You don’t know
Photo by bixentro 
Drinking from a fire hose is an old adage to describe things coming at you too fast. We say it all the time but maybe it’s worse when you’re brand new. Maybe it’s not water coming out of the hose so fast you can’t take it in but rather, it’s fire coming out of the hose! Get it? A FIRE hose?
A new agent might relate to the picture above when they just get started. It certainly captures a bit of the emotions I had when I was new.
I have some advice for you.
It gets easier but you have to filter out the important from the urgent. The challenge is the new agent has little to no basis for determining what’s important. You don’t know what you don’t know and that can be frightening to the point of paralyzing.
Most agents come from some other industry and for what ever reason decided real estate sales would be a good career choice. For most it doesn’t work out well. Statistics say 85% will be gone in 3 years and that is a tragedy. What happens to their dreams?
It can be avoided if you’ll stop doing what the 85% do.
Everyone is told they have to cold call or call expired listings and it’s just not true. I will concede it works because even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while but I don’t recommend building a business on that idea. It’s not sustainable. I have lots of friends that were successful doing business that way but it finally took a toll they could not pay.
99 No’s to 1 Yes is just not a good long term plan unless you’re a masochist of some sort and enjoy hearing no and getting doors slammed in your face.
This business is changing in ways we don’t understand yet. The internet makes lots of things change and there is a ton of money being poured into the real estate arena to make that change happen. I don’t believe it will be like the travel agent or the way Uber has disrupted the taxi business but there will be a lot of agents affected.
Buying a house is not something a consumer can do with an app. It’s complex, emotional and fraught with pitfalls you need help navigating. Selling on your own or with an app can be just as bad. Most times the seller could make more money and work less on that sale if they work with a good agent who cares about them.
The goal for the new agent is to build relationships and demonstrate your value to both buyers and sellers. Go the extra mile, be available before during and AFTER the sale. I believe it’s possible to do that from the very first day in business. Learn how to do the job for sure but focus on building relationships if you want to be in the 15% that make it.
The online portals can’t compete with that. Apps can’t do that.
Relationships are built between people, face to face, voice to voice and along with that comes trust. Trust will create referrals and that is how businesses in real estate are built long term. Actually, businesses in any industry are built that way.
I have more to say so I’ll keep writing on this stuff and I would love to hear from you if you have something to say. Agree or not, I’d love to hear from you.
Comment below or give me a call. I promise to answer.
You can email me too at jerry@WorkRDO.com I will respond to you, I promise.
Sign up for my free eBook and it will get you started down the path to working by referral from day one.
Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson
678-616-1578 Direct