How easy is it to be a Realtor?  Well, becoming one isn’t all that difficult if you can study and pass the licensing exam.  It only becomes difficult after you receive your license and start making some of these unfortunately common mistakes.

You may not be a real estate agent, but you might enjoy reading about some of the pitfalls in our industry.  Here is a selection of mistakes Realtors sometimes make.

Not understanding their market and the industry in general.  Knowledge of the market and industry is power, and for a Realtor, that knowledge translates into closings.  Knowledge also creates confidence, and a Realtor’s clients need him or her to be confident, because the Realtor is seen as the guiding force in the transaction.

Being negative but calling it realistic.  There’s no room for negativity in this business.  It’s pretty competitive, and if a Realtor starts thinking about everything bad that can happen, there goes his attitude and his ability to generate more business.  Pessimism isn’t realism.  It’s pessimism.

Forgetting that not all prospects are equal.  New agents (and some older ones) give equal time and equal clout to just about everybody they’re working on making a client.  A Realtor has to be shrewd (but not judgmental) in determining who his top-line prospects are, who his so-so prospects are and who aren’t really even prospects, just wishes.

Not learning to manage their time and activities.  An agent may work under a broker and have a desk in a real estate office, but the job is still very much freelance.  That means you’re not going to be told what to do every minute of your workday.  And you’re not going to be told how long that workday will last.  It’s up to Realtors to learn self-management and time-management principles and treat their profession seriously.

Failing to market themselves correctly – or at all.  Prospect leads don’t just drop out of the sky (unfortunately).  A Realtor has to come up with methods to develop them.  This requires spending sufficient time, and money, to get your name and face into your market.  There are plenty of ways to do this.  For those who are interested, here’s a page of marketing tip links from the National Association of Realtors.  (Links to REALTOR Magazine Toolkit may not work.)

Suggesting a bad price to a buyer or seller.  Agents who don’t understand the market and what’s selling nearby and for how much will have trouble determining both asking prices and offers for their selling and buying clients.  You would think this would be an easy mistake to avoid, but it happens all the time.

Failure to model success.  When you see someone who’s doing what you want to do and doing it well, model them.  That goes for any area of life, not just real estate.  You don’t have to come up with all the answers and best actions on your own.  That’s a terrible waste of time and resources.  Just copy (in an appropriate and ethical way, of course) highly successful people.  Learn from them.  Ask them questions.  A business lunch bought for one of your firm’s Realtors who’s doing bang-up business is going to return a lot more than a good meal.

Those are just a few of the mistakes Realtors sometimes make.  This is a business that takes a lot of focus and self-reliance – which means we’re all going to make mistakes sometimes.  The trick is to make fewer and fewer of them as the years go on.  And that applies for you in whatever line of work you’re in.

Fewer mistakes = more success.  Being your best isn’t always easy, but it works.

Nick & Ellie