Essential Career Planning for Commercial Real Estate Agents in 2014

With the commercial real estate market about to enter another year, now is the time to think about personal goals and targets.  With the commercial property market showing some solid activity in many towns and cities, there are some opportunities to be sourced by brokers and agents.

We are now entering an ‘ordinary’ market.  That is very good because it means that there are things to work on and deals to be done at an individual level and sometimes a ‘project’ level.  Yes, I know the property market is not ‘booming’, but do you really want it to?  A ‘boom’ creates a ‘bust’ at a later time and we don’t want one of those again for some time.

It is better to work in an ‘ordinary’ market where there are things to do and attract by way of listings and opportunities.  The brokers and agents that work hard are usually bringing in the results.  Now is the time to plan your coming 12 months of real estate activity.

So what’s my recommendation now to help you prepare for the upcoming business year?  Try some of these:

1. It is not advisable to take lengthy holidays over the January period.  It is far better to get back into your sales and leasing territory and talk to people as early as possible in January.  Get out into the property market before your competitors do.   Find new people to talk to.
2. If you have been tracking your deals and the market for the last 12 months you would have seen valuable trends in sales and leasing.  Every town or city will have differences in activity so I can’t tell you what will be best to work on individually; however I will say that many businesses are now looking at property issues as part of their business plan for 2014.  Talk to lots of business people and leader to see what they are doing in lease occupancy or property ownership in the coming year.  Look for those people that are considering change.
3. From your market share this year you would know what is selling and leasing, and why that is so.  Look at your conversions of exclusive listings across the year.  You will need more exclusive listings if you want to strengthen your market position in this next 12 months.  Can you pitch and present your services at a higher level?  Your presentations really do need to be ‘attractive’ in ways that make your offerings stand out above those of your competitors.  Take a look at your database, marketing systems, market share, and listing time on market.  Maybe you can make some small improvements in some of these things.

Given all of the above facts, what resources will you need to spread the message to your market?  Take those resources and put together an action plan of growth.

There are plenty of new property listings and clients to attract providing you work to a solid canvassing and prospecting system across your market.  Look for the client segments that need your help and get active in talking to them.  Make prospecting a high priority right through to the end of February 2014.  That will give you a solid start to the year in Sales and Leasing opportunity.