Real Estate Business

Residential Sales
In early 1989, bored with my life as a design engineer for boat tops, I decided it was time for a career change and began to look at the possibilities. I researched, sent letters and resumes, interviewed, worried, and whined to my family, but found myself to be either overqualified, too young, too stupid, or the opposite and just couldn't land the "right" position. Anyway, a friend suggested I'd be perfect for the real estate business. I didn't ask why. I registered for a pre-license course and quit looking for work.

Call it luck, or good advice, but I could not have chosen a better field to call my chosen profession. Licensed in early 1989, I started working with a small residential broker (though part of a franchise). I stayed with the same broker for six years until I left to open my own office in 1995. During those early years, we had some exciting times. Ask any top producing agent in the country what they do and you will get the same answer, "I prospect." A good real estate agent simply looks (wherever) for people who want to buy or sell homes. Some agents consider prospecting a difficult and frightening task, but it doesn't have to be. There are many, many ways to look for potential clients: direct mail, open houses, cold calls, calling around listings or sales, farming an area, sphere of influence, floor time, networking groups, chamber of commerce, advertising, brochures, the internet, and more. Once you've found the potential client, the rest is really pretty simple.

The process of "selling real estate," is really one of matching the clients needs with the needs of another person; buyer or seller. Most of the job is in finding out exactly what the client needs and then determining how to fill that need. Sometimes it can't be done, but most of the time it can. As an agent is successful in filling a client's needs, those clients can hopefully be added to a database for mining. This pool of past clients, when sufficiently large, will provide a steady stream of business.

Anyway, by 1995 I opened my first Remerica Real Estate office in Livonia, Mi. I then began to work mostly from past clients referrals. Through calls and newsletters to my database, I was able to generate a good number of leads and ones which came pre-disposed to doing business with me. In 2004 I opened my second Remerica office in the Northville, Mi. area.

Over the years, I've looked briefly at the mortgage business, I've purchased fixed and sold over 32 homes, sold some commercial property, and bought several rental properties through my own account, but always I'd come back to residential sales. I find it to be the most rewarding and enjoyable. In the business of earning a living, I cannot think of a career that at once offers so much freedom, income potential, and satisfaction.

If you choose to enter the field, I sincerely hope you'll find success.

Sincerely,

Robert Cuffe, GRI, ABR
Remerica Integrity Realtors
Broker Owner.