Real Estate Training

by James Bridges on August 21, 2023

How to Find the Right Online Real Estate Training

There are many different forms of real estate training available online these days. With such a variety of programs online, it is essential to choose a program that will help you to best meet your goals. After all, we have all purchased programs in the hopes that they would be the “quick fix” only to have them sitting on our shelves collecting dust. We only run across those programs when we have to clean our desks or move and by that time we just throw them away.

Online real estate training can take many forms. There are programs where you can take a course completely online via video and audio and simply sit in front of your computer for a few hours to learn a new skill. There are other programs that you purchase where you can make a purchase and have the opportunity to download information and then get additional information in the mail to complement your learning. As we all learn a bit differently there isn’t one that is the best fit for everyone so take time to decide on what will work best for you.

Here are three things to consider when you are choosing which type of online real estate training will work for you.

What skill are you looking to improve? – With so many training programs out there, it takes some time to decide on the particular skill that you want to succeed at. Real Estate has so many skills that are useful there are literally training programs on almost every aspect. Everything from online marketing, listing presentations, and even buyer script courses are available online. Decide which skill can provide you with the biggest impact and then research training that can help you get that skill improved the fastest.
Would you like instruction? – Instruction can come in many formats. Some courses offer group meetings online in webinar format and others offer 1 on 1 consultation time. Take some time to consider which format is best for you. The programs that offer 1 on 1 help can be more expensive (but not always) so if you want instruction look for training that gives you the opportunity to speak to an expert. This can save you hours and hours of frustration.
Find a Free Course to Start – There are some great free online courses out there as well, consider starting with one of those if your budget is tight. The courses are usually shorter than the paid version, but this can give you an idea if it is a subject that you would like to dig deeper into before you spend any money. Some of the biggest experts online offer a multitude of free courses so take time to check out a few of them. If the free course isn’t all you thought, don’t let that discourage you either as even the best free courses will have gaps to encourage you to take the next step to being a paying customer.

The nice part about online real estate training is that it gives you some different options on how you can learn. You can quickly discover new techniques and methods in a matter of hours, not days, and then apply them to your business. The real trick is to find a course or instructor that you really enjoy so you can continue to learn from them and improve your skills!

by James Bridges on July 27, 2023

5 Questions to Ask Yourself to Find the Right Real Estate Coach

Just as the best athletes in sports have coaches, the best real estate professionals also have coaches. Real Estate Coaches help provide the insight, real estate training, methods, and even the systems you need to accomplish your goals. With so many different styles of coaching available to the real estate professional, how do you select the one that will get you to your goals?

Before deciding on which coach will help you, I invite you to consider what a coach can’t do for you. Consider the following:

A coach can’t make phone calls for you
A coach can’t do your marketing for you
A coach can’t make sure you show up to work on time
A coach can’t check to see if you are following up on every lead

Often when speaking to real estate professionals their vision of a real estate coach is one that they will pay and all of their problems will go away enabling them to have a flood of business easily. This expectation often leads to disappointment after just one or two coaching sessions and the agent keeps joining different programs hoping the results will change (but they never do).

What to Look For In A Real Estate Coach

Although there are many real estate coaches out there, each one, has a specialty. Some are great with cold calling scripts, others are masters at direct response marketing, and still others are a combination of traditional marketing and internet marketing. With all of the options, which one do you select to invest your hard earned dollars?

Before researching coaches, take time to evaluate your needs as this will allow you to compare your needs to what the coaching programs offer. Consider asking yourself the following questions:

Will I get to speak to “THE” coach or someone else?
- When you want to hit the highest levels of success you want to speak to someone who has been there. If you want to hit 20 million in production and you are speaking to someone who has only ever done 5 million and they are giving you advice, how come they couldn’t follow their own advice?
Do I want systems or just coaching?
- Some coaching is purely on the phone with the coach telling you what to do. They might tell you to send out a new postcard, run a new ad, etc, but what do you put on the postcard or ad? If you don’t want to spend time figuring it all out, which can be very expensive, you might want to get into a coaching program that provides you templates for advertising so you don’t have to guess on what works.
How much coaching do I need?
- Consider how much coaching and accountability you need as the more coaching you need, the more expensive it can be. When you are great at holding yourself accountable, then maybe you just need 1 call a month. When you need more help then consider a program that gives you more interaction and access to the coach.
How will I judge the success of the coaching?
- The ultimate evaluation of the coach should be the impact to your business, but that can take time. It would be unfair to judge your coach’s efforts in a month because your production didn’t go up; as that would be like judging your trainer’s impact after 1 month of gym workouts. Ask yourself (and your coach for that matter) what the path to success looks like. There should be a steady plan and checkpoints to evaluate your progress. Those could range from conversation counts, appointments, and more.
What type of feedback do you respond to?
- Coaching can take all forms and different people respond to different personalities. If David Goggins (world Famous Navy SEAL, Endurance Runner, and Bestselling Author) was your coach you’d have to be comfortable with some yelling…and that works for many people, but not everyone. While your real estate coach won’t likely yell at you, try to determine if you need more positive reinforcement or more “tough love” and understand why that works for you.

Taking the time to simply ask yourself the above three questions will save you time when searching for a real estate coach. When you find the right fit for your personality then your goals will feel easy to achieve. To your success.

by James Bridges on July 26, 2023

What Real Estate Training is Right for You?

No matter what economy we are in, real estate is a business that is constantly changing. Sure the general public may feel that the only work that is done is meet someone, put a sign in the yard, list it on the computer and make lots of money, but we know differently. In real estate there are 100’s of things you do every day and the way that you acquire new customer’s changes every year.

In order to keep your competitive edge you have probably gone to a variety of real estate training events. Some of the events pump you up for a few hours only to have you go back to your office and by the end of the day you are drowning in putting out fires and that training seems like a distant memory. So how do you choose the training that you need to get more business and that you will actually stick with?

Here are 3 items to consider before you get that credit card out to decide on what real estate training is right for you.

Item 1: What is your BIGGEST problem?

There are many different programs out there that can help you with your entire real estate business but do you need help with everything? You may need help on something specific like better objection handling techniques or just how to generate more leads for your business. Before you even go to a training event, or start searching online, decide on what is your biggest challenge.

Try to be as specific as you can. If you have always had a challenge with generating leads, then consider a course or training on lead generation. If you have had a problem converting people on the phone consider a course that helps with conversational language that leads to conversion. If you have a ton of business but are working WAY too many hours then look for someone who can help streamline and help you gain efficiency. If you identify more than one problem (that’s a good thing) then rank them in importance in how much they can help your business and start with the toughest one first.

Item 2: Budget for Training as an Investment

Training is an investment in yourself, just like going to school. Every year consider having a training budget as part of your business and then it won’t seem difficult to spend money on training. Programs can vary from as little as $90 for a training guide to thousands of dollars for 1 on 1 coaching. After you decide what your biggest challenge is, make sure you have the budget to solve that issue.

With the wide range of training available, really focus on matching a training to your personality. Some people are excellent at studying on their own, while others need guidance. There is nothing wrong with either approach, the key is understanding where your strengths and weaknesses are so you can get the help you need to achieve success in your business.

Item 3: Accountability Matters – Who is Going to Hold You Accountable?

If you already have a real estate coach then you already have someone holding you accountable, if not though, consider getting a person to check on how you are doing with your training. Reporting to a third party on what you are learning will help you get results from your investment. It is the same process as going to a trainer for your fitness. A trainer can’t work out for you, just as a real estate coach can’t make your calls, but when you have an expert guiding you to your goals you can get there faster and usually save money getting to your goals as well.

Real estate training is a great opportunity to discover new techniques and then apply those new methods to improve your real estate business. Have fun evaluating your challenges and most of all take action with a program that is the best fit for you.