Orientation and stuff!!!

I can't believe the amount of stuff a new agent has to do and learn and the money here and the money there that has to be spent. When all is said and done, I think I dropped about $3K during that first week. Thank goodness my wife is still working and we had a few dollars saved up before we started my new career.

It seems like everyone is trying to be a Realtor these days to cash in on the money in the market, but is there really the kind of money that one would expect vs. the amount of money that you put out? Don't get me wrong, because there is a lot of money to earn, but you first have to lose a lot to get there.

After I finally received notification from my broker that they had my license, I gleefully bounced to the market center for orientation. There were the usual forms that one fills out about how you want to pay this and pay that and oh...how you want to get paid!!! That was my favorite form to fill out, but what it meant did not really sink in until MUCH later. Now...this is how I get paid? But, don't I have to get a customer? Aren't you guys going to help me get my customers? Aren't you going to have someone hold my hand for the first few months? Seems like the answer was not the one that I wanted. Can you say, "You are on your own unless you get yourself a mentor"!!!

I had a hard time at first with this concept, but I felt pretty good knowing that I would be getting training that would help me get into the hang of being an agent.

Oh...and while I'm at it, I also need to join ABOR (Austin Board of Realtors) where I have my wallet lightened by a bit more to the tune of over a grand. Not a pretty picture to me. Thanks to my understanding wife, I was able to work through this.

After orientation and the wallet shrinking, I was scheduled for training. Training, which also cost would take place on Thursday and Friday each week and run for 6 weeks. I would be introduced to subjects and acronyms, like Open Houses, FSBO and Database.

Database? Yep...that would be friends, family, past co-workers and anyone else that I had an address and or phone number to. My problem with my database was that it was too large for one and the majority of them were out of state. Now...I was sitting on a database that was more or less useless. After 15+ years of developing relationships, none of them were going to do me one bit of good in this new career that I just chose. More about that later.

The training turned out to be very beneficial, but at times a bit overwhelming. There were day's that I just could not get one more thing in my mind. Plus, there were other training requirements that I had to do at ABOR.

All this on Thursday and Friday and then you throw in agency meetings, sales meetings, property tours and trying to have a sort of normal life at the same time.

Not so simple!!!!

Next up...being New in a Real Estate office!!!!!!