29 Years in Real Estate: What Actually Works to Go From Broke to 100 Homes a Year

Most real estate agents struggle with listing sales and the mental toughness required to succeed in this business. Now, I know because I was once in that exact same place where I wasn't selling nearly as many homes as I knew that I was capable of. And look, I know being a real estate agent is hard for so many reasons and very few agents actually succeed. But I am going to share with you how I went from struggling and being broke to selling a hundred homes a year, not once, but for 10 years straight. And this is not going to be another system for you to follow or 10 steps to taking more listings. I'm going to share with you the real struggles and the secrets

That I learned that helped me completely change my approach to being a real estate agent. I think the hardest part where it all starts is agents, especially these days, have so many people telling them what to do and how to do it. There are so many different ways that you can approach your real estate career and that is confusing. You just don't know what to do. In that sense, I know that I was actually very lucky. For one thing, I wasn't really trying to make real estate a career. And I know a lot of people, a lot of agents, they get a real estate license and they have a full-time job. As a matter of fact, 50% of real estate agents, they're

Not working in real estate full-time. And the ones that do work full-time, they work between 40 and 60 hours a week. Almost 25% are working over 60 hours a week. So, when you think about that, I I actually realize what is it that they're doing? Why are they taking so much time and honestly selling so few homes? Because you probably know that the average real estate agent in the United States sells a handful of homes a year and they're putting in so much time. I wrote down a couple of things that I want to make sure I share with you. I get into real estate. I'm a stay-at-home mom. I have a six-month-old daughter and an eight-year-old son. I don't have a college degree. I don't

Have formal education. English is my second language. I am a very shy, introverted person. If you met me at a party at that time, I'd be the one standing in the corner trying to avoid speaking with anybody. That is exactly who I was. So, I understand when agents say, "Oh, I don't like talking to people, much less strangers, and I don't want to be getting rejected all day long, getting hung up on all day long." You could imagine how I felt when I got into real estate. I think the lucky part for me is that I wasn't looking for a way to succeed and make money. I just ran into my broker one day and he's like, "Oh, you got to take this class cuz you're going to learn how to make a

Lot of money." And I I got my six-month-old on my hip as he's speaking. And I said, "Well, I don't have a babysitter. I don't have money." I was also paycheck to paycheck, my ex-husband's paycheck to paycheck, not even mine. Like I said, I was a stay-at-home mom. So, I'm like, "Yeah, this is not going to work." And he was very persistent. So, I ended up figuring out, put the registration on a credit card, which I know I know that's what a lot of agents do. They feel like I'm spending my last dollar on this year. This better work because if it doesn't work, my career is over for me. Again, I'm living paycheck to paycheck. It doesn't matter. He was so, how am I

Going to say? He was so convincing. He was so uh passionate about what he was saying. I'm like, "Okay, I I'll sign up for this." It was actually Floyd Wickman Sweatthogs. That's the class that I actually signed up with. And all they do is talk, well, they do talk about buyers, but they really put the focus on working with listings because it's a lot less time invested. And I understand again, a lot of agents are working way more than 40 hours a week and not making enough money. And I realized that, okay, so what do I have to do to focus on listings? Well, you're going to have to talk to people. Doesn't sound like the most fun thing for me to do, and I'm

Sure you feel the same way, but I saw a huge opportunity. At that point in my life, before I quit my job to stay home with my daughter, who's now 6 months old, I was working in a hotel making $30,000 a year. And I started doing a little math and I'm thinking, hm, back then average commission for me was $5,000. average price price was low, but I thought if I just sell 10 homes a year. I mean, I was, you know, I had to I had a big split with my broker when I first started. But I'm thinking that doesn't seem so hard to do even if I just sell 10 homes. I get to keep almost as much money as I was doing working full-time in a hotel. And if I really

Learn how to do this, I could make a lot of money. I saw an opportunity as all of you do have. Back then, I wasn't thinking about making a million dollars a year. I'm just like, if I if I can make as much money as I was, working in a hotel while I stay home, taking care of my house and my kids, I'm good. That's where I started. And I know a lot of you are just you you just want to get by. But there is an opportunity and I learned a little bit later to make hundreds of thousands of dollars or even million dollars a year when you learn how to work in real estate focused on listings. And I'm going to share with you again some of the secrets that I

Learned as I started on this path in my career. The difficult thing also is when you first start, probably your broker, manager, and other agents are telling you, you know what, don't worry. Don't worry about listings. That's very hard and very few agents can do it. Call all the people you know. Work your sphere of influence. Go do open houses. Start working with buyers. You need to make some money now. you can't wait to to start taking listings and then they they have to sell and if they're overpriced, you know, they just you're getting advice from people that are not doing a whole lot in real estate. A lot of it is just outdated ideas. They don't know

What it takes to actually focus on listings and take a lot of listings. So, they're giving you the best advice possible. the problem with your sphere of influence and I'm not against sphere although I never called I mean I knew very few people that's the truth so it's like I I I could call them all in like one day and then what what am I going to do but even if you have a couple hundred people in your sphere of influence to get business from it takes time you have to build a relationship you have to build trust in them as you being a great real estate agent so It's not easy and it's not immediate. I actually had the realization that I attended that class.

I'm like, "Okay, great. I can talk to people and I can definitely I believe that I could make the same or slightly more money than I did working in my hotel job, which eventually I was going to have to get back to when my daughter started school." And I had this realization that if I actually focus all of my energy, my time and effort, which my time was nights and weekends because during the day I'm cleaning, cooking, taking care of the house. On weekends, my ex-husband was home. He could take care of of the kids and I could actually get on the phone. So nights and weekends, if I dedicate all my time, energy, and effort to talking to people as they as they

Said to find someone who wants to sell. I'm going to find somebody. So, it's only a matter of time. And when I started, I was calling people around my neighborhood for comfort reasons. I was scared of talking to homeowners of properties. I lived in a $150,000 house and I was scared of speaking with someone that owned a three, four $500,000 house. I thought there's something different about them. They're more educated. Uh I it's a different conversation. So I started calling in the neighborhood where I lived because I was comfortable there. I knew the streets. I knew the model of the houses. The price was around the same of my house. So, I started there and I did

Start also calling a lot of for sale by owners in that same neighborhood where I live. Prices were similar. This is in 1996. That's when I got a real estate license. I remember my first listing. I talked to about 700 people in my neighborhood until somebody was ready to list. Like, I was like, "Okay, come over. I'm interested in selling." I remember my first few listings, but this one in particular taught me a huge lesson because that very first listing expired after all of the work and all of the time and all of the conversations. You know what it is to take a listing and like I'm so excited. You know the roller coaster in real estate like, "Oh my

Gosh, I love this and I hate this. I can't do it anymore." That listing never sold. it expired. And that was a huge huge lesson for me because even though I ended up selling 25 homes my first year in real estate, which wasn't bad, two of those were buyers, one was a house that I listed and they needed to buy another house in the same neighborhood. I listed their house in the neighborhood where I lived. They needed to buy a little bit bigger house. They were qualified. They were ready. and I took them out and they bought a house. And the other one was somebody I knew that was pre-qualified, ready to buy. Those were easy. I mean, buyers are usually not that easy. I I

Didn't actually work with random buyers that call you from a sign and stuff like that. I never did that because I didn't have the time. I had, like I said, one of my huge realizations, and I want you to make I want to make sure you heard this and you understand. Of all the things that you're hearing people tell you to do, pick one and put all of your time, energy, and effort into figuring out how to do it efficiently and go all in. That's what I did. And I chose listings because, again, I wasn't looking for advice from everywhere. And so that listing didn't sell. I sold 25 homes, but I actually found a lot of people that were interested in selling.

I listed a lot of for sale by owners with the wrong approach. I would say for me at the time was the only approach they knew. I kept calling them until they got tired of what they were doing and they were ready to list. And that for me at that time took between two and 3 months for them to just get tired of it and say, "Okay, come list my house." And I never forget the very first FSBO that I listed. And I asked him, I said, "Oh, you know, we've been talking for for a few months." Uh the first time, well, the first time I spoke with them, let's say three months before, they told me I could come over and talk to them. So, I went, I did a market analysis. You

Know, back then, nobody had information on home prices online. So, actually doing a market analysis was a big deal. I go, I talk to him for a couple hours cuz that's what I was doing back then. And he doesn't want to list cuz he's not ready. Three months later, he says he's ready. I kept calling him every week. And he said, I I asked him, "Why did you list with me?" You said cuz you were the only one that are still calling. Like the first week and first couple of weeks when we put this house for sale by owner, we were getting so many calls from real estate agents, but now you're the only one that's still calling. So, you get to take this listing. I'm like,

Huh, okay, I'm grateful that one actually sold, but this is not sustainable. I can't do this longterm. as I started to see the possibility of making a lot of money if I actually learn how to do this, if I learn how to communicate. So, I started thinking, okay, let me put myself in the position of an expired listing and a for sale by owner and figure out why is an expired listing angry and frustrated? Why is a for sale by owner not interested in listing with an agent? I mean, that one was an easy one for me because I was a FSBO before I got a real estate license. I just wanted to save money and not have to pay a commission to a real estate agent. So, I started actually really

Taking the time to understand my audience. Who am I speaking with? And I realized also that for sale by owners and expired listings are they're harder to speak with than all of these people in my neighborhood that I'm just randomly calling, but they want to sell. So instead of that first listing I took that expired, talked to 700 people to list the house, I can call for sale by owner and I know they want to sell. If I figure out how to have a conversation with them that kind of shows them how I'm going to help them in ways that will not cost them money, but actually make them money. I got down this rabbit hole and this path to really figuring out how

To do that, how to handle sellers objections because I was like you. If you pick up the phone today and it's the first time that you're doing this, of course, you have no idea what to do. You have no idea what to say. They're going to give you a bunch of objections. You don't know how to respond. I was in that exact same place. I started making list of the objections. Started to realize every day my list look the same. Every for sale by owner said, "I don't want to pay a commission. Oh, I'm doing great. I could sell it myself. And if I need help and I decide to list with an agent, I have a friend that has a license expired listing. Same thing every day. I'm I'm

Writing down the objections I'm getting that I don't know how to respond. And it was the same thing every single day. So I'm like, it's not like I have to figure out uh hundred different objection handlers. It's the same thing every day. So I decided that I was gonna figure it out. And you know the good news is there is a path to doing this. Now on my channel there's so many videos where I help you. I teach you how to how to I teach you what I learn. I learned it the hard way. There was no easy way. And there isn't an easy way now. You could watch all of these videos on my channel and I'm going to tell you exactly what to do and what what to say. But you have

To now actually, it's not just hearing me give you the the the words or or downloading my script book. No, now you have to actually make it your own. You're going to have to really learn it so you could use it. But it's hard, but not all that hard. Okay. Expired listings, too. You know, this um the lesson I told you I learned about overpriced listings don't sell. I know that's a huge misconception for real estate agents that back then and now. Oh, expired listings, they're all overpriced and they're not going to lower the price, so it's a waste of my time. They're so hard to talk to and then they're not going to lower the price, so I don't want to bother with

This. And I've heard this from the very first day that I got into real estate. For sale by owners, they don't list the house with an agent right away. They take time. It's going to take weeks and months for them to list the property. And the the first several that I listed were exactly like that. I learned that from banging my head and wasting my time for two years until I started coming up with what I teach agents now, which is the value of actually working with an agent. How do you more than make up for the commission that you charge? That is the secret to listing for sale by owners right away, not 3 months later. And this is probably the most important thing of

All. My success depends on what I believe I can do. What I believe is possible for me. how much money I can earn depends on what I believe. And uh that was not an easy thing for me to for me to hear. As a matter of fact, when I first heard you become what you think about most of the time, all kinds of different quotes and and and being recommended books about, you know, what you believe and controlling your thinking. I was like totally confused up until that moment in my life. I just thought that life is whatever cards I was dealt and based on where I was at in my life, I already explained to you where I was. I didn't see much of any possibility that I could make hundreds

Of thousands of dollars a year. And I had to put in a lot of time, energy, effort into changing how I think. And I do that every day up until this day. That is not a single day since I got into real estate and I learned this that I don't work on controlling my thinking, choosing very carefully what I think, what I say. Is it perfect? Not even close. Okay. But it's a lot better than it used to be. I had a lot of fears, a lot of doubt. Do I still have fears and doubt? Of course. I'm a human being. But a lot way I mean I cannot even I don't even recognize that person. Now we're talking almost 29 years after I got a real estate license, but I still work on it and I still have

Moments when I doubt certain things that I'm doing and I want to stay in my comfort level here. I don't want to change and do things differently. But that is required for you to have huge success in real estate. So putting great information in your head, learning from modeling people that have done what you want to do. So you don't have to learn the hard way like I did. You're going to still have to learn some things by doing it the wrong way and you're going to have rejection. All of those things are going to happen. But when you follow a model that actually works, things are a lot easier. And I said in the beginning, it's hard. 87% of real estate agents

Fail after five years. They've given up their real estate license. A lot of them within three years. So, it is hard because it requires discipline and discipline in doing the right things the right way and going all in. And then there's the word accountability which is greatly misunderstood. You have to set goals, create a plan to achieve your goals, and you have to hold yourself accountable to those goals. Nobody's going to come to save you. I realize that, too. I used to continuously have excuses for why I wasn't able to do what I what I kept saying that I wanted to do. When this happens, when that happens, when that person does this, when this person

Doesn't do that, then I'll be able to do what I say, you know, what I want to do. And that's never going to happen. Accountability is myself actually following through on what I say I'm going to do. It's not expecting anybody to do anything for you. That was a hard that was a hard lesson. I didn't learn that in the first couple of years. Okay. It took me a good maybe 10 years to fully understand that because yeah, my fourth year in real estate, I sold 100 homes. It was amazing. And then I kept doing that and I it's been great. Real estate has been like the such a huge blessing in my life. But I I s I struggled with expecting people to do certain things

Before I could actually do what I was supposed to do. Learn from my mistakes. Whatever needs to be done, you have to do it. And accountability is not someone waking you up in the morning and telling you, "Come on, get out of bed. You gotta do this. You gotta do that. You gotta prospect. You gotta No, it's you actually holding yourself accountable to the goals that you set the and the plan that you created. You have clarity." And of course, you have to have a reason why you want to do this. I had a reason. My reason was just I don't want to be broke anymore. I didn't want to feel like I don't have control of my life. I depend on somebody else and life is the way it

Is. I I had a huge desire to change that. And you got to have a huge desire to do something because if you don't, I don't care how big or small it is, it doesn't matter. But when you want something badly enough, you always figure out how to get it. It doesn't matter what you have to go through. It's going to happen. There are a lot of other videos on my channel that will help you in this path to having the real estate career of your dreams. And if you are ready to join a a an amazing community of powerful agents that are turning their real estate dreams into reality every single day. Check the link in the description of this video. Sales X training is where I have a huge

Community of powerful agents that are learning exactly the things that I talked to you about today. And thanks for watching. I will see you soon.