5 Ways to Make Money When Real Estate Sales Are Slow
As we start to enter the fall season, real estate markets across the country are slowing. And for most of us, that means lower transaction income. Today we want to show you how to make money when real estate sales are slow.
But before we get to that, remember: the slow season is the perfect time of the year to catch up on the big-picture ideas you didn’t have time for in the busy spring and summer months. If you haven’t already launched your own real estate website or started your real estate blog, now is the time! The online leads you’ll generate by blogging from your own website will pay off HUGE in the long term.
Once your site and blog are up and running, you can turn your attention to adding a creative income stream (or 2!) to your real estate business.
Here are 5 ways to make money when real estate sales are slow.
Quick note: This post was originally published in October 2018. Here’s the new and improved version!
5 Ways to Make Money When Real Estate Sales are Slow
Let’s count them down…
5. New Home Photo Shoots
New home photo shoots are quickly becoming big business!
They are just like engagement photos or maternity photos, but specifically designed to showcase the buyers in their new home. You’ll soon find that most of your buyers are willing to pay for Instagram-able photos to celebrate this life event.
Here’s why new home photo shoots made our list of ways to make money when real estate sales are slow:
- It’s instant income. No waiting for escrow to close. You can even require a deposit to book the date and time for the session.
- You’re offering a valuable service that most agents aren’t offering. You can even use this to sell yourself to potential buyer clients: I offer new home photo shoots to help buyers commemorate this huge life achievement for just $250. And if you use me as your buyer’s agent, I can give you 50% off!
- You’re meeting new homeowners (because of course not all new buyers are your clients) and providing a killer service for them. This gives you a reason to build a relationship with them so they refer their friends to you, and use you as their listing agent when they’re ready to sell. Don’t forget to add them to your CRM!
- Free promotion! Simply asked to be tagged in your clients’ social media posts. All their friends and family will see you tagged in these photos, and know that you’re an agent who knows what buyers want.
By the way, if you want to take advantage of this relatively new service, but don’t have the time or skill, consider teaming up with an experienced photographer. You can handle the promotion and administration, and then keep a share of the profits while your photographer does the skilled work.
Learn more about Making Money with New Home Photo Shoots.
4. Cleaning/Landscaping/Painting
Never underestimate the power of small service businesses!
If you’re not interested in cleaning/landscaping/painting/etc, that’s fine! You don’t have to do the work yourself. You can simply own the business and hire employees or find some reliable freelancers to do the work. We are living in the age of crowd-sourcing, after all.
To tie the business to your real estate practice, you could target buyers and sellers. Your sellers may need a neutral coat of fresh paint before listing. Buyers may want to customize the paint job upon move-in. You could even work with investors who need homes cleaned and painted between tenants.
And if you do want to be hands-on, there are ways to work this into your slow season. Just think hyper-specialized. Did you know there are people who specialize in decorating other people’s homes for Christmas? That could be a great source of income during the slow fall months! Or you could offer “New Year, Fresh Start” services to clean, paint, or whatever in January.
If you want to test the waters without any commitment, sign up as a TaskRabbit during your slow season, and take on a few one-off jobs.
3. Property Management
Property management is a natural way for real estate agents to make money, separate from real estate sales. And with so many ways to structure your property management services, you can invest as much (or as little!) of your time and money in this side income.
Here are just a few ideas:
- Manage vacation rentals. Even sophisticated Airbnb owners are turning to property managers to handle the many inquiries and high turnover of their vacation rentals. Just know that this high turnover means that these properties are labor-intensive. And unfortunately, the busy vacation season usually matches the busy real estate season in most markets. So that somewhat defeats the purpose of using property management to make money in your slow season.
- Work with rental property owners to find long-term tenants and get them moved in…then let the property owner take over. This is a great strategy if you want to make a quick buck without a long-term commitment. Many homeowners moving out-of-area decide to rent out their home instead of selling. But they don’t know how to find and screen tenants or draft protective Rental Agreements. You could do that with one hand tied behind your back! It won’t take you much time, and you’ll probably earn a fee equal to 50% of the first month’s rent. Once the new tenants move in, the property owner takes over for ongoing management.
- Offer ongoing, long-term property management. Maybe you don’t want the property owner to take over when the tenants move in. Maybe you want to continue collecting a small percentage (5-10%) of the rent every month for collecting rent, fielding tenant questions, and addressing property maintenance issues. Do it!
Those long-term property management services are perfect for periods when the real estate market as a whole is slow. Remember the recession? When people are scared to buy, they rent. So you could make your living from real estate sales when the real estate market is strong, then make a living from property management when the real estate market is weak.
It just takes a little organization to stay on top of your portfolio, so make sure you invest in some inexpensive, but effective, property management software.
2. Turn Your Blog Into a Money-Maker
Monetizing your blog is a MUST on our list of ways to make money when real estate sales are slow.
If you have a real estate blog (and every agent should have a real estate blog because of the boost the blog provides to your business!), you don’t need to do much extra to make your blog generate its own income. There’s also the potential to start making money immediately if you already have traffic coming to your blog.
There are a few quick and easy ways to make money from your blog:
- Affiliate Links. Affiliate links are links to products and services you recommend as an affiliate. If one of your readers clicks on your link, you earn a small commission! For example, if you’re writing a post on home staging, you can link to a bunch of Amazon home decor products that would help with staging (and yes, that link is one of my affiliate links; the Amazon.com affiliate program is one of the easiest ways to get started with affiliate links).
- Sponsored Posts. Businesses are willing to pay to “sponsor” your blog posts in exchange for a mention and a link to their website. For example, a local moving company might be willing to sponsor your post about mistakes homeowners make when it comes to moving. You can include a paragraph about the convenience of hiring movers, and mention your sponsor’s company and why they’re a great option for locals.
- Ads. Ads may or may not be on-brand for you. They’re expected on most blogs today, but I’d suggest keeping them only on your blog posts, and off your primary web pages.
Want to learn more about each of these money-making options, check out How To Make Money Blogging About Real Estate!
1. Property Tax Appeals
Property tax appeals are my favorite way to make BIG MONEY in a slow market. It’s also probably the least sexy.
I say “least sexy” because, well, what was your first thought upon reading Property Tax Appeals? Did you immediately dismiss it because you don’t know much about property taxes and it doesn’t sound interesting? That’s what I thought.
Less than 1% of agents have ever thought about offering property tax appeal services. And that’s a huge mistake because real estate agents already have nearly all the skill and knowledge needed to make money with property tax appeals.
You already know 4 of the 5 most important components in property tax appeals:
- your local real estate market
- how to reach homeowners
- the basics of valuing property
- how to negotiate
All you need to learn is that 5th component: how your local tax appeal system works. Which you can learn in a few hours on your county’s website.
Here’s how it works:
The county calculates property taxes based on what they think the property is worth for tax purposes. In a declining market, they almost always over-value property, which means homeowners are paying more than they should in property taxes.
All you have to do is fill out an application to reduce that taxable value and show the county what the property is actually worth (using a Comparative Market Analysis like you use routinely to help your clients establish listing prices and offers).
The county will then lower the client’s tax bill, and you get paid.
When to offer Property Tax Appeals:
Property tax appeals work best in a declining market. Which is nice, because that’s when your real estate sales are probably slow.
Depending on your local taxing system, property tax appeals can be a quick buck or a long game. Every state is different. Look at Texas and California as examples.
If you’re in Texas, you should absolutely offer property tax appeals! Texas has a high property tax rate, and they quickly process all property tax appeals every summer. You can file appeal applications on lots of properties, and enjoy a giant payday within 2-3 months. Just note: while you can lay the groundwork now, you have to wait until spring to file the petitions.
The process is much longer in California (a full year or even two!), but almost all of that time is just waiting for the overwhelmed counties to schedule your appeal. And because California property values are so high, you can make thousands of dollars during every year of a down market on a single home. Appeal filing starts in July and goes through November for most counties (although some counties have a September 15 deadline).
Property tax appeal services are worth a closer look. Learn more about Making Money with Property Tax Appeals.
The Bottom Line
Slow real estate sales don’t have to mean a decline in productivity and income. Take full advantage of your slow season to think long-term. Launch your website and your real estate blog. Then add an income stream to your business. There are plenty of ways to make money when real estate sales are slow. You just need to take action and make it happen!
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If you’re serious about growing your real estate business during a slow market, check out The Recession-Proof Real Estate Agent. This book offers a complete step-by-step guide to recession-proofing your real estate business.
