Doesn't the Title Say It All?

Recently, it dawned on me maybe some people really don't realize how much actually goes into being a "real estate sales associate".  The time, resources, marketing, administrative functions, networking, negotiating, working with buyers, working with sellers, working with investors, photography, image control, text messages, phone calls, cold calling, walk-ins, walk-ups, open houses, classified advertising, print advertising, mailings, etc.  for the ultimate challenge of being paid on a performance based commission scale as a self-employed individual.  When I put on my resume that I am a licensed real estate to me it speaks volumes. 

I have had very challenging administrative, professional, technical, teaching, and training positions in my lifetime and I can honestly say being a real estate agent has been one of the most challenging of all.  Why?  Things don't happen until I actually get out and make some effort towards making it happen. 

One day I wrote a blog post on ActiveRain which is a real estate portal where I have seen custom profiles for real estate agents, mortgage professionals, brokers, home inspectors, home stagers, real estate consultants, real estate appraisers, title companies, and the list goes on.  I normally read a little of what everyone has going on via their blog on ActiveRain because there is a lot which impacts the real estate industry.  I read posts from all over.  There is so much to learn, absorb, and benchmark from. 

Well, getting back to the point at hand, being a real estate professional encompasses a whole lot.  I know it may not be the case with everyone and I don't think I am the norm.  I am single so I get to be up early and stay up late and work all day at what I do.  I probably couldn't have a husband to put up with my schedule.  Oh did I mention sacrifice.  At times there are a lot of sacrifices.   We will sacrifice our planned events to show a house.  It is like the world of a starving musician, at times when the market is slow, you take a gig anytime you can get it. 

Below is an excerpt from a blog post I posted preivously on ActiveRain:

Oh the Professional Title Requires More Than You Think! (Members Only)

Today a very important thought came to mind: "As a real estate agent there's a lot in my job description."

•Marketing Skills - advertise and promote properties for sale, promote my expertise


•Written Communication Skills - write contracts, write blog posts, write profiles highlighting me


•Verbal Commnication Skills - talk with buyers, sellers, asset managers, brokers, telemarketers


•MS Word Skills - mail merge for letters, postcards, special promotional events


•MS Excel Skills - seller net sheet calculations, marketing campaign lists, import data for asp pages


•MS Access Skills - active server pages which display on my website


•MS Publisher Skills - just listed flyers, marketing brochures, event flyers


•MS Paint Skills - add banners to photos like reduced, just listed, create custom banners


•NotePad Skills - strip html and get raw data from electronic data interchange attempts

•Video Creation - home made, portal created videos to post on YouTube to embed on websites

•Analytical Skills - figure out which markets are best to target, to use best practices for success

•Negotiator -keep contracts live, negotiate with vendors to get best prices for work to be done for closing

•Advanced Administrative Skills - dotting the i's and crossing the t's, being the front office person, back office person, and field person in day-to-day transactions, keeping a schedule for a very business professional (me)

•Networking - it is a must to try and stay top-of-mind with our sphere of influence, colleeagues, other real estate related professions, local contacts, long distance contacts (relocation clients), other business professionals

Out of all I wrote I forgot one of the biggest things I do which I spend a lot of time doing.   Well now I can think of two:   websites and blogging.  My FrontPage skills helps me try and get additional exposure for my listings by creating, designing, and maintaining my own websites.  The two I spend the most time on are my LynneRuffin.com and my House1st.com website.  I have a company branded site which I have taken the time to customize my version and have it pointing to my domain LynneRuffin.net.   At one point I was up to over 25 domains I purchased to promote my real estate business efforts.  I quickly learned it was taking me more time to manage all those domains and taking away from time I could be spending do real stuff like real estate.  It also requires the ability to refine processes to increase efficiency and promote sales.  My ultimate goal is to have a system in process like a growth venture, I don't have to be hands on all the time for it to reap the success I am striving for. 

Key:  doing it all with a smile!