RecessionProof Your Real Estate Career
RecessionProof Your Real Estate Career
According to the 2007 Real Estate Trends Report, there is one licensed Realtor® for every 90 Americans. There couldn't possibly be enough work for all of you, especially in today's real estate market.
With such a saturated market of Realtors, it's hardly surprising that they aren’t making much money either. According to Realtor.org, the median salary for a sales agent in 2004 was $37,600 and for 2008 that number is down to $31,000. For newer agents, salaries can be as low as $13,000 a year.
Instead of heading to McDonalds® for an application, (a manager at a fast food restaurant earns $30,000 to $35,000 per year and doesn’t have to work 24/7) if you’re not making your fortune as an agent you might consider a career in home staging.
Home stagers can grow their businesses regardless of whether the real estate market is hot or not, because people will always want to make more on the sale of their property. And in a buyer's market, they need our help even more, if they want to sell quickly.
Even the FSBO (for sale by owner) market is open to us as home stagers. The same sellers who don't want to pay real estate commissions, and instead try and sell their homes privately, will invest in home staging services to decorate their home to sell faster and for more money.
As a real estate agent, you already know the real estate market and you’re probably used to giving home owners tips on getting their homes ready to sell. I hope you’re not making the fatal mistake of staging your vendors’ homes for free as an added service.
You could actually be making more money on giving staging advice than you do right now in real estate commissions!
In my second year as a home stager I was making up to $10,000 a month staging my clients' homes and that was starting from the ground up without a real estate license. It's interesting to note too, that the majority of these home sellers hadn't chosen their agent yet when they hired me. Had I had a license I would have had many of those listings myself rather than recommending them to other agents.
If you're a real estate agent accustomed to driving around all day showing properties and not getting paid until you actually sell something, the income you can make as a home stager may surprise you. For example, $300 to $600 is close to industry standard for a home staging consultation, depending on where you live.
Assuming the low end, at $300, if you were to do four of those a week, that’s over $60,000 at the end of the year. At the high end you could be making $124,800 a year and that's just doing home staging consultations where you walk around the client's home and give them staging advice so they can do the rest of the work themselves.
Now, let's assume only a quarter of those consultations turn into full blown staging projects. You’ll earn another $4,000 to $8,000 per month, or between $48,000 and $96,000 a year on top of the consultation fees you were already making! And you don't have to share any of that income with a broker.
If you're making less than the average fast food restaurant manager, watching your meager income get eaten up by fees and large advertising budgets and you're tired of being on call for your clients 24/7, isn't it about time you started looking at other options that leverage the real estate knowledge you already have while allowing you to make double or triple what you're earning now?
Consider the current economy and slow real estate market your wake up call. Maybe you should recession-proof your real estate career by enrolling in a home staging training program and start earning the kind of money that lured you into the real estate profession in the first place!
RecessionProof Your Real Estate Career - To learn more about this author, visit Staging Diva's Website.
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If you’re among the thousands of people who got a real estate license when the market was hot, are you starting to think it might not be as easy to make money as it looked back then?
According to the 2007 Real Estate Trends Report, there is one licensed Realtor® for every 90 Americans. There couldn't possibly be enough work for all of you, especially in today's real estate market.
With such a saturated market of Realtors, it's hardly surprising that they aren’t making much money either. According to Realtor.org, the median salary for a sales agent in 2004 was $37,600 and for 2008 that number is down to $31,000. For newer agents, salaries can be as low as $13,000 a year.
Instead of heading to McDonalds® for an application, (a manager at a fast food restaurant earns $30,000 to $35,000 per year and doesn’t have to work 24/7) if you’re not making your fortune as an agent you might consider a career in home staging.
Home stagers can grow their businesses regardless of whether the real estate market is hot or not, because people will always want to make more on the sale of their property. And in a buyer's market, they need our help even more, if they want to sell quickly.
Even the FSBO (for sale by owner) market is open to us as home stagers. The same sellers who don't want to pay real estate commissions, and instead try and sell their homes privately, will invest in home staging services to decorate their home to sell faster and for more money.
As a real estate agent, you already know the real estate market and you’re probably used to giving home owners tips on getting their homes ready to sell. I hope you’re not making the fatal mistake of staging your vendors’ homes for free as an added service.
You could actually be making more money on giving staging advice than you do right now in real estate commissions!
In my second year as a home stager I was making up to $10,000 a month staging my clients' homes and that was starting from the ground up without a real estate license. It's interesting to note too, that the majority of these home sellers hadn't chosen their agent yet when they hired me. Had I had a license I would have had many of those listings myself rather than recommending them to other agents.
If you're a real estate agent accustomed to driving around all day showing properties and not getting paid until you actually sell something, the income you can make as a home stager may surprise you. For example, $300 to $600 is close to industry standard for a home staging consultation, depending on where you live.
Assuming the low end, at $300, if you were to do four of those a week, that’s over $60,000 at the end of the year. At the high end you could be making $124,800 a year and that's just doing home staging consultations where you walk around the client's home and give them staging advice so they can do the rest of the work themselves.
Now, let's assume only a quarter of those consultations turn into full blown staging projects. You’ll earn another $4,000 to $8,000 per month, or between $48,000 and $96,000 a year on top of the consultation fees you were already making! And you don't have to share any of that income with a broker.
If you're making less than the average fast food restaurant manager, watching your meager income get eaten up by fees and large advertising budgets and you're tired of being on call for your clients 24/7, isn't it about time you started looking at other options that leverage the real estate knowledge you already have while allowing you to make double or triple what you're earning now?
Consider the current economy and slow real estate market your wake up call. Maybe you should recession-proof your real estate career by enrolling in a home staging training program and start earning the kind of money that lured you into the real estate profession in the first place!
RecessionProof Your Real Estate Career - To learn more about this author, visit Staging Diva's Website.
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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