The challenge is real.
No doubt, the real estate industry has gotten a bite taken out of its shorts like a letter carrier being chased by the neighborhood dog. Listings are way down. Deals have fallen apart due to people losing their jobs and/or their fears of getting sick, banks have tightened their lending policies, etc.
Things are way tougher now, for sure, but they haven’t ground to a halt either. In fact, even though there are agents out there who have no clue where their next commission check is coming from, there are also agents who are selling homes and keeping their businesses moving forward to get to the other side of this insanity we’re now experiencing.
How is it possible that some agent’s businesses are struggling mightily right now while other agent’s companies are surviving and — in certain cases — even thriving during this somewhat colossal downturn?
Before you start throwing around COVID-19 as the only culprit, consider these other possibilities as to why your and other agent’s business might be struggling right now.
Tony Robbins says that true transformation only exists on the other side of complete and total honesty. So, there are no accusations here. Rather, this is an “if the shoe fits” moment for anyone reading this.
Here are some reasons — other than a microscopic virus — that your business might be struggling.
Real Estate is a 90 Day Game
Anyone who’s done even a few deals realizes that the hands of time can move slowly when you’re prospecting and converting leads into opportunities. I think I’m safe in saying that whatever is happening in your business at any time is heavily dependent on the
effort you put forth in the prior 90 days (seasonality notwithstanding).
Taking this into consideration, even with the amount of “now” business taking the hit it has, your results in the first quarter of 2020 were heavily influenced by what you were doing in October through December of 2019.
In addition to that, the results you get in the second quarter of this year will be a result of what you did from January to March. Again, the virus, and the shutdowns that came about as a result of the virus, definitely impacted business. However, they didn’t keep all homes from selling and all buyers from buying.