New Agents Can Get up and Running Quickly

The consumers in general are looking for the best agents they can find.  They are dealing with the most expensive thing in their lives and do not want to put it in the hands of someone inexperienced.

I bet you are saying, is he disproving the title of this article?  I said can have an advantage, not does have an advantage.  So now that we agree that new agents have a distinct disadvantage, how do we make lemonade from those lemons?

Let's start with one advantage a new agent may have.  Having no or few other clients, they have more free time to dedicate to them and their listings.

What can a new agent do to get up and running quickly?

1. Consider teaming up with an experienced agent.  You now remove the objection of inexperience and the clients get the best of both worlds.  I seasoned experienced agent and a new energetic one who will dedicate a lot of time to them.
2. Take advantage of all cheap or free opportunities.
   1. Car door magnets and window lettering.
   2. Business cards and refrigerator magnets (you can buy peal off magnets at the office supply store and apply them to your business cards).
   3. Wear you name badge or have you tag embroidered on shirts.  Wear them every chance you get.
   4. BLOG!!!  Active Rain is free and a great way for clients to meet you.
   5. Door to door canvassing.  Create a newsletter or market report and deliver them door to door.  Shoe leather is cheaper than postage and more personal.
   6. Sit other agent's open houses and have handouts and marketing materials to hand out.
   7. Sit all the floor time you can get.
   8. Send out press releases to local newspapers.
   9. Build a professional website.  If you can not market yourself, how will you ever market their home?  Clients are on the internet and they are checking you out.
3. I know the conventional wisdom is to chase FSBOs (For Sale By Owners).  In some areas like mine, every fresh agent out of school is bugging the daylights out of them.  They have been told by a dozen green agents why they are idiots for trying it on their own.  If anything I would visit the FSBOs in person to preview their home and be friendly.  I always carry a copy of my market report for their neighborhood and share with them a copy.  I never push them for a listing, especially on a first visit.  There is a reason why they are not using an agent.  After being attacked by the green pea agents their resolve is probably stronger than before.
4. Expired listings are another source every real estate school teaches you to go after.  They are also getting bombed by the green peas.  There is a reason their home did not sell.  Many times it is because they were simply over priced.  If the last agent could not get them to price it right, what will you do differently?  Also they are probably extremely annoyed by the volume of contacts they are getting.
5. This is probably the most important item on the list.  HAVE A BUSINESS PLAN!  This is a business, if you do not have a written plan, what you do have is a plan to fail.

We all had to start from a stand still when we entered the business.  When I started I had to overcome the objections of potential clients.  It was not easy, it took hard work and dedication.

One last tip for new agents:

Make education a key component in your business plan.  Designations will help build you credibility in the market place.