Are you a newly licensed real estate agent or aspire to be one someday? Well, no matter what stage you’re currently on in your journey, finally getting your real estate license and beginning your career as a new realtor is an exciting and stressful time. On one hand, you’re ready to embark on a new journey. On the other, you might not know exactly where to begin. With that said, here are the ten best tips for new real estate agents on how to thrive in the real estate industry.
- Be Authentic
In life, as well as real estate, being yourself can take you far. Always remember: People do business with people they feel like they know, like, and trust. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t be your best self when talking with potential clients, just don’t be afraid to add your personality into your conversations. Authenticity will always win in the end.
- Create a Business Plan
Some questions you need to ask yourself before you develop your business plan:
- What are your goals for your first year?
- How are you going to reach them?
- How much are you going to spend on marketing?
There’s no reason to make this process any more difficult than it already is. Sit down, think about, and plan how and what you can achieve and provide as a real estate agent.
- Establish Your Brand
Now it’s time to establish your brand as a real estate agent. Here are some questions that can help you define exactly who you are as a realtor:
- What property type is your niche?
- What age group?
- Do you think you can be hip and better connect with millennials?
- Or do your interests and activities more closely align with an older generation?
Your brand is who you are as an agent and business person. It also impacts how you market yourself online and in-person. You can’t begin to sell yourself until you decide who you’re selling.
- Be Active on Social Media
Nowadays, it’s hard to find someone who is not on social media. One of the inexpensive real estate agent tips to grow your brand and boost your real estate lead generation is to be active on social media.
- Create Valuable Content
Creating valuable content for prospects is one of the most effective ways to generate leads. That may include pictures, videos, podcasts, etc. The easiest way to breakdown the type of content you should be posting is by implementing the 3 E’s:
- Entertainment
- Engagement
- Education
For your entertaining content, your content must help tell a story to your audience. That could mean creating a podcast series about your life as a real estate agent, using pictures and videos to showcase a new listing, or writing an interesting blog article. No matter which method you use, they all need to help tell a story that correlates to your end goal. For example, if you want to make a walk-through video of a new home and your goal is to attract leads, your video needs to be appealing and tell a story that makes your audience feel as if they absolutely need that home.
Platforms like Instagram are extremely visual, so your content must be is eye-catching enough to make someone stop scrolling in their feed to see what it is you’re offering.
For your engaging content, this is where you communicate directly to your audience and ask for their feedback. Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are a great way to spark up new conversations. You can do this by asking your followers to voice their opinions about a specific feature in a home, what their pain points are, or what exactly they’re looking for in their next home. By asking your followers for their input, you’re getting to know them better, which will teach you how you can best serve them.
Now, your educating content is where you provide real value to your audience. You can do this by sharing helpful tips, blog articles, or valuable information that they might find interesting. Like I previously stated, people do business with people they feel like they know and trust. The more you help your real estate prospects, the more they will want to work with you.
Apart from adding to your credibility, creating regular valuable content will help you to stay top of mind with prospects. When they need the services of an agent, they are likely to think of you first.
- Prospect Consistently
Different real estate agents consider differing things the lifeblood of their business.
For some, it’s all about marketing. For others, it’s more about putting forth all of their efforts into prospecting for new clients. Both are important, but which of those two areas (and others) you decide to put more effort into is completely up to you.
Regardless, make sure you spend a lot of time prospecting – especially at the outset of your career. Cold-call, attend community events and put up fliers. Do everything you can to get your name and brand out into the world.
- Network, Network, Network
Another great way to generate leads as a new real estate agent is to network constantly. Every person you meet could result in a future sale, either directly or indirectly. You can build your sphere of influence in many ways, both in-person and online. For instance, you could get new contacts through family members, friends, mutual acquaintances, at community events, etc.
- Maintain Relationships with Previous Clients
As you try to create new contacts, make sure you don’t forget to maintain the relationships you’ve already established with previous clients. This can be done personally, through social media, or via customer relationship management (CRM) systems. For example, you could send them birthday cards or housing market updates. As a new real estate agent, this can make you stand out from most realtors in the market.
- Seek a Mentor
I believe this is one of the most underrated aspects when someone is looking to jumpstart their career. It’s so important to find a wise, successful veteran to go to for guidance.
For example, former Apple CEO, the late Steve Jobs, served as a mentor to Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. The two developed a relationship in the early days of Facebook and often met to discuss the best business and management practices for the company. When Jobs passed away in the fall of 2011, Zuckerberg posted on his Facebook page, “Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.”
With that said, it’s wise to find someone who not only knows what they’re doing, but who you truly connect with and feel comfortable around.
- Never Stop Learning
Every new real estate agent should invest some of their time and money into learning new things. Commit to sharpening your skills daily. Continued education will enable you to have a better understanding of different aspects of your work. That may include going to seminars, watching videos, listening to podcasts, reading books, and reading agent blogs.
