Are you slow right now?  Do you have a hard time finding new clients?  Are deals falling apart or far and few between?  This is common in a slow market but absolutely avoidable in the middle of summer or as we call it the “selling season” for Real Estate.  Stepping back to look at your business as a Realtor can be heartbreaking and everyday you have to wake up and assume you are starting over.  But missing the basics and getting comfortable is recipe for failure in an agents career and we see it all the time.  Someone builds a strong year and its followed by a slow year.  This is not because the agent did a bad job and the clients are using someone else, but instead is typically because an agent stopped working the basics that got them that killer last year and clients calling them for sales.  Here are 3 reasons that agents are failing:

  1.  Networking – Agents forget how to make connections and networking.  Stop lying to yourself that showing up at a public space once a week is networking.  Networking is going to events with the intention to make new connections all the time.  I still think a Realtor is crazy not to hit a networking event 3 times a week or more.  Better yet, organize them.  Creating a networking group or power circle around your sphere of influence is my favorite way to build referral partners.  The fail comes in this when you quit after a year because you don’t know how to work it.  Focus, plan and connect.
  2. Daily Structure – 9am office time, 11am networking and 2pm phone calls before showings.  This is just an example but it blows my mind how many agents roll into a day without a plan.  Not having any appointments or showings is not a reason to slack off but probably a good excuse to do some work.  Being a Realtor can be extremely flexible and rewarding but celebrating and relishing too early in a career can be lights out very soon.
  3. Day 1000 – Yes we have to plan years in advance and then plan more years in advance in business and this holds true for agents.  What is your plan to grow or scale after a couple of years?  Are you still chasing each transaction to pay the next bill?  Stepping back and figuring out why your referrals and daily structure are not feeding the funnel is very important at this point and working hard to correct it is the only way to really create a career.  A couple of thoughts are:  a.  building a team around your sales b. joining organizations that put you in the middle of the action to sell c.  working, yes just working again helps.  Many of the commercial brokerages require brokers to work out of the main office and one of the reasons is that many brokers find it hard to get up and work after they made their last commission.  This takes care of that and years into a career they can monitor a broker that is half assing or not working hard to grow…….and they can cut them loose.

I think it all comes back to having a plan, working it and working it really hard.  Being an independent employee with no one telling you how to spend your time can be tough for some but thats not an excuse.  Failing to recognize not only these 3 tasks but how to complete them is key.  If you look at the top producers they typically have these things in the bag and very rarely nothing to do.  Time to be a top producer and Best of luck selling today

Curt has been in the Indianapolis Real Estate business for over 10 years and spent his first years learning all aspects of commercial management and brokerage.  He has had great success in managing existing commercial projects and new retail and office developments.  Curt specializes in building owner representation and purchases in the Westfield Indiana market as well throughout the Indianapolis Metro area.  Curt is passionate about growing the local Westfield community and in his free time  volunteers with Westfield Youth Assistance and raising 2 children with his wife Jennifer.