New Real Estate Agent Checklist to ACTUALLY Succeed.
If you are a new real estate agent you have probably wondered what you need to be doing NOW so that you can succeed in your new business as quickly as possible. In this article I will break down the 6 most important things a new real estate agent NEED to do in order to actually succeed.
Most articles on the internet will give you a list of 10 or more items that are generally…well….just fluff. This is NOT what this checklist will be about. Getting your license activated, joining a brokerage, joining a Realtor Board and MLS, etc. are all important and NECESSARY for a new real estate agent to actually start practicing real estate, but that’s the easy part. The hard part is figuring out what to do AFTER…and that is exactly what we will be helping you do in this article.
As you’ll see in this checklist, you’ll see that perhaps the most important thing you can do as a new agent is determine how you will lead generate for new clients. Perhaps the most common misconception as a new real estate agent is that clients will magically appear – but the truth is, even with great lead generation tools and training, it will be up to you to use all of that and implement your own lead generation.
If you’d like to get started on the right foot, combine this checklist with our free, downloadable 120 lead generation strategies list:
New Real Estate Agent 6 Point Checklist for ACTUAL Success:
- Develop the Right Mindset
- Create Your Vision
- Find a Niche to Focus On
- Find 2 Marketing/Lead Generation Methods to Implement
- Create a Personal or Business Brand
- Persist Until You Succeed
1) Develop The Right Mindset
Mindset before skillsets. Step one on our actionable new real estate agent checklist is to develop the right mindset.
You might have heard of the phrase that ultra successful entrepreneurs work more on themselves than they do on their business. That statement can not be more true if you want to achieve success as a new real estate agent.
For many new real estate agents, it could be your first time ever going into business for yourself, which means you are becoming an entrepreneur for the first time. And make no mistake, real estate agents are ENTREPRENEURS, which means that you will be responsible for creating your own income and NOT relying on your company or brokerage to provide you with leads or a salary.
Having the right mindset is the first thing any new entrepreneurs NEED to do because nothing else matters if you do not begin working on yourself and your thought patterns. Your thought patterns control your attitude, and your attitude will control how you show up everyday to face your clients, prospects, and partners. This is especially important in a sales oriented business like real estate.
New real estate agents need to work on self-development before they learn anything else in the business. This means reading books like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (A MUST Read for Any Entrepreneur PERIOD) and studying personal development mentors inside the real estate industry like Tom Ferry AND outside the real estate industry like Tony Robbins or Ed Mylett.
Once you have started to work on your mindset, then you will be able to start learning the skillsets and implementing correctly.
2) Create Your Vision
The second thing that a new real estate agent need to do in order to succeed in business is to create their vision for success and set goals that they wish to achieve THROUGH real estate.
Notice that I did not say “IN” real estate, but rather “THROUGH” real estate. What does that mean?
There is a correct and incorrect way to set goals. The correct way is to set REAL goals that have value to you and your lifestyle. This could be the house that you want to live in, the car that you want to drive, the relationships that you want to have, the vacations you want to take, and just the general picture of the life that you want to live.
By setting goals that you want to achieve in your LIFE, you are able to attach your emotions to them, which will give you more motivation and drive to put in the work even on your worst days when you don’t even want to get out of bed.
While most new real estate agents set business based goals such as how many houses they want to sell or the money they want to make, many of them can’t even articulate why those goals matter at all. Those type of goals are 100% arbitrary and meaningless to YOU which means that you will never actually stick to them.
Instead, set goals that actually MATTER to you. And if you did step 1 correctly, those goals will be massive and courageous!
You have to know where you are going in order to get there. Don’t just say that you want to “be successful” or “be rich”. Ask yourself how successful you want to become? What does success mean to you? What specific material things do you want in your life? Remember that real estate is just a vehicle to achieve the life that you have always wanted.
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3) Find a Niche to Focus On
The third thing a new real estate agent needs to do is to find a niche that they want to serve.
A niche is a specific subsection of real estate, whether if it is a specific type of client or property. A niche can be but is not limited to:
- New Construction
- Vacant Land
- Farm and Ranch
- Rentals and Leasing
- Investment Properties
- First Time Home Buyers
- Out of State Investors
- Vacation Rentals
- Luxury Properties
- FSBOS
- Expired Listings
- Divorce Listings
- Pre-Foreclosure
- REOs
- Military Relocation
- etc.
It is important that you find a niche to focus on as a new real estate agent because of 2 specific reasons:
- As a new real estate agent you will have a much stronger value proposition for clients if you are able to be an expert in a specific subsection of real estate rather than just be a general real estate agent that are a dime a dozen.
- There is a lot to learn in the real estate industry as a new real estate agent. Finding a niche to focus on will allow you to focus your attention on selling and marketing a specific type of property or to a specific type of client. This will save you time AND headache so that you do not waste time learning information that might not be valuable to you and your business.
Many new real estate agents start out in their business without a niche to focus on because they are desperate for their first deal and to get your business going. This usually leads to a period of time in your business where you have no real direction or control of your business and are working with everyone and anyone. But more importantly, you are competing against much more seasoned real estate agents who already have client databases and referral relationships.
A much smarter and more efficient thing to do as a new real estate is to take some time to figure out what niche you want to work on BEFORE you start trying to get business. This way you will know exactly what type of customer you WANT to serve and tailor your marketing, brand, and messaging towards that audience, giving you a HUGE advantage over other new real estate agents in your market.
4) Find 2 Marketing/Lead Generation Methods to Implement
The fourth thing that a new real estate agent need to do is to find TWO methods of marketing or lead generation so that you can start letting other people know about their new real estate business.
Lead generation is the process of marketing yourself to the world so that potential clients or “leads” will know who you are and what your business does so that they eventually become your clients.
There are two types of lead generation in business. Proactive and reactive.
Proactive lead generation is to PROACTIVELY go out and reach people by directly contacting them through the phone, door knocking, networking, or messaging. Proactive lead generation is also known as “outbound” lead generation. Types of proactive lead generation include:
- Cold Calling
- Door Knocking
- Direct Messaging
- Networking in Person
- Participating in Comments and Forums on Social Media
Reactive lead generation is to put out content through your marketing efforts either through paid advertisements or organic content so that your potential clients REACT to your content and contacts you directly. Reactive lead generation is also known as “inbound” lead generation. Types of reactive lead generation include:
- YouTube Video Marketing
- Social Media POSTING
- Facebook/Instagram/Google PAID Ads
- Billboard Ads
- Radio or TV Ads
- Blogging
New real estate agents should pick TWO lead generation methods, one proactive and one reactive, then gradually move all of your efforts into reactive lead generation. As a brand new real estate agent that needs income and closing quickly, you need to implement at least one proactive lead generation method. This is because reactive lead generation methods take more time to manifest into clients than proactive ones.
But on the other hand, reactive lead generation methods will allow you to stretch your time and build an actual business that can be systemized and automated. By putting out one piece of content, you are able to capture leads from it in perpetuity until that piece of content “expires” or goes away so that it can never be seen again.
A good strategy for new real estate agents is to implement one of each, this way they are able to learn their communication skills upfront through trial and error by directly reaching out and trying to get clients, while spending the other 50% of their time building a marketing channel that will generate them leads month after month.
Not sure where to start or what lead generation strategies there are out there for real estate agents? Here below are 120 lead generation ideas as well as the ones we specifically focus on teaching our national real estate team (for free). Learn more about partnering with us!
5) Create a Personal or Business Brand
Step 5 for new real estate agents to succeed is to start creating a personal or business brand.
Your brand is extremely important because it is the thing that will resonate with the public every time that the see or hear your “message”. Branding is nothing more than messaging. What is your message? What do you want to tell your clients if there was only one sentence that you can say to them? How do you want potential clients to perceive you or your business?
When creating a personal or business brand remember that it does not have to be extremely complex or built out in the beginning. As a new real estate agent, having a general idea of what your branding message is will be sufficient enough. The logo, website, themes, fonts, tagline, etc. will come later as your business expands.
A brand is just a way for others to recognize you. It can be a color that you use in all of your marketing, a way that you talk, a way that you approach every real estate deal, or anything that is consistently unique to you and your business.
Note: When creating your brand be sure to think as big and broad as you can, this way you will be able to repurpose your brand for any other business outside of the real estate industry in the future if you choose to. Do not limit it to your market or industry if you can. For FREE training, coaching, and masterminds on branding for real estate agents, click below!
6) Persist Until You Succeed!
The final step for a new real estate agent or any real estate agent in order to succeed in this business is to PERSIST.
You might have heard of the statistic that around 80% of all new real estate agents drop out of the industry within 6 months of being licensed. This is true NOT because new real estate agents are more likely to FAIL…it is true because those real estate agents CHOSE TO QUIT.
There is no such thing as failing, only quitting. If you do not quit then you can not fail. Persist through the temporary setbacks that are GUARANTEED to come your way as a new real estate agent. Don’t let failed marketing methods, rude clients, deals that fall through, or a bad brokerage stop you from succeeding in real estate as an agent.
Do not ever give up on yourself, no one on the planet was born a successful real estate agent, everyone starts somewhere, even that top producer or broker that you see in your local market. You can never be good at something unless you are bad at it first, so remember that the next time you feel inferior or like a failure or like you will never succeed, we have all been there. The difference between the ones who are all over your local edition of REALTOR magazine and the ones who deactivate their real estate license is that the successful ones did not let temporary setbacks stop them from achieving their ultimate success.
Don’t quit, and you are guaranteed to succeed. Good luck!
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