Real Estate Is Your Business, Not Your Job

Helping Real Estate Agents Podcast 3/31/22

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Hi, This is Tanya with the Helping Real Estate Agent Podcast and today I am jumping on one of my favorite soapboxes concerning how to treat real estate as your business and not your job.  Before I start do you know where the term Soap Box comes from?  Back in the day if you had something to say, especially about politics, you would get a box from the general store to stand on so people to see and hear you better.  It was usually a soapbox or a crate shipping in the dry goods.

Ok, let me get to my point.  Almost every agent out there, with the exception of a few, is not an employee.  They are independent contractors for the brokerage.  They have a contract with their broker to work under them and follow the broker’s rules.  In most regards, you have a business.

You decide who you work with.   You decide how much money you invest in marketing.  You decide your hours.  You decide your target market and if you are going to make calls for the day.  You decide your follow-up on previous clients.  You decide how much energy and money you put into your business.  If you have a good broker, you have support, but usually, your broker isn’t going to do it for you.  It is YOU.  

Like any business I have ever started, run, marketed for, or seen; what you put into it is what you get out of it.  

So why the soapbox? I have talked to so many people recently that treat it like a job.  They expect the ‘employer’ to find them the business, give them the tools, and expect the brokerage to cover all the costs.  Literally.  They provide you with business cards, name tags, CRM, a website branded to you, etc.  My point is that $100 a month is amazing, you couldn’t get close to that on your own.  If you opened any other type of business and were told your only fees, for everything you would need, is $100 a month, you would jump all over that sucker.  

So agents hop around from broker to broker, expecting different results.  In some cases, they did need a brokerage with more training or a team atmosphere; but in general, if you keep jumping around, getting the same results; it isn’t the brokerage, it is you and whether or not you are truly treating this like a business or a job.  

The fact is, unlike a job, a business is the skies the limit.  You aren’t capped at an hourly pay, you have almost unlimited potential to build your real estate business in your town, state, or even all over the country.  Yes, you have to invest money into yourself and into your business.  It isn’t a monthly fee, it is an investment to grow and build a business.  It’s the tools you need.  If you are getting paid to chop down a tree, you get to decide if you want to use your own teeth, a knife, or a chain saw.  Obviously, some ways will work better than others but at the end of the day, you decide.