I'm looking in to the real estate field and i live in Laguna Beach. Sooo...
Good luck breaking in. A couple of agents dominate there, doing 95% of the transactions. Leaving 5% for the rest. The vasts odds are that it will cost you about 2k a month to play agent and you will earn nothing, ever. Lots of wives love playing agent though.
agents work on commission, so the higher priced the house = the more $$$ you make! i'm sure real estate isn't cheap in Laguna.
Depends on what the houses costs....typically a realtor should make 3% commission on the selling cost of the house...for example, if a house costs 300,000 just multiply 3% X 300,000 = 9,000 commission However, right now is a super tough time for real estate due to the economy.
Right now, most of them make nothing. There are about 500,000 licensed agents in California and at least 85% of them are not making a thing and are ahead of newcomers to the field if jobs in that field come up again. Ys, there are a few still making a living in the OC right now but when the markets are down like this, I suggest looking at something else.
This is not the time to enter the real estate field. If you do decide to get in, the most important part is that you know how to deal with people and how to relate to them. If you are an introvert, or don't have patience, forget it. I'm in SF Bay Area and have seen hundreds of ex-engineers and other techies get into the field in the last 5 years. Most all of them are gone because they couldn't make a living. They were all nice people, but had no people skills and they all assumed that human beings make purchase decisions based on statistics and charts. If a buyer didn't want to purchase, they would take it personally and get upset at them. Most of them couldn't take rejection, because they took it personally. Remember, you are not selling a house! You are selling a home to people where they are going to spend the next 7-10 years, have babies, watch kids go through schools, have birthday parties, etc. Most agents make a decent living. Remember that the 2.5% or 3% commission is split between you and your broker. Some brokers have a starting split 70% yours/30% brokers of the gross 3%. If the house sells for $800k, gross is $24k. Your split is $24k/70% which is $16.8k. Then you must pay your own income tax out of that, since you are not an employee, so subtract about 25% from that and you take home net is $12.6k. Brokers also have a desk fee, which is a charge for using their office facilities. Some are $300/mo (Intero) which has to be paid every month whether you make a sale or not. Then there's E&O insurance, about $150 per transaction. Most national chains (Century 21, RE/Max, etc.) also charge a franchise fee of about 6%-8% off the gross. Then you have to pay for all your promotional materials, open house signs, etc. out of your pocket. If you still want to enter the field, be sure to have at least 1yr of reserve cash to live on. It will take that long to get up to speed and get your first sale.
