So You want to be a REALTOR®?
It seems like lots of folks are jumping back into Real Estate now that the big housing crisis is mostly behind us.
But is Real Estate the career for you?
How do you know?
Answer the following three questions, and you'll have a pretty good idea if Real Estate is for you or not:
1. Am I a Self Starter?
The great thing ab
out real estate is that you don't have to answer to that mean old boss or manager who texts/calls you and tells you to come into work or to stay home because they cut you from the schedule that day.
You work for yourself.
And the reality of that last sentence is that if you can’t get your rear end out of bed in the morning and get after it, you won’t make a dime in real estate.
See, money doesn’t fall out of the sky in this business. You have to go get it. You gotta work for it. And sometimes you have to put in long hours and make sacrifices.
But when you do, the payoff can be pretty cool!
Not only can you make good money in real estate, but you’ll meet some of the coolest people you never would have met. And many of them will become your life long friends.
But not if you aren’t willing to get up everyday and make yourself go to work.
2) Am I Self Motivated?
So let’s say you’re a
morning person. Getting up early is how you are wired. That’s great! Now, are you willing to do what you must do in Real Estate to become successful?
For example, are you comfortable making cold phone calls to strangers to ask them if they’ll talk to you about selling their house? And doing it over and over and over again?
How about talking to people whom you’ve just met at open houses? Can you easily relate to strangers? Are you friendly? Are you willing to work open houses every weekend if needed to get your business up and going?
And speaking of working, I often hear people who are considering a career in Real Estate say things like, “Wow! You seem to make so much money! I can’t wait to be rich!” But then, when you ask them about going with you to show a buyer houses on Thursday night, they have other plans. Remember this, if you want to build a successful career in Real Estate, it has to come first at first. After you’ve put your time in building your career you can then get a little picky about if you’ll show on Thursday night or do the open house or if you’ll bless one of your team members with that opportunity.
But you gotta do the time first.
You gotta be self motivated for the long haul.
3) Do I have Thick Skin?
Being a self starter is big.
Being self motivated is important.
But this is the one that can sneak up and take you out.
In Real Estate you’re going to take some blows.
Expect it.
Your family and friends are going to ask you to work for free or at a deep discount. And so will everyone else. And those loyal friends you think you’ve got…yeah, they’ll go buy a house or sell their house with someone else and you’ll find out about it when you see it on Facebook or in the MLS.
Yeah, that hurts. Especially the first time.
And then there are the other people who sell Real Estate. You’ll become good friends with many of them, but remember this too. Jealousy is a big old green eyed monster in our business. If you start doing good, someone won’t like it cause now you’re taking business away from them.
And then there are those agents who are just difficult to deal with. You come across them in transactions sometimes and you literally are just pulling your hair out in frustration because it doesn’t have to be so…frustrating. And yet it is! These are times when you have to stand your ground for your clients and their interests. And that can be difficult. It doesn’t sound like it just reading this, but when you’re in the middle of a crap storm with another agent and the heat is ramping up, you’d better be real thick skinned, cause you might get burned!
There’s lots of other situations in Real Estate that require thick skin, but I won’t go into those right now.
So is Real Estate worth it?
If you can answer yes to these three questions, absolutely!
Photos used under license of Freeimages.com
Comments(14)