Starting Your Career

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Starting Your Career

You may have passed your “Principles of Real Estate Sales” (PORES) Course, but there’s still so much to learn about prospecting for leads, cultivating strong relationships with clients, negotiating the sales process, and guiding a transaction smoothly to the closing table.

As with starting any career it is essential to create a good career plan. The following provides some guidelines in developing such a plan.

We suggest you start off by choosing to work with a broker. Most real estate brokers have training programs that include career and business planning. And books like Kenneth Edwards’ Your Successful Real Estate Career and Carla Cross’ The Real Estate Agent’s Business Planning Guide provide career guidance and advice on how to create realistic real estate business plans.

It is advisable to get a coach or mentor. Sometimes a mentor is not even someone in real estate but someone who is willing to listen to you, listen to your dreams, pat you on the back, and hold you accountable. This kind of person is the difference between making it and not making it. It’s not the information the person provides that makes the difference; it’s the inspiration. If you have the motivation, you can find the resources you need.

A Real Estate Coach or mentor can help you answer the following questions:

  • How many calls will it take to get an appointment?
  • How many appointments to achieve a close?
  • How many closes to achieve my financial goal?

Once you’ve addressed these basic questions, you can then focus on your financial goals. Include a realistic assessment of where you are now financially and include projections of where you want to be in five, 10, and 15 years. You should develop a realistic assessment of your monthly expenses. It is realistic to have at least six months expenses cover before you start earning commissions.

To determine this answer the following questions:

  • What are your current household expenses?
  • Does that include cash reserves?
  • Does it include risk management?
  • What happens if I don’t close a deal?
  • What happens if I have an auto accident?
  • Do I have disability insurance?
  • What’s my current debt?
  • How much is that strangling my family’s cash flow?
  • How am I going to put my kids through college?

By the time we finish asking and answering all the questions, someone who thought they could live well on $100,000 in commissions may find they really need $150,000.

In all your financial analyses, don’t forget the bigger picture – what is your purpose and vision for your choice of this career.

Having dealt with these critical orientation question you would now be in a better position to write a Business Plan to achieve these goals. Writing a business plan may seem a daunting task as there are so many moving parts and concepts to address. Take it one step at a time and be sure to schedule regular reviews (quarterly, semi-annually, or annually) of your plan to be sure you on are track to meet your goals.

There are 7 Essential Components of a Real Estate Business Plan:

  1. Clearly define your Purpose and Vision for your Career and what service you intend to give and the benefits you expect to receive. Please bear in mind you have to give more value than you intend to receive.
  2. A brief SWOT Analysis (An honest appraisal of Your Strengths , Weaknesses , Opportunities and Threats as it relates to a Real Estate career.
  3. Your Goals with a timeline – Short, Medium and Long Term Goals – be specific .
  4. Strategic Plan – What is the profile of the customers you intend to target? How will you engage these customers? What unique value will you offer them?
  5. Develop realistic time lines on what you will achieve and when.
  6. How will you promote and market your services including a budget for this?
  7. What specific Sales Process (Sales Pipeline/Sales Funnel) you will use to manage your selling operations?

Wishing you all success in your new career.

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