What do Real Estate Professionals do on Their Christmas Break?

Many real estate professionals see a slowing down in the industry over the holidays.  This is because a lot of their consumers are taking a break until Christmas has passed.  Does this mean that the real estate agent, property manager, or any other real estate professional’s work should take a break?  You probably shouldn’t let yourself slide.  If you’re spending over a week this Christmas without thinking about and planning for 2015, I can assure you that your competitors are getting a leg up on you.

Admittedly, you also will need to recharge your batteries after the long year.  As a real estate professional, your life is in constant motion.  That is why I will be suggesting some non-intrusive things that you can be working on while you’re sitting relaxing this holiday on a warm sofa.

Ask Yourself and Answer Some Basic Questions

A Christmas break is a great time to reflect on the previous year.  What were three of your biggest successes?  How can you go about replicating those successes?  On the other side, what were three of your biggest failures?  How can you avoid those mistakes moving into 2015?

Learn New Skills

Maybe the best thing you can be doing for yourself this holiday season is reading up on something special that will give you a leg up in your career moving forward.  Simple research online like in Forbes, Inman, or Business Insider is OK, but getting a niche book from Barnes and Nobles and reading it on the plane is better.  You don’t need to read the entire book either.  Get straight to the heart of the matter following key points in the table of contents.  Highlight and bookmark for future reference when you get back to the office.

Observe Your Competitors

You have ample opportunity to observe what the competition has been doing to get to its target consumer.  It’s super easy to take a look at a few websites and learn about what they do.  Dive deep into this.  Make a list of things that make your companies similar to one another and more importantly find key differences between them.  Ask yourself, why are their services packaged the way that they are?  Who are their target consumers?  Maybe they’re different than yours!  You do not necessarily want to be the same as your competitor.  In most cases, you’re looking for a way to spin what they are doing so that your target consumer has a slightly different profile than they do.

Organize a Task List for January

Many people think of things they haven’t thought about in a while because they have been so engrossed in doing their work.  These weren’t high priority tasks, but with a little research and preparation, these half-baked ideas have the potential to do wonders for your business.  If you don’t write these items down over the holidays as they come to you in this off period, they may be lost forever.  Add them one by one into a list so that you can address them the day you get back before high priority tasks take over again.

Read up on the Real Estate Market

You never can have too much information about the changes and needs of your niche market.  At the very least, you should have an RSS feed of relevant news in your industry that you’re reading to ensure you haven’t made a big mistake in the market entering January.

As an example, over the past year of 2014, large investors in Los Angeles have been investing substantially more in homes and estates.  This has increased the price of home ownership substantially; reducing demand for homes for the average consumer and increasing their demand for rent.  The realtor might conclude from this situation it’s time to shift some of the target demographic for homebuyers.  The leasing agent/property manager for an apartment complex might conclude it’s time to raise the rent in response to the increased demand for apartments.  The developer might race to creating more apartment complexes to meet apartment demand.  Commercial real estate agents may fiercely compete for multifamily deals, knowing that if they can get seller of multifamily they will be able to sell at a high bidding price.  No matter what you are doing in real estate, a small piece of news can have a profound impact on how you conduct business and prioritize your goals.

Conclusion

If you do even one of these things over the holiday season before January, you’re doing yourself a huge favor for the next year.  You will always be a step ahead of some of your peers or at least on par with others.  Have a happy holiday season!