Tag: Real Estate Coaching

Amie Quirarte of The Q Group Speaks at Inman Connect New York

Posted on by Liza Muhl

When real estate agents hear the words “personal brand” the first things they think of might be business cards, social media posts and email newsletters.

But according to Douglas Elliman’s McKenzie Ryan, an agent in New York, a personal brand should extend into every asset of life.

“A brand is not one dimensional, or what you decide you want to portray on social media,” she told the audience at Inman Connect New York on Tuesday. “A brand is who you show up as in real life and a brand is who you are.”

Ryan spoke on a panel about strategies for building a lasting personal brand alongside Amie Quirarte of Tahoe Luxury Properties and Jas Takhar of REC Canada.

Takhar agreed with Ryan, and argued that forming a consistent personal brand was all but essential for those working in real estate in the current market.

“You have to differentiate yourself,” he said. “If you don’t get started in 2024… you are going to be left behind.”

Takhar also argued that maintaining a social media presence is more effective than traditional lead-generation strategies like mailers and cold calls.

“No longer do people want to be bothered by cold calling because you sound like an air duct cleaner,” he said. “Why not go where people are already scrolling on their phone and showcase other aspects of your life.”

The panelists encouraged agents to show their followers aspects of their life other than just their real estate business — their hobbies, their families, their communities and discouraged posts bragging about real estate awards and accolades.

“How many No. 1 real estate agents are there in every single city?” Takhar said. “Showcase the other aspects of your life.”

Personal branding can extend beyond your social media presence as well. Quirarte told the audience of a community Halloween party she hosted in Tahoe this year with local merchants and musicians that brought 550 people to an event space in town. After spending less than $1,000 on the party, Quirarte said she ended the night with three new referrals.

That’s not to say social media should be neglected. Many savvy potential seller clients may be more swayed by your social media presence than your listing presentation.

“I personally have a love-hate relationship with social media but we have to have a presence and what does that presence communicate,” Michelle Griffith of Douglas Elliman said during a panel conversation on winning listing presentations on Tuesday. “Do you have video footage so that they can understand who you are and get a feeling? I think that as agents, now more than ever we need to really focus on: if our clients are cyber-stalking us, what does that look like?”

Your brand shouldn’t be forced though, and should be an accurate representation of who you are.

“I think that in the beginning especially when you’re getting started and you’re trying to find out what your brand is going to look like its easy to try to fit into a mold of ‘I want to be in this box so that every single person likes me,’” Quirarte said. “Fuck that — you’ve got to do what is best for you. You need to be the agent that you are.”

“It sounds so cheesy and so lame but it goes a long way,” she added.

Article originally published by Inman Connect

Amie Quirarte is a luxury real estate agent with Tahoe Luxury Properties in California and Nevada. Connect with her on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Not Alot of Clients Right Now? Here’s What You Should Be Doing

Posted on by Liza Muhl

The ebb and flow of the real estate business can be affected by the seasons, the economy and more. Here’s how to weather the slow times while building your business.

Article Originally Published by Inman Connect
BY AMIE QUIRARTE
February 17, 2023

I sell real estate in Lake Tahoe, a seasonal and second-homeowner destination. Due to our unique market, I’ve become accustomed to the inevitable slowdowns every fall and spring.

At the beginning of my career, it wasn’t easy to normalize the downtime and find productivity in my business, even without clients. I would become anxious, stressed and paranoid until I found ways to utilize my free time efficiently.

Below are a few steps that you can implement in your business when you’re low on clients:

1. Remind yourself that every single agent, even the most successful agents making millions of dollars every year, experience lulls in their business

We’ll have highs, lows and everything in between. So while you’re having your best year, I could be having my worst year. That doesn’t mean you won’t ever sell a house again; it just means that the timing of your clients, or future clients, hasn’t reached the inflection point of a sale yet.

As hard as it is to not compare yourself to others or desperately watch the sales tick away in the MLS without your name, work on staying grounded and believing that your time will come. A positive mindset will work wonders for you, while a negative mindset can negatively impact your work.

2. Work on your business instead of in it

The downtime is a great time to master your systems, become clear on what is working and what isn’t, home in on your farms, get to know the behavior of your farms and more. The downtime allows you the gift of time, which is when most of us can be the most creative.

I like to start each day by sitting in silence for 20 minutes. I put a timer on my phone and don’t pick up any electronics during those 20 minutes. I simply sit with my thoughts and let the creative juices flow. I have a journal dedicated to my “thinking time,” I journal down all of my ideas once the timer goes off. I have my best (and most fun) marketing ideas during this time.

3. Plan events or create a value proposition for past, present or future clients

Planning events can be time-consuming, so downtime is the perfect opportunity to work on one. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to shell out a large chunk of cash to host a successful event. In fact, you can do it for free.

Recently, we hosted a free, first-time homebuyer seminar with a local mortgage broker at a brewery in town. We used social media to market our event, had the space donated to us and put together the slides ourselves. We had over 30 attendees, many of whom converted into leads.

The best part? We’ve been able to help our first-time, local homebuyers buy a home in Tahoe.

By creating and hosting events such as this, you’re helping others, first and foremost, but you’re also adding more familiarity to your name and what you do, which is what marketing is all about.

4. Spend time with people you love and your past clients

My favorite type of lead is a referral from someone I know, like and trust. There is no greater honor than being introduced to a friend’s friend based on their confidence in me as their Realtor. The best way to gain that trust is simply by spending time with people.

Ask friends out to coffee, mention your business and what you’re doing, and ask them about their business. Be genuine.
If you don’t have the funds to take someone out to coffee, ask them to go on a walk, start a book club or tailor it to their and your personal interests.

These meaningful moments with people go a long way. The more time you spend working on the relationships in your life, the more people will think of you anytime the word real estate is mentioned.

5. Ensure all of your online profiles and social media channels are up to date

This one is self-explanatory, but make sure your bio is correct on every real estate site, add all of your past sales, ask past clients for reviews, and do your best to stay as relevant as you can online. Your online presence makes a difference, and finding time to dedicate to this is essential.

While it may be hard to mentally adjust to having very few clients, I hope you can look at it as a positive with unlimited potential to unlock the next phase of your business. If you are running at all cylinders all of the time, you won’t be able to ensure the mechanics of your business are still operating at full capacity.

I like to think of real estate like a conveyor belt: If you become too focused on the end of the line (closings, current transactions, etc.) you won’t have anything to work on once you reach the end because you haven’t been reloading the belt with new items (i.e. new clients and escrows). Therefore, to reach your full potential in this business, you must master the conveyor belt from start to finish.

Amie Quirarte is a luxury real estate agent with Tahoe Luxury Properties in California and Nevada. Connect with her on Facebook or LinkedIn.

There’s Freedom in Saying No, Setting Boundaries, Saying Goodbye

Posted on by Liza Muhl

If you don’t set boundaries, you can’t expect clients to respect them. Set firm boundaries, and communicate them upfront.

Article Originally Published by Inman Connect
BY AMIE QUIRARTE
February 15, 2023

As real estate agents and brokers, it seems as though many of us are programmed to always say the magic word “yes.”

Yes, we can squeeze 21 showings in one day despite them being on completely opposite sides of town. Yes, I can talk at 11 p.m. Yes, I will “make” the sellers fix every item on the home inspection list.

Scarcity is typically the main driving force behind the obsessive “yes” in our business, but I think for many of us, it can contribute to a downfall in our personal life and burnout in our professional life.

We’re scared that if we don’t answer every call as it is coming in, the lead on the other end may hang up and call someone else. And while that may be true, what do we, in turn, sacrifice to catch every potential lead that comes our way?

If every lead turned into a sale, then perhaps most, or at least some, of the yeses are warranted. But if they don’t always convert, and let’s be honest, we know they don’t, then we owe it to ourselves to be more mindful of what type of interruptions we are allowing into our lives.

I learned the power of “no” pretty early on in my real estate career, though it took me many years to truly master it.

I wasn’t even old enough to drink a beer when I got my real estate license, and I felt like I had to work five times harder to be taken seriously than everyone else. I was a young female with no experience, and I noticed that I would tolerate much more than I normally would from clients because I was scared of losing the lead or the sale.

I would allow clients to speak to me disrespectfully, call or text me during non-business hours and quite honestly, at times, let them walk all over me. Until I decided I had enough.

If I didn’t set boundaries, I couldn’t expect my clients to respect them. So, I decided to set firm boundaries and communicate them upfront.

Here is what my boundaries sound like:

Set business hours, and stick to them 

I will be available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, unless it’s an emergency. An emergency in real estate is a multiple-offer scenario, tight expiration dates or anything that requires urgent attention. A real estate emergency is not transferring utilities.

I found that by communicating these boundaries upfront, the interruptions are much less frequent (if at all), and on the rare occasions they do happen, I’ve found clients to be much more appreciative of my time.

Communicate upfront about realistic expectations of the other party

I might say something like:

“I do not work for the other party in the transaction (buyer or seller, depending on which side you’re on), and therefore, I can’t force anyone to do anything they aren’t willing to do. My job is to represent my client and do everything in my power to collaborate with the agent to achieve our mutual goal of closing.

“However, I can’t force the other side to perform, agree to repairs or come to your price any more than I am able to force you. I can take all the necessary and available steps, and I will, but my hands become tied at a certain point. This is a collaborative business, and I refuse to be attacked if the other party isn’t behaving like you want them to.” 

This is an important part of my boundaries because, in the past, I have been blamed for the other side’s X, Y or Z. I remind my clients that the buyer or seller on the other side is a human, just like we are, and they have a right to make their own decisions. It’s then our job to decide if those decisions are something that we feel comfortable with.

Read the contract

Read the contract, read the contract, read the contract. I cannot tell you how many times I have had clients upset over something that was in the contract that they signed. If you are signing anything, read it carefully.

I always make myself available to review the contract together or to answer any questions or concerns, however, it’s the client’s responsibility to read the contract and ensure they understand it before signing it.

Included in every DocuSign envelope is a note from me that says, “Did you have a chance to read this, and do you feel comfortable moving forward with the terms outlined in this?” Trust me, this will save you many headaches and frustrating conversations down the road.

Do not be afraid to fire clients or say no to something that doesn’t feel right to you

Sometimes, the best decision you can make is to let a client go. At a certain point, regardless of how much time or energy you have spent with the client, you may need to let someone go. I’ve done this many times, and it has gotten much easier as I’ve seen the rewards.

Think of it like this: If you’re spending all of your time with one client, you are not making room for new clients who could be a much better fit for you. Remind yourself of this: You are not the perfect Realtor for everyone, and not every client is a perfect client for you. Just as you do in other aspects of your life, choosing your relationships carefully will have a profound impact on your success and happiness.

Some of these may sound harsh, but after 10-plus years in this business, I have found that being honest with everyone, including myself, is the best way to succeed. If I am working with someone who is disrespectful and draining, I will not be the best version of myself nor reach my full potential as their agent. But, another agent will, and both the client and you deserve that opportunity.

Allowing some clients to seek out new representation (if the circumstances require it) will allow you to find the client who is a better fit for you — and that’s a win-win for everyone.

Amie Quirarte is a luxury real estate agent with Tahoe Luxury Properties in California and Nevada. Connect with her on Facebook or LinkedIn.

When Your Toughest Competitor is the Other Agent

Posted on by Liza Muhl
Article Originally Published by Inman Connect

The next time you experience a hot-headed real estate agent on the other side of the deal, try these tips to cool it down

BY AMIE QUIRARTE
February 14, 2023

We’ve all been there — the agent on the other end of the transaction is aggressive, short-fused, and impossible to work alongside. Every question or request is met with confrontation, and there is no attempt at collaboration toward the shared goal of closing the transaction.

So, what do you do? Do you meet them with the same anger, carry on with a hard exterior, and beat each other down until you cross the finish line? Or do you find a way to be the bigger person and “take one for the team” so everyone can peacefully work together?

In this situation, I like to give myself the same pep talk I give my 8-year-old daughter and bring it back to the basics: Typically, other people’s frustration has nothing to do with you. You may have become the scapegoat for the other agent’s problems, fears or worries without even knowing it. The other agent likely has something going on in their life, causing them to treat others in a way that can feel aggressive or hurtful. The best solution is to be direct and kind, and approach the situation thoughtfully.

Below are a few common examples of dealing with unreasonable agents on the other side of the deal and how I deal with each one.

The agent who speaks for the clients

For example, if an agent is attacking me for my client’s request for repairs, I always ask the same question as calmly as I possibly can:

“Have you talked to your client yet? Is this their reaction, or is it yours?”

This is my favorite question because it offers a moment of inward reflection and pause from the agent on the other side. Often, I will learn that the client hasn’t seen whatever document we’re talking about yet, which offers additional insight on how to approach the remainder of the transaction.

The overreactive agent

If I know the agent is quick to react, I can be more strategic in each conversation I have with them from that point forward. So, for example, if I need to begin a conversation that may cause friction, I’ll lead with something like this:

“We are on the same team, and I want to work with you to get this deal across the finish line. To do that, we have to come to some type of agreement on repairs. Why don’t I share my client’s requests with you, and then we can brainstorm together on how to find a middle ground.”  

Approaching each conversation from a collaborative perspective sets the tone, and it’s basic human nature at that point to respond more respectfully.

The agent who needs boundaries

But what about when you have an agent on the other side who sees red and won’t respond well to your approaches? That is when your directness and boundaries come into play.

If you have an agent, or a client, who is treating you poorly, the first step is to calmly communicate the boundaries in which you’re willing to communicate.

For example, if every time you pick up the phone, the agent raises their voice to you, you can communicate via email and say something like:

“Based on our past few phone conversations, I have decided we should only communicate via email from now on. I do not appreciate being yelled at or spoken to in the tone I have experienced. I am willing to attempt a phone conversation again if we can agree on how we will work together to achieve our mutual goal of closing this deal.” 

Bringing awareness to your boundaries and the way the agent has been treating you will almost always warrant a more respectful conversation. But if it doesn’t, hold true to your boundaries, and only communicate under the terms you see fit.

Real estate is a highly emotional business because we are helping clients with their most valuable investments, but it doesn’t mean that we, as agents, need to take on these same emotions. I see it as our job to stay calm, cool, and collected, especially in the face of turbulence. The next time you experience a hot-headed agent, try these tips to cool it down.

Amie Quirarte is a luxury real estate agent with Tahoe Luxury Properties in California and Nevada. Connect with her on Facebook or LinkedIn.

How These Agents Found Success in the Face of Tragedy

Posted on by Liza Muhl

Amanda Marsh and Amie Quirarte shared their personal experiences at Inman Connect New York on Thursday and talked about channeling endurance and resilience.

Article Originally Published by Inman Connect

When Amanda Marsh was 15, her life turned upside down.

While visiting her extended family for Thanksgiving in November 1993, she received a phone call from her grandfather detailing the unthinkable: Her mother, father, and sister had all been killed in a car crash on the way to pick her up at the airport, leaving her an orphan.

“I went from being a 15-year-old carefree teenager that wants to go to the mall, to a part of me died with them that day,” Marsh told the crowd at Inman Connect New York on Thursday. “That was my life-defining moment where I looked internally at ‘who am I going to be?’”

Marsh, an agent at Cantrell Real Estate in Springfield, Missouri, spoke on a panel with Amie Quirarte, of Tahoe Luxury Properties, moderated by Inman CEO Emily Paquette about channeling endurance and resilience when confronted with dramatic change.

For Marsh, becoming an orphan left her faced with a choice in how to respond and grieve. Instead of letting herself be crushed, she found ways to be resilient.

“I was not going to crumble, and I was not going to let tragedy define my life,” she said. “I wanted to make my family proud.”

As a result, Marsh says she has kept herself busy for the past 30 years.

“I have been busy since Nov. 27, 1993 — call it what you want, it’s probably most likely a trauma-based response — to pour myself into absolutely everything that I do,” she said. “I’m passionate about anything and everything… it has helped me to become the businesswoman that I am.”

Emily Paquette, Amanda Marsh and Amie Quirarte at Inman Connect New York | Photos by AJ Canaria & Mercedes Santiago of MoxiWorks

For Quirarte, real estate offered an opportunity to succeed regardless of her background.

Quirarte’s father committed suicide when she was 9 years old, and her mother struggled with drug addiction. She was raised by her grandfather, who was married to an addict.

“We had a lot of turbulence in my life,” she said. “Most of my life was spent going in and out of homeless shelters, not knowing where my next meal was going to come from.”

When her grandfather died, Quirarte moved to Santa Barbara to attend community college, a moment she felt was her first opportunity to escape her family’s troubled past.

Because she had no family to support her, she worked several jobs to keep herself afloat while attending school and ended up having to drop out of community college.

“I have never felt like such a failure in my entire life than I did at that time,” she said. “I genuinely had no idea what I would do that would be different than what I was destined to do.”

But then, she started working in the real estate industry.

“It sounds really cheesy and really cliche, but it changed my life in a very big and important way,” she said.

Real estate presented itself to Quirarte as a world where she could achieve real success and where her background couldn’t slow her down, and the only thing that mattered was her own competence.

“It didn’t matter, my education background or my family background,” she said. “Real estate does not discriminate. Success in this business is truly what you make it. It does not have to be about where you came from or what success you’ve had in other ventures. It’s all about you, and that’s awesome.”

 

Amie Quirarte is a luxury real estate agent with Tahoe Luxury Properties in California and Nevada. Connect with her on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Is Cold Calling Dead?

Posted on by Liza Muhl
Article Originally Published by Inman Connect

While the old-school version of this lead-gen method may indeed be over, there’s a contemporary version that’s alive and well, and getting results.

BY AMIE QUIRARTE
December 29, 2022

Cue the deep and ominous music; here comes the dreaded conversation about cold calling.

To cold call or not, that is the question.

Those two words tend to elicit visible and tangible fear and discomfort in most agents. But why? Is it our deep-rooted fear of rejection? Is it because we’ve been told we must follow a script to be successful? Or is it simply because the idea is so foreign to some of us that we’ve created a fear-based mentality around it?

I can tell you from experience that cold calling is alive and well, and has kept my $50 million+ per year business thriving.

Let’s start by throwing out the old idea of cold calling. When people say cold calling is dead, perhaps they mean the old version is dead — and I agree with them. But, in its place, is a type of calling that is effective and useful to the people on both sides of the call. The goal of every agent should not only be a sale, but to provide value to their clients.

The idea that you pick up the phone and randomly dial numbers with the hope that the person picking up with have a pre-approval letter for $1 million and no agent is unrealistic. As much as well all want to believe unicorns exist, let’s get real here. If you spend any of your time cold calling with this belief, you will not get very far.

But if you adjust the way you look at and approach cold calling, it could very well change your entire business for the better.

Here’s how to get started with cold calling:

  1. Before you pick up the phone, make sure you’re calling a farm that is already familiar with you and your business. How can you do that? Start by sending out an introduction letter via snail mail to the same farm you intend on calling. That way, when you pick up the phone to call and reach someone on the other end, they {may} already know who you are, making the transition to a conversation much easier.
  2. Create rapport immediately: Find things in common, talk about events happening in your community or neighborhood. Let them know you’re not another spam robot, and try to have a real conversation from the start. This does not need to be about real estate immediately!
  3. Call the same farm(s) and stay consistent. Consistency is key.
  4. Throw out the boring script. You don’t need it. Can you imagine if the people in your life read from a script every time they spoke to you? We are calling people, which means each person that you reach will have needs and desires that will vary from yourself and others. You must adjust your conversation based on the individual person instead of sticking to the script.
  5. Understand that a No (or an immediate hang-up) is not personal.

When you hang up on spam calls, is it a personal jab to the person who is calling? Absolutely not. You probably don’t even think of the person on the other end in most cases. Remind yourself of this when you start feeling rejection and doubt creeping in. It has nothing to do with you. Let yourself move on to the next call with ease and as Elsa once said, let it go!

  1. After introducing yourself, when the person answers the phone, always ask, “Is now a good time to talk?” If they say no, ask them when a better time would be. This will always create a much better outcome than if you start rambling the second they say Hello. They could be waiting for a call from the doctor or their child’s school, and the last thing they may want to do is talk to you. At least right now. Be mindful and thoughtful of the human on the other end of this call.
  2. Be respectful of people’s boundaries and visit the Do Not Call Registry: https://telemarketing.donotcall.gov/.

It is important to be mindful about who you’re calling, and verifying their information is not on this list. Doing this in advance will save you from a very unpleasant conversation down the road.

I have known many agents who swear that “cold-calling is not for them,” but when I asked how often they tried it or their experience with it, most of them replied by saying they’ve never actually done it. And hey, it may not be for them or you, but with so many top-producing agents seeing success from it, isn’t it worth a try?

If you find yourself at a standstill or a crossroads for marketing and lead generation, give these steps a try. And you might just land yourself a $20 million sale from one phone call as I did.

Amie Quirarte is a luxury real estate agent with Tahoe Luxury Properties in California and Nevada. Connect with her on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Top 6 Things this Real Estate Coach Wants You to Know

Posted on by Liza Muhl

Article Originally Published by Inman Connect

While the real estate market always presents challenges and variables, the way you respond is up to you and you alone. With 2023 on the horizon, what better time to start implementing new strategies than now?

BY AMIE QUIRARTE
December 06, 2022

Despite having coaching clients from all over the country (and a few outside of the country), I consistently hear the same struggles arise for agents. At some point in every agent’s career, you feel like you’re in a gridlock when it comes to business. You may go into the office daily and do all the “right” things, but you still don’t have the leads and sales needed to make this career work.

A quick Google search on “how to generate real estate leads” essentially brings you to a spiral of antiquated information and leaves most agents feeling more hopeless than before their Google spiral.

A few years ago, I developed a coaching program to change how agents view their businesses. I am sharing my top six tips that will help you grow and nurture your business in untraditional ways and, ideally, reignite your passion for this business.

Don’t give up when it gets slow. Work harder than ever

In my experience, when the market starts to shift and things start to feel slow, our confidence and drive as agents begin to shift, too. We start to believe our businesses and markets are “tanking,” and we lose the stamina to keep prospecting every day because it feels discouraging.

I understand how challenging it can be to get up every morning in a slower-paced market and continue to make your calls. How challenging it feels to continue to send your newsletter even when you think no one is reading it or interested. How challenging it feels to continue sending your mailers when the only response you get is to take them off your list. I’ve been there.

The truth is that every successful agent has been there. Your perseverance in these situations sets you apart from every other agent out there. If it feels hard for you, it’s hard for others, too. I know with 100 percent certainty that if you can continue to work hard during these times, you will continue to see success. It may not be immediate, but it will come back to you.

And the agents who aren’t able to continue persevering when times get rough are the ones who will leave the business in the next year.

Be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses

As agents, we are told the countless ways to succeed, whether through door knocking, cold calling, open houses, community events, mailers — you name it. There seems to be an expectation that you must do all these things to be successful, which creates a heavy burden on our shoulders. However, the reality is that you should only be doing what you are good at.

Read that again. You should do what you’re good at. Be honest about where you struggle, and hone in on your strengths. When you find what you’re good at, you should dedicate all your energy and time to that because that is how you will get clients.

Evaluate yourself and each transaction by writing down what went well and what didn’t go so well. Look back and reference these notes often

Self-evaluation is one of the most vital practices we can incorporate into our businesses. Whether you’re seasoned or a brand new agent, each transaction gives us the opportunity to grow and learn. Some of the lessons may seem more evident than others, but if you sit down and truly evaluate each transaction, I guarantee you will learn some lessons that don’t seem as obvious.

Get a transaction notebook, and take five minutes on the day a transaction closes to write down your notes while it is still fresh in your mind.

  • Did you forget to remind the sellers about the utility transfer?
  • Did you compromise on personal boundaries that are important to you by responding to your client’s calls at 9 p.m.?
  • Did you get angry with the other agent and say something you regret?

Write it down. Learn from it, and make sure that you’re improving in the areas you’ve identified with each transaction.

Pro-tip: Do this with your transaction coordinator, and get their take on it, too. 

Get curious about your fears in real estate. When you do this, you can shine a light on what is holding you back

When I start a new coaching session, being honest about their fears is the first task I give my clients. Fear has a different meaning for each of us, and it takes on various forms depending on the person and the circumstances.

My fear has always come out in the form of anxiety. When I’m experiencing anxiety, I tend to think about the worst-case scenario, and, despite my best efforts to prevent this, I live in that space temporarily. It can be a scary space to sit in, but essential nonetheless. I’ve found that this space shows me what is truly important and what I care about most.

So what are your fears? Is it rejection, not making enough money, or botching a transaction? Be honest with yourself about these fears and what is holding you back so you can find ways to safely challenge yourself to overcome these fears.

Find out which systems work for you and which don’t. Release the ones that are no longer serving you

We are constantly fed this idea that you must do things one way to succeed in this business. Do you know what my advice is? Throw that shit out. That’s right. It’s time to get clear on what works best for you. And no one knows that better than you.

You don’t need every CRM, lead generation program, and campaign marketing software. You need what works for you. I have been in the business for over 10 years, and I still use a Google sheet to keep track of my leads. This isn’t because I haven’t tried Top Producer, SalesForce, Zoho, and every other CRM that exists. It’s because, after trial and error, I found the most basic spreadsheet is what works best for me.

I encourage you to try new programs and venture out of your comfort zone, but at the end of the day, you need to find what works for you regardless of what others may tell you. Remember, nobody knows you better than you do.

Find your optimal time for productivity, and work within those hours. Don’t force yourself to work 9 to 5

We all know that one agent who comes into the office every day. They start at 8, leave at 5, and you wonder what the hell they are doing all day long. If that works for them, more power to them, but if it doesn’t work for you, you are not alone.

We are fed the idea that to be “productive” or “successful,” we have to sit in front of a computer for eight hours a day. But, seriously, where did that come from? I am least productive when I sit in front of my computer all day. The beauty of real estate is the flexibility of our schedule. No one says you need to be in your office all day, every day, so why are you?

Start to notice the times when you’re most productive. For example, do you get more done in the morning or afternoon? Can you tailor your schedule to accommodate the times when you’re most productive?

So much of our struggle as agents is finding a healthy work-life balance. If we can commit to knowing ourselves and honoring that, we can create more balance and freedom in our lives. For example, if you work best between 8 a.m. and noon, you can commit to being in your office during those times. And once you get to 12 p.m., you have the freedom to do what will make you feel good.

  • Is it time alone to sit and read a book?
  • Is it time to exercise?
  • Is it time to meditate?

You can start to lean into the pieces of your life that will make you feel like the best version of yourself. When you can release the guilt of being off earlier than your friends and family, you will start to have more of a healthy work-life balance. If you have a healthy work-life balance, your success will only continue to grow because you will be happier in all areas of your life. It’s really that simple.

Real estate is a beautiful business because our actions measure our success. Realtors love to blame the market or their circumstances if they’re having a hard time reaching their pillar of success, but the truth is that our success is entirely up to us and us alone. The market will constantly shift, and there will always be variables outside of our control, but the one thing we can control is how we approach our business and our lives in general.

With 2023 on the horizon, what better time to start implementing these strategies than now?

Amie Quirarte is a luxury real estate agent with Tahoe Luxury Properties in California and Nevada. Connect with her on Facebook or LinkedIn.