Josh Cohen: A Leader of Leaders in Real Estate

REE #223

 [00:00:00] Hey, [00:01:00] welcome back to the real estate excellence podcast. My guest today has nearly 20 years of Berkshire Hathaway home services, Florida network reality. He is a beloved by his agent. He's agency supports as several guests on the show have simply bragged about him. When he isn't working with one of his agents, you can find him playing the drums, jumping in the pool with his family is that's very important to him.

[00:01:21] Tracy Hayes: His core values are family authenticity and unmatched support for his agency. He leads. Let's welcome the highly respected broker from the Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, Florida Network Realty, Josh Cohen. 

[00:01:32] Josh Cohen: Hey, Tracy. 

[00:01:33] Tracy Hayes: Welcome to the show. 

[00:01:34] Josh Cohen: Thank reaching out and having me on. 

[00:01:35] Tracy Hayes: I appreciate you. You fly under the radar, but like I said, we've had some of the agents that work with you brag about you.

[00:01:41] Tracy Hayes: And I said, man, you guys really love this guy. I got to have him on. 

[00:01:44] Josh Cohen: I appreciate that. 

[00:01:45] Tracy Hayes: Yes, it was quite the accolades. I want to dig in a little bit of your, you know, a little bit of your background, you know, through real estate and then obviously getting into leadership and then we'll dig into some of the, you know, challenges of today.

[00:01:58] Tracy Hayes: And of course, you've been in 20 years, [00:02:00] so you've dealt with multiple challenges as I've been in this business. mortgage business, 19 years. So we all went through the 10, you know, timeframe and having to work through that. And now we've kind of, got a little spin of that. I don't think it's as bad today as it was that because we're still moving houses.

[00:02:17] Tracy Hayes: It's not foreclosures and doom and gloom and all that house price drive. So, 

[00:02:21] Josh Cohen: I sold a lot of homes during that time. Time of those REO agents for a while. Yeah, I did a lot of that. 

[00:02:26] Tracy Hayes: Well, you know, that's so interesting because many of the successful agents that I've had on that have, you know, been through that time period, they all adapted quickly to that.

[00:02:36] Josh Cohen: Yeah. 

[00:02:37] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, 

[00:02:37] Josh Cohen: 100%. No, I, I was kind of the agent that became the short sale expert by default, you know, and I was working out of the Berkshire upon a major office and had so many agents that were getting these short sale listings. And they were like, Josh, what's the short sale thing? them.

[00:02:50] Josh Cohen: Can you co list it with me and help me out? Right. So I was helping them through a lot of them. And then, you know, with all that, I ended up kind of get doing a lot of BPOs and helping a lot of [00:03:00] outsourcers and lenders. with their distressed started eventually listing those properties and helping the company with that as well.

[00:03:06] Tracy Hayes: Isn't it amazing if you're just getting out in understanding what's in front of you, you dove into it. It sounds like it didn't, you know, I'm sure it was like, Oh my God, what am I getting into? But you drove through it, right? and because you were on the cutting edge, you were then considered An expert, but really, I mean, does anybody really an expert at it?

[00:03:26] Josh Cohen: Well, I mean, the market's a living, breathing thing, right? And I think good agents will find a way to adapt and thrive in any market condition. And at that time, you know, home prices were plummeting, inventory was rising. I mean, you would go into some neighborhoods in town, like a marshland and country club, there'd be like 20 months of inventory.

[00:03:43] Josh Cohen: So, you know, it was a very different market back then, but yeah, The bank owned properties, you know, maintaining them, making sure the grass was cut, the bills, you know, the utilities were paid. I did that and then eventually sold the property and, you know, talk about multiple offers, you know, during COVID there were so many multiple offer situations back then we'd have 30, 40 [00:04:00] offers on 

[00:04:01] Tracy Hayes: because they felt the value dropped so much.

[00:04:04] Tracy Hayes: It was a steal, but then, but then getting it. one of those offers approved by the bank who owned it. 

[00:04:10] Josh Cohen: Yeah. And having to make sure that you present every one of those offers clearly and transparently. And there's, you know, it was a lot of work. I had a team basically before team was a thing. but it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot, so I enjoyed that.

[00:04:22] Tracy Hayes: There's something out there, I've been talking with people recently, they use the analogy or comparison of this situation today to back then, and that is, we have so many loans that are sub 4 percent out there. people are, you know, not moving because of that, where I think we went for years or people are like, Oh, the interest rates, three and a half percent.

[00:04:43] Tracy Hayes: And they were just moving neighborhoods and that sort of thing. And now they're like, I've got a 3 percent loan. Now I'm not going to go and buy a new house and take on twice the percent and even a higher price point, even though they have equity in their home when they sell it. But, the assumable loan area, and that kind of throwing this out there.

[00:04:59] Tracy Hayes: Cause we're [00:05:00] kind of on this topic. see if you've had any, um,experienced recently with it, but these VAs and FHA loans that are out there, these servicers that are servicing are in charge of them. If someone wants to assume it, that's who's in charge, not a loan officer like me, right?

[00:05:14] Tracy Hayes: They're in charge of that, and these servicers are going to start to catch on and get better at it as they did in the REO property exchange. 

[00:05:22] Josh Cohen: Yes. Yeah. They should. you know, we do some assumptions, but yeah, you're absolutely right. You have to reach out to the servicer really in advance, almost like you would if you were in a distress situation like a short sale, you got 

[00:05:33] Josh Cohen: to reach out to your servicer 

[00:05:34] Josh Cohen: and let them know what's going on because every bank handles that differently.

[00:05:37] Josh Cohen: They have a separate department. They don't always talk well together. so you really want to, you know, reach out and if you're an agent negotiating a deal on a assumption, you really want to have a strong loan approval period, generally 60 days, sometimes longer. Okay. every now and then you'll have one that closes in less than 30 days, but it takes a while to do an assumption.

[00:05:53] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:05:53] Josh Cohen: And they're slowly coming back. 

[00:05:54] Tracy Hayes: Well, I have been enlightened and I'd gladly introduce this to help you. There's a gentleman, [00:06:00] Stacey Blair, he owns a company called point, right? And what they're doing, his experience is working in the operations department in the service. areas. Obviously his experience is they know they only maybe have a couple of people working in there and they probably only did it part time because no one was assuming loans before.

[00:06:15] Tracy Hayes: Now it's becoming more so he is actually working because of the, reason why it takes so long is because the paperwork that the seller has to fill out, the buyer has to get approved, and there's this whole thing. I like to use the analogy. It's like, paying that company, get your passport done real quick.

[00:06:31] Josh Cohen: He 

[00:06:32] Tracy Hayes: facilitates it cause he knows what paperwork needs. Where's the signatures you need? So hopefully expediting some of these, more like 30 to 45 days versus 90 or more days, that they say. I do want to take just a moment to get my sponsor in here. Remy Realty, as you got anyone watching the show, there is Remy Graphics, and she does this nice logo, Josh has got one of these in his bag there, they will do one offs, so you want to personalize this for, buyer.

[00:06:58] Tracy Hayes: You don't have to order a dozen of them. [00:07:00] You can order one or two and she does other laser engraved products. She just does these mugs for me. Go to remy graphics. com, remy graphics. com and see the other products here. But like I said, they're local here in Nassau County. And like I said, you can get them, you know, with probably within just a few days if she's got the items and stuff.

[00:07:16] Josh Cohen: Remy graphics. If you're watching, if you want to do a lunch and learn in the office, just reach out. Okay. Well, 

[00:07:20] Tracy Hayes: I'll, I'll let her know. Well, it's been fun today, Tracy. Yeah, for I'd like to kick off the show, give everyone a little background on you. Where are you from? 

[00:07:28] Josh Cohen: I'm originally from the Northern Virginia area right outside Washington DC.

[00:07:33] Tracy Hayes: I've treaded that path. I lived in Centerville for most of the nineties. Yeah. 

[00:07:36] Josh Cohen: Okay. Yeah. I grew up in Annandale, went to false church high school, and moved to Florida in 2001. Into Jacksonville. So I still have friends up there. visiting. Florida is now my home. 

[00:07:46] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. yeah, my aunts lived in Springfield since the early sixties.

[00:07:50] Tracy Hayes: when Jefferson science and tech went to a, magnet school, if you would call it that, that she opened that as the magnet school is college, but obviously she's now retired, but yeah, it's a 

[00:07:59] Josh Cohen: beautiful [00:08:00] area. I miss it sometimes. I miss the seasons and the snow and that's, yeah, 

[00:08:03] Tracy Hayes: well, you know, it's so great about the Northern Virginia or It's not that long.

[00:08:06] Tracy Hayes: You can get to the beach, you know, can get to the mountains and, just a very short ride. You know, you get up into Pennsylvania, you know, Gettysburg, whatever you've got Williamsburg. Yeah. Hop on a train ticket right up to right up the coast. Yeah. And there's 

[00:08:21] Josh Cohen: good public transportation too. I mean the Metro and all that.

[00:08:23] Josh Cohen: Exactly. Yeah, 

[00:08:24] Tracy Hayes: exactly. all right. So what introduces you to real estate? Where do you, 

[00:08:28] Josh Cohen: So when I moved down here, I was kind of in the, you know, pretty much whatever you can think of in the food and beverage restaurant industry. That's what I was doing. I mean, I started working as like a line cook when I was 15.

[00:08:38] Josh Cohen: So that was kind of like I started 

[00:08:40] Josh Cohen: very early, 

[00:08:41] Josh Cohen: early working by, you know, behind the, you know, in the kitchen, back of the house, eventually bartender, server, manager, all that kind of stuff. was working in the hotel business job at a really big hotel here in Ponte Vedra beach and was, all kinds of things there in food and beverage and just saw the development.

[00:08:57] Josh Cohen: You know, estate, it was always [00:09:00] something that I wanted to do. My dad was in sales and so, just kind of came down here. It was kind of in a transfer, you know, in a I guess you can say. And so I decided just to take the leap and get my license. And, I joined, we were prudential at the time.

[00:09:13] Josh Cohen: So I joined the company. I got my license in 2003. I joined the company in 2004. Was 

[00:09:17] Tracy Hayes: there, there's somebody you met in the restaurant or something that said real estate or how did, how does it actually go? 

[00:09:22] Josh Cohen: No, I mean, I, I did encounter a lot of people that were moving there. you know, cause they were building a house or cause when, at that time there was no knock a tee.

[00:09:30] Josh Cohen: There was, you know, Ponte Vedra was kind of sleepy. It was kind of quiet, 

[00:09:34] Josh Cohen: believe it or not. 

[00:09:35] Josh Cohen: so, it was just, you know, I always wanted to get into sales. I enjoyed relationships and, people, and I was doing really well in the restaurant business, but wanted to do something different.

[00:09:42] Josh Cohen: And, I was living in Ponte Vedra beach at the time. So I just kind of just took the leap. Yeah. And, you know, got in the business and really just, embraced it. 

[00:09:49] Tracy Hayes: So that first year, were you still kind of doing some work in the restaurant to get some cash flow? And how do you break into the business?

[00:09:55] Tracy Hayes: So I 

[00:09:55] Josh Cohen: worked at nights, basically, like I was, waiting tables in a fine dining restaurant and believe it or not, I [00:10:00] actually, you know, use that as my benefit. I sold several properties to some pretty wealthy clients that were there. Right. and I was doing really well, you know, I worked in this,kind of fancy steak, steak restaurant and, you know, expensive bottles of wine and all that.

[00:10:11] Josh Cohen: And so, but I was, you know, working floor during the day, you know, doing open houses on the weekends. I'm really trying to get my business off the ground. And my goal was to bridge the gap to eventually say goodbye to the restaurant business and eventually get into, to real estate. So, all right.

[00:10:24] Tracy Hayes: So we're talking 20 years ago, social media not doesn't exist at this point. I mean, From a marketing standpoint was the location was the walk ins ever been a good part of you Introducing yourself to people obviously you're in the restaurant. So you're interchanging there a little bit what you're doing Well, what are you doing to to let people know?

[00:10:44] Tracy Hayes: Friends, you 

[00:10:46] Josh Cohen: know network family, you know networking That kind of thing. You know, you get into circles of friends and things like that. But I did a lot houses. I remember one time during TPC, I was working floor in who [00:11:00] was, Traveling with Phil Mickelson, you know, and they're a part of Barclays Bank.

[00:11:03] Josh Cohen: You know, they may sponsor. Yeah. I remember, yeah, you see where the hats all time. They're a bank from Ireland and there was a bunch of Irish guys there. And one guy walked in, he's like, you know, just tell me about this place, the plantation. And I'm like, here I am. This way to kick off. And I'd already closed a couple of deals.

[00:11:20] Josh Cohen: but anyway, I helped him out and a bunch of his golf buddies and stuff too, you know? And so you kind of like, if you work hard and you're really good at follow up and you, you know, you tell people that you show people you're truly going to hustle for them, you're going to be there for them. You have the, you know, if you don't have the answer, you're going to find out they can feel that.

[00:11:36] Josh Cohen: And so they will refer you. And so like most agents, referrals are your bread and butter, work hard and really try to prove your worth. 

[00:11:42] Tracy Hayes: Well, I mean, it's, one of the words and you use in your, bio authenticity, right? you know, and it was something I was just watching the news and comments even on the politics on the politicians is the, the sense of the authenticity of, of what you're doing, what you're saying, your, your actions, your body [00:12:00] language and so forth is, it's probably something you teach today.

[00:12:02] Tracy Hayes: Sure. 

[00:12:04] Josh Cohen: yeah, you know, a lot of agents, they see other agents and maybe they want to to be like them. You have to find your voice. You have to find out who you are. and that's one of the things that I always We might be jumping ahead here, but one of the like talk to meet with an agent that I'm coaching, whether I hired them or whatever is, you know, you know, what do you want to accomplish from it?

[00:12:24] Josh Cohen: Like, what do you want this business to be? Like, why are you doing this? What is your why? Because some agents are really working to have more personal time. They're a top producer, time with their grandkids 

[00:12:35] Josh Cohen: or whatever. 

[00:12:35] Josh Cohen: but yeah, you have to be authentic. You have to be yourself.

[00:12:38] Josh Cohen: You can't be like somebody else. People see that they if you're not being real, they will feel that 

[00:12:43] Tracy Hayes: what's your why is? I hate that question. My why is I like I here's I'll get to here's my why money allows for freedom. How you do 

[00:12:55] Josh Cohen: it matters. Yeah. Like your words matter, [00:13:00] you know, your vocabulary, your 

[00:13:01] Josh Cohen: energy, 

[00:13:02] Josh Cohen: you know, you have to be, intentional with your energy, whatever that is for you.

[00:13:06] Josh Cohen: Like for me, it's, you brought up earlier music and playing drums. I've done that almost like my weekend therapy. If I don't have that, I'm not as strong husband, a father or a leader, you know, so I need that. So some agents, they just want to all real estate all the time, all the time.

[00:13:22] Josh Cohen: Well, what is it that you like outside of real estate that helps you be that better person? So you have to kind of like dig in and find why are you doing this? Maybe the way I described it, it's kind of like not the best 

[00:13:32] Josh Cohen: but. 

[00:13:33] Josh Cohen: You have to be true to yourself.

[00:13:34] Josh Cohen: and find out why.

[00:13:35] Tracy Hayes: Well, this is gonna be a chapter in my book after all these interviews.

[00:13:40] Tracy Hayes: The actions that you listening to Carrie Carpenter with Keller Williams comes to mind, just how she runs her, business and she started running her business like a business right from get go. in, but part of being that business is all those. being authentic, the follow up, all those things where, yeah, you could run [00:14:00] out there and try to get a new deal every day.

[00:14:01] Tracy Hayes: who can I turn and get a sale in the next 30, 60 days? But really, would you agree to become truly successful in the real estate business, you've got to be doing actions that may not bear fruit for 

[00:14:14] Josh Cohen: 100%. You have to have that commitment to delay gratification in real estate. you know, it takes time.

[00:14:20] Josh Cohen: You have to work at people's pace. you know, you could chase those cold leads. you know, working expired listings, working for sale cold calling. We have agents that do that, but it's a supplement. The core of your business is always gonna be your relationships. You know, the quality of your business is tied to the quality of your relationships generally.

[00:14:36] Josh Cohen: And so, there's lots of ways But yeah, you have to you have to lean in and really just embrace those relationships. 

[00:14:41] Tracy Hayes: So go back to the first year. so where the, this, these golfers part of the first year in the business,

[00:14:48] Josh Cohen: friends, family, friends of friends, you know, open houses.

[00:14:52] Josh Cohen: I converted a lot of, you know, clients, long term clients to open houses. I actually, my first year, you know, I wasn't Scared. Right. So I would call for [00:15:00] so by owners and back then inventory, you know, we're talking in 04 

[00:15:03] Josh Cohen: then in 

[00:15:04] Josh Cohen: 05 

[00:15:05] Josh Cohen: Inventory was starting to rise. I mean, you know, I've been in a couple of different market cycles.

[00:15:08] Josh Cohen: Yeah. So for sale there, when there wasn't a lot 

[00:15:10] Josh Cohen: marketing, 

[00:15:11] Josh Cohen: you know, right now, for sale by owners have all these platforms and Zillow and everything else, right really didn't have much, a flyer box. 

[00:15:17] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. You 

[00:15:18] Josh Cohen: know, 

[00:15:18] Tracy Hayes: sign in the yard. Yeah. 

[00:15:19] Josh Cohen: So I called a lot of them and I, and I would just be like, look, I know you're trying to sell your house by owner and that's great, but, if you ever decide to make a change.

[00:15:26] Josh Cohen: You know, when you want, you're interviewing realtors, I'm in the area. I was just showing property at this, you know, a couple of streets down. I'm here to help you. you know, here's my marketing plan by the way, in case you're interested, things like that. I wouldn't like sell them. I would just kind of side coach them here.

[00:15:38] Josh Cohen: I, you know, I'm here toyou know, maybe it's a older home and they, they weren't aware of the lead based paint disclosure or they weren't aware, like, you know, it's good to have an open house sign in sheet. It's good to do open houses. Here's why have those conversations with them. And I would just kind of follow up.

[00:15:51] Josh Cohen: I would have a little spreadsheet and I would just kind of follow up.

[00:15:54] Josh Cohen: And

[00:15:54] Josh Cohen: that, that brought me a lot of listings and sometimes one of those relationships would be four or five other deals because they [00:16:00] referred me. 

[00:16:00] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. what are some, tips that you give? can kind of give an idea of what the for sale by owner market is right now compared to that time.

[00:16:08] Tracy Hayes: But I think how agents like, like how you approached it, did you have someone that mentored you on that or is this something that kind of came naturally? with your demeanor on how to softly approach. So 

[00:16:18] Josh Cohen: we have a lot of training and support for agents, right? at the time we had a training called the incubator is what it was called.

[00:16:24] Josh Cohen: And so part of that training was, you know, prospecting and for semi owners. And so most agents don't do that because it's, not fun. it takes to have that commitment to delay gratification. so I just kind of like, 

[00:16:35] Josh Cohen: put myself out there, you know, take risks essentially, right?

[00:16:38] Josh Cohen: I mean, like the, most agents don't do some of those things because 

[00:16:41] Josh Cohen: it's uncomfortable. 

[00:16:43] Josh Cohen: And so I learned very early on in this business, okay, this business is pretty uncomfortable all the time, so I'm going to find a way to just be uncomfortable and still make it happen. 

[00:16:52] Tracy Hayes: So, cause I think the first, I think your first, you know, I'm calling it the first year, but When you no longer feel [00:17:00] you're a rookie, you're now moving on and you've got some, you know, swagger because you've got some deals under your belt.

[00:17:06] Tracy Hayes: So whether that's one year or two or three years, whatever walk us through what your attitude was through the, your schedule for the day. Cause you're, you're working initially at night waiting tables. are you someone who shows up at the office at 7 30 in the morning? What was your 

[00:17:20] Josh Cohen: sometimes?

[00:17:21] Josh Cohen: Yeah, definitely. you know, get there early. You want to be, you know, have a to do list every day, you want to accomplish, you know, and you know, there's working, you know, In your business, which is, you know, the showing property and the schedule of the inspections and all that.

[00:17:35] Josh Cohen: Then there's the working on your business, which is all those prospecting things. I mean, every morning, it's like one of the things I love about this business is it's like a new day. What are you gonna do today? What are you gonna accomplish? Are you gonna look yourself in the mirror and, you know, know that you gave it a 10 effort that day.

[00:17:47] Josh Cohen: So for me, you know, taking a look at the hot sheet. Are there some properties that near where I live because at the time I was living in Mandarin. so I've really kind of worked that market quite a bit. I live out in St. John's County now. I've kind of lived in different [00:18:00] parts of Jacksonville, 

[00:18:01] Josh Cohen: just really kind of going after making listings a priority because if you have the listings, generally the, you have the buyers as well.

[00:18:06] Josh Cohen: They eventually come with it. That's been off. So I really focused a lot on trying to get listings. Yeah, it was kind of my, my main focus, which is the 

[00:18:13] Tracy Hayes: market we're in now. 

[00:18:14] Josh Cohen: Correct. 

[00:18:14] Tracy Hayes: so you're leading, I would imagine. Buyers 

[00:18:16] Josh Cohen: are great too. I think a lot of agents are leaving buyers out because they don't want to, they don't want to talk about this buyer group.

[00:18:20] Josh Cohen: So they're kind of like, I'm just going to focus on listings. Okay, great. More buyers for us. Yeah. Yeah, 

[00:18:26] Tracy Hayes: exactly. that's, it's so common. I didn't even think about it, but that's exactly true. I hear a lot of agents going, Oh, I want more listings, which is great. listers last, right?

[00:18:35] Tracy Hayes: That's the phrase. Yes. you got all these, traps out there and your job is to sit back and market versus actually going and showing, you know, cause I'm, there are some buyers that are driving agents crazy right now. would you agree that it deals today versus say two years ago, I got a little more fur on them.

[00:18:51] Tracy Hayes: so to speak, I would 

[00:18:52] Josh Cohen: say there's a little more, intensity out there. you know, buyers generally, it's more of a reactive process. You're reacting all the time and for [00:19:00] agents that have, you know, families and kids, that's a lot. Yeah. It's weekend time. Whereas as listing, when you're on the listing side, generally it's more of a proactive process.

[00:19:07] Josh Cohen: you leverage your time, you know, you could be at the gym and you're responding to, yes, buyer broker compensation. Here's the compensation form. Um,whereas as a buyer's agent, it's more reactive, it takes more time, but you can't leave them out because man, they need you right now.

[00:19:23] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah, no, I, agree. the next topic I put on their challenges, you've obviously have, you know, you were all the way through a market where you started, it ramped up and got really hot. Yeah. Then it got really cold very quickly Yeah 

[00:19:39] Josh Cohen: I had some sellers that had a couple houses for sale in the same neighborhood because they were new construction Flippers kind of thing remember that which was dicey, but I had some people that were doing that But yeah, I wrote it up and then wrote it down 

[00:19:49] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, 

[00:19:50] Josh Cohen: pretty hard.

[00:19:51] Tracy Hayes: so now being in, leadership and following these, you know, obviously it's through this past, I don't know if we could say the past year, we knew this, settlement was coming through, there was going to [00:20:00] be changes, what the changes were going to be. I think, you know, some of the water cooler talk probably wasn't so positive, with a lot of agents where other agents obviously were, were, you know, Looking for a glass half full versus half empty.

[00:20:12] Tracy Hayes: What are you seeing as, biggest challenges right now for real estate agents, internally, not necessarily the external things coming from, you know, NAR and doing the buyer broker agreement, but almost like in a psychological standpoint and you as a leader, how you lead them through that? 

[00:20:27] Josh Cohen: Well, There's gosh, there's so many things, right?

[00:20:29] Josh Cohen: Yeah. There's so many challenges. Every deal is like, it's a new chapter in a book. Yes. and buyer agreements. I mean, to be honest, Tracy, you Hathaway, we offer single agency, so we've always used buyer agreements. So that's not new for us. We actually have our own buyer agreement. You know, we know florida realtors has their own buyer agreement.

[00:20:46] Josh Cohen: We actually have our own, which we've always had. And we've always made that of our coaching to our agents. So that was it 

[00:20:51] Tracy Hayes: did you require every agent to do it or is it optional? 

[00:20:54] Josh Cohen: You're required to make a written disclosure if you are a single agent, right? Some agents maybe opted not to be a single [00:21:00] agent it was an investor that they didn't know or something like that.

[00:21:03] Josh Cohen: I mean, once you showed the property back in the day without a written agreement, you were yeah. Perceived as a transaction broker, right? So we had some agents that took That was okay, but this is how we taught it. This is how you're supposed to do it.

[00:21:13] Josh Cohen: but I mean, gosh, chain challenges today.

[00:21:15] Josh Cohen: There's so many of them, I think. For number one, agents need to not, let the media kind of bring them down because there's so media out there about this. I think the challenge is being focused. You have to be focused on your relationships, focused on what you're going to do. good agents are going to find a way, a path forward on every transaction, on every market condition, because markets, have ebb and flow, right?

[00:21:37] Josh Cohen: They're cyclical. And I think right now the challenge is, you know, making sure that you're willing to slow down and have a conversation with the buyer about your, X, the expectations, the compensation, the representation, how long it's going to be, it's required now, a lot of agents I think didn't do buyer agreements, even though they maybe had them, because they take so much time, but it actually saves run because you're actually setting the [00:22:00] expectations with the buyer.

[00:22:01] Josh Cohen: You're having meaningful conversations early on. 

[00:22:03] Josh Cohen: So, 

[00:22:04] Josh Cohen: I think leaning into these changes and embracing them is, and not fighting it, that's a big challenge. And that's thing for a lot of people right now. You just have to lean in and going back to energy, not be negative. About it.

[00:22:16] Josh Cohen: Because if you're negative about it, you're not going to attract, right? People are not going to work with negative people. 

[00:22:20] Tracy Hayes: makes me just listening to you talk there when I started my first eight years were at Quicken Loans. And then I did a few more years in the loan depot call center. you know, doing mortgages over the phone and what we knew, the longer you kept them on the line, the more chance you were more apt.

[00:22:39] Tracy Hayes: To get the deal right and we're doing a lot of refinancing at the time is really the more time you talked with them You know built a rapport Would you agree that really agents? who haven't been doing buyer broker agreements. This is really actually a great marketing opportunity. Show your value.

[00:22:56] Tracy Hayes: the more they're engaged, they, you can tell they want to date [00:23:00] you, right? That's been the analogy that's being used. And really, it's probably going to end up to being, get more referrals for you on the backside. 100 percent Tracy. you know, this takes me to the buyer consultation. You have to have a buyer consultation with the buyer.

[00:23:12] Josh Cohen: Now it can be at Southern grounds. It could be at Starbucks. It should be at your office. If you have brick and mortar. And I think, you know, during the pandemic and COVID so many agents were working from home, I don't need an office, you know, that kind of thing. And all that's kind of coming back full circle now, because now you really need to, you know, the best wayexplain the process and talk about your buyer agreement and not just your buyer agreement and the commission side, but all the things you're going to do for them, like commissions to be the last thing you talk about.

[00:23:38] Josh Cohen: Yeah, you're going to sit down and you're going to talk about get to know each other, like ask questions, you know, build that relationship if you don't know them. A lot of times you might know them already referred to you. but I think, you know, like, having those conversations in the office is really important.

[00:23:51] Josh Cohen: I'm saying the expectations and all that does is deepen the relationship. So therefore they're going to trust you because at the end of the day, You know, working with a seller or a [00:24:00] buyer. Trust is everything. Do they trust you? I mean, if a seller trusts you, they're not gonna interview a bunch of realtors.

[00:24:05] Josh Cohen: They're going to hire you. Yeah. And that's, going to be tied to your process, how you handle it. So many agents you're on the phone with a seller and they're asking you, you know, Oh yeah. So and so recommended you, know, yada, yada, yada. What's your, well, before you come out, what's your commission?

[00:24:19] Josh Cohen: And so many agents like, well, it's You haven't had any value yet, right? That's a great question. But let's have the appointment. I'd love to get to know you first. And then take a look at your house, get to know your property, show you my marketing plan, all the things I'm going to do for you.

[00:24:31] Josh Cohen: Then we'll talk about how 

[00:24:32] Tracy Hayes: much work I'm going to have to put into this. Cause some are easier than others. The 

[00:24:35] Josh Cohen: same now applies to the buyer side. You need to sit down and talk about all the things you're going to do. Like share stories, the wins, the deals that you closed that were tough. Here's how we got it done.

[00:24:45] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:24:45] Josh Cohen: Here's my, vendor list. Here's my mortgage. You know, we have our mortgage company, Prosperity Home Mortgage. So we have that make that part of the conversation, right? So, sitting down, having a meaningful conversation and taking the time to do that and show them your Then at that point, you're ready [00:25:00] to go transact.

[00:25:00] Josh Cohen: And then we can talk about compensation and all that stuff, which is the NAR requirements now. 

[00:25:04] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. yeah, I think what happens and when you're in the, if you're in sales long enough, there's a lot of stuff in between. It becomes a routine and I think one of the things that agents have done, I think I mentioned this in a video that I put out to my people, just explaining them.

[00:25:22] Tracy Hayes: straight out for me to consumers of what's going on right now is we just got to a pace where things were just happening so fast. We just wanted to stick the sign in the yard and then grab the contract. And now, okay, schedule closing. Let's get do all those. actionable items versus the time to sit down and explain to them the process.

[00:25:44] Tracy Hayes: And I've got, you know, on my side of mortgage, there's people that can do the whole transaction over text message. I send them the document. You got any questions? No problem. And they give you the greatest reviews. There's others. have a ton of questions. So you feel that out and then obviously you spend some more [00:26:00] time and obviously answering the question before they even ask is they're like, Oh my God, you're so great.

[00:26:04] Tracy Hayes: I didn't even think about that, but it might eventually come. And I think the agents slow down a little bit, right? 

[00:26:10] Josh Cohen: You're exactly right. and you know, there's probably some models out there, some business models, some brokerages, some agents that that's just how they do it. We don't, we're not focused We're only focused on the transaction. we'll meet them at the property and then at in the street, we'll talk about this buyer agreement and get it signed to me. That's a mistake. If that's how you want to run your business. It's 

[00:26:25] Tracy Hayes: not a long term. It's not a,

[00:26:27] Josh Cohen: it's a short term game, you know, for lack of a better analogy, the golf and you know, this is real estate is 

[00:26:32] Josh Cohen: the long game.

[00:26:33] Josh Cohen: Right. it's longevity. You know, if you want to be in this business longterm, you have to really lean into relationships. And so, these changes, you know, if you can find a silver lining and all these NAR settlement changes, one of them is it's forcing more quality conversation with your people.

[00:26:47] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:26:47] Josh Cohen: That's a good thing. You should've been doing that 

[00:26:49] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. A hundred percent. 

[00:26:50] Josh Cohen: And some always did. 

[00:26:51] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. No, I, is the, is the positive side of it is, is well, and I think that's why some agents are, might be getting out because they don't, They're not comfortable with that.

[00:26:59] Tracy Hayes: [00:27:00] conversation. I think there's some using her as an excuse. They've kind of wanted to get out for a while now. They're saying that's the reason, but 

[00:27:05] Josh Cohen: it's a tough business. It's not for everybody, you know, but ultimately at the end of the day, this is the relationship business. It is not just a transaction.

[00:27:13] Josh Cohen: now if you think it's a transaction and that's how you want to run your business, okay, but it's going to be so you. It's going to be way more expensive and you're going to have a lot of deals fall through 

[00:27:23] Josh Cohen: because you're not having, you're 

[00:27:25] Josh Cohen: explaining things. You don't have a process. Yeah. So 

[00:27:27] Tracy Hayes: you and I know I've dealt with this situation.

[00:27:30] Tracy Hayes: You just use the term transaction. You know, I get the call. What's your rate, right? They're not asking about, you know, Hey, do you have enough employees right now to handle my loan? Cause that should be a question. Every lender right 

[00:27:42] Josh Cohen: now. 

[00:27:42] Tracy Hayes: I'm sure you get calls. I have gotten calls through 20 years. You know, yeah.

[00:27:46] Tracy Hayes: what is your commission or, you know, they quickly go to how fast can you think you could sell it? they kind of put you on the spot right away and not giving you the opportunity just because they don't understand all those things that a real estate agent's going to [00:28:00] do on a transaction.

[00:28:01] Tracy Hayes: They're just looking at the end game. how your coaching agents have for years? What are some ways that you take that person who's kind of Asking those transactional questions into understanding the value of, Hey, we need to sit down and actually work out some of these things. Yeah. 

[00:28:17] Josh Cohen: I mean, having a process, right.

[00:28:19] Josh Cohen: Being intentional. you know, if you're an agent, you really should not, you know, it's always good to have a phone interview with a you're going to meet them, but you always want to ask a seller before you go on that appointment. what are the three things you're looking, if you can give 

[00:28:31] Josh Cohen: me two or three things, 

[00:28:32] Josh Cohen: what are you looking for in your realtor?

[00:28:34] Josh Cohen: Because a lot of 

[00:28:35] Josh Cohen: times they've had a bad experience 

[00:28:36] Josh Cohen: in the past. Maybe it's, well, I want an agent that, you know, is a good communicator because I always had to ask for updates, like what's going on. Right. So, you know, okay. Communication is important to them. So I'm going to cater my marketing consultation to communication.

[00:28:49] Josh Cohen: That's number one. last time I agent didn't do any open houses when did do any 

[00:28:53] Josh Cohen: media marketing. 

[00:28:54] Josh Cohen: You know, we've got some agents that are just making waves on social media So they would make that part of their marketing plan and part they would bring in [00:29:00] some reels and some things that they do and walk Through videos and things like that.

[00:29:03] Josh Cohen: So Asking those conversations don't go on the appointment until you do that Some agents get so excited and they don't ask those questions. So I think I'm staying true to your process You 

[00:29:13] Josh Cohen: pilots when they're going to fly, if you're just, you know, boarding the most, you know, routine flight, you know, Delta, Jacksonville to Atlanta, there's probably what, 12 of them a day.

[00:29:21] Josh Cohen: Yes. These guys are experienced. They're going to flaps they're working. 

[00:29:25] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:29:25] Josh Cohen: I mean, they're going to go through all these different things. We're dealing with millions of dollars of people's money. These are assets and this is, you're not supposed to wing it. What is your process? 

[00:29:35] Tracy Hayes: Right. and Delta flight may have some turbulence along the way.

[00:29:39] Tracy Hayes: Next time might not, someone buys the wrong house that ultimately move into and they're in the wrong area of town or the schools aren't where they want them. Their expectations is, is much more devastating. 

[00:29:51] Josh Cohen: You're exactly right. Yeah. So be true to your process. I think that's the coaching.

[00:29:55] Josh Cohen: And we have, I mean, obviously, you know, I'm going to talk a little bit today, but we have so many [00:30:00] playbooks and so many, you know, of course we've, I think you've had agents on from our company that have talked about Ninja. We've embraced Ninja quite a bit and know, a seller process, a buyer process.

[00:30:08] Josh Cohen: We've leaned into that and made DNA as well. So we have playbooks and we have checklists and all these things that the agents can use to help them.

[00:30:17] Tracy Hayes: So,

[00:30:18] Tracy Hayes: Great segue into, leadership. When do you start to, know, I think some people it's like getting into management, right?

[00:30:24] Tracy Hayes: Oh, you know, I want to be a manager. Like you want the headache of that or not? does Berkshire. reach out to you and say, Hey, you're doing, we need you to mentor some people. How does this transition? 

[00:30:35] Josh Cohen: So, I had a team, right? And, it was me. I had a couple of buyer's agents. I had some property inspectors because from 2009 to 20.

[00:30:43] Josh Cohen: 15 Almost into 2016. I mainly did corporate relocation corporate owned properties, but my main focus was reo properties We had some really big accounts. I managed those prop those accounts for several years 2013 I think I closed 

[00:30:58] Josh Cohen: like 

[00:30:59] Josh Cohen: 13. [00:31:00] No, I'm sorry. I closed 300 Roughly in 2013, my average sales price was like 70, 000.

[00:31:06] Josh Cohen: Wow. I was doing a lot of deals. I was doing a lot of cross sales with agents from all over different brokerages and things like that. But I think in that time period I'd closed 13, 1300 deals. That's where that was going. But I was doing that. And then, you know, 2016, a lot of these REO accounts were pulling back and they were doing more modifications and things were pulling back a little bit and that was really what I was focused on and I was still servicing my business, my sphere as well.

[00:31:28] Josh Cohen: and then, my wife and I got pregnant, my wife, struggled with infertility and we were kind of on that journey for a while and then we finally, you know, we're able to have a baby. Excellent. Life was changing. and so I was kind of thinking about making a change and I was actually looking into starting my own brokerage.

[00:31:42] Josh Cohen: I wasn't thinking about, I'm going to go out and do my own thing. And, owned the owners of the company. That 

[00:31:46] Tracy Hayes: sounds like more jobs. Like the kids coming now, let's take on some more 

[00:31:51] Josh Cohen: maybe. But I was thinking about the future and building more wealth and really looking out for my family longterm.

[00:31:57] Josh Cohen: Right. What can I do? I can be an agent that was on the table. [00:32:00] I can go start my own brokerage. And so the leaders of the company, Linda shear and Christy Budnick, Linda sheared and started a Berkshire hat or. Prudential network realty in which eventually became Berkshire. They kind of tapped me and they were like, we know you're thinking about making a change, but we kind of think you'd be really good as a managing broker for one of our offices.

[00:32:14] Josh Cohen: We have a, one of our managing brokers is going to be retiring soon. And I'm like, I don't want to of realtors. That's not what I want to do. And really all I had done is close deals, 

[00:32:23] Tracy Hayes: but I 

[00:32:23] Josh Cohen: had a lot of relationships there. And I had formed relationships with lots of agents from all different companies, cause I was doing deals with many of them and had agents telling me you're the one REO guy that answers your phone.

[00:32:33] Josh Cohen: Because most of those REO answered their phone. It was only, we'll get to you 

[00:32:36] Tracy Hayes: when we want to. Well, 

[00:32:38] Josh Cohen: if at all, everything was only email. So I would actually answer the phone and help them through like, you know, it says I need to go to HomePath and make this offer. How do I do that? I would kind of walk them through it and help them out.

[00:32:48] Josh Cohen: So anyway, I had these good relationships there and they were like, we think you should run this office. And I was like, I don't want to do that. So I kind of thought about it. I talked to my wife, we kind of had the conversation and I was like, all right, you know, maybe this is the next [00:33:00] step of my journey.

[00:33:00] Josh Cohen: The stability piece of it would be good. Maybe a little more time at home at nights and weekends and things like that. So let's give it a shot. So that's kind of how it started for me. 

[00:33:08] Josh Cohen: That was 

[00:33:10] Tracy Hayes: Oh, you mentioned something I think is very important in there, to kind of just sidebar for a moment, relationships with otherwe hear the horror stories. Generally people don't mention names cause I just leave that out, but there's some agents out there that can be combative and you know, you've been in the business long enough. Explain a little bit. of the benefit, because when you say relationships with other agents, were good or strong, whatever, how important has that been in your, from your overall career in real estate to make friends with the agents that are with, even with other brokerages?

[00:33:46] Josh Cohen: It's extremely important. you know, I think you may have a buyer for their listing coming up. And so if you have a adversarial relationship with them, How's that going to work out? You know, and I actually, it's a shame because I, as a, you know, managing broker with, [00:34:00] you know, over a hundred agents that I, you know, that are a part of my group, you know, I hear it all the time and I see the emails, I see the text messages, they share everything with me.

[00:34:07] Josh Cohen: You'll have agents that are trying to put a deal together and then you see what the listing agent is saying to the other agent and I'm like, man, if their seller 

[00:34:15] Josh Cohen: knew 

[00:34:16] Josh Cohen: how they were communicating to opt to our agent who has a buyer for their property. That is a huge disservice. And a lot of times a seller don't even know that their agent is being like so adversarial.

[00:34:26] Josh Cohen: I was putting up this like bare, these unnecessary barriers that are all about them and their personality and their ego. 

[00:34:31] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:34:32] Josh Cohen: Okay. So I think understanding that ego is a part of our business. And then going back to like, you know, sales 101, you know, if you're dealing with a power personality, there's a lot of power personalities in real estate.

[00:34:43] Josh Cohen: If you have the buyer, you may need to kind of change your personality a little bit and let, you know, ask the right questions, but make sure that they feel like they're in control. So you can kind of put that deal together. I think that's important. But I think, you know, never jumping all into business if you're, you know, talking to an agent, you're maintaining those [00:35:00] relationships, you know, like, how was your weekend?

[00:35:01] Josh Cohen: What'd you do this weekend? Like, so many agents just like, okay, so I talked to the buyer blah, blah, blah, Okay, let's slow down. How's your morning going? Is everything good? Cause like they maybe had a terrible night. They couldn't get their kid to sleep or they had a flat tire or whatever.

[00:35:14] Josh Cohen: Like talk about it because that human stuff might make the deal which at the end of the day helps our And therefore we all do more business, 

[00:35:24] Tracy Hayes: right? Well, you use the word ego and that's where I'm like, okay, I'll say, why are you getting your ego? Are you, because of a whatever, a few 100, 1, 000 repair or maybe you're asking them to drop the price a few 1, 000 to compensate for that.

[00:35:40] Tracy Hayes: Why is that? have affecting. How is that affecting you? But a couple pennies in your pocket, maybe because the percentage of the commission changes. 

[00:35:48] Josh Cohen: You're exactly right. I 

[00:35:48] Tracy Hayes: mean, you're trying to close it. 

[00:35:51] Josh Cohen: Yeah. 

[00:35:52] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:35:52] Josh Cohen: I had a conversation the other day or yesterday actually, and it was an agent who had this opinion about this neighborhood and they were like, well, you know, cause our agent was like, you know, you're [00:36:00] listing, I'm trying to, you know, I've got a buyer for it.

[00:36:01] Josh Cohen: We love it, but I can't comp it out. It seems high. It seems about, you know, about 50, 60, 000 high. And this agent had all these opinions about why this home is like these other homes, which of course were on this other side of the street, that's all riverfront. but she was just sharing her opinion, which everyone's entitled to their opinion, but maybe that's not the seller's opinion.

[00:36:18] Josh Cohen: Like, why don't you present And then we'll try to see if we can figure it out. Right. instead of spending half a day 

[00:36:24] Josh Cohen: Okay. 

[00:36:25] Josh Cohen: On your opinion. Yeah, let's present the offer. 

[00:36:28] Tracy Hayes: Well, you know, as , as you get older, and more mature, you start to realize, other people have different perceptions. I mean, we see it, on so many aspects of our life,going on.

[00:36:39] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, everyone has their opinion of that neighborhood or there's their perception. Who has the facts? you know, the only facts we know is what's actually sold. Right. So yeah, you're, we're comping this out. Like this, the highest property sold recently. And you're 50, 000 over that. You know?

[00:36:55] Josh Cohen: Yeah, you're exactly right. Perception's important and you want to respect their opinions. That's not what I'm saying. You don't want to [00:37:00] be disrespectful about it, but at the end of the day, like we want happy buyers and sellers, right. We want to try to put this thing together. you know, so I think ego can be a thing sometimes.

[00:37:09] Josh Cohen: Some agents are getting cut down to size now because there's so many new regulations and changes that you have to adhere to. So, and that's one of the things that I think, you know, but this NAR settlement is tough because, you know, now we're, there's so much now about compensation and not the client and it should always be about the client, right.

[00:37:29] Josh Cohen: You know, and so I think, a lot of agents now they're just, they're having that. 

[00:37:34] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah, What would you change about the business? you could be, what's that character in the Marvel comics that has, you know, you could change everything. what do you think that could be better?

[00:37:47] Tracy Hayes: I mean, we obviously just got off a topic of relationships between agents. Obviously we want. you know, they need to be more collaborative is the word that everyone likes to use. you got a buyer and you got a seller and you got a house in between and you guys got to mediate [00:38:00] this to success, right?

[00:38:01] Tracy Hayes: I think that's obvious, but what are some things that if you, could change in the overall industry, real estate industry, what do you think that would be? 

[00:38:08] Josh Cohen: Oh my gosh. you know, I would say the business itself is constantly changing and evolving, you know? So, I mean, like the change is constant.

[00:38:15] Josh Cohen: what would I change? I don't know. That's a hard one to answer. know, I think it'd be, you know, maybe a little better if the state exam was a little harder, 

[00:38:25] Tracy Hayes: just 

[00:38:26] Josh Cohen: a little bit. Right. Because I do think what we're doing is serious business. Like some agents are like, well, I do real estate part time.

[00:38:32] Josh Cohen: I have a real job. This is a real job. 

[00:38:34] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:38:34] Josh Cohen: real job. 

[00:38:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:38:36] Josh Cohen: so if it's not a priority for you, then maybe think about letting the professionals handle it. but I, you know, changes everything in this business. And that's the hard part is, you know, and that kind of goes back, I think maybe to the ego thing a little bit, like having there's fixed mindset and there's growth mindset.

[00:38:53] Josh Cohen: You have to have a growth mindset in this business and understand that it's constantly changing. I mean, a couple months ago, out [00:39:00] about the farm 

[00:39:00] Josh Cohen: bar contracts. 

[00:39:01] Josh Cohen: You know, so we had to navigate that, which, you know, it's not a big deal. You know, we have to work through it. you know, forms change, the contracts change.

[00:39:08] Josh Cohen: Now we have all the, you know, changes. MLS had gone through a data care, you know, NEFAR, MLS went through a data six months ago, a year ago. Your wife probably shared that. And there was all kinds of issues with that. It's always changing. Yeah. So, you know, Well, 

[00:39:23] Tracy Hayes: so one of the guests brought up a very good point.

[00:39:24] Tracy Hayes: Talking about you know, you were talking about the entry, the tech making the test a little more difficult is really having, agents like appraisers have to do so many hours of, of like an apprenticeship. type, thing possibly, you know, to get them up to speed. Because I think, again, my opinion is formed by interviewing over 200, you know, top agents in the area.

[00:39:45] Tracy Hayes: Some of the reasons why some of these agents, fail so quickly, which doesn't do good for the over, you know, one of the. black eyes, if you want to call it for, you know, we'll say, cause so many people do fail or don't renew after two years, they may have failed actually in the first [00:40:00] 30 days and quit and gave up, but being, matched with a great mentor, a great broker, whoever it is, it's going to guide them through those, those initial challenging times until they get some sales under their belt and moving forward.

[00:40:12] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:40:13] Josh Cohen: It's very hard, you know, to get break into it, especially if you don't have a sphere and you're new to the area. Right. Very difficult. Say goodbye to weekends because you need to do an open houses pretty much every weekend. 

[00:40:21] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:40:22] Josh Cohen: You know, and then maybe some prospecting some, you know, work in some, you know, cold leads and expires and for sale by owners and things like that, 

[00:40:28] Josh Cohen: which might be really uncomfortable.

[00:40:30] Tracy Hayes: What do you love about the industry? The most? Oh my gosh. love the people that I work with. I'm so grateful for the agents that I work with. I've got some really with, you know, and like my style of leadership, in the role that I have with my two offices.

[00:40:43] Josh Cohen: And now I have this regional role that I was promoted to recently. It's just like the back of the wolf pack. Like, I don't want to be. Because you asked me, like, what would you change? You know, that's a loaded question. Mm hmm. you know, it's not up to me what changes. I think we all have these different stories, right?

[00:40:55] Josh Cohen: But, like, I would say I just, I love the people that I work with. I love 

[00:40:59] Josh Cohen: our [00:41:00] company. 

[00:41:00] Josh Cohen: I love helping people. I love, sharing the agent's 

[00:41:03] Josh Cohen: and, 

[00:41:04] Josh Cohen: the wins and, and sharing their listings on our Instagram page and sharing their videos, the high fives, the ring of the bell in the office at our sales meetings that we have every week.

[00:41:14] Josh Cohen: And we have good turnout for those. you know, I love, that every day is kind of like, um,You know, a reset to some degree. There's always a new challenge. There's always something new. I love that you get to be You know, yeah, that's, that's a great 

[00:41:25] Tracy Hayes: one right there, 

[00:41:26] Josh Cohen: you know, because, you know, you're not like working for, you know, obviously our brand is very big, but our agents are not employees, you know, like you need to be, you people are attracted to you finding out who they are and then helping orchestrate that market, that things like that, that I enjoy.

[00:41:43] Tracy Hayes: I wrote down, 'cause I, I saw where you, and actually I was trying to look it up, but there's nowhere on your social media that I saw. I saw it somewhere that you got the promotion. It might've been when we first started talking weeks ago. Yeah. and then I, I don't make a big deal outta that stuff 'cause that's not who I am.

[00:41:56] Tracy Hayes: Well, but you're taking on a, a different challenge now. You've got an [00:42:00] office that you've been going to, you know, I have two offices. Two offices that, you know, you've been working with these people for a period of time, gotten to know them. Now they're asking you to take on how many more. Agents technically.

[00:42:10] Tracy Hayes: Well, 

[00:42:11] Josh Cohen: I'm not, taking on more agents. I'm basically, my regional role is helping coach the brokers. Cause we have some brokers, we have a couple of brokers all retire at once. Oh, and so we had some new brokers come in and so kind of helping them and coaching them to help to run their 

[00:42:24] Josh Cohen: office. 

[00:42:25] Tracy Hayes: All right.

[00:42:25] Tracy Hayes: So how are you attacking that? Because again, something I've again, talking to 200 plus agents, I've come to a conclusion, a good broker. can make or break an agent. Some need brokers more than others. Some can just do it on their own, no matter who's in, in leadership. But there's so many agents out there again, that are falling out.

[00:42:47] Tracy Hayes: But you being a regional in coaching, other leaders.are you trying to create a culture, kind of duplicate what you're doing? how are you kind of attacking this initially? Anyway, 

[00:42:57] Josh Cohen: I mean, I'm approaching it the same way I would my [00:43:00] agents, you know, coaching out like who they are, what's their story, what's their core value, why are they doing this?

[00:43:05] Josh Cohen: And then, because That's going to tell the story of their office. That's going to help them build their office. Right. you know, when I first became a broker, you know, I was nervous of course. and I actually tried to be like, like other brokers. I was like, he's doing a really good job with recruiting and his sales meetings are okay.

[00:43:21] Josh Cohen: And maybe I should try to be like him. Like, I never really like leaned into my authenticity at once. And it's cause I was so worried. Like, what if they don't like me? What if people leave 

[00:43:28] Tracy Hayes: imposter syndrome, right? Is that what it's called? Yeah. So 

[00:43:31] Josh Cohen: finally I was like, screw it. I'm going to be myself. And if.

[00:43:35] Josh Cohen: Oh, well, once I kind of like just said I'm gonna be myself. This is who I am. Then things started trying to happen. So helping these new brokers with that. you know, but coaching them through the leadership side of things, just 

[00:43:46] Josh Cohen: I would an agent.

[00:43:47] Josh Cohen: My week is very, you know, I'm a big time blocker. So, you know, I have like a Monday motivational thing that I do We have one on one coachings that I do with my agents you know, I time block those activities and I try to coach them to do some time blocking to be [00:44:00] intentional because You know a good 

[00:44:01] Josh Cohen: soon. 

[00:44:02] Josh Cohen: agent.

[00:44:03] Josh Cohen: You know, it's kind of a very similar thing. They're aligned in a way like, if this business, you have to run it like a business, you have to be intentional. A lot of agents bounce around from transaction to transaction. They're on accident. You've got to be on purpose. These are ninja terms. You know, you have to be on purpose with your business.

[00:44:17] Josh Cohen: You have to have a plan every day. Wake up. Here's the things I'm going to accomplish. So if you accomplish those things in the afternoon, you can go be with your family or go to the soccer game or go to the networking event that's going to eventually Get you more deals because you're nurturing relationships, you know, so really helping people be run it like a business, whether you're an agent broker, helping them through that.

[00:44:34] Josh Cohen: And then sometimes it's the and the recruiting and the deal doctoring. There's some of that to, of course, helping them through some of those 

[00:44:41] Josh Cohen: challenges. 

[00:44:42] Tracy Hayes: What is, uh, something you're doing today? Maybe something you're, you know, Hopefully you think that these new brokers, if they're not already doing it, maybe something, that's made you successful that you, 

[00:44:53] Tracy Hayes: took from another broker.

[00:44:54] Tracy Hayes: You're like, wow, I really liked that. I'm going to do it. And then 

[00:44:57] Josh Cohen: so many things. you know, I think, [00:45:00] making the sales meeting, a thing, making it good enough where agents want to show up. 

[00:45:04] Tracy Hayes: Value. Yeah. 

[00:45:05] Josh Cohen: Adding you know, in my two offices, we do a hybrid media. We do in person and zoom.

[00:45:09] Josh Cohen: I do both. not because agents, don't want to come in the office, but I've got a lot of top producers like Josh, I love you. But man, when you started doing that zoom thing during COVID, I really liked that. I'm 

[00:45:17] Tracy Hayes: like, 

[00:45:18] Josh Cohen: I want to make sure that if they're going to yoga or they're going to show property or whatever, they can still pitch their new listing.

[00:45:23] Josh Cohen: So I want to make sure they can, Time into the meeting, but, you know, making the sales meetings of value, always sending out a recap of your sales meeting, you know, that, that day, letting them know what the agenda is in advance. Not like, Hey, we're having a sales meeting on Tuesday. Everyone should show up.

[00:45:37] Josh Cohen: What are you talking about? Right. What's the topic. What's it going to be about? you know, we have special guests sometimes, but not often. last week we talked about, you know, what are the reasons why a seller should offer buyer broker compensation? The week before that it was mastering the buyer agreement.

[00:45:49] Josh Cohen: So I really try to like, what is the group need? You know, during COVID multiple offers, 

[00:45:54] Tracy Hayes: do you rely on some of your top producers to fill in with some of the content that the salesman 

[00:45:59] Josh Cohen: sometimes? [00:46:00] Yeah. I mean, we have agents that are really good at, you know, social media. They might do some of that. That stuff is usually learn, you know, I really want.

[00:46:07] Josh Cohen: it to be about the agent, not about me. Right. But the sales meeting is like that one little hour, hour and a half or so where you get to kind of like show your valueand help them. Like my goal with the sales meeting is that they're going to take away one or that they can apply to their business.

[00:46:22] Josh Cohen: You know, a couple of years ago during the pandemic, it was multiple offers, how to do what are strategies. How can we, you know, go through that? now we've got rising inventory. You know, I took some notes I think and Duval Clay St. John's County. If you're looking at the most recent, NIFAR statistics, got to quote NIFAR here.

[00:46:38] Josh Cohen: That's where I got the, but, I think, months of supply, it's just about four months of supply and inventory is up like, I think 80 percent year over year. So agents need help right now, moving listings. I mean, getting listings is always something we're going to be focused on, but we need to move our inventory, right?

[00:46:53] Josh Cohen: We need to make sure that every single listing has, know, a service providers list. Here's all the people that are service in [00:47:00] the HVAC service in the pool. You have a feature 

[00:47:02] Josh Cohen: sheet 

[00:47:02] Josh Cohen: attached to your listing, making sure, of course, there's nothing about compensation in your listing.

[00:47:07] Josh Cohen: Talking about that, too, but, you know, so right. So, like, trying to, like, understand the energy, the flow of what's going on. What's the pulse of the office? What are the agents need right now? What do they need If it's like when rates went up a year or two years ago and the business kind of slowed down right around the holidays, it got really sluggish.

[00:47:25] Josh Cohen: Okay. We need to make sure that everyone's in flow and they're doing open houses and they're visible in between their deals, social media. So then I would bring an agent in to do something about Instagram because I need to get some agents out there doing 

[00:47:36] Josh Cohen: Okay. 

[00:47:36] Josh Cohen: Because they're maybe taking a little bit of a backseat because they're a little it's a little sluggish, right?

[00:47:39] Josh Cohen: So the understanding that it's just it's kind of a living breathing thing. What do we need right now? It's like a wavelength almost Yeah, no, I think that is so vital if someone's listening this that's even not in real estate I have been to so many sales meetings where they're unprepared There's no value.

[00:47:55] Tracy Hayes: There's not even an agenda For someone, you know, go through and I [00:48:00] think you're dealing with adults. Treat them like adults. their time is very important. And then especially I think in real estate, and you'd obviously agree with us because you know, if you're going to take them away from, their time or have to have someone else drive their kid to school because going to make the sales meeting or whatever it is, because real estate agents have the ability to set their schedule, so to speak.

[00:48:21] Tracy Hayes: But you're saying, Hey, I need you to be here at this time. And they're working everything around it. It better be good. And hopefully they're walking away with some nugget. 

[00:48:28] Josh Cohen: Absolutely. like we were talking earlier, this is a real business. This is a real job. and making it, taking it seriously, you know, going through, and right now they need the coaching.

[00:48:37] Josh Cohen: you know, and we have a lot of agents that have Joined our firm recently because they just don't have that 

[00:48:43] Tracy Hayes: right 

[00:48:44] Josh Cohen: their broker What even talking about the NAR settlement their broker was irritated them It was they were negative about it, and they just didn't talk about it 

[00:48:51] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, 

[00:48:51] Josh Cohen: which is a mistake.

[00:48:52] Josh Cohen: Well, 

[00:48:52] Tracy Hayes: it's death right now to me. That's that. You're just yeah If could disagree with it or not like it or whatever right now, [00:49:00] but as 

[00:49:00] Josh Cohen: this changes you got a role with it Good agents good leaders in any market cycle. We find a way to make business happen. Take care of the client 

[00:49:08] Tracy Hayes: Well, yeah, I think aunt Stroud said when I had him on here a couple weeks ago It's still it's really agents on the ground that are gonna set the tone Because we're the ones doing the the Instagrams.

[00:49:17] Tracy Hayes: We're doing the reels. We're gonna set the tone for what really Clients the buyers of sellers what they're gonna get and other agents seeing your Attitude towards the whole thing. So, you know, take it which way you want. but I think if you go more of the glass half full, hey, this is our challenge, but we're going to, you know, come out this way.

[00:49:36] Tracy Hayes: It's going to be better on your clients, going to make your, consultations a lot easier. Just having that different attitude. 

[00:49:41] Josh Cohen: You're exactly right. Being intentional with your energy and understanding 

[00:49:45] Josh Cohen: the 

[00:49:45] Josh Cohen: rules, I think we were talking earlier before we even started, like how some, so many agents are kind of making up their own rules about 

[00:49:51] Josh Cohen: it. 

[00:49:51] Tracy Hayes: I went to several, meetings, or trainings, masterminds, whatever you want to call where people were talking about it. And that's why I had to have [00:50:00] David Heaton on a couple of weeks ago. And we tried to get as many of these questions covered because there is so many people that have taken.

[00:50:07] Tracy Hayes: Parts of it and blown them up bigger than they need to be. And then, you know, there was a big discussion on open houses. At what point you have an unrepresented buyer coming in? At what point do you become their representation? When do you,Florida realtors, use the term working with when you become work threshold or something.

[00:50:26] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:50:27] Josh Cohen: Yeah. I mean, the rule is if you're, you know, it's not required to sign when you attend an open house. 

[00:50:31] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:50:32] Josh Cohen: I think open houses are going to become a, they've always been a great way for agents to show their value, to generate leads. so I think it's going to be a bigger thing now.

[00:50:40] Josh Cohen: Because we are, and we're actually already seeing it because an agent shared this at our sales meeting a couple of weeks ago that people are going to open houses and they're shopping for realtors because if they're going to sign a casual 

[00:50:49] Tracy Hayes: way of doing that, right? It's almost like going 

[00:50:51] Josh Cohen: to a car, to a 

[00:50:52] Josh Cohen: in a way like, 

[00:50:53] Josh Cohen: test drive.

[00:50:54] Josh Cohen: Like if I'm going to have to sign a buyer agreement, which you're going to have to, I want to sign with a good 

[00:50:58] Josh Cohen: one. 

[00:50:59] Josh Cohen: Who has the [00:51:00] listing market share? Who has the listings? Who's the influencer in that neighborhood? Who's a good communicator? Who followed up with me? Yeah. You didn't push me and sell me. 

[00:51:09] Tracy Hayes: that's great advice right there.

[00:51:10] Tracy Hayes: I didn't think about it that way, but you're right. Open 

[00:51:12] Josh Cohen: houses are huge and so many agents don't value them. right now, open 

[00:51:16] Josh Cohen: are going to be. 

[00:51:17] Josh Cohen: Tremendous for agents toe 

[00:51:18] Tracy Hayes: because you know, there are people out there who don't want to sit down and technically have an interview and tell the agent.

[00:51:23] Tracy Hayes: Okay, call you if we make her to say they don't want to have that. But we can walk into an open house with no pressure and just have a conversation with you. 

[00:51:30] Josh Cohen: Absolutely. and ask the right questions. You know, yeah. And again, this is the relationship business. They're gonna work with someone that they know, like and trust.

[00:51:37] Josh Cohen: And if you're in flow, then you're going to have the opportunity to get that business. 

[00:51:40] Tracy Hayes: You used a term a few moments ago, making yourself visible between transactions. Expand on that. 

[00:51:48] Josh Cohen: I think so many agents, you know, social media is such a huge part of our business right now.

[00:51:52] Tracy Hayes: and we'll continue to be, we'll continue to be 

[00:51:55] Josh Cohen: 100%. I think you need to be visible on social media platforms in between [00:52:00] your deals. It can't just be, When you contract or a closed, you know, people want to know about your family. They want to know about your lifestyle. Like we're selling the lifestyle.

[00:52:09] Josh Cohen: You go into your favorite lunch spot or coffee shop in your neighborhood with your family and you guys are sitting outside. It's a beautiful moment. We don't think about it, but like the things you do in the present, that's what sells. That's what connects people to you. The authenticity, the authenticity piece.

[00:52:24] Josh Cohen: You've got to be visible. and you know, if agents ever get in a rut. You know, we have really strong listing market share. and our agents are so willing to share them like, please post it, share it. you can share another agent's listing and talk about it, go out there and do a preview and do a video about it.

[00:52:38] Josh Cohen: And, maybe you're having a slow month. You can put that content out there in between your deals, which will help you grow your business. Might be a conversation you have on the weekend. Hey, I 

[00:52:47] Josh Cohen: saw you were in, 

[00:52:48] Josh Cohen: you know, you had that there you were in San Marco and you were videoing that great listing.

[00:52:51] Josh Cohen: Tell me Just because you were intentional about putting that out there on social media So you have to again it goes back to running your bit It's a business being it like [00:53:00] make that on your agenda that day to get that done Well, 

[00:53:02] Tracy Hayes: I think would you agree I think a majority of people majority of real estate agents You're putting those we don't know who's watching You don't know how many people, you may know how many people liked it, but you really, you know, how many people watched it and it resonate with it.

[00:53:17] Tracy Hayes: And then the fact that you were, doing something, maybe it was that person's favorite restaurant. 

[00:53:22] Josh Cohen: Right. 

[00:53:22] Tracy Hayes: And now you have as small as that may be, you both like this particular restaurant. People bond over stuff like that. 

[00:53:30] Josh Cohen: Absolutely. And I'm not saying like you have to be like videograph life every second.

[00:53:34] Josh Cohen: That's not what I'm saying. But, yeah. And I mean, you know, sometimes agents can have a period where maybe they don't have a lot of transactions going. You don't, you know, people are, they can quickly forget about you if you're not visible. Right. So you have to maintain your credibility. And sometimes that means faking it till you make it, if you're new.

[00:53:52] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. And 

[00:53:52] Josh Cohen: then if you're an experienced have a little bit of slow down, collaborating with other agent going, I love your new listing. Is it cool if I share it? Yes, absolutely. And then maybe you [00:54:00] take, a three part series or something on Instagram or Facebook or what have you.

[00:54:04] Josh Cohen: Yeah. 

[00:54:04] Tracy Hayes: Well, 

[00:54:04] Tracy Hayes: The

[00:54:05] Tracy Hayes: meeting I have on Tuesday, I was telling you about earlier, I think it needs to be put out there. You and I, I think already realize that real estate agents, are a part of your housing industry is a big part of our GDP housing because it involves so many people from the builders to the appliance makers to the movers.

[00:54:22] Tracy Hayes: There's so many people attached when a house exchange goes on. 

[00:54:26] Josh Cohen: I'm glad you brought that up because I actually looked that up before I came here today. Cause I thought we might talk about it. the average home, the average expenditures on your typical home sale. And stack comes from the national association is between five 000 which is crazy, right?

[00:54:40] Josh Cohen: Think about Xfinity, the movers, the plumbers, everything. It's, a big part of the economy. 

[00:54:45] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.The real estate agent is the influencer in this deal. 

[00:54:49] Josh Cohen: Absolutely. 

[00:54:50] Tracy Hayes: And we have so many people here being in Florida, big people moving from outside the area. You may be the only person they really know.

[00:54:57] Tracy Hayes: I mean, maybe they have a friend or relative that's nearby or [00:55:00] something, but especially if they get moved in from work or for the military, they may not know anyone else. And you, that where you are truly the pillar. I think real estate agents are a pillar in every one of these, in the community They're an influencer if they want to be. So there are people that they're coming in, they're looking to them for, Hey, what is the best restaurant? What daycare should I send my kid to? You know, that type of thing. You're 

[00:55:24] Josh Cohen: exactly right. for lack of a better term. So I've heard some people say you're the celebrity of the neighborhood, but you know, I think you need to be the market expert.

[00:55:32] Josh Cohen: You need to be the neighborhood expert. You have to know, like, especially if you want to farm your neighborhood, you have to know everything about every listing that's been on the market close that year. what's the average price per square foot? How much do they get per square foot on that property?

[00:55:48] Josh Cohen: Why is that house worth more than that? but yeah, and going back to visibility, you have to put yourself 

[00:55:53] Josh Cohen: out there. 

[00:55:54] Josh Cohen: Talk about the market. Talk about the fact that inventory is rising right now. So if you're a seller and you're thinking about maybe [00:56:00] listing, you know, towards the end of the year, well, you're going to have more competition.

[00:56:03] Josh Cohen: Putting that conversation out there might be the reason you get a listing now versus three months later because you've got a listing that's kind of in the pipeline. know, those types of things. And then, you know, I think letting people know that you're working with buyers. Which means they're signing buyer agreements.

[00:56:16] Josh Cohen: That's not that difficult to do. We're signing them every day. We've always done it, but now, so, you know, it's not scary to buy a house right now, you're not going to sign this contract that's going to make that is going to require you to pay your agent in some cases, maybe. But in most cases, not,

[00:56:29] Tracy Hayes: you said earlier you were having a training recently on, the importance of a seller to have buyer compensation, why,

[00:56:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:56:37] Josh Cohen: why should a seller offer buyer?

[00:56:39] Josh Cohen: What are some points that you guys just talked about? Well, 

[00:56:41] Josh Cohen: you know, it's not required, never was commissioned and was always negotiable. Right. so, know, I think there's lots of reasons, Tracy. I think, big thing is like as a listing agent, when you're getting ready to list a property, you want to, you know, help the seller understand that, like, I want to cast the widest net.

[00:56:56] Josh Cohen: I want to make sure I have the biggest buyer pool out there for your property. I want to get [00:57:00] as many people in the door to fall in love with your home. if I do not offer buyer broker compensation, that is going to shrink your buyer pool. I mean, that's just a logistical fact. Yeah. Now you don't have to offer buyer broker compensation.

[00:57:12] Josh Cohen: You didn't before. You don't now. But here's why and talk about those things. There's gosh, there's like hundreds of reasons. 

[00:57:18] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Well, one was brought up, I forget who, again, I was listening somewhere. I'm always taking in information. So the podcast, 

[00:57:26] Josh Cohen: yeah,

[00:57:27] Josh Cohen: but

[00:57:27] Josh Cohen: beyond maybe. 

[00:57:28] Tracy Hayes: But, I know it was over at Landmark.

[00:57:30] Tracy Hayes: We were out of training and the key point is a lot of times the sellers are just looking at what they're netting out. And so whatever happens at compensation and whatever, Hey, I don't care wherever that goes. I need this much to walk away. 

[00:57:41] Josh Cohen: You're exactly right. I mean, you can break it down for a seller, their monthly expenses.

[00:57:45] Josh Cohen: You know, how much is your mortgage, your pool, know, the average days on the market in this neighborhood is three months. Let's multiply that by three. why don't we offer a buyer broker compensation and get this thing sold 

[00:57:55] Tracy Hayes: quicker. 

[00:57:56] Josh Cohen: and I also think too, a lot of sellers out there are going to be buyers.

[00:57:59] Josh Cohen: So let's think [00:58:00] about this for a second. if you're going to be a buyer and you want to get into this neighborhood, maybe you're doing a move up purchase and a home and you love it. And let's say there's multiple buyers. So it's a multiple offer situation. If you have to let's, and they're not broker compensation.

[00:58:14] Josh Cohen: So if you are a buyer in that scenario and you have to pay your realtor who this is a person you've worked with a couple times, you trust this agent, so you're going to work 

[00:58:22] Josh Cohen: with their fee is whatever their fee 

[00:58:23] Josh Cohen: is, right, which is negotiable.if you have to pay your agent. Could you be as competitive in that situation with that offer?

[00:58:30] Josh Cohen: Are you going to be potentially at a competitive disadvantage? Because now you have to spend 000 to pay your agent. I can't make an offer over asking now because I have to pay my agent. So from a logistical competitive you're at a disadvantage. And I think as a seller, you don't have to offer.

[00:58:46] Josh Cohen: broker compensation. But if you do think that makes your listing more competitive, I think more people are gonna want to see 

[00:58:52] Josh Cohen: your property. 

[00:58:52] Josh Cohen: you know, some buyers out there, you know, if they have to pay their agent, they may just say to their agent, not because the agent didn't show it to them [00:59:00] or, filtered it out.

[00:59:01] Josh Cohen: They may just say, well, geez, it's, you know, your fee is 3%, which I want you to earn whatever your fee is. we'll skip that house because they're not offering buyer broker compensation that happens. And that's the buyer making the call. 

[00:59:11] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:59:11] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:59:12] Josh Cohen: I we don't want to list your house. We want to sell it 

[00:59:13] Tracy Hayes: in your discussions on that buyer broker, because obviously one of the things they could tell you, say, yeah, if there's no offer, don't we move on to the next house?

[00:59:20] Tracy Hayes: I mean, the buyer could give you those orders. Is there a subtle way that are you guys talking about? having that conversation be, with your buyer, when you're signing that buyer broker agreement, 

[00:59:31] Josh Cohen: I mean, 

[00:59:31] Tracy Hayes: you know, where are you at and able to compensate? 

[00:59:34] Josh Cohen: I I think you need to be transparent.

[00:59:35] Josh Cohen: I think the best agents are good communicators. And I think, you know, now we are having lots of conversations with agents, some good, some not so good. Are you offering buyer broker compensation? Yes or no. Since some agents are like, we'll make the offer. 

[00:59:47] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:59:47] Josh Cohen: Okay. You have a listing In your listing agreement, are you offering?

[00:59:50] Josh Cohen: It's a yes or no. If it's a yes, what is the percentage? And if it is a yes, which sometimes it's not, that's okay. We'll work through it. you know, there's a seller's buyer's broker [01:00:00] compensation And so, you know, our agents are, if they're offering buyer broker compensation, which a lot of them are, to be honest, We have that signed on the front end.

[01:00:08] Josh Cohen: It's there. It's in the loop, ready to go. And we even put those on our website so the agents can download them. So it's, we believe that is the most transparent and efficient that property. So 

[01:00:18] Tracy Hayes: in our, one of these trainings, masterminds, I went to one of the questions was, well, and I'm just going to use these hypothetical and we'll, we'll do used to Patty Ketchum, those bananas, right?

[01:00:27] Tracy Hayes: if they're offering, um,10 bananas. on the cell, the seller says, I'll, you know, we'll supply 10 bananas to the buyer but on the buyer broker agreement, they say, Hey, we want to be compensated six bananas. Okay. Well, there's four bananas left over because you can't get paid more than what the buyer broker agreement allows you to do.

[01:00:46] Tracy Hayes: And it was this whole thing. It's like, So the question was, what does the selling agent, the listing What do they do with the leftover four bananas? 

[01:00:56] Josh Cohen: It depends on that situation. 

[01:00:57] Tracy Hayes: But my thing is like, well, hold on a second. Let's turn that [01:01:00] back a little bit. First of all, the buyer's agent, and you, you agree or disagree with me or how you think of me or Jane, as if you're representing the buyer, you're making that first phone call.

[01:01:10] Tracy Hayes: You're, hey, we want to come see the house, blah, blah, blah. Are you offering any compensation? that question should be out there in the seller to me and working collaboratively says, yes, my seller has put aside 10 bananas. Okay, great. I'm good with that. Maybe they really like 15 bananas, but 10 they're, they're willing to accept that.

[01:01:30] Tracy Hayes: Move on and get on with it. Yeah. I mean, it commission's negotiable, right? I mean, if the seller is not, and that's in bold and all of our agreements now, commission is negotiable and not set by law, which it never was. Okay. but. You know, I 

[01:01:43] Josh Cohen: think, 

[01:01:44] Josh Cohen: if, a seller is not compensation, that's okay, but don't shoot the messenger because we're gonna get offers on your property and guess what's going to be with the offer in most cases.

[01:01:55] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[01:01:55] Josh Cohen: A seller to buyer's broker. Compensation agreement because the agent's [01:02:00] ask you to pay. 

[01:02:01] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, 

[01:02:01] Josh Cohen: you know, we have a buyer agreement. We have our fee and

[01:02:04] Josh Cohen: Then we have the fee that you know The we would the buyer would pay if you know, they were gonna be the ones, you know paying for it And we're very transparent about it.

[01:02:12] Josh Cohen: That's always how we've done it. So that's not been new to us and Because we have really strong listing market share and you know, let's be honest. We're not the you know, cheapest option out 

[01:02:21] Tracy Hayes: there 

[01:02:21] Josh Cohen: You there's always been flat fee brokers and all those things. So they've always been there when I got in the business 21 years ago, they were there.

[01:02:29] Josh Cohen: Yeah. And some sellers decide to go that route. That's That's fine. They 

[01:02:33] Tracy Hayes: probably don't many. I wonder what their actual, capturing that they're using them the second time on some of those. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, 

[01:02:40] Josh Cohen: you know, it depends. Yeah. 

[01:02:42] Tracy Hayes: Cause you would think that everyone would be feeling like they're going to take over the market cause they're only doing it for 1 percent or whatever.

[01:02:46] Josh Cohen: Yeah. I mean, I think, You know, if the seller believes in you, they see that you market your properties. They see that you're going to follow up. You had a process when you showed up, you asked the right questions. You asked them what they were looking for in their realtor. You showed up, you had [01:03:00] plan.

[01:03:00] Josh Cohen: Not that he sat there and did like a presentation, but you had a consultation with them. You didn't just email them comps and then a listing agreement and then show up with the photographer. Like you actually put in the work, they're going to pay your fee because they believe in your value. And that fee is, is negotiable.

[01:03:15] Tracy Hayes: All right. I want to finish up. Just give, some current things that you're doing from a sense of from coaching the agents, individual agents that are coming to you with some different challenges. Maybe you could think of a few people, you know, whether you're dealing with them right now, but just recently, maybe the last six months that they came to you with some challenges.

[01:03:32] Tracy Hayes: And then What advice or coaching did you give them and hopefully got a positive response? 

[01:03:37] Josh Cohen: Sure. So I always want to find out from the agent, you know, what are two or three things in the next 12 months that you want like in your business, how do you want to grow? 

[01:03:45] Tracy Hayes: Are many of them coming to you or are doing regular meetings that uncover some of these things?

[01:03:50] Tracy Hayes: You're like, Hey, I can help you. Let's do this 

[01:03:52] Josh Cohen: for, you know, the agents that I hire. one on one coaching is something I offer as a broker. I allocate, because I'm a non [01:04:00] competing broker. So I don't sell. There are brokers out there that sell. I don't. I haven't, you know, sold since 2016. And so my, my main focus is, helping the agents, supporting the agents, growing the office, things like that.

[01:04:11] Josh Cohen: So very early on in the conversation, generally at they're, they're researching, you know, brokerages and taking a look at Berkshire Hathaway and interviewing me and I'm interviewing them. we're talking about coaching and it's something that I offer and generally a new agent. we have a, robust, development program for new agents.

[01:04:26] Josh Cohen: Once they get through that training, which is about 30 days or three days a week, then they'll start one on one coaching with me because they have to learn the basics. They have to know how to set up a loop. fill out the contract, you know, I'm, could, I do it sometimes, but it's difficult for me to sit and walk them through a beginner thing.

[01:04:40] Josh Cohen: We have staff that helps them do that. So let's get the basics. I assume 

[01:04:44] Tracy Hayes: you modify this to the level of experience of agents. Correct. 

[01:04:47] Josh Cohen: you know, top producing agents, some preferred the group thing, but most of them are better in one on one coaching because they're all 

[01:04:54] Josh Cohen: different. 

[01:04:55] Josh Cohen: single agent has to be coached differently.

[01:04:57] Josh Cohen: You have agents out there that, you know, newer agents [01:05:00] have, sometimes they struggle with confidence. We know they struggle with competence because there's a lot they don't know. Some are really confident and ready to go. And I've coached some agents to be rookie of the year, you know, for a company, which is always awesome.

[01:05:12] Josh Cohen: So kind of understanding, I have to get to know them and understand who they are and what their business, what they want their business to be. Then I can coach them. You know, it's almost like, 

[01:05:20] Josh Cohen: You know, you can't treat something before a diagnosis. You have to figure that's malpractice, right? You have to figure out like, what If it's an experienced agent that I recruited from the brokerage, if we've come that far and they've signed with us, I know what their pain is because they've told me, so we're going to on that and get them 

[01:05:34] Josh Cohen: back on track. 

[01:05:36] Tracy Hayes: Do you find a lot of the, not of the agents, even ones coming from other brokerages You know, they don't know what they don't know, but don't all sometimes don't know actually what they need.

[01:05:47] Tracy Hayes: because everyone does this business differently. Berkshire Hathaway is doing it different than the other brokerage, but every in agent that you have is also doing their business there, gets their business from different places and so forth. How do you draw that out of them? [01:06:00] what they truly need.

[01:06:01] Josh Cohen: you gotta ask questions. you gotta show them that you care. I mean, some agents, I have a lot of top producers in my offices, right? We've got some really strong producers and some of them, may not be the most coachable, not because that's a bad thing because that's just who they are, their power personality.

[01:06:16] Josh Cohen: So how do I coach them?

[01:06:18] Josh Cohen: You

[01:06:18] Josh Cohen: I'll sit down, we'll go to lunch. Sometimes we'll go to coffee and I'll just like hear about their business here, about their deals. And then like, what are you struggling 

[01:06:24] Josh Cohen: with right now? 

[01:06:25] Josh Cohen: sometimes it might be, helping them, get a, you know, transaction coordinator or an assistant or something like that.

[01:06:31] Josh Cohen: but yeah, they're all 

[01:06:31] Josh Cohen: different. 

[01:06:32] Josh Cohen: you have to ask the questions, noticing their business. So like I'm always, All over our listing inventory. And when someone gets a agent or an experienced agent, I'm going to share it in some way on our Instagram or Facebook or whatever.

[01:06:43] Josh Cohen: I'm going to throw them shout outs in the office. we celebrate monthly. We do monthly awards. And so, you know, if a top good month, we're going to celebrate that. 

[01:06:51] Josh Cohen: I'm going to ask that agent. how'd 

[01:06:53] Josh Cohen: you get there that month? Like what was going on that month that where you closed 6 million.

[01:06:57] Tracy Hayes: Right. Or did you do something 90 days ago that [01:07:00] caused this? 

[01:07:00] Josh Cohen: How'd that happen? and I can share that with the group that the new agents are going to eat that up. And then that agent that maybe isn't as coachable, but needs that lift, they feel that to them, that you're appreciating 

[01:07:11] Tracy Hayes: them,

[01:07:12] Josh Cohen: offering them, you know, when I find out a new, great thing, like we've got this new, great resource.

[01:07:17] Josh Cohen: That we're rolling out and maybe it's not run yet. I'll go. Hey, check this out. This is coming Here's how this can help you with your listings or your marketing or your video or whatever So can be a good communicator I think is important and sharing what we're doing

[01:07:30] Josh Cohen: I've been asking them what do you do to help?

[01:07:31] Josh Cohen: Hey, you know, what can I do to help you this week? Is everything, you know, Tuesday. I just want to make sure you're good. What's going on? All 

[01:07:37] Tracy Hayes: right. So you've been coaching agents for a long time. what was your greatest coaching challenge?

[01:07:45] Tracy Hayes: when someone came with you as something like, I mean, you just literally brought them out of the weeds. had to have done that to several people by now. Yeah, 

[01:07:52] Josh Cohen: there's a lot of, a lot of win stories there. Yeah. You know, I'm just not the kind of guy like toots his own horn. That's not my thing, but 

[01:07:58] Tracy Hayes: you're happy for them that [01:08:00] you were able to be part of that journey because I want someone to resonate someone that's out there right now is in the weeds and I want, if you could share some, yeah, 

[01:08:07] Josh Cohen: so a couple of things, I think helping them understand that, you know, we manage the process of these transactions, but we don't control the outcome and so many agents, if a deal falls through and they're wrapped up deal.

[01:08:20] Josh Cohen: And you know, God forbid they need that deal to close to like pay their mortgage or something. But, they can take on all that emotional stress on themselves and they take and they're so depressed and they're crying and they're in there, you know, they're in there, you know, sweatpants all day. Come in the office at five p.

[01:08:35] Josh Cohen: m. You know, to print I'm like, what's, you know, so helping them understand that like this business is hard. A lot of what we do is dealing with other personalities. And understanding that you cannot control other people. You cannot change the way they feel. You can just help them. You know, if they're a power personality, you have to kind of lay it out for them so they can make the decision.

[01:08:54] Josh Cohen: Don't tell them what you think they should do. You're going to butt heads. There's a lot of wins about because you know Berkshire [01:09:00] Hathaway We're a really big brand and people expect the best from us So we were you know, we have the highest average sales price in Northeast, Florida We you know have really strong market share In fact, I've got those numbers too if you want them 831 million close to the date, you know through July That's number one and Duval clay st.

[01:09:16] Josh Cohen: John's County. So when people hire us they expect the best right so helping people get those deals to the closing table and navigating tough personalities is something that I do a lot There's a lot of wins there. I mean that we do some deal doctoring and I get pulled into transactions and sometimes it's like, all right Let's get the client on a conference call.

[01:09:33] Josh Cohen: Let's talk about it Yeah, you them, you know Explain the contract because there's 

[01:09:37] Tracy Hayes: a lot of anxiety. I mean, you and I can have that conversation pretty easily. We just bite the bullet and do it. There's others that, have a lot of anxiety over that. 

[01:09:45] Josh Cohen: You're exactly right.

[01:09:46] Josh Cohen: the client has anxiety. Managing anxiety. It's only with the client, but also ourselves, you know, and clients could feel that. If you're anxious and that's a, you know, like that's a natural emotion. Like, it's okay to be [01:10:00] vulnerable and be like, man, I'm really scared about this opportunity.

[01:10:02] Josh Cohen: Like, help me with it. So that, so helping them 

[01:10:04] Josh Cohen: get that, 

[01:10:04] Josh Cohen: ultimately like my agent comes to me and they're competing for a really, for a listing it. And I helped them with the pricing. I helped them with the marketing proposal. We sit down, we block an hour, we get it done. They go on there, they go, I got the listing.

[01:10:16] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, 

[01:10:17] Josh Cohen: and we're high five in that. That's an awesome feeling. I love that. because at the end of the day, we talked about this. Listings are great, right? Helping buyers get to the closing table. you know, we share a lot of wins and gratitudes in our office too, in our, our sales meetings.

[01:10:29] Josh Cohen: And sometimes it's, you know, my granddaughter was born this weekend and celebrating that. but from a coaching standpoint, you know, it's such target. So it's really hard to answer that, but, I just enjoy. helping them get to that next level of their business. and you know, for a lot of agents right now, it's, maintaining a vibrant business.

[01:10:48] Josh Cohen: you know, we analyze the market, we analyze the market share from the company level. We also analyze the business of our agents. We have different, you know, programs that we use. And I might tell an agent, look like, I've noticed your [01:11:00] business is kind of, Doing this, we need more of that steady, so what can we do to do that?

[01:11:04] Josh Cohen: And then coaching them to that place where their business is more steady. 

[01:11:06] Tracy Hayes: Right, right. Where it's more, which relieves a lot of anxiety. . 

[01:11:10] Josh Cohen: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. So a lot of wind stories there. Yeah. 

[01:11:13] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. I am done with Michael. Is there anything you'd like to add that we haven't talked about?

[01:11:18] Josh Cohen: I don't think so. I appreciate it. We've been going about almost an hour 

[01:11:21] Tracy Hayes: and 20 minutes. Yeah, we got a lot, in there. There was a lot else 

[01:11:23] Josh Cohen: you want to ask. 

[01:11:24] Tracy Hayes: yeah, no, I mean, you know, we could probably go on for a couple of hours because I could, I could always, because we could sit here and really dig in because, but I think anyone listening, at this point, I mean, You know, Josh, have a track record.

[01:11:37] Tracy Hayes: I think you have conversation we have really got across what your ideology is. and, there's many great agents coming out of your office. As several of them that were bragging about it, call those agents. Ask them what's Josh all about and then go and have a meeting with you. think that having the You know, like you said a lot of them need that coaching and a lot of these brokers aren't engaged enough You know, although you haven't been [01:12:00] producing you're in the grind with them.

[01:12:02] Tracy Hayes: I 

[01:12:02] Josh Cohen: get in the weed. I get in the dirt

[01:12:03] Josh Cohen: in the dirt, in the mud with them. Mm-Hmm.

[01:12:04] Josh Cohen: You know, because I care because, and yeah, well, you, 

[01:12:08] Tracy Hayes: you, don't think you'd be successful if you weren't, you have to be, I think some people are like, Oh, it's a competing broker. Okay. Well, at least he's still taking deals. and I know some non competing brokers that are very involved, whether they're involved in their bringing information back, you know, they're involved in NIFAR where they're very involved in the real estate business and the state cutting edge.

[01:12:29] Tracy Hayes: There's other brokers. I know they said, Oh, I got a management job. Now I can kick back. I don't have to sell anymore. Well, no, now you have to sell the people that you're leading. You have to sell them all the time. Yeah. Yeah. 

[01:12:40] Josh Cohen: you know, one thing I've noticed about real estate, you know, early on is it's like, there's so many different shapes and sizes, so many different models out there and it's not that they're bad or good, there's just different models.

[01:12:50] Josh Cohen: and so, yeah, I think, you know, this has been a really good conversation. I appreciate you reaching out and having me on. 

[01:12:54] Tracy Hayes: I appreciate you.

[01:12:56] Tracy Hayes: Thank you. [01:13:00]