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It's easy for real estate agents to get overwhelmed during peak season. Prepare ahead and beat the rush with this advice.
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An understanding of seasonality is a big part of real estate success. Every real estate market has a peak season. This spike can take your business to the next level, depending on how well you prepare. It’s up to you to determine your peak season based on your niche and location.
When is Real Estate Peak Season?
In most neighbourhoods, the winter months are the slowest. Sellers are more willing to negotiate and buyers can grab a great deal on pricing. Because the holidays are in full swing, fewer people are moving between November and January.
Spring and summer are the busiest times of the year, meaning a limited number of available houses and hiked prices. Property owners with children typically avoid uprooting their families during the school year and wait until the summer to have more free time.
With waves of eager home buyers, warm months produce the most competition.
Data shows that homes sold from mid-March to April sell faster and for more than the average listing any other time of year,
So, how can we make this peak season run just a bit smoother?
Do the Important Stuff First
“Handle your most difficult work first” is a great piece of advice for any working professional – especially during peak season. It’s easy to get burnt out while running from property to property and let an important task slip your mind. Make a plan for how you will tackle tasks throughout the day and in what order.
Make Time For Clients You Already Have
Although there are plenty of new fish in the sea, your current clients are just as important. Long-standing relationships produce the most referrals and connections. Maintain a yearly schedule to check in with past clients on holidays and birthdays. With clients already in the home buying/selling process with you, make sure to check in weekly. Listen to your clients’ concerns and return their messages as fast as possible.
Schedule Overtime
Sure, you can expect to put in a few more hours during high season, but work should not consume your entire life. Add a few extra hours to your schedule and consider that your overtime. This way, overtime doesn’t overflow into family time, personal time, dedicated health time, etc.
Get Your Team on the Same Page
Your entire team needs to be be aware of the upcoming high season and what to expect.
Everyone from the admin assistant to the listing agent and staging team, should be briefed on the level of work expected and how to tackle it. Automated systems can be a great help in this respect. Most leading CRMs for example, can be connected to multiple members of your team. This way, your assistant can contact clients on your behalf, online leads go directly into a drip email campaign, you are automatically reminded when to follow up, and more. CRMs such as Follow Up Boss have loads of tools to help you manage your client relationships down to the detail.
Prep Your Marketing
Peak season is the best time for you to use exciting marketing strategies you’ve tried over the last year. What have you learned about your clientele and audience on and offline? Plan to use some of your most successful marketing strategies in an organized marketing plan for the season. For example, put more attention on your most engaged-with social media platform, rewrite the emails that got the most referrals, and update the blogs with the most views.
This way, you can put your best foot forward in the places prospective clients are most likely to find you.
Manage Time Wisely
Let’s be honest – we’re not all great at multitasking. If you jump from task to task without completing any, you’ll have no completed project to show after all your hard work.
Take the time and harness the discipline needed to do one thing at a time and to perfection.
Enlist in Extra Help
This is the time to enlist extra help if needed. Consider temp workers to take care of responsibilities that you can no longer prioritize. For example, an extra assistant or transaction coordinator can cover your paperwork while you spend time one on one with clients.
Make sure these new staff are properly updated, familiar with your team, and well-trained. Having skilled team members is a massive asset because you can trust that important processes are being taken care of without the need for your supervision.
Conduct a Thorough Review
At the end of each week, conduct an overall review with your team. You may also want to check in with your other associates such as stagers, appraisers, etc. to make sure they are on track with your processes. How are things moving in relation to your business plan and goals? What can be adjusted? Do you need to recalculate expenses to make sure you are using your budget wisely?
Conclusion…
Peak season is an exciting time to gain more business and take your career to the next level. In order to fully take advantage of this opportunity, an idea of what to expect and a plan are essential.
