Real Estate Prospecting

Chapter 2Environment and Finding Your Strength

When you start in real estate, you find that most companies tell you what to do. They outline a set of things you need to do. They call it “real estate prospecting.” This includes making a list of the people you know and calling them, doing open houses, door knocking, making cold calls, and other similar activities. This is, in fact, how I started. It was May 2004. I had just gotten my real estate license, and I had one month left to graduate from college. The day I received my license, I went door knocking.

I printed out some flyers and knocked for six hours straight. I quickly realized that door knocking and being dressed up in a suit with dress shoes was not going to work for me in the summer California weather. The next thing I was told to do was to pick up the phone and make cold calls to neighborhoods that I wanted to work in. I started in real estate in my early twenties, and most of the people I knew at that time were not looking to buy a house because they couldn't afford it yet. I had two things going for me though, my background was in telemarketing/sales, and my mom had a great database.

I worked hard, and I got lucky. Luck was on my side because I had practiced how to talk to people for years prior. Through high school and college, I was trained in selling ink cartridges, windows, and a few other telemarketing jobs that forced me to excel at tonality and dialogue. I know most agents I talk to don't have the training, ...