Your First Year as a Real Estate Agent — What it Really Takes
New Real Estate Agent Tips
It can be overwhelming to start a new career, and becoming a real estate agent is no different. There is a lot to learn in the beginning, and most new agents are not sure where to start. If you are about to enter the real estate industry, there are a handful of things you want to make sure you do to set yourself up for quicker success. Below are the five tips that I would follow if I were starting my career today.
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Interview at multiple brokerages to find the one that supports you and allows you to grow.
Find a mentor who can help you when you need it, not when it is convenient for them.
Build your database (make a list of ALL the people you know) and market to it 50 times a year at a minimum.
Make it your goal to learn as much as you can about everything: your market, different types of properties, pricing, neighborhoods, how to use the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), how transactions work, etc.
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Ignore price points. Focus on completing as many sales as possible. The best way to learn is through experience.
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Sadly, there is a minimal amount of resources available for new agents. This means to succeed as a new real estate agent, you need to take things into your own hands and learn as much as you can as quickly as you can.
To do this, here are the main things you want to focus on when you get licensed (besides what I mentioned above)...
Succeed as a New Real Estate Agent
Take your time to do your research and find the right brokerage for you and your business. Look for brokerages with education for new agents, support their agents through mentorship, and offer you the opportunity to grow and build the type of business you want.
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Get to know your market as much as possible. Learn the different types of properties, understand price points, know main streets and neighborhood boundaries, and discover the details people can easily get on applications (i.e., when a new grocery store is being built).
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Study your Multiple Listing Service (MLS) program. Learn how to set up property searches for buyers, how to do a market analysis to find the correct value for a property, and all of the features that can benefit you and your clients.
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Question everything! Do not be afraid to ask questions. There is no such this as a dumb question if you do not know the answer! Ask until you get the answer you are looking for.
Work hard! You will never achieve the life you want unless you work for it
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If you want two resources designed to help you learn how to create your business and build it at the same time, please check out my books, The Education of a Real Estate Agent and The Education of a Real Estate Agent Workbook that goes with it!
Avoid Failing as a New Agent
Although it is easy to get a real estate license, succeeding as an agent is very challenging. So much so that 75% of people don’t even make it past their first year!
To make sure you are in the best possible place to be a part of the other 25%, here is what you need to avoid…
Treating it as a 9-5 job. Real estate doesn’t have set hours, so you need to be prepared to work as often as possible. Especially when your clients need you!
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Thinking it is going to be easy. Building a successful real estate business is not as easy as it’s shown on TV and social media.
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Not having a plan in place to pay for your business and life. Ideally, you want to have at least six months of funds that will cover both comfortably.
If you want to learn more ways you can avoid failing as a new agent, please sign up for my FREE Newsletter, and I’ll send you a FREE digital book The Top 10 Mistakes New Agents Make and How You Can Avoid Them!
As a new agent, your time is going to be spent between building the parts of your business and trying to generate clients. The first few months are the most important since it is when you create the foundation you will build your future on.
There are several things you will need to get in place to create the foundation of your business.
What do New Agents do
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Your goals for what you want to achieve, not just in your first year, but for the future as well.
A database full of people and a plan to market to them.
A budget that includes fixed and variable expenses for both your business and your life.
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While you are building your business, you will also need to prospect to get clients. Here are a few ways you can do this for free…
Call/text people you know to let them know about your new job and that you can help them or anyone they know.
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Send a monthly e-newsletter to your database where you provide value and remind them of what you do.
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Use social media to not only post about your new career, but also see if any of your connections are posting about life-changing events where people typically move, i.e., promotions, new jobs, having babies, etc.
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First Year Real Estate Roadmap
The first 12 months of your real estate career can be overwhelming. There’s a lot to understand, and it can be challenging to figure out what to focus on.
To help you with this, here is a simple real estate roadmap to guide you.
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Sign up and pass your pre-licensing classes.
Sign up and pass your state and national exams.
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Join a brokerage that will support you.
Write out your goals for business and life for the next 12 months and the future.
Build your database and start marketing to it.
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Make an announcement and let people know about your new career.
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Build your business/life budget.
Find a mentor who can help guide you.
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Spend time each day learning as much as you can as often as you can.
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Prospect every day for new clients.
If you want to learn more about what to do as a first-year agent, check out my Blog filled with a lot more information that can help you!
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When I left Corporate America, I had no idea what I wanted to do, but then I found being a real estate agent, and it changed my life forever. If you are looking for something that can change your life, check out my digital book Step Out of Line and learn how becoming an agent can help you create the life you want!