When you really look at it real estate agents underachieve for only two reasons: They are either working on activities that would never lead to income, or they simply are not doing enough — their activity levels are way too low.
Fortunately the first one is easy to correct. There are basically three ways to get business out there. You can wait for it. You can buy it, or you can go out and chase after it every single day.
Get out there. Be active, not passive
Let’s look at the first option of waiting for it. You may do floor time in your office, sit at some open houses, post to Facebook, put name magnets on your car and so on. You’re basically just waiting for someone to come to you with their real estate needs. These are all mildly useful activities, but all very passive, resulting in low, irregular income.
The second option, buying business, is much more promising but usually is very expensive and takes a lot of time to get results — often eight months or more to get the phone ringing. The good news is that it works if you do it correctly. But do you have eight months or more to wait to generate income?
You can start a large farm area and mail out beautiful postcards and take out some strategic ads in some good publications. If you are consistent with this you will get customers. Success will eventually come if you have the money and patience to see this method through.
Looking to get your real estate business up and running right now? Option three may be for you. Going out and getting business is your fastest answer to real estate fame and fortune.
Activities such as calling the expireds, cancelleds, for-sale-by-owners and good old-fashioned door-knocking will give you a steady stream of customers and also give you the control that you are looking for in your business. These activities will keep the customers and income flowing to you on a more regular basis.
Having a slow Wednesday morning?
Open your phone and call all your contacts. Have a conversation about real estate, and see how you can assist them or someone they know. It’s much better than mailing a postcard and waiting!
Be consistent and disciplined
This brings us to our second reason for real estate sales underperformance: Not working at these activities a sufficient amount of time to get results. Will you have the discipline to engage in these activities at least a few hours a day, five or six days a week? For those who do and are effective with them, real estate success will be yours.
Your prospecting activity level will have to be high — and this is where many agents fall off. Your challenges will be sticking it out when you are not getting immediate results.
Be consistent and persist even when 10 other things are pulling you away from your prospecting time. You need to just push through when you just don’t want to do it. I find that the most successful agents have the discipline do the things nobody wants to do.
Even if you received no results for 14 days, but on Day 15 you landed a great appointment and a nice listing, ask yourself: Was it worth making the calls and doing these activities consistently? I would say: “Absolutely yes!”
Once you take the time to get good at the skills needed to go out and get business, you should be getting multiple appointments per week for your efforts. Your entire outlook of this great profession that you have chosen will change.
Our business is not as easy as most people think, but when you think about it the path to success is pretty straight forward.
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Joseph Santini is a managing broker at Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate in Boca Raton, Highland Beach, Delray Beach in Florida. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
