These are the words we heard from our 25 year old son Mike, after spending 5 years at Central Michigan University. First we said "Are You Crazy"? We knew he did some drinking at Party Central but he must have killed a ton of brain cells to want to be a real estate agent in Macomb County, Michigan NOW.
But Mike thought about this long and hard and figured being a REALTOR would be a great way to get his feet wet in sales, business, real estate investing and honing his people skills. Yea right. Now Mike is no dummy he graduated Magna Cu Lade with 3 degrees. But becoming a real estate agent with everything that is going on! OMG.
Well after the shock wore off, we signed him up for the 40 hour course and yesterday he just passed the state exam. Yeah! Not patting our selves on the back but he will have two very good mentor's, that have been real estate agents since he was 4 years old. Now it's time for a little real estate agent reality check.
- We do not get by the hour so you will do a lot of work with NO pay and Long hours.
- It may take 30,60,90 days or more to get your 1st pay check.
- But just so you know the broker/owner (us) will still give you a bill every month.
- Then you need to realize you have to Get Up every morning, even if you have no appointments.
- Oh yea nights, weekends, holidays keep those open cuz that's when people meet with you.
- You will also need to up your cell minutes and be prepared to have your gas tank full at all times.
- No more playing video games or fantasy anything. You'll be spending your time in the MLS now.
- We will give you some leads but they will be the Low paying leads. We'll keep the big ones ourselves.
- Be prepared to be a fireman, cuz you never know when someone will want to see a home.
- BTW we hope you took lots of psychology classes cuz you will surely need them.
- and we forgot to tell you or the winter vacations to Florida, you will be staying here in Michigan now holding up the fort.
Over the past few weeks we have taken Mike on several listing appointments and have also had him do a few mock BPO's. He said he has realized that real estate is not about selling...it's is about getting people to like you and trust you. They need to feel comfortable with you. He's also learning how hard it is to tell a seller that it does not matter what they want, what they need or what they think their home is worth because they have used heavy duty nails. It all about the market.
After spending most of his life as a kid of a REALTOR, he does actually know a lot of this already. We have also informed him, that he may need to get a part time job at Micky D's, till he gets a few sales. But all in all we think Real Estate is a great job and he will do fine. It's all about your work ethic in good times and bad.
My oldest son who is "Mr. Sociable" gave thoughts to entering our profession. I gave him a list of what his life would be like (similar to yours). He gave the list back to me several minutes later after he had written on it: "What was I thinking????"
Cracked me up.
I look forward to hearing in coming months how much Michael is enjoying his chosen profession and about his success. He has excellent mentors!
You are so right about the "list" but in the end and we do close that sale and have built that relationship -it's priceless. Great story.