By Olivia Ava
You may not be a real estate agent on the will and you certainly don’t pass your license test without much learning and preparation. You have heard that it can take 60 or more before you start making any money as an agent. Now you are wondering how to keep the cost of staying low when you build your real estate career.
The cost of becoming a real estate agent
Many people seem to think that as a broker, you paid a large commission and that, “the agent makes too much money as a whole”. What might not be known to the public public is where the agent’s money runs every month and the annual is related to supporting the agent’s business.
Real estate agents are not employees – they are independent contractors who work under the license of real estate brokers. Some brokers will include a larger part of the monthly fee agent. Other brokers expect their agents to handle almost all of their respective operating costs.
Monthly / Annual Costs to Become Real Estate Agents
Among the monthly and annual operational costs agents (estimates, costs vary greatly from country to country):
License and permission – $ 100 – $ 500 / year for initial sales licenses and renewal costs.
Due to the broker association – + $ 120 / year.
MLS costs – $ 25 – $ 100 / month; Maybe there is also a startup fee.
Commission splits – 30% – 85% / transaction; 10/50 general split.
Table fee – $ 25 – $ 750 / month for table space and branding.
Some brokers market themselves to the agent as a “virtual” office where the agent works from home office rather than the front of the store. Even though this is good news for many agents, there are still monthly and annual fees, agents must include:
Computers, Office equipment, supplies
Special Industrial Software
Cellphone with a powerful service package
Home Internet Service
Purpose
Vehicle costs include maintenance, gas, insurance
Marketing costs (online marketing can cost $ 1,000 or more a year)
Keep the cost low
Keeping low costs when you start your real estate career requires careful ingenuity and planning. Here are some ways to maintain costs:
Choose a supportive broker – a national broker helps new agents establish themselves by absorbing larger parts of agent startup costs such as table fees, marketing costs, signage fees and business cards, no agent transaction fees, and more.
Blog / Website – Develop the presence of blogs / websites; This can be a cost-effective start to promote your real estate service. Save current and fresh content.
Social media – market via Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter but don’t emphasize about making content for each. Reimitate some of your blog content on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Pinterest can be used to attract clients to businesses, blog sites, Facebook, and your LinkedIn. Use Twitter to ship prices and real estate warnings and micro blogging.
Avoid complicated image advertising, high costs – advertisements placed in local magazines and expensive TV for startup business.
Track your ad regularly evaluate all advertising spending and results. Continue working with what produces the most profitable results and unsuccessful shelves.
Watch your budget – pay attention to every planned expenditure and purchase. Take advantage of deductions that can apply to work from home and small business tax incentives.
Full time vs part time – it might be difficult to defend yourself full time at first. Many agents suggest not to build your real estate business in part time. It will be difficult to simply build a client base if you are not available for meetings, client contacts, viewing and showing the house in a timely manner.
