All Forum Posts by: Brad Miller

I personally used Real Estate Express and prepagent.com.  Both were great and helped me with the process.  Just know there will be a lot of studying and review before the test.  Good luck!

Make sure everyone in your sphere, neighborhood, place of worship, clubs/groups know what you do.  Offer to host open houses for other realtors and usually they will allow you to keep the leads you generate.  Be willing to do the grunt work for the opportunity.   

Be creative and find ways to be in front of people and get as much experience as possible so when you do get a lead you can turn that into a client.  

My understanding is the term “Bird Dog” was someone getting paid for a lead.  It’s basically getting paid for referral business.  Not sure if that is what you are referring to?

A listing agent should be all the above and more.  Never forget that you are not in the home business, you are in the people business.  Your goal is to exceed expectations and be willing to do things other can't/won't.  If you (the agent) deems the responsibility of communication, responsiveness, involvement and commitment as menial tasks then being a realtor may not be the best decision.  

You should have great people skills, exceptional knowledge of your market, constant and concise communication, ability to sell/market/advertise not only the property but the deal as well, ability to negotiate, a list of trusted/vetted vendors to help get the house market ready, etc. 

Being a listing agent is so much more than a sign in the yard.

I was about to edit my post to mention the EDDM.  I've used this in the past and it's been a good solution.  The only down side is it's not personalized with the owners name.  But then again, printing a personalized label is not always 100% fool proof either.  Good luck with the canvasing.  It's good that you are farming your neighborhood.  

Do not stuff mailboxes, it's illegal.  You can hang them or pin them but then again, that can be annoying.  Best would be to use your access to tax information, print mailing labels directly to the homeowner and mail them if possible. 

All it takes is one homeowner to get upset with you stuffing the mailbox.  It's not worth the risk in my opinion. 

The goal is to learn.  See how they conduct the open house, how the interact with visitors, knowledge of the property.

You will also gain perspective from the shoppers point of view and see homes that potential clients may be interested in.  

Hi Ibraheem, Welcome to Atlanta!  I am a native and would love to talk about the city or grab a coffee and talk about investing.  

As was already said it depends on your agreement with your broker.  Most expect to be made whole regardless of the transaction.  So in your case the broker would expect their 25% even if you forgo your commission.  

If he is new then ask him to use a mentor to guide him with this transaction.  He will probably pay some commission for it but he can learn while he and the mentor search for a home.  It’s not always fund to be the guinea pig but there a ways to get though the process and still stay family.

Just make sure he has someone helping him with searches/research, running comps, negotiations, inspections, closing, etc.  Just don’t go easy on him because he’s family. :)