Some real estate chatter in here and since I am involved, I am happy to separate fact from fiction for any who care to know the truth on a couple things.
1. Ross is joining Charter House and is excited to do so. Ross and I have been friends for years and he is excited to be able to help people in central Iowa buy and sell homes.
He is currently going through his licensing process and should be available to help people sometime in February. We think Ross will do an AWESOME job and if you need to buy or sell, we hope you will give him a shot.
2. The licensing process is pretty straightforward. You do an online course to start. Read a chapter and take a test. This takes 40-60 hours depending on the person.
After that you take 3 in-person classes that takes one week to complete.
You must pass a background check and then you take the real estate exam which is comprised on a state and national portion which covers real estate laws and procedures.
The whole process, including becoming a member of an MLS will cost right around $2,000.
3. It is true that nationally, the average real estate agent does not make a lot of money. Keep in mind these numbers get skewed by people doing it part time or just 1 or 2 deals per year to help friends or family.
The agents doing real estate "full time" at Charter House made $79,000 on average last year. All of them have been in real estate less than 3 years. Each agent pays Charter House $5,000 per year to be part of this firm. That is extremely low in this world.
Hope this clears up a few things. I am HAPPY for Ross and for Chris that they got fired. They both came out of this thing better than before and that is a great thing for both of them!