Things you wish you knew before being an agent

[Andrew Vincent]

Hello BP community! I come to you today with a question that could help out lots of other agents or agents to be like myself. What are some things that you wish you knew before becoming a real estate agent? Were there costs that you didn't expect? What are the difficulties you encountered when starting? In my book there really isn't a wrong answer for this because everyone has their own experiences, so please share away! I look forward to hearing from you all!

[Joaquin Camarasa]

Always do your due diligence!

In my first deal ever, they almost caught me well. 

There were signs of leaks in attic. The seller accepted to get a licensed roofer to inspect attic and roof and fix any issues. It turns out it was just an unlicensed friend of him who inspected it and seller only paid $400 for him to sign off and say roof and attic were great. 

I did not know all I know now, when I got there for final walkthrough with my clients, they had just spray foam insulation all over the attic.  I did not trust the fix neither the receipt provided. I called the handyman pretending I wanted to hire him. I stated I was looking for somebody with a license. He said he did not have a license. 

I called the listing agent and explained the whole situation. To make the story short. Seller ended up getting a licensed roofer, licensed roofer shared the whole roof needed to be replaced. Seller dropped 13k for roof, we closed a week later with lots of stress. However, I had the peace of mind that my clients were going to be ok.