Purpose

This is a list of our team’s most-requested and most-copied resources. Our team believes that great ideas are meant to be shared, and this is a collection of our best that we have to offer. Feel free to use any or all of these, and modify to fit your own business.

Expectations

These resources are yours to use. My only asks are that you provide feedback on the ones that you particularly like, and share with others as we have with you. If you improve on one of our resources or processes, please let me know so that we can benefit from the collaborative process. The best way to do this is simply to send an email to me at nick@nickfundytus.ca.

Resources

Buyer Resources

• Buyer Internal Listing Process - This is the template for a checklist that we keep in our client’s folder in Google Drive, and share with our team (not with the client). We also link it to the client’s record within Follow Up Boss. It outlines every step of a typical purchase journey, and outlines who has responsibilities at each junction.

• New Buyer Client Intake Form - We share this template with new potential clients when we meet them. This centralizes their contact information and their needs and wants list. As of 2024 it also has tabs for ongoing feedback surveys and “The World’s Nosiest Survey,” a fun survey to get to know our clients more deeply.

• 2024 Ontario Homebuyer Process - This YouTube playlist outlines all of the steps of the purchase process, and helps homebuyers know what to expect at each stage. It’s one of our most useful “top of funnel” series that helps us convert browsers into clients.

• Realty Forms, Explained - This Youtube Playlist has saved us hundreds and hundreds of hours explaining forms to clients. We provide this as a link within the client intake sheets or within emails for our clients to watch at their leisure or before signing a form. By taking the time to explain the forms very well on video, it eliminates the chance of missing important details, and allows us to focus on the clients’ questions or difficulties with the forms when we do meet.

• Our Homebuyer Presentation - This is a presentation we created using Prezi to walk homebuyers, particularly new ones, through the purchase process. It’s the same one that we use in the YouTube series, but this link will allow you to copy and use ours as a starting point if you wish. We chose Prezi rather than Google Slides or Powerpoint for its dynamic motion, but you could easily create something of similar quality in other formats.

• “What’s Next” Emails - One of our team’s strengths is our systems to make sure that no details are missed. Within Follow Up Boss I’ve created a “What’s Next” email template for each stage of the Buyer and Seller Journey. This article in our wiki (may still be in progress) outlines what we want to cover at each stage of the client’s journey.

Seller Resources

• Seller Internal Listing Process - This is the template for a checklist that we keep in our client’s folder in Google Drive, and share with our team (not with the client). We also link it to the client’s record within Follow Up Boss. It outlines every step of a typical listing and sale journey, and outlines who has responsibilities at each junction.

• New Seller Client Intake Form - We share this template with new potential clients when we meet them. This centralizes their contact information and important details of their home. As of 2024 it also has tabs for ongoing feedback surveys and “The World’s Nosiest Survey,” a fun survey to get to know our clients more deeply. There are also tabs for weekly feedback on their property, stats on the marketing that we’re doing for them (Chelsea sends an email to each Seller client every Thursday) and a tab for recording notes from the stagers’ visit.

• Example CMA - Our team has created a CMA that starts at a very high level (outlining the market), outlines the pros and cons of the subject property, and then zeroes in on where it fits in among recent comparable sales, while still being approachable. It finishes with an opinion of value backed up by a video, next steps and the outline of a marketing plan. We continue to update this each year but we’ve found that sending this ahead of our formal listing presentation demonstrates some front-loaded professionalism to our clientele and spurs good conversations. This design was done using Beacon.by, but I think if we were to start from scratch we might use a service like Canva.

• Listing Box - Our wonderful designers and friends at Ninesixteen Creative did the packaging for this. We courier or drop this off to our clients when we have a handshake agreement to work together. Among other things, it contains snacks and a bottle of wine, cleaning supplies, labels, checklists and our professionals directory so that our clients can get started on preparing their home for sale.

• Listing Presentations - Our listing presentation follows the model of the classic “Hero’s Journey” as set out in Donald Miller’s Building a StoryBrand. I’ve found it’s a great way to present ourselves (as the guide to the hero, our client) and what we offer in an engaging way. I highly recommend this book. If you’re looking for a brand coach, by the way, my sister Julie Wieler is great for this and is a brand coach for Donald Miller’s process.

General Resources

• Further Reading - This wiki page has a growing list of our favourite books and resources that we use and recommend. Our team is made up of readers and we love getting your recommendations.

• Nickfundytus.ca - I will brag here and say that I think that our custom Wordpress site (designed by NineSixteen and based upon their brand guide, below) is among the best in the business. It ditches the “I’m so great!” narrative and stock photos of all the same-same agent websites out there and focuses on being effective for the client and great at differentiating our team. Check out one of our listings to see how we’ve eliminated the need for feature sheets in listings (we simply include a QR code in the home).

• Our Brand Guide - Our friends at NineSixteen Creative made this for us, first in 2019 and updated in 2022. I recommend making a guide like this (with professional help) for any Realtor serious about their business. It lays out logos and colours, exactly what to do and what not to do, and even brand voice so that everyone working with the brand can create a powerful, consistent feel. For reference, I think that this originally cost our team around $3000 to create.

• My favourite video of our team - isn’t on YouTube (due to copyrighted music). At Christmas, one of our touchpoints with past clients is to drop off cookies and cards. Our videographer did a great music video that links to the QR code in the Christmas card. He put this together in about 4 hours.

• Our Team’s YouTube Videos and Playlists - YouTube is at the center of our team’s video-first strategy because of its longevity compared to social platforms. We try to feature the faces and voices of our team and our clients to build trust and rapport, and we almost always keep in some outtakes at the end to show our relatability. Some of our best-performing playlists not already mentioned include:

  • Monthly Market Updates - Key stats that link back to our website for more information. It’s snappy (under 5 minutes so that we can run it as an ad on YouTube), clear and gives context to the changing market. We’ve received “come list me” leads directly from this series.

  • Video Testimonials - Our clients’ stories, in their own words is so much more powerful than anything we could ever brag about ourselves, and better than a written Google review (though we love those too). Carla and Greg is probably my favourite one on our playlist, followed by Tracy and Ray.

  • Client Events - Our team is big on events for our past clients and sphere. Videos are a way to promote events, stay connected with clients and juice the results that we get from these.

  • Our “Why” Video and Personal Videos - These tell our prospective clients a bit more about us and connect with our values and interests. We want our tribe to self-select working with us.

  • #CoffeewithKarim - This series of shorts began as a way to showcase Karim’s skill when he was a new Realtor. Now it’s a weekly series that goes out as part of our “weekly content roundup” newsletter for our leads and nurture campaigns.

  • REALTOR In Your Pocket Podcast - We’re still improving our consistency with shooting these, but awesome local studios like Pop-Up Podcasting have really improved our game in recent seasons. Our format is client-facing, forming an encyclopedia of how-to’s and interviews with experts in the field to guide our buyers, sellers and tenants. It’s intended for an audience to “pick and choose” between episodes that are relevant. Watch it on YouTube or listen on Apple, Spotify or (as they say) wherever you get your podcasts. Want to be on the show? Just send me an email and let’s see if we can find a relevant topic.

  • Our Listings - In the past three years we’ve upped our video game. We focus on telling the story of the home and getting our team front and center along with the property. It’s a little more work, but since the switch we’ve definitely been winning listings that we wouldn’t have in the past.