Are You Making These Mistakes in Your Real Estate Biz?
For more than two decades I have watched, read and heard all the different mistakes that are being made and what agents are doing to sabotage their careers and it amazes me the same top mistakes keep coming up year after year by REALTORS in the real estate industry.
You would think after more than twenty or even thirty years these mistakes would change but they are still the same top mistakes coming up after so many years.
Top 8 Mistakes REALTORS Are Making in Their Real Estate Business
1) Waiting For Their Past Clients & Centers Of Influence To Call Them – There are only three ways in which an agent can get real estate business and they are; waiting for the business, buying the business (for example purchasing leads) or they can create the business and go out and find it. I know this is common knowledge but the phone does make incoming and outgoing calls, correct? Who’s job is it to remind our past clients and centers of influence that we are still in business, what it is we do, ask for referrals and offer to help and add value?
Ours!
Right?!
So don’t believe it is ok not to bother your clients and take the initiative to call them at least 4 times a year.
2) Consistently Inconsistent With Prospecting & Lead Generation – Sales is a full contact sport and we need to be contacting as many prospects each and every day of our career to be able to stop the peaks and valleys in our listings, sales and income. Blocking a specific time every day in our schedule for lead generation and prospecting will keep the listing, sales and income funnel consistently full and avoid those peaks and valleys that are common in our industry.
3) Not Qualifying Our Buyers and Sellers – Are we asking the right questions to measure the clients motivation and timing and working smarter and not harder because the buyer and seller are pre-qualified in advance of the transaction?
So many agents are afraid, shy or not wanting to qualify their client in fear of offending them or being too forward but all top agents have taken the time and measured the motivation and timing of almost every buyer and seller they work with and made priority according to their response. Which really does save not only the agent but the client a ton of time and energy as well.
Ask yourself... "Am I being a tour guide to buyers and a CMA professional to sellers?"
4) Not Qualifying Our Appointments – Knowing that the buyer is ready to buy or top agents have the courage to say good bye. The top agent knows the seller is motivated to sell and their timing is right before putting so much time, money and energy into the client and the marketing of their property. Have you pre-qualified your buyer and seller appointments or are you just filling in time and meeting them blindly? We have nobody to blame but ourselves for attending appointments not knowing a buyer or sellers motivation and timing.
Ask yourself... "Am I being a counsellor, visitor and socializer vs. a professional who is serious about appointments with clients who are truly buying and selling?"
5) Overpricing Listings – I know this isn’t anything new but we see so many agents listing properties at any price and we know this is true because nationally 24% of all listings expire because of over pricing. A Large number of agents are not able to control the seller and their feelings about pricing their home. Are you using a pricing presentation? Do you know what to say to change what the seller is feeling about pricing their home? Do you wing it? Are you in control during the pricing debate or is the seller?
6) Majority Of Time Is Spent On Marketing vs. Prospecting – Agents are choosing to spend the majority of their time and effort on doing their own marketing and the prospecting is not done day after day after day. Top producers implement what I call the 3D test with their marketing which is...
1) Do I Do It?
2) Do I Delegate It?
3) Do I Dump it?
By implementing this strategy they know their daily time for prospecting is not put off day after day and soon they find they have no leads, appointments, listings or sales and no money.
7) We Don’t Track, Measure & Know Our Numbers – Do you know where your business is coming from? Do you know what you are good at and what you are not good at? How many contacts do you talk to until you get an appointment? How many appointments do you need until you get a contract? How many contracts do you take that close and pay you? How many listings do you need? How many listings do you take to sell? How long does it take to sell your listings? How many homes do you show a buyer until they write an offer? I could go on and on and on but I think we get the point but without knowing you numbers we cannot see the holes in our business and the opportunities to improve on it.
8) Lack Of Accountability – Why do professional athletes have a coach? Why do we have mentors? Why is eating and exercising so difficult for so many? Who do we have holding us accountable every day in business and in life? Fine tuning our business and looking at it from 30,000 feet and seeing if we are getting better or worse? The most difficult part of being an independent contractor is we really don’t have someone to answer to and nobody to keep us from all the distractions we have each and every day in our business and life and help us stay focused. Do you have a real estate coach that provides you with direction, insight and accountability?
I hope revealing these mistakes may have shed some light in your own real estate business and will open your mind to changing your behavior to stop the habits so many agents in our industry are doing year after year.
Strength and Courage,
Wade
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