The Millionaire Real Estate Agent

The Millionaire Real Estate Agent is about how you can systematically build a thriving real estate business, drawing lessons both about the professional as well as the personal side of things.

Gary Keller was an operator for many years. He built his business from the ground up, long before he started writing and teaching others what he learned. To this day, the 3 L model is his baseline.

He built it by thinking about what success means for a real estate business in reverse. A good real estate agent seals the deal on a lot of contracts for his customers – every contract means a home sold and a commission in the real estate agent’s pocket.

But there can’t be any contracts signed without listings of available property first – and to list someone’s property, they need to hire you, which is why you need leads.

So after flipping the process on its head, you can see that it all begins with a big number of leads. Kinda like in freelance, having more leads coming in than you can handle means you get to cherry-pick the best ones, which will turn into better listings and more contracts.

Listings are a result of having more seller leads than buyer leads. Each seller has a property to list, but each buyer only wants to see your listings. As a matter of fact, the viewings that result from your listings are more than enough buyer marketing, because many people will attend them, get to know you and maybe hire you later. So always focus on homeowners who want to sell.

Lastly, leveraging systems, tools, and people will help you grow your business, get more done, and make more profit. There’s only so much you can do alone, but with a sales manager, social media software, or a workflow for each lead, you’ll be able to grow without spreading yourself too thin.

Gary tells two remarkable stories about embracing failure. One is about Abraham Lincoln, who went bankrupt twice, lost a bid for a legislative seat, screwed up not one, but two congressional campaigns, two senatorial campaigns, and a vice presidency campaign – all before eventually becoming president. The second one is about Roger Bannister breaking the 4-minute mile record, a mental barrier that couldn’t be overcome for years until he did it, and two months later someone else broke his record. This is the point that stuck with me though: In this race against failure, which is really just a race to become a better person, there’s no finish line. As Seth Godin once put it: the goal in skiing isn’t to get to the bottom of the hill. It’s to get in…