What Should New Real Estate Agents Do: 10 Essential Tips

Are you a new, fledgling realtor? Being a new real estate agent can be initially challenging. Though the job takes time to master, it can be very rewarding.

Perhaps you’re asking yourself the question: what should new real estate agents do? After all, the agent must understand, for example, many aspects of a property type, region, client, and budget. Other obligations of a real estate agent include:

• Maintaining a list of connections;
• Advertising open houses;
• Connecting buyers to sellers;
• Learning how to negotiate a commission split.

There are, however, certain fixed principles that realtors can follow in order to kickstart, maintain, and even encourage more business.

10 Tips for New Real Estate Agents

These tips will help you in the beginning, but later on too, so make sure to memorize them all.

Memorable Presentations of Properties

First impressions are important. Clear, notable features of your properties will substantially improve your chances of a sale or, at least, entice a viewing.

Think about purchasing a house for yourself. You’d consider your particular lifestyle, which would include benefits, perks, pros, and cons. Think, then, the best way to present that lifestyle, using:

• High-quality pictures;
• Visual details;
• Easy-to-read layouts in ads;
• Videos;
• Websites.

In presenting your properties, you’ll first need to consider your target demographic and ultimately underline the striking characteristics of the property type you’re showcasing. Those investing in the property market tend to have a variety of different expectations; so, try not to leave out details in your presentations.

What’s the best way to generate leads? Real estate lead generation companies are often used to generate clients. It would be difficult, however, to garner interest and retain prospective clients without preparing a good presentation.

It pays to ensure that you’re sending the right message to the right people when using traditional and digital marketing tactics. Utilizing these strategies is the key to understanding how to start as a real estate agent.

You also need to be direct and honest about the property type you’re presenting, clearly listing its specs and features—e.g., you shouldn’t present or advertise a two-bedroom apartment the same way you would a four-bedroom home.

The way you showcase your properties determines the kind of buyer you want to attract and vice versa.

Communication Skills

Learning how to listen will clue you into clients’ needs and ultimately help you understand how to advertise as a realtor. One of the most important tips for new real estate agents is communicating professionalism by carefully listening, speaking in a positive (friendly) tone, as well as dressing nicely.

Another part of good communication skills includes your excitement in meeting clients, who will readily take note of your demeanor—this could possibly tip the scales in their decision to do business with you.

You also need to clearly communicate each detail of the property: its style, features, number of bathrooms and bedrooms, etc., as well as, of course, the financial terms associated with purchasing the property.

Good communication is at the forefront of how to get clients, as a new real estate agent. It can actually be the most significant aspect of sealing a deal.

Include a Mentor

Including a mentor as part of your new venture also addresses your question: what should new real estate agents do?

Real estate agents are required to work under a broker when they get their license. Having a mentor to guide you with the real estate contracts of brokerage firms can significantly help. Mentors can also help with:

• Performing credit checks;
• Learning how to present yourself;
• Sourcing referrals;
• Drafting contracts.

With your mentor, you’ll need to cover such issues as your commission split and lead generation streams. Further understanding of how real estate lead generation companies operate is helpful, but simply sharing a contact list among such colleagues might even be more beneficial.

Home Inspections

Networking is an important job skill to have for the realtor. But time, money, and effort must also be afforded to property inspections—even if it means spending a little upfront or learning how to make deals with various licensed personnel to guarantee that you’re getting a thorough and legitimate review of your property.

Why do most real estate agents fail? Poor property inspections can be one reason agents fail. Health and safety are serious issues. International rates, interest fluctuations, and even daily news can have an effect on the property market. In this regard, the help of a home warranty company could be to your advantage. This could also stimulate buyer leads and increase the return on investment (ROI) for buyers. People tend to trust a real estate agent that has gone to the trouble to retain a third party, to validate any issues that may have affected the property.

An ‘all-clear’ from a warranty company will go a long way in winning over potential clients. You’ll also find that even a simple inspector’s stamp of approval can add quite a significant amount to your overall property value.

Even though there are a lot of things to know about real estate, as with anything else, experience is the best teacher.

Know Your Contracts

Being able to interpret and arrange valid and legitimate legal documents is imperative to creating a professional realtor touch in navigating the market.

Whether you’re interpreting new government legislation or trying to discern whether crudely drawn-up real estate contracts are entirely legal, knowing the law helps—which also helps in crafting your business plan. And access to a lawyer or legal advisors is always prudent.

Are you reviewing a seller’s contract and wonder if the legal jargon is correct? Are they asking too much for a property? Is the property a good match for the buyers’ expectations?

When pairing home equity loans with various properties, renovation services, or other useful services that your clientele may benefit from, remember that a contract is your friend. Different properties will benefit from different contractual agreements.

Understanding how to group contracts together or package them into more useful financial agreements is a great tip for real estate agents.

Open Houses

What’s the best way to build an online presence? In most cases, meeting people (in person) is the best way to advance your presence.

Establishing lasting, memorable professional relationships with your clients, by organizing open houses, meet-and-greets, and company functions enable a better sense of personalization.

People tend to remember and interact better with others once they’ve had some actual, personal contact—then communicating online afterward is more personable. And cold calls are great, just so long as you choose those you can physically reach. In this way, potential clientele knows that you provide a genuine, legitimate service—not just out for clickbait or coming off as a scam artist.

Even if you work solely on an online basis, it’s good to know that you also have a physical presence in the real world and are open for contact in either sphere of influence.

Every realtor should treat each open house as a business-to-business (B2B) opportunity while retaining a friendly and personable air. You’ll then increase the likelihood of developing a lot more interest in your business.

Good Marketing

What is the best way to advertise the home I just listed?

Utilizing various tools and features that have developed around the idea of ‘getting the word out’ is a popular component of our modern society.

Social media is globally recognized as one of the most popular means of showcasing property listings. Each realtor, however, seeks to benefit from their own unique approach or from a combination of marketing methods.

Whether you’re working for a group that employs a specific marketing strategy or you choose to be independent, knowing how to utilize such social media platforms as LinkedIn or Facebook to reach your target demographic is imperative.

Ultimately, trying to convert such strategies into personal connections is generally considered to be a good approach. But sometimes, keeping things smooth, impersonal, and automated might be more suitable.

A good rule of thumb in reaching potential clients is to simply run ad campaigns. There is, however, no fixed way of how to advertise as a realtor. But remember to maintain a number of simple open channels, by using such traditional methods as:

• Word of mouth;
• Business cards;
• Researching the market.

Know Your Client

Selling real estate is not only about knowing the right client but actually finding the right client.

Perhaps you want to conduct a credit check, for example, before granting your client viewing of a property? The internet is a great way to help speed up that process and ensure that both you and your client are making the right decision. You can also use social media to do background checks on a property type, neighborhood, price range, and even on a contract.

With your digital or traditional marketing campaign, decide who and where to target and how to think outside the box when trying to win your clients over.

You’ll want to create a database that stores even the most basic aspects of potential client information, such as ideal price range, credit ratings, and other useful data. In this way, even if they don’t make the cut for the first sale, they’ll still be in the loop for any other potential sales or relevant deals. (These are important tips for any real estate agent trying to develop a lead base.)

While an email drip campaign (automatically sending a limited number of emails to your prospective clients) is a reliable way to keep contacts in the loop, remember that houses, themselves, are unique products. One of the best tips for new real estate agents is to socialize at a home with your prospective client…and often.

Referrals and word of mouth can do a lot to reign in more listings, buyers, and even sellers. Cold calls can also help you find and convert those referrals into new clients.

Connect With Other Agents

In the world of real estate, you might find it easier to share various listings and client information with fellow agents.

While it may seem counterintuitive at first, you’ll often find that sometimes another real estate agent might have a different client who’s more suited to a property you’ve listed but have been struggling to fill. Perhaps you have the perfect client for one of your colleague’s listings. Being able to reach out and connect with fellow agents—while ensuring that both of you can benefit from exchanging clients or listings—is helpful.

You also want to focus on negotiating a good commission split. If you hand a sale over to another agent, remember that they could ask for a larger chunk of the commission split, as a result of closing the sale themselves.

Find a Company to Work For

Another piece of good advice for new real estate agents is to job shadow (follow a professional as they work) or work under someone for a while. You’ll often find that you can learn a lot about how to develop your own system and techniques from a group of people or a well-established company. You may also discover more about your own strengths, weaknesses, and adaptability skills.

Whether a prospective realtor joins a small local business or applies for work at a larger established company, being part of an effective team is always a helpful learning experience.

Conclusion

So, what should new real estate agents do?

The world of real estate relies on a number of various industries, services, and technologies that help the realtor to not only connect people with properties but also with home warranty companies, home mortgages, and equity loan agreements, as well as work with:

• Advertising services;
• Accounting services;
• Legal advisors;
• Real estate brokers.