On today's episode, we are continuing my story from my W2 life all the way to building a successful real estate business. In part one of my story, we talked about losing my last W-2 job on February 26, 2019. The second part we talked about the mental breakdown and emotional journey that resulted from that loss. Today I want to talk about how I went from that point to real estate and getting my real estate license. I remember calling Andrew, who is now my team leader, and asking him about real estate. When he asked about banking, I told him the story of losing my job and how I had always been interested in being a mortgage lender. Real estate always interested me, but I never saw it as an option. Andrew filled me in on the good and the bad—what he loves and doesn’t love about real estate. He had seen my gifts with people and relationships, as well as sales, and he thought there might be an opportunity for me in real estate. I saw it as something that I would love to do down the road…someday. I thought I’d look at getting licensed but get another W-2 job in the meanwhile. I went through this lull from February through June. I applied for a ton of jobs and had a ton of interviews with many banks in the area. I even talked to my old bank about a job and while they brought me in for several interviews, they always went with other candidates. I did everything I could to find another W-2 job—I had five to ten interviews a week. I was just trying to survive. I was concerned that we would lose our house and just not survive. My wife was working at the company that had just fired me and was due that September with a baby. There was a lot of pressure and stress. It was amazing the negative comments I got about not being able to provide—rude and obnoxious comments. I remember the haters and the doubters too well…but now they motivate me and I’m thankful for them, because they motivated me to prove them wrong. In June, my wife and I processed everything and felt like God had something different for me—I didn’t know what the plan was, but I knew I trusted Him. I looked up the real estate classes and decided to sign up. The classes went from June to August, and I continued applying for jobs and interviewing in the meanwhile. I remember the last interview I had—I really thought I was going to get the job, but an internal candidate came in at the last minute and they gave the job to them. That was when we decided I would stop applying for jobs. I finished the classes, studied for the exams, and passed the state and national exams to be a Realtor. I remember Andrew telling me that if you want to be successful in real estate, you must put the effort in and be all in—that it was hard to be a part time Realtor. He encouraged me that if I wanted to do it that I should do it full-time and do anything I could to make money now. I literally was doing anything I could to make a dime—Ubering, DoorDash, Lyft. I would have to be really desperate to go back to that, but I was willing to do anything I could to provide for our family. Looking back, I can see how God provided for us and took care of us. We were able to pay our bills and keep the house. I felt like God wanted me to do real estate. Once I decided I was going to do real estate, I went all in, but that’s a story for the next episode. So that was the lull I went through from February to June where I officially decided to do the real estate classes. In August I got licensed. On the next episode I’ll talk more about that. Thank you for listening to my story and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode.
Resources
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Podcast edited by Kenny Carfagno.
Show notes and blog posts are created by Jennifer Harshman and RealtorEmails. John Schuchman is a licensed REALTOR® in Lancaster, PA, with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty and a part of the Andrew Welk Group. The opinions shared on this show represent the opinions & values of John Schuchman and do not necessarily represent the opinions & values of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. The opinions & ideas shared in this podcast do not guarantee or promise any results of success to the listener.