REALTOR® Retirement

A REALTOR® in Tucson writes: “I would love to read how various agents sell their practices when they retire. I think most people just fade away into retirement and don’t have anything left to sell by the time they quit. It would be nice to have a plan in place.”

According to the National Association of REALTORS®, 41-percent of REALTORS® are 60 years of age or older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ready to retire. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun notes that Baby Boomers are working later in life and many are attracted to Arizona cities like Phoenix and Tucson.

“Your real estate business is valuable,” says industry consultant Judy LaDeur. “It’s an asset that can be sold when you decide to retire, get out of the business, or relocate to Arizona from colder parts of the country.”

After a successful realty sales career, LaDeur began developing her own recruiting and training systems, including How to Successfully Sell or Acquire a Thriving Real Estate Business.

“It’s actually relatively simple,” she continues. “Your business should be set up in some sort of an organized database-management program (or customer relationship management system). That way, you can prove the value by showing how many clients you have, your relationship, number of referrals…things of that nature.

Nearly 25 percent of agents surveyed said they don’t use a customer relationship management system to organize leads and contacts. – Real Estate Coach Tom Ferry

“The second step is to do a lot of marketing; make clients aware that you are the best agent for the job and build their trust. So, when you decide to sell your business, you can sit down and say, Here’s how many people are in my database, here’s how many times they’ve referred people to me, here’s how many times I’ve sold them homes.”

To transfer your clients’ faith in you to someone else, LaDeur insists on a minimum transition period of one year. “Let’s say I’ve sold houses to you, your friends and relatives for 20 years. You completely trust me and then I announce that I’m teaming up with ‘Melinda’. Now we’re marketing Judy and Melinda, so I can say, If I’m not around, you can ask Melinda.

“I can then start to step away from the business and it will continue because that level of confidence and trust is now shared with Melinda. The next step is, How do I get paid and how do I determine the price of the business?”

More on that in part two about REALTOR® Retirement.

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