Part Time Real Estate sales

[rcapilli]

Atlanta, GA is where I live and I am looking at doing this part time for now. Mainly cause I work full time and looking at different avenues. I am not sure what is realistic and what isn't.

Is it realistic to sell a house a month while being part time? I know that this may very depending on different situations, I am just looking for an average. If anyone has any information please let me know. Thanks everyone.

[judyo]

There are full-timers in my office who don't sell a house a month! Real estate is a difficult career to handle on a part-time basis. But if you have the moxy and motivation and are willing to be working a lot of hours with two jobs anything is possible. It's up to you and it isn't going to be easy.

My first question is this: What are you going to do with buyers and sellers that want to set appointments during your work hours? IMO it would turn off clients if you tell them you only sell p-t & work at another job f-t. I wouldn't want to use a part-time agent to help me make one of the biggest financial investments of my life. And what about handling phone calls? Can you make real estate related calls from work?

[rcapilli]

Good questions. Here is my thinking and let me know if it is far in left field or not. Most people who are going to purchase a house will probably be working from 8 - 5. (I know that is not always the case) So after work I could show the houses. Weekends is not a problem for me. In the cases that someone would call me and want me to show a house at 2:00 or something, I guess a late lunch would cover that.

I can take phone calls at work about other jobs, not a problem. We have many people here that work other jobs and get calls from time to time. I guess I need to find out from some agents in Atlanta if it is possible to work part time and still give the customers what they need.
Thanks for the questions. I will have to follow up on those myself. Anything else that I may need to think about?

[judyo]

As I said, you can certainly work it out but there is so much more to it than that. How are you going to acquire clients? Depending where you work there will be floor time or you'll have to do some advertising or sit open houses or something to keep those potential clients coming. Add those hours to your full-time job & once again, you have little time left to show properties and go on listing appointments.

You'd be surprised at the amount of people that work weekends or 2nd shifts, etc. I'm not trying to discourage you, but just realistically answer your questions. Here's an example of what I've dealt with; as a single mom who in the 21 yrs. in the business, has worked during some rough real estate times. I once had to get a full-time job since the market was so bad. This job was 10 hrs. a day-4 days a week. I don't know how I did it but I was top agent that year in my office. I also had many years experience behind me, though.

[kensmith]

I would say part time is the hard way to go. Part timers normally are part of the very high amount of agents that fail. The only ones taht is good for is the boards and NAR as they get a year or two worth of fees from you.

Can it be done...Yes. How often, maybe 20% or less of part timers last past year two. If you can accept this as the truth and still think you have what it takes go find an office that has great training and be ready to work a lot of hours.

If you only have weekends and after 5 or 5:30 pm during the week to show you will not do well. My weekends are almost always mine as are my nights. 2 nights per week and maybe work on 2 Saturdays per month. It amazed me that more people wanted to see homes during the week than on the weekends and they always want daylight when viewing.

Best of luck.

[Las Vegas Real Estate]

I agree with Judy and Ken. Not only are day times important but you'll want to get as much training as you can. Studying for and passing the test to get licensed only gives you a glimpse of what you'll learn through training and hands-on experience. And it can be tough enough to keep your pipeline filled on a full-time basis. Perhaps if you sold one or two part-time and made enough seed money to jump in full-time? The rewards are there in return for hard work and dedication.