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Guest Bio: Herman Antonov leads The Antonov Group, an 18-agent real estate team based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. He got his start over a decade ago writing SEO blogs about owner financing and bad-credit home buying before becoming licensed, and today his team closes roughly 200 to 220 transactions a year while he focuses primarily on lead generation.

Episode Summary: Herman Antonov joins Tim Donovan to trace his unusual path into real estate through blogging and Google AdSense, then breaks down how his team generates leads today through multilingual social media campaigns and down payment assistance offers. The conversation covers his follow-up philosophy, tactical advice for brand-new agents and agents looking to scale, and his take on how AI and industry consolidation will reshape real estate over the next five years.

What's Covered:

• Herman explains how he stumbled into real estate around 2010 through WordPress blogs targeting searches like rent-to-own and owner financing after the 2008 crash, eventually getting licensed at his mother's suggestion to serve the leads he was already attracting.
• He details his current team structure of 18 agents producing 12 to 20 deals each for a total of about 200 to 220 transactions annually, and how he has scaled back his own production to focus on lead generation.
• Herman describes a multilingual Instagram and Facebook ad strategy built around Minnesota's 32,000 dollar first-generation homebuyer down payment assistance program, noting that a Ukrainian-language video hit 130,000 views while an identical English version barely moved.
• He shares his follow-up philosophy of getting leads offline as fast as possible, using localized storytelling emails as a drip campaign, and acknowledges that leads still fall through the cracks despite these systems.
• For agents starting from scratch in a new city, Herman recommends joining the brokerage with the most listings, partnering with listing agents to host open houses, and generating free leads through Instagram walkthroughs and Facebook Marketplace posts.
• He outlines his biggest wish for the business, solving appointment setting at scale, contrasting agents given raw lead lists versus agents handed pre-booked appointments, and describes using ChatGPT and ElevenLabs to mass-produce faceless video walkthroughs for Instagram.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro and welcoming Herman Antonov

00:30 - How Herman got into real estate through Craigslist and blogging

02:38 - Team size and annual transaction volume today

04:58 - Instagram lead generation strategy overview

05:29 - Ukrainian-language video hits 130,000 views

08:08 - Down payment assistance ad targeting first-generation buyers

09:17 - Follow-up philosophy and drip email strategy

11:08 - Building a business from scratch in a new city

14:06 - Tactical advice: get a showing partner and specialize

17:00 - Magic wand problem: fixing appointment setting

20:06 - Using ChatGPT and ElevenLabs for AI video walkthroughs

23:18 - Predictions for the industry five years out

26:20 - Where to follow Herman and his team