What's the best job to aid your real estate development?

[Christian Bors]

Listening to the podcasts, Josh and Brandon have mentioned several times that newbies should get a job that's somehow involved in real estate.  This way you can learn the industry and educate yourself while saving money to eventually start your own career.  My question is; what is the best job for a newbie?  Is it a banker so the can learn the financing aspect?  Is it a property manager so they can learn the tenant process?  Is it an appraiser, real estate agent, contractor, commercial lender, insurance producer, handyman etc?  Obviously each position requires different skills and have different advantages i.e. compensation.  With that being said, what is the best job for a newbie who wants to develop their real estate skills?

[Andrew Syrios]

Originally posted by @Christian Bors:

Listening to the podcasts, Josh and Brandon have mentioned several times that newbies should get a job that's somehow involved in real estate.  This way you can learn the industry and educate yourself while saving money to eventually start your own career.  My question is; what is the best job for a newbie?  Is it a banker so the can learn the financing aspect?  Is it a property manager so they can learn the tenant process?  Is it an appraiser, real estate agent, contractor, commercial lender, insurance producer, handyman etc?  Obviously each position requires different skills and have different advantages i.e. compensation.  With that being said, what is the best job for a newbie who wants to develop their real estate skills?

It probably depends on what type of investment you want to focus on. If you want to do buy and hold, I would say property manager. If you want to do wholeselling, probably a real estate agent. If you're going into flipping, either appraiser or something in construction management. If you want to do commercial real estate, then maybe in commercial finance or commercial appraisal.

Then again, all of these jobs will help educate you about real estate, so there's no "right" answer for any given niche.