Finish Strong
You have a tremendous opportunity, when most agents are taking time off, to talk to everyone you know and get another deal done.
We only have two weeks until the end of the year, but there are agents out there who will still write business this year. In fact, I have sold a house on Christmas Eve. It can be done!
There are a lot of agents who will take the next few weeks off. I can tell you firsthand from when I ran my real estate office, most agents barely work in December and they typically don’t roll back into the office until mid-January. You have a tremendous opportunity when 95% of the agents are taking time off, to talk to everyone you know and get another deal done. How great would it be to write another deal before January 1?
When agents first get into the business, it takes super-human effort to get your business off the ground. You must be incredibly ambitious and be willing to work when everyone else is off. After you’ve been in the business for a few years, you crave time off, I get it. We can even get envious of people who have unconditional holidays. The reality is, in real estate, it doesn’t work that way. If you don’t react to an opportunity when it presents itself, it will end up in someone else’s hands. I understand wanting guilt-free time off, but I also want you to know that there will still be business written over the holidays. Even when you are “off” you still need to be “on”.
For those of you who are ambitious, here are eight things you can do to generate more business over the holidays. It will give you a jump start for January.
Connect with current buyer prospects. Our busy lives get in the way of major decisions. Perhaps there are some buyers you’ve struggled to connect with because they’ve been distracted. You may find that over the holidays they have idle time on their hands. Call to wish them happy holidays, but before you make the call, search to see if anything new has come on the market that they haven’t seen yet. Perhaps you can entice them to have a look.
Reconnect with old buyer leads. Look back through your records for the past 12 months to see if there was anyone you started working with, but they fell off your radar. Reach out to wish them happy holidays and see if now is a better time to start the home buying process again. You will resurrect some old relationships by doing this.
Hold a holiday open house. Pick one of your listings that is decorated exceptionally well for the holidays and hold an open house between Christmas and New Year’s. Use the next two weeks to door knock the neighbors to invite them. Send an email invite to all your buyer prospects and tell them to pass the invitation along to their friends.
Send a Happy New Year’s card to your referral sources (lawyers, financial planners, mortgage brokers, etc.). While everyone else sends holiday cards in December, you can stand out by sending a Happy New Year card instead. They will receive the card when they get back into the office in January, and you’ll be the first person on their mind. The message should be, “Let’s make 2020 our best year ever. Let’s have coffee and see about how we can help each other grow our businesses this year.”
Send a Happy New Year’s video to your clients. Video is the best way to make a connection if you can’t get face to face. Services like BombBomb.com are great for sending video emails. Alternately, you can send videos by text, but keep them very short. Google “New Year’s messages” to find tons of messages you can send. Don’t struggle to reinvent the wheel.
Update your social media networks with holiday messages. Post fun pictures of your holiday celebrations. Change your cover photo to be a Happy Holiday theme. Take some time to look at friends’ social media posts and comment on them to reconnect.
Host a New Year’s Day brunch at your house. Everyone puts on holiday parties and New Year’s Eve parties, but most people don’t have plans for New Year’s Day. Invite your past clients, friends and referral sources. Make it a casual drop in from 12 – 4. A relaxed, social environment is great for having meaningful conversations.
Book a fun winter vacation. There will be great holiday specials, so take advantage of the discounts. In sales, we need rewards to inspire us to work hard. Book a fun vacation with your family or friends. It will motivate you to work hard in January to pay for it, and it gives you something to look forward to. My suggestion: make it non-refundable so you won’t be tempted to cancel at the last minute because you are too busy!