Buyer & Seller 2016 Goals
Yes, it’s that time of the year when we take time to set our 2016 goals. Some of us put those goals in writing and many of us keep the goals in our heads. The truth about goal setting is if you write them down you are more likely to reach that goal. Forbes has a great study on goal setting from Harvard’s MBA program. If you don’t know where you are going how will you get there? If you don’t know how many listings or buyers you want in 2016, how will you know how much work is involved to reach your monthly goals? Putting your goals in writing helps you put together a marketing plan, lead generation plan and a plan to get paid.
Let’s Begin With Clear Transaction Goals
- How many transactions do you want in 2016?
- Divide that number by 12 months. That’s how many transactions you’ll need each month. However, you might have more transactions during Spring or based on your specific market place.
- How many buyers will be a part of those transactions?
- How many listings will be a part of those transactions?
- What is your target price point? (advanced tip)
Once you have these numbers you will then need to determine how many buyers and sellers you will actually attract each month. 
- If you are a seasoned agent look at your 2015 transactions – which months were you busier months? Buyers and Sellers
- Which months did you have more listings or buyers? This could change every year.
- If you are a new agent or an agent seeking to re-build a business look at transaction history for the cities you work in? If January is a slow month you may not have many transactions. If March is a busy month you may have more clients during that month or during the Spring Market place.
Keep it simple. Your year might look like this:
|
Buyers
|
Sellers
|
|
|
January
|
1
|
2
|
|
February
|
2
|
2
|
|
March
|
0
|
3
|
|
April
|
2
|
4
|
|
May
|
2
|
4
|
|
June
|
1
|
3
|
|
July
|
1
|
2
|
|
August
|
1
|
0
|
|
September
|
1
|
2
|
|
October
|
1
|
0
|
|
November
|
1
|
1
|
|
December
|
0
|
1
|
If you are re-building your real estate business or a new agent select the cities you desire to target. Look at data from 2015 then search for New listings per month, Total Active listings per month and Total Closed Listings per month. When you have these totals you’ll know which months you’ll have higher lead generation opportunities. (review the example below)
Research Example – Naperville 2015 Stats: Naperville, Illinois based on 2015 Data
In January 2015 for the city of Naperville, there were 782 homes for sale and out of that 314 homes were NEW on the market. Of the homes that were on the market 119 homes sold in January. When we think of buying and selling most agents focus on the Spring and Summer months. Sellers also think of selling in the Spring for many different reasons. The most popular reason for why sellers put their homes on the marketing in Spring is that kids are likely to be out of school during the move. When we look at the InfoGraphic below we can view that there are less homes on the Market in January, February, March, October, November & December. Therefore, when goal setting for the city of Naperville an agent will have higher goals from April to September.
Setting specific goals for your transactions is up to you. I challenge you to write down your 2016 listing and buyer goals by month. If you would like my “Free Google Sheet” Click to Request it NOW! Then check your email for the download.
Share your transaction goals for the year with me on Twitter @CarrieJLittle or on Facebook at Smart Girl Media. Don’t forget to join me on Periscope.tv/CarrieJoLittle for my live broadcast.
Source – InfoSparks stats from ConnectMLS. January 2, 2015
