6 Tips to Succeed in Real Estate
1. Choose a Broker that is Team-Oriented
When you become a real estate agent, you are essentially your own CEO. This can feel empowering, but when you are new to real estate, this can be feel more overwhelming. It’s important to find a broker that has a formal mentorship program in place to help you build your business, even at the expense of giving up some more of your commission split. After all, it’s better to get 30% of something rather than 100% of nothing.
There are some red flags you should be aware of as well. If a broker tells you everything you want to hear and asks for more than 50% of the split, then that should raise some alarm bells. If they truly are focused on building a team environment and value you as a person, they will never try to take advantage of you by asking for more than half of the commission split.
But being on a team goes both ways. You can just sit there and expect people to do everything for you. You’ve got to help out too. Offer to help other agents with their listings, show open houses, or help them close deals. This will not only provide you with invaluable experience, but they will be more inclined to help you on your deals in the future.
2. Meet as Many People as You Can
The real estate market is a people business. It’s really an outbound sales position. There are only two metrics that matter: the number of people you talk to and the quality of those conversations. The more people you reach out to, the more practice you will get to sharpen your social skills to close deals.
The great thing about working in the real estate market today is that it is incredibly easy to find ways to meet new people. The internet and social media give you so many options to choose from. You can hop on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and many other online resources that are just a click away.
Your sales skills are the most important part of real estate business. It’s not marketing or even how many listings you have, people will do business with you because of how you make them feel. What’s great about this is that this means, especially if you are new agent, you can quickly catch up and even beat the top agents. Your potential is unlimited.
3. Practice
What will set you apart from every other real estate agent are your people skills. If you are new and are not confident with your skills, that is okay. The great thing is that skills are learned and acquired with practice. Once you master these skills, you will automatically become more confident, and your clients will take notice. They will feel more comfortable entrusting you with the biggest financial decision of their lives. After you do a great job, they will even want to refer their friends and family over to you.
The first step will be to identify your weaknesses because the areas you are already strong in, you probably don’t need to spend any time on. If you can’t give yourself a fair self-evaluation, find a team member who is willing to give you some constructive criticism.
Once you have those weak areas identified, formulate a plan of action. For example, if cold calling is your weak area, then draft a few scripts to read from until it flows from your mouth. If your presentation skills are lacking, try to role play at home and rehearse it as many times as you need to perfect your presentation.
4. Get a Coach
If you are worried about the cost of hiring a coach, then try to think of it this way: you can’t afford not to have a coach. Your broker may already have you assigned to a mentor, but if you really want to take your game to the next level, it’s going to require a financial investment of your own.
Think of professional athletes, they have coaches for all aspects of the sports. In fact, there is so much coaching to be done that coaches typically have their own assistants to help them. If the best athletes in the world benefit from having coaches, then the same would apply for a real estate agent, especially someone that is new to the industry.
5. Build a Plan to Schedule Your Days
Build a plan of action as to how you will reach your income goals. This could mean setting tangible goals that you can hit on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. For example, you could set the number of cold calls per day, number of open houses you hold, or number of transactions per month.
Having a detailed schedule of your week will save you time and money. Rather than driving back and forth around the city, try to map out your appointments beforehand so you can take the most efficient routes.
No matter what your schedule looks like, the most important thing is to stay consistent. This will allow you to see what works and what doesn’t. Eventually this will turn into lessons learned, which will allow you to maximize every second of every day. Ultimately, this higher productivity results in higher income.
6. Follow up
Everyone you meet is a potential lead or at the very least, can refer you over to one of their friends and family members who may be a potential lead. They may not be in the market to buy or sell a home right this second, but given enough time, everyone will eventually know someone who wants to own a home.
This is why it is important to maintain contact with everyone you meet on a regular basis. You want them to associate “real estate” with your name. There are a variety of ways to accomplish this. You can follow them on social media, send out Christmas or other holiday cards, publish newsletters, or go the old-fashioned route with a simple phone call.
Focus on your own sphere of influence. This involves your friends, family, and acquaintances. After you’ve hit up your sphere of influence, there is a temptation to neglect giving them your attention and focus on easier leads such as Zillow leads. However, you would be best to check in with all of them every once in a while. It could be as little as once a year, but the key is to not write them off forever and to keep in contact with them.
No matter how you do it, it’s important to always keep your brand in mind and say what you are going to do. Because you probably won’t be in contact with them for months, they will remember your last interaction with them, and you want them to have good memories of you. You want them to remember you as a solid, reliable, and personable person.