Tim and Julie Harris

By Tim and Julie Harris

What you do now will pay dividends in 90 to 120 days. That’s because real estate activity follows cycles.

The fourth quarter of the year is not the time to slough off—even if you’re exhausted from having a productive year and you’d like to kick back for a while.

Remember that real estate typically follows a cycle of 90 to 120 days. Everything you do now will pay dividends in February, March, and April. And, it goes without saying, everything you’re not doing now could potentially put you behind in 90 to 120 days. Listing and buyer clients do not simply show up, even if we’d like them to.

With or without a team, it’s important to take an entire day without distractions to make your real estate plan for next year.

We recommend doing a SWOT analysis:

Figure out you or your team’s…

• S – Strengths – What are you good at? Where does the business shine?
• W – Weaknesses – What are you not good at? Where are the holes in the business?
• O – Opportunities – What and where are the opportunities in your market that you and/or your team need to jump on?
• T – Threats – What are the threats to your business?

©smshoot – Getty Images

You and your team members must have the data from this year and last year at your fingertips so you have an exact context on where you should be at any point during the year ahead.

The more specific data and numbers you have, the better so that you and your team know where to spend your time and money, how to generate your income, and how you typically lose income.  Examples of data include:

• Ratio of leads to sales—how many leads you need to generate to make a sale.
• Closed transactions
• Sales volume in dollars
• Profits
• Losses
• Income
• Expenses by category or activity

Then, align or realign your business priorities based on your SWOT analysis of data.

Once you have everything in front of you, adjust your business priorities to maximize your business strengths and to seize opportunities.

If there are gaps, omissions, or weaknesses, challenge yourself or your team to rectify each situation one at a time over the next year.

Your profit is your product. If you believe that your listings or your leads are your product, you haven’t been paying attention. Your listings and your leads are what you must have in order to generate your profit. And remember, your income is not your profit. More people earn high incomes than those who earn high profits—too many of those high-income producers also spend much more than those who earn high profits.

So, remember, as you’re planning for 2022 this quarter, keep profit at the forefront of your goals.

Tim and Julie Harris have been leaders in the real estate industry for more than 20 years, first as top producing agents, and now as sought-after business coaches. Their latest book, Harris Rules: Your No-BS Practical Step By Step Guide to Finally Become Rich and Free, is an international bestseller. Learn more at timandjulieharris.com.