How Jeff Mateja listed 90 houses in 90 days (working 9-5)

Want to hear a Realtor brag? Ask them if they like working weekends. They’ll probably tell you how they waltzed through Whole Foods without waiting in line or scored a prime patch of sand on a nearly empty beach on a Tuesday afternoon. Of course, if you’re friends with Realtors (which I highly recommend), the truth often comes out: Most would give anything to have nights and weekends off. Who wouldn’t? But there’s no other way to become a top producer. No sleep till closing, right?

Jeff Mateja doesn’t think so. A former corporate auditor at IBM and current top listing agent at Keller Williams, Mateja works old-school banker’s hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 5:00. He goes to the beach on Sundays with everyone else. He doesn’t mind the crowds. He also lists more houses than some large teams. His latest claim to fame: Listing 90 homes in 90 days. Well, technically 72 days. He only works five days a week.

I recently sat down with Mateja to find out how he did it. He walked me through the six motivation-killing myths that keep most agents from scaling their listing business, and the clever solutions he devised to list 90 homes in 90 days.

1. Build a support team on day one

💥Myth busted: “I don’t have the support staff to take on more listings.”

The most common excuse Mateja hears from struggling listing agents? They don’t have the support to handle the listings they already have. How can they afford to hire enough people to handle ten times the volume?

Channeling his inner auditor, Mateja answers them with a simple, logical question: “What if someone came to you with 10 properties to sell? You would find a way to do it, right?” Of course you would.

Mateja’s solution: Build a freelance support team from day one. You can start small. A freelance transaction coordinator and an overseas virtual assistant won’t cost much upfront, but they will build a solid foundation to scale from.

Of course, you’ll never make it to 90 listings in 90 days with just a transaction coordinator and a virtual assistant. To reach the next level, you’ll need to hire more as your listing volume increases. Mateja’s advice: “Don’t think, hire somebody else.”

After setting up your support team, finding software that can generate quick listing wins is a crucial next step. Mateja paired two tools to help him hit his 90/90 goal: his CRM (Brivity) and an AI-powered app called Fello. Here’s how it works: Fello’s proprietary AI sifts through the leads in his CRM to uncover hidden listing opportunities. Once it identifies likely sellers, Fello’s AI automatically creates and sends personalized home valuation campaigns to nurture them until they’re ready for a call. It’s an easy way to get more listings to hit your own 90/90 goal.

2. Stop working with buyers. Today. Yes, really. 

💥Myth busted: “I can’t afford to turn away buyers”

The next step in Mateja’s 90/90 listing plan was to stop working with buyers. Scary, right? According to Mateja, it shouldn’t be. On a call with his coach, KW Maps’ Craig Zuber, he had an epiphany. Working with buyers was keeping him from his goal. Here’s Mateja:

“You need to ask yourself what your time is worth. You spend roughly one-sixth of the time with a seller as you do with a buyer. I could take on a $500,000 buyer and walk away with a $15,000 commission. But how many hours would it take me to close that deal? 30? 50? If I refer that buyer to someone else, I can make 25% for just a few hours of work.

Even if I refer the buyer to another agent, I can still maintain my relationship with them and take the listing if they decide to sell in a few years.”

Taking buyers off his plate gave Mateja more of his most precious commodity – time. No longer at the beck and call of needy buyers, Mateja now had the time to lead generate, hire more (and better) staff and hone his listing presentation skills.

It also gave Mateja his weekends back. Instead of playing tour guide with buyers every Sunday, he now had time to rest and recharge — something he would need as his listing volume went from merely impressive to extraordinary.

But he now had a new problem. How many listings could he realistically handle without burning out? To find out, he went back to Zuber to do the math.

3. Do the math – then set an audacious yet realistic goal

💥Myth busted: “This just doesn’t seem possible.”

Goal setting can be tricky. You need to aim high enough to stay inspired, but you also need to be realistic, or you will set yourself up for failure. Luckily, Mateja’s coach is an expert at helping agents set goals that inspire while remaining grounded in reality. Like all great plans, the formula is simple.

Working closely with his coach, Mateja realized that while he had taken only 12 listings the previous month, nearly 300 had closed in his market. Channeling Wayne Gretzky, Zuber laid down the gauntlet: “Well, that’s 288 chances you missed. How many more listing appointments do you think you can do now? How many more listings would you take if your closing ratio stayed the same?”

Mateja thought for a minute, then came out with a number. At the upper limit, he could take 30 listings per month: “So we came up with 90 and 90 and we’ve done it three times.”

4. Become the CEO of your listings startup

💥Myth busted:  “I will need to micro-manage every deal.”

Once he set his 90/90 goal, Mateja decided to treat his listing business like a lean startup:

“If you go to Starbucks, it’s not the CEO who’s at the drive-thru or the cash register. So I decided to focus on what I’m great at: Going on listing appointments, talking to homeowners, guiding them and then negotiating on their behalf. To free me up for that, I hired a photographer, a listing manager and someone to install signs. This allows me to give homeowners my undivided attention and make sure that their home gets sold for top dollar.”

Note that Mateja’s plan is not to focus on what he’s good at, but what he’s great at. In every area of life, greatness comes from repetition and passion. His team was already a well-oiled listing machine. His next goal was to hone his listing appointments until they ran like clockwork — a crucial first step in building his 9-to-5 schedule.

5. Gamify your schedule

💥Myth busted:  “There aren’t enough hours in the day to work that many listings.”

With his team as his foundation, Mateja worked closely with Zuber to assemble the final piece of the 90/90 puzzle: his schedule. Most agents time-block. They schedule time in the morning to prospect, time on weekends to cart buyers to open houses and time in the evening to market their business. To reach 90 listings in 90 days while working banker’s hours, Mateja knew he had to do better.

To hit his audacious goal without burning out, Mateja and Zuber got granular. They scrutinized every hour of Mateja’s day — down to his commute time to each listing appointment — to devise tight but plausible time goals for every listing appointment. Eventually, they created a gamified schedule that left just enough breathing room for the inevitable emergency.

6. Learn the power of saying no: You get what you tolerate

💥Myth busted: “I will lose listings to agents who work nights and weekends.”

When I asked Mateja if he ever worried about losing listings to agents willing to work the weekend, he didn’t mince words. “You get what you tolerate.”  He sets clear expectations with his referrals to guard his most precious resource: his time.

“Here’s the expectations I set with homeowners on day one. You have my cell phone number, so you can always call me. I might not get right back to you, but understand that when I’m in, I’m all-in. We’re going to take care of you.”

I know what you’re thinking. “White glove” customer service means being available 24/7. Answering calls from the waiting room of your kid’s orthodontist shows sellers how dedicated you are.

The reality? It makes you look desperate. People want to work with busy people. If you’re willing to drop everything to handle their tiniest problem, what does that say about the value of your time? Brain surgeons don’t work weekends. Lawyers don’t text their clients on the Fourth of July with a hot dog in one hand and a beer in the other. Why should real estate agents?

The full picture

Know an agent who is thriving despite the odds and has actionable insights to share? We’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us here: [email protected].

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