A quick note about me.  I am partners for a Keller Williams Group that is one of the 20 largest groups internationally.  I work with no buyers and take no listings that are more than 5 miles from my house.  Those are my rules and I stick with it.  Everything else goes to one of my agents.

So all I want to do is to personally sell $12 million a year with listings only.  OK, it is not great, and it does not stink, but we are trying to build a $51 million dollar operation to over $100 million and that takes a bit of management time.

My average commission rate is at 2.5%.  It used to be higher when I worked with buyers, but so be it.  With referral fees, there is no way 3% is a reasonable figure to budget.  For most agents in our average price range of $500k, 2.25% is the industry average.

So let's break this down so you will see that it is pretty darn easy to make well over $200k excluding referrals and running a business.

My average listing to close ratio is at 67%.  For a $12 million dollar goal, I need to sell 2 LISTINGS a month.  Bearing that in mind, I need to make 3 listing appointments.  1/3 will either change their mind and not sell or will not move with the market and we will peacefully part ways.  That is just the reality for all of us.

So push comes to shove the year comes to an end with about $300,000 in closed listings gross, and end up netting about $200,000.  So that is OK, and I can focus making money on referrals and building the business of 16 agents.

What boggles my mind is that so many agents can not grasp the simplicity of getting 3 people to ask for a listing appointment.  I carry a very small sphere of 150 people that I know quite well.  People, this is a very, very low number.  Most would say that stinks..... Well, maybe it does, but I have shifted my focus on what I want to do in my carreer.  My community has a base of 1000 homes.  So there is my entire business in a nutshell.

3 people.....not 5 not 10, but 3.  My goal is to shoot for one a week, but I rarely if ever make it and end up, on average at 3.....so we end the year at $12mm of listings only.  I have told everyone I know that if you can not make $100k in this business, get out.  It is not worth it....actually I am not sure it is worth $200k.

So all I am getting at is to simplify this entire business and focus on very tiny steps.  If I said go gross $300,000, most would say "geeeez", but if I said go set 4 listing appointments and if you can only get 3, well...that will be OK....if you only want to net $200k.

I am not going to get into the details of costs....overhead...brokerage expense, but if you are very very effficient you should be able to do it for under 35% of gross.  That is really the hardest part to figure out, but you can do it.  Having Keller Williams low fee structure makes is much easier.

So whatever your number are.....take alot of time and break it down to tiny steps.  Focus your goals only a week at a time or you will lose focus.  Just get on your calendar or Outlook and put down your weekly to do's on a recurrence.  Now that it is written down, you have to do it.....right?????