What’s Your Six Month Plan?

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

Every now and then I get to talk to someone just coming into the real estate business or contemplating the move.  My initial response is often a surprise to them but I bet many of you would agree with me when I tell them, “Great!  This is the best time to get into real estate.  If you come in with a good plan, establish the right habits and market consistently you will become a producer while times are tough and a star when times are good.”  They usually look at me a little crooked and then smile.  I guess they have a lot of people telling them they should have their head examined for going in when so many are getting out.  Maybe they should, but I always found the party a lot more fun after the wanna-be’s and coulda-beens were done posing and said their good-byes.

The Three Questions 
Following my response the potential new agent will inevitably tell me about their past experience and how it gives them a great sphere of influence in which to market.  They share with me their personal motto about discipline and the pledge they gave their cousin – the copier salesman – to never stop marketing.  I applaud all of this.  Mottos and pledges and enthusiasm are all important, maybe even indispensible.  But the first admonition about coming in with a good plan, the one they missed, is the most important.  Where is your business plan?  I have yet to hear: “I agree with you Sean.  I have a business plan written out and I am excited to begin.”

So here are the three questions I pose to all new agents:

1. Why do you want to become a real estate agent?
2. Do you have a written business plan?
3. What is your six month plan?

The first question is really just a leading question designed to get people to open up and talk about their passion.  If you do not have a passion for some aspect of this business it is going to be awfully tough to work through the rejections.  The second question is meat and potatoes.  I call it the SBA question and I am astounded how few agents have a bona fide business plan.  I think the problem lies with the misleading ease in which most people become an agent.  Almost any other business requires capital to get started.  If you went to an investor or the Small Business Association for seed money the first thing required of you would be a business plan.  Real Estate, however, stands alone as a business that one can start without creating a road map to success (to your long term detriment I might add).  Maybe the problem is that most agents do not think of themselves as business owners but rather as real estate agents.  That is a sure fire way to cap income.  In real estate the top producing, most successful agents all see themselves as CEOs of a company – even if it is a company of one.  In my experience this has been a universal belief, so why do so few agents copy it?  A business plan is fundamental.  The process of creating one is an entire article (or two or five) in and of itself, so I will leave well enough alone.

The Six Month Plan 
The third question is the most interesting.  What if a brand new agent came to you?  They are filled with passion and they have gone to a course or bought a book or done what was necessary to create a good business plan.  Now there is one thing left: they want to hit the ground running.  So they ask “What should I do for the first six months of my career that will contribute most to my long term success?”  Before answering, let’s assume we are designing the perfect agent and they have saved at least six month’s living expenses so they do not have to worry about eating and keeping a roof over their head.  They knew they were starting a business and would begin with virtually no net income – so they came prepared.  What are the initial steps to a fulfilling and financially rewarding career as a real estate agent?

Assuming their business plan already accounts for budgets and, based on desired income, worked backwards to minimum contacts per day, I ignore those items as more than just a six month interest.  Here are some of my suggestions then, in no particular order:

• decide what will be the three legs of your marketing stool
• select a “farm” based on one of those legs
• based on your farm, plan on operating a long-tail blog within your website
• pick a URL accordingly and get a basic site up and running
• name yourself and begin to create your marketing image
• lay out your week in time blocks that include marketing, client meetings and study time (become an expert on something)
• select three different agents that are similar to you in market and approach
• spend two days shadowing each of them (with their permission of course)
• track your contacts and conversions for at least the next six months (if not forever!)
• attend your weekly caravans and know your inventory
• (I believe this may be stolen from Russell Shaw) work with a minimum of 10 buyers before you ever go on a listing appointment
• create, buy, beg, borrow or steal a listing presentation that you can make your own… then make it your own

I am sure this is only the tip of the iceberg.  How would you answer the question?  What do you wish had been given to you at the beginning of those first six months?  Care to share?