How to Start a Real Estate Business From Scratch
I’ve been working on a course to help realtors grow a successful real estate business and it’s really got me thinking about how important it is to take a step back and dig into my own. As I enter into year 9 as a realtor, I’ve felt a little lost in what comes next and where I want to go. I feel like I’ve been stuck in the day to day busy work of it all and haven’t treated my business like a business. Just because I feel comfortable as a realtor, doesn’t mean that I don’t consistently need to be checking in and practicing the techniques I used to get me here. So, I am going to share what I am doing to take a step back and start from square one.
**Hint…these will be similar topics I will cover in my course!!!
I had an epiphany last night while lying in bed trying to fall asleep. The reason it is so hard to come up with a business plan in real estate is because you think your goal is to try and find people who want to buy or sell houses, but when in reality, YOUR GOAL IS TO MARKET YOUR BRAND. Real estate is 85% marketing your product…..your product is YOU and your message is your branding…..Does that make sense?? Yes, of course, we’re trying to find people who want to buy or sell real estate, but our way to do that needs to come from a marketing plan that aligns with our brand and who we are….. which leads me to #1.
#1. Start With REALLY Digging Into Who You are and What Your Brand is: What is your brand message, who are your ideal clients, where do you want to work, why do people want to work with you? Seriously, the more specific you are with your brand and brand message, the more successful you will be with attracting “your” people. I’ve realized our current brand and brand message feels a little lost and doesn’t represent who we currently are as realtors. It fits Molly from 5 years ago and I feel like that has so much to do with the reason I felt stuck and unmotivated. I was trying to sell a product that wasn’t me.
#2. Based on Your Brand, Figure Out a Marketing Plan that Fits With You: I am going to use the works marketing plan in lieu of “lead generation” because I feel like lead generation sounds daunting and all it really is is your outlet for marketing “YOU”. In my sleepless night last night, I thought of the best (or the dumbest) way to describe this to someone. Imagine the product you are selling is an apple……(weird) How would you figure out where to sell your apple? Would you just go to a large group of people and ask everyone if they want to buy it? Probably not…. Would you get a big billboard and pay thousands of dollars to promote your apple to a non targeted audience? Probably not….. You would probably start by reaching out to the people who know, love and trust you to see if they would want to support you and buy your apple…… because I’d bet they would….. and then you’d probably try to narrow down where and who the people who want to buy apples are and figure out a marketing plan on how to reach them….. You are the apple……
Based on who you are and what your brand is, and figure out where your people are. Example….I am Carl, I specialize (or want to specialize) in helping people move from out of state to retirement communities…. How do I find those people? Set up targeted Facebook ads with listings in active adult communities for people in states that feed into your area. Do open houses in those communities, start a Facebook group for people moving here or a specific subdivision. Doesn’t that seem so clear because Carl is so clear about who he is and who his ideal client is? Once you’ve mastered that one marketing/lead generation plan, you can start to broaden into other avenues or just do more of what works. For me, I spend my time on social media, past client referrals and sphere of influence. I’ll save a whole blog post for that though….
#3. Make a Plan: Based on the Marketing/Lead gen you just figured out in section 2 come up with a plan of action. I am going to do 3 open houses a week, 5 daily social media stories and 1 reel daily etc. Write out a play by play guide to your way of getting business.
#4. Invest in Marketing Photos: Pay someone to take professional headshots and marketing photos you can use to start promoting your business. Make sure these are consistent across all platforms you show up on.
#5 Learn Canva: Canva is a free tool that you can do pretty much anything marketing related on. Make business cards, signs, logos, branding, flyers, social media graphics…..You name it you can probably make it for free there.
#6. Work Your Sphere: Reach out to your friends and family and let them know you’re in the business. These people already know and trust you and will become one of the biggest parts of your business EVEN IF ITS NOT TODAY! Don’t forget to treat the work you’re doing today like it will feed your pipeline (and family) years from now. We’re just planting seeds….. Not everyone will be ready now and that’s okay…. we want to be who they think of when they are ready.
#7 Start Your Database: You can use an excel sheet or word document and it doesn’t need to be anything fancy to start. Start keeping track of any leads you get and set a task to follow up with every person you talk to. Remember we’re just planting seeds and watering them….Your database is a great place to water.
#8. Treat This Like a Business: Set your marketing plan and work on it every day. Set working hours, set budgets, have meetings with yourself, invest in yourself, continue to learn. Literally treat this like you run Target.
#9. Save Your Money: You do not…I repeat… YOU DO NOT need to spend a lot of money to get started. Save building out a big website, paying for leads, buying 1000 business cards down the road….Just focus on the basics above.
Hope this helps give you some clarity on where to start with a new business or a refresh of a current business! Make sure to subscribe to my newsletter below to get more awesome real estate tips like this!
