5 Things To Do To Improve Your Real Estate Business

Whether you are a new agent or a veteran agent, there is one thing you should always know, and it is that markets change. Whether affected by the economy or a natural disaster or any other factor, the real estate market in the country goes through cycles. Whenever these cycles occur, some agents climb higher while others slide back. The one thing agents that go higher keep in mind is that they must understand how to adjust whenever the market changes. Here are five things such agents do to keep the momentum going and to ride every market trend, whether good or bad.

Hobby vs. Business

Top-performing agents differentiate between doing real estate as a hobby and doing it as a business. The reality is that a vast majority of real estate agents in the US approach it as a hobby. They sell maybe 5-10 homes each year while doing other things. They view real estate as a secondary source of income, sometimes right after their full-time job. To survive market changes, you must approach real estate as a business. You must build in all the structures that go into running a business. When you do this, you wire your brain to always keep going and doing the right things, even as market conditions change.

Live Inside Your CRM

Another area where most agents falter is in customer relationship management. You look in an agent’s phonebook, and there is a contact called Jimmy. There’s no context as to who Jimmy is, where they met, what Jimmy was looking for, etc. To build a resilient business, you must invest in a customer relationship system that helps you nurture your leads into customers. Be advised, however, that CRM is more about a culture of lead nurturing than it is about purchasing CRM software. To succeed, you will need to invest tons of time in using the CRM to understand and engage your leads.

Have Multiple Lead Generation Sources

For most agents, having one or two effective lead generation channels is enough. They exploit these channels effectively and may even perform extremely well. However, with such a limited source of leads, all it takes is for a significant change in the market to knock-out one or both channels, and they will be out of business in no time. To avoid this, nurture between four and six channels. That includes email, phone, social media, referrals, etc. Keep building each of these channels so if one gets affected; you will still have leads coming in.

Is Your Price Point Safe?

Pricing is one of the trickiest things in any business. Large corporations spend hundreds of millions of dollars to try and estimate the best price for a product. While you may not have the same resources, you can spend time understanding your pricing and adjusting it for every market change. If a dramatic shift occurs and you lack price flexibility, you will quickly find you have no deals to close. Keep your pricing flexible and always have sales funnels targeting multiple housing price points so when the market changes, you can quickly adjust and stay in business.

Stockpile Cash

The wise king prepares for war in a time of peace. Agents often miss this lesson and spend the good times building out their business and their personal life to match the wealth the market is generating. However, when lean times come, and they are bound to come, most agents lock down everything, shutting down marketing, scaling down the team, etc. This is a poor tactic. To avoid this, stockpile your cash during the good times. Put aside money earmarked for operational spending. That way, when the lean times come, your operations continue as usual. The great thing about this is that when everyone else is cutting spending, you maintain yours, allowing you to gain market share.

Conclusion

When markets change, that is when you see who the truly spectacular agents are. They are the ones that keep rising even as the market goes down. Such agents know that market changes are great opportunities to rise above the competition. They know when things are hard, they should be doubling down on their business and investments, not cutting back. For you to be such an agent, you must internalize these five tactics and weave them into your business and mindset.