Walk into any real estate office and you’ll hear the same advice: get a CRM, build your social media presence, invest in a website, run Facebook ads, get postcards printed, join networking groups.
Before you know it, you’re spending thousands of dollars on tools that make you feel productive but aren’t actually putting appointments on your calendar. What real estate agent tools are necessary and which ones are just fluff?
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Kayla Dieppa heard all that advice too. As a new agent in Atlanta with no sphere of influence, working a full-time job at Delta Airlines, and caring for two kids under two, she tried everything.
Social media that wasted her time. Mailers that took months to generate responses. Open houses that felt risky as a woman working alone.
Eight years later, she closed $14 million in sales as a solo agent. Her secret? She stopped collecting tools and started using the ones that actually put her in front of motivated sellers.
Here’s what she learned about what new agents actually need (and what they don’t).
How many tools does the average struggling agent need?
The wrong question. According to industry data, 71% of real estate agents nationwide didn’t close a single house in 2025. It wasn’t because they didn’t have enough tools or technology. It was because they confused activity with productivity.
“You need more than motivation, you need discipline. We can be motivated by Monday and Tuesday we’re back into our old habits. You have to treat every day like you’re clocking into work.”
The real estate industry is saturated with tools that create the illusion of progress. Posting on Instagram feels like work. Designing mailers feels like work.
Attending networking events feels like work. But unless these activities are putting you in direct conversation with people who want to list their homes, they’re just sophisticated forms of procrastination.
The discipline deficit costs new agents everything. While experienced agents understand that consistent prospecting creates predictable income, new agents often chase whatever looks glamorous or feels easier. The result?
They spend their limited capital on marketing tools instead of lead generation, then wonder why their phone isn’t ringing.
What’s the fastest way to get your first listing as a new agent?
Talk to people who are already trying to sell their homes. This isn’t revolutionary advice, but it’s advice most new agents ignore because they don’t have a system that delivers these conversations consistently.
Before REDX, Kayla was manually searching for expired listings and FSBOs, scouring social media ever day…
“I didn’t have consistency. I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t have consistent business,” she remembers.
Then she overheard a top listing agent in her office using REDX. The agent’s phone kept ringing. People kept picking up. Kayla signed up immediately.
Why lead generation systems outperform passive marketing. When Kayla compared her prospecting efforts to other marketing channels, the math was clear:
“I don’t even call it cold calling, because when I’m calling expireds, they already showed some kind of interest in what I’m selling… that’s my services and my marketing.”
The data backs this up. According to REDX data, about 43% of expired listings will relist within 90 days, and 38% of FSBO leads will list their home with an agent.
Compare that to the roughly 3-5% annual conversion rate from a typical sphere of influence, and the choice becomes obvious.
Kayla’s results speak for themselves. In her first year focusing on REDX prospecting (while her special needs daughter was born and spending significant time in hospitals), she closed $7 million in sales with 11-12 listings and a six-figure GCI.
The following year: nearly $10 million. In 2025: over $14 million, working as a solo agent with virtual assistants.
“It’s impossible… I don’t even use that word. It is 99.99% impossible to log into REDX and have 20 real estate conversations every day, hitting at least the new leads, and not get a listing or an appointment in that 30-day period,” she states. “It’s impossible. I would almost guarantee it.”
Do new agents need an expensive CRM with automation workflows?
No. They need a place to track follow-ups and conversations. That’s it.
Kayla uses REDX as her primary prospecting platform and Lofty CRM for managing buyer relationships and team coordination.
But here’s the critical distinction: she started with just REDX’s built-in Vortex system and only added the external CRM once her business required it.
“I keep REDX kind of the data to me… it’s so important in REDX that I’m not ready to just give that to my team just yet because I have it very sophisticated right now,” she explains.
For new agents, the lesson is clear: don’t overcomplicate your tech stack before you have business to manage. The agent who spends three weeks setting up marketing automation workflows instead of making calls is the agent who doesn’t close deals.
According to testimonials from longtime REDX users, the platform’s simplicity is its strength. David Ernst from Keller Williams New Orleans states:
“For the simple man who’s a technology fool, the product makes it easy to pick up the phone and make the call. If you want something that’s user-friendly to use, something that you can just log in without being scared to make your first call, just call REDX.”
The integration advantage. Once you are generating consistent business, REDX integrates with major CRMs including Lofty, Follow Up Boss, and more. But this is step two, not step one. Step one is conversations with motivated sellers. Everything else needs to support that primary activity.
Should new agents invest in professional branding and marketing materials first?
No. They should invest in conversations first, marketing materials later.
Kayla tried everything before finding what worked. The list of what didn’t move the needle is instructive:
Social media as primary lead generation.
“You can do it for free, but getting ready and getting content in the algorithm… you’re still not going to reach people that are looking to buy. People aren’t looking to buy houses every day or sell houses every day.”
Complex marketing funnels.
Many coaching programs teach agents to build elaborate marketing systems before they’ve closed their first deal. This is backwards. Build the machine after you understand what works.
Overpriced lead services.
Portal leads from Zillow and Realtor.com cost significantly more and convert at roughly 1% annually. Meanwhile, REDX provides higher-quality data for a fraction of the cost.
Emily Peckham, who built her entire business on FSBO leads after starting with no sphere, confirms this approach:
“I have sold 160+ FSBO homes in five years. In one year I booked 37 appointments from my first calls. About 50% of my listings come from FSBOs.”
The cost of distraction is real. Every dollar spent on tools that don’t generate conversations is a dollar that could have gone toward proven lead generation.
Every hour spent designing the perfect Instagram grid is an hour that could have been spent talking to someone who wants to sell their home this month.
Kayla’s current routine evolved through years of testing, but the core has remained consistent: prioritize direct contact with new, motivated sellers.
Morning block (8:00 AM start): Call new expired listings first.
“When I call at 9:00, I’m now the second, third person, but that first conversation at 8:00… they’re not expected to be swamped yet. So you’re getting all the information, you’re getting the emails, possibly appointments.”
She calls the same new leads three times per day: morning, afternoon, and evening. Most agents make one call and move on. Kayla’s persistence pays off because she understands that motivated sellers don’t answer every call immediately.
Follow-up calls: After handling new leads, she works through her callback list.
“I was following up too late in the day. Now I’m still trying to catch people in their car on their way to work.”
Break time:
“I used to never take breaks, but I’ve heard Ricky Carruth talk about taking a break… that has been a lifesaver.” This is about sustainable daily consistency. Just be careful your ‘break’ doesn’t turn into giving up for the day.
Virtual assistant delegation: Her VAs handle older leads that have fallen through the cracks, while Kayla focuses on the new opportunities.
“Nobody’s going to be as good as you. My VAs do a great job, but they’re not me.”
Evening touch: Final calls before 6:00 PM, with the understanding that many callbacks come between 6:00-7:00 PM anyway.
Mailer follow-up: At the end of the day, she sends postcards through REDX to all new leads. In her first week testing this strategy, she spent $8 on mailers and secured a $1.2 million listing appointment.
“I sent it out again. I didn’t get anything back from the second time, but I’m good with it. I’ll be sending it out for the rest of the year just based on the two that I got already this month.”
The results of consistent prospecting create freedom, not restriction.
“I have financial freedom. I live a life of luxury… I’ll book a trip when I want to. I’ll stay home when I want to. I’ll work when I want to work. But I don’t mind working because I don’t feel like our job is very hard.”
Is REDX too expensive for brand new agents?
Kayla laughs at this question now.
“The cost of REDX is almost laughable because it’s impossible… to not get a listing, to not get an appointment in that first 30 days.”
She does the math:
“Our average price point here is around $475,000. That’s almost… over $15K in commission. And I only need one deal and you’re guaranteeing I’m going to get that for whatever REDX is a month.”
Compare REDX’s cost to alternatives:
Michael Reese from Frisco, TX puts it even more plainly:
“We once figured out that it cost us about 12 cents a lead if you are going after expireds. That’s unheard of. You can’t buy 12 cent leads anywhere that want to list.”
The real question isn’t whether you can afford REDX. According to Kayla,
“If you’re committed to your real estate career and business, REDX is for sure the shoestring budget, the no brainer. You would never want to spend ten dollars on gas if you could get it for pennies instead.”
The real question is whether you can afford to keep spending time and money on activities that don’t put you in front of motivated sellers every single day.
What would you tell a brand new agent who’s exactly where you were eight years ago?
Kayla’s answer cuts through all the noise:
“Find your niche. You can’t do everything. It’s not for everyone. I have done everything. I stretched myself thin. I stressed myself out. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure… You’d be surprised how many women in real estate have high blood pressure because of the stress of working yourself too thin.”
Her three non-negotiables for new agents:
For Kayla, it’s expired listings. For you, it might be FSBOs or geographic farming. But pick one thing and become excellent at it before adding complexity.
“Keep lead stacking because not everything is going to pan out now, but it will pan out even when you don’t see the result.”
“Nobody else is going to believe in you the way you are. You almost have to be like borderline delusional, but that’s okay. I like being around delusional people. At my age, I’m almost 40… Delusional people are successful people. There’s literally no ceiling in this business. Any day can be your lottery ticket.”
When Kayla first discovered REDX, she was at a coaching program where agents didn’t even know dialers existed.
“I’m thinking that everybody knows about dialers now. Are you crazy? They don’t know. They don’t know the power of it. They don’t know that they’re talking to people who have an interest in what you’re selling.”
The knowledge gap is your opportunity. While other new agents are building Instagram grids and designing business cards, you can be having actual conversations with people who want to sell their homes. While they’re waiting for their social media algorithm to bless them with engagement, you can be booking appointments.
The barrier to entry is remarkably low. As Kayla puts it:
“You spend more money getting a license than to actually work in your license. So for the same price, get in this system and start calling people who want to or have any interest in talking to you about their house.”
You don’t need a thousand-dollar tech stack to get started. You need three things:
Everything else (the advanced CRM, the marketing automation, the professional branding) can come later, after you’ve proven the model works and generated the cash flow to invest in growth.
Stop collecting tools. Start collecting conversations.
As Kayla discovered after trying LandVoice, Vulcan, and other platforms:
“The setup was really easy. I would say by day two of purchasing REDX, I was dialing, dialing, dialing.”
And by the end of that first year, despite spending significant time in hospitals with her special needs daughter, she had closed $7 million in sales.
The tools aren’t the magic. But having the right tools makes consistency possible.
Ready to start building your listing business on a foundation that actually works? Learn more about REDX’s lead generation platform and discover why successful agents like Kayla call it the essential tool new agents actually need.
About the Author: This article features insights from Kayla Dieppa (@kaylatherealtor), a top-producing real estate agent in Atlanta, Georgia who scaled from $0 to $14 million in annual sales using REDX as her primary prospecting platform.