The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB) has unveiled its latest data on the residential real estate market in Quebec, showcasing significant growth in the first quarter of 2024.

According to the report, province-wide residential sales reached 21,337, marking a 17 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2023. Despite this surge, sales levels remain just below historical averages for this time of the year.

First quarter since 2021 with double-digit rise in sales

“This is the first quarter since 2021 to have posted a double-digit rise in sales, something we have not seen in the last ten quarters. This rebound in activity was observed in all CMAs across the province, with the exception of Gatineau and Trois-Rivières,” says Charles Brant, QPAREB market analysis director.

However, he points out that the results must be put into perspective: “Although the number of sales seems to indicate a recovery, which will have to be confirmed in the second quarter, it remains slightly below the historical average for this period of the year.”

Brant attributed this resurgence to several factors, including a decline in the Consumer Price Index and optimistic signals from the Bank of Canada regarding potential interest rate cuts.

A move toward recovery in many markets

Furthermore, Brant highlighted a notable increase in the number of properties listed for sale in many markets, signalling a move toward market recovery. This increased fluidity in the market offers more opportunities for buyers, particularly in the small-income properties segment. 

However, certain markets, such as Quebec City CMA, still exhibit unbalanced conditions favoring sellers, he notes.

First-quarter provincial highlights

Source: QPAREB

Sales

Transactional activity across property categories increased between 16 per cent and 26 per cent, with plexes experiencing a 26 per cent surge.

Growth in sales was most pronounced in CMAs such as Sherbrooke, Saguenay and Quebec City, recording increases ranging from 21 per cent to 34 per cent.

Urban centers like Rawdon and Saint-Hyacinthe saw substantial sales gains, while markets like Riviere-du-Loup and Victoriaville witnessed large declines.

Active listings

The number of active listings surged by 20 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2023, reaching 36,666 province-wide.

Median prices

Median prices for single-family homes, condominiums, and small-income properties witnessed significant increases (10 per cent, 5 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively) compared to the previous year.

Market conditions

Despite the increase in active listings, the market continues to favour sellers, with the number of months required to sell inventory remaining relatively low at 5.1 months (for all property categories combined).

Selling times

Average selling times for different property types remained consistent compared to the previous year, with single-family homes averaging 64 days, condominiums averaging 62 days and small-income properties averaging 83 days.

Review statistics in detail for the province’s first quarter, and for March.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t scale very well and the industry is moving way too fast to be running a one-person show.

Entrepreneurs have mastered their time

The most important decision you make as an entrepreneur is to determine the price of your time. Your time is the only limited resource. There’s no way to get more of it — you only have 24 hours in a day, and 7 days a week. How you spend these hours plays a significant role in how fast and how efficiently your business develops.

From quickly understanding what’s working and how to prioritize your money-making activities, to learning to make quick decisions, turn down everything that’s not serving your goal and block off all the noise and distractions, your time becomes your highest commodity.

Agents that end up scaling beyond solo-entrepreneurship learn fast how to multiply their efforts, delegate and leverage someone else’s knowledge and skills to get back time — time that they never wasted but appreciate and spend well in places that allow them to raise the bar even higher.

The first-hire challenge: Blind spots

If you’re an agent at a certain level in your business where your transaction system is on speed dial, you can’t close one more transaction without burnout and you’ve maximized your time, you’re most likely ready for the next step: your first hire!

But here’s the challenge.

Many agents are building their businesses from the ground up and making financial decisions through their current economic models. This doesn’t scale very well because they don’t understand all the layers that will eventually hit.

Many agents can’t anticipate much, and that’s the beauty of learning from others who have been where you want to go: it helps you see around all those corners and blind spots.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have that when I started and I ended up making a lot of mistakes over the last 15 years. So, get yourself educated before starting the expansion journey, as you’ll end up building a house of cards.

Where to start? Hint: Not with an assistant

Most agents would think that the first hire should be an assistant. And I get it — after all, it solidifies that now you are running a true business, you’ve got someone on your payroll who’s finally servicing you. And after years of servicing others, it’s nice to have someone servicing you!

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I strongly believe that an assistant should not be your first hire. Here’s why.

Hiring an assistant in the real estate business is a challenging task, as you are looking at a medium to low salary range. This type of job has high turnover, so chances are that you will search for a long period before you find someone steady.

You may also spend time training your assistant only to find that they leave a couple of months later. At this salary, most people are not willing to work flexible hours and you may end up covering a lot of assistant duties outside of working hours, not to mention that many tasks you would like to delegate require a real estate license.

Although the idea and the benefit of having an assistant is to free up time that you will then spend on money-making activities, keep in mind that your assistant salary is leaving your bank account on day one.

I’ve seen many agents hire an assistant for jobs that should be covered by a TC (transaction coordinator) on a contract basis, VA (virtual assistant) or delivery and task companies.

Get an inside sales agent

Here’s the reality: you can’t afford to hire an assistant as your first hire. You’re going to work more just to pay their salary, and a year later you’re going to go back to your old routine.

Instead, here’s how to think about your first hire: ask yourself, “Who can I hire that will make me money from day one?”

The answer? An ISA (inside sales agent). This should be your first hire.

If you’re a successful agent, you most likely prospect for two to three hours a day to maximize your time. Now, imagine hiring someone who will spend 8 hours a day prospecting for you. 

That’s roughly three times more time spent on booking your appointments. Your ISA’s work will not only pay for their salary but will in time enable you to hire your first buyer’s agent and, ultimately, your assistant.

How many times have you heard someone say, “Don’t do that – do this to make more money!”, followed by some other self-proclaimed “guru” touting their own magical mix?

Just because someone else’s model or “success map” worked for them doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get the same results – or get even close.

But, there is a scientific approach to success, and it’s couched in six habits that, when practiced consistently, have been proven to deliver higher income, greater happiness, richer relationships and more. They’re not hard – but as with any habit, the challenge is in practicing key actions long enough that they become second nature.

Habit 1: Clarity

Clarity isn’t just being clear on your goals or what you want most from your business and life. It includes those things, but goes a step further: How do you need to change so that what you want becomes both possible and a reality? Can you visualize yourself living the life you want – and do you know how it will feel?

Do this: Grab your notebook and write, in great detail, the life and business you want. Describe how your days go, where you travel, what you eat, how you feel, even how you sleep! The reticular activation system in your brain will kick in and you’ll find that you begin to see opportunities that can move you towards what you want most.

Habit 2: Energy

If you don’t have the energy to get your work done, then you’re sunk. What you eat, how and how often you move and the level of care you take to stay emotionally grounded all factor in strongly to being successful. Trillionaire hedge fund founders have meditation rooms in their offices. There’s a good reason for that! The more regulated they are, the more capable they’ll be in handling the crazy stresses of the business.

Do this: Take a deep breath in for six seconds and hold it. Take two more sips to fill your lungs further, and then let it out for another six seconds. Slowing down your breathing leads to a longer life, greater calm, faster metabolism and increased focus.

Habit 3: Courage

There are many types of courage – moral, ethical, physical, emotional – and all are critical to success. Fear is your friend until you make it your enemy by allowing it to fester with fantastical (and fake) thoughts about how it could go wrong, fail or lead to rejection or humiliation. Our minds are designed to look out for danger, but by feeding that impulse too much and too often, it can take over. Courage is to act despite that fear, overcoming our resistance to change and growth.

Do this: Think of something you’ve been avoiding that would grow your business – making a call, shooting a video, sending a text, etc. Write down what it is about that action that has been holding you back, and ask yourself if it’s a real fear or an assumption. Most often it’s the latter, so get in there and do it! Start “little chunking” – take a big thing (business growth) and turn it into such a small task that you say, “I can do that.”

Habit 4: Productivity

Productivity is avoiding being busy by packing the day with useless or distraction-based tasks (laundry, mowing the lawn, cleaning your desk…again). By being intentional with your time, you’ll get more done in less time, with more focus and intention on the work that really matters.

Do this: At the end of your day, take out your list of to-do’s and look at the next day’s schedule. What are your obligations, and what time do you have in between? Assign tasks to those gaps, being careful to allow for extra “bonus” time in between. The next morning, look at your upcoming day and double-check that nothing changed, and then ONLY do that work. Repeat this process every night.

Habit 5: Influence

Influence has been described as the most important habit that leads to higher income and success. If no one is saying yes to you, then you won’t have a team to help you rise in your business, your clients will fall away and your pipeline will dry up. As Napoleon Hill notes in Think and Grow Rich from the 1930s, getting people on board with what you have to offer is the only way to succeed, now and in the long term. This has stayed true through to today.

Do this: The next time you have to make a sales or follow-up call, think of what you can give to them first before you make your ask. You can supply information, advice, something tangible – the idea is to provide incredible value before you ask for something in return. Our brains are wired for reciprocity, but you have to lead by giving first.

Habit 6: Necessity

Necessity is the habit that envelops all the others: It’s the art of making something so important that it becomes your top priority every day. When you know how to determine the importance and impact of the work that you do, how you spend your time becomes easy to figure out.

Do this: Define what makes something important to you – things like driving profit or reducing expenses, substantially moving your business forward, enriching a relationship, etc. Make a list of all the actions you can take that are important and look at your calendar. How much time are you devoting to those tasks, or to building the habits that will lead to the success and happiness you truly want?

Success, growth, profits and joy are all well within the reach of every one of us, but not all of us want to put in the work to achieve them. If you practice these habits and strive to get better at them, even 1 per cent at a time, you’ll watch as your entire life starts to pivot and brighten – no matter what’s happening in the market.

Recruiting real estate agents is a crucial aspect of building a successful brokerage, and two effective strategies for attracting new agents are cold calling and delivering seminars. It doesn’t happen in the first shot. It’s a process, a drip campaign to build brand integrity and authority among the many that are doing the same thing. Remember, you don’t want to attract everyone, but rather only those who resonate with you at some level.

These approaches not only allow brokerages to establish connections with potential agents but also provide opportunities to showcase their expertise. By leveraging these methods, brokerages can significantly expand their agent network and enhance their overall growth and success.

So how is it that you can attract someone who has grossed a minimum of $100,000 in revenue vs someone who is bringing in $500,000 to $10 million in GCI? Is it a phone call? Is it an e-mail? Is it a casual conversation at a conference? Regardless of what the agent is earning, recruiting is a dance, a tango between the recruiter and the realtor.  

A few factors must be considered:

• What are the pain points of the agent?
• Is the agent the right cultural fit for your brokerage?
• Is the agent coachable?
• How much coaching will be needed, and how do you win their loyalty?
• Most agents are concerned about splits and fees and what they get in return – are yours competitive according to what the market is yielding?
• Every brokerage is recruiting – what is your true unique selling proposition (USP) in your market?

It’s a fierce battle to acquire quality agents and, frankly, more than just a numbers game. They get called from every brokerage within a 30 to 50 KM radius, and most of the pitches sound the same, “We’ve got this great office with an exceptional admin staff and marketing department as well as a top-of-the-line media room for your access.” Imagine, once they have heard something similar every so often in their career, it gets mundane and boring.  

How do you stand out? How do you differentiate?  

Brokers are trying to differentiate their offering by providing value-added coaching to bring on realtors or creating seminars but are those as disruptive as some claim? We’ve seen a graveyard of brands come and go in the North American market and are privy to industry intelligence that most are clueless about. 

I mean, how do you find out if an agent is not happy with their brokerage? It’s not rocket science. It’s a matter of creating empathetic conversations that revolve around the needs of the agent, where you’re giving more than you receive. This will create your formula for an inbound pipeline of agents. It starts with a simple 15-minute face-to-face meeting to hear their plans.

The first step to creating a tribe is branding and then brand loyalty. I’m not talking about which brokerage you are with but rather who you are as a person that will attract the target market. It won’t be everyone. Once you’ve fine-tuned your internal branding message, then you must create the perfect pitch for a call and follow it with a text. We’re in the age of technology. Text messages are imperative in this industry. 

The next step is to curate a list from your IMS or Re-Stats database of whom you want to consciously attract. What does their profile look like? To start, create a list of 1000 real estate agents. Once you have these in place, then it’s about setting realistic expectations on how much time it will take you to acquire an agent. 

Here are some statistics to consider — five hours a day of calling and texting that list. You’re grooming the list. It won’t yield on the first go. You will have to comb through it more than a couple of times. Forget e-mail, it’s not dead, but it’s not at the top of our priorities in our industry. We’re a breed of face-to-face, phone calls and texting. Yes, you need 100 hours a month minimum to go through a list of 1000 real estate agents to get approximately 20 meetings.

There are various factors to consider. Factors include the demographic, geography, time of day and number of transactions that will yield a number like the above. The recommended target market for an ideal profile should be five to seven transactions in a healthy market.  

In the past, it used to be about the offerings of what exists in the brokerage with an amiable culture, but now it’s more about the differentiating factors.  

Like attracts like

Have you heard the phrase, “Birds of a feather flock together?” This is exactly what the broker/manager will attract. The broker/owner needs someone who will not only coach the agents being brought in but also someone who will call the list of prospects for up to five hours a day.

Cold calling is a tried-and-true method that involves reaching out to potential agents directly through phone calls or other communication channels. To make cold calling successful, brokerages must have a well-defined target audience and a compelling value proposition. They need to research and identify potential agents who may be interested in joining their brokerage based on their experience, skill set and geographical location.  

There’s a lot of noise on social media. For the most part, ignore it and take whatever is being said with a grain of salt. There’s a lot of deception behind the smiles online until you dig and find out how much work is needed under the hood.

During cold calls, brokerages should focus on engaging potential agents by understanding the plight of the real estate agent and then customizing the benefits of working with their brokerage. This includes emphasizing the support and resources available to agents, such as training programs, marketing tools, and technology platforms. 

Demonstrating a strong company culture and a commitment to agent success can also be persuasive factors. By addressing the individual needs and goals of potential agents, brokerages can build rapport and establish trust, making them more likely to consider joining the brokerage.

In addition to cold calling, delivering seminars is an excellent way for brokerages to acquire real estate agents. 

Seminars and webinars provide a platform for brokerages to showcase their expertise, industry knowledge, and value

Depending on the brokerage’s resources and current market conditions, these events can be held in person or virtually. Seminars can cover various topics relevant to agents, such as market trends, negotiation strategies, lead generation techniques, and marketing tips.

To attract agents to seminars, brokerages can promote their events through targeted marketing campaigns, social media platforms and industry associations. Offering valuable and actionable content during seminars is essential to engage attendees and create a positive impression of the brokerage. 

Brokerages can bring in industry experts or successful agents as guest speakers to share their insights and experiences. This provides attendees with valuable knowledge and demonstrates the brokerage’s commitment to agent development and success.

During seminars, brokerages should leverage the opportunity to network with attendees and showcase their unique selling points. They can provide information about the support, resources, and commission structures they offer to agents. 

By fostering meaningful interactions, brokerages can establish relationships with attendees, laying the foundation for potential agent recruitment.

Creating an environment where potential agents feel comfortable asking questions and engaging in conversations is crucial. By fostering meaningful interactions, brokerages can establish relationships with attendees, laying the foundation for potential agent recruitment.

Both cold calling and delivering seminars require careful planning, preparation, and execution. Brokerages should ensure that their agents or sales representatives conducting cold calls are well-trained and equipped with persuasive communication skills. They should have a script or talking points prepared to effectively convey the brokerage’s value proposition and address potential concerns or objections.

Similarly, brokerages should invest time and effort into creating engaging presentations and materials when organizing seminars. They should provide attendees with informative handouts or digital resources highlighting the brokerage’s strengths and advantages. Following up with attendees after the seminar is also essential to nurture the connections made and convert potential agents into actual recruits.

The bottom line, recruiting isn’t a haphazard effort. It requires time, effort, consistency, and financial investment to truly attract and retain incredible realtors to your roster.