Diving Into Real Estate

All of Sudden, I’m A Realtor

There were a lot of reasons I chose to dive into the real estate world. At the time it made a lot of sense for me, and offered an incredible opportunity to ‘learn-by-doing.’

In school I studied business, namely marketing and management. I began to realize in the Fall of 2012 that nothing taught in the curriculum really fit this modern era. I felt stuck with an education that wasn’t really applicable to what I wanted to accomplish. That’s a kind of pit in your stomach feeling that isn’t fun at all!

Once I moved back to Walnut Creek, CA, I realized that an entrepreneurial venture would be the most beneficial. As a Realtor I was a part of a team of independent contractors. We ran our own business. We weren’t funded by anyone. We had to plan, execute, and generate income to sustain ourselves. Liberating and frightening all at the same time!

But I saw this as an opportunity to gain hands on experience doing things I want to do professionally. I have always had interests in customer success and marketing. And with a heavily service-based industry such as Real Estate, I saw the opportunity that I wanted to take advantage of.

One Man Marketing Department

I got my license at the end of February 2013, and got to work right away.

It started in a very grass roots fashion. I would hold open houses for listings that belonged to other realtors within our brokerage. The idea is to meet home buyers and win them as clients. And even more importantly, a goal was to meet those curious neighbors who come through and are thinking of selling their home. With the Bay Area having been in a perpetual sellers market since early 2013, that was gold.

This interfacing with real home buyers and sellers from the beginning is what helped me build client personas we would use in our marketing later on. It also served as inspiration for content ideas that would later become foundational to our web presence.

In fact that grass roots approach to holding other agents’ open houses served as a springboard for a strong neighborhood in our community. One neighbor came in to a home I was hosting, in fact they were the third visitor all day. Sometimes a super slow day happens. We chatted for a minute about the market and how it was on the up and up, and I got his contact information.

Within a few weeks my team listed his family’s home and it sold immediately. From that listing’s open houses we picked up two more listings. Immediately our team became the leader in that area. This felt like a huge accomplishment because it is rare to go into a well-established neighborhood and take it over as a Realtor. We were growing relationships with people who lived there that while they weren’t close to becoming a client, we were getting referrals. It was working.

I dove in, and saw positive returns right away.