The Agent Life with Linsey Ehle, Director of Agent Services at Better Homes and Gardens RE in Houston Texas

S3E4 


My next guest, whom I'm so excited to have joining us today is Lindsay of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. Gary Green in Houston, Texas. Welcome, Lindsay. Hello, how are you? Great, great. So excited to chat with you today and to let our listeners hello, hear from you and get some expertise from you on the industry. 


Linsey Ehle: Thank you. It's really a privilege to be here. 


Johnny Pfieffer: No, absolutely. So tell us about you. Let's help our listeners get to know you a little bit. We'd love to know your background and what you do in the. . 


here. 


Johnny Pfieffer: Awesome. Okay, well, tell us a little more about that. What is Agent services? 


Linsey Ehle: So in my current role, we have about a thousand agents, a little over a thousand agents. Um, and we're, it's a big market. Um, we are from Galveston all the way up to Lake Conroe, so it's a really large market. Um, and so here I'm responsible for creating kind of a cohesive strategy around, uh, tying together technology, marketing, and then coaching and training. 


Wow, that's incredible. And I love that because I think you would agree with me, there are a lot of brokerages that essentially agents sit down, they have their computer, they get their license, and they're. 


Told, good luck. Go do it. And it's nice to hear that you provide that pathway from day one and give them the opportunity to be successful intentionally instead of just by accident. 


Yeah. And the other thing that we're really trying to do, I think is um, Be mindful of the different personas that there are in kind of the, the life cycle of an agent. 


So we're trying to, and of course agent teams is a, is a big one, so we're really trying to. Make sure that we keep a strategy in place, whether it's marketing tools, coaching, um, if we've got a real strong strategy in place for wherever you're at in, in your career. 


Johnny Pfieffer: Really important. Wow, that's incredible. 


So that I would assume has to help with retention and recruitment for your firm because people with having. Tools in their pocket, if you will, and having the support of you and your team, it almost guarantees success if they put it in place and really implement that. 


Linsey Ehle: Correct? Yeah, the engagement's really huge. 


Um, but yeah, that's a big part of our value proposition. It's a big part of our retention and certainly, um, it's. Something that we think about when we're recruiting, who are we really speaking to and where can we serve them based on where they're at in their business? So yeah, that's an important part of the strategy. 


I bet 


Linsey Ehle: Yeah, it's funny, I, I've done a lot of coaching over the years. 


Of course, I've, you know, was selling for about 12 years. Um, and one of the things I noticed that was really tough as a coach where I'm talking to somebody for 30 minutes once a week, is that, um, I can share ideas and I can give you some structure, and I certainly can give you the accountability. But in terms of sending you off on your path to, uh, getting stuff done, I didn't really have the ability to help people. 


And so that's been something that has been really meaningful. It's informed a lot of what we're doing here. Cause I kind of know where people struggle and how we can support them at the corporate level. Um, so it's informed a lot of what we're doing here. 


Johnny Pfieffer: Well, and a big part of that is, is to kind of repeat what you said at the beginning. 


Yeah. On the management and training side. And so I think that's very important. You 


Linsey Ehle: know, it's interesting because the, the, everyone does have a unique approach and certainly unique. Um, but the pain points generally tend to be the same. Okay? The pain points around managing my database, managing my time, um, maintaining a consistent level of momentum so that you're not doing the rich, poor thing. 


Um, when you're in massive growth mode. How do you manage that? Uh, when to grow a team, how to grow a team. So all those kinds of problems con consistently. tend to be the same. Uh, even though there are people that have different strengths and different ways of doing the business, the pain points seem to be the same. 


And not only what are the pain points, but what are the opportunities for growth in a market like 


Johnny Pfieffer: this? And I think that's a. Component to this. I'd love to hear from you. For our listeners, there's a lot of negative news, a lot of negative social media, a lot of statistics and data coming out, hitting the general population that are our consumers, our agents, our brokerage owners, and we all have to sift through that and identify what's reality, what's fact, what's fiction. 


And so I would love to hear from you, what are some ideas that you have for our listeners? How can they be successful with the shifting that's happening? 


Linsey Ehle: You know, I, in my business planning effort, uh, I quoted that Winston Church, he'll quote, it says, uh, a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. 


This is when your real skilled professional. Do their best. Um, and so yeah, when you list your, your, when you take your listings, doing a fantastic job with your listings, doing a really wonderful job with the photography, the, the way you list the property, the dialogues, the description, all of that matters. 


Johnny Pfieffer: And I'd love to reiterate and drive this, uh, last few minutes home to all of our listeners. Lindsay, it is now the time to more than ever as an agent to utilize all of your suite of tools. 


Cuz if you listen to what she shared with all of us, it's number one. the marketing, it's the photography. It's how you're going to get that listing out there and get the maximum exposure you need. Whereas the last few years we didn't need that as much. Number two, the follow up, aka your crm, your database. 


Cuz Lindsay told me if you agree though, the market has shifted and there will be fewer homes sold. You absolutely will be successful if you follow through. 


Linsey Ehle: Absolutely. I think one of the things that I've been talking to a lot of folks about that I'm excited. is, is this, uh, increasing timeframe that it takes for agent or for consumers to make a decision, whether it is a seller or whether it's a buyer. 


That's what is gonna be a really huge opportunity for folks that are real pros in the business. One of the biggest, um, one of the biggest tools that I see being really meaningful is that CRM management or wherever it is that you're managing your pipeline. This is a market where pipeline matters. So the agents that have previously spent time just looking for the next transac. 


Johnny Pfieffer: Period. Absolutely agree a hundred percent. It was interesting. A mentor of mine years ago gave me the analogy of the pipeline. If you open a shoe store and if you have stock of one pair of one size for each type of shoe, you're gonna go outta business pretty quickly. Because you're gonna be scrambling for that inventory right after that comes off the shelf. 


How can our listeners who are either new to the business and a little worried right now because there's a lot of shifting, it's not gonna be quite as easy as it was. Uh, though it'll be less chaotic, which I think everyone will agree, will be lovely to have a little bit more of a normal process. Uh, how do you build the pipeline? 


What are the key tools in that beyond a. 


Linsey Ehle: Um, I think it's so interesting, uh, because I work with a wide variety of agents. I work with new agents, people that have been in the business a long time, and one of the struggles that, um, some of the agents that have been in the business like less than three years generally tend to find is that, or I find in coaching them, is that they. 


Sometimes it could be. So your job is to keep doing the activities that you know, produce results and not look for the immediate results. Know that you are doing the work that, uh, over time does garner the results. Now you have to track the leads that come from that, the prospects that come from that over time. 


But you could do an open house today that you don't see a quote unquote result for for six months. Your job is just to keep doing the activities. That's what builds the pipeline 


Johnny Pfieffer: a thousand percent. What I think is so important for everyone to think about, let's say you're doing farming and you're hitting a neighborhood hard consistency consistently on a monthly basis. 


That's right. That is, and what my power of my favorite things 


Linsey Ehle: to tell an agent. And it is just so true. I hear it time and time again. No response isn't No. It may mean not right. No response doesn't mean no, it just re means that you have to keep doing your job because that could be the open house that you did and six months later they're calling you. 


No response doesn't mean no. It may just mean not right now. 


Johnny Pfieffer: Absolutely, and I would love for you to share with all of this collectively as we keep talking about this. Why do you think this works? What is there a silver bullet? Is it a wide casting net? What do you think is that magic formula that makes all of this work for our agents nationwide? 


And sometimes, um, . When I'm working with agents that are struggling with consistency, they say that they want accountability, but when it really, like, they'll go again and get an accountability partner that's like, oh, that's okay. I didn't do it anyway 


Johnny Pfieffer: either. , it's like, that's not your accountability buddy. 


no, definitely 


Linsey Ehle: not company that's like, Hey, I, you said you were gonna do this, what happened? Um, but you know, if you can't, if you find that you're struggling with consistency, you're gonna have to get somebody that's gonna hold you. 


Johnny Pfieffer: Absolutely, and it's all for your best interest. I think that's the key. 


This isn't, oh my gosh, I have homework to do. I have to go do this. This person's gonna tell me I'm not doing that. This is to help you be successful. And so it's a, yeah, why not 


Motivation comes and goes, but purpose, purpose is tends to be, I think, a little bit deeper. What are you really trying to achieve? And if you are closely connected to that deeper, meaningful purpose, what are you trying to build and what is the deeper me? Purpose in this, then it's easier to maintain some level of consistency, I think. 


But, but um, yeah, that's, that's the other challenge. What are you trying to achieve and can you stay closely tied to that? 


Johnny Pfieffer: Absolutely. And I did have, I would love to ask you if it's okay with you from one of our listeners, after our last podcast, they asked me to follow up with our next expert. We have a lot of agents who are new to the industry, and as you said, the newer ones are usually, typically less than three years. 


And so one of our listeners said, ask your next expert for me, I'm new to the business, I've been successful. How do I sell a 7% interest rate? What are you responding to your agents when the fear's coming around to lending and the costs associated? Well, I think 


Linsey Ehle: so. I've had some conversations around this. 


I think that we have to be highly sensitive to saying things like, oh, things are back to normal at a 7% interest. Um, I think that that is not the case. If you look in the last 12 years, they've never been over 5%. So I think the first thing to be mindful of is that, uh, you have to have the right dialogue. 


Johnny Pfieffer: Absolutely. 


Like they don't care. Uh, so I think that's the first thing is to be sensitive to where people are coming from. Uh, and then I think it's reasonable to talk about. affording the payment. Um, and if you can afford the a payment, then there are may be opportunities down the road to refinance. Okay? Uh, you can't kind of sell away the idea that this is a great deal at 7% cuz it's not gonna feel like that. 


But if they can afford the payment, is there enough of an upside in terms of tax, uh, breaks or, uh, potential equity increasing or, uh, just that active ownership? Are there enough upsides for them to. , um, this entire picture and say, yes, I'm willing to do that because that makes sense. I think showing versus telling is always the best way and really we don. 


Johnny Pfieffer: No, and it's funny, I don't know how many. Senior and experienced agents, I've heard use this 17% analogy and yeah, no, nobody cares. Nobody cares. And, and that's a big, scary word. Don't , let's not put that out there. But I think the key to what Lindsay just said for all of our listeners is, number one, be their trusted resource. 


And learn so they can make a good decision. I think that's so important, 


Linsey Ehle: having a fantastic lending partner that you trust. There's just never been a more important time for that than, than right 


Johnny Pfieffer: now. This has all been absolutely incredible. I, I, every time I finish these, I always wanna say I cannot believe it's been over 20 minutes and I would, we could talk for another hour. 


Um, I'm just so grateful to you and I'd love to hear, do you. You know, remaining comments, anything you wanna share? Anything you wanna share about the firm you're with or before we let our listeners go? 


Linsey Ehle: No, I think that, um, obviously I'm, I love where I'm at and I love the things that we're working on here. 


I think it's a great place to be in. Uh, certainly Houston's a great market to be in. Uh, so I'm certainly privileged to be. 


It changes. Daily and it's just very exciting. So thank you, Lindsay. Thanks 


Linsey Ehle: for having me, Johnny. I really appreciate 


Johnny Pfieffer: being here. Absolutely. And I want to thank everyone else for joining us today for the Brokerage Insider, and please stay tuned for our next episode, when we will be bringing you more exciting news and tips from the real estate industry. 


Please listen to us everywhere you're able to listen to your podcast. And always feel free to visit tribu.com as all of our podcasts are always available to you. Thank you to all of our listeners, and I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season.