CLARITY IS POWER. Before even starting any new career path you should answer the following questions: 

• What are you doing now? 
• What do you love about what you are doing now? 
• What do you not love about what you are doing now? 
• How do you feel that real estate is the answer to solving your issue? 
• Does real estate support your life’s purpose? 

FROM MY EXPERIENCE: 

The top things I love about real estate:

1. It supports my purpose: To create & live my life by design and inspire others to do the same. 
2. The person who I had to become to be successful in this business. The company I am a part of has taught me that “your business only grows to the extent that you do” so I invest a lot of money and time into my personal growth. 
3. I get to serve people. At first on the client level and then at the team member level. 
4. There is no ceiling on my financial earning potential. If I want a raise I go out and get one. 

These are all things that I love about real estate. Other people in this business will tell you different things. Also, as you can tell all of those things I pointed out are NOT specific to real estate. You can do a lot of those things in many other businesses. 

About 90% of agents that I meet fail within their first couple of years because they get into real estate believing the following items and when they realize it is not what they expected… they quit the business.

Real Estate is NOT… 

• EASY. Success is simple, not easy. You’re going to have to work smart; you’re going to have to work hard. 
• A WAY FOR YOU TO NOT WORK A LOT. A lot of people get into this business saying they want to “make their own schedule”. That’s fine however don’t expect to wake up at 10 am and be finished by 2 pm and not work weekends and want to be the #1 agent in your company after the first year. Like everything else in life, you get out of this business what you put in. There are agents in this industry who are putting in 10-12 hours per day 7 days per week their first couple of years and being intentional with all of their time. You can’t expect to be on their level if you’re not willing to put in the work it takes. 
• A PART-TIME BUSINESS (at least not if you want to do it big).  I see many people closing one or two deals per year for their family and friends as a side gig. This is a way people make some side money… which is fine for so people. However, don’t think you can do it BIG as a part-time agent when you are competing with people who go all in. 

If you read all this and you still want to become a real estate agent, then awesome! Here are some additional things you should know about timelines..

TIMELINES & MILESTONES 

• GETTING LICENSED: Getting your real estate license is the first step to become a real estate agent. I recommend you go the online route since it is faster, go at your own speed and it’s really easy too. What you REALLY need to study for is the state exam. Once you submit the paperwork for this with all the necessary documents it could take a couple of weeks or even a month to get your test date. I would use all that time to STUDY, STUDY, STUDY. Oh and take a prep course with your local association. That was extremely helpful for me. 
• GETTING STARTED- COMPANY & BROKERAGES: So, now you have your license, now what? I would recommend getting extensive coaching and training. Join a brokerage or team that will mentor and train you. Our company Coldwell Banker West is known for being the #1 training company for many years across all fields. That is why we joined this company. Our local brokerage has a launch program where you get your own personal coach. Then every quarter a training program called BOLD comes to our area. It is like a real estate boot camp course. Additionally, we have a coaching program called Maps Coaching where you can take coaching courses and hire a high-level personal business coach. Last and certainly not least, we have conferences throughout the year where our entire company from all over the world comes together to mastermind and learn from each other. If you are interested in learning more about our company- Coldwell Banker West, contact me I am always happy to help! 
• GETTING STARTED- TEAMS: We run a team within Coldwell Banker West called Team Manzon and a lot of agents choose to be part of teams like ours for the training, coaching, accountability, support, and culture we provide. Being a part of a team is amazing because you have people investing in you at no initial cost to you – investing thousands into your mindset and habits to get you to the level of a top agent. You get the leverage of tens of thousands of dollars per month of assistants, coaches, marketing material, open house signs, etc. all with no cost to you until you start closing deals. Most teams operate off of splits which is extremely cost-effective to commission-based earners. If you are interested in learning more about our Team, contact me, I am always happy to help!
• GETTING STARTED- THE FIRST COUPLE YEARS: If your goal is to make it BIG, Be ready to hustle! Be ready to work evenings and weekends. Be ready  to attend every training and learn from the best. REMEMBER: The first couple years you are  BUILDING a business. 

Last Essentials to Know:

• This business is all about getting through enough NOs and finding that rare yes. 
• It is about serving people, providing value and building relationships. 
• This business is about always growing and realizing you will never know everything. The real estate market is always changing so you will never know everything. Continue to be humble enough to always learn and grow and be willing to help others do the same. 
• The real estate market is extremely saturated. EVERYONE and their moms and moms brothers sisters cousins boyfriends son has a real estate license. So figure out  what makes you different? What extra value can you bring to people? 
• Find a mentor who is really successful and you really like. Look at their life, is that the type of life you would like to live one day? Is that the type of person you would like to become? If so, then ask them to mentor you. Pay them to coach you. Join their team if they have one. Learn from them. Learn the foundation and basics of real estate. Learn how they get their business. DO NOT attempt to recreate the wheel when you are first starting out. 
• Last thing I would like to say is ALWAYS be yourself. When my husband and I first started in this business, we were so young. We were scared to tell people how old we were and how new we were to the business. However, once we realized that being young was a value add because naturally, we knew more about marketing and social media.. we proudly told everyone our age. Do not feel like you ever have to deceive anyone. Be proud of who you are. Never give up your values. Do not become a sellout. Do not wrong others to make a quick sale. Those things come back to you. There is a lot of money to be had in this business, there is plenty to go around. Do everything out of abundance and knowing you will look back and be proud of who you have become.