Old Methods, New Results

by Shawn Lackie

Have you ever heard the saying, “Old Habits die hard?” It still resonates to this day. Except, some old habits are making a comeback, especially in the Real Estate (RE) world and for some, these “old Habits” have never left.

Take Dan Maundrell, for example. Dan has been a veteran of the RE wars for almost 35 years, and to this day, he still carries out some of the traditions which were his calling card all those years ago.

The operative word is Calling. Dan is the master of the cold call. For any of you who don’t know what that is, it pretty much is calling a perfect stranger and asking if they want to do business with them. Dan has perfected this strategy and it has been a mainstay for him over the years. With that many years in the business, Dan certainly knows what he’s talking about. As old fashioned as what he does best is, it’s one thing he and I have agreed upon for the last 20 plus years, since I’ve known him.

To look after a client properly, it’s all about face to face and voice to voice. I will let him explain, since he’s at the top of this game: “Our society is being driven away from our natural state of socializing with family, friends, neighbours, and clients. AI is unhealthy for our mental health. After one year of delving into AI generated real estate programs, I became detached from society. Feelings of anxiety and loneliness overcame me. Which is why I went back to cold calling and door knocking to find a social connection with clients. I experience great conversations about what is happening in our real estate market and have been building trusting relationships. I am able to find out what the client's needs are and what they expect from me. I feel more connected to society and am enjoying my career once again. Cold callers can be quite annoying, which is why I always ask their permission to begin a brief conversation about the Real Estate Market (REM), and the conversation begins.”

If anyone has ever cold-called or door knocked they know it can be a harrowing experience. Yet, not always. I still believe in expecting the unexpected and this falls right into that category. Dan has been true to his form for all those years and still swears by this method, as a legitimate way of meeting potential clients. In some cases it DOES work. I even talked to a home seller of a property my clients were interested in. I asked the seller how he knew the agent and his reply was eye-opening. It seems he was looking on Facebook and saw this agent’s posts. That seemed to be all it took for him, so he called, and Voila the place was listed. So it really can happen. I have heard Dan first hand and let me say, he is smooth. Like someone out of Glengarry Glen Ross smooth. Which takes years of practice to become that good. He also follows it up with great client service, just to prove they made the right choice. So, as old fashioned as this practice sounds, it still works.

Feel free to check out this story and more on my blog site, at https://slackie14.wixsite.com/buy-sell-and-more