Beginner’s Guide to Real Estate Agent Goals

It’s often said that goals are like a “roadmap to success.” They can be, but…

What if your “map” leads you astray? And what if your “successes” don’t match your dreams?

Here’s the point – You need to set the right goals in the right way so that your business ends up in the right place.

To that end, this article will teach you:

• The types of real estate agent goals to consider
• The 4-step process for choosing the best goals for your business
• How to set “S.M.A.R.T.” goals for real estate agents (to increase the chances you’ll actually achieve them)

Let’s get started!

These Are the Types of Real Estate Agent Goals To Consider

Goal setting for real estate agents is crucial. Here’s why…

Wise goals increase motivation and keep you focused on the things that matter most to you and your business.

They also empower you to measure success, track progress, set new goals, identify strengths and weaknesses, and make better decisions about where to invest time, money, and effort.

But if you’re new to the real estate industry or new to goal setting in general, it can be somewhat overwhelming to identify which goals are worth setting and which aren’t.

To help you narrow down some ideas, here are the broad types of real estate agent goals to consider as you’re charting your unique path to success.

Short-Term Goals

Short-term goals are the stepping stones that you set to achieve within a relatively brief timeframe. Think in terms of a few weeks to a few months.

These goals focus on immediate improvements and building foundational skills. For example, short-term goals for real estate agents may involve activities such as…

• learning specific tactics for getting more listing leads
• refining your communication skills
• creating a strong listing presentation
• enhancing your knowledge of the local real estate market
• mastering property valuation techniques
• getting a steady stream of buyer and seller leads in your areas each month

Medium-Term Goals

Medium-term goals extend beyond immediate steps and cover a more extended period, typically spanning several months to a year or so. These goals are about optimizing your growth potential and setting yourself up to experience long-term success.

For example, medium-term goals for real estate agents might include:

• increasing the number of transactions you complete per quarter
• expanding your network (Learn real estate networking best practices!)
• obtaining a certification (e.g., Certified Distressed Property Expert, Certified New Home Specialist, REALTOR® certification)
• increasing inbound referrals
• building a real estate website
• establishing processes for improving lead-to-client conversion rates

Long-Term Goals

Long-term goals are the significant achievements you aspire to realize over an extended period, often spanning several years or even decades. These goals shape your ultimate career trajectory and contribute to your legacy in the industry.

For example, long-term real estate agent goals might be something like…

• making $[x] in gross commission income per year
• becoming a top-performing agent in your farm area or neighborhood
• establishing your own team or brokerage
• diversifying your portfolio (e.g., getting into property development or real estate investment)
• starting a mentoring program for new agents

The 4-Step Process for Choosing the Right Real Estate Agent Goals

Don’t buy the get-rich-quick schemes that tell you there’s only one way to grow your business and that if you just have some magical set of real estate agent goals, you’ll become a top-performer over night.

There aren’t any one-size-fits-all plans for growing your real estate business. Only you can determine the goals that are best suited to help you achieve your unique vision of what success looks like.

But that doesn’t mean you have to figure things out on your own either. As you’re strategizing, these four steps will guide your way.

Step 1: Take a Self-Assessment

Goal setting for real estate agents starts with a look in the mirror, so to speak. Without a self-assessment, you’ll be less familiar with which aspects of your business are working well and which need improvement. Nor will you be properly equipped to set benchmarks, which are imperative for tracking progress.

The best tool for taking a self-assessment is referred to as a “S.W.O.T. analysis.” Learn exactly how a S.W.O.T. analysis works for real estate agents.

Step 2: Define Your Goals

This is when you establish all of your goals. (You’ll find additional guidance for this step in the next section, which is all about “S.M.A.R.T.” goals for real estate agents.)

Choose a mix of short, medium, and long-term goals that are in proper alignment with your business plan. Ensure that each matches your skills and the opportunities in your market.

How many goals should you choose?

That can vary based on individual circumstances, preferences, and the complexity of the goals. However, a common approach is to have a manageable number of goals that allow for focused and effective planning.

At first, it might be wise to veer toward the more conservative side and have, say, two or three for each time-range category (short-term, medium-term, and long-term).

Remember, the key is not the quantity of real estate agent goals you set but their quality. Setting too many goals can dilute your focus and cause you to feel overwhelmed. Setting too few may not challenge you enough, which might mean you’re stunting revenue growth.

And keep in mind that you’ll be returning to your goals regularly to reassess them as you meet some, need to refine others, and as circumstances change in your business or in the market.

Step 3: Prioritize Your Goals

All of your goals are going to be important. But you’re a human being. You only have so much time and energy to spend.

You can’t possibly pursue 100 percent of your goals with all of your energy every day (at least not without also avoiding burnout). That means you’ll have to organize your goals in some way.

Here are four factors you should take into consideration as you’re prioritizing your goals:

• Meaningfulness & Importance: Aligning your goals with your vision and values will increase overall job satisfaction, which often leads to greater levels of productivity and motivation.
• Impact Analysis: Not all goals for real estate agents have a direct impact on GCI. You may need to place activities such as lead generation and lead follow-up near the top.
• Time Sensitivity: Consider bumping up the priority level of goals that need to be checked off your list sooner rather than later. (E.g., housing trends you need to capitalize on immediately, or seasonal changes to the housing market)
• Feasibility: Goals that aren’t doable in the current moment may need to be ranked lower.

Step 4: Make Your Goals Manageable

Maybe you set two or three goals that are so lofty they seem impossible. Or maybe you’re overwhelmed by the thought of having a to-do list with a dozen wide-ranging goals staring back at you everyday.

If something like that’s happening to you, remember – Your goals should be spurring you on, not getting you down. The solution is to break your goals into “bite-sized chunks.” Doing so helps you avoid feeling overwhelmed, enhances clarity, boosts motivation, and increases your chances of achieving success.

Here’s how you can make your goals more manageable…

• Divide Them into Steps: Split big goals into smaller steps. For instance, if your long-term aim is to start a real estate team, maybe you begin by learning about how real estate teams work.
• Set Deadlines: Assign realistic timeframes to each step. This helps you stay on track and measure progress.
• Create Benchmarks & Milestones: Define what the “checkpoints” will be (and when they’ll occur) for each step so you can foster a sense of accountability. As an added bonus, the small wins you celebrate along the way will keep you motivated to achieve more.

How To Improve the Likelihood That You’ll Actually Reach Your Goals

For those who don’t know how to do it properly, the process of goal setting for real estate agents can easily become mere wishful thinking. As a result, they experience a high degree of failure.

It might be okay to “strike out” here and there. But repeated and frequent failures can be demoralizing, let alone bad for business.

The best way to ensure that your goal setting process both transcends wishful thinking and leads to greater levels of success is to make your goals “S.M.A.R.T.” – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

All real estate agent goals should have the following characteristics.

Specific

Be as specific as possible when establishing your goals, both in terms of identifying the objective and in identifying the quantifiable goal. For example: “I will increase my gross commission income by 25 percent next year.”

Measurable

If it can’t be measured, it can’t be managed. If it can’t be managed, it can’t be improved or repeated. Incorporating quantifiable metrics into your goals – like leads generated or deals closed – will help you determine whether you accomplished them, and to what degree.

The goal to “generate a lot of leads this year” is hardly measurable. But the goal to “generate at least 100 leads per month throughout 2024” makes it easy to measure whether you succeeded.

Attainable

Failing to hit goals is demoralizing. So it’s important to set reachable goals so that you can avoid crushing your confidence. The key is to strike a balance between attainable and challenging, so that by pushing yourself and working hard you are ultimately able to succeed.

Relevant

Set goals that are aligned with your business plan, not anyone else’s. And set goals that are directly related to productivity, profitability, and your core functions.

For example, goals for real estate agents should relate to key performance indicators like deals closed, leads generated, and new clients found.

Time-Bound

You can have the best specific, measurable, attainable, and relevant goals ever, but if time is unlimited, there’s nothing to prevent you from procrastinating or stagnating.

Deadlines give you a much-needed sense of structure and progression. At times, they have the added bonus of creating a sense of urgency so that you can be as productive and efficient as possible.

Example S.M.A.R.T. Real Estate Agent Goals

• “I will increase the average number of leads I generate every month by 20 percent by the end of [year].”
• “I’ll attend one webinar or download one guide about lead generation best practices every month throughout [year].”
• “I will 1) research which real estate website provider has the best websites for generating leads and 2) implement a new website from that provider by the end of the first quarter of [year].”
• “By the end of the [year’s] second quarter, I will create a new referral reward program and alert past clients about it.”

8 Business-Planning Advice From Experienced Agents

1. Craft a Play-by-Play

“Think of your business plan as your playbook. It should help you define your business, your goals, and how to get there. In my plan, I include what I am to be doing hourly every day.”

Kevin Vitali
Associate Broker
Middleton, MA
Visit Kevin’s Site

2. Remain Dedicated

“Be realistic, stay educated, and persevere. Break your tasks out into daily blocks of time. Then follow the plan.”

Doug Dawes
Realtor®
Georgetown, MA
Meet Doug

3. Learn as You Go For It

“Figure out some goals, write them down, talk to your broker, and GO FOR IT! There is a lot of on-the-job training that will happen during your career.”

Wanda Kubat-Nerdin
Realtor®
St. George, UT
Visit Wanda’s Website

4. Do Face-to-Face Networking

“Include daily face-to-face networking in your plan. If you are not a leader in your local chamber of commerce and builders association, you need to get active in those organizations.”

Roy Kelley
Realtor® (retired)
Gaithersburg, MD
Meet Roy

5. Don’t Grow Alone

“Find a good mentor and absorb like a sponge for the first 6 months to a year!”

Wayne Martin
Real Estate Broker (retired)
Chicago, IL
Visit Wayne’s Blog

6. Be a Problem Solver

“To succeed as a real estate agent, you must be a disciplined, self-motivated, detail-oriented problem solver. And you must be a good listener who is patient with prospects and clients.”

Carol Williams
Real Estate Agent (retired)
Wenatchee, WA
Visit Carol’s Blog

7. Welcome Data & Be Flexible

“Business plans give a sense of direction. They are subject to change, as the data will indicate.”

Annette Lawrence
Real Estate Agent
Palm Harbor, FL
Visit Annette’s Website

8. Prepare for the Future

“Self-employed people earning commissions learn quickly not to spend a paycheck before it is earned. And remember what you’ll need to pay the tax collectors! Save for those dry spells.”

Kathleen Daniels
Managing Broker
San Jose, CA
Visit Kathleen’s Website