14 Things to Do to Make Highest and Best Use of a “Blank Week” in Real Estate
Are you ever faced with a week with no buyer appointments, no listing presentations, no closings and no tasks that must be done to get you to a closing? It can be kind of scary – in fact it can feel a bit like suddenly being unemployed.
So what should you do to make the highest and best use of such a week?
I’ll tell you one thing NOT to do, and that’s waste it. Don’t sit home and worry, and don’t go to the office and play video games on your computer. Don’t whine and don’t join into any conversations about how bad things are.
Persistence in marketing your services is the key to filling your pipeline for the weeks and months ahead, so…
Get busy creating your work for next week or next month.
Here are some ways to do that…
- Telephone past clients – just to check in and see how they’re doing.
- Update your contact management databases. Are there past clients who need to be added? Are there business cards in your desk drawer that should be added to your sphere of influence list? Are there addresses that need to be updated?
- Review all your real estate web pages and test every link. Check to make sure that every page is about your visitor’s wants and needs, not about you. Make notes for improvements and tweaks – then do them!
- Read your agent bio and decide if you’d hire you based on what it says. Does it give your readers a good reason why they should choose you? Does it help them identify with you in some way?
- Review your marketing materials – are they all customer-centered, or are they all about you? If they’re all about you, revise and re-write.
- Test your auto responders. Read the real estate prospecting and staying in touch letters that you’re sending automatically and check to see if any have outdated information, typos, or misspelled words.
- Think about the home buyers and sellers you’d like to have, then buy or write prospecting letters to mail or to offer via a “capture box” on your website. Get them into your auto responder, ready to bring you more business.
- Write as many real estate blog posts as you can and upload them, scheduling them to be published over the next week – or even over the next month.
- Visit every open house available in your area.
- Visit FSBO homes and introduce yourself. Offer the homeowners some free information and advice. (My FSBO Letter set has a free report written especially for this purpose.) Get their email addresses, then buy or write follow up prospecting letters and get them loaded into your auto responder.
- Call or visit every one of the owners of expired listings that you’d like to list. Offer them a report about why homes don’t sell. (My Expired listing letter set includes that report.) As with the FSBO’s, get their email addresses, then buy or write follow up letters and get them loaded into your auto responder.
- Get out and take new photos of your listings – then update your home for sale flyers and the information on MLS and/or your website.
- Review the price opinions you prepared on each of your listings. Do they need to be updated and revised? If the true market value of any of your listings has changed, make an appointment to show the sellers what needs to be changed and why.
- Create a new market report for your geographic area or your specialty niche. Then send it or hand deliver it.
Do you think you could accomplish all of that in just one week?
It’s really a tall order. So just throw a dart at the list and start there, doing as many tasks as you can that will generate your future business.
Wishing you boundless prosperity,
Marte
P.S. Want more ways to build your real estate business without spending a lot of money?
Read my e-book: 107 Ways to Build Your Real Estate Career on a Tiny Budget.
Have questions? Have ideas for future ezines? Write me!