Jumpstarting 2011 with Higher Profits

By Bob Corcoran

Everyone who knows me knows I'm a positive thinker. I always - and I mean always - see the glass half full. Yes, some days that's a little harder than others. There's been an avalanche of negative media attention on real estate over the last couple of years. 

If you paid close attention to all the pundits' outlandish negativism, you might be apt to just cash it all in and find another line of work. But the fact is the market is slowly regaining a regular and healthier heartbeat. I think 2011 is the year the turnaround takes hold and we start seeing prices even out. The signs are good.

Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, says sales are on an uptrend. The pattern over the past six months, he says, is "clearly showing a recovery [that] will likely continue as rising rents encourage more renters into ownership while exceptional affordability conditions remain."

With that news in mind, I'd like to share a few tips to get 2011 off to a profitable start and keep it that way for the entire year:

•-          Stay positive. We're finally getting some good news about real estate, so use that as a springboard to re-energize your business. All that good news starts locally, right on main street USA - in your farm area. Yes, I suspect we'll continue to see some negative news nationally, but your job is to focus on your market. Seek out the good news where you are and capitalize on it.

•-          Create a business plan with goals that match your market. Seguing from tip number one, stay focused on your market, because that's where your job starts and ends. It's also where your business plan should start and end. Thinking locally makes planning your work more manageable. Keep your goals reasonable and reachable. Decide where you want to go and go after it. If, for example, foreclosures are growing in your area, get educated on it and then tackle that market. I can send you some free information on my REO Quick Start program, just e-mail me at Bob@CorcoranCoaching.com.   

•-          Understand your particular market better than your competition. With things changing so much, it's vital that you stay on top of everything going on close to you. You've heard the saying ‘all news is local.' Well, that's true with real estate news, too. Consumers don't care nearly as much about what's happening nationally as they do about what their property is worth or how much a new home will cost in a neighborhood they're considering. After you understand your market, demonstrate that you know it by sharing that information as persuasively and clearly as you can via newsletters, direct mail, phone, your website, etc. It's like what the great business author, Stephen Covey, says in his bestseller "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" --- "Seek first to understand, then to be understood."  

•-          Commit to being an educator. Today's real estate market is as different and fluid as any we've ever seen. That means consumers are seeking information to understand what's going on, and it's your job to teach them. Hold on a minute Bob, I'm a salesperson first. Right you are, but if you're going sell one stick of real property in today's market, you have to educate first. In uncomfortable times, people want experts at their side who can share the latest and best information out there.  Business schools call it education-based selling, and you should adopt it to be successful in 2011. 

Let me hear from you. Please send any comments or questions you have to http://www.facebook.com/CorcoranCoaching.

Bob Corcoran is a nationally recognized speaker and author who is founder and president of Corcoran Consulting Inc. (CorcoranCoaching.com, 800-957-8353), an international consulting and coaching company that specializes in performance coaching and the implementation of sound business systems into the residential or commercial broker or agent's existing practice.

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