2 Must-Haves to Survive the Real Estate Market
Tanya Eldert, the author of the book, Agent Systems of Success, shares the two must-haves in order to survive the real estate market.
If you remember part of my story, I have recently finished up cancer treatments that I went through at the end of 2020 and all of 2021 and my last surgery was in January of 2022. While I was sitting there on the couch going through treatments, I realized something that was very important. For me to leave some type of legacy: to show how I had been helping real estate agents over the last few years.
And I wanted to take the things that I knew and that I was passionate about and put them into a book. So what I did, for about two months, was finished up a book that I have been slowly writing and developing over the last eight years. I took the systems that I had created, the templates and the worksheets and the spreadsheets, and all the information that I’ve been using to train and mentor and coach the agents, and put them into the Agent Systems of Success book.
I’m going to be talking a lot more about this book over the next six weeks. You can buy a copy of the Agents Systems of Success on Amazon, or ask for it at your local bookstore. It’s published by Success Workbooks. One of the reasons I made it into a workbook was because I wanted to be able to have you actually work through the system yourself. Have those downloads.
The Shift of the Real Estate Market
I took two months off to work on the book. Well, what happened during those last two months? Oh my gosh, the market went from crazy to semi-normal. What do I mean by semi-normal?
When I started a business seven or eight years ago, when a house went on the market, it was a bragging point if I could get it under contract, sometimes close but usually at least under contract in 30 days. So what happened during COVID, there was a housing shortage. People wanted a place to live, and for whatever reason, everybody’s life was in upheaval for a couple of years there. People didn’t want to move – housing shortage – there were supplies from getting the supplies to build houses. So sellers commanded the market. And the prices went sky high. Twenty offers on the home, buyers are throwing offers left and right over asking. And things were just nuts, you know. Sellers were disappointed if they didn’t have 10 offers on the first weekend.
Life is going back to a tidbit normal now, whatever we called normal before will be in the future. So the pendulum has started to swing back. And now houses, especially those who are overpriced, who sellers still are convinced that they’re going to get top dollar plus, are not getting offers. They’re not even getting showings and they don’t know why. Because they are still stuck in two or three months ago. And some agents don’t know why either because they’re doing the appraisals. Those appraisals are based on what should do, and sold three or four months ago, six months ago, depending on what you’re doing your comps, that’s not this market.
Things are getting a little bit more balanced. And what is happening is, the head – the agents that are serious – who have systems in place who have value, who have everything going, are now going nuts.
I have an agent whose head was starting to spin. And she’s like looking for other agents to help her. She’s looking for agents to drain, and she’s just going crazy. And there was less than that two to three months where nothing was happening, that where it was shifting. Now it’s going back again. So some of you are sitting there going. Oh my gosh, how do I survive this?
During the COVID times, many people took that time and got their real estate licenses. And they didn’t have to do a whole lot to sell a house, let’s be completely honest. Four months ago and in the right market, if you stuck it up with a picture of laundry on it, it would sell. I saw the craziest things – getting multiple offers and there was no marketing happening. It was just tossing on and stepping back and getting your real estate offer spreadsheet ready for your sellers because you were gonna get multiple offers.
Okay, we’re past that. It was interesting for the time it was. It’s over. Let’s not go back there.
Survive the Real Estate Market
Now we have to get into the actual jobs of real estate, the actual job of marketing, and you are going to have to have two things in place to survive the next few years in real estate. There are a lot more agents that have ever been in the business. And at least 80% of them will not last out the next two years, because it’s gonna get a little bit harder. It will get more difficult.
Systems in Real Estate
The first important thing you need to have to survive is you need to have systems in place. This system will help you navigate the business. And that is what my Systems of Success are about. Basically, systems are the ways that are going to handle your business. Those are your business plans, financial plans, and marketing plans. It also includes how you are going to work with every buyer, and how you are going to work with every seller. It is the way that you are going to do everything. Moreover, it is how you treat Customer A the same as Customer B because you have it in a system. There’s no more hodgepodge all over the place. Find out what works and you stay consistent.
Standards in Real Estate
The other thing you have to do besides systems are standards. You need to have standards in place that you won’t waver from.
What do I mean by standards? One of my standards was that I always got a home warranty for my buyers and my sellers. And of course, if I got it from my sellers, it was transferred to the buyers. It is something that I was very passionate about because I wanted to make sure that they were at least covered in their first year. And I have done that consistently for the $150,000 house for the first homebuyer to the almost a million dollar house that I’m closing in a week or two. Of course, the type of home warranty differs a little bit on the houses. But warranties, in general, I kept the same standards.
If I go above my standards and offer a home warranty plus the pool plan, great. But at a bare minimum, they’re gonna get the home warranty.
I want to have a standard and another thing that I do for everybody: I use a transaction coordinator. That is one of my standards, I have pretty high standards of how I want to treat the people I work with, and how I want to have my systems run.
Do you know why? That first-time homebuyer might come back with a referral for another person, just like the other homeowner might.
And that’s what you need to do: figure out your standards.
If you’re consistent with your standard, you’re going to get more referrals and you’re going to be known as an agent that people want to work with. I’m assuming that you have high standards of honesty and treating people like you want to be treated. And that doesn’t just include the buyers and the sellers. That includes your vendors: the other agents on the other side, your title company, and the lenders you work with. Make sure that you are treating them just like you want to work with somebody.
Remember, have standards and systems.
We will be going over these systems in the next six weeks hence do follow me on Facebook and YouTube. You’re gonna want to know how to dive into those systems that are going to help you.
Systems In Place
It’s easy to do one deal, guys. What happens when you get to 3, 4, 5, or 10 deals a month?
Thomas Hyman, one of the brokers I work with and co-author of the book, in his first year did 97 deals. That’s a lot of deals to be juggling your first year! But he had systems in place and people in place.
The Systems of Success was about how to go from the beginning agent, all the way to opening up your own brokerage. And we have every system in between.
What systems do you have in place so that you can maintain your consistency? Or build? What’s your marketing system? Identify the systems that can work on your business and grow your business.
I hope this was helpful for you to survive the real estate market. I look forward to the next few weeks of working with you to help with the different systems.
