OpSuite: The Complete Real Estate Agent Back Office

Audio_REE#209
===

[00:00:00] A lot of agents don't understand that they are running a business. They're the CEO. And so like when you go to Publix or when you shop on Amazon, do you think there's one person running that show? Like, absolutely not. So why is there just one person running your show?

If you're looking to build your business, like we need to, we need to build it like a business. \

Tracy Hayes: Hey, welcome back to the real estate excellence podcast special show today as many of the regular listeners I know [00:01:00] you know, I dig deep into the top producing real estate agents and what happens when they hit that production lid It's very important these agents come to a point where they're just overwhelmed.

Tracy Hayes: Some start their career with help and with advice from a mentor, some squander and wonder what to do. And others seek help. And today we're, we're seeking help for you today. Well, today, I have one of those people who offers that help to pull these overwhelmed real estate agents. Out of the weeds and hopefully greater production.

Tracy Hayes: She was a teacher before entering the real estate industry. Her last eight years in real estate. She has worked with some of the most respected high producing teams in Jacksonville, Florida, before going out on her own to provide a much needed service to real estate agents. Let's welcome the owner of OpSuite LLC, Samantha Cox to the show.

Tracy Hayes: Hi, thank you for having me. I am really excited about the show and obviously our little pregame discussion here of what's going on. Because I have so many, you know, I've had so many of the top agents on. And as I mentioned in the intro, [00:02:00] some, you know, I think you know, we were talking about Carrie Carpenter.

Tracy Hayes: I think she started off with some help. Initially she ran it like a business that was her attitude. And obviously she's, you know, in just a few years is doing great numbers. Yeah. You've worked for the Rocco team. Sarah Rocco, one of the most highly respected agents and unfortunately no longer with us, but her team continues to run. Everyone, the way she ran her, not everyone could run a team like that. And the fact that you worked for her for so many years, I mean, I think for anyone who knows Sarah and the fact that you did what you did for her was, you know, is a tremendous honor. Trophy on the wall, basically love Sarah, high respect for her you know, unfortunately losing her, but I mean, you know, like I said, her team is still moving today at a high level, still at a high level.

Tracy Hayes: And, and really, I mean, Sarah wasn't. In the business 20 years before she discovered this she had and so that respect there just [00:03:00] as accolades for you and what we're going to dig into today because I think it's so vital and any agent listening right now. You need to take notes if you do anything after this show is to give samantha a call and ask her what she can do for you.

Tracy Hayes: You may or may not like it. You may not see the value in it. I'm going to tell you, you need to be doing something as an agent. If you're reaching that point where, you know, I think you're going to have, you probably, I know you have stories. I know you have stories because you've dealt with so many of them reaching these levels where they're just overwhelmed in there.

Tracy Hayes: They reach out crying for help. Kick off a little bit, just give everyone a little bit of background. You, you I assume education was your initial career vision. 

Samantha Cox: I, I was like, I want to be a teacher when I grow up. And went to college. Halfway through college, decided I got bored in education school went to culinary school for a little bit there went back, got my degree in education, elementary education, and then taught until 2016.

Samantha Cox: Eight years, [00:04:00] and I loved being a teacher. I love kids. Don't do it. Just for me. I'm always looking for what's next. Like what's next? What's next? And I like to continue growing and, and I found that I was felt just it wasn't the right fit for me anymore. So while I was looking for my next career.

Samantha Cox: I took a position as an inside sales agent for a real estate team. I was just like, I'll figure out when my next passion is turned out. I was like, Whoa, real estate's kind of cool. I was an inside sales agent for a team. We, I did that and immediately doubled my salary from being a teacher my first year and I was like, What in the heck am I doing?

Samantha Cox: Like, this is it. 

Tracy Hayes: You have your LinkedIn is awesome. I think everyone needs to go on Samantha's LinkedIn. Because it's, it's done well. And especially for what you do you know, everyone's looking at oh yeah, I want to, I want to hand off. My business for her to handle a part of my business to her.

Tracy Hayes: Does she know what she's talking about? And you really do a [00:05:00] good job in there. Detailing the many things you did within, you know, couple of the, you know, Sarah's team, and there was, I think there was another team in there and then Atlantic partners themselves, Kelly was Atlantic partners themselves. On a director's level of operations and the details and things that you were doing elaborate on I think the average person even agent doesn't realize especially if you're running You know, I think you said the rocco team did like was it not was it last year 95 million?

Tracy Hayes: It 

Samantha Cox: was 95 million like like, that's, that's where we grew the team to and then I took a position with the director, or with Keller Williams Atlantic Partners as the director of operations. And from Fernandina all the way to Daytona, the Offices and market centers in between four different market centers, but ten locations I worked alongside Margaret Sherrill and as the operating principal and so the two of us were really You know [00:06:00] partnered to help our agents right under a thousand agents Grow their businesses.

Samantha Cox: What is the training? What is the coaching? What is you know? What's the value that Keller Williams is bringing to these agents? That's really like really what we focused on

Tracy Hayes: I don't think people, you know, when you're running. A high level machine like that. And to me, Keller Williams and Lank partners, you know, they've got a lot of top pretty, a lot of the people that I've had on the show come every, you know, and I'm always looking for agents and their top producers. I'm like, Oh, another one from Keller Williams and Lank partners.

Tracy Hayes: I've got, I've got, I got to mix it a little bit. I got to find some others out there. But being you know, Keller Williams takes on a lot of new agents too. 

Samantha Cox: They do. 

Tracy Hayes: And so you've got to be as an operations team, like you said, planning the trainings, getting all these things are you're organizing things weeks and weeks in advance.

Tracy Hayes: You have to stay out in front of, of everything that's going on. Because I mean, how many people, how many agents are we talking about? 

Samantha Cox: We're talking, we were like right [00:07:00] under a thousand agents that we were working with. We, we really focused, like, and that, I think that's what Keller Williams does well, and like, not, not just a plug for them, but honestly, is so good.

Samantha Cox: You need to build your business to be a business and run like a business. 

A lot of agents don't understand that they are running a business. They're the CEO. And so like when you go to Publix or when you shop on Amazon, do you think there's one person running that show? Like, absolutely not. So why is there just one person running your show?

If you're looking to build your business, like we need to, we need to build it like a business. 

Samantha Cox: And that's, 

Tracy Hayes: I think one of the messages I want to get across Just tagging on to what you're saying there you can do more with less effort you're gonna put you know put more in your pocket. You're gonna have a little bit of expenditure there but I mean I think if anyone say, what do you like about real estate?

Tracy Hayes: Oh, they're going to mention like working with their clients. Well, would you want to be more forward facing and be more spending more [00:08:00] time? Because that's what a lot of the top agents tell me that you know, I think Melissa Ricks is a perfect example of someone who has that support team So that she can spend more time doing what she loves doing and gives her high energy Which is obviously spending time with her clients, but she also likes going and you know, She goes over to other brokerages and stuff and helps, you know, does some training and stuff.

Tracy Hayes: That's what she loves doing. And it gives her that boost every day. 

Samantha Cox: Or she, like I see on social media, she's going to her kids football games. Yeah. So she's able to not even just grow their business, but, or her business, but also, you know, she's spending time doing the things she loves with her family and friends.

Samantha Cox: And opened a new business, the gym that 

Tracy Hayes: she opened up this past year you know, with, with her family. There's so many. So many things I think as a real estate agent, we've I've had several on that. I have Branched out and are doing other little things. It may be in the real estate thing, like flipping houses.

Tracy Hayes: Now you have time to possibly look for that. Or, you know, some have actually, like, Melissa's gone out and opened a gym because she's got five boys [00:09:00] and, you know, that's, you know, that's their thing. Because she's leveraging utilizing people who want to do it. Because that's one of the questions I put, I want to lead you.

Tracy Hayes: What? How did you, you, you've obviously created a passion for this. Mm-Hmm. . Because I don't think you could have gone so quickly from being a teacher to doing the things that you were doing so quickly unless you were like, wow, I love this. 

Samantha Cox: Oh my gosh, . Okay. I geek out on the operations side of things. I had no clue I was going to, and I did.

Samantha Cox: And so like when I saw Sarah around the office, I was like. I want to work with that woman because she was just running around all the time. I just loved it. So when I came on the team and I saw like, There's just so much as business. There's, there's the financial piece of it. There's our lead sources and really analyzing those lead sources.

Samantha Cox: And then there's our team members and hiring and training and recruiting and helping them build big [00:10:00] lives. And like, it was just like, Oh my gosh, this is, it's just so multifaceted that I was like, I could work. 24 seven for the rest of my life, and I would never be finished because there's always so much growth going on And I think that's what really excites me about operations is because it's really business building all the time It never stops unless you want it to you know, 

Tracy Hayes: I think Something came natural to you.

Tracy Hayes: Maybe you have a natural organizational, you know, skill. I know some people are project managers without even going to that, getting that specific training, getting that degree in project management. Some people just get it. Was that it for you? And then, But there's, you know, we've got a list of things to talk about.

Tracy Hayes: Like, you know, we like bookkeeping's on there. I mean, did you, did they send you or did you search out additional training for that, to get a, an edge on that? 

Samantha Cox: I'm going to tell you exactly what I did to discover what operations is all about and how I became so passionate. And [00:11:00] actually Sarah was the one who pushed me to do this.

Samantha Cox: I told her, I was like, I want to be the director of operations of your team. She was like, what's the director of ops do? And I'm like, I don't know. Good question. She said here's what you need to do. You need to meet with the Director of Operations once a week for however long it takes until you figure out what a Director of Operations is.

Samantha Cox: And so every single Friday for 30 minutes, I had a call with the new director of operations from around the country, and I had a list of the same exact questions, and I asked them, what's your 

Tracy Hayes: So how did you get this, these people to call, just other successful teams? I 

Samantha Cox: started with other successful teams, and then After my conversation with them, I would say, who do you know that, you know, would probably be willing to talk to me next week?

Samantha Cox: And then they'd tell me, have you talked to so and and I'm like, oh, psh, no. So I would set up a call. And so I had that list of questions on, what do you do? What is the main thing that you need to focus on every week to move the business forward? What You know, how do you help your rainmaker [00:12:00] succeed?

Samantha Cox: What do you do outside of work even, you know, how many hours are you working? What's your salary look like? And all of these questions. And then I would figure out like, okay, this is a good director of operations and this person needs to step it up. And I really understood the value of a director of ops for A real estate team and that's where I'd be like, okay, so and so is doing this.

Samantha Cox: I'm going to bring it back to our business and let's implement XYZ because they're doing it successfully. I think that's honestly where, you know, 

Tracy Hayes: you did this for how long? 

Samantha Cox: Probably like a year. 

Tracy Hayes: Wow. I 

Samantha Cox: mean like a really long time. So I've developed a ton of relationships. Number one. She 

Tracy Hayes: just did a podcast with him.

Samantha Cox: I should have. I should have, honestly. Yeah. People would listen because it's, the information is literally invaluable. I mean, it's, it's amazing. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: That says a lot about you. That says a lot about, I mean, the, the grit that's grit right there too. And then stay with it. [00:13:00] Cause I, a lot of people may have made the first couple of phone calls, but I'm sure you heard a lot of overlap.

Tracy Hayes: There in, you know, that operations person is doing the same thing as Alan, so you would be like, I already know it instead of asking the next one, which then that next one all of a sudden opens a whole new Pandora's box of something, another avenue you need to go down and research and learn. 

Samantha Cox: Well, then I started looking at their production levels.

Samantha Cox: Like, at first I wasn't, I just was kind of talking to people and then I realized, like, wait, I need to be talking to someone who's doing 10 times what we're doing, so that way what I'm putting into place now is going to fuel our success when we are 10 times, you know, our current production. I was, like, scared.

Samantha Cox: specifically seeking out the people that I knew were going to give me the information I needed for the future. 

Tracy Hayes: All right. I know Sarah had a library. She lent me, she lent me a book out of that library. Rocket fuel.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, I need that. I need the implement implementer. I'm the, I'm the, definitely the visionary guy. How did that help? Because that thought that [00:14:00] you just had, like, I need to talk to someone who's doing 10 times what we're doing and set up. Set the you know, the structure up to work in that direction that had to come from something Was just being around Sarah and being a rereading some of those books and that's just implant that I did that thought came 

Samantha Cox: Yeah, so we read rocket fuel together as like a book club and I told her we had to It's very uncomfortable for anyone who if they've never read it and you're reading it like with your boss or a partner or whatever Like it says as a visionary Like, you can be very rude to your integrator.

Samantha Cox: You need to cool it. Or, like, as an integrator, like, stop taking things so personally. And like, when we read these things, it was like, oh my gosh. These are the struggles in our relationship. And it helped us open up to have these discussions. But it also helped us, like, okay, yeah, we do need to talk to people ten times as.

Samantha Cox: We do, I, and I don't know, I think Sarah just always had this, like, thing in her brain of, like, [00:15:00] Who's the best person in the room? And how do I become that person? And then moving to the different room, and who's the best person in this room? And how do I become that person? 

Tracy Hayes: I always thought when I looked, whenever we talked, especially after I had her on the show, and we ran into each other at different places, when you look her in the eyes, she's on another level.

Tracy Hayes: I always thought she was on another level. That's that's how I described it. 

Samantha Cox: Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, 

Samantha Cox: you're not wrong So I think that's just where it came from. Yeah Also, she invested in me. I will say that she invested in me as her You know integrator that I had a business coach a mastery business coach, which is not cheap.

Samantha Cox: I was 1, 500 a month. She was paying for me to have my own business coach and I think like that That's a big deal fueled me into my thinking. You know, it wasn't just business. It was also personal. And so like my personal life was growing. My personal life was like my financial personal financials was growing and that grows her business, you know, tenfold truly.

Samantha Cox: And I think that's where those [00:16:00] mindset shifts kind of came from as well. 

Tracy Hayes: Sure. 100%. So when do you start seeing this opportunity, you know, things I think I was actually might have been talking to when you made the jump to become Atlantic partners director of operations. Because I remember her talking about.

Tracy Hayes: interviewing for that position. And I didn't know you obviously at the time. So the Atlantic partners obviously sees what you're doing and they're like, we need to, you know, go ahead and put her over the whole thing. When do you start seeing the, the opportunity for op suite? 

Samantha Cox: Oh man, right away, to be honest, because I started talking to a lot more agents.

Samantha Cox: in our area that are doing business at a high level. And the first question every single time, how do I get a U? How do I find a you and i'm like, oh stop, you know, just being silly and but then I really started sitting on it Like no, but like how do they find somebody that they can trust and somebody that can [00:17:00] have ownership mindset in their business and somebody that Understands that this is a career not just like a nine to five job.

Samantha Cox: And i'm so then i'm like, I don't know. I I Really have talked to a lot of operations people And i'm like, you know, this is like a gap It really is like there's definitely transaction coordinators out there. There's definitely coaches but like an all in one suite that has your bookkeeping for you that has your can help hire and train people for you that has consulting on you're at this level and you want to go to the next level what needs to happen you know that has the transaction management the listing management like there's not something in that I knew of that could do all of this and so I Honestly, my sister.

Samantha Cox: Came on vacation and she was watching me work and she was in the lending industry at the time and she was like Why are you doing this? And how do you know that? And she was talking the language and I was like, you know, [00:18:00] like you could do this with me and she was like Sure, so she moved from cincinnati where i'm originally from and joined me literally a month later I had a business 26 page business plan written up and I was like, all right, we're doing it 

Tracy Hayes: So what does she do for you?

Samantha Cox: So she's a transaction manager on our team and honestly, she's my right hand. So yeah, she's, she's incredible. So you 

Tracy Hayes: are in lockstep. That's very tough to do with family. 

Samantha Cox: We had a very deep conversation prior to all of this was that like business is business. Personal is personal. There's no overlap and we compartmentalize it.

Tracy Hayes: Right. 

Samantha Cox: Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: Easier said than done. 

Samantha Cox: It is. Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes we have to say, you know what? This is too far. We have to compartmentalize. We have to take a step back. You know what I mean? And, and revisit it at a later time. 

Tracy Hayes: Well, there's, I think there's more competitiveness internally with family sometimes and you know, kids and, you know, I think it drives families apart.

Tracy Hayes: To a [00:19:00] point for egos or jealousy because some one of them just so happen to, you know, take different path and Successful, but obviously she must have saw something in you and again 

Samantha Cox: She 

Tracy Hayes: must like and saw that she's excelling in it 

Samantha Cox: She's literally better than me at what she does and like that was that's my goal Anytime I hire somebody is like they better be better than me Because that's what's going to propel me forward And so when I saw that and I saw the question she was asking I was like, oh my gosh Like you're the person she's she's also 10 years younger than me.

Samantha Cox: Okay. We have the same mom and dad Just they waited a while. And so like so like our I guess our Relationship is a little different than just, you know, a couple years apart. Yeah 

Tracy Hayes: I'm just gonna just the camera and that water is there for you if you need to wet your lips there. All right Thank you.

Tracy Hayes: Just a little bit more. I think we've been fine, but I just I always Full of great reels here the cut from the other. All right, so let's [00:20:00] break down because you offer a lot more you know, joy and she was basically as a transaction coordinator, which there, there's some other groups that just do that, but you see, you seem to offer more.

Tracy Hayes: robust package. You're, you're not just a transaction coordinator that just went off and said, okay, I can be a transaction coordinator and let me just, you know, pay, I call it pay for play. You're really offering a director of operations 

Samantha Cox: from, 

Tracy Hayes: from a Keller Williams Atlantic partners to individual agents really.

Tracy Hayes: So we're going to, we're going to break this down and I'm glad you gave me this little cheat sheet here to break down your, your your different services. You have coaching and consulting. We talked a little bit about pre show. And I was like, you know, you know, obviously, you know, there's guys out there like Tom Ferry.

Tracy Hayes: Well, I'm sure you know Angie Bell. You know, they're out there coaching. Are you going in in depth as they may be or your, your [00:21:00] tell us a little about what, what services you're offering or helping them in that coaching that one on one. Cause I would imagine coaching is a little bit to open them up to your other services a lot to explain to them.

Tracy Hayes: Hey, I've been seeing what you're doing. I'm coaching you. You need. My transaction coordinator, you need my bookkeeping, you know, type of thing. I can do that for you. I could take that off your plate. Cause I imagine I've had, you know, I imagine a lot of agents like, well, the coaches, I could spend all that money on a coach, but they're just going to tell me what I already know.

Tracy Hayes: Well, yes, they are actually. 

Samantha Cox: See, like for me and, and as like having a business coach myself is like, that's, it's accountability. Like I'm, when I have a business coach, I'm paying for the accountability. Less than I'm paying for them to give me the. tips and tricks, honestly, because I'm the one who's in charge of building the business and they can help guide me to different resources, but I'm the one who's got to be doing it.

Samantha Cox: And if I'm not, then we're not growing. So for me, like when we offer coaching, it's, it's definitely coaching [00:22:00] towards a goal, right? Or many goals. And it's personal, professional, whatever those goals are. However, it's a lot of accountability too. It's like, what are you doing and did you do it? And if you didn't, then you actually don't earn the right.

Samantha Cox: about the rest of the stuff you want to talk about, like because you need to do what you said you're going to do. My favorite piece of the coaching and consulting and where I like a lot of agents to start is with an audit of their business. So we offer a systems audit and what we do is we go through literally 10 facets of their business.

Samantha Cox: This is lead generation, financials, accountability. I mean it goes through the organizational chart. Their CRM, their marketing, like it goes through every facet of their business and I have a series of questions for them. So for example, in the financial piece, it'll be like, do you have a CPA? Do you pay your taxes quarterly?

Samantha Cox: Do you keep all of your receipts and document any of your entertainment receipts and tell who you were with, what you [00:23:00] were doing? Because if you don't get an audit, you're gonna need that. Do you, you know, all of these things and they say yes or no. After we do this, it takes about two hours after we do our systems audit.

Samantha Cox: What I do on the backend on my own is I go through it and really dissect the gaps. And I'm like, and they tell me gaps through it too. So I'm of course taking notes and then I give them Basically a report that says okay in your financial management system. You told me X. Here's what here's here's the next step Like you need to start tracking your receipts.

Samantha Cox: Here's where you can track them. Here's how you do it And you need to hire a CPA. Here's how you do it, you know, and and this is just a financial piece, but like any any type of That's just really what it looks like. 

Tracy Hayes: Your experience at Keller Williams where Relate this to some of these is again. I think we go back. Most people don't understand what a director of operations at an organization like Keller Williams Atlantic partners is doing. How do you, how are you taking that experience when someone [00:24:00] says, well, you know, what's your experience to coach me?

Tracy Hayes: What's a way you explain them? What are some of the things that you were doing? And we're seeing at Keller Williams, Atlantic partners that, you know, gives you the power and knowledge to analyze their business. 

Samantha Cox: Absolutely. Well, I mean, I go back to the Rocco group a lot because that's where it started and you know, Keller Williams, Atlantic partners, but like with the Rocco group, there's a ceiling at, you know, every production level.

Samantha Cox: So we went from what, 14 million to 30 million and when you get to 30 million, all of a sudden you're at a ceiling and you're like, okay, I need new systems. I need new processes. What does that look like? And you reinvent the wheel and then you go from 30 million to 50 million and you're like, Oh my gosh, everything's broken again.

Samantha Cox: I need to fix it again. What does that look like? And so like throughout that process of growing from literally the 7 million to 14 million, When I left we were at 95 million. So like we had a [00:25:00] ton of breakdowns. We had a ton of growth and so like that's where I've gained a lot of my knowledge and Networking with all the top teams, you know what I mean?

Samantha Cox: And and Keller Williams We were in Gary Keller's top 100 mastermind group. And so we had the opportunity to meet with Face to face with those people and Gary Keller to really talk through like what, what the top teams should be doing. At Atlantic partners. I think that I had the opportunity to really see Hundreds of businesses, you know, hundreds of agents, almost a thousand agents and how they were running their business, what was successful and what wasn't.

Samantha Cox: Well, 

Tracy Hayes: a good, probably 30 to maybe 50 at producing at a high level. 

Samantha Cox: Absolutely. And those agents are always looking. For support from their brokerage and so that's where we would work with them on. Okay. Where are you at? Where what is your next goal? And how do we get [00:26:00] you there? I think like the diversity between all of the different businesses It's what really helps me analyze, you know, my current clients businesses, 

Tracy Hayes: right? Yeah, I think You know, you have to bring the realization if you walk into that office over there, especially on South Side Boulevard, let alone the other offices the level of agents that are, that are there you know, not, you know, Sarah had a big team, but you get someone like, say, Kelly Bellow.

Samantha Cox: You 

Tracy Hayes: know, and their needs and obviously as a a great brokerage, you know, the topic I always bring up is what value is that brokerage bringing to you? And it's, it's having people like yourself going in and helping these individual agents get their business straight. You want to call it that?

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I 

Samantha Cox: mean, I can remember one of, like, Kim Sessions in the Atlantic Beach office was like, Hey, I'm hiring a an admin. Would you mind just to interview her, talk to her, see your thoughts? Because, you know, [00:27:00] I've had tons of experience hiring and, and training operations team members. So I did, and she was an awesome fit and she's still with her today.

Samantha Cox: So I'm, I think so. 

Tracy Hayes: Well, that's one of your other services is recruiting and training. And again I, one of the things I want to do with the podcast is, is bring on more boutique you know, brokers on in what they're doing in their businesses. But they don't have the financial resources as an Atlantic partner.

Tracy Hayes: They don't have a thousand agents. Maybe they have 10, if that, some of them are just working with five or six and they don't have. the you know, they need to bring on somebody. It could be recruiting agents in, you know, training agents. I mean, we know some of the more successful teams some of them, you know, obviously at, at, at the Atlantic partners it, you got to bring on the right person.

Tracy Hayes: So having someone that actually You know, has done this for high level teams to kind of be your front person. Then turn them over and say, Hey, I [00:28:00] interviewed 10. I would say, talk to these two or three. I think they might be good fits. And then they can just talk to the two or three and save themselves a lot of time and energy 

Samantha Cox: time.

Samantha Cox: So the biggest gap that I see right now or downfall for. Agents and teams is they're hiring out of desperation because they need somebody now and whether that's an agent who's producing or even an operations team member behind the scenes like They're feeling the pressure and they need somebody and they hire out of desperation and that person takes time energy and every 

Tracy Hayes: There's so many companies that are like that so many and I get it.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, 

Samantha Cox: I get it That's to to recruit at a high level like you need to meet this person You More than once and say, okay, you're hired. We meet at least three times in person when they go through our recruiting process and everything's recorded. So the busy business owner on the back end, they get to watch, you know, and follow along with their, with their candidates.

Samantha Cox: They can say, not really feeling [00:29:00] it or yes, this person is definitely like, please fast track them. But I don't skip any steps. I mean, we have a 10 step process of through our interview process, because to find the right candidate, it not only needs to be the right fit for us at the time, it needs to be the right fit for us for the future, and it needs to be the right fit for them.

Samantha Cox: Yeah. You know. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. No I don't know if I have Billy Wagner's book. 

Samantha Cox: Love him. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, he if you've read his book, I had him on you. You have it. Okay. So you know what I'm talking about as he talks about this type of thing, like having top people in a pipeline 

Samantha Cox: and 

Tracy Hayes: some people he doesn't hire right, right away.

Tracy Hayes: So we might actually, it might be a few months later. Also there's another position where they're very picky who they bring on. Because you could spend so much time month after month and, and your company's not moving forward because Someone starting at zero every day and you're not, you never get off the runway.

Samantha Cox: Exactly. Building a bench when you're recruiting is crucial. And so what I loved, like when I started ops suite, it's like, I now do have a bench of highly [00:30:00] talented professionals waiting for the right opportunity. And, and they're kind of waiting on me to be like, Oh, I have an opportunity that's come up, or I've heard of someone who's hiring and, you know, these are the people, especially in our you know, World right now you you have to have top talent on your team And these are the people they're they're waiting for it.

Samantha Cox: Yeah, you know what I mean? 

Tracy Hayes: That such a crucial crucial piece many times overlooked and until you've done the cycle um You know, of, of hiring and people going or you, you know, then you get that point where sometimes you want to fire them, but you can't because you've gotten emotionally attached or whatever it's difficult to do.

Tracy Hayes: It's so important to spend that little extra time up front to get it, get it right. Bookkeeping. 

Samantha Cox: Not sexy. It's not. You 

Tracy Hayes: should write that here in your notes. Not sex. 

Samantha Cox: I mean, it's true. And it's so crucial. A lot of agents when they're [00:31:00] starting to consider bookkeeping, they'll ask me like, why do I need this?

Samantha Cox: You know? And I'm like, well, what's, what's, what was the profit you made last month? And they're like, What do you mean profit? Like I brought in 12, 000 in commission. I'm like, okay, how much were your expenses? What was your cost of sale? And they're like, wait, what is cost of sale? And I'm like, okay, so bookkeeping is what really takes your business to a business, right?

Samantha Cox: Because like if you asked any business like that's functioning as a business, what their profit is, they know, they know what their bottom line profit is. And agents should too if you're running a business at a high level. Now, if you're just starting. Probably investing in bookkeeping on a monthly basis is not necessarily needed.

Samantha Cox: But once you really start bringing in consistent commission checks and you know, you're needing to pay quarterly taxes and like, you need to have bookkeeping because that's, what's telling you what, what lead sources should I invest in as an 

Tracy Hayes: [00:32:00] individual agent? What level of production you think are we talking about here?

Tracy Hayes: 5 million, 10 million. 

Samantha Cox: I would say between like to get started, that five to 7 million is a really sweet spot. And then anything above that, you should definitely have a bookkeeper, whether that be us or somebody else. Like, somebody needs to be watching your money for you. Somebody needs to be asking you, Why are you you know, investing in this?

Samantha Cox: That's the other thing with us, is like, I have that experience using a lot of different systems. And if I see, like, Hey, I see you're investing in this once a month, and I actually know something that's better, I'm going to suggest that to you. That's nice as well. 

Tracy Hayes: Because we see, you know, the agents I talked to, you physically see it because you see there, these numbers of these agents and have for, for years in the individuals that you're working with, when they start to get to that 5 to 7 million, they start to get overwhelmed.

Tracy Hayes: With just all the tasks that they have to do in [00:33:00] marketing and, you know, acquiring the client and, you know, you know, all those, all the things that a real estate agent does, they're already starting to slow down because they, they ramped up five, you know, zero to five. you know, if they start off, that's, they're, they're okay.

Tracy Hayes: All of a sudden you start five to seven, they're starting to plateau because they're being over, they can't take on a new client. They are, or they, they cut back on the marketing of taking on a new client because they're still working with a client they've already got in the nest. And by the time they, if they slowly creep up, they start reaching 9 million.

Tracy Hayes: Now you are maxed. 

Samantha Cox: Yes. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah, you've and I think like I said in the intro, this is where agents need to realize when you start crossing that 5 million having some of, maybe one of your, we haven't finished all your services and we're finished with transaction coordinator and, and so forth, but acquiring some of these services to start easing it off.

Tracy Hayes: So you [00:34:00] continue to ramp up and you go right through nine, 10 million, 12 million and on, but you don't reach that, which I think a lot of agents do. They get to that five to 7 million all of a sudden they plateau out, they procrastinate and don't know what to do next. 

Samantha Cox: There's two different. Things that they should be focusing on in their business every single day, and that's one, client acquisition, and two, client servicing.

Samantha Cox: And when you get too busy servicing your clients, the client acquisition goes out the window, and then all of a sudden you're stuck in this whirlwind of client servicing that you're like, wait, I don't have any deals on the books for July. I don't have any deals on the books for August. And then you start going on this roller coaster effect, you know, and that's not what we want, but a lot of agents feel that.

Samantha Cox: So it's really crucial for agents to structure their calendar. I'm huge in time blocking and they need to structure their calendar. You know, client acquisition is in the morning. That's your lead gen time. Client servicing is in the afternoon. That is it. [00:35:00] So if for some reason that client servicing starts taking up your morning time, Like your client acquisition time.

Samantha Cox: That's a telltale sign. It's time to hire leverage. It's like you're the moneymaker in your business 

Tracy Hayes: Yep, you are you are the brand? You know even working for a big company like keller williams of all those agents are still their individual brand Keller williams ain't selling houses for 

Samantha Cox: them. No, no, right.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah it's gone that different way We've talked about many times on the show, you know back in the day when I grew up, you know The century 21 gold coat or remax with their balloon everyone knew what those are. They don't know what those are anymore It's the individual agent that is out there every day with whatever brokerage is their brand.

Tracy Hayes: Attracting and retaining clients. So we talked a little bit about pre show. This, I think, is a huge piece of your services right here. What is the you mentioned getting more reviews and that sort of thing. What are some of the things that you're doing as this will ramp us, kind of roll us into your transaction coordination, because, you know, you're interacting with the clients.

Tracy Hayes: What are things that [00:36:00] you and your team 

Samantha Cox: Well, what we see and what I saw from, you know, the birds high level of What's a thousand agents is that they have their transactions, they're closing and then they move on to their next transaction. And the question is what, what are you doing to develop and nurture the relationship of that person who just closed?

Samantha Cox: Because they already like you, they already trust you. And they know at least three to five people. And they just 

Tracy Hayes: bought a house. So people were talking about real estate with them. 

Samantha Cox: They already know five people who probably want to buy, sell, or invest. And Our goal in this facet of our business is to help you nurture those relationships and to bring in reviews and referrals.

Samantha Cox: So this is the referral piece of it. You know, if you're reaching out to your database, if you're doing mailers, if you're doing pop buys, if you're hosting events, huge events, even just VIP, like very exclusive events to your top advocates. Like these are what, these things keep you top of mind with your [00:37:00] current database and you don't have to pay for leads because they're coming in.

Samantha Cox: Like this is where your marketing dollars need to go in order to bring in more leads. This is like, My favorite thing to do aside from our systems audit. I love to look at someone's business and say, you have 300 past clients. That is incredible. How many of them have given you referrals? First of all, are you tracking it?

Samantha Cox: Probably not. And if you're not like, let's put a system in to track it. And then number two, what are we doing to make sure that you're top of mind? So when they're at work and they hear a coworker, you know, getting coffee, say I'm going to buy a house and share, they go, 

Tracy Hayes: do you have a realtor? 

Samantha Cox: Carrie Carpenter.

Samantha Cox: Yeah, right. Whoever it is. Yeah. We have to stay top of mind and doing events and mailers and emails and quarterly phone calls Like these are the this is the way so that's really what we help you implement and then we help you actually execute it as well on the you know, I said reviews as well Like when you work with our transaction coordinating team We aren't just coordinating [00:38:00] and pushing paper and like we're communicating with your customers At a high level and so like you're always involved You know all the agents always involved no matter what but we're developing those relationships, too Because we're an extension of you and your team and so when we close we're the ones who are saying can you please leave a review on how it was working with Carrie and They do Yeah, you know and a lot of agents they get kind of funky because they're like I don't want to ask them Like they're busy.

Samantha Cox: They're unpacking boxes Like let us do that for you. Yeah, 

Tracy Hayes: Well, I mean, I think I'm not even with carrie. I mean they bring up because I did the carrie carpenters is brilliant I mean something that someone thinks she was telling me she does and and asking for the referrals and so forth You've earned that some people understand that Some people are a little more.

Tracy Hayes: You The, there's this imposter syndrome. They, they, they don't feel they're successful enough to ask for that. And I, and I'm on that [00:39:00] same level. I think a lot of people are in that level. So when you have that, you know, that third party person who's obviously your goal, Hey, if I can get this agent more referrals.

Tracy Hayes: I got more business and we keep rolling in our relationship type of thing and the speak of referrals. And I forgot to usually I do this earlier, but this is actually a great time. Remy graphics, I don't know if you know, doing your Taylor with Remy, you need to, you need Remy graphics, Remy realty.

Tracy Hayes: Up there, but she acquired this company. Obviously renamed it Remy. She does these laser engravings. You got there's one in your bag there your gift bag there for you there she does a lot of other laser engraving type stuff, but she'll do one offs So you got you're looking for closing gifts.

Tracy Hayes: I think that you know to put hey john and sally 123 Main Street, you know, your name on the realtor on the back. She'll do one or, you know, one or two She doesn't need you to order two dozen of them Yeah, so it's perfect closing gifts. And I think these are these are beautiful, you know, we all everyone's carrying around these type things but I think obviously you put their 

Samantha Cox: name on it 

Tracy Hayes: [00:40:00] personally They'll never throw it away and they'll never forget you because you're the one who did it for them.

Tracy Hayes: Remi graphics I mean i'm gonna put her put her I got her a little there Get that out of the way remi graphics. com. Check out their website and their gifts there. And I appreciate them and our co sponsorship here of that. So which is tagging in exactly what we're talking about. The.

Tracy Hayes: the importance of doing that. And what if you, in all the services that you have, if you've got, if you're an agent and you're, you need these services and they're out there trying to get you a referral and they get you, you, and sometimes you can't measure it, but it's because you're, you know, your team is being persistent and, and doing an area where they may not be fully executing it a hundred percent, but now you are as, as ops suite executing that area of asking for referrals and so forth and you get.

Tracy Hayes: One or two more deals in the course of the year. I mean what a game changer that is, you know And it I think it's priceless and a huge [00:41:00] value To add because I think you know, I can't I don't you know, not I haven't hired a lot of pay by play Transaction coordinators or anything like that But I would imagine that's not an attitude that a lot of them have.

Tracy Hayes: You working at a high level with high level teams that you have in your experience, realize this is a vital piece or we don't, we, you don't eat. You know, this is very important. Cause I guarantee if you weren't, if your team wasn't doing that and I'm, I guarantee you. You know, whoever said it, I imagine Sarah said, Hey, when you guys run, you're asking for referrals.

Tracy Hayes: You're asking for referrals. You're asking for that review. This is what you're doing. If you aren't doing it, you don't work here. And that's, and that's your attitude at up sweet. 

Samantha Cox: It is. Yeah. And like the thing is too, when we close and you've your buyers now they've got a new address. They have a whole anniversary date.

Samantha Cox: We now know their birthdays because they give them to title. Like these are things that need to go into your database and it doesn't matter what your database is. If it's a spreadsheet, the best one is the one that you use. And so like [00:42:00] what we're going to do is take all of that information. And we're going to plug it in for you.

Samantha Cox: If you have a database that has tags and you have smart plans, you know, drip campaigns, we'll start those for you because we know that like, this is how you stay top of mind. And again, like you said, this is how you bring more business to us because you're going to be bringing in more business. So it's not just like, Hey, thanks for the contract.

Samantha Cox: Congrats. You know. Now it's closed and move on like it's like okay Let's nurture this person so well that like they want to come back for more. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah 100 huge vital piece in what you do and it And again, it just expresses your, your ideology of what your role is in this entire process. That you, you have these people, you know, again, asking for their referrals, asking for the reviews.

Tracy Hayes: You know, like I said, even if they have a spreadsheet, how many times has someone's birthday passed, for example, which is an opportunity just to call and say, hi, maybe you leave a voicemail. Hey, just wanted to say [00:43:00] happy birthday. Have a super day, another opportunity to put your name into their brain.

Tracy Hayes: And so they don't forget you. And you've got a team like you behind it, which I imagine that's one of those things you might, Hey you've got someone's, those birthdays coming up this week. You need to, you know, make that 10 second call. 

Samantha Cox: So we have one customer. He's one of our clients, Luke Christmas.

Samantha Cox: He is, runs an incredible business and he, we do all of his birthday cards, his home anniversary cards for him. We do. He has a ton of referral partners across the country. So we send birthday cards to his referral partners. We send like quarterly Chachkis, or like mailers to chachkis. Yeah, you know, just like little fun things in the mail.

Samantha Cox: His last name's Christmas, so we send little ornaments that are, you know, it's always Christmas to Northeast Florida, and key things like that. But like, those are things that you can leverage, you know, to stay top of mind. I love that. It's, it, Sarah used to say this all the time. Irreticular activating system is so important.

Samantha Cox: You, you're at razz. And she, like, her team, when they [00:44:00] watch this, she's gonna crack up. Or they're gonna crack up. And she talks about it all the time. It's like when you go to buy a car, and you test drive a car, And then all of a sudden you're like at Publix and that car is parked next to you. And then all of a sudden you're at the doctor's office and like, there it is, and it's next to you on the highway.

Samantha Cox: Sitting in a 

Tracy Hayes: traffic light and they're going across the road. Oh yeah, and you're like, suddenly 

Samantha Cox: like this car is not just mass produced all of a sudden and it's all next to me. It's your reticular activating system and so it's the same like in real estate. Like we need to have your name, Luke Christmas, Luke Christmas, Luke Christmas.

Samantha Cox: So that way when somebody does say You know, buy, sell, or invest. They go, Luke, Christmas, like, it's science, you know. 

Tracy Hayes: Well, I'm glad you brought up Luke goes to these, they're not all past customers. These are, you know, referral partners from around the country. People he's met at probably Keller Williams conferences or wherever, you know, that type of thing.

Tracy Hayes: What are some of the things that that you're doing for some of the agents for just their, you know, They're sphere of influences. 

Samantha Cox: Oh my gosh. So like, you know, the different 

Tracy Hayes: organizations they belong to to, you know, yeah, 

Samantha Cox: absolutely. So like for him, he has them all in a database and there, he doesn't [00:45:00] discriminate on who's from where, like they, they get it.

Samantha Cox: So like for St. Patty's day, like happy St. Patty's day, wish you a lot of luck. And you know, with a lotto ticket, 1 scratch off that did not, that cost him to send to his entire database of, quite a few people. I mean, we had a huge stack of mailers, less than a thousand bucks, right? But that stays top of mind.

Samantha Cox: And then guess what they do when they scratch off, they go onto social media and take a photo and say, didn't win at Luke Christmas real estate. Who sees that? I mean, it's literally brilliant. 

Tracy Hayes: Brilliant. Yes. 

Samantha Cox: And it's not that expensive. 

Tracy Hayes: Well, some people, that's the thing. I think some people would say that's expensive, but if you think about it, if someone said, Hey give me a thousand dollars, I'll give you a closing.

Tracy Hayes: How many thousand dollar bills would you find 

Samantha Cox: exactly? Yeah. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

Samantha Cox: I will say like, and that's the importance of hiring and doing it consistently. Like if you're going to hire someone, that's awesome. If you're going to do it yourself, that's awesome. But the whole purpose is to [00:46:00] stay consistent because if you're not doing it consistently, then you're not going to activate the reticular activating system and it's, it's just not important at that point, you know?

Samantha Cox: Consistency is absolutely key. 

Tracy Hayes: All right. The important piece and actually, I mean, the main piece that I was bringing you in and I didn't realize until I start going on looking at your social media, the other, these other services that you gave me this nice little cheat sheet for the transaction coordination.

Tracy Hayes: I assume is the transaction coordination is probably the bulk of your business. Yeah. I guess I want to start off with. In your eyes, your experience, OpSuite's mindset, what is the role of the transaction coordinator? 

Samantha Cox: The role of the transaction coordinator is to make sure that on the agent side, the agent is able to step almost away from the transaction to go get more business. And they don't have to focus on the whirlwind of getting to the closing table because once they're [00:47:00] under contract, there's no more money for them to be made.

Samantha Cox: To be made there, right? And so we want to leverage them as much as possible on the clients on their client side We want to make this the smoothest transaction that they've ever had so that way when we get to the closing table They're giving their agent a review and they're giving their agent a referral like that's our mindset around our transaction coordinating process So we have systems and processes in place and work with them Constantly refining them to make sure that we're able to hit these two facets for both the agent and their customers 

Tracy Hayes: going back. the marketing piece. And I would imagine if we could just audiences bear with me to step back because I think this is the one of the other Pieces and I'm I'm asking this question. I have no idea what samantha is going to answer on this one But I imagine because you're doing all these different, marketing Projects for everybody, you know, Luke is doing all these different things you come across [00:48:00] situations You can make suggestions to them remind them.

Tracy Hayes: Hey Christmas is coming up or Easter is coming up or whatever it is These things are available. We could put it in a mailer and I think Our life goes by all of a sudden next thing. We know it's three days before Christmas or that birthday has passed So now it's a belated birthday and you never sent anything out and it happens.

Tracy Hayes: It's true Yeah, you feel it's too late, right? It says just say send a belated birthday card All say people care is that you thought of them whether it was on their birthday or three days after they really don't care but Most people are like, Oh, I can't do that because they'll think I forgot about them. Trust me. Did they send you a birthday card? You know? Yeah, 

Samantha Cox: exactly. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: To be proactive in plan these things out. I would imagine that's in your service portfolio when you're sitting down and someone wants to acquire, you [00:49:00] know, these, these services with you, that you're going to map these out and, and strategically make suggestions should we.

Samantha Cox: Absolutely. So that part of our consulting packages, like we have several different. And one of them is a marketing package and it's like, okay, let's take the next year and let's look at how many times are you sending mailers out? How many events are you having? How many times are you calling them? When are you doing all of these and who's executing it?

Samantha Cox: What's the budget? And so like we're going into all of this and they can say no i'm gonna execute it i'm gonna do it but we help them some, you know We help them plan and kind of figure out what that looks like Some of them are like i'm not gonna do any of it you handle all of it and so it's not like a one size fits all which is why I even named it op suite is because you're able to like Make your own operation suite on what you want it to look like and how involved you want to stay in your company or what you want to stay involved in The other thing and it's not that 

Tracy Hayes: they're not involved not at all.

Tracy Hayes: There's just it's just the the hourly Chores that need to be done. Somebody has to [00:50:00] do them and if they're sitting there You know folding stuffing envelopes. They're not make talking to past clients Is 

Samantha Cox: likely between 250 to 300 an hour So like if you're sitting down doing something that someone can do for 15 to 20 dollars an hour, you know And on a high level like you know You need to be doing something else.

Samantha Cox: You know. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: 100%. Yeah. Well, it comes to the, we want to get across to everyone too. You customize. Yeah. Everyone's package based on what they need, what they want, what they're willing to spend and what services you have. You're in and you're a tailor and you're going to tailor that transaction coordinator.

Tracy Hayes: Go back to that now, because something we talked about pre show some people have had, you know, like, like I said, I call them pay it for play transaction coordinators and they're like, Oh, they weren't any good or any good, but really when it comes down to it, yeah, you may not have actually hired a good person for it, but.

Tracy Hayes: Did you also set the expectations? Tell us how you dig deep with, with an individual agent that needs your [00:51:00] transaction coordinator thing. You know, you're giving them the service that one may expect. And I imagine, you know, your success and your experience, you probably actually go above and beyond just naturally.

Samantha Cox: When, when we have somebody who says, Hey, I'm interested in your service it just, it's not like, let me sit, let me send a contract to you, you know, because you can go on our website right now and technically you can submit a contract to us, but when we see it come through, I'm not going to be like, Oh, let's get going.

Samantha Cox: We have to onboard you first. Like we have a whole process because. Number one, I want to make sure that we're going to be the right fit for you But also I want to be sure that like you're the right fit for us to be honest and likely you are You know if you're we'll find a way Great job, you know Um, and just a good human.

Samantha Cox: That's what I look for. Right, but we I want to set the expectation like here's how we run Our business. Here's how the transaction goes. Talk to me. Would you rather us over communicate or under communicate? Do you like us to do text messages with your clients? You know, like, because [00:52:00] I don't want to do a 

Tracy Hayes: three way text message or three way emails and all that type of, you know, I 

Samantha Cox: don't want to be doing something where you're going to be like, Oh my God, I hate that.

Samantha Cox: You know, like I want to find that out up front. So that way when we move through our first transaction together, there are less hurdles or surprises that we might encounter. And it makes 

Tracy Hayes: the client think you guys have been working together for years. 

Samantha Cox: Exactly. No. Yeah. We don't want it to seem like we're outside of your business.

Samantha Cox: We, we are your team. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. , if you can Because when you customize this piece what are some of the one of your demands or requirements, right? We'll use requirements as a play to word. You know, that you see from agent agents, I imagine there's a wide variety of zero to 10 different types of ways those agents want.

Tracy Hayes: their business served up to them. Give us some, what will give us some of the things that that the agents have expressed to you. This is the way I want to do business. But then I also want you to say, based on my experience, [00:53:00] 

Samantha Cox: this is probably best. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I have certain clients who are like, From the very beginning, please don't email them, my customers, until I email them first introducing you.

Samantha Cox: And like, normally, like, as soon as we get it within four hours, we're getting emails out with them. We're like, nope, we're gonna let you take the lead, and you handle that. The way that we have, like, our back end system set up is we have our, our, Template of, you know, tasks for every single transaction.

Samantha Cox: But then each agent of our, each of our clients has their own template as well because they may have certain things like, hey, after we get through the inspection period, I want to send a bottle of champagne. Can you remind me to do that? And so we have like their separate little checklist that we don't forget, you know, Hey, just a reminder.

Samantha Cox: And so there's software for this there. And so 

Tracy Hayes: it helps you guys, you know, put those little reminders in there. Yeah, 

Samantha Cox: it's called a frame. It's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that's an example. Another one is like Luke for, I already mentioned him anytime. He has tons of referral [00:54:00] partners. So anytime he has a closing once we do finish, we send the.

Samantha Cox: Referral agent a little gift in the mail on behalf of him. And I mean it's signed as him, you know Yeah, hopefully they're not watching this but it's it's not written by luke. It's written by us You know what? I mean? So any any little things that you know, they like to customize their business We're happy as long as it's not you know Outside of the realm of transaction coordinating and super crazy.

Samantha Cox: We're happy to 

Tracy Hayes: what would be super crazy. 

Samantha Cox: I don't even know 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, you hold the right to deny that service 

Samantha Cox: Their transaction to be You know how they want it to be and a lot of times that they'll find is when they start working with us They have expectations and then they're like, oh I actually never thought of doing it this way.

Samantha Cox: I actually like your email better than mine or I like the way that you handle this better than I was and so [00:55:00] You know working through our first transaction. We always are learning each other and how and we communicate a lot So that's the other piece of this is that I want feedback from our clients constantly.

Samantha Cox: If you don't like how something's done, it's probably the same for other agents. You know, and I need to know that. So feedback is super welcome. And even after every transaction, we send out this little delighted link is what it's called. And it's a one through five. How was your transaction? And that's it.

Samantha Cox: They just click it. They don't have to leave. Any comments if they don't want to. But basically gives us like that temperature check on how are things going and if for some reason which, knock on wood, we haven't had any, you know, feedback that's negative, but if we do, it's like, okay, well, thank you for telling us because you're not probably the only one who's feeling that.

Tracy Hayes: Right. Well, I mean, in, in all these transactions, and especially, you know, from a, from a lender side, I mean, to have that call with the agent, you know, prior to actually starting [00:56:00] communication with the client, like, hey, communicate with the wife only, husband's detached, vice versa. There's, there's always some little things.

Tracy Hayes: thing that you, that you want to know behind the scenes. And these are conversations and notes that you're taking and putting them in this A frame so that I would imagine that one individual is assigned that file. You're not like, Oh, who's ever in today has got that file. Yeah. They're always talking to page, for example.

Samantha Cox: Yes, exactly. Yeah. So when you come on board with ops suite, like you have your dedicated transaction coordinator. Sometimes I like to work with agents myself at first to really understand their personality. Oh, that's good. That's good. And then and then they're assigned their transaction coordinator.

Samantha Cox: Like we have Lydia and she's like, To the point, you know, like that's her page. She's definitely more how's it going? You know, let's chat a little bit more and, and it's just like, depends. If you're watching this, you both do amazing. No, it's 

Tracy Hayes: true. I mean, there's [00:57:00] there's we talked about Melissa Ricks earlier.

Tracy Hayes: She tells me she has like three different loan officers. She's referred. Based on the personality of the client that she feels. 

Samantha Cox: Because like, if we have a customer and we know that I'm really 

Tracy Hayes: good at the ones from New York Northeast just to tell all the real estate agents out there, the lending side.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

Samantha Cox: Good. Okay. I'll spread the word also. I 

Tracy Hayes: tell it like it is. 

Samantha Cox: Yeah. Like we want to apply point 

Tracy Hayes: if, 

Samantha Cox: if, if, if they tell us that, like, Hey, the husband is a, you know, we're very big into disc. So he's a high D like. Don't ask about the weather and how he's doing. Like just tell him the inspection is then this is that, okay, bye.

Samantha Cox: You know? And so we want to be sure to communicate that way too, but with our agents as well. 

Tracy Hayes: All right. So this alien comes down on earth, wants to get into real estate. 

Samantha Cox: Okay. 

Tracy Hayes: Doesn't know anything. What a transaction coordinator does, but as brokers sitting there saying, Hey, you know, you're doing really good business.

Tracy Hayes: You need to get a transaction coordinator. What in your eyes, if you were put in control, letting you [00:58:00] take control. They just don't, they don't know any better or let's, Hey, tell me what you would do, and then we'll mold it as we go on. What are the things that you think every transaction coordinator should do based on, you know, your number of people?

Tracy Hayes: Transaction coordinating that you've been doing and your team's been doing is the ideal thing ideal steps for success like your friends It's like ordering the inspection start, you know starting basically from from right from the getting that contract What do you what would you ideally suggest every agent?

Tracy Hayes: Let us do this is going to give you the greatest success 

Samantha Cox: because when we're able to clearly communicate with everybody, whether that be via email, phone call, text, the best way for them, like, we're able to stay in the loop. And honestly, like, When we have a group chat with the buyers, the agent and us, our goal is to answer in that group chat before the agent does.

Samantha Cox: So that way we're training their customers to know that like we can answer that for them. So I think like for transaction [00:59:00] coordinators, like that is our number one goal, you know, is to leverage the agent. And I think like, let us do that. That's, that's my biggest 

Tracy Hayes: Well, just to trail on that, I would imagine there are some questions but, you know, with your experience and, you know, your, your team's experienced to know, like, hold on a second.

Tracy Hayes: No, that's not a question we want to answer. We definitely, the agent needs to step in, even though you're licensed. 

Samantha Cox: Yes. That's correct. So licensed, I've definitely, I've done sales myself. I've had like experience throughout all of the real estate positions. This is definitely my passion. What I would say is that agents do step back in when it comes to the negotiation.

Samantha Cox: So if there's, you know, the inspection will write up the repair request, we'll submit it to the other agent, like all of that. But when it comes to like negotiating. Or 

Tracy Hayes: if they should request or what not to request and that was back and forth. Agent needs to have that conversation. Yeah. 

Samantha Cox: We also, I think like I've been saying like we [01:00:00] take everything off their plates, which we do, but like we always are putting the agent as like the leader.

Samantha Cox: You know what I mean? We never want to step on toes there because they're, they're the leader. They are 

Tracy Hayes: the realtor. Assuming they're partners with Florida Realtors. 

Samantha Cox: So typically like what we'll do is like, Hey, we just got out of meeting with so and so and they've advised that we go ahead and get the appraisal ordered because we're good with the inspection or whatever that looks like.

Samantha Cox: And we're always making sure it's the, the agent who's the one that's the point person. Transaction. Yeah, yeah. Is 

Tracy Hayes: the point person. I, I try to remember well, Jordan Ferry is on and she's part of the line of partners now. And we talked I can't remember what it was though. She was, I had her on a second time with her, with Lindsay, but the first time was by herself.

Tracy Hayes: I can't remember which conversation it was, but we were talking about your team and that where she was at originally you know, whether a transaction coordinator or assistant, but looking at what you're offering here. You are offering [01:01:00] both services, you are offering an assistant as well as transaction coordinating.

Tracy Hayes: So they don't actually have to differentiate you. They just need to tell you what they need or your evaluation helping them, you know, coach them into, okay, here's how we need to structure your business. You really need an assistant because this is what you want us to do. 

Samantha Cox: Yes. And I will say, you know, I have worked with some agents that They would they would do better with an assistant versus outsourcing to a third party for a transaction coordinator And like we've had those conversations because they're so customized That they want us to use their system and unfortunately like if we did that for everybody, you know, it just wouldn't work out So like we have those very Frank conversations on what's best for you and your business now and as you grow and what your goals are.

Samantha Cox: The other thing is like, yeah, you can pick and choose what you are implementing in your business. So like I have some clients that only do bookkeeping. That's it. They don't even use tc listing management. None of that I have some clients who literally do it all so I had someone [01:02:00] call me just this last week and they're like I want the luke christmas package Whatever he's doing Right, you know, so tell me what he's doing which is hilarious And we have some who just do transactions with us and you know, they only do probably a handful a year.

Samantha Cox: That's totally fine so That 

Tracy Hayes: was my next question. What levels are you? You know, we know, you know, Luke and you know, we have, you have some, you know, carry high level. I mean, one of the top two or three in the, in the area or whatever you're, you're dealing with those. I think Carrie did 50 million or something last year.

Samantha Cox: She's incredible. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. But. Yeah. Even as I mentioned in the intro, some agents start right away and say, yeah, I need, I, you know, talking to these other agents or my experience, I want a transaction coordinator or, you know, like Angie Bell, the first thing she did when she got into real estate was hire a coach because she knew from corporate America.

Tracy Hayes: So some of these agents do start off and they're only new first year, you know, if they [01:03:00] do a dozen transactions, that's like amazing first year. You are working with all levels here. Am I right? 

Samantha Cox: Right. So we have some who are brand new to the industry. I do recommend that as a brand new agent, like fumble your way through a few transactions on your own for learning experience.

Samantha Cox: If you want us to take over, we will don't get me wrong. We love the business, but like, it's great for, you know, newer agents to To learn on their own, but then yeah, we actually don't work with just single agents We have teams so like the Cavanaugh and Co Cher Cavanaugh and her team we work with The Rocco group is actually a new client of ours.

Samantha Cox: Awesome. We do all of their transaction coordinating for them, which is full circle for me And awesome. So yeah, so we work with all production levels. It just depends on You know, what, what do you and 

Tracy Hayes: I know you're mentioning a lot of Keller Williams teams, but you're working with some non Keller Williams.

Tracy Hayes: You're, you're on your own. It's just your reputation. There's obviously led you to business. 

Samantha Cox: Exactly. Yeah. So I have a lot of KW surrounding me just from my experience [01:04:00] and, and past, but yes, no, we work with other brokerages and have others like Virginia. Tucson is one of my. Yeah. She's new and of course I don't have to remember.

Samantha Cox: Yep. Had her on 

Tracy Hayes: the show a couple months ago. Yeah. Yeah. Love 

Samantha Cox: her and her agents. But we have quite a few outside brokerages and expanding because, you know, we're starting to, agents are starting to talk and as we do cross transactions, you know, they're learning about OpSuite and we, we started in October last year.

Samantha Cox: Time, time is, you know, Word is traveling, I should say. Yeah, 

Tracy Hayes: I mean, just to if you don't realize it I know you do, but agents I'm talking to that might be listening. If you don't realize that you are working with several of the top 10 real estate teams in Northeast Florida, let alone several of the top 10 agents, individual agents as well.

Samantha Cox: We're honored. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

Samantha Cox: It's been. the best journey and You know, I think like that that's the other thing is we want to align with [01:05:00] like minded individuals and so the teams and agents that were were aligned with like it is it's an awesome partnership and 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, no, it just, you know, when you, you know, like you said, you, you're, you're working with the Rocco group in the reputation that Sarah left there.

Tracy Hayes: And you know, that's where you started. That's where you learn the fact that, you know, they're relying on you now that you're out on your own to handle their stuff. That's a huge compliment. Shira Cavanaugh runs you know, amazing person her and her husband there for sure. Two great endorsements there.

Tracy Hayes: The last thing on this little cheat sheet you had on here was listing management, which listings are up our, our inventories, 150%. It was what it was a year ago, you know, in the area because listings are staying on the market a little longer. What are, what are you doing there? 

Samantha Cox: I love listing management and a lot of agents don't realize this is even an opportunity for them to [01:06:00] leverage.

Samantha Cox: So the moment that an agent gets their listing agreement signed, it's the same as when they have a TC, they hand off the contract. Same thing, they hand off the listing agreement to us. And we are immediately in touch with your sellers. And we're saying, here's the plan, here's the photos. They'll tell us, you know, Hey, we need the carpet replaced in the, the owner's suite.

Samantha Cox: It's not smelling great. So like we're coordinating quotes and helping the sellers get the carpet people out. And anything that goes into play between the moment they get the listing agreement signed to the day and moment that it goes active, we do everything in between. That's literally listing management.

Samantha Cox: Especially in a market right now. 

Tracy Hayes: So just for example just to put because I always like to there's gotta be something where you can On the wall you can stick it to yes they go in there and there's issues where I preach a lot of times on the shows, but when, especially when you have some of these I love the luxury agents When they tell me luxury is a service and not the price point [01:07:00] I like whatever you have luxury because you want the higher price point Love you.

Tracy Hayes: Love you guys luxury but the point is The expectation of a luxury agent is that you are a concierge If someone wants to go into this house or you, you're listing a house that needs the kitchen to be redone, you've already got numbers. You had what you're telling me, or I'm hoping you're telling me is that you as Opsweep can be that concierge for any agent and they go out and they go, they're doing a listing and they're saying, Hey, I got this listing, it's a million two.

Tracy Hayes: It's 800, 000, whatever I know anyone who walks in here, they're going to want to redo the kitchen. Yes. They're going to redo the flooring. I need numbers so that should a buyer come in and they look at it. that they can have a conversation about what that's going to cost. 

Samantha Cox: Or even a step further where they're like, we need to get the whole house painted first.

Samantha Cox: We need the front driveway pressure wash. We need mulch out there. We need [01:08:00] a lawn care service. And this all needs to be done by next Thursday and we need photos before then so that we can go live next Thursday. Yes. So we're getting all of the companies were coordinating with the seller. That's a 

Tracy Hayes: true assistant.

Samantha Cox: Yep. 

Tracy Hayes: Yep. 100%. I mean, you get to go. I mean, you can think of 1000 different than every agent. If you've done any number of transactions, there's always something never have you had a listing where it didn't need maybe a decluttering or a staging or, you know, let alone if you actually had any wanted to replace for.

Tracy Hayes: I saw this meme. I meme, it was on Instagram. I interacted with the guy cause he was preaching about, Oh, don't replace the roof or the hot water heater. Don't spend any of that money. It's not going to get you anymore. I said, dude, until they get the insurance quote, then it's going to cost you. If you as an agent know the roof needs to be replaced, maybe you spend the money.

Tracy Hayes: Or at least go, you go get a quote. 

Samantha Cox: Let's be honest. First impressions, first impressions are important. And especially in this market where [01:09:00] listings, there's a ton of listings and they're sitting like yours needs to be extremely. Attractive and that, that doesn't just mean like the home and like the photos, but that means the listing description.

Samantha Cox: That means all of the input on the MLS, are you putting everything on there? Do you have the photos in the right order? Can I suggest, since this is, you know, a listing up to the preserve, let's actually get drone. You didn't mention you want a drone, but if you have the money to invest, I'm going to recommend that.

Samantha Cox: Like, these are things like having an expert, who's done a million, not a million, a lot of listings in the past, like leveraging this is so important right now versus like ever, in my opinion. 

Tracy Hayes: Well, in coming out of post COVID in where we had, you know, Multiple, multiple offers. You're still getting multiple offers on the hot homes.

Tracy Hayes: For instance, my wife had one recently. It was a three car garage on the golf course in a desirable community with a pool. [01:10:00] All the things that all these, all these people want. Obviously, she had multiple listings within the first couple of days. Sold right away. Same house design in the same community on a preserve set.

Samantha Cox: It's 

Tracy Hayes: probably still sitting right now. 

Samantha Cox: Yeah 

Tracy Hayes: now Could we attribute that they're the off the ASCII prices a little different. That's always a possibility but when you have that house that You know is desirable you and they sign that contract you're like, hey, let's make an offer Boom offer go back for yes.

Tracy Hayes: Okay. Yeah, we'll agree with that price. Everyone signs at that point Every real estate agent every loan officer involved in that transaction is already going boom I've got a closing in 30 days or whatever, right? And you don't want to lay out opportunities or encourage the buyer's remorse as they all will when they they'll sign that agreement.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, we're buying that house for that. They a lot of times they're not jumping up [01:11:00] and down there. They may jump for a few minutes, but after dinner and they lay their head down, then all of a sudden, you know, there's the next morning. There's always did I make the right decision? My body or should I wait a little bit more?

Tracy Hayes: Maybe another house will come up, you know, that type of. So if you give them opportunities like you got the insurance quote here. Yeah, the house is 20. The roof is 20 years old. No one wants to ensure that you're gonna need a new roof. Yeah. Okay. I don't want to buy it. That's that's an opportunity where the hot water heater is 15 years old, you know, at any moment, it's going to burst.

Tracy Hayes: Let alone the day before closing. 

Samantha Cox: Exactly. 

Tracy Hayes: Having those things replaced. to avoid the Murphy's law that if it could happen, it will. And so I, I was just going, you know, thought about that guy. I said, well, obviously you're not in Florida because you're going to go in there and an insurance is going to send you a quote.

Tracy Hayes: And if you've got a borderline client and all of a sudden the payment goes up 150, 200, cause the insurance comes in that much higher there, you got to peel [01:12:00] them off the ceiling, you know? So being proactive, but I love. I mean, I am so impressed, Samantha. I mean, you're, I mean, I'm, I'm not surprised by where, because of where you I'll say grew up through the Keller William and working with Sarah Rocco.

Tracy Hayes: Your, your knowledge and vision of all encompassing, because you really do. I mean, you could write the book, you know, real estate agent for dummies, you know, yeah, type type thing because these are all the things the agents need to be doing and you're offering it. You can say, Hey, if you just want to go and have coffee and walk around and hand out your business cards all day long, you, you pretty much can cover the rest because that's really what it comes down to.

Samantha Cox: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: I think 

Samantha Cox: sales is what I say. Yeah. Everything was, 

Tracy Hayes: but, but, but you're covering their back tail, which hopefully release goes to sales. One, hopefully someone goes through your professionalism. You're, you know, I always you know, when people ask me about guideline questions for loans yeah, there's some stuff like if I've [01:13:00] worked with it recently, but stuff changes all the time and you'll be, you're always asked that one off question in like You know, I worked at a call center.

Tracy Hayes: I've written thousands of loans, but there's still one. And then the guidelines change and things like that. And maybe that guideline changed two years ago and I haven't written a loan that needed that guideline. So I didn't memorize that. We got underwriters that are working with loans from all the loan officers.

Tracy Hayes: They're seeing all the situations their job is to. Solve the situations or you'll make suggestions. Say, go back to the buyer, see if they can do this to make this work. Right. You're dealing with that with all these agents. And then you've got this one off agent. Who's only dealing with the half a dozen, 12 transactions.

Tracy Hayes: They got, they ain't seen everything. They don't have the painters, the flooring people, the, all these, all these people on speed dial, 

Samantha Cox: like, like, yeah, lean on us. And we do have, and they lean on us for like, Hey, I'm feeling this. What are you seeing other agents doing? Or, Hey, like I want to do an event in, in the fourth quarter.

Samantha Cox: What are some ideas that you're like successfully been to other agents do? And I think like, [01:14:00] Having the ability to work with all and of course maintain confidentiality for each team and agent on what they're doing specifically that works best for them. But like having that experience to be able to guide them to the things that work well is huge.

Samantha Cox: Or even in a transaction sometimes I'll have the agent reach out to me and be like, Hey, like we're working through this like What, what is your recommendation? Like can I just bounce ideas off of you? You know, and I think like that's what's What are other agents 

Tracy Hayes: doing? Whatever agents have they done to get around this problem?

Samantha Cox: Exactly. And and so I'm able to kind of help Brainstorm solutions with them, which I think is different than any other transaction coordinating company. Mm 

Tracy Hayes: hmm 100 percent 100 percent because you're you're offering the suite. Yeah, I love it. I really do I'm so glad I had you on today because this is this is really awesome.

Tracy Hayes: I had Oh, I There's got to be someone that you've worked with that all of a sudden now you're taking [01:15:00] this load off, whether it's all these things or some of these things that you're taking a load off that have actually come back to you and said, Oh, my God, now I can actually. Can go and sit in my kids ball game or go to disney world or whatever Can you can you tell us a success story?

Tracy Hayes: someone you don't have to mention names, but 

Samantha Cox: Well, I don't mind to mention names. Well 

Tracy Hayes: if they don't mind 

Samantha Cox: So luke I mentioned luke several times at christmas. He has He was like one of our first clients. I worked with him at the Rocco Group, actually. And so he went off on his own and did his own thing.

Samantha Cox: And he constantly uses the hashtag, just like in our little group chat, OpsSuiteForever. And he tells us all the time, like, Hey, since you suggested that, you actually saved me two grand. This just recently happened. He'll be like, you saved my customers X amount because you suggested that they use the previous title insurance, you know, and He'll send pictures of like him at [01:16:00] the pool with his family.

Samantha Cox: He went to Ginny Springs last Monday He's like couldn't do this without you guys like Definitely. He's like one of those that shares the same His success and how he uses our leverage like he'll clearly say taking off the rest afternoon I go to the beach because he knows we got it under control. Right, right.

Tracy Hayes: I don't if people You know, we all want to control everything and just having the faith and trust in you and your team and to give it up. Don't understand that that little vacation that he has energizes him. 

Samantha Cox: Oh my gosh, he comes back and then he's like, Here's 10 contracts. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Well, it's like anything, anything in life when we're working with people, if you're in sales and you feel good and you're happy, that energy goes into the person you're talking to.

Tracy Hayes: And a lot of time gets you a deal that you may not have gotten, 

Samantha Cox: you know, 

Tracy Hayes: And whatever it is, is you're just feel healthy. You just feel refreshed, whatever it does change the your [01:17:00] energy, you know, You know, translates into and your happiness and people want to be around people like that 

Samantha Cox: out of naturally at the beginning of the year He actually went out of the country for almost two weeks completely out of pocket and his business still continued to run Now 

Tracy Hayes: here's an interesting thing.

Tracy Hayes: We were talking about that team's mastermind the other day. We'll finish with this part right here Is like they were talking about partnering up with and maybe another agent like so they can go You know To Europe for two weeks and someone's still answering their emails or reviewing them contact them when they need to but You know going through those things not like they do you guys would you guys pick up that service?

Samantha Cox: Wow, 

Tracy Hayes: that's amazing 

Samantha Cox: So like I was there to be able to help that, you know negotiate Things that he needed to negotiate like he hired me to do that 

Tracy Hayes: He gave you that he gave you the authority to do it. So he could go and enjoy himself, 

Samantha Cox: right offers, right contracts. Yeah, absolutely 100 

Tracy Hayes: percent that You got it going [01:18:00] on girl You I hope you have a line of people to hire because you're you're I don't know if this is going to stop You're gonna grow you you're gonna have A whole floor in a building somewhere.

Tracy Hayes: I 

Samantha Cox: hope so. I hope so. I mean, I just love seeing the success of our agents and, like, we have a little snack section in our office because I want them to come by and see us. Like, the relationships, my point is, the relationships to us, it's like, that is everything, you know? And I'm just so thankful.

Tracy Hayes: Awesome. Anything you'd like to add before we close out? 

Samantha Cox: Thanks for having me. I appreciate 

Tracy Hayes: you coming on. It was a great conversation. This you know, I figure I'll just keep an eye on it. We've been an hour and 21 minutes, but it's been jam packed with great information. For any agents out there, if you're not already working with an ops suite or type company, I mean, I don't know if there's, is there another company in town that does all this?

Tracy Hayes: I don't. Not that we know of. I talk to a lot of agents. I don't know anyone. They talk about transaction coordinators, but the fact that you're giving them that whole thing in the back, but I appreciate you coming on today. Thanks. You too. Thank you. 

​[01:19:00]