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The Solo Agent

Brittany Kimble

Updated: Sep 26, 2023

What You Need To Know Now



In Real Estate, you have the option to join a team or work independently. There are disadvantages and benefits to both options, but I am here to talk directly to agents who choose to work independently. When joining a team, you have access to direct guidance, resources and mentorship to jump into the real estate world.


It can be very difficult, or even impossible to get business alone. There are many many factors that play a part in an agent's success, but I believe ultimately, independent agents just don’t know where to start.


There’s no hands-on guidance or active movement happening because most agents come into the real estate industry from a 9-5 corporate job, thinking that their brokers will hold their hand. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, you are on your own now. As a licensed real estate salesperson, you’ve decided to run a real estate BUSINESS.


Say it with me: “I run a real estate business.” So, now it’s time to act like it.


Of course real estate is an ever-changing market, so no matter how much you learn, there will always be more to learn; though, there are some things that you can focus on first to really start your business off on the right foot, without a mentor or team leader. I believe, the most important factors to starting your real estate business are:


  1. Creating concrete processes

  2. Creating a brand

  3. Come up with a plan that puts you to work ASAP

  4. Recognize what you don’t know yet - Go hard on education


So let’s start with creating concrete processes. The main reason I believe creating your process takes precedence over everything else, is because: It helps you to create structure to your business, it allows you to pin-point your areas of error and creating your process early on allows you to think the entire process through, getting a better understanding and anticipating what happens next..


This is going to help prepare you for the real thing. Also, processes make systems duplicatable–if you want to expand your team in the future, you will need to have a structured process prepared.


Your process is something that you will have to build on your own. No one will be able to tell you how you should run your own business.


Start with asking yourself questions about how you will handle certain situations. Who is involved in the entire transaction?--That’s your vendor list (you need to build.)


How will you conduct your phone calls, presentations, open houses, showings? How will you market yourself, how often? What are your pillars of lead generation? These are just a few questions to start off with but the point is, really break it down to small parts and document what your full process looks like from start to finish.


So now we can talk about creating your brand. Many times, I see agents getting into real estate and they either get one headshot done in their entire career or they rely fully on company marketing and rarely put their face on anything. I just want to remind you that people need to trust you. Not only do you need to put your face on social media more, but you need to figure out what you want people to associate you with.


Is your brand luxury, friendly, modern, investor targeted? What colors will you use? What fonts? Who do you want to receive your message? What message do you want to convey?


If you are not an expert here, don’t be afraid to seek 3rd party help. You can always look into freelance sites like Fiverr or Upwork and pay an expert a fee for the service.


Next, let’s dive into your plan. You need to come up with a plan that puts you to work as soon as possible. The objective is to gain momentum early on and build from there.


I often see independent or new agents having no clue where to start; they think the phone will start ringing once they get licensed but you have to put some ground work in before you see results, sometimes for months!


So what do I mean by “put you to work?” Activities that help you learn and lead generate. My biggest advice here is to get connected with other agents who are doing business and offer assistance. Go to your MLS, check out the ‘coming soon’ listings and see who needs an open house hosted. Don’t be afraid to tell them you are a new agent, they’ll likely give you some great pointers to take away.


Side note: If you haven’t figured out what your open house process and your showing process is, that is a problem. That’s why doing the groundwork and creating those processes is vital.


Another thing you could do to put yourself to work is offer showings. Agents typically compensate for showings. So it’s a win-win. You get some experience with opening doors, using SupraKey, ShowingTime, talking to customers and you get paid!


Next, if you are an agent who needs business now, how will you generate leads? I have found that the best way to start is to call “free leads” That’s Expireds, For Sale By Owners, Absentees etc. This is where you start.


Last, and certainly not least; Recognizing what you don’t know yet and going hard on education - You may be a new agent and learned some things in your pre-licensing course, but putting it into perspective can be difficult without the experience. When going through what the process looks like you may find yourself at a dead end because there are still so many things you don’t know yet. In structuring my processes, I learned that I didn’t fully understand the following:


  • How to do a CMA, make price adjustments and come to a price conclusion

  • Stand-out Open houses

  • Top tier showing experience

  • Buyer/Listing presentations

  • Vendors to help my clients

  • Mortgage rates, incentives, benefits

  • How closings are conducted


With that, I invested in myself by purchasing online courses and I utilized the education offered by my brokerage. I am with eXp Realty, and they offer over 50 hours of education weekly. I invested in a CMA course that truly helped me refresh my memory and put it into real life terms and scenarios.


I created all of my processes and I review them daily, and I plan on continuing until I have it nailed down. I have my buyer and listing presentations memorized. (you may be a different personality type but structure for me is everything)


I reached out to three mortgage officers and three attorneys, building rapport with people that ultimately make up my “team.” My now partners, each explained to me how their process works, and educated me on their rates etc.


Admittedly, as an agent 3 years in, I can honestly say that I started off wrong and did the wrong things for a very long time. Take it from me and start here, even if you’ve been in the game for 5 years, if you’re not seeing results, and you have not completed those vital tasks, you may have been doing it wrong too.


Here are some helpful tips to take away:

  1. Don’t get analysis paralysis - Don’t overthink it. You could spend all year thinking about it, but don’t let creating your process be the excuse for why you never made a call. You should be simultaneously creating and learning your process and taking action.

  2. Find an accountability partner. - I am a firm believer that only you can hold yourself accountable. But I do find it effective to have a partner. People are okay with failing in silence but people hate failing their team.

  3. Track everything you do. Track your calls, your attempts at contact, your two way contacts, your education progress. Track yourself, grade yourself and be honest. Don’t forget that each day is a new day to start over - Give yourself grace but don’t slack off

  4. Never stop learning - Learn what the best agent in your area knows and do what they do


Click this link if you are interested in having a conversation about being a Realtor.


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