Ways To Maintain A Solid Real Estate Business In 2021

maintain solid real estate business 2021The last year and a half have definitely been some challenging times. Remember in uncertain times you can still control your own environment, be proactive and come out a winner. My personal friend and mentor Brian Buffini always reminded us to consider all areas of your personal and business life are in check. Consider your spiritual, family, business, financial and personal and ensure your 5 Circle fit. The 5 circle fit check can help you stay motivated and energized no matter what life throws your way. As a real estate professional, it’s helpful to hone your focus on the business circle. Here’s how:

Stick to a Schedule

If we don’t take control of our own time someone or something else will Working for yourself gives great freedom – you get to set your own hours and be in charge of your own calendar. However, with great freedom comes great responsibility! As a business owner, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer multitude of the tasks you have to complete every day. This is why a schedule to keep you on track is vital. Start and end your day at set hours. Also, designate special periods for dealing with administration, checking email and running errands so you don’t get distracted by non-lead generating activities that waste time.

Invest in Relationships

We are in the relationships business and have missed that connection and face to face time so much the last year and a half. Strong relationships are at the heart of every good business, so you have to make building them your business! Calls, notes and a drop by gift, coffee or lunches are powerful ways to consistently reach out and connect with your clients and others in your sphere of influence. When you go above and beyond to serve your customers and prove your trustworthiness, they will become megaphones for you in the marketplace, eager to refer you to others. This way, the stream of referrals will never dry up!

Stay Motivated

If it’s meant to be, then it’s up to me! In difficult and demanding times, it can be hard to stay upbeat and motivated. To remain positive, be careful what you watch, read and listen to. Tune into educational and informative podcasts. Avoid people that drain you and seek out resources that provide facts-based knowledge and encourage growth and personal development! I can’t emphasize the importance of guarding yourself  it really is about energy management versus time management.

Track Finances

Tracking, measuring and shifting along the way is key! When you’re running your own business, finances are a serious matter. To know exactly where your money is going, you need to create a spending plan for your business and yourself. Separate your business and your personal accounts, pay yourself a salary based on your budget and remember to factor in rainy-day reserves and a retirement fund. By conducting a financial overhaul and getting your business on the right track, you’ll outlast your competition and be able to live the good life.

Get a Real Estate Mentor/Coach

When it comes to achieving goals, accountability is key. We all do better when we have to answer to someone! The best real estate mentor will help, encourage and celebrate you, but he or she will also hold your feet to the fire and make sure that you do what you promised to! Who is mentoring you? Who is encouraging you? Who is holding you accountable? It has been an honour to be able to serve so many over the many years and never take that lightly.

I trust some of these reminders will help you get on track or back on track this next few weeks and be able to really finish 2021.

Strength and courage,
Wade

Is Your Real Estate Business Unshakeable?

unshakeable real estate businessIt is time for North American real estate agents to accept the fact this is our new normal real estate market. Real estate markets are shifting all over North America and this is now the market agents are needing to be comfortable working in. The nice part about this new normal market is it is not a global recession or not a global housing crisis but it is also not the record breaking sales and increase in values we have seen over the last number of years either. Currently we have about 1.3 million real estate professionals in the U.S. and about 110,000 real estate professionals in Canada. Last year only 3% of the agent population sold more than 25 homes. Almost half of the agent population sold no homes last year. The forecast is 78 million people will move in the next four to five years. Ancillary companies invested 5 billion dollars into the real estate industry this year to capture a piece of the 100 plus billions of commission dollars that will be generated in real estate sales in the coming years. So how much of that pie do you want to capture? What do you need to do to ensure you capture a piece of that pie? Here are my top tips for you to create an unshakeable real estate business and to capture the biggest piece of the pie in the coming years.

Tip to Create an Unshakeable Real Estate Business

  1. MINDSET – The most important factor to any agents success is their identity and how they see themselves in their own marketplace and how the marketplace sees them as the trusted expert in their community. You need to fall more in love with the fact you can change lives with your real estate business and what you do truly does matter. You need to have the mindset that this is my business and not a job or a hobby but this is my business! How I treat my business matters. How I run my business matters. How I step up my business matters. How the community sees me as a trusted real estate expert matters. Change you own identity and your communities identity about you and your business today!
  2. STOCK PILE CASH – The biggest reason for so many agents leaving the industry in 2007-2008 was the fact they had not saved any of the money they made in the previous real estate boom. Having capital and some access to cash to live personally and to run your day to day business is critical. Start now and save. Begin to pay down debt now. Look at ways to consolidate your debt personally and professionally now. Get a business line of credit or enquire about increasing your existing business credit line now while you can. Remember in any economic correction cash is king!
  3. TOP LINE REVENUE – I always love coaching successful high producing agents who are in a downward spiral with their real estate business. My first question to them is make a list of the top 10 activities you did to generate all the business success you had. Then tell me all the business activities on your list you are presently doing. The session is over and the light comes back on. There are so many ways to drive sales and revenue into an agents business. Create your list of top line revenue drivers in your business and get at them and double the amount of times you normally do these activities and watch what happens to your top line revenue.
  4. REAL ESTATE IS MATH – Your business is just math and all agents business really breaks down to knowing exactly three numbers that will get you to any real estate income goal. The first number is the number of people a day you need to speak to about buying and selling real estate. That is your DAILY number. The second number is the number of bona fide listing or buyer appointments you need to attend a week. That is your WEEKLY number. The third and final number is the numbers of transactions or sales a month you need to perform. That is your MONTHLY number. Those three numbers equate to any agents annual income goal. Easy as 1-2-3 numbers to determine your income success!
  5. TECH ENABLED – The biggest challenge with our on demand world is the agent who is struggling with the tech enabled business world we live in. You either need to learn it or get someone to do it for you that is tech enabled. The real estate business cannot be done to the speed of expectancy from the customers without technology. Apps, CRMS, Digital signatures, The Cloud, Paperless transactions, Email, Text, Video and on and on and on.
  6. MARKETING – You just can’t be the one trick pony agent and be able to manage in the new normal market and economy. Agents need to have at least four to six marketing funnels generating buyer and seller leads a day for them to be able to cope with any correction in the market. If agents don’t have enough funnels then they don’t generate enough leads. Without enough leads there are not enough appointments. Without enough appointments there are not enough listings and sales. Get those four to six marketing funnels firing on all cylinders now before it is too late.
  7. CONVERSION – The greatest problem in our industry is the inability of real estate professionals not being able to convert a lead to an appointment. You need to be a lean mean appointment setting machine in this business to survive. Lead conversion 101 is simply asking the consumer engaging thought provoking questions that allow them to discover the challenges, difficulties and pitfalls a buyer or seller may face in today’s market place and then having a system or process to help them navigate those challenges. After that all we need to do is L.G.T. “Let’s get together”
  8. SCALE THE BUSINESS – We all have in some way shape or form issues with control. We have convinced ourselves we just cannot let go. The issue today is we only have so many months, weeks, days, hours and I don’t care who you are, you cannot do it all alone. Finding help and automating, systemizing and delegating allows an agent leverage and them a chance to really focus on what they do best and that’s people! Let go! It will change your life! Take it from me the president of the control freak club!

So there you have it, 8 powerful ways to help navigate and crush it in this new normal market. All that is left is you and making the choice to get at it! There is a huge pie of commission income available and you need to decide how much pie is going to be yours!

Strength and courage,
Wade

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