And welcome to Mike Ferry TV. We’re having a fun series of little conversations with top agents and coaches. You know, people ask me, why are we mixing up the format? Because as Mitch knows who sits next to me on the screen, this is normally just Mike Ferry doing a little lecture. And I thought it’d be fun for September, October to bring some of the great people that we get to work with together with us. So, I raised some ideas and some thoughts. So, let’s welcome today Mr. Mitch Choboian, who works out of the Central Valley of California and has the good fortune because of his success having a home over towards the beach and he’s there today. So, Mitch, welcome and thanks for being with us.

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.

Thank you. So how long have you been in real estate now? Because I think it’s been quite a while.

Yeah, I forget the years, Blende, 1981, when I started.

It is eighty-one. You’re a long-time veteran. I think when you and I, we both had dark hair.

Exactly and I had more of it.

More of it and much darker, I hear you on that. And how long have you been working with MFO either as an Agent client or as a Coach?

Yeah, as an agent. I think in 1985, 1986, you came to the Central Valley. That’s when I first was exposed to you and started as a Coach 2013.

Good for you. That’s great. And how many clients do you coach?

I go between 37 and 39 right in there. Right now, I’m at 38.

And do you still operate a small team for your residential business also?

Yes, which includes me and two assistants.

Good. And so personal production, I would think you wouldn’t have a lot of time, watching that many people to do many transactions. Is your production remaining okay, constant?

Yeah, my goal is 75. I’m on track to do 81. That’s the numbers. I want to stay at 75 to 80 right there.

So doing 75 daily transactions, coaching 30 to 35 people, sounds like you don’t have a lot of free time for yourself.

I do, because I’m very disciplined in my schedule. It’s all planned out. But yes, in a way I do, actually.

So, talk to me about that. The coaching, of course, brings some interesting and exciting and difficult challenges at times. What are some of the biggest challenges? Well, let me first ask you, what are some of the biggest challenges you face as an agent? Because this market has been so crazy for the last 18 months as a, you know, top producing superstar agent. What are some of the challenges you face?

Well, probably and it would be not prejudging any source. And what I mean by that is when you constantly hear Expireds aren’t that good? They are. They’re just not as good as they used to be, and they’ll change. So, you got to change your approach. I can call one Expired today and I can get that listing today. It happens. It’s not like it used to be. Same thing For Sale By Owners, you know, all they’re all selling. Yeah, a lot of them are selling, but there’s still one. I listed one the other day on the first call, first day. That doesn’t happen very often, but you got to block your mind that I can get that appointment today. So not prejudging a source because everybody’s telling you that source doesn’t work.

Well, I’m going to make a note of that thought Mitch, not prejudging the source. Right. I wish everybody that watches Mike Ferry TV and we have a lot of viewers every week if they would just focus on that thought. You know, if folks listen to me, that’s coming from a 30-year veteran who’s been a top producer for 30 years and is still doing 75 deals that will actually hit 81 this year. In addition to being a topflight coach, so not prejudging the source. So I’ll take a different approach. You know, I know you coach some really fun, exciting, productive agents. Can you give me some of the common qualities that you see these agents have? Because, you know, you’re spending a lot of time with them every week. What do you see as the commonalities on these agents?

Number one, they’re engaged in the system, blind faith. There’s no question. There’s no I don’t have to sell them. The system works. They’re 100 percent engaged. They’re in the conversation on our coaching calls, going to Mike Ferry events, Mastermind Groups, role play, their total faith in the system. That’s number one. Second is they’re very, very passionate. It’s not a job. They’re very passionate about their business, their career. And that means they’re very competitive, too. I think another thing, that’s important, they’re transparent, they’re honest. So, in other words, when they do their numbers and as a coach it’s a lot easier to coach someone when you know what they’re doing, but they’re honest with their numbers. They want an appointment they didn’t get it. They’re going to tell me, and I’ll say, well, did you pre-qualified? Well, yeah. Did you call ask all the questions? Well, no, but they’re very honest with me about that. And then we can help each other grow. I’d say just being very truthful with their numbers and with their activities. That would be my opinion, that that those three things are huge.

I wrote down the blind faith, which you and I have done time and time again, and the fact that they’re going to be very passionate, I wrote that down, which I wrote Participation Next to being passionate. You mentioned Mastermind Groups role play accountability partners, showing up for your calls each week with you. And I’m sure and I want all of our listeners to understand this. They’re not passionate because of Mitch and Mike. They’re passionate because of what they’re trying to accomplish and what they’re trying to do. But I think what you said, third, you know, I don’t think that agents ever try to disguise what they do. I think sometimes they just don’t quite understand what they do. So they don’t know how to track their numbers. I know because I know a lot of your clients very well, you’re fanatical about tracking numbers. Do you do it? You have to do it in your own personal business also, I would assume.

Yes. Yes. Like you always said, the numbers don’t lie. And that to do, you know, as a coach and as an agent, if you go to an appointment, you don’t get that listing. Why? What happened? And that’s how you can learn and grow. If you break it down. So, absolutely. And I try to walk the talk.

Yeah, it’s a tough one. So for your personal numbers, Listings taken to Listing Presentations made what is your closing percentage right now?

It’s 80 percent. It was usually it was 85, 87 percent. But this year it’s lower because I’m trying to go on more appointments. And it’s tougher this year, they’re interviewing and are you competing against cut rate commissions. So it’s 80 percent. But it usually hovers around 85, 86 percent. So it’s down a little bit this year.

Which is really phenomenal because I think the national average is about 22 percent. So for all of our listeners, again, to know that if Mitch goes on a Listing Presentations 8 of them sign a contract where the average agent goes on 10 and gets two signed, and the only difference is what Mitch says to the seller. So how important to you are all the scripts and dialogs that we’ve always taught and that you’re teaching?

It’s everything. And that allows you to get in there and get out 15 minutes. But I always say on a Listing Presentation and obviously you’ve got me this, it’s before you get there. And I always say, if you’re thorough and your prequel, ask going deep on the questions. Unless you show up and you don’t throw up on them, you’re going to get the listing, you know, everything before you get there. And I think that’s 80, 90 percent of it. I really, really do. The more you can communicate before you get there, I think it’s huge.

Well, you know, and you and I teach that every day that if they will actually ask all the pre-qualifying questions. A mutual friend of ours who’s a great agent like Mitch called me a couple of years ago and he said, I’m having a little challenge with the Pre-qualifying, and I thought, well, that’s unusual, he’s a twenty-five-year client and we went through it. He was living one question out, and then we figured out that one question leaving out cost him a couple of hundred thousand dollars over five years because of presentations, did not go in the style and fashion he would like. So I know some of your clients, as I stated very well, and I know that you’re not only ethical about this, but you’re also pretty tough on them when they don’t do it so how do you respond to clients that say well Mitch, I just didn’t have time to go through that pre-qualifying and listing package. I’m just too busy. How do you respond?

Well, I said, how do you feel when you go out there and you prepare you mail out your pre-listing package, everything and you don’t get the listing. How much did that cost you? So we break it down. I mean, it’s going to cost you way more time and emotional, you know, frustration of going there and not getting and losing it or going back a second, third time because you didn’t do your homework up front. It is so important to follow everything. Absolutely. All the questions. And when you get there.

You know, that’s good. We have a great family doctor here in Las Vegas, and he’s my age and two funny things I’ve mentioned in the past, but I have always said to them, when are you going to retire? He said, when you do? I said, well, I guess you’re going to keep working, right? Right. Is the real key to a great medical success for you as a doctor of the actual treating of the client or the preparation to it? He said it’s all preparation. He said we spent all of our time analyzing before we ever take any action to make recommendations. And I said to him you’d make a great realtor?

Exactly.

If you were to identify one major or big challenge that agents face as they commit to themselves or their broker manager or you and I, that they want to build a business, and I’ll give you an example that after you share with me your thought, what is an example of a challenge they face?

Well, I would say all year long and last year, and especially going forward, you have to work all the sources of the business. You can’t get enough business in one source. And that’s why I go back to you can’t prejudge the source. If you do that, then you won’t call. So to be balance, you have to call new Expireds, old Expires, For Sale By Owner, absentee owner, Past Clients Center of Influence, all of it, to give you a consistent balance growing business, always. Not every other week, every day, though. That’s the challenge. Every day you got to figure out and break it down. Call all four sources every day, not once a week, every day.

I had an email a couple of days ago, Mitch, and I know you received these also. He said, I’ve been with MFO for five years, been in coaching for four years. I’m doing 40 deals a year. His average commission check is 10 grand. So, he’s making very good money as a real estate agent. And he said that I see all these people that are doing seventy-five or one hundred and fifty. He said, what’s the difference? And I wrote back to him, considered just the word belief. You know, you believe in yourself, I believe in myself. You and I believe in what we teach. Your top agents believe they are the best agent for that particular buyer or seller. So would you say that if you take all the sources and then you put the belief into it, they should win most of the time, shouldn’t they?

Absolutely. Like actually, I always when I coach a client, I’ll say before you call a source, there’s really three things I’ve learned from MFO. Number one, you have to believe it works. You have to believe you can do it. That’s first. Second, you’ve got a master that script. Third, develop a system. But if you don’t believe in what you’re doing, then you’re not going to be good at the script and you’re not going to set up a system. It’s all in the head. Absolutely.

I remember one day sitting and talking to an agent at one of our retreats, and the guy said to me, how do I create that belief? I said, well, if you go on a listing, do you really believe you’re the right agent? And he looked when he said, not all the time. I said, well, that’s where you get 50 percent instead of 80 percent. Right. So, if you were doing a little seminar today for a couple of dozen agents and they said, give us two or three. I mean, have I’ve already taken a half a page notes of what you’ve said. So, thank you for that. And I hope our viewers are doing the same. Two or three, if you were talking to a small group of ideas you want to share so they can someday have the success that they want.

Number one, I’m going to go back to it. You got to go a hundred percent, in MFO. If you delay, you delay and you’re delaying the process. And I think it was Michael Young you had on stage one time. And he said, he asked you that question. How do I get there faster? Well, one, we know it takes time, but go to more events. And I think Michael said he doubled and tripled everything. Instead of going to four events, he went to eight events. And instead of roleplaying once a day, rule played three times a day. So one hundred percent get one hundred and eighty percent get involved in everything. That’s how are you going to grow and learn talking to other people, other markets. You learn from that. And then really the second is, is the schedule, the discipline to follow the schedule. I always tell coaching clients there’s a reason why Mike put that number one. You can be great agent, you be good on the phone, good at presentations, but if you don’t show up, it means nothing. So the discipline to follow the schedule. But I’m going to add to that the afternoon to everybody does the morning. That’s half the game. But they don’t do things in the afternoon, that dead spot between one and four. Are they going to the door? You know, I was reading the other day, Mike, in your lead follow-up for Expireds, FSBO’s, call them in the morning call them at noon column at seven o’clock. And if you can’t get them on the phone, go to the door. Discipline to follow the schedule.

Well, that is such great advice tonight. And I know, Mitch, that anybody that’s viewing today will want to watch this every day this week, because as I said to all of them, I’ve got a whole long list of things I’ve written down based on what Mitch suggested. And any one of these ideas can help a person propel their business forward. One of the things for all of our viewers that Mitch and I don’t believe in is magic formulas. But I have to tell you, Mitch, I could just write common sense down above your name here, and that’s what you’ve presented. I want to say thank you for your time today. Thanks for your participation. Thanks for being a great customer for a long time and a great coach. And I hope we have many, many, many more years to work together and enjoy this experience. So, thank you for today and we’ll look forward to seeing you very soon.

Thanks, Mike. Thanks again for the opportunity. Appreciate it.

Bye bye.