Becoming A New Real Estate Agent - 3 Things To Do FIRST!

So you just got your real estate license and now you're trying to figure out what to do next. Maybe you're trying to pick which brokerage, or you're trying to figure out what's going on with these fees. What is it with the MLS? There’s these things that are going on when you just get your license and it's like I'm new I don't know what to do! In this article we're going to talk about three things that you need to do first when becoming a new real estate agent.

#3 Picking Your Brokerage

You’ll probably hear someone ask, “where are you hanging your license?” 

 

When you first hear this you may be confused and ask what are you talking about?...On the wall of my house… 

 

What “hanging your license” really means is “what brokerage are you going to be working with?” This is more of an older term as in today’s industry you do not necessarily have to choose an office and hang your license in that brokerage’s office. 

 

Becoming the new real estate agent there’s a couple things you're going to want to look out for when picking your new brokerage.

 

A lot of people go with what they recognize first. Something that is top of mind or local familiarity. That may be a local Re/Max franchise office, a Century 21 or even a local boutique brokerage. Whatever is frequently seen around town the most. Oftentimes it just becomes what you're familiar with and you tend to assume because you see it all of the time they must be doing a lot of business. 

 

A boutique brokerages means independently owned and operated smaller brokerages. They are usually more local they're not a larger nationwide brokerage. But those are probably going to be some of the ones that you entertain first.  

 

Another factor that may come into play when choosing your brokerage is word of mouth. 

 

Maybe your cousin, your sibling or even some of your friends already work there and they told you that you should definitely call this person who's an agent and she's fabulous and you should go talk to her about joining her brokerage. That's one of the reasons a lot of times agents pick these brokerages. Just because of the influence from somebody else's word of mouth.

 

Agents often make this MISTAKE instead of doing their own due diligence to really dig deeper into what each brokerage has to offer. 

 

As a new real estate agent be sure to dig deeper into their business model and ask these questions.

 

  1. What kind of support do they provide?
  2. What are their fees?
  3. What are their commission splits?
  4. What kind of technology tools do they provide?
  5. What will my daily activities be as an agent at this brokerage?
  6. Will I be provided a mentor?
  7. How are other agents at this brokerage generating business and does that align with how I want to do business?
  8. Will they be teaching me how to build a massive, long term sustainable business?
  9. Will I be competing with my brokers for clients?
  10. Is their business model setup for me to continue to grow my company or will I outgrow the brokers here?

 

These very important questions will help you get a really good understanding of how that brokerage operates, what they’re doing to support their agents, and how they can help you build for the future and not just the here and now. 

Understand Fees & Commission Splits

 

Fees vary from brokerage to brokerage. Whether it's a nationwide brokerage or the smaller boutique brokerages that we were just talking about. Understanding your fees that you will be paying into the brokerage and what you get in return for those fees. 

 

This also depends and will be different if you join a team. 

 

If you join a team then there's going to be heavier splits versus being a solo agent.

 

When joining a team it’s important to understand how much work you're gonna be putting in and how much you're going to be compensated for with that time and that work that you're going to be putting in. 

 

In general, brokerages will have monthly fees and some (depending on if it’s a local franchise, boutique, or in the cloud) will have royalty fees, franchise fees, desk fees, and a few others. 

 

I (Ryan Strong, writing this blog) personally am a licensed agent with eXp Realty and our fees are $85/month that includes insane amounts of technology and support. There are other fees such as a broker review fee of $25 but that’s only when you get to the closing table of your transaction. We’ll do a deeper dive into eXp Realty’s fees and splits in another article. 

 

What Are The Commission Splits?

 

The typical splits you will see in the real estate industry between brokerage and agent is either 80/20 or 70/30. 

 

Let's say that you closed a transaction, you helped someone buy or sell a house, and the commission split between you and your broker is 80/20 as a solo agent. 

 

Taking a step back, when a listing agent signs an agreement with a home seller, they determine the commission split between their brokerage and the buyer’s agent’s brokerage. This is commonly 6% with 3% going to the seller’s agent broker and 3% to the buyer’s agent broker. 

 

Now, of that 3% (assuming you’re the buyer’s agent), it is split 80/20 between you and your brokerage. That’s 80% of that (3%) amount going to you (the agent) and 20% going to the brokerage. 

 

Here’s a typical example of what that may look like:

 

Seller’s agent agreed to 6% and listed the home at $500,000. 

3% to the seller’s agent and 3% to the buyer’s agent. 

 

$500,000 (sold price) x 3% (brokerage split) = $15,0000

$15,000 x 80% (buyer’s agent) = $12,000 (agent take home with the exception of any other fees due) & $3,000 (20%) for the brokerage

 

This is really important to understand for each brokerage you interview. 

 

And if you’re considering joining a team then the splits will be even less for your take home. 

exp realty, exp realty explained

#2 Learn New Marketing Methods

The key ingredient here is to make sure you’re learning new marketing methods as a new real estate agent. 

 

There are a ton of old school “marketing methods” that agents who have been around the industry for a long time still use to this day. Some still work, like cold calling. And some are just extremely outdated but that’s all they know and therefore that’s all they teach. Such as sending out mailers to “farm” a local neighborhood. 

Agents who preach cold calling typically spend their entire career doing this to earn business. They never really learned another way to generate business so this also becomes what they teach to new agents. What this leads to is chasing the business for your entire life. It can lead to a lot of wasted time, stress, and slow growth. 

 

As a new agent I was led down this path and I hated it!

 

I felt like I did all of that hard work and studying to get through real estate school just to be a telemarketing agent. I knew there had to be a better way. 

 

Being that I have a background in marketing and have done marketing for other companies and real estate brokers around the United States I started my own methods of generating leads. 

 

Now my main pillar of generating business is from my YouTube channel. Building my business with a YouTube channel that produces me high quality clients that are relocating to my market and ready to go!

 

I also have a background with website design, development and SEO (search engine optimization). Now my website generates thousands of visitors every day and brings me business. 

 

Lastly, I know the Google Business platform better than anyone out there. What it takes, to rank in Google organically to get people reaching out to me. 

 

Here’s the thing…real estate agents are always trying to figure out how to get the business coming to them. Most brokers and team leaders will throw money at Zillow or other marketing in hopes of “lead generation”. Because they did not take the time to understand these platforms they don’t know how to generate business “organically”. Organic business means I did not pay for an advertising campaign to generate that business. It happened naturally. 

 

So there’s 3 “new school” marketing strategies right there that you can also implement to start generating business. 

 

  1. Google Business
  2. Website (SEO)
  3. YouTube

 

Don’t wait till your 20 years down the road to try and figure this stuff out. We have courses and coaching right here in the Channel Junkies to help you hit the ground running. We also offer it for FREE to any agent who joins in our downline. Reach out and we can talk more about what that looks like. 

BECOME A CHANNEL JUNKIE

Want to partner with the number 1 YouTube for Real Estate Agents in the world? Click here to learn more about what becoming a Channel Junkie looks like but ultimately, how it can change your life.

#1 Talk To Your Sphere Of Influence

What do I mean by your sphere of influence? 

 

Your sphere of influence is people that you already know and have a relationship with. These people who already know, like and trust you. 

 

Usually this sphere consists of family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. They may already know what type of person you are. Hopefully a person that they want to work with when they're ready. 

 

This could be the fastest way you get deals done as a new real estate agent. So don’t be a secret agent. Let everyone know you just got your real estate license and you're studying the market. 

 

You might be asking yourself, “if they know I’m brand new why would they want to work with me?” 

 

This is a common objection that limits new real estate agents from the start. Let your sphere know the truth. “Yes, I’m brand new but I spend my day studying the ins and outs of the market as well as assisting other agents at our brokerage any way I can. I also have the mentorship of my brokers who have been in the business for ______ years throughout the process as I’m still learning if anything were to come up that I may need assistance with.”

 

This is called leveraging up. 

 

The leverage you have is the people who are mentoring you because they have experience. Use their years of experience, deals closed, and what they have done as your leverage when talking to your sphere of influence. 

Are you a new real estate agent?

We talk to tons of new real estate agents and agents who have skin in the game every single day about what we offer here at the Channel Junkies and we absolutely love it. We are all licensed agents who practice what we preach. NOT “gurus” or talking heads who don’t practice these very same methods. If you’re a new real estate agent don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions about building your business!

FREE TRAINING FROM TOP REAL ESTATE AGENTS. WE PRACTICE WHAT WE PREACH!

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TO ATTRACT - NOT CHASE - HIGH QUALITY LEADS

BECOME A CHANNEL JUNKIE

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