I am curious what are the biggest issues and challenges you are running into as a new Realtor?

What type of questions and concerns do you have as you start your career and choose the company to work for?

Thanks,

Mario

not having any track record to speak of. Getting someone to hire you with no prior listings.....

in the current market, why would brokers hire agents with zero experience? it's simple common sense.

and even you at one time had no experience too. Thanks for your help.

Some Brokers prefer to take on only fresh trainees who aren't tarnished and carrying the baggage of a lot of bad habits acquired elsewhere . . . . like working with a new place of clay.

The current environment may make that even more important.

Breaking bad habits is often much harder than instilling good ones.

Brokers who choose to provide absolutely no training have no choice but to absorb the bad habits that accompany the caste-offs of others, and then just hope for the best.

I don't think IBM ever stooped to hire anybody except fresh un-tainted engineers.

As I interviewed with various brokers I was surprised how little they wanted to know about me.

Also surprised how many of the questions I asked them that they would not or could not answer.Are they just looking for someone to fog a mirror? It was very important to me to go with someone who offered lots of training even if I had to pay for it. I now see why real estate agents sometimes rank lower than used car salespersons in public opinion polls.

I can't speak for Phoenix; but in general you have to look at it as a game of large numbers . . . . just like in Las Vegas !

If you throw enough mud at a wall, sooner or later, some of it will stick.

Brokers as not incentivized to spend a whole lot of money on each individual Agent when the probability of success is so low. The odds are against them.

And as a Catch 22, because they spend so little on selective recruiting and training, the probability of success is low.

Here in Vermont, I now believe we have had about 58,000 people take and PASS the SalesPerson Real Estate Exam. But only about 1700 are now practicing here under active licenses . . . . and that last number includes those who went on to be Brokers. I believe we are representative of the Country as a whole.

So going on to the National scale, we have just over 1,000,000 people practicing as REALTORS®, and maybe a few hundred thousand who are Licensees; but not REALTORS®. . . . so I wonder how many other people once had an interest in Real Estate, and maybe tried to pass the Exam, and maybe some who even passed it, and maybe then some who went on to have a License issued, and then that group who practiced for a while but became dis-enchanted with the nature of the work, the amount of work, the complexity of the work, or became disgusted with the nature of some of the personalities that we have to interact with.

That number would then appear to be in the bajillions ?

I've written about this issue in the past and got roasted because some people thought I was poking fun at the folks who've tried out and dropped by the wayside. Not at all; the industry is designed to draw just a few from a very large number. And the exact selection process defies definition.

Alls I know is that "Many are called; but few are chosen" . . . . and you really can't blame the Brokers for not making a larger investment in the individuals when it may very well be factors well beyond their control that dictate the longevity of the individual participating Agent . . . . and you can't blame the aspiring Agents either - it's bigger than both of them.

NASA couldn't invest as much in training Astronauts when some of the people are better suited to be Cosmetologists. The odds would be against them.

But I digress.

Hi Lucy! A valid concern. One of my strategies when starting out was focusing on working with Buyers. As a new Agent you have the enthusiasm and time on on your hands to help a new Buyer.

I didn't start getting many listings until late in my first year.

I hope this helps.

Thanks,

Mario

Absolutely! Real Estate Companies are feeling the pinch just as much as the Agents so they need you more than you need them. Remember that! You have leverage.

Thanks,

Mario

yes, thanks I have thought about working with buyers to begin with. I dont know if this is true but I heard that 95% of all re transactions are done by 5% of the agents, if true that is really amazing.

DRSRK--

This is unfortunate. Some Real Estate offices take the body shop approach and just hire whoever they can and squeeze out a few deals from each new Agent and if they make it they make it. They don't really care. It's your career--you are in control of it and don't work for such a company.

Find an Office that fits for you. I did a video on this subject--"How to Choose the Right Company to Work For" you can find it on youtube or on my website.

Don't sell yourself short and just work for an Office or Managing Broker because you feel you have no choices. You do!

Thanks--Mario

Yes, the Pareto Principle is applicable to Realtors. What is misleading is that Teams do a lot of business and sometimes people think a team is one Realtor where it really it is more. Sometimes you have really large teams of 30-40 Agents working under one Realtor.

Good luck!

there is a high dropout rate among new agents, even when the markets are good. if a broker/owner trains new agents, and they drop out within six months with no sales, the broker has completely wasted his time and resources. in this environment, I will be hiring agents with some closed sales under their belt, that have shown they will hang in there for the long haul. that is a very simple, financial business decision. of course, there are always exceptions. if I encounter a super aggressive and motivated salesperson, I'll give them a shot.

Mario I love your website.Its very helpful.Thanks for putting the time in to help other new agents, we really appreciate your thoughtfulness. I know new agents are considered lepers by some brokers but they forget, they used to be a leper too.

Hi Lucy! Thanks so much for the feedback. I am glad you found it helpful

The video I did yesterday: "Why is this Guy doing so Many Videos?" kind of explains my motivation for doing my website.

Talk soon.

Thanks,

Mario