Use the slow market to fuel your best years yet!

If you read the headlines, or listen to the news, you could get really depressed.  According to most news reports the economy and the real estate market are in the toilet and the signs of recovery are dim.  OK, that's the bad news, but let me offer an alternative to taking a Valium, giving up showering, only eating pickles and sitting in a dark room with a surly cat kind of depression.

Use your time to position yourself.  How?

• Educate yourself.  Learn about SEO and social media.  Learn about different types of sales, short sales, REOs, etc.  Learn how to develop better communication skills.  Learn how to market yourself better.  Learn how to generate more leads.  Make this downtime a positioning time for when the market rebounds, and it will rebound.  Not all of these learning opportunities cost money either.  You can find many opportunities on the Internet, at the library, from borrowed books or from the Active Rain archives or even through your local real estate board free of charge.
• Help a colleague.  If you have young inexperienced agents in your office, help them become more proficient in their craft.  I know a lot of seasoned agents and brokers would like to have more time to help some of the new agents, but a busy schedule can really hinder that.  In a downtime, you can make use of the time to help increase the knowledge and understanding of a new agent, and in the process gain a loyal friend for life.
• Teach classes for local home-buyers / home-sellers.  Set a schedule of classes around topics like knowing about short sales, understanding the home buying process, what type of financing is right for you, buying your first home, why a home inspection is important, what are the dangers of mold and lead in your home, what are the advantages of home-ownership and a host of other things.  You can incorporate local lenders, attorneys, home inspectors, hazardous condition specialists and other real estate professionals to participate.  It's all about exposure, face time and name recognition.   Class attendees will remember what you had to offer. 
  
• Hone your listing presentation.  It's a great time to make your listing presentation sparkle.  You can spend time re-designing, re-wording and adding features to your presentation.  It's a great time to finally make that killer listing presentation you've always envisioned.
• Create a tracking system to use for each listing / sale.  I love to be able to find any and all information on each property at a glance.  There are programs out there that will allow you to track information this way.  Some are software based and some are web-based.  You can also create your own in an Excel or Access spreadsheet.  It doesn't matter where it comes from, but it will make your life easier once you're uber-busy again.

This is a small list, but you get the idea.  There are so many ways you can position yourself in this market.  If you're already well established, congratulations!  What can you improve upon?  A slow market is an opportunity to tune-up and be ready for the next wave of home-buying and home-selling.   I encourage you to look at the downtime as an up-time for your skill development. 

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Give me a call for all your real estate needs, and let's make something amazing happen. 

Mike Cooper @ Cornerstone Business Group, Inc., 888-722-6029

Real Estate Sales and Property Management

 

(Disclaimer:  All grammatical mistakes, punctuation breakdowns and misspellings are purely for your amusement and entertainment.  Feel free to cackle.)