5 Things You Must Do to Prepare for a Housing Crash

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For the past couple of years, I’ve been predicting a housing crash, but I had no idea that a virus would be the cause. The housing market has been on a high, with interest rates at record-breaking historic lows.

In fact, Freddie Mac just reported last month that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages are lower than ever.

Life has been good for real estate agents, both new and seasoned. Veteran agents have likely experienced the previous recession and know what to expect.

But many Realtors® will not recover from this. They will move on to other career options as they can’t afford to continue paying astronomical desk fees and MLS dues.

Is a Housing Crash Eminent?

Realtor.com doesn’t seem to think so, but I beg to differ.

Mark my words: this recession will be far worse than the last one.

You have to be prepared to weather the storm.

We know it’s coming, so it’s time to board up the windows and hunker down.

As the real estate market slows down, there are things you can do to stay afloat.

1. Get Your Financial House in Order

Take a look at your own finances. Are you struggling to budget because you’re overextended with debt obligations weighing you down?

You know as well as I do that real estate is such a fickle industry. Some months you may earn $20,000 while others you earn $0.

It’s time to prepare as if you aren’t going to have a paycheck for a few months.

I’m not trying to be a “Negative Nancy”. I’m just offering the sober truth about what could possibly happen.

Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Action Steps:

• Save up 3-6 months of expenses in an emergency fund.
• Halt debt pay off and stockpile money.
• Resist the urge to take on new debt.
• Consider selling expensive cars (if you can no longer afford them).
• Trim the fat in your budget (get rid of unnecessary expenses).

Remember this won’t last forever, but you have the opportunity to change your financial situation for the better.

When we come out of this on the other side, you will be so thankful you hunkered down and did what was necessary to get your financial house in order!

If you need help putting together a budget, I offer 1:1 coaching. Schedule an appointment here. We can figure it out together!

You can also check out my Better Budget Blueprint course. The video modules offer solutions to help you build a better budget in 24 hours or less.

2. Consider a Virtual Real Estate Brokerage

There’s no denying that real estate brokerages are robbing Realtors® of so much money in the form of desk fees and transaction fees.

Some companies charge agents $1000-$2500 per month in desk and transaction fees. That’s not even counting their cut of your split.

And for that hefty fee, you might get a spot in the bullpen. Thanks, but no thanks.

For that reason, I switched to Real Broker, a virtual brokerage that offers real support, low fees, virtually no overhead, and I get to keep more of the profits.

There are a few different virtual brokerages. Do your research and see if switching makes sense.

3. Start a Real Estate Blog

Why don’t most real estate agents have a blog yet? Is it because they’re afraid of technology, or they don’t want to put in the work?

I’m not referring to your IDX website that your broker offers. Let’s be real. People are searching for homes on Zillow, like it or not.

You need your own real estate blog, branded to your business so that people can see you as an authority in your market.

Why Do You Need to Start a Real Estate Blog?

You can supplement your real estate income with blogging income.

This blog earns me about $4,000 per month on autopilot.

When I started ranking in Google, my affiliate marketing commissions really took off, and I am now earning a consistent income from articles I wrote months ago.

But before starting a blog, there are a few things you need to know (like how to choose the right blog host).

Related Articles:

• 5 Things You Need to Know Before Launching a Blog in 2020
• How to Start a Blog and Make Money Blogging
• Blog Hosting for $2.95/mo

You will establish yourself as an authority and build a following.

We all know that real estate seems to be a bit of a popularity contest. The agents who have a huge following tend to fare much better than those who kind-of mosey along.

Social media is so important, and when you learn how to utilize blogging, YouTube, Pinterest, and Facebook to increase your book of business, your career will start to take off.

Content Ideas for your New Blog and YouTube:

Here are some things you can do when business is slow to grow your sphere and online presence.

1. Compile a list of the different cities/markets you serve. These will be subheadings for your menus on your real estate blog. You can even take it a step further and break these communities down into subdivisions, uploading a copy of the covenants and HOA resources for each area.
2. Attach a GoPro to your bicycle or dash and take a stroll through some of your favorite subdivisions, showcasing the distance to the local library or park.
3. Interview school superintendents or principals, restaurant owners, and residents about life in your city or town.

All of the above examples could be shared on your YouTube channel with a link back to your blog. You could embed the videos in a blog post, and share to all of your social media accounts.

All content can be recycled and reused for different platforms. And Google owns YouTube, so they tend to show your site love when you interlink the two. Plus…you can monetize your YouTube channel as well!

Side Note: SEO is vitally important to a real estate agent’s success online. You need to rank for terms that buyers are searching for in order to get FREE leads. For this reason, I highly recommend Mike Pearson’s course Stupid Simple SEO.

4. Invest in Training

Continuing education is a requirement no matter what. Obviously you’ll want to keep up with CE during the slower months.

If you can invest in real estate or business coaching or training, you’ll be able to come up with innovative ideas to stay in business.

Then, when the market goes up, you’ll be in a much better position than so many others who will fail and walk away from real estate altogether.

5. Build Relationships with Financial Institutions

I’m going to use one of my real estate friends from Georgia as an example for this point.

She was new to the business in 2011, and foreclosures were poppin’ up like crazy.

She had the crazy idea to reach out to the local credit union and offer her services for foreclosures.

It worked, y’all. They brought her on as their top real estate partner, and she listed every single foreclosure property within the credit union for the next 2-3 years.

She became a top-selling agent and received many awards as a result.

You’re going to have to diversify your income and leads in 2020 and beyond, and the perfect way to do that is to build relationships with those banks and credit unions who make decisions in-house.

More listings mean more buyers, which in turn means more sales and more income.

Is your brain going a million miles a minute? I’ve given you a lot to think about.

I hope that if you take anything away from this post, you realize how important it is to invest in yourself and your brand.

Start your real estate blog with my Bluehost coupon here, and I’ll send you my free video training (showing behind-the-scenes of my own dashboard and how I structure articles to rank in Google).