I had previously operated my own little (very little) realty firm, through which most of my business was selling the homes that I had bought and renovated to flip. (this was back between 2003 and 2007 or so, I got out of that biz because I could see that everyone AND their brother was getting in and times were getting lean, prices were up too high!)I did take on a few buyers here and there, friends or family for the most part. I got out of the business in 2007 and went back to my old career.

Now, I have been watching the homes for sale again recently and thought first of getting back into the investing end of things, although now I'm considering seriously going into RE sales full-time. I have a little money saved and live pretty cheaply, no wife or kids to support, so I don't need a big or even moderate income right away, just a little here and there as I get things going. I consider myself a people-person, I worked in auto sales for a while and did quite well at it, including having many customers recommending me to friends, which I would think would be a good asset for a RE agent.

I guess my questions would be, if you were in my shoes, what would you try to focus on doing if you were me? I've had a lot of experience dealing with foreclosures and REO's (that's most of what I used to buy) although it sounds like from reading the forums here, that those listings are getting pretty cutthroat and aren't paying much. What about buyer's agency? Or should I just start looking for the listings? Any advice is much appreciated!

You need to do what you really like to do. If it's a little of everything - great. If it's just take listings - great. You will be far more successful and happy if you do what you want to do as opposed to what other people say will make you successful.

When your jumping back into real estate realise that your starting your own business, have a plan and make sure "little money saved" is going to be enough to support you for a while.

In addition, I wouldn't suggest focusing on 1 part of the business. Cast your net wide and try to work with both buyers and sellers.

My advice is to get going on the investor side because if your really beating the bushes looking for realty deals your going to run into a ton of agent side opportunities at the same time, so end up doing both.

I was an investor for 10 years before getting a license to do just that, keep the seller prospects that made no sense as an investment deal.