Getting Ahead of the Ball in the Real Estate Market

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When selling a home, any buyer wants the largest profit possible. As their real estate agent, you want the exact same thing for them. But sometimes this mindset can be the one factor that can make the difference if a house makes any profit at all.

Pricing High Can Be a Mistake

Many sellers want to price high to leave room to negotiate. In certain markets this is not a problem. But in a housing market where the price of homes is actually falling, this is not a great strategy.

Pricing your client’s home can make or break the future sale of their home. There is a lot of strategy that needs to go into setting the price. As the real estate agent, make sure you give the seller plenty of informed guidance in this area so they are making a completely well-guided decision.

It's like chasing a ball down a hill...

The best way to think of this is like a ball on a hill. The ball sits atop the hill and begins to roll. If you want to get ahead of the market, you need to get ahead of the ball rolling down the hill. It is best to actually be ahead of the ball, rather than chase it.

This process of being ahead of the ball, rather than chasing it minimizes the losses and prevents the seller from losing as much as if the ball had rolled completely down the hill and we had actually chased it down there to catch it.

The next time you are in a pricing conversation with your seller and they say they want to have room to negotiate, tell them the story about the ball. Explain to them that they don’t want to be chasing the ball, rather they want to get ahead of it on the hill and minimize their overall losses. No one wants to catch the ball at the bottom of the hill.

The key in pricing a home in today’s market is to remember that high is not always best. It can make the difference between a home not selling and a home that does sell. Strategic thinking should go into each home you help clients sell so you are ahead of the proverbial ball, rather than chasing and catching at the bottom of the hill.

Knowing Your Big “Why” In Life – Understanding What You Are Passionate About – Can Change Everything

The key to being good at anything in this world is to first understand it – and nothing could be truer than the importance of understanding why you do what you do.  When it comes to your professional and your personal life, knowing what you are passionate about and understanding the things that drive you will be the ultimate key to your longstanding success.  Here we’ve unlocked three basic but very important tips at how to recognize the big “why” in your life.

Unleash Your Inner Aspirations

Most of us are especially excited about one thing or another – and we usually try to emulate aspects of those passions into our daily lives.  What better way is there than to be able to incorporate the very things that drive us and provide us fuel for ambitious living and working?

Go back and peer into your life’s past experiences.  What were the things that really made you tick?  Try to identify the characteristics of yourself that you are most proud of and when did those things shine through the most?  Chances are you will see that you were happiest and most successful whenever you were doing things you are passionate about.  Finding your “why” is all about just that – identifying and acting upon the things that you love doing.

Focus On Your Strengths

Once you know your passions, the next thing to do is to realize your strengths.  It sounds more complicated than it is – but all you have to do is to think back and about the things that you are good at.  Have you always been told you are a “people person”?  Do numbers and finances come to you naturally?  Do you intuitively and effectively analyze situations?  Knowing and being able to pinpoint the things that you are good at doing, coupled with those that you are passionate about – is undoubtedly a winning combination.  And when you employ winning strategies in your business; you, your clients and your business all reap the benefits!

Peer Into the Past, For a Glimpse of Your Future

This may sound mystic but in actuality, all it really means is to stand back and have a look at the things you have done throughout the years and how they have impacted your professional (and personal) life.  Your track record is the greatest indication of how you have fared using the tools you have in place with regard to running a successful and thriving real estate business.
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The three things mentioned overlap with each other, working independently and also together to help drive you and guide you into a successful direction.  When you look at the clues from searching into your past and present, you will begin to get ideas as to what is your greater purpose.

As long as you are crystal clear about the things that drive you to do your best, you will excel and succeed in every endeavor!  And with each passion that you follow through, bring it into the daily dealings of your business and how you conduct your professional life.   Whether dealing with buyers during the sale process, investors during consultations or any other time where you will interact with your clients and colleagues – almost immediately you will notice a change for the positive!  Reawaken your passions, learn what drives you to succeed and evaluate how your actions of the past have helped you throughout!  Find our your big “why”.

Four Simple Steps At Increasing Market Share So You Can Shift Gears and Head Straight Into Success!

If you’re a smart Realtor, you want to ramp up your business, get noticed and do it with a bang that makes your name pop out and stay in the memories of anyone looking to buy or sell a home or property. With a plethora of Realtors out there, all looking to do the same thing, how do you stand out and shine on your own? We’ve got a solution neatly lined up in four amazingly simple steps that will steer you toward achieving success – by shifting gears and driving business directly into your hands! Here’s how to narrow your focus:

When you zoom in on the specific focus points, you’ll find it easier and your goals more realistic to accomplish. By following these four strategies you can and will employ almost instant change in your business.

Decide What You Want

Knowing exactly what you want is a key factor in being able to achieve success. And the more specific you are, the better your chances of achieving your goals. By staying within reason of your specific goals, you don’t end up trying to be all things to all people – leaving you to focus on the important aspects of your career, and allocating a good amount of time to those things exclusively.

Whether it is wanting to sell a set number of homes per week, working a 20-hour workweek, controlling your volume and traffic or creating a certain quality of life – the idea is that when you know what you want, you will know what you need to achieve what you want, and you’ll also have a clear idea of the people you will need to be working with to be successful.

Decide Who To Target

If you attempt to reach too many people in too vast an audience, the ability to home in on a specific niche is taken away from you. By focusing on a group that you know you want to work with, you solidify your chances of greater success within that niche. An example of a targeted audience is move up buyers. This may be the ideal potential clientele for you to seek out, since they increase your sales price averages, take considerable less work and are a great source of long-term business leads because they are usually established homeowners with many contacts and potential leads. Regardless of which niche you select, the importance of honing on a target audience is paramount, as it will clear up the focus and allow you to concentrate on increasing your success.

Establish a Brand

Many Realtors make the common mistake of relying on their broker’s brand. To a consumer, everyone looks the same in the real estate business so it is essential that you create your own brand, unique to even your broker. This way the consumer, especially the ones who fall into your targeted audience bracket, can distinguish you from the rest of the lot, and recognize you for the services you can provide them unique to their needs. When you have established your brand presence within the niche you’ve selected for yourself, not only will consumers appreciate your services but they will also understand and value those services – resulting in them understanding that you are worth what you charge for your time.

Create a Specific Message

Once you’ve established your wants and needs, you have selected a target audience to achieve those needs and your niche has its own unique branding – it’s time to create a very specific message geared toward your potential clientele. The idea, again, is to stand out from the rest. By creating a clearly defined message, you are leaving no room for mistaking what exactly you have to offer; whether sharing your value proposition to potential clients, highlighting your experience levels or previous successes, the message is one that will drive traffic to your door and help you to reach the pinnacle of success, as you’ve defined it.

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Following just a few simple, yet essential steps is key in establishing your goals; knowing who you need to pursue to achieve those goals and setting up the framework to do so in a way that is optimal for business – you can and will shift gears and increase your market share!

How to Increase Your Resilience

We all want to be successful and even though we try our best with what’s available, sometimes the unforeseen circumstances we’re faced with get even the best of us.  When it comes to the real estate market – now, more than ever, agents are grappling with a difficult situation that is inching toward improvement.  But if you have the right attitude, it can mean the difference between being average versus being on top.  We’ve put together a few ideas on how to position yourself as a winner while knowing the whole time that you will succeed.

It’s All Inside

What you think on the inside is directly relayed on the outside, whether you realize it or not.  As a professional in an industry that demands much public interaction, it is essential that you carry the right attitude since it’s a direct transmission of your inner thoughts and perspective.  If you think you will fail or not do as well as you would like, you’re not the only one who will be able to see that doubt.  By keeping a positive mindset, you will avoid any insecurities from becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Overcoming Challenges

As they say, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” and the real estate market is no exception.  To make up for all the hesitation, uncertainty and changing economic times – it is vital for you, as the agent for many people trying to get by during this time, to adjust.  If that means you need to do things differently than how they were done during more successful times, then do it.

Think Outside the Box

If the issues and concerns you are facing are ones you have not yet experienced, then step up to the plate and prepare to study what the best options are to overcome them.  Doing things the way they had always been done is not a strategy that proves to be successful during times like these when the market is down for a considerable time.  The change comes when you look for solutions, wherever and however they may be, and accept that you will need to be flexible and willing to act outside of the norm.  Learning to think outside the box is a tool that will be useful throughout your real estate career, regardless of how the market is performing.

Broaden Your Perspective

One of the best ways to improve anything – whether it is your business, relationships with clients or how you implement your strategies – is to gain an outsider’s perspective.  Not only will the opinions and viewpoint of another person be valuable, they will help you to see things that you may not be able to realize.  By broadening your scope in this way, you are ultimately broadening your own perspective – something that, in the real estate business, translates to “new and improved” best business practices.  Better business practices, of course, means better business.

Making it Happen

Once you have taken the time to change your mindset, adjust to the current situation, you’ve looked at all the possibilities and are ready to implement the valuable ideas and thoughts of your mentors, it’s time to take action!  You can do a world of planning and gain as much insight as possible but it won’t mean a thing if you do not implement the things that will make a change in your overall outlook.  To increase your resilience at a time when nearly everyone is weak at the seams, you must follow through with the tactics and strategies that you’ve outlined.

When you hear of those success stories where real estate agents have earned more gross commissions during an off season than before when things were in full swing – you know that it has to be something unique that they’re doing that sets them apart from the rest.  Truth be told, all it takes is a little change in direction; a solid plan with some sure-fire strategies, an open mind and a winning outlook – then you will succeed.