Success as a Real Estate Agent For Dummies
- ISBN13: 9780471799559
- Condition: New
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Success as a Real Estate Agent For Dummies shows you how to make your fortune in the real estate business. Whether you are looking to rev up your real estate business, deciding whether to specialize in commercial or residential real estate, or just interested in refining specific skills, this book is for you.
This no-nonsense guide shows you the fun and easy way to become a successful real estate agent. It provides expert advice on acquiring the skills needed to excel and the respect and recognition you’ll gain through making sales and generating profit. Soon you’ll have all the tools you need to:
- Prospect your way to listings and sales
- Build a referral-based clientele
- Work with expired and FSBO listings
- Plan and host a successful open house
- Present and close listing contracts
- Market yourself and your properties online and in print
- Negotiate contracts and avoid derailment
- Stake your competitive position
- Achieve excellent relationships with clients
- Spend less time to earn more money
This guide features tips and tricks for working with buyers, must-haves for a successful real estate agent, and common pitfalls that can be avoided. Also included is a list of Web sites for real estate agents that are valuable resources for success. With Success as a Real Estate Agent For Dummies, you’ll discover how to acquire key skills and get on track for a successful career!
Rating: 
(out of 37 reviews)
List Price: $ 21.99
Price: $ 10.34
2 Years to a Million in Real Estate
Quit your day job!
Make a million in real estate!
It’s easier than you think!
A few years ago, Matthew Martinez was a lot like you – he worked hard to make as big a salary as he could. But it wasn’t enough. He worked by the clock, and yearned to be his own boss. With a small amount of savings, he acquired his first rental property. Two years later, he was making more from his rentals than he was working 9 to 5, so he quit his day job to oversee his real estate investments. Today, he enjoys a multi-million-dollar collection of income-producing properties–and he’s ready to share his money-making strategies so you can begin your own journey to career and financial independence.
Two Years to a Million in Real Estateshows you everything you need to know, including how to
- Invest small amounts early-on while working a full-time job
- Avoid real estate “bubble” risks
- Get others to pay your mortgage for you
- Pick a hot property (and spot others that will become hot)
- Simplify the ins-and-outs of financing
- Negotiate like a pro
- Screen for reliable tenants
- Understand how local tenant laws work
- Hire good people to manage your properties
- Know when to sell
(20061208)
Rating: 
(out of 91 reviews)
List Price: $ 21.95
Price: $ 11.99
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Review by David for Success as a Real Estate Agent For Dummies
Rating:
From the opening cheat sheet to the last top ten list in this book on ten best web sites for real estate agents. This booked is packed with quality information and value. From the first chaper on Discovering the Skills of a Successful Agent to the last chaper Maximizing Your Time you will not be able to put this book down like I couldn’t.
It was obvious through every page of this book that the author not only was an expert in selling real estate successfully himself as confirmed by his bio of selling 150 homes annually while only working on Monday – Thursday to do it. I was also clear that he has coached and trained a large number of agents to become Successful agents.
I loved the chapter on researching and understanding the marketplace. He teaches a couple of techniques to really track and understand the marketplace and how to use them to attract and secure new buyers and sellers. Before this book I had no idea of the power a few of these tracking and simple research techniques he demonstrates and neither did my broker when I asked him.
In the chapter on prospecing it lays out the how’s, where’s and why’s of prospecting for new business and lead generation. He also shares how to list For Sale by Owner and expired listings complete with tracking systems, scripts, things to send them via marketing.
Chapter 6 Mining Your Databse for Referrals is priceless. I learned so much about how to ask for referrals. The scripts to use in the asking for business. He also shares how to take a referral to what he calls a higher level getting the person giving the referral to help you “improve” the referral by asking them questions about the person they are referring, approval of using there name, and even calling the referral on your behalf. This chapter alone was worth the money for the book.
The author, Mr Zeller takes you through open houses from selecting the right home criteria, to marketing, to set up the day of the open house to conducting and securing the names of the vistiors. The chapter on doing a quality listing presenation is outstanding. I learned the questions to ask before hand. He gives you a structure or agenda he calls it for the presentation. Along with how to separate youself from the other agents through your services. In addition I learned home pricing strategy to insure that my listing will sell. How to talk with the seller since most want more for the home than it is worth.
The book goes through staging the listing with checklists, marketing myself online and my properties, negotiating contracts and closing them, postioning yourself in the marketplace and against other agents, keeping clients for life with check lists on how to service your clients.
The chapter on maximizing your time was awesome! I know the value of my time and how best to get paid well for the time I invest in my business.
This book is really the turning point for my real estate career. I only wish that it had been available earlier in my career. It is a must read for any agent not just a new agent. It is the best money that I have spent in my career thus far!!
Review by Peter Bartholomew for Success as a Real Estate Agent For Dummies
Rating:
The title says it all,”…For Dummies.” Dirk Zeller puts it into perspective. When we receive our license, walk into the office of our choice, pay to create an image, what next?
Many agents and REALTORs have made the same mistakes as our collegues. This book teaches not to make those mistakes, and is a comprehensive guide as to what to do.
If one wants to make a career with real estate, I strongly recommend this book.
Also suggest “The Little Red Book of Selling”
Review by C. Ward for Success as a Real Estate Agent For Dummies
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As a broker/owner, I bought this book for my new agents. We love it! It’s a fast-read with easy-to-implement ideas. I keep it as a reference in my office! Dirk Zeller is an excellent author/coach and the ‘Dummies’ format puts his ideas into yet another presentation form.
Review by Graham Millward for Success as a Real Estate Agent For Dummies
Rating:
This is a very comprehensive book for beginners and experienced realtors. It seems to be losely based on the teachings of Mike Ferry by an experienced agent who actually did what he writes. I highly recommend it with one reservation: much of it is very similar to the book The Champion Real Estate Agent written by the same author. If you buy one of the books you don’t really need to buy both.
Review by A. Walker for Success as a Real Estate Agent For Dummies
Rating:
If ever I’ve read a book that I’d wished I could press it against me and absorb every tidbit of information by osmosis, this is it! I reached a point where I was delaying sleep at night just to continue learning from this incredibly informative book. As a newbie, I find the chapter on marketing/advertising especially helpful. I’d initially checked the book out from the local library, but quickly realized I needed to buy it to have on hand as a reference source. This is a must-buy for anyone just entering the field or considering becoming a Realtor!
Review by Benjamin P. Goodman for 2 Years to a Million in Real Estate
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In spite of the inspirational title this is NOT a get rich quick infomercial style real estate scheme. You feel the author’s pain as he describes the tenant who doubled his water bill filling up the neighbor’s pool. Then he explains the micro-economics of how that increase in expense effects his property value. As a real estate broker with a good grasp of the market, I found that he does both an excellent job describing property investing fundamentals, but then applying them to specific properties. I highly recommend this book.
Review by Brian Slater for 2 Years to a Million in Real Estate
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Like most people considering buying this book, Matt did not start his real estate career with a large sum of money for down payments. He did not receive gift loans from relatives; he was simply the average American with a day job and no huge savings.
His principle is based on leverage and using OPM (other peoples money). To the skeptic and beginners the last sentence might read something like “His principles are based on taking HUGE RISKS” but this is not true. All successful real estate investors use significant leverage. But the key, which he explains is having the knowledge. Risk, is therefore, simply having a lack of knowledge on the subject and Matt is the bridge maker who will close the gap for you.
The great thing about this book is that it is “Fluff Free”. Matt does not just give you a basic principle and then follow with zero detail (which is a major criticism of the great Robert Kiyosaki books). Instead, all 182 pages are packed full of “need to know” information. There are even several appendixes after the 182 pages that give you quotes, further suggested readings, and samples of letters/forms you will need in your own real estate business. I took notes the entire time I read this book and ended up with 20 pages in Microsoft Word, this book is the real deal.
One last word. Undoubtedly, like anything in the world there will always be a few skeptics. Scattered throughout all of the positive feedback on Amazon you will see a comment or two of criticism, do not let this scare you. Everyone has heard the old cliché, “misery loves company” so don’t fall for into these people’s traps. If you take the time to read this book and take action on what you have learned success will be inevitable.
Review by D. Luchansky for 2 Years to a Million in Real Estate
Rating:
I think Matthew’s book is a good read for the beginning/ intermediate real estate investor. I am 33-years-old and pretty well versed in real estate, having my RE license in CA and having done probably 3-4 personal deals, but the book opened my eyes to some new ideas. For example, Matthew elaborates on a plethora of unique ways to fill a vacancy, how to evaluate in detail potential investment properties, different ways to get financing for down payments, etc. He also lists a ton of other real estate investment books to reference.
I think the main thing I have come to realize from reading his book is that cashflow is king. Building a million dollars in equity really is not the point. Receiving a nice monthly cashflow stream from buying the right properties is what it is about. After I read his book I started evaluating certain investment markets which showed me that you can realistically have probably $50k- $200k to put down and be able to cashflow $1k- $4k a month, which I personally would consider a pretty nice start. And if you’re worth a million and own the right cashflowing properties? Well, I’ll be writing a book like Matthew at that point!
Review by JJ for 2 Years to a Million in Real Estate
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The book follows the author on his path to success through real estate management/investment. When I reached the point in the book where the author made his first real estate investment purchase in the summer of 2002 I paused to consider the housing market he succeeded in. With a copyright of 2006, the author must have generated the bulk of his successes between 2002 and late 2005/early 2006 – heady times for the real estate market. His claim that the book will “… teach you how to duplicate my achievements…” is questionable given the present housing market. If he were starting out today would he have achieved so much so fast?
The book is easy to read and I like the way points are summarized at the end of each chapter. I’m just concerned that someone whose advice is based upon an experience gained during very favorable housing market conditions might not hold up under tougher times.
Review by gregory dwyer for 2 Years to a Million in Real Estate
Rating:
I stumbled upon this book by reading the author’s complementary review of Larry Loftis’ book on duplexes, triplexes and quads. I thought it spoke well of the author to write a nice review of a “competitor” so I gave the book a shot.
I was pleasantly surprised. The book is EXTREMELY complete. (In fact, I preferred it to Loftis’ excellent book) The first several chapters deal with the author’s beginning as a dot com worker who started to dabble in multi-unit investment and chronicles how he quickly increased his net worth and eventually quit his job to devote himself fully to his real estate “empire”.
The remainder of the book was very meaty as well. It basically gives all of the ins and outs of buying and managing properties, including a secion on dealing with Section 8 tenants which I’d not come across elsewhere in my reading. There is also a lot of information about landlording and the laws which deal with it. Martinez seems to be quite the careful sort, and I guess experience in real estate must teach you to always be on the lookout for potential troubles. Perhaps his guidance and advice will allow me to skip any “shortcuts” I might otherwise have tried.
In my view, a successful “how to” book must inform and motivate. Martinez does a good job of that, motivating the reader with the success stories included in the first few chapters while also being extremely informative in the remainder of the book. Don’t be fooled by the sensationalist title, which kind of makes it seem like a get rich quick book (though I’m sure the title helped to sell a lot of books). What the book IS is a thorough manual of how to proceed in investing and managing your rental properties and growing your wealth along the way.
Five stars.