Let’s Talk About Real Estate!

Real Estate is a profitable career for men and women if you’re in a prospering economy, and know how the game is played. That’s the good news. The bad news is when real estate is bad; realtors, agents, lenders, appraisers; mortgage companies along with escrow and title companies suffer, and start ordering more valium.  Many who opt to enter the field of real estate study long and hard to get a state license as an agent, and then start looking for a company to join to start their career.

However, before you start making “money plans” to be in the real estate business you best know that real estate takes a lot of skills and effort before you see any of those green lights and blue skies, as well as that rainbow pot-of-gold! So don’t go cash out annuity without knowing what you are risking first!  And you better like tedium and paperwork because 90 percent of real estate involves paperwork that’s complicated, useless, but required.  Get a good solid paper punch because you are going to be dealing with a mountain of paperwork.  It’s not all rainbows.  You didn’t just find out how to make fast money, you found out how to work your tail off to earn it!  Think dealing with homes, land, various time consuming transactions where failure is common, and where wannabes better adhere to the old mantra of counting their “money” chickens, before they hatch.

That said, let’s open the book of real estate common sense, and pass along some pertinent information you can use as a primer.

1. Insure you like meeting people, like yourself, have good communication skills, enjoy working strange hours; weekends included, and a self possessed man or woman.
2. Know what it takes to get a state agent license; some states have age and education requirements.
3. Accept that in this day and age of terrorism, background checks are common, and some companies who may hire you after passing the exam, will run a three-tier credit report including current FICO scores, so beware and investigate.
4. Do some “recruiting” on your own before you select a real estate company and contact the broker for an interview. Using the Internet works well to weed out companies who have few agents, and don’t do much advertising. A suggestion might be to drive around the area where you live and check that has signs up in yards, or spread out in a three mile radius and look for construction activity.
5. After several years of “getting-your-feet-wet” gaining needed experience, and working for some company, make a plan to get a broker license and go out on your own.
6. You are ready to buy, sell, create blueprints and loft conversion plans, and rent!

The money is not working for somebody; it’s working for yourself, plus no more than three other agents. Finally, a million dollar agent told me her secret to success. Be persistent, but polite.

And this is the overall idea of this website.  We are going to talk about vacation spots in Anaheim where you can swim with the leafy ocean dragons, we are going to talk about real estate opportunities.  We are going to talk about all of the ways you can earn from owning property.  Please check back frequently as we’ll add plenty of more resources!