No matter what the status of the housing market, real estate businesses are in high demand.
During both buyers’ markets and sellers’ markets, real estate companies, agents and brokers are hard at work trying to find people the home of their dreams while helping existing homeowners sell a property they already own.
Even during “down markets” overall — when housing prices and interest rates are high, and inventory is low — real estate businesses are still in high demand.
This is what makes the real estate market such a potentially lucrative one to get into. But, if you want to build a sustainable and successful real estate business for the long-term, you need to learn how to grow your real estate business.
We’ll provide some tips on how you can do that below.
The real estate market involves buying and selling of specific land, buildings and/or property. It’s sometimes referred to as the housing market or the property market.
In the United States, it’s common for real estate companies to serve as the intermediaries between buyers and sellers. It’s very rare that buyers and sellers will work directly with each other to legally exchange hands of a property.
Real estate agencies collect what’s known as a commission for every transaction they successfully complete. This means that in just about every real estate transaction in the country, a real estate agency is making money.
The real estate industry is more about just making money, though. Residential real estate businesses help other people tremendously and improve their lives, and agents in commercial real estate can help other business owners and even real estate investors do the same.
When you help a person buy a new home, you are helping them to make what is likely going to be the largest purchase they make in their lives, and what will also serve as their biggest asset. This means that you’re not only giving them a place to live that they love, but you’re helping them increase their wealth.
You can also help people who aren’t ready to purchase a home yet rent one instead. There is a great wealth disparity in the U.S. between renters and homeowners, and as a residential real estate agent, you can help to close that gap with the proper guidance and support.
While you will of course be receiving a commission check every time you help someone buy or sell a home, that money is nothing compared to the satisfaction you will get from handing the keys over to someone you have helped, knowing that you are helping them to improve their life.
That being said, running a real estate business isn’t a charity. You need to be able to make a profit if you’re going to support yourself and your family.
The question, then, is whether starting a real estate business is profitable. Like other types of businesses, it’s likely that you won’t see a profit right away with your real estate business. There are many start-up costs associated with launching a new real estate business, and it will take time for you to build your client base and then turn a profit.
At the same time, compared to some other industries such as retail and food service, starting a new real estate business won’t require a lot of start-up capital. Most of your initial costs will come in the form of acquiring and setting up your office, getting proper licenses to practice in your state and marketing your services.
If you’re looking to grow your own real estate business, follow some of these proven steps below.
In today’s digital age, everything starts with your real estate website. In real estate, you need to build your own personal brand, and that needs to be separate from your broker.
That’s because while things might be going well with your broker right now, life can change rapidly. There are times, then, when you might need to change your broker, and if that happens, you want to ensure that you have a strong enough individual brand to stand on your own through the transition.
Creating your own personal real estate website will help to support you no matter what broker you are with. The good news is that building and maintaining a website isn’t nearly as challenging today as you might think.
A big part of real estate is trust. You need to be able to engender trust among people if you want them to hire you as their agent, and a great way to do that is to start a blog.
This blog can be posted on your website to promote your own business, and will serve as a great way to give you a leg up in terms of Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. When you write a blog, you will be improving your positioning in search engine results and positioning yourself as an expert in your field, showing people that you are among the seasoned real estate agents in your area.
Topics that you write could be about tips for preparing to buy a new home, what it takes to host a great open house, how to get a mortgage and other housing-related items. As you build up your SEO, when people enter search phrases related to homes or finding a real estate agent, your name is more likely to appear on the first page of results, which is what will ultimately help you land new clients.
Even in the digital age, traditional mail is still very successful in the real estate business. You can build up your sphere of influence by building up your mailing list and using that as a point of contact.
Digital means such as email drip campaigns get a lot of focus today, but people still love receiving something in the mail. Successful real estate professionals know these mailed items can serve as extra value that can leave a much larger impression than any digital touchpoint.
Any time you’re working on something large like growing a real estate business, it’s a good idea to sit down to write a formal real estate growth plan. When business is going well, it’s easy to be less motivated to work on investing the time necessary to collect leads that will help develop your pipeline and personal brand.
Overlooking this aspect of business is a mistake, though. If you do this, it will be more challenging to sustain through the notorious lulls in the real estate market, where things can seem quite bleak for a while before they bounce back again.
That’s why one of the most important marketing strategies is to always reach out to new clients and cultivate leads — especially since they may not come to fruition for many months down the line.
There is a lot of churn in the real estate industry, which is why it’s essential to always be prospecting to your target audience. A client may only buy and/or sell a home a few times in their entire life, so having past clients be repeat clients in the classic sense of the phrase don’t really exist in the real estate business.
That’s why it’s so important for you to prospect every day to target audiences so that you can build your pipeline. You never know when someone is going to need to buy or sell a home, which is why you need to always be marketing to people so that you’re the first person they think of when their need arises.
Life changes rapidly at times, and it’s important that you update your biography as it does. Not only does this ensure that your credentials are up-to-date, but putting things such as your interests, hobbies and personal life changes can also help you connect with potential sellers and buyers. This is among one of the most effective yet under appreciated marketing strategies you can take to increase real estate sales.
Connecting to the topic above, it’s important to establish your own personal identity as a real estate agent. While many agents will rely on the branding and resources provided by their real estate brokerage, this could become seriously problematic if you ever change brokers.
If you haven’t established your own brand in real estate, you’ll essentially need to start over from scratch every time you switch brokers. It’s good to have the support of your broker, but don’t rely just on them to fuel your brand and marketing efforts.
You need to always be visible if you want to bring in new clients. Marketing, prospecting and culling are daily tasks that you need to figure into your routine, in addition to negotiating and showing homes.
People want to hire real estate agents who they trust and believe are experts in the local real estate market. This makes it invaluable for you to know everything there is about the local market — both its current state, historical stats and future outlook.
A unique nuance in the real estate market is expired listings. There are a number of reasons why a property will expire, and by providing owners with a plan to overcome some of the issues they might have experienced that led to their home not selling, you could gain extra listings.
In fact, you might even be able to position yourself as an expert in dealing with expired listings and getting them to sell successfully.
Having a robust social media presence can be invaluable to real estate agents. After all, a significant portion of home searches start online, so being where your potential customers are already is a wise idea.
It’s essential to harness the power of social media today if you want to remain relevant and be on the top of customers’ minds. This is especially true for those who are in your personal sphere of influence.
Real estate can be a very hard business. It’s extremely local at times and can be ever-changing, which makes it difficult to succeed even if you do follow the tips to grow your real estate business that we have provided.
This applies not just to new real estate agents, but experienced ones as well. If you ever find that you don’t know what you should do to maximize your time, or what would make the biggest impact on your business, consider working with an experienced coach who could guide you through the process.
Despite the fact that the industry is challenging and always changing, starting a real estate business can be extremely lucrative. It can help you create wealth in your family, while you also help other people do the same.
If you want to succeed for the long-term in the industry, you need to figure out how to grow your real estate business. By following some of the tips above and working hard, you can find a lot of success in real estate.
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