Business Plan Archives - Baird & Warner Lincoln Park

August 2, 2021August 2, 2021

Agent Spotlight: Kate O’Neill

Though she is still early in her real estate career, broker Kate O’Neill has already learned a lot of valuable lessons — and earned some impressive successes in less than one full year in the business.

For one thing, Kate has yet to have a buyer of hers pay above list price, “which is pretty big in the current market that we’re in,” she says. “I’m pretty proud of that!”

For another, Kate has quickly earned a glowing reputation around the Baird & Warner – Lincoln Park office for her social media savvy, particularly using Instagram as a channel to speak to her sphere, sow the seeds for long-term referral relationships, and reach her ideal millennial buyers.

“One thing with my social media that I always keep in the back of my mind is to treat it like my business card and my social proof,” Kate says. “That way, when people look me up, any potential new clients or friends of mine who know I just got started in this can see that I’m busy and that I’m actively working. That I’m constantly hosting open houses, or selling a property, or teaching them something that they didn’t know.”

July 15, 2021July 15, 2021

Ask Yourself These 3 Questions to Crush the Second Half of 2021

As a real estate broker, it’s important to regularly check in on your most important goals, and make sure that you’re executing a strategy that will help drive your success. Ongoing monitoring, self-evaluation, and targeted training are critical to implementing a sound business plan that will help you get where you want to go.

As we head into the second half of our incredibly strong 2021 real estate market, this moment is an excellent opportunity for real estate brokers to evaluate their performance through the first half of the year. Here are three important questions to ask yourself:

Are you doing everything you need to be doing right now to reach your business goals for 2021? If not, what needs to change?
What are you doing really well right now, and in what areas can you improve?
What are you doing in the second half of the year to invest in the single most important asset to your business — YOU?

March 22, 2021March 22, 2021

The Importance of Building a Relationship Business

The Importance of Building a Relationship-Based Real Estate Business

If you’ve been following the news lately, you know that there are some pretty substantial changes in the competitive structure of the real estate business going on right now. On a market-wide level, for instance, the real estate services site Zillow has recently been active in making acquisitions of smaller companies; by and large, Wall Street is having a bigger impact on what brokers do on a daily basis here in Chicago and around the country.

As experienced brokers know, the real estate landscape is ever-changing. But the more things shift and evolve, the more convinced I am of the incredible importance of building a relationship-based business that is not reliant on leads from third party companies.

March 9, 2021March 10, 2021

5 Pitfalls to Avoid When Getting Started In Real Estate

Pitfalls to Avoid When Starting a Real Estate Career

Residential real estate is a career field that is exciting, dynamic, and incredibly rewarding — with nearly unlimited earning potential and endless opportunities for learning and growth.

It is also a career path that exemplifies the old adage, “you get out of it what you put into it.” Many of the decisions you make early in your career can have an enormous impact on your future — either setting you up to create the sustainable, lucrative, and flexible business you’ve dreamed about, or limiting your capacity to grow and earn over time.

Want to put yourself in the best position possible for success? Let’s explore five pitfalls or missteps to avoid when getting started in real estate:

December 22, 2020May 6, 2021

The Top 5 Things for New Brokers to Focus on When Starting a Real Estate Career

There are as many ways to build a real estate business as there are brokers — but in my experience, people achieve the greatest success when they invest time into executing a well-thought-out business plan that emphasizes their expertise and talents.

Here at the Baird & Warner Lincoln Park office, one of the first things we do with all new agents is sit-down with them to strategize how they want to build their business. In our office, our management team spends as much time as necessary with new brokers to help make sure their business plans and goals are ambitious yet achievable. Our management team also schedules regular check-ins throughout the year to help new agents closely monitor their progress toward their goals.

What goes into a real estate business plan? Simply put, this is the outline for what your business is going to look like, including your goals for the next year — perhaps even on a quarterly basis.

As a new-to-the-business broker, there are going to be five main things to consider when putting your plan together:

September 21, 2020September 21, 2020

How Office-Level Support Can Take Your Real Estate Business to the Next Level

Office-Level Support Staff and Management

Here at Baird & Warner – Lincoln Park, our brokers are some of the most productive in the city — and we know how important a strong support team is for keeping the flow of business moving.

Consistently praised by our brokers as some of the best in the business, our office-level support staff includes multiple full-time administrators who are available to assist with listing management, marketing production, closing logistics, and much more. And with a full-time management staff of three, brokers in the Lincoln Park office have unrivaled support, guidance, coaching and mentorship at every stage of their careers.

Let’s take a deeper look at how our office-level support helps our agents to make the most of new opportunities, focus on their business strategies, and gain a competitive edge in the market:

Operational Support: Freeing You Up to Focus On What Matters Most

Attentive, driven, and professional, our operational support staff provides our agents with the specialized support they need to run a full-time business. Having a dedicated support staff in our office frees up time for our brokers to focus on the lead-generating activities that are central to growing their businesses. Depending on your business plan and strategy, this might include cultivating leads online or in-person; preparing market research and putting it into practice; negotiating deals; attending listing and buyer presentations; learning and growing in ongoing training sessions or classes; or taking part in local networking events to grow your sphere.

June 8, 2020June 8, 2020

Finding the Right Fit: What Questions Should You Ask the Recruiting or Managing Broker?

As you move forward in your career in real estate, finding the right office will be one of the most important factors in determining your future success. Because no two real estate offices are the same, it’s extremely important that you do your homework on the front end to find the environment that will be a great fit.

One of the biggest steps in choosing the right office to launch your Chicago real estate career is to sit down for an interview with the office’s Recruiting or Managing Broker. This interview can be an opportunity to learn more about the things that matter most to you — including office culture and values, training and coaching opportunities, management and support structure, technology, and more.

In my view, these discussions should be far more collaborative than most traditional job interviews. As a Designated Managing Broker who regularly speaks with potential new real estate brokers, I do want to make sure that you’ll be a good fit in the office. But just as importantly, this interview is about making sure this setting will be a good fit for you.

It is extremely important to find the right environment that will help drive your success for years to come. I know this is a big decision. That’s why, at Baird & Warner Lincoln Park, we encourage you to be as systematic and thorough as possible when looking for the right office.

May 26, 2020May 26, 2020

How to Grow Your New Chicago Real Estate Business

Growing a New Chicago Real Estate Business

You’re ready to commit to a career in residential real estate and jump in with both feet. Now comes the important question: How are you going to grow your business?

There are as many ways to build a real estate business as there are brokers, and it’s important to spend some time thinking of a strategy that will be right for you. As you get started, consider what type of business model you would like to create, how you can emphasize your unique expertise and talents, and who you can turn to when you have questions or want to talk about your progress toward your goals. As with most facets of real estate, there is not necessarily a right or wrong way. It’s about finding the way that works for you as an individual, and sticking with it consistently over time.

In my perspective, the path to growing your new Chicago real estate business comes down to three main parts:

Identify who you are, and what you like to do.
Work with your managing broker and team to develop a detailed business plan that includes specific tactics — including some that appeal to you, and some that you expect to find more challenging.
Execute your plan and monitor your results.

Oftentimes, people starting their career spend all of their time learning, and not enough time doing. Real estate is a profession that rewards action versus inaction — so while it’s important to have a strategy and a plan in place, keep in mind that there are a lot of different ways to be successful. The brokers who get the most out of these early days are going to be the ones who fully execute on a plan.

Curious about how you can define and execute your own path to success? Let’s break down each of those steps in a bit more depth: