Hey everyone! This month I hit a M A J O R milestone for myself as a solo and part time agent: I've officially contracted $1 million dollars in sales within my first six months of being licensed! I remember when I passed my licensing exam and told people my intent with real estate up until I got out of the Army - there were a lot of "as a part time agent, clients won't give you the time of day!", "full time agents will poach your clients from you!", "you'll never make it big!", "stick to the Army if you don't want to dedicate yourself full time to this!". Those voices were muffled by the support of my family and friends, as well as my determination to make this work. You see, I AM getting out of the military and my success in real estate is really my driving factor for a smooth transition from one career to the next. In realty, I didn't really expect to hit this goal so quickly as a part time agent and I'm humbled that my clients trusted me to handle their transactions and trusted my recommendations and guidance.
With my success in real estate, many of the newer agents have reached out to me and have asked "how did you do it"? I'm not the gatekeeper, I'm always going to share what I did because their deals aren't my deals. Everyone can succeed, we ALL eat at this table.
It's no "secret" but here's what I did:
1) my first three deals came from SOMEONE ELSE'S open house: a couple that needed to sell & buy and another couple who were looking to buy.
2) ramped up my social media presence: (don't tell my broker, lol cos he was right), but having ONE Facebook page instead of having a hard divide really helped. It's great that you can close deals... but people are all about journey and how personable you are to them. Another thing that helps is accepting everyone who adds you on FB... of course I kinda vet them to see who they are, where they're located, etc, but I've been tagged in so many "I need a real estate professional!" posts from these "new friends".
3) pay for your advertising: Facebook and Instagram have a seamless integration with mirroring adds from one platform to another. I'm still learning how to properly do it, but I get a crazy amount of engagement and views - which is what we're looking for. We want as MANY people see your face and associate it with real estate as we can!
4) hire a transaction coordinator (TC): a TC is crazy important for an agent who is looking to close as many deals as possible. *Disclaimer* my first three deals I did without a TC and I was a mess, lol. Though I "knew" what I was doing, I didn't really "know" what I was doing... ya know? My TC is a licensed realtor and she knows the industry like the back of her hand. I learn from her everyday. She handles everything from initial contact to my clients after I execute the contract to scheduling the inspector, coordinating with title/lenders/ any other party necessary in the deal as well as keeping a close eye on important dates. GET. A. TC!
5) follow up, follow back, follow through: I learned this from a good friend... Ryan Serhant. Don't be scared to follow up with your clients... we're here to make money not friends (sometimes you're lucky and can get both). Follow back, if you had an appointment and spoke about a potential deal, send them a text/email a few hours later about it, not only does it show that you listened, it shows that you're eager to work with them. Follow through, if you said you're going to email them some "shadow listings" send the darn listings! Clients do NOT wait and will hop right back on Zillow and find another realtor who will get back to them quickly. And when in doubt, C A L L your broker for some quick mentorship! My broker was outstanding when it came to answering his phone/responding to texts from me.
I hope you guys found some tips that could help you! Let me know if you tried any of these! I love hearing about other people's success! See you in the next blog post!
MarkAnthony W. Ball
Redbird Realty
619-372-0990
markanthonyball@redbird-realty.com