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Interview with a Top Producer:
Allan Domb

Speaks Out on Creating
An Amazing Real Estate Business

Allan Domb Real Estate, Philadelphia, PA
2001 VOLUME: $151 Million
AVERAGE HOME AMOUNT: $208,639
SOFTWARE: Online H2

Boni Lonnsburry: Where does your business come from primarily?

Alan Domb: The majority comes from referrals. Past customers and clients that have worked with us. The very largest portion of that are referrals from past buyers and sellers as well as people who are in the industry, or other professionals, whether it is attorneys, doctors or people that know about us. I think we have very good name recognition in the market.

Boni: How long have you been in business?

Alan: Since January 1980.

Boni: Did you start with your own company?

Alan: I started in 1983 with my own company. You had to be a real estate professional at that time for three years before you could have your own business.

I went to Philadelphia in 1957 to work on the time recording door lock system - a security system. I was the manager of an office with about 15 people. I was 21 at the time and making $15,000.00 a year.

I grew their business from a gross of $240,000.00 to $650,000.00 in three years. They gave me a raise of around $20.00 - $25.00 a week over the course of the three-year period. In any event, I stuck it out because they told me that after one year they were going to sell me the business. So I was killing myself to build this business.

Unfortunately, I never got that promise in writing. Verbal promises are worthless. So I decided that I needed to supplement my income at the time and I was listening to a radio show called "All About Real Estate." The guy on the radio was someone named Jay Lemont, and I decided to attend a real estate class. I went through Temple University Real Estate Institute, which at the time Jay Lemont was the director of.

After my real estate exam, in January of 1980, I started part-time in real estate. I think the first year part-time I sold $2.4 million. The second year I sold $4.7 million. The third year, in 1982, I won the award in Philadelphia for top sales person and I was still part-time!

Boni: How did you do it? What was your secret?

Alan: The financing. We did installment build and wrap around mortgages. In 1983 I went full time. Now we specialize in center city Philadelphia condominiums.

Boni: When you look at other agents coming into this business, new agents specifically, what mistakes do you see them making?

Alan: The two keys of success in real estate are "knowledge" and "availability". Knowledge meaning knowing your market. You could ask me, "Alan what is a one bedroom in an Academy House square footage?" I can tell you 725. I can tell you the property taxes on the last five sales without looking it up. You can call me on the phone and say to me, "Al this is so and so," and I could say "Oh, you live at 2612 and North Chester."

I study the market - and that is pretty impressive when you are a customer calling or a client calling somebody to help them list the property for sale. I think that knowledge is a very important part of this business. Know your market.

I think the other part is managing your time. You need to be an excellent time manager.

Boni: I would think time management would have to be critical in the real estate business.

Alan: There are four keys to success in real estate: Prospecting, Listing, Selling and Negotiation.

Boni: Can you tell me a little bit about each one?

Alan: Prospecting is developing new prospects.

Boni: How do you go about that?

Alan: I have certain goal for myself. One of them is to make at least 100 phone calls a day. We also do quite a bit of direct mail. Our farm area is about 6,000 - 6,500 units. We direct mail every one of them once a month - what is available for sale and what has sold. We keep them abreast of the market. And we are hopefully always "top of mind." The "top of mind" concept I got from a top Realtor in Minnesota - Steve West.

Boni: So you are really in front of them constantly with direct mail?

Alan: Month to month. In addition to that we advertise twice a week. So they see that as well. In addition to that we advertise in the condo newsletters in their buildings. So there is quite a bit of what Steve would call "top of mind". We are constantly in front of them. I can tell you that if we stopped marketing to them over a 3-month period, they would forget about us.

Boni: And what about listing? What is the secret there?

Alan: The same thing... be "top of mind." Also be a specialist. We handle over 80% of the luxury condominiums in our farm. We are really a boutique office. We don't have a lot of people.

Boni: So you must be selling these people homes elsewhere those who are moving out of the condos?

Alan: Usually we refer them when they move out. We don't handle those. That is not our specialty. For instance, if you called us with a suburban home or a house somewhere else, we would refer you to somebody. That isn't our specialty and it isn't our area. It's like a doctor, a good doctor who specializes in heart patients - you don't see them filling your cavities.

Boni: What made you decide on this specialty?

Alan: What I learned at Temple University, and through Jay Lemont, as well as what I learned through Howard Britton... A combination of these people have kept me on my focus of that specialization. In other words, we want to become a one-street specialist, and become the very best on that street so that people will seek us out. That's the key.

For most people real estate is the biggest financial asset they own so in some cases, we are not as important as your heart doctor, but from a financial standpoint we are pretty important.

Boni: You must have a pretty big market of luxury condos in the Philadelphia area?

Alan: Not that big. We have maybe six or seven thousand, fifty five hundred homes in total.

Boni: What made you decide to specialize in that narrow piece of the market?

Alan: Because I was living in one and I just thought that this would be a good area for me to specialize. I was just starting out in 1980 in Philadelphia, and no one else wanted to deal with them - they thought that they were just a fad. I figured this was an area where, if I learned it well and did it well, maybe it would flourish.

Boni: And it has. Tell us a little bit about the selling and the negotiating - those two keys.

Alan: I think that is a time-management focus. I think that when you come into the office every day, you almost need to do what we call "Your top ten most productive items" everyday. Top ten, could be typically focused on people who are ready to buy or sell. But you must focus on the top ten most productive items, and you should write them down every day.

Boni: Did you learn how to negotiate through the real estate school as well, or is that something you learned over the years?

Alan: I think that I learned some from the real estate school, from the National Association of Realtors conventions and so on. It is a constant learning process.

Boni: What mistake do you see veteran's agents making - as opposed to the newbie's?

Alan: Most people, who have been in the business for at least ten years, aren't making too many mistakes because they're still around. Remember that nine out of ten people who go into the real estate profession are going to leave after the first twelve months. So there aren't a lot of people who are in the business for ten years that are making that many mistakes.

Although they may not be as productive as they could be. One of things that they need to do is really get down to assigning a value to their time. What is their time worth? If they don't have an assistant for an example, they aren't utilizing the contact management and software programs to their fullest; they really need to focus on those areas. What can they delegate?

Boni: How big is your team now?

Alan: I have a full time assistant, a part-time assistant and a secretary. I have a receptionist, of course, a part-time bookkeeper and a full-time property manager. We also do property management. We are really a boutique operation. In my market there are big companies that have swallowed up most of the small entrepreneurs. Virtually devoured!

Boni: Well, you're not only surviving you're flourishing. So your past customers must love you. How do you stay in touch with them?

Alan: Through the mail, phone calls, seeing them everyday when I am in the buildings. Remembering who they are. That is really the only way to do it.

Boni: Do you send them newsletters? Or post cards?

Alan: Different pieces of direct mail, absolutely!

Boni: On a monthly basis as well?

Alan: Right

Boni: Alan, if you had a son or daughter entering this business, what advice would you give them?

Alan: Go and work for someone else for two or three years, and then come back and we'll talk. To see what it's like with someone else first.

Sometimes, we don't have the volume that other companies have; it cost us three times as much to advertise in the local paper as our large competitor, which I often feel is unfair. The personal company is at a huge disadvantage. In other words, if I pay ten dollars a line, they are paying three dollars a line. That doesn't seem right.

Boni: Why is that?

Alan: They're getting a volume discount because they're so huge! They have about 80% of the Realtors in our market under one company, it like a David and Goliath situation.

Boni: So would you recommend to a son or daughter that they eventually start their own company?

Alan: It would depend on the individual, if they want to go against the tide and they want to be entrepreneur that is great! It is tougher and tougher to do it but I enjoy it. I thrive on the fact that they get smaller and these big companies are getting bigger, it motivates me to do better.

Boni: What would you say was your most successful marketing campaign?

Alan: I don't think it's one campaign. I think that it's the series of repetition. I think you should do it religiously. I think that putting out the sold cards every month is crucial.

Boni: So you would say that is probably your best marketing strategy?

Alan: Yes. Direct mail every month.

Boni: Alan, who or what was the biggest contributor to your success?

Alan: I would say that there are three people from three different areas. First would be my parents and how they demonstrated their work ethic and their drive. I would say from the real estate knowledge standpoint it would be Jay Lemont. And I would say from a sharpening your skills point, it would be Howard Britton.

Boni: If you had a magic wand what would you change about your business?

Alan: I would try to continue to eliminate the paper.

Boni: Are you doing that now?

Alan: Trying, but it's difficult. You try to put as much as possible on the computer. But I can clean my desk in the morning, and in the afternoon I seem to have a lot more paper again. This is somewhat of a paper intensive business. It's just the volume that we do.

Boni: You must have some really amazing systems, to handle that volume with a small staff?

Alan: I have good systems, but I think that I have the best team of people that I have ever had! That is really the biggest key to everything. I have really, really good people who have been with me for a very long time and who are committed.

Boni: How do you work with them, to keep that motivated and committed?

Alan: I think that it's something that has to come from inside of a person. It's really their character that motivates them. You can't force them to do that. I have learned that after 20 years.

Boni: So you hire the right people to begin with?

Alan: I can't change someone's character, and I can't change their work ethic. All sales people think they can change people, but you can't. Either they have it, and they want to do it, or they don't. You can motivate somebody for the short term, but in the long term if you have to constantly motivate somebody, then they don't have it.

Boni: So how do you find people like that?

Alan: It's a process, where you go through people and the really good ones, you make sure you compensate and demonstrate to them that you value them and you want them to stay long term. I always say to really good people, "This isn't a job, it is a career." You have to look at this as if we're married together for life. So you're not going anywhere and I'm not going anywhere. I'm not selling my business, and you're not going to leave here and go work for somebody else.

If you ever have an issue or a problem, you need to come and talk to me, and we'll resolve it. So many times people leave companies because they are upset about something, and they don't discuss it. It may be the heat of the moment or whatever, but you don't want that to happen.

Boni: Alan, is there anything else you would like to share with other agents who aspire to the kind of success that you've created?

Alan: I would just say that it takes a huge level of commitment. It takes a mental state of mind to say that I want to be the best at what I do, regardless of what it takes.

Boni: How do you motivate yourself to constantly have that state of mind?

Alan: I guess that we all have goals, and I have certain financial goals and asset goals that I want to achieve. You set the goals and you figure out how you are going to get there.

Boni: And you just keep remembering that?

Alan: The more frequently that you look at your goals the more successful you will be.

And another important resource:

“People don’t want to be “marketing TO;” they want to be “communicated WITH.”

– Flint McGlaughlin

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