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4 Solo Agent Mistakes I Wish I'd Fixed Sooner · The Real Estate Agent Playbook

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I've closed 52 homes in a single year as a solo agent
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and here's something I wish I understood a whole lot better
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and earlier just because you're capable of doing everything yourself
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does not mean you should be building a business
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that requires you to do that
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I think a lot of agents confuse being busy with building something
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successful and I understand why
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we work in an industry where production is the scoreboard
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but the number of homes you sell
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doesn't necessarily tell you how healthy your business is
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and when I look back at my career
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there's some things I would approach very differently
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today I wanna walk you through four mistakes
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the systems I eventually put into place
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and what you can start doing this week
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so you don't have to learn every lesson the hard way
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let's go right into it mistake one
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confusing production with building a business
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let's start with that one that probably taught me the most
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at one point in my career
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I closed 52 transactions in a year as a solo agent
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and I only had a transaction coordinator for half of the year
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now from the outside
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that's a pretty good year
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and I'm not going to pretend it wasn't an accomplishment
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it was one deal a week that was badass
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but there's a question I've Learned to ask
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agents who are working really hard to increase their production
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what happens to your business when you're not available
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and I don't mean when you're taking a two hour lunch
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I mean when you're genuinely unavailable
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when you're spending time with your family
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traveling or simply trying to make a day
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where you are not constantly responding to your phone
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does your business continue operating effectively
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or does everything require you to step back in
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when I was on the run of selling 40
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50 60 houses a year and I was leading up to that 52 transaction year
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one deal a week I remember specifically how hard I was working
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how I was pulling all the levers
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I remember being so overwhelmed
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it's honestly part of the reason
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that I decided to make a brokerage change
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in the middle of that year
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what was at the end of it
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I had finished the previous year selling 47
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48 and 48 homes so an additional four
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two wasn't a huge deal however
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when I really step back to look at it
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I was doing all the transaction work
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I was doing everything because I felt like I needed to be in control
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and the truth is
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I wasn't even in control of my own calendar and my own schedule
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and so as I transitioned to the current brokerage I'm at now
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I brought 14 transactions over with me
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that's when the dust settled right
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when I was like okay
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I'm gonna hire a transaction coordinator
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they're gonna help with this transition and you know
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they're getting the keys to the castle from here on forward
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what that did was by the end of that year
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I looked back and I was like wow
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like look at all the little pieces
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and the little touches that I probably was missing
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that was affecting my business from scaling
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you know even larger because I was trying to control everything
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and even things I wasn't very good at
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I'm still not the most organized person
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if you could see this desk that I'm sitting at
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you would think it's chaotic for me
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it's life it's how it is
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but when I handed over the opportunity to
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for someone else to do the things I wasn't good at
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and I surrounded myself with people who were like
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you're absolutely crazy for doing that part of it
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and people that were just like me
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they're like we're really good at the relationships
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we're really good at taking care of people
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we're really good at you know
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negotiating and all the things
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almost none of them are really good at paperwork
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and so
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that was the boost I needed to surround myself with people that were
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to understand exactly what I was trying to control
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was letting my time slip away
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and actually not controlling my time
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my family time and my own calendar
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so here's the lesson I want you to take from that
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you can be really good at selling real estate
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and still have business that isn't operating the way you want it
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to those are two separate skills
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one is knowing how to generate business work with clients
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negotiating contracts and close transactions
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the other is knowing how to create a repeatable operation
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around those activities
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and that's where having an actual weekly operating system becomes so
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important not just a calendar full of appointments
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I'm talking about
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intentionally setting aside time for the things that move forward
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prospecting follow up
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client communication review your pipeline
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working on the business
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instead of constantly being consumed by what's happening inside of it
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once I got into it and I was able to hand off some of that
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you know busy work I was able to focus in on my systems
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I was able to host client events
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I was able to make sure that they had a pipeline
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email that told them exactly where they were
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from my perspective
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not a you know transaction coordinator who wasn't licensed perspective
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it let me do the license activities at a much higher level
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than I was doing when I had to do everything
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so here's what I tell the agent doing seven or eight deals right now
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who wants to get to 30 before you
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figure out how to add another 20 transactions
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figure out what happens to your current responsibilities
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when you get busier
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cause if your entire operation already depends on you
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remembering everything
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responding to everything and personally handling everything
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more production can amplify those problems
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so here's your assignment this week open your calendar
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look at the last seven days
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identify three things you spent time on
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that could have been scheduled more intentionally
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turned into a repeatable process
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or handled differently start there
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you don't need an elaborate business plan
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to start taking control of your time
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you need to stop treating every income request
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like it's automatically the most important thing you could be doing
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mistake No. 2
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not having a system for the relationships that built my business
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now this one is particularly important to me
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because relationships have always been a massive
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part of how I approach real estate
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I believe
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one of the most valuable things you can do as an agent is connect
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people not just connect buyers and sellers
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connect people with opportunities
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resources other professionals
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and relationships that actually make their lives better
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but there's a big difference between knowing a lot of people
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and having a system that helps you maintain
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meaningful relationships with them
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and it's worth asking yourself
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which one are you actually doing
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one of the biggest things I ever did in my real estate business
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was create a vendor list and hand it out to people
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this usually did not get used
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I probably buried it on the back of my website
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or whatever that looked like
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but when I was able to be more intentional with my conversations
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cause I had more time now
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I was able to actually develop a system and think this through
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so now
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every time that I refer you or your business or you to someone else
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a business owner or industry partner
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you will receive a Three Way text that basically says hey
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this is who this is and this is what they need from you
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I'll let you guys connect from here
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what that does is two fold
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it puts a little bit of memory in
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the person you're referring someone to saying oh
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Jeremy knows everybody that's awesome
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but also it tells your partner that you are referring them
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at a much higher level than they get
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if it's just a list and sometimes they call
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maybe they don't even mention your name because it was on a list
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it's not like you went out of your way to make that connection
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so now I'm getting credit for connecting the
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the partner and the consumer is saying oh
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Jeremy knows everybody
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maybe he knows somebody that can refinance my home
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or give me a better insurance rate
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or cut down this tree and that's what I want
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is the constant dialogue coming from the consumers
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and as many opportunities to refer my favorite people in the industry
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as many opportunities as they can have
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even if it doesn't mean a closed transaction for me
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so this is my connector system
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and it's become the central point to me sending referrals
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but also me getting a ton
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and the concept is pretty simple
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when I meet somebody I don't want the
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only question in my head to be
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whether they're going to buy or sell real estate
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I want the to understand who they are
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what's happening in their life
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what are they working on and what they're trying to accomplish
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and maybe most importantly
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is there someone I know who could help them
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and this system allows me to do that
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that's where the bigger part of the relationship comes
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and makes it more than a transaction
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and here's the part people overlook
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if you don't have somewhere to capture those conversations
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you're relying on your memory to manage your business
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and that's not a great long term strategy
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your CRM should help you remember what matters
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not just somebody's name
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phone number and whether they might sell a house next year
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I'm talking about the notes from your conversations
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what they're working toward
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who you said you'd introduce them to
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when you should you reach back out
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and then you've got to actually follow through
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because writing something in a CRM isn't relationship building
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it's a action that comes afterward that matters
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so here's something you can do this week
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pull up five people in your database
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who you haven't had a meaningful conversation with recently
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not five people you wanna ask for a referral
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five people you genuinely want to reconnect with
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look through your notes
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find a reason to reach out and have an actual conversation
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and when you're done
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document what you Learned and what you're committed to do next
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that's a simple system you can repeat
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because the goal isn't to have the biggest database in your market
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it's built to build relationships that people actually value
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mistake No. 3
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being reactive instead of proactive with client communication
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this next mistake can show up
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even when you genuinely care about your client
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and that's what makes it dangerous
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you can be working incredibly hard behind the scenes
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and still have a client who has no idea what's happening
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think about a seller whose home is sitting on the market
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you're monitoring the listing
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checking feedback talking to the other agents
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evaluating the competition and trying to figure out the next move
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but if the seller hasn't heard from you
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what do they know they know their house hasn't sold
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and they may start wondering what you're doing about it
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that's a communication problem
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this is especially important right here
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right now as days on market seem to be climbing
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and homes are sitting on the market
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if you have a marketing strategy
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utilize that as your launching point
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understand the data in your market
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so that you can have a conversation weekly with your seller
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this is what happened last week
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this is what we're doing this week and the truth is
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if you have that marketing platform as a background
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then the conversations are easier cause they're not gonna be throwing
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oh do we need to do an open house or do we have to
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you know host an ice cream party
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or whatever it is that they're thinking will sell their home
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the truth is is that
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you know and if you have something you're doing next
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they're not so inclined to mention
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what they think would work to sell their home
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so one of the systems I use in my business is structured
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weekly seller communication
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and it's not complicated we look at the activity on the property
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how many showings we've had
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what feedback we are hearing
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how the listings performing online
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what's happening with the competing properties
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we don't stop at reporting numbers
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because a report without interpretation isn't particularly useful
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we need to tell the seller what information actually means
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are buyers seeing the home but choosing something else
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are we getting activity but not receiving offers
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has something changed in the competitive market
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and based on those observations
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what are we going to do next
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that's the conversation not just hey
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here's your weekly update
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it's here's what we're seeing
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here's what it tells us and here's the plan
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and I think this is where agents can really separate themselves
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because our job isn't just to market a property
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our job is to help our clients make informed decisions
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and they should never have to wonder whether we're paying attention
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now if you're an agent with two or three listings
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you might be thinking that you don't need a formal process
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but that's exactly when I'd encourage you
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to create one don't wait
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until you have 10 listings
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to figure out what you're going to communicate
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and when build the system when it's manageable
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so this week create one seller update template
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include showing activity feedback
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market competition marketing performance
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and the next action plan and then
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put a recurring block on your calendar to complete those
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every single week
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the goal isn't to send more emails just for the sake of sending them
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the goal is to make every client feel informed
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prepared and confident that there's a plan
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and here's something worth remembering
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a client may not always like what the marketing is telling us
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but they should be able to trust that we're telling them the truth
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and then we'll go to mistake No. 4
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now I want to finish
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with something that goes beyond how many homes we're selling each year
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because there's a difference between making a living in real estate
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and building a business that supports the future you're working toward
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I've been involved in real estate investing for a long time
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and it's influenced by the way I think about home ownership
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relationships and long term planning
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but as an agent we're constantly surrounded by short term milestones
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the next appointment the next listing
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the next contact the next closing
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and those things matter obviously
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we have to generate business
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but I think we also need to ask a bigger question
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what are we building through all of the activity
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and this is something that's incredibly important to me
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as I expand into other verticals
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and things that you guys have seen on this channel
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I wanna make sure that I'm still having impact
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I'm still back to my original why right
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my original tagline helping people build wealth through real estate
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now I help agents build wealth through real estate
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through this channel
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and through my organization that I coach for absolutely free
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but I also help clients continue to
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you know go on the journey that they are with me
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so one of the ways I approach this today is
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through an annual client review
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for the production side as well as an annual agent review
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on the agent side
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I don't want the relationship with somebody who bought a home to end
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when they get their keys real estate changes
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their financial situation changes
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their goals change
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and owning a home creates questions that don't disappear after closing
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should they consider improvements on the property
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have their insurance needs change
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would it be useful to review their mortgage options with a lender
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are they thinking about buying an investment property
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relocating or making another move in the future
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these aren't conversations
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that have to start with somebody telling you
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they're ready to sell they're conversations we can have
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because we're continuing to be a resource
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and that creates a different relationship
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you're not calling somebody once a year
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just to ask whether they know anybody looking to buy
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or sell you're offering them
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a tool to evaluate one of the largest assets they may own
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now that doesn't mean every annual review creates a transaction
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and it shouldn't need to the value is helping people make better
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informed decisions about their real estate
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some of those conversations may lead to another transaction
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some may not but
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the relationship
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shouldn't depend on whether there's an immediate commission
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attached to it and if I were an agent doing five to 10 transactions
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this one is the simplest system I'd start building
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look back at the clients you've already helped
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pick five of them
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reach out and offer that to schedule an annual real estate review
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find out how the property is working for them
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what change whether there's anything you can help them think through
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you don't need hundreds of new leads to begin doing that
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you need to take better care of the relationships
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you've already earned the bigger lesson
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so when I look back at these mistakes
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I see something they have all in common
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they're not necessarily mistakes you make
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because you're bad at real estate
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in fact some of them become easier to overlook
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precisely because you're good at what you do
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you're capable of handling a lot
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so you keep handling everything
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you know a lot of people so you assume you'll remember to follow up
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you care about your clients
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so you assume they know how hard you're working
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and you're closing transactions
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so you assume you're building a
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a business that you want but those assumptions are worth challenging
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because there's a difference between getting results through their
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your own effort
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and building systems that help you deliver results consistently
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and that's the part I really want you to think about
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if you're doing seven eight or 10 deals right now
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the answer isn't always to push harder
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sometimes
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the most productive thing you can do is fix the way you're operating
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so I want to give you something specific to do
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take four areas of your business and score yourself from one to five
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first time management
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do you have a weekly schedule that prioritizes business development
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or does your calendar get controlled by whatever comes up
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second relationships
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do you have a consistent process for documenting conversations
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and following through or are you relying on your memory
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third client communication
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do your clients know when and how they'll hear from you
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and are you communicating mainly when something changes
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or sometimes else and fourth
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long term client strategy
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do you have a process for staying valuable to people after they close
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or are you consistently moving on to the next transaction
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give yourself a score in each category
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and whichever one scores the lowest
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that's where I want you to start
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not by buying another piece of technology
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not by creating a 40 page business plan you'll never look at again
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but identifying one change you can implement over the next seven days
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one repeatable process something you can actually execute
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because that's how to begin
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turning good intentions into a better operating system
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and if you're working through some of these same challenges
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and want to see how other agents
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are putting real systems into practice
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comment pass below
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I'll send you a link to our two week pass inside Carbon Collective
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you can sit in our coaching for absolutely free
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hear the conversation see what agents are working through
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and decide whether it use is useful for you and your business
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no need to take my word for it
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come see what we're doing
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so here's what I want to leave you with
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being a solo agent doesn't mean you have to do everything
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solo on your own and becoming a better agent
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doesn't automatically mean you have to work more hours
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sometimes
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it means being willing to look at the ways you've been operating
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and admit that something needs to change
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I've had to learn that throughout my career
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and I'm still looking for ways to improve the systems I use today
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because I don't think you ever reach a point in the business
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where you've got everything
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figured out you just need to keep learning
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adjusting and trying to build something better
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and if you're wondering what role
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other people should play in helping you actually execute those changes
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watch my video
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you can buy real estate coaching and still be completely alone
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because having a system having the right support to execute
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are two very different things