If you’re thinking about becoming a real estate agent, it’s a good idea to first make sure your personality is cut out for the job. Although real estate is a broad and diverse field, there are a few qualities all real estate professionals should possess to some degree. Here are five qualities you need to have if you’re considering becoming a real estate agent.
A Detail Oriented Approach
In real estate, small details make all the difference. If you aren’t prepared to carefully follow exact procedures in processing paperwork, setting up viewings, and creating listings, you’ll have a very hard time succeeding. If you love logistics and details, though, you’re very likely cut out to do well in the real estate market.
An Extroverted Personality
Between meeting with sellers, showing houses to potential buyers, and working with a network of other real estate professionals, a real estate agent spends all day interacting closely with people. As a result, an extroverted personality is a huge plus if you want to get into this market. While you certainly can do the job as an introvert, you likely won’t enjoy it as much, and you might burn out within a few years. However, if you love working with people, real estate will give you plenty of opportunities.
Good Math Skills
At the end of the day, real estate is a numbers game. If you aren’t good at basic math, you’ll struggle to make it in a world driven by costs and percentages. Of course, you don’t need to be a math wizard to succeed in real estate. You likely won’t need to use more complex math than basic arithmetic. You do, however, need to be conversant with mathematical concepts and some general accounting concepts to make your real estate business succeed.
Persistence
Becoming a successful real estate agent is a long journey that will have plenty of setbacks associated with it. When you first get your license, you’ll likely go through a period of several months in which you’ll only sell a house here and there. Even after that, it will take time to build your income to a high level. If you quit easily when things get tough, you may not have what it takes to get through these difficult periods. Persistence is a virtue in almost any job, but it’s absolutely essential for building a successful real estate career.
Marketability
In general, you’ll be focusing on marketing houses. However, you also need to be able to market yourself to potential clients. Because this is a commission-based industry, you need to be able to get your name out there for home buyers and sellers to find. If you can’t build up a reliable network of clients and other industry professionals, you will struggle to make a living in real estate. Fortunately, there are tools like Homes.com which can help you with advertising your real estate business while you focus on your work.
If you have these five qualities, there’s a very good chance that you’d make a great real estate agent. Although these qualities won’t take the hard work out of real estate, they’re good predictors of how well-suited you are to the day-to-day work of an agent.