Is your real estate future looking good? Not if you choose to be naive.
Statistics show that 73% of Realtors actually fail and quit within 12 months of getting their license and 87% fail and quit within 5 years. This is obviously a large percentage of failure but when compared with small business owners, restaurants, and self employed entrepreneurs, 87% is not that high.
The main 3 reasons for the high percentage of failure:
Lack of funds (not enough money to sustain the learning process)
Lack of education (financial education as well as sales skills)
Lack of drive (not enough passion for success)
Those who survive the 5 year failure term are normally more driven, have better sales and marketing skills and are completely focused on getting listings.
When it comes to real estate sales, no matter what market we're in, buyers market, sellers market, the Realtors who focus on getting listings are always in a better spot. It is always the listing agents who gain more control on their financial future. No matter the market conditions, those who get the listings are always in a better spot. It's the name of the game!
For the past 5 years in most of RI & MA markets, prices increased dramatically. Properties are sold at bidding wars, high demand, low inventory. Last time we experienced a similar market conditions was in 2007/08 and shortly after came the downtime. During 2009-2012 more than 50% of the real estate licensees quit the business (not including the new comers). Those who survived and more importantly thrived were the listing agents. Those who focus on building their brand, those who possess great marketing skills and the ability to generate a lot of leads and convert those leads into listings, those real estate agents will be the ones benefiting and thriving when the market shifts again, and it looks like its coming soon.
So who should be on alert?
Real estate agents that are not focused on listings should be on alert. Real estate agents that do more than 80% of their business volume with buyers should be on alert. When the market is hot/boiling and almost every buyer can gain access to a mortgage, is it very easy to sell homes and get deals done. All you gotta do is watch the mls and go show some houses. But I promise you that this is temporary and it's bound to change and anyone who has been in the business for more than 10 years knows exactly what I am talking about.
How to prepare yourself and get ready for some changes?
The first thing I suggest everyone is to read a lot of books about online marketing, video marketing and social media marketing. That is where the future exist >>> Videos and content creation! But not just recording the same boring videos. You must learn how to create valuable and interesting content online and how to use keywords and tags and hashtags. You must understand the main platforms and how to advertise on each (instagram, Facebook, linkedin, Pinterest, YouTube etc). You must put aside a budget for branding and for promoting yourself online.
In addition, I highly recommend you to study hard and learn how to:
- Prospect on the phone and face to face
- Handle FSBO objections
- Handle EXPIRED objections (yes expired will appear again in abundance)
- Know what to say during a listing presentation
- Strengthen your communication skills
- Understand your DISC personality profile and how to be versatile
- Strengthen your online presence (what people see when they google your name)
- Strengthen your relationships with past clients and center of influence
- Learn and know your market stats
- Grow your database and your market reach
These are just a few examples of what I recommend you to focus on and prepare yourself to thrive while everyone else takes a dive.
The challenge with what I listed above is, if you are always busy busy busy, you won't have enough time to prepare yourself for the different market conditions that are heading your way. I am sure some of you might even think right now: "This guy doesn't know what he is talking about, the market is booming over here"... I am actually worried about you the most because you have no idea how to prepare yourself and you are naive.
What signs are indicating the market is about to change?
Regardless of the signs, you should be focusing on getting listings if you want to survive and thrive. History tends to repeat itself and in real estate the cycles are 7-10 years. If you go into your MLS and you do a research looking back from 2000 until now (2020) you will see the trends and you should automatically observe that the market change is due any day now.
DON'T Panic!!! That's not why I am sharing this information with you. My goal is to awaken you to prepare yourself and start accumulating knowledge, study marketing, branding, but really get into it, take an online course, read the books, try the techniques, spend some money on it, prepare yourself to become a listing agent and find ways to get listings! Otherwise you will shortly begin searching for a second source of income and shortly after, unless you know how to get listings and generate leads (by yourself), your real estate career is at risk!
The Real Estate Brokerage Industry Is Also Changing!
If you normally rely on your company brand or team to hand you leads, you might need to make an adjustment and learn how to generate your own leads.
Education is the name of the game! Seek out a brokerage that already prepares you to deal with the upcoming market conditions. If your broker or team leader is not talking about this, that doesn't mean you should be a sitting dock waiting for it to happen. I am inviting you to take action, learn how to generate your own leads, consistently, learn how to speak with a seller and how to get a listing, prepare your presentation ahead of time, your objection handlers, your online presence and what shows up on google when someone seeks you out.
I saw too many agents losing a listing because their google presence was not aligned with their message. They told the seller one thing and the seller found something completely different on google. If your brokerage is not spending dollars to bring you this information and educate you on how to prepare yourself, you might want to spend money to find that information by yourself or just seek out a different brokerage.
If you wish to have a discussion about this post, please feel free to share your thoughts below. Let's keep this as an open discussion on the subject.
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