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I am 28 and have a full time job and it pays the bills and then some. As a side job i would like to get a real estate license and learn the ropes. Im sure the first step would be get the license. But then what ?
I ask because I always hear people say "oh i wanna get into real estate" and it sounds so cliche.
But ultimately there are people that make and those that dontin this field. I am willing to learn the business, work hard and am not looking for a quick pay day.
There's absolutely no barriers to entry, which means it's over populated. A couple big dawgs at the top that dominate and a whole lot of people fighting for a small slice of the rest.
Unless you have mega contacts, it's tough to do it 'on the side'
Agreed with said above. You would need an extensive network of contacts to make money in this business. It takes time and effort to accumulate it - hardly possible doing it part-time.
It's very hard and I've seen people come and go after a few weeks cause it's not what they expected. When I first started it took me 2 months before I got my first deal. Thankfully my other business (night club promoter) allowed me the time and income, also my wife works too.
I've seen people come from the corporate world either do ok after a rough start or fall apart in 3 weeks cause of the structure they were use to.
Most part timers I know are only successful if they have been doing this a while and then do other stuff along with this not try to get into it brand new part time.
Please keep in mind and use this forum as an example of how the nyc real estate agent is already thought of as terrible. It's kinda like that as well when people first meet you so you would have to show them why/how makes you actually worth getting paid for. Like i tell my clients, I don't care about throwing my company under the bus sometimes as long as my personal brand isn't tarnished. My reviews speak for themselves.
I get months when I'm super busy then one month I'm not. So knowing how to manage your money and preparing for no income from time to time is important too. Realistically you need to dedicate at least 35hrs or more a week to really know how it works here. That doesn't guarantee you will make money either but that amount of time will show you what it's really like.
There is a reason why often the upper echelons of RS sales/brokers in areas like NYC, SF, LA etc... are white/European and or women/persons that come from wealth or comfortable circumstances; it takes having someone else providing money for your living expenses when starting out until you can start making money, if you ever do.
Look at the Sunday paper real estate section and you see at least for the top brokerage agencies you'll see the same sorts of persons over and over again.
Straight or gay it does not matter; to succeed in real estate sale you have to have several qualities. One of them of course is the skill and knowing how to market and sell. Interpersonal skills are *VERY* important because unless you know how to sell yourself persons aren't going to want to be bothered.
In boom time and or when other career options are few everyone and their mother wants to sell real estate. Classes are full as are brokerage offices with newly licensed sales agents. A large majority won't last six months or even less.
Besides no income coming in until you do your first deal (and often not even then depending upon commission, commission and draw, etc...) few persons can afford to spend six or seven days a week at the "office" working telephones or out in the fields doing showings all often for nothing. You are always out there chasing listings, sometimes things work out, others not.
Cannot stress enough having people skills, without them you'll never succeed in RS, especially at the higher end. About 90% or more of the business is based upon word of out recommendations and reputation.
Case in point just read in last Sunday's NYT about a young blood on the high end side that started his own property management company for residential RS. His company has grown by leaps and bounds but his idea came from seeing a niche opening. Having already worked with brokers in putting together deals for international and others from out of NYC that purchased property here, he spied an opening. Those owners were always contacting him about "where to get this or that", and to deal with tenant matters (many rent out their properties), in short he saw a need for property management for those owning investor property. Since persons both in the business and investor/owner side already knew him launching is business was "easy", that is he already had or at least identified potential clients.
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