I have registered for a real estate course from my college, however, I was wondering if it was worth it to get my license or if it would just be a waste of my time.
it all depends on the company you work for. RE can be the best thing and can be the worst business for yourself. Prepare to dedicate a lot of time building your business and clientel. Also referrals are a must to survive in this business
If you plan on buying foreclosures or distressed property on the side...go for it. If you plan on making a full time day job out of it ..HELL NO. Stats are there are 1 agent for every 5 people in California. Way over saturated. 700 local agents have quit recently in my county. Even the old timers are having it rough. Dont believe most of the fluff reported by agents here. Most are delusional.
First let me say that jvazjr07 should tell us where he is getting his info from, because his is WAY off. According to CA Dept. of Real Estate the licensee count is 532,301 (brokers and agents), according to the US census (population projections 2007) CA’s population is 36,857,000. This works out to be closer to 1 in 70 than jvazjr07 1 in 5. You’ve got to be careful of that internet bogus info. I had a great time reading workfortoday’s response. He obviously hasn’t experienced a down market before. And while I’d love to believe in his timeline I’m not even remotely buying into it. So lets get to your question. And of course no one can really answer that for you. But my son, who is 20, just got his license about 6 months ago. Rather than listing and selling houses he chose to get into the mortgage business. He took a job as a loan officer a month or so before he got his license. The first place he worked the fees were outrageous and he didn’t make much, but got a real live education. After a couple of months he moved to a better shop. Now he’s pulling down $6k+ a month, paid off all his bills, and paid cash for a real nice motorcycle. I’m a broker in a couple of states and basically retired on the income from rentals and real estate investments. It can be a good life, but when you start out you have to work at it, my experience is that if you wait for it to fall into your lap, you won’t be in the business long. If you treat it like a “real job” and put an honest 40 hours a week minimum into it, it won’t be long before you will be trying to keep your on the job time down to 40 hours a week and making good money. One of the best and worst things about real estate is that you will be paid exactly what you are worth. Some flourish most quit in a couple years.
