In 2008 and 2009, Scott was a restaurateur with three restaurants. And then the bottom fell out. “It was carnage,” he says. He walked away owing $60,000, with a bank account that hovered “plus or minus any given day. Maybe a little negative, maybe a little positive. It wasn’t pretty.”
He had no money and no safety net. What he did have was grit and desire. Real estate looked like a way out, even though every agent around him was telling him how brutal the market was. He needed something he could start with zero dollars in the bank.
A friend and mentor, Chris Williams in Atlanta, was teaching a prospecting class. His message was simple: “I’m a prospector. I started with zero money. Prospect expireds.” And in 2009, there were plenty of them. That’s how Scott found REDX, the very first subscription he ever bought for his business.
Later, once he had money in the bank, he kicked the tires on the alternatives. “I looked into Vulcan, I looked into all these other things, and I was like, it’s not better, it’s just different.” When other agents complained the leads were bad, Scott’s answer was blunt: “No, you’re just bad on the phones. Practice.” REDX gave him the leads, the scripts, even the role play to practice. “It’s like somebody giving you the recipe to Coca-Cola. Just follow the recipe.” Brand new to the industry, that’s exactly what he did.
In a new city, not knowing anybody, Scott closed 36 deals his first year using REDX scripts, the REDX system, and REDX leads. Within about two years he’d wiped out his $60,000 in debt, bought a house, and started taking vacations. The morning routine never changed: gym, shower, office, then hit the prospecting folder: “hit REDX and it pops up and you guys start pulling my first hour of the day.”
The proof of how far the tools carry him came during the hardest year of his life. Fighting cancer, with a feeding tube and unable to leave bed for appointments, Scott lived off referral fees by setting appointments over the phone and handing them off. One of those calls turned into three transactions: he put an investor into a 1909 Atlanta renovation bought for $400,000 (now under contract for $1.28 million) for a total of roughly $2.5 million in volume in under a year. “Two of the three I couldn’t even get out of bed.”
Scott now teaches a Power Prospecting class for his brokerage, and REDX is the one tool he stands behind: “I don’t get paid to sell your stuff. But this is what I use, and it’s the only one I’ve been with since I started.” His advice to newer agents is honest about the pain. “You’re gonna crash and burn. Your face is gonna get bright red. But the fact that you’re building the discipline to do a revenue-generating activity every day is what’s most important.”
Sixteen years in, REDX still drives 15-20% of his weekly appointments. And when he doesn’t have an appointment set, calling REDX leads fills the gap. “If you’re not calling expireds and for sale by owners, you’re not generating the maximum amount of opportunity for yourself. It needs to be on your calendar.” The dance that got him here is the one he’s still dancing: “I’m back with my original dance partner.”