New Agent Tips

 

5 Tips for A New Agent

   The first 12 months of a being a new REALTOR® are the hardest from what I've been told, and todays market make it that much harder for a new agent to laydown a solid foundation. So much work goes into just getting somebody on the other side of the phone, and that doesn't include the money you have to shell out upfront for potential clients. I have been an agent for 2 months now and have put in more work than most when they start up. By no means am I saying that I am a success story, but I have my first closing coming up and I'd like to share this with you if you're a new agent. These are the 5 things that consistently cross into my sector while trying to navigate this career path, and I have to pay attention to every time I encounter them.

1. The Senior Agent Advice:

    You're the new guy/girl and the senior agents will come to you, the majority of them want to offer their advice and experience if you want it or not. You want it, trust me when I say this. When I say senior agents. I'm talking any agent who've produced over $1,000,000 and been in real estate for over 12 months, they've established a foundation that they can stand on and they all did it in their own way. I'm sure there is a lot of agents in this career field who will try to manipulate you and exploit you for being new, but I have yet to meet one within the brokerage I am at. Next time you get the opportunity to work with or around them, take it. If you get a phone call from an agent in your brokerage that you may not know, take it. If they ask you for help with something and it's not a crazy request, take the time and do it.

    The guys/girls at my brokerage have been nothing but supportive and informative, sometimes they ask for favors but the knowledge or opportunities you can get from them is worth the 30 minutes of a virtual showing, half a day of front desk duty or the 4 hours of an open house. I wouldn't have my first closing coming up if I was just looking out for myself and trying to brute force my way into this business as a new agent.

2. Open Houses:

    Open houses are a great way to meet new people who are possibly in the market, about to be, or thinking about it in the near future. Take the 3-4 hours of your day and host an open house, you don't have to bring all the snacks if you don't want to. The most important thing you get from this is establishing presence in a marketable community, and when people want real estate they want a friendly face to be there with them.

    There are no shortage's of open houses at my brokerage, and I take advantage of them as often as I can. I will setup some snacks, lay out the client MLS sheets and any other information (If it's a new build you can get floorplans of the builders other homes). I always make sure to bring a stack of business cards, and I almost always end up handing out a half dozen or so. I am giving you a business card that carries a friendly face. I might have talked to you about an appointment you were coming from, how your house was that you just sold, or listened to your career path change. I don't know how much of an impact that has on every individual, but I do know that you're more likely to keep my card and call the guy with the familiar face over Joe Blow with Hasty Real Estate who popped up on your google search.

3. Organization, Do It:

    You will get dozens of contacts, leads and people that you'll file away for down the road. You'll most definitely be working with more than one client at a time, and sometimes you'll have days full of appointments with board requirements, CE Classes, classroom training, potential clients, open houses, etc (It goes on and on). You'll also need to remember what your clients talked to you about, it would be a mess and you could potentially loose you a client if you started getting their information mixed up. Find your medium and use it, the less you have to actually remember is better. If you can pull out your phone or a book that's always with you, let it be your memory.

    I personally use Cherry Notes for all my client information, the specifics. I have it on an encrypted drive that I can pull into any computer I am working on so I always know every detail I've ever discussed with a client. I also carry a planner with me that I have got in the habit of carrying everywhere with me, if it's not on my person it is a brisk walk to the car away. I hand write important events, showings, appointments, etc so that way I can re-call certain dates or events in the future if I need to as well. Another big thing is sync'ing your calendar with your work email, alot of what we do can port over to external applications like a calendar and it is very useful to get the automatic reminders 1 hour before I need to be somewhere.

4. Personal Emails, Out With The Old:

    More than likely you have a main email that is a google account or equivalent that all your bills, subscriptions, bank and everything else goes to. When I tell you don't use this, don't use this... seriously.... you're going to have an aneurism at some point with trying to keep things straight. You're going to want some kind of personal email that deals with all of your personal business things like boards, MLS, associations, learning, RE accounts, and clients. Nobody wants to trust a $100,000+ transaction with the guy who emails you from 420CloudBoi@gmail.com (Don't email that, I don't know who that is). You're probably going to get an email for your brokerage, but guess what happens if you leave or get fired? All of your stuff goes with it, and you don't have access to some things you have subscriptions for. Keep that email free of traffic for important internal communications and documents between other agents. 

    I use proton mail for my personal emails. I have an admin account for all my real estate services and subscriptions, that account gets all my vital account recovery and state verification stuff. I don't hand that one out to anybody for any reason. Then I have my main proton which is slapped wherever you'll see a picture of my face. While I do use my brokerage email extensively, I prefer to communicate through an encrypted interface when we start brining in other people into email traffic. I don't like the idea of being the weak link in the cyber chain that caused a data breach or a PII leak. The bottom line is, keep your RE life separate from your personal life. If I am getting Marco's pizza updates and the next FOG drop in-between client communications then I am not really the professional that I would like to say that I am.

5. To Suit or Not To Suit?

    Not wearing a suit in real estate can be relevant for fostering a more approachable and relatable atmosphere. While suits have traditionally been associated with professionalism, they often can create a barrier between agents and clients, making interactions feel formal and impersonal. Choosing to wear something like business-casual, can help you establish a sense of authenticity and ease with clients, encouraging open communication and building trust. This approach can create a more comfortable environment for discussing one of the clients most significant financial decisions, ultimately enhancing the client-agent relationship and leading to more successful transactions. It is important to be yourself and express yourself to your client, being authentic while looking like you're the agent for them.

    Personally I love to wear suits and I was under the impression that I would wear them all the time in real estate, I was wrong. I would only wear a suit to a commercial or luxury transaction, because clients who are willing to spend big like to dress big. I find it extremely comfortable to be in my wranglers, boots and a nice button down or polo. 

Wrapping It Up:

    These are the 5 things that I personally think every new agent should look at and consider based on my experience up to this point. Todays market provides enough of a challenge as it is, there is no reason our lives have to be any harder. These 5 things continue to provide into my career as a REALTOR®, and I believe that all of these can have a direct impact on your image as an agent to your brokerage, other agents and potential/current clients. 

    I am extremely lucky to have gotten into the brokerage that I'm with now, they have been like a family and have always been supportive, trying to feed me information and knowledge every time I am around any of the other agents. I can say that I feel like I have enough experience to write this blog post even though I have been an agent for 2 months. I have my first closing coming up soon, and another contact about to come down. If I didn't follow these things I've outlined here, and choose who I have surrounded myself with then I would be another agent who is getting out as soon as I got in. If you don't belong to a brokerage that tries to make you better as an agent, if you don't have other agents trying to make you better, then you are in the wrong place. This is your business, learn from everyone and everything.

BONUS: This mega thread has all kinds of information for new agents, check it out HERE