Part time agents always make me chuckle. This ain't no part time biz! How can you be successful if you only work after you are done with your day job? Okay, I will give credit to those that know a ton of people and lived in an area their entire life. They may be able to drum up a few clients that are friends, 
family or co-workers at that day job and may be able to keep them even though they have a limited availability. But in order to make the big bucks and be a top selling agent, you're going to need to get that toe out of the water and just jump in! Real estate is a full time job. I would have to say, it's MORE than a full time job! Some days it's like have a job and a half or even two! If you want to be successful, you need to play the numbers game. You have 20 listings?!? GREAT!!! But how many will you sell??? That all depends on your pricing, marketing and your follow through. Do you provide a service of value to the sellers? Are you giving them their feedback after each showing and are you showing their homes or just setting it up through a showing service and letting it show itself? Do you spend real marketing dollars or do you just stick your listings on MLS and your 1 company website? How about pricing...do you take those dreadful over priced listings that you know will never sell? If you are, you're hurting your business.
Real estate takes persistence, determination and drive. It takes a special kind of person to be able to stick with it and work at it full time. Some days it can mean starting at 8AM and not finishing up until 11:30PM! Other days it could mean not getting a single call or showing for a whole week straight! You need to plan out everything from your marketing approach, lead generation and follow ups to your budgeting. With a little elbow grease and a lot of heart, your business will shine!
Kathleen Cooper Best Option *** RE/MAX Professional Associates *** LICENSED IN MA!
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Kathleen... That is it in a nut shell, I could use a part-timer to help take up the slack in my office but they will need a full time commitment to make any money in the business.
It is definitely not for the part timer. There are so many changes going on right now in pricing, rules, regulations, practices, etc. that one can harm their customer without the knowledge gained by being fully immersed in the business.
Great point Steve! If you are part of a team or working as a buyer's agent for a big time sales agent, you may be okay part time. But again, you need someone else doing that time and a half to be successful!
Thanks for stopping by!
Sincerely,
Kathleen
I went to "new member orientation" a couple of weeks ago with about 150 agents there. I ended up sitting next to a guy who says he's just going to do it part time. I chuckled, and told him I wasn't trying to be rude, and we talked about it not being a part time job, and he said with just being licensed a couple of months, he was already learning that...
I wish people would understand that BEFORE getting (or trying to get) into the business.
I noticed the new picture. Looks much more casual.
Hi Donna! Yeah, I decided it was time to put a face with the name on AR. I used to have our for sale sign as my picture, but I want people to recognize me in public so I changed it.
I'm with you. I wish people understood real estate is NOT easy and can't be done part time with much success. It takes a lot of money to make money and takes your undivided attention.
Jim - Thanks for sharing! I'm sure there will be 2 sides to this story, but I think there are more to support the full time fence than not.
Sincerely,
Kathleen
Kathleen,
I used to completely agree with you. Then I spent years as a broker and as an instructor and one year as President of the Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS. Now, I think what we care about is not the connotation of "part-time" nearly as much as the word "commitment."
I have met many full time agents who have very little commitment and can't hold a candle to a part time agent. In other words, I can name a lot of agents who have another job, but put more time, effort, responsibility and care into their real estate business than most of the full time agents.
Of course, sometimes the definition of success is the amount of business rather than the quality.
Real Estate is indeed a FULL TIME job. IN this market you must have your nose to the grindstone every minute if you expect to get anything accomplished.
Hi Gary - I think the disadvantage to part time agents are the fact that they just aren't or can't be available when a buyer or seller needs them to be. These days, people don't just work M-F 9-5PM. They work strange hours and view homes every or any day of the week. If you work another full time job, it's almost impossible to be around for your listing's showings or your buyer's time off to view homes. I do agree with you, there are a lot of full time agents that don't commit and do what you need to do, but they won't last long either.
Tom - Thanks for stopping by. We definitely have to keep our noses to the grindstone, that's a great way of describing it! These days you have to hold the "transaction's" hand until the day it closes or it may never happen!
Have a great night!
Sincerely,
Kathleen
Kathleen,
persistence, determination and drive...
You've set the tone for my day! Thank you.
Mike in Tucson
Hi Kathleen,you have a great blog here, and i can see that you put full-time effort into your career and I think this is best for todays real estate work ethics, since we all know that full-time hard work pays off in the end ,) Thank you for sharing your wonderful and well thought out thoughts, Kathleen. Have a wonderful week! Oh yea, I am Leslie, and I am an expert realator whos specializes in <a href="http://www.leslie4homes.com/diamond-bar-area-real-estate/">Diamond Bar Real Estate</a>.
Hi everyone, I am an expert realator whos specializes in
http://www.leslie4homes.com/diamond-bar-area-real-estate/
And I feel that with drive, persistance, passion for your career and what you do, and of course paitence, is the best way to go about any job. Also, hard work pays off over time, and part-time work just pays less.... .)p