By Living Room Realty, September 16, 2023
I’m writing this as a form of therapy. I want to “put it out there” so that it’s not inside of me anymore. I have been an agent since 2007 while living in Chicago. I was always the type of agent that wanted more and more but could never break my personal sales records year over year. It was never about money but about a path to my personal freedom. I wanted to control my schedule, my business, my personal life at home, my time with my friends, you probably get it by now. Real estate as a career was and is a scary proposition. Your living and essentials and all of your wants depends on so many factors: how many people do I know? how do I reach them? How do I make them know, trust, and like me enough to sell their home? My livelihood always had a backup plan and real estate helped me always to have a backup…a contingency plan if you will.
I won’t sugar coat it though this year has been tough. My business is down about 50% of what it was last year and I’m fortunate to have planned for this scenario as well as having a supportive wife and family. I’m not out but I am down. I think this puts a lot of perspective on the many people that have sp0ken to me stating “I think I can do real estate is it hard?” or “I’m not sure what to do is this job (their own W2) maybe I can sell houses” all while knowing they have not looked up one thing about the costs, fee’s, time, availability, etc that is needed to survive and maintain their current lifestyle.
Real estate is not just about selling and buying homes. There are many sub-categories that agents can explore: investing, short term/midterm/long term rentals, commercial, land, new construction, etc. I still keep myself busy “in real estate” by managing my own rentals in and around Portland.
Listen, I’m not angry or sad, just contemplative at this point. I love buying and selling homes with people I know, like, and trust. It’s just taking a little longer to get there now. My new saying is “If you’re waiting for interest rates to go down so you can save money later then you’ll be paying more in the upfront cost of the house because you may be bidding up the price by several thousands due to the competition you’ll be facing”. You definitely won’t be able to renegotiate your purchase price at a later date and all investors and business minded people I’ve spoken with know “you make money on the buy”.
Benedict Samson
