What Real Estate Job Would you Pick???

Question

Barring a couple year transition from the military into law enforcement I've spent the past 15yrs working for the government. Two years ago my wife and I decided that I needed to change my career path. So I resigned from my law enforcement position and went back to school using my GI Bill. This whole process is what got us into real estate in the first place as we have been renting our home out while we travel the country in our RV (whole other story).

Long story short, I am almost done with college and will be obtaining a degree in Project Management. I know I want to work a position that will help my wife and I build our real estate business. So my question to the forums...

If you could pick any job in real estate that you think would be the greatest benefit to RE investing what would it be? RE agent? Property Manager? Construction Manager? Finance? etc...?

Thanks!!

p.s. we want to focus on cash flow single/multi-family homes that we can force appreciation in to.

Bobby Nilsen · Answer

@Gerald Barron I would flip houses. This will give you the greatest access to cash to buy your buy and holds and will also allow you to find the Best Buy and holds. Doing this marketing will be key. Be the best marketer to find your properties and you will be very successful. Pm me if you would like to chat more.

Will G. · Answer

easy, easy answer....go commercial real estate agent! Use your degree to support yourself through the long difficult transition into that, and It is a long slow crawl but one day you will be thanking yourself for having the wisdom to post this

Dave Van Horn · Answer

I agree with @Mike H.

My vote goes towards Realtor first. It's a low barrier of entry, you could do it part-time if you have to, it'll save you money on your deals, and you can do property management when working for a broker that allows you to do so (the beauty of that is, you can get residual income from property management and commission checks).  But like any sales job, it isn't easy. The best piece of advice there if you go that route and get licensed is to find a brokerage that offers educational opportunities and shadow the major players at your company.

I would also say Construction manager would be just as good but having worked in construction for years, I can tell you it's not an easy job to obtain. You either have to really have an "in" or a good deal of experience.

Hope this info can be of help, best of luck!

Mike H. · Answer

I think project manager for a rehabber would be ideal.  Not sure how many of those jobs exist though or what the pay is.

Alternatively, I think realtor would be my second pick. Its something as a future investor that you'll be able to leverage the experience that you gain as a realtor (i.e. market/subdivision knowledge, negotiating, etc) and its something that you can technically piggy back off and build your own business i.e. start a brokerage and have agents work for you, and/or start a property management company and have property managers work for you eventually.

Those would be my suggestions and reasons why.

Matt K. · Answer

If you get in on the money side of things, more specifically the spending side.. you can learn a lot. You'd likely start out small... think purchasing agent. Get an idea of what things cost, quantities etc. Then as you scale up move towards contract management then you learn how more complex proposals work, how to evaluate them, how to understand/calculate the "true cost". If you do this w/ a construction company bonus points... you'll literally have coworkers that are in other fields who would LOVE to teach you how their side works so you become better at ordering them stuff. Nothing worse than someone on the spending side that has zero idea what they are buying...Then you can use this for your own deals, you'll learn how to see the world differently and apply it to your own projects. You really get exposure to everything, but more importantly you understand how it impacts the money.

Matt K. · Answer

Way more money (look around on loopnet) and less agents........

Will G. · Answer

i am purchasing an apt complex, where the commission to the agent..$110k, plus that guy ownes over 200 doors, has built an incredible network of lenders, high net worth clients etc. How many houses would you have to sell for that ONE commission? But be ready for years of no comissions to get started

What Real Estate Job Would you Pick???

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