2024 has been quite a year for the housing industry. Interest rates kept us on our toes, the dust is still settling from the NAR settlement, agents are retooling their buyer and listing systems, we are digging an even greater hole in terms of our inventory, and now we even have insurance issues to bear. This year challenged both new and seasoned real estate professionals. Despite the challenges, there are big opportunities ahead for agents who know where to look.
Highly acclaimed by past attendees, State of the Market includes crucial information about important changes happening in our industry, historical and current market conditions, researched insight and predictions of where our market is going, and opportunities and talking-points for brokers to explore and capitalize upon.
A, B, C & D – Not As Easy As It Seems During my career as a Realtor and a Broker I have heard the theory of rating your clients "A" Clients, "B" Clients, "C" Clients and "D" Clients. This theory has been presented and accepted by Real Estate Agents all over the world. This is how this idea works; go to your database of potential clients and decide if you feel they are going to buy or sell now, 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months or a year and over. There have been many variations on this. What you are supposed to do is to try and figure out and predict when the client is going to buy or sell. Poor predictions have cost agents thousands and thousands of dollars. How can you make a prediction about when your Buyers and Sellers are going to buy and sell when they don't even know, themselves, when they are going to buy or sell.
Let me give you an example. A couple of years ago an agent, that I know, came back from a seminar where she was asked to rate her clients. She was all excited and went through her list and categorized everyone from A to D. What she was supposed to do was spend more time with the A's and stop worrying about the D's. I found this idea ridiculous, as I know how often Buyers and Sellers change their timelines because Real Estate is an emotional business. Motivation changes from day to day. After putting her potential clients in these four categories, I asked her what her plan was and she said she would be spending a lot more time with the "A's: giving the "B's" and "C's" some attention, but the "D's" she would just watch and not prospect so much. The sad thing about this story is that more of her "D" clients, than her "A" clients, bought or sold. I explained to her that as Real Estate Agents we can never predict what our clients will do.
I decided to do a little experiment. I took a group of agents and asked them to play the real estate physic network. What were the results? The agents gave me a list of their "A" clients, "B" clients, "C" clients and "D" clients. I asked them to just pick out their top "A" client and their bottom "D" client. I took the top of the "A's" and the bottom of the "D's" and we put them side by side and watched over a period of 90 days. What happened was astonishing to me. The "D's" outperformed the "A's" by over 60%! We were all so shocked we decided to repeat the experiment. On the second try the results were the same. "D" clients outperformed "A" clients by 60%. We have repeated this experiment over the years and the results are very clear. Do not assume that you have the right or the ability to predict your potential client's timelines. The only one who can do this is the client. The challenge with predicting your client's next move is that the client doesn't even know exactly when they are going to buy or sell.
Treat Your "D's" Like "A's" I recommend is that you treat all your clients as though they were "A" clients. Give everyone exceptional service. Contact all your clients on a regular basis and give each of them, including "D's", A service. The secret to success in the real estate business is being in the right place at the right time. The more opportunities that you give yourself, by not limiting yourself, with your database, the more success you will have. So remember, never play the Real Estate Agent Physic Network.