Extreme Ownership + Servant Leadership in Real Estate

What happens when you blend humility, mastery, and systems that actually serve people? You get Jack Cote—team leader of NV Home Team in Reno, Nevada, and a living example of what it looks like to run a $100M+ business with heart and discipline.

He’s not just on Tom Ferry’s Dream Team or RE/MAX’s national top 60; he’s the kind of leader who drops off bubble wrap to sellers before they list and sends yogurt gift cards to clients’ kids just because.

This episode is your playbook on how to build a business that lasts, rooted in extreme ownership and servant leadership. No fluff. Just systems, standards, and a whole lot of heart.

🔥 Highlights & Takeaways

🚪 “I work on a handshake. Always have.”

Even with the new buyer-broker agreement mandates, Jack leads with confidence in his client experience. He knows: if he delivers, they’ll stay.
→ Use short-term touring agreements to build trust without pressure.

🧰 Systems That Serve the Client (Not Just the Agent)

• Buyer Booklets: Fully prepped with property details, Reno info, and a place for notes.
• Touring Tips: Rank homes 1–10, nickname each one, and help buyers stay organized (and sane).
• Monthly Seller Reports: Full transparency with feedback + showing stats. Sellers feel seen and supported.
• “All About You” Forms: Kids’ birthdays, favorite restaurants, anniversary dates. Then? Use that data to surprise and delight.

🛠 Jack’s Secret Sauce: Anticipation

He’s not reactive. He’s 10 steps ahead.

“I treat pricing conversations like prescriptions. You’ve gotta listen before you diagnose.”

He walks homes before the listing appointment. He role-plays objections before they come up. He teaches his agents to position, not just price.

💡 For Newer Agents:

Start with:

1. Touring your own neighborhood (be the local expert)
2. Hosting open houses (yes, they still work)
3. Sending “Letter of the Heart” mailers twice a year to build connection

Bonus: Offer to help experienced agents instead of asking for leads. Get in the game through service.

✨ For Stuck Agents:

Feeling like your business hit a wall? Jack’s advice:
 Get back to gratitude and giving.
Write 5 notes a day. Drop off treats. Show up with a full heart and an empty ask.

“It’s funny, when you stop chasing deals and start loving people, the deals come.”

🧠 Favorite Quotes from Jack:

• “I probably talk more people out of homes than into them.”
• “You don’t need more leads. You need to take better care of the ones you have.”
• “I want my agents to succeed for the team—but more importantly, I want them to succeed for themselves.”

🚀 TAKE ACTION:

Whether you’re new or seasoned, Jack reminds us:
 🟡 Lead with service
🔴 Own every detail
🔵 Deliver an experience worth talking about

👉 Action beats perfection. Take what you learned today and RUN with it

If this episode gave you an idea you can implement in your business, don’t just listen — take it and run.

🎤 Book me to speak at your event/team meeting: 
kristijencks.com

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https://www.youtube.com/@coachkristijencks

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@kristijencks

🎙️ About the Podcast

Take It and Run is the podcast for ambitious professionals—especially real estate agents—who want practical strategies they can implement immediately. Each episode delivers mindset shifts, frameworks, and real-world insights to help you move from thinking about it… to doing it.

Transcript

Kristi Jencks (00:00.878)
Okay, excellent. Welcome back to Take It and Run. Today we are talking to someone who's not just making waves in Reno, Nevada, he's making waves nationally. Jack Cote, the team leader of the NV Home team. Let's just talk about some credentials here so that you guys know who we have on the podcast today. Part of the top 60 teams with Remax nationally.

He just made the top 30 dream teams with Tom Ferry's top 30 list, which is super exciting. And his team just crossed a hundred million in sales for 2025. He's one of the most respectable humans that I've ever met and especially in his market as a real estate agent. And if so, you've ever wondered how to win buyer's trust, coach sellers to price the home right without losing the listing and how to scale with systems and just some good hard work.

then you're in the right place for today because Jack's gonna peel back the curtain and share with us some of his best strategies. So Jack, welcome. And for those of us who don't know you, why don't you give them the 90 second version of how you got into real estate and what your business is like today.

Jack Cote' (01:15.907)
Yeah, well, thank you, Kristi And so I'm based out of Reno, Nevada. I've lived here since 1979 and seen a lot of changes through the years. And my wife and I bought our first house in 2000. And then we bought our first rental property in 2003. And this is before Zillow and the online convenience of house shopping. And so we would drive neighborhoods. We would look for yard signs.

We did have an agent at the time that had helped us buy our first house and she would give us printouts and say, go drive by these neighborhoods and if you see something you like, let me know and we'll take a look at it. that was kind how we got started. And in 2005, we had bought our first house in 2000, lived in it three years, rented it two years, and then our tenant wanted to buy it. So we called this other agent because our first agent had moved out of state.

and just told him, you know, my tenant wants to buy the house. We already have a price in mind. Can you just help us through the paperwork? And he said, sure. And so we, did that. And then that agent disappeared for about two weeks. Wouldn't return my calls, wouldn't return my tenant calls. She got upset and backed out and

I thought, well, I could do a better job than this guy. And I'm already researching the market. found my passion is real estate. So I got my license in 2005. I sold that house the next year in 2006 for even more money and then just never looked back. of course, timing probably wasn't the best as the market turned in 2008. And what I've learned is just there's always business and there's always people you can help. You just have to work hard and look at what

ways you can help people that need it. So just to always, you can always adapt and there's always people that need help.

Kelcie Dowd (03:05.741)
I love that.

Kristi Jencks (03:06.274)
I love that. I love how you got into real estate because I think a lot of us find ourselves that way.

Kelcie Dowd (03:08.964)
Yeah.

Jack Cote' (03:12.331)
Yeah, yeah. And so my wife joined me in real estate in 2006. So we've both been doing this about 20 years. And, really, it's my passion. It's different every day. You meet a lot of different people. There's struggles and challenges like any business. But I always think about how lucky I am because, you know, there's a lot of people that work a lot harder physically.

than I do and make less, let's say a roofer or a construction worker or just people that are out there just physically working hard every day. And I think in real estate, we have a lot of emotional challenges that we're working with with our clients and just fires that are out of our control. And I think we get paid to find solutions. And it's really, we've always had a client focused.

you know, client based focus where we're looking out for their best interest. To us, it's not about the money. The money will come if you take care of the client. And our goal is to make that one client, you know, maybe they'll refer us three or four other of their friends and then just keep, you know, leveraging that. So it really is a client based business.

Kelcie Dowd (04:27.3)
So something that I've been thinking about as you're explaining this is with the amount of people that you are helping and you were saying this before that you guys focus on how many people you're helping, not just how much GCI or how much volume you bring at the end of the year. You have to be pretty decent at building fire trust, right? For agents out here who are maybe struggling with that, what's one simple step?

that agents can take to build that trust with buyers.

Jack Cote' (05:00.523)
I was, thank you for the question. I always look at my clients as if I was selling or helping my own family buy a house. If I was helping my brother or my sister or my mom, what advice would I give them? And I probably talk people out of buying houses more than I recommend that they do buy a house. And I feel just being honest and pointing out the pros and the cons.

just builds trust with those buyers so that when we do find a great house and I tell them, know, this is very nice. It's something that I would buy personally or I'd feel comfortable selling, you know, to my brother. It carries a little more weight. So what I don't want to be is a cheerleader on every house because then buyers, you know, they're going to put up their wall. They think you're just trying to sell them to get a commission. And I also tell buyers, you know, like,

Kelcie Dowd (05:40.324)
Mm-hmm.

Kristi Jencks (05:50.956)
Yeah.

Jack Cote' (05:53.471)
I want you to be happy in this house for many, years. I really...

My worst fear is having you call me six months from now saying, you know, we thought we could deal with that busy road, but we hate it. So we need to sell our house and then they're losing money. They're having to move twice. It's a disappointment for them. So I've had some clients where I worked with them for three years. They found the right house finally, and they've been there since 2008. So, you know, it's I'd rather have I look at it more of like the long game, not just not a short transaction. It's more of that relationship that I want to build long term.

Kristi Jencks (06:28.11)
know, it's interesting you say that, Jack, because I was at the gym this morning and my gym buddies weren't there with me. So you know you're dedicated when you go by yourself. So super proud of myself this morning. But so I don't always listen to something when I'm at the gym. This morning I was listening to Gary Vaynerchuk and Tom on Tom's podcast. And interesting enough, Tom had asked Gary, he said, you know, what do you, what advice do you have for the agent who, you know,

Kelcie Dowd (06:38.852)
Yes.

Kristi Jencks (06:57.79)
is out there working and they need to get someone under contract. They need to make some money. And I don't, paraphrasing, so you'll have to go back and listen to Tom. It's his latest episode with Gary. But Gary said, don't think about the money, just serve. If you serve, the money will come. He's like, give away all your content, give away all your value and it'll come back to you. And it sounds like that's exactly what you're doing.

Jack Cote' (07:20.835)
Yeah, I really believe in that because if I believe if you focus on the money and you start counting the commission before you earn it and let's say you're gonna make

$10,000 and say, okay, I'm gonna pay off this credit card. I'm gonna pay off this. Well then, you're focused on the wrong thing. So what you need to focus on is what are your clients' goals? How can you help them to reach those as smoothly as you can? Make it about that client experience because again, if you make it a great experience for that client,

they're gonna tell their friends and their family and whenever they hear somebody even a year from now talking about buying or selling a house, they're gonna say, hey, you have to call Jack, he took great care of us and that's really the way look at it. And I found if you don't focus on the money, the transactions just kind of grow. So you might be waiting for that one transaction and then you focus on that client, next thing you know, you have three escrows or five escrows and it's...

You know, it's some juggling, but if your heart is in the right place and you're always looking out for your clients first, you're going to succeed. And, you know, it's, it's a, can be a tough business. I think it's comes down to talking to more people, you know, letting your friends and family and past clients know that you appreciate their referrals and that you, you know, promise to take great care of anybody that you, that they send your way.

And whenever I get a referral from a past client or a family member or even another agent, I always want to make that person look really good. So I'll take extra special care of that buyer. And just because I want them to go back to the referral person and just say, Hey, I'm so glad you referred us to Jack.

Kristi Jencks (09:01.966)
Yeah, you know, I am curious on, on your philosophy on this. knowing that you've, you've always run your business, because we've, we've discussed this in our coaching calls of like, I never want to force anybody to work with me. I want them to work with me because they want to. So how have you and the team, you know, it's, it's September 2025, August, you know, 2024, we all made a big shift with the buyer-broker agreements. So, you know,

How's that going for your team? What transition did you guys make? And did you always use buyer broker agreements? What about your mindset shifted with that?

Jack Cote' (09:39.744)
So honestly, I've always been the kind of guy that works on a handshake. know, back even, I know we've had buyer broker agreements around for a long time. I never really used them in the past, you know, because I felt like, I just kind of felt awkward. Like if this person, if I work hard for this person, they're going to want to work with me. And I kind of feel like, you know, having a buyer broker agreement signed on right up front.

you they don't even know you and you don't know that client. Like what if they're not a good fit? what since August, you know, we are required to have buyer broker agreements and what we've done, I still on our first tours, Zillow has a touring agreement. It's a seven day touring agreement. So whenever I meet a new client, I start with that because I also have seen pushback from a lot of buyers that are like, well, you know, I don't want to sign this because I don't even know you yet.

And so I just try and take some of that pressure away that, yeah, we're just going to focus on looking at homes. If we're a good fit, then when the time is right, we'll sign the buyer broker agreement and just explaining it to buyers that it's something that's required. It's been mandated. So some people have been using buyer broker agreements forever and it was just an easy transition. For me, I always think about, like, I guess the metaphor would be if you ask a

someone out on a date and you're asking them to marry you before you even have dinner. So that's kind of been my hesitation. So that's why I start with the touring agreement because it's a seven day agreement. The buyer is acknowledging that they don't have an agreement with another agent and it kind of just opens the door so you can build rapport and continue to work with that client if you're a good fit.

Kristi Jencks (11:29.452)
sounds like you're putting your, you know, you're putting your, you're basically saying, I believe in myself, and that I'm going to do a good enough job, that at the end of this touring agreement, you're going to want to work with me. And I'm so confident in my services, and I know it's going to be a while, but I'm going to remove that pressure for you so that you can experience on your own and come to that decision.

Jack Cote' (11:52.164)
Yeah, that's 100%. And yeah, I do work hard for my clients. I have late nights where I'm thinking about how can I make their experience better or if I'm showing property the next day, I want to make sure I always put together a buyer guide with all of the listings that we're going to look at on the first appointment with that client. I'll give that to them.

And it also has our relocation information about the Reno area. So I found that when I present that to the client, it's almost like you're giving them a gift. And it's a pretty thick book, but it doesn't take that long to put together. And the response I've had has been so overwhelmingly positive where as we're going through properties, the buyer can make notes.

I always recommend to the buyers as we're looking at houses, rank them on a scale of one to 10. So after we see about 15 houses or 10 houses, they're going to start blending together. So scale of one to 10, think of a nickname for the house. it's the blue house, call it the blue house versus one, two, three main street, because it's a lot easier to remember. it also keeps them organized, so they don't have paper shuffling everywhere.

And then it also has a longer shelf life. know, if they are from out of town and they go back home, they're going to maybe keep that relocation guide, which also has my bio and the testimonials. And, know, it just reaffirms that they would want to continue to work with me.

Kelcie Dowd (13:24.676)
Do you think that that has helped to prevent any ghosting that happens? Have you noticed a difference?

Jack Cote' (13:31.043)
I do. think it's, mean, and you're still going to have those clients that might ghost you, but I've had a good response.

Kelcie Dowd (13:41.72)
I lost your audio.

Kristi Jencks (13:44.386)
can still hear him.

Jack Cote' (13:45.26)
Okay, sorry. So I haven't really had a of people ghost me per se, but after you've done the showings, it's also on you as the agent to maintain contact with that person. If they're not buying today, maybe they're, we have a lot of relocation buyers that they're kind of doing their diligence about, do they want to move to Reno or do they want to move to?

you know, Colorado or Arizona. so just having that relocation guide shows them all the benefits of living in Reno. And then just staying in touch with them, you know, even if it's a soft touch once a month, if, you know, just nurture them and, and check in and maybe I always like to give people something of value. I never want to just reach out to somebody just saying, Hey, just checking in. Cause that's kind of a dead end text or dead end call.

If I know what kind of property they're looking for, I might, I might send a couple of listings to them and say, Hey, I saw these two new listings and thought of you. And I think that carries a lot more weight because then the guy, the person might say, you know, Hey, thank you. You know, we're still making our decision, but we appreciate you looking out for us. I think clients just want to feel like the agents are working for them and being proactive. And I've had some clients tell me that like maybe their past realtor, they felt like.

The buyer was doing all the work, sending their agent what they wanted to see off of Zillow or Redfin, and the agent was just opening doors. And that kind of weakens our, I guess, our profession that if people think we're just door openers, they don't see the whole picture of what else goes into it.

Kristi Jencks (15:25.804)
Yeah, you read my mind. You took the next two questions out of my mouth and so we won't even go there because I love it. So these are great insights on the buyer side, but we know that real estate is a two-sided game. And so let's transition over to sellers and talk about some of the strategy. So the Reno market's a little, I would say, like Swiss cheese or bipolar. We've got some homes that are selling really quickly and some homes that are lingering and you've just got this ebb and this flow that's happening right now.

Jack Cote' (15:27.491)
Thank

Kristi Jencks (15:55.206)
and rates are doing what rates are gonna do right now and buyers are still trying to figure out what that means for them. So how do you help sellers understand pricing and positioning, right? Not just like picking a number. Take us through like, how would you coach an agent on your team to work with the seller so that they understand the importance of pricing and positioning the home to get it sold?

Jack Cote' (16:17.835)
Right, so when I meet with sellers, the first thing they're going to know is what is my house worth? And I think you can look at the comps and come up with a range, but there's so many other variables that you have to consider. Like in the Reno market, we typically slow down between.

you know, say Halloween and into March, and then the market picks up again. So if somebody is going to need to list their house in November, December, they're probably going to get a lower price than they might in April or May. Just there's more buyers in the market in spring, weather's nicer, you know, there's just the house shows better. But what I would advise the agents on my team were myself when I'm meeting with a seller is be prepared.

look at all the things that a seller is going to be looking at before they even call you. Sellers are going to go to Zillow, they're going to go to Redfin, and those estimates are sometimes way off. But you still want to know what they're saying because if Zillow says the house is worth $6.50 and you run the comps and you come in at $5.50,

then the seller might think that you're wrong and that Zillow's right. And so I give credit to Zillow for gathering all the data, but even on their own site, they'll admit that their range could be seven to 10 % off. And so what I do is you wanna be prepared. I always put together a seller, basically a CMA with information about the neighborhood. I always try to compare apples to apples, single story versus single story.

Kelcie Dowd (17:28.856)
Mm-hmm.

Jack Cote' (17:52.676)
similar square footage and I try to do three months as far as solds go. Sometimes I have to go back a little further if there's not a lot of data. just before you even get into the numbers with the seller, walk through the home. I have kind of a, I guess a practice that I do. So when I pull up to the house, I don't just immediately go up to the front door. I have my Manila folder with all my data and the seller guidance section in it.

And I'll just take 30 seconds and look at the outside of the house, make notes about curb appeal, or maybe it needs some paint on the trim. And, maybe there's a bunch of weeds in the driveway, whatever it is. And I'll just make those notes because that seller might be watching you through their window and, know, they're going to think, okay, he's, he's making a diagnosis in a way. And then, you know, get to the front door, ask if they would like you to take off your shoes. A lot of people prefer that.

Even if they say no, it's more just asking the question out of courtesy. And then a lot of sellers will ask you, hey, do you want to sit down at the table? And what I'll do is I'll say, well, do you mind if we do a preview walkthrough of your home first? And you could tell me about some of your favorite features, maybe some of the upgrades you've done. And as I go through the home with you, I'll make notes of things that you might want to do to get the house ready for sale. And so.

Not that I'm a doctor, but I kind of feel like I'm a doctor listening to my patient tell me what their symptoms are and then I'm prescribing what they can do to get the house ready to go on the market. And it might be simple things like caulking a bathtub. Sometimes the caulk gets kind of mildewy and it doesn't look good or maybe they have too much furniture or too much clutter. So we go through the house and then I take notes on everything that I'm suggesting so I can give the seller a punch list.

and simple things like clearing off all the countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms, just helping buyers that are touring the house visualize themselves moving in. then after that, that's when we sit down at the table. Simple things like if the seller offers you a glass of water, even if you're not thirsty, accept it. It's letting them be a good host.

Jack Cote' (20:05.664)
And I feel the same thing when I have guests at my house. Like if I don't offer them a glass of water or iced tea, I feel like I'm, you I get kind of anxious about making sure that they're comfortable. So, and then sitting at the table, have all the data prepped, you know, have a printouts for all the properties that you're using as comps. No, no, is for sale in the neighborhood, even if it's not a model match or a single story.

Kelcie Dowd (20:16.398)
Mm.

Jack Cote' (20:30.787)
the seller is gonna know that there's a two story around the corner. So you wanna know about those, you may not use it as a comp, but when they ask you about it, like, hey, what's going on with this house? You could say, well, you know, that one seems it's priced at, you know, 725, might be priced a little bit high. So you just wanna be knowledgeable about their neighborhood.

Kristi Jencks (20:34.018)
Mm-hmm.

Jack Cote' (20:48.739)
And then I also like to put estimated net sheets in my seller guide. And so I'll do a good, better best. If I think the house is worth 700, I might do a net sheet at 680, 690, and 700 just to kind of give them a range. And then that way they can kind of start estimating what their bottom line is going to be. And that's really what's most important to lot of sellers is like, what am I going to walk away with? So.

And then as part of the process, you know, as, we're wrapping up, I'll ask them, you know, if you like, I'd be happy to bring some boxes by for you or some totes or some bubble wrap, you know, just whatever you can take off the seller's plate to make it easier for them to get the house ready.

It's gonna go a long way. So I'll just go to Home Depot I'll spend $100 and buy say 20 medium-sized boxes some bubble wrap tape that $100 goes a long way, you know, because it's taking that off the seller's plate and And then you know helps them get the house ready sooner

Kelcie Dowd (21:47.779)
Mm-hmm.

Kelcie Dowd (21:51.599)
I love that. I love how prepared you are to position sellers for like a comfortable transition and if working with you, you know, if there's, sounds like you try to eliminate as much of that. Like we're strangers. You don't know me. I don't know you. Let's build this trust. And you're like, no, I'm here to help you. I love that. So let's think about maybe a few weeks after a listing goes live and if it's lingering, what is your script or your practice for a price adjustment conversation? Like,

you know, to not lose the listing. How do you have that conversation?

Jack Cote' (22:25.123)
I have part of that conversation during the initial listing presentation. I'll mention to them, here's your neighbor's home. It's a model match that's been on the market 90 days. They're listed at 710. They started at 750. They're maybe chasing the market down. I will also, as part of the listing presentation,

tell the sellers, know, if you like, could probably schedule a tour of these comparable homes so that you can compare apples to apples, put, you know, put on your buyer goggles. And if you were touring your competition, how would you rate it against your home? And so a lot of times sellers,

They have something special about their house, which makes it better than the rest. And you might think it's worth, you know, 700, but they think it's worth 725. So we might, I tell sellers, I typically, I don't want to sell your house for full price the first day or even the first couple of days.

because I feel like I left money on the table for you. You know, if I listed at 680 and we get a 680 offer, you might be happy, but I wonder, could I have gotten you 690, 695? And so I explained to sellers, you know, if our target is say 690 is our sale price, maybe we go start at 700 or 699 so that when a buyer comes in a little bit low, we have some wiggle room. I tell them it's a tug of war is actually

a good thing because then the buyer felt like they had to fight for that price a little bit. And the seller knew that they were starting a little bit above what they wanted. So they were able to negotiate. So I set those expectations that, you know, we want to price it fairly, but maybe have a little wiggle room. And if they still want to list higher, you know, let's say they want to listen to 725.

Jack Cote' (24:14.869)
I can tell them, know, we can give it a shot and test the market. You know, I'm, I hope I'm wrong and somebody falls in love with the house and we'll give you that price. But after two weeks or three weeks, you know, we'll be getting feedback from agents as they show the house. And if our feedback is that we're priced too high, you know, we're probably priced too high and we'll need to adjust that. So just kind of a setting the, I guess the expectations upfront as to what our, strategy would be.

Kelcie Dowd (24:39.63)
Mm-hmm.

Jack Cote' (24:42.103)
That way the seller feels like they didn't leave money on the table. Like if they think your house is worth $7.25 and it doesn't sell, they at least gave it a shot. So it takes that emotional side off of them.

Kelcie Dowd (24:53.827)
Love it.

Kristi Jencks (24:53.966)
So now I'm curious, are, you so it's been a couple of weeks and maybe, mean, I know this happens here in the Phoenix metro area where we sell, we really think that this is the price it's gonna sell and then the market declines even more, right? It softens even more for whatever reason. And so, you know, it's been 30 days or so. What kind of communication do you have in place? Like how often are you checking in with your sellers? What does that look like? Is it an email, a text, a phone call?

I'd love for our listeners to be able to know like you carry a lot of listings. You guys almost always have 20 plus listings on the team. What does seller communication look like and how does it come across?

Jack Cote' (25:35.341)
Well, I, whether it's a buyer or seller, I always want to put myself in their shoes and how would I feel if I was selling my house? so whenever we have, you know, showings, I always reach out to those agents for feedback. And a lot of them will do the feedback, you know, via say show, we use showing time. So there's an email that they get and they can respond and I'll forward that to the sellers directly so they can get the transparent feedback. if agents are not doing the feedback, I'll reach out to them.

via phone or text, and then I'll share that with the sellers as well. And if I have to talk to the agent on the phone, I'll fill in the feedback on showing time so I have a history of it, and then I can forward the scores to the seller. Usually about once a month, also in showing time, we have this report. It's basically a showing activity and feedback report, and we can put a different timeline on there. So typically once a month,

I'll send out to the seller that showing activity report. And it has charts and graphs and it shows, you know, how many showings we had, what the percentage of was for the feedback for pricing. You know, are we too high? Are we just right too low? Same thing with like the scoring of how the showing went on a one to five. And so, and then if there's any remarks in there, which like whenever I show a property, I always try to add some remarks about the house, like good or bad.

those remarks are in there for the seller to see exactly what the agent said. So I try to do a showing feedback report once a month. Also, you know, just another CMA refresher at least once a month with, know, the competition's reduced their prices a little bit. We may need to, you be more competitive. So and...

it might be even more often than 30 days. Like if I see a price reduction of their neighbor's house, I'm going to let them know about it right away. That, your neighbor was at 710, they just reduced to 690. You know, we're at 705. We might want to get below that 700 mark and just to be more competitive. it's typically at least once a month, but more often as needed. and usually the emails are the showing feedback and then

Jack Cote' (27:50.955)
My next best would be text. Everybody's so busy, but at least if I send them a text, I'm not trying to capture them when they're available. And then if I can't reach them via text, I'll call as well.

Kelcie Dowd (28:02.53)
You really bring it so clear how like you bring so much intention to your listings and intention does not happen by accident. so if we can, we like rewind to the beginning because agents who are just starting out, they need these first steps. So let's talk about building from scratch.

Jack Cote' (28:22.189)
Sure, yeah, it's a lot of hard work, you know. Basically, I feel like you get out of it what you put into it. My first few transactions were Sphere. One was a coworker of my wife's. The second one was a person that had worked for me at a previous company. But then, you I was doing a lot of open houses when I first started out because I didn't really have a Sphere. I had family and a few friends, but...

Doing the open houses is where you really get to learn about the market and you get to meet a lot of different people. And it is hard work. It's a lot of time and effort, but my first few transactions were open house. then just as you get those closings, always ask for a review. Make sure you have a Zillow account set up, Yelp, Google, Realtor.com. Rate My Agent is another one that I use.

and ask your clients for a review, because that carries a lot more weight than you saying how productive you are, how good you are. If somebody else or multiple people say, give you good scores, that's going to carry a lot more weight. So first of all,

Kristi Jencks (29:36.206)
You guys actually, you just recently surpassed 1000 reviews on Zillow and as a real estate agent and Kelcie can attest to this as our operations manager, we know how difficult, maybe, Kelcie, maybe we just have a mindset around this, right? But like, I would love to know how often you ask for a review and how have you guys been so successful in getting over 1000 Zillow reviews, which I would say is probably one of the most difficult platforms to get a review.

Jack Cote' (30:05.732)
It is, we, you know, we, we always reach out to every client after, know, at the closing. So part of my, I guess my, conversation with the client would be like, Hey, congratulations on your new home. We just went on record. You know, I can meet you over there at five 30 to get you the keys and, know, and they're like, thank you. You we're so happy. And then what I'll do is as part of that conversation, I'll just say, I know you're busy, but if I send you an email with a couple of links,

Would you mind doing a short review for us? And they're always like, sure, yeah, no problem. And then you just have to make sure you send them that email while it's still fresh in their mind. Cause if you send it to them a week later, it's going to go in their inbox. They're going to forget about it.

And what I do for our clients is I have an email that has a few of our links. So maybe it's Zillow, Google, Yelp, and Realtor.com. And I'll put all four of those in there. And I'll just say, feel free to do a review on any of these sites. Or if you like, you can review on all of them. And some people, they're so happy with our service that they do reviews on all four sites. So you get basically a four for women. Yeah, so it's just setting the expectation.

and just thanking them for taking the time out of their day. I acknowledge that they're busy and as we're competing with other agents in our market for reviews, I might even mention that we are competing with other agents and then it kind of gets the client on your side, like they're rooting for you, they're voting for you to win. it's...

So I recommend to all of our agents on our team, definitely have your Zillow, your Yelp, and a Google Business are the three main ones. And then you can go beyond that. Like I said, I use Rate My Agent, which will import reviews from Zillow and Google. And you can also request reviews. There's a bunch of other portals out there. I used to do some on Facebook. And once in a while, if it's a really active Facebook client, I might include that one.

Jack Cote' (32:04.708)
You know, I don't want to overwhelm them with too many links. know, usually like three to four is good. Yeah.

Kristi Jencks (32:08.846)
Yeah.

Kelcie Dowd (32:10.946)
Yeah. So let's pivot a second. If a brand new agent were to join your team tomorrow, what are three daily actions that you'd have them take in their first 30 days?

Jack Cote' (32:21.643)
So I would, if I was a brand new agent, I recommend that they go out there and just start touring homes to get to know the inventory. Maybe they start with homes in their neighborhood and if they're going to, they might know some other neighbors.

I would recommend that they talk to their neighbors in the neighborhood and just let them know that they're working full-time in real estate or that they're working real estate. And the neighbors already know them, they might feel more confident referring to that person since they live in that neighborhood. seeing what the inventory is out there, we do usually at least twice a year, sometimes quarterly.

We do a letter of the heart that we send out to our family and friends and past clients. So even if you're a new agent and you don't have any past clients, I would recommend drafting a one page letter of the heart. it's kind of similar to what some people do around Christmas where they might send you like their once a year newsletter. Like, you know, we went on a trip to Hawaii and our son graduated high school and I make it more about personal. like when I send this out to my friends and family and clients,

I'm sending it as a friend, not as a salesperson. So it'll be 90%. You know, it'll have maybe four or five pictures of me and my family doing things, maybe some adventures, and then, you know, talk about those adventures in the doc. And then the last paragraph, you know, for me, I would say real estate's keeping us busy. We really appreciate your referrals and promise to take great care of anybody you send our way. We hope to hear from you soon. And then Jack and Melody.

Kelcie Dowd (33:34.82)
Mm-hmm.

Jack Cote' (33:59.554)
But if I was a brand new agent, I would just say something like, you know, I'm so excited to announce that I just recently earned my real estate license and I just wanted to let my friends and family know that I'm here to help if they need anything. know, something I'd probably abolish it more, but basically just announcing to your friends and family, maybe your past coworkers that you're full time in real estate.

And just planting that seed and you know, for what we do for our past clients and even, you know, I guess we could do it for friends and family is find out, you know, where they work at. Maybe they work at a small office with 10 people and, know, ask your friend or your past client. Do you mind if I bring some treats by your office on Friday? And it could be a couple dozen donuts or it could be, we had this company locally called nothing, bunt cakes, and they do this little mini bunt, buntini's and

you know, drop some business cards off and you just never know where your next deal is going to come from. I also use that strategy when I have somebody in escrow because while they're in escrow, they're in that house hunting mode. They're talking real estate. They're talking to their friends. And if you drop some treats off while they're in escrow and some business cards, they're going to be talking to their coworkers when the coworker asks.

you know, who's Jack? that's my realtor. He's done such a great job. We're so happy. We found this house. We negotiated against three other offers. We got ours accepted. And then that person, the coworker might think, okay, well, I'm going to call Jack when I'm ready. So just planting those seeds. then I guess third thing I would say is, you know, besides touring homes and the letter of the heart and the Buntinis or the donuts, just, you know, maybe find somebody

If you're a solo agent, look for an experienced agent maybe that needs some help with open houses. Maybe that experienced agent has some buyers that you can help with. I think you, like I went through this training course back in 2006 by Floyd Wickman. It was called the smart training. And one of the things he had was it was called a get by giving philosophy.

Jack Cote' (36:08.511)
So, you you might go help that agent with an open house, or maybe you show some property without expecting anything in return, other than the education and the knowledge. And I know like that happened with me when I was really busy, my partner Kirk Archuleta approached me and he's like, I want to be your buyer's agent. And I really didn't think I needed a buyer's agent, but having him join me and he's been with me now for over 10 years, he had a heart where he was just wanting to help. in return.

You know, I would, I would take care of him and we would do good splits, know, a 50 50 or whatever it was. And it just, but you know, just, just try to learn from somebody that's been doing it and whether it's a team or just a, agent.

Kristi Jencks (36:52.214)
Yeah, I love that. So I know that there's a lot of shiny objects out there that can distract an agent. How did you find the right group? Right. So you you kind of mentioned the touring, the the cakes, the you know, the letter of the heart, you know, some of those things. I know that you've been currently doing five note cards a day. Right. You've got these things. So for an agent who's not exactly sure if they're a for sale by owner and expired, a cold call or an open house or, know,

How do you know when you have found a prospecting strategy that's going to work for you?

Jack Cote' (37:28.923)
I really think it's time will tell. mean, there's some people out there that are excellent at doing open houses and they can meet people and create those, you know, leads into clients. for me, I've always, you know, of course the best referrals are going to be somebody that's referred to you by a friend. So you kind of have that triangle of trust where, you know, if I refer Kristi to a friend of mine,

My friend is going to trust Kristi because I trust Kristi. So, but as a new agent, you know, there's so many people trying to sell you something like invest in these leads or invest in this new platform. I would just keep it basic because you don't need to spend thousands and thousands of dollars, you know, to get a lead. And I would say just be out there. Like the open houses are good. Talking to other agents and seeing if there's anybody that you can help. Cause

I know there's a lot of agents out there that maybe they have 40 buyers they're working with and maybe out of those, maybe there's 10 that they really don't have time for and they're falling through the cracks. So if you can help that agent capture more of that business that would have just been lost, that's going to be a great way for you to get your foot in the door. And then those clients that you convert,

you know, have an upfront conversation with the agent that referred to you and ask if you can ask those clients at closing if they would do a review for you. So you always want to be respectful of where the lead came from and the source. But if Kirk had asked me, hey, I just help these three buyers that you referred to me, I would tell him, yeah, please go get a Zillow review because I want to help him build his business.

I've got my business running and so, you know, I'd love to have three more reviews, but it carries a lot more weight for somebody that has zero reviews to get three than me to get three. So, and I, with the people on my team, you know, I want them to succeed for the team, but even more so I want them to succeed for themselves. And, you know, I know that the people on our team, I hope they'll be with me for 25 years, but some people move out of state or they want to start their own team.

Jack Cote' (39:36.853)
And so even if they leave, I'm still proud of them for, you know, growing and they kind of spread their wings and they, fly on their own. And we've had several people on the team that have gone out on their own and created their own teams. And it's kind of feel like they're like they're sprouts, you know? So I'm really, I really encourage people and I celebrate their success, whether it's a personal deal or a team deal.

Kelcie Dowd (39:59.801)
I hear that you have such a caring heart. It's like so evident and it's so beautiful. so let's, we were focusing on new agents. Let's talk about some experienced agents that maybe feel stuck. What, when, when an agent feels that way, like what's usually missing, why are they stuck?

Jack Cote' (40:17.569)
You know, part of it might just be, you you get in a slump and you're just trying, you're working hard and things aren't going your way. And, you know, you might just need to take a step back and just think about, you know, what is it you're doing and evaluate, you know, if there is something that's working, focus more time into doing that.

If you're chasing online leads and they're not responding or they're ghosting you, you know, especially as an experienced agent, just reconnect with your past clients and your sphere. know, whether you have five past clients or a hundred past clients, just, you know, just send them a, like for me, I'll send out a little thank you card. My goal, like Christy said, is five cards a day. And it's a challenge, but the more I do it, the more I realize there's people out there that I can reach out to.

maybe I haven't talked to for a year or two and I can either send them something like a, know, hey, congratulations on your two year home purchase anniversary. You know, if you're sending them something of, if you're being grateful and you have gratitude and you're not calling somebody just to try to get another deal, then the deals will come to you. You know, it's funny how that works. just.

Kelcie Dowd (41:25.017)
Mm-hmm.

Jack Cote' (41:29.557)
It's that get by giving philosophy again, where I might send somebody a thank you card or a birthday card or whatever it is. And next thing I know, they're, sending me a lead, which I wasn't even, you know, asking for the lead, but it just, it just happens that way. just, I say, be grateful, check in with your past clients. Don't let people fall through the cracks. Cause the worst thing is you see somebody you sold a house to five years ago. Now they're selling a house and it's listed with somebody else, you know, that, and then you always question yourself like.

Well, why didn't they call me? But I always point the finger back at myself. Like, why didn't I stay in touch with them? So, you know, it looks like a little thank you card. we use a CRM called follow-up boss. And what we do is we, you know, ask our clients like for their birthdays. We always ask them for their wedding anniversary. If they're married, we enter the home purchase anniversary. So there's a calendar that pops up and every month I can just say, okay, I got to send out six birthday cards. Maybe I put a.

Kelcie Dowd (42:05.037)
Yeah.

Jack Cote' (42:28.067)
you know, a Starbucks card in there. One of the things we do, and I'm willing to share this with you, Christy, if you like to share it with anybody else, it's called an All About You form. And what it is, it asks the client for their birthday and their spouse and their spouse's birthday, wedding anniversary, but also asks them things like, what's your favorite movie? You know, where would you go on vacation if you could go anywhere? What's your favorite type of food? You know, do they have kids? You know, maybe I'll ask them for their kids'

And the reason why is I might send their, you know, if they have a son that's just turned eight, maybe I'll send him a yogurt beach gift card for $5. And it's not the amount of the card. It's just getting something in the mail. And, and also I feel like people are so busy. If you give them a reason to take their family out for a yogurt, you know, that they might not have done otherwise, then it kind of creates an experience for that family. So.

And for me, if I get a Yogurt Beach card, I don't go there a lot, but I wouldn't want to waste it. So I would take my kids and I'd go to Yogurt Beach. just stay in touch with your clients. Find out, for if you do the All About You forum during the escrow, when you do a closing gift and you find out that their favorite restaurant is Lulu's in Reno, for example, I might go to Lulu's and get a gift card and put that in as the closing gift.

Kelcie Dowd (43:25.444)
Thank

Yeah.

Jack Cote' (43:48.151)
they're just so surprised that you remembered their favorite restaurant. it, yeah, it just really helps.

Kelcie Dowd (43:52.078)
Yes.

Kristi Jencks (43:52.525)
Yeah.

So you do a lot of, I'm going to call it traditional, right? Like really good strategies. So for the agent that's listening, he's unpacking 20 years of real estate gold for you. This stuff actually works. Let's touch real quick on AI, tech tools, CRM. You mentioned these traditional things, but I also know that you invest in technology.

Keeping your human touch, what do you feel is the most important technology that a real estate agent could adopt in their business?

Jack Cote' (44:32.159)
So for me, I think the CRM is super important. I started with Top Producer back in 05 and it had a lot of tools that I never used. They had like a market snapshot that I would set up and I just used it kind of like a spreadsheet for my clients. I could have just had an Excel spreadsheet with just name, number, phone, name, number, email. But using Follow Up Boss, when I switched over to that,

It's, we also signed up for a website through Y Lopo and Y Lopo and follow up boss talk to each other. So it helps us myself and our agents when they log into follow up us every day. And there's these smart lists and the website and the CRM talk to each other. And they'll tell you like, here's the, here's the new leads. Here's the people that were most recently active on the site. Here's people you haven't, you know, maybe you were showing homes too, but you haven't talked to for two weeks.

And so it kind of keeps you on track as we, you know, we all get so much distractions and new leads coming in and it's easy to forget about the ones that are really the hot leads. so, and then the nice thing is with the YLOPO website and the follow-up boss, it will tell us, know, like, Hey, this person has looked at this property six times. And so, you know, you kind of have a hint that maybe that's something they're interested in. So next time you talk to them.

You know, you might even mention that you had noticed that they'd seen this property. And I know it's a little bit big brother, but you're also, you know, helping guide that client through the process. One other thing that you could do is if you notice that they looked at maybe a couple of properties is maybe you send them those two properties and a few others that are similar and just you can let them know that, I saw these listings and I thought of you. I'm going to be out in that area this Friday. Do you want to take a look?

And a lot of times buyers don't, they may not want to inconvenience you. So if you put it out there that you're going to be out there anyway, they might just say, yeah, I'll join you. And I think especially for new clients, it's just getting face to face. And usually the first person that the agent meets or that the client meets is who they're going to work with. As long as the agent shows up on time, is prepared, just do what you say you're going to do. The worst thing is being late on your first appointment or.

Kelcie Dowd (46:35.618)
Mm-hmm.

Kristi Jencks (46:55.277)
Yeah, don't do that.

Jack Cote' (46:55.819)
Yeah, or not confirming the showing and you get there and the tenants like, no, nobody ever told me you were coming by. It's just awkward. So you want to be prepared. If I know I'm showing property tomorrow, I'm going to get everything packed up, know, bundled up tonight. So I don't have to worry about it first thing in the morning. but yeah. And then technology wise, I'm not really, kind of, say, I would say I'm not so great on social media. I'll do some posts here and there, but I'm not.

tactful about social media. I'm trying to do like more personal connections on my Facebook, which goes to Instagram. And so what I'm doing is I have this daily list of gratitude that I started about a year and a half ago. And it was just something, I still have a Word document where every day I'll try and think of something that I enjoy. And so it could be, you know, hot cup of coffee in the morning or

Like today I posted that I love the smell of freshly cut grass, you know? And it's just kind of simple things. And so I'll put a picture on Facebook, you know, with little comment about it. And it's surprising how much interaction I get with my sphere on those personal versus me just saying, Hey, here's a new listing, check it out. I might get one or two likes on that new listing. My freshly cut grass posts today, I probably have like 50 and it's

Kelcie Dowd (48:11.18)
Right.

Jack Cote' (48:18.177)
It's because it's from the heart, know, it's not manipulative. It's like, yeah, it's real. You know, it's not I'm trying to sell you something. It's I'm just a real person, you know, just like you.

Kelcie Dowd (48:18.349)
Yeah, it's real.

Kelcie Dowd (48:28.376)
Yeah. It's so obvious why you made Tom Ferry's dream team. so just another congratulations from me. I know Congress congratulated you, but it's really, it's not just an award. It's showing that you lead by example. So congratulations. as we're wrapping up, yeah, as we're wrapping up, where can people go to learn more about you and your team?

Jack Cote' (48:45.413)
Thank you, Kelcie.

Jack Cote' (48:51.745)
Sure. So our website is just nvhometeam.com, NV like Nevada, home team.com. We have 26 agents on the team and we're very proud of everybody on the team. We all work really hard and we, you know, we're pretty selective about who we add to the team because we want to make sure that they're client focused, that they're not focused just on a commission, that it's really about the experience. And I, I'm really proud of our team because they all have that heart and

So EnvyHomeTeam.com is our website. If you're looking to refer somebody to Reno Tahoe, we'd be happy to work out a referral fee. But more importantly, we would take excellent care of anybody you send our way. So that's our number one goal.

Kristi Jencks (49:37.28)
thank you so much. really appreciate you being here with us today, Jack. Because here's the thing, you didn't just inspire us. Because it's so funny because you brought up so many things that Meryl and I hold true. And Kelcie's probably like, is this deja vu? Because Kelcie's been with us October. Is it 11 years in October?

Kelcie Dowd (49:49.06)
It is.

Kelcie Dowd (49:55.973)
It's either nine or ten. I've passed the time where I do math in public.

Kristi Jencks (49:59.15)
I was, yeah, I know, it could be 10. I was thinking that we were already at 10 and it's 11, but maybe it's a full decade now. So she's, she's been with us in October, I think it's gonna be 10 years. And in everything that you said, those are things that I know have led to the success within my own team, within the agents that I coach. So you gave us a playbook on exactly how to build a business.

Kelcie Dowd (50:05.11)
No.

Kristi Jencks (50:27.19)
of repeat and referral business. So here's the thing for our listeners. Remember, action beats perfection. So you need to take what you learned today and run with it, right? Implement, because real estate is personal. And when you have the right tools, sky's the limit. Right attitude, I would also say. So don't forget, if you haven't already subscribed to the Take It and Run podcast, this is, I think, episode 11.

Kelcie Dowd (50:48.548)
Yes.

Kristi Jencks (50:54.862)
and we've been learning and growing as we go. We appreciate you being here. If you're not subscribed to the Take It and Run email newsletter, we invite you to do that as well. And we'll see everybody next time. Thanks so much, Jack, for joining us.

Jack Cote' (51:07.565)
Thanks, Kristi. Thanks, Kelcie Thank you. Bye-bye.

Kelcie Dowd (51:09.295)
Thanks. Bye.