How to Get Into Real Estate and Build a Strong Career
To start a career in real estate, you’ll need to meet your state’s licensing requirements, complete your education, pass the licensing exam, choose a brokerage, and develop a plan to attract clients. Getting licensed is the first milestone. Building a sustainable business is what comes next.
Starting out in real estate can feel overwhelming. You’re stepping into a new industry, learning how to generate your own income, and trying to build momentum. Real estate school gives you the basics, but it rarely teaches you what day-to-day success really looks like.
This guide covers the path into the business, from licensing and choosing a brokerage to creating your first lead-generation systems. Once you’re working as an agent, our new real estate agent tips offer a deeper checklist for building your business.
How to Get Into Real Estate in 7 Steps
There are seven essential steps to getting into real estate: understand your state’s requirements, complete approved education, pass the licensing exam, activate your license, choose a brokerage, establish your business systems, and begin generating leads.
- Research your state’s requirements. Each state establishes its own rules for education, exams, background checks, application fees, and license eligibility. Start with your state’s real estate licensing authority.
- Complete your pre-licensing education. Enroll in a state-approved real estate school or program. Course hours and delivery options vary by state.
- Pass the real estate licensing exam. Prepare for national real estate principles and state-specific regulations, depending on your jurisdiction.
- Activate your license. Complete the required application, background checks, brokerage sponsorship, or other steps your state requires before practicing.
- Choose a brokerage. Evaluate training, mentorship, commission splits, fees, technology, culture, and opportunities to work with experienced agents.
- Set up your business foundation. Organize your contacts, choose a CRM, establish a weekly schedule, and build a business plan for real estate that connects your daily activities to specific goals.
- Start generating conversations. Connect with your sphere of influence, attend open houses, practice scripts, and establish a consistent follow-up process.
Important: There is no single nationwide real estate license. Check your state’s licensing authority for current requirements, costs, and eligibility before enrolling in a course.
How to Start a Career in Real Estate After Licensing
Getting licensed qualifies you to begin the next stage of your career, subject to your state’s requirements. The challenge is turning that qualification into a working business.
New agents should prioritize four things: finding the right support, creating a practical schedule, building a contact database, and learning how to generate appointments.
Choose the Right Brokerage or Real Estate Team
Your first brokerage can have a significant influence on your development. Don’t evaluate opportunities based on commission splits alone. Ask about hands-on training, mentorship, transaction support, accountability, and the resources available to new agents.
Working with a real estate team can provide structure and faster exposure to real transactions. Some agents also benefit from starting in an inside sales agent (ISA) or outside sales agent (OSA) role, where they can practice prospecting, handling objections, and setting appointments.
If you’re considering a team, understanding real estate team roles can help you identify the responsibilities and opportunities that fit your strengths.
Treat Your Real Estate Career Like a Business
One of the most valuable pieces of advice for a new agent is to establish professional habits immediately. Set working hours, create a prospecting schedule, track your activities, and make time for professional development.
Start with a simple real estate business plan that outlines your income goals, expenses, target audience, lead sources, and weekly activities. You can also use Tom Ferry’s free business planning platform to turn those goals into measurable action.
Your first year should focus on building skills and consistency, not simply waiting for transactions to happen.
Build Your Database and Follow-Up System
Your contact database is one of your most valuable business assets. Begin by organizing people you already know, including friends, family, former coworkers, local connections, and professional contacts.
Add these contacts to a real estate CRM, organize them into useful groups, and establish a consistent schedule for staying in touch.
Don’t wait until you have dozens of leads to create a follow-up process. Building that system early helps prevent missed opportunities as your business grows.
What Makes a Good Real Estate Agent?
A good real estate agent combines local market knowledge, strong communication, organization, consistency, and the ability to earn clients’ trust. Clients need someone who listens, explains complicated decisions clearly, and follows through on commitments.
If you’re wondering how to succeed as a realtor, focus on the skills that shape the client experience:
- Communication: Respond promptly, ask thoughtful questions, and explain each step of a transaction.
- Local expertise: Understand pricing trends, inventory, neighborhood conditions, and buyer and seller expectations.
- Organization: Track appointments, deadlines, client information, and follow-up activities.
- Negotiation: Learn how to advocate for clients while keeping transactions moving forward.
- Consistency: Build repeatable habits for prospecting, learning, and client service.
- Accountability: Review your performance and make improvements based on measurable results.
Be ready to explain why you entered real estate, who you want to serve, and what makes your approach valuable. Tom Ferry’s Define your story episode can help you communicate your motivation with greater confidence.
How to Get Your First Real Estate Clients and Listings
New real estate agents can begin finding clients through their existing relationships, open houses, local networking, consistent follow-up, and targeted prospecting. The goal is to develop repeatable lead sources rather than depending on occasional referrals.
Start by choosing two lead-generation activities you can perform consistently. As your skills and database grow, expand into additional strategies.
Start With Your Sphere of Influence
Let people in your existing network know you’ve entered the real estate business. Share your market knowledge, offer useful information, and remain available to answer questions about buying or selling.
You don’t need to turn every conversation into a sales pitch. The goal is to become someone people remember when real estate questions or opportunities arise.
Use Open Houses and Local Networking
Open houses can provide opportunities to meet buyers, practice real estate conversations, and learn from more experienced agents. Ask your brokerage about opportunities to host open houses and establish a follow-up process for interested visitors.
Attend local events, build relationships with community businesses, and get to know the neighborhoods you serve. These activities help establish your presence before you have an extensive transaction history.
How to Get Listings as a New Real Estate Agent
To get listings as a new real estate agent, focus on building seller relationships, developing local market expertise, practicing listing presentations, and consistently prospecting for opportunities. You don’t need years of experience to start creating conversations with potential sellers.
Consider these practical starting points:
- Study your local market. Learn recent sales prices, inventory trends, and neighborhood-specific conditions.
- Build relationships with homeowners. Stay in touch through useful market updates and personal outreach.
- Learn listing presentations. Practice explaining your pricing approach, marketing strategy, and seller communication process.
- Explore expired listings. With brokerage guidance and appropriate compliance practices, contact sellers whose listings have expired.
- Follow up consistently. Track conversations and reconnect when homeowners indicate they may be ready to sell.
If you’re exploring expired listings, Tom Ferry’s expired listing scripts PDF provides a practical starting point for learning seller conversations. For a deeper explanation of the approach, see our guide to contacting expired listings.
New agents can also benefit from lead generation tools for real estate agents that help organize outreach and create repeatable opportunities.
How to Build Strong Daily Habits as a New Real Estate Agent
Long-term real estate success rarely comes from a single strategy. It develops through consistent activities that improve your skills, expand your relationships, and create opportunities.
Know Your Market and Practice Conversations
Study local inventory, pricing changes, days on market, interest-rate trends, and buyer and seller behavior. Be prepared when someone asks, “How’s the market?”
Your answer should be specific to the person’s needs rather than a generic opinion. Use real estate scripts to practice turning everyday market questions into meaningful conversations.
Practice objection handlers as well. Familiarity with common concerns can help you communicate naturally when speaking with prospects.
Make prospecting part of your routine. Set aside time to make your calls, connect with your database, and follow up with potential clients.
Track Your Activities and Measure Progress
Track the activities that create opportunities, including conversations, appointments, follow-ups, listing presentations, and closed transactions.
Review your numbers regularly to identify which activities lead to meaningful results. If you’re making calls but not setting appointments, for example, you may need to improve your scripts, audience targeting, or follow-up process.
Measuring your work makes it easier to identify what’s improving and where you need additional support.
Commit to Long-Term Growth
Real estate is a business built on relationships and consistency. Your early career is an opportunity to develop skills, test strategies, and learn from experienced professionals.
Read, attend industry events, study successful agents, and seek feedback. Real estate coaching can help you strengthen your systems and maintain momentum as your responsibilities grow.
If you’re comparing support options, understanding different real estate coaching programs and the factors behind the success rate of real estate coaching can help you evaluate what fits your goals.
How to Market Yourself as a New Real Estate Agent
You don’t need to master every marketing channel immediately. Choose methods that align with your audience, budget, strengths, and available time. Then build a strategy you can maintain consistently.
Use Video and Social Media to Build Trust
Video helps potential clients become familiar with you before they reach out. Start with short neighborhood updates, answers to common buyer questions, or simple explanations of local market conditions.
Our guide to Realtor video content offers ideas for creating videos that fit your schedule and communication style.
Stay visible on platforms where your audience already spends time, including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.
Focus on useful information and real conversations rather than posting simply to fill a calendar. For a more structured approach, see our real estate Facebook marketing guide.
Develop a Repeatable Marketing Strategy
Your marketing plan should identify whom you’re trying to reach, what message will interest them, and how you’ll follow up.
Whether you use email, social media, video, or direct mail, consistency matters more than experimenting with every available channel.
For agents interested in geographic outreach, understanding how to build and use direct mail lists for real estate can support a more targeted marketing strategy.
You can also use ChatGPT prompts for real estate to brainstorm content topics, draft outreach messages, and organize marketing ideas. Review AI-generated material for accuracy, local relevance, and compliance before publishing.
Improve Your Listing Presentations
A strong listing presentation demonstrates that you understand the seller’s goals, the local market, and how you’ll promote their property.
Practice asking questions, explaining your marketing plan, and presenting relevant market data. A thoughtful listing presentation should feel like a conversation about the seller’s needs, not a generic sales pitch.
How to Keep Growing Your Real Estate Career
As your experience grows, the systems you establish early will make it easier to pursue new opportunities.
Once you’ve developed consistent lead generation, client communication, and transaction management habits, consider whether you want to specialize in a particular market, expand your business, or work more closely with a team.
Agents considering a more specialized market can explore our guide on how to get into luxury real estate. Agents looking to expand their operations can learn more about real estate team building.
Continue strengthening your database, tracking your performance, and refining the strategies that produce results.
Common Questions About Getting Into Real Estate
What is the first step to get into real estate?
The first step is to research your state’s real estate licensing requirements. Find out which education courses, exams, background checks, and application procedures are required before choosing a pre-licensing program.
Is it hard to get into real estate?
Getting licensed is achievable with preparation, but building a successful real estate career requires consistent effort. New agents must learn how to generate leads, communicate with clients, manage transactions, and build a reliable pipeline.
How long does it take to become a real estate agent?
The timeline varies by state and by how quickly you complete the required education, examination, and application process. Check your state’s licensing authority for its current course-hour requirements, exam procedures, and application processing timelines.
What should I do after I get my real estate license?
After getting licensed, focus on choosing a supportive brokerage, setting up a CRM, organizing your database, learning your market, and establishing daily lead-generation activities. These steps help turn your license into an operating business.
How do I choose the right brokerage as a new agent?
Choose a brokerage based on mentorship, training, transaction support, culture, commission structure, fees, and accountability. Ask how new agents receive guidance and what resources are available during their first transactions.
How do new real estate agents start getting clients?
New agents often begin with their sphere of influence, open houses, local networking, social media, and consistent follow-up. Choose a few lead sources, track the conversations they generate, and refine your approach over time.
Can you start a real estate career with no experience?
Yes. Prior real estate experience is generally not required to begin the licensing process, although eligibility requirements vary by state. New agents can develop practical skills through brokerage training, mentorship, prospecting, and supervised transaction experience.
Recap: How to Get Into Real Estate and Keep Growing
Getting into real estate starts with licensing, but building a lasting career requires more than passing an exam. The strongest foundation combines the right brokerage, consistent lead generation, local market knowledge, reliable follow-up, and accountability.
Start with the basics, measure your progress, and keep improving the activities that create opportunities.
For help building those systems, explore our free real estate agent resources, or request a free real estate coaching consultation to discuss your business goals.
