While no two real estate agents will experience identical career arcs, you should expect to face certain challenges and situations. Despite the setbacks that are sure to come, you’ll find your path to success if you stay focused on your clients and partner with a thriving brokerage.

The mentorship, resources, and stability that you’ll find through working with a brokerage firm could make the difference between success and failure, but the following tips on how to sell real estate in your first year applies to all agents, whether they choose to partner with a brokerage or work independently.

1.) Cultivate your network.

Every person possesses a sphere of influence, or a list of people with whom they do business or have sway. As a real estate agent, you’ll be reaching out to your sphere of influence consistently to keep in touch on a genuine level.

The more frequently you keep in touch with your sphere of influence, whether over the phone or in person (e-communication is a no-no for cultivating one’s personal network), the more opportunities you’ll have to create connections that will lead people to think of you first when they want to buy or sell a home.

2.) Prepare for a slow start but aim for exponential growth.

Success in real estate depends on you creating a client database, but nearly all agents start with a small sphere of influence. While you’re building your database, it may feel like you haven’t accomplished much, and you still may not have earned any income.

Selling, buying, and closing are lengthy processes. While they may consume most of your time, they won’t offer a return on investment until the deal’s done. If this delay would jeopardize your ability to operate your business, consider keeping an additional part-time job, minimizing your overhead, and budgeting for the gradual start most agents encounter.

These first months are an investment in your future success. Remember, your job will never be this difficult again.

3.) Consider yourself a business owner from day one.

If you consider your work as a real estate agent to be less important than your other commitments, it’s very unlikely that you’ll succeed against more motivated agents.

From the beginning, we encourage new agents to work a full eight hours at least four days a week. Your effort will be the only force that will propel you to excellence.

No one else can make this career happen for you! Self-discipline and a hunger to seize your piece of the market are vital for long-term success.

4.) Get the word out about your business, but don’t press people.

Share your new career with your network because you’re excited about it, but unless someone shares their desire to buy or sell a home, avoid directly asking for business.

Instead, if the opportunity arises, consider sharing stories of your hard work and resulting success.

Hearing that your passion for your work is paying off for your clients is far more likely to inspire confidence in your audience than is approaching with an outstretched hand.

5.) Harness the power of social media to introduce yourself to your community.

While traditional advertising is still key to reaching the levels of saturation and familiarity that help your community form a positive view of you, it’s equally important to reach out professionally via social media.

Your family and friends who already know, love, and trust you are most likely to recommend you to their social networks. Don’t hesitate to ask people to share the news about your business, but again, it’s important to sound excited and confident rather than imploring or desperate.

6.) Pursue continuing education opportunities.

In order to provide your clients with the amazing level of skill that will make them most likely to recommend you or reach out to you when they next need an agent, you need to be at the top of your game to the best of your ability.

That means pursuing additional training as an agent and spending time studying the nuances of the market in your area.

7.) Connect with a successful mentor.

Rather than reinventing the wheel, it would be wise to connect with an established, successful mentor.

First, find out how you can help your intended mentor. They might need help processing paperwork, making calls, or returning emails, and you need advice on your new career from someone who is killing it.

Don’t be shy about telling your mentor what you want, but remember, their success could mean they won’t have time to help. To make things easy on yourself, try to have a few mentor choices prepared.

8.) Practice makes progress.

A big part of finding success as a real estate agent involves repeating the tedious minutiae of the buying, selling, and closing process over and over again. Along with becoming more comfortable working with clients, increasing your speed and accuracy by developing streamlined process for these repeating tasks will free up a big chunk of your time.

While the real estate market is consistently competitive, it’s also true that the most motivated, charismatic, and adaptable agents are still able to carve out remarkable success over time.

By following these eight steps and the recommendations of your mentor, it is our hope that you will find yourself joining the ranks of elite agents who have sustained outstanding success over their long careers.