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hi,
i'm an Engineer by trait but have been thinking about getting my license and making some money on the side as an agent!
I'm 30, and I've bought a couple of personal properties in the northern VA area in the past few year and i'm pretty familiar with the high level processes involved.
I wanted to ask a few questions from you who do this for a living:
1. what are the first few steps of making this happen?
2. any special conditions for the area i'm interested in? (northern VA)
3. i'm hoping to do this mostly on the weekends...is this possible?
4. how much can i look forward to making? (i'm currently at 130 so quitting my day job isn't a wise option)
5. any other advice appreciated :-)
1. what are the first few steps of making this happen?
2. any special conditions for the area i'm interested in? (northern VA)
3. i'm hoping to do this mostly on the weekends...is this possible?
4. how much can i look forward to making? (i'm currently at 130 so quitting my day job isn't a wise option)
5. any other advice appreciated :-)
1. What you need to do to become licensed varies by state. Generally, you need to attend a class to learn the material and then pass the licensing exam.
2. No idea since I'm in Chicago, IL.
3. Yes. I have a broker's license in Illinois. I've set up an LLC and I have one agent working for me. I do this all on a part time basis, strictly for fun, and it doesn't interfere with my day job (in the financial industry).
4. You'll make money in proportion to how much time you invest. Generally, I invest almost no time at all in looking for new clients. All of my clients have been friends or family members. I generally only have a few transactions a year, which is enough to make me profitable after the Realtor association fees, MLS fees, LLC fees, and state license fees. I would never consider quitting my day job to do real estate either, but I like it enough that even if I only make a couple thousand a year, I am satisfied. I'm not getting rich doing this at all; 95%+ of my income is from my day job.
5. If money is your real goal, I think you should look into becoming a broker (may be called managing broker in VA) and starting your own company. The reason is that if you're an agent working for someone else, 30% to 50% of the commission on each sale goes to your managing broker. It is not difficult to establish an LLC and that way, you get to keep the full commission earned.
On the other hand, working with an established brokerage could help you to have a good stream of clients; that's something I cannot speak to personally because I don't want a steady stream of clients. I'm sure that agents that work in real estate full time can give you an idea as to whether or not working for the biggest/best brokerage firm in your area is a good idea or not (many won't take part time agents though).
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
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I'm going to paint with a very broad brush, so bear with me.
There are very few linear thinking engineering types that do well as salespersons. There's too much human frailty that rears it's ugly head during a real estate transaction. Not saying you can't be one of the exceptions.
Part time agents are the bane of the industry (Apologies to nikitakolata and others similarly situated) in general, they don't do enough transactions to actually figure out what's what and it complicates things for the agent on the other side of the transaction. Working weekends only and expecting much more than being able to cover expenses is unrealistic in my opinion. If you end up loving what you do and don't mind working 7 days a week in total, then by all means, go for it.
At this point I would never hire a part time agent again, but the one that I do have is an engineer and I would clone him for his thoroughness. He does tend to "not get it" when some clients act like the humans they are. He's definitely one of the brightest people I've ever met. He also does things like go home for lunch (But wait, what if the phone rings?), decide that if the phone isn't ringing, it's OK to leave early. (Ditto the above).
It doesn't take a great expense to get a license, so go for it and check your expectations at the door.
In my opinion, #3 means that the answer to #4 will be almost $0.
I work a desk in a small real estate office. We have about half a dozen full time agents who do well, and about a half a dozen part time agents who have closed, at most, 1 sale this year. Several haven't closed a sale this year.
Considering that annual dues in my area are around $1000 by the time you have NAR, state dues, local dues, lockbox fees, license renewal (every 2 years) and insurance, plus monthly fees to be a member of MLS and education costs for continuing education requirements (although many classes are free now if done online) one transaction barely pays for operating costs for the year, if that.
Real estate is a very time demanding business. Clients will expect you to be available during business hours. If your day job isn't such that you can make calls to title companies and lenders during the work week when they are open, that is going to be somewhat of a problem.
I wanted to ask a few questions from you who do this for a living:
1. what are the first few steps of making this happen?
2. any special conditions for the area i'm interested in? (northern VA)
3. i'm hoping to do this mostly on the weekends...is this possible?
4. how much can i look forward to making? (i'm currently at 130 so quitting my day job isn't a wise option)
5. any other advice appreciated :-)
1. As others stated you need to take your class and then find a brokerage to hang your license with.
2. In Oregon so I can't help you with that.
3. No. Title companies and lenders are open business hours during the week. You have to be able to respond during those times otherwise you will have transaction problems.
4. Depends on how hard you work.
5. Don't screw people over. Look...while you want to make "extra money on the side" that is fine, but this purchase is A LOT of money to a buyer or seller. If you don't have time to stay on top of the ever changing mortgage requirements, the real estate law changes, and changes in verbiage required in transactions, you will screw over a buyer or seller. They are counting on you to be the expert and know everything. If you don't have time to know everything just be upfront with prospects that all you can really do is open doors and fill in contracts. AND whatever you don't do take any short sale or foreclosures for buyers or sellers. You won't have the required time during the week to handle those. Just be upfront that you do real estate on the side and are pretty much unavailable during the week to potential clients so they know what they are getting into with you as their representation.
3. No. Title companies and lenders are open business hours during the week. You have to be able to respond during those times otherwise you will have transaction problems.
While I said that you can do this buisness part time, this is true as well. My job is very flexible; I sit in a private office and I can take/make calls whenever. I do 90% of my showings on the weekends, but I do a lot during the week as far as looking at the MLS, searching for properties, etc. I spend at least 2 hours a day on the MLS. Admittedly, I do that during the day on my lunch hour a ton. I also spend time during the evenings just because I am interested in it and like to see what has been contracted, sold, etc.
Personally, I think for being a part-time agent to work you have to be really interested in real estate and not interested so much in the money. I do it because of an interest, since, as I said, I don't make much.
My friends are going to buy places regardless. It doesn't take a huge amount of skill to search the MLS, make appointments, write a contract, etc. (I will mention that I'm an extroverted person and have a very legal type mindset; my day job involves a lot of legal work, so writing a contract just makes sense to me.) My friends use me as their agent because they're comfortable with me, they don't feel like they have to hold back criticisms during the showings and they know that I'm not worried about the money. I spend about 50% of my commission on housewarming gifts anyway.
I would definitely not go into real estate as a part time job as a way to make significant money. In 2006 that may have worked, but the markets have slowed down a lot now. If you don't really enjoy it, trying to do it part time will make you miserable, I think.
1. As others stated you need to take your class and then find a brokerage to hang your license with.
2. In Oregon so I can't help you with that.
3. No. Title companies and lenders are open business hours during the week. You have to be able to respond during those times otherwise you will have transaction problems.
4. Depends on how hard you work.
5. Don't screw people over. Look...while you want to make "extra money on the side" that is fine, but this purchase is A LOT of money to a buyer or seller. If you don't have time to stay on top of the ever changing mortgage requirements, the real estate law changes, and changes in verbiage required in transactions, you will screw over a buyer or seller. They are counting on you to be the expert and know everything. If you don't have time to know everything just be upfront with prospects that all you can really do is open doors and fill in contracts. AND whatever you don't do take any short sale or foreclosures for buyers or sellers. You won't have the required time during the week to handle those. Just be upfront that you do real estate on the side and are pretty much unavailable during the week to potential clients so they know what they are getting into with you as their representation.
It bears repeating as does DMenscha's. Part time agents usually unintentionally screw over their clients with the best of intentions. If you want part time work go get a job at the mall or something. I wish there was a way to get the part timers out of the business.
hi,
i'm an Engineer by trait but have been thinking about getting my license and making some money on the side as an agent!
I'm 30, and I've bought a couple of personal properties in the northern VA area in the past few year and i'm pretty familiar with the high level processes involved.
I wanted to ask a few questions from you who do this for a living:
1. what are the first few steps of making this happen?
2. any special conditions for the area i'm interested in? (northern VA)
3. i'm hoping to do this mostly on the weekends...is this possible?
4. how much can i look forward to making? (i'm currently at 130 so quitting my day job isn't a wise option)
5. any other advice appreciated :-)
As has already been pointed out you can't just do this job on weekends or decide not to work weekends. You have to arrange you schedule around that of your clients even if that means you are writing a contract at midnight on New Years Eve sometimes.
I would advise anyone to have some significant savings put aside before going into this. It takes a while to establish yourself and you can't expect to make much at first. While you are getting started you can't help but only be part time because you won't have much business. I think where there can be a problem is when you do have real estate start filling more of your time and if you are working for example 9 to 5 somewhere else you have to hope your clients can be patient enough to work around this. In the course of the day even if you have only one client there may be at the very least some phone calls you have to make, a document or two that has to be signed and get to somewhere etc. or you won't be representing your clients as well as you should. Will your other job allow you to do that? Probably not.
I do have more than one job, but I am completely self employed at both. This can work. I have had a bad experience with a part timer, who openly admitted that she didn't know what she was doing, laughed about it, screwed things up for her client and expected me to "carry her through it." If you don't know what you are doing and don't care you leave yourself wide open for getting sued somewhere along the line. If you can't give clients you full attention don't go into real estate.
I just want to say something in defense of part timers, which I am sometimes, really depending on how much business I have at the time. Often enough those with the most business are the biggest nimrods. Don't assume that someone knows what they are talking about just because they have been in the business a long time. It doesn't make them right and often enough they aren't. I would advise reading the blank contracts over and over and make sure you understand them. You will sometimes find seasoned agents that don't.
I agree with those who say that it will not work just on weekends. I myself let go one weekender. He was very knowledgeable, very thorough (engineering background), with a lot of certs but quite rushed during weekdays. It's like we asked a question to the listing agent, he left them a text message and then forgot about it (I had to contact the listing agent myself). We sent him a list of questions, he answered a half, and forgot about the rest. We asked to run comparative analysis, he ran it during lunch but forgot about some filters we asked about. Out of the 2 houses we were inquiring about, he completely skipped the second one. Etc. And we're not very needy clients, locate properties ourselves and don't spend months searching around for a "dream house".
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