September means Back to Basics here at Inman. As real estate navigates the post-settlement era with new commission rules, real estate professionals from across the country will share what’s working for them, how they’ve evolved their systems and tools, and where they’re investing personally.
The trees are about to teach us how beautiful it is just to let things go, and September is the perfect time to retool your business, rethink your productivity and refresh your habits while preparing to carve out time to enjoy the holiday season.
How you manage your time, energy and environment impacts your overall sales and personal outcomes. You have to strike a balance of flexibility (because life doesn’t care about your schedule), keep a lid on the chaos, and create a space where you have time to sort out what needs to be done rationally, figure out how to move things forward, and actually enjoy the fruits of your labor.
If something isn’t working for you, or you feel stagnant in your business, there’s nothing wrong with blowing up old systems and mindsets to make room for new opportunities. So don’t be afraid to create a supernova of change this September — well ahead of the new year. Here are a few tips for how to make it happen.
Watch your 6
There is a big difference between productivity and busy work; the latter is wasting your time with tasks that will not get you the results you are looking for. Also, work doesn’t have to be miserable. If you’re not enjoying prospecting, marketing, customer service, showing homes, etc. — adjustments need to be made.
The Ivy Lee Method is a decades-old simple productivity hack that is very similar to Warren Buffet’s recommended 5/25 productivity system.
Essentially, you make a list of no more than six tasks. Rank them in order of importance, and only work on those six tasks. At the end of the day, all uncompleted tasks carry over to the next day’s list.
Research from the National Institutes of Health suggests that multitasking is not only counterproductive, but it’s actually bad for your brain health and overall well-being. Elaborate systems require time and energy. Instead of trying to fill every hour of your day with busy work, try to find ways to carve out more downtime.
Embrace the bare minimum for maximum results
The “Bare Minimum Monday” TikTok trend combats the Sunday Scaries and reduces stress.
For some reason, if an agent admits that they are stressed and struggling, the knee-jerk reaction is:
- They need more training
- They aren’t trying hard enough.
This archaic thinking can harm your ability to settle yourself down in your career.
Mondays often are overwhelming because that’s when the rest of the world attempts to launch into the workweek with the most urgent tasks and issues that developed since everyone checked out after lunch on Friday.
This tactic is not for everyone; you have to be willing to give up control. On a “Bare Minimum Monday,” you only complete the most urgent things you need to accomplish and then spend time on quiet, low-stress tasks or personal errands that will bring calm to the chaos.
Do not book multiple appointments or major project meetings on Mondays if you can avoid it.
Grab your pumpkin spice drink of choice, make sure you have a solid plan for the week, get your laundry done, and take a walk on your lunch break.
All of these things can make Monday something to look forward to instead of dreading the start of a never-ending rollercoaster ride of a week.
Haste makes waste
I sell homes in a gorgeous retirement community in Northern Virginia, and one of the things that prospects arriving on campus always almost comment on is our unique 14-mile-per-hour speed limit across our 87-acre neighborhood. Why 14? It causes folks to pause, slow down, and increase safety for everyone who is walking, biking, golf-carting and driving around campus.
I’m not sure when it became a badge of honor to procure a contract and close a deal in breakneck speed timelines, but in many of these cases, this accelerated timeline does not create a great space for customer service on either side of the deal.
We are currently in the middle of closing approximately 40 transactions at once this fall, and we closed 40 last fall with our new construction project.
After over 15-plus years of working in the industry and now working at an extremely high volume, I can tell you that the biggest lesson I have learned is haste makes waste, mistakes happen, and you end up doing more work than you bargained for, to begin with.
Slowing transactions down allows you to add in extra customer service touch points and ensure you have time to connect and build important relationships in the transaction to ensure better outcomes for your clients.
If you have the option for a longer closing range, take it. Ask for extra time and if you can close earlier — great. But it’s much easier for everyone to set clear expectations from the beginning of the transaction and to allow extra time to prepare and troubleshoot issues that arise.
- Office hours: Set office hours for customer service, and make sure all parties are aware of them.
- Communication: Make sure that all involved parties understand how to contact you easily and when you are accessible to them.
- Create offer instructions: If you are a listing agent, create an offer instructions package to help buyer agents bring their best offer. This includes preferred closing timelines, utility information, HOA information, special notes from the sellers, tax information and any required forms. Make sure your supervising broker has reviewed this package to ensure that it complies with current standards. Make sure this package is easily available for buyer’s agents to access. You can even send it in an email when you confirm showings.
Don’t assume that all parties in the transaction have all the same information or the same communication. Make sure to send a weekly roundup to keep all parties on the same page. You would be surprised by how much accountability this brings to the transaction and how it helps uncover problems lurking in the background.
Prioritize your personal life first
When working on planning your calendar, make sure that you prioritize your personal life and health first. Time with friends and loved ones, time to eat, time to workout, time to pay bills and do laundry, these are are essential tasks that have to be done. If you don’t make time for them, they will derail any effort you make to push your business forward.
We have to reframe productivity around whether you want to produce peace and joy or whether you want to create chaos and struggle in your life. You have to have gas in your tank to show up for your clients, and if you do not walk into your business calm and energized, it’s going to reflect in everything that you do.
Plump up prospecting
Prospecting is a weekly task, not seasonal. You have to find, build and maintain relationships, and that takes heart and focus. Every prospect and client you work with wants to feel like the only person you are working with. They want your attention, and they want the very best strategy you can offer them.
Check out my articles on:
- Plush prospecting: Making meaningful connections
- Nurturing a cold pipeline: Reviving cold leads
- Documentation: Covering your bases and providing great customer service
- Client consultations: Learning to listen to your clients
To plump up your interactions with your prospects and clients in a meaningful way, it’s essential to know your stats. Eat them for breakfast every day.
Currently, I know that on average it takes my prospects 732 days and 43 activities on my part to turn into a deal (again, these are retirement community numbers).
Do you know what your averages are? Dig deep into the details to understand what it takes to get your clients across the finish line.
Make the September switchup
Research from Pinterest shows that more folks are searching for healthy habit changes and goal-making in September than ever before, which is causing many life coaches and motivational speakers to call September the new January.
In a nutshell, therapists and experts say folks are more apt to make impactful changes in September than in January because they are not recovering from the numerous activities of the holidays.
That “back to school” and Back to Basics mindset is already prebuilt into our habits for this time of year, and it’s a great time to make intentional changes to work smarter — not harder. Blow up old mindsets, standards and expectations.
Craft new boundaries, and take control of your schedule instead of having others coach you into dated practices of the past. The biggest thing I can encourage all of you to do right now is to celebrate your successes of the year thus far, big or small. Generate a supernova of change, and prepare to thrive well before 2025 arrives.
Rachael Hite is a business development specialist, fair housing advocate, copy editor, and former agent. Rachael is currently perfecting her long game selling forever homes in a retirement community in Northern Virginia. You can connect with her about life, marketing and business on Instagram.
