What was your first move after licensing?

Question

So, I just passed the Florida RE exam on Friday. Obviously I need to figure out what brokerage to go with but, I am curious as to what you did once you started working under a broker. How did you acquire your first listing or client looking to buy. Just seeing what steps different people took in the beginning as I am about to make that leap myself. I know, I know I can go look at all the postings of how people find buyers and how people market to find people looking to sell with Agents (and I have) but, I was just curious as to what others have done in the beginning. Also let me know if there is anything I can help anyone with in my area. I am very familiar with prices etc. in this area.

Bryan L. · Answer

@Tyler Jenkins  This is a little bit old-school, but I took out a phone book (remember those?) from my town and my wife's contact book.  I scanned them both (I don't mean "scan" with a scanner, I mean that I scanned down each page with my eyes) and sent letters to every name that even remotely looked familiar and told them that I was now a Realtor and asked for their business and/or referrals.  Got one or two clients that way right off the bat.

Kim Book · Answer

lol, memories.....I joined ERA and I started going to call night back in 2004. I got my first client that way and learned to negotiate liens on my first deal, 5 to be exact.  ive since done lots more but  I suggest just passing out business cards and telling everyone you know your in the business.  Decide the neighborhoods you want to farm if your looking for lisitngs and then focus on making sure those people know who you are. I am sure the agent that sold them the house is probably not keeping in touch.  Some may be but most are not.... I would suggest finding a great CRM program that you like to use.  Something like top producer or anything like that so that you can automate the process.....  good luck with it all......  Oh and last but not least don't forget to build your wealth. Invest in your self.

David Hunter · Answer

Let's see...

I listed two properties within the first 2 months of getting my license.  One was a family member and the other was a friend of the families.  Both didn't sell... I got out of the business for 2.5 years.  I then returned working with a top producing agent and never looked back since.

Tyler Jenkins · Answer

@Oiluj Lopez  Congrats on passing the exam. I plan on using my license for my deals as well. My wife has had her license for a while and recently has ton inactive and we are both about to put our license with the same broker and work together on selling.

@James Wise  I plan on that as well. I hope to have my license with a broker within the next week or two. I wish I had it right now as I have found a piece of property that I believe a lot of people on this site would buy for a buy and hold unit. I'm actually trying to come up with my money myself to buy. Won't last long around here though.

George C. · Answer

I got my license because I had to deal with too many liars & incompetents for agents. I wasn't interested in dealing with the public as a typical agent, I wanted to do my own thing. When I joined a brokerage they of course wanted me to do floor time,  I was on the schedule for two months, one evening a week. Those eight nights all I was, was an (unpaid) secretary for the #1 agent in the place answering calls for her and nothing else came in. This #1 agent was good, but the poor thing lived with phones stuck to both sides of her head, good luck trying to talk to her in person, the phones were always ringing. They weren't all happy calls, often she was putting out fires, a lot of stress there. I knew that wasn't for me. From then on I told them I was too busy to do floor time, they were ok with that because I was buying, building & selling my own properties splitting the commission with the office. I only did a few sales for others when they fell into my lap from people I know.

How nice it is to have the MLS at your finger tips anytime you need it & to be able to do a showing for yourself when you want without having to figure in someone else's schedule. Cutting out one more link out of the game of telephone was a very good thing. Cutting yourself in on the commissions is the best thing!

Even out of state, when I call the listing agents I tell them I'm from "abcdef realty" and get a commission when I buy. I'm buying REO's, so often they have the old combo lock boxes so they give me the codes and go look myself when I want there too.

Don't get too tied up working for nothing, badgering everyone you know & strangers too, make that license work for you and your own deals. Just my opinion.

James Wise · Answer

@Tyler Jenkins You should be able to find some clients on this site. Search out the people in your area and begin to network with them.

Oiluj Lopez · Answer

Congrats!

I just passed the Florida RE exam on Tuesday 2/4.

I'm taking a bit of a different route in that I got my license to help with getting my own deals. Not really looking to list properties at the moment.

I'm also interested in what others did and are doing with their license.. should be informative.

What was your first move after licensing?

Most Popular Reply