Why I treat September like the first New Year!
We all know that December 31 at 11:59pm embarks on what will be the New Year and it often comes with tons of promises and an extra level of pressure to make changes, but often times we all fall short of our plans, resolutions and expectations. But its funny because I treat September as my first New Year and Dec 31st as my pre-spring/summer charge; so I have figured out my way to avoid those pitfalls.
]I'll explain more in a few...
Now not just because I was born in September, (shout out to the Virgos) am I trying to glorify the month as anything more than the 9th month of the calender year but I want everyone to understand what I mean by making September the first part of the New Year. Now for me September represents a fresh start...sort of like a new beginning. A lot of agents tend to not carry the same energy into the last quarter because some would say; its supposed to be the "slow selling season", but if you ask me I do most of my biggest sales in the final quarter of the year. In 2010 from September to December I sold 21 houses...now if that is slow....just call me the
you silly little hare's...
For some of us that vacation a lot in the hot summer months of June-August; September is the point where you begin to feel like its time to get serious again and get prepared to get back to work!
. If you worked all summer like most Real Estate Agents do; then you are starting to slow up from what was hopefully some hot selling months and preparing your next chapter; starting in September to avoid a break in those good commission checks (let's not forget Christmas is right around the corner). 
(it's time to focus)
For others it is the time when all my parents can now send the kids away and finally get some breathing room from the kids being all over the house...
(back to school...Bitter Sweet isn't it)
Now all jokes aside; September is a great month to start preparing for the final quarter of the year and also to re-energize yourself and your team to rev up the marketing and try and secure contracts on those listings so that you don't carry them into the new year.
Here are some things that we do in September, so you can see why I view it as the first New Year:
- We take a close look at our current inventory and if needed we create new marketing strategies and reposition list prices to ensure we get it sold before the year concludes.
- We Contact clients that may have been on the fence and connect with them in hopes of preparing them to be home buyers over the next few months as prices tend to drop in the cooler months.
- Conduct a Fall cleaning (which is a MUST) We go through all of our office files (you know the ones sitting on your desk or desktop right now) and reorganize them so that we are in order and in place.
- We contact our "current, on the fence and dead" leads and look to breathe new life into them so we can generate some more business.
- We Organize our database and see who is who and what is what; the next few weeks are vital because if you average 60-90 days to close a equity sale and 120 days for a short sale; the cut off time for these homes to go under contract is shrinking quickly.
- We schedule a Big Office meeting, this is the time to remind everyone not to pack up and start hibernating for the winter, but gear up and start preparing to sell, sell sell in the fall!
- Go over our checkbooks; the summer tends to breed some bad spending habits, so make sure your books are balanced so you know where you stand.
- Plan those vacations for next year now! put them on your schedule and even go as far as checking pricing, it may be much cheaper if you book over the next month or two rather than waiting to the month of the trip (think about it)
- Latly because September is the best month silly...shameless plug for all of my Virgos out there. I celebrate a birthday and so does my mother so I love the month personally.
Like I said September can be many things to many people, but for me its the first new year, so when Dec 31st rolls around; I don't find myself with a long unachievable list of things to accomplish because I am already half way there. I am posting now because September is 2 weeks away and we are preparing for our first new year from right now...maybe it may help your business to do the same.
Courtesy of your GOOD friends at GOODBuy Homes NJ Realty
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