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Anyone here a real estate agent?


sassenach
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I'm trying to think through possible career avenues for my post homeschooling life. Real estate is strong in my area. We're among the first to rebound anytime the market takes a hit. What appeals about it is its flexibility and that it can be potentially very lucrative, and it doesn't require years in school. But I don't feel like I know enough about it to know if it would be a fit.

 

I'd love to hear more about it!

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I have had several friends do real estate as an empty nest career. Some have done very well. The thing that will make you successful or not is service. You do have to realize you are serving clients. My friends who have done well BUSTED TAIL on customer service. In this area women do have an edge, and a perceptive woman can understand what people really want and help make that happen. 

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If you hustle and work really hard you can make good money. It's not very flexible. Most buyers will want to look at houses on the weekends. You are on their schedule. I've had many buyers where I show them the exact house that they described to me but they found something wrong with it. I now only do anything for my husband's investing company. Working for the sellers is about the same. You have to really hustle to get your name out there for listings. Some sellers are great and others require a lot of hand-holding through the entire process. It can be a great career choice for the right person. My friend is great but her kids are grown so she had a lot more flexibility that I do. 

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I'm not an agent, but I work for a real estate group.  They work their butts off.  Good agents can make a good deal of money, but it really takes a LOT of work.  In our group I see agents come into the office at 9AM, get their day rolling, go off to work with clients, and not get home until 7 or 8PM...that can be 6 or 7 days a week.  

 

Not to discourage you, but it can really take over your life.  It is hard to do it "light" and keep a client base.

 

ETA:  I do work with people that love their jobs, and it is a rewarding career.  It just takes the right people.  

 

Edited by The Girls' Mom
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It's not something I'd be into, but yes, if you're willing to work very hard with weekend and evening hours, you can do very well.

 

My neighbor down the road started very part-time when her oldest started college and ramped it up when his younger brother graduated from high school., Of course in the downturn she struggled, but now she makes more than her husband!

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I hold a license to sell real estate. It's expired though. I got it because when we bought our first house, we bought it through the listing agent, and she offered me a job as her administrative assistant. She was a well established agent who liked to travel a lot, so she had her assistant do a lot of showings for her, which requires a license in our state.

 

It wasn't hard to get the license. Granted, this was sixteen years ago, but it was simply two classes, each 30 hours, with tests at the end of each. I took them simultaneously, three hours a day total, four days a week, five weeks. Then I took an exam (which I found easy to pass) and had our cooperating broker agree to take me on.

 

At the time, there were two models of agent. One was that you kept all of your earnings but paid rent, your own marketing supplies, etc. That's how our office worked, and it was better once you got well established. The other model was to give a set percentage of your earnings to your broker's office, but they would cover your expenses. This was nicer for newbies. My boss treated me like the latter. I got all of her lower priced buyers (under 200K -- this was in major wealthy suburbs), and she walked me thorough the process, and kept a percentage of my earnings. It was a win-win.

 

Now, to make money, you have to work pretty hard. Yes, hours are flexible, but you also have to be willing to work evenings and weekends because that's what people have available. People are picky, and you have to understand what they're saying without them actually saying it. You have to be continually trying to market yourself and find new clients. You might list a house, show it a bunch of times, and then have your sellers decide not to sell after all, which means you may not get paid. Or you may spend a lot of time with buyers before they find The One. Otoh, sometimes listings sell really quickly, or the buyers are sweet and easy. It helps to be somewhat assertive because you'll need to represent your clients' best interests, but you also have to be level headed because some other agents are snakes. It helps to be a people person because you're always going to need to have contacts for mortgages, inspections, etc. A good agent really makes the move to a new area easier. I know ours did several times. It is fun to see different houses and picture a family in them.

 

I liked the job okay, but it didn't bother me to leave when I had my daughter. I don't know that I'd go back to it, but I'm very introverted and have no desire to make small talk with people I don't know well. If you enjoy meeting new people, you might really like it.

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  • 1 month later...

I'm trying to think through possible career avenues for my post homeschooling life. Real estate is strong in my area. We're among the first to rebound anytime the market takes a hit. What appeals about it is its flexibility and that it can be potentially very lucrative, and it doesn't require years in school. But I don't feel like I know enough about it to know if it would be a fit.

 

I'd love to hear more about it!

I am a full time real estate broker. I would be happy to share my thoughts with you on this. I can give you an idea of the steps it takes to get started to get your license and also ways to get help along the way after you get your license. My cell is 401-524-3716. Best,

Cliff Nulman

KW Realty of Newport

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Personally, I will only work with a real estate agent who does it fulltime.  It takes real focus to do a good job at it, and people who just want to earn a little extra money on the side don't seem as serious or as thorough as those who are doing it day in and day out.

 

Now, there might be some really good parttime realtors out there, but that's my bias, so a parttimer would have a hard time convincing me that s/he was doing a thorough and complete good job.  YMMV.

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Wow, I missed this post when it first came out--

 

I'm a full time real estate agent in Texas with a seven year track record. It does take work and a little time to get rolling in the biz. Once you get going, well, I've made some very decent money and I know people who make even more than I do. We take the adult kids and the granddaughter on a yearly vacation to build family memories. We are also slowly buying rental property to aid our retirement years. 

 

In May and June (and oddly enough, February where I am) it can take over your life, but otherwise it's a job. I regularly take Sunday's off and random afternoons from time to time. I take short trips with my husband when I can.  Yes, I have negotiated deals on Christmas day or on New Year's Eve--which is not an issue for me. My husband has a crazy career so the family is used to oddness. Plus my kids are grown adults. Every year we do some sort of vacation together and they know RE has paid for the majority of it. My office is in my home, so I can take a break to play with the dog or walk around the gardens. 

 

Let's see--a typical week for me looks something like this...

 

Mondays--it's delivering earnest money and option checks where they need to go if I have a buyer newly under contract. Most Mondays are office days--computer work, phone calls, paperwork. 

 

Most mornings are computer/office time or they are spent getting coffee with friends (potential clients. I'm a much more involved friend than I used to be--and I was a good friend prior to this career.) I schedule doctor and dentist appointments in the mornings. 

 

Some mornings and most afternoons can be spent showing property, interviewing for a listing, popping into an inspection, attending a closing, or other work of that sort. I spend a lot of time following up with my clients after their sale--so if I'm in a neighborhood I might spend 10-15 minutes dropping by a former client's home--usually a few times a year. 

​I need to be a bit more community and socially involved. I'm a natural introvert so all that follow up is about all I can handle. :) The more people you know--and know well--the better your bottom line with be at first. 

 

My car gets about 20K miles per year on it. 

 

The hardest things about this business--it's your business, if you put effort and energy into it, you'll get a good return. If you don't, you won't. You are fully responsible for saving part of your income for taxes--usually about a third. The second third goes to dues, fees, and marketing. Finally you get the last third. 

The single hardest thing is understanding that someone you've known forever will use someone else to list or buy their home....it happens every once in a while and wow, can you say, stab in the heart?....while a total stranger who got your name from a postcard mailing will trust you and send you many referrals. Weird. 

 

The third challenge is the search for business--if you don't market yourself in some way, you'll find a lot of extra time on your hands. (See challenge number 1)

 

Lastly--there will be times when deals fall apart, or or clients act like jerks.  A saying I have on my office white board is 'Tough Skin, Light Heart, Positive Attitude. 

 

In short, I love it. I've gotten a lot of fun benefit out of it. And, oh my, I've seen some fabulous houses--and some appalling wrecks. I've cried some tears and stomped around at times. I wake up at 3am and worry about my young buyer or my older seller or I sleep in because everything is under control. It fits me better than any other career I've had. Technology makes it much easier to have a life than 30 years ago. 

 

Feel free to ask questions--I love to help new agents get started. Naturally since I'm a former homeschool mom, I can recommend a number of good books you might want to read if you are interested. 

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If you hustle and work really hard you can make good money. It's not very flexible. Most buyers will want to look at houses on the weekends. You are on their schedule. I've had many buyers where I show them the exact house that they described to me but they found something wrong with it. I now only do anything for my husband's investing company. Working for the sellers is about the same. You have to really hustle to get your name out there for listings. Some sellers are great and others require a lot of hand-holding through the entire process. It can be a great career choice for the right person. My friend is great but her kids are grown so she had a lot more flexibility that I do.

99% of my transactions involve me representing my husband on investment property sales and purchases. The other 1% I take on clients very selectively for the same reasons you mentioned above. Right now I'm doing a favor for my husband by helping one of his business contacts find a commercial property for lease. I'm not enjoying it at all, because it's out of my area of expertise (and yes, the client knows this and doesn't care), so I'm learning as I go through the process.

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I was a RE agent for a few years, working for dh. He is an attorney who does a lot of real estate work, and he maintains a broker's license. It useful every once in a while, typically for existing legal clients.

 

I would usually help as a buyer's agent, which involved doing a lot of research and analysis, plus arranging showings. That part was pretty flexible, done whenever. The time spent with the clients was a very small fraction of my time. Sometimes I would go with them to open houses to see how they reacted to places, and that could eat up a good chunk of a weekend. Sometimes I would look at places on my own, and send pictures, especially for someone living elsewhere.

 

Dh did most of the negotiations. He had one client who wanted to hash out everything, at all hours. After that deal was over, dh counted 800 messages from the guy.

 

Another person, a distant relative, had me take him to dozens of places all over the state over the course of 3 months. Then his girlfriend found a place for them on her own. So I made nothing for 3 months work. The next time he wanted help, dh asked for an hourly arrangement instead, with a retainer up front.

 

I did look into working for other places. Most required new agents to cover a bunch of shifts in the office answering phones and doing other office tasks. Also, you are expected to have a newish clean car to drive people around. I actually tried working at one place that had a rental division, and got sent out to show some places. I quickly realized I was very uncomfortable taking complete strangers into empty homes! So, that part was not for me.

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