Two Truths and A Lie About Being A Real Estate Agent

Welcome to this episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent. I’m your host, Jennifer Myers. Listen in as I share exactly what I did to go from not being able to sell a house for years to becoming one of the top 1% of agents in the U.Sl, and even opening my own brokerage full of agents helped me serve all the clients that were coming my way. I taught those agents the same strategies I used to become a top producing agent. Now, through this Podcast and AgentGradSchool.com, I’m sharing the same modern marketing and business strategies with you. Most of which I learned from looking outside of the real estate industry, no fluff, no theory, no outdated sales techniques or paying for leads, just the exact steps to get you the real estate business you’ve always wanted. And the life outside your business, you’ve always wanted to let’s make it happen and dive into today’s episode. Hey guys, You guys, it’s Jennifer. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast and being a part of AgentGradSchool .com. One of my favorite parts about doing this podcast is when I hear from you guys, listeners, so always feel free to send me an email at Jennifer@AgentGradSchool.com to ask me your questions. And oftentimes, I build episodes based on what’s going on in your world. So don’t be shy. Come on over and say hi and send me your most burning questions so I can answer them on a new episode coming up. This episode is based on a question from one of you, her name is Cash, and she said, I wanted to reach out and say thank you for putting out some great and relatable content. I appreciate the truth and the sincerity. Thank you, Cash. I appreciate your listening. And she goes on to say, I have had my license now for a few months, and I’m finding being a realtor much more difficult than I thought. I’m hoping to gain some insight on how I can put a system in place to have a successful real estate business. I reached out to Cash, and I wanted to learn more about her business and what she did before real estate and help her as best I could. So we got on the phone for about an hour and what I learned about Cash was remarkable. She had two degrees from very well-regarded universities. She was at the top of her field in the pharmaceutical industry. She was super smart, super hardworking. And yet, when she decided to become a real estate agent, she thought that those skills would translate, and she’d be able to not skip a beat when she started her business. This got me thinking back to when I first started my real estate business. I had just quit my PR job, where I had gotten promoted. I just finished my licensing class, and I was like, here I come, real estate world. I’m a real estate agent. And I truly had this vision. Like I was going to dress cute and bring my dog everywhere, and all of life’s problems that came along with having a job would suddenly disappear. I’d have more money, I’d have more time. And it had more energy. And then literally nothing happened like crickets. Like I honestly did not think about the whole, how am I going to get clients thing and how am I going to keep clients and how am I going to get clients to trust me? Because I’m so new and obviously new at this job called real estate. And so, for some reason, I thought it would all just happen. And I thought I was smart enough and hardworking enough that it would all fall into place, probably similar to what cache thought and probably similar to what a lot of you all thought. And then years later, I had not sold a house. Two years later, I had not sold a house. And two years after that, I had only sold two houses. So four years into house sales, and this was not going to go well at all because here’s the thing. When you’re going and getting your license, they teach you what you need to know to pass that test. But they do not teach you what you need to know to build your business and to be successful as a real estate agent. So for today’s episode, I’m going to start by telling you to Truths than a Lie. Remember that game? You probably played it in college or high school. Well, these are all true. These are all true, but there are two truths that, for some reason, are not being told to brand new real estate agents and one lie that is constantly being told to real estate agents, especially people who are thinking about becoming a real estate agent. So the first truth is people will not automatically use you. They’re just not going to be. So your past coworkers, your friends, your family should not expect them to automatically sign up to use you as their realtor if they are thinking of buying or selling a house. And I know that as a crushing horrible truth to take in, but here’s the thing. They know that you are new and inexperienced. They don’t want to risk it with this kind of a big purchase or sale in their life. And they probably know a ton of other real estate agents as well. Maybe even the real estate agent that helps them buy the house they’re in, if they are looking to sell their house. But here’s how I want you to counteract that. I want you to start by lowering your expectations about who, you know, who’s actually going to take action with you. And instead, what I want you to be focused on as a new real estate agent is a way for you to provide valuable information to people who, you know, consistently week after week. Now, what that means is if you know, a ton of people who are looking to move up to their next home or buy their first home, it just depends on who, you know, I want you to start thinking about not trying to sell them a house and not just sitting around, waiting for them to come to you. When they’re ready. I want to start thinking about the things that that person needs in their life. And I would like you to start providing that valuable information. Here’s one quick example of how to do that. If you have a list of people you know, who already own a home, and you’re hoping that they will use you to sell that home one day. There are homeowners, and there is so much information that they need to know to be a good homeowner, prepare their home for sale, and get ready for whatever next adventure their real estate life takes them. So, for example, you could start giving them great and helpful information about how to take care of their home things. Like if it’s the change of seasons, what they should be doing, things like, you know, how to appeal their property, their tax property assessment, things like are they getting all the tax benefits of being a homeowner, things like, should they be checking for termites? Should they be changing the batteries in their smoke detectors, all sorts of things that you can be communicating to this group of people while you’re waiting for them to be ready to buy or sell a home with you. So before we move on to truth number two, just to reiterate. Truth number one is that the people will not just suddenly come out of the woodwork and start buying and selling homes with you. They might not be ready to buy or sell a home. They might use somebody else. And that’s okay. I want you to focus on giving valuable information to whoever you know, and I suggest doing that as free as possible because you have no money as a new agent. And the best way to do that is through social media and especially email. So I will go into this in further detail as we go through our Agent Grad, School one Oh one series, but for today, just take this truth. You are not going to automatically get clients just because people know you. You have to earn that by giving valuable information between now and the time that they’re actually ready to take action. And even then, they may decide to use another agent because they know you’re so new. So let’s move on to Truths number two, truth. Number two is that you work more hours per week, per month, per year, than you did. And you’re a full-time job, and they will be hours that you actually want to be off, especially in the beginning, as you’re working to build your business. I think we all think real estate agent’s before we become one half of all this free time. And it’s so fun, you know, they have, they get to show houses all weekend. But the bottom line is that when you’re working, you’re going to be working, especially when you’re new, you’re going to be working more than 40 hours a week to get this business off the ground and get clients to trust you. And not only that, but you have to be prepared. You have to prepare your family and everybody around you and yourself, mentally, that you will be on the clock when everybody else is off the clock. So no more Friday happy. There are no more Sunday brunches chances are you will be with clients. So just be prepared for that. And now, let’s move on to the Lie. And this is a lie that I don’t know where it comes from, but I’m going to give you some facts. The lie is that being a real estate agent is easy and that you will make a ton of money. According to the national association of realtors, the median gross income for a realtor earned from real estate activities was $39,800 in 2017. And what’s even sadder is the most experienced agents. Those who have been in the business for 16 years or more have a median gross income of $78,850 in 2017. And guys, get ready for this. If you are a real estate agent with two years or less experience, your median gross income is $9,300. So I want you to be prepared that this is what the average real estate agent makes. Now, of course, there are agents out there that have made a lot more, but that’s because they focus on building a business and not just selling houses. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Remember, change happens when you take action. So apply what you learned today to your own real estate business. If this episode has helped you subscribe, leave a review and share it with your real estate agent friends. As always, if you want even more great resources to create the real estate business you’ve always wanted and have the life you want outside your business to head over to Agent Grad School dot com and sign up for the free weekly trainings. You’ll get free classes, discounts, and other goodies that only go out to real estate agents on that email list. See you next week right here on Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent The Agent Grad School Podcast.