More Closings Won’t Fix a Job You Don’t Like - real estate career growth

For most of my real estate career, growth was pretty easy to measure. More closings. More volume. More income. Those things still matter to me. I still set production goals, and I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to sell more real estate. But I've realized that you can grow all three of those numbers without necessarily building a better job for yourself.

That's a strange thing about real estate. There isn't a normal career ladder. No one promotes you after five years and changes your responsibilities. You can become a much better agent, make considerably more money and sell a lot more houses while doing essentially the same job you were doing when you started. You're just doing more of it.

I didn't think much about that early in my career. If something needed to be done, I did it. That's how most of us start. You learn the contracts, work with the clients, handle the marketing, put out the signs, solve the problems and figure out all the little things no one warned you would be part of selling houses. And you get good at it.

That's actually where I think this gets tricky. At some point I had to realize that just because I could do something didn't mean I should continue being the person doing it. Not because certain work was beneath me. It wasn't. I had simply reached a point where I had enough experience to know there were parts of the business where I was much more valuable, and there were other things that someone else could do just as well—or better.

That changed how I thought about growth. An agent doing 50 transactions has a bigger business than that same agent doing 15. But if the agent's role hasn't changed at all, I'm not sure that's always the same thing as career growth.

Maybe it is exactly what you want. There are agents who genuinely like being involved in almost every part of the transaction. They don't want a team or a complicated organization around them. There is nothing wrong with that. The part I'd question is ending up there without ever deciding.

Because more business has a way of magnifying the job you've already built. If you love that job, that's a pretty good outcome. If you don't, another ten or twenty closings probably aren't going to fix it.

I've spent plenty of time thinking about how many homes I want to sell next year. I still do. But the longer I'm in this business, the more I think there's another question worth asking: What do I actually want my job to be?

More closings can make a good career better. They can also give you more of a job you never stopped to decide whether you still wanted.

FAQs

Does selling more homes mean a real estate agent's career is growing?

Not necessarily. More closings, sales volume and income are all measures of business growth, but they don't automatically change an agent's role. An agent can significantly increase production while continuing to perform essentially the same responsibilities. Career growth can also include intentionally deciding how you want your role to evolve as your experience and business grow.

How should real estate agents measure career growth?

Production is one useful measure, but it doesn't have to be the only one. Experienced agents may also consider how their responsibilities, use of time, income, skills and role in the business have changed. The right definition will depend on the kind of real estate career the agent actually wants to build.

When should a real estate agent consider delegating?

Delegation can become worth considering when an agent is regularly spending time on work that someone else could perform effectively while higher-value responsibilities are being neglected. The goal isn't to delegate simply because a task is undesirable. It's to be intentional about where the agent's experience and time are most valuable.

Do successful real estate agents need to build a team?

No. Building a team isn't the only path to a successful real estate career. Some agents prefer remaining highly involved in nearly every part of their business. The important distinction is whether that role is an intentional choice or simply the way the business developed over time.

How can a real estate agent build a career they actually enjoy?

Start by thinking beyond production goals. In addition to deciding how many homes you want to sell or how much income you want to earn, consider what you want your actual work to look like. Which responsibilities do you want to keep? Which would you eventually like someone else to own? Business goals are more useful when they're connected to the job you're trying to create.