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Pros and Cons about pursuing a career in real estate at this time.

my recent experience with a realtor in April/May 2010 was just as bad.

it was a pre-construction condo in the SLM area.

1st - initially the developer allowed assignments with 3rd party brokers, then they changed their minds and restricted sales through their own brokerage or would not allow one to assign.

2nd - they delayed listing the property on MLS for 2 weeks
(in hindsight that was a major error since we had just missed the peak of the market by doing that)

3rd - the developer's realtor never called me to tell me when perspective buyers would be going to view the unit.
the unit was vacant, however, there were times when i was there cleaning/prepping the condo.
on one occasion, i was in the washroom when i heard someone at the front door ... an almost embarrassing situation.

4th - after being on MLS for only 2 weeks (but for almost being listed with the developer's realtor for 1 month on their 'private' list) they recommended i reduce the asking dramatically by 10% even though it was priced at ~$505 PSF for a unit that included a locker plus kitchen and hardwood upgrades more than the developer's standard unit fair at similar pricing.

5th - the unit was sold after being listed for 4-6 weeks (depending on how/when one looks at it) at 99% of list; however, she messed up the Purchase and Sale Agreement since they refused to put in certain clauses that my lawyer wanted because of 'time constraints' even though she was able to come back to me a week later to have me sign forms that ensured she got paid immediately from the buyers security deposit.


aside from contacting me to make sure her commission forms got processed to get paid, i didn't get any calls/updates from her during the sale unless it was to return my messages. in fact, that was the ONLY time i met her ... the initial contact to get it on the market was done via email since it was the developer's brokerage.

granted the above is not typical of all realtors, but supposedly she was very experienced.
if i had to do it over again, i might still go with a realtor since they have a monopoly with access to 90% of the market with MLS.
what i didn't appreciate was being restricted to the developer's services, which may have been the whole problem.
 
People on this forum in alot of cases are much more informed than the rest of the public. So, we must appreciate that realtors do bringsomething to the table for those people. Unfortunately, most gifted individuals or previously successful individuals did not go into real estate and hence the playing field as it were is not up to the rigours of other professions. Those who are reasonably intelligent and have some degree of personality do disproportionately well because the commission structure allows for excess money to be made so that even if 1/2 successful individuals make as much as fully successful individuals in other "professions" which would pay a comparable salary.

Is that the realtors fault. No. Their group is just looking to protect its turf. They have a good thing and they like anyone else wish to maintain it. The problem is: slice/dice it anyway you want, the privacy commissioner was 100% right to try and get some fairness from the "monopoly" which has developed for the people of Canada.

Let's face it, and once again no disrespect meant to the realtors but let's be candid here. People who have been the "smart individuals who were thought to succeed going forward" and had the drive that you knew they would accomplish things in their lives have not historically strived to enter the real estate profession. This is mainly a more recent phenomenon, most recently since 2000 or so when it became apparent that one could make "alot of money" compared to other jobs out there with relatively little requirements to do the job. I appreciate the real estate course is a 4-6 month ordeal but what else can you do for 4-6 months that starts to afford to pay you whatever the hourly rate it works out to that an "average realtor gets".

Please understand I am not anti realtor nor am I an elitist which I am sure I will be accused of. I am simply trying to put forth what I believe are objective evaluations of the risk/reward for becoming a realtor. This is why in the US there is about 1 realtor for every property for sale. This would not be the case if it was extremely difficult or time consuming to acheive this result or if the reward (even if only perceived) was not disproportionate to the input to acheive it.
 
drewp,

If you decide to be a realtor, do it full time (no other part time occupation) and have some start up capital. You will need to market yourself and expect 60-90 days of no commissions. The failure rate is high, however successful agents tend to see exponential growth in earnings by their third year. It usually takes that long to build your database and get repeat business.

As for it being a slower market. Don't worry about comments like those. Slower market means part timers exit the business and it creates a barrier to entry. I work in the retail invetment business and believe me when I tell you my business has had headwinds for 10 years. Don't worry about discount shops or a flood of private sales.This groups represents a small percentage of home sellers. In my business, I find those type of clients not worth the business. I survived the 2000 tech bubble and thrived in 2008 when brokers around me either left the business or were afraid to pick up the phone. If you are self motivated and hate failure you will definitely succeed and make a great living to go along with it.

Pros
entreupeneur-- no boss.
work your own hours
out of the office most of the time
no salary, commissions unlimited

cons
many evenings and weekends
late nights when you have a deal closing
10% of earnings should be spent on marketing
no salary
self motivation is a must
 

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