business plan for a real estate brokerage

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• Writing a Business Plan

Writing a business plan may seem a daunting task as there are so many moving parts and concepts to address. Take it one step at a time and be sure to schedule regular review (quarterly, semi-annually, or annually) of your plan to be sure you on are track to meet your goals.

Why Write a Business Plan?

Making a business plan creates the foundation for your business. It provides an easy-to-understand framework and allows you to navigate the unexpected.

Quick Takeaways

• A good business plan not only creates a road map for your business, but helps you work through your goals and get them on paper
• Business plans come in many formats and contain many sections, but even the most basic should include a mission and vision statement, marketing plans, and a proposed management structure
• Business plans can help you get investors and new business partners

Source: Write Your Business Plan: United States Small Business Association

Writing a business plan is imperative to getting your business of the ground. While every plan is different – and most likely depends on the type and size of your business – there are some basic elements you don’t want to ignore.

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NAR Library & Archives has already done the research for you. References (formerly Field Guides) offer links to articles, eBooks, websites, statistics, and more to provide a comprehensive overview of perspectives. EBSCO articles ( E ) are available only to NAR members and require the member's nar.realtor login.

Defining Your Mis​sion & Vision

Writing a business plan begins by defining your business’s mission and vision statement. Though creating such a statement may seem like fluff, it is an important exercise. The mission and vision statement sets the foundation upon which to launch your business. It is difficult to move forward successfully without first defining your business and the ideals under which your business operates. A company description should be included as a part of the mission and vision statement. Some questions you should ask yourself include: 

• What type of real estate do you sell?
• Where is your business located?
• Who founded your business?
• What sets your business apart from your competitors?

What is a Vision Statement ( Business News Daily , Jan. 16, 2024)

How to Write a Mission Statement ( The Balance , Jan. 2, 2020)

How to Write a Mission Statement ( Janel M. Radtke , 1998)

Using a SWOT Analysis to Structure Your Business Plan

Once you’ve created a mission and vision statement, the next step is to develop a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.” It is difficult to set goals for your business without first enumerating your business’s strengths and weaknesses, and the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. Evaluate by using the following questions:

• Do you offer superior customer service as compared with your competitors?
• Do you specialize in a niche market? What experiences do you have that set you apart from your competitors?
• What are your competitors’ strengths?
• Where do you see the market already saturated, and where are there opportunities for expansion and growth?

Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT) ( Investopedia , Oct. 30, 2023)

How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis for Your Small Business ( SCORE , Apr. 28, 2022)

SWOT Analysis Toolbox ( University of Washington )

Setting ​Business Goals

Next, translate your mission and vision into tangible goals. For instance, if your mission statement is to make every client feel like your most important client, think about the following:

• How specifically will you implement this?
• Do you want to grow your business?
• Is this growth measured by gross revenue, profit, personnel, or physical office space?
• How much growth do you aim for annually?
• What specific targets will you strive to hit annually in the next few years?

Setting Business Goals & Objectives: 4 Considerations ( Harvard Business School , Oct. 31, 2023)

What are Business Goals? Definition, How To Set Business Goals and Examples ( Indeed , Jul. 31, 2023)

Establishing a Format

Most businesses either follow a traditional business plan format or a lean startup plan.

Traditional Business Plan

A traditional business plan is detailed and comprehensive. Writing this business plan takes more time. A traditional business plan typically contains the following elements:

• Executive Summary
• Company description
• Market analysis
• Organization and management
• Service or product line
• Marketing and sales
• Funding request
• Financial projections

Lean Startup Plan

A lean startup plan requires high-level focus but is easier to write, with an emphasis on key elements. A lean startup plan typically contains the following elements:

• Key partnerships
• Key activities
• Key resources
• Value proposition
• Customer relationships
• Customer segments
• Cost structure
• Revenue stream

Creating a Marketing Plan

You may wish to create a marketing plan as either a section of your business plan or as an addendum. The Marketing Mix concerns product , price , place and promotion .

• What is your product?
• How does your price distinguish you from your competitors—is it industry average, upper quartile, or lower quartile?
• How does your pricing strategy benefit your clients?
• How and where will you promote your services?
• What types of promotions will you advertise?
• Will you ask clients for referrals or use coupons?
• Which channels will you use to place your marketing message?

Your Guide to Creating a Small Business Marketing Plan ( Business.com , Feb. 2, 2024)

10 Questions You Need to Answer to Create a Powerful Marketing Plan ( The Balance , Jan. 16, 2020)

Developing a Marketing Plan ( Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation )

Forming a Team

Ensuring the cooperation of all colleagues, supervisors, and supervisees involved in your plan is another important element to consider. Some questions to consider are:

• Is your business plan’s success contingent upon the cooperation of your colleagues?
• If so, what specifically do you need them to do?
• How will you evaluate their participation?
• Are they on-board with the role you have assigned them?
• How will you get “buy in” from these individuals?

How to Build a Real Estate Team + 7 Critical Mistakes to Avoid ( The Close , May 17, 2023)

Don’t Start a Real Estate Team Without Asking Yourself These 8 Questions ( Homelight , Jan. 21, 2020)

Implementing a Business Plan and Reviewing Regularly

Implementation and follow-up are frequently overlooked aspects to the business plan, yet vital to the success of the plan. Set dates (annually, semi-annually, quarterly, or monthly) to review your business plans goals. Consider the following while reviewing:

• Are you on track?
• Are the goals reasonable to achieve, impossible, or too easy?
• How do you measure success—is it by revenue, profit, or number of transactions?

And lastly, think about overall goals.

• How do you plan to implement your business plan’s goals?
• When will you review and refine your business plan goals?
• What process will you use to review your goals?
• What types of quantitative and qualitative data will you collect and use to measure your success?

These items are only a few sections of a business plan. Depending on your business, you may want to include additional sections in your plan such as a:

• Cover letter stating the reasoning behind developing a business plan
• Non-disclosure statement
• Table of contents

How To Write a Business Proposal Letter (With Examples) ( Indeed , Jul. 18, 2023)

How To Implement Your Business Plan Objectives ( The Balance , Aug. 19, 2022)

The Bottom Line

Creating a business plan may seem daunting, but by understanding your business and market fully, you can create a plan that generates success (however you choose to define it).

Real Estate Business Plans – Samples, Instructional Guides, and Templates

9 Steps to Writing a Real Estate Business Plan + Templates ( The Close , Apr. 3, 2024)

How to Write a Real Estate Business Plan (+Free Template) ( Fit Small Business , Jun. 30, 2023)

The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Real Estate Business Plan + Free Template ( Placester )

Write Your Business Plan ( U.S. Small Business Administration )

General Business Plans – Samples, Instructional Guides, and Templates

Business Plan Template for a Startup Business ( SCORE , Apr. 23, 2024)

Guide to Creating a Business Plan with Template (Business News Daily, Mar. 28, 2024)

Nine Lessons These Entrepreneurs Wish They Knew Before Writing Their First Business Plans ( Forbes , Jul. 25, 2021)

How to Write a Business Plan 101 ( Entrepreneur , Feb. 22, 2021)

Books, eBooks & Other Resources

Ebooks & other resources.

The following eBooks and digital audiobooks are available to NAR members:

The Straightforward Business Plan (eBook)

Business Plan Checklist (eBook)

The SWOT Analysis (eBook)

The Business Plan Workbook (eBook)

Start-Up! A Beginner's Guide to Planning a 21st Century Business (eBook)

Complete Book of Business Plans (eBook)

How to Write a Business Plan (eBook)

The Easy Step by Step Guide to Writing a Business Plan and Making it Work (eBook)

Business Planning: 25 Keys to a Sound Business Plan (Audiobook)

Your First Business Plan, 5 th Edition (eBook)

Anatomy of a Business Plan (eBook)

Writing a Business Plan and Making it Work (Audiobook)

The Social Network Business Plan (eBook)

Books, Videos, Research Reports & More

As a member benefit, the following resources and more are available for loan through the NAR Library. Items will be mailed directly to you or made available for pickup at the REALTOR® Building in Chicago.

Writing an Effective Business Plan (Deloitte and Touche, 1999) HD 1375 D37w

Have an idea for a real estate topic? Send us your suggestions .

The inclusion of links on this page does not imply endorsement by the National Association of REALTORS®. NAR makes no representations about whether the content of any external sites which may be linked in this page complies with state or federal laws or regulations or with applicable NAR policies. These links are provided for your convenience only and you rely on them at your own risk.

Real Estate | How To

8-step Guide to Starting a Real Estate Brokerage

Updated March 1, 2024

Updated Mar 1, 2024

Published March 30, 2023

Published Mar 30, 2023

REVIEWED BY: Gina Baker

WRITTEN BY: Theresa Landicho

This article is part of a larger series on How to Become a Real Estate Agent .

• 1. Determine if You’re Ready & Understand Your Why
• 2. Meet Your State’s Requirements

3. Conduct Market Research

• 4. Develop a Business Plan

5. Locate an Office Space for Your Team

• 6. Determine Your Staffing Needs & Hire a Strong Team

7. Market Your Brokerage

8. generate new business leads, bottom line.

If you are a self-starter with an incredible work ethic and can bring out the best in other real estate agents, you may be the perfect candidate for starting a real estate brokerage. You will be required to have real estate experience and complete additional training, and will also need to develop business plans, build a team, create your own brand, and organize finances. This will establish you as a broker-owner.

Before you read the eight steps of starting your own brokerage, make sure you’re up to the task by taking our quick quiz:

Are you ready to start your own real estate brokerage?

How many years have you been in the real estate industry.

Question 1 of 4

1 minute approx

How many real estate transactions have you completed?

Question 2 of 4

Do you have a business plan prepared that includes operations, finances, accounting, lead generation, and marketing?

Question 3 of 4

Are you a market expert?

Question 4 of 4

1. Determine if You’re Ready to Start a Brokerage & Understand Your Why

While opening a real estate office can be a rewarding experience in your career , real estate agents need to determine if they’re ready to embark on this journey and understand why they want to take on this next venture.

There are significant benefits to starting a real estate brokerage, but also there can be a lot of downsides if you’re not prepared.

Before weighing the pros and cons of starting a brokerage, agents should uncover their own personal motivations. Below are some questions real estate agents must ask themselves before starting an independent real estate brokerage:

• Are you a leader or a boss? Successful brokers are leaders who guide and communicate well, not bossy types who dominate and ignore others’ opinions. Leaders inspire trust and respect, fostering a productive and positive work environment.
• Do you need constant control? Brokers should allow agents freedom within legal and protocol boundaries, encouraging independent problem-solving without needing constant approval. This autonomy boosts agent confidence and fosters creativity in serving clients.
• Are you organized? Operating both front- and back-ends requires strong organization and systems for smooth business operations while allowing flexibility for agents. Effective organization also ensures that client needs are met promptly and efficiently.
• Do you have strong communication skills? Effective communication with agents, staff, clients, and peers is crucial for guidance, mentorship, and strategy sharing. Clear and open communication builds strong relationships and ensures everyone is aligned with the brokerage’s goals.
• Are you passionate about real estate? A successful brokerage demands time, effort, and passion for real estate to overcome challenges and setbacks. This passion is contagious, motivating your team and attracting clients who value your enthusiasm and commitment.
• Do you have a unique vision for your clients? In a competitive real estate market, having a unique value proposition is key to long-term success. Your vision should address specific client needs and market gaps, setting your brokerage apart from competitors.
• Could you achieve similar success by forming a team within another brokerage? Starting your own comes with financial and operational challenges. Agents seeking to focus on real estate with a team might find it more practical to join an existing brokerage, reducing overhead and operational complexities while focusing on client service and team dynamics.

When asking yourself these questions to understand your personal motivation to start a business, the reason behind why you want to start a real estate brokerage will be a guiding motivator to taking the first step.

2. Meet Your State’s Requirements for Starting a Real Estate Brokerage

An essential step in how to start a brokerage firm is ensuring you meet your state’s eligibility requirements. Typically, real estate agents who want to learn how to start a real estate brokerage must take additional classes, practice for a specific number of real estate hours, and pass the broker licensing exam. Education requirements range from 24 to 336 hours, depending on your state.

For example, California and New York have substantially different requirements for agents to get their brokerage licenses. See the differentiating factors between the two below:

Once you obtain your broker’s license, you must also comply with all state regulations regarding brokerages. For example, some states, like Nebraska and New Mexico, will require brokers to have a specific type of insurance or a physical office location. These requirements can change constantly, so all brokers must stay updated with the changes in their state laws.

Kaplan course demo (Source: YouTube )

Another way to stay current with changing state regulations is through continuing education courses. Brokers can take continuing education courses through online providers like Kaplan. It offers traditional learning, online learning, and self-paced course formats. Continuing education courses can be purchased in bundled packages or as individual courses, depending on how many credit hours you need.

Visit Kaplan

For specific information on broker licensing requirements in your state, visit our article How to Become a Real Estate Broker in 6 Steps .

Once you’ve pinpointed your motivator for starting your own real estate brokerage and completed licensing requirements, research your location and competition to evaluate the success rate of opening a brokerage in your desired area. Understand whether the area you’re located in is saturated with too many real estate brokerages and if there is enough housing demand to supply you with business to sustain your team.

To begin your research, agents can look at the data for the area they are interested in opening a real estate brokerage. Use Google or the National Association of Realtors directories to search for members or state and local associations.

It’s also necessary to evaluate if your brokerage will be able to cater to the chosen target market in your area. For example, you want to open a luxury real estate brokerage, but you discover the supply of luxury properties is limited in your area, which should cause you to reconsider your position. Understanding the target markets allows you to build your business and refine your marketing message.

Another consideration is the option between opening a franchise or an independent brokerage. Purchasing a franchise brokerage, like Keller Williams or Coldwell Banker, will give you pre-established features like branding, training, and marketing. However, buying a franchise can have starting costs of around $200,000.

The cheaper option is starting an independent brokerage. This will give you more control over your business, and you’ll be responsible for establishing your brand through advertising, marketing, and lead generation efforts. Although it will take longer for you to establish yourself in the community, and starting out will be tough, you will have complete autonomy over your business.

For more market insights, read through the following articles:

• 20 Most Crucial Real Estate Statistics in 2023
• 18 Essential Real Estate Lead Generation Statistics 2023
• 17 Vital Real Estate Marketing Statistics 2023

4. Develop a Real Estate Brokerage Business Plan

Developing a real estate business plan for your new brokerage is a crucial step to starting a real estate brokerage. This business plan will help you identify your goals, predict any challenges that may occur, and determine where the business opportunities are. This business plan will position your brokerage for long-term success and help you manage business growth. Here are a few important components you should take note of in how to open a real estate brokerage:

• A mission and vision statement: These statements outline your company’s purpose, values, and long-term goals.
• Develop a SWOT analysis: SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The strengths and weaknesses are an internal assessment of your brokerage, while opportunities and threats take into account external factors.
• Identify your competitive advantage: It’s important to clearly outline why and how your business differs from the rest of the competition in your market.
• Create a marketing and sales strategy: This outlines how you will attract clients and promote your business for financial growth.
• Identifying your niche: This will help you establish your expertise and draw attention from clients looking for someone who specializes in that niche.

The biggest difference between a real estate agent’s business plan versus a brokerage business plan is the expected finances of running a real estate brokerage. Outlining these financials clearly will help you align with your financial goals. Here is a breakdown of the expenses it’s essential to include in your plan:

For a deeper understanding of creating a real estate business plan, check out How to Write a Real Estate Business Plan: Elements, Examples & Free Template (+ Goal Calculator) . Agents can apply the same concept to their brokerage business as to their individual agent business.

When building a brokerage, brokers must decide whether they will have a brick-and-mortar office location or a virtual office. A physical office location makes it easier to develop a team culture and oversee your brokerage operations, whereas agents who choose a virtual office will save on overhead and office expenses. There are many pros and cons to each office type.

• Physical Office
• Virtual Office

Physical office space for your agents to work at or your clients to come to visit for meetings. Brick-and-mortar offices usually have reception areas, conference rooms, and other amenities to support the needs of agents and clients.

Some advantages and disadvantages of having a physical office:

Having a virtual office model allows agents to work remotely without a physical office space. Since you will not be providing your team with a physical space, your agents must have access to a suite of online tools and resources like virtual meeting software, document management systems, and online marketing platforms.

Some advantages and disadvantages of having a virtual office:

Ultimately, the decision to have a physical office or virtual office will depend on the type of brokerage you want to have and if you have the budget for it. You could consider a hybrid option with a smaller space or a space within a coworking building. Before finalizing your decision, make sure you’ve considered factors like location, size, costs, and amenities for each office option.

6. Determine Your Staffing Needs & Hire a Strong Team

As a brokerage owner, you must provide your team with careful planning, strategic recruiting, and ongoing support and training. Brokerage owners must give their team tools to support their individual agent’s business efforts, like access to lead generation software, customer relationship management (CRM) software , email, etc. With larger responsibilities, you must also build a team to delegate some of your responsibilities.

Some of the employee roles within a brokerage include the following positions:

• Real estate agents
• Listings manager
• Trainer/Development
• Transaction manager
• Administration
• Technical support
• Customer relationship management (CRM) system manager

Hiring New vs Experienced Real Estate Agents

Recruiting and retaining great agents will be the key to building a successful brokerage. Since real estate brokerages make money based on their agent’s deals, you want to make sure you have the right agents in place who will continuously contribute to your business income.

During the hiring process, consider factors like experience, skills, and fit with your business culture. You want to hire real estate agents for your team who share the same vision and value as your company. Some brokerages offer incentives to help hire and retain top talents, like increased commission splits, a team structure, training, and support from a dedicated admin.

Brokerage owners should consider whether they want to hire new talent or experienced agents. Here are some pros and cons of hiring new versus experienced agents:

Hiring Full-time vs Part-time Employees

Unlike real estate agents who are independent contractors, full-time employees work at least 40 hours per week. They receive benefits such as health insurance, paid time off, and retirement savings in compliance with state regulations.

Part-time employees may not have access to all these benefits. When hiring, consider your budget, needs, and growth plan. Full-time employees offer stability and commitment, ideal for roles requiring a high level of expertise. However, part-time employees can offer flexibility and cost savings, beneficial during growth phases.

Real estate CRM (Source: Top Producer )

One solution to manage a team’s productivity is by implementing a robust customer relationship manager (CRM) like Top Producer. The platform helps agents connect with their leads through workflows and task reminders. The system also offers shared access to contacts, communication, and calendars so brokers and team leaders can view their team’s sales pipeline. Top Producer does have a real estate transaction management solution to help teams stay organized and store transactional information post-deal closure.

Visit Top Producer

Now that you have a brokerage name, an office, and team members, you want to market your brokerage so everyone is aware of your new business. Successful brokerage owners with a strong brand identity and great reputation can turn that into generating leads for their businesses. Agents should create a real estate marketing plan to help guide their marketing efforts and increase market awareness.

Below are some elements to effectively market your brokerage and increase your exposure:

• Develop a brand: To set your business apart from other brokerages in similar markets, brokerages should have their own brand identity. This includes having a creative brokerage name , defined logo, color scheme, and clear messaging that reflects your value and service offering.
• Build a website: Ensure a strong online presence with a website that highlights your brand, products, and services, catering to your target audience. A search engine-optimized website improves visibility, attracting prospective clients and potential agents.
• Leverage social media: Utilize platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for exposure, ensuring your profiles reflect your brand. Share content and engage with prospective clients on these social media platforms .
• Network and collaborate: Attend local and industry events to grow your network and discuss your business. This helps in generating leads and brand exposure. Always bring business cards and follow up with contacts after the event.
• Invest in advertising: Use channels like online ads, billboards, and print mailers to generate sales leads. Ensure budget allocation toward effective mediums and track lead sources for optimal spending and a better understanding of where your leads come from.
• Provide excellent customer service: One of the best lead sources in real estate is through referral business . Make sure to always ask your clients for referrals. When you provide great customer service, your clients will want to share the same experience with their own personal networks.

Real estate postcards (Source: ProspectsPLUS! )

Marketing your new real estate business with a mix of branding, digital marketing, networking, and customer service will give your brand exposure and bring in new business. Use ProspectsPLUS! to execute timely mailers with their targeted mailing lists or by using your contacts. The platform has a campaign feature that allows you to send a series of mailers at set times, so you don’t have to remember to manually send them.

Visit ProspectsPLUS!

As a final step in learning how to start a real estate brokerage, you must provide sources of paid and organic leads to support your agents. This is especially important if you have new and inexperienced agents on your team who do not have an established sphere of influence.

Brokerages that provide leads or provide platforms that offer lead generation can have a larger commission split to the brokerage to help cover those costs. If you have an established CRM that can route and identify leads according to lead source, that will help you determine which splits to include for each closed deal.

Each lead generation tool has different pricing options that can be personalized to fit your budget and the needs of your agents. Most brokerages will tend to have multiple platforms that provide agents with leads. These lead generation tools provide a valuable supplement to your existing marketing and networking efforts:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is it hard to start your own brokerage.

Yes. Understanding how to start a brokerage reveals that it is challenging due to financial, regulatory, and market-related hurdles. It demands a profound real estate market knowledge, considerable upfront capital for startup costs, and a comprehensive business plan. Entrepreneurs embarking on this journey must navigate complex legal and regulatory frameworks that vary by state to ensure compliance. Additionally, establishing a reputation and building a client base in such a competitive industry requires dedication.

Are brokerage firms profitable?

Yes. Brokerage firms can be highly profitable, but their success depends on various factors such as market conditions, the firm’s business model, and operational efficiency. Profitability is influenced by the firm’s ability to generate consistent commission income, manage expenses, and adapt to changing market dynamics. Successful brokerages often have a strong client base, offer diverse services, and utilize technology effectively to maximize operational efficiency and client satisfaction.

Who is the richest real estate broker?

Pinpointing the richest real estate broker is challenging due to the private nature of individual wealth and the fluctuating real estate market. However, high-profile figures like Stephen Ross, founder of Related Companies, and Gary Keller, co-founder of Keller Williams Realty, are among the wealthiest individuals in the real estate industry. Their wealth is not solely from brokerage operations but also investments, development projects, and ownership stakes in various real estate ventures.

How to start your own brokerage can be tough and rewarding at the same time. By knowing what starting your own brokerage entails and carefully planning and executing strategies, real estate brokers can feel confident they have the tools to create long-term success in the real estate industry.

About the Author

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Theresa Landicho

Esa is a real estate staff writer at Fit Small Business. In 2023, she was accredited as a licensed sales agent in the Philippines. Esa is knowledgeable about real estate, including topics on real estate education and real estate lead generation and marketing. She loves how vast the industry is, and that there’s always something to learn.

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Ultimate Guide: 11 Points to Writing a Real Estate Business Plan

Failing to plan is planning to fail. Your business plan is the GPS for success. Instead of wandering, push towards your goals and objectives with clear direction. Developing a real estate business plan is critical to forming a healthy and sustainable business. 

A real estate business plan is an important step for any real estate agent looking to build a successful career in the industry. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, there are certain key elements that should be included in any plan. First and foremost, it is essential to set clear goals and objectives.

A study of 2,877 business owners found that companies are twice as likely to secure loans and funding if they have a business plan and 75% more likely to grow. Another study showed that 64% of companies who created a plan increased their businesses, compared to 43% of companies that hadn't yet finished a plan. 

Your own business plan is an essential tool for any business, small or large. Real estate agents use business plans to map their marketing strategies, target their advertising, and track their progress. A business plan helps agents set goals and stay on track throughout the year. It is also a valuable reference point when meeting with clients and potential investors. 

While there are many different ways to create a real estate business plan, certain elements should be included in every scenario. These elements include an overview of the business, the company's goals and objectives, a marketing strategy, and a financial analysis. By having these key components, companies can ensure that their real estate business plan is comprehensive and will help them achieve their desired results.

Harvard Business Review (HBR) stated that the chances of success rose by 12% for those that spent no longer than three months on their plan . With any longer proving futile. So, how do you write a business plan for your real estate business without getting bogged down in the details? In this post, we'll look at actionable steps agents and brokers can take to outline, execute and measure the performance of a business plan.

As a real estate agent, you know that the housing market can be unpredictable. You need to be prepared for the ups and downs of the market, and one way to do that is to have a business plan. Your business plan will help you set goals and track your progress. It will also force you to think about the costs of running your business and how you will generate leads. There are many online resources that can help you write a business plan, but the most important thing is to get started. By taking the time to write a plan, you will ensure that your business is ready for whatever the housing market throws your way.

What is a real estate business plan?

A business plan is a written document that captures the future of your business. It details what you plan and how you plan to do it.

Real estate business plans are essential for two reasons. First, they provide a road map for agents to follow as they work to build their businesses. Second, they force agents to think through all the crucial aspects of their business, such as their marketing efforts, target market, and financial goals. 

By taking the time to write a Real Estate Business Plan, agents can ensure that they are taking all the necessary steps to build a successful business.

A Real Estate Business Plan is an essential tool for any business, whether you are just starting or have been in business for years. There are many benefits to creating a Real Estate Business Plan, including: 

• Having a Real Estate Business Plan forces you to take a step back and assess your business as a whole. It allows you to see where your business stands, and identify any areas that need improvement.
• A Real Estate Business Plan provides a roadmap for your business. It can help you to set goals and track your progress over time.
• A Real Estate Business Plan can help secure your business funding. If you seek investment from Venture Capitalists or Banks, they will often require a copy of your business plan before considering your request.
• A Real Estate Business Plan can help you to attract and retain top talent. If you are looking to hire employees or contractors, having a well-crafted business plan can be a significant selling point.
• A Real Estate Business Plan can be a valuable tool for managing day-to-day operations. A clear and concise plan can help you better decide where to allocate resources and how to utilize your team's time and talents best.
• A Real Estate Business Plan can help you to measure and track your marketing efforts. By setting specific goals and objectives, you can more effectively gauge the success of your marketing campaigns and make necessary adjustments along the way.
• A Real Estate Business Plan can serve as a valuable sales tool. A professional business plan can give you a significant competitive advantage if you are looking to sell properties or convert leads into clients.
• A Real Estate Business Plan helps to keep you organized and on track. Trying to run a successful real estate business without a plan is like trying to drive from New York to Los Angeles without a map - chances are, you'll get lost along the way!

Having a Real Estate Business Plan gives you credibility in the eyes of others. If you are working with other professionals such as lenders, appraisers, or title companies, having a well-developed business plan shows that you are serious about your business and increases the likelihood that they will want to work with you in the future.

Last but not least, creating a Real Estate Business Plan is empowering! Taking the time to develop a comprehensive plan shows that you believe in yourself and your business and sets the foundation for long-term success.        

Precisely, it conveys your business goals, the strategies and tactics you'll use to achieve them, potential problems you may run into along the way and how to overcome them, roles and responsibilities, SWOT analysis, and measurement strategies.

What should a real estate business plan include?

Real estate business plans are different from traditional business plans. 

Real estate agents need to focus on their target market, their uniqueness, and how they will succeed against the competition. Real estate business plans should also include an analysis of the current market conditions and the potential for growth in the future. In addition, real estate agents should outline their marketing strategy and have a budget for advertising and promotions. By taking the time to create a comprehensive business plan, real estate agents can increase their chances of success in this competitive industry.

Real estate business plans vary in length and complexity, but all should include the following elements: 

• An overview of the real estate market 
• A description of the agent's target market 
• A marketing plan 
• A financial plan 
• A discussion of the agent's competitive advantages 

Real estate business plans provide a roadmap for agents to achieve their goals. They should include specific strategies for generating leads, marketing properties, and closing deals. The business plan should also outline the agent's budget and target income. Additionally, the real estate business plan should set forth a schedule for prospecting, listing appointments, and open houses. By following a real estate business plan, agents can increase their chances of success in real estate.

How do you assemble a real estate business plan?

A business plan is essential for any real estate business, whether you're just starting out or have been in the industry for years. It provides a roadmap for your business, laying out your goals and strategies for achieving them. But how do you go about assembling a business plan?

First, you'll need to identify your target market. Who are you trying to reach with your real estate business? Once you know your target market, you can start developing your marketing strategy. What methods will you use to get potential clients? How will you differentiate yourself from other real estate businesses in your area?

Next, you'll need to put together a financial plan. What are your revenue sources? How much money do you expect to bring in each month? What are your expenses? How much do you need to save for a rainy day? A clear financial picture will help you make sound decisions for your business.

Lastly, don't forget to include a personal development plan. What skills do you need to improve to succeed in the real estate business? What classes or training programs can you take to close more deals and earn more commissions? A well-rounded business plan will help ensure your real estate business is booming.

Writing a Real Estate Business Plan in 11 Easy Steps

1. write a detailed business description.

There's a story and context behind your business, and the business description is where that should shine. Write a brief overview of your Real Estate business. Include your business goals and how you plan on achieving them. Then create a description of your company, including its history, structure, and other relevant information.

The mission statement is part of the business description — which helps keep the rest on the track. Many mission statements follow a familiar format, like:

"To be the best, full-service Real Estate company in the Triangle and to enhance our quality of life through active community involvement.".

In a microstudy of 200 mission statements, it was found that mission statements most often talk about the company's dedication to customers (85%), shareholders (37%), employees (21%), and society (3%).

As well as a defined mission statement, make sure to include:

• When you were founded
• Where you are located
• Who the leaders are
• Special advantages/partnerships
• Market opportunities
• Legal structure

A very brief real estate business description example is:

"Norris & Company Real Estate is Vero Beach's premier upscale real estate firm. They specialize in luxury waterfront homes and condominiums, particularly in Vero Beach and Indian River County, FL."

2. Market Analysis

Research the Real Estate market in your area and identify any trends or opportunities. Include this information in your business plan.

Real estate agents must constantly be aware of the market conditions in their area to serve their clients best. Agents can provide expert guidance and advice by understanding the trends and opportunities.

When writing your Real Estate business plan, including a comprehensive analysis of the market conditions in your area. It will help you better understand your client's needs and identify potential opportunities.

Your market analysis should include:

• An overview of the Real Estate market in your area
• Identification of any trends or opportunities
• An explanation of how you will address these trends or options in your business plan

By including this information in your Real Estate business plan, you will be able to show potential clients that you are knowledgeable and prepared to help them navigate the Real Estate market.

3. Perform a SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is a technique used to identify and define several key characteristics that will impact your business: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Think of it this way:

Strengths and Weaknesses are internal. Threats and Opportunities are external.

An analysis can be as simple as making lists of items under each category.

For example, a strength could be a solid and experienced sales team, while a weakness might be that your business is expensive to run because you haven't nurtured supplier relations.

It could be as simple as filling four sheets of paper with descriptions of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats — collaboratively or alone. To make the answers clearer and the exercise more manageable, you can use questions like:

• What do our competitors do better than us? Threat .
• What's our unique selling point? Strength .
• Why have customers churned in the past? Weakness .
• Which markets are underserved in your territory? Opportunities .

4. List Your #1 SMART Goal

It's great to be ambitious, but focusing on one goal makes it easier to stay motivated, track progress, and see the measurable effect of achieving it. Even better if that goal is a SMART Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timed – goal.

Examples of SMART goals you might set for your growing real estate business are:

• Build a new real estate website in the next three months
• Hire and onboard three new SDRs in the next six months
• Increase monthly leads by 50% by next year
• Sell ten houses in the Dallas metro area in the next 30 days.

Pick one at a time and focus on it! Sticking to an achievable goal with a time limit makes it more likely to come to fruition. And, even just writing it down makes you 42% more likely to attain it.

5. Identify Your Market Niche

Before setting out your facts and figures, it's essential to spotlight your target market and how you'll serve this niche. It helps you decide what's realistic and feasible to achieve in your business plan.

Determining your market niche is a fancier way of saying: Who are your services best suited to? While honing in on a narrow target seems a little exclusionary, niche marketing can save you time, effort, and money on marketing.

One tool to help you define your market is a buyer persona. A persona is a fictional typification of your ideal customer, with information that enables you to steer your sales and marketing in the right direction.

It's essential to assess your niche and ensure it is consistent with the market in your area.

For example, if you've decided to focus on first-time buyers, do some research to look at relevant stats and figures:

• What percentage of sales in your market were to first-time buyers in the last 12–14 months?
• What was the average sales price to first-time buyers?

Also, assess how competitive this market is:

• Are you the only agent catering to the young first-timer?
• Are you competing with well-known heavy hitters?

A competitive SEO audit can be a helpful starting point in finding your competitors in the online space, where almost all leads will turn at some point in the buying process.

6. Implementation Plan

Before you can begin implementing your real estate business plan, you must clearly understand your goals and objectives. What are you trying to achieve with your business? Are you looking to buy and hold properties for long-term appreciation, or are you more interested in flipping houses for a quick profit? 

Once you have a good idea of your goals, you can start to put together a plan for how to achieve them. For example, if you're interested in buying and holding properties, you'll need to generate enough income from rentals to cover the mortgage and other expenses. If you're more interested in flipping properties, you'll need to find motivated sellers and then negotiate deals that provide you with a healthy profit margin. 

Regardless of your goals, careful planning is essential for success in the real estate business.

Breaking your goals into action steps makes them more tangible and ensures you're making strides to fulfill them. Here are some keys to converting your real estate business plan into actual business practices.

7. Monitoring & Evaluation

Successful real estate businesses have a plan to monitor and evaluate their progress. This plan includes setting clear goals, measuring progress against those goals, and making adjustments as needed. Without this proactive approach, it can be challenging to identify areas of improvement or stagnation. 

Additionally, a well-executed monitoring and evaluation plan can help to keep employees focused and on track. By regularly assessing performance and goal progress, businesses can ensure that they are making the most of their resources and achieving their desired results. Ultimately, a sound monitoring and evaluation plan are crucial for any real estate business that wants to stay ahead of the competition.

8. Risk Management

Real estate investing comes with a certain amount of risk. But with a well-thought-out risk management strategy, you can minimize the potential for loss and maximize your chances for success.

One of the most critical aspects of risk management is diversification. Investing in various property types in different markets spreads your risk and increases your chances of finding a profitable investment.

Another critical element of risk management has a solid business plan. Thoughtfully consider each step of the real estate investing process, from finding deals to financing them to managing the properties. Have a clear exit strategy for each investment to know when to sell or refinance. And always remember to stay within your comfort level; don't let greed or fear make decisions for you.

With careful planning and discipline, you can create a real estate investment portfolio that withstands market fluctuations and generates long-term wealth.

9. Financial Plan

Having a sound financial plan for your business is essential. To assist you, we've created spreadsheets you can use to estimate goals, income, and expenses. You will find specific instructions in the spreadsheets, but here are some guidelines for creating a financial plan:

To create your plan, determine what your expenses will be.

Here are three main areas your expenses may fall into:

• Licensing: These expenses will include training, state exam fees, etc.
• Personal: This can consist of your wardrobe, technology fees (like computer and phone), and car fees.
• Business: Business expenses include broker fees, website and MLS fees, marketing, advertising, etc.

Our template divides these expenses into the startup and yearly costs to help you discern which payments will recur and which are one-time-only. Here's an example of what your startup expenses might look like.

Yearly expenses might include recurring costs like office rent, electricity bills, and annual license fees.

Estimating income is the biggest concern for most new agents. To do this, you must decide how much money you need to make in your first year and how much you would like that figure to grow. You will also need to research some basic statistics for your market, like the average sale price for homes.

Use our business plan template to help calculate these numbers.

Transactions and Leads 

To meet your income goals and cover expenses, you'll need to conduct a certain number of transactions. And, to complete a certain number of transactions, you'll need to work a set number of leads. There's no need to work this figure out by hand. ‍

Our template will automatically calculate the number of transactions and leads you will probably need to meet your goals. Still, you will have to assess these figures to decide whether they are reasonable. For example, if you plan to work part-time as an agent in your first year but need to close 20 transactions to meet your goals, you are unlikely to have enough time.

10. Create a Personal Development Plan

A personal development plan is an essential tool for any real estate business. By taking the time to assess your strengths and weaknesses, set goals, and create a roadmap for success, you can ensure that your business is on track to reach its full potential. While it may seem daunting, creating a personal development plan is simple. 

Start by taking stock of your current situation. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are your goals for the future? Once you clearly understand where you are starting, you can begin to map out a plan of action. Set realistic goals and create a timeline for achieving them. Put together a resources list and ensure you have everything you need to reach your goals. Finally, implement your plan and monitor your progress along the way.

Remember, your development plan should be flexible and adapt as your needs change over time. With some planning and effort, you can create a roadmap for success that will help you achieve your long-term goals in the real estate business.

11. Write an Executive Summary that Captures the Vision

Your executive summary is an anchor point you can use to understand the overall goals, cement the parameters of your target market, and make decisions aligned with your plan. It's also a way to get inspired by your original vision.

For real estate, it would include points on:

• Target neighborhoods and price ranges
• Target clients and a brief description of the persona
• Brief marketing plan overview
• Market threats and opportunities

Think of the executive summary as the section of your business plan you would explain to a friend a football game when asked how you plan to make money as an agent or broker in your local town/ city or state.

Note: due to the specific details in the executive summary, this part of the business is typically one of the last completed items.

Real Estate Business Plan Template

If you're considering starting a real estate business, you'll need to create a business plan template. Here's a basic template that you can use to get started. Remember that your business plan should be tailored to your specific business and industry.

• Executive Summary

The executive summary is a brief overview of your business plan. It should include your company's mission statement and an overview of your products or services, target market, and growth strategy.

• Company Description

This section will provide an overview of your company, including its history, structure, and team. Be sure to include information on your company culture and values.

• Mission statement

In this section, you will summarize the reason for being and the guiding principles of your organization. For example: "We are a nonprofit that provides free legal aid to those in need." You can also provide a brief overview of what we want them (the users) to come into contact with. 

Why should they care about our mission or message by telling them why it is vital to their lives now and later down the line?

• Company goals

This section will provide a high-level overview of your company's top business goals for its first years in operation.

• Market Analysis

In this section, you will need to analyze your target market thoroughly. It should include information on your customers, your competition, and the overall industry.

• Product or Service

In this section, you will need to describe your product or service. Be sure to include information on your pricing strategy and any unique features or benefits your product or service offers.

• Marketing and Sales Strategy

In this section, you will need to outline your marketing and sales strategy. It should include information on how you plan to generate leads and convert them into customers.

• Operational Plan

This section will need to provide an overview of your business operations. It should include your production process and distribution and fulfillment strategy.

This section will briefly describe what your company offers to customers.

• Target customer

To effectively reach the people we want as customers, you must provide a clear overview of who they are and how your product or service can benefit them. In this section, I'll go over some questions worth asking yourself when determining who your potential clients may be. 

• Best Practices

Write out your ideal practices for how you'll deal with qualified leads versus unqualified leads, how quickly you'll follow up with interested parties, your methods for helping a leader throughout the final steps of the sales process, and how you'll stay in touch with customers after papers have been signed.

• Financial Plan

In this section, you will need to provide detailed financial information for your business. It should include your income, balance, and cash flow statements. The following will include startup expenses, assets, liabilities, capital, break-even analysis, and loan repayment.

• Exit Strategy

This section will need to provide an overview of your exit strategy. It should include information on how you plan to sell or exit your business in the future.

Individual Agent Real Estate Business Plan

Real estate agents need a business plan like any other entrepreneur. A real estate business plan outlines your goals, strategies, and how you plan on achieving them. It is essential to have a business plan because it will help you stay focused and on track. Real estate is a competitive industry, so you need to be able to stand out from the rest.

A business plan will also be helpful if you ever need to seek funding for your business. Investors and lenders will want to see that you have a well-thought-out plan before they give you money. 

Creating a Real Estate Business Plan is essential if you want to build a successful career in real estate. With our easy-to-use template, you can get started today and be on your way to achieving your long-term goals.

There are many benefits to creating a Real Estate Business Plan, including:

• Clarifying your goals and strategies
• Mapping out a clear road map for your business
• Identifying potential obstacles and solutions
• Helping you stay organized and on track
• Increasing your chances of success

So, if you are considering starting a real estate business, sit down and write a business plan. It will be worth it in the long run!

Real Estate Team Business Plan

Before you start your real estate team, it's essential to have a business plan in place. It will help you define your goals, map your strategies, and track your progress over time. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a business plan, certain key elements should be included. Here are a few of the most important things to keep in mind:

• Your team's mission statement: What sets your team apart from the competition? Why do you exist?
• Your target market: Who are you trying to reach with your services? What needs do they have that you can address?
• Your marketing strategy: How will you get your target market and communicate the benefits of working with your team?
• Your financial goals: How much revenue do you hope to generate? What are your expenses? How will you fund your business?

By thoughtfully developing your real estate team business plan, you'll increase your chances of success in an increasingly competitive industry.

Real Estate Brokerage Business Plan

A real estate brokerage business plan is a document that outlines the goals, strategies, and financial projections of a real estate brokerage business . It should include an executive summary, market analysis, business model, operational plan, and financial plan. The executive summary should briefly describe the company, its target market, and its competitive advantages. The market analysis should assess the size and growth potential of the target market. 

The business model should describe how the real estate brokerage plans to generate revenue. The operational plan should outline the business's day-to-day operations, including staffing and marketing initiatives. Finally, the financial plan should provide detailed information on the anticipated costs and revenues of the company. A well-crafted real estate brokerage business plan can be valuable for attracting investors and achieving long-term success.

Remember that your business plan is a living document that should be updated as your company grows and evolves. Regularly reviewing and revising your business plan ensures that your real estate brokerage is always moving in the right direction.

Ready. Set. Plan

Whether you've got a ready-to-execute business plan or it's still being drafted, the most important thing is to start now — and fast.

At its core, a real estate business plan should outline the steps necessary to achieve specific goals, such as increasing sales or expanding into new markets. It should also identify potential obstacles preventing the business from achieving its objectives. By taking the time to create a comprehensive business plan, real estate businesses can increase their chances of weathering storms and coming out on top in the long run.

A business plan puts you on a clear track that makes your business 75% more likely to grow.

By following the above points, you'll be well on writing a comprehensive Real Estate Business Plan.

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Real Estate Agent Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Business Plan Outline

• Real Estate Agent Business Plan Home
• 1. Executive Summary
• 2. Company Overview
• 3. Industry Analysis
• 4. Customer Analysis
• 5. Competitive Analysis
• 6. Marketing Plan
• 7. Operations Plan
• 8. Management Team
• 9. Financial Plan

Real Estate Agent Business Plan & Example

You’ve come to the right place to create your real estate agent business plan.

We have helped over 100,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their real estate agencies.

Real Estate Business Plan Example

Below are links to each section of your real estate agent business plan template:

• Executive Summary – The Executive Summary is the most important part of your business plan. It is a brief overview of your real estate agency, its products and services, niche market opportunity, and competitive advantage.
• Company Overview – In the Company Overview, you will provide a detailed description of your real estate agency, its products and services, company structure, management team, and Founders.
• Industry Analysis – The Industry Analysis is a critical part of your real estate business plan. Here, you will provide an in-depth analysis of the industry in which your real estate agency operates. You will cover topics such as industry trends, major players in the industry, market size and growth, and profitability.
• Customer Analysis – In the Customer Analysis, you will identify your target market and provide insights into their needs and buying habits. You will also segment your target market and discuss your marketing strategy for reaching them.
• Competitive Analysis – In the Competitive Analysis, you will identify your competition and provide insights into their strengths and weaknesses. You will also discuss your competitive advantage and how you plan to stay ahead of the competition.
• Marketing Plan – In the Marketing Plan, you will discuss your marketing strategy and tactics. You will also provide a sales forecast and budget for your marketing activities.
• Operations Plan – In the Operations Plan, you will discuss your business’s day-to-day operations. You will also provide business milestones that you plan to achieve and a budget for your operational expenses.
• Management Team – In the Management Team section, you will provide an overview of your management team and their experience in the real estate industry.
• Financial Plan – In the Financial Plan, you will provide a three-year financial projection for your real estate agency. This will include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.

Next Section: Executive Summary >

Real Estate Business Plan FAQs

What is a real estate business plan.

A real estate business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your real estate business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.

You can  easily complete your real estate business plan using our Real Estate Business Plan Template here .

What Are the Main Types of Real Estate Businesses?

The most commonly known type of real estate business is residential real estate sales. This involves the sale and purchase of homes. The other type of real estate business is commercial real estate, where businesses focus on commercial properties.  Other types are real estate investors, lease companies and property management.

What Are the Main Sources of Revenues and Expenses for a Real Estate Business?

The main source of revenue for a real estate business are commissions earned from client real estate sales and rentals fees. Other revenue generated in this business are profit income, interest income and dividend income.

The key expenses for property management companies are salaries and wages, advertising, travel and supply costs for each transaction.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Real Estate Business Plan?

Real estate businesses are typically funded through small business loans, personal savings and credit card financing.

What are the Steps To Start a Real Estate Business?

Starting a real estate business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop A Real Estate Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed real estate business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast.  

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your real estate business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your real estate business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your Real Estate Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your real estate business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws. 

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your real estate business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms. 

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations. 

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events. 

7. Acquire Necessary Real Estate Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your real estate business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your real estate business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising. 

Learn more about how to start a successful real estate business:

• How to Start a Real Estate Business

Where Can I Get a Real Estate Business Plan PDF?

You can download our free real estate business plan template PDF here . This is a sample real estate business plan template you can use in PDF format.

Real Estate Agent Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Real Estate Agent Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their real estate agencies. On this page, we will first give you some relevant information with regard to the importance of real estate business planning. We will then go through a real estate agent business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Real Estate Agent Business Plan Template here >

What is a Real Estate Agent Business Plan?

A business plan is a living document that provides a snapshot of your real estate agency as it stands today and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a Real Estate Agent69

A business plan can help you stay up-to-date on market trends, stay ahead of your competitors, and helps you set measurable goals But most importantly, it will force you to think through every step of starting and growing your real estate agency so that you can avoid potential roadblocks along the way. This also helps you monitor the effectiveness of the campaign over a given period.

If you’re looking to become a realtor or grow your existing real estate agency business you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your real estate agency in order to improve your chances of success. Update your business plan regularly as your agency grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Real Estate Agencies

With regard to funding, the main sources of funding for a real estate business are personal savings, credit cards, and bank loans. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable. But they will want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.

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How to write a business plan for a real estate agency.

Below is an example of a real estate plan template:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of real estate agency you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a real estate agency that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of real estate agencies?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the real estate agent industry. Discuss the type of real estate agency you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target market. Provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of real estate agency you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types:

• Residential Sales and Rentals : this type of real estate agent specializes in serving the private residential market.
• Commercial Sales and Rentals : this type of real estate agent specializes in commercial, industrial, medical, etc. properties

In addition to explaining the type of real estate agent you operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include sales goals you’ve reached, new contracts, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the real estate business.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the real estate industry educates you. It helps you understand the niche market or focus area in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy particularly if your research identifies market trends. For example, if there was a trend towards aerial videos of the listed property, it would be helpful to ensure your plan calls for a drone or drone operator.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section:

• How big is the real estate business (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• How much growth is expected for the industry over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your agency? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your realtor business plan must detail the prospective clients you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: residential, office space, retail space, etc.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of real estate agency you operate. Clearly, homeowners would want different services and would respond to different marketing promotions than manufacturers.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most real estate agents primarily serve customers living in the same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other real estate agents.

Indirect competitors are other options customers have that aren’t direct competitors. This includes For-Sale-By-Owner and similar DIYers. You need to mention such competition to show you understand that not everyone who sells or purchases property uses the services of a realtor.

With regards to direct competition, you want to detail the other real estate agents with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be agents who cover the same target market.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses or analyze using a SWOT Analysis. Unless you once worked on other real estate teams, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of customers do they serve?
• What services do they offer?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regard to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide superior services?
• Will you provide services that your competitors don’t offer?
• Will you make it easier or faster for customers to engage your services?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a real estate agency, your marketing plan should include the following:

In the product section, you should reiterate the type of real estate agency that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. For example, in addition to listing properties, will you offer home staging on those property listings?

Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price subsections, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place refers to the location of your agency. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your real estate agent located next to a heavily populated office building, gym, etc? Discuss how your location might provide a steady stream of prospective clients.

The final part is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some marketing efforts you might consider:

• Cold calling
• Direct mail and flyers
• Making your real estate agent’s storefront extra appealing to attract passing customers
• Social media marketing
• Advertising in local papers, magazines, and websites
• Reaching out to local bloggers and websites
• Local radio advertising
• Banner ads at local venues

Developing a marketing strategy and implementing it helps you identify and locate your current value proposition in the real estate market with specific time frames to execute. This strategy will be included in your business strategy and plan as well as establishing your overall objectives. It can also involve referral marketing strategies, retention strategies, and ways of gaining new clients.

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your realtor business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two key elements as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your real estate agency such as prospecting for new customers, advertising listings, going on showings, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to sell your 100th house, or when you hope to reach $X in average sales price. It could also be when you expect to hire your Xth employee or launch a new location.

Management Team

To demonstrate your agency’s ability to succeed as a business, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in the real estate business. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in real estate agencies and/or successfully running small businesses.

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.

Income Statement

An income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets

While balance sheets include much information, to simplify them to the key items you need to know about, balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. For instance, if you spend $100,000 on building out your real estate agency, that will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $100,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement

Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a real estate agent:

• Location build-out including design fees, construction, etc.
• Cost of equipment like signs, software, etc.
• Cost of advertising materials and maintaining an adequate amount of office supplies
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your location lease.

Putting together a business plan for your real estate agency is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the real estate business, your local competition, and your potential clients. You will have developed a marketing strategy and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful real estate agency.

Real Estate Business Plan FAQs

What is the easiest way to complete my real estate business plan.

Growthink's Ultimate Real Estate Business Plan Template  allows you to quickly and easily complete your Real Estate  Business Plan.

What Are Some Common Lead Generation Strategies For a Real Estate Agency?

Lead generation strategies can increase sales and increase the customer base. Lead generation can be conducted through organic and paid marketing campaigns to reach potential customers.

A successful lead generation program will help an agent generate leads, nurture leads through the process, and renew contacts in order to maximize potential. It can take several steps for leads to be cultivated using multiple-pronged approaches. Using organic strategies includes organizing a meeting or networking event in your field or interacting with people.

How Can I Write a Mission Statement For My Real Estate Agency?

All real estate business plans must include the mission statement. It will help you realize your business goals. When you have crafted an influential mission statement, all other components of your realtor marketing efforts should fulfill this statement. You should list the target audience, the products/ services you offer, and the uniqueness of your own business. Typically, if your mission statement is short and simple it should summarize a business objective.

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10-step checklist for writing a 2023 real estate business plan

If you're a real estate agent planning on opening a real estate company, you need a business planning lesson. Every successful business operates off a template defining its operations and goals. Your real estate business plan is the founding document of your organization, and every new business owner must take the time to plan their venture.

If it's your first time writing a business plan, you probably have mixed feelings of excitement and frustration. It's a thrilling experience to bring all the elements of your new company into realization, but it's upsetting when you realize you don't know what you're doing.

Writing a business plan helps to show you the flaws in your business skillset. You might be a marketing genius, but you have no idea how to manage operations cash flow. Similarly, you could have excellent administration skills but know nothing about marketing.

Writing out your business plan shows you where you need assistance. You identify areas where you're weak and build a strong team around you to support the places you need help. In this post, we'll unpack a 10-step checklist for writing your first real estate business plan.

Step 1 – Define your real estate business

The first step in writing your real estate business plan is understanding your limitations and strengths as a real estate broker and a business owner. Do you know what you want to achieve with your business? Your real estate brokerage needs defined goals and targets to chase, or your organization has no purpose.

Every small business relies on a team. The team you select needs to complement your strengths and weaknesses. Use this stage of your plan to define the organizational roles of each team member. Identify their skillsets and what they bring to your company.

Real estate brokerages need to understand the type of business you want to run and the personality types of the agents you wish to attract to your company. As the firm's founding partner, you get to decide who you want to add to your team.

After identifying the team, and each member's roles, it's time to work on your mission statement and executive summary.

An executive summary defines the aspects of your business plan and what you want to achieve with your business outcomes. It also describes the culture of the firm and your values.

The mission statement clarifies the purpose of your business and what you're trying to achieve. It also mentions how you intend to get to those goals. We recommend writing out both your mission statement and executive summary and revisiting them after completing your business plan.

In the initial planning stage, wiring out your mission statement and executive summary helps you clear the cobwebs and focus on the task at hand. However, when revisiting your mission statement and executive summary at the end, you might find you left something out or want to make a change to clarify your business directives.

After you have an understanding of your business, it's time to work on your goals.

Establishing your business goals is the most crucial part of the planning process. Your real estate business plan needs clear and defined goals for growth, sales, finances, marketing, and every aspect of your business.

Each section, like finance, for example, drills down into sub-goals for each category. For instance, your financial goals should feature an overall sales target for the year. However, there should be sub-goals in each section for monthly sales targets, and you can break that down into a different sub-category with targets for individual agents.

The idea of goal setting is to set achievable business goals with measurable results. You'll have both short term and long-term goals attributed to each of your business functions. Here are some examples of measurable goals you can use in your planning process.

• How many transactions do you want your company to do each week, month, year?
• How many leads do you need to capture in a day, week, month, or year?
• How many new agents do you want to work on your team?
• What's your earnings goal for the year?
• What do you want to achieve with your brand?

All these questions are vital to setting targets for your business. Without goals, you're like a car rolling down the hill with no engine. You'll hurtle down the hill at first, but when you reach the bottom, and the momentum dies out, you have no engine to pull you along. It's the same with your business planning and goal setting. If you don't have goals, you have no targets, and you'll run out of enthusiasm in a few months when the momentum in your company starts to fade.

Step 2 – Identify your target market

The first stage of the planning process involves structuring your company and defining your business goals and purpose. The second step of building your real estate agent business plan consists of understanding your target market.

What market are you operating in with your business? Do you want to sell luxury homes? Or are you looking at specializing in selling single-family units or condos? Specialization is a popular strategy for real estate firms, giving you the chance to build a reputation in a specific market segment.

Take your time identifying your target market, and dig into the MLS listings to determine which areas offer you the best return. As a real estate agency, you'll have to specialize in a specific region and build your reputation in that area.

Look for the following metrics when examining potential markets.

• What is the average price of properties in the area?
• How many days do they stay on the market?
• What is the average listing commission?
• What is the average pricing trend for properties in a prospective market?
• How many new listings come up in your target market each week, month, or year?
• How does the data compare month-on-month and year-on-year?

Step 3 – Complete a competitive analysis

All business owners need to understand the competitive landscape. The real estate industry has thousands of operators, and there are probably dozens of firms in your local area. Understanding the performance and structure of your competitors allows you to uncover the most successful firms.

When you identify the leaders, you can model what they're doing right and bring it into your real estate business plan. Check out your competitor's websites and review their social media accounts to gain insight into their marketing strategy and operations.

Who are the realtors that have the most industry clout in your area? Who are the leading firms, and what makes them stand out? Ask yourself these questions and unpack the top real estate firms' characteristics and components in your local area.

Step 4 – What services are you offering?

Real estate is a massive industry, and there are dozens of sub-industries within the real estate market. You need to understand your business model, specializing in a specific segment of the market. For instance, do you want to sell single-family homes to first-time homebuyers? Are you looking at providing commercial leases? Maybe you want to build a rental portfolio?

Spreading yourself thin across too many markets results in a lack of focus and direction. Startups will do better if they identify a profitable market and specialize in servicing that specific niche. Identify the areas with the biggest opportunities, and set up your services to cater to those areas.

Step 5 – Identify customer personas

Without accurately defined customer personas, you diminish your marketing efforts and prospecting outcomes. Understanding your customer profile and persona in the real estate market is essential to formulating your marketing strategy.

Your customer persona needs to describe demographic elements like average age, income, occupation, and other defying criteria that help you nail down your ideal customer. If you're a brokerage or realtor offering multiple services like sales and rentals, make sure you identify customer personas in each category.

You can further drill-down on your personas by identifying demographics in clients that buy luxury homes, single-family units, apartments, and condos.

Understanding your client persona gives you a better direction for your marketing strategy. For example, if you specialize in selling apartments to young professionals under 30, you're going to need to advertise through social media. Mediums like outdoor and print bring you less ROI on your advertising dollars.

Step 6 – Complete a SWOT analysis

Completing a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) is an essential component of real estate business plan templates. In this analysis, you unpack everything you know about the strengths and weaknesses in yourself, your company structure, and your team.

Think of the SWOT analysis as a basic summary of everything you've done with your real estate business planning so far. Combine the know your learning during the exercise with what you know about your working habits and personality characteristics.

For instance, you might be a champ in closing deals, but your prospecting skills are weak. That's an example of identifying your limitations and performance parameters.

Maybe there is no real estate brokerage in your area that catering specifically to millennial first-time homebuyers? That's an example of a market opportunity your business can fill.

Perhaps your target market involves new construction, and industry news states that there's a big strike happening at the end of next month. That's an example of a threat facing your business. Revisit your SWOT analysis every quarter to see if you can identify any new developments to add to your business plan.

Step 7 – Build a marketing plan

Now we get into the serious stuff with the development of your marketing strategy. Marketing is the single-most-important function of your business. The purpose of marketing is to drive new real estate leads to your business, allowing you to convert them into customers.

Your marketing strategy needs to focus on the things you learned when completing your customer persona. Where are you going to get the best bang for your marketing buck? Real estate marketing is a competitive space, and you need to make every dollar in your budget count.

Your marketing plan needs to include your online and offline strategy development. Your online strategy is the most important, and you'll need to build a website to promote your company and your listings. Social media marketing, referrals, brand building, sales funnels, and lead generation are essential online marketing strategies you need to succeed in your business.

Today, all your customers are online, and you need to market where your audience is hanging out. Most of them are on social media. Therefore, you'll need a social media marketing expert on your team to develop and direct your social strategy across all platforms.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software is another critical component of your business that integrates with your company's function. The CRM helps you manage clients, your sales funnels, and your marketing efforts through one dedicated platform.

You'll need to hire a marketing team to help you develop and implement your marketing strategy and CRM. Experts create a dedicated online marketing plan that includes all team members.

Your marketing plan is the foundation of your business plan. Investors will want to know your strategy and the results you expect to implement in your target market.

Related: 20 easy real estate marketing ideas to grow your agency

Step 8 – Complete your financial plan

Your financial plan is crucial if you intend to seek investment for your company. Whether you're dealing with private angel investors or the bank, they want to see your financials and sales projections to complete due diligence on loans.

If they decide to loan your money, they need to know when they can expect you to return the money and the ROI you offer on the deal.

You'll need to include information like your commission pricing and average commissions, your sales forecasts for three years, and cash flow projections. When completing this section of your real estate business plan, you'll need to sit down with your accountant and get their advice on structuring your financials.

You'll need to account for your business expenses and the costs of setting up your company with a website, CRM, and digital marketing services. Remember to include memberships to marketing sites like Zillow Premier Agent and ProspectPLUS.

Your financial plan forms the backbone of your investor's interest in involvement with your real estate firm. The numbers need to make sense, so make sure you run them past your accountant.

Step 9 – Periodically revisit your real estate business plan

Your business plan is a living document, and it changes with your business. Having a rigid plan won't work. The reality is that nothing in business works out 100% the way we plan. You'll need to have a flexible document you can update as your business grows.

During the first year of your operations, we recommend revisiting your business plan every quarter. As the business matures, you can push this exercise back to once every six months or once a year.

Revisiting your business plan gives you a chance to follow up on your goals and targets, giving you ideas on where you need to improve. Real estate professionals understand the importance of remaining responsive to change in a dynamic business environment.

Periodically revisiting your business plan gives you a chance to reflect on your progress and plan the future with clarity and certainty.

Step 10 – Visit B12 for your digital business needs

Your real estate website forms the foundation of your marketing efforts. It acts as the touchstone for your company online, providing a virtual storefront to your prospective clients. Inefficient and ineffective website design can derail your business plans, costing your company vital leads during the startup phase, where you need to generate as much income as possible. For website design inspiration, check out the best real estate websites and this guide on how to design a website !

If you need help with your real estate business website, reach out to the professionals at B12.

B12 specializes in helping professional services companies create beautiful sites that enable them to operate effectively online. Built-in tools like SEO , email marketing, and online scheduling make it easier to reach your audience.

Plan with Professionals

As an individual starting out a new real estate business, you have many things to consider for your real estate business plan and might not have the time to create a website from scratch. Relying on the expertise of design professionals ensures you get a website that helps you achieve your business goals.

Sign up to see a free draft of your new real estate website or learn more about how B12 uses artificial intelligence and experts to help businesses like yours grow online.

Put your client outreach and online presence in one platform

See a free draft of your new real estate website, then unlock tools like email marketing and client intake

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Home » Business Cycle » Real estate brokerage

Building a real estate brokerage

Real estate – many people think of billionaire investor Warren Buffett or New York’s Leonard Stern when the word comes to mind. But you don’t have to be a billionaire investor to be successful in real estate.

Agents and brokers might be less well-known, but those at the top of their field are certainly as impressive. Just ask Myra Nourmand, whose LA brokerage has sold homes for Sheryl Crow and been featured on HGTV’s Dream Homes . But they didn’t get there by accident. They studied how to grow a real estate brokerage – then built the business of their dreams .

Want to grow your real estate brokerage?

Real estate brokerage vs. real estate agent

Before we get into how to build a real estate brokerage, let’s clear up a common misconception: the difference between a real estate agent and a real estate broker. Agents have earned their real estate license, but they must work under a licensed broker. Brokers have an additional license that allows them to either work independently or to own a real estate firm and hire agents as employees.

Earning your broker’s license opens up many new opportunities – including a higher median salary and more independence in when and how you work. It’s an excellent business move for those in the real estate industry – but it isn’t the last step. Once you’ve earned your license, it’s time to learn how to run a successful real estate brokerage.

1. Remember the 2-millimeter rule

Always dream big – but your day-to-day goals can (and should) be small. The 2-millimeter rule means that your next step is always just 2 millimeters away. The smallest changes add up to the biggest results. Set SMART goals , chunk down your tasks and be realistic in your day-to-day expectations. It’s important to have both a short-term and long-term vision for your business, so keep your feet on the ground.

2. Do your research

There are many types of brokerages. The first rule for how to grow a real estate brokerage is to find an unmet need . You can specialize in residential, commercial or industrial properties, or in land transactions. You can work with investors and investment groups, or you can open a property management firm and focus on managing rentals. Each of these areas requires you to gain specific knowledge and build certain relationships. Choose your specialty before you go any further.

3. Get organized

  You’ll need a business map , a marketing plan, a website, lead generation strategies, CRM software – the list goes on. Time management is never more important than when you are building a business. It empowers you to do more with less. We all have the same amount of hours in the day – truly successful people just know how to use those hours more effectively.

4. Build your knowledge

Going from agent to broker brings greater salary and opportunity – and also greater responsibility. Brokers are often in charge of compliance and recordkeeping, finalizing contracts and reviewing financial statements and transactions. Plus, as the owner of the firm, you’ll need at least a basic level of business and marketing knowledge, such as lead generation , mindful scaling and more. Real estate markets and laws are always changing, so any successful brokerage owner must have a hunger for knowledge.

5. Use the power of leverage

  When building any business, the power of leverage is key. Leverage – using the assets you already have, whether physical objects, talents and skills or connections – is how you grow. When building a real estate brokerage, leverage might mean using your network to find new hires and new clients, expanding skills like negotiation to learn about new verticals or leveraging life experience to relate to people.

 6. Hire the right people  

You’ll want to focus on quality over quantity. Work on your recruitment strategies to get the best talent in the business. They’ll bring in major connections, local knowledge and smart strategies, helping you to hit the ground running. But you’ll need more than salespeople – you’ll need organized front-office employees, tech-savvy fixers and team players to mediate deals. Make sure your staff is balanced, or you’ll run into culture problems .

7. Work on your communication skills

  You’ll be taking on a bigger role, interacting with clients on both sides of a deal, plus hiring and training new agents. Working on your communication skills can improve your relationships with both clients and employees. Great leaders have great vision, but also know how to communicate that vision. That’s how they inspire raving fans – in both customers and employees.

8. Build your reputation

It can take years to build a good reputation. But it starts with your internal company culture . Only when you have respect and integrity within your company can you act with respect and integrity toward your clients. And customer service should be the first thing on your mind. Focusing on the needs of your clients – and then going above and beyond – is vital to building your business. Word of mouth remains one of the best ways to grow your business, especially in real estate. Make sure you’re taking full advantage.

9. Be open to advice

Ask anyone at the top of their industry and they’ll tell you they didn’t do it alone. Those wondering how to build a real estate brokerage need look no further than their own backyards. Join your local association of realtors for access to networking opportunities and advice. Find a mentor within your field. Attend seminars like Business Mastery . They can give you the knowledge – and the motivation – you need to succeed.

Want to build your real estate brokerage?

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Blog Business

5 Real Estate Business Plan Examples & How to Create One?

By Danesh Ramuthi , Nov 28, 2023

Crafting a business plan is essential for any business and the real estate sector is no exception. In real estate, a comprehensive business plan serves as a roadmap, delineating a clear path towards business growth. 

It guides owners, agents and brokers through various critical aspects such as identifying target markets, devising effective marketing strategies, planning finances and managing client relationships.

For real estate businesses, a well-written plan is crucial in attracting potential investors, showcasing the company’s mission statement, business model and long-term income goals.

So, how can you write one?

Leveraging tools like Venngage Business Plan Make r with their Business Plan Templates to create your own real estate business plan can be transformative.

They offer a lot of real estate business plan examples and templates, streamlining the process of crafting a comprehensive plan.

Click to jump ahead: 

• 5 real estate business plan examples

How to write a real estate business plan?

• Wrapping Up

5 Real estate business plan examples

As I have said before, a well-crafted business plan is a key to success. Whether you’re a seasoned agent or just starting out, examples of effective real estate business plans can offer invaluable insights.

These examples showcase a range of strategies and approaches tailored to various aspects of the real estate market. They serve as guides to structuring a plan that addresses key components like market analysis, marketing strategies, financial planning and client management, ensuring a solid foundation for any real estate venture.

Real estate business plan example

There are various elements in a real estate business plan that must be integrated. Incorporating these elements into a real estate business plan ensures a comprehensive approach to launching and growing a successful real estate business. 

What are they?

• Executive summary: The executive summary is a concise overview of the real estate business plan. It highlights the mission statement, outlines the business goals and provides a snapshot of the overall strategy. 
• Company overview: An overview on the history and structure of the real estate business. It includes the company’s mission and vision statements, information about the founding team and the legal structure of the business. 
• Service: Here, the business plan details the specific services offered by the real estate agency. This could range from residential property sales and leasing to commercial real estate services. The section should clearly articulate how these services meet the needs of the target client and how they stand out from competitors.
• Strategies: A very crucial part of the plan outlines the strategies for achieving business goals. It covers marketing strategies to generate leads, pricing strategies for services, and tactics for effective client relationship management. Strategies for navigating market shifts, identifying key market trends and leveraging online resources for property listings and real estate listing presentations to help with lead generation are also included.
• Financial plan: The financial plan is a comprehensive section detailing the financial projections of the business. It includes income statements, cash flow statements, break-even analysis and financial goals. Besides, a financial plan section also outlines how resources will be allocated to different areas of the business and the approach to managing the financial aspects of the real estate market, such as average sales price and housing market trends.

Read Also: 7 Best Business Plan Software for 2023

Real estate investment business plan example

A real estate investment business plan is a comprehensive blueprint that outlines the goals and strategies of a real estate investment venture. It serves as a roadmap, ensuring that all facets of real estate investment are meticulously considered.

Creating a business plan for real estate investment is a critical step for any investor, regardless of their experience level Typically, these plans span one to five years, offering a detailed strategy for future company objectives and the steps required to achieve them.

Key components:

• Executive summary: Snapshot of the business, outlining its mission statement, target market, and core strategies. It should be compelling enough to attract potential investors and partners.
• Market analysis: A thorough analysis of the real estate market, including current trends, average sales prices and potential market shifts.
• Financial projections: Detailed financial plans, including income statements, cash flow analysis, and break-even analysis.
• Strategy & implementation: Outlines how the business plans to achieve its goals. This includes marketing efforts to generate leads, pricing strategies and client relationship management techniques.
• Legal structure & resource allocation: Details the legal structure of the business and how resources will be allocated across various operations, including property acquisitions, renovations and management.

Real estate agent business plan example

A real estate agent business plan is a strategic document that outlines the operations and goals of a real estate agent or agency. It is a crucial tool for communicating with potential lenders, partners or shareholders about the nature of the business and its potential for profitability.

A well-crafted real estate agent business plan will include

• Where you are today: A clear understanding of your current position in the market, including strengths, weaknesses and market standing.
• Where you aim to be: Sets specific, measurable goals for future growth, whether it’s expanding the client base, entering new markets or increasing sales.
• How can you get there: Outlines the strategies and action plans to achieve these goals, including marketing campaigns, client acquisition strategies and business development initiatives.
• Measuring your performance: Defines the key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to assess progress towards the set goals, such as sales figures, client satisfaction rates and market share.
• Course correction: Establishes a process for regular review and adjustment of the plan, ensuring flexibility to adapt to market changes, shifts in client needs and other external factors.

For real estate agents, a comprehensive business plan is not just a roadmap to success; it is a dynamic tool that keeps them accountable and adaptable to market changes.

Realtor business plan example

A realtor business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines the strategic direction and goals of a real estate business. It’s an essential tool for realtors looking to either launch or expand their business in the competitive real estate market. The plan typically includes details about the company’s mission, objectives, target market and strategies for achieving its goals.

Benefits of a realtor business plan and applications:

• For launching or expanding businesses: The plan helps real estate agents to structure their approach to entering new markets or growing in existing ones, providing a clear path to follow.
• Securing loans and investments: A well-drafted business plan is crucial for securing financing for real estate projects, such as purchasing new properties or renovating existing ones.
• Guideline for goal achievement: The plan serves as a guideline to stay on track with sales and profitability goals, allowing realtors to make informed decisions and adjust strategies as needed.
• Valuable for real estate investors: Investors can use the template to evaluate potential real estate businesses and properties for purchase, ensuring they align with their investment goals.
• Improving business performance: By filling out a realtor business plan template , realtors can gain insights into the strengths and weaknesses of their business, using this information to enhance profitability and operational efficiency.

A realtor business plan is more than just a document; it’s a roadmap for success in the real estate industry. 

Writing a real estate business plan is a comprehensive process that involves several key steps. Here’s a detailed guide to help you craft an effective business plan :

• Tell your story : Start with a self-evaluation. Define who you are as a real estate agent, why you are in this business and what you do. Develop your mission statement, vision statement and an executive summary​​.
• Analyze your target real estate market : Focus on local market trends rather than national or state-wide levels. Examine general trends, market opportunities, saturations, and local competition. This step requires thorough research into the real estate market you plan to operate in​​.
• Identify your target client : After understanding your market, identify the niche you aim to serve and the type of clients you want to target. Create a client persona that reflects their specific needs and concerns​​.
• Conduct a SWOT analysis : Analyze your business’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This should reflect a combination of personal attributes and external market conditions​​​​.
• Establish your SMART goals : Set specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely goals. These goals could be financial, expansion-related or based on other business metrics​​​​.
• Create your financial plan : Account for all operating expenses, including marketing and lead generation costs. Calculate the number of transactions needed to meet your financial goals. Remember to separate personal and business finances​​.
• Revisit your business plan to monitor & evaluate : Treat your business plan as a living document. Plan periodic reviews (quarterly, semi-annually or annually) to check if your strategies are advancing you toward your goals​​​​.
• Defining your mission & vision : Include a clear mission and vision statement. Describe your business type, location, founding principles and what sets you apart from competitors​​.
• Creating a marketing plan : Develop a marketing plan that addresses the product, price, place and promotion of your services. Determine your pricing strategy, promotional methods and marketing channels​​.
• Forming a team : Ensure the cooperation of colleagues, supervisors and supervisees involved in your plan. Clarify their roles and how their participation will be evaluated​​.

Related: 15+ Business Plan Examples to Win Your Next Round of Funding

Wrapping up

The journey to a successful real estate venture is intricately linked to the quality and depth of your business plan. From understanding the nuances of the real estate market to setting strategic goals, a well-crafted business plan acts as the backbone of any thriving real estate business. Whether you’re developing a general real estate business plan, focusing on investment, working as an agent, or operating as a realtor, each plan type serves its unique purpose and addresses specific aspects of the real estate world.

The examples and insights provided in this article serve as a guide to help you navigate the complexities of the real estate industry. Remember, a real estate business plan is not a static document but a dynamic blueprint that evolves with your business and the ever-changing market trends.

Crafting a strategic real estate business plan is a crucial step towards achieving your business goals. So, start shaping your vision today with Venngage.

Explore venngage business plan maker & our business plan templates and begin your journey to a successful real estate business now!

How to Plan, Start, & Grow a Real Estate Business: 27 Essential Tips

Published: February 21, 2024

Starting a real estate business isn’t for the faint of heart, but there’s hope for 2024. It’s expected that housing prices will soften in certain parts of the country , and despite what we’re hearing, experts are not predicting a housing market crash .

If the real estate world is calling you, don’t be put off. Here’s a down-to-earth look at how to start your own real estate business, plus advice for avoiding mistakes that hijack momentum as you grow.

In this article:

It’s Never Too Late to Start Your Business

How to start a real estate business, how to start in real estate, how to grow your real estate business, common professional pitfalls (and how to avoid them).

For many new real estate agents , real estate is their second, third, or even fourth career.

Whether you’re a solo agent or new to a team, if you have dreams of outperforming the average real estate agent salar y ($44,507 per year), you need to start thinking like a business owner — and that means planning.

Free Real Estate Planning Template

Use this free template to plan the marketing, sales, and growth for your real estate business.

• Company Overview
• Territory Overview
• Market Penetration Strategy

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

• Craft your ideal personal plan.
• Write a real estate business plan.
• Build a consistent marketing plan.
• Get a website.
• Prospect consistently.
• Nurture leads.
• Have good time management.

1. Get a CRM.

Barry Jenkins is the broker-owner of the #2 Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Team in the United States. He’s also a guy who hates inefficiency. “I, to a fault, like to make things easy. The reason my business is so successful is that it was built on the core principle of leverage.”

In order to bring that principle to life, Barry uses his CRM as a true lead conversion machine . A CRM is a Customer Relationship Management system that helps you organize your contacts and come up with actionable insights. With it, you can walk leads through relevant nurture campaigns based on lead source or automate the entire transaction process.

This is incredibly useful in real estate because the home buying process is so long with many different steps, multiplied across many agents and even more leads and customers.

Using a CRM to achieve boss-level organization is how Barry and his team sold 240 homes in a year. And it’s not all about the front end, either. Barry also uses his CRM to send automated onboarding drips to new team members and keep the business admin completely streamlined so that nothing important ever falls through the cracks.

2. Craft your ideal personal plan.

Before you set the right financial goals for your business, you need clear financial goals for your life.

Commissions are great, but — let's face it — we all came into this business wanting something bigger and better than what we had.

Consider the following questions:

• What time do you want to start work?
• What time do you want to finish?
• How do you want to feel each day?
• How much money do you want to make?

Top tip for defining your personal plan: Think about the real why. Running a successful real estate business is more about the impact on our lives or our families' lives and less about earning cash. Get to the real motivator behind work.

3. Write a real estate business plan.

Start writing your real estate business plan, paying special attention to the things that set you apart from other businesses in your area. Give it some real thought. This is where your personal and business identities can really come together to make profit-driving magic.

Start with these questions:

• How does selling real estate make a meaningful difference for you, your prospects, and even the world?
• What are the values and principles that drive your real estate business?
• How are those different from the real estate business next door?
• What are the three to five things you are going to own completely in the business?
• Who will take care of the rest?

Even if you’re just looking to take administrative work off your plate by hiring your first virtual assistant, it's critical to create that big-picture vision to keep your team inspired and avoid repeating unproductive patterns.

Top tip for writing your business plan: While creating that big-picture plan, make sure you also pay attention to the details. Writing your plan is an opportunity for you to explore ideas and see what’s feasible.

Featured Resource: Free Business Plan Template

Be the agent who’s always there, and you’ll automatically beat the herd.

8. Have good time management.

If you’re like most of us, a big part of the dream is to have more time and energy for the things that really light you up.

But most agents who set out to build a real estate business haven’t built that into the plan. They end up with a revolving door of team members and have to outwork the business problem du jour. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

For experts in automation, a motivating factor is saving time. By eliminating manual work through automation, you can free up time to focus on the activities that actually drive revenue.

The ability to do marketing automation further underscores your need for a CRM, which ends up acting as the engine that supports your efforts.

Top tip for introducing automation: Start with low-risk tasks that you don’t want to handle.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Brokerage Business Plans

Mortgage broker business plan.

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Real Estate Broker Business Plan

Reed Properties is a real estate brokerage focusing on ethnic minority homebuyers in revitalized urban neighborhoods.

Real Estate Brokerage Business Plan

RJ Wagner and Associates is a real estate brokerage company.

Before you start writing a business plan, take a look at a few sample business plans for real estate related businesses to get guidance and inspiration.

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Real Estate Business Plan

People would always need to find places. Be it for offices, homes, and whatnot.

Finding the ideal place irrespective of your needs and requirements is never a cakewalk, to begin with.

You can go through a number of real estates business plan templates before you write your plan.

Industry Overview

The market size, measured by revenue, of the Real Estate Sales and brokerage industry, is $156.2bn in 2021, and the industry is expected to increase by 0.4% in 2021.

Also, the market is changing at a rapid rate and the way people use spaces is changing at a rapid rate too.

Hence, to get on or stay on the higher end of the spectrum you’ll need to upskill and change the way you do business constantly.

But that is a fair trade for the amount of growth and profitability this industry has to offer.

Say goodbye to boring templates

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Plans starting from $7/month

Things to Consider Before Writing a Real Estate Business Plan

Be specific.

The real estate industry is broad when it comes to work and what you can do. It can either be a source of primary or passive income. At the same time, you might be involved in the industry as an investor, agent, or builder. Decide what you want to do and plan on that basis.

Do your research

The trends of the real estate business change constantly, hence doing your research and updating it constantly is a crucial part of your profession.

As your knowledge and expertise is your greatest asset in this industry, keep expanding it to stay at the top of things.

Build a team of skilled professionals

Having a team you can build your real estate business with is essential.

Select a group of individuals with a diverse set of talents ranging from good communication skills to brilliant analytical skills. Given the dynamics of the real estate business, you never know what skills might come in handy in your business journey.

Be ready for change

As we have constantly discussed, real estate is a dynamic industry. Change is the only constant you’ll have in this business.

Thus, it is important for everything from your plan and way of doing business to be change-friendly.

Sources of Funding for a Real Estate Business

Gaining funds is one of the major reasons for writing a business plan. And here are a few good funding options for your real estate business:

A traditional loan is one of the most basic options for getting funded. You can opt for this if you have a good credit score.

Non-bank mortgage lending

This is a good option if you don’t want to go through a lot of paperwork.

The asset-based mortgage

For this, the lenders look at the rental value of your property and provide a loan on that basis. It is a good option if you don’t want or can’t get a loan based on your personal assets or income.

Above all, it is essential to plan your business to figure out your funding requirements and the right way to fulfill the same.

Write Your Business Plan

If you have enough connections, and the ability to find places for people that have attributes they want and need then a real estate business can be a profitable one for you.

A business plan helps you get funded, explain your ideas to the stakeholders of your business, and make better decisions.

Hence, planning is an important aspect of starting or growing your business.

It has been created using Upmetrics online business plan software that helps you create dynamic and customizable plans anywhere and at any time.

Our sample real estate business plan can help you with writing a well-rounded business plan for your business. It can act as a guide and prevent you from getting stuck in a certain section for too long.

Real Estate Business Plan Outline

This is the standard real estate business plan outline which will cover all important sections that you should include in your business plan.

• Market Opportunity
• Demand for Housing
• Financing & Investment Forecast
• Introducing Kegan
• Business Model
• Short Term Goals
• Long Term Strategies
• Keys to Success
• Contemporary Living for the 21″ Century
• The Complete Package
• Pricing Strategy
• Implementation Strategy – Action Plan
• Target Market Overview
• Housing Shortage Overview in Saudi Arabia
• Housing Shortage Overview in Riyadh
• Housing Prices
• Kegan Home Prices
• Market Positioning & Brand
• Marketing Strategies
• Sales Strategies
• Sales Process
• Competitive Landscape
• Competitive Advantages
• Rashid Bin Said
• Director of Construction
• Member name
• Chief Accountant
• Director of Marketing & Sales
• Other Staff
• Independent Directors
• Solid Balance Sheet
• Impressive Cashflow
• Financial Summary
• Financial Assumptions
• Income Statement (Five-Year Projections)
• Balance Sheet (Five-Year Projections)
• Cash Flow Statement (Five-Year Projection)

After getting started with Upmetrics , you can copy this sample real estate business plan into your business plan and modify the required information and download your real estate business plan pdf or doc file.

It’s the fastest and easiest way to start writing your business plan.

The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

Download a sample real estate business plan

Need help writing your business plan from scratch? Here you go;  download our free real estate business plan pdf  to start.

It’s a modern business plan template specifically designed for your real estate business. Use the example business plan as a guide for writing your own.

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Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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Real Estate Brokerage Business Plan

Executive summary.

RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., is an S corporation domiciled in the state of Texas. This corporation is capitalized by one single stockholder and one principal investor, Regina Wagner. Regina Wagner is a licensed broker and the sponsoring broker for this firm. The licensed broker of this firm will sponsor licensed real estate agents (independent contractors) in the state of Texas. This corporation will formalize the real estate services offered.

RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., will open its doors for operation in July. The office is located in Houston, Texas (Champions area) in the Greenwood Square Shopping Center, to provide services to the higher income section of Metropolitan Houston.

Credibility and reputation excel with the broker of this firm, with a published real estate book and real estate organizational programs placed in the Houston Association of Realtors and the Dallas Association of Realtors bookstores and superstores. For the past year novice licensed agents have enjoyed the organizational tools and guidance offered in the book Texas Real Estate/The Mobile Mentor.

1.1 Objectives

The primary objectives of our organization are to:

• Become a profitable organization allowing us the freedom of taking advantage of other real estate investment opportunities as they become available.
• Recruit and hire self-motivated, success-oriented, and hardworking sales agents.
• Maintain an office of at least 15 sales agents who meet the previous requirements.
• Develop a solid, corporate identity in our specified targeted market area.
• To establish good working relationships and begin working as a team, promoting communication and suggestions from all participants.
• Become one of the top brokerage firms in operation in the Champion area by our third year of operation, or before.
• Realize a positive return on investment within the first 12 months.

We believe the above-mentioned objectives are obtainable because of the professionalism of the manager and sales associates this corporation will hold. Individuals gaining a real estate license leave school with the knowledge of the real estate laws and procedures. The turnover rate in this business is high since agents have no training outside the laws and regulations of the business itself. Once they have a license, only then, they may obtain the sales and marketing training that is needed upon entering the profession. This training is available at a high price to the agent. When starting out, most agents are not able to obtain this training at the high prices set forth, and without the proper training the average earnings of a beginning real estate agent is very low in comparison to industry standards.

The office environment we will be providing will be productively arranged yet inviting to the agent as well as the client. There will be a location in the office each day with a daily marketing routine/schedule to follow. Agents have the opportunity to be guided each day through a marketing plan to gain clients. They may choose to follow the guidelines and training provided or they may follow their own daily routines. We will be supplying a program allowing the new agents to earn more than the average real estate agent by providing guidance and stability.

If an agent with our company sets a goal to obtain only one seller and one buyer for the month, on an average of $150,000 sale on each side, would earn the agent $6,750 per month X 12 months = $81,000 per year. Regina’s goal as the broker is to assist each agent in conquering this goal.

The same sales as noted above would profit the corporation $2,250 per month X 12 months = $27,000 for the year X 15 agents = $405,000. This is not including sales from the active broker of this corporation which would be $4,500 commission from each side to total $9,000 (100%) to the corporation. The broker will receive a salary from the corporation.

1.2 Mission

This plan is written as a guide for starting and managing this new business, and will also serve as the basis for a separate, detailed marketing plan. Following is a summary of the main points of this plan.

The objectives of RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., are to generate a profit, grow at a challenging and manageable rate, and to live up to the ethical codes set forth by the Texas Real Estate Commission.

The first mission of RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., is to first recruit Texas real estate agents. The agents choosing this firm will receive top commission allowing them more financial advantage for advertising in order to gain more business.

The ongoing mission will be to assist both homeowners selling their homes, as well as homebuyers purchasing the home of their future, by providing professional and personal assistance. Ensuring customer’s best interest are always of the utmost importance.

The keys to success for RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., are marketing and networking, responsiveness and quality of customer service and generating repeat customers.

We wish to establish a successful partnership with our clients, our staff members, and our title companies, that respect the interests and goals of each party.

The local market for this business, while not new, is wide open for new and expanding brokerage firms.

An initial financial analysis of the viability of this venture shows outstanding promise and results. Several sources note that the real estate business has proven to be quite lucrative in today’s fast-paced world.

While so doing, the company will always continue to strengthen its position in the target market area by providing superior customer service to clients and to sales associates.

In conclusion, as shown in the highlights chart to follow, this plan projects rapid growth, as additional agents join, and high net profits over the next three years. Implementing this plan, in conjunction with a comprehensive and detailed marketing plan, will ensure that RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., rapidly becomes a profitable venture for the owner as well as for the contracting agents.

Company Summary

RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., is a new company that provides high-level expertise in real estate sales in the state of Texas. It will focus initially on homesellers and homebuyers, as well as in-house sales agents. Our customer service philosophy is unique. In a philosophic sense, RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., has three distinct customer groups: sellers, buyers, and agents.

Sellers of real property are our first customers. Listers of properties (sellers) pay commissions from the sale of their property and are the direct clients of the real estate brokers. We will never lose our focus that clients who have retained RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., to list and sell their properties are our first obligation.

Our second real customer is the buyer of residential real estate. We will provide superior personal services to buyers.

Our third real customer is the licensed real estate sales agent. It is the agent’s job to provide a professional service to both sellers and buyers, specifically in this order. Therefore, it is the direct responsibility of RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., to provide service to our sales agents.

As it grows, it will take on new agents providing them with a highly competitive commission earnings, as well as providing them with a support service that will allow for more productive time in order to gain clients at a faster pace. Hence motivating productive licensed agents in the real estate arena. As it grows, it will look for additional marketing techniques to offer clientele and serve the public in the high standards handed down by the Texas Real Estate Commission.

2.1 Company Ownership

RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., has been formed as an S corporation domiciled in the state of Texas. This corporation is capitalized by one single stockholder and one principal investor, the owner and broker of this firm, Regina J. Wagner.

2.2 Start-up Summary

Our start-up costs are outlined in the following chart. Said start-up costs derive from website design, office equipment, main computer station (complete with all realtor information for agent usage), stationery, legal costs, furnishings, office advertising and services, and expenses associated with opening our first office. The start-up costs are to be financed by direct owner investment and credit.

At RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., our principal service consists of selling residential real estate in a targeted market area. Our services provide our clients with an international network of buyers and sellers through the multiple listing service (MLS). Because of our capabilities to network with other brokers, we will sell homes faster than our clients could if they tried to market their home without the assistance of a licensed real estate agent.

In addition, our customers will list their homes with our agency because of our aggressive and highly-skilled professionals. We will continuously have an above-average sales force to generate and close residential listings.

The owner and broker of RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., is committed to success in the real estate market and adheres to the strict rules handed down by the Texas Real Estate Commission. Our high level of commitment will enable the company to attract top professionals as sales associates and clients looking to buy and sell residential real estate.

Agents with this firm will be provided with the following services:

• Top commissions.
• 24/7 hour office access.
• Own Web page.
• Marketing/sales guidelines to follow each day.
• Personal goal setting training
• Professional/commercial office setting in a highly visible and reputable location in the city of Houston.
• 24-hour answering service.
• Free inside/outside panoramic photography of each property listing. All photos are placed on HAR/MLS (Multiple Listing Service) and to the Internet realty sites.
• Full broker support.
• Professional flyer will be furnished complete with property photos for advertisement.
• Yard signs will be supplied and installed for the agent.
• Flyer distribution to other broker sites/agents.

Sellers will be provided with the following services:

• Free CMA (Comparative Market Analysis).
• Inside/outside photos in panoramic view placed on MLS (Multiple Listing System) and real estate Internet sites. This allows potential buyers to view our seller’s property online.
• Advertising in local real estate publications.
• We design an attractive pamphlet with all property information, room dimensions, tax information, a letter from the seller, and a complete history of the home for potential buyers to read while viewing the property. This pamphlet is for the seller to keep or to give to the new owner when the home sells.
• Attractive yard signs with flyer tubes attached for potential buyers driving by.
• “Just Listed Post Cards” mailed to surrounding neighborhoods.
• Listing flyers distributed to other broker sites.
• Circulated open house invitations (per seller approval).
• Supra System Computerized Lockboxes (we know when and who entered premises at all times).
• Excellent follow-up system on each showing.
• If no contract is submitted within the first listed month, we re-analyze our future marketing procedures with the seller.

Buyers will be provided with the following services:

• We match buyers to homes. We have an extensive questionnaire for our buyers to list their wants and needs. We then take this questionnaire and put the supplied information into our Passport program to match buyers to the homes matching their criteria. (Passport is the latest software available to licensed real estate agents and brokers in the state of Texas.)
• We go a step further with our buyers and we go on-site for them. We visit the homes of their choice and take inside and outside panoramic photos for their viewing. We can email the photos or have a face to face showing with the buyer. The buyer does not have to go on-site unless they choose to. We bring the home to them.
• We present their offers and comply with all negotiating for them.

Market Analysis Summary

RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., will be focusing on supplying homebuyers and homesellers professionalism and expertise in reaching a successful sale and/or purchase in their real estate needs. Our concentration also lies with our in-house agents. We feel by providing our in-house agents the support program they need our productivity should excel at a rapid pace.

Due to the strengthening of the economy in Houston area, more homebuyers today are looking to purchase homes. These changes in attitudes of homebuyers are a tremendous boost to real estate firms.

We are poised to take advantage of these changes, and expect to become a recognized name and profitable entity in the Houston real estate market. We chose to locate our office in the area of most revenue potential. Our targeted market area, the Champions area, shows stability and growth. We have a beautiful office, centered in the Champions area. This location will enable our sales associates to work in an area that will allow them to make more money in a shorter period of time.

The first quarter home values were up 8.8% from the same period in 2000, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight says. The gain reflects an increase from the previous quarter, when residential real estate values saw year-over-year growth of 8.1%.

As stated in the Objectives section–we outline the profits to be gained with each agent striving for one seller and one buyer each month. We also state the extensive marketing plans, goal setting and training provided by this corporation to assist each agent in reaching this goal.

As stated in the Services section–we outline the services we will be supplying to the agents, sellers and buyers (all of which this corporation considers to be our customer).

As the outline following will indicate–our agents will earn top commissions, be supplied with the latest in marketing and advertising assistance, and have on-site broker assistance at all times. This coupled with the teamwork and excellent marketing programs provided, we feel we have a recipe for success.

4.1 Market Segmentation

Our most important market segment is the homeseller. The seller will be calling upon RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., for our excellent marketing strategies and techniques, and our ability to deliver personal consulting, professionalism and a follow up system.

As important would be the homebuyer. These buyers will be calling on RJ Wagner & Associates Realty, Inc., to “match” their criteria selections. This corporation will be previewing matching criteria homes for the buyer, thus providing the buyer with on-site viewing capabilities without actually visiting the home site.

Individuals desiring to lease will also be guided to lease properties of their matching criteria needs.

When referring a client outside our expertise range, we would search for a reputable and knowledgeable agent to assist them at their destination. When this corporation is the recipient of a referral–we would match the buyer to homes meeting his/her criteria specifications.

Last, but not least, would be the corporation in-house agents. We view each one as a customer and are sensitive to their needs. Tools, training, marketing techniques and strategies, and guidance needed is available at all times. Each agent will have the opportunity to be assisted in designing a work schedule that adheres to their work style, hence allowing greater productivity. All agents will receive on-site guidance in all areas needed.

4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy

We cannot survive just waiting for the customer to come to us. Instead, we must get better at focusing on the specific market segments whose needs match our offerings. Focusing on targeted segments is the key to our future.

Therefore, we need to focus our marketing message and our services offered. We need to develop our message, communicate it, and make good on it.

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Business tips

Charting Your Course: Crafting a Winning Real Estate Business Plan

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Real Estate Business Plan Template: How to Write a Real Estate Business Plan for Real Estate Agents with Examples

Kristal Sepulveda, CPA

April 30, 2024

Starting a real estate career opens up a world of opportunities for you to develop a successful and rewarding career. With over 1,162,364 Real Estate Sales & Brokerage businesses operating in the US as of 2023, the industry is vibrant and full of potential.

But the prospect of navigating a competitive market and managing financial uncertainties, such as a commission-based income structure, can be intimidating. What if there's a powerful tool that can transform your real estate journey from fear to fulfillment? You only need a real estate business plan as your guide.

Further Reading: 5 Benefits of Using a Business Plan Templates to Launch Your Dream in 2024

Market Analysis and Strategic Planning

Target market identification.

Define your target market within the real estate industry, whether you're focusing on first-time homebuyers, luxury real estate markets, or specific geographic locations. Identifying your target market will dictate your marketing strategies and the type of property listings you will focus on.

This step is essential in creating a solid business plan that helps align your business goals with the clients you want to attract, providing a roadmap to success for your real estate business.

Competition and SWOT Analysis

Conduct a thorough analysis of your competitors in the real estate market. Understand their strengths and weaknesses and position your real estate agent business to take advantage of the opportunities and minimize the threats.

This SWOT analysis is a vital component of a well-crafted business plan , helping you to identify opportunities and threats and craft a winning real estate business plan. It’s a strategic approach that supports your business objectives, including financial projections and SMART goals.

Marketing Strategies

Develop comprehensive marketing strategies to generate leads. This could include digital marketing campaigns, leveraging Zillow Premier Agent for increased exposure, or traditional methods such as networking events and real estate listings publications.

Your marketing plan should detail how you plan to attract and serve your clients effectively, which is a fundamental aspect of every real estate agent’s roadmap for success.

This strategic planning is integral to creating a business plan that helps build a successful real estate business, driving results over time and adapting to changes with progress and make adjustments as needed.

Further Reading: Learn How Real Estate Accounting Services Streamline Property Management

Mission and vision statement, defining your mission.

Clearly define your mission for aligning your business activities with your company’s goals. Your realtor business plan should articulate what you aim to achieve in the short term and how you serve your clients' needs.

A well-defined mission statement not only guides your marketing efforts but also ensures that every aspect of your operations helps you achieve your objectives.

This clarity is fundamental in both real estate business plan examples and a sample real estate business plan, providing a foundation for all strategic decisions.

Crafting a Vision Statement

Your vision statement should outline where you see your business in one to five years. It sets the tone for your business growth and provides a clear direction for future aspirations. This vision becomes a pivotal part of your real estate business plan, helping to direct both your current actions and your long-term strategies.

A real estate broker should have a clear vision as it helps in conducting a SWOT analysis, creating a plan, and ensuring that you update it regularly to reflect changes in the business and market. This forward-looking approach is key to not just plan to succeed but also to adapt and grow in the dynamic real estate market.

Financial Planning and Projections

Financial plan section.

Include a detailed financial plan section in your real estate agent business plan. This should cover projected cash flow , expected average sales price of real estate listings, and anticipated revenue. Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor business performance and make informed decisions.

Such measures are essential to achieving the real estate business goals outlined in your plan and ensuring that your real estate investment business plan aligns with your company's mission statement. This section provides a clear overview of the real estate market dynamics and your business' financial health aligned to your real estate business plan.

Budgeting and Forecasting

Develop a marketing budget and include projections for lead generation costs. Your financial plan should also detail how you'll manage the balance between personal and business finances, ensuring sustainability and growth.

Effective budgeting and forecasting are instrumental in maintaining the financial stability of your business and are key strategies that help you craft a path toward achieving your goals for future success.

Whether you are buying or selling properties, a well-organized budget supports your business operations and keeps your financial objectives on track, as detailed in your real estate business plan .

Implementation and Operations

Crm and lead generation strategies.

Implement customer relationship management (CRM) systems to enhance client relationships and streamline lead generation. Effective lead generation strategies are vital for maintaining a pipeline of potential clients.

Plan of Action

Your business plan should include a solid plan of action for both agents and brokers. This plan outlines specific steps to take when meeting your goals, from acquiring new clients to closing sales. It should also specify areas to focus on for business development and client satisfaction.

Monitoring and Adapting

Regular updates.

A successful real estate business plan is not static. Revisit your business plan regularly to update it as market conditions change and new opportunities arise. This ongoing revision helps keep you on track and responsive to the dynamic real estate market.

Adaptation Strategies

As the real estate market evolves, so should your strategies. Whether it's adopting new marketing techniques or expanding into real estate development, your business plan should provide a flexible framework that allows for growth and adaptation.

Roles of Accounting and Bookkeeping in Crafting a Real Estate Business Plan

Accurate financial reporting.

Proper accounting ensures that all financial transactions are accurately recorded, providing real-time insights into the business's financial status. This includes tracking income from property sales, rental revenues, commission amounts.

This also includes all associated expenses such as marketing costs, office overhead, and employee salaries. Accurate financial reporting allows real estate businesses to understand their cash flow, profitability, and financial stability for long-term planning.

Effective bookkeeping helps real estate agents and companies prepare for future expenses and revenues by creating detailed budgets and financial forecasts. By analyzing past financial data, businesses can predict future trends, plan out their financial year, and set realistic goals for growth.

Budgeting helps in allocating resources efficiently, ensuring that funds are available for important investments like marketing campaigns, new property listings, and technology upgrades. Forecasting, on the other hand, assists in anticipating market fluctuations, helping businesses to prepare in advance for economic downturns or booms.

Investment Analysis

For real estate investors and developers, accounting and bookkeeping provide the tools needed to analyze the viability of potential property investments. Detailed financial records help in calculating key investment metrics such as the return on investment (ROI), net present value (NPV), and internal rate of return (IRR).

These figures are essential for making informed decisions about where to allocate resources and which properties offer the best potential returns on investment.

Compliance and Regulatory Reporting

Real estate businesses must comply with various regulatory requirements, including tax obligations and financial reporting standards. Good bookkeeping practices ensure that all financial activities are transparent and comply with laws and regulations to avoid legal issues. It also simplifies the process of preparing and submitting necessary documents to government agencies, such as tax returns and annual financial statements, which are often required by law.

Risk Management

Effective accounting and bookkeeping help identify financial risks before they become significant problems. Regular reviews of financial statements allow businesses to spot trends such as decreasing cash flow, increasing debt levels, or overdue receivables that could impact the business' financial health. Addressing these issues promptly can prevent larger financial difficulties in the future.

Supporting Loan Applications

As real estate businesses seek external financing, lenders require detailed business plans and financial reports to assess their creditworthiness. Well-organized financial records that demonstrate profitability and stable financial management can increase the likelihood of obtaining financing. Lenders often look for a clear financial plan with solid projections and evidence of good financial health before they approve loan applications.

A well-structured real estate business plan keeps your strategic objectives on track and outlines clear steps for growth. Also, accessing a free real estate business plan can provide a foundational template to customize and adapt.

This ensures you cover all necessary aspects without incurring initial costs. This approach not only helps in organizing your business model but also in securing potential investments and partners.

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