Every top-producing listing agent we know agrees that there are only three things agents need to do to win every listing appointment: 1. Be prepared, 2. Be prepared, and 3. BE PREPARED. Everything else is window dressing. A listing appointment checklist is one way to keep you on track.

Of course, for newer listing agents who can’t brag about their past success, preparing for a listing appointment can be very stressful. That’s why we asked some of the most successful listing agents we know to tell us what they do to prepare for listing appointments.

They provided a ton of hard-won knowledge, but if you’re short on time, you can simply download the listing appointment checklist (plus scripts) as a PDF here:

Get Our Listing Appointment Checklist & Scripts

1. Write & Practice Delivering Empathy-driven Closing Lines (Scripts)

Pitching a homeowner is a bit like walking a tightrope over a canyon—it doesn’t matter how well you do in the middle if you lose your balance and fall a foot away from the other side. The closing line, when you ask for the listing, is where most new agents fall. If you want to get better at delivering closing lines, you need to focus on empathy: What are your homeowner’s goals and how can you help them realize those goals?

Nile Lundgren, licensed associate real estate broker at SERHANT and capstone consultant for the Sell It Like Serhant Pro Membership, tailors his closing lines to what is important for the homeowner:

“If you ask for the seller’s goals, you should already know what is important to them in the sale. Is it price? Time? Is it an agent who over communicates, or is it overall experience? Once you uncover what’s important to the seller, use that to close:

“What I hear you saying, Mrs. Seller, is that you want an agent to over-communicate due to past experiences with other realtors. As I mentioned, I have a weekly report that gives you a snapshot of the showings, feedback, listing analytics, and more. Why wait to sign with me, meet another agent, when my seller communications program is exactly what you’re looking for?”

Here are a few more closing lines you can use once you know the homeowner’s goals:

Price:

“After everything we’ve gone over today, are you confident that I am the best fit to sell your home quickly and for the best price?”

Honesty & Empathy:

“Thanks again for taking the time to allow me to talk to you tonight, _________. I am ready to go to work if you’ll have me.”

A Quick Sale:

“I think the best strategy would be to get the paperwork out of the way tonight so we can get your house up on the MLS by Friday. I would love to go over the listing agreement with you so we can make that happen.”

Marketing:

“Since you seemed to like the idea of virtual staging so much, I would love to have my photographer come by this weekend to take some pictures that we can virtually stage for you.”

or

“I am 100% sure that the marketing strategy I laid out for you tonight will sell your home quickly and for the most money. If you agree, can we take the next step and go over the listing agreement?”

Information:

“Have we gone over enough information today so that signing the listing agreement would be the next step?”

If you don’t already have a listing presentation ready to go, check out my step-by-step guide: This Buyer Presentation Converts Leads to Clients in 15 Minutes.

2. Learn How to Anticipate & Overcome Emotional Seller Objections (Scripts)

Even if they’re a hundred percent sold on hiring you and ready to sign, most homeowners will throw up at least some objections. They’re not doing this to intimidate you or poke holes in your pitch, and chances are they are not all that concerned with saving a few thousand dollars in commissions. Like anyone making an important decision, they just want to make sure they are doing their due diligence.

This is why it’s crucial to anticipate and prepare your objection handlers before you even think about sitting in their living room and asking them for the listing. Here are a few objection handlers to address the most common objections you will get on a listing appointment.

“Look, I get it, nobody wants to spend more than they have to, but there is a reason these agents discount their commissions and it will almost always mean walking away from the closing table with less money, not more. Think about it. These agents are advertising to the world that they don’t think their services are worth very much. While you might think that lack of confidence means more money in your pocket, remember that this agent will end negotiating with a buyer’s agent to decide how much money your home actually sells for. Are they going to fight for every penny that your home is worth? Why would they? They don’t even fight for every penny that their own services are worth!”

“Totally understandable. Frankly, I would be a little concerned if you didn’t talk to multiple agents! This is a big decision! Was there anything we went over today that you would like me to clarify right now while you have me here?”

“I understand you want to get more money for your house, but keep in mind that many agents have no problem being dishonest just to get a listing. They think that telling you what you want to hear will get them the listing and they can fix the over-pricing problem later. I can tell you from experience that this is a huge mistake, even in a seller’s market like we’re in now.

“I’ve seen it happen over and over again. Look at 12345 Main Street. It was priced at $795,000 and it sat on the market for more than five months before the price was cut to $725,000. Three months later it sold for $675,000. The asking price I came up with is based on actual market data going back five years from multiple highly reputable sources, not just my research. I am happy to go over my CMA with you again to explain how I arrived at this price.

“At the end of the day, I have a fiduciary duty to you and can price your home as high as you want to. But that same fiduciary duty means that I have to give you my honest opinion as a professional before doing so.”

While memorizing a few common objection handlers is a great way to perform better on your listing appointment, learning how to anticipate emotional objections is a skill that takes time to learn. See this excellent guide to learning how to do just that: How to Handle Objections from Prospects and Clients.

3. Make Sure Your Listing Presentation Looks Polished & Professional

No matter how you deliver your listing presentation at your listing appointment, it needs to look polished and professional. Even if your content is amazing, a poorly designed presentation will take the focus off what you’re saying, and put it on your lack of graphic design skills—a key component of digital marketing today.

Agent Crate offers different listing presentation templates, plus tips and tricks on creating one to help you impress your clients

Visit Agent Crate

4. Preview Every Nearby Listing You Can, Then Preview Some More

Luckily, the best way to prepare for your listing appointment is also the easiest: go out and preview every listing you can, then preview some more. This is one thing every top-producing listing agent we know works into their daily schedule. Previewing listings helps you get a sense of what’s really on the market competing with the listing you’re pitching, instead of what other listing agents show on your MLS. Let’s face it—many MLS listing pictures are about as accurate as a Tinder profile. Knowing what’s really out there will give you an edge.

If you make time to preview homes every day and take notes, in a few years you will even be able to comment on details of the comps you present in your CMA. So instead of saying, “Like your home, 1234 Main Street has three bedrooms and sold for $550,000,” you could say “1234 Main Street sold for $550,000, but when I toured it last year I noticed the bedrooms were very small. Your bedrooms are much larger, so this makes your home more attractive to buyers.” Which response do you think a homeowner is more likely to be impressed with?

[Related article: How to Make CMA Price Adjustments to Listings Without Pissing Off Sellers]

5. Practice Gratitude to Build Genuine Confidence

While it might seem a little woo-woo, one of the best ways to get over the pre-listing appointment jitters is to practice gratitude. You worked hard to get to this point, and someone has recognized your hard work and is considering you to help them with the largest transaction of their lives.

So instead of panicking, be thankful! If you find yourself getting stressed when preparing for your appointment, remind yourself how lucky you were to be able to get where you are today. On the day of your listing appointment, make sure to express that gratitude by thanking the homeowner right away.

Many new listing agents get so caught up in pitching homeowners they forget they’re actually dealing with a human being who let a stranger into their home. In order to break the ice, the very first words out of your mouth on your listing appointment should be “thank you.” If you focused on gratitude while preparing for the appointment, that thank you will be genuine and they will feel it.

You don’t have to gush—just say something like:

“Hi ________, how are you? I know there’s a lot of other agents out there, so before we get started I wanted to thank you for giving me the opportunity to meet with you today.”

6. Schedule Your Listing Appointment on a Busy Day

While this one might seem counterintuitive, scheduling your listing appointment on a day that you’re busy can actually help you perform better. Think about it. Which cold call do you perform better on? Your first cold call of the day or your last? If you’re like most agents, you’re going to do much better on that last call.

So instead of sitting around worrying and running over scripts the morning of your listing appointment, practice the night before, make sure your listing presentation is solid, and spend the day of your appointment doing what you do best—working with people who want to buy or sell real estate.

7. Create a Custom Listing Marketing Plan for the Home

Even though your listing marketing plan will probably not change much if you get the listing, you should still work to create a custom marketing plan for the homeowner. Every homeowner wants to believe that their home is unique enough to warrant customized marketing. Indulging that emotional need will help build rapport with the homeowner.

A great way to do this is to start with a multi-pronged listing marketing plan, then decide which marketing strategies you will use if you get the listing. Present this to the homeowner and explain why you are choosing some marketing strategies and not others.

[Related article: Ultimate 51-Point Real Estate Listing Marketing Plan (+PDF Checklist)]

Bonus Tip: Stick to Your Daily Wellness Routine on the Day of Your Appointment

One of the best ways to stay fresh and confident for your listing appointment is to stick to whatever wellness routine you normally do. If you normally work out in the morning and then meditate before breakfast, then this is exactly what you should do on the morning of your listing appointment.

The morning of your listing appointment is not the time to try a new meditation technique or do another mile on the treadmill. Instead, stick to whatever wellness routine is already working for you. This won’t eliminate the stress, but it will help trick your brain into thinking it’s just another day doing what you love.

Over to You

How do you prepare for listing appointments? Let us know in the comments.

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, Get More Listings, Close More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here https://www.yasserkhan.sg/

YASSER KHAN

Author, Coach & Trainer

Yasser Khan earned less than $1,000 in his first year as a full time property agent. With no money for the $2 train fare to his Broker's office, he was forced to walk 25 kilometers on foot. Worse, he got evicted at midnight with his wife and baby son by the roadside. Desperate, he bought a $16 Sales book and took massive action. That single investment in himself gave him an OBSCENE ROI of $160,000 in just 11 months. Today, Yasser is on a mission to make the real estate great career again and helps ambitious agents quadruple their commission income within 90 days.

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach at YasserKhan.SG, trainer at PropertyAgentUniversity.com and the author of Property Agent Secrets Book who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S. plaguing the industry today.  

Yasser Khan’s approach to coaching is highly personalised, holistic, no B.S., and for “PROS ONLY… amateurs not allowed.” He believes that true success means winning in every single area of your life (like Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Fun).

When Yasser isn’t coaching, he loves playing GOTY PC Games with top-of-the-line Razer products and being a kid again with his 3 naughty children (actually, boss babies...), traveling to and across scenic Pakistan, enjoying hot & spicy food, taking pictures of the Milky Way with his favourite Canon DSLR and reading up all about Dinosaurs (especially T. Rex)

Let me be blunt. Most home buyers can be cheap. Not frugal, not careful with money. Cheap. They don’t just want a good deal—they want a great deal. They're a salesperson’s worst nightmare. If you’re a buyer’s agent, you’re probably already dealing with difficult homebuyers 20 times a day.

As a real estate agent in Singapore, I got to see just how frustrating it is to work with difficult people. Most homebuyers who showed up to my office came armed with well-intentioned but laughably inaccurate articles that promised them “Million Dollar Listing” apartments on “2 Broke Girls” budgets. I must have spent 30% of my time debunking real estate myths and patiently explaining how the real estate market really works.

That’s why I decided to put together this guide on how to educate your “unrealistic” buyers or renters quickly and easily. If you do it right, you just might get an evangelist for life.

1. Come Up With Memorable Talking Points & Repeat Them Often

Let’s face it, dealing with difficult homebuyers can be a grind. One way to manage their unrealistic expectations quickly and easily is to come up with a few short, memorable, and ideally emotion-packed talking points and repeat them as often as you can.

Think about when you first heard a talking point like, “Those who list, last,”—how easily you remembered it and how often you’ve repeated it. The reason a phrase like this has such an immediate and memorable impact on new agents has to do with a concept that neuroscientists call neural plasticity. It’s basically a fancy way of saying there are ideal conditions for learning and retaining a new idea. If you want to educate buyers quickly, then you need to come up with a few talking points that help create ideal conditions for neural plasticity.

Here’s how: According to Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, urgency and focus are what you need to help someone learn something new. So come up with talking points that create both. That means short, memorable, and emotion-laden talking points, delivered directly and candidly.

After an afternoon with me, my homebuyers probably heard me say this at least 10 times: “Your apartment can be affordable, nice, or in a great neighborhood. Pick two.” Was it cheesy? Yes. Did it help educate my clients quickly? Also yes.

Here’s a significantly less cheesy but equally effective talking point from Alexander Boriskin, an agent in Manhattan and The Hamptons who regularly sells eight-figure listings: “It’s certainly a buyers’ market, but fire sales are very far and few between.”

Here’s another from Manhattan agent Kemdi Anosike: “Compromise is a must. You don’t always get everything on your wish list, and that is OK.”

Here’s one from Jodie: “There is no perfect house. On a scale of one to 10, shoot for an eight.”
Just remember. Urgency + focus = learning. So take an hour or two and see if you can distill your market knowledge into a few short, memorable talking points that will teach difficult homebuyers a lesson quickly.

2. Use Your Lead Magnets to Educate Buyers Before They Call You

Some homebuyers you take on just don’t want to listen. They think because their hairdresser’s friend’s nephew got a two-bedroom in SoHo for under $1 million a month, they can too.

But no matter how off the mark their expectations are, you run the risk of turning them off with your perceived pessimism. And the reality is some buyers will shop around until they find an agent who tells them what they want to hear: “Of course there are 2-bedrooms in SoHo for under $1 million! Let’s meet up on Saturday and we can see some. By the way, how’s your credit?”

Instead of risking these starry-eyed buyers ditching you for someone who promises them rainbows and unicorns, why not generate realistic prospects with lead magnets that also educate them? Putting together a well-written and researched new homebuyer’s guide as a free download on your site will take you all of a weekend. You can even tailor it to specific neighborhoods and price points. Or better yet, target your specific niche to attract your ideal clients.

Then set up a landing page on your website and drive some traffic to it with pay-per-click ads on social media. The prospects you get from lead magnets like this will already have your advice in their heads before they call you.

If you already have a website, check out our guide to landing pages here. If not, you might want to check out Real Geeks. Real Geeks’ property search tool not only gives your leads a smooth search experience but feeds their info directly into your customer relationship manager (CRM) so you can track their interests easily.

3. Show Them, Don’t Tell Them

One of the biggest mistakes new agents make is waiting around the office all day for the “perfect lead” and dumping everyone else into crummy drip campaigns. Is your phone ringing off the hook? Are you so busy that you can’t be bothered to meet someone who might net you six figures or more in commissions over the next few years? Of course not.

Whenever you get a new lead, the first words out of your mouth should be something along the lines of, “What time on Sunday can we go see the listing?” This will not only help you build relationships with top-of-the-funnel leads, but will give you the perfect opportunity to educate them as well.

Come up with three to five listings that roughly fit the homebuyer’s criteria and budget, and one that’s exactly what they want but far out of their budget. Take them on a tour of the places in their budget, which they’re going to hate, then take them to the expensive place but don’t tell them the price until they get excited.

Remember: Urgency and focus are what you need to teach someone something new. It is much, much easier to create these conditions standing in a home and looking at the kitchen than it is in a marketing email.

4. Research Your Market & the Economy, Constantly

Of course, if you’re not spending enough time studying the market and the economy and how they work together, all the snappy talking points in the world won’t help you. Even unrealistic buyers can sniff out agents who are not well-informed. The minute they talk to someone who actually knows what they’re talking about, your buyers will ghost you. And for good reason. Why would anyone want to work with a professional who doesn’t know their trade?

Instead of trying to fake it till you make it, educate yourself. Constantly. There’s simply no excuse for not knowing your market and the local economy inside out. And if you want to work in a luxury market, chances are many of your leads will work in finance and know way more about the market and economy than you do. Why should they even bother talking to you? You’re not bringing anything to the table.

To stay up to date with your market, subscribe to local news sources that cover real estate—ideally sources that only cover real estate. Inman can be a great source of information for the market in general, and if you’re in a big city like New York or Chicago, The Real Deal and Crain’s should be in your inbox every morning. RISMedia is another great real estate news source.

Also, make sure you’re getting the latest data from your real estate association. Our very own Kate Evans breaks down the National Association of Realtors’ housing data every month and offers free infographics and talking points for both homebuyers and sellers.

Learning about the economy and how it affects your market is just as important. If you didn’t study economics or finance in college, don’t sweat it. MIT Open Courseware offers Ivy League-level lectures on economics online for free.

5. Use a Wish List to Prioritize Needs vs Wants

It’s just good practice to have your buyers create a wish list. Then, sit down with them and discuss the importance of each item on the list. Make your buyers sort these items into what is a want and what is a need. Having this conversation will help when you start looking at homes that are out of their price range. And you can refer back to this list over and over, redirecting them from their idealistic, starry-eyed dreams to the reality of their budget.

Obviously, what happens is that gourmet kitchen they said was a need will eventually become a want. The list will change over time to be more reflective of their current reality. And in these moments, you can remind them that if the house they settle on doesn’t have everything they want, they can save money, build equity, and trade up in a few years. And you’ll be more than happy to help them with that when the time comes.

6. Practice Patience

Honestly, I don’t know why we expect clients to understand what we spend every single day studying and practicing. It’s not their job to know the market or to understand how real estate works. That’s our job. So, first, practice patience with difficult homebuyers. Use all your active listening skills here. And never condescend. That’s the fastest way to lose a buyer.

Jodie typically likes to use visual aids when she talks to homebuyers. She uses a lot of infographics, especially in her buyer’s presentation. For example, she uses the one above to demonstrate the relationship between location, features, and price. Use visuals to get the point across and teach your buyers about the process of buying a home from beginning to post-closing.

7. Cover Finances First

Many buyers will come to you after looking at their dream homes online. Which means they haven’t talked to a mortgage broker yet. They’re coming to you with stars in their eyes and a dream in their hearts, but the loan originator can quickly pull them back to reality with a pre-approval letter. Encourage your buyers to get their finances straight first before you start showing them houses.

You can explain to them the last thing they want is to fall in love with a house they can’t afford. So, once they get that budget set, they’ll be forced to stay within it. You can also direct their attention to not only their approval amount, but how much they will pay per month on their mortgage. Just because they’re approved for a $500,000 mortgage does not mean they want to (or can) make that payment each month. Most often, buyers don’t take into account the other items (property tax, insurance, HOA fees, etc.) that will come along with that monthly payment.

8. Choose Your Allies Carefully

I’m sure we’ve all heard the advice from our elders, “Never pay the asking price for a house!” I don’t know where (or when) this little tidbit came from, but I still hear it from clients, usually right before they try to get me to write up a lowball offer on their dream home, thinking we’ll just negotiate the price. But honestly, even if it was true once upon a time, this is terrible advice for today. Your buyers need to know that they’re working from old data.

Now I’m not suggesting that you insult them by telling them they don’t know what they’re talking about. They may have gotten that information from their dad or a trusted friend. You have to be tactful when you explain that today’s market is far different from the market in which [insert family member who bought their house in 1984] purchased their home.

Your buyers have probably been inundated with “advice” from friends, family, coworkers, and colleagues on the “best practices” for buying real estate. But the truth is, practically everything outside of “find a good agent” is outdated, untrue, or misleading.

Take their comments in stride and let them know, in a loving way, that their friends and family don’t do this for a living and their advice is not accurate in today’s market. Encourage them to lean on one family member or friend they trust to seek counsel outside of yours, but tune out the rest of the advice noise.

9. Prepare Them for the Emotional Roller Coaster

One thing your buyers probably haven’t been told is how emotional buying a house is. With all the advice coming in, you might think someone would have mentioned the emotional roller coaster of buying a home, especially for first-time homebuyers.

The best way to address this is to first give your homebuyers a heads-up. Let them know that buying a home is emotional. Explain to them that their judgment will be clouded by their feelings.

Next, after you’ve told your buyers they will be tempted to buy based solely on their emotions, lay out your strategy to combat making irrational decisions. Go back to their wish list with their wants and needs lined out.

Sure, everyone wants to buy that gorgeous house with a pool in the backyard, but was a pool even on your list? It’s definitely not a priority. So, do you really feel comfortable tacking an extra $500 per month on your mortgage payment?

As the real estate agent, part of your job is to continue to ground your buyers and make sure they’re not sinking themselves. Bring them back to reality whenever you need to. They’re counting on you to do that for them. It’s your responsibility to remind them of the end goal, to help them cross the finish line. Don’t let them get into a situation where they will end up having to sell in two years because their payments are more than they can handle.

You may feel like the wet blanket, but it’s important for homebuyers to have someone looking out for their best interests. Dreaming is fun. But getting tied to a house you can’t afford is a nightmare.

10. Build a Solid Foundation

Shattering your clients’ homebuying dreams is a tough part of our jobs as agents. One way to make this challenge easier is to start with a solid foundation. When you build a trusting, compassionate relationship with your clients, you’ll have an easier time telling them those truths they may not want to hear.

Don’t start off dashing their hopes right away. Start by being that comforting, empathetic ear. Listen to their dreams and feel their excitement. Don’t make promises you can’t keep, but let them dream first. Then, gently bring them to a reality that will let them have a piece of that dream. Show them a path that will help them get as much of what they want as possible. Be a knowledgeable, creative problem-solver, sharing their enthusiasm for finding them the right home.

11. Learn How to Get to Carnegie Hall

If you’re a newer agent, then before you start effectively educating anyone, you’re going to have to learn the meaning behind that old joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall. If you don’t already know, it’s actually very easy: Practice.

The first few times you try to deal with difficult homebuyers, you’re either going to sound a bit unsure, you’re not going to have the right talking points, or you’re not going to be very well educated on your market or the economy.

Don’t sweat it, though. Even the best agents in the world started out right where you are right now. The big secret is that many of these agents aren’t even very talented or smart. In real estate, hard work and practice will beat out talent any day of the week.

You can start practicing dealing with difficult homebuyers right now by running scenarios with your fellow agents and practicing what to say in different situations. Study your market every day and know your stuff so you’re prepared for any questions thrown at you.

If you want to build the kind of strong relationships that lead to years of referral business, then never stop learning, come up with some talking points that create urgency and focus, and practice, practice, practice.

Over to You

Have a great talking point you use to educate difficult homebuyers? Add it to the comments below.

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, Get More Listings, Close More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here https://www.yasserkhan.sg/

YASSER KHAN

Author, Coach & Trainer

Yasser Khan earned less than $1,000 in his first year as a full time property agent. With no money for the $2 train fare to his Broker's office, he was forced to walk 25 kilometers on foot. Worse, he got evicted at midnight with his wife and baby son by the roadside. Desperate, he bought a $16 Sales book and took massive action. That single investment in himself gave him an OBSCENE ROI of $160,000 in just 11 months. Today, Yasser is on a mission to make the real estate great career again and helps ambitious agents quadruple their commission income within 90 days.

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach at YasserKhan.SG, trainer at PropertyAgentUniversity.com and the author of Property Agent Secrets Book who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S. plaguing the industry today.  

Yasser Khan’s approach to coaching is highly personalised, holistic, no B.S., and for “PROS ONLY… amateurs not allowed.” He believes that true success means winning in every single area of your life (like Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Fun).

When Yasser isn’t coaching, he loves playing GOTY PC Games with top-of-the-line Razer products and being a kid again with his 3 naughty children (actually, boss babies...), traveling to and across scenic Pakistan, enjoying hot & spicy food, taking pictures of the Milky Way with his favourite Canon DSLR and reading up all about Dinosaurs (especially T. Rex)

Real estate negotiation sounds easy on paper, but in practice even small mistakes can sink deals. You need to understand psychology, strategy, and a shifting market to get the best outcome for your clients. Not easy!

That’s why I decided to write this guide to real estate negotiation. In this guide, I asked industry luminary Ryan Serhant and top agents from Douglas Elliman to add in their best negotiation strategies for 2023. Since we know you’re busy, we only included actionable tips you can start using today.

Want to become a better negotiator? Grab a cup of coffee, turn off your phone, and check out these 23 effective real estate negotiation strategies from some of the best dealmakers in real estate:

Here’s an example of this methodology in action:

The house is on the market for $600,000, but your research, backed up by your broker’s opinion, tells you it’s overpriced. By your estimate, a fair price would be $500,000. But when you offer that amount, the seller says you are “not even close” and doesn’t counter. You think the seller is in denial about the slump in the housing market, which has affected prices in your town quite a bit.

Sellers are looking at the prices paid for their neighbors’ houses a few years ago, while buyers are looking at comparable transactions from the past few months to try to determine the fair price. You might consider creative deal structuring to break through the resulting impasse. Start by noting that the typical house purchase is a very tight deal: Once the seller commits to a particular buyer, the seller can’t (legally) sell the house to someone else, even if offered a substantially higher price.

In your circumstance, a loose deal structure might provide a way forward. Imagine you make a slightly higher offer (it is, after all, your client’s perfect house) of $525,000. Then give the seller 60 days to keep shopping the house. If a better offer comes in during that time, the seller has the right to walk away by paying you a breakup fee—say, $25,000 or less.

This real estate negotiation strategy creates value based on the different beliefs about the value of the house. In effect, you are saying this to the seller: “You think the house is worth $600,000, but I think you won’t get a better offer than my $525,000. I’m so confident in my belief that I’m willing to give you 60 days to prove me wrong. If you do find a better price, I’ll keep looking for the perfect house. If you don’t find a better deal, we’ll close in 60 days at my price.”

If you want to learn more, check out Chris’ interview with Tom Ferry below, or better yet, grab his book, “Never Split the Difference,” from his website.

Over to You

Have a great negotiation strategy we didn’t cover here? Let us know in the comments.

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, Get More Listings, Close More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here https://www.yasserkhan.sg/

YASSER KHAN

Author, Coach & Trainer

Yasser Khan earned less than $1,000 in his first year as a full time property agent. With no money for the $2 train fare to his Broker's office, he was forced to walk 25 kilometers on foot. Worse, he got evicted at midnight with his wife and baby son by the roadside. Desperate, he bought a $16 Sales book and took massive action. That single investment in himself gave him an OBSCENE ROI of $160,000 in just 11 months. Today, Yasser is on a mission to make the real estate great career again and helps ambitious agents quadruple their commission income within 90 days.

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach at YasserKhan.SG, trainer at PropertyAgentUniversity.com and the author of Property Agent Secrets Book who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S. plaguing the industry today.  

Yasser Khan’s approach to coaching is highly personalised, holistic, no B.S., and for “PROS ONLY… amateurs not allowed.” He believes that true success means winning in every single area of your life (like Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Fun).

When Yasser isn’t coaching, he loves playing GOTY PC Games with top-of-the-line Razer products and being a kid again with his 3 naughty children (actually, boss babies...), traveling to and across scenic Pakistan, enjoying hot & spicy food, taking pictures of the Milky Way with his favourite Canon DSLR and reading up all about Dinosaurs (especially T. Rex)

Getting Started: Identify Pain Points & Long-term Goals

Before you even think about hiring anyone, you need to figure out which tasks they can do that will actually help you move the ball forward. This is not always easy. Sometimes you might not even realize just how much time you’re wasting on mundane tasks that can easily be taken off your plate.

This is why taking an hour or two to really go through your day-to-day activity to find your pain points is crucial to the hiring process. You can start by actually logging your time for one week and then breaking it up into essential tasks that only you can do, and tasks that can be delegated to a savvy real estate virtual assistant (VA).

Here’s what that might look like:

Now that you know where all those hours disappear to, you can start to put together a job description and time commitment for a virtual assistant.

Of course, you have two goals here. First, to free up some of your time to focus on high-level tasks that have a big impact on your bottom line, and second but equally important, tasks you can assign to a VA that you can’t find time for today.

Next, put together a dream list of tasks that you have thought about doing but haven’t been able to find the time for. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Targeted engagement on social media to build followers
• Editing long YouTube videos into smaller videos and posting on YouTube
• Designing more attractive posts for social media
• Making custom infographics
• Asking listing agents or buyer agents for feedback
• Designing and sending holiday cards, birthday cards, and so on
• Researching more affordable vendors for marketing materials
• Designing more attractive listing presentations
• Designing more attractive buyer presentations
• Website maintenance
• Scheduling blog posts
• Keeping your calendar up to date
• Screen incoming emails and calls
• Finding social media accounts of leads
• Researching leads on social media
• Entering open house leads into a customer relationship management (CRM) tool
• Posting ads on Craigslist

Obviously, this list is just a starting point. I am sure you can come up with 50 more tasks that would fit into a “nice if I had the time” category. Now make a plan to delegate them to your real estate virtual assistant.

What Are Your Long-term Goals for Your Business?

Believe it or not, many agents genuinely don’t have an answer to this question. If you want your business to scale in a sustainable way, then you’ve got some thinking to do. Sure, you want to make more money, but what are your specific goals for your business six months from now, next year, or in five years?

If this question stopped you in your tracks (sorry!), take some time to read Sean’s article on deciding on your mission, vision, and values. The article is written for brokerages, but the strategies apply to agents, too.

RELATED ARTICLE How to Build a Real Estate Team in 2023 + 7 Mistakes to Avoid At All Costs

How Much Does Hiring a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Cost?

Unfortunately, this is kind of like asking “how much do real estate agents make?” The answer will vary wildly depending on where you hire from, what kind of skills you need, and how competitive the job market is.

Since that’s not much of an answer at all, here’s a quick rundown of how much you can expect to pay an administrative virtual assistant with a few years of experience in different countries:

Cost of Hiring a Real Estate Virtual Assistant by Region

As you can see, your money will go much, much farther in the Philippines and India. Having hired from both countries, I would go with the Philippines all day. English skills seem to be better in the Philippines.

That said, if you need a U.S.-based virtual assistant, you have to take the hiring process seriously. The competition for skilled assistants is fierce these days. That means skipping Craigslist and using an actual, professional job search site like ZipRecruiter. It’s the #1 rated job search app on iOS and Android, so it’s where millennials look for jobs these days.

Visit ZipRecruiter

How Much Does Using a Virtual Assistant Agency Site Cost?

Unfortunately, prices have gone up for these sites over the last few years. Today, for a one-month subscription, you’ll pay $69 per month for Onlinejobs.ph. However, this should be looked at as an investment, as the quality and affordability of candidates on this site is unmatched.

Agency sites like MyOutDesk generally don’t charge a monthly fee for access, but they do make a small profit on the salaries of the VAs they offer. That means you will likely pay 10% to 20% more for your VA every month, and that extra money does not go to the VA.

Hiring for One-off Tasks Isn’t Worth It

Since the hiring process for virtual assistants is very similar to the process of hiring any employee, it’s generally not worth the hassle for one-off tasks like data entry projects or designing banners. Instead, use Fiverr.

Where to Hire VAs: Stretching Your Dollar in the Philippines

Due to the relative strength of the U.S. dollar, your best bet for hiring affordable virtual assistants is the Philippines. The Philippines offers agents two massive advantages over hiring from the U.S. or other countries:

1. Affordability: The median salary in the Philippines is around $12,000 per year. This means that you can afford to hire someone who would be out of reach in the U.S. or other countries.
2. English skills and established outsourcing culture: Over 90% of Filipinos speak English as a second language, and outsourcing is very common there.

Virtual Assistant Agencies vs DIY Hiring

If you want to skip the hassle and hire a virtual assistant from the Philippines who already has real estate experience, you can use a service like MyOutDesk. This will make your life easier but will end up costing you more money than DIY hiring.

The Best DIY Hiring Website: Onlinejobs.ph

If you want to save some money and try DIY hiring, then I highly recommend using Onlinejobs.ph. This is one of the largest job boards for remote workers in the Philippines and will give you access to a massive talent pool. They even post a candidate’s IQ scores, DISC assessments, and other test results that can help you make a hiring decision.

Onlinejobs.ph is not free, though. You will need to pay $69 for a one-month account in order to hire workers. They do offer a money-back guarantee, so if you’re not happy with your results, you can get a full refund.

Ethical Concerns About Hiring From Developing Countries

If you’re having some ethical concerns about hiring from a developing country like the Philippines, then you’re not alone. YKC has hired assistants for WordPress, social media, and data analysis from the Philippines, and in the beginning, we also struggled with these concerns.

After some reflection, we decided that hiring from the around the world actually gave us a chance to benefit from new perspectives and hopefully provide a positive and workplace with a lot of growth potential. Don’t get me wrong—the Philippines and other developing countries have some unsavory political leaders. But you won’t be supporting them. You will be supporting the people you hire.

The Hiring Process

Since they offer the best bang for your buck, we will focus on using Onlinejobs.ph for the rest of this article. However, the same principles will apply if you decide to use other freelancing sites, like Upwork.

Posting Jobs vs Searching Resumes

There are two ways you can use Onlinejobs.ph to find virtual assistant candidates. You can search through resumes looking for great candidates, or post a job. Here’s a quick rundown of the pros and cons of each method:

Posting a job

Searching Resumes

Writing Your Job Description

Whether you decide to search resumes or post a job, you will need to write up a clear, and hopefully compelling job description. You can get started by writing up a bulleted list of the tasks you want your VA to do. Once you have that done, write up a quick, friendly, introduction to you and your company.

Deciding on a Salary

Before posting your job ad, search for keywords like “real estate” or “administrative assistant” or any specific skill you need, like “social media” or “photoshop.” While some VAs in the Philippines specialize in fields like graphic design or programming, most seem to be Jacks and Jills of all trades. If you take the time to find people with the skills you want, you’ll have a much better idea of what salary to offer.

IMPORTANT: If you absolutely need someone with specific skills, make sure you say they must have those skills to apply. If you don’t, you will get flooded with resumes!

Vetting Candidates

Unlike job sites in the U.S., job sites in the Philippines offer substantial information about each candidate. It is not unusual for candidates to pose IQ scores, DISC assessment scores, and ID verification.

IQ, DISC Assessment & ID Score

While making a hiring decision based on IQ is probably not a great idea, DISC assessments can be useful if you want to hire a customer-facing assistant.

Worker Skills

Next, check out their “Worker Skills” section, where candidates rank their skills in different software or tasks. I’ve found that most candidates on the site are very honest about their skill level.

Reviews

Some candidates also have reviews from other U.S. companies that have hired them. I would hire someone with solid reviews over someone with no reviews.

The Interview Process

Once you’ve selected a few candidates to interview, make sure you ask them two questions along with your normal interview questions:

1. How fast is your internet? (Internet speeds can vary wildly in the Philippines.)
2. Are you willing to work U.S. hours? (Many VAs choose to work nights to be available during U.S. hours, but some do not.)

Making the Offer

While you don’t have to, sending your new hire an official offer letter and onboarding document will help them feel like they made the right choice. Make sure to spell out salary, tasks, payment, and hours worked.

Onboarding & Training Your New Real Estate Virtual Assistant

Once you have a new hire ready to go, you should start your onboarding process by giving them a (paid) crash course in the real estate sales process. There are plenty of great videos online that explain the process in plain English.

You should also set clear expectations and key performance indicators (KPIs) to make sure those expectations are met. For example, if you have someone running your Instagram account, you might set the number of new followers or posts per day as KPIs.

Time Tracking

While freelancer sites like Upwork and Onlinejobs.ph offer time tracking services, you might want to consider using KPIs instead. Time tracking software sends the signal that you don’t trust them to work hard. Not exactly a great way to start a working relationship.

Settle on the number of hours they should work per week, then set ambitious but realistic KPIs and have weekly meetings to see how they’re doing.

Paying Your New Virtual Assistant

There are many ways to pay your virtual assistant, but PayPal or Wise (formerly TransferWise) are probably your best bet. Neither are free, but there are very few reliable free ways to send money halfway around the world. If you hire a skilled VA, they will likely tell you how they prefer to be paid.

Remember to Make Your VA Feel Like a Part of the Team

While many of the tasks you assign your new assistant might seem low priority, remember that this is a serious job for them. That said, you are responsible for setting the tone for your new hire, so make sure to offer some fun things to do instead of just grilling them about performance on every call. Ask about their family, send gifts during the holidays, and treat them like the important part of your team that they are.

If your VA is working U.S. hours, make sure they have a voice at weekly team meetings, and remember to include them in the fun stuff too. Being on-screen at 3:00 a.m. can be a little awkward, but making them feel like part of the team instead of a hired hand is a good trade-off.

Over to You

Have you ever hired a real estate virtual assistant? Let us know your tips and tricks in the comments.

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, Get More Listings, Close More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here https://www.yasserkhan.sg/

YASSER KHAN

Author, Coach & Trainer

Yasser Khan earned less than $1,000 in his first year as a full time property agent. With no money for the $2 train fare to his Broker's office, he was forced to walk 25 kilometers on foot. Worse, he got evicted at midnight with his wife and baby son by the roadside. Desperate, he bought a $16 Sales book and took massive action. That single investment in himself gave him an OBSCENE ROI of $160,000 in just 11 months. Today, Yasser is on a mission to make the real estate great career again and helps ambitious agents quadruple their commission income within 90 days.

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach at YasserKhan.SG, trainer at PropertyAgentUniversity.com and the author of Property Agent Secrets Book who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S. plaguing the industry today.  

Yasser Khan’s approach to coaching is highly personalised, holistic, no B.S., and for “PROS ONLY… amateurs not allowed.” He believes that true success means winning in every single area of your life (like Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Fun).

When Yasser isn’t coaching, he loves playing GOTY PC Games with top-of-the-line Razer products and being a kid again with his 3 naughty children (actually, boss babies...), traveling to and across scenic Pakistan, enjoying hot & spicy food, taking pictures of the Milky Way with his favourite Canon DSLR and reading up all about Dinosaurs (especially T. Rex)

If you’re reading this, you’re probably considering a career move into the real estate field but also asking yourself, “Can I be a part-time real estate agent?” Yes. You can be a part-time real estate agent. Licensed real estate agents can work as many or as few hours as they want, making this career a near-perfect choice for someone looking for flexible, part-time work with excellent earning potential.

Is a Part-time Real Estate Career Right for You?

Having a flexible, virtually limitless side hustle is very appealing, but it’s not right for everyone. When we talk to potential agents about getting into real estate part time, they often base their decision on the following four questions:

Getting Started as a Part-time Real Estate Agent

If the answers to the above questions have you fired up to begin your new side hustle, this section is for you. Here are the three steps you’ll need to take to get started as a part-time realtor.

1. Get Your Real Estate License

To legally offer real estate services in the U.S., you need a real estate license. The length of time and cost required for obtaining a license will vary slightly depending on which state you live in, but the overall process is pretty much the same. Here’s a breakdown of exactly what you’ll need to do:

• Take a prelicensing course that satisfies your state’s requirements
• Take some real estate practice exams
• Pass your state test
• Register your license with your state
• Find a brokerage to work with

If you’re ready to dive right in, we suggest checking out Colibri Real Estate for your prelicensing courses. They offer options in just about every state.

2. Carve Out Time in Your Schedule

Since real estate is a part-time gig, it will be essential to set some schedule boundaries right out of the gate to ensure that your real estate obligations don’t intrude on your other professional, familial, and personal commitments. Here’s a couple of pointers on how to do this:

• Tell your full-time boss you’re licensed: If you’re working a full-time job and picking up real estate on the side, let your boss know that you’ve got a new venture. Assure them that it won’t interfere with your other responsibilities, and let them know you’re ready to help with any real estate needs!
• Make a real estate schedule: Carve out some time and put it on your calendar as real estate time every single week. Make sure to share this time with your clients, so they know when you’re available to help them. You may have to be flexible on this, especially if a client is only available at certain times to meet with you, but setting expectations early is a great way to avoid scheduling mishaps.
• Set aside some non-work time: If this is your first time attempting a side hustle, you need to know that time becomes your most precious commodity. You’re going to be excited about the progress and success you’re making in real estate, but if you don’t take at least a little downtime each week, eventually, your real estate pursuits will suffer due to burnout.

3. Set Up Systems for Part-time Business Success

Even though a part-time realtor may be devoting less time to their business than their full-time counterparts, the tools they’ll need to be successful are still the same. Here are the systems you’ll need to have in place if you want to start your business off on the right foot.

• Create a real estate business plan: Whether a part-time real estate agent makes money or not depends on their ability to manage their operating costs and project their income. The best way to do this is with a real estate business plan. Here, you’ll make a plan for what you’ll spend, how much you expect to make, and be able to track your expenses along the way.
• [LEARN MORE: How to Write a Real Estate Business Plan + Templates]
• Choose a customer relationship management (CRM) system: A real estate CRM is a critical tool to help manage all your interactions with your clients, leads, and prospects. We named LionDesk our best real estate CRM of 2022.
• [LEARN MORE: The Best Real Estate CRMs of 2023]
• Build a lead generation plan: To be a successful part-time real estate agent, you’ll need leads you can turn into clients. Whether you plan to work from your sphere of influence, from paid lead sources like Market Leader or Zillow, or some other source, you’ll need a plan to generate enough leads to make your business sustainable.
• [LEARN MORE: How to Create a Custom Real Estate Lead Generation Plan + Template]

Want more resources for successfully launching your part-time real estate business? Download our Part-time Real Estate Agent Launch Guide for detailed instructions on making your first four weeks in the industry the best they can be.

Part-time Real Estate Agent Resources

Getting started in the real estate business can be challenging, especially if you don’t have experience as a business owner or entrepreneur. To help with your transition, we put together some handy resources to help you turn your business dreams into reality.

We invite you to join our Facebook Mastermind Group for some ongoing mentorship from experienced real estate pros. Subscribe to YKC to get our exclusive marketing and lead generation boot camps, on-demand video training, and must-have downloads.

Real Estate 101: How You Make Money

Real estate can be an extremely rewarding career, and the life of a part-time real estate agent is exciting and varied with lots of opportunities for success. If you aren’t completely clear on how the real estate business works, not to worry. Check out this graphic that walks through exactly how your flow as a real estate agent will go from start to finish.

Understanding Operating Expenses of a Part-time Real Estate Agent

If you don’t know what kind of expenses a real estate agent is going to incur on a monthly or yearly basis, it’s tough to make a business plan to account for them. Below are some typical costs of doing business as a part-time real estate agent.

• State and local licensure and memberships: Just like your driver’s license, your state will require you to periodically renew your real estate license. Just how often and how much it will cost will depend on your state, but plan on spending up to $250 a year. Also, membership in your local Realtors association will be critical for access to tools like the Multiple Listing Service (where you’ll list property for sale). Each local association is unique, but plan on spending upwards of $600 per year for this.
• Broker-related costs: Some brokers will require you to pay a monthly fee for being a part of their organization—often referred to as a “desk fee.” Not every broker demands a desk fee from their agents, but many will expect one from part-timers. Plan on $600 a year for this.
• Operating expenses: To run a real estate business, you’ll need to pay for things like lead generation, tech tools like a CRM or email marketing platform, business cards, postcards, yard signs, and more. You’ll also need to fuel up your car to run your clients to and from showings, and have a cell phone plan you can use to communicate with your buyers and sellers. Every business is different, so you’ll want to do your own analysis here. A good starting point is to budget $2,500 a year for this.
• Broker split: Every commission you earn will be split with your broker until you hit your “cap,” or the maximum amount you’re required to pay to your broker each year. Though split and cap amounts vary from broker to broker, part-time agents should expect to pay as much as 50% of their commission to their broker.

To make your part-time real estate business profitable, you’ll need to earn more in net commission income (NCI) than your expenses.

3 Tips for Balancing Your Part-time Real Estate Career With Your Full-time Job

Finding the balance between your part-time real estate business and your full-time job can be tricky, but it’s very doable. Here are three tips for finding that balance early in your new career.

1. Set expectations with clients: If you’ve never experienced a needy or nervous seller or an overly-motivated buyer, let us tell you—they’re relentless. Demanding clients can be a challenge when your schedule doesn’t allow for total flexibility, but you can nip any stress in the bud by letting them know the best ways to communicate with you, when they can expect to hear back from you, and when you’re available for in-person conversations. Setting expectations early helps to quell frustration later on.
2. Automate your marketing: It would be easy to suck up your entire part-time real estate schedule with marketing tasks alone. This is why you absolutely need to take advantage of the automated email, text messaging, and snail-mail marketing tools that your CRM provides. It’s a great day when your clients receive your personalized messages and don’t spend a single second on the phone or behind a keyboard.
3. Stack your in-person real estate duties on as few days as possible: It is easy for your part-time real estate career to turn into a full-time role if you’re spreading out your in-person interactions across too many days. Let’s face it: Face-to-face client interactions are time-consuming and the more days you have them scheduled, the harder it will be to stick to a part-time schedule. Pick one day in the week when you plan to conduct all your showings, listing appointments, and consultations so you can spend the balance of the week working your leads.

Competing for Business With Full-time Agents: The Secret to Success

You might feel intimidated by the idea of having to compete with 20- or 30-year full-time real estate veterans for business, but here’s the secret to marketing yourself that will set you up for success: Make your personal brand messaging about the value of your skills and market knowledge, not about your length of experience.

It’s true that you won’t be able to compete if the decision is made based on the number of closed transactions, but that’s rarely the most important factor on a client’s mind.

Real estate clients choose their agents based on the skills they bring to the table; skills that will help them get to their desired outcome. Are you a fantastic negotiator? Are you ultra-connected in your community? Do you have a savvy marketing background? Are you skilled with video and social media? Are you someone your clients are actually going to want to spend time with?

At the end of the day, real estate is a relationship business. Your interpersonal skills and responsiveness matter more than your time on the job.

All of these things matter more to most buyers and sellers than the number of houses you’ve sold or how many hours you have to devote per week.

Part-time Real Estate Agent Launch Guide

When you’re ready to get your real estate business off the ground, you want to make sure your first four weeks are all moving you in the right direction. We’ve put together the Part-time Real Estate Agent Launch Guide with a week-by-week breakdown of how you should be spending your time to get your business off the ground.

Download Your Part-time Real Estate Agent Launch Guide

Your Turn

We’d love to hear from you on what is drawing you to the real estate field, and where you are coming from. Are you currently a part-time real estate agent? What has your experience been like so far?

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, Get More Listings, Close More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here https://www.yasserkhan.sg/

YASSER KHAN

Author, Coach & Trainer

Yasser Khan earned less than $1,000 in his first year as a full time property agent. With no money for the $2 train fare to his Broker's office, he was forced to walk 25 kilometers on foot. Worse, he got evicted at midnight with his wife and baby son by the roadside. Desperate, he bought a $16 Sales book and took massive action. That single investment in himself gave him an OBSCENE ROI of $160,000 in just 11 months. Today, Yasser is on a mission to make the real estate great career again and helps ambitious agents quadruple their commission income within 90 days.

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach at YasserKhan.SG, trainer at PropertyAgentUniversity.com and the author of Property Agent Secrets Book who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S. plaguing the industry today.  

Yasser Khan’s approach to coaching is highly personalised, holistic, no B.S., and for “PROS ONLY… amateurs not allowed.” He believes that true success means winning in every single area of your life (like Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Fun).

When Yasser isn’t coaching, he loves playing GOTY PC Games with top-of-the-line Razer products and being a kid again with his 3 naughty children (actually, boss babies...), traveling to and across scenic Pakistan, enjoying hot & spicy food, taking pictures of the Milky Way with his favourite Canon DSLR and reading up all about Dinosaurs (especially T. Rex)

Most home buyers start their property search online. This is possible thanks to a technology called IDX. IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange; it's a system that allows REALTORS® to display the most comprehensive and up-to-date property listing information on their own Agent Website.

It’s common knowledge that an internet presence is crucial for success in today’s market. That’s because internet technologies have profoundly changed the way home buyers search for homes.

Research also shows that most home buyers begin their search MONTHS in advance before they even reach out to a real estate agent. And one technology that has been instrumental in making this happen is IDX. This guide for real estate agents explores IDX in more detail. Let's dive in.

What is IDX in Real Estate?

IDX is an acronym that stands for Internet Data Exchange. It’s a system of rules, protocols, and software regulated by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) that makes it possible for realtors to display MLS listings directly on their websites. A website with IDX lets buyers search for homes, and filter the results based on size, number of bedrooms, location, price, etc.

If you have a website with IDX, prospects buyers will have access to MLS data directly from your website, without having to go to a third party site.

By offering a solid property search function, you immediately improve your site’s authority. You encourage your visitors to stay on your site longer, and you give them a reason to keep coming back.

And the best news? Just like you don’t need to understand how an internal combustion engine works in order to drive a car, you don’t need to know every technical detail about how IDX works in order to use it.

Why (And How) Was IDX Created?

Members of the real estate industry need to both compete and cooperate with each other to be successful. This need to cooperate was well understood even back in the late 1880s. Back then, when real estate agents wanted to share information about their listings, they would meet in each other’s offices and in local real estate associations. The idea was simple. You help me sell my properties, and I’ll help you sell your properties. Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

This information sharing was done by exchanging physical listing sheets. As technology improved, physical binders transformed into computer databases, and finally evolved into the modern Multiple Listing Service (MLS). 

As the internet began to become a normal part of everyday life in the 90s, it didn’t take long for realtors to see its marketing and information sharing potential.

MLS property databases made their way to password-protected websites into which affiliated real estate agents could access.

However, if real estate agents wanted to show those MLS listings on their own website, they had to spend thousands (or even tens of thousands) of dollars to pay for the development of proprietary software solutions.

There were no widely agreed standards, and only large brokerages could afford to provide a live MLS feed on their website.

In order to tackle that issue, the NAR convened a special workgroup in the early 2000s consisting of members of the Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee, Professional Standards Committee, and Risk Management Committee. 

NAR’s goal was to come up with a set of standards and regulations that would protect customers and Realtors from exploitation and abuse while making it easy to share MLS data on broker’s websites.

The result was the creation of IDX.

IDX helped lower significantly the cost of adding an MLS property search function on realtors’ websites and made it possible for smaller brokerages to compete with giant franchises.

Today, there are many IDX Website solutions (such as AgentLEADS) that make it easy for agents to include IDX property searches directly on their websites. 

Why Do You Need a Website with IDX?

The vast majority of home buyers start their home search online. In fact, by the time a prospect contacts you in real life, there’s a good chance he/she has already spent months doing property searches online. And the first place they go to begin their search is typically Google or other search engines.

Home Buyers will type in keywords that match the type of home they’re looking for, such as:

• Miami Waterfront Homes
• Downtown Seattle Condos
• San Diego County New Construction
• Homes for sale in Chicago

In many cases, the top results come from big data real estate portals such as Zillow, or Trulia. This is especially true if their search queries are broad in scope, such as “homes for sale in Florida,” instead of a more hyperlocal search such as “homes for sale in Downtown Naples Florida.”

But oftentimes, the results will come from individual real estate agents’ websites. Especially if those agents have worked hard on their website’s local SEO.

If one of these buyers finds a search result they want, and it happens to be an agent’s site with a property search tool, the agent’s site gains immediate legitimacy as a valuable home hunting tool.

There are a few things that home buyers expect to see on a real estate agent’s website:

1. Pictures and videos
2. Neighborhood info
3. Informative blogs
4. Expert Advice
5. Market information
6. And of course… homes that meet their needs.

If you own a real estate website without IDX (and thus no property search option), and you only upload your own personal listings, you’d be shooting yourself in the foot. 

While it’s true that you should be focusing on selling your clients’ listings, it’s not the most economically sensible thing to do in the long run. It would be like owning a bookstore that only sells the books you wrote. 

To put it bluntly, if your real estate website doesn’t offer IDX integration, you’re already falling behind.

IDX vs Zillow, Trulia, Redfin (and Other Listing Portals)

It’s no surprise that most Realtors dislike real estate portals such as Trulia and Zillow. Not just because they are direct competition, but also because they have a pretty spotty record. These portals often give wrong price estimates (Zillow even admits that its Zestimate is not an appraisal and that you should consult a professional appraiser) and use exploitative tactics.

Ever wonder why most of their services are free? Just like social media, these portals make most of their money not by charging fees for premium services, but by selling consumer data to advertising services (“if you’re not paying for the product, you’re the product” indeed).

On the other hand, since IDX solutions take data directly from a vetted source (MLS), it offers data that’s far more accurate.

A great IDX integration on your own website protects your client’s privacy since it doesn’t force them to give their personal data.

As infuriating as the big guys can be to deal with, their inability to deal with hyperlocal markets gives you an excellent opportunity to beat them.

With a solution such as AgentLEADS, you’ll be able to create a hyperlocal search experience that can meet the exact expectations of your visitors. You’ll be able to create local guides that show visitors all the ins and outs of your neighborhood.

Since its IDX feed is updated in real-time, your visitors will have accurate data about any listing in your area whenever they need it.

Does Having IDX on Real Estate Websites Guarantee Success?

However, it’s important to understand that a website with IDX by itself is not a guarantee for success. You need to have the right marketing strategy too. Some solutions’ IDX only display MLS listings and little else. But simply showing the property listings won’t do much for improving your website’s ranking on Google. 

That’s because a live feed from MLS is NOT indexable by search engines such as Google. 

Instead of simply displaying the listings, a superior integration would improve your website’s ranking by making sure that each MLS listing has a web page of its own so that it becomes indexable by Google.

That way, if anyone is looking for a property in your hyperlocal area, you’ll have a bigger chance that your site will be on the top results.

Conclusion: IDX Is An Essential Tool For Realtors

As a realtor, you know how difficult it can be to make your mark on the oversaturated real estate industry. That’s why it’s crucial that you use the right IDX solution that helps tip the odds in your favor. You may not have millions of dollars to spend on marketing like the big listings sites do, but you can have something even more valuable: the trusted authority of a hardworking, hyperlocal community real estate expert… you.

You are a resource for new homes in your community. People see your signs, ads, and they can see you engaging in local events. This hyperlocal presence is an advantage that the big listing websites will NEVER have.

And with an excellent hyperlocal real estate website (that includes IDX) such as AgentLEADS, even you can outrank the big players.

Think our AgentLEADS market domination tools are too good to be true (or we sound too biased in this blog post because we make these tools)?

Try it out for yourself. We offer a free, no strings attached 30-day trial. This will let you see why we have a nearly perfect rating for several years in a row, and why our list of happy customers continues to grow daily.

See How to Build an IDX Real Estate Website in One Afternoon (2023)

Already have an IDX website? Get this next: Ultimate 51-Point Real Estate Listing Marketing Plan (+PDF Checklist)

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, Get More Listings, Close More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here https://www.yasserkhan.sg/

YASSER KHAN

Author, Coach & Trainer

Yasser Khan earned less than $1,000 in his first year as a full time property agent. With no money for the $2 train fare to his Broker's office, he was forced to walk 25 kilometers on foot. Worse, he got evicted at midnight with his wife and baby son by the roadside. Desperate, he bought a $16 Sales book and took massive action. That single investment in himself gave him an OBSCENE ROI of $160,000 in just 11 months. Today, Yasser is on a mission to make the real estate great career again and helps ambitious agents quadruple their commission income within 90 days.

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach at YasserKhan.SG, trainer at PropertyAgentUniversity.com and the author of Property Agent Secrets Book who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S. plaguing the industry today.  

Yasser Khan’s approach to coaching is highly personalised, holistic, no B.S., and for “PROS ONLY… amateurs not allowed.” He believes that true success means winning in every single area of your life (like Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Fun).

When Yasser isn’t coaching, he loves playing GOTY PC Games with top-of-the-line Razer products and being a kid again with his 3 naughty children (actually, boss babies...), traveling to and across scenic Pakistan, enjoying hot & spicy food, taking pictures of the Milky Way with his favourite Canon DSLR and reading up all about Dinosaurs (especially T. Rex)

When you call up your leads, how many times in the past year have you been hung up on? How many times have you heard “How did you get my number?” or “Why are you calling me?”  or "I didn't sign up for anything!" If you’re relatively new, getting hung up on or dealing with objections like these might have made you think twice about calling your leads.

What if I told you there is a way to minimize these common objections and never get hung up on again? Full disclosure, you will still get hung up on … obviously, this isn’t magic. However, my team has used these simple scripts for years to deflect the objections that lead to the most hang-ups.

The key is to use these BEFORE the objections even come up.

Of course, different leads require slightly different strategies, so I organized the scripts by lead source. Remember to let me know what you think at the end of the article, and happy calling!

[Obviously step one is to generate the leads. Read Evergreen Guide to Real Estate Lead Generation in 2023. Getting bad phone numbers? See How to Convert Leads With Bad Phone Numbers (Email Scripts)]

1. Building Rapport Quickly With Zillow Leads

Love them or hate them, Zillow dominates our industry. Anyone who has even thoughts about buying a home has probably registered on Zillow, most likely early on in their search. Most of them are looking for something specific and very likely just want to talk with the listing agent. Did you know that the average registered lead has the potential of getting up to three phone calls almost immediately?

This is why the most repeated term in the real estate industry, “speed to lead,” is so profoundly important for Zillow leads. The lead’s information goes to the listing agent, to the Premier Agent who pays for the lead, and Zillow Concierge. No wonder Zillow leads are pissed off when we call, right?

So how do you break through and come away with a win? It is surprisingly simple. You just need to identify with the lead’s problem and be prepared for the two most common objections they will have: “I’m not really looking” and “I only want to work with the listing agent.”

Here’s a quick example script for your opening line to get as much info as possible without even talking about the home they registered for. The objection here is “I’m not really looking.”

Agent: Hey [first name]?

Lead: Yes?

Agent: I see you were on Zillow and requested information about 123 Main Street. What was it about that home that interested you?

Lead: It was near my mother’s home and in the perfect location.

Agent: Oh great, while I am looking for more information on the home, let me ask. How long have you been looking?

Lead: We were not really looking, I just saw this home and was thinking about it if it worked out.

Agent: Great, so do you rent or own currently?

Lead: Rent.

Agent: Are you in a lease term or month to month?

Lead: Month to month.

Agent: So if you found the perfect home, you could move at any time? Let me ask you, what would have to happen to make a move possible?

Don’t make the mistake most agents make and say “that home is already under contract.” If you do that, they will have no reason to continue the conversation with you. Instead, practice the script I just gave you and dig into their situation. In order to empathize and build rapport quickly, you need to understand their situation.

Here’s a script to handle the “I want to work with the listing agent” objection. This one is a quick conversation ender for many agents. If they get hung up on, it’s usually going to come after this objection.

Agent: Hey [first name]?

Lead: Yes?

Agent: I see you were on Zillow and requested information about 123 Main Street. What was it about that home that interested you?

Lead: Are you the listing agent?

Agent: No, I am not. May I know why is that important to you?

Lead: They know more about the house and I can get a better deal working with them directly.

Agent: I totally understand what you are saying. Just a quick question. Do you know that the agent was hired by the seller to make them the most amount of money? And that is a conflict of interest for them to save you the most amount of money and protect you from anything that does not require them to disclose?

Of course, this is not how the conversation ends. You will probably get one of two responses to this question:

Lead: Yes, that is fine, I have bought before. I don’t need an agent, I can do this myself.

Agent: So if you were going through a divorce, you would be OK using the same attorney?

Lead: Oh, I knew something of that but didn’t realize this, no.

Agent: Well, it’s my job to not only save you the most amount of money, but to protect your future investment. What is it exactly about this home that you wanted to know?

Note: Zillow Leads Require Multiple Call Attempts

The dirty little secret to success in real estate is that you just have to be a little bit better than your competition. Scripts help, but if you have trouble getting people on the phone in the first place, you’ve lost.

So when the speed-to-lead approach doesn’t work, meaning they don’t answer the phone on that first attempt, try and try again. Staying consistent with multiple call attempts is crucial to converting Zillow leads to customers.

The rule I train my inside sales agents (ISAs) to follow is a minimum of six to eight call attempts within two weeks. This is how you beat your competition because with this consistency you increase your chances of having a conversation. Meanwhile, the other agent lost because of the lack of follow up attempts. They tried once, maybe twice, and then they gave up. Always remember that follow up is EVERYTHING in real estate!

Read This: 15 Reasons Your Leads Aren’t Calling You Back (and How to Fix Those)

2. Building Rapport Quickly With Google PPC Leads

Leads from Google Ads are among the most common leads generated in the industry. I like to think of these leads much like they are walking into a store and the sales clerk asks, “Is there anything I can help you with today?” Like most of us in a store, they usually say something like, “No thanks, I am good” OR “I am just looking, thank you.”

Yet many agents get mad with leads who respond similarly. Why? That philosophy of speed to lead in my opinion isn’t relevant with Google or any pay-per-click (PPC) lead. These leads aren’t ready to be pounced on like a Zillow lead. That means your strategy to build rapport with Google PPC leads should be a little different.

Read Also How to Get Real Estate Seller Leads for Less Than $20 a Day?

As long as there is a call attempt within 12 hours, depending upon what time they register, that should be enough. Remember what I said about the Zillow leads and the amount of phone calls they get? These leads have their defenses up and are on high alert because more than likely, they didn’t just start and stop with your website. They probably registered on a few websites and probably registered on Zillow too. There is a large chance you are not the only phone call they are receiving. That means being too aggressive can result in a straight-up phone block.

In my personal experience with calling these leads, most are genuinely just looking. Who doesn’t like to look at homes? Your main goal calling them is to simply find out where they are in the process. Sure, the appointment is the ultimate goal, but you are more likely to get results from them long term with proper nurturing. So don’t get too aggressive. Save that for Zillow leads.

The way these leads usually find you is by literally typing “homes for sale in [city]” into Google and clicking on whatever comes up. Unfortunately, that means they might register on more than one website.

When I am training agents I always tell them, “He who has the conversation wins!” Keeping that in mind calling these leads and knowing they are “just looking” in several of your competitors’ databases is key.

Now that you understand where they are coming from, it makes talking to them so much easier. Here’s a quick opening script as an example:

Agent: Hey [first name]?

Lead: Yes?

Agent: I saw you were online looking at homes in [city] and wondered what your future plans are, or what you may be looking for.

The reason this opening line works so well is that it’s a laid-back approach. This helps drop their defenses of not wanting to be sold to. It’s quick and to the point. It also leaves less room for an immediate objection because you are directly identifying the fact they were searching online for homes … which they were! This is the first phase of breaking through with Google leads, dropping their defenses, and building rapport.

3. Building Rapport Quickly With Realtor.com Leads (& Others)

These leads can be in a variety of situations. Just looking, wanting more information on a specific property, or wanting to see a home—and don’t forget those strange people who say, “I wasn’t looking for homes online!!” Yeah, right! Then how did I get your phone number?

Just like Google PPC leads, always frame your opening question with how they were routed into your database. Here’s a good example script for your opening line:

Agent: Hey [first name]?

Lead: Yes?

Agent: I saw you were on [Realtor.com / Trulia / and so forth] looking at homes in [city] and wondered what your future plans are, or what you may be looking for.

Don’t worry about putting much focus on the name of your website or the company you work for. Most leads will remember registering on at least one website, but might not remember every site they registered with. These leads have been web surfing in so many places so they probably don’t remember the exact sites they registered or didn’t register for. Instead, what really matters are the questions you ask finding out where they are in the process to gain a sense of urgency.

Finding the lead’s intention, urgency, and current situation is paramount to converting these leads into customers as well as building your pipeline of future business.

4. Building Rapport Quickly With Facebook Leads

Facebook ad leads—like Zillow leads, we either love them or hate them. When everyone first started with Facebook ads, they were pretty much only advertising listings to make the sellers happy. I know I was.

In fact, with one listing I advertised on Facebook back when Facebook ads were new, the seller shared my post with everyone in their family, extended family, and friends. That meant a ton of inquiries. Of course, most were just curious and wanted to see more photos.

So yes, I got tons of leads from that ad, but they were all over the country with no real plans for moving. That meant a lot of phone calls resulting in nothing but frustration.

It is important to understand your market dynamics and be the solution to the problem your leads have in your market. This tactic is what is going to produce more quality leads.

Read How to Create Real Estate Facebook Ads That Actually Generate Leads

Here are a few Facebook ad headlines that will actually get you leads and not random people from all over the country:

Always use headlines that grab attention. Once you choose your audience, you are then targeting to their interests, creating a higher-quality lead. The most important thing to remember with Facebook leads is that they will have a longer turnaround time. Speed to lead is less of an issue for Facebook leads.

Read also 10 Real Estate Copywriting Secrets Professionals Don’t Want You to Know

Of course, when calling them, you should still always remind them that they were on Facebook and clicked on an ad that indicated they were interested in receiving a list of homes. Just remember to ask what specifically they would be interested in with respect to location.

Here’s a good script for Facebook leads:

Agent: Hey [first name]?

Lead: Yes?

Agent: I see you were on Facebook and were looking to receive a list of homes [ad specific]. Just wondering what exactly you would be most interested in; is there anything in particular that would interest you more?

Lead: I just want the list of homes. I am not seriously looking yet.

Agent: OK, great, not a problem. I can certainly do that. Let me ask you, what would be the reason for a move if you were to move in the future?

Lead: We have been thinking about downsizing.

Agent: Great, how long have you been in your home?

Lead: 20 years.

Agent: That is wonderful, so you probably have some great equity?

Lead: Yeah, our home is just about paid off. Not sure we want to get into a mortgage.

Agent: If it would be possible to trade homes and little or no mortgage, would you consider moving sooner than later?

Lead: I suppose so.

Agent: Would it be helpful to just look at numbers? No obligation. I can come out and tell you what a buyer would pay for your home in today’s market. Then we have a solid number that will allow us to see what is out there within those numbers and see what happens.

You have just taken a lead that “wasn’t that serious” and by digging a little deeper, were able to turn it around to an appointment. Will this work with every lead? Of course not. However, if you want a chance of converting any leads, you need to always be thinking about solving their problem. The first step is to equip yourself with the right questions to identify their problem. The next step is to propose your solution to that problem. Simple!

5. Building Rapport Quickly With Home Valuation Leads

Using a tool like AgentLEADS to create home valuation landing pages? The first lesson I learned with these leads is that they don’t necessarily own the home they are looking to get an evaluation on. Weird, right? Also, quite a few of these leads are more curious about the value of the homes they do own for refinancing purposes and not actually selling.

The best thing about these leads is that you are building an arsenal of potential sellers in your database. I want you to think long term and big picture about these leads. My best advice for new agents is this: You are in the database-gathering industry, whether you know it or not. The biggest value you have in your business is your database. Anyone who tells you differently is lying or not very successful. Contacts = contracts. It’s as simple as that!

Now let’s learn how to have a conversation with these leads.

Option 1:

Agent: Hello [first name]?

Lead: Yes?

Agent: I saw you were online and were curious about the value of the home on 123 Main Street.

Lead: Yes, I was.

Agent: Did you find what you were looking for?

Lead: Pretty much. I was just talking with my neighbor and we were just discussing our neighborhood and a home that has gone up for sale, and we were wondering what our homes were worth.

Agent: Were you happy with the number?

Lead: Yes, for the most part.

Agent: I just wanted you to know that what you received is very general number and more than likely a pretty broad range. How long have you been in your home?

Lead: 10 years.

Agent: Are you thinking about maybe selling and making a move?

Lead: No, not until our kids graduate school and our youngest is 13, so we have at least five years.

Agent: Just wondering—do you think there would be anything that could happen that would make you move sooner?

Lead: Very doubtful, as our next home will be our last home and will probably be near the water somewhere.

You could also run into the situation that they were looking at the value of a home they were interested in purchasing that may be a FSBO or former childhood home. This is why I always open up with the next option.

Option 2:

Agent: I saw you were online and were curious about the value of the home on 123 Main Street.

Lead: Yeah, I drove by the home and saw a sign in the yard, but couldn’t find it online.

Agent: What is it about this home that interests you?

Lead: I pass it every day going to work and it is so much closer for me. I have always liked it and was just wondering what is going on with it.

Agent: I can certainly find out for you. Are you looking to make a move closer to work?

Lead: No, I just saw this home and was curious.

Agent: Is there a price range of interest? If there would be something we could make happen for you, would you be interested in exploring or potentially making a move?

Taking conversations this far gives you a great indication of time frame. Remember we can’t make people move—we can only offer suggestions and see if it piques an interest.

Over to You

How do you build rapport quickly on the phone? Have a great tip or script? Let me know in the comments.

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, Get More Listings, Close More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here 👉 https://www.yasserkhan.sg/👈

YASSER KHAN

Author, Coach & Trainer

Yasser Khan earned less than $1,000 in his first year as a full time property agent. With no money for the $2 train fare to his Broker's office, he was forced to walk 25 kilometers on foot. Worse, he got evicted at midnight with his wife and baby son by the roadside. Desperate, he bought a $16 Sales book and took massive action. That single investment in himself gave him an OBSCENE ROI of $160,000 in just 11 months. Today, Yasser is on a mission to make the real estate great career again and helps ambitious agents quadruple their commission income within 90 days.

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach at YasserKhan.SG, trainer at PropertyAgentUniversity.com and the author of Property Agent Secrets Book who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S. plaguing the industry today.  

Yasser Khan’s approach to coaching is highly personalised, holistic, no B.S., and for “PROS ONLY… amateurs not allowed.” He believes that true success means winning in every single area of your life (like Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Fun).

When Yasser isn’t coaching, he loves playing GOTY PC Games with top-of-the-line Razer products and being a kid again with his 3 naughty children (actually, boss babies...), traveling to and across scenic Pakistan, enjoying hot & spicy food, taking pictures of the Milky Way with his favourite Canon DSLR and reading up all about Dinosaurs (especially T. Rex)

Looking for the best real estate books to gain valuable insights, expand your knowledge, and transform your mindset and career? I know you’re busy, so I put together this list of real estate books that are worth your time, and that I hope will motivate and inspire you this year.

These are the 32 books that have motivated me in everything from real estate to starting YKC. I even reveal a few that were responsible for my own personal and professional transformation (like the one I paid $16 for and got me an obscene ROI of 10,000 X). Some of these books  may be familiar titles to you, while others might be more unexpected, but each one is a worth a read in 2023.

CONTENTS

Best Real Estate Books About Sales + Lead Generation: How to Close That Next Deal

No matter how much you’re crushing your sales game, you can always learn more. That’s what people love about sales: it’s an endlessly creative, engaging, constantly evolving skill. This collection of beloved classics and new thought leadership all work toward the goal of keeping you sharp, motivated, and ahead of the competition.

Property Agent Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Growing Your Real Estate Business by Yasser Khan

I wrote this book as a manifesto for the underdog real estate agent!

What Is PropertyAgentSecrets?

PropertyAgentSecrets is NOT just another "how to" book on property marketing or motivation.
It is NOT about getting more inquiries on your property listings - yet these secrets will help you get exponentially MORE inquiries than you've ever experienced before.
It is NOT about increasing your appointments or closings - yet these secrets will increase your appointments and closings exponentially MORE than reposting credits daily on PropertyGuru or online portals ever could.

PropertyAgentSecrets is A SHORTCUT.

Low inquiries and closings are symptoms of a much greater problem that's a little harder to see (that's the bad news), but a lot easier to fix (that's the good news).
Inside you will find the actual playbook we created after running thousands of tests and taking 10 years to perfect what works for real estate agents anywhere.
You now have access to all of the Processes, Secrets and Scripts that we used to transform hundreds of property agents' careers and helped free up their time for family, weekends and vacations.

Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen by Steve Sim

What happens when someone asks you to set up a meeting with Elon Musk, or arrange a private Andrea Bocelli concert? If you’re Steve Sims, you say, sure, what time?

Sims, the consummate “fixer,” offers lessons that apply to business and life. You’ll enjoy his pithy writing (he titles chapters, “you don’t drown from falling in water, you drown from staying there” and “the worst picture of me ever taken”), but you’re also guaranteed memorable takeaways and fantastic storytelling.

The Transformational Consumer: Fuel a Lifelong Love Affair With Your Customers by Helping Them Get Healthier, Wealthier & Wiser by Tara-Nicholle Nelson

If you want to be successful in real estate, you have to learn how to turn one-time buyers and sellers into clients for life. Nelson’s premise here is simple: your actions and attention can forge a relationship with a client that’s as strong as iron.

Though the idea is easy enough, the execution can be tricky, which is why this book is so valuable. Nelson has a master’s degree in psychology from the University of California and a Juris Doctor from Berkley, but what really makes the book pop are her real-world experiences as a vice president (VP) of marketing at major athletic and tech brands.

Outrageous Authenticity: You Are Your Best Sales Weapon by Leigh Brown

National Association of Realtors (NAR) keynote speaker, Leigh Brown, challenges us to find our authentic selves and present that self to the world. Known as the “No Bull**** Realtor, Brown uses own life experiences to package actionable and practical advice on how to find lasting success in sales. We all know selling can be exhausting, so if you need a kick in the butt or an inspiring reset, Leigh Brown is the one to turn to.

The Seven Levels of Communication – Go From Relationships to Referrals by Michael J. Maher

This is a great resource if you’re just starting out and don’t have a huge network of referrals. It’s all about networking, building relationships, and turning relationships into referrals. New real estate agents will be able to learn from and easily implement Maher’s straightforward “seven-level formula.”

Exactly What to Say: For Real Estate Agents by Phil M Jones, Chris Smith & Jimmy Mackin

Over the course of your career, you’ll encounter a wide variety of personalities: the “know-it-all” clients who ignore your recommendations, micromanagers who need to hear from you every two hours, or clients who leave you in the dark. Whatever the situation, objection, or personality, this book will help you prepare for those tough conversations that you will inevitably face as an agent.

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

You’ve probably heard of this book, but if you haven’t read it yet, consider this your time. Believe it or not, becoming more likable and trustworthy are skills that can be honed. The principles outlined in this book can help you learn how to lead people with sincerity and earn their trust. At its heart, it’s a real lesson on how we can do sales without being too “salesy.”

Cold Calling Techniques (That Really  Work) by Stephan Schiffman

Sales and networking are critical components of success as a professional real estate agent. It doesn’t matter how much you know about real estate—if you can’t persuade people to work with you, you won’t survive long. We know cold calling isn’t everyone’s favorite, but if you’re hoping to hone that skill and gain practical, actionable advice, this is a great resource.

Rainmaking Conversations: Influence, Persuade, and Sell in Any Situation by Mike Schultz & John E. Doerr

If you are looking for the Ph.D. of sales books, then look no further. ‘Rainmaking Conversations’ guides the reader through professional sales techniques, like building rapport, creating a unique value proposition, and overcoming objections. This is a must for any salesperson, real estate professionals especially.

Best Real Estate Books About Leadership: Develop Skills to Take Charge & Inspire

You don’t have to be a managing broker or even a real estate team leader to get a lot of value from these picks. As real estate professionals, we are leaders in so many ways; we lead our clients through transactions, we lead other industry professionals (like mortgage brokers, inspectors, appraisers), and we are leaders in our communities.

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek, famous for his TED Talk (57+ million views at the time of publication), asks why because he knows that’s what all great leaders ask. They focus less on the how and the what—it’s the why that inspires and drives them. The same is true with customers; we won’t buy in until we understand why we should.

While some argue that this book could be edited down, or that the TED Talk does the job, many find inspiration as Sinek expounds on his initial thesis. As we work hard day after day, we never want to lose the why.

Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek

After Sinek’s TED Talk fame, he wanted to explore why some team members will literally put their life on the line for each other, and some teams face endless fragmentation and distrust.

His title (and thesis) come from a conversation Sinek had with a Marine Corps general, who explained that in his world, leaders eat last. Leaders willing to put their own comforts, or in the extreme, their own lives, behind the needs of others, are the ones who command loyalty.

The best organizations build trust within their teams because their leaders create, as Sinek puts it, a “Circle of Safety.” These are especially helpful lessons for brokers and team leaders, but really, for life.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz

Horowitz, a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur and investor, focuses on the tough decisions he has made as a CEO and leader. While most business books detail the steps entrepreneurs take to be profitable and successful, Horowitz looks at the potential challenges and pitfalls, such as layoffs, internal politics, hiring the right people, and eventually selling the business. He prepares readers for the “hard things” and offers thoughtful strategies when things don’t go as planned.

The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People by Gary Chapman & Paul White

Chapman and White break down how to best communicate appreciation to colleagues and direct reports using a “language of appreciation.” Understanding how people crave and receive appreciation will improve morale in any workplace. Recognizing how to best show the people around you (customers, clients, friends, colleagues, family members) that you appreciate them strengthens your sphere of influence.

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman

Liz Wiseman, head of the leadership and development firm The Wiseman Group (whose clients include Apple, AT&T, Disney, Facebook, Google, Nike, Tesla, and many others), makes the case for being a leader who makes everyone else in the room feel smarter.

We’ve all been around people who seem to drain the energy, enthusiasm, and capability from the people around them. If you’re lucky, you’ve also been in a room with someone who amplifies those things, who turns on the lightbulb above your head. Wiseman lays out the path to be the latter in an easy-to-read business book all real estate professionals should have on their shelves.

Best Real Estate Books About Social Impact: How Far We’ve Come & Work Left to Do

The real estate industry plays a vital role in our communities and in society as a whole. That’s why it’s crucial to understand past and present inequalities and how we can move toward a more equitable future.

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein

This book is a must-read for every real estate professional. Essentially a historical exposé, it details the deliberate systems put into place to discriminate and reinforce racial segregation.

It won (or was a finalist for) just about every award possible when published in 2017, so if you missed it when it first came out, give this one a good read. It’s essential to understand where we’ve all come from to see clearly where we’re going.

Race Brokers: Housing Markets and Segregation in 21st Century Urban America by Elizabeth Korver-Glenn

Korver-Glenn, a professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico, examines the Houston real estate market and finds it rife with opportunities for deliberate racial segregation. It’s an important read as we work toward ending injustice in every corner where we encounter it. There’s a lot to take in here, and it’s not a happy read, but it will leave you asking questions, wanting to learn more, and striving to work for a better world.

Race for Profit: How Banks & the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership (Justice, Power & Politics) by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

If you think you know all about the history of housing discrimination in the United States, think again. This is an incredibly thoughtful and well-researched analysis of the policies that kept many Black families on the outside looking in. Both heartbreaking and captivating, Taylor manages to strike a fine balance between encyclopedic knowledge and engaging storytelling.

Her work features real people fighting a system set up to defeat them—the result is a book that will keep you up at night and spur many dinner table conversations.

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis

Lewis continues to be one of the wittiest observers of economics in America in our time. “The Big Short” tells the tale of the 2008 housing crisis, but even better, Lewis explains what led to it. He presents a narrative full of colorful characters and makes complex, sometimes dry material approachable and entertaining. This is a wonderful read regardless of your industry, but for real estate professionals, it’s a must.

Better Capitalism: Jesus, Adam Smith, Ayn Rand, and MLK Jr. on Moving from Plantation to Partnership Economics by Paul E. Knowlton & Aaron E. Hedges

This is a challenging work penned by Paul Knowlton, a JD, and Aaron Hedges, who has an MBA (both have Masters of Divinity). They present a hopeful path forward for our economic system—one that is more mindful, deliberate, and equitable.

Before you think this book might be too feel-good or idealistic, consider what Tony Reid, a former Senior Vice President of Marriott International, argues: “This is an eloquent and articulate reminder of the importance of understanding economics in the context of our communities, country, and roles as business leaders.”

Best Real Estate Books About Success: What It Looks Like Today

Business is constantly changing, especially in 2023 and beyond. Each book in this section offers practical and useful knowledge on the future of work, fundamentals of finance, definitions of success, and paths for creating the type of business that inspires and motivates you.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins

Data geeks, this one’s for you. Jim Collins, who wrote “Built to Last,” looks at what made 11 companies (out of the roughly 1,400 on the Fortune 500) jump from “goodness” to absolute “greatness.” He first defined greatness: 15 years of steadily increasing profits after 10 years of stagnation, and then he assembled a team of researchers to learn how they did it.

After five years, collecting 384 megabytes of data, 2,000 pages of interview transcripts, and pouring over 6,000 articles, they put their research together. Their findings, Collins argues, are pretty astounding. And it’s not what you think.

The Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller

If you want to bring home a million dollars next year, read this book for inspiration. Many new real estate agents forget that most of your hard-earned commission doesn’t go into your pocket. This book distinguishes between net and gross earnings and gives you an economic blueprint to minimize costs and maximize take-home pay.

If you’re new to the business, this book is worthwhile. Full of step-by-step instructions, diagrams, and many “how-to” lessons, this book should be on every new agent’s reading list.

Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine by Michael Michalowicz

Do you dream of owning a profitable real estate brokerage one day? If so, you’re going to have to get comfortable with the financial side of the real estate business. While accounting and finances may be less exciting than closing a million-dollar listing, you’ll never succeed without a solid understanding of how profit really works.

While “Profit First” was written for general business owners and entrepreneurs, the techniques in this book are essential for real estate agents.

Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 Into a Billion Dollar Business by Barbara Corcoran

You can read every business book on the market, but if you’re not in a healthy, productive mindset, you won’t be successful. These five books outline tips and strategies for finding strength when times are tough, setting up habits that foster success, and ensuring that you are the best professional (and person!) you can be.

Best Real Estate Books About Perseverance + Mindset

You can read every business book on the market, but if you’re not in a healthy, productive mindset, you won’t be successful. These five books outline tips and strategies for finding strength when times are tough, setting up habits that foster success, and ensuring that you are the best professional (and person!) you can be.

Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins

David Goggins is the self-proclaimed “baddest mother-******” on the planet, and after reading this book, it’s easy to see why. Rising up from a brutal childhood, he built his mental and emotional strength while testing the limits of his physical strength. A retired Navy Seal, he also completed the U.S. Army Ranger School and Air Force Tactical Air Controller training. He’s retired from the armed services but fills his time with ultra-marathons, ultra-triathlons, and setting records right and left.

“Can’t Hurt Me” is one of those rare motivational books you can’t put down. You’ll finish this one with a firm belief that pain, fear, and doubt should never get in the way of achieving your dreams.

Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

You probably won’t find this book on other real estate book lists, but “Psycho-Cybernetics” is a classic read about reaching your goals and preparing your mind for success.

As a new real estate agent, you can expect to be working hard every day. You’ll work weekends, you’ll probably take client calls after hours, and you’ll have to grind to build the relationships that lead to referrals. Through all of the hustle and bustle, you can easily lose track of your goals and burn out. But if you apply the theories outlined here, you can be sure that you’ll keep your mind calm and centered.

The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

In a nutshell, this is about believing in yourself. The lessons apply to nearly all aspects of life, but they’re particularly relevant to careers and leadership. Schwartz advocates for maintaining your relationships and quality of life during your early years as a real estate agent. If you have big goals and aspirations, don’t skip this one.

Grit: The Power of Passion & Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

With so much competition out there, believing that hard work beats talent isn’t easy. That’s why we loved “Grit” by Angela Duckworth. Here, she lays out the case that perseverance is the key to success and offers the hard science to prove it.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

You’ve read how to crush sales, become a remarkable leader, communicate effectively, understand your role in our greater socio-economic world, and stand tall in the face of adversity. But how do you put it all into place?

That’s where James Clear comes in. He argues that often, the problem isn’t you—it’s your systems. He presents actionable solutions to common challenges that will leave you feeling like with a few tweaks and improved habits, you can conquer your world.

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth by T. Harv Eker

This is the book that set me upon the path to entrepreneurship!

I love this book because it reset my mindset right at the start of my journey!

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind reveals the missing link between wanting success and achieving it!

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to get rich easily, while others are destined for a life of financial struggle? Is the difference found in their education, intelligence, skills, timing, work habits, contacts, luck, or their choice of jobs, businesses, or investments?

The shocking answer is: None of the above!

In his groundbreaking Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker states: "Give me five minutes, and I can predict your financial future for the rest of your life!" Eker does this by identifying your "money and success blueprint." We all have a personal money blueprint ingrained in our subconscious minds, and it is this blueprint, more than anything, that will determine our financial lives. You can know everything about marketing, sales, negotiations, stocks, real estate, and the world of finance, but if your money blueprint is not set for a high level of success, you will never have a lot of money—and if somehow you do, you will most likely lose it! The good news is that now you can actually reset your money blueprint to create natural and automatic success.

The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber

The best book on systems that saved my backside when I was in deep crap!

In this first new and totally revised edition of the over two million copy bestseller, The E-Myth, Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business.

An instant classic, this revised and updated edition of the phenomenal bestseller dispels the myths about starting your own business. Small business consultant and author Michael E. Gerber, with sharp insight gained from years of experience, points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business.

Gerber walks you through the steps in the life of a business—from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed—and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise. Most importantly, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business.

The E-Myth Revisited will help you grow your business in a productive, assured way.

The Ultimate Sales Letter: 4th Edition by Dan S Kennedy

This launched my sales career and flooded me with more leads than I could handle!

Write Well to Sell Big!
In the age of e-mail and instant communication, great sales copy is indispensable to closing a deal. But too many sales letters end up in the junk file or the wastebasket. In this new edition of his top-selling book, author Dan Kennedy explains why some sales letters work and most don't. And he shows how to write copy that any business can use.

Among other things, he provides:

• Completely updated text and examples
• Great headline formulas
• New exercises to spark creativity
• The best way to use graphics

Dan Kennedy is the most successful, highly paid direct-response copywriter in America. In this book, he shares his step-by-step formula so everyone can write letters that will nail the sale.

You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar by David Sandler

The book that gave me an OBCENE 10,000 X ROI on the $16 I paid for it!

"People make buying decisions emotionally and justify them logically."

That shrewd insight from the first edition of this bestselling book has become a no-brainer among sales professionals. Now, the new edition of classic work that has helped millions of sales professionals take their career to new levels offers critical new insights, information, and tools for success in today’s economy.

You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar, Second Edition retains David Sandler's classic, battle-tested advice on driving personal and organizational success by breaking the rules of conventional selling. And now Sandler Training’s CEO, David Mattson, has revisited it to provide additional skills designed for today’s highly competitive and more complex sales landscape.

This new edition of You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar is a potent mixture of Sandler’s timeless techniques and best practices from the most effective sales operation today.

Over to You

What are some of the best real estate books that you’ve found helpful in your career? Let us know in the comments.

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, Get More Listings, Close More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here 👉 https://www.yasserkhan.sg/👈

YASSER KHAN

Author, Coach & Trainer

Yasser Khan earned less than $1,000 in his first year as a full time property agent. With no money for the $2 train fare to his Broker's office, he was forced to walk 25 kilometers on foot. Worse, he got evicted at midnight with his wife and baby son by the roadside. Desperate, he bought a $16 Sales book and took massive action. That single investment in himself gave him an OBSCENE ROI of $160,000 in just 11 months. Today, Yasser is on a mission to make the real estate great career again and helps ambitious agents quadruple their commission income within 90 days.

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach at YasserKhan.SG, trainer at PropertyAgentUniversity.com and the author of Property Agent Secrets Book who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S. plaguing the industry today.  

Yasser Khan’s approach to coaching is highly personalised, holistic, no B.S., and for “PROS ONLY… amateurs not allowed.” He believes that true success means winning in every single area of your life (like Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Fun).

When Yasser isn’t coaching, he loves playing GOTY PC Games with top-of-the-line Razer products and being a kid again with his 3 naughty children (actually, boss babies...), traveling to and across scenic Pakistan, enjoying hot & spicy food, taking pictures of the Milky Way with his favourite Canon DSLR and reading up all about Dinosaurs (especially T. Rex)

There are few things more important to your sellers than your listing marketing plan. After all, your marketing skills are probably one of the only reasons they are even thinking about hiring you in the first place.

That’s why today, I am sharing my 51-point real estate listing marketing plan that I developed over a decade as a real estate agent, trainer and coach.

How to Use My 51-Point Ultimate Listing Marketing Plan

You don’t need to do all 51-points of the Ultimate Listing Marketing Plan to get a home sold, but having all the techniques and tools available to you may save you when you have an important listing presentation or a difficult property to sell.

In order to get the most out of this listing marketing plan, choose 20 strategies from the list that you will commit to do for all your listings. Then select five additional techniques for your hard-to-sell listings, and lastly create a separate listing marketing plan for your luxury and ultra-luxury homes.

The 51-Point Ultimate Real Estate Marketing Plan

1. Identify the Home’s Unique Selling Features

Some agents just photograph the house, place it in the MLS, and call it a day, but taking the time to do some research can result in BIG returns for your seller. Begin by investigating unique selling features of the property. This can include things like the lifestyle, location, and history of the neighborhood.

Lifestyle

When you are marketing your listing you are selling more than just the property’s features—you are selling the lifestyle! Today, for many Americans, their lifestyle is more important than the features of the home.

I have a cousin who lives in a 500-square-foot condo that cost over $550,000. That’s over $1,000 a square foot!! The condo is in the heart of the surfing community of La Jolla, California.

The specific reason my cousin chose this particular condo was to be around other surfers, like herself. She could have easily afforded to buy a larger home and drive to the beach, but she wouldn’t have been surrounded by the surfer lifestyle.

Location

Proximity to transportation routes, including highways, mass transit, and airports, are one of the main factors a buyer has when selecting a home. Other important factors are nearby parks, shopping, and other recreational activities.

History

A home’s history isn’t limited to historic properties. I was recently talking to an agent in the Los Angeles area. He told me that the prior ownership of a home in LA can account for up to 10% of the property’s value. Think about it: Wouldn’t you pay more for a home if it was once owned by your favorite actor or actress? I would!

I recently listed a property that had been in the same family for over 50 years. Instead of marketing just the features of the property, I put together a photo book showing the history of the property and the family’s connection to the property. I also wrote an article for the local newspaper about the importance of the property and the impact the family had made on the community.

2. Pricing Strategy

Newer agents don’t think of pricing as a marketing strategy, yet it is the most important of all. Your pricing strategy can differentiate you from your listing-hungry competition. Here are some examples of listing pricing strategies that you can use to market your listing.

Pricing Above Market

While this pricing strategy is not a preferred method if your goal is to sell the home quickly, it can be a powerful tool to secure a long-term listing (one or more years) with the intent to allow the market to catch up or to allow time for the seller’s motivation to change.

Pricing Slightly Above Market

The standard pricing model is to price the home slightly above the last sale by comparing the subject property to recent sales and adjusting it for market appreciation.

Pricing Below Market

Once you have determined the fair market value, price the property 1% to 2% below that price to ensure your home stands out against the competition, hoping the lower price drives demand and multiple offers.

Listing Preparation & Staging

3. Touch-up & Repairs

Provide your seller a list of trusted contractors to help them get their home in tip-top condition, or give them a couple free hours with your favorite handyman service. If you wish to offer full-service, you may coordinate the contractors and follow up with them to ensure that all the items were completed to your satisfaction.

4. Staging

Make your listings stand out by providing a free staging consultation or full staging services. Even the most meticulous sellers’ homes need to be decluttered, organized, and sometimes updated. Some top-producing agents keep their staging in-house and even have their own staging items.

Virtual Staging

Vacant properties can look dull and unexciting in photos. Virtual staging can help buyers envision what the home will look like with furniture. The best part about virtual staging is that you won’t have to move furniture, and the cost is far less than hiring a staging company.

Visual Assets

5. Professional Photography

As an industry, can we all agree that cell phone photos are unacceptable? It boggles my mind that agents won’t spend just a few hundred dollars to have a professional take and edit their photos. There is nothing more important to your listing marketing plan than your photos.

After price, photos are the first thing the buyers see. It is their first impression. The final quality of the pictures rely as much on the editing as the original photo. So, unless you have high-quality photo editing software and the knowledge to use it, don’t take your own photos. It’s just not worth it.

The more, the better. If 10 photos are good, then 20 is better, and 100 is OUTSTANDING! For custom and unique homes, consider taking photos of the small details. Take photos of the upgraded door handles, the flowers in the garden, even photos of the neighborhood. If your MLS doesn’t allow you to feature 100 photos, then host them on your individual property website.

6. 3D Tours

One of the best tech advancements in the past few years has to be the 3D floor plans. This allows the buyers to virtually walk through a property room-by-room and to rotate the floor plan to see the overall dimensions of each room.

This is outstanding for custom homes with unique floor plans as well as homes that are difficult to show. 3D floor plans start at $99 from providers like Virtuance. If you want to do it yourself, you can purchase your own 3D equipment directly from Matterport for $2,995.

Better yet, check out Asteroom for fantastic, interactive tour equipment for a fraction of the cost. You can get your gear for less than $100, and their monthly subscription to tour hosting starts at $20.

7. Video & Virtual Tours

Video tours are not limited to luxury listings. You can do a simple walk-through video like this one on your listings too. Just give your iPhone to a friend and walk through the property and point out the listings features. Don’t forget to share it on all your social media platforms.

8. Aerial Photography & Video

With the combination of the low cost of high-resolution cameras and drones today, you can offer prospective buyers views of the homes like never before. Instead of saying the park is just one block away, show them with a flyover. Or instead of talking about the beautiful golf course, take them on a tour of it with a drone.

Aerial photography starts as low as $199 for 10 still images and can go as high as $1,000 for full-customized video set to music.

MLS & Listing Syndication

Make no mistake, placing a property in the MLS isn’t as easy as you would think. One wrong entry could mean that your property won’t show up in a home search. That could mean no showings for days or even weeks. True real estate professionals take extra time and pay special attention to the details when entering their properties into the MLS. Here are a few tips to make sure your listing is input into the MLS correctly.

9. Add as Much Detail as Possible

One of my biggest frustrations is when an agent doesn’t fill out the listing’s data completely. They commonly skip important details like measurements, lot size, and inclusions. The best tip I have for entering your new listing into the MLS is to have another agent that you trust review your listing before it goes live.

10. Add the Listing to Multiple MLS Systems

To successfully market some properties, you may need to enter them into multiple MLS systems. If the property is on the border of two MLS areas, or if the property is outside of a larger city with tens of thousands of agents that you want to get the property in front of, you may need to become a member of multiple MLS systems.

Investment properties that can be considered both residential and commercial can also be challenging to market. Using your local residential MLS and a national commercial MLS system like Loopnet is an effective way to ensure your property is being seen by both residential and commercial agents.

11. Hire a Freelance Professional to Write Your Descriptions

We know that a photo is worth a thousand words, but most real estate descriptions aren’t worth 10 words. Let’s face it: Most real estate agents are not good writers. You can WOW your sellers and attract more buyers with professional property descriptions that are written to invoke the emotions of the reader.

Companies like Upwork and Fiverr provide copywriters for as little as $40 an hour. This is money worth spending to make your listings stand out!

If you insist on writing your own listing descriptions, do yourself a favor and check out our in-depth guide, How to Write Creative Real Estate Listing Descriptions + Examples.

12. Syndicate Your Listing to the Top Real Estate Websites

Most MLS systems automatically syndicate your listings to over 1,000 websites, including Realtor.com, Zillow.com, and even your competitors’ websites. This makes certain that as many homebuyers as possible will see your listing. The belief is that the more people who see your listings for sale, the higher the prices your sellers will get.

Many sellers are not aware that their property will be automatically syndicated and may choose another agent who explains the benefits of syndication. If your MLS doesn’t offer syndication, you can do it yourself through ListHub.

Digital Marketing & Advertising

Advertising your listings not only creates an opportunity to find a buyer for your listing, but you will also attract future potential buyers for you to sell homes to. Therefore, most top-producing real estate agents today advertise their listings on digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google … and so should you!

13. Facebook & Instagram Ads

Show your sellers that you do more advertising than just placing the property in the MLS. Facebook and Instagram Ads are an inexpensive way to market your listings to the buyers who are most likely to buy a home in your area.

Facebook and Instagram collect a TON of data on their users and can use this data to help you to target your ads toward people in your area who are renters or likely to move in the near future.

If you’re new to Facebook advertising, check out our guide on How to Create Real Estate Facebook Ads That Actually Generate Leads here.

14. Google Ads

Similar to Facebook, Google also collects data on its users and can keep your website and landing pages at the top of a potential buyer’s Google search. Using lead generation websites like Placester allows you to capture the contact information of these potential buyers for your listings.

You can impress your sellers at the listing appointment by bringing a list of buyers who are currently searching for homes in their area, showing them that you may already have the right buyer for their home.

15. Single Property Websites

A single property website is more than just a listing marketing tour. It becomes a place for you to provide all your marketing, including the property’s unique history and features, virtual tour, 3D floor plan, additional photos, neighborhood snapshot, and your professional marketing copy.

The individual property website becomes your permanent record of your listing and sale of the property, and if you add a Facebook and Google pixel, you can capture the visitor’s IP address for your re-marketing ad campaign.

16. Retargeting Ad Campaign

You know when you visit your favorite website to shop for shoes and after you leave the site (to get back to work), you see that same pair of shoes showing up in ads for days or weeks following? This is re-marketing at work.

Re-marketing is using a pixel from Facebook or Google on your web pages to capture the IP address of your visitors to allow you to keep their attention after they have left your page. Re-marketing is said to increase conversion over 100%.

17. Real Estate Yard Signs

Your real estate sign is an important reflection of your company as well as you. Why spend hours and hours meticulously preparing a property for sale and then place a dented sign with a rusted frame out front? Have a bright, attractive sign that will not only attract prospective buyers who are driving by, but also represent your professionalism.

18. Call & Text to Capture

As true as your grandma uses a cell phone, capture systems still work! These systems provide a free recorded message about the home 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The benefit is that when a potential buyer calls, it captures their number (even if it is blocked) so you can promptly follow up with them.

19. QR Codes

Once thought to be a failed marketing ploy of the early 2000s, QR codes have made a comeback. If you have been to a restaurant lately, you have probably found the convenience of using a QR code versus typing in the restaurant’s entire website address to get to their menu.

Consumers are now ready for QR codes, and having them on your real estate signs and marketing will allow buyers to go directly to your website to get their questions answered quickly. Also, if you are using lead capture systems like Propertybase, QR codes will allow you to seamlessly capture the buyer’s contact information so you can continue to market to them.

20. Branded Directional Arrows

Even with the power of the internet today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) states that over 7% of homebuyers found their home by driving by it. I have found that adding direction arrows to your listing marketing plan will not only guide buyers from busy intersections to your quiet neighborhood home, it will reinforce your image and brand to the other homeowners in the area.

Open Houses

21. Open House Ideas

Open houses have long been a staple in the real estate agent’s listing marketing plan playbook. Yet, due to the pandemic, they may look quite different today than they did even just a few years ago. Nevertheless, open houses are still an effective way to attract interested buyers who may not otherwise reach out directly. Your listing marketing plan should include at least one of the following types of open houses.

Traditional Open House

The traditional open house includes some light advertising on real estate websites and placing 10 to 20 directional signs. Some balloons, snacks, and bottled water and you’re good to go! While it is a very passive way to market your listing, it shows the seller your commitment to sell their home by taking your weekend to promote their home.

If you want to learn more about running a successful traditional open house, check out our guide on Why Open Houses Don't Work Anymore.

Open House by Appointment

It is hard to say that anything good has come from the pandemic, but if there were, open houses by appointment are one. Marketing the property is the same as a traditional open house; instead of having a free-for-all into the home for three hours, each interested party is directed to schedule a private tour of the property. Each appointment is 15 to 20 minutes and all the available times are limited to three to four hours total.

Virtual Open House

Recently, mostly due to restrictions, virtual open houses have taken the place of the traditional open house. Virtual open houses are usually promoted similarly to a regular open house, but instead of opening the door and letting the buyers in at the scheduled open house time, you go live on Facebook, Instagram, or Zoom and give the viewers a personal tour of the property.

Research

22. Property Research

There are many factors that can affect the value of a home and can be used to help market your listing: zoning use, future city planning, usable easements, and water and mineral rights, to name a few. Seasoned agents know to consider these things when they are pricing a property for sale.

23. Neighborhood Research

If you aren’t already familiar with the property and neighborhood that your listing is in, then you will want to do some research about the neighborhood. This can include public and private schools, proximity to shopping, crime, walkability, and commute times.

24. Listing Information Book

Now that you have taken the time to gather all this useful information, you can put it all together into a listing book to share with potential homebuyers. Don’t forget to include your beautiful photos, disclosures, and copies of receipts of any recent upgrades.

Traditional Advertising Methods

Newspapers, TV, and radio were once the paramount of all listing marketing plans. In many cities today, this type of marketing has become unaffordable for most agents. However, depending on your location, traditional real estate advertising may still be an affordable and effective way to market your listings. Here are some affordable ways to add traditional marketing methods to your listing marketing plan.

25. Newspaper Display Ads

Sellers love to see their homes in print, and nothing does this better than a simple newspaper display ad. Furthermore, according to the National Newspaper Association, 84% of newspaper readers are homeowners with higher-than-average incomes.

To save some Benjamins, join forces with other listing agents to purchase an ongoing display to feature your prized listings.

In many cities, the cost of a display ad in the dominant newspaper is out of the question. In this case, look into smaller or specialty newspapers that cater to a specific demographic or region. These papers are often lower cost than their larger competitors.

26. TV

You may think that TV advertising is out of the question, but what you may not know is you can purchase lower-cost TV time to run a 22-minute infomercial for as low as a few hundred dollars on your local stations and cable networks.

Like with a display ad in a newspaper, get together with a few other listing agents to offer a once-a-month listing show, where you present your current listing inventory. Obviously, you aren’t likely to pick up a random buyer for your listing, but you will impress your sellers by offering a unique way to market their property.

Be sure to share the recording on your YouTube channel and website.

27. Radio

How is radio a part of a listing marketing strategy in 2022, you ask? Well, in many rural markets, the radio is the best form of marketing. Many of these markets have radio shows that allow you to call in and promote your listings for just a few hundred dollars. This works especially well for unique listings like waterfront homes, farms, and equestrian properties.

Don’t forget to record the promotion so you can share it on your social media and website.

28. Home Magazines

You may not believe it, but home sale magazines are still a viable place to advertise your listings. While overall readership is down in print magazines, in many rural areas with limited MLS coverage, readership remains strong. Companies like Homes & Land also offer an online version along with a buyer home search that can help you capture buyers that are interested in your listing.

29. Listing Fliers & Door Hangers

Listing fliers allow you to combine all your beautiful photos, carefully written property descriptions, and website links all in one easy-to-carry place for your potential buyer. Traditionally, fliers are left inside the house for the buyer to take to remember your listing over the others they visited, and to place in brochure boxes out front to entice curious passersby to stop and take a longer peek.

My favorite tip for the best listing fliers is to add multiple financing options on the back to give prospective buyers an idea of down payment and payment options. Look into a template provider like Lab Coat Agents Marketing Center to make sure your printed materials look impressive and on-brand.

30. Just Listed Postcards

A just listed announcement mailed to the neighborhood will give the neighbors the opportunity to let their friends and family know about the home so they can have a chance to move into the neighborhood.

Offer to mail 100 postcards to the neighborhood as part of your listing marketing plan. Just listed postcards can be mailed for as little as 50 cents to 70 cents each with companies like Mailbox Power or ProspectsPLUS!

Personal Promotion & Networking

Getting the listing is just the beginning of your work. If you want to be able to claim that you “sell properties for more money and in less time,” then you need to get the word out about your new listing. This may take some effort and time, but fortunately, it won’t cost you any money!

31. Promote the Listing to Your Office

Many successful real estate offices effectively promote their listing to the agents in their office. This creates two positive outcomes. The first is it gives your office a chance to sell the property and increase your brokerage’s market share. Second, it insures the agent on the other end of the transaction is professional and ethical (this assumes, of course, that all agents in your office are professional and ethical).

32. Promote to Local Real Estate Agents Who Specialize in the Area

A quick way to do this is by pulling a list of agents who sold a home in the neighborhood in the past six months. Include both the listing and buyer’s agents. Write a personal and polite email inviting them to sell your listing.

33. Promote to the Local Association of REALTORS

Many local REALTOR associations have weekly marketing meetings where agents come together to promote their new and upcoming listings. Make no mistake, deals get done in these meetings! I personally sold a million-dollar apartment building from a three-minute presentation at one of these meetings.

34. Market to Your Personal Database

Target active buyers and investors in your database who are looking for homes in your price range and area. Maybe this listing is a perfect upgrade for one of your past clients, or blast it out to your list of potential buyers that you have aggregated from your advertising.

35. Door Knock the Neighborhood

Now that you have your listing fliers and just listed postcards, distribute them in person to the neighbors by going door to door. This will not only show them that you are working hard to sell their neighbor’s home, it also gives them another reminder to tell their family and friends about your listing for sale.

Organic Social Media Promotion

Marketing a property is all about the eyeballs! The more people who see your listing, the better the chance you have to sell it for top dollar! Social media allows you to quickly get your listing in front of hundreds, and potentially thousands, of people, with just a few clicks.

36. Facebook

Do more than just share your gorgeous new listing on your personal page. To effectively market your listing, you must have the right people see it. These are potential buyers and agents with buyers who are looking in your area.

To do this, post your listings in local groups that feature homes for sale and agents groups where agents are allowed to promote their listings. Don’t forget to add it to Facebook Marketplace—it is outstanding for affordable properties and condos.

Lastly, post to your Story. Don’t overthink it—just a short video of you walking through the listing, pointing out all the unique features and why this is the right home for a buyer.

Facebook Pro Tip

Create a custom list of all your real estate agent Facebook friends. Then when you post your listings, post them to your “Real Estate Agent” friends list. This gives you the ability to post frequently about your listings without annoying your other friends!

37. Pinterest

Pinterest is known to be the place for people to see visually pleasing and creative images. This is why it is perfect for promoting your 100 professional listing photos! The secret is to link it back to your lead capture page so motivated buyers can quickly get in touch with you.

38. Instagram

Similar to Pinterest, Instagram is about visually appealing images. Think of Instagram like a fashion or luxury home magazine. This is where you promote your impeccably staged listings. Saving beautiful photos of your listings to your profile will show homebuyers and sellers that you take real estate seriously.

39. TikTok

You might think it’s just for kids, but TikTok is growing by leaps and bounds these days, and agents are successfully using it to market their listings. TikTok makes it easy to get hundreds of people to see your listing. You can do this by posting a short video set to popular music of a unique feature, like a swimming pool, gourmet kitchen, or a sunset from the deck.

40. Snapchat

Thanks to upstarts like TikTok, Snapchat doesn’t have the power it used to. However, one of the best features of Snapchat is the ability to create a listing post and add it to your city’s story. This instantly puts it in front of thousands (possibly millions) of people!

41. LinkedIn

While it might not be as flashy as some social media platforms, LinkedIn has one huge advantage. People use LinkedIn to learn new things and gain deeper insight. So share your knowledge about real estate by posting stories about the property’s history, the potential usability, or the income potential.

Luxury Home Listing Marketing Ideas

Make no mistake—marketing a luxury home is different than marketing your run-of-the-mill suburban home. Ultra-luxury homes (homes over $20 million) can be even more challenging.

You can’t just put a $20 million home in the MLS and hope it sells. In fact, many owners of ultra-luxury homes don’t want them advertised in the MLS or even a sign in the yard, because they may be important, famous, or just don’t want looky-loos.

So, if you want to sell luxury real estate, you will need to step up your listing marketing plan

42. Market Nationally

The secret to finding ultra-luxury buyers is knowing that they probably already own another ultra-luxury home in an area where homes are just as, if not more, expensive! It’s no secret that many New Yorkers buy vacation homes in Miami, so don’t only advertise your oceanfront Miami mansion locally—place your ads in magazines, newspapers, and online targeting customers in “The Big Apple.”

Next, call the top luxury real estate agents in areas where there are other high-net worth individuals and ultra-luxury homes—cities like Seattle (Microsoft), the Bay Area (Apple), Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York—and ask them if they know of anyone interested in your waterfront paradise.

43. Market Internationally

More than ever before, we are seeing homebuyers coming from cities outside our borders. Over the past 10 years, citizens from countries like India, China, and Germany have been seeing some of the highest gains in wealth, and many of them want a piece of the American dream.

LUXVT will translate and syndicate your lux-listing to over 100 websites internationally as well as the websites of the Wall Street Journal, Robb Report, and Mansion Global. This is a unique reason for the seller to select you over another agent.

44. Create Cinema Style Videos for Your Listing

We discussed video earlier, but we haven’t talked about cinema-quality videos. Luxury buyers and sellers expect more all the way around, and your videos are no different. Stand out by hiring a production company like InTroubleZone Productions, where they specialize in cinematic-style luxury home videos.

45. Hold Broker Open Houses

Broker open houses may not be an effective way to market to sell the average home, but luxury homes are built for entertaining. Broker open houses are unique opportunities for agents to see the inside of a property that they may never get to see again.

A well-executed broker open will attract top producers and luxury agents. To do this, do a search of similarly priced homes that have sold in the past year. Personally invite both the listing and buyers agents. Like the Oscars, provide them with a small gift for attending.

46. Create Luxury Home Brochures

Seriously, you can’t market your luxury home with fliers printed on 20# paper on your home printer! Spend a few more dollars and get full-color, 100# card stock, “book-style” folding brochures. These brochures are large enough to add your professional photos and all the property’s details.

47. Offer the Owner Weekly Marketing Updates

You will need to give weekly updates to your sellers providing your detailed marketing efforts from the previous week, feedback from the recent showings, and the steps you are going to make the following week to get their home sold.

Thursday afternoons are a great time to block out in your schedule to give your weekly updates. This is because if you need to make a price adjustment, you can do it and promote it in time for buyer’s agents to schedule a showing for the weekend.

48. Advertise in a Luxury Real Estate Magazine

Did you know you could advertise in a luxury real estate magazine and reach out to even more ultra high net worth individuals? Luxury magazines and high-end lifestyle publications are often the preferred choices for luxury advertisers to target an affluent audience with premium advertising campaigns online.

Check out this article that lists 15 magazines you can write for.

This list of the best luxury magazines and high-end lifestyle titles will help you plan the optimal advertising campaign to target an affluent audience across the largest markets worldwide.

The online versions of luxury lifestyle magazines often offer a broader reach than their print editions, opening the door not only to the ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) but also to aspiring professionals and upcoming affluent Millennials and Generation Z readers.

49. Run a Real Estate Webinar

This is a new trend lately where real estate brokers and agencies come together and launch webinars for the public. You could do the same thing at a smaller scale and still reap the rewards. All you need is:

• a list of speakers,
• date and time,
• topics to cover,
• a webinar software and
• some good audiovisual gear.

50. Write Your Own Real Estate Magazine (Every Quarter or Year)

If you've already reached a certain level of production, you could write your very own quarterly or annual magazine. And it's actually much cheaper to do than you think, including assembling a team and having it distributed online or offline. (At YKC, we publish our monthly members-only Property Secrets Magazines for a low subscription fee.)

You can

• write about your professional experiences
• your clients' personal experiences,
• provide expert advise,
• share anecdotes that reinforce your advice,
• feature your best clients,
• feature your affiliates for a fee,
• solicit for new testimonials,
• showcase  your listings etc.

And you don't even have to do everything by yourself. All you need to do is to hire a competent researcher, a content writer from fiverr, an experienced editor and a printer (which doesn't even need to be in your own city). Then you're good to go and have your magazine copies shipped to clients, prospects or use them as handouts in appointments to boost your authority!

If your magazine is well received, you can even publish it monthly or every week and charge a subscription fee (thereby adding an additional income stream).

51. Write and Publish a Book

Lastly, to complete the Ultimate Listing Marketing Plan, you could write and publish a book. Take this from me as an actual published author: writing and publishing your own book is the BEST way to differentiate yourself from the mass of me-too real estate agents and gain instant authority and credibility. Books have a very high perceived value and can last for years (and decades) as a marketing asset consistently bringing you 6 or 7 figures in income on autopilot. Books reframe you as a non-salesperson and is an effective mechanism to lower your prospects' guard.

But like in all things in life, you have to get the actual writing done and then spend 80% of the time promoting your book. Writing my book was easy because I already had tons of articles and anecdotes I had already written over the years. (It simply took me 6 days to assemble those articles and my book practically wrote itself.) I love to write and it's completely okay if you're not like me.

You don't even have to personally write anything; you can easily record your audio and then have it sent to be transcribed it into a book. Don't worry about the details because you can easily hire talent from Fiverr or Upwork.com to do everything from cover design to ghostwriting to publishing it on Amazon, Apple or Google Books. That's what I did too.

After that, you can get your physical book in books stores or even hand out signed copies to clients and prospects; they work 1,000 times better than name cards!

Over to You

What strategies do you use in your own real estate listing marketing plan? Let us know in the comments below.

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, Get More Listings, Close More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here 👉 https://www.yasserkhan.sg/👈

YASSER KHAN

Author, Coach & Trainer

Yasser Khan earned less than $1,000 in his first year as a full time property agent. With no money for the $2 train fare to his Broker's office, he was forced to walk 25 kilometers on foot. Worse, he got evicted at midnight with his wife and baby son by the roadside. Desperate, he bought a $16 Sales book and took massive action. That single investment in himself gave him an OBSCENE ROI of $160,000 in just 11 months. Today, Yasser is on a mission to make the real estate great career again and helps ambitious agents quadruple their commission income within 90 days.

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach at YasserKhan.SG, trainer at PropertyAgentUniversity.com and the author of Property Agent Secrets Book who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S. plaguing the industry today.  

Yasser Khan’s approach to coaching is highly personalised, holistic, no B.S., and for “PROS ONLY… amateurs not allowed.” He believes that true success means winning in every single area of your life (like Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Fun).

When Yasser isn’t coaching, he loves playing GOTY PC Games with top-of-the-line Razer products and being a kid again with his 3 naughty children (actually, boss babies...), traveling to and across scenic Pakistan, enjoying hot & spicy food, taking pictures of the Milky Way with his favourite Canon DSLR and reading up all about Dinosaurs (especially T. Rex)

The National Association of Realtors^® (NAR) reports there are more than 3 million active real estate licensees in the U.S. and more than 106,000 real estate brokerages. Choosing the best real estate company to work for can be challenging, whether you’re a new agent or an experienced veteran.

According to NAR’s research, the median agent tenure at a brokerage is five years, so it’s likely that at some point in your career, you’ll consider making a switch. But how do you decide which company is best for you? Through research and interviews, we evaluated dozens of real estate companies based on the criteria that matter most to you, and selected our top five from a field of big-name brands.

Best Real Estate Companies of 2023

Don’t forget: If you’re new to real estate and looking to get licensed OR a seasoned agent looking to meet your continuing education requirements, become a broker, or launch your own real estate firm, Real Estate Express can help you meet your goals with convenient, affordable online classes.

Visit Real Estate Express

The Best Real Estate Company to Work for Overall: Keller Williams

Keller Williams takes home our prize for the best real estate company to work for because they excel in the areas that matter most to agents.

We were impressed with their competitive compensation plan and commitment to creating a culture of success on all levels, including prioritizing women in leadership. Keller Williams also made the top of our list because of the work they do to create career-lasting relationships with their agents.

Keller Williams agents make money in two ways: through commissions earned from the purchase or sale of real estate, and through a program the company refers to as profit-sharing, but which is more of a recruitment and retention strategy from which you can make additional cash. Here are the details on each.

Keller Williams’ Pre-Cap Commission Structure

Each Keller Williams office (or, as they call them, Market Center) has what’s called a cap. The cap is a certain amount of money that each agent will pay to Keller Williams to support the company at large.

Each Market Center has its own cap, determined by local market conditions, operating expenses, and so on. Keller Williams agents at each office have the same cap; it doesn’t matter if you are a 20-year veteran or a brand-new agent.

When an agent receives a pre-cap commission, they keep 64% of it, 30% goes to the Market Center, and 6% goes to the national brand as a franchise fee. Once you hit the cap, you keep 100% of your commission—no hidden fees, no sneaky percentages—that’s it.

Keller Williams’ Post-Cap Commission Structure

One an agent’s annual cap has been met, they keep 100% of their earned commissions. So if the agent’s split is 3%, they receive $7,500 on a $250,000 property sale.

Profit-sharing

Agents can also receive a secondary commission when someone they recruit closes a sale, something the company labels “profit-sharing.” If someone you invite to the company closes a sale, whether they’re a member of your team or not, you get a piece of the company’s share of the commission.

Profit-sharing at Keller Williams is multi-level, meaning that if the person you recruited turns around and successfully recruits other agents, you’ll see a portion of the company’s share of their sales too.

Keller Williams Company Culture

Keller Williams’ company culture is focused on constant improvement and support. They are widely regarded as an industry leader in training and professional development.

Their development mindset isn’t only a top-down approach. Thanks to the Keller Williams profit-sharing structure, agents benefit directly from the success of their recruits. Thus, agents develop mentorship relationships, making Keller Willliams a very team-oriented real estate company to work for, even in the absence of any official “teams” in a particular Market Center.

Keller Williams Branding

Keller Williams has an extremely recognizable brand throughout the U.S. and Canada. Though their branding isn’t groundbreaking or exciting (if branding is important to you, check out Century 21), their relatively conservative brand guidelines are high-quality, consistent, and easy for agents to apply to their marketing.

Visit Keller Williams

Best Real Estate Company to Work For—Established High-performing Agents: RE/MAX

RE/MAX is a great place for high-performing, established agents to take their business to the next level. Though they offer tools, training, and mentorship for agents at any stage of their career, the RE/MAX system is set up to benefit a market’s top performers the most.

RE/MAX doesn’t have a brand-wide policy about splits, desk fees, and caps; each of those decisions is negotiated at the local level.

Though we wish they provided the same transparency on commissions as Keller Williams, RE/MAX does offer agents lots of flexibility in terms of how they receive their commissions.

With a split range topping out at 95%, experienced agents with a proven track record can get paid more on the front end of each commission, allowing them to leverage that revenue toward time-sensitive needs, including marketing and promotion.

Their generous splits often come with higher desk fees, but for most rock star agents, the higher desk fees are worth the investment to further other aspects of their business.

RE/MAX Company Culture

The RE/MAX company culture is built around success and leadership within the communities they serve. Of the top 200 agents of 2021 according to Real Trends (by transaction sides), a staggering 55 of them are RE/MAX agents. This is a brand synonymous with performance, especially for those who know the business well.

An agent who operates on a high level knows that their personal brand and reputation are going to be supported and enhanced by the market reputation of both their brokerage and the other agents who belong to it.

RE/MAX Branding

RE/MAX has a strong presence in the vast majority of major metropolitan markets across the United States. RE/MAX’s iconic hot air balloon is one of the most unique and recognizable symbols in all of real estate, according to a Millward Brown Demographic Ad Tracking Study in 2017. Entrepreneur Magazine named RE/MAX the top Real Estate Franchise of 2020, a spot it’s held for 15 of the last 18 years.

Visit RE/MAX

Best Real Estate Company to Work For—New Agents: Coldwell Banker

In a bit of a surprise, Coldwell Banker has emerged as our pick for the best real estate brand for new agents due to their consistent commitment to training and mentorship of new agents. Their commitment is demonstrated by their top-down training resources and constant encouragement (and funding) of their franchisees to effectively spur professional development. Their dedication to agent growth makes them a great choice for someone just starting off.

Even though the commission and fees at Coldwell Banker are reasonable, they aren’t anything to write home about. If you are considering Coldwell Banker a real estate company to work for, consider the following:

No companywide policy for cap, split, or desk fees; all are negotiated at the local level on an agent-by-agent basis

Universal 8% per commission franchise fee even after you hit cap

If the 8% franchise fee is a deal-breaker for you, consider Keller Williams (no franchise fee after you hit cap) or eXp Realty (no franchise fee at all).

Coldwell Banker Company Culture

Throughout our analysis of Coldwell Banker company culture, we kept coming back to the same phrase: client-focused. They live this value with something they call “Big Blue Culture,” which can best be summarized as a “relentless pursuit of the best possible client experience.”

This sort of client-centric focus is great for new agents who are still learning the ropes as far as interaction, sales, and best practices. Corporate leaders all the way down to local franchise officials consistently spoke about this aspect of the company’s culture.

We spoke with Tracy Bacigalupi, Vice President of Marketing for Coldwell Banker Schmidt Family of Companies, the largest Coldwell Banker franchisee in the country, and here’s what she had to say about the resources available to agents to get them into the swing of Big Blue Culture:

“Coldwell Banker has an amazing amount of resources that it provides to realtors and brokers on a local level. Our programs like CBU (Coldwell Banker University) provide an incredibly rich and customizable approach to training that is perfect for experienced agents or people brand-new to the business.”

Coldwell Banker Branding

Coldwell Banker is a legacy brand that’s been associated with trusted real estate service since the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Its recent rebranding and logo updates show that the company is committed to moving forward and building a business that has an exciting future, not just a storied past.

We’ll admit it—we were skeptical at first to see changes to a trusted logo, but they come with a new-and-improved set of marketing resources that facilitate every agent’s efforts, but especially those of new agents.

Visit Coldwell Banker

Best Real Estate Company to Work For–Part-time Agents: eXp Realty

You haven’t even read our explanation yet, and we can already hear what you’re thinking. “What?! A virtual brokerage beat out other major brick-and-mortar brands?!” Yes, yes it did.

And here’s why: When it comes to being a part-time agent, there are three things that are important to you.

Can you make the financials work? If you have lots of upfront fees and costs due outside of a transaction, the math can sometimes makes your real estate side hustle impossible. With eXp Realty, you don’t have to stress about that.

Self-paced and remote resources: Your growth should be on your own schedule. eXp Realty has you covered.

Remote company culture: You need a company that really embraces the remote working lifestyle. eXp Realty lives remotely.

How eXp Realty Agents Get Paid

The eXp Realty commission structure is simple and easy to understand. Similar to Keller Williams, eXp Realty also offers a revenue-sharing program for agents you recruit to join the brokerage. They also offer some stock options for high-performing agents. Here are the details.

eXp Realty Commission Structure

Every agent in the company has a cap of $16,000. Splits are 80/20, and after you meet that cap, you keep 100% of your commissions—no desk fees, no royalty fees, no franchise fees.

YKC INSIDER TIP: A $16,000 cap is extremely reasonable. Most major franchises have caps over $25,000, and some luxury brokerages like Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and Sotheby’s have caps north of $33,000. For a part-time agent just getting started, this is a major benefit.

Revenue Sharing: Better Than Profit-sharing

Similar to Keller Williams, eXp Realty also offers passive income options, paying you a percentage of the commission made by any agent that you recruit.

While Keller Williams offers agents a share of PROFIT (which can be a relatively thin margin depending on your Market Center), eXp offers a share of REVENUE. This approach puts more money in the pockets of eXp Realty agents who can recruit. It also makes recruiting a potentially more profitable pursuit than at Keller Williams.

Stock Options

eXp Realty also offers stock options to agents after they’ve hit certain performance marks each year. Stock options generally only benefit high-performing agents, but anyone can work toward this goal, whether they’re working part time or full time.

eXp Realty Company Culture

Since eXp is a completely remote business with no brick-and-mortar locations, the only real option for developing a company culture is through a virtual environment.

eXp offers a LOT of livestreamed training and networking (up to eight hours of live content per day). A massive library of prerecorded material is also available on eXp’s virtual campus for agents to use at their convenience. Seriously, you’ll find thousands of hours of on-demand training on just about every subject you can think of.

Through these tools, it’s pretty clear that the eXp Realty company culture is all about providing agents and teams with the tools they need to create an individualized path that makes sense for their business. eXp Realty agents seem to be very excited about this sort of self-reliance and support.

We asked Gogo Bethke, a high-performing agent with eXp Realty, about training opportunities and company culture. Here’s what she told us.

“The best that I’ve ever experienced on any level, period. There are so many different groups of eXp agents, so many different platforms that they (eXp Realty) provide access to.

“And, you can’t get more convenient than eXp. I could be sitting with my feet in the sands of Mexico and attend a live session on post-closing occupancy in the eXp virtual classroom. I’ve been with multiple real estate brands across my career, I have never seen anything like what eXp offers.”

—Gogo Bethke, Agent at Gogo’s Real Estate

eXp Realty Branding

The eXp Realty branding strategy is a little different than others on this list. Since eXp Realty is the only company that isn’t built on the franchise model, you’d think that they’d have a strong, centralized brand presence. But, given the fact that they don’t have any brick-and-mortar locations and the success of the company is really built off the success of each individual agent and team, this isn’t the case.

The eXp Realty branding is minimal, limited, and often a very minor part of an agent’s marketing. Yes, it appears on business cards and yard signs, but it’s likely not a logo you can picture in your head, and the standards to which it has to be applied are loose.

If you prefer a brand that will give you high recognition, consider RE/MAX or Coldwell Banker.

Visit eXp Realty

Best Real Estate Company to Work For—Reaching Millennials: Century 21

Century 21 has consistent involvement and advocacy in issues important to the next generation of homeowners, including fair housing, LGBTQ rights, and the transformation of commercial space into new and innovative residential space. The company’s focus on issues important to millennials has caused many to sit up and take notice of this legacy real estate brand.

A new logo, new marketing strategy (an entire revamp of their brand, actually) means that younger people new to the brand are talking about Century 21.

If you are a strong marketer of your own personal business, combining your skills with Century 21’s clout and market positioning can make for a potent formula for success—especially when it comes to reaching the elusive millennial market.

Century 21 Commission Options & Agent Fees

Similar to the situation with Coldwell Banker, the commission structure at Century 21 is fine, but nothing we’re crazy about, either. Just about everything (except for a universally applied 5-8% franchise fee) is negotiated at the local level, so there isn’t much we can tell you about here.

The one differentiator is that most Century 21 franchises don’t charge a desk fee. Some major metropolitan markets, where office space is at a premium, will charge a monthly desk fee to literally have a desk, but this is optional.

Century 21 doesn’t ask for a penny before you close a deal, which is helpful for a lot of agents, especially those who are new to the business.

Century 21 Company Culture

Century 21’s company culture is all about relentless progress, whether we are talking about social issues, issues of equity and inclusion, or the pursuit of the company’s business objectives.

For example, Century 21 was named to the Forbes 2019 list of best employers for diversity.

The company actively recruits veterans to become real estate professionals, and their chief marketing officer, Cara Whitley, is recognized as a HousingWire Woman of Influence.

Their partnership in the Empowering Latinas program is part of Century 21’s efforts to empower Latinas in South Florida to earn a real estate license. The scholarship pays for all the necessary classes and licensing fees for aspiring Latina entrepreneurs.

Century 21 Branding

“What if we changed everything?”

That’s the question that marketers at Century 21 have based their entire new strategy around, and it’s working. New company mission (“To Deliver Extraordinary Experiences”), new logo, new vibe altogether.

Century 21 is taking a bold approach to pushing this new message in new quarters. They’re booking guest spots on shows like SportsCenter instead of 60 Minutes. They are backing ads on Viceland, not on Fox News. It’s clear that they’ve identified their next customer as more likely to be watching the Big Bang Theory than Antiques Roadshow.

If you are a realtor who has millennial (and younger) homebuyers or sellers in your sights, Century 21’s message will resonate nicely with you (and them).

Visit Century 21

Your Turn

Now, we want to hear from you. Tell us your thoughts on our picks. Do your experiences line up with what we’ve found?

If you’re a real estate professional working in a local office, whether a major brand or a mom-and-pop shop, we want to hear from you.

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, Get More Listings, Close More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here 👉 https://www.yasserkhan.sg/👈

YASSER KHAN

Author, Coach & Trainer

Yasser Khan earned less than $1,000 in his first year as a full time property agent. With no money for the $2 train fare to his Broker's office, he was forced to walk 25 kilometers on foot. Worse, he got evicted at midnight with his wife and baby son by the roadside. Desperate, he bought a $16 Sales book and took massive action. That single investment in himself gave him an OBSCENE ROI of $160,000 in just 11 months. Today, Yasser is on a mission to make the real estate great career again and helps ambitious agents quadruple their commission income within 90 days.

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach at YasserKhan.SG, trainer at PropertyAgentUniversity.com and the author of Property Agent Secrets Book who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S. plaguing the industry today.  

Yasser Khan’s approach to coaching is highly personalised, holistic, no B.S., and for “PROS ONLY… amateurs not allowed.” He believes that true success means winning in every single area of your life (like Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Fun).

When Yasser isn’t coaching, he loves playing GOTY PC Games with top-of-the-line Razer products and being a kid again with his 3 naughty children (actually, boss babies...), traveling to and across scenic Pakistan, enjoying hot & spicy food, taking pictures of the Milky Way with his favourite Canon DSLR and reading up all about Dinosaurs (especially T. Rex)