I am new to the forum. I have been a real estate agent for 6+ years.
I am with a great company with great training and opportunities for passive income by recruiting. Due to various life factors and at some points false beliefs/fear I have not grown my business anywhere near the extent I could have.
Recently, I have started to see where I will be able to greatly increase my income in real estate sales now that I have the focus I need and a coach and manager that match my personality style.
I have a decision to make"
Meanwhile, my husband has been working in preforeclosures for 5 years and has recently begun using the A to B/ B to C method of closing shortsale properties. We see opportunities for expanding the business with me becoming fully involved in doing shortsales also. The chunks of income are higher as an investor in many instances, and even if not the hours worked are much closer to normal work hours- less weekends and nights. I am excited about that prospect!Trying to do sales and work the short sale business will not work but for so long. Should I try doing a short sale on my own first while still growing my sales business and then decide? Or should I just leap in and ignore the new opportunities I see on the sales side? I don’t want to waste my coach’s time if I am going to switch to investing. I need to decide very soon. Help! This is tough.
My husband thinks I should just hang my office at a small office that will not care about me doing any sales and pursue investing. (IF I do that, there goes the recruiting opportunity .)
My biggest personal goal is I want to have freedom and enough income to pursue a volunteer work that is very close to my heart- that is putting it mildly. The volunteer work eventually would take about 20hrs a week. I am 32 and who knows what the future may hold as far as health etc. and we plan to expand our family (from 0 kids to at least 1). I need to decide. Help!
First, you can’t just “switch” from being an agent to being an investor. Maybe I’m not clear on what you’re saying here. Different states have different laws concerning agency, but most, even if you turned in your license, still consider you a “professional” in the business, requiring disclosures and the works, for a set amount of time AFTER your license is terminated.
Second, there is way too much information NOT given for anyone here to give you any real good solid advice, not to mention the fact that what your considering should be thought over and discussed with people that you know much better than an open forum.
As to doing shortsales, is there a reason that you can’t be an agent AND do shortsales? In the current market, being an agent that is experienced in doing shortsales would be a strong niche market. It could also get you more deals directly as well.
Where, or if, you decide to hang your license somewhere will depend greatly on what you do decide to do. I do feel that you’ll find it much harder to find a place that doesn’t care whether you sell or not, unless that place is one that charges you for the privilege of hanging your license. As markets tighten, so do the purse strings of companies, including agencies. Most will want income producing agents. Either way, I wouldn’t base my decision on the passive income by recruiting other agents. That will NEVER amount to much of anything, IMO. You’d be much better off creating passive income with your license by creating a solid lead system and referring those out to top agents.
Thanks so much for responding.
I am not trying to avoid the dislosures, that’s fine with me. My concern is this: it is often said that one cannot focus on too many things at one time. I am wondering would it be better to focus on investing in the abundance of shortsales in this uniquetime period
(a to b/ b to c transactions enable me to purchase with transactional funding and immediately sell the same day to an end buyer).
These deals often produce larger income per deal than what a commission would net me. Also, the time factor- I can’t help but wonder if I would have greater freedom with my time by primarily being an investor.
Maybe this is a time management problem, but it just seems that working with clients becomes quite demanding. Any additional feedback will be warmly/gladly appreciated. Thanks.
I wpould like to personally say that it sounds like you have given yourself the answer. I’m a realtor as well and have asked myself somewhat of the same questions. IMO. i feel that you would probably make more being an investor doing pretty much the same thing for a listing client only so why not pursue that if the fundamental transaction is virtually the same. Hope that helps
Note , I would like to ask you on the A to B /B to C transactions, are your end buyers using regular financing and if so how are your lenders allowing you to get around seasoning with doing a double close and are your sellers mostly FSBO or pre-forclos?
You shouldn’t have an issue if the buyer is using conventional financing. You can’t get around it in anyway as far as I know with an FHA buyer. These are preforeclosure deals that we’ve been workin with.
Thanks for replying to my post. :smile - though I havn’t made the leap yet!
Did you make up your mind on this as of yet? I too am curious why you think you’d need to walk away, or place your license in an inactive status, were you to pursue more of the SS business.
You’re helping people avoid a foreclosure AND helping them get their house sold in a timely manner. What’s not to like about that? Remember, your client is the SELLER not the bank. Banks can look out for themselves, or at least I thought they could. :bobble
selindakb, why don’t you hang your license in a small office and become your husband’s buying agent. He can use you as his agent when submitting his offer on the A-B transaction, then you can act as the seller’s agent on the B-C transaction. This should net you at least 6% over both transactions if not more.
As an agent are you already performing short sales for homeowners? If so, you might have some synergy with your husband. As an agent, generally speaking, you have a perception or image advantage over the typical investor. So, pursuit of the short sale business using this angle can be beneficial for both of you. However, if you are not performing short sales as an agent and are instead performing the typical real estate agent transaction, than I would ask you the following you the following:
Do you have a lot of reserved money? If no, than stay as an agent. Because if you leave the smaller real estate agent transaction to pursue the long drawn out short sale deal, this can result in a financial catastrophe. Ive seen it before… many times.
If yes, pursue away.
Personally, I would focus on the smaller transactions as an agent and scale up from there.
As a Principle Broker and an investor I’m confused as to why you think it’s an either or type situation. Yes, it is better to focus, but your focus is real estate. It’s not as though you’re selling deli meat and trying to do short sales. :biggrin
The majority of my marketing is geared towards the investment end of trying to find motivated sellers, however, I often uncover Realtor opportunities throughout my day and week. We (my husband and I) do many short sales in the A/B to B/C transactions and we often make “extra” money because we’re the agent on one part of the deal and making the spread.
I think if you just think of your focus as real estate it would help. Once you decide that is your focus then you have to get CRYSTAL clear about your goals. Then, each day ask yourself, “what is the 3 things that I can do today that are going to move me towards my goals.” Those things then become your day’s priorities and the first things you complete.
The best possible scenario is to do both. They compliment each other quite handsomely, and this method allows for maximum use of any and all leads. Revenue is revenue!!!
I have decided to pursue the shortsale investing. I had a few roadblocks-but I’ve recently found a temporary solution to the main roadblock and have just started refocusing in on starting my shortsale business.
I guess I wanted to choose one or the other because a great deal of effort is needed to generate leads for growing either business. Representing clients is so all consuming to me, especially because of the way i am - borderline obsessive over details and I really, really care about servicing my clients correctly.
AND, for me the proceeds from a shortsale deal usually would trump what I make on a sale. To answer the queston re. do I have alot of cash- I have private funds that I can use as long as I am immediately reselling the property. Most of my shortsale experience is helping my husband in the background. Lately, we have him approach the agents directly to give them an incentive because they get dual agency. I would do the same thing as a buyer, especially since the lenders will likely not want to pay me a commission if I am the Buyer and the agent.