Plan B

Our office is the #1 brokerage in our area, doing about twice the next highest brokerages production, and we’ve about 20% or so of the entire market share.

We – as in the entire office of like 45 people – took just 4 listings in November.

That is “4” as in “four”. I swear I’m not making this stat up. According to Wikipedia “the number four, is a number and a numeral. It comes after the number three, but before the number five.”

See where I’m going with this?

Plus I’ve seen in the last month or so two heavy hitter agents just turn around and take management jobs. No doubt their… well I can’t say “age”… lets say “time in the business” has worn on them a bit, but these are pretty dyed in the wool cash queens. One bitches about every top producer trophy she gets saying, “why don’t they just send me $50 instead of wasting their money on this” as she tosses them in the trash.

To cut a long story short, there is markedly limited potential to make a full time living at real estate in my area. Both for right now, and I strongly suspect for at least the next two years. I’m a positive guy, but I ain’t standing in the snow imagining a beach.

It’s time for Plan B.

Actually it was probably time for Plan B months ago, but I am slow on the uptake and too positive for my own good sometimes.

Plan B… code named “Operation Survive The Storm”.

1.  Get an actual job that pays money. Luckily I’m still a nurse (NEVER LET A LICENSE LAPSE), so no real concern about managing to find something that pays the bills. The opportunity cost for not working as a nurse and getting paid benefits etc has been pretty heavy. By that token I’ve seriously lost money this year.

2.  Worry less about the damn blog. Honestly everyone that seems to be getting actual lead traction from these things are already pretty established as agents. For a new agent in terms of leads and income generation they seem near completely worthless. In terms of getting an education and forcing personal growth and knowledge of the business, they are pretty good.

3.  I have produced an awful lot of content in the last year and a bit. That is going to get repackaged into one shiny beautiful PDF white paper that will amount to the be all and end all of my real estate marketing attempts. Then it’s tracking FSBO’s and Expireds in my database and mailing regularly to prompt a response to down load and read the white paper and then, and only then, call me for an appointment. It won’t be for everyone of course, that is exactly the idea though.

I want nothing but sellers willing to do what it takes to sell, and will be referring off the buyer side of the equation, or maybe even simply paying for someone else to show properties.

The goal is four or more listings in 2008 to simply break even on my REALTOR fees, MLS fees, Errors and Omissions Fees, a second helping of MLS fees, Direct Mail Expenses, and the Opportunity Cost of spending my time shoving letters into envelopes instead of picking up an extra nursing shift every once in a while.

4.  I’m getting a tattoo. I’ve just always secretly wanted one.

5.  I’m going to stop bothering to try and sell photography services to other agents. The more you guys suck, the better I look, so it’s not really in my interest to help you out any. It takes about 50 photo shoot fees to equal 1 commission, so I figure it’s less work to just try and pick up your leftovers as an expired. I will sell photography services, but everyone is getting the same rate ($100 or a blow job) and you call me.

I will most definitely be taking a lot of photos and refining my photo skills further.

6.  I’m not doing fluffy bunnies floor time, or open houses anymore. These are horribly inefficient ways of meeting qualified people who might actually want to…. oh I dunno… actually have a transaction at some point.

7.  And importantly – I will not be holding a funeral service for Plan A.