All Forum Posts by: Ken Konecny

It all depends on the type of clients you want to work with. If you are someone that likes analyzing deals, and likes business minded people, then seek out investor clients. On the other hand, if you like to be more of an educator and hand holder to less real estate savvy people, then work with retail clients.

Whichever clients you decide to work with you need to be completely upfront and transparent with them that you are a part time agent. And are limited in the services you can offer them compared to a full time agent. 

The market is always changing. I became an agent when the market bottomed. It's been a good ride up, not easy in any way, but business is good when the market is trending up. I am well aware that the market is due for a correction in the coming years.

I got the same feedback from people before I became an agent. It didn't occur to me at the time, but most of the people that were telling me I shouldn't become an agent were w-2 employees, risk adverse, and knew nothing about the business. 

Go talk to every broker in your area and learn more about the business. Talk to top producing agents and new agents and get their insights and opinions on the business and where the market is headed. 

Real estate is always being bought and sold, regardless of the market conditions. With determination, grit and perseverance you can be successful in any market.

Have you thought about hiring an apprentice? Somebody that wants to learn your business and could be an assistant to you starting out. Sounds like you have already created the best practices, you just need someone to document it. After the apprentice has learned the basics, they could take over some of your tasks. Freeing you up to think of ways to scale the business.   

John D. Start studying ASAP. Look up course providers and see if there is an age restriction. In regards to learning the other stuff. Go onto Zillow, Redfin, or realtor.com and start looking at active and sold listings in your market. Go to open houses and talk to the agents holding them open. Most agents I know would be happy to talk to someone, especially if the open house is slow. Start reading books and listening to podcasts related to business and marketing. Keep networking and learning about investing here on BP.

Hey @John D. Have you taken all the classes? Why are you waiting 6 months? 

You can certainly start studying all the things you mentioned, but they won't help you with the test. Knowledge is important, learning about the market, learning how to talk to buyers and sellers, negotiating, and so on. However, you have to keep in mind that you are starting a business. Marketing is the most important skill to learn to give yourself an edge. You need to be able to demonstrate what makes you different than every other agent out there and how you create value for your clients. 

@Paul Aqua Your clients are going to run into other agents, it's inevitable. As long as you are delivering value to your clients you shouldn't have to differentiate yourself or worry about other agents. However, you will loose some "clients" to other agents, it's just part of the business. If you are worried, have your buyer clients sign a buyer broker agreement.   

Differentiating yourself is most important in your marketing, when trying to acquire new clients, not so much with existing clients.

I handle multiple listings at once. You have to be prepared to handle multiple listings and escrows at the same time. Otherwise you will be constantly referring business away, losing 75% of the commission. You will learn through experience what you can handle. Your goal should be to build systems that will allow you to take on more and more business.  

Podio hands down is the best CRM that I have used so far. Completely customize able, no limit on the number of contacts and the paid version has workflow automation. I've used Insightly and Top Producer extensively. But found them both to not completely fit my needs in a CRM. Insightly would be my second choice. It's clean and very simple, but is has limitations. Top Producer is clunky and expensive.  

I jumped into the real estate game five years ago without doing much research about the business. Looking back, I wish I had known more about marketing. 

My first sale was a referral from my mentor about six months after I started. 

Talk to all the different brokerages big and small. Find the one that best fits your strengths and weaknesses. 

You need to have clients to work with. Be it buyers to sell property to or sellers to list their properties, either way you need to get in front of people and let them know what you do. 

Marketing yourself is the key. Open house, social media, blogging, talking to friends and family, door knocking... Once you get the basics of marketing down explore more advanced methods, Facebook ads, Adwords, website SEO and on and on. 

My advise is to stick with one marketing method and master it. Only after you master it should you try another method. I wasted so much time bouncing between different marketing never really mastering one, just being mediocre at many of them. One last piece of advise, never buy shopping cart ads. Branding and marketing are not the same thing. 

Best of luck.

I'm in a hot market. The vast majority of listings that are priced at the market and marketed correctly sell for full price. I am always honest if I have an offer or not. It's true I want to get my client the highest and best offer, but I have an ethical duty to be honest to other agents and buyers. 

When I run into this situation where I'm representing the buyer and I have doubt there is an offer, I ask a lot of questions to tease out any information that may say otherwise. 

Hey @Jose Quintana ! I’m an agent in the Sacramento area. I work with all types of RE investors. PM me if you’d like to chat sometime.