How One Realtor Built Her Whole Business Around Downsizing Sellers, with Dawn Levy

There’s a seller in your database right now who wants to move and you’re not gonna call them. And they’re not gonna call you. Not because they don’t like you, but because they’re sitting in a four thousand square foot home that they can’t maintain and they’ve been surrounded by forty years of stuff. And nobody has ever shown them what’s on the other side of what that looks like. And what I want you to actually do while you’re listening right now is I want you to think about that person. Not a category, but a person. The person whose kids you watch grow up, the one who still sends you a Christmas card, you already know their name. I want you to hold on to it because everything Dawn says today is about that person. My guest has built her business on exactly that person. Dawn Levy is a realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties in Roswell, just north of Atlanta. She runs a downsizing seminar that she calls her bread and butter. And it works. One of her clients actually publicly wrote that they met Dawn at the seminar, and when she listed their home, she brought them multiple offers. So today you’re gonna get two things. One, it’s the actual mechanics of how she built the seminar and how it feeds her pipeline. And two, the thing that shocked her from her very first one. Because when the room lined up to ask her a question, she wasn’t prepared for it. And it tells you something about what the clients actually want most from agents. And we almost always get it backwards. Dawn, welcome to the Take It and Run podcast.

Thank you so much for having me on.

Awesome. Dawn, so give people the 90-second version. Where do you do business? You know, what were you doing before business, and just a little bit about your business?

Sure. So um I was in corporate America, like a lot of people, for almost 19 years, and then I decided to change careers and jumped into real estate. I am a native Atlantan and have grown up in the suburbs of Atlanta, so that’s north of Atlanta. And I cover the Roswell, mainly Roswell area, but also East Cobb, Alpharetta, Woodstock, and Sandy Springs. So in any of the adjacent areas. So Atlanta is a huge city and we have a lot of different cities and neighborhoods. And they’re all they all have their own little personality.

I love that you said you’re a native. How did you say that? Atlantan? Yes. I don’t think I’ve I don’t think I’ve ever heard that. I’m not even sure if I know how to say that right. But I mean, I feel like I feel like Atlanta gets a lot of relocation, but yet you just said you’re a native. So how do you think that’s helped your business that you’ve grown up there? Does it does it change the business versus an agent, say like myself, if I just moved there a couple years ago?

Sure. I think it does give me an edge because I know the areas, I know the history. And because it’s such a big area, I’m able to help navigate people that move here. Some people just do not realize that we have really bad traffic. Uh, it’s one of those things that, you know, we’re known for, but they don’t really understand it until they’re here. So when someone says, I’m gonna be working in this area, but I want to look in this area, you know, I really have to give them the reality of what that looks like. Because, you know, you probably don’t want to spend most of your life in the car going to and from work. So, you know, those are one of those things that I help clients who are moving here specifically, relocation, kind of, you know, understand that about the Atlanta market.

So give me an example. They say, you know, they say they they their work over here and they’re looking at at different areas. What does that actually equate to?

So let’s say we have someone that says, I’m gonna be working in Buckhead, but I want to live in Alpharetta and and I don’t want to commute more than 30 minutes. Well, that more than likely is not going to happen at all because it there could be a couple days that you actually get a 30-minute commute, and that is an anomaly. That commute is probably gonna be closer to an hour. So it’s just, and then if there’s a an accident, it could be a lot longer than that. So and I’ll tell people too, like, drive it, you know, like take a morning where you actually get in the traffic so you can see for yourself what it looks like. And and I had one person that was they really liked this one area, but where their office was, I’m like, I’m telling you, you’re not gonna like that commute. And they wound up l moving more towards the area that I was like, I know you’re gonna love this commute. And he’s so happy because it is, it’s easy for him.

Would you say that’s one of your value propositions? Of like, again, you you know how long it takes to get from A to B, and you know, especially if you’re relocating. But it’s funny because we start talking about relocation, but that’s not actually why I brought you on the podcast. It just happened to be that you said that, and I thought about it happens so often here in the Phoenix metro area as well. But let’s get to know you a little bit more because there’s something about you that I find that’s fascinating. Um one, you’re a singer. And but two, you’re really and and with your with your singing, I know you’re active in church, but you’re also really active in the community through your DAR, Daughters of the American Revolution, if you’re not familiar. And you even recently took a position with them.

Yes. So uh I am the new state curator for the next two years. So that’s a new position that I I took on. I’ve had lots of different positions at the chapter level, but but this is at the state level. So I’m very honored to to be able to serve.

Would you say that being involved in the community has an impact on your business?

Absolutely. You know, I meet a lot of people and you know, real estate just naturally comes up. You know, when somebody finds out I’m an agent, they always, you know, want to talk about the market or they, you know, tell me what they’re thinking. And either they say right away, oh, I don’t want to move, or else they’ll say, Oh, I do want to move, and and kind of tell me what they’re thinking about. And you know, people always like to bounce things off me when it comes to homes and real estate.

So for the agent who hears, oh, get involved with your community, but has no idea where to start, what what would you, what advice would you give them? What rules would you give them so that it doesn’t, you know, take all their time, but but they are involved.

I would say do something that you really love or that you’re really interested in. Um, you know, both my activities in church and with DAR, I was involved in those before I even got into real estate. So they’re things that I just love to be a part of, and I’ve made a lot of friends, you know, at both those places. And so, you know, when I got into real estate, it kind of like over the course of many years, I started to get business from from those organizations. But it’s not I didn’t join something just to get business. So I would say do something, yes, do something that that you’re interested in and and that you’re gonna have fun with.

Okay. So I heard you say, I’ve got a lot of friends. That means you’ve got relationships, right? But the thing that people are actually seeking you out for is downsizing, and that’s actually where you’ve you’ve really built a strong pillar of your business. So I think a lot of agents walk past this. I know Merrill and I, we’ve kind of always joked that our ideal client has to have an email address. And have like if you don’t have an email address, you know, because it’s just hard to do wet signatures, but you know, I’m thinking about, you know, I’m thinking about the person who’s been licensed maybe five years. They’re doing okay. They’ve never put on an event, you know, maybe because they think nobody would show up, they’ve never focused on the person downsizing. That’s kind of who I think’s listening right now that it it might be a scary topic for them. So tell me, how did how did the downsizing seminar start for you? Was it a strategy? Did you accidentally fall into it?

It was totally by accident. So it was actually my stepmom who asked me to do a downsizing seminar at the senior center. So at the time, my dad uh and my stepmom they would go to the senior center almost every single day. Like that was their whole social life. They would take classes, they would do exercise classes, they would do special events, and they had lots of friends there. And so, and they do have seminars. They have people that come in and and present to them on a regular basis. And so she said, I think you should do a downsizing seminar. And I was very early in my career and I was like, What do I have to lose? I’m not super busy. And so I did put uh a seminar together, and of course, it was great to have that connection with them because she made sure all her friends came to it. So I had uh an audience right off the bat. So and if anything, you know, it’s good to kind of get out there and do a presentation like that, and then you get instant feedback, you know, what people are looking for, what are their questions, what are their concerns. So, you know, I think any kind of seminar that you do, whether it’s a downsizing or it’s a seller seminar or buyer, you know, seminar, they’re all good events to do because you get to be face to face with people and and you get to share your expertise with them as well.

So walk us through the mechanics. Like where did you hold it? How did I mean you you said you’re you know that that you were able to get all the friends of your family to, you know, fill the room, but how did you get people to show up? Where did you do it? Like kind of break it down for us.

Sure. So I I did them at the senior center, and they have a calendar so where they put all their different events and whatnot. So I had created a flyer, and of course, you know, my stepmom, she distributed that to everybody. And there wasn’t a ton of promotion. It was all you know through that senior center because I didn’t really have contacts to you know, mail or anything. Later on, as I, you know, have done other events. I’ve advertised them through Eventbrite is a great way to put your events out there. Nextdoor is a great place, Facebook. So that you know, those are ways that you can promote your seminar. And uh and yeah, the first one, it was really just kind of a, you know, let me test this out and see how this works and how it goes. So uh I did wind up doing a handful of them at that senior center. And then I I went to a different senior center that was closer to my house to try that out as well. So um, yeah, they were really great events.

Is that something you have to pay for? Is it competitive? Are other agents doing those?

I don’t know of any other agents around me that are doing them. I did speak with an agent before I did my first one and um because I had met her at another uh real estate event and she did a lot of downsizing, but in a different area of Atlanta. So I talked to her and you know, kind of bounced some ideas off her because she had been doing it, you know, for a while.

Okay. Did you ever host one where you didn’t get the turnout that you wanted?

I mean, yes. Yeah, I mean that that can happen. And and I don’t ever think it’s a missed opportunity to be able to at least, you know, present the material, get used to public speaking. I think that that’s a a great skill to develop. So and and there’s something to be said about just doing and the work and showing up that, you know, may maybe things didn’t turn out like you thought they would. If anything, I found out, and of course, this was probably after COVID, that in those times when you don’t have someone show up, make sure you’re recording it, you know, because it becomes great content to put out there, um, whether little snippets or just to show that you’re doing something out there.

I love that. So, you know, if you can’t fill the room, this is what I hear you say. If for some reason you can’t fill the room, turn on the camera and repurpose that you you’re already there, right? Like repurpose that time into content and you know, stream it and do some of those. So, so what’s actually in the presentation? What are people learning about? What are you guys talking about?

I think the biggest thing when it came to the downsizing seminar in particular was the fact that if you’re gonna downsize your home, you have to downsize your stuff. And that really was the pain point for most people is that they want to downsize, but they have so much stuff in their home. Like you said in your your intro, people have lived in their house probably 20 plus years. And you know, even after just one year, you accumulate so much stuff. And, you know, every time I hold an open house for, you know, that’s a good opportunity for someone who’s downsizing. People will come in the door and they’ll say, I like it, but I’m a year out because we need to do things. We need we haven’t even started going through our stuff. So that’s been, you know, a big learning is that if people want to downsize, they need to kind of handle what they have at home first. Because to move all that stuff, it’s a lot, you know. And if you’re downsizing, there are going to be whole rooms that you’re not gonna even move that you’re gonna have to get rid of. Most people, when they downsize, they’re getting rid of a formal dining room, they’re getting rid of bedrooms. And so you really have to think that through. What does that look like? And I think that that’s probably the most important thing when you start off talking to someone who wants to downsize. Like, what’s what’s the plan in this downsize? You want less less space, but what’s what what for? You know, what’s the lifestyle? Some people want less maintenance, and you can have that with smaller square footage, but do they also want smaller yard or no yard or no exterior maintenance? You know, then you’re looking at, okay, we’re look gonna look at a condo or a town home or a cluster home where that’s included in a monthly HOA. Some people they do want smaller size, but they still want a yard because they garden or they have dogs or whatnot. So you really have to think that through, you know, with any client and be like, what is the plan before you even go down this road?

Do you have like a list of questions prepared? I mean, how do you how do you make sure that you’re getting those details? Because as you said, like there’s there’s a lot of moving parts and pieces. I mean, do you give them resources too? Like, yeah, take us through some more.

Absolutely. Yes. So I think it all starts off with, you know, what what’s the ideal place, like in a perfect world, what does this move look like for you? And you know, I’ve had some people where they downsize, but they move out of state. So it’s like I don’t handle that their buy side. I’m only selling their house. And they’ve already got that figured out. If someone’s here and they need to buy and sell, well, that, you know, makes it more complicated, but we can definitely do it. So it’s it’s knowing what they want to do. And do they have to sell to buy? Because, you know, does that have to be at the same time? Or sometimes they’re like, I can go ahead and buy first and then we’ll worry about selling. And yeah, so it it’s trying to figure out what their plan is and what they need to do. So that’s the first thing. And then the second thing, again, the possessions, the downsizing their stuff. You know, some people are really good at purging and getting rid of stuff, and some people are not. And so there are I know a lot of people usually will kind of default and say, I need an estate sale company to come in and help me, you know, sell this stuff that I don’t want to move so they can make some money. There, there is a group of people, they’re called senior move managers. And that is what they do is they help senior citizens through this downsizing process. The only thing they don’t do, they don’t do the real estate part of it. So they can help come in and say, okay, let’s see what you have. Where are you moving? What’s going to fit into your new place? They can even say, okay, this sofa is going to be too big for your next place. So you’re going to have to get rid of it. Like they can do the whole space planning of it. And they they can even help manage the move itself from, you know, telling the client, okay, you go spend the day with your family and they’ll work with the movers, get things moved up and into their new house to where they make the bed, they put the dishes and the cabinets and everything, and then you just come back and it’s done. You know, and and these move managers, they can do like a everything or they can do a la carte. But I think they’re a great resource. I mean, you know, you do pay for their services, but I had a friend and they did this for their grandfather, and she said it was money that was really well worth it.

I have no idea there was such a thing as a move manager, and that just sounds I mean, that sounds really helpful. Yes. And and I mean, how many other people may not know of a move, like to your point, the of a move manager? Now, you know, here’s something here’s something I I want to ask you, because I’m sure uh if uh an agent’s out there listening, they’re like, what does it what do you actually get? You know, are you getting appointments? Are you are you getting listening appointments right away? Are you just building future business? When you host these, what’s the what’s on the other side of uh you know the events over? What happens?

Specifically when it comes to downsizing, I think it is kind of a longer nurture time that you have with these people because they’re not quick. Usually when someone’s thinking about downsizing, they’ve been thinking about it for a while. Now, one there is one type of downsizer that I do think they’re quicker to move, and that’s usually if they have kids that are leaving. So if they have uh kids that are graduating high school and or graduating college, because it’s like it’s kind of a milestone. So they’re becoming empty nesters, and so usually they’re thinking, okay, my child is moving on. What are we doing now? Like, are we staying here? Or like these rooms are getting empty, or what do we want to do? Because now it’s kind of like, oh, the focus is on us. So I do feel like with when they’re younger like that, they will move quicker. And usually their stuff isn’t it, it doesn’t, I feel like they’re more manageable, or at least that’s that’s been my case um as far as their stuff. Because they’re like, oh no, we’re starting over, or if they want to move, they’re like, we want new things. We want to get rid of the old and we’re gonna buy new stuff.

So they’re no longer uh trashing my couch. I’m totally getting a new couch.

That’s right. That’s right. And and it’s funny, I had clients who just downsized from you know their four-bedroom house into a smaller house, and and they told me, they said, Dawn, this is not our our final home. This is kind of an interim, and we’re this is probably the five to seven year house, and then we’re gonna do it again, and that’ll be our final house. So they’ve already really planned out, you know, what what this is gonna look like long term. So that kind of is really nice that they’ve already got that in their head, what they want to do.

Now I know that I at one point in your life you downsized because you had mentioned that you were surprised at how much everything went down. Yes. Like utilities and and maintenance, and then you also said time. What what surprised you most about going through that process yourself?

Um, you know, it it was just easier to maintain a smaller house. So the house I had before had a full basement and it was just big, it was a lot of square footage. And, you know, anything that you do, whether getting the carpets cleaned or getting the windows clean, it was just exponentially more expensive to take care of. And then and and while we loved that house, and it was A too big, but it wasn’t necessarily in the area that we wanted to be in. So that was really kind of what made us make that move. And uh, but yeah, I found taking care of it, I was able to clean it a lot faster. Just regular maintenance was easy, and then I it didn’t even occur to me that the utilities would be less with less square footage. So I was like, well, you know, we’re just saving right and left here. So that that was really nice.

Do you think that it gives you an advantage? I mean, I haven’t downsized. Heaven knows I’d love to, but um, we’re just not in a position where you know, we still have so many kids at home. But like, do you feel like it gives you an advantage? Or is there if there’s an agent out there that has never downsized themselves, can they still work with this community?

Absolutely. I mean, yeah, they can definitely work with them. I do feel like it does give me an advantage because you know, I I’ve I’ve lived it. And and you do have to get rid of things, you know, you do have to you cannot move everything from a bigger house into a smaller house. It just isn’t feasible.

So Yeah. I actually uh recently helped a family member that moved from a two-story, you know, really large house to a single level and still a still still a four-bedroom house. And that was probably emotionally the hardest thing for them. It’s like where do we put the piano? The piano ended up going in a bedroom because they’re you know, because you didn’t have the formal living room with the formal dining room. You know what I mean? Like you know, lost a formal living room, a formal dining room. Now we just have this open concept with the you know, the eat-in-kitchen open concept. And uh so I’ve you know, having having helped that family member, I was like, wow, that was the the emotional part for that person was very, very difficult. But I think that you know we’ve all experienced things, right? Like maybe you’ve you’ve moved, you know, because you you know, some of your kids moved out, so you didn’t need so it’s maybe it’s not the the same as downsizing, but maybe you relocated, right? Maybe you bought your first place and and you know there’s always something to you know something to kind of figure out where you can help those people I think you also have to have a passion for it because it sounds like you have to have a lot of patience for follow-up. How do you keep how do you how like how do you keep track of these people who may be a year out?

You know I keep in touch with them just regular calls. They get my newsletter. I’m not I’m not super on them like I would be a regular a follow-up because I know that their timeline’s longer and um and if anything I’m just always a resource for them. So you know do they need help going through their stuff? And and like I said, you know the senior move managers are great because they will help them make decisions. And they do um this particular move manager that I’ve worked with she does an estate sale but it’s a it’s an online estate sale. So which is really cool because you know most of the estate sales that you see they’re local you’ve got to be following either that company or being on the websites or whatever. This one gets you know coverage all over the country because it’s online. And so people yeah they’ll they’ll come online and you can buy from anywhere and they’ll ship stuff. So I feel like people have done well in selling their stuff just because it gets more exposure than like maybe a local sale gets.

What do you think is the uh what do you think is the single like biggest misconception people carry into downsizing that like maybe could even like make the deal fall apart.

I mean there’s definitely a lot of moving parts um you know especially if people are are moving and buying at like selling and buying at the same time as far as misconceptions you know that it’s an older clientele which it it probably is you had mentioned before you know signing things in person. I really haven’t had that problem. I I think I’ve only had one client where um they really didn’t do a whole lot online and and it’s not like they couldn’t but and to me it was just easier for me to meet with them. They actually they lived in my neighborhood so it was easy to swing by and be like oh I just need you to sign this um but most people I find you know DocuSign was not an issue everyone’s got emails so that was not a problem at all from technology standpoint.

Yeah I’ve also heard you say it’s better to downsize sooner rather than later what’s what’s happened like what have you witnessed for people who maybe have waited a little bit too long.

So what I found and and I learned this actually from I told you I talked to that agent early on who had done a lot of downsizing and she told me and I found this to be true that it’s better for people to downsize when they’re still working and they’re still making money. They just have more control over where they want to go, what they can buy. When you get someone that is already retired and they’re on a fixed income it makes it a lot more difficult. You know and as you know real estate prices have gone up you know quite a bit so once they’re on a fixed income it just their choice becomes a lot more limited. That’s what I found.

Okay so here’s a story in my head and maybe someone who’s listening might be feeling this like maybe it feels a little bit too so I asked everybody I want you to think of a person in your database in your phone you know at the beginning of this episode and now I’m thinking well it feels like too personal to ask them like hey so are you getting too old for your house? I mean obviously you wouldn’t do obviously you would not approach it that way but you know do you feel like oh this is just there’s family’s business when is it appropriate as a real estate agent to to just say hey when you guys are thinking like how do you approach that because it does feel very personal.

You know it’s funny I don’t feel like I’ve had to approach it. I feel like people usually just bring it up I I had a neighbor and her oldest had already gone to college her and then her youngest was going to be a senior and she just made a comment she was like what am I gonna do when she’s gone you know she’s like I I only have a year and then she’s gone she goes I don’t think she’s like this house is so big. So she kind of brought it up and and I feel like again people have these natural like chapters in their life that it will make sense to to have those conversations you know even with people downsizing something that always comes up which is always so interesting to me they may want less space but the space that they want it’s different. They may say I still need a bedroom for the grandchildren that are going to come visit. I still want an area where they can play or go outside or whatever you know I I’ve gotten that quite a bit and and that’s always so funny because it’s like oh you would think they’re just looking for themselves but they’re still planning you know to have company and and family over. It’s just different. It’s not going to be all the time.

I love it. Well we like to we like to do a little rapid fire at the end of each of our episodes okay just to just to learn a little bit more about you and so you don’t have to overthink it just you know first thing that comes to mind but I want to know what’s one thing every downsizer keeps that they should have gotten rid of gosh one thing that they keep I cannot think of anything offhand.

I mean that people just have so much stuff probably too many clothes. Decades decades of clothes yeah or papers there are I I would see pu so much paper it’s kind of crazy.

Interesting so like receipts and tax documents and stuff that you just don’t need.

Yep.

Have you ever uh have you ever had someone get rid of something and then they regretted that they got rid of it I have not had anybody say that. Okay good to know good to know what’s what’s the last thing that you either read or you listened to that changed the way you work I saw something and it was actually it was I think it was a social media post.

I think I saw it last night and it was talking about using it was kind of like the leadership style of Jesus essentially you know like how you approach your business like you serve you know and you listen and and I really that really made an impact on me.

I love that. Mm-hmm is there a phrase that you should never use when you’re downsizing a client I think you just have to be really sensitive.

You know this is everything that they have is is very special to them and and like you said these are very emotional moves because they are gonna have to get rid of things. So I think just not to dismiss what they have you know and to just be really empathetic and compassionate.

What’s your favorite song to sing? My favorite song.

So I uh love Ella Langley and she’s got a song on her album now Something Simple that I love.

Well okay uh can we see that on your story maybe sometime are we gonna get a are we gonna get a little sneak peek maybe Ella Langley okay last question what’s the best piece of business advice you’ve ever gotten I think the best piece of business advice and actually I I read this a million years ago and it was just to listen like the best it was I think that how to win friends and influence people and there was a story in there about how somebody was considered a really good conversationalist and they were like I never said anything.

They just listened you know but people you know people love that and they feel like they’re being heard and so I I always think about that like you know talk less listen more.

I love that. So Dawn if people want to find you like where’s the best place for them to go if they wanted to find you learn more about down downsizing or send you a referral.

Sure. I would say Instagram is probably the best place and that is @DawnLevyRealtor. And then if you go to my profile there I do have a link tree that has all my different channels and contacts and everything. So that’s the easiest place.

I love it. Well here’s what I know every agent listening right now has a client in their database who’s probably filed under not ready, right? Like they they’re they know they’re gonna move like you the conversation you had with your client right they’re just not ready. And I would say that they’re probably maybe even just a little bit stuck because nobody’s you know given them a room to sit in and a person who’s been through it and the instructions on what to do next. So here’s your take it and run challenge. I want you to open up your database right and that could be your phone, your CRM, a spreadsheet I want you to filter for anybody who you could see in a life transition. Right? Maybe they’ve lived in their home more than 15 years. Maybe their home’s a two story and there’s no kids right that’s your list. I’m sure it’s already there in your database. And I just want you to reach out right put something together. Let them know you’ve been thinking about them. Let them know what’s happening in the real estate market and see you know I’m not sure if it’s for you but I am going to be hosting this right sizing, downsizing seminar whatever you call it. If that’s your challenge I want you to send five texts right start with somebody right off the top of your list. Dawn, thank you for sharing with us your secrets to how to run a seminar and what’s inside that seminar. You’ve given everybody the instructions so now it’s everybody’s turn to take it and run.