Short answer: A real estate agent business plan that gets used fits on one page. It starts with the monthly income you need, works backward to the closings, contracts and conversations that income takes, and gets reviewed every Monday. Top producers on Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris say the same thing in different words: if your plan is longer than a page, or you only look at it in January, you don’t have a plan.
By D.J. Paris, host of Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris. Updated November 2026.
Why do most real estate business plans fail?
They get written once and never opened again. Shawn Kunkler, who leads Homeward Associates at Compass in San Francisco, hosts the Realtor180 Podcast and recruits agents to his team, described the pattern on our show:
“Have a one page business plan. If you can’t get it down distilled into one page, you are never ever ever going to execute on it. But more importantly, you have to revisit it. You have to sit with it every Monday and look at it and figure out last week, did I do the tasks to move towards this plan.”
Shawn Kunkler, Three Traps Real Estate Agents Must Avoid (May 2025, at 30:36)
He calls the agent who skips the plan “the tourist.” It’s like someone at the gym who only does the exercises they feel like that day. After “20, 30, 40 days,” they’re no stronger, because they never stuck to the program.
The other way plans fail is that they’re built on the wrong number. Most agents start with a deal count they heard somewhere (“I want to do 24 deals”). The agents we interview start with the money they actually need.
How do you write a one-page real estate business plan?
Five steps. Do them in order, in one sitting.
Step 1: Decide what your life needs to look like first
Before any numbers, decide what the business is for. Garrett Maroon, who founded a top 1% team in Southeast Virginia and co-founded the 210 Collective at eXp Realty, told us that for years the only things on his whiteboard were deal count, GCI and volume. Then he changed the scoreboard:
“And so now my scoreboard is, yeah, a profit goal, but a wife goal and a kid goal. So like, a kid goal is every seventh week off, right?”
Garrett Maroon, The Courage To Be Authentic (November 2025, at 37:20)
Write down two or three non-business goals: time off, family, health. They go on the same page as the money. If they aren’t on the page, the business will eat them.
Step 2: Set your monthly income number
Dr. Erin Helle, a Realtor and coach who hosts our Grow With Me series, starts with what she calls the financial freedom number: the monthly amount that covers your needs, your wants, savings and investments. Then she adjusts it for your brokerage split:
“Go through all your needs, all your wants, plan for savings, plan for investments, make sure you’re considering the splits that your broker is taking when you calculate this number.”
Dr. Erin Helle, Calculating Your Monthly Income Goal (June 2024, at 14:30)
Use your take-home after split, fees and taxes. A plan built on gross commission will come up short every time. (For what to set aside for taxes and expenses first, see how to budget your real estate business.)
Step 3: Work backward from income to activity
This is the part that turns a wish into a plan. In Dr. Helle’s words: start with your monthly income goal, then “backwards plan to how many closings you’re going to need, and then backwards plan to how many contracts you’re going to need, and backwards plan from there to how many new connections you’re going to need” (same episode, at 13:43).
Here’s the worksheet. The numbers are an example to show the math, not a benchmark. Fill in your own.
| Line | Example | Your number |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly take-home income you need | $10,000 | |
| Your average take-home per closing (after split and fees) | $10,000 | |
| Closings needed per month | 1 | |
| Contracts needed (add a buffer, because some fall through) | 1.25 | |
| Signed clients needed (some never buy or sell) | 2 | |
| Real conversations needed to sign one client | Track it for 90 days |
Dr. Helle’s own example used $10,000 a month, which she called roughly one standard closing commission. That means one deal every month and at least one person under contract every month, plus a buffer, because “not every buyer is going to buy something, not every listing is going to sell.”
The last line is the one you don’t know yet. That’s fine. You find out by tracking (see the FAQ below, and how many conversations it takes to close a deal).
Step 4: Pick two or three lead sources and ignore the rest
Your activity number has to come from somewhere. Choose the two or three sources you’ll work every week, like your sphere, open houses, expireds or video. Write them on the page with a weekly number next to each. Kunkler called this keeping “the blinders” on: deciding in advance so you don’t chase every new idea that shows up in your feed.
Step 5: Put the Monday review on your calendar
Fifteen minutes, every Monday, same time. Three questions:
- Did I do last week’s activity numbers?
- What did the activity produce (conversations, appointments, signed clients)?
- What am I doing this week?
That’s the habit that separates a plan from a document.
What goes on the one page?
- Life goals: two or three non-business goals (step 1)
- Income: monthly take-home target (step 2)
- The math: closings, contracts, clients and conversations per month (step 3)
- Lead sources: two or three, each with a weekly activity number (step 4)
- Review: the day and time of your weekly check-in (step 5)
If something doesn’t fit on the page, it doesn’t go in the plan.
When should a real estate agent write a business plan?
Write it in November or December, before January fills up. Look at it every Monday, and redo the math at the end of each quarter once you have real conversion numbers. Coaches run their planning workshops in the fall for the same reason: a plan written in mid-January starts the year three weeks behind.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a real estate business plan be?
One page. Shawn Kunkler’s rule is that if you can’t fit it on one page, you won’t follow it.
What if I’m a brand-new agent with no numbers to plan from?
Start with the income you need and the activity you can control: conversations per week and people added to your database. Track them for 90 days and you’ll have your first real conversion rate. Dr. Helle calls this trial and error: “figuring out what activities result in what income.”
Should my business plan include personal goals?
Yes. Garrett Maroon puts a “wife goal and a kid goal” on the same scoreboard as profit. When they’re written down, they get protected. When they aren’t, they get traded away.
How often should I review my business plan?
Weekly. Every Monday, check last week’s activity against the plan. Rebuild the math each quarter.
Should I base my plan on gross commission or take-home pay?
Take-home. Plan from the money that reaches you after your split, fees and taxes, or the plan will come up short.
Listen to the full episodes
- Three Traps Real Estate Agents Must Avoid, with Shawn Kunkler
- Calculating Your Monthly Income Goal, with Dr. Erin Helle
- The Courage To Be Authentic, with Garrett Maroon
Related guides: How Top Producers Set Their Annual Goals, How to Do a Year-End Review of Your Real Estate Business, and How to Track Your Real Estate Numbers.
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.