also after being a real estate agent for a couple years, can a person choose to be either one? or can he only be a real estate broker?
I'm a CA broker who owns both a real estate company as well as a mortgage company. The money can be great for both. Which makes more money for you depends on a number of issues, such as personality, work ethic, size of your sphere of influence, knowledge of the industry, and so on. I have made more money doing loans than I have doing real estate. However, I do very well on the phone - which is great for getting loans done. I have dozens of clients that I have great rapports with that I've never met face to face. I've received referrals from people that have only heard my voice on the phone and exchanged faxes and emails with me. Plus, I hate showing homes to buyers. Listing is OK, but I really don't care for the marketing and open houses. On the commercial side, where I spend most of my focus now, I work primarily the real estate side. Again, I play to my strengths of building rapport and sharing knowledge. The investors often travel to the properties that I recommend and never meet me. I work daily from my garage in shorts and a t-shirt and make more money than ever before -- doing real estate. It's economy of scale though. For me, I'm well suited to residential loans, and commercial real estate and loans. I don't really care for the residential real estate. My friend however is a stellar realtor. He would die doing loans. He loves going out to the homes, showing them to buyers, listing them and doing the marketing. He does his fair share of time on the phone getting listings, but thrives getting face-to-face with the clients. Loans would bore him to death. He's charasmatic. I'm.... not as much. I love the depth of knowledge about finance that I gather in doing the loans. He loves the thrill of the sale. If you love doing the work of which ever you choose, you'll excel in that area and make a better living - both financially, and personally. Sorry for the non-committal answer - but it's probably the most accurate one I could give.
In California, the two are the same. For example, I am a real estate broker so that means I can sell/buy real estate for my clients, hire real estate agents (known as sales person) and do loans. In California in order to be a broker, you either need to be a lawyer, have a bachelors degree (and take 5-8 classes) or be an active sales person for 2 years (and take 5 classes). I think they recently changed the law and now you need to either be a lawyer or an active sales person for 2 years. Regards
