Guide
New real estate agent marketing plan: 90 days, almost no budget
Updated
A new agent has no listings, no reviews and no budget, but does have time. This 90-day plan runs on hours instead of money.
In short
- This 90-day plan has four parts: your contact list, open houses, being easy to find on Google, and one hour of prospecting a day.
- In your first two weeks you write down everyone you know and tell each of them personally what you do now.
- From week three you host other agents' open houses twice a week, because you do not need your own listing.
- Every week you post one short phone video, so people get to know your face while you are still new.
- The whole plan costs close to nothing. Your hours are what you spend.
- The length of the plan. The payoff takes longer
- 90 days
- The budget for nearly all of it
- $0
- Daily prospecting, the part that cannot move
- 1 hour
- Open houses to host, from week three
- 2 a week
The 90-day plan at a glance
There are four things to build and one daily habit, and all of them run on hours instead of money.
- Count the conversations you have each week, not the deals you close.
- Expect very few closings inside 90 days. This quarter fills months four to nine.
- The only money you need is printing for open houses, and later some mail to a small farm area.
The 90 days at a glance
Four things to build and one daily habit, all of them paid for in hours.
Days 1 to 14
Write your contact list, then tell people personally
Days 15 to 45
Host other agents' open houses, twice a week
Days 15 to 90
Google profile, reviews, one page of your own
Every day
One protected hour of conversations
Every week
One short video of you talking, posted
Days 1 to 14: your list and your announcement
Before any post or postcard, write down everyone who already knows you.
- Go through your phone contacts, old colleagues, the gym, the school run and the family group chat.
- Most people find far more names than they expected, once they stop filtering the list as they write it.
- Tell each person yourself, in a text or a call in your own words. A mass message does not count.
- Ask who they know who is thinking about moving this year. It costs them nothing to answer.
- Keep the list in one place with notes, even a spreadsheet, and then actually work it.
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
Days 15 to 45: host open houses
You do not need your own listing. Busy agents at your brokerage have Saturdays they cannot cover.
- Ask around your office, and most agents will hand you two open houses this month.
- Buyers who have not chosen an agent walk in and start the conversation themselves.
- Ask every visitor what they are really looking for, and write it down.
- Send each visitor something useful the same evening. The next house might be their house.
- Two a week, followed up properly, give you more real conversations than any bought list.
Days 15 to 90: get found on Google
Every early conversation ends the same way: somebody searches your name.
- Claim your Google Business Profile, fill in every field, add a real photo and set your service area.
- Ask for reviews from anyone you have genuinely helped, including rental clients and buyer consultations.
- Put up one page of your own that says who you help, where, how to reach you and what happens on a first call.
- Complete your portal and brokerage profiles once, properly, and then stop polishing them.
Every day: one hour of prospecting
Block one hour in your calendar with your phone in your hand, and protect it from everything else.
- Use it for open-house follow-ups, five people from your list, and one conversation in your neighborhood.
- Count the conversations you had, not the hours you sat there.
- Rearranging your contacts, redesigning business cards and picking fonts are not prospecting.
- The conversations you have this quarter are what fill your calendar in months four to nine.
Every week: one short video, and what it costs
You cannot claim authority in your first year. You can show yourself learning the business in public.
- Film what surprised you at this week's inspection, or what you learned at Saturday's open house.
- Answer the questions you just heard real buyers ask, like what earnest money is.
- Your first week will be awkward. Post it anyway, because the habit matters more than the quality.
- Start free with a phone and the app's own captions, until the habit has survived a month.
- Then Cutroom can do the editing: one clip of you talking, up to 3 minutes, comes back as a captioned 9:16 MP4 in about a minute.
What the weekly video costs
| Option | Cost |
|---|---|
| Your phone and the app's own captions | Free |
| A Cutroom edit | 100 credits |
| Export | 20 credits per minute of finished video |
| A 30-second video, all in | About 110 credits |
| Your first video | Free within 7 days: 600 credits, no card, Cutroom mark |
| Lite | $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 of those videos, no mark |
Option: Your phone and the app's own captions
- Cost
- Free
Option: A Cutroom edit
- Cost
- 100 credits
Option: Export
- Cost
- 20 credits per minute of finished video
Option: A 30-second video, all in
- Cost
- About 110 credits
Option: Your first video
- Cost
- Free within 7 days: 600 credits, no card, Cutroom mark
Option: Lite
- Cost
- $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 of those videos, no mark
Questions people ask
- Should a new agent buy leads?
- Almost never in the first 90 days. Bought leads punish slow follow-up the most, and you have not built a system for that yet. Borrowed open houses give you real conversations for the cost of a Saturday.
- How do I market myself with no listings?
- Borrow them. Host other agents' open houses, film what you learn each week, and work with buyers, which needs no listings at all. Your first marketing asset is your contact list anyway.
- How much should a new agent spend on marketing?
- Close to nothing for 90 days. This plan runs on hours: the announcement, the open houses, your Google profile and the daily hour. The first spending worth doing is usually mail to a small farm area, later.
- What should my first video be?
- What you learned this week, in 60 seconds, filmed on your phone by a window. A plain answer to a buyer question works too, like what an inspection actually checks. Nobody expects authority in week one.
- When will this plan produce a closing?
- Usually in months four to nine, because results follow habits by about a quarter. That is why the plan counts conversations instead of deals rather than asking you to judge yourself on closings you cannot have had yet.
- Do I need a video editing tool on day one?
- No. Start with your phone and the app's own captions. Your first video with Cutroom is free within 7 days and takes no card, if you want to see an edited one. Pay once the weekly habit is real: Lite is $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits.
Write the list, borrow the Saturdays, protect the hour and post the awkward first video. Your first video is free.