If you’re like most real estate agents, your days are filled with juggling client needs, contract negotiations, paperwork, prospecting, and of course, the unexpected. When all of your day-to-day tasks feel urgent, important decisions about business operations may feel a lower priority.
However, once you understand where you are losing income and/or opportunity, you may realize that some of these decisions you consider non-essential are pretty important!
Here are some of the most common and costly mistakes residential real estate agents make (and you’re probably making a few of them, too).
You Aren’t Picky About Who You Take On As A Client
When you started as an agent, you likely targeted all potential buyers and sellers in your area because you needed to start somewhere. If that approach worked then, it could still be your approach now.
If you’re still targeting all potential home buyers and sellers, you may be surprised to learn how effectively a niche marketing strategy can help grow your business. Targeting a specific segment of your local market will challenge you to be more intentional with your approach but will ultimately extend your marketing investment further.
You Aren’t Tracking Lead Source ROI
If your business is doing well and you’re happy with the number of deals you’re closing, analyzing your lead generation services may not be a priority.
Make it a point to review the ROI of each lead generation service at least quarterly. This will help you to quickly identify which services are not delivering and allow you to re-invest elsewhere.
You’re Prospecting Efforts Are Generic & Inconsistent
Staying in touch with your list is important for developing your brand, promoting your services, and educating your connections on changes in the local market. One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to share real-time information with your database is by sending a blast email.
Communicating with your entire database of prospects as if they’re in the same stage of the sales process, or sending your past clients and network connections low-value messages only wastes time and energy. Generic messages that only apply to a small segment of your database or are so lengthy that no one will read them will result in higher opt-out requests and SPAM complaints, damaging your business’s digital reputation
Most agents with disorganized lists believe that it’s better to send something than nothing at all. However, the opposite is true.
Routinely updating your list as individual relationships change, makes it more likely that you are delivering meaningful, relevant content.
You’re Missing A Long Term Strategy For Leads
You’ll never convert every lead that comes your way, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t increase your lead conversion with the right strategy.
Since most leads aren’t ready to immediately work with you, use an email drip series to keep your name and brand top of mind while demonstrating your expertise and patience until they are ready.
According to the NAR, most real estate clients interview only one agent before listing or searching for a home. A simple way to be the agent who gets the interview is to be the one who has maintained contact and worked to provide useful information in every interaction.
Email communication is a practical solution for your lead funnel. The key to remaining welcome in each lead’s inbox is to send the right messages at the right cadence.
You Forget To Stay Top Of Mind
While you’re always focused on the real estate industry, not everyone you know is. The less you communicate with your network, the less likely they are to think of you when they or someone they know needs real estate services.
Now, more than ever, if you want your network to think of you for real estate needs, you must continue to remind them that you’re still in the business and available to help.
The amount of communication should vary based on the relationship. In general, you should communicate with your professional and business contacts monthly. Past clients need to hear from you at least quarterly, but not necessarily a phone call every time. Email and social media engagement are always great ways to maintain your relationship.
You’re Doing Everything Manually
There’s an old saying, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” For some, this message means you know what you want and it can’t be explained to someone else. For others, it’s peace of mind knowing what needed to be taken care of is done because you did it yourself.
If you’re doing everything manually to ensure every aspect of your business receives the attention it needs, it’s time to let go of the necessary but repetitive actions and turn to an automation tool to handle these tasks.
A system to automate standard communications is a low cost option for you to buy back time in your day. Regardless of what comes your way, your system will still handle the monotonous follow-up, and you never have to worry it will call out sick, show up late, ask for a raise, or give you a two-week notice.
Time To Take Action
How many of these mistakes are you making? How much are these mistakes costing you?
Now is the perfect time to take action to fix these mistakes.
If you don’t have the time to dive into your ROI data, write dozens of messages for an email drip campaign and learn how to set up a software program, or commit to more frequent past client and network follow-ups, sGrow is perfect for you. sGrow is exclusively for U.S.-based residential agents and is designed to fix these common mistakes.