It was 1998 in San Francisco. And Joel Goodrich was one of very few agents that had a website. (Ah the good old days! Oh wait, no, not so good.) The dot com boom hadn’t quite boomed yet, but it was coming fast. And a young couple came to Joel through that web site, looking to buy.
After working with Joel for six months, they bought a home for $11 million dollars. And It’s been off to the races ever since.
Sitting with Joel for this episode of SamSpeaks! was such a pleasure, because Joel gave us unfettered access to how he does it — how he nurtures multi-million dollar client, how he creates open houses, and how he networks.
It all started with an idea and a business plan.
“The most valuable piece of advice I’ve ever gotten was to write a business plan. I wrote a two page business plan, and its now grown to 32 pages,” Joel told me. He said his business has grown right along with the size of the plan.
After the eleven million dollar sale, there was another behemoth of a transaction. Joel had a $45 million dollar listing, and that caught the attention of the national press. His phone didn’t stop ringing; not because of the property per say, but because he was asked to sell a property that just couldn’t seem to sell.
As Joel told me, “It’s best to be the first born son, the second wife and the third listing agent.” Well, in this case, Joel was the second, fifth and sixth listing agent. It took five years, but it sold. (I’m not giving anything else away here, you just have to watch!)
Joel’s marketing evolved from sending generic mailings to creating a one-of-a-kind email newsletter that captures what he is passionate about — architecture, design, fashion and technology. Those are also the interests of his clientele. Which goes to show — you need to understand more than just the market, you need to understand your demographic. What’s important to them? What do they talk about at dinner parties? What gets them excited?
“Real estate is a past time in San Francisco. They want to talk about it here,” Joel said. Which makes for easy casual conversation at the many social events Joel either hosts or attends on a regular basis. Even though he was an early adopter of digital and has a robust email marketing system in place, he’s still a ‘belly to belly’ agent, putting great emphasis on being out and about, connecting with his clientele.
Like I said, you have to watch this episode for all the value it’s going to give you, no matter what price range you are working in. Get all that Joel has to share, then subscribe to SamSpeaks! because every episode is a gold mine, and I don’t want you to miss a minute.
Here’s what you’ll find in this episode:
1:15 What do you do for your open houses?
1:50 How do you qualify luxury buyers?
2:22 What’s the difference between the open house for a $200,000 vs a million dollar home?
4:05 Do you door knock and introduce yourself?
4:48 When was your first million dollar listing?
7:16 How did you build on the success and avoid being a one hit wonder?
10:15 How has your business plan changed over time?
14:00 What is your networking process? How do you really get the word out?