Jenna Pendley: I have been in real estate right at a little bit over 10 years at this point. I am with Century 21, J. Carter & Company, and I service all of Baldwin County, so Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, as well as most of Mobile County. I've been in the business for 10 plus years. I was an assistant and team manager. And then I was on a team as an agent and I still am on a team, but it's a lot looser structure, and that's what I'm doing right now.
Jenn O'Connell: Why did you decide you're going to go get CINC for yourself and see what you can do for that?
Jenna Pendley: So I've used CINC previously with another team that I was on who still uses CINC actually. And I closed many homes with them on their system. So then I went and I bought CINC for myself and I just started doing the same things. And that's, for me, it had already proven that it worked and I already knew how to work it. So that's why I didn't want to go test anything else. And the team that I'm on, like I said, it's, We have an amazing licensed assistant, but I wanted to bring in my own leads and I didn't want to I need the help of the assistant cause I'm an only parent and I didn't want to not have someone who didn't know what they were doing. And it was just a no-brainer for me to buy my own leads and do that.
Jenn O'Connell: So you didn't use anything like any CRM or lead generation system prior to CINC on your other team?
Jenna Pendley: The team that I'm on now, the CRM that we use is Brivity. I do not get leads from Brivity. I put my leads that are under contract in Brivity so my assistant can see everything that I'm doing. That's all I use it for is communication between me and my assistant. I was on a team when I was an assistant, I was on a team that used Boomtown. And I like Boomtown, but I like CINC better. Yeah.
Jenn O'Connell: Can you, Share any differentiators between Boomtown and CINC or Boomtown and Brivity.
Jenna Pendley: Yes, okay, so the thing that really has set CINC apart for me was the dialer. Boomtown, I never even used the dialer or even knew one existed with Boomtown. It might be different now, but when I was on it, Eight years ago, it wasn't an option. So the dialer.
Brivity, I really, do not like the dialer with Brivity. It's clunky. It's you have to go to a whole other page to update the lead. It's annoying. So the dialer was a big thing. Also with brevity, it does not automatically set your leads up on property searches. And I hated that because I'm like the lead registers at 3 a. m. And let's be honest. I'm very busy. It might not get done for a week or two before I can set somebody up on a search. I want them to see properties. Next day. There are not as many automation features that I found. But honestly, as soon as I realized it didn't set up on the property search. And as soon as I realized that the dialer didn't work, I was like, I'm done with this. I'm going back to CINC. I had a budget allocated that I was going to either throw into Brivity to get leads, and then I just was like, we're just going back to CINC. And if I ever leave. All my stuff is on my own CRM.
Jenn O'Connell: I'm just wondering if you have noticed, I don't know lead quality or lead volume if there's a difference between systems that you've in the past or?
Jenna Pendley: Yeah. So the thing with CINCis that, with boomtown with brevity, when they're bringing in leads, they're basically dropping a pin and you get whatever you get. You get 50, 000 leads. You get people who want to buy a lot on the waterfront and put a camper, which doesn't exist down here.
And you get so many of those calls. Yeah. I, have closed, a celebrity off of CINC. I have closed a, I've closed 2 million properties. I would say the average. It's about $500,000 - $600, 000 for CINC. And so I like that. I want to be in that higher price range. Right now I've got a $700, 000 listing, a $500, 000 listing, and a person under contract for $599,000 off of CINC.
Eddie Pascual: That's awesome.
Jenna Pendley: I like that. I would rather work the higher end than a 50,000 lot.
So the timeline has been about, I would say easy six or seven months for them to come to fruition. It's a lot of talking. It's a lot of all that. I do not at all blame CINC for that because our business fell off the radar. I was down by 50 percent last year with no lack of hustle because our insurance at the beach in some cases went up by 100%. So I'm talking, we had a 1,600 policy that is now 16,000.
Jenn O'Connell: That's insane.
Jenna Pendley: Then you add the 8 percent interest rate for second homes, because we are a second home market. You add the 9 percent interest rate, which is what it was, and that killed us. And that's the thing. I was still talking to leads. I was still, and it wasn't, I was still having the conversations.
It was, that's what was killing it because we are not Miami where we have huge amounts of money. We're Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama. These are blue-collar people who've worked really hard, who can afford a $500,000 second home, which is fantastic, but they cannot afford 20, 000 a year in insurance.
So now that those kinks are getting worked through more and more, more people are calling me back and coming back. That is just last year was hard for everybody and I was down by 50 percent but most people were down by 80%. So I was still in the top 125. I was still in the top percentages for agents who closed and I was down by 50%. Everybody was.
Jenn O'Connell: Obviously '23 was a tough year pretty much across the board. So why were you still bullish on online lead generation when a lot of people got scared and pulled back?
Jenna Pendley: So my whole thing was I can't control the market. I cannot control the interest rates, but I can control how many people I talk to. And something that I saw agents across the board doing was freaking out. Just absolutely having panic attacks and not calling, staying on their couch, whining and whining.
And I was like, okay if I am not going to show property this day, I am going to do X amount of actions. And I've got two CRMs. So I had set in my head as I'm going to call 250 people every single week between those two CRMs. And, some, weeks it was all CINC, some weeks was all Brivity.
It just depended. And it also depended on who was on the website the most. Cause I brought over a lot of leads over to Brivity. I've got 2, 000 leads in Brivity. I'm going to call every single one that was on my website. Then I'm going to go over to CINC and call the most hot and active. And now I am seeing the fruit of that.
I am about to write an offer on $300,000 CINC lead. I am showing a $300,000 CINC lead. These are both cash buyers, tomorrow. And these people I have been talking to for months, so it's not, it's nothing you very rarely with lead generation period, get somebody who's going to buy overnight. It's impossible right now.
And I think that's perfect. I love that you're being honest and upfront about this because that's what we say, even on the sales floors, right? This is not an overnight kind of thing. You're still going to have to work and call these people. And that's perfect.
Jenn O'Connell: You've alluded to a few of these, but I'm hoping you can. Pick one out and elaborate on it a little bit. Maybe you just say your favorite, whether that's a, I don't know, celebrity or highest price point or has been in your database. So you choose.
Jenna Pendley: I have so many of them, but I'll give you one that paid back in dividends. Okay, perfect. I, when I very first, another thing with the internet leads is most of the time they're logging on because they don't know an agent. And I'm 28. I've been doing this since I was 23, though. And it's very hard to convince somebody to spend a million dollars with you when you're 23 unless you can talk to them over the phone and fake it. And they don't know how old you are.
So I got in contact with this CINC lead and it was a woman and she and I hit it off. And I was a single mom. She had kids. She just. All this stuff. I ended up selling them a 750, 000 home. Maybe it was like 500, 000 somewhere. I don't remember. It was a lot. I was a broke single mom.
It was a lot. So I ended up, giving them really good service. I helped them out and all of that. Two years later, they called me back. Hey Jenna, we want to list this property that you sold and we want to buy this 2 million house. So that's two more deals. Then six months later, they called me back. Hey, Jenna, our friend wants to buy a house. We need you to sell them the house. That's great. Sold them a house. The next thing I know, that friend is calling me. Hey Jenna, my parents want to buy a beach house. So you can trace, and that's the thing is, you can trace so many CINCleads back. Like the person I've got under contract right now for $599 just texted me today, "Hey, my son's going to be looking for $300,000 for his first home. Will you help me?"
So I can trace about 75 percent of my business back from CINC. Because it just pays back in dividends.
Jenn O'Connell: And then I, we talked a little bit about like second homes and you're in Gulf Shores, obviously. So I don't know, for some people we speak to that are in these second home markets, like having that online presence and popping up in that top spot in Google is huge because people aren't familiar with it.
So is that something that you find is super important? And then how do you go about working those out-of-town leads differently? Or maybe you don't than somebody who knows the area super well.
Jenna Pendley: I think that I have an advantage with the people who don't know the area because again, they don't know anybody. And so if I can get them on the phone and I can introduce myself and I can be like, Hey, let me tell you about how great the area is. Let me do all this. It really, if I can make them comfortable with me, they're not gonna go anywhere else.
Whereas if they're from here, every other person is a real estate agent. And that's another thing. Every other person is a real estate agent. So I have to get the people who don't know people. So that, that is, I don't, I would say I explain more to the people who are out of town, but they're, actually pretty much easier than the people who already live here and don't know a million people.
Jenn O'Connell: So now that you have your own system, I guess how take me through your day and how you work in CINC.
Jenna Pendley: Okay, so Eddie doesn't even know this part of it. But, before how I worked CINC was calling new leads as soon as they came in, calling the P2s, calling the P3s, everything that you learn at CINC University. I think I've I've been to CINC University three times, okay? And I've done it, I've done the system.
Back in October, I bought one of my family's contracting businesses. And I didn't say anything or announce it to anybody until January because I wanted to see if I could do it and I can do it. So now I'm running these two businesses. So my approach has completely changed.
CINC and my SOI and my past clients are really the main three things that I do for real estate right now. Because I've got this whole other business going on over here. So it really goes down to I'm going to do what I can and not harp on being perfect. And I'm gonna call 250 people a week, and I do break it down Like I call that I call the new leads I call the p3s the p2s and then at least 10 reminders and keep in mind.
I'm working 2 CRMs so you know, 10 to 20 reminders do all that and I make sure that the fundamental stuff gets down And then I found that if I just do that and I'm consistent and I'm not worried about oh my goodness, I have 3000 leads. I should be calling X amount per week. If I just do what I know I have to do, it comes back in dividends. And I'm more relaxed because who wants to be on the phone with somebody who's like I got to call 500 people today. So thank you so much for saying you want to buy a house. I'll call you later. So that's really what I've been doing right now is focusing on, I'm going to call 250 people a week. And that is my plan for business for real estate. And it is, it's paying back in dividends. I have worked nine days in a row at this point, showing property or running a construction company. And it's paying off.
Jenn O'Connell: Have features like the new contact requested that kind of comes up to the top, does that help you prioritize anything, or are there any specific features that do?
Jenna Pendley: I prioritize it by the most recent logins, or inquiries, or how many logins. And then, those are my, that's what I prioritize, and then if I have more time, that's when I dive deeper.
Eddie Pascual: I love that you have a goal of 250 per week. I think a bunch of my clients, not to say all of them, but I know a lot of people just don't have plans or weekly goals. And sometimes they have daily goals, but when they don't hit it, they get depressed and you know have this like cycle of what was me and shame and stuff. But if you have a weekly goal, you can pace it out. Throughout the week and say, Oh, I need to get this X amount by Wednesday, or I'm going to be like way behind by Thursday.
Jenna Pendley: And it also frees up in my mind, like Monday, I was in attics and crawl spaces all day long. And I was like, okay and then yesterday I showed literally 12 homes all over both counties. So no calls were made those two days, but I was like, that still gives me three days to divide it up. I've already called 75, 85 people in Brivity this week so far. So now I've got to go over and catch catch up on CINC. And you what? It's just if it doesn't get caught up, I've done what I have to do. And real estate karma is a real thing. If you will just do it. And I, every, I don't know what it is. Every single time I call 250 people in a week, I sell a house. Every single time.
Jenn O'Connell: That's huge.
Jenna Pendley: And I'm just like, okay, it's just karma.
Eddie Pascual: That is huge. That's what that is. I just gotta keep doing it. Hey, you put in what you get out, type thing. You're putting in all this stuff, you're gonna get out something. And you're putting in the work.
Jenn O'Connell: I'm wondering with all the lawsuits and all that drama towards the end of last year, if you have a hot take on what the future of buyers agents look like, or if you're just going to keep doing your thing and then ride it out.
Jenna Pendley: I'm going to keep doing my thing and ride it out, and I'm going to focus on I don't. There's always going to be a need for buyer's agents in some capacity. And you just have to, in my mind, I'm going to adapt how it comes. And I'm just going to keep giving very good service in the meantime and keep giving the best quality care I can and keep getting the referrals and everything else back and it will work itself out.
Jenn O'Connell: If you are speaking to another agent, considering jumping in with anything online, which doesn't necessarily have to be CINC. What do you share with them?
Jenna Pendley: Oh, it's not going to be overnight. I tell everybody, it's like when you first get into the business, you have to have six to eight months where you can pay for that and not make a dime. And then you have to be willing to get up and treat it like a job every single day. And, that's real estate.
The same mindset for getting into real estate is what you have to do with lead gen because it is you just have to work at it and you have to be patient with it. And people want to hear that you're patient with it. Nobody wants to get it on the phone with a salesperson. Who's like...
Eddie Pascual: Rushing.
Jenn O'Connell: If people want to find you online or needed a realtor in Gulf Shores. Where should we look for you? What is your information?
Jenna Pendley: Facebook, Jenna Pendley. Also my CINC website. viewhomesinorangebeach.com. But really Facebook is probably the easiest way or my cell phone.