Plan for the down markets. "The market is really difficult, but people still buy and sell real estate," Diana said. "You need to be banking it away when it's good and not overextending yourself. You always have to plan for months without a check. You also have to plan for taxes, and for business overhead that doesn't go away in the down market. When times are flush, plan ahead for the future. Planning and saving will keep you in this business for the long term.
Most professionals in the real estate industry accept that recovery will continue to be up and down from month to month—sometimes even day to day. You understand that prices and sales will likely be skipping along the bottom for the next year or two before housing is back on a steady growth track.
But the more important thing to recognize is that savvy prospective buyers are aware of this, too, and the sawtooth activity is adding to the natural jitters that come with deciding to make a significant purchase such as a home.
Their discomfort is among various factors contributing to gaps between pending home sale reports and subsequent totals of closed monthly sales. The National Association of REALTORS® reported that pending transactions increased in both May and June this year, but gains in existing-home sales ran short of forecasts from the earlier pending data.
So why are fewer contracts making it to the closing table? It's a combination of tighter lending standards, low appraisals, sellers who are hesitant to negotiate too freely and buyers who decide to walk away from the process when it's too heated.
Although there are some roadblocks and detours that can't be helped on your clients' side of the transaction, there are ways to help keep buyers' confidence on course—all the way to the closing table.
It's always good to bolster your monthly local market report with a macro view of what's happening in real estate. By keeping your sights on local and national real estate legislation and policy debates, you can better anticipate potential negative influences on your buyers. They're reading some of the same news, and you're the right person to help them make sense of it. It takes 15 minutes each morning to read the latest headlines and pass along key information. Whether the news pertains directly to their situation or not, your attention, initiative and analysis can provide valuable reassurance to nervous buyers that you're on top of things and sensitive to their concerns and interests.
Identifying buyers' motivation is an important step in helping you manage their expectations throughout the process and keep them on track past any speed bumps. Most buyers start the process already visualizing the finish line, so come right out and ask how they see it all going. That's the time to address any misperceptions or unrealistic outcomes. No matter how much homework they've done before consulting you, they're coming to you because it's much easier to wade into uncomfortable territory with a guide who knows the terrain better than they ever could. Anticipate their questions, offer emotional reinforcement and be the confident expert they need.
Buying a home can and should be exciting—even in challenging times—and you can preserve the enjoyment right through to closing by using cautious optimism to help your buyers focus on the prize. When you're steady throughout the process, your clients will more likely go with the flow as well. And it's okay to point out that you continue to be successful in this business because the dream of homeownership is alive and well.
The fact remains: It's a great time for qualified, prepared buyers to act. Although the process isn't always as seamless as it was in the boom times, the results are the same: buyers find a place to call their own.
Structural engineers get paid big bucks to design buildings strong enough to withstand the damaging impact brought on by Mother Nature's fury. They use computer simulations to help them identify and mitigate stress-fatigue factors, which might contribute to the collapse of the building. Ironically, people, like buildings, are also susceptible to stress-fatigue factors and physical collapse brought on by the crippling affects derived from excessive fear, anxiety and worry.
Research indicates that a person will react to stressful situations based upon the temperament style that he or she was born into. For example, aggressive people have "anger management," expressive people have "emotional management," passive people have "self-esteem management" and analytical people have "stress management." In other words, people who tend to be extremely detailed, organized, critical and shy attract stress into their lives like metal shavings are drawn to a magnet.
The major behaviors associated with people under stress include; aloofness, increased sadness, panic attacks, overly sarcastic humor and extreme negative self-talk. Stress occurs when an analytical or "melancholy" type of person is overwhelmed by his or her attempts to balance their physical, financial, personal, spiritual and career interests. The long-term affects of prolonged stress are accumulative and can be physically and mentally damaging over time. Stress manifests in the body as TMJ / teeth grinding, tension headaches, neck / shoulder pain and lower back pain. Here are several practical ideas that you can use to help you dramatically reduce your stress level and live a much more productive life.
2. Eat balanced meals and avoid eating junk food.
3. Drink plenty of water and avoid nicotine, excessive caffeine and other stimulants.
4. Avoid drinking alcohol in excess.
5. Learn to make decisions quickly and let go of the need to over-analyze everything.
6. Express your feelings appropriately and don't bottle up your emotions.
7. Avoid trying for perfection and don't sweat the small stuff.
9. Stop worrying so much and look at situations more optimistically.
10. Smile and laugh frequently throughout the day, don't take yourself so seriously.
11. Mix leisure with work: take breaks and get away when you can.
12. Make a point to spend quality time with your friends and family.
13. Become more tolerant and don't be overly critical of yourself or others.
14. Always be kind and gentle with yourself.
15. Listen to upbeat music or watch your favorite movie.
16. Exercise for cardiovascular fitness three to four times a week.
17. Set written goals, plan your time and prioritize your activates.
18. Keep a list of "things to do" and stay focused on short-term accomplishments.
19. Get a massage or take a warm bath.
20. Do something nice for someone else.
the same trends so looking at both can help confirm a market direction.
and still make a great return on their investment (down payment plus loss on sale)!
be not better time to do it!
the most accurate and up to date.
Here are our numbers for September. Strong and steady, just like our sports teams!
Are you feeling confused in today's marketplace? Do you find yourself in any of these patterns?
• Avoiding picking up the phone?
• Doing just "busy work"?
If you answered yes to any of the above, chances are you are feeling "stuck" and your business is suffering.
A recent study on marketing revealed that it's not important that your client likes you, it's more important that the client perceives that you like them. Then your client will feel secure and confident you will take good care of their needs. That does not mean that you have to bend over backwards for them, but rather build a relationship based on mutual respect.
When working with sellers, be honest with them about the value of their home, instead of just saying what you think will make them happy. When working with buyers, don't waste time showing them homes without an exclusive agreement. Don't cancel your plans just because a client wants to see you.
When you respect yourself, others will do the same. As one of my clients put it, the "disease to please" will only drain you with little benefit to your business.
Do any of these thoughts float around in your head?
Can you understand how difficult it would be to attract money to yourself with these self limiting beliefs pushing money away on a subconscious level? Remember, your beliefs create your reality. If you tell the universe that you are not deserving of money, then the universe will send you exactly what you believe and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It's important that you become aware of what these beliefs are, release them, and then install empowered beliefs that magnetize money to you.
Please note that these Empowered Beliefs will not feel natural to you at the beginning, but they are like planting seeds in a garden and they will sprout if you nurture them. You can think of them as setting intentions.
If you believe that success is hard, or that you will have to sacrifice your personal life or that to be successful you have to be selfish and aggressive, then that is what you will create. The results of holding onto these anti-success beliefs is obvious; you just keep pushing it away after day month after month and year after year. Success always seems out of reach. If you do manage to achieve it, you'll push it away.
But here's the good news: it doesn't matter how many years you've had a belief, the power to change that belief is always in the present moment. That's why it's so important to identify the belief and bring it to the surface. That's why working with an outside coach can save you years of struggle and sacrifice. With some outside support you can easily see the beliefs that have been blocking you and once you have that awareness, it's relatively easy to reprogram that belief out of your mind.
Success is based on helping people achieve their goals and working smarter, not harder. Guess what an amazing reality this belief creates?
Self-criticism is a common pattern that stops people from being successful. This pattern is somewhat insidious; it operates below the surface and you may not even know it is happening. If you're busy beating yourself up, you are destroying your self-esteem and that leaves you feeling very empty. Then you begin to crave validation. Since you're not giving it to yourself, you crave it from others; friends, family, clients and prospective clients. As a result you give up your power and put in the hands of others. This puts you in a vulnerable position in every interaction.
I recommend using the "stop" technique whenever you suspect that your inner critic has taken over.
Watch your energy and motivation increase as you implement this technique, sometimes several hundred times a day.
The interesting thing about your inner critic is that it probably has good intentions for you. It probably thinks that it can "whip you into shape," so you'll be more successful. But that is actually the opposite of the truth. The truth is that when you are putting yourself down, you are weakening yourself and lowering your energy.
The antidote to this is to begin to learn to appreciate and validate yourself. When is the last time you looked at yourself in the mirror and appreciated what you saw?
Learning to validate yourself can be as simple as learning "positive self talk." This would sound like "I'm really proud of you," or "good job." Take time to stop and appreciate all the good things you do.
To double your income and make more money with less effort, you must begin working with high-end clients. Everyone I've ever coached has expressed desire to work with high-end clients but along with that desire come many self-limiting beliefs that stop them. Perhaps you could recognize some of these as your own self-limiting beliefs.
High-end clients become the name for the unknown and most people want to stay with the familiar. They want to stay with the status quo and they want to avoid the unknown. So you end up avoiding the unknown and then wonder why you're working so many hours.
The truth is that high-end clients are no different than anyone else. The truth also is that they don't necessarily care about your education or even your sophistication; what they care about is whether you are the answer to their real estate needs.
How are they going to know whether you are? This is determined by the confidence that you project. What determines your confidence level? Your beliefs. If your beliefs are mostly self-limiting beliefs that lower your self-esteem, then you will not feel empowered enough to market to high-end clients.
If on the other hand, you go through a reprogramming process, then you can release those self-limiting beliefs, install empowered beliefs and watch your income double.