Marti Hampton:

Hey this is Marti Hampton for the Restless realtor podcast on Coming Soon Homes radio.

I've been answering questions submitted by listeners and today somebody asked me, what qualities do agents need to become a successful realtor? And first, my first question is what does success mean to you? You know, I can tell you what it meant to me. When I first got in real estate, I was a single parent of three children, no family in town, I didn't have a decent car, I was living in a rental apartment. At that time success meant to pay the bills, to buy groceries, to buy braces and other essentials not to mention clothing. And later on it meant buying cars for three kids, paying for insurance --- life insurance, health insurance, car insurance, and later it meant paying for college. I had the good fortune of having two kids in college at all times for seven years!

So I'm telling you all this because I find that most people in real estate have a second plan. They have a back door. So no matter what income they say they want to earn, they don't have a burning desire or a real need to make that earning come into a reality and I did. So it all starts with making a decision, having a clear-cut idea of what is success to you. 

I've heard that when a general takes an army into battle, if he really wants to emphasize how badly that victory is needed, he burned the bridges behind them, I'm guessing so they couldn't retreat. That way their troops knew it was either, they had to win or die. And that's really the way it was for me that's how I looked at my real estate career. I looked at all the options and I knew I was ready to bet the farm, go to the mat. I was ready to do what it took no matter what it took to win in the business of real estate.

So, back to what does success mean, you can go to all the motivational seminars that you want to go to --- that's something that only you can answer. And if you have not defined a clear reason why you will go through all the agony that you will go through to build and sustain a thriving business, you simply won't do it.

So for many agents real estate is the second income, is gravy on a solid family income and there's nothing wrong with that, there's some great agents. So success may be 30,000 a year or 50,000 a year, 100,000 a year, be fabulous! They're just not in the same frame of mind as I was as a single parent, head of household.

So what does it take to become successful? Well first, you got to decide what success is to you. Next, make a decision, and then make that decision right. You got to stick by that decision through thick or thin through good days and not-so-good days. You got to burn your bridges. You got to fight for your land. Don't jump around so much. You know, I've been with only two companies in my entire career!

I'll leave you with one more thing to know about success in today's real estate environment. Your bottom line means more than your split. Let me say that again, your bottom line means more than your split. 

We're currently in an environment where agents are really moving around to capture the best split. Thinking that their opportunities will be the same in all places and that's not going to work out folks. The phone doesn't ring the same in all offices, opportunities are not the same everywhere. And if your idea of success has anything to do with high income, you got to learn how to do deals i.e. that means you got to do multiple sales! And for that you're going to need to be on a team, or you need to run a team and start a team. 

 So doing deals means, you have to have market share of the listings in your marketplace. And the best way to do that is to get in touch with us at comingsoonhomes.com and we'll show you how to dominate listings in your market place.

That's it for us today, please subscribe and send me any question that you have. Get in touch with us today at comingsoonhomes.com. Have a great day, sell some real estate!