Why go to college when you could become a Real Estate Agent?

Parents Forum
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<p>I’ve brain stormed about this all day… Over the summer I had taken 2 more courses at Liberty University online and did well in them. They offer a Bachelors of Science in Paralegal Studies and the tuition is only $335 per credit hour. I need about 16 courses to finish my degree from there. I already have my Associates degree and Paralegal certification from an ABA approved school so my thinking is this… I finish my Bachelors degree online and keep my expenses low so I will only owe about 10 grand. Try Real Estate and see A.) if I like it. B.) if I’m good at it and make money. Then depending on those factors decide whether I want to keep working in real estate, become a paralegal, or attend graduate school, (i.e. law school/mba/MPA) which will be viable since kept my undergrad debt to a minimum. </p>

<p>I think that sounds like the best plan.</p>

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<p>Most real estate agents are barely getting by. Some are however very successful. Those that have more experience work harder and have carved out a niche. Those that I know that are successful had a lot if lean years before building their business. I know many that tried and quit.</p>

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<p>I think the OP raises a legitimate question. I personally see College Confidential as a place to discuss college-related questions, including timing and alternatives, not a place to push everybody toward immediate college.</p>

<p>Real estate is one of several fields where the bachelor’s degree is not a barrier to entry, and some people can and do earn a decent living – as much as many people with degrees. A good time to try something like this, in my opinion, is early in life before you have a spouse or kids counting on you, and certainly before you’ve taken on educational debt for a degree that the career would not require. You can always go to college after a few years of this, if you wish, and you would probably be more mature, self-directed and accountable than most of the other college students who had come straight from high school.</p>

<p>Two things to watch out for – you will enter a field immediately competing with experienced adults, with established contacts, who are serious about supporting themselves in the field. And if you spend your college money as seed money while attempting to enter and survive in this business, you will make it harder for yourself to change your mind and go back to school, after all.</p>

<p>If one of my kids wanted to try this instead of going immediately to college, I would support it, so long as the kid attacked it very aggressively – beating the bushes for listings and buyers, morning, noon, and night, at least 6 days a week. Sitting at open houses, handing out pens at flea markets, attending seminars, getting involved in civic organizations to get his name out there, signing up to speak at the Senior Center about the advantages of downsizing from a house to a condo, etc. If I found myself having to wake him up at 9 a.m., I wouldn’t have a lot of patience or support for it. If he thought it should not affect his daily life or social life any more than a 35-hour per week lifeguarding job, I could not support it, because I don’t think you can make much money in that field without a lot more effort. Particularly not when you are young and new. Extreme youth (and general business inexperience) may be seen as a disadvantage by sellers who hope that their listing agent will ultimately preside over a bidding war. But buyers might be pleased to find someone with lots of time and energy to give, and your recourse to an experienced manager could put them at ease.</p>

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<p>I think being under 25 would be a negative in being an agent. People expect a little life experience and somebody that understands their needs.hard to pull off if you have none to speak of.</p>

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<p>Okay, I know a lot (and I do mean a lot) of commercial real estate brokers. Many of them make well over 100K, some of them into 7 figures. Most work 60 hours a week or more, usually 7 days a week. They most certainly DO have to answer to a boss (you think a broker who takes you on won’t have something to say about your hours, your productivity, your work ethic, you’re sadly mistaken). “Always working, and yet not really doing anything,” uh, no. </p>

<p>Every commercial broker I know has a college degree. Many have theirs in finance. Tell someone you “can’t do math” and see what that gets you. The door slammed in your face, the phone call dead…You have to understand finance and be able to come up with creative ways to get deals done. It may not be calculus, but you darn well better understand math. You have to have respect of others in the business to find and get deals done…some may take a year or more to bring to fruition. Try getting respect in that business without a college degree…not easy. Not saying it’s never happened, but the huge majority have business degrees, some even have MBAs. You may close a huge deal, then may make exactly zero the next year or even for a few in a row. You must be able to communicate VERY effectively, both on the phone and in meetings, as well as by the written word. If you live by text and email, forget it. These are business people who live by the spoken word. You have to bluff, hold your cards close to your chest when appropriate, and sell sell sell others on that project that requires millions to close. You better darn well have a big grasp on law and contracts, on city planning and zoning principles, geology and earth science, etc. If you work for a firm, you’ve got to split your commission with the buyer’s broker, THEN you have to split that commission with your boss (the broker or firm). You spend many late nights at city council meetings and planning and zoning meetings. You work your butt off for a year or more on a deal that falls apart at closing, leaving you with nothing but bills for your year’s worth of expenses. </p>

<p>I could go on and on. Hard work, hard hours, cold calling, handling rejection more often than not, unpredictable earnings, the vagaries of the market, it can zap the life out of you if you are not cut out for it and don’t have a very VERY strong work ethic. </p>

<p>That’s the commercial side that I’m familiar with. I would NEVER want to do that job. The ones who are brilliant at it do very very well financially. Like the residential realtors, those folks are a small percentage of the ones who give it a shot and just can’t make it.</p>

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<p>Since you seem to have sales skills, I’d pick marketing as a major. As a cooywriter, I have worked with many marketing managers. Most dont have MBAs and yet make good salaries. I also work with salespeople. Now, those are the people in a corporation who make megabucks. If you truly are looking at this purely from a money point of view, marketing seems to compliment your strengths. </p>

<p>Perhaps another option is to ask to defer your acceptances for a year and give real estate a try.</p>

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<p>This thread has been helpful to me as I consider going into real estate at a much older age!</p>

<p>I don’t think these two goals are mutually exclusive. There are lots of ways to take classes these days, including low residency, online and continuing education on a campus. Check out Union Institute, Goddard, Lesley, UMass online or University without Walls, many others. Look at Charter Oak too: they will put together classes from many other institutions and only require two classes with them.</p>

<p>I would take the test and try real estate while plugging along with your degree. You have an associate’s but at many schools you may need to do distribution requirements.</p>

<p>Avoiding debt is really important. If you are over 23, I am not sure why you don’t have more financial aid. You are an adult and need only do your own financial info on the FAFSA, right?</p>

<p>Go to school and for awhile, take whatever you want without regard to a career. Maybe see where that takes you. And sure, do real estate at the same time.</p>

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<p>Most real estate agents I know who are well into their careers hate their jobs. A lot. It’s truly a meager existence. It’s really just working as a salesman. </p>

<p>There is much, much more to life than just having a job and having it make money. Once you have a career you realize it really matters more if you enjoy what you have to slave away 8+ hours a day for, rather than if it makes 60K, 80K, or 150K. </p>

<p>That’s one reason why people take on debt and schooling and etc when they could just do a 2-year program in some trade field and get an instant 35K starting salary for sure afterwards. </p>

<p>You’re young, don’t take the easy path out when in 10 to 20 years you’ll regret it immensely.</p>

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<p>Can you get paralegal work with your 2 year degree? That could help you pay for online classes.</p>

<p>The young person I know that just started real estate is an engineering grad. She is working with an agency with good support. I don’t think she has to do cold calling.</p>

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<p>Assuming that Liberty courses are 3 credits, $335 x 3 = $1,005 x 16 = $16,080. So unless you have $6,000 to pay out of pocket, that is more likely to be your debt. You’re also forgetting fees and books, which can easily bring the total up to $20,000. I’m not sure that an online degree at a less-than-reputable institution is necessarily a good idea. But borrowing $90K to go to GWU probably isn’t, either. Doesn’t your state have a public university that you could commute to from home? Even if you lived on campus, though, a public institution would be far less expensive.</p>

<p>Also, I think you have some serious misconceptions about post-college jobs. Many college graduates don’t work in a “box” (if by box you mean a cubicle or an office, and I honestly, don’t understand what people’s aversions to cubicles are anyway. I’ve been in some nice ones). There are also many college graduates who have great bosses or work for themselves. I’ve had pretty good bosses in the years since college, people I’ve genuinely liked and who have cared about my career development. I don’t mind working for someone else. And many jobs allow you to decide when you want to take a break and when you want to work, depending on the industry and employer and within reason.</p>

<p>Besides all that, going into business for yourself is HARD. My father owned his own business for a while. It requires an extraordinary work ethic - especially in the beginning, but throughout. You will definitely work 8-9 hours a time sometimes more. You may not spend 8 hours showing houses, but you may spend the rest of that time trying to find clients, creating listings, doing paperwork, answering the phone, etc. You may indeed work in an office or cubicle - it may be a home office, or the office of your broker.</p>

<p>I also definitely do not want a real estate agent who readily admits that she can’t do math. I want you to help me save money on my home purchase. Also, given that you’ll work on commission and won’t be making a steady salary, it’ll be up to you to figure out personal budgeting and your taxes from year to year.</p>

<p>I’m not saying don’t do real estate instead of college - although it’s unlikely that you’ll make $100K+, you can make a decent living as a real estate agent and you may even really like it. But you need to be realistic about both of your options - not exaggerating either the attractions of real estate OR the dreariness of post-college jobs.</p>

<p>Many law firms are looking for paralegals with at least a bachelor’s degree, and sometimes even a JD (which is ridiculous, but I’ve seen the ads).</p>

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<p>A 4 year degree will provide benefits over the long run, particularly if you want to move into commercial real estate, managing a firm, or working on higher end properties. It also will open up opportunities to get involved in property management, land development, property rehabs, etc. An understanding of the legal and finance sides of the business would be particularly helpful.</p>

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<p>The most successful real estate person I know personally went into it after her children were grown. She had been active in community theater & the PTA for years and knew a LOT of people. She turned her connections to good advantage (and evidently had the other skills required to be a successful agent.)</p>

<p>I think you should shadow an agent and learn what is really involved in the business. Maybe you’ll find it is for you, maybe not.</p>

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<p>Success in the sales fields can be very misleading. I would never discourage someone from pursuing such a profession but you should know what you are in for.
I have been in sales for 30 years and I make a very good living. My first 10 years I easily worked 70 hours per week. The demands are great but so is the income potential. The most important consideration is lifestyle/happiness. Finding that balance of adequate earnings and contentment in all areas of your life is the most important element in my opinion.</p>

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FYI: As someone who does a great deal of hiring and as done so for decades, you should know that I’d consider someone with a degree from “Liberty University online” the same as having “no degree.”</p>

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<p>A better question would be “Should I go into debt to the tune of $90,000 for a college degree?”</p>

<p>And the answer is no.</p>

<p>So you see your choices are more than binary (real estate or GWU.)</p>

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<p>Keep this in mind.

[Why</a> real-estate agents aren’t rich. - Slate Magazine](<a href=“http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_dismal_science/2005/08/bubblelusions.html]Why”>Why real-estate agents aren't rich.)</p>

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<p>First of all completing the degree online versus on campus at Liberty is no different from one another as far as what the degree is. I already hold an Associates Degree from an ABA approved Community College in Paralegal Studies and my Paralegal Certificate from that community college. Simply finishing out my Bachelors at Liberty I don’t feel would be that detrimental unless I wanted to work for some 500 plus lawyer corporate firm… Which isn’t happening anyway. It gets me my degree the quickest and cheapest and is in a very specialized major that not many colleges offer. The only other college in my area that offers the degree is “Peirce” college… So Liberty vs. Peirce (which is twice as expensive) I mean you do the math… Plus it allows me to further pursue my JD somewhere as well. All law schools care about are GPA and LSAT scores… And by saving all that money on my undergrad at Liberty it would allow me to do that.</p>

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<p>^^^ I suggest you do A LOT more research about going to law school. For many, many people it is NOT a good idea.</p>

<p>First of all, top law schools will certainly care where your degree is from. They may not care if you have a high GPA in a State U, but an online degree is different.</p>

<p>I just had a friend graduate from a top 3 law school. Even at that level, competition for jobs is FIERCE. There are people in his grade not getting offerse - these are not people who are failing or something - they are just not in the top third of the class (and again these are people in a Top 3 law school). If you go to a law school lower than about to 14 your prospects are very poor. There are people on law review, top of their class (I personally know at least one, and through my friend and his research know of many others) who are applying to be paralegals, secretaries, and even temps, which would be fine, except they also have tons of debt from law school.</p>

<p>Yes, you don’t have to go into Big Law, but paying off law school debt over 100K is tough with a normal salary. And even non Big Law jobs as a lawyer are hard to get.</p>

<p>All I learned from my friend who DID get a job, by the way, is that you should do TONS of research and take a very realistic look of your job prospects and debt. Law school is not the golden ticket. Please realize that.</p>

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<p>First of all completing the degree online versus on campus at Liberty is no different from one another as far as what the degree is</p>

<p>Really? Whats the ranking of Liberty? Non profit just means they put the profits back into the school including salaries of admins.
You really want a degree from a school that teaches creation science?
In 2013?</p>

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<p>^^^ So essentially if you are not a math or science oriented person you shouldn’t go to college. A liberal arts major = pre-law and law = no jobs. You could go for marketing or business administration and get a sales job… Or you could just do real estate which is practically the same thing without the degree or debt.</p>

<p>My other options include MBA or MPA.</p>