If you are considering becoming a real estate agent, but aren’t ready to dive in full-time yet, you may be wondering if you can still be successful as a part-time real estate agent. Maybe you want to work your schedule around caring for your family, or maybe you have another job you want to keep, but you are intrigued by selling real estate. You know you can work as many or as few hours as you’d like, but is it possible to be successful part-time? It is, in fact, possible to be a successful real estate agent working part-time, but there are some tricks of the trade to help you succeed.

Business woman wearing a suit and glasses sitting at a desk working on a laptop

Make a Schedule that Works for You

The worst thing you can do as a part time agent is try to do everything on the fly. When you work as a part-time agent, you need to be organized in how you balance your time. Look at your schedule and determine how much time you can realistically dedicate to your real estate business each day and each week. Let your clients know when you are available to them and try to stack all your non-client tasks into one or two sessions during the week. You will need some flexibility to work with your clients around their schedules, but having a plan and setting realistic expectations is the best way to start.

Create a Business Plan for Selling Real Estate

To be successful, you need a business plan that helps you manage your operating costs and project your income. Tracking your expenses can let you know if you’re on the right track. There are templates to help you develop your plan from the start. A CRM (customer relationship management) system can help manage all your leads, clients, and prospects. Finally, you’ll need to tackle your marketing. Marketing tasks alone can be time consuming, but you can plan your time in a way that produces the most out of what you put in. If you are planning on selling real estate part time, automate what you can. There are many services out there that will take care of sending out marketing emails, text messages, and publishing social media posts automatically after you set them up.

Understand the Process of Becoming a Real Estate Agent

Becoming a real estate agent has several steps, whether you are part-time or full-time. You will still need to take the classes, pass your licensing exam, connect with a brokerage, and invest in the start-up expenses of becoming a real estate agent. Even if you are working part-time, you are still setting up your own business. Calculate the expenses you’ll need to start your business, and then estimate how much you’ll need to earn in commissions to offset those expenses. That will give you a good idea of what you need to do to make your part-time business a success.

Communicate With Clients

If you have part-time hours as a real estate agent, you need to make sure your clients respect your boundaries. Demanding clients can be difficult when you can’t devote every minute of the day to their needs, but you can solve that problem with communicating clearly from the start. Let them know when you are available to them, when they can expect to hear back from you after reaching out, and the best way to get in touch. If your clients know from the start that you will respond to all email or phone calls within 24 hours, or that texting is the best way to let you know they need to schedule time to speak with you, they may be less relentless. Just make sure that you communicate clearly and follow through with your promises.

When you first begin selling real estate part-time, you may wonder how you can compete with all the full-time agents out there. How can you match them when they are putting in more time? While it’s true that you won’t have the amount of time dedicated to selling real estate as they do, the secret to success is connecting with the clients you have and making every moment count. Your clients will be far more drawn to the skills and expertise you can bring to the table than the number of hours you spend each week. Real estate is all about relationships, and those who are successful juggling a full life while selling real estate part-time know how to make those customer relationships matter. We are always looking for talented real estate agents to join our team. If you’re interested in learning more, contact Amberwood Real Estate today!