Becoming an Arizona Realtor Arizona Real Estate Explained
Let's start with why most people get into Real Estate in the first place. There are a quite a few reasons folks decide to get into Real Estate and most of them are not the best reasons.
- I'll get rich!
- I can't find a job.
- I'm going to do it part time to supplement my current job and make a few extra dollars.
- I love to look at homes.
- I want to be my own boss and work the hours I want to work.
While all of these are true, they are all false. A career in Real Estate is like opening a business. You're going to face long and hard hours with little rewards in the beginning. As your customer base expands so do the rewards. Even though you work for yourself so to speak, your going to be under the supervision and scrutiny of your company, broker, State and local boards and most of all...your clients! It's hard to be a part timer in Real Estate, but not impossible. I started that way until I could get on my feet. If you really want to be a Real Estate Professional I would suggest and exit strategy from your current job using income and pipeline as a guideline. Real Estate is just like any other business. It takes an investment of time and money to build your business to a liveable and sustainable level. In Real Estate you are paid on a commission only. So what you sew is what you reap.
How do I become a Real Estate Agent in Arizona?
- Becoming a licensed Real Estate Agent is easier then most people think.
- You can get your license in less time then it takes you to become a hair stylist or a nail technician.
- It's relatively less expensive then any other business you can own.
- You can be a Licensed Real Estate Agent in a week. Generally you will need a month for an ambitious person. I was licensed and hired in a month doing part time classes.
You've decided to take the next step and it is easy, but you need to know a few things first.
- A good School is going to cost you around $600
- After you graduate you need to have another $600 set aside for association and License fee.
I really think you need to budget for about $1,500 to get started. That is for your first day! That's really not so bad for starting your own business. But wait there are more expense to follow.
So your a proud new graduate and hold a genuine Real Estate License! Congratulations. Most of you will fail! Real Estate School is all about the legalize and nothing about the how to. Let's talk about the next steps to becoming a successful Realtor. You need to find the right company to hang your license with. Believe me when I tell you any company will hire you much to most new agents disbelief. Real Estate Companies survive on your production by charging you splits, desk fees, transition fees, transaction fees, mentor fees, and training fees. This is where I made my biggest mistake in my Real Estate Career. This is the most important mistake that every first time agent makes. It can cost you big time!
Everything you learned at School is pretty much worthless from a monetary point of view. When your starting out as a new agent you need people that might or are going to buy a home...period. And you need training on how to accomplish that ASAP! Otherwise your fees are going to eat you alive. The hardest decision you have to make is what company you'll hang you license with. It's also the most crucial decision you can make as a new agent. Here's a short list of things to consider.
- Does the Company offer a Mentoring Program?
- What is the companies lead distribution procedure?
- How many leads will I get from this company?
- What training will I get from this company?
- How much will I pay for this training?
- What is the companies desk fees, split, mentor fee, time mentoring, monthly dues and contributions, including charitable.
- Do my commissions cap?
As a new agent you have to be budget conscious and practical. It's far less important to a new agent to be with a Major Franchise that charges heavy desk fees and charges high training fees. It's much more important to find good training and mentor-ships. But having said that, leads are king! Go to Google Chrome, hit settings, and open a google incognito search. This will give you an unadulterated search! Google "my town, my state, Real Estate". Ditto that for 5 major search terms. Throw out the Zillows and paid advertisement and that is probably the company you should interview first! 95% of all Real Estate Starts on the internet! As an example google Phoenix AZ Real Estate. You will see eXp Realty in 1st position. Google Scottsdale AZ Real Estate and you will see eXp Realty in the first position. You'll find similar results in most major metro areas. These sights generate mass leads. eXp Realty gets over 1,500 hits each week for that specific search term.
Leads are the first thing a new agent needs. Training is second. There are a few ways to get training. 99% involve you breaking out your credit card! The other way is FREE. Why pay for it when you can get the industries best splits, abundant leads, free training and a solid mentor-ship program? At eXp Realty I got all of this plus a free website and lots of leads.
I made the same mistakes you will probably make. I got my license and interviewed with the largest real estate company in the World, signed, got a desk and went to work. I took as much floor time as I could get and I lived in the office 7 days a week. I quickly realized that there was not going to be any free training. Oh the Agents were friendly but the guarded their marketing plans like it was The Kentucky Fried Chicken Recipe. I went online and started taking classes, but each one was $25 - $100. I was burning my budget! Some agent told me about Buffini and Company so I enrolled and went to a live event. It reminded me of an Amway event! After dropping a quick $1,000 to learn that I needed to drop cookies to everyone I know I moved on. I was getting desperate when I stumbled into ActiveRain. That saved me. I became a RainMaker which set me back $29 a month. It was a solid investment but knowing what I know today I wouldn't do it again. Besides it's now $89 a month. I would advise you to get an ActiveRain Free account because there is a wealth of information on a wide variety of topics. ActiveRain introduced me to the future of Real Estate and I met some industry leaders. I started learning about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Blogging, Vlogging, Facebook, Twitter and Internet Marketing. I jumped in head over heals and really kicked it up a notch. I was really excited about it and was sharing my results with my fellow agents who much to my surprise were disgusted with it. I even opened a Facebook Business page for the Company and made the office manager the Admin. The company owners had a closed door meeting and instructed me to take it down. I was dumb founded! I showed them the results from Industry Leaders and they just dismissed it as a place that people wast time playing Farmville. They suggested that I need to be cold calling, door knocking, and dropping cookies! I started thinking about how these agents were marketing themselves. Ads in the local Newspaper. Ads on Shopping Carts and at the Car Wash. Open Houses. 75% of them were still using a roll-a-dex and a tickler file! The desk fees were draining me. There was no training. The Agents were taking bets on how long I would last and I was depressed. I new I'd made a big mistake so I started investigating what the future of Real Estate was and how to be successful. So I went back to the only place I'd found that was making sense to me...ActiveRain!
I dug in hard. Reading outstanding blogs and learning about Marketing and The Future of Real Estate. My favorite blogger was Brad Andersohn who taught FREE classes at ActiveRain's was having a presentation by Dale Kreiser of eXp Realty on the future of Real Estate and I attended. It blew my mind! We were inside a virtual Real Estate Office! Not a webinar, but face to face with each other. At the time eXp Realty was in it's infancy, less then 6 months old. Dale explained eXp Realty's concept and it mirrored mine. A team of internet experts on SEO, Blogging, Wordpress, Twitter, Facebook and 1/1 google ranking for Scottsdale and Phoenix. Something we real haven't delved into to is eXp Realty concept of its business model for agents which is also totally out of the box and to me the main reason I decided to go with this company.
Dale explained the pay plan which is the best in the industry and then he explained there revenue sharing plan. It's pretty simple. You sign people up and you get a percent of what they produce and the people they sign up produce. I come from a business background, not a real estate back ground. I've helped start 4 business from scratch. I probably made more money by selling them then I did with them. All most all Real Estate agents focus on branding themselves and doing business. Very few look at it as developing a business plan that is salable and that can even survive your passing. In the eXp business model and with proper planning it can be done. Not that personal branding isn't important but creating a Business Brand is equally important and a revenue stream.At eXp Realty we get a percentage of everyone you bring in to the company and a percentage of everyone they bring in, out to eight levels deep! . We have agents getting checks in the $3,500 a month range already and we're only a year and half old! You can imagine the potential income that is possible from your down line. This income doesn't go away as long as you are active with eXp Realty. So let's say you set an exit strategy 10 years down the road and you have developed a pipeline of 500 people and you have created and nurtured a dominate internet presence that is not specific to you. Some like Live in Fountain Hills or what ever. This is a very salable business model! No telling what it might be worth but it would be quite a bit. It's like having a built in retirement program.
I was really Sold but I was cringing at what this was going to cost me!
It was the same as just 2 months at my Major Company for the whole year!
What does it take to be a top producer in today's Real Estate Market? Being on the first page of Google for a relevant search term is the most powerful thing you can do. You can get there 2 ways, Pay for it, or Work for it!
- Real Estate is and always has been a numbers game. You need to reach as many people as possible as often as you can.
- You do this by blogging, facebooking, twittering, youtubing,QR coding, just to name a few.
- Today's Agent needs to reach an ever expanding internet market to serve his client.
- Traditional Bricks an Mortar Agencies continue to fail while tech savoy agencies flourish.
- Agents that are relying on local newspapers, shopping carts, cold calling and open houses are virtually extinct.
- Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress and others are free. Print and pay for click are expensive.
- Face on Face Real Estate happens after the Virtual begins. You have to be real.
- A business plan, Goals and an exit strategy for retirement.
For more information on this new and exciting Real Estate Company visit eXp Realty Explained.
You'll find a revenue calculator and a better explanation of the services it offers.
For more information about Mark Gridley, Fountain Hills, AZ eXp Realty
For information about Fountain Hills Real Estate Information and Listings
Feel free to contact me Becoming an Arizona Realtor Arizona Real Estate Explained.
Mark Gridley, Realtor
eXp Realty, Fountain Hills, AZ
cell: 480.818.5155
fax: 602.467.3012
toll free: 888.897.7821 x 117
www.LiveInFountainHillsAZ.com
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