Cook - 21 things I wish my broker had told me: practical advice for new real estate professional

Contents

Anyone reading this book in the hope of becoming an instant success is reading the wrong book.

Chapter 1
In Conclusion
I know this is difficult, but as you stand at the threshold of your real estate career, Id like you to project yourself seven or ten years into the future and from that vantage point look back at what you will have learned from being in this business.

Chapter 2
How Did You Get in Here?
Being a real estate agent is nobodys childhood dream.

Chapter 3
Great Expectations
Its 9 AM Monday morning. You have a brand-new real estate license in your pocket and youre standing at the front door of a real estate companyyour new employer. What do you do now?

Chapter 4
Honk if Youre an Independent Contractor
At some point, right or wrongor perhaps both right and wrongthe population at large came to view the real estate profession as a leisure industry.

Chapter 5
A Fast Track to Your First Transaction
Two quick stories.

Chapter 6
Its Your Money
Invariably, new real estate agents misjudge how much money they need to survive the early days of their careersand those early days can be as long as eight or nine months.

Chapter 7
Market ThyselfFirst
It is a strange business, real estate. Its not at all like any profession youve experienced before.

Chapter 8
Do You Know Where Youre Going?
I wish I had realized earlier how much control I had over the direction of my career.

Chapter 9
Family Matters
So lets be realistic. Do families and a real estate career mix? Can you get to where you want to go professionally without sacrificing your personal life?

Chapter 10
Working with Friends and Family
Memorize this chapter, then rip it out of the book. Then burn the pages and scatter the ashes.

Chapter 11
Competitors and Predators and You
In California, not that long ago, two agents from the same companyeach with a competing buyerwere making bids to buy the same home.

Chapter 12
How Come Nobody Likes Me?
Theres good news, bad news, and good news. The good news is that youre either getting or have gotten your real estate license. The bad news isoh, lets just face ityoure a real estate agent.

Chapter 13
The Organized You
If you let it, the real estate business will make you a better person.

Chapter 14
Business Cards and Alphabet Soup
Just as an interesting exercise, and you can do this even on your first day on the job, collect as many business cards as you possibly can.

Chapter 15
Like Scorpions Circling in a Bottle
Two of the more interesting relationships youll develop during your career are the one between you and the lawyers representing your clients and the one between you and the home inspectors who comb through houses looking for problems.

Chapter 16
Alien Life Forms
Unlike in the past, suddenly there seems to be no wrong way to do real estate.

Chapter 17
The Real Estate Business Wants You
For years, every personal computer delivered with Microsoft Windows has come with a small group of games that includes the ever-popular time-waster Solitaire, and a much less noticed game called FreeCell.

Chapter 18
You and the Gurus of Salesmanship
As youve probably already heard, its true that even after you have your license, youre never out of school in the real estate business.

Chapter 19
To Tech or Not To Tech?
Heres a bit of good news. Youre in the real estate business at a perfect timeat least a perfect time in terms of the technology you need to get the job done in todays world. If you had started yesterday, you would have been way too early. Had you waited until tomorrow, youd have been way too late. But today is technologically perfect.

Chapter 20
Practice Good Habits
In real estate, as in most other enterprises, good habits lead to good businessand bad habits lead to poor business, and maybe even no business at all. Its a difficult job under the best of conditions, and it doesnt help if you fall into habits that lead to self-destruction.

Chapter 21
Youve Just Been Asked To Commit a Crime. What Do You Do Now?
This chapter is short because Im in a race with your attention span.

Chapter 22
The Future: Lots of Questions, No Answers
Heres the downside. Everything is about to change. Yes, everything. Well, not how many rods there are in an acre, but everything else. Gone. Kaput. Not going to be the same anymore.

Chapter 23
First, Get Moose and Squirrel
When I was a kid, I used to watch The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show cartoons.

Appendix
Heres What You Do for a Living

Preface

If youre reading this book with the hope that it is the book that will make you an instant success in real estate, a bit of warning: That book probably doesnt exist. If youre reading this book with the hope of becoming more comfortable with the real estate industry and maybe gaining a few insights and picking up a few tips along the way, youre reading the right book.

In the years Ive covered the real estate industry as a reportermore than 20 years at this writingIve made a number of observations about the business and have come to a number of conclusions, but none more fundamental than these:

1. There simply are no shortcuts on the road to real estate success. You have to do the work. But

2. There are no speed limits on that road, either. You can move as far as you can, as fast as you can, and no one is going to stop you.

The purpose of this book is to get the new sales associate into the passing lane as quickly as possible, whether youre just starting out or you are down the road a ways.