2020 may have you considering a job change into real estate. First, you’re wondering, is real estate a good career?Second, you want to know if real estate is right for you. This article will show you how to determine if real estate should be your next career.
Is Real Estate a Good Career? Success Ahead!
Real estate is an exciting and progressive career to be part of. However, it is not always easy. Especially if you are new to the business. From market changes to new technology, there is a lot to be learned. It may feel like you are taking on too much if you have to help support your community as well. Finding a platform that can help you run your business AND help your community is an excellent tip.
Here are Some Ways to Know Whether Real Estate Is the Right Career
- You Want to Be in Charge: Working for yourself can be exciting to face that new challenge. Working in real estate means that you are in charge of your day and what you do.
- You Want to Make Your Own Schedule: There are also benefits to having the flexibility to work at different times. Being a real estate agent allows you to work when you want to.
- You Want to Show Off Your Love of Your Community: We know you love your community. Help your community to succeed by showing off all it has to offer.
- You Like Trying New Things: As technology changes, you will be able to use your adaptable skills to get exposure and referrals.
- You Enjoy Creating and Writing: real estate agents have to be marketers – and there are lots of opportunities to create videos, blogs and eye-catching social media posts.
If you connect with any of the ideas above, then real estate could be the right career for you. If you need help to get your business off the ground, reach out to a platform that can support you. (A company like Parkbench is a relationship and referral company that teaches agents how to embrace their community, and could be a good fit for you).
The Best Real Estate Prospecting Methods Put Clients First
If you have been in sales before, then prospecting is not new to you. In real estate, prospecting is a bit different; it’s the act of reaching out to people in your community to help you to get new clients because it’s your neighborhood that will bring you business.
It can be a challenge to come up with new ideas to keep the funnel full. Take a look at some of the best real estate prospecting methods.
Prospecting Methods For Real Estate
You may have tried one (or all!) of these prospecting methods:
- Email outreach
- Social selling
- Event networking
- Warm outreach over the phone
The Best Real Estate Prospecting Method Puts Community First
One of the best types of prospecting is to put the needs of your community first. Here are some ways you can promote your local community:
- Interview and promote local businesses
- Participatein community events
- Sponsor local sports teams or charities
- Show off your community through your social media platforms
Why You Need to Book Real Estate Interviews Now!
If you are new to the industry, then you may not know how important an interview is. One way to build a strong real estate business is to learn about the people who run the businesses you live around. When you book real estate interviews you will help to build up a sphere of potential clients while you are showing love to your community.
Try Some of These Types of Real Estate Interviews
- In person Interviews: in person interviews allow you to build long term relationships because you have spent time together – even in a pandemic, with masks on. This type of interview has the added value of being better able to understand how the business you are interviewing works so you can become an advocate for the company in all your real estate relationships. It’s the difference between knowing of the bread at a local bakery and knowing the bread.
- Telephone and Video Interviews: Telephone and video interviews allow you to connect with busy business owners. They are the safest option for an interview format in a COVID world, and they can be quick and easy for everyone to attend as they save on travel time. Further, being able to record some interviews could give you additional marketing opportunities.
- Groups: Group-style interviews are more flexible and allow people who are not comfortable one-on-one to still speak up.
Interview These People in Your Community
Reach out to the following people in your community:
- Restaurant owners
- Non-profit organizations
- Teachers
- Small business owners
- Local politicians
- Frontline healthcare workers (nurses, doctors, PSWs)
- There are other community leaders that you can meet and profile. Parkbench has highlighted the top 10 community partners to connect with this year.
What’s great about this interviewing strategy for real estate agents is that by selflessly helping other people learn about leaders and businesses in your community, you’re helping them also learn about you.
How to Make Your Real Estate Listing Stand Out and Help Your Community
New real estate agents sometimes struggle with creating dynamic listings. With lots of competition in the real estate market, it is essential to learn how to make your real estate listing stand out. As a real estate agent who cares about their community, use these tips to help elevate your game.
Some Key Ways to Make Your Real Estate Listing Stand Out
- Staging
- Pictures
- Strong listings
- Virtual tours
- Internet strategies
Show Off the Neighborhood to Reach a Whole Different Level
There are many aspects of every neighborhood that deserve the spotlight. Show of some of these to show your client you are about more than just selling a home:
- Schools and daycares
- Walking trails
- Community centres
- Cafes
- Charities
- Garden centres
By bringing business leaders and community members together, you bring great value to your community.
Plus, Don’t Forget These Seasonal Marketing Ideas
A change in season is a great prompt for engaging your community and sharing resources across people and businesses. For example, help your community through the fall. The relationships you form will become mutually beneficial. Think about which businesses are seasonal. In Autumn, reach out to these types of businesses:
- Local Farms
Local farms need customers now, make sure that your neighborhood knows about them. You can use your social media or online platforms to profile them.
- Landscapers
Landscapers thrive in the fall when the leaves are falling and winter is fast approaching. Consider profiling local landscapers on your social media, hire them for their own lawn care needs and refer landscapers to your own clients to save them time and effort.
- Local Coffee Shops
Local coffee shops can use the support you have to give. You can profile local baristas on your social media platforms. Include local coffee/tea in your client baskets as a way to support and expose the public to the coffee shops in your area.
- Back to School Businesses
Kids always need supplies to start their year. Locally-owned shops always need support. You can profile local stores and business owners on your social media platforms and website. Also consider taking part in charities or causes that matter to individual business owners.
Are You Still Wondering If You Should Become A Real Estate Agent?
One of the ways to assess an industry is to see how it copes in a time of crisis.
The COVID-19 Real Estate Market: 2 Surprising Results
The pandemic in 2020 forced communities and businesses to change the way they ran. The COVID-19 real estate market was no exception. Real estate agents who were able to support their communities built their sphere of influence to reach more potential clients and helped more people thrive.
What COVID-19 Taught the Real Estate Market
- The Importance of Community: it’s essential to support your community during difficult times such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some ways that real estate agents supported their community:
- Showed off what the local businesses were doing to support others.
- Highlighted the amazing things their communities were doing to help each other. Some hyper-local platforms host r website content to help the community stratify and rally.
- Shared where to get things that people need when they need them. With so many closures, real estate agent community platforms told residents where to get necessities.
- Businesses Have Had to Be Flexible: The pandemic forced a lot of businesses with brick-and-mortar stores to figure out a way to go virtual. Although it was a difficult time for many, it was encouraging to see the ways that different businesses got creative.
- Virtual home tours allowed potential home buyers the chance to see every nook and cranny of the space without exposing themselves to potential risk.
- Agents had to decrease the number of in-person open houses. Many began to embrace virtual home tours to show off inventory.
- Social media and broadcasts helped agent’s listings to stay top of mind when they couldn’t be seen in person.
5 Things to Do in Real Estate (And What Not to Do in a Pandemic)
2020 was an unpredictable year for every industry.. The pandemic changed every aspect of our lives, and the changes will continue for quite some time. Real estate agents had to deal with a lot due to COVID-19 but their ability to help people really shone. Real estate agents tried to do these things to do in real estate during the pandemic’s first months:
- Made Virtual Tours the Norm: Virtual tours allowed a variety of potential clients to see a property. The bonus was they didn’t need to worry about all the stringent health protocols that were in place at the time.
- Avoided Open Houses: Open houses brought a whole host of problems.
- Paid Attention to Pandemic Etiquette: Agents showed how they cared about the health and safety of others by wearing a mask and disinfecting.
- Embraced Flexibility: Agents showed their community that they were flexible, which helped to put clients at ease.
- Focused on Their Community: Agents were able to be a pillar of strength for those that were struggling. An agent’s biggest job was to calm the waves so that people could get back to buying their dream homes.
All of the ‘to do’s in real estate can be exhausting. Your day could be unpredictable as you work with people in the hours after they finish their jobs. Here are some ways to cope with working untraditional hours as a real estate agent and the fact that you might want to finish your day at three but have client meetings after 8pm. Learn to beat the afternoon slump, with these tips.
- Get Outside: By getting outside into the fresh air, you keep your body healthy and your body healthy.
- Exercise: Introducing a variety of exercise routines into your day will help you deal with any stress or anxiety.
- Embrace Hydration: So, instead of brewing yourself a cup of joe, replace that with a cup of water.
- Essential Oils: Consider trying diffusing or applying essential oils.
- Fresh Herbs: Consider having a rosemary plant on your desk, since fresh greens brighten everyone’s day.
- Get More Sleep: It is recommended that we should get between 7 and 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night in order to ensure maximum benefits for the next day.
- Enjoy Your Community: Go for a walk around the neighborhood to say hello and put yourself top of mind as a caring agent.
Real estate is an exciting career to be a part of. Whether you are just starting out, or if you had done a mid-life pivot, help is at hand – just start talking to a company like Parkbench who gives you a proven system to do all of these ideas more easily, and coaching too. Get a Parkbench demo to see how you can start making 6-12 more transactions a year with Parkbench’s community-minded platform. Parkbench only works with 1 agent per area – check if your area is still available using the button below!
