Agents are leaving the business in record setting numbers! I was reading that 86% of agents are out of the business in less than a year and only 7% ever renew their license! I guess the perception of the real estate business being easy is far from the truth! I see agents come and go everyday and it has become an everyday occurence to see people who got into this business when it was a buyers market leaving and getting a "real job." When I hear an agent tell me that they have to get a "real job", it makes me upset. What did they think our profession was? Did they not have a job?
I tell everyone that for as long as I have been in the real estate business, "I have never felt that I had a job!" I truly love what I do for a living and and I look forward to getting up everyday and going to work! I spend my days helping people fulfill their desire for home ownership. Is their anything more rewarding than helping a young couple purchase their first home? Just look at the expression on their face as you leave the closing table! I spend hours training real estate agents to become successful! As a broker, there is nothing more rewarding than helping an agent close his first transaction. Just look at the expression on the agents face! Then if our job is so rewarding why do we have such a gigantic turnover?
Why do some agents work 40 hours a week and close 3 transactions every month, even in a down market, while most agents do not close 3 deals a year? It is what they do that everyday that makes the top agents successful! They have a job and they go to work everyday! They don't sit around and wait for it to happen! While the successful agent is prospecting, listing homes and working with buyers, most agents are complaining about how bad the market is. Instead of doing something about it, they would rather feel sorry for themselves and sit around hoping that things will get better! Sooner or later the inevitable happens, they are out of money, the car payment is late, and it is time to get a "real job!"
I have an agent who works in my office who 3 years ago came to me and asked what I thought about getting involved in REO's? He said he had a feeling that we were going into a new market and he wanted to be ready! He had about $1,000 to his name and he said he was going to fly to Palm Springs, California, to an REO Convention! He could not afford the airfare, food and lodging at the Convention hotel, so he flew to Palm Springs area but he had to stay in a motel almost 100 miles from the convention. Today he is one of the top REO agents in our marketplace carrying 50+ listings! See he was different than 90% of agents and he was willing to go and make it happen. He was not going to sit around and wait for it to happen! He went out and invested in himself and got the training he needed to be successful at his "real job!"
I tell agents everyday that this business is nothing more than R & D! They look at me with a blank stare and say,"Research and Development?". No I reply, "Rip off and duplicate!". The real estate business is not an easy business, however their is no reason to reinvent the wheel! Find somebody who is successful and just do what they are doing! Your results will be the same!
There is one thing that I have learned from years of watching agents fail in our business! They all know what they want out of life, but most of them are not willing to pay the price!! Our business is a "real job" and it is not easy. You must invest your time, money and hard work and you will not fail. If what you are doing now is not working, take a look around and do something that is for someone else! Go for training, invest in a coach or start over somehere else where your results will be different!
If you are content sitting around complaining and waiting for it to change, do yourself a favor , do your family a favor, do your fellow agents a favor and go get that "real job" that we hear so much about! Our profession will be much better off without you!
Mike Kelly Broker/Owner, Sellstate Advantage Realty 239-549-9200
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