Sean and a Virtual Assistant

If you’re a real estate agent looking for a smarter, simpler way to scale your business, Sean Seward’s story on Episode 55 of The OT: Only Teams for Real Estate podcast is a masterclass in leverage, systems, and unconventional thinking.

📍 Based in Venice, Florida, Sean is not your average real estate agent. Over the past 12 months, he closed 587 units and $18 million in volume—with just one virtual assistant in the Philippines. Yes, you read that right. One VA.

A Unique Market, a Smarter Model

Sean’s business model is rooted in the rich history of Florida’s real estate landscape. Many of his deals come from trading vacant lots, remnants of a post-WWII mail campaign that sold Florida land for $10 down and $10/month. Today, these lots—now worth around $10,000—are actively traded like penny stocks.

“These were basically the Baby Boomers’ version of Bitcoin,” Sean explained. “You can sit down beside someone at the pool, tell them the story, and suddenly they’re interested in investing.”

Many of his clients even buy these lots through self-directed IRAs, creating a niche yet scalable revenue stream. This savvy understanding of market history, combined with simple conversations, has turned his business into a machine.

The Power of a Virtual Assistant

Sean’s secret weapon? Alexander, his Cyberbacker VA.

“Most of what I do, I can do from my pool,” Sean joked. “All I need is a waterproof laptop, Wi-Fi, and my phone.”

But it’s not just about delegation—it’s about building a real relationship.

“I try to keep a really good relationship with him. He’s 26, I’ve had him since he was 23. I send air conditioners for his family, Christmas bonuses… I care about him. He’s my friend.”

This human-first approach is key. Sean treats his VA like a business partner, trusting him with emails, listings, title orders, and more. In fact, his entire back-end is handled remotely:

“I know mine’s performing because I don’t do any title orders, and 587 deals still closed.”

Simple Systems, Huge Volume

Sean doesn’t use elaborate CRMs or complex lead-gen funnels. His lead gen philosophy?

“I just answer the phone.”

Because of the massive exposure from his listings—especially the vacant lots—leads come to him. And when the calls do come, his response is simple: deliver value, build trust, and keep it human.

Sean’s early years, though, were built on hustle: expireds, FSBOs, door knocking, and bold conversations. His advice for those starting?

“It was just real estate 101. Not having any distractions and knowing there were no other jobs. I had to figure it out.”

How Wholesalers Supercharged His Business

Sean credits a large chunk of his transactions to working closely with wholesalers.

“These guys call me trying to do a one-off, and when I do good with them, they send me 20 or 30 more listings next month,” he explained.

With TikTok and social media teaching wholesaling to younger generations, Sean has tapped into a steady pipeline of motivated sellers and investor buyers.

He doesn’t see them as competition—he sees them as partners.

“If I started competing with them, they’d stop showing me their operation. But I stay as the liaison between wholesalers and the public retail market.”

Sean’s Advice on Hiring and Leading Virtual Assistants

If you’re considering hiring a VA, here are Sean’s top tips:

1. Use a reputable company. Sean uses Cyberbacker because it adds accountability and security, especially when giving access to email and financial data.
   
2. Treat them like humans. Bonuses, friendship, flexibility—treating his assistant well ensures loyalty and performance.
   
3. Have clear systems. Sean built a “bus sheet” (aka “if I get hit by a bus” manual) for everything his VA needs to know.
   
4. Trust their capability. “Don’t take ‘I don’t know how’ as an answer,” he says. “Tell them to figure it out. They’re smart.”

And remember:

“They think it’s cool to work more than we do. When I send him 50 lots to list, he says, ‘Thank you, Sean.’”

Scaling Up: The Next Step

Sean’s next move? Hiring a second virtual assistant to cover weekends and assist when Alexander can’t work.

“I don’t think I’ve ever taken a full day off,” Sean said, “so I need someone working Saturdays and Sundays—those are gold in real estate.”

What Makes Sean’s Approach So Unique?

✅ Low Overhead: With just one VA, his cost structure is lean.
✅ High Efficiency: He works from anywhere—even his pool—with a laptop and phone.
✅ Simple Lead Gen: Listings generate inbound calls. He leverages that exposure.
✅ Investor Friendly: He understands IRA-based transactions, wholesaling, and lot flips.
✅ Service-Oriented: Even at high volume, he’s committed to nurturing client relationships.

Final Takeaways from Sean Seward

1. Relationships matter. “You don’t even have to say anything bad—just not reaching out can cost you a client.”
   
2. Serve your people. “It’s in your self-interest to give to the company. When I give, it comes back to me.”
   
3. Keep learning. “Everything I learned, I learned from my clients and from other agents who spent time teaching me.”
   
4. Leverage smart. “If you’re not using a virtual assistant, you’re missing out on one of the best leverage tools in real estate.”

Bonus Tip: Sean’s Favorite Venice Restaurant

🌴 Sharky’s on the Pier is Sean’s go-to. Not just for the food—but for the unbeatable beachfront ambiance. “It’s the only place zoned to be a restaurant on the beach in Venice,” he says.

Want More Interviews Like This?

📅 Join the OT Zoom Mastermind every Tuesday at 12 PM PST.
🎧 Subscribe to The OT: Only Teams for Real Estate on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
📱 Follow @dlphillipy on Instagram and @darenphillipy on YouTube.

Episode 55 was packed with gold. Now the only question is—how are you going to apply it?

Transcription

Announcer  00:00

Welcome to the OT only teams in real estate.

Sean Seward  00:15

But this was a mailing campaign that went on from the 1950s to like the 1980s where you could buy land in Florida for $10 down in $10 a month. It was insane. And they were only $900 lots back then, which translates to about $10,000 right now. And if anybody wants one of these, um, I can get you one. We, I like to sell them in self. A lot of people own them in their IRAs here. That’s why we hired another. I say we like me and my assistant, together with my money, are hiring someone to help him, and so we can have more customer and client contact, because you can. I mean, the bad thing about it is you start doing deal, a whole bunch of deals, and like, your relationships can start to suffer, you know, like just not getting the nurturing that they need, not even you don’t even have to say anything bad, just not, not not reaching out. You know, like a year goes by on a vacant lot listing, and you never talk to them once.

Announcer  01:19

Here’s your host. Daren Phillipy, Hey

Daren Phillipy  01:21

everybody. Welcome to this week’s ot only team for real estate agents. My name is Daren Phillipy. I’m your host, and we have got a really unique ot this week. We’ve got someone who does a ton of business, lots and lots of volume, in a really unique way, and it’s him and a virtual assistant in the Philippines, and so you’re going to want to check this out. You want to see how he’s able to handle this volume using that virtual assistant. Plus he also kind of has a really unique business too. His name is Sean Seward from Venice, Florida, and over the last 12 months, he has closed 587 units and $18 million in volume. Now I know there’s that that math doesn’t quite work the way it usually does, but you’re going to see he does regular real estate, but he also does a ton of these really little funky plots of land where it’s kind of bought and sold like stocks, and you’re going to want to hear how he does it and what that community is like. But more importantly, how does he handle the volume? And what I love to hear is how he’s able to interact and use his virtual assistant to be able to do the business that he does. So you’re going to love him. He’s super cool guy, really laid back and man, tell me you wouldn’t love to do the business the way he does it. You’re going to hear some really cool, fun things. And so I hope you enjoy it. Couple key things, like always, I want you in the room. The only way to get in the room is you got to have the link to get into the Zoom Room. If you go to only for teams.com you can join the Zoom Room and be a part of the the room where you can ask questions and interact and and all that kind of stuff. So I’d love to have you in the room. Number two, I need you to share this. I want you to to like this and do all the things to help the socials know that we’re here so we can get a lot of attention and we can be helping more people. So that’s pretty much it. Guys, super excited to share with you guys, Sean and I’ll hang out with you guys after the OT. Alright, guys, thanks again for hanging out with me and the crew. I always look forward to my Tuesday at noon. My wife always the first thing she always says to me is, hey, you got to the OT today, and then I, when I come come home, she’s like, how was the OT? And I always say the guy was awesome, or she was amazing. So Sean, don’t screw it up.

Sean Seward  03:51

No pressure. No pressure. Anyway,

Daren Phillipy  03:54

guys, just so, you know, I met Sean as as I was talking a lot of the teams across the country to about the only team live that we had a couple weeks ago. He wasn’t able to make it in town on time, but we had an agreement to say, Alright, dude, we’ll just come come in, because I’m super excited to talk about your story and what you’re able to do. And so he he came to Vegas, but he left, and now he’s in front of us. Now these are his numbers as an agent that has one assistant, 587 sides and a volume of 87 million in the last 12 months. He does a ton of units. And we’re going to talk about, how does he do that? How does he get in front of it? What are some of his systems and basically how he got so good looking too, is is an extra bonus that we’ll be talking to so John, thanks for hanging out with us today. Dude, hey, you’re welcome. Thanks for having me and you specifically, specifically were saying that you’re in Venice, Florida, yeah, and there’s only one way in, one way out, is that, right? Well,

Sean Seward  04:59

yeah, it’s a retire. An area our average age is 69 here, the neighboring communities are also in their 60s. And so even though there are young families here, you’re you’re kind of peer pressured into being less, less, you know, rude, like you just want to kind of get along. And when everything shuts down at nine and 10 o’clock at night, and you get home, you want to shut your door quietly, you know, lest you disturb the neighbors. And it’s, it’s pretty, it’s pretty laid back here. It does make for a good work environment. I I particularly like to work out in my pool. I have a waterproof laptop, and like the CF 33 Panasonic tough book, if you’re looking for one, you can get them refurbished. They’re like, about $1,000 I get the warranty plan. I’ve never had one last a whole three years, because I’m pretty hard on my toys and and then, yeah, I’ll just sit out there and and work in in because a lot of the stuff that I do, I find that, if I actually go places, it really kind of slows me down, and it makes it so I can only concentrate on one thing at once. So I do try to, I do try to work from home as much as possible, or from my computer. It doesn’t have to be home. I could be sitting in a parking lot waiting for somebody for even a couple hours, and just, you know, just, it doesn’t really matter where I am. I just need a laptop and a phone, and we can make a lot of deals happen, and then I when, when I have to go show things a lot of times, I’ll refer it off to a buyer’s agent out of my office, so that way I can just keep staying staying around here. Or if I go on Vegas, or if I go on cruises, I just take my computer, make sure I have a Wi Fi plan and, um, I don’t think I’ve ever taken a full day off of work ever. I don’t think

Daren Phillipy  06:40

so, Joe, pay attention. You can pour a whole cup of coffee on his his laptop, and you won’t have to worry about it. His pain, his his his heart aches when you just said that he had a call in with his coffee and his his laptop.

Sean Seward  06:56

I’m sorry. I still don’t want to pour anything on it. I just want to be able to, you know, be able to defense. Joe, what’s that I’m

Daren Phillipy  07:06

asking Joe, defenses.

Speaker 1  07:07

There’s nothing I can say. You can’t multitask anymore. Things, things have changed. So drinking coffee and working at the same time is tricky.

Daren Phillipy  07:16

Well, move to Florida, borrow his laptop, you’re good as gold. So, um, so, how I got distracted? How do you fall into Venice, Florida, then you’re definitely not 65 right?

Sean Seward  07:30

So, like most people here, like my mom’s here because her mom came here the the post war, the post war boom, like, what the invention of of air conditioning is what made Florida inhabitable for regular people in the 50s and so. And this leads into the stuff that I’m selling. There’s just nobody here, and they parceled up. You know, private people just parceled hundreds of 1000s of lots that were basically like the baby boomers version of Bitcoin, and so people just, you know, buy and resell them. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. I’m here because during the down times, my mom inherited a condo underneath her condo, and she said, if I wanted to come down and see what it was like, you know, it I could just pay the HOA fee in that one. And I did. And the crazy thing is, I almost didn’t do it because I didn’t know anybody, and everybody was old. But it didn’t take very long of being here to be like, man. This is really, this is insane. This is like, where I came on vacation my whole life. It’s probably like when you guys, if you visited Vegas before, and then you live there, and you’re like, Wow, man, I live where I vacation now. This is, I still think it. I go over bridges like, Man, I can’t believe I live here. This is wild. Totally true, totally true. I’m here by happenstance. I wish I could say I was smart enough to come here on my own. Well, you’re

Daren Phillipy  08:51

you’re related to your mom. So thank you. I’m

Sean Seward  08:53

related to my mom, who’s related to your mom.

Daren Phillipy  08:57

So, so tell me this, then you have a very small, simple team. What does that look like? What does your org chart look like

Sean Seward  09:07

there? Um, up till now, the past, you know, almost three years, it’s been my assistant and I, before it was him, I was married for six years, so we kind of worked together without an assistant. So I did have somebody before that. But I was already kind of getting these numbers before, before that even, because it’s it. The reason my my assistants in the Philippines, by the way, he is a cyber backer. We get them out of that company, out of Salt Lake City, so you have an American company to sue if somebody goes rogue on you, which it hasn’t happened, but they do have our mortgage information, and you could probably find somebody for half that price if you have more mundane tasks. But if you actually have to trust a guy to get into your emails and, you know, could potentially hold you hostage, you know, lock you out from the inside, you’re probably. Going to want somebody that has a little bit more accountability, and you’re probably going to want to treat them well, you know, like bonuses are probably a good thing. I don’t ever want him to be a hater on me, so I do try to keep a really good relationship with him. He’s 26 I’ve had him since he was 23 he, you know, we’ve had it. He’s had a kid like he this kid has tuberculosis right now, I had to let him off a little early last night. We actually picked up a new I just paid for onboarding. We’re about to get another one of him, for him to clone himself onto for the days he can’t be there, and also he only works five days a week, so I’m going to stagger him so I have somebody working on Saturday and Sunday, because those are pretty important days. I would say for realtors, that’s when the rest of the people who go to normal nine to five jobs. It’s when the most of them have time to do a real estate deal. So the, you know, I would think that even if an agent doesn’t want to work on the weekend, they should have staff, you know, that’s, that’s too much of a week and too many important days to, you know, squander, this

Daren Phillipy  11:02

is so good dude, in fact, now all of a sudden, Ozzy is like all, he’s all paying attention. He always pays attention. But you’re, you’re singing his tune. He’s been working with with cyber backers and and and VAs for years. And to be able to, I want to get into that a little bit more. How did you, how did you fall into where you’re at now, doing the type of business that you’re doing, before we get into where you get your leads and stuff it

Sean Seward  11:33

and, yeah, this, again, a lot of my stuff is just happenstance. I was sitting in Venice, Florida. There were, there weren’t any other jobs. That’s how, you know, I got told you should be a realtor because there are no other jobs. I mean, just by default, I’d never thought about doing it in Ohio. And I thought, I guess that sounds cool, you know, go around, see some houses and stuff, and, man, what a understatement. This has been so life changing. I can’t believe I almost didn’t do that, you know, like, I couldn’t even imagine my life if I wasn’t in Florida and I wasn’t a realtor, because every it’s, it’s, it’s been amazing. So, so what I did is I went into the century 21 office on the corner of Venice Ave on the on Venice Island, you know, the one where people used to walk in in 2013 you know, before every all the old people were on Facebook and using it, they would walk in and you would take them in your car, and you would drive and show them houses, and you, my sales manager, just basically told me to take whatever I could get, whatever, whatever comes through. You just take it. So I’m like, oh, okay, so I’m taking over price listings and all kinds of stuff. But hey, every now and then some stuff worked out. You met a few people. It was, you know, and um, and then these people started calling with these vacant lots, and it was so weird, these people are calling up, going, do you think you could get $5,000 for my home site? I’m like, $5,000 for a home site. Yeah, i What’s wrong with it? They’re like, nothing, nothing. I’m like, Yeah, I guess let me go find out what the commission is on that. I don’t think we work for 3% so, you know, they told me it was $1,000 you know, split it with the other agent. So I go to do it, and when I go to list it, I notice it’s like, in the middle of 1000s and 1000s of these little boxes, and I’m just looking, there’s no houses. There’s like a house every every few miles, or something. You’re like, what? What am I looking at here? So you put it online, and you put a few of them on there. And when you have them on there, he who has the listings gets more calls. People are calling up saying, Hey, I have one of these lots too. It’s an old general development lot like, I’m supposed to know what that is. I do know what that is now. I actually know those guys, and it’s awesome, but, but this was a mailing campaign that went on from the 1950s to, like the 1980s where you could buy land in Florida for $10 down and $10 a month. It was insane. And they were only $900 lots back then, which translates to about $10,000 right now. And if anybody wants one of these, I can get you one. We I like to sell them in self. A lot of people own them in their IRAs here, and you get into this whole world of Ira trading, where people have house or have lots, because lots are small, but like, it’s a really cool tool, because once you learn how to do it, then you can sell a lot to anybody. You can just sit down beside somebody at the pool or somewhere, start telling them about the history of the area, how the lots were 5000 and they’re probably going to get back up to 60 to 80, like they did last time. And right now, they’re still trading at 15 or 20. So they can see, they can see in the past, they were more it’s like seeing the market cap on Bitcoin was so much higher. So it doesn’t take that much imagination to buy in at the amount now and expect it to go back up. Because. These were basically the baby boomers version of Bitcoins. And then when you get into that, like, you start showing people that they can do it, and you just give them the phone number for the company, and the company shows them how to move their IRA money over with no penalty, and they can start buying and selling lots too. But then you get people who have like, you know, a million dollars in their IRA that aren’t happy with how it’s performing. They’re like, hey, look, man, I don’t want to buy a bunch of these lots and have it add up. Can we just buy houses? And it’s like, well, heck yeah, they’ll let you spend like, a million dollars in their IRA on houses. And it all came from you saying, Hey, did you know you can buy one of these $10,000 lots and put them in your IRA? It makes for excellent conversations. It’s easy. You just give them a phone number, say, call them. They’ll walk you through it. They will. There’s a and when you look at the lots in Florida like I guess, to bring it back into your question is, I learned everything from my clients. I did everything reactionary. They they sent it in to me. I tried to make sense of it. I talked to other people. Some of the older agents were so nice and explaining everything to me, which is why I feel like I should pass it on too, because, like, I don’t think I could have got the education I got without some of these agents just burning 2030, minutes telling me about the history of the area, and you’re like, really? And nobody here. It’s so transient. People only come here in the last, like, you know, quarter of their life. And in North port, which is right beside me, just to put this into perspective, North port is 74,000 of the 200,000 lots that were Port Charlotte. They got divided over the county line because they had to get around Sarasota County building codes. So a realtor and a salesman became the mayor and Commissioner of what would later be rebranded as North port. They’ve since then annexed more in I actually live in an overlap of Venice and North port of 22,500 more home sites that are being developed right now, they’re about halfway through, and they are just clearing. I mean, I’m going down busy roads right now, and they’re just burning and building and no sign of slowing down while our resales are just kind of sitting here, you know, because the builders are reacting so much faster, giving so much more incentives, buying the interest down, and so like the resale market has has, I’m not going To say it tanked, but it is not where we want it to be. I’m begging all my sellers, if they get an offer, man, listen, you need to, you need to be a little considerate right now, because not everybody’s getting offers, and you might really, really so anyway, we’re just growing crazily because of COVID. COVID made it so you could work from your computer, which is why I put the plug in about working from your pool, because now, instead of having to be 69 years old, you could be a lot younger and come here. In fact, one of my buyer’s agents is actually my age. He actually has kids in high school. You know what I mean? And like, there are younger and younger people coming in here. So it is a I got here at a great time. I got here before old people use the internet, when they started using it, and then when they almost started getting, not phased out, but having to share it, because our prices went up so much that, you know, a lot of retirees can’t really afford to live here if they’re not already here. So it’s really and the prices are nice. Still, you can get nice houses right now for, you know, 345, $100,000 you know, nice, nice houses, nice communities. So really, like I said, it was just a bunch of happenstance and and seeing what they wanted. But then when you start to fall into it, you find guys that do this stuff over and over, like the the wholesalers are is, Are you guys familiar with wholesaling, of course. So probably a third of my sales are those. Those guys call me trying to do a one off to me, you know. So you sold a property down the road. Can you sell them? Can and I’m like, Hey, man, my buyer, my buyer wanted anything. We loaded them up that day, if, but I can find you a new one. And so once I get those guys, sometimes they send me 2030 listings the next day, and we just sit there, if I, if I do good with them, then they send me 20 or 30 more. And every month they’re doing it again. And Tiktok is teaching all these 20 year olds, 22 year olds, how to do it. And man, I, I got this 123 year old rock star right now. I think he’s my heaviest hitter, and he’s building houses. He’s he made, like, a quarter million dollars the past couple years doing wholesales, and he’s working with a builder right now who’s like, doing a joint venture with them, and they’re actually building a six Plex for Section eight right now. It’s pretty, pretty wild, like

Daren Phillipy  19:39

that is amazing. So, so tell me this. How do you lead generate doing what you do?

Sean Seward  19:44

So at this point, I’m just taking the calls as they come in, because there’s so many of them on there that that they call me. And I haven’t done much, but at the beginning, I did, you know, I started off with the FSBOs and the expireds, right? You drive by a house, you walk up to it, you. Yeah, and, I mean, it was really, I mean, I know nobody wants to hear it, but it was a lot of, it was just a lot of real estate, 101, and not having a lot of distractions and, and, you know, not knowing that there weren’t any other jobs, and that, if I don’t figure this out, I was already selling houses for people that were living with their mom when they got a reverse mortgage. And it was pretty crazy. The kid gets kicked out, and he’s homeless, and it’s like, wow, wow, that’s, that’s how it ends. So, so yeah, it was, it was a lot of hard work. And then you meet people, and if you, if you’re just honest with people. And, I mean, I hate to sound like such a simple, sappy, you know, but I try to, I try to have relationships wherever I can, because once you have that, then they’re always going to come back. Sometimes you do get weighed under that’s why we hired another. I say we like me and my assistant, together with my money, are hiring someone to help him, and so we can have more customer and client contact, because you can. I mean, the bad thing about it is you start doing deal, a whole bunch of deals, and like, your relationships can start to suffer, you know, like just not getting the nurturing that they need, not even you don’t even have to say anything bad, just not, not reaching out. You know, like a year goes by on a vacant lot listing, and you never talk to them once, and and now you’re sending them a modification to re sign it.

Daren Phillipy  21:31

Yeah, not, not the, not the your favorite phone call. No, so, so then what do you do? Are you? Are you actually, because I get it, they come to you, do all of them come to you? Is that how everything happens

Sean Seward  21:43

now it’s at that now it’s at that point. Like, I mean, I do a bunch of realtor stuff though, too. Like, like, I have a cyber truck, you know, and it has keller williams island life all over it. It has, like, my community on one side and a pier on the other. So whenever you go somewhere, it’s, it’s pretty easy to talk about real estate to somebody. I just went, I just listed a mobile home yesterday for 90 grand, and when the guy saw it, he got so excited. I took him out front and took him zero to 60 a few times in less than three seconds. And you know, I man, I knew he was going to sign before we even went in there. I’m like, I got him. He we’re done.

Daren Phillipy  22:17

Your lost employment. Was you want to ride in my truck. Well, I

Sean Seward  22:21

mean, I pulled up, I My point was, was you want me to come look at your house? But when I pulled up, he’s like, what is that? I’m like, Oh, that’s a cyber beast. That’s the, you know, the decked out cyber truck from, you know, he’s like, I’ve never seen one. He goes up and he looks I was like, Man, I mean, I this is why I bought it for you want to, you want to go for a ride? Yeah, we did. We I put on full self driving to get it out to the road, you got to watch the steering wheel turn. So, like, I try to make most of the stuff I do be kind of real estate related. You know, whenever I go on cruises or anything, I’m usually wearing, like, some type of Venice, Venice shirt. There’s my little shark teeth. And I, I usually just meet people and tell them, This is what I do. And I’ll start off little on the little lots, and just be like, Yeah, I do these little lot trading things. I’m supposed to be selling houses all day, and I I do. But these are so much fun. And when they look at it, they they’re like, wait a minute, what’s wrong with it? You’re like, nothing, man, we just got tons of them. You’re looking at supply and demand, and it’s quintessential form. And you can make somebody because nobody’s ever seen it. Once they see it, they’re like, Wow, this is pretty cool. And, and so, yeah, I am doing some we’ll go to cars and caffeine so they can look at the and I’ll pass out my cards there. We’ll go to the, you know, we used to go to the beach and do a bold, you know, the bold 100 on the beach, and pass out your card to all those people. And, you know, but, but, but, really, really, it’s just been a bunch of real estate. 101, just, just not, not stopping. People have to tell me to stop working sometimes, because I’m like, I’m well be,

Daren Phillipy  23:53

to be honest, you’re the guy that’s doing bowl 100 on the beach and talking about his waterproof a computer by his pool, so none of us are feeling too bad for you.

Sean Seward  24:03

No, no, Mr. I’m a very comfortable slave.

Daren Phillipy  24:08

So let’s talk a little bit about dude. I love this story, and I’ve never had anything like this before. So this is so cool. I want to talk a lot about your relationship with your cyber backer and and how, because that, that is that first step before having an assistant. And there are some people, in fact, in this room that have built their business off of I’m not leaving my house. I’m using the cyber backers, and it’s a great way to do it. So tell us a little bit about the process of finding a cyber backer or a virtual assistant, and then, more importantly, how do you keep that relationship and lead them from a distance?

Sean Seward  24:47

So I got them through Keller Williams, I mean, I went through a slew of assistance to where you just it seems like hiring an American to be an assistant, like it’s too, like it’s not. Not as good of a job as someone wants to have and keep here in America, but for them, they’re paid more. They’re paid more than most jobs. They’re like my guy, coincidentally, went to school to be a civil engineer, and now I get to have him be my assistant selling all these pieces that were basically only civil engineered because there’s nothing there, just the roads and the waterways in the lots. So we picked them through the company. They give you like five people to pick from, and then you see how good their English is for if they have to make phone calls, and you pick one like I asked my assistant if he wanted to have a male or female assistant, or if he cared. He said he would rather tell another guy what to do instead of a girl. So we, we did, you know, ask for a guy and and he’s going to help me go through and pick of who he wants, because then he’s going to have to train him, because when I trained him, like I have a bus sheet for, you know, if somebody gets hit by a bus, or your business sheet, whatever you want to call it, but, you know, and it had all the instructions, but we did have to kind of bump our heads. The cool thing would be those, I would get 20 listings, and I’d be able to give it to him and be like, Hey, man, practice on these. I need you to put these 20 listings up, and I’m going to go look at them. And then I could isolate in there what he did wrong. And then we could, we could work on it. And, you know, he’s a really good robot, I swear. And they’re really smart. They’re really smart and hardworking, like, they think it’s cool to work way more than we do. Like, they’re not, like, you know, what’s this guy want now? Or if they do, they they mask it very well. It feels like you’re on a cruise the whole time. You know, you give him 50 lots of list, and he says, Thank you, Sean. Be serious. But um, so that’s, that’s how we picked him out. And then, like every day, he says, Good morning at eight o’clock when he signs in, I don’t make him take his lunch hour. I think that’s pretty lame in the middle of the night, because I asked him the first day, I said, so in the Philippines, if everybody’s on lunch break at midnight, is there like, some happening place to be at midnight? He’s like, uh, no, got it. So I let him take his I just have him work for eight hours straight and tell him to eat at his you know, you, if you gotta go, I mean, you’re fine. You’re in a one room place. I mean, take your computer. You’re fine. So I have him do from eight to four. We say, Good morning most I mean, pretty much, most days. And then every now and then I’ll be, I’ll be driving, and we’ll have something where I need him to address it, and when I call up, I’ll just kind of use that time to a tell him what I need to tell him. And then we’ll just kind of, you know, just kind of catch up a little bit, because I really want him to be my friend. I really like him. I care about his family. I sent air conditioners to them. So when I’m splashing around, he’s not going, my life’s hot. No, they got air they’re the only ones in there, a whole apartment building that have air conditioners. Um, I send him like, like, they only make like, 700 bucks a month, because cyber backer takes half of the 1500 and um, um, so like, like, on halfway through the year I’ll send him 1000 and at Christmas, I’ll send him 2000 2000 is really three months of work to them, you know, I mean to send it to him, or three months of pay anyway, and, and he still got paid that month. So I tried to, I tried to treat him pretty good. Um, now, sometimes, every now and then you do hear stories about how they come up with these problems that, you know, and I think somebody kind of put him up to saying something to me one time, and I just kind of ignored it, and just kind of kept going about with what I was doing. And one day, he’s like, I don’t know why I said that. And I was like, I don’t worry about him. Really care, but, um, but I would say, you want to be friends with these people. I think they’re good friends to have. They’re good friends to have. They’re not even allowed to get divorced. There. It costs $3,000 to get a divorce, so they have to, like, work it out. You know what I mean? These, these are people skills that we don’t have.

Daren Phillipy  28:51

So tell tell me this you said, you say good morning. Well, yeah, I had a a VA and a certain cyber backer before. How do you communicate? How often to communicate. I mean, that kind of stuff. Well,

Sean Seward  29:03

we’ve been, we’ve been, I guess, together for for almost three years now, like June will be three years. So we don’t, we don’t have to talk every day. Now, you know, I used to talk to him for a long time. We would, we would talk about whatever, you know, just whenever I had more time before and I mean, a lot of it would be work related, but some of it wouldn’t it. Some of it would be, you know, about the Philippines and their holidays, and, I don’t know, just get a little bit of culture. So tax store,

Daren Phillipy  29:30

is it by, are you using zoom or, or no slack, or, what do you No, we,

Sean Seward  29:37

I mean, we’re just like, we send Good morning gifts in the morning. You know what I mean, like, we send, you know, just so he, basically, he’s just telling me, I’m here, you know, he doesn’t want me to think he’s not there. And I can see the email starting to go and all the stuff from the day before getting addressed. And I’ll send him back one and and then, yeah, if we, if we have to talk, we usually just call on the phone. We don’t, i. Haven’t, actually, I haven’t seen what he looks like for a long time, actually, now that I think about it, but it’s more it’s more fun than anything. I’m just walking around, talking on the phone, or if I, or I’ll be in the pool or something, or, I guess, I guess we’re going to have a zoom here with the new cyber backers. So I’ll see him, probably for the first it’ll probably be my first zoom I did with him in a year, though. So if

Daren Phillipy  30:21

I was going to be doing using a cyber back over the next little bit, what are some of the things? Advice wise when it comes to working with a cyber backer that will help those who are because just little side note. So as these teams are getting bigger, they have their people that are sitting right next to them and using a virtual assistant to help them with some of these tasks is, is amazing leverage. What are some of the things that they need to know or be aware of as they’re reaching out and doing that, that you learn, I

Sean Seward  30:53

mean, that they’re really able to do anything. Like, I don’t take any of that. I don’t know how to do it stuff. You’re my assistant. Figure it out. Like, I guess fit, you know, call somebody figure it out. I mean, I guess, I guess. I mean, even cyberbacker tells me, like that, we have to have, you know, per site, like a job description. I told her I was like, we’re realtors. Our job description changes on a daily basis somewhere in there. It needs to say somewhere in there, it needs to say whatever I think of that day, because that’s, that’s kind of how it is. But I’m trying to think of you would want to have, like, a bus sheet. You would want to have a set of things that you see I can, I know mine’s performing, because I don’t do any title orders, and I don’t close anything and and all of it’s getting done. 587 Did you say units? It all got done. So I know that he’s doing it, but there is probably I’m not the expert on how to train him. My dogs don’t listen to me like I might have really just lucked out with Alexander. I’m about to find out on my second one here, um, like, I just talked to him like a normal person and told him, See, I had already done everything too, everything that I asked him to do, I had done a million times over. So like in 2021 I actually sold 751 units with with my last partner, and there was no assistant, I did almost every one of those title orders. I probably did at least, at least 650 of those title orders, because they were probably 650 lots, like 100 houses that year. And I, I guess, you know, I kind of pride myself in not asking people to do things that I haven’t done before, because I know exactly what it is. And if they change the format of it, you know, maybe he’ll have to show me. But, like, I try not to ask the impossible of them, like, I, you know, I don’t, I don’t want to set him up for failure. So, and I just tried to work with him like you would anybody, like, hey, you know, turn this on. And every now and then there will be a screen that will be different in the Philippines than it is in America. Like, it’ll be a different, um, it’ll just be a feature that it doesn’t have there, and he’ll be taking screenshots and sending it to me. I’m looking at my computer. I’m like, This is crazy. I don’t know how you don’t have but I guess you don’t. So I don’t have, I don’t have the perfect formula for that. I do know this, though, and I thought I found this very encouraging. Most of those guys that are 2021, 2223 years old, most of them have several Alexanders working for them right now. And they’re, I mean, these are kids. They they’re not. They’ve never managed anyone before. And somehow they’re getting these people to to, you know, run a quarter million, half a million dollar business in their early 20s. So when I see that, that that made me want to step my game up, it made me think that I wasted my 20s, and that these guys really are leveraging the power of the internet better than any of us in the power of other humans, better than any of us. And to be honest, sometimes I ask Alexander what to do, because they’ve been working with so many other agents, and even with the wholesalers, a lot of times, they’ve been passed around between different wholesalers, and you get to learn all these different tricks. I’ll be like, Hey, what did, what did your last handlers do when this happened, and they’ll tell me, and I’ll be like, Huh? That just about works. So, so, like, I don’t know. I mean, I think trying to really value them as as human beings that have a lot to contribute. Like, if you feel that your cyberbacker isn’t contributing that much, you might have the wrong one, because these guys are really hard working and smart and want, they want to make you happy. You’re going to want to give them bonuses. You’re just going to be like, Man, this is, this is too cool. This is the meeting of the minds, if there ever was one, right? You know, right?

Daren Phillipy  34:55

I love it. What have you learned over the last 12 months? And. In running your real estate business

Sean Seward  35:03

that I need to maintain my relationships better. You know, like I haven’t got fired yet. I’ve had a couple calls, but everybody says that I’m too busy and that, what a what a horrible, what a horrible and I’m like, Well, nothing’s happening with your overpriced house right now. What did you want me to call you and tell you? Nobody wants it like, No, I guess they did. They did want

Daren Phillipy  35:29

me to guess what Sean, they did.

Sean Seward  35:32

They did. They did. And that’s what I’m working on right now, is that, like, I’ll even take listings if somebody starts to seem like they’re even too high maintenance of a Lister, I have no problem pulling another agent into it and give him 25 or 50% depending on, you know, what phase we’re at of it and how much work I think they’re going to have to do, and just being like, Hey, listen, let me give you Dave. Can Dave be your point person? And that way, every time you feel you want to get something off your chest, um, he, he’s going to dedicate his time to you. And so that’s what I’ve been trying to do more lately, is trying not to get too into the numbers. It’s really easy to and be like, Well, I don’t know what your problem is. These people are all happy with me. It’s easy to say that in it, but it’s not right. That’s

Daren Phillipy  36:14

right. I love that. So what’s your next step? What is the literature of your business look like

Sean Seward  36:21

hiring another cyber backer. Like, that’s what’s happening right now. And seeing how much we can really seeing how much we can really leverage in in in handing off as much stuff to the people in my office as possible. I mean, if I really thought I had enough, I would take someone on to be just mine. But like, as it stands right now, they’re free to get their own listing, do their own thing, be a partner with somebody else on something else and like, I’m just worried that, you know, I don’t like I my bar set pretty high right now. I don’t know if I have enough to feed somebody what I consider a good living wage right now. So I just want them to have the option to do whatever, and that we could have a bunch of limited partnerships. Um, but, but, yeah, it would be, I wouldn’t even mind having my own wholesalers working for me. I just don’t want my wholesalers to think I’m competing with them. And, you know, because, because right now, I can see the insides of their operations really well, and they let me see it all. And if I, if they find out I’m like competing against them, they might be more hesitant. So I think this might be more my role to be the the whole tailor. That’s the liaison between the wholesaler and the in the general public retail.

Daren Phillipy  37:34

Love it. Love it. Um, what else do you need to or do you want to share with us about your business before we open it up to the crew.

Sean Seward  37:42

I mean, it, it can go in a I mean, I the only other thing I do too is they have me as as if I’m not busy enough, they do have me as a commercial liaison for South County, for one of our brokerages. So anybody who does one has to, like, partner up with me. So our, you know, insurance will cover it. So, like, I guess if I make a mistake, it’s more acceptable than if a newbie does. So, I mean, insurance wise. So like, I guess that was a real benefit of joining the ALC and being one of their leaders and stuff. Like, I have found that, I mean, I don’t mean to be all Keller Williams like, but it is a pretty it is in your self interest to give to the company. Like, for me, it has been anyway for I’ve seen them work some people, and they didn’t get nothing. But I found that the more I do with my office and for my office, the more they keep handing me back and like, I think somebody said it’s coming from contribution or something. I think that’s real. It seems to be pretty real. You keep helping people, and they keep like, I don’t know why I’m gonna get out of this, but, you know, it’s not gonna hurt. And if I get anything out of it, and someone asked me, What did you do? I’ll be like, Well, I was on this podcast with her. I was on this recording with this guy. And you know, it’s a couple people called me and we, you know, we went from there. Love

Daren Phillipy  39:06

it. Love it. Alright, so I’m going to ask my last question for all of those who have questions for Sean. Click that digital hand. So if I know anything about my dad, who is 87 he just got a scooter. He thinks he’s the coolest guy in the world, and tried to jump a curb. You gotta go and get something. He loves food. Where do I go if I’m in Venice, living the life that you just described? Where’s the secret great place to eat?

Speaker 1  39:38

Oh, wow. Well,

Sean Seward  39:42

Wellen Park has a bunch of new restaurants, but the ambiance of sharkies, the food’s pretty good most of the time, like I would give it, but the ambiance from sharkies on the pier is worth more than the than the than the view of the. Somewhere that tastes a tiny bit better. The view is, it’s the only place zoned to be a restaurant on the beach in Venice, and they have this huge pier where people, even kids, are allowed to stay out on all night and fish. There’s no curfew on the pier. And, um, it’s a, it’s a pretty happening place right on the beach. And, yeah, and there’s an upscale restaurant next door, I’ll say you could probably get something pretty, pretty awesome there, and the view is going to be to die for,

Daren Phillipy  40:24

I see, first of all, just so, you know, that’s what he’s talking about. Does not look bad. You’ve sold me, yeah,

Sean Seward  40:34

yeah. That’s, yeah, that’s the new one coming out. That’s right now. It still looks kind of more Tiki ish, it’s, it’s in the guy who owns it is the mayor. The guy who owns it’s the mayor. I don’t know what you get to be first, but he’s the only one zone to have a restaurant on the beach, the mayor of our city.

Daren Phillipy  40:51

Well, maybe that’s the reason why he’s the mayor live cam everybody, not Vegas or where you’re in Ohio, yeah. Ozzy, open. It’s your turn, buddy,

Speaker 2  41:04

dude. I also Googled Venice Florida and saw a bunch of pictures, and it looks like paradise. It looks great. So now I know what you mean. Sean, thank you for pouring into us today like you make real estate look easy and effortless, which is the dream, obviously. So thank you for that. I do have questions here. So, Laura, step aside. I have some good questions. Hold on. How exactly do wholesalers contribute to your business? Again, I didn’t quite comprehend how they’re like

Sean Seward  41:38

what, what their business model is, is they have the either they do it themselves or their their workers will, they’ll use an American company to send out 50 or 5000 mailers that will say, hey, I’ll give you, I’ll give you $9,000 for this lot, and the lots probably worth about 15 on a good Day. Well, they only get about a 1% return, you know, maybe 50 people will say, Yeah, I guess I’ll take $9,000 or they’ll even just respond to maybe only 25 actually say, yes. Well, when they do that, they have like this spread here. So they call, they call around trying to sell it, because all I gotta do is get 12 or $13,000 and they can net the spread, you know. And they’re just kids, you know, it’s 1000s of dollars for sending something to title, you know. So

Speaker 2  42:27

they serve as, like a little telemarketing army, yeah. And if they they get it, they get a good bonus, a good commission out of it, right?

Sean Seward  42:36

So I list it for 10% under the market. Sell it in a couple days. They get a couple 1000. I get 1000 to split with one of y’all, and we all go home happy in two weeks. We just do these fast. You know, every so, every day I should get a check, every day there should be a check in the mailbox. I

Speaker 2  42:54

love that. Here’s my second question. So for my team, it used to be me two vas, one that does everything, and then the second one does my marketing, and a buyer’s agent that would do all my buyers. I do all the listings. Yeah, I just split up with my buyer’s agent, and I don’t want the buyers back. So what I’m doing is I am referring out my buyers to people in my ALC in my market center. And this is new for me. It sounds like it’s not for you. So I want to pick your brain here. How do you pick good referral partners? What do you look for? Or how do they, how do they not make it with you? Give me a quick like, how do you pick referral partners?

Sean Seward  43:39

I mean, like, the guy I’m using right now, he’s 60 years old. He’s such a gentleman. He’s never He just got a second sale this morning. Um, but, like, actually, my other buyer’s agent who’s getting busy, he got his wife to be a realtor, so he’s been kind of doing some stuff with her. He was the one who said, Hey, we want to give him to this guy for a little bit. And I was like, if you think so, I mean, I’m, if they made it to my office, like, like, I want half of it probably. I mean, it depends who it is, if it’s, if it’s a regular agent who doesn’t want, you know, I don’t have to write the contract or anything. I could probably give it to them for, you know, 25 or 30% or something like that. But I’m more looking like to not hand them all the way off and to just kind of treat the guy like he’s opening the door and I’m still writing the contract. I got the MLS credit I saw today too. I didn’t know what they were going to do with that, but, um, so I just kind of picked somebody I thought was polite and that wouldn’t screw it up. But they didn’t really have any like, I’m building them as they go. This is their experiences. So I kind of took him as a polite, blank tablet.

Speaker 1  44:46

Got it that? You know,

Sean Seward  44:49

it’s pretty pretty the bar is pretty low. Just don’t screw this up. If you live in Venice, you’re probably not a screw up.

Speaker 2  44:56

Got it? Got it? I love that. Here’s my last question here on. Your listing process. This is kind of like three questions, but it’s all about your listing process. So when you have a listing appointment, do you send a pre listing packet, like before? Do you call before with pre listing questions, and then once you get to the appointment, do you have, like, a rigid process, or do you go with the flow of the client process? Flow?

Sean Seward  45:18

I go with the flow, like that guy yesterday, man, we didn’t even get in the house. We went on the ride. I my my listing presentation is pretty I gotta say basic like, I have my agreement and I have my seller disclosure, so that, you know, I get to show off that we’re single agents. I love to throw that in there. Now that’s part of my speech every time, whether it’s at the beginning or the end, I usually look at their house first. I usually, once I get in their house, I go look at it so I can see what we’re looking at. Make sure that the comp site I’m showing there’s nothing glaring that that would change it, good or bad or or extra room. Yesterday, I found a whole extra 200 and some square feet that that wasn’t on the tax appraiser. You know, does make me wonder if it’s non permitted space, but that’s another question. Um, but it was a whole second, second bedroom and bathroom that was all the way insulated, so it was like, so when I went back in, I basically have the active pending and solds that were like, around theirs. When that happened, I had to adjust it a little bit, and I just did it with my phone. But, um, I just showed the active pendings and solds. I’m real, real basic. And just be like, where do you want to be? I narrow it as close as I can, you know, to, you know, if it’s, if it’s between, you know, 1514 if it’s 1500 I’m going to put between 14 and 1600 you know, if it’s a 322, put 322, pool, no pool. New Construction, not and when I do it, there’s usually tons of comps that are very similar, and you can just look at it, and then I can whip my phone out, and we can actually look at the listing to see, like, Man, this one got a lot you want to see if the if it was plated with gold. I mean, what you know, we’ll look at and be like, I don’t know. Man, somebody looks like they just walked into that. Then they’ll be like, you think you can get that for mine? I’m like, I mean, you heard what I said, but they did. I’ll try if you want. But, yeah, I’m pretty, I’m pretty, go with the flow, and I don’t send the pre listing thing. I’ve thought about it. I’m scared they won’t like what they see, or something like I want them. I just want to go and and just plow through. I do and I like my phone sitting there, ringing and ringing, and I don’t answer it. And they know that like that, they have my time right then. So I’m, I’m, and that is something I’m trying to work on too. Like I’m, I’m really looking at taking on a more luxurious partner to and then I would do all that. Like we all, they’re all saying to do that here. And I’m not professing to know better. In fact, I’m saying I think I should be doing more of of that stuff. In all honesty, I’m just flying by the seat of my pants and trying not to let anything fall apart.

Speaker 2  47:46

I love that transparency. That’s why I got so much value of that. Thank you so much, Sean. I appreciate it. You’re welcome,

Daren Phillipy  47:52

Sean, there is, there is I get it, did you? Are you? You’re very likable, and I could see, man, don’t, don’t let my pre listing package do the talking, because I want to build that relationship with you. I see that. So I

Sean Seward  48:07

kind of do I want to go nice dressed. And, you know, have on some some gator print or crocodile print shoes. And, you know, get dressed up. Got my Ray Bans on, looking all cool, stepping out. Hey,

Daren Phillipy  48:20

if I see Ozzy walking around the office with alligator shoes, man, we know we’ve got a whole nother level. Diane, I’m so glad to see you back. Ask away.

Speaker 3  48:32

Is that the President’s circle thing last week? So I forgot to leave the pool anyway. Nice to meet you, Sean, and I’m actually in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and a dear friend of mine is now at island life. She’s splitting the time. Sue Hodgkins, have you met Sue and Pete Hodgkins,

Sean Seward  48:50

oh, man, it sounds so familiar. I don’t know if I have though. Oh, I will. Now

Speaker 3  48:54

you need to meet them. They I think it would be a wonderful fit if you wanted to just have that sort of dovetail effect that you just talked about. She’s there. They’re great people. They are, I’m not sure he has any crocodile stamp loafers, but they’re really great people. She makes a wonderful impression. She’s just and down to earth and lovely. And now, are you single? No

Sean Seward  49:18

girlfriend?

Speaker 3  49:21

Oh yeah, that’s no. Men always have a time answering that. It’s well, why? It’s like there’s no Well, why? No, I am not single. I am good. Thank you. Anyway, she’s got a lovely daughter. It’s the only reason I ask. Okay. Anyhow, so sue and Pete Hodgkins, you should meet them.

Sean Seward  49:35

I will, and I’ll tell them. Diane Davidson told him, told me I had to meet them. I actually texted I may have already I, I wonder if I should Google, am I google meetings? There’s just so many people there. Like it?

Speaker 1  49:50

Yeah, yep, but I’ll, I’ll find them. Okay.

Daren Phillipy  49:55

I love is that it? Diane, you’re awesome. Easy question. Love. Love those. Laura asked a question. Was going to ask a question, but Ozzie and him being a bully scared her, and she brought her hand back down. And so, I mean, if you know Ozzy, that’s all he’s about. Is sorry, Laura, he’s going to bully her his way to the front and then and Laura, do you have anything to say? No,

Speaker 4  50:21

I I pulled you up on Zillow, and it says you have 384 active listings. I have no idea how you keep all that straight. So are a majority of these, those wholesales. Oh, did we lose him? I

Daren Phillipy  50:36

don’t know. I love, I love the response. I thought that was the response to the amount of listings he had.

Speaker 1  50:47

That is like, Oh, should I have that many?

Daren Phillipy  50:52

That was all frozen up. I think he’ll, well, we’ll edit him back in when he ends. I’m sure he’ll end up coming back here somehow,

Sean Seward  51:02

just went out the new new development blues every now and then. Well,

Daren Phillipy  51:07

we had fun while you were gone. Sean, it was perfect timing about the listings and the OH SHIT. So

Speaker 4  51:14

So Are most of those whole sales. Sean, yeah,

Sean Seward  51:17

I was saying some of these guys already own them, like you’ll get, you’ll get guys who will call up with four, 812, 50. You know what? I mean, I one guy had 250 of them, and we just kept trickling them out at the bottom of the market. They, I mean, some people just hold them, like big land holding companies,

Speaker 4  51:35

and then you’re doing a flat rate, basically, if the parcels $2,000 up to whatever your X amount is. And then you go back to percentages, yeah,

Sean Seward  51:45

at 6% or at 17,006% is 1000 so after 17, after 17,000 we do 6% I tell all the wholesalers when we I text them my email address and my email or my assistance email address, and I say anything that you want me to list for you, I need you to send an email to both of these at once with the underlying contract stating what you want to sell it for. If it’s under 17,000 it’s going to be 1000 I’m going to split it. And if it’s over 17,000 it’s going to be 6% and and, you know, if we have to change something, we can, but I’m selling one right now for 2000 I’m taking 1000

Speaker 4  52:26

well, and you’re really only getting 500 though, right? So, yeah, is it? I mean, are you doing signs? Are you doing photos? No. I mean,

Sean Seward  52:35

I have 200 signs. I mean, I can, but I’m doing all over Florida in my my, well, I have, like, probably almost 300 active listings right now. Yeah, 384 Well, some of those are doubled up. Some of those, I’m on multiple MLS, and sometimes too. So some of those, some it’s the same one twice. It doesn’t it’s not right. But where was I going with that? We’re

Speaker 4  53:02

talking about signs and photos. Oh

Sean Seward  53:04

yeah, this with the photos, we use the screenshots. If you look at one of those on there, you can see the screenshots. And so we’re just taking those. Every county in Florida, and I’m guessing in the country, has a GIS website where you can take varying depths of the of where it is and see how develop the areas around it. You really don’t want to take a picture straight up on it, because it’ll show all the trees you’re going to cut down. And if you do that, then people will use it to negotiate against against you, and say that they need five or 10,000 to cut down all the trees. So you know, you’re trying to not really show the trees like that. And then, and then, in certain areas where I bought pictures before, like in Inglewood, I have Inglewood beach pictures, and in North port, where I live, I actually went around, took a bunch of pictures, and I just have them in a Dropbox file. And every time he does one, he just adds it on there. So we put it in multiple MLS is, if somebody specifically asks me for a sign, and it’s within Sarasota or Charlotte County, they can have a sign. I mean, I’ve even had people ask for like, 20 signs at once, and I’ve had to order more because they were all out. And I was like, Well, I mean, they asked, I’m here. The guy will do it, but, but right now I got this guy who wants me to go up to Putnam County for like 50 signs. And I’m, I’m, I’m really hemming and hawing on that one.

Speaker 4  54:22

Yeah, you need a sign company. We have a guy out here that does it for 30 bucks. But right? Absolutely, you want to make sure you’re making money at the end of the day too. Right,

Sean Seward  54:30

right. It’s Putnam County. These lots are like six grand, but he is giving me 1000 bucks a piece, so like that.

Speaker 4  54:37

That’s our Pahrump Nevada. That’s right. I’m,

Sean Seward  54:40

I’m, I’m trying to tell him, I’ll buy the signs. If he goes and puts them up, like, that’s my I will pay for the signage. You go, but, man, or find somebody up there, but like, for 30 bucks, right? I mean, I will, I will. I made so much with this guy that if, if I did have to lose 500 or 1000 Dollars on him. I mean it, he’s the guy who gave me the 250 to sell. So, I mean, I’m pretty sure, I’m pretty sure I’ve made a lot of money with him. You’re making money. Yeah, yeah. If he asked me to do something for a lot, I have to do it. I love it.

Daren Phillipy  55:13

Love it. Well, that’s it, guys, let me ask you a question. Sean, if, if any of the agents that are listening want to send some investors towards you or or have referrals for you, and yeah, in your area, what’s the best way for them to be able to send those referrals just,

Sean Seward  55:29

just to my I like it better in the email than in command, because sometimes the command ones go to spam for a second, and I don’t, I don’t go in there as often, but to just send me an email. And you really might even want to buy one of these lots. They really are. I’m not trying to just sell it to you for the for the sale. I mean, it’s not that much. I’m just saying it’s, it’s really cool. What a what a easy investment. You know, to take a commission and just park it on a on a lot and see what it see what it does. You can already see some of these 10,020 $1,000 lots have sold for 60 and 70 so it’s like, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination. It’s just it was kind of crazy when, when they were five and COVID happened, they went up to 15. But when they went up to 15, everybody I sold them to for five for the past, you know, 10 years earlier, all swamped back to the market and diluted it back out again. So now we’re stuck at like 20 or so. But when we can get that down, and they get up to 30, it’ll probably do the same thing, and it’ll bring back all the people I just sold them to for 15 and 20 to come back. It’s a perfect supply and demand line. They should really teach this in college when they like, when I took supply and demand in my in my stat classes, it was they were talking about widgets. These are the ultimate widget, because they actually make sense in real life.

Daren Phillipy  56:40

Love it. What’s your email address then? Sean FL,

Sean Seward  56:44

like Florida realtor. Sean S, E, A N. [email protected]

Daren Phillipy  56:51

perfect. I love it. That’s our time with you, Sean, you’ve killed it, dude. I’ve had so much fun. You were so great, and I really appreciate your candidness and and your energy and your your openness, and that’s it. Man, that’s all I gotta say. Do I get a copy of this? No way, man, I’ve got, I’ve got a 6% of course,

Sean Seward  57:12

yeah, 6% franchise fee.

Daren Phillipy  57:15

No, no, no. I was thinking about the 6% or $1,000 whatever the you know, above that. So I will, I will get you a copy. Actually, I’ll have this on our Facebook group. You’ll be able to see it instantly there, and then probably about three months, I’ll have it edited up and made a little bit pretty and available, basically, or wherever you turn.

Sean Seward  57:36

Awesome, awesome. Thank you so much. It’s been pleasure meeting everybody. I hope I hear from y’all

Daren Phillipy  57:40

so good. Thanks. Sean. Later, bye. Hey, welcome back. I am glad to hear you made it this far. Sean is awesome. I loved hearing about that crazy business and tell me he has not created a perfect little business for him that sounds like he’s living in paradise and doing business exactly the way he wants to. You guys know, I don’t do this just as a hobby. I do this because I spend most my time coaching and helping non kW agents with the business and specifically helping them grow their teams. So if you are wanting to grow your team, if you’re wanting to find more leverage and buy some of your time back, or you’re looking for ways to make your business easier, contact me. That’s what I’m here for. My job is to help grow your guys’s business, specifically through leverage. My number is 702-706-4949, I can help you anywhere in the country. I do run one of the largest real estate companies here in Vegas, and hey, I don’t I there’s a thing called Zoom here that I can help you out with that. And so don’t sweat it. So call me. Let me help you out. And pretty much the last thing is this, guys, you don’t have to figure it out alone. There’s a proven way to build a profitable real estate

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