Tell Me About Being a Realtor

[devilbat]

his response (i wish i still had it but i couldn't find it) was much like devilbat's, though twice as long and far more detailed. let's just say she lost interest pretty quickly.

I could go on and on and on about the good and bad of the Real Estate business, but what it all comes down to is, How much time are you willing to put in? If you are up for sixty + hours a week to start, you'll be fine, if not, then don't do it.

I noticed I didn't answer the question regarding starting income.

Because Real Estate is 100% commission based, it's hard to suggest what a starting income would be. I've seen people in my office far exceed 100k, their first year, and I have seen others struggle to make 30k. Keep in mind that if you work for a large company such as RE/MAX, Century 21 or Royal LePage (in Canada), you should expect a healthy bill at the end of every month.

For instance, I'm with RE/MAX and my business costs roughly $1500/month in company fees (basically a fee to work with RE/MAX), and another $2000-$3000/ month in operating expenses (advertising, licensing, marketing, pager, office, long distance, etc..). Add to that gas, automobile maintenance, cell phone, client gifts, office supplies, etc, that comes out of my pocket, and not billed through the office. So we'll say there is an additional cost of $1000/ month. For a total of roughly $4500-$5500/month or $54000-$64000 a year in expenses, before you earn a cent for your self.

Smaller companies are far less expensive, some only charge you by the sale. Say, $200 per deal, plus a smaller monthly office charge. But they don't have the market share that the larger companies offer. I know that when I hand out my RE/MAX card a fairly large percentage of people believe immediately, that I know my stuff, whether I do, or don't.

 

[adwyn]

As a Realtor for nearly fifteen years, I have to agree with Devilbat. In fact this is my third attempt to respond to the post but I keep getting called away unexpectedly by clients who A) just had to see the place they were in front of "right now" (6 PM on a Saturday), B) realized they didn't have as much down payment as they thought (11 PM Saturday night), C) Tenant locked himself out and got picked up by police trying to break in (3 PM Sunday morning, cops called at 6 AM).

Now that's more than happened last week but is typical of a major part of being a real estate agent - unpredictability, both of schedule and income. Plus there are ominous changes on the horizon with the growth of banks trying to use agents as loss leaders, fear of a nation wide housing bubble, internent marketing, federal investigation of nation wide price fixing of commissions and more.

Long and short, if you are either single and can live on rammen or have a spouse with an income willing to carry the family through lean periods (like your first 6-12 months), have good people skills, are willing to work long and erratic hours, have or can develop a large collection of contacts, then you you should contact some agents in your area and talk to them.

The best way is to go to open houses, especially on rainy days when traffic is slow. Then agents who are actually working have some time (there often bored out of their minds) and will give you a much better perspective of what you can expect inb your market. keep in mind most of these people, no matter how honest and nice, still blow smoke, especially if you ask about income. For that find your local MLS. Get the number of homes sold last year, number of active agents, average sales price per home. Multiply that by the average commision for your area and you'll get a good indicator of the average earnings per agent. It'll be scary - NAR estimates approximately 70% of commisions are earned by just 16% of the active agents.

 

[WayneLigon]

Now that's more than happened last week but is typical of a major part of being a real estate agent - unpredictability, both of schedule and income. Plus there are ominous changes on the horizon with the growth of banks trying to use agents as loss leaders, fear of a nation wide housing bubble, internent marketing, federal investigation of nation wide price fixing of commissions and more.

Long and short, if you are either single and can live on rammen or have a spouse with an income willing to carry the family through lean periods (like your first 6-12 months), have good people skills, are willing to work long and erratic hours, have or can develop a large collection of contacts, then you you should contact some agents in your area and talk to them.

Thanks, everyone. Most of the posts confirmed my initial suspicions that not only is this not the career for me, it's pretty much my anti-career. I would hate it even more than my current position.

 

[devilbat]

As a Realtor for nearly fifteen years, I have to agree with Devilbat. In fact this is my third attempt to respond to the post but I keep getting called away unexpectedly

Funny, it took me a couple of attempts at posting because of calls and appointments as well.

The best way is to go to open houses, especially on rainy days when traffic is slow. Then agents who are actually working have some time (there often bored out of their minds) and will give you a much better perspective of what you can expect in your market. keep in mind most of these people, no matter how honest and nice, still blow smoke, especially if you ask about income.

This is so true, both on the bored at Open Houses (I had two couples through in four hours of Open House), and about Realtors lying about income.

Adwyn, nice to hear from a fellow gamer/Realtor. I thought I was the only one out there.