I think there was a thread about this or a link to another thread regarding this topic. I'm having a hard time finding in search so I will start a new one.


What are MUST HAVES for a Real Estate Agent [FINANCIALLY].

So for, this is what I have in mind:

Vehicle + Gas/Registration/Insurance
Desktop Computer + Internet Connection
Laptop
Fax Machine/Printer/Scanner + telephone line
Digital Camera [Ultra Wide Lens]/Memory card
Cellular Phone/PDA + unlimited monthly data plan
Business cards
Internet Website
Business Suits/Shoes/Jewelry
Books!
MLS fee's
Real Estate License fee's
Broker fee's

I'm sure I am leaving other items as well... Please feel free to add ...

Internet website is good, but it needs to be a good internet website. Not a company given one.

I have yet to wear a business suit/shoes, jewelry while selling real estate. I guess that depends on where you are. If I wore a suit to any appointments people would think I was a freak.

The thread you posted was posted hear recently.

I would say one of the most important though is more investigative skills and patience. I will find the link and post it for you later, I do not have the time to look for it though.

Lets assume you are licensed though, and a client calls and asks for some info. Who you going to call? Find the info and present it with confidence. You know the thread is here, dig for it, you are taking the easy way out. Don't rely on an easy way out, you will never make it that way. As I said though, I will find the post and send it to you, later on tonight.

Update?

Opps I forgot, so add a good memory to that list. Sorry

The post you referred to is 259663 in case the link does not work. http://www.agentsonline.net/forums/ubbth...html#Post259663

It seem like an all inclusive list but there is such a spread per item that the list is rather meaningless. Just look at one item the car. Are we talking 1995 ford escort or a new BMW. You can do it on a shoe sting or not.

There is nothing wrong with a 95 Escort (other than being a Ford, LOL) as long as it's clean and doesn't look like a death trap. Many agents think they have to have a fancy schmancy car to "look successful."

My boss drives a 4WD Subaru. It makes her look SMART. She is one of the top agents in the area.

I've seen those in my area driving Escalades giving them up. Guess the "image" of success wasn't enough.

So I'd say to "car" it would be - whatever you can afford, as long as it looks clean and isn't all rusty/scary looking.

We have had some threads in the past about fancy cars, what else on the "must have" list can we shoot down the need for? ;-)

Everyone should have the School Bus Schedule memorized . . . . especially those poor souls that do BPOs in Daylight and run the risk of being labeled some kind of Pedophilic Pervert Photographer (PPP). This is especially true for those Subjects that are in the proximity of Playgrounds and Schools.

I've posted this elsewhere; and it's one of the cheaper items to put in your knapsack (or your head); and you'll know when you're missing it. I hate when that happens !

You do not need BOTH a desktop computer and a laptop! One will suffice. I think a laptop is the smarter choice as you can take it anywhere, even to bed in your jammies to surf the net while your significant other snores.

I got my brand new laptop from Dell for just under $400 several months ago and I LOVE IT. I didn't get a gazillion bells and whistles.

We can also shoot down the apostrophes on "fee's." Really, they're completely unnecessary.

You gettum Perky . . . . have you ever calculated how much time we spend everyday pondering excessive punctuation ? It's so wasteful! Almost as bad as "No Punctuation" . . . . or NO PARAGRAPHS (I lose my place!).

WHATCHAGONNA DO? It's you and me against the world Perky; and I'm not too sure you can count on Me!

Hi, I just joined this site. I live in Burbank California and want to know of a good Real Estate school out here, does anyone have any suggestions there are so many?

Vermont, I hope I can ALWAYS count on you. Just so long as I don't have to go snowshoeing with ya, though.

Your must have is a a plan and some cash.

There is NO way Im going to bed... with my laptop!!! LOL!

I always surf the net with my laptop. My computer is my main form of entertainment as well as work. I watch movies on Hulu.com, read funky stuff, snoop around in the crimelibrary.com to see the latest on serial killers and the like.

I even have my laptop fired up when I'm watching Jack on 24 - that way I can keep up with Dave Barry's Live "24" blog and make fun of the characters and commercials with everyone else. I am hooked on my computer like others are hooked on nicotine! LOL

I second or third the laptop. I could not function without it. It's always with me. It's saved me when I'm out showing houses and we stumble upon a property that looks good I can look up info on it immediately... or I'm out taking BPO pictures and there are no numbers on the houses, just a cluster of mailboxes at the end of the road... I can pull around the corner and fire up Google maps or even Zillow and identify the property.

My must have list would also include a sense of humor and definitely a lap top... oh and a navigation system for my car.

Copy centers do a good job of scanning things quickly and don't require you to learn new software and techniques. You can save money by having the image copied to your own flash drive. Plus flash drives are great to backup your files. I only use a portable paper scanner for on the spot scanning of legal papers so I don't have to remove them from the owners. I have not owned a desktop computer since they came out with laptops with an incredible amount of memory. I have gone one step further and now own a tablet laptop. They are a bit pricey but it serves me very well because when I team the tablet with a particular software I am able to fill in forms and sign them on the tablet. An aircard for the laptop comes in handy for better portability/flexibility. There is no longer a need for a physical FAX machine because you can subscribe to a FAX service that would be more private than a machine laying around taking up space. The only printer to own would be color laser printer for marketing materials. But again a Copy Center does a good job and is really inexpensive saving you time and inventory. Real Estate books and seminars can be bid on inexpensively online so you can get great training and save money. There are so many real estate related gadgets that are available but not needed because there are ways of getting around them.

Try thinking outside the box before purchasing everything you think you will need. And get feedback and suggestions on this Forum.

Have a Happy . . . everything

I have a desktop (that I never use), a laptop, two spare laptops (the old busted up one and a new one that I just never sent back when I decided I didn't like it - long story why I ordered two), and a small 8.9" netbook on the way to my house right now that will be exclusively for the car.

Get caught without a spare just once and see how bad you freak out. When I had my wreck in March of last year, the first place I had to go (within 2 hours of totaling my car) was to try to get my laptop fixed immediately. Of course they couldn't fix it so I had to get a new one, and that can take time.

Now I have two of just about everything - 2 cell phones, 2 cameras, 2 cords and at least 2 chargers for everything. I have a GPS that I don't use but do carry in case my computer poops out when I am trying to get somewhere. And I have a portable Black and Decker charger/air compressor/jumper cable thing that I can charge or run multiple things on in the car.

The two cell phones happened after one broke and it took 3 weeks to get the correct replacement through the warranty company. I added a line and got the free cheapo phone while I waited and realized it was well worth the $9.99/month to hold onto the second line.

You can never be too prepared. If it can go wrong, it will. It's up to you how long that puts you out of commission (literally).

I schedule time to recharge my batteries...about 8 hours at night...I can do nothing else without...

I have one of those. It's called an atlas.

http://jimapco.com/

The Jimapco Northeast PA Street Atlas has every street or road you could ever be looking for, never poops out when you're in remote areas, it doesn't blather on about "TURN LEFT HERE, TURN LEFT HERE, RECALCULATING, TURN AROUND AND TURN RIGHT THERE...." It doesn't interrupt conversations, doesn't need to be rebooted or recharged except every so often when an updated book comes out....and it's only $20...and nobody is going to break into my car to steal it.

I agree with Perky...on the map books...here in the mid west its the Wunnenburg Street Guide...again... I like simple ways for simple minds...LOL... Oh ya...cheep...cheep! Thats me! Cool... I just grabbed a blasted FARVV!!!

My nephew calls his GPS by the the correct name for what he uses: MAP. Seems to work all the time, any place and doesn't give misleading information.

I have two of them, one in the car and one in the office. I love the thing - it's a real estate bible. I like being able to see the whole lay of the land in the oversized page, rather than the tiny GPS screen. I can turn pages quicker and find what I'm looking for much quicker than with the gps.

I will say though that sometimes my maps don't show certain private lakes, and the gps systems do - that's kind of cool to be driving around and suddenly realize that there's a lake beyond the trees a little. that said, I won't be shelling out any money for a GPS anytime soon - I'm happy with my atlas book!

I have my main desktop, then I have a laptop and a broadband card for when I'm out in the field.

I have days in the field that are sometimes long and don't have time to run back to my office to upload photos & prepare estimates or invoices and close out work orders, then go back out to another property.

Plus, now that it's Winter, the days are shorter and some of the distances I drive are pretty far. So the laptop is a great time-saver. If I can't get power when the battery runs low, I just go to Starbucks and do everything from there.

Since my laptop has a card slot, it's easy for me to upload photos, resize, zip, and send with my documents.

I have a GPS so that if I get a call when I'm out of the office, I can program in an address and schedule it with the client right then and there. I used Mapquest from my laptop before I got the GPS. It wasn't quite as efficient but it worked.

Anything that saves me time is absolutely worth the cost of it. and I totally agree about having a backup. I've got 2 digital cameras and each of my field supervisors has one as well.

I have 4 cell phones. One is for me and 3 are for the field. If I needed a backup, I could just as easily take one of those.

I don't think any one of us can afford the downtime. I now for a fact that I can't.

Linda

Personally I think there's a significant difference between a "MUST HAVE" and "REALLY LIKE TO HAVE"

Must have means you can not do business without it. To me, at least.

Lots of people are shocked that I don't have a GPS - how DO you find your way around? (Um, I've lived here all my life, that helps...)

I had to laugh when one of my customers INSISTED on plugging her GPS in when we got in my car, and the GPS was unable to generate a signal. I said, smiling "Good thing I have my atlas!" Before my showing I had found all the properties on my map, marked them with little flourescent "page flags" and was good to go.

I think a lot of us get hung up on stuff and believe the marketing that we can't survive without it - when in fact we can, and people survived without it for years.

Must haves vs. like to haves - both very different.

I agree...I have to admit that I was great at getting all the gadgets but was I pulling any business..No! I have learned the hard way that it takes more than gadgets.

Perky ~

I mapquest and print my route before I leave the office in the morning. I bought the GPS for when I'm on the road or at a property and I get a call for an initial securing and/or a trashout bid.

Of course it helps if I'm not at the border in San Diego and get a request for Barstow. Then the GPS does me no good, because of the distance, and I have to schedule it. At that point, I just wait until I'm back in the office and use Mapquest.

The GPS started off as a "like to have" but has been handy as a "must have" in certain situations.

Linda

I also know that some could take my words to the extreme and say "Why would you need contract software, just buy the printed ones...that's good enough.." LOL

Right now I know my laptop is a MUST HAVE - but when I was starting out I only had my clunky old desktop (which recently died) and I was able to get started with it. I can't imagine being without my laptop - I just can't. But I did survive without it in the beginning.

To get started as an agent you can survive with the barest minimum of gadgets...this is where a lot of new agents use up their cash resources needlessly.

I understand Perky putting the laptop on the "must have" list, when I was still sponsored by another broker, working out of two of his offices as well as my home office, that would have applied to me also. Now that I am working alone, out of only my own office, I'm back to a desktop again.

My laptop acted as a second computer when my assistant worked in the office at the same I did. When she got her own laptop, we loaded software on it and now she works from home, which means frequent backups going back and forth.

I've had a desktop and an old laptop both go down this past year. I was glad to have the laptop when the desktop went down. Then I bought a new CPU and the laptop died. The hard drive from the desktop is in an enclosure and I can still retrieve the data. The old laptop, however, wiped out everything I had in done and I lost quite a lot of work.

I now have an external drive hooked up to the main computer that I keep all my photos & bids on. I back up to a 4GB stick every other day now and don't keep much on my desktop.

I can't afford to lose anymore data so I'm really glad to have the options now that I do.

Linda

I am sure it has been mentioned but you need website. I don't know how many times I have just run into people and started talking about real estate and could tell them all about my website and what they can learn there. I think it is a great sales tool and a must have for agents in today's market.

absolutely!!!!

I think that is still in the realm of "nice to have" not "must have". I have strongly considered that since going on my own but so far have not justified the additional cost in money to produce and host a web site nor the time to maintain one. As I am starting my 13th year in real estate, soon to be my 4th since going solo, I reflect on 2008 as having been my best year ever and a goal of doing less in 2009 as I move to a state of partial retirement. I just don't think it makes sense for me at this time.

You can create a blog easily on ActiveRain.com or Wordpress.com FREE with very little technical skills needed. If you're NEW and not on the Internet (ranked well with search engines) you're going to be missing out on gazillions of buyers.

A good internet presence does not have to cost a fortune, nor do you need to be a techno geek to do it. I have not spent ONE DIME other than my monthly hosting fees. Of course I had already taught myself HTML and CSS and had years of experience creating real estate websites already - but blogs like ActiveRain make it so much easier for a newbie to get their foot in the search engine door that it really is silly to NOT do it.

If you're already established with a terrific network of friends, past clients, referrals, etc...then that's different. One of the top producers in my area has only a little website that doesn't generate a whole lot - but she's already built her business around her vast farming / mailings, advertising, past clients, etc.

Great ideas Perky REALTOR. If you want to save even more money you can register your domain and then use a site like 000webhost to host it. I used to use them (I needed more space so I pay for hosting) and they offer free hosting with no ads and they offer a lot of services.

000webhost uses cpanel and if you do want to set up a wordpress blog all you have to do is click their fantastico de lux button, then click create wordpress blog. The fantastico then creates you blog and sets up a database for it. You don't have to have a lot of experience to click a button. This is what I would recommend if you are a first time user and want to create a blog on the cheap.

How about signs, name riders, directionals? You may also want a name tag and a good listing presentaion.

Name riders are not a necessity, really. I have had my name on signs and people STILL call the office instead of my cell number on the rider, and when they call, they do not ask for me, they just say "I saw this house on Green ST...."

In my area, most offices provide signs and directionals unless you want your name printed on them.

Very true about the must have vs. really want to have. You can get by with really little as long as you have the right attitude and determination.

I should have labeled my list really really want.

I no longer need name riders, since going in business on my own it is my name that is on the sign. Since I work alone no one else needs to place their name withy mine either.