Seven steps to go from New Agent to Top Producer
GET LICENSED
You probably already knew this one, but a Realtor is a professional. As such, you need to be licensed in the state in which you practice. Here’s a short list of what you’ll need to accomplish to get yourself licensed:
- Complete the Required Texas Real Estate Courses.
- Create an Account in TREC’s ‘My License’ System. Submit Online Application and Course Certificates for an Inactive License.
- Receive Your Approval Letter from TREC and Take the State Exam.
- Get Your Fingerprints Taken and Pass Your Background Check.
For more information about licensing or if you need some assistance coordinating the right classes, let us know. We are happy to help you through this process.
CHOOSE THE RIGHT BROKERAGE
Whether it’s Norhill Realty or one of the other great brokerages in Houston, you need to find the right brokerage for you. Every company culture is different, and finding the right one that fits your personality is important. Your broker isn’t just a place to hang your licence, it will also serve as your mentor as you learn our profession. Here’s some questions to ask as you interview these future mentors.
- What formal training does your firm provide?
- What support will your provide after training?
- How will you assist me in generating leads?
- What tools does your firm provide to assist me in serving my clients and generating leads?
- Why will my clients love being served by your firm?
You may have noticed that we didn’t mention compensation or fees. Although those items are important (and Norhill is competitive in this area), it shouldn’t be the overriding factor in choosing a brokerage when starting out. If you don’t know how to generate leads, then the commission doesn’t make much difference. 100% of nothing is still nothing.
LEARN HOW TO BE A REALTOR
Your license training will provide you an important education regarding contracts, some general real estate law, and the real estate industry. However, that training won’t teach you how to really be a Realtor. What does a Realtor do from day to day? How do they find clients? How do they serve their clients? If you watch HGTV a lot, you might come in with an expectation that it involve’s a lot of yelling (please note: excessive yellers need not apply) and 3 property tours (always 3) to get to contract. Although this might happen from time to time, it isn’t the norm and it takes a lot of upfront work to even get to this point.
To help you become a Realtor, we focus on 3 areas of training:
- What do Realtors do? At our core, we find buyers that want to buy and sellers that want to sell. We then help bring those two parties together from contract to closing. But where do those buyers and sellers come from? How do you find them? Through our training, we try and help you understand where they are and how to find them.
- What do Realtors need to know? In order to be an effective and credible Realtor, you need to be knowledgeable about the neighborhoods you serve and the properties that comprise them. We help you determine what is most important for you to know, and help you set the building blocks for lifelong professional learning.
- What are the day-to-day, week-to-week activities that lead to success? As with most things in life, success in real estate can be boiled down to small daily tasks. We will help guide you through those fundamental day-to-day, week-to-week activities that will lead to durable, consistent success as a Realtor.
BUILDING YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE
Building your online presence is critical for a new Realtor to gain credibility and social proof. Our training system is designed to provide a blueprint for the important online profiles and social media accounts along with sharable content. Your online profile will provide you with a way to connect with potential leads and reinforce your marketing and prospecting efforts with your personal database.
CREATE A PLAN
When you become a real estate agent you are essentially a marketing professional. This means that you market home listings for your clients and you market yourself for new leads. Our training is designed to help new agents identify the marketing fundamentals such as neighborhood farming along with their specifics passions and interests to help guide them to a consistent and sustainable marketing plan.
GET BUSINESS
As a Realtor, you’re an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, your first and foremost concern will be your ability to generate new business. There’s lots of ways to generate business. However, they generally fall into two buckets: marketing and prospecting. Most of the time, these two activities work hand in hand. But prospecting is vital to success of new agents. Although our training is focuses on both of these areas, we take particular care to help you become an effective prospector.
CONVERT BUSINESS
Yeaaaa! You got your first lead. Uh oh. Now what? We are here to help. Not only will you receive formal training in this area, but our leadership is also here to mentor you through those early client interactions. We’ll talk you the process of converting a new prospect to a formal client. And furthermore, we’d be happy to attend listing appointments and buyer interviews to lend our many years of experience and insight. When it’s all said and done, our success is tied to your success and we are here to help.
