So, you’re a brand new, with your freshly minted real estate agent license in hand, and now you’re ready to sell sell sell, albeit before you do, you need to do all sorts of things to prepare yourself and your brand to attract sellers and buyers to choose you over the sea of other agents competing against you for the viable buyers and home sellers.
In case you missed it, let me quickly repeat the salient message I’m attempting to convey. Namely, you’re not just a person anymore (if you were limited to not having a brand before), you’re not into the arena of having a “brand” and it’s a brand you must cultivate, build, and most importantly, you must protect your brand. After all, someone isn’t going to allow an unknown person list their home for sale to someone they don’t trust. Therefore, creating and protecting the public’s trust and impression in your experience, knowledge, competency, along with dedication to your chosen craft will be the primary determinators in if you’re living a life of feast or famine in no uncertain terms.
The good news is that your competition probably isn’t spending as much time on this topic as they should. More good news is the fact you’re reading this suggests you’ve already reached the correct conclusion that having a good profile is vitally important. If you have any doubts, consider this thought…
You can spend tons, and I by tons, I mean thousands of dollars and cold hard cash in marking and advertising on yard signs, business cards, Zillow, redfin, and other websites to drive eyeballs to your profile before you put one cold hard dime in your pocket. If you’ve been in the industry for any real length of time, I know I’m not telling you something you don’t already know.
After all, there’s a reason why the new agent attrition rate is widely reported to be over 80% within three years. I’m not sure what the number is (NAR reported 87% of agents are gone baby gone within five years), but after watching agents come and go for the last 20 years, I’m comfortable with the 80% leaving the industry within three years number. One fact we can all likely agree on is that very few of them left the industry because they were making more money then they could elsewhere. Knowing that the average new agent probably has more time than money, and if you’re one of them, then pay attention, you CAN’T afford to spend money to get people to look at you, only to decide they would rather go with someone else when you have control over the issue.
In other words, it’s vitally important to make sure your profile is well thought out, professional, and builds on the trust and confidence required to get your phone to ring.
When I’m asked “what do I say and how do I write it” I start out with asking the agent “what qualities would YOU want in someone you’re trusting to sell your most valuable asset?”
Keep in mind what the actual “job” here is. Namely, to facilitate and process a contractual obligation that exchanges money for property or vice-versa depending on your client’s desire. It seems so obvious when stated, albeit the concept of what’s actually going on often gets lost in the woods. The client desires to contract with someone else for what is often the largest single-exchange contract of their lives. And even if it’s not the single largest, property sales generally are among the most important and potentially life adjusting contracts, so keep that idea firmly planted in your mind as you develop and craft your profile.
Experience, the word “experience” always comes up as one of the responses, albeit how do you demonstrate you have any experience if you’re brand new?
There are several ways, and the good news for many young people just getting started is the ability to highlight other desirable qualities that I’ll demonstrate. Regarding experience, and every other part of your profile for that matter is you want to highlight your individual characteristics, without, and this is BIG, without, losing your character. In other words, as my grandfather from Norway used to say often, honesty is the best policy, and he was so very correct. If your highest scholastic achievement is receiving a high school diploma, and in many states, all that is required is to be an adult and GED, you don’t want to put/add/pad/ (or any other word that describes deceitfulness) in your profile your graduated from college. If you worked somewhere for a year (say the military for example), don’t state you did a four year enlistment.
Moving back to what you do want to state, let’s say you’re a young person just starting out. Do you have volunteer experience, scouting, extra curricular activities in high school? Take a 19 year old that successfully worked at McDonald’s and/or some other professionally operated restaurant for a total of a year and a half before obtaining a real estate agent license. And because everyone, including myself when learning how to do something loves examples, let’s start providing some. This person could reasonably add to their profile language that includes:
“Having previously worked in hospitality industry, I’ve been trained in customer service dedication and learned the value and importance in ensuring all aspects of expectations are met before the conclusion of the contract and agreement.” – Any way you cut it, flipping burgers or cleaning tables is part of the hospitality industry and ALL skills learned transfer because at the end of the day, what you’re providing to the client is a transaction as I mentioned earlier, not totally unlike any other contract, with the one primary caveat that the level of importance is raised.
“I have a varied experience that includes hospitality in a fast paced environment that has taught and trained me to handle stressful situations that require someone who can think on their feet. Because every home and property transaction is unique, the ability to understand the gravity and importance of getting a job done right, and on time, is among the many reasons why I can help guide you through this process. More importantly, by keeping you informed of what to expect and where we’re at every step of the way, you can anticipate a good experience without undue surprises” – Again, we’re taking restaurant experience and capitalizing on it to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the fear and stress the buyer/seller encounters during the process and assures them they’re not walking alone without someone to guide them.
Few things are more stressful than military service. If you have an honorable discharge, it’s an asset 95% of the time. Why only 95% of the time? Because there are people among us who feel that anyone who would join the military is violent and/or they’re against the military in general and don’t understand the qualities you bring to the table. That’s ok, just understand you can never please all the people all the time. The bigger takeaway is knowing you may want to adjust the language used to describe your military service. What’s great in Texas and other similar states may not be the same verbiage that is optimal in San Francisco, Portland, and other far left leaning areas. In other words, know your audience.
Examples of profile language to include prior military service include:
“When it comes to selling / buying a home, you want someone by your side that is ready to handle the challenges that may come our way. As someone who’s fully capable of making high-impact, high-value decisions with an focused attention to detail, you can count on and trust I’ll make your buying or selling experience smooth and without added stress and worry. I was trained, tested, and put in operations serving in the ______ where anything less than total victory wasn’t an option. I proved myself before, and I can do the same for you.” – About 7% of the population are veterans. When you discount children who aren’t likely buying or selling homes, you have over 10% of the viable market as fellow veterans. Notice how I didn’t add “combat” or other similar words because it’s simply not required. Put another way, your client doesn’t care what skills you have, you client cares about what your skills WILL DO FOR THEM. Since you’re not likely to encounter combat in your transaction (at least we hope not), focus on the skills as they APPLY TOWARDS YOUR CLIENT for maximum impact. And because “stolen valor” is never out of the sights for some, I can’t stress enough that you don’t want to overstate your job in the military. I’ve had Marines who were base guards tell me about their secret clearance etc…. And while they’re talking, I’m thinking “you ding-dong, I know you’re full of it.” Don’t be that guy. If you were a cook, be proud of it and own it. I’m sure you have some funny stories (which is all anyone wants to hear, if anything, anyway). In the end, you’ll do way more harm to your reputation by padding your military record than being humble and standing proud for the service (which was vital and placed you at risk) you provided the country.
Maybe you’re on the opposite end of the spectrum. Maybe you’re not brand new, and you’ve had a life that was full, albeit you’ve reached a place that you thought moving into real estate was more than a passive interest. You may be thinking you want to appear younger, educated, and/or refined. At 52 years old as of the time of this writing, I certainly can understand the attraction, and it’s important to note you’re not alone by any means. In fact, if you’re a little bit older with a few miles under your belt, you’re closer to the majority than you may think.
According to the National Realtors Association, the typical REALTOR is 55 years old. They’re more likely to be female than male, owns a home, and has at least some college education. What is obvious here is if becoming a real estate agent is a second, third, or more career path, you’re actually pretty common and you should embrace it because you’ll have lots of company to talk to.
Leaving the college to the side, mostly because I feel college degrees almost write their own profiles, let’s take a middle-aged homeowner wife and mom who decides to jump in. Right off the bat having gone through the experience of buying one or more properties means you have experience and the best kind, because you know how confusing the entire process can be. And, if you had an agent that didn’t do a good job, while frustrating at the time (and potentially costly as I once unfortunately learned the hard way myself), you’re now in a much better position to do things “the right way” and it’s a matter of expressing it in your agent profile.
For example someone who owns a home and believes they can do a better job than the person they had as an agent may include:
“I can help you find the right home in your price range, but as with so many other things, there is much more to buying or selling a home than signing a piece of paper and moving in the next day. As someone who personally experienced what it’s like to have an agent that was unresponsive, didn’t provide much guidance, ___________(fill in whatever they did wrong or not as well as you wished), I know how it feels and I want to be your agent, but not just an real estate agent, I want to be the real estate agent I wish I had when I bought my first home. One that cares, is professional, and can answer your questions and give you guidance in a timely manner.” – Even if you’re a brand new real estate agent looking to dress up your profile, if you’ve already bought a home on your own, you’re able to walk in the shoes of your clients and serve them using your professional skills and experience even if it’s your first transaction as a real estate agent.
You’re likely seeing a common theme here. Take what you have in terms of experience and highlight how that enables you to serve your clients in a professional manner. As a father of three sons, two of which have entered the workplace world part-time, I tell them to “give more than you get.” If you receiving $10 per hour, give them the effort of someone receiving $15 per hour. Don’t take breaks and if you do, make sure they very short and always less than the amount of time your allotted. Most of the time it won’t get noticed, but your efforts will get noticed, and more importantly, you’ll stand out because you’ll be working the job YOU WANT, not the job you have.
As a real estate agent, you want to be thinking in the same terms, and then put pen to paper to let your prospects know what they can expect. Of course, if you’re only in it for the money, and by the word “only” I don’t mean primarily, but really, you only care about the money, then this industry isn’t likely a good fit and your odds of success drop precipitously. Your prospects and clients will quickly see through fakeness, which again is why I don’t suggest “padding” your resume and/or background. You can be yourself, and talk about yourself in your agent profile, the key is being grateful for what you have and avoiding the negative thoughts that seem to consume people, especially as they forget how wonderful their first day at work felt.
What do I have for a real estate agent profile, you can take a look at it here –> https://1reason.com/re/agent/robert-weinstein/ and keep in mind that if you come back in a month or two, and do the same every two or three months, you’re likely to notice changes, some small and some perhaps rather material, but I’m one who believes keeping a profile “fresh” is not only good from a general marketing point of view, but it also lets your friends at Google know it’s an actively managed web page and should be noted and treated as such. As an active page, you can expect it to rank higher, and if your page in itself doesn’t get searched for often, it still helps the cumulative impact on the website in total. Also, while you may not have a previous career where you produced millions of page views or have gone to law school, it doesn’t matter. I would replace those items with other aspects of my life, including my family, hobbies, volunteer work, religious activities, and other important to the client/prospect characteristics that help create the initial “bond” to get the phone to ring.