My 7 Worst and 3 Best Decisions as a Real Estate Agent: Hard-Won Lessons to Scale Your GCI
As of just two days ago, I have officially been a real estate agent for four years. In that short time, I have closed over 150 transactions, generated nearly a million dollars in GCI, and earned my spot as an ICON agent in the top 1.5% of eXp Realty.
But let's be completely real for a second: my journey was filled with massive, head-scratching mistakes that cost me time, sanity, and thousands of dollars. Today, I'm pulling back the curtain on my worst blunders and best decisions so you can bypass the pain and fast-track your path to doubling or tripling your real estate business.
The 7 Worst Mistakes I Made in My First Four Years
1. Thinking I Had to Do It All Myself
When I first started, I was still an active-duty Air Force Major. I was effectively working two full-time jobs, putting in insane hours to close 24 transactions in my very first year and make six figures in six months.
My biggest issue was my military mindset: I was programmed to "shut up and color" and push through inefficiencies because that is how the government operates. I brought that same martyr complex into my real estate business, thinking I had to handle social media, negotiations, driving, paperwork, and photo scheduling all by myself.
You do not get extra credit for doing things the hard way. You are a business owner, not a job holder. Systemize, automate, and delegate.
2. Overcomplicating My Lead Generation
As a rookie, the very first marketing strategy I heard about was geographic farming with mailers. I ended up burning through close to $1,000 sending out physical mailers to thousands of homes, which resulted in exactly one phone call from a tire-kicker who just wanted to waste my time.
While mailers can work if you stick with them for years, they are highly inefficient for new agents who need immediate business. I got overwhelmed trying to do mailers, referrals, and organic social media all at once, instead of categorizing my efforts into clean, actionable buckets of now business versus later business.
3. Choosing Stiff "Professionalism" Over Authenticity
In the military, particularly in the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), "professionalism" meant having absolutely zero personality. It meant being stiff, unsmiling, private, and serious at all times.
When I transitioned to real estate, I brought that suffocating, robotic attitude with me, which made my early content incredibly cringeworthy to watch. The moment I broke out of that shell and embraced my true self—a loud, energetic Latina from New York—my business exploded because clients could finally see, like, and trust the real me.
4. Saying Yes to Every Single Client
During my first six months, I was so hungry for deals that I accepted every buyer who showed even a sliver of interest. I didn't set boundaries, and I paid the price by working with demanding clients who expected me to answer the phone at 8:00 PM while I was out to dinner with my family.
If you give a mouse a cookie, they are going to ask for milk. If you don't aggressively enforce your business hours and boundaries, your clients will walk all over you. Real estate is never a life-or-death emergency; if something is truly on fire, they need to call the fire department, not their real estate agent.
5. Hiring a General Coach Prematurely
After a successful run, I had extra cash sitting in my account and felt an itch to reinvest it back into my business. I rushed into hiring a big-name, general real estate coaching program without interviewing other coaches or identifying my specific problem.
I needed highly tactical help to scale my YouTube channel, but I hired a generalist who just wanted to check in on whether I did my daily cold calls. It was a costly mistake that taught me a valuable lesson: only hire coaches who specialize in solving the exact bottleneck you are currently facing.
6. Waiting Too Long to Create Long-Form Content
While I was consistent with short-form videos, I waited an entire year before launching long-form content on YouTube. Had I started a year earlier, those compounding videos would have generated dozens of additional buyer and seller clients in my pipeline by now.
If you are struggling with camera shyness, do not drag your feet over a 12-week program. Compress your learning curve by going live on camera for 15 minutes every single day for a week; you will conquer your fears instantly and build a massive head start.
The 3 Best Decisions That Saved My Real Estate Career
1. Hiring a Transaction Coordinator by My Second Deal
I will absolutely die on this hill: there is no reason for a real estate agent to do their own paperwork. On my very first listing, it took me over five hours just to locate the forms, drag and drop signature boxes, and fix broker corrections.
- The Pilot Rule: The pilot does not serve the drinks. Your job is to negotiate, generate leads, and close deals.
- Cost-to-Value: A transaction coordinator handles the minutiae flawlessly, keeping you legally protected while freeing up your calendar.
- Scalability: Leverage a TC from day one so you don't build bad, administrative habits that restrict your growth.
2. Maniacally Tracking My Numbers
Thanks to my eXp upline and productivity coach Ruben Garcia, I tracked my daily conversations and activities religiously for my first two years. Because of that meticulous tracking, I know exactly what my time is worth.
On average, I earn $600 an hour when working with a buyer and $500 an hour when working with a seller. Knowing this number makes decisions easy: if an administrative or personal task (like cleaning, cooking, or laundry) costs less than $200 an hour to outsource, I hire it out immediately so I can focus on high-dollar activities.
3. Choosing the Right Community and Brokerage Alignment
Before hanging my license, I interviewed 13 different brokerages because I wanted to avoid the unhappy, fragmented culture I experienced in the military. I wanted to surround myself with happy, highly successful agents who were financially incentivized to help me win.
I reached out to Shelby Johnson on Instagram to buy her real estate checklists, and she told me I could get them all for free by joining her eXp community. Switching to a firm with an 80/20 split, a capped commission structure, stock awards, and a massive, collaborative support network of active producers was the single most profitable decision of my career.
If you found these insights helpful, make sure to catch the full episodes on the Agent Goldmine podcast. And if you want to chat about applying these strategies to your own business, feel free to book a call with our team at Five Pillars Nation.
Ready to unlock the exact systems, playbooks, and mentorship we use to help agents double and triple their production? Head over to The Agent Goldmine, book a call to join our Five Pillars Nation community, and start working smarter today!
