INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH

International Business Analysis And Research

International Business Analysis and Research

Business planning is often the last thing Realtors® want to do, because it is a complicated, lengthy and often painful process. However, there is little value attached to your dreams if they only stay in your head. For a good real estate business plan to be successful, daily actions need to echo the written word, which in turn echoes the dream or vision underpinning the plan. In the daily competition for sales and market share, the race belongs to the agent who knows his or her goals and exactly how to achieve them. (Pickton and Broderick, 2001, 145)

Success is attainable if your plan has been well thought out, written down, researched, debated and shared with your team. Whether you're a one-person operation, a midsize company or a mega-company, your real estate business plan requires continuity, dedication, focus and follow-through.

To initiate a business plan for your real estate business, you need to map out your objectives. You must determine where you're going, where you're playing, who you're up against and what your role is within the bigger picture. This will help you maintain a clear focus.  When you begin to write your real estate business plan you can refer back to this document to see whether it still satisfies your objectives. Ask yourself the following six questions:Where is your specialty going to reside; residential, commercial, resale, new construction, single family homes or apartments? These choices may overlap because you can participate in more than one market type. (Pickton and Broderick, 2001, 145)

Now that you know what market you're in, what is your territory … the whole state, the county, a city, town or neighborhood? Specifically identifying an area will help you later to establish your goals and objectives.

Now that you've pinpointed your market, you need to obtain the specific market details.  You need to determine market size, recent growth, number of annual sales, home prices, and average home prices. You must know every detail of your market

It is a good strategy to know your competitors. Are they national real estate franchise brands or well-established regional or local real estate firms? How long have they been in your market? Is their market share growing, stabilized or declining? How aggressive or progressive are they? What are the strengths and weaknesses of their management?

Some business planning courses like referring to this exercise as the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). It's important to examine your real estate firm's structure in order to determine how to use your strengths to your advantage. This requires an objective assessment from you, your partners and the brokerage (team or individual practice) as a whole. Anything less than total honesty will hinder future success. (Hofstede,1996, 189-198)

If you're happy with what you and where you are, then internal change may not be necessary. But if you think that the changing economy or the introduction of e-commerce may change the real estate paradigm, you should realize that ...