Interview

Interviewed: Bobby Dhillion

By: Lovdeep Singh

Fin 180

Dr. Hansz

3/5/12

            The objective for this blog post was to interview someone in the real estate field. The person I interviewed is my neighbor. He is a retired real estate agent.  Now he buys old homes and fixes them up and rents them out for profit. Sometimes he resold the houses to make an instant profit.  Through this interview I want to focus more on his current profession, to add some variety to the blog post.

1.    How did you get started in this field?  

·         Over the years many people’s homes have been foreclosed, therefore sold for much cheaper than the actual value of the house. In this there was an opportunity to make profit.

2.  What exactly do you do once you buy the homes?
• Once I have bought the homes I usually fix any problems with the current structure. Once that is completed, the remodeling begins. Remolding the homes can increase the value of the structure tremendously. In the past the homes were resold for a good profit, but in today’s market it’s much better to rent then to sell.
3. What are your major responsibilities?  
• Major responsibilities are to collect rent, check up on the homes to make sure renters are not damaging anything; which isn’t always easy. You never know who is going to be a good tenant.
4. What is the most rewarding aspect of your job, least rewarding?
• The most rewarding thing about my job is that I am my own boss. I own about 11 homes and they are all being rented out. The least rewarding thing about my job is probably the hassle of collecting rent every month. If they don’t pay it’s hard kicking someone else and making them homeless.

5.    What is your educational background?

·         Received a Bachelors in Business Management, this helped me become more knowledgeable of what people want and need. Being a real estate agent, it is important to know how to speak to people and understand what they want.

6. Would you recommend doing business Management for real estate?
• Business Management is a great degree to have; it allows opportunities in a variety of fields. Real estate is a business and you need to know how to manage it. To answer the question, yes business management provides great educational benefits towards real estate. But to understand real estate more directly, you should take basic real estate classes.
7. What is a “typical” day like for you?
• A typical day for me isn’t the same every day. Usually check up on every house once a month when rent is due. Rent is usually due different weeks for everyone that way there is time to properly observe the homes and make sure everything is running fine.
8. How long did you work as a real estate agent before you retired.
• 15 years
9. How do you stay current with real estate information?
• The local newspaper always provides information on real estate for sale or news updates. Even the internet provides information that is always useful.

Through this interview I have learned that you don’t need to work professionally for a major company to do real estate. Anyone with the general knowledge of real estate can buy or sell real estate. Of course in this situation his real estate background did help him. Even though I will not pursue a career in Real estate, I believe through basic knowledge of real estate someday I may be able to buy and rent homes to.