Real Estate Agent Goals for 2023

Have you started setting your real estate agent goals for 2023? 

Goal setting is a bit of an art form. Setting the wrong goals can lead to discouragement and even leave you questioning your career in real estate. But setting the right real estate goals can take your business to the next level and increase your professional satisfaction!

In this post, we’re focusing on real estate agent goals for 2023. We’ll explain how to set goals that motivate you to move forward. And we’ll give you solid examples of some of the best real estate agent goals to set for the new year!

How to Set Good Real Estate Agent Goals

All good real estate agent goals follow three rules:

1. They focus on leading indicators,
2. They have built-in accountability,
3. And they are S.M.A.R.T.

Let’s take a look at each of these rules. 

1. Focus on Leading Indicators

All goals have two types of indicators: leading and lagging. Leading indicators are the activities within your control. Lagging indicators are the outcomes. 

Too many agents set goals based on lagging indicators. For example, if you set a goal to reach a specific income amount or close a specific number of transactions, you are focusing on the outcomes. And because these outcomes rely on so many different factors, they may be outside of your control.

Instead, set your real estate agent goals based on the activities that produce the results you’re looking to achieve. For example, you can set a goal to reach a certain number of prospects each day or to spend a specific amount of time in focused prospecting.

2. Build In Accountability

What happens if you don’t reach your goal? For most agents, nothing really happens except a vague sense of disappointment. By increasing your accountability, you increase your chances of success. 

There are lots of creative ways to boost your accountability. Most involve sharing your goals with people you respect and creating consequences outside of yourself.

For example:

• Promise your kids a vacation if you hit your goal. You can bet they’ll remind you to follow through on your plans constantly!
• Make a bet with a friend. If you don’t meet your 2023 goal, you’ll have to donate to a political campaign for someone you can’t stand. And your colleague gets to post about your donation on social media. How’s that for real consequences?!
• Post a progress tracker in your office where all your colleagues can see it. If you don’t want to catch flack for falling behind, you’ll keep up your efforts!

3. Set SMART Real Estate Agent Goals

You’ve probably heard of SMART goals. These are goals that are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-Based

Here’s how to apply each of these criteria.

Specific

Prospect more is too general to be a SMART goal. Spend two hours prospecting every weekday is a better goal because it is specific. 

Measurable

Our prospect more example has another problem: it’s not measurable. Prospect more than what? More than last year? How much did you prospect last year? Spend two hours prospecting every weekday is measurable. You can track your progress to make sure you’re meeting your specific goal.

Achievable 

Unrealistic goals are a quick way to get discouraged. But goals that are too easy don’t allow you to hit your potential. Aim for something that is achievable, but will take some real effort. 

Relevant 

Your goal should move the needle in your real estate business. But some agents are more focused on vanity metrics than sound business metrics. 

For example, we see lots of agents focusing on building their social media following. Social media can be a great lead source, but if your followers aren’t buying, selling, investing, leasing, or referring clients to you the number of followers you have is largely irrelevant. 

Time-Sensitive

Giving yourself a deadline is crucial. If you’re looking at real estate agent goals for 2023, make your deadline December 31, 2023. Then you can reevaluate for 2024. You might even want to break your goal down into monthly goals to help you stay on track throughout the year.

The Best Real Estate Agent Goals for 2023

Here’s our list of the five best real estate agent goals for 2023…

1. Go On x Listing Appointments

Listing appointments are a solid leading indicator of transactions and income. Your ideal number of listing appointments will vary depending on your experience level and your market. If you’re a newer agent, you should aim for more listing appointments as you work to improve your conversion ratio of appointments to listings. If you’re working in the luxury market, you might just need 50 listing appointments to have an impressive year financially, while those in the mid-level market may need more like 200 listing appointments.

2. Convert x% of Leads to Clients

Converting more of your leads to clients will boost your number of transactions and your income without requiring additional prospecting time. 

There are a few ways you can improve your conversion ratio:

1. Take a sales training course to enhance your sales skills.
2. Spend more time practicing and perfecting your scripts.
3. Improving your lead follow-up system.

Your percentage goal will vary by market and skill level. If you’re new to real estate, 3% might be a good goal for your first full year. As your skills improve, you could aim for 5 or even 10%.

3. Complete My Daily Prospecting Checklist Every Weekday

Having a daily prospecting checklist will ensure that you’re reaching new leads and following up on old leads every single workday. If you don’t want to design your own prospecting system, you can get a done-for-you daily prospecting checklist on Etsy for as little as $5.

4. Publish One Blog Post Per Week

It’s crazy that so many agents are failing to take advantage of the many benefits of blogging. This basically free method of marketing can bring you passive leads from Google round-the-clock! But it’s a long game to get Google to recognize your site as a reliable source of information for online searches. So the agents who are willing to commit for a year are the ones that see these impressive benefits.

Now, you might think, But this isn’t a relevant metric. Just because I blog doesn’t mean I’ll generate clients from it. And you’re right! In your first year, you might only see a few new leads from your blog, but the more you blog, the more content you give Google to index. Two years from now, you could be the top search result when people Google something like “moving to Springfield”. It just takes a little strategy and a bit of patience.

5. Add a New Income Stream to Your Business

2022 has been a transition year, and we’re likely to see a slower market through 2023 as interest rates remain higher than we’ve gotten used to. So you may have fewer buyers and sellers in your market in 2023. But that doesn’t have to mean a dip in your income. You can add services to your business to help you serve new market segments while generating new real estate leads!

Consider income streams like:

• Property Management: when the residential sales market slumps, the rental market typically picks up, offering more opportunities in leasing and helping you connect with renters who may become buyers in a few years.
• Property Tax Appeals: if property values dip, you have a golden opportunity to make money by appealing the taxable values of homes in your area. 
• Credit Repair Services: lenders have more stringent credit requirements during a slow housing market, so you could help buyers boost their credit and qualify to become your clients.

Want more income-producing ideas? Check out 55 Ways to Make Money in Real Estate.

What are Your Goals for 2023?

Make sure you write your goals down and post them where you’ll see them regularly!