Why You Should Revise Your Projections Quarterly

In commercial real estate brokerage, nothing remains the same, and nor should you with your business activities and marketing strategies.  Look to improve every quarter.  The real estate market is under constant change, so use that change for your advantage.

Why do these real estate projections and the full review quarterly?  The fact of the matter is that you can more easily see results in that time with key indicators.  Track the indicators each week to see what is happening with all your efforts and in the property market.  When you know what is happening, you can make some changes and seize the opportunities that are out there.

Where Do You Start Tracking Results?

So, what are the indicators for personal monitoring?  Try these:

• New listings by sale and lease category – that simple assessment will be important because it will show you where most of the enquiry is coming from and what people are looking for. As part of this assessment, ensure that you are improving your transaction size and quality.  Over time you can see how you can work less and still improve your real estate business in market share and income.
• Commissions converted – split this between property types, and transaction types. During the year the property market will shift from lease to sale activity.  The driver of this change will be the local economy and the availability of money.
• Commissions per transaction and location – this will show you where most of your business is coming from. There will be reasons for the bias and the results you are achieving.  Are those results intentional? Are you working the right market segments?  Are you getting your fair share of the business?
• Database growth – some database programs are better than others. Some are very time intensive to record a client or activity.  Preference should always be with database simplicity so you can talk to more local people without getting ‘stuck’ with a slowdown of data conversion and capture.
• Vendor paid marketing monies – this is always a good indicator of market share and market acceptance of your services. Look at how you are spending your client’s money in the available marketing channels and assess the media alternatives that have been proven to work for the property type and the location.
• Signboards placed on properties – the traditional signboard is one of the most valuable and cost-effective marketing tools. Every good quality property should have a signboard placed in a strategic position to be seen by local business owners and investors.
• Internet listings active – this is an easy assessment to do, and it will show you not only who your competitors are but what they are marketing. When you know the other listings, and the marketing methods, you can do something with advertising copy and placement.  Most of your enquiry will come from the internet with most property listings, so ensure that you have everything optimized online for marketing response and enquiry.
• Time on the market – this is the length of time that a property listing is live and active on the market. The first 6 to 8 weeks of a marketing campaign are so critical.  If a property hasn’t created reasonable enquiry and inspections in that time, then something is wrong, and a full assessment of the listing should occur.
• Inbound enquiry – track this weekly, so you know where the enquiry is coming from. It is an easy process to do and involves a simple list at the back of your diary or a similar book.  Tally the numbers each week and decide what channels of enquiry are most active.

All these things will show you what is happening in your local property market and within your property specialty.  Seize the opportunity of the market and work it with clients, listings, and enquiry.  Do more with the things that are happening around you.  Find the transactions, because they will be there for the ‘aware agent’.