Every once in awhile, when you’re having a tough time on the job, it’s nice to be reminded why you bothered going into such a crazy field in the first place.
Well, reading Tim and Julie Harris’ new book, Harris Rules (Best Seller Publishing, 2017), I found a great passage that might help you do just that. Read it below—and then bookmark it so you can send it to a colleague next time they threaten to give it all up and go get a job in Corporate America.
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- There’s no investment other than the cost of a license, which usually ranges from $800 to $1500. There is no knowledge required except the four required classes to earn your real estate license. What you need to know can be gained using the “Earn While You Learn” strategy. In fact, one can obtain a real estate license without ever having owned a home.
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- In the field of real estate, there’s no income cap. Nobody’s going to tell you that you can’t make any more for this job, or to get the next pay raise that you must get an additional degree or you’re required to relocate to a place where you don’t want to live. You can make as much or as little as you desire in real estate.
- Also, there’s no geographic requirement to your job. You can live anywhere in the world and make great income in real estate due to the portability of your skills. Yes, you must get licensed somewhere else and you need to learn their local principles and practices, but that isn’t terribly time consuming.
- Unlike some other sales jobs, you are not required to purchase the inventory. This was kind of a big revelation when we first realized this. Consider a car dealer. A car dealer has to develop a floor plan and obtain a certain line of credit for a certain number of cars. They have a time restriction for keeping vehicles in the showroom, before they need to turn that inventory over. They’re invested in their inventory. That’s not so in real estate. A grocer’s inventory has expiration dates. Although real estate listings can expire, and you can lose out to a competitor who then can list that property, it doesn’t actually expire like bad bananas.
- Another positive factor of real estate sales is that the business is skill-based and isn’t determined by influence, social or economic status, or other factors. You really can climb the ladder at your own pace, as long as you have reasonable skill, which is what we’re here to provide. It’s merit based, and that’s a huge blessing.
- Your skills are portable to other price ranges, areas, and even services. Sales training applies to many types of sales, and isn’t limited to real estate. We have successfully coached people in the area of car sales, car wash chains, and we’ve even coached people in the behavioral health area. It’s all based on the same basic skill set.
- The opportunities, even under the real estate umbrella, are multiple. In addition to real estate sales, you can also be a broker, or work in development as a builder, or you can represent builders. You can be a property manager. You can be a flipper. You can work in mortgages, titles, or processing. Real estate is not just one job. In fact, some of the most successful agents work several of these categories. They’re in sales, but they’re also doing some flips and they manage some property for themselves and other people.
- An appreciable quality of the real estate business is that it can be easily passed along to future generations. Many of our coaching clients have the specific intent of passing along their business and/or rental property holdings to their offspring, to their partners, or to a member of their team. Additionally, overhead is minimal, as long as you manage it correctly. You can make millions paying thousands or less. You don’t have to spend everything that you make despite of what some people around you may be doing.
- Next, there’s no space required. Returning to the car dealer analogy, if you have to accommodate car inventory, you have to keep them somewhere, which means you’re leasing property. You’ve got to store your stuff someplace. In real estate, overhead is minimal and hardly any space is required. You just need a place to hang your license.
- Consider the expensive malpractice insurance that doctors and attorneys are required to carry. Real estate professionals have minimum insurance requirements, which are normally carried by your broker, your E&O, (errors and omissions) insurance. Licensing requirements are comparatively minimal considering the money to be made. Even continuing education requirements are not as demanding as they are in many other professions.
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Recognize that the area of real estate is the greatest opportunity in the world for the best wealth building strategy for yourself, for your family, and for creating the life of your dreams.