All Forum Posts by: Ivy Wang

Yes. If you are an investor and will not be doing real estate full-time, this needs to be disclosed. Some broker's will not let anyone who plans on doing on transaction a year join their firm. Better be up front about it than not.

If you hang your license, you can get a referral from your buyer's agent. You will need to hang your license before even working with a chosen buyer's agent. Most broker's require both agents and brokers to sign the referral contract before you begin to look for homes. If you're not active, then you don't have a broker... so there's nobody to sign on your end lol

If you have no experience and want to buy your own house using your license, good luck. Your broker is there for support and training so if you have any questions or problems down the line during closing, you will literally have no one to fall back on if you join a cloud brokerage. 

@Craig Moore Living with your parents will definitely help. I also forgot to mention all the *extra* fees you'll have to pay: Association Dues/MLS fees (mine is $800/year) and Supra key monthly rental. It's annoying but you need to join or you won't have access to your local MLS or have a key to open houses to show clients. Some homes will have combo lockboxes, but if you don't have a Supra key, that will severely limit you.

I'm going on my third year and I enjoy the flexibility it allows me. I could never go back to 9-to-5. I may not be able to give you an accurate perspective as real estate is my family business, so my first year was very lax. My second year was probably like most people's first year as I attempted to be a more independent agent, but not entirely so either since I already had a history of sales from my first year. It was difficult for me that year, so I can only imagine how difficult it is for new agents starting off with zero experience.

As for work load, I work 24/7. You're on call and work when clients need you, which may be every single day. From my understanding, commercial agents work less and have stricter business hours.

My recommendation may be to start off on a team. Most team leaders will hand you leads but any and all clients belong to the team leader should you ever decide to leave. Leaders will also take a cut of your commission (on top of what your broker takes), but at least you'll hit the ground running.

@Craig Moore Most people can't last a year without a steady income and the average income for a first-year agent is $33k. It's recommended to have at least 6 months reserve when you start, but I'd recommend a year. Expenses add up when you're advertising, lead generating, paying bills, etc. Your income will also correlate with how much time and effort you put in, which is why there's no point in doing it part-time when you start out. You won't succeed.

As a new agent, you can work your butt off and still not see any return. Many people want to work with seasoned agents. Even when you have clients, you don't get paid until the deal closes, which could take anywhere from 7 days to 6 months. If you don't close and you just spent all that time and money marketing a listing or driving around buyers? Too bad, you're SOL. Some clients will buy in two weeks, some will buy a year later. Your commission is then split with your broker (big firms will also take a franchising fee), transaction coordinator, E&O insurance, and you'll have to set aside ~30% for taxes.

One agent at my firm cold-called almost everyday for a year before she got her first listing. Another agent is struggling and delivering pizzas in the evening so he can pay his bills and support his family. There are many successful agents, but they only make up a small percentage.

If you're not licensed, you can't do much. If you really want to be proactive, get a job as a receptionist at a brokerage or something to see how things work. But you're in the military... so you probably can't do that. You're getting a little ahead of yourself if you haven't even started classes yet.

Greatest compliment we can receive are hot referrals. But if you really want to give a tangible gift in the meantime, I love getting basketball box seat tickets, gift cards to fine dining restaurants/steakhouses, or wine/hard alcohol.

If your SOI consists of 85 people, 85 letters isn't too expensive nor hard to get out. Handwritten would be the best way to go; not sure about sending a photo of your child. Some people won't work with you because you're inexperienced, but some will give you a chance. If it were me, I'd send out a letter saying that I've been a Realtor for x amount of time and my brokerage has sold x amount of homes in the last x months. You don't have any past sales, but your brokerage does - take advantage of that.

Regarding Facebook - you can post as often as you like about real estate and what you do, but it won't necessarily mean everyone in your SOI will see it based on the algorithms. You could possibly try personally Facebook messaging them but depending on your generation, a handwritten letter may be the better way to go.

What you're looking for depends on what you want. Some people do better in teams, some people do better on their own. Do you need a broker that is very involved and offers training programs, or someone who just sits back and lets you do what you want? Figure out what you want and then you can determine the questions to ask when interviewing brokers.

It's great you're a go-getter, but remember that 85% of agents don't make it past the first year. Don't be that statistic.

What advice are you seeking? If you're looking for a mentor, join a brokerage and find a mentor/team there to learn from and shadow.

I don't believe so. Your minor would have to be under your degree at a 4-year college or university. If you've already graduated, you can't just tack on a major or minor after the fact just by taking the required courses (as far as I'm aware). You would have to go back to school for another 4 years and major or minor in RE. You're better off just taking the salesperson exam.

Why do you want your broker's license? If it's so you can keep 100% of your commission, there are plenty of online cloud brokerages that let you keep 100% commission and charge low transaction fees. Doing it that way, you wouldn't have to deal with the liability of owning a brokerage. I know so many brokers who still choose to work under another broker to avoid all that BS.

Hi @Brianna Jackson! I'm based in LA but know Camarillo well. Shoot me a message and let's see if we can work together.