“If you are interested in becoming involved with real estate investment, joining a real estate investment club can be a great first step. Although you will likely be expected to pay membership fees and may have to pay additional dues into the club, there are many advantages to joining a real estate club.

Get Educated by a Real Estate Investment Club

One of the biggest benefits associated with joining a real estate investment club is the fact that you can learn a great deal about real estate through your membership. You won’t sit around and read books together at these clubs. Rather, you can get real life education by talking with other members and learning from their experiences. As a result, you can implement some of the same steps they took to find success in real estate. At the same time, you can avoid some of the mistakes they had to endure.

By talking with other investors that are members of the real estate investment club, you can get meaningful advice that is specific to your needs. These tips and tidbits if information can prove to be invaluable down the road.

Make Connections with a Real Estate Investment Club

Another perk to being a member of a real estate investment club is the fact that it allows you to network with other professionals. This can lead to finding better deals and can also help you avoid scams. In addition, other members can suggest specific people for you to do business with. For example, you might learn through your real estate investment club that there are one or two inspectors or property managers in your area that are particularly good to work with.

Find Partners within a Real Estate Investment Club

When you join a real estate investment club, you will also find yourself surrounded by like-minded individuals. As such, you might find one or more members that are interested in partnering with you so you can both get rich off of real estate investment. By combining your resources, you may be able to achieve a level of success that you could not have achieved on your own.

Save Money on Your Investments

Since many of the other members of the real estate investment club most likely own one or more investment properties, you might also be able to get a good deal on a piece of real estate. Often times, the members of these clubs bypass working with a realtor and sell their real estate directly to other members of the clubs. This helps the other member avoid paying a commission and helps you purchase a property for less. It is a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Grow Your Business by Joining a Real Estate Investment Club

Even if you are not interested in investing in real estate, you still might be interested in joining a real estate investment club. If you have a business that is related to real estate in any way, such as a landscaping business or a contractor business, you might want to consider joining one of these clubs. After all, many of the members are purchasing “fixer uppers” as an investment and will need someone to help improve the value of the property for resale.

There are many reasons to join a real estate investment club, even if you are not interested in investing in property. If you are looking to make money from property in any way, joining one of these clubs is a very good idea.”

By: Kinan I Beck

It may seem that if you become a real estate agent you can make a lot of money with little risk, just by selling other people’s property for them. This is almost true. You also can get the inside scoop on possibly profitable investments. The part that isn’t entirely true, is the low-risk part. It can be a tough business to start out in, especially if you don’t know many people. It takes money and time (and time is money as well, right?).

I hated being a real estate agent. I was young (17 years ago). It wasn’t that I didn’t sell anything. In the few months I was actually trying I sold seven or eight properties. But I also realized that I would never learn to enjoy the process.

It was simply that it doesn’t fit my personality. I didn’t like being in the middle of transactions. I remember people crying at closings and yelling on the phone. I remember struggling to advise sellers on what was best for them, even though if I were in their shoes I would have found it easy to say what was best for me. I operate best as buyer or seller – not as the person bringing them together.

On the other hand, I met a lot of great people who love the stress and busyness and action of being a real estate agent. They are mostly people who love to help people. Some of them just enjoy the business, while others enjoy it and make a lot of money.

Then there was poor Henry. He was there when I first started, at the desk in front of mine. He was there months later when I was quitting, and he was finally making his first and last sale (he quit shortly afterwards). He was one of the nicest guys I have ever worked with, but he didn’t know how to sell real estate.

I think Henry hated the business more than I. Keeping the money in mind, I could at least make myself get on that phone and start calling hundreds of people who didn’t want to hear from me, just to find the one or two that did want to. I got listings this way while Henry sat there waiting for the phone to ring. But I found it harder and harder to do.
Bottom line? It will help greatly if you actually enjoy this business – that way you can motivate yourself to do the things you need to do.

How To Become a Real Estate Agent

In most states it is relatively inexpensive to get licensed. It will be somewhat different in each, but when I was licensed in Michigan, it was necessary to be sponsored by a broker. There are always brokers looking for new agents, so this shouldn’t present a problem. Then you may take a class that teaches you everything you need to know for the test. This too isn’t too expensive.

After you pass the state exam, you go to work, but you are not an employee. You are provided a desk by your brokerage, but you are an independent contractor. Despite not being in business for yourself, you cannot go off and sell on your own. Usually the law requires that you work for a time (three years is common) as an agent for a broker before you can become a broker yourself and own your own real estate company.

You will have to pay for your own business cards, signs, supplies, and dues. You might even need some new clothes. The dues to join and remain a member of the MLS, or “Multiple Listing Service,” as well as any other memberships required or “suggested” by your employing broker, is where it starts to get more expensive.

You have to be financially prepared for the transition. If you have no other job at the time, you may have no income for at least several months. Unless you have a lot of contacts or are coming into the business from a related one, it may take a month or more to get your first listing. If that property sells in just two months (3 or 4 month is common in many areas), and closes a month after selling, that means that at the start you are four months away from your first paycheck.

Obviously, apart from the couple thousand dollars needed for direct expenses, you need to plan for this lag time before you start collecting commissions. If you are the sole provider for your household, I recommend that you have at least six months income set aside before you quit your job and start selling real estate.

How much can you make? This depends on where you work and what you sell. At the time I was selling real estate in Northern Michigan, all the real estate companies were charging 7% commission on residential properties. My broker split the commission with agents, so if I sold the house, I got half the commission. If an agent from another broker sold the house, that broker took 50%, and my broker split the other 50% with me. In other words, I got 1.75%. This was common then.

Lower commissions are more common now. In some areas, they are as low as 3% for full service brokers. This is because of increased competition, and because home prices have gone up faster than wages or inflation in recent years. 3% of a $500,000 sale (In California, for example) is still a hefty commission: $15,000, to be precise.

Brokers each have their own commission structures. There are brokers that let you keep 100% of the commission, and then charge you for the use of the office, including perhaps a secretary for the common use of a dozen agents. You might pay $15,000 per year under this arrangement, so obviously it would be best to wait until you are selling enough real estate before considering working under this kind of broker.

How do you sell a lot of real estate? That is a book-sized subject, but here are a few basics:
1. List a lot of property for sale. You can spend weeks showing a young couple homes just to have them go to another agent or not buy anything. Get a listing of a home, however, and no matter who buys it or sells it, you will be paid. Concentrate on working with sellers more than buyers (although you will always do both).

2. Get high-priced fast-selling properties. You can spend as much time and effort selling a $100,000 property as you will selling a $400,000 home. But you will make four times as much money with the latter. Too unusual and expensive can mean a long time to sell, however, so balance it out. Sell the most expensive properties that are selling relatively quickly.
3. Specialize. Work an area or type of property until you are the expert. Then the sellers will start to come to you.

4. Learn how to sell. It doesn’t matter if you just want to list those properties and let others sell them. You still need the sales skills to get the seller to list with you. Read, take advice from top sellers, and go to seminars. You can always learn more.

Investing As A Real Estate Agent

About the only disadvantage to having a real estate license as an investor is that in most states you have to identify yourself as an agent when you advertise your properties for sale. This may make some people feel that you – as the expert – can take advantage of them.

The big advantages, however, are two. First, you get the inside scoop on properties coming to market. You may have an offer in on that new rental property even before there is an ad in the paper or a listing in the MLS.

The other advantage is that you effectively get a discount on any MLS listing. Suppose you see a nice little house for $100,000 for sale. If it is listed with another office and the commission is 6%, your broker may get half of that, and give you 60% of that as the selling agent (you are selling it to yourself). That is $1,800 that you make as a commission when you buy – perhaps enough to cover closing costs.

By: Steven Gillman

Property professionals in the Houston area are kept busy with the rapid rise in building and population. Houston real estate is booming! It regularly beats the statistics for the nation as a whole. Even given the troubles of the banking industry, the tendency is for property to retain its value, and turnover quickly.

If you are looking for a new house, real estate agents in Houston will inform you that new housing construction both in the suburbs and in the inner city has been booming. The increase in gas prices has made it more attractive to live closer and new homes are constantly being constructed on land inside the Loop. Some of this construction is for single family dwellings, but the majority are condos, town homes and lofts.

People who do not want to build a home have options ranging from grand Victorian-style houses to the most cutting-edge dwellings. Houston boasts a history of housing well-known architects, so finding a home to fit your style, from truly trendy to more mainstream, is simple. Additionally, some older houses have undergone extensive interior renovations, while maintaining the charming outside appearance.

In terms of land area, Houston is much greater than several small countries in the world. Also, it is among the three largest cities. Hence, it becomes very necessary to consult real estate agents in Houston, when you are looking for a suitable property there. Online sources can be a good alternative, however, on special matters like flooding, schools, deed restrictions, amenities etc. you surely need to consult a local expert to search through various localities and neighborhoods.

Selling the city to new potential residents is not very hard for real estate agents in Houston. The fourth largest city in the United States has everything most anyone could want, except mountains. The ocean delights of Galveston are just an hour away, and recreation and green space abounds in the city and nearby.

There are many other interesting options in the Houston area. Centers of higher learning abound, as do symphonies, orchestra and ballet. The Texas Medical Center is home to some of the most innovative cancer and circulatory research of the twenty first century. Professional property agents understand the needs of both medical professionals and the patients they serve.

By: Chris Crompton