I started my Real Estate career just like you did, with zero clients, zero prospects, and not a clue what to do next.
Since I had nothing better to do, I decided to go out and preview listings. Why? Because I LIKED looking at houses!
There was no master plan, I assure you.
I chose properties that were close to my home. Why? Because it was easier.
After a while, I made a game out of it, and started taking notes: This is what I think buyers will like, what they won’t like, how much I believe it will sell for, etc.
Then I tracked how well I did at the “Guessing the Sale Price Game.”
Of course, I was terrible at first, but gradually my skills improved to a level I never would have dreamed of a few months before.
I could walk into a house, look at it, and write in my notes, “Price needs to come down $10K, then it will sell for this much.” And I was right. Not every time, of course, but more often than not.
Then I started doing Open Houses. I didn’t have any listings, so I borrowed them from other agents in my office.
One day, I was chatting with a young couple at an Open House. They didn’t like the house I was showing, but I mentioned a nice one nearby that I had seen a few days before.
They thanked me and said they would check it out.
As an afterthought—just as they were walking out the door—I managed to squeak out, “I could show it to you if you like?”
They looked at each other and said, “Sure!”
It turned out they didn’t like that home either, but there’s a happy ending anyway. Within a couple of weeks, we found them a home they loved, and they bought it.
Yay!!
Later, they told me they appreciated my “expertise.” I knew about every house in the area, and I gave them my “expert” opinion on each one we viewed. They said I was very different than every other agent they’d ever met.
Wait…
Expert? Me?
Yes!
No matter that I was only a few months into the business. I knew more about my area than any other agent.
Next, I figured out how to leverage that expertise, and my business started booming. Starting from nothing, I earned $590,000 in commissions in my second year.
I had accidentally become a highly successful Geo Farmer, not in the traditional sense of spending gazillions on marketing, but in something far more critical.
I was the true AREA EXPERT.
Realizing the importance of this “secret” I had stumbled across, I continued previewing properties for the rest of my career.
Knowing more than any other agent made me an indispensable source of valuable information.
Anyone can spend money on marketing, but you can’t spend your way to being the most knowledgeable and skilled agent. You’ve got to be willing to do the work that others won’t.
That’s one of the foundational principles of the Agent Skills Master’s Program.
