Insurance Agent Forum

[memphisrocks]

For the past 7 years I have been a real estate agent and investor, but need to increase my income due to the down turn. We do property management and I have a base income coming in of about 3000 a month on what is essentially "residuals" and new rentals that don't take much time.

I got my insurance license years 6 years ago, but never did anything with it except play around with medicare advantage last fall. My credit is bad due to some judgments from credit cards due to my failure in starting my own brokerage.

I can sell and have sold over 3000 properties so I am confident in my ability to sell and market. I have been offered the opportunity to sell as an employee for a Farmers agent. My comp would be 100% 1st year for anything sold first six months and 90% the second six months and then becoming a permanent 75% of commmission for first year and 50% of renewals. The personal lines would start out and remain at the 75/50 level.

Does this sound like a good deal? I plan to work commercial accounts and will do cold calling and aloso work my contacts to sell P&C as I have a lot of real estate contacts and property owners to work.

I also may try to sell health insurance as well using some of the autodialers mentioned here.

[dannysdad]

Originally Posted by memphisrocks

For the past 7 years I have been a real estate agent and investor, but need to increase my income due to the down turn. We do property management and I have a base income coming in of about 3000 a month on what is essentially "residuals" and new rentals that don't take much time.

I got my insurance license years 6 years ago, but never did anything with it except play around with medicare advantage last fall. My credit is bad due to some judgments from credit cards due to my failure in starting my own brokerage.

I can sell and have sold over 3000 properties so I am confident in my ability to sell and market. I have been offered the opportunity to sell as an employee for a Farmers agent. My comp would be 100% 1st year for anything sold first six months and 90% the second six months and then becoming a permanent 75% of commmission for first year and 50% of renewals. The personal lines would start out and remain at the 75/50 level.

Does this sound like a good deal? I plan to work commercial accounts and will do cold calling and aloso work my contacts to sell P&C as I have a lot of real estate contacts and property owners to work.

I also may try to sell health insurance as well using some of the autodialers mentioned here.

You've sold over 3,000 properties and you want to get into the insurance business? What's wrong with you? Are you telling the truth? At a lowball average of $3,000 commish/property, you've been pounding about about $1.3mm/year. Something ain't right.

[djs]

Not to many realtors seem to make the transition to insurance agent very well.

The deal you are being offered is actually really good. It's an easy way to pick up some extra income as residuals over time. It's also a great complement to your existing business.

You won't get rich on insurance when you work it part time, but it will help cover some extra $$$ when real estate is slow.

It's good to see they are offering some extra $$$ up front to help you get established. You will still have to get appointed through the carrier, so the credit issues may come back to haunt you a bit, but if the collections are minor, they shouldn't matter.

Dan

[memphisrocks]

Originally Posted by dannysdad

You've sold over 3,000 properties and you want to get into the insurance business? What's wrong with you? Are you telling the truth? At a lowball average of $3,000 commish/property, you've been pounding about about $1.3mm/year. Something ain't right.

The average profit/comission I made was lower say around $1500 each. It was since 2001, but I had a huge income and also at one point hired 12 employees as I was diversifying myself out of business. I made a poor decision in trying to diversify into owning my own brokerage and then kept staff on in the face of a down turn.

I have made mistakes and accept them and will not repeat the same mistake. The opportunity in real estate is not what it used to be and the market has changed. I appreciate the other person that answered and actually gave me the info I was asking to recieve. That way I can go into my training session today fired up and redy to prospect.

[ABC]

It looks like it might be a good deal.
With your back ground I would stick with the PC side as your main focus. Have you done any research on where Farmers is the most competitive?

I would agree with the above post that being a part time agent is going to limit your production.

[memphisrocks]

Yes I am going to target on the fields of commercial insurance that Farmers is competitive.

I am going to be focusing on the insurance full time and real estate part time. I realize I may have confused some of you in the first post. It appears the deal from my agent is fair and I have a list of leads to start calling in the morning.

Thanks for your help.

[dannysdad]

Originally Posted by memphisrocks

The average profit/comission I made was lower say around $1500 each. It was since 2001, but I had a huge income and also at one point hired 12 employees as I was diversifying myself out of business. I made a poor decision in trying to diversify into owning my own brokerage and then kept staff on in the face of a down turn.

I have made mistakes and accept them and will not repeat the same mistake. The opportunity in real estate is not what it used to be and the market has changed. I appreciate the other person that answered and actually gave me the info I was asking to recieve. That way I can go into my training session today fired up and redy to prospect.

With your experience, if you stay focused on one thing, you'll be unstoppable. Good luck.

[salpro22]

[quote=memphisrocks;99281]The average profit/comission I made was lower say around $1500 each. It was since 2001, but I had a huge income and also at one point hired 12 employees as I was diversifying myself out of business. I made a poor decision in trying to diversify into owning my own brokerage and then kept staff on in the face of a down turn.

Was the bad decision related to you trying to start your own brokerage OR hiring 12 employees to perform whatever job roles that needed to get done?