Record after record. That’s what makes Ben Caballero the roaring tiger in the real estate sector. He is a record-setter, and he sells the product he deals in better than anybody else in the world. He knows how to sell effectively, and that’s a rare quality. He might not be the owner of a known brand or a large global corporation, but people in the real estate sector, which is one of the world’s largest money-spinning industries, are in awe of him by looking at the way he breaks his own home sales records every year. In 2022, the three-time Guinness World Record title holder set yet another milestone in real estate sales by individually managing an unprecedented $3 billion in home sales.
Business schools, thousands of bestsellers, motivational podcasts, and training are all aimed at helping people master their sales skills. Companies spend millions of dollars on training aimed at producing sales superheroes and billions on ad campaigns to meet sales goals. Yet, the results are never as expected, and there’s a continuous struggle to produce more employees who can crack the sales code.
Then there are people like Ben Caballero who have raised the bar for every real estate and broker in the industry. He’s the founder of HomesUSA.com who sold an average of 17 homes a day in 2020. That’s no easy feat, but he makes it look easy. He’s certainly the ‘American Honey’ when it’s about real estate sales. He has got some tricks, he does it fast and in style, and he sells a lot.
Here’s Ben Caballero’s performance in numbers. He is the first and only real estate agent in the world to achieve more than $2 billion in annual home sales. He has achieved this feat three times in a row - in 2018 ($2.27 billion), 2019 ($2.25 billion), and 2020 ($2.46 billion). He is the only real estate broker ever to achieve more than $2 billion in annual home sales twice. He has sold an average of over 120 new homes per week. That’s 17 homes a day! He has exceeded the $1 billion sales mark every year since 2015. He works with more than 60 Texas-based builders and has individually sold 6438 homes worth $2.46 billion in 2020 in real estate sales.
The way he plots his home sales game to achieve those figures year after year is quite simple. By the look of it, the pointers might look too simple in comparison to what we read about sales on big business blogs or what people learn from training programs or in MBAs. But sometimes, all that it takes is some simple math. Here’s what you can learn from him and ace the real estate sales game.
Optimum use of technology to list homes (MLS)
Ben knows the importance of MLS for real estate sales. And he has prepared his team well to use it optimally. MLS has been a real revolution for real estate professionals, and there isn’t an agent who is using it. The trick is using that endless data effectively and not being overwhelmed with it.
You must identify the best listings and work rigorously on them. The free access to a sea of data should not make you run for every listing. Pick up any one of the best MLS and learn how to utilize the data instead of switching from one MLS to another.
Good relationship with the builders to boost real estate sales
You sell what builders offer you. Due to any factor as such, most real estate agents end up focusing on building relationships with home buyers and focus less on the developer side. You must stay in constant touch with the real estate developer and get regular updates, change the home listings accordingly, be on top of new home discounts or other price schemes that real estate developers come up with.
If you share a good relationship with the developer, you can even get an additional discount from the company and share it further with your customers, which ultimately gives you an edge over other brokers.
A quick shift of focus to the market where the real estate demand is
Ben started his career as a home builder at the age of 21 and spent years in it, but the moment he realized that where the money is, he shifted his focus to greener pastures. He suggests that he moves his base quickly to where the real action is. Wherever new real estate developments happen, and there’s scope in terms of real estate sales, he moves his entire business focus to that new place.
Many real estate agents fail to predict the market or are simply too comfortable in their own shell, which makes them hesitant to explore a new market. If there’s saturation and things are not happening in your existing market, and you clearly know that you have been doing your best without any success, the chances are that it will never be bright again, and you need to switch markets.
Ben rules the Texas real estate market, and he knows where the new developments are happening and what can give him maximum benefit. His quick moves across the housing sector are what have always given him the draw the first blood advantage.
Use of simple digital marketing math to convert real estate leads into final conversions
If you are even slightly tech-savvy, you would have come across terms like landing pages, conversion rate, click-through rate, etc. These are the top terms that a digital marketer eats, drinks, and sleeps. It is easy to spend money on the internet to run great-looking marketing campaigns for real estate sales with wonderful videos and images, and that is certainly good enough to get eyeballs fixated on your content.
A great impression will certainly convert into a potential lead as the target buyer will leave contact details for you. Once you get the details, it all boils down to the final conversion. You have what the other person wants, and it’s all a matter of convincing the buyer to purchase the property through your real estate agency. But it’s not always that easy as it’s a typical near yet so far that almost every seller faces every day.
You just can’t become the big wolf in the real estate market and sell a product that could range anything from a few tens of thousands of dollars to maybe something in millions. Real estate sales is a tough job. You need to get your real estate digital marketing fundamentals as clear as possible. Not just the familiarity with the terms but with the intricacies of how real estate marketing works. The idea is not to become a digital marketer but to know what can bring you impressions and what can convert an impression into a lead and a lead into a final conversion should be your learning path.
18 years of experience as a home builder before entering the real estate market
Experience matters. This might sound very typical, but we have talked about the 18 years of experience that Ben Caballero had before deciding to take the big shot in the real estate sales arena. That was a different time, but the basics still remain the same. Your experience, skills, education, street smartness, and willingness to achieve success are the perfect ingredients for fulfilling the big-ticket real estate broker's dreams. Real estate sales will look difficult to you and might disappoint you to the point that you might abuse yourself for being in the real estate sector as a sales professional. But as they say – no pain, no gain.
Dusty construction site visits, endless calls to sellers and buyers, attending to hundreds of chats/messages/calls all at once, staying literally on a GPS mode even when you are off work, getting even a switch repaired from your own pocket to make a sale happen are just some of the mind disturbing realities for the newbies in the real estate sales.
If you are a broker and you find people in your home sales team or while at the time of hiring who do not want to sweat it out in the dust outside, let them go. Build a real estate sales team that’s ready to bite into the bricks of a building to prove the construction quality to a potential buyer.
And if you are an individual who finds this point here unattractive, it would be better if you find a job in the banking sector where you can sit in a cozy office and work on your laptop and step in only when you need to leave for your home. In real estate sales, the game is simple – be prepared to see your initial years as tough as some Navy SEAL on a mission in some hot desert. It’s only with experience and when you work with experienced people that your road to be the big property seller becomes easy.
A dedicated team of real estate professionals in the company
As mentioned earlier, you are what your team is. Be surrounded by the meanest people in sales, and that will guarantee you success. In the real estate sector, off-work hours give you plenty of room to party and be friends with everyone.
But when at work, give yourself any name that you fancy – stallion, shark, star performer, and act like one. One thing that a home buyer or seller never does is rely on one single online platform or one single real estate agent to make their decision. So the moment a deal comes to the market, there are plenty of people who latch on to it to have that big fat brokerage in their account with a successful closure.
You need to be at your best and ensure that the entire real estate sales team works in tandem and inspires them to work as a cohesive unit that is highly result-oriented. Any office politics, personal differences, or work-related issues should happen after the client has happily walked out of the office.
Remember – selling 17 homes a day is not a single person’s job. It’s a team effort. For the sake of saying, it is said that Ben Caballero has sold thousands of homes individually, but in reality, it’s backed by his team that he has been able to achieve those magnificent numbers.
