Prepare for problems in transactions

While the real estate industry has changed in the last several years, it’s not dramatically different than the standards of the last several decades, according to Scott Allen, author of Success Guide for Real Estate Sales: Thriving in Tough Times.

Scott Allen

Allen, who worked for 18 years in real estate sales and development in Wisconsin, said, “There are excellent opportunities for buyers right now and mortgage rates at four-and-a-half to five percent are better than we saw decades ago.”

He highlights five tips to be successful in these changing times:

• Have the right attitude. If you’re thinking negative, you need to turn it around. Reading motivational books and listening to uplifting speakers are key to adjusting your attitude and working toward a positive future.
• Operate from a business plan. The days of “winging it” are gone because the competition is much tougher. It’s important to document a business plan, commit to prospecting and hold yourself accountable to the business plan. Often agents write a business plan and file it away.  The key is to have accountability and measurement systems in place. Those who are truly successful follow a business plan on a daily basis.
• Continue to provide great customer service. While this may sound easy, it’s the basis of any good business. Incorporate a performance evaluation tool, looking at customer service strategies, measurement and quality. By re-reading the evaluations, it helps Realtors® keep focused on delivering great customer service.
• Price properties to sell. This is critical in this market. No longer can we look at historical data and base the price on that. We have to predict the immediate future. Prices are changing so rapidly that we need to predict where prices will be in the near future, because that’s when our clients will be selling their homes. If prices are falling in your market, then using yesterday’s data to predict tomorrow’s price will be misleading.  We need to predict the short term future, and know why we’re recommending a specific price.
• Keep your cool when you encounter a problem. It seems in this market that every transaction encounters a problem. Things will go wrong in a transaction and we need to keep our cool.  We need to have methodical strategies to deal with the issues that we encounter, and we need to prepare our buyers and sellers for these issues. Inspections, financing, appraisal issues, negotiations, there are so many different challenges today that can and do create problems.

“I believe we’re going to start seeing job growth but it’s going to be slow,” Allen said. “As people are employed, they’ll want to buy houses, especially with interest rates still low. As we see a continued generational shift, home buyers’ demands are changing. When we have more stability in the country, we’ll start to see more stability in the housing market.”