9 Ways to Not Suck as a Real Estate Agent

“How to Not Suck as a Realtor: 9 Rules That Actually Matter”

You can be a nice person, have a good heart, know your shit — and still totally suck as a real estate agent. 

Let’s be honest - the bar in our industry is low. Like, trip-over-it low. 

But if you want to stand out, attract more clients, get more referrals, and build a real business instead of just playing Realtor all day… you can’t afford to suck.

In this episode, I’m breaking down 9 specific things every agent must do (or stop doing) if they want to be taken seriously and actually grow. From fixing your marketing, to knowing your damn numbers, to not disappearing after the deal closes - I’m giving you a blunt checklist to audit yourself with. 

If you want to win massively in 2025 and beyond, this is your blueprint. Let’s go.

In This Episode:

• Why random marketing = random results
• The one mindset shift that makes clients trust you instantly
• Why doing everything yourself is hurting your clients (and keeping you broke)
• What to say in videos and texts that actually makes you memorable
• How to turn your past clients into an ATM — without being weird
• The most underrated growth hack no one talks about

Like the episode?

Share it with your broker, your team, or the agent down the hall who still thinks “just listed” postcards are a lead gen strategy.

We don’t gatekeep around here.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

On this episode, I'm going to give you nine ways to not suck as a real estate agent. This is going to be a good one. Let's go.

SPEAKER_02: 0:07

The Massive Agent Podcast. We lead generation tips and strategies to get you more leads and sell more homes.

SPEAKER_00: 0:15

I love to buy houses. I like to sell houses.

SPEAKER_02: 0:17

It takes brass

SPEAKER_01: 0:18

balls to sell

SPEAKER_00: 0:20

real estate. Wait a

SPEAKER_01: 0:20

minute. The leads are weak. You are weak. I've had better. Oh, have I got your attention now?

UNKNOWN: 0:28

No.

SPEAKER_02: 0:29

Here's your host, Dustin Brohm.

SPEAKER_00: 0:33

What is up, guys? Welcome to episode 397 of the Massive Agent Podcast. I am your host, Dustin Brohm, here in Salt Lake City, Utah. Today, short and sweet, nine ways to not suck as a real estate agent. Some of you need to cross some of these off your list. Some of you are really good at some of these. I mean, we're going to see. But if you want to be a great realtor, and not just with your knowledge and your expertise and the service level you provide, obviously, but are you getting business repeatedly over time? Are you able to attract a crap load of business into your business, a crap load of clients in your business? Hopefully, these nine ways to not suck at being an agent will help you in doing both. So number one, let's jump right into it. Number one, you've got to practice. You have to practice buyer conversations. Don't just practice when they happen. If you're unprepared for a conversation, then it's not going to go so well. You're not going to impress. They're going to think that you're just pulling stuff out of your ass and that you don't really know what you're talking about or at a minimum that you're not confident in what you're talking about. So practice those things. This is why agents that have been in business for 10, 15, however long years, they have a lot They do better in business because they practiced so many of those conversations. They've had so many over time. So just practice those ahead of time. If you're a brand new agent or you're in your first year, have practice buyer conversations with yourself in the mirror or meet up with another agent or two and just go through conversations. Have them pretend like they're a buyer and ask you questions and then you practice your responses. Do the same with them. Do that with listing presentations. Also study the stats. Study the nerdy market absorption rate stuff and how many listings are on the market this week versus last week. Look, you're probably never going to need to know that stuff, the stats. Here's what it does. When you feel prepared, you have a ton of confidence. When you feel like, hey, I'm good, I'm prepared, I have the answer. If I get some nerdy son of a bitch who asks me what the absorption rate is for this neighborhood, and you can actually answer confidently because you know, That gives you a ton of confidence. Knowing that you can handle any question, even though you know you're not going to have to, gives you a ton of confidence, which makes you perform better. So number one, practice. Number two, put them first. Put your clients first. So you've heard me say this before. Maybe not. I'll say it again. One of the best ways to put your client first is to not need the closing. is to not need their transaction. If you are in a financial position where you need the paycheck, where you need the commission, you need that deal to close as fast as possible, you're just not giving them the best. You're not doing the best you can to put them first because somewhere, subconsciously, at some level, you're thinking of your own financial needs. Look, I've been there, I've done this. And even though you're not trying to do the wrong thing, you're not trying to lead somebody astray, you're not trying to give bad advice, you can't help. But if your financial needs for a closing fast are weighing on the situation, it's just not ideal. If you can get yourself into a place, financially, where you don't give a shit if the deal closes or not, obviously you want it to, but if it doesn't, okay, we'll find another one. You're just going to be a better agent for them. You're legitimately putting them first 100% of the time when you can say, hey, you know what? You shouldn't buy right now. Hey, you know what? You actually should not list right now. Let's revisit this in six months or a year, but now is not a good time for you. When you do that, they're going to trust you more because they know most agents are just trying to get the deal right then and there. But if it's not the right timing for them and you tell them that, they're going to trust you. That is huge. So put them first. I know you think you do, but most of us, we could do better as far as putting them first. Advise them, hey, don't buy that. Or you need to pull out of this deal. That house is, for whatever reason, it doesn't make any sense. Or here's some problems that arose. Or after that inspection report, here's my concerns. And you're advising them to not close?

UNKNOWN: 4:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:51

Again, that buys trust because they know that that goes against your financial interests. That's how you establish trust. Number three, consistent targeted marketing, random posts, just like throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks. It brings random results. Random posts equals random results. So have a clear weekly content strategy that builds your brand. It drives conversations, a post with purpose. Post with purpose or don't post at all. Know exactly who your ideal customer is. Most of you, a lot of you, you can't really articulate exactly who your ideal client is. You've got to get yourself to a place where you know exactly who they are. You can see them in your mind. You can see actual people and what their situation is, what they do for a living, what their hobbies are, what their needs are, why they're moving, why they're upsizing, why they're downsizing, all that stuff. If you know exactly who you're speaking to, then you can speak directly to them in every post you make. And then your posts, your content, your marketing efforts will do better. When you know exactly who your ideal customer is and you speak to them directly every time you post, it will start to convert. Number four, do not disappear after closing. I did this early on in my career. I got my review and then I was off to the next one. Not even on purpose, but because I was doing every damn thing myself and I didn't have time to do much else. I was like, okay, closed one, got to go to the other. And in hindsight, what an ass. Staying in touch with past clients is the easiest source of repeat business and referrals. But you have to stay in touch over time, not just for a week, not just for a few weeks, not just for a few months, for years consistently. And you have to, they need to feel like you actually give a shit. even after the deal closes. So set reminders for yourself to follow up with certain people. Follow up on birthdays and important dates, anniversary dates from when they bought their house or whatever. Send value to those people. Include them on your email list. Be unforgettable. Just treat them like a friend. Treat them like you would a family member. Stay in touch with them. You never know. They may need a painter. a referral for a painter a year and a half later. And if you're there, if they know that you're there and they come to you first, you're in good shape. So do not just disappear after the closing and after you get the review. That's garbage. First off, it's the wrong thing to do. It's not taking care of people. And you're killing the easiest source of repeat business and referrals. Number five, quit trying to be everything to everybody. If you're trying to be everything to everyone, you're nothing to no one. You're not Walmart. Niche down, speak directly to your ideal client and own that lane. Be a professional and own that lane and understand that if you're targeting luxury sellers who are relocating to another market, that means you're not going to get the first time home buyer business. I mean, you may, but probably not because you're not speaking to those people and you have to be okay with that. Niche down. Number six, send personalized videos and voice texts. It saves time. It's easier for your clients to get the full context of what the hell you're saying. So rather than typing up big, long emails, record a video, just send them a video instead. It saves you time and it saves them time and it's easier for them to digest. So send personalized videos and voice texts instead of big, long emails and a bunch of bullshit like that. Number seven, know your damn numbers, okay? How many contacts did you add to your database last week? How many leads did you generate last week? What's your conversion rate on those leads? For every listing presentation you have, how many of them actually lead to a client? And then how many of those listings lead to a closed sale? You need to know those numbers. So if you don't know, you're not really running a business. You're just playing a realtor. Number eight, you need to get help. Some of you need a lot of help in a lot of ways. But get help. If you're trying to do everything yourself, trying to do everything yourself is the fastest way to burn out and to stay broke. Hire a transaction coordinator, hire a virtual assistant, hire an in-person full-time assistant. Outsource your video editing. Stop doing all the$20 tasks, okay? You're way too valuable. Your time is way too valuable to be spending them doing$15 to$20 an hour tasks. Hire that stuff out. And by the way, If you're so spread thin, if you're doing everything yourself and you're everything to everybody and all of the transaction is on you, you're less valuable to your clients. You're less valuable when you're spread too thin. Their service, the level of service that they receive actually suffers, actually is worse than if you were a team. If you provided a team of people to help the transaction close, that's much better than them just having you because what if you're out of town? What if you get sick? What if, God forbid, something happens to you and they just all of a sudden don't hear from you again and you're in the middle of a transaction? Bad things happen when you try to do everything yourself. Number nine, surround yourself with agents who are ahead of you. If you're the smartest one in the room, you're in the wrong room. Collaboration equals shortcuts. Collaboration equals shortcut. Why? Look, what we're trying to do as agents is is not rocket science. We're not trying to invent something that's never been done. We're trying to do something that's been done tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of times, maybe even millions, I don't know, over the years, building a successful, lucrative real estate business. There's so many different ways to do it. So find the people who are doing the thing that you want to do and just get around those people as often as possible. Find out how they're doing it and then do that. It's not hard. But if you're beating your head against the wall in your basement office trying to figure shit out that's already been figured out 8 million times before, you're dumb. That's not smart. I was one of those dumb people that was like, oh, let's try to figure this out myself because I'm too cheap to take a course or something. Yeah. Leverage the expertise of others to do what you want to do faster. It's so simple. So, Hopefully those nine things will help you not suck as an agent. I'm sure every single one of you, no matter how well you've done in your career, will benefit from one of those. Before we wrap it up, be the advisor that your clients trust with keeping current matters. KCM gives you easy to understand market insights, ready to share graphics and scripts to keep you looking like a pro. Try keeping current matters for free, for free by the way, over at trykcm.com slash BAM. Speaking of BAM, just today, When I'm recording this, they announced Sharon Shravatsa, my favorite person in real estate, and I believe the most brilliant person in real estate, just joined the board of BAM. First off, I didn't know they had a board. That's incredible, the fact that they've grown big enough to where they have a board of directors. Awesome. But Sharon, who's the president of Acquisition.com, he's on the board at Real. He's now on the board at BAM. Just incredible stuff coming from BAM with his... with his leadership. Super cool. BAMX, I believe is one of the best offerings out there. They just dropped some huge new offering in BAMX. You definitely got to check this out. I'll give you a link here in a second. Imagine having the copy for every one of your email, for every one of your marketing emails, the scripts, the hooks, everything for every social post delivered into your inbox each week. Level up your content in your business with BAMX, hyperlocal and data-driven social media templates.

UNKNOWN: 12:57

Uh,

SPEAKER_00: 12:57

video scripts, blogs, email content, courses, masterminds, and a network of agents to collaborate with, join over at massiveagentsociety.com slash BAMX. That's B-A-M-X, massiveagentsociety.com slash BAMX. Go see what's included. Just go to that link. They have a few videos about what's included so you can visually see it and be like, oh, that makes sense or that doesn't. You can pay annually. You can pay monthly. But I believe you're doing yourself a huge disservice as an agent to not give BAMX a serious consideration. I would be saying that even if we were not partners, if I was not partnered with BAM, I believe what they're doing is just next level legit shit. So massiveagentsociety.com slash BAMX. Thank you so much for listening. If you found this episode valuable, share it with another agent, share it with your broker, your team leader, other agents that you collab with and help us to grow the audience. I'll keep coming back with new episodes every week. Thank you so much. See you next week. See you next week.