Agent Success Story

Maltsberger: Opening the Door to Success

James Maltsberger of the McDonough office is fairly new to the real estate world. However, in only his second year in real estate, he is already on track to do over $2 million in volume. The secret to his success? Open houses.

Having moved from California to Georgia two years ago, Maltsberger decided to make a career change to adapt to the new environment. As a former owner of a landscape and interior design business involved in staging, he had already thought about real estate as a career. After his not-so-pleasant experiences with Realtors while buying his home, he was sure that he could do a better job communicating with and helping clients along in the process. “Also, with hard times coming, it seemed like the perfect environment to establish a new career as the ‘order takers’ would be weeded out and the serious professionals would be left to handle the business at hand,” Maltsberger jokes. The question was just where to even begin.

After attending the Metro Brokers Academy Pre-License class, Maltsberger joined BHGRE Metro Brokers. With his recent move from California, Maltsberger had no sphere of influence to contact in the early stages of his career. He tried direct mailings and advertisements on grocery carts, but he quickly discovered that real estate is like any other business – it does not come to you.

How did he get the business?

“The successes I did have early on involved getting out and directly interacting with the public,” Maltsberger said. “I was left to find clients through face-to-face interaction, driving through still active and foreclosed neighborhoods, and doing open houses.”

In his two years in real estate, open houses have been the most effective way he has found to meet clients.

“I held open houses every weekend for the first year,” Maltsberger explains. “I couldn’t wait for just Super Sunday. The results were not immediate, but you have to look at the whole story. I never had a client walk into an open house and say ‘Write it up, we’re good to go’. Instead, I had people call me because they saw me in the neighborhood all the time, or after an open house I would catch someone down the street looking at homes trying to avoid sales-people like me, but I would turn them into a client anyway.”

Those open houses have really paid off for Maltsberger. Not only has he gained clients from open houses, but those clients have sent him referrals, so he is beginning to tap into larger spheres of influence to grow his client base. Every sale he’s had came from an open house or from meeting clients while out at places around town.

“You have to sacrifice,” Maltsberger says of his methods. “The idea is to get out there. Use your strong suits and dabble in your weaknesses until you make them just as strong. It doesn’t all come easy.” But in the end, being on track to do over $2 million in volume makes it all worth it.

How can you get started?

BHGRE Metro Brokers agents can attend the next Certified Open House webinar on Dec. 3 at 6:00pm to be eligible to participate in the Open House Pool and Super Sunday promotion. The training will show agents how to donate and host open houses in the Open House Pool, exclusive software that allows agents with listings to match up with agents looking to hold open houses. Open houses are a great tool to help agents learn about the community in which they work and meet potential clients. To take advantage of these great opportunities, register for the Certified Open House webinar by clicking on Webinar Training under the Training and Education heading on MetroNet.