Find Your Post-COVID Real Estate Focus and Motivation Every Day!

Brad Sensenbach
Tierra Antigua Realty
520-544-2335
BradSensenbach@TierraAntigua.net

Action is what inspires motivation — so as you read this, keep in mind that our goal is to motivate you into taking action, not just passively absorbing and agreeing with us in principle. Remember, your next 12 months of production is determined right now. The pay cycle for most markets is measured in months, so if you’re not out there making contacts, setting up deals and making it all happen today, then you’re setting yourself up for some lean months in late summer/fall.

Don’t make the mistake of waiting until we can say: “covid is gone and the market is balanced.” Start now, stay ahead of the competition, and set up those future paychecks by the motivated efforts you put into it today.

Most people become agents because they:

• Want to be their own boss and have control of their schedule.
• Don’t want to be told what to do and when or how to do it.
• Want to be financially secure, if not rich.

The first two goals are easy, but this third one is the challenge, and it requires focusing on what you need to be doing on a regular basis to stay on track. Ask yourself if you want to be one of the 99.9 percent of agents who accomplish the first two things but never the third. Success is determined by these three things:

1. You must be willing to do what you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do it at the highest level. There are a lot things agents don’t like doing in real estate — lead follow-up, negotiating with difficult clients, prospecting expired listings, and so on. Your willingness to overcome those things — wake up early, go out there and do the absolute best you can — is what you need to do in order to be successful.

But wait, don’t you need passion to be successful? No! Nobody wakes up every day wanting to do all those things. Be passionate about what being successful in real estate does for you — financially, for your family, however you want to view it. You don’t need to be passionate about knocking on dozens of doors or cold calling into neighborhoods to find potential new Sellers — it would be kind of strange if you did, right? Well, it’s OK if you don’t have “built in” passion about real estate. Some people do; others don’t — do not sweat it. You can leverage what you’re already passionate about to inspire your career, but don’t wait for career passion before you take action to pursue your daily goals.

Remember, being your own boss is a blessing and a curse — since no one is looking over your shoulder, it means that you can slack off. The problem is you don’t have that “work or get fired” pressure that you’d have in another job. So there’s no extrinsic motivation to get going and keep going — you must be your own motivation. There’s a quote I love: “When wishing, move your feet.”

2. Embrace the fact that repetitious boredom pays off.Think about where your paycheck is coming from today — probably from the repetitious boredom that you were involved with three to six months ago. Cleaning up your database, following up with past clients, pursuing leads — that’s repetitious and can be really boring … but it pays off.

Remember that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but if you give up on those tasks, there is no light.

3. You must know your personal early warning signs.What are early warning signs? Here’s a quick analogy for you: Think about the way that a seismologist reviews the way the needle moves to measure earth tremors and predict possible earthquakes. It’s not a precise science, but it’s an excellent gauge of when things are getting out of control. You need to do the same thing.

So what are early warning signs? Well, keep in mind the sales and paycheck cycles for your area. How many contacts do you need to make per day to keep your pipeline full of inventory that eventually leads you to a paycheck? If you’re not making those contacts, then that’s an early warning that you’ll be in financial trouble in a few months.

Another warning sign is disregarding time management. Some symptoms might include sleeping in, slacking off, feeling burned out so you blow off your mornings, or even investing yourself in tasks that may feel like work but don’t actually lead to profits. Remember, there are only six things that lead you to a paycheck:

• Lead generation

• Lead follow-up
• Prequalifying
• Presenting (to buyers or sellers)
• Negotiating
• Closing

Another warning sign might be letting yourself go physically. Are you slacking on your exercise? Then you’re sliding out of your routine — and that should be a warning sign that you’re starting to go off-track.

Remember to stay on track by creating goals in these five areas of life:

• Financial
• Physical
• Spiritual
• Educational
• Family

Those are the main goal-oriented areas for most people’s lives. When you’re choosing minimum daily standards, try to start with these areas and decide what your standards are for each area. For instance, if you say that you’re going to exercise (physical) every day and you don’t, then that’s an early warning sign. If you say you’re going to read your children a bedtime story every night and you don’t — another early warning sign. Write down three to five items to check yourself against every day as your “daily minimum standards.” If you can’t meet those, then there’s an earthquake coming. 

So here we are in a market with low inventory and many frustrated buyers. Look at both and think: “how can I profit from this” Some ideas: 

• Focus on Owners/sellers, make a goal to knock on so many doors a day, make so many phone calls into neighborhoods, call past clients who have lived in their home you found for them for more than 7 years… they may be your next sellers! 
• Focus on Buyers: So where are those buyers coming from? Are you focusing your social media platforms in those areas? Are you setting yourself up as the “expert” in Tucson Real Estate in the eyes of those lookers form other states? 

Another favorite saying: “there are Real Estate transactions happening everyday” I JUST LOVE THAT! Keep that in mind and keep yourself motivated to go out there and do what it takes to make your next 12 months the best in your career to date!