What is the single most important activity?

Question from new agent: What would be the single most important activity for a newly licensed agent to do in order to get listings?

The most important activity is prospecting. Of course, with the DO NOT CALL list, this presents a problem for someone who doesn't have a large sphere of influence. It is safe to assume that with over 60 millions names on the "Do Not Call" list, most people you might want to call don't want to hear from you.

But there are other ways you can do prospecting calls. For example, ask your broker for the orphan clients list from the last 18 months. Those are the people who bought or sold a property using your firm but their agent is not working with your company anymore. Since there is always an amazing turnover in real estate (only 20% of agents who enter the business stay in real estate longer a year!), such a list can be a good start.

Don't expect a miracle from recontacting those people. It will take some time to get their business and referrals. Add those people to your database and court them, so that in future, when they will want to buy or sell real estate, they will come to you.

For much faster results work with FSBOs and Expireds. It has always been the gold mine for smart real estate agents. No need to waste your time looking for prospects - expireds are easy to find through MLS and FSBOs are advertising to be visible. The best thing is that the majority of them will list within the next 30 days!

With new laws regarding telephone solicitation, you cannot cold call expireds and FSBO prospects - but you CAN write to them and you can visit them! That's good news because, there is NO more powerful strategy to establish rapport and trust than meeting face to face.