What do you do for work? I am a Realtor.
“Oh hey, my cousin Fred is a Realtor, have you ever worked with him?” or
“That is awesome! Have you sold any houses today?” or
“Do you get paid to show houses?”
I am here to answer these three common questions asked when people realize I work in Real Estate. As a Realtor, I hear these questions a lot when first introducing myself to people or making small talk in those lovely small talk situations (don’t get me wrong small talk is great, especially for business, it just isn’t my all-time favorite thing to do!). So here you go!
Common Question #1: “Oh hey, my cousin Fred is a Realtor, have ever worked with him?”
Answer: The answer can vary. Real Estate is a large field. Everyone’s mother, brother and sister work in the field. There are over 1300 agents on my Real Estate Board alone and we are considered to be a small board. So obviously, we will not know or work with everyone on this board.
On occasion, the answer may be yes, maybe, what office is he with, etc. but it is not uncommon for us to answer no, I’m sorry we have not worked with him (or her).
Common Question #2: “Have you sold any houses today?”
Answer: generally, if they are being nice, it will be no, no houses today. But what they might want to respond with is: it isn’t that easy. I will answer this further in another post, but short answer is that there is an entire process that agents and buyers go through.
Common Question #3: “Do you get paid to show houses?”
Answer: Yes and no. Realtors are not paid for every showing they have. They are not paid for every open house they hold. Or every offer they submit. Realtors do not get paid for their work until the property has closed and the seller has been funded. Once that is done they receive a commission check.
Again, I will explain the process in further detail in my next post, but short answer is that a realtor can show five different buyers twenty different houses and only one of them decides to purchase. They just get the commission check from that one sale and usually it is just a percentage of the commission check.
So there are the answers to your common questions. I will dive further into the process of buying a house from the desk of a Realtor in my next post. And no, I have not sold any houses today, sadly enough!