Real estate investors that are also licensed real estate agents can create more opportunities and solutions than unlicensed investors.
Melissa Haworth joined eXp Realty to help grow her investing business while also providing valuable solutions to homeowners that want to get more out of their home.
Watch as Melissa talks about using her real estate license to maximizing every lead.
Transcript:
Chris Bounds 00:00
How are you doing Melissa?
Melissa Haworth 00:01
Hey, Chris! How are you?
Chris Bounds 00:04
I’m good. It’s definitely chaotic. Is school starting today?
Melissa Haworth 00:08
Oh, yes!
Chris Bounds 00:09
Well, school started for one of the kids and we have the other one in the background. It’s crazy, you probably know how that is. – The eXp Realty. What does your business look like today? Like, as far as your real estate business, what does it look like today?
Melissa Haworth 00:28
Prior to joining on eXp, we have an investment company. We were strictly just doing investments, right? And then, we did a lot of marketing. We were doing a lot of direct marketing, we had cold callers, we were getting a lot of leads, retail leads that we were trying to refer over to somebody, but they don’t worked very well. We decided that somehow we needed to pivot and try to capture those leads as well within our business. Then I got my license. And now, we’re able to just handle and get those, under contract and move those properties.
Chris Bounds 01:05
Okay. I didn’t plan this, but I know that experience very well. And I share this with other investors. Once you switch from, “Hey, I’m gonna try to because you’re an investor, you’re trying to buy houses”. Once you switch from Hamill, buy your house to the you know, they want to go the retail route to, “Hey, well, let me just connect you to this other person”, then it just disconnect.
Melissa Haworth 01:30
Yes, totally.
Chris Bounds 01:31
It’s like a very low percentage that will ever get connected again. And as if the agent doesn’t even work for it.
Melissa Haworth 01:38
Exactly.
Chris Bounds 01:39
What you found and this is what we found several years ago. I tell other investors, “Hey, Look. Just be there for them”. They’re seriously and sincerely saying, “Hey, I want to sell my house.”
Melissa Haworth 01:51
Yes.
Chris Bounds 01:52
If it’s not the hammer that works for them, then, use a screwdriver.
Melissa Haworth 01:57
Yes, I don’t have an agent. It’s just like a super fantastic way to not just throw away leads, right?
Chris Bounds 02:06
Absolutely! This assistant comes from NAR, where most people go with the first agent they talk with. And most people don’t talk with more than two or three agents. You were early in the process as an investor in that conversation, typically. And you just had the solution for them. I loved that. How were you introduced to eXp Realty?
Melissa Haworth 02:35
I met Matt Garner. I think in a meet-up, a couple years ago. He definitely wined and dined me and stayed with me in the process of when I was just considering to get my license. But I didn’t want to, because I didn’t want to have committment to office hours and to commit that bigger picture of what you think in your head.
Thinking of being an agent, the commitment level, and I didn’t want to do that. Matt kept telling me, “You know, it doesn’t have to be like this. This is how the eXp is set up, you can still do both”. Then, when I saw that the leads weren’t being worked, we kind of felt like a reputation when we refer them out to other agents and nobody was doing that. It affected us too, right? Because we were the first point of contact.
Chris Bounds 03:23
Is that a loan?
Melissa Haworth 03:24
Yes, it does. I know right? It’s all about referral, a word of mouth, that kind of thing. And you know, you treat somebody right, then they’re gonna refer you to somebody else. I just came on with Matt, and I’m now on Matt’s team.
Chris Bounds 03:40
Matt, phenomenal leader. You’re really in good position there. We’re actually going to have him on later in the show. It sounds like he presets. It has a pretty positive impact on your business. What can you share? I mean, outside of just being able to handle those leads, just for you and your business in the unique fit kind of your niche? And how is that really impacted your business?
Melissa Haworth 04:09
Just to be wasn’t just another whole stream of income, right? It’s just the retail leads are just another stream of income and for consistent keep them in the funnel. Then, we’re closing or we’re either listing or selling, right? It’s been fabulous. When we go through the lower points in wholesaling or flipping, then we can fill that in and still be able to keep going. Does it make sense?
Chris Bounds 04:33
Yes, totally. You’re speaking my language. And you also have there’s the stock too, which is a completely side benefit. But when the stocks doing really well, like it is now, it’s a really good benefit.
Melissa Haworth 04:49
That’s a huge benefit. You know, on top of the other things where we don’t have to go into a traditional office and we don’t have to help answer the phone or be there but we still have that same kind of environment on the team with Matt.
Because we’re able to and we have a Slack channel. And so, we just keep in contact with everybody. And if there’s anything somebody needs, like vendors or if you need somebody to put a sign down or pick a sign up or whatever, we can all be there for each other. When before you’d have nobody, right? Now, it wouldn’t be just you.
Chris Bounds 05:24
This question was not planned as well. What would you say to other investors who are, because I get this a lot. “I don’t want to get licensed”; “I don’t want to deal with it”. Like, they’re gonna continue to go down the path of all just refer it to… knowing that the closing ratio is like horribly low? “I just don’t want to deal with it”. How do you address that concern?
Melissa Haworth 05:50
In retrospect, I wish I would have done it a lot sooner. Like I said, because of that extra stream of income, but because of how that leads to so many other things. You meet so many other people, you get referred to other people and you get people to do testimonials.
Then it branches you out to not only just to fan out but also to bring in even more leads. Not only all retail leads, because those retail leads can refer you to somebody who’s an off market lead, right? But also whatever that can help you on your investment side of your business.
Chris Bounds 06:23
Here’s something, I don’t know if you’ve done this and we never really did it. But I know some other masterminds that Jamie and I were in. They would talk to the sellers and convert some of them into private lenders.
Because some of them especially if they’re an elderly and they didn’t have any need for the money; It was just more of just kind of selling an unwanted property. They would turn that into a private lender for a future deal. Have you explored that at all?
Melissa Haworth 06:54
My partner and I just went to a mastermind last week. Somebody talked about that. I had never really thought about that. We had not thought about that before. But that’s exactly what we’re pivoting to try, to capitalize on that as well. It’s great.
Chris Bounds 07:12
The reason why I went down that path is by having a buy it or buy a realistic type of business which is what your business is, where you can go and you can help them cash as it is offer or listed whichever way works for them. Ultimately gives you a greater pool of customers, clients, people to work with which also gives you greater resources through their networks, referrals, testimonials, and in the case of selling a house and maybe can recommend private lenders.
Better access there, too. I love it. What should other investors really consider? Like before, if they’re not licensed? If they want to get licensed, what should they consider before going to that route? And also with the eXp?
Melissa Haworth 08:03
I would tell you to look about, what do you need? What does your business look like?What do you want it to look like, right? And how much do you want to be on a team? Do you want to do it by yourself? Do you need education? It’s so individualized. But, for most investors, I don’t see how it would be, it’s a throwdown. It’s just there’s no… I would just do it.
Chris Bounds 08:30
It’s maybe. I was just posting that question. Said that again?
Melissa Haworth 08:36
I said, to invest in yourself and see that’s a whole other way to keep your business going. When other times it might be just because like, you know, right now with the way the markets been, it’s been difficult to do a lot of wholesaling or finding a rehab properties because people still have this right now, they have an overinflated vision Gen view of what their property’s worth. And so, it’s definitely been really good.
Chris Bounds 09:04
Actually, I want to have another longer conversation with you if we have time. I’m getting like 30 seconds. I was basically gonna say that, when you’re about getting license, I was posting a question on Facebook recently, and I was thinking of all the investors, the top investors I know, but I wanted unlicensed ones. And I had to struggle to find them. It seems like the most of the most successful investors are either licensed or they have someone on their core team, a spouse
Melissa Haworth 09:34
Right. Sure.
Chris Bounds 09:34
Or a partner that’s licensed. I mean, if you’re going to be a professional in the business, make it official, right?
Melissa Haworth 09:42
You know for sure. And that doesn’t even go into the other back of other things. The benefits of being an agent, and that’s just seeing those properties that come to market first, right? I mean, that’s big. It’s big.
Chris Bounds 09:55
It is!