Real Estate isn't as easy as it seems...
I realize the name of my Blog is 'House Hunting Stepdad but I notice I'm not talking a whole lot about be a Realtor. I am talking a bit about being a Stepdad, but I think I should write more about that side of my life, too.

I have wanted to be in the Real Estate Business for many years and finally got the right opportunity to do so a few months ago. I don't know how many of you watch House Hunter's but, reality it is not. Well, actually now they are getting some buyers that are similar to what I see on a daily basis. But, they are still not quite there. Still, it is a great show and I am hooked on it.

Being a new Agent, I don't have the contacts that some of these guys have. Some of the Agents here have a contact list of over 500 people. Real Estate is a numbers game, the more people you know, the more sales you will make. I have found some neat ways to increase my contacts and I have been very pleased with the results. But, without 500 people on my contact list, I have to rely on the Office Generated Leads.

We have a Leads Department and any calls or walk ins we get goes through them. They also do a lot of cold calling to generate more business. Whatever appointments they set get filtered down to the agents. The big dollar leads get sent to the established Agents. They don't want a big sale getting flubbed by a new Agent. That's understandable to me, it makes good sense. The sure leads get sent to the older Agents as well. They don't want to lose a sure deal. That is also understandable to me.

Newer Agents get leads that are not a done deal. Usually, one of my leads won't be able to prequalify for anything, for one reason or another. Some of the times they do prequalify, it is not enough for a home they think they should be able to afford. I have been given two leads that are actually going through, one of them is a high price contract, over 250,000. That's a high price contract in my book, anyway.

So, even when we do get a lead that is a good lead and you write the contract and it closes and the commission is split between the two brokers, and then your broker takes his cut, then the Leads Department takes their third. So, out of that six or seven percent commission, your Agent only gets around 1 to 1.5 percent of it.

So the point of all this is that I need a lot more contacts. Anyone want to buy a home in Tallahassee, Florida?
  ¶ 2:57 PM