What’s It Really Like Being a Real Estate Agent?

 By Janice Imoisi  |   Submitted On October, 2022

The Truth and Nothing but The Truth

Most days, being a real estate agent is great! Sometimes it could feel like real estate agents where a lot of hats. 

We can often feel like we are family counselors, personal assistants, educators, psychiatrists, lenders, referees, emotional babysitters, etc.

There are a lot of emotions and feelings for a buyer who is buying a house and you will have to deal with some if not all of what they are feeling and going through.

The hard, fast truth is that you must be able to communicate in a clear and sound way what is expected and have some people skills to be in the real estate business. It’s not for those who are as quite as a mouse.

Sometimes your skin must be thick and thinking outside of the box in certain situations is a learned skill.

For example, if you have a client who is having a difficult time with the lender and red flags have been an issue with the underwriter, you should already be thinking about informing your client to go with a different lender to get their loan complete.

Not all lenders are the same and they don’t usually carry all the same exact products.

Here is a list of five important skills to master if you want to be good as a real estate agent.

1.    1. Negotiating – sometimes you need to get an extension from the other side, and they can either grant it or not. If you keep in touch with the seller’s agent on a regular basis and informed them immediately when an issue arises with your borrower, this could go a long way when it’s time for you to ask the listing agent if she can inform her client as to why you need the extension.

 

For example, the underwriter is asking your buyer for additional information that will take a week to get mailed to your buyer. This will ultimately push the closing out by another week.

 

2.    2. Empathy – can you tell and sense when your buyer is feeling some type of way? Or if they just need to know that you are with them and available to answer all of their questions? This goes a long way with buyers.

 

3.    3. Presentation – what are you telling your buyers you can do for them? How are you helping them during this process? What information should they be aware of that they don’t already know? Your presentation should be about the buyer and not you. They really don’t care how long you have been in the business or that you are a top real estate agent. 

    They want to know if the going gets tough, will you be there to help them through it? The buyer has already heard horrible stories of friends and families not making it to the finish line and getting the keys to their dream home. How will you calm the fears and prepare them for the journey they are about to take? 

4.    4. Closing Disclosure – even though it is the job of the lender to go over the closing with the buyer, the buyer almost always wants an explanation from their real estate agent. The title company will make an attempt to explain it but you better be ready if you don’t want that deer in the head lights look when your buyer ask you to please explain it and point out credits they were supposed to receive, then you had better get familiar with the details of the closing disclosure.

 

5.    5. Sharing with Buyer What They Don’t Know About the Process – most buyers don’t know what they don’t know. For example, every time a document is submitted to the underwriter, it could delay the closing because each time the buyer is waiting patiently to see if the underwriter will issue the final approve or CTC (Clear to Close). 

So, the next time you are having a conversation with the lender, you might want to ask them their turnaround time when a file goes into the underwriter.

 

Tell the buyers not to schedule vacation time or time off from work until you receive the CTC (Clear to Close). Why? Because any and everything could happen up to this point. I feel this is the most important stage of the home buying process. Not the preapproval, not the conditional loan approval but the clear to close.

 

You can have the loan approval and still not get a clear to close for many reasons. For example, the buyer deposited a large amount of cash in their bank account one week before closing. Or, the soft pull credit report revealed a new negative account reporting. It could also be that you were laid off from your job.

 

And no, you will not be closing because the underwriting team will verify that you are still gainfully employed before they issue the clear to close.

 

In conclusion, learning the business of being a real estate agent takes hard work and dedication to the profession. You must keep up with your continuing education credits (CE), dues, MLS fees, access key fees and any updates and changes to forms, addendums, and contracts just to name a few. Remember to make the journey be about the buyer’s experience and not your own.

For Texas Real Estate Agents "How to Get Your Real Estate License" for you to download. Click here >> FREE Ebook Download.<< I try to update this Ebook every year. (Updated Sept 2, 2022)