How do you know if Real Estate is for you?

I live in Texas, so every link in this blog is going to be for Real Estate in Texas. However, the general aspect of this blog should pertain to everyone. Every state will have their specific requirements for getting your license. Just search for "(insert state) Real Estate classes."

If you are reading this, then you are wondering if Real Estate is right for you. Well, I'm sure everyone figures it out in different ways. I will tell you how I came to realize that being a Realtor was the career for me.

I started my working career in the restaurant industry, much like a lot of college students do. I liked being on my feet, and meeting new people everyday. After about 6 years, I wanted something new. I always said that I never wanted to be stuck behind a desk 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. After about 2 years of sitting behind a desk, I realized, that is NOT what I wanted for the rest of my life. Now, some people are happy with desk work, and that is great for them. I am not one of those people. However, I did enjoy my time learning different organization skills and working with different computer programs. I just needed something where I would have a little bit of computer time, and a lot of social interaction with different people. I realized that Real Estate was the perfect job for me.

With Real Estate, you can pretty much set your own schedule, and can switch between working from home and working from the office. This makes it a good job if you have children. The only downfall is you don't get an hourly wage or salary. The only time you get paid is when you make a sale. You are an independent contractor for a brokerage firm. This means that they can not tell you what hours to work. Because you are and independent contractor, when you do get paid, taxes will not be taken out. Therefore, you will have to pay taxes quarterly on your own. I have not come across that just yet, but I will write about it when that time comes.

When you figure out that Real Estate is where you want to be, you need to find a school to attend. There are a lot of different schools out there. I chose Champion School of Real Estate (www.championschool.com).The only thing you need to look for, if you don't go with Champion, is that they offer all of the courses you need to be able to apply to the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC). These courses are listed below:

1. Principles of Real Estate I
2. Principles of Real Estate II
3. Law of Contracts
4. Law of Finance 
5. Law of Agency
6. Promulgated Forms

You don't have to take them in that order, but I would suggest getting the two principles classes out of the way. They will give you the general knowledge you need, to understand the rest of the courses. Champions has a lot of different choices for scheduling, so that everyone is able to take their courses no matter what their working schedule is like. You can find the schedule here. To find out what all of the steps to getting your Texas Real Estate license are, go here. This will give you an idea of everything that is expected of you before you are able to schedule your national and state exam.

Well I hope this helped you determine a little better if Real Estate is right for you.

Stay tuned for the next blog: What to expect when you start Texas Real Estate classes.