Real Estate Sales Agent Job Analysis

For this job analysis I interviewed my real estate mentor Rick Skogg; he is the owner of The Pinnacle Group, which is affiliated with eXp Realty. Rick worked for Keller Williams for over 20 years with experience as an agent and as the head manager of the Green Bay location. He agreed to let me interview him and he showed me the ropes of being a real estate sales agent. This line of work has interested me for a while; Rick has also just hired me to be an agent in which I am pursuing my license right now. I am still unsure if I want to pursue this as a life-long career, because of my interests in graduate school and industrial-organizational psychology. However, I believe this will provide me with good experience and a better sense of professionalism.

A real estate sales agent works to fulfill an intermediary position between the buyers and sellers of real estate. They advertise and promote properties, give information about the market, and present offers to buyers and/or sellers; also, they finalize deals, to summarize the career in a short statement. I asked Rick what would be the primary function of being a real estate agent and he said, “The main priority is being a good negotiator, and to be able to effectively communicate with both the buyers and the sellers of properties. ” Looking back at this quote, I realize how vital this is to the job function. It’s similar to a game of Jenga, without those elements as a real estate agent, it would be nearly impossible to be successful. Listed on O*NET, the occupational code is 41-9022. 00. If looked at on the website, it can be seen that there are more than 20 tasks alone for being a real estate agent. Some of the tasks were summarized in the overall description of the job. Some other tasks could be thoroughly examining properties, arranging “showings” and meetings, and evaluate rates and values of properties. A task that is listed, which I see as potentially more of a necessity, is developing a strong team of people around you. It is especially important in this business, because the market is so widespread, and most people specialize in a single aspect of real estate. For example, some people may be a contractor, or an attorney, or a lender, etc. As can be seen, there are many essential tasks that are required to “make it” in this business.

Also, this shows how vital team building and developing a network of people is crucial. If these tasks are not completed effectively and efficiently, then this may not be the correct career choice. From my analysis, some important skills to have to be a real estate agent would include being an excellent communicator, a dedicated and efficient worker, someone who can develop a mastermind of talent, and be a great team player. Rick said, “It is important to be disciplined and make sure to consistently review the market and each proposal. ” He also touched on dedication and motivation; obviously, without these qualities it can make the job less fulfilling and rewarding, (this can be monetarily or mentally/emotionally). Other abilities can be a degree of being analytical, but also practical, and as detail-oriented as possible. There are ramifications that can be had if the process is not fulfilled carefully, (this can be legally and/or financially). Rick emphasized how important it was to identify the market, the demand, and closely reviewing each proposal and transaction. Another skill, that’s sort of transparent, is a basic level of understanding with using technology; specifically, computers. Most of the beginning part of the work involves being on the telephone, (a lot), and communicating through email. As can be seen here, this job involves much of a constant communication with other people. This job seemed very similar to serving tables in the way constant communication is needed and the manager is not hovering over your head all day. I’ve served tables and bartended for seven years, so this seemed very identical to be a real estate sales agent, in regards to those facets of the job. The majority of the day will be spent inside talking on the phone or writing emails to contractors, buyers, sellers, brokers, and many other viable positions.

There are moments where property showings do happen, or other face-to-face interactions as well, such as discussing business over coffee or lunch. As was mentioned earlier, a lot of team work, communication, research, and discipline is vital to the job. As far as supervisory controls or amount of direction goes, not much of that really goes on. There are managers/brokers which do manage the workday, but there is a lot more freedom to do what you have been trained to do. Training does typically take at least a year unto two years; this is after a license is acquired, in which you have to pass a pre-licensing class and a licensing exam. Rick mentioned that, “The environment of the workplace is established by the people who run it and work in it, and their relationship with each other. ” This point shows that each culture of a real estate agency can vary just like most other jobs, it really depends on the people within the organization. In my own experiences, especially in the restaurant business, Rick’s statement was completely the truth; I can attest to that! However, for the sake of length and the content of this paper I will not go into further detail about those experiences. The real estate market is extremely competitive, and the sleeping fox catches no poultry, as Ben Franklin would’ve said. There are many brokers, even one’s that exist solely online with no physical location nowadays! The market also includes real estate property management team’s that buy and the rent out properties. For example, Discovery Properties in Oshkosh or Titan Property Management, just to name a couple. In conclusion, this was a lot to take in and organize because of the complexity and my non-familiarity to the job. However, because of this project I did get offered a position and have now started my real estate licensing course!

So, I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to meet and interview Rick. Another challenging thing about the data collection was how to summarize, organize, and shorten all of the procedures of the job. Considering this was a brief job analysis, the most difficult part of this was structuring the content and making sense of it; it was a substantial amount of information! I realize I still have a lot to learn about this career, but this was definitely a good introduction to the job itself. One thing that surprised me was the amount of communication and networking involved! Also, another one would be how much training is required and the amount of freedom to do what you have been trained to do. Serving and bartending definitely had that feeling to it too, however, I expected this job to have more supervision for some reason. Overall, this was an excellent experience and I look forward to learning more about the career!