Can Anyone be a Real Estate Agent?
This is not a blog about what the requirements are to get a real estate license. If you want to know, you can read my previous blog, How to Get a Real Estate License HERE. This is a blog about what it actually takes to succeed as a real estate agent. Before I do, I want to be clear about something: what I talk about is not just based on my personal experience; it is also based on owning a brokerage for almost a decade that had around 70 agents producing close to $200M a year.
NOTE: To keep this simple, I am going to condense everything down to two main traits you need to succeed as a real estate agent.
Mindset
If someone asked me what the #1 reason agents fail, I would tell them it is because they don't have the right mindset. As I mentioned in a previous blog, How to Become a Real Estate Agent (you can read it HERE), to succeed as a real estate agent, you have to know “why” you want to be one. I know that might sound simple, but allow me to explain. As humans, we are wired to look for the simplest route to things. We constantly look for shortcuts to get to a destination quicker. For example, about 50% of American adults (roughly 160 million people) purchase at least one lottery ticket annually because they hope those numbers on the page will change their fortunes quickly and dump truckloads of cash on their front lawn. Many people think being a real estate agent is similar to hitting the lottery. They drink the glamorous lifestyle Kool-Aid shown on reality shows and social media, then, when they find out how easy it is to get a license, they run out and get one. But, these people typically do not last too long once they find out how the only thing easy is the licensing.
I know this is going to sound biased, but I believe being a real estate agent is one of the most challenging careers someone can choose. First, you are helping people with arguably the most important financial decision of their lives (outside of having children). Second, you typically have no formal training before you enter the industry because most of the education offered by brokerages is for producing agents, since they generate a lot more income than new agents. Third, you have to try to convince (or beg) people who are making this massive financial decision to trust you, someone with no experience or training. Fourth, you have no idea when you will get paid since you are only paid when you sell a property. Fifth, you typically have to pay for everything yourself, including association and brokerage fees, supplies, gas, marketing, etc. Sixth, every year, everything resets, and you have to do it all over again with the hope (but no idea at all) that it will be better than the previous year.
Courage
What most people don’t recognize is that being a real estate agent is being an entrepreneur. We tend to associate the word “entrepreneur” with tech people or people who have built a large company, but entrepreneurs are all around us. The Ma and Pa pizza shop around the corner is run by entrepreneurs. Your local grocery store and car repair shop are run by entrepreneurs. Even the nearest McDonald’s is run by entrepreneurs who bought the franchise. Anyone who owns their own business is an entrepreneur, including real estate agents. And if you spoke to each of the people I mentioned, I’m sure they could tell you the stories of what they had to endure to get them to where they are today. The courage they had to keep going when everything was saying, 'stop’.
Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of courage to take a leap of faith. To let go of the safety blanket that most of the population wraps itself with. To choose a different path based on faith when your mind is trying to throw everything at you to convince you to turn around. To face fear head-on and, instead of letting it cripple you, use it as motivation and a confirmation that you are on the right path. To let go of the consistent paycheck and income to go for the unlimited potential, where the only thing consistent is the inconsistency.
Being a real estate agent is a career that is full of unknowns. Unlike most jobs, each day is different and unpredictable. You can go from the highest high to the lowest low in a matter of minutes. You can lose a deal you worded your butt off on, and a few minutes later get an offer accepted. You can be having a good year, then all of a sudden, everything flips, and your income is gone while the bills continue to pile up. Plus, continuing to move forward knowing that at any time, you could lose a client you've worked with for months, a transaction you've worked hard on can fall apart at the closing table, or a client could fire you at any time with no real cause, is only for the most courageous people.
So to answer the title of this blog, no, anyone cannot be a real estate agent.
“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” –Vincent Van Gogh
P.S. IF you are serious about becoming a real estate agent and want to learn how you can avoid the mistakes 87% of new agents make, I encourage you to check out the coaching program I have developed to help agents before they enter the industry. The program is designed to help you avoid the frustrations I and so many other agents felt when entering the industry, struggling to survive while clinging to the belief we will succeed. It is completely based on proven results from my experience as a top-producing agent, owning a brokerage for almost a decade (where I helped agents average 2x4 times the amount of sales and income), and from spending over 25,000 hours learning from history’s most legendary people! If this sounds like something that would benefit you, please click HERE to set up a FREE 30 Minute Virtual Call to learn more about how I can help you.