How AI Transformed My Business Journey

Dylan Silver (00:01.292)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Dylan Silver. And today on the show I have Theresa Sage in Phoenix, Arizona. She helps real estate agents and investors scale with AI driven sales systems, streamlining the journey from lead to sale. Theresa, welcome to the show.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (00:22.009)
Thanks, Dylan. I appreciate you. Glad to be here.

Dylan Silver (00:25.784)
We’re excited to have you. I always like to start off at the top of the show by asking folks how they got into the entrepreneurial space.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (00:36.165)
Well, in regards to real estate, long, long, long, long time ago, I was working at a self-directed IRA custodian and I started seeing deals be put together. I didn’t even know you could have a self-directed IRA. And I was really lucky because I got to see all the

deals being put together and all this, you know, new exciting things. This was a long, long, long time ago. And so I had met at my time, my husband, Eric, and he was door knocking. And he was door knocking. He said, one of my friends is doing foreclosures. And I said, okay. So he started door knocking on the side and he started getting deals for this guy.

And it was kind of funny, Dylan, because at first the guy drives up in a Honda, Eric got him a few deals. And then the guy drives up in a Mercedes. And then I don’t know, like E-Class, C-Class, whatever. And then a couple months later, after Eric got him a few more deals, he had like this super fancy Mercedes, which was really interesting. So I said, hey,

I know how to structure the deals with private money, you know, now that I know like self-directed IRAs, you know how to get the deals. So we started door knocking and getting deals that way. And that was the beginning many, many years ago, 20 years ago of this investing real estate experience.

Dylan Silver (02:24.29)
So were you going and door knocking homes that were in some level of distress, financial or physical?

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (02:31.843)
Yes, so we pulled up like a foreclosure list, a pre-foreclosure list, and we were door knocking for pre-foreclosures and offering solutions to homeowners who were in that distress situation, buying their house and working it out that way. And then over the course of many iterations of real estate, as you know, it just kind of changed into whole different, lot of different markets and different strategies over the past 20 years.

So was good.

Dylan Silver (03:01.236)
Doorknocking foreclosures is tough. Give us some advice. I may be doing this here later today. Give us some, you know, 101 on door knocking foreclosures.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (03:10.501)
Well, I think one of the things that worked for us, okay, here’s a secret tip, is we just took out like a little sticky pad like this and said, hey, give me a call and wrote down our phone number and stuck it on the door.

And it was simple and non, I think the biggest thing is, it’s just having a conversation with people, right? Like they’re in distress, they need help, you provide a solution and, you know, may not be the first time or the second time, but eventually if they need help, they’ll call you. And if they call you and you have that, you know,

solution-oriented conversation, then it works a lot better.

Dylan Silver (04:02.35)
I’m gonna co-opt the sticky note. I hope this sticky note process is not trademarked or something like this. I’m about to use this out here in Dallas. Very good idea. I have door knocked and it’s very difficult. I have a lot of respect for people who’ve done it and so I’m gonna use this idea. But how did the business scale from…

initially door knocking for someone else to then you’re doing it with your husband to then growing to a larger business entity where it sounds like you’re doing deals maybe on your own or with partners. How did that come about?

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (04:42.467)
Yeah, so we did a lot of deals that way, kind of one-on-one. And then as we decided to grow in scale, we started hiring people and getting more lists in a team and door knocking that way. And what was happening was that this was a long time ago. So back in like 07, 08 when the market crashed.

Dylan Silver (05:05.678)
Yeah.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (05:06.755)
the equity deals were going away and nobody had any equity at the time. And so Dylan, one of the things I think is really important, especially like right now, like markets are of weird right now, you know, is we were trying to figure out a way how to help people and short sales. Nobody knew what a short sale was at that time. And we went, it was kind of crazy, went to a mastermind networking.

Dylan Silver (05:30.35)
Yeah.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (05:36.087)
meeting and one of the guys there was talking about, hey, have you heard of this short sale thing? I just, he had this like pamphlet. It was like this staple pamphlet like this. It was like how to do a short sale. There was nothing online. There was nothing like that. And we’re like, huh, this is really interesting. So we took it and we’re like,

I think this will work. So we started a short sale company back in the day and it was very profitable. We helped a lot of homeowners. But I think the biggest takeaway for people is, you know, sometimes, you know, people always talk about pivoting, right? You always have to pivot. But I think the biggest thing is pivoting, we wanted a solution.

So what was the solution? There was no equity. They were losing their houses. And so we found a solution. were looking for solution and short sales were the solution at that time. And I think we’re allowed.

Dylan Silver (06:41.282)
you’re speaking my language, Theresa, I am getting a short sale certification for this exact reason. said, well, what can I do? Because I am up to I just became a realtor because I was taught like just became last month because I was tired of realtors. I am a realtor myself, but I don’t always have the greatest perspective or the best view because I know that as an investor and as a wholesaler, realtors really didn’t view us favorably. And so

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (06:48.398)
Right?

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (06:52.866)
else.

Dylan Silver (07:10.35)
Kind of had a if I can’t beat him join a mentality so now I can go to people who are distressed I can offer them a cash offer which I was doing beforehand, you know, I can do a Listing agreement if they’ve got some equity in their home and if there’s a way to delay the Auction and then once I get my short sale certification I can go short sale and then of course there’s all these creative ways which kind of you have to be a little bit careful of You kind of need an attorney to review it if you’re gonna be a realtor and do it but as an individual non licensed

investor, you kind of have more freedom. So now I’m like, okay, I’ve got all the tools in the toolkit. Now I just have to go execute.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (07:48.057)
I love it, I love it. Yes, and Dylan, you’re so smart because I’m starting to see a trend here, at least in Phoenix. There’s becoming a lot more pre-foreclosures coming out. And so, yes, I think you’re in the right place. And full circle and a lot of people who got stuck didn’t change. They didn’t want to change. yeah, so I think it’s really important.

Dylan Silver (08:00.928)
It comes full circle, right?

Dylan Silver (08:11.692)
Yeah.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (08:16.067)
I love that you’re taking on that skill set. And I love the fact that you have multiple exit strategies for the homeowners. That’s fantastic.

Dylan Silver (08:22.892)
Yeah, there’s nearly not a lot. I’m shocked. like, I mean, I don’t have this big operation. It’s really me and buddies that are like informally just bouncing ideas off of each other. And I’m like, man, I really do feel like we can compete here because the other businesses that are coming in or other entities are offering them like one or two solutions. And it’s not really from an advisory standpoint. And my goal, honestly, is I do feel like there’s ways to actually help these people that are in distress.

And I would love to do that for them in a way where it’s not just like here’s a cash offer and that’s it.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (08:58.851)
Yeah, yeah, no, that’s fantastic, Dylan. Way to go. I think it’s awesome.

Dylan Silver (09:03.778)
pivoting a bit here. I see that you grew this business, right? But then now today you’re helping real estate agents and investors scale and helping them with leads and getting those leads to close. So how did this business come about?

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (09:20.485)
Yes, so after the kind of short sell run, I would say, we started another, I ran a team. So I’ve had my, I’ve been a real estate agent for long time and I ran a team and we had agents under us. And the challenge was,

they needed leads. I went, I don’t know, I’m sure you’ve heard of Russell Brunson. I went completely at the time, none of the real estate space was going to marketing events yet, right? It was very, very early. I was like right in the early stages. So I started following Russell pretty early because I have a marketing background and I was like, how do we get leads? Like I want leads, right?

Dylan Silver (09:50.85)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (09:57.784)
Hmm.

Dylan Silver (10:10.55)
Yeah, give me the leads.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (10:12.197)
we want leads and so we grew this team we had a lot of leads coming in and But they weren’t converting so then we had so then we needed sales training So then we got sales training so that they can convert the leads and the nice thing is to Dylan is we have that Egg is strategy is we could list your house or we could give you a cash offer at the time and it worked out really well so

That iteration of that business was coming about. then we bought from that particular section of time, we purchased a lot of real estate. So we have a lot of holdings here in the Valley. And then we had them across country and kind of took a little breather for a little while. And when I was coming back into the space, I was like, I’d really like to do this differently.

I know how to lead Jen. I know how to get the leads. And so I was like, OK, what would I do differently? So back about six months ago, I hired a VA. And I’m like, OK, we’ll just get a VA to answer phones. Perfect. They’ll get the leads. I’m all of.

Dylan Silver (11:25.678)
Sure.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (11:28.933)
I tried the outbound sales thing. didn’t really fit with my personality. And now there’s a lot of different legislation and stuff going on and it just didn’t really resonate with me. So I hired this VA and spent the week training and got all excited about it and she didn’t show up. I was like, okay, this sucks. So.

Dylan Silver (11:37.421)
Yep.

Dylan Silver (11:55.554)
Yeah.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (11:56.439)
I hired another VA and I was like, okay, we’re going to go through the whole process and this is your training and this is, you know, this is how we’re going to do it. You’re going to take calls and yada, yada, yada. this, you know, we need appointments and she was kind of crazy. So that didn’t really work out. And so I was like,

Dylan Silver (12:15.17)
Yeah.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (12:17.131)
I really just would like an appointment setter. I’d love appointment setter who actually like answers the phone, who responds and kind of I would love like for me personally, I want a sweet, you know, caring kind of like, you know, you call in it’s like all like, it’s like your mom. Hi, how’s it going? You just feel taken care of, right?

And so, right? And so I created our AI receptionists, our appointment setters. And…

Dylan Silver (12:46.37)
Yeah, yeah, I want one of those too.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (12:59.385)
really went into like a deep dive into scripting and like how that would feel. so when we do our marketing, and we get these leads coming in, it’s just this sweet voice, Dylan, how can I help you? How’s it going? And the coolest thing is, you know, we kind of all want that lifestyle, right? We pay we pay a lot of money for marketing. And we don’t want to miss any of those leads coming in.

Dylan Silver (13:23.32)
video.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (13:30.373)
So I was sitting at my daughter’s banquet. She got an accolade for soccer. She was regional defender of the year. She’s in high school. And I looked down, not that I’m supposed to be looking at my phone while she’s up there getting her award, but I look at my phone and there’s a call coming in. And my AI receptionist has a 5 and 1 minute with Richard who needed to sell his house.

Dylan Silver (13:40.982)
Okay.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (14:00.375)
It was awesome, Dylan. I was like, this is great. He felt heard. He got responded to right away. She was sweet. She was empathetic. She asked all the questions. Are you behind in your payments? Do you have a mortgage? How much do you owe? When do you feel like selling? He just went on and on and on and on and on and talked to my AI employee.

At that point, Dylan, I was like, this is awesome. And so I called him back the next day and I said, hey, Richard, we kind of went through the script, right? Hey, Richard, I know you talked to Anne. I called her Anne. I talked to Anne. You talked to Anne, kind of went through like da da da da da da. So tell me more. Tell me more about what’s going on. Just made him.

reiterate the whole conversation again to just get that, you know, rapport back. And he was so excited to sell his house. I was like, great. So yeah, it was, it was really, I think a couple things that were exciting was one, he called, you know, late at night. So I didn’t miss a lead to

Dylan Silver (15:12.898)
Let’s do it.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (15:27.607)
He felt heard and validated. three, response time was immediate. And so that was really customer service wise. He really appreciated that.

Dylan Silver (15:41.504)
I’m always, I shouldn’t say always, I say I’m pleasantly surprised that it feels like the cutting edge of AI is like in real estate. I do feel that way. I’ve seen AI in lots of other places, but the use cases for it for the day to day public.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (15:54.181)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (16:02.216)
I feel like it’s being expanded in real estate more than in many other places. Sure, there’s gonna be lots of use cases for it and all over, all over, but I’ve now spoken with so many people like yourself who are developing these innovative new ways, speed to lead, and you have an AI receptionist who’s answering calls at night.

It’s just so tremendously inspiring to see this, because how many other times are we able to kind of see a technology and it kind of gets taken over by folks who are degrees of separation removed from everybody else? But it’s almost like we have the ability now to hop in as individual operators and take advantage of this and then customize it to our own way. It’s awesome to see.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (16:48.153)
Yeah, yeah. And I think one of the things that I was like, how do I get, how do I use AI to enhance my business and actually like create more customer value as opposed to taking away? And so that was my goal in regards to like creating all this.

Dylan Silver (17:06.615)
And so you had this opportunity, you were using it to scale your business. At what point did you see that, this is an opportunity I’m gonna bring it to other people and help them with their business as well?

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (17:17.317)
So in a mastermind, talking to other investors, we’re just, I was like, hey, you know, I’ve got this AI and it’s working really well and we have lead generation coming in and deals coming in and it’s pretty cool. And they were like, can you do that for me? I was like, sure, absolutely.

So I was thinking too, I was like, okay, well, because I’ve had a team, I’ve had a real estate team, like at the end of the day, I want to help other people. You know, I got into this business, you know, to grow my wealth, but also to help people and help other people. And so at the end of the day, I was like, oh, okay, that’s really interesting. Well, how could I help real estate agents who necessarily aren’t investors?

Dylan Silver (17:53.88)
Yeah.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (18:12.331)
use this service. And so I was driving around my neighborhood, Dylan, and I was calling sign calls, right? And I’m calling a sign call and nobody answers. And I’m like, huh, that’s interesting. So I waited and waited. Nobody calls me back. So I’m like, okay. And then I drove around and I called another sign call and I was like,

You know, it was like this, just a minute and they’re like rustling the phone and they’re like trying to connect to the other person and just a minute and let me take your name and number and such a big mess, right? And then it was like transferred over and there again, nobody answers the phone because everybody’s so busy. So I was like, And then the third one.

Dylan Silver (18:55.394)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (19:02.158)
Yeah.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (19:06.304)
I’m like, okay, because I always pretend I’m the buyer, right? So I’m like driving. And I pull up to this house and I’m like, this is a beautiful house. And they had a QR code. I’m like, that’s kind of cool. So I’m like pretending I’m a buyer and I’m like, I scan this QR code and no offense to anybody who has QR codes, no offense. This is my experience. I’m acting like the buyer. I scan this QR code and it brings up all this information. And I’m like,

Okay, that’s cool, but it was 3.3 million. And I’m like, ooh, my budget’s 2.6. What am I gonna do? Am I gonna fill out the information? No, I’m gonna drive away, right? And then I was like, wow, he must be so, this is what I’m thinking and I’m an agent. This guy must be so busy. This just feels very cool that he probably won one at $2.6 million.

Dylan Silver (19:41.091)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (19:49.261)
No.

Yeah.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (20:05.017)
buyer because you know he’s in the 3.3s. This is me like I was like wait a minute I felt like I was talking to myself right I was like that’s an interesting thought I know right right and I was like just walking through the process and I thought wow this is really interesting so we had a listing and we had a phone number and it was like hey how’s it going are you calling on this listing at you know

Dylan Silver (20:15.608)
Yeah, you disqualified yourself. Yeah, yeah.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (20:32.921)
whatever, Callie Chameleon. And it was like, yes, what would you like to know about the property? And it’s a three point, you know, it’s a three bedroom, two bath, has a pool, it’s in this school district, no H.O.A. And the agents having this conversation about this particular house.

And, Dylan, this is the coolest thing. So there’s a couple things that are pretty cool. So if the person’s like, ooh, I was looking for a five bedroom, no problem. Hey, what are you looking for? So the agent or the sign caller employee is prompted to ask what they do want. So you immediately get their phone number, you get their information, and you get what their qualifications are before they drive away, right?

Dylan Silver (21:21.836)
Yeah, I don’t know if you heard that. That was our rooster that we have on the ranch making an audible appearance in the show here.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (21:27.553)
I love it. So the rooster would probably, that would be part of the thing. And you can have roosters on this property. that was pretty neat. But here’s the other thing, Dylan. Let’s just say you’re sitting with a seller, right? You get a lead, you go meet with a seller.

Dylan Silver (21:32.865)
Yeah.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (21:52.869)
You’re like, look Dylan, I know you wanna sell your house. And guess what? We’re gonna make sure no buyer gets left behind. We’re gonna have a sign in your yard with a phone number that gets answered 24 seven. So that any out of state buyers do not get missed. We have our receptionist there answering to ensure that no buyer gets left behind. How do you feel about that?

Dylan Silver (22:23.01)
I mean that’s a win-win. The buyer’s happy, they get their questions answered, and then the agent involved is not missing any opportunities. Talking about fumbling the phone, talking about missing it, because I’ve heard this said, once you become an agent, you lose your phone.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (22:40.152)
Nah. Right?

Dylan Silver (22:41.236)
So, you know, to avoid that experience for everybody, you’re now getting 100 % of the opportunities and then you’re being able to follow up with them. And I’m imagining you have a way where it’s even can follow up without you having to do all the follow up yourself.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (22:57.271)
Yes. Yes, yes, yes. But for me personally, I always like to do the follow up just because I want to create that connection. And here’s the other thing. One of the other agents, she’s like, the problem is you put your cell number, right Dylan? You put your cell number on the sign call. Guess who you get calling you all day long?

Dylan Silver (23:05.624)
Sure.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (23:20.421)
telemarketers. So you’re ready. You’re like, Okay, I’m gonna answer my phone. yeah, no, I do not want. I do not want whatever. Yes. So even if you are answering, it’s such a waste of time and energy, right? You’re like, you’re like, by the time you get that third call, you’re all frustrated from telemarketers because you don’t like recognize the phone number thing. You’re like, Yeah, what do you want? They’re like, so

Dylan Silver (23:21.718)
Yeah, that’s true.

Dylan Silver (23:29.166)
Yeah, you got everybody hitting you up at that point.

Dylan Silver (23:38.03)
Yeah.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (23:50.169)
That’s a great thing too.

Dylan Silver (23:50.35)
Theresa, when do you think is the right time for someone, whether they’re a new agent or a more experienced agent, when do you think is the right time for someone to take a look at integrating with an AI service like the one that you have?

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (24:06.277)
I think, well personally, if you’re interested in growing your business and providing customer service, there’s different levels that at least we provide, like the sign calls and the conversions and…

the AI receptionist, that’s one. And then we have kind of a second level where that if you’re like, you know what, I’m all in, I’m gonna grow my business, I want lead gen, then we offer a second component where we actually help you with the lead generation. And then the AI agents, then you don’t have to answer your phone, you can vet them first and call them back. So there’s kind of two different ways of thinking about it in regards to that.

Dylan Silver (24:51.832)
Terrific.

terrific opportunity. think, know, for myself where I’m at, I’m a new agent, you know, but I’ve done wholesale deals and I’ve worked with investors and I’m thinking, like while I’m hosting the podcast, I’m missing out on opportunities, right? So there may, I might not necessarily have, you know, a big budget to do lots of lead gem, but I do need people who might be calling in, right? To do someone to pick up the phones while I’m on here. So I’ve even thought about it. I know the use cases just keep expanding and expanding. It’s, it’s inspiring and it’s great to see folks like yourself, Theresa, who

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (25:05.4)
Right.

Dylan Silver (25:23.402)
are bringing this to everybody really. We are coming up on time here though Theresa, where can folks go to get a hold of you?

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (25:32.121)
Yes, so our company is called ai.getsarah.com.

The reason why I named her Sarah was because I had a VA in the Philippines a few years ago and she was so sweet. I loved her. Her name was Sarah and she was so kind and she took care of everything and she was so organized and I absolutely loved her. So I named Sarah after her because you just felt so supported and taken care of. So loved it.

Dylan Silver (26:11.584)
and ode to Sarah in the Philippines. Well, Theresa, thank you so much for coming on the show here today and congrats on your success and to your continued success.

Theresa Sage @theresasageaz (26:22.565)
Thanks Dylan, appreciate you.