Chapter 1 – Is Real Estate Right for Me?

The benefits of having a flexible schedule are significant, as it allows you to achieve the kind of work-life balance that makes your life more enjoyable and fulfilling. For example, you’ll be able to drop your kids off at school in the morning or take them to their activities after school. You’ll be able to plan an extended family vacation during your children’s school breaks, or take a trip with your spouse during off-peak travel times.  

You can also carve an hour or two out in the middle of the day to go work out, or you can go home for lunch to avoid eating out in restaurants all the time. The possibilities are virtually limitless when it comes to designing a creative schedule that aligns with your desired lifestyle. 

However, it’s important to keep in mind that your flexibility with scheduling comes with a caveat. Real estate agents tend to work when their clients aren’t working. Therefore, you’ll need to be available to conduct showings during the hours your clients are available, which is typically during the late afternoon/evening and on weekends. But that doesn’t mean all of your work time will be completed outside of traditional working hours. Day time hours are a great time to focus on building your business and focusing on prospecting/marketing initiatives. 

When a seller sets a specific deadline for placing offers, it also means that you may be working in the evening to get a client’s offer written up and submitted on time. However, once you become established, it may be possible to set expectations with clients that allows you to free up your evening hours more. If you prefer a more traditional schedule, you can also pursue a career in commercial real estate. There is a niche for everyone. 

Other benefits to being a real estate agent include: 

• Your get to meet new and interesting people every day 
• You’re your own boss and control your own success 
• You don’t need a college degree to earn a good income 
• There are very few limits on your earning capacity 
• There’s no dress code (an appealing feature for many people who enjoy Colorado’s casual lifestyle) 
• You earn a commission if you buy your own home and save on commission when you sell it 

Drawbacks of Working in Real Estate 

No career path is perfect. Just like all other fields, there are some potential drawbacks associated with real estate. While the benefits to working as a real estate agent are certainly appealing, it’s also important to balance these with some of the drawbacks to ensure you’re choosing a field that aligns with your priorities. 

In addition, you have to be prepared to work long hours as you build your business during your first few years in real estate. Often, you’ll be putting in more hours than someone with a typical 9-5, 40-hour week job. There are several reasons for this: 

• You’re running your own business, so you will need to perform a wide range of admin responsibilities associated with business ownership.
• You work on commission, so your earnings are dependent on the number of deals you close and the value of these deals. Therefore, the more you work, the more likely you are to increase your earnings.
• As with any occupation, there is a learning curve in real estate. While your real estate course work will help you gain an understanding of many real estate laws and concepts, you must also develop detailed knowledge of the neighborhoods in your market. This is typically accomplished during your first few years as a real estate agent.
• You must not only spend time working with your clients to help them buy and sell a home, but you must also spend time marketing your business in order to maintain a steady pipeline of clients. Most successful real estate agents find that they must devote a significant amount of time to marketing, especially early in their career. 

You also sacrifice some income stability as a real estate agent. You can’t count on earning a consistent paycheck from month to month the way you would with a salaried position. Since your income is based on commissions, it will fluctuate from month to month. In addition, your financial success during any given time period is often dependent on a variety of factors that are out of your control, such as the health of the housing market and broader economic conditions impacting the country.  

For this reason, it’s critical to be savvy with setting your monthly budget (both in your personal and professional life), and with saving money. This will ensure you have the cushion necessary to get through slow seasons. 

Finally, it’s important to evaluate the emotional toll the job may take on you. Buying and selling a home can be a very stressful process. As a result, you may find that you’re often dealing with clients who are experiencing a great deal of anxiety and frustration. You must not only be able to help your clients navigate these challenges and minimize their stress, but you must not let their emotions get to you. Otherwise, you may find that you burn out quickly. 

When evaluating whether a career in real estate is right for you, it’s always a good idea to examine the traits that will increase your chances of success. This will help you decide whether your skills and personality are a good fit for the job at hand. 

“Fire in the Belly” 

The single most important characteristic that will set you up for success in real estate is a “fire in the belly.” Real estate isn’t “rocket science” – you don’t need to be the most business savvy person, a math wizard or a legal genius. There is nothing to invent or discover. Once you complete your real estate courses and get your license, you will have all the tools you need to be able to sell homes.  

This is good news, as it means you are truly capable of building a successful real estate business if you set your mind to it. However, it also means that you do need to have persistence in order to succeed. It often takes 99 “no’s” to get a “yes.” You need the ability to shake off a no and move onto the next prospective client. Fortunately, the whole world is a prospective client.  

For this reason, persistent agents are always successful agents. If you put in the effort and do things right, you can build a strong business and be successful. When you have that “fire in the belly,” you’re way ahead of the game and significantly more likely to put in all the steps necessary to succeed.  

The primary difference between those who make it in real estate and those who don’t is a willingness to stick it out through the first couple of years, which are admittedly hard. The first six months will be the hardest because it takes time to find a few clients, show them properties and get them to closing. Therefore, very few deals are closed in this initial time period. 

But if you’re persistent, you’ll find that the next six months will start to get easier. Some of the deals you started lining up in the first six months will begin closing, and money will start coming in. Not only will this be important to your ability to support yourself, but it will provide additional confirmation that your hard work is starting to pay off. 

The next year will get even easier since your business will be set up and you will hopefully have a steady flow of clients by this point. If you’re able to stick with it, you should begin to see things snowball somewhere in your second year as a real estate agent. The average increase in revenue is 10-15% each year due to an increase in referrals and repeat business. You can generally expect to see this increase start in year two and continue building each year.  

By year four or five, you can realistically expect to have 80-100% of your business coming from referral and repeat clients. This significantly reduces the amount of time you spend marketing. In fact, you may not have to spend much, if any, time marketing at this point. When you take the time to set up your business properly and build a strong network of referral and repeat business, it becomes a lot easier to earn a good living in real estate. For this reason, we can’t stress enough the importance of having that “fire in the belly” and putting in the effort to build your referral network. 

Your personality will often play a major role in your ability to build a successful career. People typically want to work with real estate agents who they like. If potential clients find you honest and personable, have confidence your abilities and feel you are genuinely interested in helping them, they are more likely to choose you over your competitors. 

In addition, you’re often building a long-term relationship with your clients that extends beyond the current transaction you’re assisting them with. It’s common to field questions and provide recommendations to past clients as they experience the challenges of home ownership. This is particularly true of first-time homeowners. The better you are at building these relationships, the more likely you are to have your clients reach out to you the next time they want to buy or sell a home, and the more likely they are to recommend you to their family and friends. 

Attention to Detail 

You must be extremely detail oriented. Whether you’re comparing housing prices, reviewing the intricacies of a contract, attending to a client’s wish list, or advising clients regarding items to look out for in the homes they’re seeing, your ability to focus on the fine details is an important component to your ability to be successful as real estate agent. 

Determination 

Would you characterize yourself as “determined?” Tenacity, determination and a strong work ethic are critical traits that will determine your success in real estate. You must have the drive to pursue every potential lead. You must be able to aggressively market your seller clients’ properties to ensure they get top market value. You must be relentless to ensure your buyer clients are positioned to have their offer accepted on the home of their choice. You must be able to persevere in a highly competitive landscape, no matter how many obstacles are in your way. 

Problem Solving Ability 

Good real estate agents are creative thinkers and savvy problem solvers. No real estate deal is the same. There is always some specific problem you must address to meet the needs of your client. This may include: 

• Finding properties that meet a client’s specific budget and location requirements  
• Addressing specific “sell by” timelines for sellers 
• Showcasing properties to accentuate their strongest attributes and make them more marketable 
• Developing creative MLS listings that attract the right buyers 

This is just a short list of the challenges you must address. In real estate, there will constantly be problems arising, and you must often find creative solutions that aren’t all that obvious or conventional. 

Self-Motivated Entrepreneur 

While you will work with a brokerage, you’re technically not an employee. As a real estate agent, you’re actually your own boss and you’re running your own business. To be successful as a business owner, you must be highly motivated and make smart decisions.  

No one is going to help you run your business more efficiently and no one is going to make you work harder. You are responsible for marketing your business, attracting clients and closing deals for them. It’s entirely up to you how much effort you put into making your business successful. If you lack this motivation, it will be hard to thrive in real estate.