By:
Elizondo Mendoza
Fin-180
Dr. Hansz
I had the opportunity
to interview Frank Llano who is one of my brother’s friends and who used to be
a realtor. I was interested in
interviewing him because I felt that he had a unique story to tell since he
never attended college or had any inspirations of one day working in real
estate. By interviewing Frank, I was
able to find out more about real estate and what it is that realtors do. He was able to give me an insight of the real
estate world and clarify some of the beliefs that I had about realtors and real
estate as a business.
As
I sat down and spoke with Frank, he told me that he never imagined himself
working as a realtor; it was something he basically stumbled into. He knew that he had good people skills and
he enjoyed working with people and since his friend was already working as a
real estate agent, he felt that he could do just as good as his friend or
better. The reason he got into real
estate was because at that time the real estate market was good and he saw an opportunity
to make some money. He didn’t have to go
to college to become a realtor he was able to obtain the knowledge and
licensing through the company that hired him.
At first Frank can be an
intimidating person with a 6 ft. 4 in. and 265 pound frame, but with a calm and
friendly demeanor people naturally get a sense of protection and comfort around
him. He is very outgoing and with his gregarious
and dynamic personality he had ample success selling houses. I asked him if one has to have that kind of
personality to succeed in real estate.
He told me that there is no particular type of personality that
guarantees success. He met many people
in the business that were successful with different types of personalities and
goals. He said one basically just needs
to enjoy working and interacting with people, it is very important to make the
clients feel comfortable around you.
He told me that being a
realtor takes a lot of dedication and one really has to be in it whole heartily
if one wants to have success and longevity in their career. He worked relentlessly at first because he
said it is very important to build a strong base and build connections and
relationships with people. For him, it
was basically a 24/7 job, even on weekends and late evenings he was still
working “one always has to be prepared and dress for success” he chuckled as he
thought about his days as a realtor. He
enjoyed his job, since he is Latino he naturally gravitated towards the Latino
community and he tried to help those families that hardly had any credit, bad
credit or were looking to become first time home owners that were oblivious
about the process of buying a house.
Obviously, he said one of the things he enjoyed the most was the
relationships that he built with the people that he was trying to sell houses
to and the satisfaction that came with it knowing that he was helping them.
The first couple years
he was working in real estate, he said he worked very hard and built a strong
base and was having great success, but he said the hard work and his off-work
personal issues started taking its toll on him.
After five years, he said he was unable to focus and remain fully
dedicated as he was before, therefore, he decided to give up being a realtor right
before the liquidity crisis of 2008. He
told me that it is hard to have a long successful career in this profession;
pretty much only 15 to 20% of the first year realtors end up staying in that
profession, the rest move on to different things. Besides not being dedicated he told me he was
also getting tired of the lack of integrity and ethics that goes on in the
field. He said real state can be a “cut
throat” business with some self-serving realtors using unethical and deceitful
practices to be able to get their money and further their careers without
caring about the clients the way they should.
I asked him if he had
any regrets about leaving the real estate business or if he had any plans on
returning in the near future? He said
although he is older and wiser and especially now with the market flirting with
stability he believes he can be successful again just as he was when he first
started as a realtor, but he does not think he would venture into real estate
again. He really enjoyed his brief time
as a realtor, especially the relationships that he built, but now he has other
future desire outcomes that he is pursuing and being a realtor was just another
chapter of his life.
I had a great time
conducting this interview with Frank and I could see with his personality why
he would be a successful realtor. I always
had the misconception that a good realtor had to be outgoing, talkative, or
have a dynamic personality, but through this interview, I have learned that
those things do help, but anybody can do it just as long as they have a good
work ethic, attitude, and right mentality.
Frank really emphasized to me the importance of net-working and building
trustful relationships with people that one can depend on. I would like to thank Frank Llano for the
interview and I wish him the best in his future endeavors.
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