Meet Our New Coach: Laurie Gilmore

This week's blog is from Laurie Gilmore, the newest coach on our team. Laurie is a real estate broker who has built a thriving business entirely composed of repeat and referral clients. She's passionate about helping others master Tactical Empathy and cultivate a mindset of harmony so they too can grow a stress-free business built on trust, respect, and a high level of professionalism.

You’re going to think this is crazy, Madison…

I am so excited about what’s going on in the industry right now!

I’m probably in a very small minority of agents who feel that way, and it’s probably hard to believe, but it’s true.

Not excited about the nature and the course of the lawsuits, BUT very excited that one of the outcomes here is that Exclusive Buyer Representation Agreements will become the new standard.

Because I believe wholeheartedly that working on an exclusive basis with buyers—with an exclusive agreement formalizing our fiduciary duty, our exclusive relationship and our right to be paid for our services—allows us to work at the same professional level with buyers as we do (as we have always done) with sellers.

It gives us all the opportunity to run our businesses professionally with our standards in place for each and every client.

That elevates us as professionals…which elevates our profession as a whole.

And we can do with a bit of that.

Clearly.

Real estate agents have a perception problem.

The disdain for what we do is palpable in almost every article you read.

And the lawsuits themselves are most likely, to some extent, a result of that disdain, and that lack of respect that many people have for agents—or maybe more accurately, a lack of understanding as to what it is that we do.

So every step toward a more professional way of doing business is a step in the right direction.

The fact that this conversation is at the forefront of everyone’s thinking right now coincides perfectly with the timing of my introduction as one of Performance Coaching’s new private coaches, and it melds perfectly with my interest in and my philosophy of coaching agents.

When I established my real estate business in Manhattan in 2014, I found success very quickly, ranking nationally in sales volume within my first 2 years. However, the stress and conflict which seemed like an inevitable aspect of the work was clearly unsustainable. 

I was uncomfortable.

Then I was introduced to Steve Shull and Tactical Empathy. It was through Tactical Empathy that I began to understand what exactly was making me feel uncomfortable. And it was through Tactical Empathy—and a necessary shift in Mindset—that I discovered that I could change all of it.

I could choose how to run every aspect of my business.

I could set my own standards.

I could determine which projects and which clients I would take on.

And I could walk away from all the rest.

Discovering Tactical Empathy has been the key component in unifying my life with my work. It has aligned who I am with how I interact with people in business and throughout my life. It has become the bedrock upon which my business is now built, and the guiding star for all of my systems, processes, and standards.

I was always on the lookout for things that I—just one, little, individual agent—might be able to do in order to contribute to elevating the profession of real estate.

For me, Tactical Empathy is the clearest pathway for all of us to run our businesses with the highest level of ethics and professionalism.

So, you’re probably asking, “What does that have to do with the de-coupling of fees, and Exclusive Buyer Representation Agreements?”

In this business you are either the “Favorite” (the Trusted Advisor), or you’re the “Fool” (a commodity). When you are perceived as the trusted advisor to a client—a seller OR a buyer—they will commit to you, and they will pay your fee. 

It’s that simple. 

Running your business solely with clients who see you as the Favorite—the Trusted Advisor—is 100% possible. 

It’s 100% possible working with both sellers AND buyers. It’s not a game of chance. It’s a skill. It can be learned. And I can coach you toward this.

You can do this!

You can do this if your business is already solely based on repeat and referral clients.

You can do this if you’re new to the business, and still working toward establishing a repeat and referral business.

Yes, you can even do this if you’re working on leads obtained via sites like Zillow. (Though you’re making it much harder on yourself, but we’ll save that thought for another day).

I work with a lot of buyers. 

I always have. They make up around 40% of my business. I do not value listing clients over buyer clients, in part because I absolutely love the depth of involvement I have in guiding buyers toward realizing their dreams. 

We often spend more time with our buyers than we do with our sellers, and in this relationship business I highly value the deep, emotional connection that the time together can foster.

From day one of my business I chose to work only on an exclusive basis with buyers.

My buyers and I have always had the exclusivity conversation up front—whether they were old friends, new referrals or, in the beginning, Zillow leads.

But that was just a verbal agreement.

• It didn’t specify a minimum fee for my services, so I was subject to the decisions of listing agents.
• It didn’t provide for an official client relationship with the benefit of fiduciary responsibility—they were just my ‘customers’.
• And though we had a handshake commitment, I’ll admit I still had that pit in the bottom of my stomach if ever a buyer was slow to answer an email, or I saw they were searching online but not reaching out right away. Paranoia would set in, and I’d think that maybe they were looking on their own, or “seeing someone else.”

But that’s all over now!

My buyers are now all signed up on Exclusive Buyer Representation Agreements.

Both existing buyers from the ‘before times’, and new buyers. At price points from 1MM-15MM, all at 3% and for a period of 12 months.

If I can do it, so can you.

If putting this into practice is something you struggle with, I can help.

You can find me here…

Or better yet, if you’re headed to Los Angeles for the 2-day Full Fee Agent Conference on March 25-26, seek me out in person.

(There’s still time to get your ticket to the conference. Do it! It will jump-start your process like nothing else.)

I look forward to connecting with you!

- Laurie