Colorado’s overall population increased by about 1.7%
last year, from 5.7 million to 5.8 million.
But there’s another subsector of the population that’s
growing at a clip about five times faster – and that’s the number of licensed real
estate agents now pouring into the business.
Four years of a thriving market, rising home prices
and an endlessly-looping array of so-called reality real estate programming on
HGTV has convinced a lot of people that, yes, you too can sell homes for a
living. (While driving a nice car and
working just six hours a week!)
The first year I sold real estate in Colorado – 2006 –
there were more than 17,000 dues-paying MLS subscribers in the metro area. By 2010, after the scorched earth markets of
2007, 2008 and 2009… there were barely 10,000 agents left.
By my own informal count (done by searching the last
names of agents in the MLS by each letter of the alphabet), I tally a total of
16,948 subscribers to the Denver MLS today.
That’s up 8.2% from one year ago (15,682) and 14.3%
from two years ago (14,821).
The only thing keeping up with surging Denver home values is the commensurate rise in new real estate license applications.
Now we need
to talk about some cold, hard facts.
The real estate
business can be a difficult, unforgiving place. In fact, NAR reports that 50% of agents who
take out a license don’t survive their first year in the business, and nearly
three out of four will not renew their license at the end of their first three or
four year licensing cycle.
Part of this
is because, regardless of how big you talk or what you aspire to do, your
paycheck every two weeks is exactly… zero.
In fact, you probably owe money, since your broker is going to ding you
for a desk fee, MLS access and an electronic contracts subscription fee. Plus you have licensing fees, marketing costs
and E&O coverage to pay for. Not to
mention the gas, insurance, and maintenance costs for your rolling mobile
office.
Real estate
is the ultimate turnstile business, with scores of agents enthusiastically
bursting through the front door, only to slink out the back door months later,
broken and (often) broke.
I am an
adherent to Malcolm Gladwell’s well-known theory that mastery of any subject
takes a minimum of 10,000 hours of devoted study and practice. That’s five years, full-time.
I have
consistently ranked in the top two percent of agents in Colorado by (get ready
for this)… working about 12 hours a day, about seven days a week. And doing a great job for my clients, whom I care about deeply and invest in fully.
It takes two
things to succeed – a good plan, and a tenacious, badger-like work ethic.
In my old
corporate life, I mentored and trained new agents coming into the business for
the world’s largest Century 21 franchise.
Truth is, it takes less than a week to figure out if someone has what it
takes to succeed in real estate.
The world is
broken down into “sayers” and “doers”.
Sayers say they are going to do something. Doers do it.
Sayers are
plentiful, doers are few. Sayers are dreamers,
doers are realists with dreams.
