How to Get a Job as a Real Estate Agent – 6 Steps to Get Hired

How to Get a Job as a Real Estate Agent – 6 Steps to Get Hired

To easily get a job as a real estate agent, you need to know what to do to make yourself irresistible to hirers.

This post contains the information you need to be able to get ahead of others in the competition for the job of a real estate agent.

We are confident that your chances of getting the job will improve significantly if you applied the tips shared in this article.

6 Steps to Get a Job as a Real Estate Agent

The following steps will help you in getting a job as a real estate agent fast:

1. Prepare for the Real Estate Agent Job

You cannot just start working as a real estate agent without getting prepared for it first. You will find it difficult to excel except you know the rudiments of the job.

There are certain skills, abilities, qualifications, knowledge, and experience that you are required to possess so that you can prove your competence and finally get hired.
The following qualities are what most employers look for in any real estate agent seeking a job:

Ability to work independently combined with excellent interpersonal skills
Strong sales, negotiation, and communication skills
Pleasant and trustworthy
MS Office familiarity
Real estate agent’s or broker’s license
Proven working experience as a real estate agent or real estate salesperson
Proven track of successful sales record
Ability to understand the customer
Excellent prospecting skills
A good real estate agent must have people skills
Excellent problem solving ability
Motivation for sales
Territory management
Legal compliance
Ability to work independently
Professionalism qualities
Ability to meet sales goals
Ability to negotiate effectively with buyers
A high school diploma or equivalent is a basic requirement for commercial real estate agents
The ability to manage and analyze complex data
Effective communication (written, oral, visual, and numerical)
Team leadership
Exceptional time management skills
Presentation qualities
Knowledge of how to use information technology
The ability to apply theory to practice.

Acquiring the above skills and qualities will make you more valuable to employers and put you in a better position to easily get hired.

2. Find a Real Estate Agent Job

There are diverse ways and places you can search for and find available real estate agent jobs. These include:

Using Online Job Boards

Careerbuilder and Monster.com

Websites such as Careerbuilder and Monster.com are popular job boards online that can help you search for real estate employment opportunities.

You don’t need any special experience to access the several results for current real estate job listings that will be displayed to assist you in finding the job of your dream.

iHireRealEstate

With iHireRealEstate’s huge database of job postings, an aggregate of over 11,000 real estate jobs, you can browse jobs by location or function; and you can also search for related keywords and filter listings by title, city and state.

Indeed

Indeed should be among the world’s largest job sites, with 54,061 listing of real estate openings.

Both employers and job–seekers use Indeed as a resource; while employers can list on the site and search through posted resumes, applicants can upload a general resume to “get found”.

Visit Local Real Estate Offices in Your Area

You can talk to real estate brokers and agents in your area about the requirements and opportunities to break into real estate market. Many of them are looking for new agents with no experience that they can train from the ground up.

Speak with Local Mortgage Brokers

There could be an opportunity for a real estate agent job with mortgage brokers where the company might be willing to offer some training to you.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has a massive repository of real estate jobs available around the world. With LinkedIn, you have the capacity to get results of almost half-a-million jobs when you search for jobs by location, job, company, function, experience level, and job title.

3. Apply For the Job

To apply for a real estate agent job, you will need to send a well written and targeted resume and cover letter to the recruiter.

When creating your resume, you should include your skills, experience, and competence.

You should highlight relevant skills, qualities, experience, etc. to make it highly appealing to the employer for them to want to meet with you at an interview.

Your resume should be short and straight to the point. You can learn how to make irresistible resumes from our earlier post on this website.

4. Prepare for Pre-employment Assessment Tests

Some recruiters may expect candidates for the real estate agent job to take one or two pre-employment assessment tests to determine if the candidates have the necessary skills, ability and personality traits for the job.

Using practical tips and techniques will help you improve your scores in these tests.

Tips for a successful real estate agent job test:

Before taking the test, ask the employer what kind of employment tests you should expect for a real estate agent job, and find out the location of the test and duration.

Reduce test anxiety, give yourself enough time, and understand the best approach to use for the test.

You need to be honest in your answers because the test is designed to evaluate how your personality traits meet the requirements of the real estate agent job.

The best way to answer any question thrown to you is to understand all the requirements of the test; and if the test is conducted by a person don’t hesitate to ask for clarification of any complexity.

All questions should be asked before the test commences, and if you are being tested in a group situation, keep away from asking for information from other applicants when the test has started.

Carefully read each question and avoid over-analyzing the questions.

Don’t rush and don’t get stuck up by difficult questions, but tackle easy ones first and then come back to the hard ones.

Learn more about pre-employment assessment tests and how to make top scores.

5. Prepare for Interviews – Major Real Estate Agent Interview Questions and Answers

If your application for a real estate job is accepted by a hirer and you are given an interview appointment, it is good to master how to answer possible questions that may be directed to you before setting out for the meeting so that you will not break the rules of the game.

Dress neatly and professionally to the interview to make a good impression — even if the job doesn’t require professional attire – avoid jeans, tee-shirts, shorts, etc.

Conduct a research on the company you are interviewing with; study their website to learn more about them, and you‘ll be able to come up with at least three thoughtful questions you can ask the interviewer during your meeting.

Below are some questions you’ll likely meet at a real estate job interview. They include:

Tell me about yourself: The employer only wants to know briefly who you are and why you’re the best candidate for this position. In answering the question, try to mention what you’ve done to prepare yourself to be the best candidate for this position. You need to use one example or two to back it up.

You can keep giving more examples if you asked them and they demanded for more.

Where do you see yourself in five year’s time? For this question, you are expected to think about your future and weigh your aspiration. In answering this interview question, you should tailor your answers to the organization and the real estate agent position you’ve applied for.

If you’d like to progress to a higher position, tell the hiring manager and explain how that will help their company progress.

What is your greatest weakness? You can answer this question by minimizing your weakness and emphasizing your strengths. Concentrate on professional qualities and avoid personal egoism.
What is your greatest strength? The best approach to this question is to mention a number of strengths such as good motivational skills, ability to solve problems, eager to learn, attention to detail, and more.
Why did you leave your last job? Never you say any negative thing to your former or current boss. The best reason for leaving your last job should be to look for better opportunities for you to grow or to search out a chance to work abroad.
Why should we hire you? In answering this question, you should tell the interviewer how you meet nearly all the criteria they look for. You need to present yourself as the candidate who meets their demands, and who’ll be available for any position in future.
How many years have you been working in the real estate industry? You can also include the period you served as an intern (if you did) and other periods you did something in the real estate industry that were not direct or paid employment.
What can we anticipate from you in your first 90 days? The answer to this question should be focused on you doing your best based on the skills you’ll apply to help you make a difference.
What are your salary expectations? Give yourself a wide salary range and help yourself to move on. Avoid the temptation of selling yourself cheap.
Do you have any questions? You should see this question as an opportunity to stand out from the multitude and make known your knowledge and passion for the company you are interviewing with. This is where researching the company you are seeking employment with before the interview and knowing a lot about them becomes valuable as you will be able to ask relevant questions and proffer useful suggestions to them.

6. Follow up

After the interview and you are yet to be contacted, you need to follow up on the interviewer instead of just waiting for their call.

Ways you can contact them include phone call, email, handwritten, social media and text message. Out of these five, the best and most effective options are emails, phone calls, and handwritten letters.

Interviewers prefer an emailed or a handwritten “thank you” note or phone call. It is best to avoid texting and sending messages via social media.

The most important thing about follow-up is that you need to make it as professional as the interview.

Whether you call or email, try to be as professional as you can and tell the interviewer why you are qualified by highlighting your relevant skills that are specific to the job’s requirements.

Follow-up helps you to say what you forgot to say during the interview, or clean up interview errors, such as poorly answered questions, wrong grammar, etc.