Ryan Lawson estimates that he’s already spent at least half-a-million dollars getting himself ready to be a successful real estate agent. The almost $80,000 fee for the salesman course was just the beginning, but he’s confident he made the right choice.

“I checked it out recently and I’ve spent more than $500,000 and probably pushing $700,000 — somewhere along that ballpark — and I’m still spending,” he told the
Jamaica Observer with a chuckle.

Like many others who dove into the field within the last year, the former credit union officer was spurred on by what he saw as a boom in major developments and a buzz around real estate. Lawson completed the Real Estate Board (REB) course earlier this year then successfully secured a place with a well-known brokerage. Now he’s in training, and getting himself market ready. That means new clothes to look the part — he said he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on three custom-made suits and shoes — a photo shoot to ensure he has content for building his brand, and a raft of administrative fees required at various stages of the process.

Included on the long list of costs he has had to absorb were fees for a police record, the REB’s licensing fee, and a membership fee for the Realtors’ Association of Jamaica (RAJ).

“Right now, I’m at the stage where I am paying for business cards, flyers, and signage and all of those things. So it’s an ongoing process,” said Lawson.

Meanwhile, Jacqueline Edwards-Locke is on the cusp of getting her licence; on September 24 she dropped off the forms needed to apply for it and hopes it will be in hand within three weeks. She will combine her 23 years of marketing and brand management skills with lessons learned during the course. She also spoke of the importance of newbies like her and Lawson investing in themselves.

“When you just start out you may not have a track record, but how you show up, how confident you are, and how you brand yourself will take care of some of those things. How you show up has many facets to it: what you wear, how you carry yourself, your knowledge of the industry,” she said. “You have to spend money if you’re going to make it as a real estate agent. So it is important to set aside a budget and do your business plan.”

Edwards-Locke has had an interest in the field ever since she interacted with the agent who sold her the house she now owns some years ago. Her vision is to have a successful career in real estate alongside her existing venture, 23+ Marketing Solutions Limited, so she was very strategic in her approach to studying for the exam and navigating the steps involved in applying for her licence.

She still remembers the sound of her heart pounding when she read the e-mail with her exam results. Passing was a vital step in her long-term plans. Like Lawson, she also spoke about the raft of administrative fees involved in investing in her future career.

However, ReMax Jamaica’s former Country Manager/Director for Growth and Expansion O’neil Kirlew cautioned that it may take a while for Lawson, Edwards-Locke, and other newbies to see a return on their investment.

“You get what you put in. There are agents that make good money, but it’s not at the snap of a finger. Like any other business, you have to put in the work. Just like any other business, you give yourself two years to start making money,” Kirlew told the Sunday Observer. “You invest in it and, over time, you build your clientèle to the point where you start seeing the return on your investment. The people who are making money now have been in it for a while.”

Andrene Morris can attest to that. November makes 10 years that she has worked in real estate in the USA. She said it took about 18 months to learn the industry and establish her personal brand.

“The other two years I made decent money,” she said.

For the first three-and-a-half years Morris was in resale, but she’s spent the last six-and-a-half years in new sales for a company in Florida. Now she has her sights set on the Jamaican market.

She decided to get licensed after a less-than-impressive encounter with a few sales agents when she tried to buy property. She sat the sales agent exam in late July and is among more than 100 students awaiting their results, scheduled for delivery in October. Her long-term plan is to return to Jamaica to live at some point.

“Since that last experience, we’ve encountered realtors that it’s a pleasure to work with. But I really want to build a team that can alleviate some of the stress and the hassle that I initially felt in trying to purchase property,” she said when asked where she wants to be within the next five years.

Like Lawson and Edwards-Locke, she is passionate about ensuring that locals get an opportunity to own their own homes.

“In Jamaica, everybody’s focusing on the big-ticket items. You have families out there that just want a little house. If you can get a number of those people together, you can really make a good living while you’re helping families,” said Morris.

But there is no denying that the commissions on those big ticket items look enticing, especially if you’re hooked on reality TV shows that focus on selling real estate around the world. Viewers may come away thinking all sales agents must be millionaires. In reality, commissions are usually split at least four ways: the buyer’s agent, the seller’s agent and their respective brokers.

In an ideal world, the two agents split the commission equally and their brokers then each take a cut. That cut, which sees the agent getting the larger share, is based on the terms of the contract between an agent and his broker.

In the US, recent changes mean there is no obligation for a buyer to pay commission to an agent. The seller’s agent may choose to split his commission with the buyer, a nod to the symbiotic relationship between the two sides of a deal. Morris thinks that change will not be good for the US market in the long run and hopes that it will never be implemented in Jamaica.

Though the change was required as part of a legal settlement made by the USA’s National Association of Realtors (NAR), to which Jamaica’s RAJ is an affiliate member, Kirlew is doubtful there will be an adjustment to commissions locally.

“I do not foresee any immediate change to that, irrespective of what took place in the US with the NAR. Even if that is going to take place, there has not been even the start of any form of consultation to suggest that there is any immediate look at that,” he said.

“The markets are just different. We operate differently. I don’t foresee that it will cause any change here in how our agents are compensated in the immediate future,” he added.

That’s good news for Morris, Lawson, Edwards-Locke, and all their classmates eager to get their share of Jamaica’s lucrative real estate market.