As the end of the year is coming to a close, it's natural to reflect on our business accomplishments for the year. One thing I've learned as a realtor is that no matter how great my year has been, I always have room to grow.
That's why my team and I have already been sitting down and planning how we are going to reach our even bigger goals for next year and beyond.
Luckily, I've learned a lot of proven methods for how we can do that. That's why I want to share a lot of the tips that have worked for me, my team and my mentors when it comes to scaling and growing a real estate business.
1. Join a Brokerage That Wants You to Grow:
It's easy to think that all brokerages would want you to grow your business, since they share in that success, but that's not always the case. Sure, on the surface, you may get great support, lots of leads and access to resources, but if the brokerage is charging you a ton of fees for those services or taking a big piece of your commission - they're growing more than you.
I know for me, my income skyrocketed when I changed brokerages and found the right fit for my business. I wrote a dedicated post, and even made you a video, to share how I literally tripled my income by switching to a new brokerage.
It's been such a huge part of my business growth and I truly believe finding the right brokerage can do the same for you. Read that post here.
2. Utilize New Tools:
Technology is changing everything, including the real estate industry. First, we saw these changes in the form of sites like Zillow and Realtor.com. These sites transformed how homebuyers and home sellers looked at real estate and evaluated their own home's market value.
Another shift is happening in the real estate world, with the growth of live property auction sites. These allow buyers and sellers to see bids on properties in real time. This transparency is giving potential buyers the power to decide how to bid and delivering fast sales, usually for over ask, to home sellers. It's a win win. So, if you're looking for a compelling new option to give your home sellers, as well as an entirely new avenue for sourcing leads, you've got to check out our sister site USA Homebids.
It's fast and affordable to get certified to offer USA Homebids to your clients and you'll see a return on that investment very quickly as your clients will appreciate that you are current on all new technologies for the real estate industry.
3. Master Social Media:
Regardless of how you feel about social media personally, the fact is: your clients and potential clients are on social media, so you should be, too.
Social media offers unparalleled access to your target audience. Plus, you can use social media to share what your business is all about, share tips, and share your expertise and knowledge of a particular area or type of property.
When it comes to social media, you want to be on multiple sites, such as Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, plus utilize the blog on your website to share longer form content like this blog post. Also, start building a YouTube channel. Add all property videos and create more where you talk about your business, the market, and anything else you think is relevant to your clients. You can even make reals and videos that you share on Instagram Live and TikTok. Get creative, show your business's personality and have fun with it.
We've compiled many of our top social media tips for realtors in previous posts, so feel free to check out the ones that will help you grow your business online:
4. Find a Mentor:
Real estate is definitely an industry where you want to connect with people who are playing the game at the level you'd like to be.
A great mentor can give you tips on how to maximize your opportunities, create new ones and scale to meet demands. Plus, surrounding yourself with people who have achieved the goals you are looking to reach is always a good idea.
Something I love about eXp Realty is how you are able to pick your team. I talk about finding the right mentors in this post. With the support of my mentors, I have grown my business from $200,000 to over $600,000! This has been an instrumental part of my business growth and I can't recommend it enough.
5. Work Your Sphere:
Listen, I know you're going to hear this on every list like this. But, there's a reason everybody says it - it's because it works!
When it comes to selling your home, you are always going to feel more comfortable working with someone you know and trust. If people don't know that you're in real estate, how can they call you up when they need a realtor?
We are always surprised when we meet other realtors who don't share about their business everywhere they can, such as their personal social media sites. If you're not talking about your business, you're not working your sphere.
6. Build Your Downline:
Adding to your team might sound like something you just don't have time to manage, but hear us out. The only way to be able to take more control over your business is to have multiple streams of income. Building your downline allows you to pass your knowledge on to other realtors, to share leads so that you can all work to your strengths, and to also bring in another source of income.
eXp Realty makes it really easy to do all of these things and their profit sharing is the best we've seen. To learn more about this, check out #9 in this post. I share exactly how you make more money with their revenue share plan.
By building your downline, you can actually make a plan to retire. Many realtors we know have no idea how to set themselves up long-term. Building your downline can help you do that.
7. Lower Your Fees:
Yup, you can make more without actually working more just by lowering your fees. When I was with a different brokerage, I was paying thousands of dollars more a year for health care and software. I knew many realtors who were spending upwards of $10,000 a year just in healthcare for their families!
With eXp, you will lower these fees substantially, while getting access to best in class programs and healthcare.
I share more about how to do this in this post, but the bottom line is this: you can take home more of your hard-earned money simply by lowering your fees.
8. Use Time Blocking:
We've talked about a lot of big picture ideas and this is where we get granular. Learning how to manage your time as a business owner can drastically grow your business.
One of our favorite tips is to use time blocking. There are a lot of ways to use time blocking, but our favorite is simply allocating blocks of time each day to specific tasks. When you're in that block, try not to deviate and do anything else.
As business owners, it's really easy to have 20 tabs open - on our computer and in our brains - at all times. Constantly jumping from one activity to an other without finishing a task is actually decreasing our productivity. While it's not a perfect science, scheduling out our day and focusing on specific tasks without deviating has allowed us to grow quickly, onboard new realtors to our team and much more.
Here's a great post with more tips on time blocking for realtors.
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We hope these 8 tips will give you a great starting point for discussions on how you can make next year your best year yet.
If you're looking to join a successful team, maybe even switch brokerages, and see your business skyrocket - we are currently building our team at Enyart Homes and we would like to speak with you! Call me at 916.524.9733, tell me you saw this blog post and you want to know more about joining our team.
I hope to hear from you soon!