Any real estate agents here?

I was an agent and I liked it.

If you know the area and you have a source of clients (like a large social network) you will do well. It's all about being a self-starter. It's a great career if you are that. A lot of up-front costs, though, so be aware.

Good luck. What area are you in?

i'm in the mortgage business and my main source of business are realtors and past clients. real estate business can be very exciting, stressful, fun, you can make a lot of money... you'll meet a ton of people from all kinds of backgrounds, which is one of the parts i love working in the business. however, definitely keep your dj job and make sure you have the financial means to support yourself for up to 6 months minimum. guidelines change every day and be prepared to lose a lot of contracts when your clients can't qualify. focus on constantly building your pipeline and whatever you do, do not focus on whatever deals you have at the time. if a deal falls through, you better be sure you have a new one to replace it. this is where most people mess up - they start counting on every deal as a paycheck that's coming.

my suggestion would be to do the following:

- figure out where you would get your business from - you're gonna have to make sure you have a constant source of new clients

- do some research on mortgage people in your area; keep in mind that banks only have a handful of products and your people will either fit (if they have great credit, down payment, etc) or they won't; i suggest looking for a mortgage broker who you'll be able to send your great and not so great clients, develop a relationship with that person and work together as a team. a lot of people make a mistake of working with a bank person who they send their good clients and send their not-so-perfect clients to a mortgage broker cause we can do all kinds of magic with credit, offer 10 times more products and have dozens of lenders/banks we can work with. eventually, after he/she proves himself/herself, they will get tired of only getting your not-so-perfect clients and they will fade out and find someone else to work with. remember: as much as that mortgage person needs you to send them the business, you need them even more to turn those contracts into closed deals. once you develop a relationship with a great mortgage person, that person will take your calls and prequalify your people 24/7.

- how are you going to put your name out there and advertise? you're going to need good looking business cards, signs and flyers. for business cards, i always use vistaprint and if you google "vistaprint coupon" you can find coupons as much as 85% off your orders. the company you work for should provide you with signs, even though you may have to pay for them. flyers also may be provided to you by your company, with or without cost. this can get very expensive, so keep in mind that just about any (good) mortgage person will print you all the flyers you want for free if you let them put their info on the flyer. that way, when someone is interested in one of your properties, they will call your mortgage person to get prequalified before you start spending hundreds of dollars of gas on them.

- when a client calls you about a property, even though you may feel awkward about it, always get them to get prequalified before setting up any appointments to look at houses. meeting at your office, etc is ok if you want to get to know them, etc, but those miles and gas money will add up if you're not careful. the best way to handle this is, when a new client calls you, tell them whether the house they;re interested is available, or if they don't have one picked out, tell them you'll be more than happy to help them. then just casually ask them which bank or mortgage person they are working with. if they're working with someone, ask them what kind of a price range they've been prequalified for and ultimately get their mortgage person's contact info or just ask the client to get you a copy of their preapproval letter - you will need one to make an offer on any property. if they tell you they're not working with anyone, give them the contact info for your mortgage person and tell them to call him/her to see what they would qualify for, so you can find them some properties in that price range. to avoid hurting their feelings until you get the hang of it, don't tell them to call and see*if* they qualify, but *how much* they qualify for. if they end up not qualifying, either they or your mortgage person will let you know (without discussing the specifics).

- i would also definitely make sure you have your own website, use an email address such as you@yourname.com and if you can afford it, get a separate business line. with the amount of calls you'll (hopefully) be getting, you're going to want to keep your personal and work calls separate, otherwise you'll go crazy. :noway:

sorry, i got a little carried away.. you can tell i love what i do and i've been doing it for a while now. hahaha

if you have any other questions, just ask