If you’ve been a subscriber to Weekly Real Estate News (WREN) for any length of time, you know that everything we do here serves the goal of empowering our readers to be more successful. A new webinar series we recently launched is another step in that direction.
The webinar, which is available now on our website, features Utah real estate broker Jennifer Yeo and focuses on “The 5 Things Successful Real Estate Agents Do.”
Yeo has spent the last 18 years in the real estate business. She started Presidio Real Estate in 2011 and built her brokerage up to 500 excellent agents and 14 locations across the Wasatch Front. She specializes in luxury real estate and second home sales.
She visited with WREN Publisher John Glen Stevens for the program. Here are the things she shared with attendees during the webinar.
Master the mindset
The very first thing is having your mindset right, Yeo said.
“If you wake up in the morning and your first thought is, ‘this is going to suck’ it’s going to be such a hard day. Or, you can wake up in the morning and your first thought could be, ‘I’m going to crush it today!’ There is such a huge difference in those two mindsets,” she said.
Agents who listen to the news and accept how hard it is to succeed in today’s market, it will hinder the agents progress. But, Yeo said, when she started her business during the last big downturn, she realized that people still need to buy and sell homes, whether it’s a foreclosure, short sale, REO or whatever.
“That was a huge mindset shift for me,” she says. It contributed to her success as a top producer in 2009-2010.
Tenacity is a way of life for the 13% of agents that last more than one year in the business. Be relentless.
Have a routine
It doesn’t have to be as intense as an hour-by-hour blocking, but every successful agent has a basic routine of waking up early, doing the work and driving their day.
“Small wins matter,” Yeo says. “I get up every morning at 6am and do a short workout. It’s nothing major, but it’s a small win for me that gets my day started. I don’t let anything distract me from my morning routine, and then I get to work and crush it!”
Yeo admits that her routine isn’t necessarily the “right” routine for every agent, but says that any successful person you find will have one. They have a routine and they stick to it.
Be a techy
The average real estate agent will spend $850 to $1,500 per year on technology. This is much different than just a few years ago when the average age of a real estate agent was in the 60s.
“You don’t have to learn it all,” Yeo says. “But you have to have a few things that work for you. There are apps that will save you time, make you more efficient, and improve your functionality. It’s problem solving 101. You have to have these things.”
It’s becoming a sink or swim sort of thing. Agents who don’t lean into these new tools are likely to fall behind. Yeo mentions apps she uses for her own safety when going out to show homes, but she says there is so much out there today. Successful agents adopt the tools that serve them.
Master your market
Virtually every time a real estate agent attends a networking event in their community, someone will ask, “How’s the market?” The agents who will be successful will always know.
“This is your market! You have to know it,” Yeo says. “Knowledge is power. People want to work with people who know their business. You gotta know those numbers. It’s crazy to me how many agents don’t know these things.”
For example, Yeo points to data from her own local market that is currently showing a delta between listing price and offer price of $10,000. Those who with only anecdotal evidence will say that it’s a very tough market. Those who have the data will say that it’s not as bad as others think.
That shift in mindset can make all the difference.
Followup is critical
About half of all salespeople never follow up with former customers. If a buyer will trade up or down every 3 to 5 years, they are leaving money on the table because someone else is going to be doing social media and catch their eye.
“It blows my mind that agents are not following up,” Yeo says. “People take conversations too lightly. If someone mentions moving, that means they’re a prospect. I log them into my CRM and start dripping on them. I’m not going to be the agent that lets them go.”
If you have a CRM — and you should, Yeo says — there is no excuse for not following up.
Yeo pointed out that lead generation did not make her top 5 because it’s a foundational element that every successful agent is doing all the time.
“Lead generation should be happening all day, every single day,” she says. “It means keeping your eyes open for business. If you can’t do that, you should get out of the business.”
To hear the complete conversation, including the answers to questions posed by the live audience, find the webinar online now. And then stay tuned for more informative webinars in the series.
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