How many agents also have property maintenance companies?

[Todd Sullivan]

Hello all!

I am a Licensed Real Estate Salesperson in the Hudson Valley area of NY and have been looking for alternative ways to make money.  As we all know, building up your RE business takes time.  We also know that having several income streams is helpful in making the big money.  I have heard that there are a lot of realtors out there that do both, real estate sales and run a property maintenance company.  This interests me greatly, but as the saying goes, why reinvent the wheel when you can find a business model you like and make it your own.

Does anyone have any insight into this?  Any pointers?  Any examples?  I have an idea of what I'd like to do, but I'm not sure if it can be done.

[Jim K.]

It was HL Mencken who observed that in our society, high-status occupations tends to end in -or and low-status occupations end in -er, as in, doctor, professor, actor versus plumber, driver, cleaner. Mencken observed the creation of the word "realtor" in 1916 as the brainchild of a national association of real estate agents trying to distance itself from the seedy image of con men and hucksters usually associated with salesmen and go-betweens. He glumly theorized that one day, the guy who buries bodies would insist on being referred to as an "undertakor."