What should a new Virginia real estate agent's first year look like?

What should a new agent do before the first day?

Before your first day, get licensed, choose your brokerage deliberately and set up your money. In Virginia the licensing path is 60 hours of pre-license education, the state and national exams and a background check. Do not wait until you have passed to start talking to brokers: the best use of your course time is interviewing two or three brokerages so that your first day is not also your first conversation with a broker.

The brokerage decision matters more in year one than it ever will again, because you are buying training, not a split. A new agent does not yet know what questions to ask a client, how to read a contract or what to do when an inspection goes badly. The brokerage you choose determines who teaches you. Ask each one the same questions: who trains new agents and how often, whether an experienced agent works your first deals with you, who picks up the phone when a transaction goes wrong, and what staff help you with paperwork.

Then set up your finances. You will have no commission income until your first closing, which can take months. Plan for that, and ask each brokerage for its fee schedule in writing. Keeton & Co commission plan details are shared privately during a confidential conversation with our team. Whatever firm you choose, get the numbers before you sign.

What does a good first 90 days look like?

A good first 90 days is mostly learning and conversations. In the first week, you transfer your license, get access to the MLS and lockbox, have your CRM set up with the contacts you already have, and get your email and systems working. At Keeton & Co, staff handle the technical setup so you are not your own help desk. That week should leave you able to work, not still configuring tools.

In weeks two to four, learn the fundamentals with a managing broker: contracts, agency, disclosure and how a Virginia transaction moves from offer to settlement. Shadow live appointments before you run your own. Most new agents skip this because they are impatient, and most regret it, because the first time they meet a buyer or seller who is angry or confused, they have no model for what to do. Watching experienced agents handle it is worth far more than reading about it.

After that, you move into mentorship. An experienced agent works your first transactions alongside you, so you see the real thing before you do it solo. You also join weekly training, and I would treat that as non-negotiable rather than optional. Our new-agents page describes how we train, and our licensing page explains the path to the license.

How should a new agent find the first clients?

Find your first clients by talking to people you already know, every day, and by using whatever your brokerage gives you to meet people you do not. Most new agents start with their own sphere: friends, family, coworkers, neighbors and former colleagues. The goal is not to ask for business. It is to tell people what you do, ask about their plans and follow up, consistently.

Set a daily number of real conversations, not a number of emails sent. A conversation is a call, a text exchange or a visit where you learn something about the other person. A short daily habit builds a pipeline that a burst of effort does not. Your CRM is how you keep track, and a good one is configured with your database before you start.

Beyond your sphere, ask each brokerage how it helps you find clients. Keeton & Co offers an optional Lead Service, where our marketing generates the inquiries and our in-house Inside Sales Team qualifies them and books the appointment on your agent’s calendar. It is an option, not a requirement, and which plan fits depends on how much of your pipeline you want to build yourself. Agents who build entirely from their own sphere choose a plan without it. Whatever you pick, learn the conversation that turns an appointment into a client. A lead program gets you in the room, and the rest is on you.

Where do I see new agents get this wrong?

The mistake I see most is choosing a brokerage for the headline instead of for the first year. In fourteen years in Central Virginia I have watched new agents sign with the firm that promised the most, run out of savings before their first closing and leave the business. They were not bad at the job. They never had the time to learn it.

Here is an anonymised example. Two people got licensed in the same month. One joined a firm with a high headline offer and little training, and spent the first three months teaching herself contracts from forms. She lost her first two clients to mistakes she did not know she was making. The other joined a firm with a mentor, shadowed appointments for a month and had an experienced agent beside him on his first deal. His first closing was no faster. But he made fewer mistakes, kept his clients and was still in the business a year later.

My advice is to value the people over the percentage. In year one, the person who answers your questions at the worst moment is worth more than anything printed on a plan sheet.

What should my first-year goals be?

Set goals you control and goals you do not. The ones you control are conversations per day, appointments per week, hours in training and how often you review your pipeline. The ones you do not control are closings and income. Judge yourself in the first six months on the first group, because the second group follows from it, with a delay.

A reasonable shape for the year: in the first quarter, learn and shadow; in the second, take your first clients with a mentor beside you; in the third, run more of the work yourself and ask for feedback on every transaction; in the fourth, review what has worked, decide which lead sources to keep and plan year two. Keep an honest record of where each client came from, because that is how you decide where to spend time and money.

Protect your cash all year. Know what your monthly costs are, know when your next closing is likely to fund and have a plan for the gap. If you reach a month where you are worried about money, tell your broker early. A good broker would rather help you plan than see you quit.

What should I do next?

If you are licensed or about to be, the best next step is a confidential conversation about your plan and what support you need. Our team will look at your situation and tell you plainly whether Keeton & Co is a fit. Start here, read about how new agents train with us, or contact us. Our Glen Allen office is the Richmond-area headquarters.

For more on choosing a firm, read how to choose a brokerage in Richmond and what to ask a broker before you switch. Written by Daniel Keeton, broker and founder.