053: How to be a Successful Real Estate Agent

On today’s episode of the InvestFourMore Real Estate Podcast, I talk about what it takes to be a successful real estate agent. I have been a Realtor for 15 years and had many ups and downs. I struggled when I first started and made a grand total of $28,000 in 2006 after I had been in the business a number of years. I went from selling 5 to 10 houses a year to selling over 100 houses and then 200 houses a few years later.

Discovering REO was one reason I became so successful, but over the years the REO has decreased in Colorado and it is now a small part of our sales. I have built a team that still sells 100 to 200 homes a year, but now it is mostly retail sales and my team sells the houses instead of me. Two of the agents on my team made over $100,000 in their first year in the business and I will discuss what traits a successful agents has to have to be successful from the beginning.

Why was I not successful as an agent in the beginning?

I started working with my dad right out of college. I could not find a great finance job, and I decided to work with him in real estate part-time. I got my real estate license, became a full-time agent, and helped him with flips. Many people think it was a huge advantage to work with my father and it was. However, as far as being an agent I probably would have progressed faster if I was forced to work on my own. By flipping with my father I had an extra income and did not have to make all my money from being an agent. I tried to learn everything myself without his help, try new techniques like internet leads, and avoid talking to people. That did not work well as an agent!

I spent most of my time trying new marketing techniques, instead of calling people and meeting people.

How as I able to sell 200 houses in one year as an agent?

I became successful in REO, but I got into REO by getting out of my comfort zone and cold calling banks. This was not fun for me and hard to do, but I did it. I put 100 percent into figuring out how to list foreclosures, complete BPOs and I stopped messing around with new marketing ideas. I also stopped working on the flips as much. That focus really helped me find my niche and succeed.

After cold calling banks, I signed up on a couple of sites for REO agents and I started to apply with every asset management company I could. I started to get a few BPOs (broker price opinions), which are valuations on properties, like an appraisal, but they are performed by agents and not an appraiser. I would get paid about $50 for each BPO and it took me about an hour to complete each one. I did not mind the extra money and after a few months of completing BPOs, I got my first REO listing. The property was about 40 miles from me, but I was ecstatic to get it. I had no clue what I was doing, but the asset management company gave me tasks and I completed them. I had to have the yard mowed and cleaned up, but had no one to go to the property to complete the work so I did it myself. I later realized that I was not supposed to complete any of the repairs or yard work myself.

I got a few REO listings my first year after pursuing them. In my second year, I sold about 20 REO listings and completed hundreds of BPOs. In my third year I sold over 50 houses and the next year I think I had over 150 sales. I attended REO conferences, worked hard to apply with every company I could, used social media to find asset managers and gained more and more business.

How did I build a team to sell more houses and do less work?

I bought my dad out in 2013, because he was getting close to retiring and I wanted more control. I knew the REO business would not last forever, because the market was improving and foreclosures had decreased greatly. I had been buying rentals and increased the amount of flips we did, but I knew we had to change things on our team as well. I hired a few more agents, hired my friend Justin to manage my team and we focused on traditional real estate sales.

Basically what I did was use the techniques my dad had used to become successful. He was not a REO agent, but sold over 100 houses multiple years as a traditional agent. He focused on:

• Networking
• Calling people all the time
• Creating a database
• Marketing to the database
• Doing an awesome job for his clients
• Referral business

We taught this to the agents on our team and most of them found immediate success. A few did not, but they did not listen to what we were teaching and tried to do things their own way. I already knew that did not work well. I went from having 80 REO listings at one time to currently having less than 5. I am still one of the top REO agents in my market, there are simply no foreclosures because our market is so strong. However, our team is still doing awesome, because we taught our agents the fundamentals of selling houses.

I talk much more about how to be successful as an agent on the podcast, so make sure you listen to it.