7 Essential Tips to Become a Successful Real Estate Agent
Congratulations! You’ve passed your real estate licensing test. Now you can put up a website and begin growing your business so you can start helping your clients buy and sell houses. The only problem? Studying for a test hasn’t helped you get leads. In fact, all the formal knowledge in the world can’t substitute for getting out there and building a reputation through active engagement with potential clients in your target neighborhood. The mark of a successful real estate agent is a willingness to learn from others and build the foundation of a strong network, using all the resources at their disposal. The following tips will help you become a successful real estate agent.
Find a Mentor This person can be a seasoned professional at the company where you work, possibly a broker with years of experience handling complicated negotiations. Offering to assist in some real estate deals under an established agent will give you practical knowledge not just about selling, but about the nitty-gritty details in the underwriting. You’ll gain confidence and valuable insight.
Hire a Real Estate Trainer While a mentor will share information for free, more and more real estate agents are paying to receive more focused direction from professional real estate trainers. Coaches can help you develop short and long-term goals, while encouraging you to stay on track. They are also able to assess your unique skills and help you utilize them to attract clients and develop your business. Can’t afford a coach? Keeping It Real offers free podcasts by successful agents so that you can watch and learn from their experience.
Tap Into Local Professionals Every lawyer, insurance agent, CPA, or local barista potentially knows a homeowner who’s thinking of listing their home or knows of someone who is moving into town. Great real estate agents learn to stay in touch with local professionals, creating a referral network that expands their client base organically and helps to establish them as a neighborhood expert.
Host Open Houses Open houses are a great place to hone your sales and marketing skills, especially when you are first starting out. If you don’t have a listing of your own, you can email members of your office to ask whether it’s possible to host someone else’s property that week. Actively promoting the open house beforehand leads to more clicks on the property and potentially more engagement with your website. And at the event itself, you have an opportunity to connect with a variety of buyers, sellers, brokers, and other agents.
Build Your Brand What kind of real estate agent do you envision yourself to be? Do you excel at making first-time buyers comfortable as they navigate the brave new world of homeownership? Are you a ruthless negotiator who is building their niche in the luxury home market? Do you help couples downsize or investors find the perfect vacation home? Your headshot, website graphics, social media messaging, blog posts, and listings should appeal to the type of client you want to attract. It doesn’t hurt to offer useful information on your website, either. If you can keep visitors on your page, you are already establishing trust that may convert into a lead.
Invest in the Latest Technology Successful real estate agents brand themselves consistently across a variety of social media platforms, and they stay abreast of the latest software tools to improve their business. It is especially important to make sure your website is optimized for mobile. Most people searching for homes are using their phones; if your site is clunky or hard to read, potential clients will click away.
Know Your Neighborhood Buyers and sellers rely on real estate agents for a multitude of information. Is there a good handyman to fix these drywall cracks? Does the elementary school have a bilingual program? Where can I get good sushi? Successful real estate agents not only have the answers to these questions, they cultivate an active and positive presence in their target neighborhoods.
The Bottom Line? While it helps to be knowledgeable about the details of the business, real estate is a career where intuition, people skills, and persistence are key. People who dive right in and start building a reputation for themselves as trusted members of the community have the best chance of success.
About Century 21 Peak Proud members of Century 21 Real Estate LLC, a network comprised of nearly 7000 independently owned and operated franchised broker offices worldwide, Century 21 Peak serves the real estate needs of greater Los Angeles, with offices in Granada Hills, North Hollywood, Upland, and Warner Center. Our team of experienced real estate agents assist clients in all stages of the buying and selling process. Looking for guidance in passing your real estate exam and achieving your professional goals? Utilize Peak’s Real Estate Academy for comprehensive real estate education and access to our vast network of agents, brokers, and buyers. Follow Century 21 Peak on Facebook for industry insights and more!