I am watching the show Millionaire Listing or whatever it's called and they take about 2-3% cut of every sale. I just saw this young kid sell a 5 million dollar home and make 125K. I have no interest in becoming one since sales is not the field for me but that's a lot of money
is it hard to make good money as a real estate agent?
- Thread starter Dear Summer
- Start date
RPD
Diamond Member
- Jul 22, 2009
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If you think the housing market is doing great to do it now you are insane. Good agents have been at it for a long time and have built up a rep and clientell to do it and make good money at it. You don't just pick it up and start selling 5mill dollar homes.
Usually there is around a 5-6% fee that is split between the buying and selling agent (if an agent acts as both then they get the whole fee.) Of the fee you receive, you normally have to pay part (maybe 50% of it) to the agency you work for (Century 21, etc.) not to mention the dues to have a desk and affiliation, etc. So maybe the kid made close to $60K all said and done. Not too shabby I suppose...but there aren't a lot of $5 million homes being sold. Most people are selling a $200K home...
I have a friend that went into the real estate business. She kept her day job and no longer does it because it is hella expensive to get into (you cannot just get a real estate agent's license and open a realty office the next day.)
I have a friend that went into the real estate business. She kept her day job and no longer does it because it is hella expensive to get into (you cannot just get a real estate agent's license and open a realty office the next day.)
JulesMaximus
No Lifer
- Jul 3, 2003
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Good luck getting the owner of a $5 million dollar home to list with a n00b with zero experience in the market.
Still, the way some people choose agents maybe you'd do okay. "Mah sister's cousin's brother shovels pig shit for a living but he has his real estate license so ima list with heem."
Still, the way some people choose agents maybe you'd do okay. "Mah sister's cousin's brother shovels pig shit for a living but he has his real estate license so ima list with heem."
My wife is a real estate agent. During the housing market boom, just about anybody could make decent money as an agent, even the ones who probably shouldn't have. But, when the market went south, most of those people went with it and now her business is as good as it's ever been. It's not as easy as most people think.
The housing crash did have the positive effect of running a pretty good portion of the lazy, doughnut munching realtors out of the business. Most of the ones who were savvy enough to survive that have some clue what they are doing.
One of my friends is a long-term agent. Some semi-fictional quotes from her over the years:
2000--houses are basically selling themselves in our town: "No realtor would be caught driving a Mercedes/Lexus/Cadillac older than two years old if they want to make a sale in this town"
2005--things have started to slow down, but you could still sell your house if you needed to: "I purchased my Lexus SUV off lease. It's just to get me through until the market picks up."
2009--home sales, what are those?: "I'm borrowing my son's 1998 Volvo wagon with 180,000 miles until my Lexus gets out of the shop. I've never had a car that's needed a new timing belt, brakes, and a water pump. When you lease, you just get an oil change every 3,000 miles."
2000--houses are basically selling themselves in our town: "No realtor would be caught driving a Mercedes/Lexus/Cadillac older than two years old if they want to make a sale in this town"
2005--things have started to slow down, but you could still sell your house if you needed to: "I purchased my Lexus SUV off lease. It's just to get me through until the market picks up."
2009--home sales, what are those?: "I'm borrowing my son's 1998 Volvo wagon with 180,000 miles until my Lexus gets out of the shop. I've never had a car that's needed a new timing belt, brakes, and a water pump. When you lease, you just get an oil change every 3,000 miles."
Well, first off, you don't make a salary - it's 100% commission. It's really more like running a business. You have your gross sales (commissions) minus your expenses (business, marketing, admin, etc.). Net income could be as little as 30k or less if you're just doing it for supplemental income, or 100k or more if you want to do real estate 24/7/365. Of course, that's based on typical suburban residential real estate transactions in our area (200k - 500k). Depending on where you live, it could be different.
I know the agent that I used worked her ass off and didn't get paid much at all. I was looking for a cheap house and made her show me around 30 of them. Then my bank decided to loose paper work for my loan ever other day and she was the one who stayed on top of them for the most part.
DesiPower
Lifer
- Nov 22, 2008
- 15,299
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Too much competition... and patience, you need LOTS of it... do you hate stupid people? or rather, do you see stupid people? if yes, then this job is not for you.
OR you do one of those half n half things. These days its getting very popular. Basically you give half of what you get to the home buyer, in exchange for doing nothing. So basically you wont show them any house or help them with anything, they will just give your name to the selling agent as their Realtor, you will just collect the money and split 1/2 and 1/2 with the buyer. You can keep your full time job and do this on the side. however, if I am not mistaken, its ILLEGAL
OR you do one of those half n half things. These days its getting very popular. Basically you give half of what you get to the home buyer, in exchange for doing nothing. So basically you wont show them any house or help them with anything, they will just give your name to the selling agent as their Realtor, you will just collect the money and split 1/2 and 1/2 with the buyer. You can keep your full time job and do this on the side. however, if I am not mistaken, its ILLEGAL
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I remember reading that average real estate agent makes something like $34000 per year and income is very erratic.
Most sales are concentrated in elite top seller realtors.
Most sales are concentrated in elite top seller realtors.
Whoozyerdaddy
Lifer
- Jun 27, 2005
- 19,216
- 1
- 61
It's the old 80/20 rule in full effect. Except (IIRC) 11% of the Realtors make about 85% of the money. The rest starve or do it on the side. When I took my real estate classes here about 4 years ago they went down the list of statistics and it was horrifying. The AVERAGE income for a Realtor from real estate on Maui was about $5000/yr. Which means... See above. It's a tournament business. Very few people win at it.
Edit: I tried it here. I picked up quite a few listings right off the bat. I was awesome at listing presentations. But the grind of dealing with other realtors was just too much. Too many stupid house-wives and too many people who can't fill out the most basic of forms. Honestly I could deal with the customers but the fucking realtors... Those people are crazy, lazy, stupid or a combination of the three.
Edit: I tried it here. I picked up quite a few listings right off the bat. I was awesome at listing presentations. But the grind of dealing with other realtors was just too much. Too many stupid house-wives and too many people who can't fill out the most basic of forms. Honestly I could deal with the customers but the fucking realtors... Those people are crazy, lazy, stupid or a combination of the three.
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IHateMyJob2004
Lifer
- Sep 29, 2004
- 18,656
- 67
- 91
Hard is taking the infrastructure for a company (1980s to early 2000s tech) of 8000 people and being part of the group that needs to migrate it to something totally new (2011). On top of all this, we can't use industry standards, let's take all the crap that has been parted together over 30 years and force the new software to behave the way we want it to, not the way it was designed.
Sorry, nothing is as hard as what I am doing right now. And I don't get big money.
JulesMaximus
No Lifer
- Jul 3, 2003
- 74,544
- 924
- 126
This is pretty accurate. Most of the agents around aren't going to make that much.
Being a selling agent is terrible business. You may show a client 30 houses but he's super picky and ends up buying nothing so you end up with nothing in commissions. And you have to deal with stupid people all day long.
Being a listing agent is a lot better since the business comes to you, unless your seller is trying to get a 2007 price in 2011. But a lot of sellers are dumb and you can get a lowballish price on the market and pick up some commission. The good and easy money is made from pocket listings from sellers who don't know better so it depends on your reach and connections to get as many of those as possible.
The high-end stuff is too sporadic to be good money. Problem is that the really high-end stuff may not be % based anymore. They may ask for a fixed commission instead because a % may be too much money. However, if you do do a few of them, at least you can advertise that to future clients.
Helps if you have a niche. Do you know any foreign languages?
I know a Chinese guy who is an agent, he basically handles all the RE transactions for Chinese postdocs and profs at the local university. Even in fall of 08 - spring of 09 he was doing pretty good business from what I saw.
I know a Chinese guy who is an agent, he basically handles all the RE transactions for Chinese postdocs and profs at the local university. Even in fall of 08 - spring of 09 he was doing pretty good business from what I saw.
AFurryReptile
Golden Member
- Nov 5, 2006
- 1,998
- 1
- 76
My current real-estate agent caters more or less exclusively to first-time home buyers.
She drives a BMW.
That said, as an agent you are at the mercy of your client's schedule. You sit around the office all day while they are at work, and spend your evenings and weekends showing houses. Sounds friggin awful to me.
She drives a BMW.
That said, as an agent you are at the mercy of your client's schedule. You sit around the office all day while they are at work, and spend your evenings and weekends showing houses. Sounds friggin awful to me.
Hmm damn.
I bet our real estate agent is going to secretly hate us when we are ready to buy.. LOL.
Triumph
Lifer
- Oct 9, 1999
- 15,031
- 14
- 81
With the advent of Internet and access to MLS listings, the realty industry will probably get even harder to get into. That or profits are going to be slimmed because if all you have to do is essentially provide your key code to get in the house, well then there are probably lots of people with a license willing to do that for less than you. Redfin is following that model and I believe they have a 1.5% commission instead of the standard 3%. They don't list, though.
My problem with the whole realty market, though, is that it is set up almost entirely to be self serving. What they tell you is that "we're here to help you through the confusing process of buying a home," a process that is made confusing by the realty industry!
My problem with the whole realty market, though, is that it is set up almost entirely to be self serving. What they tell you is that "we're here to help you through the confusing process of buying a home," a process that is made confusing by the realty industry!
?
What in the world does that mean?
She drives a ten year old Z3 or a brand new B7?
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