I talk to people all the time who are just starting their real estate career.  Some people ask me, “What’s the best area of real estate to be in?”  I often suggest timeshare.  Even if people tell me that they are interested in residential or commercial real estate, I sometimes suggest they work in timeshare for a year to get a solid foundation in sales.  There are three reasons that I suggest starting your real estate career in timeshare:

  1. You will learn to sell. Timeshare salespeople are the best salespeople in the world.  Customers are paid to come to the sales presentation.  As the family drives into the parking lot, they make a secret agreement on how they will deal with the sales presentation.  They pinkie swear with each other to not buy anything.  After talking to Joe Salesperson for two hours, they walk out having spent several thousand dollars.  Your average real estate salesperson can’t do that.  But your average timeshare salesperson does that several times a week.
  2. You will get the best sales training in the world. It’s no mistake that timeshare salespeople are good at what they do.  Nearly every timeshare company has paid training where they teach you how to sell the product.  The best companies have training that includes sales psychology, reading body language, and negotiating skills.  These are skills that will benefit you for the rest of your life.  Not only will you be provided training, you will be provided customers so you can hone the skills you learned.
  3. You will get good at sales because that’s all you will do. In residential and commercial sales, you will spend half of your time prospecting.  You will attend networking events, join civic clubs, mail out postcards, and talk to hundreds of people, with the hope that when they finally need your services, they will call you.  Once you’ve sold a house, you will also spend a lot of time dealing with title companies, mortgage companies, inspection companies, and a host of other people involved in the transaction.  You are not paid for this time.

In timeshare, the prospect is brought to you.  When they decide to buy, your job is finished. Someone else takes over to handle the paperwork, financing, and everything else.  Your job is to sell them, and that’s it.  You will do it many times a day, so you will get very good at it.

If you sell timeshare for one year – just one year – you will have a solid foundation to start any other sales career.  You will begin your residential or commercial real estate sales career as someone who knows how to sell rather than someone who unlocks the front door for customers.

If you need any help starting your real estate career, I can help.  Call me at (407) 493-3974.

Please note that neither I, nor anyone in the Climer family, have any affiliation with Climer School of Real Estate.  My father, Ron Climer, sold Climer School of Real Estate in 2014.  You can find me at Demetree School of Real Estate.