Unlocking Success in Real Estate: Strategies, Teamwork, and Building Long-term Relationships with Melinda Bastable

Have you ever wondered what lies behind a successful real estate team? On today's episode, we had a chance to dig into this mystery with the dynamic Melinda Bastable, a key figure in one of the most thriving real estate groups. We kicked off discussing how blending experiences on a team and exploiting resources provides a consistent support system, making you a top-notch agent. We explored how listing success takes an upward trajectory with access to marketing and administrative departments, RISO, and a skilled real estate photographer.

Our heart-to-heart conversation took a twist towards the tried-and-true strategies that put us on potential clients' minds. We highlighted the age-old art of face-to-face communication, the undervalued pop buys, networking, and community involvement. Melinda and I delved into how our careers took a leap by keeping an eagle eye on increasing the average sale price, setting tangible goals, and harnessing the team's support. She shared how her leadership journey has been instrumental in scripting the team's success story.

Finally, Melinda and I shared our experiences on nurturing long-lasting relationships in the industry. We detailed how a strong support system helps clients sail through challenging transactions and why we insist on our agents attending 52 training sessions annually. We are firm believers in equipping our agents with top-tier tools to provide unparalleled customer service, and that's why our clients keep coming back. We left no stone unturned in emphasizing that our philosophy revolves around doing right by our customers, educating and advising rather than imposing decisions. Join us for an insightful discussion about the real estate world!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Okay, so first episode of the Best of the Best show with Therese Brittenham from Collegeville, broker and owner.

Speaker 2: 0:12

Therese, you have a guest today. Let's hear it up for you two.

Speaker 1: 0:18

I have Melinda Bastable here with me today and she is one of the best of the best. She manages one of the best real estate teams in our business and I thought it would be nice to talk to her first to see what it is that it takes to be part of such a high producing team.

Speaker 2: 0:35

So we do look for a variety of people. We have extremely experienced people to brand new people, interns and really what we are looking for is people that want to grow together, grow their business. They're inspired and they want the help of learning skills and knowledge from other people and they're willing to learn.

Speaker 1: 0:53

Yeah, I think that's one of the things that you bring to the table is you have this really nice system in place to help people, whether they're brand new to the business or they're at a high point in their career where they need something different and they want to take it to another level. So I think bringing that and that structure is what a lot of real estate agents need.

Speaker 2: 1:10

Absolutely, and it's also the leverage, I think a lot of agents who are very top producing Therese.

Speaker 2: 1:15

They find that they're running around and they're spending their time on things that don't necessarily make a lot of money or it's not their expertise. So, being on the team, we can leverage that for them. We have a marketing department, we have an admin department, and so they can go and do what they're good at, which is getting listings and servicing their buyers, but you have all the marketing out there and having somebody taking care of their paperwork and actually also having leads coming in as well, so you know they get a little bit of everything and that way, at the end of the year, they're able to have looked back on the year and being able to think I've made great money. They've netted a lot of money after they've paid all their taxes and everything, but yet had more balance in their life as well. They can spend time with their family, they can go on vacation. The beauty of a team is that you have teammates that can actually take care of your business while you're away and you know that the board is not going to be dropped.

Speaker 1: 2:04

Yeah, I think when I talk to agents that are getting to a point in their career where they're really stressed and they're not quite sure how to fix that, it's because they're doing everything and they haven't learned that leverage piece that you offer. So I think that's really great. We have the Leverage Center too, which I think is something that's very nice to help agents not do those mundane tasks that just isn't their personality makeup.

Speaker 2: 2:27

Right and it's also so time-consuming. You know, the girls are great at putting everything into the MLS for us. We have photographers that take the photographs. We have somebody that comes to do the marketing for us, create the flyers All those things for an individual take so much time.

Speaker 2: 2:40

I know when I was doing it as a solo agent myself, every time I got a listing I was spending about four or five hours just doing all the back end of it. Our time was much better spent lead generating, servicing our sellers, going out with our buyers and then putting time aside to do family activities and things for yourself as well. So we have that on the team where we are leveraging that. We have the marketing person that does our social media for us. We have the great use of RISO. We have photography as well, and all of those things help to make us stand out, so that when you're going for a listing, you have all these special skills to show and you show that you have a team behind you to help you, and it helps us win the listing every time.

Speaker 1: 3:18

Yeah, I agree with that. I think one of the things that's also interesting is you can do a lot of research for the agents so that they know what's the market of the moment. Are they focusing their efforts in the right places? And also the stats right now with you mentioned it video. Having video in anything that you post is so important and we do have that really great opportunity here. So talk to us a little bit about the YouTube channels and the house tours and the things that we do, the photos.

Speaker 2: 3:46

Yeah, so we have a fantastic photographer that we use who actually his background was real estate himself, so he used to be a realtor, so he gets it.

Speaker 2: 3:53

The majority of the time. We try and get out to the seller beforehand, tell them how to make their house stand out from the crowd, because obviously how we live in our house to how we sell our house is so different. So we have those skill sets to tell them how to get their house to look perfect for the pictures. He comes out and does a great job. He's able to make it look sunny if it's been raining, all those sorts of things, and then do drone shots as well. So the team has that expertise of somebody who can do the photographs A lot of the time.

Speaker 2: 4:22

I think when you look on the MLS you can see that sometimes an agent's done the photography themselves and you might have a great camera. But if it's not your wheelhouse, if it's not something you're doing all the time, then it shows. So they have that to help them. We also get the use of Rizzo, so he comes through with us and he does videos with us and that's where most of the consumers are looking to us. Most of the consumers are looking online first of all to see if there's a photograph that stands out, if there's a video that stands out, and really that's their first showing. If they've seen that and love that, by the time they come through the listing it really is like their second showing and at that point they're pretty much ready to make an offer.

Speaker 2: 4:59

And I think a lot of people during COVID got very lazy and stopped doing those things and also with the kind of market that we had, where things were flying off the shelf, people stopped doing flyers, they stopped doing marketing online, they stopped doing the videos. All of those things make you stand out and they help your client. It's not just one offer. You really want your client to get the best so they can actually look at everything that comes in and choose. And by putting all of those things out of there, you're helping the people that are more tech savvy. They're looking at it on their phone, they're looking at it on their computer, they're traveling. They can still see it if they're out of the country or if they're in a different state.

Speaker 2: 5:37

So we're helping our clients and our agents on our team get maximum exposure and therefore get the best deal for their client and really what we're looking for is return business. You know we don't want to have to keep going out and finding new people. Most of our business is based on referrals, so if we're doing a good job for them, they're gonna come back to us, and most of us on the team have found that that we are working with clients that we worked with a couple of years ago and they refer us to their family members and that's what it's all about. We want to have referrals and by doing these great things that we do on the team, that gives us the repeat business.

Speaker 1: 6:10

Yep, totally agree. I think the other thing that's really nice that I noticed about how you run your videos is it's not scripted, it's not boring, so it keeps the tension of the consumer, which is great for the seller Right.

Speaker 2: 6:24

Right, and really that's it as well. People don't want to see us necessarily. We want to introduce the property and then it's pointing out the best features and helping the consumer imagine how they could make that their home. You know, the kitchen is the heart of the home. What's the backyard like, what's the basement like? And just doing little pointers to kind of, you know, tip the icebergs there for them to pique their interest so that they want to make that appointment. They want to get in the house. They have that excitement there and all we're doing is really our videos like a minute to three minutes long, longer than that. We want them to come and check out the house for themselves and fall in love with it. Awesome.

Speaker 1: 6:59

So switching gears a little bit. I noticed that your team is always keeping a very consistent or increased amount of business. Even when people are talking right now about this market's really difficult, there's not a lot of business why do you think that is?

Speaker 2: 7:13

I think it's a lot to do with competitiveness. We have boards out, that sort of show how many listings we have under contract. I give out certificates as well at the end of the month for people who've done more than a couple of transactions, and I think all of us have a little bit of a competitive side, and when someone else is doing well, you want to be around those people. So, being on the team, it gives even brand new agents the chance to take those knowledge and skillset and go out there and learn a little bit more. The team's very sharing. All of our listings we're happy to share, so that makes them look like they're busier too. And then things like open houses. A lot of agents don't want to necessarily sit their own open house, so we have a team full of people that can sit them and they have the opportunity there to pick up a buyer. So I know open houses have been extremely successful for our team and I think that's helped us. You know, do so well and keep our numbers up. Where we've picked up buyers, we've picked up other sellers that are in the neighborhood. We walk neighborhoods, we do flyers, we go back to the odd thing. We do a lot of belly to belly as well. I think there's a number of people that try and hide behind texts and emails. Those work to a certain extent, but people still want the face to face.

Speaker 2: 8:26

We're very big on pop buys. We're very big on kind of going out for coffee with your clients, go into networking groups. We often walk neighborhoods, we do flyers, we go to community events. We just did a community event recently. So all of those things help to keep us top of mind for people and I think that's why we don't sort of have the peaks and troughs and we're pretty steady.

Speaker 2: 8:48

Of course we have months that are better, like this month is fantastic for us but we really haven't been affected by a lot of the things that some people are scared about and we keep picking up the phone and we keep going back to past clients to ask for them, for their referrals, and we're not scared to do that. We do it in a nice manner and we also recognize our clients that have served us and do client events too where we thank them for their time in their business. We get involved in their kids activities. We often sponsor football teams and things like that and just being involved in the community. I think it just keeps us top of mind.

Speaker 1: 9:25

Yeah, I think the communication is so big and that's if we listen to what NAR puts out as stats from buyers and sellers. It's the one thing. They want more of more communication. So that's really good, good stuff. I think the other thing to talk about, too, is the opportunity that comes from being on our team. We've built some pretty awesome careers. You want to talk a little bit about that?

Speaker 2: 9:46

Yeah, so what I've noticed I've been the team leader now on the Brittingham and Couch team for four years and I think what I've noticed is I've been able to increase people's average sale. So a lot of the people on the team that initially were brand new things like that would often be in a certain price range and there's as much work involved in every price range that you do. So if we can kind of get them into a slightly higher price point the 400s, the 500s, the 600s, you know that's just a nice thing for them to be able to do a great feather in their cap and that's one of the things that I help them work on. So at the beginning of the year well, really the year beforehand, in October and November time we start looking at what their goals are. So it's what their goals are financially, how many transactions they need to do, what their average sale price is, and sometimes their financial goal is really really high. But yet if we can increase their average sales it's not going to be that they're going to have to work, you know, five times harder than they were last year. So we really focus on that and hitting specific neighborhoods and doing repeat things, so it's not touching a neighborhood once, it's having a different message and touching that neighborhood every three to four weeks. So those are the things that I believe helped the team and the individuals to grow.

Speaker 2: 11:00

And we've had a number of people you know that have grown from the team and then created their own teams, because obviously they've got extremely successful and that's really what we want in this business. But a lot of people are extremely successful and doing very high end and they still want to stay with the team. They like that and they don't want to take on the responsibility of the team. So we're happy either way. Either you want to grow and produce your own team or you just like to stay with us and, you know, have all the support system with the admin, with the marketing, with all the videos and everything that we offer as well. So there's something for everybody.

Speaker 2: 11:32

And it's really important for me to kind of meet with the individuals and find out really what makes them tick, and sometimes it is. You know that they have a goal, that they want to take their family somewhere. Sometimes it's what that they just, you know, want to have the freedom. It can be so many different things, but it's finding out what makes that individual tick and then trying to kind of connect them with somebody in the team that they work well with. So even though we're a big team of 15, there's still people that work particularly well. Or if I see a particular skill that somebody else is lacking, that they might need to improve on, I try and pair them up as well.

Speaker 2: 12:08

So it's really leveraging who we have on the team and everybody's happy to share and I think that's a great thing. And I think that also comes down from having you and Tom as leaders, because you guys are always willing to share and you're very like ying and yang. I mean, you're both such different personalities and you both bring so many great things to the table and I think that filters down. So you know, for me it's a privilege to be able to be underneath the two of you and help the rest of the team, and I feel that they feel that the door is open and you know I check in with them, whether it's to do with business or whether it's to do with personal things as well, and just, you know, if I haven't seen them for a while, I'm checking to make sure if they need us for anything, and I think they appreciate that.

Speaker 2: 12:46

And sometimes this business can be really tough because we are dealing with people that are being dealing with the biggest asset that they probably ever have. It can be extremely emotional and, no, it's never black and white. There's a lot of gray in this industry and every transaction is different, and just having some people to talk to sometimes, I think, just helps them to clear their mind and to get through the process, and that's, you know, that's the plus of being on a team that you have that support system there.

Speaker 1: 13:11

Yes, yes, I definitely think we have a great way of supporting agents, but I think a lot of what you're talking about also translates into why we're so successful with our clients. You know our sellers, our buyers. We have clients for life. They come back because I think you're teaching the agents the skills that it takes to communicate, to have the difficult conversations, to make sure they're explaining the market to the buyer or the seller, and we're giving them all those tools to better support the consumer. So, at the end of the day, I think it comes full circle back to why anybody out there in the industry should want to work with this team because they're knowledgeable, they know how to get it done, they have a ton of support and we're doing whatever is best in the industry.

Speaker 2: 13:53

So I think you're doing a really great job making sure that the agents are in tune to what it is that the consumer really needs to meet their goal, and I think another thing as well that we point out when anybody joins our team Therese is that our expectation is that they do 52 trainings a year. 52 trainings sounds such a huge amount because obviously that's one a week, but really all we're asking them to do is connect, whether it's coming to a team meeting, which we have by monthly, or whether it's coming getting onto a Zoom call or coming into the office or going to a networking group. Our industry is continually changing from week to week, from day to day, and we need to be on top of that. So by asking them to do that, we're just helping them to grow continually. We also recommend certain books that they read, and it's all things that we've done ourselves, or if we've read a book, or if we've heard a podcast, or if we've been on a Zoom call and we've learned something, we're all happy to share that, and I think that's one of the strongest things that I've noticed, specifically with Keller Williams and also with our team that there is this ethos that there is enough for all of us, there's plenty out there, and that the more that we do together, the more it's going to bring in.

Speaker 2: 15:05

I know in a number of companies and a number of other realtors that are out there. Often they're scared to share things because they think someone's going to take their idea and run with it and then they're going to lose out. We have no problem sharing our listing and presentation with people. We don't have any problems sharing any information that we have because we believe that the more that we give out, the more that's going to come back, and I think that trickles down through everybody and we have a great turnout. When we do do things in the community, it just I truly believe, what you give out comes back, and that's always what we think about is doing the right thing.

Speaker 2: 15:41

It's not always about closing a deal. It's always thinking about how is this going to affect the consumer, the seller, the buyer? Is it the right thing to do? And giving them their choices? We are there to advise and educate them and they ultimately they're our clients.

Speaker 2: 15:58

They make the end choice and I think a lot of consumers really appreciate that. They don't think that we are there just to close a deal. Sometimes it's not the best thing for them and they need to take a break, or maybe they need to rent for a while, or maybe they just need to take a pause and not carry on looking for a house for a moment. Or they decided that it's not the right time to sell, and that's okay. We might have taken photographs, we might have done all the prep work, but they're like I just need to put the brakes on for a moment. We're never going to force anybody to do anything that they don't feel comfortable with, because we believe in long-term relationships, and I think that shows through all the business that we've done and all the repeat business that we get as well.

Speaker 1: 16:36

Yeah, I think we think of ourselves more as educators. You know helping the public really understand what is the best option for them at the place they're on their life. I talked to a client yesterday to list their home and they potentially would do better if they lease it. You know, I don't know if a lot of agents would actually take that potential listing out of their own opportunity to do what's right for the client and at the end of the day, I think that's what you do really great with our team and I think Kelle Williams does a great job with the Y4C2 teams and you know doing the right thing and win-win things like that always come back, you know, for the better all the time.

Speaker 1: 17:12

So I think that is a lot of information. Is there anything else you'd like to share out there?

Speaker 2: 17:16

I would just say that everybody just needs to kind of at this time, think positive, keep your chin up and believe that you know, even when you get knocked down, it's how you react from that and pick yourself up and get going and move forward.

Speaker 1: 17:30

Yeah, Melinda, thank you so much. That was awesome. So if you need more information, reach out to Melinda. She will give you everything you need to hear about the Burning Hand McCow sales team. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 17:40

How was that? Was that okay?

Speaker 1: 17:41

I wasn't too much talking. No, no, that was perfect.