How To Get Started In Real Estate
There are a couple ways to get started in real estate. You either have the money to invest in property or you can pay for your real estate license and help people that have the money invest in property, buy property or sell property and get paid along the way.
In this post I will go over how to get your real estate license fast so you can start making money as soon as possible. After reading this post you will understand:
- The benefits of having your real estate license.
- How to get a license with no experience.
- How to make money with it.
A lot of people would be surprised to learn that a person can make a decent income by helping their peers do something that we all commonly do – move, buy a home, or sell a home. Do you know someone that has rented an apartment in the past year?
Do you know someone that just purchased a home? Someone that is tired of their starter home. Someone ready to upgrade or has some extra cash and is ready to invest into a property? The list goes on. These scenarios all have something in common – a commission check for you. Lets do some math.
Crunching the numbers
Looking at how to get started in real estate the number are important. The average rent in Houston where I live is $1082 according to RENTcafe (oct 18). If you help 12 clients find a property to move to, you could potentially make $12,984.00. This number may vary by property.
According to the Houston Association of Realtors, the average home sells for $230,000. If you are the real estate agent that helps find the home purchased by your client, you can get 3% paid to you by the seller for a total of $6,900.00.
How many people do you know that are ready to purchase a house?
Again, if you help a client sell their home for the average price in Houston, you can potentially make that same 3% leaving you with another $6,900.00
Just like that you potentially made $26,789 doing the bare minimum. Great news is you can do more than the bare minimum.
Its All On You
You can work your own hours from home and mold your business however you want. Some agents make it their full time gig and have made thousands up to millions doing simply that. To learn more on turning that $26,789 into $100’s of thousands, find out more here.
Just like with every new business, it does require effort to get started but if you do the math, you will see how it is easily worth it. First, you need to take 180 hours of real estate classes that you can finish in 20 DAYS by taking your courses online from home for only $389.25 right here!
The other option would be driving to a physical location on their time schedule based on what classes you can show up to. This can take anywhere from 3-6 months to complete and comes with a price tag of $980.
Its All The Same
The education is the same so the choice is yours. I took mine online to get through it as fast as I could so I could start making my profit. Once you are done with your classes, you can apply for your national and state exam that will cost you $205.00 with the Texas Real Estate Commission.
No matter how confident you may feel about knowing the material, I always suggest taking a cram class or practice test before any test just to be on the safe side. Take your test, pass, and get finger printed. Congrats you are a licensed agent!
Before helping a client, make sure you get your license activated by joining a brokerage. If you only want to only deal with apartments, you can join an online brokerage. Learn more here. If you want to be an apartment locator, sell houses and help buyers you will need to join HAR.
If you live in Houston this will give you access to the MLS, Texas Association of Realtors, National Association of Realtors and much more. This cost for this is $439 initially and around $60 every 4 months. A bonus is that you don’t have to come up with this all at once. Now that you know how to get started in real estate.
You are in business!
Now that you have your license, let’s make some money! The first perk you get is software that tells you all the information about all the apartments in Houston and how much commission they pay out to licensed agents.
You will use this software to help your clients with simple step by step questions you can ask and then input into the software to find all the properties that fit your client’s criteria. Find properties, you can email a link to the properties to your client.
Once your client applies for their new home, all they have to do is put your name in the referral box. You can then call the property to confirm your client has applied the software will automate an invoice you can send to the property. Expect a check in the mail a few days after your client has completed 30 days of living at the property.
Selling Homes
If you decided to join HAR, you can show houses because you now have a license to sell. Let your client know once you get started on their home search. You will be given a search option that non licensed people will see. You also have to get your Supra key in order to be able to get into the houses.
This requires some paper work, but if you have them saved to your desktop then it becomes a breeze. Show some houses to your client, and once they find the perfect house, put the offer in! Once your offer is accepted. Your job is to get the lender and title company together to go over everything your client needs. Now all you have to do is wait for closing day and get paid 3%!
Getting started is not that hard if you have a plan. You can see, with just doing the bare minimum and after everything you have paid, are still up $25,755.75!
