Real Estate Agent
If you’re just starting out, you could become a real estate agent. As an agent, you can help clients buy, sell, or rent properties. As a seller’s agent, you can help homeowners list their homes, hold open houses and market the property online. If you choose this career path, you'll need excellent communication and negotiation skills. You’ll also need to be licensed according to your state’s regulations. After you close deals and gain experience, you can then apply to be a broker.
Broker
As a broker, you may manage a team of agents. You must have at leeway two to three years of experience and pass the broker’s exam. You can work as a dual agent, or you can work exclusively for sellers. Brokers may also train new recruits and help them learn the best way to attract potential buyers and sellers.
Investor
Becoming an investor can be a lucrative career, especially once you have experience and understand how the market works. In fact, it’s not uncommon for investors to be well-versed in real estate and go in to become consultants. It’s important to note that if you choose this career path, you need to understand the inner workings of investing and know how to determine if a property of worth it. One strategy you need to master is the 1% rule. This fast, back-of-a-napkin calculation gives you a good idea of whether you should consider a certain property. If you’re not familiar with this trick, you can review a guide on using the 1% rule as a benchmark, why you always use it, and when it might be useful.
Property Manager
Property managers can find work in leasing offices, condominium complexes, and even hotel chains. Daily tasks often include collecting payments, showing new prospects available units, and resolving any issues a tenant might have. You might also be responsible for running background checks on tenants and drawing up leases.
Appraiser
A real estate appraiser is someone who basically determines how much a property is worth. You can consider to be the same as an assessor, but they tend to go over multiple properties. What separates an appraiser from an assessor is that the former's specialty lies in commercial and residential properties. Appraisers are typically hired by people who are interested in one of these properties and want an unbiased opinion about how much it's worth. They accomplish this by going over every little detail of the property and comparing it to neighboring properties. Additional tasks you can expect to complete as an appraiser include:
- Researching current and upcoming marketing trends
- Always updating the records of properties
- Writing detailed reports for both employers and clients
- Analyzing important data for a better estimate of a property's value
This is one of the more hands-on careers in the field, so be sure to research further if you're interested.
Underwriter
An underwriter is a master of finances who approves or denies a loan or mortgage application. In this career, you can expect to thoroughly assess an applicant's finances and determine how much risk they'll have should they accept. Underwriters will go over everything relating to a person's finances such as their assets, credit score and history, how much they'll receive from the loan and their eligibility for paying it back. This isn't an easy job to do, but if you're someone who's good at critically thinking and analyzing, you shouldn't have a problem.