Back in July, I wrote a post called "10 Things to Do When There is Nothing to Do".
I've been in the real estate business for 31 years. I've been through 3 down markets. It happens every 10-12 years here in New England. I mentioned in July that I keep a drawer in my office for buyer ideas and another drawer for seller ideas. During busy markets, I rarely open the drawers. The slow season is creative season for me; time to go through those drawers and see what I can develop.
So if business is slow for you....consider this your kick in the butt....stop complaining and get busy.
Here are "10 MORE Things to Do When there is Nothing to Do".
1. Build a Squidoo Lens about your hometown or market area. Squidoo Lenses do surprisingly well in the search engines. Find my "Building Your Technology Tool Kit" lens as an example at www.squidoo.com/REToolkit
2. Begin the habit of sending out 5 notes a day. Bob Wolfe, a very successful agent in California built his business on sending notes every day. He now does a sales volume of 100 million a year as a single agent. (His average price is 1 million.)
3. Read a good business book. You'll find my favorites listed at my Squidoo Lens. (See #1) My all time favorite business book is The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. After reading the E-Myth in 1995, I developed the habit of creating systems and spending time each week ON my business, not just IN my business. (The E-Myth is out of print but The E-Myth Revisited is available.)
4. Become a master of your market statistics. I email weekly statistics to current sellers, future sellers and anyone interested in the report. Compiling the information keeps me updated on what is happening in my marketplace and gives me the confidence to convince sellers to list at a realistic price.
5. Have fun with Flickr. Flickr is more than a place to upload, organize and share photos. It's also a very social site with plenty of outside applications developed for Flickr. You'll find me HERE.
6. This is a duplicate of my first 10 ideas because this one is so important: Organize your database. I wrote a post awhile back called You are your database. I've been working on my database every weekend. I re-categorized a few groups and updated others. For instance, I have a category called Movers and Shakers. In this category, I add all the elected officials and community leaders in my town. We just had an election so it is time to make some changes.
7. Learn to use your cell phone/pda. I have a Blackberry. I probably use about 1/4 of its features. I'm going to spend some of the slow season learning how to use the damn thing.
8. Create an Expired Plan. This market has created an opportunity for those good at chasing expired listings. As the second (or third) agent, you will generally find that sellers are ready to listen to you about proper pricing and condition. I know agents who earn a pretty nice living by focusing on expireds but they have systems in place and work the plan on a daily basis.
9. Create postcard campaigns for your pending sales and listings. Here are a few postcards I send:
I send a postcard reminding sellers to remove all paint cans and hazardous chemicals prior to closing.
I send a postcard to buyers and sellers with a list of phone numbers to change utilities.
I send a postcard with directions to the closing.
I send a poscard telling clients NEVER to take the day off work for a closing until the day and time is confirmed.
Do you have any idea how many phone calls this saves???
10. Get social. I have made some great real estate connections on social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, PlaxoPlus and Twitter. I won't have time to be this social when the market turns around. AND it will.
REMEMBER: After competing 1-10 above, if the market still hasn't improved then Pray. Lord, give me one more good market. I promise not to &%$# it up this time
