The 7 Proven Rules to Real Estate Training Excellence
Why did you get into real estate?
I meet agents all the time and am always really interested to know more about them and that’s one of the questions I like to ask.
The answers vary.
Some say they got into the business because they wanted to work for themselves. Others say they liked the dynamics of real estate–the negotiations and prospecting and marketing. No doubt these are people persons!
Others liked the idea of the money that could be made buying and selling real estate. Still others chose it because they were having a tough time finding another job.
Although the reasons may vary, one thing that hasn’t changed is the training to become successful. Buying or selling real estate, just like football or chess, is something that you have to train at to get really good.
Success will never fall from your lap. And there is a lot of truth to the saying, “It took me 20 years to become an overnight sensation.” Let’s camp on that idea for a minute.
In most spectacular displays of achievement, whether in the business world, sport world or creative world, all we really see is the tip of the iceberg. We might see an agent and his team clear 700 transactions in a year.
Or we might see the chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov defeat a huge IBM machine.
Or we might listen to a spectacular concerto by a world famous violinist.
What’s your first reaction? If you’re like me, you probably would say, “Man, are they talented.” There is no doubt that they did something exceptionally well. But what we don’t see are the years of relentless practice that went into building up to the moment.
It’s like all their hard work is paying off right at that moment. How does that apply to real estate? Well, just like professional athletes have to train to reach a superior performance, so do real estate agents. Here are seven rules you can follow.
Real Estate Training Rule #1: Hard Work Is Essential
I wish I could tell you that being successful in real estate was easy. But I can’t. Nobody can tell you that. And if you happen to run into someone who does tell you that, don’t trust them.
It takes time to find leads, to perfect your listing presentation and to learn how to negotiate. And you won’t always get it right. You want that to happen, which brings me to my next point.
Real Estate Training Rule #2: Mistakes Are Opportunities to Learn
You are going to fall down a lot in your business, especially in the early years. There is no way around that.
But instead of being frustrated by that, change your mindset to one of growth orientation and realize that you can grow from each mistake.
Real Estate Training Rule #3: Multiply the Mistakes
This may sound strange, “multiplying mistakes,” but once you see the math, it will make sense. The more mistakes you make the better you will get, only however, if you are learning from your mistakes.
If you’re not learning from your mistakes and you keep making the same ones over and over, then you might just end up looking silly. You don’t want that.
For every mistake you make you want to evaluate what you did, correct what you see as the mistake and then try again. What you are doing is refining your technique one micro-mistake at a time.
So the point is to try and practice as much as you can. The more reps you can get in the better.
Real Estate Training Rule #4: Study the Masters
The giants in real estate–both the past and the present–are also great teachers who spend time creating resources to help real estate agents. Resources like books or seminars.
Get your hands on as many of these resources as possible and study them. Stay up late reading. Spend money you might blow on a football game and attend a conference where a bunch of these masters are teaching.
But the masters of real estate aren’t the only people you should listen to.
Real Estate Training Rule #5: Listen to Different Ideas
Early in my career I made the mistake of thinking that no other industry or subject matter or genre could have anything to teach me. Boy was I wrong!
I think it was Stephen Covey in his leadership program that taught me that looking into different industries of business–like automotive, computers or legal–I could learn from the things they were teaching and apply it to real estate. When I started doing that I was amazed at all the great and profitable ideas I started to have.
This is also true with subjects like fiction or biographies. You can learn a lot from reading a history of the Civil War or working through all of Ernest Hemingway’s books.
Real Estate Training Rule #6: Teach
Like I said above, the great real estate agents almost always start to teach, coach or mentor in some capacity. Here’s the trick: they don’t wait until they’re on top of their game to start doing it.
In fact, they start teaching early on, realizing that giving their time, experience and knowledge to others just below them in the ranks helps them to become more successful. Why is that?
For one thing, it’s an opportunity to tell others about the mistakes they made and how to avoid them. In other words, it reinforces the lessons they learn.
Another thing is that by teaching they are pouring into someone else, which builds relationships and reputations, which is the cornerstone to good real estate training.
Real Estate Training Rule #7: Build Relationships
From the clients you represent to your co-workers, real estate is full of relationships. And you need to learn how to manage these relationships so that everyone walks away with a win-win feeling.
You never know how many people just one client can bring to you. Or how many people a colleague might send your way.
Train hard to build the right kind of relationships and people will be happy to send other people your way. Getting things done profitably and on time is so much about who you know.
Conclusion
I hope it’s become clear to you that real estate training is your ticket to becoming a successful agent. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it if you love real estate and love the excitement of selling and buying houses.
So tell me, what real estate training rules do you live by?
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