In business, knowledge is power. To get ahead in your career, you have to constantly go out of your way to fill your brain with new knowledge, new ideas, and new strategies.

As you’re probably well aware, there’s a lot more that goes into being a successful real estate agent than most people think. It’s not just about helping people buy and sell houses. To be successful, you have to become an expert in a number of different areas—like building and nurturing relationships, communicating with people, establishing and strengthening a personal brand and reputation for yourself, learning how to leverage digital tools to attract new clients, and a lot more.

Here’s the good news: there are a ton of resources available that you can discover and explore in order to expand your skills and knowledge as a real estate agent. Each day, hundreds of new blog posts, case studies, books white papers, podcasts, infographics, and other resources are being published online for the world to freely access.

Here’s the bad news: with so much new content out there, it’s hard to know where to start or what information to trust.

To help you cut through the noise and focus on leveraging only the best information, we’re sharing a list of the 25 best books you can read to advance in your career as a real estate agent.

Books About Real Estate

Here are six books that can help you become a more effective real estate agent:

1. The Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller

In this book, author Gary Keller outlines a clear framework that will teach you how to earn a million (or more) in annual revenue for your real estate business. He starts by outlining 6 myths that are preventing you from reaching high achievement, then he sheds light on the four stages that will bring you to millionaire status.

2. The Art of Selling Real Estate by Patricia Cliff

Patricia Cliff is one of the most successful real estate agents in the U.S. In her book, she provides actionable advice that you can use to take your real estate business to the next level. She covers a number of topics in the book, including how to become a lifelong real estate advisor to your clients, how to preserve the commission structure, and how to build the right real estate team underneath you in order to scale your business.

3. Your First Year in Real Estate by Dirk Zeller

In this book, author Dirk Zeller provides a handful of actional tips and strategies that any first-year real estate agent can use to gain traction and build a sustainable, profitable business. Specifically, he touches on how to select the right company, how to develop client and mentor relationships, how to leverage digital and social media to stay ahead, how to set and reach career goals, how to master your sales skills, and more.

4. The Book of YES: The Ultimate Real Estate Agent Conversation Guide by Kevin Ward

The Book of Yes provides real estate agents with the compelling scripts that author Kevin Ward uses to train real estate agents all around the world. The book is broken into two sections: the first section focuses on helping you understand how to make the scripts work for you and your business, and the section section is comprised of the scripts themselves—27 scripts in total.

5. The Honest Real Estate Agent by Mario Jannatpour

This is another great book for new real estate agents, students, or anyone thinking about entering the real estate industry. In it, real estate agent and author Mario Jannatpour addresses a handful of challenges and questions that typically arise during a real estate agent’s first year in business. He covers topics such as the importance of specializing, why you need a personal brand and website, how to develop effective mentoring relationships, and how to best address and meet client expectations as a real estate agent.

6. Mastering the Art of Selling Real Estate by Tom Hopkins

Tom Hopkins is one of the top real estate sales trainers in the country. In his book, he teaches readers how to sell with emotions, how to drum up prospects and leads when you’re new to the industry or new to an area, how to manage objections, how to earn the seller’s trust, and a wide range of other sales-driven topics that can help you build a profitable real estate business in your community.

Books About Selling

Here are six books that can help you become a better salesperson:

7. Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar

In this book, legendary author Zig Ziglar will teach you the winning techniques that can be used to develop more relationships and close more deals. In the book, he writes about the psychology of closing, the nuts and bolts of selling, how to overcome objections, and how to survive in a sales-driven industry.

8. The Psychology of Selling by Brian Tracy

In this bestselling book, famed author and selling coach Brian Tracy dives deep into the psychology behind selling. The purpose of the book, as he writes in his introduction, “is to give you a series of ideas, strategies, and techniques that you can use to immediately make more sales, faster and more easily than ever before.

9. Changing the Sales Conversation by Linda Richardson

As the world continues to evolve and adopt new technologies that change the way people learn, interact, and buy from one another, author Linda Richardson made it her mission to reengineer the sales conversation. In her book, she offers credible research to support each piece of advice she’s offering to readers. Specifically, she gives five clear strategies and tools that can help you effectively connect and engage with prospects and accelerate closing.

10. How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

For over sixty years, this book has been a preferred resource among people looking to advance their careers and boost success in their day-to-day work. In it, author Dale Carnegie teaches readers the six ways to make people like you, the 12 ways to persuade people to accept your way of thinking, and the nine ways to change people without arousing resentment.

11. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

In this eye-opening book, author Robert Green presents readers with 48 laws that you must know in order to gain more power. He presents a flurry of historical references to support his claim that in the end, everyone is playing the game of power, even those who don’t realize it. His book will help you understand the tactics people are using to try to negotiate better than you, steal prospects from you, and build a better network than you.

12. What Great Salespeople Do by Ben Zoldan

In this book, author Ben Zoldan aims to convince readers that great salespeople aren’t just born, they can also be made. He argues that becoming a more successful salesperson can happen when you understand how to effectively influence change in buyers. Specifically, he teaches readers how to use the power of the story to influencer buyers, use empathetic listening to get others to reveal themselves, and build more trust with your clients.

Books About Marketing

Here are six books that can help you understand how to leverage marketing as a real estate agent:

13. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk

In this book, New York Times bestselling author and social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk presents readers with a framework that can help them better connect with audiences on popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and others. Specifically, he outlines the importance of custom-tailoring content for each site in order to build more trust and position yourself as a valued resource among your prospects.

14. Purple Cow by Seth Godin

In Purple Cow, author Seth Godin encourages readers to ignore the old marketing tactics that are no longer effective and instead embrace the counterintuitive. The basic premise of the book is that everyone in your industry is acting like a brown cow—plain, boring, predictable. In order to stand out and differentiate, you need to be the purple cow.

15. Content Inc. by Joe Pulizzi

In order to drive more people to your website and capture more prospects, you have to be willing to invest in content marketing. In this book, author Joe Pulizzi provides readers with the exact blueprint they need to build a profitable content marketing machine for their businesses. Specifically, he outlines how to create better content, how to build out your team, how to get more out of each piece of content you create, and how to interact with your audience.  

16. Contagious by Jonah Berger

In this book, author Jonah Berger puts a new spin on an age-old business growth tactic: he presents tips and strategies for fueling word of mouth in the digital age. As you probably already know, word of mouth advertising and marketing is an essential part of attracting new clients, building trust, and closing more deals. As a real estate agent, it’s important to understand what makes people talk to their friends. This book will help get you there.

17. Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim

In this book, author W. Chan Kim presents readers with an effective approach to make competition irrelevant and carve out your own niche, or “blue ocean.” If you’re looking for another book that upends traditional thinking, this is the book to read. Specifically, you will learn how to reach beyond existing demand, how to overcome key hurdles, and how to avoid what he calls, “red ocean traps.”  

18. Trust Me, I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday

In another eye-opening book, author Ryan Holiday takes everything you thought you knew about the media and public relations and throws it away. In his book, he argues that high-traffic, high engagement sites like Buzzfeed, Gawker, and the Huffington post are driving the media agenda today, and that the information you read and see is being put forward by manipulators trying to work the system (and doing so effectively). The concepts you learn in this book can help you leverage local media to get more press and build exposure for your real estate business.

Books About Productivity & Personal Growth

Here are seven books that can help you boost personal productivity and become a happier, more successful person:

19. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

First published in 1990, this book continues to captivate and inspire readers all around the world. The basic premise of the book is that there are seven easily definable and recognizable habits that people adopt and use in order to drive more success in their lives. This book will walk you through each of the seven habits and help you understand how to adopt and apply them to your own life and work.

20. Choose Yourself! by James Altucher

In Choose Yourself!, author James Altucher motivates readers to take control of their lives, find their purpose, and carve out an existence that leads to more happiness and more success. When you read this book, you will learn how to choose yourself, how to find your purpose, how to become a master salesman, how to come up with better ideas, and how to be a happier, better, more successful human being.

21. Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy

In this book, author Brian Tracy presents and builds onto an age-old piece of business advice: eating frogs for breakfast. Eating frogs for breakfast refers to the act of doing your hardest or least exciting tasks first when you start your workday in order to get them out of the way, avoid procrastinating, and boost productivity for the rest of the day. Specifically, he presents twenty-one practical and doable steps that will help you become a more productive, effective person.

22. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Originally published back in 1937, this book continues to stand the test of time and remains a trusted resource for business professionals and people in all industries, locations, and phases of their careers. It’s a powerfully inspiring book that provides readers with actionable steps that can be used to drive personal success and fuel professional growth.

23. The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John C. Maxwell

In this book, New York Times bestselling author John C. Maxwell introduces 15 undeniable laws that people can follow in order to grow and succeed. A few examples of laws mentioned in the book include:

• The Law of the Mirror: You Must See Value in Yourself to Add Value to Yourself
• The Law of Awareness: You Must Know Yourself to Grow Yourself
• The Law of Modeling: It’s Hard to Improve When You Have No One But Yourself to Follow
• The Law of the Rubber Band: Growth Stops When You Lose the Tension Between Where You are and Where You Could Be

It’s an essential book to read when you’re ready to take control of your career and success.

24. Manage Your Day-to-Day by Jocelyn K. Glei & 99U

Manage Your Day-to-Day is a great collection of essays compiled and edited by Jocelyn K. Glei & 99U. The book provides you with ideas, tips, and strategies from 20 influencers who have mastered the art of productivity and success in the workplace. It’s a quick read and very easily digestible—the perfect book to stick in your car and pull out when you’re waiting for your clients to arrive at the next showing.

25. Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg

If you’re looking for a book to help you become a more productive person, this is the one to read. In it, author Charles Duhigg presents eight key productivity concepts that you can use to get more done each day. Each concept is backed up with scientific research and real-world examples that can help you better understand how to apply them to your own life.

What other books should be on this list? Leave your recommendations in the comments below!