I know it's tough. You sit in your office and see all the activity and chaos and excitement around you and wonder when you'll have some of that. You're watching your bank account dwindle and your enthusiasm fade. You might be asking "Remind me again why I signed up for this? "

Patience, grasshopper. There's a reason we real estate agents have enormous earning potential and it's not 'cause this job is easy. Oh, sure, it's easy for me to SAY that, now that I'm past my rookie year, but sometimes, pithy little cliche's are true. But I know you're not looking for witticisms or bumper-sticker mottos, so here's a little solid encouragement for you (at least I think it's encouraging):

The BEST Source of Business
    In my experience (and I think many will agree), the easiest source of business in THIS business comes from satisfied past clients (SPC's). This is good news and bad news for our beloved rookies.

The bad news is, obviously, rookies don't HAVE any past clients, satisfied or otherwise. But the good news is... you have the time and the enthusiasm and the energy to go all out for the clients you will have over the course of your first year.

DO IT! Go above and beyond every chance you get. Don't listen to Old Fogies who advise that Open Houses are a Waste of Time or that All Buyers Are Liars or that You Should Fire a Buyer if he doesn't buy after looking at X number of homes. Service the heck out of your listings and bend over backwards for your buyers. It WILL pay off for you in the future... BIG TIME.

Then, After Blowing Your Clients Away with Your Service... All You Gotta Do is Stay in Touch
   If you read much of my stuff, you know I'm a big proponent of staying in touch with your SOI, which should obviously include your past clients. However, y'know what's really cool about SOI'ing with your SPC's? If you did a wonderful job for them, it doesn't take much to retain your status as their Favorite Real Estate Agent on the Planet. A few notecards every year, a few interesting, non-salesy emails  - that's really about it. You've already proven yourself to them and in our industry, being GOOD can be a bit of a rarity, unfortunately.

In the absence of SPC's, you can easily demonstrate to your Sphere of Influence (SOI) that you're an RCHB (love all the acronyms?). RCHB stands for a Reasonably Competent Human Being which means someone who is reliable, intelligent, organized, ethical and knowledgeable. Because the general public doesn't think that our job is all that hard, as long as you come across as someone who can be trusted to show up and work hard, that's about all it really takes to get business from your SOI. However, this obviously requires you to do two things:

1.        BE an RCHB

2.       Put yourself in the position to demonstrate your RCHB'ness to other people.

Since I'm already over 500 words, I think I'll wrap this up and continue the RCHB discussion on another blog.

But here's the thing for rookies. THIS JOB GETS EASIER! In all likelihood, your first year will be your hardest and your lowest -paying. Well, duh! As you acquire SPC's and begin to master your craft, you'll GET more business and perhaps more importantly, you'll CLOSE more business.

And guess what? It's a blast and something to look forward to!

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