new agent

Brand New to Real Estate? Here’s How to Hit the Ground Running!

Nov 9, 2022

The one thing few new real estate agents are prepared for is to hit the ground running the minute they hand over their license to a broker.

Sure, you’ll find lots of information on how to get a license, but zilch about how to productively use that time when you aren’t taking classes or studying for the exam any longer.

That’s time wasted, and commission checks pushed further into the future.

Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to prepare yourself to enter the world of real estate, ready to take it on.

Research and shop for a CRM

Customer relation management (CRM) will be an ongoing and critical aspect of your business. To make it easier and more efficient, you’ll need CRM software.

Some of the larger brokerages offer in-house CRM software, but most don’t.

We offer a free Contact Manager on prospectsplus.com that helps turn your mailing lists into micro-targeted marketing machines. To learn more about how to use this relationship-building customer tool, Click Here.

Surfing the internet to find reviews of real estate CRMs, I found a couple of sites that might help you get a better picture of CRM options available (for a fee):

Once you have chosen your CRM and learned how to use it, start loading it with the names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, and any other information you know about everyone you know.

Yup, everyone that is old enough to buy or sell a home.

Getting this task out of the way up front will streamline your entry into the real estate business, and you’ll be forever grateful that you did it.

The Photo Introduction Series is shown above. To learn more, Click Here.

Your first direct mail campaign

Take all those addresses in your CRM and send each one an announcement of your pending licensure.

A text-only, simple postcard isn’t going to cut it now that you’re on the threshold of owning your own business. Send out a Photo Introduction postcard and properly introduce yourself to these VIPs who are going to prove invaluable to the growth of your real estate business over the coming years.

Set up a Facebook business page

Yes, there are other social media platforms, and some that you may prefer over Facebook. But Facebook is hands down, the best of them for marketing your real estate business.

So, start with Facebook and work on the others later.

This is a task you can actually begin on your personal page. Post the image included in your direct mail campaign for starters. Then, when you get your Facebook business page set up, invite your personal page friends to join you there.

Start engaging with others by visiting their pages and responding to their posts.

Join Facebook groups. They don’t have to be real estate-related. As long as you’re active and engaging, the groups will help build your follower list.

You can do a lot to hit the ground running before your license arrives at your broker’s office. Get going. I wish you much success!

PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine

Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts combined with engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you.

Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here

2. The Free 12-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

3. The BusinessBase, SOI building system

The most effective thing you can do to build a real estate business is to become more visible, more likable, and remembered more often. The BusinessBASE™ not only checks all of these boxes but is also a business-building machine. In two easy steps, you can begin to build a robust sphere of influence that will provide you a lifetime of repeat business and referrals. – Click Here

4. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Become-A-Listing-Legend-3D-Book-White-274x300.jpg

Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

6. The Take a Listing Today Podcast

Watch the ProspectsPLUS!, Take a Listing Today Podcast for actionable content to help you get more listings. – Click Here

Change is Coming in the Real Estate Market. Are You Ready to Shift Gears?

Aug 1, 2022

It’s been one heck of a ride, right? An amazing decade or so of a hot, hot, hot sellers’ market.

Imagine the relatively new real estate agent who joined the ranks during this period. The only market they know had homes selling within a week, bidding wars, multiple offers, and staggeringly high prices (and, thus, commission checks).

Buyers’ agents during this period were, to say the least, stressed out. Clients were repeatedly disappointed with refused offers, having to compete against other, often deep-pocketed, buyers and those whose housing budget was so stretched to the max that they dreaded the results of each Fed meeting.

How will those new agents, and listings agents in general, adapt to the “new normal” that’s about to smack us upside the head?

The First Time Buyer Series is shown above. Click Here to see more.

It’s survivable, and you can still thrive

Since back in the day, listing agents have known that any real estate market has two sides, and the sellers’ side of a switch to a buyers’ market is tough to navigate.

Being shoved out of the driver’s seat into riding shotgun is frustrating, so these sellers are hard to convert.

They’re not going to go easy into that goodnight of lower home prices when just a month or two ago, their neighbor’s home sold for $50,000 more than your CMA’s suggested list price.

Agents may find it challenging to deal with buyers who now have the luxury of being able to nit-pick over price and terms. They’ll relentlessly compare desirable homes to the 5 others nearby that are for sale, knowing that time, for once, is on their side.

It’s all in how you manage expectations

Flex your relationship-building muscles because instilling trust with clients and potential clients is critical in the early stages of a market shift.

Earning their trust through being candid, honest, and up-front can help you manage their expectations and lead them to make better decisions.

You can do this.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine

Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here

2. The Free 12-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

3. The BusinessBase, SOI building system

4. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Take a Listing Today Podcast

Watch the ProspectsPLUS!, Take a Listing Today Podcast for actionable content to help you get more listings. – Click Here

New to Real Estate? Let’s Bust Two Myths About Building Your Business

May 23, 2022

Welcome to the real estate business. You’re joining more than 1.3 million other professionals, at varying stages of their careers.

In fact, nearly 30 percent of agents in the U.S. have less than two years of experience (and the largest share of that group is aged 45 to 54), according to the NAR, so you are in good company.

Your first few years in your new broker’s office will be an eye-opener. Some of your misconceptions about being a real estate agent will be corrected and you’ll hear conflicting advice on everything from how to generate leads to how best to construct your new website.

We’ve gathered some of the most common misconceptions new agents harbor and dragged them into the glaring light of reality.

By the way, since the majority of real estate agents are female, we’ll be using the feminine pronoun throughout. (Sorry guys).

SOI scheduled campaigns shown above are on sale 10% off the first month. Use promo code: SPHERESALE (offer expires 5.28.22). Campaigns shown from left to right are Recipe I, Get More Listings, Quotes, and Inspiration Series, To see more campaigns, Click Here.

Myth #1: Your broker is your boss

Reality: One of the hardest habits that new agents find hard to break free of is the “employee mentality.”

Sure, a handful of brokerages across the country hire agents as employees, but the vast majority of agents are independent contractors. They are, in reality, small business owners.

As an independent contractor, working under a broker’s license, your broker is not your boss. She cannot (according to the IRS):

Direct and control your work
Tell you where and when to work
Dictate which tools you use or where to purchase supplies and services
Limit your ability to seek out business opportunities
Guarantee a regular wage amount
Provide employee-type benefits, such as health insurance, vacation or sick pay, or a pension plan.

As a small-business owner, you create your schedule, budget, marketing plan, health insurance, and anything else required of the typical small business owner.

In other words, you are your own boss. The growth and success of your business are completely up to you.

Build a robust SOI with the Free BusinessBase Tool, **Here**

Myth #2: Your broker will provide you with leads

Reality: This one goes hand-in-hand with Myth #1. Unless your broker is your employer, you can typically count out getting leads handed to you.

As a self-employed agent, you’ll need to drum up your own business and fill your own pipeline.

How to start?

Get your real estate website up and running and fill it with hyper-local information
Offer to hold open houses for other agents’ listings
Fill your CRM with your sphere’s contact information and start calling them. Download the FREE Businessbase, HERE, for help building a robust SOI list. Then launch an SOI scheduled campaign, HERE.
Determine an area to start farming near where you live or in your own neighborhood. Launch a Farm scheduled campaign, HERE, to start branding yourself in the neighborhood.

One of the biggest myths that the public holds about real estate agents is that anyone can do your job.

Succeeding as an agent, however, requires far more than just getting your license. That being said, we know you can achieve success with the right tools and attitude.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine

Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine, with rich, full-color content, and a sharp, professional esthetic. It includes compelling, direct response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts, combined with engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you.

Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and, it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here

2. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

3. The BusinessBase, SOI building system

The most effective thing you can do to build a real estate business is to become more visible, more likable, and remembered more often. The BusinessBASE™ not only checks all of these boxes, but it is a business building machine. In two easy steps, you can begin to build a robust sphere of influence that will provide you a lifetime of repeat business and referrals. – Click Here

4. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Take a Listing Today Podcast

Watch the ProspectsPLUS!, Take a Listing Today Podcast for actionable content to help you get more listings. – Click Here

What a New Agent Can Do to WOW Potential Clients & Generate Listings

Mar 1, 2022

The old saying about how people do business with people they know, like, and trust gets thrown around a lot in the real estate industry. What you don’t hear very often is how to get total strangers to know, like, and trust you; especially enough to become your client.

There are many ways to do that, of course. But of the three, I think it’s safe to say that the trust issue is not only the most important to real estate consumers but more challenging for agents to build.

Being new to the real estate business doesn’t help. Not when your competition is boasting 30 years in the business and endless successful sales.

Photo Introduction postcards are shown above. See more, click HERE

Building trust isn’t easy, but it is doable. Let’s take a look at what a new agent can do to wow potential clients.

**You do have your own real estate website?**

Your own business website provides a place for consumers to get to know you and your business. Not taking the free ride on your broker’s website, also lends an air of professionalism.

Did you know, 56% of consumers surveyed by weebly.com stated that they lack trust in businesses that don’t have websites.

Your website, if done right, is full of ways to help people get to know you. The content, also if done right, can help them to like you and trust you.

Keep away from sales spiels with your blog content and do vary between real estate, homeowner, and hyper-local topics.

Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through and show the human side of what can be fairly complex subjects.

The About Me page is the place to laser focus on helping visitors get to know you and your business philosophy.

Have you any positions in your background that transfer well to the real estate industry? Any from the following is worth a mention:

Marketing
Advertising
Negotiating
Teaching
Videography/photography

Get to work on social media

Your time is valuable, especially now at the beginning of your real estate business. It’s time to whittle down the social media choices to one.

The Real Estate Times Series is shown above. See more, click HERE

Facebook is a good place to start. Get your business page set up and start cross-posting your blog posts and other pertinent and interesting information to Facebook.

Whatever you do, don’t fill your feed with marketing and salesy stuff. Here are some ideas about what to post:

Local housing market statisics & news
Restaurant reviews
Best places in [your town] to buy [whatever]
Interesting real estate poll or survey results
Local news
Funny memes
Contests

This is just a handful of topic ideas.

The key to gaining engagement with your followers, at least in the beginning, is hyper-local content. Avoid political or religious topics. And don’t forget to engage with others on your feed, and theirs.

Overall, just be your super-stunning, personable self.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some free tools to help support your success.

1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

2. The BusinessBase, SOI building system

The most effective thing you can do to build a real estate business is to become more visible, more likable, and remembered more often. The BusinessBASE™ not only checks all of these boxes, but it is a business building machine. In two easy steps, you can begin to build a robust sphere of influence that will provide you a lifetime of repeat business and referrals. – Click Here

3. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan