10 Habits of Highly Successful Real Estate Agents

There are several crucial habits that highly successful real estate agents practice routinely in order to make six or even seven figures every year.

The Habits of Highly Successful Real Estate Agents Are As Follows:

1. Eliminate Self-Doubt
2. Successful Realtors Model Other Successful Realtors
3. Successful Real Estate Agents “Practice” Patience
4. Successful Real Estate Agents Do Not Allow Ego To Control
5. Successful Realtors Learn From Failure
6. Great Morning Habits
7. Consistency
8. They Practice Daily
9. Time Management Habits
10. Successful Real Estate Agents Work With Fear

Habit #1 – Successful Realtors Eliminate Self-Doubt

Self-Doubt =  Lack of Confidence in Oneself and One’s Abilities.

This is what I was doing.  I was creating self doubt before even trying.  I was fulfilling my head of all the bullshit that could happen.  I was looking at the competition and how successful they were.  I was driving a Jeep Wrangler, how can I compete with this guy who is driving an AMG Mercedes?

The highly successful do not think this way.  The think how can they get to that point.  They print out pictures of their goals and dreams and look at them on a daily basis.  Anything we believe we achieve.  The same goes for the reverse – Doubt.  If we think we can’t, sure enough we cannot.  The result will follow.

A very powerful book is called Think And Grow Rich.  Napoleon Hill studied the most successful people on planet earth and put it in this book.  This is a must read for anyone who wants to really develop their mind set.  Which should be every single person.

Once I began to get confident in my mindset, things began to happen.  I stood differently. I spoke differently.  I began to get the confidence of others in me.  I was closing real estate transactions and on my way to my number one goal – Financial Freedom.  Check out this article on How To Retire in 7 Years.

Habit #2 – Successful Realtors Model Other Successful People

Highly successful people are always looking to build upon.  They will always try to get themselves to higher levels.  In doing so they model those who are more successful even outside of the real estate industry.  For years I would attend the Superstar retreat and see these men and women on stage talking about how much money they were making a year. $800,000 one says.  $1,200,000 another person says.  I had to find out exactly what they were doing and replicate it.

I’m not saying I got to these numbers in my real estate career, but I can tell you if you, if you just replicate what other successful people are doing you will share in the percentage of success.  I’d say it is guaranteed if the work is put forth.

Now we never want to steal someone’s marketing or work in any kind of unethical manner.  We just want to study those who are successful and implement actions that are comparable to theirs.  An incredible sales coach, Grant Cardone, who I follow, attend seminars and purchased many of his resources like 10X, has been a great inspiration to me one one to model after.

This guy is not just a sales coach but also one of the largest private real estate investors in the USA.  He has a great story.  I’ll drop a link to his resource page below for you.

In his book 10X, I am modeling his concept on how to multiply your business by 10 times.  Now I am venturing into other businesses at this point in my life.  And I’m incredibly grateful for being able to.  Example – I was buying and flipping about 4-6 properties a year.  Now if I want to 10X that (40-60 properties a year), I have to figure the following:  I have to preview 10 times more properties each week.  I have to write 10 times more offers each week.  I have to possibly raise some cash and / or bring on equity partners.  I have to turn my main handyman into possibly my main foreman and even give him a piece of each deal.

Grant has a simple way of looking at things.  If something is working and you are having success, well then if you just multiply the action by a certain amount you will have that much more success.  Check out his stuff below.

Habit #3 – Successful Real Estate Agents “Practice” Patience

Patience – The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble or suffering without getting angry or upset.

I say “practice” because that is really what it is all about.  I think this world is filled with noise.  It is extremely hard to be 100% stress-less and not allow day to day things especially in the real estate industry not to bother you.

Maybe it was the Jersey in me, but man I would be quick to pop off on real estate agents, debating and getting angry at these people.  Angry because they didn’t know how to negotiate or they were emotional thus getting me upset.  So where did it land me and my clients?  Nowhere… And all I did was hurt my clients.  The clients are the emotional one’s.  We should be the reasonable one in order to transact effectively.

The highly successful are cool, calm and collected.  They process those who are emotional, upset or angry and work angles to get them on the same page in order to get all parties what they want.  This type of mindset and processing gets one to become a master negotiator.  An awesome read is The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck – Check it out.  It puts things into prospective.

Quick Story

“Steve, I sell over $15,000,000 of real estate every year.  My clients are not going to go for such as low ball offer. My clients do not want to counter.”  Ummm… Huh? I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle this dipshit.  This guys ego was so out of control it deterred him from really effectively helping his own client.  And that was more-so the reason why I was pissed.  What a disservice.  By the way, the offer was $480,000 on a $525,000 ask.  8.5% below asking price.  I’m not sure if he even presented the offer . We would have gone to $500k and got the deal done.  It sold for $490k.  Don’t be this guy.  Leading me into the next Habit.

Habit #4 – Successful Real Estate Agents Do Not Allow Ego To Control

Ego – A person’s sense of self-esteem or self importance.

Confidence – The feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust.

Do you see the difference?  Ego is a “self” issue while Confidence is all about belief.  Ego is “I sell $15MM of real estate every year, so don’t tell me how to talk to my client.”  Confidence is “Thank you for your offer of $480,000. I believe this maybe a little low for our seller, however, I believe we can put a deal of some sort together if both parties are willing to move.”

Confidence is believing and trusting the actions you are doing on a daily basis to achieve the goals that were set forth. Just be sure you are not crossing over the line.  If you have self esteem issues then write them down. Study them. Figure out what is the cause.  It is ok.  Everyone has some level of low self esteem at some point.  Work on it and you will be just fine.  If you do not work on it, you will see how you treat others and it isn’t going to be pretty.  It will also limit your success.

Habit #5 – Successful Realtors Learn From Failure

Failure = Lack of Success

Failure is inevitable.  If you are not failing on a regular basis then you are not trying.  You are flat lined.  You are not doing what you should be doing on this Earth which is growing and prospering.

Now, those who are out there trying and failing, must use failure to their advantage.  I personally love to fail.  Reason is when I fail, I usually have learned a very valuable lesson.  Some of the greatest inventions come from another failed invention.  The highly successful use failure as the fuel to their successes.

Quick Story

I remember one time around the age of 12, being in a wrestling tournament and getting second place.  I wanted first place so badly.  We got up on stage to accept our awards and I almost broke down crying.  I had to do everything from exploding with tears and being made fun of.  Afterwards, my coach came up to me congratulated me and ask what’s wrong.  I broke down crying to him.  For what?  I’ve failed.  He asked one powerful question that I will remember forever…  “What did you learn?”  I drew a blank.  “I don’t know.”  He said, “You do know.  You know exactly how and why you got beat by that last guy.”

He was right.  I did know.  So what did we do the next several weeks?  We practiced over and over on the techniques he used to be me and pin me down.  I wrestled him again about a month later.  Day and night.  I’ll let you guess who took that match.

This is a very simple example of learning from our failures.  When we dissect it without emotion we can dig into what really happened.

Habit #6 – Highly Successful Real Estate Agents Have An Incredible Morning Routine

I’ve mentioned this book several times on this site. The Miracle Morning.  Pick it up.  You will not be disappointed.

Your morning sets the entire day.  I had a very hard time figuring this out until I read this book.  I was so used to hitting snooze on my alarm, rushing out the door.  Not eating breakfast and going to work on making some real estate sales.

What a big mistake for years!  The successful use their mornings for themselves.  Be selfish when it comes to your morning.  You maybe saying all the excuses.  I’ve got kids.  I don’t have the time.  I am tired.  I am not a morning person.  And so on…

The successful will do what it takes to even have 20 minutes of time for themselves in the morning.  You can get a lot done in 20 minutes.  So go for it.  Try it.  Trust me, this challenge below will not hurt you or set you back.

30 Day Challenge

Take at least 4 things from Hal’s book above and implement them into your morning for 30 days.  One of the four has to be writing down one thing that you are grateful for.  It is such a simple task that will have big changes on your life and your mind.  You will feel better, less stressed and depressed.

Habit #7 – Consistency Is The Main Habit Of Successful Real Estate Agents

Consistency – Conformity in the application of something.

The highly successful are consistent in almost everything they do.  Their mornings are completed with the same self worth tasks.  They practice their scripts for a certain amount of time each day.  They hit their sales calls numbers each day.  They hit their lead follow up calls each day.  They hit their Sphere Of Influence numbers each day.  They do a certain number of buyer and listing presentations each week.  They win.

It doesn’t matter what you are consistent with, it will have a result to follow.  If you consistently eat fast food, you will have a result of being unhealthy and likely overweight.  If you consistently work out you will have a result of being tone and in shape.

If you are consistent in your daily work routine, great results will come your way.  Just have patience.

Habit #8 – Successful Real Estate Agents Have Great Practice Habits

Practice – the actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method as opposed to theories about such application or use.

I like the last part of this sentence “as opposed to theories about such application.”  Do you know what that means to me? Talk. Just bullshit “talk.”  You know what I am talking about…  These are the people who talk a good game but never get shit done or accomplish much.  They talk, talk and talk.

The successful practice their techniques and get better and better everyday that they practice.  Let’s say you are a new real estate agent.  You should spend at least an hour a day on practicing your scripts, dialogues, objection handlers and presentation.

Habit #9 – The Successful Have Great Time Management Habits

This is one commodity we cannot get back. It is one common element that we all share.  However, it is one thing that people either use wisely or not at all. I believe those who are truly successful respect time.  They are not inundated with petty things that take them away from the important tasks that ultimately create freedom.

I think this is the reason why my personal goal was Financial Freedom.  I knew I didn’t want to work for the rest of my life, rather an option to.  I knew I wanted to have the flexibility to use my time to travel whenever I want and to spent time with family when I want.  I wanted to have the time to explore new ventures and the time to explore new avenues of building other things that i find interest in.  Work is no longer work to me.

I feel the highly successful can do as much work in 1.5 hours than 80% of the population can do in a full day of work. I see it daily with real estate agents who just waste time away.  But why?  We are here for a finite amount of time as human beings.  So what are you doing with your time?  I did a video called “Work 2 Hours then Go to the Beach.” Some people got it and others called me saying, I really want only work for 2 hours a day.  I said I bet you do.  They were serious though.  They don’t realize all the time necessary that needs to go into building a business to having the luxury of really working 2 hours a day or week…

My point was if you work aggressively for 2 hours a day on income producing activities, then the rest of your schedule will fill up.

Habit #10 – They Work With Fear.  Instead Of Against It.

And Finally… Fear – An unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

Another way I have heard this is:  False Evidence Appearing Real.   Clever huh?

Has there ever been a time where you had to speak in front of a group of people for the first time.  Your chest gets heavy, there is sweat coming from every area on your body beginning to seep through your clothing, you stumble your words and you speak so fast people cannot understand what you are saying.  I know I have been there!

Quick Story

I was in college and took public speaking.  The professor was at the time the dean of the college.  A real intimidating type of a guy.  The first day we all walk in and sit down.  Within 30 minutes he says, ok.  Get in a line and come to the front of the room.  In this box you will pick out two slips of paper that are folded.  Do not look at them until I tell you to do so.  Each piece of paper had two words on them. Mine was “water” and “road.”

He then tells us (on the first day!!) we are all going to individually come up and speak about those two words using them two times each in our presentation.  We all had 20 minutes to figure what we were going to say.  With no script or paper to read from.

I was terrified.  What the heck was I going to talk about…  I bombed this presentation.  I actually got a D for a grade. First day.  What the heck was I doing in this class.  I wanted to withdraw but knew I had to confront my fear of public speaking which I didn’t even know I had.  I end the course with a C and I was proud of it.

No matter what you do in life you will have Fear from time to time.  It is inevitable.  These are the things that are outside of our comfort level.  This is the fear of calling a FSBO or knocking the door of an expired listing.  The successful work with Fear by using ALL the techniques above.  Your Fear levels will decrease over time.

Thank you for reading this article.   If you got some value out of this, please share with your fellow real estate agent.  Also take a look at all the other articles on this site.  Thank you!

Want to jumpstart your business??

**FSBO’s, Expired Listings, For Rent By Owners, Pre-Foreclosure (Short Sales), Geo Areas – The link below will waive their $149 sign on fee!!  Explode your business right now!  Click below for more details.