Selling real estate can be a great career with a flexible schedule, being your own boss, and potential to make great money whether you’d like to do it full time or part time. Veteran agents who remember what it was like during their green months give their feedback on what generally works to get started as a new agent and be able to break in to real estate successfully –
Identify what area you want to target – don’t try to sell the whole town starting out. Start with a workable area and market it hard.
Walk your targeted neighborhoods so people can become familiar with you. Drop off informational flyers about current home prices regarding those specific streets you walk or other helpful information, do this at least once a quarter. To help disarm people about you being a “salesman”, some realtors have had good luck walking their dog which acts as a conversation starter. Always wear a nice polo or other shirt with your name and/or office logo so people can notice it without you having to bring it up.
Door knocking worked for many newbie realtors, but has not worked for others. There are some factors to take into consideration – neighborhood types, neighborhood soliciting rules, distance between houses as to not do too much walking and very little house contact, walking and talking to people in the southern US can be different than walking and talking to neighbors in the big cities of the Northeast, or your local realtor board may not approve of MLS data being distributed. Don’t use this as an excuse not to get out there and contact people, but to help be realistic in it being effective.
Develop your network – work this every day for about 2-3 hours, doing some kind of prospect work, whether it be walking your neighborhoods passing out info packets, posting a flyer or business card at a local restaurant, introducing yourself to complimentary businesses like mortgage brokers, house painters, or even other agents. A little seed planted here and there everyday over the long term will eventually produce consistent leads and referrals in the long run.
Build your online presence – About 80% of home buyers research online for homes and agents to assist them when they are planning their move. Having a web presence is highly recommended these days to obtain leads, but don’t make it your sole source of lead generation, especially when you’re just starting out. Find specific keywords that will increase your odds of ranking well, like “atlanta home for sale under $300,000” rather than general, highly competitive terms like “atlanta real estate”.
No need to spend $1000-$2000 to develop a website. A quality website using WordPress can be built with an AgentPress theme from StudioPress and have access to various plugins to customize your site. Even if you hire someone to build it for you, it should still be less than $1000 since they don’t have to build it from scratch.
If you’re good at writing, you can include a blog with helpful posts about your targeted area to help drive quality traffic. One post once every week or two should build up nicely over time and attract all kinds of leads from various searches other than someone looking for a house for sale. Even though they might not be looking to buy or sell, if you have helpful posts about your area they like to read, the time will come someone needs an agent’s assistance and your name will come to mind.
So what is the one key skill new agents need to develop in order to succeed in real estate? One agent offered his observation –
“Why the failure rate? People aren’t by nature persistant. They like to think they are, but they aren’t. They go to classes, work on designing ads, plan out marketing campaigns, change marketing plans, ask advise from the other lazy agents in the office, change marketing plans again, write out goals, and do just about anything EXCEPT what is going to bring in business. You can stay really busy and never make a penny in this business- or you can work part time and still make a killing. It’s 100% up to you, and you can’t blame anyone except yourself.”
Treat it like a business, be tenacious with your prospecting, be in it for the long haul and you will become a success.
Good source for further real estate how-to knowledge –
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