Four months building an agent brand before I had a license, all wasted

Started posting in June while my coursework was still in progress. The plan was to have an audience ready the day my license came through so I wouldn't be starting from zero.

What I bought. A logo and color set from a freelancer, $220. A content template pack, $90. Three months of a scheduling tool, $87. A local photographer for headshots, $245. So $642 and change.

What I made. About 70 posts. Market stat graphics, first time buyer tips, neighborhood roundups. All of it generic because I had nothing real to say. I'd never sat in a closing, never walked a buyer through an inspection, never lost a deal. So I posted the things I read.

Where it went wrong. License came through in October. I looked at the account and it had 180 followers, maybe 40 of them people I actually know, and not one of them had ever asked me anything about real estate. The content had no way to produce a conversation because it never asked for one and it never showed a person doing the work.

The worse part is the brand. I picked a name and colors before I knew what kind of agent I'd be, and now the whole thing looks like a first time buyer specialist when the work coming my way is small landlords. I'm going to have to redo it.

What I'd do differently. Wait. Post nothing until I have one real transaction to talk about, then talk about that. The headshots were fine and I'd buy those again. Everything else was me practicing being an agent instead of becoming one.

3 replies

1nataliehsuSO1BPRO7

The generic content problem is the one I'm sitting in right now and I don't have a license or a deal either. What I've settled on is posting questions instead of answers. I don't know anything yet, but I can go stand at an open house and write down what surprised me. That's real and nobody else has it.

1tylerbrooks9PassivePRO5

$642 over four months is a cheap education in something most people learn at ten times that. I'd argue the branding was the only genuine loss, because you have to pay to redo it. The rest was tuition.

0joe_delgado5AP4CPRO6

I'd push back on waiting for a transaction. You can build an audience with zero deals if you make the content about the market rather than about you. Rent comps, what actually sold on a street versus what was asked, permits pulled. That stuff is public, tedious to compile, and useful to anyone shopping in your area. Nobody cares about your journey through licensing, they care whether the house on the corner went for what the sign said.

Where I agree with you completely is the brand. Picking a niche before you've met your first ten clients is guessing, and you paid $220 to guess wrong.

Four months building an agent brand before I had a license, all wasted

3 replies