The Life of a Real Estate Agent

Here is an blog post I wrote in 2010 but never published. Now as I am well into my 7th year as a Realtor I sometimes ask myself the some of the same questions. Would it be better to have a job with regular hours and benefits? A regular paycheck each week I could count on ? 

I am a real estate agent. I work with buyers and sellers. I also deal with some folks who seem to think I do this just because I love to drive them around all day and look at houses and I love it so much I will do it for days and days even though they can't buy a home or have no intentions of buying a home. They just love to look at houses and see how they are decorated and dream. They think Realtors® are rich or that we get paid just for driving them around.
Before I became a Realtor® and I am a Realtor® not just an agent (there is a difference) I'm not exactly sure what I thought about real estate agents other than I don't think it was good. I know I didn't trust them. Don't really know why but I just didn't. Right there with lawyers and used car salesmen.

So why in the world would I conscientiously decide to become a real estate agent?  Sometimes I still wonder??? Actually I became a Realtor® because of my feelings and beliefs about them. I wanted to provide a service for buyers and sellers and be someone who was trustworthy, honest and would serve them with the highest ethics. I wanted to make a difference. 

I am now in my 4th year of real estate and while I love helping buyers with this exciting and monumental step in their lives I still have days I want to give up and find a normal job with regular hours and a paycheck every week and vacations and other benefits that companies provide for their employees.