A lot of people ask me how I became the number 1 real estate agent in the world. How do I sell almost 100 million dollars worth of homes every month? I decided to write this article for this purpose. In this article, I’m going to show you the 7 steps to becoming a successful real estate agent like me.

I took these steps myself to go from a broke real-estate agent to running a billion dollar brokerage! If you think the real estate industry is for you, then read on to find out if you have what it takes.

Step 1: Find the Best Real Estate Agent in Your Area and Work for Them for Free

You need to find the best agent in your area, and be their intern! I know, this sounds like a lot of hard work, and yes, this will involve doing a lot of things you don’t like. You need to embrace that hard work. You need to have a strong work ethic to succeed in this industry, so you may as well nail these habits right at the start.

By doing this, you get the opportunity to see if real estate is truly for you, and you get to learn from one of the best. If you do right by that agent, they will hire you on their team. A great way to get your feet wet and get a true in to jump-start your career.

Step 2: Get your Real Estate License

Licensing is an obvious step, but no less important and necessary. The specific guidelines for real estate licensing depend on where you live. A quick google search or asking your employer should easily provide the info you need. Make sure you do it right though, as it is required.

As a bonus, most of the time, you can do it from home! There are plenty of valuable real estate education resources online.

Step 3: Join a Team

Joining a team is a great way to get started in the real estate business. It provides you with a group of experienced people with all the know-how to give you opportunities and get you started. If you already did Step 1, then your mentor is already an easy choice!

These real estate professionals will be your continuing education into the business of real estate after you get your license.

Step 4: Build Your Sphere of Influence

There are two areas of people you can grow as your sphere of influence to create a network of work opportunities.

The first is your warm sphere. That is, people you already know and trust – such as your parents, friends, Facebook friends, acquaintances, and so on. It’s simple, you reach out to them with a friendly introduction and let them know that you are a real estate agent now, and to consider you if they are looking to buy or sell. Often, these people are going to be responsible for your first sales.

The next sphere is your cold sphere. These are people that you meet with the purpose of selling to them. It can be anywhere, on the street, in a store, with cold calling. The opportunity to sell your services is vast and ongoing. Some of my first clients were pregnant women that I met in Starbucks, because I knew they would be looking for more space soon. This is the area where you can really grow your business and start building your income.

Step 5: Structure Your Day for Success

I set up my entire day so that I can be successful in my pursuits and so that I can generate leads. I use a finder, keeper, doer strategy, which is as follows:

Finder: Put on your CEO hat and put time in your calendar every day to think of how you are going to get out there and grow your own business as an entrepreneur. At the end of the day, all real estate agents are entrepreneurs. You need to take the initiative and find people who are buying and selling homes, and dedicate some time to your long-term goals.

Keeper: This is more like the role of a CFO. You are going to allocate time to budgeting for things such as advertising. How am I going to spend money to make money? Maybe it’s as simple as going to Starbucks and buying a couple lattes for people who could be clients.

Doer: Doer time is the operations side of your business. It’s you actually doing what you planned. It’s the follow through, actually reaching out to your leads or going into that Starbucks. As you can see, all these steps work together to create a great routine for success!

Step 6: The Three F’s

This is maybe the most important step for success and really growing your client list. The three F’s are as follows:

Follow Up: As a real estate agent, you need to make sure that whenever you meet someone who is a potential lead, you follow up with them often! When they think real estate, they should think of you.

Follow Through: This is simple, but many people have trouble executing it. To follow through you need to do what you said you are going to do. If you meet someone and tell them you are going to follow up, then you better do it!

Follow Back: This means going back to people you have worked with in the past. Wish them a happy birthday, congratulate them on a closing anniversary. Simple, highly effective, and keeps you at the top of their mind.

Learn more about my follow up system in my course:

Step 7: Meet New People

You need to find and meet new people every day. Don’t just seek out potential clients, but other real estate agents as well. You can visit networking events, other open houses, interact with social media, and more. There are so many ways out there to meet new people and grow your personal brand. You will stay on people’s mind and become part of the conversation.

You never know where business is going to come from, so meeting as many people as you possibly can is the key here.

Bonus Step: Practice!

Everybody in any area of life trained to get there. It takes practice to get to a certain level. So as a real estate agent you need to study, take courses, and focus on where you want to go and what it takes to get there.

This is exactly why I created my course to walk you through how I got to where I am now and how I succeed today, and you can find it here. My course will help you sell more, make more, and live a much better lifestyle.

I hope you have learned a lot from these 7 steps, there is so much you can do today, right now, to grow your business and grow your life. Good luck growing your own real estate career!

– Ryan