Belt Auction

Real Estate Agents! How difficult was it to obtain your license? What does your typical day look like?

Tell me the pros and cons of being a Real Estate Agent. I would like to know how difficult it was for you to obtain your license...which method did you use? Also, I am interested to know what your average day looks like. I am considering pursuing my license. Thank you!

Public Comments

1. Being a Real Estate Agent (Realtor) is not as easy as it looks from the outside. I have been in real estate for several years and I am well established, but it took time & money to get here. You can not be a Part Time agent, being an agent is a 12 hour 7 day a week job, and you are on call, like a doctor.. If you work hard and invest in yourself you can enjoy a great life and a high income.. But it does require sacrafice & hard work. I hope this helps.. feel free to email me at johnny1g@yahoo.com
2. I love it how the agents always like to compare themselves to Dr's and Lawyers. People who invested in a 'real' education. Anyway, my advice (my wife is an agent) is that it is a great part time job especially for stay at home moms. I wouldn't consider it as a full time 'career' especially during current tough market conditions. Here in CA there are approx. 1 agent for every 70 or so people. Extremely over saturated. In my area alone about 700 agents have dropped out recently in the industry due to NO SALES and being highly competitive. Even the old timers (my wife) are seeing a dry spell. Luckily, I am not in the industry and make a very well paid consistent income so she doesn't have to worry about going through a dip like this one. Like I said, I wouldn't recommend it right now as your primary source of income. It's going to get uglier.
3. I feel bad for the wife of the poster who said its a great part time job. Poor thing hubby obviously doesn't take her "little" career seriously.....Anyway I just got my real estate license and I love it! Not all areas are slow and some like mine rarely slow. It all depends on the part of the country and even the part of the state you are in. If you are near a military base there is a consistent turnaround so you can make a decent living. One thing I do agree with Real Estate Hubby about is if you don't have additional income coming in when you start it can be tough. The best way to determine if your area has enough business to make it worth your while is go talk to a real estate agent. Any agent I know would be glad to answer some questions. Good luck! If Real Estate Hubby reads this I want you to know I have a degree, spent years as a radar air traffic controller and am a Iraq War Vet. I enjoy my new career...don't be such a jerk!
4. Hi I am a real estate agent of 20 years and will tell you what it's like. First off you want to understand there are basically 3 kinds of agents. 1. Listing agents 2. Selling agents 3. Both a listing and selling agent LISTING AGENT A listing agent is one that usually goes door to door and/or mails, phones a certain neighborhood. They let the neighbors know whats going on in that area. Any new sales, listings, etc.. A good size area is about 500-1000 homes If you focus on one area and specialize in it, you will see business come in fast. You want to make sure at least 1 time a month that they hear from you or see your flyer, card on their door or in mailbox etc .. SELLING AGENT This is the guy or gal that doesn't list but gets the buyer and brings them or meets them at the house and shows and sells it. In my opinion there is less work to being a selling agent but at the same time you have less control of the transaction as the listing agent always can have more control. BOTH LISTING AND SELLING AGENT This is the kind of agent I am and its the hardest work but you can help everybody on all sides of the table so you also earn more. Also markets change. Sometimes your better off to be a listing agent and then in some markets you are better to be a selling agent. So don't get stuck in a rut in being just one kind. I typed in 2 sites to go too. The top site is a low cost place to get your license and they are the best out there. You can do it all online and learn everything entirely online. Right now the real estate market is extremely difficult BUT I see it getting better and better over the next 2 years. So if you get in now you have a lot of good times to look forward too :-) However if you were getting in about 1 year ago you would have gotten in during the boom only to see it crash. Right now you are getting in after the crash has already occured so as the market gets better and better it will be easier and easier to earn income with less and less struggles. So it's a good time. The best thing that has helped me is to just be yourself as an agent. I have a personality where I joke around a lot with folks and I like to laugh a lot and I found when I just be myself I see a lot of success as most folks have the same kind of personality. I think if I were you I would start off as a listing agent and pick a nice area that you like. When you go door to door its really a lot of fun and people are nice to you. If you do it the proper way you will love it! Here's a tip that I do and it's been very, very effective. In the area that you decide to work you find out what all the houses are selling for and you get about 15 of them and put them on a flyer, even as you sell houses put them on that flyer. Then once a month you leave that flyer on the door. People ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS read that flyer as they wan't to know what their house is worth. Now you do not need to actually go door to door you can hire someone cheap to do it but its actually really easy. If you get let's say 500 homes and you just did a little each day you would only need to go to 16 doors a day and at the end of the month 500 homes would have your flyer on their door. Some ladies I know never go door to door and that's ok too you can mail them but in my experience they are going to list with the person at the door and not some stranger they only see in the mail so it helps to go see them. What I did was buy a bunch of pens, you know writing pens, and when you go door to door you leave them that little gift and folks hang onto those pens. Your name and # will be on the pen. You can get a nice web site also and put that on your flyer also. It is a lot of hard work but the money is phenomenal and its a lot of fun. I am not lazy, I have worked very hard at different jobs and nothing is more satisfying nor pays better than real estate.
5. Jvaz comes in here bashing Realtors. He talks about using a limited service agency RE to list his house, perhaps his wife works for a limited service RE agency? He calls people who are pro-Realtor "tools" - and then he says his wife is a Realtor. Who is the real tool? It is not difficult to obtain your license. I did an online course. Just discipline yourself to study hard and not let the course drag out for months and months. Hit the course, study, and pass the test. The best thing about being a Realtor is that there is no typical day. It is alot of hard work though, especially in the beginning. But walking into a house you found for a client and watching the expression on their face, that is a great feeling. It is great to sit at the closing table with your client and know that you made this happen. It can also be very challenging and you have to be prepared to deal with alot of rejection. You have to have tenacity to be successful. This is a very tough market, and some agents that got in when RE was hot are now getting out of it because it is alot of work now. You have to know what you can handle and see if this is for you. Good luck!
6. To the husband of the Realtor A proficient real estate professional makes more income than most attorneys,and is usually smarter than most attnys, and unlike most attnys do the community they serve in a beneficial service. That said: roughly six percent of the licensed Realtors actually sell 94% of the real estate sold,This only leaves 6% to divide up between the rest.A professianal sales trainer such as Tommy Hopkins invaluable A mentor can help you take off like a rocket. Real Estate is one of the hardest easy jobs you can find.However I know of no other vocation in which for a minute investment you can set yourself up to make a fortune.
7. Good question, the fact is getting your license is not really the hard part a few hours of school then passing a test and then the state exam, if you study it can be done easily. The hard part is making a business out of nothing, when you get started you will have to invest a lot of time and money into your self. It takes months to see any result of your efforts and many agents give up before reaching that goal. My average day consist of following up, following up and more follow up! You have to be very patient and don't expect the money to drop out of the sky. This market is very demanding, sellers are frustrated with market conditions and some times expect miracles and the buyers have so many choices they don't feel very motivated to act quickly so you really have to do allot of follow up. It is a very tough job to make a good living at but it can be done, it will take time and also working with a good Broker and team. Best of luck!