What They Won't Teach You in Real Estate School

What They Won't Teach You in Real Estate School. Getting your real estate license is easy...it's what comes afterwards that takes a lot of effort. If you are like me, you worked hard...got the highest grade in your real estate class, joined an office and now you are ready to set the real estate world on fire. You have the people skills and people trust you. You have the personal skills and license it takes to succeed in real estate. Now bring on the clients. In real estate school, they don't teach you how to get the clients. You have to figure that out for yourself. No one is going to hand you the good leads...that would be taking a paycheck away from them.

You must find an office that you feel comfortable with. One of my instructors did touch upon this. I can't stress this enough!!! I went through three offices before I found a home. Interview the office manager like you are interviewing someone to work for you. You have to know if this office will be the right fit for you. Remember you are a sub contractor, and you will be making that office money. You don't want to be just another warm body in an office chair paying a fee for that privilege. Be honest and let the person know your short comings and what you expect from the office. Maybe that office offers a high level of training, or mentor program, and that is what you want.

But where are the clients? So you sit at your office. The phone isn't ringing. You look at the latest and greatest stapler you got at Walmart. You are set and ready to start this business, but the only prospects you have are friends, relatives and neighbors. They've told you they will call you when they know someone that has a need for your service. Your dad's brother's cousin may want to soon consider selling his home and upgrading. You make a call. OK...keep that one on the back burner. Now what?

For all new people considering a career in real estate and going through school for that purpose...make a mailing list NOW. Put your friends and family members on it. Get at least 200 names on that list. Go through the phone book and get other  names. Pick a neighborhood and get names. 

Now send out a postcard to everyone on that list announcing your new area of expertise. Don't stop there. Start walking neighborhoods and introducing yourself. Hand out a flyer that says you will do a free market analysis of homes in the area. Then get an agent in your office to help you with that market analysis. Take that agent out to lunch for the effort. It will be greatly appreciated and you never know what other tidbits of knowledge you might pick up at the lunch meeting. If you do get a potential seller from your flyers, maybe ask that agent to help you...for a small referral fee. That all depends on your confidence level with taking on a new listing.

Make sure you are checking your MLS daily for new listings, price reductions, expired and sold listings. When new listings come on the market...make an appointment with that listing agent to view the property. You have to know the inventory. Get started now with new listings and other listings you see that you are interested in. Look at listing price compared to sold price and concessions offered. This will give you a good idea of the ratio of listed to sold price. Send a letter of interest to expired listings. You might pick up a listing this way.

The next step is to join Active Rain. I wish I had done this earlier in my career. I've learned so much and have gained a lot of confidence because of my membership on Active Rain. There are so many members you can reach out to, and so much information that is already available to you from previous blogs. Just search a subject and you will find something written on it. In addition to that, you will also learn about writing for  SEO optimization. 

SEO optimization is what it's all about. SEO(search engine optimization) means how you rank when someone searches on the internet. You want to be the highest. Blog writing can place you above other agents when a buyer, or seller, does a google search for a specific property search in a specific area, or a specific neighborhood. It doesn't matter how long you've been in the business...if you know how to blog for business, you will get business. AR can teach you how to do this. I live in an extremely rural area where you don't have subdivisions as other parts of country think of subdivisions, but I've chosen special areas to write about that buyers might be searching for. Write about subdivisions, or specific properties,  you really like, and want to work in. You want to set yourself out as the expert in an area. Then branch out and do more. You will be surprised at the google search results once you start doing this.

Hopefully with these pointers you will start seeing business right away. Although usually you will have to wait and keep doing these things over and over again. It's also a great idea to make personal phone calls to prospective clients. Let people know you are the go getter person. Your personality will come through.

I've lived on Colorado's Western Slope for over 22 years. I love this area and all it has to offer, and I enjoy sharing what I know about my home. As a REALTOR®, I also love to share my expertise in this area as well. If you need any real estate information for Montrose County, or Delta County, Colorado...please give me a call.

 

 

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