Hello all! I've been lurking on these boards for a while and just signed up and wanted to get some opinions from agents that have experience.
I've been a successful real estate agent in PA for the past seven years and have gotten to a point where I've built a team that can run itself with minimal involvement from me. There's nothing in the world like owning your own business and working for yourself! I know many people will think I'm foolish for trying to get into insurance but I honestly would rather work for a client for the rest of their lives vs. a couple of months while I help them buy/sell a home. I will never give up real estate 100% but I feel that insurance will be a much better fit for me and plan on concentrating most of my efforts towards it. My father is currently a CPA and Financial planner and what I planned on doing was renting some space from him in his office so that we could have it all under one roof. I've gotten all of my licenses but I'm in no rush to jump into this and want to make sure that I do things the right way. In the next couple of weeks I'm talking with three local agents that I know to pick their brains and see what advice they have to offer. One is an independent and the other two are Erie Insurance agents. From reading the information on these boards what I've decided to do is either buy a book of business from an Erie agent (which are almost impossible to find) or start my own independent agency.
Buying a book of business would probably be the easiest choice but I'm not independently wealthy and I'm kind of stubborn and like to do things on my own. I don't know very much about being an independent agent but from everything I read, it makes the most sense to me. You can offer different insurance carriers to your clients which in my eyes means that you should be able to get them a better price and policy because you can shop it around...is that correct? I'm assuming that it's very hard to get appointments with different carriers with little or no experience and a small book of business. How can I work around this situation? What are the other adv or dis of being independent?
Sorry for such a long post I'm just really excited about this opportunity and I apologize in advance if I asked any dumb questions.
Thanks!!!
I've been a successful real estate agent in PA for the past seven years and have gotten to a point where I've built a team that can run itself with minimal involvement from me. There's nothing in the world like owning your own business and working for yourself! I know many people will think I'm foolish for trying to get into insurance but I honestly would rather work for a client for the rest of their lives vs. a couple of months while I help them buy/sell a home. I will never give up real estate 100% but I feel that insurance will be a much better fit for me and plan on concentrating most of my efforts towards it. My father is currently a CPA and Financial planner and what I planned on doing was renting some space from him in his office so that we could have it all under one roof. I've gotten all of my licenses but I'm in no rush to jump into this and want to make sure that I do things the right way. In the next couple of weeks I'm talking with three local agents that I know to pick their brains and see what advice they have to offer. One is an independent and the other two are Erie Insurance agents. From reading the information on these boards what I've decided to do is either buy a book of business from an Erie agent (which are almost impossible to find) or start my own independent agency.
Buying a book of business would probably be the easiest choice but I'm not independently wealthy and I'm kind of stubborn and like to do things on my own. I don't know very much about being an independent agent but from everything I read, it makes the most sense to me. You can offer different insurance carriers to your clients which in my eyes means that you should be able to get them a better price and policy because you can shop it around...is that correct? I'm assuming that it's very hard to get appointments with different carriers with little or no experience and a small book of business. How can I work around this situation? What are the other adv or dis of being independent?
Sorry for such a long post I'm just really excited about this opportunity and I apologize in advance if I asked any dumb questions.
Thanks!!!
