According to statistics and research data, the employment rate of real estate agents, brokers, and veteran brokers is expected to grow 4% from 2020 to 2030 (source). Although many researchers call this a relatively slow growth compared to other business markets, almost 47,500 openings happen for real estate agents and estate brokers every year. (source)
Moreover, the real estate market has grown a total of 3.8% from 2017 to 2023, making it the fast-paced, growing department in the US. The reason for this increase in the percentage of real estate agents is the rising demand of the public to get the better price of their home or to get a house at a better price, in a better location, and according to the market trend.
Becoming a real estate agent is not like other professions where you take courses, coaching lessons, do practice in your field, and that’s it; you start getting clients. In fact, after getting the real estate agent license, it is a long journey ahead to become a successful real estate agent. A successful real estate agent has sound knowledge of the market, how the coming time will affect the home prices, and a will to learn and keep training to provide more quality to the clients.
Furthermore, becoming a successful Real Estate Agent doesn’t require some tips, tricks, or hacks; it involves building effective habits that you will use in your daily working routine. Hence, to brush up on your business’s practices, here are the 14 effective habits you need to master to become a successful real estate agent.
Sound Knowledge of the Housing Market
The first habit a successful real estate agent has is a sound knowledge of the housing market in their area. This is the first practice you should aim for while starting your real estate journey. However, having proper knowledge holds a different meaning for agents with varying levels of expertise.
For instance, a beginner real estate agent must focus on learning about the home values, pros and cons of different neighborhoods, cost of living, consumer’s expectations, current market trends, and other general stuff a real estate agent must know.
For experienced real estate agents, enhancing knowledge means increasing the circle of their real estate market information. For example, they can upgrade from the “local” to “national” level by learning about other ZIP Codes in a much greater area. For veteran brokers, they can increase their learning by working and anticipating the expected effects of industrial and economic growth of the country on the housing market.
Enhancing the current knowledge and learning new horizons is a habit that can help you start your journey to become a successful real estate agent. Because if you have a sound understanding of your area's housing market, average sale prices, and average listings, you can educate and communicate with your clients more openly. Not just communicate, you will understand the consumer demands and needs, which will help you guide them better in every way.
Pro Tip:
One of the best tips for how to be a successful real estate agent is to keep your ear to the ground on industry and local news. That’s why it’s also a good idea to use the beginning of your day to briefly scan the headlines of both your favorite real estate blogs and the local newspaper and/or news stations.
While you shouldn’t spend an exorbitant amount of time on this, you’re looking for things like:
- New businesses coming to the area that could result in a population surge
- Increased/decreased crime rates that could impact whether or not people want to move to the area
- Big events that are scheduled that could result in road closures and interfere with open houses/showings
- Sudden spikes or dramatic decreases in property values/tax
Having this kind of knowledge can help you with guiding your clients, and sets you up as an expert in your area - which could translate to more leads.
Devising a Marketing Plan
Coldwell Banker’s Sean Carpenter, who is a director of Agent Development For The Ohio NRT Companies, states in an interview:
“The real estate agent needs to approach their businesses with a sense of purpose. Because without a roadmap, you end up where the wind blows” talking more about the real estate market and businesses, he also says that “Everyone should plan for success, don’t wait for failure.” (source)
Not just Carpenter, other famous Real Estate Agents, and business analysts also say that devising and coming up with marketing plans and automating these campaigns will lead you ahead of the game. Successful real estate agents always have marketing plans in place, which they automate to showcase their experience and reach a more targeted audience.
But devising a marketing plan is not easy. First, you would have to try different strategies and find the best one. Then once you know your strategy, do not wait to implement it and never hesitate to think out of the box and try new ways to attract the customers.
Finding a Mentor in Estate Market
All the successful real agents have been in the state of beginner, but their will of learning and practicing with experienced persons is why they are called successful real estate agents.
Finding and working with a mentor provides an excellent opportunity for new agents to step into the real estate market. In addition, working with experienced real estate agents provides a hands-on learning experience for new agents.
You can learn from their processing, analyzing, and working with different clients. In addition, you can learn how to build relations and deal with different kinds of clients. The significant benefit you will get by working with mentors is that they always have some projects on hand. Hence, you can learn and practice all the processes of listing, selling, buying, inspecting, and other crucial steps of real estate without the actual struggle of getting clients.
Aim For a Large Sphere of Influence
Making and maintaining good relationships with potential clients is another important habit a successful real estate agent must master. Many research analysts report that leveraging your good and current clients for generating future leads is the most vital habit every real estate agent should practice.
The referrals and testimonials from your potential clients will help you expand your sphere of influence, which will make your name in the market. The experienced real estate agents made dozens of important contacts during their work, and they often asked for a favor in return. But there is a way of asking for a favor too.
You cannot just go to your clients and blandly ask them if they have any leads for you. Instead, a gentle reminder after each visit or talking session to mention your name if they found anyone in their circle in need of guidance from real estate agents can work wonderfully for you.
This can only be possible if you stay in touch with your clients. Hence, reaching out to them is a necessary step.
Take The Help Of Technology
Keeping up with the current marketing trends, following up with your clients, promoting their business, and answering clients’ queries is just a tiny part of a real estate agent’s everyday routine.
But to keep all this in check and still grow is what makes a real estate agent successful and stand out from the rest of the pool. An experienced and successful real estate agent uses the technology to meet the needs of these routinely tremendous tasks. Because they know making no use of technology is like skipping out on the significant aspect of their business.
For example, Auto-drip campaigns are most popular among experienced real estate agents. They use this technology to automate replies and e-mails to their clients to keep them interested and updated with what’s going on in the market.
Using an email marketing campaign is a great way to keep your previous clients coming back for more guidance and projects.
Enhance Social Media Presence
According to statista.com, there were 3.6 billion social media users in 2020, and the figure is expected to grow to 4.41 Billion by 2025 (source). Considering this, think about the possibilities of landing dozens of clients every day just because you are making proper use of social media.
Enhancing social media presence does not just mean uploading posts daily. The real meaning of enhancing is making content to keep the audience engaged with your profiles. In addition, you must come up with captivating ideas to gain a potential clientele.
By constantly uploading engaging content on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you can increase your chances of landing more clients than you can think of. A good real estate agent always strives to enhance their social media presence because he understands the power of the digital world.
Tell Your Story To Reporters
Gaining publicity in whatever business you do is essential. Therefore, once you step into the real estate market, it is time to expand and gain publicity. Aside from the newspapers, brochures, and pamphlets, there are dozens of new outlets that can help your real estate business grow.
One such outlet comes in the shape of reporters. Reporters often search for real estate agents to quote their articles to find authentic sources and insights for their news and writings. By telling your stories and informational data about what is happening in the real estate market, you can increase your visibility.
Team Up & Become a Business
Teaming up with other real estate agents is a great way to learn about different approaches to a single problem in the real estate industry. Having more than one real estate agent in your team means having more than one way of client resources. Moreover, this habit will also keep a flow of market knowledge to keep you updated with current trends.
Great Communication Skills
A successful real estate agent knows how to deal with clients properly and answer their queries. They know what information they can share on the text and what needs to be clear on-call or physical meetings. Setting a positive tone and aspiring to provide your clients with what they are looking for is a must-have habit for reaching your real estate industry goals.
Good Management Skills
Aside from good communications skills, the real estate market also demands excellent managing skills. The habit of organizing your everyday routine and focusing on delicate matters first is the utmost requirement to become a real estate agent. Because a real estate agent always has plenty of tasks on hand. The ability to prioritize the important ones and save the energy-consuming ones for later is a habit you must develop.
Keep Looking for More Leads, Even After Selling
Ask for referrals, and continue promotions regardless of your current state of business. Just because you’ve got leads currently in the pipeline, or are closing a lot of deals doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels. This is the time to work even harder!
Legendary agents know that the top method for how to be a successful real estate agent is to never quit looking for new leads. This means:
- Keeping a constant and steady social media presence - there really is something to be said for the phrase, “Out of sight, out of mind”
- Pitching the media to share your expertise on things like how to sell your home quickly, staging ideas for an open house, or even local factors that could impact the market - You never know who is watching and might consider you as an agent as a result of seeing you on TV or in the newspaper
- Reorganize and score your current list of leads, and start reaching out - The work is never done, and if it is, then you need more leads!
- Seek out more leads by way of giveaways, advertising, asking vendors, working with partners, reaching out to fellow agents, etc. If anyone has referrals that you can work with, get them in your pipeline, and start nurturing them as quickly as possible!
Know The Area In and Out
You can not become a real estate agent if you do not know your neighborhood. So, to start your journey as a successful real estate agent, start investing your time learning about your community and city.
You must have updated knowledge about what is happening on every street in your neighborhood. For example, how many houses were sold in the last week, months, or year? How much have the prices increased? What are the pros and cons of getting a home in your neighborhood? What are current average housing costs? A good agent knows all of this stuff, and to become one; you need to be knowledgeable of all the aspects mentioned above.
Do Not Focus Only on Selling
An excellent real estate agent does not just focus on selling. They build a connection with the buyer to make them feel comfortable in openly communicating with you about their needs and demands. By developing a relationship with your clients, you will be doing more than just selling a house. You will be creating trust between your business and the client, which in the future will lead to a loyal stream of clients.
Set Goals
Last but not least, a successful real estate agent has goals that they set. Starting your day randomly not knowing where to start is the first step to failure. And in the real estate industry, this is something completely unacceptable. By setting goals and writing them somewhere, you will be jotting down your success. It will be an everyday reminder for you of what you aspire to become?
Setting goals allow real estate entrepreneurs to keep track of their progress and analyze the importance of each step they take towards success. It also helps the real estate agents know their competitor's struggles and aims.
Bottom Line
A successful real estate agent does not work just to put up a “Sold” sign in the front yards of clients. Instead, he works to connect, promote, and generate a streamline of trustee clients to establish deep roots in the industry.
By practicing these habits of successful real estate agents, you can also thrive to become one. Hence, by working tirelessly, staying updated with the current market, enhancing your digital visibility, using technology, polishing your communicating skills, expanding your sphere, generating leads, and embracing every challenge industry throws your way, you can achieve your aim of becoming a successful real estate agent.
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