Why Should A Real Estate Agent Start A Facebook Group?- with Will Penney- EP 129

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer talks to Will Penney, a realtor who has been in the business since 1988. Will has a team of six agents and is handling over 200 units per year. One of the strategies that he employs in his successful business is Facebook groups. Tune in for his wealth of wisdom.  Episode Highlights:  Will got into real estate thinking he would get rich for all the wrong reasons because he was 19. He started at a large national brand, Century 21, with his nickname, “a flash in the pan Penney.” No one would help him at 19 years old.  He sold 17 houses in his first year, and then by the time he was 24, he achieved the Century 21 Centurion Award, which is 60 transactions. In 2001, Will started Penney Real Estate independent brokerage, and he has been independent ever since by design. He spent every waking moment trying to stay relevant. Will hired his wife full-time in 2017. She has been with him for 13 years. Will made another great hire in 2013 with a listing manager who got licensed as well. He has created a situation where they don’t have any interest in going anywhere else to get a better commission split because they are salaried.  Will would do open houses for other people. For him, it is all about communication, caring, doing what you say you are going to do, showing up on time, and being accountable.  Jeff asks Will, “What do you say when somebody says how long you have been in the business? How old are you? How many homes go back?”  Will would sit down and tell a young agent – “You need to pick a couple of things, really hone their skills, and really get good at it. Communication is the biggest thing for young agents.” As a young realtor  on a team, ask how you can bring value, do something for them that makes them want to keep you around. Then you get to pick their brain, learn from them and become as great or better than them. The agents selling ten homes a year never develop the muscle to stay in touch with people. A lot of the team leaders, the only thing they have to offer is the leads. They don’t have a lot of structure in their team, says Jeff. In real estate, it is a race. It is always who is going to bring the next shiny object or the next value. So, whether it is a team of six or well over 100, the same strategies apply to be a leader. It doesn’t matter what your title; when you have that title, you have to work harder. There are two reasons Will gives for why they sell so many houses: relationships and social proof. So, if you are an agent out there, you need to become a Google local services agent, and you need to get reviews there.  The three products that Facebook has are personal pages, business pages, and groups. Every major corporation, every university in the United States, uses Facebook groups to communicate with their students, employees, and customers.  Will explains, “If I call you every day, you’re going to call the cops. If I text you every day, you’re going to block me. I can’t email you every day, I can’t show up every day, I can’t put a gift on your front doorstep every day. I can’t mail you every day. There’s nothing I can do every day except a Facebook group.”  Having a group as a realtor or loan officer to get your arms around your sphere of influence daily is probably one of the absolute best things you can do, says Will. If you are using a Facebook page to communicate with your friends about your real estate business, posts you are putting on there are repellent. In this market, we were generally posting things about how many showings we had, how many offers we got, how much over list sold. You have to make it your job to like everyone’s post and to have the algorithm recognize you gradually.  Facebook groups are designed to have large numbers of people engaging about common interests and making sure that you see every one of their posts to keep you on the platform so they can show you more ads. You have to make posts, check people’s responses, and then you have to engage with them. Will’s team friend requests clients and invites them into the group as part of our business process.  Have a Facebook group with  consistent content and treat it like a client event or a social event. Actually engage with the people for 10 or 15 minutes a day; That is all it takes your referral business over time is going to skyrocket.    3 Key Points: Jeff asks Will, “19-years old and closed 17 transactions in the first year. How did you even do that? What did you do to get to that?”  Jeff curiously asks Will what he is going to teach kids who are in their low 20s? What to say or how to respond? Would he advise kids to just wing it? Will has got a Facebook group to help other agents. He has 122 agents there. They also have an amazing Facebook group for their clients, which is like a daily client event.   Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Will Penney | https://socialorchard.com/ | Penny Real Estate Friends & Family Group Page | http://www.penneyrealestate.com/ | https://www.facebook.com/socialorchard RedX (sponsor) Street Text (sponsor)