Setting Goals For The Summer Selling Season
People often say that real estate is a field with a low barrier to entry, which is true. Once someone chooses real estate as their career, they can dive right in. But, to be a successful real estate agent, it takes a lot more than a license.
Working in real estate can be thrilling, but also intimidating. There are so many questions. What activities have the greatest long-term benefits? Where do I go from here? This is true especially in the early days of our real estate careers, when we’re more often working in our business than we are on it. Why is this the case? Most real estate agents are independent contractors, which means it’s likely that you’re your own boss and in charge of the direction you take. Don’t get us wrong, it’s amazing to make our own hours and pick and choose what you take on, but sometimes new agents focus on the wrong, short-term activities rather than the things that will move their businesses forward.
If you’re reading this blog, chances are that you have both the motivation and drive to succeed in real estate. The next few months are key. After all, home prices are historically at their highest during the summer months and it tends to be the busiest season for home sales. With hot days ahead (both literally and metaphorically!), we want you to take advantage of this favorable time of year. Read on for advice about how to approach the summer selling season so that you can be the most successful version of yourself.
1. Work Backward From Your End Goal
When you think about where your business is heading over the next six months, what do you see? How many transactions do you want? What take-home salary do you want? Having a clear idea about our expected future business is the first step to making all these things happen. With an end goal in mind, we can work backward to determine what we’ll need to do. This is where The Millionaire Real Estate Agent’s Economic Model comes in handy. The Economic Model identifies the conversion points in your business that influence your bottom line.
A Preview Of The Economic Model As Seen In MREA 2
Specifically, we can identify three points in the real estate process that impact on our success: when we turn our leads into buyer and seller appointments, then when we get buy-in to work with these potential clients via a signed service agreement, and finally, when we close the sale. The Economic Model helps you to not only see, but influence, where the money comes from, where it goes, and how much is left over at the end of the day by tracking these points. When you use this model in your business, you’re laying out what activities you’ll need to do to achieve your desired bottom line.
2. Start Working On Your Pipeline Now
Working in real estate is different than, say, working in a retail store. For one thing, it’s less impulsive. Someone may walk into a store just to browse and walk out with an unexpected outfit for their Friday night on the town. It’s safe to say that a real estate purchase takes much more planning. As an agent, you’re involved in what’s likely a person’s largest transaction ever. And it can take time for a person to move from window shopping to being ready to take the plunge into homeownership. In fact, it can take months.
If you’re hoping to have a busy summer selling season in real estate, it’s not a moment too soon to start working on that business. The people you know who aren’t ready to purchase now but may be ready down the road are known as your pipeline. And converting these leads into actual business is directly related to how much attention you give them and how often you engage with them. As we say in The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, “Maintaining a steady flow of communication is what gives us the opportunity to convert leads into future clients.” We recently interviewed a newer agent in Charlotte, North Carolina who shows how important communication is. On her very first day in the business, she pulled a list of expired listings to door-knock. When one of the homes she visited said that they decided not to sell the year prior but didn’t understand why they were getting calls from agents about their home all of the sudden, she promised to look into it and kept in touch. When she discovered their house had never been withdrawn from the market, she reached out and explained the situation. Although this couple may not have appeared to be a worthwhile lead at the time, when they decided to sell their home, the relationship she established by keeping in touch won them over and won her the business.
It’s essential to plan for future business by paying attention to your pipeline. Like the Charlotte agent, when you consistently reach out and nurture those people in your database who aren’t ready to make a purchase just yet, you’re setting yourself up to be the first person they think about getting into business with when they’re ready down the road.
3. Build Your Team Of Trusted Business Supporters
Having a trusted list of go-to people is a good idea for any business. But building a collection of people you count on is essential for new agents, especially when you’re trying to grow your business over those busy summer selling months. Not only will these people help to ensure your transactions go smoothly and keep your clients happy (and therefore, more likely to refer you to their friends and family), but with the right partnership in place, your business relationships will be a source of future business for you as well.
As one top Tuscaloosa agent explained, she grew her company by doing her research and asking for the business from viable potential partners. She shows them the win-win of being in business with her and then follows through by proving the relationship is worthwhile for both parties. As she says of having a network of business supporters, “I’ve learned you need an advocate who is going to sing your praises.”
Whether it’s a stellar mortgage broker, title officer, builder, or even attorney, when both sides of the relationship hold up their side of the agreement, it can be a win-win partnership. Whereas both people can provide necessary services for one another, you can also receive valuable leads that you can then turn into business opportunities. In return, you’ll have recommendations for trusted advisers in all aspects of the home-buying process for your clients. As one agent shared with us, “Form the empire of people that you work with, and you’re all going to feed each other and make each other successful.”
What strategies do you use to prepare for a stellar summer business? Let us know on our KellerInk Facebook page! And don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter for more of our research and latest stories.