Persistence and Perseverance is So Important in Finding Success
- Sep 24, 2017 ArchiveAs the owner of Cooke Real Estate School, I have handled hundreds of questions from potential and current students wanting to know what it takes to be successful in the real estate profession.
This is a great question and the answers I give are usually very much from my own experiences, as I have been in the real estate business for last 46 years.
- One needs a very strong desire to succeed and the cause of this desire varies. For many it gets down to money. Everyday there are many hurdles in business and in life so it takes a strong desire for one to be persistent in one’s goal, and if it is money, all good.
- Every day you have to feel excited about the opportunities the real estate business gives you.
- One needs to be able to personally relate to each person that you communicate with.
- It is so important to realize that the most successful real estate agents are not the best talkers, but they are the best listeners.
- I have asked people over the years why are you getting into the real estate business, and frequently, they will answer that they love to look at homes. Unfortunately, this is NOT a reason to go into the real estate business. This business is a people business, dealing with people and their real estate needs.
- When one desires to get into the real estate profession, hurdles start right away. The first step is one has to take a pre-license course, pass the end-of-course exam and pass the state exam that is acquired for licensure. This takes perseverance because of all the students that have previously passed the required pre-license course, only 50% pass the state exam first time. This passing number is very consistent for real estate license exams in a number of states across the country.
- Every real estate agent comes to a time when a wonderful sales contract has finally been signed by all parties. The real estate agent has worked days and nights for months on this important transaction. Then just when the transaction going to close, the sale totally falls apart. Both persistence and perseverance regarding ones real estate career, certainly comes into play here.
- Over last 46 years, I have seen where mortgage interest rates went to 19% in 1999, to market where almost every home was over mortgaged and sales plummeted in 2008. All real estate professionals need to plan for these times by developing a deep customer base, because in good times and bad, people need housing and sales will take place, the agents who have developed a deep and strong customer base will too make those sales, it just might not be a much as it used to be. The market ebbs and flows, as it always has done for years, the professional real estate agent perseveres.
- I have followed the lives of many successful real estate licensees over the last 46 years; lots of agents overtime moved their career into other parts of the real estate profession besides selling residential homes. The real estate business offers a lot of opportunities, so a licensee should analyze what parts of the real estate profession is best suited to them because as you mature into the real estate business, many find a new career that rejuvenates them in their later years. If someone had told me that I would be an owner of an online real estate school offering online education in 14 states, the first question I would have asked is what is ”online?”
- Having observed successful real estate agents over the years, one thing sticks out in my mind in these later years, is that each a real estate agent needs to take advantage of the wonderful opportunity that real estate provides, which the opportunity to invest in real estate for the agents own account. Unfortunately, many real estate agents are working so hard to provide their clients/customers wonderful service, that they missed a very important opportunity. That having the market knowledge being in real estate provides an opportunity to develop one’s financial net worth. Real Estate agents to whom buy real estate for their own account, over time will help build their net worth, which is really one of the most important aspects of one’s financial well-being. This is an area that certainly takes a persistent effort, because many times agents look at the short term, not the long term of life.