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Buy the Book that Started the Soulful Revolution!
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The Challenge If you're brand new to real estate, you're probably full of enthusiasm, but short on direction. Your training doesn't start for another five weeks and in the interim, your broker seems awfully busy - you hate to keep bothering her. You know you need to be doing something every day, but... what? Or maybe you're a few months into this, but prospects still aren't beating down your door or burning up your phone lines, and the FSBO's you've contacted aren't returning your calls. You're probably working with a few difficult buyers, perhaps an unmotivated seller or two, and you're starting to panic as your bank account balance dwindles. You may be considering going back to work part-time or even putting your real estate career on hold for now. The Solution... SWS Products for Rookies
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Real Estate Sales! If you’re fresh out of real estate school, you are about to begin a career that can lead you to fame and fortune...or sadly be an unfortunate blip on the radar screen of your professional life. Statistics quote figures that range from 70% to 95% dropout rate for first-year real estate agents and it’s common knowledge in the industry that only a small percentage of the licensed agents are making enough money to live on...selling real estate, that is. If you get through your first year with your enthusiasm intact, you will have beaten the odds and stand an excellent chance of success. And success selling real estate is a beautiful thing. A career in real estate sales offers nearly unlimited potential for financial reward, an enviable lifestyle, and the opportunity to build an empire for your retirement or to pass on to your children. It can also guarantee you a captive audience at social gatherings, if that’s your thing. Why is the failure rate so high? It’s not as if real estate is brain surgery; there are thousands of non-rocket-scientist real estate agents out there making plenty of money. It’s not a matter of supply and demand; there’s plenty of business to go around, even in a slow market. Is it a matter of unrealistic expectations? Maybe. A lack of enthusiasm? Probably. A lack of support and training? Absolutely. Funny, they don’t teach you how to sell real estate in real estate school. They teach you how to pass the state exam. If you passed the test, your real estate school did its job. Moreover, the training provided by Big Name real estate companies is geared primarily toward teaching new agents to prospect, with little guidance on how to actually be a competent real estate agent. But you may not be worried about that just yet, especially if you’re new. Brand new real estate agents have an arrogance about them (we all did)—especially if we bought or sold a few homes of our own in our past life. We think we know it all and are ready to take the real estate world by storm. Get out of the way, hot-shot agent coming through! Then reality creeps in. Our ignorance starts to show. Maybe it happens when you’re scheduling showings for your first buyer. Or when you’re sitting down to write your first offer. Perhaps, like me, you panicked when you got your first listing under contract and had no idea what to do then. Or, also like me, when you stayed up 48 hours straight trying to put together your first market analysis. Most likely, all these scenarios will happen to you and provide periodic reality checks to keep you humble. Or, perhaps, drive you screaming (or whimpering) from the business. As a professional real estate agent, you will be well paid for your services, and your clients expect you to be competent at your job, not just competent at prospecting. Your paying clients don’t care if you have ten listings or two, if you have five upcoming closings or none. They do care deeply that you understand the real estate market, that you’re a good negotiator and that you know how to look after them and their needs. Most new agents learn the nuts and bolts of their business the hard way. Often at the expense of their paying clients and, consequently, at the expense of their own checkbook (if they’re honorable). I’m going to try to help you avoid some of the costly or embarrassing mistakes, but believe me; you’ll suffer your share of them anyway. Try to grin and bear it—it’s true that you learn more from your mistakes than from your successes. |
