The real estate industry is highly competitive, and maintaining ongoing success can be extremely challenging. The most successful real estate agents are consistently working long hours and honing their craft year in and year out. It’s critical to stay on top of market fluctuations, changes in local demographics, and a variety of other factors which impact your ability to close deals.
Unfortunately, it’s not enough to just be great at your job. You must also be highly skilled at marketing yourself and generating new leads. Essentially, you’re working two full-time jobs (real estate agent and marketer) in order to achieve your desired success. With all of these demands, it should come as no surprise that 87% of real estate agents leave the industry within their first five years.
If you’d like to be the outlier from this trend and fall within the 13% of realtors who achieve enduring success, you’ll need to be highly organized, have an appetite to hustle and commit to continuously expanding your industry knowledge.
We’ve compiled a list of valuable tips that will help you succeed in real estate. These are best practices followed by the leading realtors in the field.
Most markets are saturated with real estate agents. In order to gain a competitive advantage in such a crowded field, you need to be more knowledgeable about your local market than other realtors. Buyers and sellers expect you to be an expert and if they perceive you as lacking in knowledge about the local market, they’re likely to move on and work with a different agent.
When expanding your knowledge of the local market, focus on the following areas:
You’ll need to be able to provide clients with as much detailed information as possible about the area, especially when you’re representing buyers who may not be all that familiar with local neighborhoods.
Some items you will need to know for your local region include:
When you can provide your clients with this level of information and expertise, you’ll be able to earn their trust and gain greater credibility. You become more than someone who can show clients potential houses to buy. You become an indispensable asset in their home buying process.
Review your hot sheet on a daily basis. Make sure you’re aware of:
Stay on top of current trends to understand which price points, home sizes and neighborhoods are in greatest demand, and which seem to languish on the market for longer. It’s also important to be aware of monthly fluctuations in the number of listings, average days on the market and average list-to-sale ratio.
When you can speak intelligently about these items to your clients, you will be able to provide the expert analysis they desire from a realtor. This will help you provide your clients with a better experience, help them achieve better results, and increase the likelihood that they’ll refer you to their friends, family and colleagues.
On the surface, it may seem like being able to handle just about any type of transaction would be a wise approach since it allows you to cast a wider net for clients. However, you’ll be facing greater competition to generate every lead, and you may find it more challenging to acquire the specialized knowledge necessary for clients to view you as a true expert.
Instead, consider focusing on a specific niche. While this will reduce your potential client pool, it will also reduce your competition for these clients since you’ll only be going up against the other agents in your area of specialization. You’ll also be able to focus your energy on becoming a true expert in your niche. This increased level of expertise along with less competition will help position you as the go-to agent in your niche and increase your chances of landing clients.
There are many people involved in the sale of a home. Buyers need to find a lender that will offer them competitive mortgage terms and an inspector to assess the house prior to closing. Sellers may need to make repairs on certain items in order to make their home market-ready, and buyers may need a contractor who can make other repairs after they take possession of the house. In addition, your client may need recommendations on professionals such as escrow agents and title companies.
It’s important to have a network of trusted professionals you can reach out to in these situations. When you establish relationships with these professionals, you can more easily make the recommendations your clients need and have the ability to speak to their quality of work. In addition, when you have a previously established relationship with these professionals, they are more likely to fit you into their busy schedule.
Your network of industry professionals should include:
Being able to recommend these professionals to your clients will help you earn their trust. But more importantly, having an option who will get a job done quickly for a client may help reduce your risk of losing them to another agent who can provide what they need.
Referrals are a two-way street in the real estate industry. While it’s important that you can provide quality recommendations to your existing clients for the work they need, you can also benefit from referrals provided by these professionals. Potential clients can come from a variety of sources. While you’ll need to do extensive marketing (more on this below), referrals can often be a great source of new business.
All of the industry professionals listed above can be a great source of referral business for you, as these people will usually be happy to return the favor and send clients your way when you recommend them.
That being said, don’t underestimate the importance of networking with other real estate agents who may also provide you with referral business. This can be especially beneficial if you’ve chosen to specialize in a niche. In these situations, many realtors who aren’t in your niche may be likely to recommend you to potential clients who require this greater level of specialization than they are able to provide.
As we discussed earlier, representing your clients is only part of your job. As a real estate agent, you’re essentially running your own business. This means you’re responsible for bringing in new clients. Therefore, effective lead generation is critical to your ability to achieve success in this industry.
While referrals will typically provide a solid flow of leads once you’ve become more established in the field, it’s also important to dedicate time each day to marketing and lead generation. Digital marketing can often be an effective way to maximize your ROI on your marketing efforts, so make sure you:
Once you’ve generated these leads, make sure you consistently follow up with them to ensure you remain on top of mind while they’re deciding who to work with. Not all leads will be ready for a realtor the first time they contact you. Therefore, maintaining regular contact with leads is critical to your ability to eventually turn them into clients.
Whether you’re a new real estate agent looking to get established in the industry or a seasoned veteran, Colorado Real Estate School can help set you up for ongoing success. Our online real estate classes can deliver all the information you need to cultivate a thriving career. This includes:
Our exclusive Experts on Demand Approach™ is focused on building the foundation for a successful real estate career. You’ll benefit from comprehensive content developed by local, licensed real estate professionals. In addition, our VideoConnect Success Learning System™ makes learning fast and easy with the largest library of video content available. The video component to our online real estate courses provides an authentic classroom experience while letting you work through the materials at your own pace.
Contact us today to learn more about our online real estate courses.
