Any other Realtors that started in 2021? How’s it been for you?
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Real Estate Agent · Washington, D.C. · Member since 2012 · 17k+ posts · 30k+ votes
5yThe industry has an 87% failure rate, which is right in line with the 90% failure rate for small businesses.
Becoming a real estate agent should be looked at as no different than starting any other business. Most businesses lose money the first 2 years they are open, then eek out a profit in year 3 before settling into profitablity.
You need to start spending say 4 hours per day on lead generating activities. If you are not good at lead generation, then join a real estate team.
District Invest Group545 Reviews
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- Real Estate Broker · DFW · Member since 2015 · 350 posts · 270 votes5y
@Kirsten F.
It’s been awesome. At 11m in sales thus far. Been working my *** off
- 5yHeath ShepardBusiness MemberReal Estate Agent · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2019 · 89 posts · 48 votes
I started taking my licensing classes and in between the 2nd and 3rd class COVID hit and shut everything down. When things started getting sorted out and they started offering classes online I was able to finish my classes and ultimately get my license. I am on a team but have gotten almost no support from them. I have had two closings, one I met through BP and the other I got during opportunity time. It really is bugging me that I had to fork over almost half of my commission to my team and I haven't received much in return. I am really getting discouraged. I am also an investor with a couple properties and that is what I want to do ultimately but with the market as hot as it is I am not having any luck finding properties. I am paying Zillow $741 dollars a month as a part of their "premier agent program" and at first I received many leads but then it dropped off the last week of July and so far I have received one this month. There are 22 active listings in my zip code and 14 of them are over 500k. Which seems like it should be a good thing right? Well the issue is that 80% of the leads I receive from Zillow are interested in lower priced properties. I think that for the higher priced properties they, by in large, already have agents because they are more "established" if you will. The struggle continues...
Keller Williams City View57 Reviews - 5yPeter TverdovBusiness MemberDeveloper · New Brunswick, NJ · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes
I started my real estate brokerage in May. If you listen to everyone telling you how to get leads you'll be broke. Zillow, no Instagram, no door hangers, no post cards, no cold calling software, no Facebook Ads.
Become an expert in an area. My expert area is New Brunswick, NJ. That is where my brokerage is located. I get people who contact me through here, Insta, email etc. You know why? Because I truly know the market better than anyone in that area and that is very valuable. Don't be a buckshot and run all over your state and know squat about the towns. Be a total beast about 1-2 towns and yes you can still branch out. That works for me.
- Real Estate Agent · St George, UT · Member since 2019 · 56 posts · 30 votes5y
I joined a team, and I've closed a little over 30 deals in my first 10 months. I've been able to learn from and duplicate an agent who sells a couple hundred deals a year for the last 10 years. I doubt I would have had a successful first year otherwise.
On average after about 100 phone calls a day to a combination of warm leads, SOI, FSBOs, expired listings, etc should get you about 2 appointments.
2 buyer appointments should equate to 1 offer.
You should take most of the listing appointments you get. I was able to take my team lead with me at first to up my credibility. Consider leaning on someone else's experience until you're more confident and have more deals under your belt to brag about.
- Real Estate Broker · Minneapolis, MN · Member since 2011 · 5k+ posts · 6k+ votes5y
To framework what I will be saying here yes, I am a top producer in both my brokerage and market which is a major market. And no, didn't get here by following the dinosaur play-book.
I just wrapped up an experiment, taking a new agent and doing $100k net income in 100 days, and nailed it! How did we do this, by nailing the only item that actually matters, BEING VALUABLE.
Why is there a revolving door of agents coming in and failing out? Because it's a pandemic of people think all they have to do is get there license and than just tell people there a Realtor and pow, everyone will run to them. Let me ask you this, if a friend called you up and said "hey I JUST got my license to fix autos" are you going to now make sure you always take your car to him? Or a cousin just got his contractor license, your going to automatically hire him for anything and everything on your home right, just like that? Think it thru, it's an idiotic notion that people will just simply use a NEWLY licensed agent, with zero experience, and most of time zero real estate background, but hey they have a license......
The secret to success as an agent, the recipe on how to become a Top-Producer and STAY one, as I am, is actually very simple, BE THAT VALUABLE. Without that, nothing else matters, seriously. You can have all the marketing and advertising in the world but if you're not the valuable agent/realtor guess what, the vast majority of people will do some level of research and they will stumble upon a person who has years of experience, expertise, and they intelligently think "hey, this is serious, it's a lot of money, let's be smart and get the best person we can find on this not just any old person".
We are living in a time when consumers have the greatest access to research, reviews and reference information to look up who or what is best in literally seconds, and our society promotes doing this non-stop. So when your brand spankin new, and if you don't have some big "in", better known as your "Value Proposition", well you simply have no competitive value.
Myself, I have almost 3 decades in the housing industry professionally, I have performed at the highest level of skill, licensure and quality in literally every single aspect of real estate from point of raw land planning and development, building design, build, renovation, remediation, inspection, investing, contracts, negotiations, deal engineering etc etc, I am ridiculously over-the-top experienced and qualified and that is why clients go with myself AND my team, it's not my beautiful Shrek like smile, it's my beautiful brain and decades of knowledge and performance because they know any issue that could come up, I have probably dealt with it 18 times before if not 180 and I can solve it. AND my agents, they are just an extension of myself, and that is how teams work, why they work. Team member agents get to eat at my table, and with that gain the knowledge and experience via osmosis and training sessions, gaining their own expertise in time, and for myself I gain time leverage power, the ability to service more clients than I could alone as a factor of 1.
Everything hinges of being valuable. Step 2 is making persons aware of your existence, and the last step is keeping up in step 1 and 2. That's it, everything else out there is simply "how to" of step 2 or just noise. And again, without step 1, BEING OF VALUE, nothing else matters.
- 5yK F.Investor · Orlando, FL · Member since 2018 · 54 posts · 25 votesOP
@James Hamling sounds good, I agree, but you never explained HOW to be valuable. Seems like so many agents on here just like to brag about themselves 🙄
- Real Estate Broker · Minneapolis, MN · Member since 2011 · 5k+ posts · 6k+ votes5y
Originally posted by @K F.:
@James Hamling sounds good, I agree, but you never explained HOW to be valuable. Seems like so many agents on here just like to brag about themselves 🙄
It is a very personalized item how a person is of value, there is now 1 set way because everyone has there own set of advantages, disadvantages, experience and ignorance.
HOW to be valuable is just that, BE valuable.
For example, say a person got into being an agent after 24 years in the NEW CONSTRUCTION home building industry, should they try to focus on luxury lake front properties? Of course not, the answer is obvious right, GO focus on new con. But what if they HATE everything new con, what if there hobby is lake front luxury, and they have gone to every home show, fished every lake, for decades? Like I said, it's very personalized, but simply put EMBRACE YOUR NATURAL NEXIUS OF VALUE.
One additional item rarely mentioned is passion. I highly suggest to engage in your nice of passion because that passion will bleed through how happy, confident and enjoyable you are at it, and people like pleasant people, not miserable ones. If it's misery, others will notice, no 2 ways around it.
Do a personal inventory of your natural talents, advantages, disadvantages, and press the advantage. AFTER you have gained a foundation there, than you can start exploring into other niches of RE. When agents try to just go at anything and everything, it's guaranteed failure.
AND when your sole focus is making $, lol, well you will have no lack of time to keep dreaming about what it would be like "if".
Focus on being GREAT, good is a waste of effort and human life, make it worth the venture. To be great you must GIVE GREAT, really pour yourself into it, GIVE. Giving get's, it's just how it works. Secret of a Top Performer is exactly that, we are top PERFORMERS not takers, we perform, and focus on that and the dollars will follow.
- Realtor · Forest Lake, MN · Member since 2021 · 41 posts · 23 votes5y
Originally posted by @Corby Goade:
Side note- I'd suggest you find a team that lets you take your sphere with you once you leave. Some teams will require that you give them the rights to your friends and family as potential leads forever- not a good deal for you.
Best of luck!
This is just unfortunate! Glad I read this post! I will be adding this little reminder to my notes of things to look out for when choosing a broker.
- Real Estate Broker · Pueblo, CO · Member since 2013 · 368 posts · 303 votes5y
If I had to start my career over I would have interviewed every team in my market and joined the one that had the most value. That is the best way to jumpstart a career in this game. I did not do this and the first 2-3 years were some of the most stressful times in my life. I hired a coach year 2-3 and that was of huge benefit but also cost a lot of dough for someone not making much money. You really need to do one of those two things in my opinion to make it into profitability, year 3+. Stop focusing on sellers just work buyers. Sellers oftentimes take days to months before their house can be ready to sell. A buyer is ready to go immediately.
- 5yDan MackinBusiness MemberReal Estate Agent · Erie, CO · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 512 votes
Originally posted by @Chris Pasternak:
If I had to start my career over I would have interviewed every team in my market and joined the one that had the most value. That is the best way to jumpstart a career in this game. I did not do this and the first 2-3 years were some of the most stressful times in my life. I hired a coach year 2-3 and that was of huge benefit but also cost a lot of dough for someone not making much money. You really need to do one of those two things in my opinion to make it into profitability, year 3+. Stop focusing on sellers just work buyers. Sellers oftentimes take days to months before their house can be ready to sell. A buyer is ready to go immediately.
While I didn't start in 2020/2021 I will admit it could have been exceptionally harder than many other times to start based on one of my new agents. He got his license in early 2020 right before Covid hit and his biggest asset is networking and talking with people. Obviously in normal circumstances that would take him far (and is starting to pay off for him right now while things are a bit more open), but in the reality of last year it was super difficult. He did fine through the last year due to coming on with me and helping out in my business while learning on my dime. There are many friends of his that have not faired as well that put in the work their mentors told them to with very minimal payoff. While joining on under someone feels expensive it can also be the difference between making it or not. I did it initially and I'm still here, just doing it on my own now.
Here are some tips for when I started and do note that I'm not some massive success story of here's how I make millions as an agent, but how I've made a good sustainable business out of it.
1. SOI is helpful, but it may not be the sphere you're thinking of. My personal sphere from friends and family has helped a bit, but the most helpful sphere is the one I created within the investor community.
2. Knowledge is king. If you are new as an agent then you better have other useful knowledge to give to people. Don't lie about what you know, but read A LOT. Especially here on BP (just try to filter through the posturing).
3. Go to every networking group you can. This is going to be your cheapest way of growing that sphere from #1. Just being a familiar face at all of the groups will start to pay of. Do note though that if you just become the pushy agent trying to get clients all the time everyone will privately hate you and it won't help your business. Instead offer helpful info, be honest when you don't know the answer and help the groups by making introductions between others who would benefit from meeting each other.
4. Create your own meetup group. Many areas can still benefit from good meetups. I'm not saying to go make a group just so you can get clients. Remember that you have to create value first. If you go in with a me first attitude then it's bound to not work out. The day I got my license I started my first networking group in my local area. It averaged 10-20 people a month and started to get me to be a known name in the area. As time went on I ended up merging with another group down the road that I had been attending and now we have one of the biggest groups in our metro area. Our #1 goal is community and through that the business grows more.
5. Specialize in a niche. When I started there was nobody in my areas focusing on the house hacker. I took that on as my specialty and now it supports a majority of my business.
6. Don't always say yes to every client. There are a ton of tire kickers out there and filtering out those people will make your life a lot simpler. Everyone and their mom want to be flippers, but most of them never will be. Make them show commitment by having proof of their ability to get funds, etc before wasting your time on them.
7. Make friends with a good lender. One of my favorite mortgage brokers has sent me multiple clients over the years with quite a few of those being in years 1 and 2. Why?, because he knew I would grind to get these clients under contract. They were never his easiest clients and other brokers had given up. It's not that the buyers weren't serious, but they just needed more help. Now he knows that I can get those difficult ones closed when others can't or won't.
Hopefully some of this is helpful for you.
- 5yMichael K GallagherBusiness MemberReal Estate Agent · Columbus OH · Member since 2018 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
One of the most elite Women I know has a brokerage in your market. You should look into Amy Renae and Brick and Banister Realty. Even if you don't want to change brokerages she is an incredible person and I'm sure she would be a great connection for you! Happy to make an intro if you'd like as well.
- 5yJonathan BombaciBusiness MemberReal Estate Agent · Lowell, MA · Member since 2019 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
I think other brokers and agents give the wrong impression to new agents and it’s really a disservice. Getting started in real estate is HARD. Really freaking HARD. Not just due to covid but always. How many new businesses fail in the first 2 years? As a new agent you’re essentially starting a new business, real estate agents are part of that statistic.
I tell new agents to Expect no income at all for 6 months. Even if you get lucky right out of the gate and have a couple listings or preapproved buyers ready to go, and you go under agreement at the first showing, it could take 45 days to close and a few days to get paid. Then of course not all of them actually close and that is still a “1 off transactions”, not something that can be repeated every month.
That being said once you get going, assuming you do it right, the momentum will carry you to far higher than you could have expected. The advice I give new agents on my team is don’t quit your day job right away. Do real estate part-time on nights and weekends. Close some transaction, get the first 6-12 months out of the way, then make an informed decision on what you want to do. The other thing people don’t talk about is when you become a real estate agent you no longer qualify for a mortgage. You need 2 years of solid 1099 income for the bank to count it, and since you’re here on BP I imagine you’re looking to invest in real estate as well. The W2 job will get you your mortgage, the real estate income can be your down payments. Then the recurring income from your investment properties will pay your bills even when the market shifts or you lose a funnel for some reason. Even successful agents go bankrupt if they don’t have a backup plan and the market hits a wall or they have a crappy Q3 going into the winter months.
The other thing I recommend is picking a niche within a niche and becoming a master at it. Pick 1 strategy, 1 funnel, and focus on just that within 20 miles of where they live. Too many new, and experienced agents, spread themselves too thin and are mediocre at a lot of different things. Pick 1 and be an expert at it, it’ll produce outsized results, it’ll be cheaper, and take you much farther than if you did a lot of things marginally well. If Instagram or social media Is your thing do that, if it’s door knocking, mailers, cold calling, driving for dollars, open houses, networking, or something else is your thing then do that. Then pick a niche clientele like investors, First time home buyers, veterans, upsizers, downsizers, distressed sellers, inherited property, or a specific language or ethicity and focus your marketing $ on that.
You should have a strong WHY as to why you’re getting into real estate. Align your niches to your WHY so when times get tough, and they will, you can push through. Most agents give up in their first year. To be successful sometimes all you need to do is not quit.
My primary advice for new agents is focus on something you can kill it at and then just don’t give up. It’ll be hard at times but if you give it enough time and stick with it you’ll get where you want to be.
Best of luck, being a new agent is tough. Sometimes having good success right out of the gate makes it harder but I’d say you need yo reset your expectations and focus on low cost strategies until you can get your feet back under you.
Best of luck,
Jon
- 5yJay HinrichsBusiness MemberReal Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
Originally posted by @Russell Brazil:
The industry has an 87% failure rate, which is right in line with the 90% failure rate for small businesses.
Becoming a real estate agent should be looked at as no different than starting any other business. Most businesses lose money the first 2 years they are open, then eek out a profit in year 3 before settling into profitablity.
You need to start spending say 4 hours per day on lead generating activities. If you are not good at lead generation, then join a real estate team.
great advice Russ I have seen so many agents apprentice under the team concept and in 3 to 5 years able to branch out..
I grew up in the industry.. it was common knowledge 50 years ago that you needed at LEAST 12 to 18 months of living expenses plus marketing in the bank before you went full time.. As U state these are small business enterprises and underfunded or not properly capitalized business are prone to astronomical failure rates..
Not only that you have this post.. people are under a ton of stress if they are not going to be able to make it after 6 to 8 months..
And lets not kid ourselves this is a tough environment right now with restricted inventory etc.
However that all said if one can put their 10 years in, this business gets SO good its all referral based make all sorts of cool contacts new friends help people etc..
But need to keep doing what they are doing telling everyone they know.. We have had the same Town Car driver that takes us to the airport and back for about 20 years now. ( mainly MS Lori since I don't want her in some scuzzy uber ) Well Jano ( our driver) had another client who had a liquidity event and was looking for an agent.. Hence the referral.. 30 days later Lori has a 6 million dollar home in escrow that closed.. Will list their 2 mil home etc etc.. But again thats 25 plus years of experience to fall back on .. Plus we new the property they bought, I had bought and rehabbed the Mansion next to it in 2004.. So I knew this property well So once I knew price point I told Lori you got to go show this house they will love it and sure enough. And to make it even better Ms. Lori made them throw in the 189k Beemer with 3k miles on it:) since it was a cash sale close in 30 days.. Lori did the major home inspections that were intense of course 14k sq ft 10 bathrooms and who knows what else..
This is how the industry works.
- 5yJay HinrichsBusiness MemberReal Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
Originally posted by @Jonathan Bombaci:
I think other brokers and agents give the wrong impression to new agents and it’s really a disservice. Getting started in real estate is HARD. Really freaking HARD. Not just due to covid but always. How many new businesses fail in the first 2 years? As a new agent you’re essentially starting a new business, real estate agents are part of that statistic.
I tell new agents to Expect no income at all for 6 months. Even if you get lucky right out of the gate and have a couple listings or preapproved buyers ready to go, and you go under agreement at the first showing, it could take 45 days to close and a few days to get paid. Then of course not all of them actually close and that is still a “1 off transactions”, not something that can be repeated every month.
That being said once you get going, assuming you do it right, the momentum will carry you to far higher than you could have expected. The advice I give new agents on my team is don’t quit your day job right away. Do real estate part-time on nights and weekends. Close some transaction, get the first 6-12 months out of the way, then make an informed decision on what you want to do. The other thing people don’t talk about is when you become a real estate agent you no longer qualify for a mortgage. You need 2 years of solid 1099 income for the bank to count it, and since you’re here on BP I imagine you’re looking to invest in real estate as well. The W2 job will get you your mortgage, the real estate income can be your down payments. Then the recurring income from your investment properties will pay your bills even when the market shifts or you lose a funnel for some reason. Even successful agents go bankrupt if they don’t have a backup plan and the market hits a wall or they have a crappy Q3 going into the winter months.
The other thing I recommend is picking a niche within a niche and becoming a master at it. Pick 1 strategy, 1 funnel, and focus on just that within 20 miles of where they live. Too many new, and experienced agents, spread themselves too thin and are mediocre at a lot of different things. Pick 1 and be an expert at it, it’ll produce outsized results, it’ll be cheaper, and take you much farther than if you did a lot of things marginally well. If Instagram or social media Is your thing do that, if it’s door knocking, mailers, cold calling, driving for dollars, open houses, networking, or something else is your thing then do that. Then pick a niche clientele like investors, First time home buyers, veterans, upsizers, downsizers, distressed sellers, inherited property, or a specific language or ethicity and focus your marketing $ on that.
You should have a strong WHY as to why you’re getting into real estate. Align your niches to your WHY so when times get tough, and they will, you can push through. Most agents give up in their first year. To be successful sometimes all you need to do is not quit.
My primary advice for new agents is focus on something you can kill it at and then just don’t give up. It’ll be hard at times but if you give it enough time and stick with it you’ll get where you want to be.
Best of luck, being a new agent is tough. Sometimes having good success right out of the gate makes it harder but I’d say you need yo reset your expectations and focus on low cost strategies until you can get your feet back under you.
Best of luck,
Jon
When I owned my own brokerage I did not run a team concept per se.. but I was the largest foreclosure buyer in the PDX area at the time so I bought and sold about 100 homes a year for own account.. and what I did for my starter agents is I made a deal with them.. I would let them list them and I would pay 1 point.. so they got to do the transaction with my oversight they get into the trenchs and got paid.. Not just Hey beginner i am Mr. high producer go sit an open house at one of my listings .. It was far more rewarding for the agent and a few went on to do great things.. I know I am not your typical brokerage owner but that is what I did to assist my beginner agents.. and if they botched a deal I would just step in.. but I Also saved many from getting led around by the nose ring from so called investors who were really just all hat and no cattle.. have to guard against the wanna be investor also.
- 5yJonathan BombaciBusiness MemberReal Estate Agent · Lowell, MA · Member since 2019 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
@Jay Hinrichs yeah I try to get the new agents on my team involved in the industry as quickly as possible. We focus on working with investors and every agent that joins us is either already an investor or makes a commitment to start investing within 12 months. Most of the time they’ve been trying to get started for a while but hit some sort of blocker. So we try to tackle that blocker for them and get them going. Many of my new agents end up getting their first investment property under agreement within 90 days. We also give them 1 free transaction per year if they do a deal for themselves so they get to keep almost all of the commission which is a huge boost to their business right out of the gate.
I don’t have nearly as much businsss as you do but we f doo our best to try to set them up with strong motivated buyers (sometimes we’re doing a sell and buy situation), and we also offer rental listings from our PM side if they’re going through a dry spell and need to earn but fortunately that rarely happens.
It’s great to hear other brokers go out of their way to help new agents too. Unfortunately I think we’re in the minority.
- Real Estate Agent · Orlando FL, USA · Member since 2019 · 29 posts · 28 votes5y
I just got my license about 2 weeks ago and as plans of what I'm doing to get started is working on ways I can get killer content out there. My plans were to create video content in the form of TikTok, Instagram, Youtube. TikTok has the highest growth potential in terms of growing an audience because as you guys surely already know that Instagram and youtube are very saturated. TikTok is very easy to come up with content, all you need to know is to understand trends, memes, and using that for your audience. I highly suggest you guys check the platform out and see if you can get creative and put some good content out there. The next couple of things I'm working on is a killer website with a killer blog. Everybody knows the potential a blog has no in the internet age and can help with your personal brand. The last thing I plan on doing is to work on my buyers presentations and listing presentations so that when I do show one of these as an agent that it isn't just an average one and I can really show how I can provide value to the customer. The last thing I plan on doing is using biggerpockets to find meetups and zoom online meetups for REI type meetups and networking with people there because that is the most important part as I want to focus on the investor type buyers who want commercial properties or properties like AirBnB. I my opinion these are the most reliable way to grow as an agent that I plan on using. I think content creation is something that is great for people to adopt because now in the technology age people are consuming more and more content and if you put that content out there potential clients could see you as a source of reliable information.
- Rental Property Investor · Member since 2021 · 423 posts · 190 votes5y
Selling $5 million dollars worth of real estate comes with all the work. It comes with a lot of communication. Nowadays with technology, while you're sitting there, in the last 5 minutes you might have 3 text messages from agents wanting to hear back from an offer they sent 10 minutes ago. It's expected you review and hold your mobile device constantly in your hand and communicate.
And it's almost unusual if you don't respond within an hour. But that's the life you live.
I couldn't live like that, man.
- Real Estate Agent · Winnipeg, MB · Member since 2019 · 12 posts · 5 votes5y
It’s been about 2 months into it for me! Good so far, managed to get 3 deals done in my first month now my market has slowed down. It definitely was a wild ride the first month I was extremely busy and the market was competitive. Excited for spring.
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