I am a college graduate who is working full-time, making a career change after 8 years in a different industry. I am going to get my real estate license this year, however, I do not believe that I have the financial resources to go full-time the first year. I am single, so mine is the sole income, and while my salary covers all my (admittedly modest) needs, I still live paycheck to paycheck.

The strong impression I get from online research and talking to real estate companies is that unless you are wealthy enough to have a year's income stashed away, you can not begin a real estate career. Is this a correct impression, and if so, can anyone comment on being a part-time agent to start?

Get a second job and start saving now while you build your business plan. In a year you'll be ready.

I was always a part time agent altough technically went full time straight out of the military thanks to 58 days terminal leave pay to boost me. I am hopefully getting licensed again in August as a broker and planning to load docks for UPS on the graveyard shift leaving myself available full time. I would reccomend you really try to stake out and do your farm area and get as much information possible and get those listings nailed down. I was top lister in the town of Morningside Maryland within a week out of leaving my full time. I credit the hours in the basement with the microfische. I had names of real people behind those house numbers by the time I went full time. Everybody at my wfull time job loved to talk real estate and it wont take long before people in your sphere of influence know you are an agent. Get your name and face out there. dont preface your profession's name with the prefix part-time. You might have a lucky break happen your first month which will give you valuable exposure to the neighborhood.

Youre in a better position than I am. Im going to be less than part time. I have to leave the country for my job from Sep 15th to January. Return and Leave again from April 15th to July. I wonder who will want to give me any business.

South by southwest rocks.

Now that this detail is out of the way, back to our regularly scheduled advice.

Do what you can do. If you can only swing part-time, do that. It's likely to work against you, but it sounds like your not going to have another option if you want to start getting into this business.

I started off part-time and managed to get what needed doing done.

Your going to need to consider carefully how to use your time wisely tho. There may be times where if you don't leave your day job for an hour or two to hold the hand of a client during the sign off at escrow, it's not likely it's going to happen.

You may want to start shopping for a job that will co-exist better with your real estate efforts.

My coolest job combination while doing real estate? Private Investigator/Realtor - very fun.

Kebun, I am in the same boat as you. I left the country in Aug. 2005 and won't be back in the states permenantly till July 2007. Living in London right now. I am still in the association and still have MLS access.

Try to keep some kind of presence while your gone. I do most of this through my website, but I also still do monthly mailings to former clients and associates. I will do what I can for them from here and if they decide to buy or sell, I get a referral fee when I hand them off to someone there. It's working fairly well so far.

Good Luck,
R

Robert,
Im glad to find somebody else who is doing the bi national lifestyle. I honestly dont know how well Im going to be received getting and hanging my assoc brokers license somewhere then off teaching univeristy sep -dec back to the US again and then teaching university april-jul. Im thinking the only way to swing it is hook up with a partner. I can list like a madman as I have pretty good contacts with people with property to unload and trade. Assuming I list property with no problem, I was thinking about a 50/50 split with another agent might be the way to go. Doing that RELO referall thing full time doesnt look like its going to pay much at all.

Am I looking in the right direction?

Some of my most productive agents are my part timers. One is a teacher so she gets off early, has free periods & vacations. Robert made a good suggestion of finding a job that has some flexibility because there will be times when you need to be available during the day (like for a closing unless you can get a closing company that does after hour closings - we have those here).

However, they work their butts off non stop. They come into the office during their lunch break to work. One agent does open houses Fri, Sat & Sun to get business. She is showing property when she isn't having an open house.

You also need money to start your business. Where will get the capital if you are already living paycheck to paycheck?

That's my entire point -- if I were making the kind of salary that permitted savings that would let me work with no income for a few months, I would not be looking to change careers. Hence my question in the original post that nobody has addressed:

Is the impression that one must already be financially well-off to be a real estate agent correct, or is it a stereotype?

I have heard the phrase "start-up capital" many times, but with no explanation of what that capital is supposed to pay for.

Incidentally, it is possible, because some of the people encouraging me to make this career change are real estate agents who started out part-time when they were still paycheck-to-paycheck, and working day jobs without the kind of "flexibility" you speak of, and were successful enough to eventually go full-time in the first year.

You don't have to be financially well off but you do need to have some money to invest in your business. It's like starting any business.

School
Licensing
Exam fees
Local board membership dues
Local MLS dues
Business cards
Name tag
Signs and/or sign riders
Supplies for some marketing materials
Postage
Gas
Lockboxes
..these are just some

If you were here it would cost you approx $1300 just to get registered with the local board & get MLS access & get a lockbox key.

If those are the people encouraging you to move forward, they would seem the best ones to tell you how they did it. So ask them how they managed. What did they do to get started so they could eventually quit their job?

Have you thought about where you will be getting your business from? I can tell you step by step what you will need to do as a part timer to make it.

The first five I have covered, the next four I can make for myself very inexpensively (I've done it before). I will solicity people from Hippie 2.0 folk like myself; fortunately I live in a city where this is a major demographic and my research shows that current agents aren't not targeting them. It takes some work to understand our home needs, desires and values.

It will not be a source of gonzo commissions but I'm not looking to become wealthy. I want to work with people who were me a few years back when I bought my first home, and was lucky enough to find a broker who understood and respected my values and gave me 100%, even though the commission would maybe cover one month's electric bill.

I think you'll find that marketing is your biggest and most important expense. Without a steady inflow of new clients you're going to go broke in a hurry.

If you're HIGHLY motivated and get along well with others you can find clients for free by doorknocking, telemarketing, and plain old getting the word out. But few and far between is the person with both the stomach for and the ability to do this. You might convince yourself that you can do this, well let me tell you I suggest you go out and try to sell something, anything, to people you don't know before you decide real estate is for you.

You might say you don't want to make a ton of money, but there are many other agents (like me) who do want a ton of money and we fight very hard to get it much to the disappointment of other struggling agents.

Fair warning!

(P.S. - I got my undergrad in Austin and miss the city dearly. Part of my motivation to make a ton of money is to be able to move back there and have a great place on Lake Travis. Oh, and before you say "I still don't want a ton of money" let me suggest that you never know how much you'll need in the future for unexpected emergencies and such so it's best to get as much now as you can.)