Investor and Newly Licensed Agent - Side Hustle??

Question

Hi All,

I will make this quick.

I am an investor but recently attained my Alabama agent license. The initial thought behind this was that 1.) I can save money on my deals by getting the commission and 2.) can view more deals since I can conveniently schedule showings for myself instead of involving someone else.

I currently work a remote job where I have some spare hours during the week and was considering marketing myself as a real estate agent to buy/sell houses for others. Do you guys think this is attainable as a small gig on the side or does this need someone to devote full attention to be truly successful.  I do not know how much work would be involved initially but wanted to see if anyone, in a similar situation, has made this work and how.  Thanks for any input!

-Mack

Nate Sanow · Answer

I agree with the gentleman that posted here first. Somehow being an agent got hijacked with slick folks in luxury cars making it seem like all we do is show 1 house and money falls from heaven. The truth is, it’s a lot of time, and work. It’s good work. Fantastic work. But it is work.

Joe Norman · Answer

Can you market yourself as a part-time real estate agent? Sure...plenty of people do it.

Should you? IMO absolutely not. The time and effort required to always be looking out for your clients best interests, as well as to be a high quality co-op agent, is not something that can be done on just nights and weekends. The only way I would suggest doing this is if you joined a team that did provide full time, business hours support.

Eliott Elias · Answer

You stay as busy as you want to be. I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day, if you want part time you can take on 2-3 clients and work showings on the weekends. If you wan't to make a career in real estate there are too many people out there hustling 24/7 for you to be ahead of the curb

Christian Ehlers · Answer

Since you are an investor I imagine you have some real estate knowledge already about your market and how sales work, probably a network as well. It's something that can be done, you can always get a showing agent too to help with your schedule conflicts if you wanted. So in your case it may be a good idea depending on your goals.

Most agents only working part-time dont end up making as much as they would think due to broker splits, team splits, taxes etc and the amount of effort to become good at the paperwork, negotiations and marketing for clients is more difficult than most people tend to think as well. If you just want to do a deal here or there it probably isn't worth it (in my biased, full time agent opinion) but if you are considering doing it to replace your current job and make even more money it can be very lucrative.

Caroline Widjaja · Answer

Me and my husband are in a similar situation like yours, we both still have our full-time jobs AND an active investor, and my husband is still doing his side hustle as an agent, keep in mind that we still manage our client properties too. He's still doing that for 10 years and work PERFECTLY for both of us!

Writing up an offer for client is the most challenging one for the first time because you need to setup everything at first, but because you're working remotely, you have no problem with that. Everything can be done electronically nowadays. Showing properties to client can be done during weekend and after work. During escrow process is also time consuming because you need to submit a lot of paperwork to escrow, but if you only have 1-2 clients, you won't have a problem with that.

My husband likes to have his time allocated to find some investment properties for our portfolios rather than being a full-time real estate agent and I fully support him and we are right on track. We have 30 investment properties all over the states already by now.

Bottomline: You do NOT need to be a full-time real estate agent to be successful.

Hope that helps!

Ashton Hines · Answer

Having the knowledge as an agent will serve you well as an investor and you can definitely supplement your income. I would suggest joining some wholesale or investor groups for the area or state and become the go-to person for others when they find a property in the area they want to make an offer on or sell. There are a lot of people across the country that are looking to lock up deals and will split their assignment fees with a local to help them get the deal done. Plus you can write offers for them as well. Then you will start seeing what things go for and might can pick up a well-priced flip and you are off to the races in building your investment portfolio.

Shawn Mcenteer · Answer

@Mack Marchand surrounding yourself with the right people will make it work.   I will let you know I have trained and brought into production on a national level part time agents.   In many cases I will recommend newer agents doing it this way.   I started as part time doing a 1-2 deals per month(once I got momentum) which in NJ at an average price point of over 500k is a lucrative "side hustle"  When agents and brokers say you need to be full time to have success that is limiting beliefs speaking and many times Broker brain wash.   Long story short brokers know training new agents is a huge part of the busines, having a full time agent tends to be more lucrative for the broker so they push this idea you can't do both real estate and a career.   Some questions I like to ask to full time agents that claim you cant succeed as a part time agent are If you are a parent and a full time realtor does that mean your children get you on part time?   I hope the answer is "No"  If you are a full time agent and invest in real estate does that mean your REI projects suffer?  The fact of the matter is real estate as an agent is about building a system.  If you believe you can do it you will, if you surround yourself with the right people and repeat the systems that worked for them and tweak for yourself you can grow a business as a part time agent.

side note:  I have an agent who just closed his first 3 deals last month 2.1mm Over 45K in his pocket as a part time agent only 8 months into this.  He a few UC and more coming in the pipeline.   This time next year he will likely be a full time agent by choice, not force.

Investor and Newly Licensed Agent - Side Hustle??

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