Although real estate is not in its peak and in fact far it is from it, it is not a bad time to consider realtor career as primary occupation. Due to price decrease and tax incentives real estate ownership has become attainable to a new type of buyers and many active real estate agents are staying busy helping sellers and buyers to conduct business in today’s market.

First Steps Starting Realtor Career

To become a realtor one first must complete a real estate agent exam. To qualify for exam you must have at least a high school diploma. After obtaining real estate agent license you can choose which real estate broker you are going to work for. Although your consideration of who your future boss is going to be is important, you have to take initiative to educate yourself on specifics of your local real estate market, demographics, crime rate, schools, environmental data and more. This knowledge will help you to guide your clients while searching or considering a purchase of real estate property and that takes us to the next topic.

Responsibilities of a Real Estate Agent

Agents assist clients in selling and buying a property. Agent acts as a negotiator between sellers and buyers; he or she presents offers on the behalf of buyers and protects sellers from unreasonably low offers as well. Realtor acts as a liaison and an advisor an always protects best interest of his/her clients.

Since real estate transactions are full of complexities and involve much legality, a good realtor has to be well versed in the state real estate laws and regulations. Proper preparation of the paperwork is a big part of successful completion of the real estate transaction and that’s were realtor has to pay attention to all details and assist and educate the client in understanding and completion of all legal documentation.

What Are The Qualities of A Successful Realtor?

Knowledge of the Market

Being a successful realtor means that you must have expert knowledge of your local real estate market. You have to know the pricing trends and latest updates, you have to know the demographics and the specifics of the local market because a good realtor should be able to provide all clients with accurate in current information. Establishing yourself as a helpful expert in real estate will ensure that you get referrals.

Realtor Integrity

Your clients’ interests always come first. Real estate transactions whether you represent the buyer or the seller involve substantial financial considerations for your clients. Your actions have to driven by the desire to help your client first. Your commissions have a direct connection to the level of service you provide your clients with. If you represent a seller you negotiate on your client’s behalf trying to get the highest price for the property and if you represent a buyer you are helping your client to get the best selling price for that property. You may think that by reducing the selling price of the property you may get less commissions but your client trusts you to do just that and in a long run you will get excellent referrals for clients who can testify to your integrity.

You also have to learn not to let some of your clients to use you as informational service or an errand boy. Sometimes people call agents asking a whole bunch of questions and demand being driven around and shown properties without any intention to work with that agent. Don’t let this happen to you, be helpful and considerate but also keep in mind that you are in business of real estate and not a 411 service. Learn to read people and gain their respect.

Professionalism

Knowledge of the market, professional attitude, ongoing marketing and self-promotions, professional image, confidence, personable character and exceptional selling skills are all parts of the package of a real estate superstar. If you are able to continuously improve and maintain highest levels in all these areas your realtor career will take off and stay on top for years. Real estate industry is very demanding and you will have to be demanding of yourself. Constantly polish your skills. Attend the best seminars and read the best books on the subject.

Great Personal Skills

Realtors who posses great personal skills and are likeable and tend to be more successful in their careers. People can choose any realtor they like and as a real estate agent you have to gain respect, sympathy and loyalty of your client. The best way to establish good working relationships with your clients is to be upfront, knowledgeable, listen to their needs, learn about their situation by asking the right questions. Avoid being pushy but establish leadership which will help your client to pick the right property and/or complete transaction smoothly. Don’t forget, if you handle everything in a professional manner, you will get referrals and that is a huge boost to your income and to realtor career.

Self Promotion and Prospecting

As a realtor you have to be aware of the fact that the success in real estate largely depends on visibility of your presence in your area. New agents usually fear the complexities of self promotions but it doesn’t have to be hard or complex. You simply have to learn the best prospecting and marketing techniques and make it a part of your daily workflow. Learn successful marketing techniques from the best, test and monitor success of your promotional campaigns and eventually self promotion will become an easy, automated process.

Realtor Income Expectations

When people consider realtor career one of the first questions if not the first is, “How much money can I make?” Most websites provide you with a median income potential for agents with different level of experience but it doesn’t have to become your measuring stick because realtor income largely depends on the individual. Experience counts in real estate; there is no question about it. But how long does it take to gain the necessary knowledge? It depends on how much are you willing to learn and how much effort you personally going to put in your professional self-improvement.

Another big factor to your income is a real estate agent commission split. New agents usually share 50% of their commissions with their broker, more experienced agents give out 30% commissions and only top agents get to keep full 100%. Most brokers justify these splits by the fact that they have to spend more time in training and assisting a new agent, but at Dynasty Online we provide everyone with quality training and support while paying full 100% commissions. Having extra money help new agents to invest in themselves and that in turn raises the level of knowledge, expertise and professionalism faster.

A career as a realtor offers independence and demands a high degree of self reliance and usually attracts self-driven individuals and it has been proven again and again that self-starters are the most successful in the business of real estate.

California Realtor Career – New Market Dictates New Strategies