Navigating The Present, Future of Real Estate & Tech with TRIBUS CEO Eric Stegemann

Brokerage Insider 


With this comes a new year and a new direction in our podcast. While we have explored the details of the current market and how it has shifted from the past couple of years, we now want to begin looking forward to the future and see what's headed our way for all of us to do so. I'm so excited to introduce one of our most esteemed guests, which is our very own Eric Seggerman, the founder and CEO of tribu, this podcast in just in case. 


And I hope you have polished up your crystal ball. What's so funny, being on the opposite side of this for, uh, for a few years, you know, I was on your side and so here I am on the other side now, so. Uh, thanks for for inviting me to come back on. No, absolutely. So excited about this, and as you and I both know, it's been an interesting ride these last three years. 


And, uh, I think about this, a lot of the average person in a, in a job that's in there, um, unless you're a senior level person, uh, can you afford a home? And so from that perspective, , it's, it is, uh, worrisome to me that we are in an industry. We, you know, we support the real estate industry and yet an average person in, in an average job, um, you know, that's not making $200,000 a year in Denver, Colorado, where the average, um, home price, even starter homes are $600,000. 


And I'm sure lots of realtors are out there saying, man, I'm gonna make less money cuz we're doing less transactions this year. But put putting a brake pedal on it just a little bit. Or at least letting off the gas just a little. Um, is I don't think necessarily such, such a bad thing. And the most important thing that I, I think everybody is always wondering, uh, is, are we gonna see a downtick in price? 


Their transaction and, uh, the fact that we just, we just took our foot off the gas pedal a little bit, I don't think is such a, I, I would love to jump in here and I want to drive home some thoughts on what Eric just shared 


with us for our listeners. I think number one is we all Eric, acknowledge that sometimes the media though often very helpful and informative can also affect people's mindsets of reality in real estate. 


It wasn't realistic. It certainly wasn't sustainable and I think everyone would agree with that and that definitely drives home Your comment on afford. You know, it would make essentially home ownership impossible in the United States, let alone Colorado. And so I just want everyone to really sit on that for a moment. 


Think about it. When your clients reach out to you and they're asking about the state of the market, it's expected, no one's surprised. We're not, have not seen anything near like an oh eight, nor do we expect that it's just a healthy adjustment and a normalization to what's becoming our. CR conditions today. 


And so, and with that, Eric, you brought up, you know, people down payments and such and there may be some people upside down. I agree with you. I think it would be minimal at worst. And I think we're still gonna continue to see an increase in home prices across the country, just not at the levels we were. 


Eric Stegemann: with that. They were trying toque inflation and wholly cowed. We have runaway inflation, uh, for, for some time here in the United States. I don't think anybody can disagree with that. And so pushing the brakes on the economy as a whole, um, was something I think that was necessary. so that we didn't get true runaway inflation, where, you know, if you, if you're a student of economics at all, this is how, how a lot of countries have gotten into major problems. 


And the problem with that is it, it's a very direct relevancy to, to slowing down, uh, real estate because it gets more costly to get a loan. And so, you know, here we are in an environment where they shot. Uh, and now we're back down a little bit at this point. Um, but, uh, we're pretty, pretty solid where we're at here in the, uh, upper fives, lower sixes, kind of a ballpark. 


Uh, I feel like, uh, you know, rates will come back down and, and, uh, you'll see a flurry of buying that people sat on the sidelines while rates were at. 6%, 7% and 5%. And then, uh, they'll wait until it has a four in front of it again. And then I think you'll see, um, all sorts of people jump back in the market, particularly first time home. 


Johnny Pfeiffer: I agree a hundred percent with that. I think it's a brilliant statement and kind of a synopsis of where we are with this. And I can remember when I was a young agent being regaled with stories by. More senior agents of the past and oh, 17% interest rate in the eighties and such. What's interesting is even when I began my career, though I'm still incredibly young, is interest rates five and 6% was considered phenomenal. 


We do get caught up a bit in the media and the news of what's happening in the real estate market and sometimes we can kinda, if you say it, it becomes true. What I think is so important is, and you and I both have had a long history in real estate sales, those who are consistent and intentional and follow through every day. 


Eric Stegemann: Representing buyers is great, but listing inventory. Is always the way you want to be, uh, as, as an agent. And so anything you can do outside of what I always call buying a listing, meaning if the home's worth a million and you take the listing at 1,000,003, that's not a good decision. . But if you have a home priced correctly and you can go get a listing, go get that listing. 


Um, you get your name placed in lots of places when you have, uh, the listings. So be focused on getting listings, uh, uh, certainly number one. Um, and the second thing is, , just stay in touch. This one drives me crazy. And Johnny, you know this ? Yes. The crm, the sphere . It is, it, I, I literally just got off a call with a major Reax, um, brokerage that's not currently a client of Charvis. 


And, um, it is, you know, it's one of those things that I just say, uh, frequently. Uh, , a CRM needs to help you work the people you already know and so many CRM tools and, and so many agents are focused on the next lead, the next thing that's out there that they forget the business that's just sitting right in front of them, which is their, their database. 


They found other people or other people have started to market to them. And when the time comes for those people to make a real estate transaction or if they know somebody making a real estate transaction, you're not the person they're gonna call anymore. You're not their referral, you're not their, they're not gonna be a referral source for you. 


And so this is always what I see when things go well, you know, cause this is my, I guess, my third kind of cycle of a market happening, uh, in my career of 20, 22, 23 years. Um, third kind of major cycle shift that I've seen is when things do this, you know, every agent is like, oh, well here's everybody in my database. 


Um, if you're like, I am a, a, a, know the ninja program, uh, ninja selling, uh, and what they do, you know, follow those sorts of things that will yield you success and good times and bad times, and medium. That will yield you success of just staying in touch with folks. So, so if you're an agent, that's the, that's what I would be doing right now is just being vigilant about staying in touch with us. 


uh, find those sorts of people because, you know, in, in good times they might sell 30 homes a year, and in, in bad times, they might sell 20 homes a year, but they're still selling 20 homes as opposed to the the person that sold five homes or three homes every single year. Uh, and yeah, you made a, might have made a 50 50 split on that person or, or some high commission split on that person. 


and services and things like that that they provide. Uh, but we consistently, we just wrote a blog post on the Travis, uh, blog this past week about why you agents join, uh, or leave a brokerage. Number one is, is support. Number five was commissioned, by the way. So number one was support. Um, so be investing in that. 


Be thinking about how can I make sure I've got somebody to answer agents questions 12 hours a day? Be thinking. What can I do to make my brokerage stand out? Uh, and, and, and a sea of sameness of why would they join this brokerage over that brokerage. So I'm really focusing on my value proposition if I'm a broker in, in today's market. 


Eric Stegemann: What is it that you think I need? Well, I, I'm gonna speak from the, the, the idea of you don't have a massive budget. Um, I'm gonna speak from, you know, there's, there's agents out there. What do you need? I'm gonna speak from an average agent that's not out there spending $25,000 a month in, in Zillow leads or, or anything along those lines. 


They're not out. Uh, doing anything and, and, uh, there's a, uh, there's a, a very well, fairly well known person in the real estate industry that did a survey and found out that the only difference between the person making $200,000 a year on average and the person making $50,000 a year on average, is the $200,000 a year person spent at least five hours per week prospecting and working their database. 


Johnny Pfeiffer: Um, so that'd be number one. Number two is, I, I think I would say, and Eric if I may, I would love just to drive home a point that you just brought up that's so important. I would love for everyone to really hear. Most of our agents in the real estate industry are successful by accident, and I think what is very important that we drive home, what Eric just shared with all of us, is the tool of being intentional in being successful on purpose. 


because that mantra in your head every single day is the best way to be successful. So thank you for sharing that. And it, it, it really is. I mean, there's the difference between the agents that make all the money in the business. They're not rocket scientists out there with some better. You know, better tool or better plan or anything like that. 


But you can be successful as an agent with the least expensive tool that's out there. If you're very intentional about what you do now, you know, if you have better tools, it makes, you know, uh, uh, new agents more successful and it makes, you know, vet veteran agents more successful. Uh, but you can be successful. 


I mean, I actually, when I started on the real estate business, Um, there, there was email and that was pretty much it. And the brokerage didn't even provide an email account. I had to go set up one, uh, on my own. Uh, that was it. There was no tools. There was nothing other than I got to use their computer to log into the m l s. 


And, and that's part of the reason why I dug into it, is I really saw value there. But the truth was I was successful, uh, without having those tools because I woke up every day and I was willing to put in the. And I wasn't just sitting there saying, I'm gonna wait for something to come to me. And that's the problem. 


So I, I would say if there's any broker listening, uh, any agent out there listening, worried about what's gonna come next, it's create a plan and stick to the plan unless you see anything that tells you you shouldn't stick to that plan. Uh, and not just you're hesitant about the plan, but something that tells you you need to break away from what the plan is for some, for some reason, or. 


Um, and so that would be something that you would have to change a plan, uh, necessarily on, or at least change what kind of dollar bracket you were, you might have been focused on before. I'm talking about creating a plan that's a lasting. , uh, where it's, you know, I'm gonna reach out to, uh, uh, anytime somebody in my my area says that they're hiring, I'm gonna reach out to the HR rep for that, for that business, and I'm gonna reach out and see if I can't help them. 


So that would be, you know, I, I don't know. And this. Uh, this sounds like the thing people say, you know, one, two, and three. You asked me for three things that they should be focused on. That's one, two, and three. You know, I mean, however you want to implement that. Um, creating the plan is the first and foremost item, and then the implementation of that plan should be unique based upon what. 


Uh, what your plan item is, and it needs to be changed and different a little bit. That's why, that's why having like a, an accountability buddy or, or, you know, obviously with, with your team of, of coaches or, or you know, anybody that's out there, an office manager that can help hold you accountable, you know, write the plan down, put it in writing, and then, and then be accountable to it. 


I, I, I, I just think that's the most important thing any agent can be focused on. Well, I, I, I just absolutely agree a thousand percent and I think what I'd love to surmise in that and love to drive home to everyone in regards to everything you just shared so brilliantly is one. The silver bullet is everything. 


Is in farming and marketing. It's, it's a collection of everything is the silver bullet. And what is so exciting for agents of this generation in the future? I mean, as I've shared in previous podcasts with my listeners, some who may get cross-eyed, even the thought of it, when I started real estate, we had an MLS book. 


You can just, you, you, there is no limit to the ability to be successful if you're consistent, intentional, and follow. It, it's truly that simple. Would you agree? For sure. You know, with, at, at, at risk of sounding salesy, uh, on it. I mean, I, I think if you have any tool. , um, and you stick to that tool. The problem is, I mean, I, I can't tell how many times I see agents, I just talked about this earlier today, with a, with a different brokerage. 


Eric Stegemann: I can't tell you how many times I see agents, you know, it's in, in these Facebook groups. I, I don't know if any of our listeners are part of like lab code agents or what should I spend my money on, or there's a couple of these other groups that are on Facebook that have tens of thousands, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of members that are, that are in these Facebook. 


And the problem is that's not how it works. It is, uh, it, it really is based around the idea. You know, creating the plan and executing, uh, on that plan. And like you said, Johnny, you know, when I started selling real estate, we, uh, um, you could log into the, to the mls, but it had just launched that you could log in from a, a web browser, uh, and you could only use Internet Explorer, and that was the only browser you could use. 


Uh, and log in and, and get access to the mls. But there was still, in my, in the office, there was still the big book, uh, of, of everything and everything that had been listed for sale. And if you wanted to use a lookup directory, um, there was a, a service where you could find owners of homes and things like that. 


So, you're right, everything is easier today, but you have to lean into it. You've, you've gotta, you've, you, you've gotta jump into the tool and. to whatever that tool is, whether it's email marketing or, or a CRM tool or, or, or, you know, knocking on doors. You've gotta lean into it. You can't just bounce around and say, I'm gonna try this and I'm gonna try this. 


That's where people spend all their time in switching costs, uh, and switching back and forth between tools and then they're not successful. I agree. And I think one key component, what's important for everyone to know what you just said. It isn't just being consistent, using the same tools over and over. 


It's impossible to fully track the effects of your marketing cuz we don't know who's keeping that postcard or who's listening to your audio listings and such. So what I think is so important is consistency and continually doing this and then tracking with your business. Over a year's time in making adjustments according to what you see being successful and what isn't. 


And so with that, Eric, you kind of bring us to the end here. It just fascinates me on these podcasts. It's been 28 and a half minutes and it seems like five I I could literally talk to you for hours about these things. It's, it's exciting and it's fun and I think everyone is so interested in hearing from so many different people. 


Eric Stegemann: I keep hearing this, I just heard this again today, uh, from a broker, you know, it's, it, the Iyer is not gonna make real estate agents go away. The, the, uh, Redfin, uh, these types of companies, they're not making, Zillow is not making real estate agents go away. People still want to. Have a person involved in their transaction, right? 


Uh, they want to have that advice that they can go and get. I know there's a lot of people that are worried about the lawsuits that are going on that think buyer commissions are gonna go away. Guess what folks? Buyer commissions are not gonna go away. You know, what's gonna end up happening is it's just gonna be a disclosure. 


There's still going to be a realtor on both sides of the transaction because it's a good thing for, for every single buyer that's out there to. Um, so, you know, no realtor realtors are, are simply just not, not gonna go anywhere. Um, that being said, uh, there are some things that agents should be looking at. 


I don't know you what you said. Crystal ball. Um, uh, if you guys haven't heard of the chat G p T thing that came out where there's this company called Open AI that makes. Uh, AI services, uh, for, um, you could, you know, can essentially ask it a question and it'll write, uh, material for you or, or chat back and forth with you when you ask it the question. 


You can't ask a questions like that, but that'll come, that'll be there in, in the not so distant future. But what you can ask it for to help you with right now as an, as an agent is maybe say, you know, what are some tips in, in buying, uh, for buying a home in a down market? , what are some, uh, something that I can maybe post a couple tidbits on my social media profiles that, that it spits out right for me, that you know is right and you edited it. 


Um, but, but it actually does the hard work of actually writing out the content, uh, for you. So if you haven't looked at, at tools like chat, g p t, maybe take a quick peek at it, man, it's free and it's, it's pretty, pretty darn good, uh, if you stay within the box, um, that, that, uh, that it uses. So I would say you'll take a look at that. 


So many agents in the past, you know, that was one of the reasons why I feel like they bounced around all the time, is they had one tool for email marketing and one tool for crm, and one tool for transactions, and one tool for, uh, for their website and another tool for, for, uh, uh, their email, et cetera, et cetera. 


And, and I think, uh, what agents have really recognized is that they need one tool that does everything they need it to do pretty well, and that it's all in one place. And seeing that in one place. So looking at a tool and, and finding the right tool and digging in and making a multi-year commitment. To that tool, not a six month commitment, and then getting wandering eyes from it, but making a multi-year commitment that says, no matter what else comes out, I'm gonna stick with this tool for a while and really dive in on it and get and squeeze every last drop of value out of it, whatever that tool is. 


Johnny Pfeiffer: It is a people business, through and through has been an always will be. It's typically the largest thing that anyone invests in in their life, and they wanna do that with a person, not a computer. What I would love to drive home to everyone. I growing up in the business and being part of real estate was always afraid of technology. 


So don't be afraid of technology. It's not replacing us. It's actually helping us be better at our jobs, and most importantly, provide better service to our customers. And I think that's the key to it. Would you agree with that? A Absolutely. Yeah. I, I, I keep saying this, but I said this earlier today again, which is, uh, that technology is, is, you know, simply not there to replace agents and it's not there to do their job for them. 


Eric Stegemann: It's, it's there to make them more productive, uh, with the time that they have. And, and, uh, I know in a past episode, or at least one past episode, uh, of the podcast, back when I hosted it, I, I talked about Dunbar's number. Johnny, have you and I ever talked about Dunbar's number before? We haven't. So there was this and a very quick story cause I know we're running outta time. 


And we're talking about Robin, dun come up with this number, uh, a hundred and something years ago, uh, coming up with, and turns out that the number. Uh, when you take technology out of it, it's still about the exact same. Um, when, when, uh, an average human can keep track of about 150 relationships in their brain and remember who the person is and, and everything like that. 


What technology has allowed us to do, particularly in the business of sales and the business of a relationship sales business like real estate is, is to extend that number and where you don't have to remember every single thing about every single person, but you can make a note on it. And that way when you recall that person, um, you, you. 


Expand out that number of com communication and, and relationships that you have to those 150 people. And like I, I always said to my agents back the day, if you could sell home to everybody, you know that 150 people and everybody they know. That's a whole lot of people. That's a lot of people. And I think the key to that is one closing or one referral. 


The agents that are willing to make plans and, and goals. We, we didn't talk too much about specifically setting goals for the year, but, but not just creating plans and, and following those, but also setting goals for the year and having them written down and track yourself towards those goals. It's gonna show the people that do that and, and have made, uh, and have been intentional about it. 


and the people that were willy-nilly in real estate because they can make a, a quick dollar or two over the past two years. Absolutely. I agree. And, and I think what is so amazing about this in these conversations is at the end of each podcast, I learn something every. Single time, and I hope our listeners do as well. 


Eric Stegemann: Johnny, you've been doing a, a great job with this program and I, I look forward to listening to future episodes and, you know, you know, I'm always happy to, to jump on. Well, thank you so much and to all of our listeners, thank you for joining us today for the Brokerage Insider, and please stay tuned for our next episode when we will be bringing. 


Johnny Pfeiffer: Citing news and insight from the real estate industry. Please listen to us everywhere you are able to listen to your podcasts and they're always available on our traves website, traves.com. Happy New Year everyone, and thank you for listening.