It’s not what a lot of people think… and don’t even get me started on reality TV shows!
When I first started teaching Prelicense, my school, at the time, had me spending the first 30 minutes on a quick ‘orientation’ before passing out textbooks and jumping into the first lecture on Chapter 1. This meant that students, on their very first night of class, without reading any of the content in Chapter 1, got to hear me spouting all this legal stuff about property rights, and throwing out words like fructus naturales, riparian rights and appurtenances without any preparation.
Needless to say, I recall clearly the looks in their eyes. (Imagine deer caught in the headlights…)
Because let’s face it, many of them came to class thinking I was going to ‘teach’ them how to… I don’t know… open a lockbox and unlock a door? Point out that the room with the appliances and cabinets was called ‘The Kitchen’, and generally parade around the house acting like a glorified Vanna White. Despite what you see on shows like House Hunters, that’s not really what being a real estate professional is all about.
So below on this page, I’ve compiled a series of short videos we produced to help shed better light on what exactly real estate agents do…
- Representation and what that means
- Pricing, Marketing and being local experts
- Contracts!
- Fire Putter-Outer and Talking People off the Ledge…
- Keep you out of jail… or lawsuits…
It’s not a get rich quick scheme… though the bubble in the 2000’s and the recent COVID/low interest rate buying frenzy might suggest otherwise. These were both times when our industry saw record numbers of people getting their real estate licenses – all in an effort to capitalize on the high level of activity. In 2022, GREC reported they had been issuing an average of 1,300 licenses a month! That’s a lot. Prior to 2020, NAR reported the average number of members were just over 1.3 million. Today, they are citing almost 1.6 million members. Those are just REALTOR® members. Nationwide, in 2022, ARELLO (Association of Real Estate License Law Officials) reported there are over 3.0 millions real estate licensees.
Remember: All REALTORS® are licensees. Not all licensees are REALTORS®. A REALTOR® is a licensee who is also a member of the National Association of REALTORS®. The term REALTOR® is a registered trademark of NAR – that’s why we use the ® symbol…