Reed Gray - Elevate: A Podcast For Driven Real Estate Agents - Episode 5
Watch the Episode Here:
Episode 5 features an interview with Reed Gray from Coldwell Banker Caine here in the Upstate of SC. For Reed, real estate is a family affair, and his relationship to Coldwell Banker Caine began many years prior. His mother, sister and aunt are all involved in the real estate business. After seeing the pride his relatives take in their real estate careers, Reed knew that he had to make the transition and develop his own career in the business. Whether it's helping a client purchase their first home, explore an investment opportunity or relocate to Greenville, Reed prides himself on being a trusted resource to help clients reach their real estate goals.
In This Episode We Cover:
The importance of investing in real estate as a home owner.
Using social media as a way to generate new leads.
Some tips for agents just starting out.
Listen Along!
Read the Episode Here!
Reed Gray:
As a real estate professional. Our job, I think in particular is to educate people right now. But as the market shifts, I have this conversation every single day. And it's one that I try and have on social media, but really I have it more in person. I think that the changing market is honestly a good thing. And some people would be like, dude, you're crazy. What are you talking about? Asking pressure? You're getting paid more money. Whatever. No, it's not about that. I'm not about making money. Obviously you need to. I wanna help people. And as the market shifts, I think it's coming back to normal. And I tell people all the time, we know what we know we're accustomed to in the past two years have been very fierce.
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Elevate. I am excited that you're here because I want to introduce you to Reed Gray. And Reed, you're with Caldwell Banker Crane, right?
Reed Gray:
Caine.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yes, sir. caine got Crane, I always think it's Crane at the end. Caldwell Banker Caine. And he's here with us to talk a little bit about his journey so far and what he's doing. We actually just had a fantastic conversation about investing and so maybe we'll get into that just a little bit later, but we don't have to. Sure. But Reed first off, thank you. I appreciate you being here. I appreciate you sharing what with everybody else. I mean, we were talking as you came in. I think the biggest obstacle for most agents is trying to, who's essentially basically who's getting started is to try to figure out how to market themselves and how to start this business because there's so much potential as an agent. There's so much potential. So first off before we get started, tell us a little bit about you, Reed. Tell us about how you got started. How did you become an agent yourself? What's your journey?
Reed Gray:
Yeah, certainly. So for me, it's kind of an interesting one. And first off, thank you guys for having me. Yeah, I'm excited to be here. My background is I'm a baseball guy. That's what I did. That's what I knew that that's, it's always been my life and so played in college. And then a lot of guys that are like, whoa, what do I do now? And he's like, well, I know baseball, so let's keep coaching. And so I coached for three years. I coached two years at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina. And then I coached for one year at Tusculum University in Greenville, Tennessee. And I like to joke with people, that is the wrong Greenville.
Nathan Whitworth:
If
Reed Gray:
You're from Greenville, no offense, right?
And I loved it and I'm very glad that I did it, but I'm glad that I don't do it anymore. I think the relationship with the players was so important and just very beneficial for them and for myself. And I started to think about what it was that I wanted for myself and my life, and that career in my desires didn't match up. So decided, Hey, let's get out of this and let's figure something out. And I remember having a conversation with my sister one day who's also a realtor. She's in Nashville, and I'll kind of get to that. And she said, Reed, money doesn't buy you happiness, but it buys you comfort. And the reason that I mentioned that is because when I coached in college, I coached for free for three years. Oh man. And it was tough, dude. Yeah, it was tough.
But I wouldn't change a thing. And so I started thinking about what it was that I wanted to do. And my mom's an agent here in Greenville. We work together. We're an informal team the mom and son duo, if you will. Cool. And sister, she's a top producing agent in Nashville, and she's not even 30. So I really admire that about her. And then I've got an aunt who's an agent in Nashville as well. So it kind of just made sense for me to jump in and look at the success that they've had and say, I believe in myself and I think that this is something that I'd be good at. So I gave it a shot and here I
Nathan Whitworth:
Am. That's awesome, man. That's great. So I think what's interesting is of all the agents that I've met, all the agents that I've talked to, typically the ones for most agents and for most realtors, this is a second or third career for most, is very few who get in when they're super young and they become an agent and they become a realtor when they're really, really young. And so what I've found though is that most agents who really excel and who really find success being entrepreneur typically were in something in their first or second career before they got here where they learn how to pursue excellence well. And I think sports is the fantastic place to do that. Sure. I could definitely see in you how smart you are, how quick you are. You put things together, you connect things in your mind super fast. And just the times that we've talked, you want things done well and you want things done. And I think those are lessons that have been learned as sports, particularly even coaching that is Sure is serving you well right now. So that's super cool. That was a part of your journey.
Reed Gray:
Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad that I did it, but I'm glad that I'm here now too. So yeah, it's part of everybody's journey and they're all different, but you attack it with everything you got and go make something good happen. That's
Nathan Whitworth:
Cool. All right, so this podcast is all for agents. It's for agents to learn. Tell us a little bit about when you got started in the world of real estate. What was that experience like for you?
Reed Gray:
Well, it was kind of interesting if you follow our market that it was very, very competitive for the past two years. And I've been in the business for a little over one year now. And I like to joke that you could walk into the grocery store and say, Hey guys, I'm a realtor who wants to buy a house. And you walk out with 10 people, you're like, all right man, let's do it. This is great. I won't say that it was easy. I think that analogy makes it sound like it was easy
Nathan Whitworth:
But it was easier.
Reed Gray:
It was easier. It was easier, yes. But I think there's different tricks of the trade, if you will, that helped enable me to have a very successful first year.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's awesome. So let's dig into that a little bit. What's probably the thing for you that you found gave you the most consistent results and the most consistent success right off the bat?
Reed Gray:
So I think there's a couple of different things. As I mentioned, I come from a family or realtor, so kind of rely on their experience and what's been successful for them and what's been a failure. Easy to pick up the phone and have a quick conversation. A
Nathan Whitworth:
Hundred percent.
Reed Gray:
And my sister one of the things that I think has enabled her to be so successful is she's a master at bringing it up in casual conversation. And what I like about real estate is, yes, I'm a sales professional, but I don't sell anything, man. I don't go up to a door and knock, say, Hey, I'm Reed. Do you wanna buy my stuff? Right. No, that's not what I do. And so bringing it up in casual conversation I think is really, really important. And being good at it. For example, you go to the Y in the middle of the day and you're sitting there and you say, Hey man, what do you do that allows you to be here in the middle of the day? Oh, I'm just on my lunch break. Well, what do you do? Oh, I'm in real estate. Bingo conversation just started. So I, I've tried to take that from her and make it my own. Having the conversation is so important and asking for the business but also trying to brand yourself and having people recognize you as, Hey, there's Reed, the realtor instead of, oh, there's Reed, the baseball player, the baseball coach. And for me, being a younger person, social media has been huge. In particular, I think Instagram has probably been the avenue that I like to explore most because that's where most people in my demographic are
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent.
Reed Gray:
So I think Instagram doing what you're good at is very important.
Nathan Whitworth:
What does that mean?
Reed Gray:
Well, I think for me it, it's something that I know we're al always on our phone scrolling and you can see what other people are doing and you want to shape that and mold it into your own
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent. So I think for a lot of people, they're probably listening to this right now and going, Hey, I'm on Instagram. I've got a profile. I'm posting pictures, but I'm not, seem to seem them get any kind of traction. What do you think as far as posting, is there any kind of particular strategy that you take when you're posting things? How often are you posting? Because for a lot of people, I'll scroll and I'll be like, well, your last post was four weeks ago. Yeah. People are looking at this wondering if you're even in business. So I'm just curious, how do you, generally speaking, how do you think about Instagram? How do you think about using that as a tool? Cause that's what it is, right? It's like a hammer to a carpenter. How are you thinking about that as a tool to be able to grow your business?
Reed Gray:
Yeah, so I think of it in terms of, let's say that years past realtors would advertise in magazines. Somebody's going to look at that once maybe, and then it's going to sit on their coffee table. Everybody's looking at Instagram all day every day for the most part.
Nathan Whitworth:
Is there anything that you've found to help you be successful
Reed Gray:
In there? Yeah, so I think it's being consistent. I think it's showing up every day, whether it's a post on your story or a post on your feed. And it doesn't have to be anything crazy. It doesn't have to be something you spent hours on making. It doesn't matter. As long as they see you posting content and they say, oh, there's read again. That's what I'm looking for them to recognize me as a real estate professional. In terms of content as a whole, I think there's a couple different things that make for good content, but one in particular is video. Get on there. It doesn't have to be live. Live is not really comfortable for anybody. Oh, for
Nathan Whitworth:
Sure. Live's not comfortable. For me, this is prerecorded for a reason. I'm just
Reed Gray:
Saying. Yeah. But just getting on there and being yourself and letting people see who you are and what your interests are, and then obviously posting, you're just sold and under contract and all that stuff. But really that's not the important thing. It's just being active and letting them recognize you for who you are. But I think if you just completely bombard it with real estate content, you're doing yourself a disservice because yeah, they wanna support you as a realtor, but they also wanna be your friend. They want to get to know you in the different things that you
Nathan Whitworth:
Like a hundred percent people wanna do business with others that they like no trust. We've all heard that, right? That's kind of a standard thing in business that everybody knows. But I think people don't give enough time to reflect on, well, how do they know if they know and trust me? Right? Sure. How do they know who I am and the things that I'm interested in? Can we deep dab on Instagram for a second? Yeah. I got some interesting questions for you. Do you post personal stuff on that profile?
Reed Gray:
Absolutely. Interesting. And one of the suggestions from different folks was like, Hey man, you really need a business page.
Nathan Whitworth:
Right?
Reed Gray:
Cool. I'll get a business page. Started doing it. I was like, this has zero traction. And what's the point of me trying to build that follower base when I've already got all these followers captive? Hey, if you wanna unfollow me, no worries. You're not going to hurt my feelings. I'm not even going to notice
Nathan Whitworth:
A
Reed Gray:
Hundred percent. But yeah, push your personal stuff, man.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah. What's really interesting is we've been having a lot of conversations with a lot of agents on this podcast. I think one of the overarching things that the, one of the kind of messages that's kind of come up in the conversations, if you will, is as constantly been be yourself and show people who you are. And I think for a lot of people, particularly if this is their for first foray into being an entrepreneur, to starting your own business. Cause that's essentially what you are, man. Sure. You're a small business and you're operating and owning your small business. As a small business, people generally assume that they kind of have to have this separation of their personal life and their professional life. And I think that the accounts that I've seen really find success in social media has some healthy merging of the two. Now, it's not to say that you have to show everything by a far, if you're not comfortable showing your kids on social media, don't do that.
Yeah. I think that's totally okay. Or if there's something that's going on in your life that you don't wanna share with others, you don't have to. But I think that there is something to be said for finding the people who resonate with you, finding the people who think you think and believe in the things that you believe. I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. Helping people to know who you are and what you stand for. I think there's something to be said for that. And there's really no way to do that, at least not authentically without just showcasing your life a little bit. Just giving them just a small window, just a small peek into your life and who you are. And so I definitely think, and there's always outliers, there's always anecdotal evidence against that fact. But generally speaking, I think we're moving into a time now where you're not marketing to the same demographic that you were 10 years ago and 20 years ago. And I think that the culture around this is shifting. And the agents that I've seen be most successful with this understand that, and their accounts are the ones that are growing. And the ones that again, are just the business page without infusing some of that personality are the ones that are
Reed Gray:
Dying. Those are a graveyard.
Nathan Whitworth:
They're a graveyard man. Yeah, they're a graveyard. Anything else that you've been doing on social that giving a peak, being consistent Yeah, you said was huge and I totally agree with that. What's maybe anything else in video in particular? It's interesting. I was at a brokerage and giving a presentation on social I think in last month. And one of the per people had just raised their hand. They were like, well, I don't know what to post, and this is not my idea, but I just wanted to share this. It is a Gary Vaynerchuk thing. I don't know if you're familiar with Gary.
Reed Gray:
Gary
Nathan Whitworth:
V. Yeah, Gary V. Yeah. And he always says document don't create. And that resonates as a creative, that resonates with me strongly because I always feel a huge barrier when I'm like, man, I've gotta make this thing and I gotta make a good, and I gotta create, what's the idea here? What am I trying to communicate? How do I make this look good? How do I get the light right? That is a job that's no almo. Almost nobody can realistically try to do that consistently every day, right? Sure. But how can you take what's already happening in your life and then just share what's already happening, right. With a quick story on Instagram, do you do that a
Reed Gray:
Lot? I post more stories than I do on my feed because people after work, they hop on their phone and they're going to scroll through the stories. And it doesn't matter if they see it for one second or they watched the whole thing. But to your point, I think the biggest thing is being authentic. And when you're authentic and you're sharing what's going on in your life and your business, you're not really wasting a bunch of time trying to be an influencer, anything like that, <laugh>. Right? I'm not spending two hours making a video. That's a waste of my time. I got better things to do, right? Because social media is very important, but it's not the only part of my job. A
Nathan Whitworth:
Hundred percent. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. It's really interesting. I think for a lot of people who have some concerns around getting on social media, a lot of it revolves around just being afraid of what people are going to say or think. What are the comments going to be? Are people going to think about what I post? And my response to that usually is being authentic to me. Just post what? Post what you're doing, document what? What's going on in your day today? Because that is irreproachable unreachable. What's the right word there? I get what you're saying. I'm saying nobody can come and get upset with you for what you're saying about the fact that you love love core life here in Greenville. And that you gotta, if somebody gets upset at that, just be like, I don't know, man. This is just what I like.
Yeah. I think the biggest trouble usually comes when people get on social media to talk about things that they don't know what they're talking about. Oh yeah. That's typically where the problem comes in, and that's what makes most agents nervous. So when you're a new agent, and this is just a hunch that I have, when you're a new agent, you're still learning a lot. And that's okay. You should be right. When you're new and you're trying to figure out how should this transaction look, how do we move from one thing to another? All that's going to be a gigantic learning curve. And just document what you're doing at that moment in time until you get comfortable enough until what you should be talking about. And then you can start talking about those things. There is no magic pill, there's no magic bullet. There's no magic post that you're going to be able to get on social and be able to have hundreds of thousands of people are comment on
Reed Gray:
Or whatever. Yeah, absolutely. To that point, I think especially as a new agent, it's very easy to not know what to do. For sure. And fortunately at caine, I'm very proud of the brokerage that I met. To me as a baseball guy, being with caine is playing for the Red Sox or the Yankees. It's being a part of the upper echelon of business or whatever it may be that you're doing. So we've got fantastic training. They really invest in us, which I appreciate. But to your point, sometimes you don't know what to do. And there's even days where I wake up and I'm like, huh, what am I going to do today? Right? <laugh>, like yesterday, right? Yesterday I went and delivered candy to pass clients, got 'em, the king size stuff. And I said, here you go. Nice. But to circle back and tie that all together as a new agent, it's really easy to have a lot of head trash, if you will. And nobody else is thinking that. It's just you. It's just you. So put it behind you. Do what? Do what you're good at. But I think too starting out it, it's super easy to spread yourself thin.
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent.
Reed Gray:
And I was texting with an old coaching buddy of mine this morning and I said, Hey man, what was that saying that you used to just talk, tell the players and it's see a little, see a lot, see a lot, see a little,
Nathan Whitworth:
Oh, that's so good.
Reed Gray:
So hone in on what That's so good, what you're good at and you know, can always expand from there. But don't waste your time doing 10 different things, man. Do one or two do one or two that you're good
Nathan Whitworth:
At. That's so, that's true. It's so difficult for any entrepreneur in any business, so many opportunities. And there's so many different things that you could be doing to really hone in on what are those revenue generating activities? What are the things that's actually moving the needle, that whole 80 20 rule, right? Yep. That's so good. I love that. See a little, see a lot. Yep. See a lot, see a little. That's right. That's awesome, man. I'm using that <laugh>.
Reed Gray:
Go for it. It's
Nathan Whitworth:
All yours. So that's so good. That's cool, man. Alright, well cool. So talk to me a little bit about the market. Let's talk about today, let's talk about what's going on. Obviously it's like a crazy time. I feel like people aren't quite as fearful. We're getting into a little bit of a norm, but still massively shifting. So you and your team, especially you guys at caine, what are you guys guys talking about right now? How are you guys helping people through this time where there is a little bit of uncertainty, right? Yeah,
Reed Gray:
Obviously I think that there is, and as a real estate professional, our job I think in particular is to educate people. Right Now one of the things that I really like about caine is the camaraderie. The attitude is you walk in the office and people aren't like, man, I'm so slow right now. I wish I had something going on. Hey man, what you got going on? You need help with anything
Nathan Whitworth:
So important and
Reed Gray:
So important. The culture there is phenomenal. But as the market shifts, I have this conversation every single day. And it's one that I try and have on social media, but really I have it more in person. I think that the changing market is honestly a good thing. And some people would be like, dude, you're crazy <laugh>. Like, what are you talking about asking pressure? You're getting paid more money. Whatever. No, it's not about that. I'm not about making money. Obviously you need to, I wanna help people. And as the market shifts, I think it's coming back to normal. And I tell people all the time, we know what we know we're accustomed to in the past two years have been very fierce.
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent.
Reed Gray:
And you walk into a house and you're like, all right, well what do we gotta do to get this one man? You're like, how much am I coming out of pocket? And as a seller, you're like, how many offers we got? Spend 20 minutes
Nathan Whitworth:
Dude. They're coming out of a time where there's like escalation clauses. That's that's insane. That's crazy. And that's unusual. I mean, I'm not an agent myself, but I'm around a lot of agents. I'm around a lot of realtors. And it's really funny how literally the last couple of years have been so abnormal from what they say, and I'm talking to people who's been in this business for 30 years, so abnormal. And I, from what they're saying, it doesn't sound like we're going back. It is normalizing now. And it's should hopefully normalize going forward to where we're not seeing the kind of systems that we were seeing. And
Reed Gray:
It might be, and there's specific parts of the market that I expect to be increasingly competitive. I think the statistic is since 2019, we're up like 11.6% in closed sales. Whoa. And obviously a lot of that was over the past two years, but that's still counting today and where we're at. And I think a lot of the important things that people don't realize is they're like, oh, it's not a seller's market anymore. Well, a seller's market, an even market is six months supply of inventory. That's the amount of time that's going to take every house on the market to sell right now in almost every price point, except for under two 50 I believe. So we're at three months or below, it's still a good time to sell. You might not be getting 10 offers, you might get one or two, but that's okay. That's all you
Nathan Whitworth:
Need. That's all you need.
Reed Gray:
And as a buyer, hey, this is really encouraging, man. No longer do you have to compete and I can do my job again, a not hundred percent walking in the house, Hey man, you got five minutes to make up your mind and figure out how much money you wanna
Nathan Whitworth:
Spend. A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, such a weird time man, because interest rates and things, it does feel like there's a lot of people that's pulling back a lot of buyers who I, I'm constantly saying, get in. You need to get, get yourself a house. Refinance in five years, refinance in five years. The important thing is get in while you can before housing prices continue just over time mean we might see a logo pullback or whatever, but over time they're going to just continue to increase, right? Yeah. Make sure you get in now, refinance later. It's the most important thing that you can do. And it's really funny cuz there is a lot of concern over higher interest rates because they have literally talked to everybody that they were getting buying at 3% and 4% interest rates.
Reed Gray:
Money was cheap,
Nathan Whitworth:
The money was so cheap, man for the last couple years. And there is that weird fomo, there's that thing that people have where they're like, well if they got it then I should too, and I'll just wait. And I'm like, I don't know that rates are going to go that low again. You should never expect
Reed Gray:
That. They might not. Yeah, they might not. I think the discussion that we were having before this started is I put me my money where my mouth is. I just bought my first house and it's something I'm really proud of. I'm excited. That's so cool. And it's cool to make it your own. So if you're a future homeowner, it doesn't have to be your forever house. Go in, get something you can afford, get something that you like and you hearing it all the time right now, date the rate, marry the house. Yeah.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yes, absolutely. That's actually really smart.
Reed Gray:
And some people hate that saying, but I think it's misinterpreted. I'm not telling you to, Ooh, I don't like that payment right now, but sure, let's buy the house. Sure. No dude. Buy the house. If you can afford it. Absolutely. If you
Nathan Whitworth:
Can afford it. If
Reed Gray:
You can afford it, yeah. Yeah. That's the most important thing. And then if rates come back down, refinance
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent. Yeah. That's so cool. Yeah, I think you're right. I think educating people is of the most importance. Again, the agents that I see that are really excelling right now, cuz again, I mean obviously we're going into the winter home sales, like typical, all that kind of stuff. But the people who are really excelling and building a foundation to really be able to take off when the first of the year, q1, Q2 comes around, those are the people who are spending a lot of time talking to people on social and saying, look, this is the situation. This is where we're currently at and this is probably how I'd encourage you to think about it. And I think that those are the people who are really going to really see some growth in their businesses.
Reed Gray:
So I think for you guys as a media group and then working with a bunch of agents and in particular new agents, everybody always says, Hey, make your contacts for the day. What if it's three, five, however many for sure, whatever. When I started, I had a very, very small sphere and that was a concern for me. But I said, you know what? I believe myself, I'm going to jump it in, I'm going to do it. Just show up. But the thing with social media that I would encourage you to really dive into is if you do it once a day, you just reached out to 250 people, not five,
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent.
Reed Gray:
Still make your contacts. Absolutely. A hundred percent. Don't sell yourself short. As simple as clicking a button.
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent. It's like cheating. A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. And I think for a lot of people too, a big obstacle for them is that it's just not comfortable, right? It's a thing. And this being in sports, and forgive me, I'm going obliterate this analogy, but it's okay, I'm not a baseball player. But the first thousand times that you swung that bat, you were trying to hone in on the technique, you were trying to make sure that you nailed the ball in the right place. You were trying to get it to where it should be. It was probably very uncomfortable, particularly when you were trying a new technique or doing a new thing that you'd never experienced before. You had to get the reps in. So important. Every day you show up to practice, that was a part of it, is to get the reps in and to get comfortable doing the thing well so that you can be successful with it.
And social media in my opinion, is no different. Earlier I talked, it's a tool. I like a tool in my hands a hammer in my hands. I can't do the same thing with that hammer as a carpenter could somebody who's a professional carpenter knows how to build something amazing with that hammer. I can't do that. I could, if I dedicated the time and I had the reps that that guy has with that hammer, I could get there. And so I think that there's, for most people, there's like this barrier when it comes to social media where they are concerned that they'll never be able to get it right. They'll never understand, what do I write for the description or how do I tag, or what's a hashtag? How do I use hashtags? Or what kind of photos should I post? Or what kind of video should I, yeah, all that's going to be uncomfortable in the beginning. All that's going to feel uncomfortable, right? Yeah. The only way that you're going to get past that uncomfortableness is to put in the reps to give us some shots and you're going to fail. There's going to be some times that you're going to post some stuff and nobody's going to get any shot. Okay. Yeah.
Reed Gray:
It's cost that were total bombs. Yeah. And I spent some time on it and I was like, this is going to be a good one. And I got four likes. I'm like, what is going on, man? Yeah, it kind of hurts a little bit, but at the end of the day, it doesn't
Nathan Whitworth:
Matter. I promise you. Nobody's judging you. No, nobody's judging you. It's okay because the goal is to get better and you can't get better without doing and failing. So that's the most important thing is. So talk to me for a second. In your experience, and I love this because you've been in it for about a year, you said about a year, year and a half. What do you feel like now that you're past that first year mark, what do you think is the number one thing that's holding most agents back from really excelling from really building a business?
Reed Gray:
And this is a question that I want to expand upon cuz I think it's so important. It's the fear of rejection. It's the fear of being told no. And
Nathan Whitworth:
Which is the reason a lot of people probably don't bring up the fact that they're an agent in this conversations like you were talking about earlier.
Reed Gray:
Right? Absolutely. And it might just be as easy as mentioning, Hey, I'm a realtor, and they'll be like, oh, well, I've got a friend who's got a need. Just say it. Right? It doesn't matter. They're not going to take offense to it a
Nathan Whitworth:
Hundred percent.
Reed Gray:
But
Nathan Whitworth:
For you, how'd you get over that? Or did you ever feel that? Was it just kind of a natural thing for you?
Reed Gray:
Well, I think for me it's relatively natural. I think circling back to baseball, recruiting a junior college player, a high school kid that's sales. You're selling your school, your university, your program, hundred percent. You're trying to get an 18 year old kid to come and pay $30,000 a year with scholarship money and whatever. So that's sales, that's calling and asking for the business, if you will.
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent.
Reed Gray:
Something that I've kind of tried to focus on recently is I want to be told no more often. And as our market shifted and things have kind of pulled back and slowed, and I do expect them to pick back up is like you mentioned earlier, put in the work, do more now. So you're prepared when things pick up and they're like, man, Reed, you're killing it. What's your secret? I never stopped
Nathan Whitworth:
A
Reed Gray:
Hundred percent. I never stopped a hundred percent. And something that I've mentioned several times, it already is do what you're good and do what you're comfortable with. But I really do believe that you have to get outside your comfort zone within reason now. Sure. So for example, I just put up a billboard on Pleasant Burke. It's absolutely ridiculous. Nice. But I love it. Nice. And I go to the Y every single day and guarantee
Nathan Whitworth:
The billboard. Why is it ridiculous?
Reed Gray:
I think it's insane that my face is on the side of the road.
Nathan Whitworth:
Gotcha.
Reed Gray:
Yeah, yeah. In terms of marketing, I joke with a couple of our brokers, I'm like, you guys are my bad idea police because I have a lot of ideas in La Ridge. You cannot do that, man. You can't do that.
Nathan Whitworth:
Congratulations on the billboard, dude. Thank
Reed Gray:
You. Yeah, that's cool. Thank you. Yeah, but going into the Y people are like, Hey man, I saw your face today on the way in. I'm right. Perfect. Yeah, you
Nathan Whitworth:
Did a hundred
Reed Gray:
Percent. And so with that, I'm farming several of the neighborhoods around there and I said, well, I wanna do more. What can I do that maybe somebody else doesn't want to do or doesn't have the time to do? And I was like, I'm going to go door knock. I've got 200 doors that I can get to. And I was all fired up, man. I was like, I'm going to do, this is going to be great. And I got up that morning to do it and I was kind of wondering if it was a proper use of my time. And the reason I say that is because the way that I am successful is this, developing relationships and spending time with people, them getting to know me, which we, we've mentioned you can do through social media. And I woke up that morning, I was going to meet a lender for coffee and I was like, I feel sick to my stomach.
I don't feel good. And I started thinking about it. I'm like, I slept fine. What's going on? What's up this morning? And I realized that it was kind of that fear of getting out there, knocking on the door, having the door slammed in my face. And it's absolutely something that I would do, but it's not something that I followed through with. And that's okay for me, for some people, man, you should have done it. You might have gotten a sale out of it. I wasn't going to go up there and say, Hey, do you wanna sell your house? No, the it's not it. I wanted to have a conversation for them to say, oh man, I drive past your billboard every single day. Nice to meet you. Shake my hand and see my face and understand what my voice sounds like and get to know me. But to tie it together, do the things that you're comfortable with that you're good at, but also kind of be a really good self evaluator and say, you know what? That's ambitious. And maybe that's something that I'm going to do at some point. But if I'm going to door, why don't I circle prospect this open house that I'm doing and go print out 20 flyers, knock on 20 doors and have a reason to be there. And just instead of saying, Hey man, just see my billboard. Nobody cares. A
Nathan Whitworth:
Hundred percent. A hundred percent. Well I think talking about the billboard, first off, it's smart man. Like I say, the biggest obstacle for most agents is nothing else other than people will never have you as their agent if they don't know you exist <laugh>. Like literally the first step.
Reed Gray:
You can't sit there and just wish for something to show up cuz it's
Nathan Whitworth:
Not going to happen. Cause it's not going to happen. I think this is a very much a duh statement, and it makes a lot of sense when you say it and we laugh about it. But the day-to-day, most entrepreneurs and most small businesses don't think about this. And it's literally the gateway. It's the thing, it's the first pillar in my opinion. People, you can't serve people and you can't help people if they literally don't know you exist. Sure. The billboard is smart man, especially strategically placing it in a place where you're trying to get access to those neighborhoods and those people. It's smart. It's so smart. Being on social media, it's smart. Those things that you're doing makes a big difference because people who weren't aware of Reed Gray are now aware of Reed Gray and that you might be a possibility to help them with their need.
So it's massively important. I am well aware that probably a good 5% of agents in Greenville know about Crossgate Realty media. And I think about that daily. My goal is to get, how do I get from five, what I say five 10. Well, how do I get from 5% today to 10% tomorrow? That's my goal. That's what I'm trying to accomplish. And every day that I come into the office, every day that we're here in the studio, we're trying to get to that point. But that's from a relentless drive on my side to make sure that more people know that we're an option. Not trying to say that we are the best. I'm just saying that we are an option and we've got some pretty good things that we got going on to help people. So I think that's awesome. Kind of talk to me, what are the trends that you kind of expect to see in the changing market? And we talked about the market a little bit earlier, but what are the trends right now that you guys are kind of forecasting and thinking about when it comes to the end of the year, beginning of next year and maybe even next year as a whole?
Reed Gray:
Sure. So I think probably the biggest one that I've been thinking about for a while I've already seen it start to come fruition. And unfortunately it was to the detri detriment of some of my clients. I expect for the $300,000 price point to become increasingly competitive again. And
Nathan Whitworth:
It's a supply
Reed Gray:
Supply, but it's supply for the groups that want to buy those homes or the homes that they can afford. And the reason I say that is, so you've got first time home buyers who make up the largest population of buyers right now, pair that with people who are downsizing, the second biggest group of buyers. And then they all kind of funnel to the same price point.
Nathan Whitworth:
Interesting.
Reed Gray:
Now you've got the people who were maybe last year pre-approved for let's say 400, and now they're purchasing power is very, very different. And they're looking at homes that are 300 and they're like, well, this isn't the house that I was expecting, but it's still a good home. All right, let's give it a shot. So you pair those three things together I think it's something that's going to happen. And it did happen. We showed up to the house, we were the first people there, and sure enough, two other cars pull up. I'm like, man, is this six months ago? What's going on? And I popped the lockbox and they're like, Hey, you just wanna leave it open, or what are you going to do with the key and my client? And I'm sure that they're going to see this, so I hope they're okay with it.
They're like, dude, not this again. And we ended up losing and they put together a very competitive offer. And they're not doing anything wrong, it's just a matter of when the time is right for them, and I feel for them. But being persistent and being persistent as an entrepreneur is just so important. So I really expect for that to occur. But I think too, with interest rates, it's like some buyers have pulled back. Absolutely. I think that's why we've seen the slow in the market and to pair that with the sentiment of we know what we know is well, let's give these people some time to acclimate to the interest rates and say, oh, well they were 3% a while ago and now they're seven in increasing. It is what it is. It's not going to change. So if you wanna buy a house, you have a need for a place to live, something you gotta deal with. And I don't want people to see that figure in comparison to what they were and think of it as a negative thing, right? Because historically, pretty normal. And I did a video a couple months back and I walked around the office, I said, Hey Kim, what was your first interest? Rate it 13%.
Nathan Whitworth:
Oh, that's so smart. Oh, that's
Reed Gray:
So good. Hey Jane, what was your first interest rate? She was like, you don't want to know. And so it's all about the perspective. Yeah, it's all about the perspective. But again, I think that that price point is going to get competitive.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's really interesting. How are you planning on trying to tackle that for the buyers that you're trying to help get in at that price point? I mean, is it really a lot of the tactics that people were using six months ago? Do you think that you're probably just going to see a little bit of resurgence in those tactics here as that price point becomes more competitive?
Reed Gray:
There's always different things that you can do to win. And that's not necessarily a term that I like. Even as a sports competitive guy, you're trying to buy a house. You're not trying to win a game, but you are competing. And I think the most important thing is setting expectations. Whether you're working with a buyer, working with a seller, and letting them know what to expect because it's so good. Whatever job he does, she does. They show up to work. They're not doing real estate. Our boots are on the ground every single day. So we know what the trends are, we know what to expect and how to best serve them. And just being upfront and honest and saying, listen, you might be aware of what happened in the past two years, but it's a little bit different now. And so when they hear that from you, they're trusted, real estate agent, what have you, they're going to listen because you are the one that they picked.
Nathan Whitworth:
So smart. Yeah, that is so smart, man. That's awesome. I'm really kind of curious, setting expectations this, we weren't planning on going down this route, but I'm just curious to see what you say. How do you go about setting expectations? I mean, I guess I understand it's kind of as easy as having a conversation, but does that typically happen before at the very beginning of the process with you? Do you set that expectation then? Is it once they come in, you have a chance to meet with 'em a few times? Talk me through that experience that you have with your typical client.
Reed Gray:
So if it's a new person, even if it's somebody that I know, I sat down on Saturday with a good friend of mine and kind of just said, Hey, let, let's reset, let's talk about where we're at. But I think it's just having the honest conversation and whether it's a buyer or seller coming in, having the consultation and saying, this is what's going on. This is what you can expect. And just being honest. And if it's a seller, especially when it comes to price, everybody thinks their house is worth this and it might be worth this for sure. Whatever it may be, you might losen business from it. Yeah, there's always
Nathan Whitworth:
Another. Well, and I think the reason why so many people don't do that is because they're afraid that they're going to offend. And I do think that there's something to be said, and I know it's tough when you're starting out, cuz you're looking for that sale and you need that transaction. Oh
Reed Gray:
Man, I remember it. I remember my first one. I got it from an open house and they're still friends of mine today. Oh,
Nathan Whitworth:
You got it from an open house. Yeah. Great.
Reed Gray:
Yeah. And sure enough, I went around door knocking that one. That's cool. And I think that was kind of the universe, God, whatever you believe in rewarding me for doing something that made me uncomfortable. And for the people who were considering doing that, it was not terrible. I had some pretty good responses. But anyways, they showed up and we didn't even talk about real estate hardly. We talked about dogs, right? Because I love my dog. If you look at my social media, he's on there and I followed up the next day and sure enough, they're like, Hey, great. We're going to get our house ready to sell and we want to use you to buy. And so just showing up, doing the things that you're taught it's just, it's there for a reason. It works.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's awesome. The last thing I wanna end with really quick is just pinning, going back to the very beginning of the conversation. I was going to mention this earlier and I just kind of forgot. I cannot stress to people enough, if you're a new agent, getting a mentor, the training that you're getting, a cane, I'm sure is amazing, I'm sure. But to have that person that you can fall back on, you said for you, you've actually got family. Yeah. Who's been doing this for some time, to just have somebody that you can fall back on and go, okay, so here's a situation. What should I do here? It's so important. This is not a business. I think agents should go alone. And I think too many do. They do spend a lot of time kind of sitting at their desk trying to figure out what to do next.
Reed Gray:
Hey, most of the time if you're in the office, you're not making money.
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent so good. So
Reed Gray:
Go talk to people, <laugh>, go eat lunch by
Nathan Whitworth:
Yourself. It's so funny, man. Yeah. I think that's a very common thing is when the idea that you're doing work when you show up and you're in the office, doesn't necessarily mean that you're really accomplishing anything. And that's a whole different conversation that we could have. But if you get to the end of the week and you're like, I'm not sure what I did this week that did any, had any kind of impact on anything, you should definitely probably reevaluate that for sure. Yeah. Going and just hanging out and talking with their agents all day isn't going to really get you anywhere.
Reed Gray:
Yeah. For you, is it okay if I expand on that for a second? Yeah, please. Yeah. So it happened to me yesterday, and sure enough kind of happened through the billboard, walk into the gym. I didn't really have anything going on in the afternoon, so I showed up, didn't wanna be there, but I was like, go be around people. And there's a gentleman in there and got a pretty good relationship with him, always have good conversation. He's like, man, that's saw your billboard. I meant to call you. He's like, I was going to take a picture of it on my way home to give you a call. Said, I wanna sell this piece of land that I have and I wanna buy. Boom. All from just being around people
Nathan Whitworth:
Just being
Reed Gray:
Present. Same sentence. Couple weeks ago my sister goes to the gym, obviously there's other places in the gym, but that's kind of sure what I enjoy. And she picked up a 3 million client, and that client alone is going to sell a 2 million house. Awesome. So pretty good
Nathan Whitworth:
Trip. Oh, <laugh>.
Reed Gray:
When you don't have a, and you
Nathan Whitworth:
Got your workout
Reed Gray:
In. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. But I think there's a gigantic lesson to be learned there. There's a gigantic lesson to be learned, which is if you're top of mind and you are around people and people get to know you and develop, I mean relationships, it goes back to relationships. If you're spending your time in the office and you're wondering why you're not having enough transactions move across your desk and you're not doing enough business, that's probably one of the things I would take a look at for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That's an awesome piece of advice. And
Reed Gray:
As doing the things that you enjoy. So I mentioned I love going to the gym. You would think that maybe I'd look a little bit different, but I love going to the gym, and so I was trying to figure out what other avenues I can go down and see what happens for me. So I joined this rooftop pool club, it's called Topside, and I was like, yeah, man, that'd be cool to do it. Something different. It it's relatively inexpensive, but for what I'm trying to do is the people who are up there probably have a little bit of means a
Nathan Whitworth:
Hundred percent.
Reed Gray:
And so you go up, show up out, whatever, get to know the people. And the thing that a lot of people don't realize is that you don't buy a house every single day. It's not like you're going to the grocery store a
Nathan Whitworth:
Hundred percent.
Reed Gray:
And so it's developing those relationships that's so important. And like you mentioned, staying top of mind for when that need
Nathan Whitworth:
Occurs. A hundred percent. Man, this has been such a good conversation. Yeah, yeah. This has been really, really good. I learned a couple things that I didn't know about what's going on with the market right now, so I appreciate all that. Certainly. This is amazing. Guys. If you are interested in talking to Reed, if you have any questions about anything, where can they reach you, Reed, how? What's the best way to reach out to
Reed Gray:
You? Well, you can drive down Pleasant Berg, and there's this really big sign on the <laugh>. I'm just kidding. You can follow me on Instagram. It's Reed Gray. Realtor read the realtor was taken, unfortunately. So kudos to that guy. He's got a good account. But yeah, so I'm on there. TikTok is not really something that I've explored too much. I don't do Twitter, so follow me on Instagram. Otherwise, look me up on caine's website, read Gray. It'll pop up off all of my information, and I look forward to connecting with y'all.
Nathan Whitworth:
I can't tell you how much I appreciate you and sharing. Certainly,
Reed Gray:
I enjoyed
Nathan Whitworth:
It. It's a big deal, man, and I, I'm a firm believer that we all learn from the people who came before us, right? So I'm hoping that the things that we talked about in this conversation today will hopefully serve someone else in some small way. Yeah. Thanks man.
Reed Gray:
You helped benefit me today, so I appreciate that as well. You're
Nathan Whitworth:
Welcome. You're welcome, man. Guys feel free to check out the rest of the episode. You can go find this on YouTube at this point. We're actually building out our Instagram channel as well, but you can actually find this podcast and subscribe to it wherever you listen to your podcast. Thank you guys so much for your time and attention. It means the world to me that you would tune in and you would listen to the two of us talk about the market and how to help agents build better businesses. Until next time, guys, thank you so much. Thank you. Hey everyone, thanks for listening. Hopefully this was really helpful to you in your journey of building a business. If you like what you heard, please click subscribe and go to iTunes and give us a rating that helps us out tremendously when we are producing hopefully content of huge value to you. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, and I hope that you have an amazing week. Go out there and crush it. I'll see you soon.
Ready to Schedule a Real Estate Photography Shoot?
Click here to visit our site & schedule your next real estate photo session here!