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  • Writing a Business Plan

Writing a business plan may seem a daunting task as there are so many moving parts and concepts to address. Take it one step at a time and be sure to schedule regular review (quarterly, semi-annually, or annually) of your plan to be sure you on are track to meet your goals.

Essential Components of a Real Estate Business Plan

Why Write a Business Plan?

Making a business plan creates the foundation for your business. It provides an easy-to-understand framework and allows you to navigate the unexpected.

Quick Takeaways

  • A good business plan not only creates a road map for your business, but helps you work through your goals and get them on paper
  • Business plans come in many formats and contain many sections, but even the most basic should include a mission and vision statement, marketing plans, and a proposed management structure
  • Business plans can help you get investors and new business partners

Source: Write Your Business Plan: United States Small Business Association

Writing a business plan is imperative to getting your business of the ground. While every plan is different – and most likely depends on the type and size of your business – there are some basic elements you don’t want to ignore.

Latest on this topic

Budget sheet and planner

NAR Library & Archives has already done the research for you. References (formerly Field Guides) offer links to articles, eBooks, websites, statistics, and more to provide a comprehensive overview of perspectives. EBSCO articles ( E ) are available only to NAR members and require the member's nar.realtor login.

Defining Your Mis​sion & Vision

Writing a business plan begins by defining your business’s mission and vision statement. Though creating such a statement may seem like fluff, it is an important exercise. The mission and vision statement sets the foundation upon which to launch your business. It is difficult to move forward successfully without first defining your business and the ideals under which your business operates. A company description should be included as a part of the mission and vision statement. Some questions you should ask yourself include: 

  • What type of real estate do you sell?
  • Where is your business located?
  • Who founded your business?
  • What sets your business apart from your competitors?

What is a Vision Statement ( Business News Daily , Feb. 21, 2023)

How to Write a Mission Statement ( The Balance , Jan. 2, 2020)

How to Write a Mission Statement ( Janel M. Radtke , 1998)

Using a SWOT Analysis to Structure Your Business Plan

Once you’ve created a mission and vision statement, the next step is to develop a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.” It is difficult to set goals for your business without first enumerating your business’s strengths and weaknesses, and the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. Evaluate by using the following questions:

  • Do you offer superior customer service as compared with your competitors?
  • Do you specialize in a niche market? What experiences do you have that set you apart from your competitors?
  • What are your competitors’ strengths?
  • Where do you see the market already saturated, and where are there opportunities for expansion and growth?

Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT) ( Investopedia , Apr. 21, 2023)

How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis for Your Small Business ( SCORE , Apr. 28, 2022)

SWOT Analysis Toolbox ( University of Washington )

Setting ​Business Goals

Next, translate your mission and vision into tangible goals. For instance, if your mission statement is to make every client feel like your most important client, think about the following:

  • How specifically will you implement this?
  • Do you want to grow your business?
  • Is this growth measured by gross revenue, profit, personnel, or physical office space?
  • How much growth do you aim for annually?
  • What specific targets will you strive to hit annually in the next few years?

What are Business Goals? Definition, How To Set Business Goals and Examples ( Indeed , Mar. 10, 2023)

Planning and Goal Setting for Small Business ( U.S. Small Business Administration )

  • Regular work goals.
  • Problem-solving goals.
  • Innovative goals.
  • Development goals

Establishing a Format

Most businesses either follow a traditional business plan format or a lean startup plan.

Traditional Business Plan

A traditional business plan is detailed and comprehensive. Writing this business plan takes more time. A traditional business plan typically contains the following elements:

  • Executive Summary
  • Company description
  • Market analysis
  • Organization and management
  • Service or product line
  • Marketing and sales
  • Funding request
  • Financial projections

Lean Startup Plan

A lean startup plan requires high-level focus but is easier to write, with an emphasis on key elements. A lean startup plan typically contains the following elements:

  • Key partnerships
  • Key activities
  • Key resources
  • Value proposition
  • Customer relationships
  • Customer segments
  • Cost structure
  • Revenue stream

Creating a Marketing Plan

You may wish to create a marketing plan as either a section of your business plan or as an addendum. The Marketing Mix concerns product , price , place and promotion .

  • What is your product?
  • How does your price distinguish you from your competitors—is it industry average, upper quartile, or lower quartile?
  • How does your pricing strategy benefit your clients?
  • How and where will you promote your services?
  • What types of promotions will you advertise?
  • Will you ask clients for referrals or use coupons?
  • Which channels will you use to place your marketing message?

Your Guide to Creating a Small Business Marketing Plan ( Business.com , Mar. 22, 2023)

10 Questions You Need to Answer to Create a Powerful Marketing Plan ( The Balance , Jan. 16, 2020)

Developing a Marketing Plan ( Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation )

Forming a Team

Ensuring the cooperation of all colleagues, supervisors, and supervisees involved in your plan is another important element to consider. Some questions to consider are:

  • Is your business plan’s success contingent upon the cooperation of your colleagues?
  • If so, what specifically do you need them to do?
  • How will you evaluate their participation?
  • Are they on-board with the role you have assigned them?
  • How will you get “buy in” from these individuals?

How to Start a Rock-Solid Real Estate Team ( The Close , May 26, 2020)

Don’t Start a Real Estate Team Without Asking Yourself These 8 Questions ( Homelight , Jan. 21, 2020)

Implementing a Business Plan and Reviewing Regularly

Implementation and follow-up are frequently overlooked aspects to the business plan, yet vital to the success of the plan. Set dates (annually, semi-annually, quarterly, or monthly) to review your business plans goals. Consider the following while reviewing:

  • Are you on track?
  • Are the goals reasonable to achieve, impossible, or too easy?
  • How do you measure success—is it by revenue, profit, or number of transactions?

And lastly, think about overall goals.

  • How do you plan to implement your business plan’s goals?
  • When will you review and refine your business plan goals?
  • What process will you use to review your goals?
  • What types of quantitative and qualitative data will you collect and use to measure your success?

These items are only a few sections of a business plan. Depending on your business, you may want to include additional sections in your plan such as a:

  • Cover letter stating the reasoning behind developing a business plan
  • Non-disclosure statement
  • Table of contents

How To Write a Business Proposal Letter (With Examples) ( Indeed , Mar. 10, 2023)

How To Implement Your Business Plan Objectives ( The Balance , Aug. 19, 2022)

The Bottom Line

Creating a business plan may seem daunting, but by understanding your business and market fully, you can create a plan that generates success (however you choose to define it).

Real Estate Business Plans – Samples, Instructional Guides, and Templates

9 Steps to Writing a Real Estate Business Plan + Templates ( The Close , Apr. 17, 2023)

How to Write a Real Estate Business Plan (+Free Template) ( Fit Small Business , Jun. 21, 2022)

The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Real Estate Business Plan + Free Template ( Placester )

Write Your Business Plan ( U.S. Small Business Administration )

General Business Plans – Samples, Instructional Guides, and Templates

Business Plan Template for a Startup Business ( SCORE , May 12, 2023)

Guide to Creating a Business Plan with Template (Business News Daily, Feb. 21, 2023)

Nine Lessons These Entrepreneurs Wish They Knew Before Writing Their First Business Plans ( Forbes , Jul. 25, 2021)

How to Write a Business Plan 101 ( Entrepreneur , Feb. 22, 2021)

Books, eBooks & Other Resources

Ebooks & other resources.

The following eBooks and digital audiobooks are available to NAR members:

20 Minute Manager: Creating Business Plans Gather Your Resources, Describe the Opportunity, Get Buy-in (eBook) E

The Straightforward Business Plan (eBook)

Business Plan Checklist (eBook)

The SWOT Analysis (eBook)

The Business Plan Workbook (eBook)

Start-Up! A Beginner's Guide to Planning a 21st Century Business (eBook)

Complete Book of Business Plans (eBook)

How to Write a Business Plan (eBook)

The Easy Step by Step Guide to Writing a Business Plan and Making it Work (eBook)

Business Planning: 25 Keys to a Sound Business Plan (Audiobook)

Your First Business Plan, 5 th Edition (eBook)

Anatomy of a Business Plan (eBook)

Writing a Business Plan and Making it Work (Audiobook)

The Social Network Business Plan (eBook)

Books, Videos, Research Reports & More

As a member benefit, the following resources and more are available for loan through the NAR Library. Items will be mailed directly to you or made available for pickup at the REALTOR® Building in Chicago.

Writing an Effective Business Plan (Deloitte and Touche, 1999) HD 1375 D37w

Have an idea for a real estate topic? Send us your suggestions .

The inclusion of links on this page does not imply endorsement by the National Association of REALTORS®. NAR makes no representations about whether the content of any external sites which may be linked in this page complies with state or federal laws or regulations or with applicable NAR policies. These links are provided for your convenience only and you rely on them at your own risk.

Placester

Ultimate Guide: 11 Points to Writing a Real Estate Business Plan

Ultimate Guide: 11 Points to Writing a Real Estate Business Plan

Failing to plan is planning to fail. Your business plan is the GPS for success. Instead of wandering, push towards your goals and objectives with clear direction. Developing a real estate business plan is critical to forming a healthy and sustainable business. 

A real estate business plan is an important step for any real estate agent looking to build a successful career in the industry. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, there are certain key elements that should be included in any plan. First and foremost, it is essential to set clear goals and objectives.

A study of 2,877 business owners found that companies are twice as likely to secure loans and funding if they have a business plan and 75% more likely to grow. Another study showed that 64% of companies who created a plan increased their businesses, compared to 43% of companies that hadn't yet finished a plan. 

Your own business plan is an essential tool for any business, small or large. Real estate agents use business plans to map their marketing strategies, target their advertising, and track their progress. A business plan helps agents set goals and stay on track throughout the year. It is also a valuable reference point when meeting with clients and potential investors. 

While there are many different ways to create a real estate business plan, certain elements should be included in every scenario. These elements include an overview of the business, the company's goals and objectives, a marketing strategy, and a financial analysis. By having these key components, companies can ensure that their real estate business plan is comprehensive and will help them achieve their desired results.

Harvard Business Review (HBR) stated that the chances of success rose by 12% for those that spent no longer than three months on their plan . With any longer proving futile. So, how do you write a business plan for your real estate business without getting bogged down in the details? In this post, we'll look at actionable steps agents and brokers can take to outline, execute and measure the performance of a business plan.

As a real estate agent, you know that the housing market can be unpredictable. You need to be prepared for the ups and downs of the market, and one way to do that is to have a business plan. Your business plan will help you set goals and track your progress. It will also force you to think about the costs of running your business and how you will generate leads. There are many online resources that can help you write a business plan, but the most important thing is to get started. By taking the time to write a plan, you will ensure that your business is ready for whatever the housing market throws your way.

What is a real estate business plan?

A business plan is a written document that captures the future of your business. It details what you plan and how you plan to do it.

Real estate business plans are essential for two reasons. First, they provide a road map for agents to follow as they work to build their businesses. Second, they force agents to think through all the crucial aspects of their business, such as their marketing efforts, target market, and financial goals. 

By taking the time to write a Real Estate Business Plan, agents can ensure that they are taking all the necessary steps to build a successful business.

A Real Estate Business Plan is an essential tool for any business, whether you are just starting or have been in business for years. There are many benefits to creating a Real Estate Business Plan, including: 

  • Having a Real Estate Business Plan forces you to take a step back and assess your business as a whole. It allows you to see where your business stands, and identify any areas that need improvement.
  • A Real Estate Business Plan provides a roadmap for your business. It can help you to set goals and track your progress over time.
  • A Real Estate Business Plan can help secure your business funding. If you seek investment from Venture Capitalists or Banks, they will often require a copy of your business plan before considering your request.
  • A Real Estate Business Plan can help you to attract and retain top talent. If you are looking to hire employees or contractors, having a well-crafted business plan can be a significant selling point.
  • A Real Estate Business Plan can be a valuable tool for managing day-to-day operations. A clear and concise plan can help you better decide where to allocate resources and how to utilize your team's time and talents best.
  • A Real Estate Business Plan can help you to measure and track your marketing efforts. By setting specific goals and objectives, you can more effectively gauge the success of your marketing campaigns and make necessary adjustments along the way.
  • A Real Estate Business Plan can serve as a valuable sales tool. A professional business plan can give you a significant competitive advantage if you are looking to sell properties or convert leads into clients.
  • A Real Estate Business Plan helps to keep you organized and on track. Trying to run a successful real estate business without a plan is like trying to drive from New York to Los Angeles without a map - chances are, you'll get lost along the way!

Having a Real Estate Business Plan gives you credibility in the eyes of others. If you are working with other professionals such as lenders, appraisers, or title companies, having a well-developed business plan shows that you are serious about your business and increases the likelihood that they will want to work with you in the future.

Last but not least, creating a Real Estate Business Plan is empowering! Taking the time to develop a comprehensive plan shows that you believe in yourself and your business and sets the foundation for long-term success.        

Precisely, it conveys your business goals, the strategies and tactics you'll use to achieve them, potential problems you may run into along the way and how to overcome them, roles and responsibilities, SWOT analysis, and measurement strategies.

creating a business plan for real estate agent

What should a real estate business plan include?

Real estate business plans are different from traditional business plans. 

Real estate agents need to focus on their target market, their uniqueness, and how they will succeed against the competition. Real estate business plans should also include an analysis of the current market conditions and the potential for growth in the future. In addition, real estate agents should outline their marketing strategy and have a budget for advertising and promotions. By taking the time to create a comprehensive business plan, real estate agents can increase their chances of success in this competitive industry.

Real estate business plans vary in length and complexity, but all should include the following elements: 

  • An overview of the real estate market 
  • A description of the agent's target market 
  • A marketing plan 
  • A financial plan 
  • A discussion of the agent's competitive advantages 

Real estate business plans provide a roadmap for agents to achieve their goals. They should include specific strategies for generating leads, marketing properties, and closing deals. The business plan should also outline the agent's budget and target income. Additionally, the real estate business plan should set forth a schedule for prospecting, listing appointments, and open houses. By following a real estate business plan, agents can increase their chances of success in real estate.

How do you assemble a real estate business plan?

A business plan is essential for any real estate business, whether you're just starting out or have been in the industry for years. It provides a roadmap for your business, laying out your goals and strategies for achieving them. But how do you go about assembling a business plan?

First, you'll need to identify your target market. Who are you trying to reach with your real estate business? Once you know your target market, you can start developing your marketing strategy. What methods will you use to get potential clients? How will you differentiate yourself from other real estate businesses in your area?

Next, you'll need to put together a financial plan. What are your revenue sources? How much money do you expect to bring in each month? What are your expenses? How much do you need to save for a rainy day? A clear financial picture will help you make sound decisions for your business.

Lastly, don't forget to include a personal development plan. What skills do you need to improve to succeed in the real estate business? What classes or training programs can you take to close more deals and earn more commissions? A well-rounded business plan will help ensure your real estate business is booming.

Writing a Real Estate Business Plan in 11 Easy Steps

1. write a detailed business description.

There's a story and context behind your business, and the business description is where that should shine. Write a brief overview of your Real Estate business. Include your business goals and how you plan on achieving them. Then create a description of your company, including its history, structure, and other relevant information.

The mission statement is part of the business description — which helps keep the rest on the track. Many mission statements follow a familiar format, like:

"To be the best, full-service Real Estate company in the Triangle and to enhance our quality of life through active community involvement.".

In a microstudy of 200 mission statements, it was found that mission statements most often talk about the company's dedication to customers (85%), shareholders (37%), employees (21%), and society (3%).

As well as a defined mission statement, make sure to include:

  • When you were founded
  • Where you are located
  • Who the leaders are
  • Special advantages/partnerships
  • Market opportunities
  • Legal structure

A very brief real estate business description example is:

"Norris & Company Real Estate is Vero Beach's premier upscale real estate firm. They specialize in luxury waterfront homes and condominiums, particularly in Vero Beach and Indian River County, FL."

2. Market Analysis

Research the Real Estate market in your area and identify any trends or opportunities. Include this information in your business plan.

Real estate agents must constantly be aware of the market conditions in their area to serve their clients best. Agents can provide expert guidance and advice by understanding the trends and opportunities.

When writing your Real Estate business plan, including a comprehensive analysis of the market conditions in your area. It will help you better understand your client's needs and identify potential opportunities.

Your market analysis should include:

  • An overview of the Real Estate market in your area
  • Identification of any trends or opportunities
  • An explanation of how you will address these trends or options in your business plan

By including this information in your Real Estate business plan, you will be able to show potential clients that you are knowledgeable and prepared to help them navigate the Real Estate market.

3. Perform a SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is a technique used to identify and define several key characteristics that will impact your business: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Think of it this way:

Strengths and Weaknesses are internal. Threats and Opportunities are external.

An analysis can be as simple as making lists of items under each category.

For example, a strength could be a solid and experienced sales team, while a weakness might be that your business is expensive to run because you haven't nurtured supplier relations.

It could be as simple as filling four sheets of paper with descriptions of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats — collaboratively or alone. To make the answers clearer and the exercise more manageable, you can use questions like:

  • What do our competitors do better than us? Threat .
  • What's our unique selling point? Strength .
  • Why have customers churned in the past? Weakness .
  • Which markets are underserved in your territory? Opportunities .

4. List Your #1 SMART Goal

It's great to be ambitious, but focusing on one goal makes it easier to stay motivated, track progress, and see the measurable effect of achieving it. Even better if that goal is a SMART Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timed – goal.

Examples of SMART goals you might set for your growing real estate business are:

  • Build a new real estate website in the next three months
  • Hire and onboard three new SDRs in the next six months
  • Increase monthly leads by 50% by next year
  • Sell ten houses in the Dallas metro area in the next 30 days.

Pick one at a time and focus on it! Sticking to an achievable goal with a time limit makes it more likely to come to fruition. And, even just writing it down makes you 42% more likely to attain it.

5. Identify Your Market Niche

Before setting out your facts and figures, it's essential to spotlight your target market and how you'll serve this niche. It helps you decide what's realistic and feasible to achieve in your business plan.

Determining your market niche is a fancier way of saying: Who are your services best suited to? While honing in on a narrow target seems a little exclusionary, niche marketing can save you time, effort, and money on marketing.

One tool to help you define your market is a buyer persona. A persona is a fictional typification of your ideal customer, with information that enables you to steer your sales and marketing in the right direction.

It's essential to assess your niche and ensure it is consistent with the market in your area.

For example, if you've decided to focus on first-time buyers, do some research to look at relevant stats and figures:

  • What percentage of sales in your market were to first-time buyers in the last 12–14 months?
  • What was the average sales price to first-time buyers?

Also, assess how competitive this market is:

  • Are you the only agent catering to the young first-timer?
  • Are you competing with well-known heavy hitters?

A competitive SEO audit can be a helpful starting point in finding your competitors in the online space, where almost all leads will turn at some point in the buying process.

6. Implementation Plan

Before you can begin implementing your real estate business plan, you must clearly understand your goals and objectives. What are you trying to achieve with your business? Are you looking to buy and hold properties for long-term appreciation, or are you more interested in flipping houses for a quick profit? 

Once you have a good idea of your goals, you can start to put together a plan for how to achieve them. For example, if you're interested in buying and holding properties, you'll need to generate enough income from rentals to cover the mortgage and other expenses. If you're more interested in flipping properties, you'll need to find motivated sellers and then negotiate deals that provide you with a healthy profit margin. 

Regardless of your goals, careful planning is essential for success in the real estate business.

Breaking your goals into action steps makes them more tangible and ensures you're making strides to fulfill them. Here are some keys to converting your real estate business plan into actual business practices.

7. Monitoring & Evaluation

Successful real estate businesses have a plan to monitor and evaluate their progress. This plan includes setting clear goals, measuring progress against those goals, and making adjustments as needed. Without this proactive approach, it can be challenging to identify areas of improvement or stagnation. 

Additionally, a well-executed monitoring and evaluation plan can help to keep employees focused and on track. By regularly assessing performance and goal progress, businesses can ensure that they are making the most of their resources and achieving their desired results. Ultimately, a sound monitoring and evaluation plan are crucial for any real estate business that wants to stay ahead of the competition.

8. Risk Management

Real estate investing comes with a certain amount of risk. But with a well-thought-out risk management strategy, you can minimize the potential for loss and maximize your chances for success.

One of the most critical aspects of risk management is diversification. Investing in various property types in different markets spreads your risk and increases your chances of finding a profitable investment.

Another critical element of risk management has a solid business plan. Thoughtfully consider each step of the real estate investing process, from finding deals to financing them to managing the properties. Have a clear exit strategy for each investment to know when to sell or refinance. And always remember to stay within your comfort level; don't let greed or fear make decisions for you.

With careful planning and discipline, you can create a real estate investment portfolio that withstands market fluctuations and generates long-term wealth.

9. Financial Plan

Having a sound financial plan for your business is essential. To assist you, we've created spreadsheets you can use to estimate goals, income, and expenses. You will find specific instructions in the spreadsheets, but here are some guidelines for creating a financial plan:

To create your plan, determine what your expenses will be.

Here are three main areas your expenses may fall into:

  • Licensing: These expenses will include training, state exam fees, etc.
  • Personal: This can consist of your wardrobe, technology fees (like computer and phone), and car fees.
  • Business: Business expenses include broker fees, website and MLS fees, marketing, advertising, etc.

Our template divides these expenses into the startup and yearly costs to help you discern which payments will recur and which are one-time-only. Here's an example of what your startup expenses might look like.

Yearly expenses might include recurring costs like office rent, electricity bills, and annual license fees.

Estimating income is the biggest concern for most new agents. To do this, you must decide how much money you need to make in your first year and how much you would like that figure to grow. You will also need to research some basic statistics for your market, like the average sale price for homes.

Use our business plan template to help calculate these numbers.

Transactions and Leads 

To meet your income goals and cover expenses, you'll need to conduct a certain number of transactions. And, to complete a certain number of transactions, you'll need to work a set number of leads. There's no need to work this figure out by hand. ‍

Our template will automatically calculate the number of transactions and leads you will probably need to meet your goals. Still, you will have to assess these figures to decide whether they are reasonable. For example, if you plan to work part-time as an agent in your first year but need to close 20 transactions to meet your goals, you are unlikely to have enough time.

10. Create a Personal Development Plan

A personal development plan is an essential tool for any real estate business. By taking the time to assess your strengths and weaknesses, set goals, and create a roadmap for success, you can ensure that your business is on track to reach its full potential. While it may seem daunting, creating a personal development plan is simple. 

Start by taking stock of your current situation. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are your goals for the future? Once you clearly understand where you are starting, you can begin to map out a plan of action. Set realistic goals and create a timeline for achieving them. Put together a resources list and ensure you have everything you need to reach your goals. Finally, implement your plan and monitor your progress along the way.

Remember, your development plan should be flexible and adapt as your needs change over time. With some planning and effort, you can create a roadmap for success that will help you achieve your long-term goals in the real estate business.

11. Write an Executive Summary that Captures the Vision

Your executive summary is an anchor point you can use to understand the overall goals, cement the parameters of your target market, and make decisions aligned with your plan. It's also a way to get inspired by your original vision.

For real estate, it would include points on:

  • Target neighborhoods and price ranges
  • Target clients and a brief description of the persona
  • Brief marketing plan overview
  • Market threats and opportunities

Think of the executive summary as the section of your business plan you would explain to a friend a football game when asked how you plan to make money as an agent or broker in your local town/ city or state.

Note: due to the specific details in the executive summary, this part of the business is typically one of the last completed items.

Real Estate Business Plan Template

If you're considering starting a real estate business, you'll need to create a business plan template. Here's a basic template that you can use to get started. Remember that your business plan should be tailored to your specific business and industry.

  • Executive Summary

The executive summary is a brief overview of your business plan. It should include your company's mission statement and an overview of your products or services, target market, and growth strategy.

  • Company Description

This section will provide an overview of your company, including its history, structure, and team. Be sure to include information on your company culture and values.

  • Mission statement

In this section, you will summarize the reason for being and the guiding principles of your organization. For example: "We are a nonprofit that provides free legal aid to those in need." You can also provide a brief overview of what we want them (the users) to come into contact with. 

Why should they care about our mission or message by telling them why it is vital to their lives now and later down the line?

  • Company goals

This section will provide a high-level overview of your company's top business goals for its first years in operation.

  • Market Analysis

In this section, you will need to analyze your target market thoroughly. It should include information on your customers, your competition, and the overall industry.

  • Product or Service

In this section, you will need to describe your product or service. Be sure to include information on your pricing strategy and any unique features or benefits your product or service offers.

  • Marketing and Sales Strategy

In this section, you will need to outline your marketing and sales strategy. It should include information on how you plan to generate leads and convert them into customers.

  • Operational Plan

This section will need to provide an overview of your business operations. It should include your production process and distribution and fulfillment strategy.

This section will briefly describe what your company offers to customers.

  • Target customer

To effectively reach the people we want as customers, you must provide a clear overview of who they are and how your product or service can benefit them. In this section, I'll go over some questions worth asking yourself when determining who your potential clients may be. 

  • Best Practices

Write out your ideal practices for how you'll deal with qualified leads versus unqualified leads, how quickly you'll follow up with interested parties, your methods for helping a leader throughout the final steps of the sales process, and how you'll stay in touch with customers after papers have been signed.

  • Financial Plan

In this section, you will need to provide detailed financial information for your business. It should include your income, balance, and cash flow statements. The following will include startup expenses, assets, liabilities, capital, break-even analysis, and loan repayment.

  • Exit Strategy

This section will need to provide an overview of your exit strategy. It should include information on how you plan to sell or exit your business in the future.

Individual Agent Real Estate Business Plan

Real estate agents need a business plan like any other entrepreneur. A real estate business plan outlines your goals, strategies, and how you plan on achieving them. It is essential to have a business plan because it will help you stay focused and on track. Real estate is a competitive industry, so you need to be able to stand out from the rest.

A business plan will also be helpful if you ever need to seek funding for your business. Investors and lenders will want to see that you have a well-thought-out plan before they give you money. 

Creating a Real Estate Business Plan is essential if you want to build a successful career in real estate. With our easy-to-use template, you can get started today and be on your way to achieving your long-term goals.

There are many benefits to creating a Real Estate Business Plan, including:

  • Clarifying your goals and strategies
  • Mapping out a clear road map for your business
  • Identifying potential obstacles and solutions
  • Helping you stay organized and on track
  • Increasing your chances of success

So, if you are considering starting a real estate business, sit down and write a business plan. It will be worth it in the long run!

Real Estate Team Business Plan

Before you start your real estate team, it's essential to have a business plan in place. It will help you define your goals, map your strategies, and track your progress over time. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a business plan, certain key elements should be included. Here are a few of the most important things to keep in mind:

  • Your team's mission statement: What sets your team apart from the competition? Why do you exist?
  • Your target market: Who are you trying to reach with your services? What needs do they have that you can address?
  • Your marketing strategy: How will you get your target market and communicate the benefits of working with your team?
  • Your financial goals: How much revenue do you hope to generate? What are your expenses? How will you fund your business?

By thoughtfully developing your real estate team business plan, you'll increase your chances of success in an increasingly competitive industry.

Real Estate Brokerage Business Plan

A real estate brokerage business plan is a document that outlines the goals, strategies, and financial projections of a real estate brokerage business . It should include an executive summary, market analysis, business model, operational plan, and financial plan. The executive summary should briefly describe the company, its target market, and its competitive advantages. The market analysis should assess the size and growth potential of the target market. 

The business model should describe how the real estate brokerage plans to generate revenue. The operational plan should outline the business's day-to-day operations, including staffing and marketing initiatives. Finally, the financial plan should provide detailed information on the anticipated costs and revenues of the company. A well-crafted real estate brokerage business plan can be valuable for attracting investors and achieving long-term success.

Remember that your business plan is a living document that should be updated as your company grows and evolves. Regularly reviewing and revising your business plan ensures that your real estate brokerage is always moving in the right direction.

Ready. Set. Plan

Whether you've got a ready-to-execute business plan or it's still being drafted, the most important thing is to start now — and fast.

At its core, a real estate business plan should outline the steps necessary to achieve specific goals, such as increasing sales or expanding into new markets. It should also identify potential obstacles preventing the business from achieving its objectives. By taking the time to create a comprehensive business plan, real estate businesses can increase their chances of weathering storms and coming out on top in the long run.

A business plan puts you on a clear track that makes your business 75% more likely to grow.

By following the above points, you'll be well on writing a comprehensive Real Estate Business Plan.

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Real Estate | How To

How to Write a Real Estate Business Plan (+ Free Template)

Published June 30, 2023

Published Jun 30, 2023

Gina Baker

REVIEWED BY: Gina Baker

Jealie Dacanay

WRITTEN BY: Jealie Dacanay

This article is part of a larger series on How to Become a Real Estate Agent .

  • 1 Write Your Mission Statement
  • 2 Conduct a SWOT Analysis
  • 3 Set Specific & Measurable Goals
  • 4 Plan Your Marketing Strategies & Tactics
  • 5 Create a Lead Generation & Nurturing Strategy
  • 6 Calculate Your Income Goal
  • 7 Set Times to Revisit Your Business Plan
  • 8 Why Agents Need a Real Estate Business Plan
  • 9 Real Estate Business Plan Examples & Templates
  • 10 Bottom Line
  • 11 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

A real estate business plan lays the groundwork and provides direction on income targets, marketing tactics, goal setting, lead generation, and an overview of your industry’s competition. It describes your company’s mission statement in detail and assesses your SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) as an organization. Business plans should include measurable goals and financial projections that you can review periodically throughout the year to ensure you meet your goals.

Continue reading to see real estate business plan examples and discover how to write a real estate business plan. Start by making your own by downloading and using the free real estate business plan template we’ve provided below.

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Real Estate Business Plan Template

Real estate business plan template.

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💡Quick tip:

Market Leader provides a comprehensive paid inbound lead, automated marketing, and CRM solution to help agents acquire, engage, and nurture real estate leads.

Furthermore, Market Leader offers and guarantees you a number of exclusive seller and buyer leads in your target niche at a monthly rate.

1. Write Your Mission Statement

Every real estate agent’s business plan should begin with a mission statement, identifying your values and why your business exists. Your mission statement serves as the guide to achieving your ultimate business objective. When you create a solid clear mission statement, all other items identified in your realtor business plan should be aimed at fulfilling this statement.

A screenshot of Compass' website.

Compass’ mission statement: “Our mission is to help everyone find their place in the world.” (Source: Compass )

Your mission statement should identify your target audience, what product or service you provide, and what makes your business distinct. As seen in the example above, a powerful mission statement should be short and concise but sums up a business objective.

Let’s take Compass’ mission statement above as an example: “Our mission is to help everyone find their place in the world.” The statement identifies what the company offers, for what reasons, and who it benefits.

2. Conduct a SWOT Analysis

SWOT is an acronym that stands for a business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The primary objective of these four elements is to assess a business by evaluating internal and external factors that can drive decision-making and help you make more money . Conducting a SWOT analysis as you develop your business plan for real estate uncovers opportunities to differentiate yourself from the massive competition currently on the market.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths and weaknesses are internal parts of your organization. Strengths identify what product or services you provide better than others, your access to resources, and items that benefit your customers. Weaknesses are items that need improvement, lack of resources, or what your competition does better. These are items within your control to change because you can convert a weakness into a strength.

See the example below if “Agent X” was doing their SWOT analysis:

Opportunities & Threats

External factors drive opportunities and threats and are areas you can take advantage of to benefit your business. Examples of opportunities can be shifts in the current marketplace, emerging trends you can capitalize on, features that competitors lack, or even changes with your competitors. Threats, on the other hand, are anything that can negatively impact your business. You don’t have control over changing the opportunities or threats, but you can develop a practice to anticipate and protect your business against the threats.

The opportunities and threats for “Agent X” would be:

When you complete your SWOT analysis, use it as a guide when creating strategies to meet your business objectives. To gain the most benefit from creating a SWOT analysis, make sure you are being realistic about your business and evaluating it in its present state. You don’t want to be unrealistic by listing strengths or opportunities that don’t exist yet, and you want to allocate time and money to the most impactful solution to your business issues.

If “Agent X” completed the above SWOT analysis, a few strategies they could derive would be:

  • Incentivize agents to keep them at the brokerage for longer
  • Implement a technology-based key machine to reduce lost keys and keep the team accountable
  • Find a competitive advantage against competing brokerages and use that in marketing messages

Example of Zillow Premier Agent Agent Finder advertising for three featured agents.

Zillow agent finder (Source: Zillow )

To help agents locate other brokerages operating in your preferred market, agents can use Zillow’s agent finder page as a research tool to see which agents or brokerages are operating in a specific area. You can find an agent by location, name, specialty, and language. Once you click on a Zillow profile , you can read their reviews, see their team members, contact and website information, and property listings. Take a deep dive into your competitor profiles and can use the information to implement strategies within your own business.

Visit Zillow

Read how our experts feel about this real estate lead generation company in our Zillow Premier Agent review .

3. Set Specific & Measurable Goals

You’re ready to set some business goals after clearly defining your mission statement and SWOT analysis. Goals can help set the tone to increase your performance and drive your business in the right direction. Your goals should have a definitive way to show progress, which can be a prime motivator to keep you on track to achieving them.

Each goal should follow a pattern to identify set criteria. This will ensure that your daily efforts are performed to meet business objectives within a set period. A way to do this is by using SMART goals:

Examples of SMART goals for agents or brokerages:

  • Increase closed transactions by 20% to a total of 150 deals within the next year
  • I will ask all closed clients for a referral and review within 30 days of closing the deal

Goals can be split into short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goal lengths vary between days and weeks but do not exceed six months. Short-term goals can also be worked on simultaneously with long-term goals. Long-term goals can take up to six months or more to complete and require careful planning and perseverance. A mix of short-term and long-term goals will help you maintain motivation.

All goals are equally important; however, success will stem from how you prioritize each one. Slowly add on additional goals as you have the capacity and feel comfortable with the current progress of your current set of goals. Without identifying your business goals, you’ll leave your results up to luck to attain your business objectives.

4. Plan Your Marketing Strategies & Tactics

Developing marketing strategies and tactics and implementing them help you identify and locate your current value proposition in the real estate industry, along with specific timelines for execution. In addition to determining your overall business objectives and goals, your marketing strategy and plan should include the following:

  • Pinpoint general marketing goals
  • Estimate projected marketing budget
  • Know your geographic farm area data and identify your target niche audience
  • Analyze market competition
  • Identify your unique selling proposition
  • Establish a timeline and set your plan in motion
  • Track your progress and readjust as needed

While a marketing strategy identifies the overall marketing goals of your business, developing marketing tactics will help you achieve those individual goals. They can include referral business tactics, retention efforts, and ways to acquire new customers. For example, you can offer incentives to anyone who refers your business, or you can implement new email drip campaigns to help increase lead conversion rates.

These tactics should have set key performance indicators (KPIs) to help you evaluate your performance. For instance, a KPI you can set for your business could be that referral business should exceed 20% of your lead generation sources.

If you’re unsure how to put together your marketing plan, check out our article Real Estate Marketing Plan Template & Strategy Guide and download the free template to get started.

Postcard campaign examples from ProspectsPLUS!.

Postcard campaign example (Source: ProspectsPLUS! )

If direct mail is part of your promotion strategy, services like ProspectsPLUS! can help easily create and distribute mailers to a targeted area. It also has options for postcards , brochures, newsletters , flyers, and folders. You can also send mailers to prospective clients by geographic or demographic farm areas through its campaigns. Check out its templates and mailing options today.

Visit ProspectsPLUS!

Read how our experts feel about this real estate direct mail service in our ProspectsPLUS! review .

5. Create a Lead Generation & Nurturing Strategy

Having a successful lead generation strategy will help you maintain business growth. Lead generation can be performed organically and through paid advertisements to attract and convert prospective clients. In addition to generating leads, agents should have systems to manage, nurture, and re-engage with contacts to maximize opportunities.

Generating leads through a multipronged approach is the best way to maintain lead flow. Use organic strategies like hosting an open house, reaching out to your sphere of influence, and attending networking events. Employ paid generation strategies, such as purchasing leads from a lead generation company or setting up a website to funnel potential clients. Your marketing strategies will directly correlate with your lead generation strategies.

Every lead is an opportunity, even if they don’t immediately convert into a deal. Effectively nurturing leads can make sure no opportunity falls through the cracks. Agents can nurture leads by continuously engaging and developing relationships with prospective leads . It’s important to provide prospective clients with a constant flow of essential and relevant information, depending on where they are in the real estate buying or selling process.

Here are the top lead generation companies for real estate agents and brokers:

Engage more efficiently with buyer and seller leads using Market Leader’s new feature Network Boost. Network Boost has shown a 40% increase in agents successfully connecting with leads. Market Leader social media experts design highly targeted and optimized ads for your Instagram and Facebook. As visitors engage with your ads, they will be prompted to complete a form and funnel directly into your Market Leader client relationship manager (CRM). This will also trigger an automatic marketing campaign that nurtures your clients and lets you know they are ready to engage with you personally. Try Market Leader’s Network Boost today.

6. Calculate Your Income Goal

Your income goal is one of the most critical items to be included in your business plan. While this may be more difficult for new agents who are still learning the business, it’s still necessary to estimate the amount of money you will earn for the year. Work with an experienced agent or mentor to help you estimate your monetary goals. For professional agents, review your previous years to judge your income goals for the upcoming year.

To calculate your income goal and the amount of work you’ll need to complete to get to that goal, you’ll need to have some basic number estimates:

  • Net income: The amount of money you will put in your pocket after commission splits with your real estate brokerage.
  • Fee split with brokerage: This is the agreed-upon commission split you have with your brokerage for each completed transaction. For example, if you have a 70/30 split with your brokerage, you will collect 70% of the commission, and your brokerage will receive a 30% commission for each deal.
  • Estimate of completed deals per year: You also want to estimate the number of deals you intend to complete yearly. Remember that some months will be busier than others, so make sure to account for holidays, weather, and your schedule.

Real Estate Yearly Goal Calculator

By figuring out these numbers, you can give yourself a realistic number for your income goal. Compute the gross income commission (GCI) or amount of money you must make before the commission splits and the average profit per deal and month you’ll need to reach your goal.

For a more detailed breakdown of your yearly goal, download and use our yearly goal calculator. Input your information into the highlighted yellow boxes, and the spreadsheet will automatically calculate the GCI, total deal count, and gross income you’ll have to earn each month to reach your goal. Adjust the average gross commission per deal and brokerage split as necessary.

FitSmallBusiness Year Goal Calculator

FitSmallBusiness Year Goal Calculato template.

For additional information on real estate agent salaries, review our article Real Estate Agent Salary: How Much Do Real Estate Agents Make?

7. Set Times to Revisit Your Business Plan

Business plans are only effective if you use them. A business plan is a roadmap for your business, and you’ll need to revisit it often to ensure you’re staying on track. It should be a constant resource to guide you through meeting your goals and business objectives, but it’s not necessarily set in stone if you need to make any changes.

Agents should revisit their business plans monthly to measure progress and make any changes to stay the course. If you find that you’re missing the times set for your goals, then you should continue to revisit your business plan regularly. Changing the business plan itself should occur annually once you can have a complete picture of your yearly performance. Evaluating the business plan can help you discover new strategies and ensure you have the appropriate resources for the upcoming year.

Pipedrive user dashboard

Overall status of sales activities in the dashboard (Source: Pipedrive )

Sales software like Pipedrive can help you track your overall business performance when revisiting your business plan. It presents company sales data in easy-to-visualize dashboards that track your business performance and contains forecasting tools to project future revenue. It can maintain company and team goals with progress tracking to keep goals top of mind.

Visit Pipedrive

Read how our experts feel about this real estate customer relationship manager (CRM) system in our Pipedrive review .

Why Agents Need a Real Estate Business Plan

A real estate business plan keeps you up to date on market developments and one step ahead of your competitors. It also enables you to test lead-generating tactics and create new marketing campaigns while keeping track of results over time. A solid business plan for a real estate agent presents the following:

  • Where you are at the moment
  • Where you would like to be
  • How you’re going to get there
  • How to evaluate and measure your performance
  • When and when to correct the course

Real Estate Business Plan Examples & Templates

Real estate agents and brokerages don’t have to build their business plans from scratch, as many resources provide different examples. Business plan templates can also have different objectives. Some are used to secure financing or help you focus on lead generation, while others are single-page plans meant to get you started.

Here are five real estate business plan examples you can use to create yours:

Lead Generation & Income Plan

Screenshot of Market Leader real estate business plan.

Market Leader business plan example (Source: Market Leader )

This business plan is from Market Leader, a third-party lead generation platform. It specializes in lead generation, marketing, and converting leads into customers with an attractive IDX (Internet Data Exchange) website and robust automation tools. Agents can also participate in purchasing leads through their lead products to receive a guaranteed number of leads per month.

A Single-page Business Plan

Single Page Business Plan example from pngfind.

Business plan for real estate (Source: PngFind )

Agents who are new to writing a business plan can start small. Business plans do not have to be multipage to be effective. This single-page business plan helps identify a single goal followed by three areas to focus on and five objectives for each focus area. As real estate agents begin to feel comfortable with goal setting and completion, they can continue to add to this single-page business plan with duplicate pages, identifying additional goals.

Business Plan for Real Estate Brokers

Screenshot of Real estate broker business plan example from AgentEDU.

Real estate broker business plan (Source: AgentEDU )

This robust real estate broker business plan is designed to address organization and management goals. It contains pages identifying personnel information like title, job description, and salary. The business plan also encourages the broker to identify operational goals for future personnel changes. It’s best suited for a broker with a larger team to help drive operational change.

Business Plan With Detailed Financials

Business plan with detailed company financial information.

Example of real estate agent business plan template (Source: FinModelsLab )

This multipage business plan contains eye-catching graphics and detailed company financial information for real estate agents and brokers seeking funding from outside investors. One of the last sections of the business plan is a financial planning section geared toward showing how viable your business is through your provided income statements, cash flow, and balance sheet reports.

Real Estate Developers’ Business Plan

Easy to edit real estate business plan template from Upmetrics.

Realtor business plan template sample (Source: Upmetrics )

Upmetrics’ real estate business plan templates are easy to edit and share and contain professional cover pages to help agents convert their business ideas into actionable goals. The business plans from Upmetrics are geared toward agents looking to transition into real estate development. This plan includes vital sections important for a developer to analyze, such as building location, demand for housing, and pricing.

Market Leader's CRM dashboard as viewed on tablet and phone devices.

Real estate CRM (Source: Market Leader )

Market Leader’s business plan is centered around driving more business through lead generation. It helps agents understand their lead sources, average sales price, and how much commission was earned in a given year. It also allows agents to set income and transactional goals for the following year.

Visit Market Leader

Bottom Line

Whether you are a new real estate agent or looking to grow your brokerage, writing a real estate business plan template will help you define the steps needed to build a successful business . It serves as a guided roadmap to help you achieve your business goals, identify areas of improvement, and provide guidance in all aspects of your business, from marketing, operations, and finance to your products and services. Business plans can help determine if your business is viable and worth the financial investment.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is a real estate business plan.

A real estate business plan is a document that presents an outline of your organizational goals. A business plan lays out future company goals and structured procedures to achieve them. Business plans commonly contain plans for one to five years at a time, though they can differ from investor to investor.

A real estate business plan will put you in a position to succeed while also assisting you in avoiding potential pitfalls. It serves as a guide to follow when things go as expected and when they diverge from the initial plan of action. Also, a real estate business plan will ensure that investors know the steps they need to take to succeed.

How do I jump-start my real estate business?

It is important to note that starting a real estate business is not a simple task. Before launching a firm in any field, entrepreneurs should spend numerous hours researching and developing a solid business plan. As you start your real estate business, use the following tips as guidance:

  • Think about your professional goals
  • Conduct extensive research
  • Organize your finances
  • Create a business plan
  • Establish an LLC
  • Make a marketing plan
  • Create a website
  • Start campaigns
  • Keep track of leads
  • Develop a network of connections

How can I grow my real estate business?

You can use multiple strategies and ways to grow your real estate business. They include:

  • Assess your current situation
  • Invest in your professional growth
  • Establish strategic alliances
  • Take advantage of omnichannel marketing
  • Start blogging
  • Create consistent social media profiles and campaigns
  • Improve your website
  • Consider working with a marketing company
  • Optimize your signs and direct mail

About the Author

Jealie Dacanay

Find Jealie On LinkedIn

Jealie Dacanay

Jealie is a staff writer expert focusing on real estate education, lead generation, marketing, and investing. She has always seen writing as an opportunity to apply her knowledge and express her ideas. Over the years and through her internship at a real estate developer in the Philippines, Camella, she developed and discovered essential skills for producing high-quality online content.

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Create a Real Estate Business Plan: Template, Tips & More

Real Estate Business Plan Strategies

A real estate agent business plan is a document that outlines your comprehensive strategy to grow your real estate business. It outlines important milestones of your approach, identifying what your goals are and how you will achieve them.

Because of the nature of the real estate business, you can construct plans as a broker, agent, etc. There are several ways to focus your goals and tactics when you are writing a real estate business plan, and each specific role you have will change what you’re trying to achieve and how you will do it.

It’s fundamentally important to remember that in real estate, there are two things to keep on the top of your mind:

  • You are your own boss and manage your own business.
  • Being busy doesn’t always mean that you’re making money.

Combining these two important thoughts leads us to one conclusion — that having a written-out plan will help determine what you’re trying to accomplish and will help keep you committed to a specific plan of action. A business plan for real estate agents is sure to help you identify measurable goals while helping you stay on a predetermined route to reach your ambitions.

Additionally, a plan will identify prospective issues you expect to run into and how you plan to overcome them. The plan will assign roles and responsibilities, and allow you to measure your success as your business progresses.

It’s important to know that you’re not in this alone – we have an experienced team of coaches who can help you  create a real estate business plan that makes it simple and easy.

Why Create a Real Estate Business Plan?

Studies  have shown that creating a business plan for real estate can increase your chance of success by 12%. Additionally, it can raise your chances of success by 27% when you commit to writing a real estate business plan and combine it with other things like talking to prospective customers, making marketing materials, and getting yourself ready for business.

What’s more, you will be taken more seriously by potential business partners, brokers, and banks because you have dedicated time to sit down and devise a written plan that precisely outlines the actions you plan to take. This shows that you have placed significant personal investment in your business, and gives others peace of mind that they can join you in this venture.

A real estate business plan gives you a clear direction and an operational checklist for identifying your goals. Some questions it will answer are:

  • Who is my prospective client?
  • How much do I want to earn?
  • What do my sales need to look like to reach my ideal take-home pay?
  • How will I cover the expenses of my business?

A plan is not set in stone and allows for adjustments as situations arise – but should be thoroughly devised enough to help you overcome foreseeable challenges like identifying leads and finding funding money to get started.

How to Start

Executive summary.

The executive summary of a real estate business plan establishes your hopes and dreams, a broad overview of how you plan to accomplish them, and highlights from the research used to support your decisions.

It should identify who your potential clients are, the areas you plan to focus on, and any potential sales opportunities (for example, the average house in this area is $450k). If there are any competitive assessments, those are also important to note here.

In many ways, consider this your elevator pitch. Given 30 seconds, or the amount of time you were in an elevator with someone, how would you describe your ability to  be profitable in real estate ?

Write a Detailed Business Description

If you’ve ever seen the show, “Shark Tank,” you’d be familiar with how the business owner stands in front of the investors and shares their story about why they should invest in their product. This is the detailed business description of your plan, where you tell what inspired you to get involved in real estate.

The description will highlight the opportunity and how you plan to make the most of it, while answering ‘who, what, when, where, how, and why’. Who is your prospective client? What makes you different and what is your client looking for? When are they typically looking to buy or sell their property? How do they typically start their search or process of selling their home?  Questions like these  will help shape your detailed business description to answer questions that you might not think about at first.

Perform a SWOT Analysis

If you’re unfamiliar with the term “SWOT”, it stands for (S)trengths, (W)eaknesses, (O)pportunities, (T)hreats. When applying a SWOT analysis to writing a real estate business plan, the coined term helps you identify some of the core questions that arise when planning.

Strengths address what makes you different and a better choice than your competition. Will you be more knowledgeable? Have you lived in the area you’re targeting your whole life? Are you a well-known member of the area who already has created a personal brand that will go far in real estate?

Weaknesses address the exact opposite. What things are you lacking? What things do others do better? Naturally, if you’re breaking into real estate, one of the first things you’d note is experience. Having multiple weaknesses isn’t a  bad  thing. It means you’ve identified potential issues and how to overcome them. For example, a new agent with experienced coaches can quickly overcome the example weakness.

Creating a Strategic Real Estate Business Plan

Defining your marketing strategy.

As much as you would like to be the perfect fit for all clients, the reality is that you are going to have a specific type of client that’s going to work the best with you. Maybe it’s someone from a specific area of town, first-time homebuyers, those using specific types of financing options, or those in the Armed Forces.

Identifying your market niche isn’t going to limit you to a specific clientele, but it’s going to direct your marketing and branding so that you’re not throwing lots of things and hoping that something sticks. This means saving time and money by directing your marketing efforts to the most meaningful ways, giving you the biggest bang for your buck.

Understanding the marketing strategy aspect of your real estate business plan will help you know who your target is, what their defining characteristics are, what services they are seeking, and help you understand how to grow those specific relationships.

Understanding  how you will generate leads  is incredibly important in developing your plan. If you don’t have leads, you won’t have sales — which means you won’t make money. Because of the nature of the business, you’ll need to understand how prospective clients start the process (which is usually through looking at things online).

Creating a Financial Plan

An important aspect of writing your business plan will always include money. Here you will identify your expenses, income, and estimate your sales goals. It’s important to create realistic and well-thought-out measurements in this section, to understand how your plan will come together.

When looking at your expenses, consider all things that will change for you on a licensing, personal, and business level. Licensing may seem self-explanatory, but ongoing education, covering multiple states, and other things might pop up. Personal expenses are also easily overlooked — will you need to buy different clothes, will a new smartphone be important to your work, and will your cost of gas rise? Business expenses are things like your broker fees, advertising costs, and other things often charged directly from your office.

A true financial plan is not a rough collection of estimates or guesstimates. It’s a close look at the reality of the costs you will be facing when you choose to start on the endeavor, and a true understanding of what it will take to achieve your goals. One of the basic goals you will look at financially is the ability of real estate to keep you economically profitable in consideration of your time and resources.

Analyze Your Local Competition

In-depth research into your local competition will help you beyond your SWOT analysis. When you’re looking at other offices that might be competing with you, consider what sets you apart and makes you different. Also,  use this competitive insight to grow your brand  and sharpen the services that you offer to clients.

For example, if your focus is on first-time homebuyers, are there any competitors that also have this focus? What do they do that seems to work? What can you offer that they don’t? There are generally four areas that will set you apart in regards to your competition; the product (your brand and focus), the price (your commission and price you seek for your clients), the place (your ideal market you’ve chosen to focus on), and promotion (meaning the way you’ll choose to market to generate leads).

Understand Your Ideal Customer

Understanding your customer is critical in writing a real estate business plan. Without that important link, you won’t meet your goals, your marketing dollars will be wasted, and your time will be spent without result.

The important things to know about your customer are:

  • How do you reach them? Will they respond better to emails, texts, or calls?
  • What matters to your clients? Is it more space, interior luxury, or location?
  • What brand does your client subscribe to? Will they value Walmart or Whole Foods more?
  • What matters most to your prospective buyer? Is it space, price, or something else?
  • What is your ideal demographic? This is age, sex, etc.

Having a firm grasp on these important things will help you develop your plan so that you can speak to what your market research is telling you. Perhaps your opportunity is in selling new homes in an up-and-coming area, or to military families who have been given new orders near a base. Referrals and leads will always attract outside of your ideal mindset, but this will help you focus your efforts.

Implementing Action Plans

An action plan is a carefully considered set of steps to take in  achieving a specific goal . For example, if your goal is to get ten new leads a month, an action plan will help you get there. An action plan establishes a clear goal and the different things that need to be done to reach your objective.

You might have different action plans for marketing, closing sales, ongoing education and personal development, social media goals, etc. All of these individual action plans will help carry your real estate business plan to fruition.

Evaluating and Revising Your Plan

Your business plan is sure to be a living document as time goes on. With a constantly evolving real estate market, it is critical to stay up to date with the latest news – not only for the industry, but also for the markets you specialize in. As you continue to meet and shake hands with individuals, new doors will open, offering you opportunities that you probably didn’t consider when you originally developed your plan.

For example, maybe you’ve met a developer who’s asked you to help list their properties. What you learn from your clients will be equally important to your plan – if things don’t matter, save time and resources by removing them. Additionally, if there are things missing (like virtual open houses, alternative social media focuses, etc), find a way to incorporate them into your plan.

There’s something to be said for pulling from the experience of others, and  having an experienced real estate coach look over and help develop your real estate business plan is a great way to jump past the typical pitfalls new agents face.  A new agent starting out , dreams of the financial freedom to spend more time with their family and friends. Skipping over the learning curve by having an experienced professional will only help you achieve your goals faster.

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Real Estate Agent Business Plan

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A real estate agent business is one of the best ways of getting paid for your expertise in the real estate industry.

If you have a thorough knowledge of the market, are a brilliant negotiator, and can think on your feet then being a real estate agent might be the right career for you.

Industry Overview

Research says the global real estate agent and brokerage market are expected to grow from $960.12 billion in 2020 to $1008.95 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.1%. Also, the market is expected to reach $1351.1 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 8%.

The above figure suggests It is a great market to be in, but you need a well-designed business plan to succeed as a real estate agent. A business plan can help you in having a clear strategy and also in keeping a track of your progress.

But what else can a business plan do for your brokerage firm, and how to write one? Read on to find out.

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creating a business plan for real estate agent

Things to Consider Before Writing a Real Estate Agent Business Plan

Find a way to get leads.

The majority of your leads, at least at the beginning of your career, would come from constant effort and a variety of sources. So before getting started you’ll have to figure out all the possible ways of generating leads.

Make a networking plan

Having a network comprising of your customers, businessmen, and even your competitors is necessary for a real estate agent. Because you never know where you’ll get your next big client.

Hence, figuring out a networking strategy is important.

Set up your website

Nowadays, a lot of people look for real estate services online. Hence, it makes it important for you to set up a website for your business.

Making a website also contributes to building your credibility and brand image. Hence, building an optimized and active website can do wonders for your business.

Be prepared for changes in the industry

The real estate agent is changing at a rapid pace. Everything from changes in the economy to people’s buying behavior, and income has a major impact on the real estate market. Hence, it is important for you to have a strategy to deal with such changes.

One of the simplest ways to do so is to have a dynamic and customizable real estate business plan. It helps you deal with changes in a smooth and effective way.

How a Business Plan Can Help You?

As a real estate agent, clear business goals and a constantly evolving way of doing business can be extremely profitable for your business. Apart from that, networking is a key aspect of a real estate agent’s business.

A professional business plan can help you manage all of the above efficiently without any hassles.

Having a plan makes managing your business easier and lets you focus on the more pressing concerns of a business.

Moreover, it gives you a competitive edge over those who jump right in, without any plan.

Real Estate Agent Business Plan Outline

This is the standard real estate agent business plan outline which will cover all important sections that you should include in your business plan.

  • Products and Services
  • Management Team
  • Success Factors
  • 3 Year profit forecast
  • Startup cost
  • Funding Required
  • Our business offering is listed below:
  • Industry Analysis
  • Market Trends
  • Target Market
  • Sales Strategy
  • Targeted Cold Calls
  • Publications
  • Pricing Strategy
  • Management Summary
  • Hiring Plan
  • Important Assumptions
  • Brake-even Analysis
  • Profit Yearly
  • Gross Margin Yearly
  • Projected Cash Flow
  • Projected Balance Sheet
  • Business Ratios

How to Write a Real Estate Agent Business Plan?

A business plan should be clear-cut and ever-changing. It should have goals, but also be flexible at the same time.

Moreover, it should be customizable as per your target market and location. You can write such a plan in many ways.

Although there are several changing and fixed aspects of a real estate agent’s business plan, there are certain essential areas that should be included to write a good business plan.

They are as follows:

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary section sums up what your entire business idea stands for. It is a brief overview of all of your business’s functions, including finances, target audience, operations, marketing, sales, etc.

This section, if written properly, can help you get funded as it presents your idea to the investors in a precise way and helps you gain their confidence.

2. Company Summary

This section basically consists of all the information about your agency’s history, its current situation, the idea behind its existence, and also the finances and funding it requires for becoming profitable.

3. Products and Services

In this product and services section, you’ll define your niche. Having a niche in real estate helps you get a better knowledge of the market and better deals in return. It also helps you meet the right people and the right customers.

As a real estate agent, you can decide whether you’ll deal with office spaces, residential spaces, rentals or buying, selling, etc. Working with a specific set of customers most of the time helps you stay at the top of your game in the real estate market.

4. Market Analysis

A thorough and ongoing market analysis helps you know the market trends and your target audience better. It helps you stay updated with the demands of your customers and how you can fulfill them in the best way possible.

Not just that, it also helps you in knowing where you stand in the market when you need to change your business model with a changing market, and when you need to upskill to stay relevant as a real estate agent.

5. Strategy and implementation

After you are done analyzing the market, writing this section would be a cakewalk. As you are familiar with the market you can formulate the best strategy to thrive in it.

As a real estate agent, having a good advertising strategy, sales strategy, and essentially a good pricing strategy is of utmost importance.

6. Operations Plan

The operations plan section in your business plan includes the day-to-day functioning of your company, as well as your goals and strategies to achieve them.

It is an ever-changing section and has to be tweaked as per the demands of the industry. Breaking your goal down into smaller milestones in this section is an effective way of writing it.

7. Financial Plan

A financial plan decides whether your agency would succeed or not. It prevents you from having mismanaged finances, and a dearth of funds and also helps you in managing the cash inflow of your business.

Download a sample real estate agent business plan

Need help writing your business plan from scratch? Here you go; download our free real estate agent business plan pdf to start.

It’s a modern business plan template specifically designed for your real estate agent business. Use the example business plan as a guide for writing your own.

The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

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Business Plan Summary

A business plan can not only help you with the management of your business but also work as a road map to success.

A real estate agency’s cash inflow is on the irregular side, but a business plan can help you thrive with that too. Having a plan gives you a clear idea of the functioning as well as the spending of your business.

After getting started with Upmetrics , you can copy this sample real estate agent business plan template into your business plan and modify the required information and download your real estate agent business plan pdf or doc file.

It’s the fastest and easiest way to start writing your business plan.

So, what are you waiting for? Start planning

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About the Author

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Vinay Kevadiya

Vinay Kevadiya is the founder and CEO of Upmetrics, the #1 business planning software. His ultimate goal with Upmetrics is to revolutionize how entrepreneurs create, manage, and execute their business plans. He enjoys sharing his insights on business planning and other relevant topics through his articles and blog posts. Read more

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The Ultimate Real Estate Agent Business Plan

Do you have your real estate business plan in place? real estate agent business plan, realtor business plan, real estate planner, real estate business, realtor marketing, new agent, new realtor, real estate marketing, real estate agent planner, real estate agent printables, real estate business planning, realtor business planning, real estate business planner, real estate template, real estate agent workbook, real estate agent marketing

Do you have your own real estate agent business plan?

Let’s be honest, starting a career in real estate is like launching a new business. As an agent, you are your own brand. You have to find your own leads and nurture your own clients. And ultimately, you’re responsible for the production and financial success of your business.

The problem is that standard real estate courses don’t teach agents how to be business owners. Did your real estate courses help you craft your own real estate agent business plan? Mine certainly didn’t!

And that’s a real shame because business planning is key to being a successful real estate agent! This isn’t an industry you can muddle your way through. You need to create a roadmap to success. A path to show you the way forward when business gets tough.

And that’s what this post is all about: creating The Ultimate Real Estate Agent Business Plan to help your real estate business succeed!

Quick note: this article was originally published in 2019; this is the new, updated version.

Do you have your real estate business plan in place? real estate agent business plan, realtor business plan, real estate planner, real estate business, realtor marketing, new agent, new realtor, real estate marketing, real estate agent planner, real estate agent printables, real estate business planning, realtor business planning, real estate business planner, real estate template, real estate agent workbook, real estate agent marketing

Before You Jump Into Your Real Estate Agent Business Plan

Before we get started, you should decide how you’re going to document your real estate agent business plan.

  • A physical notebook: Putting pen to paper can be a powerful motivator! If you’re a notebook-keeper, grab that notebook and start writing.
  • A doc: Of course some of us prefer the paperless route. You can just open a blank Google Doc or Word Doc and start typing.
  • A ready-to-use template: You can find inexpensive business plan templates on Etsy. If you’re looking for a template that perfectly mirrors the steps in this post, check out The Ultimate Real Estate Agent Business Plan by Key Real Estate Designs .

There’s no right or wrong way to document your real estate agent business plan. The important thing is to pick whatever method feels natural to you so that you can complete this critical business planning process.

creating a business plan for real estate agent

Word of warning: this is going to be a longgggggggggggg post! We have a whole lot of ground to cover. For easy reference, here is an outline of what to include in a real estate agent business plan:

Branding Know Your Client Get Clear on Your Offer Transform Your Offer into a Vision Finance Performance from the Past Year Projections for the Upcoming Year Income Goal Tracking Long-Term Planning Marketing Know Where Your Leads are Coming from Schedule Your Marketing Activities Add New Marketing Activities Each Year Track Your Results Operations Services Supplies and Vendors Your Team Lead Follow-up Building Referrals

Let’s get to it!

Real estate agent branding is a tricky, but vital, component of your success in the industry. And we have a plan to help you navigate the branding process! real estate branding, real estate branding ideas, real estate tips, real estate career, real estate marketing, #realtorlife

1. Branding

The branding chapter of your real estate agent business plan consists of three main sections:

  • Knowing Your Client
  • Getting Clear on Your Offer
  • Transforming Your Offer into a Vision

1. Know Your Client

Step Number One is all about knowing your audience. Starting the branding process from your clients’ perspective will help keep your real estate agent branding focused on your clients’ needs. So let’s pinpoint your ideal client first, and then we’ll figure out how to attract them with branding.

Choose Your Niche

Don’t be that agent who tries to appeal to all buyers and sellers in your area. By trying to appeal to everyone, you’ll never stand out to anyone. You need to niche down so that you are a perfect fit for the clients you most want to attract.

Many agents are hesitant to choose a niche because they don’t want to leave potential clients on the table. But there’s a big problem with being open to all clients: you’re competing with all agents.

But, if you niche down, you’re only competing with a handful of other agents in your niche. Yes, the pool of potential clients is smaller, but the odds of securing those clients are far greater. Would you rather catch 1% of 1,000 fish or 25% of 250 fish? Go for the higher conversion rates by sticking to a niche and becoming the go-to agent for that group.

To be clear, choosing a niche doesn’t mean you don’t work with other clients; it just means you’re targeting your marketing efforts to resonate with a specific group. If a lead outside your niche falls into your lap, by all means, convert that lead into a client and closing!

There are lots of ways to niche down, and you can combine several of them to carve out your unique niche. As you consider niches, ask yourself what type of client you most enjoy working with. Here are a few ways to niche down:

  • Buyer or Sellers: You should specialize in one or the other, but stay flexible when your sellers are also looking to buy and vice versa. By the way, buyer/seller is not a niche by itself; it’s just the starting point of focusing on your niche.
  • Specific Neighborhoods: If you have a geographic farm, that’s your niche.
  • Specific Price Points: Do you focus on luxury estates, starters/fixer-uppers, or somewhere in between?
  • Life Events: You could help first-time buyers, downsizers, or people looking for their “forever home”.
  • Occupations: If you have a military base nearby or a large employer in town, you could specialize in helping those members/workers get settled in a new home.
  • Property Type: How about focusing on agricultural land, condos, or multifamily?

Not sure which direction to go? Learn more by exploring 5 profitable niches for real estate agents .

This goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway: protected classes are not niches. It’s never acceptable to niche by race, religion, age, etc.

Create Your Client Avatar

Once you determine your ideal niche (like first-time military vet buyers, for example), you want to learn everything you possibly can about that group. Remember, these aren’t just clients. They’re real people with very real dreams, fears, preferences, and motivations.

Creating an avatar (an imaginary persona of your typical client) forces you to focus on what your ideal clients need from you and how you can best serve them. This will also help you understand how to appeal to them through your real estate agent branding.

There are lots of factors to consider when creating your client avatar. Here are some of the most important:

  • Goals (by the way, buying or selling are never the goals; consider why they want to buy or sell)
  • How much your clients know about real estate (transactions in general, and the local market in particular)
  • General demographics (age, gender, familial status, profession, annual income, formal education, etc. – again, you’re not filtering clients by any protected class, but you do need to have an idea of your average client’s demographics because that will factor into some of your real estate agent branding decisions)
  • Where your client hangs out, online and offline

Just to reiterate, saying that your client avatar is a 30-year-old, unmarried female buyer doesn’t mean you’d ever discriminate against families with children. This avatar is simply an amalgamation of your typical client for the purpose of appealing to your target market with your branding efforts.

2. Get Clear on Your Offer

With your client clear in your mind, you can start to clarify your image, tailoring it to meet the needs of your client avatar.

Your Origin Story

We all know real estate agents are just superheroes without capes. And every good superhero has a solid origin story. What’s yours?

How did you come to be a real estate agent? What hurdles have you overcome to get to this point in your life? Which accomplishments are you most proud of? And how does that fit your client avatar’s expectations?

If you’re a native local, great! Part of your origin story is that you were born and raised in the area, so you know everything and everyone.

If you’re a transplant, great! San Diegan by birth, Angelino by choice. Still a great start to your story.

Write down your origin story. It’ll make a great addition to your professional bio !

Your Mission

Why are you doing what you’re doing? What drives you to hustle every day? And, again, how does that fit your client avatar’s expectations? Your personal mission should be meaningful to your clients.

Your Differentiator

Now’s the hard part: verbalizing your uniqueness.

Which of your prospective clients’ needs can you meet better than your competitors? That’s your differentiator.

creating a business plan for real estate agent

Here are a few differentiator ideas:

  • Best list-to-price ratio in your niche
  • Best online presence
  • Biggest professional network of investors
  • Most experience with VA loans
  • Only local agent who speaks Spanish

And if you’re really struggling to find your differentiator, how about offering something no one else is offering? Consider offering services like:

  • Professional staging for all sellers,
  • New home photo shoots for all buyers, or
  • Complimentary annual property tax reviews to make sure your clients are never over-taxed (and if they are, you can offer your property tax appeal services on a contingency fee basis!).

There are a million ways to differentiate yourself. Figure out what’s going to make the biggest difference to your prospective clients.

Your 5 Magic Words

To fully cement your professional image, choose five magic words that best describe you and your brand. These magic words will guide all your real estate agent branding. If you look at your business cards, website, or marketing materials, and they don’t SCREAM these five words, then you’ll know something needs to be changed.

Your differentiator may immediately bring a word or two to mind. So might your client avatar.

Then you’re looking for words that convey an idea or emotion you want to resonate with your target audience.

These are going to be your five magic words. So own them and live them!

3. Transform Your Offer into a Vision

Now that you have a better understanding of your offer, you can turn it into a vision.

In this step, your unique real estate agent branding will really start to take shape!

Choose Your Brand’s Name and Tagline

Naming your brand is harder than most agents expect, mostly because many of the best names are already taken. You need a name that you can “.com” for your website, but that name also has to be available across all social media platforms. Here are a few pointers to simplify the process:

  • Keep it under 15 characters. Otherwise, you’ll have to abbreviate your X (formerly Twitter) handle, which dilutes your branding.
  • Think lifestyle and location .  MB Luxury, Venice Living, or Living in the OC for example. These all focus on the lifestyle of your target audience.
  • Never incorporate your Broker’s name. Because 1) it’s probably trademarked and 2) you don’t want to tie your brand to your broker because that creates complications if or when you decide to part ways.
  • Check to see if the domain name is available for your website. If you type your idea into Bluehost’s domain search , it will tell you if the name is available.
  • Then check to see if the name is available on social media platforms. Is there already an @VeniceLiving on Insta?

If you’re struggling with this step, don’t let it prevent you from moving forward. When in doubt, use your name. If you have a unique name, it could be your brand name by itself. Otherwise, you could incorporate your name with your lifestyle or location. OC Estates by Sarah, Sean Sells Santee, or Lilly’s Life in LB.

Then you can craft your tagline. Skip the cheesy rhyming taglines of the last century. Instead, explain your differentiator in just a few words. That’s a much more powerful tagline.

Create a Mood Board

The best way to start visualizing your brand is to create a mood board. A mood board is basically just a collage of images with a cohesive look that reflects your idea of your brand. These could be patterns, lifestyle photos, design elements, and color swatches.

Here are a few examples:

creating a business plan for real estate agent

Your mood board should be a visual reflection of your offer. If you offer fun and fresh service for first-time buyers, your mood board should scream fun and fresh with bright colors and trendy designs. And if you offer home-grown expertise in agricultural properties, your mood board should whisper farmhouse chic with natural colors and materials.

Want a shortcut?

If you don’t have time to scour the Internet looking for mood board images, just enter “Mood Board” or “Branding Board” on Pinterest. You’ll find tons of professionally curated boards to inspire your personal mood board.

But one quick word of caution: you could get stuck at this stage for weeks because there are so many engaging boards to see. My recommendation is to set a timer for 20 minutes. Browse away, pinning the images that really speak to you. Then use 10 additional minutes to narrow down your selections until you have a brand board you love.

Choose Your Official Brand Colors

One of the reasons I love the Mood and Branding Boards on Pinterest is that they usually come with a beautifully coordinated color palate.

Choosing colors is difficult for most of us because there are so many shades and it’s hard to know which colors best complement each other. Using the colors from a professionally designed board ensures that your colors all work together perfectly.

If you see a color you love, but can’t figure out exactly what color it is, here’s a quick and easy way to find out:

1. Save the image to your computer.

2. Upload that image to imagecolorpicker.com .

3. Click anywhere on the image to get the details for the color you want from the image.

You’ll be able to use the HTML code or the RGM code to get your colors just right on your website, marketing materials, and social media posts.

So you’ll always have perfectly matched brand colors!

Decide on Your Font(s) and Any Design Elements

It’s generally best to stick with two fonts: one bold, and one for easy readability. Your bold font will go on your headers, titles, and logo, and your readability font will be everything else.

Like with colors, you want your fonts to complement each other. There are lots of resources online to find font pairings. Here’s an example of some front combinations from Inkbotdesign.com :

creating a business plan for real estate agent

Just make sure you have access to your chosen fonts on all the platforms you use (your website, your marketing design software, etc) as some platforms only offer limited font selections.

If you’re going to have any custom design elements (stripes, brush strokes, patterns, etc), now is also the time to select those.

Create Your Logo

Finally, it’s time to choose your logo.

This is another step that stalls lots of agents. But we have a shortcut to help you get this done quickly and easily.

Head to Etsy . They have lots of personalized logo packs at great rates.

Some Etsy sellers even offer custom-designed logos. If you don’t see an existing logo pack, you can just contact those sellers with your fonts, colors, brand name, and any of your unique design ideas, and they’ll get you set up in no time.

Before long, your target audience will start to recognize your unique real estate agent branding. They’ll know what you and your brand stand for. And they’ll know how to reach you when they’re ready to buy or sell!

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The finance chapter of your real estate agent business plan consists of the following sections:

  • Performance from the Past Year
  • Projections for the Upcoming Year

Income Goal

  • Long-Term Planning

1. Review Your Performance from the Past Year

To know where you’re going, it helps to know where you’re coming from.

Reviewing your financial performance from the past year will give you an idea of what to expect (in terms of income and expenses) for the coming year.

A quick note about expenses: As an independent contractor, you have more than just personal expenses to consider. You also need to consider business expenses. We’ll discuss both.

If this is your first year in real estate, your prior year’s data won’t include relevant business expenses or reliable income figures. You’ll just need to spend more time researching average income and expense data in Step 2. But you will still benefit from reviewing last year’s personal expenses so you’ll know how much to budget in those categories for the coming year.

Most agents find it helpful to look at the expenses first when reviewing their financials. When your income is uncertain, starting with your expenses lets you know exactly how much income you need to make to cover all your needs. So we’re going to follow that method by listing expenses first.

Now, I like to start with personal expenses since many of these are essential to your life, regardless of the current state of your business.

Personal expenses include:

  • Personal Vehicle
  • Personal Care
  • Debt Payments
  • Savings and Investments
  • Charitable Giving

All you need to do is list all your personal expenses and assign an amount to each. You may find it helpful to list both the annual total amounts and the average monthly amounts .

Then you can move on to your business expenses.

Business expenses include:

  • Work Vehicle
  • Work Cell Phone
  • Office Space (if not covered by your Broker)
  • Website Hosting
  • Membership Dues
  • Client Gifts
  • Federal and State Income Taxes

If you’re new to real estate, you’ll need to account for a few start-up costs as well:

  • Licensing fees
  • A real estate website ( a must for today’s serious agents )
  • Any onboarding fees charged by your broker
  • Business cards
  • Initial self-promotional marketing

Do you feel like your expenses are too high in any category? Ask yourself if it’s reasonable to cut back on that expense in the coming year. If so, great! And if not, at least you’ll know to budget enough for that category in the coming year.

The bulk of your income will, in all likelihood, come from real estate transactions. But this shouldn’t be your only source of income.

Savvy agents are diversifying their income streams to recession-proof their businesses and reach financial independence. Check out our massive list of 55 Ways to Make Money in Real Estate for some income ideas that will complement your real estate business.

Just like you did with your expenses, list your income sources from this past year and the amounts earned from each source.

Your income minus your business expenses equals your profit.

How did you do last year? Are you satisfied with last year’s profit? Or do you need to lower your business expenses, increase your income, or both to reach a profit you’re happy with in the coming year?

Your income minus your total expenses (personal and business) is your cash flow. This shows how much more money you make than you spend.

As long as you’re including savings and investments in your expenses (which you absolutely should be, otherwise those will end up neglected!), your cash flow number doesn’t need to be large. You just want to be sure you’re making more than you’re spending.

If there’s anything you don’t love about your financials from the past year, don’t panic. Instead, focus on what you want to do differently in the next 12 months. That’s what we’ll do in Step 2.

2. Plan Your Financials for the Coming Year

Now it’s time to create your real estate agent financial plan for this coming year.

  • How much do you plan to spend?
  • And how much do you plan to earn?

Using last year’s expenses as a guide, write down your estimated expenses in each category for the coming year. You may have to do a little research to get estimates on some figures if this will be your first year incurring that particular expense.

The most important thing when estimating your expenses is to be as accurate as possible. Many of us have a tendency to think our numbers should be lower, so we underestimate our expenses, and subsequently end up breaking our budget.

A good rule of thumb is to budget high. If you come in under budget, great! You’ll have more money at the end of the year to invest in business expansion.

With your expenses calculated, you now know exactly how much money you need to make this year to cover all your expenses.

How does that number line up with last year’s income?

Do you expect this year’s income to be similar?

Again, accuracy is key. Your income goal should be achievable , but it should also be difficult enough to really make you work.

By the way, in the next step, we’ll create a plan to make your income goal a reality. That step will be a good litmus test to see if your income goal is reasonable.

Assuming you hit your planned expense and income figures this year, what will your profit be? Again, it’s just income minus business expenses.

How does this projected profit compare to last year’s profit? Are you happy with this profit? If not, now’s the time to review your projected expenses and income to see if you need to make any adjustments.

When you subtract your total expenses from your projected income, are you still at a positive number? Because you need to be!

3. Create a Plan to Meet Your Income Goal

Now that you have an income goal in mind, we need to create a bulletproof plan to hit that goal.

To do this, we need to answer two questions:

  • How many homes do you need to sell this year to meet your income goal?
  • How many leads do you need to reach to sell that many homes?

Let’s look at each question in turn.

How Many Homes Do You Need to Sell?

Here’s the formula to calculate the number of homes you need to sell:

————————————————————————————————

(Average Home Price x Your Average Commission Percentage x Your Commission Split)

For anyone not algebraically inclined: we’re just figuring out your after-broker commission from an average sale, and then dividing your income goal by that number.

As an example:

If the average home price in your niche is $250,000, the average commission per agent is 3%, and your split with your broker is 50%, you would need to sell 27 average homes to generate $100,000 in gross income. ($250,000 times 3% = $7,500 x 50% = $3,750. So you make $3,750 on each average transaction. And $100,000 divided by $3,750 is 26.666 houses, rounded to 27.)

So, what’s your magic number?

Now, how are you going to meet that sales goal?

How Many Leads Do You Need to Reach?

First, let’s break down your home sale goal by month so it’s less daunting. Divide your magic number by 12 to figure out how many homes you need to sell each month on average.

Now, how many leads do you need to reach each month to sell that many homes?

To figure this out, you need to know your conversion rate. How many leads does it take on average to close a single deal? For seasoned agents, this is a matter of tracking your leads and your closed deals to know your personal conversion rate. For new agents, 100 leads for every 1 closed deal is a safe estimate in most markets. This number will improve as you gain sales experience and establish yourself in the market.

Here’s the formula for calculating your monthly lead requirements:

number of deals needed x number of leads required to make one sale

That number may seem high. But let’s make it more manageable by figuring out how many leads you need to generate each day. To do that, divide your required leads per month by 16. Why 16? Because life happens, and you can’t reasonably expect to prospect every single day of every month. So we’re figuring 4 workdays for 4 weeks per month.

As long as you commit to hitting your prospecting target 4 days per week, there’s no reason you shouldn’t hit your income goal!

4. Tracking Your Finances

This is one of the most often ignored steps in creating a real estate agent financial plan: tracking.

How will you know if you’re on track to stay on budget and meet your income goal if you don’t track your finances through the year?

Unexpected expenses and sales droughts can completely derail your financial plan. It’s important to catch these in real-time so you can adjust your plan as needed to get back on track as quickly as possible.

Keep a monthly log for expenses, and one for income. And actually use them! That’s the tricky part. It’s a good idea to schedule 15-30 minutes each week specifically to log your income and expenses from the previous week. Put this recurring appointment in your calendar to remind you to build this financial habit.

5. Long-Term Planning and Tracking

The final step to creating your bullet-proof real estate agent financial plan is to create a long-term financial plan.

Long-term financial planning is difficult for real estate agents. It’s hard enough to plan for a single year. How are you supposed to plan 5-10 years (or more!) into the future?

No one expects you to accurately forecast your income and expenses for the next 10 years. But there are some long-term financial plans that wise agents track. Btw, if you want to learn more on this topic, check out Financial Planning for Real Estate Agents for a comprehensive overview.

creating a business plan for real estate agent

Planning to retire as a real estate agent is tough. You don’t have a 401(k) or a pension plan. So you have to plan for retirement on your own.

A Solo 401(k) is a great option because it allows you to contribute more each year than IRAs.

The key to retirement savings is to start early and save consistently. Compound interest will work its magic from there.

Aim to set aside a full 10% of your gross income for retirement. But start slowly if 10% sounds like too much for you to spare. Start with 3% of every transaction for the first year. Then 5% the next year. And keep increasing until you hit 10%. If you’re starting retirement savings later in life, you may need to save more. If you have other income-generating assets, like rental properties, you may be able to save less. Talk to a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) if you need help figuring out your retirement plan.

Your Dreams

It’s sad that most of us put such a low priority on our dreams.

How many of us desperately want to travel or open our own brokerages or start a non-profit for the community? And how many of us never do these things because we just don’t have the money?

Make your dreams a priority by building them into your financial plan every year. And tracking your Dream Fund finances over the long term.

Your Legacy

What do you want to leave for the next generation?

You certainly don’t need to leave an inheritance for your children, but you may want to help your children and/or grandchildren with education expenses as your legacy. Maybe you want to create a family business to leave behind? Or build a community park for future generations to enjoy. Or establish a non-profit to assist those who come after you.

If you want to leave a legacy like these, you’ll need to include them in your long-term financial planning.

Your Net Worth

Tracking net worth year-over-year is one of the most rewarding financial exercises you can do!

Net worth is the best indicator of overall financial health. It’s a comparison of your debts to your assets. Think of it like this: if you sold everything you owned and paid off all your debts today, how much would you have left?

To calculate your net worth, start by listing all your assets and their present-day values:

  • Checking Accounts
  • Savings Accounts
  • Retirement Accounts
  • Investment Accounts
  • Real Estate Holdings
  • Collectibles

Now, list all the current balances on all your debts:

  • Student Loans
  • Credit Cards
  • Business Loans
  • Personal Loans

And finally, subtract the debts from the assets. The result is your current net worth.

The more assets you accumulate, the more your net worth will skyrocket. Especially if you acquire assets that appreciate, like real estate and financial investments (stocks and bonds).

Invest the time in calculating your net worth just once or twice per year. The motivation to improve your finances lasts long after you complete this small task. And as your net worth grows, you’ll find that you’re actually excited to calculate your new net worth and see how much your financial health has improved since the last check.

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3. Marketing

Marketing builds on some of the foundation work you did in the branding and finance sections of your real estate agent business plan. With your financial goals and target market in mind, you can build a marketing plan to suit your audience and earn you enough leads to hit your goal.

The marketing chapter of your real estate agent business plan consists of:

  • Knowing Where Your Leads are Coming from
  • Scheduling Your Marketing Activities
  • Adding New Marketing Activities Each Year
  • Tracking Your Results

1. Know Where Your Leads Are Coming From

Do you know where your leads are coming from?

Online? Geo-farming? Cold-calling the Expireds? Somewhere else?

To know where your marketing dollars are making the most bang, you need to know which marketing methods are working for you.

If you don’t have a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system that automatically tracks the return on investment for your leads, you can create a basic spreadsheet to handle this task. Just list your marketing methods in a column on the far left, then add columns for the:

  • annual cost of each marketing method
  • number of leads generated every year by each method
  • cost per lead (annual cost divided by the number of leads generated)
  • number of closed deals
  • net profit from those closed deals
  • ROI of each method (net profit divided by the annual cost)

(By the way, The Ultimate Real Estate Agent Business Plan on Etsy includes a ready-made template for you.)

If you’re brand new to the business and don’t yet have any data to analyze, don’t worry. Start your marketing strategy with three to five cost-effective marketing methods. My recommendations for most new agents in most markets are:

  • Social Media Marketing.  You can create professional profiles and post for free (check out How to Create a Lead-Generating Social Media Calendar for tips). And if you don’t have the time or design skill to create your own social media posts, sign up for DRIP by Key Real Estate Resources.  You’ll get fresh social media posts and a new social media calendar delivered to you each month!
  • Content Marketing.  Add blog posts to your website to boost your search engine rankings so buyers and sellers can find you online.
  • Calling FSBOs and Expireds. T hese people are actively trying to sell! Get out there and talk to them. In fact, consider hosting a FSBO seminar where you give  real information about the home selling process. When sellers see what’s required to get top-dollar, they’ll probably list. And they’ll choose the agent who gave them the real info they were looking for! No time for a seminar? Offer a free FSBO guide instead.
  • Mailers. Mailers may be old school, but they’re still a low-cost way to generate leads in many markets.
  • Open Houses. While open houses aren’t effective for selling in all markets, they’re often effective at generating new leads .

Fresh real estate marketing content delivered to you every month!

2. Schedule Your Marketing Activities

Armed with your chosen marketing methods, it’s time to decide exactly when you’re going to take action.

You know that if it isn’t on your calendar, it won’t get done. Other tasks, like showings and inspections, will inevitably take priority because they are more urgent. Don’t let the urgent tasks keep you from the important tasks. And since your business doesn’t exist without a client pipeline, marketing is possibly the single most important task you can complete to keep your business growing. So schedule it!

Grab your calendar now and decide when you’ll:

  • Launch your website (if you don’t already have one)
  • Write and publish your blog posts (one per week is ideal)
  • Post to social media (several times per week on your focus platforms, and at least once per week on the other major platforms). By the way, if you don’t have time to create your social media content, consider a service that creates the posts for you. DRIP by Key Real Estate Resources offers plans starting at just $9/mo.
  • Call Expireds and FSBOs (daily! – so what time will you carve out every day for distraction-free phone marketing?)
  • Send mailers (at least quarterly)
  • Attend networking events
  • Order any print media ads
  • Launch any social media ad campaigns
  • Etc, etc, etc

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3. Add a New Marketing Activity Every Year

The real estate industry is always changing. What works one year might not work so well the next. And next year, you may find new marketing opportunities you weren’t even aware of this year.

Innovative agents experiment with new marketing technologies to keep their businesses growing.

In a hot market, you want to target FSBOs. When homes sell quickly, people think they can save on commission by selling themselves. So you need to show them what it takes to sell for top dollar.

And in a down market, you have a few options. One effective marketing activity to add in a down-market is to target renters. Home prices are lower than average, interest rates are favorable, and rents are increasing. Show these renters how to get a low down payment FHA or VA loan so they can use the market to their advantage! To really boost your leads, try creating your own Renter-to-Homeowner Program .

Another great example (albeit a more ambitious one!) of a new marketing plan for a down-market is to expand your services to include the property tax appeals service we mentioned in our discussion about your Differentiator. Most agents don’t even know this service exists, but it can provide you with a whole new income stream while simultaneously generating new leads and nurturing your relationship with past clients. And it’s far easier than you might imagine!

All you have to do is explain to the county that your client’s home is worth less than the value on their tax bill (which is  very often the case in a down market). You do this by running comps, like you already know how to do. If the county agrees, they’ll lower your client’s property taxes, and you get a cut of that reduction. You’ll be able to pitch this service to all homeowners in your niche and gain some serious exposure for your real estate business! Learn more by reading How to Make Money With Property Tax Appeals .

There are tons of creative marketing strategies that most agents never consider. Trying a new marketing activity each year will keep your business growing in any market!

4. Track Your Results

To know what works you need to track your results.

Back in Step 3, we looked at where your leads are currently coming from, as well as the return on investment for each marketing method. Without tracking your leads, you’ll never have this valuable data to help guide your next marketing move.

Every time a new lead comes in, record the marketing source that drove them. If you have a fancy CRM database, you can record the information there. If you’re just keeping your leads in a simple spreadsheet, no problem! Just make sure you have a column to record the source. And if you don’t currently have a system, consider spending a few bucks on a done-for-you CRM template .

Create a killer real estate agent operations plan in 5 simple steps!

4. Operations

Last section! The operations chapter of your real estate agent business plan consists of five parts:

  • Supplies and Vendors
  • Lead Follow-up
  • Building Referrals

Let’s take a closer look at each…

1. Services

Here’s a question most agents never think to ask themselves: What services should I offer?

Most agents think the answer is obvious. You sell real estate, right? What’s to ask?

This is a HUGE missed opportunity.

There’s so much more to real estate than sales. What other services could you offer to 1) diversify your income, 2) recession-proof your real estate business, and 3) best serve your clients?

Not sure what I mean? Here are a few examples of services that would complement your existing real estate practice:

Property Tax Appeals

We’ve mentioned property tax appeals a few times already. It’s just such a perfect fit for real estate agents (who already have about 95% of the knowledge and skills required to make money in property tax appeals), but surprisingly few agents are capitalizing on this homeowner need! Again, to learn more, check out How to Make Money With Property Tax Appeals

New Home Photo Shoots

If it isn’t on Instagram, it didn’t happen. Millennials and beyond want to show off their new home on social media. And they’re willing to pay for quality photos of themselves in their new place.

If you have photography skills (or you partner with a professional photographer for your listing photos), you can easily add this service to your real estate business.

Offer photoshoot packages to your buyer clients. But don’t stop there. Ask your colleagues if you can reach out to their buyers as well. Then promote your photoshoot services online. Before you know it, you’ll have a healthy new income stream!

And the best part: your clients’ social media pics become free advertising for you. Not only will this boost your photography services, but it can also bring you new buyers and sellers!

Read more about the benefits of offering new home photoshoots .

Property Management

If you want to land more investor clients (and wow them with your services!), offer property management services.

You know, tenant screenings, rent collection, maintenance requests, renewals, etc.

In most markets, property managers can command a 10-20% commission on the monthly rent for property management. It doesn’t take many units to add up to a substantial income stream.

Not interested in taking on ongoing property management work? Simply helping property owners screen new tenants can earn you a commission of around 50% of the first month’s rent, and then the day-to-day management can be handled by the property owner until they need new tenants. It’s an easy way to land a quick paycheck!

Other Services

There are tons of other ideas for additional income streams you can add to your real estate business. Check out 55 Ways to Make Money in Real Estate for more ideas!

2. Supplies and Vendors

Once you know what services you will offer, you can plan for your supply and vendor needs.

As a service business, your supplies should be minimal. Here are a few supplies to consider:

  • Marketing Materials
  • Software Subscriptions

Not much to it!

Depending on the services you offer, you may need to utilize the services of several vendors.

On the real estate sales side, you have the standard players:

  • Escrow Officers
  • Transaction Coordinators
  • Marketing Publications

Then consider your other income streams. If you’re offering property tax appeals, you may want to hire a virtual assistant during appeal season to research assessed values and handle your data entry. If you’re offering new home photoshoots, you may want to partner with a professional photographer.

Ask yourself two key questions:

  • Would a vendor boost the quality of my business?
  • Is it worth paying someone to complete certain tasks so I can focus my energy where it will have the greatest impact?

If the answer to either question is yes , you should absolutely use a vendor.

3. Your Team

For many real estate agents, you’re a team of one! You do everything yourself. But many agents want to grow a larger team: admin, buyer’s agents, listing specialists, etc.

Technology has opened many opportunities to help you grow your team. For example, your first team addition might be an inexpensive virtual assistant. You can hire a real estate assistant to take care of all your data entry, social media engagement, appointment setting, and even blog writing! And you don’t have to pay a full-time salary or offer benefits to a freelancer.

Tech has also introduced new challenges. Managing a virtual admin is very different from having an assistant in your office. You don’t get the face-to-face communication, and you don’t have the level of control that you would have over a full-time, in-office employee.

What works best for you? You can always try hiring a freelance VA for a short time to see if you’re comfortable with that arrangement. And if not, you can post a job ad on Craig’s List for a part-time (or full-time!) in-office assistant. This position is generally paid hourly. Depending on your market, this could be a $12-$20 per hour position.

Then you can branch out into specialists. The order of your hires will depend on your personal strengths and preferences. If you love listing and you’re great at it, you don’t need a listing specialist; focus on getting a buyer’s agent, marketing coordinator, and operations manager instead.

Be honest with yourself about which tasks you just don’t enjoy, and which tasks you struggle with, then hire people with those as strengths!

Just remember to give yourself time to grow. You don’t need to go from 1 person to 10 people this year. It takes time to build an effective team. Give yourself 6-12 months between each hire to avoid the worst of the growing pains.

Here’s an example of an org chart for a full real estate team (the numbers indicate a recommended order of hire):

real estate agent operations plan - org chart

4. Lead Follow-Up

First, schedule time every day for your lead follow-up. Every workday, you’re going to sit down at a designated time, open your CRM (Customer Relationship Manager), and follow up with your leads. Statistically, the best times to reach people are 8-10 am and 4-6 pm. So for the best chances of success, your follow-up should take place during those hours.

Studies have repeatedly proven that you don’t convert a lead to an active client in a single follow-up. It typically takes 7-8 touches for a lead to become your client. But that’s just an average. If you really want to boost your production, you need to follow up with every lead until they become your exclusive client.

What if your lead ends up listing with another agent? They’re still a lead. Contact them every few weeks to make sure they’re satisfied with their agent’s performance. If that listing expires, who do you think is going to land the new listing?

Here are some tips to increase your conversion rates from leads to clients:

  • Put every single lead in your CRM. Every seasoned agent has been surprised by a lead they thought was low-quality. If you don’t log the lead, you lose them.
  • When a new lead comes in, aim to reply to them within five minutes. The sooner, the better! Auto-responders can buy you a little time.
  • Schedule your next follow-up immediately after every follow-up.

5. Building a Referral Business

What is your plan for after the deal closes? Is your current plan resulting in repeat business and referrals? If not, it’s time to re-think your post-close plan.

Lucky for you, I have a tried-and-true plan, ready for you to implement today!

Here’s a simple 3-step process for building a referral business:

Step 1: Showing Genuine Gratitude

Some agents are bucking the trend of closing gifts. They have already provided quality service, so they don’t see the need to spend part of their hard-earned commission on a closing gift.

But failing to give a closing gift is a huge missed opportunity.

First, many clients expect a closing gift because of the tradition of closing gifts. And your goal is always to exceed expectations, never to disappoint your clients.

Then there’s also the fact that closing gifts give you the opportunity to express your appreciation for your clients’ business. Without their business, you don’t survive as a real estate agent. So cultivate that attitude of gratitude and show your thanks with a thoughtful closing gift.

Lastly, closing gifts are an opportunity to make a lasting impression. A thoughtful closing gift helps your clients remember you. And a carefully selected closing gift can even generate referrals! Check out our list of 20 affordable closing gifts guaranteed to impress your clients .

Step 2: Providing Ongoing Value

Most agents consider the job done when the deal closes. Savvy agents know that a little ongoing effort pays off HUGE in referral and repeat business.

How can you help your clients after the sale? First-time homeowners are pretty clueless when it comes to home maintenance. Maybe you can send them a friendly list of home maintenance issues to tackle each season.

Offering property tax appeal services is a great way to provide value to your clients every year! Surprise and delight your clients by conducting a “complimentary property tax assessment review” every year. All you have to do is compare the assessed taxable value to the market value.

  • If the assessed taxable value is lower than the market value, you can send the client a letter to let them know that you’ve confirmed that their property taxes for the current year are fair and ready to be paid in full.
  • If the assessed taxable value is higher than the market value, you can let your clients know that your calculations indicate they are being over-taxed, and you’re happy to file a property tax appeal on their behalf to try to lower the taxes for them. (you can download a done-for-you letter template from our post on property tax appeals).

You should also send custom value estimates to your clients every 6-12 months to let them know how much their home has increased in value (just in case they’re thinking of selling).

Step 3: Maintaining the Personal Relationship

Don’t just rely on blanket marketing to stay in touch with your former clients. Schedule some personal touches as well to make sure your personal relationship is maintained.

Here are a few examples of effective personal touches:

  • Send a Happy Housiversary Card every year. And maybe a small gift for that first year (if you really want to wow your clients!)
  • Host an annual appreciation event , and invite all your formal clients. A simple party at home is nice and personal. But it’s certainly not the only option. Hosting an outdoor movie night is perfect for families. Offering a “Hidden Gems” tour of your city is great for areas with lots of non-natives. And renting out a boat for a sunset cruise with drinks and live music would be ideal for luxury market clients.
  • Check in out-of-the-blue. Send a quick text just to say, hey I was just thinking about you and wondering how you’re doing. Is anything new and exciting going on? These messages are great because there’s no agenda. You’re just reaching out to an old friend to see how they’re doing.

With these personal touches, you’re not just staying in front of clients, you’re building on your personal relationships with them!

Congrats on Completing Your Real Estate Agent Business Plan!

Whew…I know that was a long read (or a long scroll, anyway).

But if you follow the steps outlined in this post, you’re going to end up with a complete real estate agent business plan to provide direction and accountability to your real estate business.

You owe it to yourself to complete your real estate agent business plan and set yourself up for a career full of success.

All the best to you and your business!

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10 Things Your Real Estate Business Plan Needs (FREE Template)

A real estate agent business plan is essential for success in today’s competitive market. It helps you set clear goals, define your vision, and outline the steps to achieve short-term and long-term objectives. As a real estate professional, having a well-crafted business plan can be the difference between being a top producer and struggling to make ends meet.

In your business plan, you’ll want to start by creating a vision statement that outlines the purpose of your real estate business and reflects your values. Setting firm goals will help you stay accountable and focused, allowing you to adapt to market changes or growth and remember that your business plan should be fluid and up-to-date to stay aligned with your ultimate objectives.

Your real estate agent business plan should be thorough, covering various aspects such as market analysis, organization structure, and marketing strategies. By having a comprehensive plan, you’ll be better equipped to navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities that come your way, ensuring your real estate business flourishes.

Understanding Your Target Market

Identifying your ideal client.

Understanding your target market is crucial to establish a successful real estate business plan. Begin by identifying your ideal client. Consider factors that may define your target clients, such as age, income level, family status, and property preferences. Reflect on your strengths as an agent and which clients you connect best with. This will help you focus your marketing efforts and create tailored strategies for your target audience.

Market Segmentation

Market segmentation divides your target market into smaller, more specific groups based on shared characteristics. In real estate, you can segment your market into categories such as:

  • First-time homebuyers
  • Empty nesters

By segmenting your market, you can tailor your services and communication strategies according to the unique needs of each group. This will lead to more effective marketing efforts and a better understanding of your potential clientele.

Analyzing Local Market Trends and Opportunities

Gather data on your local real estate market to identify trends and opportunities for your business. Analyze factors like:

  • Market growth
  • Market saturation
  • Local property values
  • Employment rates
  • Infrastructure development
  • Population demographics

creating a business plan for real estate agent

By analyzing local market trends, you can identify areas with potential growth or areas that are becoming overly saturated. Use this information to adapt your services and expertise to market conditions, helping you stand out among competitors and position yourself as an expert in your niche.

Remember, a comprehensive understanding of your target market is essential for shaping your real estate agent business plan. By identifying your ideal clients, segmenting the market, and analyzing local market trends and opportunities, you’ll be better equipped to create tailored marketing strategies and make informed business decisions. This will ultimately contribute to the success and growth of your real estate business.

Lead Generation Strategies

Building an online presence.

To create a robust lead generation plan, build a strong online presence. A real estate agent must have a well-designed and user-friendly website to capture leads. Keep these factors in mind:

  • Make sure your website reflects your branding and expertise
  • Optimize your site for search engines to enhance its visibility in search results
  • Include clear calls-to-action (CTAs), so potential clients can easily contact you
  • Utilize high-quality images and videos to showcase properties
  • Share helpful and informative content through a blog or resources section

You can also leverage social media channels to expand your reach and showcase your expertise in the industry. Focus on the platforms most relevant to your target audience and share valuable content related to real estate, local events, or home improvement tips.

creating a business plan for real estate agent

Networking and Referrals

Building a strong professional network is essential for generating quality leads. Here are some strategies to boost your referral pipeline:

  • Attend networking events, conferences, or workshops in your area. Engage with professionals in real estate or related industries
  • Establish relationships with local businesses and community organizations
  • Hold open houses or host educational seminars to engage potential clients in person
  • Develop relationships with past clients and ensure you stay top of mind so they recommend you to their connections

Additionally, create a referral program that rewards clients and other referrers for sharing your services with their network. This will incentivize them to talk about you and help expand your reach.

Traditional Marketing Methods

Despite the increasing importance of digital marketing, traditional methods still have their place in generating leads for real estate agents:

  • Send direct mail campaigns, like newsletters or postcards, to targeted neighborhoods, highlighting your strengths and successes
  • Advertise in local print media, such as newspapers or specialized real estate publications
  • List your services and properties in industry-specific directories, both online and offline
  • Design and distribute eye-catching flyers, brochures, and business cards
  • Participate in community events or sponsor local charities to enhance your company’s reputation and visibility

creating a business plan for real estate agent

Make sure to keep track of the effectiveness of each lead generation method and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. This will help refine and improve your overall marketing strategy and ensure you invest resources into the most productive channels.

Lead Conversion Techniques

Building rapport and trust.

To build rapport and trust, focus on the following:

  • Be genuine and authentic with your prospects, showcasing your expertise and knowledge.
  • Listen actively, taking the time to understand their concerns and needs.
  • Display empathy towards their situation, offering tailored solutions for their specific problems.
  • Stay engaged through the entire process, from the first interaction to closing.

Qualifying Leads

When it comes to qualifying leads:

  • Ask open-ended questions to gauge their needs, timeline, and motivation for buying or selling
  • Inquire about their financial situation and any potential barriers they may have
  • Learn more about their preferred neighborhoods, housing type, and other preferences
  • Prioritize leads based on their level of interest and readiness to move forward

Effective Communication and Follow-Up Strategies

For better communication and follow-up:

  • Establish a consistent schedule for checking in on leads, such as every few days or weekly
  • Personalize your communication, tailoring messages to each lead’s unique situation and preferences
  • Practice active listening and respond thoughtfully to their questions or concerns
  • Utilize several communication channels, including email, phone calls, text messages, and social media

creating a business plan for real estate agent

Utilizing CRM Systems for Lead Management

Leveraging CRM systems can help you organize and optimize your lead management process:

  • Track important lead information and interaction history in a centralized location
  • Set reminders for follow-up tasks, appointments, or important milestones
  • Analyze your leads’ behavior to understand their needs better and provide personalized service
  • Create targeted marketing campaigns to engage your leads and nurture them toward conversion

By implementing these techniques and focusing on leads, marketing strategies, and communication, you’ll be well on your way to creating a thriving real estate agent business.

Closing Deals and Earning Commissions

Negotiation tactics.

When closing deals, it’s crucial to employ effective negotiation tactics to help both you and your client reach a favorable outcome. Some negotiation tactics include:

  • Understanding the market: Know the local market trends and use this information when discussing price adjustments or concessions.
  • Compromise: Find common ground and offer reasonable solutions to meet both parties’ needs.
  • Leverage: Use your expertise in the real estate industry to highlight your client’s strengths and make convincing arguments.

Handling Objections and Overcoming Challenges

As a real estate agent, you’ll encounter objections and challenges in closing deals. To address them efficiently, consider the following points:

  • Listen to the client’s concerns and empathize with their situation.
  • Identify the objection: Determine the root cause of the objection and respond with a compelling solution.
  • Maintain professionalism: Stay calm and composed, avoiding confrontational behavior.

creating a business plan for real estate agent

Preparing and Presenting Offers

Presenting a well-prepared offer is vital to increasing the chances of closing a deal. Keep in mind:

  • Research: Analyze comparable properties in the area to establish a competitive price for the offer.
  • Documentation: Ensure that all necessary documents, such as pre-approval letters and proof of funds, are in order.
  • Presentation: Employ clear and concise communication when presenting the offer, highlighting its benefits to the seller.

Managing the Transaction Process and Paperwork

Effectively managing the transaction process and paperwork helps keep the deal on track, which includes:

  • Organization: Maintain an organized system for tracking important deadlines and required documents.
  • Communication: Regularly update all parties involved in the transaction, ensuring they know the progress and address any concerns.
  • Attention to detail: Ensure all forms, contracts, and other documents are accurate and complete.

By successfully closing deals, you’ll earn commissions based on your agreed split with your broker. For instance, if you close a deal worth $350,000 with a 6% commission rate, the gross commission income will be $21,000. If your commission split with your broker is 70/30, you’ll earn $14,700 while your broker receives $6,300. Utilizing the strategies discussed in this section will help you maximize your commission income and prove beneficial to your real estate business plan.

Client Retention and Building Repeat Business

Maintaining client relationships after closing.

Building lasting relationships with your clients is essential for repeat business and referrals. After closing a deal, continue to provide value by offering support with any post-closing issues, such as paperwork or maintenance concerns. Keep in touch with your clients and remember important milestones, such as anniversaries or birthdays. Show appreciation for their trust in you by sending thoughtful gifts or cards or simply checking in periodically.

creating a business plan for real estate agent

Asking for Referrals and Testimonials

Word-of-mouth marketing is an incredibly powerful tool in the real estate industry. Encourage your satisfied clients to share their positive experiences with friends and family. To achieve this, be proactive in asking for testimonials and reviews, which you can later showcase on your website, social media, and other marketing materials. Here are some strategies to obtain them:

  • Reach out via email or phone, and kindly request a testimonial or referral
  • Provide a simple template to make it easy for clients to write a review
  • Offer incentives, such as discounts on future services or gift cards, to show gratitude for their time and effort

Staying Top-of-Mind Through Regular Communication and Updates

Establish regular communication with your past clients to stay top-of-mind and generate repeat business. Keep them informed about the latest market trends, neighborhood developments, or listings that interest them. Here are some communication tactics you can employ:

  • Send personalized monthly or quarterly e-newsletters
  • Share relevant content, such as articles or videos, on your social media platforms
  • Organize events, like client appreciation parties or educational seminars, to maintain connections and foster new ones

Maintaining client relationships, requesting referrals, and staying top-of-mind through regular updates will strengthen your real estate business with repeat clients and new prospects. Remember, satisfied customers are the key to long-term success in the real estate industry.

Measuring Success and Adjusting Your Strategies

Setting goals and key performance indicators (kpis).

To measure the success of your real estate agent business plan, start by setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). These can serve as benchmarks for success and provide direction on areas to focus your efforts. Consider setting goals for various aspects of your business, such as sales volume, new client acquisition, and customer satisfaction.

creating a business plan for real estate agent

In addition to your goals, establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to track your progress. KPIs are quantifiable metrics that help you evaluate the effectiveness of your strategies. Examples of KPIs for a real estate agent business plan include:

  • Number of new leads generated per month
  • The conversion rate of leads to clients
  • Average days on market for properties
  • Percentage of listings sold

Tracking and Analyzing Results

With your goals and KPIs established, continually collect and analyze data to track your progress. Regularly monitoring your results allows you to identify trends, spot potential problems, and evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Some methods to track your data include:

  • Using a CRM system to manage client relationships and interactions
  • Employing analytics tools to evaluate the success of digital marketing campaigns
  • Conducting a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to identify areas where you excel or need improvement

Pay close attention to competitor performance and market trends to better understand how your strategies compare and identify any gaps you may need to address.

Adapting and Optimizing Your Strategies Based on Data

Once you’ve gathered and analyzed your data, use insights to adapt and optimize your strategies. Make data-driven decisions to improve your marketing efforts, streamline processes, and better allocate resources. Some steps you can take include:

  • Adjusting your marketing budget and tactics based on your marketing ROI
  • Revisiting your goals and KPIs to ensure they still align with your overall business objectives
  • Fine-tuning your pricing strategies or the type of properties you focus on to meet market demand better

creating a business plan for real estate agent

Maintaining a proactive approach to adjusting your strategies will keep your business plan agile and responsive to the changing real estate market. This will go a long way in helping you achieve the success you envision for your real estate agent business.

Time Management and Organization

Prioritizing tasks and setting a daily schedule.

In your real estate agent business plan, it’s crucial to have a time management and organization strategy. Start by prioritizing tasks that align with your [business goals]. Break down tasks into daily, weekly, and monthly goals. Then, create a daily schedule following the block scheduling method:

  • List your key tasks for the day.
  • Assign specific time blocks for each task.
  • Stick to the schedule and avoid multitasking.

You’ll notice increased productivity and improved time management with this approach.

Using Productivity Tools and Apps

Take advantage of productivity tools and apps to help you stay organized and manage your time efficiently. Some popular tools for real estate agents include:

  • Calendars: Apps like Google Calendar or Outlook can help schedule appointments and manage deadlines.
  • Task Managers: Utilize tools like Trello, Asana, or Todoist to manage your projects and collaborate with your team.
  • Time Tracking: Apps such as Toggl or Harvest provide insights into your work habits, helping you identify areas for improvement.

creating a business plan for real estate agent

Remember to limit the number of tools you use to avoid digital clutter and duplicate information.

Delegating and Outsourcing Tasks When Necessary

As a real estate agent, delegating and outsourcing non-core tasks is essential to focus on your primary responsibilities. Here are some tasks you can consider delegating:

Identify areas where your expertise may not be as strong or where your time can be better spent, and consider outsourcing those tasks to professionals. This approach will help you manage your workload and improve the quality of your services.

Ongoing Education and Professional Development

Staying up-to-date with industry trends and changes.

To stay competitive in the real estate market, you must keep up with industry trends and changes. By monitoring resources like the National Association of Realtors (NAR), California Association of Realtors (CAR), and multiple listing services (MLS), you can stay informed about the latest developments in your field. Set aside time to read industry publications, attend webinars, listen to podcasts, and follow industry-leading professionals on social media.

creating a business plan for real estate agent

Pursuing Relevant Certifications and Designations

Continuing education is crucial for staying current in the fast-paced real estate industry. Pursue relevant certifications and designations to add credibility and value to your practice. Organizations like NAR and CAR offer various designations demonstrating your expertise and commitment to professionalism to clients and colleagues.

Examples of real estate certifications and designations include:

  • Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR)
  • Certified Residential Specialist (CRS)
  • Green Designation (Green)
  • Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES)

To obtain these certifications, you must complete specific coursework, pass exams, and maintain membership in the relevant organizations.

Participating in Networking and Learning Events

Engaging in networking and learning events within the real estate community can help you build relationships, share ideas, and learn from the experiences of others. Attend conferences, workshops, and local meetups relevant to your niche, region, or areas of interest. Not only will this enhance your industry knowledge and skills, but it can also be an opportunity to form valuable connections that will benefit your business growth.

In summary, staying up-to-date with industry trends, pursuing certifications and designations, and participating in networking events can help you maintain and develop your skills as a real estate professional. Committing to continuous learning and professional development is essential to ensure your long-term success in the real estate business.

creating a business plan for real estate agent

A well-structured business plan is essential for success as a new real estate agent. With a solid plan, you can set your goals, identify your target market, and analyze your competition. A comprehensive business plan lets you plan your marketing strategies, map your operating expenses, and create revenue projections.

To get started, consider using a business plan template tailored to real estate agents’ needs. This will give you a framework to follow as you develop your plan.

Developing a business plan is just the first step in the process. You need to take action and implement your strategies to realize your goals and achieve success. Revise your plan regularly, adapting and updating it as needed. This will ensure you stay on track with your goals and remain competitive in the ever-changing real estate market.

As a new real estate agent, taking bold steps toward your objectives may feel intimidating. However, trust your plan, apply your outlined strategies, and stay persistent. Your dedication will pay off in the long run.

Starting a career in real estate can be challenging, but you don’t have to face the journey alone. There are numerous resources and support networks available to help new real estate agents excel:

  • Professional networks : Join local real estate associations and online forums to connect with experienced agents, ask questions, and expand your knowledge.
  • Mentors : Seek accomplished real estate agents who can offer guidance, share valuable experiences, and provide personalized advice.
  • Training and education : Keep your skills fresh by attending workshops, participating in webinars, and pursuing continuing education courses relevant to your field.

By leveraging these resources and committing to your business plan, you are setting yourself up for a successful career in real estate. Don’t forget to celebrate your achievements along the way and take pride in your progress. Now is the time to take action; you will surely achieve your goals with determination and hard work.

Kyle Handy

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Agent Crate Real Estate Agent Business Plan

The 8 Steps in Creating a Real Estate Agent Business Plan + FREE Checklist

  • 02 Sep 2020
  • Real Estate Marketing ,  Real Estate Social Media

Whether you’re a freshly licensed real estate agent or a seasoned one, you’re an independent contractor who is responsible for overseeing and taking care of the inner workings of your business.  That’s why a real estate agent business plan is crucial if you want to organize and grow your real estate business.

What’s a real estate agent business plan exactly? Think of it as your roadmap to success. It includes your short-term (think 12 months) and long-term (more than 12 months) goals, your niche and what services you can offer within your niche, your target market/ideal client, all the finances, and your marketing plan.

Yes, it seems like a lot to think about. But don’t run away from this opportunistic job just yet — we’ve created an eight-step plan that will help you create your personal real estate agent business plan.

Step 1: Define Your “Why” for your Real Estate Agent Business Plan

Your “why”, or reason for creating this business and pursuing this career will be the foundation for how you run your business. Think of this as your mission and vision. Without this step, you risk losing a vision and purpose, which will in turn confuse and deter clients.

A couple of questions to think about are “why do you want to become successful with your business?” and “what problem do you solve for your clients?”

In times of stress, during interviews, when speaking in casual conversation, and establishing your brand, your “why” is what will keep you motivated to push forward and stand out from the crowd.

PLANNER

Step 2: Define Your Short-Term and Long-Term Real Estate Goals

Short-term is considered 12 months or shorter. Long-term is considered over 12 months. These will, of course, be revised with time. But creating these real estate goals and having them easily accessible will help you focus your efforts on the parts of your real estate business that need the most attention.

Important note: make sure that they’re specific, realistic, and achievable.

Some examples of short term real estate goals might be: create a real estate marketing calendar, create your personal branding, give out your business card to 10 people per day, schedule 10 showings per week, etc. 

Ideas for long term real estate goals may be: close 20 transactions per year, make the top 10% in your brokerage, build a team, increase your closings for the year by 20% year over year, etc. 

Step 3: Find Your Niche

Don’t all real estate agents just want to sell houses? Well, not exactly. If all real estate agents did the same thing, then there wouldn’t be such fierce competition, a large market, or even real estate Instagram influencers. For example, some real estate agents choose to focus on luxury condos, while others have honed in on being a waterfront property expert. What will be your real estate niche?

Here are some questions to think about when choosing your niche:

  • What kind of demographic do you want to serve?
  • What types of living spaces can you not get enough of?
  • Are you a luxury real estate agent, or a more humble suburbs one?
  • What kind of services do you offer that no one else does?
  • Do you have extra certifications?

These questions will help you get the gears turning in your brain as you establish your unique brand.

Step 4: Market and Competition Research

It’s important to get an assessment of what you’re up against and which areas you want to serve.

First, do some market research to figure out what kind of clientele you are dealing with. Neighborhoods can range drastically in demographics and sales activity, so make sure you do some research to find which neighborhood around you fits with your interest and niche.

After you’ve established an area (or a few areas) you want to conduct your real estate business in, do some competition research on real estate agents in that area. Make a list of what you like about their business, what you don’t like, and how you can “corner” the market — in other words, how your business is different than theirs.  Look for opportunities to enter this market and compete with the other agents.  Analyze their transactions and marketing. Do they offer digital marketing, professional photography, staging services, years of experience, etc.  Focus on what your target demographic would expect in your chosen market, and if you can identify any opportunities to present them uniquely and standout!

Step 5: Develop Methods for Generating Real Estate Leads

So you have your mission in place, your goals, your niche, and you’ve researched and cornered your market. Now it’s time to focus on how you’re actually going to attract clients. This will vary and change as you grow your business, but starting out with the basics lays a good foundation.

Places where you can generate leads are social media, newsletter flows, word-of-mouth, in-person networking, creation of business material , landing pages, courses, hosting open houses for other agents, holding seminars,  free informational material, real estate websites with idx ,  etc.

You’ve identified how ways to generate real estate leads to sell houses, now it’s time for you to prove you can also sell your brand.

Step 6: Real Estate Branding and Marketing

After figuring out the methods in which you can generate real estate leads, now it’s time to come up with a real estate marketing and branding plan.

Branding is how you want your prospective clients to perceive your brand. Here are some questions to think about:

  • What brand voice do you want to have?
  • Which colors do you want associated with your brand?
  • What are some of your brand fonts?
  • What do you want clients to feel when they encounter your real estate brand?

Marketing is the strategy in which you will present your brand to the public, and how you will retain clients and audiences. It helps to have a real estate marketing schedule or real estate social media content calendar   laid out in order to do this to prevent overthinking and overworking yourself every single day.

Questions to get you thinking about your brand:

  • Where are you going to promote your brand?
  • How are you going to price your services?
  • What kind of promotions will you have in place?
  • What steps will you take to stay consistent in your real estate marketing efforts?

This step will require you to get a little more into the nitty-gritty of your brand. But don’t feel too pressured to make final decisions. While it’s important to be consistent, as you develop and grow, so will your brand, which means changes are usually inevitable.

creating a business plan for real estate agent

Step 7: Budgeting

Especially as an independent contractor, keeping track of your finances and budgeting out your expenses is critical to understanding how to keep running your business. Categorize and keep record of dates so you know exactly where your money is going and where your money is coming from.

Some items to consider when developing your real estate agent business plan budget are: 

  • What is my commission split?
  • How much will I spend on marketing each listing? 
  • What is the average sales price in my niche? 
  • How many homes have I sold over the last 6 months?
  • Do I need to hire a transaction coordinator?
  • What are my car expenses?

Make sure to include expense reviews every month so you become familiar with your finance sheets.

This way, as you progress, you can become aware of how to be more efficient with your time and money.

Step 8: Have a Real Estate Agent Business Plan Checklist That Reminds You to Periodically Review Your Business Plan

Every part of your real estate agent business plan plays a key role in making your brand grow and thrive. But with everything that is going on and will be going on in your real estate business, it’s easy to neglect one aspect of the plan.

That’s why we recommend having a checklist to remind you to routinely check up on every aspect of your plan to make sure every cog in the wheel is attended to.

Check out the free Real Estate Agent Business Plan Checklist that we created so you don’t have to worry about this step! You can go ahead and get started on the first step of creating your real estate agent business plan.

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How to create a real estate business plan

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Real Estate Agent Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Business Plan Outline

  • Real Estate Agent Business Plan Home
  • 1. Executive Summary
  • 2. Company Overview
  • 3. Industry Analysis
  • 4. Customer Analysis
  • 5. Competitive Analysis
  • 6. Marketing Plan
  • 7. Operations Plan
  • 8. Management Team
  • 9. Financial Plan

Real Estate Agent Business Plan & Example

You’ve come to the right place to create your real estate agent business plan.

We have helped over 100,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their real estate agencies.

Real Estate Business Plan Example

Below are links to each section of your real estate agent business plan template:

  • Executive Summary – The Executive Summary is the most important part of your business plan. It is a brief overview of your real estate agency, its products and services, niche market opportunity, and competitive advantage.
  • Company Overview – In the Company Overview, you will provide a detailed description of your real estate agency, its products and services, company structure, management team, and Founders.
  • Industry Analysis – The Industry Analysis is a critical part of your real estate business plan. Here, you will provide an in-depth analysis of the industry in which your real estate agency operates. You will cover topics such as industry trends, major players in the industry, market size and growth, and profitability.
  • Customer Analysis – In the Customer Analysis, you will identify your target market and provide insights into their needs and buying habits. You will also segment your target market and discuss your marketing strategy for reaching them.
  • Competitive Analysis – In the Competitive Analysis, you will identify your competition and provide insights into their strengths and weaknesses. You will also discuss your competitive advantage and how you plan to stay ahead of the competition.
  • Marketing Plan – In the Marketing Plan, you will discuss your marketing strategy and tactics. You will also provide a sales forecast and budget for your marketing activities.
  • Operations Plan – In the Operations Plan, you will discuss your business’s day-to-day operations. You will also provide business milestones that you plan to achieve and a budget for your operational expenses.
  • Management Team – In the Management Team section, you will provide an overview of your management team and their experience in the real estate industry.
  • Financial Plan – In the Financial Plan, you will provide a three-year financial projection for your real estate agency. This will include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.

Next Section: Executive Summary >

Real Estate Business Plan FAQs

What is a real estate business plan.

A real estate business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your real estate business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.

You can  easily complete your real estate business plan using our Real Estate Business Plan Template here .

What Are the Main Types of Real Estate Businesses?

The most commonly known type of real estate business is residential real estate sales. This involves the sale and purchase of homes. The other type of real estate business is commercial real estate, where businesses focus on commercial properties.  Other types are real estate investors, lease companies and property management.

What Are the Main Sources of Revenues and Expenses for a Real Estate Business?

The main source of revenue for a real estate business are commissions earned from client real estate sales and rentals fees. Other revenue generated in this business are profit income, interest income and dividend income.

The key expenses for property management companies are salaries and wages, advertising, travel and supply costs for each transaction.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Real Estate Business Plan?

Real estate businesses are typically funded through small business loans, personal savings and credit card financing.

What are the Steps To Start a Real Estate Business?

Starting a real estate business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop A Real Estate Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed real estate business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast.  

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your real estate business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your real estate business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your Real Estate Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your real estate business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws. 

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your real estate business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms. 

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations. 

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events. 

7. Acquire Necessary Real Estate Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your real estate business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your real estate business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising. 

Learn more about how to start a successful real estate business:

  • How to Start a Real Estate Business

Where Can I Get a Real Estate Business Plan PDF?

You can download our free real estate business plan template PDF here . This is a sample real estate business plan template you can use in PDF format.

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Creating a Winning Real Estate Business Plan (Updated in 2023)

Are you a real estate professional looking to build a successful and thriving business? If so, one of the crucial steps you need to take is creating a comprehensive business plan. A well-crafted business plan acts as a roadmap, guiding you toward your goals and helping you make informed decisions. This article will delve into the key components of creating a winning real estate business plan that sets you up for success.

Setting Goals and Objectives

The value strategy: creating and delivering value, defining the business model, products and services offered, unique value proposition, conducting market research, developing a marketing strategy, building a strong team, financial planning and budgeting, crafting sales and lead generation strategies, providing exceptional customer service, monitoring and evaluating performance, creating a long-term growth plan, networking and building relationships, attending real estate conferences and events, online platforms and investor networks, creating a compelling investment proposal, why is a business plan important for a real estate business, how can a real estate business plan attract investors, what should be included in a real estate agency business plan, how can a real estate agent benefit from having a business plan, what should a real estate business plan for 2023 include, where can i find real estate business plan samples for reference, what should be included in a commercial real estate business plan, how can a beginner create a real estate business plan, what are the essential steps to write a real estate business plan, how can i make my real estate business plan stand out.

The first step in creating your real estate business plan is defining your mission statement and setting goals and objectives. Your mission statement encapsulates the purpose and values of your business. It should be concise, inspiring, and reflective of your vision. Once you have a clear mission statement, you can proceed to set SMART goals—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives that will drive your business forward.

A key business plan component is defining the value strategy, which outlines how a business creates value, its business model, and the products and services it provides. This section focuses on articulating the unique value proposition that sets your real estate business apart from competitors. By clearly defining your value strategy, you can effectively communicate what your business offers and how it addresses the needs and desires of your target audience.

The business model is the foundation upon which your real estate business operates. It outlines how you generate revenue, what resources and partnerships are necessary, and the key activities involved in delivering your services. In this section, you will explain your business model and highlight its strengths and advantages. Whether you focus on traditional real estate transactions, property management, or specialized niche markets, clearly define your business model to provide clarity and direction.

Detailing the products and services your real estate business offers is essential for potential clients to understand the scope of your expertise. This can include residential and commercial property sales, property leasing, property management, real estate consulting, or any other specialized services you provide. Clearly describe the benefits and value your offerings bring to clients, emphasizing what sets you apart and how you meet their unique needs.

Your unique value proposition (UVP) concisely summarizes the distinctive qualities and advantages of your real estate business. It encapsulates the reasons why potential clients should choose your services over competitors. Clearly articulate your UVP, highlighting the benefits and advantages that differentiate you in the market. This could include factors such as extensive market knowledge, exceptional customer service, innovative technology solutions, or specialized expertise in a particular niche.

Market research is a critical aspect of creating a successful real estate business plan. It involves analyzing the local real estate market, understanding trends, and identifying your target audience and competition. By conducting thorough market research, you gain valuable insights that can shape your marketing strategies, pricing decisions, and service offerings.

A well-defined marketing strategy is essential for attracting clients and growing your real estate business. Start by identifying the marketing channels that resonate with your target audience. This can include online platforms, such as social media and search engine advertising, as well as offline tactics, like networking events and traditional advertising. Additionally, create a branding strategy that differentiates your business and communicates your unique value proposition.

You need a competent and dedicated team to build a thriving real estate business. Invest time and effort in hiring qualified professionals who align with your company’s values and vision. Provide comprehensive training and delegate responsibilities effectively to ensure smooth operations. Cultivate a positive company culture that fosters collaboration, innovation, and growth.

Financial planning is a crucial aspect of any business plan. Start by estimating your startup costs, including expenses like licensing, office setup, and marketing materials. Create a budget that covers ongoing operational costs and allocate funds for marketing and growth. If needed, explore financing options available to real estate professionals.

An effective sales and lead-generation strategy is vital for acquiring clients and driving revenue. Develop a lead generation system that captures potential clients’ information and nurtures them through the sales funnel. Implement proven sales techniques and leverage technology to streamline lead management and conversion.

In the competitive real estate industry, providing exceptional customer service is key to success. Take the time to understand your customers’ needs, preferences, and pain points. Develop strategies to exceed their expectations, foster long-term relationships, and encourage referrals. Consider implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) system to streamline communication and enhance customer experience.

Regularly monitoring and evaluating your business’s performance is crucial for staying on track and making informed decisions. Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your goals, such as sales volume, conversion rates, or customer satisfaction metrics. Analyze sales and marketing data to identify trends and areas for improvement. Make necessary adjustments to your strategies to ensure continued growth and success.

As your real estate business evolves, it’s important to plan for long-term growth and expansion. Explore opportunities to expand into new markets or offer additional services. Seek strategic partnerships that can amplify your reach and enhance your value proposition. Continually assess market trends and competition to stay ahead of the curve and plan for future scalability.

Finding Investors for Your Real Estate Business

Once you have a solid business plan and a clear capital-raising strategy, the next step is to find investors who are willing to support your real estate venture. Here are some effective strategies to help you attract potential investors:

real estate business plan

Networking is a powerful tool for finding potential investors in the real estate industry. Attend industry events, join real estate associations, and connect with professionals who may have access to investment opportunities. Building relationships and nurturing connections can lead to valuable partnerships and investor introductions.

Real estate conferences and events provide excellent opportunities to showcase your business, connect with industry experts, and attract potential investors. Participate as a speaker or exhibitor to increase your visibility and credibility within the real estate community.

Utilize online platforms and investor networks dedicated to real estate to expand your reach. Websites, forums, and social media groups focused on real estate investment can help you connect with investors actively seeking opportunities.

Crafting a compelling investment proposal is essential when approaching potential investors. Clearly articulate your value proposition, explain the benefits and potential returns on investment, and demonstrate a thorough understanding of the market and your competitive advantage.

Are you ready to take your business to new heights? Let Easy Capraise be your trusted partner in capital raising and fundraising . Start attracting investors today and unlock the potential for growth and success.

Get in touch with us now, and let’s discuss how Easy Capraise can help you secure the funding you need. Click here to schedule a consultation with our expert team and take the first step toward achieving your business goals.

Remember, opportunities don’t wait. Act now and elevate your business with Easy Capraise!

A business plan provides a roadmap and strategic direction for your real estate business. It helps you outline your goals, strategies, and financial projections, making it easier to attract investors and secure financing.

A well-written business plan demonstrates your understanding of the real estate market, your target audience, and the potential for growth. It showcases your profitability projections and highlights your unique value proposition, making it an attractive opportunity for investors.

A real estate agency business plan should include an overview of your agency, market analysis, marketing strategies, staffing plan, financial projections, and growth strategies. It should also outline how you plan to provide exceptional customer service and build strong relationships with clients.

A real estate agent business plan helps agents set goals, identify target markets, create marketing strategies, and develop a roadmap for success. It provides focus and direction, enabling agents to track their progress and make informed decisions to grow their business.

A real estate business plan for 2023 should reflect the current market conditions, trends, and challenges. It should outline strategies to adapt to changes in the industry, leverage technology, and meet clients’ evolving needs.

There are numerous resources available online where you can find real estate business plan samples. Websites of real estate associations, business planning websites, and industry publications often provide templates and examples that can serve as a starting point for creating your own plan.

A commercial real estate business plan should include an analysis of the local market, potential target industries, marketing strategies to attract commercial clients, financial projections for leasing and sales, and a comprehensive property management plan.

Beginners can create a real estate business plan by starting with a clear mission statement and setting SMART goals. They should conduct market research, identify target audiences, and develop marketing strategies tailored to their niche. Seeking guidance from mentors or attending industry workshops can also be helpful.

To write a real estate business plan, start with an executive summary, followed by sections on goals and objectives, market analysis, marketing strategies, financial projections, operational plans, and growth strategies. It’s important to revise and refine the plan regularly as the business evolves.

To make your real estate business plan stand out, focus on presenting a unique value proposition, showcasing your expertise and experience, providing comprehensive market analysis, and emphasizing innovative strategies for success. Incorporate visuals, charts, and graphs to enhance clarity and readability.

Creating a winning real estate business plan is a fundamental step toward building a successful venture. By setting clear goals, conducting thorough market research, developing a robust marketing strategy, and providing exceptional customer service, you can position your business for long-term growth and profitability. Remember to regularly evaluate your performance, make data-driven decisions, and adapt to the ever-changing real estate landscape.

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Real Estate Agent Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

real estate business plan for new agents

Real Estate Agent Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their real estate agencies. On this page, we will first give you some relevant information with regard to the importance of real estate business planning. We will then go through a real estate agent business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Real Estate Agent Business Plan Template here >

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a living document that provides a snapshot of your real estate agency as it stands today and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan

A business plan can help you stay up-to-date on market trends, stay ahead of your competitors, and helps you set measurable goals But most importantly, it will force you to think through every step of starting and growing your real estate agency so that you can avoid potential roadblocks along the way. This also helps you monitor the effectiveness of the campaign over a given period.

If you’re looking to become a realtor or grow your existing real estate agency business you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your real estate agency in order to improve your chances of success. Update your business plan regularly as your agency grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Real Estate Agencies

With regard to funding, the main sources of funding for a real estate business are personal savings, credit cards, and bank loans. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable. But they will want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

How to write a business plan for a real estate agency.

Below is an example of a real estate plan template:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of real estate agency you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a real estate agency that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of real estate agencies?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the real estate agent industry. Discuss the type of real estate agency you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target market. Provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of real estate agency you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types:

  • Residential Sales and Rentals : this type of real estate agent specializes in serving the private residential market.
  • Commercial Sales and Rentals : this type of real estate agent specializes in commercial, industrial, medical, etc. properties

In addition to explaining the type of real estate agent you operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

  • When and why did you start the business?
  • What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include sales goals you’ve reached, new contracts, etc.
  • Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the real estate business.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the real estate industry educates you. It helps you understand the niche market or focus area in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy particularly if your research identifies market trends. For example, if there was a trend towards aerial videos of the listed property, it would be helpful to ensure your plan calls for a drone or drone operator.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section:

  • How big is the real estate business (in dollars)?
  • Is the market declining or increasing?
  • Who are the key competitors in the market?
  • Who are the key suppliers in the market?
  • What trends are affecting the industry?
  • How much growth is expected for the industry over the next 5 – 10 years?
  • What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your agency? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your realtor business plan must detail the prospective clients you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: residential, office space, retail space, etc.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of real estate agency you operate. Clearly, homeowners would want different services and would respond to different marketing promotions than manufacturers.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most real estate agents primarily serve customers living in the same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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With Growthink’s Ultimate Real Estate Agent Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other real estate agents.

Indirect competitors are other options customers have that aren’t direct competitors. This includes For-Sale-By-Owner and similar DIYers. You need to mention such competition to show you understand that not everyone who sells or purchases property uses the services of a realtor.

With regards to direct competition, you want to detail the other real estate agents with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be agents who cover the same target market.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses or analyze using a SWOT Analysis. Unless you once worked on other real estate teams, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

  • What types of customers do they serve?
  • What services do they offer?
  • What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
  • What are they good at?
  • What are their weaknesses?

With regard to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

  • Will you provide superior services?
  • Will you provide services that your competitors don’t offer?
  • Will you make it easier or faster for customers to engage your services?
  • Will you provide better customer service?
  • Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a real estate agency, your marketing plan should include the following:

In the product section, you should reiterate the type of real estate agency that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. For example, in addition to listing properties, will you offer home staging on those property listings?

Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price subsections, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place refers to the location of your agency. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your real estate agent located next to a heavily populated office building, gym, etc? Discuss how your location might provide a steady stream of prospective clients.

The final part is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some marketing efforts you might consider:

  • Cold calling
  • Direct mail and flyers
  • Making your real estate agent’s storefront extra appealing to attract passing customers
  • Social media marketing
  • Advertising in local papers, magazines, and websites
  • Reaching out to local bloggers and websites
  • Local radio advertising
  • Banner ads at local venues

Developing a marketing strategy and implementing it helps you identify and locate your current value proposition in the real estate market with specific time frames to execute. This strategy will be included in your business strategy and plan as well as establishing your overall objectives. It can also involve referral marketing strategies, retention strategies, and ways of gaining new clients.

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your realtor business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two key elements as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your real estate agency such as prospecting for new customers, advertising listings, going on showings, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to sell your 100th house, or when you hope to reach $X in average sales price. It could also be when you expect to hire your Xth employee or launch a new location.

Management Team

To demonstrate your agency’s ability to succeed as a business, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in the real estate business. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in real estate agencies and/or successfully running small businesses.

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.

Income Statement

An income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets

While balance sheets include much information, to simplify them to the key items you need to know about, balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. For instance, if you spend $100,000 on building out your real estate agency, that will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $100,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement

Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a real estate agent:

  • Location build-out including design fees, construction, etc.
  • Cost of equipment like signs, software, etc.
  • Cost of advertising materials and maintaining an adequate amount of office supplies
  • Payroll or salaries paid to staff
  • Business insurance
  • Taxes and permits
  • Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your location lease.

Putting together a business plan for your real estate agency is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the real estate business, your local competition, and your potential clients. You will have developed a marketing strategy and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful real estate agency.

Real Estate Business Plan FAQs

What is the easiest way to complete my real estate business plan.

Growthink's Ultimate Real Estate Business Plan Template  allows you to quickly and easily complete your Real Estate  Business Plan.

What Are Some Common Lead Generation Strategies For a Real Estate Agency?

Lead generation strategies can increase sales and increase the customer base. Lead generation can be conducted through organic and paid marketing campaigns to reach potential customers.

A successful lead generation program will help an agent generate leads, nurture leads through the process, and renew contacts in order to maximize potential. It can take several steps for leads to be cultivated using multiple-pronged approaches. Using organic strategies includes organizing a meeting or networking event in your field or interacting with people.

How Can I Write a Mission Statement For My Real Estate Agency?

All real estate business plans must include the mission statement. It will help you realize your business goals. When you have crafted an influential mission statement, all other components of your realtor marketing efforts should fulfill this statement. You should list the target audience, the products/ services you offer, and the uniqueness of your own business. Typically, if your mission statement is short and simple it should summarize a business objective.

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your Real Estate Agent business plan?

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Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.   Click here to see how a Growthink business plan consultant can create your business plan for you.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

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Blog Business

5 Real Estate Business Plan Examples & How to Create One?

By Danesh Ramuthi , Nov 28, 2023

Real Estate Business Plan Examples

Crafting a business plan is essential for any business and the real estate sector is no exception. In real estate, a comprehensive business plan serves as a roadmap, delineating a clear path towards business growth. 

It guides owners, agents and brokers through various critical aspects such as identifying target markets, devising effective marketing strategies, planning finances and managing client relationships.

For real estate businesses, a well-written plan is crucial in attracting potential investors, showcasing the company’s mission statement, business model and long-term income goals.

So, how can you write one?

Leveraging tools like Venngage Business Plan Make r with their Business Plan Templates to create your own real estate business plan can be transformative.

They offer a lot of real estate business plan examples and templates, streamlining the process of crafting a comprehensive plan.

Click to jump ahead: 

  • 5 real estate business plan examples

How to write a real estate business plan?

  • Wrapping Up

5 Real estate business plan examples

As I have said before, a well-crafted business plan is a key to success. Whether you’re a seasoned agent or just starting out, examples of effective real estate business plans can offer invaluable insights.

These examples showcase a range of strategies and approaches tailored to various aspects of the real estate market. They serve as guides to structuring a plan that addresses key components like market analysis, marketing strategies, financial planning and client management, ensuring a solid foundation for any real estate venture.

Real estate business plan example

There are various elements in a real estate business plan that must be integrated. Incorporating these elements into a real estate business plan ensures a comprehensive approach to launching and growing a successful real estate business. 

Real Estate Business Plan Template

What are they?

  • Executive summary: The executive summary is a concise overview of the real estate business plan. It highlights the mission statement, outlines the business goals and provides a snapshot of the overall strategy. 
  • Company overview: An overview on the history and structure of the real estate business. It includes the company’s mission and vision statements, information about the founding team and the legal structure of the business. 
  • Service: Here, the business plan details the specific services offered by the real estate agency. This could range from residential property sales and leasing to commercial real estate services. The section should clearly articulate how these services meet the needs of the target client and how they stand out from competitors.
  • Strategies: A very crucial part of the plan outlines the strategies for achieving business goals. It covers marketing strategies to generate leads, pricing strategies for services, and tactics for effective client relationship management. Strategies for navigating market shifts, identifying key market trends and leveraging online resources for property listings and real estate listing presentations to help with lead generation are also included.
  • Financial plan: The financial plan is a comprehensive section detailing the financial projections of the business. It includes income statements, cash flow statements, break-even analysis and financial goals. Besides, a financial plan section also outlines how resources will be allocated to different areas of the business and the approach to managing the financial aspects of the real estate market, such as average sales price and housing market trends.

Real Estate Marketing Plan Template

Read Also: 7 Best Business Plan Software for 2023

Real estate investment business plan example

A real estate investment business plan is a comprehensive blueprint that outlines the goals and strategies of a real estate investment venture. It serves as a roadmap, ensuring that all facets of real estate investment are meticulously considered.

Real Estate Investment Business Plan Template

Creating a business plan for real estate investment is a critical step for any investor, regardless of their experience level Typically, these plans span one to five years, offering a detailed strategy for future company objectives and the steps required to achieve them.

Key components:

  • Executive summary: Snapshot of the business, outlining its mission statement, target market, and core strategies. It should be compelling enough to attract potential investors and partners.
  • Market analysis: A thorough analysis of the real estate market, including current trends, average sales prices and potential market shifts.
  • Financial projections: Detailed financial plans, including income statements, cash flow analysis, and break-even analysis.
  • Strategy & implementation: Outlines how the business plans to achieve its goals. This includes marketing efforts to generate leads, pricing strategies and client relationship management techniques.
  • Legal structure & resource allocation: Details the legal structure of the business and how resources will be allocated across various operations, including property acquisitions, renovations and management.

Real estate agent business plan example

A real estate agent business plan is a strategic document that outlines the operations and goals of a real estate agent or agency. It is a crucial tool for communicating with potential lenders, partners or shareholders about the nature of the business and its potential for profitability.

Real Estate Agent Business Plan Templa

A well-crafted real estate agent business plan will include

  • Where you are today: A clear understanding of your current position in the market, including strengths, weaknesses and market standing.
  • Where you aim to be: Sets specific, measurable goals for future growth, whether it’s expanding the client base, entering new markets or increasing sales.
  • How can you get there: Outlines the strategies and action plans to achieve these goals, including marketing campaigns, client acquisition strategies and business development initiatives.
  • Measuring your performance: Defines the key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to assess progress towards the set goals, such as sales figures, client satisfaction rates and market share.
  • Course correction: Establishes a process for regular review and adjustment of the plan, ensuring flexibility to adapt to market changes, shifts in client needs and other external factors.

For real estate agents, a comprehensive business plan is not just a roadmap to success; it is a dynamic tool that keeps them accountable and adaptable to market changes.

Realtor business plan example

A realtor business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines the strategic direction and goals of a real estate business. It’s an essential tool for realtors looking to either launch or expand their business in the competitive real estate market. The plan typically includes details about the company’s mission, objectives, target market and strategies for achieving its goals.

Realtor Business Plan Template

Benefits of a realtor business plan and applications:

  • For launching or expanding businesses: The plan helps real estate agents to structure their approach to entering new markets or growing in existing ones, providing a clear path to follow.
  • Securing loans and investments: A well-drafted business plan is crucial for securing financing for real estate projects, such as purchasing new properties or renovating existing ones.
  • Guideline for goal achievement: The plan serves as a guideline to stay on track with sales and profitability goals, allowing realtors to make informed decisions and adjust strategies as needed.
  • Valuable for real estate investors: Investors can use the template to evaluate potential real estate businesses and properties for purchase, ensuring they align with their investment goals.
  • Improving business performance: By filling out a realtor business plan template , realtors can gain insights into the strengths and weaknesses of their business, using this information to enhance profitability and operational efficiency.

A realtor business plan is more than just a document; it’s a roadmap for success in the real estate industry. 

Writing a real estate business plan is a comprehensive process that involves several key steps. Here’s a detailed guide to help you craft an effective business plan :

  • Tell your story : Start with a self-evaluation. Define who you are as a real estate agent, why you are in this business and what you do. Develop your mission statement, vision statement and an executive summary​​.
  • Analyze your target real estate market : Focus on local market trends rather than national or state-wide levels. Examine general trends, market opportunities, saturations, and local competition. This step requires thorough research into the real estate market you plan to operate in​​.
  • Identify your target client : After understanding your market, identify the niche you aim to serve and the type of clients you want to target. Create a client persona that reflects their specific needs and concerns​​.
  • Conduct a SWOT analysis : Analyze your business’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This should reflect a combination of personal attributes and external market conditions​​​​.
  • Establish your SMART goals : Set specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely goals. These goals could be financial, expansion-related or based on other business metrics​​​​.
  • Create your financial plan : Account for all operating expenses, including marketing and lead generation costs. Calculate the number of transactions needed to meet your financial goals. Remember to separate personal and business finances​​.
  • Revisit your business plan to monitor & evaluate : Treat your business plan as a living document. Plan periodic reviews (quarterly, semi-annually or annually) to check if your strategies are advancing you toward your goals​​​​.
  • Defining your mission & vision : Include a clear mission and vision statement. Describe your business type, location, founding principles and what sets you apart from competitors​​.
  • Creating a marketing plan : Develop a marketing plan that addresses the product, price, place and promotion of your services. Determine your pricing strategy, promotional methods and marketing channels​​.
  • Forming a team : Ensure the cooperation of colleagues, supervisors and supervisees involved in your plan. Clarify their roles and how their participation will be evaluated​​.

Related: 15+ Business Plan Examples to Win Your Next Round of Funding

Wrapping up

The journey to a successful real estate venture is intricately linked to the quality and depth of your business plan. From understanding the nuances of the real estate market to setting strategic goals, a well-crafted business plan acts as the backbone of any thriving real estate business. Whether you’re developing a general real estate business plan, focusing on investment, working as an agent, or operating as a realtor, each plan type serves its unique purpose and addresses specific aspects of the real estate world.

The examples and insights provided in this article serve as a guide to help you navigate the complexities of the real estate industry. Remember, a real estate business plan is not a static document but a dynamic blueprint that evolves with your business and the ever-changing market trends.

Crafting a strategic real estate business plan is a crucial step towards achieving your business goals. So, start shaping your vision today with Venngage.

Explore venngage business plan maker & our business plan templates and begin your journey to a successful real estate business now!

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Realtor.com PRO

  • Lead Generation

Creating a 2023 real estate business plan

  • February 1, 2023 | 3 minutes

creating a business plan for real estate agent

“No plan survives first contact with the enemy.”

The famous quote is beloved by business planning cynics. And it’s true – but it’s irrelevant. Consider, for example a football coach – is he to ignore strategy and just let the team make it up as they go along? Certainly, there’s an opposing team with its own strategy to deploy. But without planning, both sides are just running around aimlessly, just hoping the ball will land close by.  So, to toss in another quote, “plans are nothing; planning is everything.” 

Identify the enemies to your growth

As you head into 2023, what’s your ‘enemy’?  We would suggest that among the biggest enemies are uncertainty, global disruption, fiscal chaos, and natural disasters. A sound business plan recognizes elements like these – things we can’t influence – but focuses on what we can measure and achieve.

The Road map – get it before you need it

A Business Plan is a road map for your business. When you drive on a freeway, a map might seem superfluous. Now imagine it’s dark, and you take the wrong exit, finding yourself on a winding road with little lighting.  Now you need that road map, but it’s too late.  Similarly, a real estate agent may start the year off with a couple of closings and feel that 2023 is going to be a good year. No need to do the planning. Just ‘roll with it.’  Now let’s add to some of those ‘enemies’ identified above; a marketing campaign that failed to deliver; a series of natural occurrences that impact your market – forest fires, flooding, subsidence. Without planning – financial, business continuity, personnel – these ‘perfect storms’ could fatally impact your real estate business.

Similarly, when opportunities for growth arise, a good plan will allow you the flexibility to take advantage of them. A partnership with a real estate agent in an adjacent area or with a complementary skillset; a new subdivision that requires a new level of service; an exclusive property needing significant investment in video, online and face-to-face marketing.  With a business plan you’re in a stronger negotiating and development position.

creating a business plan for real estate agent

If you can’t measure it….

Economist W. Edwards Deming (or was it guru Peter Drucker? Nobody’s sure) said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”  Nowhere is this more important than that in real estate business planning. A well-developed and realistic plan should form a strong foundation upon which to build a flexible, responsive, resilient and profitable business.  The goals and objectives you incorporate into the plan must be realistic, attainable, and measurable. If you’re on a team, they should additionally be communicable. 

These goals and objectives should touch every aspect of your business. For example:

  • Listing appointments 
  • Listings secured
  • Average days-on-market
  • New buyers contacted
  • New buyer contracts
  • Closings, both listing and buying
  • Events attended/planned
  • Additions to database
  • Personal development, health, nutrition goals
  • Gross and net income
  • Anticipated expenses: office, marketing, recruitment

The Plan: Be honest

There are many templates for building out a plan: NAR has a checklist with the 7 components of a business, starting with a detailed, honest analysis of your business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, known as a SWOT analysis.  

The most important feature of the plan is that you are brutally honest with the inputs. If, for example, real estate is a part-time business for you, either by design or because your market is seasonal, recognize that this will affect all your metrics, top and bottom lines, and your expected outcomes.  If, alternatively, your market is growing rapidly and you will need additional help to manage it and maintain an expected level of service, recognize that and the associated costs involved in recruiting, training. and managing new people.

Typically a real estate business plan contains the following:

  • Executive summary
  • Description of your company – its history, location, key staff
  • Expand on each, especially your strengths in your chosen market
  • Headcount strategies (could be a combination of full time, part-time and consulting people)
  • Goals and objectives outlined above
  • Leverage growth tools we provide at Realtor.com
  • Financing requirements to implement and execute these goals and plans.

Don’t Just File It

The creation of a real estate business plan for 2023 should require a deep examination of your current business and an honest assessment of the opportunities open to you this year. Don’t let this document go to waste: set aside an hour each week to review it quickly – make it a fixed agenda item during team meetings if you’re the team leader.  

The goals and objectives discussed earlier should be constantly reviewed and actual results compared to your plan.  A sound and achievable plan will be underpinned by business and marketing strategies – a good place to turbo-charge your lead generation is our Connections Plus solution.  Connections Plus helps you to successfully capture, communicate and connect  with potential clients, whether they are buying or selling.

You’re not alone, and the creation of the living document that is your 2023 business plan will give you guideposts and mile-markers to bring you successfully to your business destination.

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Buffini & company blog, 9 steps to creating a strategic real estate business plan for 2024.

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For over 30 years, Brian Buffini has been one of the most respected and trusted leaders in the real estate industry.  Join his latest Bold Predictions broadcast  to learn about the real state of the market and how agents can use that data to increase their listings and win market share. You’ll also hear from Dr. Lawrence Yun, the Chief Economist at the National Association of REALTORS®, for his insight, advice and predictions on what’s ahead.

Creating a comprehensive business plan is essential for real estate agents who want to stay organized, maximize productivity and win market share. Here are 9 steps an agent should take to design a dynamic strategic plan.

1. Define Your Mission Statement

Take some time to reflect on why you are in this business. What are your primary reasons? What benefits will you provide to your potential clients? What do you hope to accomplish by taking on this responsibility?   

2. Define Your Target Audience or Niche Think about what types of clients you want to work with. It could be a category of people (such as new homeowners) or a specific niche (such as retirement communities). Will extra resources or measures be needed to reach them?

3. Evaluate Your Resources

Will you be working by yourself? Determine if it would make sense to hire an assistant or another agent to help manage lead generation. If you have a team, create a flow chart with each member’s responsibilities. That will help you to see who is doing what and identify any gaps to fill.

4. Set Clear Goals

A great model to follow is SMART goals : specific, measurable, achievable, relevant.

Include both short- and long-term objectives, such as annual income targets and the number of transactions you aim to complete.

5. Establish Budget and Financial Projections

Create a detailed budget that accounts for business expenses, such as licensing fees, marketing and advertising, office space and transportation.

Lead generation is your most important priority. A comprehensive, well-designed, multi-faceted marketing campaign is crucial for your business to succeed. As part of your budgeting step, be sure to include this important category and analyze if it makes sense to do in-house or to off source.  

6. Create Strategic Action Steps  

A great customer relationship management (CRM) system will help you run your business with maximum productivity.

  • It allows you to organize all your contacts and their detailed information in one place. It also lets you rank contacts by importance and informs you when and how those clients and leads should be contacted.
  • It has functionality that creates detailed reports so you can track your transactions and expenses. It should also be able to generate reports, so you know if you are on target to meet your financial goals and what to do to reach them.   
  • It helps you stay aligned with your goals, to-do lists and calendars. A CRM can also create action steps based on your goals and current progress and can generate your priority list.

7. Create a Plan for Evaluation and Review

Regularly review your progress and adjust your business plan as needed. Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to see if you are hitting your benchmarks and if you need to adjust your plan.

8. Consider Support and Accountability

Consider working with a real estate coach to help you strategize and implement measures so you can reach your goals. A coach will also help you deal with issues head on to keep you accountable and on task.

9.  Commit to Continuous Learning

Commit to ongoing professional development by attending training seminars and staying updated on industry trends.

Buffini & Company – We’ve Got You!

Buffini & Company’s coaches have already been working to establish systems and resources in place to help get their clients ready and positioned for a strong 2024 selling season. To learn more about how a coach can help you take full advantage of the extraordinary year to come, schedule a free Business Consultation .

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  • The Real Estate Agent's Guide to Creating a Business Plan

How to Create a Simple Business Plan for Your Real Estate Business

Jacqueline Kyo Thomas Freedom Trail Realty School, Inc.

Starting a real estate business? You need a business plan. Already have a real estate business? You still need a business plan.

Your business plan will play an essential role in your future success. It maps out a realistic path to what you’d like to achieve within the first year of your business and beyond.

But creating a business plan can be daunting. How do you know what you don’t know? How do plan for the future of your business when you’re new to real estate and aren’t sure what to expect?

In this guide, we’ll help you create a simple but effective business plan for your real estate business. Let’s get started.

Why Do You Need a Business Plan?

You may be wondering, What’s the point of having a business plan in the first place? Here’s why it’s important to develop your own business plan, preferably before you hang your shingle and start work as a real estate agent:

A business plan is a map that defines the future goals for your business and gives specific directions on how you’ll get there. Without a map, you’ll often stumble around on the longer route. You may reach your business goals, but then again, you may not, especially if you don’t have a clear understanding of what those goals are in the first place.

A business plan will help you map out a path towards specific goals for your business. “Making money by the end of the year” is not a well-defined goal, and there’s no way for you to create clear directions towards that hopelessly generic goal. However, making $50,000 by the end of the year is a specific goal to work towards. You can create a path to getting there. A well-developed business plan encourages you to be specific with your goal setting.

A business plan also keeps you on track with what you’ve set out to do. You can refer back to your business plan to stay on course with your objectives.

If you’re looking for funding, such as a bank loan, you’ll definitely need a business plan. Most lenders require a business plan. Not only does it show that you’ve considered the financial needs of your real estate business, but it also shows that you have a plan for how you’ll repay the loan in the future.

Let’s now discuss how to formulate a solid business plan for your real estate business. Keep in mind that your business plan doesn’t need to be fancy or filled with legalese. It can be a simple (but specific) document, just as long as it plots out a realistic path towards future success for your business.

Create a S.M.A.R.T. Goal

And just when you thought we were done with acronyms, here comes another one.

When developing your real estate business plan, think in terms of S.M.A.R.T. goals. S.M.A.R.T. stands for S pecific, M easurable, A ttainable, R ealistic, and T imed. Every goal that you outline in your business plan should meet the above requirements. Here’s how:

S pecific - What is your exact goal? Be as definitive as possible. M easurable - How will you know that you’ve met your goal? How will you track your process? A ttainable - Is your goal practical and within reach? Can you attain your goal with your strength, experience and budget? R ealistic - Is your goal sensible? Given your resources, is it reasonable that you’ll meet this goal? Be honest with what’s possible. T imed - How long will it take for you to reach your goal? You need to have a time frame for meeting and completing your goal.

Every goal that you target should be defined with the above criteria. Remember that you can have short term as well as long term goals in your business plan.

Create a Marketing Strategy

How will people find out about your real estate business? Your business plan should describe how you’ll market yourself as a real estate agent and begin attracting new clients. Here are a few marketing ideas to include in your business plan’s marketing section:

Online Marketing Strategies:

  • Facebook ads (including how much you’ll spend, when you’ll run the ads, what type of ads you’ll run, and who you’ll target in these ads)
  • Email marketing (including how you’ll grow your email list, how often you’ll send out newsletters, and what type of newsletters you’ll send out)

Offline Marketing Strategies:

  • Yard signs (including how many yard signs you’ll purchase and how much each will cost)
  • Direct mail (including how many postcards/ flyers you’ll send, how much the campaign will cost, and what type of content you’ll send in these postcards)
  • Networking (including which events you’ll attend, how often you’ll attend these events, and how you’ll make acquaintances)

Develop a Budget

Include a budget in your real estate business plan. Answer the following questions:

  • How much will you need to start up your business?
  • Where will you get this money from?
  • How much will it cost to run your business day-to-day?
  • How long will it take until you generate a livable income from your real estate business?
  • How will you financially support your business and yourself until you generate income from your real estate business?

A lot of real estate agents go into the industry thinking that their first deal is right around the corner. As a result, they don’t have enough starting capital to sustain them. In reality, it could take months before you score your first real estate deal, and you need to be prepared with enough money to keep you warm in those lean times.

In your business plan, outline how you’ll financially support yourself when you first start out. Will you work a part time job to make ends meet? Or are you able to tap on your savings to fund yourself? Detail how much you’ll need for a specific amount of time (i.e. $40,000 for 12 months) as well as how you’ll spend each dollar.

Describe How You'll Make Money

We all need money to live, and your business plan shouldn’t ignore that fact. Your business plan needs to tackle the following:

How much money you hope to make within a specific period of time (i.e. by the end of the year)

What is your realistic financial goal for your business? Keep in mind that when you first start out in real estate, it’s unlikely that you’ll earn millions of dollars in commission. You should definitely adjust your expectations and choose a healthy goal for what you may be able to accomplish. Do your research to figure out the right answer. Here’s a good place to start: What is the average real estate agent salary?

What you’ll do to achieve your specific money goal

Because goals should always be S.M.A.R.T., you need to have a way to reach the monetary goal that you’ve set. How will you make your earnings? How many clients do you need to have? How much in commission should each client represent?

Although it’s unlikely that you’ll find the perfect number of clients to represent the exact amount of commision you need to hit your goal, it’s still important to include these specifics in your business plan. By knowing your target numbers, you can identify when you’re not reaching your financial goals and act accordingly. Being prepared may require that you fall back on your contingency plan (for example, pick up more hours at your part time job).

Choose Your Target Client

Who is your target client? First Time Seller? Relocating Buyer? Commercial? Residential? Luxury?

As a licensed agent in Massachusetts, you could do business with a variety of prospective real estate clients, but which ones do you prefer? List your preferred client in your business plan. This will help you create a more targeted marketing plan for reaching them.

Review Your Business Plan Regularly

Because it’s based on a series of educated guesses, your business plan is never finished. Instead, your business plan is considered a living document. It’s supposed to grow and evolve with your business.

For this reason, you must continue to review and tweak your business plan. Check it at least once a year to make sure that it still reflects your mission, goals, and target clientele.

Before you go, check out these related resources:

  • How to Market Yourself as a Real Estate Agent
  • Do This Before Becoming a Real Estate Agent

More blog posts from Freedom Trail Realty School, Inc.

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What is the average real estate agent salary?

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Interested in getting your real estate license online?

Start your real estate classes today!

creating a business plan for real estate agent

10 High Impact Real Estate Ad Ideas (+ A Comprehensive Guide to Elevate Your Brand)

Chris Heller Headshot

To achieve this, however, you will need a plan to effectively place your ads to not only bolster your business, but also to establish your brand identity.  

In this comprehensive “how-to” guide, we’ll delve into the significance of ads in brand establishment, offer tips for creating impactful ads, explore creative approaches, discuss optimal ad placement strategies, analyze the cost-benefit aspect, and introduce platforms for ad creation. 

PLUS, we’ve provided 10 different ideas for ads to help you get started! Ready to dive into the world of advertising? First…

Let’s Discuss Why Targeted and Strategic Ads Are Crucial for Your Business

First and foremost, with your ads you are creating familiarity. Familiarity with your brand leads to trust, and ultimately a higher return on investment… with less effort, which saves you time. 

There have been multiple studies over the years to back these theories, an article by stridecreative.com speaks to these:

“We can also draw upon research on cognitive fluency… As we make decisions about which tasks we’ll do throughout the day, those decisions are subconsciously guided by how easy or difficult we think those tasks will be… When we encounter familiar brands, they require less mental work and present less risk, so they feel easy to us — and we gravitate toward them.”

As such, your ads serve as a conduit for introducing your brand to potential clients, reinforcing your presence, and shaping perceptions.

Additionally, in the digital age, where attention spans are fleeting, well-crafted ads are indispensable for grabbing attention amidst the noise and leaving a lasting impression. 

And now you know, consistent ad placement cultivates brand recognition and trust, crucial elements to help you establish long lasting relationships with your clients from the start!

Tips and Best Practices for Creating Ads

Woman,Drawing,On,Tablet,Computer,,Concept,Of,Branding,,Brand,Strategy

If you don’t, you’ll be wasting your time and money… so take a few minutes to read the key factors to consider when creating your plan and spend some time making decisions that will establish your brand and get your messaging across. 

Here’s how to get started:

  • Ask yourself: What am I selling, what is my niche? A house in the suburbs? Penthouse suite? Cabin in the woods? Then, what features will my audience most likely be attracted to? What is the lifestyle they are looking for if they are interested in this area? The more specific, the better.
  • By knowing your audience, you can create ads that speak directly to their desires, which increases the likelihood of engagement and conversion.
  • Visually appealing ads not only grab attention but also convey professionalism and attention to detail, instilling confidence in your ability to find the right property for your clients.
  • If you deliver high quality images time and time again you ensure your audience that you care about what you are selling and ensure that you have an elevated sense of how to handle business. 
  • First, determine your voice and the tone you want to set in your ads. Then, communicate key information such as property features, benefits, pricing, and contact details in a succinct and persuasive manner.
  • Clarity in messaging helps eliminate confusion and ensures that your audience understands the offer and its relevance to them with you as the trusted source for specific, factual information.
  • But what is a good call to action ? You want to focus on the value and benefits you’re offering with language that incorporates action (sign up, subscribe, book a consultation, schedule a viewing, etc.), and an added touch of urgency… without being pushy!
  • You can invite viewers to schedule a viewing, contact you for more information or questions, visit a property website for more listings, and the list goes on!

By carefully considering these elements and crafting your style before you begin creating your ads you are more likely to achieve higher conversion rates. Not only will you be establishing familiarity, but have personalized, compelling ads that resonate with your audience.

How to Stand Out: Break the mold by infusing creativity into your ads

Businessman,Computer,Planning,Marketing,Brand,Concept

Here’s a few ways you can start to spark your creative juices in your ads: 

  • You can craft stories that showcase the unique features, history, and lifestyle associated with a property to help your audience imagine themselves living at that property. 
  • You can highlight stories from previous owners , sharing anecdotes about memorable moments in the home that you hope to help cultivate for your clients by finding them their dream home. 
  • You can paint a vivid picture of the surrounding neighborhood full of activity, community that evokes a sense of belonging.
  • Or… perhaps you have a personal draw to a property, share your connection and why this particular property and neighborhood captured your attention .

Effective storytelling creates a personal connection with potential buyers and helps them envision themselves living in the property, making your ads more memorable and compelling.

  • Creative quizzes to help your potential clients learn more about what they are looking for is a win-win. You can incorporate images to help determine property style or neighborhood preferences with questions that illicit preference for example. 
  • Polls help audiences feel like their opinion will make an impact and you get important feedback on specific properties that can help inform future ads by getting to know your audience better. 
  • Interactive virtual tours , allow viewers to explore the property from different angles and customize their viewing experience based on their interests… technology is making this easier and easier, but we’ll expand more on this in a minute.

Businesswoman,Hand,Working,With,Laptop,Computer,,Tablet,And,Smart,Phone

  • You can use testimonials, reviews, or success stories to demonstrate the positive impact working with you had for your clients’ lives. 
  • Create a sense of reassurance with potential buyers, by sharing photos, videos, casual interviews, and 1st-hand experiences to validate what clients can expect when working with you. 
  • You can incorporate testimonials from local shops, restaurants, events, to help build a sense of community to support your messaging in your ads. 

Ultimately, you are sharing proof that working with you is an enjoyable experience, and your professionalism is respected by those around you. All leading to your ability to build a client base that will trust you through their purchasing process. 

  • You can overlay digital information, such as property details, floor plans, or furniture arrangements, onto real-world environments, allowing potential buyers to visualize the space in a customizable way. 
  • Or you can allow your clients to explore properties in 3D, providing a realistic and immersive viewing experience from the comfort of their own home. 

With technology and digital marketing ruling the business world right now incorporating these tools into your ads is a sure way to help you stay competitive, and impress your buyers by creating a truly memorable, immersive experience. 

Optimal Ad Placement Strategies

Successful,Entrepreneur,Checking,E-mail,On,Laptop,Computer,,Sitting,In,Coffee

Strategically placing ads across various channels helps to maximize your visibility and engagement, and over time you’ll have enough data to understand where your more promising leads are discovering your services.

Here’s a few places to consider for your ads:

  • If you are in a larger market, this strategy will likely help you stand out a bit more, and is a bit of non-negotiable if you want to be taken seriously.
  • Paying Google, Yahoo, etc. to advertise your properties differs than relying on SEO to help your business. SEO can take some time to build up your click and conversion rates through organic growth, but you can increase the likelihood of visibility with paid ads faster. 
  • Advertising through these well-known sites is key in expanding your reach to a broader audience searching from anywhere in the world.
  • Advertise in local newspapers, magazines, or community newsletters highlighting elements of your expertise in the area that will establish you as a go-to agent for this neighborhood.
  • You can showcase homes you have listed now, testimonials, and share your story of how you can help others find their next dream home with complete control of your brand and content. 

Cost and Return on Investment

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Determining your budget before you get started can help you allocate your funds across multiple avenues. As a general guide, setting aside 10% of your annual commission for advertising is an advisable practice. 

But for a little more insight from Merged Media :

“A Real Estate Webmasters study showed that, while 53% of agents spend less than $5,000 on marketing, top real estate agents spend much more. In fact, 52% of agents with real estate commissions higher than $300,000 have budgets of $20,000/year; 20% of these top performers budget over $80,000/year. Also, Deloitte reports that small businesses that actively market online see an increase of $350,000 or 20% increase in annual revenue.”

Now you have an idea of what to expect as your business grows, but again, if you’re just getting started don’t feel discouraged… There are several platforms that fit budgets of all sizes to help you reach broad audiences. 

Platforms to Help You Create and Deliver Your Ads

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  • These are great for agents just starting out who are budget conscious, with options for commission based advertising.  
  • This site is for either an agent getting started who needs help with branding and implementing a plan, or for more established agents looking to aggressively broaden their reach. 
  • Homespotter: This is a quick fix to advertising that will help your potential clients be up to date with what is available. 
  • They offer an affordable monthly subscription/membership for your marketing plans, but will require more of your time in implementing the content. 

10 Ideas to Help You Create Impactful Ads

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  • Exclusive Listings : The goal is to impress, but maintain ease of contact. Highlight exclusive properties with stunning visuals and limited-time offers to create a sense of urgency that caters to your audience. 
  • Neighborhood Expert : Showcase videos and images of you participating in neighborhood events and engaging with the community to help position yourself as a local expert by sharing your insights through the shared experience of community events.
  • Virtual Tours : Take potential clients on a virtual tour of homes that you have listed. You can get creative with this type of video and warp them into several different spaces at a time with a poll of which house resonated with them. 
  • Testimonials : You can feature several of your previous clients through testimonials in myriad ways. In printed ads, with voice overs in videos, or simple quotes are effective accompanied with high-quality images. 
  • Open House Invitations : Create buzz around open houses with engaging invitations where you showcase the experience of what it’s like to attend one of your open houses that separates it from the rest. 
  • Market Updates : You want to be known as the expert in real estate to help establish credibility… lead this ad with surprising and valuable market insights with your opinion and advice included. 

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  • Luxury Living : Create a sense of luxury that targets your audience with images of elegant, lifestyle amenities… and walk them through a “typical day in the life”. 
  • Investment Opportunities : Target investors with lucrative investment opportunities and ROI projections by showcasing your knowledge in market trends and statistics to validate your projections. 

Now with this comprehensive guide to help you get started in the infinite world of digital advertising I hope you feel empowered to start developing your strategy. 

If too much information is overwhelming, just start piece by piece. First with your brand and messaging, then start with social media, then contact an agency, then just keep the ball rolling. 

The most important thing is that you don’t waste another second worrying about perfection, the time to start carving out your niche in the competitive real estate market is now! 

Chris Heller Headshot

About the Author

Chris Heller brings 27 years of experience in real estate. Chris serves on the AgentAdvice Editorial Board and is the Chief Real Estate Officer at OJO Labs. Chris brings deep expertise having held influential industry positions including CEO of mellohome and former CEO of Keller Williams Realty International.

Last Updated: 2/14/2024

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