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E-mail StoryRealtors joining profession despite tough market
| Thursday, May 1 2008 6:48 PM
Last Updated: Friday, May 2 2008 7:24 AM
A former welder, a hamburger stand owner and a one-time car salesman each had a real estate career in their sights Thursday.
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“I’ll give it a year,” said Kasey Choi, 34.
The owner of Bucko’s Jolly Kone Drive In, on 34th Street near the Kern County Museum, plans to sell homes as a side business.
He was one of 28 agents listening to ethics lectures and legal advice at a local trade group orientation Thursday morning.
Despite the deflated market, selling real estate seems to have a certain bombproof appeal. The Bakersfield Association of Realtors hosts these new member orientations each month. And while the crowds may be smaller lately, novice agents still come, convinced they have what it takes to beat the competition.
“Everything I’ve always tried has always worked out for me,” said Alfredo Ortega, 25, who got his license little more than a month ago.
“I decided, ‘Why not real estate?’” Ortega said.
The former car salesman figures he has experience on his side. He’s put aside some savings to sustain him as he gets started.
“I know the market’s slow, but it’s the best time to learn,” he said.
But it’s also probably a tough time to learn. Agents are competing for a drastically smaller pool of transactions. In March, 357 homes sold in Bakersfield, according to the association. Sales were down by 54 percent compared with the same month two years ago.
About half of all newly licensed agents will eventually drop, said J.R. Lewis, the Bakersfield agent who leads the monthly orientations.
As for any small business, success in real estate can be elusive, he said.
But he understands the draw. Realtors advertise heavily, so the job is an extremely visible and well-known career option.
“The biggest thing, I think, is that it allows people to create their own business with very few obstacles to beginning,” Lewis said.
The flexibility of the job was a big deal for Esteban Solano, 32, a one-time welder and former stay-at-home dad to three kids. An agent friend had told Solano his outgoing personality would make the job a good fit.
“He said, ‘With your character and the way you are, you’d be good at it,’” Solano recalled.
His friend may have been right. Solano got his license in March, and has already scored five sales. At the orientation, Lewis gave Solano a prize for being the first to arrive, praising him for a trait the veteran said is the mark of a good agent.
The listless market was on many of the attendee’s minds, but most talked about it as an opportunity, rather than a hindrance.
“I’m just not going to give up,” Ortega said.