How Real Estate Investors Win More Sellers With a Transparent Sales Process | Erik Bee

Erik Bee (00:00)

But once you start looking at your sales process, it would blow you away how most people have convertible leads in their system right now that they could convert if they knew how to convert. It’s not always just more leads.

and it’s a really expensive learning lesson that I see people do oftentimes is they’ll blame the lead, not the sales process. And so the solution in that ingredient is to get more leads. Those leads suck. Let’s get more, more, more, more, more marketing dollars, more of this. Okay. And if you really actually had a sales problem, you’re just throwing that money away.

Scott Bursey (01:09)

Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. Glad you’re with us. And today we’re delighted to be joined by Erik Bee, who quite literally grew up in this business. He comes from a family of real estate pros and started appraising right out of high school, then earned his broker’s license and moved into investing and flipping distressed properties.

He spent seven years at Fortune Builders and CT homes in San Diego as a top coach while running marketing and acquisitions. And today he’s an active investor on the development side in Washington and the founder of Real Estate Funnel Systems, where he coaches agents and investors on the sales systems that turn leads into signed deals. Erik, welcome to the show.

Erik Bee (01:57)

Thank you, sir. Happy to be here. Thanks for that kind introduction.

Scott Bursey (02:01)

It is awesome having you here, Erik, and help our listeners get up to speed. Please give us the ninety second highlight reel of how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Erik Bee (02:12)

Yeah, wonderful. like you said in the intro, I’ve been a lifelonger. So my dad is a real estate appraiser. That’s the family business that was around us at the kitchen table growing up. So my dad was my best friend, kind of growing up in those years. And so we always helped out in the family business. And so we just had that early exposure

Graduating high school for me, I believe it or not, I was trying to be a professional motorcycle racer. I was more interested in becoming a real estate professional and working with my dad and racing my motorcycle than I was going to college. And so my parents said, okay, well pick the trade, and real estate’s a great trade to pick. And that’s what I did. So I picked real estate and it was originally about the lifestyle that I could create within real estate.

And then, as I grew and the dirt bikes went away and I became more and more focused on the business side of it. So I worked through as an appraiser from 2000 all the way through 2007 when I switched over to getting my broker’s license because the appraising world changed drastically at that moment. And I realized at that point that I was more of a sales oriented personality. So I got my broker’s license and did traditional sales.

and then right about that time that a lot of opportunity in the investment world came up. So I got really curious and I started studying the investment side of real estate. And I got coach and got all involved in the education space and hit the ground running, started doing flips, my wife and I, and we built a team and we did that here in Seattle for about four years before

The fortune builders guys, Dan, Paul, and Konrad, they called me and said, Hey, you’re one of our top students and a testimonial things. we’re moving across country to San Diego. we’re building a new team and we’d love to offer you an opportunity down here to work with us. And so my wife loves San Diego, with nothing to complain about there. So we moved. and I worked hand in hand with those guys to, really grow.

Fortune builders up from a coaching and education perspective. from the ground up, I was heavily involved in all the curriculum and applying all my knowledge as far as being an appraiser and broker and everything. And so I did that. And I also ran their marketing and acquisitions for the investment company, CT Homes. So I was a machine, working nine to five in the investment world and growing a brokerage over there for them.

And doing the education. So I flew all around the country teaching people our systems in damn near every market across the country. And I really cherished that time, not only connecting with people, but also really seeing real estate in such a wide variety across the country. It’s so interesting and so similar. So it was really reassuring from me as a real estate professional to know like the fundamentals work everywhere.

If you understand the fundamentals, you can drop into any market and do it.

Scott Bursey (04:58)

Wow, what a journey, Erik. That is truly fascinating. Thanks for walking us through that. And what really caught my attention about you, Erik, was the way you’ve built the system around the most human moment in this business. Sitting across from a seller at their own table. Taking that a step further, right out of the gate, what is a real follow-up system do that some investors simply skip?

Erik Bee (05:23)

Yeah, that’s a really good question. and that has really changed over the last five, 10 years. where in the old school days, man, it was just human contact, man. You pick up the phone and you call them and you knock on their door and all of that. But as the systems and the CRMs have come in, there’s more automations and it’s really brought up a level of efficiency, but it’s also disconnected us from our clients a little bit. So

Especially right now, you see AI and you see all these different automations. again, it separates us from our clients. So what we focus on and what I really believe in is a good blend of the automations and human connection, not missing the appropriate phone calls and stepping in and stopping the AI from having the full conversation. If you can jump in, jump in. And so that’s what we really preach and it allows a really strong connection.

Scott Bursey (06:11)

Thank you for laying that out. And digging in here, when a good seller lead goes coal, let’s say, where did the ball actually get dropped in your view?

Erik Bee (06:21)

man, that’s a it’s a great question. and if we had one answer, that would just be solve the world problems. but here’s the way I look at that is that we go backwards and we review everything. my system and what I coach people with is having a sales process that you can go backwards on. So it’s all the

Communication points are documented in a timeline fashion. They’re recorded. Recorded phone calls is a critical step to improving sales. one of the major things that I learned as a sales professional was you have to have the ability to listen to your sales, your pitch, your talk, your call. You have to review the tape, we call it. And as you go backwards, if they ghosted you, you start going backwards.

Was there any unusual gaps between communication? was an automation kicked off that wasn’t right? Okay. Was there a conversation that just didn’t have the right tonality? All of those things matter. And so we go backwards and we find it. And that’s how you improve systems.

Scott Bursey (07:21)

Curious to hear, Erik, where is AI and automation actually helping teams stop losing deals?

Erik Bee (07:29)

Yeah. So, AI is coming into our business and it’s changing so fast about how is it affecting? and I think the pendulum has kind of swung. We’ve done experiments, as an industry, and it some worked and some didn’t. So I think a lot of us are kind of fine trying to find that sweet spot to answer this. AI has really helped the speed of what we’re doing.

efficiency layers of what we’re doing has greatly improved. So that allows us to do a better job if we’re more efficient there, So I’m somebody that really is strict about not allowing the quality of our research or conversations or whatever we’re doing, our offer process, not allowing the quality of that to diminish.

If anything, we want that to consistently improve. So the more efficiencies that we can use and leverage with AI, the better we can do there.

Scott Bursey (08:20)

On the flip side, where does it still take a real human conversation?

Erik Bee (08:25)

when does that come into the sales process?

Scott Bursey (08:27)

Rather than AI, when is the human touch when is it most prevalent in your view, Erik?

Erik Bee (08:32)

Well, we want to every kind of step of the sales process, we want to have human connection. And so the AI is like the bridge to get you from this conversation to the next conversation. that’s how we use it. the lead manager as a lead comes in, that talk. And so every business is kind of set up a little bit different here, but the sales process that I utilize and teach and have for years is a setter closer type.

So a lead manager to an acquisition manager. Even if you’re the same person, if you can set it up that way and behave that way, it sets up the system to operate that way. So a really meaningful and strategic conversation here, then over to an acquisition manager for a really meaningful and strategic conversation there. The AI is the bridge.

Scott Bursey (09:56)

And going deeper, where do you see the biggest opportunity for real estate funnel systems right now?

Erik Bee (10:03)

Well, man, I’m on a mission to improve sales across the country, sales professionals. being in sales and coaching people across the country for as long as I have, I’ve really noticed that there’s a lack of sales skill or sales understanding. you don’t know what you don’t know. And sales is a very dynamic and powerful thing. So

I’ve been trained by some of the best sales trainers for over a decade. And there’s a lot of patterns that really show up. and people that do sales in a, what I’ll call like an ugly way or a subpar way, if will, use car salesman would we like to say.

They’re hurting the industry, they’re hurting they’re hurting clients, they’re hurting their own revenue, they’re hurting their own ego, it’s just a mess. and so it’s a big barrier for people to have success. And that when you don’t know how to operate with a low ball offer, right? There’s no getting away what a cash offer looks like, guys. You gotta know how to handle it. You gotta know how to not just handle it, but to

Articulate it to show, to demonstrate, to show an analysis, talk about different options, really wiggle it down to what is the best option and have the cash price be accurate. So what bad sales skills look like is overpaying for properties.

Not getting the property, losing out to your competition. Okay. And you don’t even know why. And that’s hard. And so a lot of people don’t know how deep that shadow is within their business. But once you start looking at your sales process, it would blow you away how most people have convertible leads in their system right now that they could convert if they knew how to convert. It’s not always just more leads.

and it’s a really expensive learning lesson that I see people do oftentimes is they’ll blame the lead, not the sales process. And so the solution in that ingredient is to get more leads. Those leads suck. Let’s get more, more, more, more, more marketing dollars, more of this. Okay. And if you really actually had a sales problem, you’re just throwing that money away. And so

I see that often and that’s a really painful failure spot for people. And it happens on every level, by the way. it’s a hard lesson to learn at the beginning, but you can also unfortunately learn that lesson later in the game.

Scott Bursey (12:22)

This is fascinating. Let’s stay on this path for a moment. Wondering what makes a seller appointment actually convert at the highest rate right now?

Erik Bee (12:31)

Yeah, great question. and this is the I have spent a decade just studying, and for me to really kind of find, my conclusion is I not only studied real estate investors and how we approach seller appointments, but I saw there’s a limitation to our approach and just going around the country and seeing what they’re doing. Then you compare it to high performing real estate agents.

there’s real estate agent teams out there that blow our numbers out of the water. there’s agent teams that do hundreds and hundreds of transactions or, have big teams, they’re well established. You go to Keller Williams and you go see their top performers, and it’s like, wow. So that’s what I did. I, I ended up really studying high performing listing teams. and taking the best of what I could see there.

As from the agent perspective and apply it to us as a real estate investor. And so what that looks like is more professionalism up front, how you show up. So being really particular about that. Good real estate agents, they show up nice and tight. Okay, they do. Okay. so we show up that way. We’re very deliberate with this. Then how you introduce and you do the evaluation of the property. So

A lot of people will try to hide behind rapport and try to make best friends with this, which ultimately makes it even harder to drop a low price if you spend all this time making best friends with people. I love that approach and I’ve used that and won and failed. but it’s a hard way to continue to go. So what I teach people and what we do is that’s where the appraiser hat comes in. I’m evaluating their asset. Okay. I’m here, nice to meet you.

But now I need to know what we’re working with here. I’m gonna walk around the outside. I got a process that I’m gonna do. I’m gonna ask you a handful of questions. I know when I’m gonna be building rapport as I’m doing this. then I come back in. I have my iPad system. So everything’s not a clipboard and paper anymore. it’s not a binder with a bunch of papers. It’s all on a slick iPad with everything that I need, taking notes. I’m recording the appointment. So I’m just showing up as professional as you can be.

prepared with all the comps, all the information, all my calculator, anything that I need to do to maneuver in that seller appointment is in my hand. So one of the principles that I learned early on is that you’ve got to be prepared.

what makes a good seller appointment is being ready for it. Okay. So, like the old school, I had a binder in my car that had all the different documents that you might need in it.

But now with digital age, I have it all on my iPad. So I have every form that you would ever need. If it’s all of a sudden a short sale, I can do that, those paperworks. If it’s a listing, if it’s a purchase and sale agreement. So showing up professional, having the system, having all your documents that you need to do a good job, and then knowing what questions to ask to draw out the right information, including rapport.

So as we go through the entrance of the house, we have a process that we go evaluate the house, take the certain photos that our process requires. Then we come back, sit down, we re-evaluate the numbers, then we discuss the numbers. What is our evaluation? What did we see in the subject property? Let’s match it up against the comps.

In the marketplace. So we do a full, just like we do in an analysis, an appraiser, we have all our comps, actives, pendings, solds. we walk through that process with them. Exactly. This is what the market’s doing. This is what the actives are doing. This is what the solds are doing. We don’t hide any information. it’s counterintuitive for a lot of people when they see my system or my approach. It’s full transparency.

It’s full disclosure. If there’s a better way to sell your house, we’re talking about. if it’s a listing, because that’s what the ingredients say, we’re talking listing. if it’s a cash purchase, because the ingredients, dictate that, we’re talking cash. And so my analysis, I walk them through what the market is doing right now. Then we do a net sheet. So I call it the net sheet close. And so

Per the analysis, this is what you would net if you were to fix your property up and then sell it. Essentially what we would do, right? We’re gonna buy it, fix it, and then sell it. If you were to do that, the objections that we hear. I’m gonna fix it up myself. I don’t need that low offer. Okay. Or now I’m gonna list it. I’m gonna list it. Okay. So let’s speak to them.

Okay, let’s not lose to them. Let’s speak to them. Because what you’ll find almost every single time they end up on the cash offer. They just do it in a transparent way where they’re understanding the math, the pros, the cons. Why wouldn’t you fix it up and sell it? well, I don’t have the money. I don’t have the time. Well, totally understand. No, no big deal. Scratch that one off. Why don’t you list it?

Looks like you can make some more money if you listed it. Wow, actually significantly more money. I think we really need to consider this. Okay. And then you find out reasons why they can’t. Okay. So we rule it off. It’s like you’re looking at their best interest all the way, step through it to get to the cash offer. Well, of course, the cash offer is on the table, and this is what it looks like. Okay. So I rule those three things out. Now

Do I talk creative financing and all? Yes. After we systematically do those three, because those are the three that they think about.

We need to jump. What are they thinking? They’re thinking those three things. So we speak to them. And because we do that in such a transparent way, not only do they feel educated, they feel like they’re really driving a decision. They feel supported. They feel that this is the eight real estate agent that they talked to didn’t do this. The other investor that they talked to didn’t do this. Nobody actually took the time to explain.

those options and why I would do one versus the other. Okay. So that’s what we do. and because of that, one of the sayings of cliches that I love is confusion kills sales. If your client is on the other side of that table, if they’re confused, if they have questions, if they’re not clear on value, if they don’t understand what the next steps look like, if they’re not, if there’s confusion in the air.

it’s friction to a sale. So that’s our whole system is to bring transparency, handle all the questions throughout the process, answer all the questions so that by the time we get through that net sheet, it’s logical to make a decision. We looked at everything. We did the math together. It’s all prepared. And on my iPad, I can change the change the math if I need to in the moment. so what this hypothetically?

Let’s look at that, right? So that’s part of being prepared, part of going through this whole process. So I’m never afraid of converting listings. Never turn those down. Right. I don’t list them personally. We have a listing team. Period. Right. So that’s how we operate. That’s what I teach. It’s counterintuitive to what a lot of people have learned, through kind of a desperate strong arm.

type of approach to investing and I hate that. there’s nothing about my personality or my being that resonates with that type of sales approach. So that’s how it started.

Scott Bursey (19:56)

Thank you for that perspective. Erik, let’s go a little deeper on this. Sure. If a listener is sitting on a pile of old seller leads, everyone else has just given up on, what is the first move you want them to make?

Erik Bee (20:11)

Connect. Okay. First thing at the top of the funnel, connection rate. Connect. Okay. How do you connect? Come on. Right? Send them a text. Send them a call. Door knock. Walk by, drop something off. You got flowers? How bad do you want it? Okay. Connect. That’s the answer. Okay. So now can we drill in? how does your CRM have these automated features? Do you have this to connect? Right. So the first thing is to connect.

Because the first thing that you want to establish as you’re stirring up old leads or you’re even just going through, whatever a focused list, cold calling or whatever else, we’re trying to establish a desire. So desire questions. Okay. Ever thought about selling? Is there any benefit to you selling right now? Okay. Sounds like you might be interested in selling your house. Tell me more about that. Desire. Is this even relevant to you?

Okay, so that’s what we need. Hey, how you doing? Yeah, yeah, I’m actively buying properties in this area. Ever thought about selling? You have any plans for this place? Desire, connection, see if there’s relevancy here. Okay. So being very comfortable asking that and sitting in that spot is what a lot of people don’t. they get in their head about low price or they’re not gonna accept this or whatever, right?

Part of this process and the barrier for a lot of people is the assumptions. Okay. So they’ll look at the old pile of leads and they’ll be like, I called them. They wanted way too much. yeah, I talked to them. they said no. I tried them 10 times. They won’t pick up assumptions.

Assumptions kill sales. Assumptions kill sales. Okay. I see it all the time with sales professionals. Okay. They hide it under efficiency. They hide it under other things that they want to do. this is a better lead. there’s more money to be made over here. No, no, no. That’s assumptions. Okay. We make our profit on the way we negotiate the buy. Okay. So if they want too much, we’re not done negotiating. Okay. That’s it.

So people get caught in this site mental cycle. So it’s sales is psychology. So, a big part of me as a coach is unlocking people’s hidden barriers within their head that are preventing them from taking this really genuine, authentic approach, which is connection understanding is there any benefit to you selling? Ever thought about that? Okay, well, if you have, I’d love to talk to I’ll run a whole analysis all free.

I’ll make you an offer. We can look at different options. There it is.

Scott Bursey (22:33)

Erik, I know our listeners are gonna wanna know this. Over the course of your career, what has made the biggest difference for you when it comes to relationships and networking?

Erik Bee (22:43)

Pouring in. That’s okay. I am somebody that has been a huge beneficiary of this concept of networking, growing, learning, pouring in. I think it’s huge. continuing education. It doesn’t always look like just a guru. That’s not what I’m just saying. There’s masterminds, there’s all sorts of different clubs resources that are out there. I highly recommend finding good ones.

And just getting involved, meeting other people, like-minded people that this can be a lonely space as an entrepreneur. So just pouring in and getting that out of it. I got mine out of Fortune Builders and I poured in for years and years of it, traveling for it, paying for it, doing it for free, doing it as a job, signing up to do it again. I did all that. I would not change it for the world. I still read all the different books.

So if you’re not, I’d say do it. If you’re doing it, I’d say you could probably do it better. what I mean by that is that there’s a difference between just showing up, which is a major thing. So no, no slouch on that, but going there with true intention, really applying it. Why are you there? Being focused on this, being really clear on what you’re gonna achieve out of it, that applying that.

level of clarity and focus when you’re in those environments, you walk out with the goal. we all know it’s just you have to find the nuggets. you can’t retain it all. So when you know what you’re looking for, what are you gonna find? So that’s what I tell people, man. Pour in, take it up. I’m on a drought personally. I’ve been in my own little sandbox for a little bit. it’s almost kind of like a rebound from doing it for so long. But

I’m overdue. I’m yearning for it. So I’m going to be more and more active this year in different masterminds or groups. And I’m excited for it.

Scott Bursey (24:22)

Thank you for that clarity. And Erik, you have provided a tremendous amount of clarity here for our listeners today. But is there any additional golden nugget or two that you would like to leave with our listeners?

Erik Bee (24:34)

Man, I would say sales is the key to unlocking income. Okay. one of the major lessons I learned in my time with extremely intelligent and high performing professionals is that if you look at your business as a sales organization, it leads with sales.

and you focus on creating a systematic, well performing sales process that you’re proud of, it fixes so many other problems on the other side of it. it’s so I really have focused on that. And the beautiful thing of focusing on sales and getting good at sales is that it applies and it’s a life skill, it’s not just a business skill.

So I encourage people that if you’re timid around sales, if you’re a little bit uncomfortable, or if those conversations have you on your back on your heel, I would say pour in, take a step in. there’s a whole other side because on the other side of the fence with sales, it’s fun. It’s easy. It’s enjoyable. People like it. They don’t just go through to convert.

They actually enjoy it. So come on over.

Scott Bursey (25:39)

That is powerful. Thank you for that, Erik. Yeah, Erik, for those of our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane, collaborate with you on future deals, perhaps. Yeah. What’s the best way for them to plug into your pipeline and reach you directly?

Erik Bee (25:54)

Well, I have a website, realestatefunnelsystems dot com. maybe we can put a link in here somewhere. that you’ll get some information about my sales process, my iPad system, and all of that there. And I also have a URL that’s meet with BEE, M-E-E-T, W I T H B E E, MeetwithBEE dot com. And that you can straight book onto my calendar if you have any questions, if you want to connect,

understand how I work with people, book a call. I would love to talk with you. networking and getting to know other people’s businesses is a pleasure in itself. So don’t be afraid. Love to connect and if I can help you, I’d love to.

Scott Bursey (26:29)

Erik, thank you so much for joining us today on the Real Estate Pros podcast.

Erik Bee (26:33)

my pleasure. Thanks for having me. I’m excited and I look forward to the next time.

Scott Bursey (26:36)

This has been an absolute master class, Erik. And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you receive value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be fueling your tanks with the lineup of elite guest, just like Erik Bee, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.