Real Estate Business Planning [REVIEW BEFORE PLAN]
“A pattern is any distinctly organized sequence. Patterns occur everywhere in nature—the spiraling seeds of a sunflower, the hexagonal cells of a honeycomb, the circular ripples on a pond when a fish jumps, et cetera.”
“Okay. And codes?”
“Codes are special,” Langdon said, his tone rising. “Codes, by definition, must carry information. They must do more than simply form a pattern—codes must transmit data and convey meaning. Examples of codes include written language, musical notation, mathematical equations, computer language, and even simple symbols like the crucifix. All of these examples can transmit meaning or information in a way that spiraling sunflowers cannot.”
Origin, Dan Brown
In this article we’re going to cover:
Seasonal Real Estate Market Patterns
Economic Real Estate Patterns
Your own real estate production patterns
When we’re doing any kind of planning or goal setting if we’re not looking back, or reflecting we’re probably going to miss some critical information.
We want to look for patterns.
And see if those patterns mean anything.
The Myth of Always Looking Forward
We’ve all heard the metaphor of the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror because that’s where we should be looking.
It’s a nice metaphor for driving a car safely, but a silly idea for living life.
The past is where we can spot the patterns. Then try to figure out the meaning.
Let’s look back before we starting planning ahead.
Seasonal Real Estate Market Patterns
Does our real estate market have a seasonality to it?
Even if you’re in Hawaii or Florida, I bet there are ebbs and flows to the real estate market.
When I was selling real estate in Wisconsin, we always planned and projected our production based on a bell curve.
We planning on November, December, January and February, being slow. And account for May, June and July would be our peak.
If we would have planned all months the same, we would have been off on our budget. We would have overspent in the slow months. And not taken full advantage of opportunities in peak months.
Understand the pattern of the seasons, seeing the codes, helped us projecting, planning and budget accordingly. And that allowed us to capitalize.
Right place at the right time.
2. Economic Real Estate Patterns
What economic patterns are taking place?
Nationally? Policy? Interest rates?
Locally? What are governors and mayors doing?
What are large and small businesses doing? Hiring? Layoffs? Expansion?
Understanding what is taking place economically and how that impacts the real estate market, prices and your business is important.
3. Your Own Real Estate Production Patterns
Did you have some good months? Some bad months?
A pattern I noticed in our real estate business was every year we had 2-3 bad months, and 1-2 amazing months.
We could focus on trying to not let those bad months happen, and we can also account for it.
Do we know when they’re going to happen?
Not with 100% certainty, but we have a general idea.
The key is because we’ve accounted for it, we know it’s not the end of the world. It’s a part of the pattern.
And when we have the incredible months, we don’t act like we get to retire now. We don’t go buy private jets and pop the champagne. (Actually we do pop champagne bottles and celebrate a little bit. )
READY FOR MORE?
You can listen to a podcast or watch a video on business planning patterns where I go much more in-depth and I cover another idea of how to think about your business plan called, ‘Quarters.’
Or if want to work with me on not just planning, but strategy and implementing in your business, check out the different ways you can work with me here.
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