KGCI: Real Estate on Air - 5 Things I Would Do As A New Realtor Exhaust Free Resources

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

SummaryThis episode provides a clear, strategic guide for new real estate agents who want to build a successful business without breaking the bank. The discussion challenges the common misconception that success requires expensive ad campaigns and coaching. Instead, it offers a powerful blueprint for leveraging the wealth of high-quality, free resources available to jumpstart your career, build a strong foundation of knowledge, and gain a competitive edge in any market.Key TakeawaysKnowledge is Your Greatest Asset: Understand that the most successful agents are relentless learners. The episode emphasizes that a wealth of free resources—from podcasts and YouTube channels to webinars and free online courses—are available to help you master your craft without spending a dime.Master One Lead Generation Strategy: Learn why trying to do everything at once is a recipe for failure. The episode advises a laser-focused approach: pick just one lead generation strategy (like open houses, cold calling, or social media) and go all-in on it for 90 days to achieve mastery and tangible results.Get in the Right Rooms: Discover the power of proximity. The discussion highlights the importance of surrounding yourself with people who are further ahead in their careers. By attending free local events, joining mastermind groups, or even following top producers on social media, you can absorb valuable insights and accelerate your growth.Done is Better Than Perfect: Unpack the mindset that holds many new agents back. The episode explains that the fear of not being perfect can lead to inaction. You'll learn the importance of taking messy action, launching your ideas, and building momentum through consistent effort rather than waiting for a perfect plan.Topics:New realtor tipsFree real estate resourcesReal estate survival guideReal estate businessLead generation for realtorsCall-to-ActionReady to kickstart your real estate career? Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and start building a business that lasts!

Welcome to the Real Estate Survival Guide, the show that teaches realtors how to create a thriving real estate business. What is up, everybody? Welcome back to today's episode of the Real Estate Survival Guide podcast. I'm your host John Shookman. I'm excited to be here with you and excited to continue our series on things I would do as a new realtor. Thanks for the feedback so far on these episodes. It's been really fun to bring this to you. It kind of brings me back, honestly. to, I mean, exactly that, you know, when I started my career and the things I did, the things I could have done differently, could have done better, wish I would have done all those things. So it's a little kind of walk down memory lane for me. And I know it has been helpful for many of you.

And thanks for reaching out and sharing that with me. It's exciting to hear that. And so excited to continue our series. You know, a couple weeks ago, we talked about like having one active and one passive pillar. Obviously, a social media is a big part of that for me. Last week, we talked about getting in the right rooms. And today, we are talking about the third thing I would do as a new realtor. So, excited to have you guys here. I would go back if you missed those first two episodes and listen to that, especially those of you that are new. But excited to jump into today.

and one of the smartest things I would do, I could do and would do if I were you right now, is just stick with what you have available for free right now. You know, and maybe that sounds kind of basic, but honestly, when I talk to new realtors, especially as my, you know, as my downline has grown at EXP, I've got about almost 50 agents now, 45 to 50 agents. I feel like so many of them are like, okay, I'm going to, to pay for these leads. I'm going to buy this. I'm going to do this. Now, maybe I had a benefit.

I don't know if it was a benefit at the time, but maybe I have a benefit because I was too broke to spend any money when I got started. But I really just want to say there are so many things you could do, you could buy, and I would say a lot of it is a waste of money. So, you know, and I'll be honest, right? Someone recently said, hey, I'm going to run ads on Facebook and all that. Now, you guys know I built a very successful six-figure business without ads. I'm not a them, but I didn't need them and don't think people do. But here's the biggest thing. This person was like, I'm going to do ads. And I had to be honest with them and say like, hey, bro, like, you're not even doing the basic stuff on social media now. So the ads you're running will be to a page that has

no engagement, no post, no nothing. And what do we say? Like in the membership and on these calls, if you have to build no like and trust. So if you're sending them to a business page or personal, whichever it is with ads and you're not posting anything, it is literally like burning money. You might as well throw that money away or light it on fire. And so you might be saying in your head like, wow, John, that's a little abrasive. That's a little much. But I really believe, again, ads can be great and all this and all these things, not if you don't have a presence on social media there already.

So, you know, it can be pressure too if you're a new agent, right? There's a lot of pressure out there to look successful when you're brand new. You see other agents with beautiful branding, custom websites, paid lead systems, high-end marketing videos, and you think, oh, if I just buy these, I'll start closing deals. But the truth is, most of those agents don't have all that together like they think they do, and they didn't have it together when they started. And the other part of this is so many of them are basically full of baloney. They really are.

And, you know, here's the deal like, guys, guys, I just hit icon at EXP. I have almost 50 agents. I don't have a CRM. I don't have a CRM. One of the first things they say is you need to spend money on your CRM and all this. Now, EXP now gives you a great option of three CRMs you can choose from. I'll be honest with you guys. They launched that, I think, end of June, end of July, or end of May, end of June, whatever it was.

I still haven't done it because that's just not me. Right. So what you need more than anything is not software. It's not data. It's not a spreadsheet. It's not a funnel. You need to take action. And so, right, when I got in, I couldn't afford the stuff that maybe some of you can,

a professional web designer, fancy CRM, right? I had a phone, I had a Facebook account, and I had a willingness to show up consistently. So I leaned into that, social media, what was available in free, posting value, putting stuff out there, creating quick videos, and reaching out to connections. It wasn't perfect, but it worked because I was consistent, right? So I want to give you a few. few tools that you should be using. Social media, I don't think we have to go into this one because we've done it, but you should be on social media, right? I just talked to someone who's thinking

about real estate, a husband and wife that I know pretty well went to college with, are thinking about real estate. And so I said, well, you got to get back on social media, right? Free exposure, right? It can be Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, whatever it is, but go where you already are. Don't go jump on a new platform, right? You stories, reels, post. Okay. So social media, we've kind of beat into the ground and we will continue to do that because that's what I teach, right? So Canva, right? There's free plans for Canva where you can create beautiful graphics for listings, guides and social content. And you can start with templates in there. Just search realtor, real estate, whatever. You don't need to buy the updated one, the premium one. You know,

at EXP, you get that for free, but you don't need to buy that, right? Start making some graphics on Canva. Okay. Then what you can do from there is, use a tool to just track this stuff. You know, I think the biggest thing about all this guys is I don't want you spending money until you're making money, right? So if we kind of rewind to John's journey, right, 2020, making no money, what did I do? I did everything that was free. So I'm not against you at some point paying for, you know, leads if that's what you feel

like is best. I've never done it and haven't had to. But if you feel like that's what you need to do great, let's exhaust the free resources first. So, you know, do the social media, get Canva, start creating graphics for something like that, have something to track, right? I've kind of told you I don't have a CRM, but just have a system that can track what are you doing every day to move the needle forward? As I talk to realtors, so often I say, what are you doing today to move the needle forward in your real estate business? So many of you are working other jobs, okay? Well, if you only have an hour or two hours or

three hours or whatever it is to dedicate to real estate, what are we doing with that time, right? So you need a system to track that information. So maybe it's a Google sheet, which is free with a Google account, or a clickup, which has free plans. And you can just track the work that you are doing. So keep it simple. What is the task you want to do today to move that needle forward in your business, those one or two or three things? And then track, did you do it? And if it's, you know, leads or whatever, you know, are you contacting people? Are you follow it up? or going through your to-do list. Keep it very simple.

And you can store all this. The other part, too, you can store all this guys in your phone. Every iPhone, Android, whatever, has a Notes app that is free. You can track this information, but you need a system to track it, right? And, you know, other things I would be doing if I was new today is be doing as many open houses as humanly possible. Now, I did not get leads doing open houses. it just never worked out.

But what it did do is when I was doing open houses, we've kind of talked about how social media perception is reality. When I was doing open houses, people started looking at me and saying like, wow, you're really crushing it in the real estate business. Well, little did they know, you know, I wasn't making any money at the time. I was doing open houses and showings for people, but that's not making any money. But again, where open houses can win is that you are out there, on social media showing that you are doing stuff.

And a lot of people on social media, again, because social media is perception and perception is reality on social media, a lot of people kind of look at it and think, oh, you have an open house. You're crushing it. That's kind of how I grew my business. So, you know, I would do these different things to grow my business, right? And the other thing, too, is whatever your brokerage has,

so at EXP, we have an amazing upline. Whatever it is, plug into the trainings, resources, you know, with the Wolfpack, you have tons of amazing access to scripts, templates, trainings, and systems for free. You could probably sit down for six straight months and you would not go through all of the trainings that are available, right? Another one I would encourage you to check out. And again, this might be a little different than how I, you know, kind of normally talk about the podcast, but I would look into, if I'm a new realtor right now, I am looking into pay at closing tools. Okay, well, what does that mean? If you don't know,

There are companies that will pay you, basically you're paying for leads, but you're paying at the closing table, right? I'm never going to encourage you to buy leads for one. And, you know, if you want to do it, right, that's fine. But I would never do it. But if you're like thinking about leads, I would do some of these pay at closing services, right? There's a few out there. You can, you can research them.

So that means if, you know, there's a referral fee, you know, even who cares, 25, 30, 40, 50 percent. you know, if you're new and just need deals, the number doesn't matter as much. But I would look into as many of those as you can. How many of these pay at closing companies can you find? Five, 10, 100, great. Sign up for every freaking one of them. Now, that also means that these leads are going to come in and it is going to be a lot. So you've got to be there and answer your phone.

But again, well, they are free leads in theory. You know, they're free on the front end leads and you just pay. at the settlement table. And so, of course, right, the benefit there is that you are not putting out money on the front end. So there's a few out there. There's Op City. Realtor.com has a program.

Zillow has a program. So again, this is not gospel, right? I actually have never done pay at closing leads because I haven't had to. But if you're a new realtor feeling like I'm struggling, I need to make some money, I would research these. And so there's a few others, right? But you can kind of look at them and just kind of say, hey, you know, what, what is out there. So Op City is definitely one of the bigger ones than Zillow, Realtor.com,

and then there's some other ones. Sold.com, Homelight, and referral exchange. So look them up. You just want to make sure, again, that you are not paying anything on the front end. So some of these take between 15 to 40% of the commission. It really just depends. But again, if you don't have any deals right now, it can be an amazing opportunity. So I would check these out and these can help you kind of get started as a realtor. And so I want you to think about all these things that we talked about today. I want you to think about how you're growing your business on social media. I want to say, you know, are you doing stuff on Canva? I want you to think about are you using a sheet or something and tracking your work that you're doing? Are you plug it into whatever

your brokerage offers, right? You know, if you want to have success, you need to be willing to put in the work. And again, this is bigger than just, you know, spending money or not spending money, but what I want you to understand is that you do not have to put out money to be a realtor. You don't. I've never done it in over six years now. Never once have I paid for a lead, right? Like, I just would encourage you. I think so many of you new realtors that I speak to, you go to that that first and that's what you want to jump to. And so I would instead change your mindset and say, okay, how can I save money, right? I just want you to know you can build a business without paying for leads at the beginning. You know, again, and if you do leads, I would do the pay at closing leads,

you know, Op City, things like that. If you can be scrappy and intentional and work your butt off, you can create momentum. You can have success. And I just want you to understand. you don't need money to start, but you just need the courage to take action. I'll repeat that again. You do not need money to start, but you do need to have the courage and take action. So as you hear this, I want you to think about this. What are like three to five things that you could be doing right now for free or pay a closing to do to help your business, right? I want you to pick a couple of them and I want you to focus on them this week. Right? So Those could be posted on social media, creating a graphic on Canva, right?

Build a tracker on Google Sheets, right? Maybe send five voice memos to your sphere of influence telling about how you are a realtor, right? So there are so many things you can do in your business. And I hope this reminds you that you are not behind. You don't need money to do this. You can have success. And you don't need a huge budget. You just need to show up with what you've already done.

got. So these are the things I would be doing. If I was a new realtor right now, I would exhaust all of these free resources before I ever, ever paid for anything. So thanks for listening. I hope this encourages many of you. Many of you have kind of said, no, I need to spend money. I need to spend money. So I hope this can kind of give you a reality check that that is not true. You do not have to do that. You can have success in this business without just buying leads from day one. So I hope you guys enjoyed this and it was helpful. Keep showing up. Keep using what is free in your business and exhaust those free resources before you ever spend money. I'll talk to you guys next week as we continue this series. Thanks for listening to The Real Estate Survival Guide. I'm your host John Shookman

and I'll talk to you guys next week. Thanks for listening to the Real Estate Survival Guide. If you enjoyed this episode, we would appreciate it if you'd leave us a review on iTunes. It helps others discover the show. Thank you so much. And we will see you. you on the next episode.