Real estate agents can be divided into two distinct categories:

                  THOSE WHO MAKE ENOUGH MONEY AND THOSE WHO DON’T

What are some of the common characteristics of agents who make enough money?

There are three traits that they all seem to share and the first one that I see is confidence. Think about someone who you know who is confident, don’t they automatically instill trust?   

The second is enthusiasm, this comes across as enjoying what they do and being fully engaged in the process. Working with them is an enjoyable process because they focus on the positive.

And the third trait is self accountability.  Successful agents are successful because they take responsibility for their own success or failure, rather than placing blame outside of themselves.  An example of explanation that I hear from agents who are making enough money is that they credit their success to hard work and staying on top of the market trends.  

And what about agents who aren’t making enough money?

They also have some common traits that I see, and the first one is Fear. This shows up in many different ways for many different reasons.  Perhaps it’s because they’re new and fearful of the process, or uncertain of their own abilities. Perhaps they fear their financial future.  Can they pay the bills and make a success of this career choice?  This uncertainty comes across to clients as a lack of trust and non-focus.

The second is not being emotionally engaged.  Obviously if there is fear and uncertainty,  how vested can they be in the future? How enthusiastic will they be about prospecting and how well will they be able to think outside the box for new opportunities?

And the last and probably most important trait for agents who aren’t making enough money, is that they blame everything outside of themselves for their lack of success.  An example that I hear from agents who aren’t making enough money is “the market is terrible”,  “there aren’t any qualified buyers”, and “open houses don’t work” to name a few.

When I spoke of these traits at my last sales meeting, an agent came to me and said. “Well I’m not making enough money but I have all of the traits of an agent who is.”   So, I asked her what was she most excited about doing to increase her business and she responded that she didn’t want to do anything different, she really wasn’t excited about real estate anymore after all of the years in the business.  She then smiled and said “that probably means I don’t have all of the traits because I’m not enthusiastic, right?”  We then talked about things that she could do that she could get excited about and she left more confident and engaged in her business.

I would urge agents who aren’t making enough money to look at the above and take an honest accounting of where they are and then the steps they need to take to turn their business around.  And, oh by the way, have some fun doing it!