How To Be A Successful Real Estate Agent Your First Year by Hamed Khajavi
So Paul was like hey I wanted this have you talked for a little bit I didn’t know I should prepare a PowerPoint so I don’t have a PowerPoint so I took some notes on my phone. I think Paul wanted me to mention or go over kind of what we did to find the success that we found this year. I can tell you what we did but I’m also kind of thinking that everyone’s coming from a different place I mean like I myself I’ve been in real estate for about 12 years and now she’s been in for about almost three so we’re all coming from kind of different places different backgrounds so I’ll share what worked the best for me this year that I think anyone can identify with. I mean I have a small list of things that I think depending on where you are in your career what might be a good fit or how to get yourself to that next level right because not all of us can just throw money at getting leads and things like that and build credibility. But, I think the first thing so like Paul said we have a team and unfortunately the rest of the team… Thank Kendra for being here. Thank you. But the rest of the team couldn’t be here to accept this award too but we didn’t do it by ourselves. We have a small group of people to help us out with this.
One of the most important things was to aim really high we hit this… I don’t want to say that we hit this goal because we failed but I would say we aimed so high that when we didn’t hit our goal we still won, so always try to punch above your weight class. You’re always capable of more than you think don’t go in there thinking I’ll just try to get one or two deals. If you’re just getting started oh absolutely, but don’t be afraid to set some scary goals for yourself because those are the things that are really gonna make you get up, get out, and take the actions that you need. The second thing is surround yourself with people who are like-minded. I mean we all have those people in our lives that may be questioning, like “Paul you’re getting real estate now? Oh isn’t the market going bad?” Or you know, “Hey I tried real estate a couple years back I didn’t work out for me so good luck with that.” Look for the people around you. I mean look at the people who are here right now today. They’re in the office right now. They’re here, they’re working, they’re wanting to learn.
Surround yourself with people that will help elevate you people who are the same track mind. The attitude and the goals of those that you surround yourself with are going to influence your own goals, your own attitude, and your ability to perceive your own success. You have anything to add? You just got to go with attitude… The husband-and-wife teams do work so if you’re wondering they do work. Real estate is all 24/7 by the way, but if you’re surrounding yourself with positive people if you go in there with that open attitude you can do anything. Whatever he’s talking about, the big goals, it’s a big hairy audacious goal. Set those for yourself and I’d really say yeah… It should keep you up at night. They should scare you. You should be horrified. You should be afraid to tell anyone your goals.
That’s how awesome your goal should be and it doesn’t have to happen overnight. It’s not gonna happen tomorrow or the day after just make sure you’re taking steps towards it every day. Remind yourself what your goal is. Keep it in front of you and make sure you stay focused on it and don’t let anything steer you off track. One thing that I did is if you say it out loud versus writing it down on a piece of paper. If you say it out loud every single day I don’t care you start with it and end your night with it, say it out loud it’s safe to the partners say it in front of a mirror but say it. And sorry the coach in me has to add something to that.
A goal is not a goal unless there’s a timeline or a deadline if you say I just want to be awesome it has to be measurable. What’s awesome to you? Say I woke up tomorrow I’m awesome now. I’m done. Well I want I want to close 35 units. I want to gross a million dollars in GCI but what are these goals and when do you have to do it by? By the end of 2019? By the end of 2020? You have to articulate to yourself what these goals actually are so that they’re measurable so you can track them. Break it down. Oh if I want to hit a million GCI. How many transactions do I have to do each month? Break it down. Where are they going to come from? Referral sources? From prospecting, cold-calling? Have a plan of attack. That’s how you’re able to hit the goal so it’s not an accident. So the final two concepts that helped us hit our numbers is one, leverage.
Again, we have a team so we had people help out with it. We can delegate tasks based on strengths and weaknesses so I’ll touch a little bit more on the whole… Also, we bought a ton of leads but we’re in a position where we’re able to throw money at it so that we can get more money back. The whole concept is if you can spend a dollar to earn three or five dollars or even eight dollars spend more dollars, but I know now everyone can do that right off the bat, so I did break it down to kind of different categories of where you might be in your career and you can kind of figure, we can kind of give some pointers.
Discipline and setting goals falls into every category of your life, right? The more you say you’re gonna do something and you actually take action and do it the more you prove to yourself that you’re capable of doing these things and then in every category If you say oh well I’ve never been able to lose this weight and you say, “well I’m just a fat guy” that’s just gonna be me. I’m a fat guy forever. And you kind of enable yourself like, “well that’s who I am.” Always gonna reach for that doughnut. You put a doughnut I’ll do it. That’s who I am. That’s a limiting belief that we carry around with ourselves, right? It doesn’t have to be doughnuts. It could be whatever like I tell my clients like I can’t dribble a basketball to save my life. That’s a limiting belief. I’ll just offer everything that I can’t find.
If I were to practice every day or take a basketball with me and dribble for 30 minutes a day for six months. Do you think I’d be able to dribble decently and be okay? Yeah. Just forget whatever living at least you have with you carry with you take the steps day by day on that hike right on that journey, just focus on that step. Improve every single day. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. But working out does help our energy level on a daily basis too. You have to have it. I think as entrepreneurs it’s it’s crucial. Yeah. If you neglect your health you will feel terrible. Real estate will kick you in the butt. You’ll be lacking, you won’t have the energy, your confidence will go down. We have to be mentally and physically fit to deal with whatever life is gonna throw at us and real estate is really one of those things where if you can make it in real estate you can make it in anything, like the skills that I’ve developed as a real estate agent over the last decade I feel even if tomorrow the real estate industry goes out drop me anywhere on this planet I’m an entrepreneur. I can find a way to make myself successful. So that’s that’s one of 12 energies in our industry.
If you’re just getting started it doesn’t make sense to build a team. You have to be able to supply supply systems, leadership,guidance, leads all that kind of stuff. In the beginning when I say team you guys all everyone in this room has a team already. To our TC’s, to our escrow, to our mortgage, to all the to everyone around that’s that’s willing to help a hand I’m sure all of you have some friends in here if you are out sick and you need someone to show a property for you I’m sure one of them someone else here will be like, “hey I got you” because obviously point a and maybe we can have junked up property for me right so whether if you’re a solo agent and your just getting started. In this particular brokerage you have more help than you can find in plenty of other places that I know this.
Everyone here is extremely hands-on so if you have lender partners you have titled up so you have termite people coming in you have everyone that you need to help you in transaction and help you look good in front your clients you have around you right now. So in that sense to answer your question you already kind of have an administrative team here to go, so even if you’re by yourself you can say yeah my team will reach out to you unless you’re TC that your desk you’ll let your lender partner and no one from mortgage heaven right so to answer your question yes everyone here already technically he has an admin team okay any other questions so if you’re just getting started and you’re maybe you widen will say one in ten units here right I mean in some Kyle ten units about that that’s price exterior clarify hurry right but world is looking for horse degree one to ten units the first thing you want to do is you want to get your mindset right especially if you’re in the early stages you just got license you have fatal to you recognize that you’re not a real estate agent to do your business you got your license you are now a business you have to think like a business person like a business right.
I can’t tell you how many times I mean if I were to ask how many people here you got the real estate license so that they could keep track of their hours hour by hour and have someone hold them accountable to what they did every single no one would raise their hands we’re all free spirits we’re all here we’re all our own bosses so that we can sit there and do whatever we want because we didn’t like to sit in cubical we didn’t want like that nine-to-five job right the truth is you are a businessman and that boss that you hated before that was always harassing you about your hours and how much time you put in guess what that’s you you’re your own boss right the sooner you realize that this is truly a business and the only person that you that can hold you accountable is yourself the sooner you’ll take the right actions and hold yourself to a higher level of productivity that will get you to your goals because now you don’t have someone else’s you checking your time clock or checking your work it’s all you so it’s the business mites that the second part of that is you have to be able to invest in your business right and like any business owner there’s costs involved with investing a business like luckily we have electricity thank you all right you have internet we have a signage we have meeting rooms we have computers we have all of this right these are things that that are put in place for you so you don’t have to worry about that if you were just if you start another business you probably have to set up shopping and curlies cost yourself but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be spending more money investing into this anyway right you should be looking for a continuing education you should be looking for leads you should be looking for other systems other things that can help you get to the next level now that doesn’t mean go out to start spending money recklessly especially in the beginning in the beginning and everything you need to be successful is already in this building.
Paul and Robert have made it so that you get to just plug and play stick your laptop in yes some time with the expired lists which you normally have to honor if you guys know if you have to pay a lot of money for that they just shared it with you guys you have every two station one yeah station lawyer that’s in the health stuff we have the chemicals like character the flash stuff we have all these different stations all take advantage of every free tool that you have because with that you can use that to create momentum get some money get comfort and then reinvest that yourself and Bettina gorgeous and that’s how you skill like well will said just before me it’s in the beginning when you start a business you got a there’s only two ways to be successful right you hear there’s throw money at it or you throw a blood sweat tears sometimes both actually most of the time both right but at the very beginning you get picked more any other you can come you can come in here licensed yesterday right a hundred thousand dollar check is hello again a ton of leads to start closing closing kills and you can probably get a return on that’s fantastic.
There’s a lot of people doing that but for the most of us who don’t have $100,000 to start writing checks you got to be blood speakers and again we have all these tools inside the office that have been set up for you for free that you can use so look for those free activities like call the expires list you already have the phone numbers you already have all these inter stations do as many open house this weekend open houses is the free way to get business they cost you nothing but your time do open houses on weekdays you know was so beautiful about this brokerage that is not present in any other brokerage they have an open listing system where we’re allowed to work each other deals at the other brokerages they just will claim their list like this is my listing no one can do anything with it that’s not how it works it where a wall where else should we share our what we have here so ask one day you have a listing can I do an open house for you okay I do announce on the weekday for you as I vacant right we can use this to leverage these tools to help each other grow and get more business if sometimes doing the more than all those are you so don’t rely on one column or pillar and support your business in.
I call it you spokes on a wheel or colors your business right let’s just say you’re really comfortable bug or you’re good you’re comfortable internet let’s never depend on your spy source because you can have you can go for at least if a beam in a moment if you get to depend on internet leads what if they raise the prices what if the lead quality goes down sorry cold calling you to really good at that but what if they start implementing new laws that have a severe penalties for calling people you should be calling what if you target a certain area door knocking like Center me Nolan let you go door-to-door right you want to have at least three to five pillars of business to help get your business going and helping keep you sustaining don’t forget professional networking takeout attorney is takeout CPAs take out anyone who can refer your business take them out to lunch try to build these as relationships lender partners title reps do client events again find other ways of doing this white.
So you have more to lean on and to you’re not dependent on any one source and three also just to break up the month if you’re out there if you’re grinding like like Paul’s a beast I don’t know how he did how many years of just hitting the phone three hours a day that’s like soul sucking but not everyone can do that right so try to diversify try to find different ways of point your business see for those people are looking to expand beyond ten units right if you’re if you’re saying that you made six figures you feel it pretty comfortable you’re living okay but you want to grow the next big thing is to focus on leverage right there’s only so many things that one person can do by themselves we all get sick some of us on kids you might want to see them their basketball game we’ll go to the play or something like that I would recommend you’re trying to recreate more versions of you so that you can lend yourself to close business actually just remembered one more thing for those who are still getting started 1 to 10 units a year the best thing is find a mentor find someone if you’ve ever trying to climb Mount Everest you’re not gonna show up in it with a bag full of the sweats and be like all right we’re gonna start go find someone who’s been to the top follow them right there’s no point in mapping it out for yourself it’s already been done so find yourself a mentor find yourself a coach there’s plenty of coaching services out there or join the table right.
Any one of these three things are gonna really help you in the beginning to help you learn the ropes get you comfortable with what you’re doing to build that confidence so that you’re when you’re out in the field on your own even speak more comfortably in the in the producing of the leads when you got started right how how small do we get started if you wanted to be we’re talking to somebody brand you see you know tread with this start with this I mean we all have different budgets right yeah so it’s funny how I sort of fell into the leaf thing when I first getting started in movies I spent 80 bucks a month which wasn’t that not a lot at all and I wasn’t even expecting that many leaves I did it for a different reason I did it so I could pull my listings better right it’s kind of opposed as a program to Zillow where if you if you purchased their lead to become a free agent you can have your lead your listings show up higher on the thing whatever so I did the minimum spec which is 80 bucks I accidentally started getting leads from that and I started converting them and then I realized over time that every dollar I spent I got $8 back and so well hey if that’s the case then spend more dollars right then you get more money back so it doesn’t always work like that and then all these are created equal and before anyone here consider spending a penny on dance.
I would say practice talk to someone first talk to someone who works heavily the meet we’re right here can you just knock on our door if you ask us how to approach to the beat situation you got to be comfortable with your scripts you have to be comfortable with how you approach them and you have to understand the lifecycle there’s there’s I reckon I can talk about these for like an hour there’s three there’s three times as many different axle beans they all have different timelines they’re all approached a little bit differently some are expensive some are cheap you have to know what you’re dealing with and who you’re dealing with find roleplay partners and and follow-up is everything if you’re not prepared to bombard them out of your comfort zone they don’t even buy it don’t bother don’t just then you just throw money away on average you have to call them at least 12 times before something happens I would be wary of any source that says they have seller leads if they are legit seller leads you will be in or from $800 plus per piece right so most of the time you’re getting fired in so there’s multiple types of leads.
I’ll break them down to the three most basic guides there’s portal leads which is like for example Zillow and it’ll turn upon these people are late in their cycle as and they’re ready to move in the next 90 days they’re calling you on a specific property and they want you to show them the house right the caution here is you don’t want to just be a door opener you need to show value beyond just someone who has a key right then you have Google pay-per-click and then you have facebook lead ads right Google pay-per-click is let’s just say yeah Zillow leaders right now are from 90 $250 apiece right a Google pay-per-click ad won’t pick them for Paul’s probably like nothing now but normally would be like 25 bucks 18 to 25 bucks apiece they’re using in the 60 penguin conversion life cycle facebook lead added is anywhere from two to five bucks or sometimes way less depending on but they’re usually over right so if you’re going to get leads expecting them to close soon and affect your bank account right away you have to spend more money you get to get the portal to do things a little turn if you’re building a business for your future to make sure you have business a year from now then you would be buying those cheaper beats and then but you have to be the one nurturing them so that they don’t go to the one where I come in a year and go is what else.
I would say the hottest ability that you mentioned before our open houses still because there are people who took time out of their weekend out of their precious days off because if they went to a half they knew nothing about maybe because they followed the site and they’re like really really ready to go so when you get internet leave the first thing you don’t all you want to do is get face-to-face you want to build a connection you want to want to get to know the person so that you’re not just a random name and there but what happens that open house your face-to-face you just give that whole step you skip that whole process of trying to get a hold of someone in heaven open houses are free open houses are fantastic they’re the best in your kids if you have kids to give me the icebreaker for anyone comes in we’ve done it that’s cool I know the questions what does hit day live like you want how long do you want us to send it to you we have it all okay so one more antenna is I said hour-by-hour accountability right you need to map out what you’re doing every single day and have a structured schedule as much as you hate to hear it that’s what’s gonna help you get your goals.
If you’re you need to find out what your dollar per hour activities are which is prospecting and follow up right if you’re on the phones your door-knocking if you’re calling leads whatever it is sending out emails so we have something three letters PPS perfect and schedule it’s blocked out by our or however long season to each document whatever mine looks like it’s all the hard stuff first in the morning get out of the way if I’m gonna be waiting in the gym to wait for the doors to open up I’m a up no but I’m gonna do cuz I don’t want to do that like fib and I’ve seen her there but but do all that stuff in the morning prospecting is one of the first things that I work generate there’s no one less problem right no but like I do all the hard stuff first and then you just kind of segment I think a way to get started on to know how to build your day is to start documenting what you are doing in your day already and then figure out which ones are really generating money for you or just you know generate career generating things and then break it down in your day and follow it.
