As many of you read here, or in the Toronto Star, soneone complained that they recently "lost" $60,000 because they were too stupid to do real estate themselves...or something to this effect. Anyways, here's a very well thought out rebuttle!
THE BOTTOM LINE
TheStar.com - Business - Being a realtor isn't easy, or easy money
Being a realtor isn't easy, or easy money
Jun 25, 2007 04:30 AM
Kristan Erner
Special to the Star
Your reader (The Bottom Line, June 11, "$60,000 in real estate commissions gone done the drain") contends that licensing is simply a 90-hour course, and poof, we are super income earning realtors.
Not even close.
First comes Phase 1, 2 and 3, which amounts to about 160 hours (in most cases balancing a full-time job) of classroom time, followed by three separate three-hour exams, in which you must score a grade higher than 75%. Then, within two years three articling courses are required, two of the courses are mandatory, one 60 hours and the other 80 hours.
Plus, a 60-hour elective. All followed by a three-hour exam, again with a 75% minimum grade. Also, all realtors are required to fulfill 24 credits (24 hours of course load) of update credits every two years in order to stay licensed.
So let's forget all of that for a while. Let us talk about the day-to-day activities of a realtor. The advertising, the constant marketing, the 16-hour days, the late-night calls, and most importantly, the missed bedtime stories and vacations with our children.
We are dedicated to our craft and our clients. We never shut down and it never ends at 5 o'clock. We provide for our families with great sacrifice. Why? Passion.
We dedicate ourselves to you, out of passion and a love of what we do. There is no pixie dust here, just dreams that we are trying to help complete.
It is certainly not only about the money. There is very little left after paying our expenses. We pay brokerage fees, franchise fees, advertising costs, on-going marketing fees, costs of signage, not to mention the replacement costs of vehicles and gas prices. What about all the hours spent with clients who do not buy, or the listings that do not sell. Sometimes there is a lot of money spent without ever earning a dime. The list goes on and on. What we go through on a day-to-day basis to make a decent living – it is absolutely insane!
If we make good money, it is because we sacrifice. Your reader must understand all this to appreciate what goes on behind the scenes. He may see 30 hours of work, but in fact it is with many long and sometimes arduous hours spent getting to the point of the sale. We are on your side. We are professionals.
Not every realtor's story will be the same. But I assure you, for the 10% of us who can actually make a living doing this, it is a similar plight. We are realtors and we care.
Kristan Erner is a realtor with Coldwell Banker Case Realty. The Bottom Line is a weekly guest column. Please send your submissions to thebottomline@thestar.ca
