Home > Real Estate Stuff Consumers Should Know > Really Love Looking At Houses

How many times have we heard that our clients considered us "lucky" because we get to look at houses everyday? "It's so much fun. I love people and I love looking at houses". That must make it a good requirement to become a real estate agent.

Six years later, I still hear this comment once in a while. I could only smile. If only the client knew what amount of work it takes before an agent gets to work with a client, most would probably stop the desire after reading this post. So, this post is dedicated to do just that: to explain what it somewhat entails in becoming a real estate agent.

Well, first of all, let me explain that becoming a real estate agent really means that you are going into business for yourself. It doesn't matter if you are a Prudential, Century 21, Exit Realty, Re/Max, Keller Williams agents, or even someone who works for myself like 3:16 team REALTY, each of us are INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS. By that, it means that we are our own boss, we determine our work schedule and we certainly determine our incomes. Some people might like those facts: That no one is there to tell us what to do. Truth be told, it is much easier to go to work everyday, knowing what you need to do in order to get your job done. Once accomplished, you call it a day and you repeat it day in, day out. When you get things done correct and on time, it is almost certain you would get a good annual review, more than likely subject to a good bonus or a raise. All these are great as an employee when there is direction.

Being your own boss means that no one is there to tell you what to do in order to smell success. You don't know if you are doing it right or wrong. Want to try asking your fellow real estate agents in the area? Try it! This is a very competitive business and almost no one would openly tell you what it is - the path for success. Even if one person did, again what works for him may not work for you because your approach and business philosophy are different. I could draw you a complete blueprint to success. You might take it word for word, action for action. But you could yield very different results from me. Now, that's a real bummer!

It takes a leader with entrepreneurial qualities, someone who take calculated risks and someone who looks at the puzzle from outside the box to even get a chance at success. Again, notice that I didn't say the agent is sure to have success with these qualities. It just means that there is higher probability for success.

Years ago, I created my very own real estate website but other than getting rave reviews from family and friends, that was just it. A nice looking site that did not except to feed my ego. I learnt the very hard way just by having a real estate website, it doesn't mean it is income-producing. Granted that I had many friends who used me as a Buyer's agent or a Listing Agent back in my early days, it never made me a top producer. These days, on top of knocking out and perfecting my Home Marketing plan, I spend waking hours learning how to use the Internet to drive traffic to my website. I need to continue to learn about how to keep readers on the website with tools that they want.

So, becoming a real estate agent goes beyond just loving to look at houses and loving people! It's a good place to start but quite honestly, it really isn't a requirement for the business. Whether or not you like houses has no demarkations on your real estate business success.

Successful agents can tell you that I haven't even scratch the surface of what an agent needs to do. Forget about overcoming your fears and shortcomings for salesmanship. That's another blog for another day.

If you really let me get ugly, I probably get hit by agents when I say this: Ask how many of them have mountainous debt because of their marketing expenses. Ask how many of them who probably need to work well into retirement age not because they love selling real estate so much - it's because they forgot to sock retirement funds aside. Lastly, ask how many of them are not what they drive? These are real hard truths that agents dont tell their clients, but it's there. And it's real. (I'm so sorry fellow agents, I honestly still love you very much). So, maybe just loving houses do not correspond to becoming successful in the business.

So, whenever you look at your real estate agent opening doors to houses, think again if LOVING HOUSES is enough to want to get into the business.

I can't get off this post without at least highlighting the iceberg, so please let me:

• How to read and understand contracts enough to explain to clients
• Know how to sell homes
• How to read market data and perform market analysis with the raw data
• How to stage a home to sell faster or at least know of a good stager - but you still got to know
• Understand how the current market may or may not affect the housing market
• Understand the Internet and how to optimize it in order to drive traffic
• How to convert prospects into actual clients
• How to utilize technology to stay on the forefront of clients
• How to read people's tastes and minds quickly and body language
• Network with other real estate professionals from fellow real estate agents, loan officers, stagers, inspectors, title companies, attorneys and trade vendors
• I could go on and on but I dont want to bore or scare you. Enuf' said.

This is not a post to rain on your parade if you want to start a real estate career. But if I had told you it was going to be a bed of roses, you might feel the thorns first.

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