We’ve had a few brushes with celeb agents lately with Fredrik at AREC16 and this week it was LA’s turn. Mark and I were lucky enough to meet the Josh and Matt Altman, stars of the hit TV series Million Dollar Listing LA.
I also interviewed Josh for the most recent edition of Elite Agent Magazine and let me tell you he is a pretty interesting guy. When we talk about thinking bigger, his goal last year was to sell the equivalent of $1m a day which he nailed, and this year he doubled that to $2m per day. His team does around 130 transactions per annum — and in the seven days prior to our chat a month or so ago, he had sold $45 million worth of real estate which is not bad going for a week’s work. He is also famous for selling the most expensive 1 bedroom house for $21 million US dollars – ok so it was 10,000 sq ft but still not bad for a 1 bedder.
Anyway, as usual I wrote down a few more tips and takeaways from Josh and Matt’s presentation and a couple really stood out that you might be able to use – and because I have a minute and he had an hour I am going to give them to you rapid fire – (I’ve got them up on the wall behind me!)
- Everyone is a lead
- Embrace rejection
- Make money for someone else in real estate and you’ll always be on their speed dial
- You have to be 24 x 7 but it doesn’t mean you have to work 24 x 7
- Ready, Fire Aim (also happens to be the name of his book) – See an opportunity, take a chance – it’s about how you finish that really counts, not how you start!
- Always have a house to show (so no harm in getting in the the caravan if you have to!)
- Have a mentor or a partner
- If it’s not priced right, it’s a waste of time
- These boys don’t have a listing kit – they have a press kit (I could spend a whole tip or three on that!)
- Lastly – choose to be lucky. I liked this one the best – what seems to have driven these guys is that they have been down, up, down, up and really have looked for opportunities and taken them, and even made their own luck.
In particular, Josh told this story about how he was having a bit of a slow day and could have gone home and not done much. But instead of doing that he decided to head to the local Starbucks where the celebs hang out and see what he could create out of the day. As luck would have it, in walked a 7-foot tall pro basketballer that he recognised and even though Josh had already bought his coffee, it went straight in the bin so he could get in line to buy another one behind the guy and strike up a conversation. And the rest they say is history, he became a high net worth client.
Now it is a bit wintery and it’s cold and the temptation would be to hibernate on a slow day here right now. Unless you’re taking a holiday over winter and that’s OK too. But my tip of the week is to see what luck you can create by taking your laptop and working somewhere else for the day just to see who you can bump into. Josh’s strategy was to always have pictures of nice listings on the screen so there is a good chance people walking past might rubberneck and stop to talk to you. So obviously it doesn’t have to be Starbucks (we have way better coffee here) – but go some place and hang out where your clients might be and see what luck you can create.
