HURRY UP and WAIT!: "HURRY UP and WAIT!
So today I heard from the Real Estate Commision and they informed me that my broker and brokerage license is ready....but I am not. So I drove down to Trenton to see what can be done, and I could slow it down for a month if I wanted I would just have to resubmit everything. So we have decided to open our office officialy on February 5th. While there I was supposed to speak to the education and training department of the real estate group to see if they would waive time and education requirements for my brothers who happen to be lawyers. They will waive the training requirements but only to be a real estate salesperson not to be a broker. A lawyer will still need to be realtor associate for three years before they can apply to take the brokers exam. It is a case of Hurry up and wait...then hurry up! It will feel good to get going but it is also very daunting that it is all real now. I actualy need to make this work now. As plus I can start converting those FSBOs and get some agents ina nd get rocking and rolling with my office. I am looking forwad to it. So we have a lot to discuss on what got us to this point and I am too exhausted tonight to make a full post so I will wait till tomorrow, but wish us LUCK!"
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
A Picture is worth a Thousand WORDS
A Picture is worth a Thousand WORDS: "Our firm is located in a historic building in downtown Boonton, New Jersey. Conviently located seconds from routes 287 and 202. Fully wi-fi capable and comfortably furnished the office is designed with you in mind.
Our Welcome Mat service is a true one stop shopping service that allows you to have a single point of contact throughout the entire real estate process.
Since 2000 our team has been servicing the needs of our clients worldwide. With affiliations with thousands of agents and offices in the United States and thousands more worldwide we can respond to any need of our clients."
Our Welcome Mat service is a true one stop shopping service that allows you to have a single point of contact throughout the entire real estate process.
How Many Realtors does it take to Change a Light Bulb?
How Many Realtors does it take to Change a Light Bulb?: "so how many realtors does it take to change a lightbulb? that question was answered the other day at our soon to be opened office. it takes one, broker plus his wife and a good friend and that friends wife. The office was such a mess I decided to start cleaning off the lights and overhead fans. The previous tenants had not cleaned anything. We had so much dirt and dust on the fan blades it looked like they had fur! The office has 14 foot ceilings it is a beautiful older building. Our new business will be a very cozy,old school style office. I hate the sterile corporate look of many real estate brokerage offices today. So the place was a mess, being that my mother was the landlord I could not complain about the premises being brook swept so before we could start the actual build out we had to do some cleaning. the last renter had not only not cleaned but he took out some of the old fixtures and removed the glass shades from the overhead fans. this is all the things I had to purchase and replace.
I wish I had taken before and soon the after pictures so I could show you all the sights. I have uploaded some pictures of the building. so i put in new high efficiency and bright light bulbs swept the place up and scrubbed and just so you know it took only one realtor to change a lightbulb."
I wish I had taken before and soon the after pictures so I could show you all the sights. I have uploaded some pictures of the building. so i put in new high efficiency and bright light bulbs swept the place up and scrubbed and just so you know it took only one realtor to change a lightbulb."
Location, Location, Location
In real estate the axiom is Location, location, location so picking where to place your real estate brokerage home and leasing or buying that property is a huge decision. Especialy for a new business. For us it was an easy one that will make sense when explained. EXIT REALTY is a big office real estate brokerage company. they are opening offices in New York that are over 16000 square feet. The average office size seems to be 5-6 thousand square feet. We will be at around 900 square feet to start with an option for 2000 more in 9 months. I am goal setting to have 24 agents at a minimum by years end and a at least 90 agents working out of this office. Start ups always seem to be low on cash and office space and leasing seem to take up most of the budget, the smartest broker is one who finds and rents the negotiates the best lease for his brokerage. I am the smartest negotiating broker, through birth, you will ever meet.....my mother owns the building where we have the office! Ok, so most of you were thinking I was getting a little cocky there. Having a great lease arrangement has made all the difference in the world for our firm. Working with family is always interesting as those of you who may have done it will attest to, just watch Orange County Choppers to get an idea what it is like. Trying to save money I decided I would paint the office myself. Big mistake, to start with the deep red color I picked dried on the wall as closer to salmon pink. Being that EXIT REALTY's colors are burgundy and Teal the pink would not make it. So I made arrangements to have a family friend who is a painter to come over and give me an estimate and he also gave me some good color advice. You know we always seem to say to FSBO clients and to sellers and buyers that we are the experts at selling or buying a home so why not listen to our market updates and advice. So when it comes to painting or remodeling why did I feel I should not listen to an expert as opposed to doing what I thought was right? That is a good lesson for me that I need to keep in mind what my home sellers and home buyers are feeling and not to tell them but rather sell them as they want to be sold. I am starting to realy get a handle on this whole personality profile thing and empathy, who knows someday I might just make a living at this job.
So we got the office painted and it does look fantastic, even if the teal is a very strong choice for our bull pen area. The floor needs a refinish job and we will take care of that and tell the story on the home depot disaster with our floor covering in a later post.
I wish I had started this whole process with a budget. That should be your first item on your agena when starting any new undertaking. I am currently over budget , I feel like all of the people of the Flip this House show on HGTV. Over budget and under brained. I have tried to keep these posts upbeat and interesting so how am I doing?
The lesson for today is when starting a new business always draw up a budget before you start and have a mother who has empty office space and you will never go wrong....or at least go bad.
So we got the office painted and it does look fantastic, even if the teal is a very strong choice for our bull pen area. The floor needs a refinish job and we will take care of that and tell the story on the home depot disaster with our floor covering in a later post.
I wish I had started this whole process with a budget. That should be your first item on your agena when starting any new undertaking. I am currently over budget , I feel like all of the people of the Flip this House show on HGTV. Over budget and under brained. I have tried to keep these posts upbeat and interesting so how am I doing?
The lesson for today is when starting a new business always draw up a budget before you start and have a mother who has empty office space and you will never go wrong....or at least go bad.
Hi Ho Dairy Oh a FSBO Hunting we will go!!!!!!!!
Well we are home from the wrestling match and alumni day. It was a fantastic event and I must confess I am a little prideful to have been put on a pedestal as we were. The best part was that Centenary College handily beat Scranton (48-0) and is currently ranked 24th in the nation,knowing that I had some small part in the programs succsess is nice.
So back to the brokerage start up here on activerain. I deicded that tonight we would go to the office and hang the drapes in the conference room. I got the ladder all set up and realized after getting up to the top that I did not have the proper tools with me. I was tired anyway so we will get an early start tomorrow. I can not wait till Monday because I will be traveling to drop off our paperwork and get the official start date. So I want to get the office physicaly finished this week so I can be ready for a brokers open house style soft opening. My friends stopped by the other day and helped Mary (my wife) and I finish setting up the desks etc. He finished all of the wiring and we know have phones, internet, copy machine and fax machine. We also have installed a polycom conference video system that will allow us to offer to our agents a live interactive training program that is fantastic. Also, it will have a coaching program that my agents can participate in and not have to pay for up front. Speaking of coaching I was recalling my college wrestling days today and thought about how we did not have an actual coach only a faculty advisor/sponsor so we each took turns coaching a practice. Needless to say this did not work great as you can never push yourself and hold yourself accountable as much as someone else can. So I will be hiring myself a coach soon. The tech end being finished I am a little more at ease ,since it all seems to work . The only items I have left (that I can think off) are to have the carpet laid and hang our posters about EXIT REALTY and the residual programs and of course the equal housing poster. I am also going to put up shelving around each customer facing area so we can put home seller and home buyer scrap books. I figure having these at hand may help my clients and my sales agents getting the buyers and sellers off the fence. I am trying to very proactive in my approach to training, coaching, sales and selling and educating our sellers and buyers. I am going to push my agents to be listings hounds and to go after all off the fsbos (for sale by owners) in the market (Mary and I enjoy going FSBO hunting and every time we go out for the drive I can hear that nursery rhyme in my head ...(a fsbo'hunting we will go hi ho dairy oh a fsbo hunting we will go)and every foreclosure and reo they can handle and get approved for. with two in house mortgage brokers available to pre-approve our buyers (which will hopefully make our home sellers less anxious) we should be able to keep the market conditions off clients minds and there thought where they need to be.
This blog is hopefully giving some of you sales agents a good read and maybe evn helping one or two of you sell another house.
So back to the brokerage start up here on activerain. I deicded that tonight we would go to the office and hang the drapes in the conference room. I got the ladder all set up and realized after getting up to the top that I did not have the proper tools with me. I was tired anyway so we will get an early start tomorrow. I can not wait till Monday because I will be traveling to drop off our paperwork and get the official start date. So I want to get the office physicaly finished this week so I can be ready for a brokers open house style soft opening. My friends stopped by the other day and helped Mary (my wife) and I finish setting up the desks etc. He finished all of the wiring and we know have phones, internet, copy machine and fax machine. We also have installed a polycom conference video system that will allow us to offer to our agents a live interactive training program that is fantastic. Also, it will have a coaching program that my agents can participate in and not have to pay for up front. Speaking of coaching I was recalling my college wrestling days today and thought about how we did not have an actual coach only a faculty advisor/sponsor so we each took turns coaching a practice. Needless to say this did not work great as you can never push yourself and hold yourself accountable as much as someone else can. So I will be hiring myself a coach soon. The tech end being finished I am a little more at ease ,since it all seems to work . The only items I have left (that I can think off) are to have the carpet laid and hang our posters about EXIT REALTY and the residual programs and of course the equal housing poster. I am also going to put up shelving around each customer facing area so we can put home seller and home buyer scrap books. I figure having these at hand may help my clients and my sales agents getting the buyers and sellers off the fence. I am trying to very proactive in my approach to training, coaching, sales and selling and educating our sellers and buyers. I am going to push my agents to be listings hounds and to go after all off the fsbos (for sale by owners) in the market (Mary and I enjoy going FSBO hunting and every time we go out for the drive I can hear that nursery rhyme in my head ...(a fsbo'hunting we will go hi ho dairy oh a fsbo hunting we will go)and every foreclosure and reo they can handle and get approved for. with two in house mortgage brokers available to pre-approve our buyers (which will hopefully make our home sellers less anxious) we should be able to keep the market conditions off clients minds and there thought where they need to be.
This blog is hopefully giving some of you sales agents a good read and maybe evn helping one or two of you sell another house.
I LOVE the smell of FSBOs in the morning
I guess maybe I should clarify some points from my last posting here at the blog. The clients I was referring to were under foreclosure we have to get them into a new house while trying to sell their present one and it has been a 6-8 month ordeal where they have not taken any of my advice and have turned down homes that would have worked. Chapagne tastes on a beer budget. they could only do a rental and I have tried numerous times to educate them but to no avail. Have you ever noticed that the clients who start the call off asking about a rental and saying they can not pay realtor fees are the ones with a ton of animals, I mean they could start a zoo with what they have? Reading my last post and the comments i received I was thinking about what we have to know and the lingo we use in our business. I mean I have to know how to handle a short sale, renting a house, foreclosure, buyers agency, marketing, market conditions and we evn looked at some fsbo properties for them so we have to be ever evolving and able to manage eople with the upmost skill. That is why I like the personality profile training and education I have received.
so enough about that, I was thinking about the FSBO market lately. It seems to be slowing down some, I do not see as many homes being self marketed. With the drop of inventory predicted and the lower rates I think we will be in for a good spring market and a real aggresive fall market. I am reminded of the beach scene in Apocolypse Now and how he loves the smell of napalm in the morning. I love the smell of FSBOs in the morning, I mean is it not great when you see a sign go up and they actualy give you their number and basicly say please call me and sell my house. I use my talking house program to win over for sale by owners and also the mortgage broker angle for pre-approvals of buyers. I am just happy to be a broker owner and a realtor. We have a great job. well it is time for me to get ready to go to the awards day at my former college and receive some sort of plaque for my college wrestling career. Active rain is such a good idea for networking and getting to know realtors from all over and I have to say I am sitting here typing and I have a smile on my face as I hunt and peck because I realize how nice it is to do what we do.
so enough about that, I was thinking about the FSBO market lately. It seems to be slowing down some, I do not see as many homes being self marketed. With the drop of inventory predicted and the lower rates I think we will be in for a good spring market and a real aggresive fall market. I am reminded of the beach scene in Apocolypse Now and how he loves the smell of napalm in the morning. I love the smell of FSBOs in the morning, I mean is it not great when you see a sign go up and they actualy give you their number and basicly say please call me and sell my house. I use my talking house program to win over for sale by owners and also the mortgage broker angle for pre-approvals of buyers. I am just happy to be a broker owner and a realtor. We have a great job. well it is time for me to get ready to go to the awards day at my former college and receive some sort of plaque for my college wrestling career. Active rain is such a good idea for networking and getting to know realtors from all over and I have to say I am sitting here typing and I have a smile on my face as I hunt and peck because I realize how nice it is to do what we do.
I wanna be like the DONALD!
so today I have to meet with some clients who have some financial difficulties and NEED to find a rental home as they are losing there's. we found them one it was a house I had listed. The problem is that the current tenant there has had a melt down and refuses to leave. so what has happened is we sign a lease cannot get in and the money gets tied up with my former company and they refuse to return a commission, the landlord cuts a check return the security then my clients decide they will not take a home I find them were the landlord will accept them even with their bad credit and history of slow or no pay. they call me late last night to say we want the house, I say well it is probably too late. So I get the other agent on the phone work a deal and seem to get them back into the house as frontrunners. So I rearrange my schedule to accommodate them this morning and they text message me to say they will pick up the paperwork later tonight and how late are we open! The moral of the story is you have to know when to fire a client and even though they are such a sad case with all of their problems I am at the point now that I have to pull out the Donald Trump side of my personality and say " YOUR FIRED". Speaking of personality traits and styles my new brokerage and the EXIT REALTY team as a whole are very big on using the DISC personality style to work the business. If anyone is not familiar with this it is a fantastic program where a Realtor actually analysis the client to see what type of personality they are and then designs his sales technique as a customized one for that particular home seller or house buyer. It is a program I have been through in many of my previous jobs growing up and also in just about any group or fraternity I belonged to, I am a Freemason and a Shriner with a little Senior DeMolay thrown in. Nowhere has it been developed and had a real estate training implemented like with my current franchise. I have a very hard charging Dominant personality I am a straight D for those who know the system. This has created road blocks at times because I was not relating to my customers when advising them as well as I should. We all try to do this but most of us do not have the proper training with the small amount of training I have received I am actually getting it now. the old adage about now thyself is also true in reverse know thy client. Real estate is a great industry with some incredible opportunities for everyone involved, from the newest sale associate to the most seasoned realtor broker or broker-owner to the first time home buyer to the flipper who moves every two years and the investor and second home market there is something for everyone but for it to work we need to network, know how to communicate effectively and follow up. The most important saying I have heard recently (and I seem to be adding a ton of clichés today) is a change on the Golden Rule by Steve Morris ,Founder and CEO of EXIT REALTY INTERNATIONAL, is what he calls the platinum rule not do onto others as they would do have them onto you but rather do onto them as they want you to do onto them. In other words sell them how they want to be sold. sorry today is a very random, stream of consciences type of posting day.
ALL IN A DAYS WORK
So I am trying to catch up on my blog entries here. Giving and gettiing advice on being a realtor and trying to bring new associates into our company ans also sell my clients houses for them and list new properties and promote my inventory you get the feeling I started to feel overwhelmed so I took today to go out and meet with the modular home manufacturers and my wife and her mother and I had the opportunity to walk through the model of house that we will be building. it was afully furnished showpiece model so it was afun day. It was also my mother-in-laws first full day with her new scooter we bought for her (she is in a wheelchair). that was interesting, she is still getting the whole driving thing down pat. and after a few dozen accidents she seemed to get the hang of it....the model home is not up to realtor open house showing standars anymore. They will need to bring a stager to refrsh the look and a few remodelors to repaint!LOL! today was a good day. No phone calls...till we sat down to eat dinner at an intalian family restaraunt we like. then they started. You all know the feeling when you get call after call after call and you can see the steam on your food slowly cooling off. well i was getting frustrated then I started thinking that the new house the new scooter the new car is all made or going to be made possible by those phone calls. So this day has revitalized me and made me good for the next long haul to get the job done and to sell a few homes and make my brokerage the top producer it can be. I firmly believe that takig a sanity day every once in a while is good for us and even better for our business as the time lost that day will make us able to work better for the forseeable future. Well , time to go peruse the listings on the MLS and find a rental for my crazy clients and then I will watch a video of the cruise we go on next. It is all in adays work and the work makes the play that much more fun.
Mysery Loves Company
So today as a side note I finaly received the last of my paperwork back from the State of Nj, now I just need to mail it all in with a check (certified of course) and my office can be opened. Or so you might think it is that easy. I have to go get everything notarized then I have to hand deliver the application to Trenton (the State capitol) because when I recently submited my salesman lisence for an upgrade to brokers status the post office lost all of my info and of course the money order. Luckily they found it and delivered my paid for overnight guarenteed delivery 4 weeks later! So needless to say I will deliver it myself. The twenty dollars in gas is cheaper than my time to redo the packet.
So I was writing about my class. The instructor was fantastic he not only taught us what we needed to know to pass the brokers exam but he taught us how to open our own offices and little tricks to turn a profit quickly. The tips have worked great for me up to now. The class was ok, except for the two days we spent watching the NAR Ethics video. You know the one that puts you to sleep....well I had just watched it for my refresher the previous month and had to watch it again. Then we discussed it,I did actualy learn something....I just can not remember it now.
I have signed my office up to be a retail location for a few modular manufacturing companies. This should be a decent way to meet new clients for my staff and myself. The modual homes are great construction , they start out with no mold and are 10-20 % cheaper than most stick built homes. In our area of the country at least. The wife and I will be buying and building one this year. Lets see I am opening a new business, building and buying a house all at the same time. I guess mysery loves company.LOL! I am actualy very happy and upbeat it feels like our lives are starting to come together.
Well thats all for now. Stay tuned for more.
So I was writing about my class. The instructor was fantastic he not only taught us what we needed to know to pass the brokers exam but he taught us how to open our own offices and little tricks to turn a profit quickly. The tips have worked great for me up to now. The class was ok, except for the two days we spent watching the NAR Ethics video. You know the one that puts you to sleep....well I had just watched it for my refresher the previous month and had to watch it again. Then we discussed it,I did actualy learn something....I just can not remember it now.
I have signed my office up to be a retail location for a few modular manufacturing companies. This should be a decent way to meet new clients for my staff and myself. The modual homes are great construction , they start out with no mold and are 10-20 % cheaper than most stick built homes. In our area of the country at least. The wife and I will be buying and building one this year. Lets see I am opening a new business, building and buying a house all at the same time. I guess mysery loves company.LOL! I am actualy very happy and upbeat it feels like our lives are starting to come together.
Well thats all for now. Stay tuned for more.
Tests galore
So there I was paying desk fees and not producing a whole lot. I had 5 homes listed and a few rentals and 2 commercial properties. Due to my health , I was much too heavy, I just did not have the ability or the energy to do this job right. So I decided to leave ReMax and go to weichert I figured without any overhead I could take my Brokers course and get my health back on track and gear up for the big push to open our own place. Turns out it was a good move, I finally realized that I needed to have gastric bypass surgery to lose the weight and had that Surgery February 9th,2007. The first week I lost 42 pounds! I now am at month 11 post op and I have lost 220 pounds and still going. It is a miracle cure and saved my life, the doctors told my wife and I that I have 7 years to live statisticaly if I did not do the surgery. Now you all know how much energy we need to do this profession well I now have that energy. I used to hate open houses because I might have to climb stairs and I got out of breath walking across the living room. Well, enough about that ...if anyone is heavy and needs to talk to someone about the surgery feel free to email me at bige11378@yahoo.com
So, here I am at Weichert trying to take my brokers class and lose weight and support my family and take listings and of course figure out if I wanted to be an independent or franchise startup. My cubicle was the end cubicle and was in a hallway the funny thing is where I was located was a stop on the office tours for Weichert's franchise sales team. I should explain that I was in the Corporate Headquarters Sales office. So I received a large amount of information from the potential franchisees who were on the tours. just listening to their questions and the answers gave me insight into what I might be facing. As it turns out one of the recent EXIT franchisees who I just met at a training seminar visited with Weichert and saw my desk area, so it was interesting to hear his take oin the tour since I was on the other side of it. It is amazing that a group of hard charging real estate brokers can be controlled on these tours. So in New Jersey the brokers course is 150 hours of classroom work followed by the usual tests and it is broken down into three segments or classes. 30 hour Agency and Ethics, 30 hour Office Management and the 90 hour core brokers class (which basicly goes overything that you forgot from your pre-licensure class). You have to pass the core class test before you can go on to the next class.
So I did well in the first class and was in my last class when my mother-in-law was getting ill and helping to take care of her took up a lot of time. In one 15 day period we were at the hospital 13 days, once with me due to a blockage (I ate the wrong things), once for my wife who fell at work (she is all better now just still trying to work herself back from her strokes...I will explain that later) and 11 times for my mother-in-law. So needless to say it was a long few weeks and was tough to concentrate. The good thing is that all mentioned are now doing well and healthy.
well enough for now I will continue the brokers class story a little later.
So, here I am at Weichert trying to take my brokers class and lose weight and support my family and take listings and of course figure out if I wanted to be an independent or franchise startup. My cubicle was the end cubicle and was in a hallway the funny thing is where I was located was a stop on the office tours for Weichert's franchise sales team. I should explain that I was in the Corporate Headquarters Sales office. So I received a large amount of information from the potential franchisees who were on the tours. just listening to their questions and the answers gave me insight into what I might be facing. As it turns out one of the recent EXIT franchisees who I just met at a training seminar visited with Weichert and saw my desk area, so it was interesting to hear his take oin the tour since I was on the other side of it. It is amazing that a group of hard charging real estate brokers can be controlled on these tours. So in New Jersey the brokers course is 150 hours of classroom work followed by the usual tests and it is broken down into three segments or classes. 30 hour Agency and Ethics, 30 hour Office Management and the 90 hour core brokers class (which basicly goes overything that you forgot from your pre-licensure class). You have to pass the core class test before you can go on to the next class.
So I did well in the first class and was in my last class when my mother-in-law was getting ill and helping to take care of her took up a lot of time. In one 15 day period we were at the hospital 13 days, once with me due to a blockage (I ate the wrong things), once for my wife who fell at work (she is all better now just still trying to work herself back from her strokes...I will explain that later) and 11 times for my mother-in-law. So needless to say it was a long few weeks and was tough to concentrate. The good thing is that all mentioned are now doing well and healthy.
well enough for now I will continue the brokers class story a little later.
A Longt Time Ago....
I guess you all would want to know where we are at right now, so we will start this story in medius raes. We are a right on the cusp of opening our sales office, we have purchased an EXIT REALTY franchise and have most of the state paperwork done.
That is not where this story starts though,about two years ago we started interviewing real estate franchises to see which ones we might be ok dealing with. I went through more webinars,podcasts, lunches and dinners it is a wonder I could keep them seperate from each other. There are many great companies out there, some embrace technology and some do not. Some value training some do not. My time in real estate has been up to this point split between Weichert Realtors and ReMax. Weichert being the largest independently owned real estate company is set up as a traditional split commision firm. ReMax of course is a desk fee firm. I grew up in the relocation industry,my parents owned a moving company. I learned how crazy it is for home buyers and sellors from their end at an early age. This has helped me to guide my clients through this process as I have empathy for their feelings and the crazieness that the end of the buying process means. I really believe that my being able to see the end of the sale helps me at the begining.
I started with yahoo searches for real estate franchises, after weeding through about two inches of printouts I started researching each company.We had a general litnus test on what we wanted in a company, structure wise, commision etc. So the first cut was to get rid of any discount brokerages. Then I decided to see what the corporate structures and professionalism was so I emailed the ones that at first glance might be a fit. The ones who actualy got back to me made it through the next cut list. You would be surprised at how many of the well known franchises either did not get back to me or took more than a month to respond. One household name franchise even called me two months after the fact and it was the commercial franchise side of the house not the residential. Needless to say we crossed them off the list. I created a plus/minus spread sheet for all of the companies with a gooal of getting us down to a more manageable number. We started this process at 36 franchises and managed to whittle it down to 12 just through this process.
The next entry I will explain the trials and tribulations of changing offices and going to broker school at the same time.
That is not where this story starts though,about two years ago we started interviewing real estate franchises to see which ones we might be ok dealing with. I went through more webinars,podcasts, lunches and dinners it is a wonder I could keep them seperate from each other. There are many great companies out there, some embrace technology and some do not. Some value training some do not. My time in real estate has been up to this point split between Weichert Realtors and ReMax. Weichert being the largest independently owned real estate company is set up as a traditional split commision firm. ReMax of course is a desk fee firm. I grew up in the relocation industry,my parents owned a moving company. I learned how crazy it is for home buyers and sellors from their end at an early age. This has helped me to guide my clients through this process as I have empathy for their feelings and the crazieness that the end of the buying process means. I really believe that my being able to see the end of the sale helps me at the begining.
I started with yahoo searches for real estate franchises, after weeding through about two inches of printouts I started researching each company.We had a general litnus test on what we wanted in a company, structure wise, commision etc. So the first cut was to get rid of any discount brokerages. Then I decided to see what the corporate structures and professionalism was so I emailed the ones that at first glance might be a fit. The ones who actualy got back to me made it through the next cut list. You would be surprised at how many of the well known franchises either did not get back to me or took more than a month to respond. One household name franchise even called me two months after the fact and it was the commercial franchise side of the house not the residential. Needless to say we crossed them off the list. I created a plus/minus spread sheet for all of the companies with a gooal of getting us down to a more manageable number. We started this process at 36 franchises and managed to whittle it down to 12 just through this process.
The next entry I will explain the trials and tribulations of changing offices and going to broker school at the same time.
A Good Place to Start
I have realy have wanted to write a blog for a while now but I kept finding reasons not to. Most of which revolves around my poor typing skills or I guess I should say keyboarding skills. We are in the process of opening our own franchise (EXIT REALTY) brokerage (EXIT ASSOCIATES IN REAL ESTATE). For those of you who have opened a real estate office you know what we are going through, for those who haven't hold on its going to be a wild ride. I am going to chronicle our trials and tribulations of the run up to our start date and at least a year of our growing pains. Hopefully we can help you avoid some mistakes that we make and have some fun on the way.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)