Can a real estate agent realistically earn a million dollars a year?

Firstly let me say, that the answer is yes and no. No I’m not gonna leave you with that ambiguity. I mean, here it is, yes it is possible to model what successful people, leaving countless clues, and do what they did, to achieve the success that they achieved.

It is also true, if the ‘realistic’ part of the above question means ‘will the average person’ the answer is a resounding NO.

Because the average person won’t DO what the business, in this case real estate, requires them to do to achieve it. They do THEIR version of it, with THEIR own experience editing as they see fit. Sometimes this sees someone improving an already good idea. Often this leads someone away from their desired result.

A very successful agent and business owner has put on his facebook page some opinions, that given the amount of marketing I am doing for my upcoming event “Be Phenomenal” it is highly likely he is referring to my marketing (full post is typed out below) and if he isn’t, my marketing is still very reminiscent of the kind of thing he is annoyed at.

I’ll also add, I live in the area of this agent, and I have seen his staff especially in recent months, grow their market share considerable, and the agents that he has in my area, have done really well profiling themselves lately, so this is certainly not saying he’s wrong, in many ways he’s right, but, I’m going to make some comments relating to some of his concerns and where we may have a difference of opinion, well……

 Now the author of this passionately written request makes some very valid points, especially in regard to the appalling statistics and fallout rate of agents.

It’s his conclusions that I just can’t agree with.

Now no one who writes this passionately will have their mind changed by me, so this isn’t really to try and change the mind of the author of this request, but for those willing to hear two sides of a discussion, here it is from the horses mouth of one of (if not THE) very trainers he is frustrated by the marketing of. (apologies for the dangling participles, I ain’t too flash with the whole grammar thing)

His words in italics and in purple and, my responses are in this text.

I have to say this and don’t get me wrong here I am very big on promoting peoples success actually if there is one thing we don’t do well here in Australia it is that we don’t promote success enough and we are quick to shoot others down when they have achieved things above and beyond most peoples capabilities.

Good point and agreed 100% and yet if you read the writers entire transcript you will see that he does exactly that, shooting others down, so I wonder which one is it….is he for or against promoting success?

But as a Realestate business owner I am becoming frustrated with the trainers and some agents who work along side these trainers to sell tickets to people starting in our industry with the promise to turn them into million dollar fee writers. What is disgusting is that most of these trainers don’t have any real business history or successes behind them actually if you dig deep most of them leave a trail of failed careers and defunct businesses in their wake.

As a trainer myself, I never claimed to have been a Million Dollar performer as an agent, in fact I say always I was an average agent at best. Including bonuses and overrider commissions, my best year as a business person in the industry was $380,000 GROSS. So I suppose according to the stats quoted here I am a little above average, but I now have many many clients out earning my best ever year. Does that become an invalid point just because I never did it myself? In fact I wear it as a badge of honour, that I was an average agent, but as a coach, I’m doing bloody well, by helping others, in a way I was never helped. I had to go and find a way myself.

The fact is I was handed a broken system and since that time I have travelled the world searching for the right system, piecing together ideas from other industries, spent 5000 hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars, from other countries and I now have a system that works, when implemented, 100% of the time will either increase the income or reduce the hours of the agent who implements it.

But should I not advertise the fact that I have found the metaphorical ‘cure for cancer’ or should I keep it a secret because I didn’t have the cure when I had the cancer?   I have even given this system away for free before countless times, to those agents who I have seen with fire in their eyes, all they needed was  a small break, for someone to say “here take it”

Surely Michael Jordan’s or Rafa’s coach were far less successful than them and they earned far less than them (like my clients who rightly out-earn me) but is the role of the coach, if they weren’t a Jordan themselves, invalid?

And for some of these agents that stand up on the stage preaching their amazing results such as one agent who claims to be a million dollar fee writer and in his best year still falls short with two other agents working with him or another woman who speaks at a so called million dollar agents conference and hasn’t ever written above half that in any given year of her career. This bullshit needs to stop we need some accountability in our industry if these people can’t tell the truth to their peers how do they stay honest with their customers. These training seminars are full of agents who have won meaningless self nominated industry awards that are handed out without any verification of their claims.

It seems that the writer may not believe in celebrating the success of other agents, yet I am sure if either of these two people he is pointing the finger at came knocking at his door, he too would consider them top performers and welcome them with open arms into his business…The Woman that I believe he is alluding to, has never claimed to be a Million Dollar writer, but she has implemented like a trojan in areas of her business that most agents fall down in, she is on stage to share these experiences. What truly fascinates me, is the writer here claims to want performers doing real numbers, who aren’t the ” Michael Jordan’s’  of the industry, and then complains when a really good ‘ work in progress’  who has gone from $150,000 a year, to $400,000 a year, and is on track to do $762,000 this year (her goal, currently on track) is celebrated for that success.

Now I personally don’t audit my clients (I have had this request to see group certificates) but frankly, the ‘SOLD’ properties on RE.com and absolute weight of listings in their areas are close enough for me to take my clients at their word.

Hey it’s all good to be successful but I have agents working for me that are writing 250k and 400k in fees agent whom are very successful and earning a great income actually anything above 150k a year puts you well into the top 20% of income earners in the country and they go to these training sessions and come back feeling deflated because these trainers push upon them that your not a top performer unless you hit A million in fees this is crazy and it is no wonder our industry has a 90% failure rate in the first year.

Not sure if this is the majority of seminar attendees. Certainly not at mine. At mine, I am very careful to include the aforementioned Million dollar plus performers, but also, a very good mix of not only the end result, like a Mat Steinwede, a Marcus Chiminello, a Chris Gilmour, a Michael Spillane or a Tom Carlin, call em, they’ll confirm their numbers, not that they owe it to us or anything, but most of them are very humble about their success, even though it was an effort that 99% of the industry will not do. But I also include many of the ‘works in progress, doing great things like the numbers you are mentioning above your guys are doing, and absolutely right, these numbers put your guys in the top few % of the industry, so why are you mad that I’m celebrating several agents who fit exactly that criteria?

But getting back to the ‘why are the million dollar plus guys so often on seminar stages?’  question. The fact is,  that not everyone who straps on a pair of runners ends up winning a Gold medal, or everyone who picks up a racket doesn’t play Wimbledon, but we should ignore those who do & not see them as a possible reality Or should we be inspired by them? (like we are in most other areas of our life, as a society we look up to, respect and like hearing from those who are successful)

Trainers out there need to give agents a realistic version of what to expect rather than some bullshit idea preached by pretenders in an effort to sign unsuspecting agents to their mentor programs. Seriously if we want people outside of the industry to respect us we should start by telling the truth amongst ourselves and not trying to top up our income by selling a fake version of success to unsuspecting agents who are trying to get a start in our industry.

Agreed 100%. I have sat in over 5000 hours of seminars and I have seen it all. I saw one speaker, not exaggeration, that said set any goal you like, anything, and if you don’t hit your goal, I will give you back your $2000. (my goal of becoming Miss Venezuela I think the bastard owes me $2k! haha) But I have heard it all, and agree, that we, as speakers and seminar putter-onnerers, definfitely should give attendees the thing they want (ie to be the next Mat Steinwede) as well as the thing they need (ie to get from $50,000 to $200,000) .

For my seminars I have a mix of the legends,plus the new blood.

The bit I vehemently disagree with is to water down the message to the market for these seminars.

The same could be said at every listing presentation  in the country, the answer to ‘why should I list with you’ would be some version or interpretation of ‘because I’ll work hardest and best for you and get you the highest price, in a timely manner and get you moved’ or something. Now this CANNOT be true for all of them. In some cases the agents are not the best person for the job, but should we go into our sellers with a watered down message saying ‘Oh I’ll do my best, and we’ll try to get the job done, but you know, the guy in the office down the road with ten years more experience, you know he’d probably have a better chance of doing so”

This would be the honest answer in some cases, but who on earth would say that to a client? Similarly, if I ran a seminar called ‘Be Mediocre, Be Realistic and you too can become a six figure earner, yup that’s right, I’ll show you how to earn $100,000’ ……well I’m not brave enough to try that as a marketing message just yet.

I don’t know many agents that start out in our industry and write even half a million in fees within their first few years let alone a million so why is it as an industry we set these unrealistic expectation for new people coming through I know it’s great to aim high but let’s be realistic here less than 1% of our industry hit a million and even less do it year after year so why is all the training so focused on this 1%.

Same reason as the basketball industry is focussed on MJ, or tennis on Rafa or Federer. No one gets inspired by the guy who is ‘realistic’ and representative of what is achievable by the average person. Because, depending on who’s stat you read, the average person in our business writes less than $70,000 per year. No one will sign up to that seminar.

Can someone out there in the training world create a program that is directed towards helping people achieve realistic outcomes a program that gives people a true indication of our industry that can get them on the pathway to a sustainable career where true income expectations can be discussed and celebrated. Just a thought.

I think I have, friend, in that we have the end game, plus the mid game, and the first steps in mind. With examples of exactly what to do, step by step, at each level, in order to get someone from average to good, good to great, and great to phenomenal.

I am as proud and bragging about Sebastian Ross who has gone from a Go Gecko ‘discount agent’ to having several $50, 000 months, as I am of Chris Gilmour who has written $1mill in gross commissions in his third year, and every year since, while working less hours every year.

Hell, if anyone does ANY better, even $20,000 a year, two sales, better as a result of my $199 seminar, then I am loving that !!

Sir I only know you by reputation, and that reputation is that you are the best natural born salesperson many people have ever met. And I LIVE in your suburb. And I have a great deal of respect for your brand and I even know a few of your salespeople, who I would only guess have some positive things to say about my training and seminars.

I wish the industry was different, I wish our culture was different, and that puffery in advertising wasn’t necessary to sell anything (including by the way, your services, because not everyone in the brand you represent epitomises the slogan of the company, but some, like yourself , most certainly do) but as you and other business owners know, marketing is the key….Red Bull does not give everyone wings. Not everyone who wears nikes will be ‘like mike’ and not every agent that walks into a seminar to hear a million dollar performer will become one. But every single person, COULD.

If other industries did what you suggested we would have no Jordan, no Tiger (maybe that’s a good thing), no Raffa, no Schwarzenegger, no Magic Johnson, no Muhammad Ali.  In your world we wouldn’t be allowed to put them on a pedestal, admire them for what they have achieve and say to the kid with fire in his eyes “You can be Michael Jordan, you just need to work harder” nope, you want us to say “sorry kid, only 1% of the population get to the level of Jordan, I don’t think you’ll make it”

I think i much prefer to say to all the agents out there “You CAN be a million dollar agent and I have the tools that will help you get there, you need to play a role too in this, but if you do everything I tell you to do, then we will have you up on stage sharing your story with the rest of the industry, just like Mat Steinwede, Michael Spillane, Tom Carlin, Marcus Chinimello & others…..

 

The full rant is here – for those interested.

I have to say this and don’t get me wrong here I am very big on promoting peoples success actually if there is one thing we don’t do well here in Australia it is that we don’t promote success enough and we are quick to shoot others down when they have achieved things above and beyond most peoples capabilities. But as a Realestate business owner I am becoming frustrated with the trainers and some agents who work along side these trainers to sell tickets to people starting in our industry with the promise to turn them into million dollar fee writers. What is disgusting is that most of these trainers don’t have any real business history or successes behind them actually if you dig deep most of them leave a trail of failed careers and defunct businesses in their wake. And for some of these agents that stand up on the stage preaching their amazing results such as one agent who claims to be a million dollar fee writer and in his best year still falls short with two other agents working with him or another woman who speaks at a so called million dollar agents conference and hasn’t ever written above half that in any given year of her career. This bullshit needs to stop we need some accountability in our industry if these people can’t tell the truth to their peers how do they stay honest with their customers. These training seminars are full of agents who have won meaningless self nominated industry awards that are handed out without any verification of their claims. Hey it’s all good to be successful but I have agents working for me that are writing 250k and 400k in fees agent whom are very successful and earning a great income actually anything above 150k a year puts you well into the top 20% of income earners in the country and they go to these training sessions and come back feeling deflated because these trainers push upon them that your not a top performer unless you hit A million in fees this is crazy and it is no wonder our industry has a 90% failure rate in the first year. Trainers out there need to give agents a realistic version of what to expect rather than some bullshit idea preached by pretenders in an effort to sign unsuspecting agents to their mentor programs. Seriously if we want people outside of the industry to respect us we should start by telling the truth amongst ourselves and not trying to top up our income by selling a fake version of success to unsuspecting agents who are trying to get a start in our industry. I don’t know many agents that start out in our industry and write even half a million in fees within their first few years let alone a million so why is it as an industry we set these unrealistic expectation for new people coming through I know it’s great to aim high but let’s be realistic here less than 1% of our industry hit a million and even less do it year after year so why is all the training so focused on this 1%. Can someone out there in the training world create a program that is directed towards helping people achieve realistic outcomes a program that gives people a true indication of our industry that can get them on the pathway to a sustainable career where true income expectations can be discussed and celebrated. Just a thought.