Thinking about leaving your current job for a career in real estate? Becoming a real estate agent is a challenging transition, but a rewarding one. Technically speaking, anyone can become a real estate agent if they get their state’s real estate license. But not everyone will be a successful agent.
Do you have what it takes? Some job skills translate well to real estate. If you’ve acquired these skills in your past jobs, then you can achieve a successful real estate career.
Good Communication
Communicating effectively is a necessary job skill for most industries, and real estate is no exception. If you’re a skilled communicator, you’ll ensure clarity in all your business activities.
For one thing, good communication will help you win clients and keep them. This applies to both written and in-person communication, too. It’s one thing if you can speak well while showing a house. But if your emails require extensive decoding to understand, you’ll find yourself with a short list of clients.
Good communication also implies honest communication. Your clients should be able to take what you say and write at face value. Real Estate Insider Magazine notes that honest realtors inspire confidence in their clients.
One last thing to note: a real estate agent must be honest, but not still professional. Tact is another important job skill.
Negotiation
Have you ever negotiated a price with a car salesperson? Convinced a coworker to compromise on a project? Persuaded your boss to institute casual Fridays? Negotiating and creating an agreement that benefits both parties is an important job skill for a real estate agent.
Here’s why: it takes a savvy agent to bargain for a competitive deal. With a low-ball contract, you’ll complete a sale, but with negotiation, you can turn that into a great deal. Your clients will be happy, and your commission will be bigger.
As a real estate agent, you must take a chance and ask for what you want: price points, meetings, connections, deals, and more. Realtor Magazine notes that agents who don’t mind asking for what they want are much more successful than passive agents.
Continuous Learning
Yes, learning is a job skill. If you’re a good learner, you can quickly adapt to changes, which makes you more competitive. And it’s a job skill you’ll need, because real estate changes constantly—that’s the nature of the business.
As a real estate agent, you’ll need to learn technology for listing houses and strategies for marketing yourself and your services. If you work on a team of agents, you’ll learn their practices and rules, too.
You’ll also learn (and maybe even predict) market trends. And don’t forget learning your community. After all, you’re not just selling a house or a property. You’re selling the community, neighborhoods, and school districts that accompany that property. If a client lists one school district as a non-negotiable for their new house, you’ll need that knowledge to rule out the rejects from the possibilities.
Variety is the spice of life in real estate; the market rarely looks the same two days in a row. You’ll need to learn these changes quickly to be a successful agent.
Resilience
Resilience is a job skill? Really? The Close says it is, and it’s a big one for real estate agents—resilience alone is the difference between a $40k or $500k realtor.
You always hope for a perfect contract, but sometimes, deals fall through. You’ll be disappointed, for sure. But then you have a choice: will you find excuses? Or will you bounce back and jump at the next deal? Persistent people excel in the real estate world, not pity-partygoers.
Thankfully, resilience is a skill you can acquire. It’s not as easy to train as communication or negotiating. But you can teach yourself to accept the wins and losses alike, learn from them, and chase the next goal. With a stick-to-it attitude and the skills above, you can become a successful real estate agent in no time.
If you have these job skills, then you can pursue a winning career in real estate. Mbition can help you make that dream a reality.
