Did you wanna be a REALTOR growing up?

Maureen, what a fantastic blog and comments and you deserve a big star for replies!  Thanks

Sue of Robin and Sue

Maureen, after I stopped wanting to be a cowgirl or a professional tennis player, being a Realtor was a top pick! I've been doing this since I was 23...so I think that qualifies me as a child Realtor! Who buys houses from a 23 year old...especially back in 1976!

I never thought about being a realtor, but I always loved older houses and the idea of fixing them up.  Great post, by the way, and...I was wondering about that "Suggest" button, too!  Let me know what you find out about that!

Maureen,

Came back to your blog and was glad to see that it was featured. After I found that "Suggest" button, I used it... and it did not work. I have 2 accounts on AR, and I did the same from my other account.

Well, it is featured and I do not know how many other people glagged (suggested) it.

but I am glad it all worked after all.

Yes I did want to be a REALTOR.  I've always been fascinated with houses and I've always worked with people so now many years later - here I am and loving it!

Even as a kid, I loved to tour properties.  When Dad went to the lumber store, I just had to go along.  In high school, I passed on home ec and took mechanical drawing and interior design.  So, I guess the possibility to be something involved in real estate was always there!. (I also loved science and dance, but that's a tangent for another time.)  Great post, Maureen!

Growing up I had a variety of dreams about different jobs & career aspirations that I thought might be fun and enjoyable industries to pursue. However, even though other career fields seemed intriguing, I always wanted to join my parents in the real estate business!

I always joke that I have been involved with the real estate industry my entire life. I was taught how to answer the phone professionally & fill out the message book at a very early age in case clients called the home phone looking for my parents. And even as a pre-schooler my parents would often take my brother and I on listing appointments to entertain clients children and tell them that "when you work with the Baird's you get the whole family!" What is so crazy now is that a lot of those children I entertained are now home buyers themselves and I have had an opportunity to work with them in purchasing their homes!

It is interesting, Maureen, not to have grown up in a real estate family and to have wanted to do this as an adult. I guess I just felt a connection early on as in the story I told earlier about my mother's townhome purchase in the 80s.  Kids are funny that way, when they find something that clicks and makes sense to them, they latch onto it. 

I was licensed at the age of 25, and now that I am about to turn 41 I am glad I made the decisions that I did early on.  I would have a lot of pause about getting into this business blindly in todays market, but if you are twenty-something and have the financial ability to market yourself properly it can still be very rewarding in the long term. It's all about the relationships you have built today, and I think that's a good thing.  Reputation was under-rated for far too long.

I'm also fortunate to have not grown up in a real estate family.  Agents in Georgia prior to the 80s just walked in the courthouse and filled out an application. No education, no background check, they just wanted to know who you were.  So they were generally under-educated, and seemed to be glorified car salesman types.  VERY pushy as I recall from an agent my grandfather used in the mid 70s, and very unlikeable.  Fortunately times have changed and it is actually somewhat difficult in Georgia since we were the first to do away with sub-agency.

Danielle, that's very cool and impressive you have generational clients that are still buying from your family.  We don't often see that in a this transient world we now live in.

I didn't even know what a REALTOR was until I became one.  I became one because my parents were ripped off by one and I was hopin mad!

Anger produces no results so I made it my mission to make a difference to show that Realtors are good, honest, caring people.

Fortunately it has been a very successful mission!  Joy

What a refreshingly candid post! I hate to admit it, but I wanted to be a Solid Gold dancer. Once I realized that wouldn't be possible for a 13yr old, I figured that I would follow my mom in accounting, but I was bored! So I sold everything...dates, cars, travel and then ended up in Real Estate for the convenience of raising a family. I really love what I do. Each day, each client brings something different to my life!