Rookie Real Estate Agent in Bay Area Credits Mentorship
Add to that the softening real estate market, and it seems like being a new real estate agent is not really a good idea.
But don’t tell that to Tyler Moxley. The 23-year-old agent with Alain Pinel Realtors in Pleasanton was recently named Rookie of the Year by the Bay East Association of Realtors. In a profession that seems to be harder for everyone, he excels.
But if you think that distinction has gone to his head, you would be very, very wrong.
Moxley credits the strong mentorship of his mother. “I’m actually the fourth generation in my family to go into real estate,” he explains, pointing out that his great-grandmother, grandmother also sold real estate. “I believe my great-grandmother had a brother or father who also sold real estate, but I’m still researching that,” he adds.
Actually, make that an award-winning family background in real estate. Team Moxley won the 2004 Pinnacle Achievement Award from Bay East, and the office is ranked among the top one percent of all realtors in Alameda County.
Moxley says that seeing the real estate profession for what it is, and having a strong mentor to guide him, has made a huge difference in his career.
“I think a lot of people get into this and they think it’s a quick way to make money, that it’s easy.”
Moxley says some newer agents go into the business assuming they can work part-time and make plenty of money. “They see home prices around $1 million, and think, ‘Hey, at 6 per cent, that’s $60,000. I could sell one house and be set for the year.’ But what they don’t realize is that by the time you split the commission with the other agent and your broker and pay for insurance and all the other things you need to pay for, you may end up with maybe $12,000 or $13,000,” he explains.
And Moxley well understood the need to work hard from the beginning, citing another common misperception that an agent can get by selling the homes of friends and families. “After awhile, family and friends run out. And people want to work with an expert, not just someone who sold their mother’s home or their brother’s house.”
In fact, Moxley relishes the hard work and excruciating attention to detail that other new agents find so troubling. “You’ve got to know how to do a lot of things and be good at a lot of things. I had somebody showing me how to do things. Most people don’t.”
While Moxley says knowledge is key, putting that knowledge to use successfully makes a large amount of difference. “You need the hands on, you need an actual transaction, you need actual clients,” he says.
Interestingly enough, the reasons Moxley cites for his success mirror the results of the California Association of Realtors study. Agents who left in that study cited a lack of support as being among the key reasons they chose to either switch offices or leave real estate altogether. Those who stayed the full five years cited training and mentorship as being vital to their success.
To his credit, Moxley also says he has always been willing to ask a lot of questions and to talk to people about what they are doing and why. He started assisting his mother about three years ago. He received his real estate license in 2004, and after some brief stints assisting others in the construction industry while attending school, returned to real estate.
Moxley admits, however, that he wasn’t really interested in other professions. “I knew, after working in them, that I didn’t really want to do construction or carpentry,” he says.
Which isn’t surprising. Real estate appears to be in his blood.
For more information about Bay East Association of Realtors, visit www.bayeast.org. For more information about Tyler Moxley and East Bay real estate, visit www.krismoxley.com.
