and which is a better career to pursue out of the two , and are there any colleges for real estate?
A real estate agent finds you a house or property and finds a buyer for you. A real estate investor will find a house or property that they want to buy to rent out or turn around and sell for a profit. Difference, real estate agent has no interest in the property itself, just the seller and buyer...the investor has interest in the property...makes sense?
Agent sells (not a good thing -0- income until sells), Investor buys, and sell on his own. Investor buys reos/foreclosures, pre-forclosures, tax deeds, tax sales. Flips these houses and makes big bucks. Google each on how to.
They are completely different. A real estate agent helps people complete the purchase and/or sale of property. They receive a commission on sales. A real estate investor purchases properties hoping to sell them at a higher price. Like any investment, this can be risky, and he can lose money on it. There is no paycheck for this. To be an agent, ask a local agency to hire you on and train you. There is a licensing test you need to take to be an agent. To be an investor, no education or certification is necessary. You do need enough money to buy a property. Don't bet on a bank loaning it to you if you've never rented a property before. Working as an agent, a paralegal in a real estate legal firm, or at a survey or civil engineering firm will give you background that will help tremendously.
Real estate agents help people buy and sell houses. They must be able to say approximately how much money a house is worth. They need to know what the neighborhoods in their towns are like. They must know the laws that have to do with buying or selling a house. They also can tell home buyers where to get a loan if they need money to buy a house. In return for selling a house, real estate agents get to keep a small part of the money that the seller got for it. A real estate investor is someone who actively or passively invests in real estate. An active investor may buy a property, make repairs and/or improvements to the property, and sell it later for a profit. A passive investor might hire a firm to find and manage an investment property for him. Typically, investors choose real estate for several reasons: cash flow, appreciation, depreciation, tax benefits and leverage. There are a lot of issues about real estate agent; new immigrants are really dumb. They fall for any scams possible. Its gents like Laeeque Ahmed lurking in the corners waiting for them. People like him should be sitting in jail as they are no different from Madoff or the ENRON chief. He is a crook and I have read a lot about him in various complains boards online.
