Ten Tips for Rookie Real Estate Agents
Misc.
Starting out as a rookie real estate agent has its own special set of pitfalls, particularly if you’re not used to working as an independent contractor. Real estate is a highly competitive market to break into, but with careful planning and efficient use of marketing strategies it’s possible to avoid the mistakes that rookie agents typically make.
1) Think of yourself as a Small Business Owner
Even though you’ll be working for a broker, it’s wise to think of yourself as small business owner. You’re an independent contractor working on a commission basis, and that means you are entirely responsible for your own success. You must set your own goals, work out your own business plan for achieving them, and market yourself, as well.
2) Choose your Broker and your Team Carefully
Only you are responsible for your success, but part of that success is determined by the people you choose to work with. As a rookie real estate agent it’s tempting to choose the broker that offers the best commission splits, but its better by far to choose one that offers more useful benefits. Look for a company that provides training, support and leads to help launch your new career. A 90/10 commission plan may look good on paper, but if the company can’t help you grow your business 90% of zero is still zero. Check out what Real Living has to offer.
You’ll also be working with a closing team that includes lenders, insurance agents, inspectors and appraisers. Anyone you refer to your clients should be the best person for the job, because a poor performance from them can potentially lose you the sale or worse yet – repeat business or referrals.
3) Define your Goals
Do you want to become the number one agent in your area? or are your goals strictly financial? Setting goals is the best way of starting out—with a set of clearly defined goals, you have a firm basis for planning where to concentrate your efforts.
Set goals that are realistic and achievable. It often helps to break down each of your large goals into a series of smaller goals that you’ll need to achieve along the way. For example, if your first goal is to sell 15 homes in your first year, break that down into a weekly and daily action plan. How many buyer/seller appointments are you going to need in your database to sell 15 homes? How many leads are you going to need to generate those appointments? How are you going to generate those leads?
4) Create a Business Plan
With your goals defined, you can determine what you must do to achieve them. Creating a business plan will help you decide how to allocate your funds and resources, and since it may be several months before you make your first sale, budgeting is a particularly important part of this plan for new agents. Don’t forget to include marketing in your budget—one of the top mistakes rookie real estate agents make is forgetting to set money aside for advertising purposes.
One of the best ways to make the most of your marketing budget is to choose a well defined niche, see A Farm vs. A Niche.
5) Budget your Time as well as your Money
Time management is an essential skill for any independent contractor. Your time is just as valuable as your money, so it makes sense to manage both assets wisely. Consider investing in a PDA or other electronic organizer that you can carry around with you. These tools are light, portable and easy to use, and include a wide variety of functions, such as clock, alarm, calculator, address book, and word processing. New models include a web browser, a phone, and in some cases can even open lockboxes making them a fantastic all-in-one unit to keep on hand.
6) Make yourself Available
Sales can be lost all too easily if you can’t contact the right people at the right time, so it’s essential that your clients and associates be able to reach you—it’s no longer enough to check your phone messages each time you swing by the office. A mobile phone that allows you to access the internet and check your email messages is a great tool for an agent to have, since it allows you to check both phone and email any time you need to. With most consumers choosing the first real estate agent to contact them, you’ll want to do everything you can to make sure you’re the first.
7) Create and Market your Own Website
With over 80% of homebuyers start their home search online, you’ll want to establish an online presence. One of the best ways to differentiate yourself online and focus your marketing strategies is to create website targeting your niche. By positioning yourself as the expert in your market, a careful choice of key words, and by continually adding new content, you can create a site that will rank well with search engines and keep people coming back to visit. A particularly effective marketing tactic is to offer free content such as a weekly or monthly newsletter, with a free gift such as an e-book for people who sign up to give you an edge in building your subscriber base.
8) Don’t Neglect Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is a new term that describes an old tried and true method of marketing: word of mouth. This can be as simple as encouraging family and friends to tell others about your new business, or can be achieved on the internet via your website. Don’t forget to keep in touch with past clients as they are an important source of repeat business and referrals. Creating an email newsletter is a great way of tapping into viral marketing—add a “forward to a friend” feature to your newsletters, and include information or special offers that will tempt people into forwarding your letters to friends and family. Don’t make it all about real estate – make it about life.
9) Track your Activity and Results
Tracking your progress from the beginning allows you to determine what types of activities are most effective in terms of generating business and sales. Set up a simple spreadsheet where you can list every business-related activity you carry out each day, whether it’s calling potential clients, setting up appointments or simply distributing business cards. Doing this allows you to determine what types of activities are getting the best results, so you can concentrate your efforts in these areas.
10) Review, Reassess, Refine
Every three months, or six months—the actual time frame is less important than the fact that you do this on a regular basis—take some time to assess how your efforts are paying off. This means first reviewing your achievements, then reassessing your goals and plans, and finally refining the tactics you’re using to achieve your goals. Look at the big picture here, as well as the smaller details—this is a good time to create a new budget or set new goals.
This is a general overview of many areas to consider when entering into the real estate business. Stay tuned to upcoming blogs that lay out a detailed plan that you can implement.
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Date: Sunday, November, 4th 2007 @ 04:53:44 PMViews: 390
This blog entry currently has 1 comments posted.
Jim Hirschhorn
Great post! We may want to make this available to others in our Information Pamphlet.