When I got into real estate in 2015, I came from working in a steel mill. Before that I did road work, construction, lawn maintenance, delivered medical equipment. I was always used to the mindset where the boss man says do this, you do it, you go home, and you turn off. Real estate is the opposite. There is nobody to direct you. It is like the Wild West.
I spent my first year and a half twiddling my thumbs, door knocking a little, mailing out a few letters, not really knowing what to do. I am the sole provider for my wife and two boys, and it was eating me up that I had gone full time into this business and did not know what I was doing.
We got a new broker in charge who had grown his business calling expireds. After a sales meeting, I bee-lined it straight to his office. He asked if I had thought about calling expireds, and I had no idea it was even possible. He told me, no man, you gotta call REDX. So I did.
I was desperate. I did not do any research, I did not look at competitors, I did not even know they existed. Naturally I am a very cautious spender, but seeing his confidence and his track record went farther than anything. He said do this, and I did it. That was the whole length of it.
My first weeks, I set aside 8 to 11 in the morning, sat in an office alone, and hand dialed. I did not even know databases existed, so I kept a red binder full of papers I made in Microsoft Word. Every contact I made, I wrote their name and notes down, even if they hung up on me. That was my process, and I still have that binder.
For the first time I had structure. It was not just twiddling my thumbs anymore, it was a pillar I could run toward. That was peace of mind. Later I found out about the dialer and it was a game changer. I went from calling 40 people in three hours to calling 200.
Even as I prospect, when I get a live seller on the phone I transition them into my database and follow up over the years. About 70 to 80% of my database is seller content from people I prospected in REDX, and I would say at least 80% of my business has come from the years I did prospect. Over my career that is 144 sold listings, and at my peak I put on 15 to 18 in a single month.
Life has me focused on my family right now, taking care of my sons and my wife, so I have not had the time to jump back into prospecting. But God is still faithful, and my whole database is built on what I prospected in REDX. I put on a listing yesterday from calling expireds, and several this year from people I first called seven years ago. My advice to a struggling agent is simple: stop worrying about everyone else, focus on what you want out of this business, and drive toward that. There is nothing as cost-effective and fruitful as calling.