5 Steps to Starting a Real Estate Business

If you’ve recently become a licensed REALTOR®, you’re probably eager to start your own real estate business. But without a plan and some preparation, you might struggle to get enough leads.

Working with Agent Marketing Essentials can help you navigate the industry and grow your business faster! In addition, here are 5 tips to starting a real estate business on everything from handling your finances to connecting with new leads for your business.

Outline a Business Plan

Do realtors need business plans? Yes! Just because the housing market can be unpredictable doesn’t mean you shouldn’t plan ahead.

Mashvisor recommends writing up a description of your corporate structure, noting any team members you plan to bring on board, defining your target market, and analyzing your primary local competition.

Manage Your Finances

Before you begin working with clients, you’ll need a plan for managing your finances. As a realtor, you need to be especially mindful of your cash flow — when you’re earning based on commission, this amount can drastically change from month to month.

Therefore, you’ll want to track your expenses meticulously and keep overhead costs low.

Furthermore, you should invest in an organized, reliable invoicing system to stay on top of accounts receivable.

Trying to handle invoicing manually can result in mistakes and longer processing times. But the right invoicing software will enable you to quickly create invoices, send out and import several invoices simultaneously, and easily duplicate and customize similar invoices for customers.

When you free up your time, you’ll have more room in your schedule to focus on other tasks.

Conduct Market Research

As a realtor, you will need to learn the ins and outs of the market you plan to target.

For instance, you should have a solid idea of which neighborhoods you want to focus on, the income levels and ages of your typical buyers, and what types of property you will be showing.

You will need to be able to effectively conduct comparative market analysis before showing properties to potential buyers to accurately determine their market values.

Having a thorough understanding of your target market will make this process easier.

Invest In Advertising Efforts

In order to drum up your first independent clients, you will need to advertise your business! Remember, you should hone in on your niche market when advertising.

Creating educational content is a good way to do this.

For instance, if you’re hoping to work with millennial clients, highlight tips for finding homes with features this demographic tends to prioritize, like green construction and energy-efficient appliances.

And if you have a large military population in your area, you could share information on your website or social media profiles about using VA loans to purchase a home.

You’ll also want a nice website with IDX. Check out our Showcase IDX review or RealtyNA review for a couple exceptional website IDX options.

Cultivate Leads

In addition to general marketing efforts, you need to be proactive about nurturing leads. Inman recommends setting up a schedule for daily prospecting phone calls, emails, or face-to-face meetings.

This could include contacting people who have listed their homes for sale by owner(FSBO) and sellers associated with expired listings.

RedX is a great tool for contacting FSBO and Expired Leads. You can read our RedX Review and use our discount code!

Furthermore, let your personal and professional circles know that you’re open to new clients, and encourage them to send referrals your way! Utilizing customer relationship management software such as the Chime CRM can help you keep track of your contacts with prospects.

From the outside, running a successful real estate business might seem easy. But truthfully, great realtors put in a lot of hard work behind the scenes.

With these tips, you’ll be able to open your own sustainable real estate business and become a reputable realtor within your local market.

Ready to get your real estate business off the ground? Agent Marketing Essentials gives you all the tools and strategies you need to ramp up your business. Take a tour of how we can help with your real estate marketing needs!