Hi everyone!

I've been lurking here a bit and have read many, many posts. What a wealth of information! I appreciate the contribution many of the seasoned pros have provided here.

I have a desire to enter the real estate world. I haven't taken the leap to sign up for classes yet. I wanted to get advice from you regarding the steps I should take.

I welcome any additional information you might provide. If I'm way off base here, or if my steps are totally out of order, let me know. I'm here to learn! ;)

1. Research everything I can find online about real estate: forums, blogs, etc.

2. Purchase introductory books. I know I'm going to get "Selling with Soul", any other suggestions for newbies? I would also like to learn the real estate math before taking the class...any suggestions on good books that are relevant?

3. Visit open houses & talk to agents about their company in an effort to find out what the atmosphere is like.

4. Familiarize myself more with the area. (moved here only 5 months ago)

5. Take the leap & sign up for classes.

6. Take exam & hopefully receive license shortly thereafter.

7. Interview local agencies, looking for whomever provides the best training & hopefully a mentoring program.

8. Hang my license & look forward to a lot of hard work, but a rewarding career. :)

Hey CRW It sounds like you have a good game plan. I have been studying this industry day and night faithfully for almost a year already and I have found that there is always something new to learn. I'm about to finially start my coarses in April.


My advise to you is to make the internet your best friend. Every question you may have can easily be aswered here. I'm almost positive you could find them on sites like activerain.com, realtor.com, youtube videos are also great not all of them but they helped me out. Google everything possible and make sure you go beyond the first pages most of the time you get results there that are from companies with huge marketing budgets.

My other advise would be to brush up on your marketing technics very very very import to have marketing knowledge, no knowledge no career! At least not a long term one. The most important thing that you are usually not told is that its all about having a great personality, you must be very social, very carismadic and be able to hold up a conversation other then being about real estate. If people don't like your energy and they find you up tight and borring chances are they will not refer you to anyone, they won't work with you in the future and maybe they won't even remember who you are. I hope this has been helpfull... Good Luck!!!

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The Best Way To Execute Plan A...
Is By Using Plan B...

Thank you Cirino, I appreciate your input. Best of luck to you as well.

I have always been a "people person". In fact, that's one of the main reasons I'm looking into real estate. I have previously worked at 2 different newspapers & was consistently a top producer within the advertising arena. I credit that mostly to the relationships I established with my customer's, as well as coming up with creative solutions to generate more revenue. I think a lot of these skills can be carried over to a career in real estate.

For the last 4 years I have been a Stay at Home Mom. I have a 3 1/2 yr old & a 2 yr old. So, I definitely could use some brushing up before going head first. Although, I will say, having two small children has definitely taught me a lot of patience, and from what I've seen that's an excellent virtue to have in the real estate world. :)

Cirino,
I would have to disagree with your statement of

"The most important thing that you are usually not told is that its all about having a great personality, you must be very social, very carismadic and be able to hold up a conversation other then being about real estate. If people don't like your energy and they find you up tight and borring chances are they will not refer you to anyone"

I don't consider myself as having a great personality and NEVER,EVER, socialize with clients or potential clients and as far as "carismadic"...not even close. At least 50% of my business is is referrals from past clients so low key works great for me.

Summers I would say you conduct yourself in a very professional manner or your carismatic in some way and just don't realize it. Your point is very well taken that not everyone is the same but I stand by my statement the more friendly, charming, an carismadic you are the more people will gravitate to you. Its a plus really no everyone has it, it's a gift kind of like the popular guy at school that everyone gets along with and no matter how much you try you just can't hate him. That who you want to be thats how you stand out (remember none of this matters if you don't know what your doing. 75% Skill 25% personality.
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The Greatest Thing Every Created Was One Day After Another...
What Ever You Didn't Do Today You Could Always Do Tomorrow...

CRW, you obviously have done a lot of research and have a great plan. I wish more people were as thorough or diligent before choosing a career (real estate or otherwise). Anyway, you will find this line of work can be very flexible, specially since you have 2 small children at home (although, that may be the reason why you want to say OUT of the house and work). I have a 2 year old and he was the main reason I gravitated to real estate as the flexibility is rarely seen in other fields. Good luck and continue to give input on this forum, as you will surely be a success.

Thank you Maui, I appreciate that!

The flexibility is definitely appealing. You mentioned that you have a 2 yr old. If you don't mind my asking, do you put your child in daycare full time? I don't really know what the schedule is going to be like. I'm just assuming I'll probably need both kids in preschool/daycare...hopefully only PT if possible. I do want to pursue this career FT, though. My husband has been very encouraging. I convinced him that there are going to be many evenings & weekends that he'll have to watch the kids. He's all for it...though I should probably get that in writing! ;)

Know how to spell common words and know the difference between homophones (words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings.)

If you are going to write up descriptions for properties and create a blog, you need to look like you passed 8th grade English.

Carismadic? Dear God.

Perky, coreckt speling is yuan of my pet peves as whell. Hopefilly, everyboddie from hear on ote wil chek there speling befour poasting!

lol

Don't forget to work with a good mortgage company

Sounds like a great plan. Stick with it. I just started in January and it can be a little overwhelming and stressful to start out. There is a lot of information to take in and expenses and such that you wouldn't really anticipate. Just take your time and soak it all in. Good Luck!

lol on the spelling. I agree that you dont have to be charismatic to be a great Realtor. Remember....ALL personality types buy and sell homes. Not everyone wants to work with the same personality type. I, personally find it extremely painful to deal with engineers. Keep at it, you will find YOUR style and YOUR real estate personality. If all Realtors had to be the same, I dont think there would be so many of us ;0)

I think Cirino was trying to explain what has been important from his or her personal experiences. I don't think that any one personality type is THE archetype for success in the real estate business. BUT I do think it's important that your clients like you and feel comfortable enough to do business with you. Of course, there are other qualities that matter as well--things like a sense of trust, good follow-up/follow-through, etc. The main thing is whatever your personal qualities, try to make the best of them. The important thing, IMO, is to be sincere.

Yes, to be sure. Even though you have nothing whatsoever to do with the mortgage process, a mortgage deal gone bad just casts a dark halo over the entire process. Of course, if you PERSONALLY made a bad recommendation then doubly so. Being able to refer a buyer to a good mortgage broker --i.e., one that you KNOW is good -- is just another feather in your cap.