Guide to Earning Steady Monthly Income as a Real Estate Agent

The real estate market is anything but steady—and there are lots of variables that can determine whether you’re getting your commission check: like fluctuating market trends, seasonal slowdowns, or cold feet resulting in abandoned deals.   

But there’s a way to combat the ‘feast or famine’ cycle of a realtor’s job and build a steady stream of income year-round—while building the sales skills required to earn more as an agent.

We’ve written a guide to earning steady monthly income as a realtor, so you stay protected against market inconsistencies and have something to fall back on during the off-season or in between sales—all while growing your skills, brand, or brokerage. 

What’s the best way to get steady income in real estate?

The best way to get a steady income as a realtor, apart from earning a passive income, is to look for ways to improve your sales and marketing skills to increase your net sales and profits. Especially since 68% of sellers choose their real estate agent based on a previous transaction or referral. So you’ll need to get your name out there and harness the power of word-of-mouth marketing to see results. 

Let’s take a look at some tips for generating multiple streams of income, or passive income streams, and boosting your real estate salary so you’re less susceptible to crippling market ups and downs and win more sales.

How to get multiple streams of steady income in real estate

While it’s important to brush up on the skills you can develop to earn more as an agent (more on this later), you should also consider the benefits of having multiple streams of income. For example, a separate income stream can give you the financial flexibility and durability you need to offset real estate market fluctuations—and bolster your brand as a broker. 

Some side business ideas you could consider include: 

• Home repair and maintenance 
• Landscaping 
• Home staging 
• Real estate photography 
• Cleaning services 
• Bird-dogging

But to get the most out of your side business, you should pick a job that enables a more passive income—and doesn’t require extra work. Here’s how. 

The best passive income stream for real estate agents 

The best way for real estate agents to earn a stable, passive income is by leveraging their existing partnerships to get into the short-term rental game without any upfront costs or owning their own property. 

Traditionally, short-term vacation rental property management was very labor-intensive and involved constant communication with guests, back and forth scheduling with maintenance and housekeeping, and strategically driving revenue for clients. But now, you can outsource and automate everything you need to build your business and make more profit for your clients without lifting a finger. 

With outsourced vacation rental management, you can use your network to your advantage and work with past clients to manage vacation rentals without any hassles, risks, or time constraints. 

When you partner with Jetstream, you get access to top-rated service teams and powerful technology that handles everything from marketing and listing optimization and client communications to workflow automation.

Jetstream has everything you need to make more money without the extra work. Source: Jetstream

6 Tips for boosting your real estate agent salary 

Below, we list the top tips for boosting your real estate salary, so you know exactly what to do to get more clients and sell better.

Always be networking 

Building a solid network of contacts not only helps you get more visibility, trust, and respect as a realtor but is also hugely beneficial to homeowners who need a trusted circle of people they can regularly rely on to help solve their problems. 

Real estate agents network to get more referrals and increase their income. Source: John Schnobrich on Unsplash

As mentioned, realtors get most of their business through referrals, so it’s important to start building your master list of contacts that cover a range of jobs and tasks, so you’re always able to meet homeowner needs and get more referrals by referring others. 

By partnering with local businesses, you expand your reach to parties or audiences you might not already be in contact with, which gives you a higher chance of winning (repeat) sales. You’ll  also likely become an active member in your community, which gives you more credibility and future opportunities. 

Contacts on your master list could include: 

• Contractors 
• Housekeepers
• Home repair and maintenance services
• Plumbers 
• Pest control services
• Laundry services 
• Babysitters
• Landscapers 
• Real estate photographers
• Key real estate players 
• Moving services 

Focus on seller relationships

Focusing on lead generation and building relationships with sellers is challenging, but it’s the best way to secure a steady deal pipeline and ensure you’re protecting yourself from potential dry spells. 

A realtor actively responds to seller emails, questions, and phone calls. Source: David Hahn on Unsplash 

It’s important to be intentional about how you create and nurture seller relationships: like sending follow-up emails and being available to answer any questions or concerns. Remember, your response time and speed will dictate how likely you are to turn a lead into a client because they’ll simply reach out to another agent instead of waiting for your response.

This also applies to your website’s loading speed and responsiveness as well: sellers don’t want to jump through hoops to navigate your website and get what they need. 

Make sure you’re appealing to sellers’ needs by providing as much value and information as possible, and go out of your way to appease any questions or concerns. The more sensitive and responsive you are to market and seller trends, the more relevant your input and guidance will be. You can also reach more sellers by: 

1. Prioritizing online support with things like chatbots or support bots that are equipped to answer frequently asked questions
2. Making website design easy to navigate by selecting a layout that intuitively segments information and key details 
3. Showcasing your rewards, testimonials, ratings, and affiliations to boost credibility 
4. Offering a variety of packages to satisfy a range of seller needs and financial standings  

Get to know your target market (and your competition)

Understanding who you’re selling to is crucial to accurately predict client needs and deliver exactly what they’re looking for. 

One way of doing this is to determine your buyer persona, which involves taking the demographics of your ideal client: including their marital status, location, income, and job title—and building it out into a detailed description that can be applied to your target audience. 

You can also find free buyer persona templates online to help you like these ones from HubSpot. This way you’ll have a blueprint for understanding the pains and desires of your target market, where to reach them, and how to better serve them. 

Sample buyer persona template from HubSpot, Source: HubSpot 

You’ll also want to be aware of key players and competitors in your market, and keep up with what they’re doing on social media, what their pricing is, and any website updates or new offers, so you can outperform them and stay in the game. 

Market yourself and build your brand  

Marketing your brand is an important part of increasing your findability and earning a stable income. You need to come up with a comprehensive marketing strategy that outlines which channels you’ll use to reach your audience, content types and output, specific engagement KPIs you want to hit, and your marketing budget. 

Remember, if you’re working for a brokerage, it’s vital that you create your own website promoting yourself and your brand, as well as build up your own social media presence. 

Here are a few ideas you can steal to build brand awareness and effectively market yourself: 

• Offer virtual house tours and live stream them on Instagram, Youtube, or Facebook Live

Live streaming a house tour to build brand awareness and boost engagement. Source: Jana Shnipelson on Unsplash 

• Host webinars to answer questions, share information about the real estate market and showcase your listings 
• Create a newsletter or send an email once a month with tips, insights, and real estate hacks to prove credibility 
• Be active on popular real estate portals or hubs to expand your reach 
• Be a guest speaker on podcasts or write guest posts on real estate blogs to establish thought-leadership
• Use SEO tools like SEMrush to organically rank for keywords specific to your niche and increase your chances of being discovered online 

Develop your sales skills 

When it comes down to making the sale, it’s not all about how well you’re able to position the property to the decision maker. It’s also about how well you’re able to shepherd deals along during the paperwork process in escrow, and getting two parties to agree on the terms. 

So you’ll need to stay vigilant and check on all showings, meetings, and appointments, and exercise your phenomenal communication skills to win and secure more deals. 

You can also develop your sales skills by: 

• Knowing all the real estate rules and regulations 
• Being easy to contact and communicate with 
• Doing your research (see: get to know your market section above) and planning ahead 
• Being creative with open houses and night viewings (i.e. a themed or catered event) 
• Staying on top of industry trends and listings 

Provide extra value  

With 1.56 million realtors in the US alone, anything you can do to go above and beyond will help set you apart from the competition. So, it’s important to stay creative and be responsive to the ways you can consistently add value to home buyers and sellers. 

Here are some ways you can go the extra mile and exceed client expectations: 

• Offer new homeowners a tour of the community 
• Give recommendations on the best schools and school districts 
• Hire a cleaning or moving crew 
• Connect buyers and sellers to businesses you trust 
• Hire a professional organizer or junk removal company 
• Welcome new homeowners home with a tasteful welcome basket 

Welcome new homeowners with tasteful welcome baskets to impress. Source: Dmitry Mashkin on Unsplash  

Steady realtor income bottom line

There are many ways to make extra money as a realtor, from developing your skill set and getting creative with your offering to taking on a side gig. But the only way to truly make a profitable, passive income is by venturing into outsourced vacation rental management. 

By outsourcing short-term vacation rental management, you’re less dependent on the sporadic market swings that negatively impact your income as a realtor, and get more time back to focus on higher-value tasks like networking with key sellers. And with a service like Jetstream handling all the busy work, you’ll be maximizing revenue in no time.