Three Major Pitfalls Agents Face and How to Avoid Them

Whether you are a new agent or an experienced one, learning should never end. Constantly changing market conditions and other factors will always mean what you thought you knew yesterday does not fully apply today. For agents who stop learning, there is always a fast-approaching horizon where sales techniques and cultivated networks become obsolete, and prospects and leads begin to go down. To avoid this fate, agents must focus on cultivating a habit of lifelong learning. In this article, we teach you three major pitfalls that both new and experienced agents encounter and how to avoid them.

Lack of Mentorship

Nothing stunts an agent’s progress like a lack of mentorship. If you have just started off in the business, there are a couple of blind spots you will encounter. There will be things you know that you don’t know and those you don’t know that you don’t know. The latter are what prevent agents from succeeding as fast as they could. You see, without mentorship, you have all these biases you are subject to. With a mentor by your side, they can point out these biases and help you find solutions. To get a mentor, either approach an experienced agent in your company or try and befriend one who works in your area. Either way, having a mentor is a must if you are to succeed as a real estate agent.

Focusing Inwards Instead of Outwards

Most new agents get into real estate because they feel they have a broad-enough network to provide a steady stream of leads. It could be you are coming from another business that gave you access to tremendous networks, or you could be a people person. This approach is often an underestimation of the sort of networks you will need to bring in steady business. Consider that the conversion rate per number of leads is usually in single digits, it means you need hundreds of prospects to get double-digit conversions. So, instead of focusing internally, look outwards to tools and methods of reaching broader audiences through marketing and other techniques.

Not Prioritizing Key Skills

Some may say real estate is an art, but it remains a science to the core. Why? Because factors that affect the real estate market are technical, this makes them quantifiable. However, most agents approach real estate as art and so neglect to cultivate key technical skills like inventory management, demand forecasting, and the cost of money. On a broader scale, keeping tabs on interest rates, mortgage trends and other factors will help boost an agent’s performance. To avoid this pitfall, invest time in cultivating your technical skills and getting as much data on the area you support. Approaching real estate as science will help you gain a competitive advantage over other agents trying to learn the art of real estate.

Conclusion

While it may not be possible to learn every pitfall there is when working in real estate, it is possible to go eliminating the obvious ones. Such an approach will give you an added advantage of always being aware of what mistakes you could be making, helping you avoid or eliminate biases that sabotage your efforts.