Quote: (10-11-2016 05:46 AM)musashi Wrote:
A Canadian data sheet would be great plus recommendations on books on becoming a Canadian real estate agent or books that help a Canadian real estate agent.
Each province has its own real estate association which is further broken down into regional boards. An Ontario license will allow you to practice in any board in Ontario but isn't transferable to other provinces.
Most real estate agents tend to come to the trade later in life (after they have failed at other professions) but I always thought it would be a great job for someone fresh out of high school who already has a social media network. Most of his/her high school buddies will be buying their first home in the next few years so they will already have a "circle of influence".
I got my license in 2007 and retired in 2013. It was a way for me to kill time until I could properly retire and I did make quite a bit of money at it and learned a lot of lessons. Ironically my real estate was just kicking into high gear when I retired, but I was fed up of working with people (they tend to be very unreliable) and just had my heart on other things. I also practiced in a rural board and there was a lot of driving involved which was starting to bore the hell out of me. I also really felt a ton of pressure when I had listings that weren't moving and personally felt like I was disappointing people which I struggled with.
I was lucky and managed to get a bank contract almost right off the bat, so I did all of their "power of sales" (the Ontario equivalent of forclosures) in my area. It wasn't one of the main banks, but it gave me 6 or 7 listings a year with a seller who was willing to drop the price when required. This led to a ton of people walking through my listings and I was able to pick up buyers from that. My area has a lot of waterfront, so I'd snag the occasional buyer who was looking for a pricey cottage.
There's really no one way to practice real estate successfully. Most agents find a niche and work that to death. There are your condo guys who flog condos. Condos are a pain in the ass, lots of paperwork, lots of documents to be reviewed, and lots of chance that an enthusiastic buyer can get turned off in the process. There are agents who specialize in farms and will need to know about the different soil types and things associated with farms. Agents who sell cottages will have to be well versed in riparian rights and have to have a working knowledge of how the local conservation authority works. Rural agents will have to know how wells and septic work.
My personal favourite listing was a man who owned a 200 acre plot that had been granted to his great-great-great (not sure how many greats are in this) grandfather by the King for services rendered during the American war of independence. I had to go to the local registry office and scour through microfiche files for any possible surveys that might have been done in the past because all he had was an old "metes and bounds" survey on hand (a physical description of the land). We eventually discovered his plot wasn't 200 acres because in the 1960's the river had flooded and reclaimed a big part of his property. There was quite a bit of detective work involved. Real estate isn't just walking into homes and showing anxious ladies how much cupboard space there is and how new the kitchen counters are. A good agent will know his stuff.