The Reality of Real Estate, Part 1: The Beginning (and the Easy Part)
Expectations vs. Reality: An Insider Exposé
You have dreams of becoming a real estate agent.
You like to look at homes, you want to be your own boss, and real estate seems like easy money. Also, the gorgeous ladies of Selling Sunset make real estate look elegant and exciting. How hard can it be?
While the high earning potential and deluxe lifestyle are absolutely possible through real estate, there are many obstacles you will need to overcome before you will “make it” in real estate. This article is “Part One” of an insider exposé series on the real estate industry. My objectives are to candidly share with you the behind-the-scenes of the real estate world — from the good, bad, ugly, and controversial — in order to educate and empower those of you looking to make a complete life change and enter into real estate, that you may be fully set up for success. I promise you, no nonsense.
Step one to launching your real estate career is to sign up for a real estate course. There are two general pathways to this: in-person or online. There are pros and cons to both pathways. Strategize wisely, because the decision you make in the beginning is the difference between wasting or investing your money, time, and opportunity.
The In-Person Pathway.
Generally, the in-person course will be a “bootcamp” style, rigorous learning experience. The course typically runs for a week, usually for eight hours per day, and may include the weekend. The in-person course tends to be pricier at around the $500 to $700 range (you can, however, ask if there are any special discounts available — but this is not always advertised so you must take the initiative to ask), and students typically require additional exam-prep supplementation afterward (which can range between $150 to $300), to help study for exams.
The pros of taking an in-person course are:
The option to fast-track your course completion in about one week. If you cannot take out a one-week chunk out of your life to complete the course you have the option to spread out the course over a longer time frame, during evenings (though, this option may not be as common).
The live-classroom environment and the accountability that accompanies it. If you find self-learning difficult, this would be the better option for you.
Instructors typically teach to the real estate licensure exam and are better able to prepare you for what to realistically expect when you become a real estate agent. This is no guarantee, however.
The cons of taking an in-person course are:
It is an extremely rigorous program and is not the best learning method to retain information. Much of what you learn will go in one ear and out the other.
Your instructor could be dry, boring, and biased. Not all instructors are great educators and not all instructors have pure motivations to teach. There are politics involved in real estate (more on that in another article).
It is costly. And you will still need to purchase a separate exam-prep supplementation after the course.
There is less flexibility to work around your schedule. During COVID times especially, there is less availability for in-person courses. Call local brokerages and ask around for in-person, socially distanced courses.
The Online Pathway.
In contrast, the online course is a much more flexible experience. You typically have about six months upon purchasing the course to complete it, so you can move at your own pace and you can take the course fully around your schedule. It is less costly than the in-person experience (the online course costs around $200 to $300, with regular discount code offerings), and exam-prep is typically built into the course.
The pros of taking an online course are:
The flexibility to learn at your own pace and work around your schedule. This is valuable for people who are working another job or raising children and cannot take off for a full week for an in-person classroom setting.
It is about one-third the cost compared to the in-person course. After you factor in the additional cost of the exam-prep supplementation along with the cost of the in-person course, the online course, with its already built-in exam prep, usually ends up being one-third the cost of the in-person course.
The cons of taking an online course are:
There is a lot of information and a lot of reading. Though they give you some example schedules to follow, expect it to take two to three times longer to study the material than the example schedules suggest.
The online courses typically do not teach to the real estate licensure exam. Expect to study everything you learn — and I mean everything.
There is no personal accountability. If you are not a strong self-learner and have difficulty with self-motivation, the online format will not be a useful learning environment for you. There are Facebook support groups available, but, in my experience, they are diluted forms of accountability and are not as helpful or motivating as face-to-face accountability.
No matter which course pathway you take, there are three key takeaways to note:
Prepare to take at least two exams. This requirement may be state-specific, but typically, you will take the course exam (that has two parts within the exam, a state portion and a national portion) and the real estate licensure exam (that also has two parts within the exam, a state portion and a national portion). You must pass your course exam to be able to qualify for the real estate licensure exam. Note: the verbiage of the course exam and the real estate licensure exam will be different because the exams are provided by different vendors. If you are someone who gets comfortable with testing based on wording, be sure you do not get comfortable with one type of testing style.
Plan to spend about $280 to $300 in addition to the real estate course, for the real estate licensure exam, a criminal background check, and your license application. Expect to spend about $480 on the low-end and $1,300 on the high-end total for initial entry into real estate. And yes, that is a realistic “range”. Beware, there will be more costs within one month after you obtain your real estate licensure. I will discuss more on that in future articles.
The information you gain in the real estate course is actually the easy part. The real challenge is what comes next. Stay tuned for: “The Reality of Real Estate, Part 2: The Wait and Bait”.
Click here for: “The Reality of Real Estate, Part 2: The Wait and Bait”.
Click here for: “The Reality of Real Estate, Part 3: The Kool-Aid”.
Click here for: “The Reality of Real Estate, Part 4: The Politics”.
Click here for: “The Reality of Real Estate, Part 5: Marketing Misunderstandings, Mistakes, and Malpractice”.
Also, stay tuned for future articles on real estate study and business strategies. Subscribe so you can receive an alert when the articles are published. Comment below if you have any questions about the real estate world, or just to give feedback. I welcome discussion and perspective. I will address answers to your questions in future articles. Share my articles with anyone you think this may help.
Disclaimer: The specific nuances of the entry process into the real estate industry may differ per state; however, the general principles I write about will still apply. Also, the articles I write are not legal advice, are written in the perspective of an American, and are solely for candor, educational, and empowerment purposes.
