Some people think that being a real estate agent is easy and unfortunately they are wrong. The easy part is getting the license. After that, a bad market has many struggling homeowners and stiff competition among agents.
There are new agents, who often receive a minimal amount of help from the more experienced agents. That fact, coupled with a bad market, makes becoming a real estate agent much less desirable for most people. In a good market, prospecting for new clients is easier and can be successful even though many other agents are entering the business. However, being a new agent in a bad economy is difficult and most real estate agents suffer financially during this period.
Every time the market crashes, there is almost no way to make a living except short sales and foreclosures. Banks have their favorite brokers they want to work with, and becoming a foreclosure agent takes time, effort, and knowledge.
Short sales, on the other hand, are even worse. Everyone you work with is in trouble. They are losing their jobs, their homes, and their whole world is being turned upside down. You can’t really do anything to help them except sell their house and save their credit a bit. If you’re lucky, you might get “cash for keys” or a HAFA incentive.
During this time, many agents go out of business and the remaining agents hang on and try to survive the drought, while only a small percentage of agents prosper and take over the majority of the business.
Becoming a broker in a down market has a huge advantage that you won’t get in a good market. If you work as an agent when times are tough, you will gain a lot of experience and be very good at your job when the market improves. At that point, there will be a flood of real estate agents joining the office and they will be at the beginning of the learning curve, while you are already experienced.
Once you’ve been through tough times, you’ll probably see years of a good market to follow. Then, when the market starts to go down again, you’ll see it coming and be able to position yourself early to become a foreclosure agent and avoid experiencing a financial hit, whereas many agents who haven’t experienced a bad market will pull out of the market. business once again.