10 Unusual New Year's Resolutions For Real Estate Agents - Realvolve

Sure, you could resolve to eat more vegetables this year, or exercise more, or remember to floss your teeth every day. But what if you chose something a little more…unusual for your New Year’s resolution?

Yes, you should absolutely eat healthy foods and get plenty of exercise and take care of your teeth. Definitely do all of those things.

But for your momentous, life-altering, awe-inspiring answer to the question, “What’s your New Year’s resolution?”—let’s give the people something a little more exciting.

Here are 10 unusual New Year’s resolutions that will add some more excitement to your life—and, incidentally, just might make you a better real estate agent.

1) Get your photo taken in 12 interesting places.

The idea here (adapted from a similar resolution shared by Realbuzz) is to motivate yourself to explore more of your city. You never know what you might discover—a hidden gem of a restaurant that features artwork by local artists; a lesser-known park that has a great creek for kids to splash in; or the newly-opened bar that has an amazing outdoor seating area.

This New Year’s resolution has many benefits for you as a real estate agent:

a deeper knowledge of your local area
cool places to recommend to leads, prospects, and clients
the opportunity to meet new people (if you get the chance to chat with the people affiliated with these “interesting places”)
monthly stories and photos to share on social media

2) Learn how to juggle.

Okay, it doesn’t have to be juggling, but think about a fun new skill you’d like to learn. The key here is fun. Something that will relieve stress, get you off the computer for a bit, and be an entertaining journey to share with your followers online. At the start of the year, announce your New Year’s resolution (and ask your friends to share theirs). Then, once a month, post a quick video clip updating them on your progress and asking how their resolutions are going.

3) Compliment at least one person each day.

Not only will it brighten that person’s day, but sometimes it might even lead to a longer conversation. Who knows, you might make a new friend. And I bet that new friend knows someone who wants to buy or sell a home.

4) Indulge in a daily Nappuccino.

Nothing reverses that afternoon slump like a quick power nap. In the book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, author Daniel Pink introduces the “Nappuccino,” or his process for the perfect nap. It involves drinking a cup of coffee right before setting a 25-minute timer and laying down to sleep. The caffeine will begin to kick in right as your alarm goes off, so you’ll wake up feeling alert and recharged. Make it a daily habit, and these power naps will be even more effective.

5) Practice the skill of remembering names.

When you use someone’s name in a conversation, it makes them feel a more personal connection to you. So if you’ve always been one of those people who is “bad with names”—just like blogger Julia Clavien was—follow her lead and make 2022 the year you improve your name memory! There are tons of articles—such as this one from CNBC—that give tips on remembering names.

6) Be a better listener.

When you’re 100% focused on listening—not just thinking about what you need to say next—you gain a deeper understanding of what your clients want, need, and fear. And when your clients feel heard and understood, they’ll put all of their trust in you. Perhaps 2022 is the year you strive to listen more than you talk.

7) Take a trapeze class (or anything that gets you WAY out of your comfort zone).

Salsa dance lessons, pottery class, karate—find something that interests you, sounds like a fun challenge, and is so far outside your comfort zone it’s almost laughable. For Kathy Kesner of Seattle, it was a trapeze class she found on Groupon. “It’s really uplifting just to get over that fear a little bit,” she told Success.com.

Stepping outside your comfort zone can also improve cognition, enhance performance, and give you a serious boost in confidence.

8) Google yourself once a month.

As a real estate agent, important to stay apprised of your online ratings. People are leaving reviews about you and your real estate business on sites like Zillow, RateMyAgent, Yelp, and even Google itself. When you Google yourself each month, look for 3 things:

Where your ratings and reviews appear: If your name isn’t showing up on a website where you’d like to have a presence, send clients a link to that particular website when you ask for reviews.
Where you have lower ratings: If you’re rated highly on Google but not as well-reviewed on Yelp, reach out to some of your best clients (maybe the same ones who rated you on Google) and ask them to leave you a quick Yelp review.
What the negative reviews say, and what you can do to improve: Got a bad review? Here’s an opportunity to show the world how much you care about your clients. Reply to their negative review with a comment thanking them for their feedback (if they made a valid point) and saying you’ll reach out so you can make it right. Then get in touch with them right away and try to resolve the problem. Finally, make sure you learn from your mistake so it doesn’t happen again.
Who wrote the best reviews: If you see that a client wrote a positive review, be sure to show your appreciation in some way, even if it’s just a sincere thank you.

9) Start each day by doing something nice for yourself.

This is a productivity tip shared by Maia Efrem for Oprah Daily, and the idea is to do something each morning that will set the tone for a pleasant and productive day. For example, tidiness guru Marie Kondo’s morning ritual involves opening the windows, burning incense, and saying a prayer. My ritual is drinking a glass of water while I brew a cup of strong coffee (and explaining to my young daughter that “Mama needs 20 minutes to drink coffee and wake up before she can play”).

A good morning sets the tone for a good day. What morning ritual can you adopt to make every day in 2022 a productive day?

10) Write fewer emails.

How many times have you written and rewritten the same email? “Hi there, just reminding you that your inspection is coming up next week…”

Here’s the thing: Most of the emails you send to your real estate leads, prospects, and clients don’t have to be written from scratch every time. Instead, you can create templates that can be used over and over again. Templates can be written to include merge fields—pieces of code that will pull in data from your database, like a person’s name or a property address. So even when you use pre-written email templates, they will still be personalized for each recipient.

To incorporate the use of email templates into your business process, you need a CRM and automation platform like Realvolve.

What New Year’s resolution will benefit your real estate career the most?

If you want a fun way to engage with your followers online, you might opt for the 12 interesting places photo challenge. Or maybe you’ll learn some cool new yo-yo tricks.

Want to boost your confidence? Try something new that’ll get you out of your comfort zone.

Eager to meet new people and have better conversations with them? Vow to get better at remembering names, or dole out daily compliments to strangers, or practice talking less and listening more.

Or do you really just want to increase your productivity, so you get more done in the day? For that, I suggest the Nappuccino, a solid morning ritual, or getting in touch with Realvolve to learn more about our CRM and automation platform.

Whichever resolution you choose, I wish you 365 days of success and a very happy 2022!

10 Unusual New Year’s Resolutions For Real Estate Agents