5 Crucial Tips For Every REALTOR®

If you desire to be an expert in your field, influential in your community and have a fantastic reputation as a local real estate expert, there are specific standards you’ll want to set for yourself. You can operate like 95% of REALTORS®, or you can operate like you’re in the top 5% of real estate professionals in your area. The choice is yours, and we’ve got five crucial tips to help you choose wisely. 

1. Operate in Integrity

The word integrity literally means that you’re honest, consistent, and uncompromising regarding your morals, ethical principles, and values. It means integrating the truth of who you are with who you want to be. Without integrity, nothing else matters. Running your business with integrity gives you an edge because few people prioritize it. You’ll find a lot of agents who teach tricks over integrity, running off of scripts, pressure tactics, and loose ethics. 

Agents like this don’t make it that far in today’s technological world. With the internet, people will do their research, write bad reviews, and learn for themselves about who you are. Taking shortcuts to try and grow your business will only end up hurting you. So choose to build a brand based on compassion and building relationships. Your clients are making significant financial decisions, and the higher your service level, the more they trust you and the more comfortable they are referring you to others. Remember, you reap what you sow, so it’s important to be mindful of what you’re planting. 

2. Become A Master At Lead Generation 

Door knocking and cold calling are REALTOR® marketing techniques from the past. You’re wasting time if you don’t market for the current year. This seems like common knowledge, but often it’s not, especially if you’re learning from agents who have been in real estate for an extended period and don’t change with the times. Staying on top of trends and flowing with them as they evolve is essential.  

The old way of generating leads allows you to connect with only one person at a time. The lead gen you want will allow you to influence multiple people simultaneously. You want to focus on things like Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok ads, open houses, SEO, events, video content on YouTube, direct mailouts, email newsletters, online reviews and testimonials, and text messages. Focus on methods that will increase your results without increasing your effort. 

Remember, revenue comes from sales, sales come from leads, and leads come from marketing. If you’re not marketing, you’re not doing business; you have an expensive hobby. This is why most business owners have two titles, marketer and business owner. For you, you’re a marketer first and a REALTOR® second. Because you can be the best REALTOR® in the world, but if no one knows you exist, what’s the point? There is a correlation between being a great marketer and being a great REALTOR®. No correlation exists between being a great person and being a great REALTOR®; focusing on marketing is one of the keys to success in real estate. 

3. Don’t Copy Competitors

If you want to copy other successful agents’ habits, methods, and operations, go for it, but never copy their branding. What will inspire a potential client to choose you if every REALTOR® is identical and you can’t tell one from another? Studying other people who are successfully doing what you want to be doing is good. But take the things they’re doing and make them your own. A strong brand sells silently on your behalf and creates clarity around who you are, what you do, and how you do it. If you’re a copy of everyone else, not only do you not stand out, but you become lost in the shuffle and won’t leave a lasting impression. 

4. Build A Strong Brand 

Brand identity combines your values, how you communicate about your area of expertise, and how an individual feels when interacting with you. Essentially, your brand is your business’s personality and a promise to your customers. As the embodiment of what your business is and does, a strong brand identity can draw in clients and increase loyalty for your brand. With increased brand recognition, your potential clients not only learn what to expect from the services you offer, they learn about the meaning behind your brand. 

Sometimes a potential client doesn’t need to look any further than amazing branding. You can hook them simply because your brand resonates with them. A strong, clear brand identity speaks for itself and is a lead magnet all on its own. 

5. Invest In Mentoring

At Living Houston, our Broker and founder, Laura Weisman, built this critical factor into her brokerage because she understands the importance of having an experienced mentor. A mentor is essential to many areas of life, and your career is no exception. We would argue that having a mentor as a REALTOR® is one of the professions where it is the most critical. 87% of real estate agents quit within the first year. This isn’t a coincidence. This is a product of an industry that requires a lot from its professionals while offering minimal teaching and support. 

Having a mentor as a REALTOR® allows you to have someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to go to for advice and guidance, someone who can teach you how to handle deals, negotiations, listings, buyers, contracts, and a hundred other things that will take you a while to master. A mentor doesn’t offer an easier path to success; they offer a more meaningful one. A mentor increases your potential, encourages growth and development, and helps you help yourself. And in a cutthroat industry, they can also be a trusted friend who has your back. 

Living Houston Offers All Of The Above

Becoming a REALTOR® means becoming an innovative, savvy, educated entrepreneur. And a brokerage that already embodies all of the above characteristics is a brokerage that allows you to become the best version of yourself. If you’re considering real estate as a career, or if you’re a REALTOR® whose looking to level up or for more support, consider learning more about Living Houston. From personal monthly one-on-one meetings with our Broker to workshops, classes, marketing materials, and perfected buyer and seller presentations, Living Houston is a boutique brokerage that offers unparalleled support and services for our agents. One of the best things you could do for your real estate business is to team up with us. To learn more, contact Living Houston.