Ben Lalez with The Ben Lalez Team discusses how he went from an individual producer to leading one of the largest teams in Chicago. Ben describes how he and his team nurture a lead and the processes they use. Ben also discusses what changes are being seen by him and his team in the market with the changes in interest rates. Ben goes back to the beginning and describes how he got into real estate business and also describes where he sees his team headed in the future. Ben and D.J. discuss what comes next for the real estate market. Last, Ben discusses the interpersonal side of his team.



If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!



If you'd like to listen to Ben's first interview with us, click here.



Ben Lalez can be reached at 847-452-9675 and [email protected].



This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.







Transcript



D.J. Paris 0:00How does a top 1% Producer nurture their leads? We're going to talk about that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren't converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now onto our show.



Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I'm your guide and host through the show. And today we have a returning guest, Ben lawless from the bend LoL is team here in Chicago with Compass. And this is a really exciting episode because not only is Ben going to tell you exactly how his team nurtures, leads, and by the way, they have just in the last several years closed 335 million in real estate, but also he I went to his office to shoot this. So if you're listening to us, check out the video version because Ben's team professionally shot and edited this and it looks amazing way better than anything we could do. So I want to thank Ben for you know, really taking some initiative and helping us look even better than we normally do, which is not very good. But Ben's team did an outstanding job and he provides so much value in this conversation that you're going to love it. So without further ado, let's just get right to it. My second conversation with one of my favorite people in real estate Ben lawless.



Today on the show, we have Ben Lalas from the Ben Lalas team here in Chicago. Ben's actually been on the show before. And if I sound in a little different, and if I look a little different, it's because I'm actually in Ben's amazing Bucktown office. And he so generously invited me to come along and I'm excited to see you again. Yeah, let's let me tell you a little bit more about Ben. We'll keep it short, because we have a lot to sort of talk about. But Ben really started as a general contractor, he went full time in real estate in 2019. And I want you to pay attention to these numbers, because in 2017, he did 4 million in production in 2018 14 million, so a $10 million jump in just one year. The next year he did 24 million another $10 million jump. And in the trailing 12 months, Ben Wallace team has closed 165 million in production. And it's just incredible. There's 45,000 Real estate agents here in the Chicagoland area. I've yet to see somebody quite grow so quickly and build a team as fast as Ben has. He is a household name here in Chicago amongst agents. But Ben and his team pride themselves on thinking and dreaming big and never getting out hustled. To learn more about Ben and his team, please visit Ben lawless.com. That's BNLAL easy.com Ben is a real pleasure to be here in your office.



Ben Lalez 4:15It's almost like I didn't provide all of those stats to you.



D.J. Paris 4:19By my crack team of well, it would be I was gonna say researchers but it was you who sent us this information but really you are all I am on the Chicago Association of Realtors, which is our local association. I'm on our YPN committee which is for young professional network which is ironic because I am 46 I'm I shouldn't technically be allowed to be on there still look



Ben Lalez 4:40good. Thank you. That's the game.



D.J. Paris 4:45But what's funny is every year what we do YPN and Ben knows this because he's been to many of these events is we have these these breakfasts where we bring in top producers and so we have to plan these as an as a committee and your name has come up I've been in the maybe two years of my third year will be this next year, your name will come up again, every meeting next year, it came up every meeting this year, because of the explosive growth, people don't understand it. Other agents are inspired slash jealous of this. It's really, really cool to be here and to have your attention because you are, I don't want to say even a rising star, because you're obviously already one of the top producers here in Chicago. But the fact that you rose so quickly, is just I've yet to see it. And in anyone else. So congratulations on the team success.



Ben Lalez 5:32Man, I didn't expect so much flattery right out of the gates. But, you know, we appreciate it. It's, you know, there's no secret says, you know, just hard work.



D.J. Paris 5:41Well, tell us a little bit about, you know, we you've been on the show before. And this was bad. It was so funny, because after we got done talking, Ben had sort of shared with me, he said, he said we really ready to take this to the next level. And I said, Okay, you know, and I, but you know, most people will say that, right? Like, that's a very common thing that people who own businesses, or who have a team in real estate will say, Hey, we're poised to go to the next level. And not everyone does. And then you just legitimately went to that next level, just as you said, you would in the timeframe, you said you would, and I want to know all about how you went from being an individual producer. And it's in look, it's not like you work at a little small company, where they just decided, You know what, everyone's going to work with Ben, because he's the, he's the top sales guy in our office, you work for one of the top, you know, producing companies in the industry compass. You know, you are for lack of a better word, a cog in this wheel of compass. It's an impressive wheel. But you are an impressive cog in that wheel. But you're also one of 1000s of agents here. And yet you have risen even to the top of compass here in the local market. Tell us? I mean, I just I just love hearing how people do that. So yeah, share with me,



Ben Lalez 7:00what's really interesting is, when we first did this podcast, it was in 2020, right before COVID or late 2019. Right? And knows, right when I moved over to Compass, I think it was probably February of 2020 2020. Oh, right. Before we had our 2019 numbers, they were out. Yeah. And I was sitting, you know, on this podcast at my single desk at the compass officer. And, you know, I was just happy to be on the podcast, you guys had reached out to me, and I'm like, Oh, my God, this is unbelievable. And I didn't know, you know, we didn't talk about what the title of the podcast would be. But I you know, I remember it, there's no chance there's no way you remember, I don't it was four to 24 million. That sounds right. Two years. Yeah. And, you know, now we've gone from 24 to 165, in another three years? And to answer your question, and like, for anyone who's listening, it's all about I mean, it's leads and sales, right. And throughout my entire career, you know, even when I was doing 4,000,014, whatever the numbers were, my whole philosophy has been, you know, grow, organically, whatever feels normal for me, and then make the necessary changes if it feels right, just head in that direction. So what happened with me and, you know, growth doesn't happen by accident, right, there was a game plan. But what I always tell people is, you know, you're only as good as your sales, you're only as good as your leads. So every time we, you know, I personally had too much business to handle, what do you do, you bring on another agent. And then when us three had too much business to handle, you hire another agent, and so on and so forth. And you know, now we have, you know, a large team. It's one of the largest in Chicago, but it's only because we have enough business to go around. There are teams out there who are hiring for ego, in my opinion. This has nothing to do with that we're hiring out of, I only hire out of need, Sebastian is sitting right to our left, hired out of need our second videographer hired out of need, we have two isas. Do you get where I'm going with this is hired out of need, but it's only because we have enough to go around. And all of these people are necessary to keep, you know, the boat afloat, if you will. Well, it's



D.J. Paris 9:21funny because I you hear so much about 10x or 3x 5x, you know, depending on on how much you pay attention to things like valuation and, and growth and a lot of its, you know,

Ver todos los episodios