I am leaving my IT Consulting position after almost three years to go into Real Estate full time in the fall, I am VERY NERVOUS though, I have been doing well, have sold and have many leads in the pipeline, but leaving a regular and very steady pay check is scary and has me very nervous!

Any tips, advice or feedback can help.

What can I do between now and the fall to make my transition smoother?

Have any of you done this in the past?

Broker514 - I sent you a private message...

Thank you, replied to you...

congrats. If you don't mind sharing, how did you get your clients while working IT full time? What was your typical day like?

While working IT full time, I made my own schedule and typically only worked 7 hours a day, finished at 2:00 PM latest and devoted 2:00 PM to late evening including every weekend to real estate and ONLY real estate. I was able to also do showings, visit properties, find and send listings from my laptop all the time.

Bottom line is that I worked part time and made good money but if I do it full time, attend all the trainings, meet people regularly, do more open houses and visit more properties I can make more money.

My goal is to make $250,000.00 a year in this business!

a worthy goal and achievable..probably going to take more than open houses to get there...
best wat to get sales in 90 days..
1.your center of influence and past and current clients..or soi
put them in a database, friends,family, coworkers,past clients everybody
get at least 200 in that list..
mail them telling them you are real estate full time and can help them
with buying and selling..in the p.s put a by the way..please refer me anybody you know...
2. fsbo and expireds,withdrawns..for listings...
same..try to gather at least 200 of them and mail them a letter..borino
on here has some good ones to start with..
3. website/blog with idx..for buyers...
start running free ads on craigslist, ebay/classifieds, backpage etc..
offering free list of properties and free neighborhood searches..
now when you mail, fsbo, expireds, and youyr sphere you can put that in there as a way to contact...
4. if you want to really kick it off call all 3 above sources on the phone and offer your assistance to them..

whats missing is the passive stuff that can take a while or slightly
less agressive long term strategy stuff....
1.open houses
2.floor time
3.brand building farming
4.seo/blogging
5.advertising in papers, and paid ads on sites like trulia, zillow,
homegain etc...
6.forum postings,.and social media, activerain,facebook, twitter,linkedin


those are all good and should be used in your long term strategy..
but to kick it off for 90 days..you are probably going to have to be proactive and agressive..

hope that helps,
linden

Prospect and inspect homes as many days a week as you can and
don't get depressed or start drinking wine like Perky. If you
can hang in there for two weeks good things will come your
way. Get going with chin ups/parralel bar dips and squats
this is very important as "stronger people are harder to kill".
Had a couple beers last night with my friend who is a officer
in the Canadian Army and he told me you need to be able to do
8 chin ups to qualify for the Paratroopers, so if things don't
work our for you this will open up one more option for you.

Sounds like you are a guy and most guys can only put their brain in one gear at a time, so this simple formula works well for us. Females can manage more balls in the air than us and they should give serious consideration to Linden's complex plan, as I have no experience being a metro-sexual I don't know how well this will work for them, Linden might have a better idea.

hah good one hunter,
i only need 3 pillars of lead generation,

telemarketing
direct mail
internet marketing

with 4 sources of business
fsbo and expireds/withrawns
targeted farm
sphere of influence
internet buyers

to keep my 150k-200k income..
no magic :-)
in business you can be cheap or lazy..but never cheap AND lazy..
if you lazy then spend that marketing dollars to get a result..
if you cheap,..then get out there and pound the phones..

Jumping fulltime into RE-

You're already doing what many real estate agents are not-
and working another job on top of it.

I'd have a cushion of $$$ in the bank as a net for biz/ living expenses, if you don't already and if RE is something you want to do fulltime, I'd go for it.

I would focus on the lead generating activities that I'm going to use and time management- it sounds like working RE with another job, your hours have not been your own out of neccessity and when you go fulltime in RE, you'll be able to have more control over your days/life if you plan it that way.

here's just some ideas and the cost..
1..
mail 200 sphere of influence letters-$100 per month
mail 500 fsbo and expireds small postcards..$172.00 per month
mail 500 targeted buyers-high price complexes $172.00
mail 500 targeted sellers-owned 3-7 years-high turover
subdivision- $172 a month
in mail about $600 a month
thats 1700 people you are in touch with per month
lets say you only do business with or talk with
1% of that per year...
thats 17 potential deals..or lets say even only 10% of that..
or about 2 deals... it paid for itself already...
2 deals at $5000 each..or earned $10,000
cost $7200 per year on the mailings...
and you have a sytem..thats working on your behalf every month..
you can even use the other $400 on lets say homegain ppc..
thats should be 40 buyer leads or per month
enough to get 1 sale...per month..
these are averages..imagine if you did better than average...
and I didnt even mention..prospecting or calling these people..which should double or triple your response...

Linden- regarding your mailings- what kind of response rate do you get per 1000? How many mailings do you do per contract?
Just curious- I've done mail outs and it was a little hit and miss but I wasn't mailing to the same group every month.

for every 1000 im looking for a 1% response total or 10 leads
meaning a direct call to my 1800 for the request
or a direct email for the request
or a direct web inquiry

the magic is in the consistency..mailing the same group at least 6 times..
before i give up on that group..

also i dont just mail anything i mail direct offers and inderect offers
anything i mail follows direct response principles

1. Huge benefit headline with offer
"Find Out what your homes's exact worth in todays market"
"Your home sold in 90 Days Guaranteed..Or I pay you $500!

2. some bullet point teaser copy..
your home may be worth more than you think
find out what what the neighbors home sold for
check your equity in todays economy

3.Has to have a call to action..
For your free report call 1-800-
or visit www.fhhjjk.com
or email us at...

4. deadline-scarcity
Call now and get a bonus free report-
"10 mistakes when selling your home"
How to make your home show like a model
Marketing plan to sell your home fast for top dollar
LIMITED Supplies only-available to first 23 area homeowners..to respond

we get equal inquiries to our 1800 as the website..less direct emails..though..

Thank you Linden- the consistency in the mail outs is something I can't say I did ( 6x or more ).

I have received responses in the past and turning my biz back on I'm considering systems/ layering with systems I'll be consistent with.

To the agent that started this thread- keep us posted, you sound like you've got a good grasp on things and we're rooting for you

Just mailled out my custom newsletters to all my fans.
200 pieces sent cost $385. Listed two homes. The first
one I door knocked in 1993 and the second one I door
knocked in 1995 and showed her a bunch of homes. Being
a lazy guy I got my wife to help with the hand written
envelopes, it still took two days to assemble the whole
batch. You don't always get this type of response.

Way to go Hunter- I think most would agree that's an outrageously good response to a 200 mail out Do you create your own newsletter or is there one you like that you'd recommend?

I am not going to waste my money on ad's, mailers or any form of marketing through old school mediums.

I am going to:

1) Focus on my sphere of influence and ask for referrals
2) Create a nice website with a blog
3) Use Facebook, Twitter, YOUTUBE, Craigslist and other free online social media sites
4) Cold call expired and FSBO listings
5) Hand out 5 business cards everyday

Based on all of this, I want to make over $100,000.00 in my first year full time

I Pm'd you. I normally do 150 every 3 months but I bumped it up due to Lucky's advice. Weird thing was after bumping it up nobody called for the first week and I felt like hunting down
Lucky and thumping him as I normally always get calls. Like my mom always told me it's very important to blame somenone else.
First listing is 484,900 second is going live tommorow for
479,000. These are "Lucky" approved listings as they really
want to sell.

Crazy,

Navarek has a mailling list of 400 people, this would keep
a agent very busy if these people received something
of interest 4 times a year. Maybe Navarek needs a larger
sample than most due to him just being Navarek which might
limit his appeal to the broader spectrum of society.

Broker,

Like you as a new agent I just went out and spoke to "X" number
of people a day as I had no money.

Thank you Hunter ! You're a Prince

I'm in California and the company you referred to doesn't do the good old USA... but thank you so much.

good for you! If you stick to that plan everyday..you can make that 100k a year!
thats a good solid gameplan..that you can implement everyday!
now turn that into a specific action plan/goal

1-i will speak to 5 people in my sphere ...mon-fri-NO MATTER WHAT!
2-I will create my website and blog and have it up and running within the next 30 DAYS..NO matter What!
3- I will make 1 video a week,post to my facebook and twitter every week..
run 5 NEW craigslist ads-NO matter what!
4- I will coldcall 10 fsbo's and 10 expireds everyday-mon-fri-NO matter What...
5-I will handot 5 business cards at-store/mall/gas station-wherever-everyday no matter what!

and finally..
say to yourself in the mirror EVERY MORNING
"I will make 100k this year....
(you guessed it)
"NO MATTER WHAT"

godspeed and good luck,
Linden

Wow, I love the positive attitude!

I am going to hit the ground running the fall no matter what.

NO MATTER WHAT,..
and we are all on here to support you..
we believe that you can do it..
and from your response there is no doubts about it..

go get em bud..

cheers,

Linden

Can you pm me and let me know the type of newsletter you use? Thanks !

PM sent. Buy one of theirs and then make your own if you
want.

Thanks everyone for all the tips in this thread. I am currently in RE school and I cannot stress enough how appreciative I am to everyone in this thread giving advice.

I'm in the same situation as you. I too am working for an IT company full time and just got my real estate license. I already have 2 sales in queue from my current employer (he buys a lot of properties) and after that I will be jumping in full time. Best of luck to you man, and I see you know about internet marketing too from another thread... that's good for you, I'm pretty good at IM as well.

Way to go a very hard step because of letting go of that kind of position.

http://ellenrosenbaum.com

Update:

1) I will have anywhere from 3 to 5 new listings between now and November so that I can hit the ground running.

2) I will be polishing my skills and doing some reading and taking the Buffini course again in September and October.

3) I am going to create a proper business plan since I already have experience, understand numbers better and have clear goals in mind.

i love the fact you put this as you will...get er done.
reccommended reading..
shift and milliuonaire real estate agent..both by gary keller

Very admirable. Seems like you already have the discipline that many agents will never have. I would stick to what you are doing and if you can, try using computers to automate the process of writing and mailing the direct mail pieces. If you can save time in this area, then you can introduce something different. I would recommend going after expireds next. Borino has a good course for that. He advocates using a lot of direct mail which could be right up your alley.

Update: Starting my full time real estate business in less than a week, starting Monday November 7th 2011 and cannot wait!!!

Any last minute advice from anyone here? Did anyone make the transition from part time to full time? What should I do to make sure I am more successful and what should I expect?

I'd recommend getting a line of credit set up before you leave the job. Good to have an available credit line to draw on - - you never know what opportunities or emergencies are going to come up in the future.

And it's always easier to get credit when lenders can see you have a FT job. And being self employed you're going to write off as much as you can to make sure Line 150 on your tax return is as low as possible.

One of the best things I can tell you is that if you prepare your day like each day is the most important you can accomplish a ton in a short period of time.

Let me give you an example...

Before your next day plan out, with detail, all the action steps you are going to do hour by hour, and if something comes up it comes up, but you can re-plan what you missed that day.

You should have daily and weekly goals to hit.

You should also try to follow other successful people, and more importantly their habits to success. You can try to copy someone perfectly but never execute what they do because they might be more analytical, or better at networking, or a better marketer... but you can find follow their habits to success.

Lastly, look hard at your strengths and focus on them. People work too hard on fixing their weaknesses and not enough on mastering their strengths. Try to use your strengths and develop them more than over-coming short-comings.

Work hard, plan your work and work your plan, and always keep smiling!

Congrats Broker514! All us "brokers" are currently going "broke" (haha), but things are turning around a little, so this may actually be the perfect time for you to be getting involved. Advice? Be determined and network like crazy. Build out your contact list as quickly and extensively as possible. Hang out with other brokers to get more advice.