As the provinces begin to reopen, what will that mean for Real Estate?
It is likely that the number of transactions will begin to increase. Some people will feel a little bit better about putting their property on the market and some buyers will likely re-emerge as well. I am watching it like a hawk every day in as many markets as possible. It’s a fascinating time. As I’ve been saying since this began, micro market information is key to determining if we are entering a buyer’s, balance, or seller’s market.
I do feel that the relaxing of restrictions does give us permission to network more openly than during the peak of the health crisis. However, it’s important to maintain the grace, sensitivity and respectful approach that was being touted by small business consultants across all industries. In fact, I think that the only way to build your business while being perceived as a professional is by having conversations that are respectful, graceful and in service of the person you are talking to, and not about you and the success of your business.
Below, I have shared a story from my client, Jeremy Reid, on how he is successfully getting back in the deal flow through conversations with his network.
Real Estate has changed as a result of COVID-19 and having leads isn’t going to be nearly enough to get deals done. Sure, you will need to find people who need to buy and sell. That has always been true, but what will be important in the coming weeks and months will be:
- The ability to connect with people in a meaningful way so that they can trust you to manage the process safely and successfully.
- Being a highly skilled collaborative negotiator who can work well with the other parties to get deals done.
- Being able to assemble accurate micro market information quickly and share the information that matters with your clients.
What do to now?
- Reach out to your people and have authentic conversations about them, the market, or anything they want to talk about. The number of transactions will remain below normal for some time to come and if you want to be back in the game you will need to do more than crossing your fingers.
- Get your negotiation skills honed. Review your manual from the CNE courses, read Getting to Yes, by William Ury, take or retake a negotiation course (yes, people are retaking courses online as they realize how important these skills are now), put a mastermind group of like-minded Realtors together to practice your CNE skills.
- Watch the daily sales, new listings, sales to listing ratios and the absorption rate in your micro-market and find a way to make this information available to your client base.
Just like the provinces are opening up slowly and carefully, we need to step in carefully being sensitive to people’s needs, market conditions and being cognizant of the emerging real estate situation. It is not business as usual and won’t be for a while but transactions are happening and now is the time to step in and earn your market share.
My friend and client, Jeremy Reid is rebuilding his business in Kelowna. Like many of us, he was having trouble reaching out and having the conversations that he knew was critical to his continued success. He wanted to share his breakthrough because he felt it might help others move towards their success.
Here it is in his words:
Hey Suze! I found my flow today. I realized my inefficiency and procrastination wasn’t on call reluctance, it was due to my poor planning and the overwhelm of not knowing who to call. Something I can share that’s working amazing for me is I’ve been going through all of my contacts and then adding people as contacts that I want to reach out to. I’ve estimated that to get 35 Conversations I’ll need to make 50 calls to my database per week. I went through my list and added 50 people to my “Favourites” list in my iPhone contacts. I then just start at the top of the list and it’s a one-click to dial set up. When I get in my car, CarPlay automatically shows your Favourite Contacts first so it’s a nice reminder. I’ve just been taking any 20-minute drive or time that I have extra and working through my list. I then log the notes when I’m done and only delete them from my list once they’re ready to go. I flew through my calls this week and generated a ton of business!
Anyways, it’s simple but ended up being a game-changer for me. Maybe it can help someone else too.