Getting Started - Agent Success Builder

Tips for New Real Estate Agents

Most Important: Sign Up For BASIC ACCESS and download all the FREE resources that we offer! (Over $100 Value)

Here are a few important quick tips for new real estate agents, from a 15-year veteran real estate agent:

Don’t obsess on choosing a broker. If you change your mind, it’s really no big deal to switch brokers.
Sign with a broker, even if you are not ready to go full-time yet. Legally, you need to “hang your hat” somewhere to get access to the MLS and other real estate memberships. You don’t have to start working full-time when you sign up with a broker. Just let your broker know that you have some things you want to do first before working full time.
Learn to take control of your time. Set a rule on your phone so that it only rings between noon and 7:00 p.m. each day. Also turn off email, text, and social media notifications…you do not need to be notified every time you get an email or text. Set specific times of the day when you check your email and phone. Don’t let others control your time and daily agenda! Learn to take control of your time.
Stay focused on your plan. You have to figure out what works for you and your personality, style, goals, and market. Just because something worked for some agent in another market, doesn’t mean it will (or won’t) work for you in your market. Stay focused on your marketing plan and don’t get sidetracked on the latest gimmick or new technology.
Become the local area expert. Your clients will expect you to know you’re a lot about your area—the neighborhoods, schools, amenities, sales numbers, PROs and CONs, etc. Start driving the area and learning your neighborhoods.
Don’t worry that “it’s all about the listings.” As a new real estate agent, it may be easier and less expensive to find buyer-clients than it is to find seller-clients. Always remember that most buyers are sellers too.
Set up a business Google account and use that Gmail email address for your real estate business. Do not use your personal email account. Also be prepared to get a lot of spam on this account.
Be ruthless about marking unsolicited email as spam and unsubscribing. People don’t have the right to spam you just because you’re a real estate agent. That goes for other real estate agents who want to share their listings with you. (Duh…that’s what the MLS is for!) You’re email inbox is going to get out of control if you don’t actively unsubscribe from unwanted email. If the sender doesn’t provide an easy Unsubscribe link, then mark it as spam.
Get a Google Voice phone number to forward to your cell phone. Use this number for all your business advertising and accounts. Do not advertise your real cell phone number.
Do not worry about getting a designation in your first year, since less than 2% consumers care about designations. Focus on laying a strong foundation of the basics first.
Don’t depend on your Sphere of Influence (people you already know) to be your only source of leads. Develop at least one other effective lead generating system to generate leads because the people you already know may also know several other real estate agents and may not want to work with you, for a while, because they know you are inexperienced. Also, friends and family may not want you to know their financial situation.
Find a lender or two that you can depend on. Qualifying buyers financially is a lender’s job…so is creating a Closing cost estimates. Know a couple of lenders that you can recommend to your clients at the beginning of a transaction.
Learn how to do screenshots. You need to be able to send clients information quickly and easily. The best way is to send screenshots from your smart phone or computer. SnagIt (by TechSmith) is the screenshot program recommended for computers. For your smart phone, do an Internet search for “how to capture screenshot on iphone 12” (for example).
Sign up at Agent Success Builder and get access to all the helpful resources in our library! 🙂

Sample Items in Resource Library

…and many more! (see Library)

How to Become a Real Estate Buyers Agent

Go from Struggling to Confident Buyer’s Agent — Build a Buyer System & Close More Deals

To be successful, you really need to learn how to become a real estate buyers agent. When you’re a new real estate agent, it’s MUCH easier to attract and sign home buyers than home sellers. So the sooner you set up your complete buyer system, the sooner you’ll get paid.

The Ultimate Buyer’s Agent Kit has everything you need to wow buyers, prove your value, and win signed agreements with ease—whether you’re new, experienced, or somewhere in between. This isn’t some cutesy package designed by someone who’s never sold a house. This kit was designed by a top-producing buyer’s agent with a Five-Star reputation…so you know it works!

Based on 15+ years of real-world experience with buyers (see reviews), this kit contains everything you need to learn how to become a real estate buyers agent. Whether you’re a brand-new agent or you’ve been struggling to turn leads into clients, this kit gives you the tools, scripts, and confidence to finally take control of the buyer process and start Closing more deals.

Only $149!

30-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE!

How To Become a Real Estate Buyers Agent

The Ultimate Buyer’s Agent Kit is a complete system to teach you how to become a real estate buyers agent. It will show you how you educate buyers, build trust fast, and make signing your buyer agency agreement the obvious next step.

Every done-for-you tool is ready to use and fully customizable, so you can plug them into your business today and start closing more clients tomorrow. Stop struggling to call buyers the first time, meet with them and get buyer representation agreements signed, plan home tours, show houses, and manage buying transactions all the way to the Closing table. This kit will teach you how to become a real estate buyers agent AND provide all the essentials for you to be a BOSS buyer’s agent NOW.

Why Agents Love This Kit

Look Professional Even On Day 1 – You will look professional with these tools…even if you’re a brand new agent.

Save Time – Ready-to-use and fully customizable. Start using today!

Boost Your Confidence – You’ll always know what to say, send, and do next.

Prove Your Value – Buyers see exactly why you’re worth hiring.

Get Signed Agreements with Ease – The easiest way to convince buyers they MUST sign with you. 🙂

Increase Your Closings – More signed agreements mean more commissions.

Ease Your Mind – These checklists and transactions forms, plus the 70+ page guide, will help you do all the right things and don’t miss an important step in the transaction.

Here’s What’s Inside the Kit

Here’s everything you need to learn how to become a real estate buyers agent. These are the same tools that I use in my own 15-year, five-star, top-producer real estate business (see reviews).

16 Digital Files to WOW! Your Buyers:

Once you purchase the kit, you’ll be able to download all of the following digital files. The Microsoft Word (DOCX) and PowerPoint (PPTX) files are easily customizable with your name, contact info, photo, logo, etc. Instructions and How-To videos are included to show you how.

Training Guide: The Essentials for Working with Home Buyers (70+ page PDF)
Buyer Presentation (PowerPoint Slideshow PPTX)
Buyer Presentation Script (PDF)
Buyer Brochure – Packet (DOCX)
BONUS! Buyer Brochure – Printable (DOCX)
Agent To Do List for Buyers (Buyer Agent Checklist – DOCX))
Buyer Checklist for Buying a Home (DOCX)
Buyer Contact Sheet (Intake Form) (DOCX)
Client Tracking Sheet (DOCX)
Info About New Home (DOCX)
Moving Survival Kit (DOCX)
New Construction Home Estimate (DOCX)
New Construction Home Offer (DOCX)
Planning the Move (DOCX)
Remodeling Estimate Worksheet (DOCX)
Kit Instructions (PDF) & How-To Videos

See the details about these items below…

1. Training Guide: “The Essentials for Working with Home Buyers”

Master the entire buyer process from the very first phone call to the closing table. The Essentials for Working With Home Buyers 70+ page training guide gives you complete, step-by-step instructions to confidently attract, convert, and serve today’s buyers. Instead of guessing your way through showings, contracts, and negotiations, you’ll know exactly what to say, what to do, and how to stand out as the trusted professional buyers want on their side.

Inside, you’ll learn how to become a real estate buyers agent and discover proven strategies for prequalifying prospects, planning flawless home tours, presenting your value, and guiding clients through every stage of the transaction. You’ll also learn how to set boundaries, handle tough conversations, and build a reputation as the agent who protects clients’ best interests at every turn.

This guide covers important topics you are unlikely to read anywhere else. Others tell you WHAT to do, this tells you HOW.

Understanding Home Buyers—get the inside scoop on what motivates buyers and how they choose their agent.
Preparing to Work with Home Buyers—how to put together everything you need (brochures, slideshow, handouts, transaction forms).
Handling the Initial Contact with a Buyer—what to say when you first talk with a buyer, how to categorize (hot, warm, cold), and the exact follow-up process for each type of buyer.
Planning a Home Tour—gathering documents, setting appointments, preparing the buyer packet, and more.
Meeting Buyer Clients the First Time—how to deliver the Buyer Presentation and get a signed agreement.
Showing Houses to Clients—who should drive, what to say, common strategies, how to end, and what to do afterwards.
Facilitating the Home Buying Transaction—how to manage a buyer transaction from offer to acceptance, through inspections, title and loan, all the way to the Closing and beyond.
Attracting Home Buyers—helpful ideas for generating buyer leads.
Practicing Scripts
APPENDIX—Includes 30-Day Roadmap to Becoming a Buyer’s Agent and the complete Buyer Agent Checklist to manage your buyer transactions.

Reading this training guide is like having your own real estate coach, teaching you everything you need to know about working with home buyers. Not just the WHAT but also the HOW.

2. Buyer Presentation (Slide Deck)

Stop hoping buyers will sign—show them why they should. Use this professional PowerPoint presentation at your first meeting with buyers to position yourself as a trusted expert. Use the presentation to walk clients through the buying process, agency and representation, compensation, and your value-added services. By the final slide, they’ll be ready to commit because they’ll see your expertise and the value that you provide.

3. Buyer Presentation Script

Deliver your pitch with confidence every time. This word-for-word script shows you exactly what to say and when, making your presentation smooth, natural, and persuasive. With this script, even brand new agents can effectively explain the home buying process (and all the value you add!), agency and representation, fiduciary duty, agent compensation, and more. Buyers can’t help but be impressed and see you as THE best buyer’s agent available.

4. VIP Brochure of Your Value-Added Services

Show buyers—clearly and convincingly—why they need you. This customizable brochure transforms your service list into a polished, professional marketing piece. Email it to warm up prospects, post it on your website, or share it on social media to build your credibility. This brochure is designed to highlight 22 unique high-value services that you provide, so buyers instantly see you’re worth hiring. Put your photo and logo on the cover and, just like that, you look like a PRO!

5. Buyer Contact Sheet

Your lead conversion blueprint for first contact. This 2-page form walks you through every step of your first buyer interview, ensuring you ask the right questions, identify serious prospects, and capture all essential details. Includes the correct follow-up process for each type of lead: Cold, Warm, and Hot, so you always know what to do next with each buyer lead.

6. Buyer’s Checklist for Buying a Home

Set accurate expectations from day one. This checklist outlines the buying process so buyer clients know exactly what to expect. Hand it out at the first meeting, and then customize it later (with contract deadlines) to keep your buyers organized and stress-free.

7. Agent’s 101+ To-Do List for Buyer Clients

Show buyers exactly what you do to earn their trust—and your commission. This detailed checklist reveals over 100 tasks you perform, instantly proving your value and reinforcing your professionalism. Most buyers think agents “just show houses” but this proves that you do a lot of things they don’t see, behind the scenes, to make the home buying process as smooth and easy as possible for them.

Plus, this detailed checklist keeps you on track (even if you’re new) so that you manage the entire transaction successfully. You don’t have to worry about how to manage the buyer transaction…this details every step.

8. New Construction Offer Instructions

Take the stress out of new construction deals. With this ready-to-use form, you’ll gather every critical detail from your buyer and hand the builder’s sales agent everything they need to draft the contract correctly. No missed details. No scrambling at the last minute. Plus, it guides you through the key talking points you’ll want to cover with your clients before they commit—so you look prepared, confident, and in control. Pair it with the New Construction Estimate of Costs to give your clients clarity on builder options and upgrades right from the start.

9. New Construction Estimate of Costs

Show buyers you’ve thought of everything. This powerful form helps you quickly and accurately estimate the true cost of a new construction home—upgrades, options, and all. Instead of vague ballpark numbers, your clients get a professional breakdown they can trust. With just a few adjustments for your local market, you can deliver a polished worksheet that makes you look like an expert while saving clients from surprise expenses down the road.

10. Home Remodeling Estimate

Turn “fixer upper” fears into confident decisions. With this tool, you’ll walk buyers step by step through the real costs of remodeling—so they know exactly what they’re getting into before they make an offer. Whether it’s paint, flooring, landscaping, or major upgrades, you’ll have a clear, customized estimate ready. Go even further by providing your curated list of trusted local vendors, proving that you’re not just a buyer’s agent—you’re their full-service homeownership advisor.

11. Information About Your New Home

Add value long after the contract is signed. Gather insider details from the seller and present them in a personalized packet your buyers will love. It’s a thoughtful touch (which other agents don’t even think about) that builds loyalty and referrals.

12. Planning the Move

Be the agent who makes moving easier. This ready-to-send PDF provides your clients with a step-by-step moving plan, helping them stay organized during one of the most stressful times of their lives. Another reminder, at the end of the process, that you’re looking out for your buyer clients every step of the way.

13. Moving Survival Kit Checklist

End your client’s journey with a gift they’ll never forget. This checklist shows you how to create a low-cost, high-impact “Moving Survival Kit” filled with practical essentials for moving day. A simple gesture that earns gratitude, referrals, and long-term loyalty.

BONUS! Printable Buyer’s Brochure

A give-away that sells your services when you’re not there. Professionally designed, this brochure mirrors the Buyer Presentation in a concise, client-friendly format. It’s not too long (and won’t cost a fortune to print)…just enough information to impress the buyer and look like THE best buyer’s agent available.

Easily Customizable for Your Image and Branding

How to become a real estate buyers agent has never been easier! All the tools in this kit are customizable to your image and branding! Helpful How-To videos are included to show you exactly how to customize them in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Preset color schemes for the top brokerages can be easily selected, or customize the color scheme for your unique branding.

Why This Kit Works

Establishes You as The Go-To Buyer’s Agent in Your Market
No matter where you are in your career—brand new, rebuilding momentum, or running a thriving business—this kit gives you the tools to clearly communicate your value. With polished, customizable materials, you’ll stand out as the agent who delivers results, earns trust, and wins signed agreements consistently.

Enables You to Confidently Guide Buyers from First Contact to Closing
This isn’t a single handout—it’s a complete buyer conversion system. From attention-grabbing brochures and persuasive presentation decks, to detailed scripts, checklists, and client-facing handouts, you’ll have professional tools for every step of the buyer journey.

Helps You Explain Your Worth and Justify Your Fee with Ease
No more awkward conversations about commissions or services. The Buyer Presentation included in this kit walks clients through exactly what you do, why it matters, and how it protects their best interests—so your value is crystal clear and unshakable.

Enables You to Deliver a Five-Star Experience That Generates Referrals
When buyers feel informed, supported, and valued, they leave happy. Happy clients leave glowing reviews. And glowing reviews bring new leads. This kit helps you create a smooth, professional process that leaves clients eager to recommend you to everyone they know.

Become a Real Estate Buyers Agent Who Gets Reviews Like These…

If you use this kit to learn how to become a real estate buyers agent, then you will eventually get client reviews that build your referral system.

“Sheila’s quality of service is truly exemplary. To start with, her knowledge of the market and of the real estate purchase process is second-to-none. What’s special is that she was able to explain everything in such a clear and concise way that gave us so much confidence. The high quality of Sheila’s video tours of the houses is truly amazing. We just could not match the level of attention to detail even if we visited the house in-person. Being out-of-state buyers this meant that we had full confidence. Sheila’s responsiveness, efficiency and just looking out for our interests as buyers is incredible. The examples are too many to list here. But issues from large to small, often times she will be addressing those and consulting with us before we’d even thought of these issues ourselves. We are truly fortunate to have worked with such an amazing realtor on purchasing our house. Thank you Sheila!”

“Sheila has a vast knowledge of the local real estate market and shared it with us in many useful forms throughout the entire home-buying process. Due to her knowledge and many years of experience, Sheila has superb judgment that was incredibly valuable. Her wealth of videos, guides, and tools helped us learn about the area and the home-buying process. When we had questions about homes or the process, Sheila was incredibly responsive. She was available on short notice to show us homes, and she clearly understood the current state of the market. We are so grateful for Sheila and 100 recommend her to anyone looking for a top agent in the area.”

“…Sheila Cox stands out as a beacon of excellence in real estate. As out-of-town buyers, our experience with Sheila was nothing short of spectacular. The entire purchase process was conducted virtually, yet it felt as if we were right there, thanks to Sheila’s detailed video tours and insightful commentaries. Her in-depth analysis and thoughtful consideration made us feel confident and well-informed every step of the way…The welcome gift we received from Sheila was a delightful surprise that added a personal touch to our experience. It s our third time purchasing a residence, and we can say, without a doubt, that Sheila is the best agent we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. She exceeded our expectations in every regard. Any buyer lucky enough to have Sheila as their representative will be astounded by her exceptional level of service and her profound knowledge of the area, including the market, schools, locations, and contacts. She truly deserves more than the typical agent commission. Her presence at the home inspection, her assistance with flooring estimates, and her advice on bank wire issues are just a few examples of her dedication. Sheila Cox is not just an agent she s a trusted advisor, a guardian of our investment, and a true ally in our journey of home buying. Thank you, Sheila, for making our real estate experience seamless and successful. -Yang Family”

“We were amazed by Sheila. First she made us feel so comfortable looking for a house out of state. Gave us the in’s and out’s of buying a home in Texas. She’s on top of everything and doesn’t skip a beep. Knowledge of Texas was spectacular and if she can’t answer a question then you better believe that she’ll investigate and give you an answer. She’s not afraid to tell you the truth and lays everything out. The one thing I loved was her video’s she taped on houses we were interested in. She looks at every nook and cranny’s of a house, bad or good. In our books she’s a super star and Texas should be proud of her. Shelia you are amazing. Thank you for every minute you gave us to make us feel welcome in Texas!!”

“Sheila provided our family with a house purchasing experience that no other realtor has ever matched. To say she’s outstanding is an understatement. Her knowledge, patience, grit, wisdom, attention to detail and high level of integrity is a home buyers dream. She made our transition from Georgia to Houston, TX seamless and smooth. We wouldn’t recommend anyone else. Thank you Sheila for going above and beyond.”

Learn How to Become a Real Estate Buyers Agent Today!

Stop chasing buyers.
Start converting them.
Get your Ultimate Buyer’s Agent Kit now and turn every buyer lead into a loyal, committed client.Only $149!

30-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE

I think you’ll love my Ultimate Buyer’s Agent Kit, but if not, we’ll give you a full refund…no questions asked. So you’ve got nothing to lose and so much to gain.

If we haven’t met yet…

Hi, I’m Sheila Cox!

I love helping real estate agents SUCCEED in this business. I know you can achieve your dreams and aspirations…you just need a little help from a PRO.

I have been a licensed real estate agent in Texas since 2009 (so please excuse my accent 🙂 ) and I have received the Five-Star Real Estate Agent award every year since 2010. I’m told that less than 1 percent of all real estate agents can claim this achievement. I mention it because this award is based on client satisfaction and don’t you want to learn from someone who actually knows what they’re doing?!

I still remember how lost, confused, and overwhelmed that I felt when I started my real estate career. Back then, I thought I would learn everything that I needed to know from my broker. I was wrong. My first broker didn’t have ANY formal training class. And my second broker’s training just “scratched the surface.” (And I’ve worked for some of the biggies.)

Of course, when you’re new, you don’t know what you don’t know. So I have created a lot of FREE resources, and some training books, courses, and products to help agents like you SUCCEED. These are resources that you won’t see anywhere else because I developed them. They are based on the tools and systems that I use in my own real estate business. And unlike most of the “training” you’ve seen before, my stuff doesn’t just tell you WHAT to do, but it also shows you HOW to do it.
(Finally!)

How to Do a CMA in Real Estate–Price Houses Like a Pro

You must learn how to do a CMA in real estate, because one of the most important parts of your job is pricing homes accurately, for both buyer and seller clients. Buyers need to know how much a home is worth before they make an offer. Sellers need to know how much a home is worth before listing it for sale.

This article is intended to be used when pricing a home for buyer clients, but it can also be used to create a basic CMA for seller clients.

What is a Comparative Market Analysis

A CMA (Comparative Market Analysis or Competitive Market Analysis) is how real estate agents determine a home’s current market value. It’s a method of doing market research to determine what List Price to set on a home that is for sale. At a minimum, it takes into consideration the prices that similar homes in the same area, have sold for in the past 6 to 12 months. But it should also include a general market analysis showing what’s going on in the surrounding market.

An accurate CMA is important for home buyers, because most home buyers need a home loan/mortgage to purchase a property…and the home must appraise for its sale price (or the buyer may have to pay the difference between sales price and appraised value at Closing).

There are various online CMA tools such as Cloud CMA (possibly available with your MLS) and RPR® (Realtors Property Resource). However, they DO NOT make the necessary adjustments for the value-added differences in home features and amenities (like appraisers do), such as:

Swimming pools
Finished basements
3-car vs. 2-car garages
Water or mountain views
etc.

And they DO NOT adjust for detrimental items that affect a home’s value, such as being located on a very busy street, next to a noisy business, or adjacent to large power lines.

Without making the proper adjustments, your CMA value will not be accurate.

This is why you should use a spreadsheet that makes automatic adjustments.

How to Choose Comparables for a CMA

Use the How to Create a Basic CMA for Home Buyers worksheet as you create a basic CMA for buyer clients. Since this is the basic process for doing a CMA for a home buyer, the house you are doing a CMA for is probably Active on the market. So you should be able to print the MLS listing sheet to get the house details (size, bedrooms, etc.).

If you are doing a preliminary CMA for a home seller (before your listing appointment), you can either look at old MLS listing for the house, or pull up the tax info, to get the house details.

The overall goal is to find the best 5 Comparable homes (Comps) to use for your CMA analysis. Depending on the area and market, you may have too many or too few listings to choose from. Change the variables until you find the best 3-5 comparable homes to use for your CMA.

◼ To create a Basic CMA:

Log onto your MLS system and go to the right type of Search (single family, condo, farm and ranch, etc.) that you need to use. If you don’t have the MLS printout for the subject property, then find it and print it out.
Fill in the stats for the house you are “comping” in the table below.
Set your initial search for Actives, Pendings, and Solds* in the past 6 months by searching within a 1/2−1 mile radius of the house (using a map tool on your MLS), or use the MLS Subdivision field (based on where the property is located). Appraisers tend to use the map radius method. For Rural or Farm and Ranch properties, the radius may be 5 miles.* In a regular market, only use Solds (because those are real sales prices, not list prices. In a very “hot” market, with 2 months or less Inventory, use Pendings and the past 2-3 months of Solds, but place more value on Pendings. In a really slow market you may have to go back 1 year for Sold Comps.
Modify your MLS search based on the house details (Step 2) to narrow your search to comparable homes.
If there are distressed homes in your area, make sure to exclude those for standard CMAs. There should be a field on your MLS to do this.
If you don’t find enough Comparables using the search criteria in Step 2, then you need to adjust your settings. Use your best judgement and consider the following options:
- Remove variables (number of bedrooms, bathrooms, garage spaces, pools, etc.) until you get the proper number of Comparables.
- Expand your area (but most appraisers won’t include anything more than 1 mile radius unless in rural area).
- Increase the time frame (from 6 mths to 9 mths or 12 mths).
Look through all the possible Comps (you may have to study photos) and identify the 3 to 5 most similar Comps (more is better), as compared to the subject property. In older neighborhoods, or non-homogenized areas, the condition/appearance of the homes may vary greatly, depending on whether homes have been remodeled or updated. You may have to view photos to find the best Comps. Try to choose Comps that are in similar appearance/updates/finishes as your subject property. Don’t use a luxury or totally remodeled home to compare to a fixer-upper, and visa versa. Don’t use distressed properties when doing a CMA for a non-distressed property.
Once you find and narrow down your list to the best 3 to 5 Comps available, get a screenshot of the following:
- MLS results page
- Map view of Comp locations
- Stats table for those Comps. These are items that you can email to the Buyer.
Then place your MLS window side-by-side your CMA spreadsheet (available to Premium Members) on your desktop. Fill in the CMA spreadsheet using the info on the MLS.
You can Print the finished spreadsheet as a PDF file to send to your client. You can also get a screenshot of the CMA spreadsheet to email the client with the items from Step 5.

Making Price Adjustments Based on Market Conditions

When you are pricing a home for a seller, it’s a good idea to take a few minutes to pull up the five-year Stats from your MLS to help determine what type of real estate market your local area is experiencing.

You will need the Market Classification Worksheets for this process (PREMIUM ACCESS).

how to do a cma in real estate 2 — Last month of 3.8 is Increasing (slowing down).

Keep in mind that this is Market Classification method is not a guaranteed method because it looks at PAST data and cannot see FUTURE data.

First, pull up the five-year stats for Months of Inventory, for the subdivision or ZIP Code in which the house is located, on your MLS.

Second, on the five-year data chart, compare the current month’s stat to the preceding 12 months, to determine if the number is increasing, decreasing, or about the same.

Third, circle the box representing the condition (increasing/decreasing) on the table available on the Market Classification Worksheets.

Repeat the process for the other Statistics on the worksheet table.

If you circled mostly boxes in the Slow column, then the market is slow/slowing. Likewise, if you circled mostly boxes in the Hot column, the market is heating up.

Now adjust your CMA values (if necessary) based on the Market Classification.

Shift the home price to the left (lower than CMA price) for lower condition homes in slower markets with high inventory and lots of competition.
Shift the home price to the right (higher than CMA price) for premium condition homes in hotter markets with low inventory and minimum competition.

Making Price Adjustments Based on House Appearance & Condition

Another way to ensure that your CMA value is accurate is to go through the House Classification process and adjust your CMA value based on the appearance and condition of the house.

Typically, you should only do this for seller clients, but there may be times when you want to do this for buyer clients.

You will need the House Classification Worksheet for this process (PREMIUM ACCESS)

1. Print the House Classification Worksheet and use it based on either:

Your personal viewing of the property when you showed it to your buyer clients.
Or your personal viewing of the property when you went on your listing appointment.

2. Circle the correct box (Below Average, Average, Above Average, Premium) for the following variables. This helps you identify the overall appearance & condition of the house as home buyers see it.

Cosmetic Materials & Finishes
Curb Appeal
Flooring
Furnishings
Window Coverings
Deferred Maintenance
Age of Roof
Age of HVAC system
Kitchen
Floorplan
Outside Features
Defects

3. Now “classify” the house based on which column has the most items circled. If most of the boxes are Below Average, then don’t use a top-dollar price for the home. Likewise, if most of the boxes are Premium, then don’t use a bottom-dollar price for the home.

4. Now adjust your CMA price (if necessary) based on the House Classification worksheet.

- Shift the home price to the left (lower than CMA price) for lower condition homes in slower markets with high inventory and lots of competition.
- Shift the home price to the right (higher than CMA price) for premium condition homes in hotter markets with low inventory and minimum competition.

THREE OF THE BEST WORKSHEETS FOR PRICING HOMES CORRECTLY….

A Smarter Way to Adjust CMAs—And Impress Your Clients Go Beyond Square Footage: Classify Homes Like a Pro Not all ...

Impress Sellers and Get More Listings with This Unique Approach Stop Guessing—Classify the Market and Price the House Right Most ...

Why Isn’t This House Selling? Use This Unique Method to Solve Your Seller's Concerns Step-by-Step Tool to Diagnose Stagnant Listings ...

These items are available with PREMIUM ACCESS

How to Become the Local Real Estate Expert

Dominate Your Market with Local Expertise

Learning how to become the local real estate expert is important−here’s why. All real estate agents in your area (your competition) are selling the same products as you: the same houses and the same location. The key differentiator—the way you can set yourself apart from the pack—is your expertise in your product. It’s so obvious, yet this is probably the most overlooked aspect of your real estate training.

If you want to be a great real estate agent, you need to be a real estate expert in two areas:

Your market area (location)
Your product (residential housing)

So you can either choose to acquire this expertise very slowly over the next few years (like most real estate agents) or you can use The Easy Way to Become the Local Real Estate Expert guide and develop your expertise as quickly as possible.

The sooner you become a product and market expert, the sooner you will succeed in this business. This is what the veteran real estate agents have that you don’t have. This is what will set you apart from your competition.

Acquiring this knowledge will give you the confidence you need to attract new clients. Plus, the information that you gather in this chapter will be used in the future as you promote yourself on social media.

Learn About Your City

Even if you have lived in your area a while, you may not know it as well as you need to as a real estate agent. While you don’t need to know all the in’s and out’s of your city just because you live there, clients will expect you to have in-depth knowledge regarding the city where you work. They will ask you about schools, taxes, amenities, parks, drive times, etc. If you can’t easily answer those questions, then it’s likely they will move onto a real estate agent who can do so.

To become the local real estate expert, take some time and fill-in the City Worksheet located in The Easy Way to Become the Local Real Estate Expert guide. That worksheet includes the must-know information that clients expect you to be very familiar with.

You can look up most of this information on the Internet. Good places to start include:

City’s .gov website
Chamber of Commerce website
Google maps
School district website
Greatschools.org

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Learn About the Public Schools in Your Area

Clients will also expect you to know a lot about the local schools in your area.

What is the name of the local school district?

_____________________________________

Are there other school districts in your local area?

_____________________________________

How do these school districts compare? (Use schooldigger.com to get a comparison)

Check the school district websites in your area, and print copies of the school zone maps, one each for:

Elementary schools
Middle schools
High schools

If your area includes multiple school districts, collect the zoning maps for each district.

To become the local real estate expert, use www.Greatschools.org to make a list of the schools in your area and their ratings. Use a Word document with a table that will enable you to sort the list in various ways:

By Type (Elementary, Middle, High)
By Type, then Rating
Alphabetically

Once you know the ratings of the schools, handwrite those ratings on your printed school zone maps. Study the areas that have the highest-rated schools and the areas with the lowest-rated schools.

Learn About the Local Neighborhoods

Your primary market area may consist of single-family neighborhoods, high- and mid-rise condo buildings, or townhome complexes. To simplify things, they will all be referred to as “neighborhoods.”

If you don’t already know your area very well, use the How to Find a Profitable Target Market guide. Or you may be able to figure out the most popular neighborhoods in your primary area, by doing an Internet search for:

“Best places to live in YOURCITY”
“YOURCITY neighborhoods”
“New construction homes in YOURCITY”

New construction neighborhoods should be at the top of the list because they will have a lot of purchasing activity.

You can also look at local real estate agent websites and see how they are segmenting the primary market on their websites.

Once you know the popular neighborhoods in your area, you should do some Internet-based research to fill in a Neighborhood Worksheet for each of the top neighborhoods/buildings—one set of worksheets for each neighborhood/building. If you do one or two neighborhoods a week you will be the local real estate agent in no time!

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After you complete the City Worksheet and all the Neighborhood Worksheets that you need, use a three-ring binder and make a Neighborhood Notebook. Put the filled-in worksheets, summary pages, and builder information in the notebook. This is something that you can carry with you on tours.

Advice for Touring Your Area

You should drive your area and visit the various city and neighborhood amenities to get a first-hand view of them. You will be more comfortable showing clients homes in your area, if you know where everything is (schools, parks, hospitals, pools, golf courses, etc.) and if you have seen them, in-person, at least once.

There are two ways you can tour your area:

All at once on 3-5 day tour
One neighborhood/building per week

All At Once Tour

After you fill in your worksheets and are ready to tour your area, print a Google map and write the various places that you want to visit on the map. Then plan the order you will tour those places.

Plan three to five days in good weather to go on your tour (depending on the size of the city and the number of neighborhoods you are touring). Take photos and video clips of each neighborhood. For video clips, just pan your camera from left to right for each item (clubhouse, swimming pool, tennis courts, etc.) creating 5-15 second video clips. You can then use your photos and video clips for interesting social media posts later on.

Weekly Tour

You don’t have to tour your area all at once. You can visit just one or two neighborhoods/buildings per week. You still need to gather the same information, photos, and video clips as listed above, but you will only do one or two neighborhoods at a time. If you are a part-timer, it may be easier for you to do weekly tours rather than touring the entire area all day for 2-3 days.

About Touring Individual Houses

A lot of real estate training books and courses, including your broker training, will tell you to tour 10-20 homes per week. This is not efficient or effective. Individual houses are here today and sold tomorrow, but the amenities, parks, schools, etc. are here to stay, so focus on touring those places first. Being super-familiar with your neighborhoods will give you a lot of confidence when you are working with clients.

City Images to Collect

You should take photos and video clips when you are touring the area. Collect as many as possible but keep in mind that more can be added later.

For the best photos, try to tour the city on a sunny day in the spring or summer.

A video clip is usually only a 5 to 15 seconds video, either panning a scene from left to right, or starting zoomed in on the subject and then slowly zooming out.

There’s a helpful list of city images/video clips to collect in The Easy Way to Become the Local Real Estate Expert guide.

Neighborhood Images To Collect

You should also take photos and video clips for each of your top neighborhoods. To get the best photos, try to tour neighborhoods on sunny, non “trash days,” in the spring or summer.

There’s a helpful list of neighborhood images/video clips to collect in The Easy Way to Become the Local Real Estate Expert guide.

Learn About Home Construction

In addition to learning the local area to become the local real estate expert, you also need to be an expert in your product.

Real estate agents sell homes…that’s our product. It may be single-family homes, townhomes, farm and ranch properties, high-rise condos, but they are all homes.

You should have at least intermediate knowledge of home construction, materials, systems, architectural details, and potential defects so that you can discuss them with clients when you are out showing houses or on listing appointments. The more knowledge you have, the more confidence you will project with clients, which builds your credibility with them and makes them want to work with you. No client wants to hire an agent who knows less about homes than they do.

Another reason that you need to know a lot about houses is so you can effectively manage the home inspection process, negotiate repairs, and prepare homes to go on the market to sell, etc.

Here are a few places to start learning about houses, but do some Internet searches to find more:

You can learn a lot of what you need to know by reading articles on the Internet and watching YouTube videos. You should visit home improvement stores and learn about materials and costs. You can purchase books on home construction, improvement, maintenance, and repairs. You should also tour model homes and ask builder’s sales agents to tell you about their features and benefits. If possible, ask a veteran agent in your office to go on a tour of a few homes in the area. Choose homes that have been on the market a long time…they probably have issues and defects that the veteran agent can point out to you and teach you what to look for (and avoid).

Another way to learn about home construction is to attend home inspections (once you start working with buyer clients) and listen to what inspectors have to say.

Use the checklist in The Easy Way to Become the Local Real Estate Expert guide to keep track of what you need to know about home construction. You want to know the common terms and understand the PROs and CONs, materials, common defects to watch out for, and price ranges for most of the following items. You should be able to confidently discuss these topics with your clients.

You don’t have to learn all these topics at once, but you should schedule time each week to learn about these items and become very knowledgeable about them. The sooner you know this information really well, the sooner you will project an image of confidence when working with clients.

As you go through the learning process, make bookmarks of helpful websites and articles and keep them organized so you can refer back to them when you create social media posts in the future. Whenever you see interesting graphics or photos, download the file, or capture a screenshot as a JPG file, so you can use those items on future social media posts. However, be careful of copyright infringement and always include the source (the URL address) of the information.

Overall, you’ve got to Know Your Product!
People don’t want to hire real estate amateurs; they want to hire real estate experts. Selling real estate is not just about knowing the laws and contracts. You must be knowledgeable about home materials and construction if you want to be a successful real estate agent.

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Master Your Market and Stand Out With HyperLocal Expertise

Use Local Knowledge to Attract Clients and Close More Deals

If you’re not known as the expert in your market, you’re losing business to someone who is. Buyers and sellers want to work with agents who know the area inside and out—not just someone with a license.

This guide helps you master everything from local amenities and school ratings to sales data, builders, and commute times—so you’re never caught off guard in a client conversation or listing appointment.

Step-by-Step Process for Choosing a Profitable Target Market–From Guesswork to Paycheck

Critical Step for Your Real Estate Business

Choosing a profitable target market may be the most critical step of building your real estate business. However, most real estate agents just randomly pick an area that is close to where they live, spend lots of time and energy marketing in that area, only to fail at their efforts and wonder “what’s wrong with me?” or “what am I doing wrong?”

If you want to skip the hassle of wasting time and effort, then you must take some time to study your area and find out which possible markets will be profitable for you. Don’t base your marketing efforts on assumptions. Use the data in your MLS and do some real market analysis.

This process will help you with your HyperLocal expertise as well.

how to find profitable target market in real estate — CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

Once you find some possible target markets, make sure you narrow it down to the target market that is best for YOU (based on your unique characteristics). Also choose marketing activities that are a good match for your natural personality. This will help you actually ENJOY your marketing activities and prevent burnout.

Learn How to Use Your MLS First

Before you can study sales data in your local market, you have to know how to use the MLS software. Sign up for your MLS training classes as soon as possible. Take all the classes available: basic and advanced. Take online tutorials (if available). You really should be a PRO at using your MLS—it’s one of the best (and exclusive) tools we have as real estate agents. The information contained in the MLS is what gives you a key differentiator in your market place.

When you take your classes, make sure you learn the skills listed below.

Search by geographical area: by city, ZIP Code, subdivision, building, etc.
Search an area by using a mapping tool (if available with your MLS)
Obtain sales statistics for a geographical area within a specific time range (6 mths, 1 year, 5 years, etc.):
- Number of Actives on the market
- Number of Solds
- Cumulative Days on Market
- Median sales price
- Lowest sales price
- Highest sales price
- Median price/sf
Create charts and graphs for Stats (if available with your MLS) for various market areas (city, ZIP Code, subdivision, building, etc.)
- Five- or ten-year sales price trends
- CDOM trends
- Quantity Sold trends
Create custom searches for home buyers and set up automatic notification system for them (if available)
Print a map of a set of homes you want to see on a home tour
Print information sheets for buyers, per house (for home tours)
Print information sheets for agents, per house (for home tours)
Access the tax records for a specific owner’s name or address
Access lot details about a specific home, including flood zones (if available)

Study Your Primary Market: Area & Property Type

Understand How Your Local Market is Segmented

When you sell real estate, you are selling both a location and a home. Real estate is associated with land, and land is divided into countries, states, counties, cities, neighborhoods, ZIP Codes, etc. Then on that land, there are different types of homes for sale or lease, such as single-family homes, townhomes, high rise condos, rentals, etc. Every area is different. You probably won’t have a lot of Country Homes & Acreage properties in downtown Los Angeles, and you may not find any High-Rise Buildings in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Your MLS will be set up to search for homes by type, including some or all of the following:

Single Family Homes
Townhomes/Condos
Country Homes & Acreage
Farms & Ranches
Mid- and High-Rise Buildings
Rentals
Empty Lots

Your MLS will segment the area in multiple ways, with multiple fields:

City
ZIP Code
County
School District
Subdivision

Master Planned Community (Neighborhood)
Geo Market Area
Area
Legal Subdivision

Regardless if it’s in a neighborhood, a building, or a townhome community, all properties have a Subdivision field in the MLS. They will also have a Legal Subdivision field that is more exact. Get to know how agents list homes in your area on the MLS…it can be “tricky” for some neighborhoods which may also be part of a Master Planned Community field.

There are multiple ways to segment a local market, depending on the type of homes you want to sell and the area in which they are located:

Primary Market: Large geographical area (such as city or ZIP Code) plus type of home (single-family, high-rise condo, townhome, etc.). Example: Single-family homes in Tulsa, OK

Secondary Market: Specific neighborhoods, high-rise buildings, or condo complexes in your primary market. Example: The River Oaks, Garden Oaks, and Water Gardens neighborhoods in Dallas, TX or all Inner-Loop high rise buildings in Houston, TX

Farm Area: One specific neighborhood, building, or complex in your secondary market. Example: The Continental High Rise Building in Atlanta, GA

Niche Market: One specific type of client or home such as First-Time Home Buyers or Waterfront Homes in your primary market. Example: Golf course homes in Palm Spring, FL

Define Your Primary Market

A primary market is usually an entire city or ZIP Code. However, in metropolitan areas and very large cities, it may be only a specific portion of the city (such as several ZIP Codes within the city). In rural areas that are not densely populated, the primary market may be an entire county or region. In a small state like Rhode Island, the primary market could be the entire state.

In what type of primary market will you work and serve? (check the one that applies)

___ Metropolitan – several areas or ZIP Codes within metropolitan area

___ Urban – large city

___ Suburban – town or city on the “skirts” of a larger city or metro area

___ Rural – country area outside of a city or suburb

Fill-in the following table with information on your primary market…the primary area in which you sell houses. If you serve only one city then you may have only one ZIP Code.

You can do an Internet search for “zip code map for YOURCITY” and then click Images to find and print a ZIP Code map for your area. Keep the map handy.

What types of homes are available in your primary market? (check all that apply)

___ Single-family

___ Multi-family

___ Townhomes

___ High- and mid-rise condos

___ Farm and Ranch

___ Country Homes with Acreage

___ Other: ____________________

Different types of homes have different characteristics. Selling high-rise condos is different from selling single-family homes, which is different from selling farm and ranch properties. To generate the most leads, you should try to focus on the predominant type of home in your primary area (unless you want to focus on a niche).

During your first year, learn everything you can about the predominant type of home in your area. Become an expert in that type of housing. Learn the INs and OUTs of buying, selling, and living in that type of property. Have a list of home inspectors for that type of property. Your clients are going to rely on you to help them buy and sell houses, so you need some expertise in the type of product you are selling.

Study Sales Data in Your Primary Market

Use the How to Find a Profitable Target Market worksheets, and your MLS, to study your primary market based on sales data from the past 6 mths (for large areas with many sales) or 12 months (for smaller areas with fewer sales). This will give you a general understanding of your area. It will also help you to know which areas are the most and least profitable, so you don’t waste time focusing on unprofitable markets.

You do not have to analyze every type of property. If you don’t plan to handle rentals, then don’t analyze that column. If you don’t have Country Homes and Acreage, then don’t waste time on that category either. However, it never hurts to have a complete understanding on what types of properties are selling best in your area, and which ZIP Codes are selling the most.

What types of property are predominant in your area? Which areas have the most sales? Focus on no more than two property types on the next page.

Study Top One or Two Types of Property in Each ZIP Code

Sometimes it is very obvious that there is only one property type with the most sales in your area. However, there could be two or more property types that have similar sales activity. Use the How to Find a Profitable Target Market worksheets to look more closely at the sales data for the top two types of property (single family, townhome, high-rise, etc.). Your objective is to find the one most profitable property type and area to focus your business during your first year.

Which ZIP Codes have the most sales? Start narrowing your focus to find a “hot” target market, but make sure it has enough activity to meet your business goals.

Study Your Secondary Market: Top Neighborhoods or Buildings

A secondary market is the top-selling neighborhoods/buildings within your primary area. Once you know the type of property and the area (such as ZIP Code) that you want to focus on, then use your MLS software to find the top-selling neighborhoods/buildings in that area.

Using your MLS, search for Solds in your chosen city or ZIP Code(s), over the past 6 to 12 months (depending on the size of the area), and then sort the MLS results by Subdivision. Then scroll through the results, and write down the names of all the neighborhoods/buildings that seem to have a high quantity of sales on the table on the next page. This will create a list of subdivisions (neighborhoods/buildings) for you to investigate in order to find the top-selling neighborhoods in your area.

Study Top-Selling Neighborhoods/Buildings

Scroll through the MLS results for Solds in the past 6 to 12 months (depending on the number of sales available in that period), for the type of property and area (city or ZIP code) that you plan to focus, and look for Subdivisions with the most sales. Write the names on the How to Find a Profitable Target Market worksheets.

Use your MLS to collect the stats for each subdivision, and write that information on the worksheets. Then copy the applicable table to a Word document so that you can sort the table in different ways (see below) to identify the top neighborhoods/buildings in your area.

Identify Top Neighborhoods/Buildings

Find the top five neighborhoods/buildings in each of the following categories:

Most Popular (by number of sales)
Luxury (by median sales price, high to low)
Most affordable (by median sales price, low to high)
Fastest Selling (by CDOM, low to high)
Lowest amount of Inventory (by Months of Inventory, low to high)

Think about the results and understand why. Why are certain neighborhoods the fastest selling? Why do certain neighborhoods have the lowest inventory?

– Schools? – Location? – New Construction? – Price? – Age? – View?

For help, discuss these things with a mentor or experienced agent in your office.

Evaluate Possible Farm Areas

Some agents, not all, choose to “farm” a specific neighborhood as their marketing strategy. A farm area is one specific neighborhood or building in your secondary market. Targeting a specific neighborhood/building can be a lot easier than targeting an entire city or ZIP code. It is much easier to become the “hyperlocal real estate expert” for a farm area than for a large city.

A farm area needs to be small enough that you can affordably advertise in it on a consistent basis (monthly advertising is important), but has enough active sales to be worth your attention. It should be a neighborhood/building that you will enjoy working and one that is a good match for you demographically.

If it is a very large neighborhood or building, then you may want to start your direct mail focus on one section of about 100-200 homes first and then expand as your budget grows. Expect to spend at least $300/mth on direct mail and other advertising in the beginning of your career. Remember that it may take 10+ months of consistent, monthly advertising until you see results.

Now that you have analyzed your secondary market, do you see any specific neighborhoods/buildings that may be a good match for you to farm? Top-selling neighborhoods are often a good choice, but it depends on where you want to focus your efforts.

Possible Farm areas:

Now transfer the data from the previous worksheet for your possible farm areas on p. 7 of the How to Find a Profitable Target Market worksheets. Does one neighborhood stand out as the most likely to be profitable?

Evaluate Possible Niche Markets

Active, top-selling neighborhoods or buildings are usually the best type of target markets in real estate. However, some real estate agents may choose a “niche” market as their target market. A niche market is a specific type of home buyer or seller.

Just like farming a geographical area, targeting a specific niche can be a lot easier than targeting an entire primary market or even a secondary market. However, you need to make sure that your niche is large enough (number of Solds) to be profitable.

When selecting a niche market, you should consider your personal passions and hobbies, but also make sure that the niche exists in your market. If you love playing golf, then golf course homes may be a fun niche for you…unless you live in the middle of a large city where there are no golf course homes available. Or, if you live in a predominantly Oil & Gas area, then energy-efficient Greenies may not be a good niche market for you…even if it is one of your passions. And if you live in a retirement area with very high sales prices, then first-time home buyers may not be a good focus for you, even if you like that niche.

When choosing a niche, make sure:

Your niche is available in your market area.
You have commonalities with your chosen niche.
Your niche is big enough for you to meet your financial goals.
Your niche is a good match for you, given the demographics of your niche.
You have the right skillset to generate leads for your chosen niche.

The following lists show common types of real estate niches. Check only those that you have something in common and only if they exist in your market. (If your market is downtown Atlanta, then don’t choose farm and ranch.) Keep in mind that you will need the right skillset to advertise to the type of niche market that you choose.

Niche Market Summary

You can only use the MLS to analyze some types of niches, not all of them. There is no MLS field for “first time home buyer” but there are fields for: Private Pool, New Construction Home, Golf Course Lot, etc. Use p. 9 on the How to Find a Profitable Target Market worksheets to get an idea of what’s available in your market, so you can evaluate if it may be a profitable niche.

Select a Profitable Target Market

Once you understand your market, then you should select a “target market” to focus your marketing efforts on. Of course, you will help clients buy and sell anywhere in your primary market, but that area may be too big (and expensive) to “target” your advertising efforts…especially your first year. So it is wise to select a secondary market, farm area, or niche market to set as your “target market.”

For example, your target market may be:

One favorite neighborhood/building/subdivision (farm area)

–Or–

Top 5-10 selling neighborhoods in the city (secondary market)

–Or–

Top 5-10 selling high-rise condo buildings in a ZIP Code (secondary market)

–Or–

One niche market in the city (golf course homes)

–Or–

A combination…one farm area and one niche market

The size of your target market is important. It must be active enough (with a high number of sales) to provide enough sales in order for you to reach your business goals, but small enough for you to cover effectively. If you live in a metropolitan area, such as Chicago, you probably can’t cover the entire metro area, so you will need to “drill-down” to a secondary market, niche market, or farm area. However, if you live in a rural area, you may have to cover several small towns in your region, or an entire county, in order to meet your income goals.

Write Down Three Potential Target Markets

List the top three possible target markets for you on p. 10 of the How to Find a Profitable Target Market worksheets.

Do the Possible Target Markets Have Enough Sales?

Before you waste time focusing on a specific target market, double-check to make sure it has enough sales to support your income goals.

*Market Share Percentage: This varies depending on how much market share you think you can obtain in the neighborhood. If you think you can get 20 percent market share, then multiply the number of homes sold in that market per year by .2 (20 percent), and make sure the total is greater or equal to your goal for the number of homes you want to sell each year.

If a potential target market does not have enough annual sales to support your business goals, then you should either select a different target market or combine several neighborhoods in your target market (such as the “Top Ten Neighborhoods in YOURCITY”).

Are You a Good Match for the Target Market?

It is often said in real estate that people want to work with people they “know, like, and trust.” The more two people have in common, the more likely they will “like and trust” each other. So it is important for real estate agents to focus on markets that consist of people similar to them. For example, if you are a single, 20 year old, driving a 10 year old beat-up car, with only a high-school education, then you may have a hard time getting affluent, well-educated couples living in luxury neighborhoods and driving luxury cars to hire you. Or if you are a 60 year old who has a hard time with technology and hates to text or participate on social media, then you may not get hired by many Millennial first-time home buyers.

To make your life easier, and your career more successful, you must double-check yourself with your target market. If you are a mis-match to your chosen market, then select a different target market or discover ways to overcome the obstacles that you will face.

Research the demographics of your potential target markets and complete the table on p. 11 of the How to Find a Profitable Target Market worksheets. Some of this information may be difficult or impossible to obtain at a neighborhood or niche level, but the thought process is very helpful.

Your Target Market: ___________________________________________

Summary

Selecting the right target market is one of the most important steps in building a successful real estate business. Without the right target market, you are likely to spin your wheels, waste time, and waste money and then wonder “What’s wrong with me?” when your marketing activities don’t work.

Taking a careful study of your primary and secondary markets, as well as possible niche markets, will enable you to choose a target market that will be profitable for your business. Double-checking to make sure that there are enough sales in the target market to meet your business goals is another way to ensure that you don’t waste time on the wrong market.

Finally, it’s important to match both your target market and your marketing activities to YOUR unique personality. This will help you be more effective at marketing your business, since most people want to do business “with people they know like, and trust.” Plus, choosing the marketing activities that are a match for your personality will help prevent burnout and make it easier for you to enjoy your lead generation efforts.

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Zero in On the Right Area – Dominate Your Local Real Estate Market

Too many new agents jump into the business without a clear strategy—and end up spinning their wheels in areas with little activity or profit potential. This guide changes that.

Go through the step-by-step process with the worksheets in this guide and you’ll find the perfect target market for YOU.

Daily Checklist for Real Estate Agents

Stay Focused, Stay Consistent, and Start Closing More Deals—One Day at a Time

This Is How To “Work Your Database”!

You have work tasks to do every day, even if you don’t have any active clients. Use a new, blank Daily Checklist for Real Estate Agents each day to remind you of your important lead generation activities and to record your notes about the day. If you start by 8 a.m. each morning, then you should be finished by 11 a.m. or noon. Then you have the rest of the day for going on appointments or doing other things.

Start Your Day (Goals & Calendar)

The first thing you should do each morning is turn your phone ringer off! You need undistracted focus to be successful. In fact, you can set a Do Not Disturb rule on your phone so that the ringer is automatically turned off until noon.

Also turn off email notifications on your phone and computer. You do not need to be notified every time you get an email. You should only check your email at certain times of the day…not constantly. You can return non-new-lead phone calls and texts in the afternoon.

Start your day with a blank Daily Checklist for Real Estate Agents and then write your top goals at the top. Manually writing your goals every day is a good reinforcement technique. Some people manually write all their goals at least ten times a day.

Now review your affirmations and repeat each to yourself 10 times while visualizing yourself achieving the affirmation or goal. This helps you “begin with the end in mind” every single day. Focusing on your goals and affirmations at the beginning of each day will help you achieve success!

Next, check your calendar for the day and review any appointments that you have that day.

Lead Follow-Up

In the Lead Follow-Up section, write down your Start Time so you can keep track of the time you spend on this activity. Next, check your voice mail and, using a notepad, write down any new leads who have left messages. Also check your texts and emails and write those down too.

Once you have written down all the new leads that you need to follow up on, start calling each of them back (if you have their phone number) or emailing them back if that’s the only contact method you have. During the conversation, make sure you ask, “How did you hear about me?” It is very important to keep track of where your leads come from, so you can know what activities are working and what’s not. Sometimes leads will be vague, not knowing exactly how they heard about you, but do the best you can to track the source of the lead.

During the conversation, you should try to set an appointment with the prospect (if applicable). If the prospect doesn’t answer your call, text that you did call them, and set a reminder to call back tomorrow. Call every day for a week before giving up.

When you are finished following up on leads, write down the End Time and then the total amount of time you spend on Lead Follow-Up.

Prospecting Your Sphere of Influence

After you do your Lead Follow Up, then you will move to the Prospecting section of your checklist. Write down the Start Time on the Daily Checklist for Real Estate Agents.

First, check your Calendar for birthdays and anniversaries and call those people first. If you don’t get an answer, then send a text.

Then check this week’s Call List. Write down the VIPs that you need to contact today on your checklist. Start calling those VIPs and building/maintaining your relationship with them. If you don’t get an answer, then write a quick note card to mail to them. Alternatively, you can email them, send a text, or send a Facebook message (depending on what the VIP likes best), but a handwritten note card is recommended (since so few people do that any more). Check off the ways that you reached out to each VIP on your Daily Checklist for Real Estate Agents.

Here are some Topics for useful conversation starters when you call your VIPs:

Comment on their recent Facebook posts…something going on in their life.
“I’m just calling to check-in and see how everything is going…”
“Want to go to lunch this week?” (or meet for coffee)
“Do you know about the XYZ event coming up?” (local events)
“What’s going on in the neighborhood these days? How do you like living there?”
“Everything ok with the house?”
“Are you on LinkedIn? Wanna Endorse each other?”
“Did you see my FB post about _______? Will you please Share it with your Friends?”

Be prepared to talk about something going on in your career…happy, funny, or interesting. Never complain about your career, or clients, or being too busy. Be positive and happy. Offer to do CMAs or set up monthly Neighborhood Watch searches for them, or email/text a link to something new that you just wrote. Regular market reports are something that most people are interested in.

You can ask for referrals (“Know anyone who wants to sell their house soon?”) but only in a friendly, casual way…don’t annoy your VIPs by asking for business every time you talk. Contacting them regularly will keep you “top of mind” so they will remember you when their friends and family talk about real estate.

Offering to help your VIPs in some way is a great way to build your relationship, so as much as possible, give your VIPs referrals as well. Helping your VIPs will motivate them to help you too.

Try to contact at least one VIP person a day (1/day x 5 days/wk = at least 20/mth!). The more people you contact, the better. When you are finished Prospecting your VIP list, write down the End Time and Total Time.

Daily Personal Post on Social Media Platforms

Calling your VIPs is very important, but you will also stay in touch with them, as well as other prospects, on various social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.). You should try to do a personal post at least once a day to as many of these accounts as possible. To make this process easier, you can write a post on Facebook first, and then copy and paste it to your other social media accounts.

Rotate the type of personal posts you do daily….one day a funny post, the next a business-related post (Open House, Closing, new listing, market update), the next day a current event, etc. Mix it up! Don’t post about business (as your personal post) more than a couple of times a week. Make sure you sound upbeat and excited on posts about your career.

After you create a personal post and copy it to all your SM accounts, then spend 15-30 minutes (set a timer) Commenting, Liking, and Resharing your VIP posts on various SM platforms. The goal is to maintain rapport with your VIPs and other prospects by showing them that you are paying attention to their posts.

Tips for Social Media Posts:

- Include a photo or video on all your posts.
- Set the Privacy to Public so your posts can be reshared by your Followers.
- Ask questions that people can respond to regarding your posts, such as:
  - How true is this? Like and Comment if you agree!
  - Tag a friend who would like to see this.
  - Who else thinks…
  - What do you think about…
  - Do you agree that…
  - What’s your favorite thing about…
  - Tell me what you think: Smiley face = Yes and Angry face = No.
- Don’t complain about anything to your Followers and don’t post religious or political posts. (If you feel this is necessary, then do that privately with a limited Friend List designed for that purpose.)
- Reply to all Comments on your posts.

Daily Business Post

It is very important that you keep your FaceBook Business page fresh and up-to-date. So make sure you post business-related posts to your FBP account each day. Then copy and paste that post to your other accounts, as appropriate, that are listed on the checklist. This includes your LinkedIn account, Instagram account, etc.

Remember that the Followers are probably interested in your market area, so each day you can post interesting information about your market to keep your page fresh and remind people that you sell houses in that area. Information that comes from your City and Neighborhood Worksheets will be good to post (with photos or short video clips), such as “Check out the pickleball court in NeighborhoodX” or “Have you been to these YOURCITY parks?”

You can also reshare helpful posts from other sources like the city’s Facebook page, or the county’s office of emergency management, the local baseball team, or the sheriff’s office, etc. Follow those types of pages so you can reshare them when something interesting pops up.

Most people like to look at houses, so you can create posts of the “Top 10 Most Expensive Homes in Tulsa” and “20 Dream Homes in Beaumont” or “Spectacular Kitchens in Phoenix” (for example) and post them on your social media pages as well. Learn how to use your MLS to quickly create these lists of homes for sale and then make them available for the public to view. On your posts, link to the web page where those listings can be viewed. If you find a really interesting list of homes, then reshare that business post to your personal feed on Facebook.

NOTE If you want people to reshare your Facebook posts, then make sure the Privacy is set to Public.

You will need a collection of un-copyrighted photos for some of these business posts. Don’t use photos of listings that are not yours. You should already have a collection of local area photos from the tours you did when using the How to Become a HyperLocal Real Estate Expert guide. You can also purchase royalty-free photos on iStock or some other online photo service.

Building Your Website

If you are using a Digital Marketing strategy (generating leads from your business website) then you should try to write a new real estate article several times a week. Then link that article on all your social media platforms by posting about the article on all those platforms.

This builds your website over time and also drives organic traffic to your website. (While simultaneously building your Local Area Expertise.)

Track Lead Generation Activities

Make sure you have a way to keep track of the time you spent on your lead generation activities today. Also track the results so that, over time (3 to 6 months), you can see what activities create the most leads and what activities don’t seem to work. Only do activities that are giving you results over time. Don’t waste time or money on activities that don’t work.

Go on Appointments, Or…

Now it’s time to go on the appointments that you have set for the day. If you don’t have any appointments, then do other lead generation activities, depending on your Marketing Strategy…

Are you Farming a neighborhood? Then set up an Open House, write a newsletter ad and get it published, go door knocking, or drive the neighborhood looking for FSBOs to call.

Are you a Networker? Then find a meeting or event to attend this week or contact people in your Vendor Referral Network (painters, contractors, etc.) and see if they have any referrals.

Summary

The Daily Checklist for Real Estate Agents is designed to help you start each day with focus, structure, and intention. You’ll begin by setting clear goals, reviewing your calendar, and blocking off quiet time to handle your most important work without distractions. Each day, you’ll follow up with leads, connect with your sphere of influence, and post both personal and business content on social media to stay visible and build trust. You’re also encouraged to publish blog content regularly to grow your website and attract new clients. Whether you have appointments or not, this checklist keeps you focused on productive habits that drive long-term success.

Stay Focused, Stay Consistent, and Start Closing More Deals—One Day at a Time

This Is How To “Work Your Database”!

Success in real estate isn’t about luck—it’s about having a plan and sticking to it. This Daily Checklist for Productive Agents was created specifically for new and rookie agents who need structure, direction, and daily motivation to grow their business.

Print this checklist and use it everyday to fast-track your success!

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Crafting the Perfect Real Estate Agent Bio–Stand Out, Get Noticed, Win More Clients

Why Your Real Estate Agent Bio Profile Matters

Creating a compelling real estate agent bio/profile is one of the most important marketing steps you can take as a new or seasoned professional. Whether you’re building a presence on Zillow, your brokerage’s website, or a Google Business Profile, your agent bio tells potential clients who you are, what you value, and why they should trust you with their real estate journey.

Your real estate bio/profile is more than a short biography—it’s your digital handshake. In a world where buyers and sellers start their agent search online, your profile might be the first impression they have of you. A generic, poorly written bio can signal inexperience or lack of effort. In contrast, a professional and personal profile builds immediate trust and makes you stand out in a crowded market. It gives readers insight into your background, local expertise, personality, and commitment to service. Whether they’re researching you on Google, LinkedIn, or your brokerage website, your profile helps them decide whether they want to work with you.

Start with Your Target Market in Mind

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

Before writing a single sentence, get clear on who you’re writing for. Are you targeting first-time buyers, investors, military families, or luxury home clients? Your profile should speak directly to their needs, concerns, and goals. Think about what that audience values: neighborhood knowledge, fast communication, a caring personality, or negotiation skills. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone, focus your message on the clients you want to attract most. This helps you create a profile that feels personalized and focused, not generic. For example, if you work primarily with relocating families, emphasize your area expertise, local school insights, and smooth transition processes.

Structure Your Profile for Clarity and Flow

A strong real estate bio should follow a logical structure that helps the reader understand your background and value. Start with a one-sentence summary of who you are and what you specialize in. Then briefly explain your real estate experience or what drew you to the industry. If you are a new agent, mention any prior careers or skills that make you especially suited to serve clients. Include some personal touches such as hobbies, volunteer work, or local involvement. End with a statement of what clients can expect from working with you. Use short paragraphs and avoid overloading the reader with too many credentials or buzzwords—be clear, honest, and warm.

Add Local Flavor and Personal Passion

Buyers and sellers want an agent who knows and loves the area they serve. Mention how long you’ve lived in the community, what you enjoy about the neighborhoods, and why you chose to build your business there. If you have favorite parks, schools, or businesses, share that. Your passion for your market area adds credibility and makes you more relatable. Personal details—such as raising a family locally, volunteering at community events, or serving on a school board—can build trust and emotional connection. Clients don’t just want a transaction—they want a guide who understands the community they’re joining or leaving.

Include Key Skills, Awards, and Credentials

While you don’t want to turn your bio into a résumé, it’s important to highlight professional credentials. Mention any awards, designations, certifications, or years of experience. Skills like negotiation, home staging, tech-savviness, or bilingual fluency are valuable differentiators. If you’re a newer agent, highlight past professional experience that shows your reliability and service mindset. Were you in sales, education, or project management? These roles often translate well to real estate. Make sure to include your license number if required by your state or brokerage, and always double-check for accuracy and compliance.

Use a Consistent Voice Across All Platforms

Your real estate bio will appear in many places—your website, Facebook page, LinkedIn, and more. While you can slightly tailor each one to the platform, keep the overall tone and content consistent. Use the same tagline, contact information, and social links. This consistency reinforces your brand and makes it easy for people to recognize and trust you online. You may want to write a long version of your profile for your website and a shorter version (about 3–4 sentences) for social media accounts. Just be sure the core message remains the same.

Create a Tagline That Captures Your Value

A tagline is a short, memorable phrase that summarizes your real estate philosophy or promise to clients. It should be professional, unique, and relevant to your niche. Examples include “Your Local Lakefront Specialist,” “Helping First-Time Buyers Every Step of the Way,” or “Houston Homes, Heartfelt Service.” You can use this tagline on your business cards, email signature, and social media bios. It helps build brand recognition and gives clients an immediate sense of what you offer. Avoid clichés or vague phrases—focus on real value that resonates with your audience.

Proofread and Get Feedback

After drafting your bio, step away for a few hours before proofreading. Look for grammatical errors, awkward phrasing, or sentences that don’t flow. Read it aloud to make sure it sounds natural and conversational. Ask a mentor, broker, or trusted colleague to review it and offer suggestions. You want your bio to sound professional but still feel like you. If it feels stiff or overly formal, revise until it sounds more human. Authenticity wins in real estate—people want to work with someone who feels approachable and trustworthy.

Final Thoughts: Your Bio Is a Marketing Tool—Use It Wisely

Your real estate profile is not just about listing facts—it’s a tool to build trust, showcase personality, and attract your dream clients. Put real thought into it, update it regularly, and make sure it reflects both your professionalism and passion. When done right, your bio becomes a magnet for leads, referrals, and repeat business. Treat it as a core part of your marketing strategy—and make sure it evolves with you as your brand grows.

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Make Your First Impression Count—Craft a Profile That Sells Your Expertise

This guide walks you through a fill-in-the-blank template to write a clear, engaging, and professional profile that reflects your unique personality, local expertise, and value to your target market.

Use this profile when setting up your profile on real estate related websites as well as your social media accounts.

New Real Estate Agent Onboarding Checklist: Everything You Need to Succeed on Day One

Why New Real Estate Agent Onboarding Matters More Than You Think

Starting your real estate career at a new brokerage can be exciting—and a little overwhelming. Whether you’re newly licensed or transferring from another firm, the first few days set the tone for your success.

Many brokerages assume agents are self-starters, but without a structured onboarding process, you can miss critical steps that impact your income and confidence. Many new real estate agents underestimate the importance of a well-planned onboarding experience. This is not just about collecting business cards and learning where the printer is. A strong onboarding process helps you build confidence, understand expectations, and establish the foundation for your workflow and income. Without direction, it’s easy to miss licensing deadlines, mishandle compliance issues, or waste time on the wrong tasks.

Taking ownership of your onboarding will speed up your ramp-up time and ensure you are ready to do business faster. Think of onboarding as the launchpad for your brand, systems, and future client success. Use our Real Estate Agent Onboarding Checklist to make the process as easy and effective as possible.

Day One: Be Proactive, Not Passive

Onboarding Guide for New Real Estate Agents — CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

Your first day is not about waiting for someone to tell you what to do—it’s about showing initiative. Real estate brokerages are often not in the training business, so don’t expect a hand-holding experience. Instead, arrive with a checklist, ask questions, and take detailed notes. Find out what paperwork you need to sign, verify your license registration, and set up payment systems for office and MLS fees. Locate your workspace, introduce yourself to key staff, and ask about tech orientation. Collect office information such as the office website, social media groups, and where to get logos and signs. This proactive mindset builds trust and respect right out of the gate.

Meet the People Who Will Help You Succeed

Building relationships within your new office is just as important as finding clients. Start by identifying your key points of contact: the office manager, your team leader or mentor, tech support, the receptionist, and the compliance manager. Add their names and contact info to your phone and consider connecting with them on LinkedIn or Facebook (if appropriate). Ask who handles commission payments, who to contact for help with contracts, and who oversees new agent training. These individuals will become your internal support team—treat them with appreciation and professionalism.

Get Clear on Compliance and Contracts

One of the most common areas where new agents make mistakes is in paperwork and compliance. From the first week, request copies of all required forms and disclosures for buyers, sellers, tenants, and landlords. Ask where you can access credit check systems, tenant application procedures, and transaction templates. Review the broker’s procedure manual (if they have one), and ask about electronic signature tools and document storage systems. Getting clear on how transactions are handled at your brokerage will reduce stress and help you avoid costly errors down the road.

Set Up Your Tools and Technology

Every brokerage has different systems and platforms, and your first week is the time to get tech-savvy. Set up access to the MLS, broker website, CRM system (if provided), and email accounts. Ask how to log into your intranet or backend portal and where to find agent resources. Set up your printer, learn how to use the copier, and find out how to book conference rooms or use shared spaces. If there’s a tech orientation class, attend it. If not, schedule time with the tech support contact in your office. These tools will make your daily workflow smoother and more professional.

Build a Personalized Training Plan

Your education didn’t stop when you passed your licensing exam. Most states require ongoing courses, and your brokerage may have in-house or recommended training sessions. Ask for a list of required courses, continuing education deadlines, and broker-endorsed training. Add license renewal and MCE due dates to your calendar, and block out time weekly for professional development. Don’t forget to ask about sales meetings, productivity coaching, and mentorship opportunities. Agents who actively seek training tend to outperform their peers.

Use a Training Workbook to Stay Organized

Organization is a key trait of top producers. Use a dedicated onboarding workbook or binder to track everything you’re learning. Document procedures, save handouts, and jot down contacts and policies. This will not only help you retain information but will also serve as a reference guide for months to come. Include pages for tracking training classes, listing and buyer procedures, goal setting, and even marketing ideas. This simple tool will help you feel in control during your chaotic early months.

Know the Culture, Calendar, and Communication Style

Every office has its own culture. Find out how agents communicate—via email, bulletin boards, or private Facebook groups. Put all staff meetings, sales huddles, and special events on your calendar. Ask about volunteer opportunities or ways to get involved. If your office hosts monthly lunches or social hours, show up. The more you engage with your colleagues, the faster you’ll become part of the team. Don’t underestimate the power of relationships inside your office—they often lead to referrals and partnerships.

Final Thoughts: Your Success Starts with Structure

Onboarding isn’t just paperwork—it’s the launch of your real estate business. By approaching your first days and weeks with strategy, intentionality, and professionalism, you give yourself a massive advantage. Don’t wait for your brokerage to guide you. Take the lead, build your systems, form key relationships, and continue learning. Your future success depends on what you do today.

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Hit the Ground Running at Your New Broker Office

Don’t Just Show Up—Stand Out & Impress

Starting at a new brokerage can be overwhelming—especially if you’re new to the real estate industry. These instructions will be your personal onboarding assistant, walking you through every task you need to complete during your first days with your new real estate brokerage.

Print this guide and use it on your first day.

How to Choose a Real Estate Broker: The Smart Guide for New Agents

How to choose a real estate broker is one of the most pivotal decisions a newly licensed real estate agent will make. It impacts your training, earning potential, and the overall support you’ll receive as you launch your real estate career. While this choice can feel overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be.

The How to Choose a Real Estate Broker guide breaks down the process into manageable steps so that you can evaluate options confidently. This blog post will walk you through the guide’s key insights, equip you with actionable advice, and encourage you to download the free toolkit designed to help you make the right decision.

Why Choosing the Right Real Estate Broker Matters

Your real estate broker isn’t just a middleman for your license—they’re a business partner, a mentor, and often a launching pad. The broker you choose affects everything from your daily experience to your annual income. Some brokerages focus on high commissions and autonomy, while others prioritize training, technology, and lead generation.

Choosing the right one can fast-track your success, while choosing the wrong one can leave you frustrated, unsupported, and even broke. That’s why taking time to understand your own goals and how they align with what a brokerage offers is critical.

This Is Not a Permanent Decision

The good news is that no brokerage decision is permanent. In most states, switching brokers is as simple as filing paperwork with your state real estate commission—something your new broker typically handles for you. Many new agents don’t realize that it’s common for agents to change brokerages, especially in the first few years as they learn what environment helps them thrive.

However, changing brokers too often can disrupt your branding and slow momentum, so it’s still wise to choose carefully from the beginning. If your current brokerage isn’t serving your needs, don’t hesitate to look elsewhere—but be strategic about it.

What to Look for in a Real Estate Broker

Not all brokerages are created equal, and what works for one agent may not work for another. Compensation is important, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle. You should also examine the broker’s training offerings, culture, reputation, technology tools, and support systems.

Some brokerages provide leads, mentorship programs, and marketing tools that can dramatically increase your effectiveness as a new agent. Others offer independence and higher commissions but little support. To make a smart decision, consider all the features that affect your growth, not just your paycheck.

Define What’s Important to YOU

One of the most helpful parts of the How to Choose a Real Estate Broker guide is the Broker Decision Analysis worksheet, which helps you rank what matters most to you. This system uses Multipliers—weighted values assigned to criteria based on how important each one is to you personally. For example, if training is critical to you, give it a 5. If it’s nice to have but not necessary, maybe a 3. By scoring each brokerage on the same set of criteria and applying your weighted values, you’ll get a customized score that reflects your priorities. This helps you stay objective during what can be an emotional or confusing process.

Use the Broker Comparison Worksheet

The Broker Decision Analysis worksheet makes comparing multiple brokerages easy and efficient. You assign scores based on how well each brokerage meets your needs, then multiply those scores by your previously defined Multipliers. This process creates a total score for each brokerage, allowing for apples-to-apples comparisons across various categories.

You can use the PDF version included in the download or the Excel spreadsheet, which automates calculations. Either way, the worksheet removes guesswork and helps you quantify your decision with clarity.

Interview Like a Pro

Although it might feel like the broker is interviewing you, remember—you are the one building a business. You should approach broker meetings with the same seriousness as you would a job interview, but with the mindset that you’re evaluating them too.

Dress professionally, bring a prepared list of questions, and be ready to take notes. Ask about support, leads, training, tech tools, and anything else important to you. This professional approach shows you’re serious and ensures you gather the details you need to make an informed decision.

A detailed list of Questions to Ask Brokers is available in the How to Choose a Real Estate Broker guide.

Ask the Right Questions

The quality of your brokerage interview depends on the quality of your questions. The guide provides a comprehensive list that includes everything from compensation plans to office culture and technology support. You’ll want to ask about startup costs, monthly fees, marketing flexibility, mentorship programs, and more. Make sure to write down each broker’s responses so you can compare them later. Remember, your goal isn’t just to find a place to hang your license—it’s to find a brokerage that actively supports your growth and long-term goals.

Download the Broker Decision Analysis Tool

To simplify this process, we’ve created a guide with the information you need to make a smart brokerage choice. Inside, you’ll find a Broker Decision Analysis worksheet (PDF), a list of the most important evaluation criteria, and a list of Questions to Ask Brokers (which corresponds with the Broker Decision Analysis worksheet).

Whether you’re brand new to real estate or transitioning to a new office, this guide will save you hours of research and help you feel confident in your decision. Don’t make this crucial career choice without it.

Final Thoughts: Set Yourself Up for Long-Term Success

As a new real estate agent, your first brokerage can shape your career for years to come. That’s why it’s important to take this decision seriously and use a system that reflects your unique goals and needs. Don’t just follow the crowd or choose the first brokerage that offers you a spot.

Take your time, do your research, conduct professional interviews, and compare brokers using objective data. The How to Choose a Real Estate Broker guide is your roadmap for making a smart, informed decision—and for launching your real estate career with clarity and confidence.

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Don’t Get Stuck With the Wrong Broker—
Follow This Guide to Find Your Perfect Fit

Are you a newly licensed real estate agent trying to figure out which broker is right for you? Don’t guess. Use a proven system to make one of the most important decisions of your career—with confidence.

Print this guide, which includes the Broker Decision Analysis and Questions to Ask Brokers, and take it on your interviews.

Goal Setting for Real Estate Agents–Stop Guessing. Start Growing

You Must Know Your Numbers to Create Predictable Success

Goal setting for real estate agents can be challenging and involves something that most people do not like to do: Budgets. In fact, budgeting is practically a “dirty word” to most people. However, the number one reason that most businesses fail is due to cash flow problems-not bringing in enough income to pay the expenses. If you want to succeed in real estate, you need to understand your income and expenses, and that means you have to do some preliminary budgeting and income forecasting.

In the Millionaire Real Estate Agent, Gary Keller states that you must “know your numbers” to succeed as a real estate agent. By understanding your income needs and expenses early on, you can set effective goals for your real estate business, including your overall financial goal as well as other key real estate goals, such as:

How many houses will you need to sell?
How many appointments do you need to set?
How many agreements do you need to get signed?
How many contacts do you need in your database?

These are some of the numbers that you need to know to guide your actions and reach your financial destination.

What Not to Do When Calculating Your Budgets and Income

Most new agents take an overly-simplified approach goal setting. Something like this…

I want to make $100,000/yr and my average commission is $15,000
so I need to sell 7 houses this year ($100,000/15,000).

There are multiple problems with this overly simplified approach to goal setting in real estate. First, unless you have figured out your start up costs, monthly business expenses, and actual household expenses, then you don’t really know how much money you need to make for the year.

Goal Setting for New Real Estate Agents — CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

Second, even if $100,000 will cover your household, business, and startup expenses, will it cover your taxes? You must include your income taxes in the equation if you want to set realistic goals.

Third, if the average commission is $15,000, that doesn’t mean you will bring home that entire amount for each transaction. Your broker will keep a portion of the sales commission (called a “split”) based on your compensation plan. Plus, you will usually have transaction fees and other broker fees for each transaction.

So, if $100,000 will cover your income needs, and you are in a 25 percent tax bracket, then you will actually need $133,333 to pay for everything. And if you are on a 70/30 split with a $100 transaction fee, then you will only average $10,400/transaction. So, with these more realistic numbers, you need to sell 13 houses this year-not 7 houses. That’s quite a difference!

How Much Money DO You Need to Get Started?

If you are just starting out on your real estate career, then you are probably wondering what it will cost to get your real estate license. These fees vary from state to state. You can find information on these costs on local real estate schools’ websites or your state’s real estate licensing organization website. A helpful place to start is an Internet search for “how much cost real estate agent in YOURSTATE” where YOURSTATE is the name of the state where you plan to work.

Costs to Get License

Most states require mandatory education to learn the contracts and the real estate laws of your state. The fees that real estate schools charge varies and you will need to do some research to find out the costs in your area.

There will also be fees to join your local association of Realtors, your MLS, etc. You may also have application fees at your state.

Plus, you’ll probably need to pay for real-world training AFTER you get your real estate license and you may want to buy some real estate books, so there will be other costs at the beginning of your career.

NOTE Don’t count on your broker providing a complete training course! Most of them do not have formal training and even Keller William’s training is not for EVERYTHING you need to learn as a new real estate agent.

On average, you’re probably going to spend somewhere between $2000-$4,000 to start your real estate career.

Basic Business Items You Need

The following table lists the basic business items that you will need to start your real estate career. These costs will vary from agent to agent, so you will need to do your own research to calculate the costs. You may already have many of these items and may not need to purchase them.

Car (preferably a 4-door)
Computer (preferably a laptop)
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)
Desk and chair
B&W printer (preferably capable of double-sided printing)
Color printer with scanner (with sheet feeder for scanner…not one-page at a time)
Cell phone with excellent camera (or buy a good-quality digital camera)

Total Start-Up Costs

Now add the totals from the two previous tables to calculate your Total Start-Up Costs.

Estimating Your Monthly Business Expenses

To continue your goal setting, you should think about the monthly business expenses you will have in your new career. You will have to investigate some of these fees to know their exact cost, and you will refine these numbers when you decide on your marketing strategies and write your business plan.

The median business expense amount for real estate agents (in 2021) was approximately $4250/year-or $354/mth. So, if you have no idea what your business expenses will be, you could use $400/mth as a starting point. Personally, I think $600 or $700 a month is a more reasonable number. Some agents (who pay for a lot of advertising) may spend $1500-2000/mth.

There are two types of monthly expenses to think about when goal setting: Mandatory expenses and Optional expenses.

Mandatory Expenses:

MLS Membership
Supra Key Fee
Appointment Service
Broker Admin Fee
Broker Desk Fee
Other Broker Fees
Cell Phone
Internet Service

Mandatory fees will vary per broker and whether you office at their location or at home. Not all brokers charge “Advertising” or “Marketing Fees” but some do. Some mandatory fees may be paid quarterly instead of monthly. If so, divide quarterly fees by 3 to calculate the monthly fee.

Optional Expenses:

Office Supplies
Notecards
Stamps
Website Host
IDX Subscription
Auto Responder
Direct Mail Fees
Membership Fees (Networking)
CRM System
Online Ads

Optional expenses depend on the marketing activities you implement as part of your lead generation strategy.

Calculating Your Monthly Household Budget

The next step for effective goal setting is creating a monthly household budget. The fastest way to do this is to fill in a worksheet with the costs that you know first (such as rent and car payment), then go back through the items that you are not sure about, and look at your credit card receipts, online receipts, bank statements, and checkbook to estimate your monthly costs for the other items. This may take some time but you can’t run a successful business without knowing your numbers and setting goals!

Determine your real household budget for what it takes to pay your bills and to achieve the things that you want to achieve as a real estate agent. This will help you do a better job at forecasting your income and setting your goals.

Finding Your Primary Goal

Now you can add your start up costs, estimated annual business expenses, and annual household expenses to determine the Total Income Needed, which is also your Primary Goal. Then you can calculate how many houses you need to sell in order to achieve your Primary Goal.

Your Primary Goal is the most important part of goal setting for real estate agents.

Setting Your Real Estate Goals

Now that you have determined your Primary Goal, you can set the other important goals needed to succeed in real estate. These are the “targets” to “shoot for” on a monthly basis, including:

Number of contacts to add to your database to get it the right size for your goals.
Number of appointments (either buyer or seller) to go on
Number of signed agreements needed (either buyer or seller)

Some agents use even more metrics and set even more goals, but it’s best to start off your career with a simple system.

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Know Your Numbers—Hit Your Income Goals
with Clarity and Confidence

Set Real Goals. Make Real Money. Build a Real Estate Business That Actually Works.

Most new real estate agents have no idea how many homes they need to sell to earn a real income—and even fewer understand what it actually costs to run their business.

Print this guide, and use the worksheets, to finally have clarity, direction, and a clear target to hit every month.

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Got Real Estate License Now What?

It’s One Thing to Get a Real Estate License − It’s Another Thing to Become a Money-Making, Successful Real Estate Agent

Are you asking yourself, “Got real estate license now what?” You’ll find out here!

The real estate industry is filled with opportunities for ambitious, hardworking individuals. And it’s a very rewarding career because you are helping people with the “American Dream” of owning their own home.

Plus, being a real estate agent can be very lucrative…if you succeed at it. According to the National Association of Realtors Member Survey 2024, the median gross income for REALTORS® in 2023 was $55,800/yr, with the top 20 percent earning a median gross income over $150,000.

Unfortunately, most of the things you learned to get your real estate license, are not things that will help you succeed in the real world. And most of the articles you read online were written by professional Internet writers who have never actually sold a house. Or worse–written by AI and so very generic.

Consider this as your real world road map to understanding the things you need to do AFTER you get your real estate license, in order to be a successful, money-making real estate agent. This was written by a 15-year veteran real estate and is based on the systems, tools, and resources she uses in her Top Producer business.

First, Find Out the Myths About Being a Real Estate Agent

MYTH: Agents Are Employees at Brokerages

Nope. Almost all real estate agents are 1099 Independent Contractors…not salaried or hourly employees at brokerages. This makes you a small business owner and means you only get paid a sales commission when you Close a transaction. Plus, you have to pay for all your own real estate business expenses, including paying broker fees.

So you need to learn how to set up and run a small business on your own. ☺

MYTH: My Broker Will Train Me On Everything I Need to Know

Nope. Uh-uh. No they wont. Brokerages do not have Training and HR Departments like corporations. You’ll be lucky if they have one person in charge of new agent training…and that person is probably not an expert trainer/instructional designer (or if they are, they were probably not a long-term, successful real estate agent themselves).

Even the top-training brokerages in the country only train the basics (not to be confused with “essentials” which they don’t really train). Most of them are focused on teaching you their in-house technology tools and old-fashioned lead generation techniques.

So you need to find a comprehensive training program taught by a veteran real estate agent who can teach you modern marketing methods. ☺

MYTH: My Broker Will Provide Me With Leads

Probably not. A brokerage may (if you’re lucky) give you one or two leads in the beginning, but you are going to be responsible for marketing yourself and finding your own clients. Lead generation is a big part of being a successful real estate agent. Without leads, you don’t have clients. Without clients, you can’t Close transactions. Without Closing transactions, you can’t earn a commission and get paid.

So you need to learn how to set up multiple lead generation systems and how to market yourself
effectively. ☺

MYTH: My Colleagues Will Teach Me

Probably not. The nicest colleagues in the world, if they are truly successful themselves, will be too busy to hold your hand and be readily available whenever you need them. Plus, just because they are successful doesn’t mean they know how to effectively teach you.

What’s more, you are competing with them for clients in the same market area…so it’s unlikely they will teach you their BEST techniques and systems, no matter how nice they are.

So you need to find the right training program to teach you how to be self-sufficient as quickly as possible. ☺

MYTH: I Can Figure This Out On My Own

Doubtful. If you wanted to learn how to climb a mountain, wouldn’t you hire an expert mountain-climber to teach you? Real estate is a complex business, and it will take you a lot longer to figure this all out on your own than it will to sign up for a comprehensive training program. The longer it takes you to learn the INs and OUTs of the business, the longer it takes to start making money. Meanwhile, you still have to pay all your business expenses and real estate fees. The sooner you learn what you need to know, the sooner you will start making money.

So you need to shorten your learning curve in order to start earning a living sooner. ☺

MYTH: It’s Easy to Be a Real Estate Agent

Wrong. Consumers and non-real estate agents have no idea how hard it is to be a successful, money-making real estate agent. It’s so much more than just getting your real estate license. As you will discover, there are many roles that you will play as a real estate agent:

Business owner
Marketing & advertising expert
Psychologist & marriage counselor
Diplomat
Real estate consultant
Local area tour guide
Project manager
Market analyst
House inspector
House designer/decorator
Much more!

If you do an Internet search on “what percent of real estate agents fail first year” then you will see that it is believed approximately 75 percent of new real estate agents fail in their first year and 87 percent “give up” after 2-5 years. This proves that it is NOT easy to be a real estate agent.

So you need to set proper expectations and get ready for some hard work. ☺

Now, Learn What To Do After Getting Your Real Estate License

Many newbies ask, “Got a real estate license, now what?” The following is a “big picture” explanation of the process you should go through, and the things you need to learn, to be a successful real estate agent. It can be overwhelming…there’s a lot to do! Just take it one step at a time and before you know it, you can be a top-producing real estate agent!

Step 1 – Set Up Your Real Estate Business

As a real estate agent, you are a small business owner, not an employee. So you need to get ready for future transactions and set up your real estate business and systems for day-to-day activities.

Do this early so you can move on to more interesting and fulfilling activities without constantly worrying that you don’t have all your “sh*t” together. This helps to build your confidence and makes you more effective at the next steps in the process.

Plus, understanding your budgets and forecasting your income are VERY important goal-setting activities that you need to start your career with in order to succeed. Ask any expert and they will tell you that “knowing your numbers” and setting good “mindset” habits is a critical aspect of this business.

Topics to Learn & Implement:

Setting Your Business Goals
Understanding Compensation Plans
Interviewing & Choosing a Broker
Onboarding at New Office
Setting Up Your Real Estate Business
Developing Your Mindset & Habits
Learning Contracts and Addendums (Legal Compliance)
Learning the Tools: MLS, Online Signatures, Appointment System, CRM, PDF Creator, Screenshots
Using the Best Time Management Practices
Learning Effective Communication Skills
Reading the Right Books

Step 2 – Market Your Real Estate Business

Once you get your initial real estate business set up, then you will begin marketing and advertising your real estate business. This is more than just getting some business cards, For Sale signs, and sending out a letter to people you know to tell them you are now a real estate agent! To effectively market your new real estate business, you need to learn and understand “lead generation” for real estate and how to set up the right systems for your business.

You will also need to make sure that you choose a profitable target market. You don’t want to waste time advertising and marketing to the wrong market. So learn how to effectively analyze your market and choose a target market that will be the right choice for your personality, in your area, and that will enable you to reach your financial goals. Most new agents just take a guess at what target market to go after, and so most of them fail. If you take the time to truly understand your options, then you can shorten the time it takes for you to start earning a living in real estate.

Once you know your target market, then you can begin developing a personal brand that is appealing for that target market. This will include creating a digital platform and social media accounts to promote your business. This will also include setting up a Prospecting system and following a Daily Checklist to keep in touch with your VIPs and find people who want to buy or sell a property. As a new real estate agent you will often hear, “Work your database.” Your Prospecting system is HOW to “work your database.”

Topics to Learn & Implement:

Understanding Lead Generation in Real Estate
Choosing a Profitable Target Market
Planning Your Lead Gen Systems and Writing Your Marketing Plan
Developing Your Personal Brand
Understanding Digital Marketing for Realtors
Creating a Digital Marketing Platform to Promote Your Real Estate Business
Obtaining Your Basic Marketing Items
Setting Up Your Prospecting System
Using an Effective Daily Checklist
Scheduling and Posting on Social Media
Creating a YouTube Channel

Step 3 – Develop Your Real Estate Expertise

People don’t want to hire real estate amateurs…they want to hire real estate experts. So after your real estate business is set up and you’ve started marketing your business, then it’s time to develop your real estate expertise. The information that you learned in real estate school is only enough to help you pass the state exam and get your license. Now you have to learn the REAL WORLD aspects of being a real estate agent.

So what is “real estate expertise”? If you are going to be effective at selling houses, then you need to know a lot about houses…more than your buyers and sellers know. You need to know common issues in your area, how to mediate them, how much that may cost, etc. You need to know about foundations, roofs, windows, countertops, etc. People want to hire real estate experts. That means you need to really know your product.

In addition, there is a saying that all you need to know about real estate is “location, location, location.” So you need to become a local area expert who knows everything there is to know about your city, county, schools, neighborhoods, etc. Start learning this early in your career so you can compete with the long-time agents who already have this knowledge.

Other skills to develop include “people skills” and working with other agents. Truly…most people need a lot of help in this area! Being a friendly, gregarious, out-going extrovert is not what it takes to succeed in this business. You need to learn to work with difficult people and handle negative situations and attitudes professionally in order to achieve the right outcomes.

Make sure you also know the applicable real estate laws, rules, and regulations (more than what’s taught in real estate school!) so that you stay out of legal trouble. And start develop strong problem-solving skills because no two transactions are ever the same.

Topics to Learn & Implement:

Learning About Home Construction
Becoming the Local Real Estate Expert
Researching Market Data/Trends
Working with Other Agents
Developing Your “People Skills”
Learning Laws and Regulations (Stay Out of Trouble)
Developing Your Problem Solving Skills

Step 4 – Develop Your Home Pricing Skills

The ability to price properties correctly is a skill that most home buyers and sellers are looking for in a real estate agent. Unfortunately, there are very few good CMA courses for real estate agents. The standard CMA courses that new real estate agents go through may only cover how to use the MLS to find “comps.” This is not enough knowledge to truly price properties correctly.

Make sure you learn as much as you can about your MLS system and tools (both beginner and advanced classes) but also learn more in-depth valuation strategies if you want to be a great real estate agent. Developing accurate CMAs (Comparative Market Analysis) is a core competency in real estate!

Topics to Learn & Implement:

Learning How to Do a CMA
Learning How to Classify the Market
Learning How to Classify a House
Learning How to Do an Advanced CMA (for Sellers)
Dealing with Appraisals
Using Your CMA Knowledge for Lead Generation
Using Cloud CMA

Step 5 – Learn How to Work with Home Buyers

As a new agent, you will probably find it easier to get buyer clients than seller clients, so focus on learning to work with home buyers first. This will include learning the entire home buying process and all the action items that you are responsible for as a fiduciary agent. As a real estate agent, you are required to manage the transaction all the way to the Closing (if you want to get paid).

You will need to create many items to work with home buyers effectively: Buyer presentation, brochure, transaction management forms, notebook for first meetings, etc. You will also need to learn how to set up custom home searches on your MLS and create home tours to show houses. This requires hyperlocal knowledge so you can help buyers find the type of home they want to buy.

Clients will expect you to be able to point out the features and materials of houses as well as any potential costly defects. This is (hopefully) why you began developing your product knowledge early on!

As a buyer’s agent, you also need to know how to schedule and manage home inspections, handle repairs, work with the title companies and lenders, and facilitate a Closing. There are many parts to managing a transaction for home buyers, and failing to do so effectively will negatively impact your reputation and career.

Topics to Learn & Implement:

Creating a Buyer Presentation
Creating Buyer Transaction Forms
Creating a Notebook for First Meetings
Creating a Folder to Give to Buyers
Knowing the Home Buying Process
Setting Up Appointments
Creating a Home Tour
Meeting Buyer Clients for the First Time
Showing Houses to Clients
Providing Extra Services (Walkthroughs & Floorplans)
Managing the Home Buying Transaction
Explaining Contracts and Addendums
Handling Home Inspections
Working With Title Company and Lender
Handling Closings
Handling First Time Buyers
Understanding Financing Options
Setting Up a Client Review System
Practicing Scripts

Most of the Step 5 list is taught in the
Ultimate Buyer’s Agent Kit

Step 6 – Learn How to Work with Home Sellers

Working with home sellers is the goal for many real estate agents. To get seller clients, you need to create a Listing Packet, a Seller presentation, and your seller transaction forms. You also need to know how to set up and conduct Listing appointments and get signed Listing agreements. Make sure you are able to explain “representation” and commissions effectively, as well as all the points of the Listing agreement and sales contracts.

Once you acquire a new seller client, then you need to know how to guide that client in getting their home ready to go on the market. This will include decluttering, repairing, cleaning, and staging a home. You may need to spend time developing relationships with local companies who can help your seller clients through the process. Clients value their agent’s contacts and recommendations, so develop a list of trusted people and business to refer to your clients.

Then once a home is ready to go on the market, you need to have marketing skills to effectively advertise and promote your listing. Skills in photography, creating video tours, writing MLS descriptions, creating social media posts, and more are very helpful. Learn everything you can about these skills so you can sell yourself to seller clients and provide them with the best service.

Topics to Learn & Implement:

Creating the Listing Presentation
Creating a Listing Packet
Creating Seller Transaction Forms
Learning the Home Selling Process
Setting Up Listing Appointments
Preparing for a Listing Appointment
Conducting the Listing Appointment
Getting a House Ready, Staged, & Listed
Learning Real Estate Photography 101
Learning How to Prepare and Stage a Home
Learning How to Do Walkthrough Videos
Managing the Home Selling Transaction
Explaining Contracts and Addendums
Marketing Listings
Setting Up a Client Review System
Practicing Scripts

Step 7 – Implement Advanced Lead Generation Strategies

In Stage 2 you started to learn about lead generation in real estate and you should have set up a Prospecting system (which all agents need, no matter the target market).

In Stage 7, it is time to go deeper into your lead generation plan and add more marketing systems to your lead generation system, such as:

Digital Marketing System
Farming System
Networking System

You may also want to create “items of value” to use in your marketing efforts, such as in-depth market reports and hyperlocal guides. Market reports and local guides are extremely popular with home buyers and sellers, but they may be very difficult to obtain. This is a key area where you can set yourself apart from your competition. It is also an amazing way to establish your credibility as a real estate agent.

Writing Your Marketing/Business Plan
Learning About Digital Marketing (Playbook)
Creating a Business Website That Generates Leads 24×7
Setting Up Your Networking System (Playbook)
Setting Up Your Farming System (Playbook)
Becoming an Open House expert
Creating Local Area Guides
Creating Market Reports
Promoting with Guides and Reports
Adding Drip Campaigns for Buyers
Adding Drip Campaigns for Sellers
Tracking Your Leads

Step 8 – Develop Advanced Skills

Once you get to Stage 8, you should have a good, functioning real estate business. However, there is always room for improvement, and now you may want to spend time:

Rehearsing sales scripts
Developing your negotiating tactics
Building your referral network
Working on your conflict resolution skills
Honing your problem-solving skills

You may also want to learn more about Luxury Real Estate and decide if that is a new target market that fits your overall business plan.

If you are super-successful, then it may be time to learn about building and managing a real estate team to maximize your results.

Quick Start – What to Do Next

So you got a real estate license, now what do you do? Here is a list of things you should do NOW to get your career on the fast track to success:

WHEN	WHAT
NOW	The AgentSuccessBuilder.com website is your one-stop-shop for agent resources (so Bookmark it! :-). You want to keep coming back as we add more and more useful items for you.
NOW	Download the How to Become a Successful Real Estate Agent: Ultimate Checklist and print the checklist. This is your roadmap.
NOW	Print Real Estate Goal Setting by the Numbers and start planning your goals. You want to start off with solid goals that will guide you on your way. This is part of effective mindset strategies that successful agents use daily.
1st WEEK	If you don’t have a broker yet, then download How to Choose the Right Real Estate Broker – A Smart Guide for New Agents. Use the Questions for Brokers and Broker Decision Analysis to choose the best broker for YOUR unique needs.
AFTER START AT BROKERAGE	Whether you’re already working at a new brokerage or not, print the Onboarding at Your New Brokerage guide and make sure you have finished all the items.
2nd WEEK	You will need a profile/bio when you list yourself on social media accounts and other real estate websites. Use the How to Write a Profile for Your Real Estate Business to write a great one. Use this to set up your business profiles on your social media accounts, Realtor.com, and other real estate websites.
2nd WEEK	Read The Most Powerful Way of Understanding Lead Generation in Real Estate to get a better understanding of how you are going to find clients. This is a completely UNIQUE way of looking at lead generation and how YOU should be getting clients.
2nd WEEK	Don’t waste time on the wrong area, niche, or activities! Take the time to go through the process in How to Find a Profitable Target Market In Your Area and make sure you are focused on the right target market. This will save you a lot of heartache.
2nd WEEK	Plan your lead generation system using the Easy Marketing Plan Template for Real Estate Agents. Start implementing your plan right away. Make sure that you, your target market, and your marketing strategies are aligned for best results.
2nd WEEK	Print multiple copies of the Daily Checklist for Productive Real Estate Agents and start using it. Most buyers and sellers find their real estate agent through the recommendations of friends and family, and this is the way to stay “top of mind” and “work your database.”
3RD WEEK	Start studying your area and developing in-depth, hyperlocal knowledge using the worksheets in: The Easy Way to Become the Local Real Estate Expert. This is the fastest way to build your credibility as a real estate agent. Plus, you can use the items you develop in the process to post on social media to market yourself an an authority in your area (which is what clients want!).
3RD WEEK	Learn How to Do a CMA In Real Estate and practice, practice, practice on your MLS. Once you get great at creating CMAs, you can use that skill as another lead generation tactic.
4th WEEK	Set up your buyer system so you can start signing clients (and getting paid) faster. Buyers are much easier to sign than sellers…when you’re a new agent.

You will need to Sign Up (for FREE) Basic Access to these printable PDF files. Here’s to your success!