We recently connected with Scott Hansen and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Scott thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share a customer success story with us?

I was showing houses to a couple and as we were leaving a woman approached me and asked if I would show her the house because she was waiting on her realtor. I told her I didn’t think that would be ethical if they both ended up wanting the house. She then asked me if I would be her realtor, and I asked her about the person she was waiting on, and she said she never signed a contract with that agent. She volunteered she hated him because he never called or kept her updated.

I told her if she did not have a contract with her current agent, I would be happy to help her find a house; if she signed a contract with me. I also told her if she worked with me she would get tired of hearing from me. She took my information and we went on our way.

A couple of days later, a Friday night when I was out with friends, she called me. She said she would work with me, wanted to sign the contract, and could I show her houses that weekend. So I did. She was looking for a needle in a haystack, a townhouse with three bedrooms under $200,000.

That Monday I called her lender and when I told him who I was he kind of smirked over the phone. He said I was the third realtor he talked to that was helping her and the loan was a little more complicated than normal. I got the information from him, we went and looked at 5 or so townhomes, and within a couple of weeks we found one and they accepted her offer. The closing was smooth and effortless, and I was in contact a lot with her over those couple of weeks.

About a month later she called me and said she had a client who needed to sell his house. It was a hoarder house. She works in an assisted living facility in the financial department and helps clients figure out how they are going to pay for assisted living. She said she talked to a couple of other agents who were afraid to help. I ended up working with the client and several other third parties to get his house emptied, cleaned, and sold so he could get Medicaid for assisted living.

Since then she has sent many other clients to me, as well as her parents. I have now branched out and marketed my services to about 50 other assisted living facilities. I have used Canva to design marketing materials for me as well as my email signature. I am going to start a newsletter just for assisted living facilities and find someone to design them and write content for me, an then I would put my brand on them in Canva.

Communication is far and away the best thing you can do as a real estate agent.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am older and was a stay-at-home dad for years and when my kids went off to college and had their own lives, I needed to find a new career. I was the manager of a tech support division for a software company before I stayed at home to watch my kids. My neighbor got into real estate part-time and suggested it to me, and soon I was in school to get my license.

As an agent, you are basically running your own business. I am in charge of my marketing, marketing materials, costs, expenses, and any other aspect you can imagine. The first people you reach out to when you start are people you know. I then stumbled upon helping seniors sell their houses who have to move into assisted living. That opened up a whole new marketing endeavor, where I was reaching out to the marketing managers at assisted living facilities who were dealing with my future clients.

I am proud because I feel that often times when they have to sell their houses, that I am the only one looking out for them. I do not charge them more than my other clients, I work with the marketing managers so that all parties involved are communicating, and if they have no one else in the world I do all the other extra work that needs to get done to sell their house. I also end up talking to the different counties to see what they require in the way of selling the house, to qualify for Medicaid. When the process is over, I know that these people are taken care of in general and safe.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Word of mouth with one client standing out. I delivered the best customer service experience when I helped her find a house and because of that, she has sent about 10 people my way so far, to help them sell their own houses. I treat everyone like I would like to be treated. I communicate like crazy using the client’s favorite method, and I supply them with the knowledge they need to buy or sell a house.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I did not plan on being a stay-at-home dad, and then a realtor. When my daughter entered high school, she developed depression, which is fairly common for teenage girls. When depression starts, it came out of the blue, slowly and creeping, and we dealt with things as they came up. We took her to psychologists and doctors and made sure that she was talking to people and when required, getting on medications to help her with her depression.

This was working fine, or so we thought, until she tried to kill herself. When this happened we addressed it again and I left my job so I could better navigate the healthcare industry with her. During this time I dealt with her deep, deep depression as best I could She came to me and talked to me, because I suffer from mild forms of depression, too. She knew I understood what she was going through. So I researched and was always honest with her. I took her to appointments and made sure she was taking her meds, I checked in with her friend and gave them my number. I was by her side while she struggled.

She made a few more attempts on her life, most of them more a cry for help than done with intent. The medications were like learning typing, hunt and peck until we find the right ones or the combination of the right ones. When she was 18 and in highschool, she made a more serious attempt and I told her I was going to make her go to a facility for in-patient treatment. She told me she was 18 and I could not do that. I told her I could force her to go for at least three days, and then I suggested we go to her psychologist and see what she said, and she promised she would do what this person suggested. This was the first time I sat in on a session, and thank God she told my daughter to admit herself to this facility. So she went, for a week, and I went to see her every day.

Like waves in the ocean, the depression came and went. Most days were good to very good, but when she got depressed, it was tough. At one point she said she needed to go back to the hospital for inpatient care. So she went for another couple of weeks. During that summer we toured colleges and she picked on four hours from home.

During college, I would call her a few times a week and always asked how she was doing, how was her depression and generally keeping an eye on her from far away. She still had depression but it was better. Or so I thought.

One night, at about 1:30 in the morning, I got a call that was from North Dakota. That is where my daughter was going to school. My heart sunk, and I knew what the call was going to be about. It was from a doctor in the ER who said that my daughter had tried to kill herself, her friends found her, and they called 911. She was in the ICU, but alive and was going to be OK, so I told him I would be there in the morning. This was why I did not have a job, so I could be there. I went to see her, hooked up to machines, deeply tired, and someone in the corner watching her at all times. The first thing she said was she wanted me to go to her school and talk to the teachers to let them know what happened because finals were next week and she didn’t want to fail. She insisted.

I left the room and I cried. I bawled like a baby. It was the first time I ever broke down.

Do you know that colleges have forms for this? They deal with this so much, I was simply another form. However, they were truly awesome and helpful, and compassionate and helped me contact all her professors. I went back to her hospital room about three hours later, and she was wide awake and asked me what I was doing there. She had no memory of me being there earlier.

Since then she had been really good. She graduated with three degrees and is now going for her masters degree in mental health, so she can help others like she was helped. It was the biggest pivot I made in my life and if I had to do it again, I would in a heartbeat.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.scotthansenrealtygroup.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scotthansenrealty