Oh my gosh I’ve been in real estate for eight years and it has been quite an adventure. I look back at when I started it years ago and I literally can’t believe how far I have come. I use to find myself googling “if I were a realtor what would I do?” because I knew in my mind when I thought realtor does, and I knew that it’s definitely something that I was interested in doing… but oh my goodness there are SO MANY THINGS no one ever tells you about. I’m here to change that.
If I had to start over in real estate knowing what I know today I think these are the SIX things that would definitely have improved my success earlier on in my career (without so much work and having to kind of figure things out on my own and re-create a wheel that was already rolling in this industry.)
ONE
Most people get into real estate because they want to make their own schedule. What a joke. What you actually realize very quickly is you have no schedule. You are literally at the mercy of your clients and their needs and all of the contract timelines and steps that have to take place and every transaction.
There’s actually SO MUCH MORE than just showing houses, or putting a sign in the yard, or working up a contract. That’s probably, in my experience, about 5% of what realtor actually does. Getting a better understanding of the other 95% which has to do with (branding and marketing and prospecting and all of those additional things to create awareness that you’re a realtor) is something that someone really never told me and I had to learn the hard way.
TWO
The next thing I think is important is your brand. Brand is everything in a business. It’s great that you have your real estate license!! It’s great that you are excited about this new career!!! BUT if no one knows who you are or that you’re even a realtor in the first place… what are those things good for? That’s the struggle!!
Most people expect their phone to ring the minute you get your real estate license (we actually call that being a secret agent where you have your real estate license but you never tell anyone your realtor, you never prospect to anyone, and you never get involved in your community to the point that people don’t even know that’s what you are… womp womp womp)
THREE
A lot of people talk about the different brokerages and how one is better than the other or how one CRM is better than the other… but ultimately it really doesn’t come down to the brokerage, or the software, or the website, or any of those other things it literally comes down to you… The realtor.
Of course every brokerage is going to have training, they’re going to have basic understanding of real estate actions, and understanding the real estate life.You can choose to dive into everything they have to offer BUT that’s only gonna get you so far. What’s more important is what you have within you. Are you capable of being a self starter? Are you ready to commit to this as a career not just to hit an annual goal or a cap?
It’s got to come from a burning passion inside you that is willing to lay everything on the line, get out of your comfort zone, and do everything in your power to make sure that you have a successful thriving business.
There’s really no magic pill for this industry to be successful. It’s not the brokerage, it’s not the website, it’s not how many pieces of software are you purchase… none of that is going to matter unless you personally take initiative and have discipline in your daily life and in your calendar. Make sure you are prospecting, you are negotiating, you are getting involved in your community, and you’re becoming a face and a brand to everyone in your market.
FOUR
Let’s talk about financial commitment. When you get your license (although it’s not very expensive to do) no one really talks about the financial side of being a realtor. Every transaction comes with a split from your brokerage… so you’re not getting 100% of a commission. EVER. There are always fees associated and those are the things that are usually not talked about.
I think a lot of people get into this business and think that they can just be a solo agent. They just go around being a realtor they don’t really look at this industry for what it is… a business. Any successful business has multiple sides and multiple facets to how they operate. For example, you typically have a president or CEO, a marketing department, an accounting department, support staff, and management.
If you are just a solo agent the it’s just you wearing all those hats!! You, in fact, are running a business. I think what most new agents, or those wanting to get into the industry, are misinformed about all of the other pieces of the business.
FIVE
Real Estate is growing and changing every day. Real estate is a different now than it was when I got into the field. Now, with the presence of social media and the impact that makes on a career, I probably would have found a really strong team to join and learn from someone who is already successful.
Although that may have been just a temporary time, I feel like I would have gotten ahead of thr learning curve much quicker if had I joined a group of people who were collaborating, sharing, and mentoring. I probably could’ve shaved five years off of any struggles and self-taught practices.
SIX
Time management and discipline are probably the hardest parts of being a realtor. We go into each day expecting everything to go as planned. We are going to make our calls, we’re following up with our current files, we’re working on some marketing pieces, and maybe posting a few things on social media.
And then the phone rings… or you get that email where one of your transactions is running into a challenge… or that buyer that you’ve been talking to for months let you know they’re coming into town tomorrow and want to spend the weekend looking at houses….
I called that squirreling. You wake up early, you have your coffee, you work out, you get ready for your day, you come in to the office (or into your home office) thinking you’ve got everything organized and planned…and then you open your email, or your phone starts to ring, or you start seeing text messages popping up and all hell is breaking loose on your transactions, or you’ve got that client that has ghosted you for four months and all the sudden they’re coming into town and want to look at houses …and you feel like your day is just chasing squirrels.
At the end of the day, whether your day ends at 4 o’clock, or 6 o’clock, or 8 o’clock at night, you look back and you don’t even know where the day went & you still feel like you didn’t get anything done that was on your list. With that being said, I would be time blocking, being very diligent with my time, and very intentional with my schedule RIGHT OFF THE BAT.
REAL ESTATE HAS CHANGED MY LIFE. WITHOUT GOING THROUGH ALL OF THE LEARNING, ALL THE UPS AND DOWNS, AND ALL THE CHAOS…I WOULDNT BE WHERE I AM TODAY IN THIS BUSINESS. I AM GRATEFUL FOR THE HARD THINGS. I AM GRATEFUL FOR THE LESSONS I HAD TO LEARN OVER, AND OVER, AND OVER, AND OVER AGAIN. I AM SO THANKFUL FOR THE PEOPLE THAT THIS BUSINESS HAS BROUGHT INTO MY LIFE AND EVERY PERSON THAT HAS HELD MY HAND THROUGHOUT THIS JOURNEY. MY LIFE IS SO FULL. THANK YOU.
