Making money in real estate is largely about what clients you can cultivate. To grow your business as a real estate professional, you may have to step back and think about who your clients should be and what services you should be offering them, while being true to your brand and ethics. To expand your business, you have to think bigger and more strategically about how you are using your time.
Manage Other People’s Property
A good property manager ensures that the property is maintained, residents’ concerns are addressed, and income keeps flowing at maximum levels. As a realtor, you have the skills to accomplish all these goals. You understand the cost benefit analysis of building repairs. You have good people skills. You understand that real estate is big business. Sell these skills to local and out of town landlords looking for fewer headaches.
Become a Landlord
Since you have the skills to manage investment property, why not own some and keep all the profit for yourself? Especially since you know the ins and outs of buying real estate, and you understand the market, you are a prime candidate to be a landlord.
Generate Leads While You are Doing Other Things
Many buyers and sellers do not know which real estate agent they should use. They use services to match them to the right firm. Signing on to a quality referral service can be the best real estate lead generation you have. The best part is that it’s entirely passive. No spending hours doing mailers, crafting social media posts, or worse yet, making cold calls. Just sign up.
Quarterback Subcontractors
Realtors who have been around the block know that sellers have houses in conditions and levels of readiness. When a house needs more work to be ready to list, or to maximize profits, a realtor has a chance to provide additional services. Those services can mean more income for your firm. Negotiate fees or a higher percentage commission for acting as general contractor for services like staging, photography, cleaners, organizers, repairs, and even trash removal.
Communicate Using a 4:1 Ratio
Your firm probably has a website and some social media presence. When posting on Instagram or Facebook, remember the four to one ratio. Post four pieces of free information, entertainment, or eye-candy and then, in the next post, ask for something. That way, your would-be clients associate you with interesting, smart, attractive information, but also are reminded that you are a business.
Work with People Who Move Often
Realtors make money when people move. There is a whole segment of the population that moves frequently. Use your phenomenal people skills to establish relationships with local colleges, universities, and international corporations with a local presence. Higher education institutions have students coming and going every year, as well as visiting professors. International corporations often have executives who bounce from city to city. There is money to be made assisting the influx of new renters find suitable housing.
Learn How Short-Selling Works
Foreclosures happen for a variety of reasons, a downturn in the economy, divorce, bad business speculation. If you understand how short-selling works, you are primed to step in to help the banks and sellers get the best outcome possible. The sellers avoid a stain on their credit. The banks avoid losing too much money. Sellers get a decent price. Real estate agents make commissions.
Learning more about the broker associates program can further position you as a valuable asset in these situations, giving you the expertise to navigate complex transactions. With these skills, you’ll be able to guide both buyers and sellers through challenging market conditions with confidence.
Do Pricing Analyses
Corporate clients, like banks and insurance companies, frequently need assessments of property value. Banks need to know the value of a property prior to extending a mortgage. Insurance companies need to know the same to determine appropriate coverage amounts. If you want to think outside the box, send your card and information to local accountants and divorce attorneys. Accountants will advise clients when to invest in real estate. Divorce attorneys often need an undisputable valuation to speed up the process of reaching a divorce agreement.
Offer Construction Development Consultation
Real estate consultants help developers and builders know what to build. They can advise on not just the demographics of the area, but can hone in on what is missing. Consultants will be able to explain the market, so that a developer knows what is built will be leased. That includes knowing the features tenants want as well as the pricing they expect to pay.
The Take-Away
There is no need to be a cookie cutter real estate agent who just grinds away at finding new customers. Assess your skills from a broader angle and look for different ways to generate leads, work, and sales to boost your income without reinventing your whole professional identity.
Founder Dinis Guarda
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