Pat’s market. Columbia Maryland, has a current average sales price ranging from $400.000 to several million dollars. Home values have doubled in the last three years. Pat got into real estate when he was 21years old and has been in the business for 18 years.
ASSISTANTS/TEAM
Pat’s model is heavy lead generation. There are 35 people on the team comprised of 21 salaried staff members, 10 Buyer Agents and 3 Listing Agents. Buyer Agents work exclusively with buyers and they target 30 to 40 sales annually. Listing Agents have no other duties except to list properties and they target one to four listing appointments per day - 150 houses per year. Pat sees his job as the “Strategic Planner.” He develops ideas, inspires and motivates the team.
SYSTEMS
Scheduled weekly meetings is the Pat Hiban Team “system”:
Monday:
8 am - Team overview between Pat and his Office Manager.
9 am - Entire team meets.
10 am - Buyer Agents meeting to review scripts and dialogues, etc.
11am - Listing Agents meeting to review pipeline.
2 pm - Financial review with comptroller.
Wednesday
10am - Pat meets with the Marketing Department
11am - Training meeting.
Thursday
Lead Manager meeting to review leads and sources.
Coaching - Pat meets with the newer three agents that have been with the team for less than a year. They also deliver daily activity sheets to Pat.
MARKETING
Yard signs prompt the vast majority of the teams’ leads. Pat observes that a yard sign is “social proof” that the agent is the neighborhood expert. At any given time, they will carry between 15 and 25 listings. On every new listing there is an open house held that
first Sunday from 1-3pm. Pat has two couriers that position “Open Sunday 1-3″ signs on Friday. Anticipation is built 48 hours in advance of the actual open house. As a result, they have had as many as 100 people come through in that 2-hour period. The couriers take the signs down Sunday night.
Pat points out that he has learned there are four primary marketing strategies that are used by top producers across the country:
1) Massive Print Advertising - typically in local newspapers and other short shelf-life publications.
2) Mailings - postcards and letters.
3) Sphere of Influence - past clients and other people they know.
4) TV/Radio
Pat’s thought was that since many top agents have taken one of those, and gone deep, what would happen if they did all four? Pat hired two people to lead his marketing department and bought a high quality/high capacity printer for in-house marketing production.
KEY ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS
Pat attributes his success to “Listening and having faith.” By paying attention to what other agents are doing in other states, Pat’s mental process is that if good ideas and strategies are working somewhere else, they will work for him.
