With the new year around the corner, now’s the time to look back on your brokerage’s year and see what worked, what didn’t—and what you want to adapt for next year’s strategies.
In any business, it can be tricky to spot where things might need a little extra support, and that’s especially true for real estate. After all, your agents, in many ways, act like independent contractors—working to reach their own goals that happen to line up with yours.
So how do you spot the likeliest problem areas in your brokerage?
Watch your processes.
Real estate involves a lot of paperwork, and it has to be done just right for it to go through. Miss one microscopic step in the process, and it can slow you down. It can even ripple down to clients.
How your brokerage manages all the steps of a deal defines how effectively the deal gets done. So if a process is creating headaches and slowdowns on these steps, that translates into problems for the brokerage overall.
Is it a problem for your brokerage?
Look over your deals from the past year. How many deadlines got missed, even if it wasn’t by much? Did you struggle to keep up with file review? Were your admins swamped at any point in the year?
This can help you identify whether you need to adjust any of your processes, or even adapt them for seasonality.
Pro tip: Set, maintain, and perfect your brokerage’s processes with Broker Cloud. Here’s how.
Know your market.
You might read that and say, well, I do know my market. That’s why we’re in it. But the thing is, every real estate market is subject to wild fluctuations based on outside factors, and by the time you catch up to a change, it might be hard for your business to catch up too.
How well you can foresee these changes—and adapt to them when they happen—is something many brokerages struggle with.
Is it a problem for your brokerage?
Think about the major shifts your market saw in the past year. Did any of them catch you or your agents by surprise? Did they have unexpected ripple effects that you suspect left you falling behind the competition?
This can help you identify the way your brokerage currently pivots to keep up with shifts, which can help you spot any trouble areas you faced this year.
Need help seeing market shifts and preparing your brokerage for them? See what BrokerMetrics can do for you.
Audit-proof your files.
New year, new tax season. Audits are always a concern for brokerages this time of year, especially since the more your entire business made, the more likely it is you’ll get a knock on the door. And if any part of a deal isn’t perfectly up to snuff, it can quickly become a headache for you, your admins, and even the agent involved.
The trick here is to be aware of what’s required, and make sure you keep paper trails properly organized and tracked.
Is it a problem for your brokerage?
Audit preparation can only really be done a year in advance, and it takes constant vigilance all year long. At any point this year, did you note a missing form or signature? Do you know where every cent went? Can you reliably report on every receivable and payable going through your G/L?
This can help you identify where you may need to double back and double check for the 2022 tax year—and spot where you may need a little extra monitoring for next year’s audit season.
Get all your accounting in order with our year-end services, and know you’re ready for next year with Back Office.
It’s never easy finding and addressing the problem areas in any business, but it can make a world of difference for your brokerage, your admins, and your agents into 2023. With this quick guide to the most common issues, you’ll be able to spot any areas that need your help for next year’s strategies.
