Summary

Here are 10 reasons that most agents don’t make $100,000 a year (and beyond):

1. Lack of commitment. Not going all-in limits your ability to produce more because it takes time and 100% COMMITMENT to master the skill of representing your clients well. 
2. Fear. Agents’ common fears (rejection, annoying people, and failure) show up as procrastination and creative avoidance. Those things are bound to happen, but don’t let fear stop you.
3. Self-doubt. When you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect clients to believe that you can do a good job? Get over your self-doubt so you can overcome other people’s doubts about you.
4. Bad advice. Take advice only from the people who already have the results that you want.
5. The D-I-Y (Do-It-Yourself) Approach. Some agents think they can do things on their own, without help from a coach. This eventually costs them time and money.
6. Lack of systems. Without a proven business model, agents end up in a feast or famine cycle. Going from one deal to the next wears them out.
7. Scarcity mindset. The belief that having a lot of money is bad stops agents from wanting to produce more.
8. Business by reaction. Instead of focusing on activities that make you money, you’re constantly responding to everyone asking for your time and attention.
9. Burnout. Most agents get results by hustling, but over time, they get tired & lose heart. Have a big dream that pulls you, so you don’t burn out.
10. B.S. When you don’t follow through on your commitments, you’re full of B.S. Keep the integrity of your word…not only to other people but also to yourself.

If you want to learn how to actually break through the barrier that’s keeping you from making 6 figures a year, join me for a free live webinar called… More Leads, More Listings, More Life. Register for free HERE https://breakthrough.yesmasters.com/webclass 

Full Transcript

Now it may be because you’re just lazy, but let’s hope not. 

Hi there. My name is Kevin Ward, the founder of, ‘YESMasters Real Estate Success Training,’ helping you get more yeses and more successes in your business and in your life. And today I’m going to talk about why most real estate agents never break through to six figures and beyond. 

The average real estate agent in America sells four to five houses a year, and over half of them never sell anywhere close to that in a year. Some agents will do a couple of deals a year. Maybe they’ll do $50,000, maybe they’ll make $80,000, $90,000, but there’s this barrier of getting over $100,000. I’m going to do another video next week on; how do you break through to higher levels, and why most agents have a hard time breaking through to the next levels of 250,000, 500,000. Why do agents hit this magical ceiling of production that they don’t seem to be able to break through? So I’m going to talk about that in next week’s video.

First, if you’d like to join me live for some free training, go click on the link in the description here and join me for my next free live training called, ‘More Leads, More Listings, More Life because in it, we’re going to actually talk about how to break through these barriers. 

So what is it that stops agents from breaking through the six-figure income mark? 

Well, as I mentioned before, it could be just because you’re lazy or you’re watching too many YouTube videos, hopefully that is not it. I’ve come up with 10 reasons that I think most agents legitimately don’t make it to $100,000 a year and continue to grow beyond that. 

Now the first four reasons actually will stop you from even getting traction. You may get your license, and some of these agents will get their license and they’ll never sell a house at all. This really isn’t for you, but I’m just going to let you know there’s four reasons first that keep agents from even getting traction in the real estate business.

Number one is a lack of commitment. 

It is the ‘try it’ approach. I’m trying. I’m going to try it out. Okay. Now what a ‘trying it out’ looks like is, it looks like, I don’t commit. I’m just going half-assed. You don’t go all in. Now, this mostly shows up with real estate agents who try to do it part-time. Now I’ve got videos here on YouTube that you can find on how to go from being a part-time agent to a full-time agent. But one thing’s for sure, I don’t recommend ever trying to be a part-time agent.

And the reason is because it takes too long to get good enough to really represent clients well, and you’re not able to give it the focus to ever break through and become an income earner that will allow you to really succeed and prosper in real estate. So the number one reason most agents get stuck ever going above a $100,000 a year income, is they’re not willing to make the commitment. The commitment not only to go full time, but to go all in and say, “Hey, if other people can do it, I can do it, and I’m going to do it, and I’m going to succeed at it.”

Number two; the second thing that keeps agents from breaking through is fear. 

Now look, I promise you, and you already know this as a real estate agent, you’re going to face fear. There’s going to be things like the fear of rejection, fear of people being annoyed by you. The fear of failure, the fear of messing up or making a mistake. All these fears are real and they’re going to happen. 

Question is; do you let it stop you? And those that don’t break through and make it to higher levels of income are the ones that allow fear to stop them. And that shows up as procrastination. It shows up as creative avoidance. It shows up by spending all my time trying to learn a new secret or trying to learn stuff instead of actually taking action. And I try it, but it doesn’t work, and I avoid it. And you just go into the cycle of ‘I’m doing everything as a fear reaction to the possibility of being in an uncomfortable situation.’.

Number three is self doubt. 

I’m going to tell you right now, this stops more agents than anything, is that you don’t believe in yourself. Guys, the thing about real estate is, you see agents out there that are making high six and seven-figure incomes. They’re top producers. They’re making a ton of money selling real estate. And you look at them like, “Whoa, I want to be like that.” But the problem is they can do it, but you don’t believe you could do it. And one of the biggest stoppers that will stop you from succeeding at anything is not trusting yourself.

This is an entrepreneurial enterprise. You’re starting your own business, and you’ve got to be the one who goes out there and makes it happen. If you don’t believe in you, how can you expect a client to ever believe in you? If you run, you’re like, “Well, what if they say this?” Well, the problem is that you’re worried about their doubts about you when you have your own doubts about you. So to break through that, you’ve got to get over your own self doubt. One of the biggest stoppers to keep you from going at all.

Number four is bad advice. 

Just bad advice from brokers, from listening to other people, listening to realtors who aren’t succeeding. Why would you take advice from a realtor who’s not making money? 

And this is what happens. A lot of new agents… there’s always an agent in the office who is willing to give free advice, but that agent isn’t making a lot of money themselves. And you’re taking advice from somebody else cause they sold a couple of houses this year. So make sure who you’re taking advice from, is somebody that actually has the fruit on the tree that you want. So you’re not taking bad advice from somebody who can’t help you get the result that you want. Okay?

So those first four can keep you from making any money at all. But beyond that is okay. Now you’re doing some production. You sold a house. 

And here’s kind of a principle I just want you to understand; if you can sell one house, if you can get one client to trust you, and you can actually deliver a result from them and get paid, if you can do it one time, then you already know that it’s possible for you to succeed in real estate. Because if you can do it once, you can do it twice. If you can do it twice, you can do it three times. If I can do it three times in a year, I could do it three times in a month. So if you can do it once, you know you can do it. 

You just have to learn how to do it more efficiently, more effectively and get more clients, more deals, more often so that you can actually break through to six figures and beyond. So with that, here are the rest of the reasons why people, why agents are stuck.

Number five: they try to do everything themself

It’s the ‘Do It Yourself’ approach. Like, “I’m not going to learn, I’m not going to get coached, or get a mentor. I’m just going to figure it out myself, and I’m just going to hustle. And I’m just going to make up. I don’t have a script. I’m just going to say whatever I want to say, and I’m just going to figure this thing out myself.” 

And so many agents just go in there with this sense of ego or pride and just go like, “I’m good at X, so I’ll be good at this because I’m smart.” And they just try to figure it out themself, and try to recreate the wheel, and you literally run out of heart, or you run out of time, or you run out of money.

Number six is a lack of systems

A lack of a plan, a lack of strategy. It’s just like, “I’m just going to go out there and try one thing hard. I’m going to do open houses. I’m going to go cold call. I’m going to go knock on doors. I’m going to do geographic farming.” And they take a one-dimensional approach to real estate without ever understanding the power of having systems. 

For years I’ve taught what we call the ‘Real Estate Vortex’ which is an entire business model for how to go from any level where you are, whether it’s brand new and not making any money to already making, 10, 15 deals a year, and you want to go to high six-figure, seven-figure.

It’s a business framework. It’s an entire business system or business model called the ‘Real Estate Vortex.’ Agents that don’t have a system that don’t have a complete systemized strategy, end up just constantly going from one deal to the next, one deal from the next. And they go through this whole cycle of feast or famine. I call it ‘yo-yo real estate.’ You’ll do a deal, and then you got nothing, and then you’ll do a deal so it’s just going up and down, up and down, and it eventually wears agents out.

Number seven is a scarcity mindset. 

A scarcity mindset. I want you to pay attention to this. One of the biggest problems that agents that come in have is that they’re good, and you start getting success, and you get some listings, you get some buyers, you start getting some deals, and all of a sudden you’re making some pretty good money. 

And then you have a month, and you make $25,000 in one month, and you look around you, and you look at your family, and go like, “I’ve never had anybody in my family make $100,000 in a year. I don’t know. My parents don’t make that. And all of a sudden I made $25,000 in a month.” And you got more money in your hand at one time than you’ve ever had before.

And you’re like, “Oh no, I’m not sure this is okay.” We have a scarcity mindset and limiting beliefs about money that making a lot of money makes us uncomfortable. It’s like, “I don’t know if I can keep this up. I don’t know if I’m worthy of this.” And that scarcity mindset it’s like, “Oh no, I think I’m making too much money.” And we want to make more but we have a scarcity mindset instead of an abundance mindset that makes us literally stop being productive. 

So we’ll be productive. You get to where you’re making some pretty good money, and you do three or four deals in a month. And you’re like, “Yes! I’m on top of the world.” And then for some reason you always sabotage. It always goes back down, and you just manage to stay broke. I did this for years. I did this even as a top producer. I knew how to make money. I knew how to sell houses. But I had limiting beliefs and a scarcity mindset that having a lot of money made me selfish, made me greedy, made me evil. So what I did, I managed to stay broke. So a scarcity mindset can absolutely destroy you. Okay?

Number eight is constant reacting. 

Okay, this is business by reaction. And what that means is, and this is what happens as agents get productive, they’re getting a lot of leads, they’re prospecting, they’re doing great lead generation. They’ve got some relationships, they’ve got some prospects, some leads. And so all of a sudden they’re working with two different buyers or three different buyers. And it’s what the squeaky wheel is, it’s getting my attention today. 

So a buyer wants to go out and look at some homes today, and then they cancel on you. And you’re like, “Ah, they cancel on me. So I don’t know what to do.” And then somebody, you have a crisis here, and somebody’s upset over here. And your entire day is dictated by what’s screaming the loudest for your attention. And today it’s a vendor, it’s a loan officer that wants to take you to lunch. And so I’m going, “Oh, I’d love to go to lunch.” Okay, cool. So we go to lunch and we spend three hours in lunch and you end up, ‘You don’t do any lead generation that day.’.

Because I’m constantly in reaction and I’m just reacting to whatever’s going on. I got a deal going on here. I got a buyer marketing here. This buyer over here, I got this thing going on. I got this marketing piece I need to work on. So you’re constantly reacting instead of being focused and proactive about doing the things that will make your business work and profitable. You don’t have a schedule, and if you do have a schedule, you don’t follow it. Yeah, I get it.

The reason we don’t follow it is because we’re living in reaction. And that reaction a lot of times is driven by a fear of loss. That if I don’t react and respond to everybody that asks for your attention and your time, then I’m going to lose them. 

And the reality is that you’re going to lose yourself. What you’re going to lose is your business. Because when you have a structured frame, a structured system, a structured schedule to keep you doing the right things at the right time and the right way, then business moves forward and you get off the roller coaster of good month, bad month, feast of famine. So stop running your business by reaction.

Number nine. And now we’re getting down to the nitty gritty. 

Number nine is burnout. 

Is that a lot of agents who get to produce, they do it by sheer effort, and determination, and will, and they’re hustling, and they’re hustling. They’re getting some results, but over time it just wears them out. It’s just almost like a toxic grind. Over time, you lose heart. I’m not enjoying it anymore. It’s hard. I want to work less. I want to take a break. 

Okay? And what happens is, you literally burn out. Well, there’s some very important and powerful things that you can do to avoid burnout. And if you don’t do them, working hard does not cause you to burn out.

I want to be real clear here, and just give you an example. Elon Musk works 16 hours a day. As in his own words, “I work 16 hours a day, 365 days a year.” Why does he not burn out? It’s not because he doesn’t work that hard. He works very hard. 

But the difference is, those that have a dream, and have the drive, and have something they’re pursuing, you can live tired, if you got a big enough reason behind you to keep going without burning out. 

So on the webinar, the masterclass that I’m teaching, and I’m inviting you to join me, called; ‘More Leads, More Listings, More Life’, we’ll talk about specifically; how to break burnout and keep that from ever happening to you.

And then number 10, the 10th reason most agents can never break through this $100,000 mark is…you’re full of crap. 

You’ll say you’re going to do stuff and you don’t do it. I call it ‘B.S.’ Make promises, don’t keep them. You make promises to a client, don’t keep them. Say you’re going to call somebody back, you don’t call them back. They go to an open house, you meet them, they take your card, you get their information. “Yeah, I’ll call you,” and you don’t call them. 

Or you bait and switch people, or you ‘BS’ yourself, and you say you’re going to do something and you don’t do what you say you’re going to do. So you always get to a certain level, but then it’s like, “AH,” And then you don’t do it. One of the biggest keys if you want to build a business is, you’ve got  to have integrity, not only with other people, but integrity with yourself. Don’t ‘BS’ yourself.

So after nearly a quarter of a century of being in real estate as an agent, by being a broker, manager, company owner, and coach for thousands of real estate agents, these are what I believe are the top 10 reasons most agents are never able to break through that magical six-figure business to where you can actually start making the money to have the life that you want. 

So what did I miss? What did I leave out? What do you believe are the reasons that most agents never break through to having high incomes in the real estate business? Because the sky’s the limit. Okay? The opportunity for you as a real estate agent is super high. 

What do you see stopping you, or do you see stopping agents from being, “I’ll break through that glass ceiling of a $100,000, 200,000 or even more.”

Post in the comments. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up. If it’s your first time here, make sure you subscribe to the channel, and I’ll see you on the next video. Oh, and don’t forget, click on the registration button below, register for our free masterclass on, ‘how to get more leads, more listings and more life.’