Real estate roller coaster

Everyone I've spoken to in this industry agrees on one thing: it's a roller coaster.

"You're going to have good weeks and bad weeks, good days and bad days, good hours and bad hours... you just have to get use to it".

It's hard when you've spent your whole life comparing yourself to others and being motivated by praise and results. Starting out in this industry, nothing is immediate unless you had something (cleverly) lined up before you got your licence; or you get lucky! Other agents may be at a high point while you're on a downhill or vice-versa. There are no apples to apples when comparing real estate agent's success at a given point in time.

Unfortunately I had one of those weeks last week where I spent 10 hours in the mall kiosks and barely received one quality lead (ho hum). It's hard not to feel slightly deflated... am I wasting my time here?

The answer is no. It's better to be at a mall kiosk trying to pick up leads and chatting real estate then sitting at home/in the office. So I keep pounding the pavement. Patience is key.

I have to reassure myself I'm doing everything I can to get things going. You can't force anyone to buy or sell real estate, you just have to be ready when they are! I quite like it when my life is in overdrive and have tons to do all the time but unfortunately there will be slow points in this career and I have to learn to like them.

As my manager said to me today, there will be times you're so busy you have no time to spend your money, and there will be times when you're so slow and broke and all you want to do it work. It's all part of the ride!

The never ending to-do list

I have not officially started yet, but my to-do list is about as long as my arm! I was up in Nanaimo for a course at the beginning of October full of new Realtors. The course is mandatory for any new Realtor in their first 6 months and it was a wonderful opportunity to pick everyone's brains about their company and ask what they had done so far. Quite quickly I realized there was a lot I could do before I actually started work as a Realtor.

The best part so far has been working on my website. I found this great site called Wix (www.wix.com) and it's so much fun. You can create an entire website using only flash. Now there are good things and bad things about this. Every real estate website out there has some sort of tool where Realtors can get leads, such as an online form to enter a client's property search criteria. With this site, I can't really do that! So I've been working on some snazzy PDF forms which can be filled out and e-mailed or faxed back to me! If I receive it by e-mail, I can easily compile all the information into an excel sheet to easily keep track of clients and their needs/wants. It has been exciting to plan how I will interact with clients and create neat tools which will help with the buying or selling process. It's fun to be creative again!

The next task is going to be promotional material. Since the Holidays are coming, I would love to send to my friends and family a little gift. Of course this gift will have my face and phone number plastered all over it... but it will be a gift none the less!

Which brings me to another thing I learned at my course... Referrals in this business are huge! A Realtor can get a lot of business just by referring an agent to someone. For example, I have relatives that live across Canada, and I can refer them a Realtor in their area and receive a fee for it. This is good, a) because I make money and b) because I can make sure friends or family abroad are well taken care of! I've already met so many wonderful people scattered all up the Island through the course in Nanaimo and I can't wait to send some referrals their way.

14 days until I start with Royal LePage! I can't wait to really get started.