You ready to go all in on just one lead generation source? I know you're frustrated right now. You are doing all the things. You're cold calling, you're door knocking, you're doing mailers, maybe you're even doing events and networking and you're still not gaining the traction that you want. So you're gonna wanna listen in. In this episode, I talk about why I decided to go all in on one lead generation source and you guessed it, open houses.
I combined that with the power of social media and that's when I went from barely surviving to thriving. So let's do this. Music. Are you tired of the same old school real estate lead generation tactics? Then you've come to the right show. Welcome to Open House Open Mind the podcast. I'm your host, Michelle, and this is not your average real estate podcast. I'm here to challenge the industry standards. You won't find pushy salesy bro tactics here.
There's a better way to do business without that icky feeling so that buyers and sellers are coming to you instead of you chasing them. So if you're ready to challenge those traditional standards with me, to fill your database, to learn mindset hacks that challenge your own limiting beliefs, and to take actionable steps to improve your open house experience, then stick around. Let's get you some consistent income in the business you worked so hard to get
licensed in. And let's have some fun while we're at it. Music. Today, we're going to talk about how I decided to go all in on one lead generation source. It was about five years into my business when I realized I was all over the place. I was very overwhelmed and I felt very frustrated. I was doing all the things, the cold calling, the door knocking, I was doing mailers, I was doing open houses, and I was even doing events.
You know, like when you set up a booth at an event, and you think for some reason, you're just gonna kill it with buyers and sellers. And maybe it does work, but it didn't work for me. I was making money, but I just couldn't quite hit that six figure mark that I set out to do every year. I couldn't do that consistently. So what I started doing was jumping around offices, boxes, thinking that was the solution, thinking it was all their fault. And I say that in quotation marks.
I remember joining one office and their entire system at that office was cold calling. I mean, we had no other option. We were to arrive at eight o'clock at the office Monday through Friday. And from eight to 830, we were role playing, we were cold call role playing. And and we were told that we had to do that. It was the only way that we could work there. And we would get in trouble, like if we didn't show up, if we showed up late, we would get in trouble.
If we weren't dialing, we would get in trouble. And now mind you, the reason I got into real estate was so that I could have the flexibility, the flexibility to still be able to take my kids to school and to pick them up. And so that I wouldn't get questioned. And it was like I was in this nine to five job. And I soon realized that this is not what I signed up for. And so I was like, well, okay, what did you sign up for, Michelle? I mean, there's so many options to generate leads.
And I was like, just pick one. So that was the point when I decided I'm just going to pick one. And like I said, I was trying them all, but I was doing them all at the same time. And that's when I decided to go all in on open houses, because it was the only thing that I determined that it was in alignment with me that I like to do. I didn't like the setup or the breakdown. But when I was at the open houses, I did like it. I liked going to the open houses.
I liked seeing them. I liked being there, I liked talking to people. And it had people, I realized that people were coming to me versus me chasing them. Nobody yelled at me at an open house. Nobody hung up on me. Obviously, it was face to face, but you get the picture. So that's what I did. I went all in on open houses. But after about nine months, though, I still had no consistent transaction. And then like the FOMO started kicking in. It was FOMO from my family.
I was away every weekend from them. There was always an event. My family always has some kind of event. And I was missing them all. And I was like, why is this not working for me? I mean, I had sign-in sheets full of names and numbers. Okay, they were scribbly sometimes, times, but I couldn't figure out what it was. And then I also realized that when I was heading out flyers, that people just would not even want to talk to me anymore.
And when I would try to call the leads that I did have on the signage sheets, when I would call like on Monday morning, they were wrong numbers. The emails would bounce back. Or if somebody would answer, sir, they didn't remember who I was, or they told me they already found an agent and they already purchased a home. I mean, that happened. It's like, wait, what is going on?
And then sometimes I wouldn't even, tell me if this is you, sometimes I wouldn't even call them because life would just happen, right? And when I was supposed to call them on Monday morning, I wouldn't call them. And then I would feel guilty, like a week or two would pass and I would think, well, I'm not gonna call them now, it's way too late. So yeah, I mean, I can see that a lot of people say open houses are a waste of time.
And yes, they can be a waste of time if you're not doing them strategically. So at that point, I was just, I was tired of having just leads, right? I knew that I was getting all these people that would come through, but it wasn't enough to just have leads. I knew I needed clients and I needed transactions. actions. And so I soon realized, I mean, I quickly, I evaluated again, and I just quickly realized that I wasn't building any kind of connection at all.
And that's when I decided that I was going to ditch the signage sheets and the flyers. And I remember that exact day that I was, that I thought of that. I was at an open house. And it was a beautiful home because I had picked this home that was vacant. And this agent was really nice. And it was home, the homes were sitting on the market for a while at that time, kind of like the way they are right now. And that's why it's a perfect time to host open houses.
And I was doing that same open house, I was doing it every single weekend, I just asked the agent, is it okay, if I do this every weekend, he was like, no problem. So that was like my open house that I was doing every single weekend. And it was, like I said, beautiful. It was staged and it was in a very nice neighborhood. It was a luxury home and I didn't have a problem doing open houses in a luxury area. I mean, I was new, but I remember always coming in with the mindset that a house
is a house. It needs to sell. It doesn't matter where it is. It doesn't matter if I'm new or if I'm seasoned. There's no reason why I can't sell that type of house. So that's when I decided to ditch the sign-in sheets and ditch the flyers. And I was going to talk to every single person that came through the door. And that's what I did. I stood at the front door. I put all my work away and I greeted everybody that came in.
I treated the home like it was my home. I welcomed them in and I talked to everybody. I made sure that I built connections through my conversations. And here's what happened next. I ended up meeting a couple that walked in and they were very quiet. They didn't want to talk to me. And they took the tour on their own because I asked them to take the tour on their own. And at the time, and you're staying at the front door. So when they come back, you ask them if they have any questions.
I asked them if they had any questions and briefly talked about the house. I didn't go into all the details of the the house. I just briefly answered their questions about the house. And then I started asking them questions about themselves. I asked them where they lived, and it turned out that they were neighbors. It turned out that they wanted to downsize, and they needed a home to sell. And then I saw the husband had a shirt on that was the same company that my dad retired from.
So I started talking to him, and then we built a connection. And if you guys know, you know, you know, basic sales 101, it's build a know, like, and trust. And that's what I did. You guys can quickly do this at the open house in the 10 to 15 minutes. People don't do it is because we're just, we're just taught. I mean, we see everyone else that just does these sign-in sheets. We see everyone else do it. And we think that's the way it's supposed to be done.
And that we're going to go back to the office and we're going to follow up with them. And then that's where we're going to build that connection. And it doesn't have to be that way. So I invite you guys to try this out. But what ended up happening is that she started opening up to me because I was asking her questions about her and her needs. And they told me that they were empty nesters. And they told me that they wanted to sell the house.
And when could I go take a look at it? I was like, well, when would you like me to come? She was like, can you come after the open house? I was like, sure. I had nobody left in the house. And so I even shut the open house down early. And I went to go visit her and ended up spending like a couple hours there at her home. It was beautiful. It was huge. And she ended up hiring me. So I ended up listing her house for $1.5 million and I sold her a house for $999,000.
And so it was at that very point that I was like, oh shit, this is what's been missing. And the reason I share this with you all is because the traditional tactics, the old school way of doing things, they just don't work. I mean, they don't work effectively, right? They may work for you, but what if you can double those conversions? What if you can make these appointments at your open houses? I mean, that would be better than just having, just winging it, right?
So they can work and I don't want you guys to struggle as long as I struggled. You should be able to do this way quicker than I did. it. For those of you who want to take this work deeper and master the art of hosting open houses in order to attract buyers and sellers, then you're going to want to join me inside open house mastery.
This is a self paced online course with a live component that will take you through every step you need from finding open houses to host to what to say when visitors come in to converting leads to clients. Together, we're going to get clear on how to confidently land clients, not just leads.
On top of all that, when you join Open House Mastery, you get access to my bonus follow-up system, plus my fun buyer manifesting exercise, where I teach you how to coach your buyer clients on manifesting their dream home. Also, you get to join my student-only community, where you get coaching from me once a month, where we master the non-salesy script together. So if you're ready to build a strong foundation in your real estate career and make more money this year, then join Open House Mastery.
Link is in the show notes, but get in quick. You won't want to miss this month's live coaching. See you there.