Episode 032: David Brooke, Keller Williams

Joel Epstein:
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to a new edition of the Big Joel Show coming to you live... not really, we're taping this... from upper Georgetown in Washington, D.C. and, just to give you a feel because we release these when they're edited and ready, it is November right now, not quite Turkey Day. But I'm super excited today because today I have David Brooke in the studio with me. And I'm super excited not only because he sells a lot of real estate, not only because he sells a lot of real estate and he's a young guy selling a lot of real estate, but because he's well-spoken and I think can articulate his points and I think those of you watching today are going to get a lot of takeaways. A lot of cool things that you can do in your business from watching or listening to this podcast to immediately affect you literally selling more houses.

Joel Epstein:
So I've got David Brooke here. David is with Keller Williams in the great state of Connecticut. Connecticut is kind of one of those funny states. There's basically Hartford and then there's New York City metro, right? And the rest of it is like... Connecticut. You can get everywhere in like five minutes. It's tiny. Tiny state.

David Brooke:
Everything's 30 minutes away.

Joel Epstein:
Big attitudes, but tiny.

David Brooke:
That's exactly it.

Joel Epstein:
David is with Keller Williams and David, also, is one of those guys... We'll talk a little bit about this later, but he's in the... What's the top secret program called? It's the super team program. What's it called? The top secret, here's how we're going to keep our awesome producers, program. So David also... Not only does he sell a lot of real estate on his own... He sold 20 million, I think, here to date already or in the last 12 months. What's your average sell price?

David Brooke:
It's 240 for Connecticut and ours is 270 on the team.

Joel Epstein:
Okay, so that's a lot of real estate. That's a lot of units. Not only does David run what you all would traditionally call a team... I call it running a branch, but running a team... but he's actively producing all day, every day. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So when you look him up afterwards, you're looking for him, you're going to see him coming at you that way, but today we're going to really talk about what he does in his business every day.

Joel Epstein:
So, David, tell me. I got lucky. These guys flew in last night. Got to have a little dinner. That was a pretty good dinner.

David Brooke:
That was delicious, by the way.

Joel Epstein:
Yeah. By the way, my man over here who's kind of skinny... Usually I'm suspect of people that are skinny. Like I don't.. I'm like, wait. That guy's too skinny. I have a problem with that.

David Brooke:
I think this is the first time I've been called skinny ever.

Joel Epstein:
Okay. All right. Let me translate that. Skinner than me. How about that?

David Brooke:
Fair enough.

Joel Epstein:
Anyone skinnier than me, I'm typically like, okay, I don't know if I'm down with this. He's too small. But my man, after the apps, ordered two meals and then I'm like, okay, I like him. Now he's in. Because I'm a guy that eats three dinners when I'm in New Orleans. It's all good. Now he's in the club. It's all good.

Joel Epstein:
So, David told me last night... We were talking about... I was telling a bad story that we're not allowed to tell anymore. About pledging, which we don't do anymore. Now there's new initiates. When I was in college... and David said, "I didn't go to college." And I said, "Hey, that's cool. Whatever." So you're 32 years old-

David Brooke:
That's right.

Joel Epstein:
... which is an extremely young buck in the real estate. What's the average age of agents? 57 or something like that?

David Brooke:
Yeah. Something like that.

Joel Epstein:
56.5 or something like that. Pretty old. And we always talk about... old people like me. We always talk about we need more young people. We need more young people. And I always tell young people. I'm like, "Man, why would you not want to do this job? This is the highest hourly rate ever. Your buddy, who is the same age as you, is slogging away somewhere nine to five making an eighth of what you make." And it's amazing, but it's really not a young person's world for some reason. I don't know why. So we'll talk a little bit about that as well. But he's 32. Tell me. When did you... What did you... Did you graduate high school and did you go get a real estate license? So what did you do?

David Brooke:
I did graduate high school. Yeah.

Joel Epstein:
And did you just go get a license?

David Brooke:
I didn't, no. So I went from graduating high school. I got started waiting tables and waited tables for anything from like serving seafood to fine dining. Actually, I feel like some of the best real estate agents out there are waiters, right? Waiters, teachers, that kind of high customer service experience. So I went from that and actually got into construction and started building houses. And then, from there, my father was running a real estate appraisal shop and just needed some help around the office with tech stuff and really started getting into that and enjoyed what he was doing and so got my license as a real estate appraiser. So that was back in 2009.

Joel Epstein:
2009. So right after the massive crash and all the crap.

David Brooke:
Yeah.

Joel Epstein:
When did you actually start dabbling? When did you start trying to sell houses?

David Brooke:
Good. Try to sell houses.

Joel Epstein:
True.

David Brooke:
That's it.

Joel Epstein:
That's what everyone does in the beginning.

David Brooke:
It's like you try. So I thought it was going to be a lot easier because I was going out appraising real estate and meeting these real estate agents and thinking, oh my gosh. I know way more than these guys do because... just the dynamics in the real estate appraisal industry. Had to know your facts. And got into that and started selling in 2011. I joined a small broker owner, one man shop kind of thing and got started trying to sell real estate there.

Joel Epstein:
You probably realized very quickly... Those of you that have listened to my show a lot or have heard me live know that, in real estate, your job has nothing to do with real estate. Your job is to find people who know people who want to buy or sell real estate, become best friends with those people, and get them to refer the people to you.

David Brooke:
That's it.

Joel Epstein:
Your job is to get referrals. So, you, the pup, looking at these agents like you don't even know what a down spout is. I know so much more than you. Then you're like, whack. Wait a minute. I have no referrals. So it doesn't matter what you know about houses, right? It literally doesn't matter because if you have no one to sell a house too, it does not matter.

David Brooke:
That's exactly right.

Joel Epstein:
So, 2011, you get in... and I want to do the backstory here because this guy is young and he just went meteoric up very quickly in units. So you got in, piddled around. Did you have a good first... Did someone teach you or no?

David Brooke:
Not really. I mean, our experience was kind of learning on the fly. And the broker owner would just kind of teach you as you went. I got probably eight listings within my first 90 days, which I thought was pretty great.

Joel Epstein:
And probably went nuclear, right?

David Brooke:
Yeah. It went nuclear. And I'm hoping you mean nuclear in the bad sense of it because that's exactly what it is.

Joel Epstein:
I know you probably blew them sky high because you didn't know anything.

David Brooke:
I didn't know anything and I was approaching it... Like I used to show up for listing appointments with a full 1004 URAR appraisal form and I'd drop it on the table and I'd be like this is how we're going to sell the house. I think it was just my network of people just knew me, trusted me, and would listen to me, but the problem was that I had no idea what I was doing in the real estate industry.

Joel Epstein:
Are you born and bred in Connecticut?

David Brooke:
Yeah.

Joel Epstein:
Hartford area?

David Brooke:
Yeah.

Joel Epstein:
So you're, of course, making that assumption. I'm from here. I know what I'm doing. I'm good.

David Brooke:
Yeah. Not only was I... and candidly and vulnerably enough... arrogant enough to think that, I was arrogant enough to think, okay, my appraisal background is going to give me the cutting edge in this.

Joel Epstein:
You quickly learned-

David Brooke:
I quickly learned.

Joel Epstein:
... nobody cares. I tell people all the time the two greatest sales techniques... guilt and sympathy. And people are like, wait. Guilt and sympathy? How do I use that? There's no script for that? I'm like, yeah. That's what the emotion you feel when there's actually a relationship with someone. So when you're getting a referral from someone with a relationship, that's your edge. Not knowing anything about appraisals.

David Brooke:
Well, I think the thing was logic makes people think and emotion makes them act. So I would present the logic of the appraisal and then the emotion would be I know you, you like me, we have trust with one another. The problem was that I didn't have a guide. I didn't have a mentor to go along with that and it was just... I'll tell you, Joel, vulnerably. Out of eight that I probably got in the first 90 days, I think I expired six of them.

Joel Epstein:
I was going to say. Six is... That's 25%. That's actually pretty good for a brand new agent with no help. So if you think about now... not to segue way, but... just the newer agents that you have.. again, I'm going to say in your branch, but on your team. When you think about what they need, the things they come to you with... and sometimes I'm sure that you have to do what I used to have to do. You just have to go, "Hold on. I need to sneeze." And you're really not sneezing. You're just like... I cannot believe they're asking me this question. Holy crap. And then you have to turn yourself around because you don't want to... You don't want them to feel bad, but you're like, wow. You really don't know this, huh? Okay. Holy crap. Someone should have taught you this and you don't know this.

Joel Epstein:
So what'd you do? Did you make it a year at this small brokerage? And then where did you bounce to?

David Brooke:
I share this openly with a lot of people. I credit carded my way to making mortgage payments and everything else. I mean, we-

Joel Epstein:
Normal. You're just being honest.

David Brooke:
Yeah. There's no secrets here. So I made it a year and... I had made $19000 my first year as a real estate agent.

Joel Epstein:
Nice.

David Brooke:
I remember looking and showing my wife and she was like, "Well, wait a second. Didn't we schlep around in the car and hand out magazines with your broker's business card on it because he told you that people would call, then, into the brokerage and he would give you leads." And I was brainwashed enough to think that's how we're going to get business.

Joel Epstein:
So how long did you make it? Small broker.

David Brooke:
Small broker, we did about a year and a half, but I was really hoofing it. I was really trying to sell every listing I could. So I'd get the list of every broker around and I would just send my listings out to them. I'd call people. I'd encourage them. I was hoofing it.

David Brooke:
Oh, I was hoofing it.

Joel Epstein:
Then where'd you roll out to?

David Brooke:
So an office manager for, then, Prudential Connecticut Realty gave me a call. We went out to Simsbury, Connecticut. So I was in West Hartford and downtown West Hartford, went up to Simsbury and started working out of there, and actually-

Joel Epstein:
And now you're in big corporate real estate. Big difference, right?

David Brooke:
Yeah. A little bit different. A lot more systems. A little bit more hand holding with the manager model that's there. And then the actual construction that I used to work back in the day... That builder called me up and said, "Hey. Do you want to list our subdivision?" And I remember walking up the actual patio that I had laid.

Joel Epstein:
Did you have to put him on hold and like run around and do the happy dance and then come back?

David Brooke:
Yes.

Joel Epstein:
Exactly.

David Brooke:
Where no one could see.

Joel Epstein:
It was wild, man. I walked up the patio steps that I had built to his office and walked in that door and out of the door with 10 million dollars in listings because of just commitment to being in this business. Most people think I'm going to get into this business and make a ton of money, six figures, right off the bat, year one. And it's possible in certain groups, teams, atmospheres, but for me, it wasn't that case.

David Brooke:
Let me ask you a question just to go off the order that we're in.

Joel Epstein:
There's two parts to this question. Number one, I'm watching this podcast because I was thinking about getting into real estate. Maybe I got my license. I got sponsored by who knows who. What do I do? And then part two would be I'm in real estate right now and I'm doing a whole lot of SpongeBob watching at 10:00AM or I'm cold calling and getting hung up on all day long. Tell me, number one, if you're thinking about getting into real estate... and this is going to mean more because you're younger for people... and I'm a young person, what are your top couple of things? What do you do? Like right away. I'm watching this at home, I want to get into real estate or I just got my license, and I'm clueless.

David Brooke:
So some people say... and I'd agree with them at some point... you're the sum of the top five people who you hang around with. If you're hanging around real estate, watching podcasts like these can be extremely beneficial because you're going to hang around and get information from guys like you, right? I think in nearly every career out there where there's a vital... there could be lives on the line or there could be massive implications if the job is done incorrectly, you have this mentor-apprentice model. You have this discipleship thing going on where like... You're going to be an electrician? You're going to follow around a master electrician. You're going to be a doctor? You're going to do your residency somewhere and you're going to follow along somebody who's practicing the profession. But, in real estate, we seem to just hand you a business card and say good luck.

Joel Epstein:
Here's desk, here's a phone-

David Brooke:
Good luck!

Joel Epstein:
... get out of my face, you're on your own.

David Brooke:
Yeah. Freaking good luck. And so you're doing your best and that may be how somebody ended up on this podcast here is they're like I need some stinking help. Top coaching programs for real estate and your name comes up and they watch your podcast. That's the issue.

Joel Epstein:
So how would I... In a market in Topeka, Kansas, how do I find David Brooke? How do I find the person? What recommendation would you give them? They don't know a lot of people. They know some people. They just know that they got their license because their aunts, uncles, brothers, stepbrother has a license and they watched him get a new car. Whatever. What do you do? Where would you look?

David Brooke:
Sit and learn at the teacher's feet. That's the number one recommendation.

Joel Epstein:
How do you find the teacher?

David Brooke:
I'd interview for it. Like back in the day-

Joel Epstein:
All right, so, stop. Everybody listen to this. He said, "I'd interview for it." Very important that you understand that. He also said a bunch of other stuff really, really fast that I want to recap. He used a term that I use all the time. If you want to get paid like a doctor, you have to do a residency, which means you have to live in the hospital for two years, get paid nothing, and learn. So one of the things that people nowadays, especially with young people... Everything's like... Wait until you have... You have a 10 month old, right?

David Brooke:
I do. 10 and a half, yeah.

Joel Epstein:
Wait until that 10 month old gets her... His or her?

David Brooke:
Her.

Joel Epstein:
Her learner's permit and you say, "Okay. Drive me to Burger King. We're going to get some of those new tacos at Burger King," and they nav it. You're 32 so you're going to understand it. Me, I'm like, "Here's your ADC map book. Look it up." When you see how lazy... Because everything is so fast what's happening is... If you're watching this, this is not fast. There's nothing fast about this. You want to sell as much real estate as this guy, there's no finger snapping. There's nothing you could possibly do. You couldn't buy it. There's no way. The only way you can do is to learn it. And guess what? There's no books on this. There's really no... There are some master's programs now that put residential in there, but it's really commercial if it's going on.

Joel Epstein:
And so you have to be willing to learn. And you have to be willing to sit there and learn and do all the things to learn. And what I find with agents when I see them fail all the time is they get so big for their britches so fast. They're like, "Oh, he's doing that. He's not paying me enough. I need to make more. I'm out." And then if you look them up in two years, they're on a used car lot somewhere. They're out. Because they weren't willing to learn. So find a person and be willing to... Do you think it's... For true apprenticeship, do you think it's two years? I mean, of really... If you're with the right person.

David Brooke:
Yeah. I would just generally say this. To answer the question that you originally asked, how do you find someone in my position who'd be willing to teach? I would interview for that. I would go on some of the top websites to see the most reviewed real estate agents out there. Look to see if they already have-

Joel Epstein:
Where would you go? Yelp or would you go to Google? Would you go Zillow?

David Brooke:
Yeah. You could do any of those big time websites. Zillow might be one of them because they actually show if the team has... or if the individual is running a team. That's number one. And has something built out in place. I will tell you... and this is just my perspective. A team that's not built out already is going to still be in R&D for how to do this.

Joel Epstein:
You don't want to be there.

David Brooke:
You're going to be the guinea pig. You're going to be the guinea pig. So find a team that's already pre built on and sit and interview and ask them the types of things. They should define three really clear things for you. Training, support, and some sort of lead generation. Learn how to lead gen. We're going to teach you how to do that. If they do not have that built out or if it's just some really shallow answers, next.

Joel Epstein:
Now, I'm a new agent. I'm already working somewhere. I did what every brand new agent is. I took a script that someone gave me. I called everyone in my CRM. I told them I was an agent, which, by they way, I do not recommend at all. I told everyone that I was agent, got hung up on by most people, became a pariah at all family events immediately, as when I got there for Thanksgiving, everyone was like, "Holy crap. David Brooke is here. Run. He's going to try to sell me something. Run." But I've done all of that. I got my cousin's nephew's uncle's stepsister to list her house with water in the basement. 50000 over. I got that done. Maybe I got one sale from someone I met somewhere, whatever. And now I've literally proverbially shot it. I'm done. And now I'm sitting in my office like everyone else, waiting for a lender, a title person, or a termite guy to come in with donuts so I can pound them and do nothing, looking around, literally not knowing what to do. And I think you know this. Real estate... With the commissions that we pay today, there's not a ton of support in there. There's someone in there to spend all day, everyday with you. Everyone is doing their own thing.

David Brooke:
Not in the typical model. You're right.

Joel Epstein:
Who do I talk to in my office and how do I approach them? If I'm any kind of standard brokerage. It could be any... It could be Keller Williams. It could RE/MAX. It could be Coldwell Banker, eXp, name all the big places. How do I identify? What are the... What am I looking for? Now I'm in the office. Who do I want to approach? And what do I want to say? And, by the way, this right here. This is going to get a lot of comments. Because I've never asked anyone this question before and this is huge because they don't know what to do.

David Brooke:
I would say, for the most part, you are identifying probably 85% of the people who are out there. Would you agree?

Joel Epstein:
Okay, but how would you want to be approached?

David Brooke:
If I'm the-

Joel Epstein:
What would you want them to say to you?

David Brooke:
Number one, I want to see humility all over that person. The ability to sit there and learn.

Joel Epstein:
And realize that they do not know what they're doing.

David Brooke:
Yeah. That's the first step to anything. If you have humility, it is the beginning of wisdom. That's what the good book says. So if you can take that to heart and you can approach somebody and say, "Listen, man. It looks like you know a lot of what you're doing. Would you be willing to... If I showed up here every single day, on the dot, you told me what to do, I didn't buck you on it, and I just do it. Do I have a shot here?"

Joel Epstein:
So did you hear that? You're going to want to replay that. That's literally... He's asking. The mentor... you want to be the mentee... just said are you willing to do what you need to do and... let's just put it out there... are you willing to do what I'm telling you to do?

David Brooke:
That's exactly it.

Joel Epstein:
If you're not, don't go have the conversation. But if you can get there and someone had that conversation with you, you'd probably ask about three more questions. You're like, let's go.

David Brooke:
That's exactly right.

Joel Epstein:
You're ready, right?

David Brooke:
Right. I think everyone who I talk to in the business who we actually turn away from the team is they're looking to entrepreneur the system that you have. Because they're looking to take it and be like, "Hey, guess what? I bet I could figure this out and edit your program really quick." And that's the problem is we're not looking for you to reinvent the wheel that is already running because you're still sitting in the pit stop. You haven't even gotten on the race track.

Joel Epstein:
You haven't even earned the right to change a tire. So let's get down and dirty a little bit. Let's talk about buyers for a minute. Tell me the things that you do, when you get a new referral, that you think make you unique or maybe a little special. We'll start with a buyer first and then we'll go to a listing. You're extremely experienced at this point, which means I know you probably lean listing little bit more, but let's start with buyers. Because you can't get to listing leaning unless you get buyers now.

David Brooke:
And let's be clear about why that is. So a lot of people ask me... They want to go right out the gate into listings. You do not know how to list a property if you do not know who's buying it. What they want and what's in their mind.

Joel Epstein:
You hear that? That's huge right there. You do not know how to list a property unless you know who's buying it. That's a good one right there. That's a really strong statement.

David Brooke:
In anything that you're selling. When you're in the listing appointment with the seller, you have to know in your mind already, based upon probabilities, experience, who is buying this house. Is it a family of four, a family of two, single guy moving in just professional? What is it? Because you're going to market that. You're going to stage it that way. You're going to... Everything of the conversation, what you're telling about the listing, is going to be around that.

Joel Epstein:
So to bunny hop buyers, even if you could, is a bad play. Is that what you're saying?

David Brooke:
That's right.

Joel Epstein:
You have to put that to the residency. You have to do the work.

David Brooke:
You have to.

Joel Epstein:
You have to do all the, oh, buyers are liars.

David Brooke:
Yeah. Suck it up, dude.

Joel Epstein:
What makes the David Brooke experience with a buyer a little different? What are some of the things that you do? Do you... For example, I've had agents on here that will do anything in their power, and it doesn't matter whether they're a low end or higher end market, to have face time with the person up front. Meaning unless they're physically out of the country or relo'ing in, they will do anything they can to get in front of the person. How do you feel about that?

David Brooke:
Yeah, so right, wrong, or indifferent, I'm just going to tell you our approach. If you have a buyer who's coming in for a referral... Let's say, Joel, you refer me over a buyer. It's going to be... I'm quarterbacking. I'm in control. So I'm going to tell you, hey, here's a really good thing that we're going to do. You're probably going to email over the referral to me. It's going to on like a cc email. Here's David. He's going to be helping you out in Hartford, Connecticut. He's going to show you a couple of houses, et cetera. I'm going to say, "Hey, great. John, when's a great time for us to have a phone conversation?" That's the first that's going to happen. And then, on our team, we have a list of questions... it's like 20 questions long... that's going to jog your memory because you're never going to remember all the questions about important things to the buyers. And all of those are going to lead us to ask the right questions to fully understand what this buyer is going to look for. Because, you and I, when we do anything over and over and over-

Joel Epstein:
So you have the David Brooke Twenty.

David Brooke:
That's exactly right.

Joel Epstein:
Did you set that up yourself?

David Brooke:
We did.

Joel Epstein:
So give me some examples of what you think are more unique questions on there.

David Brooke:
Here's a good one.

Joel Epstein:
Because I could guess probably 12 of them. Give me the more unique ones.

David Brooke:
Okay, so, most people are going to ask like, hey, do you want a fence? Why are they going to ask that? Because they're really asking another question. They're asking do you have kids? Do you have pets? Do you love privacy? It's all of those types of questions that we're going to start to ask around them. Like I'll ask the question-

Joel Epstein:
So you might say, "Do you want a fenced yard?"

David Brooke:
No.

Joel Epstein:
What do you... How do you ask it?

David Brooke:
Hey, John, when you walk out in your backyard... Close your eyes. Picture it for one second. What do you see?

Joel Epstein:
So that's the way you ask the question.

David Brooke:
Yes.

Joel Epstein:
Everybody take note on that. That's pretty cool the way you did that. And then you let them tell you. And then I say, "Oh, I see. Like a manicured yard with a board to board fence."

David Brooke:
100%. Because you don't know otherwise. If I just asked you, "Hey, man. Do you want a fence?"

Joel Epstein:
And then you say... As soon as you hear that, what do you say next?

David Brooke:
I say, "So, John, am I guessing this correctly? Do you have a dog? Maybe some pets? Anything like that that we should be mindful of?"

Joel Epstein:
And then you are...

David Brooke:
Then I'm writing this down.

Joel Epstein:
Listen, everybody. This is very important. This is where it starts. This is where agents fail all the time. It's unbelievable. I'm like how could you not have written that down? Because I don't care how smart you are. I'll never forget when I was at the beginning of my career doing loans, my dad, who's an attorney, was watching me do stuff. I had like 90 loans in process. He'd be like, "Listen, I want to explain something to you, you cocky little shit. There's going to come a time when you are not going to be able to remember all this stuff. You need to start writing stuff down." Because I was like remembering everything. This, again, is like a stupid little thing. Oh, Big Joel Show. They're telling us to write stuff down. Guess what? Most of you are writing nothing down. So, right here, I have a feeling you could probably remember it if you wanted to and you're still writing it down.

David Brooke:
That's exactly right.

Joel Epstein:
So now you wrote the note, "Sees a fence. Wants a fence." And then you go forward. Oh, two year old, four year old-

David Brooke:
So what's that tell you as well? As a real estate agent-

Joel Epstein:
... five year old pug.

David Brooke:
Hey, I'm just going to ask you a question. Busy roads? Is that a problem? And they lead into question to question where you're going through and asking these things. Because here's the next step from that-

Joel Epstein:
So I have the big money question. If one of my viewers wanted to see the Brooke Twenty, are you a share guy?

David Brooke:
Oh, absolutely. 100%.

Joel Epstein:
I'll tell you how to get ahold of him after. All right. So that's good. Let's keep going because... See, I knew this. Remember you said what are we going to do? Look. Look at the clock. That's already. No, look. It's 25 minutes already. And people are going to check out. So the David Brooke Twenty, which is great. Now, question. If you can get them in front of you to do it, do you try? Do you care? What are your thoughts on that? Let's assume they're local. They're right in the market. They're in an apartment 10 miles from where your mothership is. Are you trying to get in front of them or do you feel your conversation over the phone is enough?

David Brooke:
I'm going to win them on the conversation over the phone first. Either there's a connection or not. Either you're asking the questions that nobody else is or you're not. So every other... I tell my guys. You are never the first... likely not the real estate agent they're going to talk to unless it's a warm referral.

Joel Epstein:
So let's assume this is a warm referral.

David Brooke:
Warm referral? Meet in person.

Joel Epstein:
And then you're doing the Twenty right in front of them.

David Brooke:
It's called a buyer consult. So nobody goes... and this is extremely clear. I want to be hammering that point that you said earlier. You do not get leads... You don't get anything on this team until you can learn to memorize the actual purchase contract, your exclusive right to represent, and hold a full buyer consult with me personally or the mentor on the team. To be able to do exactly what we're talking about.

Joel Epstein:
So now you've... under the guides of time. You've done the David Brooke Twenty... I'm just going to flash over this because we could do a four-hour podcast on how to interview somebody. You then say... Do you have them do research on their own? This is so interesting. It's 2019. You know everyone's logged in to all kinds of stuff. Do you want them to do that or do you actually say to them, "Okay, now. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to go about your business. You've given me so much information to do my job. I'm going to call you in 36 hours and I'm going to have some cool stuff for you to look at." Where do you go right there? This is important for people because with technology, there are some agents that are so strong and so dialed in. They're like, yeah, go into every website you want, man. Go look at anything you want. I'm going to do my stuff here, but go. Let me know. What are your thoughts on that?

David Brooke:
I think what you're asking is what do we do to set expectations? That's exactly what we're doing.

Joel Epstein:
What are you doing next?

David Brooke:
So the next-

Joel Epstein:
You did the Twenty. You schmoozed them. And now they're out. What are you doing?

David Brooke:
We've done the Twenty. We go through the actual contract and we say, hey, probably there's some myths that you've heard along the way. Do you mind... This is going to take us 15 minutes to walk through an actual purchase contract because there's so many myths that happen.

Joel Epstein:
So this is someone that's just thinking about buying a house you're doing that with.

David Brooke:
We're doing it this way. We go through that entire process.

Joel Epstein:
Just to clarify, he's going... Now, this is with someone that may never buy a house with you.

David Brooke:
That's correct.

Joel Epstein:
You're spending the time... Now, are you in front of them for that?

David Brooke:
We're in front of them.

Joel Epstein:
That's belly to belly.

David Brooke:
It has to be.

Joel Epstein:
Only. To actually go through the process of buying a house contractually... Not a lot of people do that, by the way. Very few agents actually do it.

David Brooke:
They really should.

Joel Epstein:
Very few agents do that.

David Brooke:
Oh, really? I didn't know I needed to put my deposit down. Now? I didn't do a home inspection first before I buy the house? All the time.

Joel Epstein:
They say it, but they're not really doing what you're doing. So you're investing. You're putting the capital in right there. So, now, we've done that. I'm just looking at the clock. Now we've done that.

David Brooke:
Loan options. That's the next thing.

Joel Epstein:
Are you approved? You don't want to put someone in the car. So, question. Is there any scenario at any time where anyone is ever getting in your car or another car following you that either you haven't seen proof of funds to purchase if it's a cash buyer or has spoken to a lender you trust?

David Brooke:
You're not going to like this, but yes. There are scenarios.

Joel Epstein:
And those would be extremely unique scenarios, correct?

David Brooke:
That's correct.

Joel Epstein:
And you are the only one making that call, correct?

David Brooke:
Could be. I authorize my agents to say that this is a business decision for you. Agents have the ability to make that decision. Let's say they've gotten a call for it. Hey, we're coming in out of town and, for whatever reason, they can't-

Joel Epstein:
But that is the exception, not the rule.

David Brooke:
That's correct.

Joel Epstein:
The rule is we want to make sure you can a house before we take you.

David Brooke:
That's exactly right. And the question is not... just how we did about the fence. We're not asking do you want a fence? It's, hey, have you taken advantage of some of the best loan options that are out there right now? I make it part of my job not only to introduce you to-

Joel Epstein:
Here's the opener I like. Not even that one. I go, "So, are you paying cash for the house?" There you go right there. "What do you mean?" Just asking. Because if you're not, boom. All right. So, now, let's say that's all done. What's the next step to actually the gooey... You showing them houses or... How do you handle that transition? You just did your whole thing. They're all in. They've already told you, "We love you. Please sell us a house." What do you do next?

David Brooke:
So I maintain that quarterback position. I'm going to say, "Hey, you guys are more than welcome to go out there and find houses on Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com. Go on our website. You can also search for properties. Here's my job and what I'm going to be doing. I'm going to be looking for the very best houses." And then I set the expectations for showings-

Joel Epstein:
How many?

David Brooke:
Excuse me?

Joel Epstein:
What is your bogie usually? Five? Six? Three?

David Brooke:
Tours?

Joel Epstein:
Agents have weird things about this.

David Brooke:
Three to five on a tour.

Joel Epstein:
So three to five when you're putting it together and your goal is, obviously, one of those houses is going to be a bingo house.

David Brooke:
Yeah. The hardest part is... Most agents don't know how to close on the appointment. They really don't. They're going to go out on the house and they're going to sit there in the corner. They're going to open the door, they're going to stand in the corner, and they're going to be like, "Feel free to explore and let me know if you have any questions."

Joel Epstein:
It's funny because you if you watch... and I have nothing to do with Bravo or Million Dollar Listing. But it's funny. If you watch those guys, they don't do that.

David Brooke:
Never.

Joel Epstein:
At all. They're like a host going through the house.

David Brooke:
Me too. You have to be.

Joel Epstein:
So you don't care. You're fine... Go look at whatever you want. Let me know. If you see something cool, send it over. Hopefully-

David Brooke:
You certainly can.

Joel Epstein:
I probably found the same house as you, but send it over. A lot of agents will do that because it's almost a cross-check to see how well they did their interviews. Because if someone sends one house over where you're like, why? For you to go, "Hey, why'd you send me this house?" "Oh, we wanted this." You're like, ooh, missed that. Did not have that in my 20 questions. "That I wanted to be in a neighborhood could walk to a community pool that we pay for." You're like, whoa, okay. Totally missed that. Why did you pick that house?

Joel Epstein:
So you do your tour, hopefully you find the house, and then you start going through your thing. I want to get to listings because I see the clock already. Let's make... I'm going to qualify this. This is a warm referral. This is one of your clients referring you. Maybe one of your friends. Could be me referring you a listing. Hey, David, call this guy and sell their house. So it's warm. Is the first thing that you do when you engage over the phone, you set an appointment to go to the home? Is that correct? What do you do? Walk through your... I'm going to call it unique. Your unique listing. Just for David Brooke. You're taking a listing.

David Brooke:
We have ten pages on how to complete this. You do this start to finish. You say exactly what you do. You're going to have a 90% conversion ratio.

Joel Epstein:
But go back for a second.

David Brooke:
Start. Right at the start-

Joel Epstein:
For you-

David Brooke:
Phone call.

Joel Epstein:
You're going to call. Hey, referred by Joel. How're you doing? Are you literally connecting and setting an appointment?

David Brooke:
Yes.

Joel Epstein:
Okay. So you're connecting and setting an appointment. You know the address of the house.

David Brooke:
Yes.

Joel Epstein:
Are you collecting anything else besides the address and a little bit of schmoozing on that call or it's all in person?

David Brooke:
A little bit of rapport building on that. Understanding where, when, why. Those are the big ones. And then the next one. We have a pre-listing questionnaire that goes out. It's a beautiful, tight form.

Joel Epstein:
Hold on. This goes before the appointment?

David Brooke:
This goes before the appointment?

Joel Epstein:
Does it go snail mail? Email? How do they get it?

David Brooke:
The questionnaire is email.

Joel Epstein:
So you tell them, "You're going to be getting an email from us. I'm coming to your house on Sunday at 1:00PM. It's very important that I have this back." 48 hours before?

David Brooke:
Yes. 24 hours is our minimum.

Joel Epstein:
Before you...

David Brooke:
That's correct.

Joel Epstein:
... you show up. And you explain to them why. Is the pre-listing a little bit like the David Brooke Twenty for a buyer-

David Brooke:
Yes. It's 28 questions.

Joel Epstein:
... but for a listing. That's 28 questions. I'm assuming it's not onerous. Now, I know this is crazy detail stuff, but is it in a gooey from that they fill in, save, and it comes back or do they have to print it? How does it work?

David Brooke:
Gooey form.

Joel Epstein:
Okay. So if they can get online, they can literally fill in blanks and hit save.

David Brooke:
And hit enter if they don't know the question.

Joel Epstein:
And hit save or whatever it is and then you get it back.

David Brooke:
That's right. Instantly.

Joel Epstein:
You have it. You know the house is 123 Main Street. What are you doing? What's being done before you post up? Tell me a little bit about your process as far as are you... Some agents are getting a feel and a range and it's in their head and they basically have nothing in front of them. They want to walk the house before and see. There might be some things they can't figure out. They can't figure out does this have a brand new bathroom in the basement? They just can't. They're weren't able to figure it out doing research and they don't know and wouldn't want to have a number, so they go in with a range and then they walk the house. Tell me your thoughts on that a little bit. I know you sell a lot of real estate. People like listening to this. You have the questions. Now you have an appointment at 2:00. First of all, how much time do you allot for a listing appointment?

David Brooke:
My listing appointment times are anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half, which sounds long. Goes like this.

Joel Epstein:
Not really, actually, because you're going to bond, but tell me about it. What do you have with you? What have you done before you show up, first of all?

David Brooke:
My listing prep time takes about 45 minutes to an hour. And it's going to be every tenant record that we can find on the property from septic, well, public health. We're going to look at... We use a program called Realist. It pulls mortgage data in order to tighten their mortgage with that. We're going to look at town cards. We're going to look at past MLS. We're getting all the comps in the area. And then one of the unique things that we do on our presentation, we actually walk the customer through the market. So I'm going to show you how many close sales happened within the last 12 months-

Joel Epstein:
Meaning this is when you get there.

David Brooke:
When I get there.

Joel Epstein:
So this is pre-research-

David Brooke:
Pre-research that we have to know.

Joel Epstein:
Hold that thought for one second because I'm going to get you at their kitchen table in a minute. So 45 minutes and-

David Brooke:
Market research.

Joel Epstein:
... it sounds like it's exhaustive. Again, interesting. So the three most stressful things in life. Death of a family member, divorce, buying or selling a house. So you're walking in and you're going to list this person's home, where, again... You heard me say this when I was in Hartford. I think over 90% of people when they retire most of their money will be equity in their home. So you're going to walk into their house and just because you have a real estate license does not mean you're James Bond or whatever. You can just roll in there and list their house. This is a very emotional thing. You are exhaustively prepared, which is what it sounds like.

David Brooke:
That's literally what we hear-

Joel Epstein:
At the highest level.

David Brooke:
... at every single listing appointment. Hey, you're the most prepared guy at listing.

Joel Epstein:
I won't even go through that because I'm going to run out of time, but let's assume you just walked in and now... You are greeted at the door and you walk in. And I'm sure you've got some stuff with you. You didn't pre-send anything. It's all with you, right? It's printed.

David Brooke:
That's right.

Joel Epstein:
You're burning trees.

David Brooke:
That's absolutely correct. We are burning a lot of trees.

Joel Epstein:
What do you do right when you walk in the door?

David Brooke:
Ask to take off your shoes.

Joel Epstein:
Ask them-

David Brooke:
If we should take off our shoes.

Joel Epstein:
After that-

David Brooke:
Show a sign of respect. Walk the property with them.

Joel Epstein:
That's great. Would you like me to take my shoes off? And then you say...

David Brooke:
Well, you've shown a sign of respect and then you walk the whole property and then right when you're in the basement... because that's-

Joel Epstein:
You let them know you want to walk the property. Do you mind if we do this first?

David Brooke:
I ask. Hey, can you show me the property? And they usually chuckle because they know. And I'll say things like, "You know this property better than anybody else. I'd love to represent this well. Do you mind walking me through the property?"

Joel Epstein:
So there's no kitchen table. There's no sit down. There's no, "Here's my CMA." There's no all this crap. Let's walk the property. What are you doing right then?

David Brooke:
You're building rapport with them and you're noting the details.

Joel Epstein:
When you're walking the property, how are you noting the details? Are you literally clipboard, pen? What are you doing?

David Brooke:
So I ask... It's in our listing presentation. The training. The 10 pages. Ask if you can take notes on your cellphone. Because it gives you-

Joel Epstein:
It looks like you're texting.

David Brooke:
It looks like you're texting.

Joel Epstein:
So you can do it in your cellphone or... I mean, do you have people that do it on clipboard?

David Brooke:
Yes, we do.

Joel Epstein:
So you are walking around and you literally walk the house. Now, this is important. You walk the house.

David Brooke:
You have to walk the house.

Joel Epstein:
Do you go outside?

David Brooke:
Absolutely.

Joel Epstein:
So you do in, out?

David Brooke:
Attic.

Joel Epstein:
Everywhere. You're like a home inspector.

David Brooke:
Here's the thing. Are you going to run into vermiculite? Are you going to run into mold in the attic? Are you going to run into all those thing? I've had so many listings where the guy goes, "You know what, man? I'm giving you this listing." I mean, you might not be the best looking one out there, but I'll tell you what. You went up into the attic and you found vermiculite. You found this. And you saved us thousands of dollars on the back end because you helped us find it on the front end.

Joel Epstein:
So this is a big point. I think you were cracking up when I was in Hartford and I was saying to agents, when they said I'm bored and I don't have anything to do. Do you remember that?

David Brooke:
Yeah. Burn a tank of gas.

Joel Epstein:
Burn a tank of gas and go look at properties. That's your job. Give me a break. If anyone tells you an address and you don't know the house there, fail. You're a real estate agent. Now, granted, if it's 100 miles away, that's fine, but if it's in your area. So be an expert and be a SOI. I don't know if you use that terminology. BASOI. Be a source of information. Be an expert. Okay, so, you've done all that and you took notes and schmoozing and talking and, now, we're at the proverbial kitchen table.

David Brooke:
You don't get there. So you're usually-

Joel Epstein:
You're not even there yet.

David Brooke:
... still in the basement. You end in either the basement or outside and you say, "Hey, listen. Jim. People usually ask me four questions. What's my house worth? How long is it going to take to sell? What do I have to do in order to prep it? What am I going to walk away with at the end of the day? If I helped you with those four questions today, would that be valuable?" And you let it pause. Let the silence do the heavy lifting. The guy is going to go, "Absolutely. 100 percent." "Mind if we go inside? Sit down? Grab a cup of water, something like that, and just chat about this?" He's going to say, "Great." Open up your laptop, then walk through the market with him.

Joel Epstein:
Then get into the exhaustive research. Now, the million dollar question. And I know this can't be answered... I know there's always qualifications for this. You've done the exhaustive research. You know that, walking in, you wanted to list at like 309. Now, you walked the property and now you're thinking either 304 or you might even be thinking 315. Because you saw some things that you didn't even know. Like, ooh, wow. They poured some money in that. Holy crap. I didn't know they put hardwoods in the basement. I had no idea. And you get to that point and they say, "Well, what are we going to list it for? What's it worth?" And you say, "Look, in my professional opinion, I think we should put it on the market at 314,9. I think that's what we should do and we'll get tons of buyers and I think it's probably going to sell from between 308 and 310. That's just what's going to happen." Or whatever you say. I don't even care about it right. And they deadpan you after everything you've done and they go-

David Brooke:
350.

Joel Epstein:
... You're kidding, right? I mean, my next door neighbor did this. This house is worth at least 345. You have to be kidding me. And the other agents we interviewed? They all said 345." Tell everyone... I try to put this in every podcast with agents because I get great feedback on it. Where do you go with that? You have exhaustive research. And, for you, this is even funnier because you've done more than a lot of agents will do. So you really...

David Brooke:
I hear this all the time.

Joel Epstein:
Unless you screw it up, you know what the house is selling for. I mean, you've done exhaustive research. Where do you go with that? I mean, literally. Do you smile? Do you not smile? Where do you go with that? What do you do with that?

David Brooke:
Honestly, I do smile. Because a lot of these guys are just... For the most part, they're trying to get the most amount of money that they possibly... and you can't fault them for that.

Joel Epstein:
You can't get mad at them for it.

David Brooke:
You can't fault them for that, man.

Joel Epstein:
So where do you go with it? What do you say?

David Brooke:
Usually, it's a smile. And then one of our processes... Once you go through some of this exhaustive... It's not numbers. We're looking through a lot of the properties that are out there and we're asking them, hey, based upon that, this is where you'd end up. Based upon this, this is where you'd end up. And you have to draw a line in the sand, Joel.

Joel Epstein:
So if they say, "Look, I want to list this house for 345 and I have three other agents who'll do it," and then you go through your normal stuff where you go, "Tell me why." Because a lot of good agents will be like, "Okay, cool. Sell me. Tell me why. What am I missing? Literally. Is there a goldmine? Is there a trap door? Is there something I don't know about?" And let's say there's not and they're standing firm. You're out of your 5000? You're gone? You're walking?

David Brooke:
Yeah. So that's one of the things. You absolutely have to draw a line in the sand because, otherwise, you're going to spend the money putting that property up there or you're going to just lose that money.

Joel Epstein:
And what do you say when you walk? You're right in front of them. You know you're walking. It's over. What do you say?

David Brooke:
So we have a couple of qualifiers that happen before that. First, it's the absolutely not. Here's why. I sell properties, not just list them. You go through that. If that doesn't work on there, it's... Okay. We're going to pre build this in. We're going to compromise on this because I want the property to sell for the highest because I get paid if it sells higher. So we're going to write into the listing agreement we're going to stay at this price for 14 days and then we're going to pre adjust down.

Joel Epstein:
The old downward escalator.

David Brooke:
Yeah, you have to do it.

Joel Epstein:
But what is the point where you're not doing that? Is it 10% above what you said? Is it 15%? What is the number in your mind? If you said 315-

David Brooke:
It's five percent above whatever market value is.

Joel Epstein:
Good, okay. So the David Brooke rule is five percent... Sorry. Above David Brooke market value.

David Brooke:
Whatever it is.

Joel Epstein:
Of what you exhaustively figured out. If it's 10%, you're walking. There's no downward escalator. You're going to walk. Now, what do you do after? What is your communication with that potential seller that listed their home with someone else? What happens then?

David Brooke:
The ethics code will say that we can't reach out to the person if they've decided to list with another individual at that time, but you can certainly send a handwritten letter or something like that right afterwards, which we recommend doing.

Joel Epstein:
Thank you for considering me.

David Brooke:
The opportunity. Yeah, exactly.

Joel Epstein:
And then do they go somewhere? Is there like a 90 day ticker on them or...?

David Brooke:
I actually have a folder on my computer called Uncoverteds and I actually through them into a cart on my MLS and I just watch the listing. So as soon as that thing expires, it's just like... and an email goes out. It's like, "Hey, no hard feelings, man. I hope I didn't upset you on the first time around. I'd still love to sell the property. Really respect you and your family. Love to get you down to North Carolina."

Joel Epstein:
I hope you all heard that. So he's walking if it's five percent above David Brooke's sales valuation, where it should be listed. If it's five percent... that's your rule... you're walking. You guys hear that? Walking. Like, bye bye. Because, clearly, he understands the value of working for free, which is basically what you're doing. And question. How many in your mind... or factually, you might even know your facts... end up selling for what you said it should've sold for? Is it 100% or is it like 94%?

David Brooke:
Transparently, when we do a listing, we actually give... It's a number with plus or minus two percent. And the reason that we do that plus or minus two percent in there is for a number of a reasons. Not only are we giving advice on the start, when we're walking through the property, we're also sending in a stager on the back end that we actually pay for. If they end up doing the things that we're saying, they're likely to be on the higher end of the two percent.

Joel Epstein:
If they play ball.

David Brooke:
If they play ball. If they don't, they're going to be on the bottom end of that.

Joel Epstein:
So many of those unconverteds... When you see them sell, you're like uh-huh, yep. How many? Is it 90%?

David Brooke:
It's something like that.

Joel Epstein:
It's high, right?

David Brooke:
It's really high. And the sad part is, too, though is those guys that did list for 350... A lot of times, when they start hitting... They start hitting the slide. They're not deescalating five percent. They're dropping big time. And then people start saying, "Hey, man."

Joel Epstein:
When you list a house, there's two reasons why it doesn't sell in 24 hours. It's overpriced or it's a dog. Give me another reason. There isn't one. Either it needs work in there... it has a disco ball and purple carpet and everything's mirrored... or it's overpriced. Give me a third thing. There's no third thing!

David Brooke:
Marketing. No, I'll tell you the third thing. In my mind, there are horrible marketers-

Joel Epstein:
Today, in 2019, with how much is going on in the Internet, if you just get it in there for people to see... You have to admit-

David Brooke:
Most markets, yeah.

Joel Epstein:
... the biggest reasons are disco ball... staging. Things need to be done. It's a dog. Or it's overpriced.

David Brooke:
Price, condition, and marketing.

Joel Epstein:
That's it. So I'm looking at the clock before I get waved off. And this is... I could be talking to David for a long time, but I think we got some good, good nuggets out of there. If you pay attention, there's things... I'm not a bells and whistles, shiny object guy. It's not theory. A lot of people are always like, "Yeah, well, Joel, that's simple. That's easy to do." And I'm like, yeah, but are you doing it? And usually the answer is like, "No. I'm not doing it." There's some good, simple things to build your business. David, how do we find you? What's the best email?

David Brooke:
You can email at DavidBrooke@kw.com.

Joel Epstein:
That's David Brooke with an E, everybody. At kw.com. Are you on Instagram?

David Brooke:
Yeah.

Joel Epstein:
What's your Instagram handle?

David Brooke:
DavidNBrooke. As in Nicholas.

Joel Epstein:
Okay. DavidN... as in Nicholas... Brooke. And you're on Facebook as well, right?

David Brooke:
Yeah.

Joel Epstein:
So you can reach out. Now, this is kind of cool. We'll probably get... At least 25000 people are going to watch this. And it'd be interesting to see how many people actually send you an email and say, "Hey, David. That was really cool. Could you give me a copy of your-

David Brooke:
Top 20.

Joel Epstein:
I'm going to call it the David Brooke Twenty. The DB20. I'm just going to call it the DB20. Because if I'm an agent and I'm watching this, I don't care how much real estate I'm selling. Why would I not want that? Of course I want that. So, everyone, that's going to conclude another edition of the Big Joel Show. Thank you so much for watching and listening. Again, you can consume this podcast anywhere you want. We're on every single platform. It's the BigJoelShow.com or the Big Joel Show on YouTube. You can find me anywhere. There's another Big Joel, but it's Big Joel Safari. That's not me, by the way. And I appreciate you listening and I appreciate you watching and, of course, we love it when you put comments when we release these. It allows us to keep making the product better and better. So, thank you, David.

David Brooke:
Thanks for having me.

Joel Epstein:
And thank you for watching and listening. Bye bye now.