HomeAboutVince DePaul's Real Estate Reality Blog
For a new agent looking to pick an office to work in, I always suggest that you ask the Managing Broker if you can attend their next office meeting as a guest. This can be very revealing.
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In order to have a successful Real Estate business, you have to get the word out. There are lots of ways to do that, of course. You can advertise in print ads, direct mail, newsletters, billboards, and lots of other ways ... and it’s clear that some form of Real Estate advertising is important. However, every successful business person will tell you that “word-of-mouth” referrals are always the best.
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The very best way to begin a successful real estate career is to just dive right in and work full-time. In many cases, however, it's just not possible with the obligations we all face... so the question is often, "Can I start part-time?" .... and with the right strategy, the answer is yes. Be prepared, however, to be frustrated if you can only work nights and weekends. What often happens is you find yourself showing homes to your buyers on the weekend and they call you Monday morning saying that they want to buy. If you're stuck at your other job, you have a big problem.
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After working the same job (or many different jobs) for 40 or 50 years, most of us look forward to retirement and we’re ready to take it easy. However, after getting the “gold watch,” playing a hundred rounds of golf, traveling here and there, tending the garden day after day, and driving your spouse crazy, sometimes you’ll get really bored. When the lack of purpose and the loss of the identity and self-esteem you got from your old job affect your happiness, you might find yourself thinking, “I gotta do something meaningful.”
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When you decide to embark on a real estate career, most people want to tell everyone they know. DON’T TELL ANYONE! Don’t tell your husband, don’t tell your wife, don’t tell your parents, don’t tell your friends, don’t tell anyone! When you study real estate, you’ll learn the law of agency. An important element of that law is confidentiality. I’m asking you to practice confidentiality.
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Anyone who has ever taken one of my classes knows that I like to keep things simple. When it comes to taking the Illinois Real Estate Broker license state exam I always give simple advice. Before I retired from teaching at College of DuPage, we conducted a number of surveys of students that passed the real estate pre-license course but didn’t pass the state exam the first time. The results were really no secret to anyone.
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Former Your House Academy real estate pre-license student Dawn Bremer, now a Keller Williams North Shore West broker, chats with us about her licensing education and her first year as a broker. She has some great advice for new real estate brokers and people interested in changing careers to go into real estate!
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You’ve studied hard. You’ve taken lots of practice real estate exams. You’ve listened to dozens of lectures and you should be ready to take the State Exam, but… there’s still something missing … Confidence! You have to believe that beyond a doubt you WILL pass that Real Estate License State Exam.
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It’s important to recognize and understand the differences between the real estate industry and other industries. To begin with, although we’re called brokers and agents, ours is different from the typical brokerage.
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It's not unusual to see changes in laws for licensing and regulating different professions, and the practice of real estate, and real estate education, is no exception. There will be a few changes for 2018 in the Illinois Real Estate License Act that will affect you.
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