Real estate moves through phases. Each phase, even the boom, provides challenges for some, but in the current phase it often provides challenges for many.
Your mindset around this will determine whether you grab opportunities through this phase or whether you miss them.
If I was having a one-on-one with you as you read this, my first question to you would be, ‘Is there still enough turnover in your marketplace for you to have a record year?’
The answer to that question is, ‘Yes’.
Do you still know how to list and sell property?
The answer to that question is also, ‘Yes’.
This forms the backbone of all my discussions with our agents. The opportunities are still available and you know how to list and sell.
There are only a certain number of levers you are able to pull to increase your business.
One is the increase in average sales, which we saw in the boom.
Properties went from $1.5 million to $2 million, which meant commissions at two per cent went from $30,000 to $40,000.
That increase is obviously no longer available to us.
The second is increasing commissions. This obviously ties back into the price point but as a percentage there may be only a small margin of improvement available in that area.
The third, and the one I believe is the only available to you, is the lever of volume.
Too many agents look at GCI as the main driver of their performance when they should always talk about volume.
What I constantly go on about is creating ‘blocks of performance’.
Fifty sales per year should be your first block, 75 your next, then 100 and so forth.
The dollar value of the product or the commission you get for selling it is irrelevant. The one true measure of a business that is moving forward is volume.
All businesses are just collections of the tasks that you choose not to do or choose not to do well.
This falls under the banner of ‘prioritising preferences’, which is explained as just doing the things we like to do, not what we must do.
They are normally what I call the ‘grinding components’ of a business.
Logic says that if filled all the gaps in your business and increased your volume, you would take advantage of the current market.
If you were to increase your calls by 10 per day and do a minimum of five open homes every weekend – regardless of stock levels (if you only have three properties, open two twice) – you will see more people and this will equal more volume.
If the market has dropped 25 per cent in your area, you need to increase your volume across all areas by 25 per cent to compensate.
However, what a downturn does affect is your energy. It gives you an excuse to not do things.
Instead, take the opportunity from the market to increase volume on all of your platforms. You will be amazed by the opportunities that exist in the current market.
Remember it’s available and you know you just have to choose differently.
