5 Tips for Making More Sales as a Real Estate Agent

If you’re just getting into real estate, or you’ve been in it for a while but your sales are floundering, you’re probably feeling lost. While it’s normal to have ups and downs in any sales job, being down for too long can be a red flag. There’s always room to sell property in real estate, and it’s up to you to find your niche and get into your flow to get a steady stream of business. Here are some tips that will help you get more sales.

1. Know Your Houses

The first observation a potential client is going to notice about any real estate agent they work with is your level of knowledge. If you get a call about a house, and you can’t answer all the questions the client has, you may lose that client instantly. Why would they work with someone who can’t answer their questions? If you’re selling a house, you should know everything about it, and if you’re helping a buyer, you should do your research in advance.

Most importantly, you’ll need to have basic information at the top of your mind, like the square footage of the house and how many bedrooms and bathrooms it has. You should also be able to talk to your client about more detailed facts like the ductless mini split, whether the house has a gas line, and if the property has been zoned for an ADU. These less obvious tidbits will impress the buyer or seller and encourage them to give you their business.

2. Become a Real Estate Expert

Another area to gain expertise, aside from just the specific houses you work with, is in the area of real estate in general. A real estate agent who doesn’t understand the market, the neighborhoods, zoning issues, permitting, and more, may seem too inexperienced to trust with a transaction. Especially if the deal is a big one, you’re more likely to land the client and close the deal if you speak “real estate,” a language your client needs you to be fluent in.

If you’re still new and don’t have that expertise, get it. You can read real estate books to learn the basics and read blogs and articles from trusted experts. But really, you need a mentor. Find someone with decades of experience willing to teach you. Offer to work for less commission or act as an assistant to learn from the ground up all there is to know about real estate. This approach helps you build a reputation as one of the best, and you’ll rarely want for clients.

3. Leverage the Internet

You cannot run a successful real estate business in the modern era without leveraging the internet. It’s a rare occasion when you’ll meet a client who doesn’t want to check out your website, follow you on social media, or send you an email. You need to be able to offer all three. Today, people want to know who they’re working with, and they want to trust you. They often feel like they’re better able to do that if they can see how you live and work online.

Yes, real estate agents need their own websites. Your site should have information about you and where you work, a contact page, and details about the kind of real estate you help buy and sell. Plus, you need a blog that gives clients free, valuable real estate information. Connected to your blog, you’ll also need to be on the social media sites where your clients spend time — Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. This online presence makes you more visible to potential clients.

4. Network Often

Now, from your website, your socials, and in person, you need to network. Real estate agents don’t work alone. The best ones work with contractors, decorators, photographers, content creators, and the businesses in local neighborhoods where they work. Without these relationships, you’re all alone in trying to find new business and sell yourself. Self-promotion has its place, but it’s also exhausting and can lead to burnout quickly.

Instead of spending all your time trying to find new clients, spend your days meeting new people in your neighborhoods and on your socials. Make connections by following local businesses on social media and engaging with their posts. Then, frequent those businesses in real life. Shop local and hire local contractors and other business people. Then, when the time comes to recommend a real estate agent, you’ll be at the top of their list.

5. Ask for the Sale

Finally, and perhaps most obviously, ask for the sale. You may have heard the expression that a closed mouth never gets fed. You’d be surprised, or maybe you wouldn’t be, by how many people don’t get a sale because they don’t ask for it. Part of networking, getting online, and making yourself available is to watch for opportunities to offer your expertise to people. But so many salespeople feel like they’re being pushy, so they lose opportunities.

Instead of thinking about yourself as selling, you can remember that you’re in the business of helping people. You’re not pushing houses on people who don’t need them. You’re finding people who are looking for a house, and you’re finding their dream house for them. Then, you’re helping them close the deal, so they can buy that house. It’s a process rooted in service. All you have to do is show people you’re the one to work with and ask for the sale.

Look, being a real estate agent is not easy, but neither is any job with the potential to make tens of thousands of dollars on a single transaction. It takes gaining expertise, networking, and not being afraid to ask for the sale, every time. But if you’ve got the personality for it, and the will to succeed, follow these steps, and don’t give up. Your chances of increasing your sales will increase exponentially.