ONE LESSON

When I owned my brokerage, our focus was mostly on recruiting new agents and agents who had been in the industry for a few years. On average I would interview I would interview 2-3 agents a week looking to join.

At the beginning of every meeting, I would ask each agent a question and, depending on their response (and their body language), determined whether I would continue the meeting or not. I would ask them, “If I gave you a ready, willing, and able buyer looking to purchase at $60,000, would you work it?”

Most agents said they would and did so eagerly. This allowed me to believe they were motivated and willing to do the work to succeed, so it would be worth investing my time to educate them. But one day, a new agent responded, “I only want to work with million-dollar clients.” When I heard this, I knew this person wasn’t a good fit, so I ended the interview and told the agent that millionaires are millionaires because they are smart; they are not going to use a new agent with no experience. First, get the experience, then work your way up to higher price points. He disagreed with me and told me he would be working with millionaires soon.

My partner looked up his production a few years later; he didn’t have any.

LESSON LEARNED: Knowledge comes from experience

Many agents that enter the industry have a similar mindset to the agent above. They see how being a real estate agent is portrayed on TV and social media and think it’s reality. It’s not. Success in real estate comes from gaining experience. Experience you can speak from when trying to convince people to use you versus every other agent in your market. Disregard price points to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible. The time spent on these clients will pay off hundreds, if not thousands, of times over!