PPPQ: peak performers power question:
How can I increase the value of my services to our customers today?
How can we increase the value of our services to our customers today?
Implication: rewards will be in direct proportion to your service to others.
Inspiration drives us, whereas motivation is a pulling force.
Peak performers think of it this way: Inspiration is something that you feel on the inside, while motivation is something from the outside that compels you to take action. Both are key to achieving goals.
Inspired or motivated the research has shown that we’re more committed to our goals when we understand their importance, value, and attain ability.
April is the month our industry remembers, celebrates, and recommits to Fair Housing.
Fair housing is more than a list of dos and don’ts, rights and penalties, and mandatory continuing education.
As stewards of the right to own, use and transfer private property, fair housing depends on a free, open market that embraces equal opportunity.
Join me in recognizing the significance of the Fair Housing Act and reconfirm a commitment to upholding fair housing law as well as a commitment to offering equal professional service to all in their search for real property.
Reflect. Repair. Renew. Because That’s Who We R®.
What’s happens in your business is a result of the things you habitually think and do.
The predictions of the real estate market have been about as accurate as the local weather forecast in areas without Doppler Radar.
Two headlines in real estate, really?!
Yes.
The summary? Solid demand with low inventory means fewer options for real estate buyers AND a tale of two markets.
In a recent WSJ article, Nicole Friedman wrote the United States is a country of two housing markets. In one, home prices are falling from a year ago. In the other, they’re still posting annual gains. That division runs right down the center of the U.S. She listed – with data from Black Knight – the top 10 markets with the largest price increases between February 2020 and January 2023:
Nicole’s article points out that real estate markets are hyper-local and geography-specific. According to Michael Simonsen from Altos Research, we continue to see a seller’s market across the US. You can see the National numbers – on this link – and type in your own zip code for a local view.
In looking at this week’s Altos data, the top 10 markets with the most listings absorbed – it’s a Texas sweep:
I observed this week on a National basis another 1% drop in inventory for sale at a time when inventory is typically rising by 1% or more each week. This, in my view, is a leading indicator of a supply-constrained market for the Spring buying season. Many homeowners have a current mortgage rate below 4%, and many don’t want to sell their current rate and pay a higher rate for a different house.
Implication? It’s going to be a great time for remodeling contractors.
Many homeowners are also sitting on large cushions of equity, and the institutional investors show no sign of liquidating inventory, which is likely to prevent any big wave of foreclosures and distressed sales.
In many markets across the US, housing demand is high enough for sellers to command pricing. In fact, the latest percentage of listed homes with a price decline dropped this week to 30.5% when just a month ago, it was nearly 40%. Investors and buyers who were sitting on the fence missed an opportunity back in November and December.
In other news, according to Altos, the median price of a new listing his week rose to $437,500 across the US, while the median rent was $2,250. The headlines will be hard to interpret as some are comparing to last year’s unprecedented price increases. The data shows increasing prices on a National basis but not near the pace of last year. My view? The unprecedented rise in mortgage rates has softened demand but not enough to balance the market.
The solution? Building, renovation, and conversation of mall and unused office space for residential use. The issue, according to Nicole, is Home builders have been hampered by supply-chain issues and labor shortages. Yet, Jonathan Lanser, a real estate and business journalist for the Orange County Register, recently reported that new home builders gained 2.8% in market share. Yet is it enough? I say no. It seems to me from a National, Regional, and local City perspective, we need to address housing policy to place this vital sector of the US economy in a position to enable the American dream vs. destroying it.
Part of the peak performer playbook (PPP):
25% of the year is over… it’s time for a quarterly business and operations review! Is it scheduled? I have a powerful 21 question business review – [email protected]
Are you ahead, behind or on track with your goals? In any case “declare it perfect and move forward powerfully.”
Review what’s working, what’s not. Make the adjustments, and keep moving forward.
Basic agenda:
The results will happen – as long as we are all willing to execute the daily activities, track the results, make the changes to the behaviors and engage an accountability partner.
Are you nterested or committed to what’s left of this year?
The problem with the traditional to-do list is that it’s about tasks and not about outcomes.
An outcome could be something like: “increase revenue by 25%” or “build a relationship with specific people.”
There is no single task that will cause the outcome. There is arguably a set of tasks that could build up to it.
Concrete, measurable outcomes are better than vague ones, but some highly desirable outcomes can only be qualitatively stated (like relationships) and cannot be quantified (like the number of appointments).
So for myself, I am working to get better at linking my daily tasks to the outcome via process goals. More importantly, I am also trying to nail down this art of defining the process that leads to the desired outcome.
For you, that might be 3 or more NEW appointments each week. So I’d rather see something like this:
What are your key outcomes and associated processes for this week?
#WinTheDay
Unproductive busyness, bad for you… bad for your business.
Parkinson’s law:
Work increases to fill the time available.
Pareto (80/20):
Extra time fills with unimportant activities.
The solution?
Ask yourself – How would you get your work done tomorrow if:
You only had 2 hours per day to complete it?
You only had 2 hours per week to complete it?
Then, write down only 2 mission critical items and test by asking:
Would I be satisfied with my day if only that happened?
What are the consequences if they don’t?
Complete those tasks by 11 AM the next day.
Don’t multitask.
#WinTheDay
Information in the hands of everyone can be a powerful thing and rocket fuel for innovation.
Yet, focus and discernment has never been more important. According to Domo’s Data Never Sleeps 10.0 report, the total amount of data predicted to be created, captured, copied, and consumed globally in 2022 was 97 zettabytes*, a number projected to grow to 181 zettabytes by 2025.
Over the last 10 years – image and video platforms – Instagram and YouTube have created the most exponential growth. The least? eMail.
Every MINUTE of the day:
Everyday:
Understanding the implications to your business, along with focus and discernment, has never been more important.
* A zettabyte is a measure of storage capacity and is 2 to the 70th power bytes, also expressed as 1021 (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes) or 1 sextillion bytes. One Zettabyte is approximately equal to a thousand Exabytes, a billion Terabytes, or a trillion Gigabytes. Do the math – old math or new math; that’s a lot of data.