Building a Successful Real Estate Career: The First Year

Ask a veteran realtor and undoubtedly they will tell you that their most challenging year of real estate was their first. However,  if you spend the first year setting yourself up for success, you will be prepared for whatever comes down the road.

How does one do this? We at EXIT believe that realtors are builders. Realtors have chosen a profession that lets them help build other people’s lives and dreams while simultaneously building their own. Here’s how: 

Build a Business

• Get comfortable with terms like taxes, licensing, and profit-and-loss reports. 

When you become a Realtor you have not chosen a career, you have chosen to open a business. Some might even say you are a business. As such being successful in real estate will require a good amount of business knowledge. You’ll want to research types of business entities, get yourself set up with an accountant or a program like QuickBooks and establish a system for tracking expenses and income. How much will you pay in taxes? Do you need a business license? These are just a few of the questions you will need to answer as you start out. 

• Create a business plan. 

We recommend that all of our Realtors create a business plan yearly, but especially when you're in your first year a business plan will allow you to set income goals, and reverse engineer that number to figure out how many deals you have to make to reach your goal. It will also help you lay out how to generate the leads to sign the clients and make the deals happen. 

• Know your market. 

You will also need to get to know your market. What are the neighborhoods? Who lives there? Who wants to live there? Where are the restaurants? The shops? Where do people work and how do they get there? How are the schools? Where are the daycares? All of this is important information that will impact when and where houses hit the market and how desirable they are. This is also all information that your clients will expect you to know. 

• Generate income. 

Finally, in order to build your business, you’ll need to work daily to generate leads. Predicting your income in your first year can be difficult. Your income will be influenced by conditions such as the market and current events, but more likely your income will be influenced by what you do daily to generate income. There are dozens of ways this can be done, from knocking on doors to creating content. But, no matter what method you use you will need to be consistent and use a database or CRM to keep track of them.  Creating and maintaining a database is one of the foundational pieces to real estate success. 

Build a Brand

• Create a personal brand. 

For many people the idea of a personal brand is mystifying. According to personalbrand.com, a personal brand is a “widely recognized perception of a person.” This is different from your reputation because a personal brand is about intentionally influencing how people see you. Reputation is about credibility. Personal branding is about visibility. Creating a personal brand begins by deciding how you want others to see you and then changing your behavior, appearance, etc. to align with that. 

• Develop a marketing strategy. 

From there you develop your marketing strategy based on your personal brand. Marketing is an ever-evolving proposition but here it is really about the choices you make in your marketing that will support your personal brand. No matter how you market- door hangers, postcards, TikTok, or billboard- choices like font, imagery, and source will make a statement about you as a Realtor.   You want to be sure that this aligns with your personal brand and that every piece of branded material sings the same note. 

• Choose a niche. 

Niche marketing is another important strategy in a competitive marketplace. It can be nearly impossible to get seen when a list of every realtor in your area is available at the touch of a button. What niching does is reduce the size of your market. It also reduces the amount of competition. Niching can mean the difference between marketing to every homeowner and marketing to retirees. You go from being one voice among hundreds speaking to 5,000 people to one of two voices speaking to 200 people. The odds of being seen increase drastically. 

Build a Web Presence

• Drive website traffic. 

Building a successful web presence was the #1 thing that seasoned realtors say they A. attribute their success to or B. wish they had done sooner. This means building an SEO-friendly website. What is SEO you ask? SEO stands for search engine optimization. This is the process of improving your visibility when people search for products or services related to your business in a search engine according to the website searchengineland.com. You can do this by evaluating what keywords, or search terms your prospective clients are using and increasing the use of these terms on your page. Features like blogs and community pages are key for creating SEO on your website. 

• Get social. 

It should come as no surprise that social media is another key place to build a presence. If you aren’t already a social media user the prospect can quickly become overwhelming. We suggest focusing your energy on a single platform, at least to begin with. From there create content and posts that provide the 3 E's- entertainment, education, and emotion. These can include posts that direct your followers to a blog post or community page, customer reviews, and general real estate advice and information. 

Build Knowledge

• Continually invest in yourself. 

Real estate is a line of work in which one must always be learning. Not only are there frequently changes in real estate law but also in methodology and tech. You should have a good idea of the coursework you will need to do to stay licensed. In addition, consider taking a business class or two. Coursework on marketing, sales, and technology will also serve you well as you build your real estate business.  

• Choose the right brokerage. 

You will also want to give the brokerage you choose careful consideration. In a 2022 article by Ryan Fitzgerald of Greatcoloradohomes.com Realtor Chris Highland says, “start in a brokerage where you have direct access to the broker. You’ll want training in the technical aspects of the contract and you’ll want to have answers to your questions when you have them.” Choosing a brokerage is a lot like picking a college or new car. You will want to shop around and compare options. Once you have interviewed a few brokers you’ll want to consider the following factors: educational opportunities, brokerage personality, cost structure, and company brand. 

Wondering how EXIT Oceanside Realty can help you build a successful real estate career? Get all the details here: https://www.exitoceansiderealty.com/careers-with-exit/

Are you ready to begin building a successful real estate business? While the first year may require plenty of grit and consistency, know that all of us here at EXIT are rooting for you!