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Your business is built on the habits and activities you cultivate daily, says Jimmy Burgess. Take on the day with this curated collection of game-changing, value-added tasks.
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This article was last updated August 16, 2022.
If you’re going to reach your goals, it will be a result of the activities and habits you practice daily. After years of observing some of the best agents and team leaders in the business, I’ve noticed a pattern in their daily routines.
Top-producing agents find a few activities that are foundational to their success. The following habits will help you reach your own real estate goals.
Consistent communication with the people who already know. like and trust you is the cornerstone to business growth. These calls should be check-ins and do not have to be real-estate focused. Ask how they are doing or ask about their family, their work or the areas of their life that are important to them. Real estate will come up if they are considering making a change, but the goal of these calls is simply to stay top of mind and deepen relationships.
The deeper the relationships with the people in your sphere of influence, the bigger your business will grow.
I believe there is nothing better you can do to add value to homeowners right now than sending them personalized, unsolicited video CMAs. These CMAs are a great way to provide homeowners with timely and valuable information in a way that sets you apart from the sea of other real estate agents looking for listings.
I did one of these daily for the last three months I was in sales before transitioning to my current position. Over the 72 days I worked during those three months, I completed 72 unsolicited CMAs for past buyers, people who told me they might be selling in the next few years, friends that owned homes, homeowners I met at open houses, and a few owners I had spoken with in my farm area. The results were that I listed over $11 million worth of homes in less than six months, directly from these 72 video CMAs.
I used BombBomb to record my screen, but you could use Zoom or another screen recording technology. I was in the corner picture box of the screen, and I had three tabs pulled up that I would use for the video. The first was Google Earth with the address of the subject home typed into the search bar. Once the video began, I pressed enter and Google Earth would start from outer space and zoom in on top of the subject house. This captured the homeowner’s attention and led to an extremely high watch rate.
After the initial hello and letting them know that the following would be an overview of their home’s value, I would then open the second tab that showed the homes like theirs that were currently for sale, under contract or that recently sold.
I would then give them a range of value and say, “I’m giving you a range of value since I haven’t been in your home recently to see if you’ve made any upgrades. If you’re curious about what your home would sell for, it would take me five minutes to walk through and tell you exactly what it would sell for in the current market environment.”
The last tab I had cued up was an estimated seller net sheet. This sheet shared the estimated sales price (in the middle of the range I provided) along with our typical seller closing costs in our market.
I would end the video by saying, “I hope you are doing well and this helps give you a better idea of how much your home has gone up in value recently. Let me know if you’d like an updated version of this any time in the future or if I can be of service in any way.”
The success of this strategy comes from not asking if they want to list their home, but rather coming from a place of providing value in a unique way.
Consistency is key when it comes to social media. A consistent schedule or cadence to your content is crucial for seeing business growth through the use of social media.
One of the most effective ways to find consistency involves having a theme for each day’s posts. For instance, motivation Monday where you post inspirational quotes or stories. Tuesday tips, where you give tips on buying or selling a home. Wednesday might be “what I love about our community.” Thursday might be a day that you highlight a specific local business or Friday might be Friday favorite where you highlight your favorite home currently for sale.
Whatever it is for you, if you’re looking for success through social media, consistency creates clients.
A growing database is a healthy database. Every time you add someone to your database, you have another person that will receive your newsletters, property updates and market trend updates. You’ve not only broadened your opportunity to help the person you added to your database, but they also become another person that may refer a friend or family member to you.
The recipe for systematic business growth is adding people to your database and consistently adding value to the people in your database. If you do these two steps correctly, everything else will take care of itself.
What we focus on expands. If you focus on saying thank you daily, you will find more opportunities to be thankful. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it can transform your outlook on your business and life in general. The act of saying thank you activates the law of reciprocity, which says that when people receive something, they are inclined to return the favor.
This return of the favor can show up in the form of their personal business or referring someone to you. When you come from a place of gratitude and put that out into the world, you will be overwhelmed by how much appreciation will be returned.
Having a list of the people that you believe will be your next ten listings, your next ten buyers, and that will be likely to send you the next 10 referrals you receive is extremely valuable. I kept this list on a whiteboard on the wall in my office, so I would make sure none of these opportunities got lost in the shuffle.
I kept the client’s name, phone number, what they were looking for or the home they owned, and the last time I spoke with them on the whiteboard. Each day I would look at this list to make sure their needs stayed top of mind. I also looked to see the last time I spoke with them. I wanted to make sure I was speaking to them at least every other week.
This list helped me stay focused on the best opportunities I had for business. It also forced me to have consistent communication with this valuable group of clients. By calling two or more of the people on these lists every day, your business can’t help but grow.
If you don’t win the morning, it is very difficult to win the day. Develop a morning routine that gives you the ability to win your day. A day that starts with gratitude, quiet time, mental growth, physical exercise and whole food for fuel is the recipe for an incredibly impactful day.
Set the tone for your day right out of the gate. Prepare yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually to perform at your highest capability. You can’t expect to give your best to others if you’ve not prepared to be your best. Have your best day possible by having your best morning possible. Create the habit of optimizing your morning and you’ll be amazed at how much more efficient you will become.
Someone is going to have their best year ever this year. Why not you? Creating habits that move your business and life forward could make this your year of breakthrough.
Jimmy Burgess is the chief growth officer for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Beach Properties of Florida in northwest Florida. Connect with him on Facebook or Instagram.
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