It’s mid-February, and it’s clear to see that 2024 has begun with an air of optimism. Depending on how congested your social media feed is with agents, you could be led to believe it was 2021, or dare I say it, 2006.

Inflation looks to be under control, interest rates are holding, and borrowing costs have come down. And specifically, in the world of agency, not that your average consumer cares much, stock levels are up, demand is up, and the sales agreed ratio is up.

Before we pop the bubbly let’s rewind a year, when there was a somewhat different outlook. We were being told we were about to embark on the toughest year in agency since Covid – so the toughest year in three years then!?!?

We were made to suffer the doom-monger nonsense from all the Charlie’s, desperate for their 15 minutes, no matter how idiotic their claims, or the potential for damage they were doing.

Here’s where the paradox kicks in though. Last year was tough, I get that, the media had a field day suppressing demand. As agents we were more than happy to ‘blame’ the market for our position. This year though, I’ve spoken to several agents that are quoting new initiatives as the reason for their great start to the year. Where were these new initiatives in 2023?

I’ve always found it odd that business failure is often attributed to circumstance, whereas business success is down to some genius at the top. Funny that, isn’t it. I often wonder whether the truth is far more to do with mindset, tactics and quality experience.

Imagine if you will, a parallel dimension that operates an identical housing market to ours, but without access to any of the data. They don’t get to watch to Mr Watkins fantastic weekly podcast, everyone’s favourite marketing portal isn’t providing he consumer with every price seemingly ever recorded, and last year news on sales volumes is just that, last years news.

In this parallel dimension there are no preconceptions about what’s to come, no predictions about the market, and very little bad advice on offer, because they understand that the market is what the market it is.

These poor folk, with their lack of property data knowledge, still manage to fill their days. Rather than worrying about failure, they plan for success. Instead of focusing on property prices, they centre in on marketing, to achieve the best result. And they never get hung up on transaction volumes, they’d prefer to set valuation targets, as they know that’s what drives business success.

They may be ill-informed, but I bet they manage to get more done, I’ll also bet they work on the right things first, and I’ll guarantee they end up with less egg on their face than those that would make market predictions.

And what’s really interesting, is that in this parallel dimension, they are also having to live with the horrors of war, which is impacting inflation, which is causing interest rates to rise, which is hurting borrowing, which is supressing pricing, but they get on with grafting to book those valuations anyway, and I bet they’re all the happier for it.

For what it’s worth, I think 2024 could be more challenging than 2023, with buyer and seller positions widening and the media turning its attention to a general election, rather than helping to educate the consumer on the economic position of the country, if you can call it that.

We’re already 10% of the way through the year, are you and your business focusing on the right things, or are you letting the wave of positive emotions sweeping through much of the industry dictate what you achieve.

Ben Madden, 20-year estate agent, massive data geek, serious positive mindset enthusiast, and host of the Pass the Syrup podcast