Real Estate Agent Tips for Beginners in 2023

If you’re tired of working on someone else’s schedule and are considering a jump to a real estate career, we’ve got some happy news: according to a U.S. News survey, real estate agents have some of the highest job satisfaction scores in the United States. In fact, the pandemic seemed to be a catalyst for many to make a career shift to real estate, with many agents finding that even amid a global crisis, 2021 still ranked as one of their best years in the business.

Of course, when you’re starting out, logging long hours and juggling multiple tasks may feel stressful, but in general, the flexibility, opportunities for advancement, and dynamic work environment seem to provide an edge over many other professions. In fact, many realtors do quite well in their first year. According to Ziprecruiter, as of September 2022, the average annual salary of first-year, full-time agents was $93,502.

Even so, a large portion of those that begin work as real estate agents give it up within the first five years. That’s why we’ve compiled real estate agent tips for success, so you can beat the odds and crush your first year in your new career.

Game Plan like a Pro

As Ben Franklin said, “By failing to plan, you are preparing to fail.” This timeless advice applies to just about any endeavor, real estate included. So, before diving in head first to a new career, it’s essential to do some prep work and have a plan in place. If you want to prepare like a pro, here are a few of the best tips for real estate agents to-be:

Step 1: Do Your Research

It’s a good idea to get a feel for what the licensing process is like, the types of tools or technology you may need, as well as how much these things may cost. This is also the time to get familiar with the local market so you have a better idea of what to expect once you’ve passed your exams.

Hopefully they’ll also pass along some insider knowledge or helpful insight specific to your city or region.

Step 2: Get Licensed

Make sure to look into the licensing requirements for your state. Licensing requirements vary by state, but in general, the process of becoming a licensed real estate agent follows these steps:

1. Pre-licensing education. Make sure to take all your pre-licensing courses from an approved licensing school. When you complete the required coursework, you should receive your official transcripts and a certificate of completion.

2. Real estate exam. Once you’ve finished your coursework, you’ll want to schedule your state licensing exam.

Pro-tip: Even though you’ve taken classes, you may want to book a few prep classes, which often cover more state-specific information.

3. Grind time! Congrats, you’ve passed your state real estate exam. You’re now officially an agent and can start working with a broker.

Step 3: Build Your Toolbox

An effective agent knows how important time management is. To make the most of your precious time, and to make money as a beginning agent, you’ll want to leverage a suite of tools to help offload some of the more cumbersome day-to-day tasks. For example, a CRM (customer relationship management) system like Hubspot, Monday, or Pipedrive can help you keep track of all your contacts, send emails, and filter contacts as needed, while AI-driven lead generators can help ease some of the burdens of finding new sales leads. Some of the best lead gen for realtors include platforms such as Zurple, Dialpad, and CINC.

Understand Your Market

If a t-shirt retailer wants to kill it in the online shopping world, they first need to understand how their products fit into the current ecommerce landscape. Next, they have to determine the answers to questions like, “what kind of shopper would be interested in this type of t-shirt,” “what’s the demographic?” and “how can I target this demographic.” To be successful in any industry, you have to know your audience, and as a real estate agent, understanding the local market is the key to understanding your audience — also known as your buyers.

For starters, you’ll want to dig into the population data in your city or region to better understand local demographics and buying patterns. For example, if you work in a college town, the turnover for leases may spike during specific times of the year. Additionally, understanding how the local demographics fit into the larger national picture is important too. The pandemic caused many people to leave larger cities, which in some cases drastically changed the demographics of home buyers in smaller cities.

There are many tools to help analyze market data and stay on top of trends. Check out market performance reports on Zillow or dig into more specific data using tools like Roofstock market summaries.

Hone Your Relationship-Building Skills

Being a successful real estate agent often comes down to creating connections. At its foundation, real estate is all about relationship and network building. When you’re first starting, establishing a network is key — and while the internet and technology can be incredibly powerful tools, putting in facetime is crucial. Take every opportunity you can to get plugged into the community. The good news is that there are many ways to do this. Consider:

• Joining a local realtor chapter
• Checking out your local Chamber of Commerce
• Attending neighborhood groups
• Going to open houses and buyer seminars
• Volunteering
• Searching for professional networks and meetup groups

As a realtor, you’re the face of your business, and better yet, you take that face with you wherever you go. Any event can quickly become an opportunity to start opening up new business channels, so always bring your business cards with you and don’t be shy; make yourself available as a resource and make sure to listen to those around you. Whether it’s a buyer or a connection with a broker, home stager, or inspector — organic growth opportunities are all around!

Identify & Define Your Brand

Whether you’re starting a new career or trying your hand at a new hobby, it’s natural to want to model your approach off those who have paved the way before you. But, in general, most people sense when someone’s trying to play a part instead of making it their own. So as you begin building your relationships and your online persona, it’s important to remain authentic to who you are. As a real estate agent, you are the brand, so spend some time defining what makes you, you!

If you’re passionate about the environment, consider joining some green housing initiatives or volunteering with community trash pick-up groups. Don’t be afraid to use your online platform to talk about issues you care about, and your involvement in community activities that support these causes. This not only helps bolster your relationship-building skills, but it also lets your audience and potential buyers get to know who you are on a personal level, which is a powerful marketing tool many underestimate.

Continue Learning

To remain successful as an agent (and arguably with any endeavor), a lifelong learning mentality is necessary. Nothing remains static for long — especially the market — and to keep up, you’ll need to be open to shifts in approaches, technology, and buying trends.

Remain proactive and intentional when it comes to research. The most successful real estate agents continue to read real-estate-focused books and blogs, attend seminars and expand their industry knowledge. Real estate intersects with many other industries, from finance and economics to sales and consulting, so there’s a nearly endless amount of information to help give you an edge over the competition. Make a point to enroll in continuing education classes and leverage your network of colleagues.

Set Up SMS Marketing

As you build your suite of tools, you’ll also want to ensure you include one or two to help with text marketing. We already covered a few CRM and lead generation tools, but you’ll also need an SMS platform. Text messages are opened and read almost 134% more than email. That’s a train you do not want to miss.

Our text marketing for realtors provides affordable text marketing strategies to incorporate into your suite of real estate marketing tools. Here are just a few things our SMS platform can quickly and easily check off your to-do list:

• Promote listings with high-quality images and videos of properties
• Automatically send new listing alerts
• Share open house invitations
• Customize listings with SMS keywords
• Optimize communications with 1:1 texting

We hope these real estate agent tips for beginners are helpful in your journey. Watch our video tour for more information, and sign up for a free trial to test it for yourself!