4 Challenges and Solutions of the Real Estate Industry

There should be more profit-refining rather than adding a new layer of overhead or technology in the real estate industry. Sometimes, the basics are not addressed when looking to increase the company’s or individual agent’s net returns.

1. Lack of training from top agents. Many times, the agent who was average in production but great at the process becomes a training manager. There are broker/owners who just don’t have the time to train; there are the top producers in the office who don’t have the time or motivation to train; and then, there are the previously mentioned managers who took that job in the real estate industry because it was as financially lucrative as production.

Too many agents are not receiving superstar training in lead generation. I have coaching clients who receive training on process rather than lead generation at their offices.

There are many solutions in real estate industry, two of which are detailed below:

A A brokerage system that brings the top agents into the training and recruiting business — the two best known systems are Keller Williams and EXIT Realty. It is easy to reproduce these systems by giving better splits for listings sold or pieces of profit on new hires given to the introducer.

B Set up systems in the office that promote production like meetings where everyone puts their best buyer and best seller together; where the office performs certain lead generation systems until agents commit to them like expired solicitation; where top trainers are brought in and agents are held accountable to new ideas.

2. Reliance on purchased real estate industry leads. Agents have lost their ability to prospect for sellers from hot demographics, because they buy leads from consolidators. If the purchased leads are good one year, they will go up in price or decrease in the number of leads in the next year.

Agents need to prospect hot seller demographics blending “new school” with old school tools like direct mail, phone, follow-up, database, and closing abilities. The value you can offer certain seller demographics should be discussed at training meetings.

3. Offer macro-economic services. An agent has the ability to offer great information on a local level. It is the only way to compete with national websites. Whether you develop neighborhood websites or a newsletter based on local statistics, honing your local value is the only way to beat national efforts.

4. Financially struggling agents who don’t understand budgeting, planning, and investing. Many agents are struggling financially and they cannot devote their full attention to maximizing client satisfaction. They do whatever it takes to make the deal; they are in panic mode.

With office real estate industry services in place like setting up agent savings systems at close, training on tax-deferred investments, promoting real estate investing for groups, and budgeting analysis – offices have more agents who don’t live commission to commission.

These agents are always better at making deals when the deals are based upon client satisfaction and not agent survival.

Before you attend another webinar from a trainer or a tech guy (who never sold real estate) as they try to make your job easier – take a step back and start firming up some of the basics.