There are a ton of resources on the Internet that will tell you how wonderful
becoming a real estate agent can be, we are guilty of it as well, but the truth is that real estate is only as great as you want it to be.
Can you make a lot of money as a real estate agent? Absolutely, but just as with everything else you can also fail miserably and never make a dime. Successful agents make up around ten percent of all
real estate agents, the rest may either "get by" or struggle until they eventually come to the realization that they must follow another career path. Not necessarily because they don't work hard enough or were not willing to put in the hours, they may just have not had what it takes to truly succeed. Any career built around sales can be difficult and sales people are a special breed, not everyone can do it.
Now don't take this the wrong way, we are not trying to deter you from choosing a
career in real estate, we obviously love it or we wouldn't maintain this site. We just want our valued readers to know the truth, the
real estate industry isn't for everyone. With that being said do you have the right qualities:
- Hard worker
- Great with people
- Feel comfortable selling
- Confident in yourself and your abilities
- Not afraid to ask questions if you need help
- Positive attitude
Now those qualities are by no means the key to success, but they are important traits for someone entering the
real estate profession to have. We could carry that list on for another five pages, but why, you will know if you have what it takes, follow your intuition and make your decision accordingly.
Getting Your Real Estate License
Hopefully, after being pulled down to reality, you are still interested in
getting started in real estate. There are numerous ways to go about getting your real estate license, you can go through
online real estate schools which typically focus heavily on a particular state or you can find an accredited real estate school in your area, this is the recommended method.
We are often weary of online schools that offer to place the whole world in your hands, and feel that you can acquire a much better education in a true classroom environment without the disruptions of a typical home. Though the type of schooling you choose is really insignificant so long as you go with an accredited school, we can't stress that enough. You can usually find a list of
real estate schools on the Real Estate Commission Board website for your area, to gain access to those websites visit our
state licensing page and select your state. Pretty easy huh?
Schooling, or earning those credit hours, is truly the largest obstacle in your path to obtaining a
real estate license. We know you may not believe it, but that's the truth. There certainly are some other requirements such as age restrictions (usually 18+), state fees, application and passing the real estate exam, though most of these schools prepare you well enough that the exam will not be an issue. Don't believe us? Check out the requirements for getting a
Maine Real Estate License and see for yourself, they are a good example.
With all of that being said, we want to wish you the best of luck in your new real estate career and we hope that our site has helped you to succeed in some way. Oh, and after you get your license, come back and see us for some great
real estate internet marketing tips, you'll be glad you did!
Have you been considering spending your hard earned money on a custom real estate website to bring in new clients? Before you do that do you have the money to buy a custom website, do you realize that they can cost anywhere from $500 - $5,000 plus depending on the type of website, company doing the work and of course the features included in the design?
Listen, the truth is that taking your real estate business online is one of the best moves you can make, but if you can’t afford it you simply can’t afford it. Don’t be fooled by the look and functions of a website, there is almost always a free alternative that will suit you just fine, and if once you do have the funds you still feel the need to buy a custom design then go right ahead, but for now you should be realistic. We have worked with plenty of real estate agents that decided to empty their families savings account for a website and guess what, they never received a single client from it, until we taught them a little about real estate internet marketing of course.
Lets take this very website for example, Real Estate License Direct cost us nothing more than twenty dollars a month to setup and that is for web hosting, which you would have to pay for anyway. The design is free, the power plant of the operation(Wordpress) was free, and this site was up and running in less than an hour. Maybe its not the best choice, maybe it is, what matters is that we were online and working towards our goals, which is the same thing each and every one of you should be doing.
There are numerous tutorials and information sources online for setting up your own blogs using this very same platform, you can also set up blogs on sites like ActiveRain and RealEstateWebmasters that will allow you to at least get started online for the time being. We wouldn’t recommend using a third party site as your primary homepage, but it works in the beginning and they already have an established presence which is an added benefit.
We have been planning on including a real estate directory on Real Estate License Direct for some time now and today we are announcing the grand opening of our new directory!
The directory is just another way we are giving back to our valued readers and followers. It has been designed to accommodate real estate agents and first time home buyers since we provide information for both groups. Real estate agents can list their websites within the directory for free, while providing a reciprocal link, and you can also find real estate internet marketing resources including forums and other real estate directories that should really help you guys and gals get your agent websites off the ground and start producing more clients.
Home buyers can of course search through the listings of real estate agents, organized by state for convenience, and find a great real estate agent located in their area without ever leaving the house, it doesn’t get much better than that. There will also be a misc. real estate section that will include other resources like mortgage tools and calculators, property listing sites and more, to make finding your new home a great experience!
So what is everyone waiting for? Enough chit chat, jump right in and start promoting your real estate website for free!
