Top Tips for a New Real Estate Agent (In any Market)

If you’re new to the real estate industry, I first just want to say welcome! Few industries offer as much opportunity, the chance to be your own boss, and having essentially no ceiling on the income that you can earn. But it’s a tough industry to be in. Most agents who start out don’t end up staying real estate agents for the long term. And to top it all off, you might be hearing that we’re in a tough market right now or moving towards a tough market.

But that doesn’t matter.

Any real estate agent can be successful in any market. They just need to have the right strategies and tools at their disposal. If you’re just starting out, then you are in the best position possible to turn this into a career you can be proud of and successful at.

In this article, I’ve put together just a few tips and best practices for new real estate agents in ANY market.

Have Real Conversations with Your Leads

As a new real estate agent, it can be tempting to completely rely on scripts when talking to leads. This is a mistake. Although scripts are very useful and we teach scripting here at Smart Coaching and Training, relying on them too much and just reading from them on your calls is not going to help your lead conversion numbers.

Instead of memorizing a set of words, focus on conversation strategies. Ask great discovery questions that get at the lead’s deeper motivation. That way, when they throw an objection at you, you have the ammunition required to overcome it. Respond naturally to what the lead says, don’t just try to return to the script. People want to talk to other real people, not drones that just read the same thing regardless of what answer they give.

Prospect Smarter, Not Harder

As a new real estate agent, building up your network is crucial. In the old days, that meant dropping letters or flyers into mailboxes next to take out menus and window replacement advertisements. Nowadays, prospecting means finding people in your market on social media, sending out text messages, calling, and being religious about following up.

Plus, you need a great CRM to keep everything organized so you know exactly when to follow up with specific leads, how warm they are, and what, if any, reservations they have about working with you.

Rely on the Metrics

Key real estate metrics include both leading and lagging indicators. By reviewing these regularly and understanding what they are telling you, you will know where you currently stand AND what decisions you have to make to improve your business.

Examples of leading indicators:

• Number of leads generated
• Number of contacts made
• Number of appointments set
• Number of appointments met
• Number of contracts signed

Examples of lagging indicators:

• Active listings
• Pending deals
• Closed deals

Lagging indicators help you understand past and current performance. Leading indicators will give you a glimpse of where your business is headed.

Under Promise and Over Deliver

This last tip is a great tip for life, not just a real estate career. But many agents make the mistake of overselling their capabilities or what they can actually do for the lead. You want to position yourself as being able to deliver on the lead’s goals (instead of trying to force their situation into meeting your own goals) but avoid being unrealistic. Don’t just tell the lead what they want to hear if you can’t actually provide it.

Set and manage their expectations and tell the lead what they need to hear without overtly making them wrong or promising something you can’t deliver.

If you’re a new real estate agent and want to really set yourself up for success with scripting, conversation techniques, prospecting strategies, and much more—all with the help of a dedicated coach—then check out our training options here.