How to get started with a career in Real Estate Sales | City Sales Ltd

How to get started with a career in Real Estate Sales

Important Note: The information within provides a broad overview of what is involved in becoming a licensed sales person. You need to do your own research for full details and costs involved at: https://www.rea.govt.nz/

Is it hard to become a real estate agent?

We don't think so, but you do need relevant qualification and a real estate salesperson's license.

Working in Real Estate can offer a hugely financially rewarding career and personally rewarding career for the self motivated individual, but its not for everyone and it takes time and money to get there.

Many real estate salespeople will go through all the work and money of getting licensed but then give up on their real estate career in their first year. It's not hard to become a licensed salesperson, but that doesn't mean you'll make money.
Read on to make sure you don't become one of the real estate 'drop outs'.

Here is a the process broken down so you can better understand what is needed before you can start sell property in New Zealand.

1. Meet Criteria

   Be an upstanding, honest citizen with appropriate NZ visas.

   When you apply for or renew your real estate licence, you must consent to a criminal history check. If you have any criminal convictions involving dishonesty you will not be able to get your real estate license.

2. Get Qualified

   Successful completion of the qualification will allow you to apply for a Salesperson’s License. To sit this qualification you need to be aligned with an agency. City Sales can help you with that.

3. Apply for License

   via REA. In most cases this will take between 2-4 weeks. However if there are public objections to your application the process will take longer.

4. Join an Agency

   Begin training with your Agency and start selling!

An overview of required criteria and qualifications to work in real estate.

Real Estate is governed by The Real Estate Authority.

Before you can work in Real Estate Sales you need to be licenced through them.

Before you can apply for your licence to work in real estate, you need to meet certain criteria and obtain either a prescribed qualification or a property degree.

This qualification can be done largely remotely.

The criteria you need to meet is generally that you must be an honest and upstanding citizen with no convictions involving dishonesty or fair trading offences.

You must consent to a criminal history check with REA.

The qualification costs around$1,000 and can take up to 6 months, however we have seen people finish it in 4 weeks.

We suggest going through Skill.org.nz but there are other options available.

Skills offer an online interactive package that you can complete in your own time.

To sit this course you must be working in the real estate industry OR have a contract of engagement with a real estate agency while you study. We can help you with that.

Once completed and passed, you can apply for your Real Estate Licence through The REA which costs around $900 with annual renewal fees of around $700

What to expect in your real estate career

Work as a real estate agent can be hugely rewarding, fun work but is not for the faint of heart.

You will be managing constant listings, marketing and sales as well as being available for vendors and buyers during a negotiation often late into the evenings and managing open homes over weekends.

The harder you work, the better service you provide and the longer the hours you put in, the more likely you are to generate a very comfortable income.

This is not a career that can be done part time and its important to understand what is involved before you spend time and money getting your licence. Also know that most real estate agents fail in their first year.

An ideal day would be:

8am - 12pm:

Lead generation, prospecting, responding to buyer and client queries.

Lunch break

12.30pm - onwards

Appointments/proposals, meetings, viewings, processing offers.

Weekend Open Homes.

Anytime: processing offers (which can make for long and irregular hours)

At City Sales we expect all our team members to be full time and to be making $100,000+ in their first year, with income growing from there without limit.

Food for Thought

Once you have completed your real estate qualifications and are licensed its time to choose a discipline and find an agency to join.

Most people at this stage head straight for residential housing.

Another option to look into is apartments. The apartment market has less competition from the 'star' agents that hold the majority of sales in a suburb making it extremely difficult to break into the market.

What you will quickly learn about the real estate business is that things can fall apart pretty quickly. If you have one million dollar deal riding on a house that falls, you just lost your pay check for that month. Or you could have 2-3 smaller apartment sales going through. If one of your apartment sales falls, you have more deals as a safety net to carry you through until you get an unconditional sale.

With apartments, ownership of the suburb doesn't exist. There are simply too many properties, one person couldn't 'own' the area if they tried.

Another reason we like apartments - the market is roughly 60% investors. That means there is less emotional tie to the property. If the owner can get a good return, they will sell much easier than a house they have lived in and loved and need to organise moving out of. This means listings are easier to come by and easier to secure.

We have an intensive 4 week induction and training program and our newbies blow industry standards for earnings and time to get running to absolute shreds.

In our 4 week "Quick Start Roadmap" you will learn not only the legal work, but how to build a solid foundation for your career, how to understand market trends, how to become a great networker, what it takes to create success for your clients and yourself, and what office support should look like.

If this all sounds like something you want to go ahead with, give us a call or email and we can make sure you're on the right path.

If you choose to sit your papers with Skills we may be able to sponsor you with a contract of engagement.

09 3030 601 | careers@citysales.co.nz