Is anyone here in Real Estate?

When I finished law school, I sat for and passed the real estate broker's exam. In my experience in Illinois, you will be inundated with letters and offers to come work for real estate brokers. It is really not a bad thing per se, and in fact probably a good thing, as you can contact them and see what they are offering. I never contacted any of them, but many in the letter mentioned they are commissioned based. I really cannot speak at all on NYC, though. 

yes i am a commercial real estate broker, feel free to ask a q.

I am 24 and recently graduated with an undergrad degree in Economics. I have been working the past few years at my uncle's RE/MAX office. So I know a lot of stuff. Wondering if it would be a good idea to get my license and get into real estate full time? Is it realistic for a 24 year old to be successful in real estate?

Not sure how universal this is ..

But at 26 .. I just bought my first house. I had two agents, one was a 30-something women .. and the other was a 20 something guy.

I found my questions/comments were better received, and the answers I got were more on point .. with the guy my age, then the older women. The older lady agent never quite figured out what I was after, where as the guy was right on point after 1-2 showings.

I guess my point is .. nothing wrong with a 20 something guy real estate agent .. as long as he can relate to his customer, understand the needs/wants, and find the properties.

Interesting. in Michigan, passing the bar entitles you to a brokers license without additional qualifications.



I have a license and practiced commerically, but I am on the tenant side now


Here is what my mentor and the owner of one of the largest residential RE companies in SE michigan told me when I was about your age and asked the same question. He told me that basically half of being sucessful in RE (and its really more than half), is about having a network of people who need to use you. At 24, your network is limited. You dont have what he called 'lifemanship'. You dont have years of contacts, and people who know people, etc.. His point was well taken. You sell houses to all your friends and make no money because they are not buying expensive houses. Older people tend to stay away since they likely will have personally bought and sold more houses than you. get where I am going? Thats why the top producers always stay the top producers. Referals, nextworking, etc.. it snowballs. Where you can be sucessful in residential is by getting on a top producers team. They will throw you BS work to start like showing houses on saturday nights, but eventually they may let you work on lower end referals on your own. Then those people go to sell their house, etc... But it takes YEARS unless you get lucky, or have someone steering business to you.

I've bought and sold 3 houses so far and being in the business I have a different perspective than most. I used a young guy once and he was an idiot. I tried letting a young gal sell my house and it was a disaster. I switched it to an 'older' gal, and she sold he house in a month. We bought our current house using a friends sister, but she had been doing it for 10 years, and we kind of double teamed it since I'm in the business. When I sell this house, we are going to use the cheezy husband and wife team in town because a) they know the market b) they have a built in client base c) they know of houses coming up for sale, and who may be looking in town based on what others in the office has told them. Its all about that local knowledge, breadth of experience, etc..


makes it hard to get going .


Dont even get me started on Commerical RE:.

I knew a guy who worked for himself in a very hot rental area .
He would make kick back agreements with land lords and property managers where they would give him the priority in showing rentals and he will kick part of his commissions back to them in cash. He was making 10-20 grand a month. He told me it is much easier to close rental deal and get one month rent cash up front instead of selling RE and waiting forever for your commissions and then sharing it with franchise owners & other brokers
RE sales suck , unless you have your market cornered.

 

I'd say it depends on your location. Here in the Bay area, there are many home buyers are on the younger side, they make good salaries at their tech jobs. If you know your stuff, and can communicate well and work hard there's no reason you can't succeed. There are some customers who won't work with you because you are too young, but there are also customers who don't like the older clueless people. You'll need to find your own market.

I am a real estate agent in Toronto and can say your age has no bearing on your success. You'll service a variety of clients depending on the area you work.

 

It's actually a good age to start as you'll be experienced in real estate in 2 years when friends of your age will start buying and if your serve them well, they'll be your client for decades. If you are experienced in a few years, nobody will judge you by your age. Just dress smart when you start off to make up for your inexperience.

I do real estate on the side. As long as you can come off as competent (age has no bearing, although its a slight bit tougher to come off as competent when you are young) and you are willing to work, it can be quite lucrative.

I agree. I am handling numerous closings (vacant land, commercial, residential, etc.), and I can tell you that the brokers I work with do very well. The commercial brokers that I work with do better than "very well." If you work hard and team up with a good lawyer and also get someone with more experience to mentor you, I think you will do great if it is what you want to do. I know brokers that are just doing residential leasing right now doing very well. 

 

I can only speak from my experience, and the brokers that I work with do great financially. 

Here in Toronto one agent has told me if you're not making at least$ 80 000 per year in real estate then you're doing something wrong. At least that's how it is here in Toronto area.

80K is a working wage. As an agent, we normally nett 50-60% because there's real estate council fees, required classes, marketing expenses and vehicle expenses as part of the business.

I'm a junior on a top producing team. our top broker nets around $3m on a good year. His strongest attributes would probably be work ethic and client-above-all attitude. Clutch to have the best market knowledge in your head, as well.
Personally, i don't think brokerage is cerebral enough for me; i plan to lateral into real estate acquisitions / finance, and eventually build my own portfolio of assets and maybe eventually run a RE fund.
It's a very fun business, but it's sink or swim and eat or be eaten.

I am 24 and got lucky with RE in nyc. I knew someone who had a friend who is a pretty big investor ($100million+ funding).. Anyways, he was looking to branch out into nyc and my contact recommended that I speak with him. After some talking we got together and I guess he saw something in me. I am now his go-to person for nyc deals he or I find. He asks me what he should make the offers for, what kind of income to forecast, my expectations for the future growth of certain area; the whole shebang. Although I am a real estate agent (licensed) I act only as a consultant for him in his search to find the perfect NYC building to buy. He has a lot of negotiation experience than I do, but he doesn't know the market. In exchange, I get $1,000/month rain or shine, plus a % of the purchase price of any building that is bought (whether I brought it to the table or not).

I pretty much live month to month right now, and I am being aided by my family (I took this over going to grad school) as they cover the other half of my expenses for now. To give you an Idea where I am right now, we just missed out on a deal for a $60 million property in a retail hotspot (there was an error that prevented us to go into contract before the due date), but had it gone through (as planned), I'd already be a millionaire.

It's a tough frigging market, but I do like it. The biggest burden about commercial buy side is finding good deal as EVERYONE keeps them secret and only offer the good stuff to very well known buyers in secret bidding wars. Once we get our first major transaction, things will be a lot easier.

My plan is to reinvest some of the money i make on these deals in the property (already agreed on) and use the rest on riskier investments. I'm already building a list of investors/contacts to start my own thing. My experience so far has been a pretty major hook for a lot of my contacts, and all I have to do is play my cards right. However, I wont even begin this other project until I reach a certain level of personal wealth that will ensure my ability to focus 100% on it.
Edited by sdb5057 - 1/8/13 at 3:44am