Although a cold chill has blown on the real estate market and sales are down across the country there are still many opportunities for quality real estate professionals. When the market was hot, every Tom, Dick and Harry wanted in - now we actually have an opportunity to separate the good from the bad and the ugly.
Here are five proposed strategies that will not only keep Realtors afloat until the next upswing but could actually place them in a better position for when the market does return...and return it will.
1. Maximizing Technology and the Internet
Google should be a part of every real estate professional's online lead strategy as placing high on organic search results has become very important to any serious agent. At the same time integrating your key activities such as marketing, MLS, customer management, etc. need to be integrated into one easily accessible web-based system.
Agents should use this year to make sure that when the next boom arrives they will be able to process the entire home buying and selling transaction digitally.
2. Building Teams Correctly
The creation of smaller more effective business units or teams within larger companies has been around for awhile, but during the last decade the concept has gained momentum. RE/MAX now estimates that 27% of their affiliates are working on a team.
There are basically two different kinds of teams. The first is where two or more producing agents combine their practices under one banner to provide greater coverage for themselves and their clients and the second where a lead agent starts building a business inside the brokerage operation. The lead agent then hires administrative staff to increase his or her time in more productive and income generating sales activities.
No matter what the size or how a team is structured, the key to building a successful team requires following the correct steps, getting the right chemistry between all team members and executing on a deliberate business plan.
3. Solidifying Your Business Plan
In today's competitive and complex marketplace, an entrepreneur's success is far from guaranteed. Moving into 2008 or 2009 without a well thought out and implemented business plan is a disaster waiting to happen. Yet so many agents fly by the seat of their pants.
A good business plan should include:
- An assessment of your current situation.
- A definition of your business focus and strategic intent.
- A clear vision of what results you want to achieve by objectives.
- A list of action steps that you will utilize to achieve your goals.
- An understanding of why you need regular analysis and occasional revisions of your game plan.
4. Using Virtual Assistants
The ways in which Virtual Assistants (VAs) can help real estate agents become more productive are limited only by one's imagination. And there are few, if any, support functions that cannot be handled by a VA - including functions such as:
- Transaction Coordination
- Listing Marketing Coordination
- Staying in Touch
- Online Lead Management
- Operational Management
- Screen Email and Phone Messages
- Ad Writing
- Website Maintenance
5. Diversifying Your Business
Diversification is the order of the day. For our industry there are two types of diversification - geographic and product or service. In these slow times it may be wise to view the needs of your customer base to see if there are other profitable products that may be a good fit to offer past clients. It is also a perfect time for agents to expand their skills and knowledge by getting educated on other transactional aspects such as mortgage, escrow, home owner's insurance, home warranty, remodeling, repairing, painting, landscaping, etc. The advantage of bringing some of these services in-house is the ability to eliminate the expense of redundant overhead and to derive additional income from the same client.
SUMMARY
As the licensee ranks begin to thin out smart agents and brokers have an excellent opportunity to refine, refocus and re-charge their business.
Good luck and God Bless!
Thank you for sharing that with us. I've been reading about you for a very long time...
Stefan,
You made some good points here. What about seperation factor? Battling against parity!
Good info. We all need a plan and specific goals to succeed and prosper in any market.
Excellent points. I need to revise my business plans and maximize my use of technology. Thanks for the reminders, now I need to get busy.
Great points, There are some things that we need to do!
I dont agree with the virtual assistant. I have tried that 2 times and a real assistant works so much better. But is is more money!
Welcome to the Active Rain community. You have chosen a great site with tons of information you can learn from. Have fun with it and hope to see more of your blogs soon! We have a team of four outstanding full time agents to assist your buyers and sellers in Spartanburg/Greenville, SC. Again, welcome to AR!!
Hi Stefan, Welcome to AR, Be a Blogholic and start writing your own blog soon on AR. All the best for your RE business. This is the right place for customers, friends, realtionships etc.
Best - Sash
PS: FREE blog traffic strategy video...Hope this will help you... click here
Welcome to Active Rain!! This is a great site to network and share ideas!! Have fun with it!!
@ Ruthmarie
Hope you have enjoyed my contributions in trying to make our industry a better place.
@Kevin
Usually during a downturn the market will seperate most of the boys from the men.
@ Lorena and Mike
An agent without a Business Plan is as bad as a Pilot without a Flight Plan. Glad you have one. Stay the course.
@ Laura
Real probably more often than is not better than virtual, so if that works for you, great. Just remember that virtual is usually cheaper and affords you the opportunity to have a few virtual assistants with different skill sets than only one real assistant, sometimes with limited only one or two skill sets.
@ All the otehrs - thanks for the kind wishes.
Still one can't over price the homes and expect someone to just come by and buy it.
Thanks for the post Stefan,
You have some really good points.
Nice positive, logical post. Great to have you active on ActiveRain.
Stefan,
I've appreciated your work in the past, welcome to Active Rain.
Speaking of trends...
The trend to "teams" in our market has brought about a lot of confusion with respect to agency.
I heard a "team leader" talk about how he was the "designated listing agent" and the "supervisory broker" for the office, and his wife was the "designated buyer agent".
So he and his wife were actually an undisclosed dual agent to both the seller and the buyer.
If licensees are going to be on "teams" all need the team members need to have the same agency relationship with the consumers. And they need to disclose it!
Stefan,
I have to smile at my luck, I woke up thinking how do I need to work smarter in today's market and am I doing those things I need to do... and here you are wit ha road map to help me on my journey. I look forward to reading more from you!
Thanks for the virtual assistant plug! As a virtual asssitant my agent clients and I have had lengthy conversations about the topic you posted. Being an agent today involves wearing many hats.
Congratulations on the featured blog post!
I have been working on starting a team. My intention was always to build a team of a few producing agents. This post has me thinking that I may want to consider changing that plan to a lead generation model.
Thanks for the post! While we all could stand to implement a good plan, it still helps to get those buyers off the fence and start submitting offers on our listings that have been sitting for days.
Great ideas, thank you for sharing and good luck,
Rich
Great ideas, thank you for sharing and good luck,
Rich
@ John
No question that full discloure remains at the very core of true professionalism. Thanks for the comments and support.
I agree with virtual assistants, they have been a great asset to myself and my team. The ability to have a part time person on call with a ft skillset is a big convenience
@ Randy
Both a team structure and a lead gen system can be profitable. It's all in the execution. Good luck!
@ Tamara
You're right. Fence sitters are not good for real estate. With the declining mortgage rates and the uncertainity around the election over in 54 days I have hope that 2009 may bring some better market conditions for us all.
Just like preparing for Ike, Realtors can weather the storm if they prepare for bad times.
A good solid business plan is essential...thanks for the post...
STEFAN - I've read your books, and I'm very happy to see you posting here on Active Rain. Your advice is very sound. I'm glad that this post was featured. I'm looking forward to more of your posts.
All are good points. Optimizing the internet is my current project.
Implementing these ideas will for certain bring success. Thank you for your insightful comments on how to create and sustain productivity in our fast changing dynamic industry.
Good Afternoon Stefan, Welcome to ActiveRain and I am personally thrilled you are here. When we met back a number of years ago, I totally enjoyed and appreciated what you were bringing forth for the industry. As more and more of our ActiverRainers get to know who you are, I would expect that they will be embracing what you bring forth as a wonderful gift of both your great knowledge and experience.
It was wonderful discovering this morning that you are now a part of our network and I couldn't be more delighted. Welcome and it was so wonderful to hear from you!
Sincerely,
William
I agree, what most of the Realtor community does is "fail to plan"...taking a real serious look at our SWOT (Strenths, Weakness's Opportunities and Threats)...doing that will help us put a real business plan together...We all need a road map.
Hi Stefan, I didn't know you were here until you came out featured on the AR Newsletter. Great news, can't wait to hear all ya have to say.
Well I am new to this blogging stuff and I would love some ideas on how to START a team from the nuts to the bolts of it...
Real Estate is our area is holding steady and it is a great time to buy...we have lots of inventory and prices seem to be holding steady...
@ Sonja, Adam, Fran, Hope, William, Missy and all the other friends
Thank you for making me feel so welcome as a Rainer. As you well know I have been writing about ActiveRain in my Trends Report for some years now so I thought it was high time that I joined the "family" and participated directly with all you guys and gals.
Looking forward to many more chats. As I am still new to all the protocols, rules and shortcuts, please forgive me for my mistakes and feel free to take the lead to associate with me, invite me to your groups or point me in the right direction.
Best wishes.
really solid advice here. thanks for sharing this with everyone.
Stefan ---great advice for a down and returning market and even a strong market. You make it all sound so easy!!
Stefan, I couldn't agree more with your advice, especially about utilizing the Internet and VAs. No one can afford to be behind the times with technology. Clients and colleagues are using the Internet, Blackberrys and social networking sites, so we need to make sure that we're capitalizing on technology, too!
Great information! Especially the part about utilizing technology and virtual assistants. I have been saying the same thing. Keep up the good work.
Great Post! As a new agent that sees opportunity in this market, I have had great success in creating a niche and now want to expand into other niches. Of course, I'd like to build a team to retain the profits and oversee the production. I definitelty see the advantages of using VA's, but haven't takin advantage of using one yet.
Thanks for the post!
This is great advice. I have actually been seeking to diversify a bit and appreciate the suggestions of how to do so.
Hi Stefan, Welcome to AR, Be a Blogholic and start writing your own blog soon on AR. All the best for your RE business. This is the right place for customers, friends, realtionships etc.
Best - Sash
PS: FREE blog traffic strategy video...Hope this will help you... click here
Google should be a part of every real estate professional's online lead strategy as placing high on organic search results has become very important to any serious agent.
Good morning Stefan,
That's why I'm at Active Rain. I do thousands of searches for my clients. Earlier this year I noticed that some listings posted on Active Rain were coming up highly ranked on Google. That's not easy to do. Being very curious, I wanted to learn how this was being accomplished.
Thanks for posting your five good points. This week I asked a new client to sit down and write out a business plan. This will be her first one.
Cordially,
Bruce
I love the last line you wrote...Thank you for the tips.
Excellent ideas. Thank you.
Stefan, great to have you on the Rain, now when is the next book coming?
Gotta come back and read this entirely when we have more time. Have to get the Localism area we sponsored pulled together better.
It's nice to see positive posts like this.. Thanks for sharing!
@ Endre
Currently researchingand writing the 2009 edition of my annual Swanepoel TRENDS Report. Goes to the printers on January 2nd, and should be available late January. Thanks for asking. Updated info is posted on http://www.ReTrends.com
Welcome to the Active Rain family, Stefan. I'm looking forward to your comments on social networks for real estate and also to comments on which diversifications of business have been most successful for agents.
Stefan~Thank you for sharing your great knowledge in our industry and I look forward to reading more about you. Enjoy your week and many wishes for much success!
@ Sharon and Julie.
Thanks for your welcome and kind wishes.
Thanks for the good post, your points are helpful and written very well.
Great post and some great points. Now is definately the time to be thinking about next years business plan.
Stefan - thank you! That's a great To do list. You opened my eyes on another use of client's base - that's truly a lot of opportunities to capitalize on our data base. Team building is the priority for me for the next year.
These are great suggestions and my business plan for 2009 is almost complete and my technology budget is going to double since last year and I am hoping to have a team set up by March. Looks like I'm well on my way!
Agree with Todd, great suggestions. Thanks for the insight.