any real estate agents here?

[shibbershabber]

After recovering from a spinal injury/surgery I'm having to look for a more low impact line of work.

I'm a fairly outgoing guy and have been maintaining/managing properties in one form or another for years.

I have no doubt I could do the job...

I want to talk to a realtor in the Clark county area & see what they think the prospects are for a newly licensed 30something realtor.

My fear is that while the market is coming back nicely, that the field of realtors is pretty saturated.

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[solv3nt]

I'm not an agent, but my ex tried and failed at it, along with her brother. My buddies step-mom owns a real estate firm, and there are times that she has been eating ramen while driving a Porche around.

Real estate is nowhere near as glamorous as they show it on tv, it's a tough job. The only one's that survive a down economy are the one's that have been doing it a long time, and the bulk of their clients come from referrals. If you have a really big network of people, then you might make it, but it's a really tough line of work.

It's relatively cheap to get your license, and there are offices that only charge you a percentage of your commission as your desk fee.

If you have enough money saved up to go a few months without a check, and you aren't averse to failure, give it a shot, but otherwise, I would never suggest that the primary bread-winner take on real estate as a career.

 

[Oregonhunter5]

Real estate is like any other sales job, but with the freedom of the open road. If someone is self motivated, they can make it work. It's a hell of a lot easier than some sales jobs. Like insurance. But benefits and a car allowance come with other sales jobs. The average agent sells about 1 house a year. The good agents do as said above, and specialize.
If I did the agent thing, I'd work with investment buyers. No emotion, and it's all about if the numbers pencil out.

 

[clearconscience]

I have a friend who got into real estate from home remodeling, he tied himself to one of the top realtors in oregon and would do all the crap work he could, open houses, street fairs, running around for other realators. He did everything he could to get his name out there and get referrals. He was also a master at advertising and marketing.
He did really good his first year and halfway through his second year he was almost at $200k.
He suffered a bad accident and broke his neck that year. He's now paralyzed from the chest down with limited use of his hands.
Thank God he switched to real estate and worked so hard. He had enough money to keep him and his wife out of any financial worries and was just focusing on recovery. It's been about a year now and even though he's stuck in a chair he's just sold his frist house and has another one getting an offer!
So switching when he did was almost a miracle.
Even though he's a quadripalegic (sp) he's still able to work and provide for him and his wife. And it keeps his mind off of reality.

It's a great time to get into it and some people say the market is flooded with agents, but 70-80% of those agents are lazy, part time, or incompetent.
So standing out among them shouldn't be tough.