It’s official, we are finally out of the COVID-induced recession and property prices are increasing around the country. Agents are reporting record sales and gross commissions are rising. Confidence is up and everyone is happy (except buyers!) and it is about time, some states and territories have been doing it tough for nearly 10 years.
But will this be short lived? Maybe, maybe not. The WA market showed signs of recovery in early 2020 before COVID hit but has bounced back now. Other states are recovering from the COVID downturn too, but anything could change that.
Interestingly, whether its boom or bust, we see the same things happen and agents struggling.
We know that when things get frantic, either too busy or not busy enough, agents fall into bad habits and start to panic. They forget their systems and processes and start chasing listings like they are going out of fashion.
In the downturn market, sellers were happy to pay high fees because not every agent was selling the homes only the good ones, and they also were happy to invest in big marketing campaigns. Now they are doing the opposite!
Agents are already complaining about no stock, low commissions, no advertising budgets and fly-by-night agents swooping in to steal the deal. Then the whole cycle starts again. I’ve worked in real estate during two booms, the first in 2004-2008 and then the mining boom in 2010- 2013. I know exactly what happens and how agents react.
The reality is if you are a knowledgeable and highly skilled agent, boom and bust should not affect your business that much. My clients actually work better in a downturn market because there is more stock to carve through, but they do bloody well in upturns as well.
You see it comes down to creating a pipeline and how many clients you have lined up to list and sell in the next 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. If you constantly focus on that it doesn’t matter what’s happening right now because you prepared for it months earlier.
The top 2 per cent of agents are never worried about ups and downs because they create their own market and when it comes to competition with other agents, they have developed the skills to out-negotiate their competitors and display amazing value. They are also skilled closers and very rarely miss out because they simply don’t leave until they have the business in hand.
Don’t fall into the trap of trying to battle the ebbs and flows, highs and lows, get yourself a simple but effective SYSTEM that will work for you in any market so you can keep calm and carry on.
Come along to my upcoming FREE half-day Real Estate Brilliance webinar and see how systems can work for you whether the market is booming, or not.
