There is no short answer as to why I chose real estate as a career path. Becoming a REALTOR® was a risk and I knew it. Long gone were the dreams of becoming a nurse or teacher that I’d had in elementary school. I had been a Speech Communication major in college as my Mom had implanted in my brain the idea that I should pursue a career in Broadcast Journalism. While I had been incredibly shy up to that point in my life, that major had a way of making you step out of your shell. And while I didn’t want to be on camera, I did have a love of radio.
During my last semester of college I got to work my (then) dream job. I worked behind the scenes with the production staff of a popular talk radio show. It was so much fun. And for the next several years, I worked sales jobs around that show: Selling the show itself for Westwood One Radio Networks and advertising for the show at the local radio station. Somehow, that wasn’t a fit for me despite my desire for it to be.
I abruptly left that industry and was floating aimlessly in my brain. I came to the realization that becoming a REALTOR® was it after three years of soul searching and managing the diamond department of a Jared jewelry store. I was making commission off of every sale. The commission percentage would be similar to what it would be selling houses. And when one night a prior customer dragged his friend in to me and insisted he also use me to purchase his diamond engagement ring, the light bulb went off. It was time to move this referral system to the next level. Why settle for that commission on just a $10,000 engagement ring? Why not a house?
I had been told that real estate was where I would find a fit for years. Back in the radio days, one of my bosses, whose wife was a successful agent, and a co-worker, whose aunt was also a successful agent, predicted that was what I would end up doing. My then fiancé also told me that was where I would find success Well, they were right.
I knew I was good at sales, and let’s face it, being a REALTOR® is just that….a sales job. But to be successful in any sales job you need to like your product and your clients. I can’t express to you how much it DOESN’T feel like work to wake up every morning and help Buyers and Sellers through the process of a real estate transaction. And it doesn’t FEEL like sales. It just feels like I’m helping people. The paychecks 
are certainly a nice benefit.
Before I became a REALTOR® I had bought and sold homes and thought, looking at the commission line on the HUD-1 settlement statement, how lucrative being an agent would be. Easy money was my thought. Well, despite learning it’s anything but easy; I am here to tell you it can be very lucrative. But again, you have to love what you do.
Solving problems, marketing, turning up prospects and negotiating contracts are the things I was truly born to do. I am so glad that I took the risk and made real estate my chosen industry. I don’t ever want to do anything else.
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