Mario Lands Two Divorce Listings With His First Ten Books!

Michael Walter:

The way I like to start everything out is if you can just tell me a little bit about yourself, where you're in the country and how long you've been in real estate?

Mario Lemus:

I've been in real estate since 2021. I'm on the southern end of the United States where Texas is. The best way I can explain it is South Padre Island, that's maybe about like a 50 minute drive from here. I'm literally 20 minutes from the border to Mexico. I think I joined, November or December, it was a 30 days trial period. At that point, I was just like everybody else in real estate right now, just like everybody else throughout the country. It was holiday time so I was just swamped.

Mario Lemus: 

February, I forget the guy's name that reached out to me, you know, he said he'll show me, you know, basically have an introduction with me since I had already missed so many calls. Then maybe like a week from there, that's when I met with Rosario and that was it. She walked me through what I needed to get walked.

Michael Walter:

Awesome. So, since you got that introduction to how everything worked, how are you using the books?

Mario Lemus:

So at first I was like, "Dude, I'm really swamped right now." I had just lost my assistant. I had just barely moved brokerages. I was basically like a new agent again for the most part. So, I ordered 10 books. I really liked the idea of a divorce listing because for the most part when you get a divorce listing they're a little bit higher-end of the price point. Right. And at that point I been like working just under the median average of the market that I'm in. The market here, my medium average is about $275k, $280k. But, for the median average of divorce listings, at least the two that I've already gotten, they are in the $300k's. So, it's the same amount of work, it's just better pay. At least 30% more pay.

Mario Lemus:

So, I got the book. I was friends on Facebook with this one guy who works as a divorce attorney and he had posted on his story, "Clients getting divorced and this is what I'm having to go through." So I just reached out to him directly, had lunch with him, paid for it. I give him five books. Within like two days he calls me back, he's like, "Hey, I have a couple that they have to sell their house. You know, roughly it's $385. Can you help them out?" "Well, of course I got it." So, that was the first listing I got.

Mario Lemus:

And then I went, I was like, "It can't be this easy. Right?" So, let me try it again with someone who's not a friend on Facebook. Right. So, I was at a protein shop buying a shake and one of the business cards that they have there, I just saw another divorce attorney. I stopped in, left five books, and got another listing.

Mario Lemus:

I mean, I got a call like, "Hey, what did you want from the book? Are you expecting something back?" "I'm not expecting anything back, but I'm pretty sure that you don't get paid until the case is completely closed and sometimes you don't actually close out the case until the home is actually sold. So, you know, you tell me how, how fast can I help you?" That's where I got my second listing.

Michael Walter:

I think that's awesome and honestly, I think using the divorce books with the divorce attorney is the best way to do it, rather than trying to track down the divorcing homeowners themselves. It's so much easier to work with the attorneys because that's a great referral partner. Now, you have two awesome referral partners that you've already got listings from and they know your work now.

Mario Lemus: 

Right, we are in escrow on one of them and the other one we just listed on the 12th.

Michael Walter:

Awesome. So, for 10 books, you've already gotten two listings. That's a pretty good return right there already.

Michael Walter:

What was the attorney's reaction, you know, when you gave him the book because that book is just solidifying your authority in your ability to sell these homes?

Mario Lemus:

He was a little bit skittish. He saw more value in it than he was expecting to get, you know, everybody drops off a pamphlet, something you print off a printer, you know, whatever the case might be. He was like, "So what are you expecting from me? Like do I, do I pay for them?" "No. Truly man, I'm just trying to help you. I know you want to close out as fast as you can. You're not in the business to just keep meeting people, you're in the business to actually like cash a check at some point."

Michael Walter:

With these listings, these people, they eventually need to buy new homes too. You know, two new homes, you could definitely kind of double up.

Mario Lemus:

So, the husband was already moved on by the time I got that listing. But the wife, or the ex-wife to be, we're actually looking for something great in the median price range.

Michael Walter:

So what was it about the divorce listings that, , obviously you said the price range was a little bit higher in your area, was there anything else that drew you to those listings?

Mario Lemus:

I want to say no, only because let's be honest, you do so much work. Real estate gets tiring, so it's great to actually feel those clients actually appreciate you. Since they're going through such a tough time with the divorce, it's nice to know that at least someone is actually looking out for them. At least for this lady, she's actually a lot more appreciative, with her situation and what's going on.

Michael Walter:

So I mean really like when you really think about it out of these 10 books, you've got two referral partners from the attorneys and four separate clients that know your work that can now refer you out. So from 10 books, you've gotten six possible referrals and two of them being good referral pipelines. I mean, that's a great way to start building up that pipeline of business coming in.

Mario Lemus: 

Yeah. I'm actually pretty excited. Things have been a lot smoother. I guess people get scared from the stigma of working with someone, going through a divorce. I guess TV and entertainment makes us feel like divorces are really ugly, but for the most part she's been very respectful and he's been very respectful and easy to work with.

Michael Walter: 

Yeah. And I think a lot of times that comes down to the agent's approach. As long as you're going into it not taking sides and really working with both clients in a respectful way to both of them, it shouldn't be that difficult.

Mario Lemus: 

You know, it is, it is a big difference from my $200k's that I've been working with to like actually working with basically a $400,000 listing. It's just easier. I don't have to fix so many things. There's nothing that needs to get addressed and I don't have to overcome so many objections when selling it to a buyer. At least this listing has been basically ready to go, and was very well kept. It was just an easy sale.

Michael Walter:

Approaching these attorneys has having that book changed your confidence in going and talking to these people that you are looking to build up these referral pipelines with?

Mario Lemus:

Yeah.You know, like I said, you show up to somebody and you're there to sell your service and you feel bad because you don't have so much value to give. A flyer means nothing, you know? With the book, from their perspectives, it's like, "Hey, you put a lot of time into this."

Michael Walter:

Right. So, you talked about having that lunch with the, the first attorney that you started working with, what was your pitch to them, specifically having the book and giving that to their clients?

Mario Lemus:

I didn't go with the whole salesy personality. I met just to communicate, just to hang out, you know? "I've seen on your stories, I've seen, on your Facebook feed, you do a lot of work." His story at that point, he had posted something along the lines of like, "Dude, I'm tired. It's like nine o'clock at night and I'm barely leave the office." So I asked, "what is it that you need?" Or "What makes it so difficult."

Mario Lemus:

He said, "Sometimes they don't agree on pricing. Sometimes they don't want to sell it. Sometimes they're dragging their feet. But now that I have someone to say, 'Hey, you know what, call this guy. He's going to give you the price point that you need, get you the most money and we'll be able to close it and then you guys can sign on the doted line a lot faster.' So, I really just asked him what he needed and then I tried to see where I could fit in.

Michael Walter: 

I think it's really smart to kind of key in on that that pain point of every attorney, it's one extra thing that can be a headache that they just don't want to deal with. If they can find somebody that's super reliable, that's going to get the home sold, that's gonna work with their clients and honestly make them look good later on down the road. Because you know, if that divorcing couple, if they've had a good interaction with that attorney, because that attorney had a team of people like yourself, getting everything taken care of and getting everything done quickly for them. That's going to bring in more business to them as the attorney, but then also funnel down to you as well.

Mario Lemus:

Yeah, definitely.

Michael Walter:

So obviously you've gotten these two listings, what's the attorney's reaction been to just your ability to help out their clients and just take that off their plate.

Mario Lemus:

So the first one he's already told me that he has another, one or two listings coming up. He just needs to go through whatever the mediation process is. He said, "Within the next two weeks, man, I got you at least one or two people." He likes the fact that it's already in escrow. So he's actually pretty happy, you know? I mean, if he's going to send me another one or two clearly speaks for itself as far as like how happy and satisfied he is.