Need a Break?
To Return to Your Daily Quiz, click here.
Even after you get your license, you might find this page useful. This page will be modified on a regular basis. Bookmark this page to use as your search engine. Look here for games, career help, and whatever else comes to mind.
Career Help New Agent Vocabulary The Art Gallery
Get a Bonus with your site designed by us when you “Crack the Maze!”
What are you doing to get your real estate career going? A lot of agents, new and old, don’t really have an answer to that question, but they can’t figure out why business isn’t going very well. If you don’t have an answer to that question, you’re probably not doing anything! You have to go out and get business. When you go fishing, the fish don’t jump into the boat. Doing anything at all will probably help some, but you should also find out what works best.
First of all, just like safe investing, you should diversify your efforts. Look for both buyers and sellers. If you’re looking for buyers, one of your best bets is to hold open houses. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL YOU HAVE A LISTING TO HOLD AN OPEN HOUSE. If an agent has more than a few listings, they will not be able to hold any one listing open very often for their seller. Pull up houses from your office on the computer or talk to agents in your office to find a few that you think you might like to hold open and then approach the listing agent yourself. DON’T WAIT FOR THEM TO COME TO YOU. Real Estate agents are busy people. They might not be thinking about you all the time. While they will be doing you a favor giving you an open house, the fact is, you will be doing them a favor too. Open houses work to everyone’s advantage. They are a great way for the open house agent to pick up buyers. They give buyers an opportunity to look at houses and get an impression of you as an agent. They bring buyers into the house that might not otherwise look at it, helping both the seller and the listing agent. Don’t let anyone convince you open houses don’t work. If they didn’t work, new home developers would show their houses by appointment. Many agents use that as an opportunity to show a lot of houses to their buyers quickly, so the house could be sold by an agent that got the opportunity to show it because of the open house.
If you’re looking for sellers, one of your best bets is to call expired listings. YOU DO NEED TO MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THE LEGALITIES IN YOUR STATE, but in general, once a listing is expired, they’re fair game. You should be prepared to call five nights a week (either Sunday through Thursday or substitute Saturday during the day for Sunday night). If you just try it a few times it won’t be very effective. Use common sense. You’re not a telemarketer. Don’t call at dinnertime. The best time is between 7 and 8:30PM. You can legally call until 9PM, but remember, some people go to bed early and you don’t know what their habits are yet. IF ANY POINT IN TIME, YOU FIND OUT THAT THE HOUSE HAS BEEN LISTED OR RE-LISTED WITH ANYONE, YOU MUST END THE CALL IMMEDIATELY (BUT POLITELY). DON'T FORGET THE NATIONAL DO NOT CALL LIST! Violations could lead to an $11,000 FINE!