Your best tips for a new agent?

[Kaybaxter]

I would love to hear everyones best tips for new agents. Im working on a website right now but waiting on some clip art from my broker etc. Anyone have some great new agent tips or webbuilding tips?

Also do you guys think floor time is a thing of the past? I have done floor time twice and received zero calls. Every call that comes in asks for a specific agent so maybe I am just wasting time doing that?

Thanks in advance
Kay

[Micheal Pannell Realtor]

Dont quit your day job until you have at least 6 month worth of money to live off of......

[jessiesc]

Dont quit your day job until you have at least 6 month worth of money to live off of......

Yeah, I would increase that to a year or more

But more to your question:

1. Learn as much as you can (classes) and apply the lessons quickly and effectively.

2. Take all suggestions with a grain of salt. Only you will know what works for you as time progresses and how comfortable you are doing certain things. Try the suggestions from others for a given period of time, if they don't work move on and try something else. Which leads to...

3. Don't give up if you really want it. Keep trying new things until you hit the recipe for your business. Which leads us back to the beginning.

4. You've gotta have a means of financial support until you get your business off the ground!

Most startup businesses (any business) that go out of business will do so before or immediately after the 1st year. Most common reason: Lack of Financial stability.

Good luck

[Borino]

There will be plenty of good suggestions and advice for you Kay, I'm sure.

One way to learn the business quickly without starving is to work for a few months for an experienced successful agent - somebody that lists and sells homes daily.

Tag along on listing presentations, listen in on follow up calls, watch how he/she shows properties, negotiates contracts, and closes deals.

In return you can pass out fliers, run errands, put up lock boxes, make copies, and answer phones.

In just a few months you will know the business well enough to venture on your own.

[escapeso]

I agree as far as having money saved up. The first year is usually pretty slow. The other thing I would say is open houses in the neighborhood you live in. Even though you are less experienced in real estate you will still sound knowledgeable about your area.

[Smuck]

My advice would be placing the majority of your time learning the ins and outs of garnering leads through a website. These days, the majority of your clients will come via the internet.

[malamar]

Remember the 90 day rule. The marketing activities you carry out today will generally start to pay off in 90 days, ergo (a Latin word meaning "therefore" that I don't get to use often) if you are not working on generating new business today you are going to have an even drier January.

[RJacobsen]

May I suggest that you network, through joining at least 1 local leads group. If you can, perhaps you should join 2.. but I wouldn't join any more than that. These face-to-face networking meetings are to basically help you make friends, who will hopefully provide you with leads! You don't want to join more than 2 because you are expected to give leads back to the members of your groups, and if you come across a lead (e.g. for an insurance agent) and you have more than one insurance agent (one in each group) you'll want to alternate who gets the lead. Obviously, the more groups you are a part of the bigger an issue this becomes.
Leads groups are an excellent opportunity for you to receive business and I would definitely look into joining them. They usually only let one representative from each industry become a member of a group, so you may have a hard time finding one; but don't give up, there's tons of them out there!

[Steve Didier]

No matter how you approach your business, I feel the following four things are critical to your success:

1) Set goals. Work with your broker, team leader, or somebody else with experience in the industry and set realistic goals for income and production.

2) Have a business plan. Set up a business plan with your mentor with activities that will allow you to acheive the goals you have set. Be specific on how you will generate your business, ie: prospecting, advertising, website lead generation, etc.

3) Schedule. Set a schedule that will facilitate you completing the activities in your business plan each and every day. Block time for each task, when to prospect, when to follow up on leads, when to show properties, go on appointments, etc.

4) Accountability. Have someone that will hold you accountable each day and make sure that you are doing the things that you need to be doing. Most agents get in to real estate from "normal" jobs where they had to punch a clock, had deadlines for projects, and had minimum standards for performance.

When they get in to real estate, they figure out pretty quickly that no one is breathing down their neck and holding their feet to the fire (so to speak). There is no immediate consequence for not picking up the phone and calling your leads and it gets very easy to NOT do the work every day.


There are many different ways to approach the business, but remember that it is a business. Be disciplined and consistant and you will make a lot of money.

Best of luck in your new career!

PS - Floor time is a waste of time. Waiting for people to call you is stupid - go out and get the business!

[Kaybaxter]

Thanks so much for the tips! I really had major doubts about sitting and waiting for the phone to ring and its nice to see someone who has been in the business that agrees. Im really starting to think I should have paid the lower desk fees to work from home. I may have to rethink that after a few months.