Mike Gray

Well here we sit on the 28th of December and I have come to the realization that I am going to have to go out and actually work again next year if I want to make a living. Asking Santa for a full funnel of buyers and sellers that are already qualified, motivated and oh yeah, looking in a high price range did not work as well as I had hoped. Sounds crazy and overly silly right? But in reality this is the approach that many agent take in their real estate career (used lightly) for generating leads and getting clients. To be fair, they may not actually ask Santa, but in reality they are not asking anyone!

I think the end of the year numbers for realtors will be very telling. Now that you actually have to work and homes are not flying off the market this career becomes a battle of the fittest. And you know what, we should all be thankful that it is difficult or else there would not be big paychecks at the end of transactions. Let me explain. The person at McDonalds is a sales person so why does he not get paid very much. Leads walk in the door to them, those guys are not contacting their sphere or attending networking events to find someone that wants a burger. Now obviously selling a home is more complicated but the more that is handed to us the less we make. Relo anyone?

2009 could be a wild ride so get ready. Hopefully you have been getting ready and are not one of the ones that is chomping at the bit for January 1st so you can go "Hit It Hard" this year. If so, you may have a slow quarter. My planning and contacting for 09 started about 3 months ago as well as most of the people I have read on here.

Lets take pride in the fact that real estate is hard now and we have to do it right. Many amatuers are leaving the business each day and I say so long. Who knows, maybe in a few years our reputation with the public will once again overtake the used car salesman. We do a service everyday and help clients with what amounts to be the biggest investment of their lives. Lets do some more in 09 and tell the war stories later.

I keep hearing agents say that they are going to take the rest of the year and start fresh on New Years. Well that all sounds great but I do not know about you but I do not have a faucet of buyers and sellers to turn on and off as I wish. Real estate is like popcorn, once you apply the heat it takes a while to see any results. So the theory of taking off the rest of the year really means that you will begin to prospect in January and if you are lucky will have some buyers and sellers with 30 days and hopefully the closings will start within about 60 days. With a little quick math that adds up to zero cash for the beginning of next year. Now is the time to be agressively going after clients for next year and trying to get those fence sitters to move before the beginning of the year and tap into some of the benefits for closing before Jan 1. For me, historically, December has been a good month so the last thing I would want to do is to shut it down before I rang up all I could for the year. A few extra closings makes our tree look a little better each year. Do not take December for granted, it could turn out to be your best month of the year.

I been thinking alot lately about the concept that people keep throwing out about "Time Management". What really is time management. I believe that you really cannot manage time, it is what it is. What we do about the time that we have is the differentiator between us, because lets face it. We all have the same amount of time. Those of us with small kids may argue that point, maybe have a pretty good argument, but in reality when we get up, we each have the same 1,440 minutes to do with what we CHOOSE. The key word here is choose. After being in the real estate business for many years now what I find is those that choose to use their time effectively succeed and those that do not, well, you know the stats. Times are tough now and deals are not falling from the sky, but what I see in the realtors that are doing well is that they use their time doing the money making activities. What makes us money? Prospecting, prospecting, negotiating and closing deals and then prospecting. Buyers and sellers are out there but in my city they do not wear banners on their foreheads. If you want to have a great day, week, month and year in real estate, here is a simple tip for you that will catapult your business if you do it consistently. Each morning when you get up spend the first 2 hours of your day prospecting. Calling your sphere, working FSBOs and expireds, soliciting investors or the countless other ways you choose to prospect. Call this your gold time. You do not take calls unless it is a call back from your prospecting, you do not check emails and you do not chat about last nights game or the final episode of Dancing With The Stars. This is your time and do not let ANYONE interfere. Do this consistenly for one month and see how much business magically appears. You will be amazed how much you will be able to get done the rest of the day and how good you will feel about what you did. This focused time will produce more than days of a few calls here and there when you get a minute. Try it out and let me know how it works. What is the worst thing that could happen? You tell me.