Once you have taken all the required classes, and have managed to take and pass your state's Real Estate Agent LIcensing Exam, there is a completely new challenge. You have to find an honest Real Estate Broker willing to take on a newly licensed real estate agent. Here is where starting your real estate career gets tricky.
Unless you have a large cache of moderately wealthy friends with great credit who are ready to buy or sell their homes, you are going to have to spend a lot of money to get started in a meaningful way. And I'm not just talking about business cards, car signs, a website and cell phone minutes.
National Real Estate Company Or Local Real Estate Company
Real Estate Brokers do not make money by passing good leads to inexperienced agents. If you sign up with a 'bargain Broker' and cannot easily generate your own leads, expect to starve. They are there to be served, not to serve.
The alternative is spending several thousand dollars to sign up with a big name national franchise like Century 21. These operations are backed by nationwide advertising, training programs, marketing programs, and customer follow up systems all attached to a great brand name.
However, none of this guarantees you either good leads or success. It just means you have an organization backing you that offers a better chance to earn money quicker than Jerry's Happy Home Real Estate Office down on the corner of Main and Used Car Lots Avenue.
Getting Buyer Leads In The Beginning Requires You To Give Too
Even the best Real Estate Offices have a pecking order and exist on a currency of THIS FOR THAT. If you want decent buyer and seller leads, you are going to have to put in some phone, desk and office time.
You'll be expected to cover for other Agents who are too busy for their own Open Houses. The worst part will be driving around your share of people who just like looking at pretty houses, cannot seem to make up their minds about anything and probably have no intention of buying from you anyway.
In short, any Broker worth their salt will try and squeeze as much money, time and effort out of new Agents as they can. More experienced and successful Agents know better, form their own sales teams or go on to be Brokers. You have to learn quickly and focus on the money, not being the most popular person in the office.
Article by Bill Knell. Bill is a family guy with eclectic interests, a wealth of knowledge and experience. Bill also excels in the area of personal, business and financial advice and management. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Omni, the L.A. Times, Toronto Star and the NY Times. He's written hundreds of articles on a wide variety of subjects and several books. A popular Speaker, Bill Knell presents seminars on a number of topics that entertain, train and teach. Bill can be reached through BillKnell.com.
