Many agents have had the good luck or they did the hard work to be granted REO accounts. I have observed in a lot of cases the agent becomes so busy trying to handle a much larger supply of listing inventory, that they cease to prospect for any other type of business.
What happens when the well runs dry? Sure, the REO market could go strong for years, but this market will shift again. And then what? Are you going to be in a position to replace your full listing inventory the good old fashion way?
We can never stop doing the fundamentals of lead generation.
Where do agents commonly miss the mark? Here are just a few to think about:
1. Missing the boat on buyer leads. Not only are they losing money now, but they fail to "adopt the orphan buyers". The biggest complaint from the consumer is still lack of communication/follow up from their agent. By not capturing the buyers, the agent loses future business as well as now money.
2. Agents completely ignore the regular ol' residential resale side of the market. This is easy to do because the bulk of the business today is lender involved. However, there is a reason that successful businesses are built in a down market! In a down market, agents must master the basics and do enough of the right things (lead generation activities) to stay alive. They must do MORE of these activities than ever before, thus the mastery.
3. Agents are so busy scrambling that they do not work on their systems. They let their database go. They don't have time to bring talent into their life for leverage. Basically, they don't build their business to take them to the next level.
These are very common examples. What to do? Get your business plan out (if you "had time" to work on your business plan), and make sure you are doing more than putting all your eggs in the REO basket.
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