Every single week, Greg Harrelson –head of Harrelson Group and one of the very first Real Geeks users ever–, covers a new trend or strategy from our industry, so that realtors can profit from his decades of experience and expedite their path to success.
In this article, we're going to break down Greg's biggest points on the topic of Old School vs New School real estate, and how we can mesh the best of both worlds to deliver a unique value proposition and dominate our market.
We know many of you are going to be taking some time off throughout this holiday season. In fact, some real estate agents take the entire months of November and December off.
And while there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, Greg wants to remind the ambitious agent of this: "Thanksgiving is a Holiday – not a holiday month. Christmas might even be a holiday week – not a holiday month."
Again – we understand the importance of this time, and how amazing it is to spend it with our families. But there are still consumers, buyers and sellers, who need to be serviced.
So especially if you're new to the real estate game, we strongly advise you to work through this holiday season.
"In every one of our MLSs across the country there's going to be plenty of sales happening during November and December – and way fewer agents competing." Greg reiterates.
If 2024 hasn't been your year, you're going to see tremendous opportunity if you work during the holidays. Especially because agents who were able to generate lots of business during 2024 (perhaps because they joined Greg's private coaching community, RGMastery.com) might use this time to reset and go on holiday after a very productive year.
With that out of the way, let's get to our topic of discussion today: Old School vs New School Real Estate.
What are some prime examples of old school real estate as it relates to lead generation?
Well, a big one is circle prospecting.
What is circle prospecting in real estate?
Circle prospecting in real estate is a lead generation method that involves cold calling homeowners around a specific area to find out if they're interested in buying or selling. The focus here is on building relationships first and becoming the trusted local expert, in the hopes that these leads will consider working working with you in the future.
So, in terms of lead generation, everything associated with outbound prospecting (targeting people with whom you've had no previous contact with), is considered "old school" real estate.
On the other hand, inbound lead generation – as in, attracting already interested leads to your website through content or targeted search advertising – is associated with "new school" real estate.
When it comes to engaging with our existing database, you might not be surprised to learn which strategy is considered "old school": calling your leads.
And here's where things get interesting.
While "new school" real estate strategies for lead engagement rely on workflows and automations, Greg is a big proponent of having a mixed approach.
Why? Because when it comes to engagement, everyone's become way too "new school".
Greg's a firm believer that realtors are abusing workflows and automation, and have completely forgotten about building 1-on-1 rapport through the phone.
And because of this, there's a huge opportunity in the market for agents who aren't scared to call their database.
Related: Check out our guide on The 7 Reasons You Aren't Calling Your Leads (& Why They're Silly)
A mixed approach doesn't negate the benefits that workflows give us, but emphasizes the importance of automation being a facilitator for live, outbound communication.
Here's what a mixed approach looks like, according to Greg: every single morning, you dedicate two hours of your day to calling your database.
Depending on the size of your CRM, you might need a few weeks or months to go over the entire thing.
Because you're not just going to call them, you're going to get a clear picture of where they're at in their buying / selling stage, and then tag them accordingly, so that automated workflows can help you guide them through those stages.
For example, you might call a lead who's just started thinking about buying, but they're not sure where, or even at what price. So throughout the call, you'll want to understand a little bit more about what they're looking for, and narrow down that search to a couple of neighborhoods, and a few pricing brackets.
With that in mind, after the call, you can set them up on a workflow designed to send them relevant information on those neighborhoods, such as market reports, and videos of you breaking down the trends happening across those markets.
On the other hand, if you call a lead and find out they've already decided on a given neighborhood and are clear on a price range, you want to put them on tighter, more personalized workflows where you text them specific properties that coincide with their search, asking them if they'd like to tour it.
This is how "old school" and "new school" strategies can and should work together. Use these tools to help you automate sending relevant information, but ensure your workflows are relevant by continuing to build rapport with your leads over the phone.
Old School: Long, Generic Workflows
This is an old school tactic that you definitely want to avoid today. Back in the day, when there was less competition and automation was just getting started, agents could get away with creating year-long workflows with dozens of touch points.
"I would be proud of my long workflows that span over years!" Greg even admits.
But now, those generic email campaigns will get you nowhere with your leads, and will only increase your unsubscribe rate. Not what you want.
New School: 2-Step, Highly Relevant Workflows
So how should you go about workflows today?
We wrote an entire article on this, but the TL;DR version is this: your workflows should be short (1 to 3 steps long, at most), your workflows should be targeted (and you should constantly be moving leads from workflow to workflow depending on their behavior), and your workflows should be plentyfull (as in, have dozens of highly relevant workflows rather than one long generic one).
New School: Autoresponders
These tools allow you to service your website leads even when you're not around.
"But if you look," Greg points out, "autoresponders can get you engagement, but actually calling these leads will get you connections."
This is why most autoresponders – like the GeekAI – will have a feature that lets you know when a lead is ready to be called. In other words, when the lead is ready to build a one-on-one connection.
Old School: For Sublet Owners, New School: Cash Offer Widget
Two listing strategies that Greg combines: "I've used both of them. I love both of them. And both of them together build a great business."
"It really doesn't need to be 'old school' vs 'new school'", says Greg, "it needs to be 'old school–enhanced'"
Because the way humans build strong connections hasn't changed – and it probably never will.
There's perhaps no stronger example of this than what happened during the pandemic. You would think that with all the technology and digital ways of communication we have, we wouldn't miss face-to-face interactions so much.
And yet – research shows that face to face interactions were far superior for mental health than digital communication during the pandemic.
In fact, despite the advancement of technologies that made remote work so easy, most people wanted to go back to the office after the pandemic.
All of this goes to show that the more personable the communication channel is, the stronger the relationship we build with the other person.
So 'old school' tactics of calling should be at the forefront of your engagement efforts, and they should be enhanced with technologies such as video calls, automations, autoresponders, and targeted email sequences.
Because, especially now that everyone's relying on emails and automation, you'll be surprised at how much leads are yearning for that personal touch.