A cold chill has blown on the real estate market and sales are down across the country. When the market was hot, every Tom, Dick and Harry wanted to be in the kitchen and sell real estate. Why? Because it did not take any skill or premier quality customer service. Now that the housing market has been on a steady decline for just over two years we have an opportunity to separate the good from the bad and the ugly.
There are actually agents that expanded their market share, added more clients to their portfolio or received higher customer service acknowledgment during the last year. Those are the agents that understand that in a down market true real estate professionals actually can do better.
According to the Swanepoel Trends Report, published by RealSure, there are five strategies that will not only keep the real estate agents afloat until the next upswing but could actually place them in a better position for rapid growth when the market turns. In summary they are:
1. Maximizing Technology and the Internet
Google should be a part of every real estate professionals online lead strategy as placing high on organic search results has become very important to any serious agent. At the same time integrating your key activities such as marketing, MLS, customer management, etc. need to be integrated into one easily accessible web-based system. Agents should use this year to make sure that when the next boom arrives they will be able to process the entire home buying and selling transaction digitally.
The Report discusses dozens of new innovative Web 2.0 initiatives, encouraging agents to explore these services and see which may be added to strengthen their online portfolio.
2. Building Teams Correctly
The creation of smaller more effective business units or teams within larger companies has been around for awhile, but during the last decade the concept has gained momentum. RE/MAX now estimates that 27% of their affiliates are working on a team. According to the Report there are basically two different kinds of teams. The first is where two or more producing agents combine their practices under one banner to provide greater coverage for themselves and their clients and the second where a lead agent starts building a business inside the brokerage operation. The lead agent then hires administrative staff to increase his or her time in more productive and income generating sales activities.
No matter what the size or how a team is structured, the key to building a successful team requires following the correct steps, getting the right chemistry between all team members and executing on a deliberate business plan.
3. Solidifying Your Business Plan
In todays competitive and complex marketplace, an entrepreneurs success is far from guaranteed. Moving into 2008 or 2009 without a well thought out and implemented business plan is a disaster waiting to happen. Yet so many agents fly by the seat of their pants.
A good business plan should include:
- An assessment of your current situation.
- A definition of your business focus and strategic intent.
- A clear vision of what results you want to achieve by objectives.
- A list of action steps that you will utilize to achieve your goals.
- An understanding of why you need regular analysis and occasional revisions of your game plan.
4. Using Virtual Assistants
The ways in which Virtual Assistants (VAs) can help real estate agents become more productive are limited only by ones imagination. And there are few, if any, support functions that cannot be handled by a VA - including functions such as:
- Transaction Coordination
- Listing Marketing Coordination
- Staying in Touch
- Online Lead Management
- Operational Management
- Screen Email and Phone Messages
- Ad Writing
- Website Maintenance
5. Diversifying Your Business
Diversification is the order of the day. For our industry there are two types of diversification - geographic and product or service. In these slow times it may be wise to view the needs of your customer base to see if there are other profitable products that may be a good fit to offer past clients. It is also a perfect time for agents to expand their skills and knowledge by getting educated on other transactional aspects such as mortgage, escrow, home owners insurance, home warranty, remodeling, repairing, painting, landscaping, etc. The advantage of bringing some of these services in-house is the ability to eliminate the expense of redundant overhead and to derive additional income from the same client.
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