Another Real Estate Question

[youngbuck]

I tried to look for the original thread from a while back, but apparently it has dissappeared into cyberspace.

To give a brief summary of my situation: I'm a 19 year old full time college student who is very interested in RE. I received some advice on this board that suggested that I seek an assistant-like position at a RE agency to gain experience rather than immediately trying to get a license, drop out of school, and start out by myself.

Well this sememster is almost over and I'm about to go job hunting. My question is, what would be the best way to go about finding a good place to work? Someone suggested to me to just go through the yellow pages, but that doesn't seem like the best idea since I would have no idea about anyone's reputations. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TaylorTRoom]

My wife has been a Realtor for over 10 years. She says that different offices have different cultures, so it does make a difference. Some are more collegial, others are more competitive.

Some have intern/training programs and others just throw you in the pool and see if you can figure out how to swim.

One way to go about it is to write down the neighborhoods you want to sell, and see who does a lot of business there.

 

[unpaintedhuffhines]

each office is definitely different. You'll even find cultural difference between the same companies....ie, each office of Keller Williams/Remax/Prudential is independently owned and operated.

There are a few things you can do. The above rec from the previous poster isn't a bad one.

You could get an internship with an office (ie work in one of the Keller Williams/Century 21 etc offices) and work for the company (broker), or you could go to work for a specific agent or team. My recommendation is to go to work for an individual agent or team. In this instance you would be working directly with an agent vs. doing office work. You could work directly with the entire process.

If you go this route you will need to be aggressive and professional. You will essntially need to do your own homework on who the top teams/agents are. One way is to simply walk into a Keller Williams/Remax/Century 21/Prudential/Amelia Bullock etc office and talk to the front desk person. Tell them why you are there...you are looking for agents who need assistance. Most likely they can point you to some folks who are looking for assistants. Do this is multiple offices so you have options. Then contact the agents directly and sell yourself. Tell them you are in college, looking to get into real estate and would like to help out where needed (for pay of course, most likely hourly). Also mention you want to learn the business and feel you could be an asset to them, blah blah blah.

There really is no formal process to this. Be aggressive. FInd out who the top performers are (also note that the top performers are typically demanding people, but you will gain a lot of experience) and sell yourself. You will make some cash, learn the business and hopefully be ready to get your license when you're out of school.

 

[GHOST HORN]

what type of real estate are you interested in???? that would help you narrow your choices down.

apartment locating
residential
commercial - strip centers, malls, acquisitions, multi-family, commercial seems never ending.
new neighborhood/builders
foreclosures/investors (homevestors, realnet)
farm/rural

 

[youngbuck]

TaylorTRoom,

I suspected what you said the different environments so I'm glad you could confirm that. I'm not sure exactly where I want to sell yet.

unpaintedhuffhines,

thanks for the in depth advice. I agree that it would be better if I could work personally with one particular agent.

Ghost Horn,

Sorry I can't be more specific, but I'm really open to almost anything. Right now I'm probably most interested in residential or commercial.