Unless you’ve been living under a rock all this while, you would have come across a TikTok trend in one form or another.
Whether it’s food, dance, beauty, comedy, or art – every week there are viral trends in every TikTok niche, and real estate is no different.
Check out my short TikTok presentation I recently did for a group of Realtors©
All the best,
Wade
Have you branded your real estate business using your name? Does your branding reference what you do, where you do it, and who you serve? Do you have a brand that is hyperlocal or niched based? If not, you are losing potential customers because you are marketing with an ineffective brand. A great brand immediately calls the product to mind. To illustrate this point, how many of these brands do you recognize? The “UnCola,” the “Ultimate Driving Machine,” and the “Breakfast of Champions” (i.e., Seven-Up, BMW, and Wheaties). My personal choice for best-branded real estate brokerage is “Next Home.” Your name: the least effective way to brand your business when most agents and brokerages launch their businesses, they seldom have any training on what constitutes an effective brand. The result is they usually end up branding with their name. Here’s why branding with your name is a poor idea: Please Note: If you are currently branding with your name and have had success in doing so, do NOT disturb what’s working. Instead use the “niched” branding strategies outlined below as additional sources for generating more leads.
1. Interference – Do you have trouble remembering names? Almost everyone does and for good reason. Each day you are bombarded with thousands of names of people, places, products, and companies. All this incoming data results in what psychologists call “interference.” To illustrate how interference works, what did you have for dinner lunch yesterday? If you were able to answer the question, the information is stored in your long-term memory. On the other hand, can you describe what you had for dinner 365 days ago? Chances are you can’t. The reason is you have had 364 other dinners since then.
2. The Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting. – Ebbinghaus’s research shows that we lose half of what we learned within the first hour after learning it. Within two days, that number climbs to almost 75 percent. In other words, even if the potential client remembers your name, 48 hours from now there’s only a 25 percent chance they will be able to recall it.
3. Your broker’s brand is usually better known. – Broker brand alongside your brand. My home was heavily prospected by agents sending out monthly postcards. I don’t remember any of the agents’ names, but I do remember who they worked for: Royal Lepage, Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams, and RE/MAX. Brokerage names are usually more visible due to multiple yard signs, their print and digital advertising, plus all the marketing pieces their agents send out that are branded with the brokerage name. If your brokerage also brands with a name (i.e., Berkshire Hathaway, Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams, Sotheby’s etc.) it’s even harder for potential clients to remember your name. They’re more likely to remember your broker’s big For Sale Sign as opposed to your name rider.
4. Name branding usually makes a business more difficult to sell. – Branding your business with your name also makes it more difficult to sell. “Wade Webb Realty” doesn’t work as a brokerage name for someone named Tom Smith.
5. No reference to the real estate industry. A strong brand references “real estate” or “properties,” yet many of the major brands have confusing name brands as well. For example, is “Coldwell Banker” a bank? Before Prudential was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway, I had a number of clients who commented, “I thought Prudential sold insurance, not real estate.”
6. No reference to your city, state, province, postal or zip code. – One of the biggest mistakes agents make, especially on their websites, is failure to include the state and zip or postal code where they specialize. To illustrate why this matters, did you know that there are 22 places in the U.S. named “Paris”? Consumers typically search by street name, city, and zip code. Always include these on your website, social media sites, plus any digital or print marketing you do. People don’t remember names, but they do remember features and functions. To illustrate how this works, assume my niche is selling probate properties. If I were to meet you at an open house, you would probably remember me as the blond lady who specializes in probate sales as opposed to remembering my name. When you need me to help sell a probate property eight months later, you will probably remember you met a blond lady who specialized in selling probate properties in Austin. To find me, you would probably enter “Austin,” “probate,” “real estate,” or “properties.” If several agents are serving this niche, you could easily see my profile and identify that I was the agent you met at that open house. Use these steps to expand your branding. Here are the steps to take to make sure leads who don’t remember your name can still find you: Use words or phrases that show you are in the real estate business: “real estate,” “homes,” “properties,” etc.
Reference the geographical location and/or the market segments that you serve. For example, do you have a geographical farm or specific subdivision where you specialize? Do you specialize in specific types of properties such as luxury estates, new construction, relocation, resort properties, second homes, 55+ communities, etc.? Do you serve a specific profession or type of customer? Examples include home-based businesses, seniors, couples in transitions, distressed properties, people who share your religion or politics, charities, clients born outside the U.S., investors, green or environmentally friendly, military, loft living, Mommy Market, golf properties, etc.
7. Putting your new brand to work. – We’re still at a point in time where you can build a strong digital real estate presence at virtually no cost. For example, you can set up a Facebook or Instagram business page for each niche or specialty market you serve. Add as much data as possible to that page and post regular updates. It’s also smart to create a Facebook and Instagram business page for each listing you take. Be sure to include the street address, city, state, and zip code as part of the name. Your clients will share these sites with their friends and followers, giving you free exposure to their contacts. These are also a tremendous conversion tool on listing appointments. In terms of your website, you can set up a separate subdomain that redirects back to your main site, although you can set these pages up to look as if they are your home page. Alternatively, you can also set them up as landing pages. The secret in getting conversions is to provide property reports and other data that would motivate web visitors to give you their contact information.
The bottom line is while it may be tempting to keep using your existing brand, going hyperlocal and having the highly niched branding strategies discussed here will give you a huge advantage when it comes to potential customers finding you, no matter where you meet them.
Strength and courage,
Wade
A mentor of mine said to me “agents aim for nothing and hit it with amazing success!” 2021 is wrapping up and what did you aim for? What did you hit? It is the perfect time of year to aim for something in 2022 and hit it with amazing success! So when 2021 begins to wind down you should not wait until the very end to start planning for 2022. This means having a crystal clear understanding of the successes and challenges of your current year, how it impacts your upcoming year, and developing a vision of what you want to accomplish, and how. Many agents aim for nothing every year and most hit it with amazing accuracy!!
I believe you should always start working on your next year strategy months in advance of the new year. This awards you enough time to make an impact on your final quarter, and lay the groundwork for making sure your next fiscal year starts off on a solid footing. For agents who want to achieve greatness, push the envelope, and grow their business through market share, market penetration, paying down debt, increasing sales, profits and cash flow, I urge you to get going now! The way I see things is, if your business isn’t growing, pushing the envelope, thriving, and maximizing profit, then all you’re really doing is suffering a slow death.
Believe me, your competition is fighting the fight every day, and they didn’t wake up in the morning and say “Gosh, golly, I hope I stay even in 2022.” They want to eat your lunch, take your business, absorb your market share and steal your customers away.
Some people might ask me if they should start planning by looking at their competition, and I say NO. Why focus on the competition, instead of focusing on yourself? When it comes to my business, I don’t care what others do. I care about what I do. Recognize your competition for what and who they are, and then put your best foot forward by pushing the envelope in your business. You should approach the new year as if you are going to battle, and for that you should develop a strategic plan.
Business Plan – a written document that describes in detail how a business, usually a new one, is going to achieve its goals. A business plan lays out a written plan from a marketing, financial and operational viewpoint.
FACT:
LESS THAN 3% OF REAL ESTATE AGENTS HAVE A BUSINESS PLAN
FACT:
ESTIMATED 3% OF REAL ESTATE AGENTS IN NORTH AMERICA DO 97% OF THE BUSINESS
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Writing a business plan may seem a daunting task as there are so many moving parts and concepts to address. Take it one step at a time and be sure to schedule regular review (quarterly, semi-annually, or annually) of your plan to be sure you are on track to meet your goals. It is that time of year again when we begin to build our plan for 2020 so let’s look at the key areas of the agent’s solid business plan.
Step 1) “Success and history always leaves us clues.”
I began by looking back to identify the clues that have been left for us and the business. I would look at the real estate market first and search for the following clues.
What have the number of sales been doing the last year? 2-5 years? Up? Down?
What have the number of listings been doing the last year? 2-5 years? Up? Down?
What have the average and median prices been doing?
What price ranges are experiencing more activity? Less activity?
What neighborhoods or areas are experiencing more activity? Less Activity?
What property types are selling more? Less?
What buyer types are buying more?
Where are the buyers coming from? Local? Next state or province? Over Seas?
Imagine the targeted and strategic plan you would be able to build for you and your real estate business with this kind of information? Now you are not just winging it. You really know where and what to focus on.
Step 2) Looking At The Present State of Your Own Real Estate Business
What have my sales been doing? Up? Down?
What have my listings been doing? Up? Down?
What is my average price? Can I raise my average selling price?
What is my Gross Commission Income doing?
What is my average deal worth?
Where are my listings and sales coming from? Sources of business?
What types of buyers do I represent?
Where are the buyers coming from? Local? Out of area?
What are my pending sales?
What do I have for potential buyers and sellers?
What is working? What is not working?
What do I need to start doing again? Stop doing?
What if you took the time to really track and measure and reflect on your business at a deeper level and see your strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of yourself and your own business?
Step 3) Activity Plans – Take the time to lay out your activity plan calendar a year in advance.
Focus on the activities you know you are good at and you see a return on your invested time and money. I am guessing for most agents it would be your sphere of influence, referrals and face to face or voice to voice activities. Set up a schedule for a month or two in advance of your activities for generating business. What is the activity? When? How? To Whom? Track and measure each of these scheduled activities to help identify the best of the best.
Step 4) Budgeting – Profit is the goal in business.
Knowing what your personal life and your business world cost you monthly is so important. Expense management is just as important as your income and earnings. Have a clear picture of your expenses and measure all of them for their return on investment or if they can be reduced in any way. I understand this my be terrifying for most of us to see what we are spending personally and professionally but it is the foundation of your business plan to know what your personal and professional lives cost and then be able to set a financial target that is enough to cover them both and leave you some profit! So many of us stay away from this and run in a deficit and that is not good practice for any of us.
Step 5) Goals – If your “Why” is big enough the “how” will take care of itself.
What is your purpose? Vision? Values? Mission Statement? Taking the time to know what it is you want and why you want it is a game changer for us all. Nothing gives me more joy than impacting and improving people’s lives personally and professionally every day. I have realized that the driving compelling force in my life is serving others and having the means to create memorable experiences with the people I care about most and nothing else has given me more joy than these amazing WHY’s in my own life.
In my own real estate business, taking the time over the last 25 years to create a business plan has been so incredibly beneficial for me and I know it will for you as well. In today’s post I have given you a brief business plan overview. To help you get going with your own plan I put together a Step-by-Step Real Estate Business Plan Workbook you can download for
Strength and courage,
Wade
Feeling overwhelmed is a natural part of life. Everyone occasionally feels overwhelmed by expectations, responsibilities, and a lack of time. The past 16 months have been a huge test on us as Realtors© and being able to handle everything coming at us. However, dwelling on feelings of overwhelm and letting them knock you off course can be detrimental to both your mental health and your productivity. If you find yourself saying “I’m overwhelmed” or feeling stuck with more than you can handle, here are some things to keep in mind to help you get through it.
1. These Emotions Are Natural. In the scope of the Earth’s history, human emotions are a fairly recent development. It’s no wonder we haven’t learned to peacefully coexist with them and end up fighting them on a daily basis. It can often feel like these feelings should be easy to overcome, but feeling overwhelmed is a natural response to having too many things going on at once. It’s your mind’s way of telling you that you need to slow down if you want to live a healthier life. Recognizing that overwhelm is your body’s way of trying to help you through difficult times can help shift the relationship you have with this emotion. Once you recognize it for what it is and invite it in without fighting it, you can begin to work with it to improve your feelings in a healthy way.
2. It’s a Breakdown of Thoughts, Not of Life. Our minds are powerful things, and feeling overwhelmed can feel like the end of life as we know it. In the book, As a Man Thinketh, James Allen says: “As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.” We have the power to manage our thoughts, and as a result, manage who we are and who we will grow to be. This involves making our mental and physical health a high priority. When you’re feeling overwhelmed, your life isn’t falling apart—your thoughts are. Take a minute to find and clean out all your self-deprecating, negative emotions and thoughts. As you do this, you will find yourself feeling refreshed and invigorated with renewed energy to take on the world.
3. Things Can Turn Around Quickly. Maybe you’re saying “I’m feeling overwhelmed” as you face a project at work and don’t think you have the energy or time to finish it. You start letting yourself play out every negative scenario resulting from a failed project. Sitting on the couch and dwelling on these thoughts isn’t going to make anything better. In fact, it usually makes things worse. Things seem to fall in place as you chip away at a project and come to realize it wasn’t as bad as you thought. A good friend of mine always say to me “Things work out most of the time, just not all the time. It’s all good.”
4. You’ve Felt This Way Before. Think about the last time you felt overwhelmed. How did you overcome it? In the end, was it really as bad as you thought? If you don’t learn from past experiences, you’ll find yourself suffering from the same problems over and over. Successful people are the ones who understand that every experience, good or bad, is valuable. Go to a quiet place, and take as long as you need to remember previous times in your life you felt this way and how you overcame it.
5. Your Problems May Not Be as Bad as You Think. The best way to find out how good you actually have it is to take a break from worrying about your own life and do something kind for someone in a worse spot than you. Volunteering at a homeless shelter or orphanage can help put your problems into perspective, and that tight deadline may not seem so overwhelming. Furthermore, acts of kindness can produce oxytocin, which can help you feel better all around. This is vital when you’re feeling overwhelmed.
6. It’s Easy to Keep Doing Nothing. Your situation changes quickly when you start doing something, but it’s always easier to continue doing nothing. The mind generally doesn’t react well to change and will do its best to help you keep doing what you’ve been doing. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, that may mean it tries to make you do nothing. Those who overcome their struggles quickly are the ones who never give up, even when they feel that all is lost. At times, it might feel like there is nothing you can do, but that is exactly when you need to do something. How will you ever know for sure there was nothing you could do if you didn’t try? At the very least, you will find personal confidence in knowing that you did everything you could.
7. Gratitude Can Help Immensely. In a world of people obsessed with putting their best self forward, it’s easy to feel like everyone has more than you. Get that thought out of your head, and remember what you do have. Often, the things you have right now are things you were worried about having in the past. Don’t let an insatiable desire for more blind you from seeing and appreciating everything you have right now. Gratitude can combat feelings of overwhelm by bringing you into the present, which will combat worries of the future. Once you’re in the now, you can focus on what you need to do to get past feeling overwhelmed and overcoming the many things coming at you at once. If you don’t know what to do you’re overwhelmed, take some deep breaths and try to start a gratitude journal: How a Gratitude Journal and Positive Affirmations Can Change Your Life
8. People Want You to Succeed. Remember there are people in your life who want you succeed. Your life touches so many others, and there are people out there rooting for you. These people are part of your support system, and you can turn to them each time you’re feeling overwhelmed. You can call them for a quick pep talk, invite them out for coffee if you need a break, or even ask them for help with your overwhelming list of things to do. The bottom line, feeling overwhelmed is a natural part of life that comes from trying to always take on more than we should. This feeling is difficult to avoid in today’s world, but there are things you can do to reduce those feelings once they do arise. Remember the reminders above whenever you’re not sure how to move forward, and you’ll soon find yourself on the other side.
Strength and courage,
Wade
I cannot believe how quickly time flies and the first half of 2021 has come and gone already. It’s an excellent time of year to reflect and look back on the first half of the year and assess what we did well, what we can do better and more importantly what’s next for us and the second half of 2021. I strongly encourage you to set aside an hour or so – on a weekend or during your normal weekly planning time – and do a mid-year review on your real estate business. Use this time to reflect back on the first six months of the year and make adjustments to your real estate goals for the remainder of the year.
Looking Back…
1. Key Accomplishments. What are all of the great things I got done over the past six months? What goals did I achieve? What things am I most proud of accomplishing? Which of my goals did I really miss the mark on?
2. Relationship Development. What new relationships did I develop? Which of my existing relationships did I significantly strengthen? Which relationships may I have overlooked or not given enough attention to?
3. Learning. What opportunities to learn new things did I take advantage of? What were the things I learned most about myself? What were the things I learned most about my business?
4. Mistakes. What mistakes did I make? What mistakes could I have avoided? What mistakes provided me with the most significant development and learning opportunities?
5. Time Management. How well did I manage my time? Have I been focusing my time on the most important things in my life? Are there any significant “time wasters” I need to reduce or eliminate from my life? When am I most productive? When am I least productive?
Looking Ahead…
6. Top 3 Work-Related Goals. What are my top three work-related goals for the remainder of the year? Why are those goals important to me? What habits and processes do I need to adopt to support those goals?
7. Top 3 Personal Goals. What are my top three personal goals for the remainder of the year? Why are those goals important to me? Who can I share these goals with to help hold me accountable to achieving them?
8. Relationship Development. Which relationships will I focus on strengthening and developing during the second half of the year? Who do I want to meet and get to know? Who can most help me achieve my work-related and personal goals?
9. Learning and Knowledge. What areas of learning do I most need to focus on? What new skills do I need to develop? What skills do I need to strengthen? What things do I need to “keep current” on? What one skill, if mastered, would have the greatest impact on the achievement of my goals?
10. Habits. What time management habits do I need to develop and strengthen? What three habits, if developed and sustained, would have the greatest positive impact on my work life and personal life? What habits do I know I need to drop or replace?
Set yourself up for ending your year strong and run through the above questions and review them regularly the balance of the year to remind yourself of what you want out of your life and what you want out of your business. Have you done too much and burned out? Am I out of balance? Am I out of motivation? Have I fallen short? The exciting news is that we have the choice when things weren’t what we hoped in the first half of the year to choose to make this the first day of the rest of the year of what you really want in business and life. I dare you!
Strength and courage,
Wade
The way our industry is progressing today we can expect a large portion of sales possibly 40-50% generated by agents in the business will have been paid for either by a fee for service, subscription or referral fee % charged to the agents’ commissions.
Why?
How can that be possible Wade? Because everywhere you look, people and companies are trying to wedge their way into our industry… to become that “go to” resource as the first step in the buying or selling process – all so they can sell you a lead… …A lead that should have come directly to you in the first place! A lead that they used your inventory that they scraped and placed on their own platform and charged back their fee for you to have it.
When you’re suddenly paying 25-42 percent on a transaction, that will mean just one thing – you’ll need to work much harder to maintain the same income you’re earning now.
Sound good to you? No, it doesn’t. Of course not.
So let’s do something about it. Here’s the thing – this isn’t a simple fix. Those Big Tech entities pursuing your pocketbook already have deep pockets of their own. They’ll out-fox you, out-spend you and out-market you – if you let them. This dilemma requires you to get really serious about your business and do the work. I don’t say that to imply you’re not serious or you’re not doing the work already. Some agents are. Some aren’t.
The strong will emerge victorious from this battle because they built their moat and protected their castle by doing the right things. The way I see it, it boils down to three big-picture actions you need to take. Let’s look at those action steps.
Step One: Establish Trust Through a Powerful Personal Brand – Who do you want to work with? People you know, like, and trust. Right? Now ask yourself… does your current marketing allow people to know you, like you and trust you? If not, it’s time to finally build your own brand. If you don’t have the creativity or inclination to do it yourself, hire a professional marketer or an agency to do it for you. Without a strong brand, you simply can’t compete with the Zillows and Redfins of the world, even in your local market. Which means you’d better get used to paying those referral fees and working extra hard to make the same money.
Step Two: Proactively Educate and Inform Consumers – How do I? How can I? Should I? Answer the consumers questions. Once you’ve established a brand identity, one of the quickest ways to elevate it is by consistently providing consumers in your market with relevant, useful real estate information. Whether it’s a direct mail campaign, email/BombBomb campaign, social media – you need to establish yourself as the definitive source of real estate information inside your marketplace. (Think “video first” to accelerate your ascent.) Send them an unsolicited CMA. Keep them informed of local sales, market trends, tips and tricks. Don’t be afraid to have some fun, too, to inject some of your personality. Be the knowledge broker for these people so when that day comes, YOU are top of mind.
Step Three: Make Your Calls and Stay in Touch – Branding and education will protect you from Big Tech to an extent, but to completely encircle your business with a protective moat…You’ve got to pick up the phone and make your calls! Put simply, you can’t rely on the consumer to make the call – unless you love the sight of competitors’ yard signs sprinkled throughout the neighborhoods you (supposedly) serve. Call them, build rapport, get to know these people. They’re your lifeblood. You don’t have to be “salesy.” You can be yourself, reach out, ask how they’re doing, see if they have any real estate questions, and move on. But you’ve got to make the effort. This is a full contact sport and a relationship business and keeping in touch and checking in on people is key to our relationship with our clients. Now that you know these three “big picture” steps, the question becomes – Are you willing to do the work? Protecting your business from Big Tech will be a big part of your future. I hope you’re as concerned about this trend as I am and let’s reverse the trend!
Strength and courage,
Wade
Last week for the first time in way too long, I was able to unplug and literally get off the grid and completely get out of cell phone reception for a good 4 days and I didn’t realize how badly I needed that time away from the business and the toll it has taken not only on me but on so many others as well in the real estate industry. They say, “Strike while the iron is hot.” In real estate, the iron has most certainly been hot for some time. At a certain point, you’ve got to ask: How many times can you keep striking until you strike out? For the last nine months or so, many agents have been operating at warp speed, and when you’re moving that quickly, hitting a wall isn’t pretty.
So how do you keep your energy up to maximize this market without burning yourself out? I’ve got some strategies this week for you.
1: Delegate, Automate, Systemize & Outsource. We’ve talked about this before… There’s no reason why you should be doing everything yourself in this business. Leverage is so important to a business owner like ourselves. Even if you’re relatively new and not quite ready to bring on an assistant, you can outsource tasks to Virtual Assistants, your company’s transaction coordinator or others. Put simply, you’ve got to be willing to trade some dollars to buy back your freedom. Why? Because digging yourself out of burnout mode is much more difficult than simply avoiding it in the first place. If you’re doing it all yourself and feel that wall approaching quickly, act now to delegate or outsource tasks.
2: Earners Are Learners. I’m a firm believer that new ideas create inspiration. So if you’re always learning something new, it keeps you on your toes and keeps your business fresh. When you’re knee deep in transactions, it might seem difficult to find the time to learn new things. But the impact it will have on your mindset – the promise of working toward better days – is worth devoting 20-30 minutes a day to that effort. Remember, small steps taken repeatedly will get you where you want to go. Learn a little every day, and I bet you’ll feel a difference in your energy.
Burnout Avoidance Tip No.
3: Train Something New. Instead of learning something new, teaching others something new can have the same energizing effect. Maybe you’ve recently hired a new team member who you can transfer some of your skills to… This is a powerful way to keep yourself engaged while also freeing yourself up in the future. The more you teach others to do things you handled previously, the more you can focus on your HABU – highest and best use of your time.
4: Reflect On Your Successes. When you’re super busy, it’s all too easy to slip into “grind” mode where you complete one transaction and move directly into the next one. But if that’s what you’re doing, you’re missing a crucial element in the process…
Celebrating your wins! There’s huge value in stopping for a bit to recognize your hard work and how it paid off. Maybe it’s a nice dinner out. Maybe it’s “treating yourself” to something you’ve wanted. Maybe it’s an impromptu “happy hour” celebration with your team. Or maybe it’s contributing to a cause that’s meaningful to you. Whatever you do, take the time to reflect and recognize your achievements. Because if you don’t, you’re depriving yourself of the joy you work so hard for – and headed toward eventual burnout.
No. 5: Live a Life Outside Your Work. If you read this tip and it stings a little, you probably need to work on this. There’s a tendency among some real estate agents to almost take pride in working 24/7. But you and I both know that’s not a recipe for long-term success. If all you do and think about is real estate from the moment you wake up to when your head hits the pillow, your days in this industry are numbered. And you’re likely not living a truly fulfilling life. Instead, maybe you start your day with a meditation. Or exercising. Doing something like that – anything other than diving head-first into more real estate – will actually bring you greater clarity and energy as you proceed through your day. (While we’re at it, don’t forget the other two elements of taking your M.E.D.S. – Meditate, Exercise, Diet and Sleep – to avoid burnout.) Also, make sure you’re scheduling your life before your business. Whether it’s your kid’s soccer game or dance recital or just a few hours of quality time at home, block out that time on your calendar to make sure it happens. Then get your work done in the time remaining. Remember, work expands to fill the time we allow for its completion, so you can get the same amount done in less time as long as you establish the right boundaries.
No. 6: Attitude Of Gratitude. You probably know I’m a huge fan of practicing gratitude as part of my morning routine. The simple act of writing down the things and people you’re thankful for is transformative. If you struggle to identify what you’re grateful for, here are some great questions to ask yourself:
What do I love about my job?
What do I love about the people I help on a daily basis?
What do I love about my colleagues I work with?
Who do I love?
Who loves me?
Ask yourself these and other similar questions every day. Then watch the impact it has on your mindset.
No. 7: Time For A Holiday! I miss travel so much the past 15 months and cannot wait to book the next experience. For many people, 2020 was a year of crazy ups and downs. It started strong, then the pandemic hit and agents all wondered if they’d ever sell another house, and then the market came roaring back and hasn’t slowed down since. And here’s what I suspect happened to a lot of people… They now find themselves in late May early June 2021, and they haven’t taken any time off since they returned from that initial lockdown. As a result, you’ve been working for months on end with no break. With life returning to normal, it’s time for you to take a vacation. Simply scheduling something will get you excited and help prevent burnout. And we all know how productive you get when you’re in those final few days before departure. So here’s my advice to you: Book your trip, buy your tickets, and make it happen!
If you’re on the cusp of burnout, choose a few of these tips and implement them immediately! Like I said above, it’s a lot easier to avoid burnout altogether than it is to pull yourself out of it once it’s too late. Make the wise choice, honor your work-life balance, and give yourself the fulfilling life you deserve!
Strength and courage,
Wade
If this year has taught us anything, it’s uncertainty. Although we may see the light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine accessible to most, it’s going to take a while to shake off the trauma 2020 delivered. Uncertainty flooded our everyday lives—between not knowing when our health and safety wouldn’t be under threat, to not understanding the different restrictions state to state, to simply not knowing when our daily lives would resume to normal. It was tough to swallow. But this is not the only time in our lives that we will face uncertainty. 2020 was unique because uncertainty plagued all of our lives. Typically, uncertainty strikes different people at different times. Ideally, the following tips will help aid you through this year, but also in years to come. Here are some best practices on how to cope when uncertainty strikes:
Strength and courage,
Wade
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:
If you’re behind pace, follow the 5-5-4 plan every day. Make your calls until you’ve achieved:
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.
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.
Strength and courage,
Wade
What if I told you that there was an unlimited, free source of brand new Buyer and Seller leads out there that you could tap into at any time? And I’m not talking about a list you already have, or getting referrals from your existing sphere. I’m talking about using a platform with as many viewers as Zillow – or even Netflix – that you’ve probably heard of, but aren’t using to generate new deals on a consistent basis… sound too good to be true?
I’d like to introduce you to Craigslist – and before you write this off just let me show you why it’s one of the most under-utilized opportunities for real estate agents today. Yes….Craigslist. As I alluded to above, Craigslist is one of the top 15 most-viewed websites in the United States – going back and forth with Zillow currently sitting at #14, and far above Netflix positioned at #17. This is because communities throughout the United States and Canada still primarily rely on Craigslist to find professional services, jobs, goods for sale, community events and yes… even Real Estate. Also, did I mention it’s FREE? If you use Craigslist to your advantage, it can become a fantastic source of fresh leads to grow your Power List and generate deals. However, I’ll warn you – some of the methods we’re going to discuss in this article, and over the coming weeks, might seem unconventional… but they’re used with great success by agents across the country.
1. Create “Listing+” Ads
2. Set Up a “2nd Opportunity” Email Auto Responder
3. Be Safe With Online Leads
1. Create “Listing+” Ads. Craigslist is a great place to post active listings (for free!) and gain exposure for a property. However, you don’t need to have listings of your own to implement this strategy. As a side note, many agents who are already posting their listings to Craigslist aren’t structuring them correctly, so people don’t respond and they’re not getting the value they could. So, what do I mean by “Listing+”?
Posting a listing to get exposure for a property is great, but the real value of the posting is in the opportunity to generate new leads from it. That’s why if you don’t currently have any listings – or even if you do, but they’re not going to attract the type of buyers and sellers you’re looking to work with, it’s totally acceptable to promote another agent’s active listings. Sometimes you might even get better results than with your own.
You’ll need to talk to the listing agent before promoting their property, however it’s usually somewhat easy to find a colleague who would appreciate the extra exposure for their listing – think of it like sitting in on an open house for another agent. Once you have a property to promote, it’s all about giving people a “Dual Call To Action”. Normally, marketing experts recommend focusing on only one thing, but I told you we’d be covering some unconventional methods! To meet Craigslist’s Terms, and gain maximum exposure, your primary call to action needs to relate to the property. However, it seems you can add a secondary call to action with related information which often turns out to be more effective at generating leads than the property itself.
2. Set Up An Auto Responder. So far I’ve covered all of the value you can get directly from a Craigslist Cash™ Listing+ Ad, but that’s just one of many opportunities you’ll have to offer value and convert a client from a Craigslist posting. When viewers “Reply” to your post you’ll receive an email which you’ll want to respond to immediately. The best way to do this is to use an auto-responder which gives people information about the property, but don’t stop there! Present your lead with valuable information and a reason to contact you. The trick is picking the correct offer to go along with the listing you’re promoting and using the correct Direct Response Language to get people to work with you.
3. Be Safe With Online Leads. No strategy to meet new people is complete without considering your safety a #1 priority. I had to add this third part because I want to stress how important it is to be safe with any – and all – of your online prospecting activities. Here are a few guidelines to ensure that you and your clients stay safe out there: Verify any new lead is a real person by having a conversation over the phone before any in-person meetings are to take place. If you can arrange a video meeting, that’s even better!
Google the lead to verify that their social profiles, or professional profiles, match up with who they say they are. Always meet in public for the first time. Whether it’s at your office or a coffee shop, hosting a meeting in public will give you a good opportunity to assess the situation before moving ahead with a client. Another option is to find a “showing buddy” (another agent) who will show properties to online lead sources with you – obviously you returning the favor works wonders for the relationship.
Finally – Trust your gut 100% – if it doesn’t feel right for any reason or no reason at all, you don’t have to work with anyone. No deal is worth your safety.
Let me know if you are using this already and the success you’re having with it in the comments below.
Love to hear from you!
Strength and courage,
Wade
