Helpful Things You Can do Before You Have Your Real Estate License

If you’ve just decided to become a real estate agent, congratulations! Welcome to the real estate industry. If you are currently in the process of obtaining your real estate license, this article is for you. There is a lull period where you are in your pre-licensing course, studying for your test, or waiting for your local real estate commission to accept your application. Here are some simple things that you can do during this time that will help you get your new business started on the right foot. 

Tips for pre-license real estate agents: 

• Create a contact list for your sphere of influence.
• This is a list of your friends and family. Write down their address, email, and phone number, and make sure to call at least 5 people a week to catch up. Let them know that you are going into real estate and to call you if they ever need anything.
• Find local real estate agents and take them out for coffee.
• The best way to learn about a new industry is to talk to people who are already seasoned. Ask about how the current market conditions and what to expect in your first year. This is a great way to make sure that real estate is a good fit for you.
• Research local lenders and create relationships.
• Having a great lender that you know, and trust is going to make a huge difference in your career. If you don’t have someone that can get to the finish line on the lending side, then you are leaving a lot of things up to chance. Take control from the very beginning and find someone who is good at their job and that you like working with.
• Listen to podcasts and read blog articles about being an agent.
• There are so many ways to be successful and so many resources that are free for you to listen to and read. Our Career Corner is a great resource for you to read up on relevant topics to the industry. Discover different strategies and see which one you’ll think will work for you.
• Create social media platforms for your new business.
• Posting on social media may seem pointless, but it’s free and it connects you with people you may not see very often. Posting about your career and business might just get you a new client now and again that you didn’t expect.
•  Pick your ideal client and research how to serve their needs.
• There are many kinds of real estate clients. For example, there are first-time homebuyers, luxury homes, sellers, and more. Pick whatever niche you think you could serve the best and get to work learning as much as you can about their specific needs.
• Interview with at least 3 local brokerages.
• Brokerages all run their offices in different ways. The only way to find out which is the right fit for you is by meeting them and asking questions. Picking the right brokerage can make or break you as a new agent.
• Open a business credit card.
• When you become a real estate agent, you also become self-employed. Having a business credit card that you use for your business expenses is going to keep you organized and make tax season a lot more straightforward.

There is going to be a time when you are so busy with comps, appointments, new clients, and paperwork that you are not going to have a lot of extra downtimes. Take advantage of the months you have while you are in your real estate pre-license class to prepare yourself. Creating a solid foundation is the best way to serve your new business and your new clients. There are so many different subjects to learn about in real estate. To name a few, students should learn how to evaluate the market price of a property, historical laws and codes, different loan products, and more. Pick a topic that interests you and learn as much as you can about it. The rest you will pick up as you gain experience with each transaction. 

Once you land a position in a brokerage, talk to successful agents, and ask for career advice. Go into the MLS and see if there are agents who have new listings that are not planning on doing an open house and ask if you can host one for them. This will get you to experience talking to people about real estate. If you are lucky, you might also find a couple wandering through the open house who don’t currently have a real estate agent. That’s a great way to pick up new clients. Like my old boss used to say, “ask questions and act like a sponge, absorb as much new information as you can.”  

Check back here on the Career Corner for more articles about how to be successful your first year as a new real estate agent. Call us if you ever have any questions (859) 525-0303. You’ve got this!