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Why Retirement Planning Starts on Your First Day in Real Estate
•Episode 169
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Thinking retirement is only for agents hanging up their boots soon? Think again! In this episode of The Unstoppable Real Estate Agents Podcast, we explore why planning for the finish line actually starts on your very first day in real estate.
Whether you just received your license or you've been closing deals for decades, this episode gives you the blueprint to build a powerhouse business that funds your life today and secures your wealth for tomorrow.
Key Takeaways You Can't Miss
Adopt the CEO Mindset: Discover why shifting from a hustling salesperson to a true business owner is non-negotiable for lasting longevity in this industry.
Master Your Database: Learn how to turn your CRM into an ongoing asset, nurture lifelong client loyalty, and build a predictable referral machine.
Diversify Your Revenue: Go beyond standard commissions by exploring alternative income streams like investment properties, team overrides, and strategic referral networks.
Design Your Exit Strategy: Uncover practical methods for transitioning out of day-to-day operations—whether that means selling your book of business or passing the baton to a successor.
Fortify Your Finances: Understand the critical role of asset protection, smart legal structuring, and partnering with financial professionals who understand real estate.
Final Thoughts
Your future self will thank you for the moves you make today. No matter your current career stage, planting these seeds now guarantees a profitable business today and a seamless, stress-free exit down the road.
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SPEAKER_00
When it comes to your real estate business, the first thing that you want to make sure of is that you start out by making sure that your business is set up for success. And there's so many topics we could talk about on that, but what we're going to talk about today is the retirement phase of it. So this is going to be for any agent in any season. So if you're a new agent, this is going to be great information for you. If you're a seasoned agent and you haven't taken action on any of this, then this is now the time to do that. So stick around because we've got some great tips and some bonus features for you. So stay tuned. Welcome to the Unstoppable Real Estate Agents Podcast. I'm your host and real estate productivity expert, Kim Hughes. Join me as we focus on real strategies and implement real solutions designed for you to achieve major success in your business and life while getting you organized. So as we all know, nobody really thinks about retirement when they're either starting a business or they've been in the business for about 10 years. That's just really not something that most business owners think about, right? But as your business grows and as you get older and you start thinking about retirement, um, what does that look like for you? You know, are you set up that way to retire? And you could do this multiple ways. So you could either sell your entire business, that means, you know, your website, your database, um, you know, your marketing pieces, anything that you have that is something another agent could build upon, that is sellable. So here's what I want you to think about. If you are an agent that is most likely you're all with some type of franchise, whether it's Keller Williams, REMAX, Sotheby's, Berkshire Hathaway, whatever that franchise is, you know, they always give you the tools in their back office for you to use. So you have like a landing page that you can use for your website. You have an usually a CRM, you might have some marketing tools back in there and everything, and they encourage you to use them so that you don't have to go and recreate the wheel. And those are great, and I highly recommend that you tap into those resources to see what you can use in your own business. So here's where I want you to think a little bit out of the box, though, is even though your franchise offers you a CRM, it doesn't really um make sense to keep your CRM into the franchise or in the brokerage, you know, back office. Because let's say in a year you want to leave and maybe start your own brokerage, you want to move to a new brokerage, or maybe you're ready to retire. Everything is in the franchise back office. So they have now tapped into everything that you have, and they all do it. There's not one that doesn't. Um, that's just normal practice. So don't be paranoid about it. It's just something that they all do. So, what you want to do, and you can leave your database in that back office if you want, but I'm gonna highly recommend a few things that you do to set yourself up so that when you're ready to make a move or retire, these are already in place and you don't have to start all over again. So I want you to look at your CRM. Is it with the franchise or with a private company? So, do you own your CRM? And so I'm gonna always recommend to any client that um they have a separate CRM and they build it out. So when I say that, you're going to have your know your leads. Um, what period are they in in that transition of whether they're buying or selling? You know, we always go with three, six, nine, and twelve, right? So that would be something that you want to make sure you set them up on and make sure you have an email sequence. So every category, you have an email sequence that talks to them depending on where they are in your CRM. And you've heard me talk about this a hundred times. So as you build that out and you have categories, so you would have lead management, active clients, um, past clients, buyers, sellers, vendors, business to business, family, friends, church, um, dad's group, Girl Scouts, um, you know, the cheer squad, the football team, whatever that is that you're involved in, you have these databases and you have to have them in a certain way so that you know how to market to them because you're not going to market to, let's say, your church group the way that you would market to your past clients. So every group or category should have their own email sequence and it should be built out. That is something that is marketable. So when you're ready to retire and you just say, you know what, I just want to package it up and sell it, then you can talk about I have all of my past clients, all of my leads, everybody's in a C my CRM. Um, they're all separated by group and they all have an email sequence and they all have an action plan. So those are the things that you should have set up in your CRM. And that is, if you don't have that, that's something I'm gonna recommend. I don't care where you are in your business. That's something you should always have set up to and have it working in your business and then monitoring it to see how it works for your audience as they receive it. So then you might have a newsletter. So where does your newsletter go out of? Are you using your franchise newsletter or do you create your own custom newsletter? Now, this would be something that I would recommend that you talk to your broker, and if they offer a newsletter, can you use some of that content in your own newsletter, your custom newsletter? And I always say, get it in writing if they say yes. Just always just have a little something in writing just to back it up in case somebody um changes their mind. And so with your newsletter, there's a database, and that should be everybody in your CRM. Now, most CRMs, you know, they do or they don't offer a newsletter. I am real funny about that because yes, you can use it, but you have to really pay attention to, you know, the open rate, the click-throughs, who's receiving it, who's bouncing, and all of that. There's a lot of statistical information that you really need to have your hands on. And, you know, the the franchise may not offer all those details, where an outside company, an email marketing program, might. So this would be something like MailChimp and or constant contact. And so these would be great ones that you could implement into your business so that if you ever did leave or you retired, you could take it with you without it being a problem. And then, you know, so making sure that you have everything set up and it's all branded around you, and then it's easily changed when somebody either takes it over or purchase it from you. So this would be something you might want to set up in Canva. You know, Canva is free to a point, and then it's like $12 a month. I'm gonna always recommend that you pay for the Pro account because you have more options with it. But if your budget doesn't allow that right now, then don't do it. Just do it when you can. Um, but this is where you would be able to share all of your templates, um, your presentations, your packages, any um lead generation tools that you've created in Canvas so that they can, you know, whoever steps in can go in and change that out very quickly. They might like the content, they may want to change the design or maybe the colors. It's very easy to do. And again, that could be part of your marketing, the package of your business. Then I want you to look at your website. So, your website, you know, like I said earlier, your franchise probably offers you a uh like a single page. And I definitely recommend that you have it, but that should not be your primary. You should have a standalone website that is branded around you and it's a it's all about your community. And the better that you can make it, the more you can ask for it. Okay, so what you're probably looking at is if you ever get ready to retire, um, you may have an agent in your office that has approached you about that. And we'll go into that in just a minute. But you want to be able to have like a checklist, um, a business package that shows you that you have everything that an agent might need, and they can just walk in and pay you for it, and then they don't have to recreate the will and you've made money and you can walk away. But then what if you are one of those agents that's not you want to retire, but you're just not ready to give it up? And so that's where you could sit down with an agent that's interested and work out a deal that, hey, I will sell you my business, but I want to keep my past clients, or if my past clients or anybody in my database do anything for the next five years, I'd like to earn a referral fee. So this is something that you can have income going forward until you're just to that point where you're like, I'm done, you know. But I have a lot of agents that I have helped them either set their business up to retire or have actually helped them sell the business. And this is one area where they always say, I'm just not real sure how I want to do this. And I always just say, make it simple, offer it everything. If there's an agent in your office, great. If there's not, then you can go to an outside source because they're not buying franchise, they're buying what you've created. And that is a marketable business. And it could be where they may say, sure, I'll give you a referral fee for every past client that comes back to me, et cetera. And so when you do that, you want to make sure that you introduce that new agent to your database, especially your past clients. Now, I did a podcast on how to um walk away from your business. And then I have also created in that same podcast, it's if you're an agent looking for an agent that's retiring, that is a really good podcast. I will link that below because I think these two will go together. Um, the other thing that you want to look at is do you have rental property? Is that going to be part of the package or separate? Um, you know, we talked about referral fees. You could even charge for some coaching. So let's say you have a five-year agent that's coming in, you've been in the business for 30 years, and they want to take over your database and your your pro your package, right? So, but they need some coaching on how to move forward with, you know, their business. So you could offer some coaching with them as well. And that could be a fee or it could be um part of your business package that you're selling. And then, you know, um, but make sure that whatever you do, you keep it very, very organized. And so this is really good for agents that are, you know, kind of maybe, maybe new agents up to about 10 years because you can easily go backwards and clean this all up and get it ready for sale and keep it going as you go forward. Now, if you've been in the business for 20 plus years, of course you're gonna have more, you're gonna have more past clients, you're gonna have more data, you're gonna have more information, you're gonna have more knowledge. So you've got to base that on how far, how do I need to clean up my business in order to retire and sell it? Okay. So, you know, you may talk to your broker about doing that. They could help you. Um, we help agents do this all the time. I am a big proponent of if you're a client of mine, we're talking, I don't care how many years you've been in the business, we're gonna talk about setting your business up so that when you're ready to walk away, you're not spending the last six months trying to throw it all together and get it all organized. You want to start now and organize it as you go along. So this kind of goes into, you know, goal planning, um, creating your checklist of things that you've got to get accomplished. Maybe it's a quarterly thing that you sit down and look at your business and update it. And then, you know, of course, I always want my agents to look at their business every month. So if you are looking at your expenses and you're looking at your income, you need to be looking and cleaning up your database, your newsletter, your website, your social media, because all of that is a marketable product. So when we talk about social media, I always recommend that you have your personal profile, but then your business page should not be your name. It should be something relatable to the community. Because if you have a social media package and you put it in with your retirement business package, most people are gonna say, well, I don't need that because it's in your name. It's it's not gonna do me any good. And then we'd have to go change the name, start all over with algorithm and all that stuff. So just start out with a business Facebook page, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, whatever that may be in social media, Pinterest, Twitter, or X, and make sure you do it in a name that is relatable to your community. Then I always I will recommend that you go buy a domain. And that domain should be reflective on, you know, what you're calling your Facebook page or your Instagram account, etc. And you can point that domain to one of those social media platforms, probably the one that generates the most. Um, if you have a YouTube channel and it's generating, you know, over 60% of your lead generation, I would point it there and then use that in your marketing material. Um, you know, of course, I'm always gonna say if you can buy your name, buy your name, um, like chimhughes.com, chim Hughes Realestate.com, um, community realestate.com, you know, all of that. Now, a lot of those are gonna be taken now, but back in the day that was a big thing. Um, but make sure that you can get your domain and make sure that it's your name, but then also buy one that reflects on the community, right? So if I were selling, um, if I was an agent in Dallas, you know, depending on what part of Dallas. So let's say North Dallas. Uh, North Dallas covers Frisco, Prosper, Aubrey, Plano, McKinney, um, Little M, all of that. So you don't want all those domains, but you could say North Dallas real estate, you know, that kind of thing. That's gonna be taken. So I'm just gonna let you know, you're gonna have to play around and get creative. And so you could say the town of or um, you know, North Dallas real estate for you, homes for sale in North Dallas. So you see the you've just got to kind of play with it. And you can even do a Google search and see what people are searching to find a domain. So that would be a good one. But then I want you to also have a, and this is the logistics of the business. So what I would like to see you have is a policy and procedure manual, and that is where you're gonna have all of your SOPs. It's gonna be written out. You're gonna also have it on um, you know, in your Google Drive or in your Dropbox. That is the first thing that you will sit down and go over with the agent that wants to take over. Go through that policy and procedure and make sure they understand it. And then if they need to update it after they buy the business, they can jump over to Canva and update it. Super simple. Um, make it easy on you, but make it easier on the one that wants to buy your business. Because the easier it is, the more organized it is, you're gonna get more money, you know, because they're not gonna have to go in there and clean up anything. But if you hand them a hot mess, they're not gonna want to buy it because then they're gonna have to spend all that time cleaning it up and they're not gonna know who these people are, how to talk to them. Um, you know, they're not gonna know these systems that you have in place. So let's say you have um you have your own website, you have your own CRM, you have um your newsletter program, you have um, you know, um online storage, which is like Google Drive, Dropbox, something like that. You might have Slack, you might have Canva, you might have um other programs that help you with your business, like, you know, I don't know, there's so many out there. But you need to make sure that you keep a list of everything that you pay for, plus the username and the password, plus how much do you pay for it? Do you pay for it monthly, yearly, um, one-time purchase, and then who all has access to that? So the more organized that you are, the better it's going to be. It if you're not that organized now, you can get there by just spending maybe 20 minutes, 30 minutes a day, just pulling that information together and putting it in a Word document, an Excel spreadsheet. You might have Trello, you might have a sauna, you know, or a program similar to those. And that is a really good place to keep information. Like I use Trello, and it is literally my business hub. I keep everything about my business in there. I work on it about 10 or 15 minutes a day and keep it updated so that we all stay going forward. And then my team all has access to certain areas of my Trello. So they can also go in and get information if I'm not available, or they can add information. So you've got to kind of just look at your business. You know, we are we're all in real estate. Everybody's a real estate agent. Um, you might have brokers, you might have team leaders, but at the end of the day, you're still going to have to pull together information about your business. So, like, for example, if you are not incorporated, that would be something I if you're not, I would be shocked. But for a newer agent, they need to be incorporated. You need to sit down with your CPA or your attorney and get that taken care of. You need an EIN number, you need a separate bank account just for your business. You need to do certain things that are just for the business. So, for as an as an example, I have my own, my business has its own checking account, its own business credit card. I um have all of my legal documents in in place. My attorney goes over that with me every quarter. Um, just and then, and when I say every quarter, I mean he literally is taking probably 10 minutes and just looking at everything to see if anything has been needs to be updated according to any laws or anything like that in my state. And then um make sure that your your presentations, your marketing pieces, and everything is all current. And this is where you just go in, maybe you don't do everything every quarter, but you break it down. So maybe quarter one, you're looking at all your marketing pieces and everything, and then quarter two, you're making sure that your website is updated, your social media, and then break it down throughout the quarters so that you're not overwhelmed and then just not do it at all. And so this is where we would come in and help you if you wanted that help, is we help you put those to make sure that it stays current, make sure that it's packaged correctly so that when you are ready, you're ready to go. And you don't have all that stress on you at the last minute. Um if you have any kind of um, you know, side hustles that go with it, then decide do you want to keep sell it with it or not, you know? And then again, you know, what a lot of agents, what I'm try teaching them how to do right now is how to have an Amazon store so that when they refer something to their client, they can just send them to the Amazon store to get it. They purchase it, they make an affiliate fee or a commission, is what they call it. It's it's something that I highly recommend every agent implement because it just adds more to your business. And then it also is great for your clients when they say, I need a new trash can, I don't know where to go. Hey, let me send you a link. And there you go. And so it's something that you're already doing, but now you're gonna make a little commission off of it. But is that something that you want to sell in your business or do you want to keep that separate? If you're gonna, if you're going to do the Amazon store and everything, I would recommend that you do it in a name that is generic and not so specific to you. Okay. Um, you could say something like Miniola um easy finds or, you know, miniola houseware stores. Something, I mean, I'm just making up stuff. So pick and choose what you want and then go from there. But also remember that it's a transition. So you are now getting organized. You're all excited. You're going to get everything in your business organized. And then when you're ready to retire, they want to come in and buy it. That agent should be with you probably the last six months, if not the year, that you want to retire. So they can understand how you run your business. They can meet your clients. They can start building a rapport with them so that it's not just a cutoff. When you get ready to leave, it should be gradual so that your clients understand what's going on. You um, your new, the agents that's taking over, she or he is acclimated to the way you do things. Doesn't mean they have to do it the way you do it, but they can at least kind of look at how you deal with your clients, how you nurture them, how do you lay out your business? What do they need to do to make it, to make those changes for them? So there's a lot of moving pieces here. And so that's why I always say don't just one day get up and go into the office and say, hey, I'm selling my business, anybody want to buy it? Because that's not doing you a justice. It's not doing the other agent any justice, and it's certainly not doing anything for your clientele. And it might even aggravate some of your past clients because you didn't tell them. So there's a whole strategy behind that. And so all you need to do is just start right now and say, what do I need to do to get my business going in the right direction so that when that day comes and I do want to retire, how do I want to retire? Because you have so many options. So I hope this video helped you out a lot. Like I said, I'm going to put a link down below to a previous podcast where I'm talking about retiring. And then this podcast and that podcast kind of married to each other. So hopefully that'll give you all the little tips and nitbits that you need to get going in the right direction. And of course, if you ever need any help in this area, we are more than happy to help you. We're very experienced in this area. I have been doing this, oh my gosh, probably 20 years helping agents retire. And um, you know, I was very blessed to be taught by an agent that was in the process of retiring, and she kind of just took me under her wing and showed me how she was doing it. And then I kind of took that and built upon it. And she was just, you know, the way she did it was fabulous. And so then I just took it and keep it going based on today's technology and the what the needs, the markets, etc. So we would love to have that conversation with you. If you feel that you need some help with this, um, just click on the link below, schedule a call with us. We'll be happy to spend about 30 minutes talking about it, see if there's anything we can do to help you. So you go out and have a great day and you start getting that business organized for retirement. Thanks so much. Thank you so much for tuning in. And if you know someone, and I bet you do, who would appreciate this podcast, please share it with them. As a reminder, this podcast can be delivered directly to your favorite device by using the subscribe links you can find in the show notes below or over at unstoppable realestateagents.com. Remember, it takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan. Have a great day.
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