How realistic is a career in real estate? Is it good money? What is required of you as a realtor besides what I've seen (showing houses)?

Oh man, you can make great money as a realtor but you have to be a good one and it does require a lot of work and long hours. You definately have to be committed and motivated.

The first thing you have to do is get your real estate license. This involves completing the required education (usually less than 80 hours worth of study) and passing your licensing exam. Then you have to take additional training every couple of years in order to renew your license. You should also take sales and marketing courses so you can better understand the real estate business.

A realtor does more than show a piece of property. They have to be able to create comparative market analysis, know how to advertise property, understand the process of selling a home, assists with moving services, even assists in making sure a house makes a good first impression. They also have to be a good negotiator, be good with deadlines (as they have to track contingencies), and they work with title companies making sure documentation is in order.

If this is something that interests you, I wish you all the best

Your success as a realtor depends largely on your motivation, skill, and dedication. This is one of those careers where the sky is nearly the limit on the money that can be made by someone who is talented, personable, who has an eye for "design", and who can understand people. The largest part of a realtor's job is matching person with house--you either start with the house or the person, and you have to find the matching counterpart. This means understanding what kind of people like what kind of house, how to make a house most appealing to buyers (watching things like Design to Sell and Double Agents--both on TLC, I think, for an idea about that), and getting to know people and understanding their needs and wants.

Understanding financing is important too--it does no good to find the ideal house for someone if they can't afford it.

It is as much work as you want to put into it, but of course the money you make depends on the amount of work you do. It's not a 9-to-5 job, though--you have to meet with people when they are available, not when you are available, if you know what I mean. This does mean a lot of nights and weekends. However, as you make your own appointments, it's a good job for a parent or someone who has to work around another person's schedule. Also, as time goes on, you don't have to 'advertise' so much as you'll have word of mouth.

The biggest thing in getting started is that it is expensive to take the licensing exam.

The best suggestion I can give to find out what it's really like, and what it takes to become a realtor, is to call a real estate agency such as Coldwell Banker and ask.

What I'm gonna say has nothing to do with your original question,but I personnaly suggest that everybody should take a course in Real Estates, even though you don't want to make it a career.

I did,got my license in Florida, but let it go inactive.But when came the time to buy a property , invest, and do business with the brokers , agents and Title companies,well at least I was able to understand the process, and later, find good deals, see through bad ones.

Soon or later most of us buy a property which is the biggest investment often made in our life.Beleive me it's worth the $150.00 or so, and as Georgia mentioned about 80 hours. (licensing not included).

It's something I'm considering. I'm good with people, and design and houses and such. I also live in Florida, where the real estate is the business to be in, but I have no clue where I'll be in the future. Thanks for all the info, all. Apparently now you can get your license online for about 70 dollars or so, I heard.

I got my license in MA years ago. You had to take classes for a certain number of hours and take the exam. The real estate market was huge when I began the classes and things kind of fell out of the bottom of it before I decided to start selling. I wasn't comfortable with a 100% commission job. To get started in real estate, you work hard and long hours without being paid at all until you sell your first house. You MUST be able to budget yourself so you can make your own mortgage and pay your bills. It's possible to work months before ever making any money at a more than full-time job.

I've been in sales for years and love it, but I would never take a sales position that I cannot know what my earnings were going to be. Perhaps if I was married and there was a second income, I might be more comfortable with it, but to get started in real-estate, you should be financially secure enough to be able to pay all of your debts for a full year without additional income.

I know a guy who has been in real-estate for years, making great money. He was used to buying new cars, taking great trips, buying expensive toys and such. The market is alot slower right now than it had been. He is now faced with a strong possibility of losing his house and his credit is going down the tubes. He was used to making lots of money that he didn't plan for down-time and is paying the price.

Oh...another note - - you must be able to plan accordingly for your taxes. Because they don't take taxes out and it's much like being self-employed, you are responsible to Uncle Sam. The same guy I mention didn't plan ahead and he is in some pretty hot water right now.

He rode the wave and it's crashing - if you decide to get into real-estate, be prepared, do your homework and always remember that you can't guarantee a salary.

I would suggest also taking some small business classes, accounting, etc. Realtors being mostly contractors will find that they have to know the law and understand Taxation more so than just filing income taxes. Perhaps your community college will cover these?

http://www.empowermentzone.com/fromhome.txt might give you some clear direction on starting a home business. Points to ponder which is generically applied across the board when it comes to being a small business.

That alone is time consuming, requires office work and accounting and more licensing in some parts of the country.