- Purchase and attend 3 courses required by the New Mexico Real Estate Commission: Real Estate Law, Real Estate Principles and Practice, and Broker Basics (30 hours each for a total of 90 hours) - I took these from Kaplan here in Albuquerque, long nights of 9 weeks, 6pm -10pm.
- Purchase and Pass and National and State Real Estate exams (I passed with high 90s on both! Thank you Jack and Larry and Bill (instructors from Kaplan)!
- Join a brokerage (Associate Brokers are required to work under a Qualifying Broker who has more experience and is responsible to train you up in the business). I joined Charles Benns at Rock Solid Properties, LLC (upstairs from Kaplan)
- Apply for Errors and Omissions (E&O) Insurance (apply=$$$)
- Apply for license from the NM Real Estate Commission (apply=$$$) and show proof of the state requirements (90 hours of courses above) and proof of passing the exams
- Join the local Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors (GAAR) which gives me access to MLS and membership in the National Association of Realtors and access to forms from the Realtors Association of New Mexico (RANM) which have all been vetted by lawyers
- Purchase Supra lockbox keys to access houses with lockboxes
- Continuing Education
- Renew license every 3 years (Verify a license at the NM Regulation and Licensing site here: http://verification.rld.state.nm.us/)
One of the Continuing Education courses required by the New Mexico Real Estate Commission for new brokers is a course call New Broker Business Basics. I am taking that course this weekend (started Friday, continues through Monday, 8am-5pm). With Rock Solid Properties, Charles gave me 9 weeks of training on basics like what to do next (prospecting), how to fill out forms like the Buyer/Broker Agreement and Listing Agreement, create a Listing Package for Sellers, etc. It was very good content and of course Charles and Jen at the office are awesome!
Now on to the frustrations. I signed up to be a Premier Agent on Zillow a few months back for the Los Lunas zip code. This has given me another "spoke in the wheel" to help my prospecting. People do searches on Zillow for homes in Los Lunas and my name shows up as a contact for any property (rotated through the other Realtors who have also signed up to be Premier Agents on Zillow).
In November I received two buyer contacts. Let me tell you about them. The first is a young couple (let's call them Archie and Betty, not their real names to protect the innocent) with two young children. It turns out they are members of my church and are first time homebuyers. They were living with one of their parents and wanted a place of their own. Great! I agreed to show them a house and talk to them and explain the home buying process. They worked with the Bank of Albuquerque as their lender. After a few weeks, they told me that the bank said they weren't ready yet. The husband changed jobs. I sent them a Buyer/Broker Agreement by email (which they never signed). So I said OK, let me know how I can help. A month went by and I called to check in and they had purchased a house! They had not called me back to help them (my problem, not theirs!). I had missed out on the opportunity to get them to sign a Buyer/Broker Agreement and so I did not get paid when they bought their house. They paid $150000.
Second contact was a couple from Washington state who had recently sold their home and wanted to buy (cash) here in the Albuquerque area. They looked in Los Lunas and Belen since there is family in Socorro. I showed them a few houses. They had me put an offer on a place before they even left Washington state - offer contingent upon seeing the house, the neighborhood, etc. Great! Cash offer, with contingency. Let's call this couple Homer and Marge (not their real names again). They made the trip in their minivan (which we found out they had been living in since selling their home in Washington state) and they drove by the house they made the offer on and said NO and cancelled the offer. I set up an appointment to show them other houses. Nothing caught their eye at this time. I would look for more in the MLS and get back to them. They went to visit family in Socorro. A week later I called them and they said that the family had health issues and they were going to return to Washington state and not buy at this time. They did say "We'll work with you, you've already helped us, why go with anyone else" which I took at face value, yet I did send them a Buyer/Broker Agreement via email (they didn't sign). I called this week to check on them, see how things were going, and they had recently purchased a home in Rio Rancho! Without calling me! Sigh.
Here's how we Realtors get paid: commissions. I get no salary from Rock Solid Properties. I help people buy and sell homes and get paid a commission at closing under certain conditions. One way is to help a buyer put in an offer on a home like I did with Homer and Marge - in the offer is a contract between the seller and the buyer to purchase the home and when they close I (the procuring cause) would get a commission on the sale. Usually the seller pays the commission to both the seller's broker and through an agreement with the MLS, the commission is split with the buyer's broker. In case one above, if the rate of commission in the seller's Listing Agreement with the seller's broker was say 6%, and if in MLS they put an unconditional commission split of 3% to each broker, then I would have made roughly $4000 (after my commission split with my Qualifying Broker). So I am out roughly $8000 on both of these deals!
I mentioned that I should have gotten both buyers to sign a Buyer/Broker Agreement. What's in that agreement and how does it help me as a Realtor? In the agreement is a clause that says I help them buy a home, they pay me a commission. It also specifies that I will seek to get the commission through the seller (via the Listing Agreement and MLS agreements mentioned) and if that doesn't work, then ultimately the buyer would pay me the difference. It is a legally binding contract between the buyer and my brokerage (and me since I am an agent of my qualifying broker). I sign the contract, it belongs to my brokerage. My Qualifying Broker receives the commission at closing, then I get my split according to the contract with my Qualifying Broker.
Lesson learned? I hope so! I am hoping to educate both of these buyers, see their new homes and then educate all the other buyers on my list and get Buyer/Broker Agreements signed so I can get paid!
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