From the Farm to Top Real Estate Agent with Hoss Pratt

For this episode, I am happy to welcome Hoss Pratt. Hoss is the CEO and founder of Hoss Pratt International, the premier resource for agents and firms that want to take their business to the next level. He is the best-selling author of Listing Boss: The Definitive Blueprint for Real Estate Success and the creator of the super successful and popular “Listing Boss'' real estate course. Hoss is a nationally known authority when it comes to lead generation and lead conversion. He has a reach of tens of thousands through social media, speaking engagements, guest podcasting, and seminars. Hoss has been featured in major and local publications throughout his career including the Wall Street Select, Small Business Trendsetters, and the Daily Herald.

We begin this episode with Hoss sharing his background story. Growing up on a farm in northwest Missouri, as he likes to say, the odds were against him. But despite those odds, Hoss was showing his entrepreneurial spirit even as a teenager, when he started his own lawn care business. He built up a book of business, over 100 lawns, and got one of the biggest commercial contracts in the Midwest when he was just a teenager. Even though his brothers were athletes, Hoss’s role model was his father. He watched his father go to work every day, wearing a suit and a tie, and he wanted to be just like him.

Our next topic is the beginning of Hoss’s entrepreneurial journey. After his lawn care business took off, his mentor at the time advised him to go where the money is, which was Dallas, Texas. So, when he was 21 years old, he decided to sell his lawn business and move to Dallas. He sold his business to his brother, who still runs it with the same contracts that Hoss got back in the day. He explains how this was his first lesson in leaving the good to go to great and being willing to lose it all in order to gain everything.

Hoss then dives into explaining his first business moves in Texas. He shares that his first job was as a door-to-door salesman, and he believes that this is where he learned how to deal with rejection. After spending a few years in sales, he decided that it was time to elevate his skills. He got his real estate license and became a realtor. In the first six months of his real estate career, he lost his life savings. But he shares how he was able to turn that around and finish his year with nine million dollars in closed sales by going only after listings.

We dive deeper into Hoss’s strategy that helped him turn his business around in his first year as a real estate agent. He explains that his turning point was discovering the for sale by owner niche. He found people who wanted to sell their house, who were unrepresented and didn't have a licensed agent. At that point, it was a matter of him just calling and offering them his services. He would have these conversations over and over, for hours a day, just like he did when he went door to door, just like he did when he started his lawn service because it works every time.

We then move on to talking about how Hoss managed to recover his business after the financial crisis in 2008. Reflecting back on his business journey, he explains how pivoting has helped him stay in business and become successful. He pivots every 10 years; he pivoted after 9/11, and he pivoted right before the crash in 2008. He sold his business and decided to travel around the country teaching others how to become successful real estate agents and helping them through that crash. During that time, he did 1000 seminars in 48 states, teaching people everything he knew, from investing in real estate, selling more real estate, to making their business more successful through the best marketing and systems.

Hoss then shares his motives for writing his book, Listing Boss: The Definitive Blueprint for Real Estate Success. For him, it was a calling. He loves telling his story because he believes that's why he is living that story. So, he wanted to create a model that other agents and other people can follow. He believes that every successful agent, every successful entrepreneur should put their experience into a book in order to help other people.

Lastly, we talk about Hoss’s pivoting during COVID. He talks about his partnership with eXp, the world's fastest-growing cloud-based brokerage. He also explains why he believes that it's the only model out there that can help agents achieve financial freedom, from having equity in the brokerage to revenue sharing and increasing commissions. Hoss also gives his views of the market during the pandemic. He believes that, on the residential side, it's the greatest time in the history of real estate to sell a house.

Don’t miss the newest episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with super inspiring entrepreneur, Hoss Pratt, who shares some amazing actionable steps and instructions for achieving real estate success!

Notable Quotes:

“For as long as I remember, I had that curiosity and desire to make money.”

Hoss Pratt

“That was my first lesson in leaving the good to go to great, being willing to lose it all to gain everything, and not letting my fear stop me.”

Hoss Pratt

“As an entrepreneur, you have to cut the cord and trim the branches off the tree so you can bear fruit.”

Hoss Pratt

“I wouldn't have become who I am today without that change of environment. Leaving the nest, where you come from, is such an important part of growth.”

Hoss Pratt

“A key thing that I've seen in successful people is that there's a period of time where they had a season of repetitious selling.”

Hoss Pratt

“I think what scares people about sales is hearing that ‘no.’ The best salespeople I've ever talked to and worked with, they don't even care, it doesn't bother them to hear a ‘no.’”

Mike Simmons

“If you're struggling with selling, think in terms of repetitions. Instead of having five conversations a day, you need to have a hundred.”

Hoss Pratt

“The first year I got into real estate, I lost my entire life savings in my first six months working 80 hours a week.”

Hoss Pratt

“I finished my first year with nine million in closed sales, all of which came from the second part of my first year. I was Rookie of the Year.”

Hoss Pratt

“There's riches and niches. And the nicher the niche, the richer the rich.”

Hoss Pratt

“Find niches. Stop trying to be everything to all people. When you focus on a niche, it's easy to position yourself as the expert.”

Hoss Pratt

“In those few years of me being on the road, I wasn't trying to get rich. I was building my skill, I was building my list, I was building relationships, I was building the audience.”