IS BEING AN ESTATE AGENT A GOOD CAREER CHOICE?
Being an estate agent isn't as simple as finding a house to sell and starting to advertise it. While it might seem straightforward, there are a lot of complexities in the profession and a lot of work and training goes into being a good agent. Despite all it's complexities, being an estate agent can be extremely rewarding for the right people. Here are the top five qualities that might make being an estate agent the right career for you:
You're good with people
Being an estate agent is all about working with people. You have to work with buyers and sellers, as well as attorneys and banking staff to make sure that a property sale goes through. It's important for you to be able to build a relationship with your sellers so that they can trust that you have their best interests at heart, and you'll need to be professional and friendly to potential buyers.
You're good at budgeting
One of the drawbacks of being a real estate agent is that you don't earn a constant salary. Instead, you get paid commissions whenever you sell a property, which means your income can be very variable. If you're good at planning your finances, then this might not be a problem for you at all. In fact, people that are good at budgeting can get the best of both worlds, with lump sum payments allowing you to make big purchases or investments without needing to save but also making sure that you have enough income to carry you through until your next commission.
Budgeting is also important for the process of marketing and selling a property. Sometimes, as an agent, you'll need to invest some money into a property to maximize your commission. Maybe you need to get a professional photographer out to make sure they property adverts stand out, or you need to pay some additional advertising fees. These things can add unexpected costs to a property sale and a good estate agent knows what to invest in and what isn't worth spending money on.
You want flexibility in your work hours
If you want the flexibility of working your own hours and choosing when you want to work and when you want to take leave, being an estate agent might be a good option for you. While this might sound like a dream for anyone, running your own business isn't always as simple as that. While you might have control over your hours, the nature of being an estate agent means that you'll most likely have to work after standard work hours. Most of your potential buyers and sellers will only be available in the early evenings or on weekends, which means that this is when you'll need to be available to organize viewings and meeting with new potential sellers. If you're disciplined enough to make sure you put the work in and can manage your workload, then being an estate agent can give you the flexibility to choose when you work and might be a perfect fit for you.
You like marketing and networking
To be a successful real estate agent, you need to be able to write adverts for properties, take good photos, and keep up with marketing for both yourself as an agent and for the properties you're selling. An important component of being a real estate agent is finding properties to sell. It usually takes a lot of time and effort to find leads and convince people to sell through you, especially if you want to sell through a sole mandate where you're the only agent trying to sell the house. Finding leads requires you to put yourself out there, build a strong network of potential clients and means you always need to be working on marketing yourself to potential sellers in your area.
If you like networking and feel comfortable telling people why they should go with you as an agent, then this could be a rewarding part of the job for you. On the other hand, if you're introverted and struggle to sell yourself then you might have a hard time finding leads for properties to sell.
You're good at administrative work
Being a real estate agent comes with a lot of administrative work. You'll need to manage your marketing, schedule viewings, keep track of spending, and stay on top of the contracts and legal work that goes into selling properties. While you're doing all of this, you'll also need to make sure that you're responding to emails and messages quickly and professionally and keeping track of how sales are going and which of your properties might be struggling to sell.
Conclusion
If you're a disciplined person who is good at keeping track of budgets and administrative tasks but still loves working with people, then being a real estate agent could be the perfect career for you. Some of the biggest benefits of being an estate agent is that you get flexibility in your work hours, and you have control over when you work but you do need to remember that you'll need to sacrifice some evenings and weekends to meet with potential buyers and sellers who are working normal, 9 to 5 jobs.
Source: Pierre E Rousseau Founder/Principal PropertyTime
https://pierrerousseau.co.za/is-being-an-estate-agent-a-good-career-choice/
