OMG I can't believe I made it!
No seriously I almost quit 9 months in. I started this with a lot of expectations that were not typical or realistic and I figured that my tenacity and work ethic would make me the exception and around 9 months in, I hit a wall. I had had nothing but failed clients who had dragged me all over the county and weren't interested in working with me either because I was too new or they just weren't ready. I had contracts that were expiring left and right around me and no new prospects. I was in the office one Friday with a potential listing appointment that was coming that weekend, and the customer called to cancel and I just left. Why be at the office with no work to do? I came back the next Monday ready to tell my manager that I would finish the desk duty time I had signed up for that week, but that I was reconsidering my career as a REALTOR because I needed something that paid money, and that after a lifetime is sales, 9 months with no sales was unacceptable to me. She told me that she understood my dilemma and reminded me that in their first year REALTORS typically don't have any sales or that they might have 1, and that I really shouldn't expect anything more than that until years 3-5. While on the desk that day I received an email from someone who received my monthly mailers. They loved my mailers and were looking for a local realtor who could help them sell their home. I unenthusiastically accepted to meet them figuring it would all end in disaster like it always did, but in the end it turned out wonderfully. They were my first listing and they were wonderful. I was able to sell their home in under a week for above asking. And just like that, listings started popping up everywhere. A month later I had another property up on the market. This one sold in under 24 hours also for above asking.
So over all I would say that my first year in real estate has been a fantastic roller coaster. I will be closing it out with 2 closed transactions representing the sell side, 1 listing coming up and have quite 6 buyer agency contracts in place that we will hopefully close on soon. As we head back into the fall and winter months I just hope that year 2 is a little easier on me. In the meantime, here are some things I have learned.
Listings were where it's at this year
Helping buyers can be fun especially if you enjoy checking out properties and helping families find a forever home, but buyers will have you trying to get licensed in multiple states running around thinking you are going to lose a client due to geography. You will do 3 times the work and at least half of them aren't actually serious about buying so you will never see any money.
When you are starting out it is really hard to keep track of what's going to be important to growing your business, making money today, and everything in-between. When you are running around with a client it becomes even harder. When you work with a listing. It's hard to waste your time. If the client doesn't sign the listing agreement during the first or follow up listing appointment, then the maximum time you've spent is 3-5 hours of prep and presentation and if they do sign you are pretty much guaranteed a sale as long as you keep working at it and know how to negotiate. When you work with a buyer you can have a buyers agency signed but that doesn't mean they are going to buy anything, and you can be working with them for 6 months to a year and shown them 100's of homes in 4 different counties before you figure that out.
Don't waste your time with renters
I am not saying to ignore renters or not take them on as clients, but I had a lot of experienced agents suggesting using renters to help get me leads, and I can tell you a few things. 1. Renters cant afford to pay a realtor, and landlords don't want to, so there is no money to be made. 2. Renters are just as much work as buyers but without the money. 3. Renters are more liable to ignore you and just give up looking for a new place than buyers are. 4. Renters don't ever want to sign anything ever. So what I am getting is at is if you get a renter client treat them as you would any other client, but don't go out of your way looking for or helping renters thinking it's going to help generate business, because its not.
If your looking to generate leads, working open houses will help you a lot more.
Mailers and Desk Duty Work
When I first started I was given a lot of direction on what sort of marketing works and what doesn't from people who have been in the business for years. The 2 biggest things I was told was that mailers only work 1% of the time and working desk was passive prospecting.
When you are new though the things that really generate clients, like past clients and a referral network, don't exist for you yet, so do the things that don't always work because in my experience 100 of the clients I worked with this year came from sitting desk and mailers. I am not saying that this will work for me forever, but the numbers show me that its working so far, so you should do the things that drive business, and not the things that don't.
Find Your Niche
When I first started out I started a blog. I actually did this so I could help continue to remember everything I had learned in pre-licensing and also have a place that I could go back and find information in a way that was organized for me. However starting this blog kicked off social media for me. It gave me something to post weekly that wasn't promoting another company or realtor. It also gave me content to draw people to my website regularly, and it launched me into starting the monthly newsletter as well. I absolutely love referral and network marketing so this helped me build an online base of followers that I could refer my network to and help me get started in referral.
Aside from finding a niche in my marketing strategy, I wanted to find a niche market. So during the long winter months with non-sales when I first started I took some classes and got a green designation. Since moving to Chester County my family and I have started messing around with the idea of homesteading. We grow a garden, raise chickens for eggs and meat, use our own water, heat our home with a wood stove and a bunch more, so I decided why not find other people looking to homestead and help them get started. Now the Green Designation is more about energy efficient and resource efficient homes, but I feel like those 2 things go hand in hand and have created a nice little niche for me to nestle into over the next few years.
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