The 3 Biggest Limiting Beliefs in Real Estate

What’s holding you back from the success and financial security that you’ve been dreaming of?

Is it competing agents? Is it the changing market?

No, more likely than not, the only thing holding you back from a highly successful real estate career is you. It’s not that you aren’t working hard enough, or even that you lack the skills and experience needed to get more clients and higher commissions.

It’s the fact that you’re not taking the steps needed to build a bigger, more profitable real estate business.

Like most agents, you’re letting limiting beliefs hold you back from the massive growth and success that you ARE capable of. If you’re able to overcome these limiting beliefs, nothing can stop you from achieving your greatest career goals.

No one knows this better than broker Chris Watters.

Chris Watters: From Couch Surfer to Highly Successful Broker

Today, Chris Watters is a highly successful broker with a team that closes over 100 transactions per month, but as he describes during Episode 707 of the Real Estate Rockstars Podcast, his real estate career didn’t have the smoothest start.

After getting his license in 2006, he worked under a large brokerage for about four months, closing a total of six deals before opting to get out of the business.

Three years later, Chris lost everything after making a bad investment in a restaurant business. He was sleeping on his girlfriend’s couch, living off of 99 cent taquitos, and struggling to get back on his feet.

It was during this time that Chris decided to give real estate another shot.

Despite the fact that Chris had only sold six homes over the course of his real estate career, he was able to become a broker because he kept his license active.

So, in 2010, Chris started his first real estate team. He had very limited transactional experience, but he managed to build a successful, highly profitable team quickly because he never let limiting beliefs hinder his progress.

To discover what the three biggest limiting beliefs in real estate are and Chris’ strategies for overcoming them, read on.

1.  You Need Credibility and Experience to Recruit

Many real estate professionals, even those who have built a successful, stable business, are afraid to recruit new agents.

Why?

According to Chris, it’s because they believe that they need a massive amount of credibility and experience in order to recruit and train new team members.

Here’s the simple fact: you don’t need hundreds of deals under your belt and a decade or more of real estate experience to grow.

When building a team, recruiting to the leads is an effective starting strategy, one that countless brokers have utilized successfully.

Think about it this way: by offering leads to new agents, you’re essentially financing their success.

That alone is a huge value proposition, but it’s not the only thing you bring to the table.

Even with only a few years of experience, your mentorship is worth more than you think. You’ve made countless cold calls and been through those gut-wrenching initial listing appointments, right?

You’ve done all that and found ways to get a successful start in real estate.

This is exactly the type of guidance new agents need, and who better to provide it than someone who has recent, relevant experience.

2. You Need to Close Tons of Deals to Cover Lead Gen

Sure, running a team can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to cost as much as the average agent seems to think.

For those considering starting a team, one of the biggest expenses to worry about is lead generation. In order to supply a team of agents with enough leads, you’d have to be closing a massive amount of deals, right?

Wrong.

Chris found a way to fund his team’s lead generation through contributions made by other companies in his market.

Through something Chris calls the “Brand Ambassador Program,” he pulls in over $50,000 per month – money that he uses to cover his entire team’s lead-gen costs.

Essentially, it’s a sponsorship program.

In exchange for putting money toward Chris’ team, contributing businesses make Chris’ list of preferred vendors. This gets them the recommendation of Chris and his agents, which helps these businesses bring in more clients – a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Oh, and these aren’t just settlement service providers; there’s a variety of different local businesses that contribute. Any business you’d be willing to recommend to a client is a potential candidate. In other words, the quality of a business’ product or service is far more important than the type.

3. You Should Only Hire One or Two Agents at a Time

Adequate guidance helps new agents succeed, but how much is enough?

Inexperienced team leaders often play it on the safe side, dedicating way too much time toward agent development. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing for agents, it spreads the team leader thin, giving them only enough bandwidth to bring on one or two agents at a time.

Unfortunately for team leaders, this extra time and effort rarely results in better outcomes for new hires.

Three-fourths of new agents fail, and despite your best efforts with new hires, the majority of the people you hire will either quit or fail before bringing much, if any, value to the team.

So, while considering who you hire carefully is always important, only bringing on one or two agents at a time won’t increase your team’s chances of success; it’ll just slow down your progress.

When hiring, Chris recommends bringing in at least five agents at a time. Not only does this make it more likely that you’ll get at least one quality hire, but it also gives you the ability to evaluate multiple agents’ progression over a vetting period of approximately 90 days.

By the end of 90 days, you should be able to tell which agents are worth retaining and who is unlikely to be a fit for your team. Then, after going through this process with one group of agents, you can start again with another set of hires.

Through group hiring, you’ll build a bigger, more successful team much faster than you’d ever be able to manage with only one or two hires at a time.

So, are you ready to start growing your real estate business exponentially? Now that you know what’s holding you back and how to overcome it, the only thing left to do is to take action.

Good Luck!