ELLIS POSNER

EXECUTIVEAGENT MAGAZINE

Ellis Posner Executive Agent of the Month

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Ellis Posner An Innovative Approach to Real Estate

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By Shannon Hartsoe - Ian Wiant Photographer

llis Posner is a little bit of an anomaly. A salesperson who doesn’t “sell”, Ellis is a minimalist when it comes to marketing and employs almost none of the systems and prospecting protocols so common to real estate today.

Instead, he believes in effectively advising his clients of their options and educating them on the process and market. Utilizing what he calls “real estate best practices,” Ellis can only be described as a consultant.

“You aren’t going to ‘sell’ someone a house they don’t want to own or convince someone who doesn’t want to sell that they should sell,” he reveals. So he doesn’t.

Instead, Ellis focuses on creating a purposeful approach to marketing rather than a haphazard, one-size-fits all plan. With a consistent message and an intentional target, including a 21-point marketing plan, his listings receive exceptional exposure and a greater-than average rate of traffic.

“Most Realtors® don’t need systems as much as they need self-awareness and a better understanding of where their business comes from and what it is about them that clients are responding to in a positive way. That takes discipline and the ability to effortlessly be a problem solver,” he says, adding: “In many ways I am the exact opposite of what most successful people in the industry teach.”

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While he does utilize some of the same techniques of other Realtors®, such as sending out mailers, knocking on doors and holding open houses, it’s always backed by a thorough knowledge of the neighborhood and his intended purpose. It’s an approach that has worked for Ellis for the past decade.

Basis For Success Maybe it’s the fact that he majored in psychology and graduated from New York University, Phi Beta Kappa.

Maybe it’s because he’s lived in most major metropolitan areas of the United States, including Baltimore, Boston, New York, Seattle and Portland. Maybe it’s his background in technology. Whatever it is that makes him so successful, Ellis says the bottom line is that he simply loves real estate and he loves to help others.

“I’ve flipped homes in nearly every city I’ve lived in,” he explains. “I’ve probably spent more time in my life looking at properties, in all price ranges, descriptions and categories than almost anything else I’ve done. In large part it isn’t even work for me. There’s nothing else I would rather be doing.”

His mother, Ellis says, was like the ultimate first-time homebuyer. It took her years to buy their family’s first home. But once she did, his mother decided she hated it and started the process all over again, taking Ellis with her to open houses nearly every weekend. “By the time I was 10 years old I had probably previewed more homes for sale than most agents see in their entire life, and I had moved twice,” he recalls. “So what else could I really ever grow up to be than a Realtor®?”

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Efficient, Savvy, Innovative It was a natural choice. So in 2004, Ellis decided to make it his career. “If I wasn’t doing this professionally, I would be helping everyone I know in their buying and selling process anyway.”

Ellis was patient and intentional and that gave him an advantage over some agents looking for a quick paycheck.

By realizing that the Internet had the potential to help him acquire clients from all over the world and using his experience gleaned from his frequent moves, Ellis obtained clients relocating from all over the United States and internationally. Soon, he was competing against agents with many more years of experience and more formalized systems.

He’s now a perennial top producer for Shorewood Realtors®, specializing in most of the South Bay, particularly Redondo Beach, Torrance and Hermosa Beach.

He’s become known for his ability to correct the mistakes of other agents and his ability to handle difficult listings.

“I love a challenge,” he says. Ellis was among the first to understand the power of inbound marketing strategies, uti-

lizing all major real estate portals such as Zillow, Realtor. com and Trulia as well as his own specialty website, blogs and social media channels like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. But if Ellis is anything, it’s innovative, so now that other real estate agents have caught up to his Internet savvy, he’s on to the next big thing.

While Internet marketing focuses on the client who is actively looking for help, Ellis is interested in what comes next. “How do you reach the person who isn’t looking for you by ‘push’ rather than ‘pull’ technology? And how do you do it in an increasingly mobile, geo-targeted environment with a high-reliance on video?” he asks.

Ellis is answering his own questions by developing proprietary systems to drive traffic across multiple platforms in both traditional and non traditional ways. He’ll be launching those products within the next year, including a call-center that may one day be marketed to other agents.

But his goal isn’t about growing market share as much as it is to do what he does more efficiently, offering even more customer support to his clients.

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With a five-star rating on Zillow, Ellis’ clients consistently cite things such as knowledge, communication and reliability as reasons for their satisfaction.

One client, who purchased from Ellis, has this to say: “Ellis is extremely knowledgeable, helpful, and patient. He is non-pushy and understands emotions of first-time home buyers like us. We had very specific requirements of what we wanted in our dream home and he delivered 100%. We looked for over a year before we finally found our dream home. Ellis patiently helped us and always gave us valuable advice. … He is also an astute deal-maker and made sure we got the best bang for our buck.” Another client calls hiring Ellis his “best decision ever.”

Ellis believes the reason is his clear approach to real estate. “I believe in helping people buy or sell real estate and doing so in the most supportive, human, personal way possible. I make it my mission to understand what my client wants and make it happen for them. It’s that simple.”

He maintains a close connection to his clients even after the transaction has closed. “One of my secrets? My wife feeds them Thai food,” he laughs. “Once a quarter we’ll invite a few dozen clients who I’ve done business with to

our house for a very informal dinner party.” While none have any connection to each other except for Ellis, it’s not unusual for them to hit it off and find other common interests.

“Usually, I can hear them talking about me and the question that always gets asked is, ‘So how did you meet Ellis?’” he says. “The answer is usually, ‘I was on some website.’”

Clearly, Ellis Posner is on to something. Could the next step be mentorship?

Ellis Says Yes “I see a lot of people working very hard and struggling and getting no results. They could be successful if they had help, but I see traditional ‘sales management’ as something sorely lacking in the industry as a whole,” he states.

“There’s one thing I know from my previous career and that is I can help sales people achieve their goals and outperform what they thought possible.”

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Ellis Posner

Shorewood Realtors速 950 Artesia Blvd.

Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 Tel: 310.975.5139 ellisposner@yahoo.com www.ellisposner.com CalBRE # 01416970

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