COMMITMENT, EDUCATION AND EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE ARE PART OF EVERY GREAT REALTOR'S® TRAINING PLAN

Real estate coach Tom Ferry has said that 87 percent of real estate agents fail within their first five years in the business. While that number isn’t corroborated by the National Association of Realtors®, there is no question that there are new Realtors® who lack staying power and end up exiting the profession within a few years of earning their real estate license. 

Experienced Realtors® say that while there are multiple paths to success, there are a few essential characteristics that accomplished Realtors® share that make the difference between success and failure. Starting out with a mentor, being goal-driven, having a strong business plan, communicating well and, above all, working hard are cited as predictors of success.

“People often don’t understand the true commitment involved in being a Realtor®,” says Jeremy Browne, a Realtor® with Century 21 New Millennium in McLean. “Maintaining work-life balance can be challenging and it becomes more so as you get more successful in the business.”

While nearly every Realtor® is a “people person” and loves to look at houses, succeeding in the business requires an interest in sales and a true desire to help people, says Joy Deevy, vice president with TTR Sotheby’s International Realty in Alexandria and McLean.

PERSONALITY TRAITS LEAD TO SUCCESS
Realtors® generally are perceived to be outgoing, sociable types who spend half their time networking, but having a bubbly personality isn’t a prerequisite to a successful career in real estate. 
 
“I ask people why they want to be in real estate to see if their reason is something that will keep them motivated for the long term,” says Athena Petersen, managing broker of Long & Foster Real Estate in Reston. “It’s a red flag if people say to me that they love HGTV and looking at homes, because that shows me they are unrealistic and think the job is fluff.”

Petersen says the personality traits that signal success are people who are goal-driven and entrepreneurial and demonstrate that they are willing to be coached. In addition, she says, you either need to have a wide network of contacts to reach out to or the personality to find and create a new network. 

“It’s important for Realtors® to understand that knowing about real estate is only one-half of being successful,” says Greg Hague, principal of Real Estate Mavericks, a coaching company based in Scottsdale, Ariz. “You also need to know how to build a business.” 

"[The] personality traits that signal success are people who are goal-driven and entrepreneurial and demonstrate that they are willing to be coached."

"[The] personality traits that signal success are people who are goal-driven and entrepreneurial and demonstrate that they are willing to be coached." Johanna Baker, an associate broker with Compass in Washington, D.C., says tenacity is a crucial characteristic for Realtors®. “You have to have the ability to handle rejection if you don’t get picked to represent someone,” she says. “New agents need to learn not to take it personally that maybe only one of one hundred calls generates a client.”

“You have to be a counselor and help people figure out how and why they want to buy or sell a home,” says Deevy. “You need the ability to make people feel comfortable and confident about something that’s financially and emotionally stressful.”
Learning to be a good listener is also important, says Sharron Jones, a Realtor® with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Vienna.

Susan Lunde Minnick, a Realtor® with McEnearney Associates in Arlington, says Realtors® need to be natural leaders who aren’t afraid to firmly put their ideas forward. 
“At the same, agents need to leave their ego at the door and recognize that they are in a service industry,” she says. Hague says that every successful Realtor® needs to think like an entrepreneur in order to have a vision for the business, like a manager in order to develop processes and like a technician in order to follow the appropriate steps for each transaction. 

FINANCIAL PLAN COMES FIRST
 According to an April 2016 Inman Select Special Report about new agent onboarding, 77 percent of survey respondents said “new agents fail at least in part because they are unprepared for the realities of working as an independent contractor.” 
One difficulty for many new agents is not having an income for four to six months or longer until their first transaction goes to settlement. 

“You need to have some money in the bank or another source of income because even if you sell something quickly, it takes a long time to build a full pipeline for a steady income,” says Baker. “It takes time to figure out how much time to spend working on leads and feeding the pipeline.”

Agents should have at least three to six months of living expenses in the bank when they start their new career, says Browne. “Sometimes people keep a part-time job during their first year in business so they have some income, but they need to stay on track and keep their focus, their time and their energy on real estate,” Browne adds. 
New agents need to learn how to manage their money and understand that they are investing in a long-term endeavor, says Minnick.

Petersen says she talks to prospective Realtors® in the initial interview about their financial plan. She makes sure they understand that they’ll need to spend money for training, and to establish their systems and that they may not make money for several months.

“Some new agents are unrealistic and think they will make a lot of money right away,” says Jones. “They need to realize that it takes a strong work ethic, a tight focus on your career and your clients and some money to promote yourself and grow a sustainable business.”

TRAINING, MENTORS AND COACHES
Most successful Realtors® say the training they receive beyond the licensing classes is essential to becoming an accomplished agent. Some prefer to join a team while others shadow experienced agents. Some brokerages have a mentor program in place and in other cases agents find a mentor on their own or rely on their broker to answer questions and provide advice. 

“Every agent needs training in the beginning to prosper and to learn how to be productive,” says Petersen. “I think it’s best for agents to receive training and have a mentor to guide them at the same time.” Jones says the best training she got was to go into her office every day and observe other successful agents. 

“Seek out someone who’s knowledgeable and will take the time to talk to you,” says Jones. “That’s not necessarily a mentor assigned to you by your broker, because sometimes mentors are either too busy or they have too much time on their hands, which can be an indication that they aren’t the best example for you. A lot of agents need someone to help them, so you can offer to do that and learn from them at the same time.”
     
Baker started by helping with a team’s overflow business. “You have to pick your team carefully,” she says. “The team I was on was extremely ethical so I learned good habits right away.”  Browne says some new agents offer to assist seasoned agents for a share of the commission so they can learn and earn a little money at the same time. 

“You can also offer to share a lead you have and split your commission,” he says.
Petersen, on the other hand, says she doesn’t encourage new agents to join a team because she believes it’s more important to learn how to handle a transaction from start to finish rather than just pieces of the process.

“It’s better to decide whether you want to join a team after you have had the full experience of being an agent on your own,” says Petersen.
Baker says successful agents should continue to pursue education through continuing education and training because extra knowledge helps clients and gives Realtors® the confidence that they are the right person for every job. 

The most successful agents also have a coach or accountability partner to help them at any stage of their career, Peterson adds. Baker hired a consulting and coaching firm to help her become more profitable after she had been an agent for several years and tripled her business. “The purpose of a coach is to get you to a level you wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise,” says Hague. 

Browne says hiring a coach can be particularly helpful early in your real estate career, although he acknowledges it can be hard to find the money to pay a coach and to carve out the time commitment. 

“Whether or not you should hire a coach depends a lot on whether you are ‘coachable’,” says Minnick. “Some agents make massive leaps when they have a coach but others are more ‘lone dog’ types and find it hard to assimilate the lessons of a coach.”

ORGANIZATION AND CONSISTENT PLANNING UNDERPIN ACHIEVEMENT
Even Realtors® with a passion for their chosen career and a commitment to their customers sometimes have trouble staying organized and managing the daily tasks that are essential to creating a strong referral business. 
“I’ve found that former teachers and nurses often make great Realtors®,” says Minnick. “They tend to be super-organized and yet also know how to deal with people.”
     
Browne suggests focusing on one or two things instead of taking a scattershot approach to marketing yourself.

“In the beginning I stuck to my sphere of influence and farming my old neighborhood since I knew it well,” says Browne. “Then I gradually started increasing my marketing methods and trying out ways to stay top-of-mind among former and potential clients.”

“Being persistent doesn’t mean you have to be pushy,” says Jones. “You need to ‘over-communicate’ and make sure you follow up with your clients via email, text and occasional face-to-face meetings and phone calls so you can pick up the nuances of what they are saying.”

Petersen says that Realtors® need to identify their strengths and the activities that work for them to generate a pipeline of business. “You need to treat your real estate business like a corporate job and consistently work at it,” says Deevy. “I don’t think it’s possible to be a success unless you do it full-time. In the beginning, you need to do open houses, make phone calls and network constantly, which all takes time. You have to work all the time, not just when you feel like it.” 
     
Deevy says that after handling about 35 transactions, Realtors® should consider hiring an assistant for support. A particular area of importance to Realtors® is to communicate as quickly as possible, notes Browne. 

“You really need to impress people with your fast response, so try to return a phone call, email or text within an hour, even if it’s just to let someone know that you received their message and are working on it,” says Browne. “People get nervous when they’re buying or selling a home. It’s important to manage your time so that you can be responsive and help your clients feel confident that you are available and taking care of them.”

FOCUS ON YOUR CLIENTS
One of the most essential elements to success in real estate is staying focused on what your buyers and sellers need. Jones says every Realtor® needs to determine the best way to help their clients reach their goals.
     
“Being persistent doesn’t mean you have to be pushy,” says Jones. “You need to ‘over-communicate’ and make sure you follow up with your clients via email, text and occasional face-to-face meetings and phone calls so you can pick up the nuances of what they are saying.” 
Listening to your clients and keeping yourself calm even in stressful situations go a long way to giving your clients confidence in you, says Minnick.  
     
“The most successful Realtors® look at every transaction, whether it is a $250,000 condo or a $1 million home, as the same,” says Jones. “Make sure [the transactions] are all equally important to you because they are all equally important to your clients.”