Albert Vasquez got his start in real estate at one of the toughest possible times: during the Great Recession. But his determination and perseverance, along with a passion for process and coaching, have allowed him to build a small-but-mighty team of dedicated agents at AV Home Experts.

His goal is to get better every day by focusing on key efficiencies. 

And his secret is using the right metrics, automations and action plans to get the job done. Here’s how Albert and his all-star team use Follow Up Boss to keep building the best version of their business while scaling their sales to new heights.

The Challenge

Finding a CRM to grow with the business

Throughout his career, Albert has worked with teams of several shapes and sizes. He transitioned from a mom-and-pop real estate agency to Keller Williams in 2015. In the years that followed, long before he ever hired his first team member, Albert was focused on one thing: building scalable systems.

Albert knew that to be as effective as possible, he would need to find a system with a value proposition well beyond merely keeping track of his leads. He invested upwards of $15,000 into trying different CRMs, testing each feature to see not only which one worked best — but also which one he most enjoyed using.

In fact, he was even in talks with developers to create his own CRM from scratch.

“I wanted something that when the people came in from day one, it was a leverage key for them,” says Albert.

He ultimately realized that Follow Up Boss was the fit he was looking for. It would allow him to keep track of every lead, establish the right cadence for follow-ups and help his team grow — and as an open and integration-friendly lead management system, it would evolve with both the industry and his business.

The Solution

Letting data lead the way to growth

Albert is the first to admit that he geeks out over metrics and reporting of any kind. But Follow Up Boss gives him the kind of data that allows him to tangibly help his small-but-mighty team get even better. 

“Their entire story is on Follow Up Boss,” he explains.

With everything from the number of daily phone calls to the total activity by lead source, having all the key metrics in one place frees up his time to build the kind of supportive team culture that has kept his agents around for years.

“Real estate is a constantly moving industry with new technologies. I needed to have a platform that evolves with me."

Calling and the Dialer

Albert’s favorite Follow Up Boss feature is the Dialer because of the real-time transparency it provides around phone calls. 

“Being able to track that pattern in a very easy way is a life-changer for anybody in the real estate business,” he says. 

The calling feature lets Albert and his team make and receive calls using their own phone number. Through this integration, Albert can quickly and easily notice patterns in call data, even down to the level of his agents’ hourly performance.

Reporting metrics

To understand his agents’ growth and help them establish daily and weekly goals, Albert first crunches the numbers over the course of a year. 

“I go into Follow Up Boss and look at the reports by year and start creating averages and medians.” This data allows him to land on an ideal call cadence: leading at least seven unique conversations (calls that last more than two minutes) per day, or 35 unique conversations per week, should average one to three appointments each week. 

“If you follow our processes consistently for a year, the metrics show me that you should easily net over $100k. You just need to have a good conversational level, know how to connect with the customer, and consistently follow your Follow Up Boss smart list every day.”

“One of the beautiful things about starting the team and already having all that data in Follow Up Boss is that you know what your first person looks like and you know what their journey was.” 

Armed with an understanding of each agent’s path to growth, Albert has been able to coach his team members to serious success, including two agents who have each netted over $170,000 annually.

Agent activity

The agent activity dashboard in Follow Up Boss helps Albert shape his training conversations. If the data reveals that an agent holds lots of appointments but isn’t closing often, Albert sees an opportunity to train them on the quality of their appointments. 

And as a lover of all things data, he gets excited whenever he spots a pattern.

The way he sees it, patterns in the reporting data illustrate educational gaps that can help him hone in on exactly where each agent can be more effective throughout the lead management process. From there, all he has to do is step in and close those gaps.

Lead routing and automations

There was a time when Albert had to manually reassign any lead who wasn’t followed up with.

Now, automations allow him to streamline lead routing and simplify follow-up. In fact, Albert has created automated accountability checks directly in Follow Up Boss through his shareable automations.

The team uses lead routing based on prospects’ interest level — Hot, Warm or Cold — which helps to determine the target timeframe for their follow up cadence. 

Agents gauge intent during their calls with prospects, and those who don’t show intent within the next two to three years are assigned to a long-term nurture cadence. So far, the team at AV Home Experts are averaging a whopping 40% email open rate.

Tools like the Follow Up Boss Pixel also help Albert’s agents know when to follow up by signaling interest based on website visits. With this simple pixel in place, agents can easily keep track of their “Watch list,” and make sure even “Unresponsive” leads aren’t forgotten.

From the coolest lead to the most motivated prospect, everyone gets the communication that’s right for them. And now that he has a set follow-up system in place, Albert can focus his energy on other things, like spending time with family and finding new ways to make the team even more efficient. 

Integrations

When it comes to lead gen, AV Home Experts use Ylopo as their only paid marketing source. The deep integration with Follow Up Boss means that each Ylopo lead feeds directly into the team’s lead distribution system.

But that’s not the only integration that helps keep them hyper-efficient.

Integrations with Zapier ensure efficient task management and help Albert streamline his day, while the CallAction integration helps him review data, understand customer journeys, visualize his team’s progress, and determine next steps all in one place.

⭐️ BONUS: See Albert’s integration setup on this episode of Bosses in Action.

The Results

50% increase in volume & commissions, $47M in sales

Albert is all about continuous improvement, and his systems are a big part of that puzzle. 

“I love to live on the 1% rule: 1% better a week — or even a day — and you’re a completely different person in a year.” 

And with a 50% year-over-year increase in volume and commissions, he’s certainly onto something. With each new Follow Up Boss feature release, Albert asks the question: How can it improve what we already have?

“I like reverse engineering. I like to find a problem and then find the solution for it, so I'm consistently looking for opportunities.” 

He’s a hands-on leader. Each of his seven full-time agents has stayed with AV Home Experts for multiple years. And with such a high priority on relationship-building, it’s no wonder Albert’s agent retention rate is so high.

“I love the community that we’re able to build,” Albert says. “One of the things I love about our team being this small is that I talk with all of the agents pretty much every day.”

Follow Up Boss allows him to see data patterns and identify actionable ways to help the team grow. It also frees up his time to focus on the team-building aspects that matter most.

“I think the best version of the team is where the agents feel that they are highly leveraged for all that they would want their business to be.”

And AV Home Experts’ success isn’t only measured in a feel-good team culture. With 150+ 5-star Google reviews, they are consistently rated among the top realtors in Miami.

The team has also been ranked the #56 Real Estate Team in the US by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals® (NAHREP), #106 in the State of Florida by The Real Deal, and top 50 Florida-based Keller Williams teams!

And they’re walking the walk. In 2022, the team closed $47 million in sales. “We’re a relatively new team,” Albert notes, “This is our fifth full year, and we’re getting recognition, which is brand new for us.”

“Home Experts” isn’t just a name for Albert and his team. Their consistently high performance and demonstrated expertise allow them to deliver for their clients, getting better all the time.

At the end of the day, Albert goes back to the measurable progress provided by consistently using the right system. “You can’t lie to yourself — the numbers show it to you…If you do all your business through Follow Up Boss, you will see your patterns.”

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