Do you want to buy or sell a property fast on your own? If YES, here are 20 best tips & tricks for buying or selling real estate as an agent or investing beginner. Buying and selling properties is usually a complicated process, more so if you are a beginner. Usually, real estate agents are in charge of this process. Whether you like them or not, real estate agents are responsible for 90 percent of the transactions in this industry.
A real estate agent (otherwise known as a realtor) is a person that is licensed in a specific state to help people who want to purchase a new home or sell their existing house. Most real estate agents are formally trained in classrooms or have on-the-job training and they then have to pass a series of exams to become certified real estate agents and thus receive a license.
While passing the real estate agent test is a prerequisite to becoming a full-fledged real estate agent, achieving success in the real estate market goes beyond good grades and scores; you will need to understand the business, develop a budget and a business plan and also learn from real life situations that are not taught in school.
Although you do not need a real estate agent in order to buy or sell a property, there are so many laws you have to watch out for in doing this on your own and as such most people just find it easier to engage the services of real estate agents to help them out. Real estate agents may be a buying agent, a listing agent or occasionally a property management agent.
Statistics have shown that 60 percent of all real estate contacts that get initiated between a buyer and a seller never make it to closing; so, here are a few buy-sell tips and tricks that can greatly improve your chances as an agent or a beginner in real estate.
20 Best Buy-Sell Real Estate Tips & Tricks for Agents/Beginners
1. Create Work
At the very beginning when you become a real estate agent, you will have a ton of time on your hands with no or not enough contacts, so what do you do with all this time? What you need to do is to create work. First you will need to get rid of the “new realtor feel” because most times, people will be able to tell that you are a novice. You will need practice to get rid of it.
However, you can also get business while you are doing this. You can create work by steering conversation with people you know or meet to the direction of real estate. If they have a home, you can say, “I know you may not be interested in selling your home at the moment but would it not be cool to know the price of your home so that in the next 2 or 3 years you can have a bench mark?”.
Alternatively, you may say “hey, I know you may not be looking to sell but why don’t I send a list of what’s selling in your neighborhood” or “wouldn’t you want to know what your neighbour’s house sold for? I will send that to you no big deal”.
You can blow their mind by working in this way for free since you don’t have anything better to do with your time, you can increase your influence and likability among them, which is the secret weapon to getting deals. When the time comes, all these people you created work for that were not ready to buy will remember you, and you will have amazing deals turning up on your doorstep in the next few months or even years.
2. Get a Mentor
Starting up as a real estate agent can be quite intimidating. The market may present you with tough decisions and questions that you may not have the experience to proffer answers to. This is where a mentor comes in.
A mentor is an experienced individual who you can lean on his experience, knowledge and resources to help you develop your practice. Your mentor can be a fellow agent with a lot of experience, or a broker. Your mentor will advise you, help you to take difficult decisions, constructively criticize you, give you helpful contacts and connections etc. His personal success story will also help to motivate you in your endeavors.
3. Study the Failure of Others
A lot of people become real estate agents on a yearly basis, yet only a few are successful. Knowing the reason for this can give you an edge. To be successful you have to not only know what to do in other to achieve success, you will also need to know what to avoid in other to not be like the majority of failed or under achieving real estate agents.
Common mistakes real estate agents make is doubting themselves and their abilities as an agent, failing to prospect, not following up prospects, having unappealing listings, thinking that business is too hard when in reality, you have not made the decision to put in your very best etc.
4. Choose the Right Broker
Your choice of a broker can make or mar your chances of being successful as a real estate agent. As a new real estate agent, the commission split and the amount of lead that your broker gives you is a secondary concern. This is because as a new realtor, irrespective of the commission split, if you are not growing or making sales you will still make nothing.
So the emphasis should be on your growth and sales not commission split. Also, instead of asking about how many leads your broker will give you, you should ask about the training he offers by way of resources, classes, scheduling, support, coaching that will help you learn how to get your own leads that convert to sales.
5. Project Professionalism
As a real estate agent, you will have to project an air of professionalism in all your dealings. You can do this by:
Dressing appropriately with tidy none revealing cloths. Also you may want to stay away from strong perfume that may be considered offensive by some people. It is good to note that clients in real estate are looking for something that will match their taste so they will definitely judge you based on how you look and appear.
- Exude the right body language and listen attentively when discussing with clients.
- Be engaging, be clear and articulate when communicating.
- Make sure that all adverts, marketing materials, letters, and emails are all free from grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.
Don’t be a sore loser and exhibit an attitude that is unbecoming if a deal does not fall through between you and a client. This is because word can easily spread about your indiscretion and this can give you a bad name in the market.
6. Build your Sphere of Influence
As a new realtor, you may have to resort to using a sphere of influence (SOI) Business model in order to build up your contact list and also generate leads that may turn into closed deals. This business model involves using the contacts of people you know (family, friends and acquaintances) to generate leas.
You can have an excel spreadsheet where you will list all the contacts you have and you can add more in the future. Send out emails or text to let them know about you and the services you offer so that they can have you in the back of their minds.
7. Make Use of the Internet
In recent times, the internet has become an indispensable tool in everyday life as well as in business. As a real estate agent, you need the internet in order to market your services to the world. While older realtors can get leads from referrals, most new realtors don’t have that luxury and as such they will have to rely on social media and their websites as part of their sources of leads. According to a recent statistic, 74 percent of sellers used social media to find their agents. This just goes to show the power of social media to a real estate agent.
8. Prepare for the Initial Dry Spell
Be prepared for the fact that you may not hit the ground running. This means that when you are still new, you could go a couple of months before you get your first closed deal. Having this concept at the back of your mind will help to save you from being stranded. Have a budget that includes about 6 months of no income, while making provision for money to build a website and market your business.
9. Do your Homework
As a realtor, you have to be knowledgeable about your field. Avoid the embarrassment of having no or a poor answer when a buyer or sellers asks you a basic question as this can cost you clients. Arm yourself with knowledge about the documents that are involved in transaction and the market in general.
10. Stay in Contact with your Past Clients
Clients who have made use of your services in the past can be a gold mine for future deals. When you have closed a deal with a client, don’t just let the relationship end there. Get in touch with them (through text, email or mail) so that they know that you are still available in case the want to use your services again or if they want to refer you to a friend.
A research that was conducted by ActiveRain and Properties online found out that 74 percent of clients will give you a referral if you stay in touch. Keeping in touch with past clients is very vital if you want to be really successful as a realtor. Make it a point of duty to contact your present and past customers a least once in a month.
11. Learn the Basics of Copy Writing
No matter how you choose to look at it, real estate business is also a marketing business. So as a realtor, you need to know how to persuade clients irrespective of the media you are communicating through.
Try to present your writings in a way that puts them first and you second. Instead of telling them first about the features, tell them in clear succinct terms how they will benefit from it first. Appeal to their emotion and you will be able to tip the scale to your favor.
12. Make Use of Testimonials
The voice of people who have used your service is usually louder than your own voice so let your satisfied customers do the talking. Get testimonials from your previous clients who are satisfied with your service and use it in your marketing campaign. Learn how to ask your customers for testimonials. Alternatively, you can get the clients thoughts on the services you rendered, write the testimonial yourself and then get the approval of the client in order to publish it.
13. Cater for your Clients
With the novel challenges that a new career presents, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that your clients come first. You should try as much as possible to learn about what your clients want, like and prefer. For example, do they prefer to meet in person or communicate via email; do they prefer to be involved in every step of the way? etc. Take good care of your clients and show them that you care and they will help grow your business.
14. Build your Brand
Even though as a real estate agent you will be attached to a brokerage firm, it is good to note that to a large extent you are your own man. You will have to build your brand through your advertisements, marketing efforts and the way you carry out your daily activities. You need to do it in such a way that even though it presents you as a member of a team, it presents you as the star of the team.
15. Partner with Other Agents
In the event that a deal does not fall through, due to some factors like the price range of the client or other similar factors, you can co-list or co-represent them with other real estate agents rather than letting them slip away from you. The saying that half bread is better than no bread is absolutely true in this scenario. This will prevent you from having your client go to a competitor.
16. Host an open house
When you are low on business, you can host an open house to help you get new leads. Open houses are fairly cheap and easy to organize so why not take advantage of them?
17. Don’t Turn Down Any Deal
As a new real estate agent, you should not turn any client away. Some commissions being offered in some deals may be very small but you should consider that those clients can help you to get more leads in the future if well harnessed.
18. Educate yourself some more
As time goes on, realtors are expected to complete continuing education courses. A real estate agent should not shy away from or despise improving his knowledge. Completing these continuing education courses can also present you as a professional in the particular niche you belong to.
In addition to the required courses, try to make out time to study and improve your knowledge about real estate so as to broaden your mind because improving your knowledge base also improves the chance of your landing a lead and successfully closing it.
19. Return Calls and Emails ASAP
A realtor must always return calls and emails immediately. You must be ready to answer questions at any time of the day in order to keep your customers happy. By returning their calls and emails with a lightning speed, you will prove to your clients that you are important to them. Use as many channels to keep up with your clients and also learn to use the medium they prefer the most. For example if a client prefers texting or Skype then stick to what they prefer.
20. Improve your Local Knowledge
Clear and concrete knowledge about your local neighborhood can help to set you apart from your competitors. When a question is put up about a particular street, you should be able to know what is on the market, what was sold out, the current status of the neighborhood and what type of property you can get with the amount of money you have. Clients tend to feel that a realtor with a lot of local knowledge will guarantee them the best result, so go improve your local knowledge.
Overall, you should note that being successful as a realtor does not happen overnight. Bear in mind that you may experience a dry spell for the first couple of months so prepare yourself for that. Also try as much as possible to be honest in all you do. Buyers and sellers will prefer to deal with a real estate agent that they can trust.