To Read Myth #1, "Your Love of People Will Make you a Successful Real Estate Agent," Click Here.

Your Love of Houses Will Make You a Successful Real Estate Agent
(excerpted from Sell with Soul: The New Agent's Guide to an Extraordinary Career in Real Estate) 

       This is probably the number one reason people choose real estate as a career. They loved the house-shopping process when they bought their first home and thought, "Gee, I could do this all day, this is fun!"

And it is, at first. But after a year or two, the thrill is gone. You will know, from looking at a house from the street, pretty much what to expect on the inside. "Ah, a 1928 brick bungalow - narrow living room and dining room on the left, two bedrooms and a bath on the right, small kitchen in the back, stairs leading to the basement off the kitchen."

You'll get tired of struggling with jammed or frozen lockboxes. Your knees will scream in protest as you explore yet another two-story home with a finished basement. You'll despair as you realize that the owner of the home you're showing is home and intends to show you and your buyer every single closet personally.

I had a Ph.D. client (a special breed) who insisted on photographing every room of every house we looked at. Yes, even homes he had absolutely no interest in. Then he would take notes in his spiral notebook so he wouldn't forget what he'd taken pictures of. With approximate room measurements. Looking at eight homes with this guy would take far longer than the two hours I allowed.

While liking homes won't make you a success, having a working knowledge of home construction, your local architecture and a general idea of the cost of repairs just might. Your job as a real estate agent is not to Ooh and Aah over homes with your buyers, but to advise them on the issues that are important to them. Such as the cost to replace a 50-year-old furnace (the electrical may need to be upgraded and the chimney lined). Or that this particular lakefront neighborhood has a high water table, so we need to check out the sump pump. Or what to advise your buyer when a home smells like cat urine or cigarette smoke.

Maybe you'll never reach the point of buyer burnout, and if you don't, good for you. But don't go into real estate because you think you'll always enjoy a good day of house-shopping with your clients.

The 7 Myths of a Real Estate Career
  Your Love of People Will Make you a Successful Real Estate Agent
  Your Love of Houses Will Make You a Successful Real Estate Agent
  You Have to Pester (er, Cold Call) Strangers to Build a Successful Business
  Your Job Is to Drive Buyers Around and Hold Open Houses
  You Will Work Every Weekend
  Real Estate Is a Team Sport
  You Shouldn't Ever Discount Your Fee

* due to heightened self-imposed stress due to participation in the NAR Convention, I am blogging with material from my book until the end of October (unless something absolutely brilliant strikes me that I MUST write about).

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copyright Jennifer Allan 2007