r/realtors

Have you guys ever ask someone if you can use there pictures that they had on the property?

I have mortgage underwriting experience and am also a licensed loan officer. I wanted to be a real estate agent to expand my horizons. The training I've heard that KW offers is great, which is why I chose them. How long can I expect to be in this training phase? What are some things you found difficult at KW? What are some things you excelled at as a dual licensed agent? I was surprised to learn that many agents at the office I interviewed at were also dual licensed as loan officers.

My seller contacted me saying someone went into her house yesterday at 5:30pm with no appointment time. Seller happened to not be home at that time, she saw him enter on her doorbell camera.

There was someone who booked for 6:30pm and she claims they showed up an hour early. She also said the agent’s clients didn’t seem to show up until much later, within the 6 to 6:30 time.

I think what the agent did wasn’t cool considering booking times matter a lot more for an occupied home instead of a vacant home. My seller was uncomfortable with it. Do I say something to the agent, or let it go to not cause an issue with them? My MIL who is also a realtor advise I report it to my broker.

For more context, my seller is an older woman - her daughter & son in law have been managing everything for her and they alerted me of the issue. She has a cat in the house and she wasn’t able to get home to lock the cat up before the agent showed.

Also for more context, the home is located in a rural area that is in a much much less competitive market than all major cities.

What would be a reason for an agent to show up and be inside a house a half hour to 45 minutes before their clients?

If you could create the perfect brokerage model. What would that look like?

I'm (25F) seriously considering making a career change into real estate and would love some honest perspective from people who have actually done it.

I currently have a stable corporate job that pays around $60K and is relatively low stress/flexible. I'm in a fortunate position where I have enough flexibility outside of work to explore real estate, get licensed, network, etc.

The part I'm struggling with is when to make the leap?

Lots of agents have told me you have to treat it as a full-time business if you want to be successful. At the same time, I've met newer agents who are several years in and still need side income because their real estate income isn't consistent yet.

- Did you start part-time?

- How long did you work both?

- What made you realize "okay now I can leave my job"?

- And looking back, would you have gone full-time sooner, or waited longer?

Would love to hear what worked for you!

I’ve always been curious how other agents handle listing photos.

Do you hire a photographer for every listing, or are there some properties where you’ll just take the photos yourself?

If you hire a photographer, do you usually cover the cost yourself, and what are you typically paying per listing?

And for agents who take their own photos, is it mainly to save money, save time, or because professional photography just isn’t necessary for every listing? And what makes you decide whether a listing needs professional photos or not?

“Literally almost no sellers want their listing agent to represent the buyer too, because it is inherently against their own interests.”
- Jonathan Miller

I have a new hire who went through school, went to the PSI test center, passed the exams then came to me asking for all the forms to submit. I've never had anyone come to me with nothing. Usually, they'll get forms from PSI after passing their exams, submit it to GREC and get a license.

I had a Sponsoring Broker Form so we got that completed, she got her GCIC (background check) done, and submitted that and her test score to GREC a week ago and still nothing has been heard back from them.

What did I miss that I could have done better?

From what i’ve seen. The 85/15 all the way to 70/30 split Brokerages All seem to not match the value they take.

Considering they are usually taking atleast 1k off each of your commission. The value doesn’t match it,especially in bigger brokerages.

Most of what the “coaches” ( the one meeting/contact per week) teach can be taught online,especially regarding contract and transaction work.

Lead gen the most important part starting out,is rarely ever taught, tired of hearing “just call your SOI” and open house show
Your SOI is limited. Also there’s a lot people don’t have a realtor they would trust with their house.
Open houses are cool but like cold calling takes a certain individual.
Why does none of them teach cold outreach marketing? PPC,FB ADS? How to Have multiple exits for your client not just listing but cash offers? Or having contractors on the go to renovate the house for higher value?
This type of stuff i see is never taught.

Obviously your suppose to learn it on your own
But,
Wouldn’t a broker and their brokerage maximize profits by being actively involved to make sure each of there agents are getting listings?

I've been in real estate for 23 years, and I'm interested in a bigger industry question: do our licensing and supervision systems adequately establish that someone is ready to represent a consumer, or do we rely too heavily on knowledge-based education and exams?

I'm not arguing that agents receive no training. I've been researching this, and that assumption turned out to be wrong.

Illinois, where I practice, requires 75 hours of pre-license education, including applied coursework and case studies, plus 45 hours of post-license education. New brokers must be sponsored and there are additional managing-broker responsibilities before those post-license hours are completed.

Other states take different approaches. Colorado requires a high level of supervision for new brokers for two years. North Carolina uses provisional broker status.

But none of that completely answers the question I'm interested in:

Where do we determine that someone can actually do the job?

Pricing a property, evaluating an offer, explaining risk, dealing with inspection problems, navigating negotiations, handling emotional clients and knowing when you don't know something all require judgment.

My own experience is part of why I'm asking.

When I entered residential brokerage, I had already spent four years selling pre-construction for a developer. I completed my licensing education and passed the exam.

On my first outside transaction, I realized I didn't know how to write the contract.

An attorney met me at a coffee shop on a Sunday and walked me through it. After that, I voluntarily spent about a year following an experienced Realtor around because I knew I needed more experience.

Nobody required me to do that.

My current thinking is that some form of supervised real-world experience should be required before an agent represents clients on their own. Maybe that's an apprenticeship. Maybe there's a better model.

I'm not married to the solution. That's why I'm asking people who actually do this work.

For those of you who have been in the industry awhile:

What actually made you competent?

Was it coursework? A mentor? Brokerage training? Being supervised through transactions? Years of making mistakes and learning from them?

And if you could redesign entry into the profession, what would someone have to demonstrate before you trusted them to represent a consumer?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who disagree with mandatory supervised training, or who work under a state system they think already handles this well.

I am not a realtor. I am currently buying a house with this realtor who also helped my brother buying a house about 8 years ago.

Seller offered 19k-ish in lieu of repair. I asked my agent before I signed the negotiation purchase of agreement that whether I will get a check for that so I can use the money for repair. She answered yes in texts. I just found out yesterday that the way she mistakenly worded in a way that I has to use all of that money for closing cost or Whatever left will be returned to seller. So per loan officer's advise, I had to use it as a buy down payment. She honestly was shaken due to her mistake, and offered to rectify the situation. She currently is going through health crisis which puts her in scattered brain situation.

For context, closing cost is 9k. So I was left with 10k used to buy down points. I will be left with no money used for repair.

She offers to give me some money to repair the house. I am feeling horrible for her to be going thru the crisis but at the same time left with no money to do necessary for repair.

What should I do?

Thank you in advance for any advice

Not sure if this is the right subreddit, but figured people here would be knowledgeable about this issue.

Family member is in a home and making payments that still is in the name of their deceased spouse. Not sure why it wasn't in both names to begin with, but were told by the bank that the surviving spouse would need to take out a new loan to get it in their name. So they just continued making payments.

Anyway, they are considering selling the home but we're wondering if it is possible with a bank loan in someone else's name? I believe the title was in both names, just not the loan. This is in Arizona if that makes a difference.

Thanks for any advice.

I’ve been at this for 13 years and for the life of me I can’t help picking up a broom or screwdriver, or some pliers, or a rake,… every listing. There are so many details that are impossible to relay to the crews I have helping. When you have a listing do your crews do 100% of what’s needed and you manage them without doing much? Or, do you find yourself digging deep and spending countless hours physically getting things done too?

My question is if you help a listing agent with an open house and she give you the sign in sheet after and she already accepted an offer that day and had me write up the offer for her as a dual agent and tells me yes go ahead an work those unrepresented buyers, she doesn't call or touch base with any of the the buyers on the sign in sheet and i happen to get one that lost the bid, how many people think i owe a referral fee if i sell this buyer? she seems to think i oew here a 25% referral?

After a long career in high pressure tech sales, I decided to retire and spend time with the kids. I’m only in my 30s so the itch to keep learning and building is there. Probably years of grinding in FAANG with a massive quota lost my ability to just chill. Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to get my real estate license mostly for myself but also for friends and family. I have always loved real estate, fine art and decorating. I live in an area where homes are all $1M+ so deal size is decent. I am confident in my abilities for complex negotiations, client service, legal frameworks, handling high net worth individuals, etc.

My question: does anyone do 0-2 transactions a year for fun? Of course some extra cash is nice! I would want to shadow a local realtor on a few transactions just to make sure I know what I’m doing, but not sure why anyone would help out potential competition or how to approach that. Any advice? I did the 60 hour course for fun then decided to see if I can pass the test and it was a breeze. I’m ready for something new!

Edit: I’m in Northern Virginia

Curious to see if any of you have done the mentorship with Anthony Nucci. I have a bad connotation and impression with courses so I wanted to see the consensus on this one.

I just sat in a call with one of his team members for 1.5 hours and he gave me the run down of everything.
3k for 6 months with 150 videos by Nucci himself and another 2k for 4 live hour-long calls with a coach.

If anybody has any experience with this mentorship please let me know.

Colorado. Quick background: I'm working a third season of ski patrol this winter. I'm also trying to gain a meaningful understanding of working in real estate before I head back east (family) and eventually go for my salesperson license there. Right now I'm halfway through my 168-hour CO licensure course and sitting in on a weekly in-house training a local managing broker runs for his new associates — he invited me in after we connected through networking.

Okay...Everyone I've talked to locally points me toward becoming a part-time (hourly) associate broker's assistant to learn the ropes, given my goals and inability to fully commit to the career right now. The problem is, they also said pretty much nobody hires an unlicensed assistant. For this reason, I decided to get my license — not because becoming an associate broker is the goal right now, but because it seems to be the price of entry to get in the room/to help meaningfully facilitate transactions for an associate broker. What I actually want is to learn the language and movement of the business from someone who's already good at it, before I try to do this for real on my own.

I have a resume, cover letter, and a letter of recommendation ready to go. Trying to figure out:

- What else should I put together before approaching brokers about assistant work?

- How do I sell myself when I have no industry experience — what's actually valuable about a green, licensed assistant?

- What kind of broker or brokerage should I target if I want real mentorship instead of grunt work?

- Anything to watch out for when someone offers to bring you on?

Appreciate any input from people who've been on either side of this.