How Many Homes Should An Agent Sell Annually To Be Considered Successful?

I set my goals for a year and check them quarterly.  Whether I make some "club" or another is irrelevant.  I spent almost 3 hours in a closing today because it was important to make sure that all of the issues with the loan documents were resolved to my clients satisfaction.  That was more important than anything else at that moment.

It is common in our market for an individual agent to sell 40-60 homes with a part time non licensed assistant if they are willing to work. Yet there are some people who think they have to have an assistant and they only sell 20-30 homes a year. Sometimes I think the assistants may be making more than the agent.  :)

Elizabeth, I never set my goals by transactions, I set them by income.  I don't work well if I even think I won't make my goal. It stressed me out too much to set "X" number of closings each month. Once I set an income goal, that worked like a charm.  It doesn't matter to me how many I close, as long as I do meet my income goal by the end of the year.  Amazingly, I rarely even check to see where I stand. It just doesn't matter to me, now. It certainly did the first few years I was in business.

One more point is, I judge my success on how well I handle my clients and being able to best meet their needs.  Having integrity and knowing I helped guide my clients in the right direction is most important to me, by far.

I recently relocated, so I am flying solo for now. I had a full time assistant at one time in Nashville and also a part time assistant near the end of my career there.  I had a hard time keeping up with more than 2 or 3 closings per month, while doing my farm areas, handwritten notes,  marketing, absorption rates, etc.  (And I was a mom first) :) 

I truly think that MOST clients could care less how many transactions we close a year. They want to know we can be trusted, and that we have their best interest in mind at all times.  (Not all believe this, but a majority, I believe).

Elizabeth, I agree that performance counts, but I guess I was referring more to the question of number of sales, in your initial question. 

Performance counts, but again, I don't think it necessarily has to do with number of sales.  When I look at my performance, or another agent's performance, for example, I'm looking for integrity, among other things ...

I totally agree it is very helpful to 'learn' how to negotiate with other agents (even if the reasons may not be exactly the same ...).

I guess we all have different goals and different ways to measure our success; or how we get to the income we want to earn every year (as a measure of our performance and success).

If you run into Leslie Arnott, can you please tell her I said hi.  It's been almost a dozen years since I saw her last.  she's a pip!

Excellent post packed full of lots of great ideas to help me decide what to shoot for!

I think this depends a lot on how much the individual wants to earn and how hard they want to work.  If I personally close 15 to 20 transactions a year and make a decent income from those sales that is okay with me.  I know I will never be a millionaire agent but that is okay. If I were 25 instead of 55 that might be different.  But frankly at this point in my life I want to make a nice living but I don't want to work 80 hours a week to do it. 

I look at my bottom line each year and try to cut more expenses each year. I was guilty when I started out of trying to spend my way to the top and it can add up quickly. It isn't how much you make it's how much you keep. I personally know brokers making $400,000 to $500,000 a year that can barely hold it together because their monthly out flow is overboard. They are spending a fortune to get a lot of business and keeping very little.

Good question.   I have often wondered that very same question.  Your location, your goals and your needs have a lot to do with that answer.  After all in Mentone we only sold 37 houses in the past 12 months.  Divide that by 11 agents and 8 companies.

Paul Todd

Menotne, Alabama

Elizabeth, well, well, the queen of the gold star, huh? ;-)  I'm with you....I'm a hands on woman....no team for me, and I could never handle more than about 4-5 per month - though that isn't the case these days. Lukcy to have one or two a month average.  40-50 a year, tops.... I am training one of my sisters to become my assistant now though 'cause I'm going to need her to do the "stuff" around the office....;-)

A lot depends on where you live.  In this area 20 sales a year has you at the high end productivity wise.  10 sales a year is considered a strong agent.

Elizabeth,

It's interesting to read the responses here...and see how many agents took the path of "If I meet my goals, I consider myself a success"....or "One deal at $180,000 sounds pretty successful to me" or whatever.

If I'm not mistaken, your questions were:

I'd like to know how many transactions you believe one agent can comfortably close per year? Also, how many transactions does an agent need to do before the public considers that agent successful?

I'll try to stick to your questions (the first of which is probably a bit too subjective). I've known agents who stress out when they close four per year...and I've known agents who can easily handle 100 or more. Temperament, organizational skills, business acumen, etc. all come into play...and for every 1,000 agents, there are 1,000 different answers.

Seems to me (in most geographical markets) the average agent should be able to close 25-50 transactions per year, providing they work their business full-time...and approach it as a real job versus a way to simply make a year's worth of income on possibly two deals. In our business, we come into contact with agents who close TONS of business....and agents who sell very little. It's usually how they approach the business. The ones who sell the most are the ones who are in it as a career. The ones who wake up every day and put in at least eight hours doing actual real estate work (not to be confused with having a 2-1/2 hour lunch with your title rep.)

There are a lot of agents who THINK they're full-time, but they're not. Just because they have no other job...does NOT qualify them as a full-time Realtor. Someone working full-time should confortably be able to close 2-4 transactions per month.

But your second question is the most interesting.

I'm pretty certain the general public does NOT consider you a success if you earn $180,000 by closing one six-million dollar deal. Sure...your new Hummer may impress a certain segment of society, and I'm sure you feel pretty successful with the new Rolex. But to call yourself a professional and successful Realtor is misguided. They're always the ones who can never seem to find the NEXT million dollar deal...and invariably wind up out of the business anyway.

The general public also won't likely consider you successful if you've happily met your personal goals by making $11,000 for the entire year. A clerk at Walmart makes more than that, so regardless of whether you were able to spend time going on camping trips with the family and/or tending to your garden, your results won't likely be deemed "successful" by the general public. Yes...YOU may consider yourself successful...but the public won't.

The public wants someone who doesn't have to read each line of the listing or purchase contract to try and remember what they're having you sign. They don't want someone negotiating on their behalf who only gets 1-2 chances per year to do so. And they're hoping to hire someone who has experience actually marketing real estate. One who's actively staying on top of changes in real estate law, taxation, new technology and marketing strategies.

To NOT have that experience....and still market yourself as someone who DOES...is sinful. When I read posts about protecting one's commission (read refusing under any circumstances to negotiate for example)...it almost makes me wish there was a system in place for the consumer that says:

Gold Agents: Closes a minimum of 12 transactions per year; average commission=6%
Silver Agents: Closes between 4-11 transactions per year; average commission=4-5%
Bronze Agents: Closes three or less transactions per year; average commission=<4%

Let the consumer determine what risk they're willing to take for the reduced commissions. Because whether the agent considers themselves successful or not...it is indeed  a risk to enlist the services of an agent who nets part-time results, regardless of how much time they actually put in to do so.

Give me the person who's been in the business three years, but has closed 72 transactions...over the old-timer who's sold real estate for the last 30 years, but has only closed 60!!!!!

My nine cents worth. :::smile:::

Dave

We look at this in a different light.  Success should come from having clients who come back to you or refer you to others after using your services. But to answer your question, based on number1expert's guidelines to be listed as a top producer i would say 5million/yr. minimum. Which if you think about it is only 10,  1/2 million dollar listings/yr - or - 20, 250,000$ listings/yr or about 1-2 listings per month. Certainly not hard to do for a seasoned veteran.  Those in colder climates certainly have problems due to downtime. Consider yourself lucky to be in such a good market Elizabeth. Best of luck in all your real estate endeavors.

What everyone considers successful is subjective.  Let's just say I am happy and sucessful!

Nothing I mean Not a penny under $5 million is a full time successful agent.  Anything else is jsut dabbling in my opinion!

Success to me is accomplishing the goals I set each year. Be careful when you say you will never have a team, I use to say that too. But, when the leads became too many to handle and I could not give the service they needed, I hired a buyer agent. Now I am up to 6 and looking to hire 2 more. If a solo agent can handle 100 transactions a year alone, more power to them, but I could not.

A friend many years ago said, someday you'll have a large team, I laughed, "no way, I hate management". But, I had to eat my words. The buyer agents are thrilled that I know how to make rain and they don't have to worry about bringing in the business. We cover for each other, love each other and it is fun.

Everyone is life is at a different stage, when my children were young, I couldn't not do as much business as I do now, now they are older and I can do more, so every agent's personal life is different, across the country sale prices are so different, so I don't believe there can be a national status for how many transactions.

Elizabeth:  I don't know about public perception, but for me personally, as an agent in the business for 3 1/2 years now, I have measured my success in comparison with the year prior.  Each year, despite the further decline of the market, my business has doubled.  As for public perception, I think it's all in how you present yourself and knowledge of the market.  Do I think you can knowledgable about your local market without selling in it?  NO!  You need to be out there, even if you are closing just one sale per month, getting to know the market stats, the inventory and the trends.

Interesting article.