AGENTS--- What are your thoughts?

Question

I'll keep this short. I'm a Realtor near Chicago IL and I've been a Realtor now for 2 years. Business is slowing down coming into the Winter and election year. I'm wondering what has worked for successful long-term agents during their slow months to keep surviving? Do your strategies shift? Do they remain the same? Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Russell Brazil · Answer

My business is pretty even throughout the year. Winter can be a good time to buy with less competition, so I work a lot of buyers in the colder months.  Its all about keeping your pipeline filled.

Tracy Selfridge · Answer

I always hear the work you put in the last quarter will be the results you have in the next quarter.

Agree with Russel, our market has less inventory during cold months but the buyers are still out.

Michael Noto · Answer

@Daniella Sanchez Your market slows down during an election year? I actually have never noticed that in my market, I am going to look into it.

As @Russell Brazil mentioned more of my business in the colder months comes from investors looking to snatch up properties with less competition.

Take the winter months also to fill your calendar with meetings with people looking to buy/sell in 2020 and to follow up with old leads that may have "took a break" from their thoughts on buying/selling. Update them on the current market, get the conversation going and see where it goes.

Frank Wong · Answer

Don't spend all your money and have reserves. Then you will be able space out the slower months until you get to a point of your business where money is coming regardless of seasons.

John Thedford · Answer

I know this is not a quick fix. Buy rentals and they will pay you year round.

Mark Ainley · Answer

@Daniella Sanchez Focus on buyers and finding deals.  If you have deals then buyers will come.

Calvin Ozanick · Answer

I personally feel that buyers are always looking. I think as Russell said, you can find buyers year round, and you just need to find what they are looking for. If you work for it, the buyers and sales will be there.

Irene Nash · Answer

Hi @Daniella Sanchez

If you look at Google Trends you can see that historically searches for homes for sale drop throughout this time of year but skyrocket right at the very end of the year (and rise from there) - maybe because people at the tail end of the holiday season people have some time off and are eager to get started on their home buying plans for the next year. You can see this here on the Google Trends graph:https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=homes%20for%20sale,houses%20for%20saleSo while business might be slower the last couple months of the year (going by the graph it's easy to see why), I think now is a great time to market strongly to the many people who are caught up in holiday stuff now but who will be the ones hitting Google searching for homes for sale in late 2019 and early 2020.

One thought would be to send postcards to current renters (I know that's not exactly a new concept :), or to neighborhoods with high turnover. Or you could write an "evergreen post" for your website/blog on how to successfully buy a home in your area in 2020.

I realize you might be familiar with this already but just in case, an evergreen post has content designed to stay relevant over the long term, a guide people can come to year after year. And you can update the content and title each year (i.e. for 2021, 2022, etc.)  Here's a guide on how to do one (the guide is also an evergreen post :) -https://backlinko.com/hub/seo/evergreenAnd you could advertise or boost that post on Facebook targeting a demographic you think is likely to buy soon. It's a good idea to include a call to action in the post, like a sign-up for a resource list - step by step guide, etc. - something that you create for people that's high value so you're able to stay in contact with them afterwards.

(If you write this post you can also send people to it via your postcard mailings.)

It's easy to create sign-up forms using a free level on MailChimp, MailerLite, etc.  But the key to the evergreen post is creating high value content that answers as many questions as possible seeing as that builds trust and shows your expertise.BTW Google Trends is also a great tool for figuring out which search terms resonate more strongly with people, i.e. "homes for sale" vs. "houses for sale". Good luck!

Randall Weatherall · Answer

I made sure about a month or two ago to let everyone know that I'm still around, not taking any long breaks over the winter and the deals will keep coming.  Let them know that you'll be here working for them and that if they like something, you're not going to be flying off to Jamaica for 2 weeks in the middle of their deal.  I let them know early and often that I want to work for them and I remind them of their year-end push for goals that they need to hit for their business to succeed at the rate they want to.

Alicia Yoder · Answer

@Daniella Sanchez I have been an agent for over 4 years now in a small rural town and highly saturated realtor market at that. I’m gay to boot, so my ability to remain successful here surprises me daily lol. I say all that to paint the picture if I can sustain anyone can so def believe in yourself first off. Secondly, I’ll say there is no magic answer but in my opinion the number one thing I can suggest is give. If your slow go volunteer somewhere. Help a friend move or fellow agent with their showings. It amazes me how anytime I put good into the world it always finds its way back to me. Don’t go volunteer with the mindset of networking and what you will get out of it though. Volunteer because you simply just want to give and be of value to someone. I’ve gotten down to dollars in the bank account and it never fails it gets replenished right when it needs to. I’m a firm believer in the law of attraction. Put out into the world what you want and it will find it’s way back to you.

AGENTS--- What are your thoughts?

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