Right now, I am going to attend a few recruitment meetings at several of my local real estate companies here. Yet since I am currently unemployed, have very little savings, have an interest to start a new career in real estate, what are some of the basics I should be aware of and what are some of the basic questions I should ask at these recruitment meetings as I try to find out what each has to offer?

I think I can get free licensing training, and pay the $200 for my exam (here in the Los Angeles area). Yet what are some of the other expenses a newly licensed Real Estate agent can expect to pay out in order to get established?

How would I choose a company to work for? Some of that largest companies in my area are Century 21, Remax, Keller Williams, and Prudential.

Yet I did see a ma-and-pa real estate company that offers the following:

* You keep 100% of your commission*
* Get paid directly from Escrow
* No monthly fees, membership fees, desk fees or hidden fees!
* E&O Insurance on every transaction
* No minimum sales volume
* Work from your home or personal office
* Your name and number on signs
* *Total fees per closed transaction:
- $500 Flat fee per closed transaction.
- $135 E & O Insurance and Risk Management fee.

So in the case of this ma-and-pa company, it sounds like I could save a lot of money with then not charging any monthly fees, membership fees, desk fees or hidden fees, plus having the option to work from my home or personal office.

The bottomline is, just until I am established and can start earning a commission, I am looking to keep my start-up cost very low. Any ideas?

Wilson

How are you going to survive if your first paycheck is six months out?

You will have to pay for the MLS and probably for electronic lockbox key, and you will probably have to be a member of the NAR...if you're not hooked into the MLS you may as well forget it...

Everything would have to go perfectly for you to succeed under the circumstances. And by "succeed" I mean survive. It would be better to get a job that pays the bills and enter real estate on a part-time basis. Once you are making enough money to survive, the question then becomes are you comfortable leaving your job. If both of these answers are "yes" then go for it.

My MLS dues just went up another $120 per year. Yay. Another expense!

I will be finising my MBA in real estate from Vanderbilt in March, and will start as a Realtor in April. I was wondering what were the best tactics used when first starting out prospecting? I was planning on door to door as it is a much more active form of marketing, compared to mailings which get thrown out(and cost money), and calls which can be hung up on. It would be easy to visit 100 houses a week translating to 400 per month. I figured a 1% success rate isn't unreasonable which would translate into more clients then I could even handle.
Second, out of 100 clients how many would you say results in a closing?
Lastly, how many clients can you handle at any given time?

How many clients you can handle at once depends totally on you.

More than 6 in escrow at one time is taxing. Especially if things start to go wrong (as they often do).

Thanks for the responses. Love the site. Any thoughts on my other questions, anyone?

I too am also deciding the best place to start out...

I've been told that going to large agencies like Remax and such, you actually get assigned to a "mentor" where you get to tag along just to watch how the whole process is like.

Is that how most people generally start out?

Thanks Everyone. I appreciate you all giving me such a great deal of input, advice, questions (for thought), and suggestions that I can use as I get ready to embark on a new career journey. For sure, I have a lot of food for thought here. :) In the upcoming days, I will keep an eye on this post and give a lot of thought based on the information that you all have been so nice to provide to my posting, and once I have digested it all, I will then act accordingly.

Thanks so very, very much! : - )

Wilson

It really depends on the particular brokerages. Some brokerages are awesome, some are a "You're on your own, kid!" type of place. You need to ask questions of each broker first before making your decision. This particular board has a sticky thread about what to ask your broker.

Perky REALTOR, great advice!

Wilson

You've gotten a lot of great advice here. I think the best thing to do is ask a lot of questions and evaluate what is most important to you. Saving money is important but also being able to receive guidance should be something you look for in a company.

One thing I found out very early on, is to assume that the first brokerage you work for won't be the last. There are various reasons for this, but for me, I found that I just felt like a square peg being forced into a round hole at me first one. It seems that no matter how much research I did, I still picked a bad fit and had to change offices early on.

Be prepared by maintaining your own website, email address and telephone number on your business cards etc. Keep the mindset that you are your business and the brokerage is mainly where you hang your license.

In the end, this business is all about you and your ability to get clients, make sales and get referrals. Although the brokerage can help, your success, or lack thereof will be on you. Best of luck!

www.carsonvalleyestates.com
www.premiernevadahomes.com
www.premiernevadahomes.net

If you plan on leaving ever make sure you set up your accounts in your own email. I would imagine you are going to try to work the BPOs and REOs (like equator and reoprep etc) if you sign up under your brokers email info and you leave you may be short. I would set up your own yahoo email or something to keep your business where ever you may change. Just a tip I had to learn the hard way.