Careers in Real Estate

[Brian Cornick]

Hello, I'm looking for advice and maybe for people to share stories with their experiences in transitioning careers into real estate. I am currently an accountant in the Denver area for a telecommunications company. Previously I was an auditor of investment companies and what I am coming to find out is that I really don't enjoy accounting work. Obviously accounting drives business decisions, which is why I chose the accounting path in school. Basically I'm unhappy in my current position and I want to start the transition out of being a day to day accountant and into a more real estate focused role. My passion is definitely in real estate, and I love all aspects of investing. I have completed one fix n flip and own one single family rental (looking to expand my rental units on the near future). I think my dream job would be to own and run an investment company that specializes in multi family rental units. With that being said, I don't feel that I have the current knowledge to do this at this point in time. I've just started to delve into the research of generating investors and capital for deals, so don't feel that I'm ready to take that step. Ultimately, I'd like to find a career opportunity that could help me learn these skills, or really real estate skills in general, from analyzing deals, to managing the properties, to closing on deals. The only problem is, when you say you have an accounting background, you get stuck in the debits and credits and not actual analysis. Does anybody have any insight on where my next step could be?

[Craig Curelop]

Hi @Brian Cornick,

I was in the same position as you not too long ago. Long story short, I stayed at my position for longer than I wanted to because I was waiting to take a vacation with my accrued PTO and wanted to wait for my bonus to hit. 

Immediately as I returned, I knew I wanted out. If you REALLY want out you need to do things that other people looking for jobs are not willing to do. I spent a weekend applying to over 250 jobs in the real estate field. During the week, with any spare moment I had I would call the top real estate agents in my area and ask if they needed an assistant or help in anyway. I realized this meant taking a signficant pay cut, but I knew gaining knowledge was well worth it in the long run. 

From my outward calls, I landed ~5 interviews. None of which I ended up going to. Instead, I saw that BiggerPockets was hiring. I reached out and was fortunate enough to receive and accept an offer from BP in a position that is perfect for me. I'll be starting there at the beginning of April.

My point here is to be relentless, make yourself stand out by doing things other people would not do, and things always seem to magically fall into place. 

Hope this helps! Best of luck to you!