If there's one thing that gets under my skin, it's the media's representation of the market as though it's this entity with a life of its own that is out of our control. Many agents get sucked into this mentality and allow their success to be dictated by an "up market" or a "down market."

If you feel yourself getting sucked into this mentality, I have one word for you: Think.

Don't take what you're told for face value when it comes to the uncertainty of the market. Yes, there are factors that are out of your control, but if you are setting yourself up with a centralized database (and there are many, including Sharper Agent, Top Producer and Agent Office), continuously adding to it and maintaining contact with those people through the processes we have available to us now, you will endure through tough market conditions.

No matter how much you plan ahead, market fluctuations will have an impact on your revenue stream, and I don't mean to make it sound easy to keep it together when market conditions are tougher. It isn't.

But don't let anyone get you in the mindset that you have no control, either. Check your current systems, check your results, and make the changes you need to make. You need people in your database to generate opportunities. 150 seems to be the number I encounter with the most regularity (I'm not sure why that is), and that's just not even close to being enough to generate the closings you need. If your database is small and you're not generating enough transactions, it's time to prospect.

You're not just in the business of real estate now, you're also repairing the damaged integrity of the real estate business.

Today's consumer is not so quick to trust anyone anymore because that trust has many of them facing foreclosure on their homes they bought for an overinflated price. It took human beings to make the decisions that inflated home values beyond reason. It wasn't "the market." It was human beings getting greedy, period. That includes some homeowners, too. And if you're an ethical real estate or mortgage pro reading this, you know I'm not talking about you.

I was on a call Friday with an agent who has to tell the owners of a small condo they paid $161,000 for just 2 or 3 years ago that it's now worth $60,000. Yep. And how did situations like this happen? "The Market" is not a lifeless entity.

Think.

Published: May 13, 2009

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Mark was born in left field and continues to live there. He's the Internet Marketing & Strategy Consultant for clients at GetMyHomesValue.com and he has have a coaching blog on ActiveRain, which is gaining in popularity. Mark believes that technology has really brought business full circle back to its roots... people helping people, and this is the basis for his coaching. He is also currently writing his first book, set to be completed by the end of the summer.