A new agent asked me what my plan would be for her.
Before I answered, I asked her one question: is this going to be full-time, or are you trying it out?
She said trying it out.
Now, you can start part-time, if you need a steady income while you’re building. But you cannot treat this business like a weekend activity and expect it to produce. At some point, pretty early on, you have to make a real decision about whether this is your career or just an experiment.
That’s the first question any new agent has to answer. The second is equally important, and most new agents get it completely wrong: what’s your elevator pitch, and does it actually say anything worth hearing?
Let’s break it down.
Will you be a full-time agent?
Plenty of agents have built real businesses while working another job in the early months. What they didn’t do is walk into every client conversation without knowing which direction they were heading.
Any uncertainty you have about your commitment comes through in how you talk about yourself, how you follow up, how seriously you take the next opportunity in front of you.
The longer you sit in the middle, the harder it gets to build any momentum. Clients can tell when someone is all in on them (or when they’re not), and that starts with being all in on yourself first.
Here’s what being undecided costs you early:
- Every client conversation is shaped by how serious you are about the business. People read that.
- Your follow-up reflects your commitment level, whether you mean it to or not.
- Referrals come from people who believe you’re going to be around. Sitting on the fence doesn’t inspire that kind of confidence.
So make the decision. And make it soon.
What’s your elevator pitch?
Most new agents lead with enthusiasm.
- “I love real estate.”
- “I’m so passionate about helping people find their dream home.”
Every agent in your market is saying some version of that, and none of it tells a potential client why they should trust you with one of the biggest financial decisions of their life.
A real elevator pitch answers one question for the person in front of you:
How does working with me get you where you need to go?
When I got into this business, I went bankrupt on my own real estate investments. I bought three homes between the ages of 19 and 21, had no idea what I was doing, and fell flat on my face.
That became my pitch. I’d look people in the eye and tell them I have an Ivy League degree in real estate, and I earned it by making every mistake in the book before I ever worked with a single client. My job is to make sure they don’t make the same ones.
That resonated because it was specific and it brought them into the equation.
Here’s what a strong elevator pitch actually does:
- It tells the client what you bring that no one else can replicate.
- It frames your experience, whatever it is, around their outcome.
- It gives them a reason to believe you have their back before you’ve done a single deal together.
You don’t need ten years in the business to build this. You need honesty about what you bring and the discipline to frame it around the client.
Everything Else Gets Figured Out Along the Way
There’s a lot of advice around what new agents should be doing.
Build your sphere. Post on social media. Door knock. Cold call. Pick a farm.
All of it has merit, and none of it matters if you haven’t answered the two questions that actually set the foundation.
- Are you in?
- When someone asks you why they should work with you, do you have a real answer?
Those are the things I’d focus on first. Get those right, and the tactics start to make sense. Stay fuzzy on both and you’re just busy without a direction.
The agent who asked me that question is starting from zero in one of the most competitive real estate markets in the country. Committing to the business and walking into every conversation with a pitch that means something gives her a fighting chance.
Skipping either one makes the whole thing a lot harder than it needs to be.
