Simple, not easy – The 5 principles of agent success

The reality is real estate is an incredibly rewarding career that I often describe as “simple, but not easy”.

For at least the first two years, it’s all about learning on the fly, finding the right people to teach you the basics and then having the commitment to master those key fundamentals and do them really, really well.

Those fundamentals aren’t complicated, but that also doesn’t mean they are easy. So, let’s break them down into five key areas and see how mastering each can help you fast track success at any stage of your career.

You are the brand

Whether you’re starting out at an agency or have an established reputation, in today’s real estate landscape, every agent should consider themselves a brand.

Regardless of who you’re working with or for, you are your unique selling proposition, and that means you need to invest heavily in self-promotion at every opportunity.

This isn’t just about marketing materials either; it extends from how you present yourself in print, on social media and in person, along with the quality of your personal photography and personal marketing.

If the prospect of making that investment sounds daunting, remember this, if you are not prepared to invest in yourself, why would anyone else?

Do not put off what you can do now

Are you an implementer, or do you set grand plans and ideas aside for the you of tomorrow to take care of?

Chances are if you’ve ever been to a training workshop and walked away with a host of inspiration that never made it to action, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Putting things off and procrastinating leads to complacency, and that leads to mediocrity. If an idea is good and it’s something you want to implement, start taking action.

Action is the key ingredient that leads to improved results one month, two months and a year down the line.

Pull it apart and put it back together

The thing that makes real estate simple is that it’s process-driven. Your prospecting process leads to appraisals, your appraisal process to listings, and your listing process results in sales.

But chances are there could be improvements made in each of these processes. That’s why it’s a great idea to periodically pull these processes apart and put them back together.

To do this, I suggest you might like to do the following using a listing presentation as an example:

• Detail every aspect of your listing presentation, from the questions you ask, to the prelist kit you offer, the way you walk up the driveway right through to the client signing the authority.
• Now document it as a visual timeline of action steps and trigger points.

Complete the same process for your buyer work, your after-sales client engagement and any other critical processes, and you’ll identify areas for improvement.

When you proactively invest in this strategy, it will pay dividends throughout your career.

The vital few

It’s easy to become distracted by the latest bright shiny thing that “promises” to make our jobs as agents easier.

The reality is you cannot replace the vital few activities that produce 80 per cent of any agent’s results, and these include:

• The commitment to picking up the phone
• The commitment to always be learning
• The commitment to having critical conversations

Each of these is a high-value activity that should be a mainstay of each day of your real estate career. They cannot be replaced with an app, a script, or the latest tech gadget.

My advice? Keep the vital few firmly in mind, don’t get sidetracked by the distractions and avoid the temptation to fall into activities that make you feel like you’ve had a busy day but are devoid of high value.

And if you look at the best of the best in this industry, the vital few are the key tasks they focus on day-in, day-out.

It’s not a solo performance

Success is not a solo performance. It’s a team effort where you tap the talents and strengths of others to get the job done in the interests of your future and your client.

As your career grows, you will need to delegate and put together a team of support people who allow you to focus on the high-value activities that matter the most.

When you are willing to allow others to assist you and invest in them to do so, the more rewards you receive, and these aren’t just financial.

You can never shrink yourself to greatness. You must be willing to share the journey and bring others along for the ride.

Key to a great career

Each of the five principles above is key to a successful real estate career. But it’s not about talking the talk; it’s about walking the walk. The time to tend to these principles needs to be scheduled in your diary, part of your planning, and they must underpin the habits you embrace.

As we know, when good habits build, the momentum of success increases. It’s that simple, and it can be that easy.

Manos Findikakis is the chief executive and co-founder of the Eview Group.