy a few Mahjong tiles here and there too. I love Mahjong. So yeah, those are my frivolous purchases.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
That's cool. You have made me, Holly, this is what I'm going to do probably 20 minutes from now. I'm going to look at what vintage Pyrex looks like. When you mention it, I also prefer glass for all of my storage needs. I also like the Pyrex brand, but when I think about vintage, I think about like Fiesta Ware and some of these other things, even though that's more like dishware and stuff. I'm super curious about vintage Pyrex and you have inspired me. I'm going to do that search in a little bit.

Speaker 3 (44:36):
Look for the vintage fridgie sets. They're little fridgie sets. They're like a little set that's for your leftovers. Okay. It has three different sizes that fit like a little puzzle piece. Those are my favorite ones. So yeah, definitely take a look at those.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
Oh, that's great. I'm on it. I will absolutely do that. Last one, Holly, what does it look like for you? What are you doing when you're investing time in learning, growing, developing? Or what does it look like? What are you doing when you're investing time in resting, relaxing, and recharging?

Speaker 3 (45:05):
I have a hard time turning my mind off. That's hard for me. We're empty nesters now and so my husband and I, we're car people, we love cars. So we have decided we love to take long road trips and the more desolate, the better. So we recently went to Monument Valley area and did not have a plan and just drove and figured out where we were going to stay. And it was a beautiful, peaceful time for me that it forced me to turn off my phone because there wasn't any service. It forced me to appreciate what I have around me and the beauty that's in this world. And so we really enjoy that and I'm all about experiences. Experiences make me happy. We all have so much around us anyways and experiences are what you remember in the end. So my daughter and I make a point to have spa days regularly together and we'll meet wherever to go do that.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
But I love spending time at a spa that's quiet and forces, again, me to turn that phone off and recharge and feel better about the things that are going on around me. So yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
That's beautiful. Really well done. One follow up on the road trip. Is this like windows down or is this conversation or is this audiobook or podcast or is this music or is this some of everything?

Speaker 3 (46:24):
Whatever we're feeling like that day, that is what we do. So sometimes it's quiet. Sometimes we don't have anything on. Sometimes we have the windows down. It just depends on how we feel that day. It's a great time for my husband and I to connect as well. I mean, he is my number one cheerleader and has helped me get to where I am today and does so much for me and our family. And so being able to give him one-on-one time is important because we're always passing ... He still works in corporate America. So we still are passing a lot of times. I work a lot of nights. He works during the day. So it's a really good chance for us to connect. So just however we're feeling that time is what we do. We just go with it. No plan.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
I love that for you. That's awesome. If someone has gotten to this point, I'm going to drop a link down below to Zillow Pro, but if someone wants to follow up, learn more about what you're up to, connect with you on social or anywhere else, what links or info should I include down below for you?

Speaker 3 (47:18):
You can include our Facebook page. We've got Toy Realty there. I also have a personal page that's open and then we have Instagram. All the socials are pretty much where we are and then our website as well. But socials tend to be where you can find us either on Instagram or Facebook.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
I will add those links down below to the episode description, whether you're on realestateteamos.com, or you put up the audio and video, whether you're on YouTube, whether you're on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. There is a description. This stuff is linked up. Holly, you're awesome. It's great to spend this time with you and thanks so much for doing it.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
Thanks, Ethan. I appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
Thanks for checking out this episode of Team OS. Get quick insights all the time by checking out Real Estate TeamOS on Instagram and on TikTok.