Hello everyone,

Great forum here, just came across it yesterday.

I am going through the process of buying my first home and have become absolutely fascinated by the Real Estate business through this process. I have loved it. I have read 2 introduction books in the last week ("The Millionaire Real Estate Agent," by Gary Keller and "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Success as a Real Estate Agent"). I am working on my third book, "Your Successful Real Estate Career," by Kenneth Edwards.

Long story short I have loved everything I have read and am planning on taking the pre-licensing courses this summer. My biggest concern is what I do after that. Now that I will have a mortgage I need to have a steady income, which I currently do (salary). What is the best way to begin in real estate part time? How would I get the most out of part-time work? As an assistant on nights and weekends that I am available?

I want to make this a career and would much rather dive in head first full-time, but because of my current personal situation it is not possible. I would not work any less harder though doing this part-time, it would actually drive me more to be able to get to a comfortable position where I could do it full-time.

Any information would be appreciated, thanks!

Welcome to the forum! You'll get a variety of responses here, all of which will have good advice for this situation. But in the end, you'll need to make the best decision for you and your family.

My opinion... you cannot sell real estate nights and weekends. Most of a real estate agent's job takes place during the week, during the day. Yes, we do work nights and weekends, but that's in addition to regular business hours, not instead of.

Additionally, there is so much to learn your first year and I've found that part-timers simply don't TAKE the time to learn their craft because they don't HAVE the time. So, not only do they not have time to DO their job; neither do they have time to learn how to do their job. When you're new, everything you do takes 5 times longer than it will later on and if you don't have that time to invest, you won't be an effective real estate agent. And remember - your clients hire you to competently represent them and you owe it to them to know what you're doing.

The drop-out rate for new real estate agents is well over 50% - some say over 90%. While some use these figures as a rationalization for not jumping in 100%, I say the opposite... if agents who ARE doing it full-time can't make a go of it, how on earth can someone succeed who isn't giving it 100%?

Being a part-time assistant nights and weekends is a possibility, but again, most busy agents need their assistant during working hours. And most busy agents want an assistant they don't have to train.

What I always advise in this situation is that instead of doing real estate part-time, take the next year and get a "real" part-time job that actually pays money (instead of costing you money). Save up every penny you can. Then if you still want to be a real estate agent extraordinaire, you can do it right...

Jennifer,

Thanks for your response and perspective.

I am more than willing to put in the work. I come from a family owned business where I was out in the field starting at age 15 and now run the office operations, marketing, etc. I grew up seeing how hard my parents worked to be as successful as they have been, and I have been fortunate enough to be brought up that way.

I feel like it would be years before I was in the situation you describe (especially just buying a house and getting married all within two months!) where I would have sufficient savings to live on for a year and do this full-time. I by no means think this is an easy business or an easy way to make a quick buck. I LOVE the idea that if you put your work ethic together along with integrity and honesty that you can help people achieve some of their biggest dreams, and do so the right way.

I would be giving 100% and more all of the time, I unfortunately just can not work 100% of the hours that others can at this moment. But I feel I can get the most out of those hours, maybe more than others do who are not truly committed.

I'm honestly not willing to wait, I feel like if I can pick up hours, tasks, classes, etc about real estate whenever I have the chance and am not working my regular job I can work my way in. It may take a year or two, sure, but after this discussion I see no reason why I can't start now as an assistant or some other position to help an experienced agent, as you mentioned.

The other bonus is I do work for a family business, so it can go one of two ways, they will allow me more flexibility with time, or be a little upset as they have had intentions about me taking over a large part of the business eventually! Hopefully it is the former haha!

Edit: By the way, I bought your book from Amazon yesterday, looking forward to reading it later this week when it arrives.

Hello REApprentice. I'm very interested in how things have turned out for you. I too have found the same passion for RE as you have discovered and am thinking the SAME EXACT way (I don't want to wait and see no reason to), but I've got to be honest though, the opinions of folks on this forum and quite a few others are really making me rethink the part time "option" (using that term loosely). You posted this question 6 weeks ago. How are you feeling today about starting PT?

The statistics for part timers are simple: they almost always fail. And I define failure as not only whether you stay in the business. But also how how you perform in the business. A high proportion come, then go, when they realize that no matter how good your attitude, you simply cannot be where you have to be when you are part time. But a equally high proportion come, then stay, but don't generate any income to speak of. They sell a house to a friend or cousin or neighbor or two, meander in and out of the game depending upon the demands of their day job, their family, their energy level. They perform mediocre service, mediocre prospecting, and rarely spend any real money competing with other agents. Basically they are useless, treating the profession as a hobby, and misrepresenting themselves to the public to get whatever few crumbs of business they can drum up.

Basically, part time real estate is a losing proposition for everyone involved: the agent, certainly their unlucky clients (who, by the way, are often lied to outright or simply NOT told that their agent is part-time), and usually the broker who wastes time training them only to have them go full time - in a regular job because they "need the money".

The bottom line is real estate is not a full time job, it is a full time business venture and a way of life. You are opening a business, need to spend thousands of dollars in cash, need to spend thousands of hours of time, need to spend creativity and talent thinking about the business and how to do it better all the time. And the fact is, even people who do this often fail anyway because it takes a peculiar brand of tenacity to succeed at this business. Most full timers end up as real estate failures.

Save your money, quit the day job, and open your real estate business the right way: full time, full effort, no compromises, no excuses, no apologies, failure not an option. To do otherwise just does not make any business sense.

Everyone above is hitting it right on the head. Part time agents almost always end up leaving the business. You need to devote as much time as possible to this career and PT just won't cut it.

I started out part-time , closed 12 deals in my first year.I am not going to lie, I gave up A LOT of my personal life...I didn't sleep much, I was stressed all the time, and I never could relax..However I did so well my first year I now do it full time! I now make my own schedule and It is a lot easier now. You can do it, It is very difficult but can be done! Message me if you need any help..I was so discouraged by others at first, but now I am doing so well!!!!

Like most careers (and any commission-based career) you're going to suffer your first year or two. Be prepared for that. You don't have a network yet and you don't have a reputation. Work on building these and you'll have a solid foundation to do well. Just make sure when you say you're going to do it part time that you factor in that it will be a full time job on top of your other full time job.