If you ask ten people on the street if they have ever thought about being a real estate agent, nine of them will say “yes.” Real estate is a popular career choice in America. The National Association of Realtors has 1.2 million active members and that’s not even half the licensed agents in the country.
Everyone wants to be in real estate, but not everyone makes it. According to Zillow, the average agent in America sells five houses a year. Depending on how many homes, sales and agents are in your market, this can really make things tough for a new start-up agent.
Let’s be real here, too, being a real estate agent isn’t cheap. You gotta buy signs, websites, leads, lock boxes, pay dues and more. When you’re getting started, it’s like those big checks you get at closing are spent before you can even cash them.
It’s a game many wish they could win, but very few play correctly.
If you’re now a licensed real estate salesperson, it’s time for you to do what your title says and be a salesperson. In RE school, no one tells you how to make money. They tell you how to keep from getting sued and losing your license. Today, I’m going to give you the head start I never got. I’ve put together the seven steps you need to take in order to come out hard, swinging and slinging real estate.
Step One is to hit up your social media sphere of influence. Let’s do some simple math here. According to Wikipedia, 62 percent of Americans own a home. This means that for every 100 friends you have, 62 of them could be potential clients. If you don’t let people know what you do for a living, they will not think of you when they need what you sell. Tell your sphere of influence online, and do it often.
Step Two is to invest in mailers, not business cards. I know this goes against logic but if you are gonna spend money, and money is tight, you need to spend it wisely. No one wants business cards anymore. They want to connect online or just to trade a quick text and save your info in their phone. Spend your money on fliers, mailers and things of that nature as opposed to silly, outdated things like business cards.
Step Three is to create a free website. You can go to Squarespace, Wix, or any other “free” site. I recommend you set up an account at Clyxo.com and use Clyxo as your personal bookmark and bio page. It’s easy to do and it costs you absolutely nothing. Clyxo also has awesome SEO capabilities. You can even use your name in your account’s URL.
Step Four is to go to open houses. Ask any big time listing agent in your office if you can sit at their open houses. Once you get one set up, blast it to your Facebook friends, local garage sale lists and on craigslist. Let as many people as possible know about the open house. When they show up, and you’re at the house, get their info and set up appointments to follow up and sell them a home.
Step Five is to run Facebook ads. For as little as $5/day, you can get a few new leads from Facebook. If you know what you’re doing, you can convert one out of every five leads into a client. If you get one lead a day, this is $25 spent per client you acquire. Each client could be worth $5,000 or more.
Step Six is to send email blasts. You need to be creative with emails and don’t spam people. Think of it this way: if you wouldn’t read it, neither will your prospects. Make emails fun, entertaining and informative. Be sure to always end every email with some form of a call to action. The reader always needs to know what to do next.
Step Seven is to repeat steps one through six over and over again. Weekly, daily, every hour. If you piss them off, they weren’t going to buy from you anyway. If you do it correctly, you’ll crush your first year in real estate. You’ll start to carve out your own niche in the market and build a client database. There’s nothing to it but to do it.
Think of this. If 62 out of every 100 people you contact own a home, and the average person moves every five years, you could be doing 2-3 sales a month just from marketing to your existing connections online and off.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to let everyone know your new profession.
Another thing I highly recommend for you to do is to go through training and surround yourself with people who are doing what you want to do. Surround yourself with winners so you can win with them. The best thing to do is to join BFA Entourage by going to breakfreeacademy.com/entourage
