By Ryan Fitzgerald

What are your real estate goals for 2018? Writing them down is a great place to start.

For a little inspiration, I decided to ask brokers and agents from all over the country what their goals are for 2018 with three specific questions:

1. How do you set goals?
2. What are your goals?
3. How do you intend on reaching these goals?

I received a great variety of responses ranging from agents who are just beginning their careers to veterans who’ve been in the industry more than 10 years. Here is what each person had to say:

David O’Doherty, Raleigh Realty, Clayton, N.C.

How do you set goals?

To be honest, I’ve been a “fly by the seat of your pants” type of person when it came to setting goals in the past. I never really examined what my goals should be and how to go about achieving them. I’ve been too vague, setting broad yearly goals versus focusing on precise targets and shorter time periods.

This year, I have my business goals written down and I shared them with my team (accountability). I intend to focus on weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals, as I’ve found in the real estate business that time can easily go by without generating leads if you are working deals.

What are your goals?

• One goal is to fix my website, which has struggled through some changes recently.
• I have neglected my past clients to my cost and a goal this year is to reconnect with them.
• Having recently joined the Raleigh Realty Team, my goal is to contribute to growing the business through sales, advice, and being open to new ideas.
• I would like to help at a homeless shelter/food bank or build a house with Habitat for Humanity.
• (And remodel our kitchen!)

How do you intend on reaching these goals?

I hope to find a web developer who actually knows what they are doing in order to get my site on track, then I can concentrate on blog posts, community pages, videos, etc. Hopefully by the second quarter we’ll be up and running and then it will be a combination of daily and weekly tasks.

Engaging with clients and staying in touch on a regular basis is another action I plan to take. I plan to use systems to ensure all contacts are assigned and I am responding to their needs, which will vary depending on their situation.

Connecting with past clients will depend on the situation: some I will call, others will receive an email or postcard or even a stop-in when I’m in the neighborhood. What it comes down to is I need to get off my ass and make it happen!

Kenzie Teague, United Hollywood, Los Angeles

How do you set goals?

I make sure that my goals are specific and well defined. I have found it difficult to achieve success when I don’t have clear and concise direction. After setting well-defined goals, I write them down so that I don’t get side-tracked. Furthermore, I always frame my goals from a positive perspective. Lastly, I talk about my goals to other people so that I am more likely to hold myself accountable.

What are your goals?

This year, I plan to help at least one person or family find a home each month, on average. I am going break personal records with my sales while continuing to have a client-centered business that always puts my customers’ needs first.

How do you intend on reaching these goals?

• In order to achieve this, I will use tools and ideas I’ve acquired recently through sales training, plus a little trial and error. I’ve noticed that one way to stand out as a real estate professional in Los Angeles—particularly in this era of automated drip emails—is to go the extra mile for customers by hunting for properties that best suits their needs. That may mean searching the MLS on client’s behalf and then sending personalized, follow-up emails.
• I will also refine my networking skills by speaking to at least three new people at every social event I attend.
• Lastly, I will make self-care a priority by hiking and being outdoors at least once a week to refresh and refocus!

(Myself!) Ryan Fitzgerald, Uphomes, Charlotte, N.C.

1. How do you set goals? 

Since the process for setting goals is difference for everyone, here’s what I do: First I make sure I’m setting SMART goals.

• Smart.
• Measurable.
• Attainable.
• Realistic.
• Time-Sensitive.

The process of goal setting is an art. Set too many goals and you will lose sight of the important ones. Set too few and you may not accomplish all that you could have.

One of the ways I am able to dictate my goals is by collecting and using data to my advantage. If you can reverse engineer your annual sales goals by breaking them down into monthly or quarterly targets, it will make your life much easier. We also do this with website traffic and number of leads generated to predict how many homes we will sell.

2. What are your goals?

None of my goals have to do with selling homes under the uphomes brand. Instead, my team and I are focused on building a foundation that will create an incredible experience for people looking to buy and sell homes. So, this year, my real estate goals in Charlotte are specifically website related. We would like to hit 100,000 organic web visits in 2018, so that the uphomes brand can begin to build a relationship with local Charlotte folks.

3. How do you intend on reaching these goals?

These goals are going to require a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck. If you break 100,000 down into 12 months it’s 8,500 organic visits monthly. Certainly we could pay for this traffic and reach our goals with an expensive budget. That’s not the best way to build a business though. That’s why you’ll notice we included the word organic in our goals. This means that search engines are referring folks to us vs. us paying for these visits.

Hard work is a much better ROI than whatever we may spend trying to accomplish these goals, and organic web visits is one way to not lose sight of that.

Jeff Knox, Knox Real Estate, Dallas

How do you set goals?

I look at what I believe are the weakest areas of my business from the past year and then set goals to boost where I believe I am lacking. Like everyone in a business, I’m conscious of where I am “falling down on the job” during the course of a year. But (also like a large majority), I tend to make excuses as to why I cannot immediately correct my shortcomings. I believe to set the correct goals, you have to leave your comfort zone and set a plan of attack to make your goals happen. If you stay in your comfort zone, you’ll never grow your business.

What are you goals?

It may sound strange, but my goal for 2018 is to declutter and untangle my tech. If you’re like me, you receive a large number of phone calls each month from vendors wanting you to purchase the newest and greatest piece of technology. Over the years, and with some great sales pitches, I have purchased countless technical platforms which were promised to make my business “easier” and “more efficient.” After spending more than I care to admit on technology, I’d now conservatively estimate that 90 percent of tech purchases available to real estate professionals is not worth having.

How do you intend on reaching these goals?

What I’m doing in 2018 is getting back to the basics of face-to-face and more personal interaction with clients.  I’ve been guilty of “hiding behind the technology” and expecting the artificial intelligence to do the work for me. Even in our technical world, personally reaching out to clients/potential clients is best. Think about when you call a large company. Most of the time you just want to get to a live person. Our clients are the same. They want and deserve our personal attention.

I’m going to hold myself—the broker and owner—accountable for increasing personal communications with our brokerage’s clients by keeping track of phone calls and personal meetings for both me and my agents. A possible bonus structure may be implemented for those agents who diligently pursue personal meetings and communications with our clients.

Will Fitzgerald, Raleigh Realty, Raleigh, N.C.

How do you set goals?

What you believe is what you can achieve.

My goals are kept at a close distance and I break them up into manageable time-frames, which allows me to know at the end of every week, month, and quarter where I am along the way.

I believe in pushing myself to new limits that at first I didn’t believe I could be pushed to. With a positive mindset, especially during the struggles, and a “I know I can” attitude, I will accomplish my goals. I set my goals high enough so I will get the most out of reaching them.

What are your goals?

Being new to real estate, I have so many things that I want to do. I plan on becoming a better agent every day by always learning something new. I have set my sights on having a really good first year in this industry: My goal is to sell 16 homes in 2018. That’s four families per quarter on average.

Breaking down my goals for 2018 by quarter will make it simpler to reach my total year goals. I intend to reach each quarterly goal and continue to go above and beyond afterwards. Completing least 16 transactions in 2018 is something that I will be proud of and can continue to grow upon.

How do you intend on reaching these goals?

By not slowing down and always pushing myself. Keeping in contact with my clients is crucial to be successful in this field. I plan on personally reaching out to each and every lead that I get to let them know that I am here to help them whenever they may need assistance.

I plan on making changes in my daily routines as well. Getting out of any bad habits that I may have that could slow me down or prevent me from obtaining my full potential. I plan on being at the top one day, and outworking others in this field is how I’m going to get there.

Tony Mariotti, RubyHome, Los Angeles

How do you set goals?

Every day that I log into Google Analytics, goals seem to leap right off the page. I can see from the numbers what I could do earn more organic traffic or how to tweak a part of my website to increase its overall conversion rate. The biggest challenge is narrowing down what to work on next from among the seemingly innumerable choices.

“Organic traffic — no matter what” is the mantra that pretty much dominates my thinking because without it, not much else is possible. Without a steady supply of traffic and leads, all other resource planning is moot. I’d rather have a problem where a few leads slip through the cracks (more than my team can handle) than worrying about not having enough.

What are your goals?

My goal for 2018 is to double my organic website traffic. My plan is to extend my website’s footprint by adding community pages beyond the big, obvious neighborhoods in Los Angeles (which are already very competitive and for which ranking is quite difficult).

How do you intend on reaching these goals?

My plan is to create two additional community pages on my website per week, focusing on smaller districts, and possibly whittling down to an area as small as a single condo building.

Bonus question: What is one thing you intend on doing in 2018 that you haven’t in previous years?

I’m going to try to create a few neighborhood videos this year. The learning curve on video production is pretty steep. Hopefully, after figuring out how to get some decent footage and learning some basic editing techniques, they will get easier to produce.

Ryan Fitzgerald is the owner of Raleigh Realty and Uphomes in Raleigh, N.C. Connect with him on Facebook, Google +, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Pinterest.

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