So you’re a new real estate agent. Now what? As someone new to the business, you’re bound to have questions.
Unlike other careers, there’s not a clear path from license to success in real estate. Many new agents struggle to find leads, land clients and close sales.
Surviving the steep learning curve beginners face can be tough, but rewarding. These new real estate agent tips will help set you up for the best long-term success.
The Best Tips for New Real Estate Agents
If you are wondering what you really need to do to get a good start in real estate, these are the tips to know. Here’s the best advice for new real estate agents in 2024.
1. Realize It’s Your Business
It’s a great time to land in real estate — if you understand the industry you’re getting into. The best first piece of advice for new real estate agents today is to realize this isn’t a regular 9-to-5. It really is your own business.
You may hang your hat at with a particular brokerage, but even early on, you’ll need to think about things most ordinary employees never consider. There’ll be long hours, handling much of your own lead generation, sales and marketing, budgeting your own expenses, overcoming your own challenges, and not getting paid until you close a sale.
On the flip side, you have a lot of freedom to decide on a future for yourself. Start dreaming, planning and taking steps to make it all happen right from the beginning.
2. Crunch the Numbers Early
A lot of new agent stress can be avoided if you sit down and crunch the numbers early. Really evaluate where you are and where you want to go. Make sure starting out you have a cushion of savings to last you until you can start making money. Then set sales goals and devise a realistic plan to start achieving them.
You need a certain number of annual sales to meet your income goal. That number will vary, depending on your commission, the local market and your business goals. But no matter what your sales goal is, realize you’ll need many real estate leads to land just one of those sales.
Smart lead generation helps you build up a solid first book of business. Over time, you’ll turn your numbers focus to saving and investing back in the business so you can continue to grow.
3. Play to Your Strengths
One of the best tips for new real estate agents is a really old piece of advice: people do business with people. No matter who you are, there’s something that sets you apart from everyone else. Play to those strengths to connect with potential buyers and sellers and stand out from the crowd.
Every Realtor wants to help buyers and sellers achieve their dreams, but not everyone is you. Think about who you are as a person and how you want to be perceived by the public at large as a real estate professional.
Build a personal brand around the characteristics, skills and values that make you uniquely suited for helping your clients achieve their dreams.
4. Automate What You Can
In real estate, you soon figure out there aren’t enough hours in the day. Trying to do everything by hand will leave you tired, stressed out and making mistakes. Automation can help.
Simple, boring and repetitive tasks are more efficient when you let your computer systems take care of it. Think about using it with your website, lead capture forms, email campaigns, CRM systems and so on.
Automation leaves you more time for the things that are important, like sales prospecting, working with clients and providing that personal touch.
5. Put Your Focus on Sales
Your success will depend a lot on where you put your attention. Therefore, another one of the best new Realtor tips is this — focus on sales.
A focus on getting as many qualified warm leads into your sales funnel as possible will pay the biggest dividends in the long run. The more potential home buyers and sellers you talk to, the more opportunity you have to earn a commission on a sale, or even on a referral.
Lead generation opportunities abound. Add lead capture forms to your website, open house sign-ups, free downloads and social media posts. Or use lead tools like those from Zillow and Realtor.com or other services like Bold Leads.
6. Invest in the Right Tools
No matter your career, it’s always important to have the right tools for the job. In real estate, having the right tools will make a big difference in getting your agent business up and running, as well as in your long-term success.
Here, you want to focus particularly on good tools for CRM, lead generation, website and marketing. The best tools cost money, but look at it as an investment in your business and your future.
If you’re curious what our essential tools for real estate agents are, you can find the specifics here. When you choose your own tools, focus on automating repetitive processes, boosting your productivity and wowing clients for the biggest impact.
7. Make Your Marketing Pop
Real estate is a business where your online marketing really moves the needle. To make it, you really need to make your marketing pop.
Websites are often a client’s first impression of you, so you need to make a statement. Invest in a great website early on that showcases your knowledge, listings, successes and testimonials. The quality of photography of your listings also matters a lot. Always hire a pro photographer for the best photos. Social media is great for sharing your knowledge of the market, making connections, and helping personalize your brand. Make sure to use text and imagery that pops.
Good marketing will attract qualified leads, but it’s important to learn how to follow through. Develop a process for capturing and nurturing leads with each of your marketing channels.
8. Nurture Your Leads
One of the best tips for real estate agents we can give you is to realize that not all leads will be ready to buy or sell a home the first time they talk to you. Remember that for many people this is a huge decision — it takes time to be ready.
However, understand that it’s not always the first agent or the last agent a real estate client talks to that gets the sale. Often, it’s the most persistent. Nurturing leads for months or even years can really pay off in the long run.
Take advantage of your CRM and marketing automation features that allow you to check back in with cold leads every six months or so. Answer questions, be helpful, knowledgeable and encouraging, and you may just get the sale.
9. Build Good Relationships
Because people are so central to the business of real estate, it’s crucial to build good relationships. Everyone you talk to is a potential future lead or referral. It’s up to you to make it a reality.
While lead generation is key as a new agent, relationships will become more important to you than lead generation over the long term. That’s because everyone knows someone who will eventually need to buy or sell a home.
It’s never too early to develop good interpersonal skills and work on making connections with people to expand your network.
10. Keep Learning More
In real estate, it’s as much about what you know as who you know. People come to a Realtor because of your specialized knowledge and experience in the local home market and the complex process of buying or selling a home.
You enter the profession having just passed your licensing exam and with lots of valuable knowledge. But as an agent, you will find the learning never really stops.
The more you know, the better you are able to help buyers and sellers and the more you can grow your own business. Keep learning more. Seek out successful mentors to learn from. And stay up to date on what’s happening in the industry. Attend events, read the news and listen to real estate podcasts.
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More Tips for New Real Estate Agents
There’s always lots to learn when you begin a new career in real estate. From managing your business, to your marketing, sales and service, it’s all important for overall success.
However, one of the less-discussed aspects of real estate success is just as important — what to do after clients make an offer.
Transaction management is key to getting everyone to the closing table on time — It’s also hard work, so it pays to be organized.
With Folio, managing your transaction communications is a breeze thanks to Folio’s AI-powered algorithms that automatically organize your transactions into workflows that make sense for your business.
As an email add-on, Folio works with your existing Gmail or Outlook email to help you stay on top of deadlines, meetings, documents and updates.
Folio is great for real estate beginners, helping you save time and look like a pro, winning you happy clients and great testimonials.
Click here to try Folio today.
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