|
Remember September
2005? That’s when you made up your mind
to chuck the 9-to-5 routine and start
cashing in on those real estate
megabucks that were dangling from nearly
every tree limb in town.
Oops, bad timing.
That was when home
sales started to slide and a lot of
Realtor newbies started wondering if
they’d made such a good choice after
all.
And while declining
sales may have caused some agents to
consider yet one more career change,
Realtors with a broader industry
perspective say the current slowdown
could produce as many benefits as it has
disappointments.
“It’s going to be
beneficial to have some attrition among
the ‘oneseys’ and ‘twoseys,’” says ERA
Lucas Group marketing director Randy
Goff, referring to agents who jumped
on board when sales were at a feverish
pace but will sell only one or two
properties throughout their short-lived
careers.
As the market
cools, according to Goff, established
brokers throughout the Kyrene Corridor
are quietly recruiting a new crop of
sales professionals—serious-minded,
focused men and women who still believe
that the Valley’s future will continue
to be paved with the gold of residential
real estate.
“For people willing
to work hard, to follow the right
formulas, real estate sales holds no
less promise today than it did a year
ago,” says Goff.
However, those are
important “ifs,” he emphasizes.
Because Arizona’s
fairyland real estate atmosphere has
passed, at least for now, agents
starting in the field should be ready to
work harder than their predecessors.
They should not be on the brink of
financial disaster—it takes 30 to 45
days to get your first check, even if
you make a sale your first day on the
job—and they should have a small reserve
to pay for marketing via newsletters,
advertising and other tried and true
strategies.
Even so, says Goff,
it’s still a hugely attractive field.
With proper training and company
support, real estate holds the same
lucrative promise it always has for
housewives whose kids are grown and
gone, for early retirees ready to tackle
a new opportunity or for people who have
been, or think they’re about to be, laid
off by their current company.
Interestingly,
according to Goff, a background in sales
isn’t required for people considering
careers in real estate, nor is it
necessarily desirable.
“The main
qualifications are integrity, an ability
to communicate and a desire to serve
people,” he says. “The skills can be
learned.”
As for prospective
agents who say they wouldn’t know where
to start, Goff advises the new agent to
go through basic training with a
knowledgeable mentor, then to develop a
niche based on his or her individual
strengths.
“We know that most
new agents can’t compete with
professionals who have been in the field
for years,” said Goff. “So we encourage
them to work with a specific strategy:”
Internet marketing, developing contacts
with for-sale-by-owner sellers,
telemarketing, classified ads, tapping
into their existing spheres of
influence, for example.
While no one of
these or other templates can guarantee
immediate success, experience shows that
the sale of only one home a month can
generate $50,000 a year in commissions,
according to Goff.
As to those
concerned about a declining real estate
market, Goff says such a condition has
its advantages.
“At the end of this
year, 80 to 90 percent of the marginal
Realtors will let their licenses
expire,” due partly, he says, to the
approximate $400 cost of renewal.
The resulting void,
he says, coupled with the Valley’s
bright job prospects and continuing
growth potential, should provide more
than enough incentive to attract
newcomers.
Scott Agnew,
managing partner of Keller Williams East
Valley Realty and other Keller Williams
franchises, agrees with Goff’s
assessment, noting that current market
conditions are less an aberration and
more like real estate used to be.
“This is the kind
of market it was when I got into it,”
says Agnew. “You had to knock on doors,
do prospecting, follow up within
minutes. It was a great way to learn
because that was ‘normal,’ and that’s
how normal real estate is done.”
In those days, he
adds, “The older Realtors were out there
licking their wounds; I was out there
doing business. I didn’t know any
different.”
During the past
several years, conditions have created a
somewhat illusory environment, according
to Agnew, resulting in agents who don’t
understand the need for organization,
focus and hard work.
He likens the
current state of the industry to
starting any business, emphasizing the
need to have the financial resources to
survive the inherent rigors.
“You wouldn’t start
a business without operating capital,
and you wouldn’t launch a career in real
estate thinking you weren’t going to
have some expenses.”
Agnew also advises
anyone considering such a career to seek
out brokerages that are learning-based
and that teach the fundamentals a new
entrepreneur needs to succeed.
“It’s a training
and accountability environment a
newcomer needs, not one that just
provides them with leads.”
Agnew likens the
development of a successful Realtor to
another segment of today’s society.
“If you want to be
an awesome chef, you go to culinary
school; if you just want to be a weekend
cook, then watch The Food Channel.” |
