Jarnell Carter, an agent from St. Louis, got his real estate license about three years ago.

With an education in communications and journalism, Jarnell had planned to write a book early on in his career, when he assumed he would have the time to do so. 

“I already know that when you are a writer, it makes you an authority. But the problem was when I first started in real estate, I did not even expect to be busy. So I figured I'd have time to deal with that.”

But as it turns out, Jarnell landed a deal in his first 30 days as an agent, and the business kept coming. He was even named Coldwell Banker’s Rookie of the Year for St. Louis. 

“And it just kept it just spiraled from there. I've just been busy ever since. So I don't know how I found you guys. ... I just made the phone call and said, ‘Hey, you know? I see that you guys do this, and it's something that I'm interested in doing myself, but I don't have the time to do it.’”

Jarnell joined Authorify last year, and since then, he’s landed several lucrative deals that bring him consistent referral business.

“If I meet people, I always have books with me and I always have presentations on me and stuff like that. And that's how I've been giving them out just by in person.

“The stuff that has been yielding all the results is me handing a book to a person and saying, ‘Hey, you think I can help you? That's great.’ When I'm going on listing presentations, I typically give them the book prior to my appointment, and that has really changed the dynamic of the appointment tremendously.”

“They just sent me a whole page of listings, and it's because of the book.” 

One day while he was knocking on doors, Jarnell happened to knock on the door of a local council member whose home he was looking to sell. 

“And I didn't know the guy was on the city council. I was just hunting for a listing, and I gave him the book and everything like that. I got his listing and sold his property in one day. And two weeks later, I was in a city council meeting.”

Jarnell was nervous during the meeting, but it turns out, his book had already pre-sold the municipality on working with him.  

“I have a mayor sitting here and all these council members and a city attorney, and I was like, ‘OK, I'm not going to talk a lot in this meeting. I want to see what these people have to say.’ And mostly they were sold on me. They were trying to get me. They were selling themselves to me the whole time. And I was like, ‘Wow, this is the exact type of dynamic that I need.’

“One of the council members when they met with me, she was sitting there in the council room with my book and was like, ‘Oh wow. OK." and that's why they hired me. So I am handling pretty much all of their real estate needs and helping them with vacant property type situations. 

“They have me at all these million dollar deals and stuff right now. And I've never done million dollar real estate at all. The most I've ever done was the $650,000 house. And now I'm working with this municipality and everything's over a million bucks. 

“They just sent me a whole page of listings, and it's because of the book. So I give the book credit for this particular deal because I know that they've mentioned it many times to me about the book and ‘I love the book’ and they've never met an agent that had something like that for them to review. And that's one of the reasons why they chose me. And they already had an agent that I've been working with them for like 10 years. 

“It was really cool because I didn't think I had a chance to get the business, and now, here I am.”

“Feel free to sell it on your own.”

Jarnell says landing this big deal has given him the confidence to flex his expertise on other deals. 

“And it really has changed the dynamic for me when I go out to any other type of appointment,” Jarnell says. “You know, I have positioned myself now when I get to a listing appointment that I'm the authority, and a lot of clients, I have been there where I have signed up listings that I shouldn't have signed up, or they fight me on things that they don't want to do and stuff. And now I can just tell people, ‘Hey, if you don't want me to do what you should, call another agent because I have more — I have a lot of people that want me to list houses now.”

Having a book has also given Jarnell solid footing to be able to stand up to difficult clients and earn their respect. 

“I listed a house the other day — it was a husband and wife. … He works for the Boeing corporation, and he's an executive and he's used to being the boss and stuff. And his father was there to kind of intercept me and everything. And he was telling me what I was going to do. And my response to him was, ‘You must also have a book.’ And he said, ‘No, I don't have a book.’ And I said, ‘Well, let me worry about what the market is doing with this house, how it needs to be presented because I'm the professional in the room. And that's why you guys have me here. If you want it to do the listing yourself, you feel free to sell it on your own.’ But I already knew that they tried to sell it on their own and it fell all apart and everything.”

“So now this guy at Boeing, he's like ‘Jarnell, I'm telling all my people at Boeing about you because oh my God, they all talk about nightmare real estate agents. And you made this move.’ And he was fighting me on my percentages and stuff. And he said, ‘I feel bad about fighting you on your percentage just now because look at how fast you did this for us. And they didn't have to spend anything. I didn't even stage it or take a picture. I took a picture of the front door. That's it.”

“He found me because of the book.”

Jarnell says the books have also helped him boost his social media following and land listings. 

“I had like 14,000 impressions two weeks ago because I just did one of your other books, one of the investor books. I put it on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and 14,000 impressions.”

On one particular book post, Jarnell took a chance and boosted it to a worldwide audience. His post happened to reach someone all the way in Germany — the Vice President of the Bayer Corporation, which recently acquired agrochemical company Monsanto, previously  headquartered in St. Louis. 

“I'm glad I did because that's how he found me. And he said that he wanted to work with an agent that he felt could negotiate on his behalf. And he was like, based on what he read in that book, he felt confident about me handling all his negotiations and everything.”

He ended up helping the man purchase a $515,000 home. 

“And I mean, this man could've bought a million dollar house if he wanted to, but I found a house that I felt was better than many of the million dollar homes that he was sending to me. And he really liked that about me because he was like, ‘You didn't even spend all my money.’ And I was like, ‘Well, sometimes I don't have to spend all your money for you to be happy,’ and bam, he's in love.

“He found me because of the book. And he has a whole big, giant team of people that are going to be moving to St. Louis from all around the world, and I'll be handling all of those locations. So I'm super excited about that, too.”

“I'm not chasing the buyers anymore.”

Jarnell has also been able to leverage his reputation to land deals with investors. 

“I get an investor call every day now, every day. ... And you know, they're all closing at least three deals a month. Cause I'm not chasing the buyers anymore. You know? I'm letting them deal with the buyers calling me. And then I send them over.”

These investor relationships have helped Jarnell in his new partnership with the municipality, which is in an area of St. Louis with lower property values. 

“The main thing that they want me to do with these properties that I'm going to sell for them is I'm selling them with deed restrictions. So you, Mr. Investor, would have to have that property 100% remodeled within 180 days. And the remodel has to be able to sell for at least $10,000 more than the highest price of the property on that block. So this is the way to get the market to start ticking up over there. And I think over time, it's going to make a big difference.”

His partnership has also given him access to clients throughout the community. 

“When people go to city hall now and if they say it — real estate comes out of their mouth — then the receptionist says, ‘Oh, you need to call Jarnell.’ And I'm just getting all of these calls from people from city hall constantly.

“I'm like, ‘Well, I guess I don't need another client this year, but I'm still running around finding, trying to get what I can.”

“There's plenty of business for everybody.”

Jarnell says one of the biggest benefits of using the books is that they allow him to generate consistent listings and be more selective about the deals he pursues.

“Since I've started in real estate, I would have some big deals, but they were sporadic,” Jarnell says. “I think that the book is helping me get to where I'm trying to go, as far as being an agent is concerned. And it allows me to be very picky, which is what I wanted, you know, let all other agents list everything else. That's how I feel. There's plenty of business for everybody.”