If I Started Real Estate Today, I’d Do These 3 Things First
I don’t have one big moment when I suddenly figured out how I should have built my real estate business.
I made mistakes. Then I corrected some of them. Hopefully, I learned something and did a better job the next time. That’s how we grow. And if we’re really smart, we learn from somebody else’s mistakes before we have to make all of them ourselves.
That’s the reason I wanted to share how I would build a real estate business if I were starting today.
My book covers the full 14-system framework. Here, I want to share three lessons from my own experience that would shape how I started.
There are things I would do differently. I would put conversations on my calendar sooner. I would pay closer attention to people whose plans were still months away. And I would make it easier to create useful content from the experience I already had.
These are practical choices you can make whether you’re a new agent or you’ve been doing this for years. You might already have a database, a website, and plenty to keep you busy. The question is whether your normal working week leaves room for the things that keep the business going.
Here are three lessons I would bring with me.
1. I would protect two hours for conversations
This is where a lot of real estate agents get themselves into trouble. We want to be busy with everything except conversations.
I need to finish this contract. I need to talk to my clients. I need to follow through on this transaction. I need to get to that appointment.
Those things matter. You have responsibilities to the people you’re already helping, and you need to take care of them.
But watch what happens to the rest of your day. The conversations that could lead to a future client, a referral, or a better understanding of someone’s plans get pushed back. Then they get pushed back again.
By the time you get through everything else, there’s no time left. You worked all day, and the people you meant to contact are still waiting.
What we did was time block. I protected two hours every day for conversations.
I would sit down, open my database, and work through the people I needed to reach. Having the time set aside gave that work a place in the day. I wasn’t relying on a quiet afternoon showing up by accident.
If I were starting again, I would put that block on the calendar from the beginning. I would build the other parts of my day with that commitment in mind.
Who I would contact first
I had my A, B, C, and D categories. During that conversation time, I would start by working through my A’s, B’s, and C’s.
With my A’s, I was talking with them almost daily. I was thinking about where they were in the process, what would help them feel comfortable, and what I could do to move things along.
My B’s would hear from me no less than once a week. With my C’s, it was typically once a month.
That was my personal routine. The useful part is understanding where people are and having a reason to reach out. You’ll need to consider their actual plans and how often they’ve agreed they want to hear from you.
I wanted to make sure the people who were ready to go, or getting closer, were taken care of first.
Then I would look through my lead sources. Had somebody new come in? Was there an inquiry I needed to respond to right away? Was there something new that deserved my attention?
After that, I would start working through my core relationship list. Maybe that’s your top 50, top 100, or top 300. The size depends on your business and the relationships you can actually maintain.
I was looking for some value I could provide and opportunities to ask about referrals.
That gives the block a purpose. You know who needs attention first, and you have somewhere to go next.
Make the next conversation easier to start
Before you call somebody, read your last note. What did they tell you? What were they trying to figure out? What did you say you would do?
If a person was trying to decide whether to move this year, start there. Ask whether anything has changed and what would help them make the decision. If you promised information, have it ready.
You don’t need a clever new reason to contact every person. You do need to remember why the conversation matters to them.
For somebody in your broader relationship list, think about what you know about their situation. Is there a question you can answer? Is there a useful introduction you can make? Is there something they asked you to keep an eye on?
When a referral question fits the conversation, ask it naturally. Give the other person room to answer. Every contact doesn’t need to become an immediate transaction to be worth your time.
Here’s how I would get started tomorrow.
Choose the two hours you can realistically protect. Look at the appointments and responsibilities already on your calendar, then make an actual decision about where this work belongs.
Before the block starts, pull together the people you need to contact. Start with the relationships closest to a decision, review new inquiries, and have your next group ready.
Use the time for the conversations and the notes that make the next conversation useful. Save the database redesign and the search for a better app for another time.
If something urgent interrupts you, decide when you’ll make up the time. An appointment that moves still needs a place on the calendar.
At the end, look at what happened. Who did you actually speak with? Who needs another attempt? What did you promise? Those answers should help shape the next day’s list.
2. I would keep following up
I had a prospective listing that came through a family member. It was a great opportunity, and we were looking at roughly a year before the seller would be ready.
We went out and did a listing presentation. We popped by. We brought gifts. There was a relationship there, and we had put effort into it.
Then, as the year went on, the contact and follow-up slowed down.
We started waiting for what we thought would be the point when the seller was ready to sell.
Then I got a call from the family member.
Another real estate agent had stopped by the house unexpectedly and struck up a conversation. The seller decided to sign the listing agreement with that agent.
That was it. We lost the opportunity.
I can’t tell you that one more call would have guaranteed us the listing. What I can tell you is that our follow-up had slowed down while we waited, and another agent was there having a conversation when the seller decided to move forward.
That’s a mistake I would work hard to avoid if I were starting again.
A good introduction doesn’t finish the job
A family referral feels good. So does a strong listing presentation. You can come away thinking you have a real connection with somebody.
You may have one. You still need to maintain it.
The danger is deciding that the relationship is settled and all that’s left is for the calendar to catch up. People keep living their lives between your appointments. Their plans change. Questions come up. Something that felt a year away can start feeling more immediate.
If you haven’t spoken with them, you may be working from an old version of their plans.
I would want to stay involved enough to understand where they actually are. That starts with asking how they would like to stay in touch and what would be useful while they’re deciding.
Maybe they need to work through preparation questions. Maybe they’re unsure about timing. Maybe they want to understand what the first steps would involve. Ask. Their answer gives you a much better reason to reconnect than sending another vague message because your calendar says it’s time.
Give the relationship a next action
Here’s the practical change I would make: before I leave a conversation, I want to know what happens next.
If I promised to send something, I need a task to send it. If we agreed to talk again, I need the date and the reason. If they want more space, that belongs in the record, too.
Your contact record should tell you enough to pick up the conversation without asking the person to start over.
Write down what they’re considering, what matters to them, what you agreed to do, and when you’re going to do it. Include how they prefer to hear from you. If somebody else on your team is responsible for the next step, make that clear.
Here’s a hypothetical example. A homeowner says they may sell after finishing a few projects. They want help deciding which preparations deserve attention first.
Your note could say: “Considering a sale after home projects. Wants to discuss preparation priorities. Send the information we discussed by Thursday, then reconnect next Tuesday as agreed.”
Now you have something you can act on. When you sit down for your conversation block, you can see what you owe that person.
A note that says “seller, follow up later” leaves you with another decision to make and very little context.
I’ve written about why I moved our real estate database to HighLevel if you want more background on the system I use. For this lesson, start with whatever reliable place you’re already using to manage relationships. Make sure you can see the next action and find it when it’s due.
You can spend a lot of time comparing CRMs while the person you meant to call still hasn’t heard from you.
Review the people who have gone quiet
Once a week, I would look beyond the people who are responding right now.
Who said they were thinking about moving later? Who received information and never had a follow-up conversation? Who did I assume would contact me when they were ready?
Look at the last meaningful exchange. Check what you promised and whether you followed through. Then decide on a useful, appropriate next step.
That doesn’t mean contacting somebody endlessly after they’ve asked you to stop. Respect what they’ve told you. It means taking responsibility for the relationships you agreed to maintain.
The seller in my story wasn’t sitting in our office telling us their plans had changed. We found out through the family member after another agent had the conversation.
I would rather make staying in touch part of my normal week than depend on somebody remembering to call me at exactly the right moment.
3. I would create content from my spoken experience
When you’re working with ChatGPT, it’s going to sound like a robot until you personalize it.
And personalizing your robot takes time. Even then, it doesn’t consistently get everything right.
It can produce a perfectly tidy paragraph that sounds nothing like you. It can smooth out the part of your answer that actually makes it interesting. It can turn a specific opinion into something so general that almost anybody could have said it.
That’s why I want it to ask me questions before it starts writing.
What am I trying to explain? Who am I talking to? What do I believe about this subject? What happened in my business that shaped that opinion? What would I tell somebody to do next?
Those questions give me something real to answer.
I’ve found the easiest way to do that is voice-to-text. I talk into a microphone, let it transcribe my answers, and then have it help organize and clean up what I said.
I don’t have to sit there trying to make the first sentence perfect. I can explain the idea the way I would explain it in a conversation.
The experience has to come from somewhere
This article is a good example.
There wasn’t one dramatic moment that made me decide I would build my business differently. When I was asked about that, my answer was that I had made mistakes, corrected them, and learned.
The two-hour conversation block came from my actual routine. The lost listing came from something that happened. And this approach to content came from how I prefer to get my own thoughts out.
Those details give us something to work with.
If you’re an agent trying to create useful content, think about the questions people already ask you. What do you find yourself explaining? Where do people get stuck? What have you learned that would help somebody make a better decision?
Choose a question you can answer from your experience. You don’t have to turn it into a complete guide to buying and selling real estate.
Then ask ChatGPT to interview you about that one question. Tell it you want to supply your own opinions and examples before it drafts anything.
You might say, “Ask me what I would tell someone in this situation, why I would give that advice, and what experience shaped it. Wait for my answers before you organize the article.”
That’s a suggested way to start. Adjust it to the subject and the way you like to work.
Talk through your answer. If a question is confusing, ask it to explain what it means. If you don’t have a story that fits, say so. There is no reason to manufacture an experience just because an outline has a space for one.
Your judgment still belongs in the finished piece
After the interview, have ChatGPT organize your answers into an outline. Look at whether the order makes sense and whether it captured the point you were trying to make.
Then use that outline to develop the draft.
This is where you need to stay involved. Cleaning up your words can help. Changing your meaning creates a problem.
Look at the listing story in this article. We gave a presentation, visited, brought gifts, and then let our follow-up slow down. Another agent stopped by, had a conversation, and got the signed agreement.
If a draft turned that into an agent taking away a listing we already had under contract, it would be wrong. If it added a sale price or told you what commission we lost, it would be inventing details.
The same care applies to your advice. Did the draft preserve what you actually recommend? Did it make your opinion sound like a guarantee? Did it add a claim you need to check? Did it leave out a qualification that changes the answer?
Read it aloud, too. You’ll hear the sentence you would never say and the paragraph that takes too long to get anywhere.
Give it that feedback. Tell it what sounds wrong and why. Then read the revision yourself.
I want the finished content to sound like me and reflect my judgment. I’m still responsible for putting my name on it.
JASON FOXFor the full process of taking an answer through a blog, a main video, and the rest of the week, read How to Turn One Blog Post Into a Week of Real Estate Marketing. That article walks through the production steps in detail.
Here, the business decision is to give your own experience a place in your marketing. You already spend time answering useful questions. Capture some of those answers so more people can learn how you think and how you help.
What I would put in place this week
You can start making these changes without rebuilding your entire business.
First, put your conversation time on the calendar. Prepare the people you want to contact before the block begins. Use the order that makes sense for their needs, and leave yourself useful notes.
Second, look at the people whose plans are farther out. Check whether you have an agreed next step. Follow through on the promises you’ve already made, and reconnect where the relationship has drifted.
Third, choose one question you can answer well. Have ChatGPT interview you, speak your answers, and review the outline it builds from them.
These habits support each other. Conversations help you understand what people need. Good notes help you follow through. The questions you hear give you something useful to explain in your content.
Then, when somebody responds to that content, you have another conversation to take care of.
At the end of the week, ask yourself a few simple questions. Did I protect the time? Did I do what I said I would do? Does the content sound like something I actually believe?
You’ll see where the process needs attention. Make the correction and keep going.
Get the complete 125-page book
These are three of the lessons I would bring with me if I were starting again. There are other parts of the business that need a place, too.
I put the broader framework into my complete 125-page book, How I Would Build a Real Estate Business: The 14 Systems. It brings the systems together so you can look at how the different parts of your business support the work you’re trying to do.
The free Marketing System Kit is its practical companion. It gives you a way to work on the content side, with guidance and resources for turning your experience into useful marketing you can review and repeat.
Get the complete 125-page book and free Marketing System Kit.
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For today, start with your calendar. Protect the next two-hour conversation block, choose the first people you’ll contact, and check what you promised them.
That’s work you can put into practice right away.
