How to brand yourself as a real estate agent

In real estate, your name and your personal brand are everything. Your personal brand is your reputation, what you stand for and the level of trust that you’ve been able to build up over time. Building and maintaining a personal brand is an essential aspect of becoming a successful real estate agent, and it gives you the ability to leverage that personal brand and generate listings.

When vendors choose to list their property with you, they are looking for you to solve their problem (sell their most valuable asset) and they will normally choose to work with you because of your reputation or your personal brand.

Maintaining a solid reputation is critical to your success in the industry and fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to help boost your personal brand.

Going the extra mile

When you take on a listing, you’re oftentimes handling a vendor’s largest asset, which often brings its own set of stress and concerns along with that.

As an agent, you’re tasked with getting the very best result you can for that vendor. While vendors might not be experts in marketing and selling properties, they will notice just how hard you are working for them. The best way to get more sales and achieve better results for your clients is to go the extra mile. That means adding a personal touch in the age of technology and reaching out to more buyers and turning over the rocks that others might not want to do.

It’s also critical that you let your vendors know what you’re doing. When a listing goes live, don’t be afraid to be in contact with your vendors every single day in some form, and where possible use marketing automation to achieve this. That way they will actually see first-hand just how much effort you’re putting in.

For many people, getting a front-row seat to how hard you work on a marketing and sales campaign will be memorable and appreciated and they will likely recommend you to friends and family in the future. Additionally, it’s a great way for vendors to feel involved in the process, which can help ease their concerns and also build transparency, strengthening your relationship.

Be supportive

When agents are looking at different deals every day, it’s easy to become desensitised to the fact that your vendors and clients are going through one of the biggest changes they will experience in their lifetime, so it’s important to make sure you are patient and understanding.

Vendors can sense when they are being treated like another sales lead or statistic which can lead to distrust. These are real-life people who have goals, dreams, fears and concerns just like you do.

A lot of vendors really need to have their hands held through the entire process. This also goes for the buyers as well, even though you technically don’t represent them. Many buyers are trying to secure a place to live for their family and are not purchasing property for financial gain as their first priority, which makes the buying journey more emotional.

If you treat all buyers and sellers with respect and offer them unconditional support, they will remember you and in time you’ll likely see the number of referrals that you receive continue to grow.

It’s important to note that the vendor relationship does not end with the end of sale, in fact there’s a number of ways in which you can service your client post purchase, and further strengthen that relationship and build goodwill.

Be authentic

When vendors or buyers meet agents, many are expecting to hear a sales pitch and a list of promises that will likely never be delivered upon.

People can spot disingenuous agents from a mile away, it’s important to maintain your own personality and authenticity within your day-to-day conversations.

If you always look to act with honour and integrity, and are honest at all times, you will very quickly stand out from the crowd. If you exaggerate and make promises that will likely not play out, you are just damaging your reputation and over time which will catch up with you.

This often occurs in listing presentations when agents promise the world to a vendor to win a listing, only for the campaign to drag out with the property not selling, before the agent has to eventually talk the seller down on price. In the end, all parties come away unhappy and you can be sure that you won’t be getting a glowing review or any referrals from that vendor.

Authentic and honest agents are able to avoid issues like these simply by being honest and upfront with expectations. Whilst the thought of underselling yourself and missing out on a listing can be daunting, it’s important to remember that a listing won on a false promise is doomed from the beginning. In the long term, winning listings based on trust and integrity are far more likely to propel your career.