Choosing the right career path

[Jarrod Hannon]

Hi, all. I'm up in Minnesota, just an hour north of Minneapolis. My goal always has been, is and will always be to retire young from REI, but there are a few things I want to do to diversify my income and security level until then. Today, I just passed my national and state tests for my real estate license. I still have to finish my last 60 hours of class time, but the hard part is over. Tomorrow I am taking my test to get my Master's electrician license. Now that I briefly covered my background, the problem I'm having is deciding which path to choose. At 1st I thought I could both, but I absolutely can not. I still have a family I need to spend time with, but handling one company is manageable. In my state it takes an additional 3 years of being a salesperson before I qualify to take the test for my broker's license. Getting my master's electrician license means I can start my own company immediately (I know there's a bit more to it, but this is the most logical and legal way). Basically this means I'm starting at ground zero in both fields. I know that the real estate market is all over the place right now, but is it something you would be worried about? Does being a real estate agent in this current time before a possible burst still have a high probability of making $100k+ a year? I keep hearing from a couple people that the market is avoiding agents all together currently because houses are selling for well above asking price on the same day with no inspections. On the other hand it's almost spring time so at least for us it's the busy season coming up. I guess what I'm asking is as a group of investors what is your experience in what is predictably going to be in demand? Electricians are in demand, but is it enough to take the risk of taking out a $100k loan to start a company that I'll be on a diet of Ramen noodles for the next year or are you so desperately looking for trades that I can hold up a cardboard sign and land 3 jobs within an hour? Normally both careers would take a couple years to become established, but with everything going on I'm looking for as much advice as possible.

Thanks

[James Hamling]

@Jarrod Hannon this is a simple one, go be an Electrician. 

Here is the deal, name a "poor" electrician? Now name a "poor" electrical contractor? Or name one struggling to get by. There isn't any. 

Now, look up just how many licensed real estate agents there are in MN right now, the number will make your head spin. Here is the real numbers of real estate as an agent; 50% fail epically right off the bat and never crawl out of the rut, ever. It's a metric we as team leads and running brokerages know well, that 50% of new agents will do maybe, MAYBE 1 - 3 deals per year. Now, another 35% will sit at the "as many as" ~3 transactions a year as forever P.T. agents. 

This leaves 15% of agents who are doing anything. Of that, 5% are not getting by at a state median income rate, 7% are around median income, and about 3% are above median income. I kid you not, those making $100k+ a year, that is the 1-2%. 

It is not easy to be a FT real estate agent/broker. The competition is savage, there is a bajillion licensed agents out there, all desperate for business, all buying same leads, same marketing teams, reading same books etc etc etc. Those of us who exist as FT agents/brokers, we all have a same common denominator that we are doing something different, we bring something above the average. Some are just super grinders doing 100hrs a week or more, others are wiz of social media, some have family connections feeding them business, others are super experts at their niche (myself included) with 20+ years experience in it. 

Picture that, going up against me and my team. I have over 25 years in real estate, I have done every deal imaginable and some that have never been written about yet. I have hundreds upon hundreds of millions in transactions under my belt, and have a ready answer for a client on 99.98% of questions. How will you convince a client to go with you, vs me and my team? This sin't bragging, this is literally what you will have to answer to survive as a FT agent, you have to beat me and my team, and others in every niche like me. 

You got the tiger by the tail as an electrician, I'd say your a fool to throw that out. Every skill you learn and master running an electrical contracting biz will translate to being able to be a decent agent, difference is as an electrician your going to make bank learning it and as an agent you will be licking ramen foils. 

Additionally, if you want to DO REI, the easiest quickest road there is income. You could actually get into your 1st REI deal within months if your an electrician. As an agent, yeah not so much.

Investing is about the numbers, probabilities, risk assessment etc. It's clear, one is sky high risk with about same potential reward as the other, which has near 0 risk. 

Be an electrical contractor, make bank, than leverage a REI Rockstar to get you into good deals and learn everything possible from the REI Rockstar, free mastery education, that's what I call "how to have a cake and eat it too" plan.

My kids desperately want to get into REI, I tell them NO, plenty of time to fall on their faces later, go make there own career first THAN I will teach them. The fail rate is astronomical in real estate. I personally never would choose this for anyone, I got a screw loose, I have been doing this since 15, by every measure of psychology I am an active addict, lol, but seriously I am, my addiction just happens to be a lot more positive than heroine or crack. In my spare time I do real estate, I go on real estate vacation TOO look at real estate, it is not a 9-5, it's my every waking life, I'm sick, and I love it. Unless you have that, no, be an electrician.