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There are plenty of so-called real estate experts out there teaching agents how to succeed even though they haven’t sold a home in decades, if at all. But Kinder Reese is different. Founders Jay Kinder and Michael Reese have collectively sold more than 6,270 homes over the past two decades, they still have thriving real estate practices, and they love sharing their proven systems and processes with other agents who are serious about growing their business.

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How to grow your business during uncertain times

Published by Jay Kinder

Things have gotten quite crazy for us in the last few weeks.

There’s a tremendous amount of uncertainty around the future health of not only the citizens of our country, but also of our once-burgeoning economy.

It hasn’t been all bad news, but there’s been enough of it to cause some home sellers and buyers to want to hold off until things “settle down” as we’ve been hearing.

As with any recessionary environment, there are a certain set of challenges that arise that we must deal with in order to continue growing our business in an effort to get to the other side of things.

The good news — and yes, there is good news — is that if you work hard and do the things I’m going to share with you in this post, you can put yourself in position to not just survive, but even thrive as we work our ways through the next several months of obstacles to overcome.

Here are some strategies you can follow to grow your business during uncertain times:

Gary Keller’s Wisdom

Gary Keller has seen a few things since he started Keller Williams back in 1983.

For what it’s worth, he started what is now one of the largest real estate sales organizations in the world on the heels of a double-dip recession that occurred first in 1980 and then again from 1981 to almost the end of 1982.

Since then, he’s guided his organization through a number of troubled economic downturns and learned lessons along the way.

One thing he recently pointed out was that in 2011, during the last Great Recession, the average number of homes agents sold that year was the same as what they sold in 2019...a very good year in real estate by most people’s accounts.

Now, there were fewer sales opportunities in 2011, but there were also fewer serious agents who were vying for those sales, much like it is when real estate markets start to ebb.

In a recent message he sent out, Keller recommended doubling down on real estate generation. His belief is that no matter what the market environment is, the opportunities are never zero.

There are always opportunities to make a sale. We, as agents, just need to work harder to find those deals.

His recommendation is to prospect as many as four hours a day to ensure you get in front of enough people to uncover sales opportunities you can convert now.

In truth, the last thing any business owner needs to do is to pull back on finding new opportunities. This is not something that will last forever and we all need to continue finding new people with whom to speak to uncover “now” business and to create new opportunities for the future.

Things we can learn from a hot dog

If you’re not familiar with the parable of the hot dog vendor, I urge you to read it. You can check it out by going here.

The story has to do with your mindset and how it determines the actions you take, which drive the results you get.

It’s very easy to say: “Hey, we’re in a recession; it’s time to pull back and protect ourselves as we weather the storm.” Certainly, there is some wisdom in that, for sure. This is neither the time to be irresponsible with our money and time, nor the time to run out and take huge gambles on trying to catch lightning in a bottle.

That said, it is the time to focus on doing the things that you know work no matter what the market environment dictates:

1. Courage is what's key. In times like these, we all feel some sort of uncertainty. Fear, anxiety, worry are a natural part of dealing with the unknown. Even the most successful people on the planet experience these feelings; however, it's what they do despite being anxious or scared that makes them even more successful.

When they are scared or anxious, they still take action. They still move forward towards what they're looking to accomplish. They realize that taking no action will certainly keep them from getting the results they want.

Be sure to keep moving forward. Keep prospecting. Keep calling. Keep building relationships. Keep asking for appointments and for agreements to be signed. Being paralyzed by fear or holding back will only serve to make what you fear come true.

2. This won't last forever. Nobody knows how long it's going to last and it could get worse before it gets better. That's really the only certainty we have. Taking this into consideration, it seems that the people in charge are doing everything they can to 1) stem the tide and shorten the time frame as much as they can and 2) create fiscal stimulus packages to keep a massive recession from happening.

The Secretary of the Treasury believes that there will be some strong pent up demand for virtually everything -- including toilet paper -- when we get to the other side of this. If you're planning properly, then you'll want to build and strengthen relationships during this time period so that you have loyal buyers and sellers who are ready to work with you when the time has come.

3. People are still selling and buying. No matter what's happening, people will always buy and sell homes. Has it slowed down? Yes. Will it continue to slow down? Possibly. Despite all that, not everyone is going to stop looking to sell and or buy homes. It's your job to contact and find those people then take them through the process...giving them the assurance they need that they are doing the right things.

Also, while a Fed rate drop isn't necessarily a guarantee that mortgage rates will drop, it's a strong indication that rates will go back down. There are some people that will want to take advantage of that.

4. Be flexible. It’s clearly not business as usual. To that extent, you may need to be flexible and mix things up a bit to continue doing business during these uncertain times. As you work with buyers, see if you can get listing agents (or their sellers) to send video tours of the home to your buyers taken on a smartphone. As you work with sellers, do appointments by phone or Zoom. Zoom is free as long as you don’t have more than two people connected at the same time.

5. Learn from those who have gone before you. There are a number of agents in the market today who braved the Great Recession and came out stronger on the other side. They learned valuable lessons and know how to navigate a market like the one we’re currently enduring. Leverage their experience and find out what they did — and will likely do now — to continue growing their business during a tough market.

6. Don’t give up. You must keep pushing forward and remain committed to the process of growing your business. Whatever you do, don’t give up. Before you know it, you’ll be on the other side.

Know that we are here for you

Our coaching organization started formally coaching real estate agents in 2008, which, at that time, was the worst real estate market since the Great Depression. We learned a number of lessons as we guided our clients, and our own businesses, through the uncertainty that ensued for the next five-plus years.

Now is not the time to stop learning and growing. It’s time to educate yourself, grow to become the person you need to be to get through this next season of our industry, learn from those who have gone before you and weathered the storm successfully.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you need anything. We can be reached at 972-668-5090, x2. Or, you can send an email to jeff@kinderreese.com.

Let us know how we can help you.