New Member Intro and Questions concerning specialized real estate

[Jared L. Smith]

Hi everyone,

My name is Jared Smith, and I am currently a 21 year old junior at Virginia Tech. I am double majoring in Business Management and Real Estate. ( I know this is not necessarily needed for real estate professions, but due to academic scholarships and extenuating circumstances this is a free education.) Information pertaining to my question: I am a Virginia resident, I was in a car accident that resulted in a spinal cord injury and left me in a wheelchair (for the time being), my long term goal is to open a real estate brokerage that is very well versed in, but definitely not restricted to, handicap and elderly housing. Although I am a Va resident at the moment I am planning to live in and be certified in both northern Florida and southern George because the demographics of these areas fit my business model. This being said, I am currently trying to find the best path to becoming a certified broker. I understand that to become a certified broker you have to work as an agent for several years (depending on the state.) Being in a wheelchair working as an agent for a company that doesn’t specialize in wheelchair accessible housing would be nearly impossible, I assume. Is there a way to become certified as a broker without working as a an agent?

Also after graduation (w/ a Business and a Real estate degree), while I am working under a broker to become broker certified. I will be finishing an interior design degree w/ hopes of assisting in the process of designing wheelchair accessible properties for my brokerage which leaves one less thing to be out sourced. Does this make sense economically?

This is just the very beginning of my business model, and if anyone has any questions I would love to elaborate! Thank you in advance for any advice!

[Brandon L.]

To be a broker you only have to be "licensed" for 2 years and take a test. I have never heard of anyone becoming "broker certified" and I am not really seeing a business model in your post.

I feel if you want to become an agent and sell houses for the money then do that, there is no reason or incentive to take on the legal responsibility of being a broker. If you want to design wheel chair accessible housing after completing school then do that. They are 2 different professions that require learning 2 different skill sets. If you are focusing on one you will never be good at the other.

my 2 cents. Good luck I hope you are successful in anything you do. 

[Patti Robertson]

I appreciate your planning and goals!  As a lifetime entrepreneur in multiple industries and a real estate pro, I think your described niche is too small to be really viable.  While elder are in general is a huge business opportunity, from a housing standpoint, most elders goals are to be able to stay in their own homes for as long as they can. The opportunity here is more personal care aids and retrofitting the spaces.  Most families in a position to have to move a family member out of their current home, will choose an assisted living facility, rather than to purchase another property where they will have to worry about almost all the same issues they had before, minus the facility adaptions.

I’m not trying to be discouraging.  Just giving you some info to chew on. At 21 you have plenty of time to figure out a great plan.  Meet as many successful people as you can and ask their stories.  There are lots of great options for creating wealth in todays society.  Buying real estate is one of my favorites, but the options are endless.

[Marcus Auerbach]

@Jared L. Smith - when I got licensed I had the idea to use my first language German as an inside edge to define a niche. In hindsight I have to chuckle a little about that. Never had a German speaking client, ever ;-) 

I also thought I will get my brokers license asap. Wrong again. I can literally give you no reason why that would help me with my business, while I can give you ten negatives. If you want to lead people, build a team within a brokerage.

About brokerage; obviously I am a little bias, but I am going to tell you what I think. My borkerage KW is hugly successful and became #1 in the US last year, by agent count, # of transactions and total $$s. For a good reason. 

KW is training centered and has an extreme focus on technology, at the same time very entrepreneurial and gives you a lot of freedem to do your thing. The main argument for you however, might be the culture. KW is very collaberative (instead of the competitiveness everywhere else) and team orientated. I could imagine you'd do well in that environment. If you want to get a taste, just call a KW office (called market center) and ask for an appointment with the team leader - they will be happy to meet with you and give you a much better idea about the business. (Spoiler alert: it is not easy, 90% drop out rate)

Pick a larger segement than wheel chair and elderly - for example the urban condo market - and then kick ***!!

[Jared L. Smith]

Thank you so much for your responses! 

I apologize, I miss lead you a little talking about handicap and elderly housing. My intentions with this market is to use it to fulfill social responsibilities and to build a good reputation for my business (simply because I understand the market.) As you all know and I found out the demographics are simply not there to sustain a business, and as @Patti Robertson stated above often the elderly and the handicapped will stay in a single house for the remainder of their life simply because it works.

The reasoning for me wanting to become a broker is because of my back ground education and love for both management and real estate and I honestly feel like I have the capability to excel in both.

@Marcus Auerbach that sounds like an awesome way to get started! I will definitely check that out!

[Justin Windham]

@Jared L. Smith

Welcome to Bigger Pockets!

This is a great place to learn and network. A lot of forum members are very knowledgeable in their respective fields related to real estate investing, whether that is real estate sales, wholesaling, flipping, rentals, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance.

Discounts on some products and services are offered to BP members: https://www.biggerpockets.com/perks/pro

If you haven’t been to it already, you might want to check out the BP blog: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/

The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members. I like the search features: https://www.biggerpockets.com/search