Please don’t jump to any strange conclusions by the title of this message. By no means do I discriminate against anyone. The key word in this title is “created.” People aren’t born with natural abilities perfectly aligning themselves to become real estate agents. A career in real estate is not nearly as appealing to children as becoming a policeman, fireman, …
Read Every Document you Sign
Does one really need to be reminded to read everything before signing? I’m afraid so. Courtrooms are filled with people saying, “That’s not what I heard you say when I bought it.” They might even say, “I didn’t see that small print when I bought it.” If they’re real brave and honest but sort of ignorant, they might even admit, …
The Process for Listing your Home for Sale
Selling your home is a very simple process isn’t? You simple contact a real estate agent, tell them what you want for your home and they list it. Correct? No it’s not quite that simple even though you won’t have any trouble finding a Realtor® to list it for you. Buying and selling real estate is one of the largest …
The Hardest Nut to Crack
If you are a real estate sales person, the hardest nut to crack in your career is that of self-discipline. Since you are an independent contractor and own your own business, your days are filled with making decisions that affect the success of your entire business. Your ultimate goal is to perform tasks that produce income and to not let …
Gratification of A Real Estate Career
Gratification is the reward beyond income earned by a real estate agent for providing consumers quality service. I believe gratification to be an intangible, internal feeling of accomplishment for helping someone beyond fiduciary duties. More times than not, the consumer don’t even realize the magnitude of service you have provided because it wasn’t openly discussed. For example, people I have …
Qualifying Broker Responsibilities
Just exactly what are the responsibilities of a qualifying broker? This is a difficult question to answer since we are limited to space. “Broker Responsibilities” is a more fitting title for a book, but I’ll attempt to share some of the major responsibilities. In most cases, the owner of a real estate agency also assumes the role of a qualifying …
Just Tell It Like It Is
The most important fact an Alabama real estate agent can share with prospective buyers and sellers of real property in Alabama is that Alabama laws are different than most other states. Especially those states adjacent to Alabama because industry standards tend to spread across state lines. Alabama is a “Caveat Emptor” state. This simply means “buyer beware!” To be more …
How Much Earnest Money Is Acceptable?
When it comes to selling real estate there is no standard, acceptable amount of earnest money to accompany an offer. First let’s examine what earnest money is. Earnest money is also referred to as “good faith” money. In other words, it is a payment made by the buyer at the time an offer to purchase is written that demonstrates to …
Hiring an Assistant
Last week I included the 80/20 rule in reference to the amount of time a successful real estate agent should spend in generating new prospective clients. I stated that one should spend 80% of their work day contacting new leads and allot 20% of the day for taking care of all other business activities. Early in a real estate career, …
Who Am I Representing?
This article is equally interesting to the consumer that is buying or selling real estate as well as the real estate agent. Alabama License Law Section §34-27-36 (a) (7) states, “Acting for more than one party in a transaction without the knowledge and consent in writing of all parties for whom he or she acts.” There are several ways this …