by Real estate can be a great career provided that you have a foundation to build upon. Once you get that license you feel like you rule the world and can conquer the real estate market but that doesn’t happen for everyone. The courses you study for your license are practical for following the law, but it won’t necessarily translate to monetary success.
You most certainly can conquer the real estate market; however, there are 3 big mistakes that new (and sometimes experienced) agents make that kill their careers. I would invite you to read below to discover these 3 mistakes and how you can avoid them.
- Failing to have a plan for the business. The plan doesn’t have to be so detailed that printing it kills a rainforest. It should be simple and to the point. A successful real estate plan should have an outline of the goals along with how to achieve them. Break down a yearly goal into a monthly goal and turn that into a weekly and daily plan. That way you only have to focus one day at a time. Your plan shouldn’t just include your topline goals (i.e. number of transactions and commissions) but should also include the activities that will lead to that success (i.e. leads and appointments). When you have the leading activities as a goal you can then hold yourself accountable to those metrics each day on your way to your larger economic goals.
- Not taking real estate seriously as work. Is real estate fun? It most certainly can be. What isn’t fun is doing real estate and not making money. Most agents make this mistake completely by accident. They don’t mean to not take it seriously. They model after agents who have been in the business awhile and figure that is the way to do it. This can mean they see activities such as going to a broker’s open or going to the weekly team meeting as “work” but then they struggle with why those activities aren’t leading to more business. What you don’t see is what is usually the secret sauce. What are people doing when the door is closed? To make money in real estate it is work. Make sure the model you are basing your success on is one that fits you and your personality.
- Failing to base your real estate business on marketing. When economies get tight, like the one we are in, companies change their tunes on real estate marketing. Suddenly marketing isn’t as good as it used to be. Marketing should always be the foundation of a business, but it rarely is put in place correctly which means people cut their marketing when the economy gets tight. When your marketing is done correctly, stopping your marketing efforts is the equivalent of not filling your car with gas when the economy gets tight….it just doesn’t make sense. Does this mean you spend money and “hope” people call you. No! What it means is that your marketing should generate leads and you should aggressively follow up to see if they are interested in your product or services.
Mistake #3 is probably the biggest mistake of all. You will discover that a real estate business based on marketing that generates leads can weather any economy. As technology changes you will find that your marketing can also change. Often you can get many years out of a particular marketing channel (i.e. Google Paid Search, Facebook Marketing, etc.) before the channel either gets too competitive or is no longer attracting the types of customers that you desire in your marketplace.
Hold your marketing accountable to performance, meaning you know exactly how much of your marketing dollars are driving each lead, appointment and sale. There are many ways to build your marketing strategy for your business. Take the time to understand your local market, your personality, and how much success you want to have and watch your real estate business grow.3 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Real Estate Career
