You have your license now. Do you know where to hang it?
Determine where you willing to drive everyday. You want a base close to where you live. Certainly, you will likely show houses a greater distance from the base but not everyday.
Find out what the office fees are. It can range from a little to a lot. Hidden fees are ridiculous. If fees are hidden, what else are they hiding from you? They must be upfront regarding all charges.
Find out the commission structure.
Talk to other people who work there or used to work there.
Find out what the rules are. For example, when can you get on the 'sales' or transaction floor to receive incoming real estate inquiries.
Know what is expected from you. For example, will you be fired if you don't have a
set number of transactions in a fixed number of days.
Open Houses - Do they help a new agent get business?
When you are new, You really work hard to get business. Some lisiting agents don't
attend their own Open House but allow new people to hold it for them. They say that
if a walk-in is interested, that person is your client. The problem I have seen is that the
Open Houses are not well attended. The new agent doesn't do the marketing but relies
on the lisiting agent to market it. It is afterall, the listing agent's responsibility. They
might not put a lot of their efforts into marketing the property. They will be able to tell
the owners that they had an Open House which makes the owners feel good that the
listing agent is working for them. No one shows up or very few show up, don't
communicate and leave quickly. New agents, like myself, held numerous Open Houses
with negative results.
I propose a question to the reader, what is your opinion if the new agent were to charge the listing agent to hold the Open House for them?
Charge a fee to hold the Open House. If any Open House ends up in a sale for the new
agent, the new agent will refund the Open House fee that they charged. Is this going on
anywhere?
Here are some of the elements of an Open House that the new agent may
encounter which, in my opinion, would justify a fee; The new agent is at the Open
House for 3 or more hours at a time (commited to staying there), The property might be
devoid of furniture so you have to bring a chair, The electricity and/or water may be
turned off (forget about going to the toilet), No internet connection to do any work, No
one shows up to the Open House, The new agent is freeing up the lisiting agent's time so
the listing agent can be productive, The listing agent is getting the credit from the
owners as having done work for them so the owners tell other people about the great
work the listing agent provided to them, and No credit or acknowledgement to the new agent.
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