Greg is proud to be a resident and businessman of Kingston. He is a member of the National Real Estate Association, the largest real estate association in North America. As a certified Real Estate Broker, with a CRB designation, Greg is well qualified to assist you with all of your real estate needs.
Greg has received numerous achievement awards for listing and Real Estate sales. He has been awarded multiple Centurion Awards* as well as the prestigious Hall of Fame Award** for Century 21. He was also leader of the number one sales team in Canada. Those who know Greg attribute his incredible success to his strong work ethic, his knowledge of the Kingston and area market place, and his tremendous service to customers and clients.
[Podcast Transcript Using Artificial Intelligence]
Umar Hameed 0:01
Are you ready to become awesomer? Hello everyone! My name is Umar Hameed, I'm your host on The No Limits Selling Podcast, where industry leaders share their tips, strategies and advice on how you can become better, stronger, faster. Just before we get started, I've got a question for you, do you have a negative voice inside your head? We all do, right? I'm gonna help you remove that voice and under 30 days guaranteed, not only remove it, but transform it. So instead of the voice that sabotages you, there's one that propels you to much higher levels of performance and success. There's a link in the show notes, click on it to find out more. All right! Let's get started.
Umar Hameed 0:41
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of The No Limits Selling Podcast. Today we have Gregory Enright with us today. He's a realtor. Gregory, welcome to the program.
Gregory Enright 0:49
Thank you for inviting me. That's great.
Umar Hameed 0:52
You're welcome. So how long have you been in the business?
Gregory Enright 0:55
In terms of my owning my franchise is 1981.
Umar Hameed 1:00
And as a realtor?
Gregory Enright 1:01
Um, 1973 I got my license.
Umar Hameed 1:06
Well, so you started to get the hang of it.
Gregory Enright 1:09
Starting to get the hang of it. Yes, I've been around for a while.
Umar Hameed 1:11
So you were like an agent by yourself for a while, what made you decide to become a broker, get a franchise?
Gregory Enright 1:18
Um, I've worked with a small independent firm, that was family-related that I worked for a national franchise.
Umar Hameed 1:27
Right.
Gregory Enright 1:28
In, in my area, they were across Canada. And after that, I decided to open up and buy a franchise and Central 21 franchise in 81.
Umar Hameed 1:38
Brilliant. What made you pick century 21, there's a bunch out there. What made it attractive?
Gregory Enright 1:43
Training program. Incredible.
Umar Hameed 1:46
Nice. So how many agents do you have in your in your office?
Gregory Enright 1:50
Currently right now we have thirteen.
Umar Hameed 1:52
Thirteen. So over the years, you've seen agents that you see and you go, "Oh, my God, Jane is going to be a rock star." You can see it other people can see and sometimes she can't see it. Did you ever have one of those? You don't have to name names? But if you did, how did you recognize the greatness within? And how did you bring it out?
Gregory Enright 2:09
Um, I guess from the interview, you get a good indication of their background, what what they've done in their background and their success stories, if they don't have success stories, and sometimes there's a bit of an issue with them. Real estate is not simple. And the failure rate is extremely high.
Umar Hameed 2:29
So think of the specific person you have to name them. But think of, "Oh, yeah, I know, there was this agent, and this is where they were and I noticed XYZ and I helped them overcome it and they blossomed." Can you tell us one of those stories, but think of someone specific so you can actually rather than generalities, if you know what I mean?
Gregory Enright 2:45
Um, yeah, one agent that I hired female. She she was a super success and in rocketed to the number four position in Canada.
Umar Hameed 3:02
Oh, wow.
Gregory Enright 3:03
You know, so for Century 21. I mean, considering there was 10 or 12,000 salespeople at that time? That's, that's quite an achievement.
Umar Hameed 3:12
Right. And was there a time where she wasn't doing as well? And like, how did she become that superstar?
Gregory Enright 3:18
Um, well, she worked with me so.
Umar Hameed 3:21
And she still was a superstar. Oh, my God, that must be amazing.
Gregory Enright 3:26
Yeah, I convinced her to go into real estate.
Umar Hameed 3:28
Nice.
Gregory Enright 3:28
Her background was in marketing from university, and she was doing a job in the media. No future, basically. You know, it was she, they were focusing her on selling, advertising and dealing with customers relating to advertising. And I thought there was a better future for her and talked her into going into real estate.
Umar Hameed 3:57
Nice. So from your point of view, in Canada, let's say Century 21 exclusively. In Century 21, there's a bunch of realtors, and...
Gregory Enright 4:05
Yes.
Umar Hameed 4:05
...there's probably a set of realtors that, that are the A players that walk on water and do phenomenal things. Then you have the B players that do a good job. And then we have the C players, what percentage of the population would you say would be those extraordinary people that do extraordinary things?
Umar Hameed 4:05
What percentage?
Umar Hameed 4:21
Yeah, out of all realtors in Canada, what percentage do you think walk on water and do amazing things?
Gregory Enright 4:26
That may be of the 12,000 agents in Canada, there's probably four or five hundred that are superstars.
Umar Hameed 4:34
Yeah. So that sounds about right. But there's probably a lot of agents that are doing a good job, but they've got the capability to be one of the superstars. So the question to you is this, what are some of the things that stop agents from stepping into their full potential, do you think?
Gregory Enright 4:52
Um, the inability to learn and participate in what we're doing today. They just don't seem to take their career serious you, you've got to spend money to to learn.
Umar Hameed 5:07
Yes.
Gregory Enright 5:08
I've had a lot of mentors over the years. And and I know what it's like to be a top agent. And I still am one of the top agents in Canada for Century 21. And I'm having fun, I mean, it's it's a lot of fun. I have people I enjoy what I do. I know my wife thinks I'm crazy, "Why don't I get out of this business?" "I've got agency" "Why are, why are you working? Why don't you retire?"
Umar Hameed 5:32
Yeah.
Gregory Enright 5:33
You know, we would we wouldn't have a better life if you retired and get your business. Like, no, you're not going to do that. I mean, they they're not willing to put out and spend money on their career, they just won't. They forget that this is a business. And they are a business, whether they're an individual, or they're a company. They need to plan their work and work their plan. And they've got that means costing money to market and put yourself out there.
Umar Hameed 6:01
Absolutely. You said a few things there. One of the things you said was, you know, investing in yourself, which is like really, really important, because one of the things I've learned from people at the top of their fields, no matter what, but especially real estate, they're always learning. That's like a deep curiosity to get better which I think. Second thing you said was fun. If you're not having fun, what's the point of doing it or you're not doing it right. And I think if you can find joy in your work, you bring out your best work. Would you agree?
Gregory Enright 6:28
Yes, absolutely.
Umar Hameed 6:30
And here's the third one, I don't want you to do this, Gregory, because there's a good chance you're gonna die is when people leave something they love and it defines them and all of a sudden, they go retire, and it's like, grow some flowers, the life expectancy goes down. So if you love it, keep doing it my friend.
Gregory Enright 6:45
Yes, that's my, my philosophy is that I will not retire, I mean, I'll die doing a deal and that's fine. I told my wife that and, and most people that know me know that too. They said, "Well, you know, he's not gonna retire."
Umar Hameed 6:58
So my dad's 91 and he works. My dad's 91 and he works. He loves what he does. He's an engineer and he's convinced that, you know, "If I stopped working, I'll get bored. And then I will...
Gregory Enright 7:09
As the end of your life...
Umar Hameed 7:10
Absolutely.
Gregory Enright 7:10
...would retire. Yes, I'm sorry, a lot of people like to retire. And I understand that, but not me.
Umar Hameed 7:15
And as they should, yeah, you're gonna find your bliss, I was talking to someone that actually was in a large Canadian corporation. And he said, a lot of people retiring. And all of a sudden, they started figuring out that they were also dying within six months. So they started the program to give people purpose in life, after they leave their profession, go find something else, whether it's helping the church or the community...
Gregory Enright 7:37
Yes.
Umar Hameed 7:37
...or doing whatever, but you need something to do and something to be passionate about.
Gregory Enright 7:42
Yup. 100%.
Umar Hameed 7:43
So let's go back to realtors that are in the B column, one of the things that gets in the way of them executing is fear.
Gregory Enright 7:51
Oh, constantly. I mean, there's that's when when you start the business, there's a fear factor of rejection.
Umar Hameed 7:58
Absolutely.
Gregory Enright 7:58
[Garbled] rejected in this business quite a bit. Over the last 60 days, I've lost 10 listings, okay, because they went with hire another agent that offered them more money. They're not realistic, and they don't seem to understand the market. And they think all they want is more money but the market has changed. And I do, I do very detailed, comprehensive reports that are extremely current compared to my colleagues. And the reality is, it's not about price sometimes it's about reality and where the market is. And they don't like the fact that you're being told that you're now the market has changed.
Umar Hameed 8:36
Pretty much everybody lies including me on occasion, but the market doesn't lie.
Gregory Enright 8:41
No, I've been through before [garbled]
Umar Hameed 8:43
For this phone is like $100, that's what the phone is worth by definition. Even though I think it's the best phone ever and it should be $1,000. Wishing don't make it so.
Gregory Enright 8:51
Yeah, exactly. No, I've been poor recession. So I, I know what the markets like I know what we're going through right now. And that's why I was excited about talking to you because we've got people listening from all over the place. And in my age to sort of do what I do, I do 100 presentations a year. 100 market reports a year.
Umar Hameed 9:14
And so you're doing about 100 transactions a year, how many of those turn into transactions?
Gregory Enright 9:17
I hope my budget is to do 30 saleable listings.
Umar Hameed 9:21
Love it.
Gregory Enright 9:22
Okay. And, and the average commission on a saleable listing in my area is around somewhere between 10 and $12,000. So that's pretty healthy. So if you can make...
Umar Hameed 9:35
That's a happy life.
Gregory Enright 9:36
...350 to $400,000 a year, that's a hell of a good job to make that kind of money. That doesn't include people that want to buy a house in a year, that's just listings.
Umar Hameed 9:46
You get to make people happy.
Gregory Enright 9:48
Yeah, you do. I mean, some people are annoyed and sometimes I turn listings down because they're just not realistic but I do them anyways. You know, and I don't object to it i whether it's a three time $1,000 listing or a $900,000 listing, they get treated the same way, you know.
Umar Hameed 10:05
Brilliant. So one of the areas that brings up fear for people is reaching out to people that they know. Whereas other people reaching out to strangers is a scary thing. "Oh, I don't want to go to people I know, you know, they'll think I'm desperate or whatever." So how do you walk people off the ledge? Because ultimately, that's the business we're in is conversations and connecting and making people happy. So if you've got fear of conversation for a certain group, how do you as a leader of a franchise help them overcome that and kind of go, "No, you're here to help?"
Gregory Enright 10:35
Well, I basically I tell new people, you know, you're not gonna win them all.
Umar Hameed 10:39
Right.
Gregory Enright 10:39
You know, reality is you want to be busy. You want to be out there, you want to be getting your name out there. You want to be doing presentations, you're not necessarily going to win. I mean, when I do 100 presentations, and 70 of them I don't, 70 of them I don't get, people say to me, "Wow, that's terrible. You lose 70 of the 100?" I said, "Yeah, but I get 30." You know, and [garbled]
Umar Hameed 11:00
True.
Gregory Enright 11:01
So I want a saleable listing.
Umar Hameed 11:03
And if you were a baseball player, you'd be getting paid a lot of money for missing seven out of 10 balls, right?
Umar Hameed 11:08
Yeah. So I...
Gregory Enright 11:10
It's the reality of the business. And I learned that early in the game. You know, my first year as a realtor, I sold 40 properties, my first year, you know. And I worked my butt off. Everybody thought I had a great job, "Why would you ever leave the job that you had? You know, you're not so you have a great career, your work for Alcon International." And, you know, my background was in Applied Science, and polymer chemistry and industrial chemistry, and why would I want to get into sales because I wanted to be in sales. And the fear factor is always with new agents coming in, if you do really well this year, but am I gonna be able to do the same thing next year, you got to do the same things, you know. Plan your work and work your plan, you've got to have a plan. And if you're not organized, and you do not have a plan, you could fail.
Umar Hameed 12:03
So what's kind of interesting is take any professional sports organization in the world, whether it's cricket, or football, or baseball or whatever, when things go wrong, they fire the general manager or the coach. And when the new manager comes up, they grab the microphone, and they very first interview and say, "You know, I'm really happy to be here, and we're gonna go back to the basics," whatever sport it is. And in real estate, they're basic things you need to do and be great at doing those. And consistently do it even if you become successful, don't lose sight of that. So what are the basics, so walk me through the basics that seasoned agents should be doing and also newbies should be doing?
Gregory Enright 12:41
Marketing, marketing, marketing, spending money, making sure your name is out there, because you can't rely on the fact because you've been around for 20-30 years, you know. I deal with young people, I deal with older people. You know, I had the former political politician call me today and asked to do an evaluation on his property, he's got four kids going to, you know, sell the property to the kids. And I'm telling him, he's got to put them on title so that he'll eliminate taxes, in case he passes away, so I've gone through that with him. You got to remember that you got to bring new business in all the time.
Umar Hameed 13:19
Yup.
Gregory Enright 13:19
And you're not going to do something, you got to spend money to make money.
Umar Hameed 13:22
So there's that. But there's also activities that you just can't rely on marketing, when the call comes in, you need to be intelligent and helpful on that call. And not all agents are, some are like magical on it, and some can stumble through it. So what are some of the key skills or pieces of advice you'd give when a call comes in from your ad, what would you suggest they do?
Gregory Enright 13:44
For the new agents, um, just try to be truthful with them. And, and, you know, find out what they want, you know, the, you know, the thing just want to bark market report, they want to know where their home's value is right now, because a lot of people are not sure, "Should I sell, you know, or should I stay here?" You know, sometimes you got to do that. And if they're saying, we're not sure whether we want to sell or not, you've got to still do whatever they request, whether it's a market report or not, because they could change their mind. You know, I had somebody call me back from 2016. I did a report for her mother in 2016.
Umar Hameed 14:17
Right.
Gregory Enright 14:17
She called me back. This is six years ago. Okay, I did it. She called me back. And she told me what street it was. I said, "Is at 17 McKenzie," she said, "Oh, my God, you remember my house? My mom's house?" I said, "Yes, I do." She said, "Well, she's also got a cottage and I want to do an evaluation. We want to list with you." She said, "She's blown away that I would remember that." I said, "Well, yeah, I mean, I talked to you a couple of times after that, but six years after I did the report, I did another one for her," you know.
Umar Hameed 14:46
So...
Gregory Enright 14:47
It's crazy, but you've got to do that. You've got to be amenable and friendly with people and be prepared to do what they want, you know.
Umar Hameed 14:55
So here's a piece of advice. I was doing a podcast like this and It was a realtor talking about his first mentor that helped him in the industry. And he said he would do things like this, is sitting in the car, they're about to go into a house to do a listing presentation. And his boss would say, "All right, let's go make some friends." So it wasn't, let's go get a listing. It was about the relationship and making friends. And that allows you to focus on what's most important.
Gregory Enright 15:21
One of the things that I did when I came in my first week, and then you may find this funny, but I went to my broker, okay, which was a relative. And I said to him, "Who are the top five people in the real estate board? Who are the top five?" So he told me who they are. And he said, "Why do you want to know who that is?" I said, "Because I want to be in the top five. So one of those people, they're not going to be in the top five, next year, I will take their place."
Umar Hameed 15:43
Did they ever find the body?
Gregory Enright 15:47
And I did, I was in the top five. So I mean, I got lots of press because of it too. Because you know, this, this guy was very aggressive coming into market [garbled]in the market for about a year, and now he's one of the top five agents in Kingston. Wow. That's incredible.
Umar Hameed 16:02
So I think there's also wisdom there in terms of, "Know what you want...
Gregory Enright 16:07
And go after it.
Umar Hameed 16:08
...and go after it." And what's really interesting is this, is that building a nuclear reactor, let's say I decided to do that. Okay. First, find someone who knows how to do it, they can break anything down into smaller chunks. And I think that's part of know what you want. And also go seek advice. One of the things I find is many people, if not most people, if they've got an expertise, and you go ask them, Can you help me figure this out, and most people are generous and be happy to do it. Most people are looking for someone to help, and you're giving them the privilege to do it. And then you're also gaining wisdom from them. If you're trying to figure it out yourself, you will not because that's not your area of expertise. So always ask for help people bend over backwards to give it to you.
Gregory Enright 16:52
Absolutely. And training, training, training. There be seminar that came up when the first three or four years I went to it, you know, I wanted to learn from the trainers, the top people, that's what I did.
Umar Hameed 17:04
So somebody coming into this market, if they could walk through your door said, "I got my license, I want to come hang my shingle here, but I don't know the business." Other than marketing, what are the activities for the first week that you'd give them?
Gregory Enright 17:16
The first week is, well, we go through everything with the real estate board in terms of training listings, making sure they know how to do their paperwork properly. And then talk to them about marketing and what I do and things like that, we if they've got any lead generation that they're doing, or they get some cold calls, because we used to do cold calls. I ran a real estate school to...
Umar Hameed 17:38
Nice.
Gregory Enright 17:39
...get my broker's license. And that's how I recruited. I ran a school I had 30 people all the time on in my course. And we did training with them, you know, cold calls, the whole nine yards. And that's what you've got to do. Sometimes it's the case of cold calls depends on how much money they got to invest in their career. Because you have to invest, it's a it's an investment. It's like anything else, it's a business. Whether it's just you by yourself, and how much money are you prepared to spend on you, because that's your business. And I have a budget that I spent, I spent $85,000 a year on my budget for marketing to make, you know, and my goal is between 350 to $400,000. That's [garbled].
Umar Hameed 18:18
Brilliant. So if you want to to actually increase your marketing, what's your psyche get a pickup, I'm sorry [LAUGH] Of course, not just being silly.
Gregory Enright 18:28
I'm comfortable where I am right now. And that's good.
Umar Hameed 18:31
Excellent.
Gregory Enright 18:32
It keeps me in the top, top agent in Century 21 in Canada. And I've been there before and you know that I've been number one in Canada. So it's, it's exciting. And it's exciting for everybody around especially when they look at a national paper and see your mugshot is your number one in Canada.
Umar Hameed 18:49
It's brilliant. Say your wife goes, "That's why I'm married him."
Gregory Enright 18:53
[LAUGH] Yeah.
Umar Hameed 18:56
So just before we part company, a few last questions. Number one, what's one tip you would give people to be more productive, more efficient, sleep better, date better? Like what would that one piece of advice be that people could use today to just become happier, better and faster?
Gregory Enright 19:12
I think putting a plan together and working it. I keep telling people coming into new people, plan your work and work your plan. So I said let's put a plan together because he's got to be in writing. And if it's not in writing, and you're not willing to share and you don't have a plan, you know. I don't have a problem and let's talk about a plan that works for you. "What do you feel comfortable with?" "This is what I would do. And this is what I did as a new agent." But you know, I used to knock on doors, but no, that's not acceptable anymore. I put out flyers and I set out 62,000 households twice a year, I do. And you know, I know I've also tied in with Top Agent which is also incredible. You know?
Umar Hameed 19:54
What is Top Agent?
Gregory Enright 19:55
Hmm?
Umar Hameed 19:55
What is Top Agent?
Gregory Enright 19:57
Top Agent? Um,that's the association involved with, with San Francisco.
Umar Hameed 20:04
Oh, nice.
Gregory Enright 20:05
Yeah.
Umar Hameed 20:06
So we're gonna put all your contact information and that stuff in the show notes. Thank you so much for being on the show. Really appreciate it. And I learned a lot. Thank you.
Gregory Enright 20:15
Well, I appreciate you inviting me it was been, it's been fantastic. And for all those people out there it is, if you love your job, you'll do really well. You gotta love it and I still do.
Umar Hameed 20:25
Words to live by.
Gregory Enright 20:25
Yeah.
Umar Hameed 20:31
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to iTunes and leave a five-star rating. And if you're looking for more tools, go to my website at nolimitsselling.com. I've got a free mind training course there, that's going to teach you some insights from the world of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and that is the fastest way to get better results.