Behind the Scenes, Blog

Should I Become a Real Estate Agent?

Many people try to picture themselves in a real estate career. People who go through the process of buying and selling a home as well as people in other industries. I love my career choice and I can’t imagine myself doing anything else for a living, except for maybe owning and operating a Martial Arts school  : )

Being a REALTOR can be very rewarding and not just financially. One also has a tremendous sense of accomplishment when you help someone reach the goal of home ownership or help someone transition from one house to another or successfully relocate into or out of the area. The job has so many things on the plus side and really, only a couple of things on the minus side, if you’re a pros and cons type of decision maker.

Pro’s

• Real Estate is a very professional occupation, primarily filled with intelligent, ethical, business people. I think of real estate as requiring the same level of knowledge and commitment as any other specialized field. We are sales people but not typical sales people. We are not selling a product, we are selling our skill set. We wear many hats.
  • That of an educator, walking our clients through the home buying/selling process.
  • That of a trusted adviser, using our knowledge and experience to protect the safety of our clients wishes
  • That of an experienced negotiator, to help secure the best price, terms and conditions for our client
    and of course…
  •  the hat of a marketing specialist for the promotion of property and self
  • Using this skill set helps differentiate us from what is normally thought of as a sales person. OK… THAT was alot of sub bullets  ; )
• Your work is always different and you’ll continuously meet and help new people
• You set your own schedule and you are completely autonomous if you wish to be. It’s nice being the boss with a completely trustworthy staff.
• There’s no salary cap, with effort and discipline, you can make as much as you want to.

Cons

• There’s no bi-weekly paycheck, you only get paid when you successfully go to settlement.
• You will spend lots of, both money and time, with no income, doing the things that hopefully, should lead up to the settlements you require.
• You have to be a pro-active person and prospect. Prospecting is doing things you’re supposed to do to meet people and help them buy or sell real estate.
• The hardest part of the job, in my opinion, is meeting new people who want to buy and sell real estate. Once I meet them, we tend to bond instantly and everything is very comfortable.

They say that teachers and nurses can do well in real estate but there are many great agents who came from other professions. To be a Realtor you have to be of good character without a record. You have to complete 60 hours of training to prepare you to pass a national test. You also have to take and pass a state test. You have to meet the minimum hours of continuing education to maintain your license, most of us do that and more anyway. You’ll have to join your States Real Estate board and the Multiple Listing Service. There are many other organizations you’ll need to join and dues you have to pay The office you join will walk you through the steps. You can go it alone or hook up with a larger team to get your feet wet. You can start part time or throw caution to the wind and go for it full time. The best way to learn more is to meet with a career counselor at a real estate office of your choosing. Meet with a couple of offices or Brokers and make sure you “feel” good about being there and that the office or Broker meets your needs and/or offers you what you think you’ll need. Everybody’s different and every situation is unique but for me, I feel VERY lucky to have made the decision in 1994 to become a real estate agent and if I could go back in time, I’d do the same thing again. What is the best motivation for success? The need to support your lifestyle and more importantly, your family. If you have to make it work, you will. You’ll do the things neccesary to become successful. Open houses, cold calling people, farming and investing in internet leads (my personal favorite).

If you’re considering a career in real estate, give me a call or contact me. I would be more than happy to answer your questions and even put you in touch with a career counselor that I know and trust.