These guides answer the questions real estate agents ask most, using what top producers, coaches and industry leaders have told us on Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris. Every guide quotes guests word for word from the episode transcript, with a timestamp and a link to the full episode, so you can hear it in their own words.
By D.J. Paris, host of Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris. Updated November 2026.
Business planning
- How to Write a Real Estate Agent Business Plan That Actually Gets Used: A one-page real estate business plan built backward from the income you need, with the exact steps top producers on Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris use to write it and keep it.
- How Top Producers Set Their Annual Goals (and Work Backward to Daily Activity): How to set a real estate goal for the year and turn it into weekly numbers, three daily non-negotiables, time blocks and real accountability, from top producers and coaches on Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris.
- How Many Conversations Does It Take to Close a Deal? The Math Top Agents Use: The real conversion math from dials to conversations to appointments to closings, with the actual ratios top producers shared on Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris, and how to find your own.
- How to Budget Your Real Estate Business: What Top Agents Spend Money On: How top agents and the CPAs who work with them on Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris budget a real estate business: splitting every commission check, setting aside taxes, tracking expenses on a monthly P&L, and reinvesting only after the reserve is built.
- How Much Should a Real Estate Agent Spend on Marketing?: How much real estate agents actually spend on marketing, where the money should come from, and how top producers on Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris measure the return on each lead source and decide when to cut.
- How to Do a Year-End Review of Your Real Estate Business: A December review process for real estate agents: gather your numbers, trace every closing to its source, clean up your database, check your past-client touches and reviews, then decide what to stop, keep and start. Built from interviews on Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris.
- Real Estate Income Consistency: How Top Agents Avoid Feast-or-Famine Years: Why real estate income swings from great months to empty ones, and what top producers on Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris do to smooth it out: protected lead generation, a pipeline at every stage, cash reserves and a fixed paycheck.
- How to Track Your Real Estate Numbers (the 5 Metrics Top Producers Watch): The five numbers top producers on Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris actually track, what each one tells you, and how to keep them in a simple spreadsheet or CRM you update once a week.
New guides are added every week.
Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris is a podcast for real estate agents, with more than 790 episodes of interviews with top-producing agents, coaches and industry leaders. Here’s how to listen.