I'm looking into becoming a realtor (new agent, commission, Realtors, insurance)
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Is anyone her a realtor in lower NY? I'm looking into my career options and think real estate is something I might enjoy. What is the job market like? I'm actively looking for positions that would allow for a better work-life balance; do you feel like you're able to do this? Are there training programs for inexperienced but solid candidates? If not, is all the training "on the job?" What advice would you give to someone going into the field now?
Based on your questions, I would suggest you look for a different career. Being a Realtor is not so much a job as it is operating your own business.
That said, the job market is wide open. Brokers are generally willing to let new agents join the company. It's more money for them.
Work-life balance is not one of the benefits I think of when I think of a real estate career. Buyers frequently are only available after their work hours or on weekends so that means you need to work then. The same applies to sellers/listings. When another agent sends you an offer at 8:00 p.m. (or later) you need to be prepared to contact your seller and convey the offer. When you get an angry call from a seller on a Saturday morning because the last agent to show the house left the door unlocked, you need to be prepared to respond. When the neighbor of the vacant high-end listing calls to tell you the alarm has been going off for hours, you need to be prepared to check it out. (True story btw). Agents that are high producers and have been around for awhile can hire a team, but the new agent does all of this on her own.
As far as training--depends on the broker and possibly the franchise.
Being a Realtor is as much about marketing oneself as it is about marketing properties and services.
There is no work life balance during the busy season. It is all work. I'm grateful for the business and know it could slow at any time though so I'll take it. Our market is crazy and my buyers have to see a house day 1 or risk losing it, so I'm out there showing.
Also, what I don't think people realize is that Realtors are 100% commission based, no salary and no benefits. I had a friend from college call me looking to make the switch and she had no idea, needed steady income and insurance so she quickly changed her mind.
If you don't have clients you have no sales and no income. It is a much more difficult career to start than people think.
1: 75% of new agents will fail out of the business in the first year.
2: 87% of new agents will fail out of the business in the first 5 years.
3: Many new agents, will go broke and leave the business without ever selling even one house.
4: 15% of agents, will sell over 85% of all property sold.
5: Before you enter the real estate business, you need to save enough money to pay a lot of expenses most new agents do not even realize they will have to pay, as well as enough to carry yourself financially for a year.
6: A large percentage of agents, would make more money working at Starbucks than they will as real estate agents.
I speak from an insiders point of view. I had about 20 years sales experience on big ticket items prior to entering the business. I spent 1 year taking courses at a Major University studying real estate, to learn the ins and outs of the business before entering it. I entered the business in 1972, and stayed full time brokerage till I finally retired.
I chose investment real estate as my specialty, and only sold 6 houses for private use by the owners, all helping friends. On the other hand I moved a lot of houses in and out of ownership for investors. My first day in the business, I sold a 3 year old upscale apartment house to a former co-worker in the furniture business, and the third day in the business, sold the identical one next door. The next week I worked, I exchanged a 16 unit 5 year old apartment house for the down payment on a very good irrigated farm. I did more dollar volume that first 2 weeks, than most agents do in a year. I bought, sold, and exchanged middle quality single family dwellings for investors. My best house selling day was 14 in one afternoon. One was a home that a seller had offered me as they needed a quick sale, and the price made it good for investment, the other 13 were a small to be built 13 home subdivision, I sold all of them to investors, on the phone sight unseen in 2.5 hours. More houses than the average house salesman sells in 2.5 years. One investor bought 5 and no one bought less than 2. I handled investors, more or less as a stock broker does. Doing business with the same investors many times over the years, moving them in and out of property, when it was in my clients best interest.
On the other hand, if I was limited to selling individual homes to people buying a residence for their family, I know I would have left the business, as I would not have enjoyed it, or sold nearly the dollar volume I sold.
Is anyone her a realtor in lower NY? I'm looking into my career options and think real estate is something I might enjoy. What is the job market like? I'm actively looking for positions that would allow for a better work-life balance; do you feel like you're able to do this? Are there training programs for inexperienced but solid candidates? If not, is all the training "on the job?" What advice would you give to someone going into the field now?
Thank you!
Oh, dear God. Successful realtors eat, sleep and breathe real estate. Dabblers looking for a better work-life balance are starving realtors. About 2/3 of the secretaries in my office were licensed realtors. It is not a field for dreamers. As a lawyer in Arizona, I don't need to be licensed as a realtor as well - but my only question about entering into real estate sales would be, "Do I really want to work that hard?"
I have been a real estate agent for seven years selling residential Real estate in both Oregon and California. It's tough but it is what you make of it. Can you be successful and have work/life balance? Absolutely! You do have to work hard, you do need to give up weekends, and yes, there are some late-night calls. Don't let anyone tell you that when you first start out you have to work with the castoffs that a more seasoned agent doesn't want to deal with. You don't only have to work with buyers Who can only look at property after work and on the weekends but if you enjoy working with buyers, and a lot of agents do, and then it can be very rewarding. You will make more when you focus on listing properties. When you have a listing, other agents are working for you to find buyers for that property you have listed to sell. It's usually not a matter of if you are make any money, it's more a matter of when will you get paid because generally speaking, all listed homes will sell like they say in the car business, and there is an ass for every seat. And there is a buyer for every home. It all comes down to price and value. The condition of the home is a moot point because the matter what it is there's somebody out there to buy it. I have had a very successful years and I've had some really crappy years. And there are times it can be really discouraging but any job you do is that way isn't it? But if you are considering being a real estate agent, you don't have to do it full-time, you can do it part time. You can be successful as a part-time agent if you're not ready to give up a steady paycheck. I have a friend of mine who worked at a software company where I was working quite a number of years ago. Unbeknownst to me he had attained his real estate license and was working at an office as a part-time agent. His wife had a baby and he took time off to be at home with his wife for six weeks. During that six weeks he made more money and commissions then he would make in an entire year at his job. After six weeks he came back to the office and gave notice and became a full-time agent. Now he's a broker and he owns his own franchise and he's doing very well. You have to have an entrepreneurial attitude and mindset. If you look at real estate and said yourself "yeah, I think I can do that" then that probably isn't enough. You're running your own business so, particularly if you're going to do it full-time, you have to think about what you're going to do with that commission check comes in. Number one, pay yourself first. Take A little bit of that check and put it away. Number two, set up a separate bank account and put 25 to 30% of that check into it to pay your taxes. Number three set up an account that you will pay your bills. Number four. Put some of it into savings, it may only be 10% but put something away.
So going back to why am I a real estate agent? I work for a software company for 21 years and I was downsized out of the company. I became a statistic. I decided I did not want to work for anyone else because there's no loyalty in companies or corporations. It's not like back in the good old days where you could get a big fat pension from one job, go take another job work another period of time at that job and then draw another pension. Companies don't do that anymore. They making all of incumbent upon the employee to save for their own retirement and let's face it, 401K programs generally suck unless the company has a very high matching percentage which again, most companies don't have. So anyway, I got laid off and this was also when the economy was going south so I had at home I knew I was going to have to sell and I interviewed two Real estate agents. One I just didn't gel with and the other one I thought would do a really good job and during the conversation after asking her some questions and really developing a rapport she says to me "you really should do this job". Well I had her go ahead and list the house and I ended up getting my real estate license because I thought it would be a good idea and because I have this thing about going to open houses at other homes on the weekends or to new construction homes and see what they were doing. I would go look at these houses and get ideas about what I wanted to do with my house or I would walk away from a property and say to myself what were they thinking?
I already knew that I liked talking to people and looking at houses. My first sale was my own property as the principal and the agent. But you will have those days where you have a buyer that won't commit to anything, or after lots of conversation goes completely dark. You will have the client that you will drive all over creation who never ends up buying a property. Unfortunately you learn from mistakes but if you're lucky you will learn from other people's mistakes. As far as cost to get started, for a few hundred bucks you can get your license to an online system that's approved by your state. The biggest take away from those is that on the One hand you can obtain your license fairly quickly. However you don't learn the art of negotiation, they don't teach you how to fill out a residential purchase agreement or the best practices. You don't get any experience on how to make your offer look attractive when you're competing against other offers. I have no idea if you took a course in real estate at a college if you would learn those things either. But you get your license, you go to a brokerage and you can get a mentor that will help you. When I got my license, I joined a team and I learned a lot. I would join an office where you get strong support, you have a good managing broker, and seasoned agents that are not afraid to help you learn the ropes. There's nothing worse than going to work for a brokerage where all of the agents hide what they do and you have to try and figure it out on your own and you're wading into the deep end of a swimming pool.
Sorry for the long post… All I can say is best of luck if you decide to get your license. Oh yeah, it can get expensive once you pay for the course, pay for your licensing fees, when you joining office and you were a new agent you may be able to get them to absorb some of those upfront costs such as your liability insurance. At least for the first year. Oh, make sure you ask the brokerage you are considering about what type of marketing support they have, and whether or not they will pay for certain types of advertising or marketing on your behalf
Being a real estate agent isn't a position. So that is the first issue I see with your post. Real estate agents are small business owners who generate their own income.
Can you have work-life balance? Yes and no. I have two kids and go to track meets, concerts, coach clubs, etc. I can do this because real estate is insanely flexible. I book my own schedule. I control exactly how much money I make by how much effort I put into developing my business.
That said, most areas have a real estate season. Here it is April-September. I work long hours during those months as I will make a good chunk of my annual salary during that time period. The other 6 months I have less client time, but more business development time. It is a feast or famine business. You will have 80 hour work weeks for a while followed by 20 hour work weeks.
It isn't a consistent work schedule and the people that are successful are able to adapt to the sporadic nature of the business. They plan both financially and personally for the feast or famine nature of it. You can create structure within the real estate beast, but it is not a work lifestyle for everyone.
Moving is very stressful for most people so you have to deal with heightened emotions on a regular basis.
I agree with you, real estate agent is not a position. Most of the real estate agents do real estate business to earn extra income. So go for another career option.
Thanks!!
I recently heard someone in an internal training class say "I was going to start my own interior decorating business but didn't have the money, so I got my RE license instead,". That agent is going to struggle to succeed.
In that same class, a seasoned realtor said "best way to have $50,000 at the end of your first year as an agent is to start with $100,000."
Becoming an agent is the same as opening a business. You pay for EVERYTHING! Even if your office provides you with websites, forms programs, etc...you still pay for that via desk fees, splits, etc. You need to plan a budget, write a marketing plan and figure out how long you can go, not with MAKING no money, but with only SPENDING money! If you do not have at least 306 months of expenses (living and professional) saved up, do not go into real estate right now! Start saving money, talk to some brokers and agents and then decide what you want to do.
@OldTrader is right on with the numbers! It is doable, but go in with open eyes (and full pockets). You need to be ready to hustle and put in the time to grow your business.
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