What You Need To Do and Have in Your First 90 Days as a Real Estate Agent
Congratulations! You’ve earned your real estate license. You could be on your way to a rewarding career. After the first 90 days, you might feel frustrated or elated. What determines your outcome is the help and training you surround yourself with during the first few months. The group can include team members, trainers, and mentors. This 90-day window is a pivotal time in a new agent's career.
Many new agents will struggle and eventually quit. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) notes that almost 90% of individuals that start this business will be out of it in five years. To be successful in this line of work, a person needs to prepare and have a new realtor business plan.
How Does a Real Estate Agent Get Started?
A new real estate agent checklist begins with a goal, and the goal is your MASTER plan.
M - Measurable
A - Achievable
S - Specific
T - Time-bound
E - Energetic action orientated
R - Realistic and relevant
Some new real estate tips involve centering your goals around a dollar amount or number of closings. While these are good to track, the real work to achieving mastery in this business begins with setting up a process.
To achieve your career goals, you should focus on daily processes. In this line of work, you do not see the rewards of your actions until about 90 days out. In the first three months, the steps you take can impact your life for years.
Your daily processes should involve making five new contacts. As a new agent, you may have no idea how to go about this. Some of the best resources for new realtors are mentors and coaches, but until you get access to those people, here are some tried-and-true and new real estate tips to help you establish your new five-a-day habit.
How Do You Introduce Yourself as a New Real Estate Agent?
One of the best new real estate agent resources is a person’s sphere of influence. These people can lead you to your first sale, but you need to identify who they are. Make this action step manageable by breaking it down into four main categories:
Family
Friends
Community
Past colleagues
Take some time to brainstorm. Write down every possible connection or contact you might have in your current sphere. Your office should provide you with a contact management system, or you can simply log them on paper. If you can, note some details about each person, such as their pet, spouse, kid’s names, birthdates, profession, or where you know them from.
Next, start contacting them. It is best to call or meet face-to-face. The goal is to let five people a day know that you can help them or anyone they know with real estate needs. Having this conversation with your immediate circle is one of the best resources for new realtors because it is easy to talk to people you already know on some level. You are not cold calling a stranger, and typically, people in these groups like you and want to see you succeed.
You may not have a phone number for some individuals. They might be casual acquaintances, but these people should be in your sphere also. In these situations, contact them in any way you can. Let them know you are checking in on them, offer them some new real estate tips, and tell them about your new business:
Send them an email with your contact information.
Mail a letter with your business card enclosed.
Message them through social media.
Real estate training for new agents should cover how to start, build, and maintain a database.
How Does a New Real Estate Agent Get Leads?
There are dozens of new real estate agent resources to tap into to connect with five new leads every day. Some are free or relatively low-cost:
Door-knock
Hold an open house
Call for sale by owners
Contact expired listings
Ask other agent’s for referral leads
Strategically network on social media platforms
There are ways to purchase leads also:
Pay for social media ads
Fund a pay-per-click campaign
Send out direct mailers or postcards
Buy premium space on national real estate websites
Most people do not start with a huge marketing budget. Working with a new real estate agent coaching program can help you maximize the free methods.
What Does a Real Estate Agent Need to Know?
Real estate training for new agents covers the contracts and closing procedures, but it should also include scripts and dialogue. Once individuals learn how to use these, they can speak to anyone about real property.
A new realtor business plan should include scripts to help you engage with people at open houses while door-knocking and even while doing volunteer work.
You can start developing your dialogue by learning all you can about a region or neighborhood you want to serve:
Study past sales
Follow pendings
Track current listings
Contact expired listings
Contact for sale by owners
If possible, walk the area frequently, talk to people, and hand out your business cards.
Know about the parks, churches, and schools in the region. With this knowledge, you can show people that you are an expert. If you don’t have a listing in your target neighborhood, find an agent in your office that does. Ask if they will let you hold an open house. Do some door-knocking before the event and invite the neighbors.
During all of these encounters, you can use a script. New real estate agent coaching comes with talking-point templates and scripts. Plus, you have someone to practice with. Once out in the field, it will be easier for you to engage, and you will learn how to get comfortable asking for people's contact information.
Once you have met someone, make sure to enter them into your database. This habit will help you track your five-a-day goal, and you will be able to stay in touch with these people, even if they are not looking to buy or sell immediately.
How Does a Real Estate Agent Get Listings?
A new realtor business plan will focus on buyers and sellers, but you will want to focus on getting more listings as you progress.
If you are working with for sale by owners and expired listings, you may need to follow up with them several times before they are ready to list. If your office offers a client management system, you will set up automatic reminders on a schedule. Your training partner can help you come up with a timeline. Make sure to offer value and be of service to them. You can send them new real estate tips or ask them if they want a free market analysis of their property.
If a person contacts you, it is time to set an appointment. If possible, before the visit find out the details of their move:
Why are they moving?
Where are they going?
When do they need to move by?
Have they already purchased another home?
Schedule a time that works for them. The homeowner may want you to come to their house. Be prepared with a marketing plan and a contract. As you go through real estate training for new agents, you will learn how to make and use a marketing plan and present it to the seller.
Earn Business
If you head into each appointment with the goal of earning the owner’s business, your success rate can skyrocket. Connect with them, and go into the meeting with knowledge. Know your business. Be aware of trends, such as time on market and interest rates.
Work with the person. If they don’t do technology, interact and communicate with them through their preferred method. Get a feel for personalities, ask questions, and do your best to answer all the seller's questions.
As a new person, you may not always have the answer. In those instances, get the facts and get back to them quickly. Make a note about the conversation, and at your next listing appointment, bring along those details. If the next homeowner does not ask, present the information to them anyways. They will be impressed with your thorough research.
Build Your Team
Your new real estate agent checklist will include business partners and team members. These professionals are some of the best resources for new realtors, and they will help you through various stages of the closing. Eventually, there will be many people in each category. Inside your client management system, create team member categories. You will soon need these new real estate agent resources as you steadily make five contacts a day:
Lender
Title officer
Escrow officer
Escrow assistant
Home inspector
Pest inspector
You might need some auxiliary services also:
Moving companies
Carpet cleaners
House cleaners
Contractors
Painters
Stagers
This list is not exhaustive. As you grow your niche and expertise, you will find professionals to help your clients.
Success and Growth
As you move closer and closer to your first deal, you might start to feel overwhelmed. Don’t worry. Your office, support system, and new real estate agent coaching will get you over any hurdles and highlight your successes.
Your lead capture techniques will improve. You will find a style and make it your own. Social butterflies may flourish at throwing block parties and networking events. Technically savvy agents might harness the power of the internet and online lead generation. Almost anyone who wants to thrive as a real estate agent can once they get training, support, a plan, and take action.
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Once those are completed, you will be onboarded by our team, and your training will start.
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