Thinking about being a part time real estate salesagent

[Manuel Salce]

Hi I’m a real estate investor in Pennsylvania and I’m thinking about obtaining my real estate agent license in nyc. I’m a senior manager in a retail company but I’m willing to work part time. Is this feasible? I would love to get a gauge of how fees and splits would work with a broker. Thank you in advance 

[Christopher Phillips]

Originally posted by @Manuel Salce:

Hi I’m a real estate investor in Pennsylvania and I’m thinking about obtaining my real estate agent license in nyc. I’m a senior manager in a retail company but I’m willing to work part time. Is this feasible? I would love to get a gauge of how fees and splits would work with a broker. Thank you in advance 

It depends on how much time you have. Agents are independent contractors. There really isn't a part time vs. full time unless you're on a salary like at an apartment building. Splits are the same if you show up every day or don't show at all. You only get paid if you have a transaction like a rental or a sale. Brokers don't give you leads, you have to generate them yourself. If you just want to be a buyer's agent, the broker will split most of it in his/her favor because they are generating the leads or paying for them. If you put very few hours into generating business, you'll have very little business. I tell people it's like having a shoe store that is only open 4 hours on Saturday morning. Buyers and sellers like to work around their schedule, not the agent's schedule.

A productive agent's day is spending most of the morning generating leads and then going on appointments the rest of the day. If you only have a few hours a day to conduct business, it's not impossible, but you're going to spend more money on licensing and training than you'll generate in business. You'll have $700-$800 dollars per year just to be a member of the Board of Realtors. Monthly tech fees from your broker. Continuing education costs. Monthly data costs or online lead costs (Realtor.com, Zillow, Homes.com, FaceBook, etc.).