The thread is in the title, I'm about 8 months into my real estate career. I've read several books and tried many different things from rentals, to knocking on doors, and running around with bad buyers, etc.. It's FINALLY starting to click and I feel like I'll be doing 1-2 transactions a month consistently very soon. But that's not enough!! I Want to be a top producer.. so if you are a seasoned pro and can tell me and others who would like to be top producers 1 peice of advice you wish you had received sooner, or the best peice of advise you know of, let's have it. Additionally, you can leave multiple thoughts if you would be so kind.

The best thing is get yourself out there, register on all the sites like zillow and trulia,
Answer all the questions you can but make them good answers.
Give your card out to everyone you meet
And the best advice is when your phone rings answer it

Teach yourself SEO and learn how to blog effectively. There is a difference between "blogging" and "blogging effectively."

Personally I wish I had found Agents Online a lot sooner.

You can learn years of "hard knocks lessons" here by just spending some time reading a lot of older threads.

I wish I had training early on, specifically lead generation. I had to wait almost a year for a training program which I really think set me back a lot.

Training is so critical early on.

Marty

Thanks for the replies, very helpful and happy to know I am doing pretty much all of them except for blogging at this point I'm already fairly busy. I'd prefer to spend my time reading at this point, I'll start writing later :)

As far as follow-up on internet leads, does anyone have a plan they can recommend? What I mean is, I get a lead for house xyz for $250,000 off Zillow. I email, no reply.. I call, no answer. It is hard for me to remember to keep emailing and calling these people .. but I have tried my best and recently I dug up a 3 month old lead and was out showing them homes and writing an offer a couple weeks later..so I guess just dig through the trash every once in a while is all you can do? I wish I had a better, more automated system for follow-up. I've started putting everybody (sans 'is this house available for rent-to-own' inquiries which I seem to be a magnet for) on auto-searches even if I cannot get ahold of them personally. I've had one of these shake out to a contract as well.

What are you using for contact management?

You should have a contact management solution that reminds you to follow up on those people. If you don't get a response the first 3 times or so though, I'd just delete them and move on.

Don't try to work with everyone. Make sure buyers are qualified, motivated and realistic about value. Don't be afraid to ask tough personal questions.

Develop a high level of expertise in a niche market. Lots of niche options available based on your local market and geography. Then start doing youtube videos promoting your expertise in this market segment. This is a relationship business, people will choose to work with you based on what you know and how you present yourself.

The leads you get from this effort will be 100 times better than what you get from Zillow, etc.

I chose to focus on helping Relocation Buyers early on and it made a huge difference for me.

Good luck!

Thanks--Mario

Work to live, don't live to work. Once it takes off, you can let it take over your life if you're not careful.

Realtor DC: Database management is a MUST! ;)

I use a product called "ACT!" and the manufacturer is a company by the name of Sage. I paid too much for my copy ($1000), but an agent friend of mine bought a previous version on Ebay for $30. You don't need the latest and greatest version - an older version will work just fine. There is a definite learning curve, but it will allow you to track everything you do with a prospect, and when the prospect becomes a past client you will have a system to continue staying in touch with them to generate the repeat and referral business.

If you do follow through with purchasing ACT!, you can get tons of free training videos over at YouTube as well.

If you ask the veterans here, I am sure they will affirm that database marketing is crucial to your success.

Cheers,
Jeremy

Read. Millionaire real estate agent, champion real estate agent, e-myth, seven habits of highly effective people, and how to win friends and influence people should be the basis for how to start your business.

[quote=Alabama Homes]The best thing is get yourself out there, register on all the sites like zillow and trulia,
Answer all the questions you can but make them good answers.
Give your card out to everyone you meet
And the best advice is when your phone rings answer it [/quote] Speaking of answering the phone. My girl friend and I have been looking at homes on sites like trulia, estate, etc. When we seen a house we liked. We would call the agent and leave him/her a message that we were intrested in a property. It seems like 90% of them would never call us back. I have experiance in sales and this is the reason im going to get my license. I know from experiance how important it is to answer the phone or at least call back asap

What I would recommend is to hit all the avenues. Online is great, mail marketing is still the best for listings, and if you door knock in the same area as your mail marketing it makes it that much stronger. You need a healthy marketing plan of multiple avenues and consistency.

Thanks to all of the top producers for the advice!

Make a plan,stick to it,and do it consistently.(The plan has to make sense and have merit from the start.)

Specialist in my opinion make more and are much more sought after than generalists.

I focus on a few niches that I work to dominate everyday.When you start closing volume with a particular niche you will start getting REALLY GOOD at it.You will start reaching levels generalists can't touch.

So if you have 4 sales in a few months 1 is land,1 is retail,1 is lake homes etc. then you will have gained a little knowledge in each.

However if you chose one and really marketed and focused on it you will have all 4 transactions in say Lake Front homes.You will start developing a rep and referral base to dominate.

The NUMBER ONE problem with agents is the "NEXT BEST THING SYNDROME".

They start doing something and it starts working and gaining traction.Then when a new shiny object comes a long they dump everything giving them results and start over again.

If you have something successful you stick with it and add the other strategies along the way.You build niches that ebb and flow with the markets.Maybe sales are hot now but in a few years land is strong.You have to look at the data and see what is selling and what is not.

Taking listings means nothing if they do not price correctly and have a product in demand.