5 Steps Toward Real Estate Success

Eighty-seven percent of realtors fail within five years of starting up, according to the National Association of Realtors.

• • • • • • • • Lack of startup capital
              • Unrealistic expectations
              • Lack of full-time commitment
              • Training shortcuts

They rank among the top contributors to real estate agent failure, a Texas Association of Realtors (TAR) survey found. Overcoming these obstacles requires following a smart strategy.

Real estate business can fail, as any business can fail.

Here are five steps to help you get moving in the right direction for real estate success.

Find a Good Agency

Eighty-three percent of experienced brokers interviewed for TAR’s survey agreed that brokers who take face-to-face training are better prepared for success than those who only take online licensing training.

On the path to real estate success, there are no training shortcuts. Finding a good agency to train you the right way is one of the most important steps you can take to ensure your success.Take the time to find the right office in your area to support your training and career goals.

Leading Real Estate Companies of the World currently holds second place on Training magazine’s Training Top 125 Organizations across all industries. Locally, John L. Scott is a member of Leading RE and provides amazing training for new and experienced agents. Coldwell Banker has previously ranked third on Training’s list, and other established agencies such as RE/MAX also have good training programs.

Invest in Your Training

Once you find a good agency, the next step is to take advantage of the training opportunities it offers, advises real estate marketing platform provider Placester.

Invest in the time to study your company’s manual and learn its software. Find mentors with experience who are willing to share their advice with you. Volunteer for opportunities to gain sales experience through cold calling, floor duty, and open houses.

Implement a Marketing Plan

Designing and following a marketing plan is the next step.

An effective marketing plan needs to include both online and offline activity to generate leads and convert sales. Set marketing goals for how many leads you aim to generate per week in order to achieve your revenue goals, and arrange your daily schedule to achieve this.

Build your network through your family and friends, by becoming active with your multiple listing service, and by participating in local, state, and national realtor associations.

Start building an online network by updating your social media profiles, creating a website, and building a mailing list.

You will want to decide whether you are more comfortable with a lead system, a referral system, or a combination of the two.

You can use Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, Trulia, and Zillow to generate leads.

If you are interested in generating referrals you will want to build an inbound marketing funnel.  Create and share informative content to drive traffic to your site and attract mailing list subscribers.

Adopt the Right Technology Tools

Effective marketing in today’s mobile market means using the right technology tools.

Essential technology for today’s realtor includes:

• Mobile apps for real estate professionals, such as the NAR Member Guide.
• It is imperative that you have a good working smartphone, and possibly a tablet.
• It is important to have accounts set up on Zillow, Trulia, Yelp, Google My Business, Realtor.com,  and Bing Places for Business, to help increase your local presence.
• You must also have a CRM system to automate your prospecting activity and customer relationship management, such as Hubspot.com.
• You’ll also need transaction management software to help you manage electronic document signing such as DocuSign.
• You should have an email marketing software that allows you to input your database and send them email newsletters on a consistent basis, such as MailChimp.com.
• Finally, you need a cloud storage service such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or Mozy to store important documents securely so you can access them from your mobile device.

You can acquire these tools individually, or for certain tools you can sign up for bundled packages.

Track Your Performance

Ultimately, sales success is a numbers game. There is a direct relationship between the amount of lead generation action you take and the amount of sales revenue you generate.

Setting performance goals, tracking your results, and making adjustments and improvements are keys to making the math work in your favor.

Track the key numbers that affect your lead generation and sales conversion, including:

• How many cold calls you make per day
• How much social media sharing you do
• How many visitors you get to your website
• How many of your visitors opt into your mailing list
• How many sales you convert
• Your average revenue per sale

Use tools such as Facebook Page Insights and Google Analytics to help you track these key numbers.  Try a tool like Hubspot Email Tracking to see when your clients open your emails and what they click on.  Any good email marketing software will track the number of emails that are opened and when people click on the links.  There are a number of tools that you can use to track your social media performance.

Summary

If you want to be part of the 13% of real estate agents that find success after the 5 year mark you are going to need a plan.  Remember that you are your own business.

You are going to need to find a good brokerage that matches your personality that can help you hit the ground running.  Take advantage of all the free training that most offices offer, and take clock hour classes that will increase your weaknesses.

Implement a marketing plan that shows you how many listing and buyer appointments you will need to reach your goals.  The activities that you need to do to get those appointments and the time blocking that you will stick to make it happen.  Success does not happen by accident.

You are going to need to invest in your business making sure to get the right tools to help you carry out your marketing plan.

Once you have a plan in place and are actively working towards your goals you will need to find ways to track your performance.  No sense in spending hours on cold calling if your social media is converting higher, or doing open houses if you are having more success with direct mail.