<p>If RE, or selling lemonade on the street corner, works for you, then have at it. But, it does not work for everyone (nor for most people). Just like, not everyone majors in the same thing in college.</p>
<p>Law is good prep for many careers. Many are happily employed outside formal legal work without all the pressure of typical law firms. I believe the ABA has made job reporting very tight and you could lose ABA approval if caught cheating.</p>
<p>If your primary motivation for RE is because you somehow think you’ll strike it big because you found the lucky gold mine that most other people have missed, well then you deserve the face-slap the real world’s preparing for you!</p>
<p>My wife has had a very successful real estate career and did not go to college. However, to this day she would say that she would have liked to go to college and that college Is very important. College is as much a educational and learning experience as it is a career vehicle or occupational training. Having said that, here is my advice to you…Don’t incur $90,000 worth of college debt. Try real estate AND persue a four year degree from your neighborhood State U. probably part time…many police officers fireman and others have complete four year degrees part time while working full time. You might even be able to take some commercial re estate courses… Also related jobs such as mortgage brokers…corporate real estate oversight…property management…might appeal to you as you combine some experience with further education…get that four year degree…don’t go 90,000 k in the whole and improve your listening skills…life and a college education cannot be summarized in simple logical math identities and formulas. Good luck!<br>
Also you might get better advice if you were more forthcoming about your job history and interests over the past 8 years.</p>
<p>BoGentry, </p>
<p>How can you logically go from</p>
<p>Post #25:
“… Plus after a year into the program I realized how much I really didn’t like law that much. It’s okay… But definitely not a passion.”</p>
<p>to</p>
<p>Post #91:
“Well my plan B was continuing my education online at Liberty University to get my Bachelors in Paralegal to compliment my Associates in Paralegal Studies from my community college… While doing real estate… But everyone is saying that will hinder me from both gainful employment and good law schools if real estate didn’t work out.”</p>
<p>??</p>
<p>If you didn’t want to listen to the advice of others, why did you start a thread?
You aren’t being devil’s advocate, you’re being 100% combative.</p>
<p>Also…Liberty…really? And online too?
Whether it’s accredited or not, the connotation isn’t positive. That’s the issue.</p>
<p>Because I think making money out of real estate is pseudo-work.
Secondly, it’s not very interesting or meaningful compared to e.g. theoretical physics.</p>
<p>Gee, I dunno… what is more meaningful, helping people buy a house that is affordable or appropriate for them, where they can raise their families… or writing some obscure paper about some minute aspect of string theory that won’t have any practical application for 100 years if ever that only 50 people in the world will read?</p>
<p>Don’t be such a snob.</p>
<p>You realize there is more to real estate then just showing houses. You also have to put in the leg work and do research and make comparisons, so you may get some flexibility, but most real estate agents I know work more than most people. This is beacuse even in their down time they are updating info, and putting together new info for people. Therefore when they are not out at showings they are at the office plugging away. Plus then when they are “off” they are never truely off because they have to take showings, and phone callls from clients.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You CAN graduate from college with little or no debt. You CAN find a good job in a field you enjoy if you have the skills (professional and social) to do so. </p>
<p>…and you DO work for somebody else for the rest of your god forsaken life as a real estate agent - you work for the people you are selling homes for; you work for the people who are looking to buy; and they aren’t always so pleasant when a lot of money is on the line. You will bend over backward to please them in every way possible so that you <em>might</em> take home a paycheck that week. You will have to run out and show a home in place of a date you had to cancel. You may need to post-pone vacations. You may do all this without making a sale and thus having no income that week - or the next week. </p>
<p>It is a big risk. So is college. You don’t know if you’ll be successful either way. All you can do right now is educate yourself as best you can on both options, and decide what is best for you right now in the situation you are in. Don’t argue with everyone here. Listen and consider. And then decide.</p>
<p>Not everyone goes into real estate simply because some people hate to sell. They would rather create and let someone else sell the product. Other people don’t like working with people; they prefer quiet office jobs. Others may prefer a 9-5 with nights and weekends off because their home life is more important. Just because it sounds good to you doesn’t mean it sounds good to everyone. I would hate selling real estate. I enjoy my job, making a great salary, with most nights and weekends off. I enjoy helping people without having the pressure of making a sale to bring home a paycheck. I like that I can advance into different roles and learn new skills; I can take my job anywhere in the world without having to start all over, networking and building my career - because my skills are transferable and my job does not require the connections that a real estate agent finds so vital for success. </p>
<p>You do not do well through cold-calling and the like. You build relationships with everyone - the cashier at the grocery store, who might be looking to buy her first home. The person next to you in the doctor’s office waiting room - who might be looking to sell her home and move out of state. Being able to spark a conversation with a complete stranger and engage them while informing them of what you do can go a long way. I wish you the best of luck with whatever you choose - just don’t knock down others who choose differently. They may have entirely different values than you, and what they choose may be the better option for their particular situation.</p>
<p>I think there’s a serious danger that in the next 10 years real estate agents will be obsolete except for very expensive (several million+) properties. More and more people sell on their own, listing on various internet sites, and showing people when they can outside work hours.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Absolutely and positively NOT TRUE if you are involved in commercial real estate. Which, for the record, does qualify as real estate. I would even debate that for residential.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s what people said twenty years ago, but so far it has not proven to be true.</p>
<p>Google and Amazon will sell real estate online. They will not need many agents.</p>
<p>
DW has been a very successful agent for more than 10 years and has never cold-called anybody. It’s just not one of her tools.</p>
<p>
I doubt it. The internet drives far more clients to my wife than she will ever lose from people trying to do a FSBO. And apartment rentals even more so.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Does that necessarily mean that if she DID do some cold calling, it would NOT work, or just that she has managed to do well without cold calling? Your statement doesn’t necessarily address the post you quoted.</p>
<p>Bo: for a mid 20’s guy you have lots of answers; listen the advice given here for FREE. </p>
<p>Being in the real estate world for 20+ years (3+ market cycles) if you’re looking to put your toe in, nows the time, the market can’t get any worse and may improve, regardless of interest rates, as the economy shows some signs of life.</p>
<p>Real estate is great when the market is good, you’re an order taker. Buying & selling the past 4 years and making ends meet takes either real luck or real skill ( the harder you work the luckier you are). 60 hr weeks have been the norm for me for 20 years. Our family is comfortable but by no means wealthy. </p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
<p>Hmmm… in the residential market, AFAIK nobody does cold-calling. DW doesn’t, her coworkers don’t, I’ve never been cold-called by a RE agent. So it is sort of a non-point.</p>
<p>I believe (and I’m sure my wife believes) it would be a complete and utter waste of time to cold-call people to try to find clients. Postcards can work, ads can work, internet postings can work.</p>
<p>I also disagree somewhat with this:
As a marketing strategy, trying to get business from random people you talk to is a very scatter-shot, inefficient approach. You are much better off spending your time with targeted ads or posting in relevant places or building a web site, where you will encounter people who are already interested in what you can provide.</p>
<p>Plus, it is really tiresome when you strike up a conversation with someone and then they try to promote themselves or sell you on something.</p>
<p>Median salary of RA: $39070. Best paid $92860. Lowest $20200.
Source: money.usnews.com</p>
<p>^^ Not bad when you consider no college debt and years of lost wages. Also… A lot of folks on here have argued that college is a way of exploring yourself and finding out who you are and developing as a person. Which I never argued… I hold a 2 year degree. I’m just saying… At this point is it really work going another 2 plus years to get a liberal arts degree…</p>