You can always find the opportunities in any market cycle to maximize your real estate success. Take the time right now and have as many conversations as you possibly can — whether it’s face-to-face texting, emailing, calling, or all of the above. Reach out to those people who are in your pipeline. As you go through your roster of people, do not assume that their situation hasn’t changed. They may have completely different needs now than they did a year ago. Call them. Talk to them about what is happening in the market. Ask them what opportunities they would like to explore.

Summer Real Estate Success: Protect Your Database

Customer loyalty is not what it used to be. There are many disruptors trying to get between you and your loyal clients. Protect your database to maximize your future real estate success. Set a goal to talk to as many people as possible before the end of the first half of the year. Most top agents say 70% of their business will come from their leads. Go back through old leads, cold leads, and even what you considered dead leads, to see if you can reignite them.

Summer Real Estate Success: Knocking on Doors

In some parts of the country, people are back out there knocking on doors. A lot of them are achieving positive results by doing two things:

1. Knocking on the doors of their top clients and visiting them.

2. Knocking on the doors in neighborhoods where they have buyers saying, “I truly have a sincere buyer for the area. Are you interested in entertaining an offer?”

If you’ve always been a door knocker in the past, get back out there as soon as you’re able to safely do so.

Summer Real Estate Success: Open Houses

If you’ve done open houses in the past, start doing them again as soon as you can. Maximize the opportunity. Determine your best strategy to use open houses to generate more leads. The more leads you’re able to generate, the greater real estate success you’ll potentially experience in the future.

Summer Real Estate Success: Marketing

Start laying out your summer marketing calendar to maximize success. What are you going to mail? How will you reach people so you can stay top of mind? Emails, texts, or some other approach? If they meet up with a friend or family member and they have just heard from you, the odds are much greater they’re going to remember to send you a referral.

Most people generally have a lot going on in their lives, so they may forget about you unless you are consistently putting yourself in front of them. They may not understand all the areas that you service. Remind them of those areas and the price points you serve. And be sure to remind them that you’re never too busy to help another great customer (especially a referral).

Past clients should receive anywhere from one to four emails a month from you. Make sure they include valuable and helpful information. One direct mail piece a month would also be ideal. Before the end of the year, talk to as many people as possible. Staying top of mind is key.

Summer Real Estate Success: Tailoring Your Marketing Messages

People want to know about home values. They want to know where the market is going. They want to know what they could do next if they were to leave their home now. How many times have you discussed these talking points in the last few months? Emphasize the window of opportunity, to get the highest possible price, to drive the most demand before more inventory starts coming to the market.

As you enter the busy summer months think of the messages that would cause them to raise their hand and say, “I would like more information.” For example, you could send out a postcard or a letter that talks about the opportunities in the market. You could also offer a tip sheet “Tips to Buying a Home in the Summer of 2021.” Remember, marketing messages that include a direct offer are best. For example, “I have a buyer and if you’re interested in entertaining an offer, please contact me immediately.”

Summer Real Estate Success: Hunting Listings

If you want to maximize the opportunity in the summer ahead, focus at least two hours a day to hunt listings. Mornings often work best so you can focus on listings first thing before your day gets away from you. Get to the office 30 minutes earlier. Eat lunch at your desk. Or maybe it’s just simply pushing those buyer activities and calls until late morning to give you that two hours to hunt listings.

Top agents are always watching the trends. They’re seizing the day in terms of the new opportunities. They’re doing the things that others know they should do and are not doing. Many agents in your market are not aggressively going after listings because they’re too busy with their buyers. That’s the good news for you. It presents you with more opportunities to get those listings.

If you don’t like to call your database or you don’t want to knock on doors or host open houses, you need to get over it. The things you avoid are exactly the things that can yield the most results. Make the decision to commit to two hours a day to do some of the things you have been planning to do but have been avoiding. Get them accomplished despite the craziness of your day-to-day routine. If you commit to those things, this could be the best second half of your career. If you’re like many real estate professionals, your buyer pipeline is very full and your listing pipeline is very lean. Fuel that pipeline. When you have listings buyers find you. Challenge yourself. This is your time to shine.

If you want more guidance on how to grow your luxury real estate practice, you can learn more about the Institute’s training options here.