A great many real estate independent brokers, agents and even brokerages can get themselves into tight economic spots, particularly at the end of boom cycles, when growth was continuous, but then it slows or stops. They've built overhead and marketing systems that can't be sustained in a downturn. What's needed is a plan and scaling down, but without sacrificing marketing that will be there building your business when things turn around.
The down market of 2008-2009 was in a time period when many brokerages were already cutting back on print advertising to move more budget to the Internet. However, the drastic drop in real estate activity took even more money out of print, radio and TV. Even some of the most major urban newspapers were experiencing problems due to much lower advertising revenue from Realtors.
So, cutting back on marketing is a given. What else might brokers be doing to reduce expenses in a tough market?
- Cut back on office space? This could be doing more online with mobile agents.
- Reduce services to sellers, as a marketing cutback with fewer ads for listings.
- Some brokerages reduce splits or charge a fee to maintain an office and agent presence.
- Others are charging back some of marketing costs that were previously free to agents.
Help others by telling us what you've done to cut back in tough markets.
