REALTORS® may be Spokane’s best bargain
Working with a REALTOR® easily could be the biggest bargain in the Spokane area or most anyplace else.
Most people do not realize buyers and sellers usually pay nothing for REALTOR® services until a transaction is complete. No sale, no dollars. They are independent licensed business men and women who hang their state license on a broker’s wall. The broker at an office is in charge of that office.
REALT0RS® subscribe to a Code of Ethics and must take continuing education classes like a doctor or an accountant to keep their license. REALTORS® do not charge for their time nor do they get paid by the broker for their time.
It’s a common misconception that a sales agent works for a broker and gets paid a salary, receives medical insurance, a car and that any fees earned are shared throughout the office. Agents are on their own in their own business. By law, they must work through a broker.
Many of the top producers in the business hire assistants to free themselves to have more time with clients. It is not unusual for successful REALTORS® to average more than 60 hours a week working at their profession.
Because of the time elements involved in closing a sale, it can be a month or more before the transaction closes and the agent gets a check. For a REALTOR® just starting out in the business, a good rule of thumb would be to have at least six months of expenses saved to cover costs of doing business until making that first sale. Sales commissions are not set and are negotiable.
Agents ride the roller-coaster of both good and bad times and, if they are very good at what they do — find sellers for buyers and buyers for sellers — and stick with the business, their phones will begin ringing with referrals from satisfied customers. But you have to pay your dues.
It is not an easy job. The hours are long. There are moments of great excitement when a transaction proceeds the way it should as well as those of feeling down when something fails for no good reason.
There are no guarantees. A transaction that may have taken several months to complete can fall apart at closing if someone hadn’t followed-up on every detail.
On the flip side, if an agent works smart and hard, that agent should be successful.
Another way to look at the real estate business is that while it takes an investment to study for the state exam, attend classes, purchase a computer and software, join the Spokane Association of REALTORS®, furnish a car and its expenses, etc., those in the profession do not have the expense of purchasing inventory to sell.
Last month there were 2,050 homes listed for sale in Spokane in the Multiple Listing System. An agent can sell any one of these properties or all of them. A REALTOR® is a guide in making the sale or purchase successful.
So why do people become REALTORS® even though the hours are long?
It is an exciting and interesting business. Success or failure is in your control as it is your business to make or break. If you do the job for the client, you can do well. It is a demanding profession that ranks with other professional careers. It is needed to keep buyer and seller out of trouble. It is exacting with changing laws and forms, etc. It is fun. Great pleasure is taken by helping people find and be able to own their dream home. The professional people in real estate are generally outstanding citizens who give back to the community. In America, real estate is a profession as old as the nation itself.
And, it is a profession in which unless a sale is made and client is served, no one gets paid. Performance is everything!