cold chill has blown on the real estate market and sales are down across the country. When the market was hot, every Tom, Dick and Harry wanted to be in the kitchen and selling real estate. Why? Since it did not take any skill or prime quality customer service. Now that the housing market is on a steady decline to just over two years we have a chance to separate the good from the bad and the ugly.
There are actually agents that expanded its market share, adding more clients to their portfolio or received more customer service awards during the past year. They are the agents who understand that in a down market, real estate professionals can actually do better.
According to the Swanepoel Trends Report, published RealSure, there are five strategies that will not only keep the real estate agents on the surface until the next climb, but could actually put them in a better position for rapid growth when the market turns. Are briefly:
1 Maximizing technology and the Internet
Google should be part of every real estate professionals to lead online marketing strategies as high on organic search results has become very important to any serious agent. At the same time the integration of key activities such as marketing, MLS, customer management, etc. should 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 handle the entire home buying and selling transactions digitally.
report talks about the dozens of innovative new Web 2.0 initiatives, to encourage agents to investigate these services and see what can be added to boost their online portfolio.
2 Construction teams Proper
Create a more efficient smaller business units or teams within larger companies has been around for awhile, but over the last decade the concept has gained momentum. RE / MAX is now estimated that 27% of its subsidiaries for the team. According to the report, there are basically two different types of teams. The first is where two or more agents to produce combine their practices under a single banner to provide greater coverage for themselves and their clients, and others where the water begins to build a business agent within the brokerage operation. The main agent then hires administrative staff to increase their time in more productive and revenue generating sales activities.
No matter what size or how the team is structured, the key to building a successful team requires the following steps correctly, getting the right chemistry between all members of the team and executing on a deliberate business plan.
3 Fixing your business plan
In today's competitive and complex market, entrepreneurs success is far from guaranteed. Moving into 2008 or 2009 without a well thought out and implemented a business plan is a disaster waiting to happen. However, many agents to fly by the seat of their pants.
a good business plan should include:
4 Using Virtual Assistants
the ways in which Virtual Assistants (VAs) can help real estate agents become more productive are limited only the imagination. And there are few, if any, support functions that can not be handled by the VA - including functions such as:
5 Diversifying business
Diversification of the order of the day. For our industry, there are two kinds of diversity - geographic and product or service. In these slow times it may be wise to see the needs of your customer base to see if there are other profitable products that can be a good fit to offer past clients. It is also an ideal time for agents to expand their skills and knowledge to get educated about other aspects of the transaction, such as mortgage, escrow, home owners insurance, home warranty, remodeling, repair, painting, landscaping, etc. The advantage of bringing some of these services in-house is the ability to eliminate the burden of excess overhead and draw additional revenue from the same client.
The report is available at
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