Career Change Advice

My husband is a realtor. The bottom line after three years in the business - the hours are long and the work is hard. We stopped thinking about what he was making per hour. After fees, taxes, and effort, it is depressing to consider. Typically work is after hours (5 p.m. and later) and on the weekends. Without a doubt he works more hours than I do. He gets up with me and gets after. He is working long after I get off at night. I am off on the weekends but he is insanely busy. It is a pain for our family time.

He spends hours working with clients and it doesn’t always pan out. The client's financing can fall through, the seller and buyer can’t reach an agreement, the client decides to change areas and won’t necessarily keep my husband as the realtor, etc. My husband is a natural salesman so he never had problems working with clients. However, it is a ton of work and hard work at that. The constant phone calls, e-mails, and texts. All aimed at closing deals - persuading buyers and sellers alike, working with mortgage lenders/appraisers/inspectors/etc, the negotiations with all parties involved, the handling of people and their fragile egos/unreasonable expectations, the juggling of all the various factors. For every successful agent we know, there have to be at least ten who don't make it or who don’t contribute meaningfully to their household budgets.

Offices have their politics like any other office. However, the annoying factor is you are trying to work deals and make stable money based on sales. Others agents can be exceptionally cut throat because to be otherwise might mean you won’t make money. Money doesn’t bring out the best in people. You also have to factor in commission splits. You work your backside off on these deals and your broker takes a big chunk out of the earnings. I don’t think there is such thing as an average yearly income. Honestly I think you could reasonably expect to make at or slightly below the poverty line your first year or two. You will work your backside off to make every dime you earn. So much of the business is based on referrals. It takes time to grow your client base enough to get referrals/repeat business. As one agent told my husband you better be exceptional at budgeting to get through those lean times where you don’t make money for weeks on end.

In the end I agree completely with Kimberly F. Ultimately real estate is a competitive sales job and it is realistically an expensive hobby for most agents. If you want to try real estate, find an agent who needs an assistant. You will have the chance to make steady money, learn the business and decide if it is for you. Good luck.

I answered this one the other day. If you have $5,000 or so to start to pay for study material, license exam fee(s), license, yearly MLS fee, monthly MLS fee, booth space at real estate office, advertising, business cards, stime to do floor duty and sit at open houses and are available 24/7 for 365 then you might be able to be a real estate agent. If you have kids you have to have a back up who can take your kids when you get a call to show a house or an appointment for a listing.

There are many times when you think a sale is going through and it falls apart at the last minute. So you can't count on any money until it in your hands after the real estate office takes their percentage. You are also an independent contractor so you are responsible for all taxes at the end of the year. You also need a separate checking account so that you don't co-mingle your personal money with your business.

Right now is not the time to be in real estate because things are not moving very well and many who have been in the profession are having a hard time making a living. Some are working part time in other fields. The realtors making money are ones that have been in the business for over 15 years.

I say all this because I did this about 12 years back. You must work this as a full time job by constantly canvassing your town and talking to neighbors and going through neighborhoods to find people that want to sell their home and will list with a realtor. Sometimes you do all the work and they buy through another agent. Not all agents are friendly.

If you still want to do so good luck to you. Oh and the money you do get from the sale is basically reimbursing you for all the money you have spent.

The other S.

PS It always looks so glamorous until you get in it and see the other side. May be you could get a job in a property management department at an office and work it that way. This would give you in sight as to how things operate without the added expense.

Someone asked the other day about the real estate field. You should look at those responses - not very positive. I had been thinking about doing RE school but after reading the responses, I'm not thinking about it anymore. Maybe in the future, but not now.

I have never worked in real estate but I know some people who are and these are the things I know - and you can evaluate how it fits into your personality and family life.

1 - you will work lots of evenings and weekends. That's when people are off work and have the time to house hunt
2 - it is primarily sales work. How are you at sales? can you enthusiastically drag a couple to 27 more houses when the first 30 were all in their price range and as good as they were going to get?
3 - Getting listings is really where you make money - you get paid whether or not you personally do the selling. Can you sell yourself and get those listings? Reality is a big part of it. Tons of people will let you list their house if you tell them it can sell at 20% more than it will really sell for. But can you get the listing based on the realistic value? It can be VERY competitive, even cut-throat to get the good listings. Can you be assertive / borderline agressive?
4 - Expect cliques and favoritism in the real estate office that you work in. The real estate industry is dominated by women - and many of those women are super competitive and agressive. I've seen lots of disillusionment of women who really expected the more senior brokers to act like mentors when they really percieved the young-starters as competition. It can get ugly.

All that being said, I know some fabulous, loving & caring, Godly women who've made amazing careers in the industry and have done really, really well - but they had to find the right office, the right people, etc.

Good luck mama - only you know if this is a field for you!

Real Estate was not for me, I began to try that route and it took up valuable time with family for me, so I quit pursuing it. I worked 18years in an office as an Administrative Coordinator until I couldn't juggle my demanding job, motherhood and the death of my dad. I took a year off and got lucky working as an Elder Care Companion. You want to talk night and day careers? I went from being stressed out and wanting to clone myself, to the most relaxed human I ever met. My summers use to be chained to my desk. They then turned to hours in the park with a wonderful, then 94 year old woman. I kinda fell into this job, yet I found I enjoyed it. I was a natural nurturer, I loved doing things for people and through the personal experience of having such a hard time when my mom was sick and passed and then my dad, I developed an empathy and different outlook on Eldercare. It was also quite cathardic for me. Be happy in what you choose do. Good Luck!

Hi M&M:

I am in the same predicament as you. Out of work a year, combining the job search with the soul search!

As someone advised me on here: Doing something is better than doing nothing!

I would call a real estate office and ask to shadow an agent for a day. I guess you are getting some good feedback here, but it might help to go in person.

Good luck.

I had my real estate license. I took a class, took the school test and passed, then took the state test and passed. I signed up at a small real estate company which didn't teach me to help me with anything. I did manage to get my first rental listing but wasn't able to rent that property. Then I changed companies. I love the business but the business didn't love me.

If you are not closing deals, real estate is an expensive hobby with many fees to pay.

I did know of at least 3 persons personally who closed on houses while I had my license. They didn't close those deals with me. One person was a close personal friend, who wasn't even looking to buy a house until I sent her the specs on a split level house I thought she would like. The other person was a first cousin and the third was a church member. It was personally painful for me to have people so close to me close deals and not use me for their agent but that can be a part of the business. Me and that "friend" aren't close any longer and part of it is because she accused me of being money hungry while she worked 2-3 jobs to bring in extra money real estate was my way of working another job. I think she just knew too much of my personal business and effective sabotaged me and my family for whatever her reasoning.

Real estate is fairly easy to get into but as I said can be an expensive hobby if you aren't closing deals.