10 Tips For New Real Estate Agents I Wish I Had Been Told

Published by Brian E Adams on August 9, 2019August 9, 2019

So, you think you want to become a real estate agent? Or maybe you’ve already got your real estate license and are well on your way!

Here are all the things you should (and shouldn’t) be thinking about based on my own personal experience trying to get established.

Budget a Lot

I did some back-of-the-envelope math that suggests the average new agent earns about $1.92 an hour.

Brace yourself!

You may have read that it can take up to 6 months to earn your first paycheck in this industry.

Well, you may not have heard that it can then be another six months before you earn your second paycheck.

I recommend being prepared to go at least two years without needing to rely on your real estate income. If you’re the second income at home, then even better. But as a primary earner, don’t go into this business without savings.

I personally did 6 deals my first year. 12 the second. 24 the third. And finally 36 the fourth. (I fell off to 30 in my fifth year, sad face).

If you don’t have two years you can go with earning very little, then consider joining a team, which I speak about below.

I’m all about diversifying your income as well. Whether still growing your business or an experienced agent, consider ways to make side income as well.

Control Spending

I looked at the things I think a new agent should spend money on.

It’s incredible how quickly spending can get out of hand! Even if you can get a CRM, website, accounting software, document storage, and e-signature for under $200/mo, that is $2400/yr – over 6% of an average agent’s salary.

And that’s not even a new agent’s salary, who is likely making less than average their first year in real estate.

Yikes!

Spending too much is the bane of real estate. And this is true of established agents, too. I made the same mistake, spending too much when times were good, only to get into the winter slump and having to cut expenses. It is not fun.

Watch your spending like a hawk. Lead with revenue. Earn money before you spend money.

Join a Team

One way to help with budgeting and spending is to join an established team.

You can be a buyer’s agent with guaranteed leads and business, helping your money woes. You also should get a peek behind the curtain at what a successful team lead agent is doing. That experience and training can be invaluable.

After a few years, you can decide whether to take those skills on the road in your own show.

Sure, the splits are going to be low. But you can save a lot of your time by not reinventing the wheel. Do what works!

Some of the most successful teams are here on the Real Trends 1000 report. Check out who the top dogs are in your area! (You probably already know).

Alternatively, you can explore becoming a salaried real estate agent with a company like Redfin. These companies sometimes prefer newbies to more experienced agents who have picked up bad habits.

Get the GRI Designation

The “Graduate Realtor Institute” from the National Association of Realtors is one of the most basic and first designations you will want to get as an agent.

Unlike others, it does not take any recurring money to keep current. Do it and done!

The course is essentially everything the real estate exam probably should have taught you but didn’t. Real estate marketing. Contracts. Lead Generation. Best practices. It’s great!

When I finished the course I found that I knew more than some of the more established agents in my market.

It isn’t cheap. It is three, four-day courses for twelve days total and can be $500-$1000. But it is 100% worth it (and counts as your continuing education in most States).

Attend Your State Convention

The State and national conferences are great!

I highly recommend attending. You can knock out your CE, learn a lot of new stuff, meet your industry leaders, and karaoke your way to new friendships.

It was my first trip to the Texas conference where I was inspired to completely redo my website strategy, a decision that resulted in $100,000s of business for me.

The convention is not cheap, either, if you are staying on the premise. But you can also get a cheap hotel offsite and often attend most of the events and training for free.

Find an Accountability Buddy

Teamwork makes the dream work.

It’s too easy to get listless when working on your own. You lose sight of your goals. You develop bad habits. You’re not accountable.

Fix it with an accountability partner.

It can be someone of your own skills or, ideally, a mentor. I would look for someone with a similar personality and prospecting style as you. Do you dial for dollars? Find another agent who wants to work expireds and FSBOs just as hard.

I recommend someone in your office, though browsing around I found services that purport to help with this as well, like GetMotivatedBuddies. I have no idea if that is a good provider or not, but it’s an interesting concept!

Focus, Narrow, and Niche

As a new agent, I tried to do too much.

In part, it was useful. I at least got a taste of just about everything possible before deciding on what suited me best. I have door knocked, sent mailers, sat builder open houses, built multiple websites, bought Zillow leads, bought Facebook ads, tried to do social networking, spent money on Google AdWords, worked probate lists, networked with investors, and more.

Only two of those things did I ever do well. The rest spread me really thin, took my time, and a lot of my money.

It would have been much better if I had quickly identified four main pillars for my business and focused just on those. Find your niche!

For me, those four pillars were referrals (every agent should have referrals and their sphere of influence as a pillar), my website, investors, and landlords.

You may not know what your pillars are at first, but try to find them quickly, and only work on four at a time. If a pillar is not working, you can swap it for another. But don’t try to do everything.

Subscribe to Sweet Podcasts

I use the Podcast Addict app to subscribe and listen to my podcasts, but I know there are lots of ways to get your podcast fix.

I wrote a list of the best real estate podcasts that I listen to. If I had to pick just one, Industry Relations is easily the one I get the most excited about. Rob Hahn and Greg Robertson talk about high-level industry movers and shakers, making sure you don’t lose sight of the 30,000-foot view of what is happening in the industry.

Read THE Books

Stay on top of your education by reading the top real estate books out there!

I have an Audible account and do a mix of fiction, business, and historical non-fiction books for my car journeys.

Gary Keller and his books The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, The One Thing, and Shift are each a decade old, and yet still extremely relevant to the basic business planning of an agent. They contain timeless advice for new real estate agents.

Learn About Our Changing Industry

The real estate industry is in motion.

Home buyers and sellers have more options and information than ever before. Real estate business owners are getting more and more professional and consumer expectations are rising.

Check out this video about real estate to get an idea of what is happening in our industry today. The industry is going pro, consolidating, and big companies are shoving out the little guy.

He talks about the “mode” for real estate transactions per agent is … 0. That means more agents do not a single deal every year than do any other number of deals (1, 2, 10, etc).

That’s pretty depressing!

In order to thrive as a successful real estate agent, I recommend you need to be in the top 5% of agents in your market. The only way to do that is keeping plugged into the big picture of our industry.

I recommend reading up on these industry professionals that I follow. That includes a subscription to Inman is you are serious about real estate!

The big trends to follow closely?