Real Estate Career Not Just About Sales
Author: Mark Nashbr
Source: articleage.combr
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Easy money, flexible schedules, and being your boss seem to be the buzzwords with those considering a career in residential real estate. Sales was intentionally left off the job title. Real estate is moving away from being a sales career to being a resource for consumers that are buying or selling a home.
Mark Nash author of Starting Succeeding in Real Estate and three other real estate books and a regular columnist for RealtyTimes.com shares the inside story on how begin and prosper in todays transitioning real estate market.
-Pre-license education will provide you with knowledge about the applicable real estate laws in your state, but will not prepare you to be successful in residential real estate.
-The first office you choose to hang your real estate license in will greatly influence your success or failure in the business. Visit at least three offices and meet with the managing broker before making a decision.
-Technology skills are a must. Over seventy-percent of all home buyers start their search on the Internet before contacting a real estate agent. Web site development, text messaging, virtual tours are the bread and butter of real estate today.
-Savvy consumers search out full-time agents. Real estate is not a part-time business, no matter what you have heard.
-Understand that successful real estate agents work fifty to sixty hours a week, many times at odd hours and holidays. You have to be available when clients want to see properties or list their home, which is after normal business hours.
-People oriented personalities thrive and succeed in residential real estate. Patience, level-headed, and pleasing agents are the top producers.
-Youre an independent contractor. Many new agents think their broker will build their business, you are a business within that brokerage business. Think like a sole-proprietor and develop a business plan.
-Look and act like a professional. Many new agents are too casual in their demeanor and dress and this spells failure. Consider that home buyers and sellers are dealing with their largest asset when dealing with you, is their accountant or doctor showing up at appointments with them in flip-flops or tennis shorts?
-Real estate is not about sales, its about being a resource and developing relationships. In the go-go days of the real estate market, many new agents were order-takers. Now with a transitioning market, you need to provide clients with information and strategies. With less motivation and energy in markets, building relationships over the long-haul positions you as a real estate resource.
-Join clubs, organizations and non-profits. Networking is how your grow your relationships. Meeting new people who know other people with a real estate purchase or sale need will grow your business. You wont meet new people holed up in your real estate office or your living room.
-In takes money to make money in real estate. Many new agents are tapped out financially by the time they pay for pre-license education. Factor in start-up costs such as errors and omission insurance, Board of Realtors(R) and Multiple Listing Service dues, and business marketing costs. Health insurance is available through national real estate association. Plan on no income for 6-9 months.
-Find a coach or mentor. Beginning in real estate can be lonely as youll soon realize that you have a minimal support system. Find a mentor within the business and a coach outside it to help organize and plan your business.
Mark Nashs fourth real estate book, 1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home (2005), and working as a real estate broker in Chicago are the foundation for his consumer-centric real estate perspective which has been featured on ABC-TV, Associated Press,CBS The Early Show, Bloomberg TV, Bottom Line Magazine.CNN-TV, Chicago Sun Times Tribune, Fidelity Investors Weekly, MarketWatch, HGTVpro.com, MSNBC.com, Smart Money Magazine,The New York Times, Realty Times, Universal Press Syndicate and USA Today.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Nashbr
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Internet Battleground for Future of Residential Real Estate
Author: Mark Nashbr
Source: articleage.combr
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Real estate agents are gearing up to face the biggest shift in their industry since its beginning. No longer the first in the path of homebuyers and sellers, agents have gone from top feeders to the bottom feeders with real estate consumers in just a few years.
I started in the real estate business when agents were top feeders and the keepers of the information. Multiple Listing Services? began migrating to the Internet at the millennium. Most agents in my first realty office said the Internet wasnt going to change anything, because we still had the telephone like books with available homes for sale. Consumers had to call us to start their search to purchase a home.
Buyers started calling from out of town on a property and they hadnt driven by it, they saw it on the Internet. This started the shift of the consumer having access to the same information as the agent. Proactive agents and virtual brokerages saw the writing on the wall and began Internet marketing efforts and captured new market share by being early adopters and listening to their new web-based consumer.
Today traditional brokerages and their agents are scrambling to get in the path of Internet real estate consumers, who number seventy-four percent of all buyers in 2004 according to the National Association of Realtors? Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. Many of these late adopters have to compete with thousands of real estate websites and e-marketers who have been honing their position for the last five years to be the first in the consumers path when they start their home search. Large newspapers hold brokerage licenses and own real estate websites to capture real estate consumers and sell these leads back to agents, now the bottom feeders.
Real estate trade associations are fighting back against the Internet real estate pioneers with changes to state real estate license laws to restrict and define their roles in lead generation and interactions with consumers. Large Internet powerhouses with non-traditional real estate brokerage business models will give a whole new face to residential real estate by the year 2010.
Mark Nash is a residential real estate author, broker and commentator. He has been featured on CBS The Early Show, Bloomberg TV, CBS Dow Jones Market Watch, and Smart Moves by Ellen James Martin. His latest book 1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home is available online and in bookstores nationwide.br
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Chicago Suburb Real Estate
Author: Thomas Morvabr
Source: articleage.combr
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The real estate market in the Chicago suburbs is as vibrant as it is in city itself. A large number of residential and commercial real estate are always available for sale or purchase in Chicagos suburban areas such as Cook County, Lake County, McHenry and Boone counties, Kane and DeKalb counties and DuPage and Will counties. There are also other Chicago suburbs where real estate market continues to flourish.
There are real estate firms which deal exclusively with one particular suburb, and others that deal with all suburbs. The south suburbs are relatively new. The real estate prices are high here. Some of the buildings have still preserved the architecture of previous centuries.
Excellent commuting facilities leading into the city have resulted in relatively higher prices for real estate in this area as compared to some other suburbs. The northern suburbs are considered elite. Here we have villages with beautiful houses and magnificent churches, a good choice for those who are looking forward to buy residential real estate. The northwest suburbs cover huge tracts of land. The population density is low. The architecture of most of the buildings reminds one of a typical 20th century urban landscape.
Those looking for commercial real estate can go for vacant spaces in shopping malls. Residential real estate is also available in the countryside as one keeps on moving farther out in these suburbs. In the western suburbs one finds a variety of real estate, as these suburbs have a very diversified culture and economy.
There are affluent sections, as well as agrarian and industrial communities with their feet on the ground. One can get a range of real estate in western suburbs. It is clear that in general the real estate prices might be a bit on the lower side as compared to the main city area of Chicago, but as all of them have good connectivity with the main city area, one can settle down in one of these suburbs without having any major impact on ones quality of life.
Chicago Real Estate provides detailed information on Chicago Real Estate, Chicago Commercial Real Estate, Chicago Suburb Real Estate, Chicago Real Estate Developments and more. Chicago Real Estate is affiliated with Atlanta Commercial Real Estate.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Thomas_Morvabr
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