I've been a full-time Realtor since January of 1999
By Mark Schadenberg
I am a Realtor.
As you can see from a humorous internet
link below, real estate sales representatives do consider the front
seat of their car as an office, and I too live on my cell phone.
Realtors text other Realtors to request
a showing and then text our customer clients.
Proficient math skills, and an ability
to delve into paperwork and forms is a must.
As independent contractors, Realtors
accumulate HST for the federal government, but luckily we can
subtract the huge amount of HST we pay out on advertising, computer
ink, business cards, signs and flyers, computer ink, lockboxes,
promotional calendars, computer ink, gas and stationery, but not for
your stationary bike.
Most Realtors are not stationary very
long as we show homes, work from home, scan listings and offers,
email prospects, attend office meetings and open house tours, and
wander through Staples to buy computer ink and at the same time 'work
the room' for more prospects.
One of my office brokers, Peter
Hoffman, is profiled quite prominently in the CTV London news feature
(noted below) on becoming a Realtor, and traits of a real estate
professional.
You truly need people skills, patience
and the willingness to work silly hours. You also require more than
just a basic knowledge of home construction. Not enough knowledge to
build a house, but certainly enough knowledge to build up rapport
with home buyers. A Realtor needs a strong background understanding
mortgages, including amortization and credit scores.
I have always believed a Realtor must
sell the community as much as a home within that community. Market
sense is knowing current listings and recent sales and where another
certain house will fit into the mix. All Realtors have
over-calculated on the value for a house – a predicted selling
value – it's not any easy chore, but a full-time Realtor knows his
local marketplace. Therefore, not only must your Realtor be a
full-time professional, but also must be experienced, local and have
dozens of contacts.
ME, MYSELF & I
In 1998 as I was preparing to leave the
writing media world as sports editor of the Woodstock Sentinel-Review
(Another multi-tasking employment), it took me five months to
complete and pass the OREA courses, but for most people you would
have to commit at least that amount of time as you must pass an exam
after each of three different course segments – whether you learn
the material online or from a text book. The OREA courses were
intense, but informative, but only just the beginning in the
learning-on-the-job process.
Exceptional 'people skills' is the
trademark of any successful Realtor as your confidence and expertise
speaks volumes with buyers and sellers, as you also inform the
consumers about trends and other frameworks of real estate such as
conditions in an offer, high-ratio mortgages, inspections, market
value, appraisals, buyer agency agreements, marketing, and
depreciation of elements in a home. As you can see the list goes on
and on, but the client must rely on your persistence, knowledge,
integrity, and your measuring tape.
To add a little perspective to our pile
of paperwork in real estate, at our office meeting yesterday (We do
have office meetings to discuss industry news and trends) we debated
the necessity for a new Form 801 from OREA which was created to
document offers on a listing – just in case someone sometime
complained that maybe their offer wasn't considered. We do – on
occasion – receive multiple offers in our marketplace, but not too
often.
Anyway, after 16 years as a full-time
Realtor, I'm looking forward to another 16 years. I'll be 64 by then.
LINKS:
www.realtor.ca
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales
Representative
Senior
Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal
LePage Triland Realty
757
Dundas St, Woodstock
www.wesellwoodstock.com
(519)
537-1553, cell or text
Email:
mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter:
markroyallepage
Facebook:
Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
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