Becoming a real estate agent is a tempting idea for many. It is a lucrative job if you become good at it, you get to be your boss and set your hours and you get to meet some amazing people. But being a real estate agent is more than just sealing the deal and getting someone to buy a house. Theres a lot to the job, and here are the main points every real estate agent needs to cover:

 

 

Customer service

Without a doubt, your number one skill as a realtor needs to be customer service. Your job every day is dealing with people, both ones that are looking to buy and to sell and its your job to make them all happy and mediate if needed. You need to be able to communicate clearly and represent both sides. Being an empath will take you a long way since its important to be able to figure out how other people feel at the moment and what kind of approach would work best for them. If someone is on the edge and they arent sure if they want to buy, you need to know when pushing them will help them make the decision, and when it will make them panic and drop everything. Master communicating in person, over the phone, and online and work on being pleasant and likable. Charisma will charm people and make them more willing to let you talk them into some good deals.

Keeping up with the competition

Real estate competition is fierce today. There are few properties in high-interest areas, and just like the buyers or renters are competing who will get it, so are real estate agents. One location can be listed with multiple companies, so you need to know your way around it. Programs like IDX integration can help keep the playing field level on this end. But for you, as a realtor, its important to develop relationships with other realtors, since youll always be competing on the market and youll want to have someone to rely on. Sure, sometimes youll be in direct competition, but more often than not, youll have a "you scratch my back, Ill scratch yours" relationship.

Staging

Sometimes, homes need a bit of life put into them before anyone would be interested to buy. If the home is vacant, you can stage it yourself in a way you think potential buyers would like (and even offer them to buy the furniture for a percentage of the overall price). However, if the previous tenants or sellers still live there, its up to you to teach them the best way to stage the home to look pleasing to most buyers. This might require some furniture rearranging and even painting the walls, but it is worth it.

 

 

Administration

Whenever youre not talking to people, you will be buried in some sort of admin. Whether its drafting contracts and agreements or dealing with claims, youll always be handling some sort of paperwork and you want to know what youre doing. Real estate is big money, and all the admin needs to be complete and tidy to not have any issues. If youve never done something similar, its a good idea to take a beginners class to learn some of the basic administration and bookkeeping youll need as a realtor.

Analyze business data

So your main job is to sell real estate, but what you really are is a business owner, and youre your own employee. This means youre in charge of the business on a bigger scale. You need to have a business plan set up and constantly make sure youre hitting your goals, whether thats how long youre taking to sell a house or what margin youre earning. This will ensure you are actually getting what you planned to get from your business when you started.

Constant development

There are a plethora of areas you can improve in as a realtor, and the work is never over. The competition in the industry is cutthroat and youll need to keep upping your game to stay relevant. This might be improving your knowledge of architecture, urbanization, interior and exterior design, social and admin skills to make sure youre always giving your customers the best service. Think of all the parts of your business - scoping out, staging, making contact, communicating, arranging meetings, handling paperwork, and closing deals. There are ways to improve on every one of those skills and you should be doing that constantly.

Now you know what it takes to be a great realtor and stay at the top of your game. The only thing that remains is to leap, get your license and start hunting for your first property!