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Steven and Ashley get real about the least glamorous — and most profitable — habit in real estate: follow-up. They unpack the difference between follow-up and follow-through, share stories of deals won (a condo alert that basically closed itself, a check-in call that uncovered hail damage and saved a listing) and deals lost to silence, and explain why proactive, human touchpoints beat any paid lead source. The throughline: you're not too busy, you're just not prioritizing it — so schedule your future self, build a system you'll actually use, find an accountability partner, and eat the frog.
Creators and Guests
What is LeadingLane Podcast?
Welcome to LeadingLane, the go-to podcast for aspiring and seasoned real estate professionals! Hosted by Steven L. Burch and Ashley Fredrick, two seasoned brokers with a flair for the industry, this show delves into the core of what makes real estate tick. Each episode is a journey through essential topics like mastering time management, unraveling the complexities of real estate finances, and sharing authentic experiences from the field. Get valuable tips and tricks, whether you're a newbie or a pro. This podcast is your key to thriving in real estate.
Fort Riley / Junction City / Manhattan / Abilene Kansas home buying & selling — VA loans, BAH & PCS: https://pcstofortriley.com
Steven L Burch (00:17)
All right, welcome to the Leading Lane podcast. Today we're going to talk about everybody's favorite thing to do in sales, but really anything in business, follow up, right?
Follow up is something that I think that people tend to run away with and it is maddening to me seeing when people do not do follow up and also experiencing it from the other side when you are the consumer for whatever of not receiving that follow up when you're expecting to be able to purchase something by a service, whatever. So a lot of examples that we have actually run with it. Follow up. What is it for you?
Ashley Fredrick (00:58)
Yeah, I mean it's just literally like the simple touch back to someone, like whatever that might be, like whether it's you're in the middle of a transaction and you're following up because the home inspection just happened or the appraisal just came back or I mean the one real big struggle right now for us is showing feedback because
Some people think you should give showing feedback. Some people don't think that you should. So that's a whole situation right now. and again, like even if you just said not interested, I feel like that'd be better than ignoring people.
Steven L Burch (01:29)
Nothing.
Ashley Fredrick (01:31)
but I think about it like personally, like there's been a couple things that I wanted done at my house and had like a contractor come out and they came like one time and I never heard from them again. But had they reached back out and been like,
Steven L Burch (01:43)
huh.
Ashley Fredrick (01:45)
Hey, just falling back up about that concrete patio or whatever. Like I likely would have hired them, but the fact that I nost must have just been like a number to them made
Steven L Burch (01:55)
huh.
Ashley Fredrick (01:55)
me think like, nah, maybe not not the case. you know, I think that I'll have to agree with some some things I see online. So like one recent thing I've seen is that like setting your buyers up on a search result is like no longer the thing to do in real estate.
And I can't necessarily agree with that because my search alerts for clients have still generated me a ton of business. And I think it probably maybe depends on the age group that you're working with a little bit, but like same thing yesterday. Like condos are so few and far between in our areas, like non existent almost. So they come through like a dime a dozen. I
Steven L Burch (02:21)
huh. Okay.
Ashley Fredrick (02:37)
was out on a showing yesterday.
And a condo got listed. Well, I have five people set up on condo alerts. And one emailed, called, and texted me and was like, my God, I can't believe you remembered that we wanted a condo. We want to see it tomorrow. I didn't have to do anything. But right, it's
Steven L Burch (02:51)
Brain.
Ashley Fredrick (02:55)
that that was the follow-up to them wanting a condo.
Steven L Burch (02:58)
Thank
Ashley Fredrick (02:59)
and even other times, like I have another one where they're they're new back at buying and
sure, I also explained to people that it's not always me. Like I'll like, this is to help while I'm out. And so she responded, like, I don't, it doesn't have AC, so I'm not interested. And I was like, no big deal. just remember that you might get alerts that you don't like, just delete them. But
Steven L Burch (03:18)
huh.
Ashley Fredrick (03:18)
otherwise, funny enough, she text messaged and was like, We decided we want to see the one without air. So, right on the like on the real estate side, like to me that's super simple, but also.
I think we talk about it like in the post-closing, you know, couple days after closing. Like, how did things go? And you'd be surprised. You know, I've tried to work on that, which again you can use your CRM for too. but you know, any unknown surprises, I think somebody had like a plumbing issue when I reached out and I was like, Remember you have the home warranty. I completely forgot that I had a home warranty. Like just those little things. To me, those are the things that when people come back in five or
Steven L Burch (03:30)
huh. Okay.
Ashley Fredrick (03:55)
six years and decide they want to sell, like they're gonna remember that you stayed in touch, that you followed up, even followed up on house anniversaries or birthdays. That's why I kind of like being Facebook friends with clients is it's a good way to
Steven L Burch (04:07)
I
Ashley Fredrick (04:08)
stay in touch with them as far as what's going on in their lives. So I think it's just the like staying in tune and not just dropping people off along the way.
Steven L Burch (04:18)
mean, and really is it follow up or is it follow through? Right, like.
Ashley Fredrick (04:22)
Yeah, I it's both,
right?
Steven L Burch (04:24)
the like it's not just a I think we were definitely in the instant gratification world. We all know that. But like the picking up the phone and saying, hey, last time we spoke, you weren't ready to buy your house or buy a house yet. Are you ready to buy now? Like that is no value. I mean, at least you called him. I mean, kudos to you, I guess. But like, what is the real connection that you're having? And I do agree that
there's still a purpose and a place for the smart campaigns or the search alerts to be going out to people, but that's not only what you do. And I think that's
Ashley Fredrick (04:58)
Right. Mm-hmm.
Steven L Burch (04:59)
where people think that, cool, I'll put them on a search alert and that's follow-up.
Ashley Fredrick (05:03)
I'll never talk again.
Steven L Burch (05:04)
That's not follow-up, that's just like a number, right? That's just putting them in there and that's non-existent. And I think that's something, I I know we talked about multiple times, when people talk about leads.
Well, these are people. And if you start treating your liens, your follow-up, like people, and how can you contribute to them, how you can provide value and meaningful, not just because that's what you want to talk about that day, it has to be the connection. And I
Ashley Fredrick (05:31)
Yeah.
Steven L Burch (05:31)
think that's where the AI, all the systems and everything else, it's not going to replace us because it's going to enhance us, but it's the connection human to human.
that we need to be able to continuously have. People are craving it and wanting it, but very far and few between are actually providing it.
Ashley Fredrick (05:50)
Well, that same condo buyer, they have a house to sell that I looked at like two years ago and like it's all about depending on the right house before they move, right? But I normally just call every six months and just say, like, hey, haven't talked to you guys for a while. Just wanted to see if you made any changes to the house, like how your health is doing or whatnot. And I remember the last time she was like, Well, that was really nice of you to check in and I was like, Well, we haven't I haven't talked to you for a while and you know, it's spring market or whatever. So it's the same one. So it wasn't
Steven L Burch (06:19)
Great.
Ashley Fredrick (06:19)
It wasn't an awkward for her to get that email from me.
There's another seller that I've been working with for like three years 'cause everyone has a different process of how they have to get to selling or whatnot.
Steven L Burch (06:28)
Mm-hmm.
Ashley Fredrick (06:29)
And I've been over there like every four or five months and we're we're slowly getting there. And I have like a list of, you know, buyers and sellers and I kinda looked at it and I like, I haven't heard from her for probably like three months now, which is kind of strange. And so
Called her and was just like, hey, like we're getting towards the end of summer. I know we were talking about listing this summer, so wanted to see where things were at. And like here she had, I don't know, gone to visit someone and ended up staying for two months. But an interesting
Steven L Burch (06:57)
Okay. Okay.
Ashley Fredrick (06:58)
piece of this, and this is also where I think a local lender comes into play, is I said, you've been gone for two months? She's like, I have. And I was like, hmm. Did you
You know that there did you know that there was a hail storm when you were gone? She said,
Steven L Burch (07:14)
Okay.
Ashley Fredrick (07:15)
no. I was like, Well, I'm pretty sure every single one of your neighbors have gotten a new roof. So it's probably something that we're gonna want to look at. And so she had no idea, right? But now there's a roofer coming out this week to look at the house to make sure that if it is, it falls in in that insurance claim. But all that came from a
Steven L Burch (07:28)
Okay.
Ashley Fredrick (07:35)
simple follow up call, and then, you know, went out there. So I just think it's interesting like what else can happen from a follow up call.
Steven L Burch (07:45)
Yeah, I mean, and really, again, it's value that you provided. Like nobody else would know that. And because you actually care, you're compassionate and you want to be able to help. And that's truly where I think that if people turn things to instead of how do I sell this person? How do I close them really quickly to how can I help and go in into it with curiosity?
an open mind, it's going to eliminate all of these sales tactics and everything else that you think you have to have. And I think a big thing here too is the proactive follow up, follow through versus reactive. Right. And making sure that you are like the way that I would try to program everything or do everything is how do I schedule my future self to do something? How do I tell myself in six, 12 months, whatever, however, the timeline is?
to do a specific task so I don't forget about it. So let me be bossy today to my future self so that I know I'm not gonna drop the ball. So the pro-activeness I think is where you really set yourself aside from your competitors or I mean really anybody because you're not just sitting there waiting them to call you and say, hey I'm ready to make a move. You're actually there in front. You already know what's going on. You already know about their house. You know about the storm that came through.
You're being proactive and building that. And as you are doing that, you're creating the value, you're creating the relationship and people want to work with people that they have a relationship with, that they know, like and trust. Make that be you. And that's all you have to do is make connections. So.
Ashley Fredrick (09:23)
Yeah. I and I think
it just goes back to like putting yourself in those shoes.
Steven L Burch (09:27)
What do you think the main reason why people don't use the tactic of just picking up the phone and making the connection and reaching out?
Ashley Fredrick (09:33)
I mean, I think two things. I think laziness. I think some people just think that they're always guaranteed a client. I think that some people forget that a lot of clients know five to ten realtors and there might be someone that isn't you I mean, it's not to say that one person might not be on three realtors,
you know, CRMs or whatnot. I know for a fact that that's the case, but like who's doing the meaningful follow-up?
Steven L Burch (09:58)
Thank
Ashley Fredrick (09:58)
Who's like checking
in on them versus like just assuming that someone's gonna work with you? Because we know assuming actually means. but I think
Steven L Burch (10:04)
Mm-hmm.
Ashley Fredrick (10:06)
that otherwise it goes back to just fear of rejection or not knowing what to say. What in all reality, like it's just having a simple conversation. Even the hey, you crossed my mind the other day. I did that with a buyer. I mean, I they had had a kid and I hadn't heard her from a while, and I was
Steven L Burch (10:19)
Thank you.
Ashley Fredrick (10:22)
like, I should give him a call. And I was like,
Just like I saw the pictures of the newborn, I figured we hadn't talked in a while, and I thought I would just call and see how things were. And I didn't ask them about their house or anything like that, but naturally it came up in the conversation, right? Like they said, like, yeah, you know, like we are outgrowing, like we're gonna have to think about something soon. And that wasn't my true intention, like it was somebody that I cared about
Steven L Burch (10:31)
Absolutely.
Ashley Fredrick (10:43)
and I wanted to check in with them, but obviously there's the backside of real estate that I do believe that they would contact me when that time came.
Steven L Burch (10:50)
Absolutely.
And know, ironically, yesterday I was meeting with one of our new agents and I used you as an example of how like making sure that you're being strategic about what you're doing and intentional with your touch points and organizing your customer relationship management system. And so I was talking about how like you send out a happy holidays card, typically like a big ass card. It's about you and Ben. It's a an
Ashley Fredrick (11:18)
Yeah.
Steven L Burch (11:19)
It's not a newsletter, right? But what do you call it, that thing?
Ashley Fredrick (11:22)
like our you mean it's
like our yearly recap for Christmas.
Steven L Burch (11:25)
Yeah, yeah. So like, I mean, you're talking about what you have done and what you have experienced and the pictures of you and Ben and different events and these different things that you're doing within the community. And you're just literally saying like this, I'm catching you up on my life in a quick synopsis, right? Nowhere in there does it say, I want to sell your house. I want you to buy with me, right? Like you are making a human connection. People get to see that.
and into the consistency that matters. It's not just a one time send a, you know, a catch up letter and now they're gonna work with you for life. Like you constantly are working your people and checking in and making sure that you are there for them. So when they are ready for whatever it may be, doesn't even matter if it's going to be like a vendor recommendation, you're gonna be there. They're gonna thank you. That is how, I mean, you sell.
100 freaking houses a year. It's all about the consistency.
Ashley Fredrick (12:24)
Yeah. I mean, and I think it again, it just goes back to like so I actually you'll appreciate this. I moved Asana onto my home screen
Steven L Burch (12:33)
Mm-mm.
Ashley Fredrick (12:34)
because the amount of things that like come up in one day, like shit, I need to do this, I need to do that, I need to call this person. Yeah. And so like now I put it on my home screen so that like every time something like, I need to call them, or I see something or like I need to send them a card or I need to do brochures. Like I stopped by someone's house and they had one brochure left. So I like, shit, I need it.
It's gotten really long really fast. but you have to have these somehow like we we think we can remember everything. And I don't know if it's like
Steven L Burch (13:01)
Thank
Ashley Fredrick (13:02)
over the age of 40 or periminute pause or whatever that might be, but I can't remember
Steven L Burch (13:05)
Thank you.
Ashley Fredrick (13:06)
everything anymore. So there has to be something somewhere that's not always CRM. I mean it's it's other things, but you have to help yourself along to not forget and right. Like I feel bad if I forget something, like
I was gonna do something
Steven L Burch (13:20)
Mm-hmm.
Ashley Fredrick (13:21)
and then, you know, somebody walks in and you forget or or whatnot. So it's just a really a matter of trying to get into the habit of as soon as it pops in your mind, like write it down in whatever system that you have so that you remember to come back to it so you don't drop someone by the wayside.
Steven L Burch (13:39)
You know, I think that the remembering part, specifically like new agents or agents that don't have a lot of production, like I'm not talking shit, it's just the truth. Like you think that you can remember and you're like, yeah, like I'll remember to go in and
Wish everybody happy birthday on Facebook. yeah, I know that I can write out the holiday cards at the end of the year. yeah, I mean like you're adding and compounding these things together. Well when you have three deals a year that you do, no shit, you can remember it. But now when you go and look at it from a larger perspective and you are compounding and you're growing your business and look at your future self in five years, 10 years, how are you gonna remember those people that started your career out?
and making sure that they're still getting that same level of customer experience, touch that you provided, you're
Ashley Fredrick (14:27)
Mm-hmm.
Steven L Burch (14:27)
not gonna remember that in 10 years, you're gonna lose it. And you're gonna lose those people too. So get into the habit now, figuring out whatever the system is, making sure that you're consistent with it, holding yourself accountable. This is legit a relationship business. Legit.
And if you can't recreate the relationships and keep the relationships, I don't think you're gonna make it.
Ashley Fredrick (14:49)
Yeah, you it's funny, I was thinking about there's like a procedure that I was thinking about having done, and like no one's followed up with me after the original appointment. And I just thought to myself, like, if somebody would have followed up, like I probably would have had it done already or would have, you know, asked for another opinion. And so again, like it just goes back to like we're all running these businesses, but like what are we running them on? and so same thing,
like we talked about our driveway or whatnot, and like I think
I'm gonna write a friendly email afterwards and just be like, you know, as a fellow business owner, like these are the things I'd suggest. Like it would help your business tremendously. And again, like you don't have to be mean. And if I, if it were my business and somebody saw a flaw somewhere, like I would appreciate some type of, you know, like, hey, I think if you do this
Steven L Burch (15:34)
you
Ashley Fredrick (15:35)
better, you know, and I would hope that people would take that to harder. Then you have to think how much busier people would be. Like, yes, you're already busy, but like.
Kind of like we're talking about real estate, like you get focused on where you're at right now. So like it's a busy week. So I'm not gonna do all those things. I'm not gonna reach out. I'm not gonna follow up. I don't need to do that because I got all this business coming. And then all that business closes or they've found someone else. And now you're like stuck in this pool where you don't have things going on because you
Steven L Burch (16:01)
Yep.
Ashley Fredrick (16:04)
didn't stay in touch with people because you were too busy instead of just using your systems to make it work for you.
Steven L Burch (16:11)
Are you too busy or is it that you're maybe not very productive and so you're just doing busy work? Maybe.
Ashley Fredrick (16:18)
I hate when people say
that they're too busy because it's like we talk about like if we were to pull someone's social media usage, TikTok hours, Facebook hours,
Steven L Burch (16:28)
huh.
Ashley Fredrick (16:30)
Instagram hours, doom scrolling, right? I
Steven L Burch (16:32)
Okay.
Ashley Fredrick (16:34)
guarantee you that most people have a minimum of what do you think? Twenty hours a week? At least. I mean if you
Steven L Burch (16:39)
at least.
Ashley Fredrick (16:41)
took one of those 20 hours and just spent it on follow-up.
Steven L Burch (16:46)
Mm-hmm.
Ashley Fredrick (16:47)
I'd love to see where where that would end up in the next sixty to ninety days.
Steven L Burch (16:52)
love doing that and I also love seeing how many text messages are they getting. Because if you are telling me that you're slow, but yet you're not following up with clients, you're not following through with anything, you're not doing any reach out, but yet you're still texting and you're getting your Snapchat and you're doing all of this stuff, I mean it shows me that you can talk to people, but you're refusing, so is it really that you're slower? Is it a priority issue and you don't want to put that into play?
I love doing those tricks and typically when I'm working with a client or one of our agents and so let me see your screen time real quick. It's like, shit, like because
Ashley Fredrick (17:28)
Ha ha ha.
Steven L Burch (17:29)
it. It's I mean, it's right there. Yes, it is.
Ashley Fredrick (17:32)
It's a hard truth, it's a reality check, unfortunately.
Steven L Burch (17:34)
Yes, it is. You know, I do think it's funny too, is that in this follow up, you know, of course there's multiple different methods of following up. But here recently we're looking for a new vehicle and I personally.
Inquire online. That's just how I am. I don't want to call a dealership. I don't want to do all of that. I just want everything online so I can see. But I thought it was really interesting that I was like, nobody is calling back. Nobody's calling me or saying, hey, let's set up a call. It's like only answer the question. And then we go a step further and they're like, let me get that over to this person. Let me get that over to this person. It's transferring me around and jumping me around and having to then resave the whole situation over and over and over again.
The one company that called us and was proactive, that's where we purchased. Like it was so funny that like
Ashley Fredrick (18:22)
That's crazy.
Steven L Burch (18:24)
I tell people when you get a lead that comes in, call, make a connection because you don't know if they're true. Like I look at it as everybody's inquiring and they need help. That's why they're pressing that submit button. So go into it with a curiosity and introduce yourself. If they tell you to kick rocks, okay, cool. Kick rocks.
Ashley Fredrick (18:44)
Yeah, I we do like our
our furnished apartments and I had someone reach out last week and you know, I told her when it was available and stuff like that. And then I told her that that one wasn't available, but a couple other ones would be available in the next month, and then it turned out that her contract didn't come through, so it might come through later. But
Steven L Burch (19:01)
Mm.
Ashley Fredrick (19:02)
she said, I'll be sure that when I come back I reach out to you first. You're one of the only people that got back to my inquiries.
Steven L Burch (19:08)
Simple. Like, you're spending all these marketing dollars, you're doing all of these things, I mean people try to think,
Ashley Fredrick (19:15)
pillow leaves and vultrill
leaves and all the leaves.
Steven L Burch (19:20)
And yet, if you just would return people's calls or return their texts, return their emails, not make assumptions like you're there to help and provide a service, do it. Be a decent human, at least introduce yourself. So I don't know. So what would you tell somebody that if they have been resisting the picking up the phone or resisting writing that newsletter or whatever it may be, whatever the resistance may be?
what would you tell them to do to get them over that hump?
Ashley Fredrick (19:54)
Just effing to it. right. But it also goes back
Steven L Burch (19:57)
It's that simple.
Ashley Fredrick (19:59)
to like eat the frog, just get it over with. Like, what's the worst that's gonna happen? kind of on a a different scenario, but I have a friend that's in a in a unique situation, and she's just been like putting off the inevitable and
it's been making her sick every day or whatnot. and I joked with Ben. I like, God, am I like that friend that pushes people too hard? And so I
Texted her back and I was like, rip off the frickin' band-aid. Like it doesn't matter if you do something today, next week, and a month, like just rip off the band-aid. And it was supposed to be like a couple days later. She text messaged me that she did it the next day.
Steven L Burch (20:30)
Okay.
Ashley Fredrick (20:36)
I hope it all worked out. And it I mean it did or whatever. But that's what I think is sometimes, and that's what she said too, is like, I just need that one person to push me or remind me. And so, like, if you're struggling, like
Find an accountability partner, be like, hey, can you make sure that I make my five calls or five follow-ups this week? And I'll make sure that you do yours. Like it can be your spouse, it can be your friend, it can be a coworker. Like everybody struggles with it. I'm not perfect. You're not perfect. We just all have to make a little bit of time and effort to do it.
Steven L Burch (21:06)
And it's recognizing it. It's recognizing that you, right, are the person that has to do it. Like, you gotta look in that mirror. So, good stuff. Follow up.
follow through, get the shit done, eat the frog, just fucking do it, right? Very simple things. So thanks for tuning in to the Leave Me Lame podcast, guys. We appreciate you as always and make sure you check out the next one.