Based on a few requests, I’m posting some notes I took at a gathering of top Keller Williams agents where the presentation topic was how the top 500 agents are thriving in the current, heavily-shifted market. Here’s what they are doing:
- Each of these agents went through 4-5 months of devastation. I think most agents can relate to this impact to their business in the recent past. The difference between average agents and these top agents is that they reacted quickly. Read on…
- They knew their market. Believe it or not, we can’t change the market. As silly as it sounds, we also only have one market…the current one. So, given that we can’t change it or pick a different one, our only viable option is to understand it and what it is telling us and “correct course” in our business accordingly.
- They focused on lead generation. For many of us, our definition of lead genereation a few years ago was going out to lunch or going for a walk because you pretty much couldn’t do either one without bumping into a buyer or seller. My what a few years will do. While vast legions of agents sit sadly on the sidelines today with their hands over their eyes and holding their breath, the top agents went back to what’s proven succesful in all markets. Good old-fashioned lead generation. And for the most part, this has meant more in the way of direct prospecting (phone calls, hand-written notes, open houses, and relationship-building activities) and proportionately less in the way of costly marketing.
- They put in weekend and evening time. Let’s face it folks. There’s a reason they call it work. The glorious notion that real estate is easy and you can make 6-figures with a flexible schedule is being seen now for what it really is. A rewarding and critically necessary profession to be sure, but one that, like any business, requires attention to the factors that drive its economic engine. If you’re not sure what that means, you need to read the book Good to Great by Jim Collins.
- The lead team agent took primary responsibility for lead conversion. During the heyday of the early 2000’s, when leads seemed almost mystically bountiful, agents who ran teams often thought of themselves as “rainmakers”, primarily responsible only for generating leads and not for converting them. Now with qualified and motivated buyer and seller leads being harder to come by, the conversion of those leads has become critically important. Top agents are therefore taking back the control of this vitally important step.
- Stating, staging, staging! It’s difficult enough to sell homes in the current shifted market. Sellers only add to that difficulty with homes that don’t offer enough perceived value to money-conscious buyers. Many top agents are even not even accepting new listings unless they are properly staged, including cleaning, repairs (see #7 below), updating when necessary, and even landscaping. In many neighborhoods 15-20 homes for sale are competing for maybe 1-2 sales per month. To be one of the “chosen ones”, you’ve got to represent massive value.
- They are requiring sellers to make repairs upfront. Obvious repairs that are certain to be an item of discussion or negotiation in a potential buyer’s offer have to be addressed upfront. To maximize a seller’s chanced of being the next sale in the neighborhood, buyers need to leave their home not only knowing it represents a great value, but also with an outstanding impression of the condition of the home.
- Sellers are making offers to buyers. While not technically a new strategy, when a buyer is on the fence, on occassion a competitive, written offer made by the seller to the buyer can often flick a buyer off of that fence (in the right direction).
- Anyone on the team who’s not committed has to go. Again folks, top agents are not in this business just because it’s fun (even though it is). At the end of the day, ours is a fiduciary business and one which we must take seriously at all times. If you are the lead agent of a team and have team members who don’t share your passion, dedication and work ethic, perhaps you don’t have the right people on the bus (again, see Good to Great by Jim Collins…and no Mr. Collins did not pay me for this free advertising…he just knows an awful lot about the difference between mediocrity and what Kung Fu Panda aptly calls “awsomeness”).
- Prep all listings for price reductions. The only excuse for avoiding this discussion is only taking appropriately priced listings from the beginning. If you are listing property in today’s market (and you BETTER be), you know all too well how difficult it can be to go back and explain to a seller that you have to reduce the price $20,000. Even though you know that the house was overpriced to begin with, your seller thinks you are asking for permission to reach into their pocket, pull out $20,000 in cash, and burn it to a pile of ash right before their eyes. Set the proper expectation right from the get-go to avoid this potentially devastating process for sellers.
Difficult market? Without question. Still possible to thrive? ABSOLUTELY! In your market, look at the number of transaction sides available this year. I’d be willing to bet you that you only need a small fraction of a percent of those sales to do well this year. Yes folks, contrary to what the Nightly News is telling you, there IS enough to go around…you just have to go GET IT!
