Work Less, Earn More: Real Estate Success Strategies– Featuring Joe Militello

🎙 Welcome, Agents!
Host Bob Mangold brings you another episode of the Top Agent Talks Podcast, where we interview top-performing agents to uncover their strategies and insights. Be sure to share this episode with every agent you know!

🔥 Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Home Boss Listing Hub, a platform designed to help agents scale their businesses to seven figures by focusing exclusively on listings.

🚀 Special Guest: Joe Militello

Today's guest is Joe Militello, a lifelong Michigan resident with over three decades of real estate experience. Joe is known for his proactive, tech-savvy approach to marketing and his commitment to consistency—a key factor in his success.

🔹 Key Takeaways from Joe’s Success:

• 🔄 Consistency is Key – The Home Boss system has provided stability and more time freedom.
• 🏡 Focusing on Listings – Listings create leverage, allowing Joe to refer buyers and earn more while working less.
• 🛠 Systematic Approach – Using time blocking and structured systems keeps his business running smoothly.
• 💰 Work Smarter, Not Harder – Stop chasing deals; build a repeatable process.

📈 Why Listings Are the Key to Success

• Top earners focus on listings – Just look at the highest-paid agents in any office!
• Less stress, more control – No more dropping everything for last-minute buyer showings.
• Leverage your time – Pass buyers to agents, collect referral fees, and focus on high-value work.

📞 Mastering FSBOs & Expired Listings

• 🚀 FSBOs & expireds are goldmines – Joe’s primary lead source.
• 📲 Texting works! – Stop relying on unanswered calls. Texting increases responses.
• 🎯 Scripts & empathy matter – Approach sellers with value and solutions, not pushy sales tactics.
• 📨 Direct mail still works – A simple postcard can set you apart.

🏗 Building a Sustainable Real Estate Business

• Pipeline planning – Always think quarters ahead, not just about your next commission.
• Market shifts happen – The best agents prepare for ups and downs.
• Multiple lead sources – FSBOs, expireds, direct mail, social media, and more!
• Don’t be the agent who burns out – Work smarter by leveraging systems and automation.

💡 Joe’s Advice for New Agents

✅ Follow a proven system – Don’t reinvent the wheel. Learn from successful agents.
✅ Don’t waste time on low-value tasks – Focus on $10,000/hour work (like getting listings).
✅ Be consistent – Success isn’t about luck; it’s about following a structured plan.

🎯 Ready to Scale Your Business?

Visit www.HomeBossListingHub.com to:
✔ Take a free business analysis
✔ Schedule a productivity & marketing review
✔ Learn how to build a recession-proof, 7-figure business

🎧 Thanks for tuning in! See you on the next Top Agent Talks Podcast! 🚀

Transcript

Hey, welcome fellow agents, Bob Mangold here with the Top Agent Talks podcast. Now, the mission of this podcast, pretty simple, is to identify and interview agents that are succeeding in today's market. They're in the trenches, just like you are. And my goal is to have them share their wisdom with the entire real estate community.

So do me a favor, please help us out by sharing these podcasts with every agent you know. Now, the Top Agent Talks podcast is sponsored by the Home Boss Listing Hub. which is the framework for agents looking to scale their business to seven figures. The Proprietary Home Boss Listing Hub is an all inclusive platform that empowers solo agents to sell 35 to 50 homes a year in good markets or bad, doesn't matter, working 40 hours a week by focusing exclusively on listings.

So today I'm here with Joe Militello. Joe is a lifelong Michigan resident, burr, and brings over three decades of expertise to his full time career in real estate. He has a great reputation for his proactive and tech savvy approach to marketing property. So Joe, welcome to the show. And thanks. Thanks again for doing this. 

Hi, thank you, Bob. I appreciate it and I'm more than happy to It's our way of paying this back to the real estate community so what I like to start out with is just start talking about the one thing that Obviously you've been doing this 30 years, but it's the one thing that you've done that's contributed the most to your success I can be 100 percent honest and tell you the result.

I would tell you the result first is consistency, which is huge because yes, being in the business for a long time I, I. I've been able to go ahead and, have a nice lifestyle, but the home boss system, it really gave me the consistency. So that's what it comes down to is just, that one thing is able me to get a lot of my life back, a lot of time back.

And that's valuable to me. Because now you're focusing on listings. All pretty much all listings. Yes, and I'll bring agents in for the buyers, right? So make sure we understand that folks. I always hear, Bob, do you hate buyers? It's no, I don't hate buyers. If you want to make money in real estate, it's on the listing side.

That's just, if you doubt me, folks, look in your own company, your own office, and just ask yourself, who are the top five or 10 earners? And they're all the listing agents. So that yes, Joe's just really over the last few years, worked on focusing that out and then taking And getting referral fees from giving the buyers to another agent, right? 

Absolutely. And it works out great with our system. The platform comes into play. And again it's about consistency for me, I, there's times, there's years that I ran myself ragged and working 60, hours a week. And that's no joke. And then that'll burn you out quick.  It does. And so the key is, folks, is really, I would say what, again, full disclosure, Joe and I work together, is  we really just got Joe to focus on having a plan that says what business, what do you want your business and your life to look like, right?

We never talk about that. How do we want your life to look at? Or what do you want your life to look like? Is it really to work 70, 80, 90 hours a week? Not most people I know.  No. And so the goal is, how do you get to build the life that you want? So that, that whole idea of selling 35 to 50 homes a year, working 40 hours a week, like how do you get that to happen? 

And the only way is by having strategies and systems, right? Absolutely 100 percent and I'll vouch for that because yeah, like I mean I'm doing it every day. I'm living proof my week You following your plan in a lot of areas and I don't want to get into any details my weeks are systematic Monday through Friday time blocking and everything it's huge in the consistency of talking to potential sellers.

So who are you like, where are you finding your business from  mostly? I chased down physicals and expires. Okay, that's my thing We're expanding though, you know  You've helped a lot too with the implementing the right people in our systems  Assistance to be very specific.

That's huge that allows me to free up enough time to expand. We always talk about doing the 10 an hour work versus the 10, 000 an hour work. Absolutely. 100%. My own personal opinion is the number one reason agents average about 44, 000 a year is they do the 10 an hour work. Yeah, and you can't do 10, 000.

And the 10, 000 for you is talking to those FSBOs expireds and getting those listings. Absolutely. So chasing down could be the right language for that. They don't always answer their phone, right?  No. They're not always, how often are they rude? Because that's one of the big fears everybody has oh my gosh, people are rude.

About 10 percent of the time. About 10%. Yeah, it's not too bad. And you know what? And I'm built like you, Bob. I'm a little bit, I've got thicker skin. It doesn't really bother me that much, they're really not very nasty anyway, right? They're just frustrated. Oh my god you know what? Let me say this to that if they actually answer the phone and they have that response I try to talk to them because the thing is what you've taught us how to do through home boss is foot in the door  You're giving them what they want and  just go.

Hey folks. I totally get it. I feel bad that you're getting inundated with these calls so you got to give them some empathy when you talk to them, my experience and all the people that I work with,  very few FSBOs are outright rude. They might be a little flustered with all the phone calls, but that's why we've just moved to texting. 

Just text the people. And so I know if you're listening to this, you're probably going, Oh my God, you can't text people anymore. You cannot text them through an auto system where you send out like a thousand texts. I want to clarify this for agents and If they're on the do not call list So if you want to take and text them from your own phone You're perfectly fine in doing that as long as they're not on the do not call list As it relates to a fizzbo.

I'm, not sure how a fizzbo could really Ever win so i'm not giving you guys legal advice But if you're selling your house and real estate agents have buyers, do you not want them to call you?  So bear that in mind as you're listening to this folks. I'm not giving you legal advice. Talk to your broker but the key now joe is it like How many hours a day or how many hours a week are you spending just?

prospecting. Let me hit that nail right on the head because you just said it a few minutes ago. Traditionally, you would have to call how many Fizbo's to get somebody to answer the phone or to get an appointment, right? You got to call 50 in a day. How about calling 10, right? And if they don't answer, you send a text, you'll get a response.

You don't have to overwork. That's what I love about this process. It's systematic, and it offers them results.  And then if they didn't answer, you call them back at, so let's say you did it at 10 in the morning, you're calling them back whatever, 4 o'clock or whatever it would be then too, right? Yep, absolutely.

Because guess what folks, these people have jobs, they can't always answer the phone, where, I hear agents all the time going, Oh, people never answer their phone. It's true, so don't get me wrong, it is. But you just think they're trying to avoid you when they have this thing called a job or they may have kids They're not sitting by the phone and instead of being frustrated by that.

What if you started thinking about that going? How are they ever going to sell their home if they're at work and they can't answer the thing to talk to a potential Buyer, so I look at that as a good thing. Not a bad thing, right? Are you doing any kind of direct mail? Facebook ads, any of those kinds of things.

IM we're starting to ramp up a little bit on some of the advertisements. Direct mailers some of the great postcards that we have, those work fantastic. Because whether, if they don't want to talk to you or respond to your text, they receive a postcard and it gives them the message that we're trying to deliver.

Very simple. And you don't have to send 5, 000 postcards. No, that's the thing, folks, is if you just understand this everybody's I don't have a budget for that. One, you might want to start planning to have one, but what if you just send it to people that the Fizbo's or the canceled expires, right?

I'd still rather you talk to them quicker than that. But what about the hottest leads that you have in your database, or people that you sold a house to, I don't know, call it five years ago? Right that may or may not have outgrown it maybe some of the people are older now, right that hey now They need to relocate and move closer to their kids and things of that nature Like we did hey, we just did a class on how to find listings in 2025  And despite what everybody thinks it's not really that hard.

Is it?  No just took another one over the weekend So how big was that one? 1. 6 million. Okay,  and so what's your average in your market? Depending on what market I'm into, so the average is right around, let's say, 450, 000 if I'm in the areas that I like to be in. We're breaking into that luxury market now 1.

85, 1. 6 over the weekend. Have a new construction coming in, a much higher level in some of the higher priced areas. But it's because of the systems that I've learned from to be able to get my foot in the door. We're still offering them. The solutions that they don't have. And that's the part that really gets me.

And I and again, we don't like to point our fingers at anyone. We don't wanna say, oh, that agent doesn't know what they're doing, or That company's no good. It's just that you've created options for us to offer them. What That gives them a solution. They're not hearing some of the stuff that, we present to them and they go really?

Or, you know what I get a lot, Bob? You're the only person I called back. Let's say it expired if I did leave a message. I had got 50 calls already and I'm getting frustrated, but what you said, you're the only one I got called back. I hear that a lot. It comes down to scripting, right? So here's the thing, folks.

What I would tell you is that, Joe is very good about taking scripting and being able to turn it into his own personality, right? So for me, it would be I always hate it's hi, this is Bob I'm a local real estate agent and I noticed your home is for like you can't do that. Okay, right? It's and so if you just chill out and talk to people like people it works out a whole lot better Right  and Joseph's hey, he's been in his market a long time done this a long time.

He's just pretty chill and doing it I mean, hey, listen, I even recommend sometimes make the phone calls put your feet up on your desk or whatever and relax Just be yourself. That's it, which is a big deal, right? And then it's simply a function of having Systems around what you've done very well in the last year starting to implement the different systems Where you're becoming the ceo of your business Yes, treating my business like a business, I can again say that I'm able to take that next step because of what we have in place.

Some of the tools that you've provided, I'm not trying to keep harping on this, but that's where my whole business is at. After January of this year, 2025 mark 33 years in business. And I can tell you, I work less now than I ever have.  And I'm making more money and making more money.

And isn't that really the goal folks is to work less and make more but the way that you've done it though You're actually taking control of your business. Now. Your business is not controlling you. Yes  100 Yeah, and so when you're the listing agent like that, hey, I'll go on a listing appointment all weekend long But you know when you're the buyer's agent and somebody calls you and says hey I want to go look at a million and a half dollar house on it's seven o'clock on saturday night And you might have had plans that's a tough decision, isn't it?

You might want to take that appointment. You might want to take that appointment. But when you have the listing, and Joe calls you up and goes, Hey, Bob, I'm going to send over an offer. It's hey, cool, I'm going out tonight, I'll get with the sellers tomorrow. Because it's naturally in our business, you're given at least 24 to 36 hours to get an answer right.

I don't have to drop what I'm doing on Saturday night to do that. And that's the big difference in having a listing business versus the buyer side of it. Again, nothing wrong with buyers, right? So not at all. They pay the bills. We love them when we need them. That's right, right but wouldn't it be better to give that to somebody take the 25 percent referral fee and Let them do the work you list your last and the more listings that you have the more you can do that I think One of the things that I noticed for you is like the light switch flipped when you realize hey There's more than just fizz bows cancels and expires out there Oh, yeah, right and so the class that I taught last week was how to build a recession proof business once you understand there good times and bad times in the real estate business Like I just remember in 2022 kind of laughing going boy All these realtors when this market changes are in for a rude awakening because they didn't prepare For what was going to happen because all real estate markets are cyclical.

It's the way it is They are and you have to plan for both good and bad And so one of the things is i've got a lot of good friends in the reo space And in 2008, 9, 10, they made millions and millions of dollars and three years later They couldn't close the deal to save their life because they focused so heavily on reo And didn't plan on hey, eventually that's going to go away Yeah, and they didn't know how to prospect properly.

Yep. And so you've got to set things up in an REO class, aren't you?  I don't teach them. I have a great REO expert. He teaches for agents all over the country He's actually one of the next few guests on the podcast Oh nice is for that because REO is such a big part of the business and is it huge in today's market?

It's really not will it be? It, it'll certainly come back, like for him, he gets a couple listings a month, a couple REO listings a month,  which is good.  And then if you market those properly, you can turn those into a ton more business. So Joe, let's leave him with something like if you had to tell, you had a brand new agent and you had to tell him, hey, this is what you need to do to be successful in real estate, what would it be?

Follow the system is what I would tell them. Honestly, and when I started, there was no, we didn't have any real leaders in the business. It was hit the ground running and figure it out. Grilla marketing, however you wanted to put it. And and I've even seen a lot of the gurus over the years.

Don't listen to everybody that wants you to do it the same way over and over. And I keep preaching the same thing. I hear it all the time. I know you hear it all the time and it comes down to just for them to be frustrated, right? So you and I have been in the business for the same amount of time and for 33  years.

87. 5 percent of the realtors don't make it two years.  That should give us an idea that whatever it is that we're being taught is not the right stuff. That's it. Now there are agents who come into this with the wrong idea. They watch the, the, whatever the real estate agent shows on TV and think it's all about sitting at cocktail parties and gowns and whatever.

Not what it's really but at the end of the day  It's the things that we're doing Don't work and people can't do that consistently over a long period of time. So so joe. Thanks so much for being here folks joe is living testament to consistency and just working away and creating a system and following.

Now if you need help scaling your business to seven figures like Joe, hey, go to www. homebosslistinghub. com. Take the free business analysis that's there. And then go ahead and schedule a free productivity and marketing review to learn exactly what you need to implement in your business in order to recession proof it.

And scale the seven figures. So thanks again for listening and we'll see on the next top agent talks podcast. Joe, thanks again. Have an amazing day. You too. Thanks. Bye guys.