John said this post probably wouldn’t be well received. Well, so what, I say? The truth is that most agents fail, and I am heartbroken by that fact. Truly… I live and breathe real estate. I barely quit working, even at 9 p.m., because I genuinely like this crazy job. Why? Because this job is a huge privilege, and maybe the reason most agents fail has less to do with personal ability and more to do with a system that is simply created for you to fail.
Brokerages MAKE more money if you try and fail. Sure, they make money and build credibility with the few solo agents who somehow stick around long enough to figure it all out, but they make even MORE money from the people who try, get a couple of transactions, and quit. They make even MORE money from the agents who follow the model that captures all the newbies, trains them and tries to recruit even more. When new agents tell me they’ve had 3 transactions in 6 months, I feel sick to my stomach. That’s part-time work. It really is, and no one is telling you that because maybe they don’t care, or worse, they expect you to fail or hope you bring a friend because one of you might not.
First, we need to do a quick gut check. Can you hunt? Do you understand what “eat what you kill” means? Can you live this way? Like forever? I had my first listing within 2 weeks of getting licensed and closed on that transaction 30 days later. I didn’t share what I killed with 7 other people. Hell no. I ATE all of it. My kids, my family, and my life depended on me going to the bank in 30 days, not 6 months. You can have the same success if you change how you approach the job. If you are going to survive in this business, you need to act like you understand survival. You can’t be meek or scared or embarrassed, or whatever it is that’s telling you that you can’t do this job. The thing is, no one is actually better than anyone else here. We all have the same ability to do this job, but the majority of people don’t really want to try.
First, ask yourself: If your life depended on this, what can you do today to make sure you survive? You know what you won’t be doing if that’s true? Making your website look good. Ask yourself, “What do I need to do TODAY that will take me to the bank in 30 days?” Because if your survival depends only on you, and it does, you need to be able to answer that question for yourself. You don’t need a team to give you crumbs. Your survival depends on you. That’s it.
You don’t ask other people how to hunt when you’re starving. When it’s do or die, you do what you need to do. You get smart, you go where no one else is, to the places that are hard, and you find your opening. You know what I did? Instead of joining a team made up of my own competitors, which is crazy to me, I hired a coach for one month to keep me accountable and show me the ropes. That’s it. I immediately started making cold calls. Expired listings and FSBOs. I immediately started knocking on FSBO doors. I immediately opened myself up to failure, got used to it, and kept practicing. Suddenly, I was good. I never asked my friends or sphere to hire me. I never paid for a lead to this day. I never will. Because I know how to hunt. If you avoid this part of the job, your success depends on how much money you have to invest in billboards or leads or other stupid things. If you want to stay in business- you have to know how to prospect and get listings.
The goal wasn’t to find a buyer and hopefully not screw up on the most important financial decision of their lives. My goal was to get a listing. That should be your goal. That is the only thing that will consistently take you to the bank in 30 days because that’s what successful agents have done. You don’t need to wait your turn to be successful. You need to learn how to hunt, so you never go hungry.