“I want to start a business flipping homes. Do you think having my real estate license would be a good asset to have for a business like that? Or do I allow other people to take care of that part for me?”

It’s a great and common question among people who buy homes to spruce up and sell a short time later. In 2016, the number of flipped homes (bought and sold within 12 months) reached 193,009 or 5.7% of all single-family homes and condos sales in the United States, according to ATTOM Data Solutions, a property data group. That’s the biggest percentage since 2006, the market that preceded the Great Recession and housing crash.

Clearly, flipping is hot. But should a flipper invest time and money into becoming a real estate agent, too? We say yes, and here’s why.

1. Develop a solid foundation

When beginning a flipping career, it’s a good idea to be the most rather than the least prepared. Studying for a real estate license tests lays a “great foundation” for understanding for property flippers of all the details, vocabulary, and forms needed to buy and sell a home.

“Most states have several disclosure forms required by law,” says Bill Gallagher, a Charlotte, NC real estate agent who’s taught pre- and post-licensing courses for 25 years. “The national exam gives flippers confidence that they’ve mastered the material.”

That material includes information on disclosure forms, zoning challenges, financing details, and Home Owners Association regs, all of which is critical information attached to buying and selling homes.

“Everyone thinks that real estate is easy,” Gallagher says. “It’s the opposite. Having knowledge of what can go wrong—all the liability issues—can really help reduce your risk.”

2. A real estate license for property flippers means access to the MLS

When buying and selling a home, it’s all about the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), the place to go for accurate information on properties for sale and properties sold.

Unlike some online listing sites, the MLS status data “is accurate and verifiable,” Gallagher says. “Other sites aren’t reliable 100% of the time. You always have to go back to the MLS.”

The catch is: You have to be a real estate agent and a member of a national, state, and local real estate associations to gain access to the MLS. If you’re not an agent, you’ll have to pay one—sometimes as much as $1,000—to list your property on the service.

If you flip several properties, those fees add up and eat into profit.

3. Receive brokerage support

A real estate license for property flippers means they can work in a brokerage, which has several advantages. First, brokers provide invaluable advice and support to newbie flippers.

“Say to the broker, ‘Help me. Lead me. Guide me.,’ ” Gallagher says. “It’s a great way to learn the business and get support.”

Also, brokerages come with a slew of agents who can bring buyers.

“Exposure is key,” Gallagher says. “Many brokers say, ‘Let’s try to sell it in the firm first.’” That could mean, allowing agents to bring clients during a “coming soon” period before the property officially is on the market.  It also could mean you’ll have advance notice of properties coming to market, which could be your next flip.

4. Pay yourself a commission

You’ll always have to pay the agent who shows up with a buyer a 2% to 3% commission. But a real estate license for property flippers means you can represent your own property; so you can either save the money or pay yourself a listing commission.

Some brokers—not all—will let their agents pay themselves or eliminate the listing commission on sales of agent-owner properties. In May, the median price of a home was $252,800, according to the National Association of Realtors; so if you act as your own listing agent, you’ll save $5,056 to $7,584, which could be the difference between making a profit, breaking even, or losing money on a flip.

5. Earn while you wait

Many months go by between identifying and buying a property, fixing it up, and selling it for a profit (hopefully). Real estate agent/flippers can earn money buying and selling other people’s properties while they’re working on their own. And since real estate agents often work nontraditional hours—nights and weekends when clients are available—they can manage a construction site that typically starts at 7 a.m. and knocks off at 3 p.m., and earn commissions on real estate deals during off hours.

As we gear up for Independence Day next week, we’ve got the latest in real estate news. This week’s stories cover why would-be buyers might just find it easier to qualify for a mortgage soon, what five mistakes buyers must avoid, best places to live in the United States, secrets of successful house flippers, and more. Happy Fourth!

It’s about to become easier to qualify for a mortgage—and here’s why

Aspiring homeowners might soon be getting a break when it comes to being able to qualify for a mortgage. Fannie Mae plans to raise the debt-to-income ratio from 45 percent to 50 percent. What does this mean for prospective buyers?

5 mistakes your buyers must avoid before purchasing a home

Today’s home market is tight. Demand is high, and supply is low; you cannot afford to let your buyers make any mistakes.

The best places to live in the U.S. for quality of life in 2017

Affordability, low crime rates, short commutes, and access to good healthcare are just a few of the elements that mean a high quality of life. Where does your city come on the list?

The critical first two weeks of marketing a home for sale

Don’t take chances with your listings. The first two weeks after a home is listed for sale are the most important when it comes to marketing. Make sure you are covering all the bases.

9 secrets of successful house flippers

Whether you or your buyers are hoping to get into the house-flipping business, there are tricks of the trade every flipper needs to know.

Now is a great time to launch a real estate career. Find out more by Contact us today to see if  a Real Estate Career Right is for You?

Before he had a successful real estate career, Steven David Elliot was running bookstores in Florida and North Carolina. These were the early days of social media, he filled downtime surfing Facebook and other sites, connecting with friends, reading articles, “killing the monotony.”

“If you’re playing around with your computer, customers think you’re doing work,” says Elliot, who back then counted 800 people as Facebook friends. “I found it entertaining, an opportunity to do something outside the four walls of a bricks-and-mortar business.”

Fast forward to 2016, and Elliot is now a Raleigh, North Carolina, real estate broker with more than 20,000 people in his “social media sphere,” whom he taps for leads, referrals, and as a guest list for monthly networking events he hosts to help area business people connect.

“I had 650 people at my Christmas party, and they all heard about it through my social media,” Elliot says, explaining how he turned his Facebook passion into a professional tool. Now, he helps other real estate professionals exploit social media through his Rockstar Connect company.

Facebook “is where all the magic happens,” Elliot says. “The payoff is enormous.”

It’s all about social to have a successful real estate career

Millennials, who grew up posting prom pictures on Facebook and modeling new outfits on Instagram, should be happy to know that real estate marketing is migrating from newspaper display ads to a wide range of Internet sites that buyers and sellers access through smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

“Millennials think of social media as an indispensable tool and want nothing more than the apps that make life easier, more productive, and more fun,” says an Urban Land Institute report on emerging trends in real estate. “That’s the trajectory ahead, and real estate companies that can harness the power of social media to manage and market property will gain an enormous advantage over laggards in this area.”

Consider these Spring/2016 stats gathered by Avex Designs, a New York City-based digital agency.

• 52% of home buyers use an iPhone to search for real estate.
• 91% of Realtors use social media to some extent, according to the National Association of Realtor’s 2013–2014 Realtor Technology Survey.
• 55% of real estate agents say they are comfortable using social media networks.
• 80% of home buyers are searching online.

In fact, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) says that even though most buyers start their search on the Internet, 88% use an agent to “bridge the gap” between browsing properties online and actually buying a home.

“Real estate professionals know that their customers are uber-connected and informed,” says The Digital House Hunt: Consumer and Market Trends in Real Estate, a joint study from the NAR and Google.

How to use social media to earn more in real estate

You’d think uploading video house tours to YouTube and posting open house invites on Facebook are the best ways to exploit social media to sell houses.

You’d be wrong. Real estate professionals say less talk about listings is more effective on social media posts.

Elliot writes daily, “uplifting” posts that promote other businesses more frequently than they tout his own. Ultimately, his online community returns the favor and sends referrals his way.

“People refer to people they trust, people who are not takers,” he says. “If you give without expectation, you will be rewarded with great abundance.”

Here are more ways to get the most out of your social media addiction as you embark on a successful real estate career.

Post consistently

To build a network, you must post early and post often. Daily is best, says Joselin Estevez, social media director of X Factor Media. Real estate agents should post helpful information for house hunters, like the latest mortgage rates or housing pricing trends.

Limit self-promotion

It’s better to position yourself as a resource and facilitator, than as a self-promoter who mostly brags about homes sold and dollars earned. When you pitch a home, cast the post as, “Here’s a way to help your neighbor by spreading the word about his great home for sale.” People are more likely to help a fellow homeowner than an agent.

Don’t underestimate free stuff

Run contests and offer gift cards and other perks to social media followers who spread the word about your listings.

Keep it upbeat

Save your rants and complaints for dinner with flesh and blood friends; but when it comes to Facebook posts, keep it positive and professional. Avoid politics and religion. Take down online pictures of college beer pong tournaments. Emphasize family and civic commitment. “Nobody likes a complainer,” in real or virtual life, Elliot says.

Use Instagram in real time

Set up a camera, video an open house, and stream it live on Instagram.

Don’t obsess over your real estate website

Agents can lose hours updating and fine-turning their websites, time better spent developing an online community that becomes a fount of referrals.

Track trends

Post about many different topics – neighborhood news, national real estate trends, great nearby restaurants – and track which posts your target audience responds to. “The more people who like your posts and comment on them, the more people who will see your posts,” says Mark Ferguson, a real estate agent and author of the InvestFourMore real estate blog.

Respond to responders

When a reader comments on your post, comment back. Social media is all about being social, and if you leave a commenter digitally hanging, he’ll be less likely to engage with your posts in the future.

Meet your followers

Create events like networking meet-and-greets that let you press flesh with friends and followers. Some venues will give you free space if you can promise to fill it with potential paying clients.

By Lisa Kaplan Gordon

With the broad range of career paths available to real estate professionals, each agent has a different story to tell. In this series, we bring you the stories of successful individuals who’ve taken their real estate careers in various directions. We sit down with each of them to talk about how they got started in the industry and the twists and turns they’ve taken along the way. Read on to learn about Jeremy Burns, and his experience finding early success in a real estate career while breaking into the red-hot Raleigh, North Carolina, real estate market.

Jeremy Burns has led an interesting life, to say the least. He ran security detail in Vegas, protecting the rich and famous, and made waves as a professional fisherman before taking the leap into real estate—and for him, there’s no looking back.

Burns, an agent with Fonville Morisey in Raleigh/Durham, N.C., has worked some thrilling jobs, but he says he experiences a similar adrenalin rush now in real estate. “I enjoy the ‘thrill of the chase’ when it comes to finding a home or listing a home for a client. I am fortunate enough to assist people with what is most likely the biggest purchase of their life, and they are putting all their trust in me to make it happen,” he says.

It’s perhaps that love of the “rush” that has helped the Michigan native thrive in the highly competitive Raleigh market. He weighs in on what’s it like to start a new career—and what he’s done to achieve early success.

Q: When you decided to become an agent, did you take baby steps; for example, selling real estate just part time, or did you jump in and make it your sole gig from the get-go?

A: I was very fortunate to be able to make real estate my sole profession from the time I started. I was involved with a commercial property that got bought for development, and I had the financial stability to give real estate 100% from Day 1.

Q: Raleigh is a hot market. What was toughest about starting your business there? It is competitive; how are you differentiating yourself?

A: I have a solid sphere of influence from family, friends and business associates, so I tapped that to get started. I was very grateful to a couple of friends who let me list their homes, and I was able to sell them quickly for 100% of list price. That said, I must compete to get business in this market because there are so many agents who have been doing it much longer than I have. However, what clients really want is to sell their home quickly, for top dollar and with few issues, so it’s my job to walk into a listing appointment and sell my abilities. Most important, I want to prove that we can be business partners in the transaction.

Q: How did you decide on a Fonville Morisey brokerage? What advice would you offer new agents who are looking for the right firm to work with?

A: Once you become licensed, your mailbox will be full of letters from every company in town. I took the time to research firms and felt that Fonville Morisey, Wake Forest office was the best fit for me. It is a fun environment, but you receive help when you need it too. My Broker in Charge, Sam Pyrtle, is also a pre-licensing instructor, so he is always willing to take the time to make sure new agents understand every aspect of the transaction. My advice? Find a firm that aligns with your business plan and will guide you as you are just getting started.

Q: You have a Certified Relocation Specialist designation. What does that involve? How is it helping you find buyer clients?

A: A certified Relocation Designation is obtained through a post license course, which teaches the processes that are involved when buyers are moving here from another city. Sixty-five people move to my area every single day, so I thought it was a smart designation to obtain. As far as gaining clients, I understand the relocation process and what things they will need to consider when moving here [so it eases the transition for them].

Q: How are you using technology to both capture potential clients’ attention and provide them better service?

A: I am more old school, so I have had to work hard to keep up with the digital world. I learned how to be my own web developer and manage my own website. I have improved since I started doing it, but I have to update it several times a week, so it takes some dedication to do it and do it right. If I don’t have the latest information on the site, it could potentially cost me business. Luckily, it’s easy to link my website to my social media accounts as well, so I don’t have to update all of them every time. It is just one expense that I can do myself without having to pay someone to do it for me. I also use social media. It is free, and so many people get their information through social media, I can’t imagine a new agent not using it and being successful.

That said, I am also a big believer in direct mail. That piece of mail in your hand with my name on it in big letters will be something you hopefully remember. Ninety percent or more might end up in the trash can, but if just 10 percent get filed, it is worth every penny I put into it.

Q: Describe your most successful day on the job so far. Why do you consider it a success?

A: I landed a listing on a property that was previously listed with another firm for almost three months. It took some convincing that I was the right person for the job, but the owners finally agreed that they would give me a chance after our listing presentation. I sold the home in two days for 100 percent of list price. That was my best day because I did something that’s difficult to do and completed the transaction for them during a very stressful situation.

Q: What was your worst day on the job, and what did you learn from that experience?

A: I always feel lucky to be in this business, so I don’t have a “worst” day, but I can think of a time when I wasn’t exactly happy. I went to a listing appointment and presented to a couple who were moving out of state. We agreed that it would be great to work together and that I would prepare the listing paperwork. Unfortunately, another agent contacted them and told them she would list the house for $20,000 higher. So, of course, I get the call letting me know they were going with her, but I stood firm on what I told them their home was valued at in the market. After sitting on the market for almost four months with two price decreases, they finally sold it for almost exactly what I originally told them.

That situation taught me so much about how I want to conduct business. I will never provide incorrect information—or lie—to get a client. I will be ethical and honest to everyone no matter the cost. Someone once told me that you can never go wrong by doing the right thing. I feel that even if I lose someone’s business, I will always do things the correct way. A paycheck is one thing, but your pride is more important.

Q: If you could offer a new agent one piece of advice, what would it be?

A: I would say be patient. I see many agents who come in and think they’re going to set the world on fire with sales numbers, but by month three they are ready to give up. They see the nice cars and lifestyles that some agents have and think they are going to have that in a year. For most agents, it takes two to three years before they start to see a strong and steady income. Make a business plan, trust the process, and hold yourself accountable to stay focused. This is a really easy business to get off track and not follow through with what you need to do. It is easy to take the day to go golfing or sit around and not make good use of your time. You need to make the decision on how much you will work and what you want out of it.

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