9 Habits of Successful Real Estate Agents

Table of Contents

Study Your Market

To become a trusted real estate agent, it's critical to thoroughly understand the local community and how it ebbs and flows. The best agents are skillfully able to advise their clients and answer questions about anything they may ask. Agents should be familiar with all local listings, recent sales, neighborhoods, amenities, schools, commutes, contractors, mortgages, lenders, and just about everything else. A handful of clients will undoubtedly come up with some pretty obscure questions, so no level of information learned is too much.

Knowledge needs to go beyond what can be found online. Essentially, agents should strive to become highly knowledgeable about their market to impress their clients and position themselves as experts in the local market. Clients will be looking for intimate familiarity and nuggets of information they can't get anywhere else. An agent should get involved with the community and learn all the ins and outs of the market.

Build a Network

In any given industry, it's often about who you know. Not only should new agents network with potential clients, but they should also strive to connect with other professionals. These include other agents, brokers, builders, real estate attorneys, appraisal companies, inspectors, title search companies, and other professionals who work in the real estate sector. Agents can network both in-person or online. Ways to do this include:

• Attending trade shows and expos to mingle with others.
• Going to Chamber of Commerce meetings and events.
• Making a concentrated effort to attend industry meetups.
• Going to industry seminars and conferences.
• Becoming involved with local community events, town days, and charity fundraisers.
• Being active online on social media, sharing useful information, and participating in industry chats.

Real estate agents who immediately start networking — and never stop — find this effort truly pays off. Every real estate professional's motto should be, "Never stop networking." However, they should take it a step further and make an effort to maintain relationships by nurturing them and helping them grow. Strong ties in the real estate sector will significantly boost any agent's reputation.

Communicate Quickly and Effectively With Clients

The foundation of any good relationship is communication. Successful real estate agents are like Goldilocks; they instinctively know the level of "just right" when it comes to communication. Agents need to return messages ASAP, attentively listen to client concerns and questions, and keep small talk to just what's expected in polite conversation. Skilled agents also know when it's the right time to engage in storytelling and when it's not. They also know what boundaries not to cross in terms of asking for too much information and when not to go for the hard sell. The best interests of their clients are always first and foremost.

Successful communicators will put away their phones, turn an eye away from emails, and focus on the conversation at hand. It's easy to think multi-tasking is better, but this is a pitfall to avoid. It doesn't matter if the client is in the office, at an open house, or on the phone — it's a good habit to make every conversation with clients the only conversation taking place at that moment.

Use Social Media

A social media presence is the perfect online space to develop a personalized brand. Every agent should have a goal to develop social media profiles and stay active on them. Keep profiles professional, but it's OK to get a little personal too. Clients want to know the real person behind the name, so be sure to sprinkle enough personal details on social media profiles. Good social media platforms to focus on are LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Instagram and YouTube can also work well for agents that have the time or skills to develop stunning imagery or videos.

Realistically, time not invested in cultivating an online presence will lead to lost leads and sales. The key to social media success is picking the platforms that can be maintained and focusing on those. Prospective clients will undoubtedly bounce from social media profiles that have outdated content or information. Be sure to share interesting, fun, helpful, or valuable content people would want to read. This could be about industry trends, home improvement tips, moving tips, local landmarks or activities of interest, or anything else clients would be interested in.

Be Empathetic With Clients

Part of being a real estate professional is understanding people and knowing how to act accordingly. Clients are going to have highs and lows; everyone's circumstances are different. A good habit to get into is to be empathetic. Try to understand client pain points, listen to their problems, and be prepared to offer potential solutions. Agents who want to be good at this should use techniques to determine if they've mastered their "people skills."

Ways to better their skills include adopting a "customer first" attitude and making their customers feel as if they are important. Try keeping notes while talking with clients and reviewing them periodically to see if their needs are being met. When an agent can put themselves in their clients' shoes and understand their stresses, difficulties, or other problems, the better they'll be at finding solutions and providing reassurance. In the long run, this empathy equates to referrals and leads.

Have a Routine

Every good agent has a routine that starts when the workday begins and follows through on tasks at specified times throughout the day. Work routines are advantageous because they keep people focused and help them set priorities as necessary. A good way to accomplish this is to practice time blocking. Time blocking involves establishing a system for different tasks, such as checking emails, returning phone messages, meeting with clients, showing properties, and pursuing leads. Of course, priorities will emerge, and it's important to distinguish when a routine can be interrupted from things that can wait.

Another benefit to routines and schedules is they prevent agents from experiencing burnout. It's easy to get caught up in details, and suddenly it's 8 p.m. on a Friday. Keeping an eye on the time, setting start and end times where feasible, and performing tasks in a routine help to keep hours manageable. This helps agents maintain a healthy work-life balance and keeps them at the top of their game.

Set Goals

Every professional, regardless of industry, needs to set key goals to succeed. Establishing goals and the metrics to follow to achieve them goes a long way towards keeping agents motivated. Sales up this week? Great! It helps to reach a set monthly goal. Found 20 leads this month? Fantastic. This could equate to a few sales next month. One of the keys to successfully setting goals is to challenge oneself, but not to set a high bar that is unrealistic. Any goals set should be attainable, even if it involves a little bit of stretching to achieve them.

Always Be Learning

To stay competitive in a busy industry, successful agents invest time in themselves and their businesses. This means following through on continuing education requirements, taking non-required knowledge courses or seminars, understanding new and changing technologies, and having a firm grasp on an often-changing market both regionally and nationally.

Even during downtime, it's entirely possible to keep learning. Listen to professional podcasts while driving, exercising, or doing mundane household chores. Read good books that offer insight and expand one's horizons. Set goals to learn a new customer service technique each month. The more an agent learns about the real estate industry, the better. There is never such thing as knowing too much. Over time, agents can position themselves as thought leaders and someone's opinion everyone respects.

Count Wins, Not Losses

It's easy to get down in the dumps if it's a slow period. However, even when the market is not active or leads don't materialize, staying positive is important. Getting bogged down in negativity can hurt any agent's performance. Instead of focusing on the hang-ups, dropped listings, or other events that can cost leads or sales, keep an eye towards the goalpost. So what if the last four leads cut the call short? Focus on the 30-minute conversation with the client who was enthusiastic about buying a home that came in between those other calls — that's a win! Found a new networking group? Score! Gaps between paychecks or negative interactions that occur can harm morale, but an agent should never let those things drag their motivation down. Instead, they should focus on what is going well and actively pursue ways to continue that momentum.

Successful real estate agents will continuously look for ways to build their reputation, add tools to their proverbial toolbox, and never be satisfied with their current level. Professionals who continuously engage in professional growth through good habits will quickly find even the hurdles are more easily overcome.