With a positive employment outlook and the always-consistent need for housing, now is a great time to start a real estate career. Unfortunately, real estate is not an industry that you can just jump right into. It takes a lot of preparation, financial security, and very hard work to start a real estate career. Whether you’re brand-new, or already on the road to a real estate career, here’s what you should do before starting a real estate career.
Related: Why Should I Become a Touring Agent?
1. Find a Mentor
This industry is hard, especially if you’re alone. There are plenty of things to learn, and you’ll save yourself years of trial and error if you have someone showing you the ropes. You’ll need to learn about fair housing laws, etiquette, local knowledge, bookkeeping, and more. That is a lot to try and learn on your own. Seeking out well-rounded, established mentors and building a relationship with them will help you learn the ropes and gain connections; plus, they’ll be able to share their knowledge and provide constructive feedback.
2. Save Up a Few Month’s-Worth of Living Expenses
As great as it would be to jump right into starting a real estate career, in order to have a realistic shot at success, you need to prepare financially. It takes an average of 1-2 years to start making money in traditional real estate careers. Of course, there are ways around that, but you should expect at least a year to pass before you see a profit. Saving up a few month’s-worth of living expenses will eliminate financial strain and give you the best chance of success.
3. Start Networking
You’ll need a significant network of contacts if you’re going to start a real estate career. In order to get referrals, advice, and connections, plan to start networking ASAP. Join clubs, join a brokerage, go to meetups, join social media groups, and don’t be afraid to reach out on social media! The more people you contact, the higher your chances of connecting with the right person at the right time.
4. Pick a CRM & Get Organized
If you’re planning to network as much as you need to, you’re going to have hundreds of names, business cards, and contacts to keep track of (yes, hundreds). We highly recommend using CRM (customer relationship management) software to keep track of leads, set reminders, store notes, and track deals. Make sure you do your research and find a CRM that has real estate capabilities and ticks all your boxes.
5. Plan Your Lead Source
Even if you’re a networking pro, having a steady stream of leads is critical to your stability and growth. There are a few different ways to go about getting leads: you can buy warm leads, cold-call/message people, create ads yourself, or hire an advertising agency.
Once you know where you will get leads, do some quick math to see how MANY leads you’ll need to produce 1 sale. You can do that by figuring out your conversion rates. Here’s an example formula (your numbers might vary):
| 100 leads→ | 25 responses→ | 10 intro calls→ | 3 clients→ | 1 sale |
In this example, reaching out to 100 leads results in an average of 25 responses. Out of those 25 people who responded to you, about 10 will actually show up for an introduction phone call. Then, 3 of those 10 people you talked to on the phone will decide to work with you. About ⅓ of your clients will actually result in a sale, due to unexpected life events, change of plans, etc.
Based on these numbers, you’ll need 100 leads in order to get 1 sale. If the average real estate lead costs $55, you would need to spend at least $5,500 on leads before you could expect to get one sale.
Want to Get All 5 of These Things Instantly?
AptAmigo is the only business model that gives you instant, turnkey access to all 5 of these things. By studying the flaws of the real estate industry and identifying what factors cause people to fail, we built the best place to start and build a career in real estate. AptAmigo agents get instant access to the following things:
- experienced mentors
- Immediate payout (first check within 3-6 weeks)
- Pre-established relationship network
- Custom CRM
- Warm leads
Our model consists of separate teams that work together like an assembly line— each part of the team works on one part of the apartment-finding process so that no one person has to do all of the work! Each part relies on the next to accomplish our central goal: make apartment finding easy, stress-free, and fun. When you work with us, we provide you with all of the above things needed right off the bat. Our #1 goal is to expand and grow our teams by being the best place to start your real estate career! You don’t have to wait years and years to be successful– you can simply work at AptAmigo.
Learn more about Apartment Locator Salaries.
AptAmigo is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and does not discriminate based on race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law, in connection with any aspect of employment at AptAmigo.
