• Create Your Real Estate Business Cards and Stationery
  • Superior Quality Printing
  • Enhance Your Real Estate Brand
  • Market Your Real Estate Brand
  • Create Your Social Media Images

How to Set Up a Professional Real Estate Business

Are you new to the real estate business and setting up your office and business practices for the first time? Or maybe you’re an established realtor who is ready to refresh your office environment and business processes for better functionality. What equipment, technical items, and marketing tools do you need to create a thriving real estate business?

No matter your level of experience, the layout, and organization of your office can have a direct impact on your success as a real estate agent. In this blog post, we’ll provide some tips to help you set up, launch, or reboot your office practices to accelerate your business.

Equipment

Make sure to obtain the equipment that you need, and avoid purchasing anything you don’t need. Of course, you’ll need the basics:

  • Desk
  • A good office chair
  • Seats for clients
  • Coat rack, hangers, and umbrella stand
  • Computer
  • Printer

Avoid filling up your space with equipment that you’ll rarely use. Not only can this be expensive, but buying things you don’t need can take up valuable space. Rather than buying a photocopier and scanner, look into printer models that offer both copying and scanning capabilities.

For your computer, consider a laptop for flexibility, but make sure to set yourself up with an ergonomic keyboard and mouse for the times when you’ll be sitting at your desk.

Good lighting is worth the investment. An office with good natural lighting is ideal, and having a bright (but not glaring) office environment will be welcoming for visiting clients and will help to keep you perky and focused. Consider a high-quality task light as well as a stand or additional overhead lighting for the entire room. However, to avoid glare, don’t place lighting directly above your computer screens.

Consider storage. Everything that you need on a daily basis should be readily accessible in a drawer, in a filing cabinet, or on a shelf. Don’t keep more on your desk than is necessary for constant use. What do you need right in front of you for productivity, and what can you keep tucked away? Everything and anything should have its place. Your computer may take up much of your desk space, but try to reserve the rest of your immediate desk space for a pen holder, business card holder, and a pad of paper.

Add a little life to your office. A plant, some artwork, and some attractive design elements will have a positive impact on you while you work, as well as on your clients when they visit. Creating a pleasant space can have a positive impact on your overall brand and the way that you feel while you’re working.

Along with your excellent, ergonomic office chair, keyboard, and mouse, consider wrist support, a footrest, and other physical equipment that will help you to maintain the best health and wellbeing while you work.

Technical

It’s a good idea to find a local computer support team that’s responsive and attentive. It’s helpful to build a relationship with a person or team that you can call on in times of crisis. Whether it’s your printer breaking down or dead internet, having go-to support will ensure that your technical problems won’t throw you too far off course. You’ll certainly need powerful and reliable internet, computers, and a phone system when running a professional office.

A great phone system can make a big difference when working in the busy real estate field. While you don’t want to be tied down to your office phone, you also want to have some control over your mobile phone usage. Voice over IP enables you to link your cell phone to your office phone, resulting in fewer missed calls and more ease of use. Your office extension can ring your cell phone and office phone at the same time, allowing you to answer from either device. You can even place a cell phone call on hold and then pick it up from your desk phone and vice-versa.

Having the freedom to answer calls from either your office phone or your cell phone gives you the flexibility to work whenever and however you want to. It’s also great for being able to “turn off” at appropriate times by having business calls forwarded directly to your voicemail when you’re taking a break.

Make sure that your phone has the conferencing and speaker functions, and we recommend getting a good quality headset for the times when you plan to talk and type.

Marketing

Top-notch business cards printed on good card stock, with all of your credentials and branding, is one of the most important tools at your disposal as a real estate agent. You should be ready to give out dozens of business cards on any given day to grow your business. Just as we recommend that you build a relationship with a computer support team, finding a reliable and trustworthy source for your business cards and print materials is essential for every real estate agent.

Unless you’re never planning to receive clients at your office, good signage is highly recommended. Even if you’re operating a very small office, your sign will be part of your greeting to visitors and will help to reinforce the professionalism of your personal brand.

At SureFactor, we provide real estate agents with easy, high quality, and cost-effective business cards and marketing solutions. No matter what real estate company you represent, we have your business card and stationery templates ready and waiting for you including door hangers, postcards, and more. Just plug in your credentials and your order will be printed and shipped to you. If for any reason we don’t have your real estate company’s template on file, we’ll create a template for you. Just ask.

Even if you’re part of a larger real estate firm, it’s a very good idea to establish your website. In the long run, it’s worth taking the plunge to work with a professional web developer. However, to get things started you can DIY your website, or work with a designer or an experienced virtual assistant to set yourself up with a URL, hosting, and a template website (which are now more user-friendly than ever before). We recommend WordPress because of all of the excellent tools, plugins, and themes, but you may also consider Squarespace, Wix, or Weebly.

Make sure to set yourself up on social media. Create accounts for all of the platforms to hold your preferred name. Even if you aren’t planning to start using all of the social media platforms yet, or even if you don’t think you’ll ever use them, claim the names now so that someone else doesn’t take them.

Along with signage, business cards, and other marketing materials prepare a solid elevator pitch, a longer pitch and promotional copy that can be used on your website and other print materials, both short and long business descriptions, and scripts for introductory sales emails.

Getting Down to Business

We know that the majority of US businesses start from home and operate on a shoestring budget. When setting up a successful business, there are so many components to consider that it can easily become overwhelming. However, when you start with the core elements outlined here, you can launch, refresh, or completely reboot your real estate business in ways that will positively impact the way that you work and the way that you’re perceived by potential and existing clients.

In a market that’s inundated with products and services that carry the promise of taking a small business to the next level, SureFactor still deals with some of the very basic needs of small businesses as they start up, evolve, and expand… with excellent prices, quality products, unbeatable service, and integrity. Our goal is to be your partner in success. If you need any help with your real estate business, don’t hesitate to contact us.