Part Time or Referral associate...good or bad ideas?

[Dorian Redden]

So I just recently passed my real estate salesperson exam (about 3 weeks ago) and I am now in the process of trying to figure out which brokerage company I want to work for. The problem is I currently have a full time job and I can't just up and quit my job right now because I am the bread winner in my home (although my goal is to eventually quit my job and go into real estate full time when I can). I've been to 2 big name companies and they both have told me that they wouldn't be interested in taking me on as an agent unless I was willing to come on full time, which is a bummer, but understandable I guess. On the other hand, another brokerage company said that they wouldn't mind taking me on part time. Then I had a brokerage company email me today about the possibility of working for their company as a referral associate. Now I've never heard of a referral associate, but I could tell by the name what it entailed. Basically, I would get paid for referring people to my brokerage company, but I would have no dealings in anything else dealing with the transaction.

So I guess my question is should I go to the brokerage that will allow me to work part time just to get my foot in the door and then when I'm ready to go full time switch to a different brokerage? Should I start out as a referral agent until I'm ready to become full time? Or should I just wait until I can work as an agent full time and then decide? I know a lot of you probably think this is a dumb question, but I've been doing some research and I've been reading and hearing so many different things that I'm totally confused and don't know what to do. I appreciate any feedback you guys could give.

Dorian Redden