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Your Successful
Real Estate Career
by Dr. Kenneth W. Edwards
Autographed - Over 115,000 Copies Sold
Your Successful Real Estate Career has long been the Bible
for
countless aspiring real estate professionals, providing all the
tools need f
or success in this tough - but rewarding and
profitable professional.
This comprehensive guide offers practical and
candid advice on
everything from getting your license and choosing a company to
prospecting and selling, along with all new strategies for
starting out on the right foot and staying ahead of the
competition.
Topics covered include:
Finding a Mentor
Differentiating Yourself
Winning Clients
Avoiding Typical Career Mistakes
Marketing Yourself
Dealing With Specialized Property Types
Much,
much more
Free Exam Strategy Booklet
Free Relax Your Way Thru the Real Estate
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Got
A Pain In Your Career?
CONSULT DR. REAL ESTATE
Q. I've been a Realtor for about two months and I just got my first
commission check. It was for a very substantial amount and was as a result
of a sale I made to a nice widow lady the first week I was in the business.
She happened to call our office when I was on floor duty and we established
excellent rapport. I also have several other really promising leads on
potential sales. Frankly, I have decided I would rather concentrate on
selling homes than listing them. Although she has not vetoed the idea, my
broker doesn't seem to be wildly enthusiastic about that approach. What's
the big deal about getting listings, anyhow?
A. First, congratulations on making a sale so soon (I'm assuming it wasn't
to your Aunt Martha who knew you were on duty and called your office). Most
folks typically spend a lot longer than that before they do something in
real estate that actually earns them a pay day. Exclusive buyer
representation is a viable career option, but don't get carried away too
quickly and reach any hasty decisions.
While representing buyers exclusively is an evolving and prospering element
of our profession, your broker’s attitude is likely the result of her own
experience and that of others who have gone before you. Consider these
factors.
1. When you secure an exclusive right to sell listing and put it on
Multiple, you immediately enlist the efforts of a lot of enthusiastic, hard
working professionals whose survival and prosperity depends in very large
measure upon finding buyers for listings such as yours. In effect, you will
instantly "hire" a lot of Realtors you haven't even met yet.
Considered in that light, it is a very efficient way to invest your own time
and effort. Get a lot of realistically priced, attractive listings and you
will constantly have a small army of dedicated professionals pounding the
streets trying to make money for you (and themselves). From a larger
prospective, listings are the real estate profession’s inventory. In
essence, it’s what’s on the shelf for sale. No listings, no sales.
2. When you get an exclusive right to sell listing on a property the owner
has a contractual obligation to your broker (you recognize, of course, that
all listings are in the name of your supervising broker). Find a ready,
willing, and able buyer and you have earned your commission. Anyhow, that's
how it works most of the time. When you work with buyers, on the other hand,
they typically have no real obligation to you. You might work with them
diligently for several months only to have them buy from someone else! There
are ways to cultivate buyer loyalty (mainly by doing a thoroughly
professional job and effectively communicating with them), and there are
contractual possibilities, such as buyer agency agreements, but these still
represent only a comparatively small fraction of total transactions..
3. What happens when that nice lady to whom you sold the home during your
first week on the job wants to sell? If you did things right the first
time around and have maintained contact with her, she will likely want to
list with you. Sell a lot of homes and you will have a steady stream of
potential listings. In my first year in real estate I sold the same little
starter home twice. The first buyers planned to be in our community for
several years, but the nurse wife got an offer she couldn’t refuse in
another community. I listed and sold their home. I'm sure it hasn't escaped
your attention that the commission split is a lot better on that kind of a
transaction.
Having heard all these things I guess it is still possible that you would
prefer to sell homes rather than list them. There are brokerage firms now
which work exclusively as buyer agents, and some companies have agents who
work only with buyers and others who work only with sellers, but it is clear
that your broker prefers to operate in the more traditional business model,
which means her agents engage in both listing and selling. My strong
recommendation is that you sit down with her for an extended career guidance
discussion.
I will say this. If you prove you can sell a home every week or so my guess
is that your broker will somehow accommodate to your desires.. All things
considered, however, you can likely appreciate how this old saying came
about: ”Old real estate agents never die, they just become listless". And to
add my personal bias, real estate wouldn’t be nearly as much fun for me if I
didn’t list homes.
How Do I Ask
Those Tough “Up Front” Personal Questions?
Question: I am finding that one of the most difficult things for me to
do during my initial interview with prospective buyers is to ask them how
much money they make. It seems kind of tacky to get so personal when you
hardly know someone. Isn't it reasonable to assume people are going to be
able to afford what they say they are looking for in a house?
Answer: I'll take the easy part of your question first. No, it is not
reasonable to assume that people can afford to buy what they say
they are looking for. Just trust me on that one.
I can say with great conviction, based upon personal experience and the
input of every broker with whom I've ever discussed it, that properly
qualifying your prospective buyers is an indispensable, critically important
first step in your relationship with them. It comes right after establishing
proper rapport - but definitely far ahead of jumping in your car and showing
properties. Even if you, at some point, get them to a loan officer to
pre-qualify (a great idea, by the way) you need to do the initial
prequalification so you can chart your course of action properly.
Deliver the Goods - Get Paid. First, let's look at the whole thing
very selfishly. You are going to get paid when you produce tangible results.
While some agents may get their clients to agree to pay them on an hourly
basis, that’s still the exception. Reduced to basics, it simply means that
when working with buyers: no sale, no paycheck. What then could possibly
motivate you to want to spend hours, let's say, showing a young couple a
dazzling array of palatial mansions in the hills when all they could
possibly qualify for is a modest little starter home in the flats?
Whom Do You Represent? Second, let’s assume you are representing the
buyers in the agency relationship. Why get their hopes up by showing them
homes they can’t afford? And when they find the home of their dreams and
make an offer, the most important factor in whether or not the sellers
accept will be their financial strength and credit worthiness. A full price
offer from people with questionable (or unknown) financial capabilities is a
lot less desirable than a lesser one from blue chippers. That being the
case, and since you owe your buyers a fiduciary responsibility to advise
them properly, you simply have to know as much as you can about their fiscal
strength. On the other hand, if you were representing the sellers, it would
be your job to determine how qualified the potential buyers are to be able
to counsel them properly.
A
Routine Procedure. Let's assume I've convinced you that for your
own interests and those of the people whom you represent, you've got to get
the financial facts. How do you do it gracefully and without offending or
scaring off your potential buyers?
If you've established a professional, business like atmosphere it shouldn't
be all that tough. You will need to explicitly point out that at some point
in the home buying process they will have to sit down across the desk from a
steely eyed, no nonsense loan officer at a lending institution and provide
the information about which you are inquiring. You might even want to give
them a copy of a standard loan application form to show them what's
involved. Your broker may have an abbreviated form in the office that will
do the same thing. You also need to emphasize that it would not be fair to
them to waste their time showing them properties for which they could not
realistically qualify.
It
Gets Easier. After you work with people for a while you will become
more confident and more adept. The more professional you become the less
threatening it will be for the buyers. It is, however, a vital step that you
simply have to master. I once spent literally days upon days showing
properties to a couple who had convinced me with glittering generalities and
flashy exteriors that they could easily afford the most expensive homes in
town. To be charitable let's just say that as it turned out their tastes
exceeded their financial capabilities - by a very wide margin.
Rather than spending my time figuring out how much commission I was going to
make on a high six figure sale I should have spent it asking the tough up
front questions, like: "how much money do you have for a down payment?", and
"what is your income?", not to mention, "what are your debts?" Someone is
eventually going to ask those questions, so it might as well be you. And it
might as well be very soon after: "please have a seat".
“Your Successful Real Estate Career should be mandatory for anyone
thinking about real estate as a career! It contains timely
information that will help one make an informed decision about a
career in real estate.”
Joyce Sterling, DREI
Northern Kentucky Real Estate School
“This is the real estate career book that everyone considering a
real estate career, or newly licensed, should own. After reading it
I gave it to my daughter who is a new real estate licensee.”
Carmel Streater, PhD, DREI
Past President
Real Estate Educators Association
"I am the Director of Continuing Education for Keller Williams
Charleston area, have owned my own company, and have taught
pre-license, GRI, MCE and new agent classes for many years. I wish
each and every student I have ever taught had been given the
opportunity to read and “USE” Your Successful Real Estate Career. It
is well written,
“tells it like it is”, and should be required by the schools. I gave
it to my husband when
he started in the business as my partner. We both find it a great
aide.
Kerry Jacques GRI, CRS
Broker Associate
Director of Continuing Education
Keller Williams Charleston, SC
"Your Successful Real Estate Career will not help your real estate
license students a great deal in preparing them for their state
licensing exam. However, it will do a great job of preparing tem for
their future careers as real estate professionals. It covers the
critical real world real estate issues that we do not have the time
to teach in our required classes. I teach prelicense and continuing
education courses at Westford College in Phoenix and I heartily
recommend the book to my students, whenever possible and
applicable."
Don Johnson
Vice President, Arizona REEA
"I have been active broker and real estate educator for years and
have always recommended Your Successful Real Estate Career. The
latest edition is so accurate, so true and so real world that it
should be read by every aspiring licensee before entering real
estate school. Every broker should require that the book be read
before hiring an associate."
GRI, CRS, ABR, C-CRREC, DREI
Armbrust Real Estate Institute
Greenwood Village, Colorado
"This is a fantastic book! It should be read not only by those
thinking of a real estate career, but should be read by EVERYONE in
the real estate profession. What an incredible reminder to our
current practitioners of what their job really is, what they should
be doing, and what they should expect. From pre-real estate career
folks to old pros, there is something in the book for everyone."
Linda Weppner
Broker/ Owner
Century 21 Bell Real Estate
Cheyenne, Wyoming
“Read this book before making your career jump into real estate. It
will help you make an informed and educated decision. It will also
help the industry by realistically explaining what it means to
legally ‘represent’ another person in what will likely be the most
important business/personal transaction in which that individual
will ever be involved. I cannot overstate the importance of this
book to the aspiring, or newly licensed, real estate professional.”
Dan Carapellucci, ABR, CRS, DREI, GRI
Carapellucci Seminars
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