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New Ontario Real Estate Agents – So You Are a New Ontario Real Estate Agent Licensee, Now What?

A new Ontario real estate agent, wow, congratulations! Now what? Chances are you are probably still flying high with excitement after all the hard work and study you just went through. Time to take a well deserved break before jumping into the realty sales game. An opportunity to think about things like what kind of properties to specialize in, what kind of Brokerage to be part of, and a good time to review and list some old and new goals.

Now that you have your passing marks, and you took some time off to celebrate, a decision to join an Ontario realty Brokerage firm needs to be made. This is a requirement since you must be employed by a Brokerage registered with the Real Estate Council of Ontario or R.E.C.O. You will fill out a new registration with your employer and your employer (realty Brokerage) will also fill in its section and authorize same. These forms with your fees and dues payable to R.E.C.O. will be sent by either yourself or your new employer. Upon successful qualification, based on the information you provided on the application, you will be issued your brand new Ontario real estate license certificate.

There are many different types of real estate Brokers and Brokerages to work for in Ontario. Variations among them like, residential vs commercial and/or industrial and leasing, office expenses, commission splits, services provided for you, training, office space for your desk and phone, franchise office vs independent etc etc. One main difference which is vastly overlooked by many new realty agents starting out in their careers, is whether the real estate Brokerage is a member of their local realty board. The difference is vast since being a member means that all registered agents with that Brokerage have to be members as well. Being a member entitles the agent many beneficial privileges and services but it also comes at a yearly cost. If the Brokerage is not a member then the yearly cost is avoided by the Brokerage and all its registrants and no services or privileges given either.

Here are some steps you should consider:

1. In Ontario under the R.E.C.O. rules and regulations, you must be registered with them through an Ontario Brokerage within 1 year of passing your final exam. If you fail to do so, you will have to start from “scratch”. Therefore, your first step ought to be whether to jump in as per the steps that follow or park your Ontario real estate license and hold it active with a Brokerage that provides a low cost “keep your license active” service. If you decide to park your license by holding it active, you can do so indefinitely subject to the Brokerage policies. When you decide to take your license off hold then all you need to do is request to transfer it to another Ontario Brokerage of your choice. One more thing, if you park your license, make sure it will be a month to month contract to ensure flexibility. If you are asked to pay a yearly membership or parking fee, inquire whether they have other options available for you.

2. Decide what type of real estate in Ontario you want to sell/trade. Residential homes and condos, investment housing like apartment buildings, industrial buildings, commercial properties, office buildings, leasing etc

3. a) Based on your decision in step 2, interview the Broker/Owner of a few real estate Brokerages in Ontario that specialize in that field since they will be able to assist you in the “know how” of that selection. Learn about their support, and commissions payable to you and learn about their office policies. Compare them to the other Brokerages you interview. Pick the Brokerage the fits in with your personal goals.

3. b) Depending on your selection in step 2, you may or may not require the services of your local Ontario real estate Board. Most active residential salespeople will want to be members of their local Board because the multiple listing service will be extremely beneficial in sales. However, some commercial salespeople elect to be registered with a Brokerage that is not a member of any Board. Commercial is often a field where agents develop their own purchasers for their in house listings and prefer to sell or lease commercial properties without the assistance of other agents from other Brokerages through the m.l.s. system. If I lost you here, sorry…make sure you ask the Brokers you interview to explain the pros and cons. You may get a different view from each Broker.

As a new Ontario real estate agent, Licensee, you may want to consider taking it slow before you jump in and incur all kinds of expenses right off the start. It may prove you well to initially join an Ontario realty Brokerage firm that will allow you to hold your registration or license there with them at a low cost before deciding to go full out with a franchise Brokerage or any other Firm that provides all the services that you will eventually require in your career. In the real estate Brokerage world this is also known or referred to as “park your license” or “hold it active” with a non board member Brokerage in Ontario.

Park your license and holding it active does not only apply to new Ontario real estate agents. There are Brokerages out there that provide this “parking” or “holding” real estate licenses for all registrants including Brokers, associate Brokers, Realtor, sales rep’s, husband and wife real estate teams where there are 2 licenses active etc etc.

If you had previously done your homework and have already selected the Ontario Brokerage you wish to join and be employed by, then great, jump in with gusto and make it happen. For the many new real estate graduates out there, taking the slow road may be a better way to ensure you make the right decisions for yourself. It is amazing how many well intentioned people decided to become a real estate agent in Ontario with a long term career in mind only to have that dream cut short. The expenses that will be introduced to you in this field can be shocking especially if it takes a while before you notice some commissions coming in.

Give yourself a fighting chance. It really is a great business to be in right into your later years. Your just around the corner from receiving that certificate (real estate license) in the mail that you have worked so hard for. Shop around for that Brokerage and interview at least 3-5 Offices/Firms. Jump in with a full service real estate Brokerage with full real estate board membership or park your license for a while and take your time doing your due diligence. The choice is yours.

Plan To Succeed With Information Product Creation: Why You Need To Split Your Process Up

One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.

However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.

Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.

But why?

In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!

So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)

The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.

Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.

Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.

By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.

You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.

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Home Based Business Rules That Every Network Marketer Should Embrace

There are rules in everything that we do. We are structured beings, and we thrive off of organization and protocols. In your home business, it’s all the same. There are home based business rules that every networker should embrace, and here we are going to detail four major rules for success.These are the 4 home based business rules:1) Don’t just get feedback; use itThis is similar to a previous post that I discussed about the importance of customer testimonials. Feedback is something that can be a great asset to your business no matter if it is negative or positive. What people don’t realize is that when it comes to home based business rules, the idea of feedback expands more than just testimonials.As far as home based business rules are concerned with feedback, a common complaint that most people voice is that they are always asked the question if their business is a pyramid or they get associated with “one of those things.” They are looking for the golden answer, but there really is none. You just need to ask more questions and dig deeper to solve that riddle.But the point is that if every prospect you are talking to is asking you that question, then it’s something you are saying or purporting. Feedback is not always voiced; sometimes you need to self-evaluate and find the non-verbal cues. Once you understand how to pick up the non-verbal and verbal feedback, you need to learn from it and adjust your approach.2) Not every part of your business is sacredThis is important amongst home based business rules. Some people get too hung up on thinking that their products are superior to everyone else, and that nothing can touch them. Or their business has so many products that they think that every one of them is amazing. There are two flaws in that thought process.One is that if your product is so unique and wonderful, someone is going to make something that is less expensive or better. The second is that if you have a vast range of products, chances are that not every single one is going to be top tier. What’s worse is that some people get the notion that they have to excel at everything, and thus become lifelong students trying to be experts in every facet.You are in this business to make money, so the key is to simplify. Not every facet of your business is sacred, which means that you need to focus on one skill, one or two products, and one specialty. Focus, hone, and craft that skill in to money. Then, when you are making money, you can decide to add-on another skill or specialty to diversify.3) Technology + Marketing = Unstoppable DuoThis is the rule of all home based business rules. If you cannot embrace all 4 of the rules I’m discussing, then at least learn to become a professional at this one. Why? Because this is the formula for instant and prolonged success.I’ve always found it funny how offline marketers chastise internet marketers because they say that they are wasting their time online doing nothing. But what they don’t realize is that the ones that get it, and understand the power of internet leverage, learn to build their businesses faster. What’s easier: talking to 50 people a day or sending out a targeted solo ad to collect 50 opt-ins with just a few minutes time? The odds of success are about the same; the difference is time spent.Marketing offline and online should be utilized hand-in-hand, and coupled with the leverage of technology so that your lists get built faster, with less manual labor, and you get your message across more channels. 4) Don’t forget home based business rules 1-3It’s cliche, but it’s true. The downfall of most network marketers is the inability to duplicate, or create a repetition of successive action to create a sustained momentum. Most people are able to fly high off one big decisive action that produces massive results, but cannot re-create that same result. The outcome is that they fizzle out, like 90-95% of the network marketing populace.Thus, rule #4 is simple: figure out what worked in #1-3, and make it happen again. And when you have found the systemized protocol, hold on to it and spread it throughout your organization.While these home based business rules seem overly simple to the trained eye, they are specific representations of the pillars that require discipline in our craft of network marketing to be successful. Most people fail in this business because they are unable to heed one or all of the rules mentioned above. But that’s not you, because you’re here and reading this article. Therefore, you’re going to go out and ensure that the past failures don’t affect you.Arm yourself with this knowledge and proceed on in to the fight for your future.Was this article insightful? Is your business adhering to these 4 simple home based business rules? Do you have another rule that you would like to share? Comment below!

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