I can't even begin to tell you how often people ask, "how did you get into real estate anyway?" I've come to find out that most Realtors have a fairly interesting story about why they are real estate professionals. This doesn't end with Realtors either. Lenders tend to have equally as interesting stories.
I thought I'd take a minute and share my story. A lot of people from all backgrounds end up in real estate or at least say (I hear this a lot) "I've been thinking about getting into that."
The year was 2005. I had just graduated with my physics degree from Gettysburg College. At this point I'm ready to admit that I slacked off quite a bit my senior year and only ended up with a BA in Physics and not a BS. I'm not going to take total blame for this, because our optional topics for the BS didn't appeal to me at all. I wasn't really interested in particle physics and that seemed to be the area of focus for research at Gettysburg College. I loved all my professors so if any of them read this, just know it wasn't your fault. I have a minor in math as well but that pretty much comes with the territory for someone majoring in physics.
At the time of my graduation my dad was in line to have a kidney transplant. Being that he is a doctor he knew that the best odds for finding a match would be in the family. The ultimate goal being to avoid going on dialysis. He found a match in my cousin and had a successful transplant in I believe September of 2005. At that time I had agreed that I would stay around until he had recovered completely.
Now, since I was able to think about things like investing I knew I wanted to own rental properties. I decided that while my dad was recovering it would be an opportune time to dedicate myself to learning the real estate industry. Little did I know it ended up being way more difficult to actually operate a real estate business than to get a license to do so.
It took about 6 months of classes and a few tests and ta da I had a real estate license. To be honest though, a license doesn't make you a real estate professional. I did the training courses that teach you have to write a contract and do a closing cost estimate. I was just out of college, how hard could this business be? A home town boy educated at the local college, this business should be a piece of cake....yeah right. Like most new Realtors I struggled through year one, sold a few, made enough to pay the real estate bills. Was scared shitless to write my first couple contracts. I didn't get sued and things settled thats about all I can say about my first few contracts. The mentoring program at my office wasn't the best.
Fast forward one year. Purchased my first two rental properties and what a learning experience that was. Lets just say that experience is another blog in itself. I struggled with them at first but have stabilized them at this point.
Oddly enough I'm at the end of my third year now and couldn't be happier. I feel like the storm has been weathered for the most part. I'm still learning things largely because of this site, but also because I just like to know everything I can. We are always one answer away from keeping or losing a customer in my opinion.
So that is pretty much how I ended up in real estate. I wanted to invest and now I'm a full time Realtor.
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