How easy is it to make money as a real estate agent & investor?

Question

If you compare these professions, which one would be easiest to make money on average? Which one would make the most money per hour on average?

1. Real Estate Agent

2. Real Estate Investor

3. Doctor (assuming 300k per year 40 hrs per week)

4. Entrepreneur (not real estate)

Thank you.

Gunnar Sevart · Answer

Account Closed explains. You can be a top producing agent and make 1M in commissions a year, especially where you live man. Just remember this is a sales career and totally different than being a doctor. With the doctor and real estate agent, the average consumer will actually understand what you do and see you as a leader in your industry. Gary Keller writes Millionaire Real Estate Agent and Millionaire Real Estate Investor. Both are good reads for you.

3. Investor- Where most millionaires got and kept their wealth. It is very tough to get into and starting off will feel like a steep slope, but the passive cash flow potential is so great. You are an entrepreneur as a real estate investor because at the end of the day the purpose of being one is to not hold a "job" or be at a 9-5 lifestyle with 3 weeks vacation a year. You actually can be an investor and a real estate agent.

Regardless what you choose, if you are the top producer in any of these fields, then you will be successful and make the money you want to sustain your lifestyle. Read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. This book has changed my life and way of thinking

-Goodluck

Steve Vaughan · Answer

Wow - thanks @Jay Hinrichs for the mention and kind words.  I am most humbled, especially by you!

Account Closed - instead of asking which one would make you the most money per hour, how about asking which one will allow you to keep the most money per hour?   My doc is awesome and surely makes $400k a year gross, but I know I keep more than he does come April 16th.  He's taxed to death!

By far, the most opportunity to 'keep' is in the entrepreneurial space.  Not a good tech that just owns his own job, but a true business person.

I am buying an LLC that owns a nice commercial building instead of conventionally buying the building itself. The listing agent was floored, but liked the idea. The savings will come to $46,000 conservatively on $600k. No ownership transfer. No title insurance or commercial appraisal, no excise tax or buyer's agent commission, no building insurance changes or originating new commercial debt to finance it. Cost savings are usually worth 150% of earnings.

Be a creative solutions provider.  ID a demand in the marketplace that satisfies and corrects pain points.  Go get 'em!

Russell Brazil · Answer

Im an agent and investor, and it is hard for me to draw the line between the two. I make more than most of the doctors I know and Id say Im only moderately successful. I feel like after you have consistent business as an agent you can be as successful as you want.  If I wanted to double my income in the next 2 years, the steps to doing so as an agent area easily laid out. The thing with being an agent though is it allows for easy lifestyle design.  Do I want to be a solo agent with not too much stress, but make a certain amount of money, then I do A, B and C every day. Do I want to be a top producer with a big team and make much more money, then do X, Y and Z.  The forumula for being an agent I think is very easy, it is just a matter of deciding what you are happy doing and what kind of lifestyle you want to live. Im pretty happy doing 15-20 deals a year in a higher priced market as it allows me to stay busy, but not overwhelmed, and without the need to hire anyone.  I largely moved over to real estate full time because I didnt enjoy managing people, and I didnt enjoy having a boss.

Mike Cumbie · Answer

I wouldn't say any of them are easy, every one of them requires a lot of grinding to get where you are not doing 80 hours a week. Each one is going to require many years of cultivating relationships, beating the pavement, digging through basements (except the doctor which is digging through body parts), saving every penny and driving a beater to slowly get making real money. Unless you have a cool million to start with then you can make it easier in all but the Doctor.

Good Luck!

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

@Jake Thomas  good points.. when I first started in real estate sales circa 1975.. there was no internet heck there was not even a MLS or a computer on your desk top.. the MLS was a big book.

I worked every weekend both days 50 weeks a year.. and I worked 3 to 4 nights during the night.

what I did have time though during the day ( because not bogged down on computer or cell phone) was to golf fish other actives that I could do middle of the day..

now in our area agents don't haul people around like I did in the day.. so no need to buy a fancy car to be an agent like the past..

meet at the house open it up etc..  some people you will haul around still mainly in rural settings were finding the property without the agent may not be possible  or locked gates that kind of thing.

but riding in the car gave you time to build reporte' with buyers as well. I love it.

I was making average doctors wages by the time I was 20

Jake Thomas · Answer

None of those listed professions are "easy" to make money with. Being a Doctor requires several years of school, being an investor requires time and money. Being a Realtor requires a book of clients and years to become established. I am both an investor and Realtor. I currently make much more than a lot of my friends and family but I also sacrifice my nights and weekends. How many houses do you think I show from 8-5 while most of my clients are at work. It takes time and lots of effort to become successful. I hope to focus solely on investing one day but nobody becomes a full-time investor overnight as that takes the most time.

John Newhall · Answer

It all depends on the individual and their amount of motivation. Somewhere around 90% of RE Agents leave the profession within a couple of years. Of the remaining 10% some of them are fabulously successful. The RE company I belong to has 1000 agents and over half of them made $100,000 or more in commissions. 5 or 6 of the agents made over $1,000,000 in commissions.

There are also RE Investors that are doing fantastic. They have their systems in place to find properties and their goto crews for repairs or rehabs.

Both of these professions can be a pathway to great success or a path to poverty depending on your individual skills and motivation.

Anthony Dooley · Answer

If making money were easy, everyone would have money. Of course real estate investor would be the easiest out of the choices because there is no formal education or licensing requirements and there are numerous ways to invest in real estate.

David Zheng · Answer

omg you're so Asian. like me :D

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

don't know many doctors that get by on 40 hours a week. !!!

same with RE agents brokers who are top producers.

real estate investor who made it another profession and slowing morphs into an investor can work less hours for sure but there was a apprenticeship that allowed that to happen.. My hero on this Is @Steve Vaughan  how to boot strap then kick off the boots by the fireplace

Entrapranuers come in many flavors.. and like with anything... fall out is huge the ones that make it can be the most successful of all monetarily.

How easy is it to make money as a real estate agent & investor?

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