Danielle and Brandon talk selling real estate with award winning realtor Jacqueline Clement.
About Jacqueline Clement
Jacqueline is a residential Realtor® with Century 21 Millennium, living in and serving Dufferin County. With the ultimate goal of changing public perception of Realtors®, she focuses on providing education for buyers and sellers in a fun, no-pressure atmosphere. Gives a truly personalized, full-service experience to her clients and makes each client feel like the only client.
Jacqueline has spent most of her career building and developing an award-winning team in Dufferin County. To ensure she was delivering on her goal and providing clients with a personalized experience, Jacqueline made the move to an independent agent. In most cases, clients preferred working with one dedicated agent vs. multiple agents throughout the process.
With extensive construction, marketing, and negotiation skills, and backed by the #18 real estate brokerage in the world Century 21 Millennium INC., Jacqueline has the knowledge and tools to guide you to SOLD!
Fun Facts About Jacqueline:
Jacqueline is a dedicated mom & wife to her two children and husband.
To show her appreciation to the community, she continually volunteers and supports various events like; Photos with Santa, School Council, Shelburne Soccer Club, Polar Plunge, Coats for Kids, and more.
Jacqueline is also an avid yogi and loves exploring the Bruce trails, skiing, and doing anything and everything to do with water.
Let us know what you think by sending us an email at Feedback @ OnBusinessPodcast.com
AUTO GENERATED TRANSCRIPT | COURTESY OF YOUTUBE
welcome back to the on business podcast with tons of experience in different
Industries in Canada and the United States Danielle and Brandon give you real talk no-nonsense expert advice
about running and owning successful companies here’s your host Danielle Jenkins and Brandon White
wonderful why don’t you start officially sure okay well
um everybody does listening welcome to on business podcast uh Brandon and I are very excited today we have our first
guest feature who is a close friend of mine uh we have done business together
we also have wine together and we talk about not only our business problems but also our girl problems so I’m very
excited to have Jacqueline on the show she is an amazing mom a successful businesswoman and a phenomenal real
estate agent she is award-winning top producing realtor she lives in and
services Dufferin County on Ontario Canada just near where I am from and her
ultimate goal is to make each client feel like the only client and change the Public’s perception of real estate so
I’m assuming we’re going to get into that on the show today um and her focus is to provide a comfortable less stressful experience
for buyers and sellers in a fun no pressure atmosphere giving a personalized full service experience to
her clients I have experienced that myself so I am looking forward to hearing and sharing with all of our
listeners how Jacqueline got into real estate the ins and outs of business in the real estate industry and her top
three uh high performance tips for any current or aspiring Realtors so welcome Jacqueline thank you so much for having
me today guys I’m excited foreign
welcome to the show I uh for listeners I dropped in this morning before we
started recording and uh Jacqueline and Danielle had a lot of energy
it may be Friday Danielle said it it’s just just my demeanor
um but I’m excited to have you on the show I know Danielle and I have been talking about it and I think what we’re most
excited about is that there’s always a magical journey before
you get or or how you get to where you are and I I had heard through a little
birdie that you had another business before you got into the real estate business so we’re really excited for you
to share that journey and story where’s the best place for us to start
for me um I mean I guess if we want to start with my journey and how I got into real
estate that would kind of segue into the top three tips and so on and so forth yeah that would be that that would
be perfect why don’t you start in the beginning you had another business what what tell listeners what that business was and how it sort of transitioned not
sort of how it did transition into real estate yes so rewind back to my childhood my
both my parents have been entrepreneurs my whole life um so I really haven’t known much else I
grew up really with a desire and a drive to not have to work for the man if you
know what I mean um so when I got into my early 20s and
out onto my own I well I graduated college for photography so I have a diploma in that so I opened up a
photography business did that professionally for probably about five years but it wasn’t my dream it didn’t
fulfill something deep inside of me um then I started having a family and
it definitely lost its luster after that you know the evenings and weekends and
although in real estate you still work evenings and weekends I can tailor myself more now than I could then
um so from there I said okay well after I have after my daughter starts going to
school I’m going to dive into real estate full time and that’s what I did I just hunkered down while the kids were
little um did all of the courses and training and got my license so I was able to go
hit the ground running when my kids were in school and I had the time and energy to take this on
foreign
did you you sort of just skipped over and you said oh and the family happened was was the
was that a long discussion or did did
you anticipate what was going to happen I’m just curious how that
so my husband is like me
so when we got married we discussed the option to have children
um so I actually have two children and over the course of eight years I had my son three years later I had my daughter
and it was when my daughter was born um that I really started to dig into
real estate I do have family that also is in real estate so watching their Journey
um you know my dad used to be a general contractor so it’s always something I’ve been kind of interested in and
passionate about but it wasn’t until after my daughter was born and I had time to kind of mull things over where I
wanted my life to go um that I really decided to jump on board and get my real estate license
because I have so much education in my background between you know realtors in the family construction background
entrepreneurial background watching my parents and my first job ever was working with my dad he was in auto
appraisal so I would sit and it’s a very similar industry I would sit with auto
traders for out hours and hours that was my first job was going through looking for the vehicle that he had to appraise
and coming up with an approximate value so my background in this goes all the
way back to 13 years old appraising things
you should have become an appraisal an appraisal company Jacqueline
as right as we have the value of someone’s home and get into the Nitty Gritty numbers and and come up with that
information yeah so so actually that kind of leads
into um a question that I I totally have and I think our listeners should have um the
answers to is share with us about the real estate industry um not only why are you an award-winning
top producing agent that you are but also tell us about the industry like how do you go into someone’s home give them
that appraised value really on in your opinion and everything that you have learned
um and how do you kind of tell them that you’re going to sell it for this price and they’re going to be able to buy
their next dream home how how does that work tell us about it are you wanting like the the
step-by-step process or just kind of in general [Laughter]
we want your magic my magic well my magic I’d say uh I mean
every real estate agent what separates them is either this well the service they provide and their personality I
mean we’re a dime a dozen there are so many real estate agents available but what
you should be looking for and why my clients pick me is my energy I have a quirky personality I’m loud but I’m also
transparent um I communicate probably more than I should
um and my boundaries between the professional and personal level
I don’t really treat clients like they’re just clients I I want them to become my friends I want them to feel
comfortable coming to me and discussing things with me um that’s one thing I want to talk about maybe a little later but now is a good
time is so many people will say that they felt that they couldn’t reach out to their
agent or they felt like they were bothering them with questions and that really upsets me
um when you’re handling someone’s biggest asset what’s usually their biggest asset you should feel totally
comfortable at any time reaching out to them shooting them in text nine o’clock at night being like hey how’d that
showing whatever situation may be um so Journey for my clients is usually
they’ll reach out to me one way or another I will set up a good time and place there is a ton of research that goes
into the back end and that’s the benefit of choosing someone that works locally that’s something you’ll hear me say and
repeat a lot in my social media content um and probably throughout this uh
podcast is finding someone that’s local to either where you’re selling or where you’re buying because they are such
micro niches especially I mean Danielle is in the Orangeville area I’m in the
Shelburne area we’re only 20 minutes apart but they’re completely different markets
um so it’s Gathering up all of those tidbits of information what’s happening right now in real estate coming up with
that approximate value and usually people have a pretty good idea to begin with there’s so much information
available online calculators and house Sigma and things like that where they can see what things are selling for
so it’s not usually a big surprise unless we land in a market like we’re in right now
um where maybe not everyone’s expecting that it has gone down as much
for sure and and
Jacqueline are you there he’s playing okay we lost you there for
a second we sorry we did lose you there for a second sorry about that country life I usually
have pretty good internet but it wasn’t enough sorry about that okay well we did catch what you were
saying about your journey um and how you put your clients through their Journey because it like you said
it is one of their biggest assets um then they shouldn’t feel uncomfortable however one thing that we
didn’t really prepare for in a question but I also do want to ask you is how do you I guess
balance it Brandon and I talk about on the show often about how some days we can balance going for a bike ride or
going out for dinner or something like that but there are days where business takes over and we can’t record a podcast
because of business or we can’t do certain things or Brandon can’t ride his bike because he has to deal with a
contract so how do you deal with getting those text messages at nine o’clock at night from a client
um you know it does interfere with your family life so how does that look like for say an aspiring entrepreneur in the
real estate industry what does that look like and be real about your day-to-day Journeys because you and I have had very
candid conversations about your days where you are getting text messages at 6am from maybe not some friendly clients
um or from great ones so share on that um so I think the most important thing is if someone is looking to get into any
entrepreneur Journey but especially real estate you have to very early on have an understanding that that is just part of
being an entrepreneur you will have days and sacrifices that you have to make in your personal life in order to build and
grow your business I mean we all start out as a one-man show and there’s only so many hours in a day so it’s having a
mindset knowing that that is going to happen but as you get further into your
journey it’s setting those boundaries so when I say yeah sure if my clients can text me at nine o’clock at night I don’t
mean some random lead that I’ve never talked to before I’m going to start a massive conversation and dive deep at
nine o’clock at night because that’s generally the time I block out to spend with my family put my kids to bed that’s
important to me so as far as outlining my own boundaries I have okay I’m always
going to put my kids on the bus for school in the morning I’m always going to be available to put them to bed at
night and then whatever other things throughout the year a week that are important to me to be able to do and
still be there for my family but they’re also still very much aware and on board and I think that’s an important factor
too is discussing if you do have a family is discussing with them
their expectations and they need to be aware that this isn’t a regular nine to
five and if they’re not supportive of that then this might not be the right Journey for you
because we all know I love that I could see Brandon sitting there kind of smiling and nodding his head because we
have talked often um both Brandon and I we don’t have children so we have spouses but we don’t have children and
our entrepreneurial Journey can look a hell of a lot different uh to someone else because your important things are
your children and your husband obviously my husband is also important to me but we are both business owners and we both
make time for work along with each other um so I could totally see how it’s very
important for you to share with your personal clients um you know that you do have children
because maybe somebody that is looking to buy a home wants somebody maybe like Brandon and myself who are in the real
estate industry um that don’t have kids and are with them 24 7 you know to be able to assist
with our clients needs um so I could see Brandon kind of shaking his head and smiling a little bit there so we’re
going to share a little bit on your Insight on that um in regards to being an entrepreneur with no children
compared to Jaclyn’s Journey uh well candidly I don’t really know how
people with kids do it I I think it’s incredibly hard I I’ve said this before
but one of the most productive people that I have ever worked with was a lady
who I worked with in a in our service business it was a
software engineering and really people business Consulting business and
she could do more in 90 minutes then I could get done
in five hours and it was a real Awakening for me not that I’m not a
productive person but she was just so productive and I knew that she was
productive because in that business sometimes we had to write proposals and these proposals are long it’s a very
arduous process and she would come out of these blocks of time with this incredible
amount of work and I would always just think to myself holy cow how does
she do that one day I actually walked in her office her office door was shut I was like hey can you just explain to
me how you do this and effectively what she described was batching and I think
that forcing function of knowing that you have this window and you must accomplish something I think it’s a good
lesson for anybody out there in the sense that when you know that it happens my question
for Jacqueline around that is that the real estate business is is really
and I’m not a real estate agent I’ve invested in real estate and I still invest in some real estate and
I think it’s a generally a good investment not just obviously for your home but possibly for some other
properties like Danielle has had and we’ve talked about on the show before but is the real estate
industry really a numbers game I had a mentor who had a very large real estate company had built two of them and sold
his last one to Warren Buffett and it became what is now I think richer real
estate and I just had I was really fortunate to fish with him almost every
Friday for a lot of years because he was a customer of the site of the company that I had that was a phishing website
and he once told me he said Brandon is really not that complicated and I said okay well
you know can you unpack that for me and he said of all of the real estate agents
that we have I tell them if you show 30 homes
you’re gonna get one and is that the type of approach that you
take and what sparked this question is because you said hey at nine o’clock I’m not going to get back to someone and for
someone who doesn’t have kids I’m like oh Jacqueline you got to respond within like 30 seconds if you don’t respond in
30 seconds you’re like not and I’m making this up but it but the math on return when someone has an inbound is is
pretty um they they know from the statistics that
the fall off after that can happen so how do you sort of approach this that that it’s a marketing life balance
question is really what that is that’s a great question um so I’ll go back rewind and say
it really depends on where you’re at in your journey but for me my family was a non-negotiable
um now if I’m working a deal with a client their house is listed say we have an offer on the table or an offer comes
in at 9 10 11 o’clock at night I absolutely will respond immediately and
be there for my clients because that’s what I’m hired to do um however for me
calling someone back at nine o’clock the next morning if it’s a new lead coming in like you’re
suggesting let’s say you know you get a realtor.ca lead because that’s what we use up here
um comes in at nine o’clock at night I’m not only not in the right mind frame like mindset to have the conversation
with them at that time it was one of my non-negotiables that I would have to be
there for my children and you know if I happen to be in a situation where I’m already out and I’m driving home from
showing a property whatever the case may be then I may jump on that lead you’re correct in the sense that it is a
numbers game a hundred percent everything in life is like that the more opportunities you have the more wins you
will get right but there’s also a quality versus quantity and it depends up where on where you’re
at in your real estate Journey um so in the very beginning those first three to five years in real estate you
absolutely have to jump on every lead that comes in immediately and that was a sacrifice I discussed with my family
um and that I was able to do because of the support from my family I was also when I started
part of a team um so there were other aspects that were easier for me and I just had to follow
up with leads that would come through for the buying end however now that you
know fast forward five years into my career it really does become
you know that whole being your true self I know Danielle talks about that all the time as well and the more you learn
the business side of it the more you can bring your true self into the business and people will come to you
um so I don’t I’m at a stage in my career now where the people calling me are almost all referrals it’s like a 90
referral based business and anyone in real estate that should be their
ultimate goal is to get the referral repeat business
um because they are reaching up to you they know you they already have a trust in you
so if you call them back the next morning be like hey I got your message last night or even a quick text back at nine saying sorry I’ll reach out to you
at nine are you available at that time or what’s a good time all depends on what your style is
um but I find most people really respect that if I’m honest and just say listen you know as with my family so sorry I
wasn’t able to get back to you right away do you have a few moments to chat it’s only how you approach it
makes you a real person but I I think that’s fair one thing rewinding
I have made a note was you said that you like to
engage with your clients and and become I’m using the word friends but that
would that’s hard to accelerate but my experience I’ll tell you from some real estate agents and I I would when
Danielle and I were talking um I know you you do this and that’s what really makes you great and I want
you to talk a little bit about that but I’ve had these real estate agents that I walk into a house and I’ve got
three you know five questions and they can’t answer the questions like is this forced or
um forced air heat or is this a furnace uh oil furnace I’m just using that as an
example and that’s a very United States East Coast thing I don’t know about in Canada here on the West Coast
I’m sorry is it my old place at an oil furnace we have that here too
right so I mean I grew up with baseboard hot water heat and I just grew up with
that and for so for me that’s it here in California when we bought the house it was literally does the house have heat
because and does it have air conditioning which is where we live sort of a dumb question because
the ocean is the air conditioning literally but what I’ve found and and you touched on
and I’d like you to talk about is I understand it’s hard so if you’re going to go show 15 properties some of those
properties you may not have even been to as a person who tends to be very
prepared and and I think Danielle the the and I say this lovingly the
procedure and process lady you know that really gives you
if you can go in and answer those questions it gives you a sense of authority that they trust you and where
I’m going with this is for listeners who may be in the real estate business
I don’t want you to be friends with me if you don’t know your [ __ ] and and I’m
just being blunt like it’s like you know in real estate people a lot if this isn’t just real estate we’re talking
about real estate today but I’ve been to the car dealer and I know more about the car than the
person and that person’s worked there for four years it’s like take a little pride and I think that if
you can be really good and I think that’s why you get all these referrals you can be that good
and do the research and it does take time right if you’re going to show 15 houses
and you’re really I mean it takes a lot of it’s double the time I
mean in theory you might go visit the house before you even show the house now I’ve been with real estate agents who
can’t even unlock that lock on the front door and I’m like I don’t understand like you’re showing
me this for the first time too I mean you can go sit in the car because I don’t want I don’t want to I don’t want
to hear you I’ve got I know I’m going on a little rain here but I’ve had a lot of experience with real estate and it’s not
just residential it goes into commercial the commercial is even worse for me because in general those Stakes are high
if we’re looking at a three million dollar commercial property and this person doesn’t know where the property line is like that’s a problem for me so
can you talk about how you prepare and how you’ve sort of built your method if
it will if you will that got you this reputation because inbound referrals are
the cheapest customer acquisition cost the highest lifetime value and they’re
almost priceless so that should be every real estate agent’s ultimate goal as I said before
is referrals if you are not working every client with the intent that they
will be a lifetime client and refer you for a lifetime then you’re doing it
wrong um so rewind when I say that I like to
build relationships with my clients on the friend level because to me
it is important of course you have to know your stuff
um there’s no doubt about that I’ll dive back into that in a second but the personal aspect for me is I’m trying to
get into their head as to their motivation as to when I’m doing a negotiation it helps me better negotiate
to have an understanding of what’s going on in their brain what is their ultimate goal why are they making this move is
their motivation money is it time is it family whatever the case may be but
diving into those questions sort of automatically breaks down those
barriers and become closer because you start to share information right it’s very unlikely that they’re going to talk
about their family and won’t ask me about mine um so it’s building those connections
for the purpose of real estate to help negotiate them and guide them through
this process because not everybody’s buying or selling for the same reason and there sometimes might be things you
need to be sensitive to um in the aspect of my methods and
preparation earlier in the show at the beginning when Danielle introduced me that’s one
of the things I try to let people know if they don’t know me
and we’re discussing the potential of me as a real estate agent is yeah we’re a dime a dozen there are good ones and
there are horrible ones and there are amazing ones and everywhere in between
um so you just have to figure out what level you’re looking for and what your ultimate goal is out of the process but
for me it’s a non-negotiable um I have to absolutely but it’s a
personal thing of mine too that I want to be the best I want to make sure I
have the answer to every question ahead of time so it’s a methodical and that’s
a thing that you learn over time too the more houses you’ve showed the more houses you sell you learn what questions
people are going to ask you but even during you know the pandemic when things were flying like hotcakes I
had days where I would show 20 houses to one client in one day we had 15 minutes to get in there look
at the house know every potential issue whatever on to the next
so if I didn’t make sure I time blocked we talked about that earlier time out of
my day or evening or after the kids go to bed that’s still available time to research each property so I had the
answers to those questions especially knowing that they’re going to have to go in firm there’s no saving
them if this doesn’t work out or they didn’t get the correct information that’s liable on me and I absolutely
never want a client calling people up or going on Google and saying
this girl screwed me you need to know what you’re talking about and it’s at the end of the day
that’s my job so the excuses people give I didn’t have time whatever it’s not an
excuse this is your job you’re supposed to protect your clients
and know your inventory and and I want to just add to that for all
of our listeners um that are listening uh obviously um Jacqueline actually has her own
um show on Instagram like an Instagram live show that they do once a week and they talk about real estate Trends they
talk about how the real estate Market’s changing they talk about things that your agent should be doing so they’re
kind of giving this advice to other agents um in their area for free and I think
it’s really cool because one time I was on the show and we were talking about the benefits of having a cleaning company I.E mine
um to work with your agents to prepare the home and so when we were doing this show like Jacqueline was so prepared she
knew every like literally the numbers of homes that were sold in the area how
many homes are on the market the current value or average things like that and I
think that’s phenomenal to know but on top of that she’s also so with the trends of real estate so when Jacqueline
just said that you know you had to go in firm during covid I think Brandon I was telling you about that and how the
market is so crazy or was so crazy here where literally people were talking to Sergo for a
mortgage getting a pre-approval without Sergo even knowing anything and them
going to Jacqueline and go oh my mortgage broker just told me that I was approved for 900 000 we’re going to put
in an offer now and Jacqueline literally has to know absolutely everything because they have about 3.2 seconds to
put in a deal know what they’re approved for and and get an offer and they’re having to put in an offer 200 000 more
because the market is so crazy so if Jacqueline didn’t know her [ __ ] that
would be really detrimental and could cause potential lawsuits like could come back on Sergo like there’s just so many
things in this in this equation and so for Jacqueline she has to be prepared
especially during a hot market and so you know on the show that they have on
Instagram they talk about all of these things so if you’re a real estate agent in the Dufferin County area I mean I
would recommend following their behind the sign show because they will give you free advice for any real estate agents
any numbers and stuff that you need that you’re unsure of you definitely should follow because they do know their stuff
but that’s what’s being a great agent that Jacqueline has done that is part of her procedures and processes that
Brandon just noted um that has made her so great because she knows her [ __ ] and especially during
a hot market and even now it’s not necessarily a hot Market but the market has drastically changed and kind of
going back down to normal so now people should be spending that time doing those
additional things that Jacqueline was talking about so I’ll let you go into that a little bit more Jacqueline about
again the things that you do to be better than the rest and to dominate
your industry like you’re doing um I mean really at the end of the day
it all just comes down to value and any entrepreneurial journey is you need to
provide value to whoever your clientele may be um but especially in real estate if you aren’t providing them value they’re over
on to the next so whether that be value in the sense of communication that’s
probably the biggest one that you hear a lot is there’s a lack of communication so being as you mentioned on Trend you
got WhatsApp you got text you got Instagram you got Facebook you got however they want to get a hold of you you need to be available
um but as you also just mentioned the market can turn at the drop of a hat which it did I know in the States you
guys were experiencing a very similar volatile market and you also experience the same
shut off as we did for us it was April 1st those interest rates increased and our
Market went flat so if you are not using someone local if you are not using
someone that is active in real estate listing your house at the wrong price
point is detrimental and it can actually cause you to lose tens of thousands of
dollars so yeah sometimes we might go through a journey of figuring out what
that new value might be but that all plays into those systems and the research and educating your
clients on what’s moving and why but I think the why is what’s so commonly missed
um digging a little deeper into systems and preparation and stuff it’s it all goes
back to time management which we started this discussion about is time blocking and making sure that you’re working in
your business as much as you’re working on your business it needs to be a 50 50. and it’s so easy as an entrepreneur to
get lost in your business but you have to be diligent you have to
be disciplined and make sure you take the time because if you’re just flying by the seat of
your pants people will catch on eventually
I have a question for Jacqueline what do you do I know you you said
and we talked about it that you get referrals and that was the goal but buying a house specifically
is one of these things where it only happens so often some people
move more than other people and whatnot but you have to be memorable
at that moment when this big thing happens so can you talk about do you do these these
outbound marketing efforts where you mail people within
your XY zip code and say you know we get these here in California I haven’t
bought a house here I am looking at a lot but the market really I would say maybe
slower but is different here in California at least Northern California and the Bay Area mainly because it’s an
it’s an inventory issue here as well so there’s not as much inventory so you
have this Dynamic of supply and demand that keeps prices High not to mention in the Bay Area at least for the most part
I’m being General there’s there’s 50 towns here between San Jose
uh Mountain View Burlingame San Mateo I keep going Half Moon Bay Montera on the
coast I could keep going down the list but uh it’s different here in that when we
bought our house there there was no mortgage there was do you have cash or not and
you’re not even considered and I’m I say that lovingly I mean we had to write a letter to the people to tell them why we
wanted the house that’s the sort of Market it is here in California in the sense that
um you know it’s just this there’s you can’t develop especially here on the coast there’s there’s no more
development so in my neighborhood I think there’s one house for sale right now I did see that they lowered that
price just slightly which was an adjustment maybe because
they were already pricing it 400 or 500 000 above of what they would have but
that house will sell and the prices here have go up on a percentage basis just a
ridiculous amount so but I think the interest rate I I saw were recording
this show on Friday September 16th and I saw interest rates my in the United States
at least go to six percent so I imagine that’s going to cool things relatively fast but going back to the question we
are that I’m asking is we get these I mean just regularly get these large
postcards in the mail that say hey we just sold a house in on the coast and
they tell us how much it it it is and you know we look at it and we’re like oh that’s great even if you did sell your
house I don’t know where you’re gonna go unless you’re going to move to another state here because there’s no inventory but nonetheless what they’re doing is
keeping their name front of mind so do you do any marketing like that
I think as a real estate agent you are always needing to be mindful of staying top of mind because you’re so easily
mixed in or forgotten um but I will just say if you ever want some entertainment
take those flyers and actually research a couple of the properties as to when
they were sold um our area gets flooded we have at least three or four different realtors
or teams that like to blast us with um junk mail for lack of a better term
sorry guys but what gets me is that they’re using properties they sold two three years ago
um so our consumers need to be aware um and do their research too it’s not
always the one that has the most signage and the one that has the most Billboards is the most successful agent in your
area another question I’ll pose is do you want to work with the busiest
realtor in your area because often they are so busy they don’t have time to get
to know the personal side of the transaction nor do they have the time to
entertain those late night phone calls when you’re feeling anxious because nobody’s come to see your home or
you’re having a listing Presentation tomorrow and you want to know what that looks like so
there’s a lot of research that should go into hiring a real estate agent but back to your question about ads um
personally I don’t do the mailers because I know exactly where they go and it’s I’m an environmental lover I hate
wasting all that paper so most of my stuff is digital any good realtor that wants to maintain
a referral business of course you have to make sure you make that very memorable transaction to the client
initially that’s just on you in the service you provide nothing will outdo
the service you provide your client you can be the quirkiest funniest person in the world but if you don’t give them a
good experience it’s not they’re not referring you so personally I like to stick to things
like Danielle you know we she loves her systems you have to have systems in real
estate you have to have a newsletter and that might be going to the Wayside but
again it’s that way of not only educating your clients and providing that value it’s a touch point it’s a way
of reaching everybody in your database whether you worked with them before or
you’ve never even had a conversation on the phone but they’ve signed up for your newsletter so it’s a way to connect with
those people and then of course you have social media and if you’re not on social media you’re dead
so my social tends to when you say newsletter just for listeners you mean email newsletter right correct sorry
yeah like a monthly email newsletter blast the odd time I’ll email out a blog
post if I feel that it’s something that would be very valuable at the time um so I posted one this morning for
example about um if your real estate transaction falls
apart and what happens to the deposit what happens in that scenario because there’s actually even a lot of real estate
agents that have no idea legally what happens and they just defer you to a
lawyer but as a real estate agent as a good one you should probably know and be able to
advise your client ahead of time should this happen these are the steps and this
is how we can protect ourselves um so that one for example because it’s a question I’ve gotten a lot recently
with the amount of deals that had fallen apart here um simply due to
the price adjustments so I emailed that out and said here’s
some free information whether you want it or not do with it what you will but at least now you are educated and if
you’re not working with me that’s totally fine I’m not for everybody but now you can go back to your agent and
say listen am I protected in this way foreign
what is the number one question that you get over all the years
from I already know that one home buyers who are looking at homes buyers I already know that one
well home sellers yeah home buyers they always just jump right onto Commission because they think that at the end of
the day is the most important question um which that could be a whole nother
podcast well it’s uh well I jump onto that question too it’s important isn’t it because I mean but it’s set these
days still isn’t it Commission no um when you list a property that’s
generally at least in Canada the seller is the one who pays the commission to both agents
um but that’s not the most important thing usually agents that charge a higher commission end up getting you more money
for your property so the percentages and the numbers of this business what’s
going behind that commission is the more important question so personally
there’s a lot of Agents out in our area that will say that they offer staging consultation for their commission that
they do photography that they do a video everybody does that what do you do what
is different about what you’re getting for that five percent so personally I
clarify it’s the transparency first of all you’re going to get top-notch communication you’re never going to be sitting sweating wondering what’s
happening second it’s gonna be a comfortable experience
um you know you never want someone to feel hesitant to pick up the phone when they have that question for so many
reasons but also it’s things like well did you really realize in that other package
that they’re only giving you a consultation for staging they’re not actually staging your home
that falls on you an additional cost to you on top of the five percent if you
want your home staged and then how are they doing photography how many million dollar properties do we
see with horrible photography you can tell they took it with their cell phone it’s embarrassing but to me I don’t care
if your house is five hundred thousand dollars or five million dollars it’s also my portfolio at the end of the day
so you want to find someone that’s using the commission to invest in your listing
which in the end results in you getting more money for your property
so that’s to me the more important question is where is it going and what is it being used for instead of what do
you take home at the end of the day
touched on that Jacqueline because Brandon and I talk a lot on this show about branding and whether it’s your
branding yourself or whether you’re branding your company or your business we talk about it all the time and just
down to what you just said about taking those pictures on their cell phone on a five million dollar home or even a 500
000 home at the end of the day it it represents the agent when they see
something on realtor.ca or MLS that you know is a property and your name is associated with it and the pictures are
fuzzy and the home is filthy and cluttered and looks awful it is a
representation of you at the end of the day so you being a top producing agent obviously know that and for any of our
listeners who are thinking about being in the industry or are in the industry write that down because it’s very
important especially when it comes to branding your brand as an agent
um but I just want to touch on on something actually again one time when I was on the show that Jacqueline does on behind the sign
um her and her other colleagues were chatting about what they do with their commissions and again what your agent
should be doing for you the biggest thing is now is the prices were so high
that people are getting you know Thirty forty thousand dollars a transaction
you’re telling me that your agent can’t get your home cleaned staged and professional photos done out of that and
one thing that I know about Jacqueline our company goes in on every home Jaclyn lists and she makes sure it’s perfectly
clean and sparkling for any walk through she gets it staged with a wonderful staging company out of Orangeville
um she works with the client she Brands professionally her pictures are phenomenal all of the things you’re
getting so it is worth it you know even if Jacqueline was charging 10 you’re getting all of those things with that
cost nothing at additional to that client so when Jaclyn’s talks about what
are you getting for the commission those are the things that you need to think about as a client because if your home is not represented well you’re not going
to sell it maybe in a time where you know like I think Jacqueline touched on this before where you are getting 30
offers in a 10 minute period because we have you know such a crazy Market but on
a regular Market those are the things that are are needing to be done to represent the client and then also to
represent the agent themselves and their branding and marketing and how professional they are and we talk about
it all the time on the show yep so that is something that really we
had a heated discussion about the uh the commission change as prices change
um heated in a sense that like the people I work with and the people that I connect myself with professionally were
all very like-minded that it’s very client based um and at the end of every decision it
should have the client in mind and here seeing you you can physically watch it
when first of all the misconception that the five percent all goes to the one agent I’d like to nip that in the butt
so at least in Canada anyways the average listing prices commission is
five percent automatically half of that so two and a
half percent is offered to whoever brings the buyer so automatically now my commission is
technically only two and a half percent but that’s where a lot of discount brokers and so on like to fool you as
they’ll be like list your home for two and a half percent but they’re still an agent waiting on the other side that
needs to get paid so for me it’s the transparency of where your money is going and once people have a clear
understanding of what they’re getting where it’s going and know that they’re not going to have to have any surprises
it sells itself um of course you have to be good at what you do and sell other services but
commission should not be a difficult conversation but where it really upsets me is yeah we it used to be a lot less I
mean three years ago the average home was five hundred thousand dollars in our area so now they’re a million which
means our commission has doubled if as a professional I am not budgeting
myself to invest properly in my clients property
then you’re doing it all wrong now it’s hard in the beginning if I’m going to gear this towards potential new agents
is really hard in the beginning in a commission-based industry to set aside
your HST your income tax and a budget to not only pay yourself but list the
property but if you don’t have a budget to list the property you’ve got nothing
and you’re not going to get that repeat business because again I’ll use that word portfolio going back to my
photography days is that’s exactly what it is people are researching you ever it’s a digital age people can Google you
and find everything you’ve done good or bad so if you have some things in there
that aren’t showcasing you in the best light it’s time to sit back and reevaluate how
you are utilizing this money and that’s I’d say one of the hardest things as an entrepreneur is managing your money
I think what do you mean by that sorry
what do you mean by managing your money one of the hardest things for entrepreneurs is to manage your money is
that you mean manage your business money or the money you make or else
all of it um one of the worst fears because I’ve
seen it [Music] um or misconceptions is you need to have it
obviously a general business background which most real estate agents don’t it’s a six-month course and you’re licensed
and off you go and sell real estate you don’t need to have a background in business management but
going to talk to an accountant setting up separate accounts and being prepared for the tax man like I heard a story the
other day I was listening to a different podcast and she was telling a story about an agent that had a rocking year
did really really well went on all these vacations bought a new vehicle but did
not set aside the funds for the income tax in HST and
to pay yourself monthly it’s like you get a big check for twenty five thousand dollars I’m going shopping
but it cannot be that way as exciting as that first check maybe you have to
prepare that this is a market where it turns on and it turns off and you need
to prepare for when it turns off because if you get a new listing but you have no money to prepare and promote
that listing then what I’ve seen unfortunately too many agents
go bankrupt for lack of preparation the tax man will find you
foreign not only the tax man but like you said down to investing in your business we
talk about this all the time and you know not having the money to be able to
invest in your business to Brand yourself brand the homes and obviously we’re talking about real estate right now but it it’s applicable to all
businesses and Brandon and I talk about this in all Journeys when we’re talking about how we all got started and
um you know I started mine with Flyers because that’s all I could afford back then I couldn’t afford you know huge
radio ads I couldn’t afford afford bus ads I couldn’t afford an office location
um to promote but I started the Flyers so you know you have to do what you can do but you have to do something
um because if you don’t and you just take camera phone pictures and throw
them on MLS or real estate or realtor.ca um and not know your [ __ ] and not
prepare that home it’s not going to go well for you and and your business is not going to go anywhere
knowing where to invest in your business is important too right I mean especially when you’re starting out there’s so many
systems that cost a lot of money or there’s advertising and you can’t do
both like you just said so I would recommend to anyone there’s so much available for free to advertise yourself
online utilize the free platforms as much as you can and use what money you
do have to invest in your systems invest in in you know a platform for email
newsletters invest in a client database that is very important I also highly
recommend investing in getting your own email address whether it’s a free one from Gmail or or getting a custom one
because switching brokerages can be very expensive if you aren’t branding
yourself but you’re wearing your brokerage’s brand so I mean
at any point in time every brokerage is different and it can be one day to the next all of a sudden you want to Pivot
to a new brokerage because they have less expenses or they have a better media department or whatever the case
may be they’re not all the same and their commission structures are not all the same and they do not offer the same
products to you as a new agent so invest in yourself that you are building a
business that can go with you wherever you go
I love that yeah that’s great advice I I want to say that I think your point about
I think that’s the case real estate agents in a lot of professions is they teach you how to do the profession or at
least give you the nuts and bolts but they don’t actually teach you how to build a business plan that’s effectively what we’re talking about and
and you know full disclosure I teach how to build a business plan and mainly because for so many years I didn’t build
a business plan but people think oh I’m a real estate agent I don’t need a business plan no you actually need a
real business plan and you need real financials with projections like you said Jacqueline but it’s not popular
everybody avoids it because it’s painful but without it you could be on a profit
and loss basis wildly profitable and go broke and you know your story I’m just reiterating
it for listeners because here in the United States yesterday the extension
deadline was our our business taxes were due yesterday and
it’s not that you don’t pay the taxes that are due on April 15th here in the United States it but you don’t have to
file yeah your official documents you have to pay your estimated money and yesterday
out of the blue I thought we saved a ton of money which apparently we did federally but in the state of California
they decided to take some more so we had to write a multiple seven figure check
and you know the first thing I did was told Yvette that we need to get the hell
out of California but then my rational mind kicked in and I said there’s no other place on Earth that has this
weather there’s no other place on Earth that has a technology epicenter which for me in my business is pretty
important uh and there’s no other place that I know that you can get that weather with the view of the Pacific
Ocean so the sunshine tax became hard to swallow but I swallowed it and the I can
remember what it is because Jacqueline as soon as you said this about paying those taxes and that story that you shared I remember exactly I was walking
up the stairs and Yvette’s office is in the house I my office is a studio
outside the house in this separate structure but I was walking upstairs and
I just said I was like well just thank God we live below our means and because
and it’s not just below our means is we actually had the cash to write the check
and I think you know I’m harping on this for anybody listening but Jacqueline
your point is really important you get a commission check you just sold a big
property you made 25 Grand and you feel rich well you know depending on what
income bracket you’re in at least ten thousand dollars of that I don’t know do
we call it Uncle Sam what do you call it Uncle do you have an aunt or an uncle up there in Canada that you that you pay
the government no no we just we just call it the effing government for taking
our money all right well uh ant Canada is going to take at least 10 or 12 Grand
of that money and you better sock it away somewhere because
your heads you will be inclined to spend it not because you’re not a good businessman it’s just a human nature but
it with a business plan and going through a shutdown every year in planning out what your marketing is
going to be I think you can do that and I think for real estate agents you know I don’t want to say it’s Boomer bust but
it feels like it’s the highs are high the lows really go
low and you sort of have to figure out for that Medium I think over the last 10 years at least it’s been generally since
2008 and sort of came back in 2011 it’s sort of been
um you know going well I know it got hot there but I just
wanted to reiterate that point because you don’t have a business plan you’re you’re in big trouble
yeah it’s so true and again like thank God you guys had the money for that tax
check but there’s a lot of people that don’t um you know it happens all the time
people have to refinance their house to pay the tax man things like that so it does happen
um so any aspiring business owners real estate people or current business people
or real estate agents definitely keep in mind that you need to prepare for these things because the commission checks are
large when you get them but again you do have to pay those taxes and then on top of taxes you definitely have to invest
in your business like all businesses um so Jacqueline super thankful for your
Insight on that um and I just want to ask um one more thing well actually is there
anything that you want to share with us before we get into your high performance tips um and go from there is there anything
else you want to share for our listeners yeah just on the topic of because it’s
probably one of the biggest topics for any entrepreneur looking to start out but especially in real estate
um is recently So within the last year and a half here in Canada they’ve actually
allowed real estate agents to incorporate um you obviously have to be doing a
certain level of business to make that make sense for you and your business
but if you are doing a minimum of say 120 is kind of the the number
growth at the end of the year in your business I highly recommend incorporating again it costs money
um however the benefit to me and what I found super valuable in it is not only
is it um protecting my business although the liability aspect for realtors it
still falls on us not our Corporation um but it’s allowed me to structure my
business where I’m basically an employee so I don’t take my commission checks and
go on a big vacation I pay myself like an employee so I get personally monthly
payments that’s my personal money I can do with what I want the rest is in the
business and it is there for tax purposes Investments it is very
difficult for a business like real estate to budget advertising ahead of time because it all really depends on
the level of business you’re doing um so that has been something personally that is hard to project but
after a few years you generally have a good idea of what your budget will be and that’s where you can then implement
it into your business plan but treating it like you’re an employee from the get-go and that goes back into the tips
we’re going to talk about in a minute as your schedule needs to be the same is you need to have a clear
understanding that this is a full-time job not a oh I have five minutes now let’s do some work
um your paycheck and the same it can’t just all be fun money but when
yes
I talk about all the show um a while ago actually about the
benefits of being Incorporated and that I forgot actually that real estate agents could not be incorporated for the
longest time um and now in Canada they did just allow that to happen so obviously for tax
purposes business write-off purposes um and and all of those reasons it’s definitely a good uh a good thing that
Canada made that happen um so definitely keep that in mind if you are aspiring not again not only is a
real estate agent but any entrepreneur or business owner there are benefits to being Incorporated and Brandon and I did
do a show on that so if uh if you do want to listen to that go back in our episodes and uh and you can listen to
that but uh Brandon I’ll let you go ahead with Jacqueline into her three high performance tips
all right Jacqueline you have if you only were able to give three tips
out of all your experience in years can you offer listeners three high performance tips
absolutely so the first one I guess would be and I mentioned this earlier in the show today would be you need to
delegate time to work on your business as much as you delegate time to work in your business
um it’s so easy to get really dead focused on one and for realtors it
usually is working on your business because there is that anxiety or fear of
cold calling and door knocking and going out there to generate the business so people tend to fill their days with
fine-tuning their websites and making lots of reels on social media which are
all great and they do have a time and a place they need to be done
but if you’re not calling or attracting any clients it’s kind of for nothing so you need to
have a really good separation and time management on and if
people don’t know what I mean by working on your business versus in so working in would be calling leads following up with
past clients going on showings going on listing appointments and working on your
business is everything else all the back end stuff so make sure that that isn’t equal
amount of time spent on both um next one would be
to remember that there is no growth without failing
um trying not succeeding is growth never trying is failing
and that relates to the cold calling the door knocking the calling friends and family there is always I don’t care who
you are and how outgoing you are there’s always that underlying uncomfortable feeling you get about doing it but you
have to do it and as you mentioned Brandon it’s a numbers game the more you do it the more
people will be receptive and the better you will get at it so it’s just important to recognize that that’s not a
failure as long as you’re trying and you continue to try it’s a lonely business and you get a lot
of rejection in real estate you have to be comfortable with that
number three would be to be yourself
and your services are very unlikely going to
set you apart from the vast competition that we have so we’ve all heard that saying very it’s
kind of a new thing your Vibe attracts your tribe I live and breathe that
um and I that’s where personally I saw the biggest growth in my business is when I just said you know what screw it
I’m just gonna be me I’m gonna stop pretending to be prim and proper I’m going to stop pretending that I’m not
loud and quirky I always need to throw a joke in here and there and yeah I swear but I’m trying to be good on the show
Once I let that dog down through
that’s when my following took off that’s when my clients and it also just makes it a a better environment for working
because you’re working with like-minded people that get you and like those
things about you versus trying to put on a mask and you know be proper and wear a suit all
the time whatever so those are my big three tips
I love those three tips I think those are so important not only for Real
Estate but also just business in general and I just have to add a little story in
regards to Jaclyn’s final tip there when she said about her you know being herself so Jacqueline used to be a part
of a real estate team and Jacqueline and I have known each other for years and she was always very professional always
on her game always bringing her a game to the whole team her own business and absolutely everybody involved and one
day she called me and she told me that she was going to go out on her own and not be a part of this team anymore and
the first thing she said to me was I’m going to Rebrand and it’s going to be me it’s going to be Jacqueline it’s going
to be pink and white and nice cursive writing and it’s going to be all flowers and and it’s going to be Jacqueline and
when I saw her branding I called her immediately and I said Jacqueline your branding is you and I am so proud of you
and I I can see this going exactly where you want it to go and look at where it’s gotten her now and she has completely
taken off and done phenomenal things again an award-winning top producing agent because of being herself and
branding herself um to exactly who she is and what she wanted out of her business so
um I think that was perfect those three tips were perfect for all of our listeners I remember calling and being
like is this too girly am I gonna make all the men not want to call and hire me because I have pink in my logo
Danielle’s like you’re insane if they want to hire you they’re going to hire you
so I appreciate you being there for all of that but it was it was a scary jump to put myself out there like that and I
think most people would feel the same as there’s always that fear of rejection but hey if I’m getting rejected anyway
then at least I know I put through my authentic true self and at the end of the day maybe that relationship just
wasn’t meant to be but there are people out there for everyone I was hoping to have my shirt made today I have one
coming that says I may not be for everyone and that’s okay with my logo on the back because
I don’t want to appeal to everyone you kind of mentioned earlier we were talking and you slipped it in there the
6 a.m phone call from clients that you might not want to hear from I never want to experience that again
I have taken on too many clients that I knew from day one were not the right fit for me but in the
beginning sometimes the experience and you know the money at the end of the day seems worth it but I promise you it’s
not I think I don’t even make any money it was just that’s a headache we we yeah
yeah and we’ve talked about things like this on the show before where you sometimes have to fire a client
um because it’s just not worth it but it is hard in the beginning when you try to take on every single client to build
your brand build your business make the money um and we all do it and we all have
stories like that and uh maybe we’ll get into that on another episode when we’re
talking about dealing with crappy clients and when to get rid of them and Jacqueline will have your story on there
too we’ll be back for that one that would be awesome
cool Jacqueline well thanks so much for being on the show importantly where can listeners find you
um anywhere I’m pretty active socially um Instagram at realtor J Clement Facebook at realtordayclement I’m also
on YouTube or my website which is realtorjay clement.ca and thank you so much for having me guys
this was awesome well yes and we will put all that for
listeners in the show notes so that you can check out Jacqueline’s sites and her reels that she does and everything else
Jacqueline thanks a lot for being on the show thanks so much for having me guys
