On paper, working as a part time real estate agent sounds like the perfect way to make your first million. You show a few houses, make a few phone calls, and double your income in an afternoon with one rich client. Easy right?
Well…not quite. While luck and a magnetic personality are great assets for any agent, the reality is that this is a job like any other. In order to become great, you’re going to have to work at it. The question is whether or not you can build your knowledge and hone the skills that you’ll need to succeed while working part time.
The short answer is yes, and we have some great tips to show you how. Many people interested in a career in real estate may also consider pursuing a path toward getting a home appraisal license. As we’ll discuss below, getting educated is vital no matter which avenue you choose. If you elect to go the appraisal route, McKissock Learning offers education and training via self-paced learning schedules and state- and board-approved training courses. Click here to check out their courses.
How To Make It Work As A Part Time Real Estate Agent
Working part time as a real estate agent can be a great way to supplement your current income and test the waters before going full time, but there’s a right way and wrong way to be a part time agent. Here’s how to do it right.
Make Sure Your Second Job Has Some Flexibility
Today, clients expect real estate agents to respond instantly and be available when they are. If you’re not available, they’re going to move on to the next agent who is. You’ll also need to work around the schedules of seller’s agents, inspectors, lawyers, and building superintendents.
While most jobs are going to make it very difficult to run out the door at the drop of a hat, you should ideally have a job where you can at least answer the occasional email or take a five minute call.
Make Sure You Can Support Yourself With Your Second Job
Since you won’t have as much time to dedicate to real estate as a full time agent would have, you need to make sure you can scrape by on the money you make at your second job. Ideally, you want to be in a position where you’re already living comfortably on the income from that job because you may not see any return at all from real estate for at least two or three months.
Get Educated
Becoming a real estate agent requires licensing, and the educational hours required will vary by state. Start with an excellent education and get a head start on your new career. With Real Estate Exam Prep Master from Real Estate Express, the classes are self-paced, giving you plenty of time to soak in the information and prepare for a successful real estate career. Click here to learn more.
Start Out With Rentals If You Can
Since rental transactions can close in a matter of days instead of months, working rentals can be a great way to scrape by until you start closing sales deals. If you live in a city with a strong rental market, consider working rentals for the first few months to supplement your income. While you’ll make much lower commissions, starting with rentals will teach you the rudiments of working with clients, and you can get a fair number of transactions under your belt.
Set Aside Regular Blocks Of Time In Your Schedule To Focus On Real Estate
In order to succeed as a part time agent, you need to stay organized. Virginia-based Realtor Valorie Easter recommends setting aside specific blocks of time in your schedule to work solely on real estate. How much time you devote will depend on your work schedule, but ideally you should be aiming for at least 20 hours per week. That works out to about two hours per weekday generating leads (cold calling), plus a few hours on the weekends and evenings showing.
“You need to block off time daily and stick
to a schedule. That is your ONE job. In that time block, you need to lead generate for 2 hours per day and make at least 20 voice to voice phone calls. If you can do that, you will be more successful than most of the full time agents! Be purposeful. It is possible to sell real estate part time and it is a very profitable industry.”
to a schedule. That is your ONE job. In that time block, you need to lead generate for 2 hours per day and make at least 20 voice to voice phone calls. If you can do that, you will be more successful than most of the full time agents! Be purposeful. It is possible to sell real estate part time and it is a very profitable industry.”Find the Right Brokerage
In this industry, finding the right brokerage can mean the difference between thriving and starving. You need to make sure they’ll work with part-time agents and that they offer great training, mentorship, and teams.
Arizona-based Realtor Melanie Narducci agrees.
“The most important first step for a
new agent is finding the right brokerage. Do they have lots of training? Is there a mentor program? And how much of your commission do they want? If you’re going part time finding a partner who can take calls while you’re at your day job may be the best route, so co-listing with an experienced agent would be wise.”If you want to learn more about picking the right brokerage, check out our in-depth guide how to find a real estate company to work for here.
Print Business Cards
If you want to be taken seriously as a real estate agent, you need a business card that shows prospective sellers and buyers that you’re a professional they can trust. ProspectsPLUS! specializes in printing real estate marketing materials, including postcards, flyers, mailer, and business cards. Choose from a variety of customizable templates, or upload your own business card design.
Join a Team
Instead of jumping into the fire alone, consider joining a team instead. A real estate team is a group of agents at the same brokerage who work together by sharing leads and showings. They often are led by a senior agent, and will have junior agents, an administrative or virtual assistant, and often a closing coordinator.
If you do choose to go it alone, you can always team up with one more agent on any listings you pull in. This is called co-listing. This way you can be sure there is 100% coverage for the days you work your other job.
The only drawback to joining a team or co-listing is that your commissions may be lower, but you’ll get great one-on-one training and have a steady stream of leads to work with right away.
Here’s Illinois-based Commercial Real Estate Broker Mathew Rasche’s take on joining a team.
“The team model provides many benefits.
Secondly, expanding on monetizing your network and sphere, a team allows you to bring opportunities into the firm and have others (more experienced) do all the heavy lifting. You get a good cut of the deal and keep your time to make sure you can handle the responsibilities of your primary career. Many people have added a near six figure income on part time referrals alone!”
Firstly, it provides experienced mentors who can teach the business. This is great for people who have full time aspirations. It’s also very helpful in providing credibility. When you start out, nobody wants to hire a “rookie.” However, being on a team lends all the credibility of your associates to whatever potential client you have.Atlanta-based Realtor Joshua Jarvis had the same advice for new part time agents.
“Find a mentor (or hire a coach)
You’re already going to be behind the curve because you’re doing part time. It’s best to have someone that knows what to do to coach you along. It’s money well spent (or split).”Denise Supplee, part time Realtor and founder of SparkRental.com agrees.
“My best tip is to join a team or at least
partner with a full time agent. I have done this because I know that the demands on my time may not fit with the demands of many of my buyers and sellers. Being part of a team, I tell my clients, gives them two for the price of one, so to speak.”Find a Niche and Stick With it
“For real estate agents who want to supplement
their income or build up their client base before quitting their ‘day job’, the best approach to take is to tightly concentrate their business focus on a single area. This could be a specific condominium project or apartment building, or a certain residential neighborhood. Then, market the heck out of it and become an expert in that specific real estate niche.”How Much Money You Can Expect To Make As A Part Time Real Estate Agent
This is the big question: can you actually turn a profit as a part time real estate agent? What kind of salary can you expect as a part time real estate agent?
While it may take some time to ramp up your knowledge and skills, the potential income you can earn from working in real estate, even part time, is determined by how hard you work. If you put in the work and are in an area with high home prices and low inventory, you could theoretically make a six figure income working part time.
Here’s what you’ll want to do to assess your local real estate market and figure out how much money you can make as a part time agent.
- Find the median sale price in your area – Get this from your MLS or Zillow.com. Zillow gathers data from recent sales, and gives you median sales prices for your zip code.
- Assess whether it’s a buyer’s market or a seller’s market – Zillow also tells you whether the market is “hot,” meaning a seller’s market, or “cold,” meaning a buyer’s market.
- Determine how many deals you need to close to turn a profit – In order to get a sense of how many sales you’ll need to close, multiply the median sales price by 1.25%, which is what you can expect to take home from a typical sale. That number comes from a commission of 5%. Half of that (called a transaction side) goes to the seller’s agent, and half goes to the buyer’s agent. The remainder is then split in half again by your brokerage, which leaves you with 1.25%.
In an ideal world, you’d want high sales prices and a hot market. High sales prices mean higher commissions, which means you’ll need to close fewer deals per year in order to make decent money. A hot market means homes sell quickly, so buyers are under more pressure to close.
Example: What Kind of Salary to Expect as a Part Time Agent in New Jersey
In order to get a better sense of how much you can expect to make as a part time real estate agent, let’s use North Caldwell new Jersey as an example.
The median sales price in North Caldwell is $748,200. 1.25% of that median price gives you $9,352, This would be your gross profit from representing one side in a deal in North Caldwell, new Jersey. That means if you closed 10 deals per year there, you’d make a salary of $93,520 per year. Not quite Tony Soprano money, but not too shabby!
Okay, don’t get too excited. Closing 10 deals a year as a part time Realtor is pretty rare. Putting in say, 20 hours a week you would be lucky to close four or five deals per year.
You also need to keep in mind that this is gross profit. It doesn’t take into account your costs as a real estate agent, including NAR dues, desk fees, marketing costs, gas, or wear and tear on your car. That can add up. Quick. If you’re working as a junior agent on a team, which is what most experienced agents would reccomend, you might make only half that.
That said, remember that everyone has to start somewhere and that your potential income as a real estate agent is truly unlimited. The better you get, the more you’ll make.
The Benefits of Working as a Part Time Real Estate Agent
Working as a part time real estate agent means you might take longer than full time agents to reach income and career milestones, but you also get the following benefits:
Have a stable source of secondary income
Many new full time agents hit the ground running and see success early on. Then, they up their marketing budget or maybe buy a nicer car to impress clients. When the inevitable bad month arrives, they suddenly can’t pay their rent and end up having to sell the new car at a loss. While purely hypothetical, scenarios like these are all too common for new agents. However, if you already have a stable secondary source of income and want to be an agent part time, you may need to tighten your belt, but at least the damage to your bank account won’t be catastrophic.
Be able to take your time cultivating relationships and getting great reviews on Zillow
Having great reviews on Zillow, Realtor.com, or other real estate platforms can mean the difference between thriving and starving as an agent. The rationale here is simple. Everyone prefers to work with highly rated professionals, while no one wants to work with poorly rated professionals. Agents with no ratings at all often get lost in the shuffle, whether they are full time or part time.
Instead of being forced to market yourself with no ratings, as a part time agent on a team (more on this later) you’ll have a steady source of leads to build out your ratings with. This will make it easier to transition to full time if you decide to.
You can decide if real estate really is the right career for you
Working as a real estate agent can be one of the most fulfilling and exciting careers you’ll ever have. It can also be a thankless, soul-crushing grind, even for the die hard optimists. While the difference between the two extremes is vast and beyond the scope of this article, some people love the unpredictability. For them, the highs more than justify the lows. For others, the lack of stability is too much to take.
If you’re only working part time, you can get your feet wet without risking too much of your time, money, or sanity. If you find yourself beaming at the end of a grueling day of showings, then you might decide to make the leap in the future to working as an agent full time. If not, you can always return to your second job.
The Risks of Working as a Part Time Real Estate Agent
In case you were thinking working as a part time agent is all BMWs and power lunches at Spago, let’s go over some of the risks. Unfortunately there are several.
FInding a brokerage to work for is much harder
Since brokers often invest large amounts of time and money recruiting and training agents, many of the best brokerages simply don’t want to deal with part time agents. Think about it. They’ll have to work just as hard recruiting and training part time agents, and full time agents will probably make them more money.
You likely won’t be able to afford a high split brokerage
In order to give their agents high commission splits (up to 90%), high split brokerages often charge agents desk fees that can range from $300-$1000 or more per month. If you’re closing enough deals, this can be easy to justify, but if you’re only working part time, you’re more than likely going to end up eating that desk fee most months.
It might take you longer than you think to cut your teeth
Malcolm Gladwell famously said that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a true expert on anything. While many people see amazing success in real estate much sooner, the takeaway here is that it will take time to hone your instincts and build up your knowledge base to become a true real estate expert. It may even end up taking you a year or more to get your first listing.
Clients might doubt your dedication and commitment
If you needed a root canal, would you rather work with a part time dental surgeon or a full time dental surgeon? For almost everyone, the answer will be a full time dental surgeon. After all, if they’re any good, why wouldn’t they be working full time? Are they not able to get enough clients? Why not? Before choosing to commit to you, clients are going to naturally kick the tires. For many, the fact that you work part time might be a deal breaker.
Worse, they’re going to think you won’t be able to devote as much time to them as they think they need. What if they need help at the last minute and you’re not able to take care of their problem until 5:30?
How to Generate Leads as a Part Time Real Estate Agent
In the real estate industry, buyers or sellers of real estate that might work with you are called leads. As you can imagine, not every lead you come across will turn into a sale, so you’re going to have to work pretty hard at generating leads if you’re not on a team. Even if you do join a team, learning how to generate your own leads will be an invaluable skill if you decide to work as a Realtor full time. Here are some ways that you can generate leads for yourself as a part time agent. Click on each heading here for an in-depth article about each lead generation strategy.
Working Your “Sphere of Influence”
Your “Sphere of Influence” is everyone you know who you may have some influence over that may either buy or sell a home themselves, or refer you to someone that does.
Prospecting FSBO Leads
FSBO stands for “For Sale By Owner”. These are homeowners who have decided to try and sell their homes without an agent. Since the failure rate for FSBO is high, you may be able to convince them to list their home with you instead.
Prospecting Expired Listings
Expired listings are homes that were previously listed with another Realtor that did not sell, often due to poor effort or marketing skills of the previous agent.
Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing is marketing technique that relies on building, maintaining and growing relationships to get referrals and repeat business.
Direct Mail Postcard Campaigns
Surprisingly, direct mail still works remarkably well in the real estate industry. Postcards are cheap, easy to have mailed, and very effective in some markets.
Email Marketing Campaigns
Email marketing is another very effective way to generate and “nurture” leads that might grow into sales or referrals. The idea is to put your contacts on “drip” campaigns, automated series of emails that inform, educate and entertain people so they remember to call you six months or more down the road.
Other Career Paths in Real Estate: Working as a Part Time Real Estate Investor
If you have great credit and aren’t afraid to get your hands dirty, you might also consider trying your hand at working as a part time real estate investor. Fix and flip projects and rental properties can both have an excellent ROI.
How Much Money Can You Make as a Part Time Real Estate Investor?
While this is even more difficult to determine than how much you can make as a part time Realtor, if you work hard and are a little lucky, you can expect returns of ten percent or more in a matter of months.
The Benefits of Working as a Part Time Real Estate Investor
The main benefit of working as a part time real estate investor is that if you find the right deal at the right time, you can make huge returns in months instead of years. Clearing a twenty percent profit is not uncommon for a great fix and flip project.
For rentals, the benefits are less risk, and the potential of receiving a secondary income stream for life. What would you do with an extra thousand dollars per month?
The Risks of Working as a Part Time Real Estate Investor
Of course the risks here are even greater than working as an agent. You may also find yourself on the hook for a six figure mortgage if you can’t flip your property quickly enough.
Rentals of course, are not risk free either. As a landlord you will be responsible for finding and screening new tenants, dealing with repairs, and making sure sometimes difficult tenants are happy.
To learn more about investing in real estate smartly, check out our real estate investing section.
The Bottom Line: Part Time Real Estate Agent
Working part time as a real estate agent can be very challenging, but as long as you have a stable, flexible day job and work smarter instead of harder, you can get a great start in the industry without risking too much. Still need to get your license? Get started today at Real Estate Express.
David Consett
Reading this from Cape Town, South Africa. In the process of joining an established firm as an agent. Invaluable material, thank you very much for putting on the net.
Hey David,
Glad you found the article useful and best of luck!
SJS
My husband and I are going to start buying homes and remodeling them to sell. I am thinking of becoming a real estate agent just to represent my personal real estate transactions. If I did this, would I need to go to work for an agency? Or is there a way to be an independent realtor?
This can be tricky as most brokerages would rather not associate new agents who are not going to work leads and make them money. You may find a few where you can just hang your license. but you will likely need to pay hefty desk fees to keep you license there. That said, if you don’t have a full time job you should consider working part time as an agent at a brokerage. You will learn a lot and can make money to fund future flips.
Barret F. Martinez
Dear Emile, thank you for this honest and valuable article. I just passed the CA Real Estate exam and am planning to work as a part-time agent. I have a full-time job with some flexibility and I can see there will be challenges, but I am up for it 100%. Now I need to find the right broker or team to help me!
Thank you so much!
Hey Barret,
Glad you found the article useful and thanks for the kind words. Becoming a successful agent isn’t rocket science, but will require hard work and maybe a change of mindset. Best of luck with your future career!
Mrs. Tate
I’m currently contemplating becoming a Part-Time Real Estate Agent. I’m in the process of researching schools and licensing requirements. This article was extremely helpful.
Nidhi
The best article i could find while searching for Part-time Real Estate Agent which is so REALISTIC and to the point!!!
Great great great article has helped me decide what needs to be done 🙂 Thanks a million!