A realtor is a professional working in real estate. People who work as commercial and residential real estate brokers, property managers, salespeople, counselors, appraisers, and several other real estate professionals.
While an agent is mostly employed by a licensed broker to speak for clients and a broker usually works independently. Agents of sellers, generally known as listing brokers are contracted by owners to support placing a property for sale or lease.
Agents of buyers are salespersons or brokers who assist buyers by assisting them to purchase the property.
| Advantages of Being a Realtor | Disadvantages of Being a Realtor |
| Inherent flexibility | Profession Requires Patience |
| One has unlimited income potential | One has to face Rejection |
| Opportunity to help make dreams come true | This profession is competitive |
| One may become business owner | Tough to work with people |
| Real estate provides a hedge against inflation | Working overtime most of the time |
Advantages of Being a Realtor
Inherent flexibility
Being a realtor one has the flexibility to decide their schedule. A lot of real estate people get into this sector because they desire a flexible working schedule.
This is really true in the real estate sector one is their own boss and can plan their day so that they are able to take part in family functions, children’s play or be at home caring for their parents.
Unlike typical office jobs where one has to reach the office at the time, work for the entire day and return home after their job, a realtor has freedom. This flexibility presents realtors an opportunity to schedule work around their lives better than workers of other fields.
For realtors with families, it is a major advantage of the profession. One can attend and spend plenty of quality time with their family and events.
One has unlimited income potential
As per available online surveys, a real estate professional makes on average 25 percent more income as compared to workers of other professions, but there is no upper limit on how much one can earn.
The better one’s business skills are, and the more one gives into the profession, the more one shall achieve out of it. As one is in charge of their transactions, there is not a limit of time one has to work before getting a hike.
It is because a real estate agent works to earn a commission. A typical agent gets approximately 2.5% to 3% of the sale price of the property. The commission may be substantially varying on the prices of the area’s houses.
Like, in sectors where the average price of a home is USD 1,000,000, the realtor earns a commission of USD 20,000 to USD 50,000.
Opportunity to help make dreams come true
It is very awesome to present projects every day and assist people to find their dream house. One gets to be contributing to some of life’s joyful moments with their clients being real estate professionals.
One becomes a part of servicing people to realize that perfect house which will be in their family’s memories during life.
This is really motivating and exciting and the most underemphasized advantage of being a realtor is the award.
A realtor has the power to serve people making their dreams come true. A realtor also helps sellers in getting the best sale price possible for their real estate and mostly assists them with their next milestones. It’s rewarding to work with home buyers and sellers.
One may become business owner
Even though it is better in their initial days that they do work under a real estate broker to legally sell real estate, eventually do their own pursuit. Real estate agent mostly creates their own daily schedules, the quantum of work, and choose which clients to work with.
Most real estate brokerages have deep pockets to issue a paycheck to their agents with lead generation and marketing. However, each agent plans how they put to use to resources in their business.
Real estate provides a hedge against inflation
It is amongst very few professions that have a hedge against inflation. It is an economic reality that costs increase over a period of time because the value of a currency is shrinking.
The inflation rate for the year varies from nation to nation. For the year ending March 2021 the United States inflation rate was 7% as per online available data. Whereas inflation rate for the same period the world was 4.35% as per online available data. Inflation eats into the worth of all investments.
If their annual return the previous year from their real estate portfolio was 7.5%, their real profit from real estate is actually 0.5%, with the buying power of their wealth reduced by the inflation rate.
Disadvantages of being a Realtor
Profession Requires Patience
The biggest hurdle of this profession is the quantum of patience. Getting patience usually takes budding real estate agent years. For a new realtor, it is very tough and takes days to get their first customer to do a real estate deal.
A lot of things like advertising, prospecting and doing open houses which realtors have to do prior to they are able to see the gains.
In turn, many real estate agents exit in their initial year. The prominent reason why they exist is that they do not have chalked out a plan before entering the profession.
Home is among the biggest, emotionally linked decisions made by the family. They want to get the best and usually go to experienced realtors, who have earned trust in the locality. It causes the biggest problem as a realtor gains experience only after they work.
One has to face Rejection
A tougher part of being a realtor is facing rejection. As real estate is the costliest asset and the income of a realtor is in percentage it amounts to a big sum.
Their customers are mostly strangers personally to realtors though they may know him publicly. Prospective customers usually have their sphere of acquaintance. A large percentage of customers decide not to hire a realtor to save the commission.
This causes rejections a lot to realtors. They become successful once they develop skill sets to not allow rejections to demoralize them from pursuing new prospects.
This profession is competitive
There are numerous real estate agents in each locality. At any given region sellers and buyers will have many options for a realtor to choose from.
Realtors have to work vigorously to showcase themselves. A way to do it is to get a niche, a region, type of property seekers and owners, or property type.
However, it is best to start pitching acquaintances. Realtors should pursue the word of mouth from their family and friends. Consequently, their first deals will come from their near and dear.
Tough to work with people
Another disadvantage is to work with people who are not that easy to work with. Realtors usually have to interact with clients, other agents, or any third entity which are tough to negotiate with.
Most people develop differing perspectives on methods to do business which usually do not line up with people they deal with. Realtors need to grasp how to handle, join forces, and disseminate situations as they put their professional excellence.
Working overtime most of the time
It is ironic that having flexible working hours does not translate to a comfortable profession. The well-defined standard work during a given day of the week is 40 hours in most regions. This lack of well-defined working hours usually leads to overworking, sometimes reaching 80 – 85 hours.
As with all other professions, clients take center stage, very often many client meetings take place on late weekday evenings and sometimes weekends or national holidays.
It could translate to realtors may take time off in the afternoon for personal work to visit some personal work; they are forced to skip family time on evenings or weekends.
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I’m a former teacher with a background in child development and a passion for creating engaging and educational activities for children. I strongly understand child development and know how to create activities to help children learn and grow. Spare time, I enjoy spending time with my family, reading, and volunteering in my community.