Now came the hard part. I had my license (Part1), chose my firm and set up my desk (Part 2) but now I had to sit down at my new desk, in my new office, and start selling real estate. I had no back burner let alone front burner prospects. I had absolutely nothing other than years of experience!
For the first time in probably 12 years I signed up for phone duty and agreed to do open houses all the while trying to learn everything I could about selling real estate in North Carolina.
Phone Duty: I remember my first month or so of phone duty. For a perfectionist like myself I dreaded it. Phone duty not only meant talking with customers/clients but we had to run the reception desk handling incoming agent calls, paging agents, and doing just about anything someone needed done. This was simply horrible:
- First of all, I didn't know any of the 50 agents so how was I to know if someone was in or not?
- I had to learn the phone systems and how to "park" calls and then page the agent, whose names I would sometime mispronounce. If I had wanted to be a receptionist I would have been one!.
- When an up-call finally came in I was still new at our MLS systems so between handling other incoming calls and trying to remember how to search for a price for a property when I had no clue what area it was in did not make for successful conversions.
Open houses, on the other hand, were great; except for the fact that they are not commonly held here so if I was lucky I got one or two groups through on any given Sunday. But, at least I had prepared a notebook for each open house with the comps, other active listings in the neighborhood, schools, maps and anything else I could think of just in case. Each Sunday I became an expert in a new area.
Farming: The firm I worked for had a farming company so I bought in to neighborhoods that were available and started farm mailings right away; knowing this was a long-term investment.
Acting as if: Despite the fact that I didn't have any business for the first couple of months, I went to the office just about every day. I got to know the agents, looked at property, listened to the agents and asked a lot of questions. 
Showing property: My first buyers were my son and two referrals; all in the first-time buyer price ranges. The biggest challenge was learning the areas and finding the listings. In Pasadena I could tell you not only where every house was located based upon the address but, in the high-end, I had probably been in the home already.
It just so happens that here in North Carolina, street names change without any warning, there are not mountains to give one a sense of North and South and the roads around the lake stop and start and wind all over the place.
The Offer and Sale Process: Writing offers really was't too bad since the contracts here are fairly straight forward. This is really where my experience finally kicked in! Once I was negotiating I was back to being the expert. Taking care of my clients was second nature. While I have never had an attorney closing before it was fairly easy to adapt.
Thanks to some great referrals, open houses and a walk-in during phone duty, I had 14 sales during my first full year after getting my license. With each buyer I learned more about the neighborhoods and communities. With each contract I learned more about inspections issues common in the south.
After my first year I decided to leave the mega firm I had been giving almost half of my commission to and am now getting settled at a wonderful RE/MAX office. Yes, I am still learning the agents names and the phone systems but I know now that in time I will be fine. I am a Realtor and have been since 1991. I know the industry, how to represent buyers and sellers and market listings. It's amazing how quickly all of this knowledge and experience kicks in once I start working with a client.
I still have my bad days when I make a wrong turn while showing property or somebody asks me a question about an area that I don't know. But, while I am beating myself about this my clients later tell me that they thought I was an expert in my new market place.
Don't be your own worst enemy but let your insecurities motivate you to learn everything that you feel you need to know in order to be the best Realtor you can possibly be. If I can do it, YOU can do it!
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