New Agent Blues.

As a new agent myself, it took less than two months to realize that Real Estate is actually a lot more work that I anticipated.

Before I became an Agent, I was oblivious of the constant hustle and bustle that was needed to stay in the game. I was unaware that to be successful in the industry you had to be an expert at marketing, networking and you had to constantly be looking for new opportunities to get your name and your services out there.

 I knew the Atlanta market had a large number of agents, but I didn't know how congested it was, making it even harder to stand out.

After the sad realization that I won't be making millions of dollars overnight without doing much hit me. I went on a rampage, contacting persons in my sphere of Influence, creating Flyers, Attaching F.S.B.O's, expired listing and what have you. I had to get a transaction in the pipes and I was desperate. My energy slowing dwindled and I was out of fuel about a week after that. And I realized that like almost everything else I needed a plan.

I needed a business plan, a marketing plan and most importantly I need some sort pf budget. I was spending money and nothing was coming in. Imagine my increased frustration.

I decided that I needed a new perspective, I had a great support system through my broker, and we worked on a business plan, we looked at what I wanted and how many transactions were needed to get there. I worked on a hybrid scientific marketing plan, using several methods of marketing, estimating the ROI on each and how much activity I would need to do to get a good lead, then how many good leads actually went to closing.

The most important thing, I've leaned in my short life as an Agent, is that this is a business, and it needs to be treated as such, there is no magic formula, no expensive suit that would create successful agents overnight. You need discipline, planning, marketing and a ton of hard work to make it in today's real estate market.

Remembering that 80% of the agents make less than 20% of the sales.... If you want to be part of the 20% you need to make this a well structured and organization business venture.

Nattalie Cornwall

03/21/07