New Real Estate Agent? What to Do in Your First 90 Days (2026)

The problem: You got a license and a login and no first step, so you're filling your days with logos, websites and courses, because none of those can tell you no.

The fix: Your first 90 days come down to three things, and the first is a text that asks people you know for practice instead of business.

What changes: You stop getting ready and start having real conversations, and you go from someone who holds a license to an agent people have watched do the work.

By D.J. Paris, president of sales and marketing at Kale Realty and host of the Keeping It Real Podcast. The fix is below. If you want to talk it through, there's a 10-minute option right after it.

What's really going on: you picked the work that can't say no

A logo can't reject you. Neither can a website, a headshot or one more course. A person can, and that's the scary part. I get it. So your days fill up with things that feel like work and never put you in front of anybody.

Nobody handed you a first step, so here it is. Three things in 90 days: people who know you're licensed, a contract you've filled out with nobody watching, and one neighborhood you've walked. Each one involves a person who could say no. That's why they count.

Move 1: tell 100 people, and ask for practice instead of business

Go through your phone, not your memory, and write names until you hit 100. Text ten a day, one at a time:

News: I got my real estate license and I'm with [brokerage]. I'm not asking for business. I need practice. Can I run the numbers on what your place is worth, or what your rent would buy? You'd be doing me a favor. Text to ten people a day

Mean it. No pitch at the end. Build the first three with your managing broker or a senior agent next to you, and call it a price range, never an appraisal. When they answer, ask:

What's one thing your last agent did that I should never do? When they answer

Text only people who'd know you, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Stop means stop. If someone says "we're actually thinking of selling," don't wing it. Say "Let me bring my managing broker in so I get this right," and call your broker that day.

Move 2: write three offers nobody will ever send

Don't meet the contract for the first time with a client waiting. Pick three active listings in connectMLS and pretend your best friend is buying each one. Fill out the whole purchase contract your office uses, every blank. Then hand all three to your managing broker:

Mark up everything I got wrong. Handing over all three contracts

They never leave the office. Nothing goes to a listing agent and nothing gets signed. Circle every blank you couldn't fill. Those are the questions you'd have been stuck on with a client watching. If your broker says a blank is a legal question, the answer is that the client's attorney handles it. Then ask the busiest agent you know:

Can I come to your next inspection and final walk-through, if your client's fine with it? To the busiest agent you know

At both, watch, take notes and stay quiet. It's their client, not yours.

Move 3: keep one scorecard: five and five

Five real conversations a day. Real means you talked about where they live, out loud or by text, and they answered. Five homes seen in person each week, all in one neighborhood. Sunday open houses are the easy way in.

• Before you leave each one, type your guess at the sale price into your phone.
• When it closes, look it up and write down why you missed.
• When your guesses start landing close, you know that neighborhood.

Two numbers a day on paper, nothing else. At the open house, tell the host who you are: "I'm a new agent with [brokerage], learning the neighborhood. Mind if I walk through?" Don't spread the five homes across the city. Your guesses only improve when the homes can be compared.

Do this today

Start before you feel ready

Do these three and in 90 days you've told 100 people, filled out the contract, stood in an inspection, and learned one set of streets. I can't say when the first client shows up. This is the work that comes before one.

Who this works for, and who should read something else

Frequently asked questions

Still stuck on this one? Book 10 minutes with D.J. No strings, not a recruiting call. I'll call you, and I won't bring up Kale unless you do.