My realtor recently told me I should consider a career in real estate. He's a very realistic guy with many years in the biz and makes a comfortable living. I told him I considered it a huge compliment but couldn't deal with the workload.

I became a licensed real estate salesperson in 2007, just as a recession was starting. A lot of people were leaving the business then. In my small town, there are about 120 realtors and we average 60 transactions a year, for the entire town. You can do the math. It is extremely cutthroat. I was fortunate, the builder who had built my house in 2005 hired me as their realtor. I was kept fairly busy, though I never earned anywhere near what the top sales people earned. Not even remotely close. Two years ago, I left the business. I'm still licensed, but only as a referring agent. I may let my license go this year. The hours are crazy and the competition for business is insane. I actually liked most of the realtors I worked with, but there are more than a few unscrupulous ones.

jo

That letter is a very accurate depiction of what it's like for most people breaking into the business.

A friend of mine from HS was a successful broker who needed administrative support for her office when I was home on maternity leave with my 2nd child. She offered me a part time position with very flexible hours. I was going a little stir crazy being home and it gave me the opportunity to help her out and earn some money. This was in the early '80's when the market was hopping and lots of people got licenses and dove in to reap the rewards,

i ended up going from part to full time managing the office. I had a good rapport with both customers and agents and people asked me all the time why I wasn't in sales. My quick response was that with 2 little ones I needed more structured hours than sales allowed. But all the things listed in that open letter became clear to me very shortly when I began working there.

i know some folks who've spent decades in the business who've ridden all the economic cycles, have had great success and good home lives. But they are people who have been extraordinarily committed to the work and they're by far the exceptions.

To do well and be happy in real estate I believe you need to be extremely detail oriented AND be someone who doesn't sweat the little things. Those traits are often at odds.

Without even reading the article I can tell you I have s family member that does real estate as a part time thing (originally he wanted to get into it full time) and he very much dislikes it. People don't care what time they call etc etc. I thought it sounded like something fun until I started hearing the stories. Then there are people who aren't 'reaaalllyyy' interested in a house but waste his time to see it anyhow. He's good at it but doesn't like it. I'd certainly say it's not for everyone.

My DH does punch list work for many agents. The one I know best has been in the business in this area for over 20 years, and she's in her early 40's. I believe it's the only job she's ever had, and she does it well. She is extremely organized , has a stable full of all kinds of fix-it people, and a small staff who are really on the ball. She sold my father's house THREE times before we got rid of it.

One thing I would add to the list in the letter: expect a crisis to hit at any moment, and be prepared to jump in with both feet. Literally. When another agent showed one of her properties late one evening, she got a call that the water heater was leaking. The water had leaked into the house from the garage, and she was there at 10:00 pm with her shop vac, trying to start the process until 'her guy' could get there.

When we had a 100-year rain storm and the basement of my father's house flooded (on top of the brand new carpet), she came running. She walked in already on her phone with 'her guys' , kicked off her shoes, rolled up her pants, and slogged through the soaked carpeting to see the damage. She knew the right people to call, gave me firm instructions, and we got that house sealed up tight as a drum.

Amy will be selling our house in a few years, when we're ready. No doubt. She's aces.

'It's absolutely none of my business but...'

i suggest that you not share stories with the person until you are asked for stories. This would be my approach if I wanted to continue having a relationship, especially with the child.

Ida, your friend should probably have kept her lucrative job while taking the RE class and then assisted a seasoned realtor on nights and weekend for a couple of months. If she was good at her old job, at least she has the option of returning to that type of work, if the RE business doesn't work out for her. I hope she has some savings to fall back on.

Thanks for the input. Most of you have confirmed what I know to be true, and that is that becoming a successful realtor is an extremely hard endeavor that requires a tremendous amount of sacrifice. I wish the woman referred to in my OP all the very best with her dream, but I'm also a realist and project that she'll be seeking a job that pays steadily within the next six months - probably sooner.

Jmc101, this is not something I will discuss with her. I have known her for many years, but due to certain circumstances we are pretty much estranged at this point. As I said, my concern is that this will undoubtedly have negative financial implications for someone I care about. It already has, in fact, and that's a real shame.

My DD got her license, worked in a local real estate office doing bookwork, ads, etc for the steady income and also sold real estate for about 3 years when DGD was very young. She had been a SAHM and wanted to get back in the job market. This was about 3 years before the recession, jojo referred to. So for 3 years, she was pretty successful. The article describes things very well. I skimmed a lot of it and, according to DD, the crazies (and idiots) you run into are often other agents. She might have 2 really good sales in a month, and then have nothing for 2-3 months. Seems very hard to me unless you're very well established, aggressive, and have income from other agents feeding your own business.

The rest of the story - The recession never got totally bad here, but she decided what she really wanted to do her whole life was nursing, so she went back to school and got her BSN. Now she will also have her Master's in Nursing (Nurse Practitioner) in another month. So proud of her for that decision. So much more successful at this career and much more stable obviously.

I've only worked with a couple realtors in my life as we've sold most of our houses by owner. I did spend a bit of time with two of them over the last couple years as we sold both our primary residence and weekend lake home and purchased different ones. Both of the people we worked with a well established and successful.

I can recall thinking these people seem to work 24/7/365 and I really would not like that. In particular the guy who sold our full-time home was very, very on top of everything at all times. He returned all calls, texts, emails quickly no matter what time of day or night. We had a very unique house that wouldn't appeal to the masses and it sold in three weeks. He sells a lot of expensive homes and does very well.

The other guy showed us lake homes for over a year. I did all the shopping online but he drove all over the place with us for showings many weekends on somewhat of a wild goose chase. We did finally by a property after about 18 months of looking and I give the guy a lot of credit for his patience and good humor through the whole ordeal.

I thought both of these realtors were very good - they were 100% committed to the job and seemed to love the work. I think it would be hard to be successful if that wasn't the case.