Creating Value in a Competitive Real Estate Career Market
Real Estate Success Strategies #1
The success of real estate careers hinges on knowledge. Only about one in ten real estate agents is a success and making big money. The other nine out of every ten are struggling or must get out of the business entirely. This means that most people who get into real estate sales lack sufficient knowledge to succeed. Real estate careers are not easy, but if you are successful you will have financial independence and the ability to work only for yourself and only on your own schedule.
In today's real estate and mortgage markets, there is a lot of confusion among people, as well as fear. Those who will today be successful in real estate agent careers must have greater knowledge than ever before, for people are turning more and more to information on the Internet and to discount brokerages for help with buying a house. To be one of the one-in-ten who makes it today, you have to be oneof the real estate agents who is a cut above everyone else. You have to increase your value to other people. And once again, in a real estate sales career, you accomplish this by increasing your knowledge.
For instance, many real estate agents and home buyers think that due to the small amount of new homes being built right now, the housing market has a very dismal outlook for the future. Many people who may be considering real estate careers are discouraged by this thought. Yet, it's simply a false idea. Home inventories are now very high, and so there hasn't got to be a lot of new construction right now. Builders have cut back on production and this is serving to stabilize home prices and lower house inventories. This means there are fewer homes for hungry buyers to buy, so there will be increased competition among buyers for them. For those who want successful real estate careers, this is a golden opportunity to help their clients get into the perfect house. There are many already-built houses out there just waiting to be bought. This is your opportunity as a real estate agent to sell them and start carving out a great real estate career for yourself.
Another false notion out there today is that as baby boomers start retiring more and more, there will be too many large homes on the market that can't get sold as the boomers move into smaller homes. Well, they have started retiring and they aren't trading down most of the time. They are remaining in their homes or they are moving into new homes that are of comparable size. Once again, you have a golden opportunity to carve out a great niche for yourself in a real estate career with this knowledge. You can target selling retiring boomers new homes of nice size (more house means more commission, remember). For those who are retiring but seem to want to stay in their current homes, you can contact them with opportunities to buy investment properties or see if they have children who are looking for a new home. Furthermore, if you learn about some of the newer retirement communities springing up to meet the retirees' needs, you can find a lot of sales opportunities for yourself. If retirees do want to sell their homes, you can position yourself as the real estate agent who can get them the best deal. This is the kind of marketing savvy that makes real estate careers into successes.
What about the idea swirling around out there that this is a bad time to buy? It's just not true. All real estate depends on local conditions. Now is great time for people to get into real estate agent careers and target the local communities where home values are rising or expected to rise. There are actually plenty of them out there, although it can be said to be true that there aren't as many of them as there were during the bubble. But the great news for real estate agents is that they have a good reason to talk to people: to educate them. Educate them about the fact that this can be a golden time for them to buy. You also now will have the backing of a much stronger mortgage market, and you can educate potential buyers about this fact, allaying their fears that they might be one of the families caught with the possibility of losing their home to foreclosure. Understand financing so that you can be the one educating them rather than losing commissions to discount mortgage brokers.
At the same time, you can help educate potential buyers in how to be selective. For, since real estate sales are always based on local circumstances, you can give them sound advice when it really isn't the best time to buy for them. In a successful real estate career, you must know how to "build your bank" for the future. When you give sound advice to a potential buyer today and don't try to take advantage of them just generate a commission, you can expect them to come back to you in a year or two when they are ready to buy. You'll get your deserved commission then.
So, do not be intimidated away from or out of a real estate career today. Now is a great time to be in real estate sales careers--if you have the proper knowledge.