Table of Contents
Becoming a successful real estate agent involves more than just market knowledge and sales skills. It requires specific traits across three key areas: money, mindset, and motivation. Here are the nine traits that set successful agents apart:
MONEY
- #1 Not Afraid To Invest Money
- #2 Don’t Learn Before They Hire
- #3 Don’t Invest In Themselves
MINDSET
- #4 Move Too Slow
- #5 Short Time Horizon
- #6 Referral-Based Business
MOTIVATION
- #7 Focus IN The Business
- #8 Comfortable Being Comfortable
- #9 Comparing Themselves To Others
After so many years of being in the real estate business, although I’ve pivoted my business to provide real estate strategies along with great real estate web design to realtors, I’ve talked to thousands of agents, and being a real estate agent myself, I know first hand that not all agents are created equal.
I’ve been able to identify why 99% of agents fail, will fail, or are failing now and why 1% succeed. We have successfully broken real estate agents’ businesses, in a good way. In a way where they have a massive influx of new clients that they can’t handle the capacity and the business broke positively.
But the unfortunate truth about that is, it doesn’t happen as often as you think.
The agents that have these wildly successful businesses that we’ve helped build all shared a few common characteristics. The best way to explain this is to break it down into 3 categories: Money, Mindset, and Motivation.
MONEY
#1 Not Afraid To Invest Money
Looking at the concept of return of investments, the investment needs to be made in order to make the return. Where I see agents getting this part wrong is when they don’t have a clear ROI. And when they don’t have a clear ROI they are no longer investing, they’re just spending.
An example of this would be hiring an agency to manage your content but not knowing why. There is no metric of measurement. It’s just, I hear that I need to be active on social media and I don’t want to manage social media because of whatever limiting belief I have but I won’t admit so I’m going to hire a company to do it.
On the other end of that, is a successful agent that is very keen on its metrics. They know their numbers so they are clear on their next investment. For example, they know how many leads it takes to generate a new client.
#2 Don’t Learn Before They Hire
The success of every company is based on the 3 P’s – product, process, and then people. It also must be executed in this exact order. Agents that fail typically hire someone because they don’t know how to do it themselves. This is not only the wrong approach to have, it’s the easiest way to get taken advantage of. That’s because you’re putting blind faith into a complete stranger.
Successful agents on the other hand learn the process first, even if it’s at a high level. They’ll spend a day or a week or even a few weeks watching youtube videos or reading a book to get to know the subject matter better before hiring someone. In fact, some of them even do the reps themselves the first few times just so they can understand the process better.
#3 Don’t Invest In Themselves
This leads to the last point in regard to money which is they are too scared to spend money to invest in themselves. For a failed agent, someone with a clear solution comes knocking on their door yet they don’t invest because of fear.
It’s fear that they’re going to make the wrong decision. So instead, they look at their current community (family, friends, and colleagues) just to find a reason to not invest in themselves. Unbeknownst to them, they’re actually inflicting a form of self-sabotage because the fear will make excuses for them not to act or to invest in themselves.
Successful agents on the other hand realize that investing in themselves is the easiest way to close more transactions and make more money. Surrounding themselves with people that are ahead of them on their journey is the cheat code to getting ahead in life.
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MINDSET
#4 Move Too Slow
A failing agent finds a solution and then waits a year to act on it. They make the excuse of having to do research. Then they research some more, and more and more. Not actually acting on any of the information they’ve gathered because of fear.
But they’re not realizing that the successful agent moves quickly and has easily lapped them on the race track because the failing agent is still worrying about the what-ifs. Successful agents act! and they act fast!
They’ll try something, they’ll test something, and give a deadline for that test. Then they’ll reevaluate the strategy and move on. If you pay attention to the agents succeeding in your office, you’ll see very quickly that they move fast.
#5 Short Time Horizon
Agents on a pathway to failure have a limited time horizon. They look at their next business deal in terms of the next week or the next month and when they look at their business this way, they’re actually coming from a place of scarcity. – not a good feeling to have when running your business.
Successful agents look at their business in terms of years (plural). They know that when they extend the time horizon, a lot more is possible for their business.
#6 Referral-Based Business
This is actually a symptom of new agents and seasoned agents alike. Their business goes up and down like the teeth of a saw. Some months are filled with closings while others are several month-long droughts, mainly because they based their business strictly on referrals.
Successful agents don’t think with this mindset. They ask the question, “how can I get new business from a complete stranger?” and then solve that problem. Through this process they’re able to build consistency and longevity.
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Motivation
#7 Focus IN The Business
Unsuccessful agents work IN the business. They make the excuse of working IN the business (like being too inundated with helping clients) because they don’t know how or are scared to work ON their business.
Successful agents, on the other hand, stay away from working IN their business as much as possible. They hire staff or find a way to delegate because they know they are the biggest bottlenecks They know that the growth of their business is based on where they spend their time – which, in reality, is activities ON the business to drive revenue growth.
#8 Comfortable Being Comfortable
Failing agents are comfortable. They don’t want to get out of their comfort zone even if it means it will change their lives for the better.
They are so used to being comfortable that they brainwash themselves into thinking that different tactics and strategies don’t work when in reality, doing said tactics or strategies is uncomfortable for them and it scares them to do it.
Successful agents are comfortable living in the uncomfortable zone. They’re always pushing themselves and trying new things. They tinker and experiment to try to find out what will work to get them 1% better each day, and in order to get better, they know that it’s living 80-90% of their days in a place that doesn’t feel good.
#9 Comparing Themselves To Others
Failing agents compare themselves to other agents. They look at a Netflix show or maybe a successful agent in their office and compare themselves to them not realizing that those successful agents are on their Chapter 20 when they’re still on chapter 1 or 2.
Successful agents look at what they’ve done and compare it to their baseline on how they were doing last month, quarter or year.
Final Thoughts
An interesting thing about these 9 traits is that each one of these pieces does not stand alone, they actually connect to each other. For example, an agent finds a program to advance their business but they are scared to make the decision so they move too slowly and they end up focusing on their business or living in their comfort zone.
While a successful agent will look at the same program, sign up, and implement knowing within a given time horizon to measure it and then compare the results to what they were doing prior to signing up.
Look at each of these trains objectively and RED/YELLOW/GREEN them. Figure out where you struggle with a red or yellow vs where you excel with a green. Then work on improving all the yellows and reds.
Looking for more real estate strategies to grow your business? Join our free Square 1 Facebook Group for similar content that can help you in your Real Estate journey. If you are interested in one-on-one coaching, then schedule a strategy session with me today, and let’s talk about how I can help you move your business forward.
