Pat Wattam always enjoyed music. She and her husband received master’s degrees in music and pursued music careers in Nashville. When her husband accepted a position in the music department at LSU, they moved to Baton Rouge. When Wattam decided her 10-hour commute to Nashville was no longer practical, she needed to find a new career. Her husband suggested real estate, and she soon discovered she had a passion for helping people with the largest transactions they would ever make—buying a home.
Everyone wants to know how to be successful at this business. Wattam says it boils down to five key components:
- Meeting people—launching a career.
Wattam started with the basics—open houses. “Early on I realized that if you don’t meet people, you’re not selling homes,” says Wattam, CRS, RE/MAX, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “Open houses pay off because people keep seeing you.”It turns out she was very good at it, so for the next 13 years she held open houses three weeks out of every month. Her approach was to be personal, not to hound potential clients, but to let them come into the open house, be friendly and offer things of value.Today, Wattam spends more of her time advertising and looking for leads on social media, while her team members cover the open houses. However, the team was recently overbooked and Wattam had to hold an open house—to her team’s chagrin, she landed three sellers and two buyers from that open house! “People who say open houses don’t work are wrong,” Wattam says. “This is a people business. You have to be face to face with prospective clients, and strong follow-up is essential. We send thank-you notes to those who visit an open house, remind them which house they visited, call them and add them to our database.”
- Education—knowledge is power.
She credits the Council’s training with providing the keys to success. “We had a class in Baton Rouge,” Wattam says. “I was a new agent at an older, traditional firm that didn’t offer much training. I went to that class and a light bulb went off in my head. That first class was a game changer during my third year in business. Everything goes back to CRS.”Wattam goes to Sell-a-bration and listens to many Council webinars to further her education. “I love listening to the Council’s webinars to get new ideas,” she says. “Education is the key to success. And it’s important to immediately implement what you learn in the class.”
- Getting people to know who you are—by stepping up your game.
To enhance her recognition among a larger group of people, Wattam expanded her team. She started working in real estate in 1983 and was closing 40 to 45 houses a year. Afterattending her first Star Power Conference in 1996 with other CRSs, it seemed that ‘everyone else’ was doing 100 deals/year, so while sitting in a class, she decided, “I can do 100 deals, too.” She immediately hired an assistant, and then increased her deals to 73 units/year, then 88 units/year, eventually closing on more than 100 units/year.Along the way, she has strengthened her team. She started with an unlicensed college student. At an education session with other CRSs, Wattam learned she should make a list of things she didn’t have time to do and give the list to an assistant. She realized that to get over 100 deals, she would need someone else, so she hired her first licensed assistant who could help show houses when Wattam was overbooked. Wattam was receiving so many calls in response to ads that she didn’t have time to talk to everyone. So she hired her first buyer specialist to “work out of my trash can,” and that resulted in 10-12 closings. Then she went to two assistants, and eventually added a virtual assistant. As her business grew, she switched companies and has now been with RE/MAX for 14 years. She built her business from $12-14 million/year to $21 million/year the year after she moved, and has not looked back.
- Persistent follow-up—tried-and-true methods.
“What we’re really good at is taking care of past clients—80 percent of our business is repeat and referral business,” Wattam says. “I’m good at stealing ideas from other CRSs around the country and adapting them to our approach.” Wattam recently enhanced her follow-up program with a variety of client gifts, and she currently hosts a popular pie giveaway at Thanksgiving.Wattam’s team has a strong, consistent follow-through process. “There are some things we always do from day one: When a buyer closes, they receive a bucket of everything you need—but can’t find—on the first day you move into a new house, such as toilet paper, paper towels, a screwdriver and picture hangers,” Wattam says. “Then the presents keep coming: we send chocolate chip cookies, return address labels that we’ve printed, notecards with their new address, bamboo cutting boards with our logo on it. They are all old ideas—nothing new—but they work. We send postcards at different times of the year—during holiday seasons, back-to-school cards, LSU football postcards, the mardi gras schedule, etc.”
- Acquiring the skills to help people make a decision that’s in their best interest—making it happen.
Wattam has adopted a slogan that accompanies her logo: “Making things happen.” “During one home sale, the buyer’s purchase was contingent on the sale of their house; and they had a buyer, but that buyer had to first sell their house,” Wattam says. “As the deal started to fall apart, I asked the buyer’s REALTOR® if they had talked to the buyer’s lender, and the agent responded, ‘It’s not my job.’ So I referred the buyer to a lender we regularly use who made it happen. My takeaway was: Don’t wait for others to do it. Your client is trusting you with their largest financial investment—we need to make things happen.”Wattam still has time to pursue a variety of interests: she invests in real estate and teaches her clients how to do so. She is gaining national recognition for her oil paintings, likes to hike, and as a former classical musician, she attends concerts, from classical to heavy metal. Wattam and her team try to serve as a general resource for people in the community. She tells her clients, “When you need something, call us first.”
Pat Wattam, CRS, can be reached at patwattam.com. For more information, visit PatWattam.com.
