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Show Summary
In this conversation, John Michael Perez shares his journey as a real estate agent and investor, emphasizing the importance of building an online presence, effective lead generation strategies, and the value of mentorship. He discusses the evolution of marketing in real estate, the significance of systems for efficiency, and the current trends in the Austin real estate market, including opportunities for investors. John also highlights the importance of creating a supportive team environment and offers insights into creative financing options for buyers.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
John Michael Perez (00:00)
Yeah, so I’ve interviewed thousands of top producing real estate agents and I’ve asked a lot of them the same question and it was what percentage of your day are you actually dealing with clients and what percentage of your day are you lead generating? And can you guess how much of the day, what percentage of the day ⁓ successful agents are actually lead generating? Can you guess?it’s crazy. 90 % of the time is ⁓ spent on lead generating.
Dylan Silver (02:00)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, John Michael Perez is an investor agent based out of Austin, Texas. You can find him on his YouTube channel, youtube.com/@John_Michael_Perez or his school community, which is agent protocol free.John, thanks for coming on the show today.
John Michael Perez (02:24)
Thank you so much. can also find me on Instagram at John Michael Perez. Super excited to be on this episode. We’re gonna provide a ton of value and hopefully you take one thing and ⁓ it increases growth in your business, your life. So excited for this one.Dylan Silver (02:40)
Amen to that. Amen to that. was watching your YouTube channel and you’ve got some great content on there and I was mentioning to you. It’s pretty impressive. I think you know being able to do the type of things that you’re doing online while also having a fully functioning business as a realtor is no easy feat. When did you start developing your online presence? Was that from the very beginning?John Michael Perez (03:04)
You know, that’s a great question. actually started from the very beginning. I realized that most people, especially when they are full-time real estate agents, ⁓ they need to find a way to get leads. And the best leverage way to do that is social media in my opinion. yeah, started doing videos from the very beginning. My first video was hilarious. I wore a pimps and I jumped on top of a chicken coop and I was… ⁓playing multiple characters in the video. But since then, I have gotten a lot more professional videos that have been released. Yeah, super. It’s been an incredible experience for nine years, yeah.
Dylan Silver (03:49)
When we talk about the evolution of this game over that time period, right? I’ve certainly seen some trends pick up, right? And one of the big things is right now it does seem that you can kind of get onto the on-ramp a little bit faster than like nine years ago. Like one of the things that everyone is talking about right now is AI, but this speeds up not just the ability for you to put material out there, but also to literally get up to speed, you know, in something like, youlaunching a school community, having multiple marketing platforms, being proficient, I’m a newer agent, as an agent, how has your marketing efforts changed over time or has it?
John Michael Perez (04:33)
Yeah, so when it comes to marketing, ⁓ I started with video and I’m still doing video to this day, but the interesting part about it is creating stories instead of just sharing facts.And so there’s this saying that says, ⁓ stories sell and facts tell, right? And so most people actually, ⁓ they want to buy products if they know the story that it’s going to get them to. And so in other words, if
⁓ someone is, ⁓ trying to sell a vacation to the Dominican Republic and all you do is tell them about, ⁓ the airplane and the, awesome the wheels are and the, and, and the wings are instead of how awesome the actual trip is going to be. Then, then you’re not selling, you’re not selling the vacation, right? And so a lot of times marketers in this day and age, they sell the facts and not the story.
Dylan Silver (06:13)
Yeah.You know, that’s a great point. ⁓ I want to pivot a bit here and bring tie that into selling real estate, right? I’m a realtor. You’re a seasoned realtor for newer agents that are just getting started, maybe, you know, with no real tie to the business that this could be a leap of faith for them. They don’t have necessarily family or friends that are in the business. I think sometimes I can speak for myself. We worry about like, how do I do the transaction? And like, of course, you want to be able to understand that.
But a big portion of it is finding the interested parties, right? What would be your advice to folks who are on that on-ramp, they’re brand new agents, maybe just licensed, and they’re looking for their first couple clients?
John Michael Perez (07:03)
Yeah, so I’ve interviewed thousands of top producing real estate agents and I’ve asked a lot of them the same question and it was what percentage of your day are you actually dealing with clients and what percentage of your day are you lead generating? And can you guess how much of the day, what percentage of the day ⁓ successful agents are actually lead generating? Can you guess?Dylan Silver (07:27)
I don’t, I would say like two hours. I hear that a lot, two hours. Am I close?John Michael Perez (07:31)
Well, two hours is a great ⁓ formula, but I would say 90 % of their time that they’re actually spending on real estate, ⁓ it’s crazy. 90 % of the time is ⁓ spent on leadright? And so when it comes to lead generation, ⁓ and we’ll go back to two hours, because I have something amazing to talk about the two hour prospecting ⁓ strategy, but…
Dylan Silver (07:48)
YeahJohn Michael Perez (08:01)
90 % of their time. So when it comes to real estate agents that are brand new, ⁓ I think they’re too scattered and not clear and focused on one particular way to master a lead generating strategy. And so the brain doesn’t chase vague. And so a lot of real estate agents, unfortunately, they want to get good at YouTube, Facebook, they want to get good at cold calling, door knocking, and they’re doing all of these things instead of mastering one thing. And so I’ve always told agents from the very beginning,pick two things maximum and become very good at them. Now, the biggest problem that I’ve seen real estate agents ⁓ go through is that they hate the delay. And unfortunately, there is a big delay when it comes to actually getting leads. But there is, ⁓ but one way I look at it is that delay is actually development. And so generally, ⁓ it takes four to five months for the average agent to actually close their first deal.
⁓ but most agents they’ll lead generate or use one strategy for three months and then give up. Right. And so you, there’s actually this valley where people give up and then they restart that same strategy around month five. ⁓ and let, and if they would have just stayed, ⁓ with that same strategy for solid five months, they would have eventually struck gold.
Dylan Silver (09:08)
Yeah.It’s so true. know, people give up right before they’re about to reap the benefits of it. And, you know, hearing you talk about this and then my own personal experience, I think about how it can be very overwhelming, especially at the beginning, right? You’re thinking, OK, well, I got to do this. I got to do
You you talk about like lead generation, but I also have to understand, you know, you know, comps and so forth. How much of it? And I think this is a pretty granular question of.
So maybe give away some of the gold, but not all of the gold. How much of it is the team that you align yourself with? To me, that’s very important. I think I’m on a really great team right now and I’m blessed to be a part of that because if you’re not necessarily on a team that’s helping you, you can kind of feel like lost at sea.
John Michael Perez (10:48)
Yeah, 100%. I would say that the first five months of my real estate career, I was solo and I had no team. And then that fifth month, I found a mentor that changed my life. And what I quickly realized after finding that mentor is the faster I find people that are where I want to be and soak in their knowledge, the faster I will get there. And so that’s one take that I would pertain to being surrounded by a good team.⁓ Now here’s the thing, most agents, don’t want to be a part of a team because a lot of times teams may actually charge an extra cut. But I will say that first year is all about just putting in the reps, right? It’s going to cost you to put in the reps, but that team will probably align you better. We don’t blame the flower for not growing. We blame the soil that it’s surrounded in. And so if you are not surrounded in good soil, then you probably won’t get good results.
Dylan Silver (11:24)
Yeah.John Michael Perez (11:47)
And then you can take those skills that you learned while being on the team, you might have paid a little bit higher for the split, but you can take those elsewhere and get a higher split at a different time.Dylan Silver (11:58)
Yeah, that’s a great point. mean, that I mean, I’ll say the same thing that first year 18 months is about learning the business learning the ropes, right. And then once you can run the ropes, then maybe you can go out on your own. I want to pivot to something that I heard you say in one of the videos that I watched on your channel, which is really like this idea of building systems. And I think when people think about being a realtor, right, they’re not the first thing that comes to mind is not like systems. It’s almost likeand I could be off base here, like putting out fires, right? Like the agent who’s constantly on the phone, like papers in the air, or in this case, like, you know, juggling different appointments and looking for keys and this type of thing. Have you had that experience where it’s like you’re, you’re burning, you know, the wick at both ends and what, what was that like? And then what’s the opposite of it like for you now?
John Michael Perez (12:51)
Yeah, so I wish I could tell you I have an engineer mind and I am very good at systems. But I will say that I had to become good at systems due to the fact that I hit a ceiling. I was the so-on so-called top realtor at my brokerage. And in reality, I ⁓ was burnt out. I went home and my wife eventually said, John, I just wish you spent more time with us. I wish you paid more attention to me.And that’s when I realized that, yeah, it’s cool to sell a ton of homes. Yeah, it’s cool to get some great deals, but like, if I’m not really valuing my time and getting the most out of the time that I am spending, then I’m wasting a lot of what I will never get back, which is our time. Right. And so that put me in a position where I had to figure out systems or else I wouldn’t grow or else I would lose a lot. That was very important to me. And so.
That started me on a journey and full transparency that journey is still going to this day. I’ve been able to finally put together some system and processes that helped open up literally thousands of hours for me. And it’s just simple, ⁓ creating expectations for my clients through, ⁓ videos that I send to my clients and then automating the ⁓ process to where I put their contact information into a CRM and they’re continually hearing from me, even though I’m not.
particularly the person that is sending them the messages, and then also setting them up on automated property searches. That’s a very basic thing most agents should be able to know how to do. But those are simple systems that will help save you thousands of hours of time.
Dylan Silver (14:35)
I mean, yeah, you’re speaking my language. ⁓ I feel like when we take a look at the entirety, the whole body of real estate agentsand then how many of those are, you know, really like, you know, selling multiple homes a year or making a full time living where they can support themselves from that. I don’t know what the number is. ⁓ Someone told me it’s 3%. That seems low. It could be. But then if you take that like
How many of those people probably have a CRM in place or like some way to stay in, like probably all of them. Otherwise they’re going to talk about, you know, feeling burnt out like you’re, you’re mentioning. I want to ask you this, and I don’t know if you’ve looked at this at all, you know, at what point in time do you start looking at building a team? Have you looked at building a team? Do you have a team? And is that a ton, is that another, you know, game entirely where now you’re working on, you know, boosting up other people and not just yourself.
John Michael Perez (16:17)
Yeah, so within the last few years, ⁓ so started a team back in 2019, built it up to seven agents, realized that the model that I was creating with my team was not scalable. And so the thing about building a team when it comes to real estate and training up sales agents is ⁓ that you teach them the skills and if they’re good, then they don’t need you anymore. Or if they’re not good,they just are a drag or if they’re semi-good, then it’s like you’re making a little bit, but it’s not really paying for the overhead. And so I found a new model. I’ve actually got a team of 160 agents that are under me and I train them, I help them, I leverage systems in order to help them as well. And to be honest, if they don’t plug in, it’s not my fault, right? And so I found a way to reduce liability, reduce overhead.
And that’s how I’ve been able to build an organization of about 160 agents. Actually, I mean, we’ve got 10 people in the pipeline to join recently, but yeah.
Dylan Silver (17:27)
My goodness.160. Okay, so that’s a that’s a huge team. Okay, so that’s that. What’s the name of the team? Let’s plug the name of the team.
John Michael Perez (17:35)
Yeah, it’s called the Wolfpack. It’s a subset of the National Wolfpack team. ⁓ And so it’s been an incredible journey. I’ve been able to ⁓ grow it in two and a half years to 160 agents from zero. And so it’s pretty crazy, I know, but I’ve got the numbers on my phone I could even show you. ⁓ But yeah, it’s been an amazing time. Basically, we just offer so much value that it would be dumb not to join. ⁓And agents are always like, well, how much does it cost? And we’ve been able to build digital assets and training that if they were to join, they get it for free and it’s not more work for us, you know? But yeah, that’s not what I’m on this call to pitch at all. But yeah.
Dylan Silver (18:20)
You know,the thing about it and not to get too much off the beaten path here, but the idea of being on a team, there’s so many there as a realtor myself, like there’s so many different things that I’ve heard. I know I’m with eXp, right? So a lot of people think about eXp and I think about building this team. But I know some amazing agents who are, you know, solo and they don’t have a team underneath them. Some of it feels like, okay, well, I have people that I can expand my
productivity with but then you know to your earlier point it can also become like okay well now you’ve got to you know take on some of the burden of their deals and making sure that everything runs smoothly for folks who are building out a team whether it’s as a realtor as an investor as a lender right do you have any you know broad strokes advice for how they can you know retain their top performers while also not being you know hold down by anchors that folks who
you know, may need more handholding than they are producing, right? Over a long period of time, not just over a couple of days or months.
John Michael Perez (19:27)
mean, I say a million things about that. One, if you’re just now starting a team, you definitely need to create ⁓ systems and processes, some type of procedure as to how to become successful. And the way you do that is by recording your day. Because if you’re a successful agent, if you’re a successful investor, ⁓if whatever you are, if you want to scale, you have to record it in some fashion so that it is repeatable, right? And so you have to create multiple multiples of what you’re doing in order to increase what you’re doing. And the value of a team is creating output ⁓ with less input, right? And so and so ⁓ and that and you can do that by recording trainings.
Dylan Silver (20:13)
Yeah.John Michael Perez (20:19)
You can do that by having proprietary training. ⁓ can, ⁓ and usually like the more value you can give your team that’s proprietary. In other words, they can’t get it anywhere else. Then the more valuable you are to your team, right? Because if they leave, then they’re not, they don’t have that value anymore. Right. And so, ⁓ and so there’s so many strategies behind creating proprietary training, butbehind creating proprietary value. mean, simplest things are weekly trainings, online digital libraries of trainings as well that they can have access to at all times, online leads that you could provide to them at a percentage that they can’t get anywhere else. ⁓ So those are just a few examples.
Dylan Silver (21:14)
do want to pivot pivot a bit here and ask you about Austin real estate. ⁓ I lived in Dallas, I lived in ⁓ several different parts of San Antonio. And now I have a close friend of mine who’s living in San Marcos. I also worked in in in is round rock near Austin it is right. I’m sorry, I worked I worked in around rock that was one heck of a commute. ⁓John Michael Perez (21:35)
Yeah, yeah, that’s a subber. It’s basically.Dylan Silver (21:41)
But when we talk about some of the greater trends that are taking place, I want to specifically ask you about what you’re seeing as far as retail buyers. I’ve noticed that there’s just so much ground up construction pretty much everywhere in Texas. And there’s some remarkably cost effective housing all over the place. So you’re seeing, know, Lennar, Meritage, D.R. Horton, right, putting up homes for, you know, $230,000, $240,000.When I was working with flippers, made it more challenging to be a flipper because now you’ve got to compete with brand new homes with a builder warranty at a lower rate. And how do you do that? It becomes it becomes very tricky. Are you seeing more investors getting specifically in the Austin metro where you’re located? Are you seeing more investors, mom and pop investors getting into ground up construction or moving into some of these other asset classes like small multifamily, like, you know, a quadplex?
Or are you still seeing like a fair number of flippers that are involved out?
John Michael Perez (22:42)
Yeah, so me personally, I still flip properties. I will say that inventory right now is at an all time high. There is 130 % more sellers than buyers right now in the Austin market. So we are the number one buyers market in the US, which means there’s more buyers here than.No, I’m sorry. More sellers. gosh. I said it wrong. There’s more sellers, 130 % more sellers than buyers. Correct myself. Sorry about that. ⁓ And so when it comes to investments, I am seeing a lot of investors actually purchasing new builds and building right now. They’re still building. ⁓ As an investor, if I were you, I would be looking at that I-35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin, right?
Dylan Silver (23:06)
⁓Yeah.
John Michael Perez (23:33)
There is a lot of people are saying that ⁓ that developments and big businesses are going to be purchasing land in that area and eventually it’s going to be all connected, right? And so if I were you, I would probably be looking at land ⁓ off of I-35 between San Antonio and Austin, maybe for multi ⁓ multi-family or ⁓ because eventually it’s going to connect, right? And so ⁓Dylan Silver (23:57)
Yeah.John Michael Perez (24:01)
We always want to purchase before it blows up. ⁓ And especially something that is multifamily where you can get in several partners into ⁓ the deal. That would be a great option. ⁓ then ⁓ full transparency, since there is 130 % more sellers than buyers, then ⁓ it’s a great time to get a great deal, right? There’s so much inventory. ⁓ That means that some sellers areDylan Silver (24:26)
Yeah.John Michael Perez (24:31)
desperate and they need to get out from under the problem that they’re at. And it never hurts to ask, right? I’ve got buyers all the time asking, do you think the seller is going to get offended if we offer 50 grand under asking price? And I always tell them, hey, it never hurts to ask, right? And to be honest, some sellers would ⁓ go for even less, right? And so in my opinion, it’s an amazing time to invest. ⁓because Jerome Powell is going to be getting out soon. ⁓ he’s going to be appointed. ⁓ Trump is going to be appointing probably someone that is more leaning towards lower interest rates as well as Venezuela right now when it comes to oil, we are going to have access to oil. unless there’s something more access to oil, so unless there’s something that I don’t know.
Dylan Silver (25:16)
skip.John Michael Perez (25:27)
There is a lot of uncertainty in some areas, but ⁓ yeah, those are my thoughts.Dylan Silver (25:30)
Sure.you know, when it comes to, you not just not not just a number of ground up construction, the number of people getting getting into that, you know, but but then also some of the other issues that that have come up, right, like you have these these arm rate loans that they either come down the last couple of months, but that have doubled over the last five years in many cases, and then you’ve got the cost of materials, and then you’ve got rents in places like Austin, Texas that have stabilized, I’ve even heard gone down, right.
John Michael Perez (25:54)
youDylan Silver (26:04)
It just makes it more challenging as a whole. So you do have more people kind of waiting in bay trying to see, what’s gonna happen next? What’s been interesting to me talking with so many folks like yourself is there is right now this huge opportunity to make creative offers. certainly I come from this vantage point and I’ve heard all sides of it, so I see all sides. But if you’re making an offer to a realtor,unless that person has it in writing from their client, we’re not going to look at anything below a certain amount. Like it’s your job to make offers, if their job to field the offers and then to give it to their client. And so if they don’t have their property has been sitting on market for who knows how long and they haven’t had any offers, I would take some offer over nothing, right?
John Michael Perez (26:53)
Exactly. Yeah. And a lot of agents right now, if you’re an agent right now and you have a listing that’s been on the market forever, ⁓ look at sub two ⁓ investors. Like those are great opportunities to at least get your seller out of the ⁓ trash can of ⁓ debt that they’re going to be in because of not being able to afford that monthly payment. And so ⁓I mean, obviously you have to find someone that knows what they’re doing, right? But there’s so many creative ways to help your clients. And if you are unaware of those ways, then unfortunately you’re not servicing your client at the highest of your ability.
Dylan Silver (27:26)
Yeah.Yeah, and I think a lot of times I can speak for myself and going through the real estate school that I went through, which was wonderful. But there was also this mentality that like, here’s investors, here’s these people making these creative offers like run if you hear that. But then I also come from the background of making those types of offers and then working with people who do that. And when you’re facing, you know, uncertain conditions and homes that are sitting on market,
I think all sides of the business are benefiting from kind of an interweaving of the segments. lenders, for instance, are incorporating DSCR loans to their retail buyers, which was traditionally just for investors. So it’s definitely an interesting time, really anywhere, but certainly in places like Austin, Texas. We are coming up on time here though, John. Where can folks go to reach out to your team or any new projects that you’re working on that you wanna get out to our audience?
John Michael Perez (28:33)
Yeah. So first would be go follow me on Instagram at John Michael Perez. And then once you follow me on Instagram, I’m going to send you a link to join my free agent community. If you are a real estate agent, if you’re an investor and maybe you need some advice on buying a deal or taking a second look, I’d love to be that second look for you. ⁓ And you can follow me on Instagram as well. And then, yeah, I’ve got a new YouTube channel for real estate agents specifically.We’re sharing a ton of value. I even share some of my investment strategies as well. I’ve purchased a lot of houses, ⁓ flip opportunities, Airbnb, and I’ve helped a lot of agents sell a lot more houses just through simple modern strategies. So would love to be an extra resource. Also real quick plug, I don’t know when this is coming out, but I do have a book coming out called Care More, Win More. ⁓ And it’s an agent playbook on how to build trust at scale.
sell more houses through building ecosystems and communities, and would love the opportunity to get a book in your hand. We’re gonna be sharing a lot more info about that within the next six months, but I’m excited to release that book.
Dylan Silver (29:45)
John, thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for coming on.
