5 Expert Tips For How To Be A Successful Realtor (2023)

Today’s real estate market brings challenges like no agent has ever seen before. In this post, I’m going to share how to be a successful real estate agent. I’ll share the exact strategies that I currently use to grow my own real estate business.

Get Your Mind Right

How to be a successful real estate agent depends on having a positive mindset. A great way to do this is to develop a daily routine that motivates you, and then stick with it.

As a new real estate agent, it’s hard to get your daily schedule going. A good way to get started is to write it down. Try to have your day broken up into one to two-hour chunks.

In addition to having a steady routine, you should also consume motivational content. Personally, I like to listen to podcasts or audiobooks.

You can do this at any part of your day, such as at the gym or in the car on the way to a showing or listing appointment. Some of the content I consume includes real estate podcasts, real estate blogs, and real estate agent books.

I also watch real estate YouTube channels, and even real estate movies to get some inspiration and put me in the right mindset.

Get Your Expenses Right

Set Up A Business Bank Account

I recommend having a completely separate account for your business expenses and income. You should also have a dedicated business credit card to pay for your business expenses. This will make your bookkeeping easier. I pay myself a salary from my business account and move it to my personal account.

Bookkeeping

If you have records of your transactions going back far enough, upload them to QuickBooks or whichever bookkeeping system you choose, even if it’s just an Excel spreadsheet. This will help you track your finances.

If you work with a certified public accountant, you can have them set up your books for you.

Minimize Recurring Charges

Get rid of any systems or tools that you don’t get much use out of. Instead, just focus on the bare essentials to maximize the return on investment for your business.

Get Your Database Right

Make A Business Plan 

It’s also important to make a real estate business plan. To get started, figure out what your primary lead sources are. Ask yourself what specific actions you will take in your prospecting, marketing, and sales efforts.

For instance, say you want to sell 40 homes this year. Ask yourself how many leads will that take? How are many phone calls? How much money is it going to take? What’s going to be your conversion ratio? What’s going to be your average commission price?

No business plan is perfect. But by having something written down that you can start striving towards every day, you’ll be in a much better spot than if you’re just going from the seat of your pants.

Organize your CRM

The most common way people mess up managing their CRM is getting behind on updating it. Ideally, you should log into your CRM on a weekly basis.

Take some time to catch up on making sure all your data is entered into your CRM, getting it organized, and erasing any data or cold leads that you no longer need.

Use an Activity Tracker

Another great tool to use is an activity tracker. I use the CORE Greatness Tracker to track my daily prospecting efforts. This tracker is free to download, and you can find it with a quick Google search.

Get an Accountability Partner

One of the best ways to find success is to have someone who can push you and check up on your progress. You can find Facebook groups where you can find an accountability partner where you hold each other accountable.

Incorporate Video

There are multiple ways to incorporate video in your business plan. For example, instead of leaving a voicemail or sending a text message, you can film a short video and send it over text. You’d be surprised how well-received this is by your leads.

A video means more to them because it’s the closest thing to an in person connection. Using FaceTime is also better than a normal phone call.

Video Tools

Another great way to use video is in your email. Loom and BombBomb are two tools that can help you do this. Loom is a free tool for Google Chrome.

When you record your video on Loom, it will create a custom link which you can then send to your client through email.

BombBomb shows the recipient a preview of the video within the email, rather than just a link. For this reason, BombBomb works better with people who don’t know you or leads you are currently prospecting.

Lead Generation

Two sources of leads that are often overlooked are investors and expireds/FSBOs. To find investor leads, you can search for Facebook groups, or investor forums like Bigger Pockets.

Going after expireds and FSBO leads will involve cold calling. Read my post on the only FSBO script you’ll ever need to find success cold calling this group of leads. But they are worth going after if you’re having a harder time with Facebook real estate leads or paid advertising. To prospect this type of lead, you need to use a dialer system like REDX or Mojo.

Get Your Content Right

Content marketing is an important aspect of how to be a successful real estate agent.

The key to building your brand in the beginning is creating content on a consistent basis, whether it’s video, a podcast, or blog posts. Over time, you can optimize and improve it.

Creating content helps you establish your expertise and authority in the industry. If you’re just starting out, you can find real estate content ideas by researching trending keywords.

Four Content Ideas

1. Buyer Presentation

Film a short five to ten minute video or 1,000 word blog post talking about your process for a buyer presentation, so your leads can know what to expect. At the end of your video or post, include all the ways a lead can get in touch with you.

2. Seller Presentation

Similarly, you can make a video giving an overview of your seller presentation so that people know what to expect. Answer the most common questions you get as a real estate agent from sellers looking to sell their homes.

3. About You Video

To be a successful Realtor, you should have an About You video so your audience can form a stronger connection with you. Don’t be afraid to narrow down your audience. For example, if you only work with first-time homebuyers in your area.

When you do this, you’ll increase your chances of a potential client agreeing to work with you. It’ll give people more confidence when they reach out to you because they know what to expect.

4. Area Expert Overview Video

Create content about different features in a specific zip code or neighborhood in your area. If you’re just getting started, you can make an overview video of your nearest city or largest market.

Then, you can start breaking things down into specific areas. You can mention price points, some of the most popular neighborhoods, and the best school districts.

Consistent Branding

Once you create your content, you have to figure out how to get it in front of your target market. This is where consistent, personal branding can help you if you’re wondering how to be a successful real estate agent.

Take some time to reexamine your brand and start making it more cohesive in terms of message, color scheme, and style. If you need help creating any branding or real estate marketing materials for your brand, you can look for freelancers on Fiverr or UpWork.

Your Own Website

A website is a crucial part of how to be a successful real estate agent. Setting a site up should be one of the first things you do, even if you’re a new real estate agent.

Use your website for content and branding purposes. And if you ever change CRM providers or move to a new brokerage, you’ll still have your SEO and Google rankings no matter where you move, and you’ll be the owner of the site.

DIY vs. Hiring Out For Your Website

You don’t have to have any technical web design skills to create a website. But if you don’t want to do it on your own, you can always hire someone.

One of the most popular sites to build your website on is WordPress. I use SiteGround as my hosting provider, and it’s where I purchased my domain name from. Siteground stores all of the data for my website, including blog posts, videos, and photos.

Audio/ Podcasts

If you want to do a podcast, there are two tools that can help you: Audacity and Libsyn.

Audacity takes your audio or video and makes it higher quality audio, so that the background noise is filtered out and it’s clearer.

Next, upload your finished audio file to Libsyn where you can then get it onto Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast providers.

Videos

Of course, the best platform to reach your target market for video content is YouTube. You can post evergreen videos and they’ll attract views to your channel years down the road.

Use social media only to promote your videos. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram have short shelf lives, so they won’t appear on peoples’ timelines for much longer than a few days.

Get Your Future Right

Mailbox Power 

Mailbox Power is the perfect way to show your clients that you care. With their easy-to-use system, you can create unique and personalized gifts and cards in minutes. Whether you’re looking for a birthday present, anniversary gift, or just something special to show your appreciation, Mailbox Power has you covered.

Facebook Creator Studio

Facebook Creator Studio is a web-based tool that you can use to schedule and publish posts to your Facebook and your Instagram. There is also an app version of the platform. However, you can only post to Facebook from the app.

You can set up all of next month’s social media posts with Creator Studio, or even the whole year if you want to.

Agent Legend

If you’re looking to automate text messages to your database, checkout Agent Legend. Agent legend is like setting up email drip campaigns but for text messaging. 

Also, you can use it to send out birthday and anniversary text messages so you never forget to message a client on their birthday. Check out my full post on Agent Legend here.

Continuing Education

If you’re wondering how to be a successful real estate agent, continuing education is key so that you can continually be developing and growing your skills. As a result, you’ll be able to advance your career as you gain more desirable skills.

Final Thoughts on How To Be A Successful Real Estate Agent

Don’t feel like you have to follow every single tip mentioned here to be a successful agent. Focus on whatever you think the right path is for your real estate business.

If you put effort into growing your career, you’ll see the results in no time! For more tips, check out this post on finding success for millennial real estate agents.

So, what tips do you have on how to be a successful real estate agent? Let me know in the comments below!