How to Build a Real Estate Business Plan — And Why You Should

It’s easy to de-prioritize business planning as a real estate agent. It’s also easy to create a plan and then never follow it. Maybe you even pat yourself on the back for getting one or two things crossed off! 

That being said, the first pillar of sustained success in my own real estate business was planning. It’s the ugliest pillar of all and it’s the one none of us want to do. 

We treat it as a “nice to have” but that ends here.

Planning is not extra. It’s essential.

Business planning is more important to real estate agents than ever before.

One of the biggest changes I’ve seen in the industry is that it’s no longer a game of luck. Sure, the market has changed, but human nature has changed even more over the past year. There is a lot more uncertainty and judgement — and for good reason. As real estate agents, that means we need to be even more prepared.You should have a plan for every single objection and reaction possible. It’s never been more important.

My personal planning model is built for execution.The business plans you’ve tried were probably built over a lengthy period of time. Right? Maybe you used a monthly or 90-day business plan template.When my business truly changed was when I decided to write my own rules around business planning. And the good news is that you can, too. For me, the problem with a 90-day business plan was that I was planning for things that I didn’t know were going to happen. I wouldn’t do what I said I was going to do over week one, and then the rest of the plan would be totally irrelevant. I loved making big long lists of things I wanted to do, but then I would only do 20% of it. My biggest challenge wasn’t the planning, but the execution.

I WAS that person patting myself on the back for doing 20% of what I said I would do, and then acting surprised when my business wasn’t growing. So I made a change. I started using a one-week business plan. With the market changing weekly (which is even more relevant today!), a weekly plan made a heck of a lot more sense

Here’s my one week real estate business plan template:

My business planning sessions happened every Sunday night alongside my assistant, and the entire plan was set to be completed by Friday afternoon.

These sessions were not about listing out my must-do tasks, but uncovering specific actions that would grow the business. 

For example, we’d identify a price reduction that needed to happen for a listing to sell. If we were planning to get marketing printed Friday, we’d need that price reduction by Wednesday. So there was our action — get a price reduction by Wednesday at 12 pm — which means schedule a client call or in-person meeting by Monday. 

You can start by identifying 4-5 actions that will turn into business. If you are trying to get more listings, you might want to aim to have two listing appointments every day Monday through Friday. Sounds hard, right? Then make that your only plan for the week! Even if they are clients who aren’t looking to sell immediately, you’ve still made your impact and lined them up as business for 6-12 months out. 

Every action on your plan should have a date and time specified. And if you start with everything due Friday afternoon — STOP — and redo it. No one is going to spend their Friday afternoon working their tail off. Don’t kid yourself!

Another example of a business planning ‘win’ in my own business was rethinking the title of my assistant. At the time, we were doing 60 transactions a month and identified that clients were unwilling to ask him questions he was qualified to answer. His time was not being used effectively and mine was being overused. By changing his title to Operations Manager, clients were suddenly much more willing to work with him directly and my time was freed up to focus on growing the business.

Never underestimate the power of a planning session. Now it’s time to review and improve your business plan.