Real Estate Trends

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<p> <span style="font-size: 10pt">Whether you own a small real estate office or a franchise with multiple offices, real estate brokers have much in common with other small business owners during these difficult economic conditions. This economy affects all businesses and it doesn&#39;t really matter if you are the local hair salon or the major department store, current market conditions are tough.</span> </p> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <span style="font-size: 10pt">For real estate brokers, owners and managers the focus revolves around how to recruit quality agents, how to retain quality and productive agents and how to increase overall profitability. This is analogous to the farmer who must plant, fertilize and water before reaping - and the sayings goes, &quot;You reap what you sow.&quot; Sowing solid business principles is certainly a key part of reaping a profit.</span> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <span style="font-size: 10pt">Included in the Swanepoel TRENDS Report 2009 (<a href="http://www.retrends.com/"><font color="#800080">www.retrends.com</font></a>) is a list of 10 suggested action steps for brokers to be successful during the down turn. Here is a synopsis:</span><br /> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <b><span style="font-size: 10pt">Recruiting</span></b><br /> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div> <ol type="1" style="margin-top: 0in"> <li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <b><span style="font-size: 10pt">Define Your Hiring Objectives</span></b><br /> <span style="font-size: 10pt">Brokers must know what they want in a new hire before they can communicate the need to the marketplace. It&#39;s no longer a numbers game but a quality contest. Creating unnecessary turnover wastes too much time and is too expensive, let alone the disruptiveness that results from bringing a team member on board who&#39;s not a good fit.</span> </li> </ol> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"> </div> <ol type="1" start="2" style="margin-top: 0in"> <li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <b><span style="font-size: 10pt">Benefits Has its Privileges</span></b><br /> <span style="font-size: 10pt">Announce your need to your local market and identify the top five reasons why an agent should join your company. Don&#39;t get caught up in the compensation game as it isn&#39;t and shouldn&#39;t be the number one reason an agent joins your company. The focus needs to be on what your company will do to expand the agent&#39;s career.</span> </li> </ol> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"> </div> <ol type="1" start="3" style="margin-top: 0in"> <li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <b><span style="font-size: 10pt">Being Creative</span></b><br /> <span style="font-size: 10pt">Brokers need to determine what group of agents they need to add to their team to achieve the desired results, be it Gen X or Gen Y, multilingual people, college graduates, etc. It will require the use of multiple marketing channels such as Craigslist, blogs, social networks, customer lists and other online services to expand your search - go where the agents are.</span> </li> </ol> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"> </div> <ol type="1" start="4" style="margin-top: 0in"> <li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <b><span style="font-size: 10pt">Quality Control</span></b><br /> <span style="font-size: 10pt">Test for a match before spending time with the potential recruit. Do the standard reference checks but more importantly check to make sure the new recruit is compatible with your company and your team. Many different tests like a DISC assessment, the Real Estate Simulator (<a href="http://www.realestatesimulator.com/">www.realestatesimulator.com</a>), etc. can help.</span> </li> </ol> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <b><span style="font-size: 10pt">Retention</span></b><br /> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div> <ol type="1" start="5" style="margin-top: 0in"> <li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <b><span style="font-size: 10pt">Leadership</span></b><br /> <span style="font-size: 10pt">The number one reason agents often leave their company is a poor relationship or disagreement with management. And this almost always comes down to leadership and communication. The work environment is critical and experts are saying that people providing the service to the customers are #1.</span> </li> </ol> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"> </div> <ol type="1" start="6" style="margin-top: 0in"> <li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <b><span style="font-size: 10pt">In Good Hands</span></b><br /> <span style="font-size: 10pt">Most real estate agents are looking for guidance, mentoring and support to help them pilot their careers to success. Creating teams (<a href="http://www.onlinedominance.com/">www.onlinedominance.com</a>) and mentors (<a href="http://www.isucceed.com/">www.isucceed.com</a>) within your company helps everyone feel that they are part of something and that they belong - which creates an air of openness and sharing that will result in higher production.</span> </li> </ol> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div> <ol type="1" start="7" style="margin-top: 0in"> <li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <b><span style="font-size: 10pt">Professional Development</span></b><br /> <span style="font-size: 10pt">Failure of the majority of agents to improve their own knowledge and skills has placed an added responsibility on the shoulders of brokers. To ensure that your company succeeds, brokers must provide agents access to extensive professional development opportunities. A good way to go is a private labeled online university (<a href="http://www.reeuniversity.com/">www.reeuniversity.com</a>).</span> </li> </ol> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <b><span style="font-size: 10pt">Profitability</span></b><br /> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div> <ol type="1" start="8" style="margin-top: 0in"> <li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <b><span style="font-size: 10pt">Business Plans</span></b><br /> <span style="font-size: 10pt">Study after study has shown that most businesses that fail did so because they did not have a comprehensive business plan for the company to follow. With an inexpensive real estate industry specific business plan for agents (<a href="http://www.createaplan.com/">www.createaplan.com</a>) it is easy for brokers to ensure that their agents are equipped with the necessary tools to develop a realistic business plan and accountability system.</span> </li> </ol> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"> </div> <ol type="1" start="9" style="margin-top: 0in"> <li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <b><span style="font-size: 10pt">Expense Analysis</span></b><br /> <span style="font-size: 10pt">It&#39;s amazing that during the peak real estate market many brokers didn&#39;t control their expenses and failed to set aside a portion of their profits for the leaner years. Re-margining your business and bringing costs in line with income is foundational to the success of any business. But remember, it&#39;s not a one time event. It has to be continuously monitored and managed.</span> </li> </ol> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"> </div> <ol type="1" start="10" style="margin-top: 0in"> <li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <b><span style="font-size: 10pt">Systems</span></b><br /> <span style="font-size: 10pt">One efficient strategy to do more with less is to streamline activities, automate repetition and put systems into place that can handle many non-income producing tasks. Technology for real estate companies has come a long way in helping to manage clients, agents, information and transactions and increase productivity.</span> </li> </ol> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 150%"> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> <span style="font-size: 10pt">Copies of the 160-page 2009 edition of the <i>Swanepoel TRENDS Report</i> are now available at Amazon (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/"><font color="#800080">www.amazon.com</font></a>) as well as the online real estate bookstore (<a href="http://www.realestatebooks.org/"><font color="#800080">www.realestatebooks.org</font></a>).</span> </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 150%"> </div>

<p> During the holidays I received a few emails indicating surprise that I included micro blogging (Twitter) on my Top 10 Events impacting Real Estate in 2008 so I thought I would provide a little more information for those that are not that familiar with the concept of short text-based 140 character posts. </p> <p> Twitter is again one of those social media phenomena&#39;s. Founded in 2006 Twitter moved into the mainstream in this year. According to HubSpot 1 million people joined Twitter since October, pushing the new 2008 Twitter users to 3.5 million and the grand total to 5 million Twitterers or Tweeple. </p> <p> (PS: For the loyal MySpace and Facebook fans, yes Facebook is still the largest social media and is about 30 times bigger with approx. 140 million users). </p> <p> Twaffic (Twitter traffic) has risen sharply on Twitter this year. Already at an admirable 1 million unique users per month at the beginning of the year, traffic has risen to almost 4 million unique users per month, affirming Twitter as the #1 micro-blogging tool on the Internet. </p> <p> Realtors are also in increasing numbers Tweeting (communicating) and Twittworking (networking on Twitter). Various real estate related applications are also starting to emerge. </p> <p> I will be posting regular Twend Tweets (Real Estate Trend Updates) on Twitter so you are interested you can follow me <a href="http://twitter.com/swanepoel" target="_blank">@Swanepoel</a> </p> <p> Love to hear how Realtowners are finding Twitter useful in their real estate business. </p>