Looking for a career change... And have been looking into Real estate as there seems to always be jobs going for property managers and sales etc. just wondering if there are any ladies out there that do that currently could tell me a bit about it? Do you like it? Is ita difficult job to do with children? Is the money good? Thanks :)
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Real estate can be really hard on families as there is a lot of after normal business hours work. Sales especially. If an offer comes in on an house you are expected to work that offer/negotiate even if it's 7pm on a Sunday night. Sales is usually commission. So if you don't sell you don't earn. When you work in sales there is no such thing as a day off, you are pretty much on call. If someone wants to see a house and the only time they can do it is Friday evening, that's when you do it. So you want to have really good child care in place because you can't just walk out the office and 5pm. Weekends will be your busiest times..it's quiet during normal business hours.
Rental management is less extreme. But you will have to do some weekend work and after hours work usually for open inspections.
Sales is tough. you need to be able to work two parties - lower the price expectations of the seller, increase the $$$ of the prospective buyer to get to a sale. You spend a lot of time doing appraisals, for properties which you may not ultimately list. And just because you list a property doesn't mean you have exclusive rights to sell it within your agency, another agent from your agency may sell it, which affects your commission. It's a 6 day a week job, Saturday's are a must. You're always on call, so it's difficult to go on holidays - all the properties you're selling would have to be looked after by someone else = affects your commissions. You need to look the part and be able to afford to look the part - agents are always driving the sparkly new top of the line cars, the suits, the hair done. It's part of the image. Also, you don't get paid when you make the sale - yput get paid at settlement which can be months later. A deposit gets held by the agency but that doesn't mean they can access it to pay you.