Useful Medium Term Goals in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage

When you have goals in commercial real estate sales or leasing, you can improve your business over time.  From those goals, you will know what is happening from your actions, how you are reacting to the property market, and where the next opportunities can come.  (NB – you can get plenty of ideas for commercial real estate goal setting in our free Snapshot program right here)

A ‘future vision’ of the property industry is always helpful and goals have a role to play in that.  The business focus and goals process should be adopted by all brokers and agents as they strive to grow their listing bank and commission flow.

So, what is happening now in the industry in your location?  Rarely in each year will property trends remain the same so you must look for the changes and act on what you see. 

Local Area Facts

You will see local shifts and changes with inquiries, prices, rents, and supply.  Your marketing strategies and client contact processes during all that momentum must remain active and variable to the pressures; certain things will work for you while other things will not.  Watch the trends and adjust your actions.

Here are some common and useful goals to keep your real estate brokerage business on track:

1. Database growth – understand just how many people you have in your database now. As part of that assessment, consider the levels of quality and accuracy with all contact records.  Can you rely on your client list to support you with the latest contact detail when you need it?  A good quality client list will be invaluable to the commissions and listings that you require over time. Make your lists grow.
2. Listing numbers and listing types – there is a limit to how many listings you can work with at any given point in time. If you are an individual operator, about 20 exclusive listings will be about the limit.  The sheer volume of work and commitment required per listing will keep your numbers of exclusive listings low.  It directly follows that at least 75% of your exclusive listings should be converting; that is of course if you are applying the best levels of marketing funds, client conditioning, and target marketing.  Notice that I didn’t mention ‘open listings’ in the equation?  The realities of our industry dictate that ‘open listings’ are a waste of time.
3. Conversions to completed deals – your conversions in leasing and sales to completed transactions should always be high, and certainly above 60% and up to around 75%. If you are working your properties comprehensively in the location and with the designated target markets, inquiries and inspections should follow.  It is a skill to be mastered and maintained.
4. Signboard counts – signboards on exclusive listings should be tracked. The costs of the signboards should be part of a vendor paid marketing contribution.
5. Marketing dollars – what we are talking about here most particularly is vendor paid marketing. Understand how many promotional dollars you are converting per transaction and exclusive listing.  It is a well-known fact that any agent that converts higher levels of vendor paid marketing in the listing process is usually the agent that is more successful in a location.
6. Commissions per transaction – too many small real estate transactions will slow down your business. Look at the commissions that you are earning per lease and per sale.  Compare those numbers to the properties in your location.  It is a good idea with your prospecting to target the larger properties and those that are in better locations.

So, there are things that you can do here with your real estate business and with the goals concept.  Choose your goals and targets reflecting on the items in the list mentioned, so that your results will benefit the personal growth of income and market share.