When I graduated from the Ontario Real Estate College back in 2006, I was overjoyed with excitement. After we received our results, my classmates passionately debated over which brokerage would be the best fit for new agents. It had to have the perfect ratio of frequent training and low brokerage splits. People were giddy picturing their futures. The room was filled with hope and optimism.
I didn’t participate in the conversation because I knew where I was going. I had an old friend who was already in real estate 2 years ahead of me, and I liked the idea of working alongside someone I knew. So I asked him to set up an interview with the owner of his company.
He was an older gentleman, a doctor in a previous life. He seemed wise and was friendly when I shook his hand. We sat down and he asked me what I was looking for in a brokerage.
I indicated that I was pretty confident in my ability to learn quickly. What I really wanted was to find someone who could be my trainer, my mentor, and my coach.
His eyes lit up and he reached into the center draw of his desk to pull out one of his business cards. On the front it showed his name and company information. He flipped it around and grinned widely. On the back, there were 3 big words – “Trainer, Mentor, Coach.”
It’s like I heard a chorus of heavenly “Aaahhs” descend from heaven. Surely this was a sign from God that I was at the right place.
I shook his hand and signed up on the spot.
As fate would have it, I didn’t last 2 months before I moved on.
Not only was I left to figure things out on my own, it set me on a path of self-doubt and private struggle.
From hope and optimism to feeling utterly lost.
I’ll never forget that feeling, or the painful weeks/months of making no money. I learned lots of harsh lessons, and when I eventually moved up to a management position in the industry, I uncovered even more truths. So if you’re struggling and you don’t know why, it might be because of some of the things I’m going to share with you here.
How The Brokerage Sees You
Let’s break down the business model so that we have a clear understanding of how brokerages operate.
Like virtually every other business, a real estate brokerage exists for the sole purpose of generating profit for the owner. One popular option in the real estate industry is to buy the rights to open a local office under a national franchise.
Opening a real estate brokerage under a franchise offers the benefits of leveraging a well-established brand, gaining access to extensive training and marketing resources, and receiving ongoing support. Operating under a franchise model requires adherence to established practices and standards to ensure profitability and align with the brand’s successful business model.
There are also entrepreneurs who opt to open independent offices that allow them to create their own brands, business models, and profit structures. These operators tend to have more freedom in the way they run their offices.
Regardless of the business model, brokerages generate more profit by hiring more agents. In the franchise model, this is especially important because agents will contribute some sort of yearly franchise fee to head office. It’s also important for companies to advertise how many agents they have as an indicator of credibility. This is why recruiting is such a big component of the business model, and why in the lifetime of your career you’ll be prospected by other brokerages many times, especially if you start making money.
The simple reality is that brokerages see you as a stat stuffer – another +1 to the roster that adds a little more market reach and dollars to their bottom line.
Brokerages have a system in place for their agents. When you’re hired, their main responsibility is to provide you a place to work and staff to post your listings & process your deals. Yes, they do provide training but it’s incredibly resource/time intensive, repetitive, and it doesn’t cater to their best clients, the top producers (more on this in a minute).
Depending on the business model, their services can be very barebones where you are doing pretty much everything yourself, or full service where the company caters to every component of your business so you can focus on bringing in more deals.
Real estate companies work the 80/20 rule. They know that 20% of their roster will produce most of the revenue that will carry the bottom 80%. As a result, their interest is to cater to the top producing agents because they bring in more deals and require less maintenance. Top agents also tend to be listing agents, and more listings means For Sale signs on lawns that promote the company brand. This is ideal for the company.
New agents and struggling agents bring in very little revenue for the company and require a lot of support and time, and managers are often swamped with too many agents and operational responsibilities to spend sufficient time helping with business building. New agents also tend to focus on leases and buyer deals, which brings no market exposure for the company.
That’s why you’ll get basic training and company resources, but always feel like you’re hitting an invisible ceiling in the business. As a result, you will spend almost all of your time struggling alone in business, unless you do something about it.
What’s Holding You Back?
Imagine a toolbox. Inside, you’ll find a hammer, a saw, and a screwdriver – basic tools that most people know how to use individually. Yet, why can some folks use these simple tools to build a cozy cabin in the woods, while others struggle to assemble a basic IKEA cabinet, even with step-by-step instructions?
It’s no different in real estate. As an agent, you’ve got your own set of basic tools: you can work a phone, decipher MLS listings, and draft agreements. But here’s the million-dollar question: Has anyone ever sat down with you and shown you how to combine these skills into a powerful, cohesive system? A method so effective and reliable that convinces you to believe in yourself, moving you forward without the need for constant external motivation?
It’s important to examine how you’ve picked up all of your tools in real estate so far:
- You learned real estate history, ethics, disclosure, and other frameworks in class – a solid introduction to real estate but nothing that shows you how to build your business.
- Your brokerage taught you the simple basics of prospecting, selling, and handling documents. It’s enough to know what to do, but you find yourself searching elsewhere for more information to fill in the gaps.
- You got tips from lots of underperforming agents, but they’re not really making money either, so you take everything they say with a grain of salt.
- When you ask top producing agents for advice, they only give you vague hints, keeping their secrets. You have this suspicion that they know something you don’t and you’re intent on finding the secret sauce.
- Managers and Brokers are swamped dealing with tons of agents, so you only occasionally catch them and get fragmented advice. Most of the time this comes when you need help solving a problem, instead of knowledge you need to build a better business.
- You turned to YouTube or free resources for general info, but they barely scratch the surface. It seems like everyone is repeating the same stuff.
- Social media real estate coaches/influencers often give advice that’s all over the place, outdated, or over the top. Some of them have personalities that you can’t relate to, while others are clearly pushing you to buy a product you feel is more of the free stuff you can find online.
- Paid coaching programs push one-size-fits-all plans that don’t consider your strengths or circumstances. You know you need more, but these programs just feel like glorified training programs you’ve already attended.
Essentially, you’ve been walking a lonely road trying to learn how to build a successful real estate business. Without any single source of reliable information, you’ve had to write your own real estate instruction manual, but it turned out more like a scrapbook of confusing blurbs and random clippings.
This leads us to the alarming reality that you operate your business based on this scattered and incomplete scrapbook of findings every single day.
What’s Going To Solve Your Problem?
There is a weight loss clinic in Toronto called Harvey Brooker Weight Loss For Men that used to end their radio commercials with a great line:
“If you could do it alone, you would have done it already.”
That line has stuck with me for years and is such a powerful reminder that at some point, we are choosing to fail alone.
Let’s use an example to give more depth.
Imagine your real estate career as running a food truck instead of just cooking in a kitchen. Why? Because it combines cooking skills with business knowledge and customer service – much like real estate blends market knowledge, negotiation, and client relationships.
Starting out, you might think success is just about making great food (or in real estate, just knowing properties). But that’s only part of the equation. You’re also managing inventory, predicting busy times, adapting to changing customer preferences, and dealing with unexpected situations – like sudden weather changes or equipment malfunctions.
This is where a mentor becomes your secret ingredient to success. They’re the seasoned food truck owner who’s weathered countless festivals, navigated permit regulations, and built a loyal customer base. With their guidance, you learn to:
- Read the market: Just as they know which events will draw crowds, they teach you to spot emerging neighborhood trends.
- Optimize operations: They show you how to juggle multiple orders efficiently, like managing several clients and listings simultaneously.
- Build relationships: You learn the art of turning first-time customers into regulars, much like nurturing leads into long-term clients.
- Adapt and innovate: They guide you in tweaking your menu based on feedback, similar to adjusting your marketing strategies for different property types.
- Handle crises: When the grill fails mid-service, they don’t panic. They show you how to problem-solve on the fly, just like navigating unexpected issues in a property deal.
With a mentor, you’re not just learning recipes. You’re mastering the art of running a successful business on wheels. In real estate, you’re not just learning to sell houses; you’re becoming a versatile, adaptable entrepreneur who can thrive in any market condition.
Remember, even the most successful food truck owners started with basic cooking skills. It’s experience that transformed those skills into a thriving business. The same holds true in real estate – your basic skills are just the starting point. With the right mentor, you’ll learn to combine and apply them to create a sustainable, predictable, and profitable business.
Sure, there is a monetary cost to mentorship, but have you considered the monetary cost, opportunity cost, and time cost if you decide to continue to struggle alone?
What are the benefits to mentorship? You can read more about them here.
The Cost Of Inaction Is Steep
Let’s say you do nothing about it, and rely on your current approach of figuring out how to make it in the business. With enough time, you could probably see incremental improvements, but at what cost?
Remember, in this business, time isn’t just money – its your livelihood. Every day without a commission is a day you’re essentially working for free. Those monthly brokerage fees and mounting expenses are steadily digging you into a financial hole.
But the real price isn’t just financial. It’s the toll on your confidence – the weight of self-doubt that grows heavier with each rejection. You’re pouring your heart and soul into this career, only to face an echo chamber of ‘no’s. That nagging voice whispering “maybe this isn’t for you” gets louder with each passing week.
Then there’s the opportunity cost. While you’re chasing elusive deals, your friends in 9-to-5 jobs are cashing steady paychecks. They’re building savings accounts while you’re watching your reserves dwindle.
Some of my very same classmates who entered the real estate industry with hope and optimism have long left the business because they couldn’t figure out how to get an expert on their side.
You’re not expected to have all the answers. Mentorship can help fill in the gaps and support your growth so you don’t have to piece the business together on your own. Instead of hitting walls and falling down, a mentor can take your failures and turn them into learning opportunities.
The cost of going it alone isn’t just high – it could be the difference between thriving and growing, or barely surviving through each day.
If you’d like to explore mentorship opportunities, contact me here.