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Becoming a Real Estate Agent?

So I'm a freshman in college and was thinking about gettin involved in Real Estate. Right now I'm majoring in Marketing and was going to do a 'certificate' program at my school for Real Estate however I'm sure there's more to it than that for getting into the business. I was just wondering if anyone knows how to start- if there's a test to take to become a certified agent, if I should just get an internship at an agency and hope they try to work me up the ladder or what? Also about how much agents start out at, what are some good firms to be with, and what kinds of things should I do in order to become successful. Any info at all would be really helpful!

Public Comments

1. Well, it's relatively easy to get your real estate license however, the more you know the better you'll do. First you have to decide what kind of real estate you want to participate in: residential or commercial. I can't really help you much with residential, but I could with commercial. Please do not attempt to do both. With all due respect to the good residential brokers out there, commercial is a totally different ball game and when they sniff out big money they will jump in over their head, using an oddly condescending tone, and end up in the way. Commercial can be loads more stable and not tax your weekends unless you want them too. However, the learning curve is stiff, you have to find someone willing to train you and you have to do whatever it takes. It can be longer than a year before you get your first payday but if you end up serving your clients well, suffer out the first year, sign with a firm that just specialized in commercial transactions, you will be fine. I absolutely love this business. It allows me to type this in the middle of the day whilst waiting on my last conference call. But I suffered alot that first year or two. Having a degree in finance or real estate will help.
2. You have to pass a licensing exam and all pay is by commission, so you won't have a steady paycheck. So you actually have to sell something to get paid. Getting started is hard, especially in a down real estate market like right now. Many experienced agents are making little or nothing this year due to lack of sales. The agents that are hanging on right now have established reputations and clientele and usually have spouses with a steady paycheck to get them through the lean years. Most people start out mentoring with a more experienced agent but I have a feeling you'll have a hard time breaking in right now.
3. This would really depend on the state that you want to carry on the business, most states do require that you do have several hours in training and have taken some classes. Each state has a DEPARTMENT OF REAL ESTATE with different criteria based on state laws; however if you go to this website http://bestrealestateagents.info/2007/09/13/hello-world/ look for your state and click on the get the requirements button then you should be able to get that information quite easily.