How Lamar Converted A $450,000 FSBO With His First Book
Lamar Bryant worked in sales for over 20 years and wanted to make a change.
“Circumstances didn't allow that until I was blessed with being able to sell a piece of property that I purchased with an inheritance, some inheritance money my mom left when she passed in 2011. So with that money, I was able to buy a property shortly after she passed, but then five years later, I sold it. So I was able to quit my full-time sales job, decided to get into real estate with my wife's encouragement.
“I've been a salesperson in real estate for five, going on six years now, and have loved every bit of it. I love the freedom. I love coming and going as I please and being in control of my schedule. I'm living my dream right now.”
Lamar went to school at Emory University and graduated with a psychology major. He never imagined he’d one day find himself in a real estate career.
“Being able to spend time with my family has been the biggest win for me.”
Lamar found Authorify this year when he came across a webinar.
“And I honestly, I thought it was going to be your run of the mill webinar about this process, this thing that can help you increase your business and just another sales presentation, but it turned out it was something different. He was talking about a book, you know, being able to publish a book and your name and establish credibility for yourself and establish yourself as an authority by using the power of having your own book. Now, that was different for me."
“So I signed up immediately, and long story short, I got my first set of books and I started giving those out to my family and friends first. I think the magic began to happen though when I started giving the books out to my prospective clients, sellers in particular. And you know, I started getting listings."
“I mean, before then, I was averaging anywhere from one to two listings a month, something like that. And once I got in my books, things took off.”
Lamar said he worked with a member of our team to perfect his book before it was printed.
“I have to give props to Troy Dillard with the team there. He helped me quite a bit with getting my book off the ground, getting it tailored and everything, just the way I wanted it.”
The first potential client to receive one of Lamar’s books was a For Sale by Owner seller.
“I was over there just to take a look at the property. It wasn't really even a listing presentation. It was a property preview. I was over here just to kind of take a look at what they had and maybe try to bring them a buyer or something. But I had my book in my bookbag, and we got into a really nice conversation. He was asking me a lot of questions about me. And so I figured this is an opportunity for me to put my best foot forward. So I gave him a book, and he was like, ‘Wow.’ And his wife was down at the lake. And so he called his wife. He said, ‘Baby, I need you to come on by, you know, talk to this gentleman here. I got Lamar here sitting with me. He's written his own book. And I think you might want to hear what he has to say.’ So she walked in five minutes later, and we turned this meeting into a listing presentation. And they were both flipping through the book. They seemed very impressed. And they gave me the listing — $425,000 listing in Fayetteville, Georgia. And that came from just a preview."
“I saw them; they were selling For Sale by Owner on Zillow. And I said, well, ‘This is a nice house. I know some people that may be interested. Let me go by there and take a look and see what I can make happen. And it really happened.”
Before he joined Authorify, Lamar says he was averaging between one and two listings a month.
“And just within the last 30 days, I've managed to get five new listings, and I would give a lot of credit to the book for that. Five new listings in the last 30 days is something I've never done before, but I think a lot of it had to do with just how I was able to impress the clients with the fact that I wrote a book."
“I think it made me stand out a lot from my competition and colleagues.”
Lamar says he typically uses his books once he’s already secured a listing appointment.
“I may give it to them when I first walk in the door, or I may pull that out as part of my listing presentation. It just kind of depends on how I postured it in the beginning, but they both work."
“So one listing presentation, I had done my normal thing, and I talked about my sales price to list price ratio and days on market and all that stuff. But then when I pulled out the book showing that, you know, this is something else that I've accomplished again, I saw the wife and the husband, they looked at each other, eyebrows went up, and you know, he took the book from me and he started flipping through it. He was like, ‘Wow, it's not every day that I meet an agent — and I met a lot of agents — it's not every day that I meet an agent that has written a book.’ So that told me that, you know, I stood out from everyone else that he's spoken with.”
Lamar has also recruited family members to get the word out about his book.
“My dad, he is happy to promote it for me. He's well-respected and known in the community, and I gave him one, and so he talks it up all the time. So I’ve got some ambassadors. My sister and my brother-in-law, they have a copy, and some of the very first few copies that I gave out were to my already past clients. So they have that on their shelves, and you never know how far that may go."
“I'm looking forward to the referrals that the clients that I just spoke of that gave me the $425,000 listing, and we’re scheduled to close on December 1. She's already written three reviews for me. It's just awesome, you know?"
“I had one other gentleman who actually, before I had gotten my first set of books, I was working with him, but I told him about the book. And he asked me, ‘Well, what can I do to help you, man? you've been so helpful getting my house on the market, yada, yada, yada. I tell him, ‘Well, the best thing you can do for me is to write an excerpt for the book.’ So he actually has a section in my book, a longer testimonial than your typical, but he has about maybe two or three pages just to explain his experience, and I can never thank him enough for right."
Lamar started with the For Sale by Owner Guide because many of his potential clients are FSBOs.
“They fall into a lot of pitfalls, and I think that I can help prevent them from falling into those pitfalls. So one of the reasons why I decided to write the book in the first place was just to help those types of people. It's all about helping people, you know?
“Yes, I know I'm going to get listings and things of that nature as a by-product, but I think helping people is more important. And I feel like if sellers actually take my advice in the book, they do have better chances of selling their house on their own, but then when they see that there's a lot that comes along with that endeavor, they just throw in the towel and say, ‘You know what? I don't have time for all this. So then they just gave me the listing. So that's how it's been working.
“But I think in the future, I will probably do another book for expireds and maybe another book for first-time home buyers or something like that. Right now, I'm winning with sellers. So I don't want to veer off too far from that. But I do see a lot of potential in the future with these books.”
Even though he didn’t pursue a career in psychology, Lamar has been able to leverage his expertise into his real estate career.
“I even bring that up when I'm talking to people or when I'm sitting down with them at the kitchen table. I always give a little bit about my background because you never know how that may move a person. I talk about the fact that I majored in psychology at Emory and stuff like that. And I think that it really helps me to understand how people think, how people behave. I do understand a lot of the non-verbal communication that goes along, that happens when I'm talking with somebody. I think that helps me get through to people a lot better, being able to communicate, not just verbally, but understand what's going on outside of that verbal exchange.”
