All Forum Posts by: Jason Duet

What @Michael Webster and  @David Hunter said.  A lot of new agents get hung up on the commission splits, but the real value in starting out is a broker who is willing to train you with actual, real-world experience. Nothing against the big national firms, but this often ends up being a smaller local firm.

My current broker doesn't have the best commission split starting out, but it increases to progressively higher levels based on the number of transactions you close (lifetime, not annual). They invest a lot of money upfront in educating new agents and sending them company leads, but instead of charging a monthly fee, and sending them to expensive workshops and conventions (potentially driving new agents out of the business within their first year), the commission split is designed to let them recoup their investment without charging the agents upfront.

While most of the bigger firms will take any agent with a license, the firms similar to the one described above will be a bit more selective of who they take on. In my opinion, those of the firms that offer the most value to new agents.

A couple of questions:

1. When do buyers in your market generally like to view homes?

2. How flexible is your employer with your office hours?

3. Does the brokerage you selected generate leads for its agents, and if so does it generate them for "part-time" agents?

4. Do you have several months of expenses saved up in the bank?

It really does depend on who you decide to hang your license with in the beginning. As others have stated, it's roughly around $1,000 for your local association and MLS dues (it's actually been a little more here in the Baton Rouge, LA area) to begin actively working as Realtor.

One thing to consider is that even if you got several leads right out of the gate, and even if you ended up with pending contracts for all of them immediately, you would likely still be looking at 30-60 days before you realized any payment on those transactions.

Some brokers generate leads for their full-time agents, but don't do so for their part-time agents because they want a certain response time guaranteed, which a part-time agent can't always do. So like @Brandon L. mentioned, at least wait until you are generating (and closing on) enough leads to maintain your current gross income (don't forget about taxes, health insurance, etc.) and also keeping in mind that the winter months will probably see somewhat of a decline in those numbers.

A good broker will help you achieve your goal of shifting to full-time if you show that you are committed to doing so.

Thanks @Jason Ruiz and @Amy Verges! I'm interested in talking to you guys, so I'm really looking forward to the next RING meeting. Hope I see you there!

Good luck @Mitch Barry, I hope to hear more about your experience as you start making progress.

And yes, @Robert Leonard it seems like it's a small world! I'd definitely be interested in hearing about what ends up happening with it. Watson is pretty small so it's probably one that I'm familiar with.

Great, thanks @Brandon Johnson! 

I signed up on the RING MeetUp site not that long ago, and I am planning to attend the meeting next month. @Robert Leonard reached out in my new member introduction. I sure appreciate the quick feedback on this forum and look forward to future discussion with everyone.

I just joined the forum and the BP world, so I'm still digging in to the podcasts, forums, books, etc. but I wanted to see if there were any other real estate agents also actively investing (or aspiring to do so) in the Baton Rouge area.

Thank you @Tami DuBose!

Thanks for the welcome everyone!

@Gerald Jarreau, I took the online course with Burk Baker.

Hi everyone, my name is Jason Duet and I am a real estate agent from Watson, Louisiana (near Baton Rouge). I also work full-time in the Aviation Section of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

Although I am currently working as an agent servicing clients, my interest now is to use my license and experience to allow me to develop a passive income source. my short term goals are to develop my "toolbox" of skills for locating good deals, analyzing them to determine the best type of transaction for the situation, and obtaining the funding to execute the transactions.

Long term, my goals would be to put those skills to use in slowly building a portfolio of properties that would allow me to have some options in designing a lifestyle that will allow me to accomplish the things I want in life, both professionally and personally.

I'm only just starting to dig into the Bigger Pockets world with the podcasts, forums, and books, but I thought I'd take a few minutes to introduce myself first. I look forward to learning with and from the rest of you!