Being a real estate agent and being a successful one are two different roles. While you might know about the construction, pricing, finance, contracts and legal issues of the real estate in and out, there is still something missing which is holding you from becoming a pro. The answer lies in soft skills that are a must for every real estate broker. With these skills in your kitty, you can crack even the most difficult deals and get continuous business.
Take a look at these nine soft skills:
Leadership is all about motivating others and helping them find their best selves. It also requires an ability to understand people and appreciating their strength and weakness as every individual is different and unique in his/her own manner.
Real estate is a business where negotiations can make or mar the deal. So, make negotiation your strong suit. Whether it is haggling the brokerage fee with the customer or talking with the developer on behalf of the customer, good negotiation skills can come quite handy. Now, the question is how do you develop negotiation skills? Well, knowledge is power and it gives you an upper hand during the negotiation. So, stay informed about every little aspect of the real estate market and the properties you are dealing.
The importance of effective communication cannot be over-emphasized. The time taken out for maintaining a smooth communicative chain of meetings pays off in closing deals faster and with greater satisfaction. In the real estate industry, clients respond well to brokers who listen patiently and actively, are polite in their conversations, and exhibit a friendly attitude.
In order to build strong client relationships, you should develop customer focus as one of your core strengths. Getting to know more about their requirements can help you in fulfilling their criteria more accurately. Apart from the basic details such as client’s preference for location and budget, even the finer details like their choice of interiors can help you make the right pitch.
The real estate business is based entirely on networking. No doubt, brokers must bank on their networking skills to secure more leads and reach out to more people. Don’t wait for the leads to come to you via the developer or property listing websites. Attend events, do cold calling, market yourself on social media, ask for references from existing clients or leave your visiting cards around – you never know which kind of networking may pay you off!
If you can identify the client’s problem areas well, you will be able to relate to them better. Put yourself in their shoes and then try to find out solutions to the problems they are having with a particular property or in general.
One of the most important soft skills is tme management. You need to know how to manage your time if you expect to succeed. Understand which tasks are vital to the profession, and which you can do later, or delegate. Knowing how to use your time — and developing the discipline to stick to your timetable — can help you make better decisions and maximize the work you do.
Are you able to change direction when required ? Can you learn new things comfortably ? Flexibility is one of those soft skills that can help you survive as a real estate broker. With this skill, you are more likely to be willing to learn new things and move forward. If one thing doesn’t work, you need to be flexible enough to try something else. Your ability to have an agile mind and thought process can pave the way to success. Flexibility is required in handling different type of clients. Depending on the mood of the client, a broker should pitch accirdingly.
If you want to be a successful broker, you have to know how to work well with others ( specially with other brokers ). You might need a combination of soft skills to be effective at teamwork. It’s important to listen to other brokers, know how to utilize your strength, and inspire brokers to work together for best results. Its very common that lot of deals faill due to ego hassles of brokers of buyers and sellers !
By improving on these soft skills, you can definitely establish yourself well in the real estate industry.
