Do Epic Shit

No One’s Coming to Save Your Real Estate Career → But Consistency, Grit, and Follow-Up Just Might.

• Colleen Basinski & Kimberly Neill • Season 1 • Episode 7

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What happens when real estate becomes more than a job?
 When it becomes your lifeline... your identity… your way out?

In this episode, we go all in on the real talk — from homelessness, hustling with $14 in the bank, and figuring it out one open house at a time… to building a multi-state real estate business, creating financial freedom, and helping our kids build legacies of their own.

We’re not just talking theory — we’re sharing exactly what worked, what didn’t, and what we still do every single day to stay in the game and build a business that lasts.

🔑 Here’s what we unpack in this episode:

  • Consistency over chaos – Why grit beats talent (every damn time)
  • Follow-up like a boss – How 82 check-ins = 3 real buyers (and the exact system we used)
  • Master your market – Confidence doesn’t come from scripts, it comes from knowing your stuff
  • Build a brand that’s both real and refined – Loud, polished, unapologetically YOU
  • Leverage early, scale smarter – VAs, systems, and support that let you grow without burning out

From TikTok lead gen to AI-powered CRMs, we walk you through how we stay visible, stay connected, and stay ahead. And we don’t sugarcoat anything — because no one is coming to save your career. You’ve got to show up, stay consistent, and do the work.

If you’re just getting started, stuck in the middle, or scaling to your next level — this episode is the one to listen to when you need that reminder of what’s possible.

💥 Real estate changed our lives. And it can change yours too.

💡 Lessons we’ve learned about balancing it all—sometimes successfully, sometimes… not.

If you’re out here trying to do EPIC SH*T, this one’s for YOU. Hit play, tag a friend, and let’s do this thing together! 👇

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music & APPLE Podcasts!

🔗 Podcast: https://doepicshit.buzzsprout.com
🔗 All Links: https://linktr.ee/DoEpicShit.RealTalk
📺 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DoEpicShit.RealTalk

🎙️ Hosted by: Colleen Basinski & Kimberly Neill

Smash that follow button & get ready for more EPIC $H*T 💩💥














Colleen Basinski:

The moment everything changed. Welcome back to Do Epic Shit. I'm Colleen Basinski and I'm Kim Neill. And here we are. Episode seven, Can?

Kim Neill:

you believe it's seven already. Yeah, we're like rocking and rolling.

Colleen Basinski:

I'm telling you, I'm surprised we lasted this long. No, pretty determined.

Kim Neill:

Yeah.

Colleen Basinski:

I think I'm pleased you know what. It's kind of in sync with how we are in our business, which is a perfect segue to what we're going to talk about. Because today's episode is real estate tips and tricks for success. From Chaostic Clarity, how real estate gave us life a mission and a whole lot of lessons worth sharing. That ain't the truth. Right, I'm excited about this one. Actually, this one is pretty good. I know you were kind of like I don't know yeah.

Kim Neill:

I wasn't feeling the whole, you know, but I always manage to rope you in some way or another.

Colleen Basinski:

I know right, it's been like the history of our life.

Kim Neill:

I think you gave me either this or that, so actually this one is pretty good.

Colleen Basinski:

So let's be honest this business is not for the faint of heart. God no. Didn't about that at lunch today. This week in itself has been interesting to say in the league, I'd say, well, it's been more interesting for you than me, but I think you had an interesting week two weeks ago. It's like it changes, right. Yeah, it ebbs and flows.

Kim Neill:

Yeah, and I think it just comes with the business the more business you do, the more obstacles and hurdles. Well, we're going to dive right in.

Colleen Basinski:

But if you like what you're hearing, subscribe, like, follow us. We're on Amazon Music Podcast, spotify, apple Music Podcast. We're on iHeartRadio and just follow us on Instagram, tiktok and Facebook. We're there Like, subscribe and follow us. So we didn't start with trust funds or luxury listings right. We started with grit, determination and a dream.

Kim Neill:

I started in some not so safe situations. I'd say I would agree with that.

Colleen Basinski:

And if you think back even further, like I think I started with like $14 in my bank account. Maybe I don't even think I had a listing appointment yet. I think I had a buyer, an open house my first buyer was from an open house and a dream to make something happen, yeah, agree with that.

Kim Neill:

I think you have to have that vision or that.

Colleen Basinski:

Like I can do it to get you started and I'll say that this business gave me everything career, confidence, a path for sure, the moment everything changed so I think about like if I go back even further before I got into real estate, like when I had my oldest son. I was homeless with a baby, just trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life where.

Colleen Basinski:

I was going to go, thought I was going to go to college. That didn't work out so well and you know there's different. I watched some of these videos about homeless and thank God I wasn't like homeless living on the street, on the sidewalk, but still, like you know, when you're surfing from couch to couch and finding something, figuring stuff out, where are you going to go and where are you going to stay? What's?

Kim Neill:

going to happen. There's a lot of uncertainty there.

Colleen Basinski:

But that hustle, I think, is what forms us and what gives us the grit and who we are inside, right, and that's how you know. We built it Like I built it into a multi-state brokerage ownership and team and into what we're building right now. I mean, if you think about it, our group, we did. And into what we're building right now. I mean, if you think about it, our group, we did we put $9 million under almost $9 million, like $8.7 million in sales under contract just last month. That's crazy, right To think about we just started.

Kim Neill:

I wasn't even selling real estate full-time last year. Yeah, I was just going to say, and you were even with like, we hadn't even like formed this stuff. Yeah, it hasn't even been a year.

Colleen Basinski:

I mean we're going to do big things.

Kim Neill:

this year we got some numbers.

Colleen Basinski:

What's better than the numbers is the impact that we have on the lives. True Think about the people that we're helping in the day-to-day. And I think that thread will weave through what's helped make us successful and what we're going to talk about today I agree. So, kim, what was the moment you realized you could actually build a life in real estate?

Kim Neill:

I the moment you realized you could actually build a life in real estate. I was probably four years in and I think, like I came from stay-at-home mom Stay-at-home mom for 10-12 years I did a couple deals back in 2012, 2013. You know you're dabbling in it and when I came over to where I met you, that brokerage.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, for me too, not just you.

Kim Neill:

I mean like, yeah, absolutely you've impacted my life in a lot of really positive ways and I'm very grateful for it so when I came there, you know they would say again you know you'd have people oh Kim, you could do this, you could do this, you could do this. But you never really can feel that. You're always like, yeah, but I'm just a stay at home, mom, I don't care. I think it was probably four years in and you should know this too, if I didn't get that hundred thousand dollar trophy or that cappers trophy.

Kim Neill:

I was mad, I was pissed. I think I missed it one year by two.

Colleen Basinski:

Three hundred thousand dollars, or the cappers but I also think people diminish how important recognition is.

Kim Neill:

Like we don't do this for the recognition now the recognition helps make us feel like we're on the right path it sure does, even not so much now, because now I feel like I'm I mean I'd like, I still like seeing your face out there when we talk about who's the top producer.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, I'm like you. Go, kim, you still got it but it was.

Kim Neill:

It's not as important to me now as it was back then, because here's the reason I was working so hard. You know to try and build and, like you said, it's nice to be recognized along the way. So you know you're, you're in the grind every day. You know so many people are coming at you. Do it this way, do it this way, do it this way, and you're just trying to navigate well, and you don't know who's telling you the truth and who's full of shit.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, who to follow and where to go and what to do. So we're going to talk about what to do, like how we built. You know this is my 25th year in the business.

Kim Neill:

I don't even know what am I 15? At least, yeah, at least.

Colleen Basinski:

So I mean, obviously I wouldn't say we've made it, we've arrived. But I would say that, like anyone who can last with that type of longevity with this is their full-time career and their sole income. And I heard you on the phone earlier and I'm going to share some of your personal, personal shit you probably want me to share. But like you're gifting money to your kids so they can buy their first house and like doing things that really without that, without real estate, you wouldn't be doing no way.

Kim Neill:

No way it has. Oh, I will say this it has opened so many doors, so many things that I never thought I'd be able to do, like that Pay my house off, buy a new car, buy vacation. You know what I mean. It has allowed me to do a lot of things that I never thought I could do. Well, you guys too, I mean, I can never imagine.

Colleen Basinski:

First of all, before I got into real estate, I wasn't a homeowner. I'd never been a homeowner. I was a renter. I was a single mom with kids my now husband and he wasn't a homeowner, he was a renter. We didn't know, and so real estate really caused us to be able to have these opportunities and to create this life and pay it forward to our children and to create, basically, a legacy for generations to come.

Kim Neill:

I will say this getting into real estate and working hard and doing what needed to be done has changed the course of my life, and the kid and my kids for sure.

Kim Neill:

You always think about like you know, you get married, you're young, you're starting off, you know, and you always look at like, oh, I wish I could do that, oh, but I can't. I mean gosh. No, all right, my kids were small at the time. Your kids were small, so like you're in a different mode. But to see the opportunities that come your way just because of this is phenomenal.

Colleen Basinski:

So, side note, I don't want to bunny trail off track, but I have to share this little story with you. So I was talking to my son this morning so he just came back. He just finished his second. He already had a law degree. He's already a barred attorney. He went back to school to get a specialization in the legal world called an LLM. I don't know what those initials stand for, but basically, instead of just being an attorney now he's got a specialization in tax, so he's a tax attorney. He's going to work for a major accounting firm or whatever.

Colleen Basinski:

But anyway we're having a conversation this morning, and so he was in Nashville for the weekend with all of his friends that he went to college with. So they're all lawyers and doctors and everything else, and they're looking for rentals right, because they're all got new jobs and they're making $200,000, $300,000 a year, right, and they're like, oh, we don't need a realtor. And my son, you know what? I got to give him mad props for this. He goes. Well, I can understand your position. He said to them and he's telling me the story this morning he goes.

Colleen Basinski:

but I got to say I grew up around real estate agents and they work hard, they of college and everything else. He goes, yeah, there are some realtors that suck, that are lazy, that don't know what they're doing, that just shuffle some paper around and don't do it. But when you get a good realtor, they're worth every penny.

Kim Neill:

So shout out to you.

Colleen Basinski:

Kyle for giving us those props and realizing it, and so we're going to talk a little bit about this so.

Colleen Basinski:

I felt that was a relevant story and timely. It was this morning literally this morning, we had this conversation about the difference between what it takes to really be that kind of agent and be successful. So this should appeal to not only agents that are either thinking about getting into the business or struggling and need to know what it takes, or even consumers out there that are thinking like what am I looking for in the agent that I want to be in relationship with Super important so let's just jump right in.

Colleen Basinski:

So I have down here the next thing we're going to talk about are the top five tips for real estate success. So the first one I have down here is consistency wins. What does consistency look like?

Kim Neill:

You know what for me and I think for most people and it's such a misconception. People think you're real estate agents, you make your own schedule, you work your own hours, and it couldn't be farther from the truth. I used to tell my husband you go to work, you clock in and don't get me wrong, it's physical labor, it's in the trades. You know, you clock in at seven and you clock out at three and you're done, and at the end of the week you get paid for your hours of work. Real estate agents, you are in the nitty gritty every every day.

Colleen Basinski:

You want to make money, say that we are not allowed to have a life absolutely set boundaries. I think you can set some sort of boundaries I think, as you get going, but I also think that, depending on the client, sometimes they need you and so I just think so you're talking about that clocking in and out.

Colleen Basinski:

So I mean I'm 25 years in the business I could easily step back and just let the rest of the team do the business, but I'm the type of person. First of all, I got to walk the walk. That's who I am, and when we were building this thing and bringing this back together and building the team that you helped name, it was important to me that I was authentic in what I was talking about.

Colleen Basinski:

And I will say and it's not every day but yesterday I started my day at eight o'clock in the morning. I was out, I had to go meet with a lender. I had to go meet with a client, then at the lender's office do a buyer consultation. Then I went and showed the client a property. Then I came back we grabbed late lunch at like 2.30. Hadn't eaten, didn't get to eat till lunch till 2.30. Then had to go send some more emails, make some more calls. I was laughing because I was lucky enough to have Bart driving me yesterday so I had him tagging along. So I'm like have my and I love pro tip. If you can get wi-fi in your car, if you can afford it, get it, because I pull that laptop out and I am on it in there.

Colleen Basinski:

I know you can work phone, but it's not the same.

Kim Neill:

It is just not the same.

Colleen Basinski:

I mean, I'm on there working, he's driving, we're working.

Kim Neill:

Then we got back.

Colleen Basinski:

I dropped him off and then I went to an inspection Inspection's two hours you gotta sit there like there's and, yeah, I could have easily like pawned it off and said, oh, just I'll let the inspector in or get permission from the seller. The seller's agent really wanted me there, which I didn't care, because I need to be there for my clients.

Kim Neill:

I need to.

Colleen Basinski:

I'm first-time buyers they needed to know that I had their back, that I supported them. Help, help them answer questions, because this it's the biggest purchase financial transaction someone makes in a lifetime. Most of the time, yeah, you know there are people that, oh, there are people that are investing in other things and doing other things, but for the average person, when they buy their home, it is the largest single financial transaction they'll ever make in a lifetime. Do you understand what kind of responsibility that is?

Kim Neill:

And for me to just say, oh, just go out there. Absolutely I can never, can never, I never to be that flippant is really condescending and disrespectful, in my opinion, and it's like for me when, when I see agents do that and I'm one of those agents if you're gonna, unless it's vacant and a rehab house, the buyer's agent's going, you're going to the inspection.

Colleen Basinski:

I've missed some inspections, like I had an out-of-town buyer that wasn't going to be there for the inspection and the house was already vacant.

Kim Neill:

I'm like get permission from the listing agent john goes out there uh, john's one of our inspectors that we recommend.

Colleen Basinski:

He's awesome, john black. He goes out there, he does the inspection, he gets the report back me sitting there with him when the buyer's not there and the house is vacant is not doing anything but if my buyer is able to be there, especially when they're a first-time buyer. Shame on you if you're not there.

Kim Neill:

And it allows you to understand what's going on in the house too. So when the attorney, when you're handing off, when they get that, 118-page report and they are having a meltdown. Yeah.

Colleen Basinski:

And I'm like, okay, does that happen this morning?

Kim Neill:

So she got the report.

Colleen Basinski:

She's like, oh my gosh, I'm freaking out and I'm freaking out and I'm like it's okay and I used my friend chat chat, gpt chat burke calls it chat, your friend chat. So I used my friend chat and I helped and he didn't write my answer, but he helps organize my thoughts because I ramble a lot, yeah, and so I'm like rambling and rambling and rambling and I help, he helps me organize so that I could respond to my thoughts about the report and then I did another 35 minute phone call with the client to walk them through it.

Colleen Basinski:

She's like, oh my gosh, Thank you so much. That makes us feel so much better.

Kim Neill:

Because that's what they just want to be calmed down. They want to understand the process. That's like me going and buying a swimming pool and you left me my hair. Go pick one out, have it installed.

Colleen Basinski:

Well, and think of the fraction of the amount that costs compared to a home.

Kim Neill:

Well, and think of the fraction of the amount that costs compared to a home, oh yeah.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, I agree. So I know that's a little off track, because we were talking about consistency, oh yeah, but I think these are important tools for people to understand what it looks like to be successful. It doesn't mean that you just write a contract, toss it on the side. Now I have a transaction coordinator, I have a marketing person, I have an operations manager, we have another.

Kim Neill:

VA starting.

Colleen Basinski:

We have help, but when it really matters, we're there in the thick of it.

Kim Neill:

The help is help, it doesn't replace it, yeah, and I feel like, even though, with all that back-end work, the clients don't really know that, I mean, all they know is you. You may have the inspector or whatever, but really you're the go-to.

Colleen Basinski:

When you're the one with the 15 or 20 or 25 years of experience that minimum wage or slightly above minimum wage admin. They've been on an inspection. They're not equipped to handle that conversation. Now, if it's something that needs to be put in DocuSign and a signature sent out, that's a whole other story right, but in terms of consistency.

Colleen Basinski:

I think consistency, how this relates, is in how you show up for the client on a consistent basis. I think also communication on a regular basis and, quite frankly, you're going to have to put in the hours If you think this is a job where you're going to just phone it in and not actually put in the work find another career? Yeah, find another career. Do you remember when somebody told us we could do non-discipline?

Kim Neill:

That's what I'm saying. It was. You don't have to go to every inspection. People would stand up there and preach it yeah you can be out of here at five o'clock to make a visit, and you can, you might can't, you might be able to.

Colleen Basinski:

You might be able to, but you're not going to earn the respect and the repeat business of those clients. You're not going to get the reviews that, no, my, my ego needs those positive reviews so if you've done business with me, please give me a positive review, thank you. But also, I don't feel fulfilled by just doing that. The fulfillment comes and when the client sends you that message, like you sent me the other day, about how happy they were about everything you did and how they couldn't have done this without you.

Kim Neill:

Yeah, I was at a closing this morning. And the husband said Kim, I'm so glad we walked into that open house and I said, thanks, I appreciate that. And she said, kim, we burned through two or three agents. You know what do you say? You don't ever want to you know?

Colleen Basinski:

No, you can talk about what you do without diminishing what someone else did.

Kim Neill:

And I just said I'm happy to help.

Colleen Basinski:

And so then the son flew in from Texas and said you know, kim, I was thinking about getting into real estate, I go now you're going to steal my client, but he probably needs a good mentor. That's what I said.

Kim Neill:

I'm like yeah, so I gave him the school whatever but it was just nice to hear that I don't have to see do anything. At least he said that to me. I felt good about it, I walked out and that was it, so it was nice.

Colleen Basinski:

What else does consistency look like for you in business? Follow up like a boss which is kind of a play on words, because the crm that we use is holy cow follow-up boss, and I know what you're trying to talk about right now are we gonna talk about chet chet?

Kim Neill:

yeah, go ahead. I insane. So I think follow-up always was my thing anyway me too.

Colleen Basinski:

yeah, like it's just, I'm like a dog with a bone. I will follow you down the ends of the earth. I'll follow up with you, follow up with you and follow up with you. Yeah, where the challenge I think comes in is as you add more and more leads to your pipeline and your capacity to be able to follow up with everyone. I don't ever want to lose a lead. No, here's the thing we're human, we're going to lose people.

Colleen Basinski:

You have to be okay with not every person working with you, not getting every listing, not every buyer choosing to work with you. Sometimes you're like, oh, that buyer bought with someone else. How did that happen? Right but the consistent follow-up. So we're talking about consistency and then going into follow-up. That's the key. That's one of the keys of being successful in this business. And so the capacity to be able to do that at a high level is going to be dependent on some of the systems that you have your systems, your tools, your text, your check-ins, what are you doing?

Colleen Basinski:

and so talk about chat now.

Kim Neill:

So I was. I. I gotta say, and you know me, I am not techie, I'm not yeah um, but I was doing my follow-up this week and I saw the little stars and the little and I was actually following up with. So you were doing it manually. Yep, I was doing it manually.

Colleen Basinski:

You saw, there was a new tool in our CRM.

Kim Neill:

It was insane. I was so damn happy because it literally from all the conversations, all the emails that I sent out over the past couple months. The past couple months, you literally click on the little tool and it writes the text email, whatever you need based on the conversation or the interaction you guys have had, from phone call to emails, to text, you should have seen me go to town.

Colleen Basinski:

Well, you would see, it expands your capacity to be able to help more people because you can follow up and what would have taken you probably four hours?

Kim Neill:

you were able to do an hour at least, because I said my goal was to do 50 and I think I got to 52 and maybe a little over an hour, but with that for two days I did that. I think the first goal I had was, like, I'm gonna do 30, see how it is. The next day was 50, I did 52. So that's 82 follow-up in two days, two hours, along with my showings and closings and whatever and I had a final walkthrough.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, you're going to put together a closing basket and gift and yeah, like there's a lot, it's not just hey, show up to closing, grab a check.

Kim Neill:

Yeah, no it's final walkthrough, do all that, but out of those 82 I had 12 people respond and three clients, one I'm actually taking out tomorrow so three, four months ago, people that came in literally were like okay, we're ready.

Colleen Basinski:

Well, and I think that's where the gold is. The four. There's a saying. It goes the fortune is in the follow-up. That really is true. Like you know, anyone who's just looking for that immediate gratification in this business, you're not going to be successful.

Kim Neill:

It's not sustainable. No, because you constantly have to be coming in.

Colleen Basinski:

And when you get that Zillow lead or that Movoto lead or that listings to lead or wherever that Facebook. Google Instagram wherever that lead's coming from. They're in a nurture stage at that point you're gonna have to nurture that lead for a period of time so some of the people that we're talking with. I have a closing next week with someone who I met at an open house last year yeah, mine too.

Colleen Basinski:

I've been working with them for over a year showing them property. No I, this was may of last year, so now we're almost in june and they're closing june, so it was over a year. But like, like, literally following up, checking in, seeing how they're doing, where are they at in the phase, helping them with all of things explaining real estate, showing them properties, finding out what's important to them, where they're at in their lifestyle, what's important for their kids, schools, all of these things Like that's the fortune is in the follow-up.

Kim Neill:

It is Follow-up like a boss. You know what? Follow up like a boss. You know what. It's funny we're talking about that because early on in my career, when I came in, I was at some something um, and was hearing somebody speak and they said I don't know why and it's been 10-15 years- later. I remember somebody saying follow up, your money is in the follow-up, your money is in the follow-up.

Colleen Basinski:

And I was like well, even back to the days when I was a recruiter, when I was like out of the sales end of it and in the office building a growth phase of building, you know real estate offices. The most success I had was follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. So I mean, that's where you get it. It's not the first time, the second time, it's sometimes the eighth or the tenth or the fifteenth time that that person is ready now.

Colleen Basinski:

I had the buyer that I met with yesterday, with the lender that I did buyer counsel someone I met four months ago that's finally was finally ready to have a conversation. She was still worried about like ooh, can I qualify what's gonna happen? I'm nervous about this, I'm nervous about that. But the fact that I stayed in business with her and then the other one I wrote last weekend and we didn't win the offer because on the property but, it was a lead that I got over a year ago from Facebook.

Kim Neill:

And she said you know, I have a friend, that's a realtor she goes.

Colleen Basinski:

But I really like how persistent you are and how much you really. You're sending me listings, you're doing things. My friend just wants to wait for me to find something and tell her to show it to me and write a contract she goes. I need someone who's actively working for me. That's the difference I think about and we're talking about us, but I think about some of the agents in our team that are doing really well right now. Yeah, Like okay, Katie, you're killing it girl. She's on fire, but she is persistent with the follow-up. She's in those Facebook groups, the mom groups, she's meeting people. But then she takes it one step further. She's looking in the private network, she's finding off-market opportunities.

Colleen Basinski:

Like she works, yeah, and that's what it takes, I think, to be successful in this corey same thing, like, I think, corey's on fire and I love seeing the young people who have success like they're learning from us and they're doing all the things right, and kristin like if I think about like the three that are really, that are young they're to just yeah, oh, take it out, take it off, but that's what they're doing. They are just tenacious.

Kim Neill:

Tenacious is the word and they watch us. They're watching us and they're seeing. You know, I feel like when you're on the phone all the time and you're busy and you're, they are listening.

Colleen Basinski:

Well, I make all my phone calls to all my clients right there in the like our office, the way our setup is and I know people are I have to have a private office.

Kim Neill:

I don't want a private office.

Colleen Basinski:

First of all, I'm too social. I don't know I act like I'm antisocial and I don't like people, but really I want to be around people it's important.

Colleen Basinski:

So we have like a big like circle of desks that are on the outer perimeter and then the inner perimeter. We have like a big shared table where we can do training and have office space and we have two rooms set up like that. We have private rooms if someone needs to go and make a call. That's private in nature, but when I'm making my calls to my clients in terms of lead generation, I'm doing it right there in front of them so they can hear me over and over again.

Colleen Basinski:

And I have watched Corey grow in terms of how comfortable he is on the phone just by how much he's listened to me on the phone, which is so fun. That's how I learned too, just by listening in our little bullpen when I think about, too, like the follow-up follow-up boss when I think about texts and check-ins one of the things I love about and you can have whatever CRM. Any CRM is going to work if you use it I just happen to love follow-up bosses.

Kim Neill:

They should be paying me yeah, it's like right, maybe they'll run an ad for us here. No, I'm just kidding really.

Colleen Basinski:

But the other thing that's nice is you can see how many text messages, calls, emails, drip campaigns the people that I'm working with. There's like 240 text messages, 619 texas like it's not a small number, a lot but I mean you're dealing with someone's single largest transaction they're ever going to make in a lifetime. Do they have to feel comfortable with you, that they have a solid relationship with you?

Kim Neill:

I think so.

Colleen Basinski:

Let's talk a little bit about brand. So brand loud, brand, real, real. Play on words, but show your personality. I think that's so important.

Kim Neill:

How important is that? So you can talk to people about things. But you have to have that connection. You have to connect with them in some way.

Colleen Basinski:

And.

Kim Neill:

I feel like that puts the icing on the cake.

Colleen Basinski:

I get a decent amount of business from social media and it's not from like Are we talking branding In general? But I know my personal. So I mean we have marketing, we've got good branding.

Kim Neill:

I think our branding is great we, I mean we have marketing.

Colleen Basinski:

We have. We've got good branding. I think our branding's great. We have fantastic. We have a great marketing team. We've got Corey oversees all of them, I don't know. Let's just give that kid a shout out.

Kim Neill:

He is. Corey is great, so he's building a phenomenal sales business and he oversees the entire branding team. He's doing well.

Colleen Basinski:

But in terms of like our marketing, we've got a clean, consistent brand. We've got systems that happen. So when there's an open house.

Colleen Basinski:

that happens on one of our listings. So if you list with us, it's not like, hey, let's do an open house tomorrow. There's a whole branding campaign and process and image that happens for about 10 days leading up to that and so it's a whole process. So we're. I mean, how many people did we have through Jan's open house in Homewood last summer? Over 150 people. The exact number was 174. Ooh, A lot. In how long was that open house? Three hours, Three hours, 12 to 3, 174 people through. Do you think that was? We just showed up and put a sign in the yard that day. God no.

Kim Neill:

No.

Colleen Basinski:

But I think that's where branding happens. So, and not just branding, but systems and processes that help blow into that. So we're we're starting 10 days out. We're like, okay, what kind of ads are we going to run? How are we going to market it? What kind of signage are we going to do it? How are we planning ahead of time where we're going to put our flyers out in the name, like all of the things that we're doing and if anyone wants, our 20 step system on how we do an open house think it's 174 people just send me an idea DM.

Colleen Basinski:

Follow us, like us. And send us a message. We'll share it with you, but that, I think, shows. It shows who we are. It shows our personality. We're doing personal videos, I do you do way more than. I do, but even when I look like an idiot, I'm still doing videos. I mean, like people want to know who I am. You bet want to know that you're out there working for them, that you're doing what it takes, that you're not out freaking bike riding and like that. You know what I mean.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah I do like are you working for me or are you just waiting back to collect a paycheck so that you can go hang out on a mountaintop? Sure, yeah, right. And I think packaging it all together in a professional way is important too, because I've seen, don't get me. I, I didn't want to go down derby and tell me but I'm going to.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, I have seen shabby shitty. I think juju could make better marketing pieces. Like it's not, we're not in the 1980s, we're making a flyer on a word document. Like there is canva is not that hard guys like learn it and if you can't do it, hire a virtual assistant. For like six dollars an hour you can have your shit look better like. Don't be a dummy. This is someone's single largest financial transaction they're gonna ever make in a lifetime. Make in a lifetime. How did I say that correct?

Colleen Basinski:

yeah, single largest financial transaction they'll ever make in a lifetime. Hire a professional photographer, do the drone video, do the video and have professional marketing pieces that you post online. Now that doesn't mean I don't stand in front of the house and do a real video of like hey, hey, here's where I am, but I also have on my website and on my listing that professional video too.

Colleen Basinski:

It's a combination. You have to marry both together. If all you're doing is your own homemade shit, then you know you're doing your client a disservice because you're being a cheap ass. Sorry, I get on. I get a soapbox about that in the story.

Kim Neill:

I made you start doing videos I know, actually, as we're talking, I have an open house tomorrow and I'm like I might as well just do one, do a video.

Colleen Basinski:

But even the, the professional, I'm like being your photographer to do that, like send them out there and do it yeah because what we did 10 years ago is not what we need to do today and I think the agents that aren't willing to evolve and change with what we need are not going to be in the business in the future, and you're doing your clients a disservice, you're doing yourself a disservice, and if you have team members, you're doing them a disservice too, I agree.

Kim Neill:

I feel like that, with all the AI that's coming out, if you don't jump on I was, you know me and TikTok. I was on there and they were saying hey, you got me in the. Tiktok I can't live without it. They said they had this guy selling a course. It is what it is and it was like if you're not on the bandwagon with ai, you know learning it and evolving with it. You are literally gonna be left.

Colleen Basinski:

You're dying.

Kim Neill:

You're literally dying a slow death and you don't even realize that, and I would have never hopped on board had hadn't check been rolling in the office for the past month well, when I met with um, I met with this lender yesterday and we were just taught we're just bullshitting about stuff and I'm like, why is?

Colleen Basinski:

and like you should have seen, like I opened up a whole new dimension to this world.

Kim Neill:

He's like holy crap, eileen and it's not my lender, it's just somebody I was having a conversation with.

Colleen Basinski:

He's not like a business partner, or anything but, like you know, I appreciate sharing knowledge and information. I'm not trying to pat myself on the back. I am not the the guru of gurus I know enough to make myself dangerous but just the few things that like if you grasp onto and learn. I will give props to my company that I'm affiliated with right now because they have jumped into social media, video and AI like nobody's business and have been pushing it for a while.

Colleen Basinski:

So I feel like I'm able to stay more relevant and with the younger crowd in that but still keep my experience and my professionalism, and that's a really fun thing to do.

Kim Neill:

It is Because I woke up today and one of my deals was dying, and you know I can lose it too, like anybody. It was personal, it's my son's and I instantly, 7.30 this morning, get it and I thought no don't do it chat you know how I started it chat. Please make this email stern but friendly.

Colleen Basinski:

There you go, and three paragraphs I mean, because I know you were like half you stupid a-hole, yeah, right, yeah and so that's our initial reaction, and so allowing us to articulate how we feel, but in a professional yet, yeah, friendly way absolutely, it was great, I will.

Kim Neill:

You can't once you're in, you're in, once you're in. Ai, you're in.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, it's good, it is going back to brand a little bit, and you know like I'm a little obsessive about like how things look and I like I did you just yell at some yeah you just yell at cory was what.

Colleen Basinski:

He's like. I don't understand, colleen. I'm like that looks like shit. He's like, well, at least I'm doing it. I'm like I understand. But you know what we are? We're the front face, we're portraying an image and he, he's doing a phenomenal job. But if I don't communicate what's important to me and how I want the brand to look and what I want then it just continues like that. And so that was the conversation.

Colleen Basinski:

I'm like hey, I could have just let it. I just could have said not anything and not hurt your feelings, but at the same time and then. So then he's got to convey it to the marketing assistant and tell him like, hey, we want our image to look more like this, and what's that going?

Kim Neill:

to look like and how's the brand of?

Colleen Basinski:

branding that needs to go alongside that.

Kim Neill:

Yeah, I agree with that.

Colleen Basinski:

And I see some of these agents that put photos up and they're sideways, or they've got something that looks like a 1980s Word document flyer, like if you're using the MLS flyer, like that just puts the photo in the.

Kim Neill:

I hate. Look at your face when you walk into a listing and they have them stapled together. You know what I'm talking about.

Colleen Basinski:

It's the flyer. It's got the big photo in the middle and then just like the bullet points and it's like a word. It looks like a 1980s word document.

Kim Neill:

That's our other, there's no other way to describe it yeah.

Colleen Basinski:

And so when you click on flyer from the MLS, because you don't know any better.

Kim Neill:

That's what it gives you.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, sorry, I'm not going to jump up. It's ridiculous and you see the stuff that oh brand matters.

Kim Neill:

It does, it does.

Colleen Basinski:

Polo wouldn't put it out.

Kim Neill:

How about Apple, you think?

Colleen Basinski:

Apple would put an ad like that out God, no. What are some of the other big companies that are out there? Amazon?

Kim Neill:

Yeah.

Colleen Basinski:

Like commercials. What are some of the companies? How about some of the car companies? Would they have something that looks like that? No Brand matters, Image matters. I mean, you don't have to drive around in a high-end vehicle and you know $2,000 suit, but how you present your properties matters my boy. I do like him. He's a great person.

Kim Neill:

I love him. His brand is great. His brand is great His image is great.

Colleen Basinski:

His message is on point but you know what? He keeps his brand at that point, but he's still humble. I saw him talking about eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the car all the time, so I got to give him that shout out, but anyway, so next item.

Kim Neill:

We're zooming right through.

Colleen Basinski:

We're running out of is know your shit?

Kim Neill:

yeah, right here, shit and if I don't, you have just, I mean, I'm never embarrassed half but I'm saying, like market stats, you need to know what's going on. Oh, you're talking about, know the market neighborhood expertise.

Colleen Basinski:

That's your confidence builder like you need to know what you're trying if you're going to do an open house, you go pull the cops in the area, you research the neighbor. You don't walk in there like, well, I don't know how much old is this. What is that? How much are the taxes? What's going on in the community? What are the schools? I had an agent the other day maybe it's a couple months ago. I took this buyer out, I'm showing them properties and they want a specific school district.

Kim Neill:

So neuqua valley and naperville oh yeah, very popular school district people just die for this school.

Colleen Basinski:

It's very highly rated, it's one of the higher rated schools and people really want that school district. I have another one right now that wants Waubonsie, which is another Naperville one, but that's another story for another day. But they wanted that specific school district. We looked at like 15 properties. They find the one. Now I'm basing it on the printout the MLS what they put in the MLS. I'm standing up making sure no fire, looks at me and says are you?

Colleen Basinski:

sure this is neuqua valley and I'm like, well, I don't, let me pull the boundaries and double check. We're in the general vicinity of it. But I didn't look street by street of the boundary map but the listing sheet said neuqua valley I have I called the agent?

Kim Neill:

she's like oh yeah, I think it is.

Colleen Basinski:

I'm like you think it is. She goes well. My husband works for the schools. I'm sure it's right. Shame on you because I went and pulled the boundary map and sure enough it's five blocks across the line. It was not in neuqua valley oh not only that she had, that it had no basement. It had a basement and I don't know what else she had, but I was just like over half my buyers were so devastated.

Colleen Basinski:

Because, here we look at all these properties, they fall in love with one. This one, it's the one, and they needed to be in that school district. They wanted to be in that school district. And now, not only do I look like a moron, the listing agent was like oh, first I and so I could kind of shrug it off.

Colleen Basinski:

Like you know, I really I researched it. Here's what I found. And I was the one that told him it wasn't the buyer was kind of uh, but like knowing your market is so important, I cannot underestimate or overstress how important, that is.

Colleen Basinski:

Knowing the difference between the different style of homes and what they sell for. And if you're a newer age in this business, if you don't have clients and you don't have buyers, you should be going to open houses, you should be touring properties, you should be getting to know your inventory in the marketplace, because that's how you build confidence. I remember when we first started that's what they tell us Go tour five homes a day.

Kim Neill:

Yep, right yeah, go tour five homes a day.

Colleen Basinski:

That's how you learn your market, or at least look on MLS at, I will say yes but yes but how many times do you look at something on MLS and then you walk inside and it looks totally different. Oh well, all the time, there you go.

Kim Neill:

Yeah, you need to go look at those properties.

Colleen Basinski:

You need to know if you're in Oaklawn and someone wants to be in Eagle Ridge. Where's Eagle Ridge If you're going to work there? How many times? Out of every 10 clients, how many of them want Eagle Ridge? One or two? At least there are certain subdivisions in certain communities that are sought after and if you're going to work those communities you need to understand.

Kim Neill:

when you're in Tinley Park you need to know the dividing line between District 230 and Tinley Park District, two different high schools. There's a dividing line.

Colleen Basinski:

People want one or the other. Some people really want to be in Tinley Park, some people really want to be in Andrew. You bet it's different. Neither one is right or wrong, but what the client wants matters and you need to understand that and know the difference. And there's a price point difference between the two there is.

Kim Neill:

I closed on on one today.

Colleen Basinski:

Tinley Park's 218, right. Yes 218 or 230.

Kim Neill:

Yep, you need to know your districts, Yep. So the lady who was selling. So I hit the buyer.

Colleen Basinski:

the lady who was selling literally was moving right across Harlem, so that she could be in another school district.

Kim Neill:

So she can be in the other school district, not because the one she was in was bad, but the other her child, was a band nerd. Her words, not mine, and Tinley was more symphonic you know, and 2A2 was more supportive.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, it's not. Sometimes it's not about better or worse, it's about what the needs of the client are. Sometimes, if you have a. I'm getting goosebumps now about this one like special ed programs Special ed programs are different in each school. If you have a special ed child, those needs are going to be different. You as an agent should study your market, know the neighborhood and know what your career is, yeah, special ed I was just thinking about.

Kim Neill:

I have a client who is looking strictly for 218 because of the special ed program person.

Colleen Basinski:

And then I would say number five is invest in leverage early it's a hard one for me. Now it could be that could be as simple as VAs Yep I did have VAs. Tcs, help at home, Yep and sometimes leverage. It comes in the form of technology, like your friend Chet, Ah, I like Chet.

Kim Neill:

And you know what I do, you know. Four or $5 an hour. If you want 10, 20 hours, those V hours, those vas, I mean granted they're not here, but the vas, I mean they can take a lot off your plate okay, how many times did you pay your kids to stuff?

Colleen Basinski:

envelopes and go, hang things on doors and all that. Those are all types of leverage. So don't be afraid to invest in in leverage early, and here's here's where I would spin that a little bit. Don't feel like you always have to be a solo. Sometimes grow, join a network, a group or a team where they have that leverage that you can tap into. You don't have to train them. You don't have to hire them, you don't have to hold them accountable. But you can still plug into all the leverage that they offer.

Kim Neill:

That's what I did because there was no way I was going to start and because my business is busy, there was no way I was going to start and start doing flyers, and I don't even know like the value you get from the group that we have worth the absolutely just I don't want to deal with social media, please. Here's what I did. You guys can do that here. Here's my, all my paperwork. You guys do that.

Colleen Basinski:

I just want to keep it moving well, you're in the in the front face in the relationship with the client you got you. Let them handle some of the back end, which is that's what allows you to be so hands-on with your clients because you have that support because yes, for sure what's one tip you think most agents totally ignore?

Kim Neill:

honestly, I see it every day and it follow up, I watch it and it's so important.

Colleen Basinski:

Well, they think, if they can't, convert that client immediately, then it's done. It's a bad lead. Yeah, it's so important. Well, they think if they can't convert that client immediately, then it's done.

Kim Neill:

It's a bad lead. Yeah, it's a bad lead. I want the good leads. The team leads suck. Where's the good leads? Yeah, and I feel like the more I get into it I shouldn't say it like that I think the more I'm into it, I feel like people. Well, that's my train of thought, because I was trying to be nice. I was trying to be nice.

Colleen Basinski:

We've talked about this before, about how Kim's the nice one and I'm the mean one, and that's okay. So I'll share my answer to that question. One tip that I think most agents totally ignore is they think that they can do it all alone.

Kim Neill:

They're afraid to give up a portion of their money in order to have the support and resources that they need. I actually was going to say that, but I was trying to find a nice way to say that they want it all People that are coming in.

Colleen Basinski:

When did you know you couldn't do this business alone? This time up and down. Yeah, three or four years into it, and I will say I'm just going to speak for you here. I will say there's a difference between knowing you can't do it alone and being taken advantage of For sure. But you know what I mean. Like, it's okay to have support, it's okay to be part of a group, it's okay to be part of a team, but also know where the line is in terms of.

Colleen Basinski:

Are they taking like? Am I working for a little way we talked about this on last week's episode right With the team building and everything Like. How much am I giving up in return for that? Sure?

Kim Neill:

And so finding that happy medium is really hard for a lot of people and I don't think and we see it here being on teams when you have people doing things for you VAs or TCs it does take a lot of that you know, off your plate, so it allows you to do more business, and they deserve to be compensated. Nobody works for free you know, so you pay that or you split split.

Colleen Basinski:

There is some truth to you get what you pay for yeah, you get what you pay for, for sure at the same time, don't be taken advantage of.

Colleen Basinski:

And this goes back to where we were like several weeks ago. I feel like every week we we have a similar thread in what we talk about, but we get more different. Specifics is like who you surround yourself with matters. Trust your circle. If you have a great circle, it makes a difference. If you're around greedy people who are just trying to make money off your back, yeah, of course that's. You're gonna get taken advantage of but if you're.

Colleen Basinski:

Oh my god, if I had a dollar for every time somebody tried to make money off my back and was a greedy mfr right, but at the same time, I also will always come from an abundance mindset I will share with those around me on a consistent basis and I'm a giver Like I'm going to give, give, give. If you're in my circle and you're in my heart. I'm going to take care of you forever. I don't care, Like if I have a dollar, you're getting 50 cents.

Kim Neill:

And I will share with everybody. I know you will. I will share with everybody as long as we're on the same path.

Colleen Basinski:

So I've coached hundreds of agents, yeah. So what's the common thing that I see? Holding most of them back? This is what?

Kim Neill:

yeah, that's a question for me, right, yeah, for sure.

Colleen Basinski:

I would say, first of all, they think they know it all too soon and then, at the same time, they don't have enough confidence in themselves.

Colleen Basinski:

I would say that agents need to just go out there and do it, invest in themselves, continue to grow, because so many agents think that they've arrived so early on. We talked about this the other day. I'm like, oh my gosh, like they got a couple sales under their belt and they think they're all that Right. And I don't mean that in a condescending or shitty way. I mean like okay, like how full of you are you of yourself? We saw that. I mean, I can think of like half a dozen people that we've just had that conversation about. Like maybe you need to just dial it back, just a little bit.

Colleen Basinski:

Just a little bit Now. But that doesn't mean and there's a difference between confidence and cocky. And confidence is when you and I think Alex Ramosi talks about this too Conf from when you've done it before sure, or you have proven that you can do it, versus just like a man, like thinking you're going to manifest it to happen. And that's not saying you shouldn't have positive affirmations, you shouldn't put it out there and you should grow. But I also think that continuing to invest in yourself I mean we just did a call the other day with Chris Heller, like he did did a group call for our team, which was fantastic, like here's one of the most successful real estate teams in the world.

Kim Neill:

And a great, such a great company.

Colleen Basinski:

CEO of multiple like one of the biggest real estate companies, and then moved on to another top company, another lead company. Like I mean, he's a really successful, talented, smart guy, did a session for our team and I'm like you know what I'm here to learn? And you and I looked at each other afterwards and we're like when did we learn? We took away that. Like, even though these are things that we know already, sometimes we fall away from them, we do.

Kim Neill:

And so getting back to the things that we know work and consistently doing those things, I will say this that was the reason why I hopped on board, when I was like, I think that night I hopped in and was like, all right, let's go. And it was because you are reminded, and sometimes that's what it takes and people who do. You're right when you say, when people who think they have it licked and they know it all and they don't revisit that kind of you know or they think they've arrived, that's when they start to fall apart.

Colleen Basinski:

Because it's true. So, in terms of, like, holding them back, back, you have to have confidence and grit and tenacity to go out there, get your teeth knocked in and keep going, because there have been plenty of times where we've I've lost a listing, I've lost a buyer, I've gotten over my head and and I talked to the agents that I coach about this I'm like you know what, when you learn to ride a bike, did you just pick it up and just take off the first time? How many times did you fall down?

Kim Neill:

You got to get back up, but once you learn to ride it, cruise it along.

Colleen Basinski:

But also, if you wanted to add you know, if you wanted to do tricks on that bike, would you invest in learning? Absolutely, Absolutely so it's all about continuing to invest in yourself, invest in your growth and then repetitively learning. And you know, know, I think they say oh well, once you learn how to bike, you can just hop right back on. Well, sometimes you're a little rusty when you hop back right, right back on.

Kim Neill:

So learning to kind of continually hone that skill or like work it out.

Colleen Basinski:

You go to the gym and work out you're like, okay, I built some muscle and then you don't just stop right, right, you have to keep that going. In order to keep it going, kim, you've got a superpower with people. How do you build connection fast?

Kim Neill:

because I see you do it it's just so natural for me now. I instantly and this is for any agent new coming in I instantly look for a common bond. It's something that I can pick up easily and I don't care who you are, you can be the biggest jag off asshole and you're gonna walk away liking me because I'm gonna come with a common bond. I'm gonna look for that common ground. We have that.

Kim Neill:

That's something that we have that you're good at building rapport, yeah so like if somebody comes in and they're you know, I'm like, okay, right, so what do you do for a living? I'm an electrician. Oh, my sons aren't you? Oh, what union?

Colleen Basinski:

I'm just oh so is my son. Well, it's, it's almost. They call that it's a pattern interrupt, because they're like coming in all angry and then you, you throw something on them and it immediately takes the temperature down and it does, and so I look for that naturally with people you just you just intuitively do it intuitively, it's intuitive I mean, people can get better at that so that's something like if you wanted to really develop your skills, you could take classes and courses and watch videos about how to build rapport.

Kim Neill:

Yeah, and how to create pattern interrupt and to take the temperature down.

Colleen Basinski:

And what does that look like?

Kim Neill:

And I always think this like we're here, you know in these transactions and when you're meeting new people you know, we all want to. We're all here for a common bond.

Colleen Basinski:

Well, isn't the goal to help the buyer get the house they?

Kim Neill:

love Absolutely To help the seller sell their house at a fair price or a good price, so that they can move on to the next thing and for everyone else to do their job in the new or agent, and I always used to think this isn't just one and done, think this isn't just one and done, like I would go overboard to make my client happy, because I want that client to tell everybody he knows I got the greatest real estate agent in town.

Colleen Basinski:

I want every client to walk away feeling like they had the best experience.

Kim Neill:

You bet and I had their back.

Colleen Basinski:

I had your back. Yeah, I actually said that to a client in the email today. I go, no matter what you decide, I've got your back.

Kim Neill:

You bet, because I do.

Colleen Basinski:

To me it's not about that one transaction. I'm going to be in the business forever.

Kim Neill:

You don't want to buy this house. Don't buy this house, right, I'm going to give you the honest opinion.

Colleen Basinski:

I'm going to tell you, you know, probably you're not going to find a perfect house, but this is going to be a great solid property. And yeah is it going to have some cosmetic stuff and is there going to be some maintenance stuff, but at the price point that you're on, this is not a shithole, for lack of a better term.

Kim Neill:

Right, so yeah, you're going to have to do some stuff.

Colleen Basinski:

Maybe this doesn't work, maybe you're going to have to update that, and that's okay, because you're going to be a homeowner and you're going to build equity and you're going to invest in yourself and in your future for the rest of your life, so that's okay. What's something you still do every week to stay on track, something like your non-negotiables?

Kim Neill:

in business.

Colleen Basinski:

I think we just talked about it.

Kim Neill:

I mean, I definitely it's follow-up for all of us. It is it's follow-up follow-up, follow-up, follow-up, follow-up.

Colleen Basinski:

I mean, if I don't, yeah Like we're obsessive about follow up.

Kim Neill:

If I don't do anything else, it's follow up.

Colleen Basinski:

I think there's a statistic that, like 75 or 85% of your business, comes from lead, follow up, not lead generation.

Kim Neill:

Oh for sure. I just texted a client that I saw the date because something popped up on the MLS that I knew she was looking at. They don't pop up often and I texted her and I said, hey, are you still in the market? You know, I've been, I'm just checking in whatever. Blah, blah, blah. And she said and then I, she said yes, that was it. And I texted her. Well, let me go ahead and send this to you. I'm more than happy to show it to you this weekend if you don't have an agent, because why would did she ghost me? For april, april 28th was the last communication we had. And she said I'm not. And I said, okay, great, but that's you know. And and what you just said a little while ago, knowing the market, having your finger out, oh, that popped on the market so I get, I get barred a hard time about a lot of things like he.

Colleen Basinski:

He definitely does not work as hard as the two of us. I will say say that and you know I'm going to talk about two more things. So as many leads as you have in your database in your past clients sphere of referral, just internet leads everything. I think you've got like 4,000 or 5,000 people in your database. What are you doing this weekend? Open house, how many?

Kim Neill:

Two.

Colleen Basinski:

So you're doing open house Saturday and open house Sunday, right, yeah, so when we're talking about things that agents should do to be successful, you've got 15 years in the business, you've got a solid database, you follow up with everyone yet you never stop lead generating never you get zillow leads coming in. You have internet. Other internet leads coming in. You have a solid sphere of influence and yet you're still doing open houses and putting yourself out there.

Kim Neill:

So I'm going to give you props you do the same thing I don't have them this weekend, but normally I do, yeah, and, and mr mike, he's too solid database, high price point, yeah, I mean he's.

Colleen Basinski:

He's a good agent. He really is. He's a strong, solid agent. Yeah, I forgot when I was giving props to everybody earlier. I should give one to him yeah, because he did.

Kim Neill:

He was the one who was like what are you doing? He's like kim, come to an open house.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, kim, okay I was gonna give burp props earlier, though might not like physically be out there working his ass off that guy when we talked about know your shit.

Colleen Basinski:

first of all, he's like the pricing guru and the reason why he's the pricing guru is because he literally looks at every new property that comes to the market. It's crazy, In the whole Illinois market, like from the Wisconsin border down to downstate to the Indiana border and past DeKalb, Like he looks at every single new property every single day, so that's why he understands pricing so well. But also when I have a buyer that's looking for very something specific, something very specific.

Colleen Basinski:

I will tell him I'm like hey, I need a buyer that's looking in Romeoville or Plainfield, four bedrooms or three bedrooms, with a basement, fairly updated. They can only go to 375. Like I give him all the criteria and he's the one that brings me. He's like here's this one. And he like because in this market you have to be on it right away.

Kim Neill:

And if you just set up a generic search?

Colleen Basinski:

so those of you, it's not. There's nothing wrong with setting up a search for your clients but if you're just setting up a generic search, forgetting about it, expecting the client to call you forget it, get out of the business I'm in there, I'm looking, I'm screenshotting, I'm texting this one or the private network I'm like hey, here you go.

Colleen Basinski:

How's this? What do you think about this one? Does that kind of fit you? I said, oh, this one's not. So I have buyer that's looking in eagle ridge in oakland I'm like this one's not in eagle ridge, but it's right next door to. It has the four bedrooms on the one floor like you're looking for, because they want all bedrooms on the same floor.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, Like there's specific criteria that these people want and you can't just set up a generic search for them. But he, like Bart, is the pricing guru and we call him the house whisperer Because he finds the house he does.

Kim Neill:

He'll be like here.

Colleen Basinski:

They said they wanted a pool. They wanted this. They wanted Because he literally goes through Five o'clock in the morning, this guy scrolling through looking at every new listing. If you talk about someone who knows their shit in terms of what's on the market what's coming to the market that's the guy I'm instagram.

Colleen Basinski:

I am so glad I have him in my corner when it comes to that and you can do the same thing. You've done the same thing too. You're like oh, I have a buyer, blah, blah, blah, he's like here yeah about this one.

Kim Neill:

Yeah, like having someone like that in our circle. Yeah, he's the one you tell, and I'm looking for this, especially when you have something like that's just specific or tough, yep. So when we talk about something everybody does, did he find Joe's?

Colleen Basinski:

property. What Did he find? Joe's property. He finds every property.

Kim Neill:

All's your Joe.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, that one, jeanette in Tinley that has that beautiful house with the pool.

Kim Neill:

Oh yeah, he found that property.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, because she was looking all over the place. He's like this is the one we got in there before they allowed showing. Like hey, can we get in there? I know you're not allowing showings till saturday, but bye, bye. We got in there before they allowed showings. She loved it. We wrote the offer, we pushed to get it accepted and we got it done. So, like the things that you're doing to go and be having above and beyond, make a difference. So one thing that changed everything. So I will say saying yes to a coach when you couldn't afford it.

Colleen Basinski:

But also we've talked about this before. There are a lot of coaches out there and I've seen some posts on social media that have not walked the walk. Let's say, or don't have. Their audio doesn't match their visual right. So like they're burning themselves out there, like they're this guru. Let me teach you how to become a capper that I've never capped before in my career.

Kim Neill:

I've never even been close to capping Right Like not me. Before in my career. I've never even been close to camping Right Like not me I'm talking about. No, oh.

Colleen Basinski:

I can show you how to sell a hundred homes using social media, but you've never sold more than four. Or you know, there's people out there like that. So I think credibility matters when you hire a coach, but still hire a coach if you can and if they're the right coach. I would also say joining a brokerage that gave you freedom.

Colleen Basinski:

Yep, that was big, I mean it's one of the things that I love about where we're at right now, because we can build our business, our team, our team structure, we can pay our agents more and there's no restrictions on that, like we're allowed to do a lot of things this has probably been one of the, because I've been in a few yeah, we've both been in a couple, yeah, a couple. This brokerage right now is probably given the most freedom to their agent.

Colleen Basinski:

I love that in terms of like, I don't know if intellectual or artistic freedom. Artistic freedom is allowed, model in terms of what model I want to employ in my business, freedom is allowed. But they still keep us hardcore on the clients which I love. Because that's what we need to stay in the business. So we're going to make sure you follow the law and you don't get yourself into trouble.

Colleen Basinski:

Other than that, do what you want, and we're even going to teach you some different things to do along the way, but if you don't want to do it our way, do it your way Learning to say no to the wrong things or people.

Colleen Basinski:

And get out while you can, yeah Quickly, I mean it's okay to leave somewhere after you join there if it's not the right place. It's say no to someone who acts like they're bigger and better than you when you disagree fundamentally what they with what they're putting out there. What do you? Um, I have some other little tidbits I want to add here. So we talked about consistency. Consistency wins passion's cute, but habits close deals. Yeah right, it's all about your habits. What are you doing every day?

Colleen Basinski:

you're out, you're following up every day whether it's on the phone, whether it it's via text, whether it's via email.

Kim Neill:

You're like breaking it up. I'll mail her everything.

Colleen Basinski:

You're mailing. Oh my God, You're so mailing. We left that out. She's like the knick-knack mailer she's got the little seeds in there, the little notes, the little smiley faces.

Kim Neill:

I do post cards. I still do Door hangers.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, in a certain neighborhood you're out there knocking the doors, putting the door hangers out. So consistency wins, habits, close deals. You can't scale chaos, so build systems before you need them. I know I've been pushing follow-up boss. We and that's one of like seven tool, seven or eight tools that we use on a consistent basis, that all seem to coincide and work together and it takes a while.

Colleen Basinski:

Yeah, I mean I didn't want to use it for the things I needed to use it for in the beginning, but once I embraced the tools it actually gave me more freedom.

Kim Neill:

Yeah, and then like kind of the things that we have integrated into it, like our cards and our cards fellow boss and then the leading gauge agent fire fellow like they all work together and I feel almost been a year that they and they're just. You can start to see them now working like just. And it's almost been a year that they've been and they're just. You can start to see them now working Like just. And it's with everything or with anything. I feel like it takes a year.

Colleen Basinski:

Well, that's the thing Like you can't just go to this shiny object, that shiny object that shiny object If you're going to do something, commit to doing it consistently over a long period of time to see the fruit of your results. I also have written down here being loud on social media isn't optional anymore. Like you gotta put your voice out there that people say I don't like social media.

Kim Neill:

I don't want to be out there Like this is your business.

Colleen Basinski:

The world doesn't. What do you do every single night when you lay in bed?

Kim Neill:

Oh yeah, what do you do? I'm a TikTok, you're a TikTok junkie, I am a junkie. Instagram, a second Instagram is your number two.

Colleen Basinski:

So I'm Facebook number one, instagram number two and TikTok number three. You're the opposite, which is fine, but between the two of us, we can literally cover everything.

Kim Neill:

Absolutely.

Colleen Basinski:

But I mean, we were talking earlier. I'm like, oh, I just bought this new vitamin. You're like, did you see it on TikTok? I'm like I did yeah, we are literally like the purchases that we trust. The business that we do is all related to what we see on social Now that doesn't mean we follow it blindly, Like if I see something on TikTok I'm going to research it on Google.

Kim Neill:

I'm going to Google it. I'm going to read the reviews.

Colleen Basinski:

I'm going to do all that, but as an agent who's dealing with someone's single largest financial transaction you'll ever make in a lifetime, you owe it to yourself and to your clients, especially your seller clients, to be on social media.

Colleen Basinski:

That doesn't mean you should be dancing like a dancing monkey on, like a talk show or something. You know what I mean, like you don't have to make yourself look like a fool, but you should be out there. I think there's a happy medium between something that's really boring and something that makes you look ridiculous and just be authentic, sure.

Kim Neill:

I think people like that. They want to see the real. You yeah, why do you think my boy does so well? Because he slides and socks.

Colleen Basinski:

Number one agent. Yeah, you're right. First of all, yeah, I love this next one. No one is coming to save your real estate career. Do the work.

Kim Neill:

That's probably the biggest one. Nobody is going to save it for you. You're going to have to put in the work to get, to get out what you need. Which brings me to a lot of people that have come and gone Like what are you doing?

Colleen Basinski:

We've had agents come and go from our team that they're like you're not helping me, You're not doing it, I'm like. I will help you to the end of the earth. If you help yourself, I'm not going to do the work for you no Been there, done that, not doing that again Absolutely.

Kim Neill:

I'd rather not have no.

Colleen Basinski:

You have to do the work and the business will follow. You bet Time in on the perfect, be visible, be helpful.

Kim Neill:

And be human. I always say progress over perfection. That's right, because that is true.

Colleen Basinski:

I mean, we're human beings in this journey together, be visible, be helpful. We say work hard, be kind. Same thing.

Kim Neill:

Right.

Colleen Basinski:

And be human. Yep, and with that, that's a wrap. That's a wrap. Peace out my love. You follow us, like us, subscribe, listen. We're on all the channels spotify, amazon, apple and uh, go out, do some epic shit.