Are you young and thinking about potential careers?  Are you older but looking to switch careers?  Do you want a job where you have flexible hours, work with people, and can possibly make upwards of $100,000 yearly?  Are you driven, self-sufficient, and creative?  Do you currently work in customer service but wish you could put those skills to use doing a job where you are your own boss?  Real estate requires someone who is all of these things and more, but these traits are a good starting point!  Does this sound good to you?  Maybe you should consider a career in Real Estate with a group like HER, REALTORS®.

In this article, we’ll be going over some of the reasons why becoming a realtor is an attractive career option and what skills are well-suited to the job, including:

• Flexible hours and schedule
• Self-sufficient:  You are the boss
• Good pay
• Creative thinking
• Customer service
• Confidence

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Do these sound like things you would enjoy in a job or skills that you have?  While you may have heard of the Perks of Being a Wallflower, now, get ready for...

Perks of Being a Realtor

Flexible Hours and Schedule

If the idea of a daily nine-to-five desk job doesn’t appeal to you, we understand!  It doesn’t appeal to us either.  That’s why it’s great that as a realtor, you set your own schedule.  You’ll work with clients to figure out what times work best for showings or viewings, open houses and photoshoots, and a whole other manner of meetings that are required when buying or selling a house.  As a realtor, every day is different; you’ll never have two work days that are the same.  Now, flexible schedule is great for you, but remember, customer service is at the heart of being a good realtor and it’s important to know that you will sometimes need to be available at unusual times to meet with your clients, such as weekends and sometimes holidays (we’re not talking Christmas per se, but days like Labor Day, Memorial Day, and the like).  However, it’s rare that you’ll be needed for an entire day at times like these; again, hours and times are flexible when you make the decisions.

Self-Sufficient: You As Your Boss

One of the great things about working as a realtor is your ability to choose what projects you take on: no more of the boss just telling you what to do when you are the boss!  Even if you work for a real estate company or firm, you have the ability to choose your clients.  This couple doesn’t seem like the best fit for you?  That’s okay, you can take on the single-parent client if you feel like you are better suited to fit their needs and help them to find the house that’s right for them.  Prefer to work on selling cases rather than buying cases?  No problem, you can!

Good Pay

We know this is what’s very important to a lot of people.  Look, it’s a fact of life that in our current society, you need money to live, and having a job that pays more is generally the goal for most people.  As a realtor, you aren’t hampered by hourly wages or corporate salaries because your pay is often directly proportional to the amount of work you put in.  Diligent and skilled Realtors can make into the triple digits yearly, while the average for a Realtor in Ohio sits at just above $61,000 yearly.  This is comparable to many other positions, and there’s always room for growth as the highest recorded salary for Realtors in Ohio is over $154,000 per year (as of 2018)!

Qualities of a Good Realtor

Now that you know some of the things that make a job in real estate an attractive option, now we’ll look at the qualities that make a good realtor.  Do you have any of these qualities?  Well, read on to see how they can be important assets in this line of work!

Creative Thinking

Thinking “outside the box” is a great skill in realty.  Whether it’s having a good eye to stage homes for open-houses or take listing photos, thinking of the best way to creatively phrase a listing so that it catches people’s attention, or having good problem-solving skills, all of these things are easier if you’re a creative thinker.  

Customer Service

Having good customer service skills can mean a lot of things.  You’re probably good at communicating, mediating disagreements, and resolving issues.  All of these individual skills are super important as a Realtor, as you will need to be able to communicate effectively and efficiently with your clients.  If they email or call you, you must be able to return that email or call in a timely fashion.  If a client has an issue with something, you have to be ready to solve it.  Your main goal as a Realtor is ensure that your clients are happy with their transaction, and either have the peace of mind of selling their homes or the satisfaction of buying a new home that is the best place for them.  You should be willing to do whatever you can to achieve that goal.  

Confidence

This ties into the other two skills we’ve mentioned, and it should carry through to the rest of your business practices.  Would you feel comfortable buying a house through someone who seems uncertain or nervous?  Probably not because buying and selling a home is a stressful experience to begin with, as well as a kind of terrifying one (especially for first-time home owners).  It’s your job to be cool and confident to help reassure your clients and try to give them the best experience possible.

We’re not going to lie; being a Realtor isn’t easy, but it can be incredibly rewarding both financially and personally.  You can have the satisfaction of knowing that you helped people through a difficult process to achieve an outcome that was best for everyone involved.  You get to help people achieve life-milestones while supporting yourself.  If this article has peaked your interest, you can also look at some of our other articles about working in real estate, and maybe sometime in the future, we’ll be lucky enough to have you as part of our team!