Should I take the commission only real estate job as a start?

Have you been in sales before?

There are lenders that take commission into account when looking at borrowing capacity. However, a straight forward PAYG full time salary will cause less dramas when sourcing finance.

It’s a tough industry to be successful in so think carefully before making the plunge.

Cheers

Jamie

Selling off the plan, like selling any property means you don’t get paid until settlement, which may be several years away (you can’t touch the deposit monies until they are released by the solicitors).

You would be much better off working for a legit agency selling established property as you will only be waiting 2 months for payment.

From my experience in real estate I definately wouldn't reccomend it. As stated in the replies you could go ages without any income and it takes quite a while to build up a database of potential listings. Its best to get paid a wage and learn the ropes for a  year and then once comfortable try to get a job paying commission only. Make sure you get paid what your worth to as there are lots of different types of set ups out there.  A friend of mine has just gone from wages to commission only and gets a 50/50 split which isnt to bad

for a young person with no living expenses (eg living with parents, paying no rent/food bills) I think its fine to take a commission only job and see where it takes you, however if you have living expenses and debt it will be highly stressful for you..

also is that the area of real estate you want to get into or are you only interested because its on offer?

I would take a very close look at the fine print of that contract to see exactly when and under what circumstances your commission would be paid. Perhaps also what liability you have if a deal goes bad. Just in case the company is dodgy. (Note: I am not saying it is, but forewarned is forearmed.)

If it seems remotely reasonable, take the job and keep pushing out your resume. Someone will snap you up as long as you are persistent, smart and have the right attitude.

This job will be a great way for you to learn some basics whilst having very little risk for you personally. You will also meet all different types of people and begin to develop that sales "sixth sense".

Worst case scenario, you quit and keep searching.

Let us know how you go.

hi,
I have been reading this forum for many months now but this is my first post.

my name is Hannah and i am a waitress living in Kalgoorlie, i have always wanted to become a real estate agent and i got this opportunity when i came to kalgoorlie a year and a half ago and im so glad that i did as i learnt so much that it is now helping me with my investment portfolio.

i was paid a retainer of $470 a week which is the law in wa now, but you had to pay it back when you made a sale or if one of your listings was sold. if you sold a property you would get 20% of the commission and if one of your properties you listed was sold then you would get 20% of the commission, you dont always sell your own listing as any agent in the office can sell your listing so if one of your listings was sold for $250,000 and the commission was 3.3% then the total commission paid by the seller is $8,250 and 20% of that is only $1,650. now say you are working there for 3 months, your retainer is up to $5,640, if it takes 1 month to have one of your listings sold and 8 weeks until settlement you are only paying off $1650 of your retainer.

I worked there for 4 months and i got 4 listings and i didnt sell one single thing because i didnt like to push people or lie to them or constantly call people i knew who were not interested ( i was told to call every client 6 times before giving up on them). another part of my job was door knocking and trying to get people to sell their house with me, i didnt do this once as i hate people coming to my door but it is part of the job and it gets results.

i say give it ago as i hated it so much but i think it was the very best thing i have done.

jelovea2003,

Yes you do learn alot and they dont just throw you in the deep end, they should first let you sit in on any deals and appraisals and then they will sit in on any deals that you do. also we had a two hour training session every week so the training is ongoing. in the training sessions we often did role playing pretending we were buyers or sellers which was good when doing it with one of the agents who had alot of experience. but they also taught us how we should lie, for example, if a buyer offers $200,000 on a house and you talk them up to making the offer $205,000, you then ring your seller and tell them you got an offer for $200,000 and tell them to leave it with you as you are sure that you can get them to increase their price, ring them back in half an hour with the real price and the seller thinks you are great because you tried so hard to get more money for them, i had a huge problem with this as i hate lying and i refused to do it. and i was quiet disgusted with the other agents that did it.

yes you can make alot of money but you have to be a very good sales person to do this, that is why i wasn't very good. some of the agents in my office had been there for over a year and they were still on the retainer.

oh and kiss good bye to your weekends as thats when you have to hold all your open homes.

-thanks lordopg.