7 Tips to be More Innovative in your Real Estate Business

By Realtor.com

Staying innovative in business is key for various reasons. By pushing the envelope and challenging the phrase “but that’s how it’s always been done,” you can elevate with ease. To give innovation a prime spot in your approach to your business, we’re giving you seven ways to start being more innovative. Think of these tips as building blocks: as you get the ball rolling in these areas, your ability to innovate will pick up momentum, and the ideas and inspiration will start flowing.

1. Be open to change

First and foremost, the most important part of actually achieving innovation is being open to and accepting of change in any form. Innovation, at its core, is change. It’s pushing back against the status quo, aiming higher, or taking the path less (or never before) traveled. If you want to be more innovative, you have to welcome change with open arms. It’s the only way to grow and evolve, which is exactly what innovation is all about.

2. Challenge your way of thinking

So… how exactly do you welcome change with open arms? By challenging your existing ways of thinking. Rather than overhauling your business all at once, start small and look at your most common processes and tasks. These are the things you know like the back of your hand. Then, look at ways to push each one to the next level. Maybe it’s letting ChatGPT freshen up your top-performing scripts. Or you decide now’s the time to embrace the automation tools in your CRM instead of going the manual route.

Whichever path you take, push back on yourself. Remember, you’re not trying to start from scratch totally. You’re just looking at the next level to level up!

3. Pull inspiration from other innovative thinkers

To be innovative, you actually don’t have to put your way of thinking into a real estate box. You can get fresh insights and ideas to make your own, even outside real estate. What could this look like in action?

You should always stay on top of and up to date on real estate trends, including market changes, the latest and greatest tech, and approaches to sales and marketing. But to take it up another notch, keep your eye on technology, sales, and marketing trends happening in other industries. While they may not always be applesto-apples with real estate, they’ll stretch your thought process and help you see new, innovative ways to apply new approaches and technologies to your business.

4. Attend a workshop

For a more hands-on approach to strengthening your innovation muscle, keep your eyes peeled for in-person and online workshops you can attend. Don’t worry if you don’t see workshops specifically categorized for innovation; instead, focus on finding and attending workshops in areas relevant to your business, like digital marketing, sales tactics, public speaking, and more.

By attending these types of workshops, you can network with other business owners who are also likely seeking to innovate their own lines of work. Even if they’re not in real estate, having their perspective on what they do and on the topics you’re both learning about can spark creative, innovative ideas. You can also chat with other attendees about challenges you’re facing that are inspiring you to innovate your own business.

5. Broaden your professional network

Speaking of networking, widening your professional network is a must if you want to be more innovative in your real estate business. Whether you network with fellow agents, professionals in real estaterelated industries, or experts in fields relevant to your business operations — like sales, marketing, business ownership, and more — having an expanded network is key to building up opportunities to innovate.

Networking encourages collaboration through swapping ideas, experiences, and perspectives on innovation, especially from a professional perspective. It can also be extremely motivating to hear how other pros have been innovative in their own areas, fueling ideas for how you can apply them to your real estate business.

6. Bring your skills to the office

Now that you’re in a good rhythm of leaning into innovation, it’s crucial you share what you’re learning. As you develop new skills to drive innovation, you’ve got to put them to use. Start implementing your approaches to innovation by tacking them onto SMART goals. Be proactive in your problemsolving and find new ways to be creative. Discuss your eagerness to innovate with colleagues and use your innovation tactics and ideas to lead by example.

This sets off a domino effect: by opening the path to innovation, you can inspire your fellow pros to start challenging their own ways of doing and thinking. When they start pushing their own limits for innovation, it creates a sort of feedback loop to inspire new ideas, strategies, and tactics. In turn, innovation continues to grow.

7. Have confidence in your ideas

The cherry on top of the innovation sundae? Confidence. Innovation is the process of challenging existing patterns and ideas and transforming them into something entirely new. This can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. With a healthy dose of confidence, you can lead by example, set a new status quo, and create new best practices altogether.

If you’re unsure how to build confidence in your ideas for innovation, consider sourcing a trusted mentor or more experienced colleague as your sounding board. Ask them about times they’ve innovated their approaches to business, what they did well, what they wish they knew beforehand, and what advice they have for you. These learned experiences are key to giving you a set of healthy guardrails as you set out to chart a new path.

Innovation is well within reach

You’re ready to go forth, break outside the box, and level up your business like never before. It may seem a little scary, but nothing good ever came from the same old comfort zone.

To read the complete article and to find other useful resources, go to the Realtor.com PRO Resource center at www.realtor.com/marketing/resources