During a time of significant disruption, new agents have continued to enter the industry with optimism.
Their reasons are varied — they love real estate and helping people, they felt they hit a plateau in their previous career or needed a job with more flexibility — but they’re going in with an open mind and are ready to put the work in.
Even though the market is presenting challenges for agents established and new alike, a small sampling of agents from all over the U.S. who have been practicing real estate for less than one year seem to be moving in the right direction. Here’s how they’re finding success so far.
Deborah Spirn
Deborah Spirn | Courtesy of Deborah Spirn
Market: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Agent for: 9 months
While she was raising her children, Deborah Spirn worked as an interior designer part-time so that she could be flexible while juggling parenting responsibilities. But once her kids got older, Spirn had more free time to herself and thought it was a good opportunity to boost her career. She thought about expanding her design business, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and that idea was derailed.
About a year ago, she had coffee with a Keller Williams agent who was interested in collaborating with her on staging because of her interior design skills. But, the conversation quickly took a different turn.
“[After] that conversation, they just felt like I would be a really, really great agent,” Spirn said. “And I have been told that for a long time, ‘You should really be a real estate agent,'” by more than one person she knows.
At this point in her life, it seemed like the right time to give real estate a shot, so she went and spoke with KW leaders at her local office, and because they would cover the cost of her educational courses, it seemed like there was no downside to giving it a try.
So, Spirn had her license by January and started working as an agent on a team. That experience didn’t turn out the way she initially expected, and she decided to part ways with the team and instead work by herself as a solo agent.
She found her stride hosting open houses — perhaps in part because she can speak to design possibilities in the home being shown — and has become good at converting leads from those gigs. She hosts at least two each weekend.
Last spring, as Spirn was getting her feet wet in the industry, it was a busy time for Minneapolis’ market. She ended up in three multiple-offer situations and won them all for her buyers, which helped her gain a huge amount of confidence.
“To win in a multiple-offer situation, you really need to know what levers to pull, you really need to know value, and you really need to have trust [from clients] and the ability on the other end or willingness to do things that you believe need to be done to win,” she said.
She closed three other deals in addition to those multiple-offer situations, and is currently working with two buyers and two sellers. Her initial goal was to close 12 transactions in her first year — and it looks like she’s well on track to do just that.
Her advice for other new agents? Keep showing up and take it day by day.
Anna Twillman
Anna Twillman | Courtesy of Anna Twillman
Market: St. Louis, Missouri
Agent for: 6 months
After 14 years as a hospital administrator, Anna Twillman felt a bit burned out and disconnected.
She wanted a new career that would give her flexibility in her schedule, since she gained a new grandson this year and wanted to be able to spend time with him. In her talks about her career transition with friends, real estate came up again and again.
Taking the courses to get licensed doesn’t prepare you for everything you’ll face in the field, Twillman said, but her broker has been essential at filling in the gaps, as well as a mentor she was assigned from the get-go. But other agents who took classes at the same time as Twillman weren’t so lucky in getting a supportive broker — and many have already decided to stop doing real estate, she told Inman.
The support Twillman has received in her office has helped her close two deals with homebuyers thus far, one of whom came through a broker leads program at the office and another that came via referral from another agent in her office.
One of the trickiest things for her has been learning the ins and outs of contracts.
“Because they talk, I would say, big picture, when you take your courses on contracting, but it’s never like, how to fill out the forms and going through what the forms mean and things like that,” Twillman said. “So that’s what I’ve really had to rely on my mentor for and the folks over at the office.”
All the options for organizing leads and adopting tools for your business as a new agent can also be overwhelming at first, Twillman said, so it can be helpful to lean on the guidance of a trusted broker and/or mentor, and also stay true to yourself while exploring those options and guiding your clients through transactions.
“Find a broker and a mentor that will support you, rally for you and provide you constant in-pouring of knowledge, experience and information,” Twillman advised.
Rockwell Tornow
Rockwell Tornow | Credit: Michael Woolheater
Market: Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Agent for: 5 months
At the ripe age of 20, Rockwell Tornow decided to make the leap into real estate after years of working in the service industry and realizing that he could work just as hard for himself as he had for other people — but all of that money would be coming back into his own pocket instead.
So after working a property maintenance gig for a family friend, Tornow signed up for real estate courses this past spring and shopped around at different brokerages and signed on with Amy Stockberger Real Estate.
Tornow has already closed three buyer deals and one seller deal during his first few months, and said it’s rewarding helping clients with one of the biggest transactions of their lives. It’s been challenging to learn it all, but each day, he gains more knowledge, he said.
“Real estate is one of those things that you kind of have to learn as you go because every transaction can be wildly different or just [have] some subtle changes,” Tornow told Inman. “So it’s kind of a hard thing to teach.”
Because he doesn’t have the historical knowledge of the market like an established agent does, Tornow said he’s trying hard to study the market every day and stay on top of trends as they emerge.
“These people who have been in real estate for a long time, they just kind of know it like the back of their hand because they’ve experienced it, whereas I’m kind of looking back at numbers and comparing them that way.”
Although Tornow was not an agent prior to NAR settlement practice changes going into effect, he said that as a result of the settlement, it has been impressed upon him the importance of having upfront, clear conversations with clients early on about commissions.
“My mentor here has a great saying, that ‘unset expectations lead to resentment,'” Tornow told Inman. “So if you’re tackling things as they’re happening, it could not go the way you want it … but just setting those expectations and letting people know upfront definitely makes a big difference.”
Jesse Cash
Jesse Cash | Courtesy of Jesse Cash
Market: Atlanta, Georgia
Agent for: 11 months
Jesse Cash worked gigs as a contract musician for more than a decade while also teaching music lessons and helping lead music ministry at his church. But there came a point where Cash started to feel like he had hit his income peak in what he was doing and was also ready to settle into focusing on one thing, since he and his wife were just starting to grow their family and he wanted to have a more flexible schedule to spend time with his daughter.
Cash had a business degree and because of his large network through the church and other music ventures, real estate seemed like a career that made sense as his next step. Sure enough, he acquired his first client because they were connected through his church, and he closed that home sale within about two months of becoming licensed.
After that, he was able to double-end a deal — “that was a great experience” — but shortly after that, he ran into a bit of a rut while dealing with new challenges at home. A pipe burst in his house, so he and the family moved in with friends about two hours from where they had been living (and where he was trying to establish his business) for five months while the pipe was being repaired. But the same week they were able to move back into their house, a tree fell on it during a storm.
Trying to establish a business based in Atlanta was very difficult during that time, but Cash said he just tried to stay in touch with his network there as much as possible.
“I just started writing handwritten letters to everybody I knew, about 10 per day, trying to pop them out, crank them out, all genuine, just letting people know about the [career] shift, and saying that I’m here to help,” Cash said. “But I also love to just check in with people anyway and see how they’re doing and what’s going on in their life — forget real estate. I just love people.”
Any money that Cash made during that period was going straight to home repair and insurance costs, he said, but the challenges that were put in front of him and his family just motivated him to work harder.
“It motivated me big time,” he said. “We like a good challenge. No one wants to read the book that doesn’t have a character that went through crazy stuff to get to the final chapter, you know? So that’s definitely what we’re living in, that roller coaster ride, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Recognizing the value of his commission has been one of the most worthwhile lessons he’s learned thus far, Cash said. Mentors have told him, “How can you negotiate well for your clients if you can’t even stick up for your own pay?” That mentality has helped him secure 4 percent and even 5 percent commissions on some deals so far that have been more involved than just a straight residential sale.
This year, Cash will have closed at least four seller deals and five buyer deals, but his ultimate goal is 30 transactions per year, and once he hits that point, he’s already thinking about building his own team.
Blake Zises
Blake Zises | Courtesy of Coldwell Banker Warburg
Market: New York, New York
Agent for: 4 months
Blake Zises worked in media and television for more than a decade, but had always fostered a love of real estate as a native New Yorker. After 13 years at the same company, she was a bit nervous about making a big move into a different industry, but when her role changed slightly, it seemed like a good time to transition.
Zises also joined Coldwell Banker Warburg at the beginning of the summer, which tends to be a slower period for real estate in the city, and allowed her to get her feet wet during a more quiet time.
“It gave me a chance to get to know everyone in the office, get implemented in their systems and really use the first few weeks as a time to reach out to my sphere,” Zises said. “So many friends and family knew me as someone working in television for so long, so I really took that time to educate people and really educate myself as much as I could.”
Zises made a point of joining a team when she signed on with the firm — the Blacker & Reed Team — because she knew she would need mentorship and thought working with a team would be a great way to get it.
“Joining them has been so invaluable, especially in these first few months and really just shadowing such well-established brokers day-to-day,” she said.
The week she spoke with Inman, Zises was proud to say she had just clinched her first exclusive sales agreement with a client.
“That was a huge win for me,” Zises said. “I was very excited. Everyone tells you mixed things of how long it takes or doesn’t take, so I really didn’t know what to expect going in, so I’m currently in the process of getting that apartment listed on the market.”
One of the biggest challenges as she’s made the transition into her new career, Zises said, is mastering a natural way of communicating to people in her sphere that she’s now a real estate agent without sounding too self-promotional. But fortunately, it’s often come up in a natural way so far. Zises sent out an email letting some close friends and family know about her new career, and a friend she saw at school pickup ended up putting her in touch with her mother, who is looking to relocate.
“So it’s fortunate that it’s been very organic conversation so far,” Zises said. “I’m sure there will be times when it’s not, but the conversations, fortunately, have been of that nature so far.”
Inman’s most popular theme month is back, Back to Basics. All September, real estate professionals from across the country share what’s working for them right now, how they’ve evolved their systems and tools, and where they’re investing personally and professionally to drive growth in 2025 and beyond.
