Changing Your Own Hi-Tech Oil — Who Cares? — Is There A Skinned Cat Or Not?

by Jeff Brown

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Greg’s post earlier today prompted me to respond via post rather than comment. He made some superb points, and one or two for which we’ll have to agree to disagree. He quoted me from my earlier post:

If you honestly believe your income is higher with you spending time changing your own hi-tech oil, then continue along that path — it’s obviously working for you. On the other hand, if you think putting yourself in front of 50 more serious prospects a year might be more productive for your bottom line, AND that would make you happy, you may want to modify your approach.

He said it was a false dichotomy.

It’s not a false dichotomy at all. We disagree on the basic satanic nature of vendors as a species. My car for example is easily more complex than most, and I don’t have a clue how to service it, including changing its oil. (Though I’ve changed oil on many of my previous cars.) I simply found the right guys to call. They service it while I drive one of their cars. I don’t have much down time. The same vendor has been servicing the car since summer of ’04 with spectacular results, and at a very fair price.

His second point is well taken, and we don’t disagree. As my post indicated, I’m a hi-tech marketing Kool-Aid drinker. Anything producing six figures annually has my full enthusiastic endorsement. But I compare it to the concept car. It’s cool, but it ain’t here yet, at least to the degree Greg and others predict. It’s not that I don’t think he’s correct, I do. It’s that it’s not producing the volume now that it surely will in the future.

Meanwhile, as Chris said so well in his comment, I’m using what works. And all debate aside, I’ll get belly2belly with more folks/year and do more deals 1.0 than most 2.0 practitioners do in three years. Are there some exceptions out there? Of course, there always are. Good on ’em because they’re demonstrating what’s possible. But current reality shows bottom lines aren’t being impacted in a major way via internet quite yet — regardless of where consumers are starting their searches.

Based upon empirically visible results, agents changing their own hi-tech oil has been nothing short of Amateur Night at the local theatre. Their results, generally speaking, are inferior if not pathetic. Greg’s advice takes them out of that pit of failure. Unchained helps agents spectacularly, if they’ll listen and apply. Learning from that faculty is infinitely more productive than most of the self taught nonsense we see out there. If I was gonna take the ‘do it myself’ path, I’d be camped out at Unchained’s doorstep.

I’m not a marketing specialist in either 1.0 or 2.0. I find out what works, find the best guy I can, and let him do his thing. As long as doing his thing produces more belly2belly, I’m a happy camper. Notice I included 1.0 when seeking a consultant.

One of the most productive vehicles I’ve used has been local direct mail. I tried it via book learnin’ but failed miserably. When I finally threw in the towel and paid for an expert’s advice, my efforts produced an average of low-mid five figures in closed transaction dollars for each letter. In the last 20 years, three of ’em produced six figures.

I called the guy.

The cost? Relative to the superior results they get compared to my pitiful efforts, a drop in the bucket literally. This year my total outlay for hi-tech work/advice will easily be less than $10,000. So not only do I get superior results, I’m also not spending hundreds of hours a year producing inferior results. I win every way — time, money, closed escrows.

I still maintain though, that if folks love doing the tech stuff they should keep doing it. If it makes ’em happy, why stop? Unchained would be the perfect catalyst for taking their marketing efforts to the next level. Hell, they’ll probably skip a level or two there.

What floats my boat is having more time to hang more skinned cats. Not spending what might have been off time screwin’ around with my laptop when I could be doing whatever else I’d prefer. It’s not the hi-tech or online marketing I don’t like — I love what they produce for me. The synergy often produced by yoking 1.0 to 2.0 has been wonderful for my bottom line. What I don’t like is having to reinvent the wheel every time I want something done. I don’t wanna get a degree in Geekatude. I’m happy with that, and have always been.

I’m not a Renaissance man, don’t aspire to be one, and don’t think that’s a character flaw. 🙂 I admire those who are — I’m glad they’re happy doing everything themselves.

Me? I’ll forever remain a ‘Call the Guy’ sorta guy. So if you have the budget to spend on experts, you may fall in love not only with the financial results, but the extra time spent doing things on the other side of life’s ledger.

Imagine what life could be like if you ‘Called the Guy’ so you didn’t have to:

I could go on, but you get it. The boogeyman used by the Renaissance crowd is the cost, plus how demonic ‘The Guy’ surely will be. After all, they’re there to suck you dry, as I’ve read so many times.

This really boils down to a couple very simple truths.

If you have a financial choice and opt for Greg’s route, and it makes you happy, then I’m genuinely happy for you. If that’s your reality, missing Unchained in my opinion, is a huge mistake. The reason I’ve been a charter member of the ‘Call the Guy’ club is because it makes me happy. I do more business because I have more time to do what I do so well. More time to actually have more belly2belly meetings. More time to prospect, analyze, put out fires, and the rest of the activities that actually contribute directly to hanging up more skinned cats on my very furry wall.

Oh, and for the record, the way my firm markets local listings is based, no, totally copied from Greg’s procedure. It’s the best I’ve seen in nearly 40 years. The difference is, I don’t do any of the actual work for most of the steps. 🙂

There’s no right or wrong here. It’s all about what makes you happiest. Have a good one.