If you were already a Broker in 2012, you watched live the market changes that are very likely to come and if that happened, you know from the experience of your mistakes or successes what you have to do to be preparedright? But there’s nothing like sharing the main lessons learned from our real estate market experiences to ensure that you can have everything under control and navigate another market cycle that, in fact, no one ever knows how it will turn out, but they know that it will happen, sooner or later.Some tips from the INMAM blog and from my experience of more than 10 years as COO who accompanied many Brokers in various scenarios:Very important: run your business and remember, mostly, your business is a people business. Assess what you are doing well and what could be hidden inefficiencies or areas to adapt to more or less positive scenarios; be more efficient. And this may mean fewer agents, but agents capable of adapting to any market situation;Assess your costs assertively and strategic. Where can you cut without weakening the core of your business to ensure greater profit margins? Change your follow-up strategy from your BD or CDI to a more long-term strategy, deepen your contacts and what will be the trend of behaviors and next steps. If the market pauses, you will be aligned to help your potential customer. The most important thing is be aware and oriented to what you have to do. And the hardest thing is to do it. But if you want to make sure you stay in this market to later tell your story, start by knowing what to do step by step. Read also: Get ready to make a foolproof home purchase proposal
Step 1 – Consolidate your technology
take a step back, assess the tools and needs of your people and teams and gain efficiencies by discovering where you can save and figuring out which tools to use that can give you the essentials your agents need to be highly productive. Sometimes, instead of having more than 5 or 6 softwares, you can gather everything in less solutions with great cost control. Fewer solutions don’t mean worse technology, bet on all-in-one efficiency, not price because time is money. Talk to your people to find out what they value in the tools they have and what they miss, talk to your technology partners, Evaluate what is on the market.Also read: Who buys more houses in Portugal?
Step 2 – Prepare for a business with fewer agents
In a market scenario where the demand for a house tends to decrease, everyone who has been here for more than 10 years knows that one of the consequences is the exodus of agents who simply cannot adapt and invoice.Reflect on this scenario and answer the following question: Can your business survive with half the agents it has today? It is imperative to look at its structure and equip productive agents with the best system, the best technology and the best training and education so that they are even more productive tomorrow.
Step 3 – Back to Basics, Back to Basics of the Mediation Business
If leads drop today easily, you have to be prepared to know what to do if they don’t tomorrow. AND buying poorly qualified leads at a high price is certainly not the way to go. Prepare your agents to focus on your database and on multichannel lead capture, train them to know how to attract, nurture, arrive first, qualify and raise. Look for a CRM with a high degree of automation and customization and help your agents focus on what they do best: build relationships. Read more: Real Estate: Is it time to sell?
step 4 – It’s not just agents who have to adapt.
As the market changes, many agents can move to a team model where they can find a closer and more adapted support and this model being the model that tends to dominate the future of mediation, know what to do to be prepared for this business model? Your mindset, your training, your support for the business and the people who make it up, Are you more prepared for teams or individual agents?If you know what the trend will be, don’t turn your head, look ahead, learn to adapt, know what you have to do and do it so that later you can share your experience of what went wrong and what went well. .And remember, the important thing in the future is to be here to tell your story!Read also: Risks in leveraging real estate investments 
“Real estate is my life and my life is dealing with people.” Living in Lisbon and working in Portugal, Spain and Italy, Massimo Forte is above all passionate about real estate, a business that he considers to be for people for people. With more than 25 years of experience in the largest real estate companies, today he is dedicated to consulting, training and knowledge sharing as one of the largest Real Estate Influencers in Portugal.