The Life of a Realtor

This is the final episode in Season 1.  It is a way of putting the skills discussed in previous episodes in motion.

We begin with "A year in the life of a Realtor." Which reveals establishing a plan that details goals, focus and strategies around the key elements of success.

Then there is a dive into the month, week and finally the day in the life of a Realtor.  This episode outlines how to put action steps in place.

Transcript

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Welcome to real estate. Common sense. I'm your host, Lisa Spencer. I grew up in a real estate family was a top producing agent and a managing broker for over a decade. Eventually leading an office of over 400 agents. What I've discovered is common sense is not that common, especially when it comes to launching building or expanding a real estate business. I have interviewed thousands of agents and helped hundreds launch, successful careers. Today is the last episode of our first season and the last episode where you'll have to endure the lecture style of this podcast. Our season two episodes will be dedicated to interviews with top professionals that help us provide the best service to our buyers and sellers. Did you know that there are potentially over 30 professionals that can be involved in completing a successful sale while tune in to season two, for all the details on that. So in wrapping up the first season of real estate, common sense. I want to invite you to explore your reasons for becoming a realtor. Your vision for the future of your business and how you'll sustain the momentum you create. If somehow you thought a career in real estate was a path to easy money. It is our hope that our previous episodes dispelled that myth. Being a realtor, a good one is a tough job. It's the toughest job you'll ever love.

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It is more than loving to look at houses. It is loving people and helping them navigate a watershed moment. That is one of the first steps in building generational wealth. We are a part of this important journey. And if we do it right, we will earn the referrals and future business from the people we serve. If you've been tuning in since episode one, you should have a solid base for finding business. And you're committed to expanding your sphere of influence. According to Buffini group, a top real estate coaching and consulting group, 82% of all real estate transactions are the result of contacts from previous clients, referrals, friends, family, and personal contacts highlighting the substantial role that the sphere of influence plays in the real estate marketing and lead generation business. We also dedicated four episodes on how to help sellers and ourselves by determining seller motivation, reviewing market data, building a competitive market analysis and finally, how to market listings to a maximum buyer pool. We didn't leave our buyer customers out as episode three revealed the five steps in providing value in a buyer consultation. And, episode nine. That applied to both buyers and sellers with helpful suggestions on how to present a negotiate offers. So, what have we missed? What essential skill have we forgotten to cover in season one? It is how to put all of these skills to use and build a business. LEt's call this episode, the life of a realtor. We'll start with a year in the life, then move to a month in the life. Then a week in the life, and finally, a day in the life of a realtor. Rather than present the ideal day that you can find those on HGTV. We'll do our best to keep it real. A year in the life of a realtor begins about 90 days before January 1st. Somewhere between September and October of this year, you should lay out a plan for next year. There is generally a 90 day lag or more between the actions we take today and the results they will produce. You can find references to the 10 minute business plan on our real estate website, real estate common sense.com. And this is one of our most popular 90 minute workshops for this conversation. We'll simplify the process. Into three things you must determine. The first is, what is your goal for next year? Don't hide behind the things that are difficult to quantify. How many transactions do you intend to do next year? Do you want to move your price point upward? Or are you going to have to just wing it? The worst strategy is a plan to survive. Because if that's your plan, you'll get survival or less. After nearly 30 years, I have also learned that you should never budget off your best year. Take a serious look at the market conditions. Election years have always been soft for us. So if one of those is ahead, ask yourself, am I willing to work harder? Or can I accept the same amount of effort may produce diminished results when the market pulls back. The choice in selecting a goal is yours. You may want to set these goals with a partner or even your family as everyone needs to adjust their expectations in order for you to hit your numbers. Now, the second thing you must decide is how you'll get to your goal. Where will you focus your efforts? What are your business priorities? The first one is easy and pretty much universal you'll need leads. The second is also the focus of top agents listings. Those agents with experience know that if we spend our business time building biz, Listings then the buyers will come. The third area of focus is your sphere of influence, which is another place where we can find buyers. We have our goal X transactions for Y volume. And we also have our three areas of focus, leads, listings, and sphere of influence. Now we need three activities for each area of focus. Here are my quick suggestions. LEADS:. I like the easy prospecting plan, which is to call everyone that is waiting to hear from you. Yes. Agents miss so many opportunities to cultivate leads because they forget to call people back. Oh, they never forget the person that's ready to list their million dollar home back, but it's the casual. I wonder what those whole new homes are selling for. And what do you think I could rent my house for? And my brother is looking for a rental. Those are the calls that fall into oblivion. What so many agents fail to realize is that each unanswered question leaves doubt in the eyes of the consumer about our commitment to our profession. And more importantly, about our commitment to them. OPEN HOUSES: open houses have always been a great source of leads for our team. If you feel they are outdated or not worth your time, then maybe you're not doing them right. Can you up your game or would you rather choose another activity to generate leads? We also use social media. Now, this can be dangerous because there's a black hole of mindless posting, or we don't want to fall in the trap, being obnoxious and in your face and trying to grab your dollar, that's the kind of social media we want to avoid. If you're going to make social media, a planned activity regarding leads, then you need to run some AB testing around your boosting on Facebook posting shorts to YouTube and reels, or even Tik TOK can expand your influence, but you have to be strategic if you plan for it to produce leads. Are you prepared to create a plan and a strategy, or would you be better picking another activity to focus on such as paid advertising or referrals? The choice is yours, but our recommendation is to only pick three activities. Under each focus. If you don't know what to focus on. Then refer back to episode two, finding new business and adopt one of those strategies as a favorite or choose one of your own. Next we have our activities around listings. My personal favorite is a knock your socks off with the marketing of your current listings. It is crazy to me. How hard agents work to secure listing only to fall flat on marketing the property. People who are thinking of selling their home are out there looking at who is doing a good job. We love this strategy because it also makes the seller happy with the efforts we are making to sell their home. A second activity that also helps procure listings is providing market reports or for target areas or specific groups. These can be delivered by mail or email, or even through social media. The idea is to gain traction by showing that you are knowledgeable and professional and able to represent sellers and helping them get the best price possible in the least amount of time, with the least inconvenience to them. A third activity that works for finding listings is to be a zealous advocate for your current buyers. If the home they are looking for is not in the MLS. Then searching for a home for them could yield listings for you. And our last area of focus is our sphere of influence. Although this should have really been listed first. A database is not a sphere of influence. It is more than names and contact information. It is valuable relationships that will build your business. What three activities do you feel will best support these key relationships in your business? Here are my favorites: A once a month postcard with your real estate activities or stellar review regarding your service is an option. This is an effective way of reminding your people, that you're a realtor so that the rest of your activities can focus on them. My second suggestion is face-to-face meetings for lunch or coffee or other in-person social gatherings. Can you host a party or invite them to a community event? Supporting their business and charities is the last activity that I really focus on. When we support other people's businesses charities or interests with our time or money or referrals, it really goes a long way. These are just my favorites, but you get the idea. A year in the life of a realtor has to start with a plan. A written plan. That will provide direction and focus once the whirlwind of transactional activities. Begin to swallow up your day. In order to have the best year in the life of a realtor, we need to plan ahead. Hopefully 90 days before your year begins, you'll have number one. Come up with a goal that you are 100% committed to. Not the goal of your broker or the goal of a coach or even your family members. We need a goal that's personal and measurable. After you establish your goal, then you will decide on three areas that support that goal. We discussed three areas of focus. Leads listings and sphere of influence. You can take some time to personalize your areas of focus or adopt these. Committing to three areas of focus will prevent you from running around from good idea to good idea. Without spending enough time in one area to achieve results. And speaking of results, they only come from action. The last thing that is required for a successful year is daily activities. We listed three activities in each area of focus, you can use hours or commit to something that feels more doable for you. You can pause this podcast for a few moments to take notes, restart, or keep listening, but know that this framework needs to be set up before you can have a successful month in the life of a realtor. The month should begin with a review of your goals and where your business is in relationship to those goals. Then look at your calendar. Do you have enough time to execute your key activities? If not, do you need help in clearing other things from your calendar in order for you to focus on your key activities? A month in the life of a realtor will depend heavily on the framework of goals, focus, and activities. If you have an effective structure of where to spend your time. Then setting up the month, it's easier. The first three months of the year will have a stronger lead generation focus. And if you succeed, your efforts combined with the lift of the spring market should find you in a state of a momentum. The key is to acknowledge the rhythm of the real estate seasons. And build your key activities into even the busiest of times. So that you don't experience the real estate rollercoaster. This is a great visual metaphor for the reality of most realtors. The habit of lead generation is well, not a habit. Many agents only seek new business when their pipeline is empty. And once they have buyers and sellers to work with, they abandoned their lead generation strategies and activities. If you want to get off the real estate rollercoaster. Then here is my outline for a week in the life of a realtor. This is only my suggestion, but I hope it serves as a reminder that our body loves routine. Regardless of whether you adopt these suggestions, try to create as many routines around your building, your business as possible. Here we go: Mindset Monday: as a woman that worked outside my home and worked at keeping a very busy household running. I found that taking time to watch a video. Listen to a podcast. Of course, for me, it was VHS tapes and audio cassettes). But you get the idea. Set yourself up for success in the week ahead by reviewing and refining your schedule and fortifying your mind and preparing to stretch your limits. Taco Tuesday is next. And although who doesn't love a good taco, this is an acronym for take a client out. If you create a routine around your face-to-face meetings with your previous customers or sphere of influence, it is much more likely to happen. One meeting a week with two weeks off in the year, we'll give you 50 one-on-one meetings. If your budget is tight, grab coffee. Work out Wednesday. Doesn't necessarily refer to the gym, although it could, it means that the middle of the week is a great time to break a sweat. Write Thank you notes until your hand cramps and make all those calls you've been putting off. Don't take the day off to play golf. Unless golf is one of your lead generation sources. One of my agents built a pretty healthy business around being a random fourth every Wednesday. Make Wednesday the day you do the bulk of your lead generation work for the week. Think it through Thursday. Is there an opportunity to look for creative solutions for the business in your current pipeline? Do you need to stretch the search parameters in order to help a buyer find the perfect home? As a transaction stalled over inspection negotiations. Seek advice from more experienced agents or your broker, and make sure you haven't overlooked any potential solution. Oftentimes if we take time to think about the current transactions that are. Causing us struggle. There's a place to push them through to a close transaction. Then follow up Friday. This is a favorite because everyone is in a better mood on Fridays. Hold yourself accountable to returning phone calls. Even the ones for feedback on your recent showings, clear your email and more importantly, your text messages so that you head into the weekend clear. That,"when you have a chance" request is someone that is now making, selling their home a priority, but you won't know it. If you didn't follow up. I know there's a fantasy world where realtors don't work on weekends. That is why our next day is suck it up Saturday. Whether it is a buyer who is available only on weekends, or you're going to work on Saturday because you didn't work out as hard as you could have a Wednesday. Saturday is often a Workday for realtors, especially if we have a buyer based business. Our last day of the week is service and self care Sunday. That is much better enjoyed if we participated full on, on the previous days. One of the worst traps realtors fall into is the idea that we work 24/ 7. It is usually the realtors who catch and respond that have to work 24/ 7. Those that take a proactive approach in finding and serving buyers and sellers have much healthier boundaries. You may like my rhythm, or you may want to come up with a structure of your own. Regardless of how you frame your week. It's important to leave space to actually do the work. Which leads us to a day in the life of a realtor. In a life I have imagined and actually pulled off a couple of times, the day begins with an early morning workout, meditation or yoga, and then coffee and the MLS. Do you have a hot sheet set up for your area of specialization or for your current buyers? What has happened since yesterday that may impact a seller or create an opportunity for a buyer. Is there a pattern developing that is indicating a shift in the market. Spending time exploring what the MLS is revealing. Can set the tone for the rest of your day. After a good look at the MLS. It's time to check out some news in the real estate industry. Is there something that happened that is social media worthy. Was there a significant change in interest rates? Has your local community announced a home buyer assistance program? Is there a new corporation moving in or out of town that will bring jobs or increase available inventory? Now you've done that. You've looked at the MLS, you've posted anything significant to your social media page. And now it's time to shower and eat and take care of the animals and the kids and leave the house by eight in order to get to a home inspection by 9:00 AM. The buyer doesn't need you to follow them around the house. Let them have time with their inspector, but most sellers expect a licensed agent to accompany buyers and inspectors. You can jot off a few quick, thank you notes at the kitchen table before a recap of inspection findings. Today, this agent has a schedule has to schedule three afternoon showings for a buyer in temporary housing. Some buyers may ask you to follow along, especially if this is their first home. A modest size home should require about two hours for an inspection. But be careful about scheduling things too tight. Putting in a lead generation block from 11 to two would fit nicely in this day. Maybe even make the one to 2:00 PM portion of at lunch with the previous customer. Lunch dates with other professionals work well because they too have time constraints. And it puts some limitations on lingering on our lunch appointments. At 3:00 PM. It's time to show those three new listings to the couple in temporary housing. Hopefully one of them will be the one. It is hard on this couple, not to have their things. And the temporary housing budget is running out soon. Success. They want to write an offer. You send them off to dinner while you gather disclosures and other information from the listing agent. It's pizza for dinner tonight because you have to confer with your buyers and review disclosure information to formulate their offer. At 7:00 PM. You send the offer over to the listing agent and hope they'll get back to you tonight. The buyers are so anxious. But you have to temper their expectations and let them know. You may not know anything until tomorrow. I could go on... this may not sound like a typical day when you're first starting out, but it does outline how easy it is to lose track of our focus. Buyers and sellers deserve our full attention. And we still have to make time to cultivate future business. That is why starting with a plan for the year, the month and the week. Will help us structure our days. If we get off track. If we get off track, we have a way to adjust our plan. But if we're just responding to the needs of each day, there's no way to predict the outcome. Our success in real estate is determined on how we spend our days, regardless of the framework we established with our yearly goals and the scheduling we did with our monthly and weekly calendars. It is the productivity of each day that creates momentum. We hope you enjoyed this first season of real estate common sense and our details of the life of a realtor. Season two will launch next month, which will include a series of interviews with professionals that help us get our jobs done. It is wonderful to work with true professionals that help us serve at a high level. Subscribe to our podcast. So you don't miss anything. As we share," real estate common sense" support for agents launching, building, or expanding their real estate business. I'm your host, Lisa Spencer, sending love and wishing you success.