Posted by Brent_IL on February 24, 2002 at 09:13:43:
Being a real estate agent is a job. Most jobs have an hourly wage or billing rate. The major difference with a straight commission job is that the salesman is not paid for showing up at the job site or directly for his efforts once he or she is there. A commissioned RE salesman is paid only when a sale, as defined in the listing contract, is completed. They aren’t looking for a piece of the action, as Ed said, they want a favor and a commission in return for their efforts on your behalf.
Agents have the same number of hours in a week as everyone else. If they waste their time with folks who are unable, unwilling, or lack courage to buy a house, the agent will soon join the ranks of ex-real estate agents.
When you have a track record the agents will try to help you because they want your business.
When you talk to an agent you have to have a specific game plan in mind. A vague statement of goals is like a wish-list. If you say, “I want to buy real estate under FMV with no money out-of-pocket, and with the seller paying all transaction costs,” the reply will be, “Don’t we all” as you are being shown to the door.
I’ve seen estimates that only 3-5% of the people who make a start to buy CRE actually buy a house. Most of them are talked out of the creative part.
Driving prospects to houses, especially large numbers of houses is one thing that takes up a lot of an agent’s time.
Remember the admonition that you are not looking for houses that you can buy. The MLS is full of them. Your search is for sellers that want to sell, and will sell to you because you are fixing something in their life that they perceive as a problem.
Find one area that interests you and start with that. You can learn from your own experience, of the experience of others. The collective RE experience on site is worth a thousand lifetimes for most folks.