WARNING: This may be the most important information that you will ever read, about selling real estate and having it ALL.
Click this button to unlock his daily email tips and instantly get a free digital copy of his revered "Agent On Fire BLAZE" newsletter.
MIKE COSTIGAN
ANTI-TYPICAL AGENT
Shows agents how get listings using "zero bs" marketing and sleaze-free sales approaches.
Welcome to Magic Mike’s Church…not for the cheap.
So, I get it.
You want to be generous. You want to make sure clients love you. You’ll do just about anything to please them…including CUTTING your commission.
Look here Mother Theresa.
You ain’t helpin’ no one when you screw yourself first! (my best Southern accent here-I’m a GA boy)
How the he** can you possibly be of any service to your clients when you aren’t making any money?! And don’t try and bs me or anyone else by saying that you had no choice.
Bulls***!
You got weak and you dropped your drawers because you had no other weapon.
I’m not arguing that a pretty pair of shorts won’t get someone’s attention, but they’ve got no place at the kitchen table.
This topic just lights me up. Pisses me off really.
You commission-cutters are the ones who post your sob stories all over FaceBook and whine about the Zeellowmonster taking all of your money.
Shoot. You didn’t have any to begin with. YOU brought the industry to its knees.
You set the standard. Pathetic.
You want to give money away? Drop it in the collection box on Sunday. But don’t give it to sellers who SHOULD be paying for services.
I know a fee-for-service broker here who’s hated by a certain percentage of our market. She goes in and lists homes for $500 and charges a separate fixed fee for anything else…
Lockbox rental-$90
Home Tour-$150
Etc…
People call her weak. They call her a “discount” broker.
But she’s hardly that!
She’s STRONGER than MOST of the pathetic mediocre majority of “full service” agents out there.
She discounts NOTHING!
Her fee is her fee and she gets it! Every time.
We all choose our fees. We all choose differently. And I’d never suggest that you charge any set commission.
What I WOULD suggest, is that you sharpen your sales skills so that you can actually get what you ask for!
If you aren’t able to present enough value to a seller that they happily pay you..well, you’re seriously a disappointment to yourself.
You know it and I know it.
You’ll look yourself in the mirror at night and quietly beat yourself over the head.
How much longer are you going to let people pay you less than you are worth?
You cannot SERVE anyone until you take care of yourself.
If you’d like to be able to smile back at the face staring back at you when you brush your teeth, go here:
-Mike Costigan
How to Stop Sellers from Stealing
“Location, location, location” is total BS.
Whoever started this little mantra should be taken out back and whipped like a child caught shoplifting.
If you believe this garbage about location, you are just stealing commission checks from your own account…and you deserve a good reddening of your butt.
I don’t like dummies, and I think you’re obviously smart, because you’re reading this and interested in learning from a guy who has sold thousands of homes. So let’s get right to the truth.
PRICE sells homes.
I don’t care what land of fairy dust and magical fantasy or what nasty stinking cesspool of a place that houses happen to be located.
Price them right. They sell.
So why don’t agents get it right? How DO you get sellers to price homes squarely on the money?
Well, instead of shoving a soapy helping of price demands down their throat like a disciplinarian, you let THEM choose the starting point.
See, there’s psychology at play here. They want to try unrealistic prices, but they don’t want the accountability for the mistake-especially if they are going to have to admit fault to their spouse. There’s a trick I use with husbands in front of their wives. It’s literally 3 words! Works every time. But that’s another lesson. I’ll share this magical phrase in The Agent On Fire Blaze monthly newsletter soon.
When you go in and “buy” a listing with an unrealistic price, even if they suggest it, YOU are the easy target for their wrath when the home rots on the market. With the weight off of them, they’ll “try” it every time.
To flip the responsibility and restore rational thinking, all you need to do is to use data and brainless logic to lead them to their own conclusion.
And if they resist, give the spouse a questioning glare!…No joke. Always brings them right back down to the land of reality. EGO is powerful…So is fear of looking stupid.
I have an old friend who is so good at this. I’m in tears when I hear her address a client with whacked out expectations.
At the listing she shows them data. They choose the price.
Incidentally, she takes the listing no matter WHAT the price is. Smart strategy. Listings breed more listings by virtue of no-cost branding.
Now here’s the brilliance in how she handles her price-gougers…
When offers come in to a dreamer of a seller, and they counter back with a head-in-the-clouds price, she says “I don’t care if you do this. It’s your choice to not sell it.”
She has guts!
She is one of the TOP AGENTS IN THE WORLD! She sells thousands of homes every year. And her sellers fall in line pretty fast…quickly going under contract shortly thereafter.
If you don’t take it from me, take a lesson from her. She knows a LOT about keeping sellers real.
If you want to stop letting sellers rob you of your chance to make a sale, go here:
-Mike Costigan
Chicken Shit
Why do you go after low-priced homes?
Because you’re Chicken Sh*t.
Yup. I said it. If the shoe fits, wear it friend.
Fact is, most agents would rather walk barefoot through a mile of yard bird excrement than get face to face with a million dollar seller.
Instead, they’ll just go after the easy, “cheap” stuff like every other never-to-be-rich amateur.
Hear me….LOW HANGING FRUIT TASTES LIKE CRAP!
It’s been sniffed, nibbled on and fondled by hundreds of scavengers before you. It’s infested with their bad ideas and wimpy commission fees already…
Ugh..makes me want to douse myself in Clorox.
Look, it may surprise you to know that the expensive listings are EASIER to get than crappy ones.
Why? Because of the FEAR that keeps the faint-hearted away.
Reality is that few agents market to them and hardly ANY agents call them. It’s like they’re going to have to deal with Norman Bates, so they make every excuse on the planet to NOT climb that hill.
My AOF Blaze newsletter subscribers know that it’s always better to play in a COMPETITION-FREE ZONE like this. And this is where YOU want to play!
I’ll never forget my very first $1MM+ listing. A FSBO. I called-ONCE. I asked if they thought about listing. They said, “Yes. Come on over.” 24 hours later I had my sign in a luxury
home’s front yard.
Instantly prestigious by association!
Here’s a few little morsels you may want to chew on (instead of rotten apple, low dollar listings)
-Luxury sellers EXPECT to pay a decent fee for professional services. You don’t “cut” anything.
-They appreciate LEVERAGE, so they don’t constantly nag you. They let you do your job. They are EASY.
-They are EDUCATED and more business-like. You can price them RIGHT by just showing them data. In other words, your listing is ready to SELL and not sit.
-Luxury listings breed MORE luxury listings. Neighbors see your sign and you are the AUTOMATIC LUXURY EXPERT. They pick you before they even call you.
Bottom line: Same amount of work. Potentially Less. HIGHER COMMISSIONS.
Duh.
If you want to be the Golden Child instead of Johnny Appleseed, go here:
-Mike Costigan
Impending Death of an Overworked Agent
Stone Grey Paint!
Who would have thought it would change my life?
It sure as hell did.
T’was a typical sh*tty rush hour in Atlanta. Caught among the zillions of “9 to 5-ers”, numb to their routine of cubicles and traffic jams, was the Realtor, dead stopped in his flashy BMW, shaking with anxiety as the light went from red to green to red again, inching his way towards the intersection. Anger growing. Eyes glowing red and steam building like a geyser, rushing through his body up to the top of his skull. This guy was going to blow!
The wife was screaming in his ear for her paint.
Clients relentlessly emailing.
Holy moly!
I remember that day. It was the worst, yet the greatest ever.
My life did a U-turn.
I was finally free.
You see, I had an epiphany right there in the car ( sounds messy huh?). It was one of those mythical breakthroughs. A life-changer.
I had had ENOUGH!
I was going on 80+ hours of work and then rushing to Restoration Hardware like a maniac, trying to pick up some stinking overpriced paint before they closed.
I didn’t make it. And I didn’t care.
I was done with the rushing at that very moment as I crept through the I-285 underpass, only 1 mile from the store. A 60 second trip that took 69 minutes.
That was my final moment of giving a damn.
Work was not my reason for existence. Yet I let it devour every ounce of enjoyment that life had awarded me.
I turned around, raced up to my office and began feverishly writing down EVERYTHING that I did for work every day.
I began the glorious process of “elimination”. An exercise of unmatchable impact.
I lined-through time-suck activities until I was left with the mere flecks of the gold in the pan, letting the useless silt flow out and disappear downstream forever.
I focused only on those little gleaming treasures going forward.
I went from 80+ hours a week to 30.
My income shot from 5 figures to 7 figures.
BMW to McLaren.
It’s one of the most valuable lessons that I teach to subscribers of my Agent On Fire Blaze monthly newsletter.
A TRUE game-changer on all levels.
Oh yeah, I got the paint. They left it on the sidewalk for me, outside of the locked storefront. Hired a painter. Not trading my freedom for a paintbrush anymore.
Wow. How it all transforms when you just let it.
If you want to EXPERIENCE life’s real treasures NOW, go here:
-Mike Costigan
Get the H** off the Real Estate Roller Coaster
“The Mindbender”.
“The Great American Scream Machine.”
Two bad*** rides at Six Flags.
Highly recommend them both. I remember my first time trying them. A perfect balmy Saturday Georgia evening. Gorgeous new blonde lady on my arm (back in my young, dumb and single days). I was the brave fearless hero…secretly shaking inside…could have been the anticipation of never being stupid enough to climb into a 100MPH tin can on rails before…but I’ll chalk it up to her amazing baby blues.
Up and Down. Up and Down. Twisting. Turning. Stomach churning.
Man, there were moments of such great exhilaration. But at the end I just felt sick.
Might have puked…in the trash can. Yup. ZERO kisses for old Magic Mike after that display of eeeewwwwwww.
Went to work Monday.
First day of the month. Closings all done. Clients all settled in new homes.
Time to start the CLIMB…again.
Round ‘em up!
Load their kiddos in the backseat, sticky fingers and dirty feet, for a day of home touring. Yippee!
Up half the night following up on so-called buyer leads.
Maybe I’d write a few contracts…Up, up up.
Oh the CLIMB. Miserable. But necessary.
Every month I had to race as fast as I could to the top, fighting to maintain my heroic gleam in Blondie’s eyes. I’m Batman!
Yeah right. More like The Joker. Who was I fooling? I was WEAK!
Too sheepish to look myself in the eyes and say “When are you going to stop the insanity? This has to change…NOW!”
The answer is hidden in plain sight like a glaring signal in the sky.
Close your eyes now and see it Robin…what does it say?
“GET LISTINGS!”
Even in the most “un-listable” markets, there are certain little tricks you can use, over and over again, to get TONS of listings-even if you have NEVER listed a home.
When you build even a moderate listing inventory it smoothes out the ride.
You have consistency.
You have no anxiety.
You have steady, predictable income.
….like my Agent On Fire Blaze monthly newsletter subscribers do.
Choice is yours. Keeping riding and barfing in the barrel, or get in the listing game.
To get off of that miserable roller coaster and list a bunch of batcaves in a hurry, go here:
-Mike Costigan
MIKECOSTIGAN
