Go Big or Go Home (& home ain't so bad)
1:35 Minute Read.
Over the years, I’ve witnessed two proven paths toward real estate success. Unfortunately, many agents aim somewhere in the middle and wind up missing both targets. The choice is yours. Pick one and master it.
The fortune cookie on my desk reads: “If you chase two rabbits, both will escape”
GO BIG. For those agents who aren’t content operating a one-person show, build a small team and grow it as large as your dreams will carry. Identify your strengths and recruit assistants and fellow agents to provide a client experience that cannot be rivaled. Focus on lead generation and don’t be afraid to invest heavily in name-recognition marketing. Going big is about building volume and geographical span. Add and subtract team members on their ability to produce results and attain goals. Those with strong management skills can build and lead a powerful team. Often, these teams grow into their own brokerages. But be forewarned (sorry for the movie quote), “with much power comes much responsibility”…and headache. Recruit the wrong agents and it will feel like your herding cats. Bonus thought: If you love the team concept but don’t want the added responsibility of being the leader, find a successful team and join it.
GO HOME (and home ain’t so bad). Let me use Seth Godin’s description. In a recent blog he described this idea as “MVA – Minimum Viable Audience”. While others are trying to build bigger business models, the MVA concept is about going in the opposite direction. It is about choosing the smallest possible group of clients that can support your business so that you can lavish on them extraordinary care and service. The focus is on being an integral part of the community and relationship building. Be the “go to” person to the degree that no one would ever consider going to someone else. I love this approach. And it is so easy to calculate and apply to the business of real estate. Using the FlexMLS Map Search, create a circle around your home address and determine how large an area is necessary to handle enough sales to reach your goals. I can reach my personal MVA within .5 miles of my home if I’m handling about a third of all those transactions – an easily attainable goal.
The problem arises when agents shoot somewhere in the middle of these two business models or simply don’t aim at all. That never seems to work. Some agents want to build a big business but they’re unable or unwilling to flesh-out the vision, recruit the right talent or financially invest to actually build it. Or, on the other hand, they have a small, easily managed client list but don’t exert the effort to truly care, leaving their folks feeling disconnected and unimportant. That agent often spends more money on advertising and misses the true benefit standing right in front of them.
Let’s do some honest soul searching. Which of these models describe your business? Are you doing a mishmash of both? Are you willing to let one model go and hyper focus on the one that best fits you?
Ready to sell the best homes in your neighborhood?
