Most advice about starting a property sourcing business gets the first year badly wrong. It promises ten thousand pounds a month by week six, a replaced salary within months, and cocktails on a beach by the time year one closes. It is a tempting picture, and it sets a great many good people up to feel like failures when they have done nothing wrong at all.
This is an honest guide to what your first year as a property sourcing agent actually looks like. It is drawn from a Mini Compliance session with NAPSA founder Tina Walsh, who built and ran a successful sourcing business for thirteen years. If you are setting up, or you are partway through year one and quietly wondering whether you are behind, this is written for you.
Be realistic about what year one can achieve
The single most useful thing you can do when setting your goals is to be realistic about what is achievable. Dreaming big has its place, and a low bar rarely inspires anyone. But an enormous, unrealistic goal has only one likely outcome, which is disappointment when you do not reach it.
The now familiar promise of ten thousand pounds a month by week six is the clearest example. It is not that such figures never happen. It is that holding them up as the standard means that anyone who has not hit them feels they have failed, when in truth they are simply doing the ordinary, unglamorous work of building a business. Building trust, a client base, your knowledge and your systems takes far longer than six weeks, and for most people longer than six months. That is normal, and it is not a reflection on you.
How long until your first sourcing deal?
Here is a figure worth sitting with. It took Tina thirteen months to get her first deal over the line, and her first fee was fifteen hundred pounds, paid in January 2013 after she set up in January 2012. She still has a copy of that cheque laminated in the office.
That is not a cautionary tale. It is the normal shape of things. Most sourcing agents complete one or two deals in their first year, and that is a perfectly good outcome. For some it takes eighteen months. It depends on you, your circumstances, and whether you are building the business full time or around a job and a family. A business generally needs eighteen months to two years before it can give you a genuine read on whether it will work for you, so measuring year one against a salary you have not yet replaced is measuring against the wrong thing entirely.
What does a good first year actually look like?
If you are in your first year, likely part time, and you have not replaced your income, that is completely okay. It is what most people should expect. Think of year one as your foundation, your groundwork year. If you achieve anything beyond that, you have overachieved, which is a far healthier way to look at it than aiming to earn a full income and feeling you have failed when you do not.
So what is the groundwork? These are the assets that quietly pay you back in years two and three:
Relationships with estate and lettings agents, and often solicitors, independent wealth advisors, builders and trades. These are your route to properties coming to market and to buyers you can serve.
Compliance properly in place, which is the non-negotiable foundation of a legitimate sourcing business. That means your registrations, your insurance and your redress cover sorted before you trade.
Systems and templates, so you can handle a seller or a buyer the moment they express interest. A call booking system, a CRM, a secure place to hold personal data, and the agreements and data capture forms you need to operate.
Your first onboarded investor, and there are few better feelings when you are setting up than a first client saying yes.
Your reputation, built at meetings, through networking, and on social media, consistently, month after month.
Getting your compliance and your NAPSA membership in place is itself a milestone, and a meaningful one. You can see the foundations we help members put in place among our free sourcing resources.
The milestones worth celebrating in year one
We are quick to move past our own wins. We hit a target, accept it, and press straight on to the next thing. Tina still remembers reaching Amazon number one bestseller with her book, marking it with a glass of something and the log burner on, then opening the laptops and getting back to work.
So set yourself milestones, and mark them properly when they come:
Your full compliance in place, and becoming a NAPSA approved member
Your first investor getting in touch to ask for a chat
Your first completed call with a seller or a buyer
The first agent who rings you with a potential deal
Your first clean, compliant transaction going through conveyancing
That first fee in the bank, which you will never forget
Your first repeat enquiry, and your first referral
Your first completed deal
These are the real wins. They mean far more than any vanity turnover figure, and they are what compound into deal flow in year two.
Stop comparing your year one to someone else's highlight reel
The thing almost all of us are guilty of, Tina included, is comparing ourselves to other people. The selfies about how well it is all going, the palm trees, the car, the lovely home. It is worth remembering that a good deal of what is posted is not the full story, and is shared precisely to make everyone believe the poster is more successful than they are.
You are on your own journey. Set your own expectations, work in your own way, and you will achieve far more than you will by measuring yourself against someone on a beach with a cocktail.
The honest bottom line
There is generally not much of an income in year one. There can be, depending on how much time you can give it, but it is not the point of the year. When your foundations are well laid, you are set up to operate well in the years that follow. That is worth far more than expecting a replaced salary and a beach within three months, then feeling you have failed when it does not arrive.
Patience is the quiet engine here. The connections and the work you put in during year one are what generate the deals in years two and three, and then it grows from there.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to get your first property sourcing deal? For most agents it is somewhere between twelve and eighteen months. One or two completed deals in year one is a good, normal outcome, not a slow one.
How much can you earn in your first year of property sourcing? Often very little, and that is expected. Many first year agents work part time and have not replaced their salary. Year one is about laying foundations, with the income following in years two and three.
Is property sourcing worth it if year one is slow? Give a sourcing business eighteen months to two years before judging whether it is right for you. A slow first year is normal and is not a signal to quit.
What should I focus on in my first year as a sourcing agent? Compliance, relationships with agents and professionals, your systems and templates, your first onboarded investor, and your reputation. These are the assets that pay you back later.
Where to go next
If you are setting up or working through your first year, start with our free sourcing resources. They walk through the foundations worth getting right early, at no cost and no pressure.
When you are ready to put your compliance and credibility properly in place, NAPSA membership and the Complete Programme are there for the next step, and you are always welcome to book a call with Tina if you would like to talk it through first.
NAPSA is a not for profit trade body for property sourcing agents. Questions are always welcome at [email protected] or give us a call on 01200 411 570
In this article
- Be realistic about what year one can achieve
- How long until your first sourcing deal?
- What does a good first year actually look like?
- The milestones worth celebrating in year one
- Stop comparing your year one to someone else's highlight reel
- The honest bottom line
- Frequently asked questions
- Where to go next
