🏠 $1B Buyer Masterclass: From Oscar Meyer Weiner Girl to Billion Dollar Agent

In college, Keri Shull was lost.

It was her sophomore year at Penn State and she had no freaking idea what to major in. She took one of those “decide your major” classes hoping it would give her direction.

It didn’t.

But she did learn one thing: she’d figure it out eventually.

After graduating, Keri heard about a job driving the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. Cruising the country in a 27-foot hot dog on wheels for 30K a year? Sign her up.

But a friend talked her out of it and hooked her up with an opportunity selling new homes instead.

So, Keri packed her bags and headed to the Washington DC area.

She crushed it selling new construction homes. But her income was capped. And she wanted more.

So Keri shifted to selling condos but still wanted more.

In 2008, she got a call from an investor looking to buy bulk foreclosures.

She got her license and joined Remax.

But the deal fell through...

And her broker didn't have any real training & support. So Keri found herself needing to figure out how to get business.

In 2010, she attended an event and a lightbulb went off.

Real estate could be way bigger than driving a hot dog or selling condos.

Keri hired her first assistant. The next year, she did 21 transactions. Things were looking up.

She started building a team, recruiting people to complement her weaknesses.

Instead of being a team without structure, she choose to over index on training and support.

Fast forward to today: Keri’s team has +41 agents, +21 support staff, and sells $500m a year. Meaning Keri’s average agent produces +$10,000,000…

They are the #1 team in the DC area and top 40 nationally.

So what can we learn from Keri’s journey?

• Focus on your strengths.
• Hire to fill your gaps.
• Provide excellent training.
• Offer unwavering support.

But what was her secret? She mastered the game of buyers.

So let's break down her billion dollar buyer blueprint:

1. Needs Analysis
2. Buyer Presentation
3. Reality Check Analysis

🏠 Mastering the game of buyers

The problem many face is every buyer is new, they don’t have the experience or insights you do as an agent doing deals every day.

But we often forget this.

As their consultant/advisor its our duty to help make their experience better. And what better way of doing that than setting proper expectations upfront?

So first up is:

1. The Needs Analysis 📝

Main purpose and outcome is to understand the buyer’s requirements.

This part of the process is “mostly” common but there is some uncommon methods she used. She stresses the importance of a "buyer needs profile" to ensure a systematic and duplicatable process.

The goal is to create a system that can be passed on to future hires as the business scales.

The system ensures key details aren't missed, leading to a better experience for the buyer.

• Timing and motivation are crucial. But uncover the 7 levels deep why.
• Understand the "need behind the need" to grasp the true reasons behind a buyer's preferences. Example: If a buyer wants a big backyard, understand why it's essential for them.

Agents often miss out on understanding the real motivations behind buyers' needs.

This is what her process looks like:

1. Briefly explaining the buying process - Making sure they understand each step.
2. Take note of their preferences - Keri focuses on these 4 and the need behind the need:
3. location
4. type of home
5. features
6. budget
7. Discussing financials - Without talking money, you as the agent are left out of the full conversation. So Keri talks about:
8. income
9. savings
10. debts
11. pre-approval details

By talking about financials, Keri can focus the conversation around the monthly payment. Because once you have a baseline of their income, debts, etc. you can do rough math like she does and show them what they could afford and ask:

1. Are you comfortable with this monthly payment?
2. Do you like the homes that are within this range or do we need to change?

Keri’s tips during the Needs Analysis:

• Don’t immediately challenge them and their expectations because you want to build trust and gauge their commitment. If they’re committed to buying then expectations can change. But if you challenge them too early you can push them away.
• Instead just take notes and address their current concerns & questions. Use this opportunity to build rapport and give the client your full attention.

2. The Buyer Presentation 📝

Main purpose and outcome is to walk buyers through the process, educate them, and sell yourself so that you can close & gain their commitment.

This is often done during the same time as understanding their requirements.

• First step: Choosing Keri (you) as their agent and getting qualified.
• Next steps: Finding and viewing properties, identifying properties of interest, getting comfortable with areas, selecting a home, and crafting a winning offer.

But for now the focus is gaining their commitment. Here’s how Keri does it:

1. Market Dynamics:
2. Explaining the market is moving fast.
3. Competition: Expect competition when buying a house.
4. Market trend: Prices are increasing, creating equity for buyers.
5. Financial Readiness:
6. Is the client pre approved?
7. It’s free and there’s no obligation to actually use them (the lender or even you the agent)
8. Recommendation: Use a preferred lender for better service and potentially better rates.
9. Importance of understanding monthly payments and budget.
10. Setting expectations of costs: purchase price is only the tip of the iceberg. There’s the down payment, EMD, inspections, appraisals, closing costs, and any admin fees.
11. Choosing the Right Lender:
12. Importance of guiding clients to choose a lender that aligns with their needs.
13. Potential benefits: Lower interest rates, better service, and faster response times.
14. Real-time Market Opportunities:
15. Importance of getting real-time property listings.
16. Issues with syndicated sites like Zillow: Delays and outdated listings.
17. Keri’s Priority Access Program: Finding off-market properties for clients. (her seller database, agent referral network, targeted marketing letters, door knocking, circle prospecting & geo targeting)
18. Team Advantage:
19. Importance of having a team to provide specialized services.
20. Roles: Client service specialists, marketing team, operations team, and listing specialists.
21. Her unique team advantage is their staff support allows them to fulfill the priority access program efficiently & consistently.
22. Proven Results:
23. Team's achievements: Ranked #1 in DC Metro, helped over 1,073 families in 2021.
24. Emphasis on providing a customized experience for each client.
25. Financial Aspects:
26. Importance of understanding equity and the power of leveraged returns in real estate.
27. Benefits of real estate investments: Returns on the entire loan amount, not just the down payment.
28. Charitable Donations:
29. Team's involvement with "doorways for women and families" charity.
30. A portion of commission goes to support the organization.
31. Client Engagement:
32. Regular client events, including a casino night.
33. Housewarming parties for new homeowners.
34. Inclusive perks: Moving truck, bounce houses, tables, and chairs for events.
35. The Commitment:
36. The buyer loyalty agreement & satisfaction guarantee.

• Importance of Buyer Agreement:
• Commitment is equated to happiness in the real estate business.
• The goal is to get the buyer agreement signed.
• Buyer Loyalty Agreement:
• Explains the agent's commitment to the buyer.
• If the buyer interacts with other agents or attends open houses, they should inform those agents that they're already represented.
• Agent's Role:
• The agent represents the buyer's financial interests.
• The agent will always prioritize the buyer's needs and inform them of any opportunities.
• Signing the Agreement:
• A trick when someone hesitates to sign: tap the paper as a "pattern interrupt."
• Address concerns about the agreement. For instance, the cancellation policy allows the buyer to cancel if they're not satisfied.
• Commitment:
• Emphasizes the importance of getting a commitment from the buyer.
• Keri used to charge buyers $495 before showing properties but no longer does.
• The value provided by the agent should make the buyer feel good and willing to commit.
• Addressing Hesitations:
• If a buyer is hesitant, give them time to review the agreement.
• If they're still reluctant, there might be underlying reasons, like having a friend or relative in the real estate business.
• Dealing with Buyer's Friend in Real Estate:
• Keri suggests looking up the friend's track record to compare.
• The decision should be based on experience, especially in a competitive market.
• Keri offers a guarantee to buy back homes if the buyer is unsatisfied, which might not be possible for less experienced agents.
• Confrontation and Communication:
• Some buyers might be uncomfortable with confrontation.
• It's essential to guide them on how to communicate their decisions to others, like telling a friend they've chosen another agent.

But why does she use a guarantee?

• Leveraging Guarantees:
• The focus of this part is on leveraging guarantees to instill confidence in clients.
• The guarantee offered: If a client is unhappy with a home, the agency will either buy it back or sell it for free.
• Historical context: Only once did they have to act on this guarantee, and they ended up selling the home for free.
• Details of the Guarantee:
• The guarantee serves as a differentiator in the market, setting the agency apart from competitors.
• The buy-back price might not always match the purchase price.
• Most clients still prefer their homes even after evaluating other options.
• To qualify for the "sell for free" option, clients must buy a home of equal or greater value with the agency.
• Benefits of the Guarantee:
• The guarantee provides clients with confidence.
• It also differentiates the agency from other agents in the market.

3. The Reality Check ⚖️

Main purpose and outcome is (most crucial step often ignored by agents) to manage unrealistic buyers and help set the right expectations early.

The Process:

• After securing buyer loyalty and understanding their needs, the next step is to study the market.
• Instead of just showing active listings, Keri's approach is to study what has sold in the last 90 days. This helps buyers understand the market and reduces anxiety.

1. Using the MLS (Multiple Listing Service):
2. Keri demonstrates how to use the MLS to study properties sold in the last 90 days.
3. Emphasizing the importance of studying recent sales due to the fast-moving market.
4. Discussing the criteria for the search, including proximity to certain locations and specific features of the property.
5. Analyzing Properties:
6. Walking through the process of analyzing individual properties, discussing their features, and gauging the buyer's reactions.
7. Highlighting the importance of understanding the buyer's preferences and needs.
8. Discussing the significance of condo fees and amenities in the decision-making process.
9. Broadening Search Criteria:
10. Keri introduces her tool to expand a buyer's search criteria, “The Circle of Truth.”
11. The circle of truth shows the buyer they have 4 things that can help change the search: location, price, home type & features. This helps them understand how to search for homes.

The process can take 15-20 minutes but is crucial to ensure the buyer is satisfied with their choice.

👑 Becoming an Industry Leader

Today, Keri's team is ranked #1 in the DMV (D.C., Maryland, Virginia) and #33 in the country. They are working towards 1,000 transactions with an eye to become #1 in the U.S. within five years. Keri also serves other realtors looking to scale through her HyperFast Academy and Coaching. She actually breakdowns her buyer process on their YouTube channel.

Her business model is ingenious. She invests heavily in digital marketing, a lot in digital advertising & content marketing, and has many salaried positions to support their team ( even one dedicated to personal referrals).

The Family Woman: Balancing Business and Personal Life

In addition to being a team builder, Keri is also a family builder. Along with her husband Dan Lesniak (another real estate titan), Keri raises four wonderful children: Braden, Kierra, Grayson, and Tristan. Family is one of the core values of the Keri Shull Team.

🔑 Personal takeaways:

I had the pleasure of interviewing Ruth Krishnan, a top team leader and agent in San Francisco.

Really quickly, here’s her credentials:

• Top 5 ranked agent in San Francisco out of 5K agents in 2022 per MLS
• Top 3 ranked buyer agent in San Francisco out of 5K agents in 2022 per MLS
• Recently she ranked #65 top agent teams, In 2022, $165 million in sales, nationwide by WSJ Real Trends. (3 agents = $50m+ avg agent)
• Over $815M in career sales
• 200+ 5-star reviews on Yelp
• 86% of the time we get our buyers into contract in 1-2 offers
• Her sellers earn an average of 8% above listing price
• 25% of deals done off market

Okay, so what I found out is that Ruth actually learned directly from Keri as well.

And even working with Billionaires, startup founders, tech millionaires, high net worth individuals, high income individuals in SF, and everyone all across the spectrum- she follows a similar setting expectations & weeding out unrealistic buyers process. But I’ll leave the rest for the podcast when it releases!

So if Ruth does it & scaled it (3 agents = $50m+ avg agent), and so has Keri across 40+ high producing ($10m avg) agents, it proves the process works.

And here’s a short tid bit from our buying experience.

My wife and I started looking at homes back in 2021 during the craziness. And in an area in Tampa that’s desirable because being in real estate industry, I valued appreciation potential.

But there were not many potential properties available because everyone from up north was snatching them up with cash & way better terms since we were first time home buyers.

And I actually learned about Keri’s process way back in 2018-19 or maybe even earlier.

When I started in new home sales & marketing in 2016/17, I spent a lot of my time trying to learn from the best in the industry.

So I sat Amy down and actually did the reality check and through that process we were able to find opportunities where we could look off market. As well as it gave us hope & ideas, because now we knew where we should search. We also were able to search off-market.

Ultimately, we found the place through patience and persistence. And I believe wholeheartedly that without sitting Amy down & showing her what I knew, she wouldn’t have understand how it would be possible.

Sorry for going a little long & personal but I have Keri to thank for that.

Purpose: Working with buyers isn’t a one-size-fits-all guide. There are complexities and nuances with different markets and clients. But by working with buyers more efficiently we can avoid burning out or unrealistic clients, and scale.

Outcome: The true value of these case studies lies in offering different perspectives. So by being open-minded and, “when we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.” Our problems are usually only one degree of change away, we just need to remain open to making the shift.

A structured approach isn’t rigid. Actually, the opposite. Structure and discipline creates freedom.

When you don’t have to worry about what to say, you can focus on how you say it. This is the flow state.

Flow state is the state where you became fully immersed and focused in the work. You are in peak enjoyment of the process that nothing else matters.

Enter: Structured fluidity.

If you enjoyed this and want to learn more about Keri or her buying process, then check out her YouTube channel where she actually goes through her buying process. Plus way more resources for agents.

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🧱 An Unfiltered Conversation with NY's #1 Mortgage Lender (Top 10 in US) | Brian Scott Cohen

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Meet Brian Scott Cohen. This is an unfiltered conversation with Brian Scott Cohen, NY's #1 mortgage lender, top 10 in the US, and the most reachable mortgage lender in NY with over $6 billion in loans & 9,000 homeowners served.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• 00:00 - intro
• 02:15 - his story after 19 years
• 07:34 - 19,000+ TikTok followers: embracing digital
• 10:25 - overcoming tough markets
• 16:54 - high volume but high touch
• 22:55 - work life integration as a high performer
• 25:38 - over prioritizing communication
• 32:08 - becoming the knowledge broker
• 34:36 - meeting & working with Ryan Serhant for 15 years
• 40:25 - Brian's secrets for long lasting relationships
• 46:23 - educating & expanding into new markets
• 57:06 - world class leadership