To survive as a real estate agent, you must continue to educate yourself and hone your skills. Of course, there are the standard continued education courses (CE’s) that you must fulfill to keep your real estate agent license active. However, to be in this business long-term, you must do more. Reading real estate books can help you thrive as an agent. Keep learning and reading to sharpen your skill set.
Here are 7 unexpected real estate books for agents that will help you grow your business.
Note: I have personally read all 7 of these books and can attest to how great they all are. Sometimes reading a book is about timing. They resonate differently at different time periods in your life. All are worth reading at least once.
1. The Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller
The Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller is a classic book for agents to read. Especially for newer real estate agents, this book is very impactful. Pick this up and read it before you start any form of marketing.
This real estate book outlines strategies for how to market consistently. This is one of the hardest tasks for real estate agents to perform over time. Gary Keller breaks down how to market to certain groups of people and start your ‘farm’. Farming, as a real estate agent, is crucial when you first start marketing.
He outlines how to consistently market to leads that are cold. Over time, the more you do this, the sooner you’ll turn those cold leads into clients. This book helps change the mindset around marketing for real estate agents. It provides actionable marketing strategies that are easy to understand. This book roadmaps how to start marketing today as an agent – and how to continue that as your business grows.
2. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
This is the book that personally got me into real estate! Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki will completely shift how you view money and real estate investing. It’s important for real estate agents to read this because it shows you a glimmer into the investing side of the business. Depending on what type of real estate you get into (residential, commercial, warehouse buildings, investments, etc), there’s a chance you’ll work with investors at some point.
Rich Dad Poor Dad tells a great story of a boy who had two dads. His biological father got stuck in the rat race and worked a lame W2 job until he was old. The other dad deployed his own money and had it work for him. This shows the power of real estate investing.
Over time, the boy learned that real estate investing can compound over time and generate passive income. You can start from the bottom when buying properties and compound your portfolio.
Real estate agents need to know that they can also invest in real estate. That’s how we did it at SD House Guys. We buy houses in San Diego and hold them as long-term investments. Our company started with one and grew as we expanded the company. It doesn’t have to happen quickly. Invest in real estate alongside doing your other agent duties.
3. The E-Myth Real Estate Agent by Michael Gerber
This real estate book for agents is a powerful guide to creating systems within your own business. The E-Myth Real Estate Agent by Michael Gerber is a branch of the original book, the E-Myth. Consider reading this book right as you are starting your marketing campaigns as an agent.
The E-Myth explains how to systematize and automate your business processes. For most real estate agents, this will be things like marketing and lead management. Both of these systems can easily swallow an agent whole, causing them to drown within their own business.
Take these useful tips on systematizing processes and streamline your business. It’s easy for real estate agents to get lost in their own sauce! Streamline everything that you can and make your life easier. This real estate book is a godsend for many agents.
4. The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
I am a huge Tim Ferriss fan. I’ve read multiple books of his. While this one isn’t known to be for ‘real estate agents’, it’s worth the read if you are one.
The 4-Hour Workweek is an extremely influential book for anyone trying to run their own business, including real estate professionals. Tim Ferris dives deep into delegation. He outlines how to hire virtual assistants and outsource anything possible within your own business.
As real estate agents, it’s easy to think that you can do everything by yourself. The 4-Hour Workweek proves that you can work smart, not hard. Hire out tasks – even when they are minuscule – to free up your own time to do other things. If you’re a real estate agent trying to grow your own business, this lesson is huge.
Avoid letting yourself get lost in your own business. There are thousands of different real estate online tools and software that you can implement to streamline your business. Tim Ferris uses technology to streamline processes. Take notes from his book if you are an aspiring real estate agent.
5. Purple Cow by Seth Godin
Seth Godin is an author with a focus on marketing. At this point, you should be able to tell that most of these books for real estate agents are about business and marketing. That’s the majority of what you do as an agent!
Purple Cow by Seth Godin is all about how to make your marketing stand out from the rest (like a cow that is the color purple). Becoming a successful real estate agent requires you to do a ton of marketing. To survive in the game over the long haul will require you to stand out among the other agents doing similar marketing.
For example, if you send a generic postcard to all expired listings in your area, there’s a good chance you won’t stand out. Why? Many other agents are probably doing this exact same thing. Unless you can outspend them in marketing budget, you won’t win.
Seth Godin suggests that you should make your product or service so unique that word-of-mouth marketing spreads the word for you. For example, if you can offer multiple selling solutions for homeowners, that will help you stand out among other real estate agents.
You can learn about real estate wholesaling and offer quick closes for homeowners who need to sell fast. Once the word gets around that you can offer multiple solutions for sellers, referrals will start coming in. This will help you grow your business over time as a realtor.
6. Traction by Gino Wickman
The title is exactly what this book is about. Gino Wickman’s Traction is a book designed to help people set goals, track metrics, and grow their business. This is the perfect guideline for real estate agents.
As an agent, there are thousands of KPI (key performance indicator) metrics to track. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by them to the point where they aren’t even helping. Traction breaks down exactly how to track weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly goals in a succinct and efficient way.
We implemented this into our real estate business and found a ton of value in the weekly rock goals. Jon and I set small goals to achieve each week. We know that if we met these goals, our monthly and quarterly goals would be on track. This book is helpful for real estate agents to set bite-sized, digestible goals that will help them grow their businesses.
7. Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff
The round out this list of real estate books for agents, we conclude with Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff. This book teaches the reader how to pitch a product, service, or business to others. The author goes into detail about ‘power-grabbing’ and using certain presentation techniques to help presenters win over the audience and get the sale.
These pitching skills are translatable to the skillsets needed by real estate agents because we are always selling. During listing presentations, agents are trying to convince sellers that they are the best option to go with. Especially when there are multiple agents shooting for the same client, you must present yourself in an efficient and effective manner.
Showing that you’re knowledgeable is one thing. For example, you’ll want to accurately calculate the EMV of a property for a potential seller during the listing appointment. Additionally, you want to capture the attention of the seller and convince them that you are the best agent for the job. This is done through effective communication during a presentation. Pitch Anything will leave you feeling confident going into any presentation or meeting.