Real Talk with Andres & Heather | What Do Agents Even Do?

[00:00:01] Speaker A: And we are live. Hey. Hey guys. I'm Heather with Head in the Clouds. [00:00:06] Speaker B: Andres con Acharla Sensillas exp agent here in the hunt for Alabama Market and Claire realty partner. How are you today, Heather? [00:00:15] Speaker A: I'm doing good. Started us off on the wrong slide, so whoops already. But here we go, we're back at it. I'm doing pretty good. I'm actually really excited about today's show because today we're or talking about being an agent. [00:00:31] Speaker B: I know and man, I gotta say it's exciting because this is something that I see a lot of people asking, asking around, you know, what the real estate agents do. Can I get in this type of business, you know, can I do this part time? You know, what does it take to really do the job and how do they get paid? I see some real estate agents that man, they make a lot of money, but you know, there's also a lot of work that goes behind the scenes that people don't realize. So I'm glad we were talking about this because I'm, I'm one of those. And I'll talk about myself during the show. I, I wanted to do this. I always had interest in this business, but man, going into it, I had no idea what it took to get in here. So this is very personal to me because I know I'm not the only one. And a lot of people out there are probably asking those questions. [00:01:29] Speaker A: I think a lot of people, you know, they don't know what involves being a real estate agent. They think that it's, you know, just showing houses and then going to the closing and getting a big fat check and that, you know, we just get super rich off of doing nothing at all. So I think there's a lot of misconceptions about what it takes to actually be a real estate agent. So today we're gonna give some spoilers and jump in and show you what it really takes to actually be a real estate agent. And it's not always pretty. [00:01:56] Speaker B: Yeah, you said something there that, that probably gets overlooked quite a bit. Getting rich with doing nothing at all. That's, that's completely a part of my language. That's completely bull. Because you don't do nothing at all. You, you're out of this business. Wouldn't the first two years just like we talked about a few weeks ago, right. Why does about 75, 80% of agents drop out of the business within two years? And I think we might, might answer some of those questions here today as well. [00:02:28] Speaker A: I know I Personally, part of wanting to be a real estate agent was so that I could make my own schedule. And I'm, I'm still waiting for when I can make my own schedule. [00:02:40] Speaker B: Make your own schedule. I think that's one of the big things of this, of this job, having a schedule, having a calendar. Right. And we can, we're going to talk a lot more on that. But, but that's, that's a key right there, having your own schedule. So let's see, let's see, let's see what that looks like. [00:03:04] Speaker A: Seriously though, what do agents actually do? So do we do more than just showings? [00:03:13] Speaker B: Absolutely. I could say it's, it's way a lot more showings. And a little bit of that is just a quick sample of that is we talk about it on Tuesday. The home inspector and, and the, the case that, that Stephen brought up where that particular property did not have utilities and he was not able to get the inspection though for three weeks into the seller's utility. Right. As real estate agents, you have to be in constant communication with the listing agent and as the listing agent, you have to be in communication with that client of yours to make sure that that gets done, that the property is in position to get that deal done as much as possible. And as we saw in that particular case, it's not just showing a house. You have make sure everything aligns to have that property move forward. So it's negotiations, contracts, follow up. You know, how are you getting that business? That's something that people don't touch up. [00:04:20] Speaker A: So it's not just Instagram and selfies on, on Instagram and going through beautiful homes, touring it and posting it? [00:04:27] Speaker B: I don't think so. A lot of people think that they. Yeah, I know a lot of people have been living here in this, in this market for so many years. I, I know two, three thousand people. I have enough business and next thing you know, other people they know are using other real estate agents. We talk, we touch on that not too long ago. You know, it's the people that, you know, not necessarily choose you to work with. So it's not just showing house and thinking you can come in and you already have a business light now for you. That's a misconception that, that a lot of people have going into the business. So it's not just showing house. You, you got to continuously be prospecting for more business in order to stay active. One thing that my coach, my mentors mentioned is how many deals you want to get done on a monthly basis. Right. So how much are you prospecting in order to have that number of deals done? How many hours a day are you calling people doing activities to generate more business? How many actually conversations you need to have? Not just call, because there's a big difference in making 100 phone calls, but only having 10 conversations, right? [00:05:42] Speaker A: Yep. [00:05:43] Speaker B: And, and, and Kevin Harris mentioned touching that briefly on Mindset Monday. Cloud Realty, you know, is, is having those activities that are gonna push you to have those number of conversations. And out of those conversations, how many business, how much business are you getting out of those? So if you think about it, if you got a prospect for two, three hours a day, that's two, three hours a day that you have to allocate every single day to generate more conversation and more business. [00:06:13] Speaker A: And that's, that's just prospecting, that's just lead generation. That's not even including working on current business. I know Tony has a whiteboard, he's a visual whiteboard person. I'm more of a, in the CRM type person. But on the whiteboard we have everything written out, all the current business, you know, what stage they're in, what lender they're with, when their due diligence is going to be up. Because think about it, if you have five deals going on at one time and they all have a due diligence period, how are you going to keep track of that if you don't have it in a system somewhere? Because otherwise you're going to miss something and somebody might lose their earnest money because it's a lot to deal with. So if you're lead genting two to three hours a day and then you've got contracts you have to write. And a big misconception is that it's just a one and done. Like you write up that first contract, that offer, you send that offer over and then you're done. There's no more contracts. That is just the beginning. That, that's probably the easiest contract to write. The whole time is the offer, then you've got the amendments and then you've got anything else that's coming along the way that you've got to go in there. You know, you, if you're using a closing attorney to hold the earnest money, there's a bunch of stuff you have to follow up on. If there's lead based paint, you've got that contract. There's a, like we actually, we should go into detail in one episode, just the entire paperwork process of a deal and people can really see all of that. Laid out. [00:07:38] Speaker B: Absolutely. I think it's, it gets overlooked. The, the whole process. Once that offer is accepted to close. That's a lot of things happening in those 30 days. If you're looking to close within those 30 days. And just imagine if you're looking to close a lot sooner than that due to the, you know, request for buyer, seller, I sell out that goes into it within those 30 days that people don't think about. And at the same time, as a real estate agents, that's what you're here for. To make the life easier for that buyer and that seller to take that load off their shoulders and be able to make that transition a lot smoother because you don't want them in there worrying about every aspect of the transaction. That's what we want to take off their shoulders. That's what we want to be there for them for that entire process for them. Be transparent and as smooth as possible. But not just prospecting, not just showing homes and negotiating those deals, making sure that you're getting the best deal possible for, for your client. And like I mentioned, making that as smooth as possible. On top of that, you also have to be marketing yourself. You're building a business, you're building a brand for you. You know, you have to look at the big fisher long term. How do you want people to see yourself? How do you want people to, you know, find you? How do you want people to know you and, and connect with you with your brand? And then there's the part of staying educated, right? [00:09:15] Speaker A: Oh, yes, continuing education. It's not just you get your license one and done. No, you have to keep up your license. You have to continue to have your continuing education, get your points, make sure you're up to date on your points so that you can to maintain your license. [00:09:33] Speaker B: Yeah, it's not just you get your license, you're good to go. For instance, here in Alabama, every other year we have to take at least two of our credit and to renew our license. Right. Every state has their regulations away, but you need up. It's, it's another way to continue to stay informed and for them to, to have you stay informed because it's very important. Just like last year we had the slight change on the laws for requirement buyers to, to sign the buyer's agreement before they start looking at homes. It's a very nice thing of the business. Stay now continuing education. [00:10:17] Speaker A: It really is. And it's a good thing too because like you're saying, the laws change, things change. You want to make sure that if somebody is trusting you with one of the biggest assets in their life, that you're on top of your game, you know what you're talking about. You know, all the current, you know, rules and regulations so you don't mess up as an agent and give somebody the wrong advice. [00:10:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And then there's all the different classes and certifications, right, that dive into a specific area of the business so that you are able to represent your client the best way possible. At the end of the day, if you. You want to do the best job you can for your clients and, and continue to learn, Continue to put yourself out there and, and learn different strategies, different certification that are offered for you to be the best agents you can, it's an investment in yourself, it's an investment in your business. So it's great to have that in place, I think. [00:11:15] Speaker A: And there's tons of ways to locate and do these classes. Sometimes they're free, sometimes they're paid, sometimes will offer free CE courses. Sometimes your MLS will, sometimes they won't. Sometimes you need, like, specific, like, law classes, and those ones aren't necessarily free, but we do have a QR code right above your head. Andres, for the continuing education shop. [00:11:42] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. I took. I personally had two classes from there. And I'll tell you a quick story on how I came up with the CE shop, because back in California, before I moved to. To Alabama, I took the classes, right? I took the real estate classes at the community college. And I scheduled my test for December of. I said 2021, 2022, and a month came by like two weeks before the test. I wasn't. I didn't remember anything. My. One of my first classes I took in real estate was years back, and. And I'm like, oh, I need to study for this test. I really need to study. So I. I got the class online to see each of the study material. Sure enough, I didn't study anything before the test. I had to push the classes, the test, a month out into January, and sure enough, a week and a half before the test comes back around, I'm like, I still haven't studied. Great. So over the next week and a half, I pitch myself just reviewing other questions for this taste test in California. And I passed the test. I was surprised. I'm like, oh, I pressed the test as one. And next thing you know, within the month, I'm moving to Alabama. I'm like, okay, I got my test at my test over there. Done. I get to Alabama and sent in and, you know, I Need to take my, my state portion of the test in Alabama as a reciprocal license, meaning I have my main license, California. Now I'm just taking the state version here and the same thing, CE Shop, help me just download the content, get the classes I needed just to be able to take the state portion of it, practice that for a week or so, two weeks, boom, pass the test, no problem. So very happy that that was accessible, that I could obtain and have all the content, all the study material right at my fingertips. Be able to access that from the phone, from the app, from the tablet. I thought it was very convenient because otherwise I would not have passed those steps. I'll tell you right now, I would not have passed. [00:14:06] Speaker A: It's not an easy test. It's not an easy test at all. [00:14:10] Speaker B: My wife said I made it look easy because I took it once and pass it, but it was not easy. Trust me. [00:14:21] Speaker A: If you're thinking about getting your license, just so you know, not everything on that test is going to prepare you to be a real estate agent. I don't feel that your really prepared from that test alone to be a real estate agent. It's really just being wearing the hat and walking the life of a real estate agent. You learn on the job. [00:14:39] Speaker B: I think so. But that applies to every job. You go to college, right? You go to college for four or five years, you learn a content, you learn a material, you specialize in something, you go to a job, you have to learn the job, right? If you were to switch from that company and do the same job with another company, that company is going to do the job slightly different than your previous company. You have to learn a few things. So it applies here in real estate. You can get your license, you can get your credentials, you're a professional in the business. But it's not until you get on the field and you start applying things, you get surrounded by mentors and people that are pushing you, that are teaching you the systems, the business the right way in order for you to learn and grow and then establish how you want to operate in this field. Because there's one thing that I've learned so far is everyone has their way of doing things. Everyone has the methods to communicating with the leads, to managing and writing contracts, to negotiate it. And once you get in these fields and you learn from different areas and the people around you, then you can integrate yourself in there and, and see how and what works best for you. But if you think that you can come in and just say I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do that. You can get lost. You can easily get lost. [00:16:09] Speaker A: Do you feel like when you were thinking about being agent, you had a different idea of what being an agent would actually look like your day to day than what you're actually doing now? [00:16:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I had no idea what it, what it was going to be like. In, in essence, I had no idea what it was going to take. And at the same time I was, I was open minded, but I thought it was a lot easier than what the reality is, you know? [00:16:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:42] Speaker B: Because this is a business, this is my business. Right. And, and what I see happen, and it happened to me at the beginning, is you can come in and you can easily work for a company eight hours a day, you can easily go somewhere and work 9 to 5, 7 to 4, but when it's for your own business, you can easily find distractions and not put in the eight hours to your business that you need to put in every day. You know, you can say, oh, I'm on a prospect. Next thing you know, you grab your cell phone, you get distracted, somebody calls you, family members get sick, you know, and there goes the day, there goes the week, there goes the month, and all of a sudden you have no business coming in. You know, and I was thinking about that last night. I think I sent you a message with a few information about in this business, what you do today reflects in 90 days. So if I don't prospect and I don't get a new client today, 90 days, I'm not getting a paycheck. And I was thinking, just, just imagine if you have your 9 to 5 job and you stop working for a whole pay period. Right. The entire pay period. You go on vacation, none pay, you come back to work, everybody else is getting paid, you're not getting paid. Then you work a week and you take another week off for the next time period, pay period. Now you're just getting paid for one week. You do that for, for a month and a half, two months, you're gonna have a significant impact on your life and your financials. So a lot of people walk into these fields and think that they don't have to put in the eight hours of work because it's their business, they have their schedule, the flexibility to do what they want. Reality is, you don't put the time in, you're not getting anything out. [00:18:39] Speaker A: You know what, I hear a lot on our strategy calls when we're working with Cloud. I hear a lot of agents say, I was doing really well with Referrals, but it's dried up, and that happens. Their business is based off of referrals, which they're using their sphere. They have all this incoming, and then as soon as that dries up, they didn't have any other means of prospecting. And so now they're in the position where they may have been a very, you know, successful agent for a couple of years, but now they don't know how to prospect because they haven't had to do it before. [00:19:14] Speaker B: And that's tough. You know, that. That's. I just had a conversation not too long ago and yesterday, just. In fact, I can bring that. Yesterday's call with one of our agents. She. Before joining Cloud Realty, her business, she was afraid of making phone calls. She was afraid of having those conversations. People in her space didn't even know she was an agent. And just like I mentioned earlier, a lot of people get in the business thinking that the people around them are gonna give them business. That's not always the case, you know, so she wasn't prospecting, generating new business, and all of a sudden things are not looking the right way, you know, so once she implemented a few things that we suggested her assistance in place, she started making phone calls, started having some conversations. Now her business is growing and. And that gets overlooked completely if you rely strictly on one source of. Of lease, like referral. Once. Once it dries out, you know, what do you have? What are you doing to continue to generate business? And. And that happens quite more often than. [00:20:35] Speaker A: We think it really does to kind of get us back. To loop us back around to the original of what agents actually do. There are so many things that we have to do, and nobody really tells you beforehand. You kind of have to experience it. And we talked about this, I think, on our last show, too. Sometimes you have to be a therapist. You have to make sure everybody's feeling okay in the transaction. You want to make sure that, you know, it's positive vibes, not bad vibes. You have to make sure that you're in constant contact with everybody. You need to be in contact with the listing agent. If you're the buyer's agent, if you're the agent, you need to be in contact with the buyer's agent. You need to be in contact with your clients, any third party, like, vendor that you have, like the inspector, you know, anything like that coming in to do the work, the closing attorney. You need to make sure you know what's going on. You need to make sure you know what's going on with the loan. So you got to be on top of it with the lender. So you need to make sure you're constantly talking to all these people, and then every step of the way, everything is running smoothly. [00:21:34] Speaker B: You have to. I think it boils down to that communication part, right? You need to be on top of things. And, and I stated this before, treat it the way you want it to be treated. How would you like that transaction to go if you were the buyer, right? If you were the seller, what type of communication do you want to have? You know how often you want to have that communication to ensure that everybody's informed. And if something is off, if a document is missing, you can jump right on it. You know, I've heard multiple times a document was not put in place, A document was not submitted, a signature is missing. You know, you have to evaluate everything from the all points of view and take the initiative. So if something were to happen, you already have a solution in place. You already thought of the alternative, the possibilities and have solutions in place. You have to be proactive sometimes. You have to take that initiative and be proactive from both sides and expect the unexpected. Right. [00:22:44] Speaker A: And you can't just assume that everybody's going to do their job. You can't just assume that. You have to make sure that because at the end of the day, you're representing your client. You're the one that's responsible for them and their side of the transaction. So you can't just be like, okay, yay, we're under contract, and then not communicate with anybody and show up to the closing thinking everything's going to be okay, because that's not, not going to work out well for you. [00:23:07] Speaker B: Yeah, that, that's something that I've always applied just to go buy it on accessory. I work in a warehouse for, for 12 years, right. I had clients sometimes call me for, for an order for an item, and I already knew what the item was before they called me. I already knew what they were calling me for before they, I even answered the phone. If I see who he was, I already told him, look, that item is on the truck will be there in the next hour or it will be here tomorrow. I'll get it over to you. And they're like, how the hell, you know, I was calling you about that? I'm just, I understand your order history, I understand the business and, and I operate here the same way. You have a transaction in place, anticipate what could happen and, and take precautionary methods to, to be Able to, to take care of that in a timely manner. So another question, Heather. How do, how do agents get paid? Because seriously, a lot of people think that it's just coming in and getting, getting a quick check and move along. [00:24:20] Speaker A: Right, Exactly. Well, I'll be honest with you, Andres, and I'm sure you've experienced this too. Sometimes we don't. Sometimes we work for free and we put in long, hard hours and we don't get paid. And that sucks. [00:24:36] Speaker B: Yeah, it does. I have a great story in that. It's just a prime example. I got this referral client, right? And you think, refer, they're ready to go. She's already pre approved. And I'm one of those, like, I don't mind looking at houses because at the end of the day, I want to find you the right house. Right? We want it. I want you to walk in through the house and be like, damn, this is it. This is man. I'm. Like I said before, I'm already making plans as we walk it through the property. I'm like, hey, we're gonna put the grill there. I want to come to the first barbecue. And we open when you move in. I'm making plans with them. So show this client multiple houses. I would say about 12, 15 houses. No kidding. Over the two month period, because they could only see property on the weekend, one day out of the week. So I took about 2, 3 months to. To figure it out what house. We ended up with a new construction house from get go. Sure enough, they had to on their end, they had to take take care of a few things before the house was built. Right. Sure enough, that didn't happen. We're like, okay, let's push it forward. The builders working with us to make sure things get done. And mind you, we went on the contract in October, April comes around, house already done. Vendors want to give us the keys. They want to get this done already. And just obstacle after obstacle kept coming up for them. And at the end of the day, five, six months later, the deal didn't get done. Fell apart. Things happening on a personal level that were out of their control. Right. And just like I mentioned, sometimes you have to. And like you said, you have to be a therapist. You have to be more than just an agent. You know, it was a position for me to be more than just an agent with them. And, and yes, what happened? It was out of their control and they were not able to close that deal. They're gonna look again in the next few months to close the deal. But this is a prime example. Work with them, show them about 15, 20 houses, get them on the contract and at the end of the day didn't get paid for it. Nothing happened. You know, so you're gonna have cases like this where you put a lot of time, you put a lot of thumb and effort and, and yes, having certain systems in place will prevent that from happening. But there's going to be occasions that it happens that is out of your control, that is out of the lease control, where that time and effort going in and nothing was able to get done. [00:27:27] Speaker A: You know, I mean, deals fall apart all the time for numerous different reasons. And one thing, and I know we're, we both feel this way, the client first, you want to, you know, make sure that they're happy. This is their home, they're going to be secure and the decision to purchase this home and the closing table is going to be a happy experience for them. And sometimes, you know, you've gone, showed them a million houses and, and you finally get under contract and you're doing the inspection and there's a lot of things, you know, we had the home inspector here last week and, or Tuesday, I'm already into next week. That's where the home inspection. Home INSPECTOR STEPHEN Tuesday. And while home inspections are scary, most of the stuff can always, you know, be accommodated. You can get the repairs done. Sometimes it's just too much. Sometimes the house just isn't going to work for them. And so that you terminate the deal and then that deal falls through. And so everything you did up until that point, you know, doesn't matter with this particular house because now you got to start the process all over again. And you have to keep in mind that unless it's a cash deal until you get something under contract, like the moment you get it under contract, it's either a 30 to 45 day closing, sometimes longer if they, you know, want to be in the house a little bit longer or however you know where you're doing that. But if it's a regular loan, you're looking at at least 30 days. If it's, you know, a VA loan, maybe a little bit longer. Sometimes you can do a quick close. But let's just be realistic. Let's say we go under contract today, let's say me and you are buying a house on Thursday. When we go under contract today, we're probably not going to close until a month from now. So you're not going to get paid on that until a month from now. Could you imagine working? Let's say you worked a retail job or you worked in, like, you know, the service industry somewhere, and you worked for a month before you got paid the following month. Could you do that? Do you have enough reserve to be able to wait that month to get a paycheck? [00:29:29] Speaker B: That's. And yeah, it's, it's not easy. So it's a lot more than just selling houses. And like I said earlier with that example is if you're working and you don't work for a pay period now, you don't get paid, let's say for those 30 days that you just talked about, you're not getting paid that 30, the next 30 days. Imagine two months on another month on top of that. So you work for two months and you're not getting paid. [00:29:57] Speaker A: Yep. So let's kind of go into and break down the cost of being a real estate agent because that goes hand in hand to how we get paid. So to answer the question, how do we get paid? We get paid at the closing when we sell something. And depending on, you know, your brokerage and your client, the percentage is really, you know, probably, you know, per transaction. So there's not really a guaranteed, you know, percentage. That's all negotiable. Now, when you get paid, everybody gets a little piece of that check. Everybody gets a little piece of that check. And it go. It gets chopped down really quickly. So if you're in a brokerage and you're a single agent or a solo agent, then you have your broker, your brokerage split, and each brokerage is different, so your brokerage gets a chunk of your check. If you're on a team, the brokerage and your team lead gets a chunk of that check. Now also out of that check, you're looking at any type of vendor fees that you're paying as well. So, like, I have a transaction coordinator. So every transaction, she gets a chunk of the check too. If you're paying a referral, let's say somebody referred you that lead, or you're paying for referrals, and that was a referral lead. They get a chunk of that. They get a chunk of that check too. And that doesn't even count any office fees, technology fees, anything like that that might be charged as well through your brokerage. So that 15k check can get shrunken down really quickly. And that doesn't even include taxes. [00:31:26] Speaker B: I was gonna say don't forget about Uncle Sam. [00:31:28] Speaker A: Right? Oh, how could I forget them? And that's another. You need to make sure you're saving money for your taxes because it's not, it's not taken out. So you need to have a reserve that you're putting money in to pay your taxes. Otherwise you're going to be in a heap of trouble. If you just blew through all the money. [00:31:44] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. If you just run through that and you're gonna find out later on and it's not going to be as pretty as you thought it would be. Right. So that's one thing. Right. Managing all of that aspect on how you're getting paid and keeping in balance with your personal life as well, because it's not as easy as it looks. [00:32:08] Speaker A: Oh, I forgot to mention closing gifts. If you're, if you're buying closing gifts, you've got to factor in your closing gifts. If this was a listing and you advertised it, you're looking at any type of marketing you did for listing. Personally, I pay for pictures. Some agents, they charge for pictures as part of their thing. I don't always just paid for pictures myself. So you're looking at, you know, like at least 200 bucks for pictures on a listing. If you're the listing agent again, you need to sign, you need a sign in the front yard. I know through the brokerage that I'm with, it's a hundred bucks for them to place the sign and then you have to order the sign. They're like 70 bucks and they hold on to the sign. So you're looking at 170 bucks each time I have to buy a new sign or 100 bucks every time I have it placed. If we're doing an open house for that listing, you need open house signs. People need to know where to go when they're driving, how to get there. If you're going to get balloons for that open house, are you going to have snacks for that open house? So yes, it's a lot. [00:33:06] Speaker B: All out of pockets. Yep, there's a lot of pockets. If you don't have a budget set up for that, you need to, you need to manage your budget quite well in order to continue to have the funds to support you through all those aspects. Right. [00:33:24] Speaker A: Any last minute things on how we get paid, Andres? [00:33:30] Speaker B: Jesus. Just think about it. You mentioned referral team, broker, you know, seller, buyer's agent, depending which one you're representing there on top of everything, all the costs associated to it. Right. And one thing is, if you're looking to generate more business, more conversations, are you allocating a percentage of that towards your marketing to generate new business? So that's another cost associated to that. So just manage accordingly. Look at the big picture. Set up your budgets and, and manage accordingly because all the costs associated to it can creep in and next thing you know, you, you feel like you just got paid, but didn't get paid. [00:34:21] Speaker A: Oh, gas money. I didn't even talk about gas money. We don't even want to get started on gas money. [00:34:29] Speaker B: I think that's the beauty of it. You, you tend to overlook all the little things. They're like, oh, it's not a month, it's not as much. Right. But hey, you, how many properties did you drive to? How far is that property to from you? Right? How often are you going, what else are you coordinating in that process? So all these little expenses, we tend to overlook them, but they keep adding up. And when that paycheck comes in, next thing you know, it's gone. You know, if you don't have, if you don't manage your budget accordingly, you need to have a consistency of closing multiple deals a month in order to, to stay afloat here. Right. [00:35:10] Speaker A: You really do. You gotta, you gotta be able to track and manage your money. You need to know where every dollar is going. You need to make sure that you're. If you don't have any systems in place, at least have a Google spreadsheet or something so that you know where every dollar is going with what you're spending, what you're making. Otherwise you really don't know what your profit is. [00:35:29] Speaker B: Yeah. So don't forget the emotional aspect of it, right? [00:35:33] Speaker A: Oh yeah. Yes. For everybody, for the clients and for yourself. [00:35:39] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:35:40] Speaker A: So Andres, is this something that you can do on the side? Can this be a side hustle or if you're working a nine to five, is this something that you can do? [00:35:51] Speaker B: I think it depends. It depends on, on what you want to get out of it. Right. Honestly, just like I said earlier, you need to be able to, to dedicate certain amount of hours to the business in order for you to be successful in this field. Right. And one thing that you need to have clear if you decide to these to do this business is your reason why you're doing it. Right? Do you want it for freedom? Do you want it for income, to service, to growth? Do you want all those things? You know, because depending on your why and your reasoning behind it, how much time are you going to dedicate to it? Right? How much are you going to commit to prospecting, to establish, you know, the systems in play in your business so that you have the longevity and the growth that you're looking to achieve, right? Because if you don't align your wife and your business, you're not going to put the time in and if you don't have any other income, you're going to be out of the business. And I also think that in the same capacity, people that have an additional income and they're relying on that income also don't pull the necessary time to grow in this business, right? So there's a great area in a balance there where if you want it as a part time, what did you really want to get out of it and how much are you going to dedicate to it? If you want it to be full time, you know, we can touch on that before we, we end the call here today. But if you are looking to it as a full time, what is your reason why you know, and, and, and commit to it? Because otherwise you're not going to see the type of results that you want to get out of it, you know. So to answer the question, you could, but at the same time you should not. [00:37:59] Speaker A: Just to give our listeners kind of a idea of what a time frame and a day would look like, let's say it's a random Saturday and you're showing houses and you have five to 10 houses that you're going to be showing. It could be for the same, you know, buyers or it could be for multiple buyers. You're showing five to 10 houses and you spend the bulk of the Saturday morning and afternoon showing houses. And let's say you get home at around 4, your day is not over. Your day probably just began because odds are they're going to want to put in an offer on at least one of those. But sometimes they might want to put in multiple offers. So then you just get home. It's not time to kick off the shoes and relax. You got to put in that offer and it can't wait. You can't be like, okay, I'll get around to putting in that offer. Because you never know with real estate. Something could sit on the market for five seconds or it could sit on the market, you know, for five years. Not really five years. I don't know, maybe five years. But I'm just saying, you know, in real estate, just because it's a fast market or a slow market doesn't really mean anything. The house could just be gone by the time you want to put in that offer. So you always need to put in that offer immediately. So you just got done showing all these houses. Now you got to get on the computer, you Got to start writing offers and you got to get those submitted. I always contact the listing agent too and say, hey, I sent over an offer your way. Just so you know, you never know if they're going to not check their email or miss it. You want to make sure you're notifying them. Now, with Tony and I, one thing we need to kind of cut down on having so much time devoted to that because we want to devote time to our family and our children too. When we do appointments, what we normally do is we'll both go on the showings and he'll drive. And while he's driving to the next house, I'm in the passenger seat on the laptop writing up the offer for the house we just saw. So by the time we get home, hopefully we have all of that already done. Now that's not an option for everybody. Not everybody has a two person team that they can do that with. But if it is an option, I would definitely say do that. Otherwise you're going to be doing a lot of computer work when you get home. [00:40:04] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And, and the thing is, the clients don't, don't expect, they expect your full attention. Right. You know, if you're going to commit to that, if you have to negotiate a deal like you said, oh, I'm on, let me wait for my lunch break to be able to put that up for him. It doesn't work like that. We don't clock out. We don't clock out. Like you said, if a client tells you at 10 o' clock at night, hey, I want to submit an offer, you know, yes, you have systems in your place, in your business to say, hey, if you establish those expectations with your client, you are both aligned with those expectations. Hey, after certain hours, or I do this in certain showings, in certain hours, you can set those expectations from the beginning. But there's some people that if you don't set those expectations, they're going to call you at 10 o' clock at night and say, hey, I really like, we decided we're going to submit an offer. It's your responsibility to say, hey, let me make that happen for you. All right? You're going to tell them, can you wait until 6:00 clock tomorrow morning? Because most likely somebody else said, yeah, I'm going to submit that offer right now for you. You know, and what are you going to tell your client in the morning? You know, somebody else put an effort, I took a nap. [00:41:28] Speaker A: Well, I mean, if you have to work your 9 to 5 and you are Doing this part time, it, it is what it is and you have to make it work the best that you can make it work. So, so the short answer is yes, you can make it work, but you're going to be stretched pretty thin if you're trying to, if you're trying to do a full time agent and have a 9 to 5. So it all depends on the caseload that you're taking on, when you're taking on buyers and sellers. Now I will say one thing that, that I do is before we even go look at a house, I call the listing agent to try to make sure it's still available. Because just because it says available on the listing page doesn't always mean it's available. I can't tell you how many times we've gone looked at it. They love it. I call the agent and they're like, oh yeah, we're under contract. And I'm like, you didn't update the listing. So we thought it was not. Now they're not always going to answer the phone. But my advice to new agents would be if you're going to go look at a house, call the listing agent, make sure it's still available after you look at it. If they like it, call the listing agent and say, hey, again, they like it. We're going to put an offer, just want to make sure it's still available. And most of the time the listing agent will be like, yes, no. Or they might tell you, hey, we have like five offers on it already. And you're like, okay. But at least you know, I was. [00:42:49] Speaker B: Gonna say if you're a listing agent, also take measures to, to prepare if the buyers, the sellers are going out of time. Not too long ago I wanted to show a property and the listing agent said, oh, I can't show the house, clients are out of town and this opportunity is being missed right there. You know, maybe that was the right house for, for the buyers, maybe other buyers wanted to see the house. But if you're not prepared or you don't have the set measures to be able to show a property during that time frame, you're missing opportunity, you're missing business. I was also going to say, if you're doing this part time, if you miss leads, you're missing paychecks, you know, because you don't want to work a certain hour that might be a particular time frame that you can generate more business. You don't want to do certain activity because you. I'm only committing two hours a day on this. I'M only working on the weekends on this. You're missing opportunities and it's hard to build a. I'm not saying it's impossible, but if you're looking to build a six figure business, you have to be serious about the strategies in the system that you're going to implement there. [00:44:05] Speaker A: And just if you are doing this part time, my best advice would be to set realistic expectations with communication to your buyers and sellers. If you don't tell them you're working a 9 to 5 and they're texting you or calling you all day long and you're not answering, they feel like you're blowing them off. But if you set that expectation up front and you tell them, hey, I'm not available from, you know, 8:00am to 2:00pm But I will call you back at 205 as soon as I can. Just text me and let me know what you know. The issue is that way they already know going into this, the expectation to have otherwise like I said, they're going to think you're blowing them off. [00:44:43] Speaker B: It is, it's just, just having that clear from the beginning. That's what it's all about. Because they work both ways. They're going to respect you and your time and, and what you tell them and the way you want to communicate and, and you ask them how they want to be communicated with. It's not just a hey, call me at 2 in the morning, how you doing? Doesn't work like that. But you have to set those expectations. So let's say you want to do should you get your license? You know, if you're thinking about it, should you get your license? Because I'll be honest, when I saw, when I saw real estate shows like on the hgtv, man, they made this look simple. I thought it was nice just, just seeing this couple coming in, hey, this is the type of property we have the agent show them three property and they're picking one of those three properties. I'm like, is that simple and why. [00:45:41] Speaker A: Are they all butterfly sales catchers or something like that? For their running joke, right? Is like I'm a butterfly catcher and I make 2 million a year and we wanna, you know, a house on the beach. [00:45:52] Speaker B: That looked too simple. I'll be honest, that looked too simple, too easy. But it's not like that. [00:46:00] Speaker A: This is not for everyone. I'm not trying to discourage people at all. If this is your dream and you want to be a real estate agent, I'm not trying to discourage you but, but be realistic about if this is something you can handle, this is a high stress job. So if you don't do well under pressure and you don't do well under stress and you have fear of talking to like, if you can't make a phone call, if you're afraid to have like confrontation with somebody, probably is not the best job for you. [00:46:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll be on one of those hands. I'll be brave. Like, I call the lead. It's maybe like two months ago and I don't know what. Giving the impression that I got here on a freaking boat. [00:46:43] Speaker A: I remember. [00:46:45] Speaker B: I don't. I don't know what had given the impression that I came here on a boat. And. And because of my accent, he just started insulting me. And I'd say until cats kinds of things. I'm like, I just said, hey, how you doing? Represent them. Say where I was calling from, introduced myself and I just asked him a question and he just went off and talk all kinds of things. And at the end of the call I simply. You have a great day. That's all I said. And I picked up the phone again and called the next person just like nothing happened. You know, but you're. That's gonna happen if you're calling people. Let's be truthful. Some people are not the nicest one on the phone and they're going to tell you how it is and what they think about. But you have to be able to not take any of that personal because we touch on this. If I run to that person at the gas station, I probably won't even know it's him. [00:47:44] Speaker A: But you handled that so well and so professional. That call with that guy, you really did demonstrate, you know, Grace. Professionalism when they were being an. [00:47:58] Speaker B: I think you heard him more that I said goodbye with a smile. And I'm like, you have a great day. Because simply you're not messing up with my day. [00:48:05] Speaker A: Yeah, he didn't get the reaction out of you, but he wanted. He definitely did not get the reaction that he thought he was gonna get. [00:48:11] Speaker B: Yeah. And, and, and that's. You have to have certain mentality because you have to make those funkos. You have to generate more business. You have to make the phone calls. And it's not always going to go the way you want. It's not always going to be HGTV presented. Oh, let's go show this house. Let's go see this house. I'm gonna work with you. There's going to be clients that you have to say no. That you're simply not compatible to work with, you know, people that you are not not going to be able to connect. And you also have to be able to say no. Just like people are going to say no to you, you have to say no. So it's, it's just staying focused, staying professional, be able to move on to the next one the faster. Something that I always hear is the fastest people say no to you the fastest you can move to the next one. You have to be able to accept that and just let it go. [00:49:02] Speaker A: And not only communicating and picking up the phone with lead generation, but also with the other agents involved in this transaction. Negotiation is a huge, huge thing. And everybody always thinks negotiating over price. I can tell you some of the most knocked down drag out fights wasn't even over for the price. It was over stupid little things to address concern. People get very, very hung up on things and then people get really petty. So it's just, it's crazy. But you have to be able as the agent to represent your client in their best interest. So if you're going back and forth with the other agent and you're just a pushover and you're not standing up for your client and your clients see that and it's going to reflect in your business. Now I'm not saying be a dick, bulldoze the other side, but you definitely need to make sure that as a person you're secure enough in your own negotiation power to be able to stand up for your clients and get what's best for them. [00:49:59] Speaker B: Absolutely. So should you get your license? Absolutely. If this is something that you know, that you have a draft to be able to work with others that you want to collaborate partnership level, be able to connect with people on a much personal and build relationships. Because this business is about building relationships and in the process you help them find a dream home. You should definitely get your license because the reward of putting someone in the right place, the right terms is just incredible. Not looking at the financial aspect of things, but more so the opportunity to be able to connect with someone and help them achieve their dream. Some people come over here to this country as an immigrant to be able to own some properties and be able to, to build something and leave a legacy for their family. For me, that makes my day, that makes my month, that makes my year. To be able to put someone in a position where they say man, I made it. I got the, I accomplished my goals when I decided to move to this country. [00:51:01] Speaker A: Right. [00:51:02] Speaker B: I accomplish my goals that for me makes means everything. So that's the reason why I'm here now. But yes, if you're considering get your license and, and like I mentioned earlier, find your why, your reason why you're doing it. You know that's the most important thing, why you're doing it. Because people connect why you do this business. No, not what you're doing. People are going to connect with your reason on why you're doing this and make it happen. [00:51:36] Speaker A: And don't be afraid to call your broker. If you don't know something and you're not in coaching or you can't get a hold of your coach, you can't get a hold of your team lead, call your broker and ask your broker. Never just assume something in the transaction. If you're not 100 sure on a rule or a contract thing, just call your broker and ask your broker because that's what they're, they're there for. Better you call your broker than mess up on a form that's going to cost your client. [00:52:03] Speaker B: Yeah. And let's do some research if you are going to get into this field, do some research on your market, you know, your pre licensing courses, what's going to take you for, for taking all your classes, the exam, the MLS access, the fees, the board dues, marketing budget, business cards, headshots. Let's plan it out so that you go in there with clear expectations of what it's going to take for you to, to get this done. How much is it going to cost you the first six months? Budget for the first six months. That's something I didn't do. Like I said, I came into this field like ah, I'm gonna do this. You know, I wish I would have planned a lot better. I wish I knew a few things and, and, and listen to my advice right now. And that's why I'm sharing this because I came in here, just, just threw myself out there and I'll figure it out when I get there. But if I knew this I would have planned a little bit better. I would have put myself in a position to, to, to make some noise from the start and align myself with people and coaches and mentors that are going to help me grow in this business. Now I am right and I started up with some great people around me. But, but do your due diligence before you dive in, you know, definitely. [00:53:31] Speaker A: And kind of give you guys a idea of like upfront costs so you have your school that you're gonna have to pay for that. And then after you do that you have your exam, you have to pay for that as well. And different schools cost different prices. So I would just say around like any, depending on in person or, or if they're online, it could be anywhere between like 150 to 400 bucks for your school, maybe more than that, depending on which one you go to. Then you pay for take the test and then, well, you have two tests, you have the school test and then you have your actual state exam. And if you don't pass it the first time, you got to pay to take it again. It's, it's not a one time pay, it's pay each time you take it. After that, you're looking at joining a board of realtors and you have yearly dues around 400 bucks somewhere around there for your, your dues on your board. Then you have your MLS fees. So you're going to have to pay your MLS fees as well as your super, super. I have a super box which is the thing you use to unlock the house and get the key out when you go to show a home. For me, that's like 15 bucks a month. I think I pay to have the, the key access. But then you have to buy those boxes individually too. So 15 bucks a month just to have the app on my phone that allowed me to get into a house and then I have to buy those boxes as well. So keep in mind there's a bunch of little costs that add up. [00:54:58] Speaker B: Absolutely. You need the grid, not just the charm. You need to be friendly. You have to be follow up. You have to, to be there for your clients. And I think there's a lot of upside in the business. Right. There's a lot of flexibility, impact, there's potential income. But you have to treat it like a business. You have to treat it like a business and establish all the system in place for the longevity of your business. You cannot just come in and say, I'm going to work two hours today, three hours tomorrow. You have to be consistent. You have to establish your calendar, you have to establish your systems in order for you to scale and, and get to where you want at the end of the day. [00:55:48] Speaker A: Sometimes I say I'm gonna work two hours and then end up working a lot longer than that. It just, it just depends. [00:55:55] Speaker B: Yeah. And, and there's a lot of times where people say I'm gonna work six hours and they ended up working one and a half. You know, you, you have those days, but you need to have the grids and the system in place where when those days you wake up like you don't feel like doing anything, that you still, that you have the habits to get the job done regardless of what's happening. [00:56:22] Speaker A: Right. Also, like just a real world example yesterday. So yesterday we decided to take the afternoon and take the kids up to Helen and go tubing. So when you're tubing, that's when you get in a little inner tube thing and float down the river. Just FYI, I'm not an outdoors type person, so that's how much I love Tony, that I went tubing with him. Anywho, so you can't really take your phone unless you have a little plastic thing to put it in because your phone will get drenched in the water. So he left his phone in the car. When we got back to the car, I think he said he had 10 missed calls. So just in the like two hours I think it took us to tube, there were 10 missed calls on his phone that he had to deal with so that we could carry on with the rest of our day. [00:57:08] Speaker B: That's how it is. It's. It's balancing family time and, and business and, and we're close to wrapping it up here. I just wanted to touch on a couple of points because as real estate agents, you have to separate business from personal, right? On the financial aspect of things, you have to manage and budget accordingly for everything, just like we mentioned earlier. And you have to keep business and family separate. You also have to track your numbers at all times, you know, and then you also have to keep in mind you're also managing your own mortgage, your own, you know, rent, you, you're helping other agents, but you also have to manage everything on your end as well. And like you just said, balancing the family time and business, you know, managing contracts, deadlines, vendors, repairs, everything. It's like a wedding planner, right? A lot that, a lot goes into the wedding. People just. But people only show up and enjoy it. They don't see everything that's happening unless you are involved in it. I. Real estate in some capacity is the same. You're, you're planning that transaction, you're managing that transaction to make sure everything goes well. And at the end of the day, you show up to, to sign the contract and get your keys, right? But there's a lot of potential. It's a lot of potential. You just have to align yourself with the right people, find the system that works for you, be committed to it and put the work in. It's not going to happen if you don't put the work in. [00:58:50] Speaker A: And that goes with just life in general. Right. If you want something, you have to work for it. If you want it to be worthwhile, you have to work for it. [00:58:59] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So talking to working agents, if you are considering coming in to talk to current agents in your market, talk about what it takes to get the job done, you know, in their respective market and, and do your due diligence because there's definitely a great way and it's an incredible opportunity to be able to work with other people and put them in a position that we're helping them in. So I definitely encourage it. Heather said earlier we're going to share some more information about where you can access the training at school and if you're open to having a conversation, give us a call. We'll be, you know, tell you from my experience what it's all about, what has been the process, and I have some great mentors and coaches around me that I can connect you with and we can definitely help. [00:59:55] Speaker A: We have some great tools at our disposal. Fortunately, we work with cloud and we have some amazing things we can offer. So if you are thinking about becoming an agent, we have free tools to get you started. We have training, mentorship and tech support. Just book a strategy session with either Andres or myself and we'd be happy just to walk you guys through the process and see if this is something that you feel like you're going to want to do and invest in. And we're definitely here to help you guys. [01:00:22] Speaker B: Absolutely. Remember, you're not just getting a license, you're starting a business. So. And before we wrap this up, Heather, I know next week we're going to be talking to your transaction coordinator so we can dive into a little bit more details, into what that transaction looks like. Right. So it, it goes right along with what we talk about, you know, what does it take to be a real estate agent? And when you come to a point that you can use a, a transaction coordinator in your business, you know, we're going to dive in, into that and show you guys what that looks like. [01:01:00] Speaker A: I think I just had like a crazy little blip on my screen. Can you guys still see me? Right, Andre? [01:01:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:07] Speaker A: Okay. I thought I got disconnected there for a second anyways. Well, that is about it for us today, guys. Hopefully you can still hear me. Hopefully my Internet is working still. [01:01:18] Speaker B: You're still good. [01:01:21] Speaker A: But should you or should you not become a real estate agent? And what do we actually do? So that is what we actually do. If you are thinking about it, like we said, go ahead and hit up me or Andres. We're happy to talk you guys through it. Thank you so much for watching us today. We can't wait to see you guys on the next one. [01:01:37] Speaker B: Absolutely. See you guys on Tuesday. And pleasure having you today with us. And man, if you are considering being agent, think of your reason why, why you're doing it. Make it happen. Let's go. [01:01:53] Speaker A: All right, guys, Sorry, Andres, Go ahead. [01:01:56] Speaker B: I'm saying bye until next time. Stay tuned with more Real talk with Heather and Andres. And see you on Tuesday. [01:02:04] Speaker A: See you on Tuesday, guys. By.