Getting into the business as a Real Estate Agent (Discussion! let your thoughts be heard)

[Cedric Dadaille]

After college (Class of Texas A&M, 2013, Whoop!)  I realized that in order to use my degree effectively, I'd need to get my Masters. After I decided that I didn't want to get into more debt, I decided to start doing what I was personally interested in and get into Real Estate Investing. In order to get into the business, I decided to work as an Agent, build cash reserves and immediately start  building a rental portfolio.

So far, I've gotten my agents license in September and signed up with a virtual brokerage with one of my good friend's father who operates out of Dallas. Right now, I also have a second job, (to keep the lights on) at nights, so I have most of my mornings/afternoons free in order to hunt and work as an agent. I'm definitely going to see how far I can take this and will be updating my progress.

Current challenges/Questions:

-Getting MLS access. (My broker can't get me access to the Houston MLS system yet, because he has to sign up with them. I won't have access until the 10th of November. However, I don't want to sit around and twiddle my thumbs, so I'm going to be sending Direct mail ads (and follow up calls) to Probates and FSBO's. I hear the best deals are off market anyway, so hopefully I can pick up one of those.

-Deciding if I should stay with this broker. He gives me more Freedom to work, but less one on one training (due to distance). Plus, he doesn't understand that I want to work with investors. He mostly deals with commercial land contracts and has experience in residential. He has no bearing on the investor side of things though. 

-Marketing with little cash. I don't work enough at my other job in order to give myself the cash I would need to do this on a decent scale. However, I don't thinking throwing money at a problem fixes it. I imagine I'll have more cashflow crunch times. I gotta learn to be flexible. 

[Joel Owens]

Why not go into commercial leasing or PM work right away??

Pick up instant income and then you can possibly replace your other job and go full time. Then you can do commercial sales in between. If you want to stay residential working with investors on houses is very hard to find deals and the price points are much lower. You could go work for a large builder sitting subdivisions.

Higher price points and sell house after house knowing the model and not having to drive people all over creation for a sale. You increase your revenue and decrease your costs IF you have sales skills and are a people person.

Hope it helps.