The real estate industry can sometimes look like a revolving door. Every year, fresh faces enter the scene, but only a few remain after two years. Why is that? After all, to become a real estate agent, you must spend a few thousand dollars on training, licensing, brokerage fees, membership fees, marketing costs, and miscellaneous business expenses just to get your business off the ground. Anyone who spends that must be serious about building a real estate career, so what makes one Realtor® a success and another a failure?
Simply put – persistence.
Yes, there are people who try to be real estate agents when they, frankly, shouldn’t be working with the public at all. As much as they want the money and schedule flexibility the job provides, they don’t have the communication and negotiation skills to make it happen. Persistence won’t do much for them. It’s not the field they fit best in and it’s only natural that they move on to something more suitable. However, there are plenty of others, who do have communication and negotiation skills, that don’t succeed in real estate. It’s because they’re lacking persistence.
In real estate, as is the case in many other sales fields, rejection is common and marketing is a science. You deal with many different people and personalities (not just clients), and some can be downright mean. You must form a thick skin and learn to brush off the bad. If not, you’ll enter a pit of depression.
Anyone will tell you that one of the best parts of being a Realtor® is forming connections with the people you represent – the buyers and sellers. You meet people from all different backgrounds. It’s hard for your life to not be enriched by these new friendships. But until that happens, you must focus on the stats.
Everyone wants to dream about owning a home and only a fraction of the population can buy. There are a lot of looky-loos – online, at open houses, and driving around neighborhoods. The industry standard conversion rate is in the single digits – 2-4%. So, for every 1,000 people you talk to, 20-40 people will be prospects. Don’t let the ONE person who bit your head off today get you down. They’ve got something going on that has nothing to do with you. Drink a cup of coffee and continue on. They aren’t part of the 2-4%.
It’s also important to understand that there is an incubation time with leads. Only a few leads will contact you ready to buy right away. That’s because not many people know the role of a Realtor® or the steps to buying. They also don’t realize there are people on the other side of that website they’re signing up on. People need advice and some hand-holding before they take the next steps. It’s just part of the job.
This reminds me of a newer agent who was on my team some time ago. She spent a good part of a year following up with leads. She felt like she was missing something, because other agents on the team seemed to be rocking the closings while all she was doing was calling people. The next year, a switch flipped, and she was the bestselling agent on the team. The prospects she was persistently following up with decided to move forward, and she was the one rocking the closings.
It’s important to understand that persistence doesn’t just stop when you get a strong buyer or seller. Persistence is vital for the whole real estate process. You must persistently…
- Follow up to make sure your clients’ questions are being answered.
- Discuss potential properties or marketing steps so they don’t feel you’re too busy for their needs.
- Keep in touch with the agent who is representing the other party to make sure vital tasks are being completed.
- Stay on top of your closing checklist to guarantee nothing is overlooked.
- Tie up all loose ends by closing, because no closing is the same and something always pops up.
…and finally, reach out to your client after the closing. This is important for a few reasons. First, you want to ask for a testimonial, because people love to read reviews before hiring a professional. Testimonials/reviews are gold! Second, you want to make sure you’re keeping touch. They’re now in your sphere of influence, a major source of future, high-converting referrals. Don't let them forget about you!
Having a system can help you stay persistent. There are real estate coaches who sell systems, or you can devise one with the help of your brokerage’s Broker-in-Charge or agent trainer. That’s why they’re there – to help you succeed, because when you succeed, they succeed. Just know that a system won’t make you persistent. It’s merely a tool. You need to decide to wake up each day with a renewed sense of determination. If you need to include a few mental health practices in your system, like starting the day with yoga or taking a quick run at lunchtime, then make it happen. It can only help your business and overall wellness.
It doesn’t matter if you have a significant marketing budget or a small one, a large database of contacts or a few online leads - persistence is the key to succeeding in real estate. If you don’t keep moving forward in spite of difficulties and opposition, your resources will mean nothing, and you’ll never touch those 1,000 people needed for your 2-4%. Remember, the one othe factor in this equation for success is TIME. Nothing in real estate happens instantly.
BTW, if you need a good example of a Realtor who makes persistence and a positive outlook key components of her job, check out Tammy Suggs, one of my team's buyer specialists. She's on Facebook and Instagram.
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