Being a new real estate agent and paying for the costs

[Deion Alaei]

Hello BP,

I'd like to get opinions from fellow BP members on the following question.

When a person first becomes a real estate agent, they have plenty of costs/expenses: both personal and business expenses.

My question is: in order to be able to pay for costs like marketing, advertising, fees, phone, computer, rent, gas, car - how do you feel about a new real estate agent using debt to be able to pay for those costs and hold them over for a certain period of time until they're able to start cashing commission checks?

More specifically, how do you feel about, for example, a new agent getting a personal loan from his/her bank in order to "finance" the many costs/expenses.

It's something that recently crossed my mind, and it got me to thinking - "if a person did do that, monthly payments would probably be a few hundred dollars a month, which would mean that would really be their only expense, which would mean they'd at the most need a part time job to pay for that as opposed to needing a full time job, therefore having more free time to dedicate to their real estate agent career, therefore better their chances of being successful at it."

Please do feel free to give me your thoughts and opinions on this. Do you think it can be a strategically good idea? do you think its too risky? do you think the quicker accumulation of funds alone makes it worth it? Let me know :)

[Jerilyn D.]

Hi Deion,

If you are new to the business, how about starting out as an assistant to a busy agent in your area? It is a great way to learn the business, and get paid while doing so. Just my 2 cents : )