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Updated over 6 years ago on . Most recent reply
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Looking for help on my current plan.
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- Real Estate Broker
- Cody, WY
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Count the costs. There are many REALTORS that will paint a rosy picture and talk about all the money you can make from selling a million-dollar home. True. But how many of those does the average agent sell? How many hours do they spend selling it? How much of their own money do they spend on marketing, licensing, education, gas, etc? How many hours (or days) do they spend running all over God's green earth to show houses to a buyer that can't make up their mind and then suddenly disappears and never purchases anything?
I don't know of any profession that has a greater attrition rate. Somewhere around 80% of all agents quit within two years. Of those that stick around, 80% of them only sell 20% of the homes and the average income for an agent is less than the average income in America...and that's before deducting expenses like fuel, marketing, office fees, licensing fees, board fees, etc. Most agents take 2-3 years before really learning the job and making a decent living at it.
Sit down with an honest agent and ask for the true costs and what you can expect to earn in the first 1-3 years. I think you'll be surprised.
- Nathan Gesner
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