Real estate, as an industry, is getting more competitive with every passing day. Even though there are now more properties on sale than ever before, and there are more people than ever before willing to buy those properties, there is also an unprecedented number of realtors in the market today. According to recent statistics, the number of real estate licenses issued in the last two years has increased exponentially. After the pandemic of 2019, a substantial number of people changed careers and a lot of people took to real estate as the industry they wanted to pursue.

Even though the new real estate agents won’t have the experience or the knowledge of those that have been in the industry for several years, it still dilutes the market. Customers can now branch off to more service providers, even if they don’t end up doing business with that service provider in the long run. In such a situation, it also becomes more challenging for existing realtors to maintain their visibility. It gets harder to gain new clients and it can even be challenging to retain existing ones.

The world is also becoming increasingly digital. Physical real estate agents are continuously losing the battle with virtual platforms such as Zillow, and realtors that are leveraging the power of social networks. In every way, the competition is getting tougher. At the end of the day, it is the fittest who survive. Here is what you can do to improve your chances of survival in the modern real estate market.

Be Fearless

One of the biggest problems that entrepreneurs in every industry face are that they become very accustomed to doing things a certain way and they become risk-averse. Early on in their career when they are still trying to get the hang of things, they are open to taking risks and trying out new things. However, as soon as they start to see some good results from what they are doing, they quickly start to cement themselves in that approach and close themselves off from the reality that there could be a better way to do things.

In reality, there is always a better way because the environment, the situation, the market, and everything else is continuously changing. What worked five years ago is most likely not the best solution today. Yet, because they are afraid of losing what they have gained, they don’t want to change. Eventually, they block themselves from making really good progress. The first step is to become fearless. To go back into that mind frame of trying out new things until you find something that works. To be open to the possibility that there could be better ways of doing business that will yield even more success than what you have already seen.

Start Networking

The first thing that you can do that will have a significant impact on your business is to start networking. Entrepreneurs that are already doing well in business stop networking. They stick to the network they already have and they hope for new opportunities to emerge from the same network that they have been using for the past ten years. A much faster approach to getting new opportunities is to get out of your comfort zone and get in touch with people you don’t know. They will most likely have opportunities that you never knew existed.

Moreover, look to broaden the scope of your networking efforts. You don’t have to be limited to meeting people that are in the real estate business, or people who are in the specific regions where you want to focus your business. Networking means putting yourself out in front of anyone and everyone that you can connect with. You never know where you are going to get a lead from. Think of everyone you meet as a potential lead.

Work On Referrals

Just growing and expanding the size of your network alone won’t be enough to generate the business you are looking for. You need to engage with the people in your network, let them know that you are the right person to help them out with any property-related matters, and actively seek business from them. You also need to work on the quality of the network that you have. If your network members are not themselves ready for a real estate deal then try and find out if they can give you a referral to someone who is interested. This is a critical step because the bulk of real estate deals that are closed happen through the referral network. It is only natural for people to want to do business with someone they trust when they are buying or selling such a high-value item.

The best way to gain a client’s trust is to reach that client through a strong referral. It wouldn’t be polite to blatantly ask for referrals, but it would be a good idea to discuss your business openly with your friends and acquaintances and maybe they will let you in on their own network where you can find more leads from.

Enhance Your Website

If you want to get business from people, you need to give them some kind of value. Why should they choose your business over the next realtor? If the price of a property is the same, no matter where they buy it from, then it will be through superior service that you can win them over. An excellent way to provide more value to online customers is to develop a more robust website. Giving visitors more information than they thought they would find will help you over-deliver on their expectations. If you can integrate Showcase IDX’s NTREIS home search plugin into your website, you can offer your visitors thousands of additional listings without having to do the research yourself. It is a simple tool that lets you completely upgrade the value of your website for anyone that visits your web pages. This gives your visitors the impression that you really are a market leader because you have access to such important information and you are making it available for free for your clients. This will not only develop trust but will also show them what superior service looks like. Before they even talk to you on the phone, they have already built an image of you in their mind which is far better than the image they have of competitors.

Optimize Digital Presence

Together with your website, you also need to focus on the broader digital horizon to create new leads for your business. Your website is definitely a powerful tool, but there are also other resources that you should explore. The most prominent of these is social media. The great thing about digital platforms is that you can repurpose content. For instance, if you are publishing blogs on your website, you can use little bits of that blog content and share that on Twitter, or Instagram and get additional traffic from the same content. Ideally, you want to have a holistic approach to content marketing so that not only are you funneling traffic from multiple sources, but your existing traffic can connect with you on multiple platforms. Being available on different platforms has a huge impact on how your audience is able to connect with you and the kind of image they develop about your business. Content marketing is a slow and steady game. There is no point in starting off with a lot of momentum but not carrying on just a couple of months later. Keep your momentum slow, but keep it consistent. With time, your marketing efforts will help you get a lot of traffic and rank better than a lot of competitors.

Digital Solutions For Business Performance

On one end, digital solutions are going to help you get more business but on the other end, you can use technology to help improve your own business performance. Even if you aren’t keen on marketing right now and you have reached a level where you need to straighten processes out on your own end, you should consider using technology. By employing software, smart devices, and more tech-savvy employees, you can get a lot more done with much fewer resources. Today there are a number of solutions that are designed specifically to help businesses get better performance through technology. For instance, you can use CRM software to better manage relationships with your clients. You can use an internal communication platform to help the team stay better connected. You can use a third-party cloud service to meet your data needs and help improve digital security. Two of the best solutions you can invest in are inbound lead management software and email automation solutions. The inbound lead management software will help you more effectively organize and manipulate the information you are getting from your outreach programs. The email automation software will help keep email communication quick and easy. This can be a real problem when your mailing list starts to grow and you are trying to manage emails for thousands of subscribers.

Delegate

One of the best things you can do to create more time in your schedule and more efficiency in your processes is to hire professionals for each job. At the start of every business, the founder is usually handling all aspects of the business because they can’t afford to hire employees. Later on, when your cash flow increases, hiring an expert for every department will help you get things done more efficiently. Some of the main areas that you should look into are finance, marketing, and HR. These three areas have the biggest impact on overall business performance.

If you have a top professional heading these departments, it will significantly reduce your workload. The professionals you hire will most likely have more advanced ways of doing things in these areas which will be great for the overall performance of the company. This can be challenging for business owners because they are being asked to step back and give control to someone else. However, if you really want to grow the business, this is a necessary evolution.

Stay In Touch

Real estate deals can take time to mature. If you get in touch with someone today, it could easily take them a few months, or even a year, to take action. Since there is a lot of paperwork involved, and people need to manage their own situation before taking on such a big responsibility, it is not uncommon for deals to take time. However, realtors often lose a lot of business because they don’t have the patience or the consistency to follow through with clients. When something isn’t working out in a few days or in a couple of weeks, they are quick to move on to the next client who will hopefully generate a quick sale for them.

The great thing with email is that you can easily stay in touch with your leads and you can reach out directly to the buyer or seller through his or her inbox. This is a crucial step in your email campaign. The longer you can stay with a client, the more time you have to build rapport. If you can invest the required time, you will drastically increase your chances of turning that lead into a sale.

A lot of entrepreneurs upgrade their business, their employees, and their lifestyle but they forget to invest in themselves. They don’t stay up-to-date with the relevant trends and they forget to invest in their own skillset. If you can invest in your own learning by taking courses, learning from mentors, and actually putting in the work to improve yourself as a business professional, this will work wonders for improving your business.

The more informed you are, the better the decisions that you will make. Even at the highest level, successful entrepreneurs are consistently investing in themselves to become smarter and more knowledgeable so that they can make the best decisions possible. Just relying on your team will not be enough. You need to take the initiative and set a particular time within the year when you work on self-improvement. Whether that is for your professional life or your personal life, the process of learning, growing, and evolving is something that will benefit every aspect of your life.