YESTalk-163 - 3 Stupid Mistakes New Realtors Make

Welcome to Kevin Ward's Yes Talk for Realtors. This is Kevin Ward. You're gonna make mistakes. However, the fewer mistakes that you can make and the more mistakes that you can learn from others mistakes and avoid them, the better off you're gonna be, if that makes sense. When you're a new agent, you're gonna make mistakes. I know because I was a new agent and I made them and I made a lot of mistakes. And today I want to talk to you about three stupid mistakes that new Realtors make. And the truth of the matter is, you're gonna make mistakes. However, the fewer mistakes that you can make and the more mistakes that you can learn from others mistakes and avoid them, the better off you're gonna be, if that makes sense. So I want to talk about three stupid mistakes Realtors make that I made one of the three, and then the other two. I just see too many real estate agents making these mistakes and it's crushing them. And that's why I think there. I believe that's the reason that There is an 80 to 90% failure rate in the real estate industry in general. Now, when you really think about it, an 80% failure rate in real estate is not really that surprising because when you look at new business startups, they say within two to five years, 80% of all new businesses fail. Well, becoming a real estate agent is technically a new business startup because you're an independent contractor and it is your business. So the good news is that you own it, you control it. The bad news is you own it. It's up to you. If it's sink or swim, you succeed or you fail, you win or you lose. The worst thing you can do is just drag it out forever and be miserable. Making just enough money to stay in the game, just enough to renew, but not enough to really ever feel like you're getting a lifestyle or really getting ahead. So I want to talk about three mistakes the real estate agents make that are all avoidable. And that's the best part about it. These three mistakes are all avoidable. Number one, starting too slow. Starting too slow. And that is that you try to just wade into the water really, really slowly because you don't want to get. It's too cold if you just jump all in, you know, head first. So I'm going to go in slow now. People ask all the time, can I start real estate part time? And I've got a couple of videos that you can find that should look up Kevin Ward, part time real estate or part time Realtor? And you can watch those videos on how to get started part time and go from part time to full time. And can you succeed as a part time agent? And the answer is yes, but it's harder than because especially if you're trying to start slow. Now here's the reality of starting slow. When I say starting slow, it's like I'm not really going to go in full time or I'm not going to go in 100%. I'm just going to kind of learn the ropes and get my feet wet a little bit and all that. Here's the problem. It takes too long. It takes too long to get skills and skills matter. It takes too long to get confidence, and confidence matters. It takes too long to get street cred and credibility matters. It takes too long to get momentum. And it's when you get deals piling on top of deals and this deal leads to another referral and this deal leads to this deal. Whenever those things happen and you get momentum, it's like unstoppable. And it just takes too long to get market presence, which just means you get more deals from your deals and from the fact that people get to recognize you and know who you are. So I just look at it this way. Do you want to do this slow or do you want to do it fast? Do you want to make money slow or do you want to make money fast? Now for my money, I want to make money fast. I've made money slow and I made money fast. Fast is more fun and it's a whole lot easier over time. When you go in fast, you pump the pump, you hit it hard. Even if you're coming in part time, just hit it hard, work hard, put in every hour, you can put in all the time. You can burn the candle at both ends if you have to. And the reason that's critical is you get then to that point of critical mass where boom, you click over the top, you click into that hyperspeed of now you're making money, you're making money making money. And, and you can get out of your other job, assuming that's the plan, you get out of the other job. And now you just bought back your life, you just bought back 40 hours a week. The moment you exit another full time job to go full time in real estate and then you can really explode. I believe, and this was a mistake I did not make. I did not start slow when I started real estate. The thing that I think I did right was I started fast. And I think my success is largely Because I put my back against the wall. I had no plan B. I had no options. I had no savings. I had no other job. I quit my job. I started out, all I had was some credit cards. I had no savings. It was sink or swim. Failure was not an option for me. And so I had to start fast. I had to go in. I was pedaling as fast as I could with both feet. I was working six, seven days a week. I didn't have to do. And I didn't have to do it for long, but when I went in, I went in hundred percent. And the agents that I see that dive all in and they go in full commitment, full bore. As a professional, they are much more likely to succeed both in the short term and particularly in the long term than when you try to start slow. So, number one, don't start slow. That's a huge mistake. Number two, second stupid mistake that new realtors make is starting too smart, starting too smart. And that is. You think, I got this? Yeah, I'm good. I got this. I've been studying real estate. I've been looking at houses, I've been going to open houses. You know, I bought and sold my own houses or because you have some type of background that you think will make you great at selling real estate. Like you may have a sales background or a finance background or a marketing background or a construction background, or I'm an architectural background or a design background background. And I've heard all of these. And I've heard agents come in, brand new agents come in. They go like, well, I have a background in architecture and you know, real estate is architecture, so therefore I'm going to be great at selling. And they come in and bam, they hit their head against the wall and they find out that their architectural knowledge does not help them get a single deal. You see, it's kind of like saying, because I know architecture and houses or architecture, it's kind of like saying, because I like birds, learning how to fly an airplane will be easy for me, it's a totally different thing. And yes, is there some connection? Probably. You may know interior design, but that's not a whole lot connected to actually getting people to hire you to sell their house and then being able to sell it for top dollar. Don't be too smart. Start when you start, start, start stupid. It's okay. In other words, start going like, I don't know what to do. I need to find somebody that can train me, somebody that can help me get a mentor, get a coach, learn all okay, Now, I'm going to be doing another video here in the near future on the worst place to learn how to succeed as a real estate agent. I'm going to give you the little insight right now, and that is don't learn from other people who are brand new. Don't try to learn from other people who aren't good at selling real estate. Okay? Get a mentor coach and get all the training you can, but it's best if it's from somebody who's actually got fruit on their tree. Get somebody who actually is selling or has sold a lot of houses that's had massive success. And then learn from them. Learn everything you can from the shadow them, talk to them. Go with them on a listing presentation not for you. Go on one of their listing presentations with them. Just ask, can I go along and shadow you? I'll help you. I'll do whatever you need me to do. I'll do measurements, I'll put signs up, I'll put on lock boxes. You tell me whatever you need me to do. And do that with them, with another top producer and learn from them. Work for them for free. I know that's crazy. You're going like, what? You made it work. I want you to learn from somebody who knows what they're doing and don't try to act like you're too smart and let your ego get in the way. And I'm totally serious. I would be willing to work with a new Realtor. As a new Realtor, I'd be willing to work with a top agent for free, do stuff for them just so that I can learn what they do. I did not say join their team. Okay? Build your own team, build your own business, make your own money, but learn from them and be willing to do things with them, shadow them, help them and all of that to get credibility and to get theirs. Learn from their knowledge, learn from their success, watch how they do it, what they do, and you'll find they make mistakes, too. And over time you'll learn. They do things that are probably not the right things. And if you find they're doing something, that's bs. You don't need that. There's a better way. You can get yes, without the bs. But don't go in thinking I got this and not and refusing to ask for help or trying to. Well, here's the third. Let me just give you the third stupid mistake that new Realtors make. And that is they start too stingy. They start too stingy. And that is they are like, I'm looking for the broker where I get to keep all the commission. You know, I want the cheap broker, I want the broker, that's that. I don't want a big split. What, are you kidding? What are they going to do for me? I'm going to do all the work, I want to make all the money. Well, you may be doing all the work, but you don't know what you're doing. So don't be stingy, don't be out there looking for the lowest splits. Now I'm not saying that you should look for the biggest splits, but I'm saying there I'm look for the best support. Look for the long game. Where can I go and who can I affiliate myself? What can I do as a new real estate agent that will help me get wins under my belt? And I'm going to tell you, you want to make a lot of money in real estate. Wins under belt, Success under your belt. Success breeds success. You get wins under your belt. You get listings, you get sales. I don't care if you're getting only 10% of the commission. If you get listings and you get sales, you're going to get track record, you're going to get confidence, you're going to get experience, all of that stuff, you're going to get credibility and all of that is going to help you get position where you can build your business. But I've seen agents that, they're like, I don't, I don't want to work with a mentor because they want to split, they want to split the deal 50, 50 and I know I'm going to do all the work and all of that. Now let me say this about working with somebody and splitting a deal and mentoring, all that. The reason a lot of agents don't want to split a transaction with a mentor is because they've had a bad mentor. And I totally agree, a bad mentor is as bad as no mentor. And in a sense they're worse because they're going to take half your money and they're not going to really help you. But finding a great mentor or finding some way that gets you the track record, that gets you the listings, that gets you sales, that gets you success under your belt. Whatever it takes to get there, that is worth it. I don't want, I want you to start with a long term game plan. Not a short, not short. Don't think about the short game, think about the long game. The short game is on my first deal I want to get all the commission. I'm just like if I can save the commission, then I only need to get half as many deals. But the problem is you're going to get fewer deals because you're trying to do it on your own and you're being stingy. Now I'm going to give you one example of a friend of mine who's been in real estate a lot longer than I have, that when he started real estate, he did a strategy that to this day, when I heard it, blows my mind. And yet it put him on a track to become a top producer fast. He is the number one broker real estate agent in all of Phoenix, Arizona, even today, after all these years. And here's how I did it. When he was a brand new agent, he was young, he didn't have a clue. He had no experience, no credibility, nobody knew who he was or anything. And so he said, here's what I'm going to do. I am going to go out and I'm going to market myself to everybody I can. I'm going to market myself to for sale by owners expires anybody that's looking to sell their house and I am going to offer to pay all of the commission to the agent that brings the buyer. And so he went out and he started prospecting and he said, make every agent the listing agent. So when he would be prospecting, he would talk to a potential seller and the seller would be, why should I hire you? What about all these other agents? Said, listen, here's the deal. I'll make every single agent. When you hire me, every agent becomes a listing agent because I'm going to pay the full commission, the whole thing. And I don't know what it was, 6%, 7%, whatever it was, but let's just say it was 6%. He said, I'm going to pay the whole 6% to the agent that brings the buyer. So when you hire me, every agent is going to be the listing agent. Now he used that and basically said, I make no money. And when sellers are like, why would you do that? And he says, well, here's why you should hire me is because one, you know, when I take your listing, I'm going to hustle to find a buyer for it because I don't find the buyer for it and another agent makes a buyer. I make nothing, but if I bring the buyer, I'm going to get the full commission. He went out there with that message, basically saying, I want no, I get no commission unless I sell it myself and I will promote it. I'll put it out there on the mls and if they bring the buyer to, they get the full commission. I mean, which agent is not going to fight tooth and nail to bring a buyer to that listing? That's what he did in his first month. He took eight listings. Because you go out there and talk to expires and for sale by owners, and if they were going to hire an agent and most expireds were, he would go like, well, if you're going to hire an agent, hire me, because I'm going to give all my commission to them. They go like, why should I hire you instead of him? Well, if you hire him, he's not going to have the same thing when you hire me, you're actually hiring him because if he has a buyer and he brings them, I'm going to give him the whole Commission. He took eight listings in his first 30 days. Now you're like, well, yeah, but he's not going to make any money on them. Well, here's what actually happened. He took eight listings in his first 30 days. He sold all eight listings. He brought the buyer on two of them. So on two of the eight listings, he brought the buyer. So he got the full commission, both the buyer side and the listing side. And of all of those eight listings that he sold, he helped four of them to buy their next house. So in 60 days, he had eight listings sold and he had six buyer sales. He got paid on all six of the buyer sales. He got paid on two of the listings sold. And in 60 days, he had industry credibility and he had huge market share and nobody cared how he got it. When it showed up on the mls, when it showed up with signs and yards, he showed up with this credibility. After that, he never ever again had to do that. Now he went and get listings and he could do the full, just regular commission splits and all that kind of stuff. But now he went out with credibility as somebody who had actually taken listings and sold them. And in 60 days he had more experience than most agents will have and the average agent will have in a full year because he was willing to go out there and he didn't start stingy and go, I'm not going to give away all my commission. Now, granted, I'm not saying that you should do that and you have to have a broker that was willing to let you do it. And basically the broker, he got to talk to broker and said, let me try it for 30 days. The broker goes, okay, you try it for 30 days. He tried it for 30 days, got eight listings. After that, couldn't do it anymore. But it didn't matter because he wasn't thinking about how much money he was going to make on those eight listings. What he was thinking about was how much business, how much street credibility and track record could he get create out of doing that. And it wasn't. He didn't. It didn't matter so much how much he made in that first out of those first eight listings. What mattered is that he had a credibility and a track record that would allow him now get more listings and get more listings, get more listings where he was guaranteed that he was going to get paid. It's a long term thinking strategy to get success knowing that the money would come. And my whole point on that is not that that's a strategy necessarily. You should try not recommending it. And I'm not your broker, so you got to check with your broker and your attorney before you try anything like that. But my point is don't be stingy. Think how can I get track record? How can I get success? I'm going to say it again. Success breeds success. Get yourself in the game. Get things happening. Get business. Whatever it takes to find the business and get the business. Get the business, get success and win. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up. I know this has got some interesting thoughts and interesting stuff in it, so put your comments or questions down in the comments below. Share this video with other agents you think it will help, especially if they're new agents. And if you like it again, give it a thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel if you or more videos on how to help you get yes without the BS and I'll see you on the next video. Hey there, it's Kevin. I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. Are you tired of getting no after no when you're out there trying to get listings and trying to inspire sellers to say yes to you, then I'd like to invite you to download a free copy of my no BS listing presentation. This presentation will guide you through exactly what to say that will have motivated sellers saying yes to you over and over again. Stop getting stumped with skeptical seller objectives or the famous we need to sleep on it, eliminate the resistance and have sellers ready to hire you and give you the listing before you even finish your presentation. To get a complimentary copy of my proven listing presentation, go to yes masters.com forward/download. Again, that's yes masters.com forward/download to download your free copy today. Sam.