Any Realtors out there for advice? (1 Viewer)

[Brandon_T]

I am a stay at home Dad and am worried about the security of the job I do have. Plus I don't really like it that much, but I get to work at home 4 days a week. I have always wanted to be involved with real estate, but didn't know where to start.

I have pretty much decided to try and get my real estate liscence and start my career in that field. I need something that is fairly flexible, can be part time, and I can work mostly at home with. I was hoping that if there are any Realtors around that can give advice or their general experiences that would be great.

Thanks in advance.
Brandon

 

[Jesse Sharrow]

I am very interested also. Sorry to piggyback. :-D

 

[Kirk Gunn]

Is Real Estate really a career that supports telecommuing ? Seems it is mostly "face time" with lots of local travel in your area. Tons of driving...

Hope you like aggressive sales !

 

[Leila Dougan]

I'm not a real estate agent, but I know a few people who are. From what I've seen, it's a lot of driving and a lot of time spent outside the home. I really don't see how you could do it while watching children, unless you plan on having someone else watching them when you have to go out.

 

[DaveF]

I'm curious what the experts have to say. My experience from house hunting is as the others say: realtors spend much time outside of the home, showing open houses, visiting homes with clients, visiting house new to market, etc.

But, as an essentially independent contractor, you can work as much or as little as you want. You can also set your own hours (so far as clients will accept that), so you can choose to spend time at home. And what paperwork is involved, I guess you can do that at a home office.

 

[Kirk Gunn]

And your paycheck will certainly reflect this amount of effort...

Brandon - do you need this to be a large portion of your families income or just supplemental ?

 

[Brandon_T]

Currently I am mostly supplemental income. I was thinking that since it is something that I have always been interested in, the part time income is probably greater than my current part time income. My wife makes a decent living in one of the highest paid school districts in the state. Even though she has this summer off, she is attending her masters classes 4 days a week. Currently I only make $3-400 a week at about 30 hours a week.

 

[Scott Tucker]

To be successful at Real Estate you must get listings. Pound the pavement and get people to list with you when many times they don't want to. To be good at it you will have to work outside the home a lot. You must be able to motivate yourself to go out and get listings instead of doing things that may be more fun like golfing, playing w/the kids, etc. Also, it is 100% straight commission. Don't list or sell you don't get a check. I did it for a year, and it really helped my golf handincap. I went from a 20 to an 8. Of course i never got any listings and made 15k the first year.

Scott

 

[Drew Bethel]

The realtor I worked with said his goal was to be home at 7pm every night to put his toddlers to sleep...he rarely made that goal!

 

[Eric_L]

Real Estate sales, or any other type of sales for that matter, not only give back proportional to what you put in, but also has a very high threshold of diminishing returns.

The part-time realtors who have any earning to speak of are usually successful realtors who are slowing down and just handle previous clients and their referrals or are people who have very extensive social nets and nice-groups. If yo are neither then part-time will not work.

However, full time, with EXTENSIVE front-loaded (aka low-pay) effort can result in a six-digit income.

 

[Tom Meyer]

I've got several friends who are agents and it is basically a 24x7 job if you're planning on being any good at it. There's no way you can work from home.

 

[Robert Marc]

if no one mentioned it, plan on working weekends as well. you don't see too many open houses on weekdays.