The Missing Piece In Most Realtors' Marketing Strategy

Amanda Downs: So I noticed Platform ‘cause I'm always looking for creative marketing. And I started to see Platform’s marketing. I started to see the great reviews given by previous, I mean, agents that are working with Platform. And then it was like, let me look into this. So I started checking into Platform, and did my homework, and saw everything positive. My husband works from home and I went running up to his office and I started telling him about it. And I said, “What do you think I should do?” And he goes, “By your expression and by your tone, I think you've already answered that question.” And so when I signed up for Platform I knew, okay, I had to put my mind to it that I was going to do it. And that kind of gave me the push also that I needed.

Tim Chermak: This is the Platform Marketing Show where we interview the most creative and ambitious real estate agents in the country, dissect their local marketing strategy, and get the behind-the-scenes scoop on how they're generating listing leads and warm referrals. We'll dive into the specifics of what marketing campaigns are working for them, how much they're spending on those campaigns, and figure out how they have perfected what we call the Platform Marketing Strategy. This is your host, Tim Chermak. I'm the founder and CEO of Platform. I love marketing and I talk too much. So let's dive in.

Tim Chermak: Hey guys, it's Tim Chermak and welcome back to another episode of the Platform Marketing Show. I'm joined today with Amanda Downs. Amanda, welcome to the show all the way from Shenandoah County, Virginia. 

Amanda Downs: Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

Tim Chermak: So Amanda recently started the Platform Marketing Strategy as a realtor. You started, basically 90 days ago, right? 

Amanda Downs: Yes, almost 90 days ago.

Tim Chermak: So this is a pretty early conversation to be having ‘cause normally when we have guests here on the Platform Marketing Show, it's a real estate agent who's been implementing the Platform Marketing program for usually at least six to 12 months. I mean, some of our guests have been clients for a year or two where they have built up enough experience and can kind of talk about what the Platform Marketing strategy has looked like. But you have a lot of early wins literally in your first 90 days implementing this Platform Marketing strategy.

But before we dive into that, because there's some pretty cool things that have happened to you again, just in your first three months. Let's take a step back and tell me about your real estate career up into this point. I know you've been an agent for a long time. It's not like you're a brand new realtor, you're not a rookie. You were already successful before the Platform Marketing program. I think the last couple of years you were averaging around 20 million in sales volume per year. Which is obviously incredibly successful, not even above average, but you're an incredibly successful agent even before starting Platform.

So what led you to Platform? Why did you choose Platform rather than Zillow or other marketing opportunities that you might've had as an agent?

Amanda Downs: So I've tried a lot of things. And I've known from early on that marketing as a realtor was important, that it was something that we had to stay first of mind, like we needed people to remember us when they think real estate. So early on I started marketing and then of course, social media has exploded and it was trying to keep up with that. I do have an assistant. We try to run target ads but we found it, as busy as we are, I didn't have time to be creative. I needed…

Tim Chermak: On Facebook, you were trying to run ads?

Amanda Downs: Yeah. To think of creative Facebook ads. I felt like the Facebook page was “just listed” and “just sold” and that gets boring. 

Tim Chermak: Sure.

Amanda Downs: And that doesn't showcase who I am and who I am as a person. And so I knew that I needed to get out there but it's very difficult to become creative. And when I talked to Diana back in July, I just knew it was a win. It was like that missing piece of my business that I needed.

Tim Chermak: Yeah. I saw that you had said that in an email where you said Platform is like the missing piece in my business or in my marketing plan. Would you care to expand on that? What did you mean that this marketing strategy was the missing piece? Because again, I want to just repeat for those listening here that Amanda was already selling 20 million a year in sales volume before Platform. So it's not like she was a struggling agent who hadn't hit her stride. You were already incredibly successful, probably making over half a million dollars GCI a year. What do you mean when you say that it was the missing piece in your marketing strategy?

Amanda Downs: Because marketing is so important, not only to market the homes that we're selling, but for us to get out there and for people to learn who we are and I didn't have time to do that. I didn't have the creativity to think of ads that didn't look like ads and ads that showed my personality of who I am. When you're running, and I do have an assistant but we're busy handling the files we had. So I needed someone to give me… like I'm good at directions. If you say “Amanda, go do this,” I'm going to go do it. But I don't have time to stop and think about it and try to put that plan together. 

Tim Chermak: Right.

Amanda Downs: So I believed in social media, targeting ads. I knew that's the way social media was going and that was how we needed to reach people. But it was putting it all together. So I had tried, I had taken training on how to do it. And we could do it when we were slow, but it's all about consistency and I just wasn't consistent. So I love it. Like each month I get, “Okay Amanda, here's your October list. Here's some examples, take it. Now go.” And I can put it in my schedule, get those things knocked out, send it over, and it's taken care of. I don't have to think about being creative. And it has worked, like I saw it within the first month of doing it and I believed in it strongly.

Tim Chermak: And you've been an agent did you say for 12 years now? 

Amanda Downs: 12 years now. 

Tim Chermak: What other marketing programs or companies or marketing strategies have you tried in the last 12 years?

Amanda Downs: I've tried from sponsoring, like sponsoring local baseball and little league, and you know, doing local events with the company that I'm with and running targeting ads. I feel like we were doing it but not  like Platform does it. So I knew it worked, but I just couldn't stay consistent with it.

Tim Chermak: What do you think was the biggest factor or the biggest variable in getting you to 20 million? ‘Cause that's kind of the elephant in the room right now and we will definitely get into how you've seen success early on with the Platform Marketing strategy ‘cause I'm actually really excited to hear about some of those wins. But I know the question a lot of people are probably thinking right now as they're listening to this is like, “Hold on, hold on. She already was selling 20 million dollars before she ever signed up for Platform?” 

How did you go from zero to 20 million? What were the key ingredients or things you were doing even if it wasn't paid advertising? Like what would you attribute to getting you to 20 million in sales volume? Because your average price point in your market was… is it 300?

Amanda Downs: It’s about $326,000. 

Tim Chermak: Okay. So that's a very normal American real estate market. It's not like you're selling 20 million a year because all of your homes are million dollar homes, right? You're having to do some pretty significant volume to get to 20 million. Again, you're a very successful real estate agent. What got you to that point? Was it just staying in touch with your sphere? Was it client appreciation events? Like what got you to that point?

Amanda Downs: Yeah, definitely. I came into a market when I told people I was becoming a real estate agent, they're looking at me like I'm crazy. We had tons of foreclosures, it was just a very down market. But I was at the point of my life where it was something I always wanted to do and now is the time to do it. So my first year I did 5 million, which I thought was really good. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah, yeah.

Amanda Downs: It is. And then from there I have built and it is. We send out happy anniversary cards to all my past clients. We do the first five years, they're getting a postcard from us. So my past clients are a huge part of my business. We are in a small community. So a lot of them, I stay in touch on Facebook. I see their families grow. I stay in connection with them and I'm running into them when I'm out in town.

I think it's just, again, staying in front of your past clients as you build. Like I don't think we can just focus on the past clients, we have to constantly keep gaining new business. I did do Zillow, I'm still doing Zillow, I hope one day to drop that. That does okay. It doesn't do as well as it used to. So I'm planning to finally take that and move it more over to the social media.

Tim Chermak: And that is something by the way, that I have heard from so many agents in the last year specifically, that I used to spend a bunch of money on Zillow but it's just not working this year the way that it used to. Because I've said many times on the Platform Marketing Show here on the podcast that you have to be marketing agnostic, right? Even though I'm obviously the founder and CEO of Platform and I love to hear when people are having success with Platform, you have to be marketing agnostic in the sense that don't get too attached to believing in one strategy or the other, as much as you just believe in results, right?

Tim Chermak: So if Zillow is working for you, if you're spending a dollar and making five, if you're spending a thousand dollars a month on Zillow, but averaging $5,000 a month in GCI from Zillow or whatever, keep doing it. It's not as if it costs you anything if it's working, right? Even if you're just spending a dollar and making two, it's working and it's not costing you anything. But more and more over the last year, like specifically here in 2023, I've been just hearing from so many agents that, “You know what? The reason I'm giving Platform a try is because I was spending two grand a month on Zillow,” or some people were spending $5,000 a month on Zillow and it's just not working anymore. They're just not getting enough leads and closings to justify it, where a couple of years ago, they absolutely were. It was really, really profitable for them. And Zillow keeps raising prices. That's what's going on is, as fewer agents are using Zillow, Zillow is responding to that by raising the prices so they can make back some of the money from the people who keep using Zillow. And obviously that just makes it a worse value if there's less people buying houses this year but Zillow is costing you more than it did in previous years. 

Tim Chermak: That’s honestly been really good for Platform ‘cause we've had a lot of agents sign up this year because they said, “Hey, I had this big Zillow budget and it stopped working.” And that's how they stumbled upon Platform because it looked like something they might want to try with all that money they were previously spending on Zillow. So Amanda, how did you first discover Platform? Was it a Facebook ad or a referral or how did you find out about us?

Amanda Downs: It was, and just one thing on that Zillow too I want to just point out. When a Zillow lead that's not a quality lead. But if you can get a lead for someone that's calling you directly and wants to work with you, then that is a quality lead. They're going to stick with you. I don't know how many Zillow calls I get and then they just ghost me versus the one that calls directly.

Tim Chermak: Yeah. If someone sees your Platform retargeting ads and they're getting to know you and they see you and your family or your hobbies or your favorite local restaurant in Woodstock, Virginia, whatever, they feel like they're getting to know you. And then if they call you, it's because they actually want to work with you specifically. Like they're not just looking for any random agent to open the door because there's a listing they want to go see and they don't care who it is as long as you can operate a lock box, right? It's because they actually want to specifically work with Amanda Downs and that makes all the difference. 

Amanda Downs: So I noticed Platform ‘cause I'm always looking for creative marketing. And I started to see Platform’s marketing. I started to see the great reviews given by previous, I mean, agents that are working with Platform. And then it was like, let me look into this. So I started checking into Platform and did my homework, and saw everything positive. And so I got connected with Diana, who was amazing. 

Tim Chermak: Yup, she's great. She’s great.

Amanda Downs: Yeah, she's awesome and I just knew. Like when you have that little piece that you're missing and you've been trying to figure out how to do it and that's just thrown in your lap, it's kind of like a no brainer. So I got off the phone with Diana and I said let me think about it. My husband works from home and I went running up to his office and I started telling him about it. And I said, “What do you think I should do?” And he goes, “By your expression and by your tone, I think you've already answered that question.”

So I was like oh my goodness, yes! So I immediately, ‘cause I told Diana we’re going on vacation. I'll think about it and let you know. So it was no time, I was messaging her back and I'm like, “Send me everything, I am so ready for this.” And then it was, okay I'll sign up but I won't do any ads until, and start working on the projects, until I get back. But I was so hyped about it.

Tim Chermak: And this is because you were about to leave on a vacation, you said? 

Amanda Downs: On a vacation, yes. I signed up about a week, a week and a half before I was supposed to leave for a 10-day trip with the family. So I decided I was gonna do the duck video and so the weekend before we left, my husband and I went out and did it.

Tim Chermak: And by the way, for those listening or watching, she's referring to this video that a lot of our Platform agents have done. It's one of my favorite videoscript ideas that we've ever come up with. It's called the “Ducks in a Row” and basically you get some rubber duckies that you'd order from Amazon dot com or whatever, and you get these rubber ducks. And it's just a cute video where you talk about, “Hey, as a realtor I'll help you get your ducks in a row.” And we toss the ducks in such a way and you use the ducks as prop in this video. It's kind of just a stupid but funny, kind of cute video talking about I will help you get your ducks in a row, right?

The whole point is that this video just positions you as being a fun realtor. Like you're not taking yourself too seriously and you're willing to put yourself out there on social media. And so anyways, this was the very first ad that you did? 

Amanda Downs: Yes, it was. And I needed a push, okay? So I'm one that my hands get sweaty, my heart feels like it's going to drop down into my stomach, you know? I'm not one that likes to do videos. And so when I signed up for Platform I knew, okay, I had to put my mind to it, that I was going to do it. And that kind of gave me the push also that I needed.

Tim Chermak: And so you got started right away doing this Ducks in a Row Platform video script. What happened in that first month that you started the Platform Marketing program? 

Amanda Downs: Yeah, so we did the duck video. It actually came on, it was on Facebook while I was at the beach and didn't think nothing of it. I got a call while I was at the beach, a young lady reached out and said, “Hey I'm purchasing my first home, would you mind helping me?” I explained to her I was on vacation, but I'd get her set up on some searches, got back and we went out and started looking. Within about two and a half weeks, she was under contract and at the home inspection she brought up, Get your Ducks in a Row video and I'm like “Oh, you saw that” and she's Iike, “I called you because of that video.” She goes “I wasn't having any luck finding a realtor I wanted to work with.” And she said, “I saw the video and thought you would be fun to work with.” And she goes, “that's why I called you.” So, you know, It was just–

Tim Chermak: And all of that happened in your first month working with Platform.

Amanda Downs: First month, yes. Yes and then a couple of weeks after that, I would say probably about a month after I started Platform, we had our local fair. And my husband and I went out to it and I had several past clients, people that I knew that weren't past clients coming up to me, mentioning my videos and saying, “I'm loving your videos.” So that helped also because when you're nervous about doing videos, and you get those people to approach you and say “hey, I love it. How cute was that?” And they will actually name the video they saw, like I saw you doing this. 

Tim Chermak: So you know that they're actually seeing the videos. They're not just saying that.

Amanda Downs: Right. And so that kind of just, you go, okay I'm doing something right, I've got to continue. And I think it’s just the response in general, I mean since then I've had, I went to a closing and actually the next couple of things I'm going to tell you all happened within a week of these people approaching me. I would say it was probably about two months in to doing Platform, I went to a closing and two of the ladies that I see quite often started laughing about my videos and some of the ads. I did the Taco and Pumpkin Spice ad where you hold it up and say, “Which one would you choose?” And I did the, oh my goodness, I've done a couple of good ones. What's the one called where you're in that crazy colorful outfit?

Tim Chermak: Oh, like the 1980’s ad about the windbreaker? 

Amanda Downs: Windbreaker, windbreaker. Thank you. I did that and they started mentioning it, but they started talking about the videos too. And they're like “We don't watch videos. We see a lot of realtors, we don't watch. But we watch your videos to see what kind of crazy thing you're going to do next.”

Tim Chermak: And it keeps you top of mind, right?

Amanda Downs: Yes. And I think being part of the platform family Facebook group, I mean everyone on there is so wonderful. It helps get your mind thinking of how to be creative doing these videos. And I love how everyone shares ideas and ask questions so that really helps us too, but I had that. I had an old broker, my very first broker who I respect dearly, reach out to me personally and say, “I love your social media. Keep it up, Amanda.” 

And then I had a builder reach out to me and talk to me about possibly listing six new construction homes that he's thinking about doing. I had a lender within that same week. I don't even know this lender, but she's “Hey, I'm a lender. I watch a lot of realtors, you are setting yourself apart.” So hearing that just encourages me that what I knew that Platform could do is actually working.

Tim Chermak: And all of that again, just to kind of frame up the context of this conversation, all of this is happening within your first 90 days of starting the Platform Marketing strategy. So this isn't happening a year in where people are starting to notice. You were having people telling you out in public that within 90 days like, “Hey, I'm seeing your videos. I loved this one.” or “I loved that one.” Getting that feedback gives you the inspiration to keep going. 

Amanda Downs: Absolutely. Yesterday, well actually two days ago, I got a call off of one of my videos that I did. And he's like, “Hey, do you mind showing me this home you just did a video on?” “Sure.” I met him. I met him yesterday, showed him the property and towards the end he looked at me, he goes “I absolutely love watching your videos.” So again it just shows, because I think it helps us market the home. We're not just marketing ourselves but those video tours are very important and it is bringing attention to the homes that we're putting on the market.

Tim Chermak: Yep. I think using the Platform listing video strategy is just like the ultimate Swiss army knife of marketing strategies for realtors because lots of agents are nervous about going on camera ‘cause they don't want to be the star of the show. They don't want to think like they're talking about themselves or making it all about them. They kind of feel it's almost arrogant or narcissistic to go on camera and put videos on social media of them. I'm probably one of those people. Like I don't even particularly like hopping on and doing a video interview like this because I'm like, who wants to see Tim talk, right? It's just human nature to not want to put yourself out there on camera. But that's the cool thing about listing videos is that you really, even though you're in the video, you're not really the star of the video. People aren't focusing on you as much as they want to see the house, right?

So it allows you to be yourself and show someone a tour of a new house, of a new listing but you kind of know that people are watching the video because they want to see the house, not because of you. But as long as you're in the video the entire time and you're the one giving the tour, kind of narrating, they're also getting a healthy dosage of Amanda ‘cause you're in the video the entire time so that they do remember you, right? This is way, way more effective from a long term local branding perspective, this is way more effective than just uploading a bunch of photos of homes. Because unless you're randomly, just awkwardly in all the photos of a home.

You can upload all the photos in the world and it doesn't really do anything for your brand as a realtor. Because houses come and go, there's new listings every week. Listings come and go but we want people to remember you, not necessarily a specific house. So that's why I love the listing video strategy because yes, you're showing people houses, you're giving them what they want, but it's also kind of in the background like subconsciously building your brand over time. 

Amanda Downs: Yeah ‘cause we're grabbing their attention and then we're turning it over and going “now look at the home.” And then we're showcasing the home, and that was another thing with Platform. You know, trying to do these videos and then put it together, like the marketing team is great. I send over those clips of the videos and they just put it together and they make it look so good. So I don't have time to do that.

Tim Chermak: Yeah. And it's also the strategy behind all this, right? What makes Platform work so well is yes, we're going to edit all of your videos. It's a full blown video marketing department at your disposal. We write the Facebook ads. We kind of handle everything for you, right? But it's part of an overall strategy. So it's not just randomly putting listing videos out there and then hoping someone calls you because of it. We're also setting up obviously retargeting on all these campaigns so that if someone watches one of these listing video tours, even if they don't actually click, even if they don't request more information, just by watching the video for at least 10 seconds, they're added to your retargeting list so that they'll keep seeing ads from Amanda pop up in their newsfeed over time just because they watched 10 seconds of this listing video tour. 

Tim Chermak: Again, it's about building your personal brand, not necessarily selling the listing. I know Facebook technically measures any video view as like someone who watches for three seconds or more but we think that's a BS metric because you can honestly accidentally watch a video for three seconds on Facebook, right? And we don't want to necessarily pay to retarget all those people just ‘cause they accidentally watched a video for three seconds. So what we do is we go in on the backend of your ads account, we manually change that setting to be 10 seconds. So now anyone who watches at least 10 seconds of one of your videos, they're on your retargeting list. So your ads, your retargeting ads will keep popping up in their newsfeed for six months after that. That's the beauty of the Platform Marketing strategy. It's all that marketing sequence that happens after the initial ad.

Tim Chermak: It's kind of like an iceberg. The majority of an iceberg at any given point is underwater, right? You can't actually see it. You're only seeing the tippity top of the iceberg above the water. That's kind of like the Platform Marketing strategy. So even if other realtors in your area try to copy you, they're not really seeing the majority of what makes the marketing strategy work under the surface. It's all these retargeting ads and all the sequencing and strategy on the backend to keep you top of mind. And the crazy thing is, again, we're having this conversation, Amanda, only 90 days into your Platform Marketing experience so you haven't even really seen the majority of the benefits of that retargeting because people have only been on your retargeting list for a couple months.

Amanda Downs: And that's what I'm so excited. I cannot wait to get to that six months point, get to that next spring. And I knew winter can be a little bit slower, but I knew that now was the time to get involved, to sign up for Platform and build that. So when the spring market comes and whether it's a buyer thinking of now possibly buying, or a seller putting their house on the market, they're going to think of Amanda Downs because there's still a lot of agents. 

When I started this, when I started becoming a realtor, there wasn't a whole lot of us ‘cause the market was horrible. And I was like where's everyone at? And they said, “Oh, don't worry. When the market gets really good our market's going to flood with agents.” And you never really understood that until it just happened, you know? When the market exploded and the interest rates went crazy, everyone knew someone that was a real estate agent.

Tim Chermak: It's like “Oh, my uncle's friend can list your house,” and he's sold one house in his life. Just all these part time agents who think it's easy money to be a realtor, came in when the times are good and now obviously the years 2022 and 2023 have frankly been very difficult, extremely difficult for real estate agents as rates go up and up and up. At the time we're recording this podcast there are people getting mortgages that start with a nine. 

It's a very difficult time to be a realtor right now because you might be getting quality leads, but people just don't want to buy right now because interest rates are so high. I'm sure you've had people tell you this year like, “Hey, I want this house or I want to sell my house, but I think we're going to wait until rates come down,” or “We just can't afford it right now. We're just going to wait.” I'm assuming that's happened this year?

Amanda Downs: Yes, quite a bit. Just had another buyer just tell me “Hey, we're just going to save our money and we're going to see what next year brings.” And you know, you try to educate them but they hear a lot and they're going to believe what they want to believe. So I don't push them. I just tell them I'm here when they decide to come back and I stay in touch with them ‘cause I think that's very important. I keep them on getting them list of homes. And then about every three months I just touch base and say, “I'm here. Let me know if you have any questions.” ‘Cause I think it's important to stay in touch with them also. Because they're going to come back. It's just a matter of when.

Tim Chermak: Yup. And obviously now with Platform, you have the peace of mind of knowing that as you're doing all these manual things to stay in touch, doing a check in every 90 days, sending them listings, just to stay top of mind, Platform is also running all these retargeting ads on your behalf. So if they've ever clicked on any of your Facebook or Instagram ads or watched any of your videos, every time they log in, they're also seeing new posts from you pop up on their social media newsfeed, regularly. So they're not going to forget about you. That I think is honestly the biggest value of the Platform Marketing strategy for realtors is just having that peace of mind of knowing that you can stay top of mind with anyone who comes across you, without you having to manually do things to stay top of mind. 

Tim Chermak: Now you should do those things too, right? I'm not saying don't follow up with people. You absolutely should keep doing what you're doing to manually reach out and call them or email them. But having that kind of all those retargeting ads running in the background is sometimes the difference between someone remembering you six months later and then choosing to work with another realtor.

Amanda Downs: We have to stay top of mind. Because even though there are people dropping out there's more coming in. We're going to constantly have that fluctuation. And like I had mentioned earlier from day one, I knew that staying top of mind and marketing is extremely important. You have to set yourself aside from everyone else. And I think Platform does that, it gives us the direction that we need. We go do it and then I hand it over to Emily. 

Emily's my account manager, who's also amazing. And I handed over to her or I'm like, “Okay Emily, what can I do this month? We had an anniversary trip.” And she's like “Amanda, take me tons of pictures when you take on your trip,” and I took a trip, sent her everything, gave her an overview of what we loved, what we didn't like. And we started getting Happy Anniversary wishes from people I did not even know.

Tim Chermak: That's awesome.

Amanda Downs: And they get to know who I am and my family, which real estate is about that personal connection. A lot of my clients become good friends or if I see them out in public, I give him a hug, you know? It's that personal connection and they need to know who we are. We're not just some salesperson out here, trying to sell you a home and then goodbye, never see you again. I want them to feel like they are a friend because they are. I say that I carry a lot of weight on my shoulders and I do, because I almost become like this mother hen over my clients. And I want them to feel safe and want them to understand that I've got their back. And if they don't know us they're not going to have that connection with us. So I feel like doing the Platform Marketing, they're getting to know me before they actually meet me.

Tim Chermak: Yeah. I think even though everyone's heard this expression probably a thousand times, people make decisions emotionally and then they justify those decisions with logic after the fact, but it's emotion that actually made the decision. And yet so much of realtor marketing that I see is focused on logic as if people are making hyper logical choices and decisions of what agent they're going to work with.

And it's not as if people have a spreadsheet and they're listing off 10 agents with the pros and cons list, and they're going through and reading every review that anyone's ever left you on Zillow or on Google, and then they're doing all this research to see which agent am I going to work with. Like, no. It's really a more gut level, primal decision of which agent do I just vibe with? 

Who do I feel like that's a cool agent? That's who I want to work with. And that's the element that's missing in most agents marketing is none of their marketing is helping people get to know you at a personal level. You're not sharing any details of whatever. What are your favorite books? What are your favorite foods? What's a recent vacation you took? If you're married or you have kids, showing a picture of your family. 

Tim Chermak: One of my favorite retargeting ads is actually even just holding up several of your favorite books and saying, “Hey, here's my top three or my top five favorite books. Has anyone else read these? Do you have any other recommendations for me?” Just sharing little tidbits about you so people can feel like they're getting to know you because if they feel like they're getting to know you, they'll want to work with you, right? 

Again, people make decisions emotionally and justify it with logic. So your marketing should be about those emotions, not really the logic and you'll stand out because pretty much no other agents in your market are doing that. So if you give people a reason to want to work with you, they will they will work with you.

Tim Chermak: So Amanda, I want to step back and just talk a little bit about the economy right now, ‘cause that's like the dark cloud over this whole conversation is as we're recording it we're still in the thick of 2023. It's been a tough year, a frustrating year for a lot of real estate agents. I mean, lots of agents’ businesses is down 20, 30, 40% this year ‘cause obviously transaction volume has fallen off a cliff. There's just so many people that frankly want to buy a house right now but they just feel like, again, it's emotions. 

They feel like they can't afford it because interest rates are so high this year. And yet you sold 20 million each of the last couple years, and even in 2023 in this difficult year, you're still on pace to sell over $20 million again. So rather than your business going down 20, 30, 40%, 50%, you're actually holding steady, selling 20 million this year. And I know that you consider that a big success. 

Amanda Downs: Yes. I'm probably going to be a little shy of last year's record. We got to get them to the closing table. I never count them until they're there. 

Tim Chermak: Yup.

Amanda Downs: But you know, going into 2023 I thought, “If I can just get 15 million this year,” because it just sounded like a horrible market.

Tim Chermak: Well, I mean let's be honest, it is a horrible market.

Amanda Downs: It is, it is. It's a tough market. I will say it's a tough market but I feel that we have to change when the market changes. So a lot seemed, that I talked to in the beginning of the year were like, “Oh, I'm gonna save everything I can. We got to buckle down. We don't know how we're going to make it this year.”

And it is scary. Yes, I've been blessed to have a couple amazing years but we can't get quiet. I feel like that's when you've got to get out there even more. It is scary to spend money when you're hearing and you're seeing change around you and you're seeing this great market where just stuff was falling in your lap. 

Again, I started when the market was bad and I had to learn how to fight and leads weren't just falling in my lap. So I kind of had to revert back to that and go, “Okay, it's going to get tough, but we can't stop.” And that's why when I got off with Platform with Diana, I knew it was something I needed to do. But going into winter, you're seeing interest rates going up, I too am scared about what the next couple of months are going to be like. But this is the direction that I needed to go and it's already working. And I think if you do your assignments and you make sure that you get everything in, it does work.

Tim Chermak: Yeah. If you do your Platform Marketing homework, it works.

Amanda Downs: Yeah, it works. It works.

Tim Chermak: As we as we roll into winter, because, I mean I'm not sure when people will be listening to this recording in the future. Maybe it's years in the future where someone stumbles across this YouTube video or podcast episode, but we are recording this live on October 31st, 2023. So Halloween 2023 is when this was officially recorded. So we're right heading into the slower winter time of year. Like I said, interest rates are in the nines for a lot of people right now, it's a difficult time to be a realtor. 

You're going into the winter kind of worried like, “What is my pipeline going to look like in December, January, February?” And yet, as you said, a lot of agents pull back on their marketing and it becomes this self-fulfilling prophecy. Because if you're worried about having a slow pipeline going into the winter or a slow pipeline, even going into the spring, if you fast forward six months into the future, the last thing you should be doing is slowing down your marketing because then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy that you're absolutely not going to have any lead pipeline or closings coming up if you slow down the marketing. So I think you're thinking about it exactly correct.

Tim Chermak: If you're going into a slow time and maybe we're in a recession, whether you want to use the dreaded R word or not, cut other things out of your life. Maybe don't go out to eat as much, or take five star vacations in the Caribbean, or maybe don't go buy an 80,000 BMW or cut certain things out of your budget. But if you're a business person, do not slow down on marketing. 

Even for our own company, Amanda, I can say this for Platform. Obviously, we're facing the same headwinds as everyone else because we're not realtors ourselves, but all of our clients are real estate agents. So if the market goes down, our business goes down as well. Our profits as a company this year are down like 50% and yet we've actually doubled, we've more than doubled our marketing budget this year. 

So even though there's less money to spend on marketing, I've actually doubled our sales and marketing budget this year, because I realized that, “Hey, if we want to build momentum going into 2024, we should be spending more money on marketing right no not less money on marketing.” And so many agents, I just feel like they create a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you're worried about having a slow winter and then you turn off all your marketing, guess what's going to happen? You're going to have a slow winter. 

Amanda Downs: Yeah. You can't do that. Again, we have to stay top of mind and we have to stay connected and social media right now is how we stay connected. It's the quickest and easiest way for me to get in front of people. Even though attending local events are great, sponsoring little leagues and sponsoring the game, it's still quick to forget who Amanda Downs is. So I think as agents are pulling back, now is the time where we should be stepping up.

And they're scared too. They're wondering what the market's doing and it's educating them also, keeping them in for informed and ensuring them that there's still a real estate market out here. People still need to buy and sell homes.

Tim Chermak: Yup, absolutely. There are absolutely still people in every market buying and selling because they have to move. You just have to find those buyers who are actually moving. Because there's not a lot of low hanging fruit out there of people that found a house they liked on Zillow, and it seems nice, and they're going to move because it's a slight upgrade, right? No one's doing that in this market. They're really only moving if they have a job change or a major life event. Whether it's a divorce or their last kid left high school, now they're empty nesters. Maybe it's a young couple who now has a second child and they need to upgrade the size of the house they're in for their new family. It's only those people that have to move that are moving right now. 

So there absolutely still business out there. You just have to position yourself as the agent that people want to call when they do have to make that move. So I've been kind of negative the last 5, 10 minutes so I actually want to end this podcast episode with two reasons that realtors listening to this should be positive right now as we go into the winter.

Tim Chermak: The first is that there's a lot of latent demand out there. So, as long as interest rates have been high, as of this recording, they've been really elevated for about 18 months since the Fed started raising rates. The longer interest rates are high, the more latent demand that creates of people who wanted to move in 2022, or they wanted to move in 2023. They just couldn't emotionally justify it with the interest rates where they're at. 

Now, we could debate all day long about could you actually afford it? Could you do things like using a rate buy down or just buy now and refi later, right? We know all those arguments as realtors. But the point is for emotional reasons, there's a lot of people, millions of people that have chosen not to buy or sell in 2022 or 2023 and they're hoping that rates come down and they're just waiting. So that means this is a piece of good news, that as long as you keep your marketing up and you stay top of mind in your community, 2024 will be a substantially better year. 

Because whenever the Fed raises rates… I don't have a crystal ball, I don't know if it's going to be April, May, June, September, I have no idea but when rates drop and things normalize a little bit, there is a flood of both buyers and sellers that will flood into the market because this is what they've been waiting for.  So all those people the last couple of years that didn't buy or sell, it doesn't mean they're permanently going to stay in their house forever. It just means they didn't do it in 2022 or they didn't want to move in 2023. They're really just postponing their moving plans, right? 

Tim Chermak: So all of that sets up 2024, whenever the Fed drops rates, as being an epic year for buyers and sellers and it's your job as a realtor to position yourself right now with marketing so that when that happens, you are the real estate agent that people want to call, right? So the first good news I guess is all the latent demand that's out there. 

The second piece of good news that I just want to highlight is all the agents that are dropping out right now, that are just going and finding a new job because they can't cut it anymore, you know? They just haven't had the income, they can't afford it anymore. They're not going to be a realtor in a month or in 90 days, whatever. So you will have less competition next year as well, because again, all the agents that are just dropping out. So that's kind of a bad news if you're the agent listening to this who is quitting. But for the agents that have a long term vision, that's really great news because you know that you have less competition in the future to get those future listings.

Amanda Downs: And again, that's why we can't crawl underneath the desk right now and say, “I'm gonna hold everything back. I'm just gonna sit here and watch and see what it does.” That's what buyers and sellers, some are doing. So as they're pulling back, we need to get out there. We need to educate them, we need to stay in front of them because they are going to come back out. And I am thinking, I am so excited with Platform and how it's going to position me for the spring market in 2024.

Tim Chermak: One last thing I'll say here as you mentioned the spring market in 2024. One last piece of good news that we can end and this conversation, Amanda, is that there really is no other business in the world that I can think of, maybe outside of like high stakes poker in Las Vegas or something, where one really good month can cancel out six really bad months. Or can cancel out nine really bad months where real estate agents forget that one really good month that you have, let's say in April or May or June, where maybe you get four closings and each of them are worth, I don't know, $8,000 a piece. So in one month you make $30,000. Or in one month you make $40,000, whatever. That one month essentially cancels out four, five, six bad months where you were thinking, “Oh man, nothing's coming in. I had no closings. I was just spending money and nothing was coming in.” There really aren't other businesses that can say that, right? 

Tim Chermak: If you own a sporting goods store, or a car dealership, or you're a dentist, or you own a CrossFit gym, or you're even a law firm, whatever. You can't have six slow months and then just have one good month cancel out six slow months. It's always more of a gradual thing if you have to just fight to be above average and grow slowly every single month, just make incremental gains. Real estate is not like that. You can all of a sudden get a bunch of phone calls in a week and then a month or two from now, you have five closings that month or three closings that month. And all of a sudden this huge lump sum of cash comes in that again, is often enough to cancel out six or seven or eight or nine bad months in a row. So it's important to keep that perspective that right now we're in that slow time, but all it takes is one good month to erase almost an entire year of things being really slow.

So it's your job as the realtor to make the investments and do your marketing homework in the meantime. Do the things that will set you up to have that epic good month in 2024 that'll make you forget all of this. And consider yourself lucky that you're in an industry where one good month can cancel out six slow months ‘cause most people most people in other professions don't have that.

Amanda Downs: Well, it's easy to do. I've had my bad times too. And starting off in 2023, it was the first worst quarter I had ever had. My heart raced. I'm like, I have never had such a bad quarter. So it literally made me work harder to catch back up and to get out there and not sit behind the desk, but to actually get out in front of people. And then again, I think the advertising and being in front of people is so important. And that's why Platform was just a no-brainer. 

That takes so much time that I would try to invest doing that. You all make it easy. And clearly it has worked. I mean, look. I did the Ducks in a Row and just that buyer, she bought a $350,000 house so okay, that just paid for how many more months. And she came from Platform Marketing. So you know, it’s like “Okay, if I get one every couple months, it at least pays for the marketing.”

Tim Chermak: Yeah. And you're getting your name out in the community and who knows how big that snowball keeps rolling and rolling and rolling. And by the time we roll into spring of next year, that's a pretty big marketing snowball.

Amanda Downs: Yes. So do it. Anyone listening to this, just do it. Trust me. It works.

Tim Chermak: Amanda, thank you for your time today.

I want to value your time. I will hopefully see you at the upcoming Platform Mastermind. And for those listening, we'll see you guys on the next episode of the Platform Marketing Show. 

Amanda Downs: Thank you.