Retirees can earn
good money
in real estate -- sometimes
Two jobs in real estate can give retirees a very
good income plus free time for other activities --
well, at least when the real estate market is
normal. Right now may not be the best time to
jump into a real estate career--but keep it in mind
for the future.
One real estate job, obviously, is to become a
real estate agent. Another is to work as a
real estate escrow coordinator, which does not
require the licensing and continuing education that
being a real estate agent does.
But let's start with becoming a real estate
agent, which allows you to work as often or as
infrequently as you wish. Highly successful
agents--the ones who make hundreds of thousands of
dollars annually--live and breathe their work.
It is a 24 hour a day job for them. There are,
however, others who only work part time and have a
nice additional income as a result.
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As an independent contractor you set
your own hours.
In general, a real estate agent is not
"employed", by the company or brokerage he
or she works for, but is hired as an
independent contractor.
As an independent contractor the agent
decides how much time to spend selling homes
and how much time doing other things. And
the payoff can be substantial: thousands of
dollars in commissions for selling just one
home.
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Many brokers/companies want only agents who will work
'round the clock, but there are others who do not mind
if an agent works part time. Be sure to ask about this
when you interview brokers. (And yes--you are the
one doing the interview, to see if the brokerage/company
fits your needs!! Not the other way around.)
Also keep this in mind: a well-groomed, mature
real estate agent can easily acquire the confidence of
prospective clients by instantly creating the
impression of being knowledgeable, reliable and
stable. And if people are confident in your abilities
they are more likely to refer other people to you and
that is how your business will grow.
It is all in the details for a real estate
coordinator
If you have sold or purchased real estate in recent
years, you have, no doubt, been astonished by the
mountains of paperwork involved. You may have not
considered who was keeping track of all those documents,
but the chances are good that it was not the agent.
These days it is usually a real estate coordinator, a
detail-oriented person, who keeps tabs on all the
paperwork. The coordinator makes sure the
documents are completed and signed correctly and that
all deadlines are met during the escrow process. And if
there are any problems, the coordinator must inform the
agent quickly.
Coordinators usually start by working on staff for an
agent or for a real estate brokerage. The next step is
to launch your own business and work from home for
several agents at a time. Independent coordinators
usually charge a flat fee of few hundred dollars to
monitor and control the paperwork for each sale. |
