The 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.
Wow! Welcome to Q2. Three months of the new year have already flown by……And the next nine aren’t likely to slow down. So my question for you is… How are you doing? Have you achieved 25 percent of your 2021 goals yet? Are you on track? Or do you need to reevaluate your behaviors to catch up? Let’s examine these questions as a “progress report” and make sure you do what’s needed to achieve everything you set out to in 2021.
Appointments are the Lifeblood of Real Estate Success. Every real estate agent should know – and live by – this progression: Calls > Conversations > Appointments > Clients > Closings. Your 2021 business plan should have included how many of each of these you need to achieve your year-end goal. You also need to be tracking all these numbers on a daily basis. So get out your business plan, multiply your year-end target number by 0.25 and see where you’re at with your:
Calls made
Conversations
Appointments booked
Appointments won (turned the prospect into a client)
Closings (break it down to sellers/buyers)
Whether you like it or not, this business is all about prospecting and following up.
If you’re behind pace, follow the 5-5-4 plan every day. Make your calls until you’ve achieved:
5 conversations with people from your database
5 conversations with new people you’ve never talked to before
4 follow-up conversations
Here’s the thing: This stuff won’t happen if you just “hope” to get around to it. You’ve got to make it a priority. Schedule your prospecting block in your calendar and honor that time as sacred.
Now Let’s Talk Lead Generation. While we’re in the “review” mode, now it’s time to examine your lead generation efforts. Analyze each of your individual lead pillars to determine what’s working, what’s not, and what you can or should do about them.
Are any methods excelling so much that you should double down on them?
Can you identify pillars that are significantly underperforming or aren’t producing at all?
What new lead pillars might you consider adding to your mix?
How about social media: Are you sticking to a consistent posting schedule?
Are you generating engagement with your posts? If not, how are you going to shake things up to drive engagement?
Finally, Examine Your Bottom Line. Your business plan should include line items such as total number of closed transactions, your GCI, expenses and your expected profits. Are you 25 percent of the way toward these goals? If you’re falling short of your GCI goal and feel like you’re already maxed out on time, you may be in the “stuck” category I wrote about a few weeks ago. If that’s the case, it’s time to invest in yourself by hiring help or outsourcing some of the admin work that’s keeping you “busy” but not “productive.” Are your expenses higher than you expected? How about transaction volume – are you above or below your target? Bottom line… are you on course to reach your profit goal for 2021, or do you need to rethink your behaviors?
What Do You Need to Succeed? In closing, I hope you found this helpful. If this was difficult for you, I’d encourage you to stop sticking your head in the sand and start confronting whatever is preventing you from achieving your goals. Tracking and measuring your numbers is what will keep you on pace for greatness, so make it a habit or find someone who will hold you accountable. Go get it in Q2 – with so much existing activity on top of the regular Spring market, it’s probably going to be crazy! Now is the time to put your head down and make things happen.
The reason why most agents real estate business is up and down is based upon one thing and one thing only! Lead generation. If you have enough leads then your business doesn’t experience the peaks and valleys of most real estate agents businesses. When you are working on serving a listing and an offer on that listing comes in or you have a buyer and negotiate a sale you are typically busy serving the seller or the buyer and not generating leads. This creates a valley and puts you back at the beginning to find another listing or bona fide buyer. To help combat this challenge we compiled a list of as many lead generation companies and services we could think of to help you create more leads and keep a steady stream and flow in your real estate business and stop those peaks and valleys!
Top List of Companies and Services to Generate Real Estate Leads
Zillow – Zillow sells leads from zillow.com, leads may be distributed to multiple agents making quick follow up extra important.
Trulia – Trulia sells leads from trulia.com, leads may be distributed to multiple agents making quick follow up extra important.
Realtor.com – Realtor.com sells leads from realtor.com, leads may be distributed to multiple agents making quick follow up extra important. realtor.ca also supported.
Real Estate Webmasters – Real Estate Webmasters combines state of the art website design with proven search engine optimization techniques and advanced programming to produce the most effective real estate websites on the Internet.
Commissions Inc. – Commissions Inc. provides powerful and innovative tools to help top real estate agents and brokers manage their business and connect with active and engaged home buyers.
MLS Finder – Is a leading technology solutions provider to the real estate industry with more than 40,000 real estate agents and brokers employing its services nationwide.
PipelineRoi.com – (formerly agentxsites.com) Pipeline ROI websites are beautiful and adaptive so they look stunning on any screen.
Diverse Solutions – Having come from a myriad of backgrounds encompassing real estate, programming, website design and marketing, the Diverse Solutions staff combined their talent to produce the most inspired, attention-grabbing, and easy-to-use products available to the real estate industry today. Import leads automatically.
Real Bird – Founded in 2004 with a simple mission: To help real estate agents and brokers in the transition to online marketing and to effectively utilize online, social media and mobile technologies to better serve the home selling and buying public.
HomeFinder.com – is where homes and people find each other. How? By creating a doorway connecting home buyers, sellers and real estate professionals, all to give you the listings, tools and resources you need to make your home buying process a success.
Homes.com – Provides you with a wealth of real estate information to help you learn more about finding your perfect home. Whether you are looking for a real estate agent to help you buy or sell a home, mortgage rates, curious about the home values, comparing schools, or just browsing properties in your area.
Agent Image – We work with thousands of brokers, agents and real estate companies to provide lead-generating tools, easy-to-use home search functionality and branded sites to help their clients in buying or selling their home.
Point2 (Point2 Agent, Point2 Homes) – At Point2 we create technologies that help those in the real estate industry enjoy success, regardless of their technological expertise. We have built our business by listening to and understanding our customers’ businesses and their needs.
ListHub – ListHub is the broadest, most widely adopted network for listing distribution, and works in concert with MLSs, franchises, and core real estate technologies to bring real estate brokerage firms a single dashboard for controlling their online marketing strategy.
HotPads – We’re building the most comprehensive and interactive marketplace of real estate search. Combining powerful search tools, layers of data, and an innovative user interface, we’re simplifying the housing search process and helping people make smarter housing decisions.
House Hunt – We provide the ability to search for active real estate listings and home values in any given community for anyone wishing to investigate, purchase, or sell a home.
Z57 – Our fun, energetic culture and focus on personal and professional growth make Z57 a fun place to work and a fun company to work with!
Success Website – The SuccessWebsite® System is a complete set of proven Internet marketing tools, including Branded and Less- Branded web sites, proven lead generation campaigns, integrated CRM tracking and follow-up software, and advanced listing solutions for agents and teams of all sizes.
Real Geeks – Real Geeks offers real estate marketing solutions for the agent or broker that wants to take their online marketing to a whole new level.
Real Pro Systems – The initial result was an agent system that combined the power of stealth website lead generation, an automated follow-up system, and a clean, crisp website. Leading agents quickly embraced the concept, and Real Pro Systems was a profitable enterprise from its very first month of operation.
Realty Trac – The company’s mission is to make it easier for consumers, investors and real estate professionals to locate, evaluate, buy and sell properties. RealtyTrac is the only major real estate website to feature foreclosure, auction, bank-owned, for-sale-by-owner, and resale properties.
Estately – At Estately you can learn about the surrounding area, the nearby shops, the character of the neighborhood and the style, size and price of a property.
Realty Store – (www.RealtyStore.com) has emerged as the nation’s fastest growing foreclosure and discounted property data provider, with over 1 million listings of pre foreclosures, foreclosure auctions, bank owned properties, government repossessed homes (including HUD homes), short sales, tax defaulted properties and rent to own or owner financed listings.
Har – HAR.com, connecting home sellers, buyers, and renters with REALTORS®, the official website of the Houston area MLS contains the most comprehensive Houston real estate listings and local data.
Ushud – We have compiled all of the foreclosures on the market in an easy to search database. Save time and money using USHUD.com to start your search, find a foreclosure, get in contact with a licensed real estate agent and mortgage lender that can help you purchase your next property.
Tiger Lead – TigerLead combines High Quality Home Buyer and Home Seller Lead Generation, with a sophisticated Lead Management Platform that helps agents and teams cultivate, manage and close their leads.
iHomeFinder.com – iHomeFinder is a leading national provider of real estate search technology and websites. Using the Internet Data eXchange (IDX) standard, iHomeFinder securely powers hosted property search and lead capture in thousands of real estate websites.
Redfin – Redfin is a company of real estate agents and software engineers working together to reinvent real estate in your favor.
Voice Pad – VoicePad’s successful mobile strategy generstes home buyer leads from ALL THREE mobile technologies-Mobile Web, Text and Call Capture.
ePropertySites – ePropertySites.com launched in 2007 as a platform for brokers to market their properties online. The company offers brokers the ability to showcase their properties with dedicated sites, virtual tours, QR tags, Web chat, and plenty of other features.
Real Web Solutions – RealSolutionsWeb.com offers its clients a breadth of technology driven solutions, custom programming services, and the best professional care in the industry.
Zurple – Zurple’s mission is to generate quality conversations between Realtors® and their prospects because more conversations lead to more closings.
Dakno – Dakno’s experience developing countless fully customized websites has taught us there is only one factor that truly sets a real estate website apart: leads. When we develop a website with a client, no matter its size or scope, we evaluate every one of the hundreds of decisions made during the process by asking if it will increase the chances of capturing a lead. If the answer to this simple question is no, we’ll tell you so, even if it isn’t necessarily what you’d like to hear.
Placester – With Placester’s suite of software applications and products, agents, brokers, and owners can market and advertise their properties efficiently, find more prospects, and manage their relationships with all the people who impact their business, all from the same place.
Home Value Leads – Home owners want to know what their home value is, and using and optimized landing page for getting seller leads for real estate is a great tool to target and convert those who are looking to sell.
LEADMX – is the most powerful real estate lead generation platform on the planet. Reserved for well capitalized affluent agents, LEADMX not only does everything that competitor’s systems do: high lead capture rates, IDX integrated searches, customer relationship back end administration, etc.
SmartZip – SmartZip Analytics, Inc. is the national leader in real estate analytics and predictive marketing. Using proprietary algorithms and proven predictive modeling, SmartZip’s products and services offer advanced insight about home values and investment quality, risks, schools, neighborhoods, desirability and likelihood to sell.
Homeswing – Homeswing is a real estate search portal that delivers accurate and timely real estate listings. Get the newest listings on the market before they even appear on other national search websites. Find homes for sale and property for rent in your area and connect to local professionals that will assist you in accomplishing your real estate goals.
MyRealPage – All in one website, IDX, listing and mobile solution.
Import leads automatically.
BoomtownROI – We follow a simple formula: easy-to-use technology + exceptional guidance = an amazing experience for each of our clients. Our goal is simple — to help our clients achieve success. The team’s vision is to constantly innovate and share knowledge to drive the future of real estate.
AgentMachine – AgentMachine connects people with the top and most trusted real estate professionals in their local market to help buy or sell a home.
StreetEasy – In several short years, StreetEasy has become the go-to website for residential real estate in New York.
Community House Values – CommunityHouseValues.com is a tool to price a house online instantly.
Listing Pages – ListingPages is IDX website platform designed to find, capture and cultivate home buyer leads.
Pad Lister – PadLister.com is a toolbox for landlords and brokers to list their property across multiple rental sites.
You Got Listings – YouGotListings.com is a rentals software product for brokers and landlords to maximize exposure and close rentals.
Lovely – LiveLovely.com gives you a simple, fast, and complete set of tenant search tools to help you find the perfect tenant for your home.
Proquest Technologies – Proquest-tech.com – real estate marketing guaranteed to generate listings and sales.
Sierra Interactive – SierraInteractive.com – Real Estate Websites and IDX Search Solutions.
Kunversion – Kunversion.com – Real Estate Lead Generation
BuyerAcquire – Buyeracquire.com – We pioneered a system that would take data from the MLS and convert it to a true human voice, eliminating the need to record listings—and that was just the beginning.
Properties Online – Propertiesonline.com – Dedicated to helping real estate professionals by offering innovative technology, ead generating websites, apps and tools.
Prime Seller Leads – PrimeSellerLeads.com – Drive real estate seller leads directly into your pipeline with specially designed and optimized landing pages.
LoopNet – LoopNet.com is the leading provider of commercial mls services, marketing, technology and commercial research.
Homesnap – Homesnap.com founded in 2008 and based in Washington DC, Homesnap is a trusted real estate search platform for people to explore homes and search MLS real estate listings — online or from a mobile phone.
Pure Agent – The iOn Real Estate Platform™ includes desktop and mobile-optimized company and agent websites with full CMS, Robust IDX, integrated blogging, Mobile, Lead Generation, Real Estate CRM with customer activity tracking and relationship engagement, Chat, social apps, CraigsList eFlyers, and more.
Bold Leads – Boldleads.com Seller Leads Made Easy for Real Estate Agents. Stop Wasting Money on Old and Broken Marketing Methods! Generate 5-15 Seller Leads Every Day With Our Simple and Easy to Use System.
Gold Rush Leads – Goldrushleads.com the low-Branded Gold Rush Leads Real Estate Lead Generation Web Site
Drive Buy Tech – DriveBuyTech.com – Mobile marketing for Realtors, including Websites, Text Message Codes, QR Codes, and Signs.
HomeLight – HomeLight.com is a small team of talented people in San Francisco who are passionate about making real estate better. That’s why we’ve built the best new way to find a real estate agent, and it works by matching you with agents based on their actual skills and experience.
RealtyNow – RealtyNow.com puts the latest real estate tools at your fingertips, helping you make good buying and selling decisions. We put you in touch with local real estate professionals.
IDX Broker – IDXBroker.com. Display IDX listings on real estate websites with Internet Data Exchange (IDX) feeds. Information on Internet Data Exchange (IDX), MLS/IDX, Broker Reciprocity, and property search tools for real estate websites.
GeographicFarm – Geographicfarm.com. A postcard system designed to generate listing leads.
Import leads automatically.
Listing Booster – Listingbooster.com Boost Your Listings, Boost Your Leads, Boost Your Production!
ProAgent – ProAgentWebsites.com provided state of the art Real Estate Agent and Real Estate Broker websites. Our websites will help your business grow by providing top-notch lead capture and customer satisfaction.
Brivity – Quick, simple, consistent client communication and listing management. Top producing agents use Brivity.com to save time, improve client satisfaction, and sell more houses.
New Zips – Special real estate Home valuation landing pages designed to capture seller leads and win you more listings.
800 Info Home Line – 800infohomeline.com helps Agents to succeed and make more money in Real Estate.
LandAndFarm – LandAndFarm.com is the largest listing service of farms, timberland and rural property in the world.
ListingGrabber.com – ListingGrabber proven a method to identify homeowners planning to sell BEFORE they go on the market and BEFORE contact an agent!
Leads2Listing.com – Leads2Listing helps you to easily attract home seller leads by giving them information they WANT: the current value of their home.
DavisFarrell.com – Our IDX clients can easily incorporate current listings and market stats into any WordPress blog with our custom plugins.
PropertyMinder – PropertyMinder.com, Inc. has been an innovator in the areas of real estate Internet Marketing, IDX Integration, Content and Relationship Management, and Post-Sales Follow-Up.
LandWatch – LandWatch.com helps you find investment or recreation property, land for sale, hunting land, land auctions, farms and ranches for sale, waterfront properties and premier properties (over $1 Million).
VirtualAgent – (http://www.dotsignal.com) We help real estate enterprises engage consumers with impactful content that go beyond the traditional screens; engaging consumers in the mobile moment – the point when someone uses a mobile device to get what he or she wants immediately and in context.
MobilityRE.com – We provide the latest technology for brokers and agents to thrive in todays smartphone enviroment.
SmarterAgent.com – The global leader for creating mobile search and discovery apps to learn about the world around you.
Tribusgroup.com – TRIBUS’ suite of products was created to grow, support and maintain your business.
LandFlip.com – Easily find land for sale, farms and farmland for sale, ranches and ranchland for sale, acreage, lots and rural land.
HomeQuestGroup.com – HomeQuest is a real estate software development company working passionately to make life easier for agents.
OnlineLandSales.com – Online Land Sales LLC, founded in 2004, provides discount land opportunities to the general public via a combination of online land auctions and direct sales campaigns.
iHouseWeb.com – iHOUSEweb offers real estate marketing tools for every level of real estate professional.
CityBlast.com – CityBlast is your team of personal Social Experts that helps you keep your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn up to date and professional.
AltosResearch.com – Altos Research provides detailed, local research of real estate market information.
AgentLocator.ca – affordable real estate lead generating landing pages and agent website solutions for every level of agent
StreetText.com – StreetText increases online lead quality and helps Realtors win more listing presentations. Get lead generation, lead qualification and marketing working together to meet the clients that matter.
LeadsToday.com – LeadsToday stands out from the crowded market by delivering a single platform for lead generation and lead
RealtyNinja.com – Everything you need to create beautiful, lead-generating websites with no technical experience.
Flipt.co – We provide easy and effective solutions to connect home sellers and top local real estate professionals on the web and mobile.
WebsiteBox.com – The $99 do-it-all website, IDX and CRM for real estate agents, teams and offices.
Cevado.com – Cevado provides a full suite of technology products for Real Estate Agents. From stunning High End Websites, to IDX, Mobile Apps, Syndication and even Franchise to Corporate Automatic uploads of listing data, we do it all.
Topmarketer.net – Top Marketer is a suite of marketing applications that show current market conditions in a specified area.
ListingsToLeads.com – We provide agents and brokers industry leading turnkey online marketing solutions and strategies that dramatically increase Online lead generation.
Kwkly.com – We provide homebuyers the easiest way to get rich property information straight from the MLS to their web enabled mobile phone.
MarketLeader.com– We are passionate about making agents more productive and more successful. Our mission is to make life-long customers through outstanding products, leads, education, and customer support.
TeamLeads.com – The Team Leads platform is a highly sought after, market-exclusive real estate system, the industry’s only lead management solution fully integrated with top technologies.
So there you have it! I know the list is huge and seems completely overwhelming. Pick one and implement and execute and start increasing your leads and block out those slumps and keep the steady flow of listings and sales. I dare ya!!
The 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:
