How Real Estate Agents Build Clients for Life | Joshua Cadillac

Joshua Cadillac (00:00)
Well, I think that it’s I’m going to start kind of from the the the back end working forward. The number that always shocks me is how bad agents are at following up with past business and past leads. Once I put somebody in my CRM, they have three choices. They can buy, they can die, or they can take out a restraining order. But otherwise, they are going to get followed up with. Like I am going to physically call them four times a year and just check on them.

And and that that’s it. It’s not even a real estate call. Hey, I was just thinking about you. How you been? That’s it, right? Because I want them to know that it’s not crap that I they genuinely matter to me more than the money they represent.

Issa Hanna (02:16)
Welcome back to The Real Estate Pros show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna, and today I have a true real estate mastermind, Joshua Cadillac, here to share his knowledge with us. Joshua, welcome to the show.

Joshua Cadillac (02:26)
Thank you so much, Issa. It’s great being here. Thank you for having me.

Issa Hanna (02:28)
Man, I’m I’m super excited to have you. We talked earlier. You bring a wealth of knowledge. You’re not just an agent, you’re an investor, but you’ve man, you’ve closed some transactions and you literally have the experience and you talk like a guy with the experience. So before we get into that, kind of run down your day to days. What are you doing every day now?

Joshua Cadillac (02:48)
You know, there’s a lot going on. I mean, today was you know, the usual running to the brokerage. I’m help creating the business brokerage end of the business the the brokerage that I work with right now. I do both national and international speaking. So I fly all over the country literally going out of town tonight, all week, next week, on the road. I probably speak a couple hundred times a year on stage. So it’s it’s a big part of my business now. Still doing transactions, still in production, do

probably about 50% residential and 50% commercial. A little bit more commercial maybe this year. So it might be more 60-40 this year than it than it has been in the past. Write books, teach classes, 67 CE classes approved in the state of Florida, just rewrote Florida’s GRI, did Nebraska’s GRI for them, rewrote that last year. So lots of lots of stuff in that space. And then we just created a brand new financial calculator to replace the

awful 10bII that I’ve been using for the last 18 years. That’s a much better, cleaner tool that, you know, makes agents not have to know as much to to be excellent in front of their clients. I I love being able to do the numbers in front of the clients and not be scared. It’s a it’s a great place. It it thins the herd of agents that can compete with you in front of the client, you know?

Issa Hanna (03:58)
Definitely when you can show them them numbers. Most people, that’s the bottom line. You know, this is how if it’s a buyer, this is how much your down payment is, is how much your monthly payment. If you can have that on hand, like Josh said, it’s gonna separate you from the herd. And then on the seller side, if you could have, hey, you’re gonna make this much money, this is your bottom line. And and you can be spot on with those numbers. And as an experienced person like you will always be spot on.

That’s how you separate yourself as an agent. So man, we’re already getting great advice.

Joshua Cadillac (04:27)
I think it’s even more than that, man. I mean, like for me, one of my favorite calculations that we just got simplified is rent versus own, showing the differential cash in pocket for being an owner versus a renter based upon, you know, what their what their their wages are, what their rent is, what the property would that same property would be purchased for. Like, what’s the real dollars in pocket differential? And and and can you can you quantify that?

Or for my investors, you know, not looking at cap rate, but looking at internal rate of return, looking at capital accumulation, looking at what what spending their money today looks like and the tax advantages that come from that, and having give being able to give them that clarity and good, clean report that shows here’s how we got to these numbers, here’s all the assumptions that were made. Do you want us to use different assumptions? We can do that. But you know, having that that confidence to sit here and say, how do you want to look at it?

So that we make sure we’re using your money as well as we possibly could, because that’s my primary concern as your agent. Not that I do a deal. I don’t want a deal. I want every deal you’re ever going to do. And the way I do that is the by the way I handle this deal. If you think about business that way, that you’re building a business rather than just trying to score a paycheck, that’s what’s going to give you the clarity on the type of skills you need to bring to the table today to earn that loyalty. Where I come from in New York, you got somebody that’s good about anything.

Yeah, you need a plumber. I got a guy. Right. How do you get them to say that about you? Because if your clients are not saying that about you, what the hell are you doing wrong? That should be the first question as a business owner, you should be asking. Because repeat business is the best business there is.

Issa Hanna (06:50)
Definitely, and and a lot of successful agents. A lot of them don’t even advertise anymore because, like you said, Josh, I got a guy. And then, you know, in New York, not just New York, if you vouch for somebody, if you got a guy, you’re co-signing that guy. So how do you get yourself to be co signed by that person? Work with integ integrity, work with honesty, you know, and and and make them make them say, I got a guy. So man.

This is crazy. We you answered two questions and you’re giving people just amazing advice, Josh. I love it. And and another thing I I it stuck out when we were talking earlier and I kind of summarized a little bit. You said bringability over likability. Can you share a little

Joshua Cadillac (07:32)
I like that actually. It’s a little different than what I said, but I I like actually that’s that’s that that’s a pretty cool way of saying it. I never heard that that way before. You know, I I think that one of the big things that we don’t have clarity on, I wish I had clarity on this at the beginning of my career, and nobody ever said it to me. When you walk in the room as a real estate agent, people have a box. Clients have a box in their head that says real estate agent. Like if I said to you, Issa, a biker.

You get a picture of what a biker looks like. And that maybe it looks like the cast of Sons of Anarchy. Maybe it looks like a friend of yours who’s a biker. Maybe it’s got a lot of leather, denim, facial hair, tattoos. I don’t know. But you got a picture. So the question becomes: what does that picture of a real estate agent look like? And when you look at what the studies are, what people think real estate agents are, it’s not a flattering picture. They think that real estate agents are lazy. They think they’re not very smart. They think they’re overpaid. And the thing that they o they think the only thing they care about is getting paid.

That’s your starting place for negotiation when you walk in that room. I’m not gonna go in there trying to be their buddy until I solve the fact that they think I’m a person with bad intent that’s just looking to walk in there and get paid. Everything I ask them and everything we talk about is gonna be run through that filter. So they’re not even gonna give me honest answers. And we know this is true, Issa, because one of the oldest lines in real estate is buyers are liars. The reason why buyers are liars is you’ve given them no reason to tell you the truth.

You walk in there as a salesperson that they think is looking to stick it to them if it gets you paid. And so that idea that we’re going to go in there and be their buddy and be their friend is really misplaced. I want a good relationship with the client. The operative word there is good. Most a this is a relationship business. I’ve heard that a million times, but there’s such a thing as bad relationships. One of the hallmarks of a good relationship is mutual respect.

Lazy, not very smart, overpaid, and only cares about getting paid does not get you to mutual respect. I gotta fix that. I’ve got to walk in the room and give them something that says, I’m not those things. And I gotta tell you, it’s not an RPR report that you’re giving them. I gotta go in there and show them that I’ve done the work outside of ever meeting them to be worthy of their business when I did meet them. In other words, I’m not gonna lead with friendship. I’m gonna lead with expertise.

And I’m gonna lead with advice that is free where I’m asking for nothing. Because here’s the thing: if you go in there and you crush a market conversation, when they ask you, what’s the question they always ask you when they find out you’re in real estate? How’s the market? I got a crazy idea. Answer the living hell out of that question. You know, I’m so glad you asked. Right now in Miami, we have a bifurcated market. I got single family homes doing one thing, I got condos doing another thing, largely predicated on that building that came down that’s now forced. Like I’ll have that conversation.

Right. And so show them this is where we are. This is what went into getting us here. And based upon that, this is where the opportunity looks like it lies. This is what the future looks like it’s building out to be. Because the person you’re talking to doesn’t really care about the first two things. They care about where it’s going. That’s where the opportunity is. Is it or is it not a good time? But the only way they’re going to believe you when you tell them where it’s going is if you do a great job of explaining how we got here.

And where we are now. If you do that really well, and you say, so basically, hey, look, Issa, if you’re looking to buy something or do something right now, here’s what I’d be looking at, here’s what I’d be staying away from. And you know, you’re gonna have to take this with a grain of salt, Issa, because I’m an agent. But it’s complicated enough that I would say you should probably get somebody to look out for you. You should probably find an agent that’s pretty good. Here’s the thing: there’s a lot of schmoes out there, there’s a lot of bums and bozos, Issa. So what I’d say to any agent that’s I don’t know.

Got, you know, more worried about what their headshot looks like and how they can get drone images from their listings from the surface of Mars. This is not the person you want. All right. What you’re looking for is somebody that enlist a few things that are like how you tell the bums from the folks that are really worth doing. I called an agent yesterday on a Sunday. He answered in one ring. I’m like, man, you know how long it’s been since an agent answered my freaking phone call, right? Like that kind of stuff. I I I was so anxious to meet this guy.

Because it’s been so long, right? So that kind of stuff. And then you know what I do after I’m done giving you all that advice, Issa? I don’t ask you for business. You want to know why? Because the second I ask you for business, that goes from advice from somebody who obviously gets it better than you do to a sales pitch. And the second it’s a sales pitch, everything you said, out the window. And when you do that, well, here’s the crazy thing. Have you negotiated lazy off the table?

Yeah, obviously you’re not lazy because you’re paying attention to all this stuff and you understand what’s going on. Have I negotiated not very smart off the table? I sure know a hell of a lot more about it than you do. Overpaid. Well, I I’m not overpaid. You want to know why? Because to be an expert at that level, you got to be worth the dough, right? And then only cares about getting paid by not asking you for business. I just negotiate off the table and I only care about getting paid because I haven’t asked you for business. I try to try to set you up well that if you’re going to do something in this market.

That you do it in the best possible way. To me, that’s a way of solving that problem. I don’t know it’s the only way. It’s the way that I’ve chosen to do it in my business, but it’s something that I was never provided. And so everything tends to be predicated in our industry upon the fact that real estate people tend to be people people. Not everybody that’s a real estate agent, but but disproportionately a lot of people like they’ve never met a stranger and my God, it’s great to meet you and stuff like that. And so brokers tend to be like, hey, look.

I don’t know where they’re gonna be working three transactions from now. Let me smack them on the butt, tell them to go out there and just be really friendly with people, close a few deals with their friends and family, we’ll get paid, and then go jump ship for some higher split someplace else. That’s what the brokerage business is. And so it largely trades in that idea of just be likable, ask questions, ask open-ended questions, make clients feel heard. I think that’s a crock of crap. I think you walk in there and you help them with the best stuff you can on where the market is.

Where it looks like it’s going, what’s affecting their product and why your product is a good product in the market today. What parts stink, what products they should be staying away from. I’m still telling you not to buy condo in in Florida. I I’m telling you to start looking. The prices are down, man. There’s blood in the streets. I’m just not sure the blood’s where it needs to be for you to be a buyer. But but be looking. That’s an opportunity. There’s that’s going to be a market that’s going to have a nice correction when it does bounce. It’s going to be a nice bounce. But position yourself well. I want to give them that kind of advice.

But I want to do it in such a way that they know that I’m passionate about what I do, that I’m good at what I do, and that I’m the kind of person that doesn’t fit in that real estate agent box, which means I’m exactly the kind of person they want on their side. Because what I’m making the actual negotiation that I’m actually having with them is that I am going to be very difficult to replace with another agent. Real estate agents in the client’s mind are incredibly replaceable. Plug one in.

There’s no difference. I’m trying to make the case that there is a big difference. And that’s what allows me to secure not only the opportunity to work with them, but it allows me to secure their business going forward. Because if I do the job and do it well, and I talk to them in a way that other people don’t, in their mind, it’s very difficult for them to find somebody to replace me with.

Issa Hanna (16:16)
Hundred percent. I mean, everything you just said, as a fellow person who is a real estate agent for quite a long time, it’s exactly how I got my business as well. You prove yourself through your knowledge, and and you don’t turn it into a sales pitch, just like Josh said, by handing them your business card. You show This is why I’m so good. This is why I get paid the big bucks. And you’re never gonna get better advice than than what you got from me. So if you want this same advice

Choose me, but I’m not gonna ask you to choose me. So

Joshua Cadillac (16:47)
I leave them the room to take it to it. And here’s the crazy thing that this is the tough that the really interesting part, Issa. I want to land that idea of all that stuff you said. But if I if I say any of it, it’s bragging and it immediately reduces the value of it. So unless I’m having a comment, the the cool thing about it is I don’t ever really talk about myself. I talk about the market, but by talking about the market well, it tells them what I that I want them to know about me. The example I usually like to give is

You go on a date with somebody, right? And let’s say you really like the other person, right? You know, icon, man, you know, like he got goosebumps. This is good stuff, right? I want her thinking by the end of the evening, man, this is tremendous boyfriend material sitting across the table from.

If I come out and say, let me tell you what tremendous boyfriend material I am, it has the exact opposite effect of what I want. So as agents, we got to understand there’s something we want them to think that we can’t come out and say. If we come out and say it, it has the exact opposite effect. It’s bragging. So the safe way to make the case is to talk about something that is neutral and that they’re going to care about. I don’t know, Issa.

What would somebody getting ready to spend hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in the real estate market? What might they be interested in talking about prior to entering the real estate market with somebody who’s supposed to be a real estate market expert? I don’t know. I feel like the real estate market is like a safe bet. And what’s crazy is I’ve been making that bet for 18 years. And I’ve never been wrong yet. They’re always interested in what’s going on.

Issa Hanna (18:23)
You crush the you’re crushing these answers, man. But not everybody gets to the level where you’re at sure, you know, overnight, right? We all start on this bumpy road. So how do young Josh get started?

Joshua Cadillac (18:36)
Well, for me, it was I was terrified early on, even though I probably had a little bit better background than a lot of people come in because I had invested in real estate before. I was terrified of making a mistake with other people’s money. My father raised me, you know, you lose your own money, that’s that’s bad. You lose somebody else’s money, that’s unforgivable. You know, like you only have one reputation. My father was old school, he was nineteen born in nineteen thirty, you know, just kind of how he was. You know, you you you got your name, you got your word. And so,

I came in very concerned and I took every class that wasn’t nailed down. I mean, I got I’ve got almost every deal designation in real estate there is, which I never really advertise much, but I just wanted to make sure I didn’t make a mistake with other people’s money. And the big thing was, and maybe this is the safest way I could explain it to the agents that are are listening to this. I knew that I didn’t want to walk into rooms where the client knew more than I did, because then I became irrelevant.

And so what I wanted to do is shorten the period of time to go from a version of me that had quite a few rooms I could walk into where that was the case. I wanted to do everything I could to reduce that number of rooms as quickly as I could to the point now where I don’t think I’ve really walked into any meetings in the last 10 years where there wasn’t something I could bring, even to very sophisticated clients that they hadn’t thought about, hadn’t heard about. Because as good as they might be.

This is the thing I do for a living. If a hobbyist can come in and eat my lunch on the thing I do for a living, I gotta say shame on me. Right. And so that’s kind of the pressure that I put on myself. So early on, it was how do I make the number of rooms where I’m irrelevant or where the investor is going to eat my lunch? How do I shrink that number of rooms as quickly as I can? So every class.

You know, I I I’ve I’ve created some stuff, I’ve written a lot of classes, right? But I also have my mastermind where agents come in and do this. I mean, books that we have a book study where I have my agents reading Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. Why? Because if you understand markets like an economist does, you sound different than other agents and you have a better, deeper understanding of markets, right? So like these kind of things, like even my own personal time, I take it to read this kind of stuff so that the number of rooms where I’m relevant is as as as many as I can make it.

That that puts you in a position where not only are the people that have you around grateful to have you around, but they’re willing to go out on a limb, as you said, and co sign on the name and say, Hey, look, you wanna do real estate stuff, you gotta talk to my guy.

Issa Hanna (21:07)
Mm-hmm. Yep, not not cosign you and you lose them thousands of dollars. And and I I I just wanna pick out a little bit of something that you said when you first got in. You said, I was terrified to lose other people’s money. You care about your people. And that makes the world of difference. And they you know, as long as you show them that you actually care. That is, man. It’s it’s even almost all on a

Joshua Cadillac (21:31)
It’s even more important when you’re smart. Like what because that’s part of what the case I’m trying to make is, right? I’m trying to make the case that I’m sharp, like that I’m paying attention. You you learn this if you read Jordan Belfort stuff, have a good attitude and be smart. That’s that’s that’s that’s critical, right? If you’re smart and they don’t trust you, it’s an even bigger problem because now they worry that you’re smart enough to really pull the wool over their eyes. So with with the the case for credibility, I need to be making the case for

trust alongside of that simultaneously and show them the why I do business the way that I do, tell them the things and try throughout that to give them examples of why I do business the way that I do. And a lot of that is giving them permission, frankly, to use another agent. Say, look, whether you use me or somebody else, here’s what you should know. Here’s what I’d be worried about. Right. I think that that’s good, that does a lot of the heavy lifting to make sure that I’m not just building credibility.

And not building that other piece. I think there’s three legs to that stool, which is rapport, the one that our industry focuses on almost exclusively, credibility that you’re the actual expert in the room, and trust that you will look out for them and take care of them like they’re family. Like if they if they’re with you, they’re never gonna get hurt because you’re not gonna let it happen on your watch. If those three things are not only true, but you’re able to make the client feel them.

Issa Hanna (22:48)
Exactly.

Joshua Cadillac (22:53)
Well, I I think that’s put you put yourself in the best possible place to earn their business and and their respect and their referral going forward and you know, that nobody that they know will ever be allowed to use anybody but you on their watch.

Issa Hanna (23:07)
Hundred percent. You gotta take care of A to Z. You take care of A to Z. And and you constantly show like, hey, like I’m I’m here for you. I don’t care about the money. My job is to help you. So amazing advice. We’re getting such amazing advice. I wanted to kind of lean into your public speaking aspect of what you do. You know, you’re a great speaker, obviously. So can you can you give us a little bit more about your public speaking?

Joshua Cadillac (23:33)
So let’s let’s let’s laugh at me first. That’s always a good place to start. When when the first time I was asked to speak, there were two things I swore I would never do, Issa. One, I’d never write anything after I finished high school. I was like, I am never writing a stupid paper about anything ever again. Now I’ve written like four popular books, 67 textbooks, like that. So la God’s laughing his butt. And the other thing that I was I said I was never gonna do is I was never gonna get up on stage and speak in front of people.

It turned out that wasn’t that wasn’t in the cards, I guess. I didn’t know myself nearly as well as I thought I did. When I first was asked to speak, it was to six agents at the office that I worked at six days a week for my the brokerage down there in Sunny Isles Beach. And these were people that I talked to every day. And my knees were shaking so bad and I was so nervous that I had to do it sitting down.

Like the material was good. If I was sitting down and have to worry about my legs collapsing on me, I was fine. Six people that on a normal basis talk to you normally all the time, but all of a sudden, if they were together and looking at me, it was it was a problem. And so eventually I I got past that and you know started teaching not just for my local brokerage, but then for local associations. I I wrote a course. I originally wrote a two-day course that I thought was gonna be my magnum opus. Like this is the one thing I’m gonna write. Here’s what all these other courses are not telling you.

And I did that and that has become now the more than 67 CE courses that I’ve written through the state of Florida and taught, you know, versions of them all over the country. But yeah, that’s that’s a thing, you know, won a couple of speaker of year awards and all that fun stuff and wrote the commercial curriculum for Miami. So like I I the reason why I really love the commercial side of the business is because the commercial guys, the CCIM guys actually get it.

They understand their product really well. And when you push residential agents, they don’t. You ask them what’s good about real estate and they kind of squirm. You know, or they’ll tell you some, I get to meet such interesting people. And I get to no, no, that’s your job. The thing you’re trying to get people to spend tons of money on, that thing, what’s good about that thing? Because the really interesting thing is, Issa.

Real estate agents don’t actually sell real estate. They they sell themselves, but as far as like giving clients a reason to buy the product, like what’s good about this thing I’m trying to get, they can’t do it. It’s like the best kept secret in real estate. And it’s unfortunate because it’s just not stuff that we talk about. They don’t they don’t know how to do the numbers, they don’t know how to do the math, they don’t know the tax benefits, you know, they they can’t cite chapter and verse.

And say, hey, look, go check with your CPA, but you do realize you get this and you can do this, right? And you understand this is how why this is better than doing the other thing that you’re talking about. They don’t know how to do that comparison. And you know, every time the client is on the fence with your product, in particular, like first-time buyers, understand they’re not just not choosing real estate, they’re typically choosing cash over real estate. How’s cash been doing?

Cash is getting killed. Just go check the CPI numbers that are coming out. You want to, it’s not that doing nothing has you standing still. Doing nothing is getting you killed on a daily basis. I’m looking to get you in the thing that’s actually the worse that gets, the better this gets. So the gap is actually like double what you think it is as far as the benefit goes. And so being able to show them that clarity and stuff like that, it just, it’s just so important, man.

Issa Hanna (27:02)
Definitely. And you you have to have experience to know this kind of stuff. So new agents, you’re not gonna just walk in knowing that, but you know, you talk to guys like Josh, you know, you talk to experienced guys. They can tell you these things beforehand. You don’t have to do it our way where we had to, you know, we we had to come up the rough. Exactly. Exactly, you know, so

And with that, you know, that was in the past. How about the future? Let’s talk future a little bit. What where am I gonna see you in five years?

Joshua Cadillac (27:31)
Well, I’m I’m excited about doing this business brokerage division. It’s it’s a new challenge. I’m, you know, much more intimately involved with balance sheets and profit and loss statements now doing the underwriting. I mean, I love underwriting commercial assets and by, you know, underwriting, I don’t mean like the lender does. I mean like going through the numbers and you know, seeing what makes sense, what’s the what’s the garbage the listing agent has has left in here, what’s the you know, I whenever I get a presented a bunch of numbers, I’m automatically looking for what they what what what’s the lie.

In there because I know they’re lying to me, right? And so that’s kind of part of the fun of doing of doing real estate. But when it comes to people’s books with businesses, obviously they’re always looking to minimize their income for tax purposes. So figuring out what it is that we can add back in, where the value actually lies, all that kind of stuff. So that’s part of it. I’m excited about the fun that we’re doing right now. We’re doing a $25 million buy with with probably a hundred million dollar buy behind behind that a year from now.

So excited to take and start buying non-performing debt. I bought a lot of non-performing debt. It’s how I built much of the portfolio that I have. So I’m excited about that. Excited about the new calculator that we have, the true calculator. I’m just loving teaching that man so much more than than the other things that I I did. Probably more speaking. I I think rewriting the the the 45 hour GRI for for Florida was kind of a different tier. I mean, there’s there’s only one of those that qualifies for your post license in Florida.

And they had me rewrite it from all the speakers that are in Florida. I was the guy that wanted to do it. And so it’s it’s letting me put stuff out that I think is I mean, I pulled out, I’m not gonna lie to you, I pulled out everything there that was fluff or crap or just the garbage they use to fill the time. There is not a second of time that is not something that practically has smacked me in the face or caused some wound that this shirt is covering.

Of battle wounds and shrapnel that I’ve picked up so that I can help agents. I mean, that’s what to me the classes should be about. Here is the dumb stuff that I got wrong. Here’s how you don’t do that. And the classes are more about these fluffy kinds of it sounds good. It feels let’s do another exercise. I don’t want to do an exercise. Do you understand the thing? Right? How do we not have you get hurt? Because it not only hurts you, you potentially lose a client, you lose business, but.

You know, they could lose money and and all of that’s not good. So I I think that I’m I I’m I want to take and maintain that role of real estate disruptor, disrupting this academic nature that most of these classes have and and and really force the the practical. And obviously just growing my portfolio of real estate. You know, I I can’t help it. I I I like this

Issa Hanna (30:06)
Bug.

Joshua Cadillac (30:09)
Yeah, and and the and the there’s there’s two other passion projects that we have out there. One, we wrote a financial literacy curriculum for high school students that is it’s it’s the best one in the country at this point, and we’re bringing that to market. We actually have a couple of public schools. We’re actually gonna bring it to the homeschool students first, but we have a couple of public schools that are interested in us teaching that. And then we’re doing something similar for for churches, kind of taking the Dave Ramsey stuff that is very data verse.

And stepping that up to say, well, wait a second, debt is actually not a problem if it’s the right kind of debt. There are no billion, if everybody that understands this system understands that debt should be used and used judiciously and well. So teaching people not just debt is dumb, but teaching them how to use that tool to help them grow what they have and be able to be more generous, more magnanimous to help that to increase the charity that people that are already charitable can give by expanding, you know, how their wealth builds. So yeah, those are kind of the other passion projects that I’m I’m involved in.

Issa Hanna (31:06)
Man, I’m actually getting excited for your brand of education in our field because it’s the type that the new people need, you know. It’s a it’s not all sunshines and rainbows as as as a once great fictional boxer once said.

Joshua Cadillac (31:22)
Mean and nasty place and it’ll beat you to your knees and keep you there if you let it. I know the line. I love that one.

Issa Hanna (31:28)
A hundred percent. And and they and they gotta know this stuff, you know. If you’re prepared, when it comes, you you know, you’re you’re prepared. You’re not is sitting there like a deer in the headlights. So man, we’re rolling on the advice. And I wanted to ask you one more question about business relationships, right? So you you said walking in the room, you know, we gotta prove ourselves, we gotta show that we’re an expert. We’ve already kind of got the

The deck stacked against us when we’re walking in, growing these relationships and building them. Where do they start? Where do the new agents start?

Joshua Cadillac (32:02)
Well, I think that it’s I’m going to start kind of from the the the back end working forward. The number that always shocks me is how bad agents are at following up with past business and past leads. Once I put somebody in my CRM, they have three choices. They can buy, they can die, or they can take out a restraining order. But otherwise, they are going to get followed up with. Like I am going to physically call them four times a year and just check on them.

And and that that’s it. It’s not even a real estate call. Hey, I was just thinking about you. How you been? That’s it, right? Because I want them to know that it’s not crap that I they genuinely matter to me more than the money they represent.

I mean, we practice Tinder real estate in this business, like no you wouldn’t believe. We we follow up until we get the deal, and then we never call them again. And we we give them a closing gift and then go by. We’re on to taking it.

Hooking up with our next hookup. I’m sorry, I you know, like I don’t do it that way. You know, I want to keep them forever because it’s too expensive in both time and money to bring in more business. But with a with an industry that has a 12% client retention rate, if you’re not going to fundamentally, guys, listen to what I just said, 128% of the time these papers spend months with, use somebody else next time.

How can that be? How can we let that be true? And so, you know, really sitting there and thinking about the the pieces of this, I do a lot of things wrong. Like the next closing gift I buy will be the first one I’ve ever bought. But my clo my client retention rate is north of 90%. It’s actually north of 95%. In fact, when they’re buying in different markets, I’ve had them call me and ask me if I could get licensed in that market.

They don’t want to buy with anybody else but me. These this is what I’m shooting for. Like that’s that’s what the win looks like in my book, right? The win is not getting paid. It’s that loyal client that comes back. And so I would say making sure that your system is airtight, that you can never forget a client, and that you’re making sure that they’re getting followed up with as quickly as you can, right? And that or as consistently as you can. When it comes to new as the new agents.

Take advantage of that, whatever free resources you have. I mean, Facebook Marketplace, work rentals. Every rental is a freaking buyer waiting to happen. Nobody’s just cast the vision well enough for them. Help them get that rental and put a burning desire in their soul to be an owner. So a year from now, you’re taking in cashing in on that annuity that you put in there. I’ve sat down and created budgets with these folks to take and call them up to take and say, Hey, how’s it going with the budgeting? How you guys doing?

Whether you use me or somebody else, I don’t care. If you’re in a house, your kids are more likely to own a house. They’re more likely to be able to go to college if you want them to. You’re more likely to be able to retire. Your life is better. Can I take and dedicate my career to making sure people’s lives are better, whether they use me or not? Guys, I gotta tell you something. They’re gonna use you. They’re gonna use you if you’re the one that’s consistently trying to help them get there. Right. So I think there’s a line that a broker friend of mine, my current broker,

This is one of his. I I love his stuff because it’s always so simple. He says people come in the door, clients come in the door one of two ways: fruit or seeds. All the agents want to eat the fruit, and most of them just toss the seeds looking for the fruit. The smart ones eat the fruit and plant the seeds. They tend the seeds because you want to know something? If this guy’s a year away from being a buyer.

Issa Hanna (35:33)
Right?

Joshua Cadillac (35:40)
Future Josh, a year from now, is either going to be very happy or very disappointed that I didn’t take care of that seed. Right. And so who’s the beneficiary? This is the thing that agents forget. Future you benefits from the extra work you do right now. So what are you going to do instead? Cold call. Like I it it always amazes me the low percentage stuff that agents prioritize doing over just following up with the people that they have. So I would say, you know.

Work your sphere, figure out all your people, go to your dry cleaner, say, Hey, look, I send you all my dry cleaning. All these years I give you my dry cleanings. Not one lead you ever send in real estate. Where’s the love? You know, you do that part of it too. You know, you have fun, you you make it a joke. You look at all the businesses that you frequent and you go in there and like nice with the like a joke. You say, Hey, look, I send you guys all. I take care of it. Could you could you send some love back? That’d be great. I’d love to, you know, have that happen. Work that that’s gonna be your highest percentage stuff. Work rentals.

Bang with those rentals, get those checks in, whatever you can do to take and bring in some stuff, get the practice, get the reps, get used to sending stuff back and forth, emails, automatic emails, all that stuff. Get used to showing property and looking smooth as you do that. Your competency and everything is going to be important because when you go to those buyers, it’s a next tier up. And then listings is the next tier above that. And investors is maybe even a tier beyond that. Positioning yourself that you’re getting more and more comfortable with this transaction so that you can more smoothly do this.

Is how you’re going to take and set yourself up well to as quickly as you can grow that base of people that you have and have those people start referring people to you.

Issa Hanna (37:11)
Definitely plant those seeds, guys, and tend to that garden because Josh has grown a beautiful garden and and I know many agents that have done exactly the same using exactly the same philosophy. So probably not as educated as Josh is on the philosophy. I’m pretty much sure you you might be the guy that literally wrote the book on this philosophy. So it’s amazing then. Yeah, which book, huh?

Joshua Cadillac (37:34)
As my policy on not writing has blown up in my face, it might be true. I’m not even sure anymore.

Issa Hanna (37:39)
My goodness. Well Josh, if people wanted to get a hold of you, they wanted to join one of your classes and or listen to you speak publicly, where could they reach you at?

Joshua Cadillac (37:48)
There’s couple of places. The the best place is gonna be close4life.com. You could spell that close with the number four or the word FOR. Either one works, closeforlife.com. There you can find some of the classes that are available to to watch as recordings. You’ll also have the calendar there of wherever I’m teaching, and there’s access to the mastermind. And the mastermind is something that is is a solution to a problem that agents have had for me for years, which is like I’ll go teach a class and

You know, main and they’ll be like, When are you coming back again? I’m like, I I don’t know. It depends on when they book me to come back again. I mean, like, I don’t control. What if we want more? And I could never tell them where to go for more. And it here’s the thing that I hate, Issa. I I’m sure you’ve seen it. There’s always somebody in the front of the freaking room with their hand out asking you for the low, low price of, you know, fifteen thousand dollars. You can have the I never wanted to be that guy. So the mastermind that we run is thirty dollars a month. So it’s stupid cheap. We meet live every week.

On Zoom with everybody that’s in there that wants to take and show up. We record them. So if you can’t show up, people can watch it. And we just help everybody in there individually. I stay as long as I have to to help everybody with the problems, whatever problems they’re having in the business, give them solutions, give them ways to talk to their clients if they need that. I’ll even partner on deals with them if they need help with that. Like I’ve done just about everything in there because my my genuine passion is for agents to be successful in this business. I hate the fact that there’s such high turnover

People come in and they fail. I know what failure feels like. I don’t want people to feel that. I want them to take and prove to themselves they can. And it’s just getting around the right people. It’s getting around the right environment. And I don’t control what your office is like. I don’t control who you hang out with, but I can give you a place you could go where you could hang around people that are all trying to be great at that. And that’s what we’re trying to solve with that. So that mastermind, I think, is is a great product. I’m pretty proud of that.

Issa Hanna (39:37)
I I would be proud of that too. You’re making it affordable and you’re making this knowledge available to anybody who wants to pay thirty bucks. I mean, we we spend that on on DoorDash. So definitely rather pay thirty bucks and and and soak up some of your knowledge and I’m just honored that you gave us this conversation for free, Josh. We we got so much knowledge out of this. I’m out of time, but I do want to invite you back on my show. Sure. Happy to do it. All right.

I would be honored to have you back, man. Yeah. Such a great conversation. I I super enjoyed it. And then to our viewers at home, if you guys enjoyed this conversation and want to see more just like this, hit like and subscribe because I talk to people every single day that can bring us different knowledge on every aspect of the real estate industry. And until next time,