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| Matthew and Jennifer Freda (Longwood, FL) |
How did you hear about Lars?
Matthew: We first heard about Lars when he was in a different coaching program. It was a coaching program that we had just recently joined. Actually seeing a testimonial from him for that other coaching program really attracted us because what he was speaking of at that moment in time was right where we were at not only in our business but in our personal life.
He was talking about spending more time with his children and his wife and his family, and building a real business and not just being an agent running around trying to be everything to everybody. That's really where we first saw Lars. He excelled in that program and eventually went out on his own, and we've been following his story ever since.
Seeing where he's at now, we want to be exactly where he's at. We wanted to be the same way in our business.
What made you reach out now? What was the tipping point?
Matthew: We're at a place in our business where our main focus has been on the REO side. We built it to a place where that side of our business is working and running without us on a day-to-day basis. But we still haven't been able to get over the hump on the traditional side. That's why we reached out to Lars now, because we feel like with his experience and what he's doing on the traditional side is where we want to be in our business. We want to work with him to duplicate his systems and processes.
Describe where you're at in your business.
Matthew: Right now, we just finished out 2014 and we did a total of 240 transactions. 180 give or take on the list side, 50 or 55 on the buy side. We have 5 buyer's agents on our team, one buyer's agents assistant. We have 4 office administrators all doing various tasks. We also have some field reps, because we are on the REO side, that inspect our properties as well.
GCI, we did around $827,000 last year, and our goal is to double that this year with the help of Lars.
What are some focal points you're hoping Lars can address in your business?
Jennifer: We're really looking for a clear-cut action plan as far as tools, database systems, marketing, being able to nurture the leads we're creating, and also a trackable system for our agents and their processing efforts.
Matthew: Jenn, when she started, was saying we want a systematic approach to how we're going to implement one thing, then move on to step number two and three. After Lars has a chance to look at our business and where it's at right now, to really put that action plan in place. So we can not just have a bunch of stuff thrown at us and say, "Good luck," but really have that clear cut plan in place. So we know if we can get something done in the next 30 days, we're going to move on to step 2 and what to implement next.
And the sales process. We have agents out there running around, but nothing's being tracked, nothing's being followed up, we're not sure on our conversion rates. We need a lot of help in that area.
You mentioned you'd done some coaching in the past. What drew you to Lars?
Jennifer: It was just a common idea or a core value that we related to. The fact that we need someone who will actually look and evaluate our business. We're not your traditional real estate brokerage; we built it on REO, and now we're trying to go traditional. Usually people go the opposite way. So even though we've been in business for almost 10 years, it's like we're starting fresh with the sale side. We feel like he's got that dialed in, and, because he is a core value fit with Matt and I, that it would be the right direction to go.
What does success ultimately look like to you? Where would you like your business to be in 3 years' time?
Jennifer: We've been asking ourselves that with the new year coming up. We feel like maybe our big audacious goal as far as we have a goal to have a business that could run without us being here every second of every day. We've done that with REO side. So one of those things wuold be to have a business that's stable and in our control, but also could function without us. Because right now we're so dependent upon our REO contracts that we don't really have control over our future. That's something that weighs on us heavily. We want to build that next pillar and have it as strong as our REO, if not exceed it.
Matthew: Definitely, that's huge. Like Jenn just said, even though we're business owners, right now we don't feel like our destiny is totally in our control because we're dependent upon the REO side. We have a limited time, we feel, right now, to get the traditional side in place and have it running, and functioning, and being profitable without Jenn and I being in the business 24/7.
If we can have that accomplished within the next 3 years, that's ultimately the goal, but hopefully sooner than that. We already have a team around us, so maybe we can utilize some of these people in different areas of our business to start, so we can expedite the process. We're not starting from scratch. We hope we can do that in the next year and a half, not necessarily three years.
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