The first step to making next year your best year in real estate starts now – take a break.
Christmas is the best time to take a break as most of your sellers and buyers will be doing the same thing.
They expect you to spend time with your family and friends because that’s what they are doing too.
Try to switch off over Christmas and make the most of the time you have.
Yes, you may miss out on a few listings or sales, but at least you will have had a break and be ready to get stuck into things at full capacity in the new year.
The reality is that over Christmas, vendors don’t want to have to worry about cleaning their house.
They don’t really want you around.
They do, however, want the outcome of a sale, which means they don’t want to miss out on potential buyers.
So you need to demonstrate how you have systems in place to protect them from losing buyers while they, and you, enjoy the Christmas break.
Let them know that over the break, you will be collecting the names and phone numbers of any potential buyers.
Then explain that you will be qualifying these buyers and if they need to buy now, you can contact the sellers and, if appropriate, organise an inspection at a convenient time for all parties.
Otherwise, let them know that in January you have your new year launch planned.
For example, you have scheduled auctions, new listings, emails and flyers ready.
Show them that you have systems and a plan for the new year to sell their property.
Also, try to put your phone away.
The best way to be in the moment is to turn your phone off or divert your calls to voicemail.
Check any messages twice a day, once at 10 am and then again at 4 pm.
If you have a few sales staff in your office, work out a daily roster to take turns answering the phone.
Some vendors will be anxious about their property, and you can make yourself available to those people in other ways.
Try to get sellers who want to wait to list their property in the new year, to sign paperwork before the Christmas break.
Explain that if they organise the paperwork with you now, you can program their marketing well in advance.
Now that the end of this year is sorted, here’s what you need to make 2020 your best yet.
YOUR 33 STEP MASTER PLAN
1. Follow people you resonate with on Facebook. Watch what they do and keep watching them. Are they someone you want to take advice from?
2. Every day from now on, listen to podcasts. Listen to training from people you resonate with. You must resonate with these people, otherwise you won’t believe what they recommend. Start the year with your mindset right.
3. Eat properly. Look after your body and your mind. Exercise.
4. Equip your office with everything you need for the upcoming year. Declutter and cleanse your space. If you believe in smudging with sage sticks – do it.
5. Get very specific and clear on what you want to achieve professionally and personally.
6. Assess who you have to be to obtain these goals. Have a vision for who you have to show up as, to achieve the result. For example, do you have to be a dedicated, disciplined professional? Are you currently this person? If not, what do you need to do to become this version of yourself?
7. Break your goals down into bite-sized pieces. Get ready to put those bite-sized goals into a well-formulated plan.
8. Begin to prepare a business plan. Know exactly where you stand, where you want to get to, and how you will go about getting there.
9. Write out why you will achieve your goals/plan.
10. Write out who or what may get in the way of you achieving what you want.
11. Write out how you will ensure the things listed at #10 won’t stop you from reaching your goals. How will you avoid those distractions or problems taking over?
12. Write down again why you’ll achieve what you want. If you find it difficult to work out what you do want, then have a vision for how you don’t want your life to be.
13. Know your who. Who can help you achieve your goals? Who do you need to ring/contact? Who can you leverage to help?
14. What else do you need to be?
15. Invest in training.
16. When you are scared to do something, desensitise yourself to it. For the first few days, start doing small things, then work your way up to bigger things. For example, if you are scared to door knock then start small. Start with door knocking five houses a day until you get your mind around what you are doing. If you are going to do cold call prospecting, start with calling five people.
17. Be open to learning. Don’t ever think you know it all. Make sure you are always listening and learning.
18. Ethics. Always act like a film crew is following you, listening to you and watching your every move.
19. Work on getting a result every day. Whether that’s a listing, a deposit or convincing a seller that has an overpriced house to reduce the listed price, work on getting a result a day.
20. Know that you will have off days that don’t go to plan. That’s normal.
21. Build your database and add people every day.
22. Always work on your marketing and your profile.
23. Prospect. Find two or three forms of prospecting you like. One easy source of prospecting is to always follow people up. Follow up current buyers, old appraisals, old open for inspection lists and current open home attendees. Then choose a few other forms of prospecting, such as door-knocking, phone prospecting, letterbox drops, social media marketing, work on referrals and Google ads.
24. Network – choose your groups. You can get involved with your children’s school, join a local BNI or sponsor different sporting clubs.
25. Learn to delegate. You can’t do everything. You don’t have time. Delegate the things you don’t like or things you can get a support person to help you with. Focus on dollar producing tasks as much as you can.
26. Be prepared to work long hours, especially at the start of your plan, to dominate.
27. Have the courage to commit. If not, do it anyway.
28. Remember to focus on the basics first.
29. Prepare for the emotional roller coaster. It’s normal. One day everything will go to plan, other days it won’t. Become good at problem-solving because the best real estate agents are problem solvers.
30. Have tough conversations, even with yourself. Honesty and communication are key.
31. Be yourself – unless you’re a goose. In that case, please leave the industry.
32. Have a set prospecting farm area.
33. Go above and beyond. Treat everyone you meet with respect.
