7 Ways For Real Estate Agents To Save Money

As a real estate agent, you can't count on any financial bailout to save your business during this recession. These seven tips by an active real estate broker will help you trim your costs and make your business lean and more productive:

1. Track Your Expenses.

While this sounds obvious, you'd be surprised by how many agents have no idea how much they're spending or what they're spending it on. It's no surprise: real estate agents are usually social animals, and digging into a heavyweight accounting program such as Quickbooks is downright painful. For personal finances, I recommend a company called Mint. You can link your accounts in about five minutes, and because they only track your finances (you can't transfer or withdraw anything), they're very safe.

2. Instead of Advertising, Try Picking Up The Phone.

I learned this idea from the course "Ninja Selling" by Larry Kendall. His great advice: make 50 brief calls to people you know every week and offer them real estate information of value (sales in their neighborhood, market update, etc.). This costs you nothing, and is probably the single most effective thing you can do to generate more business. Try it for a month.

3. Use Free Online Office Software.

A relatively new phenomena, several companies now offer free software that can essentially replace Microsoft Office and other expensive office software. You can spell check, cut and paste, format your text, and do everything else the average writer would need to online. As an added bonus, your documents are automatically saved and stored online, so you never need to worry about backing up your files or what happens if your computer is lost or stolen. My favorite is Google Docs, part of Google's web apps.

4. Use Free/ Low Cost Online Transaction Management Software.

If you're looking for a quick way to differentiate yourself and offer great service to your clients, try using free/ low cost online transaction management software. There are several programs available, and most let you add tasks, milestones, messages, upload documents, etc. Best of all your client can login and view his listing or purchase status at anytime. You save money by not needing a transaction coordinator, your clients love the transparency, and you'll save time because there will be less emails and calls back and forth.

5. Use Free/ Low Cost Online CRM Software.

Most Customer Relationship Management software, especially that made for the real estate industry, is notoriously hard to use. Are a few custom fields worth hundreds of dollars and hours of syncing and tech headaches? If you don't think so either, try one of many online based CRM's that let you manage up to 250 contacts for free, with more powerful plans available for only a few dollars a month.

6. Use Low Cost Online Marketing Instead of Print.

If you want to win more listings, you'll need to differentiate yourself during the listing presentation. Consider creating free single property websites, and creating free profiles on sites such as Trulia, Zillow etc, and posting your listings on Craigslist. These low cost methods can help you get the message out while spending a lot less than even one newspaper classified ad.

7. Consider Working From Home.

If you're an experienced agent and not doing it already, consider working from home. You'll save on commuting costs, those occasional lattes, and going out to lunch. Note that working from home isn't for everybody, especially new agents or those who have trouble focusing. New agents need the interaction and experience from co-workers, and those who can't focus will lose more money than they save on lost productivity! Real estate is a great career, and the steps you take now can not only help you ride out the recession, they can put you in prime position for the coming recovery. Best of luck!