First Steps For Brand New Agents
SUMMARY
I recently received this great question from a lady getting her real estate license: “I am waiting to get my license, what should I be doing?”
Just like any person opening a new business, you should be preparing to “open your doors” for business. Here are the most important, simple steps every new agent will want to take immediately as they prepare to sell real estate:
- Pick the right office.
- Get training and coaching on how to succeed. (Learn what to do before you start.) Here are three great sources of training:
- New agent training at your office.
- Shadow top agent.
- Get involved in my YesMasters training programs and events.
- Get the word out to your Personal Circle.
Watch the video for more.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Hi there. It’s Kevin Ward, the founder of Yes Masters Real Estate Success training and the creator of Agent Power Launch. Helping you get more yes’s and more successes in your business and in your life.
Today I want to talk about how do you get started as a brand new agent, even before you get your license. I had a great question from a Charissa Nicole Sanchez, she says, “I am waiting to get my license. What should I be doing?” So you finished your real estate courses, your licensing courses, take your state exam or you’re waiting to take your state exam and waiting to get your license. What are the things I can be doing right now before I can actually sell real estate because until you get your license you can’t show properties, you can’t talk to people about real estate, you can’t prospect, you can’t set appointments. You really can’t do anything in terms of lead generation or lead conversion or transactions until you actually have a real estate license.
I’ve taken all the courses. I’m waiting to take my exam, or I’ve taken it, what do I do while I’m waiting? And so this video is to talk about what are the first steps to do before you actually get your real estate license. There are three really key things that I think you should be doing that are not just little tactical things like get your business cards and get a phone. All that kind of stuff is … Get a website. That kind of stuff is good, those are tactical steps, but I want to talk about the big three items that you should be doing to get your business off the ground running.
Here’s the way I look at it. If you were to open a traditional business, a traditional store, let’s say you’re gonna open a coffee shop, or you’re gonna open a restaurant. Would you wait until you got the store and then open up for business the very first day then go like, “Okay. Now I need to get food. I need to get inventory. I need to figure out my prices. I need to hire my servers and cashiers and all that kind of stuff.” Would you wait until you’re open for business to start doing that or would you start doing all that preparation before your business ever opens up? And the reality is in any other business, you would do all of that stuff before you even open the doors to do business.
Well, getting your real estate license all of a sudden makes you open for business. You can now go out and sell houses the moment you get your license, you’re open for business. And what a lot of real estate agents do is a lot of people get their license and they wait until they get their license and then they decide, “Okay. I’ve got my license. Now, I’m gonna go figure out what to do.” And then they start talking to real estate brokers, start trying to find an office, and they start doing all that stuff, and they really have no clue what they’re doing.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with that approach, it’s just the slow approach. And there’s two ways you can make money. Build a business, one you can do it fast, you can do it slow. If you’re gonna make money like to do it fast rather than slow because fast is more fun. This video is how do you start fast. How do you get ready so that the day your license arrives you can actually get in the game selling real estate. That you actually know what to do and you’re set up and prepared to do it.
So there’s three things, three big steps, you should be doing before you actually get your license. Number one is you want to pick the right office. You want to pick the right real estate office or pick the right broker. And that is … As a new real estate agent, so new licensee, you’ve got to have a sponsoring broker or an office. You need someone to support you both legally and also just practically. You need someone to help you get your business going right. So you want to pick the best office and slash broker.
Now how do you do that? I have another video. I’ll put the link down in the comments below. Another video on how to choose the right real estate office. There’s actually two, it’s two-part video that I did last year. I’ll post the link in the comments below. So if you have not yet picked your real estate office or still thinking about it or even if you’ve picked one, but aren’t sure it’s the right office, it’s the best place to be, I want you watch that video on how to choose the right real estate office. You can just search that on YouTube, how to choose the right real estate office and my video will come up. And watch that video, which goes in detail about how do you make sure that you partner with or align yourself with the right company, the right broker, the right brokerage, that will support you and help you be successful in your business. So that’s the first thing you want to do.
The second thing that you want to do, even while you’re waiting on your license is I really highly recommend that you go ahead and you start your training now. Don’t wait. Now, understand this, there is a difference between the courses that you take to get your license and the training that I’m recommending you do to be successful. See, all of the classes that you take in real estate, while some of them are good, it’s great information and all of that. Some of you may have watched some of my online training classes for pre licensees back when I used those from years ago when I actually used to teach pre licensing courses.
But, the real purpose of those pre licensing courses is to help you get your license. That’s what they teach you how to do. They teach you how to pass a test to get your license. There’s a totally different track to succeed. So, getting your license I want you just to think of, “Do the stuff I need to do to pass my test, get my license.” You learn how to get a license and then you need to learn how to be successful. Learn how to build a business. Learn how to start your real estate career and succeed at it.
And it’s kind of like getting your driver’s license. When you go to the department of motor vehicles to get your driver’s license, you’re gonna take a test, right? There’s typically a written test, if you’re a teenager, first time you get your license there’s a written test and there’s a driving test. They don’t teach you how to drive. All they do is test if you know how to fill in the blanks on a certain number of questions and can you parallel park, right, without hitting the cones, and can you make a turn signal and look both ways and not kill anybody when you’re driving, right. Getting your driver’s license doesn’t really teach you how to drive and so there’s courses called driver’s education, where they teach you more or less how to drive. And yet you and I both know even then you still aren’t really proficient at driving till you actually get out there in the field on the street and start driving.
Same with real estate, is that you take the online or the pre licensing courses to get your license but then you need to take training to learn how to make money, to learn how to succeed in real estate. How do you find the business? How do you generate leads? How do you convert those leads? How do you take a listing? How do you sell that listing? How do you handle the escrow? How do you work with buyers? How do you get them to sign an agreement to work with you exclusively so they don’t waste your time? How do you handle negotiating contracts?
All of that process is stuff that you’re not really taught in pre licensing. So when you get your license you know just enough as they say, “You know just enough to be dangerous,” right? But, you don’t know enough to be successful. So start training and there’s several ways you can do it. One, once you picked the right office if they’ve got great new agent training, go to all of it. Go to it before you get your license. Just go to all their classes and if you have a real estate office and they say, “Well, we don’t really do anything with you until you get your license,” I would go pick a different office. I want somebody that supports my success starting when I’m ready and while you can’t go out and sell real estate without your license, you can start the training process. So I want to start going to their sales meetings. I want to start going to all their new agent training, all of that I can. I want to find a mentor. Now, if they got a good new agent training program in your office, then they will help partner you with a great mentor that will be boots on the ground, hold your hand, walk you through the first few transactions.
Also, I recommend that you get additional coaching and training. If you’re interested in more coaching and training with me, I’ve got online courses, like agent power launch, you can go to kevinwardrealestateacademy.com, you can get some free training, great free training for new agents from me there. There’s other courses I’ve got. I’ll put some links down in the description below, ’cause this isn’t a sales video, this is a what do you need to be doing video. To start your training but start it now.
And then number three, the third thing that you want to do that you can start doing right now, is I want you to start spreading the word. You want to spread the word to everybody that you know that you’re getting your license, that you’re getting into real estate. And you can do that. You can’t go out and start door knocking and start holding open houses and start trying to find buyers and sellers, you can’t do all of that. But you can talk to people you know and say, “Hey, I just want to let you know, in case you hadn’t heard, I’m just starting a real estate career. I’m so excited. I’m still waiting, in the process of getting my license. I’m really getting my business revved up. Doing training. I’ve joined this great office and I wanted just to put the word out so you can keep your eyes and ears open for the people that you know that I can help.” Get the word out. Start spreading the word to your people.
Now, I want to just tell you that there is a mental block that a lot of new agents have about people they know and that is, “Well, I’m not going to talk to anybody that I know until after I’ve already had some success. Until I’ve already proven myself.” In other words they’re saying, “I’m going to take the secret agent approach.” Well, the secret agent approach is okay, it’s fine to take it, it’s just slow and you’re going to miss the opportunity to get a lot of deals. If you’ll take this straightforward approach and go to the people that you know, I call it your personal circle. Your PC. Start talking to your personal circle and say, “Hey. I’m so excited. I just got my license or I’m getting my license. Starting a real estate career. I’ve just joined this XYZ company and I’m gonna be working with them. It’s awesome. And I just wanted to go ahead and put a bug in your ear and have you keep your eyes and ears open for people that I can help.”
Now, occasionally you’re gonna have somebody say, “Well, I want to wait until you got some more experience,” but, very rarely is that gonna happen. The key is you got to get the word out at some point. And if you’re gonna be successful, you have to connect. You have to be public. You have to say, “I am doing this and I’m gonna be successful at it.” The agents that are mostly afraid to talk to people that they know and say, “Well, I’m gonna wait until I got some success,” have failed. And I’ve coached thousands of new agents and what I found is that new agents that don’t want to tell typically are not committed to their success. They typically go like, “Well, I don’t know if I’m gonna make it or not. So I don’t want to embarrass myself if I don’t make it.” But if you’re committed, which is the only way you should go into real estate, it’s the only way you should start a career, is that you should go all in, 100% committed.
And once you do that go in all in, you pick an office, you start training, you dive in and you start telling people what you’re doing. Once you get your license you can talk to anybody but until then you can at least spread the word to the people that you know. Get the ball rolling and when you do this, if you’ll do all three of these things, and you’ll commit as much time as you can every week to do this. So if you still have another full time job, just commit two hours a day. Commit to spend 10 hours a week or 15 or 20 hours a week, however much time you can spend, preparing yourself for success. Basically preparing your business so that when the doors open you are ready for the business that’s ready for you.
I invite you to come to some of my training events. If you have the opportunity to do that, again I’ll put some links down below in the comments. The key is that you ramp it up fast and make money fast and succeed long. Do that and you’re along the way on your road to success.
So, if you like this video make sure you give it a thumbs up. If you have any questions put them in the comments below. Share this video with others that you know. If you’re still taking your real estate courses and you’ve got some people in the classes that you know can benefit from this, make sure you share this video with them. Go out there. Start right. Start strong. Play to win. And always expect “Yes.”