I want to talk to you about what I call the algorithm of sales. And what that means is that there's some base numbers in our industry, that if you embrace them, it can unlock unlimited opportunity.

The problem is most agents don't want to embrace them. They just want somebody to hand them a buyer or seller. Or for a buyer or seller to literally lay down in front of them so they can just start working with them.

Guys, that doesn't work.

You have to go out there and work the numbers if you want to do well.

I'm going to give you six numbers that are going to be just what I would call standard in the industry that you have to embrace for you to have success.

1. For every 30 conversations you have, you'll average one closing.

So if you want to make 300, 400, 500, $600,000 a year, you just have to figure out how many closings you need. And then multiply that number by 30, which will tell you how many conversations you need to have in the next year.

And also remember this:...

What is Q2?

Well, Q2 is your most valuable asset. And you might not even know it.

Your most valuable asset is your database, your sphere of influence, we know that.

But what's Q2 mean?

Q2 represents the quality and the quantity of your database. So let's look at those two issues and how they can impact your bottom line coming into the new year.

Let's start with the quantity. What does that mean? Well, if we know that for every 10 people in our database, we'll average one closed sale, knowing that quantity makes a big difference. In fact, when I talk to agents on a regular basis, and I ask, how many transactions did you close last year? And they say 10, 12, I'll say, how big is your database? Let me guess. It's probably 80 to 120 am I right? Most people will say, yeah, you're right on the money.

Why?

Because your database is a reflection of your performance. Smaller database, smaller performance. Larger database, larger performance. That's just the nature of the beas...

This time of year, a lot of people start thinking about pivoting — making a fundamental change in their business strategy. That's a good idea, because if you want to have that 90 degree turn in your business, you need to think about what you can do to actually make that a reality.

Not just talk about it, but actually make it a reality.

I'm gonna give you five quick points that I've learned over the years that can really help you have a successful pivot in your business and make fundamental change happen for you.

1. Mental toughness

This is underrated, but how many of us have started new year's resolutions with the best of intentions, but then falling apart within 30 days? We’ve all been guilty of that (myself included).

So mental toughness, getting your mind, your body, your spirit in alignment with that decision and saying, I'm not just doing this today or tomorrow or next day or next week, I'm doing it for the entire year. And really committing to that. That's where...

Now we've all heard of supply chain issues hitting the entire country. Lots of things happening because of COVID breaking down the supply chains.

But is this impacting real estate?

It absolutely is impacting real estate. It's impacting builders. It's impacting all kinds of vendors that are tied to real estate.

My wife and I are remodeling a house and we've had to wait six months for the cabinets to come in. It's impacting remodeling and flipping and all kinds of areas that we don't necessarily consider tied to the supply chain.

But real estate is definitely one of those areas.

So how can we use this?

Here's one way we can use it when we're out prospecting is talking about supply chain issues because everybody can identify with it right now.

So you might just say:

"Hey, you know, what, can you do me a huge favor? Even real estate is facing supply chain issues. We're facing very low inventory compared to most years and huge buyer demand. So if you see any for sale by ...

At this time last year, 46% of sellers were offering some kind of incentive to buyers to encourage them to make an offer on their house over the competition.

Now, those incentives could have been anything from closing costs, down payment assistance, home warranties, pre-paying for services. There were lots of different incentives that could have been thrown into the mix.

But this year that number has dropped down to 26%. But this is still a very high number.

And you can describe this to sellers like this: 

"Hey, listen, it might be kind of surprising, but about one out of every four of sellers that we're competing with in the marketplace is actually offering an incentive to the buyer to encourage them to make an offer on their home. So it's something for us to consider. We got a great price, but maybe that would make our home stand out just a little bit more is thinking about an incentive.

Let me describe what could mean:

It could be in closing costs, down payment as...

What are the top seven reasons why someone would want to sell in your market?

Well, according to the National Association of REALTORS new profile of home buyers and sellers across the country, here are the top reasons:

1. They want to move closer to family and friends — 18% of the time.

2. Their home is too small — 17% of the time.

3. Their neighborhood has become less desirable — 11% of the time.

4. Their home is too large — 9% of the time.

(Add the too large to the too small, and you got 26% of the time they want to sell has to do with the size of their home.)

5. A change in their family situation — 9% of the time.

6. Moving due to retirement — 7% of the time.

7. Job relocation — another 7% of the time.

So why do we care?

Here's the reason why:

Instead of talking about generalities like do you want to sell your home? Are you ready to move? Let's talk about specifics when you're doing marketing —whether geographic marketing, social media marketing, sphere of in...

This is an amazing number:

63% of home buyers that are out shopping today believe that the homes that they're looking at should look like the homes that they see on TV on HGTV and other shows like that.

That is interesting because that's something we've got to educate our sellers about. Because if that's the buyer's expectation, if we don't meet that expectation, we may not get top dollar.

So when we're sitting with sellers, how do we have those conversations? There's another study that might help with that conversation that will actually incentivize them to want to do this.

The new study shows that of 13,000 homes in the country that were studied in 2020 -- a very recent study -- 85% of those got between 6% and 23% more for their home because they were staged compared to the competitors in the neighborhood.

Those are powerful numbers to motivate your sellers. And then we have to define what staging actually means anyway.

So when I'm talking with a seller, for exampl...

How long do people stay in their homes? It's an interesting question. And it's a question that's related to marketing for us.

Prior to 2008, the average person stayed in their home five years before they moved on. So quite a bit of turnover there.

From 2008 to 2016, that number moved up to eight years.

And now that number has gone even higher — it's now 10.6 years.

So why are people staying in their homes longer? Well, there's lots of reasons.

The Great Recession had an impact. Super low interest rates have an impact. Having less inventory in the markets for people to move up to and change homes has also made a big impact.

But one question we should know and ask our clients is how about our local market? How about with our own sphere? What does that look like for the people that you're actually doing business with?

It's a great text. It's a great social media post to ask this question:

"The average homeowner spends 10.6 years in their home. How long have you been i...

We know that Google is the number one search engine. But what's number two?

As you think about that question, let me give you another a stat that's really going to blow you away:

One-third of Americans -- according to a Harris poll survey -- say that they plan to move after COVID ends.

Think about that.

Think about the power of what that could do to the country in terms of real estate relocation.

So circling back to that first question I asked though, what is the number two search engine?

The answer is YouTube.

And here's what you can do, which is really, really interesting.

When you dive into YouTube today, search for your hometown. Be hyperlocal as we call it and do this quick search: "moving to [your hometown]."

Or you do could another search, which is: "relocation [your hometown]" and see what the results are.

You might find, like I've found, in area after area, after area, after area is that there are very, very little results that include a REALTOR or zero r...

Hey guys, here's a question:

How many transactions would you guess in the marketplace are cash transactions?

The answer is 23% of all transactions in the real estate industry today are cash transactions.

Now, why is that important?

It's important because when we're talking to buyers and sellers, we need to be able to talk about the impact cash buyers have in the marketplace.

So for instance, when I'm sitting with a seller, sometimes sellers will say, "Well, Jim, I only want to sell to a cash buyer."

Now I'll say, "Hey, I get it. I would prefer that too when I'm a seller. Cash buyers don't have an appraisal requirement. And a lot of times you can close faster and it's a little easier. I get it. No lender involved. But here's the reality of those numbers: Today the latest studies show that 23% of buyers are cash buyers. So that means 77% are not. Only about one out of four buyers are cash buyers. If we only want to sell to a cash buyer, we're eliminating three quarters ...