The Ultimate New Real Estate Agent Checklist (12 Useful Tips)

You’re a new real estate agent. What happens now? You’ve probably gone through all the classes and the tests. You probably have your license in hand. And you may even have an idea regarding which brokerage you’re working with. But now you have to start building your personal success. A new real estate agent checklist is the perfect way to start developing your success. Let’s look at some of the most important tips.

12. Start talking to your friends and family right away.

You should start telling your friends and family about your intent to become a real estate agent fairly early on. Most people start planning to buy a house years before they’re actually ready. When they finally need a buyer’s agent, you’ll want to be the first on their mind.

It normally takes only about six months to a year to become a real estate agent. It will come faster than you think. You should be developing your network before you get your license, not after.

11. Find the right brokerage — with the culture that makes the most sense for you.

You shouldn’t just look for the cheapest brokerage available. Consider the brokerage culture, the people working at the brokerage, and whether they seem to have a work-life balance that will work with you.

Finding the right brokerage is critical. As a real estate professional, you’re not just looking for short-term success. You’re looking for long-term career development. That’s going to be a brokerage with a good reputation, strong support for beginners, and Realtors who appear to stay on for the long haul.

If you’re interested in partnering with me at eXp Realty, head over to my partner page to see all the exclusive benefits you receive.

10. Treat yourself like a business; create a full business plan and budget.

A real estate professional is a business owner. You are a business owner, and you need both a business plan and a budget.

Are you going to be working part-time? Full-time? What hours are you going to work? How many listings do you want to maintain? What are your primary marketing venues going to be?

Download a business plan template and go through it step by step until you have a fully developed process. You will need to know everything from where you’re working (home office or the brokerage?) to what supplies you need (printers, scanners, and more).

9. Develop your branding, your mission, and your marketing.

What separates you from other real estate professionals? Why should a prospective buyer or seller work with you rather than someone else?

Being a real estate agent is about more than holding a real estate license. Whenever you talk to a potential client, you should be able to define what you’re about.

It may be that you concentrate on families finding their first home. Or it may be that you concentrate on selling luxury properties. You might want to focus on townhomes or waterfront properties.

Whatever the case, you should be able to easily describe your branding in one or two sentences.

8. Connect with individuals in your community.

It’s time to network. This should be a crucial step in your new real estate agent checklist.

Once you have a clear focus in mind, you should start to reach out to your community. A new real estate agent must constantly be connecting with leads.

Purchase business cards and hand them out. Tell people you’re a Realtor when meeting them. When people ask, give them advice about the topics you’re confident about. Work to build your reputation with people inside and outside your industry.

7. Create a website and social media accounts.

A website is a great way to connect with potential buyers and sellers.

A lot of people search online first. They will search for a Realtor in their area before they ask family and friends.

By maintaining a website and social media accounts, you’ll be able to bring in potential clients with limited work on your own behalf.

Every modern real estate professional has a website today. And your traffic and authority will grow over time.

6. Start investing in paid lead generation.

Paid lead generation is a great way for a new real estate agent to get a boost.

While you’ll need to pay a small referral fee, you’ll get leads brought directly to you. From there, it’s your job to secure it.

Paid lead generation will usually bring you a buyer, someone who is interested in a listing and needs a Realtor to represent them. Occasionally, you might get someone interested in selling a house.

There are many venues for paid lead generation. Look at reviews to determine the ones that are most likely to be worthwhile.

5. Foster your relationships with other real estate agents.

Take the time to connect with other agents. Other agents will be full of advice and connections. They will be able to tell you where to look for resources—and they may be able to refer business to you in the future.

You’re not in direct competition with other agents. Working with a mentor can be an excellent way to find out what you don’t know—because you don’t know what you don’t know.

Other real estate agents may eventually retire or move, and when they do, they can help you build your own client base. Everyone benefits from networking and expansion.

4. Invest in project management or scheduling software.

Your projects, scheduling, and processes are going to be necessary for success.

Remember that a Realtor isn’t just a professional. A Realtor is a business. Without the right processes, you aren’t going to be able to optimize and improve your operations. You aren’t going to be able to remember all your bookings or track all your listings.

As a real estate agent, you should start with your real estate listing checklist. A new listing checklist will give you all the information you need to post a listing and manage it.

As a listing agent, you’ll need to track many things—for instance, when all your showings are. The better your scheduling and processes, the less likely you will miss things, and the more likely you will close the sale.

3. Automate as much of your process as possible.

The better automated your processes are, the easier you’ll find it to manage multiple listings and multiple clients. The goal of a real estate transaction is always to close as quickly as possible. The faster you close, the less likely you are to experience issues.

Invest in technology that can help you write out a purchase contract, create closing documents, or generate a listing agreement. Create a system that can automate your listing appointment scheduling. Invest in a transaction coordinator.

The more that’s automated, the more revenue you’ll be able to generate.

2. Create scripts for client communication.

Communication is a large part of being a real estate agent. But that doesn’t mean you need to do everything off-the-cuff.

Consider creating scripts for your communications. For instance, the first email you send a buyer—or the follow-up you send a prospective client.

Ask yourself what happens at the following stages when:

• You first meet with a prospective homebuyer.
• You’re showing a client’s listing.
• Your client needs to get a home inspection or appraisal.
• Your client needs to work with a mortgage broker.
• You’re connecting with a past client.

These key stages can be “scripted,” so you’re certain that you’re not missing anything important about the transaction. You can create email templates for certain parts of the job—and, in so doing, reduce the amount of time you have to spend on it.

1. Continuously invest in new knowledge.

As you develop yourself as a real estate professional, you need to be constantly learning.

Continued education is a necessity to keep your license. But that’s not all you need to be learning. You need to be learning about marketing, social media development, and networking. You need to learn about your market and how the market is growing.

Real estate moves very fast. One year, townhomes may be in. The next year, single-family properties might be more popular. And after that, new developments.

FAQs on New Real Estate Agent Checklist

What skills do a real estate agent need to be successful?

Communication, motivation, intuition, and knowledge.

Real estate is a highly personal business. Realtors need to connect with other people, interact with them, and intuit whether they may be potential buyers or sellers.

The better a real estate agent is with people — and the more self-motivated they are — the more likely they will make it in the real estate business.

Why do real estate agents commonly fail?

Most real estate professionals fail because they underestimate the amount of work it takes to launch a real estate career.

It’s not hard to become an agent. But it is hard to become a successful agent. Because of that, many assume the road to becoming a real estate professional is going to be an easy one.

What does a real estate agent need in 2021?

2021 has changed the game for the real estate business. Today, most people are more likely to look up a real estate listing on Trulia, Zillow, or Facebook Marketplace rather than wait for their agent to look a listing up on the MLS.

In 2021, a real estate agent should be willing to pay for lead generation, invest in ads like Facebook ads, and maintain a social media account. They will need to practice their listing presentation on multiple venues and will need a thorough knowledge of the 2021 real estate market.

What’s the best way a new agent can find leads?

A good real estate agent finds leads anywhere they go. If you’re looking for a real estate lead, you can look anywhere from direct mail to social media accounts.

Above all, one step in your new real estate agent checklist is to come up with a comprehensive real estate marketing plan. A marketing plan will tell you what is and isn’t working, what you’ve tried and haven’t tried, and what the best options are for you.