There are many ways to generate more sales for your real estate business. Learning new sales techniques and understanding different ways to market yourself is important. But what about understanding the local real estate market around you? That's what Pam Ermen did to become a great real estate agent.

Ermen became an agent at 18 years old and worked her way up to management by the age of 24. On top of her real estate business, she is the author of two training series on business planning and team growth. One of the assets she posses that continues to drive her career is the ability to spot trends and patterns in the real estate market.

Factors Affecting the Market

The real estate market has both positive and negative factors that influence how the current market behaves. To understand these, Ermen sat down and took an in-depth look at what defines an economic bubble. Ermen found that there are six factors that can be good or bad, but it all depends on if you know how to interpret them.

The factors that Ermen found were unemployment, housing affordability, interest rates and mortgage affordability, distressed properties and foreclosure, vacancy rates, and home sales supply and demand.

Ermen continues to stress that if you can understand the patterns of these six factors, then you will be able to manage your business accordingly.

Tracking Trends

So now you know the six factors that can affect the real estate market, but how do you track those factors over time to see trends? Ermen shared some of the easy ways she stays on top of this information.

• Sign up for Google Alerts. This service alerts you and tracks economic trends, jobs and business-related topics. This is an easy way for you to stay up-to-date with news and trends in the real estate market.
• View NAR's Housing Affordability Index. This is provided to show you how affordable homes are in your area. When the index fluctuates, you have something to share with your clients, both buyers and sellers.
• Homes.com's affordability calculator is an amazing utility to use as well. This tool helps you find out just exactly how much your clients can afford.

Current Market Conditions

To begin to understand the trends and patterns in the market, Ermen says that you have to understand where the market is sitting at as of now. According to Ermen, she currently sees patterns that are similar to that of the 2003 real estate boom. She says, "The market may be slowing itself down. What we need to do is track what's happening and understand how to use that information."

To hear more about how you can understand your market to generate more sales, you can listen to Ermen's Secrets webinar here.

To view the original article, visit the Homes.com blog.