The Sweet and Lowdown of Being a Real Estate Agent

The past few days have been crazy. I drove back and forth to Bellevue several times to sell houses there. "Best to wear out than to rust out" is my motto when it comes to business. I welcome any wear and tear opportunities in this economy. Not a morning person, I have to have an alarm clock to wake me up before 8:30am. Sure I missed many sunrises but I stayed awake for sunsets. The only exception to that rule is if you win a jackpot and need me out to write an offer for your next multi-million dollar house, feel free to wake me up at any hour: 4:00am is not too early for that matter. Real estate business is like a tropic rainfall: it's either none or a downpour. If real estate agents aren't responding to the highs and lows, and the twists and turns of the real estate market, they could miss opportunities, big time. So when the phone is ringing, they drop everything they are doing and are supposed to be doing next, to answer the higher calling from commissions. They wear out their bodies and their car tires. The question remains: Will they catch a little sunshine at the end of the downpour, ever? Here are some real estate rules I have concluded through my 6 year real estate practice.

- 10% rule. There is a famous 10% rule in real estate, i.e. 10% of the agents do 90% of the agents' work. Consequently, 10% of the agents make 90% of agents' earnings. It's one of the winner-takes-it-all fields. The published median expected salary for a typical real estate sales agent in the United States is $35,994. Real estate agents are self-employed, which means they are on their own, insurance and retirement wise. Good luck living on that entry-level salary being self-employed. There are starving real estate agents in any kind of market. Their almost ground-level property signs -"Price Reduced"+"New Price"+"Price Improved" need some ground clearance to add another rider for themselves "Will sell for food". If you don't happen to know everyone in town, to have either the banks (repos) or the builders (new constructions) on your side, you are destined to play the typical real estate game, which is "Who wants to be the next thousandnaire?"

- 24/7 rule. There are some part-timers out there who need an added income to their existing retirement, or to their regular 9-5 jobs; there are some builders and investors out there who also get themselves agent licenses to avoid paying commissions. Then there are your average housewives, high school graduates, college dropouts, and recent lay-offs. Real estate is one of those fields where it's too easy to get in and too many are in, and where anyone can get a real estate license and call it a profession. In the vast ocean of real estate agents, food is scarce; Sharks swim with shrimps -The stakes are high. If they want to be one of the top 10% agents and make a good living out of this profession, they'll have to go in full-time. When I say full-time, I mean 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. When their family needs them, their clients need them more. On any given evenings, weekends, holidays and vacations, be prepared to be on call, no matter where and when.

- Ass rule. To keep it short, it's all thing asses. In order to get their heads above the water, real estate agents have to give an ass to all that's required of them to build their clientele base. In order to stay above the water, they can not do a half-ass job. It's either no ass or full ass. In addition, they have to know how to kiss ass while kick ass.

- Attorney rule. Real estate agents are often viewed as money grubbing like attorneys, stock brokers, or bankers. It's the single most injustice to the real estate agents because 1) attorney, stock brokers or bankers don't pay it forward as real estate agents do (literally, real estate agents have to front their time and pockets for any potential earnings). 2) Attorneys and the alike get paid no matter what the results are. Whether or not they reach a deal or no deal in the end, is not part of their pay deal. Whereas, for real estate agents, deal or no deal is a big deal. Real estate agents only get paid if a deal is successfully closed. If not, they don't get a dime, not even a word of consolation from their clients. They consider themselves lucky if they don't get blamed at. 3) No one expects his attorney to give a rate discount or to provide free consultations but in real estate everyone expects real estate agents discount their commissions. When there is a concession to be made, the first corner to cut is real estate agents' commissions. Sadly, there are few desperate real estate agents (formerly Desperate Housewives on TV) who will cut their own throat just to get a listing or close a sale. I don't know why real estate offices are often viewed by public as visitor information centers. Not to mention there are those real estate users who use real estate agents as if there were public service representatives or tour guides. They seem to forget that real estate agents might have kids to feed and mortgage to pay, just like them. Real estate business is their livelihood. Most of the real estate agents will probably happily work for free if they can live for free. Next time when someone compares you an agent to an attorney, I suggest that you send him an attorney equivalent rate bill for all your work hours. That's what an attorney would do. If real estate agents can not fight an uphill battle against their poor public reputation, they better live up to it, which I'm cetain it's not a bad living. Look at any attorneys. In despite of all the attorney jokes and the general public concensus, they hold their heads high and their rates higher. Real estate agents should learn from attorneys if they want to making a living in real estate industry. Here is my new tagline for real estate agents: Think real estate agents, think attorneys.