How To Succeed In Your First 30 Days As A Real Estate Broker

So you’ve begun your exciting journey down the path of real estate and you’ve found yourself asking: what to do in your first 30 days as a real estate agent? The Marketing & Agent Onboarding Team at Pearson Realty Group has put together this simplified version of our initial new agent marketing meetings. We’ll touch on defining your niche, building your network, and marketing yourself in your  Interested in seeing what Pearson Realty Group can do to kickstart your Chicago real estate career? We’d love to hear from you!

Define Yourself & Your Niche

Being a real estate agent is a lot like being an artist, there is a huge array of areas to explore but to truly become a master of your craft it’s essential to hone in on a select few niches. It’s easy to spread yourself thin by working with too many mediums – or markets, instead of becoming an expert in one or two. Think about why you become a real estate agent and lean into a niche/market that you enjoy working in – this should be an exciting time of planning and brainstorming!

Many agents find success being the “go-to” person for any real estate at the places they spend their free time – gyms, bars, churches, theatre groups, and sports leagues are all great ways to meet people to grow your sphere while enjoying yourself. This would also be the time to think about yourself as a brand, how you want to market yourself, and the areas you want to work in – this will also help you in deciding on what brokerages you wish to apply to (if you haven’t already).

Some simple starter questions to ask yourself at this stage:

• What areas do I want to work in?
  • (Cities, zip codes, neighborhoods, suburbs or metropolitan)
• What type of properties do you want to work with?
  • (Residential, rental, commercial, industrial, retail, etc.)
• What type of buyer/seller do you want to market to?
  • (First-time home buyers, investors, local communities, etc.)

Create a List of Contacts & Build Your CRM

When thinking about what to do in your first 30 days as a real estate agent, one of the most important things you can do right away is to put together a master list of all your contacts. Start with friends, family, and co-workers and build from there – in this case, the bigger the better. You never know who needs a realtor and when!

This may seem daunting but with modern technology, it’s actually quite easy to collect all your contacts from various digital services. For example, email services like Gmail allow you to export everyone you’ve ever corresponded with – you can even manage your phone Android or iOS contacts from a web browser at the same time.  Your brokerage’s CRM should provide detailed instructions on how to upload your contacts, and popular services like kvCore typically provide step-by-step guides and file templates to take the guesswork out of uploading your list.

Once your list is uploaded, you’re now ready to market yourself and your services!

Planning Your First Month of Social Media Posts & Email Blasts

One post a week for the first four weeks is a great starting point to start building your brand and getting your name out in front of people’s faces. Just like before, don’t spread yourself too thin. Think about your niche and what social media platforms are most effective in marketing to them. 

In the same vein, now would also be a great time to send initial blasts to your contact list. Especially in your first 30 days, it’s okay to reuse the content in multiple platforms, in fact, this is an effective way to make sure your marketing stays consistent and gets in front of the most faces. In the same vein, don’t think of emails and social media posts as separate messaging. Very often we can use the same theme, language, and graphics in both an email blast as a Facebook/Instagram post.

While we adapt our new agent marketing strategies to the specific agent at hand, we put together a sample of what your first month of social media posting could look like. Take a look at our sample schedule and think about how to adapt it to your needs:

1. Week 1 – Announce Your New Career: Starting with the basics, we need to let first inform our network of your new venture into the real estate world. A professional headshot with a short blurb about your services and the areas in which you offer them is all you need to get started. It’s also important to note which brokerage you are now licensed under and any successful brokerage will have templates ready for you.
2. Week 2 – Free Home Valuation Online Tool: One way to draw attention to your page is by offering something for free. The best resource you can offer for free is simple – information. Keep your sphere informed and offer educational tools such as a link to a free home valuation on your website. This can even get homeowners that are not in the selling mindset to reconsider their options.
3. Week 3 – Working With A Strong Team or Strong Brokerage Resources: One way to s0lifidiy the confidence your sphere has in you early on, is to show them who (or what) you’re working with. Show off the collective experience of your team or highlight the resources/tools that your brokerage offers that set you apart from the pack.
4. Week 4 – Share Your First Listing or Open House: Make it your goal to have a rental or property listing to represent in your first month. If this doesn’t match your timeline you can also share local open house dates and offer to schedule showings. You can also share show open houses for anyone on your real estate team, allowing you to 

As you get into the flow of things you will find what type of posts work best for your niche and what your followers respond best to. Try experimenting and make it fun! People respond best to personalities that come across as genuine and passionate about what they talk about. Here is a short list of ideas to get you started:

1. TikTok & Reels Videos
2. Local/National Industry News
3. Open House Dates
4. Neighborhood Events
5. Community News
6. New Construction
7. Personal Blog(s)

Set Your Goals For Your First Year of Business

How do you know if you’re succeeding if you don’t have any goals to hit? By setting a few quantitative goals we can set expectations for ourselves and keep ourselves accountable & motivated. If you’re just starting your real estate journey, here are some good questions to ask yourself:

• What are your goals for the [2023] year?
• What support do you need to accomplish them?
• Can you quantify your [2023] goals?
  • (ex: total sales in dollars, number of units rented, number of calls a day)
• How will you accomplish these goals?
• What kept you from hitting your goals last year?

If you follow our short guide on what to do in your first 30 days as a real estate agent you’ll be in a great starting position for your real estate career. Remember, everyone is different so adapt these plans to your own strategies and you’ll be selling in no time! If you have any questions about best practices for new agent marketing or want to see what Pearson Realty Group can do for your career, contact us today!