I’m shocked to read the same old advice for 2018 regarding real estate sales business planning: Don’t become complacent. Write down your goals. Do social media. Seriously? These are the most basic requirements for running ANY business.
Let’s talk about the Real Estate Business!
- THINK WIDER. Look to expand your business geographically. Technology and cloud-based companies like EXP Realty have made this possible. Diversify your portfolio in more than one area. Specializations still apply – golf is alive in the Hamptons, just as it is in Naples. Go get those communities and expand your teams. Sharing in company revenue isn’t bad either!
- LEVERAGE MORE RELATIONSHIPS. Despite internet lead system popularity, Inman reports that the majority of listings still come through relationships built over time. As an industry, we’re moving away from techniques that provide the greatest profit, like talking to people, and toward techniques over which we have less control and less profit, like internet leads. This is still a people business – so play golf, play tennis, go to church, get involved in community outreach and tap into the levels of business contacts you’ve already made over the years. If you want to work internet leads, team up with a deep-pocket lead provider whom you can pay based on production at closing, instead of paying a fixed expense up front that may be unrealized.
- GO AFTER BUILDER PRODUCT. Having relationships with builders and developers is key in expanding product and providing the greatest variety of inventory to the buyer. Top agents should be the ones builders turn to for help in selling custom, spec, model-lease-back and land.
- GET RIDICULOUSLY GOOD AT THE VISUAL PRODUCT. All you guys still taking pictures with your phones, listen up… we’re past the point of instant visual gratification. We’re now into instant visual electrification; Pictures that are so virtually stimulating, they ignite emotion and command action. If your videos take more than a few seconds to buffer, if you aren’t using drone photography, and if strong, visually-enticing marketing isn’t part of your plan – reconsider. Think as a business owner, it may be time to join a team that has outstanding visual marketing or bring on an investor partner who believes in you to subsidize this requirement of your business.
- HIRE STRONG TECH RESOURCES. We’re watching quality sales professionals try to become International Technology experts every day. It’s what’s required to keep up – you can’t avoid it… and most of you can’t do it! Even if you can, is it the best use of your time? Your executive or virtual assistant needs to be handling your tech needs including social media. We’re all in that boat now. Change the way you think about an assistant. Get your own coffee – let them post, boost, tweet and snap!
- INVEST IN YOUR MARKETS. Be sure you are diversifying your business portfolio by investing in real estate in your own market. Staying tuned to the market as a consumer and creating additional streams of wealth are essential and positive ways to grow as a broker.
- STOP TRYING TO ACHIEVE BALANCE. Let’s just be honest. If you want to build your business in 2018 and do more than you did last year, stop trying to balance everything and FOCUS. Focus like a dog on a bone. Distractions continue to increase for small business owners. In real estate, fast is a demand, not a luxury. At the end of the day the only thing that truly matters is EXACTLY what you DID to create more customer leads. (By the way, the easiest way to create more leads is to do an outstanding job with the buyers & sellers you have now.) A major difference in former generations and the ones we see coming up is the willingness to work, long and hard for what they want. Get comfortable with hard work and focus on results. You’ll be out of balance for a while, and that’s ok!