Would a Real Estate Job Change Force Me to Take a Pay Cut?

What options would you be faced with as you contemplate a real estate job change? Love it or hate it, the Real Estate industry’s continued troubles will force even more once semi-independent and successful professionals, to make the inevitable real estate job change. First it was the residential housing sector which experienced record low declines in values only to be recently and temporally pent-up by government tax credits to try and force some good news from this sector. It will be interesting to see with the continued failed banks and residential housing foreclosures how long this “soft-serge” will last. As many of these government purchase programs will be coming to an end. And with governments continued and predictable slow responses to most financial crisis it will most likely leave a sizable void prior to any stabilized outcome. And, with the next wave of doom-and-gloom i.e. the commercial real estate sector which is just getting started leaving the Feds scrambling trying to force many banks into showing losses earlier rather than later, all or in part to merely skedaddle these losses early in hopes for some sizable gains prior to any primary election year.

Lets first quickly just recap why you chose your real estate career albeit in the residential or commercial sector. You may have known someone or previously worked with someone who prior to, or during the early stages of the “bubble” made a job change into the real estate field who (prior to the last 12-36 months) most likely tasted some relatively easy success. Or, maybe you were fascinated by the tangible control, possibly the tax benefits, or maybe even the investor side of you took over gasping at the ability to leverage your money (or OPM) as well as the banks! And of course the lifestyle you enjoyed or would have enjoyed certainly plays a role (providing you were not a workaholic) in your independent lifestyle of freedom and choice of whom and when you wanted to work with. Needless to say, having a real estate career albeit agent, broker, appraiser, lender or investor has many perks, though I just mentioned a few.

Making a real estate job change can be stressful, just the thought of it, especially if you made a serious career of it. What skills do you have that I may remind you of? Well for beginners, you are a self-starter and a motivator and for that matter a leader as you lead at least one or two parties to a closing, a rather large financial (and sometimes an emotional) agreement. Some of you have ventured into multiple million dollar negotiations/transactions (myself personally negotiating over $400,000,000). And if it wasn’t for you, these deals most likely would not have been closed without you.

Second, you possess some level of organizational & computer skills and are most likely not afraid of understanding procedures within and out of the office. And although “Joe Public” may have voted every year otherwise, you do have a sense of character and ethics and feel a level of “duty” to the community and those you work with to provide and represent yourself as a professional and a good listener and help solve those needs of others.

Now, what on earth would be a realistic and viable alternative job change for a real estate professional as I described above? Well, since you most likely understand the power of leveraging the banks money as most of you watched your buyers and sellers take part of that system, YOU should understand, or would be most open to want to understand the power of leveraging your time. How might one ask does one leverage the power of time?

Well, what if you volunteered to make a real estate job change. What changes would you impose on your new adventure? And could you leverage your time similar to that of a real estate investor who leverages other people’s money but not by 3-5x, but by 10 or even 100 times more. To be open for business 24/7 every day of the year, and have clients in over 100 countries within 90-120 days of start up. By working less not more, by working smarter not harder, and by organizing yourself via automation, not just files and folders could provide such a freedom. Setting up such a system of automation would be an investment into yourself to provide a future and lifestyle you and your family may be deserving, and not just for your boss or co-workers benefit. To have such a business without the overhead of a lease or rental payment, no insurance, no utilities, no travel expenses, no employees nor payroll taxes and to work out of your own home w/a determination that you will never have to return to a politically driven office again. To work from your home, the beach, by working a few hours at night, or maybe in the morning, or to put in a few hours a day when you want and from where you want. To regain your dreams of the lifestyle that merely 1-2% of people can even fathom to experience.

After spending over 18 years of loving my real estate career and the lifestyle it provided me, I found myself traveling more and working extra hours, all while my compensation was dwindling to a low 5 digits per month due to the negative changes that were impacting the real estate industry. Thus, I went searching much like you have, searching for the inevitable real estate job change. And after searching multiple real estate related online programs, paying thousands of dollars w/false promises of support and personal coaches I found myself w/my back against the wall, searching even harder as I was duped again. hill house condo