Many pregnant women and moms of young babies start to think about finding a career that will bring them the opportunity of decent money while also being flexible enough to allow for spending time with the baby. And real estate seems to combine that potential for large commission checks with a flexible schedule. But can you really juggle the demands of motherhood and a real estate business?

If you are pregnant or just had a baby, you’re in luck! It’s a great time to start a real estate business. While pregnant, you have some time to devote to your licensing education and finding a broker. By the time you have your baby, you’re all set to start looking for clients.

But if you have a young baby (or two), you’re still in luck! Most normal human beings LOVE babies. Especially cute babies who aren’t too fussy. If you have a baby who is not walking yet then you have a marketing strategy wrapped up in a baby blanket!

Once the licensing is out of the way and you’ve found a broker, you can hit the ground running and start finding clients. You can easily find clients with your baby in tow, from the mall to the grocery store to Mommy groups. So some of your prospecting can be done while you’re just doing your day-to-day Mommy routine. And you can also take your little one to the real estate broker’s office on those days where you need to drop off paperwork, make copies or perform other office duties.

Once you start working with clients, you can’t get away with taking a baby to every single appointment. Especially on buyer appointments where you are showing multiple properties, it may get a bit arduous to lug a baby with you while opening lockboxes, pulling out keys, opening doors and showing homes that you may not have ever walked through before.

Not to mention that a really cute baby can sometimes be the wrong distraction…you want your clients to buy a home, not drool over how cute your child is. So you have to use your common sense as to when you can include your baby in any aspect of your real estate business.

In these instances, you’ll want to have someone lined up to watch your baby. If you have family or a friend close by who can watch your baby on short notice, that’s ideal. But if you need to make other arrangements, then plan ahead. You need to know what you will do when you have that demanding client who needs to meet you on short notice.

Baby naptimes are a great time for you to prospect for new real estate clients or make phone calls to your current clients. You can research online, create marketing materials, return emails and more.

Can real estate be a great business for mommies of young babies? Most definitely! Much of your real estate business can be worked on with your baby along for the ride. Few other industries are as Mommy-friendly as real estate.

PROSPECTING FOR COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE LISTINGS

Commercial Retail and Industrial Listings

Any Real Estate Agent or Broker who wishes to have a successful career in commercial and industrial real estate must regularly obtain marketable listings. Listings are the agents “stock on the shelf” and your income now and in the future depends on the quality as well as the quantity of the listings that you obtain. The more listings that you have the more buyers and tenants you will attract. This makes the deals all that more easy for you. More listings mean that you dominate your market and lessen the impact of your competition.

In the commercial and industrial property, listings commonly may include:

• Land that is suitable for commercial, industrial or retail development
• Commercial, industrial and retail buildings that are for lease
• Businesses that occupy premises from which they serve and supply their markets
• Commercial, industrial and retail buildings that are for sale to owner occupiers or investors both large and small

Developing a Client Base

The secret of success in commercial and industrial real estate is to have your own client base. Those clients who work comfortably with you and who respond positively to your advice in relation to their real estate requirements are the clients you need to develop. As it is the clients who pay your fees, and not the tenants or buyers, they are very important people in your business life and it is essential that you represent yourself strongly to them at all times. As these people and organisations readjust their property portfolios to meet their emerging real estate requirements, they will continue to provide you with listings. In addition, if they are satisfied clients they will refer you to other business leaders, friends and family, and so provide you with more business.

Knowing the Real Estate Market

To provide effective advice to prospective clients it is essential that you know the market – commercial, industrial or retail – that you are involved in and that you have detailed knowledge of the geographical area in which you operate. To do this effectively you will need to:

• Canvass your territory constantly according to a plan and become well known to businesses and people in the area
• Know every property that is for sale or lease in your territory
• Maintain a list of property transactions that occur and have occurred in the last 3 years
• Keep an eye out for private transactions by property owners
• Involve the management of your office and other team members with what you are doing
• In addition, you should understand the factors that motivate companies in your area to move to other space, and you should be aware of the forces that encourage investors to buy and sell in your area or precinct.

WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL AGENT OR BROKER?

So what makes a successful agent or broker from the client’s perspective, and someone that the client wants to do business with and through? It is an interesting question to ask from a clients perspective, but history shows that the factors which stand out as being of prime importance to clients are the agent’s knowledge of the market and the quality of the advice given. The negotiating skills of the agent and the ability to act quickly are also important and rank highly. Adherence to client instruction, property marketing skills and confidentiality were seen to be of slightly lesser importance.

It is clear from this analysis that the factors which are going to have a vital influence on the successful listing of a client’s property are knowledge of the market and the quality of advice. Owners are looking for agents and brokers who know the marketplace and have readily available records information about companies and investors that are looking to make immediate decisions on properties they require, own, or occupy. Your clients want an agent who will immediately bring a listed property to the attention of such people.

So, at the point of listing, being able to communicate effectively with the owner about the commercial and industrial market place and the prospects that are available on your database could certainly lead to a successful relationship and hopefully an ongoing one.

PROSPECTING FOR LISTINGS

Where do you find new listings and how do you go about converting them? This list may help. As you get to know your clients and the geographical area of the market in which you operate, opportunities for obtaining listings will present themselves. For example:

• Real Estate Transactions. The successful conclusion of any real estate transaction in your region implies that both buyer and seller may be looking for other options. Avail yourself of these opportunities.
• Liquidation. A failed business is a prime target for agency activity.
• Vacant Buildings. Be conscious of any buildings that become vacant or derelict as these represent business opportunities.
• Intermediaries. Maintain close association with the intermediaries of the real estate business. Intermediaries include such people as financiers, bankers, insurers, builders, architects, engineers, lawyers and accountants. Their clients will at times require the services of real estate agents and a recommendation from these people is invaluable. You, in turn, can introduce your clients to such intermediaries and sound business relationships which benefit both parties are established and maintained in this way.
• Newspaper Articles. Articles that are prepared by you or in which you are quoted, bring your name or your firm’s name to the attention of the public.
• Direct Mailing. The regular mailing of letters that canvass for properties, when sent to a suitable group of possible investors or property owners, frequently result in listings.
• Private Advertisements. These can indicate properties that are on the market and the owners may be encouraged to employ your services if initial advertisements have not been successful.
• Developers/Builders
• Neighbours in immediate area
• Property Managements (Rent Roll)
• Entrepreneurial Activity
• Previous Vendors & Purchasers

Identifying Ownership

When you discover a property that you feel could provide a business or listing opportunity, it is necessary to identify the owner. The following avenues can often provide this information.

• Your own office (In each agency there is substantial information from previous transactions and property ownership which can be consulted).
• Local Government Records
• Land Title Information
• Electoral Rolls
• The Telephone Directory (including the Yellow Pages in the case of businesses)

Further to this there are many other sources of information to be used when identifying owners. These are:

• Property ownership lists
• Historic Lands Sales Records
• Use other agents signboards as a reason to talk to adjacent owners in the locale
• Commercial property is transacted to a cycle of investment and history shows that it is about every 5 years. Look at the old sales records in your area for the next cycle of potential sales.
• Tenants will usually tell you the property owner if you ask
• Directory boards in buildings are a great source of leasing intelligence
• Business Telephone Lists and CEO contact names
• Stock Exchange Information and updates
• Company Searches for large businesses in your area
• Newspaper Stories & Articles
• Be willing to dare and try something new

To undertake this process you must be diligent and thorough in your activities so that you do not leave any ‘stone unturned’. Nothing is more frustrating that another agent’s sale or lease signboard appearing in your territory that you just covered last week.

The above information may seem logical; however it is commonly overlooked or not acted upon in most cases, given that many salespeople do not have the personal and sustained discipline needed for the task. The best commercial real estate agents and brokers use this model as their source of listing opportunity.

In closing we should say that this prospecting process does require a good database program to record and channel your ongoing findings. The value of a good database program is high in list of tools of a professional agent or broker working on commercial real estate. Good hunting!

None can deny the necessity of mobile apps in our lives. While no business sector has remained aloof from the rage of mobile app development, it is on-demand services, food and retail, and core industry like real-estate which got more share of the pie. Yes, it’s also the retail property businesses that got more benefits in sales after the app revolution and saw their revenue growing high. In regards to this, here is a complete guide on how to make your own real-estate dealings mobile with a useful app.

Trends observed in property purchases

-Most buyers first sneak through the web or online portals to search for property searches before going for other sources like paper advertisements, referrals, etc.

-Millennials rely more on online search for nitty-gritty details or information about a property

-People like to hunt for properties online because they can see a large number of properties.

Types of Real-estate app solutions

-Online property search application

-Property booking solution

-App solution for renting apartments

-Property management solution for owners

While these are the specific apps that can help real-estate business owners as well as buyers, let’s take a look at the key features that an app meant to help rent and property seekers should have.

Direct marketing method

The app should have a direct approach to marketing to promote the properties held by the property owner. The app would list the properties in a fancy manner with location, prices, property aspects, surrounding amenities, landmark, and other related information. In short, the app should be able to showcase all properties in a complacent and clarified manner so that buyers can know every minute thing about a property and can take the decision to choose one smoothly.

Support for location-tracking

Mobile users have been so used to the aspect of GPS or Global Positioning System to navigate here and here that you need to sync your real-estate mobile app to the Google Map to help the property seekers. Integrating the app with geolocation will readily help the buyers to land on the phone’s Google map to know the exact route and convenient mode of transport to the property’s location.

Easy-to-use user interface

You need to keep in mind that a real-estate application is not about showing brilliance and classy design, but is about user-friendliness. Thus, like any other user-centric applications such as eCommerce, online cab services booking, your app should be user-friendly so that users could easily understand how to search for a property. Easy user-interface of an app means quick property search, responsive search filter, hassle-free payments and saving favourites or wishlist.

Scope for customers to place queries

Lastly, do not rule out the need for an online enquiry mechanism in the app like live chat or email integration. It is a must-have for quickly responding to customers who are interested in a property and wish to know more apart from what provided in the app. They might want to talk to the seller directly.

Real-estates is the large and flourishing industry and to get a grip over its every potential you need a mobile app too. It would help your business make more revenue and grow by making your properties more easily accessible to prospective customers. However, make sure to keep in mind the mentioned features while you have your app crafted by an app development company.