Agent Makes $223K GCI Using Ad Builder to Prospect While Sleeping

Starting From Zero in a Limited Market

I came from 30 years in commercial real estate finance, but when I moved to Maui in 2022 to start my residential real estate business, I had zero sphere of influence. My first year as an agent, I made $300 showing other people’s listings. I knew I needed a systematic approach to build a database fast, so I started with REDX to implement a system that would give me consistent business. 

The Cold Calling Saturation Point

For four years, I dialed hard using REDX Expireds, GeoLeads, FSBOs, and FRBOs. But here’s the problem: I live on an island with less than 200,000 people, and I was targeting a specific niche (short-term vacation rental condos). After calling the island 15 times, I had saturated the call side of the equation. I needed another leg to stand on.

Ad Builder: The Game-Changing Solution

That’s when Ad Builder clicked for me. I had virtually no social media presence, but I realized I could target my exact database of 60,000 to 70,000 property owners with Facebook and Instagram ads while I wasn’t making calls.

Prospecting While You Sleep

Ad Builder augments my email collection while I’m not making calls. My entire business plan is gathering emails, putting them on my weekly email distribution, and getting “come list me” calls. When I wake up and see two more emails from Ad Builder, that’s two fewer emails I need to collect on the phone that day. Scale that up over time, and you’re building a powerful database that works for you 24/7.

My Advice for Agents Considering Ad Builder

If you’re already following a prospecting routine with REDX and looking for additional sources of leads, Ad Builder is a strategic way to grow your business and jumpstart your social media. It’s a tool for prospecting while you sleep and building your email database. But here’s what you need to know:

1. Figure out your hyper-local angle: What issue in your market would make someone actually click and give you their email? For me, it was the vacation rental debacle. For you, it might be open house invites for a tight radius around a listing.
2. Be patient: These contacts need time to season. Don’t expect someone to call you immediately. They’re getting your weekly email for 52 weeks before they’re ready to move.
3. Make Professional, Polished Content: I used Brand Builder for a few months to create professionally edited ads and those ads preformed way better than anything I had created on my own at that point. My editing skills are better now, but having that professional help to create a high-quality ad with good graphics and a strong hook was invaluable.