What Does It Take To Be A Successful Real Estate Agent?
Inquiring minds want to know. Money? Education? Fancy marketing? Connections? All of those things help. You need money to get started and to pay regular dues. Every career needs education; this one comes with the continuing kind. Pretty marketing and trinkets to spread about are wonderful to get your name out there. If you have connections you might have a head start in the game, say if a family member owns condos and uses you to help sell them. These things albeit helpful and some necessary don't solely make a successful real estate agent. I believe knowing when to walk away does.
There are many factors that a real estate agent may need to choose to walk away from: a brokerage, a team they're on, letting go of a team member, a marketing strategy that's just not working and sometimes clients. That latter is exactly what I needed to do.
Gasp! You're walking away from clients? Don't you need those to, you know, work?
Yes, I walked away from clients. Every successful (or soon to be successful) agent does. Real estate agents need to be able to pick and choose their business. Being able to read and connect with potential clients help us identify future business. If you can't connect business will be painful or non-existent. I walked away from working with uninformed buyers and those that would not let me educate them. But not after spinning my wheels and wasting a lot of time.
I connected with a gentleman at an open house in 2012, he was looking to buy and flip houses in Buffalo NY. He wanted me to help him. New to the real estate world I happily agreed. We looked at dozens of homes and placed MANY low-balled offers that were never accepted (often laughed at). He truly had no idea about the Buffalo sales market and wouldn't listen to me.
No, we can't offer 1/4 of the asking price... that's just not how this works.
No, this 1100 square foot Cape Cod doesn't need another bath and a half.
No, we can't reduce our offer price because you want to knock that wall out.
He disappeared early 2013 and I couldn't have been happier. Since then, I begin the real estate process with education. Learning what my potential clients think they know about the market and how the market actually is. Resistance to learning means this may be a difficult transaction. If we can't see eye to eye, I turn them loose. Real estate is a complicated process and education will set you free =)
So while money, continuing education and fancy marketing help, knowing when to walk away will bring you the best the job has to offer. When one door closes another one opens.
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