Belt Auction

Starting a career in real estate.?

I am thinking about starting a career in real estate. I just left my job due to too much time being spent away from home (4 days at a time). I don't need medical benefits and I really don't have many bills (probably around $1200 or so). So I guess my question is, is this something I can realistically do full time right out of the gate. I would be working with Prudential Realty.

Public Comments

1. First, you'd better change your tag line. Marquis de Sade is not a catchy name which inspires trust in any business, but especially in real estate. Good grief. You can offer to do office work for one of the agents, but unless things are much busier in your area than they are in most parts of the country you won't have much to do. You can also work as a house sitter for open houses, work as a "stager" for new listings, put up and take down For Sale signs, work as a computer tech putting listings in the computer or updating listings and sales information. Get the basic courses under your belt and apprentice yourself to a good, strong agent. By the time you have the experience to work on your own, you'll be ready. First, though, change the tag line. Please.
2. Sitting in the office listening to the other agents tell you what will not work is not the key to being a successful real estate agent. The key to having a successful career in the real estate field are simply and easy to follow. #1 Get the necessary education to get your state license. A. An internet class would do just fine you are only trying to get your license. B. If you like to sit through a class then find a real estate school in your local area. C. Some real estate offices offer career real estate license school in their office #2 Obtain the necessary continuing education to maintain and keep your license to sell real estate up to date. #3 Formalize the best marketing plan you can think of to maintain a high degree of referrals and a good customer base. You may listen to others that are successful and those that are unsuccessful tell you about what they do that work and what they do that don't work for them. You are not them so, what might work or not work for them might be the reverse for you. So take what they tell you and put them into something that work for you. Starting part time might work for some and not for others. It simply depends on how many hours a day you are willing to put into your new career and how bad you want to leave your old career behind. Sometime your present career can be a crutch. The main thing you want to remember about making real estate your career is that you are working for yourself, so you are the one that have to motivate yourself each and every day. You want to become an expert in real estate not just a person that sell and list houses. There is a big difference. There are several marketing techniques that are in use today. #1 There is telemarketing, but then there is the "Do not call list" So you have to be careful there and not make a mistake or you will be sued. Cost is $11,000 per call for you as well as your employer. #3 Advertise in the local newspaper that you are now in the business of doing real estate. #4 You can direct mail to people in your city telling them you are in the real estate business. I suggest you market yourself by leaving the office and spending time in a area that you want to work and get to know the people that could be your future clients. Find an area in your city that you want to work approximately 5,000-10,000 houses. Make you enough fliers to cover your area. If you have children this will be a good weekend activity for them as well as yourself. While walking the area passing out your fliers, if you see someone out doing the lawn or just out introduce yourself, give them one of your cards. See if they are willing to give you their name and email address so you can email them, on a monthly basis, things about the real estate industry as well as your monthly newsletter. Place any information you collect in a data base that you should start. Your flier should tell them a little about you, the high school and college you attended, a little about your family # of children, husbands first name if you have a family yet, a few of the real estate programs that you will be offering and introducing. This is an introductory flier that you can make on your computer. You can get them ran off at Staples or Office Depot. You should pass these type fliers out at least 3 months in a row. This will let them know that you are sincere and look as if you will be there for them. You should also visit the local commercial places in the same area. Find out if they will allow you to place a flier holder in their business, give them one of your business cards, find out their name, write it down you never want to forget it because they will become one of your partners. buy something even if you are gonna give it away and don't need it. Do this to as many commercial businesses in the area as will allow you to place a flier holder in their place of business. You will find the flier holders at Staples or Office Depot. Call the post office and inquire about their bulk mailing stamp. Get one and learn the system of bulk mailing. Also call your title company and get them to provide you with the names of the people in your area that you have been passing out your flier. Remember your data base you were starting and now should have over a thousand names that you alone should have been able to get if you have been walking the area. Once you have passed out the fliers for at least 3-4 months start you a newsletter covering topics on the real estate business. Get articles from your local newspaper as well as off the internet. Just remember to give credit to the author of the article. You might have a doctor, lawyer or some other professional to help you on your articles. Charge them for the articles, about 50% of the cost of the newsletter. Now remember the businesses that you had your fliers in and you now know their names because you have been there to change your fliers abou