First Steps for a New Real Estate Agent: Start Your Career

Whether you’re looking to change careers or start anew, getting a real estate license is a door full of opportunities. However, you should know how to seize them. The competition could be tough, so you’ll need to keep up and gain experience fast. Here are the first steps for a new real estate agent to succeed!

Follow these tips for new real estate agents, and you’ll be on the right path to a rewarding career.

Find a Sponsoring Real Estate Broker

To start working as a real estate agent, you need a sponsoring broker or brokerage firm. As you already know, agents cannot do their jobs independently as brokers do. Your sponsor will support you for your first transactions and closings. So, you must make a good choice and find the right one. The guidance you receive in your initial years as an agent is crucial for your career future.

Whether you join a franchise or work with an independent broker is your choice. However, you should always weigh every sponsor’s pros and cons before making the arrangement.

Set Your Goals To Be A Successful Agent

Some of the people who wonder how to start as a real estate agent never think of this, but goals are something that you should keep in mind. To stay focused and work hard, it’s important you know your goals. Otherwise, you may lose motivation if you do not know if you’re advancing in your career.

As you start as a real estate agent, begin with easier goals like gaining new contacts and then upgrade them to others that are more challenging, like closing your first deal. The key here is to be specific, set a time limit, and have a way to measure your advance. For example: Selling 20 houses in the first semester.

Market Yourself As a New Real Estate Agent

Well, here’s the hard truth. To sell your agent services, you must first learn how to advertise yourself. What are the chances of people hiring someone they’ve never heard of? Think of yourself as a brand; you need to make yourself known to get clients. How could you do it? Start easy: talk to family and friends, give business cards, create merchandise to give your contacts, work on your social media presence, and even build a website. Marketing, building a strong network, and having the right brokerage sponsorship are keys to landing your first deal. These first steps for a new real estate agent will help you become a successful real estate agent in the long term.

Create Your Network

In this field, contacts are everything, especially if you’re new in the market. One of the first steps for a new real estate agent should always be growing your network. Make yourself known! Establish lasting relationships with colleagues and create a client database.

Another way is to find leads through online marketing efforts, as well as in person, like participating in local events or volunteering. Reach out to family and friends, contact home builders, investors, other agents or brokers, and lenders. You never know when a lead can become a potential client or help you find one in the future.

Learn from the Real Estate Experts

Not because you recently got your license, you become instantly an expert. After that big step, there’s a whole new road to becoming a successful real estate agent. In your career’s first moments, it’s crucial that you find the right mentor, a Realtor, or an experienced agent who could guide you since client number one. As we said before, finding a good sponsoring brokerage could make the difference between paving your way to the top and learning the hard way.

A broker or brokerage needs to constantly guide their agents and supervise their work so they are good tutors for new agents. Another suggestion is to talk with colleagues and learn from their past mistakes. If in doubt, always ask an expert or search for information. Learning is key to gain experience.

Create a Work Schedule

Becoming a real estate agent can be overwhelming initially for people who have never worked alone. One of the advantages of being an agent is precisely the flexibility in the working hours. However, choosing when and how much to work does not mean working randomly. If you want to become a successful real estate agent, you need to become a planner. Make a monthly, weekly, and even daily work schedule where you organize your main tasks by priority, date, and time.

Believe us, planning helps you create a work routine, be more efficient, increase your income potential, and even save free time for yourself. It’s something freelancers or remote workers are very used to doing, and you should learn from them.

Level Up Your Real Estate Agent Career

Nowadays, specialties are highly valued and a plus in anyone’s career. Real estate is no different. With the N.A.R. lawsuit settlement in process, one way to increase commissions and general earnings is to level up your career with a more specialized approach.

For this, you may look for real estate certifications and designations specific to mortgages, appraisals, commercial property, and more. It could be the highlight of your career and a way to be more competitive.

Summarizing

A career in real estate can be a life-changer. To be sure you succeed, start on the right foot! Remember, it is more than selling houses. It’s about working diligently with the right goals in mind, networking, and marketing yourself. Starting could be difficult at the beginning, but with perseverance, the right guidance, and broker mentorship, you can achieve success.

If you’re still on the way to becoming a real estate agent, we can help you pass the test the first time. After you finish your state’s pre-licensing courses, come by Lexawise and start our exam prep with comprehensive study resources. Who knows? Maybe next time, you’ll already be a successful agent and give advice to those who start.