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All other things being equal, in multiple offers, broken English loses the bid.
"You never get a second chance to make a first impression."
I work in a diverse community and with many agents whose native language is not English, and observe routinely that language barriers often precede issues with nuance, idiom, negotiation and contract comprehension.
Mike is speaking truth -- don't brush it off. Contractual issues are made up of a hundred small details, any one of which can sink a deal if the other side chooses to play hard-ball. If you are in a multiple-offer situation and the seller has reason to fear that the process will not go smoothly for whatever reason, even a matter such as non-standard English skills, you and your client will lose.
I know, language helps. I also, hope I can start to work for agency not as an agent, maybe office help at the beginning. I started to manage my own rental property (4units), it was long time plan to get this one. I am pretty confident of what I am doing, I just realized I don’t want to be just RE investor. I want to go beyond it. People can judge my English I don’t have problem with it.
Download Grammarly. It will help to point out most of your grammatical errors and the basic service is free.
You will have a problem with people judging your English when you lose deals or clients. One of my agents was from the country of Georgia and Grammarly helped him tremendously in his writing. As his managing broker, I had three people forward emails from him to me so I could see them. I insisted he used a grammar program from then on.
When you are helping people buy something worth a lot of money, they care about your ability to communicate effectively. Use tools to help you improve.
The guy who cuts my hair is originally from Lebanon.
He spoke no English when he came.
Got his license to do hair, and was very concerned.
His family told him, "Watch cartoons."
He did. The Lion King, with the nieces and nephews.
Scar tells the Hyenas, "Stick with me, and you will never be hungry again."
He absorbed that.
His first client was very pleased with his work.
He said, "Stick with me, and you will never be ugly again."
And dang near got killed.... LOL
I told this to my wife and dang near had to Heimlich her....
The guy who cuts my hair is originally from Lebanon.
He spoke no English when he came.
Got his license to do hair, and was very concerned.
His family told him, "Watch cartoons."
He did. The Lion King, with the nieces and nephews.
Scar tells the Hyenas, "Stick with me, and you will never be hungry again."
He absorbed that.
His first client was very pleased with his work.
He said, "Stick with me, and you will never be ugly again."
And dang near got killed.... LOL
I told this to my wife and dang near had to Heimlich her....
Language matters. Greatly.
I never realized how many idioms and slang words I used throughout my day until my Georgian agent. He was constantly asking me what they meant.
thanks SILVERFALL I am going to check- Grammarly you mentioned. Yes, I definitely need something that I can stick with. I work on gramma with my kids school homework but it is not the same. Also, just working in the RE office would be great experience, let's see, I have to make decision before 20th of Jan. 2018 I am more on the side to be in RE industry.
I never realized how many idioms and slang words I used throughout my day until my Georgian agent. He was constantly asking me what they meant.
No kidding! I work with an agent who grew up in Mexico -- she is wildly intelligent, three degrees, multiple languages, and is a wizard at putting deals together. She is always after me to "fix my English!", so I have carte blanche to correct her, and she is always asking me to explain idioms.
One of my favorites was when she was declaring that she was going to be doing a "blit-zee" on a neighborhood. I gave her a blank look, and said, "Is that Spanish for something?" "No! English! BLIT-ZEE!" "Spell it." "B-L-I-T-Z" "Ok, that's BLITSSS" She went back to her desk, muttering "Blitsss, blitssss, blitssss . . ."
She also misses a lot of movie references, but that's ok. Her English is still 1000% better than my Spanish.
There is a guy in our neighborhood he started dropping of flyers about 3 years ago and today is a top producer in the area. I am guessing he is in his 70's and does better than most agents in the area.
Now his age could help him, my neighbor wanted to list with him thinking all that experience, reality is he only had his licence 3-4 years. If you look to young they may think you lack experience, I guess the point is don't let your age hold you back, if your in sales use it to your advantage.
I would argue starting at 40 after many years working in the private sectors or other business ventures prepares you greatly for it.
I can tell you I went back into it at 39 and I would not trade it for the world. There is nothing better then waking up on a monday and setting my own schedule vs. sitting in a meeting room staring at a power-point.
You should go for it and not look back.. Just make sure you have a decent reserve so you can give yourself some time to market and prospect without pressure of having to close deals at light-speed.. It will make you a better agent and you will get better referrals.
Just note - its not an EASY job at all.. I would argue its much harder then your mid-level career job.. BUT.. Doing what you love ensures you will never work a day again...
Go all in and don't look back!
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