By Butch Leiber, 2023 President, Phoenix REALTORS®
Do you feel like you’ve been riding on a rollercoaster with your business in the last year? 2021 started with a lack of inventory to offer our buyers and ended with a lack of buyers and an abundance of inventory. Were you able to pivot and modify your business to complete a successful year?
Total number of sales in 2022 were the lowest in the Valley since 2016. Compared to the previous two years, total sales were down over 20%. That’s a big drop in potential transactions. Buyers were managing with skyrocketing prices over the last few years but when interest rates soared in the last year, is slowed down the buyers and shifted the market.
Agents who have been around for a while have learned to adjust to shifts in the market. But for many agents, this slowdown is a new experience and causes anxiety and stress. Ups and downs are common in the real estate market and having a strong foundation as a real estate professional can help an agent adapt to changing market conditions. Here are some tips to building a business that thrives in any market.
Know your why and operate your business from it. You’ve selected a career that’s not difficult but there are easier ways to make a living. So, why real estate? What do you have to offer your clients that they want? Having a strong why will pull you into action when the resistance of daily life shows up. And your why is not the stuff on your vision board – that’s your result. Your why is the difference you’re out to make for people. Allow your personal style to infuse how you do business and your people will show up.
We live in a city of over five million people. There are plenty of clients for all of us. Find the ones who want to work with you.
Have a business plan. So many of us hate planning but having at least a basic business plan is vital to long term success in the industry. A business plan can be as simple as clarity on how you are going to promote and market your business. Without clients, we can’t sell houses, making prospecting our number one job. Be clear on your five to ten prospecting methods that you will use to promote yourself. There are dozens of ways to prospect but if you pick just a few that you like doing, you can generate a strong pipeline of business.
Be consistent. Success in real estate takes time and attention. Holding one open house and declaring them useless is short-sighted. Develop a plan, implement the plan, evaluate the results, and adapt until you achieve the desired results. A one-time mailer to a neighborhood does not qualify as farming.
Action is the only thing that produces results. Stay in action. If you do nothing, you are sure to achieve nothing. But if you start with one small action, it will lead to another and lead to another which will lead to results. If you know your why, and you have even the most basic of business plans, you can find the next step to take. Stay focused on implementing your plan and success will follow.
And remember that to be successful in real estate there are no rules. Look at the top agents in the Valley – they all do business differently. There is no secret to success, no magic bullet but in the words of Napoleon Hill, “what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
Butch Leiber is an Associate Broker, Business Coach and President of Phoenix REALTORS®, a modern, member-first organization that is the foremost expert industry resource serving more than 11,000 real estate sales professionals in the Valley. Phoenix REALTORS offers free concierge-level member services, responsive support and resources, and the latest industry information, making it both the best-valued and highest-quality option for Valley REALTORS.