Here are 5 easy steps you can do to grow your real estate business. Yes, I know what it's like to be new agent in the real estate industry and be lost in a business and not know what to do. I've been there, hell I even have the dam T shirt and the battle scars to prove it. Hopefully this post will get your started off and a little more confident about what you can do each day.

So You Want to Be a REALTOR®?

Inevitably we start in real estate because the attraction to good money and more free time beckons and the thought that you could buy or sell real estate for your own pocket without costing you REALTOR® fees. It also looks so easy from the outside. You meet people at a house they found on the internet and you show them – they buy and you get paid a lot of money. Right?  

Then reality hits – it costs a fortune to become an agent. There are many realtors with years and years experience and they seem to just get all the business. You can't bother your family and friends anymore and even the people at church are now avoiding you. When your neighbors see you – they drop their eyes or fake answer their phones and wave as they pass you bye. I've been there and done that too. So what can you do?

How to Start Off Your Real Estate Career

Let's explore these five options you can do today to escalate your real estate career

• how to start
• what to do next
• where to find clients
• which social media
• buyer agent or listing agent

Of course there are so many more options however you can get my FREE 10 day course right here to help you from this point on. These few things will give you some things to try. I know you will start off with great gusto and that will whittle down to no work in time. Take it in bite size portions and work every day – even if it is only for a couple of hours.

1. Familiarize yourself with the location that you want to concentrate working in
2. Get to know what homes have sold and what is for sale and under contract
3. Homes that are active – always go and do a preview tour so you know what the house looks like inside. This information will be gold when you need to value a home.
4. Look at the last 6 months sales and drive past those homes and mentally note things about that property ( this becomes important when learning pricing and also if you are showing buyers – you will be able to show them what sold and for how much and help them to accustomize to the area and the pricing
5. Find the schools – know about them. Are there in private schools in your area? What about home schooling groups? You may not be able to recommend schools or prefer one over the other, however you can tell people where they are located and how to contact them. Maybe you can direct them to www.greatschools.org and they can take a look at the scores etc themselves.
6. Know about the green areas, the parks, dog parks and the sports fields
7. Find out where the nearest golf courses are and know about public amenities in the area
8. What shops are in the area and the how far is the next biggest shopping centers?
9. What is wonderful about the area and what is the biggest struggle about the area.
10. Do you have a wonderful map drawn up. Google maps could be your next best friend – mark up the map, print it out and keep copies handy for any potential buyers

What to do Next

Once you know your location well enough and you feel confident to be a “tour guide” in your area then it would be a good idea to narrow down some neighborhoods that you could become the expert for. If you are new in the business, you don't want to be spending a lot of money marketing – so choose neighborhoods that are less than 100 homes and you don't mind spending $50 – $100 on marketing postcards or letters. 

This is what I did. When I was an agent working in a subdivision I had 205 homes to look after. I printed a plat map – put everyones name on it and made a point of getting to know who lived where. I would walk my dogs in the early evening or early morning and always have a conversation with someone that was out in the yard, washing their car, working in their garden, walking their dogs. I talked to everyone.

After a few months I started a facebook group for the neighborhood and did a monthly news update. I encouraged people to send me their events etc and before I knew it, no one bought or sold a home in there without talking to me first. It was heavenly. If there were 10 sales a year, I got 8 of the 10 to sell.  I often got a double sided transaction and the buyer who moved in became my newest friend.

I started a book club, arranged a coffee morning for Moms and tots every month. We started a babysitting network and I made a fortune and some good friends in the mean time. Make a plan to get to know people. Become the resource for local knowledge and be the person people call when they need to know something. They will talk about their amazing neighborhood and how the local agent is awesome and you will get more and more business.

Where to Find Clients

There are many ways to find buyers and sellers. I have given you a simple way to find sellers and it's one of many ideas I have. My FREE 10 day email course covers some more in depth ideas – however let”s look at how you can find clients sooner rather than later.

Tell people what you do. You do not have to say – hey I'm Joe Blogs and I'm a REALTOR® to every person you meet. Nope – you can't do that. You will sound like an attendee at an AA meeting. 🙂 – Let”s think logically. You are heading down to the shops today to get some groceries. The person who is standing at the till is a captured audience.

Today was a perfect example – I went along to the grocery store – chatted to the cashier and asked if it was his full time job. He said it was his temporary job until he finishes his studies. I asked about his studies. I asked if he made the right choices. I told him I was lucky because I love my job. He then asked me what work I did…. bingo – I'm a REALTOR® and like you I love my job. He said oh, my Dad says it's a bad time to sell now… yay – I got to talk about real estate. I popped out my business card and asked if he knew anyone moving to the area… great starter conversation. Next time I go to the shops I'll be sure to look for him and say hello. In the mean time he knows I'm a REALTOR® and I know he is a student. Maybe his dad has been thinking of selling… I'll ask next time.

Find an interest group and join it. One of my agents that I help with marketing goes from meeting to meeting and social function to school lunch club to running club. She does little more than socialize. She gets so much business that she almost can't cope. We have great systems in place and we know how to work it. She is on her planning board, Chamber of Commerce, school lunch committee, wine club, running club and always goes to her kids sports events. She sponsors events and her name is everywhere. Everyone knows she is a REALTOR® and although it took time in the beginning, she has a lot of business now.

I belong to a ladies group that meets on Tuesday afternoons. We have been meeting for many years. People come and go from the group and I am always there. I have either sold homes to many moving to the area and out of the area. Their kids trust me and I am well supported. It is worth my weekly $10 commitment to attend and I love my ladies group. Just being present and having people know what you do, makes your job so much easier.

Which Social Media Should You Use to Connect

The social media platform you should use would be the one you like and use the most. Let's face it – if you are target market is 45+ Facebook may be a better option for you than Tik tok for instance – however if your target market is 20-25 year olds – Tik Tok or Instagram may be better options than Facebook. If you are retiring and moving to a 55+ community or a care community – your clients are definitely not going to be on Instagram or Tik Tok but they may be on Facebook and Pinterest. Their kids may be on Instagram, Facebook or Linkedin so if you are talking to the kids about their aging love ones, then you would need to choose a platform relevant to the kids.

Buyer Agent or Listing Agent

Buyer Agents are usually an important learning block and you may want to consider being a buyer agent first and learning a little about the business before being thrown in the deep end at a listing appointment. As a buyer agent – you are guided by the buyer as to what they are looking for and location. That is pretty simple to do in a regular market. It is important to do a buyer interview and ask the questions that are important to their circumstances. 

• Where are they moving from 
• Why did they move
• where would they like to live 
• are they reliant on schools 
• What did they love about their last home
• What did they dislike about their last home
• do they need to commute to work
• what does the home look like that they want to live in
• What are the deal breakers
• What is so important

Working as a listing agent is a little more complicated and in order to win listings that are not referrals, you really have a good knowledge of the market and also have a well polished listing presentation. Scripts are highly important and you must command a certain amount of knowledge to be able to advise the seller properly if you want to win against an experienced agent. If you have no confidence in what you are saying – then you are setting yourself up to fail. 

Listings are definitely the best option. It means less driving, more marketing and if you are priced well – you will pretty much get the sale. When you become the area expert, you can become a confident agent and an expert listing agent. 

There are many more ways to grow your real estate business and if you keep your mind on the work, even for a few hours a day, what you put in will pay out – so keep on moving forward, one step at a time.

Get my FREE 10 Day “Get Back On Track”  email Real Estate Course to help you ignite your business.