My real estate career did NOT begin the usual way. I was in marketing. I'd worked for a newspaper for a long time and I got a new boss and I hated my job so I quit and went to work in radio. I got a new boss and I hated my job so I read the line ads in the classifieds and on my lunch break one day I went into Lane Realty and sat down across the desk from Jim Lane. He asked me a few questions, I asked him a few and he told me I was over qualified and he couldn't pay me near what I had been making. I clinched my teeth leaned across his desk and said, "but I won't hate my job so just hire me". He did. That was the summer of 1992.
At the end of 1993 I was still there at Lane Realty, answering the phone, keeping the trust account, typing offers, greeting clients, writing all the ads for the paper (that part I was great at from the start), balking the dress code and reading. I actually read the Georgia Real Estate Commission law book. That's right, every page, every law, every rule, every regulation. I knew that book inside and out. I would study the MLS book (yes boys and girls we had a book, not a computer) and know what was on the market so when a call would come in and I would listen to them if no agent was available I would have an agent call them back with a list of homes that fit their needs. I was the best stinkin' unlicensed assistant on the planet.
So I decided I was going to get my license. I talked to Jim and and explained that I thought I'd be really good at it and he said he'd pay for my class. At the time it took 6 months 2 nights a week in my area. I did really well in class and on my tests. After all I'd read the entire law book. I wrote ads, I typed offers for other agents, I listened and I learned.
One night the teacher asked "what would you do if someone came in the office to see the $20,000 foreclosure down the street?" One by one students I was in class with were telling the teacher how they didn't want that customer and they'd "look up the listing agent for them" or "lie and say I have an appointment". Not one other person said they would get up and go show them the house. (by now it was spring of 1994) I was sitting on the front row, looking at the teacher and rolling my eyes at the answers he was being given.
So Bob Greer walked right up to my desk and said, "okay then Tammy, what would you do?" I said, I'd get them on the phone with Fred at Exchange bank so he could run their credit and if they had decent credit I'd go sell them that house. The teacher said "why, the commission would be so small that you might even loose money before the deal was done?" To this I answered, "first of all, I'm a poor single mom with a 4 year old, I am that person, secondly, everyone deserves a good agent. Besides, they have friends and family they will tell you helped them and in two years they might want to sell that starter house and buy a bigger house and you'll have two more sales from them" I think I started to cry as I was angrily spouting out my reply.
My teacher stood me up in the front of the class and by this time I was crying like a 5 year old who didn't get the toy in Woolworth. My teacher asked as I stood there facing the class and asked me "why is this your answer?" And I said, "because that's how Jim Lane does business." I had just been sitting and reading and soaking up knowledge like a sponge and it all came pouring out of me emotionally that night. He looked at the class and said, "this is who is going to be successful out of this class"
So where is my advice in all of this for new agents:
- Find a broker who doesn't have busted give a damn, one who cares about both the agents and the clients
- Work with a mentor who cares about the clients and goes out of their way and busts their butt to help people
- Listen, read, soak up knowledge like a sponge (ActiveRain is a great place for this)
- Ask questions, ask buyers, ask sellers, ask other agents, ask your broker. Understand the laws and the code of ethics and always treat everyone else well. Even if they are treating you poorly, don't stoop to their level. You can fire clients, but other agents you just have to be professional sometimes while they act like a child
- Ask yourself if you are in this profession for the right reason. It can sometimes feel like a thankless nightmare that won't end. Other times it can be very rewarding. And as it turns out, those first time buyers with just barley enough money for a down payment who need the seller to pay closing costs and buy the least expensive homes in your market are the most rewarding. They always seem to have more gratitude and appreciation for what you do for them.
It's really a fun job most of the time. You have to give a damn, you have to work hard and you have to care just much about your least expensive listing or sale as you do about your most expensive one. If you don't care you won't be successful.
PS- 22 people were in my class, 20 got their license, 2 of us are still in the business all these years later. The other one who is does not work in my market, but we always kept in touch and now we do on Facebook. And in January of 1995 when I purchased Lane Realty I went to see my instructor. He said, "I knew you were going to be successful, I didn't know it was going to happen so fast."
Five months after I got my license in the mail I owned my own real estate company. I hired back my previous broker for the 2 years and 11 months it took me become a broker. Today I am also a Georgia licensed instructor. Any idea of a question I ask new students?
The photos are my first real estate photo (taken in 1995), an ad that was a magazine cover in 1995 (Abigail with a fish on a dock), the new office I built in 2006, and my branding Lake Sinclair sunset photo. Check out Patricia's contest. What's YOUR advice?
Comments(22)