Launching your career in real estate is no easy venture. My heart bleeds for new agents who have worked so hard to earn their license and complete all of their post-licensing sales training and now are ready to roll! But there’s one little problem: Now what?
The lucky few are able to join progressive brokerages or powerful teams with in-house mentorship, but far too many will struggle on their own unsure of where to turn or how to start.
I reached out to my amazing network around North America for their BEST advice to new agents on how to launch their businesses powerfully and we got the most amazing responses with some common themes.
The secrets to success (in real estate AND life)
by Sunny Lake
1. Be true to yourself. In doing this, you will attract the kinds of clients that you want to work with, and they will adore and respect the heck out of you. This is one of the most important things you can do in your business and your life in general. It will help you keep balance. It will help you keep perspective. It will help you be successful on your terms.
2. Take time for you. This job can be so very rewarding, but it can just as easily suck the life out of you. You have to make time for yourself — put it on your calendar and respect that appointment as you would any other appointment. Whatever helps you come back to center, do that — meditate; read; spend time with your family and friends; run; travel — do something that gets you AWAY mentally or physically or both.
3. Build routine into your day. When you have a conventional job, you come to work and have a set of tasks that you need to get done within a certain amount of time. When you are a real estate broker, you don’t have that same structure inherent in the job, so you must create that for yourself. Come up with a daily routine that works for you, and stick with it. It’s easy to lose focus and motivation if, when you wake up, you don’t know what you need to get done.
4. Treat your business like a business. YOU are your business, and you have to treat yourself that way. I’m not saying that you can’t have fun, you totally should. But you need to remember that this is your job.
5. Learn as much and as often as you can. No one can learn everything, but everyone can learn a lot about a few areas. Find out what you and your clients are passionate about, and never stop learning and growing in these areas. Love technology? Always be striving to learn more about it. Love photography? Take some classes, or get out there and shoot pictures. Always keep your mind open to learning more.
6. Share what you know and learn. Knowledge is wasted if it isn’t shared. Some of the smartest people I know are also the most generous with their knowledge. If you learn about something that may help someone else out, tell them — show them how to do it — help them grow.
7. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to be successful. Yes, you have to spend some money, but you don’t have to go into debt to get started and be wildly successful. Find a couple key programs and services (ask for suggestions) that will work for you and that you’ll use consistently (LOTS have free trial periods, so look around and find the ones that fit), and then implement them. Consistency is key if anything is going to work. But you can find amazing tools that won’t cost more than a few lattes each month.
8. Love your clients. Your clients can make or break you, so learn to love them in ways that they feel it. This is a personal business, so get to know them on a personal level and connect with them. When your clients become your friends, they will also become your advocates. And advocates will tell everyone they know about you and how great you are.
Note from Teri: Sunny is just one of many pros who’ve contributed their advice for new agents. Check out my Agent Quest e-zine for tips from real estate gurus like Raj Qsar, Laura Monroe, Sean Carpenter, and more.
Teri is the founder and real estate coach at www.AgentQuest.ca mentoring, guiding and shepherding new agents to identify their core strengths and values, design a business vision that inspires them, and connect them with the systems and tools and brand to help them achieve their goals. Reach out to her on Twitter: @TeriConrad and @ConvosTMatter.
