Top Mistakes Real Estate Agents Make and How to Avoid Them

A career in real estate can be extremely rewarding if you understand what to do and what not to do. There are many mistakes agents make every day because they either don’t know they are making them, or don’t know how to avoid them. If you want to be the leading agent in your market area, here’s how to avoid the top five mistakes real estate agents make.

Mistake #1. Not Prospecting Every Day

As a real estate agent, lead generation is one of your most important tasks. However, many agents fail to proactively prospect for new leads. You should make lead generation tasks such as cold calling, sending prospecting letters, and managing online lead-gen campaigns, part of your daily schedule. Make sure every new lead goes into your database. As well, you should categorise each lead and update their status as you build the relationship. A good rule of thumb- if you have been in real estate for 12 months, you should have 1,000 or more contacts in your database. Regardless of how busy you may be, conduct daily prospecting tasks to ensure the long-term success of your career.

Mistake #2. Not Keeping in Touch with Your Database

Whilst some agents are great at making new connections, many are not so good at following up. Whether they are prospects or clients, you must constantly communicate with each one if you want to build the relationship. To do this, you should put together a schedule that includes, for example, sending out a weekly property market insights report, weekly new listings e-newsletter, making monthly courtesy calls, and perhaps even taking some contacts out for lunch every few months. As you connect with each contact, make sure you note down any important details that could help build your relationship in the future. Maintaining constant communication with your database is how you can convert prospects to clients, and get repeat business from existing clients.

Mistake #3. Not Keeping on Top of Property Market Updates

As a real estate agent, it’s your role to be a local property market expert. However, since many agents fail to keep informed about property news and trends, many are unable to offer expert advice to their clients. Since being a real estate agent is about understanding your market area, you must spend time each week researching it. You should not only know your area’s median property price, but also the latest local amenities, new infrastructure, local business updates, and property trends. This information should then be distributed to your database as a weekly e-newsletter to establish yourself as the local real estate authority. Knowing your marketplace is essential when it comes to succeeding in real estate.

Mistake #4. Not Building Relationships with Other Agents

Since there are many day-to-day tasks real estate agents must complete, connecting with other agents is usually not a priority. As a result, many agents fail to build a support network, which often negatively impacts their time as an agent. To ensure you network with other agents, it’s a good idea to allocate time each year to attend real estate events and workshops, and actively connect with colleagues on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Forming industry connections with agents from all roles and levels is a great way to fill knowledge and experience gaps you will have throughout your real estate career.

Mistake #5. Not Investing in Ongoing Training and Upskilling

Once agents gain their real estate licence and start their new career, many make the mistake of ending their training there. However, having a successful real estate career requires commitment to ongoing training. It’s important that you invest in weekly training and upskilling, which can be done through Validum Institute. If you are an experienced real estate professional, our advanced courses such as our Real Estate Agents Licence Course or CPP40307 Certificate IV in Property Services Real Estate equip you with the skills and knowledge to take your career to the next level. Investing in your ongoing training helps you stay at the top of your game as a real estate agent.

If you want to be the leading agent in your market area, make sure you avoid these mistakes to give yourself the best chance at succeeding as a real estate agent.

If you’re looking to become qualified in the real estate industry or upskill your real estate qualifications, call Validum Institute TODAY on (07) 3193 5270 to find out more about our fresh new blended approach to learning.

We’d love to know how our solutions help you avoid these real estate agent mistakes. Email me your thoughts at victor.james@validumgroup.com.au.