Success doesn’t come overnight – at least it didn’t for us. CLT Buyers has had (and have) our share of difficult times when we thought that this isn’t going to work or we simply weren’t motivated to continue. We often have thought that with time it will get easier and to our surprise, it didn’t. In fact, this industry will always have challenges and we know that many investors can understand. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t find success in real estate. So, after many years in this industry, we’ve put together some habits that we wished someone told us to master from the start.
1. Set-Up To-do List to Stay Organized
This may seem simple and fairly obvious, but many real estate investors and others tend to underestimate the power of this basic habit. To be honest, we did too. But when we finally started organizing our tasks and goals, we were able to put first things first, accomplish these tasks, and track our progress. How do we do that? Simple. At the beginning of every year, we write down the things that we want to accomplish during the year. We break these goals down into phases for when we need to finish certain tasks to accomplish that goal. We then plan these phases and allocate certain periods for us to complete these phases. Since many projects or opportunities are unexpected (especially in real estate), it’s always important to keep updating your to-do list and prioritize tasks according to what should be done first and dedicate time to solve problems as they evolve to ensure long-term success.
2. Dedicate At Least 1 Hour Per Week to Learn Something New
Keeping up to date with the ever-evolving technology, strategies, and tools in the real estate industry is a must to stay on top of your game. There’s always a new skill that you can learn and there’s always a topic that you may need to be educated about. For instance, real estate in the metaverse is a relatively new topic that we continue to research. We recommend using different educational tools and trying to incorporate a small amount of time into your day-to-day.
For example, some approaches to try:
- You can listen to an educational podcast while you drive to work.
- Follow major thought leaders on subjects you are interested in (I.E. Pace Morby for how to invest in properties Subject-to the existing mortgage)
- Use Instagram and TikTok to search by hashtags on a given topic
- Look for networking events that are introducing new or innovative techniques
- Attend seminars that are covering topics that you want to know more about
3. Utilize Technology
Real Estate can seem like an industry that doesn’t require much technology but we all know that’s not true. Technology is just as important in Real Estate as in any other domain. However, choosing the right tools and technologies differs from one business to another. Understanding your needs and your weaknesses is key to knowing what tools will help you most. The first step should be asking yourself what is the task that you have to do daily that takes the longest time to finish. This question can be a good indicator of what tool you should be searching for. The second step should be searching for the best tool that solves your problem and investing in it. Trust us, it’ll save you so much time you’ll have more time to focus on more important things.
Systems to consider:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – we use a Salesforce-based platform
- Data Aggregators – Batchleads, Propstream, Propelio, and Connected Investors are great options here
- Data Management Platforms – REISift is our go-to here
4. Use Social Media
Effective social media presence is more than having a private account to post memes for your friends. You have to use social media as a platform to reach your target audience, create a community, and establish yourself as an expert. If you don’t use social media for your business, then what are you waiting for?
When starting your business on social media make sure to include value for your followers. Don’t sound like you’re only here to sell. Relationships aren’t fostered through one-way communication. Successful real estate agents build relationships, educate, and inform all while expressing your personality on social media.
Also, make sure to provide advice or help whenever you can. It’s always nice to be there for people. We have dedicated our FB group solely to helping people and through our office hours, we can meet and help people in the community.
5. Keeping Up with Industry News
It’s essential for real estate professionals to keep up with industry trends. With the industry evolving so rapidly, you don’t want to get left behind. Thankfully, there are many ways for you to stay up-to-date on what’s happening. You can do that by reading industry magazines or blogs, listening to podcasts, or attending industry events.
Private conversations in the course of your business can also be a source of great insight. An example of this might be when working with an appraiser on one project, take the opportunity to discuss more macro market trends like transaction volumes, or pricing approaches. These insights can become invaluable for your business.
6. Lean on CRM Software
As mentioned above, systems are key! Maybe none more important than your Customer Relationship Management (CRM). We recommend using this regardless of the size of your real estate business. We cannot stress enough how important it is to use CRM software to stay organized. Our schedules are always packed and it’s easy to lose track of our leads, customers, and sales pipeline. A CRM platform will help you keep all of this information in one place and allow you to automate tasks – something that most real estate professionals need in their day-to-day. We use a SalesForce based CRM system.
7. Stay in Touch with Your Clients & Cater to Your Clients’ needs
As in any other industry, it’s always important to remember that our clients are the bread and butter of our business. That means that you have to stay in touch with your clients and cater to their needs. Some professionals do this by sending out newsletters, others do this by maintaining a blog, and others do this by having an active social media presence. For us, we like to be everywhere that’s why we have our newsletters, FB group, and Instagram. The idea is to be where our clients are and to provide valuable content that they would appreciate and find useful.
By the way, if you aren’t following us on those platforms, we would love to engage with you on Facebook or Instagram.
8. Focus on Developing Winning Mindset
This may sound cliche, a positive mindset is essential to success in any field, and real estate is no exception. It’s important to be optimistic and have a can-do attitude. When things get tough (and they will), you need to stay focused and push through. To develop a winning mindset, it’s important to be around people who are successful and to read, listen to, and watch material that is motivational and inspirational. One approach might be to create a custom playlist, on Youtube, or any other media provider.
9. Establish Yourself as an Industry Expert
One way to stay ahead of the competition is to establish yourself as an industry expert in real estate. You can do this by writing articles, blogging, participating in forums, creating mentorships, and speaking at events. When you become known as an expert in your field, people will start to seek you out for advice and consulting from real estate agents to potential buyers or sellers.
An effort we do to set our team apart is to invite those who have an interest in real estate into our office at a specific time each week, where we discuss the market and approaches that are working in today’s environment.
10. Stay Active in Your Local Community
Real estate is all about location, location, location. The more involved you are in your local community, the better connections you’ll make and the more business you’ll get. You can do this by getting involved in your city’s Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, or by volunteering for local charities. There are also other ways that you can create for yourself.
Real estate is a great industry with so many opportunities. However, to be successful, hard work and developing skills are necessary for success. We hope that the tips we’ve shared will help you on your journey to becoming a successful real estate professional!
Have further questions? Make sure to meet us during our free office hours so we can answer them all!