To be honest with you, some people are not cut out to be real estate agents. 

Everyone is excited to get started but once they find out how hard it is to make money, they give up. I'm going to enlighten you with the secrets of success and what I learned to make you one of the most successful realtors on the planet! 

In my interviews and mentoring of real estate agents and leadership positions over the last 12 years, I can unequivocally quote the characteristics of successful real estate agents.

Each time I interview an agent to be on my company, I define FIVE characteristics you must have to succeed.

1. You must have money saved to see you through for at least 6 months to 1 year.

2. You have to have the fortitude of a lion to stay on course and stay committed to your goals.

3. You must be willing to learn and BE COACHABLE. There are those who have gone before you and if you open yourself up to learn from others, you will grow faster.

4. You must treat this like a job and be willing to put in at least 8 hours a day to build your business.

5. You must care about the dreams and goals of others. A successful real estate agent puts the client first.

New agents often think that as a real estate agent, you're doing a few showings and once they land a client, it's easy street from there. 

If you have been in the industry for longer than a few months, you know how far south a deal can go in a matter of hours. Here are some perceptions from new realtors in the field:

• Selling a house is easy money. I only have to sell a few houses to make a decent income with only a few hours of work.
• I don't have to communicate very often or be very responsive.
• I can do this part-time because I can schedule around my regular working hours.
• I can choose not to take the low commission clients because I'm going to wait out for the more lucrative clients.
• I really don't need to relationship build because my agency will be bringing me the clients.

To put it bluntly, all of these perceptions are absolutely FALSE.

1. Interview and choose the right company for you.

2. Be prepared to invest in your self and in your business. I would have $5,000 laying around to use to pay membership fees, MLS dues, and for a marketing budget.

3. Start making a list of all the people that you know and gathering up their contact information. These are the people you will be looking to work with in the near future.

4. Write down ways you can connect with the community; clubs, PTA, sports events, neighborhood, etc..

5. Start developing systems to contact people, market yourself, and get business.

6. Buy a CRM. This is a program that allows you to input information about everyone you know and will allow you to build a database that you will market out of for life.

7. Be prepared to work hard and spend a lot of hours letting people know that you're in real estate.

Unfortunately, realtors get their license and because they what they thought was easy on HGTV, they quickly get smacked in the head with the reality of how hard it is to get people to work with them.

While the tasks of learning the trade seems simple, in reality, they are really quite difficult. The lack of commitment is many times what causes realtors to fail.

I can teach you the basics which you have to master. Once you are able to master the basics, it will be easy to elevate and take your business to a higher level. This will allow you to make money for years selling real estate.