GMR Presents: Top Producer Tuesday

Despite the market slowdown, Gary Ashton says May was the busiest month his Nashville brokerage has ever seen. According to the No. 1 RE/MAX Team Leader in the world, there remains a huge demand for real estate.

“We’re not seeing any decline, except maybe in price points above $550,000,” says Ashton, Team Leader of the Ashton Real Estate Group with RE/MAX Advantage in Tennessee. “You’ve got the double whammy of the low interest rates, so when people are realizing, ‘I want to have my own house with a yard and be able to have the kids outside,’ all those kind of things are playing into people’s motivations to move.”

Ashton shared his insight on “Good Morning RE/MAX” alongside guests and fellow RE/MAX all-stars Lori McGuire, a Top 100 Team Leader of the McGuire Team with RE/MAX Select one in California, and Quintavius “Q” Burdette, a Rookie of the Year recipient with RE/MAX Experts in Tennessee.

The three top producers joined host and RE/MAX Chief Customer Officer Nick Bailey to share their best practices and top advice, including the importance of online leads, cold calling and surrounding oneself with the clients they want to reach. To hear more from these successful agents, watch the full episode. 

No. 1 RE/MAX Team Leader in the World: ‘Call a Lead Within Seconds, Not Minutes’

“I learned very quickly that if you can connect with people within the first – people say the first few minutes but, really, if you can get them in the first few seconds of them registering, you take them off guard a little bit. … The initial conversation is a little rough – “I wasn’t expecting the call” – so you can navigate around that. But by the end of the call, because you’ve positioned yourself as the authority and you know what you’re talking about and you’re a Realtor – and really all they’re looking for is information – through the conversation, you can feel the bricks coming down. And by the end of it, they warm to you.” – Gary Ashton, the Ashton Real Estate Group, RE/MAX Advantage, Nashville, Tennessee

RE/MAX Top 100 Team Leader: ‘The Most Important Thing is to Help Community’

“When the pandemic started, we were on lockdown for a couple weeks, so we really couldn’t do much. … Costco was open, but we couldn’t do showings or anything so we sent out a mass text message to our database. I know some areas are opening up right now, but in this [customized] text message we said, ‘Hi Rita, I hope you’re doing well. I know a lot of people are going through a difficult time right now. My team and I are getting and delivering food/supplies for those who need help. Please let me know if you or your family are in need of anything. Smiley emoji. Lori McGuire with the Lori McGuire Team at REMAX, with a home emoji.’ And the response was really overwhelming. … ‘Just want to thank you so much for thinking about us. And oh, by the way, when this is over we want to sell our house.’ It was a good way to connect with people, but instead of connecting in a way like, ‘Hey, you know, are you still thinking about real estate?,’ we really wanted to help out. And that was the most important thing, to try to help the community.” – Lori McGuire, the Lori McGuire Team, RE/MAX Select One, Laguna Niguel, California

Rookie of the Year: ‘Go After the Relationship First, Put the Business Second’

“Start better relationships. Go after the relationship first, put the business second. Start looking at everyone as a friend – ‘Hey, I’m trying to go out and meet new friends today’ – because when you do that, then your business will start to take off, because if you have a friend, they’re going to tell folks about you, over and over and over again. If you’re likable, they’re going to tell folks about you. … I’m the type of person who always wants to work with folks who want to work with me, so if they say, ‘Hey, I don’t want to work with you because you’re too young,’ then so be it. ‘I’ll just sell the next house before that agent sells yours.’ That’s my mentality, that’s my thought process.” – Quintavius “Q” Burdette, RE/MAX Experts, Germantown, Tennessee