Growing During the Storm

by | Feb 24, 2023

Quick history lesson today.

Between 2005 and 2011, the real estate industry experienced a monstrous recession.

During that period, real estate sales volume fell from over $2 trillion/year to just under $1 trillion/year. If the same percentage of GDP decline would have happened across the whole economy, economists would have classified it as a depression.

Remarkably, 379 of the Real Trends 500 companies (75%) survived this multi-year recession—most of them hanging on by their fingernails.

But what’s even more remarkable is that 17 of these companies not only survived but grew substantially during this period of time.

In what way did they grow?

On average, these outliers increased their agent counts by 88%, increased their number of sides by 134%, and increased their per person productivity by 22% during the six-year recession.

Who are these companies?  How did they buck the trend so successfully?

Shortly after the recession, Steve Murray, founder of Real Trends, tracked down the leaders of these organizations, studied their performance, and wrote a short e-book on how they prospered during the worst of times.

This weekend, I encourage you to download Steve’s e-book (Against All Odds) and see what you can learn about growing during difficult times.

The prognosticators are telling us 2023 is going to be a difficult year for the real estate industry.

It’s the perfect time to be an outlier.

The Simple Psychology of Real Estate Recruiting [2nd Edition]

Unlock the secrets of effective real estate recruiting. Revised to include actionable frameworks for sharper execution and to help you turn psychological theory into a repeatable recruiting system.

The Attrition Variables

The Attrition Variables

While these attrition constants still have the greatest influence, there are some emerging attrition variables worth noting. People also tend to leave companies when: They feel like they’re not doing as well as others in their peer group outside the company. They feel like they’re not as far along as they should be at a certain point in life.

The Attrition Constants

The Attrition Constants

If you’re not focusing most of your retention effort on these issues, you’ll miss the mark. If you’re not focusing most of your recruiting effort on exploiting these weaknesses among your competitors, you’re missing the best opportunities.

The Persistence Mindset

The Persistence Mindset

A leader equipped with this mindset can have a profound effect on the life and career of each individual they engage. It works because an agent is getting a real-time glimpse of what it would be like to work on your team. But it only becomes believable when it is persistently applied over time.