Running your own business requires you to be a jack of all trades. This is exactly what I like about real estate. I get to learn about all difference facets of business and life. This suits my ADD personality. I really enjoy getting to learn, and sometimes master, many different skills.
Running a real estate business is more than just showing homes. Here is a quick list of valuable skills needed to be a competent real estate broker.
Real Estate Knowledge
Knowledge of different neighborhoods in your target market
Knowledge of home construction & Home Improvement
Income Property investment analysis
Appraisal Methodology
Negotiation Experience & Skills
Escrow Mechanics
Legal Compliance
Staging and home presentation experience
Property Management
Related Field Knowledge
Tax Implications
Construction and Home Improvement Knowledge
Legal Implications
Investment theory and alternatives to Real Estate
Skills to Generate Business and Keep Business
CRM (Customer Relations Management) Software and Implementation,
Lead Generation, direct mail campaigns, email campaigns, door knocking, cold calling, open houses, farming
Design skills for print, email and web
Customer Follow Up
Client Retention and Referral Systems
Presentation skills
General Business Skills & Knowledge
Legal compliance & Tax compliance for running a small business
Hiring and people management skills
Sales skills
Marketing skills
Computer skills
Money management skills
Retirement planning
Tax planning
Communication skills, writing skill
Computer and organizational skills
Time Management
Business Planning, Corporate Vision
Technology Implementation
Selecting and hiring service providers, subcontractors
Property Management Software
Any one of these categories you could spend weeks or years to learn or master. It is what makes being a Real Estate Broker never boring. Right now I am re learning video editing with a focus on social media. Last year I immersed myself in solar power. Learning enough to be able to install my own 10kwh system which pays for all my home electricity. Several years ago, I further expanded my knowledge of property management, by rebuilding the 3rd largest property management companies entire accounting system and bringing them into the 21st century. Its fascinating to immerse myself in a topic. While I do have an ADD nature, I also have the ability to focus and the desire to learn and add skills that aid in my ability to help my clients.
So the really great news about becoming a real estate broker is there is so much you can learn. The bad news about being a real estate broker is that there is so much to learn. What makes real estate a great business for me also makes it a horrible business for many people. Real estate is like a pass fail test, where you need to get 100% or you fail. To collect a commission you need get all of the components of a transaction right. Sure there will be the new agent that sells their family member or friends a couple of homes, but this doesn’t build a sustainable business.
The privilege of being able to learn all of these ancillary skills that support your business comes at a cost. The cost is knowing how to generate leads, follow up on those leads and create sales, either listings that sell or buyers that buy. If this key component isn’t in place, then there won’t be funds to support the other endeavors. This is the corner stone of real estate. If this is not in place then learning the other skills becomes a moot point. Developing sales skills and lead generation skills did not come naturally to me. It was a skill that came through hard fought desperation, during the very difficult market down of the early 1990’s.
A lot of the skills mentioned above can be hired out. But there is a catch. You will need to make more money per hour than the skill you are hiring. Take for example the simple task of producing a mailer. Your compelling print media needs to generate more income than the cost of the mailer and this is not a simple task. Another example would be if you were to hire a website design company that was charging you $100 per hour while you were out showing a buyer, that never buys, homes. Your gross income from showing homes, zero. Net income after fuel and other overhead, minus $50 per hour. Net loss is now $150 per hour. If you hire that $100 per hour web designer you better be making $200 per hour.
So this is the part that makes Real Estate very difficult. You need to spin a lot of plates. You need to always be spinning the plate of helping current clients, then you need to be spinning the plate of generating new clients, but don’t forget about your past clients, keep that plate spinning. Then there is the plate of what I must learn to advance my business. That plate has to spin otherwise your business will grow old and die. Once you get all of those plates spinning, now you finally get to spin the plate of what might be fun to learn. Yeah!!!! Which for me at this time is video editing and media creation.
Now I have to get back to those other plates. I don’t want any of them to break.