Written by Adam Horth

To find success in real estate sales, you must build certain foundations to ensure longevity. Without longevity, you will not find true real estate success. These foundations create the habits, behaviours, and opportunities necessary for results. 

"I used to be in real estate" is a comment you’re likely to hear from many different characters as you embark on this career.

On the surface, real estate sales has very low barriers to entry. Many people try their hand at it, only to leave after a short period. This can be for various reasons, yet it could be argued that most leave because of a lack of foundations.

Working alongside thousands of agents and observing the most successful, we’ve identified 10 key foundations that new agents should aim to develop at the outset of their careers. 

If you’re a leader, reflect on these, and consider how you can help new salespeople and associates develop within their careers.

This list is designed to be revisited time and again early in your journey to ensure the necessary building blocks are both in place and continually strengthened.

Foundation 1: An Attitude of Accountability

Without an attitude of accountability, new agents are destined for failure. A career in real estate sales is equivalent to running your own business. Salespeople must adopt the mindset that they are accountable for both their actions and results.

Salespeople who require someone to look over their shoulder every day to keep them on track will inevitably fail. Being accountable has agents ‘do it in the dark’ – working even when no one is watching.

Foundation 2: Embrace Prospecting

Real estate agent and author Gary Keller says that 50% of an agent’s job is lead generation. No truer statement has ever been written about real estate sales. 

Prospecting is the great leveller in real estate, especially for those new to the industry. Prospecting for business is not forever, but it is essential in your early real estate years.

High levels of face-to-face or phone prospecting in your first few years will not only lead to results but also fast-track your knowledge of real estate and refine your communication and presentation skills.

Early in your career, you won’t be the best real estate agent – this is self-evident. Yet ask yourself this: Do you only buy from the best salespeople? Of course not; often, we buy from the salesperson who is there, standing in front of us.

Some great real estate wisdom: Until you can be good, be there.

Foundation 3: Build Your Pipeline

Potentially the biggest factor that separates the good from the great is an agent’s pipeline. Yet a full, well-managed pipeline never happens by accident.

Early in your career is the ideal time to commence building your pipeline. Developing the habit of prospecting discussed in the last point is one half of this equation. The collection and sorting of prospects' data into a CRM combined with the right follow-up strategy will have business flowing your way after only a few short months.

Simplify this concept using the Triple 2 Strategy. If you add 2 people every day to your pipeline, in 2 years and 2 months you will have 1,000 people in your service area who know you, like you, and see you as an authority in real estate.

Conservatively, this will create one listing opportunity every week—a great basis for any real estate career.

Foundation 4: Learn the Science of Real Estate

How is the market? Now that you’ve embarked on a career in real estate, this is guaranteed to be the most asked question you hear. You need to have an answer.

Being seen as both an expert in the general real estate market and, more specifically (and arguably importantly), your local market is essential for winning the trust of property owners.

Educate yourself beyond the traditional real estate channels. Subscribing to the Australian Financial Review, for example, will give you a greater understanding of the country’s economy and how it sits on the world stage. These macro factors have just as much influence over real estate markets as the more commonly discussed factors of supply and demand or interest rates.

Locally, stay across every listing and sale in your area. Be mindful not to become obsessed with what your competitors are doing, but more importantly, understand property prices and the subtleties of your market. 

Foundation 5: Learn the Art of Real Estate

The art of real estate involves the subtleties influencing the result of a property’s sales campaign. What are the key aspects of a property that make an impact in your area?

Learning these early in your career and being able to articulate these to property owners will see you winning more Loungerooms faster.

It may be a property’s aspect, its proximity to schools, or simply a particular style of property – even with similar attributes to others in the area – that inevitably changes the outcome of a sale.

With advancements in technology and the unavoidable evolution of AI into the real estate industry, it is the ‘art’ side of the transaction where agents will stand superior.

Foundation 6: Become a Great Lister

Make no mistake, any agent can sell a well-priced listing. A property listed at fair market value will in most cases sell itself. Yes, the agent requires skills in negotiation to ensure a high price, yet it is seldom the agent’s influence that will see a buyer purchasing a particular property.

The real sale is to the property owner. If you can develop the skill set to constantly win the business of sellers in your area, you will eventually dominate your area.

Great listers win Loungerooms, and their listings sell. An agent pitching for business based on unachievable pricing estimates is quickly found out and will be rejected by their market.

Develop your listing presentation around strategy and substance – this is how you become a great lister.

Foundation 7: Find a Running Mate

There is no shortage of high-performing real estate agents across the industry. Many agents dominate their markets and can be great role models. Yet early in your career, it doesn’t make sense to compare their performance to yours. This is the equivalent of a 14-year-old cyclist comparing their achievements to those of Olympic Medallist Anna Meares.

Instead, look for the opportunity to find someone also new to the industry. Ideally, this person is within your franchise or network of agents yet operates in another area. This allows you to talk about results, strategies, goals and challenges openly.

Set similar goals to each other – for example, settling $500,000 in commissions in your first year – so each keeps the other on track while providing each other with somebody you’re accountable to. The value of having someone you can share your wins with cannot be underestimated.

Foundation 8: Build Your Version of a Real Estate Life

Ask 100 agents for their definition of success and you’re almost guaranteed 100 different answers. As such, what success in real estate will look like for you will be unique.

One of the mistakes many new agents make is to build a career that promotes a work/life balance. Know this, a career in real estate sales is not a career of balance. If you search for balance, you’ll only ever find yourself out of balance.

Instead, aim for a lifestyle that sees your personal and business lives aligned. Setting boundaries on your time, ensuring support from your partner and family, plus some clear non-negotiables, are all necessary to creating both a successful and sustainable career.

There are just as many people who blame their failure in real estate on their family as there are who describe it as their reason for success.

A final note on this point: Anyone embarking on a career in real estate sales needs to be aware that the first two years are – from a time perspective – the most demanding.

Your lack of skill, pipeline, and experience must be compensated by hard work. Many people will sell you on the idea of ‘working smarter, not harder’ yet, in real estate, this refinement in productivity happens with time.

In the beginning, working hard also means working long. Big hours and an even bigger commitment to the craft of real estate sales are essential requirements for anybody serious about their success.

Foundation 9: Train Constantly

Many real estate agents will enter the industry, develop a baseline of knowledge, and essentially stop learning after a short period of time. The real estate industry, your market, and the craft of sales are all ever-evolving; you must evolve with it.

As well as aiming to learn new knowledge, constant training affords you the opportunity to become brilliant with the basics. Every high-level rugby team dedicates much of their weekly training to passing, kicking, and tackling – unquestionably the basics of the sport.

The best of the best understand that when you are brilliant with the basics, you are 80% of the way there.

Foundation 10: Focus on the Future

Develop the qualities of patience and foresight. Agents who are focused solely on the sale in front of them will never create a great career. Rather than focusing on the next sale, focus on the next 50.

There is a lot of truth to the real estate expression, all buyers will one day become sellers – and this speaks to the importance of treating everyone with respect and giving them the time they deserve.

Just because someone isn’t buying from you today doesn’t mean that won’t be looking to buy in future. Research shows that only 50% of property sellers seek out an agent they have previously dealt with. This demonstrates half of the industry’s agents have a single-transaction mentality (or have since left real estate).

Those who instead focus on the future, maintain their values and integrity, develop their pipeline, and treat every person with respect, are the agents who are destined to become great.

A Final Note

Smartre Training is a real estate training company that focuses on developing agencies and the agents within them. With a focus on leadership, management and sales, we are proud of the results our clients constantly achieve.

Our flagship sales seminar Winning Ways is open to most (but not all) agents across the country who are considering investing in our services. This three-day seminar is written for agents – either new or experienced – who intend to take their performance to the next level.

To find out more about this seminar or Smartre Training in general, reach out to Scott on 0402 700 775 or scott@smartretraining.com.au