Behind the Scenes, Chapter 4, with Dee Dee More ...

So, you say you want to be a Realtor. Well then, let me enlighten you a bit.

To be a great Realtor, is to be so many thing wrapped up in one.  Education, education, education, both on the market and the many facets of the business.  You must love properties and enjoy learning about them, be it good or bad.  You should love it so much, that the checks you earn, are merely bonuses. Not only do you learn from every transaction and relationship that you create, but you also will be taking continuing education for the duration of your career in real estate. You must love to work on the weekends and be able to drop everything to help someone in need.  Great Realtors must have patience, technological skills,  spontaneity, creativity, positivity, interpersonal skills, observational skills, the ability to put yourself in someone shoes, care, diligence and strength.

In this day and age, a Realtor needs to be extremely responsive.  That cell phone better be attached to you at all times.  Even when your watching your favorite tv show or playing with your kids!  We work all day, every day, unless we are on vacation and even then we are still working!  Our families do suffer and we at times need to stop and smell the roses.

Realtors do not get a salary, so you must be financially secure before you begin this career.  Pay day is often several days after a closing.  Often times we will work with clients for several months before closing on a home and in some cases it could be years. There will also be times when you work really hard for someone only to find they bought a home through someone else, or equally worse, they list with someone else.   Yes your heart will  break into a million tiny pieces and you will lose lots of sleep, because you really thought you had a great relationship with that person.  Then you question whether they really get it.  We work tirelessly for someone and only get paid if and when they close? Yes, that is correct!   I can't think of another career where people can work for free and never get paid other than volunteering of course.  This is the type of thing that can happen to you as a Realtor,  so you need to have a strong backbone and keep persevering.  There are great people out there and you will learn which ones will respect and treat you with equal care.

Be prepared to spend a lot of your own money to market yourself and your sellers properties.  Most companies have limited marketing budgets for their agents.  Marketing never ends,  every year you will probably spend more money to market yourself and your sellers properties.  In our MLS we have at least 7,000 agents!  That is just a crazy number of people in the same career path in the same area.  Your friends will, no doubt, know at least 1 agent and in some cases maybe 5!  Don't be upset when your friends sell their homes and don't even consider using your services.  It happens all the time.  You may be checking the market for a client only to find that your friends house is on the market! That's a hard nut to swallow.  Forget it and move on because there are people out there who need you!

Every transaction involves a team.  This is where you will need your great communication skills. Teams can consists of a realtors, real estate attorneys, appraisers, contractors and in many cases, a lender.  As a team, we work hard to make sure everything is going as planned.  We spend hours and hours communicating with one another to make sure the closing day will be smooth.  This is where you may feel like a therapist at times, trying to keep your clients calm during this very stressful time.  You must have good skills using a smart phone and computer.  Emails, voicemails and texts must be checked constantly.  Real Estate transactions are most often the biggest investments a client is making in their lives, so we need to be certain that they are taken care of in a timely manner.  Today actually means, yesterday!

I have only skimmed the surface of what being a Realtor is all about.  There is much more that we do, that can't be put into words here.  After hearing all of this, are you up for the challenge, because it's going to be like the fastest roller coaster you have ever been on, that can stop on a dime, with frequent moments of that bumpy chain ride on the way up! Ready...Set...Go!!!!