Mike Ferry’s Podcast the Original: Think Bigger, Produce More. Mike Ferry Interviews Natalie Rivera

In this episode, Mike Ferry talks with Natalie Rivera, an agent with Corcoran Plaza Properties in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She serves most of northern New Mexico, from just south of Santa Fe north to Taos, west to Los Alamos, and east to Pecos. Natalie has been a Mike Ferry client for her entire real estate career. She did 40 transactions last year and earned $750,000. A few weeks ago, she hired Mike to coach her personally every day, five days a week, for six months. Mike has done this 22 times, and only with people he enjoys working with.

From Ship Captain to Top Producer

Before real estate, Natalie spent 17 years in the Merchant Marine, following her father and brother. She earned a U.S. Coast Guard license as a master of unlimited tonnage and had her own vessel. Her first trip through the Panama Canal was as a cadet, and her last was as a captain, which she felt was a good way to bookend that career. Her top pay at sea was about $180,000. She was licensed in real estate in 2015 and worked as an assistant while she learned the business. When she became an agent in 2017, she signed up for coaching right away. At her first retreat, she walked up to Mike and thanked him for material that was easy to understand and simple to follow, but hard to do on a consistent basis.

The Power of a Strong Database

Natalie’s average sales price is about $770,000. In Santa Fe, the median for a primary residence is about $520,000, and luxury homes average about $1.5 million. Her database has 700 people in her center of influence, or close to 1,700 if she counts everyone who has given her an email address. She culls the list every year and has contact with her COI six to eight times a year. More than 75% of her business comes from her COI. Mike says she is exceptionally good at selling real estate. She just doesn’t expose herself to enough people, because she is comfortable with the business she has.

Pricing and Commission

Mike brings up a common complaint from nonproductive agents: top producers win listings by overpricing them or cutting their commission. Natalie starts every presentation by telling sellers there are three outcomes. They decide to list with her, they decide not to, or she decides not to take the listing. She won’t take a listing she knows won’t sell and have the sellers “live rent free in my brain.” Less than a month ago, she told sellers she couldn’t list their home above a certain price, and they hired another agent at $300,000 more than the market would bear. With days on market getting longer, she says she has to double down on pricing and motivation, or she may never get paid. She rarely hears the commission objection because most of her clients come through warm introductions from her COI. After the last retreat, she is even thinking about raising her fee.

Prospecting and Complacency

Natalie makes 10 to 15 outbound calls a day and finds business wherever she goes in public. She admits her biggest challenge with prospecting is complacency, because she has had so much success without it. Mike shares advice from his first broker, Pat McVay: anyone who smiles, dresses professionally, and prospects and previews property three to four hours a day will do an enormous amount of business. He believes that if Natalie spent 9:00 to 10:30 each morning contacting homes around her listings, she could double her income. Her goal this year is a 75/25 split of listings to buyers, but slow-moving listings pushed her closer to 60/40. Getting back on track means prospecting consistently, going on appointments, and pricing listings correctly.

Thinking Bigger

Natalie has 30 closings this year and expects to finish with about 45. Her goal for next year is 75 transactions and more than $1.4 million in income. Mike reminds her that next year starts today, because the next 90 days set up a big January, February, and March. She keeps a long, specific list of things she wants to do in her lifetime, and the two of them review it every week. After just one week of daily calls, she shared what she has learned. There are no silly questions, and Mike is an open book. It’s all about numbers. She has to think much bigger, because her goals look small next to his. And everything is possible, but it takes discipline and someone holding you accountable.

Leading a Team

Natalie now has a small team with a transaction coordinator, a runner, and a virtual assistant. She asks Mike how he stays centered when so many people want his attention. After more than 7,000 meetings, he has found that people ask the same five or six questions, just as buyers and sellers always raise the same objections. Once you master the answers, you can handle them with confidence. Natalie realizes she can prepare her staff to field the most common concerns, which will protect her time. Mike suggests asking her staff to name the three objections she hears most, because they likely already know.