I talk to so many agents on a daily basis that are in a state of despair over the lack of transactions they have. Yet, they have made no real effort to change their business. In California, estimates are that there will be about 550,000 licensees by the end of this year. Likewise at the end of this year, we will be lucky to have 350,000 transactions closed. You do the math! No matter how diligent you are in keeping in touch with your database, prospecting, etc. this is turning out to be a tough year. So, what are you going to do about it?
If your answer is something along the lines of, "keep at it and hope for the market to turn around", you are going to be very hungry for a long time. You cannot always control the circumstances around you, but you can change how you react to these circumstances.
If plan A isn't working, find plan B!
We found one of our plan B's two weeks ago and (I'm not exaggerating) we wrote 175 offers this past week. Yeah, you read it right...175 OFFERS! Three weeks ago, we had the same concerns that everyone in the industry seems to have these days. We were slow! Hey, if our residential resale agents that we process for are slow, then we are slow too. So, instead of lamenting about what business we didn't have, we analyzed what was happening in our market area and where we felt there was activity in our local market. We then struck up a relationship with an investment company that specializes in negotiating and acquiring short sale properties. We are now ramping up our business in anticipation of a very busy December leading us into a record first quarter.
It may not be simple to find a new path to follow, but I challenge you to think "outside the box". There are opportunities out there. You just have to look in a new direction. Just remember that your new direction is an addition to your existing repertoire. Make sure not to neglect your existing business that has worked for you in the past. Real estate is cyclical. You will want to continue to cultivate all of your business in good times and bad so you can continue to roll with the punches.
Comments(9)