Kisses of death for realtors

When I help realtors with their business, I start looking for the 3 kisses of death that will kill their business before we get into anything else.

1. Are you using a CRM?

2. Are you tracking your money on a P&L and know your numbers?

3. Are you spending money on marketing? (Or prospecting like a madman until you have money to spend)

These are the basic things you must have in play before you can move forward to the next stage of the game. Any real estate agent unwilling to tackle these 3 areas and solve them today will STRUGGLE to stay in business. If they somehow manage to survive, it is nearly impossible to thrive.

Great, so what do we do?

1 - Pick out a CRM.
Hey, should we track the names, numbers, and pertinent information of all the clients we should sell stuff to? …. Yea, probably.

It sounds simple. But many of us realtors do not do this, especially when we start in the industry.

Using a CRM is like any good healthy habit. When you start it, you might HATE it.

Much like going to the gym, eating vegetables, or drinking water. Then it becomes a habit and you get used to it. Then you start seeing the impact of the habit and you LOVE it. The CRM is your real estate vegetables.

2 - Hire a bookkeeper.
They cost roughly $200 to $1,000 per month depending on the size and complexity of your operation. It is worth it to understand your business, and it is game-changing at tax time.

Do I have money or I don’t have money?
Contrary to popular belief, this is not a budget. I know. This was my previous budget philosophy.

You must keep a detailed budget if you can’t find or afford a bookkeeper. I mean detailed. Track your costs for software, lockbox, signage, and all the little things that go into running the business. You need to know how much money is coming in and how much is going out. The result of this is called a P&L (profit & loss statement).

You must become a master of these numbers and understand them intimately. These are your profits! The lifeblood of your real estate operations and why you do this damn thing in the first place. Unless you’re a non-profit realtor, in which case, I’m sorry.

Keeping a detailed budget empowers you to understand how much money you can invest into yourself and your real estate business.

Leading us into…

3 - Marketing. Just do it.
Take a portion of every $ earned and reinvest back into marketing. This is not a cost, this is an investment to your future self.

I meet many realtors who are not investing in marketing and are not prospecting (or not prospecting anywhere near as hard as they should be).

Use Batch Skip Trace leads, Zillow leads, Meta ads, mailers, pay-per-click, and so many more options! I’m not even recommending a specific one here (I will soon though), but you have to do something!

If you believe business will always come to you via word of mouth or referrals, you will feel the pain. Things will get choppy. Even if you have a great network, that is rarely enough. You need to invest in marketing to get new leads and opportunities to work. This never goes away, it will forever be a line item on your P&L as you build a health business.

I’m working hard to be your most valuable follow in 2024! Reply to this email and tell me what I can do to earn that title.

— Temp

P.S.

• Need CRM Recommendations? We use Go High Level and love it.

• Need Bookkeeper and Tax Prep Recommendations: We love TaxHive.

• Need Marketing Recommendations: I love Batch Skip Trace to start.