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To be a "good" agent, you need to be available 16 hours per day, 7 days per week. It is more demanding than a full-time job. P/T is not a viable option. Being organized, always upbeat and positive, while able to disclose negatives is essential. Pricing properties at right price and uploadimg to MLS with full batch of 36 pix on the best day of week with no errors is essential. Agents are reluctant to hire assistants, as they do not want you moving into their jobs later. There are many fees associated with being a member of various realtor organizations, locally and nationally. All the fees and expenses cannot justify work as a part-time agent.
Ive posted some other threads about potentially career change but going back to school full time while trying to do work or not working is just not an option. Ive done some research and I think that RE might be the way to achieve what Im trying too. So I have a few questions.
I have a good job now but for a lot of reasons I want to change careers. Mainly quality of life. I get up at 4 am for work and get home at 530-6 pm every day. I cant be as involved in my childrens lives as I would like and I already live a long way from my job and my commute is brutal but I want to live a bit more rurally which would be even further. I live in NJ
So...
Is it feasible to start as a part time agent on weekends and evenings before becoming full time?
Will a broker want to take on a part time newbie agent?
Is it better to be a buyers agent or a sellers agent as a newbie?
Is there any advice you would give me as a part time hopefully full time agent in the future?
In northern NJ where the home prices are above average how difficult would you consider it to be to make 60-70k a year?
Befire you do I recommend you watch the Bravo series, "Million Dollar Listing" and see just exactly what goes on behind the scenes in the world of real estate selling. If only I'd known I'd have never bothered getting it.
The world of real estate is like any high-profile milieu like acting, politics or the uber-wealthy. The doors are closed to most of us. You need charm, personality, connections, large circles of friends, and a kind of personality that just naturally attracts people to you. Diana will tell you that 99% of people who get their licenses drop out of real estate after 6 months because they cannot build the network they need to get people to come to them. You can become a buyer's agent and ferry people around homes on your dime to open doors for them. But nearly all of them will go to their friends afterward to actually sign the contract. They're only using you for the free ride. Unless you already have a large social circle of friends and acquaintances who have the money to purchase and flip and then purchase and flip again, that kind of thing, I'd say don't waste your time.
If you are considering doing real estate part time, you need to know that many of the expenses will be the same as for a full time agent.
Some of the more obvious EXPENSES:
Dues -- in most cases you will pay annual dues to your local Board of Realtors, plus state and national Realtor memberships.
MLS annual fees
If your Board has electronic lockboxes, you'll probably be paying annual fees for service for those.
Agent Website
Marketing
Education
Licenses
Errors & Omissions Insurance
Office Expenses & Supplies
(SNIP)
TAXES
(SNIP)
Other things to consider:
No safety net -- no guaranteed income, but expenses keep rolling in.
(SNIP)
Your commission check gets split many ways -- typically your broker will take a percentage of each commission check as part of your agreement with the broker to work under their broker license. As much as half of each check could go to a broker. That doesn't include what you must set aside for social security, medicare & income taxes.
Buyers are fickle. You may show a buyer 20 homes only to have them walk into another agent's open house and sign a contract without you.
Once you have a contract, it can take 30 - 60 days or more to closing. That is, IF you make it to closing. Once you are under contract, it becomes the agent's job to deal with issues and "put out fires" over things such as bad inspection reports, low appraisals, stubborn buyers/sellers, etc. There is no guaranteed paycheck at the end of a contract. If the deal falls apart, YOU don't get paid.
(SNIP)
Networking -- you will find out that many of your friends and acquaintances won't want to work with you as a newbie, part-time agent. Which means you will need to learn how to lead generate from scratch. Not an easy task even for many seasoned agents.
That is not to say that real estate as a career is not rewarding. I've been in real estate for over 20 years and cannot imagine doing anything else. But you should go into this knowing what to expect in the way of expenses, taxes and ability to find customers and get those customers to closing. We are in a field where you get paid for successful outcomes.
I have been researching and I do know that your Broker costs a lot, especially when you first start and need a bit more guidance. The websites I read said 30% but I havent actually talked to anyone yet. My agent that is also a friend said his broker cost 30k. Once he was paid it was a small yearly fee he paid to use office space and such. I did know about putting taxes aside also.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JakeinChina
This I think is a great idea. My sister in law when first starting out in real estate was an assistant down in Florida. She did everything they asked, and even kissed the agents backsides by getting them coffee and breakfast once in a while just to gain knowledge on how the business works.
She worked jobs that most people didn't want to do. Now she's an established RE agent and is worth around 2 million bucks because of her hard work and hustle.
It's not for everyone. I don't think it's a job where you work part time and take it easy to collect some income. I'm not a RE agent, but it certainly feels like you're either all in our your not going to get business.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BoBromhal
Residential brokerage is not a part-time job unless ...
1. you're doing it to buy/sell yourself or for investors
2. you have unmarried friends that are within a circumstance (nothing but time, nothing but money) that they don't care when they buy/sell.
3. you live in a place with few agents and few home sales that happen quickly
As far as this not being a part time job my agent when I bought my house had a full time job in accounting and did RE in the evenings and weekends. He specified communication via email or text during business hours with him returning calls periodically through the day. He does pretty well. Im actually going to set up a meeting with him to chat and see about his brokerage.
A guy who is in my same field and who i have worked with on the job at my regular full time job got his RE license in NY and did the part time thing for a while and just transitioned to full time and quit his job. I am also going to reach out to him
To be a "good" agent, you need to be available 16 hours per day, 7 days per week. It is more demanding than a full-time job. P/T is not a viable option. Being organized, always upbeat and positive, while able to disclose negatives is essential. Pricing properties at right price and uploadimg to MLS with full batch of 36 pix on the best day of week with no errors is essential. Agents are reluctant to hire assistants, as they do not want you moving into their jobs later. There are many fees associated with being a member of various realtor organizations, locally and nationally. All the fees and expenses cannot justify work as a part-time agent.
I am going to research more about the fees associated with the work to make sure ive seen everything, thank you.
Everything Ive researched and read suggests that it is possible to work part time. The people here are the first ones Ive seen say its not possible. Ill keep researching
If you have a pulse a real estate company will hire you. Sometimes if you don't have a pulse, a real company will still hire you.
The bigger problem will be your flexibility. It's not all showing homes which can happen evenings and weekends but plenty of buyers look during weekdays also. The closing process involves inspections, lenders, attorneys and that's mostly M-F 9-5 bankers hours to handle the closing processes. The same is true for the learning. The broker won't care what hours you work, but the training is usually during bankers hours as well. Brokers may take a call but they don't want to hang around in an evening or weekend to train you.
Do you have flexibility to work during a weekday as needed? If you don't find something else to do until you can make the leap full time and save yourself the time and expense.
If you have a pulse a real estate company will hire you. Sometimes if you don't have a pulse, a real company will still hire you.
The bigger problem will be your flexibility. It's not all showing homes which can happen evenings and weekends but plenty of buyers look during weekdays also. The closing process involves inspections, lenders, attorneys and that's mostly M-F 9-5 bankers hours to handle the closing processes. The same is true for the learning. The broker won't care what hours you work, but the training is usually during bankers hours as well. Brokers may take a call but they don't want to hang around in an evening or weekend to train you.
Do you have flexibility to work during a weekday as needed? If you don't find something else to do until you can make the leap full time and save yourself the time and expense.
This is the reason I'm going to reach out to a few of the people I know who have made part time work to an extent and see what they did. I'm not sure what the rules are here for posting names of brokerages but the one I'm researching right now does a lot of virtual training which I have the flexibility for.
This is the reason I'm going to reach out to a few of the people I know who have made part time work to an extent and see what they did. I'm not sure what the rules are here for posting names of brokerages but the one I'm researching right now does a lot of virtual training which I have the flexibility for.
Virtual training only goes so far in helping deal with real world problems. They can't prepare for all the curveballs that get thrown your way from start to finish.
If you have a pulse a real estate company will hire you. Sometimes if you don't have a pulse, a real company will still hire you.
The bigger problem will be your flexibility. It's not all showing homes which can happen evenings and weekends but plenty of buyers look during weekdays also. The closing process involves inspections, lenders, attorneys and that's mostly M-F 9-5 bankers hours to handle the closing processes. The same is true for the learning. The broker won't care what hours you work, but the training is usually during bankers hours as well. Brokers may take a call but they don't want to hang around in an evening or weekend to train you.
Do you have flexibility to work during a weekday as needed? If you don't find something else to do until you can make the leap full time and save yourself the time and expense.
This!
Per NAR, there are currently 53,931 Realtors in NJ. That doesn't include agents who aren't Realtors.
Why would I, as a buyer or seller, choose to use someone not committed to the profession?
Having dealt with part-timers before, I can tell you it is very annoying when they can't answer calls, show properties, or deal with all the things involved in the process until later because they have a "real job".
Good training is so important. If you are watching videos to learn, you're losing out on so much. You can learn so much just sitting in an office. Listening to other agents and impromptu chats with your broker and fellow agents can stop problems before they happen.
The bar for entry into the profession needs to be raised. You never hear someone say "I'm looking for a career change, maybe I'll become a lawyer.
How many people will want to list a house with someone who will regularly decline to show it during certain times/days? Not me. I want a full time agent with experience when I'm trying to sell my house. I'd consider someone with less experience, but only if I get the impression they're hungry and will do what it takes. You're coming across as neither, rather more of the dilettante "bored wife of executive decides to play at selling real estate" type. That may not be accurate, but it's not making me think I'd call you to list my house.
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