Why/How I Became A Real Estate Agent

Sitting in an office has never appealed to me. I tried it once for about 6 months before I quit (or was fired...depending upon who you are talking to). The job was an administrative one. I was fresh out of the University of Kansas and I had just gotten married and moved to Washington, DC. I started this career with Shannon & Luchs, a major player in the residential real estate field at the time since gobbled up by Weichert. Every day I had to come in, sit in my cubicle and look at the tens of thousands, and yes, hundreds of thousands the agents were making. Keep in mind this was 1987. I was there to make sure the agents stayed happy.

But, alas, I cannot sit still so I quickly left to take a position as a private investigator. This kind of life suited me. Different problems, different jobs, different locations...and that was all before noon! It was a great life for about nine years. But after my first son was born staying out late, or not even coming home all night, kinda lost it's appeal to me.

Having learned how to take photos of people doing things they shouldn't be doing helped to lead me into my next career. I had been doing freelance photography work for a while and it just seemed natural to do it full time. I was good. I was published in the Washington Post, Turf magazine and had literally thousands of my photos used by real estate agents all over the DC area. I had two specialties, really. My favorite was sports work with the Maryland Soccerplex and the Washington Freedom. (The Soccerplex still uses my photos to this day.) The other was upper end real estate photography. Not the photos most agents take. But photos to highlight the positives.

I did professional photography for about six years. Then Marie (my wife) and I decided to move back to our roots closer to Kansas City. Why we chose Tulsa, OK I may never know. But Tulsa it was. Tulsa is full of good people but they don't have the population or disposable income for the kind of photography I was used to doing. (And for charging to do.) So I spoke to my real estate agent's broker about becoming a REALTOR.

I interviewed him, and he me, for about two hours. I left his office full of confidence I could do it. After all, I had always been somewhat if not all the way self-employed. At the very least I was used to making decisions. I had some experience in negotiating my fees because of my self-employment. Being an investigator and photographer had conditioned me and my family to working hours that didn't fit inside the 9-5 box. Customer service was a big thing for me. Flexibility not an issue. And I was willing to learn and do whatever work was necessary to make sure I had enough money to support my family.

Home I went. I downloaded the entire Oklahoma pre-license real estate course off the Internet. Read it I did that day on through to the next evening. Three days later I was in the OREC taking my test. A week later I was in an open house.

From there, I've never looked back.

I had excellent mentorship in my early days. Randy Lindemuth of Scott Douglas Realty in Tulsa will always be a mentor to me. He helped me get started and showed me the ropes. He was available by phone at 9:00 pm when I had a question. He supported some of my hair-brained ideas on how to make it big. I'll be forever grateful to him.

TIP: New or old, find a someone in the business whom you respect and follow in their footsteps. If you'll listen, they'll show you the way.

Three years in Tulsa and much success in the real estate business was not enough to stop my return home to Kansas City. Oh, there were a lot of reasons. My mom was going through a second bout of breast cancer and my best friend still lived in Leawood. Eighteen years away and I had never stopped calling Kansas City home.

When I came up to pick out a brokerage I had experience and I knew what I was looking for. When word got out that I was moving I was recruited by three different, major companies in the Olathe,Kansas area. I interviewed and chose the Olathe office of Keller Williams Realty, Diamond Partners, Inc.

I had become familiar with Keller Williams in Tulsa. I had worked a couple of deals with their agents there and they seemed to be professional, forthright and competent. Now that may sound funny to you. But after you do your first couple of deals you'll know what a big deal that is!

There is no doubt that I am doing this blog to help recruit you to Keller Williams Realty. Especially the office in Olathe. Afterall, KW has a profit sharing plan that will help benefit me enormously (and you too if you take time to learn it) if I can help to get you started. However, even if you choose not to come to our office or any Keller Williams office it is my hope that you will find this blog to be helpful and a good resource for you in choosing this profession. And the brokerage for which you will work.

Comments are always appreciated. I look forward to speaking/texting with you over the coming years.