How Real Estate Agents Build Long-Term Success in NC

Episode originally aired: March 24, 2026

In this episode of the DASHcast Podcast, Zac Campbell and Courtney LaMotte break down what it takes to build a lasting real estate agent career in North Carolina — specifically, the habits and mindset shifts that separate agents who make it past year three from those who don’t.

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Real Estate Agent Success: What It Takes to Make It Past Year 3

Full Episode Transcript

The following transcript is from the DASHcast audio, formatted for readability.

Foreign. Hi, my name is Zach. Hi, my name is Courtney and this is the dashcast podcast. Now, Courtney, on today’s episode we’re going to talk about the fact that agents tend to fail in this industry and like why that happens. Yes.

Do you, what, why specifically do you think it happens? Do you think it’s because they just aren’t ready for the realtor thing or what? Why do you think that is? I think that a lot of people that join real estate can be great at real estate. I just don’t think that they give it enough time.

And those first, I don’t say that they don’t give it enough time. They also don’t know what to expect. Those two things I think are going to be the reasons why a lot of agents leave real estate so early on is that one, they don’t know what the realtor life really entails. And what does that entail? Right.

It can mean a lot. It could mean 7 hour, 24 hour days. You could be driving hundreds of thousands of miles all year long, ripping and running all over town. You could be on the phone until the point where you like lose your mind. And a lot of people just get into this business thinking that it’s going to be like an easy book and you’re just going to be able to like see, sit by the pool and sip my Goritas and like make hundreds of thousand dollars.

And granted I do think that you can at some point, but not in the beginning. Right. So I think some of the reasons why agents initially fail is because they’re not told what everything that they’re going to be doing or what all this job entails. And then two, they’re not giving it enough time. They’re not giving themselves enough time to be successful.

They’re just like instant gratification. If it’s that doesn’t happen, then they’re kind of like, oh, I’ll go try something else. Absolutely. I feel like a lot of times the real estate school, which in my opinion it really should be longer than 75 hours. That’s a whole other conversation.

Yeah. But I think that a lot of times that in real estate school where we learn about the theoretical. Yeah. We don’t really learn the practical. Once we actually get boots on the ground and start doing real estate, realizing, oh man, there’s a ton of fees I have to pay to the MLS to start making my, to even be affiliated, to access anywhere and I have to, you know, have some savings in place if I just, you know, snap my fingers and get going.

I’m going to make 500k a year, which most agents aren’t doing that for years to come, that’s build their pipeline. Right. And so the, the financial cost, the practical just aspect of being a realtor, like all the things that fall into it. I think agents generally fail because they’re sold. The selling sunset model and that like you said, instant gratification, get rich quick.

And that’s not the way it is. Anything important in life takes time. Right. Especially if you’re going to build a business that is going to impact people. Helping to buy and sell houses constantly.

It’s going to take time. Yeah. And a lot of things like, and I know that we’re touching on this already is like you are your own boss. Which is scary. Yeah.

It’s like if you come from a, a job or a career where you’re working 9 to 5 and you have someone that is quite literally forcing you to be accountable because it’s your job, it’s nine to five and you have someone that you have to answer to every day, all day versus real estate. When you join a firm, yes, you are, you know, working somewhere but you’re basically hanging your license there. Right. Like you are your own business, you are the face of your, like your clients see you, you’re starting from the ground up. So it’s.

If you aren’t great with time management, if you’re not great with accountability, it’s gonna be hard. It’s really gonna be hard. I struggled my first year or two with real estate because I just wasn’t prepared to have, I don’t wanna say have so much free time but, but have so much free time and not know how to best navigate and. Or set myself up for success in terms of time management. Absolutely.

So it’s. I think that there’s just so many different things, but being your own boss is definitely something that’s one of them. That everyone’s like, I wanna be my own boss. But they don’t really know that that means that some weeks you work 200 hours, some weeks you work 10 and there’s so much in between. You’re literally doing all the background ground up work.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. And I think a lot of times too, you know, there are different types of people in the world. There are the people that see the trash on the floor and they pick it up.

Yeah. And then there’s the person that sees it, walks, buys it and doesn’t pick it up until someone tells them to. Yeah. And that’s Kind of like it is in business, right. If you’re, if you have a business for yourself, you have to make the phone calls, you have to send the emails, you have to call people, you have to do, go out and do the showings.

You have to do everything Right. And if we don’t have that mindset, a lot of agents that we probably coach bring up the idea, yeah, you know, just things aren’t falling, my deals aren’t working out, I’m not getting transactions. And it’s like, well, how many phone calls did you do today? Yeah, how many showings did you do today? How many.

What are you doing to improve yourself so that you can be successful? Because sending five text messages, three emails and two phone calls, going to voicemail, that’s not a business. Can you imagine, like, if that’s what Chick Fil a did, oh, we served three sandwiches today, two fries and a milkshake, clocking out. That was it. Right.

Like they, they wouldn’t be successful like the other. Exactly. I, I agree it’s definitely a lot. And you have to be willing to make sacrifices to get to the point where you can finally then breathe and do real estate by the pool with Margarita. But those first two years, a lot of agents just don’t have the hustle or the drive to get to that point.

You have to have discipline in anything. Amen to the discipline. I learned my lesson. I was not as disciplined in terms of like my day to day. I had to, it took me a while to get into a routine of like, okay, I’m going to wake up, I’m going to check my emails, I’m going to make breakfast, I’m going to go to the office, I’m going to go to these trainings, I’m going to set aside client time, time to do admin work, whatever.

And in that first year or two, I did not have any type of routine, I feel like. And I, my business suffered because of that because I didn’ know where to hold myself accountable or how to best do that. And I feel like once you get in that groove, then you’re destined for success, right? Absolutely. If we don’t have any organization at all, like, how are we going to be successful?

Yeah, you know, if I wake up and go to the gym every day at 5am I can wake up and do that and then also be able to schedule showings, you know, make sure I do everything I need to do to start my morning and basically go through the day. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Right. If we’re not doing that, we can’t be successful. And you have to find some routine in this chaotic business.

And like you said, some of those little things, setting aside time to check your email, set aside time to go to the gym, setting aside time to do some things, even though we have a lot of unpredictability in this business, you can find some routine, but you also, at the end of the day, have to be a little bit flexible. And I think, too, that a lot of agents will fail because they feel like this is. They don’t have any accountability. They’re isolated. Yeah.

Right. We talked about that in another video podcast a little bit ago. But basically, agents just feel that they live on an island. It’s just them. If I don’t have nine to five job.

Right. I have to account to someone. I have a master, I have a boss. Right. And so I have to go to them and find out what I need to do from nine to five and this task, this task, this task.

But if I’m the boss and I don’t know who do I go to? Yeah. Then. Then I have no accountability. So, like, oh, I need to follow up with these leads every few days.

Oh, oh, I need to send the text message. Oh, I need a handwritten note. I need to do a pop. I need to do these different things to engage them. Yeah.

You’re the master of your business. Right. And if you’re not willing to do those things and you feel isolated, there’s no accountability. You can’t be successful. Yeah.

You fail. Right. 100%. And I think one of the parts, Courtney, about isolation and just being by yourself, you’re working at home. A lot of times as an agent, if you don’t have that group to debrief with, to talk about your experiences, about what’s going on.

You know, we talked previously about just venting, calling someone event to talk to. If you don’t have that support system in place, then it’s difficult to go through life. You know, I think life in general is hard. Right. And so why do it alone?

Yeah. If you don’t have someone that either a partner or a friend, like, you know, iron sharpens iron. Our CEO says that all the time, and he got it from a good place. But it’s important to make sure that you have someone that can help you be successful. If you don’t hold yourself accountable, you just stay by yourself and try and accomplish this on your own.

It might be destined to fail. If you have discipline, you have grit, you have all those things. Yeah. You can be successful, but it’s hard to know if that’s the kind of person you’re going to be in your own business. Like, I’ve always been a very disciplined person when it came to work.

But when I had this new type of freedom or this new type of honestly, responsibility to my clients, like, yeah, I was like, maybe I’m not as disciplined or as. Maybe I’m not as good with, like, time management and stuff that I thought. So when I was doing this lone wolf style, I was so stressed all the time because I was like, I don’t know who to turn to. I don’t have a team to turn to. None of my friends are in real estate.

Like, I don’t know who to go to to help me. And I was constantly stressed and not, I don’t think that those clients at that time, I don’t think that I ever, you know, let anything slip through their clocks, but I probably have them. They didn’t get the best realtor Courtney that I am now or that I’m going to be in 10 years just because I was alone with being it. I didn’t have a ton of people to rely on and to learn from. And I feel like that is one of the things is like, you don’t have to do this business alone.

You don’t have to basically, you know, tackle all of these things and all these problems by yourself. If you’re with the right firm, you’re going to have support from start to finish, whether it’s working on your business internally, if that’s like administrative type stuff, or on the front end where you’re dealing with clients and running into problems and stuff like that. So isolation can definitely be a bummer for new agents. Just find somewhere that honestly makes you feel like you have somewhere to turn and be supported and lifted up so you can best help your clients. Yeah, it’s good to have a soundboard and it’s good to have encouragement.

It’s good to have the right techniques in place and strategies to help you to be successful. And Google can’t teach you everything. Yeah, right. I mean, you can Google stuff, but at the end of the day, like, how does it really teach me how to talk to a client? Right.

Like, I can put something into an AI and ask it how to do it, but how do I really communicate that? Right. It lands well. Right. It’s not how.

It’s not about what you say. It’s about how you make someone feel. Yep. And how you say it. Because like you said, AI Will tell you XYZ equals B, like, but you have to be able to deliver it to your client in a way that makes sense.

They are not real estate professionals. We’re not just taking the Google definition and spitting it out. We need to be able to relay it to them in a way that actually makes sense. Explain this to me like I’m a five year old. Yes, please.

Because honestly, sometimes I read things and like we learn things about real estate that I’m like, oh my gosh, how do I put this into five year old terms so I can understand it and then so I can pass it along to my client in a way that’s like short, concise, so sweet. To the point. Because it could definitely get overwhelming if you don’t have someone to help you figure out when you need to learn or how you need to say things and stuff like that. Well, that’s, that’s exactly what we have to do though. If you, if you get so good at explaining things like a five year old can understand it, you articulate that in such a way, all your clients are going to love you.

They’re going to know, boom, boom, boom, due diligence, earnest money, you know, negotiations, everything. They’re going to know every aspect of the house and the process and feel confident to move forward. Because of your confidence, knowing that stuff, because you talk to them in a way that they can understand. Exactly. Amen to that.

I love it. Absolutely. So we’ve talked a lot about, like, what are some of the things that agents will run into in the beginning that kind of may or may not keep them in this business? Some things that they might run into that like, oh, I’m out, real estate’s not for me, and stuff like that. So what are you, what are some of the things that you’re going to tell agents?

Okay. This is how you stay in the business. We talked about how you can get into the business and things to look for in the beginning. But how do you make real estate long term work for you in your life? Yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s a great question.

And honestly, at the end of the day, I think one of the best ways to, to make this a business because. Right. Like, I don’t know about you, but I feel like a lot of people get into real estate because it’s a hobby. Yeah. Like this is something like, I’m just going to sell a house on the side while.

Exactly. And if you want to do, that’s fine, but. Right. I know, I know a lot of Agents, not, not necessarily at our firm, but maybe some at our firm that are in it just for a couple of deals a year and that’s totally fine. Right.

It depends on what you and your family need to do. Exactly. But a lot of times that when they’re in the business just to do it as a side hustle, it’s not a business. It’s not. Not something I’m trying to plan long term for.

Exactly. Then it can be a little bit challenging. But I think a lot of times if you have a proven process in place versus doing the next biggest fad to get, you know, spews and views. Right. Yes.

You know, I could go out in front of a listing and hit the gritty and, you know, do some cool dances. You know, cat daddy, stanky leg, all those fun dances. And I used to really enjoy doing dancing like that. Actually. I love it.

But. And that might get some laughs and stuff. You know, that might be a quick way to boost some business. I might get some referrals from that. I might get some leads from that.

Absolutely. I’m not saying don’t do that, but long term, that means if I got this many leads from that, then I’m gonna have to do that every single time. Yeah. And stay on top of it every single time for the next 30 years. Yeah.

I don’t know about you, but hitting the gritty isn’t as easy as it used to be. Yeah. No, I’m not doing that in years to come. No. So I think it’s important to have a proven process to help you to be successful.

Like you said, organization, discipline, confidence. If I don’t feel confident, am I role playing? Am I practicing with another agent to get better? Am I trying to educate myself so that I don’t have to go to chat GPT? I don’t have to go to Gemini or, or Google to find out information.

I just know it and I feel confident enough and know enough about it that I can explain it to a client like their 5 year old. Not because I think they’re dumb, but so that they can really digest the information and move forward with a client or with an offer on a house. Right. I agree. And I think that when you, like you said, having a process in place, one of the things that we always talk about is like what you do with your clients and what you do on your day to day is what’s going to make your business last.

So if every day you’re not, you know, using some form of system to keep you accountable and following up with clients, sending out CMAs, sending, sending out calls. If you’re not, you know, researching things going on in your area, researching new market trends, data points and all this kind of stuff. And you’re just focused on, you know, whatever the fad is. Like you said of the time, like that doesn’t make you a necessarily strong agent. Role plays, like you said, that makes you a strong agent.

Actually knowing what to say and how to follow up with clients makes you a strong agent. Not necessarily these things that come and go. In terms of social media and stuff like that, yes, it can temporarily help you, but it’s not going to make you look like an expert in your field. The only way that you’re going to be able to do that is by putting in the reps daily to actually learn things about real estate. Yeah.

And social media could be a way to market yourself to potential people that you might represent. And then once you get in front of them, that’s a way to really show off your skills, your actual skills, confident, educate, you know, everything throughout the process. And that’s going to cause longevity in the end for your business. Right. Do we start real estate because we want to be a hobby or we want this to have a generational wealth kind of business where I’m in this for 30 plus years and my kids know how to do it and I pass on things to my children and their children.

Right. And I will say, even people that use real estate as a tool to get them to other places in life, like, do I want to be producing and doing real estate for 30 years? I don’t know. Does, do some people want to. Yes.

Do some people just use this as a great opportunity to learn so much about the market and then, you know, meet tons of clients and buyers and get to that next step in life? To where. But you’re not going to be able to get there unless you’re actually hustling and you’re not just, you know, using all of these little shortcuts. Granted, shortcuts are great. Like we will always want to work harder.

We want to work smarter. That whole sentence works harder, not harder. Right, right, right. But I will say work smarter, not harder. But also, you have to work hard.

Yeah, you also have to work hard. You can’t. One doesn’t exist without the other, in my opinion. So I think that that’s what’s really gonna make you successful in terms of real estate longevity, whatever that means for you, whether that’s five years, 10 years, 30 years. But you, you still have to get to the point where you’re actually working hard.

Absolutely. And not just doing this to, you know, as a side hobby. Yes, you definitely can. And there’s, like you said, tons of agents that do, but most of them also have other forms of income. So this is going to be your full time.

You. You need to be able to put in the work and put in the work for a long time. Just like we ask sellers when they want to list their house and buyers when they want to buy a house. Count the cost, see if it makes sense for you. Is this something that you want to do long term for real estate or is this something you want to do as a side hustle?

If it’s a side hustle, great. But let’s be good at it. Yeah. Right. Let’s educate ourselves.

Let’s be, you know, be part of a group that can help encourage you, help you to be the best that you can. Be the best that you’re, you know, be the. Be the person your dog thinks you are. Yes. I love that.

That’s something our CEO always says. And that’s. And that’s. It’s true. Right.

You know, dogs love us, and when we come see them in the door, they’re always happy because they love us. Yeah. So be someone that, that cares about your clients. Be someone that is confident for your clients, that always says, courtney, I’m on your team. I’m team Courtney, and I put that shirt on when I represent you.

Yes. Right. And so just be excited for your clients. And just that that’s how you have longevity. That’s how you build a business that lasts for a long time regardless.

And I don’t know if we’ve said this, and we probably have, like, we are in the business of building relationships. Absolutely. Not just getting a check at closing. I literally am going have dinner with clients that I closed with three, four, six months ago. I’ve had clients over to my house for friendsgiving.

Like, I’m in the business of building relationships. And at the end of the day, if you love what you do and you take pride in what you do, that will show up tenfold and whatever rewards that you’ll see down the line. So I think another way to make sure that if this is going to be for you, if this is going to be something full time and you want to be in it for a long time is get in the mindset of, like, you’re building relationships, you’re helping people build lives. It’s not just about the monetary value that you may receive at the end of a closing. If you’re.

If you genuinely care, you will see those benefits in years and years to come. Yeah. That’s the most important thing, showing people that we care. And I love that you said that because I think, you know, when. When our names are on something.

I was always taught when your name’s on something, it better be 110%. 110%. Amen. I agree. I agree.

And so if you’re going to help someone make the biggest purchase of their life and make these hard decisions. 150 million percent. Be good at it. Yeah. Be good at it.

Have the right team in place so that when they work with you, they know that they are good to go. Yeah, 100%. So we’ve talked a lot about how to best set new agents up for success. Sure. In terms of questions that they need to be asking and what they can expect and how to best, you know, organize your days once you are in the business and all that kind of stuff.

What role does the firm and the culture of that firm, how does that play into an agent. Agent’s success, you know, I think could be night or day, honestly, like if you walk into the place that you’re going to work at to hang a license at and no one says hello to you, no one’s excited to see you, no one cares that you’re even there. No. Even knows that you’re there. Yeah.

And that’s going to be demoralizing. It’s going to feel like, why should I even go to an office? I should be at home. I. I should work from home and do all those things.

I think culture is a super important thing. And a lot of times, I believe it’s. 73% of agents don’t make it in the first two years. Yeah. And they just, they’ll try it and then they’ll quit.

And that’s. That’s hard to swallow. And I mean, honestly, if you look at. I mean, if. Even if we look at transactions last year in 2025, I think 71% of agents out of the 2 million agents that are in the country didn’t sell a house.

Yeah. So, I mean, that. That’s demoralizing. Out of 2 million, what is that, 1.3 million people? Like almost 1.1 million people.

A little more than that. That just didn’t sell a house. So I think it’s important to have a place that you can go where you feel welcome, just like you do when you work with your clients. You want them to feel welcome. Get them to like you.

Get them to trust you. And if we have good culture at the firm, then agents will want to come and want to be there and. And be active and learn. Have a soundboard, have fun. You know, I know our office has some.

A lot of fun activities that we do, which is great. Yeah, absolutely. It just. It creates bonding and friendships. Right.

And so that. I don’t know about you, but that helps me to. Encourages me that obviously I’ve run a team and you run a team of onboarding agents and all that stuff, but it’s a way for us to get in the office and. And be a presence for them. Yes.

And want to be. Yeah. And want them to be there. Yeah. Right.

We don’t send them away. Like, I remember at a firm I used to work at that I would walk in the office and people would turn and look at me like, why are you here? What are you doing? Like, what are you doing here? Right.

And you can’t sit with us. Yeah. And it was just like, very clicky and very peculiar. And so, I don’t know, to me, it just. That’s not how it should be.

It should be fun. Like, when someone walks in the office, I usually yell out, ayo. Yeah. Like, welcome to the office. Like, make a point to make them feel welcome.

Yeah. Make people feel special, just like we do with our clients. Yeah. You know, I agree. And like, we were both with firms before dash.

And also, I will say, like, the culture for me is, like you said, night, night and day. It is make or break. It is one. There are so many things that are in your control. Yes, you have to be a hustler.

Yes. You have to know what you’re doing. But if you. You’re like. And this is in every way, shape, or form of life, like, you have a support system at home.

Your family, your friends, they always are here to lift you up. It’s the same thing. You should want the same thing with where you work. You should not go to a place where you. You feel like you’re in constant competition, where you feel like nobody cares if you’re there or not.

If you feel like all the things that you’re doing don’t even matter. Like, you don’t want to be at a place like that. So I feel like culture and where you decide to spend most of your days, I mean, work is a good chunk of most people’s lives. That place should not feel like a burden or somewhere that you are dreading to go to. Right.

Most people that Are happy in life, are like, enjoy what they do. And like, when you love with you what you do, I feel like that spills over into so many different aspects of your life. So for me, culture is very, very, very, very important. Gotta make sure that I’m like, I feel happy, secure, safe, heard, loved, having a good time. Literally.

I. Most of my friends to this day, I have met through work. I spend gobs of time with them. They are my family. And if you’re not working somewhere where you drive with the people or they don’t drive with you, they don’t even care if you’re there or not.

Like, it doesn’t make your life that fun. We get one life. I mean, you can do something you love with people that are great. Absolutely. Yeah.

And. And you mentioned this. That’s very important, that comparison. Right. Competition.

Yeah, competition is good. Right. But comparison is the thief of joy. Amen. And if we are constantly trying to, like, real estate is a shark eat shark world out there.

I know. I run a team named the sharks. Yeah. But feast or famine, it is. And you know, it’s like, oh, this person had their laptop open.

I’m taking that lead. Yeah. Kind of thing. Right. Like, that’s not how we do it.

Where we are, we are supportive, we try and help and encourage people. But at the end of the day, if. If you’re not pushing and you’re trying to just, you know, take, take, take, take that, that can also be bad. So I think it’s important to be part of something that you feel good in. You feel confident that you can go to and be part of and that you have friendships and family.

Like, I tell my team all the time, you guys are like my family. Yeah. You really are. And that’s like, when I talk to you and, you know, we have team meetings, we do all these different things. Like, I want you to feel that I care about you because I do love you guys.

Like, I want you to be successful. I want the best for you. And that’s the most important thing, I think, as. As the culture aspect. To know that people know that we care about them and also just to, like, let them know that you can come to me.

Like, there’s. I’m never gonna make you feel stupid or that you have a dumb question or that, oh, you’re a new agent. You’re like a peasant. Leave me alone. Like, we were all there once.

Yeah. And we all had bunches of, like, tons and gobs of questions. And I know what it was like to literally Be brushed aside. Because I was a new agent, I didn’t know anything. So I feel like wherever you go, just please make sure that when you are that new agent in that new firm, ask other new agents, like, how did you feel when you first got here?

Did you, like, were you brushed aside? Were. Who did you go to for questions? And they make you feel stupid because that is the last thing that you want to be having to go through when you’re already stressed about a career change, trying to learn how to navigate this whole new life of, you know, being your own boss and all this kind of stuff. So very, very important to also make sure that wherever you go, you feel welcomed and heard as a new agent.

And not meant. Not, like, played down or, like, made to feel small. Yeah. And I was always taught growing up to, you know, soak up everything. Right.

Like a sponge. Yeah. But then once you’ve soaked it up, what do you do with that sponge? You squeeze it out. Yeah.

And give it back to people. Right. Be generous. So once you are learning all this information, learning how to be a good agent, be the right agent for your clients, show that you care about them just like we care about you. Give back.

Right. Show that next new agent that you care about them, and be the one to stand up and help support them if you need, welcome them. If someone comes in the door, say hello. Yeah, you know, it’s not that hard. Yeah, it’s not hard.

If someone gets a contract, congratulate them. Right. Like, get excited for them. We just said 71% of agents last year didn’t get a contract. So if one agent gets a contract at our firm, they beat 71% of agents.

Yeah. Think of that. There’s a success to go around. How many deals did you do last last year? Like, 17, 16.

Yeah. You know, that was only 4% of agents last year that did that many deals. That’s crazy. Only 4%. That’s like 50K.

Only 50,000 agents last year. Did that just let that sink in? Like, that’s a big deal. Like, that’s a big deal. And so you have to feel that love, feel that support, feel that care.

And that’s the most important thing when you’re at a firm. You know, real estate is hard. It’s isolating. But you need to be around the right people to make you feel like you’re in the best spot. Yes.

I totally agree. Couldn’t have said it better. Well, I just want to thank everyone today for watching us and listening to what we had to say. You know, being an agent is hard. It’s important to be part of a family, and that’s something that is important to us, and we hope that it’s important to you.

Yeah. And if you guys have questions, if you literally are just trying to figure out where to start, trying to figure out what questions are important, trying to figure out if real estate is something that even makes sense for you and what you’ve got going on, like, feel free to throw some comments in the comment section. And please, please, please give us a, like, a follow. Show us some love so we can keep doing these awesome, great things for you guys. And we look forward to seeing you on the next one.

Hey.