Well in truth I can never lay claim to knowing what all real estate agents do when the market is slow, but judging by how the mainstream realtor corporate environment views those of us who refer to ourselves as independents, they do pretty much the same things. Generally it would appear that they wait around for the market to pick up again or they rather passively try to influence the market to spark it into motion again, but otherwise they’re at liberty to employ this wait-and-see strategy of theirs since the good times more than cover for the bad times by way of earnings.
As independents we also attend the various events which occur as part of the institutionalized running of the real estate industry, so we’re not completely cut off from the rest of the realtors. There is a bit of a cliquey vibe given off at every one of these events though, with some realtors making no excuses about looking out for each other and getting each others’ backs.
This is when as an independent you truly feel independent in the fullest sense. This is when you realize that you’re more on your own than anything else, but this is how we’ve developed some strategies to pull us through the slow times and I’m only happy to share what we do because I’m all about the process of coming up with all these ideas, as opposed to being exclusively about the ideas themselves.
The real estate industry is changing rather rapidly in any case so I like to believe that those of us who are forward-thinking and versatile will survive the changes, regardless.
Creating intellectual property
This very blog makes for the perfect example of what some of us get up to when the property market is slow. We create intellectual property by writing about our experiences – experience which is all the more valuable because it comes straight from within the industry. This is not to say I don’t blog when the good times are rolling in the property market, but all I’m saying is whenever there’s a surge in content published, that’s likely a sign that the market is experiencing a bit of a lull.
Explore property-related opportunities beyond the property market itself
If I haven’t already then I’m definitely going to publish a post about the many different markets which can operate in tandem with the property market, but just to give you an example of what I’m talking about; there are many web developers who could very well do with some work, so I refer a lot of my counterparts and colleagues to them as an affiliate, earning commissions for my referrals.
Some of the opportunities of this type we create ourselves as realtors waiting out a market lull, such as hosting garage sales at properties listed for sale with us and this is something the owners/sellers are only too happy about since it acts as a great channel through which to market the house further.
There are so many money-generating things to do with idle properties sitting and waiting for the market to pick up again, many more of which I’ll share in future posts, perhaps with a detailed example of how I personally implemented those ideas.
